Cat and Mau5

Gerard dozed on and off for a few minutes until Frank’s voice gently roused him.
“What?” he asked, voice a little groggy. Frank was still gathered tightly underneath his arm.
“I didn’t ask you about post-coital cuddle etiquette.”

It took Gerard a second to work out what he meant. He merely tightened his grip. Frank sighed, relieved by the wordless answer and rubbed his face contentedly against Gerard’s skin, sliding a palm up onto his chest. His voice was tentative when he spoke again.
“Will you stay?”

Gerard trailed his fingers up and down Frank’s arm. The pause was only for effect. He’d decided on his answer an hour ago.
“Yeah.” He watched his fingertips dance over the patterned skin. “I need to leave early though.”
There was a pause.
“I know.”

Gerard wasn’t sure what to say on that count, and so didn’t. After a moment Frank sat up and pressed a lingering kiss to Gerard’s mouth. He smiled.
“Do you have an alarm for the morning?” he asked.
“On my comm.”
“Come on then” Frank said. “We need a shower.”

Gerard groaned, still feeling altogether too boneless to even make it to the bathroom let alone prop himself up in the shower. Frank was having none of it. Frank tugged on his hand until he was standing, poking at the congealed come on Gerard’s chest as if to illustrate his point. Gerard groaned again but conceded.

Frank poked his head out of the bedroom door, calling out to the empty room.
“Lights on full, blinds closed.”

They waited, listening to the clunking of the blinds as they closed via voice command before they wandered naked through the lounge and into the bathroom. The shower looked pretty decent. It was large – a walk in with a ceiling full of jets. Frank gave Gerard a little nudge towards it.
“101 degrees on full” Gerard said, starting the stream immediately. He waited until he could see steam rising from the floor before he stepped in.

The water pressure was amazing, beating down on him in hot lashes. He wiped a hand over his chest, washing away the leftover mess and let the water fill his mouth, dribbling out of the corners. Frank returned a moment later, setting down a glass as he searched through his bathroom cabinet. He presumably found the venerads and turned, taking one in front of Gerard with half the glass. When he was done he held out the remaining water and another pill. Gerard stepped out, looking at Frank when he swallowed it.

“I believe you’re clean. You know that, don’t you?” Gerard asked, eyes soft as they took in Frank’s face.
“I know” Frank told him, taking the glass and setting it beside the sink. “It’s just fairer this way.”

Gerard held out a hand, leading Frank into the shower and fixing their mouths together. He smiled when he drew back, wrapping his arms around Frank as they got progressively more wet.
“You’re real fucking accommodating, you know that?”
“I try.”

“Do you?” Gerard asked, withdrawing so that he could retrieve some shower gel from the pump on the wall, lathering it in his hands and beginning to cover Frank’s chest and shoulders in suds. “I mean do you do this a lot?”
“You accusing me of being a slut?” Frank grinned, lifting his arms when Gerard motioned as such.
“No accusations” came Gerard’s voice from somewhere around Frank’s knee. “I’m asking you if you’re a slut. It’s quite different.”

Frank laughed but shook his head, even though Gerard was concentrating more on soaping up his ass.
“No, no. I’m a commitment guy mostly. But there hasn’t been anyone to commit to in a while.”
Gerard smiled to himself while Frank had his back turned and couldn’t see it. Frank’s words made his stomach flutter even as he knew it was ridiculous.
“Yeah?” he asked, not sure how far he should push it. “Am I just one guy in a long line of candidates?”
Frank sounded casual with his next words, but Gerard hoped that they made Frank feel as jittery as they did him.
“If you are then you’re cutting in front.”

Gerard turned Frank to face him and reached for another pump of gel. Their faces were close as he started to lather up Frank’s dick, happy to find it a little hard already.
“You just want me for my fame” he chided.
“Maybe” Frank joked right back. “Fucking someone famous is pretty hot.”

Gerard laughed, dipping his head and offering another kiss. Frank looked pretty hot himself when water was dripping off the tip of his dick. He went with it when Frank pushed him back gently, reaching for some scented gel to return the favour.
“Is it hard though?” Frank asked. “I mean, is it hard finding someone genuine when your face is plastered everywhere?”

It gave Gerard a little jolt to find that they’d silently but mutually agreed that Frank fell under the genuine category. He considered the question as Frank soaped up his legs, stopping on the way to place a kiss on the tip of his dick. Gerard couldn’t even really remember the last time he was intimate with anyone, implying that he hadn’t exactly been all that mentally present.

