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Carl had always looked up to Ian. Ian was cool in ways that his other siblings just weren't. Ian knew how to shoot a gun and he knew all the best handgrips to use in a knife fight. He'd taken Karate and even tried to steal a helicopter once.
When he found out Ian was gay he wasn't sure what to think. The other kids at school always made it sound like being gay made you weak, but Ian was the strongest person he knew.
Then Ian brought Mickey home and they were obviously together. That's when Carl decided that the kids at school were even stupider than he'd thought because Mickey was fucking scary. Rumor had it that Mickey had a whole room full of guns and he'd been shot at least twice. Nobody messed with Mickey.
Carl might've even liked Mickey if he wasn't so rude to everyone except Ian. He still thought Mickey was pretty cool, though, and was holding out hope Mickey would show him those guns someday.
So the next time he heard a bully make fun of someone for being gay, he punched them. And when they called him gay, he said "thank you."