"I loved you once, I loved you twice.

I loved you in my previous lives.

I know your voice, I know your eyes, you haunt me through my dreams at night.

Oh my love, we'll meet again, we always do in the end.

Our two souls destined to be - you and I until eternity."

- "Until Eternity" by Blackbriar

____

Frank's hair was stuck to his forehead with sweat and his entire face was flushed red. He was sat upright in bed, his heart pounding so harshly that he was surprised it had not burst by now. It was the kind of pounding where he heard it as loud as oceans waves crashing over the shore in his ears, felt how it throbbed inside of him and made his veins vibrate. His arm was strangely sore from where he had been pierced in the dream, which made him wonder if it had all been one long lucid dream. A nightmare, towards the end, twisting something that should have felt so sweet. His eyes were wide open and alert, scanning all over the room.

He was still at his apartment, his bedroom with the cream colored walls and the popcorn ceiling. If he looked up, he would see his Nirvana poster plastered above him to serve as a pleasant burst of musical inspiration every morning. His thick comforter was up to his waist, he was still wearing his painfully un-adultlike Avengers pajamas, and he most definitely not strapped to a chair to be given a lethal injection.

"Holy shit." Frank breathed, running a quick hand through his tangled black hair. His hair was also still the same, the black fringe with the short, now overgrown red sides. His skin was covered in tattoos, he was not an eighteen going on nineteen year old boy, and he was still living in his apartment in New Jersey.

Most specifically, he was not desperately in love with a boy named Gerard Way.

"Just a dream, a fuckin' crazy dream." Frank whispered, his hands curling into the sheets. All of the memories of the dream were crashing into his head, his fingertips ghosting with multiple sensations. Like the way it felt to touch soft skin that was pressed against his body, the hair of a person he loved, his lips tingling with the faded sensation of a tender kiss. Frank touched his lips, his thumb rubbing over his bottom lip to get rid of the feeling. He kept seeing him - snippets of raven black hair, alabaster skin on wide hips, beams of light shining across green and dark gold eyes.

Frank pressed his fingers against his closed eyes and groaned. His head was pounding from the intensity, the overload of emotion, every single insane factor his brain conjured up while he slept. He read about lucid dreaming before, how realistic they felt and seemed, but he never experienced one quite so real before. As he remember, his heart even clenched with a heartbreak he never had the chance to experience before. Heartbreak for someone he never met, who wasn't real, and he never could be real. Perhaps this was just a way of Frank's mind telling him he needed to find himself a partner, to stop getting drunk off his ass every weekend and stop having one night stands with people who were supposed to be his friends.

Of all the times he had sex in his life, which was more than the amount of fingers on one hand, the sex he envisioned in his dream was a kind he never felt. It was passion, love, an air of trust and no haze of alcohol clouding his judgment. Frank sighed shakily, removing his hands from his eyes and looking out the window.

The sun had began to rise, and as he glanced at his alarm clock, he woke an hour before the clock had a chance to. Frank sighed deeply and flopped back down on the bed, his hands covering his face. It was impossible for him to fall back asleep now, every fiber of his being was wide awake and his mind was in overdrive with memories of his dream. It would make a mess of him all day, he couldn't brush it aside when it was hitting him so intensely.

Frank rolled over, watching as the sunlight began to leak into the bedroom and paint his things in golden colors. He grasped his sheets, suddenly remembering waking up with his arms and legs wrapped around a body that held him close, made him feel safe. The boy in the dream, someone who smelled and felt like home, and he swore he could smell the faint scent of berries whenever he breathed in through his nose. He scrunched his nose and flopped onto his back, grabbing his pillow and shoving his face into it.

Today would feel eternal if he let himself become consumed with a dream, possibly the most complex one to ever exist.

--

"Jamia, you will never guess what type of dream I had last night." Frank said as soon as he entered the record store he owned. Jamia was one of his employees and his best friend since high school, also one of the more unfortunate characters to star in his dream. He peeled off his red jacket and hung it on the coat hanger beside the front desk she stood behind, ordering a shipment of the newest records that had been recently released.

Jamia looked up from the laptop set down on the counter, brushing her dark bangs away from her face. "Was it another dream about those alien things? They're not signs, Frank, if they wanted to destroy earth then they would have done it in 2045."

"No, but I still stand by my theory of aliens being the reason for the apocalypse." Frank hopped onto the counter, swinging his legs back and forth lightly. "I had a fucking insane lucid dream. I was there, you were there, and Lindsey was there too."

