Chapter Text
Nobody could say they didn't fucking know that if they came to the part of town where the monsters lived they'd get what they were asking for. That was the kind of shit that moms were supposed to whisper to their babies when they put them to bed at night. Before they locked all the windows and set all the protections that the old wives' tales said would keep the monsters away.
Mickey's mom had never told him that. She'd never had to. No one knew how dangerous a monster could be better than another monster.
Didn't mean that he and Mandy were safe while they walked down the street. Hadn't kept their mom safe; no one ever said that monsters didn't prey on each other just as much as they preyed on normals before the walls went up and the things that went bump in the night got trapped inside them. She'd been small and dark, fragile like a bird. Some days their dad told Mickey and Mandy that they looked just like her. Mickey didn't know why that always made Mandy flinch away. Didn't fucking need to know why. Just that it was a good fucking reminder that some monsters ate their young.
Mandy was almost close enough to touch. Mickey kept his hands tucked in his pockets; Mandy's were clutching at her own elbows. Safe. They could touch. Sometimes. If they were careful. If they didn't slip and forget the difference between sibling and snack. Not that there was anything to take. Not when the fucking problem was that they were both empty as fuck.
"Coulda just used dad." Mickey muttered it under his breath. Mandy rolled her eyes at him. They both knew why they weren't gonna use their dad, or one of their half-brothers. Not this time. There was only so much anger you could take filling you up before it soaked in so deep that there was a taint of it left with every other meal you had. They'd already hit that place. Both of them. Even when he was hungry enough that it felt like his insides were gnawing their way out Mickey was angry.
Mandy said she didn't wanna feel like that all the time. Mickey didn't fucking care. It wasn't like there was any point in getting used to better. Their family was there. It was convenient. They were gonna end up taking little sips from them anyway. Might as well get used to it and stop pretending like he could have better.
What the fuck ever. Mandy had wanted to go out hunting. If Mickey hadn't gone with her she'd have gone on her own, and Mandy didn't fucking know when enough was enough. Mandy woulda drank the whole world if Mickey hadn't been there to grab her in a titty twister and pull her away once she'd had enough.
They were their mother's children, but they both had parts of them that were all their dad.
The way Mandy got his attention wasn't exactly a nudge. They had their own language, a way of coming close enough without ever actually brushing. Mickey thought it was kinda badass sometimes. Like they were secret agents in those movies that they stole from the store the normals set up so they could pretend they weren't just leaving the monsters alone and hoping that they ripped each other apart enough that they didn't have to fucking deal with it. He didn't tell Mandy that. She probably knew he was thinking it anyway.
Mickey caught the bob of her shoulder out of the corner of his eye, felt the change in the air as she came close but didn't quite touch. Her voice was barely more than a whisper. "What about that one?"
He followed her gaze to a shadowy figure lurking at the mouth of an alley up ahead of them, red eyes glinting in the dark. "Don't be fuckin' stupid. They're always fuckin' hungry, you wanna make that shit worse?" Fucking bloodsuckers. Mickey'd had to grab one of them once when he was coming after Mandy. Felt like he was starving for a fucking week, no matter how much he drank. He was never fucking doing that again.
Mandy huffed and gripped at her elbows tighter, hugged her arms closer to her chest. "It's better than feeling like him."
That was the fucking problem. Monsters were single fucking minded. You were all about the rage, or the hunger, or the lust, or... what the fuck ever else it was that made monsters. None of that shit was good. Maybe the lust. The lust wasn't so bad except that it fogged his mind. Kept him from being careful. Made him forget that if his dad found out...
Normals. Normals were what they were supposed to be hunting. Not that Mickey'd ever laid a fucking hand on one of them. They were all safe on the other side of the fucking wall; even if one of them found some way to wander into Mickey's side of town someone woulda snapped them up before they got too far. Monsters ate other monsters, but they all knew that what they really wanted was a human.
What the fuck ever. That wasn't gonna be a choice; they were gonna have to pick something. One of the sleepers wouldn't be so bad. Mickey wouldn't mind sleeping for awhile, long as he could get himself somewhere safe before he crashed. Course that meant finding one of them. Not like they were out on the streets much as the rest of them. They'd have been easy prey if it wasn't so hard to get a hand on them without getting knocked the fuck out by whatever that shit was that leaked through their skin. Sedatives or something.
