Casual Sabotage

6 - Not as closely as you usually do [smut]

It's been a full year since Ian and Mickey got together. Ian was amazed by how hard Mickey was trying day after day to make him happy. It was almost amusingly easy to make Mickey jealous, not that Ian would do it on purpose though. But once, one of his old affairs came into the store to flirt with Ian and Mickey stared at him with homicidal rage and threw him out of the store, but without using too much physical violence on him. His hands continued to shake for about half an hour afterwards, while he tried to not use his fists to make sure that guy would never come back.

Mickey let Ian cuddle and kiss him however much he desired, never doing more than growling and rolling in eyes in protest when Ian was wrapping his arms around him and kissing him softly even in the warmest of summer weather. Sometimes, Ian liked Mickey to lie in his lap so he could pet him like cat and Mickey gave him this simple pleasure and more often than not fell asleep during it, which Ian found insanely cute.

Mickey took a detour from his house to the store over a cemetery today, armed with a pair of scissors. He tiptoed around the cemetery between the snow-covered graves, he read the death dates, looking for someone who had died in late January, preferably recently.

He was in luck, he found a 'beloved mother and wife' who died at the age of 34 last year, 23rd of January, a bouquet of roses lay on the headstone, they were fairly fresh. Mickey looked around to see if someone was still around, then he wasted a swift thought on the woman's children. He pulled one of the roses out of the bouquet and cut off a part of the stem, then he put it carefully into his backpack.

He put the roses on top of the headstone again, wasted another thought on the children, and quickly left the cemetery. He entered the store and shook his head like a dog to get the snow out of his hair.

"Hi", he heard from the counter next to him. Mickey looked at his boyfriend and grinned, "Hey", he replied and quickly went to the back of the store to take off his jackets and his backpack.

Ian looked after him with a pout. For the past week, he had wondered whether Mickey would remember their anniversary. Mickey wasn't all for romance, heart-shaped chocolates and candlelight, but usually, Ian didn't let that ruin his mood. Lately, however, Ian was annoyed by some of Mickey's issues. He could deal with all sorts of Mickey's moods, but the whole hide-and-seek game Mickey was playing with the rest of the world was exhausting.

Mickey even tried to hide their relationship from Ian's siblings, though, especially in the winter months, they spent most of their time at the Gallagher house. Mickey only fooled himself when he believed the rest of the family didn't catch on to them yet. Just once, Ian wanted to kiss him in the open street, and even if just on his cheek, or hold his hand. But Mickey was too scared of his father all the time to just risk doing anything anywhere people could see them.

Ian sighed and thoughtfully looked towards the fruits and vegetables across from him. He heard Mickey coming back to him. Ian looked at him, he smiled down at him.
"You think, I forgot, don't you?"
"Forgot what?", Ian asked.
"Don't play dumb with me, freckles."

Freckles, he said, as usual. Shortly after they got together, Mickey had compiled a list with pet names for Ian. "I googled how to have a good relationship", he had said, "See, I only call you these names, and I only call you by your first name when I'm angry or serious." Ian had loved all the effort he made throughout the year, thinking about this, it wasn't that surprising that Mickey didn't forget their anniversary.

"Well", Ian said and stood up, "You forgot my birthday."
"Almost", Mickey corrected him.
"Yeah, because I reminded you the day before."
Mickey rolled his eyes, "Well, in contrast to your birth, I was actually there when we got together.", he said and handed the rose from the graveyard to Ian.
Ian started grinning widely and took the rose from him.