"Tell me more, Dorothy." Jamia grinned, leaning her elbows on the counter and resting her face in her hands as she looked on with intrigue glinting in her dark eyes.

Frank rolled his eyes, but continued to tell her the story about his dream. "It was set in the past, in a dystopian type of universe called Battery City where everyone's soulmate was chosen for them. But they didn't allow gay couples, even if the system they used matched a couple of the same sex together. It was always changed. Well, you were matched to Lindsey, and I was matched to some boy named Gerard. My mom changed it so I was matched with you and we grew up not feeling right about being together, but we did anyways to please the crowd. But I kept dreaming about this Gerard boy and we fell in love." Frank sighed, running his hand through his hair. "Fuck, I've never been in love, but that dream made me feel like I have."

"Was he cute?" Jamia quirked a thin eyebrow.

"Gorgeous." Frank said automatically. "He has these golden green big eyes and long black hair, his skin was so pale and soft. He was pretty, if that even applies to a guy. His voice was soft, I remember it."

"What else happened?" Jamia leaned forward slightly.

"I met him in real life, we sort of ran into each other, and my dumb ass ran away from him. Eventually we found each other again and decided to be together in secret, but I was engaged to you already. Lindsey, she . . . she committed suicide in the dream, and it turns out she was Gerard's match." Jamia's eyes widened at that part, but she didn't interrupt, so Frank continued. "He and I had a secret love affair, sneaking around and everything, until we got caught and we were forced to hide from the government. You came and showed us the truth, the crookedness of the government, and you wanted to help us run away. But somehow you were caught, they forced our whereabouts out of you, and we were taken to this . . . horrible conversion institute. They tried to force us out of our sexuality with these cruel methods, keeping us locked up and unable to reach each other. It had turned into a nightmare at that point. Eventually, they wanted us gone, and so they let us say goodbye before they gave us a lethal injection."

"Jesus, Frank, what is it with you and having horrible dreams?" Jamia breathed, standing up straight as she digested the intensity of the story Frank had told.

"I don't know, but it was my first lucid dream. I still felt the pain when I woke up, Mia, I still felt him." Frank swallowed thickly, the sensation of silky flesh under his fingers returning once more. "I feel him, like I've touched him in real life, but he isn't real. He was so soft, he let me touch him and adore him, and it hurts thinking about it."

"It was only a dream." Jamia said softly. "It'll fade after a day or two. I once had a lucid dream of being shot in the head once, I think it was because I got in trouble with the police or something."

Frank stiffened, something ghosting at the back of his mind that felt like a memory was trying to resurface. But the dream was slowly fading from him - at least, part of it. The most he could recall was that boy, Gerard, and how sweet he felt and tasted. He shook his head to get rid of the images and the sound of the boy whispering his name, his palm pressing against his forehead.

"I don't know, I guess it will fade off. Kind of a shame I don't have a gorgeous lover in real life, though." Frank grinned in spite of the dizzying images and thoughts whirring in his head.

"You're a bit of slut, maybe that's why." Jamia snickered. Frank reached across the counter and messed up her hair, causing the girl to squeal and bat him away with her dainty hands.

"I'm going to get us some coffee from that café down the block, you want anything in specific or the usual?" Frank asked, retrieving his coat once more and slipping his arms into the sleeves.

"The usual, thank you." Jamia flashed him a pretty smile, tucking her hair behind her ear before she got back to work.

Frank finished shrugging on his jacket and headed out the door into the crisp winter morning. Some snow from a few days ago still lingered on the floor, slowly melting away into puddles on the damp ground. The pure white had been stained with dirt and debris from the street, taking away its charm, and the floor was a bit too wet for comfort as it was every time it snowed. Frank exhaled, seeing his breath form a whispy cloud in front of him, and headed towards the café that made the best coffee he ever had a chance to get his hands on.

Frank had truly chosen the perfect setting to start his business in. There was a café, a kettle corn shop, a movie rental store, and a couple of other places serving various foods. It all made their lunch hour very easy to enjoy, what with everything being just a few paces down the road, and Frank was more than content with the way his life was going. He was twenty five years old and running his own business, still young enough to go out with his friends on the weekend and wake up beside someone who was hotter than he remembered them being, and he was surrounded by music at all times. It wasn't quite like being a band as he thought he would end up doing when he was younger, but the puzzle pieces fell into place on their own and he was finally doing well. He spent a lot of his time as a teenager getting high and fucking around with a band that was never meant to last, letting himself fall victim to depression multiple times until he kept missing practices and gigs until the band kicked him out and eventually disbanded.

