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Minho's shoulders finally relaxed when the all clear came through over the radio. He was on one of the uppermost floors making sure no-one was still occupying any of the rooms while the rest of Rescue Squad were scattered across several floors below him. It was ridiculous how many people, upon hearing a fire alarm, decided to stay put because they thought it a false alarm.
There were also people who couldn't make it out, for one reason or another, but he didn't hold it against them.
He only had one room left to check, and he knocked on the front door despite the all clear that had just been given. Just because the building was no longer actively on fire didn't mean that it was safe to remain in the building.
"Fire department, open up!" He called out as he pounded on the door. When there was no answer, he tried the door and found it unlocked. Thankfully, after a quick sweep of the apartment he found it empty.
"Minho, are you on your way out?" Chan's voice came over the radio.
"Coming down now, Captain," he responded. "I had one last room to check, but it's all clear up here."
“Copy that.”
Minho quickly made his way down the many staircases, vaulting the last one to avoid the full hose that was stretched across where Truck squad were making sure the fire was definitely out.
He landed heavily in front of one of the candidates, and delighted in the resulting scream, giggling happily as he ran out of the open door to join the rest of his team in making sure all their kit was back on the rig before they headed back to the station.
Luckily for Minho, most of it was done by the time he got there.
“Oh, NOW he shows up.” Hyunjin rolled his eyes as Minho appeared at his side and opened the side compartment on the rig so that Hyunjin could stash the two sawzalls he was lugging.
“You’re welcome.” Minho stuck his tongue out, snagging one and lifting it into the compartment just in time for Chan to round the rig and see him being useful.
“Hyunjin, when you’re done helping Minho with those, can you run back and grab the sledgehammer by the main entrance?” Chan asked him.
“Yes, Captain.” Hyunjin nodded, before turning to look at Minho with an incredulous expression. “You’re an ass.” He added, when there was no danger of Chan thinking he’d said it to him.
Minho merely blew a kiss at him before closing the compartment securely and heading round to get in the back of the rig with the others while Hyunjin ran back to grab the sledgehammer.
He was considering leaning forwards and trying to talk Changbin into heading off without him for a laugh - Hyunjin may have been promoted from candidate to proper team member, but he was still the newest guy until the next candidate joined - but unfortunately Chan chose that moment to climb into his driver’s side chair.
“Everything alright, Minho?” The Captain asked.
“Just reminding Changbin he’s on lunch duty today.” Minho quickly diverted. “And hoping it’ll be edible this time?”
Behind him, Hyunjin snorted a laugh while Changbin squawked, affronted.
“That was one time!”
“One time too many.” Minho made a face as he remembered the pan of inedible black crunchiness that Changbin had tried to claim was a lasagna.
“It did look like you’d rescued it from a fire.” Chan admitted from the front seat beside Changbin, making everyone but the rig driver snort.
“I hate you all.” He groused.
“No you don’t, you love us.” Minho stuck his tongue out.
“And not that any of you asked nicely, I’ve made tacos for lunch.”
“Made or bought?”
“Made!” Another squawk erupted from him, before he added, quieter; “I’ve been getting cooking lessons.”
“Oh really now?” Minho waggled his eyebrows. “Who from?”
“I’m not telling you.”
Luckily for Changbin, he was saved from any further teasing by the Truck rig getting out of their way and freeing them up to finally head back to HQ, meaning that Minho had to retreat to his assigned seat and buckle himself in.
“Hyunjin, I think you should be the guinea pig and make sure the food’s edible for the rest of us.” He said nonchalantly to the younger fire fighter beside him.
“Why me?”
“Because of seniority, that’s why.”
Hyunjin rolled his eyes, crossing his arms and deciding not to reply lest he be the next one drawn into a verbal match with Minho the Mouth. Not that anyone dared call him that to his face. Especially since they all knew he was going to be making lieutenant any day and would have the authority to dole out punishments.
