Chapter Text
Mickey had a new neighbour.
He lived in an old apartment house, you could hear every damn noise that came from the other apartment. Especially since Mickey shared a wall with the new neighbour - meaning his bed standing exactly at the wall the neighbour had his bed pushed up against as well on the other side.
When Gallagher - That's his name according to the tag on his door - moved in, Mickey couldn't care less.
He wasn't really the "neighbourly" type.
He preferred staying all by himself in his apartment except when his son came over.
Gallagher was sickening friendly. Mickey preferred to stay out of his way, but whenever he met him in the hallway, he would get a big smile and "Good Morning Mr Milkovich" or "Good evening Mr Milkovich" he sometimes would even try to initiate small talk, but Mickey mostly just walked away unimpressed.
But Mickey sometimes saw Gallagher talk to the other people in the house, being so overly friendly. He once even carried Mrs Clarkson's groceries upstairs for her when the elevator broke down again - she lives in the fucking 9th floor!
Apart from his weird behaviour with the other people in the house the Gallagher was a normal guy.
Mickey didn't know much about him. He seemed to work nights since he always seemed to leave the house when Mickey came back from work.
He wouldn't go so far to call him "average" because what Mickey had noticed from quick glances and passing in the hallway was, that Gallagher was extremely attractive.
However, by now - months after Gallagher moved in - Mickey was annoyed by him.
Really fucking annoyed.
It started about two months ago.
Mickey was woken up in the middle of the night by loud music booming through the next door apartment.
He shot up in his bed to loud club music.
"What the fuck?!" He groaned and looked around.
He needed a second to get what was going on and where the obnoxious noise was coming from.
He kicked his blanket away and angrily stomped to the door and grabbed his keys.
He hammered on the door.
No answer, no way this guy didn't hear him over the music.
"Open up you motherfucker!" He yelled and hammered on the door again.
It took another minute but suddenly the ginger ripped the door open.
"Gallagher, knock it off, now!"
"Hey!" He threw his hands up and grinned "You wanna party with us? Just a small group come in! You want a drink?"
"Didn't you hear me? Turn the music off! Now! It's in the middle of the fucking night you prick!"
But Gallagher only laughed
"Hilarious!" And went into his apartment expecting Mickey to follow.
Mickey peeked into the room.
A few people were in there, men in shorty shorts or crop tops sitting around a table playing poker.
"Come in come in, have a drink, you wanna join in? We're playing strip poker"
"Dude, it's three am! Turn the damn music off or I come back with a fucking assault rifle"
"Dude, you're such a party killer" one of the guys exclaimed
"He's cute though" another one of them said and eyed him so obviously that Mickey cringed and kind of shrank together in himself as if he was about to hide his body.
"Yeah, he is, look at those tight briefs showing off that ass, yum"
Mickey raised his eyebrows at the very subtle men.
"Another word and I'll get my gun right now and blow your brains all over the fucking wall!"
"Hey!" Gallagher interrupted "Alright, calm down, I'll turn the music down a bit, alright, no guns!"
Mickey eventually stormed off to his apartment again.
The music was quieter, but Mickey could still hear them laughing and partying.
Mickey decided he hated Gallagher.
The next day when Mickey came from work, the ginger stood next to his apartment door with a notebook, scribbling stuff down.
"There you are, finally, man" he exclaimed hyper when he saw Mickey.
"What do you want?"
"Have a quick talk that's all"
"Well, I don't have time, I gotta get my son soon" and he didn't want to talk to Gallagher, but he wouldn't say that.
"I just want to say," he put himself between Mickey and the door so Mickey couldn't unlock it "I'm gonna stay in this house no matter if you want it or not!"
Mickey frowned "Okay? What does that have to do with me?"
"I'm just saying, I'm letting no homophobic piece of trash tell me where to be and what to do"
"Congratulations. I still don't see the connection. You hold that little speech to everyone? Can I go now? I want to change before I get the kid"
"What connection don't you see? You were threatening to kill me and my friends last night!" He exclaimed "I have rights! And people like you should understand that we're not living in-"
"Woah, Bitch, don't get your panties in a knot! I don't like being woken up in the middle of the night by bad music and I certainly don't like drunk queens eyeing me and objectifying me as if they weren't fucked in 10 years! I'm not a fucking homophobe, you idiot, I don't care what you put up your ass just don't play loud music at 2 am to it!"
Mickey was gay himself, he grew up with really fucking homophobes around him and yeah, he used to beat gays up as well because he was scared of anyone finding out about him being one of them.
But he let all of that stuff behind him by now so how dared this kid to make a scene here?
"Oh" he said after a while and then started grinning "Alright, sorry to bother you. I have to go anyways, got a date"
Gallagher was gone sooner than Mickey registered his words.
He just hoped, he wouldn't be so loud tonight, since his son slept at his place.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mickey put Yevgeny to bed.
