Work Text:
When Ian miraculously got the job as a sales rep at the little paper company he just stared at his new employment packet in disbelief.
"Dental Mickey, we have a dental plan now." he looked at his husband in amazement and waved the packet around in the air.
Mickey just laughed at kissed the top of Ian’s head on the way into the kitchen.
"Proud of you man." Mickey mumbled later that night into the sweaty curve of Ian’s elbow when they finally settled down to sleep.
Ian’s plan of action from that moment on had been to blend in as best as possible. He wasn’t ashamed of his Southside roots, or the tattoos on his chest and ribs, but he really did not want to give them any reason to fire him.
Emily had just turned four and Yev was ten and starting to get into that age where everything he wanted for his birthday and Christmas was fucking expensive as hell.
They needed this job, and they definitely needed the health insurance considering Yev had started coming home with bruised arms and cut lips and Em had this weird cough every winter.
The first morning Ian came down the stairs in a pair of pressed black slacks and a white button down shirt Mickey wolf whistled from his perch at the bar.
"Damn firecrotch, you clean up good." he grinned predatory wide as Ian circled around the kitchen table to give him a kiss.
"Don’t start, I have to leave in 20 minutes."
"Plenty of time." Mickey smirked when he reached to pull Ian in between the v of his legs.
Ian laughed and kissed him again, “For you maybe.”
Mickey scrunched up his nose in a way that was totally adorable and not at all intimidating no matter what Mickey said.
"You ain’t funny so stop trying to be."
Ian just laughed and kissed him once more before pulling away at the sound of Emily and Yev coming down the hall from their bedroom.
"Who died?" Yev asked seriously as he looked Ian over.
"No one, new job starts today."
"Papa looks good!" Emily squealed when Ian took her from Yev and swung her up into his arms.
"I look good huh?" he asked as he tickled her sides.
After a few minutes he passed their still giggling daughter over to Mickey.
Sometimes it still shocked him how much they looked alike. Sure she had Ian’s red hair and freckles, but she had Mickey’s blue eyes and nose and even at four she still bit her lip just like Mickey. Mandy had volunteered to be the surrogate and it was obvious any time his husband held their daughter that she was definitely part Milkovich.
The first morning Ian took Yev and Em to school like normal. He kissed Emily on the forehead and tried to give Yev a hug but his son ducked out quickly.
"Papa I’m too old for that shit."
Ian just rolled his eyes and patted his son on the head, “Yeah yeah, course you are. Be good, dad’s picking you up today. I get off work at five.”
He waited until Yev got into the building with Em before driving away.
They settled into a routine after that and before Ian realized it he had been with the company for a year and some change.
On this particular Monday morning his cubicle mate Matthew leaned over the partition and dropped a huge folder on his desk.
"New project, boss says if we buckle down it won’t take us the entire night." Matthew sneered in disgust.
Ian grimaced, their boss was always pulling this shit. Dropping huge projects on them with 24 hour deadlines.
"Look, I really don’t want to stay here all night and I know for a fact you’ve been living off ramen for a month." Matthew laughed, patting his slowly rounding stomach with resignation.
"I can’t promise much better but you want to come work on this at my house? We just moved a few months ago so it’s still a bit of a mess and the kids can be loud as hell but I’ll call Mick to grab some food on the way home. Beats sitting here anyway." Ian was already typing out a quick text to Mickey before he looked up at his friend.
When he finally did Matthew was clutching a set of imaginary pearls and looked like he was about to dramatically faint.
Ian’s eyes widened in confusion, “What?”
"I’ve just been invited to the inner sanctum."
"Oh fuck off!" Ian laughed as he started gathering his stuff.
"No seriously, do you know what people say about you? They say you are probably the perfect husband with the perfect wife and perfect kids and perfect home where everything is perfect perfect perfect!"
"I’m gay." Ian responded, nonplussed by the wife comment.
"Yes I know. But the old bitty receptionists think I’m just spreading nasty gossip when I try to correct them. Can I take photos? I bet you do have a perfect home with a perfect husband and kids." Matthew sighed faux wistfully before breaking down into a fit of laughter.
"You are in for a really rude surprise." Ian smirked as he waited for Matt to finish getting his stuff and follow him out to the building.
Matt followed him home and parked behind Mandy’s little beat up bug.
"This the new house?" Ian nodded.
It was a little two story with a wraparound porch, only barely out of the Southside but they loved it. Em and Yev had their own rooms upstairs and Ian and Mickey were in the downstairs master to avoid any accidental noise from traveling.
Ian still blushed in embarrassment from the time an 8 year old Yev had come into the apartment kitchen and begged Mick to stop yelling Ian’s name every night when he was trying to sleep.
When they entered the house Yev and Mandy were both standing on the couch and shouting as their avatars battled on screen.
