Chapter Text
Not for the first time Mickey wondered why the fuck he was here. Usually he was only forced to do shitty things like this because of how awful his parents were, but for a change their negligence had landed him somewhere “good.”
The summer camp his parents sent him to served the purpose of keeping him out of their hair for four and a half months. It had some dumb Indian name and it was basically the ultimate collection of clichés all at once. Big foresty lake with a dock to launch canoes off of, an archery range, several campfire pits for people to hold hands and sing fucking Kum ba Yah under the fucking stars or some shit. There was a mess hall and a bunch of cabins and a bathroom for each gender.
It was really fucking lame and Mickey would sooner have stayed at home getting high and not getting laid all summer than spending it with these fucking losers. The only saving grace was that Mandy was stuck there with him.
-
He had to give it to Mandy with her optimism. She was babbling nonstop the night before their departure as they packed their things. Mickey thought he had done it but Mandy tore his bag open and called him a fucking idiot and insisted of repacking for him.
“Angie’s going,” Mandy said. Mickey didn’t comment as he turned his attention to readying his bong. “And Gina and Brianna. I think Carla’s going too but she’s been kind of bitchy to me lately so I might not talk to her at all.”
“Bullshit,” Mickey said, coughing a bit on the smoke after his first toke. He offered the bong to Mandy and she, surprisingly, turned it down. “Don’t they have jobs or some shit?”
“Guess not,” Mandy shrugged, shoving a couple more t-shirts into Mickey’s bag and then zipping it up. She pushed it off the end of her bed and it hit the floor with a thump. Then she hauled her own bag to the center of the bed and began laying out her clothes and fuck, Mickey was bored, but he wasn’t bored enough to stand around and watch this.
“None of your friends are coming and it’s gonna be really fucking lame,” Mickey said in parting, wandering out of Mandy’s room. She yelled after him to go fuck himself and he thought, not a bad idea. It’s not like he’d have the privacy to have a proper wank in the stupid cabins and there was no way he was gonna let some loser from camp fuck him.
-
Funny how he’d eat those words for breakfast after he’d met Ian Gallagher. They’d gotten dropped off by their oldest brother and promptly separated, Mandy sent off to the girl cabin and Mickey to his. He lugged all his shit and shoved it under his bed, unrolling his musty-smelling sleeping bag and punching his pillow into a shape conducive for moping.
He flopped on his bed and stared at the graffiti on the underside of the bunk above him when the door opened and the redhead strode in and ruined his life.
It was just his head at first, stuck in through the cabin door. He leaned in further when he spotted Mickey, clearly not expecting to find anyone there. “Hey!” he chirped, and Mickey fooled himself into thinking it was dumb and pretended he was annoyed. The guy invited himself in closer to the area around Mickey’s bunk. “You must be Mickey Milkovich!”
Mickey barely spared him another second’s glance before he turned his attention back to the oh-so-fascinating bunk above him. He was mostly concerned that he’d be caught staring. He didn’t have much time to think on it because there Ian was, standing over him and leaning on the bunk above him.
“Not a talker. Alright,” he said, grinning sheepishly like he was the one who should be embarrassed. Mickey hated and loved that look in equal parts. “Just thought I should introduce myself double time since I’m the counsellor for this cabin and I’m your bunk buddy.”
Mickey fought down the flush at the thought of the redhead above him. This was more literal and less enticing than what his mind provided him with of course, but he tried not to let it show.
“I’m Ian,” he went on, then laughed. “But I guess I don’t need to tell you that – my name tag is on my bunk and you probably already read about me in your cabin welcome package.”
“Sure I did,” Mickey mumbled, really wishing Ian would leave him alone. He was hot as hell but way too energetic for Mickey. Or at least that was what he told himself.
Ian hovered there grinning down at Mickey. It was hard to scowl with this goof doing what he was doing but Mickey managed. “Need somethin’ else or would you kindly fuck off?”
“Come outside,” Ian said as if Mickey hadn’t just said what he’d said. “A bunch of the other guys from this cabin are out playing volleyball on the beach. I bet they’d love to meet you.”
“Not fuckin’ likely,” Mickey snorted. When Ian stood there looking so damn hopeful and earnest, he added, “I’m tired, man. Gonna go to sleep.”
“But then you won’t sleep tonight,” Ian protested.
“Do I look like I care?” Mickey asked as rudely as possible.
“Alright, well, you’re clearly not in the mood for anything so I’ll see you later. Since you won’t be sleeping tonight maybe we can go for a nighttime run?” Mickey rolled over and put his back to Ian and the redhead finally went on his way. “See you at dinner! Hamburgers and hot dogs and mac n’ cheese. I’ll save you a seat.”
Mickey didn’t roll back over onto his back until he heard Ian close the door behind him. Hell yeah he’d be going to dinner (mac n’ cheese, come on) but he’d sit with Mandy and not some hot dumb ginger. That’ll show him.
