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"Tell me a story?" Liam asked. He snuggled down deeper under the blankets on Ian's side of the bed and gave Ian a hopeful look.
Ian was watching Liam for the night while the rest of his family was busy. Now that he lived with Mickey he didn't see Liam as much as he'd like so he was glad for the chance to spend some time with him. Of course Mickey hadn't been thrilled that he'd gotten exiled to the couch for the night, but Ian had promised to make it up to him later.
Ian opened the backpack that Fiona had dropped off with Liam and looked for one of his picture books. Unfortunately there were none. "I'm sorry, buddy. Looks like all of your books are at home."
Liam's face dropped. "Oh."
"But, hey, we don't need a book to tell a story," Ian hurried to add, trying to get Liam to smile again. They'd spent the entire evening watching pirated Disney movies and thinking about them gave him an idea. "How about I tell you a story you've never heard before?"
Liam nodded.
"Okay." Ian sat down on the bed next to Liam. "Once upon a time, there was a boy who was very lonely. He never quite fit in with his family and there were things about him that no one understood. He loved them all and they loved him, but sometimes that's not enough.
So one day he decided that he wanted to be a knight. He was sure that he wouldn't be lonely anymore if he was in the king's army. So he ran and lifted weights and learned how to use a sword until he was better than anybody he knew."
"Did it work?" Liam asked.
"For a little while," Ian answered. "The boy became a knight and was known throughout the kingdom as the Red Knight, but being part of the king's army wasn't as wonderful as he'd hoped. If anything he was even lonelier than he'd been before.
Then one day he met the Black Knight. The Black Knight was an infamous villain, harassing all of the townspeople. He stole from all of the shops and used his strength to hurt people instead of to defend them like the Red Knight did.
Well the Red Knight was outraged. He couldn't just let the Black Knight get away with what he was doing so he sought him out, prepared for a fight."
Ian paused, remembering the tire iron he'd pulled on Mickey in this very room. If it weren't for that stupid, reckless decision he wouldn't be here now.
"What happened?" Liam asked when Ian had been quiet for too long.
"The Red Knight showed up for a fight and ended up falling in love instead," Ian answered. "He realized that the Black Knight wasn't the villain that he'd thought he was and he fell hard. They both did and for the first time in his life the Red Knight wasn't lonely.
But their happiness was short lived because the Black Knight was stuck living with an evil dragon. The knights tried to be careful, to keep from waking the beast, but one day they were too loud. Enraged the dragon attacked and to protect them both the Black Knight had to sacrifice his love for the Red Knight. The dragon was pleased at the pain he'd caused and accepted the sacrifice.
Heartbroken the Red Knight left the village."
"Why didn't they kill the dragon?" Liam asked.
"It was stronger than both of them," Ian answered. "They were still young knights and weren't ready for a fight like that."
"But they do beat it, right?"
Ian smiled. "Eventually. First, though, the Red Knight left everything that he knew behind and wondered the world. He was sadder than he'd ever been before and while suffering he encountered a sorcerer. The sorcerer offered to make everything better and he accepted.
But the thing was, you can't just make sadness go away and what the sorcerer had offered was only an illusion. The Red Knight was trapped in a never ending illusion, day in and day out, and the worst part was that he didn't even know it.
His family searched far and wide for him, but no one could find him. Then one day the Black Knight joined the search. The dragon thought he'd removed all of the Black Knight's love, but you can deny love and you can ignore love, but you can't actually remove it."
"And he found the Red Knight?"
"Yes," Ian smiled. "The Black Knight entered the sorcerer's lair and roused the Red Knight from the illusion with a kiss. They returned to confront the dragon and this time by fighting together they managed to win."
"And lived happily ever after?"
"Of course they lived happily ever after!" Ian exclaimed. He tickled Liam's side making the boy giggle. "And now it's time for you to sleep."
Ian kissed Liam's forehead and got up to leave the room, stopping in his tracks when he saw Mickey standing in the doorway. "How long have you been there?"
"Long enough to know you made that sound a lot easier than it was."
Ian stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind them. "Fairytales are always easier than reality."
"If only a fucking kiss could cure everything," Mickey said and Ian was relieved that Mickey didn't seem to be upset by the story…or all of the times he'd used the l-word. Even after all this time Mickey still used that word very sparingly.
Ian smiled. "I don't know. Sometimes they're pretty epic."
Mickey rolled his eyes. "When did you get so girly, Gallagher? I guess I should be glad we were knights instead of fucking princesses."
"Neither of us could pull off a tiara," Ian deadpanned.
Mickey chuckled and leaned up to press a quick kiss to Ian's lips. "I don't know if we can manage the happily ever after either."
"Give us time."