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The holiday season.
The most wonderful time of the year— at least according to all of those songs and Christmassy rom-coms and literally everyone but Isak.
Now, Isak wouldn’t be so bitter about the holidays this year if it weren’t for the fact that he was currently taking a red faced, screaming two year old from her mother’s arms and trying to set her into Santa’s lap while wearing the itchiest, most ridiculous elf costume ever designed. (Seriously, who the fuck thought using wool would be a good idea? Not to mention the tights Isak had to wear under the god awful green shorts were riding up uncomfortably, and the fucking puff ball on the end of his hat kept dangling into his eyes. Oh, and don’t even get him started about the fake, pointy ears he had to wear.)
He hadn’t planned to work here, he really hadn’t. It was probably the last place on his list, and he hadn’t even applied for the position at first. But after receiving a rejection letter from the local ice skating rink, the mom and pop candy shop that everyone went to after ice skating for a warm cup of hot chocolate, and the gift packing part of the department store, he’d been faced with no other option. And he really fucking needed the extra cash— his bank account had definitely seen better days and giving his friends a used lavender air freshener, a half eaten chocolate bar, or an opened box of condoms for Christmas was out of the question. (Though he was almost positive that Magnus would’ve been delighted to receive a box of condoms for Christmas.)
Eskild had offered him the job before he’d applied to the other places, but he’d initially refused because he did not want to spend almost every day dressed up in this ludicrous outfit “spreading the Christmas spirit!” as one of Santa’s elves. He also didn’t want to have to deal with the bratty, young children who were being forced to take photos with the Santa in the middle of the mall because their parents didn’t want to take their own Christmas pictures.
But of course, after getting those rejection letters, he’d had to approach Eskild to ask if that job offer still stood— and it had. Eskild had practically squealed and clapped his hands together excitedly at the news and then launched into a long one-sided conversation about how he couldn’t wait to see Isak in the elf costume because “you’re going to look so adorable, baby gay!”
He’d tried his hardest to keep the job a secret from his friends. If they knew that he had to dress up as an elf— that he had to wear tights, even if they were under a pair of shorts— it would have been the end of the world— and no, he wasn’t being dramatic.
It was just his luck, however, that one day during his shift he’d been in the middle of passing a few candy canes to the twins that had just taken their photo without throwing a fit when he looked up and spotted Eva and Noora exiting a nearby store. They hadn’t seen him yet, but it was only a matter of time before they stopped rifling through their bags and noticed him— it’s not like he could run or hide.
Isak caught the exact moment that Eva looked up and laid her eyes on him— they grew about two sizes larger as they widened, and her jaw dropped as she started hitting Noora’s arm and pointing towards him. When Noora spotted Isak, a warm smile blossomed across her lips— a stark difference from the smirk that was now covering Eva’s. Isak felt his stomach drop when the girls started making their way over to him. Eva had started teasing him the second she got within earshot, and Noora just said hello— though her eyes were sparkling with mirth. They’d barely been talking for ten seconds before Eva was whipping out her phone, trying to snap a blackmail picture of Isak in his costume. Immediately he threw up his hands to block the camera, and Eva pouted. It took a while, but finally she showed mercy and put her phone away. Isak had made Eva and Noora promise to not speak a word of this to anyone else, and both girls had sworn not to.
Despite his desperate pleas and the promises they’d made, somehow (Eva) his friends caught wind of his embarrassing job. He’d tried to deny it at first— asked them why the fuck they thought he would willingly work as Santa’s elf at the mall— but they’d been relentless.
In hindsight he should’ve seen it coming that they would take it upon themselves to show up at the mall.
“Smile, Isak! It’s almost Christmas and you work for Santa— you’re the happiest elf alive!” Eskild chirped as he breezed past Isak with an expensive looking camera in his hand.
“I’d be even happier if I wasn’t fucking stuck here,” Isak chimed back, mustering up the biggest, fakest smile.
Eskild pursed his lips at Isak and stuck a hand on his popped out hip. “Isak, there are small children around,” he scolded, flashing him a disapproving look. “We’ve been over this— you can’t use that foul mouth of yours when you’re on the clock.”
