Mickey's face hurt because of Ian's fists and his head hurt because of the booze he'd drunk to try and block out the image of Ian's face. It wasn't a great combination, but the painkillers he knew Katy had gone out to get especially helped, once they'd finally kicked in that was.

He'd woken up on the couch at about three in the morning and swallowed down the pills before staggering into his room. He hadn't even thought twice about the fact Katy was in his bed at the time and didn't think it was that strange when he woke up for a second time. But if he coupled it with her weird behaviour, it made him wonder what she was hiding.

Except he was too groggy to give a shit at that moment, so he let her act guilty.

The girls had a habit of falling into the wrong beds on a regular basis, after having drunk too much to be able to tell what door was what. It didn't bother Mickey. It didn't even bother him that they'd developed the other habit of sleeping in his shirts. Tessa just said it was because wearing his shit was easier than going out and buying new nightclothes and he'd only bitch if they walked around naked. Since they were the ones who actually washed his stuff anyway, he didn't really think it was worth it to complain.

He'd gotten used to the girly crap cluttering up the place. He'd never had that problem growing up with Mandy and it had freaked him out a little at first, but not so much anymore. He just ignored all the make-up in the bathroom and the masses of razors in the shower. His nostrils were even numb to the smell of hairspray or perfume now.

And he had actually learnt pretty quickly that when it was Katy's time of the month, he had to keep a close eye on her. She had anger management problems, which seemed weird considering that she was the most docile and probably the kindest out of all of them. Except when she snapped. One minute she'd be fine and then the next she'd just flip and it only got worse for those handful of days towards the end of the month. The number of bar fights that he'd had to drag her out of and the number of times he had had to finish something that Katy had started were insane. He actually found it sort of amusing at the same time as it terrified him when she snapped.

Mickey wasn't scared of much, but he was scared of a pissed off Katy, because nothing about what she became was logical. In fact, when Katy snapped, all remnants of logic just flew out the window.

He also learnt pretty quickly that if he accidentally knocked Tessa's contact lenses down the sink, she'd grab his nuts and squeeze until tears sprang into his eyes. He'd only done that once, he always made sure they were nowhere near where he could knock them whenever he went into the bathroom.

He was halfway through his second cup of coffee, with Tessa sitting opposite him, her feet up on the table and a book in her lap when Tony finally came out of the bathroom. Tessa was the smart one, which Mickey didn't think quite went with how pretty she was, but oh well. She wasn't on par with Lip's level of genius, not even close, but she liked to read. Her glasses kept sliding down the bridge of her nose and she casually leant over and got a spoon out of a nearby drawer, not stopping reading for a second even as she threw it at him for smirking.

"Mickey, I need your help," Tony said, walking out of the bathroom in her bra and thong, flashing far too much flesh for him to be comfortable with, but he was used to it by now. You didn't last long being a prude sharing a flat with these three girls, that was another lesson he'd learnt. She had a strip of paper stuck to her calf and she walked up and placed her foot in his lap. "Pull it off," she instructed, "I can't do it, pull it off."

He smirked and took hold of the end of the strip. "Ready?" he asked and when she opened her mouth to reply, ripped it off.

She screamed and almost kicked him in the face when she grabbed at her own leg. "Fuck that shitting killed!" she said, because Tony could apparently take a punch to the face and laugh about it, but waxing her legs turned her into a complete girl.

He wasn't the only one laughing at her as she hopped around.

"You do know you have to go through that again and do the rest of your leg, right?" Tessa pointed out, her book momentarily forgotten. She was smirking.

"Fuck that shit," Tony practically snarled, "I'm using my razor, I'm not doing that again!"

Mickey laughed, "You're such a pussy!"

She flipped him off as she stalked back into the bathroom. They could hear the shower running after a few minutes, testament to the fact that she'd pussied out of waxing the rest of her legs and really had resorted to the razor again. Mickey chuckled under his breath, his mood instantly lifted, improved even more so by the full breakfast that Katy placed in front of him.

The girls took turns cooking. Mickey had originally been included in that rota, but cooking wasn't one of his skills, so in the end they'd just decided that leaving him out of it was generally for the benefit of all. It was something that suited him just fine.

Katy was still dressed in one of his shirts and Tessa was wearing one of her horrible pink nightdress things that were made of very little material and felt weird when she brushed against him. "Why are you scowling at me now?" she asked, her book set down on the table and her glasses on top of it as she ate, "I'm not going to steal your bacon."

"Damn right you're not," he said, shoving a piece into his mouth just to emphasise that point, "And I was just thinking how retarded that material is." He motioned to her clothes and beside him Katy snorted.

