october challenge | frerard | ✔️

seventeen - nightmare

seventeen: i'm in love with you

"Gerard, Gee," Mikey whined, shaking his brother until he woke. "It was only a nightmare, I promise, you."

Gerard shook himself awake, seeing a figure form and then fall out of form momentarily behind his brother and blinked, still terrified and shivering. 

"Mikes, it was so real," Gerard sighed, finally coming to his senses. "Like the tattoo artist had me fucking tied to a fucking chair, it was so real."

"But the important thing is that it wasn't really real, Gee," Mikey said, yawning and rubbing his eyes. "I'm going back to bed."

He secretly hoped that Saturday would come sooner so he could leave his older brother's house for the week and go back to his own and fall into his regular routines; he didn't like having to rescue his brother from his nightmares every other night. 

"Thanks, Mikes. I'm sorry to be such a bother," Gerard sighed, secretly hoping that Saturday would come sooner as well. The nightmares had started up the day of his brother's arrival and hadn't skipped a night since. He sighed, turned around on his bed and let his eyes close, lulling him peacefully back to sleep. 

---

"Hey, there, cutie, long time no see," Frank said when Gerard sat before him at the cafe's table, steaming mug of coffee in his hands. 

"What's it with you and flirting with me?" Gerard giggled, setting his hand over Frank's on the table. "You've already got me; you don't have to lure me in again."

Frank shrugged, and as he did so, Gerard marvelled at the tattoos poking out of the ends of his long shirt sleeves and spilling over onto his hands. Gerard rubbed his thumb on the back of the hand he was holding and wished he could get a tattoo. 

"You wanna do something fun, babe?" Frank said, a dangerous glint taking over his eyes. Gerard brushed it off, squeezed Frank's hand and nodded. 

"Sure. As long as it's safe."

"It's extremely safe, I've done it a hundred times," Frank said with a little grin, and Gerard's heart fluttered. 

"What kind of fun? Should I buy lube?" 

Frank giggled and responded in a hushed voice. "No, no, not that kind of fun, although..." he trailed off. "That could be arranged. If you want."

"If you wanna fool around later, I'd be more than fine with that," Gerard said in the same hushed tone Frank was using. 

"Mm," Frank hummed, lacing their fingers together on the table. "I'd love to. But first, the surprise. Come with me yeah? We're gonna take a little walk."

Frank's eyes did that little dangerous glint thing again, and Gerard felt his heart race, his face heat up. His intuition told him this was not at all safe, but his mind told him that Frank was his boyfriend, he could be trusted. He sighed under his breath and put on a smile. 

"Sure."

They grabbed their cups of coffee and exited after Frank emptied his change into the tip jar. The air was crisp and windless, that of summer turning into fall and Gerard hiked his jacket up a little, watching Frank do the same as they embarked hand in hand onto the street and started walking down.

"So," Gerard began, and Frank grinned, reaching up to kiss his cheek. Gerard giggled a little. "Where are we going?"

"I'm afraid you won't like it," Frank started, and then it clicked. This is how all of his nightmares started. Gerard was slightly aware that this was a dream, but not fully-there enough to understand the depth of what was happening, so his mind took him through it, guiding him in a way he didn't like, even though he couldn't stop it.