Frerard Oneshots

✦ Activation Day✦

PROMPT: 

In the future, romantic attraction is literal: each person is fitted with an electromagnetic bracelet which, they claim, will pull you to your soulmate. It's the day they turn the magnets on, and you're waiting.

  ---

   Frank sat upon his dining room table - legs crossed beneath him and his eyes closed - inhaling deeply and focusing on the low rumble of the air-conditioning unit above him.

May had come sooner than any of the Iero household could have ever prepared for, and despite their futile attempts to conserve and cherish the time - Linda and Frank knew that they were going to have to part with their son in just a few short hours.

Eighteen years, they supposed, was a long time to have raised a child. Created from their own love for the other - their own passion - Linda and Frank Sr. had always loved Frank with as much love as they shared with the other.

Frank had always been... different. As a young child, he tended to shy away from other children. Much preferring to curl up and read in the safety of his home, rather than playing with the other children in the neighborhood. His parents had always assumed he'd grow out of it, and that he'd grow up to be just as much as a social-butterfly as his parents were, but to their surprise, Frank never did grow out of it.

Even now, as he was nearing the end of his Senior year of high school - awaiting the fateful moment that the bracelets activated - he was still tucked away inside the walls of his home, rather than celebrating and socializing as most of the Seniors were currently doing.

Frank enjoyed silence. Noise was often deafening to a fragile, and easily socially exhausted Frank, and even just a simple house-party was often too much for him. People made him anxious, and the mere thought of having to socialize made him sick down to the very pit of his stomach.

And as much as Frank awaited for the moment he and his soulmate would be drawn together - he still feared the whole ordeal - the whole concept of not knowing who he would connect to scared Frank. He didn't want to find himself in the middle of an empty street with a complete stranger - someone who knew nothing about him, and someone who he knew nothing about. Or worse, finding himself in a small coffee shop somewhere with a complete asshole. What if his soulmate ended up being a total jerk?

Frank was terrified of knowing that in only a few hours time, he'd have to face the pull, and he'd have to finally make contact with the person he was meant to love.

His parents knew this. Knowing that their son was never - and would never - be like them. He'd never willingly go out and socialize - dressing up in fancy clothes and sipping on champagne as he made small talk to strangers at casual parties. They knew he'd never ever willingly hop atop a stage or podium, and that he'd always be the shy little boy that they had raised.

But as his parents sat in the dining room with their son - opting to take seat in the chairs, rather than the table - a small part of them, deep down, wished that he was like them. They wished that he wouldn't have to suffer all the nerves and nausea over what was supposed to be the most wonderful day of his life - the beauty of meeting his one true love.

"Hey, Frank." Linda said softly, "Breathe, okay?"

Frank nodded keeping his eyes glued shut.

 "In...."

Frank inhaled deeply.

Out..."

Frank exhaled loudly.