Work Text:
It's gonna be July, July
How much I love July, July
You wanna come with me, baby
You gonna love it, love it, love it!
What a bunch of crap.
Mickey turned off the volume, focusing only on what he was watching on television. Who he was watching. American sweetheart Ian Gallagher. Everybody loved the singer because he was cute and nice and gentle, not an ounce of dishonesty or unpleasantness in the teenager. He was gay and every mother wanted him for their gay sons, such a successful young man who sang only of good things. Mickey also knew Gallagher was the fiercest cuddler, that he would eat stuffing too much food in his mouth, and that he had a secret lover.
Well, he knew all that, precisely because he was his secret lover.
Mickey Milkovich, thug extraordinaire. The nineteen years old that mothers tried to keep away from their babies. He was dirty and swore a lot and used vodka as mouthwash. He also loved being spooned to death by his ginger boyfriend and the awesome, alas rare moments, he got to be alone with him, away from the paparazzi.
The thug didn't mind being a secret, not that much. Especially not when it was the price to pay to ensure Ian's career. The public eye just couldn't see their beloved singer having a thug, part-time drug dealer boyfriend at his side. It wasn't even an option. Ian's manager had told him straight away that if he wanted to be with Mickey he had to be discreet. Mickey had agreed.
Yet now things had changed. An hour ago, really. Because at 4:17 p.m., Mickey had seen the results on a pregnancy test he'd just peed on.
He was knocked up.
There wasn't any more denying his morning sickness, attributing them to bad food or too much alcohol. Something was growing inside of his belly and it wasn't some sort of anthropophagus alien. A baby. It was a friggin baby. Maybe right now it was just a lump, the fuck did he know, but eventually it would grow a pair of ears, and eyes and Mickey wished for his hair to be red like Ian.
Fuck. He had considered about having an abortion for just a second before wincing at the idea and realizing he wanted the future baby to be born. Ian's and his baby.
He pictured Ian's face at the announcement. Father at just seventeen. There was a strong possibility for that adorable idiot to be ecstatic about the situation. But Ian was the dreamer and it was Mickey’s role to be the down-to-earth one. Ian couldn't have a thug as a boyfriend, be a teen dad, and still maintaining the benevolence of his public. He worked for Disney, for fuck sake! He was supposed to entertain kids, not having one of his own. The option of keeping the baby as a secret too was also not acceptable. It wasn't the child's fault.
Now Mickey had to be the one to make a hard decision.
***
There was really just one thing Mickey could do.
“I found someone else. He makes me happy. He doesn't have to hide me and I can have him every time I want.
Sorry to tell you this on paper, but I can't stand you when you become a whiney little shit.
Be well,
Mickey
P.s. don't bother come looking for me ‘cause I'm going to live with him.”
Mickey left the note on the kitchen table for when Ian would have come looking for him. To buy himself some time. He was aware he was being a coward, going away without saying goodbye, lying. But Mickey was weak when it came to Ian's sad face. He knew that he would've caved in as soon as Ian started protesting.
If Mickey wanted to stay true to his intention, he had to go away without seeing Ian one last time. In person, at least.
***
5 months and two weeks later…
“Yo, skank. Get me some pizza bagels, will ya?” Mickey shouted from the living room.
His sister Mandy rolled her eyes. How the fuck had he heard her opening the freezer? Did pregnant men had some kind of enhanced hearing superpower?
“Get them yourself, you whale!” she yelled back.
“Say what?! You'd make the father of your nephew walk with this belly? You're a cruel bitch!”
Mandy gave him the finger, but obviously her brother didn't see. Well, it was the thought that counted. She grabbed the pizza bagels anyway and turned on the oven. She didn't want Mickey to throw a fit; pregnancy was making him insufferable and he'd always been a pain in the ass to begin with.
“Last time you made me buy ice cream for my niece. Your baby changes sex every time you want something,” she commented once she went to the living room with warm pizza bagels.
Mickey snatched the plate from her hands and shrugged. “Whatever.”
Mandy sighed, going back to the kitchen to prepare the frozen waffles she'd originally gone to the freezer for. She decided to eat them in the kitchen or her brother would've stolen them too. He had become an eating machine with the excuse that he was ‘eating for two’.
While waiting for her waffles to bake, she fiddled with her phone, scrolling through the contacts.
Ian.
She didn't know him very well, but the guy had been on her mind for months. Exactly since Mickey had showed up in Indiana, knocking on her door. Expecting a fucking child. She'd insisted multiple times with Mickey, “Call him”, she would say. Yet her brother had never once tried to contact his ex-boyfriend. Ian had tried to reach Mickey through her, but she had only assured him, he was alive and well.
She would've been okay with Mickey’s decision if he had appeared serene, without regrets. Instead her brother was a wreck and she'd often caught him watching Ian's musical performances holding a pillow and crying against it.
