Ian had been woken up by someone screaming and he'd almost walked out of the room then, but to be honest, he'd been a bit of a coward. He knew Mickey was awake, he could hear him. And he sounded relaxed, happy even as he talked to who Ian was guessing were three girls. It sounded so natural, so comfortable for Mickey, who had always sounded a little bit awkward when he was made to talk.
Ian was afraid to ruin that and he was also kind of enjoying the steady drone of Mickey's voice, even though he knew how wrong it was for him to be thinking that. He kept trying to focus on his boyfriend or the fact he was mad at Mickey, but in the end it all came back to him realising that the way Mickey barked out his laugh was exactly the same as it had always been and that Mickey still swore as much as usual, but in that affectionate way he'd been with Mandy. He liked listening to Mickey being like that. He liked listening to Mickey.
But he was scared because he didn't know if the jealousy would show on his face or not.
When he'd finally gathered the courage to open the door, the scene in front of him had been weirdly normal. Mickey was sitting at the table with Katy and a girl that Ian recognised as being the bartender. Mickey was in a t-shirt and slacks, Katy was still wearing Mickey's shirt and her underwear and the bartender girl was wearing what looked like a silk nightdress. They all looked normal and comfortable and the way that they were laughing and smiling made Ian jealous again. He'd never been like that with Mickey. He'd never got to sit down to breakfast with Mickey before and act normal, but these people he didn't even know were doing exactly that.
Ian knew it was stupid to be jealous, but he couldn't help it.
It was the bartender who spotted him first, over Mickey's shoulder and her eyes widened in a way that implied she knew exactly who he was. "You didn't tell me he was staying the night?" she asked, looking at Mickey who twisted around to obviously see what the fuck she was talking about.
From that, Ian gathered pretty quickly that Mickey hadn't been told he was there. That nobody had. Mickey's eyes widened slightly and so many emotions flickered across his face that Ian didn't have time to place any of them before the ex-con just shut down. His face went blank and then he scowled, evidently not pleased in the slightest that Ian was there.
"The fuck is he doing here?" he looked back at Katy and Ian was sort of impressed that Mickey knew who was to blame that quickly.
Nobody answered him for a second and Katy chewed her bottom lip, looking actually kind of adorable.
Mickey pushed away from the table roughly and then it was a sudden flurry of activity as both girls dived away from the table. The bartender moved to catch Mickey's toppling coffee mug and Katy was suddenly positioning herself between Mickey and the archway, her arms and legs spread wide to try and block his exit.
"Katy, move the fuck out of the way," he said, his voice low and dangerous, the tone that most people avoided appearing in Mickey's voice at all costs. It usually meant that shit was going to hit the fan and someone was probably going to end up hospitalised.
But the blonde girl just scowled at him and looked determined, not even moving an inch. "No," she said stubbornly, shaking her head.
"Katy, I swear to fucking God, if you don't move. . ." Mickey trailed off, the threat hanging there in the air incomplete, but Ian thought he sounded pretty damn serious. Mickey wasn't the sort who needed to complete threats, he just had to let people's imagination do the work.
But Katy didn't even blink. "You won't do shit," she said, the confidence in her voice astounding, "You can't keep running away from everything every time you don't like the way shit is heading."
Even though Mickey's back was to him, Ian knew he was scowling. "What the fuck else do you want me to do?" he asked, his anger apparently spiking even though there was an incredulous edge to his voice, "It's either walk away or punch the fucker in the head, which would you rather I do?"
"How about use your fucking words like your momma taught you!" she shouted at him, still scowling and Ian could see something starting to harden in her eyes.
"My mum didn't teach me jack shit," Mickey snarled at her, "The bitch hated me; and I ain't sticking around to have some bullshit conversation with Gallagher, so just get the hell out of the way."
