Chapter Text
Mandy was sitting on the couch in the living room with her legs folded underneath herself, mindlessly flipping through channels looking for something half decent to watch on TV, when she spotted someone sluggishly enter the room. She glanced in the direction of the stranger, clad only in boxers and a tight tank top, and immediately took notice of his attractive features and messy head of red hair. The guy was definitely hot, but at the moment he also looked all kinds of adorable, with that soft sleepy expression on his face and a vaguely disoriented look in his eyes.
“Hi,” the man said with an easy smile while lazily combing a hand through his hair.
“Hey,” Mandy replied, with a smile of her own, still holding the remote in mid-air but giving the man all of her attention for the moment.
“Bathroom?” the redhead asked, immediately following the question with a yawn.
“Down the hall to your right,” replied Mandy, helpfully pointing in the direction he needed to go.
The man offered another polite smile and then proceeded down the hall, the clicking of the bathroom door being shut travelling to Mandy's ears a few seconds later.
She returned her eyes to the television with a small grin on her face. It wasn’t unusual for hot guys to come out of her brother’s room in the morning, although typically she would just briefly meet them when they were already on their way out of the apartment. More often than not, the dudes wouldn’t stick around until the morning at all, but sometimes her brother was either too exhausted or too drunk to kick them out during the night and so they ended up sleeping in his bed. It wasn’t a common occurrence, and she usually wouldn’t exchange actual words with the guys her brother slept with, nor were they normally as cute and adorably smiley as this one was.
She was lost in her thoughts, not really paying attention to the television, when her brother appeared in the doorway to the living room a minute later. Mandy briefly cast her eyes in his direction and noticed that her brother looked like shit. As in, more so than usual. He also had a weird look on his face, like he was nervously debating how to say what he was going to say.
“He, uh…” Mickey began, his eyes not meeting his sister’s. He seemed to take a moment to collect himself, heaved a deep sigh and tried again. “Where's-"
“The redhead?” Mandy didn’t give him time to finish the sentence, mildly annoyed that he was taking so long to spit out his question. When Mickey barely nodded, she told him, “He's in the bathroom.”
Mandy could swear she saw a look of relief crossing her brother’s face. She supposed Mickey thought the guy had left, though why he would give a flying fuck, she had no idea. She heard a faint noise coming from the bathroom then, which prompted her to add, “Sounds like he might be taking a shower, too. Fucker's making himself right at home, huh?” She tried to joke, but Mickey just nodded again, eyes downcast and shuffling his feet awkwardly where he was still standing in the doorway to the room.
Not one for pussyfooting around her brother, who was being uncharacteristically quiet and contemplative instead of being his loud brash self, after a minute she loudly exclaimed, “Why are you being so weird?”
“Fuck off, I’m not being weird,” Mickey said, finally looking her in the eyes, a scowl appearing on his features. At last Mandy was able to recognize her brother, but she wasn’t dropping the subject that easily, letting her eyebrows travel high up on her forehead to let him know she wasn’t convinced at all by his answer.
That seemed to do the trick, because Mickey was soon casting his eyes on the floor again and softening his expression, apparently ready to elaborate further.
“It’s just…” he paused and exhaled heavily, seeming to hate having to discuss this – whatever it was – with his sister but equally needing to get something off his chest. “Fuck, I wanna… I wanna ask him for his number,” he finally managed to blurt out, a slight blush coloring his pale cheeks.
“You wanna ask him his number?” Mandy had to request confirmation that she heard him right. Obviously it wasn’t that weird of a thing for a person to want to do, but this was her brother. He never showed any interest for his one night stands beyond their dicks before, and even that kind of interest was always utterly and completely gone by the next morning, once he was sober enough to realize he brought home just another piece of shit mediocre fuck. Maybe that was the thing, though. Maybe it wasn’t a mediocre fuck this time.
“Was the fucking that good?” she asked, more and more baffled by her brother’s odd demeanor.
