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Mickey thinks he’s good at being subtle, he really does, but in actuality he is about as far from it as you can get.
He’s either so subtle that he’s barely even making a point or he’s so nervous that he’s almost shouting it to the world.
In this case, Ian had been in on his efforts for weeks, and Mickey couldn’t figure out why his hints were going completely unnoticed.
He would drop the odd sentence here and there but Ian was refusing to bite until he said the sentence with the words he really meant.
“You know you have so much of your shit here,” Mickey said one afternoon as he threw aside a pile of Ian’s clothing. “Basically all of it, huh?”
Ian shrugged. “Not really, probably half and half.”
“Well you can’t have too much more than this,” he said.
“Guess not,” he said with a grin before heading out of the room.
Mickey huffed out loudly but said nothing else.
About two days later he tried again.
“So…” he said, plopping down next to Ian on the couch, handing him a beer. “What is this like the fourth night you’ve spent here this week?”
“Might be,” Ian said, eyes on the TV. “That’s not unusual though right?”
“Not sayin’ it is, just sayin’…” he said, looking down at his hands. “It’s basically all the time.”
“I guess it is,” Ian said, leaning over to kiss Mickey’s temple and put his arm around his shoulders before he went back to watching the TV.
Mickey gritted his teeth but still he didn’t say anything.
The next time he tried they were in the kitchen, Mandy sitting up on the bench eating cereal right from the box and Ian standing beside her with a glass of water in his hand.
“Place is getting kinda crowded huh?” Mickey said as he walked to the fridge.
“Sometimes, half the time everyone’s out, rest of the time everyone’s in,” Ian said, watching him with a sly grin. “You just complain too much.”
“I wasn’t complainin’ I was just sayin’,” he said.
“You’re always ‘just saying’ something,” Ian said. “What exactly is it this time?”
“I’m just― nothing!” he snapped. “I’m sayin’ there’s lots of us here, be nice if you and me had a little space.”
“True, that’s just what happens with big families though Mick,” Ian said and Mickey just stared at him a moment, waiting for something else, anything else to come out of his mouth.
When he said nothing more Mickey stormed off and Ian watched him with an amused smile.
“Are you ever going to put him out of his misery?” Mandy asked.
Ian shrugged. “Don’t know what you mean.”
“Liar, you know he’s been trying to ask you to move in with him,” she said, popping some cereal into her mouth. “Stop tormenting him.”
“Hey, he wants me to move in he can ask me himself,” Ian said. “With actual words.”
“You’re going to be waiting a while,” she said.
“We’ll see, he’s got to snap sooner or later.”
“Now you’re just being cruel.”
It only took about six more days before Mickey finally lost his cool. He had no idea that Ian had been onto him the whole time and he couldn’t understand why he hadn’t just figured it out.
Ian walked into the bedroom, walking over to Mickey who sat on the bed and tackled him down into it. He left a loud wet kiss on his cheek before getting up again with a grin.
The bed made a creaking sound under them and Ian chuckled.
“I think your bed is getting kind of sick of us,” he said. “You wait, next time we go at it the legs are just going to give way under it.”
“So it’s old,” Mickey said. “Ain’t like I’m gonna be here forever to use it.”
“True,” Ian said.
“Odds are I’ll end up livin’ somewhere else.”
“That’s usually how it goes,” Ian said and Mickey was just staring at him.
“Are you fuckin’ serious?” he said.
“What?”
“Are you fuckin’ serious?”
“What?”
“You seriously don’t fucking get it?” he said and Ian just shrugged.
“What am I supposed to be getting?”
“We should fucking move out and get a place together you think asshole!” he snapped.
Ian just stood there for a moment before the smile came back to his lips.
“Was that really all that hard?” he said and Mickey narrowed his eyes.
“You knew,” he said, earning another shrug from Ian. “You’ve known all this fucking time and you haven’t said a fucking thing?”
“You should really just ask if you want something Mick, what, were you worried I’d say no?” he asked.
Mickey floundered for a moment before letting out a loud huff.
“Maybe, I don’t know,” he said.
“Bullshit,” Ian said. “You just didn’t want to have to ask.”
“Well I fucking did it alright, so what’s your fucking answer gonna be?”
“Calm down,” Ian said, shaking his head with a chuckle. “You get so worked up… yes Mick, of course I want us to move out and get our own place. I’ve been looking at listings since I figured out what you were doing.”
“You’ve got a real mean streak, you know that?” Mickey said, getting up to punch Ian in the arm before pulling him in for a hug.
“Is it my fault that you’re adorable when you’re frustrated?” he asked and Mickey just grunted again.
“You’re gonna be a pain in the ass to live with,” he grumbled and Ian smirked.
“Yeah, but that’s exactly how you like it.”