Mickey and Ian had been living in their own apartment for some time now. It was the one above the Kash and Grab. Linda and the kids had moved out a while ago and were living at her mother's. She had agreed to rent out the apartment to her two employees at a very reasonable rate and had also made Ian manager of the Kash and Grab so he was doing reasonably well for himself. He found it amusing that he was now Mickey's boss, which Mickey said he detested, but he secretly loved it when Ian bossed him around.

They had a good little set up going on. They would get up on a morning, open up the shop and wait for customers. They would put the 'back in 15 minutes' sign up now and again, when the day was going by slowly; they were happy with their routine. Ever since they'd moved in, they had never discussed what had happened in their bedroom at the Milkovich house all those months ago. They had never discussed it because nothing needed said, they knew how they felt about each other.

"Why the fuck we need to be married anyway?" Mickey had said during a conversation over lunch.

"We don't need to be. I was just saying it'd be nice" Ian said, taking a bite out of his sandwich.

"And I'm saying what the fuck for? Why we gotta me married to prove we love each other?"

Ian smiled at this comment. It was literally the sweetest thing Mickey had ever said to him.

"We don't. It'd be nice that's all"

"Yeah well, don't be expecting a ring anytime soon..."

"Don't worry Mick, I know you too well by now" Ian smiled across the table at his boyfriend.

...

It was a week later and neither of them had mentioned their conversation about marriage. Neither of them had mentioned it, that didn't mean neither of them had thought about.

The thought was going around Mickey's head. He loved Ian; he really did, but marriage? Marriage was for women. He did, however, want to do something special for Ian. Mickey had to laugh at himself, who would have thought that he, Mickey Milkovich, would actually be considering doing some special and maybe just a little bit romantic for someone.

So he got to work. First, making sure Ian was busy with the store; he took the L to town to pick up a gift for Ian. He'd ordered it a few days ago. He'd spent hours going through the pages on the website until he came to the one he thought Ian might like (although he pretended he didn't have much interest in Ian's like or dislikes). Next, he ordered some food. He would have prepared a meal himself, but he actually wanted a place to live. Then he made sure Ian was done with inventory and called him upstairs.

"What's this?" Ian asked, walking into their apartment, noticing the low lighting (a scarf over a lamp) and the smell of Chinese food.

"Thought I'd do something nice..." Mickey trailed off, looking nervously around the room.

"Awww Mick, that's so sweet"

"Fuck off" Although he there was no venom in his voice.

"You wanna eat?" Mickey asked and walked over to the table.

"Thanks. But, what's this for?" Ian asked, sitting down.

Mickey completely ignored Ian's question and passed Ian the gift.

Although shocked, Ian accepted the gift. This was a big thing for both of them; they'd never given or received gifts from each other. They weren't that type of couple. Oh well, a couple can change. Ian took off the wrapping paper (yes, Mickey had actually wrapped it) and opened the box.

"Oh Mick, I love it" Ian said, taking the silver chain with dog tags out of the box.

"Really? Or are you just saying that to keep me happy?"

"No, I actually do love it. Thank you" Ian smiled and reached across the table to kiss Mickey.

"Look on the dog tag" Mickey said, refusing to look at Ian.

Ian turned over the dog tag and there in the centre were the words "I love you – Mick". Mickey knew it was probably the gayest thing he had ever bought and had avoided all questions when the woman in the shop had asked him who the lucky person was, but he knew that a simple gesture like this would make Ian happy. And apparently it had.

Ian smiled and put the chain around his neck. "I'm never taking it off. Thank you Mickey" and Ian leaned in and kissed him again.

"Hey, don't think this is some kind of proposal. Coz it isn't"

Ian knew it may not have been a proposal this time, he knew it was at least one step closer.