Mickey was sitting at the bottom step of the front porch, deep in thought, when the main door opened. He couldn’t prevent the sigh from escaping his lips when he saw Ian coming out with two bottles of beers on hand.

Ian popped the lids open, throwing them on the ground as he descended the stairs. “We have to be honest with each other, all right?” He said as he handed one of the bottles to Mickey.

“No more secrets,” he added.

Mickey took the bottle and leaned on the stair railing, giving his husband more space to sit on. “No secrets at all?”

“No!” Ian snapped.

Mickey crunched his eyebrows as he began to sip on his drink.

“Nothing but the truth. We should’ve talked about what we expected from each other before we got married. But we didn’t. So, now we have to.”

“Look, if this is about the wedding money, I’m gonna pay it back, man.”

Ian shook his head as he placed a hand on the raven-haired man’s knee to cut the latter off. “Yes, but it’s als about… it’s about what we want the marriage to be.”

Mickey stared.

“We need some rules.”

A retort was already at the tip of his tongue when he shook his head. “Yeah, I’m not great with rules–”

“A mutual understanding of how shit is gonna work.”

“What does that mean?”

Ian shrugged, “Like, how we spend money together, joint purchases, monogamy.”

Mickey looked genuinely confused at the last word. “The hell is that?”

The redhead blinked. “Not fucking other people.”

For a moment, Mickey felt like the ground suddenly vanished. His heart pounded as his eyes slightly widened. “Oh.”

Ian couldn’t look at him directly in the eye.

“Are we just talking about fucking, or are we talking about blow jobs, too?”

“I think blow jobs should count, yeah.”

Mickey nodded, still staring at his husband. “Right.”

Ian already looked uncomfortable with the idea of his husband fucking another man, but Mickey felt like he wanted to push more. “You really never wanna fuck anybody else?”

He hated how the redhead looked unsure. “I mean, if I’m being honest… I’m not really sure either.” Fuck. “It’s just kinda hard to imagine that I’m never gonna ever fuck anyone else, you know?”

His gaze dropped to the ground, suddenly feeling his skin prickle the longer he remained seated next to his husband. Of course, Ian didn’t want to settle on someone for the long run. He asked Mickey to marry him, and yet here he was, unknowingly breaking Mickey’s heart further by just being honest.

God, you dug this grave yourself, Milkovich, Mickey thought as he clenched his jaw. Deal with it.

“But I also know I…” Ian trailed off when Mickey looked at him through his lashes. “definitely don’t want you to fuck anyone else.”

Oh. Okay. Mickey curled his lip. “Well, hold on, that just means you wanna be able to fuck other people but you don’t want me to be able to fuck other people. That doesn’t sound fair.”

Ian shrugged. “Okay, so we’re both monogamous or we both get to fuck other people.”

Like an idiot that he is, Mickey nodded. “Yeah. That sounds fair.”

“Mm-hmm.”

Silence lingered as the husbands both took a sip of their beers.

“So, what do you want to do?” Ian asked, looking at Mickey as if he’s daring the latter to say something crazy.

Well, who was he to not indulge his husband? Mickey shrugged, “Well, what do you want to do?”

The redhead’s gaze sharpened. “I asked you first.”

A really stupid idea flashed through Mickey’s mind. He shrugged, not liking the fact that he was being cornered. When Ian stared at him, he shrugged again. “It really depends on you, man. If you want to stay monogamous, then I will gladly remain monogamous with you. If you don’t, then…” He trailed off as he turned his body forward, purposely agitating his husband by smiling like their conversation was nothing important.

“Then what?” Ian pressed, the tips of his ears already turning red with irritation. “Mickey.”

“Well… let’s just say that there’s someone on the East Coast who’s still willing to be my booty call,” Mickey said coolly. He took his time chugging the last of his beer before he continued, “It only takes one ring for him to drive his ass here.”

Ian blinked. Then he blinked again as the silence lingered. And when the pieces finally clicked in, Mickey was already at the top of the porch stairs, grinning like a fool. For someone who proposes to have an open relationship, Ian sure does not look happy when Mickey mentioned calling Raul.

“Oh, fuck no.”

“You’re the one who made your bed, man,” Mickey said, now unable to erase the grin from his face. “Lay on it.”

There’s no weight on the words he just said, but Mickey still wants to see his husband’s jealousy-fueled rage from time to time. It doesn’t help that it doesn’t take much for Mickey to make his man get royally pissed off.

Raul was the OC in a fanfic I wrote several years ago. If you’re interested in learning more about him, here’s the link to that fanfic :)