Fic: The Science of Sleep - Epilogue
Jul. 5th, 2012 08:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chimneythunderOne week later, and Frank finds himself sitting back where this entire mess started; Starbucks. He’s got one of the nice sofas and a table to himself with a newspaper open and a red pen in his hand as he circles potential adverts.
The door opens and Frank automatically looks up to see Bob walk in. He waves to Bob and then goes back to his search while he waits for Bob to get his coffee and join him.
“Job listings?” Bob asks when he sits down with a giant steaming mug of -
“Are you drinking tea?!” Frank asks in disbelief as the smell reaches his nostrils.
“What?! Not all of us can consume coffee like water without horrific side effects, unlike you and Gerard.”
“Yeah but... Earl Grey?! Really?”
“It’s a delicacy,” Bob sniffs, taking a sip.
Frank grins. “You’ll want to stock up on that; I never once saw anyone with a teabag out in the Zones.”
“I’ll remember that,” Bob says dryly. “You know I’m still not a hundred convinced you’re not a raving lunatic.”
Frank smiles softly and takes a sip of his own coffee.
“Speaking of,” Bob says, putting down his mug and looking at Frank with a serious expression. “How are things with all that?”
He doesn’t need to clarify what he means by ‘all that.’
“Yeah, I’m good,” Frank says. “I slept for, like, twelve hours after I got out the hospital and woke up still here!”
He doesn’t tell Bob that he was so scared of going to sleep that night that he had a full-blown panic attack and ended up scaring the shit out of Gerard in the process too. Gerard had insisted on Frank staying at his that night; the official explanation for Frank’s hospital stay had been that he’d been having trouble sleeping, realised he’d accidentally taken too many sleeping pills and called Bob. Gerard said that he was determined to take care of Frank, but Frank suspected that there was that darker thought on everyone’s minds that the ‘overdose’ might not have been entirely an accident.
Gerard had done the best he could that night and tried to comfort Frank but there was no way that Frank could ever explain why he was so scared to fall asleep – what if it didn’t work? What if he woke up back in 2019? What if something had gone wrong and the 2019 Frank had ended up a vegetable?? Worse still, due to his apparent “accidental overdose” he wasn’t allowed to take any kind of narcoleptics on doctor’s orders and what with the whole ‘recovering alcoholic’ thing on Gerard’s part, Frank just didn’t feel comfortable drinking himself into an early coma.
Eventually, Gerard had curled himself around Frank and tried to soothe him to sleep, wiping away the tears and whispering comforting words and somehow, it eventually worked because the next thing Frank knew, he was waking up... and he was still in Gerard’s bed with Gerard snoring softly in his ear, and he actually felt like he’d actually slept.
And that was it.
Frank refused to let himself dwell on how things were between Fun Ghoul and Party Poison. If the portal had closed successfully, then they’d be fine. They had each other now.
And that was all Frank would let himself think on the matter.
Meanwhile, the conversation Frank and Gerard had the following morning in 2011 hadn’t been particularly fun either.
“Look, Frank, I get that you keep a lot of what you’re feeling bottled up but I’m worried about you,” Gerard said. “Something is clearly wrong and I just want you to fucking talk to me about it, because, seriously, I don’t know what to do or how to help you.”
He linked his fingers through Frank’s and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.
Much to Frank’s complete and utter surprise, he ended up talking about things that he hadn’t even realised were bothering him. They were inane, stupid, trivial things focused entirely in 2011 that had been completely overshadowed by everything that had happened in 2019, such as how he was turning 30 and his life had reached that kind of stagnant point, how he hated his job and he needed to do something to change it up, and also the entirely overwhelming realisation that things with Gerard were actually his first proper relationship with someone in several years and had the potential to become quite serious.
Overall, he’d been alone for so long that he’d gotten used to dealing with things by himself. He wasn’t used to sharing his problems with people or having someone else in his life who wanted to take an active role in all aspects of it. It was scary and at the same time, exhilarating.
“Me and Gerard are actually going away on a trip,” Frank says to Bob with a grin. “Just a week away or something, somewhere really lame and stupid – we’re thinking Disneyland. And then, when we get back, I’m going to start the job hunt.”
“Work sucks since you left,” Bob says and he sounds like he actually means it. “I might just join you on the new job thing. Is that what you’re looking at?” He gestures to the paper on the table with various sections of print circled in red.
“Apartments,” Frank says.
“You’re moving? Are you and Gerard getting a place or something?”
“Nah, nothing like that... I just need a change of scenery, you know?”
He doesn’t say that he can’t stand his own apartment anymore as it reminds him too much of Better Living Industries.
Bob peers at Frank.
“You’re not OK,” he says after a second.
Frank shakes his head. “Not at the moment. But I’m getting there.”
“Frank –”
“No,” Frank says firmly.
He’s got so much to plan, so much to do. He’s going to have to lie to a lot of people and there’s so many horrific things he’s going to have to let happen because if he doesn’t –
The door to Starbucks opens again, bring Frank out of his thoughts. Him and Bob both look to the door to see Gerard breezing over, a giant grin on his face.
“Frank!!” he says happily, making a direct beeline for their table. He takes a large mouthful of Frank’s coffee before giving Frank a quick peck on the lips. “Hey Bob,” he adds as an afterthought.
Bob grunts a hello.
“How’s the search go?” Gerard asks, sitting down on the sofa next to Frank and picking up Frank’s coffee like it’s his own.
“OK so far. Nothing’s really screaming out to me,” he says with a heavy sigh.
Gerard grins. “Well, you’re in luck because I happen to know of an awesome place that you just might be interested in.”
“Really?” Frank asks, his interest perked.
“Yeah!” He rattles off an address.
