Chapter 1: Just Make It Up
Chapter Text
“We should start a band.”
Ray and Mikey both turned to stare at Illi. Mikey was cross-legged on the floor as always, and Ray was sprawled on Frank’s bed, flipping through a comic Frank had discarded there earlier. Illi was sitting on her own bed with her ever-present sketchbook on her lap.
“Hear me out, guys—Frank does guitar, Mikey’s been learning bass, and Ray’s got a fucking incredible voice, so he could be lead singer—”
“Me???” Ray squawked.
“—and he plays guitar, too, so honestly we could have two guitars, that would be pretty sick, and I know this guy Bob from my English class who plays drums and he doesn’t totally hate us, so that’s a win—”
Mikey interrupted her. “Illi, what would you be doing?”
Illi stopped. She’d…kind of forgotten about herself, to be honest. “Um…”
“You could be the lead singer,” Ray suggested (rather forcefully). “I could do, like…backups, or something like that.”
Illi frowned. “But, Ray, your voice—”
“Yours is just as nice, and I really would rather not be be lead singer. ”
“And let’s be honest, Illi, you have absolutely zero musical talents other than singing,” Mikey added.
Thanks, Mikey. He was right, though. She really didn’t have anything else to contribute.
She relented. “Alright, fine. I’ll be lead singer, Ray and Frank can do guitar, Mikey can do bass, and I’ll ask Bob to be the drummer. Okay?”
Mikey pushed up his glasses. “Okay.”
“Okay,” Ray shrugged. “We could probably use my parent’s garage. We don’t actually park the car in there, and [ray’s younger brother] has a drumset that he keeps in there already. He’s not particularly attached to it; I’m sure he’d let us borrow it as long as we don’t, like, ruin it or anything like that.”
Illi blinked. She honestly hadn’t expected them to agree so easily. She’d thought she would’ve had to convince Ray, especially—he really wasn’t the type to want to draw unnecessary attention to himself. Well, alright then. Her face broke into a smile. “Fuck yeah!” She launched herself across the gap between the beds to throw her arms around Ray. “This is gonna be so awesome, guys!”
The door opened just as Ray returned the hug. “Am I interrupting?” Frank teased, raising his eyebrows.
“Dude,” Mikey said. “I’m literally right here.”
“I don’t know what kind of freaky shit you’re into,” Frank replied.
“Dude,” Mikey repeated. “GROSS.”
Illi and Ray both laughed. Illi pulled away from him and bounced over to Frank, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him lightly. “Frank, we’re starting a band!”
Frank grinned back at her, dropping his bag on the floor and squeezing her shoulders back. “Dude, for real?? That’s so rad!”
“YES!!” Illi spun away and bounded back over to her bed, jumping up to stand on it in her socked feet. “Ray and you’ll be the guitarists, Mikey’s gonna do bass, Bob from my English class can play drums, and I’ll be the lead singer!” She fell down to her knees, resting on her heels. “Ray said we can use his garage to practice. It’s gonna be so epic!”
Frank struggled out of his shoes and shoved Illi out of the way to sit on her bed next to her. Illi fell over, laughing, and moved to grab her sketchbook.
“What’re you working on?” Frank asked, leaning nosily into her space.
“Move your giant head, dumbass,” Illi pushed at his head until he reluctantly leaned back. “Here.” She flipped open to a sketch she’d been working on earlier and turned it so Frank could see.
Frank stared wide-eyed at it for a while. “Woww,” he breathed, finally. “Illi McMillin, you fucker. You’re a real fucking artist.” He gently pulled the sketchbook from her hands. She let it go a bit reluctantly. “This is incredible.”
Illi shifted. Praise made her a bit uncomfortable, even if Frank, Ray, and Mikey all constantly told her she deserved it. “Thanks,” she mumbled.
Frank handed the sketchbook back to her. He tilted his head sideways like a dog and looked at her. “I mean it, Illi,” he said quietly. “You could really go somewhere with this.”
Their faces were way too close for Illi’s comfort. She wondered if Frank knew what the hell he was doing, or if he was just like this with everyone. He certainly didn’t act like this with Mikey, but then again, Mikey wasn’t huge on physical touch in general, so it could just be a Mikey thing. Illi tried to form a response but with Frank’s face this close all she could think about was him.
His eyes were so gorgeous. It was difficult to see in the shitty dorm lighting, but Illi could almost make out the ring of darker brown around his pupil she knew was there.
Oh my fucking god, Illi, get a fucking grip! Illi flinched, turning her face away from Frank’s. Oh god, she thought. She knew she was being weird and probably creepy as fuck. She needed to get a hold of herself. She had absolutely no reason to think Frank might like her back, and she couldn’t risk this friendship. Not for anything.
