★

"ANOTHER ONE?" AMARA QUESTIONED, staring at the older tipsy man in front of her, who slouched against the counter. "Sir, this is your seventh beer. And it's only ten in the morning." The man waved her off, abruptly pushing himself out of his chair, and sluggishly walking out of the bar, the door shut loudly behind him. Amara shared a bewildered look with her co-worker, Marie, before grabbing the dirty cups, and started to wash them.

Amara started working at the Alibi after Kev discovered she still hadn't found a job—and he basically forced her to become a server at the bar. Especially with his broken foot, he needed an extra hand around, so he gave her an opportunity. Amara couldn't complain though, the tips were pretty good, and every so often she'd see Lip pop in after a long day.

She was doing alright, in fact. Besides the fact that her father had skipped town, and none of them had heard from him, again. Although this time, she was prepared. Amara knew Joe's fleeing was just around the corner, however she wasn't going to lie and say that she didn't miss the income he brought to the house. She started accepting his money for bills, and it took off some pressure. Now that he was gone, the Gilbert residence was cramped for money once more.

Kevin suddenly appeared from the back room, looking annoyed, and he caught Amara's attention with a sigh. She glanced over to him. "What?"

"Your boyfriend was just arrested."

"Boyfriend?" she repeated, before the answer dawned on her. They hadn't technically started dating yet—but she could see why Kev thought that. After all, Lip was always making sure he was somehow touching her when they were together. Hands on her thighs, kissing her cheek, interlocking their fingers. It was no shocker that people thought they were dating. "Seriously?" Amara demanded, rolling her eyes as she pulled her phone out of her pocket to call Ian. "Lip was arrested?"

"Yeah," Ian's voice replied. "Actually, can you come down to the station? The cops...well you know, don't like me so much especially after the last time I was in there. Please."

She shot a hopeful look to Kevin, who gave her a hesitant nod. "Go. I can manage the bar."

"Be right there," Amara told Ian with a grin on her face, before she hung up and hurriedly grabbed her purse from the hook, and she ran out the door. "Stupid asshole," she muttered to herself.

★

"Hey," Ian greeted his brother as he walked out from the bars separating them. The redhead tossed a pack of cigarettes at the older boy, who grinned and thanked him, before Lip's gaze found Amara, who was watching him with her arms crossed.

"Hey, baby—"

She smacked his arm, then his chest, then lightly kicked his shins. "Dumbass."

"Why thank you," Lip said with a smile, leaning down to kiss her, making Amara's angry façade disappear. He grabbed her hand, swinging their woven hands back and forth between them as the trio made their way out of the building.

"How'd it go?" Ian asked, and Amara realized he was in his uniform.

Lip shrugged as he swung their linked hands back and forth. "Public defender thinks I can get off with community service if we take the laser back."

"Remind me again why the hell you stole a laser?"

"Classified information," Ian told her, and she scowled in response.

"You guys suck. Since when do you not tell me the shit you're up to?"

"Since your mom started dating a cop."

"Oh, fuck off," she rolled her eyes. "He's like a stray dog. Only comes when he wants food or something. Another example for him would be Frank."

"Underprivileged kid," Lip went on. "Trying to gain access to scientific equipment he doesn't have. In his ghetto ass underfunded high school."

"Ah," Ian muttered. "I see."

"You're both fucking stupid," Amara stated. "I will be saying that as your eulogy's at your funerals when I kill you!" She smacked both of them aside the head, and the siblings both grunted in pain. "Idiots."

Lip sighed as Amara started to walk ahead with Mandy, shooting her an exasperated look, making the other girl laugh. "Thanks for bailing me out," the blonde said, glancing over to Ian.

"All Mandy," Ian replied, shrugging. "She used her dad's line of credit at Bad Bob's Bonds."

"Miss a hearing, and my dad will come after you with a linoleum knife and a bucket of battery acid," Mandy threatened, smirking devilishly as she looked back to the brothers. "Oh, not to mention that Amara will literally slit your throat."

Amara mirrored her evil grin. "Damn right I will."

★

"Thanks for letting me stay here," Mandy mumbled a couple of hours later. Amara barley heard her over the loud music coming from upstairs, but she still managed a small nod as she threw the brunette a plaid blanket. "Again," she added, sheepishly.

"Of course," Amara replied, shrugging. "You're my best friend. You can stay as long as you need."

"Won't your mom mind, though?"

"She's barely sober enough to register that Silvia and I are home," Amara waved her off. "You're fine. Sorry about the salsa music though. At least they have it on and playing so we can't hear them fucking through these thin walls."

Mandy laughed. "Yeah. That's a plus. I just don't wanna feel like I'm overstaying, you know? I felt like that when I slept over at the Gallagher's last week. Fiona doesn't like me."

"She likes you," Amara replied, shuffling through something on one of the side tables. "She's just worried Lip is gonna knock you up or something."

"But you guys are dating."

"We're not," Amara corrected. "He doesn't have the balls to actually make it official. Which is fine, I don't mind. Commitment is scary—and you see how relationships work out around here. Honestly, what we have right now is perfect for me. Although, if he screws anyone else I will cut off his balls."

