Chapter 1: Prologue - Coming Out of the Closet (Coffin)

Notes: I like vampires as much, if not more so, than anything Shameless related. So, I decided to combine my love of vampires (specifically True Blood because I loooove that show), and my love of some of my favorite Shameless characters. As it says in the summary, there will be no characters from TB in this fic so you don't have to be familiar with the show to understand this story. At most, I'll mention a few, like Nan Flanagan and Steve Newlin since they're public figures in the show but that's all. This fic will also not follow the True Blood storyline or the books it's based on, it just takes place within the TB universe. I'll also probably be drawing inspiration from other vampire pop culture things.
If you have any questions or need me to explain something, please don't hesitate to ask. Alright, let's begin. :)

Coming out was a lot easier than Mickey thought it'd be.

He was in a bar with a room full of people, his family mostly. They were celebrating his father's parole from prison. Mickey eyed Terry, his father, from across the room. He leaned back against a wall near the pool table, watching his father with such disdain. Terry sat at a small circular table with a few of his brothers, a hooker in his lap, beer in hand, and cigarette dangling from his lips. Anger boiled inside Mickey just looking at that abusive piece of shit. He wished time and time again to posses enough strength to kill the bastard. But he knew he'd never beat Terry in a fight. There was only one other thing Mickey could think of that would drive that proverbial stake through his father's heart, but Mickey really didn't want to do that. Though, the longer he watched his father, the more he could feel the words bubbling up his esophagus. And before his mind could catch up with his body, Mickey was calling attention to everybody in the room.

All eyes were on him.

"I just want everybody here to know, I'm fucking gay!" Mickey shouted. "Big ol' mo. Just thought everybody should know that."

The bar became deathly silent.

Mickey was waiting for a reaction. And then he got it.

Terry came at him like a charging bull. He flipped the small table over and advanced towards Mickey with closed fists and screaming profanities. Mickey planted his feet firmly and swung as hard as he could when Terry was finally close enough to hit. He then grabbed a beer bottle from somewhere behind him and smashed it over Terry's head. That was all the damage he could do though before Terry had him pinned to the ground and started pounding his face in. The hard contact of Terry's fists to Mickey's face made it feel like his cheeks were burning. Blood was blurring his vision, or maybe his eyelids were already swelling, he couldn't quite tell. Mickey thought the beating would never stop but was thankful when it finally did.

Before he knew it, Mandy was at his side cradling his head. "I can't believe you just did that."

"Me neither," Mickey managed to choke out.

"I didn't think you'd ever come out."

"What?"

Mandy didn't respond. She just gave her brother a knowing smile.

"Douchebag…"

"Assface."

Mickey didn't know how Mandy already knew was gay, but they were the youngest Milkoviches and closest in age. They always knew things about each other without having to say it out loud. He couldn't be bothered with trying to figure how Mandy knew right now, though. He was still wondering what made Terry stop beating the living shit out of him. He tilted his head some, which was pretty painful, and saw Iggy and Colin wrestling with Terry. Even with the two of them gaining up on him, Terry was a formidable foe.

Everyone else in the bar, Mickey's relatives and other patrons, just looked on as the trio kept grappling. Mickey was surprised none of his uncles were helping Terry, but they didn't seem too interested in sticking their necks out for him when he literally just got out of prison a few hours ago. When Mickey turned his face away from the scene he caught sight of Kate, one of the owners of the bar, reaching for her phone to call the police. Mandy must have seen her too because she carefully let go of Mickey and walked behind the counter towards her. She stole Kate's phone out of her hand before she could dial.

"Hey!" Kate protested. "I have to call this in."

"No, you don't," Mandy said simply. "I got this."

Without giving Kate her phone back, Mandy steadily approached her father and brothers, reaching into her purse as she did so. And without any warning, Mandy pulled out a handgun and fired one shot straight into the ceiling, luckily no one was living upstairs. This certainly put a stop to everything.

Iggy and Colin backed away from their father as Mandy took a few more steps forward. She had the gun aimed straight at Terry's head.

"Leave."

"You ain't gonna shoot shit."

Mandy cocked the gun and Terry blanched. He may have spoken too soon.

Iggy seemed pretty convinced as well and softly placed a hand on his sister's shoulder. "Hey, Mandy, c'mon. He's not worth it."

Mandy ignored her brother and addressed Terry once more. "Leave, and never come back."

This time Terry didn't respond. His face seethed with anger but he did as he was told. Reluctantly, Terry turned on his heel, and was forced out of the bar, and out of town, by his youngest and only daughter.

As the door of the bar swung close, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The room felt lighter, as if a weight had been lifted.

Mandy turned around and saw Iggy stepping towards her.

"You were really gonna shoot him, weren't you?" he asked.

Mandy smiled as sly as a fucking fox. She held the gun out to Iggy and popped open the chamber, revealing that it had been empty. "There was just the one bullet in it."

Iggy's mouth hung open and was rendered speechless.

Colin had now joined his two siblings, his eyes wide with amazement. "You are so badass right now."

Mandy chuckled as her eyes scanned the floor where she had left Mickey. He was sitting up now against one of the legs of the pool table.

"Mickey…" Mandy said in a concerned tone, returning to her brother's aid. "You ok?"

"I think I broke half a fuckin' tooth."

Mandy turned to her other brothers, who were standing over their younger siblings. "You guys have a car?"

"Yeah, sure," Iggy replied.

Colin bent down to help his brother up off the floor. "C'mon, man."

"I can still walk," Mickey objected.

It was then that the Milkovich siblings noticed no one was looking at them anymore. The patrons hardly seemed to realize what just happened. Now, their eyes were transfixed on the tv set in the corner of the bar. The Milkovich siblings turned to look at what had everyone so mesmerized.