“I guess it is. I dunno.” It was a weird thing to remember. No one had ever asked. “In the beginning it was cool, when I was fighting the featherweights and stuff. People were interested in where I came from because I sort of sprung up out of nowhere. I fell into a couple of relationships that way. I had something serious with a guy for a while, but when I got into the heavies and I had to travel a lot more it was really tough on both of us, so we quit while we were ahead.” He sighed as Frank came up behind him, ghosting his lips over the back of Gerard’s neck and wrapping his arms around to lather his chest. “Since I won the interstellars it hasn’t been so fun. That’s kind of where that rule came in. I saw a couple of my friends get shit on with exposés and I knew it would happen to me if I didn’t cut the crap. I think in the end I found it so hard that I just stopped looking.”

“So I’m an exception to the rule.”
Gerard wasn’t sure if it was a statement or a question. He leant his head back onto Frank’s shoulder, relishing the touch of Frank’s cock on the back of his thigh.
“Good things come to those who wait, I guess.”
“I agree” Frank murmured against his skin.

They took it in turns to shampoo each other’s hair, watching each other’s faces closely as they lathered in concentration. When they were both adequately soapy they kissed while the jets rinsed them, using the shower gel as lubrication as they jerked each other off.

Their infrequent moans sounded louder, bouncing off the tiled walls and mixing with the sound of running water. Frank’s dick felt good in Gerard’s hand, hard and weighty. The suds were making his fingers wrinkle. He stroked as fast as he could through the haze of his own pleasure, exploring the inside of Frank’s mouth with his tongue. They came within seconds of each other, Gerard gasping as Frank bit his lip.

They laughed a little as they had another quick wash to wipe the fresh come off their legs. Handjobs in the shower. They felt like teenagers.

Gerard got out first, stretching out his back and casting a glance back at Frank who still stood smirking beneath the spray like some sort of illustrated Greek god. It took Gerard a few seconds of looking blankly around the bathroom before he realised that he couldn’t find what he was looking for.
“Oh. You don’t have a drying tube.”

He’d known there was something unfamiliar about Frank’s bathroom from the second he poked his head round the door. It seemed too small, and now it was obvious why. The full length body drier that was standard issue in most modern bathrooms was missing.

Frank snorted, obviously having anticipated the reaction. He verbally told the shower to turn itself off and stepped out, retrieving a couple of towels from the cabinet. He unfolded one and wrapped it around Gerard, kissing the end of his nose before picking up the other towel for himself.

“Nope” Frank confirmed. “When I moved in they told me if I wanted a tube I’d have to pay to have the shower ripped out and downsized. Couldn’t stretch to it. I love that shower too much.”
“I support your decision. It’s a fucking pretty shower” Gerard replied as he tried to remember how to adequately dry his hair with a towel.

He’d been spoilt by the hotels he was put up in while he was on the road with UFC. Any half-decent hotel wouldn’t be seen dead suggesting that their patrons physically dry themselves with a cloth. It wasn’t so bad, though. The towel was cosy and soft against his skin and smelt like Frank’s detergent.

Gerard wandered through to the kitchen with the towel wrapped around his shoulders. He eyed the MealMaker and felt his mouth begin to water.
“Hey, Frank? Can I have some more coffee?” he called through.
Frank’s voice grew louder as he came closer, leaning naked against the doorway, having abandoned his own towel somewhere along the way.
“Um. You can; you can have anything you want. But do you think you should? That’s pure unadulterated caffeine, you know. And you have to leave in how many hours?”

Gerard looked over to the clock and groaned. It was almost 2am already and his comm was set to go off at 6:30.
“Alright, point taken. Can I just have some water then?”
Frank grinned at him.
“Really, you don’t have to ask. Help yourself. If you have time you can have some coffee in the morning before you leave.”
Gerard gulped down some water and then crossed to Frank, giving him a light kiss.
“I’ll make time. Are you coming to bed? If I sleep now I can get about 4 hours.”
“Of course I am” Frank smiled, pushing the towel off Gerard’s shoulders and leaving it where it dropped.

They kissed each other before getting into bed and everything felt simple and good. There was no talk of cuddle etiquette this time as Gerard wordlessly curled himself against Frank’s back in the dark. Frank snorted as Gerard’s cock teased the back of his thigh.
“You can think again. We don’t have time for another shower.”

Gerard chuckled to himself, choosing not to mention that Frank could suck him off and make sure there was no mess.
“Your ass is against my dick, okay? It’s a natural reaction.”
Frank hummed in amusement and simply pulled Gerard’s arm tighter around him.

