#sector 12

Frank Iero x Reader

The blue light of your phone screen blurs into a hazy smear. You shouldn’t have opened the app, but you did, and now the image is stuck in your head—Frank at some house party uptown, laughing, his hand draped over someone else. He looks so happy. The room spins in slow heavy circles, the cheap liquor making everything warm and heavy and loud. Before your brain can stop you, your fingers hit his name.

The line rings, echoing until a rustling sound cuts through, followed by a long exhale.

“Hello?” Frank’s voice is a low gravel. He sounds wrecked, the slow grad of someone who has been staring at his ceiling high for the last three hours. “Y/n? What’s going on?”

“Hey,” you say, the word slipping out wet and clumsy. Your tongue feels thick, melting the letters together. “S-sorry to call. Thought you’d be sleeping. Was gonna leave a messhage.”

A quiet chuckle comes through the receiver, the sound of him shifting against his mattress. “Are you…wait. Are you drunk?”

“No. M’just studying late,” you mumble, squeezing your eyes shut against the spinning ceiling. “Signal’s just…breaking up. Ph-phone is stupid.”

“You’re lying, y/n, you don’t even drink,” he mutters. You can hear the lazy grin in his tone. He’s completely unfazed, teasing you. “Look at you. A lightweight menace. Who even let you have a bottle?”

The causal way he says your name sparks something reckless in your chest, cutting through the alcohol fog. The filter is entirely gone. You don’t just want to tell him you love him—the bitterness bleeds out first. You want to scream about how he treats you like an afterthought, how he completely casts you aside.

“Frank, you don’t…you don’t get it,” you stammer, words tripping over each other as the raw emotion bubbles up too fast. “You j-just left me. You used to hold my waist and now you only call when you need a stupid paper fixed, and it’s not fair ‘cause I—”

“Hey,” Frank cuts in. The teasing vanishes, replaced by a flat finality. He doesn’t let you finish. He doesn’t let you drag it into the light. He just shuts the door, calm and distant. “Don’t do that. You’re wasted, y/n. You don’t know what you’re saying.”

The sudden rejection hits like ice water. The regret is instant, a sickening wave that mixes with the liquor in your stomach. You shouldn’t have said that. You shouldn’t have called.

“M’not,” you whisper, tears leaking over your eyelashes.

“You are,” he says, his tone softening just a fraction as he drops his head back onto his pillow. “Here’s what’s gonna happen. You’re gonna put the phone down and go to sleep. We’re not doing this tonight.”

“Frank—”

“Go to bed, y/n. Drink some water. I’ll see you around.”

Sector 12 is the name of one of Frank's first bands he was in, so I reckon this is a little nod to that. Their song titles are as follows:

Everything Falls Apart

Gwen

2nd To Last

Perfect World

Walk The Line

1/2 The Time

N.J. Fightsong

Changes

The ones I've coloured definitely have a bit of a plot-relevant feel to them, though I admit that's likely a bit of a stretch. It could very well be a reference to Star Wars or Green Lantern (both of which would make sense considering which band this is), but there isn't nearly enough background about either for it to make sense.

1811, however? Looks like a year, right? There are two pretty big themes from that year: civil unrest, and fires.

An unsuccessful slave revolt in Louisiana

Mexican War of Independence

The Casas Revolt in Spanish Texas

Revolutionary riots in Buenos Aires

The first victory of the Uruguayan independentists (the Battle of Las Piedras)

The establishment of the Regency era

Venezuela declares independence from the Spanish Empire

Luddite uprisings in England

The Great Podil fire in Ukraine

Forest fires in Switzerland

The Richmond Theatre fire in Virginia

i did just the main three characters from each plot (though mr ellams isnt extremely main hes just the only other vaguely important character) feel free to ask abt any of them and their story (pls pls pls pl-)

Sector 12 - DEMO

Four song demo from 1998 on discogs

Gwen

1/2 the time

2nd to last

Changes

Different than the seven song "New Demo" (below), but three songs are the same (I would assume).