Red Plastic Chairs.

The waiting room in the clinic is very boring, to put it simply. It's dull, with gray walls, gray linoleum floor, no decorations anywhere, and just six red plastic chairs. The chairs squeak annoyingly whenever you move just an inch, and they're not shaped in a way that supports your body very well. There's a ticking noise coming from a clock in the reception area just outside the door, and it's slowly driving Gerard crazy. He wishes he could put his headphones in his ear and put on some music to drown it out, but if he did he wouldn't hear when it is his turn and they call his name out.

He's picking at his nails, his cuticles, his hands in general, and tearing tiny bits of skin off. It doesn't hurt much, just in a way that he feels is stress relieving. He used to bite his nails too, but he stopped, and now this is the one and only really bad habit he has. His nails are uneven, and it's easy to rip small bits off. It's easy to distract himself from the reason he is here, in the gray room with red plastic chairs. In an abortion clinic.

There's a nagging feeling in him, a slight ache that's slowly easing its way over his skin and into his body, infiltrating the air he breaths and the red blood-cells delivering it to the rest of his body. His head, the tips of his fingers and toes, his heart and all of his internal organs. His belly. He's instinctively resting a hand on top of it, for no reason at all. He feels nothing for the being inside of him, he tells himself. He doesn't want the baby, he shouldn't feel a need, a natural craving to protect it. It shouldn't be in him, he shouldn't feel like a mother.

He is trying to erase every single feminine thing in himself. All the faulty parts he had been born with, making him both a man and a woman, are going to be entirely gone soon. He just wants the psychological errors to vanish too, to make them go away so he can easily live without any remorse. He shouldn't need to wish for that. He's a man. Men don't get pregnant. Him getting rid of something that's clearly wrong, both biologically and morally, is only natural.

He still rubs his thumb over his belly, though, rubbing up and down at the bump that's still invisible to him. He supposes that he can feel it there, but he's not really registering it. He only wants to forget about the whole thing. Frank never stops going on about how beautiful Gerard and his tiny bump is, though, and at those times Gerard doesn't know whether to scream or cry or to just suck it up and pretend. He usually goes with the latter option, putting on a happy face for his boyfriend and the father of the baby. In reality, he wishes that Frank had simply never found out about the pregnancy. He never intended for him to do so, but Frank had found the test and there was no use in denying what was obvious.

A woman in a nurse's uniform enters the room. She calls Gerard's name, and gives him a friendly smile as he gathers his coat and bag, finally getting up and leaving his red plastic chair.

The apartment is dark and empty when he unlocks the door and enters a few hours later. He knows that Frank gets off work at five today, so he should be home at any second now, bursting in through the door and asking how his day was. Frank would ask if Gerard's mom ever found a couch that she liked and that would go with her freshly re-painted living room, because Gerard had told Frank that he was going to help her find one. Gerard actually did that a week ago, though.

"Gee, I'm home!" comes the familiar voice, floating through the dismal air of the apartment they have been sharing for a little less than a month. It used to be Gerard's own, but when they found out about the baby, they wanted to live together, despite their young ages of twenty-two and eighteen. That's before Gerard made his decision to abort their baby. He doesn't regret it yet, even if the uneasiness from sitting in the waiting room still remains in his system.

"Hey." Gerard greets him with a kiss, softly laying his lips upon Frank's as his hands weave through Frank's silky brown locks. The younger man's hands immediately go up to his boyfriend's stomach, caressing it softly as he grins into the kiss. Gerard suppresses a slight urge to flinch as he imagines the empty hole that's left after the abortion. An empty space within him.

"How are my babies today?" Frank asks softly upon breaking the kiss, lovingly looking into Gerard's dark eyes. Gerard sees nothing but pure love and devotion in Frank's green eyes, and he at least hopes that his eyes are relatively the same. He doesn't want them to give away the guilt he feels towards Frank. The guilt he feels when he kisses Frank gently on the lips, one more time, and tells him that they are both just perfect.

"The morning sickness is dissipating too. It's not that bad at all anymore." They both smile at Gerard's reply, and stand in the hallway for a while, just holding one another. Gerard to feed on Frank's love and support, Frank to feel as close as he can to his boyfriend and unborn child. Frank's hands are still on Gerard's belly, under his shirt, so they're directly on the skin. It feels nice, Gerard thinks. "I love you."

"I love you too, so much," Frank breathes into Gerard's hair, then inhales the sweet scent of green apples that he identifies as Gerard's shampoo.

They have dinner, some pasta carbonara that Frank threw together, and although Gerard thought he wouldn't be able to stomach a thing, he find that it goes down quite easily. Frank tells him about his day, how some stupid thirteen year olds tried to shoplift, but were caught, and still denied it when a security guard pulled a bottle of coke from one of their pockets. Frank laughed softly as he told the story, saying it was the most exciting thing that had happened at the supermarket in a long time. During his shift, at least. Gerard smiled and listened, wondering if it would still be like this in a year. If it would have been like that if he had kept the baby.

They watch a movie on TV until it's time to go to bed, both of them yawning widely as they shut off all the lights in the apartment and go to the bedroom. Gerard goes to brush his teeth first, and when he returns out, Frank is wearing just a t-shirt and boxers, looking gorgeous as ever. Gerard changes into the same attire as Frank goes to the bathroom, and crawls in under the warm covers as he waits for Frank to come and cuddle up with him.

When Frank comes, he instantly wraps his arms around Gerard from behind, kissing his neck and whispering that he loves them both. And Gerard breaks.

"I had an abortion, Frank."