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Liam Gallagher decided after living with his dad’s for 3 years, he wanted to make them officially his dad. Not just legal guardians. He’d seen a bunch of videos on YouTube of step kids asking their bonus parent to adopt them, and give them their last name, he wanted to do the same. However, he didn’t want to be a Gallagher-Milkovich. He wanted to be Liam Gallavich. He wanted to start and end high school as a Gallavich. Which meant, first he had to get his dad’s to change their names too.
For as long as he could remember, his brother Ian and his partner, Mickey, had been the closest thing to parents that he had known. Sure his oldest sister, Fiona, took care of them all, but Ian was the one who actually spent time with him, asked him how he was coping with things. Even when Ian took off for several months due to his bipolar disorder, when he was told, Liam almost died, he felt it in his core, even though nothing else could break through.
Liam tried to convince his dad’s to change their name when they got married. Perfect opportunity, and all. However, they said they didn’t feel right because at the time, the rest of the family didn’t know that they let the boy call them dad. They went for 10 years with no one in the family knowing the reason that the youngest Gallagher always listened to Ian and Mickey better was because he had decided when he was 2 years old that they were his dads. They kept it for just them for a very long time.
This time though, he had a plan. His dads’ anniversary was coming up, and he had done all the research to see what it would take for them to change their names, and to adopt him. He saved his allowance to pay the fee to file their name change. He had it all planned.
That’s how he found himself with a projector set up in their family room with a sideshow he made of all their secret family photos from over the years. Their family knew now, that his relationship with Ian and Mickey was different than with the rest of them, and for the most part they were okay with it. Lip still got hurt sometimes when he realized that the youngest Gallagher had picked the middle Gallagher instead of him as a parental figure, but he always played nice. However, they still kept a lot of their earlier family pictures to themselves. It was a part of their past that was just for the three of them.
“Li? Where are you bud? Mick said you disappeared this morning.” His dad said to him as he rounded the corner.
“Been setting something up all day, can you and dad come in here?” He called back without looking up from the computer.
“Buddy, you know we have to leave soon right? It’s only 1 night a year, you’ll be back in your comfy west side bed tomorrow!” Ian joked as he sent a text to tell Mick he found their son, and to come to the family room.
“Ha ha dad. Very funny!” Liam rolled his eyes, shaking his head. “I need to show you and dad your present from me for your anniversary and then we can go to Lip’s and you two can come back and fuck like you don’t have a kid all night, I promise.”
“Don’t sass your dad, kid.” Mickey said as he walked into the room.
“Most parents would be more upset that I just said fuck and talked about your sex life.” He deadpanned as he finally turned to face them.
“Yeah well most parents didn’t grow up SouthSide either. What’s all this?” Mickey sat in his recliner and waited for Liam to take them on whatever adventure he had come up with now.
“Well it’s your anniversary, and so this is your present from me. Just watch and do as it says.” He hit play and then dimmed the lights before standing by the side of the room, waiting until it was time to give them their packets.
Soon they heard Moments We Live For playing through their surround sound system, with all their secret family pictures on the projector. Liam is 3 and in Ian’s lap on the slide at the park, sitting in the baby swing with Mickey behind him to push. Liam is 4 and they built a fort during a thunderstorm because he was scared, they all fell asleep in a pile of blankets, Liam right between his dads, one tiny arm on each of their chests. Liam is 5 and even though Ian was gone at the time, he still had Mickey, and they were still family, Mickey let him help make spaghetti for dinner and they ended up dumping the noodles all over the floor, and starting a food fight. Carl took that picture, not realizing how much it would mean to them personally. Liam is 7 and 8, and Ian and him take random selfies, Ian says just for fun, but Liam always knew they were for Mickey whenever he was able to send them to him. Liam is 11 and unpacking his room after they asked him to move in with them. Liam is 12 and starting middle school, with both of his dads there. Liam is 14 and finishing 8th grade, both his dads with giant cheezeball smiles and tears in their eyes. At some point during the sideshow the song change to You’re Gonna Miss This and both men were trying and failing to hold back tears. As the sideshow came to an end, he slide the envelopes into their laps and watched as they opened them in the order indicated on the front.
