[I'm sorry in advance]
in which the tables turn
~[|]~
Gerard was awake, well, as awake as one can be at six AM, having gotten absolutely no sleep whatsoever.
It was safe to say that he wouldn't be getting any sleep for a while, because when he wasn't working double shifts again, he was at home, not getting any sleep because his body hated him almost as much as he himself hated it.
Around ballpark estimate, it had maybe been around four days since Gerard had gotten even a wink of sleep. Four days ago was also coincidentally around the time Frank had just completely isolated himself from Gerard, meaning that when Gerard would send goodnight messages mainly out of habit, Frank wouldn't even read them. He hadn't had any contact with Gerard in those four days, and he didn't even know if they were still dating because by the looks of it they had left things pretty demolished.
The only thing keeping Gerard from having yet another mental breakdown, was the fact that nothing was official. He wouldn't start worrying about this being an actual breakup until Frank said it was, and if it was, then maybe Gerard and his gullible heart would be in some deep shit, because last time Gerard checked anger issues or not, he still loved Frank.
At work Gerard suspected that Brendon had told everyone to distance themselves from him, for really a multitude of reasons, and God did he appreciate it. He didn't mine Ray or that Dallon guy much, but he didn't exactly want the company.
Gerard was currently in the process of making French toast, trying his hardest to not accidentally slip on his skates and crack his head open. His efforts seemed to be working seeing as he was still a-okay.
Then the doors opened and Brendon came in seeming worried, "Uh, Way, there's someone here to see you?"
Gerard furrowed his eyebrows but tugged his yellow shorts down a bit and adjusted his shirt.
When he skated out he didn't see anyone, well, until he caught sight of the tiny little figure seeing by the booth.
And contrary to most people's beliefs, it wasn't Frank at all, it was Ted.
Gerard skated over to him cautiously, looking down to see Ted genuinely smiling this time— no tears or snot, just a plain smile and red cheeks.
"Hi Gee!" Ted practically squealed, and Gerard had to admit that it put a smile on his face.
"Hiya Ted, how's it going?" Gerard asked softly, taking a seat across the boy.
"It's good, my Mom said I can order anything I want!" Ted grinned, and Gerard chuckled as Ted flapped around a ten dollar bill.
"Well, what can I get you?" Gerard asked, and Ted thought about it for a moment.
"Lemonade please." He grinned, and Gerard nodded, going to stand up when all of the sudden Ted frowned.
"Mister Gee, why're your eyes so red and weird?" Ted asked, leaning in closer to Gerard's face.
Gerard looked away, sighing softly, okay so maybe when he wasn't sleeping he was crying, but it was completely not his fault at all. His body had confused sleeping with weeping, it was understandable.
"Mister Gee's not really having a good day." Gerard settled on saying, and Ted pouted.
"Why?"
"Because someone kind of hurt him, and it wasn't really their fault but... " Gerard trailed off, realising that he was talking to a child. Might as well get therapy from a dog.
"Why?"
"Because they had an argument."
"About what?" And Gerard was realising just why he both hated and liked having kids around.
"It's nothing to worry about, Ted." Gerard forced a smile, "Let me get you your lemonade."
Ted hesitantly nodded, and Gerard sighed as he skated to the kitchen to make the lemonade, and serve the French toast that Pete had probably ended up making.
Around fifteen minutes later he was serving Ted his lemonade, of course having got chastised by Pete for a few minutes.
"Is it okay?" Gerard asked, and Ted took a long sip from the straw and shot him a huge smile, nodding frantically.
"Okay, well you call me if you need anything, alright?" Gerard said, and Ted stop sipping to pull on Gerard's hand right as he turned around.
"Mister Gee, I have to says something impopant," Ted said, and Gerard ignored the fact that 'impopant' was definitely not a word.
"I thinks you should stop argu— argoing... argooing? Argooing with your friend." Ted said, and Gerard couldn't help but smile.
"Why's that, Ted?"
"Because my Grammy said that you can't be afraid of anything that makes you happy." Ted said slowly, "She said that to me's right before I went to my friend's house for the first time."
Gerard looked at him for a moment, before releasing that Jesus Christ, this literal child— this what looks to be seven year old child, just gave him actual advice. That he could probably use.
Gerard smiled at Ted, "Well I'll look into it, kay?"
