Work Text:
Betrayal
/bəˈtrāəl,bēˈtrāəl/ noun
the action of betraying one's country, a group, or a person; treachery.
Mickey sat on the couch. He wasn’t a hundred percent what show he was mindlessly absorbing, he thought maybe criminal minds but he wasn’t sure. Regardless, he was content sitting there watching TV, drinking his beer and enjoying a quiet house. A quiet house was a pure anomaly. Growing up his home was never quiet, the Gallagher’s was definitely not any calmer. There was a lull in his life where silence and peace were all he knew. Those few years where Ian lived alone in their own apartment and the only noise that could be heard was them. He was naive to settle into that silence. The second Ruby became part of the family, silence flew out the fucking window.. Baby cries turned into toddler tantrums which eventually turned into baby cries plus toddler tantrums. Now the girls were older and silence was never an option. There was always some kinda noise in the house. Albeit teenage melodrama, loud argued conversations between sisters, spousal disagreements, loud music, SVU reruns, dogs barking, whatever , it wasn’t often that the house was quiet.
But maybe the stars aligned that afternoon because at that moment, Mickey had finished up work early. Ian had picked the girls up from school on his way back home which meant that Mickey had the house to himself. He wasn’t wasting the peace. He laid on the couch. In complete silence, the only noise he heard was the low hums of the tv and Roma’s little lip smacks every few minutes.
He almost fell asleep in the serenity of it all. Laying on the couch, Roma at his feet, Pistol, the much smaller dog, had his head on Mickey’s chest. His eyes fluttered close as he let out a low content hum as sleep began to swallow him in its embrace. Then the moment was over. Just like that. Mickey could hear the telltale sign of the garage door being opened behind him. A few seconds later Autumn walked through the garage door.
“Daddy!” She whisper-shouted. So much for silence. Mickey rubbed the sleep from his eyes, sitting up so that Autumn could find a seat next to him. Both of the dogs seemed to signal, both hopping off of the couch, running to the open garage so they could go outside. Autumn nudged him with her elbow. “Ruby and Dadda got into it on the way home”
The father and daughter were always like that. Autumn was relatively a quiet kid, a habit born out of her shyness, however, she never missed an opportunity to listen in on someone else’s drama. Mickey blamed early exposure to Sandy. “No shit?” Mickey raised an eyebrow.
“I wasn’t really listening to their conversation because I had my earbuds in. I didn’t catch the beginning but they started yelling so I stopped my music”
Mickey snorted. Nosy little fucker, she definitely was his kid.
“Yeah, so anyway they were arguing back and forth on the drive but dadda parked outback because he wanted to ‘talk to her’. I wanted to stay and listen s’more but he told me to head inside. He’s like really mad so I didn’t want to challenge it but damn Ruby is getting her ass handed to her right now”
Mickey knew that he would get more details from his husband later so he didn’t push Autumn to give him any more information. With their daughter turning sixteen, the angst and rebellions of teen years were in full effect.
There was a lull where everything was quiet once more. The dogs ran back in as the garage closed, Ian and Ruby’s yelling filled the once silent air.
“Ruby! Hey! Don’t walk away, I’m trying to talk to you” Ian’s voice could be heard echoing in the garage before Ruby appeared in the kitchen behind the two. She shrugged her backpack off at the door, her posture slumped over. She looked both incredibly uncomfortable and mad.
“I don’t want to talk anymore!” She barked back, Ian finally emerged, shutting the door behind him a little too harshly.
“Ruby,” he repeated coldly. His face was a shade of red he only got when he was really mad, filled with pure irritation.
“What’d she do this time?’ Mickey raised an eyebrow at the two, trying to defuse the situation a little.
Ruby stammered, releasing her murderous gaze on Ian to snap over at Mickey who was getting off the couch. “Why do you assume I did something?”
“Well did you?”
“No!”
“Okay?” Mickey raised a hand up to her that said ‘and?’. “So why are we yelling?”
