"Without pain, there would be no suffering, without suffering we would never learn from our mistakes. To make it right, pain and suffering is the key to all windows, without it, there is no way of life." - Angelina Jolie

When all was said and done, Mickey Milkovich had always been set in his ways. He made his money the easiest way he knew how, which was generally stealing or pimping, and he didn’t ask anyone for anything. What he wanted, he took, and what he needed, he got on his own. And he’d needed things, certainly, but he’d never needed a person – not until Ian came along and changed everything.

He’d changed everything, but never needed or wanted to change Mickey. He had loved him exactly as he was… a smart mouthed badass with a chip on his shoulder. That was exactly who Ian had fallen for, from the very start. When Mickey had denied heatedly that he was falling for Ian at all, Ian hadn’t tried to make him change or be something he wasn’t. It was a simple understanding, at least for Ian, that they would either work as they were, with a few compromises, or they wouldn’t. All it had taken for Ian to decide he was with Mickey for good was Mickey simply admitting the truth – that he was gay and in love with Ian. It had earned him a hell of an ass beating, and a very awkward moment of living with his wife and his boyfriend, but he’d never once doubted it was the right thing.

( Spoilers for Shameless S5, up the the finale )

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#29: Tired

Mickey couldn’t really explain what had brought him to the front door of Kev and V’s place, tired and sweaty from trying to outrun Sammi for what had seemed like a small eternity. He’d be lying if he didn’t admit a part of him wouldn’t have minded if she’d landed a shot. Not if he and Ian weren’t going to be together anymore.

There was one reason he’d kept fighting, though, and that reason lay just beyond the door of this house. When Kev opened the door, Mickey caught his breath and very simply asked, “Svetlana and my kid here?”

Prompt # 45: Family

Family was a feeling that Mickey wasn’t really familiar with. The Gallaghers family was fucked up, but it was still a family. But for Mickey, the relative that had ever felt like family to him was Mandy. Their dad was a prick, their brothers weren’t exactly the type you could really rely on as family.

But Ian? Ian was truly Mickey’s family in every conceivable sense of the word. And when Mickey came home from the Alibi to find Ian giving Yevgeny a bath, it was the first time ever that he felt like the baby was truly his son.

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