Bob stares at Gerard suspiciously. “I know that area. Frank can’t afford that kind of price range, not by himself.”
“Yeah, he’d have two housemates if he took the place,” Gerard continues. He’s bouncing in his seat excitedly. “But it’s this gorgeous huge old house, he’d even have his own room and bathroom. The room in question may need a bit of clearing out as one of the guys living there decided to fill it with bits of broken computers but I’m sure that’d be done easily enough.”
“Housemates, huh?” Frank says, pretending to think about it. “What are they like?”
“They’re two brothers,” Gerard answers, holding up two fingers to emphasise his point. “One’s in a band and does stuff with computers and the other is this really awesome graphic artist who’s totally crazy about you and loves to give blow jobs in the morning.”
Bob chokes on a mouthful of tea and ends up spitting it across the table.
“You know, most people just ask ‘would you like to move in with me’,” he grumbles, wiping his mouth as Frank bursts out laughing.
“So?” Gerard asks, beaming excitedly. “What do you say?”
Frank grins.
That’s one alternate. But what’s to stop him from trying?
Nothing, that’s what.
The future hasn’t happened yet. He’s made mistakes in one future’s past, but who says he has to repeat them?
He’s got a pile of notes about a dystopian future, one hell of a plot and his boyfriend’s got contacts in the publishing industry; there’s got to be something he can use there. He’ll have to be very careful but he’s not going to sit back and just passively let the world go to shit around him. Fun Ghoul wouldn’t, and Party Poison sure as hell wouldn’t.
He rests his head on Gerard’s shoulder as Gerard wraps an arm around him. Across the table, Bob’s grinning and shaking his head at them.
Maybe... just maybe.
And even if not, there’s no harm in brushing up on his knowledge on explosives.
Art by Soundslikej
Mix by starsystems
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Date: 2012-07-06 10:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-07 10:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-07 03:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-07 10:45 pm (UTC)Heh, I wanted to leave it open as to what happened to Fun Ghoul but I must admit, I am kinda tempted to do a follow-up piece to this, going from where he woke up... ;)
Thank you again!! :)
no subject
Date: 2012-07-07 07:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-07 10:47 pm (UTC)I'm glad it all made sense, I was really worried it wouldn't! Thanks!!
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Date: 2012-07-08 10:28 am (UTC)I completely bought Frank's parallel universe theory, and the time travel thing totally took me by surprise. This fic has had me completely engrossed for the past two days. Great work!
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Date: 2012-07-16 06:03 pm (UTC)Thank you so much!! I'm glad you liked it! :) :)
no subject
Date: 2012-07-17 04:22 pm (UTC)It read like a novel, if that makes sense.. like, how you switched between the two worlds, giving exactly the right amount of information away but not too much. I was constantly wanting to know more, you kept the suspense running all the way through. Just, all your characterisations and all the little side plots were all brilliant!
And, obviously we knew that Fun Ghoul was Frank, but I couldn't wait for the moment Frank and everyone else figured it out, especially Mikey, just to get him to stop being such an asshole. I loved how it ended too, and how Frank knows he's going to have to deceive everyone just to he can end up with the killjoys in the end. I think Frank was my favourite; Party Poison was right, he has to be so brave to do that. I loved your Gerard from 2011 too, he was so adorable xD I was totally sold on the parallel universe thing too, so the time travel revelation was a complete surprise!
Seriously, I loved this so much. I normally don't enjoy killjoy fics, because they tend to be really predictable, which is why your summary intrigued me- this is by far the most original killjoy fic I've ever read. My favourite too, I think :D Next time I have a free afternoon I'll definitely be reading this again!
I'm actually surprised there aren't more comments on this. I'm going to rec the hell out of it, for sure! I'm still working my way through the BBBs, but this is definitely one of my favourites :D
(Sorry for the long-ass comment, btw)
no subject
Date: 2012-08-05 10:54 pm (UTC)Thank you SO much for your comment!! Long-ass is totally welcome! :) I'm so glad you liked it, I was a bit worried at some points that there was too much going on so it might get a bit confusing - I seriously spent a lot of time emailing my poor beta reader and like "OK SO THIS IS NOW GOING ON IN THE BACKGROUND, DOES IT MAKE SENSE?!?!"
Yeah, I find with a lot of Killjoy fics, it's always "KORSE = BAD GUY. KILLJOYS = GOOD GUYS. LET'S KICK ASS" which isn't how the world works. I really wanted to explore the whole grey-and-grey morality and also what it was like to live in the city and actually be OK with it - initially anyway!
Thank you so much for your comment :)
no subject
Date: 2012-08-12 04:40 am (UTC)Your world building and story telling are just amazing! I'm so glad I decided to give this a try - it's fabulous =)
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Date: 2012-08-21 02:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-21 04:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-21 08:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-03 06:51 pm (UTC)Your version of the Killjoys verse is brilliant, and I had a blast reading this. Thank you for writing this - and sorry for the late feedback, wanted to leave this ages ago.
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Date: 2013-01-26 01:27 pm (UTC)Wow. Just wow.
Date: 2013-01-25 12:27 am (UTC)Keep up the good work - hope we'll see more of your fics!
Re: Wow. Just wow.
Date: 2013-01-26 01:32 pm (UTC)I'm putting up some new fics this year for Bandom Big Bang :)
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Date: 2013-07-20 10:14 am (UTC)Dude, dude, words, I can't, I read this over two days and did not get anywhere near enough done in the real world because I was too transfixed with this. Good. Fucking.Job. Christ on a bike, this is just, fuck. Too good, way too good. I can't right now, verbosity may return later but for now I will just swear at you in awe some more.
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Date: 2013-07-20 05:34 pm (UTC)Haha, swearing in awe is fine :P Your comment seriously made me giggle :)