Ruby rolled her head back in frustration, her neck cracking under her leaned back skull. “Dad told Uncle Lip my business!”
“Yeah and?” Mickey just shook his head, still not understanding a point of conflict. “He tells Lip everything. Pretty sure he knows the last time I took a shit”
Both of them chose to ignore Mickey, venom still aimed at one another. “Ruby, knock it off.” Ian ran his hand over his face just wanting this whole argument to be over. Work was already stressful as it was, he was running behind schedule the whole day and lulling behind. He was relieved when the workday was over and he could go get the kids. He missed their stupid little faces and relaxed himself a little at the thought of a peaceful afternoon, maybe a pizza, maybe a movie. Plus it was Tuesday so the chances of him eating Mickey out that night were almost guaranteed. ‘It was on the up’ Ian reminded himself, pulling up through the high school pick up lane.
He missed the half-hour ago when he had hope. The second Ruby got into the car she slammed the door, evilly glaring at Ian and calling him a snitch. Ian wasn’t sure what she was talking about. The two rarely disagreed on things. They didn’t butt heads like she and Mickey often did. Their relationship was great -not that Mickey and Ruby’s wasn’t- they didn't argue over anything more important than The Bachelor.
At first, Ian tried to dissolve the situation, worn from the day already.“What are you talking about baby?”
“Don’t you fucking baby me!” She immediately roared back. Ian knew there was no going back from that point, his blood already boiling from her tone.
“Got a text from Uncle Lip in English today. Wanna guess what it said? Oh, wait you don’t have to cause you and him tell each other everything” her tone was completely patronising as she harshly pulled the seatbelt across her chest.
“Hey” Ian’s tone was immediately tenfold harsher than hers. “The fuck Ruby? You don’t get to talk to me like that-”
For the rest of the car ride he gave a lecture about respect and her attitude. He honestly had no clue what was spewing from his mouth but he was too far gone seeing red to stop. Not letting her get in a word about her original point of discontentment. Of course, this only made her angrier as Ian refused to hear her out. Her rising anger as she tried to argue back. In turn, Ian got madder as she continued to talk back. A perpetually damming cycle that continued leaving them both fuming despite the fact they really didn’t have a reason to be.
The argument lasted the whole ten-minute car ride and spilt into where they currently were standing in the kitchen, faces red, chests inflated, blood running hot.
Ian swallowed hard. “I’m done having this argument with you. Drop it”
Ruby let out a genuine laugh. “Yeah, dad, thank you so much for listening and really evaluating what I’m trying to tell you,” her voice dripped in absolute sarcasm. “You know what? You want me to drop it, fine! You keep telling everyone my fucking business, I’m not going to talk to you anymore! How about that?”
“Fucking Christ Bee, I’m not-” Ruby pushed her hand out for him to stop speaking. Ian did, assuming she had something to say, but she did just the opposite. Absolute silence.
“What, you’re just gonna ignore me?” Ian stood in front of her. Her arms were crossed against her chest, chin sticking up.
“Fucking fantastic” He snorted, sidestepping her as he went to the fridge to grab a bottle. “Least your fucking attitudes in check this way.”
Ruby intended to follow through with her promise of not talking to Ian. She stormed up to her room after the last comment. Spent a good few minutes up there before returning to the living room where everyone else was. “Whatta we watching?” She smiled as if everything was completely normal.
Autumn eyed her suspiciously but decided to go along not wanting to be the victim of another big blowout. “Criminal minds I think”
Ruby looked up at the TV “Oh Hotchy’s here, my love!” She then sat by the coffee table as Pistol ran up to her, eager to receive pats.
She remained civil with Mickey and Autumn, downright friendly even. Ian however remained to get the cold shoulder. He swallowed down his feelings. He wasn’t going to let her little temper tantrum win so he did the same as her. Pretended she wasn’t in the room either.
