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Isak is maybe, possibly freaking out. Just a little bit. Not actual, full on anxiety that makes him feel like his heart is beating as fast as a hummingbird’s, but. He’s getting there.
Even had said it so naturally too, just what do you say we drop by tomorrow?, and he had actually looked kind of nervous, to his credit, but more about Isak’s answer than actually having him meet his fucking parents.
And of course it’s easy for Even, Isak has never once seen him uncomfortable in a social situation. Even when they were standing in the tram, stealing little glances at each other and smiling nervously, Isak too fucking shy around Even to say anything, Even had managed to smooth his way through it, awesome conversation, though. So it’s understandable he’s not nervous about hanging out with three people he loves. But Isak, he can’t even have lunch with his own parents without feeling incredibly uncomfortable, let alone his boyfriend’s. What would he even say? Hello, Mr and Mrs Næsheim, I sucked your son off in the shower the other day, congrats on the genes!
Isak knows that he’s good with people. He’s charming, he’s been told. He’s charmed enough girls to know he’s not completely socially inept, and he has friends, so he’s likeable enough, he guesses. He did get Even after all, and he’s like. the nicest.
He could even go as far as to say he’s good with parents. Jonas’ mom adores him. It’s actually become sort of a joke between them, Jonas would grumpily say my mom loves you more than she loves me, and she’d reply that’s nonsense, Jonas, I love both my sons exactly the same. Granted, Isak had been younger when he met her, and way cuter, he was pretty sure. Also he wasn’t banging her son, or ruined her son’s long-term relationship with his girlfriend (yet. yikes).
So that brings Isak to this moment, lying awake on his bed, Even fast asleep beside him. He had stayed over so they could both go to his house together the next day It’s so late Even, it’s useless that you go back now if I have to go there tomorrow anyway, I don’t even know how to get there, I’ve only been there once and various bullshit excuses of the sort. Isak just missed him (which, it had only been like, one day, get a grip).
He can’t stop thinking about what Even’s parents must think of him. Obviously, Even had talked to them about Isak, so they had to have created some sort of image of him in their mind. They don’t know him, so the only things they know about him are that he broke Sonja and Even up, Even had an episode while being with him, and then he held Even hostage in his house while he was depressed. Fuck.
Isak finally realizes (after psyching himself out for an hour, maybe longer) that he’s really psyching himself out, he had been told that his own head was his worst enemy (whatever that meant, Noora was weird sometimes), and honestly thinking about Even’s parents is decidedly not helping him sleep, or feel any better about meeting them the next day, so he resolves he has to stop. Obviously, it’s much easier said than done but he does eventually manage to fall asleep, cuddling into Even and trying to synchronize his breathing to his boyfriend’s.
He wakes up the next morning with breakfast in bed, courtesy of Even, which is probably delicious, but Isak can’t really stomach anything right now. He’s all smiles and good morning and kisses all over Isak’s face and he wishes he could enjoy all of it, because he doesn’t know if there’s anything he loves doing more that spending time with Even, but, alas, it just helps him decide he really, really doesn’t deserve him.
Even takes a shower first, and he invites Isak to join, but he’s trying to relax right now, and Even’s wet, naked body is exactly the opposite of relaxing, so. he declines.
Isak makes use of the time Even is in the bathroom and decides to text his friends. They had helped him text even once, so they could probably at least help him calm down in this situation, right? Right.
Trying to convey his panic in a text, he sends,
I’m meeting Even’s parents help
He waits. He usually gets immediate responses from the boys, since they apparently have no lives (he loves them, he really does), but he figures that Magnus is off doing whatever the hell it is he’s doing with Vilde, and Jonas is probably still sleeping since he’s just a generally messy human being. His friends are really useless. Around five minutes later though, he gets a response from Mahdi. The only friend I can trust.
lol don’t tell them u fucked their son ;p
Okay, so Mahdi is useless as well.
Isak sets his phone aside with a huff and lies down on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He knows he’s being dramatic and there’s really no need to be so scared, Even’s parents have to be nice people, they did raise Even after all. Also, the way their son feels about him should be important to them, right? And Even really likes him. Even loves him. Maybe it’s not that bad.
When Even comes into the room, drops the towel that was previously tied around his waist, leaving him completely naked, and shoots Isak an easy smile before starting to change, Isak flees the room as fast as he can. He was just starting to calm down, and the sight wasn’t exactly helping, so. He doesn’t need that, thank you very much.
His shower is mostly normal, he’s distracted enough with washing himself not to think about where they’re about to go. He does put on a possibly unhealthy amount of deodorant, but he figured going to meet your boyfriend’s parents all sweaty was probably Not Good, so.
He feels his anxiety rise again when he’s finally in his room and he has no idea what to wear. He takes a look at his boyfriend, lying on Isak’s bed with both his hands behind his head, the definition of chill (usually Isak would stare for a while, sometimes he thinks about how Even’s personality seems to actually radiate from him through his looks, but right now he’s in the middle of a mental breakdown. maybe tomorrow). He’s wearing the same clothes he wore to the party the night before, just a t-shirt and a hoodie so, decidedly nothing fancy, and he looks good enough for lunch with parents. But he’s Even. Isak is pretty sure he could put on a garbage bag and still look like a runway model. Not everyone can look effortlessly beautiful in any outfit they want, okay.
