When the Sun Shines, We'll Shine Together

Looking back on everything that has happened in his life so far, Frank Iero would never have thought that what he was searching for has been right there in front of his face this whole entire time. He takes a sip of his glass of red wine, and he cannot help but to laugh, a bit maniacally, because he has finally found everything that he has ever been searching for, and so much more.

It hasn’t been an easy journey, by far, but the help of his best friend has made that long and painful journey so much easier to handle. Looking back on everything, it’s his best friend that has made every terrible thing tolerable, and manageable, and downright... okay again.

Better than okay, really.

Frank pressed the glass to his lips and downed the rest of his beverage, before refilling his glass and lit up another cigarette. As he inhaled the delicious toxins into his system, he settled back on his couch, and shut his eyes softly as he recalls how all of this even began.

~~~

It’s a hot afternoon in August of 2008. Frank has just received the best news of his young seventeen years of living; he’s gotten a job as a sales associate in his favorite store, Hot Topic. He has shopped at that for years, and has been a fan of everything that they sell there since he was just a child.

He sauntered up the ramp that lead into the mall, decked out in his favorite Misfits tee and ripped up skinny jeans and worn out checkered Vans, and literally glided all the way down the hall to his new place of employment.

“Hey Frank! Glad to see you made it on time,” the store manager, Sara, says to him as they make eye contact. “Come on over here!”

In all of her tattooed glory, Sara beckons him forward to the cash register where she is standing. Beaming, he makes his way over, and sees that she has another guy waiting behind the cash register area with her. He is busy looking at the computer screen, and Frank barely acknowledges him because he is so excited to begin his first day on the job.

“Gerard, I want you to meet our other new hire. You both will be starting here today,” Sara says to the guy standing next to her, and he finally looks up to acknowledge Frank’s presence.

“Gerard, this is Frank. Frank, Gerard.”

Frank barely heard a word that Sara said, however. Upon looking up from the computer screen, Gerard had flashed Frank the widest smile imaginable, and stuck his hand out to extend in greeting to Frank.

“Hi Frank,” Gerard said to him, as Frank finally snapped to and slipped his own clammy hand into the extended hand of Gerard’s. “It’s so awesome to meet you!”

Frank simply beamed back at him, shaking his hand for a slightly extended period of time, before retracting it with a deep blush staining his features. “It’s great to meet you, too,” Frank says somewhat shyly, unsure of why Gerard’s smile and the feeling of his hand, though it was no longer there, was lingering still in his own and has left him feeling like a 12-year-old girl with a crush.

“I need you guys to fill out some paperwork for me, and as you see everything up here is a little crowded,” Sara said to Frank and Gerard, gesturing to the piles of merchandise that was waiting to be put out onto the shelves and hooks aligning the walls of the store. “So, if you’ll follow me, I’ll show you guys the back room and you can fill out your paperwork back there. I’ve got some things for you both to read over, then come find me when you’re done. Sound good?”

Frank nodded, along with Gerard, and she grinned happily at both of them. “Awesome! Well, let’s get to it then,” Sara said, as she grabbed two clipboards and handed them out accordingly. She then put her heavily tattooed arms around the two new hires, and lead them off to the back of the store toward the storage room.

She went inside first, gesturing for either of the two to follow her. They did so, and she flashed them her gorgeous smile.

“So, as you see we have a little area back here where we keep all of our stuff. You can throw your bags and things over there, and have a seat wherever you want,” Sara informed them, gesturing to the floor. “I know it’s kind of cramped back here, but it’ll have to do, I’m afraid. Any questions?”

Frank and Gerard exchanged a small glance at each other, before shaking their heads in response.

“Fantastic! Well, I’ll let you get to it then. When you’re done come up and find me, okay?” She said to them, grinning before departing from the storage room and leaving Frank and Gerard to do their paperwork.

