Work Text:
Isak really didn’t mean to start a fire. All he wanted to do was make some pasta for dinner. It was actually going pretty well until the entire pot went up in flames. Before he knew it, all the smoke detectors were going crazy and the entire apartment building had to evacuate at 23:00. Needless to say, his roommates were pissed.
“How exactly are you this bad at cooking, Isak?” Noora asked, exasperated.
“I don’t fucking know!” Isak replied indignantly, waving his hands in the air. “All I did was put some pasta in the water. It’s not my fault!”
“Except it literally is your fault.” He could just make out Linn’s glare underneath her blanket cocoon. Linn really hated being roused from her room, and she especially didn’t like being made to leave the building. She was going to hold this over his head for the rest of time, probably.
“What are we going to do with you, baby gay? How are you going to be an adult without us one day?” Eskild questioned him sternly. Isak groaned in response. All he wanted was some fucking pasta, not a lecture on adulthood and responsibilities from his roommate.
Isak was in the middle of formulating a sarcastic response to their accusations when a fire truck rounded the corner, approaching their building with sirens blaring.
“Oh look, Isak! Here come some more people whose time you’ve wasted!” Noora said mockingly as the truck parked a few feet away from them.
“Fuck off!”
Three men clad in heavy, fire-resistant gear climbed out of the truck and their landlord immediately approached them. He spoke to them quickly, gesticulating towards both the building and the place where Isak was currently standing. They nodded along, and two left to enter the building, likely to assess the apartment for damage.
Damage. Shit. If anything was damaged, Eskild was actually going to kill Isak.
The other fireman hung back, finishing up the conversation with the landlord. He then turned and approached Isak and his roommates. Isak looked down, trying to avoid eye contact out of sheer embarrassment.
“Hey guys. Your landlord said the fire alarms went off because of something that happened in your unit. Is that correct?” Isak still refused to make eye contact, looking everywhere except the man.
“Yeah, that’s right. This one over here,” Eskild pointed towards Isak, “is the world’s worst cook.” Isak sent Eskild a murderous glare.
“Fuck off, Eskild. I’m a great cook.” Isak fired in response, even though it was clearly a blatant lie, considering all 100 residents of their building were standing outside in the middle of the night because he couldn’t make a basic meal. Semantics.
The fireman chuckled, and Isak couldn’t help but glance over at him, and- well, shit.
Isak was looking at one of the most beautiful guys he’d ever seen. His full lips were curled into a smile, his twinkling eyes crinkling at the corners. Somehow his hair was styled perfectly, even though he had just pulled his head out of a helmet. Isak just stared at him, mouth agape. The man’s smile fell a bit and he stared back just as intensely. They just gaped at each other for a good thirty seconds.
Jesus, get it together.
Eskild cleared his throat as Noora snickered.
The beautiful man shook his head a few times, as if trying to get himself out of a trance.
“Right. Well. Um. Just be more careful next time, yeah?”
Isak bit his lip and nodded bashfully.
“Oh, he’ll be very careful. It would have been such a shame if you had needed to… rescue us.” Eskild flirted in response, reaching out to bat at the man’s chest. He laughed, smiling awkwardly.
“Yeah. Haha. Um, I’ll just,” the man gestured towards the fire truck. He backed away slowly, maintaining eye contact with Isak the whole time. The second he was out of sight, Eskild turned towards Isak with a scandalized grin on his face.
Wow , he mouthed, waggling his eyebrows.
“Fuck off!” Isak crossed his arms over his chest and tried to will his blush to go away.
The other firemen returned from their inspection, and much to Isak’s relief, they found that the apartment had sustained no major damage. Their landlord gave him a stern talking to, but Isak barely paid attention. He was too busy thinking about the hot firefighter.
Maybe Isak should try and cook more often.
***
Kollektivet <3
Eskild: Isaaakkkk, you left your dishes in the sink AGAIN
Noora: Is anyone here surprised?
Linn: Not me
wtf
fuck off all of you
Noora: So grumpy
Eskild:
What’s wrong? Thinking about mystery
fireman and how you don’t know his name or number?
Noora:
Hahahaha maybe you should set another fire,
then you guys can stare into each other’s eyes some more
shut up noora
he was hot ok
***
The truth was, mystery fireman was very hot. And Isak had totally gotten over it. He absolutely hadn’t spent all night researching news articles and scanning through the Oslo Fire Department’s website just to try and find out who he was. And he really didn’t contemplate calling his landlord just to see if he knew mystery man’s name. Definitely not.
