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Everyone knows the Milkoviches.
They are ruthless and cruel.
They are dangerous.
Even in elementary school everybody was afraid of them. Even of the youngest brother, since he sometimes got picked up by his older brothers.
During their teenage years, more and more people dared to get near the Milkoviches- to get drugs.
Doing drug business or any business at all with the Milkoviches was a dangerous game. On the one hand, they could be sure that their drugs were safe. On the other hand, if you couldn't pay in time, you were a dead man.
"He got Milkoviched" was a phrase used as explanation when someone from school landed in hospital.
Ian was 10 years old. His siblings were lucky in contrast to him - they never had a Milkovich in one of their classes, or years. Ian did.
Mickey Milkovich, youngest brother, terrorized the 5th grade.
And his main victim was Ian.
Mickey never beat him up - yet. In general, Mickey rarely really gave someone a beating. He usually just let the fear work for him.
Ian walked into school, by the time he reached his locker, Mickey had already spotted him. Both knew what followed now.
Mickey punched the locker next to Ian's, getting the Gallagher to turn around to him.
Mickey pushed him against the lockers.
"Morning Gallagher", he smirked, he was still taller than Ian, " What d'ya got today for me?"
Ian stared up at him with wide eyes and let out a shakey breath.
"PB&J"
"Good, your sister better didn't use one knife for both again, that shit's disgusting", he let go of Ian's shirt and the Gallagher got his lunch with shakey hands and held it out to Mickey.
The Milkovich took it "Anything else? Heard your mum's back in town, she always give you something sweet doesn't she?"
"No" Ian shook his head.
But Mickey could practically smell lies. He fisted Ian's shirt again.
"Are you sure, Gallagher?"
Ian melted under his piercing blue eyes, he quickly reached into his jacket pocket and gave Mickey the chocolate bar his mother pushed into his hand this mornong.
"Yeah that's what I thought, see you tomorrow Gallagher", the Milkovich backed off, pushed the food into his pockets and left.
The only good thing about these encounters was that Ian could be sure to be left alone by the boy for the rest of the day.
His brother Lip walked over to him.
"Stupid fucking Milkoviches", he cursed, "What an asshole, you can have half of my sandwich later"
"Thanks", Ian mumbled and closed his locker.
"Even the fucking principal is scared of his family, otherwise they would have expelled him long ago! This is such bullshit. Why does that family get to treat all of us like that?"
Ian shrugged, "Maybe he's just hungry"
"Come again?"
"The family is scary, but he looks so skinny. His clothes look like they went through his brothers and cousins before him. They probably have less money than we do, maybe he is just hungry - that's why he steals my sandwiches."
"That doesn't make it right", Lip insisted.
"We sometimes steal when we don't have enough money"
"But not from other hungry kids! Besides, I've never seen him eating anything. He steals your lunch every day, but I can't recall ever seeing him eating it, can you?"
Ian shook his head, "But I also don't follow him around the whole day"
"Maybe you should"
Ian bit his lip. This was weird, why would Mickey steal his lunch but then not eat it?
He had to spend every class with Mickey and he didn't leave him out of his sight.
The curiosity got the better of him. Even though it was dangerous as hell, Ian followed the Milkovich around.
During the lunch break Ian followed Mickey through the school outside.
Weirdly enough, he didn't seem to be on his way to threaten someone or anything.
He eventually followed Mickey around the school, where a scene waited that really surprised Ian.
A small, skinny girl with black hair leaned against the wall, she was younger than Ian and Mickey.
Mickey got the lunch and the chocolate bar out of his pockets and gave them to the girl, whose eyes lit up.
She hungrily bit into sandwich. After the first bite and a satisfied sigh, she broke the sandwich in half and wanted to give the other half back to Mickey, but he just shook his head and told the girl to eat.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next day, Ian tricked him mom.
He couldn't get the image of the two skinny blackhairds children out of his head. So he made his mom believe she didn't make him lunch yet, ending up with two lunches for the day.
Ian walked into the school, it didn't take Mickey long to find him.
"Morning Gallagher", Mickey smirked like always.
"Hi Mickey", Ian mumbled.
It was probably the first time Ian answered his greetings.
Mickey barely seemed to notice.
"What's on today's menu?"
Ian felt less intimidated by the boy. A day ago, he had seen Mickeys soft spot. If the Milkovich just stole his lunch to give it to another kid, Ian refused to be upset about it.
He got the two sandwiches out and held them out to Mickey.
"Two?"
Ian nodded, "Told my mom to make two"
Mickey looked at him confused, "the point of that would be to keep one of them, dimwit"
Ian shrugged, "But I give both to you. In case you want to share with someone."
Mickey stepped back from him, staring down at him with wide eyes.
Ian just smiled at him.
"You're a weird kid Gallagher", he said, took the sandwiches and quickly walked away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
During lunch break, Ian followed the other boy again. Just to make sure, Mickey would actually eat his sandwich.
He watched Mickey giving both of them to the little girl. But she shook her head and pushed one of them back into Mickeys hands. After going back and forth for a while, the two ended up with one sandwich each.
They sat on the ground and ate, the girl leaned against Mickey and the boy smiled.
When they finished, he kissed her forehead and was about to leave.
Ian knew this was his cue to run.
"Ay, Gallagher, not so fast", he heard Mickeys voice and stopped in shock.
"Shit", he mumbled. Mickey had caught him, who knew what kind of punishment would follow now. He could already here his brother saying "Ian got Milkoviched"
Ian pressed himself against the wall when Mickey walked up to him.
The girl slipped past them and went back to the school building.