Frank settled down on one side of the room, whereas Gerard settled down directly across from him. They were each sitting Indian style on the ground, with their clipboards on their laps as they filled out their paperwork.

For a short while, they sat in a comfortable silence, simply filling out their paperwork and nodding their heads along to the song that was blaring on the speakers outside of the store.

“No matter where you are, I can still hear you when you drown...”

Frank’s eyes immediately snapped up as he heard one of his favorite lyrics from his favorite Smashing Pumpkins song being sung from the guy across from him.

“Shut the fuck up,” Frank said with an amazed expression on his face, staring wondrously at him. Gerard gave him a puzzled look, before Frank quickly burst into laughter and shook his head at his previous outburst.

“I’m so fucking sorry, that came out entirely wrong,” he amended his previous statement, grinning widely as he set his clipboard aside. “So sorry. I just, you started singing along with one of my favorite songs and I just got a little carried away. I didn’t mean that at all like it sounded, of course. Please, continue.”

Gerard simply laughed back in reply, and did as Frank had suggested, and continued to sing along with the song that was still on. The song ended soon enough, and another of Frank’s favorite songs had come on right afterward.

He couldn’t stop the high-pitched giggle that erupted from his lips, causing Gerard to look at him with an amused expression on his face.

“Sorry,” Frank apologized again, blushing slightly. “It’s just, this is my fucking dream job. I can’t believe I’m going to be getting paid to sell my favorite things and jam out to my favorite music all day.”

Gerard nodded as he let out a small laugh of his own. “I know just what you mean, man,” he agreed, grinning softly at the boy before him. “I’m not a huge fan of the song, or the band, but I think they did a really cute cover of this song.”

Frank scoffed. “You don’t like All Time Low?” He asked, bewildered. Gerard shook his head.

“They’re a little too pop punk for my taste, but I do think they did a really cute little cover of this song. It makes the song more tolerable, at least,” he murmured, still filling out his paperwork.

“When the sun shines we’ll shine together... told you I’d be here forever...” Gerard began to sing along, to which Frank literally had to hold back the small gasp he felt threatening to slip from his mouth at just how truly gorgeous Gerard’s voice was.

He loved the All Time Low version of the song ‘Umbrella’, but hearing Gerard singing it right in front of him, he dared for even just a moment to think that maybe he sang it better than Alex Gaskarth himself. That in itself literally made Frank snap himself out of those thoughts, considering Alex was one of his favorite lead singers and he felt like he was betraying him by thinking such a thing.

“I definitely agree,” Frank nodded in agreement to Gerard’s previous statement about All Time Low making the song by Rhianna much more tolerable, as he set his paperwork aside once again and attempted to regulate the way he was slightly fawning over the guy in front of him. His eyes fell from the way that Gerard’s shoulder length hair fell messily around his very attractive face, and let his eyes fall to see what it was that Gerard was wearing. His eyes immediately grew wide once again as he noticed the band tee that Gerard was wearing.

“Well, since you are wearing the same Taking Back Sunday shirt that I myself own, I guess I can forgive you for not liking All Time Low,” he murmured with a small smile, to which Gerard looked up at him and beamed back at Frank.

“You like Taking Back Sunday?” He asked, his eyes wide as he literally tossed his clipboard aside.

“Fuck yes I do!” Frank grinned back at him, his clipboard long forgotten. “Were you at the show they played at Radio City last year?”

Gerard nodded enthusiastically. “Fuck yes I was! Front row, center!” He grinned widely, as Frank literally squealed with delight in response.

“Dude, I was so fucking there!” Frank literally gushed, his eyes glittering as they continued to talk about one of their favorite bands. “I even skipped school and everything just to make sure I made it there early enough to be front row. I was off to the side, though, which was fine with me. I even got a setlist, I was so fucking happy.”

