When Ian came home from his last day of work before Christmas he found Fiona in the kitchen cooking dinner and Yevgeny sitting in Liam's old chair and playing with one of Carl's old action figures. Liam and Debbie were in the living room and watching TV.
"Hey" he greeted and placed a kiss on Yev's head, "How are you doing little man?" As a response Yev chuckled and threw batman at him.
"Hey!" Fiona said and smiled as she looked up, "Could you lay the table?"
"Sure" he answered and opened the cupboards to take out some plates while his sister almost spilled the tomato soup on the stove as she tried to move around him to get the salt.
He put everything they would need on the table and then headed upstairs to get a needed shower.
As he was done he went into his room and got dressed. It was freezing cold outside, the whole city buried under a thick layer of snow, so he put on the warm hoodie that was hanging over the bed. He smiled as the smell hit him. Mickey had worn it last.
As glance at the clock on the nightstand his boyfriend wasn't gonna be home for at least half an hour. He usually spent the first half of the day in the Gallagher house going through Fiona's managing shit, finding new ways to cut her costs down or getting more customers and looking after his son while the afternoons were served for the Alibi to go over Kev and V's numbers. Well and hang out with Kev. The two had become bros over the last couple months something Ian was really happy about. Happy that Mickey had found another friend. But fortunately he got along pretty well with everybody in his family. And his family liked Mickey. Even Lip although he would never admit it. Neither would Mickey admit that Lip wasn't always being an asshole. Hell, once he had even overheard them talking about some stupid math problem he had had never even heard of.
Normally it was Ian's turn to watch Yev when Mickey was out but every now and then he had to work in the afternoon but luckily there was always someone who would take care of him. Sometimes Fiona just took Yev with her to the laundromat.
He was about to join him and his sister in the kitchen again when he heard someone moving around in the room he used to share with his three brothers. He expected to see Lip as he opened the door but looked down at Carl who was busy unpacking his suitcase. Well if you call taking all your stuff out at once and shoving it into a drawer unpacking.
"Holy shit!" he said and his little brother looked up, "Right Fi said you would come home for Christmas."
"Good to be back" Carl answered and hugged him, "Military school's fucking hard."
Ian smiled. "Yeah but you knew what you were getting into."
"Not exactly but it's okay. Can be a lot of fun." The last part sounded almost guilty and Ian knew why. It had always been his dream to go to the army and of course Carl knew that. But he was actually pretty done with the whole soldier thing after his short career at the military and the aftermath. He had something way better now.
"I'm sure you kicking their asses" he said and smiled reassuringly at Carl and then they heard Fiona screaming, "Dinner is ready!", so they went downstairs.
"That for Lip?" Carl asked glancing at the at the empty plate at the end of the table next to Ian.
"No it's for Mickey" his big sister answered, "Lip's at Sierra's." He didn't hear the second part.
Wait what? For Mickey?!
Ian must have noticed his confused look as he said, "Yeah, Mick and I are back together" while he was trying to get Yevgeny to hold his spoon in a way that wouldn't let soup spill all over the kitchen.
