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Ian just stared at Mickey incredulously, only he could choose the middle of a fight to say those three words for the first time.
And now he was the one who couldn’t get his words out, he was the one gaping and breathing heavily as Mickey’s eyes continued to search his face, daring him to say something else. But why? Was this the right time to say it back?
"Got nothing to say now, do you Firecrotch?" He said, his words a little shaky.
Truthfully he hadn’t really intended to say them, and hearing them roll off his tongue scared him a little, scared him a lot. Not because he’d never said them before but because he knew that he actually meant them. He loved Ian, loved him more than a person should be able to love another. He’d never loved anyone before him, he’d never love anyone after, he never wanted there to be an anyone else ever again, and it terrified him.
Ian knew there argument was long since done and he could see that Mickey was afraid of his feelings, too afraid to pull himself away and he became very aware that the two of them hadn’t said anything in a very long while. He brought his hand up to wrap around Mickey’s knuckles and gently pried his arm off his chest and down to his waist before leaning into his lips.
Mickey crashed down against them with more force than needed. It was like he was trying to tell Ian that he hadn’t meant to say it, like he was trying to show him that he meant it while clinging to him for fear of not hearing it back. He didn’t want Ian to say it back, he didn’t want to hear him say it because that meant that it was real, that they loved each other.
It meant they were too far in to ever get out, even if they wanted to. But Ian already knew that, he had always known that.
And so he didn’t say it back, his lips spelt the words out against Mickey’s mouth and his fingers wrote it onto his skin as he stroked his cheek in a gentle caress. I love you.
And he would say it back, soon, but not tonight. He would do it when Mickey didn’t see it coming, when the words would creep up on him and make him really feel them.
He wanted him to always feel that, because there was never going to be another Mickey Milkovich, and Ian had every intention of showing him exactly that.