-
That didn’t show him. That didn’t show him at all. All it showed him was how much of a loser Mickey was and how he had no friends.
He got his tray full of food (double scoop of mac n’ cheese ‘cause he was late and there was a little bit of extra after everyone else got their food, fuck yeah) and went to find Mandy. He scanned all the mostly-empty tables and didn’t find her – so one or two of her friends did show up to this shit-show. He hoped one of them wasn’t Angie because she hit on him aggressively and he couldn’t exactly tell her she was barking up an incredibly gay tree.
Mickey finally found Mandy and he felt like such a huge fucking tool when he did. He wished he’d been quicker to react, because he stood floundering at the end of the table for too long for anyone to think he’d been planning on sitting anywhere else. Turns out all of Mandy’s friends had come, even Hannah who Mandy had said was being sent to Bible camp after her abortion. With all of Mandy’s friends in attendance, there was no room for Mickey.
He turned and took his tray off to find another table way too late. Mickey barely heard Mandy shout ‘sorry, Mick! You shouldn’t be such a miserable asshole!’ over the giggling of her friends.
Mickey would almost rather sit alone than sit with Ian and the other guys in his cabin but he felt like such a loser already that he didn’t need to add more fuel to that fire. So he slunk into the last remaining seat at Ian’s table, and he was a charismatic likeable enough guy so there was no way his seat could have been empty unless he’d saved it especially for Mickey. What a big ball of gay Gallagher was.
Fortunately he was so busy, chatting with someone else and facing the other direction that he didn’t notice when Mickey slid into the seat next to him and started eating. Ian noticed Mickey when he’d finished his burger and started on his hot dog.
“Mickey!” he exclaimed, eyebrows shooting up when he finally spotted Mickey. Of course he caught the younger boy with a mouthful of wiener and this was how he introduced Mickey to the group of other guys he’d be bunking with for the summer. Various hellos were fired at him and he grunted in response, since they were all well and truly douchey and didn’t interest him in the least.
Not for the first time and definitely not for the last, Mickey wondered what the fuck he was gonna do all summer. With Mandy occupied by her friends, he was a friendless loser and she would have been the only thing to make this camping experience tolerable.
But the more he stared at Ian out of the corner of his eye, the more he started to come around to it. What would he do by the end of this gay-ass summer camp? He’d do Ian.
-
It took Mickey three days to get into his first fight and it was over something really stupid, too. Or at least after the fact it seemed stupid. When he was eating his dinner and some kid from the next cabin over with an obvious death wish tried to snatch his cup of Jell-o off his tray while he wasn’t looking, it seemed like a perfectly appropriate reaction.
He’d been talking to Ian, just shooting the shit and letting Ian try and convinced him to do more activities during the day instead of wandering around and cussing out anyone who tried to talk to him. Then out of the corner of his eye he saw the guy reach over his shoulder and snatch the cup of Jell-o from in front of him.
He ducked out of the conversation and grabbed the fucker – he didn’t even know the guy’s name but he knew he hated him based on this interaction – by the wrist. He squeezed until the tats on his knuckles stood out against his blanched skin and the guy dropped the cup of green Jell-o onto the table with a clatter. He hadn’t even had a chance to start opening it and that was a good fucking thing since Mickey would strangle him with his own fucking intestines if a single dent was left in surface of that perfect cup of green Jell-o that was rightfully bestowed upon him.
“Fuck, Milkovich, what’s your problem, man?” the kid whined, yanking his wrist free of Mickey’s grip and rubbing where he’d gripped it. “Christ, never pegged you for a dude who’d turn into a little bitch over a fucking cup of Jell-o.”
One second Mickey was on his feet and the next his fist was smashing into the kid’s jaw with a crunch. He went down hard and Mickey only got in a couple good kicks to the kid’s ribs before Ian hauled him back, kicking and spitting profanity. Nobody called him a bitch.
He settled down quickly when he was locked tight against Ian’s chest by his long arms. The tension drained out of him when Ian’s voice was there, speaking softly into his ear. “You shouldn’t have done that, Mickey.”
Mickey shoved Ian off himself with as much effort as he could muster and he tried not to get too embarrassed as one of the senior counsellors scowled down at him and told him he’d serve six hours detention. The other kid got half an hour for taking the Jell-o from Mickey and for how he spoke to him, and the counsellor gave them both a couple lines about this being a safe place and about this infraction being strike one. Mickey might have argued it but he was done getting spoken down to and he didn’t want any more attention on him so he just nodded and mumbled an acknowledgement of his punishment.
When he got to the storage shed like he’d been told to during his free period the next day, he couldn’t help feeling a little relieved. He honestly couldn’t be too upset when he was serving six hours of detention with none other than the absolute hottest redhead walking the earth. It seemed like Mickey’s summer camp experience was about to get a whole lot more interesting.