Gerard’s eyes went wide. “No fucking way,” he spoke in amazement. “I would have killed for a setlist, but, I did get a guitar pick. John Nolan and Adam Lazzara signed it after the show, so I guess that makes up for it,” he continued, shrugging.

It was now Frank’s turn for his eyes to go wide.

“No. Fucking. Way,” he spoke, with a deadpan look on his face. “I fucking play guitar dude, I would have fucking killed for that!”

Gerard’s face morphed into yet another wide grin, though sighing as he did so. “Frankie, that guitar pick is one of my most prized possessions,” Gerard began, biting his lip as he contemplated his next few words. “But, considering it means more to you than it does to me...”

Frank’s eyes were wide with wonder as he peered at the gorgeous guy in front of him, holding on to every last one of his words.

“...my setlist is signed by John and Adam too,” Frank added, gulping as he awaited the rest of Gerard’s previous sentence. “It’s one of my most prized possessions, also.”

Gerard literally felt himself twitching in excitement as Frank said those words, and he took a deep breath.

“In that case, I may be willing to trade my guitar pick for your setlist,” Gerard suggested, his voice somewhat quiet as he eagerly awaited a reply from Frank.

Frank mulled it over for a brief moment, before a millionth wide grin stretched across his face from ear to ear as he realized that Gerard was being for real.

“Gerard... I don’t know if you realize this, but...” Frank began to say, as he peered happily over at him. “I’m pretty sure we just became best friends.”

Gerard couldn’t help but laugh in response to Frank’s words, and nodded in agreement. “Yes Frankie, it appears that is exactly what just happened,” he replied happily.

The two boys sat in the back room for what felt like hours, talking about their favorite bands and what shows they have been to, and even got ‘fussed at’ by Sara for getting distracted and forgetting all about the paperwork that they were supposed to be filling out. She was only kidding with them, of course, but did let them know that they really needed to get their paperwork finished so they could continue with the rest of their shift.

Their conversation never faltered once as they carried on throughout the rest of the afternoon, finding out more things that they had in common. They shared a passion for the same horror movies and the same animes and other TV shows. They loved almost all of the same bands; save for Frank’s deep obsession with pop punk bands that Gerard hadn’t quite gotten into, and by the end of their shift, they felt like they had known each other for their entire lives.

When it came time for them to clock out and go home, Frank had been debating in his head for the last hour to see if Gerard maybe wanted to hang out with him after work.

But before Frank got a chance to ask, a tall blonde man walked into the store, and had his long arms draped around Gerard, effectively shutting Frank’s ideas down.

“I’ve missed you so much today,” the man said to Gerard, planting a long kiss to his lips.

“I missed you too,” Gerard sighed, gazing blissfully up at the taller man, as he lost himself in his embrace.

Frank swallowed the thick lump that had formed in his throat, and forced a smile onto his face as Gerard turned to introduce the guy to him and to Sara.

“Guys, this is my boyfriend, Jacques,” Gerard gestured to the blonde, grinning widely as he put his boyfriend on display.

“Aww, aren’t you two cute,” Sara cooed, wrinkling her nose at them. “Gerard, I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon for your shift. You work from 4-9, ‘k?”

Gerard nodded. “Alright, see you then!” He grinned at her, before turning to Frank.

Frank tried not to miss the way that Gerard’s face fell just the slightest bit as he made eye contact with him. Or maybe that is what he wanted to believe, because in the next instant, Gerard’s smile was right back in place.

“I’ll have that guitar pick for you when I see you next,” Gerard said to him, to which Frank couldn’t help but beam at him.

“And I’ll have that setlist for you,” Frank replied, hoping to sound enthusiastic as he watched as Jacques began to lead Gerard away, and he was forced to quickly bid both Frank and Sara adieu.

As Frank turned to face Sara, he didn’t miss the way that she had rolled her eyes once they had walked out of the store.

“God, his boyfriend is such a fucking tool,” she huffed, still scowling at the entrance though the two were long gone.

Frank couldn’t help but burst into laughter, and nod emphatically in agreement. He was going to love working for Sara, he could tell.

