#and Mickey is once again propped up as the center of that conversation if the gif representation and last night’s reaction are anything to

[dramaticviolincrescendo]

Being a spouse and being a brother are not mutually exclusive.

This cannot be emphasized enough.

Ian being married to Mickey doesn’t suddenly elevate that relationship to being of greater importance than what he has with his family. Lip being committed to Tami doesn’t suddenly elevate that relationship to being of greater importance than what he has with his family. I feel that the show has been exceedingly clear about what happens when we ignore the other relationships in our lives to focus on a romantic one, and it never turns out well. It was a huge part of Fiona’s story at times; she isn’t the only one.

The scene on the steps is so important for this very reason. The entire season, Lip has been in a very selfish position. He wants to have his cake and eat it too, to feel like he’s got control over things while taking care of his new and original families. He hasn’t forsaken his family for Tami and Fred, though it appears as such earlier in the season. It’s for his pride. It’s for his own sense of self. It’s to preserve the bit of power over his life that all the Gallaghers, Kev, and V are clearly feeling the loss of as the area gentrifies. He’s been a bad partner, a bad father, and a bad sibling for much of the last few episodes since things turned sour and he realized that he’s not as in control as he thinks—that he can’t be in a neighborhood where they have the Mercedes Rule these days. (It’s always been there, but it was never relevant to the South Side until now.)

This has put a strain on his relationship with Ian in particular, one that we have only seen hints of because Ian tends to minimize his feelings by nature if there are other priorities to focus on. He knew Lip was having a hard time, so he went along with selling while visibly not enthused. He was accused of living in Lip’s shadow again, so he didn’t go along anymore to prove a point. He found the healthy medium where he can have an opinion without tying it to what Lip wants despite it having the same outcome, so he could mostly look the other way on the sledgehammer and the inconvenience of renovations.

The conversation on the stairs wasn’t about Mickey. That was addressed, but it wasn’t the purpose. It wasn’t even Ian’s first priority, nor do I think it should have been at that time. Mickey is a grown man who can take care of himself, and he wasn’t guiltless in the escalation of that fight, whether due to the frustrations he definitely has with Lip or the ones that Ian sparked by even wanting to move into that apartment let alone signing the lease.

That conversation was about being a brother first and foremost and a husband second, because getting married doesn’t erase his status in his family. It adds another position in his family and another set of roles for him to perform. But Lip, for as awful as he’s been this season, has also been going it alone. Yes, that’s been his choice. Yes, he’s brought a large part of this on himself. But no matter what I do, no matter how much difficulty I land myself in or how much hardship I cause my older sister in the process, I know for a fact that she will be there when I need her like Ian was for Lip in that moment.

It doesn’t matter that he was pissed off about the fight, which was very obvious in how he approached Lip with the pliers and frozen vegetables and his body language and tone for most of the scene. It doesn’t matter that he probably already got another bag for his husband and isn’t pleased with him for hitting Lip either. None of that matters, because getting married doesn’t negate the relationship he has with his family and that they’ll need him too. It doesn’t make him suddenly have to choose between the two and have competing notions of where his loyalties need to lie.

The conversation on the steps was so very important because Ian went there to be Lip’s brother, first and foremost. He listened when Lip needed to get out what’s been stewing inside him and, if past events have been any indication, what he rarely ever talks about as openly with anyone but Ian. He offered comfort in the form of pointing out where he’s got a problem and where he needs to realize that he’s in a dark place in a remarkable parallel to their conversation outside the courthouse about Ian going to the clinic and getting better. And, most importantly, he encouraged Lip to get help from someone better equipped to do that than Ian, who has been where Liam is now with Frank to a lesser extent at the height of Lip’s alcoholism and who has the impact on his own mental health to consider before helping anyone else with theirs. Once that was accomplished—once all of that had been communicated—he switched hats and told Lip where Lip needed to stand with his husband. It wasn’t much, just an acknowledgement of what happened and a warning to never let it happen again. But it wasn’t his focus. It wasn’t his priority.

Because being a spouse and being a brother are not mutually exclusive, and thank goodness for that.