As they pulled into the garage and started piling out of the rig, the friendly jostling and cajoling resumed right up until they turned the corner and came face to face with Battalion Chief Kim and a visitor.
Chan cleared his throat to get them all to stand properly, and Minho reluctantly let Seungmin out from the headlock he’d had him in after the lanky firefighter had barged past him to get out of the rig first.
“Good morning fire house 143.” Chief Kim greeted them, barely waiting for them to reply before continuing. “This is Lieutenant Park, and he’s got an announcement for you all, so listen up.”
Chief Kim gestured for Lieutenant Park to step forwards, and when he met Minho’s eye, the other man swallowed hard, like he was nervous. Minho narrowed his eyes, immediately assuming that he’d come bearing some kind of bad news.
“Hello everyone,” Park smiled, glancing down at the clipboard he was clinging tightly to as if he were reading off a script. “I’d like to say congratulations on being one of the select few firehouses being chosen to take part in an amazing event. We’ve been doing this for nearly thirty years now, and it always raises a lot of money for charity. Last year exceeded expectations, and we’re expecting this year to do even better.”
Minho couldn’t help but notice that the lieutenant hadn’t actually told them what this special charity event was yet, and he started to raise his hand to politely ask him, when Chief Kim caught his eye and shook his head.
“Please hold all questions until the end.” he told them pointedly.
“Thank you, Chief Kim. Now, you have been taken out of action for this afternoon so we can get this special project done. If you would like to clean up, and then report to firehouse 332 at two o’clock for further instruction.”
It was a clear dismissal, and as they filed past the Chief and Lieutenant into the fire house proper, Park handed Chan a flyer.
“Oh no.” Chan groaned, before passing it back to Changbin and quickly getting out of the way of the rest of them when they inevitably crowded around to have a look.
“What!?” Changbin squawked.
“No way. Absolutely not.” Seungmin complained over Changbin’s shoulder.
When Minho finally pushed through the throng, and saw the flyer he groaned audibly before adding; “I hope this isn’t one of those nude calendars.”
The others turned to look at him, eyes wide.
“It wouldn’t be a nude one, don’t even joke about it.”
“You never know.” Minho shrugged, laughing loudly as Changbin balled up the flyer and lobbed it at him. It bounced harmlessly off his back as he tried to run away from it.
Once they had all cleaned up and showered, they gathered around the large dining table to try the tacos Changbin had made them for lunch. He looked nervous as everyone appraised their plates, with Chan even going so far as to lift his plate, sniffing gingerly at the tacos before putting it back on the table and picking one up.
“Will you just try them already?” Changbin complained as he took his seat beside Hyunjin.
Catching Chan’s eye across the table, Minho snorted as their Captain raised his fist in a clear ‘rock paper scissors’ challenge to see which of them was going to step up and try the food first.
Minho raised his own fist in return and they counted one - two - three! by dipping their fists. Minho immediately threw out scissors, but Chan ended up being the triumphant one with rock.
“Best two out of three?” Minho tried.
“Nope.” Chan shook his head. “You know the rule.”
Minho cursed under his breath, though he really only had himself to blame. Ever since the great rock paper scissors championship death match of 2020, where chaos had broken out after someone (himself) had tried to invent new hand signs on the fly in order to win and the others had retaliated with equally weird and wacky ones of their own.
After Chief Kim had run in thinking they were under attack or on fire or something, anything other than the original three hand signs had been outlawed. Along with tournaments and championships of any kind. If you lose you lose, no take-backsies.
Minho scowled at Chan, who shot him a smug grin and gestured towards Minho’s plate. Changbin rolled his eyes at the dramatics of it all, but continued to watch Minho eagerly to see what he thought.
Picking up one of the tacos on his plate, Minho raised it to his mouth and took a huge bite to prove to everyone that he wasn’t the coward they were all assuming he was.
Honestly, it didn’t taste terrible, and there was something very familiar about the seasoning, so he chewed it slowly while he tried to figure out what it was before giving his review.