~~~

Halloween time at Hot Topic was a month long event. Since the store was very seasonal, they sold Halloween costumes. The staff was required to dress up in whatever costume they could on weekends and every day leading up to the holiday.

Frank was beside himself with excitement. Not only did he get a super sweet discount on costumes, but, he got to dress up literally every shift he worked!

He and Gerard had become incredibly good friends. They had a lot of fun with each other, and they worked hard to coordinate and wear matching costumes whenever they worked a shift together.

On Friday, Gerard was dressed up as a cop, and Frank as a prisoner. On Saturday, Frank was dressed up as the Green Lantern, and Gerard was Batman. And on Sunday, which was Halloween; Frank’s birthday, Gerard went literally all out to plan a special surprise birthday party for Frank at work.

Gerard felt bad because he knew that Frank was going to a party alone, and he wanted to be there with him to celebrate his birthday, but he had hoped that Jacques was going to want to spend the night with him, instead.

The two had been on rocky terms as of late, and tonight Gerard had intended on reeling his boyfriend back in by obliging him in finally giving him his ‘boy virginity’. The two had had sex plenty of times, but Gerard was always the one on top. Jacques had always complained that Gerard was never willing to be the one on the receiving end, but tonight, Gerard was more than prepared to finally give his boyfriend exactly what it was that he wanted.

But before any of this could take place, it was Frankie’s birthday! And they each had to work today from noon-6:30. So with this knowledge, Gerard hurried out of his house bright and early and headed to the neighborhood bakery to pick up the cake he had ordered for Frank, and met Sara at the store an hour before Frank was set to arrive.

“I’m so happy I hired you and Frankie, Gee,” she said with a wide grin to Gerard, as she began helping him decorate the store with purple and green streamers; Frank’s favorite colors, of course.

“Me too,” Gerard grinned back, truly meaning his words. He loved his job, and he had become great friends with Sara, but more importantly, he had found a best friend in Frank Iero.

Gerard focused so hard on turning this place into a festive wonderland for his best friend. With Sara’s help, they placed spiderwebs and tombstones and balloons from light fixtures and merchandise fixtures so they were literally hanging or draped across every direction of the store.

When they were finished, Sara and Gerard turned to grin widely at one another as they admired their handywork, and headed outside for a celebratory cigarette before they opened the store for business.

Sara and Gerard sat side by side on the bench outside of the mall, enjoying their cigarettes in a peaceful silence when Frank made his appearance known.

“Hey guys!” Frank greeted his fellow employees with a wide grin on his face, as the two shouted in unison, “Happy fucking birthday, Frankie!”

Frank’s smile was so wide as Gerard sprang up from his spot on the bench to literally pounce on his best friend. The two remained in each other’s arms for several minutes longer than a normal hug should last, but Gerard simply couldn’t help himself. He hadn’t had a friend like Frank in such a long time, and he wanted the younger man to know just how much their friendship meant to him.

“Thank you so much,” Frank murmured, shutting his eyes as he savored this feeling of Gerard’s arms around him, beaming at him momentarily before realizing that Sara was looking expectantly at them.

“You two are just the fucking cutest, I swear,” she said, literally gawking at the two of them as they remained in each other’s arms.

Frank shot her a thoughtful look, before realizing that she must have meant their costumes for the day. Frank was wearing a red t-shirt and Gerard was wearing a green tee, and over them they each wore matching overalls. It was clear to her then that Frank was dressed up as Mario and Gerard was dressed as Luigi from Super Mario Bros.

“Why the fuck couldn’t you let me know that it was a Super Mario themed day? I would have been Yoshi or Princess Peach or something, fuck,” Sara mused, as she wrapped her arms around each of her employees, kissing either of their cheeks before pulling away. “Come on, we have time for one more cigarette before we have to open. Hurry!”

Frank and Gerard eventually let go of one another and did as they were told, smoking their cigarettes in a hurry so they could hurry back inside. Frank of course, thought their hurry was so they could go back in and open the store for the day, but Gerard had other plans.

As the three of them headed back inside, the lights in the store were off. Sara opened the gate that led inside of the store to let them all in, and shut it once again behind her. “I’ll be right back, I’m just going to hit the lights real quick,” she murmured, before making a beeline for the storage room, leaving Frank and Gerard up in the front of the store while she went to turn on the lights.

