lip gallagher.

Adrian wasn't the most coordinated on the best of days, but even less so when he wasn't sober. It was the weekend, so after a few rounds of persistent begging, he'd actually managed to convince Eddie to unwind with him at The Alibi. They were already a few drinks down, idly gossiping about their friends, when Adrian noticed their glasses had run dry. So he dismissed himself, heading to the bar, waving politely at the man working there. But his tolerance wasn't as good as it used to be, more focused now on his relationship than his coping mechanisms, so he was unsteady on his feet. Adrian stumbled as a result, knocking into a man who was sat beside him, his nose wrinkling as the beer splashed upon his own shoes.

Perhaps Lip could've let the situation lie after the apology, it'd seemed sincere enough, especially with the offer of a replacement drink. But what happened next threw dismissal out the window. Although he wouldn't have admitted it, Lip had genuinely caught feelings for Rose during their time together, and her following rejection had stung. He'd barely had time to process it before Lucas had started acting out, and considering how high strung his brother's behaviour had him lately, he was in no mood to be reminded of his failed relationship. "Sarcastic prick," he muttered, standing off the bar stool, fists already clenched. He didn't stop to contemplate the consequences, not even with Kev watching on, seeing only red. An outlet for his anger. He swung his hand in the direction of the blonde's face, clipping his jaw, hoping that he'd do enough damage to prove his point.

Silence followed Fiona’s request for Carl to come down, and after Lip laughed, she gave one final warning. “If you and your friends don’t come down here right now, Carl, I will drag you down!” Sighing in defeat, she grabbed the grocery list off the fridge and sat herself down on one of the kitchen stools. “If you wanna accuse Rose or Fez of leaving the door wide open, go right ahead. But I’m gonna take it on faith they know how to use one.” She rubbed at her temples, chuckling. “Yeah, if only we could afford one. What about the Milkoviches? There’s no way they shut doors after themselves.”

Lucas groaned as he awoke to the sound of his siblings yelling at one another, wishing it wasn't a regular occurrence. Considering he wasn't the one in the firing line this time, he could've stayed in bed, but his thirst won out. He wouldn't have been able to nod back off anyway with all the commotion, so he reluctantly stumbled from under his duvet, ignoring the giggling coming from behind Carl's bedroom door as he passed it.

"'The fuck, Luke?" Lip grumbled, resisting the urge to shove his brother right back. He threw a hand up in defeat instead, watching as Lucas polished off the remainder of the carton he'd retrieved from the fridge. "That milk was for breakfast. Other people live here, maybe?" Lip had planned to go straight to Raven's garage today to earn some extra money, but he'd now have to stop by the grocery store first. Sighing in defeat, he seated himself next to Fiona, casting an annoyed expression her way. "What's your problem, man? You've been off since we got here. And y'know — I'm not the only one in this room fuckin' a Milkovich, but at least when I do it, I'm single. Have you even spoken to Chloe since you started suckin' cock?"

Fiona side-eyed him. “There someone else in our family tree that’s gay, ‘cause I can’t trace that gene back to anywhere? At least there’s no issues yet, can’t take any more of those right now.” Lip had a point though, and it had always weighed on Fiona’s mind. Whenever her siblings got drunk, or disappeared for longer than a night, she worried if something worse than a little partying was going on. Ian was acting strange lately, too. But she had to have faith in her kids, and in herself, to notice if that were the case. She sighed, giving her brother a roll of her eyes, but she knew she wouldn’t change his mind on that one. She may not agree this time, but despite what he said, she trusted Lip to do the right thing when it came down to it. Hell, she'd probably join him. “Alright, Robin Hood,” Fiona snorted at the name. “Just don’t go pickin’ up a bow and arrow on these selfless missions, got it?” But she agreed. She’d do anything if her siblings happened to go hungry again, but she didn’t want to encourage Lip to think about that yet either. All she could do was hope it wouldn’t come to that.

