Chapter Text
Got so much to lose
Got so much to prove
God don't let me lose my mind
When Isak dances everything else just fades away.
There is just his body and the beat.
Everything goes dark, and there is only a light shining. It lights up his feet as he moves on an empty stage. 1, 2, 3, 4.
Forwards, and backwards, and turn around. The beat thumps in his veins. 5, 6, 7, 8.
This is his state of grace. This is his outlet. This is everything he wants to be.
He does not feel his aching muscles, or the sweat streaming down from his hair. He is calm. There is just him, and the beat, and the darkness.
Eventually the lights turn on. "Yo, Isak!”
It is Jonas and the boys. Isak drops the arms by his side mid-spin and breathes heavily for a couple of beats. He then crouches down to pause the music blasting from the stereo.
“Halla, boys.” Mahdi and Magnus, the other two boys, nod at him in welcome. Jonas lets their shoulder knock.
“You gotta stop wearing yourself out before we even get here, bro.”
Isak just shrugs at Mahdi’s words. The boys know him well, and they are aware of the fact that he loves dancing more than anything else in his life. He will keep on moving even if his body screams for him to stop. He will just go on and on till it is over. He will get his rest after.
So they know that Isak will not give anything less than one hundred percent in this practice, even though he got here quite a while earlier.
“I'm trying to learn those steps for the second choreography. I’m having some trouble,” he mutters
Mahdi snorts. “There's no way you’re having trouble, dude. Mags, might be having trouble, maybe, but you sure as hell are not.”
“Heeeeey!”Magnus protest, “Why do I always get dragged into things even if I don’t say anything?”
“We love you, Mags, you know that, you just happen to be the designated butt of all of our jokes,” Mahdi pats Magnus’ shoulder lovingly. Magnus shrugs his acceptance.
Jonas glances up at Isak – Isak is still quite proud of that growth spur that made him taller than his best friend – and nods his head towards the end of the room. Magnus and Mahdi keep on bantering in the background.
“Isak," Jonas asks in a low tone of voice "how are you?”
“Fine,” Isak is a bit taken aback by Jonas’s question. After all, nothing that has happened today should appear as odd behaviour. Although, perhaps, today is not exactly just any other day. “Why are you asking me that?”
Jonas is the person who knows him the best, and he is the person that he can count on for just about everything, so his concern, annoying as it might be, still warms him up inside a little. Isak is no baby, but being cared for is, in some ways, still new to him.
“You look like you haven’t slept in days,” Jonas states.
“I have been sleeping," Isak defends himself. “It's just that I want to learn this to perfection, you know? I can’t screw this up.”
Jonas nods knowingly. “I know you want to win, but wearing yourself out isn’t gonna help you, and it most definitely isn’t gonna help us” he says pointing at himself and the others.
“We need you more than you need us, bro.”
Isak just bumps his shoulder lightly. He does not say that that is not true at all. Isak needs them more than they could ever possibly need him. He does not think that they realise that.
“Your guru is here, boys!” Eskild makes his grand entrance, just like every time they have practice. Which is every day. He really loves his grand entrances. “Come over here, your guru has got some big news for his little boys!”
Jonas and Isak rejoin the others that have quickly gathered near Eskild.
The guru clears his throat, and then, solemnly, he says: “You know what day it is today, right?”
They all nod in silence, huddled close together. Eskild looks briefly at them, then continues to announce.”I have been sent this years' rules and guidelines for the Oslo Street Dance Competition.”
He looks at all of them to make sure that they are all following him. “As you know, the competition is two weeks away, and it has been confirmed that we will have 90 seconds of performance time, that your guru has already choreographed for you. Now, there are some things that are different this year from last year," and at this point he stops, making a dramatic pause. Isak just stares at him, raising an eyebrow, that is an universal signal to just get on with this already. “I have good news and bad news, which one do you want to hear first?”
There's a chorus of "bad news," and Eskild nods. Having known him for three years Isak can see that under his neutral exterior their choreographer (/guru) is excited.