Isak suppressed an eye roll and pressed his lips together so he didn’t say anything he would get reprimanded for.
“Look, I know I can’t exactly make you stop, but if you’re going to say that then at least use a kid friendly version— like elfing,” Eskild suggested brightly.
“Elfing?” Isak repeated, scrunching his face up in confusion.
Eskild gave a curt nod. “Elfing. As in, I’m so elfing excited for Christmas!”
When Isak just stared at him with an unimpressed look on his face, Eskild let out a huff and set his camera down. He stepped into Isak’s space and pushed the corners of Isak’s mouth up. “Smile, baby gay. Your shift’s almost over anyways.” He patted Isak’s cheek twice and then flounced off to set his camera up on the tripod in front of Santa again.
Isak blew out an irritated breath and pasted his faux grin back onto his face, but it melted the second he heard that all too familiar cackle coming from behind him. He squeezed his eyes shut and prepared himself for the shitstorm that was about to come.
“Isak!” Magnus’s voice shouted, and suddenly he and Jonas and Mahdi were standing right in front of him behind the red and white striped rope that closed off the area. Magnus was waving erratically, his lips pulled so wide his face looked like it could break. Jonas and Mahdi were smirking on either side of Magnus, and Jonas gave Isak his own small wave.
“Fuck,” Isak mumbled under his breath.
“There’s Santa’s favorite little helper!” Jonas crooned, clapping his hands together. Isak rolled his eyes and shot a glare towards his best friend.
“Fuck off,” he snapped right away, only to be met with a chorus of laughter.
“Fat chance, buddy,” Mahdi snickered, eyeing his getup. “Nice tights.”
“Tights? Hah!” Magnus squawked, his eyes dropping to Isak’s legs, and suddenly Isak felt a bit self-conscious in them. He fidgeted and clamped his teeth down on his tongue so he didn’t lash out. It wasn’t like he was only in tights— it really wasn’t that a big deal either.
“Shouldn’t you guys be, I don’t know, shopping? Not harassing me while I work? Don’t you have girlfriends to be Christmas shopping for?”
Mahdi rolled his eyes at Isak, but Magnus perked up. “I don’t have a girlfriend— but holy shit, when we were walking over here I saw this hot blonde guy in line, and seriously, if you don’t hit that then I totally will, Isak.” Magnus tipped his head back, a dreamy look on his face as he stared up at the ceiling for a moment and let out an appreciative groan. “Fy faen, he was so gorgeous, wow.”
It was Isak’s turn to snort at Magnus’s antics, but Jonas was quick to jump in. “He’s right, though. The dude was pretty nice looking— and totally your type,” he added, winking at Isak.
“You don’t even know what my type is,” Isak scoffed, folding his arms over his chest and shaking his head at his friends. The tail of his hat bobbled around, the fuzz ball bouncing against his cheek. His friends all laughed, and Jonas reached across the rope to flick it. Isak swatted his hand away indignantly.
“Tall, blonde, nice hair, hot” Mahdi listed, ticking off a finger with each word. “Oh, and he had blue eyes— you love those.”
Isak let out a yelp. “How would you know what color eyes I like best?” He demanded.
Mahdi laughed. “Isak, buddy, the last time we got high you started describing the ‘man of your dreams’ and he was exactly that.”
A light blush rose to Isak’s cheeks. He considered trying to deny, but he already knew there was no use. He just stuttered a bit as he attempted to come up with a smart retort. In the end he just shrugged his shoulders and nodded.
“Fact of the matter is he’s cute as fuck and when he gets to the front you’ll see for yourself,” Magnus butted in, holding up his hand.
“Anyways,” Jonas started. “How much longer do you have in your shift?”
Isak turned his head to glance at the clock that was hanging on one of the giant candy cane decorations. A flood of relief washed through his body when he realized he only had twenty minutes left before he could clock out and get the fuck out of this uncomfortable costume. “Twenty minutes,” he announced happily, flashing his teeth at Jonas.