World War III continued to loom over the Gallagher-Milkovich house. It raged on silently for hours. The air suddenly was always tense, once friendly banter was replaced with cold shoulders and even colder tones from Ian as Ruby refused to speak a word to him. Their feud tried to drag Autumn to it, but she refused, claiming herself as “Switzerland” when they tried to speak through her. Mickey didn’t intervene either. Thought it was probably best for his marriage if he didn’t try to get in the middle of it.
It wasn’t until that night that Ian thought there would be some type of resolution.
There was a knock on the door. “Yeah?” Mickey called out. Ruby slowly inched into their room. Ian tried to conceal the smile he was sporting behind the water he drank. Here Ruby was, crawling back to say sorry. She would forget every anger thought she had towards her dad and everything would go back to normal, but Ian wouldn’t have to be the one to apologise first. He was excited to relish in his petty victory. She made her way into the room with a little smile. Her hair was pulled into a bun, she sported pyjamas now. “I’m turning in early” she yawned, eyes directed at Mickey. “Came to say good night.”
She beelined to Mickey’s side of the bed. Embracing him in a hug, her arms wrapped around Mickey’s neck, pecking his cheek. “Night dad, love ya.”
The two pulled apart, Mickey patted her head. “Night, brat” he repeated the sentiment in his own way.
Normally, she would go around the bed to hug Ian and wish him a good night. Instead, gave him one long stare before walking out of the room.
The action made Mickey burst into laughter. Ian on the other hand balled his fist around the sheets. “That little shit”
The comment just made Mickey’s laughs intensify. Ian looked over at Mickey, an eye roll. “Why are you laughing at me?” Ian huffed.
Took Mickey a second to compose himself. “Cus’ this is really getting to you, and I’m enjoying it. Never’ve been on the other side of her shit before… this is fun” Mickey gave him a cheeky smile. Ian however didn’t return the gesture, his jaw tensing.
“She’s being stubborn and defiant”
Mickey snorted. “Yeah, she's a real asshole sometimes, right?
Ian huffed, yeah that was definitely one way to put it. “I don’t understand why she thinks she gets to be mad at me here? I did nothing wrong.”
“Yeah that’s what you always think”
“The fuck is that supposed to mean”
Mickey shifted into the bed a little more, readjusting the blankets to cover his chest better. His hands shot up to show he meant no harm. “Hey relax” Mickey warned. “Not pickin’ a fight with me too. She’ll get over it, always does. Just give her time to digest whatever is going on in that head of hers first”
Ian gave another little grunt, head falling back to hit the pillow behind his head. “I don’t know, Mick. Might kill her first”
This time Mickey was the one to roll his eyes.“Relax man, go easy on her, she’s just a kid. Young and dumb, remember?”
The genuine innocence of Mickey’s statement made Ian’s blood boil. “Why are you defending her?” he snapped. Mickey eyed him over once, trying to find the right words as if to not send Ian off the edge.
“I’m not” Ian visibly deflated at that, clearly not believing him. “Seriously, not. Just gotta remember that she’s at a sensitive age right now. I would rather her ice us out than be fighting people in abandoned buildings and fields like we did. Rather her safe and pissy than damaging things and being pissy”
Ian just eyed Mickey for a second, getting a ‘what’ gesture in response. Ian sighed, he hated when Mickey was right. Or more accurately hated when he was wrong. His back slid against the headboard till he was laying back flat on the bed. The sheets that were previously bundled around his hips reached his lower neck as he let out an overdramatic huff.
Despite all the turbulence, Ian couldn’t help himself feeling bad for a young Fiona who was passed the burden of raising her five little siblings. He always felt a little sorry for her as a kid, but now as a parent, his admiration and respect for his older sister was tenfold. All things considered, Ruby and Autumn were great kids. They didn’t have the ignorant arrogance of Lip, the stubborn set ambition of Ian. Didn’t have the general Debbieness, the rowdiness of a young Carl or the pushing curiosity of Liam. Didn’t carry the blatant ignorance of Iggy, the constant urge to fight like Mickey or the defiance of Mandy. They were good, mostly, well-behaved girls.
