𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐎𝐟 𝐌𝐲 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 || 𝐋𝐢𝐩 𝐆𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐫

~ 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 ~

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

~ 𝐑𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐯𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞 ~
~ 𝐀 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐅𝐚𝐧𝐅𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 ~
~ 𝐋𝐢𝐩 𝐆𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐱 𝐀𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐫𝐚 𝐋𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐳 ~

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

~ 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 ~

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Meeting new people was something that Aurora and Bella absolutely despised doing. Unless they were together, greeting whoever it was, they would often try their best to avoid contact whatsoever. So, when the latter was awoken by Debbie, who informed her that an unfamiliar man was downstairs, she refused to go without her older sister. Call it what you will, but they were very cautious people.

Well, Bella was just a frightened eleven-year-old girl, and Aurora was her 'protector'.

The younger Lopez kept her gaze locked solely on the boys' bedroom door, awaiting for her older sister and her best friend to exit the room; when the door finally opened, a small smile made its way onto her lips, "Rory, Ian, hey!"

"Why aren't you downstairs?" Aurora wondered, absentmindedly tightening her hold on Ian's hand when her younger sister shot her a specific look. "Come here, Baby-B."

With a nod, Bella pushed herself up from the top step of the staircase, traipsing over to the pair of best friends. Purposefully avoiding Ian's burning gaze, Aurora placed an arm around Bella's shoulders and guided the pair down the stairs, each coming to a halt down at the very bottom.

"Plus Ian, Aurora, and Bella." Fiona introduced, offering the three newcomers a bright smile as they each took a seat on the stairs.

With narrowed eyes, Aurora closely inspected the unrecognisable man, only to fall upon the realisation that he wasn't unrecognisable whatsoever. It was Jimmy Lishman; why was a man of such wealth hanging around Southside Chicago?

Hypocrite.

"Hey." Jimmy raised his hand, offering the three an over-the-shoulder wave. "Hey, Debbie, why do they call him 'Lip'?"

For the first time, Aurora decided to make her apparent presence known to her parents' good friend, "his real name is Phillip."

Before Jimmy received the chance to recognise Aurora's voice, Kevin entered the Gallagher house, "yo, Veronica! You got my keys?"

The Gallagher's, alongside Aurora and Bella, intently watched as Kevin came to an abrupt halt within the room, eyes closing in on Jimmy, who was positioned between the legs of his girlfriend as she tended to his newly-afflicted wounds.

"What's going on here?" He questioned curiously, ensuring to close the front porch's door behind him.

"This is Steve." Veronica revealed, and Aurora shared an incredulous glance with her younger sister. "Decked the bouncer at Purgatory to defend my honour."

Who the hell was Steve?

As the group conversed over who Jimmy - or Steve, apparently - decked down at the Purgatory, Aurora removed her phone from her pocket and began scrolling through her camera roll, briskly searching for one picture in particular.

A picture that held several memories; a picture of herself, her father, her mother, Jordan, Bella, and Jimmy fucking Lishman. So, it was him.

"Okay, time for bed, come on!" Fiona declared, ultimately stealing Aurora's attention from the image. "Up the wooden hill. Come on."

For what seemed like the tenth time that day, Aurora pocketed her phone and stood from the wooden step, reluctantly helping a drowsy Bella to her feet. Following a few mumbled 'goodbyes' the six youngsters ascended the staircase, and, instead of parting ways at the top, all piled into the boys' bedroom.

Aurora was several things, but she was most certainly not a snitch. Of course, the Gallagher family was important to her, but outing Jimmy, or Steve, was something that she wasn't prepared to do. He would tell them, she was ninety-nine percent sure, in his own time; until then, however, she wanted to have a little fun with it.

Sue her.

The mood in the room was quite awkward, to say the least; Ian, as far as Aurora could tell, was still upset at his brothers' sudden outburst, and, truth be told, she didn't blame him for feeling that way. Lip, however, was successfully masking his somber emotions with a happy facade; Aurora had done the same far too many times to miss it.