“It’s definitely edible.” Minho said, before glancing down the table. “But what I wanna know, is how long have you been fucking Seungmin?”
“HOW DID YOU KNOW?!” Seungmin demanded, and Changbin tried to deny it, which had Seungmin turning on him next.
“You’re an evil genius.” Hyunjin laughed beside Minho as he reached for a taco. “Oh hey, these are edible! Though they’re a little salty for my taste.”
“That’s how I knew Seungmin helped him.” Minho admitted. “He’s always heavy handed with the salt.”
“But how did you know they’d been hooking up?” Hyunjin asked.
“Lucky guess.” Minho shrugged. It definitely had nothing to do with the fact that he’d overheard Changbin in the shower with someone a few weeks ago and he’d been trying to narrow down who it was ever since.
“Asshole.” Seungmin grumbled.
“Well, why were you guys hiding it from us in the first place? It’s not like any of us mind.”
“We weren’t HIDING it, it’s called being private.” Seungmin scowled at him, “Not everything has to be broadcast to everyone all the time.”
Minho rolled his eyes at that, but Seungmin was saved from the shower incident being revealed by a reminder of the time and the afternoon assignment that awaited them. Minho banked the knowledge for later, sure that he’d be able to use it at some point.
“Is it too late to feign food poisoning?” Minho joked as he rose from his chair.
“Fraid so.” Chan laughed, clapping him on the shoulder as he passed. “Unless you think you could pull off a really convincing vomit on command right now?”
“I’m good, Chan, but I’m not that good.” Minho grimaced. “Maybe if I’d been drinking.”
“Then you’re stuck playing model with the rest of us.”
Minho made a face at him, before seeing where the others were and taking off towards Chan’s car so he could snag the front passenger seat and not have to squeeze in the back. Seungmin ended up in the centre seat in the rear of the car, and when he made eye contact with Minho in the rear view mirror, the older firefighter wagged his eyebrows at him. Seungmin scowled back and looked away, cheeks and the tips of his ears reddening.
As they pulled into the forecourt, it was obvious that it had been taken over by the calendar team. On one side, there was a large tent set up, and on the other side what appeared to be a wide, very shallow tray of water.
“Let’s get this over with, then.” Chan announced, opening his car door and stepping out. He paused to look back at the others and make sure they were actually following him and weren’t going to attempt to lock themselves in the car, before leading them inside to report for duty.
With one last look at the unfamiliar set up, Minho followed Chan out of the sun and into the firehouse. He hadn’t paid too much attention before when they’d told them which one they’d be heading to, but upon spotting the other firefighters present, Minho pursed his lips and let out a shrill wolf whistle that startled everyone present before dashing across the room, leaping into a man’s lap, and planting an overly loud kiss on his cheek.
“Hello to you too, Minho.” Seonghwa rolled his eyes, before looking over at Chan for help. “I believe this is yours.”
“It’s my monkey, but this isn’t my circus. Sorry.” Chan shrugged.
Unfortunately for Minho, Seonghwa took that to mean that he could get away with doing whatever he wanted in retaliation and soon found himself unceremoniously dumped on the floor as Seonghwa rose to his feet without warning.
“I have your Month assignments here.” Hongjoong announced as he entered the common area.
Wooyoung and Changbin were among the first to dash over and take the list out of his hands so they could see which months they’d gotten.
“And which month did you get?” Chan asked as he sidled over to the other Captain to check out the list.
“Oh, I’m not taking part.” Hongjoong replied, sounding way too happy about that.
“You lucky git. How’d you get out of it?” Chan raised an eyebrow, suspicious.
“Uhhh, an old injury playing up.” Hongjoong said quickly, eyes darting about to see if any of his squad had heard him.
Chan nodded, but clearly didn’t believe him even as he headed over to fight through the chaos and see which month he’d gotten. Yunho and Mingi were attempting to trade off their months, and when Seungmin started trying to trade March for October with Changbin, Chan quickly shot them down.
“You heard Captain Bang,” Hongjoong added. “No trading. You get what you’re given.”