“Shit, it was fucking… mind-blowingly good,” Mickey replied. And was that a shy smile accompanied by a full-on fucking blush on his face? “But it's not just that though,” he continued, expression turning slightly more serious. “We, uh, we talked. You know… afterwards? Shit, I must’ve not been that drunk ‘cos for once I didn’t pass out immediately after, even though I was fucking beat.” Another shy smile, and a look on his face like he was fondly remembering something from last night. “He just started talking and I didn’t wanna go to sleep yet. I wanted to stay up and talk to him. How fucking weird is that?” he finished with a disbelieving chuckle, still not meeting his sister’s eyes.
Mandy was shocked. She had never heard her brother speak like that about anyone, especially a guy he just hooked up with the previous night. In all honesty, she didn’t think she ever saw him smile like that while talking about another human being before.
“So, you actually like him?” she asked, still working to wrap her mind around a concept that was just so foreign to her, at least when it came to her brother.
“Shit, Mandy, I don’t know. Maybe? All I know is I don’t want him to walk out that door and never see him again.” He looked exasperated with himself, like he couldn’t believe this was happening to him. He was clearly completely frustrated with the situation he found himself in. Mandy knew her brother didn’t like not being in control of his feelings and he hated having to depend on other people for anything. He was probably worried the guy wouldn’t be interested in giving him his number and would end up walking out the door and disappearing forever.
Mandy could see this was genuinely important to Mickey, so even though he wasn’t exactly asking for her help, she thought she would offer some advice to the little shithead anyway.
“Fuck, okay. Look, just ask him, alright? Try to be cool… but not cold. I know that’d be your go-to move, but don’t try to act all casual and uninterested. You are interested, and you need to fuckin’ let him know that in this situation,” she supplied helpfully, trying to flash her brother a semblance of a reassuring smile.
Mickey started nodding nervously while Mandy was speaking. “Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” he whispered, almost to himself. A few moments later, a small frown appeared in the space between his eyebrows, seeming to grow deeper the more he thought about it. “What if he says no, though?” he raised his head to look Mandy in the eye and continued, “I mean, I get the feeling he does this all the fuckin’ time, same as I do, just going from one casual hook-up to the next. What if he ain’t looking for anything more than a one-night fuck?”
Mandy studied his face for a few seconds, seeing all the tension and the worry etched into his features. Her heart ached for her older brother in that moment, because she knew for a fact he had never let himself be this open and vulnerable with anyone before, and now he was just so damn afraid of being hurt. She decided to appeal to the rational part of his brain. “What if he is, though? You won’t know until you ask him, right? I know it’d be disappointing as fuck if he ended up saying no, but it's better than playing it cool and watching him leave without having so much as made a fucking effort to stop him.”
“Yeah, guess you’re right,” Mickey said softly, voice barely louder than a whisper. Again Mandy had to wonder what in the hell had happened to her brother, who in normal circumstances would be very much reluctant to admit that his little sister was right about anything, ever. It was just another item in the list of extremely odd behaviors she was witnessing Mickey exhibit today. And it was all down to that redheaded model-looking fucker who was currently taking a shower in their bathroom. Mandy knew she kinda liked him as soon as he smiled to her, but the guy must be pretty fucking special to have this effect on her brother.
Mickey seemed to still have some doubts about the whole thing, if his furrowed brow was any indication. Mandy waited until he spoke again, “It's just… even if he was interested in going further than a casual hook-up, why would he wanna do all of that with me? I mean, come on, he’s way out of my fucking league, the guy's fucking perfect. He's nice, funny and sexy as all fuck. He could literally have any guy he wanted.” His voice broke the tiniest amount as he finished speaking, a dejected look passing across his face.
“He went home with you though, didn’t he?” When Mickey nodded, a small tentative smile on his lips as he considered that thought, she continued, “And you said you two stayed up talking last night. I'm pretty sure he wouldn’t just do that with anyone, not if he didn’t enjoy their company and what they had to offer besides sex.”
