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Mickey’s never felt…normal when it comes to Ian. Ian makes him weird and do things he’d never normally do.
He’s never felt the things he does when he’s with Ian before. Before Ian, he never wanted someone to like him. He wanted all of Ian’s attention, wanted Ian to like him and the most surprising part to Mickey was that it worked.
Ian makes him do crazy things like invite his crush over while everyone’s out of the house so he can make Ian pizza rolls and they can watch a movie and make out on the couch. Like coming out in front of his homophobic prick of a Dad in a full bar. Like actually planning to murder someone because they sent Ian to jail and took him away from him.
Just to name a few.
It’s just that, Mickey wants Ian all to himself and he doesn’t like sharing. Maybe he’s a bit lovesick but Mickey doesn’t care at this point. He’s never been one to be ‘excited’ but fuck, he’s excited because Ian is coming to visit him in prison today. He’s been trying to hold in a grin ever since Svetlana told him over the phone and even ventured into the terrifying realm that is prison showers so he looked clean and presentable. He had a surprise to show Ian just how dedicated he was to this relationship.
Ian looks good, like really fucking good and he’s holding Yevgeny while Svetlana handles the phone. He wants to tell her to fuck off and get Ian on but she’s the one keeping him safe at the moment so he’s not getting on her bad side right now.
She’s got another job for him and he’s half paying attention but his eyes keep drifting over to the redhead in the back. Fuck, Mickey could punch himself for how obsessed he is with wanting Ian’s attention right now. Ian’s not even looking at him, just bouncing his knee to give Yevgeny some entertainment.
“He just gonna sit back there the whole time?” he asks, nodding towards Ian.
Svetlana smirks as she looks back towards the two. Ian finally looks up and Mickey makes a face that tells him to get his ass over here but then Ian looks away. Mickey’s heart beats a little erratically and he’s still only paying half attention to Svet and he’s sick of it.
“Why don’t you take the little milk sucker and scram” he cuts in “I wanna talk to Ian”
She rolls her eyes at him and points to her own eye.
“In the eye, yes?”
“Yes”
“In the eye”
“In the fucking eye” Mickeys getting fed up now “I got it”
She hangs up the phone and places her hand on the glass separating the two of them. He knows she doesn’t expect him to put his own hand up to the glass but it sort of tugs at his chest as it reminds him of when Ian visited him in juvie and pulled the same lame romantic shit.
Mickey tries to not look nervous and plays it cool by following Ian’s every move and tapping the phone against his head softly. Ian finally sits down and picks up the phone. Mickey can’t really stop the smile from slipping out even if Ian’s expression doesn’t change.
“Svetlana paid me to be here” Ian says unenthusiastically and wow does that fucking sting.
“Okay” Mickey answers after a few seconds.
What else is he meant to say? Meant to feel? That the love of his life was fucking bribed to visit him in jail after Mickey tried to kill the person who ruined Ian’s life? Maybe he can show Ian his surprise, make him smile and laugh and it’ll be the same as before.
“Got a new tattoo” Mickey’s feeling giddy. Nervous but excited. There’s that feeling again, he can already tell Ian’s going to love it. Because Ian loves that type of shit, the fucking, dedication to relationships. Ian does look up with interest and now Mickey feels the need to brag a little. “Did it myself, hurt like a son of a bitch”
He places the phone on the table in front of him and undoes another button from his orange jumpsuit and pulls down the collar of his white tank top underneath to reveal his newest tattoo.
IAN GALAGER
And oh, that’s not the reaction he was hoping for. Ian looks at it with…disgust. But he smiles after so maybe it’s still a win. Mickey smiles back because this is it, Ian and him are getting back together.
“That’s infected” Ian’s tinny voice rings out through the phone
“Well yeah” Mickey shrugs and drums his fingers on the table “Kinda hard to find a clean needle in here”
“Gallagher is spelt with two ‘L’s”
Mickey freezes and he can feel his face fall. Spelling has never been his strongest skill but he was so confident that he knew how to spell Ian’s last name. Maybe he does but the adrenaline of trying to show Ian how much he means to him took over and he jumped the gun. He tries to look down at his own chest to see the misspelled tattoo.
“No it’s not”
He can hear Ian laugh and Mickey swears his heart skips a beat. The visit isn’t going the way he expected but Ian’s laughing right now and it might be because of a dumb mistake Mickey made but it’s still one of the best sounds he’s ever heard in his life. Mickey looks up and can’t help the breathy laugh that escapes him and the grin taking over his face as Ian fiddles with the phone.
“I’m thinking about you” Mickey says because this is what Ian has always wanted right? Mickey to talk about his feelings? So he’s doing it. “You ever think of me?”
He’s feeling nervous as Ian doesn’t reply.