“What a shame we can’t trade.” Minho grinned as he sidled up beside Chan. “You’d make a much better June than I will.”
“I’m only the month before you.” Chan laughed. “What good would swapping do? You would have been better off asking Seungmin.”
“That beanpole wouldn’t have swapped with me anyway.” Minho crossed his arms.
“Maybe you should stop calling him beanpole.” Chan suggested.
“I already stopped calling him Candidate.”
“Only because we gained Hyunjin. Who you also need to stop calling Candidate, by the way.”
“I’ll take it under advisement, Mr May.”
· ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
“Holy shit, did you see all those guys?!” Felix exclaimed loudly (and unprofessionally) as he ducked back into the tent. “They’re hot as fuck.”
“Imagine how hot they’re going to look when we’re actually doing the shoot!” Jisung groaned from where he sat tinkering with settings on his computer set up.
“We’re going to die.”
“You guys are so dramatic.” Jeongin sighed. “And could you try and keep it down? If they hear you, I’m never going to get hired for something like this again.”
Felix mimed zipping his mouth shut, but Jisung had never been quiet a day in his life and he wasn’t about to start now.
“How did you score this job, anyway?” He asked Jeongin.
“I know a man on the inside.”
“Oh my GOD. Yang Jeongin have you been fucking a firefighter and you didn’t tell us?”
“First of all, I’m going to find some duct tape for your mouth in a minute.” Jeongin pinched the bridge of his nose, exasperatedly. “And secondly, ew. No. I met one of the Captains here when I was out doing some street photography.”
“As you do.” Felix chuckled, sharing a look with Jisung. Something like that could only happen to Jeongin.
“I thought he was a fricking model or something, but when I asked him what he did to keep fit he told me he was a firefighter! I’m convinced he only got me to come here for this so he could prove it to me.”
“Which month is he?” Jisung asked.
“November.” Jeongin confirmed, after checking his list.
“Noted.”
Once they had gotten everything set up, there was nothing left to do but wait for the firefighters to come out and be ready for the shoot. The three of them stood around for a while, feeling a little awkward before Jeongin realised he should probably go inside and let them know the team was ready.
“Since they’re probably standing there waiting around the same as we are.” He laughed awkwardly.
His suspicion was immediately confirmed when a room full of hot firefighters turned to look at him as he entered. Jeongin didn’t know where to look, and could only pray that he wasn’t turning as bright red as his ears felt.
Why oh why hadn’t he sent Felix or Jisung inside to fetch them instead.
“We’re ready when you guys are!” He said as cheerfully as he could muster.
“Great.” The other Captain - Hongjoong, Jeongin thought his name was - smiled in thanks. “Do you want everyone or just a few?”
The idea of this whole room of people coming out to watch him taking photos of their squadmates made Jeongin’s insides feel like jelly, so he decided;
“Let’s just have January and February for now, please. But if everyone could be wearing their turn out trousers and boots when they come out to the tent, that would be great.”
“What about our jackets?” Someone asked.
“Most of you won’t be wearing jackets, but feel free to bring them just in case.”
“I told you it was gonna be a naked shoot.” Someone muttered, and Jeongin couldn’t help but look over at the firefighter. Instead of looking away, embarrassed, the man held his gaze, lip raising at the edge in silent challenge.
“It wasn’t going to be a naked calendar.” Jeongin refused to look away, praying his voice wouldn’t crack. “But if you wanna volunteer, I’m sure we could make an exception.” His retort made everyone in the room laugh, and the tips of the firefighter’s ears went bright red.
“Yeah, go on Minho!” One of the others shouted.
Minho squared his shoulders, and laughed. “You’re just jealous no-one wants to see your scrawny ass other than Changbin.”
“Hey!”
Jeongin snorted loudly, the noise catching Minho's attention before he could stop himself, and with red cheeks Jeongin fled back outside to the tent.
“Woah where's the fire?” Felix gasped as he narrowly avoided being mown down.