On the screen was a woman with short, blonde hair. She had an angular jawline and high cheek bones, red lipstick covered her thin lips. The image on the screen was split in half, the blonde woman on one side and another woman, brown skin and dark hair, on the opposite side. The blonde was named Nan Flanagan. She was a… vampire rights activist? And speaking on behalf of the American Vampire League?

Vampires? Mickey thought. What in the actual fuck?

Vampires are apparently real. And they're "coming out of the coffin". Mickey scoffed, un-fucking-believable. He looked around the room at the same time everyone broke out into a disembodied murmur. Mickey began chuckling to himself. Revealing his sexuality seemed to be the least important thing in the world at the moment. He was almost thankful to the vampires - almost. He'd be lying to himself if he wasn't at least worried about what it meant that vampires are real. He sighed heavily. He just wanted to go home and go the fuck to sleep, worry about vampires some other night.

As Mickey was being led out of the bar, one of Mickey's uncles made his way towards him. "Gay, huh?"

Mickey supposed it was too much to ask for everyone to forget his admission. They didn't, but they just didn't care. In a world where vampires existed, why the hell would anyone give a shit who you banged? Maybe they wouldn't have cared even without the vampires.

When Mickey arrived home that night, he noticed Terry's truck wasn't parked in front of their house. Good riddance, Mickey thought. And thank fuck for Mandy, and his brothers.

Mickey sat down on the couch in the living room as Mandy went to the kitchen for a wet towel and a beer for her brother. His brothers stood in silence near Mickey. He could sense they wanted to say something, so Mickey prompted them.

"You two just gonna fuckin' stand there all night?"

Iggy and Colin exchanged a glance and then returned their attention to their brother.

"So you really came out, huh?" Iggy asked.

"What?" Mickey blanched. "You knew?"

"You gonna start wearing dresses now?" Colin added.

"The fuck?"

"You know, to go with that sparkly blue shit you painted your nails with that one time."

"I never painted my fuckin' nails!"

"Yes, you did," Mandy replied, returning with the towel and beer, and some bandages as well. "I outta know, it was my nail polish."

Mickey vaguely remembers sitting on Mandy's bed at the age of ten, and clumsily applying an intriguing shade of blue, getting more nail polish on his fingers than his nails, his brothers laughing and teasing him. He decides to deny this. "No… no that's bullshit."

Mandy continued, "And when I found you, you made me do your other hand, so one hand was fucked up but the other was damn near perfect."

"Yeah, I remember that," Colin stated further. "Because then Mom came home and told you to take it off before Terry saw it."

Maybe that's why Mickey didn't remember right away, he didn't want to. He didn't want to remember anything about his mother from back then. That was the year she died.

"Bet she knew too," Iggy said what they all were thinking.

Mickey furrowed his brow as Mandy attended to his wounds. He was silent.

"And I bet she didn't care either."

"Whatever," Mickey dismissed, taking a swig of the beer Mandy brought him.

"Alright, fine. Be that way, asshole. I'm going to bed."

"Yeah, see you two in the morning," Colin said as he and Iggy walked to their rooms.

When their brothers were gone, Mandy spoke again. "So, speaking of assholes, are you a top or a bottom?"

"Oh my fucking god!"

"Ok, I'm gonna go with bottom."

Earlier in the night, Mickey thought the cause of his death would have been Terry. Now, he was certain it would be his siblings. He was absolutely mortified.

But all things considered, coming out wasn't that bad - by Mickey's standards anyway.

In the following months, the Milkovich siblings carried on better than they ever had.

Colin and Iggy were around more than they'd previously been, and even moved back into their old rooms. When Terry lived there, the older Milkovich brothers usually stayed with various girlfriends. Mickey was now pretty sure that had very little to do with the girls his brothers were dating and more about avoiding Terry. He couldn't blame them. There were many times in his youth he wished he lived some place else too. The only thing that prevented him from finding such a place though, was Mandy. He could never leave his little sister behind no matter how bad things got with Terry.

Mandy was smiling again. She'd barely smiled since their mother died. Hell, barely any of the Milkovich siblings smiled since then. Mandy somehow smiled less though. Growing up around a bunch of criminals in the neighborhood they lived in, it made her seem pretty cold and hard at times. Really, she was just sad and lonely. But now, that smile that reminded Mickey so much of their mother was gracing her lips once again. It made Mickey smile too.

Mickey decided to move into Terry's room because why the fuck not? It had been months, almost an entire year, and not a single call had come of their father. Mandy must have really scared him off, or maybe he was dead. He hoped for the latter. Either way, Mickey finally figured it's not like the asshole was gonna come back. And out of all the bedrooms in the house, his was the smallest. Sure, he had his own bathroom but he'd gladly give that up for a larger bed.

If not for those fucking vampires, everything in the Milkovich house would be picture fucking perfect. As dangerous as it was to be out at night in their neighborhood before, it became even more dangerous. Mickey didn't know of any vampires actually living in the south side but that didn't stop bodies turning up in the morning, drained dry with two small puncture wounds on their necks.

Mickey had yet to meet a vampire though. None of the Milkovich siblings had. Vampires were finally out but so far they kept their presence hidden in the neighborhood. Mickey was glad. He really didn't want anything to disturb the new established lives he and his siblings were living.

Notes: Ok, I kind of have a soft spot for the Milkovich siblings lol. 3
For those unfamiliar with TB, "coming out of the coffin" is a play on "coming out of the closet" but I think that's pretty obvious.
And I am making Mandy the only Milkovich girl, no Molly. Though, I wish they did keep her around longer on the show. :/