Chapter Text
THE ICE CREAM SHOP
It’s not like Jonas is intentionally keeping this thing with Mikael a secret. It’s just that sometimes, it feels like too much -- too much to sort out his feelings and how things changed between the two of them and explain it to someone, and so recently he finds himself lying a lot more. Before he knows it, it’s been weeks and his friends still don’t know that he’s with Mikael. Again, it’s not like he’s trying -- it’s just how it happens.
“Man, where the fuck have you been?” Magnus says as Jonas flops down at the table outside the ice cream place.
Images of Mikael holding his hand and telling him stupid facts about bees flash in his head. “I was, uh, at McDonald’s,” he lies.
Isak’s already ordered him his favorite ice cream and passes it over, and Jonas starts to eat it while the boys fall into a comfortable pattern of teasing him. It’s vanilla on his tongue, and he breathes into it.
“Alone?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah, sure,” Mahdi says sarcastically. “You were probably fucking that Emma girl or something.”
The boys all lapse into a teasing chorus. Jonas ignores the way his stomach drops.
“If I was in the middle of fucking someone, do you think I’d leave to come meet you losers?” he taunts back.
“Yeah, if there was ice cream involved.” Isak smirks at him.
“Oh, holy shit!” Magnus yells, slapping the palms of his hands down on the table to gain their attention. “That reminds me of this dream I had - no, fucking listen to me, okay. So I was in my bedroom, but not, like, my bedroom, but it felt like it, and I look over and this weird old-looking book is there, so I reach out to touch it, but when I do, it just melts , like ice.”
None of them quite know what to say. “Wow,” Mahdi says finally. “I honestly thought it was going to be something sexual.”
“Yeah, I was getting fucked by some guy during it.” He says it so nonchalantly, taking another bite of his ice cream, and if Jonas thought they were sitting in a stunned silence before, it’s nothing compared to now.
“You’d think you would have mentioned that,” Mahdi points out.
“I did? Just now?”
“No, but the first time you told it.”
“But that wasn’t the point of the dream. The point was that the book melted.”
Isak groans at their bickering, placing his head down on the table and twisting so that he can look to Jonas for help.
“Please,” he mumbles, muffled by his arm, “don’t make me picture Magnus having sex.”
“Oh, fuck you! You probably love picturing me having sex,” Magnus says. He looks terribly pleased with himself. Isak just looks dead inside.
“I literally do not,” he answers tiredly.
“Yes, you do,” Magnus insists. “I’m hot as fuck.” He turns to Mahdi for backup. “Mahdi, I’m hot, right?”
Mahdi considers him thoughtfully, scanning him up and down, and then shrugs. “You could be if you tried a little more.”
“If I - what the fuck?” Magnus asks, offended with his entire body turned towards Mahdi. “Look, Isak’s hair looks like shit! Jonas isn’t even wearing his own shirt!”
And fuck if he isn’t right, because Jonas and Mikael had been eating kebabs and then gotten into a shoving match and sauce somehow got smeared all over Jonas’s white shirt, and they were close enough to Mik’s that they could just run in and grab something for Jonas to change into, and then Mikael walked him to the street one over from the ice cream place and kissed him goodbye and he’d forgotten about it, but now all the boys are turning around and staring at him, and, yeah, so he’s wearing Mikael’s shirt, and he’s trying to think of some way out of this but the truth is that he’s not a good liar and he doesn’t want to lie, so he just --
“Yeah, it’s Mikael’s.”
Three pairs of blinking eyes look at him.
“I thought you hated him?” Mahdi says.
“No,” Isak answers for him. “They’re friends. Remember that pregame at Adam’s?”
Mahdi shakes his head with a laugh. “Bro, I remember, like, nothing about that night.”
“I don’t hate him,” Jonas confirms. It’s strange to him that so much has changed since the time he hated Mikael, and that his closest friends don’t know, haven’t known through this whole thing.
“So… why are you wearing his shirt?” Magnus asks. He tilts his head like a puppy.
“Because we were hanging out and I got food on mine, so he just gave me one of his.”
“Okay, and you just wear it now?” Mahdi’s scraping around the last of his bowl with a spoon.
Jonas shakes his head. “No, it was on the way here.”
“But…” Isak scrunches up his eyebrows. “You were at McDonald’s before? Alone?”
Fuck. He’d forgotten he told them that. This whole lying thing is getting too complicated. Jonas is smart, but he gets lost in his own head and he can’t keep track of all the things he’s told the boys.
“Yeah? I went there after Mikael left.” The answer seems to satisfy them, and Isak and Mahdi go back to taking turns making fun of Magnus, leaving Jonas to wonder why he keeps lying. Wonder what exactly it is he’s so afraid of.
ISAK AND EVEN’S
The first time that Jonas actually talks about his feelings for Mikael it’s with Isak, because of course it is. It’s always Isak.
They’re stretched out on Isak and Even’s bed, smoking joints and listening to music in a comfortable silence.
“So,” Isak says quietly at some point during the afternoon, “Mikael.”
Jonas’s heart thuds hard in his chest, blood rushing up into his ears. “What about Mikael?”
“The last time I saw you look at someone like that was Eva,” Isak explains. Jonas thinks he can see a sad smile on Isak’s face. “You can tell me anything, you know.”
And Jonas could blame it on the weed, blame it on the fact that this has been building up too long, blame it on the fact that he’d stayed up late last night talking to Mikael about if they wanted to tell anyone, but it’s the first time he doesn’t lie. He lets the words float out of his mouth with the smoke.
“I’ve been seeing Mikael.”
The weed in his system makes it hard to discern how much time passes before Isak’s head flops down beside his own.
“He’s good for you,” Isak tells him, easy and slow, like it’s natural.
“You’re not mad?” Jonas asks. He twists his head to the side and Isak’s looking up at the ceiling, mouth slightly parted.
Isak blinks slowly. “Why would I be mad?”
There’s a thousand reasons that rest like a dead weight on Jonas’s chest. He picks the one that seems to weigh the most and says, “Because he hurt Even.”