“In his cheeks by the look of it.” Jisung snarked.
Jeongin opened his mouth to reply, but before he could explain what had happened inside two of the firefighters stepped into the tent. Wooyoung and Yeosang were January and February respectively, and Jeongin passed them over to Felix while he went to look at the props.
Some of the props had been liberated from within the firehouse, with Seonghwa’s help, of course. But a few of them he’d already had in his relatively small arsenal of props. It was a collection he was slowly working on, and so he’d been happy to accept Felix’s offer when he told him he had some rope he could use.
Jeongin just didn’t want to know how or why it had come to be in his possession.
Some things were better left unsaid. Even between friends.
For the most part the shoots went really well, and Jeongin was happy with how the pictures were coming out, too. Aside from some mutual nervousness on both sides of the camera, it was turning out to be the most fun job that he’d ever been booked for.
The firefighters had not only been good sports about the range of props available, but they had even gone and fetched Jeongin even more items from within the firehouse that they thought might look good in pictures.
Yunho, a tall, handsome firefighter from 332 had brought out one of the fire hoses and (after enlisting the help of Mingi because it was heavier than it looked) they had managed to drape it over his shoulders perfectly.
Felix had then had the perfect idea of giving Yunho a wet look, which had narrowly avoided being turned into a water fight - Jeongin immediately backing away with his camera - but eventually they got the perfect shot with water dripping from Yunho’s hair and a mischievous glint in his eyes as he pointed the hose’s wide nozzle at the camera, hand gripping the valve nozzle as if he were about to soak the viewer.
He had almost forgotten what had happened with Minho earlier when the man himself appeared beside him as he finished up taking pictures of Yunho, Minho having wandered out behind Chan who’d come to get his make up done.
“Just so you know if you want to see me naked it's gonna cost you.” Minho raised his arm up to lean heavily on Jeongin’s shoulder.
“Is that so?” Jeongin asked, side-eying him without shoving him off just yet.
“Yuppp,” Minho smirked. “And I’m not a cheap date. I like to be wined and dined.”
“So then what are you doing after the shoot?” It was mid-afternoon right now, but by the time they had finished taking all the pictures it would definitely be time for dinner. He knew that his friends were probably going to want to debrief after this, but sure they’d forgive him ducking out on them if he had a date with one of the hot firefighters.
Minho’s eyes widened in surprise, clearly he hadn't been expecting Jeongin to be so forward. He made a show of stepping away and looking Jeongin up and down as if he were appraising him.
“Unfortunately for you,” he said eventually. “I'm going back to work and I won't be getting off until tomorrow morning. We work long shifts.”
“So you wouldn't mind if our first date was breakfast then?”
“I'm not sure breakfast counts as wining and dining.” Minho raised an eyebrow.
“No, but you can consider it the appetiser.”
“I suppose you’re hoping to get an entree and dessert as well, then?”
“Oh, absolutely.” Jeongin smirked.
A pointed cough from behind them had the two of them turning to look and they found Chan and Felix watching them intently.
“You guys done?” Felix asked, waggling his eyebrows at Jeongin like the gremlin he was. “Because this one’s ready for his close up.” He thumbed towards Chan.
“Yup!” Jeongin squeaked. “All done. You can take Minho.”
“Eager to get rid of me already?” Minho tsked, before sauntering off in Felix’s direction and leaving Jeongin to go and take pictures of Chan.
“Hate to see you go, but love to watch you leave.” Jeongin winked, before laughing as Minho added a little more swing to his hips.
“Never thought I’d see the day.” Chan mumbled, quickly shutting up when Jeongin turned his attention on him.
If they weren’t careful, they were quickly going to run out of daylight, and so Jeongin decided not to ask Chan what he’d meant and jumped straight into the shoot instead.
Chan, despite being pretty self deprecating, was actually really photogenic. And muscular. Felix had done an amazing job of highlighting all of his muscles, and Jeongin was glad that he had the excuse of being behind the camera to allow him to openly stare.
