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One day Mickey is dragged into custody for headbutting some asshole at a skating rink, the next day he’s being sentenced to community service because the asshole wouldn’t drop the charges. The best thing he can think of to pass the time easily -- without picking up trash or volunteering with old folks -- is to work at the animal shelter. Seems simple enough work and easier to spend time with animals so he doesn’t have to small talk or listen to stories about the good old days . What fuckin’ ever.
His first few days there he’s given pretty shitty work -- literally. Cleaning out cages and washing everything, doing bedding and food and trying not to get bitten or scratched by literally every creature in that sinkhole. After that he’s trusted more to spend time on the desk which is obviously a lot easier, but only if everything else is done. He learns to finish that work quickly so he can just hang by the reception and learn how to take people through the adoption process. Which is remarkably fuckin’ simple. He thought it would be harder to own a living creature.
By the time he’s coming to the end of his community service, he’s developed a love for the place. Not that he’d ever admit it aloud, but when they offer him a paid position (since he’s already trained up, it would be a waste!), little as it may be, he takes it without a second thought.
~
When the cat comes in, no one has any idea how it’s still alive. No one can get close enough to it to even check its gender. From the war-wounds, they just assume it’s a tom. And the wounds are plentiful. Missing one of it’s big blue eyes, scars littering it’s body and face, where visible under it’s matted black fur, mostly where chunks are missing. His ears are barely holding together, he has a serious underbite, missing claws and others can’t retract.Oh, and most importantly, he was huge. One of the girls who works at the shelter identifies him as a Maine Coon. Mickey falls in love with the asshole. Probably around the third time he tries to get him to eat and the thing almost takes his eye out. After a while he realises the roar noise he makes is actually a purr, and it becomes slightly less nightmare-ish.
He names him Attila, because it’s the first ruthless as fuck guy that comes to mind -- though, he is very nearly named Segal, but honestly, he just isn’t clean cut enough. No one wants to adopt the standoffish roaring battle-cat, and weeks pass, his expiry date looming. It takes a few staring contests between Mickey and Attila and a lot of “come on man, be fuckin’ reasonable” and “you don’t even want to live with me” until the conversation turns more towards “naw man, not like that, not after all your fights, you deserve a fuckin’ warriors death, if you ain’t already fuckin’ eternal.”
He takes him home that evening. There’s a huge adjustment period where Attila tries to shit, piss and rip up everything in his apartment. He tries to appease the overlord with toys and cat-nip and the best food he can afford. They strike a balance eventually when Mickey convinces him to wear a collar and lets him roam out the open window. Attila comes back when he pleases and lounges around the apartment. Usually pretty soon after Mickey bothers to clean up the cat hair. Mickey doesn’t smother Attila, and Attila doesn’t attack Mickey and that’s about it.
Occasionally, when Attila’s having what Mickey refers to as a Sensitive Moment, he’ll slink closer and lie along Mickey and stare until Mickey pets him. When it’s over he walks away again and neither of them talk about it.
~
A Handsome Man Enters.
Mickey looks up from the computer at the desk and looks the guy over, all long legs and red hair and a slightly erratic look on his face.
“Hey man, can I help you?”
“Uh yeah, I wanted to look at the dogs?”
“Thinkin’ of adoptin’ or you just havin’ one of those days?” he says as he stands and gets the keys, leading him through to the back.
“Oh, sort of both, but I was thinking it’d be cool to have some company, you know?”
“Yeah, sure,” Mickey says, they’re met with howls and barks and whines as soon as he opens the door, standing aside to let the guy in, who instantly takes to looking up and down the rows, crouching in some areas and petting others through the bars as best he can, wriggling one finger in. Occasionally having to snatch it back to keep it attached to him.
“Can any of them be adopted?” he asks after walking around them for a while.
“Yeah, except for the ones in those two bottom pens with the white tags, their owners have been found and notified.”
“Awh, that’s good. What do the red tags mean?”
“They’re comin’ up to to their destruction date,” Mickey says, trying to sound neutral, but he does fuckin’ hate it.
“Oh shit, really? How long do they have left?”
“Red means two weeks, they sort of become a priority, but they’re usually dogs with a poor temperament, or sometimes older dogs or too big, or less cute, so no one wants to rehome them,” he explains, reaching over to pet a fluffy thing that’s bouncing up at him.
“How many am I allowed to take?” the guy says with a sudden urgency.
“Uh… do you have any other pets?”
“No.”
“I think six is the limit per household but we don’t usually--”
“Okay, can I take--” he starts to move to point at the ones he wants, and Mickey blinks with surprise.
“Woah woah, dude, hold up. I thought you were just browsing, now you wanna adopt six dogs at once? Have you ever even had a dog before?”
“Uh, no, but it’s fine. I helped raise my brothers and sisters, a dog can’t be harder than that.”
Mickey raises an eyebrow, but then shrugs, he feels bad for them, they’ll be destroyed soon enough, half times he just releases them, someone taking them in would probably be better. “How about you start with two and go from there, huh? They’ll probably all still be here.”