With an unsettled Ian Gallagher, a weary Bella Lopez, a solemn Lip Gallagher, an unheeding Carl Gallagher, and a dubious Debbie Gallagher, Aurora was stuck. She was somewhat stuck in a little predicament; there were five individuals within the room, yet there was only one of her. Who on earth was she supposed to speak to?

Well, as if it was a hard decision.

With a mischievous grin on her lips, Aurora trailed over to her best friend, who was lying face-down on his bed, and hovered her lips above his ear, "boo!"

Without reacting to Aurora and her failed attempt at scaring him, Ian rolled over onto his back, hands settling on his stomach as he looked up at the ceiling, "fuck you, Rosa."

With a small smile set on her lips, Aurora shamelessly scrambled over his legs, ignoring his protests and she rested herself against the wall, "no can do, Chéri, you're gay."

As an incredulous expression began to form on his face, Ian propped himself up onto his elbows, eyes practically burning into his best friend, "do you want to say it any louder?"

"Lip is too busy thinking about Karen, and, plus, he already knows; Carl is too busy with my phone; and Debbie is too busy looking out of the window." She needlessly pointed out. "Bella's asleep, so there's no need for an explanation."

"Watch yourself, sweetheart." Lip absentmindedly snapped, inwardly insulting himself for his minor slip-up. "You know nothing."

Sweetheart? Major Butterflies.

"Oh, really? I know nothing, do I not?" She rhetorically questioned, successfully stifling her on-coming laughter. "I hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but I know a lot more than you think."

"Look." Debbie abruptly interrupted, intentionally halting Aurora and Lip's on-growing argument. "Steve's leaving."

Almost as though herself and Lip hadn't shared a single word, Aurora, once again, scrambled over Ian's legs and pulled herself up from the bed, voluntarily deciding to stand beside the desk. By leaning against the wooden frame, she allowed the remaining Gallagher's to gather on Ian's bed, Lip excluded. No, he just had to stir the pot a whole lot more than necessary; he, instead of leaning up against the wooden desk beside her, shuffled himself up behind her, ensuring to trap her between the frame and his body.

Prick. Handsome, but still a prick nonetheless.

Aurora, upon noticing the small distance between them, turned her head away from the closed window, eyes trailing up to meet his, "have you ever heard of personal space?"

For a few seconds, the Gallagher boy remained silent; when he did respond, however, Aurora was stunned into silence, "there's something about you, Lopez; you're different."

Successfully masking her utter shock with a confident facade, Aurora fully swivelled her body around to face him, "yeah, I could say the same for you."

"You're right, and I fucking hate myself for it." Lip leaned forward ever-so-slightly, purposefully brushing his lips against the right side of her neck. "I fucking hate myself for wanting you."

When, what, why, where, how- the fuck?

Aurora was gobsmacked. She was totally and utterly gobsmacked. Lip Gallagher - her childhood best friend, her childhood crush, the boy who made it his mission to protect her, the boy she once loved - wanted her. She couldn't think straight, that was for sure; with his body merely millimetres away from hers, lips teasingly hovering above her neck, her head was all over the place.

She couldn't let it get to her, he was doing it for fun.

With an unnoticeable smirk, Aurora placed her two hands against either side of his neck, 'seductively' trailing them down to his chest, "is that so?"

He removed his head from her neck, briskly checking to ensure that his siblings were all preoccupied, which they were, "hm, it is."

"Well," She began, leaning forward, similarly to how he did, and hovering her lips directly beside his ear, "you're two years too late."

With a sickeningly sweet smile, Aurora pushed the boy back a little, fulfilling her wishes to free herself from his grasp. She watched as a shocked expression made its way onto his face; it brought her satisfaction to know that his plan backfired.

1 - 0.

Merely minutes following her little moment with Lip, the three remaining Gallagher siblings pulled back from the window, each individual failing to notice the clear tenseness within the room. As Debbie retired to her own bed, Bella hot on her heels, Aurora, Ian, Carl, and Lip each did the same.