Ted nodded, and Gerard pat his head before leaving.
Ted's grandmother better not have fucked him over with this indirect advice giving, because Gerard was definitely gonna sue a bitch if things go wrong.
- -
Things were already going wrong.
Gerard was for once since the dawn of time, not wearing pastel, and instead wearing black cuff jeans and a small white shirt with a camera on it.
He had eventually blown off work later that day, and gone to Frank's apartment because as much as he hated arguing, Frank was fucking stubborn and Gerard knew that he would have to be the bigger man or else Frank would go the rest of his life ignoring Gerard.
Except though, Gerard had overlooked the small fact that Frank worked on Thursdays from six to two, so he was already at the bar when Gerard had shown up.
And Gerard really didn't want to go to the bar, because bad things always happened when he did, and he hated how violent things could apparently get, but he knew that if he didn't act on things now he never would.
So he drove to Frank's bar, his bright hair already messed up from his hand running through it too many times.
He stuffed his hands into his pockets as he pushed through the people blocking the door, and he hoped to catch sight of Frank when he got close but so far he hadn't.
Right as he was searching for Frank, he accidentally shoved someone.
"Oh fuck, I'm sorry I—" Gerard stopped when he looked at the guy he as apologising to.
He looked pissed, it didn't look like Gerard's apology was doing any sort of fixing as he rolled his shoulders and glared at Gerard.
"You made me spill my fucking drink." The man hissed, and Gerard looked down to see a spilled beer on the ground.
He gulped.
"Uh, I'll reimburse you if you want— I'll buy you another one." Gerard said quickly, but the man just looked angrier than before.
"I don't want another fucking beer, I wanted that one." He pointed a finger at the spilled drink.
Gerard really wanted to roll his eyes at this man's childish behaviour, seriously, even Ted was more mature than this, but this guy could probably snap his spine so he figured maybe not.
"Well, then let me buy you a straw or something." Gerard snickered against his better judgment and immediately he felt hands around the top of his shirt, pulling him forward.
"You think you're fucking funny?" He asked, and Gerard swallowed again, he had noticed that some people in the bar had started staring at them.
"Uh n-no?" Gerard said, unsure.
And then it happened, the one thing Gerard had been hoping to avoid for the rest of his life after high school.
He got punched in the nose.
Gerard groaned, squeezing his eyes shut for a second before the feeling of blood dripping over his lips took him back into reality.
When he opened his eyes, the guy was still staring at him, and then Gerard did something. He didn't something he really shouldn't have, and he really did regret it the second he did.
He pulled his own fist back and slammed it into the guy's cheek, making him stumble.
Full disclosure, Gerard's high school life did entail a lot of punching. He had gotten beaten up many times, which was really just a side effect of being the loser he was. It was actually one of the reason he hated seeing Frank get into them, because when he was hurt he reminded Gerard of himself a lot when he was younger. But of course the main reason was always that Gerard genuinely cared about Frank, and he wanted to help him stop putting himself at risk.
Much like Gerard was doing right now, because there was a good amount of people
watching them now, as the stranger touched his cheek to feel the tender skin.
Gerard had thought that maybe it was over then, because they were even, but no.
Frank was right, undoubtedly, the people in this bar don't stop fighting until you're basically mulch.
Honestly Gerard was only half surprised when the guy punched him again, this time by his right eye, and Gerard of course reacted by shoving him against one of the tables and kneeing him.
And then all of the sudden Gerard was on the ground, and he clutched his head between his hands as he felt kicks being delivered to his stomach. He screwed his eyes shut and tried to curl in on himself but it didn't work.
It hurt like a bitch, the punch had been pretty bad but this just made his head fuzzy with pain.
Gerard then heard a tray fall on the ground, and he opened his eyes to see a familiar pair
of ratty Converse.
He was in some deep shit now.
Gerard couldn't see Frank's face, but the guy had stopped kicking him the second Frank appeared. Gerard took this as a chance to roll in his back and kick the guy's dick as hard as he could.
The guy groaned loudly and Gerard let out a soft breath before he felt someone grabbing the back of his shirt roughly and picking him up.
Before Gerard knew it he was being shoved to the side harshly and he whipped his head around to see Frank stood there, his face practically red in anger.
The guy who had been kicking Gerard took
one glance at Frank and almost seemed to turn frightened.
