Chapter Text
Gerard is woken by Frank coughing the next morning and when he opens his eyes Frank is sat up and hunched over, trying to catch a breath. He sits up immediately and rubs Frank's back.
"You okay, Frankie? Are you sick?" Gerard asks groggily, rubbing his eyes with his free hand.
Frank nods then winces like it hurt. "Feel like I've been hit by a bus, twice. I think it's what Lou said, about getting sick," he says into his hands because he has his face covered.
"He said that would take a week?" Gerard frowns.
"You know I always get sick easier than everyone else, probably applies to this too... Fuck," he gasps and then he's coughing again.
Gerard sighs and gently pressed a kiss to Frank's hair before going downstairs for a bottle of water and some painkillers for Frank. When he returns Frank has stopped coughing and is sitting back against the headboard looking miserable. He does muster a smile after he takes the painkillers and then lies back down because they both know that the more Frank sleep when he's sick, the better.
"Is your throat sore?" Gerard asks as he feel Frank's forehead; it's warm and clammy. Frank nods in answer and pushes his head into Gerard's touch. "I'll bring you tea in an hour, try and rest a little," he whispers, kissing Frank's forehead but he's already back asleep.
He's awake when Gerard returns just over an hour later with the tea, he drinks it slowly and says in a scratchy voice that it does soothe him a little. Gerard sits with him for a while reading him weird articles from the internet before Frank makes an unhappy noise.
"Gonna hurl," is all he says before he's running to their ensuite and throwing up in the toilet. Gerard rubs his back until he's finished and grumbles a sorry.
"You got nothing to be sorry for," Gerard says as he helps him stand up and flushes the toilet. "I'm gonna run you a bath, wash your mouth out with this, okay?" he says a he hands Frank the mouthwash from the cabinet.
Gerard changes the bed sheets while Frank's in the bath because if he's gonna spend the next few days there he might as well lie in fresh sheets. Frank's weak but says he's a lot less sore when Gerard goes to get him from the bath. He needs Gerard's help to get out, dry off and put on some boxers as a T-shirt which makes him a little mad because he says he "feels like a child". Doesn't stop him welcoming some cuddling though.
Gerard keeps an eye on him all day, gradually getting more worried as time passes and he's still getting worse, he can't keep anything down and he looks more miserable then Gerard's ever seen him sick. It only gets worse when Gerard find him trying to stem a crazy nosebleed that night with a towel. He'd been fine a while ago when Gerard had went downstairs to lock up, turn off the lights and let the pets out one last time.
"Frank. Frank are you okay?" he says as he rushes to Frank's side to hold the towel for him. Blood that wasn't fake or in a movie usually freaked Gerard out but he didn't even think of it now. He'd never seen Frank have a nosebleed, let alone one this bad.
"I'm fine, damn nose like a tap, it's not stopping yet," he replies frustratedly, his voice almost gone from coughing and puking.
Gerard frowns and moves the towel to a part that was dry only for that to soak red too. "I think we should call a doctor, Frank… this isn't right," he shakes his head at the red seeping through the towel.
"No, look Lou said it would be bad… besides what if the doctor did tests and found something weird that was the magic or something," Frank reasons.
Gerard knows he's right so he doesn't say anything else and just waits for the nosebleed to end, which it eventually did thankfully. He gently cleans the blood from Frank's face before getting him some more painkillers (which he threw up anyway) and climbing into bed with him.
Frank is delusional the next day and even more ill, he's running a crazy fever and talking about the "people in the cave" that will "be here soon". Gerard stays with him all day out of worry, calming him in his nightmares, cooling him down when he gets too hot. He's sitting in the armchair in the corner of the room reading an old reissue of Doom Patrol when Frank sits up suddenly, panting and sweating.
"Frank?" Gerard jumps up, frowning because Frank doesn't look like he's hallucinating now.
"Gerard," Frank pants before downing the ice-water on the nightstand. He breaths for a moment before looking back to Gerard, "You can't call the doctor," he says.
"Frank.. Frank, what?"
"Don't. You gotta turn me on my side and let it pass, make sure I don't choke. Jesus I'm so fucking hot," he says and Gerard's still confused.
"Frank what are you talking about?" Gerard begs even though Frank looking bleary again.
"Just.. Just do what I said," then he falls back and starts begins to seizure from the fever. Gerard goes into autopilot and does what Frank told him to until a few minutes later he stops fitting. That's when Gerard freaks out because Frank won't wake up no matter what he does, he considers calling for an ambulance, going so far as to pick up the phone when the bedroom door opens and in walks Lou
"He'll be fine, Gerard," he says calmly which pisses Gerard off because what the actual fuck Frank is unconscious.
"How can you say that? Look at him! He's dying, Lou!" Gerard shouts angrily, "I can't fucking lose him, I swear that if something happens you won't live to regret it."
