Work Text:
Magic
/ˈmajik/ noun
the power of apparently influencing the course of events by using mysterious or supernatural forces.
Carl had picked up the weird habit of taking up obscure hobbies and interests. When he was younger he liked to blow torch things, trying to melt all his toys together. As a teenager his obsession became girls and well, still blowing shit up. But now as an adult he found himself getting bored easily. He had been striking out in the love department recently and deciding that he was fine being single for a while. This unfortunately left a void of boredom in Carl’s life.
Sure he had a job. Well kinda two he thought, he started working for Arthur at the Alibi since he recently bought it. He was also still a cop. His days were full to the brim but it was the nights that left Carl so bored. There was nothing to do other than watch fail compilations on Youtube and then rotated over to watch pranks on Tiktok till his brain gave out and thoughts were numb. He couldn’t even put his attention into his place. The basement he claimed as his own was also done getting remodelled. That was in large part because of Lip who fully helped flip the disgusting basement in hopes of selling. That never ended up happening but Carl got a pretty sick bachelor pad out of it so that was successful for him.
In his boredom he picked up random skills. Ping pong, solving rubix cubes (which he never could figure out), even picked up knitting for a hot second like Lip and Debbie did. He really wasn’t a fan of the needles constantly poking at his fingers. Carl thought he was never going to find something to keep him from being bored. That was until one day when he accidentally couldn’t skip a Youtube ad. His hands were covered in Doritos dust and the touch screen was failing him. The ad was for an all inclusive magic kit. It piqued Carl’s interest enough that he bought in. Three hundred dollars later Carl found himself with his very own beginners magic kit. He wasn’t half bad at it either, taught himself a bunch of cool tricks.
He eagerly shared this with his family the next time they had their weekly dinner.
“Ain’t you a bit old for magic?” Mickey raised an eyebrow.
“Shut up douchebag, I’m focusing here” Carl stood at the edge of the table. In one quick motion he pulled the tablecloth from under all their plates and glasses to actual success.
“Okay that was kinda impressive” Lip nodded nonchalantly, a few people from across the table nodded in agreement. Franny was definitely impressed.
“Woah Uncle Carl is magic?” Her little mouth hung open, mind blown.
Carl sported a cocky smile, walking over to his niece. “Sure am Fran, guess what else I can do?”
“What? What?” Her legs were drawn under her in her seat, she bounced up in pure excitement.
Carl stood to the side of her, leaning down to touch her ear. “Look what you had hiding in there” he pulled his hand away from the side of her face revealing a quarter pinched between his thumb and index finger.
Her eyes doubled in size, mouth once again dropping open. “What? How?!” Her little hand reached out to grab the quarter, staring at it like it was the most valuable thing she had ever seen.
“A magician never tells his tricks” Carl smirked, ruffling Franny’s hair. “Don’t spend it all in one place” he gave her an over-dramatic wink she didn’t seem to catch. She was too busy admiring the quarter in her grasp, hand kept reaching up caress her ear, in shock that the money had come from her.
“Was that really in my ear?” She looked up at her uncle who gave her a little nod.
“Yup, that’s why you gotta wash them everyday”
That comment was met by immediate eyerolls, booing, some heckling. Mickey even managed to sneak in a snarky comment. “Fuckin cop advice right there”
“Like you’ve ever showered without someone forcing you” Debbie rolled her eyes, attention then drawn to Franny sitting directly in front of her. “Sweetie don’t listen to anything Carl says, he doesn’t know anything” she stuck her tongue out for comedic effect as that usually got a chuckle out of Franny however that night she remained stunned.
“Uncle Carl, if you’re magic, can you make us all a bunch of money so we don’t have to worry about selling the house?” her blue eyes searched Carl’s, pleadingly.
A few adults around the table grimaced, except for Sandy who smirked into her bottle -she could feel the conflict rising and was always game for dinner and a show-. The rest of the -somewhat- well adjusted adults felt bad for the kid so young and already sucked into the Gallagher problems. They supposed that just meant they somehow all had the same childhood. Liam however shrugged the comment off, pushing some vegetables around his plate.