Gerard hurriedly distracted Frank in a quick conversation about how ‘rad these overalls actually are’, as Sara flicked on the lights, and Frank’s personal little Halloween-town came to life all around them.

“Holy fuck!” Frank exclaimed, his jaw literally falling to the ground as he took in all of the decorations around the store. “What... how!?”

He peered at Gerard with wide, wonderous eyes. Gerard simply smiled softly at him, and whispered, “Happy birthday, bff.”

~~~

The day had gone amazingly well. They weren’t as busy as they thought they would be, considering most people had done their partying over the weekend and had already done their costume shopping. When it was time for them to close up, the three employees hung around for a moment and had a mini birthday party for Frank.

Sara had ordered a pizza, and they indulged in some absolutely delicious birthday cake afterward. After they had finished, the three headed outside for a farewell cigarette, before Sara departed the two of them to head home to take her little boy trick or treating with her husband, leaving Frank and Gerard alone on the bench outside of work.

Frank couldn’t help but notice that Gerard was gazing down at his cell phone with a frustrated expression on his face.

“He still hasn’t texted you back yet?” Frank questioned softly, wrapping his arm around Gerard’s shoulder.

Gerard snuggled into Frank’s side with an obvious pout on his face, as he sighed deeply. “He has not,” Gerard replied, sighing.

Frank let out a sigh of his own, before a brilliant idea struck him. “You know, you can always come to Toro’s party with me for a bit if you want, until you get in touch with him,” Frank offered, gifting Gerard with a warm smile. “That way, at least you aren’t spending Halloween alone. Besides, we are already in costume. And I want to wear my mustache for a little longer!”

Gerard couldn’t help but laugh at Frank’s optimism. His cheerfulness was contagious, and Gerard couldn’t help but sigh in hopeful defeat.

“I guess I can come with you. I would like to spend a bit more time with you anyway, considering it’s your birthday and all,” Gerard agreed, smiling, despite feeling obviously defeated considering his boyfriend was ignoring him on an evening that Gerard had planned to be special for the two of them.

“It’ll be fun,” Frank promised, grinning brightly at Gerard as they stuck their stick-on mustaches back on their faces and departed from the mall on to Ray Toro’s Halloween party.

They walked right on in like they were told to do, immediately greeted by familiar faces along with a few that they didn’t know. Toro had met quite a number of people while he was away at college and had become quite the social butterfly, and had actually just befriended Gerard and Frank thanks to being a regular shopper at Hot Topic. He had invited them to his annual Halloween party earlier during the week when he was in the store buying his pirate costume, which he was wearing when he greeted Frank and Gerard upon their arrival.

“So glad you guys could make it!” Toro exclaimed as he handed either of the two a beer. “Happy birthday, by the way!” He said to Frank, who beamed widely at their new friend.

“Thanks man!” Frank replied happily. “Dude this party is awesome! Nice costume, by the way!”

Ray struck a pirate-like pose before grinning. “I mean, you did sell it to me,” he replied. “But seriously, I love your costumes! I gotta get a picture of you, these are seriously so fucking rad,” Toro said, as he took his cell phone out and snapped a picture of Frank and Gerard, dressed as Mario and Luigi. They had their arms around each other‘s shoulders, with their thumbs up for the picture. “That’s a fucking keeper. This is going up on the party page on Facebook later, watch out for it!”

“We will,” Gerard replied, as the three of them fell into an easy conversation that carried on for a few more moments, before Toro excused himself to continue to make his rounds.

Frank and Gerard found themselves amongst a crowd of people that they really didn’t know. They had each other, though, so it didn’t really matter all that much.

They finished what was left of their beers and made their way out onto the back patio to have a smoke and obtain more beer.

“For what it’s worth,” Frank said softly, nudging Gerard to gain his attention. He was peering up at the stars, with a thoughtful expression on his face before he gave his full attention to his best friend. “I know tonight didn’t really turn out like you had wanted, but I’m really happy that you’re here with me.”

Gerard couldn’t stop the grin from forming on his face, as he leaned forward to wrap his arms around his best friend. “Me too, Frankie.”

