catchacold | Drop Out

Mick would have listened more but he was angry and he wasn't much in the mood to be assured. He didn't feel great about his house or his family or his way of life as it was and now Leonard had seen it entirely. As the shithole it was. "Well... at least we now my mom likes you." That was something. In a way. He entered the slip road near Leonard's place and put the gas down, speeding his way in and out of cars because he felt like getting the hell away from his place and to somewhere a little nicer. "Sorry she felt you up."

"That's okay. Happens. I'm just too damn handsome, what can I do?" Hopefully the joking around could help. For someone who clearly wasn't encouraging it, Leonard got touched a lot more than one would think. He didn't actually believe himself to be overly handsome, kinda scrawny for one thing. But teenage girls could be shameless and they seemed to view it as a kind of challenge, especially given that Leonard didn't actually hit them. He had to draw a line somewhere and hitting women might not be it, but hitting innocent girls who just went to school with them, that was something else. "I've no idea how anyone resists my handsomeness."

"Then stop being so damn good looking." Mick grunted as he pulled off the slip road and back into the side streets, trying to find the turning they needed. "I don't know what they're getting at, you're kind of scrawny." Mick teased, smiling slightly and turning his head to Leonard, clearly amused. "Lift some weights, then we'll talk." And with that, he pushed up the indicator and made a left. "So do we need to pick up Lis or what?"

"Hey, if I lifted more weights, I'd be more good-looking, not less. I'm scrawny for your sake." Leonard snorted, glancing down himself. He wasn't actually planning on gaining that much more bulk, for his kind of work being as slender as he was while still having decent muscle as he had was a blessing, he had no need to become a human wall like Mick. This worked just fine, scrawny or not. "Yeah, she's still at the center."

"Sure, sure, pass the buck on it." Mick mocked as he took the turning he needed for the center and relaxed a little more, his tension already easing up a little. "So you're saying that you gotta be scrawny to help me? I call bullshit on that one. Man up and join me at a gym sometime. No wonder those assholes in juvie used to call you a twink." Boy, he was so lucky he had Mick in juvie or he'd have never of gotten out of their alive.

"You know I'm fit. I don't need to become like those idiots at your gym, as long as I can scale any building and get inside without opening the window too far." Much more practical strengths, he thought. "That and so some girls pay attention to you. It's all out of the goodness of my heart. Also, they called me a twink cause they thought I'd bend over for them, not as if that many of them were stronger than I was."

"Whatever, you keep telling yourself that, scrawny." Mick teased as he pulled up outside of the center and turned off the engine, turning to Leonard with a playful smirk. "Girls look at me plenty fine. Always have done, always will." And he was very happy to enable that because it was good for his ego. And sometimes his ego needed it. He pushed his car door open and slipped out, waiting for Leonard to do the same. "Where are we picking the kid up?"

Leonard rolled his eyes and followed Mick outside, checking his phone for the time. "Should be inside, we are just before nap time. Means she'll wanna sleep as soon as we get home. They always knacker them out so they get a break." Which was also the upside about getting there just then, meant he could get Lisa to nap and have some time to himself before she woke up. Or, in this case, some time with Mick. He headed for the center, one hand in his pocket. "I told her you're staying for a few days and she's so happy. I used it to make her brush her teeth."

"Cool, we can watch movies. I packed some in my bag. I got Alien, Predator, Street Fighter and Pacific Rim." And they probably wouldn't watch them all in nap time but they could get a solid amount of one watched at least. Then when Lisa went to bed, they could just pick it back up. "You used me to promote dental hygiene? Not sure I'm loving that. Come on, don't make me a bribe, I stand against it." Kind of. Or more likely, he felt like being awkward. "We'll get her straight to bed."

"I told her that if she didn't brush her teeth, I'd tell you not to come. So she told me that she hates me, but she brushed her teeth." Whatever worked. "You can judge me right after you find another way to make her brush." Because he had dealt with that while she cried about how toothpaste tasted for the very first time. Suddenly seemed to taste fine when seeing Mick was at risk. Leonard smirked and walked down the hallway until they reached the playgroup, pausing by the open door and just waiting for Lisa to--

"MICKEY!" She was already running toward them.

"... Point." She was awkward to get to brush her teeth sometimes. And eat healthy. And put to bed. The amount of hours Mick spent trying to get her to sleep while she chatted away or asked for another story, it was insane. He often ended up nodding off first, clutching a book to his chest and drooling on her princess sheets.

Mick smirked as she came running and simply bent out and caught her as she flew into his arms. He lifted her up and gave Leonard an amused look. "That was quicker than I expected."

"Told ya." Leonard watched Mick and his sister and then walked over to talk to the person in charge, to make sure he'd been seen and they wouldn't assume he kidnapped her. Meanwhile, Lisa was already chatting to Mick excitedly.

"We were playing cowboys and I was the boss of the gangster cowboys, like that movie you showed me! I didn't let them shoot me though, I won." She tended to make sure of that. "Can I be a cowboy when I grow up?"

"Yeah, sure. You can be whatever the hell you want to be." It's not like anyone would have the balls to tell this one she couldn't. Except Leonard, obviously. This girl was scary, she knew how to command and only one person could really give her a reality check. Mick watched Leonard talking to the guy in charge as Lisa babbled away, nodding along absently.

"You wanna play cowboys this weekend?"

"Yes!" Lisa played with Mick's hair, rubbing it where it was hard because of the gel, because that was always fun to do. "And I want to have pizza and burgers and Chinese and wings and ice cream and cake and cookies and chocolate and what do you want, Mickey?"

Leonard had handed over some money and was already walking back to them, nodding to the door. "We can go. You tired, Lis?"

"Nuh-uh!"

"All of that sounds good to me but I think we're gonna have to lower expectations or your brother will get pissy. Let's order pizza and I'll wrangle us dessert too." He winked playfully and shook his head, trying to dislodge his little fingers from it. He opened the side door and slid Lisa into her car seat. It was such an awkward angle to do up the little straps but he was getting a lot better at it.

The first time he rage quit and sulked the whole ride home. "You sure you ain't tired? I'm tired. We could all nap together."

"I can tuck you in," Lisa promised Mick, kicking her feet in the air and still beaming at him. Mick time was special time, but Leonard was still sure that she'd be tired once they got home.

"Don't tuck Mick in, you know he'll just sleep all day." At least until there was food. Not only a real danger, but also something that had already happened more than once. "But if you nap right away, you can choose what we do later."

"I can anyway," Lisa claimed, but she also yawned."

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