#gallavich

Soooo I just posted chapter 15 of Elite Fantasy: Together

Start from Chapter 1.

Go straight to Chapter 15.

it's a long one (by my count, at least).

A little announcement: The posting schedule will change from every 2 weeks to every 3 weeks. All complaints can be directed to my bosses, and like, real life. So, yeah. Not abandoned, not in hiatus, I just need more time between chapters to write, edit and post.

Hope you guys have a good weekend!

only once person could actually stop him but he can’t say it 😢

we are MISERABLE (but at least our babies are married now)

Omg yes.

He was saying goodbye to everyone in a way, but only Mickey really KNEW and he was the only who could have convinced him and he didn't. I understand Mickey in that scene, but the ANGST.

i've been thinking about any gay couple from the 19th century who are on an island for some reason and have the beach as their refuge. so this is what it's inspired by: Mickey lives on the island and works on a boat, Ian has been forced to stay there because of his mental health issues that no one understands and they want to confine him. they meet on the beach. they see each other there every day.

--------- ★ THE BEACH

The fresh breeze stirred his reddish hair, covered in salt from the sea. He looked at it as if wanting to run.

Mickey buried his feet deeper into the white sand.

"You think one day there'll be something more than this beach, Mick?"

The older looked at him. Shoulders together, silent brush.

"I've traveled. There's a lot more out there."

Ian turned his head. "And you like this one?"

Mickey's lips curled softly, waves breaking slowly against the rocks. "It's the most beautiful."

Chapter 16: Psychopomp & Deus Ex

Summary: It’s two gods, no waiting in Ian’s dream sequence.

Excerpt: "I’m trying to save every song you’ve never sung and every story you have yet to tell. This foolhardy brute you’ve attached yourself to will get his people killed, and you along with him."

The fire consumes the sleeping figures. Ian coughs at the smell of burning flesh.

“That’s my decision to make. I’m not your plaything!” Then after a beat, he adds, “Or your vessel.”

Read Chapter 16 here.

I see a lot of people saying that my fic iron bars is canon to them, which I really appreciate and love to hear, but also like, it could be. We know nothing about their time in prison, so none of it is a re-write of canon. It's more of a gap-fill, so it could be what happened.

Same with the s3 sleepover, the gap between s4 and s5, even s7 when the cop says 'you visited Mickey on multiple occasions' is a huge gap because we only saw one so you never really know what happened there. I really like that. It just opens up so many things to the imagination.

I especially love that last one because it could be so many things. Maybe the cop was wrong and it was just that once. Maybe Ian had visited before the one we see in s6. I saw one theory that Ian turned up to the prison a few times between s6 and s7 but never actually visited, just signed his name in and then couldn't go through with it. Maybe he was sporadically visiting in s7 pre-Trevor (unlikely, because mickey says he 'never fucking visited' but Mickey's very capable of exaggeration, and we already know it's not entirely true because we see one visit).

I also love the gap between s4 and s5, because that's when things would have been pretty smooth sailing for them. Ian will have recovered from his depressive episode at some point and would not have been as manic as he becomes later in s5 (he might have even been somewhat steady, because lets not forget that bipolar people aren't always in an episode and can have periods of stable mood even without medication). I lean towards Ian being in a stable mood, tbh. There's a reason we don't have any episodes during that time, and with Shameless that's often because nothing big is happening at that point. I love the idea of them just being domestic and boring and fine and happy in the ~6 months between s4 and s5. Getting used to being out, living together, being in a relationship without hellfire raining down on them every five seconds like in the early seasons.

The s3 sleepover gap I think was intentional. I posted about that a year ago, about how I think the s3 sleepover was purposefully not included in the script because they finally have privacy from everyone to just be together, which includes privacy from the audience. When I posted that I had a few people saying that it's a nice idea but the Shameless writers weren't that intentional and didn't think things through that much, which I disagree with. Sure, the writing gets sloppy in the later seasons, but in the first 5 seasons, everything is very intentional. They clearly do think things through then, so I think it was purposeful.

Either that, or they were nervous about showing gay sex and stuff, which I've heard a few people say, but even then I don't think so. I agree that the writers didn't want to show as much sex between Ian and Mickey as with other characters, probably because they were gay, but they still showed some things in s1 and s2. They show the hands in s1, which implies sex, they show them in the freezer at the KashnGrab in s2, they show Ian bending Mickey over about fifty times, so they could have done that again. But they don't. They leave it completely blank, and I think it's because that's such an intimate moment for them that it's not even open for the audience to see.

Also, Shameless doesn't show intimacy that much. It shies away from it. It's more comfortable with graphic sex scenes than more intimate ones, generally. Intimacy is very much implied throughout a lot of the show, and I think that is for two reasons, one, because Shameless often relies on shock factor, on fast paced scenes, on dramatic moments instead of soft ones (it's a drama at the end of the day) and two, because it's self-aware enough to know that its viewer can realise the intimacy is there without it being shown.