Isak frowns and starts to pull himself up out of the bed. “They’ve made up, though,” he explains, eyebrows knit together. “And it’s not your responsibility to take care of Even; he’s a grown ass man.”
“But it’s my responsibility to take care of you.” He’s not quite sure if he actually says those words out loud and Isak doesn’t give him any clues, just lets himself fall back down beside Jonas and sighs.
“Are you going to tell the boys?” Isak asks.
Jonas hasn’t really thought that far ahead. “I guess,” he answers eventually. “Mik wants to tell Even himself.”
“Do you want me there where you tell them?” Isak says, and Jonas turns to look at him, because in what world would he not want Isak there?
“Yes,” he says firmly, “yeah, definitely.”
Isak smiles and inhales. “Cool.”
“Cool.”
There’s another silence spreading like smoke between them, and then Isak snorts in laughter.
“You do realize,” he says, “that this means our boyfriends are best friends and they’re probably going to gang up on us and shit.”
“Nah,” Jonas smirks, “we’ll gang up on them.”
It hasn’t been much longer when Isak shoots up, struck by an idea. “You asshole ,” he says. Jonas jumps a bit.
“Huh?”
“I can’t believe I had a crush on you for a whole fucking year and thought you were straight the entire time,” Isak complains.
He’s quiet for a moment because Isak said it casually, but there’s a tense set to his shoulders and Jonas knows that this is still a big deal for him, here with his best friend who’s dating a boy in the apartment he shares with his boyfriend and it’s still a big deal, will always be a big deal, and Jonas has to handle this with gloves on his hands and love in his touch.
“Honestly,” he jokes, “who hasn’t had a crush on me at this point?”
It’s the right thing to say - just the right amount of teasing and softness to bring a lopsided smile to Isak’s face.
“You’re not cool,” he tells Jonas, flopping back down beside him.
They chill there for a while, just until the weed’s starting to wear off and the playlist loops the same songs back, and that’s when they get up to get food and Jonas texts Mikael.
Jonas: Hey I told Isak about us
Mikael: omg
Mikael: howd it go
Jonas: Really chill but maybe that was all the weed
Mikael: i’ll tell ev? if thats ok
Jonas: Yeah of course
Jonas: I told my best friend so it’s only fair that you tell yours
Mikael: cool
Mikael: <3
Jonas: Let me know how it goes
Isak flicks the back of his head with a surprisingly sharp fingernail.
“Are you texting Mikael?” he asks with that shit-eating grin that Jonas sees in his fucking nightmares.
“Yeah, actually. He’s going to talk to Even.” Jonas glances back down at his phone and waits for a response.
“They’re working a shift together now, right?” Isak asks, throwing himself back onto the bed and turning on the TV.
Jonas mumbles his agreement. “What about you?” he asks Isak gently. “How’s your mom?”
And Isak’s silent for a moment, just staring blankly at the loading screen, his face hardening in a way that’s all too familiar to Jonas, but then he sighs, softens, glances down at his hands.
“Not too good,” he answers quietly. “I went home a few days ago.”
By now, Jonas knows not to push him too far, so he just hums, prompting Isak to go on.
“Even came with me,” Isak continues, still looking at his lap, “which was good, but, like, just having him there doesn’t make everything suddenly better . I don’t know.”
Jonas moves carefully over to sit next to Isak, tucking his legs up. “Let me know if I can help,” he says, because it’s a miracle that Isak’s even talking about this right now and Jonas’s heart swells when Isak meets his eyes with a weak smile.
“I’ll let you know,” he promises. The two of them settle into the quiet once again, resting into each other and starting up a game of FIFA.
Mikael: even says and i quote
Mikael: “oh really thats great miK PLEASE HELP ME BEFORE I BURN MY HANDS OFF”
Mikael: this was during the middle of our shift
Jonas: So not the worst reaction
Mikael: yeah!!
Mikael: and his hands are intact!!
Jonas: Always a plus!!
Isak hits him in the chest with his knuckles and Jonas squeaks in offense. “So,” he says, “Even texted me a bunch of emojis that I think mean they talked.”
“Emojis?”
“He’s a cryptic texter,” Isak shrugs. “Boys kissing, boys kissing, pride flag, coffee cup.”
Jonas considers it for a second before nodding and saying, “That’s not too cryptic.”
“Could be worse,” Isak says, and he tosses Jonas an apple. “Oh, you know who’s gay?”
“You?”
“Yeah, but also Elias. Sana’s brother.” Isak grins.
Jonas bites into the apple with a satisfying crunch and raises his eyebrows.
“He’s dating Eskild now,” Isak informs him, and Jonas almost chokes.
“Oh my God,” he says. “I totally see them together. But, like, how ?”
“Elias got wasted and they brought him to the kollektiv? So naturally, Eskild started flirting with him, but then apparently they’ve been hanging out and Eskild actually likes him beyond, like, his face, which is new for Eskild. So he asked him out. Or something like that.”
Jonas keeps chewing. “But, like, how did Eskild know he was into guys?”
“I don’t know,” Isak says, shrugging. “How’d you know Mikael was?”
“He told me.”
“Yeah, well, Even talked about sucking dick during our first conversation, so I’m betting Elias was somewhere between those two,” Isak says. He quirks his lips up and glances over at Jonas.
Jonas snorts with laughter, takes another bite of his apple, and looks at his best friend. He takes a moment to just think, to look at Isak and reflect on how he’s changed, how this is the first time in years that he’s seen Isak look this comfortable in a place. They’ve both grown up rapidly in this past year. It’s a combination, Jonas thinks, of falling in and out of love, of cramming their brains with shit from school, of drinking and smoking and teasing and crying and watching shitty videos and that’s it. It’s their lives in essence, condensed in this one year, and there’s a part of Jonas that thinks he can use it to see the future.
Well, maybe he isn’t entirely sober yet.
JONAS’S
Magnus: Jonas
Magnus: Bro
Magnus: BRONAS
Isak: Why are you like this
Jonas: What
Magnus: What are you doing right now
Jonas: Chilling at home
Magnus: Alone?