"Come the fuck on, Mands. There's gotta be a fuckin' hoarder around here somewhere." They were lucky, they'd get away wanting to collect shit. Mickey could live with that one. Their dad didn't mind that one much. Especially since he knew he could take whatever it was that they ended up dragging home, after it'd worn off and they'd stopped giving a fuck about things.
Another huff, then Mandy nodded. "Fine. Douchebag."
"Dickbreath." Mickey took another glance at the bloodsucker, eyes narrowing. Fucking weird he hadn't noticed them too. They looked like easy prey; Mickey'd used that a time or two. They both had. They were small and fucking pale, and they looked like exactly the kinda thing that a bloodsucker would wanna get his fangs in. They almost looked human until you got close enough to see their eyes.
This bloodsucker though. He was focused on something else. Something further down the alley.
Probably some kinda easier prey. Mickey oughta just leave him to it. Bloodsucker'd caught that shit fair and square and he wouldn't want anyone coming in to take any part of it. Even if the parts that Mickey and Mandy needed wouldn't do a fucking thing to the parts that he needed. Fuck, they shared with their dad and their brothers all the time. Once they'd sucked out what they needed, all that fresh meat was still just as good as it had been before they'd laid a finger on their catch.
Coulda been a hoarder down there. Coulda been a sleeper.
Fuck.
Mickey checked the gun tucked into the waist of his jeans. Nothing that'd kill a bloodsucker, but it might make him think twice. "C'mon. We're gonna take whatever he's goin' after."
One of his brothers mighta asked why, but not Mandy. Mandy grinned, quick and fierce, and reached down the front of her shirt to pull out the ASP baton in her bra. Mandy fucking knew that something that you took from someone else was always gonna be better.
Bloodsucker was already moving by the time Mickey and Mandy got to the alley. He was faster than them; wasn't faster than Mickey's bullet though. Caught him in the shoulder before he got his hands on whatever he was hunting. Mandy extended her baton with a flick of her wrist and stepped up in front of Mickey before the bullet even hit.
The bloodsucker spun around, snarling. Crimson eyes swept Mandy head to toe before they flicked back to Mickey and did the same with him. Mickey held up a middle finger.
"Soulsuckers."
Mickey fucking hated that word. They didn't fucking suck anybody's soul out. He was pretty fucking sure that souls weren't even real things anyway. Just something that normals made up to make them feel like they had something that the monsters were missing and that they could never be like them.
Not that the bloodsucker cared what they thought about it. He bared his fangs at them like they were gonna be impressed by that shit. "This one is mine."
Mickey kept the gun trained on him over Mandy's shoulder. "Yeah? Not anymore. So how 'bout you back the fuck off and we'll take it from here."
He couldn't even tell what it was the bloodsucker had been hunting. Didn't fucking matter anymore. It could be anything; now that he'd told them that it was his, Mickey sure as fuck wasn't going anywhere until he'd taken it. Didn't have to see Mandy still moving forward to know she felt the same way. He knew his sister.
Bloodsucker oughta know it too. If he knew what they were, he knew what they liked, and that the only way they were backing off was if he acted like he didn't fucking care if they took it or not.
He was gonna fight them for it then it musta been something that was worth the fight. Mickey was gonna get him some of that.
"Wh--" The sound came from behind the bloodsucker; must have woken dinner up fighting over it. The bloodsucker ignored the gun pointed at it, ignored Mandy stepping toward him, turned back around to grab its prey instead. Mickey still couldn't see much. A guy. Lanky as fuck. Bright red hair. Couldn't tell what he was. The bloodsucker was holding him close, face to face like he was gonna make out with him or some faggy shit like that.
Probably a sleeper, if he'd been taking a nap in a fucking alley. Who the fuck did that shit?
Shit moved fast after that.
The bloodsucker twisted his fingers in red hair and wrenched dinner's head to the side, lunging in with fangs bared.
Mandy dropped her baton and reached out with her bare fingers for the bloodsucker's wrist.