When he’d previously seen Chan, the man had been wearing a long sleeved, albeit muscle hugging, undershirt. Now that he was standing topless in front of Jeongin, he was surprised to see that his forearms were littered with tattoos.
“How are the photos looking, Jisung?” Jeongin left Chan where he was standing for a moment to move over to where the third member of the team sat in front of a bunch of screens.
“I definitely think you should take a few more.” Jisung replied, far too quickly.
“Why, what’s wrong with these ones?” Jeongin asked, reaching for the laptop trackpad to scroll through a couple. They all looked good to him, especially the last ones where they had asked Chan to pull up the braces on his turn out trousers.
The bright red straps looked great against the firefighter’s skin, and they contrasted well with the tattoos and the soot marks that Felix had artistically placed.
“I just think… we need a few more.” Jisung shifted in his seat.
“Oh.” Jeongin rolled his eyes and stepped away slightly, making a face at his friend. “You’re being a perve.”
“Have you SEEN him?” Jisung hissed, as if that justified it.
“Up close and personal, yes.” Jeongin waved the camera at him like ‘duh, obviously’.
“Good. So you’ll understand when I say you should get him to just edge his trousers down a tiny bit more at the front.”
“Jisung.”
“Trust me.”
“I’ll suggest it, but no promises.”
“This is why you’re my favourite.”
“You’re only saying that because Felix can’t hear you right now.” Jeongin scowled, stepping away from Jisung and his set up and heading back to Chan.
143’s Captain was a little reluctant when Jeongin first broached the idea of showing even more skin, but with some gentle encouragement, he was eventually persuaded to edge his turn out trousers down just enough to expose the v cut of his abs, and suggest to the viewer that something more was lurking just below the surface…
Annoyingly for Jeongin, Jisung’s suggestion actually paid off, and the pictures came out looking amazing. Especially if the gasp that came from Jisung was anything to go by.
“Alright, thanks Chan, you’re all done. That was perfect.” Jeongin beamed at him, receiving a shy, dimpled smile in return.
“Can I see?” He asked.
Jeongin nodded, and took half a step forward to take the camera to him and show Chan his pictures, but then he had a better idea. “Why don’t you head over to Jisung and he can show you some of them on a bigger screen?”
“Does that mean it’s time for my close up?” Minho asked as he sauntered back over.
“That depends on how much you like playing with fire?” Jeongin replied, having been thinking about which of the props he wanted to use with Minho since he’d first spotted him earlier on.
“If you’re a good boy, maybe you’ll find out.” He winked.
“That’s exactly what I thought you’d say.” Jeongin laughed, before leading Minho over to a shallow pool of water they had set up a safe distance from the tents and all the equipment.
“I was wondering what this kiddie pool was for.” Minho laughed.
Jeonging decided to ignore the kiddie pool comment in favour of going to fetch his handsome assistants for this particular prompt.
“I don’t need any help looking prettier, you know.” Minho joked when Jeongin returned with Hongjoong and Seonghwa.
“You better hope I don’t set you on fire.” Seonghwa glared at him.
Jeongin shared a look with Hongjoong before explaining to Minho why he’d fetched the two of them.
“I want you to try out what we call the ‘fire stomp’. Hongjoong is going to pour a bit of fuel into the ring in the base of the pool.”
Minho looked down as Jeongin explained, noticing the ring for the first time. He nodded, and looked over at Seonghwa.
“Seonghwa is going to light the fuel for us using this fire lighter.” Jeongin personally thought it looked more like a flame thrower, but they’d demonstrated it for him earlier and he was confident that they weren’t about to burn Minho to a crisp.
“And then that’s where you come in. You’re going to step forwards and stomp into the fire, and it’s going to look amazing!”
“Is there a fire blanket on standby, I’m pretty sure I’m about to get burned alive.”
“It’s perfectly safe.”
“You do it, then.”