Move on, you creep!
Isak decided to go over to Jonas’s house to get his mind off the really hot man he would probably never see again. He stepped onto the elevator, mindlessly pressing the 1 button as he typed out a text notifying Jonas that he was on his way. The doors slid shut and the elevator started descending. Suddenly, the lights started flickering and elevator lurched to a stop.
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fu-
Isak automatically felt sick. His hands started shaking, and his breaths started shortening involuntarily. Getting trapped in a big metal death box was the last way Isak wanted to spend his day. He willed himself to calm down, dialing Eskild’s number.
“Eskild?”
“Hi, smelly boy. Are you in the apartment? Noora just texted me saying the power went out.”
“Shit, are you kidding?”
“Why, what’s wrong?”
Isak groaned and he slid his back down the wall of the elevator.
“I’m in the fucking elevator. It’s stuck. Fuck. Shit.”
“Calm down. Just call the landlord. Or press the emergency button or something.”
“Eskild. What if I die in here”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m hanging up. Call the landlord.”
Then Eskild abandoned him, leaving him to deal with this major crisis all by himself. What a terrible guru, leaving him in his time of need. Isak was going to eat his cookies later to get back at him.
Isak sat, unmoving, for a few minutes, giving himself a pep talk. The elevator really wasn’t that small, and at least there were no other people in there with him. He would be fine! Maybe. He signed, pushing himself back onto his feet to reach the emergency call button. He pressed the red button, and after a few moments, a woman’s voice crackled through the small speaker.
“Hello, do you need assistance?”
“Yeah,” he replied in a shaky voice. “I’m, um, stuck in the elevator. It’s not moving.”
“Okay, we will notify the fire department. Someone should be on their way to help you shortly.”
“Thanks.”
The operator hung up, and once again, Isak was alone. He knew that being stuck in an elevator really wasn’t a big deal, but he couldn’t stop imagining all the ways that this situation would bring him to his death. Maybe the cables would break and he would he would plummet to the basement or maybe they would never be able to get him out and he would die of starvation or maybe he would suffoc-
Calm down, Isak!
His entire body was shaking as he clutched his knees to his chest, curling up into a ball. The walls felt as if they were closing in on him and he was having trouble breathing.
What a great way to find out that you’re claustrophobic.
Finally, relief came.
“Hello?” He heard someone yell through the cracks of the door. “Are you doing okay?”
“Um… kind of. Please get me out,” Isak pleaded, trying to not sound like he was panicking but definitely failing.
“Don’t worry. We will get you out in no time.” The voice replied, but Isak wasn’t reassured.
“Isak? It’s me, your guru. It will be okay, don’t panic.” Eskild yelled through the closed doors.
His rescuers began to pry open the doors manually, and they cheered as they rolled apart. Isak was confused because nothing from his point of view had changed, but he quickly realized what that meant. He was trapped between floors.
Isak started to panic even more. He felt his eyes well up with tears as he pressed his face into his knees. He was too preoccupied trying to stop himself from hyperventilating to notice that someone had opened the emergency hatch on the elevator roof.
“Hey, Isak, right? Don’t worry, you’re almost out.” A voice from above reassured him. He glanced up at the person who had arrived to save him, and Jesus Christ, his luck would be this bad.
It was the hot firefighter from the night before.
Hot fireman maneuvered a ladder through the hatch and into the elevator. Isak looked up at him blankly. Did he really expect him to be able to climb up a tiny ladder when his life was clearly flashing before his eyes?
The man smirked at him.
“What, do you need me to carry you up?” He joked.
At the thought of that mortifying predicament, Isak stammered out a “no” while scrambling to his feet and grasping onto the rungs of the ladder. He closed his eyes as he propelled himself upward, unwilling to look up or down or anywhere, really.
His eyes shot back open when he felt an arm curl around his ribs. The man had kneeled down, and was hoisting him back up through the emergency hatch. With one arm. Wow, he was really strong. Isak felt his cheeks heat up.
Are you seriously blushing right now?
Hot fireman placed him back on his feet, but he didn’t remove his arm from its place around Isak.