“Right, okay, uh, which are most urgent?”
Mickey checks up the notes on the pens before he indicates a big mixed breed dog with long black fur, “this guy is, and-” he points to the cage across from it, “he’s pretty close with this guy, would be shit to separate them.”
“Okay! Done! What do I have to do?”
Mickey nods him towards the door again, “just some forms to fill in, some agreements, then I can let you take them.”
~
Mickey watches him walk out an hour later with two dogs in tow, and doesn’t expect to see him again unless it’s to leave them back. He’s starting to get used to being wrong about things. He returns just two days later with an eager expression.
“It’s you again,” Mickey says trying not to look too unenthused.
“Yup! It’s me! I’m ready for the rest!”
He blinks a few times, and then nods slowly, trying to tell himself it must be better than just being on the street, “you sure you got the space?”
“Yeah, I mean, they’re only like this big,” he says, gesturing to show him, “got plenty of room.”
“And a garden?”
“Yup, totally got a garden, they love it, always running about and digging holes and getting up to no good,” he says with a lopsided grin.
“Ian, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah! I didn’t get your name, did I? Or did I just forget, I’m sorry if I did, nothing stays in my head these days.”
“Uh, no, you didn’t get it, I’m Mickey.”
“Right, Mickey, yeah, Mickey, that’s a great name. Should name one of the dogs Mickey.”
He laughs a little, but doesn’t manage to make it sound anything less than uncomfortable. “Yeah, okay, wanna come on back and have a look?”
“Sure, let’s go!”
Ian is practically bouncing on his feet and thrumming with far too much energy, much like he was when he came by last time but now he has even more enthusiasm, after his uncertainty has been erased. Familiar with the building now, and the process, he springs ahead of Mickey once the door is open and looks for the red tags, picking out the four he wants and smiling at Mickey expectantly.
“You sure you’re sure about this?”
“Yup, absolutely. What’s this one called? I really like him.”
Mickey is thrown for a moment, trying to figure out how that conversation shifted so quickly and then he looks at the dog, a fluffy brown mutt, “uh I think Sandy named him Cola Cubes.”
“I love him.”
~
“Do you… want to bring them back in?” Mickey says the third time Ian returns, the guy looks exhausted and yet still somehow happy.
“No! No way, I came for more.”
“Dude, I told you you can’t take more than six.”
“But you could give me another, couldn’t you?”
“You have like half a fucking sleigh team, there’s no way you have room for more. Plus half of them are fucking giants, how could you even afford to feed them all?”
“They’re all fine, don’t worry.”
“Dude, you know, saying that just makes me think you’re in the dog meat industry.”
Ian suddenly looks shocked and appalled beyond belief. “I would never --”
“Yeah yeah, okay, but fact remains man, I can’t give you more dogs. Also if you have a chance take a photo of them with today’s paper, you know. For posterity.”
~
Half an hour later, a man enters. With a dollar-store moustache and a hat on. He stands by the desk while Mickey stares at him in complete disbelief.
“Hello, yes, fine establishment you have here. I would like to adopt some dogs.” The accent is atrocious and completely unplaceable.
“Dude are you kidding?”
“Sorry, do I know you? I don’t think I do, my name is Curtis Norman.”
“You’re name is fuckin’ Ian Gallagher, you were just here, man, you think a hat and a moustache is going to throw me off?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about but I don’t like the way you’re speaking to me at all.”
Mickey stares at him deadpan and the whips his fake stache off.
Ian stares back at him for a few long moments with rounded eyes before he quietly says, “that’s unusual.”
“Get the fuck out man, go look after the dogs you already got.”
~
An hour later a girl walks in, all freckles and red hair and comes up to the counter, leaning her arms on it, just barely able to reach over.
“Hi, I’d like to adopt a dog, please.”
Mickey looks her over and is already suspicious, “sure, can I just take your name first?”
“Yeah, I’m Debbie!”
“Debbie…”
“Uh, G--rant. Debbie Grant.”
“Sure you ain’t Debbie Gallagher,” Mickey asks quirking a brow at her. She keeps her composure though.
“Nope, good old Debbie Grant.”
“Right, so Ian ain’t outside, no?”
“I have no idea who Ian is.”
Mickey stares at her for a long time before he says, “you gotta be over eighteen to adopt an animal.”
“I’m eighteen!”
His eyebrow stays quirked as he stares at her. “You got any ID?”
“Not on me…”
“Yeah come on, you look just like him, go tell him to try harder next time, okay?”
Debbie grumbles something and gets as far as the door before she shouts out, “he said no!”
Ian appears briefly by the windowed front of the building and folds his arms at Mickey looking grumpy while Debbie shrugs and they leave.
It’s fucking unbelievable to him the effort they’re going through.
He takes a still of him from the security camera and prints it out, pinning it on the board so no one accidentally gives him another animal while Mickey is gone.
~
He doesn’t hear from him again for a few weeks, and then all of a sudden there’s a girl and a guy coming in with six dogs panting and barking and pulling the arms off of the people holding their leads. The girl comes forward, long dark hair and matching dark eyes, looking almost as exhausted as Ian did the last time he was here.