"Gerard, that's a lie and you know it," he replies easily.
"Fuck you! If you've hurt him I swear that nothing is beyond what I'll do to make you know how hurt I'd be, I am," he seethes because who the fuck does this guy think he is.
"He'll be fine, Gerard. This is all part of his body changing, he has to get really sick to be okay again."
Gerard stops then and stares at him fearfully, "He is going to be okay, right? You're not just saying that?" Gerard frowns, looking between Frank and Lou.
"I'm not. He'll be okay Gerard," Lou says earnestly, walking to the door and leaving as quick as he arrived, leaving Gerard alone again.
Gerard sighs and rubs his eyes because what the fuck just was that encounter. He grabs his cigarette and opens one of the windows in their room, it's an old house with old fittings so the window is big and old too. He slides the bottom half upwards and sits on the windowsill to smoke. Drac and Bowie have been in the room all day with Gerard, hovering around Frank or curling up next to him but Bowie gets up now and sits in Gerard's lap which he counts as her trying to be comforting.
He smiles and kisses the top of her head before lighting up and smoking out the window. As much a Bowie seems to be trying to get his attention though, he can't keep his eyes from watching Frank intently. It's not like how he usually watches Frank, when he's moving about the house or when he's asleep, it's watching out of worry that something will happen, and hope he'll wake up. He's so pale beneath the tattoos and feverish looking, his breaths are coming shallow and slow and he's lying so still that it terrifies Gerard.
Frank doesn't wake up even though Gerard is awake all night and though the next morning, surviving purely on coffee and cigarettes. The only times he leaves the room is to let the pets outside or get more coffee, hoping that when he returns Frank will be awake and smiling but it doesn't happen. There were a few hours during the night when he moved but never woke, but the expressions he made and the way his body would tense made it look like he was in pain. Gerard tried to wake him then too because he felt so helpless to helping him but it didn't work.
Gerard's sitting on the bed beside Frank the following afternoon, daydreaming for god-knows-how-long as he watches Frank. He's thinking about a day a few months after they got together where they'd just stayed in on the couch and read together. They'd read old gothic short stories, wearing only boxers as they tangled underneath a blanket in their old place. A very simple day but one Gerard would cherish forever.
He snaps out of his daydream when he realises Frank's not moving at all anymore, that his chest isn't rising and falling. Fear strikes his heart and he presses the pads of his fingers to Frank's pulse point on his wrist tighter; he'd had his hand on Frank's wrist all day, checking regularly because Frank's heartbeat had gotten slow and irregular. Now there isn't one though.
"Frank?" Gerard whispers fearfully before lowering his ear to Frank's chest. There's nothing, it's eerily silent. Frank's not alive.
"Frank!" Gerard shouts as tears start to blur his vision, "Frank! Frank, wake up!"
He's screaming as he kneels over him, shaking his shoulders, touching his face just hoping that his imagining it all, that Frank isn't dead. He doesn't even know how long ago his heart stopped, he was too busy daydreaming to know if there was anything he could've done.
And God, it hurts so much, to much to bare and all the horrible thoughts are already racing around Gerard's head. Ones of having to tell someone, of a funeral and all the other things that he'd rather never have to do but he does now. As awful as it is he doesn't want to think about a life without Frank, and he selfishly hopes that maybe he'll get sick too.
He's just sobbing now, hunched over Frank's body and out of control, in so much pain that he has to get up and throw up in the bathroom. He washes his mouth out, refusing to look in the mirror before returning to Frank. He sits on the side of the bed and takes Frank's hand, mapping every millimetre with his fingers and feeling sick again when he wonders why Frank isn't cold. He still feels like Frank, warm and like there's energy there but Gerard knows that he's only trying to make himself feel better. It's not working so he just keeping running his fingertips over Frank's wedding ring.
In a split second Frank is sitting up and heaving in a deep breath, his eyes wide and alive. It frightens Gerard so much he falls off the edge of the bed and onto the floor.
"Gerard?" Frank asks in a confused voice, "Why are you on the floor?"
Gerard can't even speak because what, Frank looks fine now, he looks alive. Frank asks him again why he's on the floor and it's so surreal that Gerard has to scramble up off the floor to be sure that he's not imagining this. He pushes Frank back down and runs his hands all over his face, checking his pulse, listening to his heartbeat, touching his lips so he can feel for his breath. Frank throws him off, straddles Gerard's thighs and holds his wrists above his head.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Frank stares down at him.
"You're alive," he whispers, looking at Frank's eyes which are back to their normal colour again.
"Well, yeah? Gerard tell me what the fuck is going on and why you're being weird," Frank frowns and god he's beautiful. Gerard's so happy he's okay that he's probably crying right now. There is something different about him, it's something intangible and looking at how stunning he is is like staring at the sun. Frank was always the most beautiful person in Gerard's eyes, but now with whatever change the magic made, even if Gerard can't tell what it is, he knows Frank's going to turn every head in any room he enters.