“I guess I made him laugh a few times,” Mickey said, grinning more confidently now. “He told me a bit about himself and listened when I told him shit about me and actually it turns out we have tons of stuff in common,” he concluded, his big smile reaching his eyes and making them crinkle at this point.
“Ya see? I don’t know what you’re fucking worried about, sounds like you two hit it off in a big way,” Mandy reassured him with a genuine smile, pleased to see her brother looking so content and relaxed for once.
“I know, I know, I’m just fucking useless at this sort of shit. I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing,” Mickey admitted the last part of his sentence quietly, like he was sharing some kind of secret.
“Hey, you don’t gotta tell me, assface. I know full well just how fucking useless you are,” Mandy told her brother, smirking playfully, their familiar teasing serving to reassure and ground them both. All she got in response from Mickey was a middle finger and an amused smirk of his own, followed by a low chuckle as he returned his eyes to the floor. But this time he looked much more relaxed than when they started this conversation, so she counted that as a win. She truly did love her brother, as annoying as the little prick could be sometimes.
They both heard the shower turning off then and Mickey looked slightly panicked for a second. He made eye contact with Mandy and muttered, “Uh, thanks. I'm gonna…”, gesturing in the direction of his room, quickly turning his body as he spoke.
Mandy nodded but Mickey didn’t see it, having already disappeared to his room. She returned her eyes to the television, but again she wasn’t paying any attention to the screen, a pleased smile plastered on her face while she thought back to her brother’s words and the slightly terrified but excited look on his face throughout their conversation.
A couple minutes later the redhead finally emerged from the bathroom. He stopped beside the couch on his way to Mickey’s room and smiled at Mandy again, while using a towel to dry his hair.
“So, are you Mickey’s roommate?” he asked cordially.
“Yeah. Well, also his sister,” Mandy replied, easily returning his smile. She could definitely see the appeal, that’s for sure.
The guy’s smile seemed to grow brighter at that piece of information, like he was excited to be meeting someone from Mickey’s family. “Cool! I’m Ian, by the way,” he introduced himself with a hand pressed to his own chest.
“Mandy,” she replied simply, still smiling to him.
“Nice to meet you, Mandy,” Ian said with a small dorky wave, quickly taking his lean body and his still beaming smile all the way across the room on his way to Mickey’s bedroom.
Mandy was frankly still a bit in shock after what she had witnessed this morning. But honestly, she was happy that her brother was letting himself accept the fact he was maybe interested in this guy. She knew it wasn’t easy for him and god knows he deserved to finally have something good in his life. Mickey would never admit in a million years to being lonely, but she guessed he couldn’t be completely satisfied with just going from one random hook-up to the next, never really making a connection with anyone.
She just hoped this Ian guy wouldn’t end up hurting her brother by rejecting him, but from what she'd seen so far, things were looking hopeful. He was nice, sweet, friendly and he didn’t hesitate introducing himself once he knew she was Mickey’s sister. Hell, most guys who woke up in her brother’s room probably didn’t even remember Mickey's name in the morning, not that he would remember theirs. They definitely wouldn’t make the effort of learning her name.
But it was clear that there was something different about this guy. There was also something strangely familiar to the way he moved around their apartment, like he belonged there all along somehow. Mandy couldn’t really explain it, but in a way this stranger didn’t quite feel like one, maybe because he seemed to feel more comfortable around the siblings than anyone else had in a long time.
In any case, Mandy was pretty convinced that her brother’s luck had finally turned and she couldn’t be happier for him, genuinely. She relaxed against the back of the couch and tried to focus on what was happening on the screen again, although she was really curious to know how the conversation in the other room was going. But she wasn’t going to eavesdrop like a goddamn psycho, she would just wait till after Ian left to endlessly pester her brother for information until he finally relented and told her every single detail of what was said. You know, like a normal fucking person would.