The holidays were over. Frank had only seen his parents once, and even then, they only came home for changes of clothes, and to give him some money, "you can buy your own present. I'm sorry we didn't have time to go shopping."
Bullshit. Frank knew they couldn't even buy him a present if they had the time because they didn't know him at all. Honestly, they probably didn't even know his personality. He could bleach his hair, style it in to a Mohawk and they wouldn't even notice.
Frank was just so fed up. Sometimes, he wanted to leave. He wanted to go somewhere else, somewhere where he wouldn't only be waiting for his parents to come home, somewhere where he could live. Though that definitely wasn't going to happen any time soon.
Although that portion of his life completely sucked, he'd texted Gerard more times than he probably should have. Mostly, it was just random crap he came up with as he didn't have anyone else to tell or to share his thoughts. Every time, Gerard never failed to text a reply, even if it was a little late. He always answered, and that secured safety in Frank's mind because at least he could count on someone.
Frank had wondered if things would be different between he and Gerard. They'd been texting, and Frank was a lot more confident over text, so he hoped his usual anxiety-filled state wouldn't be a let-down.
Though he had a plan. Well, not exactly a plan, but he didn't know what else to call it. Basically, he'd concocted a list of questions to ask Gerard. Seeing as his crush obviously wasn't going to just disappear any time soon, he supposed he should get to know the guy a little better.
Currently, Gerard was stood at his desk, flicking through student's books and making a pile of the ones he had to mark, which was annoyingly taller than the completed stack. His hair was in his eyes and Frank itched to run his fingers through it to tie it back. Instead, he fidgeted in his seat, hands in his hoodie pockets, going over what he was going to say in his head. It took a while.
Thankfully, there was no one else in the art department, so they had the two rooms to themselves.
Finally, he gathered the courage and took a deep breath. "Okay, Mr Way, I have some questions for you."
"Do you really?" Gerard glanced up, brows furrowed. "About what?"
Taking his lip ring between his teeth, Frank muttered, "You." He looked over at Gerard, searching for a reaction.
"Me?" He wrinkled his nose, extremely puzzled. "Why?"
"Well. . ." He couldn't think of a way to say it without making his feelings blatantly evident. He hoped Gerard was utterly oblivious when it came to people flirting with him –not that Frank was flirting. He shifted in his chair. "I want to get to know you."
"You do know me."
"No," Frank fought back a nervous laugh, "I mean like stupid little details." Gerard just smiled, and God, Frank wished he knew what he was thinking. It'd make this a whole lot easier. "Okay, not stupid details." He sighed, leaning forwards on the table. "But you know, things like: what's your favourite colour?"
"You know my favourite colour." Gerard stated, narrowing his eyes. He was making this unnecessarily hard for Frank, who shot him a challenging glare.
"Blue, yes, I know-"
"And your favourite colour is sunset orange."
"Gee." Frank whined, dragging out the nickname, earning raised eyebrows from Gerard. He paused for a moment, allowing it to sink in that Gerard had remembered a small detail about him. "Let me continue with my childish interview."
"You never started your childish interview." He retorted, a smirk on his face, which made Frank want to whack the book he was holding right out of his hands.
"Oh my God." He groaned, shooting daggers at him. "Gerard, shh."
"Frankie." He mocked in the same tone, unable to keep the sly grin from spreading across his lips. Admittedly, he was enjoying agitating him.
If he could reach, Frank would have slapped a hand over his mouth. He huffed, and spoke like he was to someone incompetent, "Can I start now? With your permission, sir?"
Abandoning the student's books, Gerard hopped on to the table Frank was sat at, putting his feet on the chair beside him, one leg crossed over the other. Frank moved back a bit to avoid having to stare at Gerard's knees. "If you want." He shrugged, resting his head on his hand.
Frank blinked, a little surprised. He could feel Gerard's stare burning the side of his head. "Alright," He cleared his throat for emphasis and pulled forward the list he'd had hidden under his pencil case. Maybe it was a tad creepy-looking.
Gerard cocked his head to the side, eyebrows lost in his fringe. "You wrote a list? I'm flattered."
"Hey, don't judge." He was sure his face was bright red, but tried not to think about it, otherwise his confidence would have disappeared entirely. Getting his mouth to form the words was difficult enough.
"I'm not." Gerard chuckled. "I'm just confused. Are you going to be doing this with all your teachers?"
"Just the special ones." Frank grinned, then quickly darted his gaze away.
"Aww," Gerard smiled, eyes shining. "I'm special?"
"'Course you are." Frank blurted out, a deep blush blooming on his cheeks. He didn't dare look at Gerard, because if he did, he'd implode –violent butterflies were already gnawing at his insides. "Now, shh."
As he was about to speak, he was interrupted again. "If you can ask questions, can I?"
