A/N: Sorry I'm such an ass. I posted this yesterday on Tumblr and AO3 but totally forgot about ff. net. The good news is that here is the next chapter. The bad news is that 8 and 9 aren't done yet, so there might be a little bit of a wait! It depends on how long I can get the baby to nap for... I hope you like it, and as always, your comments/questions/input/suggestions are welcomed!

Chapter 7

redmarine15: sorry i'm late

redmarine15: i was attacked tonight

redmarine15: some wanna-be gangsters saw me kiss someone and they decided to beat the crap out of me

fuckthepopo247: u need to b more careful

redmarine15: i know

redmarine15: sometimes i forget the kind of neighborhood i live in

redmarine15: but then something like this happens

fuckthepopo247: r u ok?

redmarine15: i went to see my neighbor

redmarine15: the one i told u thinks she's a nurse, lol

redmarine15: she says nothing's broken...

redmarine15: i'm in bed with bags of frozen vegetables on my chest

fuckthepopo247: sounds sexy

redmarine15: haha

redmarine15: leave me alone... it hurts

fuckthepopo247: bet it does

fuckthepopo247: any chance u got a cucumber or something mixed in with those veggies? i'm still horny over here

redmarine15: you're so horrible

redmarine15: i'm not sticking any produce in my ass for you

fuckthepopo247: hahaha

fuckthepopo247: worth a shot

They stopped video chatting because Mickey was scared that, now that they'd met, Ian would recognize his voice. Mickey would have to be content with pictures from that point on.

Mickey walked into Kash and Grab and went straight to the fridges in the back. He grabbed his usual six pack and turned to go. He'd only taken one step towards the front door when he saw Gallagher sitting behind the counter and stopped dead in his tracks. Ian was flipping through a magazine and hadn't even looked up at the older boy yet.

Mickey didn't know if Kash had told Ian about his shoplifting. After all, he only ever went to the store when he was sure Gallagher wouldn't be there... Kash was probably too much of a chicken shit to admit something emasculating like letting Mickey walk out with beer and smokes on a daily basis to the teenager that was fucking him. Based on Gallagher's lack of a reaction to Mickey being there, he guessed not.

So, Mickey made the decision to pay for his beer, for once. It was strange, going from being someone who didn't give a shit about what other people thought of him, to not wanting to make a bad impression on Ian.

Mickey cleared his throat as he put the beer on the counter.

"What're you doing here?" he asked.

Gallagher looked confused. "I... work here..."

"I mean, don't you have school?" Mickey amended.

Ian chuckled and lifted an incredulous eyebrow to Mickey. "It's Memorial Day..."

Mickey had totally forgotten. That would explain why Mandy was still asleep when he'd left the house an hour ago. He'd just assumed she was cutting.

"Oh," Mickey said, sounding like a complete idiot. "Right."

Ian rang up the beer and Mickey pulled some crumpled bills out of his pocket. He was so nervous. He took the beer and jetted out of the shop. God, he was such a pussy.

If it was Memorial Day, that meant there would be BBQs going on all over the place. That evening, Mickey dragged his sister to the block party closest to the Gallagher house. The street had been closed off and there were picnic tables and grills set up. There was a jar set up for "contributions": everyone was welcome as long as they gave some cash to cover the cost of food and alcohol. Mandy ditched him as soon as she saw some of her friends from school. Mickey got himself a cheeseburger and a beer and sat at one of the tables. He scanned the crowd for his Gallagher to no avail.

Two hours and six beers later, Mickey gave up. He stood to leave and lost his balance, not realizing that he was buzzed. He bumped into none other than Lip Gallagher.

"What the fuck, Mickey!" Lip had spilled beer all over himself.

"Sorry—" Mickey began but was cut off when that stupid, blonde whore of Lip's shoved him back. That bitch actually shoved him! Him! Mickey Milkovich!

Mickey didn't hit girls. Well, just his sister, and only when she was being a real cunt. In that moment, he was ready to fight back. But Mandy beat him to it. She slapped the other girl so hard that she dropped her hot dog and stumbled back into Lip.

"You better watch yourself, Karen!" Mandy spat.

Karen recovered quickly. "Oh! I wonder who the hell invited Mandy Skankovich here!" she said in retaliation. The crowd had gotten so silent that you could hear both girls' heavy breathing.