He's looking frustrated now though because Gerard hasn't answered him so he snaps out of his daze and tries to blink away some of the tears. "Frank, you died, you were dead," he says and the last part comes out as a sob.
Frank's face softens, "Really?" he whispers.
"I don't look like I got hit by a bus for no reason," Gerard tries to smile but he can't when he's thinking about Frank being dead, "That was the worst thing I've ever experienced, Frank..."
Frank is the one lost for words now, staring into space for a minute before he caves and collapses on top of Gerard, wrapping his body around him. "I'm so sorry," he says as he holds Gerard so tight that it almost hurts.
"Don't you ever scare me like that again," Gerard replies and they stay like that for a while.
"The same thing is going to happen to you," Frank realises, raising his head to look Gerard in the eye. Gerard looks kind of scared but okay too.
"At least we know what happens now.. What was it like, Frank?"
Frank shrugs and rolls to the side, "I can't remember, I remember hallucinating that people where in the room, people like Lou, or me now I guess... It wasn't bad, it was like they were looking after me. How long was I out?" he asks.
"Well it was the night before last when you hallucinated, I'm not sure how long you were g-gone though," Gerard shrugs. "How do you feel?"
"Like I could run 10 marathons? I feel better than I've ever felt in my life, my body just feels like its brand new, I feel younger but still strong, you know? It's weird..."Frank trails off.
"So you feel recovered?" Gerard asks to be sure.
"Yeah," Frank nods, "are you okay?"
Gerard laughs then, "Man, you're in for some sleepless days because I feel a flu coming on ," and as if it's been rehearsed, Gerard sneezes.
Gerard dying is terrifying but knowing he'll be okay is what gets Frank though it. The first thing Gerard does when he wakes up is kisses Frank which yeah, makes everything worth it because it puts everything back into perspective.
"Welcome back to the land of the living," Frank laughs against Gerard's lips, wrapping his arms around his neck loosely.
"God, shut up," Gerard laughs back as he rolls them over so he's on top and kisses Frank deeper so he really will shut up.
"We're supernatural creatures," Gerard realises just as he was about to start prepping Frank.
"Yeah, we are, now come on," he groans, bucking his hips but Gerard's hand is gone and he's completely distracted.
"This is so cool! We're magic! Do you think we can turn our eyes red on demand?" Gerard asks as it goes like that for another few moments, rambling about god-knows-what.
"Gerard, if you don't do something I'm going to finish myself here," Frank says but even then Gerard is still talking and waving his hands around beside him like he hasn't got his own boner going on.
"Sure Gerard, I know you're kind of busy talking and such, I'll do it myself," he mutters, getting up to straddle Gerard.
"How many do you think are out there? Do you think they'd be okay if I wrote a comic about- oh!" Gerard exclaims when Frank pours lube over his dick and spreads it around.
"Yeah," Frank smiles, "Only you could be distracted from sex with a comic concept," he shakes his head as he moves to position himself over Gerard.
"Wait! Frank, I didn't prep you. Sorry, c'mon let me do it now," he frowns but he's flushed and sweaty and desperate looking for it too.
"It's cool, I'll be fine," Frank replies because Gerard's nudging his hole and he needs this.
"Frank I'm gonna hurt you," Gerard tells him, holding Frank's hips so tightly so he won't move down that there probably be hand-shaped bruises. There's been times when they haven't prepped before but that was only if they'd been still stretched out from the last time. With them being sick it had been a week or more since they'd done anything.
"Gerard, I want this, please I promise I'll be fine. Lou said we heal quickly, just- I want you so much," he pants, sweating with how much he needs it and how turned on he was.
Gerard hesitates but nods, loosening his grip but keeping his hands on Frank's hips. Frank pushes down and it takes some effort because he's so tight but then the head of Gerard's cock slips inside. Frank feels winded and had to heave in some breaths before letting gravity do the rest, sliding down fully.
"Oh fuck, oh fuckohfuck," Frank whispers, his hands flat on Gerard's chest and his back arching, "I'm so full, oh god."
"Frank," Gerard chokes because he can feel it too, how tight Frank is, he was biting his own lip so hard he was sure he'd broken skin.
Frank rolls his hips a fraction and they both moan loud, Frank curling down so he's doubled over Gerard's chest. "Gerard," he breaths, "I-I need you to, I need you to fuck me, please, please," he begs.
Gerard presses a kiss to his temple and rolls them over, sliding back in when he slips out, holding Frank's legs up to his chest. "Like this?" Gerard asks.
"Perfect," Frank gasps, his eyes fluttering closed, "I love you."
