XoFrnk||Frerard AU

Look Alive Sunshine

My Dad.
My Dad
My Dad who I hadn't seen since Mikey and I were kids and tried to 'toughen us up'. My Dad who walked out after that time he tried to hit Mikey. My Dad who was so much of a fucking dick that he chose alcohol over his children because our mum left us.

I'm not saying that she was a saint by any measures but I would have definitely preferred Dad to have left her, as selfish as it sounds because we would have had a better life. Mikey would have had a better life.

Dad walked out a few days after that time he hit Mikey, saying things like "I can't cope with these fags" and "I'm going to find Donna if it's the last thing I do" stuff like that.

I was used to the fag comments from people at school so that was nothing new and he often said things like that about my Mum but never did anything about it. This was the first time he had actually gone through with his threats- and as long as he was away from Mikey and me, it was a fucking good thing that he did.

I assumed that he either died or got clean out of lack of money and ended up living on the streets; I definitely wasn't expecting him to come and abuse my boyfriend.

I felt every emotion possible in a matter of seconds pass through me at Frank's words: fear of him returning, the guilt of him attacking Frank, relief that he never found Mum, sadness that he never changed and my hopes of never seeing him again destroyed. And then, like a ton of bricks pure fury. Anger at the fact that he had stalked me and my boyfriend to have been able to do this, and that he dared to do this. How fucking dare he touch Frank?

I pushed past Frank and stormed into his house, making my way through the hallways and searching for any sign of the bastard and ignoring Frank's pleas to calm down.

"Where the fuck is he?" I bellowed, rage evident in my voice.

Frank looked at me with wide eyes, filled with scared tears. I saw this and took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. It didn't do shit, but as long as Frank was less scared of me then I'd pretend as much as I could.

I cleared my throat and walked towards Frank, slowly and calmly to avoid scaring him anymore. I looked at his eye properly and felt tears well up in my own eyes; it looked so painful. Tenderly, I placed my hand on his cheek, stroking it gently with my thumb and wiping away the singular tear that trickled down his face.

He looked into my eyes and I saw the sadness in his. My heart broke at the sight of him, all I wanted was to hold him in my arms and make everything okay.

I glided my hand down to the centre of his back and pulled him towards my chest. I felt him wrap his arms tightly around my back and grip onto my shirt,  sobbing loudly into my chest.

Guilt overtook my emotions, this was my fault. If Frank had never met me he could have kept hanging out with Billie, not having to deal with helping Mikey and losing his friends and getting beat up by my father.

I kissed the top of his head and hugged him tightly; he deserved none of this.

"I'm so sorry" I whispered.

His grip on my shirt loosened and his sobs died down slightly, pulling back and looking deep into my eyes.

"Don't ever apologise for something that your Dad has done. Ever." He declared, quietly but firmly. He had a dark look on his face that told me he was serious, not only telling me so I felt less guilty.

He stood on his toes and kissed the tip of my nose gently, making my blood run to my cheeks which he giggled quietly at. He looked like he was about to say something until fear flashed across his eyes once more. I was about to ask him what was wrong until I heard heavy, familiar footsteps behind me and a deep voice slurred out those three words that scarred me during my entire childhood and starred in my recurring nightmares;

"Look Alive Sunshine."