“Probability suggests so. Who knows, Fiona? Maybe Grandma Gallagher was in the closet her entire life. Luckily for us, we’ll never know.” Not that Lip was one to talk, he’d never turned down advances from gay men before. A blowjob was a blowjob. At the end of the day, the end result remained the same. At Fiona’s next reply, he raised a hand up in self defence, showing that he’d be on his best behaviour. Until he deemed it necessary not to be. His family’s health and wellbeing was his number one priority, and whilst the rebels had been hospitable enough to allow them to reside here, Lip didn’t give a fuck about them or their rules. The second someone complained they were hungry, he’d take matters into his own hands. After all, Panem’s wealth was far from evenly distributed, even now. Hell, even Alexandria’s founding family had a manor the size of their street’s houses put together. “Whatever you say.”

Fi sighed, though she knew she couldn’t deny it even if he was joking. “I know we got the asshole Gallagher genes too, but let’s make sure that’s all we get.” She rolled her eyes, even though she couldn’t deny it had helped them survive more than once. And as much as she wanted to murder Frank sometimes, she couldn’t imagine life without him. “Here’s hopin’. I don't need any more mouths to feed.” Grabbing a basket of laundry, she raised an eyebrow at him. Unless someone had wronged them, theft was off the table now. It had to be. “But wouldn’t you hate yourself, knowin’ you did? Just give it some time, little brother. We’ll be alright.” Fiona sounded confident enough, but she always did. Learning to put on a brave face, even if she was anything but, was key to raising five kids.

Lip shrugged. “Well, Ian’s got the gay gene, but there’s still a lotta’ shit we could get. Monica and Frank are like a fuckin’ Russian roulette of issues, so we’re bound to end up with some kinda’ problem,” Lip joked, although he did occasionally worry about it. Sure, he’d been raised by Fiona, but biology was out of her control. “Would I hate myself? Jesus, Fiona. No, I wouldn’t. We’ve been doin’ it all our lives, and I feel just fine about myself. Like a self-dependent reverse Robin Hood, I’m givin’ back to the poor, and we’re the poor. It’s only fair.” Still, despite his views, he nodded. He’d give Fiona some slack and trust on this one, and see how it played out here — it was the smarter move, rather than going right in and attacking a bunch of clearly dangerous rebels. “If you say so. But first hungry stomach and I’m robbin’ that grocery store.”

“No, it’s what Frank’s good at,” she gave him a pointed look. “And hopefully he’s not comin’ around here any time soon.” She was well aware all of them had broken the rules at some point, but this whole situation felt like an opportunity for a fresh start, and Fiona was trying to take it. “If we can move the Gallaghers up the food chain with honest work, then that’s what we’ll do. Think of it like a second chance. Let’s try and not make the neighbours hate us, deal?” She snorted at his next comment, finishing off her coffee. “Somethin’s right. Just make sure you check what’s actually in whatever they give you, yeah?”

“Then I learned from the best,” Lip pointed out with a nod of his head, showing he was joking through his smile. He hated having any relation to his father, but he was good at scamming, he couldn’t deny that either. “He won’t. ‘Probably dead in some District dump somewhere.” Surely there was no way he’d make it to Alexandria on his own, in his state, despite being a human form of a cockroach. “They aren’t gonna’ hate us if they don’t know they’re bein’ scammed. Honest work won’t work around here, nobody has money.” And by that logic, nobody would be rich enough to scam off of anyway, but Lip understood that it was dog eat dog around here. “Obviously.”

✁ lip or suze

Rose appeared to be testing the boundaries, and Lip was more than happy to oblige by showing her that he had none, even if his sister did. If Rose found him attractive, he wasn’t going to deny himself the pleasure of flirting with her because of who she’d happened to befriend first. “Or you could make it work with me, save yourself the effort. But just so we’re clear, I still wouldn’t mind you being on top.”