~~~

After several more beers, Frank had to piss.

There were too many people in the backyard so he didn’t feel like whipping his dick out for just anyone to walk up and see, so he excused himself from Gerard and headed back inside to find the bathroom. The line for the downstairs bathroom was about seven people long, and Frank quite simply couldn’t wait that long.

He pleaded his case to Toro who informed him that there was an upstairs bathroom in his parent’s room, and he was welcome to use that one. Frank made a beeline for the stairs that led up to Mr. and Mrs. Toro’s bedroom, and upon entering the room he realized that he wasn’t alone.

Two people were going at it in the large king size bed that sat in the center of the room, and though he was slightly put off by that little fact, he quite simply didn’t have time to worry about that. They didn’t even notice that he had slipped into the room, they were so busy at what they were doing.

“Don’t mind me, just gotta piss, I’m not looking!” Frank shouted at them, to which the two hardly even acknowledged him. He hurriedly slipped into the bathroom, locking the door quickly behind him. He did his business and washed his hands, cringing as he realized that he needed to face the two on the opposite end of the door once again.

Rolling his eyes, he opened the door that led from the master bathroom out into the bedroom, and came face to face with none other than Gerard’s boyfriend.

“Jacques...?”

He had just finished pulling his jeans up over his hips, and stared wide-eyed at Frank.

“It... it’s not what it looks like,” Jacques stammered, as the girl he had just finished plowing in to pulled the blanket up to cover over her obviously naked body.

“I sure as fuck hope not,” Frank replied dryly. “Because for a second there it looked like you were fucking around behind my best friend’s back.”

Frank scowled at him, shaking his head in disbelief at the sorry excuse for a jerkoff that Gerard called his boyfriend, and began to head off toward the door.

“Frank- wait!” Jacques cried out after him, causing the birthday boy to turn on his heel to face the bastard that was cheating on his best friend. “You... you’re not going to tell Gerard about this, are you?”

Jacques looked pathetically at Frank, pleading at him with his piercing blue eyes as Frank simply shook his head and departed from the room without a second glance.

He ran straight into Gerard on his way out, who had tears streaming down his cheeks because he had overheard the entire conversation.

“Come on Gee,” Frank murmured, cupping either of Gerard’s cheeks softly within his hands. Frank gently wiped away Gerard’s tears, before wrapping an arm around his shoulder, and leading him out of the party.

~~~

“I’m sorry, Gee,” the birthday boy said softly as they made it back to Frank’s house. “I am so, so fucking sorry.”

Gerard had stopped crying almost immediately once they had gotten into Frank’s car and began the drive to his house. He gave a weak smile to his best friend, and let out a deep sigh as they brought the remainder of the cake and everything else from Frank’s mini birthday party, as well as the twelve pack of beer they had also stopped to pick up along the way inside.

“I’m not,” Gerard replied sometime later, causing Frank to gaze at him curiously.

“Not what, Gee?”

They were lying side by side on Frank’s bed, having a marathon of the original John Carpenter ‘Halloween’ movies, when a bright smile lit up Gerard’s features; a smile much brighter than Frank has seen in a long time.

“You said earlier that you were sorry about what happened earlier. And... I’m not,” Gerard murmured, blushing slightly. “Sure it fucking sucked and yeah it hurts, because nobody wants to know that their douchebag of a boyfriend is cheating on them... but, now I’m here with you, my very best friend in the whole entire world,” he admitted, smiling softly at Frank. “And there’s no place else that I’d rather be than here with you.”

Frank blushed deeply at Gerard’s little admittance, and leaned forward to place a soft kiss on Gerard’s cheek.

“Happy Halloween, Gee,” Frank spoke softly, lingering for a moment as he wrapped his arms around his best friend, holding him tightly.

Gerard held back just as tightly, before grinning brightly at his best friend.

“Happy birthday, Frankie.”