Mickey stood there like a fucking dumbass not doing a fucking thing; he wasn't gonna shoot his sister and he definitely wasn't gonna fucking shoot the redhead since he couldn't drink him if he was dead.
The redhead pulled back his arm and drove a fist into the bloodsucker's gut.
Bloodsucker lost his grip on the redhead's hair and started slumping toward the ground.
Mandy (so fucking hungry, just like a fucking bloodsucker now) reached for the redhead.
Mickey remembered how to talk. "Fuckin' stop it, asshole. You already fuckin' ate."
The redhead jerked around in time for Mandy's hand to land on his throat instead of the back of his neck. She looked over her shoulder at Mickey with eyes that shone bright red in the dark alley. Didn't fucking move her hands, not that Mickey had expected her to. He fucking knew what it felt like to be that hungry.
Before Mandy drank too deep, the redhead's eyes met Mickey's. He couldn't tell what color they were. Not in the dark. Not from so far away. He couldn't tell what colors they weren't though, before they closed.
The redhead was a fucking human.
Before he opened his eyes Ian thought he was at home. The sound of a girl's voice arguing with a guy's voice was something that they were all kinda used to. It used to always be Frank and Monica, then Frank and Fiona after that. Maybe Fiona and Lip now, or Debbie and Carl, but it didn't mean that there was anything actually wrong.
Except that he didn't remember going to sleep. He remembered...
It all came flooding back and Ian remembered where he had gone. Monstertown. That was what everyone called it even though the parts of the city zoned and walled off for the monsters had a government appointed name. Just like the government said that they were supposed to be called parahumans. Everyone knew that they were monsters though. Vampires, werewolves, succubi, demons, they all lived in Monstertown.
Everyone knew that once you crossed into Monstertown, no one let you back out; that meant Ian lived there now too. It was where he belonged. Maybe he was human but he was a monster just like the rest of them.
"We can't fuckin' take him home with us like a lost fuckin' puppy. He's human, anyone finds out and--"
"We can't just leave him here. Maybe we could hide him at home, but if someone finds him here they'll kill him."
"What, like you fuckin' tried to?"
"Shut." A thud, soft, like a fist hitting an arm. "The fuck." Thud. "Up!" The last thud sounded a little harder.
"Fuckin' ow, bitch!"
The girl that had put her hand around his throat, and the boy that had yelled for her to stop. Ian didn't know what had happened to the vampire that'd attacked him. He kinda hoped that maybe they'd taken care of him--the girl's eyes had been red too, when he'd turned around. He hadn't been able to see the guy's clearly, but if they were together they were probably both vampires. He thought. They'd looked kinda alike too. Like they might have been family.
Ian felt sick all of a sudden. Like he might puke on the pavement under his cheek. At least he was turned on his side so he wouldn't choke on it.
"It was an accident, fuckface."
Maybe he should sit up and tell them that he was fine. They had saved him. Kind of. It wasn't their fault that he'd passed out like a pussy afterward. He hadn't even been that scared. He hadn't had the time to be scared, he'd just reacted the same way he would if it'd been some guy he hadn't wanted to go home with outside the club back home.
Not that Ian had been telling many guys outside the club that he didn't want to go home with them.
Slowly, Ian tried to push himself up on his elbow. He fell back down with a groan, head knocking against the ground. It wasn't like it was gonna make it hurt any more than it already did.
"Fuck!" It was the guy's voice. He had kind of a great voice. Ian didn't think he'd ever heard anything better than the first time it called out telling the girl with the red eyes to leave him alone. "Fuckin' idiot, you tryin' to fuckin' knock yourself out again?"
No. Ian was just trying to get up. He knew he oughta be able to. There were twin lines of pain on his neck like the vampire had managed to almost get his fangs in, but he hadn't stayed attached long enough to have actually done any damage. There shouldn't have been any reason that Ian was too tired to get up. He'd had the need to do something itching under his skin since... since he'd decided he was going to go to Monstertown where he belonged. He hadn't been crashing. He should have been able to...
The next sound was the shuffling of fabric, someone kneeling down next to him. The guy's voice was closer this time. "Ay, firecrotch, I ain't fuckin' carryin' you so you better get your ginger ass up."