Jonas: Yeah
Jonas: Why
“Okay,” Mikael announces from beside the TV, looking a little too delighted. “Are you ready?” He throws himself onto the couch beside Jonas, landing half on Jonas’s stomach and half on the cushion, and Jonas’s arm wraps around him naturally. He tosses his phone onto the table beside them and smiles down at Mikael.
“Why do I need to be ready? It’s just a movie,” Jonas teases lightly.
Mikael pinches Jonas’s stomach. “Sharknado is not just a movie ,” he says. “It’s the fucking Mona Lisa of film.”
“Your taste in movies frightens me,” Jonas informs him. He can feel Mikael frown dramatically against the side of his chest, his temple pressed up against Jonas’s shoulder.
“Don’t be pretentious.”
Jonas makes it a solid fifteen minutes into the movie before he says, “What the actual fuck is this?”
“You’re interrupting the art,” Mikael says, but he tilts his head up, brushing his lips against Jonas teasingly.
“There’s no plot,” Jonas argues softly, kissing Mikael again. “The acting is terrible.” He kisses him a little more heavily, one thumb brushing along the curve of Mikael’s ear. “Don’t get me started on the special effects.”
Mikael moves up to meet Jonas’s lips, gentle, with the weight of his tongue behind it, and he pulls back just enough so that Jonas can still feel his lips as he says, “Not everything has to make sense .” He pushes Jonas onto his back on the couch and they fall into what is possibly the softest makeout session of Jonas’s entire life, hands gently running through hair and all lips, slow, like they have all the time in the world, and Jonas is so caught up in it that he doesn’t notice at first. Honestly, he blames Mikael’s stupid fucking lips.
“Hi, Mikael,” Isak says weakly.
Mikael and Jonas both shoot up on the couch at the sound of his voice, still half tangled up in each other.
It’s not how Jonas pictured coming out to the boys, like, at all. He’d imagined that it’d be similar to when Isak came out, just him saying that he likes Mikael, and maybe Magnus would crack a few jokes and Mahdi would make fun of Mags and Isak would offer the best moral support he could ask for, and that’d be it. He definitely didn’t picture Isak, pale and grimacing, holding a case of beer in his left hand, Magnus behind him open-mouthed and Mahdi with his eyebrows raised up to the heavens. He didn’t picture that there’d be screaming and sharks falling from the sky still on the screen behind them. He didn’t picture, really, that Mikael would be there at all , much less that he’d be halfway on top of Jonas with his tongue lightly tracing the inside of Jonas’s mouth when the boys found out.
“Hey,” Mikael squeaks.
Isak narrows his eyes at Jonas and juts his chin out, and Jonas stays silent and blank for a second.
“Fuck,” he hears himself say suddenly. “This is not how I wanted you to find out.”
There’s a quiet moment, all of them just staring. Magnus and Mahdi are both looking to Isak for guidance.
“Mik,” Jonas whispers, “please get the fuck off of me .”
Mikael seems to realize then that they’re still pressed together, and he blushes enough that it’s completely visible, squirming to sit up and elbowing Jonas’s ribs in the process.
Magnus is the first one out of the boys to talk, of course.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” he says, but he’s not angry, he’s got the biggest smile on his face and he pushes back his hair with two hands. “This is happening again ? You’re ditching us for weeks and acting all shady and we think you’re fucking Emma and then it turns out that you’re hooking up with some cool older guy from Bakka -- oh, holy fuck, how did I not see this coming? Eskild told me that gay people always find each other. That’s how he met Isak, you know.”
“That’s… not how we met but okay,” Isak mumbles.
Magnus flops down next to Mikael. “Relax, Jonas. I’m not going to ask who’s the man and who’s the woman again. I’m better than that now.” He pauses, considers them carefully, and then leans in to ask, “Who’s the Isak and who’s the Even?”
“We’re definitely not answering that,” Jonas says firmly.
“We,” Mahdi repeats. “You’re a we?”
“Isak, why aren’t you flipping shit?” Magnus asks, whipping his head around. “Oh -- fuck me with a pair of scissors. You already knew?”
Isak winces. “Uh, yeah.”
“Mahdi?” Magnus whines. “Did you know?”
“No,” Jonas jumps in. “Just Isak. And I only told him a few days ago.”
“Even knows, too,” Mikael says quietly, his blush now faded. “Plus the boys.”
Magnus groans, putting his head in his hands. “Mahdi and I are always the last to know.”
“To be fair,” Jonas says, “I’m telling Eva soon. None of the girls know.”
Magnus nods. “That makes me feel, like, a little better.”
“I’m so glad,” Isak says dryly. Jonas shoots him a look -- a don’t-fuck-with-Magnus-this-is-serious look, and Isak shuts up.
“Are you guys, uh, staying?” Jonas asks awkwardly.
Magnus starts nodding in the same instant that Mahdi says, “Nah, we’ll head out,” and glares at Magnus.
“Actually,” Mikael says, “I’m going to head home. My mom needs help with dinner.”
“Okay, bye,” Jonas tells him quietly. Mikael glances over at him and there’s question that hangs heavy between them. Do they kiss goodbye? It’s what they usually do, but there’s Magnus on one side of them and Isak and Mahdi across the room, but Jonas feels a little lighter without the pressure of lying to his best friends, so he loops his arm behind Mikael’s head and kisses him softly, just once, feeling Mikael try to contain his smile.
“Bye.”
Mikael leaves with his fingers just barely tugging at the back of the Jonas’s collar as he walks to the front door, and Jonas watches him leave, watches how he always leans a little to the left from that time he broke his leg when he was twelve, watches how gentle he is when he turns the doorknob, and Jonas thinks that he could watch Mikael just exist forever.
As soon as Mikael’s gone, Isak, Mahdi, and Magnus all burst into laughter.
“Jesus Christ, bro,” Mahdi groans through his giggles.
Jonas looks at all of them doubled over, confused, and asks, “What?”
“You are,” Magnus gasps, “so fucking whipped for him.”
