The Better Life

Thanksgiving! Part 2

*Super long chapter ahead. Not ao3 long but still pretty long.*

Mickey, Felicity, and Ian spent the next twenty-five minutes rushing to make the house look half-way decent. They knew there were probably houses ten times worse, but that did not stop them.

Felicity was assigned to do Yev's room. She made up Yev's bed and made sure the top bunk was okay looking. She tucked in the turquoise sheets and matching comforter.

It gave Mickey a sense of déjà vu of when he had to set up Felicity's room when they first got her when he checked in on Felicity.

Felicity also made sure Yev's toys were put away in his toy box and his closet, which was not too hard because Yev didn't have a lot of toys on his floor. He didn't play with them that day and he fell asleep before he could destroy the room the night before.

Ian, meanwhile, was folding blankets and putting them on the backs of couches or in rooms, and making sure supplies like the first aid kit were visible.

Mickey made his bed and picked clothes off the ground. Mickey would pick up the small things around the house and put them away. Yev was attempting to help him out.

Felicity did not have to clean her room because she had already done so that morning before she went downstairs. Before she went downstairs in present day, though, she laid a book on the bed. Felicity didn't know much about the kid they were fostering now, only that he is a boy and around ten years old, but she put the book Wonder on the bed. When she was ten, it was one of her favorite books. She also thought the book could be read by anybody, not just a book they considered to be read by girls or some to be read by boys.

Which, by the way, she broke that gender norm in third grade when she went into her classroom reading The Hardy Boys. There were boys and even a teacher that told her that was a book for boys and why not read Nancy Drew, but Felicity resisted and continued to read The Hardy Boys.

It was an even bigger shock when she went to school dressed as Jack Kelly from The Newsies movie. Felicity didn't exactly know it was a Broadway musical also. She'd only seen the movie.

Mickey got a phone call from V a few minutes after they finished.

"Where the hell are you three?"

"Gee, thanks. Hello to you, too."

"I will be happy when you tell me where the HELL YOU THREE ARE!"

Mickey held the phone away from his ear so V wouldn't destroy his eardrum. He slowly brought the phone back to his ear.

"We got an emergency foster care placement, V," Mickey began to explain. "They needed someone to take in a little boy for Thanksgiving and Trevor's first choice was Ian and me. We just went over to our house to pick up and get ready for the kid."

"Well, why didn't you tell me when you left?"

"We were in a rush."

"Understandable," V said. "You gonna bring the kid over?"

"We'll see. We'll ask him if he wants to go over. If he doesn't, we'll grab some food and come back to our place. If he does but isn't comfortable being around so many people, we'll have Felicity sit with him somewhere else. You know Fliss. She's not big on large group gatherings except for three times a year. She'll most likely want to sit somewhere else after a while. If he does want to go with no problems or complaints, then we'll be right over."

"Sounds like a plan. Talk to you later, Mickey."

"Bye, V."

"Who was that?" Ian asked.