He started to move past Katy, his hand around her forearm to push it down out of the way so that he could get past. And Ian blamed the fact that he was preoccupied with the way that his name sounded coming from Mickey's mouth, even if it was his last name. It still sent a weird thrill through Ian's body. He blamed that fact for why everything seemed to happen in high speed. One minute Mickey was pushing past Katy to get to the door and then slammed his head into the nearby wall.
"Shit!" It was the bartender who shouted, "Tony, get out here!"
She moved towards Katy and where Mickey was crumpled on the floor on his side, moving cautiously like Katy was some sort of dangerous animal. And with the look in the blonde's eyes, Ian thought maybe that was what she was. He felt like he was still digesting what the hell had just happened, because normally he would have been panicking over the fact that Mickey was now unconscious, but he just stared.
He wondered maybe if he'd just imagined that and he was in fact still asleep in the other room.
"What the hell did you do?" the girl with the blood red hair walked out of one of the other rooms in a bra and a pair of shorts, her hair wet and clinging to her skin. Her eyes went wide when she saw Mickey there on the floor and that was all it took for Ian's instincts to kick in.
It was just like when Kash had shot Mickey. Making the decision of whether or not he wanted to risk getting shot as well by going to Mickey's side was just like the choice he had now. But just like then, he knew that if something bad was going to happen, he'd rather it happened whilst he was crouching beside Mickey.
He crossed the room faster than he thought it was possible for him to move and the bartender reached out to try and stop him, but he shrugged her off, dropping to his knees beside Mickey and rolling him over onto his back. He was breathing, that was a relief at least and Ian knew he had a hard head so he didn't think there would be any sort of damage done by his head connecting to the wall. It didn't even look like he was bleeding, was more just the impact that had knocked him out more than anything else.
It felt like Mickey's skin was burning underneath the palm of his hand when he placed it on his chest and he couldn't stop himself from noticing how long Mickey's eyelashes were. He'd never noticed that before, had never really had the opportunity.
"Help me get him to his room," the bartender girl was crouched down near Mickey's feet and out of the corner of his eye, Ian could see the other girl backing Katy into a corner, her voice low as she spoke to her, but Ian couldn't tell what was being said. Katy's expression was slowly turning from hardened to frantic as she looked over at Mickey and then to the girl and then at Mickey again.
Wordlessly, Ian slipped his hands under Mickey's armpits and the bartender grabbed a hold of his feet. Mickey was heavier than Ian remembered, but then he'd packed on quite a bit more muscle and it wasn't exactly an easy job getting him into his room, but they managed it. After laying him on the bed, Ian straightened up and cracked his back, looking around.
The room wasn't neat, there were clothes littered all over the floor and random items dotted around haphazardly, but then it was Mickey and he would have been concerned if it had been neat. And yet, Ian's eyes were drawn to what was on the wall. Whereas Mickey's old room had been plastered with posters, the wall opposite Mickey's bed was covered with pictures. There were pictures of Michael and of Mandy and Lip, of them at birthday parties and drinking, others just completely random. There was even one of him that he tried not to think of as meaning something. The only one that was framed was of Lip and Mandy on their wedding day.
"He does give a shit," the bartender said, watching him, as though she was following his train of thought, "Even though he'll pretend until the day he dies that he doesn't."
Ian didn't say anything. He didn't know what to say.
"I'm Tessa by the way," she said, not bothering to extend a hand, just watching him.
"Ian," he replied, looking back to the photos.
She snorted. "Yeah, I know," she said, "Look, how about I do you a deal, you go round up Lip and Mickey's sister and I'll persuade sleeping beauty here to come out tonight." Ian frowned, not quite knowing what she was saying. "He needs to make up with his sister," Tessa said, "And if he wakes up and you're still here, no offense, but he'll bolt, so just meet us at the Blue Moon tonight, Lip knows where it is, we'll get Mickey there."
Ian didn't know what made him nod, what made him agree, because he didn't want to leave Mickey. He knew it was stupid, but he didn't. Yet he agreed with this girl he didn't know anyway. Maybe it was because he really didn't think there was any other option.