frerard one shots | ✔️

seventy-four ~ crossing the line

The key rattled in the front door of the shop, and Frank sighed. "Tony just got here, it seems."

"An even better reason to start opening, right?" she said, and when the manager walked in, they greeted him.

...

"Frank and I are gonna get lunch together, can you hold up the fort until our break is over?" Frank heard Jamia say to Tony later that day and finished up the last bit of colour on the tattoo he was doing, wiping it clean. He let the client take a look in the mirror and when she said it was perfect, he smiled softly and wrapped it.

She tipped him well enough to pay for a lunch out, so he figured that he'd go with Jamia. When he was done wiping down the seat and station, he saw Jamia in the frame of the door of the studio, and he sighed.

"I heard you telling Tony we were gonna go out for lunch," he said, speaking first.

"Yeah, I'll pay for you if you want me to."

"Nah, I just got a sweet tip, I can get myself."

Jamia shrugged and waited until Frank had thrown away his gloves to point out that they'd already wasted five minutes of their lunch break cleaning.

"Comes with the job," Frank muttered back, smiling at her. "Lemme use the bathroom, and you can figure out where we're going."

"For sure. I'll meet you outside. I'm dying for some fresh air."

Frank ducked into the bathroom and pressed the phone icon next to Gerard's contact and held it up to his ear.

"Hey, love," he said when he heard Gerard pick up.

"Hey, baby, what's wrong? Is it that bad?"

"No, not about that," Frank chuckled quietly. "Just wanted to let you know Jamia wants to get lunch with me so I'm not gonna get those leftovers from last night, so don't be alarmed when I don't come home."

"For sure," Gerard replied, and Frank could almost see the relief on his boyfriend's face. "I'll see you this evening, though, right? I'm making something good for you tonight so you better be hungry when you get home."

"I definitely will be," Frank said, smiling. "Well, I'll see you tonight then, darling."

"I'll see you tonight. Love you, baby."

"I love you too," Frank replied, smile still lingering, and hung up.

He and Jamia got food from a Lebanese restaurant and ate at a table right outside it. Jamia insisted that they do so because the air was warm with rebirth, and the trees were starting to flower again.

"So," she started, speaking softly. "Tell me the truth, Frankie, is this all actual sex stuff or is he... is he...?"

"Is he what?" Frank asked dismissively, biting into his falafel wrap.

"It just seems abusive, Frank."

"It isn't," he retorted, a little too quickly, but he'd mumbled it.

Jamia bit out of her pita too and sighed. When she was done chewing, she spoke again, quietly. "How does it make you feel when it hurts you, though? Is it a good thing, or is it just something you write off as him loving you, or..."

"I told you, it's a sexual thing. I don't have to explain my sex life to you," he replied, looking away.

"All of it?"

"Well, I..." Frank trailed off. He felt like he was stuck—Jamia was pushing him into a corner, trying to understand, but the information she needed in order to understand was not his to share. He bit his lip. "Sometimes, it feels like..."