“T-thanks,” Isak stuttered, unable to look away from the blue of the man’s eyes. His tongue darted out to wet his lips, and the man’s eyes tracked the movement. The moment felt frozen in time, suspended like a… broken elevator, or some poetic shit. Oh, right, they were standing on top of a precarious, dangling metal box. Isak stepped back a bit, out of the other man’s embrace.
“Baby gay! Oh, I was so worried!” Isak looked up to see Eskild, who was evidently lying on his stomach and half dangling over the edge of the elevator opening.
“Ugh. Stop calling me, that Eskild. And fuck you for hanging up on me.” No matter how Isak felt, he would always have it in him to bitch at Eskild. It was a talent.
“I need to lift you up to the floor,” the man beside him said, bringing his attention back to the reality of the situation.
“Oh… sure. Yeah.” Isak turned around and lifted his arms up, trying to maintain his cool when the man grabbed his waist.
“Mikael? You there?”
“Yeah, Even.” Another fireman, a man with brown, scruffy hair, peered over the ledge.
His name was Even.
“I’m going to lift Isak up, can you pull him up the rest of the way?” Even asked
“Yeah, of course.”
Suddenly, Isak felt himself being hoisted into the air, passed from one strong pair of arms to another. And finally, his feet were placed safely back onto the ground. He let out a sigh of relief.
Thank god.
Eskild, Noora, and Linn were all there waiting for his return to safety, and they gathered him into a group hug the second he was rescued, cooing and fussing over him. He pretended to be disgusted when they grabbed at his cheeks and inspected him for any injuries, but it secretly felt nice to be cared for.
“Thank you so much for saving my baby godson,” Eskild said seriously to the men in uniform who were cleaning up their equipment.
“No problem at all,” replied Even, looking at Isak with the same level of intensity as he had the night before. Isak didn’t know what to say or where to look, so he resolutely stared down at his feet.
“Yeah, thank you,” he said shyly.
Even smiled at him warmly, but again, Eskild had to interrupt the moment.
“Come on, my baby son, let’s go watch a movie and cuddle or something.” Noora nodded in agreement, wrapping her arm around Isak’s shoulder. He couldn’t help but notice how Even followed the movement with his gaze.
“Well, bye…” Isak said to his savior, the beautiful man with the perfect hair.
“Try to stay out of trouble, Isak.” Even replied, a wicked grin on his face.
***
Kollektivet <3
Eskild: Great news everyone!!! :D
Noora: What is it this time, Eskild?
Eskild: Oh, Isak, you’re gonna love this
i was sleeping eskild
wtf do you want
Eskild:
That’s such a rude way to speak to your
guru, Isak. Especially when he bears news as great as this.
Noora: DID YOU FIND THE HOT FIREMAN?
Linn: Please stop texting in this chat
Eskild:
Live a little, Linn. Anyway, YES NOORA I DID.
His name is Even Bech Næsheim. He graduated from
Bakka last year.
what exactly do you want me to do with
this information
Eskild:
I don’t know, Isak! Do I have to do everything
around here? Find his social media, ask him out, go crazy.
that’s so desperate i’m not doing that
Noora: You’re so boring
Linn: You really are
wTf stop ganging up on me fuck all of u
***
Isak didn’t ask Even out. He just didn’t want to stoop to the level of asking someone online! It was definitely not because he looked on Facebook and Instagram but couldn’t find any social media under the name Even Bech Næsheim. His mysterious fireman seemed to be gone forever.
Except, no, he wasn’t. Because Isak had really shitty luck.
A few weeks later, he and Sana were working on their chemistry experiment after school. All of the boys were there too, waiting for them to finish so they could go get some pizza or mess around at the skate park.
“No, I remember the teacher saying we were supposed to use the blue chemical. Not the clear one,” Isak argued. Science was his subject. He knew what he was doing.
“No way! The blue one is for the second half of the experiment. I’m positive,” Sana replied stubbornly. Isak looked at her with disbelief.
“Okay. I’m going to use the blue one. You can use the clear. We’ll see who’s right.”
“I don’t think that’s such a g-” Sana tried to reason with him, but he was determined to prove that he was right. He filled a pipette with the blue chemical and dripped it into the petri dish. Nothing happened initially. Then, of course, it burst into flames.