"You followed me didn't you? Yesterday too"
"I'm sorry, Mickey. I just wanted to see why you never ate my sandwiches after stealing them, I'm sorry-"
"Whoa, calm you ass man", Mickey smirked at him, "Bringing two sandwiches... It's nice of you. But I don't steal from you for me, you gotta eat too, but I know that your brother always shares with you."
"Oh", Ian mumbled, "Who is she?"
"My sister"
"There is a Milkovich sister?", Ian asked surprised.
Mickey nodded.
"Why don't you parents make you lunch? I bet they can steal some bread"
Mickey shrugged, "They don't care enough to do it. Usually, my brother would make sure at least Mandy had something to eat, but he's in juvie right now."
"Oh... I'm sorry", Ian mumbled.
Mickey shrugged, "Whatever. Make sure to get some ham or something on your next sandwich, Mandy doesn't like peanutbutter."
Mickey backed off and wanted to wall away.
"Wait", Ian stopped him.
Mickey turned around to him with raised eyebrows.
"Do you want to come over to my house tonight? My sister sells clean piss and gets us awesome lasagne for it. You and your sister could come over..."
"We don't need your pity, Gallagher."
"It's not... pity. But everyone needs a warm meal and friendship"
"Freindship?", Mickey scoffed, "Why would you want to be my friend? I'm a Milkovich"
"Everybody knows the Milkoviches are dangerous. But nobody knows a Milkovich steals food for his sister. I think, nobody actually knows the Milkoviches."
"And why would you want to change that?"
Ian shrugged, "Why not? Come to dinner around 6 okay?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Lip put your fucking fork down! It won't kill you to wait for another minute!", Ian scolded his brother.
It was a few minutes after 6, everyone at the table was 100% sure the Milkoviches wouldn't come to dinner, except the ginger. They let Ian put out plates for the two extra people though.
"They won't come, Ian. Accept it.", Lip said, " What is wrong with you that you invited Mickey Milkovich to dinner out of all people?"
Ian shrugged, "I think, they're hungry. Why shouldn't we give them some of our food?"
"Because they're evil bastards?"
"How would you know?"
"That boy stole your lunch for the entire last year"
"Yeah, but I'm sure he gave them to his sister, so it's not so bad. You would do the same for me, wouldn't you?"
Lip didn't have a answer to that.
"So, when are we finally allowed to eat?", Fiona asked, "They won't come, Ian."
"Just a few more minutes.", Ian asked her and made big puppy eyes at his big sister.
When Lip wanted to start talking again, when They actually heard a knock coming from the door.
Ian jumped up and ran to the front door.
Mickey and his little sister Mandy stood in front of him, the girl was hiding halfway behind his brother.
"You came", Ian grinned, "Come in"
"Sorry we're late, I had to convince Mandy to come here."
"No problem, take your shoes off and come in, we waited with dinner for you."
Ian led the Milkovich kids into the kitchen and made them sit at the table with them.
Fiona smiled and gave everyone their food.
Mickey and Mandy were quiet, Mandy was shy, What was untypical for a Milkovich. From time to time, while the Gallagher siblings were talking with each other, Mickey would look over to Ian.
And when Ian looked back, Mickey would quickly look away.
After dinner the Gallaghers slowly wandered off to different parts of the house, Fiona looked after Debbie and Baby Carl. Lip had to do homework.
"I think we should go", Mickey said to Ian, when they were the only ones left down stairs.
"Oh, okay. See you at school tomorrow?"
Mickey nodded, "Guess so...", he sighed and looked at him, biting his lip, "Thanks", he said finally, "For the dinner and... The lunch and stuff."
Ian showed him his big smile, "No problem Mickey"
Mickey nodded and turned around to leave then stopped and turned to Ian again, "Why are you nice to me? I've never been nice to you"
Ian shrugged, "I think you can be really nice. You're nice to your sister. How bad can a person be, if the only bad thing they do to me, is trying to help someone else?"
Mickey nodded and looked towards Mandy who waited by the door.
"Okay... See you tomorrow, Red"
Ian smiled, "Bye"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
7 years later, lunch break
Like every day, Ian walked around the school building until he reached the spot where he met Mandy and Mickey.
"You're late Gallagher", Mickey grinned.
Ian smirked at him, "Aw, did you miss me?"
"No, but Im fucking starving"
Ian grinned and got three sandwiches out, Mickey was responsible for smokes and drinks.
The three always met up for lunch back here, they smoked and ate. Mickey sometimes even stole candy for them.
"Okay, losers, I gotta go. See if Lip' s up for a quickie in the toilets", Mandy said eventually and got up.
Ian and Mickey both shook their heads.
"I swear if your brother hurts my sister, I'm gonna kill him."
"Take a number", Ian smirked, "But hey, we both told her to not fuck him and she wouldn't listen, her own fault really"
Mickey shrugged, "Yeah, I'm gonna chop of your brothers nuts off though."
Ian grinned at him and quickly looked behind the corner to see if Mandy was really gone.
"Okay, coast clear", he said to Mickey, who grinned and immediately kissed him.
Ian wrapped his arms around him and pulled him closer.
Eventually they pulled back to breath and Mickey grinned at him.
"It's a shame that we always have to wait with this until she's gone, we could have so much more kissing time otherwise."
"Yeah, but she'd also tell people and I'm gonna end up dead, then you ain't got any kissing time with me anymore. What's better?"
"Every second I get to kiss you is better than every second I don't."
"Aww, you're so sweet I might have to puke", he smiled, " You free tonight?"
"Yeah, but my house is packed."
"Highschool bleachers at 7?"
"I'll be there. Now kiss me before we have to go back and Mr Stowinsky kills us with boredom"
Mickey grinned and kissed him again.