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Mickey didn’t necessarily want to be dealing with the Rub and Tug right now. Quite frankly, he’d much rather be doing literally anything else. The whores were annoying him and the customers were annoying him even more. He’d much rather be spending his time at home with Ian and watching a stupid movie, or playing video games, but the bills had to be paid or he wouldn’t have a home to go back to, so the Rub and Tug was where he’d be spending his day.
It wasn’t all bad, though. Ian was spending the day with Lip and had made plans to come to The Alibi after he spent some time with his brother. At least he had something to look forward to.
He was standing guard at the door that led to the upstairs, making sure that no one would go up there without paying first. Unsurprisingly, people tried to do that often and once it started getting out of hand, Mickey had to stop sitting at the bar and drinking after checking in on the girls. He’d spend hours a day just standing by the door, keeping his eyes and ears open. Anyone who tried to say that being a pimp was an easy job was sorely mistaken.
As he counted the money that had just been handed to him by a John before he let him upstairs, he faintly heard the bar phone ringing in the background. It was one of the most annoying sounds he’d ever heard at this point because Kevin was simply ignoring it while he engaged in conversation with one of the patrons.
He was relieved when Vee made her way over to phone and answered it. Mickey let out a long sigh, pocketing the money in his hand before moving out of the way so that the John could make his way upstairs to enjoy what would probably be thirty seconds in heaven.
“Mickey, it’s for you,” Vee called across the bar, holding the phone out. “It’s Ian, he said you weren’t answering your cell.”
Mickey frowned slightly, patting his pockets. He must’ve left his phone upstairs, he thought as he made his way over to Vee.
“Go guard the door for me for a minute,” he said, grabbing the phone from her hand. She did as he asked, quickly moving her body in front of a guy who thought he’d take the opportunity to sneak up as soon as Mickey had his back turned. Mickey shook his head before pressing the phone to his ear. “What’s up, man? Didn’t think I’d hear from you until later.”
“Uh, yeah. Change of plans,” Ian said before clearing his throat awkwardly. “I need you to come get me.”
“Get you? From where? Are you alright?” Mickey asked, his body tensing up completely as it always did when he felt like something bad had happened.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” Ian replied quickly, causing Mickey’s body to sag in relief. “It’s just that, uh, Lip and I were arrested and I need you to come bail us both out,” Ian finished, trying way too hard to seem casual.
“Arrested? What the fuck did you do, Ian?” Mickey asked, closing his eyes with a deep sigh.
“We got in some stupid argument and it escalated and I’ll fill you in on the rest later, but I really would rather not be in here much longer. Just go home and grab the money we set aside for bail come get us. Please?” Ian sounded tired, more tired that he had when he had to work for sixteen hours straight last week.
“Yeah, alright, don’t get your panties in a twist, I’ll be there soon,” Mickey said before hanging up the phone.
“Did I just hear that Ian was arrested?” Kev asked as he approached Mickey, panic in his voice.
“Yeah, he’s fine,” Mickey said, walking back to his spot in front of the door and relieving Vee from guard duty. He made himself busy, taking money from one guy as another came down the stairs.
“The hell are you doing? Ian’s in jail,” Kev said frantically, looking at Mickey like he was crazy.
“I heard. Numbnuts gettin’ arrested doesn’t mean I don’t have a job to do. He can wait.”
If he was being honest, the whole situation amused Mickey to no end. It was always Ian getting on his ass about avoiding incarceration, telling him to call the Rub and Tug quits and get a legal job, setting aside money just in case Mickey were to get arrested. Neither of them suspected that it would be Ian in need of bail money.
Mickey couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across his face as Kev and Vee both started bitching at him to get a move on it and go get Ian.
“Shut up, he’s fine. I’m just gonna make him sweat it out a little bit. Why shouldn’t I have fun with this?” Mickey asked, grabbing another wad of cash from another patron.
Kev and Vee both groaned in frustration before going back to work. Mickey had every intention of going to get the Gallagher brothers, but that didn’t mean he was going to do it this moment. He figured he might as well finish up his work and maybe go grocery shopping first.
As hard as he tried, he couldn’t keep the smile off of his face for the rest of the day. This was the most entertaining experience he’d had in years. After all the time Ian had spent ranting about the legal dangers of Mickey’s job, it was nice to see the tables turned. There was no way in hell he was going to let this slide without having fun with it, so when he pulled into the parking lot of the nearest grocery store, he had already came up with mental list of what they would be having for dinner.
He didn’t spend much time at the store at all, easily grabbing the ingredients from the isles and getting them checked out. He put the bag in the trunk, wanting to make sure that his boyfriend wasn’t tipped off to the meal he was prepared to make as soon as they made it home. He made a short pit stop at their apartment and grabbed enough money to bail both of the Gallagher’s out and then he was on his way, smiling like the sun would never stop shining all the way there.
He’d never been inside the police department without handcuffs on before. It was a strange feeling, to say the least, but he was walking on air. The second he saw Tony Markovich standing at the front counter, an idea hit him so hard he almost fell right off of his feet. This must be what it feels like to be Ian, always the optimist.
He smiled brightly at Tony as he approached the desk, causing the cop to chuckle lightly. “Here to pick up Ian and Lip?”