"No tired, pops" Yevgeny said and he and Mickey both knew it was a blunt lie.
"You just almost fell asleep during Ninja Turtles" Mickey chuckled "Time for bed young man"
"You know, you know who's my favourite turtle?" The 3 year old wanted to win time.
"Hmmm... The red one?"
"No" Yevgeny giggled
"No? Well, maybe the... black one?"
"There is no black one!"
"Really, yeah, you must be right... then it's the yellow one isn't it?"
"Yeah" Yevgeny nodded and giggled "Michelangelo" he pronounced the name not even close to right, but it made Mickey smile
"Yeah, right that's his name. Now bedtime Yevy"
Yevgeny lay down and Mickey tucked him in under the blanket.
"Story" Yevgeny mumbled.
"What? A movie and a story?" Mickey asked, "But that's only for really, really good boys that always listen to mommy and pops"
"I am" Yevgeny promised "Bedtime story, please, pops, please"
Damn him, the blond boy really was his soft spot as stupid as it may sound. But when his son asked something of him like that, how was he supposed to say no?
"Alright, one, but a small one" He took one of the story books for Yev.
"No" he stopped him "A Mandy story"
Mickey bit his lip "You want a story about Mandy?"
Since Yevgeny was a baby Mickey would tell him stories about his sister Mandy as bedtime stories (It had started because he hadn't been able to buy his son a real storybook)
"Okay, let's see. Once upon a time there was a girl called Mandy. She was the nicest and cutest little girl in the whole world! And she lived in a big house with her mother and her brother. Everybody in her little town loved her. But one day she wanted to go into the woods to play. And her mother said, do stay away from the big bad wolves, little girl. Because big bad wolves they want to eat little girls. So little Mandy went into the woods. She played around between the trees and talked to the little animals and picked some flowers for her brother. But then, suddenly, there was a big bad wolf in front of her. But Mandy wasn't scared, you know? No, Mandy always thought everyone was good at heart"
"Even big bad wolves?"
"Even them Yevy"
"What happened then?"
"The wolf played all nice and innocent. He wanted to give her little candies, because all the little kids love candies. But you know, what I'm always saying? We don't take candies from strangers. So, Mandy didn't want them. That made the big bad wolf angry and he tried to grab her with his big paws and take her with him, because he was also a hungry big bad wolf. But Mandy was fast. So, she ran as fast as she could until she reached her house. She slammed the door shut but the wolf had followed her. Her brother was waiting for her at home and her brother was a knight. And you know what knights do Yevy? They protect other people. So, the knight hugged her sooo tightly because that's always comforting her. But Mandy was still scared the wolf would come inside so the knight said: 'we'll build a big fort in the living room of blankets and pillows. Because no wolf can come into our fort so we will be all safe in there'. So, they build a fort and then they hid in it with snacks and drinks and soft music. And no one could come into the fort and Mandy was all safe" he ended his little story "Good night bud"
Mickey gave him a good night kiss on his blond hair, switched Yev's nightlight on and walked to the door.
"Pops?"
"Yeah?"
"Did the knight always keep her safe?"
Mickey bit his lip "He tried Yevy. But even knights make mistakes sometimes. But don't worry, I'll keep you safe, always"
Mickey switched the big lights off and let the door open a few inches.
He walked over to a window and opened it, lighting up a smoke.
He didn't like his whole apartment smelling like cigarettes, so he always smoked at the window.
He looked outside when he heard two loud voices. Clearly drunk men. He looked down and two figures walked up to his apartment house. When they passed a street light, Mickey could make out red hair on one of them.
"Gallagher, fuck, why can't you go to him?" He muttered "If you wake up Yevy I'll chop your dick off!"
A few minutes later he heard giggles outside in the hallway and then they disappeared in Gallagher's flat.
Mickey just shook his head.
Mickey flung the smoke outside and closed the window.
He sat on his bed and played a game on his phone.
He couldn't switch on the TV yet.
The first half hour of Yevgeny sleeping had to be absolutely quiet or the boy would wake up again.
He leaned against the headboard his thoughts lost in memories about his little sister Mandy, when he heard the Gallagher giggling in the room on the other side of his bedroom wall.
He heard muffled voices from the room, and it didn't take them long to land on the bed and Mickey heard loud moaning. He wasn't sure if it was Gallagher's or his company.
Of course, Gallagher had to be that kind of asshole.
Mickey sat paralysed in his bed while the Gallagher banged someone next door. Apparently, their beds were on the same wall, that's what he gathered from the thudding noises against the wall that had to be a bed.
After a few minutes the first shock was over and he quickly got up from the bed and sat in the living room, hoping that Yevy wouldn't wake up from someone's sex noises.
How was he supposed to explain that?
"Fucking hell, Gallagher, I'm gonna break your skull tomorrow, I swear" he whispered, but luckily Yevgeny didn't wake up that night.