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Who would ever have a child with the knowledge that one day they would turn into a teenager?
Yevgeny was fourteen years old and he was right in the middle of his teenage mood-swings and rebellion, however he wasn’t quite as bad as his dad had been, but that was a whole different situation.
He was staying with Ian and Mickey this week. He stayed there every third week and for some reason on this particular Wednesday he was in a foul mood after school.
Mickey was working later than usual so Ian had offered to pick him up. When he’d mentioned it in the morning Yev had responded with a grunt, but that wasn’t unusual.
He trudged over to the car and Ian gave him a smile as he climbed in.
He plonked down in the front seat and slumped down, taking his phone out and tapping on the screen.
“Hey, how was school?” Ian asked.
“Fine,” he said.
“Okay…” Ian said, nodding as he pulled out of the parking lot. “How did you go with that history assignment?”
“It was fine,” he said.
Ian sighed a little. Svetlana had said something about his sour mood when she dropped him off on Sunday night, she wasn’t wrong.
“Need you to sign this stupid form,” he said, flicking something on his phone screen.
“What’s it for?”
“Failing English,” he shrugged.
“You’re what?” Ian said, giving him a quick look but he didn’t even look up. “You were doing really well, what happened.”
“I’m failing,” he said.
“Clearly, why?”
“Uh, because I’m failing?”
“Don’t get smart with me, you’re going to have to pick it up if you want to pass the year,” Ian said.
“Whatever.”
“No, not whatever, you need to take your classes seriously,” he said. “We’ve all worked hard to get you there so you’re not going to throw it away.”
“You’re not even my real dad so what’s it to you?” he snapped, looking up with a glare. “Just butt the hell out.”
It took Ian a little by surprise and for a moment he had nothing to say. After that it had been too long to say anything and so he just kept his mouth shut. He knew that he was just going through a phase but still, it stung a little bit.
They drove home in silence and when they got back to Ian and Mickey’s place Yev just stormed to his room and slammed the door.
He sighed but headed to the kitchen to start dinner.
When Mickey got home he was tired, body aching from a hard day of hard work. He came into the kitchen with a sheen of sweat on his skin and sunk into one of the chairs at the kitchen bench.
“I am fucking exhausted,” he said and Ian walked over to press his lips against his. “I’m getting’ too old for this shit.”
Ian smiled, patting his back a few times before going back to the pot on the stove.
“Bad day?”
“Nah, just long,” he said.
“Well once you’ve showered and aren’t so smelly I’ll give you a back rub or something,” he said.
“You better,” Mickey grinned and Ian just rolled his eyes. “You pick the kid up from school?”
“Yeah, he’s in a pretty foul mood again though,” he said.
“Jesus, were we this fucking temperamental when we were his age?” he asked.
“Well, you were, I didn’t start until much later and now I’m medicated for it,” he said.
“You’re not funny,” Mickey said.
Ian chuckled to himself, “You need to sign some form of his, he’s failing one of his classes.”
“He’s what?” Mickey asked.
“English, apparently he’s failing and you need to sign the thing that says you know about it.”
“Did you fucking say something to him?”
“Of course I said something,” Ian said.
“You tell him he’s a fucking idiot?”
“Not in those words Mick,” he said, shaking his head. “I said he needs to start taking it seriously, that we all work really hard for him to be there.”
“Well what did he say about it?”
Ian shrugged. “He said I wasn’t his real dad so I should just stay out of it.”
If he thought Mickey looked angry before he was absolutely livid now.
“He said what?”
“You heard,” Ian said. “Don’t worry about it, he’s just in that ‘I hate everything’ phase, he’ll get over it eventually.”
“He doesn’t get to say that, where the fuck is he?” he said, getting up from his chair.
“Mickey, don’t,” Ian said but he was already walking towards Yev’s room. “Mick it’s not a big deal.”
“The hell it’s not,” he said, not even knocking before wrenching open the door.
“What the hell dad?” Yev said with a snarl, sitting on his bed with music playing.
“You wanna tell me about this class you’re fucking failing?” he said and Yev rolled his eyes.
“I already told him,” he said, pointing to Ian who was now also in the doorway. “Can you just get off my ass?”
“Oh yeah? What else did you fucking say to him, huh?” he said and Yev shook his head, folding his arms over his chest. “He’s done as much work raisin’ your ass as I have so you don’t get to say crap like he ain’t your dad.”
“What, you’re tattling on me now?” he said with sarcasm in his voice.
“Hey, he’s fuckin’ worried about you, ain’t his fault this gets messy sometimes,” Mickey said.
“So it’s your fault that you got married and decided to have a kid and then started doing guys?”
Ian saw Mickey’s teeth grit together and he was worried he might say something along the lines of ‘no one decided to have you’ and so he put a hand on his shoulder.
“Mick…” he said softly.
“You think you know everything huh? You don’t, and you probably don’t want to either,” Mickey said. “He’s your fuckin’ family, so is your mom’s partner. You got no idea what we had to do for you.”
“Mickey,” Ian said and he turned to face him. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Oh I’m gonna worry about it,” he said under his breath before turning back to Yev. “No TV until your fuckin’ grades improve.”
“What? You can’t―”
“Oh yeah I can,” he said. “You think that’s bad you wait until I tell your mom.”
He seemed to cringe a little at that. When his mom got angry she would yell at him in Russian and somehow that was worse than when his dad yelled. His dad was just angry, his mom was downright terrifying.
“And you can apologise to him too,” Mickey added. “He’s as much your damn dad as I fuckin’ am, been around just as long too.”
Yev huffed out a loud sigh. “Whatever…” he mumbled.
“Dinner’ll be ready in a half hour,” he said before turning on his heel to head out and Ian followed him.
“I don’t know why you did that,” he said.
“You… you had no reason to care for him and you did it before I even started to,” he said with a sigh. “You don’t deserve him saying shit like that.”
“He’s a teenager, he’s going to say a lot worse,” Ian said, pulling him into his arms. “I know you did.”
Mickey smiled a little and shoved him back.
“Yeah, yeah, smart ass,” he said. “I’m taking a shower, gotta get nice and clean for that back rub.”
He grinned as he walked towards their bathroom and Ian shook his head, making his way to the kitchen.
When he was almost ready to dish up, just waiting for Mickey to finish his shower, he heard scuffing feet walking into the room.
He turned to see Yev shuffling in, looking down at his feet with his hands in his pockets.
“Sorry,” he mumbled and Ian sighed.
“It’s alright,” he said.
“I, uh, I didn’t really mean it,” he said, still not looking up.
“It’s already forgotten,” Ian said.
“Cool.”
“Not going to forget about you failing English though,” he said and Yev threw his head back with a loud ‘ughh’.
“You could at least try and be my cool dad and tell me that school isn’t as important as other shit,” he said.
Ian laughed. “Hey, you’ve seen how he yells at you, you think it’s any different for me?”
Yev actually managed to crack a smile.
“I was pretty good at English in my school years, I can give you a hand if you like,” he said.
“Whatever,” he shrugged.
As usual, that was the best it was going to get, and it would probably be the closest thing to a heart to heart they were ever going to have.
Still, he liked his little family, even if it was a whole big mess.