"Iero, get out of the way." He said, and although he tried to seem quite tough his voice had initially quivered.
Frank glared at him, taking a deep breath, and Gerard noticed that the nonchalant stares people were throwing around were still going on.
"Get out or I swear to god I will break your skull and piss on it." Frank said slowly, but his hands were clenched into fists, his eyes almost twitching as he tried to contain himself.
The guy scoffed, but not a second later he was clutching his face and running out of the bar.
Then Frank turned to Gerard, his eyes basically lit up in flames.
Gerard only got a glimpse of Frank's furious face before he was being practically manhandled out of the bar and to a parking lot.
"Let me go." Gerard ordered, squirming in Frank's iron grip, but Frank didn't respond.
Frank dragged him to his car, and when Gerard was leaning against it he winced, he wiped the drying blood on his nose and lips, wincing as his tender knuckle bumped against his bruised nose.
"What the fuck were you thinking?" Frank yelled at him.
Gerard groaned, "Can this wait? I think I might have a hernia."
"No it can't fucking wait— what the fuck happened?" Frank asked angrily, and Gerard looked down as he rubbed his arm that, surely enough, was bruising.
"Please stop yelling. Take a deep breath." Gerard said softly, but it seemed to go right in one ear and out the other.
"I'm not gonna take a fucking deep breath, Gerard. You look like you just got run over." Frank said loudly, and Gerard flinched.
He didn't answer, he just looked up at Frank with a sad gaze because maybe coming down here was a waste of time. Gerard should have known that Frank wouldn't want to talk to him, or even be open to having another discussion.
Gerard had been hoping, somewhere in the back of his mind, that maybe Frank had changed his mind completely about the whole fighting-thing, but as he stood there getting practically told off for genuine self defence, it was more clear to him than ever that Frank can't change.
Not just that, but he was now feeling what Gerard felt every time Frank got into a fight.
"I came to try and work things out with you because I knew you weren't going to. Then I accidentally spilled this guy's drink and he lost his shit, okay?" Gerard said quickly, before wiping some of the blood on his shirt.
Frank was silent, and Gerard couldn't help
but sigh at that.
"I knew it would be a waste of time coming in the first place." Gerard muttered to himself.
"Gerard, I," Frank took in a breath, "Why didn't you try and find me earlier or something?"
Gerard couldn't help but laugh at that, "Because I was just doing what you told me to— I did something without anyone's help."
"Gerard, when I said that I didn't mean get into bar fights you can't win." Frank said with a scoff, and Gerard looked up then.
"I didn't start the fight, asshole. Not everyone fights for general merriment." Gerard spat, getting frustrated, "And I'll fucking have you know that I didn't lose the fight, I'm still standing, aren't I?"
"Yes but if I hadn't shown up you could have been—"
"I don't fucking care what could have happened, Frank!" Gerard eventually yelled.
"I— I practically have a broken face after coming down here to try and fix things with you, and all you can do is yell at me." Gerard said, his voice breaking as he spoke.
"I thought you would be different when I came here but you aren't, you're— you're sweet Frank, I know you are, but you're just buried under this layer of anger and I'm not gonna sit around and get told off like a toddler because of it."
Frank looked at him, staring but definitely not speaking.
"I didn't come down here to get chastised, I came down hoping to fix things with my boyfriend. But I don't think he's here tonight." Gerard mumbled, and he turned around to walk off when Frank spoke up finally.
"I'm sorry, okay?" Gerard stopped at the sound of Frank's voice, because it almost sounded like he was on the verge of crying.
"I-I'm sorry I make you feel hurt and sad. I'm sorry that I can't do anything right, ever— and I'm sorry you got into a fight because of it." Frank said with a soft sob, and Gerard turned around slowly.
Frank was wiping his face.
"Frank, you can change— you just have to want to." Gerard said quietly.
"No, Gerard," Frank sniffled, "I-I can't."
"Yes, you can, just please—"
"What part of I can't don't you get?" Frank finally shouted again, tears flowing down his cheeks as he snapped.
Gerard looked down, kicking a small pebble before speaking again.
"You know, on second thought I think you might be right, Frank." Gerard muttered, and this time when he turned off he didn't pay attention to Frank's voice.
♧ ♧ ♧
woop
gerard's gonna have to pay $90000 for those hernias