Note To Readers- The beginning will be a like a re-cap of what's happened within the last few months, since Caci was born. But that is not what the entire chapter will be. -Alayna
Caci was healthy but since she was early she was kept in the hospital a few extra days, Mandy balled when she found out Caci had to stay and she was forced to go home; Caci came home less than a week later.
Lip was at work when Caci was released and Mandy was super paranoid and didn't want to drive alone with Caci, she forced Mickey to go with her and drive since he had his license and Mandy felt comfortable with him; he walked to Mandy and Lip's place then drove to the hospital.
The ride there was uneventful; the ride home however was not. Nothing bad happened but the entire time Mandy kept telling him to slow down and to turn more carefully. Mickey just rolled his eyes, and complied.
When Caci was a month old Mandy brought her to Mickey's apartment.
"Mick I really need you're help." He blew smoke out through his nose and flicked the ashes into the ashtray.
"With what?"
"Lip's at work 'til six and I've gotta work at three. I need you to watch her for a few hours." Mickey would do a lot of shit for his sister, he'd kill for her if need be, but being left alone with her baby; Mickey didn't know if he could do that.
"Why can't you get a Gallagher to watch her? There's like a million of them." Mandy snorted and roller her eyes.
"I could but I don't want to ask them, and besides it's not like you've got anything to do. You just sit around here playing xbox and shit." It was Mickey's turn to snort and roll his eyes.
"That's not all that I do."
"Just please Mick. I already texted Lip and told him to pick her up here." Fucking sneaky bitch.
"Fuck Mandy. Yea, whatever. I'll watch her."
And that is what started Mickey's three hours of pure hell, it wasn't that Caci did anything too terrible; Caci was a good baby, she didn't even cry at him.
She did shit once though; Mickey almost threw up when he changed her.
But the entire time Mickey was alone with her all he could think about was what if he had a kid? What if Gallagher was back and they had a baby? He tried to push the thoughts from his mind, because all they were doing was pissing him off, because he knew that him and Ian would probably never have a kid, which really depressed him.
Mickey fed her at four like Mandy had told him. She went to sleep shortly after.
She didn't wake up again until Lip picked her up.
After she was gone, Mickey almost cried.
Two weeks before Ian was supposed to come home Mickey was visiting Mandy and Caci; he tripped on some fucking toy that was on the steps and fell down and broke his fucking arm.
He was fucking pissed. It wasn't gonna be healed by the time Ian was home.
The night before Ian came home was a sunday, Mickey spent all day cleaning the apartment up, although he wasn't really sure why; Ian knew that Mickey was a very messy person.
Mickey didn't sleep at all that night; he just laid there thinking about what it was going to be like once Ian was home.
He counted down the hours, minutes and seconds until he would be waiting in the airport, searching for that bright red hair.
Ian's plane was supposed to arrive at ten; Mickey arrived at the airport at nine thirty. He kept telling himself that he was only early because he didn't have anything else to do.
At nine fifty-two they announced over the loudspeaker that the flight was going to be about a half an hour late, something about fog or some shit; Mickey stopped paying attention after they said Ian's flight number and delayed.
He slumped down in one of the uncomfortable chairs and waited.
Almost an hour later the plane was finally landing; Mickey nearly jumped out of his chair; he felt like a fucking dumb ass for being so excited.
Soldier after soldier walked in and was greeted by family members, wives, husbands, children, parents.
After atleast twenty men and women had walked in, Mickey finally saw him.
He saw Ian's hair first; he had cut it, it had been a quite a bit longer just three days earlier when they had video chatted.
Mickey's heart lept into his throat as Ian walked toward him; he tried to keep his face blank, but he was struggling.
"Mick." When Ian spoke, Mickey couldn't hold it back, he smiled.
"Firecrotch." Ian's eyes widened, clearly surprised that Mickey had used that name in front of everyone.
Mickey could tell just by the way Ian was staring at him that he wanted to hug him; Mickey really didn't wanna do that kind of shit in front of everyone, but he did it anyway, he told himself he was only doing it for Ian; but he was doing it for himself as well, he really did want to hug the red-head.
As he pulled away from the embrace he grabbed Ian's hand; not to hold it, definitely not, he did it so he could pull Ian toward the exit. He wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.