MCDONALD’S
Eva’s first reaction to Jonas telling her that he’s dating a boy is to grab a french fry off of his plate and chew slowly.
“You’re not surprised,” Jonas notes.
She shrugs. “I’m bisexual. I have a girlfriend. My best friend’s a lesbian. Your best friend is gay. His boyfriend is pansexual. Honestly, I’m more surprised when someone’s straight.”
“I mean… that’s reasonable.”
She smiles brightly at him, and there’s something nostalgic about it, something that makes him think of autumn leaves and campfires and all the mistakes he made, and he feels safe in the knowledge that it’s all worked out.
“So,” Eva says, leaning forward conspiratorially, “tell me about him.”
“He’s…” Jonas huffs out a laugh. “He’s amazing.”
Her smile becomes softer and she asks, “Are you falling in love with him yet?”
Jonas has to stop at that question. Love’s a word that he thinks about rarely. He knows he likes him, knows that when he’s around Mikael he feels safer, comfortable, settled in his body and in his life. He knows that he would sit through a fucking Sharknado marathon for Mikael. He knows that Mikael just fits in his life like nobody else ever has. And there’s his answer.
“I think so,” he says gently.
Eva smiles with her teeth and grabs his hand, linking their fingers together with familiarity. “I’m so fucking happy for you, Jonas,” she says.
He nods back at her and squeezes her hand. “I’m happy for you, too.”
“Oh, my God!” Eva exclaims suddenly. She pulls her hands away from Jonas and brings them up to her cheeks, eyes bright and wide and glowing. “Are you going to keep up the Instagram tradition?”
“The… what?” Jonas looks at her blankly.
“Isak came out to everyone by posting a picture of him and Even,” Eva says, counting on her fingers. “Vilde came out on Insta by posting a picture of her at pride. And Noora and I came out to everyone on Insta with a picture of the two of us.”
Jonas blinks. He hadn’t ever really considered coming out to people at school, people he doesn’t really care about or ever really even think about, but now that Eva mentions it, he realizes that it is kind of a thing.
“Oh,” he says eventually. “I mean, if Mikael’s okay with it, then I guess.”
“Mikael?” Eva almost yells. “Oh, fuck, he’s cute.”
Jonas grins. “Yeah,” he admits. “He is.”
Jonas: Would you be okay if I posted a picture of you on my Instagram
Mikael: awww you wanna go public
Jonas: Don’t make this a big deal
Mikael: yes but only if it means we’re officially boyfriends
Jonas: Are we not already
Mikael: just saying!
Mikael: also send me a screenshot when ur done so i can see it
Jonas: Fine
Mikael: thx boyfriend ;-)
Eva keeps eating his fries while he scrolls through the filters. The picture itself is easy enough to decide on -- his favorite picture he’s taken of Mikael. It’s in his bedroom, late afternoon, Mikael shirtless on his side with sunlight and sheets just touching gently on his skin, glowing in the light and his middle finger stuck up at Jonas to cover his face. It’s cute as fuck and makes him smile with his whole soul. He decides that it doesn’t need any adjustments, and he just adds the caption.
Not friends.
JONAS’S
Eskild: You’re all invited to the first official GAY GATHERING!!!!!!!
Isak: Eskild no
Even: Eskild YES
Eskild: Baby gay you haven’t even heard what it is yet :((((
Isak: Only a few of the people in here are even gay
Eskild: Fine
Eskild: Since Isak is being a little bitch, you’re all invited to the first official MLM MEETING!!!!!!!!!!!
Isak: That makes it sound like a club
Eskild: ………… anyways, it’s tomorrow night at 19 so clear your schedules.
Eskild: I will provide an apartment, Elias will pick a movie, Jonas is in charge of music, and Mikael and Even will cook
Eskild: Please RSVP
Isak: Wtf what will I do
Eskild: You just sit on the counter and look pretty
Isak: Fuck you
Even: We’ll be there, Eskild <3
Isak: Fuck you too
Jonas: Sounds chill we’ll be there
Mikael: elias if you pick a shit movie then jonas and i WILL leave
Jonas: You made me watch Sharknado
Mikael: IT’S NOT A SHIT MOVIE
Mikael: omg we never finished it
Mikael: im omw do you want me to bring popcorn
Jonas: Yeah
Elias: Don’t make plans in the group message
Eskild: Hello my dear when are you going to be here
Elias: I’m playing basketball with Sana for a bit but I’ll be over soon
Mikael: lmao hypocrite
Isak: DON’T MAKE PLANS IN THE GROUP MESSAGE
Even: Baby
Even: I forgot my key
Isak: DON’T CALL ME BABY IN THE GROUP MESSAGE
Even: BABY LET ME IN
Jonas: BABY
Eskild: BABY
Mikael: BABY
Elias: BABY
Isak: No head for a week
Isak: Fuck
Isak: That was only supposed to be for Even
Isak: I hate you all
THE KOLLEKTIV
Jonas knocks on the door of the kollektiv with Mikael’s arm slung around his shoulder, the two of them armed with a bag of vegetables and a killer Spotify playlist.
The door flies open before he gets the chance to knock for the third time. “Jonas! Mikael!” Eskild says dramatically, sweeping his arm inside to greet them. “Come in, come in. Elias is here, but Isak and Even are late. Predictably.”
“I’ll wait until Ev gets here to start cooking,” Mikael says with a grin at Eskild.
“Yeah, oh, my God, that’s fine.” Eskild leads them into the apartment, chattering on about how excited he is that they’re here.
Elias is sitting on the couch watching some cartoon. He smiles fondly when Eskild approaches him, pausing in his rambling just barely long enough to press a kiss into Elias’s lips before he flutters over to the kitchen to get them all drinks.
“Hey,” Mikael says, landing beside Elias on the couch and pulling Jonas down with him. “What movie are we watching later?”
“Something with lots of explosions.”
Mikael grins. “Oh, fuck yes.”
“Did you guys finish Sharknado?” Elias asks, leaning forward on his knees so he can address Jonas around Mikael.
