―

"You better not be falling asleep on me." Adam chuckled, looking away from the book in his hands to focus on the girl in his arms.

"Not my fault you're so boring." Hannah smirked, resting her head on his chest and looking up at the boy through her eyelashes.

The brunette let out a dramatic gasp, bringing his free hand up to his chest, "Me? Boring?"

"Okay, fine, not you," Hannah rolled her eyes, "Just Oscar Wilde."

"I seriously don't get how you can hate this book." Adam said, putting his battered copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray on the girl's bedside table.

"Because it's so boring," Hannah chuckled, "Though, it's not as bad as Beloved."

A small grin spread across Adam's face, "You know, I love that you hate one of my favourite books."

The redhead raised an eyebrow, "That makes literally no sense."

"Yes it does," Adam denied, "It's like the olive theory."

Hannah sat up with an amused smile on her face as she looked down at her boyfriend, "The olive theory?"

"Yeah," Adam nodded, also sitting up, "It's like, if you're in a couple and one of you likes olives and the other doesn't, then you're perfect for each other. You balance each other out."

Hannah's small smile grew as she started to lightly flush red, "You hate olives."

"And you love them." Adam grinned.

―

Adam raised an eyebrow, wrapping his arms around his cold frame as Hannah closed the basement door behind him, "The hell is that?" He asked.

Hannah followed his gaze to the frozen pile of yellow snow just a foot to the left of them, "That would be Carl's handywork."

"You have two bathrooms. That doesn't make sense."

"Please," Hannah scoffed, taking his hand and leading him up the steps to the back porch, "You've met Carl. Nothing he ever does makes sense."

"Fair point." The boy nodded as they entered the kitchen.

Hannah froze as she watched her little sister stomp around the kitchen in her new high heels, "It's happening again," The redhead muttered, grabbing her boyfriend's arm, "I'm in the time machine and now Debbie's a hooker." She said, making the boy chuckle and wrap his free arm around her shoulders.

"Oh, you going clubbing?" Fiona asked the youngest Gallagher sister.

Debbie shrugged, "Hanging out with Holly."

"You two gonna work the corner?" Carl smirked, earning a small nod of respect from Hannah.

"Shut up, zit-head." Debbie glared at him.

"Least I got zits, no-pubes girl." Carl scoffed.

Adam dropped the bagel in his hand, "And I'm done with that."

"Okay, enough. Both of you. Cereal. Brother," Fiona ordered her younger siblings, glancing over at Debbie, "You think you might be a little over-dressed for Sunday morning at Holly's?"

"It's not like we're going church." Debbie rolled her eyes.

"You're watching Liam today, remember?" Fiona reminded the girl, who scoffed.

"I haven't abused marijuana like the rest of you, so, yes, I remember."

"I have the Mike thing."

"I said my memory's intact." Debbie snapped.

Hannah looked up at Adam, "Is it bad I don't remember any of this marijuana abusing?"

"Best not to get into that now." Adam shook his head as the door opened and Sheila entered the kitchen, a bowl covered in aluminium foil in her hands.

"Whoa!" The woman cried, "Big yellow icy spot on the sidewalk. I almost dropped the dip. Spike must've chewed through his fence again. My world famous artichoke-jalapeno dip. Eddie loved it. He used to spread it on his waffles." She smiled, putting it on the counter.

"And now I'm done." Hannah nodded, dropping her own bagel.

"Thanks, Sheila. That smells great." Fiona smiled from where she was feeding Liam.

"Why is she here again?" Carl quietly asked with a small groan.

"I don't care. Our laundry's clean." Fiona hissed back.

"Any new texts from Ian?" Debbie asked.

"No." Fiona shook her head.

"You check your phone this morning?"

"Yes."

"It's been almost a week."

"He's fine, Debs," Hannah told her sister, "Trust me."

"He'll be back when he's back." Fiona nodded.

"We should file a missing persons report." Debbie said.

"We're not going to the police, okay?" Fiona told her, "He's seventeen. We don't have to be happy about it, but I trust him."

"No surprise he ran away from this gulag. It's not like anyone cares a damn if any of us live or die!" Debbie cried, clomping over to the stairs.

"Liam?" Fiona called after her.

"I heard you the first 300 billion times!" Debbie shouted back, before storming to her room.

"I'm so glad I'm no longer rooming with that hormone-fest." Hannah muttered, resting her forehead on Adam's shoulder.

"Wanna go get some pancakes from the diner?" Adam asked his girlfriend, "I'll pay."

"You had me at you'll pay." Hannah nodded, taking Adam's hand and leading the laughing boy out of the house.

―

Hannah giggled as Adam hoisted her further up his back as he walked them back to the Gallagher house after their pancakes. However, her giggles quickly stopped when her house came into view.

"Oh, shit," She muttered, "Turn back."

"You know I'm not actually a horse, right?" Adam asked with a smile.

"Shush." Hannah told him, hitting his shoulder and gesturing over to her front door - where Tony was stood with a body flung over his shoulder.

"Frank?"

"Who fucking else?"

"And to my house we go." The boy nodded, turning around.

Hannah smirked, lightly kicking his thigh with her foot, "Giddy up."

Adam rolled his eyes with a laugh, "Neigh, mother fucker."

―

 "There's something in my juice." Carl said, his face scrunched up as she looked into his cup.

Fiona took a look and chuckled, "That's pulp."

Carl raised an eyebrow, "We can afford pulp?"

