Wintertime (Frerard, Sequel to Summertime)

12: im too tired to think of a chapter name smh

And in that moment, Frank's head was filled with entirely too many emotions for him to even begin considering to comprehend as he found himself trapped in a continuous loop of glancing back and forth between Ryan and Gerard as the room hung in an odd kind of silence.

Because Gerard hadn't just done that, but he had, and Frank fucking longed to be able to slap the shit out of him like never before, because god, now everything was complicated and Ryan was going to ask questions, and tell Brendon and Brendon would make it a million times worse with a million more questions, and a million times the mess, and as Gerard grinned, leaning into Frank's side, with bright red hair sticking up at the most odd angles, it became all too evident that he really didn't care at all.

"Oh... I... I... uh..." Ryan genuinely looked like he was about to have a panic attack, and Frank didn't quite blame him, because he was also expecting that Ryan might see some dude in his bed as little as Ryan was, but of course, Frank couldn't comfort him with that, because he couldn't know that sometimes Ryan couldn't see Gerard, and he had to believe that Gerard was human, and fuck this kind of facade was so much harder, and Ryan didn't even fucking need to know that Gerard even existed.

Frank simply wished he was better at lying to people's faces, because that was seriously a skill he was going to be counting on like this.

"Hi..." Ryan finally concocted the most eloquent of responses, stepping forward a little, just to get a better look at Gerard, perhaps, and Frank could do little more but let him, and fucking stay as close to Gerard as possible, because Ryan was seriously going to ask some fucked up questions if Gerard started to grow just that little bit more transparent the more Frank moved away from him - even Frank himself wasn't quite used to this yet.

"Hey." Gerard added, raising his eyebrows and smiling up at Ryan. "Ryan, isn't it?" He continued, grinning like absolutely nothing was at all out of the ordinary and really it shouldn't be, but it was, and Ryan's head was fucking exploding with every single question on his lips.

"Y-yeah..." Ryan glanced at Frank, hoping he would perhaps just explain, but no, Frank was busy fighting the urge to punch Gerard in the face, despite the futile consequences, right then and right there, fucking in front of Ryan as well. "So... an explanation? Frank, who's this dude and what's he doing in your bed?"

"His name is Gerard and I don't think you want me to detail what we did in bed, but-" Ryan's eyes widened in disbelief, because god, Frank Iero having sex? It was outrageous: unheard of, even.

"So you have a boyfriend, or is this... like a one night stand or a prostitute, or... I'm not meaning to offend, but Gerard, you are seriously pretty enough to make it as a prostitute." And Ryan was stumbling over his words like motherfucking hell itself, and perhaps Frank would have laughed if his heart wasn't thudding isn't his chest with an overwhelming velocity.

"Thanks." Gerard grinned up at Ryan, brushing his hair from his face as he continued to talk. "But I'm his boyfriend, actually, surprisingly enough, like... you know how Frank is about these things, but that's Frank, and we've got to accept that."

"Yeah..." Ryan nodded, his eyes widening as he began to realise that perhaps this wasn't quite so much of a sudden madness but some kind of secret that Frank had been keeping for a while now. "So exactly how long have you known Frank?"

"Years, actually." Gerard admitted, and Ryan continued to gasp, "but the whole... dating thing was somewhat recent-"

"Yeah, tell him my whole life story why the fuck don't you?" Frank snapped, glaring at Gerard, and hating how he couldn't storm off for impact, because then Ryan would totally see how ghostly and not real Gerard really was.