Archive of Our Own ^beta

Mickey could smell the fajitas when he was halfway down the hallway of their apartment building, hear the hum of music when he reached their door, and saw Ian standing at the stove, hips swaying to the beat as soon as he rounded the corner into the kitchen. 

“You’re in a good mood.” Mickey grins, pulling the fridge open to grab a beer.

“We got some fun news at work.” Ian matches his smile, turning the burner off and spinning to face him. 

“What? Shirtless firefighters gonna come wash the rigs, or something?”

“Eh,” Ian shrugs. “You’re not far off. Us and a couple other units put in to walk in the parade with Chicago Fire and it got approved today.”

Mickey raises an eyebrow, “parade? What holiday’s between St. Patrick's and Christmas?”

Ian sighs, shaking his head. “It’s June Mick.” His tone implies that his husband should know what he means by that, only to be met by a blank stare. “Pride?”

“Oh, fuck, yeah man that gay shit.” 

“Sue told us by getting us all new shirts, a couple of them had some fun additions.” Ian just shakes his head at him while unfolding a shirt from the table. “Look how great this is.”

Ian holds out a black short-sleeved t-shirt with a rainbow Star of Life across the chest, the word ‘Chicago’ wrapping around the top and ‘Medical’ around the bottom. “This is my favorite part,” Ian says, showing Mickey the right sleeve.

“What country is that?” Mickey asks, eyeing the rectangle striped with shades of blue, green, and purple in the spot where the American flag normally was on Ian’s EMT uniform.

Ian doubles over, laughing. “It’s the pride flag for a gay man, Mickey. Ya know, we could get you a shirt with it on it so you can walk with me.”

“Imma stop you right there fire crotch. You can go to your parade and do your gay little walk and have your glitter and your fucking hearts or whatever but ain’t no way I’m gonna be there.” 

“Whatever you say, got a whole month to convince you,” Ian says, smacking a kiss to Mickey’s lips before turning back to the stove. 

Almost every day started with Ian making little jabs at Mickey about the parade. Whether it be showing him pictures of the past parades with countless shirtless men hanging off a fire truck (Ian knew his audience) or Ian softly talking to a half-asleep Mickey about how walking with him would make him happy. To show his favorite part of Chicago how great his husband was and how much they loved each other.

“You’re delusional if you think I’m making out with you on some street in Boys Town in front of a bunch of fucking people.” Mickey scoffs at Ian over dinner. 

“Yeah cause you’ve never done that before,” Ian smirks at him, remembering gold shorts and a protective Mickey. 

“Whatever, red.” 

“I’m not asking you to let me rail you on a fucking parade float, babe, just I don’t hold my hand maybe kiss a bit.” 

“You know I hate that shit,” Mickey says, fork halfway out his mouth. “All the gays. That fucking rainbow crap, everything covered in glitter and those shitty feather scarf things.” 

“You do remember that you’re gay?”

“Who me?” Mickey smirks, “maybe you wanna give me a reminder, tough guy?”

When appealing to logic doesn’t work Ian resorts to a low blow, but something he knew would almost always work with his husband. Jealousy.  

“What the fuck was all that?” Mickey asked when they made it out of the building. He had come to take Ian to the weekly lunch they agreed to when Ian went back to being an EMT. However, this week Mickey walked into the station to find Ian sitting shoulder to shoulder with some blond guy. A soft smile pulled at Ian’s mouth, while he knocked his arm against the guys, pretending that he hadn’t noticed Mickey walking in.

“Huh? Oh, yeah that’s just Cameron. He’s from a station across town, wanted to coordinate some stuff for the parade next week.” Ian pauses, scanning the food truck menu. “His boyfriends out of town, he’s gonna walk with me and a few other single guys.”

“Like fuck you’re single.” Mickey blurts out before he can stop himself. 

“No shit, but all the other couples are walking together so it’s whatever,” Ian says with a shrug, stepping up to order tacos. 