"Yeah," Fiona smiled, "Getting a steady pay check, courtesy of Worldwide Cup."

The backdoor opened and Elodie's merry voice rang through the kitchen as she and Adam came into the house, "Morning! What's up today?"

Hannah turned to her with a smirk, "The Gallaghers have pulp."

"As in orange or fiction?" Adam chuckled, kissing the top of his girlfriend's head.

"Or a disease." Hannah laughed as Carl stared at Debbie.

"What?" The girl asked.

"Dad's upstairs."

"Gross." Elodie muttered.

"So?"

"Are you gonna say hi?" Carl asked her.

"No," Debbie rolled her eyes standing up and pulling on a jacket as she looked expectantly at her eldest sister, "Where's my lunch?"

"Hey, that's my jacket." Hannah frowned, grabbing her yellow coat.

"You weren't using it." Debbie told her with an eyeroll before turning back to Fiona.

"Jeez, my sister's a bitch," Hannah muttered as she and the twins left the house, "I've never been more proud."

―

Hannah, Fiona and Elodie all stared at Veronica, speechless.

"You're pregnant?" Fiona finally asked, making her best friend nod.

"Then you probably want these more than me." Elodie muttered, sliding her bag of fries over to the pregnant woman.

"How's that even possible?" Fiona wondered.

"Well, that's what I said," Veronica shrugged, "We can't afford to have two babies. We're barely gonna be able to afford to have one."

"Have you told Kev yet?" Hannah asked.

"Yeah, and what about your mom?" Elodie wondered.

"She gonna have to have an abortion," Veronica declared, "I can't have her nasty Kev-Mama baby staring up at me, not with my own Kev baby on my hip. I'll just end up hating the Mama baby, and accidentally, on purpose, run over it in the driveway."

Hannah nodded as Fiona's phone pinged, "I one-hundred percent agree with those morals."

"It's Mike," Fiona sighed, looking down at the text, "He wants me to come over to his place tonight, celebrate my three months at the company."

"Oh, celebrate how?" Elodie smirked suggestively.

"By having you sit on his face?" V snickered.

"Yeah, something like that." Fiona hummed.

"Uh oh." Hannah muttered at her sister's tone as she stole a fry.

Veronica raised an eyebrow, "You really haven't slept with him?"

"No." Fiona shook her head.

Hannah stared at her, "Who are you and what have you done with my sister?"

Fiona rolled her eyes with a small smile, flicking the redhead's ear, "I know I probably should soon," She told them, "He's already well past the whole two grand in meals thing for me having to put out."

"You make it sound like a chore." Veronica said.

"I know, it's crazy, but he's my boss, you know? What happens if we break up?" Fiona worried.

Elodie raised an eyebrow, "Really? Now? You're worrying about that now. Remember the tent, Fi."

Veronica nodded in agreement, "You already gave him a hand job. I think you long past the 'what if we break up' point."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Fiona nodded.

"You should go," Veronica told her best friend, "I'll keep an eye on the kids. I need the kid practice now."

"Yeah, times two." Fiona nodded, making Veronica grunt as Sheila clambered downstairs, cleaning supplies in hand.

"All right, well, I'll be... I'll be back tomorrow," The woman huffed out, putting her coat on, "I can tackle this whole kitchen area. I mean, it may take a few days, but I will make this kitchen my bitch. Now good night." She smiled, before leaving the house.

Veronica turned to Fiona with a questioning look, "You hired Sheila to be your maid?"

"No, she's just been hanging around. I think she's lonely." Fiona shrugged.

"It's pretty weird." Hannah said.

"So when are you gonna tell Kev?" Elodie asked the pregnant woman.

"Mmm. I figured I'd give it a bit, see if this thing's still hanging around after a couple of months," She said, "I haven't exactly been fertile ground for planting little baby Kev seedlings."

"You gotta tell him, V." Fiona said as she started to raid the fridge.

Hannah nodded, "It's not fair to keep it a secret."

"Shit."

Elodie glanced over at the eldest Gallagher, "What are you looking for?"

"I thought we had some wine left," Fiona muttered, turning to the three with a hand on her hip, "Did the four of us finish off two entire gallons of box wine the other night?"

Hannah let out a small scoff, "Dude I barely remember there even being any wine the other night."

―

"Thanks for tonight." Hannah smiled as she and Adam walked down her street, hand in hand.

"No problem," Adam grinned, "Thanks for letting me win."

"Well, I figured it wouldn't be fair if I one laser tag every week."

"I'm gonna guess that it's never going to happen again."

"Oh, how well you know me." Hannah smirked.

Adam smiled down at the girl, stopping to place a soft kiss on her lips before they continued to walk once more. The boy's eyebrows creased in confusion as he noticed a car sat outside his girlfriend's house, "Is that Debbie?" He asked.

Hannah followed the brunette's gaze, raising an eyebrow once she saw what was indeed her little sister sat in a car with a boy who was definitely older than her, "Oh my God," She muttered, "It's like she and Fi have swapped roles."

Adam only chuckled, tugging on her arm, "Come on, let's go downstairs. Unless you feel like you need to step in?"

Hannah looked between her boyfriend and her sister, "No, I trust her to come to me about this. Come on," She said, dragging him to the back of the house, "I have four rented movies that I need to take back tomorrow morning or else they'll charge me more."

"You got popcorn?"

"Of course."

"Oh, I love you." Adam smiled, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

Hannah smirked softly, "Well, who doesn't?"

happy one year of brutal! xo