Ink

And a daily thing it became. Frank made sure to sit with the lonely ("There's a difference between 'lonely' and 'alone', Frank," Gerard said on Wednesday.) gloved boy everyday, be it Mikey was there or not. Gerard did a lot of the talking, responding to Frank's questions with long-winded answers and wild hand gestures that knocked over many a milk carton. Frank was entranced by Gerard the entire lunch hour, be it his lengthy but entertaining rants or his shining eyes or his flailing hands. When the bell rang, they departed with a smiling "See you in art." as Frank had never noticed Gerard sitting at an otherwise empty two-seater near the window, drawing and humming to his little heart's content
while Frank suffered next to a smelly upperclassman who had Gym the hour before.

On Tuesday, Frank found himself sitting with Gerard at the window seat, creating silently -- bar Gerard's humming -- and reveling in the proximity and attention he received from his seat-mate. Said seat-mate didn't seem to notice that he gave Frank an aneurysm every time he flashed that tiny half-smile or touched Frank's hand to correct his shitty shading, even though Frank couldn't actually feel his warm (holy shit he could feel the heat through the gloves) skin.

On Friday, during art, while Gerard was drawing a steam-punk unicorn he claimed he was going to give to Mikey, Frank said, "Want to hang out with the guys and I this weekend, Gee?"

Gerard turned to him and gave him that disbelieving and ecstatic grin that made Frank's heart tap dance in his sternum. "Seriously? That'd be great! Thank you, Frankie!" he gushed, making Frank smile goofily. He gathered his courage from where his ovaries were still splattered around and patted Gerard's incredibly warm knee. Gerard flashed a softer grin and looked at him from under his eyelashes and-- oh, yep, Frank's heart just went into a coma and his brain joined his ovaries on the wall over there.

Gerard turned back to his sketchbook and left Frank to his hopeless staring. Frank decided that, if his life were a sitcom, it would be called "The Adventures of Bastardly Dan and Hopeless Frank" with a spin-off series called "Painfully Oblivious Gerard". The soon-to-come movie would be "What To Do When Mikey's Brother Is Clueless And Charming", starring John Travolta and Christian Bale because Batman needs to be in there. Heath Ledger would be included, but that bastard's dead, so he can kiss Frank's Gerard-loving ass.

After the last bell, Frank forced the guys to wait with him for Gerard, who came sprinting out of the school with Bastardly Dan (whom Frank recently learned wasn't even named Dan, but actually Steven) on his tail. Gerard smashed into the group, who formed a protective circle around him, with Frank at the front, arms crossed and feet spread much like his mother when he got cigarette ash on the carpet.

"Hey Freak!" Bastardly Dan laughed, looking over the mass of curly hair, lanky boy, and Bob surrounding Gerard. "C'mon! I just want to take your gloves off! Why can't I?"

Frank didn't know what kind of freaky skin disease Gerard was hiding under all that polyester and cotton, but he didn't care; as long as his Juliet's dignity was intact. "Hey!" he yelled over Bastardly Dan's mocking, "I think it's time for you to stop. This 'freak'," he actually made the air quotation marks, because he was that big of a dork, "did nothing to deserve this shit, so back the hell off before I kick your dick so hard you'll be wondering why you never picked me for kickball."

Bastardly Dan looked so shocked and appalled Frank was surprised he didn't start quoting the goddamn Bible and waving a crucifix around like some demented Disneyland employee. Instead, he simply turned and walked away, but not before glaring hard at Gerard's eyes, which were peeking over Bob's shoulder cautiously.

When Bastardly Dan was gone, Gerard popped out of the circle and glomped Frank, muttering some muffled words of gratitude as he hung from Frank like a rabid Koala, which didn't really work for Frank since Gerard was not only taller, but weighed about twenty pounds more too. Frank stumbled forward after saving himself from going backwards, holding the blubbering Gerard and having Ray help support his weight between the both of them. Mikey launched himself forward, checking over his brother rapidly and-- wow, Mikey Way was actually a decent sibling. There goes Frank's grasp on reality.

By then, Frank was starting to get sweaty because Gerard was a human radiator and Ray had his constipated face on, so Frank said, "Hey Gee? I know you're thankful and all, but could you put your feet on the ground? You're kind of heavy and really warm. Are you running a fever?"

Gerard hopped down, patted Ray's hair and grinned at Frank almost apologetically, but with just enough impishness for Frank to known that, no, Gerard was not at all sorry. "Yeah, I know, it's probably just the heat out here and the clothes."

"Gerard." Frank paused to just looked at him for a long moment. "It's November; there is no heat out here."

Gerard just grinned again and started walking home, leaving the four boys to watch him. Mikey only stayed behind to roll his eyes so hard he almost broke something and shove Frank hard enough to make him drop his backpack on the frozen fountain.