Jonas huffs out a laugh as Mikael says, “No, because someone kept complaining. ”
They hear Isak’s voice before they see him. “It is not my fucking fault we’re late,” he says, bursting through the door. “ You are the one who had to fix your fucking hair like three separate times, and then forgot some random ingredient, or whatever.”
“Eskild,” Even calls, the both of them walking into the living room, Isak’s arms crossed over his chest and Even following, looking amused, “back me up. Hair is important.”
“My favorite son!” Eskild comes bustling out of the kitchen with his arms open wide. Jonas is expecting him to hug Isak, but he bypasses Isak entirely and wraps Even up tightly. He turns to Isak after a long while of rocking Even back and forth. “And my other son, my baby Jesus.”
“If you hug me right now, I swear to God,” Isak threatens. He lets Eskild hug him anyways.
Even glances over at all of them squashed onto the couch with a warm smile on his face. “This is cozy,” he comments.
“We should start cooking,” Mikael says. He taps his fingers on Jonas’s thigh. “Can we listen to your playlist?”
Jonas pulls it up, plugs it into the speakers and hits play before joining Isak, Even, and Mikael in the kitchen. The music’s shit that they’re all into, lots of Run DMC and NWA and Nas and Isak and Jonas sit perched on the counter rapping verses back at one another while their boyfriends cook.
“Jonas,” Mikael calls from the stove, reaching out his arm, “come taste this and tell us what it’s missing.”
Jonas swings his legs off the counter and pushes himself off so he can get over to where Mikael’s cooking.
“Fuck, that’s good,” he says, wiping the pasta sauce off of his chin, and Mikael laughs. “More salt, though.”
He’d forgotten that he’d snuck Mikael’s favorite guilty pleasure song onto the playlist, but when it comes on, Mikael freezes, eyes widening and Jonas laughs.
“It’s your song!” Even says, nudging Mikael with his shoulder.
If Jonas had to pick his favorite moment from the entire night, it’d be this one -- Mikael singing No Scrubs into a wooden spoon in the middle of Eskild’s kitchen, pulling Jonas in to dance sloppily, Even singing the backing vocals and Isak looking like he’s about to slam his fucking head in the cabinet door.
Getting dinner actually ready to eat and on the table takes a lot longer than they all expect because Even and Mikael get into a heated debate about the merits of adding garnishes to the dishes, and Isak and Jonas start sparring with forks until Isak draws blood and Eskild yells at them, and Elias can’t finish setting the table because Eskild keeps grabbing him to dance along with the music. It’s a mess, but eventually they all pile huge portions of food on their plates and start eating.
JONAS’S
He’s running late on his way home from the skatepark and he would blame Mahdi for challenging him except he know’s it’s his fault, so he just shoots off a text to Mikael to apologize and let him know that he’ll be home soon.
When he finally does walk into his living room, it’s a surreal experience.
Mikael is sitting cross-legged on the floor with Thea, holding a bottle of nail polish up to the light and frowning at it.
“I feel like this isn’t deep enough, you know?” he says, and Thea nods like she does, in fact, know. She rifles through a box, tiny bottles clattering against each other, and eventually pulls out a dark wine red and offers it to Mikael.
“More like this?” she asks. Jonas watches from the doorway as Mikael takes it excitedly.
“Oh, perfect,” he exclaims. He holds out his left hand and starts to paint his nails.
Thea cranes her neck to look at his handiwork, and says, “God, you’re so good at that. I always get mine all over the skin.”
Mikael just hums in response without looking up from his hands. “You want me to do them for you? That blue from earlier would look so fucking good.”
“Hey, Jonas,” Thea says casually, noticing him standing in the doorway.
“What do you think?” Mikael waggles his fingers at Jonas.
He walks over and feels a little like he’s breaking a bubble when he steps next to Mikael, but he runs his hand through Mikael’s hair gently anyways, just because he can’t bear not to. Mikael leans his head against the side of Jonas’s leg.
“It looks good. Are you coming to my room?”
Mikael shakes his head. “Not yet. I’m gonna paint Thea’s nails.”
It’s a little weird, actually, how incredibly natural it feels. Jonas is just sitting and scrolling through his phone and he can hear Mikael’s voice talking low, low enough that he can’t make out the words but can just feel the rhythm, and then Thea laughs. That’s a sound he hasn’t heard in a long time.
Eventually, Mikael comes back to his room and flops down on the bed on his stomach. “I love your sister,” he announces.
“You do?”
“Yeah,” Mikael says. He flips over on his back and stares up at the ceiling with his arms crossed behind his head. “She’s chill. And she has good taste in nail polish.”
His moms get home at some point, takeout bags rustling and calling out greetings into the house. Jonas is sitting up in his bed watching a movie and Mikael’s stretched out beside him, reading one of Jonas’s old essays on the outdated and oppressive nature of the police force.
Mamma calls him for dinner and he and Mikael emerge with their hands tangled together and Jonas is smiling, face turned towards Mikael.
“Did you two finally get together?” His mom says it so casually that he doesn’t even really recognize the question at first, just blinks at her. Mikael squeezes his hand, obviously waiting for Jonas to answer, but his smile is an answer all in itself.
PENETRATOR CHRIS’S
If you told Jonas Noah Vasquez a year ago that he’d be standing in Penetrator Chris’s house with his boyfriend, he would have just stared at you blankly and taken another hit, but here he is, and Mikael’s hand is pressed against the small of his back as they make their way through the crowd.
“Whose fucking house is this?” Mikael yells from behind him.
“Penetrator Chris,” Jonas shouts back, and Mikael snorts in his ear.
They’re pushing their way through bodies and arms and drinks and skin, because that’s all there is at these things. Jonas hasn’t seen anyone he knows yet - it’s one of those rare times that almost everyone arrives separately instead of fashionably late and causing a commotion.
Jonas is nothing if not a good guest. So, when he sees Chris, standing and laughing with some guys he’s smoked with before, or bought from before, he goes over to say hi.
