Proud In Life

Chapter 6: I Promise

  Ian watched as his fiancee entered the Milkovich house before him. The man had been silent on the way over and he had been full on crying when Ian had arrived at the Gallagher house, a Milkovich. Needless to say he was worried. What the hell had happened? Had Fiona or Lip said or done something? What kind of thing could they have possibly done to get that kind of reaction?

  "Mick?" Ian called out uncertainly as the man headed straight to the kitchen and grabbed a beer from the fridge. All he got was a grunt in response.

  "Please Mick tell me what's wrong," Ian begged, stepping over until he could place a hand on Mickey's waist.

  Watching him closely, Ian was able to see the emotions crossing Mickey's face. There was fear, hopelessness and anger all there. Maybe something more. Nothing good. It was his family that had made him look like that. Ian had just recently had their wedding cancelled, Ian was the one with the spiteful family, it was Ian's fault that he was looking like that. Mickey would never have looked like that before Ian and he had to make sure that he hadn't really broken his fiancee.

  "Your sister said it was a matter of time before you offed yourself," Mickey spat after a moment, face suddenly closing off in a way that Ian hated.

  The ex-con's eyebrows were raised in the way they always were when he got defensive and he had stepped back from Ian, arms now crossed. It was that that registered with him first and then it was the words. Fiona said he would off himself. That he would kill himself and Mickey wouldn't have him anymore. Shit, that would have been why Mickey had been staring so lost at the corner where Monica had slit her wrists.

  Looking down and away from his man, Ian found himself shaking with anger. How could she do that? She was using his mental illness to drive Mickey away. Would it work? Hell had it already? That thought had Ian looking back up quickly, searching the other's face only to see that he was still closed off. That wasn't good. Oh...

  "Mick..." Ian begged quietly, voice broken. He took a step forward but Mickey took another step back and Ian had to close his eyes to hold back the tears.

  "Said that all bipolar people do it at some point," Mickey continued, voice only slightly wavering.

  Looking up again Ian couldn't help but snort as the anger took back over. Every bipolar person? That was such a whole lot of bullshit.

  "Yeah every bipolar person she's known at least. Which totals to our mom and now me. She's full of shit Mickey she wants to break us apart. Don't let her do that Mick please," Ian begged him.

  "I... fuck Ian. I don't want to break up with you. Your piece of shit sister thinks that'll work. Fuck if I left you that would just make you more likely to slit your wrists or throw yourself off a bridge or something. I just... promise me that you won't..." Mickey trailed off, emotions breaking through again.

"I promise," Ian whispered, stepping forward and kissing the other man chastely before wrapping his arms around him.

  For a moment the two of them stood there like that in each other's arms. Mickey's wrapped around Ian's neck with his face buried in the red head's neck. It was such relief to have Mickey there, it was so good to have him worried over Ian's health and life. He had just accepted Ian's promise straight away. He pressed in closer and breathed in the smell of him, reveling in the feel of him in his arms.

  "You have to promise me whenever, if, you feel like that then just remember me and how much I love you. If you ever get to the point where you can't live for you, please live for me," Mickey said softly, lips moving over Ian's skin so that he felt as well as heard the words.

  "I promise Mick," Ian choked. He couldn't believe he had just said that. Live for me. Ian could definitely do that. "I love you so much."

  "Love you too dork," Mickey replied quietly.

***

  Things had been so good after that. Without Mickey knowing Ian had been taking cute photos of Yev and Mickey or Mickey and himself or even all three of them. One of them was a selfie he took when Mickey fell asleep against his shoulder while he cuddled a sleeping Yevgeny. Oh people had loved that one when he posted it.

  Since then he had started posting ones every day and he a ridiculous fan base. He had thousands of people following him and he couldn't help but love sharing how cute and adorable his little family was. Not that he would ever let Mickey know, the guy would freak out for sure and it wouldn't be pretty. It was a good job really that Mickey never ventured onto social media sights.

  It was the night before his EMT test and the night before their wedding was supposed to take place. Ian had been cramming all night and Mickey had gone to bed about half hour before taking Yev with him as Lana was out somewhere- something that was happening more and more. He was just about finished with what he could do before he thought his brain was going to explode so he looked over at the door to their room, more than ready to go to bed physically but mentally just too... uptight.

  The thought of the next day was bittersweet, he was going to finally be getting the qualifications that he needed to get out of that damn club and into a respectable job where he would be saving people. Sure he was nervous about the test but he had never gotten himself overly worked up over such things, it was the whole wedding thing that was bothering him. Mickey hadn't even bothered to talk about resetting a date and Ian still wasn't sure if he wanted to. Ian so badly wanted to no longer be insecure about this thing with Mickey but he couldn't help it. About a month ago when they had last been over to the Gallaghers', Fiona had used Ian's mental illness to try and split them up. One day when Ian's depression was so he was stuck in bed a useless, pathetic and disgusting lump, Ian could not see Mickey staying.

  Live in the moment though as they liked to say so getting up he walked over to their room. The sight within made him smile; Mickey fast asleep with Yev equally gone on his chest. Taking a quick picture, Ian posted it and gently went over and removed Yev from his father's chest, putting him in the cot before getting in the bed and curling around his fiancee.

  Whatever may come he had Mickey right now.