Thankfully, not everyone lost hope in him. He had Jamia to help him clean up his act, starting by getting rid of his god awful dreads. After Frank disposed of said dreadlocks, he stopped smoking weed and drinking too often, and he slowly stopped depending so much on anxiety medication. To his luck, he kept his grades up and managed to graduate with a more than decent GPA, went to college, and Jamia helped him start up his own record store. She stayed by his side the entire time and they matured together, helping one another through every situation. He helped Jamia during her sexuality crisis, even letting her experiment with him, until she found Lindsey, the nail in the coffin to helping her figure out who she truly was. Frank even cried at their wedding three months ago, but he still refused to agree he did whenever Jamia or Lindsey brought it up.

Jamia moved out of their shared apartment to move into a real home with Lindsey, in the most suburb area they could find in New Jersey. She gushed to him that they were thinking about adopting a few animals once they were officially settled in and married for a little longer, which was amazing, but something about it made Frank feel lonelier than he already did. All he had growing up was Jamia, and now that she belonged with someone else, things were too quiet and lonesome. Frank was happy for her, from the bottom of his heart, and he didn't blame her for living her life happily. He just wished he could have kept her for a little longer, to let her yell at him in the morning for not turning off the coffee machine, or to complain about Sweet Pea stealing one of her bras to sleep on.

He considered finding a new roommate, but he didn't think he wanted to anymore. He didn't trust anyone else enough to let them move in with him, and no one could replace Jamia when it came to having a perfect roommate. Living on his own was uncomfortable at first, but he was slowly getting used to his own company and nothing but the sound of Sweet Pea's nails clicking on the floor whenever she passed by.

As Frank neared the café he had in mind, he could see someone from the corner of his eye also approaching the front door, just a few paces ahead of him. He caught sight of a splash of bright red against snow white and black, ultimately calling his interest, but the person was facing the other way. When the man reached the door, he opened it wide, finally looking to where Frank stood and pausing in his movements.

He held the door open for him, stepping to the side with a slight smile on his face.

"Thank you." Frank smiled back softly, giving him a second glance.

And his heart stopped. In fact, he thought the both of them froze at the sight of each other. Frank was taking in his face, his eyes flitting over his familiar features, his stringy red hair falling just below his chin. His face was thinner than Frank had seen it once before, his skin taking a slight golden tone to it, but it was still soft and pale, beautiful enough to reach out and touch. His eyes were the same deep green and gold, framed by thick black lashes. The same, yet so different - yet again, Frank also appeared differently than he did in his dream.

He couldn't possibly be real, Frank must have been seeing things. This person only looked like Gerard, it was impossible for someone you had never met to star in your dreams and suddenly appear in real life like a gorgeous vision dressed in leather. But, in his dream, had that not been exactly what happened to him?

"Uh," Frank broke the growing silence between them, suddenly realizing the latter was still holding the door open. "I'm sorry, you just - thank you. I'm probably keeping you from coming inside." He gulped, his heart beating as quickly as it had in the morning.

The man looked down at the ground, color blossoming underneath his pale skin. "Actually, I, um, I should probably head to the record store first. Yeah, just - you go on ahead." He smiled crookedly, but his lips trembled at the beginning. Frank choked on a gasp when he saw his tiny white teeth - the tiny white teeth he dreamt of.

"Oh fuck, jesus." Frank mumbled under his breath and rushed into the café. His stomach was doing somersaults, his brain trying to process what was happening. He didn't want to look back in fear he would say or ask something stupid, and knowing himself, he would do exactly that.

His mind was screaming at him that these types of things didn't happen in real life. People from dreams didn't suddenly appear in your life the next day, freezing up the second they saw you coming towards them. It was almost like Gerard was thinking the same thing Frank was, and it even had him wondering if he had seen him in his dreams last night as well. He refused to believe what happened in his dream was also happening in reality. But, he would be lying if some part of him was telling him it was too much of a coincidence for it not to be possible - he had dreamt of the same situation, the same person, like a never ending cycle he kept getting caught into.

"We'll meet again somehow."