“Fuck!” He exclaimed, shooting out of his seat as the hem of his shirt caught fire. Magnus was screaming, his favorite shirt was burning, and he was clearly the loser of the argument. What a shitty afternoon.
Isak rushed over to the shower in the corner of the room and turned the handle, drenching himself with freezing cold water. He frantically pulled his shirt over his head and let the cool stream of water calm his burning skin.
“HELLO 110. MY BEST FRIEND IS ON FIRE. SO IS THE TABLE. PLEASE HELP.” Isak heard Magnus shrieking into the phone. Sana was trying to figure out how to use the fire extinguisher. Jonas and Mahdi were sitting in the corner cackling.
What a disaster.
Isak stepped out from under the shower to help Sana put out the fire that was currently engulfing their lab papers. They wrestled with the fire extinguisher and finally got it to work, spraying the white foam all over until they were sure the fire was out.
“I told you -” Sana’s gloating was cut off by the sound of approaching sirens.
Are you fucking kidding me.
Isak sat on a stool and put his hands in his face. He groaned loudly.
“Magnus, why did you call the fire department? Oh god,” Isak complained, mentally praying that Even wouldn’t show up yet again to witness the disaster that is Isak’s life.
No such luck.
Even and Mikael rushed through the door of the classroom, stopping directly in their tracks as they took in the sight in front of them. Isak was sopping wet and shirtless, his stomach was a bright pink. The entire lab table was covered in white foam.
“Hi, Isak. What did you do this time?” Even grinned.
Isak just hid his face back in his hands and groaned dramatically.
“Seriously, you’re like a magnet for trouble.” Even was enjoying this way too much for someone who’s time was being wasted as they spoke.
“How do you know this guy, Iss?” Jonas spoke up from the corner of the room. Even’s eyes narrowed at the nickname.
“I know him because I cannot physically stop fucking up. Sorry for wasting your time, guys. We can clean this up. You can go.” Even looked at him contemplatively, then he seemed to make a decision.
“Isak, you need to get your burn checked out. I can take you to the nurse. Mikael will help you guys clean up.”
“No, I’m fine, really. I’m so sorr-”
“Stop. Come on, I’ll walk with you.”
Isak didn’t seem to have a choice. He blushed a little as he pulled his soaking shirt back over his head, noticing that it had burned its way into being a crop top. Ugh.
Even didn’t seem to mind as he smirked when Isak turned back around.
They walked out into the hallway, and Isak pointed him in the direction of the nurse’s office. He didn’t know if she would even still be there.
Suddenly, Even grabbed his arm and jerked him into the nearest empty classroom.
“Wha-” his protests were cut off as Even slammed the door and pushed him against it, pressing their mouths together urgently.
Isak was paralyzed for a moment, too stunned to really kiss back. He stood, unmoving, until Even pulled as his cheek with his thumb, pulling his lips apart. This woke him up, and he threw his arms around Even’s neck, kissing back with fervour. Even slipped one of his legs between Isak’s and Isak moaned, pulling him closer and kissing him even harder.
The kiss was sloppy and desperate, all clashing teeth and tongues. Isak couldn’t get enough.
They eventually had to pull apart for air, resting their foreheads together as they panted.
“I wanted to do that the second I saw you,” Even whispered softly. Isak kissed him chastely as a response.
Even pulled back a little, still keeping Isak wrapped in his arms.
“I think you need my phone number. You know, in case you have any more emergencies.” Even winked at him as Isak scoffed indignantly.
“I’m like, the master of fire. All of this was on purpose.”
“Oh, really?” Even smirked knowingly. He reached into Isak’s back pocket and pulled out his phone, which was thankfully not too damaged from the fire or the water.
“I’ll see you soon, Isak.” Even smiled at him as he left the room. Isak stayed in there for a few more minutes, too shaken to face his friends again.
He likes me.
:)
***
Even Fire Department
Hi cute disaster <3
Are you planning on setting anything on
fire Friday night?
haha fuck off
no i’m not planning on setting anything on fire
Well, are you doing anything else?
hmmm
i might be getting mugged friday night
or robbing a bank or something
you see, there is this really cute police officer…
Hahaha, very funny
Want to go see a movie with me? 20:00?
yeah, that sounds nice
:)
:)
Isak was so caught up in texting Even that he tripped and accidentally knocked over one of Eskild’s candles. All the papers on the table caught on fire.
“ FUCK! ”