Mickey's standing there and he can't say anything because Mickey Milkovitch doesn't do fluffy feelings shit but Ian's just told him he's leaving for the army and what is he supposed to do? He wants to be a little bitch and call after him, run after him, beg him not to leave. But he can't. But he should. But no. But yes. And while he's fighting himself, his mouth just takes over his brain and he croaks out this sad, hiccupped "don't." And it's got two syllables but it should have three because he should have said I love you but he can't because that shit's for pussies. But then Ian's turning and leaving anyway and he can't just let him go, he needs Firecrotch, no he wants Firecrotch. He wants to taste Firecrotch and fuck Firecrotch and he wants Firecrotch to know that he's loved, and he wants to man up and call him Ian. So he does. He takes a deep breath and a few steps toward his door and when Ian's almost out of earshot he calls out. "Ian." And Ian pauses, half turns, waiting for more, and Mickey huffs a big sigh and he can see Ian's just going to keep walking so he ignores every cell in his body that's been trained to avoid these moments and he calls out again. "Don't go. Stay, don't leave.." And he wants to, no, needs to finish the sentence, because he has one more word to add and Ian's turned around and MIckey looks up, not quite in his eyes but it's a start and he repeats himself. "Don't leave... me." And his breathing hitches because he might has well have just admitted to being the biggest pussy ever but he stands his ground, shuts out the logic his head is screaming at him and he forces himself to look up at Ian and Ian is inching closer to him, a strange expression on his face. "Say that again," he demands and Mickey starts to tell him to fuck off, but he can't because he won't lose him, so he takes a breath, bites his lip until he draws blood and says, in a raspy whisper, "Don't leave me. Please." And he can see in Ian's face that he's shocked, that he can't believe Mickey's actually saying this to him. He takes another step, and Mickey thinks maybe he's going to tell him that he's too fucking late, or that he should have tried harder. But Ian just stands there, his hand twitching like maybe he wants to reach out but he doesn't, instead he says, in as much of a croak as Mickey's first plea had been, "thank you." And he smiles. And Mickey tries not to, but he smiles a little too, like that time when he was in jail and Ian had confessed that he was missing him. And so they stand there kind of smiling at each other because Mickey Milkovitch has just told Ian not to leave and Ian has just been asked not to leave by Mickey Milkovitch and he's fucked if he's gonna leave now because maybe he might be getting somewhere... just maybe. So he carefully, timidly reaches out his hand and slowly, slowly inches it towards Mickey's and he's watching Mickey for signs of flight but he just stands there and Ian goes for it and just carefully brushes his hand against Mickey's forearm, so gently and quickly he couldn't be sure he'd actually done it. Then they stand there, staring at each other for another few seconds before Mickey coughs and they both know the moment's over. So Ian stands straighter, takes a breath, Mickey stretches his neck out and reaches into his pocket for a smoke and Ian grabs his bag from the floor and he smiles and turns and as he's walking down the hallway for the second time Mickey calls out to him, "see you later Firecrotch." And Ian smiles to himself and turns around one last time and with a cheeky, relieved grin on his face replies, "looking forward to it," and walks out the door.