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It was decided. Mickey wasn’t allowed around the Gallaghers anymore. It turns out they’re a bad influence on him, if you can believe it.
When he’s around, they tend to all make fun of Ian more. Like right now, all gathered around the Gallagher’s kitchen table looking at old photos. They were all cackling at a photo of Ian when V offered to bleach his hair blonde and it was all curly. They called it his “noodle hair” and always reminded him of it. It was mortifying for Mickey to see these photos, but he evidently thought they were great.
‘Oh my fuckin’ God, Gallagher, look how smug you look,’ Mickey snickered.
‘He thought he was the shit,’ Lip chuckled.
‘Shut the fuck up. Didn’t you guys ever have bad hair? I know Fiona did.’
Fiona scowled. ‘It was cool to have…bigger hair then.’
Lip snorted. ‘Fiona, it looked like you got a perm.’
‘Exactly!’ Ian argued, sitting down next to his boyfriend. ‘And I’m sure Lip had ridiculous hair at some point that I don’t remember. Mick, you totally would’ve been someone to have stupid hair.’
‘Nah, I remember,’ Lip interrupted before Mickey could. ‘We had the hair cuts that were actually popular at the time. Ya know, emo hair, shaved heads…nothing too bad like your noodle hair.’
Mickey snorted. ‘High-larious.’
Ian groaned, dropping his head into his arms before sitting up with renewed vigour and tearing the book out of Mickey’s hands. ‘Okay, we’re done here.’
They all whined in protest, but Ian was adamant at removing his boyfriend from this hostile and humiliating environment. Grabbing his hand, he dragged Mickey out the door.
*
That night, Ian came back from brushing his teeth to see Mickey lying in bed, grinning down at his phone. Ian climbed into bed beside him.
He eyed the grin suspiciously. ‘You’re not on Grindr are you?’
Mickey snorted. ‘No.’
Ian shrugged, settling back into bed. ‘Was wondering why you looked so happy.’ He glanced up at Mickey’s phone from his new vantage point and saw something horrifying. ‘Oh my God. How the fuck did you get that picture?!’
It was Ian the year he became friends with Mandy and started hooking up with Mickey. Mandy had dragged him to a school dance, saying she wanted to experience one without someone trying to finger-bang her at the end of the night. He was wearing an ill-fitting suit and was giving the camera a mock-intimidating look. It wasn’t a terrible picture, but he was still covered in an insane amount of freckles and had fucking bangs, damn it.
‘Mandy gave it to me a year ago when they were looking through photos for that stupid memory video on your twenty-first.’ Mickey grinned. ‘You were so dopey back then, Gallagher. Kinda cute, actually, especially with how into me you were.’
Ian groaned, rubbing his temples. ‘I’m into you now, dipshit.’
Mickey shrugged, locking his phone and chucking it on the bedside table. ‘Fuckin’ whatever. It was different.’
Ian crossed his arms as Mickey settled properly into bed beside him. ‘Don’t know what made it so fucking special with him.’
Mickey gave him his patented “What the fuck” look. ‘And by him…you mean…you?’
‘It’s different,’ Ian mocked back, rolling over on his side.
Mickey huffed, rolling after him so his chest was against Ian’s back. ‘Are you seriously getting jealous over your own goddamn self?’ When Ian didn’t respond, he just rolled his eyes and turned off the lamp, plunging the room into darkness. ‘You’re ridiculous.’
‘Bet if he did it it wouldn’t be ridiculous, it’d be cute.’
‘Jesus Christ, shut the fuck up and cuddle me, asshole.’
*
‘And he said I was being ridiculous, can you believe that?’ Ian sighed, shaking his head and taking a sip of his coffee.
Debbie gave him a flat look. ‘Ian. You are being ridiculous. This is yourself you’re getting jealous over, here. Do you not get how weird this is?’
Ian crossed his arms. ‘If this is how our coffee Tuesdays are going to go from now on, I don’t know if I want to be a part of it.’
‘Well, what’s your solution, then?’ Debbie sighed. ‘What are you going to do about this? You can’t keep being jealous of…a guy who Mickey’s never going to get over, because he’s right in front of him. Before you respond, I would like to one last time remind you that this is, in fact, your younger self. Not another guy.’
Ian ignored that last part and said, ‘Well, I don’t know. I thought maybe delete the picture and get him to stop talking about it…?’