Of course, there are exceptions. There are a few intimate scenes with Jimmy and Fiona, like when he takes her to a hotel. But still, they're few and far between and their intimacy was not as monumental as Ian and Mickey's was, because Ian and Mickey were under threat of death by Terry and had refused to admit feelings for each other for two whole years.

Ian had every reason to want to get out (while Mickey had far less, so it wouldn't have been as much of a sacrifice for him if it were the other way round). He had his family waiting for him and Lip's new baby, while Mickey didn't have any family on the outside like that (except for Sandy, but it's hard to know how close him and Sandy were throughout their lives since she's such a new character). Ian had ambitions and goals and dreams for the future while Mickey (although seeming less hopeless about life than he did in the early seasons) only wants to survive, be with Ian, and have enough money to live off. Ian wants to restart his life after prison with a legal job and a steady income while Mickey is still happy with stealing and scamming and dealing when they get out (their arguments in s11 about money stem from Mickey being happy with working just not legally, while Ian won't let him do that anymore).

Ian also knows Mickey very well. As much as Mickey says that they'll be fucking other people if Ian's on the outside and Mickey's inside and says they won't wait for each other, Ian knows that doesn't mean they're breaking up. It hurts his feelings, definitely, but Ian is aware that Mickey's just insecure and unhappy and worried about Ian leaving. He knows that if he gives Mickey enough time, Mickey will eventually have a proper talk with him about how things will work, because that's what always happens. Mickey shuts down, is reluctant to communicate, pushes Ian away, and then eventually relents when he realises Ian isn't going anywhere.

All of that makes what Ian does in s10 that much bigger. When Ian chooses to stay in prison for Mickey, it isn't to save their relationship, because Ian knows they'll stay together. By now, he's very much aware that Mickey isn't going anywhere. (Besides, I also think that whether Ian was outside or inside prison, by that point he wouldn't let Mickey go anywhere).

So when Ian chooses to stay, it is literally for the sole purpose of making Mickey happy. He doesn't like that he's made Mickey feel insecure about what will happen on the outside and he doesn't like that Mickey's upset about him leaving. So instead of waiting him out like he might have done normally, so that they could talk, Ian prioritises Mickey's happiness over their relationship. Remember Ian wanted a 'temporary seperation', which him being on the outside while Mickey was in would have granted (even though it's not an ideal situation and would have been a lot longer based on what they knew of Mickey's sentence at the time). That 'temporary seperation' probably would have been really good for their relationship.

He does it purely to make Mickey happy. No one's life is at risk. They won't be breaking up. He just sees that Mickey isn't happy with Ian getting out and he tries to fix it. He even says it:

'If I choose it, you would be happy. I just want to know, yes or no, would you be fucking happy?'

And sure, he's pissed about that making Mickey happy. Ian's not happy with Mickey wanting him to do that, Ian doesn't want to do that, but he does want to make Mickey happy. He's willing to make that huge, huge sacrifice to stay in prison because it would make Mickey happy. That's it. It's not for anything else.

That's such a huge sacrifice and it's a massive gesture of love and I'm so glad Mickey wisened up a bit and decided that he was being pretty selfish and it didn't end up happening.

But Ian was going to do it. He was going to do it to make Mickey happy even if he was unhappy, even if he would lose a lot of time with his new nephew, his family, even if it might make it harder to get a job in the future, even if he had to postpone starting his life again. He was going to do it to be with Mickey and to make him happy and that's so sweet.

Side note: if anyone's seen The Good Place, it really reminds me of one of the last episodes with Chidi and Eleanor. When Chidi needs to leave the Good Place but will stay at his own unhappiness to make Eleanor happy and Eleanor realises that she's being selfish and has to let Chidi go.

It's like, they're just so in love. I hate when people say Ian doesn't love Mickey that much or whatever because did you open your eyes at any point during the show?? People really see Ian giving up so much JUST to make Mickey less sad and go, oh no, Mickey loves Ian so much more blah blah blah. Like shut up. They love each other the same.

Also, Mickey getting Ian to leave in the end shows how much he loves Ian. It's the same thing. Ian leaving would make Mickey unhappy but he lets him go in the end because he knows it's the best thing for Ian and it would make Ian happy. He puts aside his own insecurities and past hurt surrounding 'waiting' when he's in prison and Ian's outside to make Ian happy. That's also a big gesture of love, and it shows growth, because Mickey wasn't able to make that same gesture at the border.

(Maybe the border isn't the best comparison, because that break up would have seemed very permanent to them at the time, while the prison thing is temporary.)

Anyway, I'm just trying to say how much this episode shows in terms of their love for one another and the sacrifices they're willing to make for each other. I feel like people gloss over it a lot, because it came to a fast resolution for Gallavich (in that they made up in two episodes instead of over the course of a season like they usually do, and actually made up properly with mutual 'I love you's and an agreement to stay together which they've never done before), but it's SUCH a big deal.

It's a huge moment for them and they love each other so so much and they want each other to be happy more than they want themselves to be happy. They're both somewhat selfish characters (not a bad thing) and they're selfless for each other and that's massive. I just think it should be spoken about more.