Ian opened his eyes. It took a second to focus enough for the pale blur to turn into a face. Close up, the guy was cute. Even cuter with the way he was biting his lip like he was worried, even if he had told Ian that he wasn't carrying him. His eyes...
His eyes weren't red. They were black. Black as coal.
That didn't make any sense. Everyone knew that vampires had eyes red as blood, werewolves had eyes orange as fire, succubi had eyes purple as... yeah, he couldn't remember what the flowery comparison he'd heard for that one was. Demons' eyes were bright gold. None of them had black eyes. That meant that this guy was something else.
Ian had heard people whisper that there were monsters in Monstertowns that humans didn't even have names for. He hadn't thought he'd meet any of them on his first day.
Whatever this guy was, he looked like he wanted to shake Ian awake. Wasn't reaching out to do it though. "What, you fuckin' mute or somethin'? Jesus."
"I'm fine." Ian's voice sounded rusty, like he hadn't used it for a while. He tried pushing himself up again. This time it was a little easier; mostly that was because he didn't want this guy to think that he was fucking weak or that there was something wrong with him. There was nothing wrong with Ian.
There was too much wrong with Ian. He wasn't gonna tell this guy about it though.
Must have been something about getting attacked by a vampire and then passing out like a girl that cleared your mind. Aside from the just waking up fog Ian felt pretty okay. It was probably going to sink in later where he was and that he'd almost died but he'd deal with later when it got there.
"Oh, he fuckin' speaks." The guy sat back, scowling, then flinched when the girl's hand hit the back of his head. "Fuck, Mandy, fuckin' stop it."
"Stop being an asshole, Mickey, and I will." The girl's eyes were faded now. Still red, but not the bright red they had been. Edging more toward black like the guy's. She smiled at Ian over the guy's shoulder. "Hey. I'm Mandy. This dick's my brother Mickey. Sorry about the whole... thing. I was a little hopped up. I'm cool now."
Mickey didn't even do a great job at hiding the "bullshit" in a cough. Mandy smacked him again.
It was kinda like being back home. Ian didn't figure he shoulda been able to smile after all that, but he couldn't help it anyway. "Ian. No hard feelings. Thanks for..." He looked around; the vampire was on the ground. Ian thought they might have rolled him away a little.
He thought maybe he might have been dead. He didn't know if that was supposed to make him feel something or not.
"...that." Ian waved a hand toward the possibly-corpse. "But I mean... no offense... why?" They were all monsters, right? They were supposed to kill humans, not save them.
Mickey snorted. "That's what I wanna fuckin' know." He'd been the one to tell Mandy to stop though. Ian didn't take it too seriously.
"Because," Mandy said, staring at Mickey like she could burn a hole in his head with her eyes. For all Ian knew maybe she actually could. "We've never met a normal before." She was still smiling; Ian mighta been wrong, or missed something because he maybe had a concussion, but he was pretty sure that she hadn't been holding her shoulders back and her chest forward quite that much a second ago. "I wanted to know more about you."
If Ian hadn't glanced back to her brother in the right split second he might have missed the way he rolled his eyes. Mickey really was kind of a dick. Like grumpy old man or something. Ian wondered what it'd take to make him smile. Maybe even laugh.
"I've never met..." Ian didn't want to call them monsters to their faces. He wasn't sure how people who lived in Monstertown referred to themselves. He didn't know what they called the place where they lived either. He hadn't taken the time to figure anything out before he headed over the wall. "Anyone like you before either."
He tried to keep his eyes on Mandy while he talked; he could still see Mickey out of the edges of his vision.
Mandy's smile stretched even wider. She looked young when she smiled like that. Younger than Ian felt. "Let's trade. I'll tell you all about me if you tell me all about you." She leaned in over Mickey's shoulder. "How'd you even get here? I didn't think anyone could get past the wall. Are you alone or did you bring someone with you? Like a--"
"Jesus fuckin' Christ, would you shut up?" Mickey was scowling now, even more like a grumpy old man. It shouldn't have been attractive. Ian still liked it on him. "Who the fuck cares where he came from, what the fuck do you think you're gonna do with him? In case you fuckin' missed it he sticks out like a sore fuckin' thumb."