They grabbed Ian's luggage, not that he had much, just the two duffel bags he had taken with him over there as well as a backpack full of shit, and headed for the car. Lip had immediately offered to let Mick borrow his car; Mickey had actually said thank you.
The ride to the apartment was pretty silent; it almost seemed tense.
Lip had told Mickey to just bring the car back the next day or whatever; he didn't need it, they still had the car that Mandy drove. Besides, they were all meeting at the Gallagher house for dinner at six thirty.
Once inside the apartment Mickey threw Ian's bags into the bed room while Ian looked around, which was a bit odd since the apartment was pretty fucking small, just the living room, kitchen and bathroom other than the bedroom.
Mickey lit a cigarette, nervously and sat on the couch waiting for Ian to come out of the bedroom. Once he had looked around the red-head said something about changing his clothes.
Mickey sucked on the cigarette as if his life depended on it; he felt really nervous and he didn't even know why.
Ian came out and grabbed the cigarette from Mickey's grasp and took a drag.
"Fuck I've missed that." Mickey snorted and grabbed his cigarette back and extended the pack and lighter to him.
"Then smoke one. Don't fucking try to steal mine." Ian just shook his head a took a cigarette and lit it.
"Alright, I'm just gonna fucking say it, I fucking missed you Mick." Mickey rolled his eyes.
"Stating the obvious there Gallagher." Ian softly laughed.
Mick looked at Ian's face, the kid had changed, not a lot but enough that Mickey could see the differences; Ian still looked tired, like he had when they video chatted, but also the kid looked older, almost enough that Mickey felt a little weird thinking of him as 'kid', but fuck Ian was still younger than him so it was okay.
While Mickey was lost in his mind, thinking about the red-head; Ian leaned in and kissed Mickey.
Mickey was brought out of his mind quite quickly, his instincts told him to pull away, so he did. Ian's face fell; he looked like he was gonna cry.
Fuck.
"You don't want to kiss me?" Ian had tears falling down his face and was fucking whining; Mickey couldn't handle that shit.
"Oh fuck, c'mon don't cry, you just surprised me that's all." It was like Ian hadn't even heard what Mickey said, he just cried harder.
"Fuck." Mickey didn't know what to do, his heart was telling him to pull Ian into his arms and comfort him but his brain was telling him that doing that was completely fucking gay.
Mickey just sat there watching and listening to Ian cry; he couldn't take it.
His heart won; he pulled Ian into his arms.
"Hey, shh. Listen it's okay. I love you." Mickey loved saying those words to Ian but at the same time he felt like the gayest person alive, he felt like if anyone heard him say those words they would shoot him; kill him instantly, for being in love with another man.
Ian sniffled a bit.
"I-I lo-love you too."
Ian stopped crying pretty soon after that.
"You know I wasn't just crying because you didn't kiss me right?" No, really Mickey had no fucking clue why he had been crying; Ian was used to not getting kissed by Mickey, Mick wasn't and probably never would be a very 'kissy' sort of person, so if it was the kiss that had upset him then he had over-reacted, but Mickey knew it wasn't the kiss that had upset Ian; but he knew that it was something, something big.
"I kinda figured that out, so why were you crying?" Mickey sounded a bit rude, but fuck, that was just the way he spoke.
"I just-this all-it's so overwhelming. I mean, I've been looking forward to this since you were sent back here, but not that I'm here with you-it just seems like it can't be real. It's too much." Mickey could understand that, he felt the exact same way.
"Don't think you're the only one." Ian tilted his head to the right a bit, and looked as if he was analyzing Mickey's words; try to decipher exactly what Mickey meant.
"Oh fuck Gallagher, don't look at me like that." Ian looked like he had just figured out the hardest math equation in the entire universe.
"Are you saying that you feel the same way?" Mickey groaned.
"Fuck, how many times do I have to tell you, no stupid questions. Shit." Mickey confirmed that yes, he felt the same way, and Ian knew it.
Note to readers- Okay I have to end there, I was gone all day, and had no time to write, now it is 11 pm. And, this has NOTHING to do with the story or the progress of it or anything but I want you all to know that last night, I had a little bit of an issue, and I cut all my hair off. Don't ask why, because I'm not entirely sure, but it's pretty interesting now. It's super super short. -Alayna