Mandy raised her fist and probably would have broken Karen's nose if Ian Gallagher hadn't stepped in between the two girls, hands raised in a silent plea to stop.

"Guys... it's just a little beer, right Lip? No hard feelings?" There was an edge to Ian's voice, and even though he was talking to his brother, Ian's eyes were on Mandy. The silence stretched too long. The tension was palpable.

"Yeah, it's just beer," Lip finally said. A short redhead with wild curls chose that moment to show up with her hands full of beers. She shoved one each into Lip and Karen's hands. Lip glared at Mickey before putting his arm around Karen's shoulders and walking away.

"Thanks Deb," Ian said, taking the remaining beers from her. She smiled at him before running back to wherever the hell she'd appeared from in the first place. Gallagher handed Mandy a beer and took a sip from his own. Mickey just stood there and watched, not really comprehending what had just gone down.

"I'm sorry..." Ian said to Mandy when the crowd had dissipated.

"What the hell are you sorry for? You just got here," Mandy said before taking a sip from her own bottle.

"Sorry for Karen. I saw what happened and she was completely overreacting."

"Yeah, well, I had to step in." Mandy finally looked back at Mickey, who had his hands in his pockets. "I knew my brother wouldn't hit a girl and there was no way I was gonna let that slut disrespect us like that..."

That was when Ian looked at Mickey too... and smiled... and if Mickey was a girl, he'd say that look made his breath catch in his throat and his stomach do little flips... but he wasn't, so it didn't.

Ian sat down at the picnic table with Mandy and motioned for Mickey to join them. He couldn't think of an excuse not to, so he sat. Ian and Mandy talked about something stupid that had happened in school the prior week. Mickey wasn't listening. He was staring at the beer in Ian's hand. The condensation had formed little droplets all around it and Gallagher was casually stroking the glass whenever it got too wet. The whole thing was ridiculously erotic and Mickey involuntarily groaned as he felt the blood rushing to his dick. What the fuck...

Gallagher glanced at Mickey and misinterpreted the sound, combined with the direction of his stare, to mean that Mickey wanted another beer.

"I'll go get you another beer," he said, getting up.

Mickey watched him go. "Uhh, thanks," he said to Mandy once the redhead was out of earshot. She nodded.

Gallagher came back and handed Mickey the beer he'd gotten him. He had brought another for himself too. He and Mandy resumed their conversation until Mandy finished her drink. She said something about catching up with her friend and seeing him tomorrow, then she was gone, leaving Ian at the table with an eerily silent Mickey.

"Looks like I've got a lot of catching up to do," Gallagher said.

"What do you mean?"

"The beer. I had to close up at work so I just got here right when Karen got bitch-slapped by your sister," he said with a laugh. Oh, there was that smile again. "And you've obviously had way more than I have."

"Obviously?"

"Yeah... I mean, I'm guessing you drank what you bought at the store too, right? Plus whatever you had here..."

"You tryin' to say I can't hold my alcohol?" Mickey really wasn't that buzzed. He was only drinking beer, for God's sake. So what if he'd lost his balance for like a second and fallen into Lip. People tripped all the fucking time. It wasn't noteworthy. Why the hell was Gallagher judging him?

"Calm down, Mickey. I'm not saying anything. Just that I need to drink more," he said with a smile before killing the rest of his first beer and starting on the second one.

"Whatever..."

After a few minutes of sitting next to Gallagher, fighting internally with himself over wanting to talk but not wanting to give anything away, Mickey had had enough. He was being stupid. He needed to just act normal.

"This BBQ blows," was all he could come up with.

Gallagher smiled. "Yeah, I guess it does."

"I got some good weed... Wanna get out of here?"

"Sure," Ian said with a shrug.

They'd walked a few blocks to the park and were sitting on a bench. It was late; the sun had started to set, and there weren't any people around, save for the homeless man sleeping on the bench ten yards down from them. Mickey lit up the joint he'd taken from his pocket, took a hit and passed it to Gallagher. It really was good weed; he'd taken a few spliffs from his brother Tony's drawer before leaving.

"I didn't get a chance to thank you," Gallagher said, tentatively.

"Don't..." Mickey didn't want to start talking about that night in the alley. There would be too many questions he didn't feel comfortable answering, like why he had been there or why he had helped.