Ian's lips twitched into a frown when annoyance flared in his chest. Not overwhelming. He was still kinda numb. Kinda normal. "I can take care of myself."
"Yeah? Maybe on your side of the wall. This side you need a little more tooth an' nail, tough guy." Mickey muttered another 'fuck' under his breath like it'd hurt him to get through a couple of sentences without using it as punctuation, and started pushing himself back up to his feet.
Ian was tough. Not that he'd done a good job of proving it so far. He'd show Mickey though. Somehow. Starting with reaching out and using the wall to actually help himself up to his feet while the two of them started arguing again like he wasn't even there.
"There's that place where you go to shoot stuff." Mandy was looking at Mickey instead of Ian now. "What about there?"
"That's my place." Mickey was--Ian wouldn't say whining. Not to his face. But he was definitely sounding a little whiny about it.
Mandy huffed. "Please. Ian's not going to care that you keep your gross porn there. Right, Ian?"
Only if it was guy on guy porn. And only because that might mean that Mickey would be down to hook up. "I don't mind. You don't have to, though. I mean it, I can take care of myself." He just had to find a place to sleep where nothing could sneak up on him. Food. Weapons. Stuff he probably should have brought with him.
Stuff he hadn't even thought about until right then. It hadn't seemed important.
"Yeah, but we can help." Mandy reached over and brushed her fingers against Ian's arm. "Just until you get set up. You can make it up then."
Ian shook his head. "I don't want you guys to get fucked over because of me. I've got it from here. Don't have to do me any favors."
"It's not--" Mandy's voice was soft and pleading. Something about it reminded him of Fiona begging him to...
Mickey's voice was harsher. His eyes were locked onto the place where Mandy's fingers touched Ian's arm like there was something about it that made him mad. Madder. "Yeah, well, fuck you. You think we can't take care of that shit? We're fuckin' Milkoviches. We don't get fucked over."
Maybe Ian'd hit his head harder than he thought. That or Mickey wasn't actually making any sense. And what the fuck was a Milkovich? Kind of monster they were, maybe? "I didn't say that you couldn't, I said--"
"What the fuck ever. Fine. Take him to the fuckin' spot, Mands." Mickey pushed past both of them. "You want him, he's your fuckin' pet. I'm not taking care of him."
Must not have been Ian. Mandy looked confused too. "Where are you going?"
"Some of us didn't fuckin' eat."
Ian watched him go. Well. Watched parts of him go. Maybe he was kind of a dick, but he did have a great ass.
"Sorry about Mickey." Mandy linked her arm through Ian's and looked up at him. She looked a lot less threatening when he wasn't pretty sure she was going to finish the neck mauling that someone else had started. "He's an asshole but..." Whatever she'd been planning on finishing that sentence with at first, she replaced it with a shrug.
"It's fine. My--" My brother is an asshole too, that was what Ian had started to tell her. Except thinking about Lip made him think about the rest of them and thinking about the rest of them made his stomach hurt. He hadn't even told them where he was going. He hadn't even told them that he was going. They wouldn't know where he was.
Ian didn't know how long they would look for him before they gave up. He didn't know if they would look for him at all or if they would decide that he would turn up again when he needed something. Like Frank. Like Monica. Maybe they would think they were better off without him too now. The smile he gave her was weak. "My feelings are pretty hard to hurt."
No matter how weak it was, Mandy returned it with a flutter of her eyelashes. "Then you're going to do just fine here."
That unclenched the feeling in Ian's gut. Yeah. Maybe he was. He couldn't remember what his plans had been aside from getting over the wall in that place he and Lip had found when they were younger, the one where you could climb up and see right over. They'd always dared each other to go up there and try to get a look at the monsters; neither of them ever had. He didn't think about how much he wished he coulda told Lip about meeting them now.
Whatever the plans had been, he had a safe place now. Somewhere to sleep that wasn't an alley. Ian figured that he could figure it out from there. In the morning. When he had the energy that had gotten him over the wall pumping through him again. He could take on anything when he felt like that. Even monsters.