Gerard laid with his eyes open for a couple of minutes, trying to talk down his heartbeat and pluck up the courage to ask Frank the question he’d been thinking about ever since he stepped into the shower. He could feel Frank’s heart pulsing underneath his hand and it steadied him somehow.

“Frank? Will you come watch my match tomorrow?” He had planned at this point to wait for Frank to give some sort of indication as to his answer, but after 2 seconds of silence he started to babble. “I can get you in for free. I don’t know if we’ll be able to get you into the crowd, I think it’s sold out, but you could watch backstage? You could come have a look at El and you could meet Mikey and maybe we could hook you up to my comm during the fight or something.”

Gerard felt Frank shake his head slowly.
“You want me to meet your brother?”
“No, I – maybe? No, wait, that’s not what I meant. I didn’t mean like meet the family, I meant like meet my chief tech and see the equipment and go backstage and stuff. Like, as a fan if- if you want.” There was a pause that made Gerard’s heart sink. “Or not. You’re probably busy.”

Frank laughed shortly and squeezed Gerard’s hand.
“I’m sorry. I’d love to. I’m just…worried.”
Gerard stroked Frank’s arm.
“About what?”
“…I feel like I’m gonna fuck up.”
“With me?” Gerard blinked. “Frank, it’s been like... 4 hours, have you even had time to fuck up yet?”
“Oh, it doesn’t take me long” Frank replied bitterly, tensing up and shifting away slightly. Gerard only moved with him.
“Hey. Don’t.”

Frank sighed heavily, pressing a kiss to Gerard’s arm.
“I’m sorry. I guess I’m overwhelmed or something. I mean, you’re G3rard. And you’re in my fucking bed.”
Gerard hooked his chin over Frank’s shoulder and smiled even though Frank couldn’t see it in the dark.
“I’m just Gerard when we’re here, okay? Without the 3. We’re just Frank and Gerard.”

There was a minute or so of silence before Frank jostled Gerard and giggled.
“You’re gonna tell your brother the second you see him, aren’t you?”
“So what if I am?” he laughed in reply. “I tell him everything,” He let Frank settle down before he pressed the issue once more. “Please come watch me fight, Frank. It would really mean a lot to me if you were there.”

There was another pause that Gerard was careful not to interrupt this time.
“Okay” Frank answered eventually. “Yeah, I’ll come. But we should talk about this before we leave in the morning, okay?”
Gerard grinned into the darkness, pressing his face into Frank’s shoulder. The very fact that there was a ‘this’ made his heart thud.
“Sure.”

They fell into silence and Gerard closed his eyes, snuggling up to Frank and attempting to sleep. Before he knew it his mind was reviewing his earlier match and preparing for the heat in the hours to come.

His match with T45h had been fast-paced, and even a little clumsy. He hadn’t meant to knock the ear off, but sometimes the weaker areas of a mau5 simply couldn’t stand up to the task. Gerard as a rule didn’t tend to aim to injure, especially in early rounds or fights with novice opponents. There were some guys in the big leagues that would do so deliberately, getting their opponent into a position where they could tear off a limb or smash in a dent. Not only did dirty moves like these usually ensure the win but they could leave players out of action for weeks while they try to fix up their bot. An ear would be pretty easy for Tash to fix back on, though, so Gerard didn’t feel too guilty.

Just as he was deciding whether to try the fast approach again in the morning Frank let out another huge sigh into the silence. It sounded weary, and Gerard realised that he hadn’t been the only one lying awake thinking. He gave Frank a squeeze.
“Are you okay?”

Frank jerked, as if startled, before melting back into Gerard’s touch, shifting himself even closer.
“Yeah. Didn’t know you were still awake. I’m just having trouble settling tonight, that’s all.”
“Is it because I’m here?” Gerard asked immediately. “You’re not used to it; maybe I should sleep on the couch.”
Frank’s hand was like a vice on Gerard’s forearm.
“Don’t you dare get out of this fucking bed.”

Gerard bit back a laugh and pressed his lips to the back of Frank’s neck, just below the hairline. Frank hummed contentedly and brushed his fingers over Gerard’s hand.
“Tell me something.”

Gerard barely gave himself time to worry about what he was going to say before the words were tumbling out of his mouth against Frank’s skin.
“This doesn’t feel like a one night stand.” He stretched out his neck to lay his cheek against Frank’s. “Nor do I want it to be.”

His heart rate was through the roof, and he was sure Frank could feel it, maybe hear it too. Thankfully it didn’t seem to matter.
“Neither do I” said Frank, with a smile in his voice. He lifted Gerard’s hand and pressed his mouth to a knuckle. “Goodnight, Gerard.”