Cadence ( Part 2 of Rhythm ) Completed*

Chp 24: Realign

Ian wakes up to silence or close to it. It's the level of noise that's quiet enough to be what he now counts as silence.

Nothing woke him up but his own internal alarm clock.

Rolling onto his belly, he groans into wakefulness, stretching out his limbs in a way that only an empty bed allows him. Army crawling on his stomach, he peers over the edge of the bed and sees that Ava's bassinet is empty.

He's not worried in a logical sense, but he doesn't remember the last time he woke up whenever the hell his body decided to wake up.

Flipping onto his back once again, he rolls his neck and stretches out the kinks in his back to the sound of satisfying cracks and pops. Finally getting out of bed, he tugs on a pair of sweatpants before going to find the rest of his family.

Mickey's standing at the kitchen counter pouring a cup of coffee, a grin spreading across his face when he sees Ian. "Hey. Mornin'."

"Mornin'," Ian parrots, dropping a kiss on Mickey's shoulder and playfully smacking his ass. "What you doing up so early?" He steals the mug of coffee Mickey just poured, earning himself an eye roll.

"Not early," Mickey says, mid-pour of a fresh coffee. When he turns to lean against the counter, he sees Ian waiting for more. "Nah, I couldn't sleep. Brains going and shit. Figured I would get up, get some shit started here. Took Bunny with me, since she was mostly awake anyway. Fed her and shit and let you sleep a bit."

"Thanks," Ian smiles. He strains his neck, turning to see where Mickey's deposited Ava, finding the baby passed out on her belly, strapped to her bouncer. The device is a godsend, and Ian's incredibly thankful Jason suggested it. He had no idea bouncers came made for letting a newborn lay on their tummy. This device probably deserves half the credit for saving their sanity now that their baby is happy and doesn't have to be attached to Ian or Mickey. "What's going on in your brain?" He takes a solid sip of his coffee before setting it down to futz with his medications.

"Don't worry about it. Just...stuff." Mickey makes a cycling motion with his hands. Giving Ian a pointed look, he holds up a palm. "Really, just stuff. All good."

Ian cocks his head then shrugs. "'Kay." He thinks he understands. Sometimes it is just "stuff" and Ian can't put it into words. Reaching for the freezer, he takes out a box of waffles. "Want some?" At Mickey's nod, he snags four waffles and drops them into the toaster. "You coming in to work today?"

"Yeah. Figure we could bring both kids. See what happens. Mikayla's pretty good. And if we can get Ava to stay settled for at least half of the day, we'll get something done." Mickey plops into a chair at the table and his eyes flutter closed while he drinks his coffee. "I can't believe we're opening the fucking storefront on Monday."

Ian can't either. He knows there's not going to be a lot of fanfare or anything, but it is going to be an actual date where people can walk into their store. He realistically expects some stranglers, a sparse number of customers checking in something new until the store, hopefully, falls into a more steady client base. It won't be hard to transfer his existing clientbase to meeting him at the store. Of course, Ian and Jason are still going to be doing a lot of the crafting portion of their jobs in the workshop, but sometimes it is easier to give people what they want if they can see things Ian's capable of doing to help fine tune their wants. "You ready for it?"

"When are we literally ready for anything?" Mickey snorts with a laugh. "We always think we're ready, but, really?" He raises both eyebrows. "It's more like we just figure that shit out as things are thrown at us. Am I ready to do that? Hell yeah." His lips curve upward.

Mickey's grin goes right through Ian and god does he love seeing it on his boyfriend's face. Ian's still pulling himself out from the last remains of sleep, but seeing Mickey's expression wakes him fully. It's been a while since he's seen that look show up organically. Ian's a sucker for it, but he'll own that. Before he goes to retrieve their warmed up breakfast, he kisses the grin from Mickey's lips, transferring it to his own. He feels lighter as he goes about dividing the waffles onto two plates and setting them down on the table, along with forks, knives, and syrup. "Couldn't really do any of this without you. So, if you're good to go, that's enough reassurance for me." The words aren't heavy with sentiment, merely true. So many things in Ian's life wouldn't be the way there were if he didn't have Mickey looking after him, backing him up. He knows it goes both ways and no one is keeping score, but he really couldn't have built this business without Mickey. Ian's a dreamer and he creates amazing products, but Mickey gets shit done. He tethers Ian. They balance each other out.