read the title.

From a complete strangers view, Frank Iero would seem like any other normal shy 22 year old with an extremely bad immune system. Those were probably the reasons why he always wore scarves and never talked. The few people who knew him, knew he could talk, but just labeled him under selective mute. Because he never talked. Because he chose not to talk. Because he was afraid? - "Hi welcome to my café! What can I get for you?" "Just a black coffee please." Was answered by a raspy yet shy voice. And that's how Gerard found himself interested in the quiet and cute boy infront of him. Cover credit to @tragician_child

They were murdered, they were attacked and now they're dead. That's all Frank knows about his parents - gone before he'd even had chance to miss them, and it was fucking with his head. The police reckoned that moving away, to rural New Jersey with his grandparents would help him cope with the loss, but even Frank knew that they couldn't be more than wrong, because despite the dull sleepy atmosphere of the town, there was something unidentifiable yet impossibly unnerving about the place, and really, perhaps was safer in his parents home than he ever was here. And there's something physically wrong too - a figure that lurks in the smoke, fog, and shadows - a silhouette the deepest black he'd ever seen, the kind that brought an unsettling feeling to Frank's stomach, and really Frank's wasn't one to be overly twitchy about things like this, but from the moment he first met him, he could never shake the feeling that the figure was always following him. And perhaps, he was. (Vampire!Gerard)

The Pocket Universe Effect - the feeling that nothing else outside your little bubble of reality can quite matter at all. One am on a Friday in June, admist quiet neighbourhoods of New Jersey, the Ieros are away on a night out and Frank and Gerard are sprawled out across Gerard's green anorak, without the capacity to care about anything other than the night sky and the way the stars reflect in each other's eyes.

Frank is twenty eight: he's mentally stable for the most part, and well nobody has to know about pills he takes twice a day, do they? He's normal now, he's a person now, he's a fucking adult with an office job and he fucking hates it and that's fine, because he got out of the mental hospital three years ago, and these past three years of mundane nothingness have been the best three years of his life. Ten years ago, or so, Frank was in love with a boy called Gerard with fiery red hair and the personality of a switchblade knife, and ten years ago that boy called Gerard had killed himself. Frank still saw him though: hallucinations, as he knew them to be now, and it took him years in a hospital he never thought he'd get out of to convince himself of his newfound sanity, but he was okay now. Twenty eight year old Frank Iero had been officially 'okay' since he was twenty five. He hadn't seen Gerard again, and he didn't even think about the guy - he was just normal, and he was almost painfully content with being the secretary to someone with a five figure salary. But of course, on one fateful morning in December, that has to go and change, doesn't it? (Technically a sequel to Summertime, but I wouldn't say you need to have read Summertime to understand and enjoy this)

"You can run away with me, anytime you want." I want to get away. Away from the abuse at home, at school hell, but we're not friends. I could never be friends with Gerard Way. He's just some guy that fate seems to drive me towards. His brother may be even more of asshole than him, making my school life living hell and I guess things at home are not too great either. And despite how much of an asshole Gerard Way is, he's the only one that seems to make anything better.

It's the lake in November, and the move closer to the ocean, and Gerard's fixation, and Gerard's compulsions like tidal waves dragging him down, and Mikey's more distant than ever: like they're drifting out into the middle of the ocean, whereas Gerard's just stuck there: water turning to quicksand around him, drowning. And it's the letter; Frank finds it on the floor of the boys' bathroom on the first floor. It's dropped in accident, perhaps from a pocket or something, and it's drenched in what Frank hopes is tap water, and the words: scrawled in blue ink are difficult to make out as the words join together in a fuzzy inky mess. The only paragraph legible is the final one, and even still, it barely is: 'I've been underwater for a long time now, but I'm not drowning, I'm beginning to think I can breathe like this, but I can't, I'm gasping for breath, and I have to do this, Mikey, I have to end this myself. I'm going to the lake on the 1st of November, don't wait for me... I'm not coming back.' And the name signed at the bottom is little more than a smudged mess of blue ink, and there's nothing Frank can do about it, but he knows for certain that the one thing he can't do is ignore this letter, and he reminds himself of that as he folds it into his pocket. It's a suicide note, Frank's stupid, but not stupid enough to brush over that fact, and whoever this person is, Frank knows that they most certainly don't deserve to die. And Frank isn't going to let them. Because he's going to find this person; he's got time now at least, and he can save them, he will save them - Frank promises himself that. But one person in a whole school, it's like a needle in a haystack, but he's got time, it's November 1st in thirty days, and he can only hope that it will be enough. He's got one month: the date is October 1st.

Dan is different. He's learned to accept that. Well, as best he can anyway, considering he's never really had much of a choice. It's been this way for as long as he can remember, the constant runaround process of trying to feel normal. His life is built around it, trying to trick both himself and everyone he interacts with into seeing him as your average person. The isolation as he desperately tries to keep others from finding out, the bitterness that wells up inside of him each and every time he's reminded that he'll never be like everyone else, the fear that nothing will ever change. He's fated to be this way forever; a misfit from society. Isolation can only go so far though, so when he's struggling to make ends meet and he's faced with the option of looking into a serious job or taking on a roommate, he opts for what seems like the easier option at the time. It doesn't seem so easy ten failed roommates into the process, or when he sits down at a table to meet with prospect number eleven and ends up with a coffee spilled all over his lap. Potential roommate number eleven, Phil, turns out to be an insufferable optimistic ball of sunshine that Dan wants nothing to do with. His options are running out though, as are the savings he's been using to pay his rent, so he finds himself begrudgingly agreeing to let the other man move in. Neither of them have any way of knowing just what they've gotten themselves into as they shake on the matter, but time will tell.

Frank is an emo piece of shit who needs to get a grip on life. Gerard is an edgy fuckboy with totally not infected stretched ears and an obsession with writing shit poetry, also all he listens to is Neck Deep and Front Porch Step because they understand his inner angst and how he really is, and all that One Direction on his iPod, totally his Mikey's. And of course, they fucking hate each other. And of course, they're paired up together in English for a class project on Romeo and Juliet. Mikey is a Larry conspiracy theorist, he would compare his need for Larry to his need for oxygen, and if given a choice between the two we all know which one he'd pick. He is however gay and very open minded and generally kind to everyone, except Gryles shippers, of course. Pete is Mikey's best friend. They're sweet little dudes, and have been best friends since they were about six. They're both equally in love with One Direction and Pete doesn't even mind when Mikey talks for like three hours about Harry's dreamy eyes. Pete, however, perhaps, maybe has this little tiny crush on Mikey, which he considers to be the end of the world, however it's not that which leaves Mikey ignoring him for weeks. It's not even his shitty youtube channel with about 6 subscribers. Brendon is openly gay, big foreheaded, and big headed in general. The guy also loves 5SOS, like seriously he's the worst person in the world. He's about seven thousand miles up his own ass and thinks he's Tyler Oakley. He's also totally not fucking Ryan Ross, like seriously, wow that Brian Moss guy? Brendon doesn't even fucking know him, and he already knows he's an asshole. Ryan Ross is straighter than like a straight line. Ryan Ross is the epitome of no homo, and he's totally not getting off with Brendon Urie, because like he doesn't even know that guy - who the fuck is Breadbin Urine anyway? He smokes weed and generally has such a hard life as a 'straight' cis white boy with a secret weakness for John Green.