Chapter Text
Gerard shook as the blood dripped slowly from his arms down to his already blood-soaked hands. His face and arms stained with scarlet, a mixture of his own blood and that of the man before him. Choking out a sob, he wondered how he could have possibly ended up here - coated in blood and crouching over the limp, broken body of the love of his life - and if he could've somehow prevented it all.
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Gerard had been living in his new apartment for exactly one week when Mikey stopped by for a visit. An unfortunate side effect of coming from a family of vampires was that they would show up at any time, day or night.
"How's the unpacking going?" Mikey asked, smirking at the clearly unopened boxes that littered the floor.
"Fuck off, I just moved in," Gerard snapped, dragging his hands through his already messy black hair. He rubbed his eyes, checking his reflection in the mirror. Mikey rolled his eyes and sank down on the couch in front of Gerard's television.
"Have you at least met any of the other tenants?" asked Mikey, "it'd do you good to make some friends, Gee."
Gerard scoffed, "I can make friends on my own, Mikey, I don't need you pestering me about it. And yes, I actually did meet the older woman living two doors down." With a poorly concealed smirk, Mikey pointed out that in all of Gerard's nearly 200 years, he'd never really been great at the whole "friends" thing. Apparently being a blood-sucking creature of the night did nothing to ease social anxiety. Gerard knew Mikey was right, but he'd never give his baby brother the satisfaction of agreeing. In reality, Gerard was quite lonely. He was acquaintances with a few of the people he worked with at the bookstore, but he missed his good friends. Pete and Patrick lived halfway across the city from him, while Mikey and his roommate, Ray, lived nearly half an hour away.
Mikey spent a couple more hours bugging Gerard about his tragedy of a social life before gifting him a few cans of blood and heading out. Glancing at the clock, Gerard knew he needed to head off to work soon. He enjoyed working the book store, he really did, he just wished it had more vampire-friendly hours. Of course, he couldn't complain much because compared to the way things were back when he was turned, the world was a lot more accommodating of so-called creatures of the night. This was thanks to a movement that started in the mid-seventies; after the general population finally realized and accepted the existence of vampires, it was a relatively smooth transition over to a society where humans and vampires could peacefully coexist. At least, that was the way it was in the north; the further south you went, the more segregation you found. Sure, Gerard bitched about having to be up for most of the day to work at the bookstore, but hell if he wasn't appreciative of how good he had it compared to other vampires.
After a great deal of grumbled complaints, Gerard got his lazy ass off the couch and headed to the store. The store was only a couple blocks from his new apartment, so his walk was a short one. The front door had a small bell over it that chimed whenever it was opened. As he strode into the store, he was greeted by Lindsey, another employee he had grown fond of in his short time working in the shop. After they exchanged pleasantries, they went about preparing for customers.
Gerard wandered through the art and poetry sections, sifting through the shelves and putting books back in their proper places. There was some classic rock song playing softly over the store speakers, but even with his vampire senses, Gerard barely heard it due to his intent focus on putting the Alphonse Mucha art book back in the M section after someone left it in the B section. It was a miracle he even heard the door chime, snapping his head up in attention to look for the potential customer. Lindsey had disappeared into the back room, so he knew he was on his own to deal with whoever came through the door.
When his eyes found the person in the doorway, his breath caught in his throat. Sure, he didn't need air, what with being undead and all, but he and many other vampires did it out of habit. The man who had waltzed into the store was, by far, the most beautiful man Gerard had ever seen. Gerard's unsettlingly red eyes met the man's gorgeous hazel ones. Now that Gerard was focused on the new presence, he could smell him, and fuck of course the hot guy was a ridiculously good-smelling human.
After realizing he was probably staring creepily, Gerard stuttered out, "u-um hi, is there anything I can help you find?" The man smiled brightly, tilting his head to the side so his thick, dark hair flopped over gently, and fuck Gerard should not be thinking about how soft this guy's hair must be.
"Yeah, I'm looking for books about music theory? Do you happen to have any?" Taking a second to bask in how lovely the guys voice was, Gerard paused before stepping out from behind the shelf he was organizing and motioned for the man to follow him.
"Here's the music section. It's, um, not very big but we have some good material I think?" He smiled weakly.
"No worries! Thanks for the help," the man paused, looking to Gerard's name tag, "Gerard," he said, smiling his dazzling smile once more. "I'm Frank."
"H-hi. I'm, uh, glad to be of some assistance," he forced out, trying not to trip over his words. Gerard silently thanked all that was holy that he hadn't eaten in a couple days because that was the only reason he didn't have an intense blush covering his cheeks. God for a vampire he felt so lame. After a quick smile at Frank, Gerard scurried off to the back room to find Lindsey.
"Lindsey, holy fuck," he announced once the door closed behind him.
"What's wrong?" Lindsey asked, concern showing in her deep red eyes.
"Lindsey, I can't believe this but the hottest guy I've ever seen in all of my two hundred years just walked into our store."
Lindsey couldn't help but bark out a laugh, "seriously, Gerard?"
Gerard's face scrunched up into an indignant pout. "Look, go out there and look. You'll see what I mean."
Lindsey laughed again giggling out, "Gerard, I'm sure he's hot, I'm just laughing because apparently there's a hot as fuck guy in the store right now and you're in here telling me, the lesbian, rather than out there getting his number."
Gerard's eyes widened and he let out a huff. "You know I'm no good at human interaction."
Lindsey rolled her eyes, "of course you aren't good at it, you aren't human."
"Yes, but he is," Gerard sighed. At that, Lindsey's smile wavered. They both knew that even with the general integration and acceptance of vampirism, relationships with humans were still pretty taboo.
"Okay," Lindsey sighed, trying not to look too disappointed. "There's always a chance he could be into you?" She said uncertainly.
Gerard snorted, "as if someone like him would go for someone like me regardless," he smiled bitterly.
"Geraaaaard," Lindsey huffed. "You're being too hard on yourself. Also, I think your crush just left."
Suddenly alert, Gerard heard the distant tinkle of the doorbell. Sinking to the floor, he groaned and put his head in his hands.
"God why can't I just be normal?"
Lindsey giggled and patted his shoulder sympathetically before returning to her work unpacking the new boxes of books. The rest of the work day dragged on; few people stopped by, so Gerard spent the day arranging and rearranging the comic book section. By the end of his shift, Gerard was pretty hungry. He and Lindsey parted ways, and he headed back to his apartment.
Back in his home, Gerard stumbled over to the fridge, grabbing a can of blood, heating it, and downing it all at once. The slightly off-putting taste was canceled by the delicious, warm feeling of the liquid sliding down his throat to settle in his stomach. Exhausted from trying to force himself into a human sleep/wake cycle, he flopped down onto his bed. After a few minutes of trying to will himself to sleep, he gave up, heading to the shower to try and relax some more. The hot water soothed his aching shoulders. He sighed into the thick mist, closing his eyes and remembering his day. His eyes snapped open again when he recalled the deep, dark eyes and infectious smile of the stranger - Frank. Groaning softly and trying to ignore the heat curling in his belly, Gerard turned the shower off and stepped out, quickly drying off and throwing on some boxers before jumping into bed. He felt like a stupid teenager again, horny and hopelessly crushing on a dude he just met. Perfect.