I Didn't Mean to Fall in Love (But I Did)

Frank and Gerard Love Each Other

Gerard arrives back at the apartment sometime after two in the afternoon to find that no one else is there. He'd thought that Frank would be here, or Patrick at least. Apparently Patrick was more intent on seeing Pete than he was Gerard, which doesn't necessarily surprise him.

Still though, Gerard never knows what to do with himself when the apartment is empty. He usually ends up playing music too loud and binging on the Sims, but he's not in a lively enough mood to do that. For the last week this apartment has actually seen a lot of company, just not Frank. Usually Pete and Patrick trying to convince him that it's okay to watch Batman without Frank, but he disagrees.

Then there was Mikey who wouldn't say anything but Gerard would just know that he was looking at Gerard the same way he been looking at Frank the past few years. Gerard hadn't known that Mikey had been looking at Frank like that, but looking back on it now it makes a lot of sense.

Gerard turns the TV on which really should've been on in the first place, because when isn't it? He scrolls through the channels trying to find something he wants to watch, but nothing is on at this time of day other than cooking shows and sitcoms from the 80's. Gerard settles on some baking show that doesn't end up satiating his boredom, but actually ends up making him hungry.

"Gerard?" someone says and he looks up surprised. He hadn't heard anyone come in, so when he turns he's surprised to see Frank standing there.

"Mhm, yeah?"

"Why are you drooling?"

"I... uh, nothing. Just the TV," Gerard says, and grabs for the remote before switching it off with a distinct sound that's hard to describe.

Before the screen turns blank though, Frank looks at it and giggles, "Yeah, because dog food is extremely appetizing."

"Shut up, it was a commercial," Gerard says.

"I'm sure," Frank grins, and hops over the couch to sit next to him.

"So, uh, where were you?"

"What?" Frank asks.

"What?" Gerard says back, "I mean you weren't here. Where'd you go?"

"I went to go see Aaron," Frank says.

"Oh."

"You could hear me out before you start making that fucking 'oh' sound like your doctor told you that you're dying."

"Sorry?"

"Just let me tell you what happened," Frank says.

"Am I going to like it, because if not, then I'd really prefer you didn't say anything at all," Gerard says, "I don't want the negative diagnosis if it's only going to make me feel shitty about myself."

"Give me a minute to talk," Frank says, "or a few."

"Fine," Gerard replies, and he slouches into the couch a little further with his face sad and partially scared.

"Okay well, basically I wanted to talk to Aaron about all the stuff that's been going on. He's not an idiot, right? So he must have known that something was going on between you and I. So I went over there and I talked to him about it. Like, I wanted to talk about our relationship, and then about you, and then about you and I's relationship. Like, I figure that I'm an adult, right? I don't feel it, but technically I've got to take some fucking responsibility for myself. Just wanted to have a hopefully mature discussion about this decision I have to make, and Aaron seemed okay with that at first."

"At first?"

"Well I'm getting to it," Frank says, "so anyway, I told him that I needed some time to think about what I wanted to do, I didn't really give him the full set of details, because that's sort of between you and me... and Pete and Patrick and Mikey and everyone else that we've told."