Under Wraps

Frank and Bob (who was hesitant at first) make friends with Gerard in their first class and spend the whole day with him. Frank feels like the happiest person on Earth right now as Gerard and his own friends actually think Frank's a boy.

They leave the school building for lunch and sit together underneath the large willow tree in the corner of the field. "Frank!" Brian yells as he sees his brother sitting with the large group. He runs over with four other guys and grins down at him. "Hey, buddy. See you've made some friends."

"Yeah," Frank smiles, biting his lip. "You too. They're uh.. tall."

"Apart from Johnny!" the tallest of the five laughs, ruffling the shortest guy's hair. "I'm Jimmy. The guy with the hat is Matt, the one with the piercings is Zacky and the short ass here is Johnny. Hey."

Frank nods lightly at them and waves, shuffling along so they can sit. Gerard, again, is staring at Frank, only this time with a slight tilt of the head. Brian notices how uncomfortable Frank is and moves to sit in front of Frank so Gerard ends up looking at him rather than his brother. Brian smirks as Gerard jolts out of his gaze and looks down at his shoes.

"It's not nice to stare, kid."

"I--I know, I jus--"

"Just what?" he frowns. "Is there something on my brother's face?" Brian glares and turns to look at Frank before looking back at Gerard. "I see nothing. Why were you staring?"

Frank sighs and rests his hand forward onto his brother's shoulder. "Bri, it's fine. Leave it."

Brian grunts at Gerard and pushes himself up, running his hand through his spiked up hair. "Right. Frank, if he does anything or keeps on staring, tell me and I'll fucking kill him."

"Yes," he sighs, rolling his eyes. "Like you've said about a million times already, but he's not doing anything to hurt me or anything like that, so leave it alright? Besides, the guys are waiting at the bottom of the field for you."

Frowning, Brian looks around him and spots them all by the school building. He groans and nods, waving at Frank before taking off and diving on his friends.

Gerard isn't staring at Frank anymore but he's looking down at his shoes like he's terrified Frank's going to do something. "Gee?" Frank whispers, slipping down from the log and sitting infront of him, legs crossed. "Gee, what--"

"I just wanted to ask you something," he mumbles around his thumb as he bites at his nail. "I'm just curious. I don't-- I don't want to offend you or upset you or your brother to beat me, I just want to know."

Frank looks up from the grass and stares at Gerard, one eyebrow lifted. "Know what? Wh-What're you curious about?"

"You," Gerard says quickly, eyes running all over Frank's body once again. "You're hiding something, Frank. I-I want to be your friend but I can't if-- if you hide things. I'll tell you everything you want to know about me, I swear, I just want to know what you're so-- Why your brother and Bob are so protective of you."

What the fuck? "Gerard," Frank frowns and clenches his jaw. "What the fuck? You can't be my friend because I wont tell you my biggest secret? I've been here less than a fucking day and you expect me to tell you my whole fucking life story? No. No, that's not happening, I'm sorry. Bob, I'm going home. I can't-- I can't deal with this right now. I can't deal with him."

Bob glares at Gerard and rushes after Frank as he storms down the field. "Frank! Frankie, what-- FRANK!" Frank stops at the gate and sighs, biting his lip. "What did he do or-- or say? What happened?"

"He wants to know, Bob. He said he can't be my friend if I don't tell him about myself. I'm not-- I'd rather he wasn't my friend."

Sighing, Bob nods and pulls his friend into a hug. "I'll tell Brian you've gone home. I'll make sure he stays away from Gerard though and make sure he doesn't worry or freak out, okay? I'll tell our teachers you've gone home sick."

Frank smiles and hugs him tighter, burying his face into his chest. "I love you Bob," Frank giggles when Bob blushes and grins up at him. "I really do! Thank you. I'll uh-- I'll see you tomorrow."

~*~

Gerard sits in his room that night at his computer on some shitty social networking site that everyone in school uses - that everyone in the world uses so he's pretty sure that Frank will have one. He's been sitting infront of his computer for the past half an hour debating whether to search for Frank. He closes his eyes and types 'F' in the search bar and finds thousands of students names beginning with an 'F'. "Shit," he mutters as he scrolls through them all until he gets to 'Fr'.

"Fra-- Fran, Francis, Francine, Francesca, Frank, Frankie, Frankli-- Franklin!" he yells as he gets to at least five people with the name Franklin. He goes through each one and sighs when neither image matches Frank. "Frank," he mumbles and goes back a page to look at all of the students called Frank. He feels like such a stalker right now considering what Frank said to him, how he yelled at him, how pissed off he was with him, but he needs to know. "Frank Iero!" he grins, clicking on the profile and doing a small dance in his seat when the picture shows Frank and Bob at a concert.

He goes through all of Frank's photos, biting his lip and tilting his head. He finds an album right at the end which is titled '2008'. He clicks into it and frowns when no pictures of Frank come up. Pictures of Bob with a girl show on every image but no Frank. A photo captioned 'Family Outing' catches Gerard's eye so he clicks on it and looks through every person in the image, once again frowning at the lack of Frank. "What the fuck?" he mumbles to himself, cursor hovering over the faces so the tags show. "Brian Iero, Linda Iero, Frank Ie-- No, what?!" He zooms in on the photo to take a better look at Frank and his eyes widen. "What the fuck? Oh-- Oh my God, what the fuck?!"

He closes the pages and sits back in his seat, knees to his chest and eyes still wide. He mumbles to himself and frowns, shaking his head. What the fuck?