Ian figured that maybe Mickey was somehow the wiser of the two and knew what he was talking about. That yeah, Ruby was being more difficult and bratty than she needed to be. But she was also sixteen, knew nothing about the world and hated that fact. Her rebelling wasn’t directed at her parents, they just seemed to be the unfortunate consequence of teen angst. There was a learning curve for both of them. She was growing into herself, they watched it happen, tried to do the best for her.
Ian’s hand reached out of the sheets, straining a little to shut off the light of the bedside lamp. His eyes squeezed tightly, fists at his side taking the fabric in his hand as he stretched, a yawn following. He was tired and worn from the day. Tomorrow when he wasn’t so exhausted he would talk to his daughter. Hash it out and come to some understanding. She never stayed mad at them for more than one day. Her snubbing usually was weak in principle as she started to speak.
Ian guessed he just had to wait it out and hope for the best.
Then morning came. The family didn’t see each other a whole lot most days. They were all busy with work, school and personal lives. Only really in the morning, for dinner and a few hours after that.
That said, the few hours spent together as a family were cherished as a holistic ritual. Every day, Ian would wake up to his alarm, go on a quick run with the dogs, take a shower, a quickie if they were lucky. Then the girls would wake up and get ready while Ian and Mickey shared a cup of coffee. The family would eat breakfast than one of the dads would trade off who took the kids into school and who picked them up.
Ian formulated a plan on his morning run on how he was going to get whatever feud he and Ruby had going on to stop. It was his day to take the girls to school that morning. He could corner Ruby in the car. Make sure they came to an understanding then everything would be fine again. Their schedule could be counted upon like clockwork and he planned on using that to his advantage.
So Ian was confused when he got back from his run, pushing the porch door and seeing Mickey was already out of bed. He was fully dressed, in front of the coffee pot.
“Hey,” He gave a sleepy smile that Ian did not return.
“Hey? Why are you up?”
Mickey sighed knowing what he was going to say was going to piss Ian off. “Don’t get all bitchy on me because I know that’s where your head wants to go” Mickey’s eyes followed Ian’s as the two came closer together.
“I’m taking the girls to school today. Bee asked me too”
Ian automatically rolled his eyes. “Mick-” exasperated huff. He bit the inside of his cheek from the sheer annoyance. “You’re enabling her”
Mickey gave him a shrug, handing him the cup of coffee he had just poured. “Maybe, but I don’t think she’s gonna get into the car with you. Rather have her at school than ditching because of whatever bullshit you two have going on. Go back to sleep for the extra half hour man, take the rest.”
“Breakfast?”
“Got to drop ‘em off early Autumn had a club meeting, ‘member?”
Ian’s posture slumped a little as he bit the inside of his cheek. Mickey was keen to immediately notice the change. He reached forward, arms wrapping around Ian’s neck as he pulled the taller man down a little, a soft kiss pressed against Ian’s lips. Mickey’s hands grabbed through Ian’s slight curls as he messaged the back of Ian’s head. Ian had been married to Mickey too long to not immediately understand the gesture meant he thought Ian needed some stabilisation.
‘Whatever,’ Ian thought, he would talk to Ruby later, it wasn't like she could avoid him forever
She thought differently, however. Ian got a text from Autumn a few hours later detailing how Ruby was going to get dropped off by her friend after practice and not ride home with them at dismissal.
That set the precedent for the day. Ian was moody and irritable the entire day, even almost snapping at one of their employees. He normally wasn’t this mad. Especially not when it came to the kids. But for whatever reason, Ruby’s self-righteousness and refusal to even be in the same room as him was really getting under his skin. They were back to square one of their petty arguments.