"Fuck fuck fuck FUCK!" Yev collapsed on the couch in defeat while Mandy did a wobbly victory dance on the cushions.
"Ian, your son’s video game skills are weak!" she crowed as Yev flipped her off.
Ian shook his head sagely, “I don’t know where we went wrong.”
Yev just tilted his head back and stuck his tongue out at his pops.
"Hey who is this?" Mandy hopped down from the couch and stood in front of Matt.
"Work friend. Got a huge ass project dumped on us last minute so he came over to work on it. Matt, this is my sister-in-law Mandy, and that’s my son Yev."
Yev saluted from the couch before turning back to Ian, “Dad called about 10 minutes ago and said he was picking up Em and some barbeque so he’ll be home soon.”
"Thanks kiddo. We’ll be in the kitchen if you need anything." Ian ruffled Yev’s hair as he walked by.
Matt took a seat and sighed, “Already this is better than expected. I can’t wait to tell everyone how normal your home life is.”
Ian barked out a laugh, “Is this normal? Who knew?”
They were engrossed in their work when Mickey and Emily busted through the door about 20 minutes later, laden down with huge bags of delicious smelling food.
"Papa!" Emily squealed, dropping the bags just barely out of Mickey’s way so she could leap into Ian’s lap.
"Thanks so much for the help Em." Mickey called sarcastically as he barely made it to the counter without dropping any of their dinner on the floor.
"Of course daddy!" Emily grinned and Mickey was helpless but to smile back.
"How was school today munchkin?" Ian smiled as his daughter started a lengthy ramble about bunnies and dinos.
Mickey ducked his head and pressed a kiss to Ian’s neck as he walked by to get the plates and introduce himself while Emily held his husband’s attention.
"Matt yeah? Mickey." Mickey shook his hand with a tight grip, exposing the bottom of an intricate tattoo sleeve.
His suspicions were confirmed when Mickey later rolled up the cuffs of his sleeves to reveal each pale arm covered in tattoos. Ian must have caught him staring because he just grinned.
"Mick owns his own tattoo parlor. Can’t help but sample the merchandise." they both laughed when Mickey shot Ian the finger over his shoulder.
"Bitch, you love ‘em. And don’t act like you don’t have tattoos." Mickey scoffed.
Matt raised his eyebrows in surprise, “Ian Gallagher, golden boy of the office has tattoos? Say it ain’t so!”
"What’s this about golden boy?" Mickey looked positively gleeful when he spun around.
"Somehow your husband has convinced everyone in the office that he is a very respectable goody two shoes. The receptionists would probably die if they knew the truth." Matt smirked as Mickey practically fell to the floor laughing.
"Yeah yeah laugh it up chuckles." Ian grumbled.
"Well come on, let’s see ‘em!" Matt gestured impatiently.
Ian rolled his eyes and started unbuttoning his shirt to reveal his two tattoos. The one on his ribs with the eagle and rifle and the messy signature over his heart.
"What’s that one?" Matt pointed at the almost illegible scrawl.
Ian flushed, “Mick’s signature.”
"That is so fucking cute. You two are so fucking cute." Ian just laughed, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.
"Do you have his signature on you?"
Without a word Mickey pulled down the front of his jeans to show off Ian’s neat handwriting in the hollow of his right hip.
"So cute." Matt laughed loudly when Mickey flipped him off once again.
"If you want some of this food I’d stop throwing the word cute around unless you are doing about my cute as hell daughter."
Matt smiled and kept his mouth shut, even if cute was the best word for them. He bit his lip to keep from smiling every time Mickey walked by and without thinking would reach to touch Ian’s shoulder or neck.
Mickey kept the kids in the living room until bed time when he silently brought Ian a nondescript pill box and a glass of water. He kissed his husband once before going to bed with a grunt.
It was a long time before they were done and Matt ended up crashing on their couch since they the little clock on the microwave read almost 4am. He waited until Ian’s bedroom door clicked shut before pacing around the room.
The walls mostly had photos of Yev and Emily doing various things, but there were also photos of Ian and Mickey from their wedding and even much younger. They were always standing close together, even in the ones where Mickey was scowling you could tell they adored each other.
He went to sleep a little awed by this whole family. They kind of were the perfect family. When he woke up the next morning, his back aching, and his mouth fuzzy from morning breath, the two men were already in the kitchen.
Ian’s back was to him but Mickey was leaning against the island with a cup of coffee in his hand. Ian was talking about the office picnic next weekend and how dumb it was and Mickey just kept watching him with this stupidly fond look on his face.
"If you want me to go with you, you just have to ask firecrotch."
Ian paused before surging forward and kissing his husband, just barely managing to keep from jostling the mug between them.
"I want you to go with me."
"So we’ll go."