Debbie groaned, rubbing at her temples to soothe the incoming headache.
That’s when Fiona came in, Mandy trudging in after her. Fiona smirked down at Debbie, who looked ready to kill.
‘Is Ian being annoying?’ she laughed.
‘He’s still going on about Mickey having a picture of him, isn’t he?’ Mandy grumped, flopping down in a chair beside Ian.
‘How did you know about that?!’ Ian asked.
‘Mickey complained to me on the phone about it this morning. Do me a favour and bang him so I never have to hear his whining about your dumbass relationship ever again.’ Mandy quickly stole Ian’s coffee and headed into the lounge room.
Ian stumbled out of his chair, following after her like a puppy. ‘What did Mickey say?’
‘That he wishes you’d stop, probably,’ Debbie sighed, following them.
‘What’s going on?’ Fiona asked, joining them on the couch.
Ian hesitated for a second before blurting out, ‘Mickey has a photo of me from when I was younger and he likes him better! It’s unfair!’
Fiona nodded sympathetically. ‘Sounds rough, sweetface. What can we do to help?’
‘Oh, Jesus, you’re not even being sarcastic,’ Mandy said in disbelief.
Debbie snorted. ‘You would sympathise with this insanity.’
Fiona scowled. ‘I just happen to understand relationship highs and lows better than you people do.’
‘This isn’t something to solve, anyway,’ Debbie quickly changed the subject back. ‘This is something to just let go, Ian.’
Ian’s chin jutted out and the frustration in the room doubled. ‘I don’t wanna.’
Mandy raised her hands to silence Fiona and Debbie as they started in on him. ‘I have an idea.’
*
Lip Gallagher has walked in on a lot of weird stuff in his childhood home. Somehow — even through the multiple people having sex, people doing all kinds of drugs, and once walking in on Frank asleep next to a passed out goat — Ian being surrounded by Debbie, Mandy, and Fiona all taking photos of him as he posed in a suit was the weirdest.
He came into the living room, giving them all a confused look. ‘What the fuck is going on here?’
Debbie glanced over and gave him a wave. ‘Oh, hey, Lip. We’re just helping Ian out with his relationship problems.’
Lip took a few steps closer, looking at Ian on Fiona’s camera as he tilted his head. ‘With a photoshoot?’
‘We’re remaking a photo,’ Ian said, nodding toward Mandy, who held out the photo.
Lip frowned. ‘Okay. Sure…makes sense.’
‘He’s not better than me,’ Ian started muttering and Lip decided it was about time he went home.
‘Okay, I’m heading out,’ Lip said.
‘Really? But you just got—’ Before Debbie could finish, the door shut behind him.
They all exchanged a look before shrugging and turning back to their project.
‘You’ve got to grab your suit jacket a little in your fist,’ Mandy instructed, nodding in approval when Ian did just that. ‘Nice.’
*
‘Gallagher!’ Mickey called out as he came into the apartment and Ian poked his head out from the bedroom like an excited puppy.
‘Yeah, Mick?’
‘What the fuck is this?’ He pointed his phone at Ian, showing him the re-make of his dorky Ian photo. ‘And why did Mandy send it to me at lunch today?’
Ian frowned, coming closer hesitantly. ‘You don’t…You don’t like it?’
Mickey sighed, recognising the hurt look on Ian’s face. ‘Man, of course I like it. I’m just wondering…Why?’
‘I thought you liked the other photo so much, you should see what you have now…’
Mickey frowned. ‘Is this you being fuckin’ jealous again?’
Ian threw his hands up in frustration. ‘You don’t think I know it’s stupid, Mick. I know it’s stupid! I just…I just don’t want you to wish I was that way, because I won’t be ever again. I want to be what you want…I don’t know. It’s fucking stupid.’
‘It is fuckin’ stupid,’ Mickey said, wrapping a hand around the back of his neck. ‘I don’t want you to go back, Ian. If I did, that would be a bit creepy since you were fuckin’ fifteen. I’m happy with the Ian I have now, just like I was with the one back then. Sometimes it’s just nice to look back.’
Then it happened. Ian’s lips turned up in the same dorky, dopey, ridiculously fucking cute grin that Mickey always loved and that Ian had never really lost.
‘Really?’ Ian asked.
Mickey rolled his eyes, nodding and pressing his lips to Ian’s. Between kisses, he muttered, ‘You’re still super fuckin’ cute.’