Dinner came around again, Ruby walked through the front door a few minutes before the food was done cooking. She tried to run up to her room but Mickey called her out to join them before she could.
“Can I go eat in my room? I gotta call Aubrie so we can study for the bio test we have first period” she gave Mickey pleading eyes, knowing he was usually pretty bad at saying no to simple requests.
“Uh-huh sure, because you study” Mickey immediately called her bluff. He shuffled some more spaghetti onto her plate. “Sit your ass down at the table” he gestured over. “C’mon go” Mickey grabbed her arm, gently directing her over.
Their seating arrangements usually didn’t change much. It was always Ruby to the right of Ian. Autumn in front of him with Mickey to her left. Didn’t stray from that usually. That day however Ruby eyed the bare table. Ian was sitting alone in his usual seat, finishing up emails. He looked up at her, she just huffed not relenting any on her mission to ice him out. She sat in Mickey’s normal seat in a passive-aggressive move, waiting for the rest of the table to fill in.
Autumn gave her a side-eye but she wasn’t going to stray from her normal seat so she placed her plate down on the table and sat, shooting Ian a quickly confused glance but then took her seat.
“Auts, missed you today!” Ruby gave the most obvious fake smile she could muster. Immediately her body leaned against her little sister, squeezing her tight in her embrace. Autumn immediately tried to squirm out of her sister’s death grip to no success. Her hands reached up trying to pull their limbs apart.
“Why the fuck are you touching me right now?” Autumn whined. She hated being touched, which was a well-established fact from her infancy. Ian knew that Ruby was putting on a whole show just to piss him off further. “Oh my God, Ruby, seriously stop!” The younger blonde continued to wiggle in her chair. Legs hitting Ian’s across from her as she tried to slide out of the hold.
Ruby finally released Autumn with a little huff. “Don’t go running off and telling people that imma smother” her word choice was intentional. Ian rolled his eyes as he put the computer away on the counter behind him.
Mickey was not bothered, as he usually wasn’t. He placed Ian and his plate down on the table then took the seat that was supposed to be Ruby’s next to Ian.
“Thanks for dinner, daddy” Ruby gave another toothy grin, this time aimed at Mickey as she took a bite of her breadstick. Eyes glanced over Ian as if to highlight she was saying nothing to him.
That seemed to hit the final chord in Ian. His shoulders tensed, as he squeezed his eyes tight. The voice that followed was a full-blown yell. “Ruby I am so fucking done with your shit!”
This broke her vow of silence, eyes widening a little from the initial shock but then her head shook, hair falling from behind her ears, slashing onto her rosy cheeks. She matched his tone. “Yeah well, have you ever thought that maybe I’m done with yours?”
Mickey gave a huff, he too felt the sentiment of being done with all their shit. He didn’t know when in his life he had become a moderator but he missed his ornery days of causing chaos now that he was being the one forced to solve it. “Hey, you don’t get to speak to your dad like that” Mickey immediately warned, fork pointing angrily towards her.
Ruby’s eyes doubled once more, stammering again. “Unfair! You don’t even know what he did and you’re blindly siding with him”
“Not siding with anyone” Mickey managed to quickly interject the reminder before Ian could speak up.
“Ruby, please fill me in on what I did” Ian's voice was truculent as he pushed his plate away from him.
“ Really ?” She dramatically threw herself against the back of her chair, voice accusing Ian of playing dumb.
“Yes Ruby, really. What did I do?”
She slicked back up, leaning forward so that her chest was directly over the dining table. Her hands reached forward to wildly gesture towards him once more, her emotions more than she could manage to get out into words. “You told Lip about me and my friends”
Ian huffed, hand reaching up to his temple to try to get a proactive stop at soothing the headache forming. “Ok and? Are you seriously mad that I told my brother about your life? Seriously, Bee? All this fuckin drama over that ?”
He was dismissive, hand reaching back out to grab his fork. The movement of completely disregarding everything she was angry about and belittling her consideration made tears welted up in Ruby’s eyes.