"So you guys have-"

"No," Amara interrupted. "Not yet. It's not that I don't want to it's just...I don't want to rush things or whatever. Also, I want him to get tested because he slept with Karen how many times? The man is a whore!" The two friends shared a chuckle, before Amara placed a gentle hand onto her shoulder. "Night, Mandy."

"Goodnight, Mara."

★

"Bot fighting?" Amara demanded, crossing her arms over her chest as she stared down Lip with disapproving eyes, looking like a disappointed parent. "Seriously? I cannot express to you how illegal that is."

"This is why I didn't tell you," he stated, running a hand through his hair, and hurt flickered through her chest. She wasn't trying to be controlling—she really wasn't. But having Lip in jail yet again wasn't exactly ideal, and who knew the sentencing time for this illegal activity? He was her rock, she didn't know what she would do without him. Why couldn't he just see that? "Forget about it."

"So what?" She asked. "You tell me you're doing illegal shit, and then get pissed off at me for being disappointed? And now you don't want me to go."

"Yeah," he replied simply. "That's it exactly. I thought you'd be excited for me. I built this thing from scratch."

"You mean you stole the parts and put them together."

"Amara, I don't need your shit right now."

She threw her hands up into the air, and turned on her heel. "Whatever, Lip." Amara hadn't even made it two feet out the front door before she felt guilty, and turned on her heel. But when she stepped back into the kitchen, Lip was already gone. She swallowed, and quickly pulled her phone out of her pocket, dialing a familiar number. "Hey, do you want to go watch Lip be a dumbass?"

It didn't take long for Amara to figure out the location of where the event was taking place, in fact, all she had to do was go onto Ian's location from one of the apps they both had downloaded months before, and she found where they were almost immediately.

They ended up at a surprisingly nice building—with smoothly painted walls, and tiled floors—Amara could say it definitely wasn't what she had been expecting. A man sitting at a table blocked the entrance to the basement, and Amara vaguely recognized him.

"Fifteen dollars for admission fee," was all he said, not even bothering to glance up to them.

"We have to pay to get into this shitshow?" Amara questioned, but Mandy nudged her, before pulling out a twenty, and a ten, and handing it to the man. He waved them in, and the two shared an annoyed look. Amara glanced around the room, watching as two small bots fought in the center of the floor. She couldn't spot Lip or Ian anywhere, so instead, both her and Mandy opted to lean against the wall close to the exit—just in case.

"And in this corner, representing the South Side...Frank!" The PA announced, and Lip's bot moved onto the floor. The crowd laughed from around them, and anger bubbled up in her chest. His bot sputtered, and it was then when she finally managed to locate him in the crowd. He was on the opposite side of the room, eyes focused on his control panel as he lifted his gaze up to glare at his opponent. "Ladies and gentlemen, let's get ready to rum-bot!"

The announcer groaned into the mic as Lip's bot gut tumbled by the other guy's. "Ooh! Frank is in trouble early. Wait, Frank gets away!" The two bots collided against one another, Frank being completely covered up by the other machine.

"What is he doing?" Amara muttered, sharing a confused glance with Mandy.

"Frank is loose! Rent-A-Raptor—watch out, Frank is on the run. Ooh, looks like Frank is down for the count. Rent-A-Raptor is coming for the kill." Amara bit her lip as she watched the bot roll closer to Lip's, but suddenly, a green light lit up from Frank, and a ladle shot out from the front of the machine. The opponent's robot was blown up, and the crowd erupted into cheers. "He did it! We have a new champion!"

"What a fucking genius," Amara mused, shaking her head in disbelief, before pulling Mandy into a jog as they made their way over to the Gallagher siblings. "He really had me fooled for a minute there."

"Me too."

Ian was the first to spot the two brunettes, but instead of his face breaking out into his usual grin, he just patted Lip on the shoulder, pointing behind him. Lip spun around, his brows raising his shock when his gaze landed on Amara. "Thought you didn't want to partake in my illegal activities."

"Eh," she shrugged. "Figured I could risk getting arrested to see all of your stolen parts in action."

He rolled his eyes, but wasn't able to hide his grin as she pressed her lips to his, and he quickly wrapped his arms around her. Amara could barely feel the controller pressing into her back due to her pounding heart and tingling nerves—it was always like that when she kissed him, like fireworks exploding inside of her. She'd never get sick of it.

"Alright new bot champion, what now?"

"Let's go eat," Lip said, nodding, and wrapping an arm around her as they started to leave. "I'm fucking starving."

★

— AUTHORS NOTE

i decided to change the layout of this because lip gifs are so hard to find ??? and i was running out of lily collin's gifs to use as well. so there just won't be anything at the beginning of each chapter anymore.

anyway, i hope you guys enjoyed !!! this was a little rushed but i wanted to get it out today. updates for this will be slower than usual because i'm focusing on my other books at the moment, but i'll try to update this as frequently as possible. pls vote !!!!