"No, Mickey. I had the wrong impression of you and I'm sorry. You... you saved me. You didn't have to, I still don't know why you did, but you did. So, we don't have to talk about it, but... thanks."

Mickey gave Gallagher a sidelong glance but decided not to comment. They took a few more hits. Mickey was deep in thought about what Gallagher had meant by "wrong impression." He wondered what Ian had heard about him. Was it all things that had to do with being a Milkovich? Or was there something specific he was referring to...

He was brought back to reality by the sound of Ian's random laughter.

Mickey looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"I still can't believe it..." Great, were they still on the topic of the other night? Gallagher was having a fit now and could barely stop laughing long enough to get his words out. "Did you see Karen's face after your sister slapped her? It was priceless."

The corner of Mickey's mouth curved into a half smile. "Trust me, you may think you know my sister, but you don't know my sister 'til you've fought my sister." He chuckled when Ian showed no sign of stopping his stupid giggling.

"Did you know that Mandy came on to me once?"

What the fuck? Mickey inhaled too deeply on the joint and choked. He coughed for at least a minute until the burning in his throat subsided long enough for him to get a word out.

"What?" he sputtered.

Ian grinned. "Yeah... She came to the Kash and Grab a couple of months ago and was flirting with me, and then she waited for me to finish my shift and we walked back to my house together. I thought she just wanted to hang out but I was obviously mistaken. She was all over me..."

"Are you serious?" Mickey had to work hard to repress his anger and shock.

Gallagher shrugged. "Luckily my sister Fiona chose that moment to come home. Mandy stopped long enough for me to tell her I wasn't interested in her like that, because I was gay. If my sister hadn't been there, it might not have ended well."

He said it like it was no big deal. They both knew it was. Mickey took one look at Ian's face and could see that the redhead was testing him.

"So... you mean to tell me that my sister knows you're gay?" Mickey asked, carefully.

Ian nodded.

"And... Why the hell are you telling me this?"

Ian took the weed from Mickey's hand and brought it to his lips. "And, she didn't tell you." He took a hit.

It wasn't a question, but Mickey shook his head anyway, confirming what Gallagher had said.

Ian let the smoke out slowly. "So that's two Milkoviches who know I'm gay and haven't knifed me yet. I'm starting to think your family's reputation isn't too accurate," he joked.

"You'd be a fucking idiot then. Don't even think for a second that the rest of 'em would let you go on breathing if they found out."

Mickey held Ian's gaze until the redhead blinked. He nodded, letting Mickey know that he understood the warning.

"Gimme that," Mickey said, motioning for Ian to give him the joint. He took one last drag and tossed the roach to the floor.

Mickey had left after they'd finished smoking. Talking to Gallagher hadn't been as awkward as he thought it was going to be, but Mickey still felt relieved to walk away. He'd been so freaking nervous. It was a stark contrast to how comfortable he felt when they chatted online. He opened the laptop and signed in.

fuckthepopo247: hey Firecrotch

fuckthepopo247: how was your memorial day

redmarine15: can't complain

redmarine15: yours?

fuckthepopo247: not so bad

redmarine15: remember i told u i was attacked after work a few nights ago?

fuckthepopo247: yeah, how're ur ribs doing

redmarine15: still bruised but i'll live

redmarine15: anyway

redmarine15: i never told u how i got away

redmarine15: there was this guy who helped me

redmarine15: tricked the thugs into giving him their bat and turned on 'em

fuckthepopo247: sounds bad-ass

redmarine15: yeah, it was like something out of a movie

redmarine15: so, i hung out with him today

redmarine15: it was fun

fuckthepopo247: oh yeah?

redmarine15: we had a few beers and got high

redmarine15: he was surprisingly cool

fuckthepopo247: sounds like you got a crush

redmarine15: haha

redmarine15: no

redmarine15: it's not like that

redmarine15: we were just talking

redmarine15: he's straight

redmarine15: my big sister and brother always told me to steer clear of this guy and his family

redmarine15: but i have no idea why they'd say that

redmarine15: he's not that bad

Mickey could feel his cheeks turning red.

fuckthepopo247: alright, enough about this other dude

fuckthepopo247: what u got for me tonight :-)~