“Sweet. We can chill for a bit while we wait for you to finish then we can hit some of the stores— knock out some of that Christmas shopping you mentioned earlier,” Jonas replied.
“Sure, sounds good,” Isak confirmed with a nod. He then held his hand out for Jonas to slap, and then shifted so he could do the same with Mahdi and Magnus too. Then he lifted his hand to his forehead in a salute and the boys retreated to the cluster of sofas— placed there for those who needed to pause their shopping and take a break.
“Isak! Quit gossiping and get back to work,” Eskild called in a sing-songy voice, giving Isak a pointed look.
With a soft sigh Isak got back to work, helping the next mother in line wrangle her son to pose for a picture with Santa.
About ten minutes had passed before Isak noticed her.
She was a sweet looking little girl, decked out in what looked like an outfit she picked out herself. Her dress was red and white striped on the top— like a candy cane— with a gold tulle bottom, and she had on green leggings underneath that didn’t match at all. Her blonde hair was done up in two pigtails, and a green bow was clasped around the left one while a red bow was fastened to the right one. Isak watched with amusement as she held onto an outstretched hand and twirled in fast circles before she started giggling and dancing around the tall man’s— her father? Brother?— legs. Even from where Isak stood a few feet away he could hear her singing a Christmas tune to herself.
It wasn’t until Isak tore his eyes away from her to focus on the tall man she was with that he realized that this was the guy Magnus had been talking about. And Isak didn’t like admitting it most of the time, but damn, Magnus was right— this guy was hot as fuck.
His legs went on for days and were wrapped in a deliciously fitting pair of blue jeans, and Isak’s eyes followed them up up up, glossing over his long torso and chest that were covered in the coziest knit sweater (wow, Isak wanted to curl up with him already— he looked softer than a blanket.) The boy had a huge smile on his face as his (blue, blue, blue, wow) eyes followed the little girl’s movements. He was speaking to her— saying something Isak couldn’t hear, but it made the girl laugh and she squeezed her arms around the boy’s legs in a big hug.
Isak sort of kind of lost himself in his stare, his eyes combing over every single feature of the boy’s face— especially his lips, god, did they look so damn kissable— and somewhere in the back of his mind, his brain was warning him to snap out of it before the guy looked up or before Eskild yelled at him. Of course, he didn’t listen and continued to unabashedly stare.
Not even a second later, the boy’s eyes flickered up and landed on Isak’s. Isak felt his heartbeat pick up and a blush rise to his cheeks from being caught, but he didn’t tear his eyes away— he couldn’t even if he wanted to. His breath caught in his throat when the boy’s gaze traveled down, and he willed himself not to think too much into it— the boy was probably just looking at his stupid costume, not him. When the boy’s eyes met Isak’s again there was a tiny smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. Isak was about to smile back or lift an eyebrow or something, but Eskild’s voice interrupted him.
“Isak, come on— you’ve got like five minutes left. Make it through this one and then you can leave,” Eskild promised. Isak stifled a sigh and tore his eyes away from the pretty blue ones before making his way over to Eskild. Eskild flashed him an encouraging smile and patted his shoulder, then turned to the crowd to call the next group forward.
“Next please!”
“Evy!” A small, high pitched voice squealed. “That’s us! We’re next!”
And somehow, before he even turned to look, he knew that that voice had to have come from that cute little girl and her cuter chaperone. When Isak did finally look, he had to bite his lip so that his smile didn’t take up his whole face. There was utter excitement written all across the little girl’s face and she was practically bouncing in her shoes as she tugged on the boy’s hand, pulling him forward. The boy had an endeared expression on his face as he followed the little girl into the enclosure.
“Take it away, baby gay,” Eskild whispered to Isak, nudging him in the ribs with his elbow.
Right. His job.
“Welcome to the North Pole!” Isak announced in the most cheerful voice he could muster— which, he found that this time wasn’t as hard to do this time thanks to that little girl’s contagious energy and excitement. He smiled warmly at the little girl, who beamed a toothy little grin right back.
