It had been about two months since Gerard's marvelous run-in with Frank Iero. The awkward stage of their newly formed acquaintance was over and had quickly and smoothly transitioned into a friendship, and that was both joyous and nightmarish for Gerard, cause on one hand, he had a really fucking cool new friend, and that was pretty great. But having a whopping crush on said friend was where the nightmare started, and in a place where homophobic fucks outweighed the number of non-homophobic fucks was the part in the nightmare where the faster you run, the slower you go.
And not even knowing if Frank was into guys was the last part of the nightmare where no matter how hard you try, you can't wake yourself up, which was really just the icing on the cake.
Naturally, though, Mikey advised Gerard to find out the ambiguous puzzle that was Frank's sexuality. Kid brothers, man. Gerard's stomach did flips just thinking about bringing it up, cause something like that could potentially blow their newfound friendship to smithereens like that. Society can be fucked up sometimes.
Throwing himself under the bus like that didn't seem like a good idea, but Gerard came to the conclusion that sometimes it's the only way to get things done and done efficiently – and also Mikey said if he didn't do it, he'd do it for him.
And this time wasn't like the last. Talking to Frank is one thing, okay, but asking if he was into guys was a whole 'nother can of worms. But Mikey was sick and tired of his brother's moping and constant chorus of "I wonder if Frank likes guys." "Has he ever hinted at anything?" "What if he has a girlfriend I don't know about?" So, Mikey decided to take matters into his own hands.
"Hey, Ray." Mikey smiled.
"Hey Mikey!" Ray raised up from the water fountain, "What's up?"
Mikey sighed and shook his head. "My brother..."
"Uh oh." Ray said, shuffling closer to Mikey to hear better over the sound of slamming lockers and kids chatting. "What's going on with him?"
"I'm just gonna say it," Mikey began, and Ray raised his eyebrows suspiciously. "He's crushing on Frank, like, really badly. Like, I can't go an hour without hearing about it badly."
Ray giggled, pretty adorably at that. "I'm honored that you told me, Mikey. But what does that have to do with me?"
Mikey looked up at Ray, still smiling back, and he had to admit, Ray was pretty cute.
"Gerard's too awkward to find out if Frank's into guys or not, and he doesn't wanna risk their friendship." Mikey explained.
"Oh, man." Ray laughed, and that was pretty confusing, cause why was that funny? "It's not obvious?"
It took a second, and then Ray could practically see the light bulb go off as Mikey got the gist of things and, oh man was right. They had to get those guys together, pronto.
"What are they smiling at?" Gerard asked Frank – passing by Mikey and Ray in the hallway.
"Who knows?" Frank shrugged, and kept walking with Gerard right beside him. "Y'know, they'd make a cute couple."
Gerard smiled, and his heart started race. Cause on one hand, Frank was totally right, and on the other hand, it was an opportunity to bring up his feelings. Since Mikey had been pestering him almost as much as his own mind, he'd been looking for some way to slip it into the conversation without it being awkward.
"Yeah." Gerard agreed. He took a deep breath and avoided eye contact with Frank. "You know who else would make a cute couple? I bet we would."
He nervously glanced over at Frank to see his reaction – and felt an entire mix of emotions that he couldn't make heads or tails out of when he saw that Frank was smiling.
"You think?" Frank asked casually.
Oh, god.
Gerard shrugged in some kind of attempt to act neutral. It felt like forever waiting for Frank to reply and Gerard kept reminding himself to inhale and exhale and try not to lose his cool.
Frank laughed, and they came to a stop in the hall where they had to part ways to go to their classes. "Well, I'm gay as hell."
His ears almost had to do a double take.
"Really?" Gerard asked, it was all he could manage. He figured his eyes were the size of saucers, but in the given situation it didn't seem it matter that much.
Frank nodded softly – now it was his turn to watch Gerard's reaction and hope for the best.
"Well," Gerard began with a new sense of giddiness. "I'm bi as hell."
And that's how they came out – and it was also the very beginning as to how they started dating.