They make their way to an empty picnic table, pulling at the tinfoil and shuffling the food between them. “Hypothetically,” Mickey starts

“Big word there.” Ian chuckles. 

Mickey glares, “What’d I have to do at this parade.”

Ian does his best to hide his excitement. “We’re just walking, they’ll have two fire trucks and two rigs that we’ve decorated. It starts at West Sheridan and goes to Diversey and North Cannon.”

“That’s like four miles, man. Screw that.”

“We’ll have water.” Mickey rolls his eyes. “And beer,” Ian pauses. “And I texted a few of the shops you work with that have posted about Pride and you might have some samples to pick up tomorrow.” 

“Do I have to wear a shitty shirt?”

“We’ll figure something out.” Ian smiles wide.

The morning of the parade Mickey wakes to an empty bed and the sound of the shower running. Ian’s clothes lay across the foot of the bed, with what looks like an extra black shirt folded next to his shorts.

“What’s this?” Mickey asks, walking into the bathroom and pulling the shower curtain back. Taking a moment to admire his husband's wet naked body. Eyes tracing down Ian’s soapy chest before landing on Ian’s cock. Plump with the warm water and growing under Mickey’s attention. 

“Why don’t you join me and I’ll tell ya.” The words are hardly out of Ian’s mouth when Mickey’s boxers hit the floor and he steps into the shower. 

“Morning,” Ian mumbles, pulling Mickey into the spray, his lips against Mickey’s neck. “I got you a shirt.”

“With some stupid saying on it.” 

“Let me convince you to wear it?” Mickey can’t even pretend to object when Ian sinks to his knees. Lips wrapping around the other man's cock and putting any complaints he had about the shirt out of his mind. 

And convince him Ian does. Mickey, pretending to be upset about it, wears the shirt but he draws the line at shorts. Grumbling something under his breath, Ian only caught a few words about the khaki shorts he wore at his mall security job. 

“Whatever, don’t complain to me when your ass is sweating.” Ian grins, disappearing into their bedroom.

“I’ll live!” Mickey yells, filling a water glass, raising it to his lips only to spit the water out across the kitchen when Ian walks back in. 

“You good, baby?” Ian asks, as if he didn’t know what he was doing. The black shirt he had shown Mickey at the beginning of the month was tight against Ian’s chest, but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was Ian’s shorts. Mickey considers schooling his expression before deciding just to gaze at his husband. 

Strong thighs exposed by shorter shorts than Mickey was used to him wearing. Sure Ian had a small collection of workout shorts, those all hitting just above his knee, the baggy material keeping Ian’s glorious dick under wraps. But not these. These were something he’d love to see Ian wearing all the time (not that he’d give the smug asshole the satisfaction of knowing that). Tight khaki-colored fabric wrapped around the middle of Ian’s thigh, his shirt slightly tucked into the athletic waistband. 

Mickey bites the inside of his cheek. “You good Mick?”

“You’re gonna give all those fags a heart attack with your dick looking like that.” Mickey shakes his head. “No promises I won't punch someone today.”

“Shouldn't be a problem, you are always right,” Ian smirks down at him before, ghosting over the writing on Mickey’s black shirt. ‘GAY RIGHTS? YEAH I’M GAY & ALWAYS RIGHT’  “Plus, you’re the only fag I care about. Come on, Cameron here.” They had agreed to ride with him and a few others to try and limit the amount of cars.

Mickey stood, clearly out of his comfort zone, watching the EMTs and firefighters put the last-minute touches on the trucks. Rainbow colored balloons and signs featuring the different station's logos in bright colors. 

“Got you something,” Ian says, appearing at his side. Holding out an orange gummy and a large bottle of water.

“Hell yeah,” Mickey grins, letting Ian put it between his teeth. 

“And this.” Before Mickey can object Ian slaps a glitter rainbow heart sticker on Mickey’s cheek.