“Chris,” he says as Chris pulls him into a one-armed hug.
“My man.” Chris steps into his shoulder for a second, claps him on the back and nods to Mikael. “Who’s this?”
He looks at Mikael appraisingly, up and down, his gaze almost predatory , and Jonas steps back towards Mikael. As much as he’s chill with Chris, the guy’s a dick.
Jonas grabs Mikael’s hand. “My boyfriend.”
“He’s cute,” Chris smirks. “Do you have any good shit for me?”
“I’m just here to stay hi, so talk to Mahdi if you want something.” The trick to dealing with Chris, he’s learned, is to be polite and curt, smiling, but still putting a bit of steel into his handshakes. It’s worked so far.
Mikael’s shoulder brushes against Jonas’s.
“Alright, well, I’ll see you around, man,” Chris says. He starts nodding his head to the beat, his gaze slipping back over to his friends, and then he suddenly snaps back to Jonas. “Hey, let me know if you see Eva, yeah?”
Jonas is already walking away when he turns his head back to tell Chris to fuck off, that Eva’s got a girlfriend and she can do better than him anyways, but Chris is already distracted by something across the room, so he just tightens his hand around Mikael’s and leads him deeper into the party.
“You’re a dealer?” Mikael asks in his ear, gently, just curious breath brushing against his earlobe.
“Nah,” Jonas says. He tilts his head back towards Mikael’s. “Or, well, just casually. Like if Mahdi has something that he needs to move I’ll take it, or if someone I know needs me to.” He shrugs.
“That’s hot.”
Jonas barks out a short laugh, turning to look at Mikael in the crowded hallway that they’ve found themselves in. “What?”
“Criminal activity is hot,” Mikael says. He leans into Jonas -- tentative, like he’s not sure he’s allowed to in this situation. Jonas closes the distance and kisses him.
“Jonas!”
He pulls away from Mikael, trying not to get distracted by the way that Mikael’s eyes are still closed, lashes dark and dusting on his cheek. Eva’s standing with one arm around Noora’s waist and the other reaching out to Jonas.
“Hi, Eva,” he says, unable to resist the smile that comes across his face when he sees her. Mikael’s fingertips brush along the back of his neck as he pulls his hands away and Eva hops towards Jonas to hug him, warm and tipsy.
“Hi, oh, my God, you look great. And Mikael! Hi!” She lets go of Jonas and flings her arms around Mikael’s neck. “You guys are amazing together and I love you both. Well, Jonas a little more, but just because I know him better. I’m sure I love you just as much.” Her hand presses flat against Mikael’s cheek for a second until Noora pulls her away.
“Hi, Jonas, Mikael. We’re going to go get some water now,” she says, pointedly, looking at Eva.
Eva lets herself be pulled away by her girlfriend, calling, “Okay! Bye! Love you! Isak’s over in the big room!”
Mikael blinks, obviously still recovering from the whirlwind that is Eva Mohn.
“I kind of love her,” he says, his voice hushed in awe. Jonas just laughs. He can’t help but lean into Mikael’s chest a little, can’t help but look at him and watch him break into a smile, and he grins back. They stand there, staring at each other, before Mikael speaks again. “We should go find everyone else.”
They make their way back to the main entrance of the house, and Jonas thinks he can hear Chris Berg’s voice above the crowd, singing along to whatever shitty pop song is playing. He shoots a nod in Sana’s direction, and then another in the general area of some more guys that he barely knows outside of drug shit. Mikael lets go of his hand suddenly and leaps dramatically into Adam’s arms, and then everyone’s there, like the party is theirs , all their friends grabbing each other and yelling and cheering and bouncing around.
Being at a party as a couple is weird. Jonas has done it before, sat back in the shadows with a girl on his lips, which is nice, but this is almost nicer, with all their friends around them. He sits back on a couch with his arm around Mikael and watches.
He and Mikael are different from the rest of the couples around them. They’re not as energetic as Elias and Eskild, who are the center of attention, glitter and drinks tipped back and laughing into each other’s ears as they dance around. They’re not as dramatic as Isak and Even - Jonas literally witnessed Even bound across the room earlier to kiss Isak just because of the time , for fuck’s sake. They’re not as cute as Noora and Eva, the two of them dancing with arms around each other’s necks and Noora’s head thrown back in red-ringed laughter as Eva giggles in her ear. But they’re them. They’re Jonas and Mikael. They’re comfortable.
And later that night, when they make it back to Jonas’s and crash in his bed, Mikael landing with his head on Jonas’s shoulder and both of them fully clothed, Mikael whispers his name.
“Yeah?”
There’s silence, the rising and falling of their chests matching up in the stillness of his bedroom.
“I’m falling in love with you,” Mikael says softly. There’s no nerves in his voice, just certainty, the muscles on his face rustling Jonas’s t-shirt.
And that moment, right there, is the first time that Jonas knows it for sure. He’s felt it, with Ingrid and Eva and with his moms and Thea and Isak and the skatepark and it’s different every single time, but this is the first time with Mikael , and that makes all the difference in the world.
It’s the first time that he knows he’s in love with Mikael.
HEI BRISKEBY
The video starts off like it always does, or, at least, like it has since Yousef went to to Turkey and Even fell back into the group’s embrace. Mikael, Adam, Elias, Even, and Mutta are all sitting on the couch in the Bakkoush’s living room, squeezing in tightly and leaning on each other.
“Hi everyone!” Elias says cheerfully, leaning towards the camera. “Today we’re going to be doing the boyfriend tag.”
There’s a quick cut, thanks to Jonas and Mikael’s joint editing skills, to a zoomed in shot of Mikael wiggling his eyebrows at the person behind the camera, and then the Hei Briskeby title screen title screen takes over for a few seconds.
“So,” Elias starts. He wraps his arms around the boys beside him, one draped over Even’s shoulders and the other over Adam’s. “Mutta and Adam are both sadly single and are here for amusement purposes, but the rest of us brought our boyfriends. Boyfriends, introduce yourselves for the camera.”
The camera turns to Eskild, who’s perched on the edge of a chair facing the couch.
