March 21st 2022

Mickey hurriedly scrambled eggs in the pan and took a sip of his coffee, "Ian, will you get the kids out here. I'm makin' eggs. They gotta eat before they go to school." Mickey said as he glanced at the oven. The bacon was not burning, all was good.

Ian appeared with Tori in his arms and Yevgeny at his side, "I'm superman. Aren't I?"

Mickey snickered and took the eggs off the stove and then pressed a kiss to Ian's lips, "Yes, you are." He ran his fingers through Ian's hair. "You're my super man."

"Ewwwww." Tori squealed as her father's shared another kiss.

Mickey smiled as Ian and him broke the kiss, "Aw, can't your daddies show each other some love." He looked at his daughter and took her from Ian, "Can't we, baby girl? Hmmm?"

She giggled as rested her head on Mickey's shoulder as Ian smiled at them and then ushered Yevgeny to the table.

He went to the cabinets and pulled out two mugs, and started filling them with coffee as Mickey settled his daughter into a chair at the table, pressing a kiss in her hair.

Mickey assembled the plates of food and brought them over to the kids, "Here we go, breakfast of champions." He kissed the heads of both his kids and then pressed a kiss to Ian's forehead, "Eat up. We gotta get going soon."

There was a knock at the door and Ian said, "I'll get it. You guys start. I'll be right there. It's probably the mail guy."

He left the kitchen and went to go answer the door as Mickey spooned soft cereal into Viktoriya's mouth saying, "ah" every time his daughter ate from the spoon, "That yummy?"

"Mick? It's your sister."

"Hey, Mands, you know that you have a key. You can use it." Mickey said as he wiped some excess food from the corner of Viktoriya's mouth.

"No, uh, Mick. It's the other one."

Mickey dropped the spoon into the plate and got up from the table, "Molly?" Ian brought a girl, of around 16 over, she had dark brown hair and was about Mickey's height, "Shit. Well, uh. I guess I can make some more breakfast. Come sit down." He then looked at Ian, "Can you finish feedin' Tori?"

Ian nodded and closed the door behind Molly, "So, uh, why are you here exactly?"

"Mom... I couldn't do it anymore."

Mickey nodded as Molly took a seat at the table and as he heated up the stove once more, "So, uh, how did you find us?" He said as he pointed the spatula at Molly.

"Mick, put it down." Ian said as he finished spooning the food into Viktoriya's mouth. "Uh, I gotta go change her." Ian said as he picked up his daughter.

Yevgeny scarfed down his eggs, "D-dad. More."

"What about a please?" Mickey asked.

"P-p-please."

Mickey gave him a thumbs up, "Will do, kiddo. Go get your hair combed while I cook 'em." Yev got up and went running upstairs. And Mickey turned his attention to Molly, "So, uh you didn't answer my question."

Molly nodded, "Right. I asked around. Figured it out. I'm resourceful."

"Easy enough for dad to figure out?"

"Nah. Probably not. Speaking of, where is he?"

Mickey shook his head, "The fuck should I know. Probably jail, seeing as he hasn't come after me or my partner yet."

Molly tilted her head, "Business partner?"

Mickey laughed as he transferred the eggs onto a plate, "No. My husband. Ian's my husband." Mickey flashed her a quick view of his ring. "Married. Not just ghetto married. Real married. Legal and all that shit, and we can thank the goddamn state of Illi-fuckin'-nois. Those two are our kids."

The girl smiled as her brother slid her a plate of eggs and bacon, "So, you're gay?"

"Big 'ol fuckin' mo." Mickey said as Yevgeny came zipping back into the room. "Whoa whoa whoa. Slow it down kid. You're gonna ram yourself into a wall." He put a plate in front of Yevgeny's chair. "Now, sit down and finish before Pa's gotta take you to school."

Molly dug into her eggs as Ian came back, "She's clean, Mick." The little girl was deposited into Mickey's waiting arms.

"Good." Mickey said as he held his daughter against his hip. "E, I made you lunch. It's in the fridge. So, if you get hungry and I can't come up, it's in there. Did you take your meds?"

Ian nodded, "Yes." He wrapped his arms around Mickey's waist and pressed a kiss to Mickey's lips. "Thank you for the lunch." He then turned his attention to Molly, "Do you need somewhere to stay?"

"If that's okay?" Molly asked, "I can help around the house."

Ian shook his head, "No, we're family. You're good. You can stay in the guest room until you're ready to leave. All you gotta do is get enrolled in highschool. Have you ever been to school?" Molly shook her head, "Okay. Then I guess we'll take a trip to the local highschool and get you enrolled."

