Wishing You Were a Ghost

Oh, You Are the Roots That Sleep Beneath My Feet and Hold the Earth in Place

There are trees outside Gerard's apartment window, apparently. Frank hadn't realized that until he opens his eyes the following morning to find light dappled across the opposite wall.

It's not unusual for him to wake first. It's pretty commonplace, actually. Mostly because his and Gerard's issues with insomnia are opposites. Where Frank falls asleep quickly, Gerard takes hours before he can so much as doze. Where Frank can't stay asleep to save his life, Gerard just doesn't get to sleep until far too late (or early) and ends up sleeping later as a result.

Frank doesn't mind. That just means extra time to roll over and look at the man in bed next to him.

At some point, Gerard turned the lamp off, but Frank doesn't remember it. He only knows because the room is still relatively dark, but not too dark for him to admire his current view.

The orange hair has turned into something darker, now that the lighting is low, and it's pressed against Gerard's forehead where he's rolled on it in his sleep. His eyelashes are dark and thick, the way they always are, and even with nothing but sunlight streaming into the room, Frank can still see the shadows of them.

Frank squints across the room at a digital clock on the far wall that tells him it's nearly seven. Not nearly enough hours, but there's not a chance Frank is going to be able to fall back asleep. That's his problem. Once he's awake, he's awake.

Though, on today of all days, maybe that's not such a bad thing.

Years ago, they had birthday traditions. For Frank's birthday, the tradition was Gerard's mother's pumpkin spice bread for breakfast, and any horror movie Frank wanted to watch. After that it was whatever else they had planned with other people. If they had plans, anyway.

For Gerard's birthday, Frank had always snuck out of the bedroom to make breakfast. They'd eat (sometimes it was brunch, depending on when Gerard woke up), and do some cuddling (which usually involved sex), then lunch or dinner with Mikey and whoever else. Sometimes they'd end up at a small party with friends, or a movie at the end of the night, but it always ended in cake, and... well. Usually more sex after that.

Something about licking icing off of Gerard's cock had always been particularly appealing.

And so, Frank carefully slips out of bed, grabbing his phone from his jeans, and sneaks into the apartment. Lotion meows at him, and Frank smiles down at him as he makes his way through the hall and to the living room.

It really is a nice place. Spacious, much bigger than Frank's, but then again, Gerard also has an office and Frank does not. He should really move into a larger unit, but he's grown fond of his little home, even if it's a bit too small for Lois.

Frank wanders his way into the kitchen with a yawn, tucking his hair behind his ears as he looks around. The hardest part of this morning will be figuring out where everything is. Then again, Frank feels like there's a pretty decent chance that Gerard did exactly what he did when he moved out on his own.

Put everything in the exact same places he'd gotten used to it being for the three years they lived together.

That turns out to in fact be true, apparently. Frank tests the theory by opening the closest cupboard to the refrigerator and finds pots and pans right where he'd expected. The same goes for the cutlery drawers, and the measuring cups.

This will make things a lot easier.

Now the main question is what to make. He debates eggs, but that feels too boring, and it pales in comparison to the second thought that crosses his mind.

On more than one occasion in the past, Gerard had made comments about the way that Frank makes waffles. He does it from scratch, and he adds cinnamon, and vanilla, and he throws them in the oven after he cooks them in the waffle iron, which Gerard thought was insane the first time he'd done it, but once he'd realized that it makes them crispier, he hadn't said a word against it since. Plus he whips his eggwhites. Fluffy and crispy all in one. Who could ask for more?