He looks a little taken aback, but it’s all an act, and he bats his eyelashes. “Oh, me? Hi, I’m Eskild, I’m Elias’s boyfriend and I’m amazing. We’ve been together for like two months now, I think.”
“Really?” Elias asks, offscreen.
“Yeah,” Eskild says. He looks at Elias and there’s something in his face that immediately becomes more genuine, no longer putting on a front for the camera, and he softens. “We got together right after Pride, and it’s almost the end of August now. So two months.”
Elias’s voice drifts in again from behind the camera’s lens. “That’s so cute.”
“Okay, shut up,” Even says. There’s a slapping noise, but the source can’t be seen - presumably, it’s Even hitting Elias’s arm off his shoulder. “Mine now.”
The camera pans over to Isak, settling in on where he’s sitting on the ground and leaning up against Eskild’s legs, wearing the same shirt that Even wore the first time he was in a Hei Briskeby video.
Isak waves awkwardly, avoiding eye contact with the camera. “Uh, I’m Isak,” he mumbles, “and I’m Even’s boyfriend, I guess.”
Even snorts. “You guess ?”
“Fuck off,” Isak complains, letting a smile sneak through on his lips. “We don’t usually use the word boyfriend.”
“That’s Isak, he’s the man of my life and I’m incredibly in love with him,” Even says matter-of-factly, his voice strong and Isak narrows his eyes at him.
Mutta’s voice rises from offscreen, teasing, “Oh, look, he’s blushing!” The rest of the boys all burst into laughter and here they’ve placed a zoomed in clip of Isak rolling his eyes, looped over the teasing voices from behind the camera.
“You’re all terrible people,” Isak says crankily. He finally turns his head to face the camera fully. “Jonas, give me the camera so I can film you.”
The camera shifts and then cuts to shows Jonas, leaning comfortably in a chair behind a tripod that’s now empty.
“I’m Jonas,” he says plainly. “I’m Mikael’s boyfriend.”
Eskild makes a noise of displeasure from offscreen. “Uh, hello , you have to say more than that. Tell a fun fact about yourself.”
“The fuck?” Jonas raises one hand in an obvious question. “I don’t know any fun facts.”
The camera wobbles in Isak’s inexperienced hands and then zooms in on Jonas’s eyebrows, and he speaks in a different voice, deep, like he’s narrating a nature show or something. “Jonas likes weed, skateboarding, and Mikael. He hates capitalism and wool socks.”
“I mean, yeah, that’s accurate,” Jonas says, smiling back at Isak.
The video cuts to zoom of Elias’s hands clapping in instruction.
“Okay, focus!” he says, camera solidly focused back on the boys on the couch. “We’re starting. Jonas, come sit here. Mikael, pick.”
Everyone else moves off the couch and crowds together on the floor, facing the couch and leaving room for Jonas to come sit next to Mikael. Jonas crosses his legs and sits sideways so he can look at Mikael, and Mikael reaches his hand into a bowl and pulls out a piece of paper.
“Oh, this is good,” he says, grinning down at the piece of paper in his hand. He flicks his eyes up to Jonas. “What does your family think of me?”
“They like you better than me,” Jonas answers without hesitation.
Adam coughs dramatically. “Sounds fake.”
“I swear,” Jonas laughs, “my moms will not shut up about him. They’re always like, oh, how’s Mikael doing, when’s he coming for dinner, are you seeing Mikael today. And my sister loves him. She pretends like she doesn’t but they literally hang out without me sometimes.”
Isak’s voice is muffled from his place behind the camera. “That’s fucking embarrassing,” he says.
“It’s true, though,” Mikael smirks. “I’m everyone’s favorite now.”
There’s a little portion of time that’s cut out, so that it’s just Jonas reading from his own piece of paper. “Oh, shit.”
He spins around quickly, facing away from Mikael, looking a little beyond the camera where Isak is sitting.
“Okay,” Jonas says. “Now that you can’t see, what’s my eye color?”
Mikael answers confidently and without hesitation. “Blue.”
“Nope,” Jonas says, smiling proudly.
“What?” Mikael shrieks dramatically. He pops up onto his knees and tries to lean over to look into Jonas’s eyes, but Jonas wiggles away, laughing.
“They’re green, oh my God.”
Mikael wraps both arms around him, wrestling Jonas into the couch. “No, they’re not!”
“Hold on,” Elias says, standing, and the boys all gather around to look at Jonas’s eyes as Mikael pulls him up from the couch.
“Isak,” Even calls, “bring the camera over here so we can show everyone.”
The video cuts again, this time to Jonas’s eye, zoomed in, Mikael’s thumb and pointer finger pulling open his eyelid so that the iris is completely visible.
“They’re blue,” Mikael insists.
Isak zooms out to show everyone standing, crowded in front of Jonas. Mikael has both hands on Jonas’s face.
“Green,” Elias says, nodding like he has the final word.
“No,” Eskild says slowly, tilting his head to get a better angle. “I really think they’re blue.”
Mutta hums in disagreement and then says uncertainly, “I feel like they’re kind of gray?”
“Gray isn’t an option,” Adam points out.
“Okay,” Isak says, interrupting whatever’s about to come out of Mikael’s open mouth. “I’ve known Jonas for ten fucking years. His eyes are green.”
“Thank you,” Jonas nods.
“No, but, like, it isn’t just green or blue,” Even says. He bites at his lip in concentration, staring at Jonas’s face. “There’s an infinite amount of colors between that, so his eyes are both. Or neither.”
Mikael takes his eyes off of Jonas to turn a judgemental gaze onto Even. “What… the fuck does that mean?”
“Don’t ask him,” Isak mumbles.
“Whatever,” Elias announces. “It’s our turn now.”
Elias pulls Eskild over so that the two of them can sit on the couch, Jonas and Mikael taking their spots on the floor as everyone else sits down. Mikael and Jonas are sitting close enough that their shoulders overlap. They’re both wearing black t-shirts and through the screen, it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.