“The bad news is, my children, that this year a new rule has been issued that states that in a crew there must be at least five members.”
“What?" Jonas all but yells.
“Why?” Isak joins in.
“How?” Mahdi asks.
“What" Magnus repeats, he does not think the first question has been emphasised enough.
“Now, now, boys, I do not know why or how they decided to set a minimum threshold to participate in this competition," Eskild offers, "but I still have that good news I was telling you about.”
The boys are still looking at each other dumbfounded. The competition they have been preparing for the last few months is now not only rather impossible to win, but also impossible to compete in.
“What?” Isak says still in shock. Jonas sets his hand on Isak’s arm to calm him down. It does not work much, really.
“My children, worry not, cause your guru, as he always does, has already fixed all of your problems! Kattehookern og vennene hans will, indeed, compete in the Oslo Street Dance Competition for I have found you another crew member.” He announces proudly. He glances at the door in a split second before smiling brightly at all of them. Isak is sure he must have just been dumped in the land of his worse nightmares. What the fuck is Eskild even talking about.
“Children, meet your new crew member.”
He raises his arm with great flourish towards the door, but the door stays closed.
"New crew member.” Eskild repeats, louder now.
The door is still closed. “Crew member?” The word is more of a question now.
Two minutes pass in complete silence, but the door does not move, although, judging by the way Eskild is staring at it, there should be at least two holes in it by now.
He mutters an “excuse me" and quickly makes his way out of the door.
Isak turns to Jonas. “The fuck?” Jonas’ comforting hand rests on his shoulder. “I don’t want another member, we do not need another member!” Isak says, his voice bordering on hysterical.
“It looks like we don’t have a choice, bro,” Mahdi says, Isak shrugs off Jonas’ hand and starts pacing the length of their small training room. “Why does nothing ever goes as it should? Why must something always happen?” He mutters angrily under his breath. His friends are just staring at him. They know Isak cares about this competition more than any of them.
Isak has nothing. He has no family to speak of, and has been living with Eskild in a shared apartment since his second year of high school. His father barely pays his rent, and Isak struggles to get by. He does not even have enough money to go to college. Last year he signed up to the OSDC as a way to have fun after high school graduation and maybe make some connections and a job. Kattehookern had, however, brutally lost in the first eliminatory phase, and Isak had not gained what he had hoped for from the competition. Namely a scholarship, or at least a job that involved dancing.
The disappointment had stung, and Isak should have already known by then not to get his hopes up for such uncertain things.
So when Jonas, Mahdi and Magnus had all started college, Isak remained behind. As he could not afford going, Isak decided to take a year off to save some cash and work on perfecting his moves and return to this year’s competition with his head held high. He got himself a job, or three actually, and helped Eskild with the small kids at his dancing studio.
He had worked his ass off for months, and now that he was finally getting close to his second chance a technicality was going to stop him? To stop them?
“Isak?” Magnus’ voice pulls him back from his thoughts. He notices that they must have tried to call him for a while now. “Bro, it’s gonna be fine. Eskild says he fixed it, that he got us that member we need, so it’s gonna be fine.” He drags the last word. Isak mutters something along the lines of "we don't need another member," just to reiterate the sentiment, and he almost misses the door opening and Eskild’s bright smile as he reenters the room.
It is what, or rather who, is standing behind Eskild that makes him stop his pacing so suddenly he almost loses balance.
The shiny new member of Kattehookern is tall, taller then Isak, and with eyes so blue that they can pierce Isak's from across the room. The boy's hair is styled in a gravity defining quiff of a dirty blond color. His face is all sharp features and soft freckles. His long legs and muscly arms are loosely covered by soft sweatpants and a hoodie. Who is this guy? What the fuck is happening?
“Children," Eskild savuors the moment, "meet Even Bech Næsheim.”
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“Isak,” Mahdi whispers, “you okay, bro? You're drooling.”
Isak snaps his mouth shut. It is going to be a long two weeks.