“I asked and they wouldn’t let me have a go.” Jeongin pouted, before shooting Minho his best pleading, pathetic look.. “So indulge me. Please.”
“Fine.”
“Yay!” Jeongin scrambled back as everyone moved into position. “Right, when you’re ready Minho. If you could look directly at the camera as you stomp, hold it for a second and then step back out of the flames, that’d be perfect.”
They did the first couple of pictures with Minho wearing his braces on his shoulders, and once the firefighter got comfortable enough with the concept not to let his fear show on his face, he started to look really fierce.
There was a really great angular, feline quality to his face that Jeongin was low-key obsessed with. And not because he thought Minho was hot as sin.
“Okay, can you let down one of your braces?” Jeongin asked, snapping away taking pictures as Minho obliged him. He tried very hard not to get distracted by the way the braces looked on his muscular thighs and moved around to get some different angles before finally asking him to get rid of the second brace as well.
“Oh my god.” Jeongin murmured to himself as Minho let the second one fall, absolutely pulling Jeongin’s focus with it. He continued taking pictures until the sound of Felix screaming distracted him enough to turn around, almost dropping his camera in his urgency.
“Wha-” He started to ask what had happened, and instead found Felix basically sitting in one of the firefighter's laps. The make-up artist's hands were clutching his shoulders, and the firefighter’s large hands were securing Felix’s tiny waist.
“I’m okay!” Felix called out.
“I bet you are.” Jisung snorted.
“I tripped, but Hyunjin caught me.”
“Hyunjin, please unhand the pretty blond.” Minho snorted from beside Jeongin, which made the photographer jump because he hadn’t heard him approach.
As the two uncoupled, Minho turned his undivided and honestly kind of intimidating attention back on Jeongin. “Can I go and put my clothes back on now?”
“But I was so enjoying looking at you.” Jeongin teased.
Minho was already turning away to go back inside anyway, but he laughed and called back over his shoulder; “Take a picture, it’ll last longer.”
Never one to turn down a good opportunity, Jeongin raised his camera and snapped a few pictures of Minho’s retreating form. He’d definitely enjoy looking at those later.
“Delete those, and you’re dead to me.” He warned Jisung, before he could start mocking him as the pictures came through to the laptop screen.
“As long as you don’t ask about the copies I made of Chan’s, we’re even stevens.”
“Deal.”
“Deal.”
The rest of the shoot went smoothly after that, although there was some chaos when it was time to do the December photo, since they’d decided on doing a group shot. Apparently wrangling eleven firefighters was harder than wrangling eleven cats.
Jeongin knew first hand, because he had photographed for a cat calendar before. It had been for a local cat rescue, and one of the tiny terrors had decided that his leg looked like a kitten climbing wall and had spent most of the afternoon sneaking away from the pen they were being kept in and trying to summit Mount Jeongin before they were taken back inside.
That particular calendar had been so successful that all of the cats featured in it had been adopted within six months of it coming out. Jeongin had even been tempted to adopt his little climbing friend, but ultimately he had been too late and the cat had already gone to a new home.
He had very briefly considered taking home another cat, but common sense and doubt had reared its ugly head and he’d quickly talked himself out of it. It had probably been a good thing at the time, too, because he started getting booked for more photography work and ended up barely being home for a couple months.
In the end, it had taken Hongjoong, a whistle, and the threat of stair climbing to get the group of men to stop giggling and being idiots long enough for Jeongin to take some decent pictures of the group.
It didn’t help that they were funny enough that even he and his team were laughing along with them, but by the time it had gotten too dark to continue, Jeongin wasn’t sure they had gotten even one singular photograph where everyone looked good so he was definitely have to do some editing to get a good one.
Not that it was going to be a hardship to spend a lot of time looking at these particular photographs.
“Thank you, everyone. We’re done for the day, so you’re officially free to run away now.” Jeongin announced to them as he turned off his camera and carried back over to its bag where he knew it’d be safe while they packed down the rest of their set up.
“Thank you for putting up with this lot.” Seonghwa offered him an appreciative smile.