“Okay,” Eskild says, pursing his lips and reading off of a piece of paper. “Oh my God. Don’t answer this honestly, holy shit, okay.”
“Is it the annoying one?” Elias asks. He nudges Eskild’s leg with his knee.
“Yes,” Eskild pouts, folding up the piece of paper. “Be gentle.”
Elias grins. “Read it out, though, so everyone can hear.”
“What do you find annoying about me?” Eskild sighs out.
“Sometimes,” Elias begins, his hand reaching over to pat Eskild’s thigh comfortingly, “you drool when you sleep.”
There’s a moment where Eskild just stares at him blankly, and the boys are all silent on the floor, Adam tucking in his lips to keep from laughing, and then Eskild says, “I’m never sleeping again.”
“It’s cute, though!” Elias argues. “The only part that’s annoying is when it gets on my arm or something.”
Eskild shakes his head. “Yeah, no, I’m never sleeping again. Thanks.”
“Don’t be so dramatic. You’re still cute.” Elias’s fingers tap a few times on Eskild’s leg and he changes the subject by asking his own question. “Where was our first date?”
Eskild tilts his head, pretending to think. “Does the time you woke up hungover on my couch and I hit on you count?”
“Literally no.”
“Fine,” Eskild says. “We met up and went to the park and drank wine and had a picnic.”
Mikael’s voice drifts up from his place on the floor. “Goals.”
Jonas pulls away from Mikael to look at him, furrowing his eyebrows. “Shitty wine in a park is your goal? Fuck, I’ve wasted so much money, then.”
“You’re so rude,” Mikael frowns.
“Moving on.” Elias says as he pushes Eskild off the couch and they fall onto the floor, tangled up in each other. “It’s time for the soulmates to go.”
On the floor, Elias is halfway on Eskild and halfway on Mutta, and Even and Isak stand to take their place on the couch.
“We’re so good at shit like this,” Even says happily, tucking his feet under Isak’s legs. “I literally know everything about Isak.”
Isak just blinks at him, entirely unimpressed. “You forgot my last name once.”
“In my defense,” Even yells over the sound of everyone laughing, “In my defense I was really high and we’re basically married. Isak Bech Næsheim has a nice ring to it.”
“Fucking disgusting,” Isak tells him, but there’s no malice behind it.
Even just smiles and then says, “Okay, here’s my question for you. Do we have any inside jokes?”
“Kardemomme!” Isak answers immediately, and Even leans towards him in laughter, eyes almost all the way closed.
The screen is suddenly full of Mutta, confused with his mouth parted and his eyes narrowed, mouthing kardemomme . When the video returns to show the entire group, Mutta’s in the corner resting his head in his hands.
Isak’s laughter trickles down until he can speak again, and he says, “We probably have too many inside jokes.”
“Are you kidding me?” Mikael scoffs. “Your conversations are like your own language.”
Even narrows his eyes at Mikael. “We’re not that bad.”
Mikael and Jonas both open their mouths at the exact same time as they say, “Yes, you are.”
“Okay,” Even says, staring at the two of them. “ That was pretty bad.”
Mikael laughs and lets his head drop onto Jonas’s shoulder. “Synchronized roasting is my new relationship goal,” he announces.
“Anyways,” Isak says, rolling his eyes away from Mikael and Jonas. “This one says 'Do I have any nicknames?'”
Even grins. “Easy. I call you baby. And Jonas calls you Issy sometimes.”
“There’s another one,” Isak says, narrowing his eyes.
“No.”
“Yes.”
Even shakes his head desperately, widening his eyes. “Nobody fucking calls you that! It doesn’t count!”
“Say it,” Isak says, raising his voice over Even. “Say it or we won’t win this game.”
“Just so everyone knows,” Even sighs after a pause, “I don’t approve of this and he made it up himself.”
“Fuck you, just say it,” Isak says. They all wait, the boys on the floor glancing around in apprehension.
“Fine,” Even says slowly. He closes his eyes like he’s preparing himself to say it. “I Double Dollar Sign.”
There’s a moment of shocked silence, and then the room erupts into howling laughter, everybody falling over each other and voices overlapping.
Eskild yells, “I’m disowning you,” shaking his head as Adam falls back flat on the floor.
“It’s my rapper name!” Isak says.
Shaking with laughter, Jonas speaks over Isak trying to defend the name, asking, “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Dude….” Elias says slowly, “I love you, but that’s awful.”
“I Double Dollar Sign,” Isak says stubbornly.
Even leans back into the couch cushions and groans. “If you make me call you that during sex,” he warns, “we’re breaking up.”
“I Double Dollar Sign!” Isak howls, getting in the last word right before there’s another cut, this time to show the entire group facing the camera.
Elias is in the center of the couch, Eskild standing behind the back of the couch, doubled over with his arms wrapped around Elias’s neck and his head pressed against Elias’s cheek. On the left, Mikael is beside Elias with his arm thrown around Jonas’s shoulders. Jonas has his arm around Mikael’s waist. The other side of Elias, the right side of the couch, Adam and Mutta are wedged against each other, Mutta clapping his hands rhythmically and Adam dancing along to the beat he’s making. Even’s on the floor between Mikael and Elias’s legs, Isak in his lap.
“So,” Elias says, looking at the camera, “we learned a lot today. Uh, nobody knows what color Jonas’s eyes are.”
“They’re green,” Jonas mumbles, at the exact same time that Mikael says, “Blue.”
“Eskild is super dramatic,” Elias continues.
“I’ll take that,” Eskild announces to everyone. “Loving yourself is key.”
Elias throws his hand to the side and hits Adam in the chest with his fingertips as he says, “Mutta and Adam are lonely and boring.”
Adam pushes Elias off. “I’m not lonely or boring, thanks.”
“And Isak,” Elias finishes, “has a terrible, terrible rap name.”
Spinning around to glare at Elias, Isak scrunches up his nose and says, “I Double Dollar Sign is iconic.”
“So,” Elias says, clapping his hands together one last time, “I hope you enjoyed that. I know that we all did. Until next time!”