Mickey sighed, "When I get downstairs, I'll call Mands. She needs to be in on this."

Ian nodded, "So, uh, Molly, you're going to stay with me for the day, 'cause, uh, Mickey's gotta work."

"Where does he work?"

"He works here. Downstairs as an embalmer. This is a funeral home."

Molly thought about that for a moment, "Cool. Couldn't I just work here?"

Mickey shook his head, "No. You would have to be licensed. School's better. You can work here if you go to Mortuary school."

"So, uh, why then do you guys live here? In a funeral home?"

Mickey took a bit of toast, "Cheaper and I'm a lot easier to reach in time of crisis for whoever needs assistance. My business partner didn't want it, so we decided to move in. It has nice space."

Molly nodded, "That's cool."

Ian nodded in response, he enjoyed their alternative lifestyle. He was an embalmer and funeral director's husband and he had even started helping around the funeral home. He was in charge of the flowers and making sure that things were in order and that the downstairs portion of the house looked decent.

Mickey grabbed his briefcase and pressed a kiss to the side of Ian's head, "I gotta go to work now. See you guys later." He pressed a kiss to Viktoriya and Yev's heads and then headed down to the basement.

"So, he really does work with dead people?" Molly asked as Ian picked Viktoriya up from where Mickey had put her down.

"Yeah. It's a family business. If one of the kids wants it, they can get certified and own it. Recently, Mickey's partner has decided that next year, he's gonna retire. He's giving us the option to buy him out and Mickey and I are saving for it. The house is just one of the perks. His partner though, he's a good man. It'll be a shame to see him go. But since Mickey joined, we've had excellent business. We're one of the top funeral homes in Chicago. In only a year, it'll be the Milkovich Funeral Home and Crematorium." Ian said with a smile.

Yevgeny grabbed his backpack and tugged on Ian's hand, "We gotta go, daddy."

"I know." He smiled at Molly, "Let's go. You can come with me when I drop the kids off. Then we can stop at the highschool."

That night, Mickey came back early and so they had a large sit down meal. All five of them.

"So, how did the highschool search go?" Mickey asked as he spoon fed Tori.

Ian swallowed the food in his mouth, "It went well. Molly tested into freshman year, which is great considering she's never been to school before. She starts tomorrow."

"Good." Mickey said as he put the spoon in his daughter's mouth, "Very good." He looked at his son who was picking at his food with his fork, "You gonna eat, buddy, or not?"

Yev nodded and started eating.

"So, Mick, how was work?" Ian asked as he cut up his steak.

Mickey sighed, "Pretty good. Mandy's comin' over tomorrow. We gotta discuss the whole Terry thing, and how we are going to ever get him to agree to sign guardianship of you over to us. Just so that we can be at school meetings and so you don't need to deal with Terry. That okay?"

Molly nodded, "Yeah."

"Alright. Well, I can't believe that we've forgotten to tell Yev, we were just so busy this morning." Ian said as he smiled at Yev.

"W-w-w-w-what?" Yevgeny asked as he looked up from his food.

Ian smiled at the kid, "You know who this is right?" He said as he pointed to Molly.

"Y-y-yes, that's a-a-aunt M-m-m-molly."

Molly smiled, "How does he know that?"

Mickey smiled and scoffed, "I guess that Ian's photo albums really worked." He sighed, "He's been working on these photo albums forever, and we had one photo of you and it was put in in the Milkovich siblings section. So, uh, whenever he goes through the book he amazing that I have so many siblings."

"Really?"

Ian nodded, "It's true. It's been so important to us that they know their family or at least know of... well everyone but Terry. We leave him out."

"D-d-daddys. I-I-I'm done e-eating. C-c-can aunt M-m-m-molly c-c-come p-play w-w-w-w-with m-m-me?"

Mickey watched as his son got up from his seat and then went to go clean his plate and put it in the dishwasher, "You should ask Molly."

Yevgeny put his dish in the dishwasher and then stood by Molly's side, "W-w-w-will y-you p-play w-w-w-w-with me?"

Molly nodded and cleared her plate and then went off to play with Yevgeny in the playroom.

"Well, I think that this is gonna work nicely." Ian said as he picked up his glass of water.

Mickey nodded, "It's good. I think that she really needs some actual family. I'm okay with her crashing here. Are you?"

"Yeah. Totally. I think it'll be a good thing."