“Hi, Mr. Elf!” She cheered. “We match!” She added, pointing between Isak’s tights and her dress— both resembling candy canes.
Isak chuckled and nodded. “You’re very right, little miss, we do.” He was hopelessly endeared by her already, wow.
“My name is Anja, and this is my big brother, Even,” the little girl— Anja— introduced, pulling on her brother’s hand. Isak’s eyes flitted from Anja to her older brother— Even— who was already smiling at Isak.
“Hi,” he said, and Jesus Christ, his voice. It had Isak quivering in his curly-toed slippers.
“Hi,” he responded, returning the smile. He may or may not have spent a few seconds longer than appropriate looking at Even, but he quickly snapped out of it and turned back to Anja. “I’m Isak the Elf.” He mentally cringed at that. “Are you ready to say hello to Santa, Anja?” He asked.
The excited shriek he got in return was answer enough and Anja nodded her head before she took off, prancing past Isak and straight towards where Santa was perched on the big red chair behind him. She whipped her head back to see if the two boys were following her and then stuck her arms out. “Up, up, up!” She exclaimed, making grabby hands at the boys.
Isak reached her side first, and put his hands underneath her armpits so he could hoist her little body up and onto Santa’s lap. The second she was on Santa’s lap her eyes widened as she stared up at the bearded man in awe. “Santa,” she breathed out.
“Well hello there, sweetheart,” the man dressed as Santa greeted. “And what does a nice little girl like you want for Christmas?” He asked, and Anja’s nervousness and stage fright suddenly disappeared as she launched into her Christmas list and prattled on about why everything was on it.
They let her jabber on for a few minutes before Eskild announced that it was picture time. Anja finally tore her eyes away from Santa so she could look at Even. “Evy, you’re in the picture too!” She exclaimed. Even nodded and moved so that he was standing next to the chair on Anja’s side. Anja rounded on Isak next, and Isak knew exactly what she was going to ask for before the words left her mouth. “Mr. Elf! Are you going to be in the picture?”
Isak smiled at her and bent down a little so he was closer to eye level with her. “If you’d like me to be, cutie,” he answered and reached out to boop her nose.
Anja dissolved into giggles and nodded her head. “Yes please!”
So Isak positioned himself on the other side of the chair and set his hand on the armrest. He straightened his back and readied himself for the picture while Eskild fiddled with some settings on the camera.
“Okay, on the count of three I need to see some big big smiles from all of you!” Eskild shouted, lifting the camera up to his eye. “One, two, three! Say cheese!”
On three Isak flashed a big smile and the three of them chorused “cheese”— Anja’s being the loudest, most enthusiastic shout, of course.
Eskild snapped a few more photos just to be sure that there was at least one good one, and once he set the camera down he gestured Even and Anja over to take a look at some of them. While Even and Anja were flipping through the photos, Eskild turned to Isak. “Is, you’re free to go now— just like I promised!” He grinned and wiggled his fingers at Isak before returning to the camera.
And as lovely as Even and Anja had been (and as cute as Even was), Isak had been in this costume for far too long and just looking at the line that snaked around and around made the tiny bit of positive energy Anja had given him begin to fade. It was time to go. Not to mention, the boys had stuck around and were still sitting on the couches, and Isak didn’t want to keep them waiting much longer.
Now that Isak wasn’t stuck in the little bubble Even and Anja had somehow created, he felt his grumpiness beginning to return. The Christmas music that was playing over the speakers throughout the mall sounded much louder and was starting to grate on his nerves. He could hear children in line screaming and crying as well, and some of the parents scolding them or trying to shush them or bribe them.
As he turned to leave the enclosure a small boy darted out in front of him— clearly not watching where he was going as he looked over his shoulder and laughed obnoxiously loud. Had Isak not stopped abruptly the kid would’ve crashed right into him. He blinked back his shock at the situation and was about to take another step when a woman— presumably the little boy’s mother— bustled past, shouting angrily for the child to stop. Her arms were so full of shopping bags that most of them ended up smacking right into Isak. Isak had to close his eyes and take a deep breath through his nose to try and keep his cool. He really needed to leave before he exploded on someone and ended up losing this job.