“I don’t understand why you don’t see why this is a big deal!” She yelled, her voice breaking slightly at the end of her sentence. “I tell you stuff like that because I trusted you! Do you think any of my friends talk to their parents like I do with you guys?” She swallowed hard, chest rising and falling more rapidly than before. “I like telling you about my day and my plans but you can’t just turn around and let everyone know that” her eyebrows were scrunched down, lips trembling slightly. “I don’t want to feel like I’m some fucking problem weighing on you guys” She wasn’t yelling anymore. Afraid that if she kept her voice loud it would crumble and break. She took a deep breath in, head lowering down to look at her lap. “I trusted you dad. Trusted you with information that was for you only . I didn’t need Lip texting me in the middle of the class to ask if I’m drinking heavily” her finger was a point. “Which for the record I’m not! ”
She went quiet, face going red as she tried to even out her breathing. “I know you think I’m being overdramatic right now and fuck maybe I am but I don’t want to tell you things just for you to tell others!” She stared at Ian, their eye contact undeterred as her top lip started to tremble again.
“You betrayed my trust dad” Then the tears started.
Ruby crumbled over onto the table pushing her plates into Autumn’s to conserve some space. Her arms landed on the table in front of her, hiding her face under crossed arms. She let out little sobs, breath hitching, trying to self soothe enough to stop the tears. He turned to see Ian’s red face, painted guilty. The ginger man felt his face burning up a little as Autumn and Mickey stared at him. Autumn looked beyond confused. Ruby was never a crier, the last time she cried was when she broke her ankle at twelve. Mickey’s stare was more intense. He hadn’t seen his husband sport the expression he had since they were kids. At the time he couldn’t pinpoint what emotion it was and why it was bringing up horrible memories. It hit him a few minutes later. It was a look of disgust.
“Not cool” Mickey eyed Ian. The ginger opened his mouth to say something. What, he wasn’t sure. He hadn’t seen Ruby ever burst into tears over something he said since she was two and he said they couldn’t get a unicorn as a pet because they weren’t real. He thought maybe he was going to try to justify himself. Maybe he was going to defend himself or try to soothe Ruby, either way, Mickey beat him to the chase.
“Autumn go to your room” Mickey’s voice was strangely calm, all one level.
“But-”
“Aye, don’t argue. Go” He waved her off. Autumn sighed, standing up and running upstairs. Knowing her she was probably going to sit on the top of the stairs and listen in but that wasn’t the most pressing issue on his mind. Mickey stood up, pushing his chair back into the table as he descended into the kitchen. He came back a second later with a paper towel.
Mickey nudged Ruby’s arm. It took her a second but she finally looked up at him. Red rimmed eyes leaked tears down her cheeks and chin. “Wipe your face” he handed her the paper towel. She did as instructed, breath still hitching fast and uneven as she tried to stop the tears. Mickey leaned over her chair, rubbing her back in small soothing circles like he used to do when she was a little girl. With his free hand, he pushed her water towards her. “Get your shit together, you guys need to talk it out”
Ruby swallowed hard, looking up at Mickey with sadder eyes than he had seen in the last few years.“Dad I-”
“Hey, s’ok,” his voice was soft but stern. “This isn’t the end of the world even if you two are acting like it is” She got the message, she dragged the raggedy tear-soaked paper towel up to wipe her eyes. He then shot another look towards Ian who was slumped over in his own chair feeling like a piece of shit for making his own kid cry.
Mickey sighed, retreating to the side of the table, Ian and Ruby’s eyes both followed him intensely. “Can you two not be dramatic assholes about this? Auttie and I are seriously over your bullshit so hug and make up or whatever the fuck is supposed to be happening”. The pair just stared at one another, Mickey gave another eye roll. “I will make both of your sorry asses sleep outside tonight if you don’t get to talking” another unsure flicker of eyes followed him. Mickey leaned down, hands hitting the wooden table beneath him hard. “Fuckin talk, Jesus fuck you two are difficult!”