“It was nothing, really. I should be thanking you for the opportunity.” Jeongin laughed, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.
“Just remember me when you’re a big time photographer.” Seonghwa grinned at him. “We’ll go get changed and then come give you a hand dismantling all this.”
“Oh, no, you don’t have to.” Jeongin started to tell him that it wasn’t necessary, but Seonghwa wasn’t having any of it. And no sooner had his friend headed inside, some of the others - Minho, Chan, and Hyunjin - were already heading out to give the same offer of help.
Jeongin put them to work dismantling the tent while he helped Jisung pack away all of their tech. When the rest came out to help, they were sent to load everything into the back of their small van and before the hour had even finished, everything was done.
“We’d better be getting back to 143.” Chan announced once it was clear there was nothing more to be done.
The other members of house 143 drifted back towards Chan’s car, but Jeongin sidled up to Minho before he could get too far. At the time, he didn’t realise this would lose him brownie points when Hyunjin and Changbin realised that they were going to get a chance at riding shotgun, but were ultimately beaten out by Seungmin.
This lost Jeongin even more points.
“So, I’ll see you in the morning for breakfast?”
“Not if you’re going to be picking me up in that thing.” Minho looked over at the van where Jisung and Felix were crammed into the front passenger seats waiting for Jeongin.
“Don’t worry, I have something better in mind.”
“I should hope so. I get off work at 8.” Minho told him. “Don’t be late.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Jeongin replied before heading to the van and climbing into the driver’s seat. The three of them sat still and silent as the car full of firefighters pulled away.
“That was the best day ever.” Felix whispered as if they were going to be overheard.
“Did you get Hyunjin’s number?” Jisung whispered back.
“Yup. Did you get Chan’s?”
“Yup.”
The two of them turned simultaneously to look at Jeongin. It was pretty creepy, actually, and they reminded him of the twins in the shining.
“And you?” They asked, also simultaneously.
“I didn’t get Minho’s number.” He confessed, but before they could look too downtrodden, he continued; “But I am taking him out for breakfast tomorrow.”
“Let’s go back to your place, so we can plan what you’re going to wear.”
“I’m not going to wear one of your slutty outfit ideas to breakfast.”
“Jeongin, sometimes you are no fun at all.”
· ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
The next morning, as Minho headed out of the firehouse at the end of his shift, he slung his duffel bag over one shoulder and walked over to his car. The rest of his shift were finishing at the same time, too, and they each bid each other farewell until their next shift in a few days time.
There was a motorcycle parked by the side of the road, and the rider - a man in leathers - was leaning against it with one foot resting on the muffler, his knee at an angle. Minho ignored him at first, until he heard a shrill whistle and turned, ready to fight.
“Good morning.” The man said as he turned, and it was only at that point that he realised it was Jeongin.
Or at least some kind of sex-on-legs demon version of him.
“Damn.”
“Ready for breakfast?” Jeongin smiled.
“Absolutely famished.” Minho swallowed hard. “Let me just toss this in my car.”
He hurried over to his car, grateful for the brief reprieve of having to look at Jeongin in all that leather. He’d been planning on being coy and dragging this out, but if he was going to resort to playing wicked tricks like this, Minho was going to have his work cut out for him.
“Here.” Jeongin tossed him his spare helmet as Minho came back over to the motorbike to join him.
Minho gave it a reproachful look before reluctantly popping it on his head and clipping it beneath his chin, hoping he didn’t look too much like a dork.
Jeongin swung his leg over his bike and gestured for Minho to get on behind him. Once he had, Jeongin reached back to pull Minho’s hands to his waist to make sure he had a firm grip.
“Hold on tight, spidermonkey.” Jeongin told him, before bringing the bike to life.
“Oh god, you are such a dork.” Minho groaned, but it was far too late to get off the bike now that it was in motion.
He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t excited to see where this went with Jeongin, he just hoped that the sparks he felt led him in the right direction, and neither of them got scorched in the process.