“Well Magic isn’t real, it's all science you know Franny” Liam spoke up. “If you want I can teach you about physics and how-” the entire table groaned, knowing they were about to sit through another Liam lecture.
They did. The entirety of dinner was spent listening to Liam explain all the different concepts he had learned from his favourite science show. The poor kid didn’t have anyone else to talk to about his nerdy interest so his older siblings entertained the conversation, trying to change the subject every few minutes just to have the physic talk be brought back up by Lip, the only one who enjoyed Liam’s laments, getting a round of groans all over again.
That seemed to be the common theme any time Carl learned a new trick. He’d perform it and get semi-amused reactions from his family before they all tried to figure out how he did it. “It can’t be that hard if Carl can do it” Sandy chimed in before tearing apart another one of his acts. Eventually the patronising break-downs of the tricks he tried so hard to learn got to him.
Annoyed with his family and quickly becoming bored of the whole magic thing, Carl had retired from the magic act. He decided he wanted to take up throwing stars which seemed like a much worse plan but he managed to buy them, and a Katana because he found a deal before the family could intervene.
He was done with magic ready to discard the case when Ian was quick to ask for it.
“Why the fuck is Carl’s dumn magic thing in our living room?” Mickey raised an eyebrow at the large striped box.
“What? I wanted was the handcuffs” he fished around the box, pushing all the items to the side once he saw what he was looking for. He pulled out the leather handcuffs showing them off to his husband who gave a slightly reluctant to be playing into this but overall accepting nod.
“Plus don’t you think the magic stuff is kinda cool?” Ian’s eyes followed Mickey’s movement as he went behind him, sitting on the couch.
“Uh no”
“Why not?”
Mickey gave a scoff, having to restrain himself from laughing. Ian sitting cross legged on the floor digging through the trunk. He looked entertained and Mickey didn’t have the energy to squash the kindly interest Ian was fostering.
“I dunno just was never into it, always thought it was dumb”
Ian shook his head at that, eyes lighting up once he found what he was searching for. He pulled out a case of playing cards, shaking them from their box, throwing the cardboard somewhere off to the side. “Look its kinda cool I’ll show you”
Ian’s tongue rested against his bottom lip in concentration as he shuffled the cards. When he was done he swerved around, facing Mickey, stationed behind him on the couch.
“Pick a card, any card” He had that stupid excited goofy smile Mickey loved so much. He rolled his eyes with affection pointing to a random card in the deck.
“Uh that one” he pointed to a fourth of spades.
“Okay, grab it,” Ian instructed. Mickey of course obeyed taking his card and placing it face down on his lap.
Ian reshuffled the deck, picking one from the dead centre. “Is your card a sixth of heart?”
Mickey blinked back at his husband. “Uh, no”
“Wait really?” Ian had dropped the deck down to his lap, face faltering.
“Yeah man, that ain’t it” he held his card up, placing it in front of his husband’s confused expression.
“Fuck!” Ian’s face contorted in confusion. “I for sure thought I had that trick down” he looked down at the cards like they had personally betrayed him. “Gimme your card back I wanna try again”
Mickey gave a little chuckle, handing the card back, watching as Ian shuffled them again. A determined look overcame his expression. “Okay pick again” he held them up once more.
Mickey picked again. An Ace spade this time.
“Is this your card?” Ian held up a queen of hearts.
Mickey’s eyebrows reached the top of his forehead. “Yeah it is, actually”
“Fuck yes!” He dropped all the cards on the floor, hands reaching up in the air out of sheer victory. “Wait, are you fucking with me?” He accused, hands returning to his side.
Mickey gave a full blown chuckle. “Yup”
“We’re doing this till I get it right” Ian challenged, hands reaching across the floor to collect the deck back up.
“Uh-huh” Mickey agreed, back hitting the sofa behind him. He figured he better get comfortable, he was probably going to be there for a while.
His husband was an idiot that he had the pleasure of loving deeply.
Even if Ian didn’t manage to get the trick right, those handcuffs from the case definitely helped to create some magic.