Mickey nodded, reaching for his wallet. “Listen, there’s an extra fifty in it for you if you keep Lip in there for ten more minutes,” he said, setting the bail money on the desk before pulling out another fifty and holding it in Tony’s face.
Tony simply snorted while nodding his head, grabbing the money. “You got a deal.”
This was the worst day of Ian’s life. Well, probably not the worst, but it was pretty high up there on the list of bad days he’s had. This was all Lip’s fault. Sure, Ian had thrown the first punch and was on top of his older brother when the cops pulled up, but Lip was always at fault. Admittedly, Ian wasn’t quite sure why he hit him in the first place. It wasn’t necessarily the smartest thing he’d ever done. Ian had just gotten tired of Lip’s drinking and his excuses as to why he did it and why he wouldn’t stop. The more Lip spoke, the more he sounded like Frank and once the first punch was thrown, all Ian could see was Frank.
It wasn’t fair and Ian knew that. The last thing he ever wanted to hear was how much like Monica he was, so comparing Lip to Frank was probably not the best thing he could’ve done for their relationship, but something in his brain had switched and his body reacted before his brain could tell it not to.
Ian was getting more and more irritable as the clock creeped closer to the three hour mark since he had called for his boyfriend to come bail them out. Even just getting ahold of him in the first place was difficult enough and now he was taking his sweet ass time to come get him out of this hell hole. He’d decided an hour after he called Mickey that he would be calling Fiona next time. She’d ask more questions and let the overprotective mother side of her come out to play and it would be frustrating but nothing was more frustrating than waiting around for hours. At least Fiona rushes in a crisis.
Ian and Lip both let out a breath of relief when Tony approached the holding cell and unlocked it, shaking his head when they both rushed to the door.
“Not you, Lip. Just Ian,” Tony said regretfully, letting Ian exit before locking the cell back up.
“What? I told Mickey to bail us both out. What the hell is going on with him today?” Ian asked irritably and only got a shrug from Tony in response.
He heard Lip ranting behind him as he made his way towards the front of the building, too frustrated to even reassure Lip that’d he get him out of there. Tony informed him that Mickey was waiting for him outside and he didn’t waste another second before going out there with every intention of giving Mickey a piece of his mind.
As soon as the sun hit his face, he had to squint, looking around until he found the person he was looking for. Mickey was leaning against the wall casually, sucking down on a cigarette as his eyes scanned the parking lot. He walked right up to the brunet and landed a hard punch to his arm, causing Mickey to groan in pain.
“Didn’t you just get arrested for this shit? You might wanna tone it down before I press charges on your ass, Rocky,” Mickey said, smirking up at Ian.
“What the hell took you so long? And why didn’t you bail Lip out, too? I specifically told you to bail us both out,” Ian said, ignoring Mickey’s teasing.
“I had shit to do, bitch, I can’t come runnin’ every time you get your ass in a pickle, and I did bail him out. I just gave Tony a little somethin’ extra to fuck with Lip,” Mickey chuckled, finishing off his cigarette and flicking it away from him. “Let’s get out of here. I’m makin’ dinner tonight.”
Ian sighed heavily, walking towards the car without looking back to see if Mickey was following. The ride back to the apartment was quiet, Ian too annoyed to engage in conversation, but the smile never left Mickey’s face. Ian knew this was far from over.
Ian went straight up to their apartment after Mickey parked the car, not bothering to help him with groceries. He went to their room, needing to change into something more comfortable. His jeans and t-shirt were suffocating him after the day he’d had. He had every intention of taking a long hot shower after he got his belly full. Believe it or not, jail wasn’t the cleanest place to be.
When he finished putting on a pair of basketball shorts and hoodie, he went to the living room. He heard Mickey shuffling around in the kitchen and as much as he would have liked some comfort from his boyfriend, he was too pissed off to give in and go in there, so he turned the tv on and waited for Mickey to finish cooking.
He wasn’t sure why he was even surprised by the way Mickey was handling the situation. The second he had the handcuffs on, he knew he was going to get shit from the older man. It was inevitable after all of the nagging Ian had done, wanting to keep his boyfriend out of jail and then getting arrested himself. He’d just wished that Mickey would have waited a day or two before giving him shit about it.
While it was quiet in the kitchen for a while, Mickey didn’t call for Ian to come eat until roughly half an hour later. Ian nearly sighed in relief, feeling more hungry than he ever thought he could. He stood up and walked as quickly to the kitchen as he could and sat down on a stool at the counter. When he looked down at his plate, though, he was less than impressed.
“What the fuck is this?” Ian asked, looking up at his smiling boyfriend.
“That is stale bread soaked in gravy and a bottle of water,” Mickey answered happily. “Now, I know after spending so long in lock up, you’re used to tap water, but I figured I should do something special for you. Oh! I almost forgot,” Mickey interrupted himself, going straight to the refrigerator and pulled some things out before grabbing some spoons from the drawer. “Jell-O for desert,” he smiled, placing the plastic cup in front of Ian.
Ian pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Are you done?”
Mickey chuckled and nodded. “Yeah, I think so. I already ordered a pizza. It should be here soon,” he said, rounding the counter and kissed the top of Ian’s head, squeezing his shoulder sweetly.
“I’m gonna go take a shower,” Ian grumbled, standing and making his way to the bathroom.
“Don’t drop the soap!” Mickey called after him, snickering at his own joke.
Ian supposed he set himself up for that one.