Of course, as the universe would have it, Isak just couldn’t catch a break. Not even a second after he’d been assaulted by shopping bags, a solid body collided into his back—hard— and nearly sent him to the floor.
“God dammit, what the fuck!” Isak shouted, his irritation bubbling over completely. “Can’t you watch where you’re fucking going?” He snapped, spinning around to face his new aggressor. His mouth dropped open, forming an ‘o’ shape when his eyes landed on Even, whose previous apologetic expression was melting off of his face only to be replaced with a shocked one. Anja was standing right in front of him and let out a little gasp, her tiny finger coming up to point at Isak.
“Mr. Elf said a bad word!” She cried out, her tone accusatory and berating. Even quickly pressed his hands against Anja’s ears, even though it was a little late for than now.
“Jeez,” Even started, giving Isak a pointed look. “Are you supposed to be using that kind of language around children?” He asked, though he didn’t sound mad— more amused than anything, really. Isak scrunched up his face at that. “What would Santa have to say about this?”
Isak scoffed and rolled his eyes, shaking his head at Even. It made the puff ball on his hat swing back and forth, and Anja giggled at that. “Santa’s not even real, Even. Didn’t your parents ever tell you?”
Clearly, he hadn’t thought before he spoke. Even gasped and squeezed his hands tighter over Anja’s ears. “Isak,” he hissed, shooting him a look. “My sister is right here!”
A panicked expression popped onto Isak’s face and his eyes dropped to Anja immediately to see if she’d somehow heard. Thankfully she was just peacefully sucking on her candy cane, seemingly unfazed. Thank god. “Shit, I’m sorry! I didn’t even realize…” he shook his head and then his eyes widened again and he clapped a hand over his mouth. “Shit I did it again. God da— no. No. Sorry, oh my god, sorry.” He quickly flashed Even an apologetic look.
Even was smiling though and a pout rose to Isak’s lips as Even laughed at him struggling.
“Mr. Elf said a bad word again!” Anja suddenly cried out. Isak’s eyes flew to her and he gaped for a second before he closed his eyes and dragged a hand down his face. Wow, he was just doing a spectacular job at this. “Naughty Mr. Elf!” Anja scolded, crossing her arms over her chest and fixing a chiding scowl on Isak.
A laugh bubbled up past Isak’s lips and he looked up at Even, who met his gaze and waggled his eyebrows at Isak— suggestion painting his features. Isak’s eyes widened at that and it felt like the breath had been punched out of his lungs at the implications.
“So,” Even started, schooling his features back into something more innocent as he fixed his eyes on Isak’s. “Would you, by any chance, care to join us for some lunch, Isak?” He asked. He bit down on his lip as he waited for Isak to give an answer, and god, if it wasn’t the cutest, most endearing this ever how nervous he looked after asking.
Isak nodded right away, his lips curving up in a shy smile. “I would love to,” he replied softly. “I just have to change out of this costume first— it’s fu- really itchy.”
“Aw, I think it’s charming though,” Even retorted, nudging Isak’s shoulder with his own as they started walking side by side. Anja skipped along on Even’s other side, clutching his hand in her own.
“The ears are pretty cute, too,” Even added.
Isak laughed. “You know they’re not real, right?”
Even grinned and nodded. “Of course, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep them on,” he replied. He leaned in closer so he could whisper into Isak’s ear. “They’re kind of turning me on right now.”
A choked noise escaped Isak’s mouth. He gaped at Even and smacked his arm. “Oh my god, you did not just say that,” he yelped.
“What? I’m serious— I’d let you jingle my bells in that outfit any day,” Even responded, sending Isak a cheeky wink.
“What happened to keeping things PG around Anja?” Isak challenged, his cheeks pink as he raised an eyebrow at Even.
“Mm, I just can’t help myself,” Even shrugged. “I guess Santa will just have to put me on the naughty list this year.”