Frank shifted slightly away from Illi and towards Ray and Mikey. He launched into a detailed rundown of everything that had happened in detention. It was honestly impressive how much he was able to stretch those stories, because as far as Illi had seen, detention was relatively uneventful. Maybe it was different when Frank was there. Most things were.
Illi shook her head. Everything came back to fucking Frank. She raised her head from where she’d been glaring resolutely down at her sketchbook and found Ray staring at her, eyes wide. He pointedly raised an eyebrow when he saw her looking. Illi flushed and ran a hand over her face. She knew Ray thought that she had nothing to worry about, but it was still fucking hard, okay? She didn’t want to be wrong. She didn’t want Ray to be wrong.
If they were wrong…it would ruin everything.
Notes:
have yall heard helena with the vocals isolated because if you haven't you NEED to. ray's voice is absolutely INCREDIBLE omfg. that man can do anything i swear
Chapter 2: Faces I Don't Know
Notes:
here it is, folks (i say, having no idea if anyone has actually been waiting for the second chapter or if everyone who read it immediately forgot about it): the second chapter that took entirely too long to write. i have no idea if this is good because i literally just finished writing it and proofread it like one time. and also almost 1am. hopefully i didn't establish something in this chapter that i regret later! (cries)
no illi this time (sorry), a lot of frank and this random guy i made up named nathan, apparently. yes there will be a (BREIF) period of vague frathan. sorry, frank needs to have his gay awakening and illi sure as hell isn't gonna help with that
also i've never actually been at a school that uses detention as discipline so idfk how it works don't @ me
uhhh this chapter goes out to my favorite frank iero truther <33 ily bestie
tws for this chapter are: mentions of bullying, mentions of mild physical violence, use of the f-slur like twice (and only in reference to something other characters have said- it isn't condoned)
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Frank was in detention.
A-fucking-gain.
And as if that wasn’t bad enough, now there was someone in his seat.
Frank was pissed.
The guy didn’t even look like he belonged in detention—short, curly blonde hair, big brown eyes, young face, perfect uniform—the one thing that didn’t match his straight-A’s student aesthetic was the massive bruise marring his cheekbone. Frank wondered what year he was in. He barely looked old enough to be in high school at all.
Frank stalked over to him, a scowl scrawled across his face. “That’s my seat.”
Brown Eyes looked up at him. “Oh, okay.” He stood up and moved to the chair right next to Frank’s.
Frank blinked. He…honestly hadn’t expected it to be that easy. Whatever. He tossed his backpack on the floor and dropped into his seat.
The teacher supervising detention today was Mr. Marlin. He was the kind that pretty much only paid attention to them long enough to take attendance. Frank was like 80% sure he was sleeping most of the time. If Frank was lucky, he might be able to sneak out of detention early.
“My name’s Nathan.”
Frank almost jumped but managed to hide his reaction at the last second. He turned his head and raised his eyebrow at…Nathan, apparently. “Uh, okay?” Frank didn’t come to detention to make friends and he wasn’t interested in conversation.
“I’m a sophomore.” Sophomore?? Really?? “What grade are you in?”
“Senior,” Frank muttered shortly, hoping that eventually Nathan would just take the fucking hint and leave him alone.
Nathan shifted in his seat, straightening his already perfect posture even more. Frank didn’t know how the hell he was comfortable like that. “So…what do you like to do?”
Frank ignored the question, huffing and leaning forward across his desk. Mr. Marlin wasn’t asleep yet. He was poking around on his computer, clicking and typing randomly.
“You listen to The White Stripes?” Nathan said after a bit of silence that Frank had been hoping was going to last until he could escape the classroom. Nathan must have seen the pin on Frank’s backpack. Frank was kind of surprised he actually recognized it. “Me too.”
That caught Frank’s attention. He refrained from whipping his head up to stare at Nathan; instead settling for eyeing him out of the corner of his eye. That was…rather unexpected. The White Stripes were, objectively, cool, and Nathan…didn’t really fit Frank’s definition of “cool”. At all. “Yeah?” Frank said, despite his better judgment. Sue him, he was curious. “What’s your favorite song?”
“‘The Hardest Button to Button’,” Nathan answered promptly. “Although ‘Seven Nation Army’ is iconic, of course. That whole album is just…so good, honestly.”
Frank couldn’t help himself. He turned fully to look directly at Nathan, reassessing him. On second glance, he looked…exactly the same as before. A model student who somehow ended up in detention with a bruise on his face. There’s absolutely nothing that Frank could see that could’ve tipped him off about this. It was…intriguing. “It’s a good album,” Frank agreed. “What other music do you like?”
