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“The fuck?” Mickey says, frozen as he stares around at his current surroundings. A second ago he had been standing in the front hall of his house at Brakebills and now he’s in the middle of a dense, foggy forest. He hears the crunching of footsteps behind him and he whirls around to face a startled red head who lets out an uncertain, “Um, hello?”
“Geeze, who are you?” Mickey furrows his brow.
“Oh, I’m Ian!” the man replies, smile spreading across his face as the surprise wears off and he takes in the man standing before him, “And you are?”
Mickey hesitates for a moment before scratching his eyebrow with the back of his thumb, “Mickey… where are we?”
“You don’t know where you are?” Ian asks.
“If I knew I wouldn’t be askin’” Mickey replies iritated, “I was at school and there was a ringing no one else could hear and it was driving me fucking nuts so I followed it and it was coming from this old clock. When I opened the glass panel thing to see if I could get it to turn off I got sucked in and ended up in the middle of this fucking forest… wherever this is”
“You’re in the Flying Forest in Fillory” Ian supplies
Mickey squeaks in disbelief, “Fillory? Like the kids books my sister used to read?”
Ian furrows his brow, “What?”
Mickey spins around to take in his surroundings again and sniffs as he comes to a halt, sniffing again, “What’s that smell? Where’s it coming from? Is that just the air?” He moves around the area, chasing the fog, trying to get a deeper whiff. He ends up with his nose against Ian’s chest and quickly backs up as he straightens, finally taking a good look at the man before him, noting his glassy green eyes and dreamy smile. “You been smoking or something?” Mickey asks.
“Nope, just taking a walk. This is my favorite place to clear my head. It always calms me down” Ian shrugs
Mickey knows what being high feels like and though he hasn’t smoked anything either he can tell he’s already pretty buzzed, “Oh” he groans, “the Flying Forest… right” He shakes his head, trying to clear it.
The man in front of him is still standing there serenely but his eyes start to run up and down Mickey’s body and he bites his lip as he blatantly tilts his head to check out Mickey’s ass. “Hey, eyes up here” Mickey waves his hand up by his eyes to attract Ian’s attention, “So how do I get out of here?”
“Hmm?” Ian hums, “Out of the forest?”
“No, out of this… world? Realm? Book? Universe?” Mickey scrunches up his nose, spinning in a circle yet again, “There’s no fucking door around here to get me back!”
Ian just shrugs, “I dunno. I never met anyone from somewhere else before. I’ve heard stories but those were from ages ago before I was born.”
Mickey lifts his hands and starts to try doing a locator spell but lets out a soft laugh as the intricacies of the movements gets his fingers tangled together and he loses his train of thought halfway through.
Ian steps forward, moving into Mickey’s space and reaches out to take one of his hands. “Come on, let’s head back to my place. You don’t want to be stuck out here once it gets dark”
Mickey looks up and the setting sun cuts through a clearing in the trees, illuminating Ian’s hair. Mesmerized, he unconsciously reaches up and tucks a loose strand behind his ear. Ian’s grin broadens and he slowly starts to walk backwards before turning, keeping hold of Mickey’s hand as he leads him away. As they walk, Mickey forgets he should be pulling his hand back to himself as he instead takes the time to really study this stranger. His eyes roam over his tall frame and broad back, down his strong arms where his sleeves are rolled up. Mickey gives in and allows himself to fully relax, deciding that he doesn’t care where he is anymore as long as he gets to keep looking at what he’s decided might actually be the hottest guy he’s ever seen and he’s started to get horny now that he’s letting the high take hold.
They eventually come to a small footbridge and once they cross it’s almost like the tiny stream running underneath is a barrier that the opioid mist can’t cross but the effects it had on their bodies still lingers.
It’s only a few minutes longer before they’re approaching a small single room cabin. ‘I’ve only got the one bed in this one room but I can build a pallet for you right by the fire” Ian offers as he pushes open the door and gestures about the room. “Or… we could just share” Mickey smirks, shrugging off his shirt and strutting confidently towards the bed. “You gonna get on me or what?”
Ian’s brain takes a shocked second to process what his body has already automatically responded to, hands quickly working on loosening his belt and shoving his pants down as he joins Mickey on the small mattress.
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When they finish, Mickey stands and walks over to pull on his pants, “Damn Red” he chuckles, fingers moving in a quick practiced pattern that magically cleans each of them up, “You got anything to eat in this joint?”
Ian pulls on his own pants and heads over to a small door in the floor leading down to a cellar and brings up some root vegetables and salt beef to chop up for a stew, “Can you get a fire started in the pit out front?” he asks
Mickey heads to the front door so he has line of sight, makes a series of motions and smirks, “Done” as he moves back towards Ian. “Need help with anything else?”
Ian raises an eyebrow, “Man, you’re handy to have around” he chuckles, “Here, bring this pot to the water pump and fill it half way”
Mickey again fulfills his request with magic, “I swear I’m not showing off but after the drugs in the air, who knows what kind of microbes might be in your water that’ll mess with my gut. I’d rather skip that if I can”
“Fair point” Ian relents.
They chat and cook and eat. They don’t get into anything too deep, just basics of their families, daily lives, likes, dislikes. Ian informs Mickey that his best bet at finding a way out of Fillory if he still wants to leave is to probably visit the king. The conversation flows without effort and even when they lull into silence for stretches of time it’s never awkward.
Eventually, as the embers of the fire are finally dying out, Ian hopefully suggests, “You know it gets kinda lonely out here. I wouldn’t mind it if you stayed, even if it’s only for a little bit, just as long as you can”
“Yeah, maybe” Mickey agrees and lets Ian lead him back to bed
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Mickey’s never spent the night at a guy’s house before and he’s astonished that, instead of the tension and panic he expects, he wakes up feeling the most safe and content he’s ever felt upon waking in his life. He allows himself only a ten count to savor it before he carefully disentangles himself and swings his legs around, planting his feet on the floor and glancing back at the still sleeping redhead.
He contemplates staying, again allowing himself the ten seconds to wish that could be true before shaking his head and silently getting dressed and starting down the road towards the nearest town.
‘You don’t get to be happy. You don’t deserve it’ his father’s voice echos in his head ‘and anyway…’ he thinks, ‘magic comes from pain… and this will fuel him for a good long time’