"Why?" Tessa asked, smoothing her hand down the front of it, the material straining a little against her skin and showing off the fact that she had her nipple pierced. It was an effective way to win a fight with Tessa, all you had to do was pinch the bar and twist slightly. He remembered when she'd first gotten it done and had walked around with a hand pressed against her tit for ages to stop anyone from flicking it. "My ex used to love the feel of it."

Mickey pulled a face, "It feels fucking wrong."

"So you wouldn't fuck a guy wearing silk boxers then?" Tessa asked, her features twisted into a smirk.

He just shuddered, because that was pretty self explanatory. As far as he was concerned, straight guys were just fucking weird.

Tony walked out of the bathroom, a black towel wrapped around her, her red hair plastered against her shoulders. She grinned as she snagged a piece of bacon off of Mickey's plate and then took off running. "Bitch no!" Mickey launched himself out of his seat and over the back of the couch and tackled Tony, because he may not hit women, but he wasn't stupid enough to be under any sort of illusions about her being delicate.

He pinned her down, because even though Tony was a good fighter, he still weighed a lot more than her and he was still stronger, so pinned her down with his crotch in her face was almost too easy. He snatched the bacon back off of her and shoved it in her mouth, grinning down at her.

"Mickey, get your crotch the fuck out of my face!" she said, struggling underneath him, her eyes narrowing dangerously, "Nobody wants that shit this close to them, seriously!"

"You know you're not really in the position to be insulting me," Mickey pointed out, "Because I could just do this." He grinned and pursed his lips slightly, letting her see the spit that had accumulated in his mouth.

If he hadn't been a little preoccupied, he would have grinned, because the way that Tony's eyes went wide and she froze underneath him was fucking hilarious. "Okay, I take it back, I take it back!" she said and he knew if it was possible she would have been holding her hands up in surrender, "I'm sure your dick is something everyone wants close to them, I take it back, Mick, promise!"

He smirked and swallowed, "And are you gonna keep stealing my fucking bacon?"

They both knew she would, but hey. "Yeah, whatever," she said, squirming underneath him, "Just get the fuck off me, seriously!"

He lifted off and took a step back, grabbing her hand and hauling her up onto her feet.

"The fuck have you been eating?" she asked, prodding him in the stomach, "You weigh a fucking ton!"

He lifted up the front of his shirt and motioned to himself, "Bitch, this is muscle."

Tony laughed and smacked him in the stomach, which actually kind hurt, but he didn't show it. "Yeah, because all that muscle," he really didn't like the fact she air-quoted that word, "Is really reeling them in for you, there are people just lining up to fuck you."

He pulled a face as he walked back to the table. "Bitch, fuck off," he retorted, "At least I ain't about to get fucking herpes, some of the twats you sleep with definitely have something!" And she did have a somewhat questionable taste in men.

Tony flipped him off.

"To be fair, it isn't your face, it's just your personality that people don't like," Katy put in helpfully and Tessa choked on her coffee, "I don't know, maybe if you smiled more or something you'd get some more action."

"Thanks for that input," Mickey muttered, taking a large mouthful of his now lukewarm coffee, "I'll bear that shit in mind next time."

It wasn't like he had no love life, it was just that not only was it a little difficult to hook up with people when you were determined to not show that you were gay, but sex also just brought his mind right back to the person he didn't want to think of. The number of times he'd forgotten who the hell he was fucking in favour of remembering Gallagher was. . . well every time actually. But he'd be damned if he was going to admit that.

"I'm kind of glad he doesn't get laid often actually," Tessa muttered, wiping her hands on her bare legs, which Mickey thought was fucking pointless, but didn't say anything, "We don't need another fucking stalker crying outside our front door at one in the morning cause Mickey's ignoring them."

"Why do you make that sound like it's happened more than once?" he asked, glaring at her because really he didn't need reminding of that incident. Apparently, Mickey's ass was just that great that it made some guy all obsessive and needy and when Mickey told him to fuck off, spent the entire night crying outside their front door like a little bitch. If nothing else, it had put Mickey off of fucking blondes for life.

Tessa just rolled her eyes and looked like she was about to comment when her eyes locked on something over Mickey's shoulder and her mouth hung open. "You didn't tell me he was staying the night," she said, sounding sort of offending.

Frowning, Mickey turned and then he felt like he was about to be sick. Because standing there in the doorway to Katy's room looking all rumpled and cute wearing his fucking pyjama bottoms. He was staring back at Mickey in that dopey, sleepy way he'd always done after Mickey had let him stay over or they'd fallen asleep after a round. It was stupid for no reason other than Mickey thought it was cute.

"The fuck is he doing here?" he asked, waving a hand in Ian's direction and twisting back round to glare at Katy, because of course this had to be asleep. It explained why she'd stayed in his room last night. It explained the guilty look on her face.

It was a good fucking job Mickey didn't hit girls that was all Mickey could really say.