You And Me (Gallavich)

I Can't Sleep

Lip snorted, picking his magazine back up as he fell back on the bed. Mickey watched him with raised eyebrows. "What the fuck are you doing?"

Lip moved his magazine down to look at Mickey, a giddy smile still on his face. It slowly disappeared when he looked at Ian and saw the straight faces the two boys in front of him. He sat up hurriedly. "Wait- you're serious?"

"Serio- obviously I'm fucking serious!" Mickey exclaimed, rubbing a stressed hand over his face. "Listen, Terry's makin' a lot of problems and I'm fucking sick of it. It ends now."

"Took you long enough," Ian mumbled under his breath, to what Mickey tried to ignore.

"Yeah? Us and what fucking army?" Lip asked as he stood up. "We're just ants compared to the guys Terry probably has."

"We got a lot of people," Mickey insisted, making Lip roll his eyes. "Colin."

"Who the fuck's Colin?"

"Colin Milkovich," Ian blurted, looking at Lip dead panned. Lip looked at Mickey with fear flashing across his eyes.

"Y- Colin- he's in prison, right?"

Mickey shook his head as the room fell silent. It was difficult, due to Colin's soft and calmed voice, to hear him talking to his siblings downstairs. But the small hum of his voice was enough to make Lip shudder.

"So," Mickey sighed. "You in?"

Ian nodded silently from his spot on the bed. Him and Mickey both looked at Lip expectantly. Lip laughed sarcastically. "Give me one good reason why I should risk getting my fucking dick chopped off, just so you can teach your deadbeat dad a lesson?"

"First of all, this ain't no lesson," Mickey growled dangerous as he walked into Lip's personal face, their faces now only inches apart. "I'm killing that piece of shit, jail time or not, I don't give a fuck. Second, if you don't help me do this, you'll have me on your ass for the rest of your life, and probably Maria too when she decides to take care of the precious Gallagher family."

"Fuck does she care?" Lip asked in a horrible attempt of brave, but Mickey saw right through him. He knew Mickey was right.

"Next time, when Frank makes a deal with Terry that he can't fuckin' pay off, I ain't gonna be there to slow him down," Mickey referred to a couple years back, when the drunk Frank took a little baby, who must've been Liam, to the bar and held him as a shield from a furious Terry screaming for his money. Mickey jumped in, being young and not wanting to see a baby get thrown to the floor, knowing Terry's temper. He got a good beating for it afterwards, but at least the baby lived. And apparently, Frank managed to pay his debts by the next day.

"We paid that off," Lip said. "We got the money."

Mickey chuckle disbelievingly. "You don't get it... Liam out there would be fucking dead if it wasn't for me, so don't be a smart ass."

Lip looked defeated for a minute, his eyes flickering to Ian who was watching the scene quietly but attentively. He sighed. "Alright, fine, whatever."

"Good," Mickey said, nodding. "Alright. Let's go."

-

-

"Those are your guys?" Mickey asked as a group of four bulky men walked towards their car after exiting the gay club. Colin nodded silently and watched them approach. Mickey looked around, feeling a little uncomfortable with the sight of so many gay people around him. It made him feel weird, that two people in this car- he flickered his eyes to Ian in the back who was also looking around interestedly- knew he was gay. He didn't want to fit in with these gay people, he didn't even want to be gay. He just is.