It echoed in his mind, over and over again, a strange and distant whisper coming from some part in his brain. A piece of his dream, he might have thought, but the more he listened to it and lived in it, the truth dawned on him. It all made sense, clicking together in his brain like missing puzzle pieces.

It was not a line from his dream, but a memory.

If Frank and Gerard were soulmates . . .

"Gerard." Frank said out loud. His eyes suddenly flew open wide, feeling every bit piece of his memory come back to him.

Gerard, wrapped around him in the morning, stroking his hair and smoothing out the tangles every once in a while. Frank was pressed against him, listening to his heartbeat and listening to every little breath he took in. Under the sheets, they were bare and touching, marked with the aftermath of their tender lovemaking from the night before. Gerard's alabaster skin was silky smooth as Frank ran his hand across his hips. His lips puckered slightly, kissing his clavicle, tilting his head up to press soft kisses against his pale throat. Heaven.

Frank, in reality, gasped out loud. Loud enough to draw attention to him, but none of it mattered. Immediately, he was flying towards the door, swinging it open and not caring if he was about to rudely run into a few people passing by. Every piece of Frank was telling him to go to Gerard, don't run away again - there was nothing to run away from anymore.

He raced down the sidewalk, almost slipping multiple times, pumping freezing cold air into his lung and feeling how the pressure was making the inside of his chest tingle. He continued to be bombarded by images of the past, of Gerard, and the ghosts of each memories wrapped around his body in a warm embrace until they completely sunk into his skin and made a home in his brain.

Frank caught sight of a head of bright red hair walking to the record store, only a few feet away from him. He stopped midways, his instinct to stop and stare whenever he saw him because of how breathtaking he was. Gerard was thinner here, but still curved delicately, like he was a statue crafted by the hands of angels. Frank inhaled a large gulp of air, his mouth opening and his chest rising.

"Gerard!" He called out loudly. His voice even echoed, a mighty and desperate call to get the latter to turn around. If all of this was true, if Frank wasn't going insane, then he would turn around.

He did, and when he did, he knew exactly where to look. Gerard whirled around, his eyes wide, and those beautiful eyes immediately fell upon Frank's figure standing so close and yet still so far from him. Frank had seen that look in his eyes so many times, the look of light and hopefulness making those eyes unique along with their ethereal color. Frank's heart was fluttering, anticipation taking control of his movements.

They were walking towards each other as gravity pushed them together, then they were running, and never too soon, they crashed into each other like two plants uniting after being separated for billions of years. Sparks were igniting everywhere once they were wrapping their arms around each other and squeezing their bodies together as they did before. Tears welled up in Frank's eyes as he inhaled and realized Gerard still smelled the same, he felt the same, because he was the same. He was his Gerard, his love, his Match. If not his Match in this life, then his true soulmate. Frank buried his face in Gerard's hair and gripped his leather jacket, and Gerard's hands rubbed his back, curled into his hair, before sliding down his back again and repeating the motion.

"How is this possible?" Gerard whispered.

Frank kissed his neck, brushing his hair away from his face and pulling back an inch to look at him, take in his beauty once more. "I told you we would meet again somehow."

Gerard inhaled shakily, his beautiful eyes brimming with tears. He smiled through his tears, his hands gripping Frank's waist, and he leaned down to press his forehead against Frank's. "I didn't think . . ."

"I didn't either. But you know what?" Frank curled his fingers into Gerard's red locks.

"What?" Gerard breathed, lifting one eyebrow.

"The government of Battery City can fuck themselves."

And he kissed him, kissed him hard and passionate and he didn't care that people walking past them were staring. He wouldn't let Gerard slip away again, not when he was given a chance to love him the right way and kiss him in front of everyone as he always wished he could. One thing never changed, and that was the way their lips touched.

For they kissed as they had long ago, once upon a dream.

"I loved you once, I loved you twice.

I loved you in my previous lives.

And when I die, just keep in mind,

I'll love you in another life."

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

---

Any questions, please ask them here.

I would just like to say, thank you so much for reading this. I thought this fic would never end, but I realized that it isn't immortal and I had to draw the line in the sand eventually. As sad as it is to say goodbye, it's time to complete this fic and continue on.

Thank you to all who have read this, who didn't give up on this fic even when I was going through shit and neglected it, even as it took some turns you didn't expect and had to look away from. Thank you for supporting this fic and for sticking with me, you mean so much to me and I am more than happy to give this to the public.

Time to say goodbye, now, old friend, it was wonderful writing you.

-aprilxo