The room soon fell silent; Carl was practically dead to the world; Lip was mentally insulting himself for allowing Aurora to affect him in the way she did; Ian was was still fretting over Lip's reaction to his hidden secret; and Aurora was desperately attempting to come up with ways to comfort him.

Inwardly sighing, Aurora quietly untucked herself from beneath the duvet, wincing at each and every sound she created, "Ian?"

Startled by her sudden opening, Ian abruptly jolted awake, eyes widening when he laid eyes on his best friend, "Rosa?"

"Sorry, did I wake you?" She wondered, nodding understandably when he shook his head. "Do you want to talk?"

Ian fell silent; he, of course, wanted to tell his best friend everything, but he didn't want her to worry, "yeah."

"Alright, budge over." Begrudgingly, Ian shuffled further to the wall, freely allowing Aurora to take the empty space beside him. "If you push me off, Gallagher, I will hurt you."

"If you annoy me, Lopez, I will." He jokingly muttered, exhaling a breath of laughter when she nudged him in the stomach. "How are things between you and Milkovich?"

"According to Mandy, he still hates me; he keeps banging on about blowing my brains out, which doesn't fucking surprise me." She answered, smiling warmly when a familiar hand wrapped itself around her right one. "You shouldn't worry about Lip."

She was right, Ian knew that much, but he couldn't stop himself from worrying; Lip, his own brother, hated him, "he hates me, Rosa."

"He doesn't hate you; he could never hate you; you're his brother." She assured; sure, Lip's reaction was a little extreme, but, to some extent, she understood his reasoning. "He was upset, Ian; he thought that you didn't tell him because you couldn't trust him."

"I do trust him, I really do; it's just—." He paused, admittedly struggling to find the correct words to say.

"—you weren't ready to tell him?" She continued, offering the boy an understanding smile when he reluctantly nodded. "If you tell him that, he'll understand."

"I wasn't ready to tell him." Ian agreed, exhaling a defeated sigh as he glanced up at his eldest brother's bed. "How can you be so sure?"

In immediate response to Ian's question, Aurora's eyebrows furrowed; truth be told, she hadn't thought about that, "because if he doesn't, I'll deck him."

"Shut the fuck up." He breathed out, successfully holding back a chuckle at his best friend's empty threat. "Seriously, how do you know?"

"Well," She began, repositioning herself onto her side, eyes focusing solely on the boy beside her, "he's a prick, I know that; but he's still the same Lip that we both know and love."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right." He mumbled, a noticeable smirk forming on his lips as his eyes met her own. "Are you still in love with him?"

Aurora didn't know how to respond; she simply couldn't find the words. Yes, she was still in love with her best friend's older brother, but did she want to declare it aloud? No. So, instead of replying with words, she nodded in response.

"It's been two years, Rosa." Ian needlessly pointed out; it was no secret that he loved his best friend more than anything, and he wanted nothing more than to see her love someone who loved her back. "After all this time?"

It had been two years, she had plenty of time to move on from him, but she didn't; her love for Lip Gallagher was never-ending, "always."

Aurora had proved to be exceptionally good at noticing and recognising things. In response to her one-worded response, she noticed how Ian's face abruptly dropped. Earlier that night, she recognised Jimmy Lishman rather quickly. It was a talent, one of which she was admittedly proud of, yet one of which she often took for granted.

Because, as she focused on Ian's reaction, creating a mental note to ask him about it later on, she failed to notice the reaction of another certain someone. She failed to notice the small smile that made its way onto their lips, and she failed to notice the sudden quickening of their breathing rate.

She failed to notice a wide awake Lip Gallagher.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

~ 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 ~

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

~ 𝐑𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐯𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞 ~
~ 𝐀 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐅𝐚𝐧𝐅𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 ~
~ 𝐋𝐢𝐩 𝐆𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐱 𝐀𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐫𝐚 𝐋𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐳 ~

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───