“Can I help you guys?”
“We need to leave these dogs back,” she says.
The guy steps forward around the herd, “yeah our, eh, brother adopted them a few weeks ago, eh… he’s--”
“He can’t look after them anymore, and we can’t either, can you just take them?”
Mickey wets his lips and looks down at them. They look well fed, maybe just slightly distressed but he was at least caring for them before whatever happened.
“Yeah, sure,” he says, coming around the desk to take the leads. “Your brother okay?”
They glance at each other briefly before the girl says, “he will be.”
~
Mickey is more than a little surprised when a few weeks later Ian turns up again. He looks exhausted again, but somehow twice as worse -- Mickey didn’t think that was possible. His hair is a mess and he’s in old sweats, his eyes drooping and heavy, arms wrapped around his waist.
“You took my dogs.”
“Should you be here man, you don’t look good.”
“I’m here to get my dogs back.”
Mickey bites his lip, “your brother and sister said you couldn’t look after them anymore, said you weren’t well.”
“I want my dogs.”
“Ian, dude… that was weeks ago.”
Ian stares at him, frown settled on his face and it takes a while before it turns into realisation, and then he looks like he might cry. “You mean they… you killed them?”
Mickey swallows, “not- not me. I-- sorry, man.”
“Even Cola Cubes,” he says, lip trembling like he’s some kinda fuckin’ cartoon character.
Mickey rolls his shoulders, looking away, looking uncomfortable. Thinking maybe the truth would give him hope, maybe it would be better to keep the idea that they were all put down in place.
A tear actually does fall when Ian nods. He looks empty, completely empty, as he turns and walks out.
~
It sits with Mickey for a long time, that face. In truth the dogs timelines had been reset, two were actually put down, one was rehomed and the others Mickey managed to release so at least when they would be recaptured, if they were, they could start the timeline over again. But that face makes his stomach uneasy.
He thought the guy was just crazy, that someone would report him and pick the dogs up in a few weeks for mistreatment, but Ian genuinely seemed to love them. To fucking care for them. He wanted to look after them and they were stolen away while he was weak because his family didn’t want to help.
He knew it was against protocol, but that evening he looked up Ian’s address from the files, and Cola Cubes’ rehoming address.
~
The door opened and the little redhead girl Debbie opened it, “you’re the guy from the shelter.”
“Uh yeah, is Ian here?”
“Oh uhm… he’s up in his room, he doesn’t really like people talking to him.”
Mickey tried to match up the uber-talkative guy he’d first met with the one he had last seen and what the guy must be like now, if it was a sliding scale. Her eyes shift to the dog sitting behind him though and she lights up.
“You brought his dog back?” she says, brightly. “That might actually cheer him up, come on, I’ll show you his room!”
Mickey shifts awkwardly and tugs the lead gently to coax him inside but Cola Cubes takes off ahead of both of them, from familiarity and half drags Mickey up the stairs. Debbie just grins and stands by the bottom, not bothering to lead him when he already has someone to show him the way.
Cola scratches on the door urgently until Mickey opens it and he practically leaps onto the bed, pulling the leash out of Mickey’s hand and burrowing into the blankets until he finds Ian’s face to lick.
The room is dark and the air smells stale, there isn’t much in the room as far as personal items go. It makes Mickey think of a prison cell. He crosses the room to push open the window and let air in and Ian grumbles from the bed, arm going weakly to push Cola Cubes away before he processes that there is a familiar dog giving him sloppy kisses.
“Cola Cubes?” he says slowly, voice sounding unused.
“Yeah, I uh, I found him,” Mickey says and Ian seems startled by his presence, but in a slow sort of way, like everything is underwater.
“I thought you said he was dead,” Ian says, coming out of himself slowly as he pets behind his ears and sits up a bit.
“Yeah, I mixed him up with another dog, he uh… escaped. And we picked him up again so I thought I’d bring him over.”
“Thank you,” he says quietly.
Mickey edges towards the bed, looking around the room again as he moves. “You okay?”
“Yeah I uh… yeah.”
Mickey swallows again and nods, “you uh… when you feel better you should hit me up.”
“What for?” Ian asks, frowning as much as he can.
“Just to uh… hang out or something I guess. You know?”
“Why?”
“You uh… I dunno, just…” he shrugs, “just if you wanna.”
“Okay.”
~
“What if they hate each other, though,” Ian says, holding tightly to Cola’s lead.
Mickey shrugs, not looking worried at all. “We’ll just get rid of your dog, no problem.”
“No fuckin’ way!”
“I’m kidding, Ian, come on. We’ve been through this. At most he’ll scratch him once and then he’ll learn Attila is boss.”
“Attila shouldn’t be boss, one of us should be boss.”
“Attila is boss.”
Mickey lets them into the apartment and Cola Cubes immediately starts sniffing everything, Ian following him about, tugged by the leash. Attila slinks into view, eyeing Cola curiously.
“Round one, ding ding,” Mickey teases.
“Awh come on, don’t pit our kids against each other.”