coffee dates and other things || frerard oneshots

6 hour difference

gerard and frank are in their early-to-mid twenties, and are in a long distance relationship

this is v short, sorry, i only had a tiny idea ):

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Frank adjusted his position to get more comfortable, absentmindedly running a hand over his friends dogs shoulder as he listened to the familiar intro music play over the video taking up his laptop screen. There was a pause as the intro music came to a gentle end and an airy static filled Franks headphones.

He smiled softly to himself as he watched the semi-shaky view of someone walking their camera down a hallway, an arm stretching out to open a yellow door towards the end of it, hinges squeaking faintly as it swung away from the persons hand. The soft static was broken up by a clear and gentle italian accent as the artist spoke over a sudden brightness, the camera attempting to adjust to the new lighting. 

"Hi guys, so i was going through my comments yesterday," the camera adjusted to show an achingly familiar room with soft purple walls and a lightly coloured hardwood floor.  "Because i wanted to film a new video but didn't really know what to do." The voice chuckled and Frank smiled fondly. "And apparently a lot of you wanted to see my full work space?" 

A slow slideshow of familiar photos of the room faded across the screen, small snapshots of what was going to be shown in the video, a piano medley playing over it. 

Frank paused the video in a rush at the sight of the photos, the sudden silence a bit jarring as he grabbed his phone from where it sat next to his elbow. He tapped out a message and then set his phone on his keyboard so it would be easier to grab, pressing the space bar to unpause the video. The piano faded out into tinkling notes and then the voice was back, but less clear considering it was no longer a voice over but apart of the actual video.

The person speaking, Gerard, was an artist who posted his painting and sketching videos on YouTube. His brother was a film major, so Gerard always got him to edit his videos, which lead to the aesthetic quality of them that only added to the style of his channel. Frank watched with a lovestruck grin as the camera showed the artist, from the waist up, standing in the middle of the room, his hands moving enthusiastically as he gave a brief explanation of roughly how much time he spent in there and how it was a safe place for him.

Franks phone vibrated on his keyboard as Gerard smiled at the screen, the moment frozen with another jab at the space bar.

me:
you used the photos i took??

gee:
ofc, they're great!! now stop telling me
when you're watching my videos it 
makes me nervous x

Frank rolled his eyes at his boyfriends response and turned his screen off, regarding the frozen moment of Gerard smiling on his laptop screen before tapping a few keys on his keyboard and screenshotting it. With a happy nod he let the video continue and watched as the scene jumped to a new angle. The camera was trained at Gerard's desk this time, where he spun on a stool and caught himself on the edge of said desk.

"So, this is where i work, as you all know." He started, tracing his fingers over the paint splattered wood, before leaning forward to grab a small brief-case looking box off where it sat on the windowsill. His desktop easel. 

Frank watched with a soft smile as his boyfriend excitedly explained the materials he used and where he kept them on his desk and couldn't help the way his body melted into his mattress when Gerard held up a framed photo with flowers painted on the corners of the glass. 

"This is my boyfriend Frank, i always keep his photo on my desk because he's really pretty but also because he's a big inspiration for me lately." Gerard paused and stared at the photo fondly, effectively making Franks eyes water with his next words. "We live pretty far away from each other too, so it's nice to have him here, in a way."

He and Gerard had originally met when Frank and his parents had gone to Italy to visit his grandparents. On one of their days out, Frank had spied Gerard making one of his art videos at a cafe and couldn't help but sneakily spy on him. A small compliment on the piece he was working on and a tour of town later and they ended up falling headfirst into the gooey confines of love. 

Two years later and they visited each other whenever they had the chance, which tended to be once a year each, but Frank was secretly saving up to move there. He didn't want to tell Gerard until he had enough money, because he didn't want to get his boyfriends hopes up just in case he somehow had to use the money for something else.

So, he watched Gerard's videos every time he uploaded a new one and talked his friends ears off about him all day until he fell asleep on a video call at night. It was odd, knowing Gerard had just woken up whenever he answers the calls, his apartment lit by the soft glow of lamplight while he sat in front on a canvas and talked until his boyfriend stopped responding. Sometimes he'd sing and those were the best nights- nights when Frank could close his eyes and listen to the paintbrush scratch across the canvas and could almost smell the paint and Gerard's cologne; could almost imagine he was laying in Gerard's bed somewhere in Tuscany and waiting for the sun to rise instead of in his own bed in New Jersey trying not to fall asleep.

Right now it was only 2 in the afternoon and all he had was Gerard's newest video, where he was now showing his audience how ridiculously tall his regular easel was by standing next to it. "I don't get why it's so tall." The artist commented, looking up at the point a few inches above his head where the easel finally cut off. The next few moments were a series of short cuts of Gerard piling up his half-used paintings, the effect of it only showing him placing the next canvas on top of the last making the collection seem all the more funny. By the time he was finished the camera, which was angled to show only from the floor up to his thigh, showed that the pile of canvases went just higher than his knee. A short voice over playing over the clip.

"As you can see i have entirely too many unfinished paintings, mostly because i get too distracted-" a short clip of a slightly fuzzier phone video of Frank playing guitar on Gerards laptop screen appeared as he mentioned distraction, and Frank couldn't help but laugh. "but luckily if i were to pile up all my finished work it would be a lot higher."

The following clip was one of Gerard dropping down into a proposal position next to the big portrait he'd filmed himself painting for his last video, throwing up a double a thumbs up with a dumb smile on his face and Frank hurried to screenshot the moment. The rest of the video was as cute and dorky as the previous parts, with Gerard continuing to show his viewers his record player and accompaniment of vinyls and finally the view outside his window.

"So, that was my work space guys! I hope it meets your expectations. I wish you all the best in your own endeavours and i will see you in the next video."

Frank smiled sadly as the video's cute little outro played, his own reflection staring back as the screen darkened to show a preview of the next video. Almost right after he'd closed his laptop and taken out his headphones, his phone started vibrate and upon checking the screen Frank was delighted to see Gerards name and face.

Quickly tapping the green button, he held the device to his ear. "Hey."

A happy sigh crackled through the speaker before Gerard responded. "Ciao Frank, how are you doing?"

Frank smiled dumbly. "I'm doing wonderfully Gee."