“You gonna wait for me?” he tries again
“You’re in here for fifteen years”
“Yeah but I’ll be out in eight with overcrowding” Mickey’s feeling a little desperate now.
“You tried to kill my sister”
“Half sister, one” Mickey argues, technically Sammi isn’t even a half sister seeing as Frank isn’t his dad but he doesn’t feel like bringing up that point right now “Two, like you give a shit, bitch had it coming calling the MP’s on you”
The prison buzzer sounds and everyone around him starts to say their goodbyes and stand up to leave.
“Will you?” Mickey asks “Wait?”
He’s the last person sitting down in the visiting room and he kind of feels like his chest is on fire because why isn’t Ian seeing how fucking in love with him he is?
“Lie if you have to,” Mickey says, not looking Ian in the eyes. “Eight years is a long time”
Ian’s quiet again and it feels like hours, Mickey’s heart beats loudly in his ears and he wonders if Ian can hear it.
“Yeah” Ian finally says “I can’t wait”
Deep down, Mickey knew that would be the answer but it doesn’t hurt any less hearing that Ian won’t wait for him, after everything Mickey did for him. He watches Ian hang the phone up and then stand up and walk away without another glance. Svetlana and Yevgeny look at Mickey before following Ian out of the prison. He’d almost forgotten they were there in the first place - Ian has that effect on him.
There’s a pain in his chest the entire time he walks back to his cell. He rubs at it and hisses at the warmth of his skin. He doesn’t feel like doing anything right now after the disaster that visitation was and vaguely remembers agreeing to stab someone in the eye but that feels like a distant memory.
He lies down in his bunk and Ian’s words roll around his head. He sniffs pathetically and rolls onto his side, ignoring the way his tattoo bunches up and the pain seeps out. Kind of feels like he deserves it at this point.
Mickey didn’t intend to fall asleep but he’s woken to a guard yelling at him and swinging a baton against his bed frame. Mickey jumps and rolls over. He looks up to find one of the nicer - as nice as you can be in a fucking prison - guards staring at him.
“You look like shit, Milkovich” he says, arms crossed “Dinner, now”
The next morning, Mickey feels like dog shit. He’s hot and sweaty yet he’s shivering. His cellmate - Callahan - is annoyed by Mickey’s constant moving around and finally jumps off the top bunk to do something about it. He does a double take when he actually looks at Mickey.
“Holy fuck” He says “Man, are you sick?”
“No” Mickey spits out because Milkovich’s don’t get sick.
“GUARD!” Callahan shouts and smacks on the window of their door. “GUARD IF YOU DON’T COME HERE RIGHT NOW I SWEAR TO GOD”
The guards are used to Callahan’s empty threats but they do take their time in coming over and opening their cell door.
“What is it now, inmate?” One asks tiredly
“Milkovich is sick with the plague and if it fucking spreads, then this whole prison will be in lockdown”
The guard frowns and looks past him to look at Mickey who is still in his bunk.
“Ah shit” he curses and turns his radio on “We got a sick inmate in cell C28, can we get medical down here right away”
Mickey wants to shout he doesn’t fucking need medical but finds he’s too tired to answer. Instead he bats away hands that try and help him stand up and shakily does it himself, letting him be humiliated in one of the shitty prison wheelchairs that takes him to infirmary. He’s set up in a bed next to the old fuckers and they give him some prison issued hospital gown that make him feel so naked he’d feel better wearing nothing.
They take one look at him and swear because of course it’s the tattoo causing all the problems. The tattoo has been steadily growing worse ever since he got it done a week ago and Ian was right in that it was infected. The area is swollen and red, scabs and ulcers appearing where the needle was dragged through the skin with a few leaking pus. It’s a disgusting sight and one the doctors are all too familiar with.
There’s not a lot they can offer here, some general antibiotics is all they can really do unless it gets worse and they need to send him out to a real hospital. They hook him up to an IV so he can get fluids and some pain relief and then they leave him to it.
The tattoo gets worse before it gets better. It flares up and leaks even more bodily fluids, his fever gets worse and he’s sweating through all the clothes he’s given and ruining the sheets. They let him lie in his sweaty sheets for the most part because it’s a hassle to change and they don’t have many clean sheets in the first place.
The fever breaks five days later after a constant stream of antibiotics and serious cleaning regimes and threats of how this could have led to sepsis if ignored any longer and he’d have died. They’re bluffing, probably.
“You gay, Milkovich?” the doctor asks offhandedly.
Mickey doesn’t respond, it’s one thing to be gay in prison for safety and a way to let off steam but if they find out you’re gay outside of the prison as well, it could end very badly.
“Must be a special guy if you got his name on your chest in prison of all places” he writes something down in Mickey’s medical file “You gotta run the antibiotics out so go to the pill disposal every morning for the next week or so”