First Mickey opened his envelope with the name change papers, already filled in, just waiting to be signed in front of a notary. Ian and Mickey Gallavich. They both gave a fond smile, remembering how the name came to be. After a moment Ian opened his envelope and gasped, dropping the papers in shock. Mickey grabbed them and looked up in surprise at their son.
“Are you sure, kid?” He whispered, his voice not wanting to cooperate.
“I want to start and end High School as Liam Gallavich. You two are the only dad’s I’ve ever really had, Frank doesn’t count even if he tried more with me than the rest of you. I chose you when I was 2 years old. I want to graduate as a Gallavich, because that’s who I have been in my heart for years!” He didn’t mean for it all to come out in a rush, he had been practicing his speech for weeks, but in the moment he was nervous they would say no. Not that they ever really told him no if they could help it, but it would destroy him if they told him no one this particular subject.
For a moment there was silence and it was the loudest silence the youngest Gallagher had ever heard, even louder than when he was unconscious from a coke overdose at 3-years old. His thoughts started to spiral, of course they didn’t want to adopt him. Why would they? It’s not like he ever actually gave them an option, he just started calling them dad one day and that was that. What were they going to do, fight with a 2 year old?
Just as he starts to hyperventilate, he feels two pairs of strong arms engulf him, one on either side of him. He must have closed his eyes, or blacked out, because he hadn’t even seen the men move.
“Calm down Li, of course we want to adopt you. You’re our son. You chose us as your parents, and we have never taken that for granted or resented that choice. We are a family bud. You are ours, as much as we are yours!” Ian whispered in his ear.
“Kid, there have been times over the years, especially, and mostly, before we had disclosed the difference in our relationship with you, from everyone else in the family, when we have had to treat you and call you Ian’s brother instead of our son, but that doesn’t change what we knew in our hearts. Do you remember what I said when you first called us dad and Ian asked what I thought?” Mickey added. He’d come a long way from the thug that had originally gotten involved with the Gallagher family. Especially when it was just him and his Gallaghers.
“No? I was 2!” He exclaimed, his breathing slowly calming back down.
“Ian asked me my opinion and I said, “Fuck it, aint getting a kif any other way.” Now, obviously, I did have another kid, against my will, and Yev is a great kid, and a great little brother for you. You have always been good with that kid, even when I can’t get through to him. However, I didn’t choose to become a father to Yevgeny, that was forced on me. You, I chose. You are the one who taught me to be a dad Liam. If you want to be legally my son, then when the courts open on Monday, we will go down and sign all this shit in front of the fucking notary and you will be Liam Gallavich.” The only thing Liam could do, was to sob in happiness. This of course set off and chain reaction and Ian started crying as well. Mickey rolled his eyes, and definitely didn’t cry, because he’s not a chick. He definitely didn’t have to wipe at his eyes multiple times to keep the tears at bay.
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You guys are the best. I know it’s your anniversary, and this is more for me than you, but I just…I want to start high school and end high school with the same name and I know it’s dumb, but I want that name to be Gallavich. I haven’t been a Gallagher in years, not really. You guys have raised me more than anyone else, even during that weird phase where Frank was pretending to be a real dad and became a pseudo babysitter.” The little family sat there holding each other and trying to get their happy tears back under control.
Liam would let them find the paperwork on their own, but in that packet of papers there was also a signed and notarized letter from Svetlana, agreeing to let Mickey change Yevgeny’s last name to Gallavich as well. After she tricked her former rivals fiancé into marrying her instead, she left Chicago with him, only to return a year later to see if Ian would take Yevgeny for a while. Yevgeny never took to her husband, and while she loved her son, she couldn’t afford to go back to being a prostitute. She had to ride out her husbands’ life so she could get the payout at the end. So, Ian agreed, had her sign a paper giving him temporary guardianship, and eventually giving Mickey custody when they got married and moved into their own home. She visited around the holidays and his birthday, and sometimes for school events, but mostly, he was just Mickey and Ian’s and Liam didn’t see why his brother shouldn’t have the same last name as the rest of them.