[gallavichpain-blog]

"Mickey Milkovich stared at the neck of the bottle, once again pointing in the direction of the redhead, whom, it seems, the entire situation was noticeably amusing: having stretched his fucking lips in a broad smile, Gallagher did not take his mocking look from the tensed The guy, figuring out in his mind, how much time it will take friends to persuade the brunette to kiss. The previous two, which left hot marks on the pale skin of Jena's cheeks, demanded seven and five revolutions of the minute hand on the dial, respectively, and a few "weak?", Voiced by Mandy, when her brother's arguments dried up.

"I'm not going to lick him," Mickey frowned, pushing Jack's empty bottle of sneaker with his sock. "I'm not a fagot," he mumbled to himself, turning away.

"You know the rules," the younger Milkovich immediately gave her voice, returning the glass to the center of the circle.

"One and a half minutes, Mick," Karen helped her friend, giggling quietly, watching the brunette's pursed lips and tightly clenched fists with a few black letters on the phalanxes.

"Nihuya," Mickey continued to resist, "I'll be twisting again."

"No," Angie argued, "you were categorical when I fell out Mandy," the girl grinned, glancing quickly at the sister of the stubborn, who immediately blurred in a broad smile, remembering her fleeting experience of kissing with Girlfriend.

- Yes, and you yourself suggested it, - decided to remind Lip, promising himself a couple of eloquent visions generated by the brunette's brain in no time.

"A kiss on the lips for one and a half minutes or fifteen minutes in a private room," Sanchez recalled, turning to the door of a small room in which he had recently been locked up with Karen, deciding to increase the time for oral caresses tenfold.

- Pizdets, - exhaled Milkovich, realizing that alone he could not cope immediately with six opponents, and from continuing to glow red, who did not vote for the entire time of the dispute, there was no help waiting. "Come on, fuck," he said, rising to his feet, nodding to Ian, waddling to the scuffed bedroom door of the Gallagher brothers.

"Have fun there," he heard Joaquin's voice behind him and, slipping into the room, took his place in the far corner, propping up his chest with his ass, his arms folded over his chest.

"It's just a kiss, Mick," muttered the redhead, going deep into the room and settling on his bed as soon as the lock for the forced prisoners snapped, and from the next room came uncontrollable conversations and laughter.

"With your sperm-suckers you'll be sucked," retorted Milkovic, frowning, trying to figure out what kind of dick he had suddenly decided to offer his friends this strange fun: he had never been a fan of kisses, and even had to lick with girls, or worse, with his own sister to him Did not smile at all.

But Mrs. Luck had her own plans for Mickey today, pointing only to one particular person who was now lounging in a tiny bed, licking his parched lips, touching his brunet so hard.

"Come on," snapped Gallagher with Mickey's catchy phrase, every time not missing an opportunity to remind Jena of his orientation, ignoring the eloquently fluttering flag, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow, over his own head. - What are you spitting about? Smiled the redhead, burning on the forehead of Milkovich's nehily-sized hole with his bright green eyes, not wanting to give way again to the brunette, getting up off the bed and taking a few steps toward the guy who had strained all the muscles.

- Che? - whose eyebrows immediately shot up, giving the extreme degree of indignation of its owner.

"Or do you swallow it?" "Dying half a meter from Mickey, I decided to clarify Gallagher, swallowing the saliva that filled my mouth, satisfied with the concentrated gaze of the blue eyes that followed closely the movement of his Adam's apple, and the visibly enlarged pupils of the brunette. "How do you like Mick?" "Taking another step," he said, barely audible, dropping his hand on the boy's chest, often uplifting from his breath, pinched the thin tracks along the soft sweater with his fingertips, moving in the direction of the worn belt holding the jeans on Milkovich's thighs, Then suspiciously crowded.

And Mickey would be happy to answer, in paints and describe in some detail to a curious asshole at what address he can go with such questions, perhaps even hang a savory pendle for acceleration, but the thin fingers of a pale palm that reached the place of temporary dislocation at the fly of a brunette Allowed to utter words, replacing all possible insults and threats with a loud exhalation, when they closed on his erections.

And the wet lips, a few centimeters from his own face, continued to whisper the next questions, which hardly reached Milkovich's ears, made him focus on himself.

"... deep in the throat?" - only the end of the phrase snatched Mickey, that