"Yeah," Frank nodded. "This is a two way thing." He had to squint at the first question as this whole conversation was making his head spin. "Who's your favourite superhero?"
"Wolverine." Gerard didn't miss a beat. "From the X-Men films."
"Oh, yeah?"
"He has fantastic hair. . ." He muttered thoughtfully, staring up at the art posters on the wall. "And claws. . . I like that he's part animal, but it's not too obvious." He almost added, it's hot, to be honest, but caught the words in his throat.
If Frank was correct, Gerard seemed to have a minor crush on Wolverine, or Hugh Jackman, or both –probably both. "Wolverine is pretty badass."
Gerard flicked his eyes towards Frank, who held his gaze for a moment before caving and glancing away. "Who's your favourite?"
"Uhm," Frank mumbled, slightly shocked that he took an interest, though he shouldn't have been by now. "Does Deadpool count?"
He shrugged. "I guess so? I mean, he's never killed anyone who's good. Only the bad guys."
"And he's fucking hilarious." Frank commented, which earned a small giggle from Gerard that made his heart stutter.
"That too."
"How about favourite villain?"
Gerard tapped his foot. "Definitely the Joker. He's the only reason I watched The Dark Knight. Batman sucks."
"You don't like Batman?" Frank's jaw dropped.
"He has no real superpowers!" He said defensively, holding his hands up in surrender. "He's totally useless."
"He's strong?" He suggested, trying to argue, though Gerard brought up a fair point.
"Doesn't that come with the suit?"
Sighing, Frank slouched in his chair, chewing his cheek, "I don't know."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Gerard frowned. "Did I just ruin Batman for you?"
"Nah." He waved a hand dismissively. "It's fine, I didn't really watch the movies anyway." Staring at his hands, he added, "What about Darth Vader?"
Gerard seemed offended. "No way! Joker rules over all. He's just insane, and I love that."
"Even though he doesn't have powers, either? And he doesn't have a suit?"
"He doesn't need superpowers. Gotham is scared of the Joker because he doesn't really have control of his own mind, and fear is just as powerful as a suit, I think."
"Touché." He resisted the urge to do something ridiculous, like finger guns, which weren't appropriate anyway, but he didn't know what to do with his hands. He shoved them in his pockets. "What-" He was cut off when Gerard held up a hand as if he was in class.
"Can I read a question off the list?" He asked sheepishly, outstretching his hand to Frank, who hesitantly passed him the paper.
"My writing is bad." He pressed his lips in to a thin line. "So I'll be surprised if you can read it."
"Oh, don't worry." Gerard chuckled, brushing his hair behind his ears. "My bother has the worst writing in the world. I'm sure I can read yours."
"I didn't know you had a brother." Frank said. A small part of him wondered whether this brother was as attractive as Gerard, but he swiftly dismissed that thought because Gerard pretty damn attractive, and honestly Frank didn't think anyone could compare. Or maybe he was too caught up in his crush and enthralled by him, though he didn't care. He could say it; Gerard was hot.
"Yeah. . ." Gerard murmured, his voice bringing Frank back to reality. "Do you?"
Shaking his head, he blinked. "Do I what?"
"Have any siblings?"
"Nope." He popped the 'p' with a short laugh. "I'm all alone."
Gerard looked at him sadly before composing himself and continuing in a joking manner, "You wouldn't want one, anyway. You see, it's their job to make your life hell, which they do oh so perfectly." He rolled his eyes, then carried on in a softer tone. "I do love my brother, though, and he's done a lot for me, so. . . I don't know." He fought off the overwhelming feeling that came with remembering the past. "Would you want any siblings?"
"I'm not sure." Frank chuckled, folding his arms across his chest. "Not based on your description of it being 'hell'."
"You never know," Gerard tilted his head to the side. "Hell could be just as nice as heaven. Or nicer."
"Do you believe in that stuff?" Frank asked as Gerard set the list down, then slid off the table, returning to his desk.
"Heaven and hell?" He furrowed his brows, glancing at Frank, who nodded. "Not really."
"Me neither." He laughed.
Gerard started on the pile of books he had to mark. "Do you want me to put some music on?" He asked, chewing on the end of his pen.
Frank grinned, "Sisters of Mercy?"
"I thought you didn't know them?" He began typing on the keyboard.
"I didn't. But I liked that song you sang of theirs, so I decided to download some of their stuff."
"Awesome." Gerard smiled. "Any requests?"
"When You Don't See Me." It was the one Gerard sang on his birthday, and Frank mostly suggested it because he hoped Gerard would start singing along and he'd get to hear his voice.
The world must have been working in his favour because Gerard did indeed sing, and Frank may or may not have stared when he was too deep in thought to notice. Man, he wished Gerard wasn't his teacher in moments like this.
-
I'm sorry if this chapter sucks.
[Published 26 November 2019]
{Last edited 4 June 2020]