Nathan lit up when he realized that Frank was finally paying attention to him. “I dabble, really, but I like Foo Fighters, Jimmy Eat World, uh…Blink-182…I listen to a little bit of Black Flag, too, but I only know a few songs…Avril Lavigne…”
Frank tipped his head. Interesting. “How did you end up stuck in detention?”
Nathan’s face hardened. “Some stupid jock called my best friend a fag, so I punched him in the face.” He stared harshly directly at Frank, almost edging over into a glare but not quite, as if telling Frank he’d do it again to him with no hesitation.
Frank didn’t want to start liking this guy as much as he did.
He leaned back in his chair. “How old are you, kid?”
“I’m not a kid,” Nathan protested. “I’m fifteen!”
Frank couldn’t really talk, he supposed. He was only two years older than Nathan. Still, it felt like so long ago that he was fifteen.
Frank faced back towards the front of the classroom, eyeing the teacher. His head was propped on his hand, eyes closed, glasses askew. Success.
Frank leaned all the way back and then quickly forward again, using his momentum to push himself up and out of his seat. He swung his backpack onto his shoulder and headed for the door. He stopped a couple rows down when Nathan didn’t follow him.
“Are you coming?” Frank asked, turning to look at Nathan.
“Where are we going?” Nathan asked, hesitating.
Frank shrugged. “I dunno. Probably the back of the school or something.”
Nathan wavered for a second before grabbing his bag and standing to join Frank. He snuck nervous glances at Mr. Marlin as they passed by his desk on the way out the door. Frank didn’t roll his eyes, but it was a close thing—Mr. Marlin slept like a fucking rock.
Frank led Nathan towards the back of the school, but changed directions once they got to the last hallway.
“Wait, I thought you said we were going to—”
Frank interrupted him. “It’s fucking cold out, dude. I do not feel like shivering against a brick wall. We’re going to the locker rooms instead. At least those are actually heated.”
Nathan mumbled a small “oh, okay” and went silent.
“I’m Frank, by the way,” Frank said, and pretended he didn’t notice the huge smile that spread itself across Nathan’s face. The corner of Frank's mouth twitched. Dork.
Once inside the locker room, Frank wove his way through the rows of lockers until he reached the corner furthest away from the door, checking back over his shoulder every once in a while to make sure Nathan was keeping up.
Frank slung his backpack onto the ground and plopped down on the bench. He patted the spot next to him in invitation when Nathan just hovered awkwardly instead of sitting down.
“So,” Frank said after a moment. “You were in detention because you punched a guy…because he called your best friend a faggot.”
Nathan stiffened beside him. “Yeah. What about it?” He looked like he was trying to be threatening, but it honestly just made him look like a disgruntled kitten.
Frank broke into a grin. He smacked a hand onto Nathan’s should and he jumped. “Me too, dude! Welcome to the club.”
Nathan was visibly relieved. “Really?”
“Yeah,” Frank said. “It’s happened way too many times for my liking, actually.”
Nathan looked…Frank wasn’t sure, exactly—weary, maybe? Despairing? Something along those lines. It made him look much older. And also much more attrac—
Frank switched topics quickly. “So, Black Flag, huh? What songs of theirs do you know?”
As Nathan began to ramble, Frank prayed to god up in heaven that his face wasn’t as red as a fucking lobster.
Good lord, what had Frank gotten himself into?
Notes:
do you know how much willpower it took not to compare frank to a dog every other sentence. i didn't realize how much the dog frank brainrot had gotten to me until i wrote this chapter and struggled so much with it
i would also like to say that i know next to nothing about any of the artists mentioned in this fic. except for the white stripes, which are insanely awesomesauce. highly highly recommend "fell in love with a girl" it's one of my favorites.
i don't know how long the next chapter is going to take to write, but considering school is starting soon and it tends to leech every bit of motivation from my body, it'll probably take longer than this one. sorry :(( i'll try my best
knight_of_walpurgis on Chapter 1 Tue 12 Aug 2025 03:25AM UTC
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knight_of_walpurgis on Chapter 1 Thu 14 Aug 2025 06:51AM UTC
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zombie_queen1 on Chapter 1 Wed 20 Aug 2025 04:22PM UTC
Last Edited Wed 20 Aug 2025 04:23PM UTC
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the_color_of_dried_roses on Chapter 1 Thu 21 Aug 2025 08:12AM UTC
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knight_of_walpurgis on Chapter 2 Fri 22 Aug 2025 04:29AM UTC
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the_color_of_dried_roses on Chapter 2 Fri 22 Aug 2025 06:18AM UTC
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