Ruby was the first one to speak. Sniffling as she tried to stutter out the right words. “I can take care of myself, dad. I d-don’t need you telling our family that I’m off the rails or acting out when I’m not” She placed the paper towel onto the table as it began to fall apart in her hand. “I don’t wanna tell you stuff if everyone else gets to hear it” she mumbled, gaze dropping to her own lap.
“Baby-” Ian’s voice was breathy as he tried to find the right words to say. “Look, I’m sorry that I broke your trust. I really am,” his hand extended forward, grabbing her hand. “But Ruby, you gotta let loose on me a little bit” he gave her a squeeze. “I wasn’t trying to rat you out. I told Lip cus I was worried ‘bout you, sweet girl”
Ruby gave a little gulp, feeling as another tear slid down her cheek and down to her jaw, she pulled out of Ian’s hand to wipe it away. She rubbed the sides of her hands from under her eyes to her temple. Another few sniffles. She wanted to say something, anything really, but she was coming up short. “I can handle myself, you don’t gotta worry ‘bout me” she was finally able to string the words together.
Mickey snorted, bodyweight resting on his wrists that were firmly pressed at the edge of the table. “Yeah, like we’re ever gonna be able to stop worrying about you kid”
Ian’s eyes didn’t leave Ruby’s hurt expression, he clenched his jaw hard, feeling the guilt bubble up from within him. “Hey,” He reached forward once again, catching her hands. “I wasn’t trying to nark on you or betray your trust. You gotta know that, right?”
Her eyes danced around, trying to avoid his soul-searching gaze. Ian shook their hands in his grip, finally getting her attention back onto him. Ruby gave a little huff as she and Ian had a standoff. Finally, slowly, she began to nod her head in a ‘yes’ .
Ian remains quiet for a second, balancing her hands in his, he rubs a thumb against the top of her hand. “I didn’t mean for Lip to make you feel bad or scare ya, Rubs. My brother and I have been telling each other everything since we were fresh out of diapers” he gave a little chuckle at how true that sentiment was. He recalled a few stories told to him about how when he was three he would follow Lip around and report anything he heard back to his older brother. “So I’m sorry if it’s gonna take me a little bit to unlearn my habit of telling’ him shit” another unbreaking stare, this time more tender than anything as the tension dissolved. “But I promise you, Bee, I’ll never tell anyone else anything you tell me in confidence, ok?”
“Except me” Mickey butted in. “Don’t think you two assholes can keep secrets from me now”
Ruby gave a wet laugh. “Okay, that’s fair,” a little hiccup “And m’sorry I was being a bitch to you dad” her voice was quiet, a little embarrassed.
“See was that so fuckin hard?” Mickey sighed, hands reaching up to iron out the wrinkle created between his two brows. “You, no more freaking out on us like this, ight?” He directed an eyebrow raise at Ruby. “we’re gettin too old for this shit. And you'' his head turned to the side, eyes locking with his husband’s. “Stop betraying our daughters' trust. And stop talking to Lip too for the sake of it, life’ll be better that way” A smile cracked onto all three of their lips.
Ian’s thumb rubbed against the knuckle one last time before she let go of both of his hands, abruptly standing to her feet. She eyed Mickey then Ian once more before running over to Ian’s side of the table. His chair almost tipped backwards from the sheer momentum of her lunging forward, engulfing him in a giant hug. It took Ian a fraction of a second to wrap his arms around her frame.
He felt as Ruby’s head nuzzled against his chest a quiet “I love you” buried into the fabric of his shirt. Her head came back up, Ian’s hand falling to the back of her head, trapping her there so he could kiss her forehead. “Love ya too kid. Can I tell other people that?” Ian gave a teasing grin as she laughed, hitting his chest with the palm of her hand. “I’m expecting an Instagram post in my honour.”