Work Text:
Ever since the new neighbours had moved in two weeks ago, Ian hadn’t been getting any studying done, and for a sometimes-B-grade-mostly-C-grade Southside kid trying to get into West Point, this was a pain in the ass.
He’d met the neighbours when they’d first moved in. He had been walking home from a shift at the Kash N’ Grab when someone had pinched his ass. He’d spun around in shock to see a girl with thick eyeliner smirking at him.
She giggled. ‘Hey, I’m Mandy.’
‘Oh, uh…hi, I’m Ian,’ Ian greeted awkwardly, still a little weirded out by the groping. He’d eyed the house she stood in front of: the one between the Gallaghers’ and the Balls’. ‘You movin’ in?’
Mandy grinned brightly. ‘Yeah. Someone burnt down our old shit hole of a house, so we had to move in here. Tony’s lettin’ us sublet it.’
‘Sorry about your old house…’ Ian said, unsure about whether she was really sorry about it herself.
She shrugged her dainty shoulders, smiling as she nudged him. ‘Are you from around here or…?’
‘I’m actually your new neighbour,’ Ian responded, smiling a little despite himself.
This girl seemed pretty nice, even if she was clearly flirting with him, but he was sure he could make it clear he wasn’t interested.
Mandy grinned even wider in response to this new information. ‘Oh, that’s great!’
Before she could say anything else, a blonde guy had stepped out of the house and stumbled down the porch steps. ‘That’s fine, Mandy. Just fuckin’ stand there and flirt with the goddamn neighbours like we ain’t got shit to bring in.’
‘Fuck off, Ig,’ Mandy snapped back, ‘You and Mick have it covered.’
She’d turned back to Ian, apologising for her brother, but Ian had been hardly paying attention because another boy had come out of the house after the blonde guy. And, fuck, if he wasn’t the best thing Ian had seen in his whole life. He’d been sweating in that implausibly sexy way, strong arms bared to the sun. His black hair had been tousled as if he had run his hands through it a lot to sweep it out of his face. His eyes were as blue as his siblings’ and Ian was fucking in love.
‘Times like this you really fuckin’ miss Jamie and Tony. Fat fuckin’ bastards could’ve carried this shit in for us,’ Ig grunted, eyeing the van filled with heavy boxes parked out front of their house.
Mick had nodded in response, glancing up to look at Mandy. For a moment, his eyes had flickered to Ian’s and flashed with something. However, within two seconds, his eyes were normal and back on Mandy. ‘Mands, c’mon. Fuck the neighbours some other time.’
‘Sorry, Ian; my brothers are douchebags,’ Mandy hissed, clearly irritated that they were cock-blocking her or whatever.
Ian had nodded slowly, peeling his eyes off Mick’s ass as he bent over to pick up a box. ‘Yeah, yeah, no problem. I’ll—I’ll see you another time.’
Mandy had giggled. ‘Sure, sometime when Mickey and Iggy aren’t here. See you later, neighbour.’ She then sent a flirtatious wink before heading back over to her brothers.
The redhead had turned to go into his front yard, glancing back once more to see Iggy carrying a guitar in. For a moment, he’d thought it might be Mickey’s and salivated over the thought of him playing a guitar, but Mickey warned Iggy about being careful with it because Iggy couldn’t buy one again. Ian then figured it was Iggy’s guitar.
And now, Iggy was playing that guitar at the same time everyday. Clearly he had no care for the rest of the goddamn neighbourhood having to hear him, least of all Ian who had this hour everyday to study when everyone was out of the house.
Ian tapped his pencil against his worksheet, trying to focus on the stupid fucking math question in front of him. After a few minutes, he finally snapped and threw his pencil to the table, standing up and storming out of his house.
‘I’m going to strangle that fucking blonde bastard,’ Ian growled, the sound of the guitar driving him crazy even from the footpath.
He strode up to the front porch, pounding on the door. The guitar was too loud for Iggy to hear his knocks, so he tried to open the door and was surprised it was unlocked. He decided to just come in. Since he was coming in to yell at Iggy, who cared if he was being polite or not? He made his way through the house, heading toward the room with the noise. He took one glance at the sign that said STAY THE FUCK OUT and rolled his eyes, pushing open the door anyway.
He was shocked to find that the guy inside wasn’t actually Iggy like he’d thought. It was Mickey, facing away from him. And he was butt fucking naked. Ian stared, entranced, as Mickey’s ass jumped up and down in front of him. He gulped a little and glanced up just in time for Mickey to turn around. The brunette seemed shocked for a moment, but hardly ashamed, and continued to play the guitar. A smirk curled itself around his lips as he looked Ian up and down.
‘The fuck you want, Gallagher?’ he spoke over the amp blaring the guitar.
Ian’s mouth was dry. It was fucking dry. Also he was lightheaded. Probably because all of his blood was rushing elsewhere at the moment. He quickly pulled down his hoodie a little further, wanting to cover his boner before it became noticeable.
‘I, uh, was wondering if you could turn down your amp,’ Ian choked out, ‘I’m trying to study and it’s—it’s really loud. Please.’
Mickey rolled his eyes dramatically and leant down to turn down his amp significantly, returning quickly to playing. ‘That better?’
‘Uh, yeah, thanks…’ Ian knew he should go now. He just couldn’t get his feet to move.
The brunette grinned a little. ‘You need something else, Red?’
‘Are you in a band?’ Ian blurted out, suddenly wanting desperately to know because…because he just needed to know, okay?!
‘Yeah.’ Mickey’s eyebrows arched in amusement. ‘That all or did you want a fuckin’ invite to our next show?’
Ian knew he was joking. He knew he was being sarcastic. But he still, like a desperate idiot, said, ‘Yeah, actually, that’d be good.’
The brunette chuckled, walking over to his bedside table. He was still completely shameless about his nakedness and grabbed a flyer, handing it to Ian before playfully waving him off with a hand. ‘See you there, Gallagher.’
Ian, grasping at the invite with both hands, stumbled out of the room and out of the house. When he got back to his room, he still didn’t study. He listened to Mickey playing instead and tried to imagine him on stage.