"I love you too, Frank," Gerard says as he begins to thrust, kissing Frank deeply.
"I... It feels different now," Frank says, "the change…" he drifts off to moan as Gerard hits his prostate again.
"Yeah, I feel it too," Gerard nods because he does feel it, the electricity or something different. It's like they're closer, no connected, in a way other than through their bodies.
"Gerard I -ah- know that's what going on here because -uhh- I feel it too. Fuck. Please don't tell me you're feeling a spiritual -- connection through your dick," Frank smiles even though he's digging his nails into Gerard's back with pleasure.
Gerard grins and pushes face into Frank's neck, biting the skin there as he blushes, "Fuck you."
"Yeah it would be nice if you could get on with that please," Frank moans so Gerard goes for it, pounding him into the mattress like he wants.
"Man, we have great sex," Frank breathes after as him and Gerard lay beside each other smoking, revealing in post sex bliss.
"Dude," Gerard agrees, nodding his head. "Totally felt a spiritual through my dick too," he adds, a wry smile on his lips.
"Shut the fuck up," Frank laughs, punching him lightly in the arm as he rolls over against Gerard's side.
"You're okay though?" Gerard asks with a worried furrow in his brow, sliding his hand down to Frank's ass, touching it lightly.
"Is the great kind of sore," Frank smiles. "I'm so beyond okay," he rolls his eyes kissing Gerard's cheek when he looks skeptical.
"If you say so," Gerard nods, giving Frank's ass a playful squeeze.
"You have such a thing for my ass," Frank giggles, pulling himself up a little more to drag his teeth along Gerard's jaw.
"It's a nice ass, what can I say?" Gerard grins, massaging Frank's ass, trailing a finger between the cheeks teasingly.
"Mhmm," Frank grins, throwing a leg across Gerard's waist to straddle him. Gerard laughs and grabs Frank's ass firmly with both hands as they kiss.
"Do you want to go into town?" Frank asks when they're not kissing anymore.
"Yeah, there's a trad fest going on," Gerard tells him, having seen the posters for the traditional Irish music festival around before.
"Awesome, let's have some lunch and go," Frank grinned happily, pecking Gerard's lips before pulling him out of bed for a shower.
They walk hand in hand into town from their house in the sun, smiling at each other and aware of how strange it is because everyone's looking at them the way they first looked at Lou. Looking at them how Gerard looks at David Bowie and Frank, stunned an awed. It's very surreal.
They hear the music as they near and the narrow cobblestoned lanes are full of people playing and enjoying music when they get there. They happily join in, weaving through the crowds, attempting to dance and smiling so much their faces hurt. Even when suddenly it's raining they laugh and run, like everyone else, for cover from the brief shower. They make it to the alcove of a doorway laughing along with the crowd of people under the overhang of a cafe parasol across the street.
"Hey," Frank says breathily, "This is the doorway where we met," he realises, a look of wonder falling on his face.
Gerard looks around and grins, lighting up a cigarette each for them. "Wow, I guess it is, I can't believe it's been years, but at the same time I feel like I've known you forever, you know?" he laughs. "Man, I'm so glad the weather was shit and you dropped my work everywhere."
"Me too, even if I was embarrassed as hell at the time," Frank smiles, noticing that the way they're leaning against opposite walls, smoking and facing each other is what they did that day too.
"You were blushing so much," Gerard grins, "I thought you were so beautiful, I'd never gone out on a limb and made a move like asking someone out, asking you to my studio, before. I wanted to kiss you so much even then."
"Oh yeah?" Frank smirks, "I wanted to kiss you too actually, but I wouldn't let myself think about that," he smiled biting his lip.
"I let myself think about it," Gerard mumbles sheepishly.
"Go on," Frank whispers, it's still raining and people are still watching them across the way.
"It had been a long time since I'd wanted to kiss someone, or even just know someone the way I wanted to know you so I kinda just let my mind wonder with you," Gerard admits but when he catches Frank's curious eye and gathers more confidence.
"I really wanted to take the cigarette you were smoking away and kiss you," Gerard smiles. "I was going to lean over like this," Gerard leans over to he's looking down on Frank, his hands on the wall either side of Frank's head.
"What then?" Frank says teasingly, not moving.
"I was kind hoping you'd give me a sign that this was okay," Gerard admits and smiles when Frank slings an arm around his neck. "Then I'd kiss you like this," he whispers as he leans in slowly, brushing his lips against Frank's before they both move to kiss properly and sweetly. Frank smiles into the kiss and Gerard takes one hand off the wall to hold Frank's hand, the one Frank has over his shoulder.
Frank feels their wedding rings rub off each other and he has to break the kid to grin, "I think I'm gonna have to keep you," he says quietly and kisses his husband again. The rain had stopped but they're too preoccupied to notice.