Call Me Zero (Frerard)

2: Is it possible to cover up an alien crash site within half an hour?

"Go back to bed," he mumbled, muffled by the covers.

He felt their weight shift on the end of the bed, but they didn't leave.

They'll take the hint eventually, he told himself, and remained motionless.

He was right. But just as soon as Zero had left, they were back again. Frank was still under the blankets, but when he felt the familiar weight flop down onto the foot of his bed, he knew. He sat up this time and looked over. Zero was curled up at the end of the bed, with their own blanket and pillow this time. They gazed and Frank with sad, wide eyes.

He sighed and rolled his eyes, "Fine..." he groaned, and lay back down.

He felt weird about this. The thought of at least inviting Zero to move up and lay next to him like a normal person came to him, but he wasn't sure if that would make him feel any less uncomfortable. So he left well enough alone. Only a few minutes had passed when the quiet snores drifted up to his ears. Frank sighed and closed his eyes. He still couldn't sleep. That's when he started going back over the memories again.

And now here he was.

He filtered through all the thoughts going through his mind.

He had even more to clean now than when he started.

That was fine.

His parents were coming over.

That could work out. He could pass Zero off as a friend.

His friends were coming over after that.

That wasn't fine.

Frank ran a hand through his hair. He didn't have many close friends, but the ones that he did knew him better than anyone, and they certainly wouldn't fall for any lie he tried to tell. Not to mention the gaping hole in his backyard.

Okay, maybe it wasn't "gaping". Zero's ship was small, only about the size to hold one person, and the damage it had left behind wasn't as bad as he thought, now that Frank looked back at it. But still. Would he have time to cover it up? And if he did do that, what the hell would he do with the actual spaceship? All these questions flitted through Frank's mind as he tried to figure out solutions. His head was pounding and his eyes could barely stay open at this point. He didn't realize he had actually ended up falling asleep until he woke up the next morning.

~

The sound of his phone ringing roused Frank from his sleep. He rubbed his eyes, yawned, and then squinted at the bright screen trying to read the name.

Mom.

Fuck.

He pressed answer right away, without even thinking what he was going to say.

"Uh... hello?"

"Frankie!" his mother squealed on the other end of the line, "Happy birthday, baby! I've been trying to call you all morning, what on Earth have you been doing?"

Frank yawned again, "What time is it?" he mumbled.

"Half past noon! Your father and I were just about to leave the house, don't tell me you were still sleeping?"

Shit.

Frank practically fell out of the bed as he tried to get up and untangle himself from the sheets.

"Um - uh- I gotta go, Ma," he said hastily before hanging up the phone and tossing it back onto the mattress, not taking notice that Zero was no longer there.

He stumbled out of the bedroom and into the living room. Glancing around, he only saw a couple pieces of trash left over from his attempt at cleaning yesterday. Other than that the room was in pretty decent shape. Next Frank shuffled over to the kitchen, bracing himself for the chaos he knew was still there from yesterday. He stood in the doorway rubbing his eyes, and when he looked up, he was in shock. The kitchen was spotless. Completely spotless, as though it had never been touched. His eyes roamed over all over the room until the finally settled on Zero, who was standing quietly in the corner.