"Jesus what?" Mickey threw the door open fully expecting to see his sister – maybe Ian, maybe.
"Ever the charmer." A stream of smoke rose toward the ceiling and he thinks he just noticed that there weren't any fire alarms anywhere. Wasn't that like - illegal? "Haven't changed a bit huh?"
Lip curled his mouth up into one of his know it all grins that made Mickey's skin burn with piss all annoyance.
"Have you?" He growled out while Lip let himself right in leaving bits of ash on his rug.
"I've gotten nicer I think."
Mickey narrowed his eyes before turning to cross his arms over his chest. The move still sent a shock of pain crawling up his side and oh right – he had only been stabbed 3 days ago. "Remind me to ask Mandy about that."
The older Gallagher turned smirking again. "Funny – I was just gonna go bring up a similar conversation with Ian."
The problem with talking to Lip was that he was a poker face. Saw every opportunity as one to gain the upper hand and swipe his opponent's gold from behind their back before they'd even noticed he'd blinked. And Mickey was a challenger – determined to watch you back down and whither before his stare, retreating back to the safe space of anywhere but next to him.
Lip didn't like retreating and Mickey had no gold for him to steal. So now what? A game of fucking wits.
"What the fuck do you want?" He didn't put anything behind the words. There wasn't any point in throwing out your best weapon when a battle was cyclical. It would just bounce back and hit him in his own face.
Lip picked at a piece of left over food on his kitchen counter. "You know I've been thinking and a couple things just can't quite –" He snapped his fingers. "Click."
He made to move back into his apartment but made sure to keep the door open. Let's not pretend we're getting comfortable.
"Brain cells giving out on ya?"
"But then I thought to myself –" He stopped and cocked his head to the side. "Lip you're just thinking about this too much. Look at what is right in front of you, the answer is probably already there just lingering on the surface."
He splayed his hands out miming something that looked so stupid it didn't even matter his intentions.
Mickey's stomach twisted. "Careful you might hurt yourself using all that brain power."
Lip laughed. "Dually noted." His cigarette stomped out into a crumble of burnt paper and ash. The one tucked behind his ear already began falling in between his fingers. "But it's funny because your dad died –" The flame licked at the end of the Marlboro and he sucked a deep inhale. "No disrespect."
"None taken."
"I guess I just find it really interesting how you show up on our doorstep in tow with Fiona all bruised and battered – quiet and just wanting to sleep."
He could feel his patience fraying. The fates pulling his thread tighter and tighter and one of those bitches slowly plucking away at it to see what the last thread – literally - would be.
Mickey patted at his sweats for a stray cigarette. There weren't any. "Natural fucking detective now aren't we?" His pack was on the microwave, he could see it just barely calling to him. Hey! It's your friend cancer – I'm over here.
Lip reached out to hand him his own. "But then it hit me that Ian disappeared that night too – So I can't help but think that is too much of a coincidence." Mickey kept his eyes trained on the floor. Lip didn't falter with his outreached offering. "It's like that game you know? Was it Ian in the ballroom with the candles stick –" The smoke danced, curling up to his nose and he couldn't help it anymore.
His nails scratched across skin as he snatched it away. "Or Mickey in the kitchen with the rope?"
Lip smiled. "Exactly."
"Is that what you're wearing?" Todd raised his eyebrows while scanning every inch of Mandy's body. And Ian thought it was a little weird how straight it seemed versus the words that would have elicited a 'that's fucking gay' from her own brother.
The straps of her sandals bit into her skin causing the flesh to rise into enflamed red strips of bulging pain. Her dress – painted on. A glove shrunk 3 x too small reminding him of OJ Simpson.
If the glove doesn't fit you must acquit. Weird.
Mandy licked her lips pushing dark red smudges of lipstick around just enough to make you wonder if she was bleeding.
"You know Todd –" Her eyes narrowed into slits that a snake wouldn't dare mimic. Ian counted to 10 inside his head hoping to be in some sort of deep magical sleep by the time he was done. "Most men just come right out and tell a girl when she's looking a bit slutty." She placed a hand tenderly over her heart when his face began to flush in embarrassment. "Oh I'm sorry – do you prefer whore?"
"Mandy I –"
Ian cut him off. "Todd, stop. Please."
The man's eyes widened. "Are you serious? This is my fault that she starts putting words in my mouth making me out to be the bad guy? It's bad enough you no doubt do that on your own but it's another thing to blatantly take her side."
A fist echoed against the door reminding him of when Lip and he used to have secret knocks to get into their room. Carl had forgotten it one day and they swore up and down, over the few bills they had that no matter what they would not cave in their conviction.
Every time he hears the rap of knuckles against a door he can only think of that – that's not the secret knock.
"Oh I'm sorry Ian –" Mandy clapped her hands falling into the couch. "I forgot that your boyfriend enjoys passive aggressive actions that make me mistake him for a shell of a man longing for some love." Her pointer and middle finger former a 'V' before her lips and she wiggled out a long pink tongue to lick at the air. "You'd think he was straight all the pussy shit falling out of his mouth."
Ian stopped counting numbers and seconds feeling the beginnings of a migrain working behind his eyes. He opened the door to be met with Lip punching him in the shoulder. "In memoriam of Carl being an idiot." His brother held up his hand in scout's honor. "I swear to never forget the secret knock."
Mandy scowled from the couch crossing and uncrossing her legs. Each movement making the dress stretch in groans of fabric itching to just unravel already. Todd's foot tapped off beat against the leg of the table and he knew he wanted Ian to stand up for him. Knew even more so that he couldn't.
It's surprisingly hard to justify yourself in pretending to care.
The heels of Mandy's shoes scraped screeching against the floor as she shot up and flung a hand in Lip's direction. "What the fuck is this?"
Lip smiled and squeezed Ian's shoulder before moving further in toward her. "I just couldn't stay away."
The smell of a cigarette burned the inside of his nostrils and Ian pinched the side of his thigh wondering whether it would turn to a bruise or a welt.
Mandy's body twitched. "I don't mean you I mean him asshole."
Lip craned his neck back toward the door to where Mickey was standing, arms crossed and the cause of the burn sitting between his fingers. Ian applied more pressure against his own skin and wondered the irony in the thought of Mickey being the burn to his cooling. Would he be numb entirely without him?
Todd's foot tapped harder and his brother kept the smile plastered in place before turning directly toward him.
"He couldn't stay away either."