Ian was no better. Just the day before he'd gotten heavily drunk at an important premiere, making an ass of himself in front of the camera. The paparazzi had had a feast portraying the adored Disney prodigy as a problematic teen with alcohol problems.
Mickey had then repeated that their forced breakup was still for the best, but Mandy had big doubts about it. If the boy couldn't see it, she'd have to take the situation in her hands.
She was coming to such realization when Mickey shouted for her again, except that this time there was no food request involved.
“Mandy, fuck! The waters!”
No, maybe he wanted to drink now, the lazy bastard. “Oh, now you want water too?” she replied.
“What? NO! My waters broke!”
In one second, Mandy was in the living room, hauling Mickey’s ass up and driving to the hospital.
***
If Mickey had known giving birth would've been so hard and painful… Nah, he would've done it anyway. When the nurse put a little baby girl in his arms, his world started to have meaning again.
Yeah, he’d made the right choice, she could never be a secret. She was too pretty. With her cute, pink lips and her few strands of red hair and- fuck. She was a redhead, just like her other father. Was it wrong that such a happy moment could also be sad because he couldn't share it with Ian? He wanted to show him his daughter, see his dumb smile and hear him cooing at their baby and say
“She's beautiful.”
Mickey raised his eyes up, meeting green ones.
“Ian…” he muttered, completely unprepared at the sight of his boyfriend. There. Looking at him and the baby girl with such a soft expression on his face.
“Really, Mick? She was the reason for you to break up with me and going AWOL?” His eyes lost their softness when they settled just on Mickey. “Fuck, I don't know if I should be head over heels ‘cause I just discovered to have a child or be angry as hell for the same fucking reason.”
The only reason he wasn't shouting was so that he didn't scare the baby, that much was clear.
“How do you… why are you here?” Mickey asked.
“Mandy, how else,” Ian replied, going to sit on the bed. Now that he was up close, Mickey could discern the shadows under his eyes, the color of his face too pale. The younger boy hadn't slept for days; months, even. Mickey felt a pang of guilt that hit him square in the gut. “You fucking abandoned me, just leaving a note and… what the fuck, Mick!”
The baby opened her eyes at the loud tone voice, but she fell back asleep in no time. Mickey sighed.
“She can't become your secret too and I didn't want to ruin your career with a child. I thought I'd make things easier this way.”
“Easier? Can't you see me? I couldn't sleep, couldn't eat…” Ian shook his head in disbelief. “At first I was jealous, then I became so worried. Nobody knew your whereabouts, your sister lied at first, then she had to tell me that you were fine at least or I'd have called the police.”
“I'm sorry,” Mickey muttered, only brave enough to glance at Ian.
“Now I know I have a daughter I have to thank Mandy for it. You had no intention of telling me.”
Mickey nodded, even though by now the thought of Ian not knowing that he'd become a father was incredible, even to him. He should've told him, Ian deserved that. But he had panicked and later he'd tried to convince himself of his reasoning.
“I'm glad she called you,” he whispered. He opened his arms a bit to let Ian see the baby better.
Ian frowned. “Really?”
Mickey nodded. “Yeah. You deserve to know. I took the choice away from you, but I'm aware your career is important. It's okay if you pick that over us-"
The redhead placed a finger against Mickey’s lips. This time there was no mistake, Ian was furious. “I pick you two over my career every fucking time, I… Mick, it's not even a choice. I love you, and now I love this girl too.”
It became hard for Mickey to swallow. “But you also love singing…”
“I do, so fucking much,” Ian agreed. “But not if it means singing shitty lyrics, never swear in front of the cameras and especially if I can't be with you, guys. I already ended the contract, anyway.”
“You did what ?” Mickey half shouted, half whispered. “You can't just terminate a contract.”
“I didn't.” Ian had a shit eating grin going on on his lips. “The other night I caused a scene at a premiere…”
“You were wasted.”
“Yeah. Thing is, I planned on getting drunk. With the company…it was not working anymore. It never did, really. I just needed to give it a little push. The day after they called me to come to a friendly divorce. I was just out of the office when Mandy told me the news. It's like fate.”
Mickey rolled his eyes. Only Ian could think of something like fate. It was also true his boyfriend was the positive one in their relationship.
His boyfriend. So they were still
“I don't wanna lose you. Never again. Don't you dare running away, Mickey Milkovich, ‘cause I swear I'll kill you with my own hands,” Ian said, a serious expression on his face. Mickey could only nod.
Ian smiled softly then, and closed their distance by leaning in and kiss him on the forehead. He did the same thing to their daughter.
“Well, she has two dads without steady income now,” Mickey commented, making Ian chuckle.
“I'm a teen millionaire, I don't think she has to worry about money. Besides, I won't stop singing, I'll just finally do it on my own,” Ian kissed his boyfriend again, this time on the lips. “So, you'll come back to Chicago with me?”
Mickey smiled at him. “Sure, we're coming back home.”