“What should I wear?” Isak asks, casually. It’s a normal question, no big deal, just wants to hear his boyfriend’s opinion on what he looks good in. No one losing their mind here.
“I don’t know, just wear something normal” Even shrugs. Isak’s boyfriend is an idiot.
“Normal?” Even raises his eyebrows in question “Normal how? Like button-up normal? Or normal like something I’d wear to school? You can’t just say normal, Even, that could be anything” Isak huffs, flailing his arms in the air. Even does his stupid eyebrow raise again, more pronounced this time. Isak really doesn’t like him.
“Normal like something you’d wear to school” Even decides to be helpful “It’s just lunch at my place, it’s not like we’re going somewhere fancy or anything” Isak nods to himself, and starts pulling clothes out of his closet. Why does he own the exact same hoodie in so many different colors again?
As he’s trying to find something in his closet that doesn’t make him look homeless, Isak hears Even chuckle softly behind him. When he turns around, he sees him standing up and walking to him, with a big smile on his face (Isak is having a hard time understanding exactly what is so amusing in this situation, but his boyfriend’s weird, he knows this). He stops right in front of Isak, gently holding his face between both of his hands, and once again raises his stupid fucking eyebrows.
“Are you nervous?” Even asks, caressing Isak’s cheeks with his thumbs.
wow. Isak makes an indignant sound, as if he could not be more offended, you think I care about my hair? I’m a bad liar? “I am obviously not nervous; I just wanted to know what you thought I should wear. Is that a crime?”
Even chuckles again and, like, honestly can he stop doing that? “Okay,” he concedes “You’re right, you’re obviously not nervous, because you have nothing to be nervous about” he says it looking right into Isak’s eyes, solving both his nerves and the embarrassment of being nervous in the first place. Isak just looks back for a few seconds, unable to stop the little smile that’s forming on his face. Even is really a wonderful boyfriend, even if he does have stupid eyebrows.
They kiss. Soft, with no tongue (maybe some tongue, Even is warm and he feels nice and Isak is in love okay, leave him alone), Isak’s hands holding Even’s wrists and Even’s own still holding Isak’s face with such care, as if he was holding something precious.
Isak feels drunk when they break apart, like he usually does right after kissing Even, but he does manage to whisper a soft “takk” into the space between their mouths, making Even peck him again, on the mouth and then on his nose and both his eyelids.
They manage to leave the house at around noon, having to fight against their urge to make out as well as against Isak’s roommates, who are way too invested in his life, in his opinion. Both Eskild and Noora are in the kitchen, chatting (Isak hears something about Tinder and Eskild saying something along the lines of “stress relieving dick” and just stops listening all together).
“Good morning, sleepy!” Eskild cheerfully greets Isak when he sees them walk into the kitchen. He then seems to notice they’re all bundled up, clearly ready to go outside, and asks “Oh, going somewhere?”
Isak rolls his eyes. Of course they’re going somewhere, he’s wearing a fucking scarf. Even, obviously way more patient than him answers “yeah, we’re going to my place, my mom said that she wanted to meet Isak” which, wow, is way too much unnecessary information, if you were to ask Isak (which Even obviously didn’t deem necessary). Isak is proven right by Eskild and Noora’s expressions of surprise and glee. Jesus, and he thought he was a drama queen.
“Isak! Huge step!” Noora exclaims while Eskild says something that Isak can’t quite catch but is pretty sure is something about him not telling his guru of this major milestone in his first gay relationship (okay, maybe Isak did hear him, he’s just not in a mood to deal with Eskild’s dramatics). He looks so offended, too, like he was actually expecting Isak to go to his bedroom in the middle of the night just to inform him he’d be meeting Even’s parents. He’s sort of got this idea in his mind that him and Isak are Gay Best Friends now (GBF. tm), and Isak is a little embarrassed to admit he’s not completely opposed to the idea, just. Maybe not right this moment.
Finally, Isak decides that deeming them with an answer is not actually worth it, so he just rolls his eyes and takes Even’s hand, walking out of the apartment with him. He hears Noora yell “don’t make a fool of yourself!” right before they close the door, which is not really helping, so. Yeah, shut up Noora.
“That was rude” Even chides, but he’s smiling so wide when Isak turns to look at him that he doesn’t take it even a bit seriously, just pecks his lips one more time and continues walking to the tram stop.
The walk there and the wait until the tram gets there is relatively silent. Or, more accurately, Isak is silent. Even is going on about some film festival or something that’s happening in Oslo because of the holidays that he’s really excited about, and Isak wishes he could pay attention to what he’s saying, he really does, because Even is probably the smartest, most interesting person he knows, and he loves hearing him talk about the things he’s passionate about, but. His nerves are sort of keeping him from being able to hold a proper conversation, and he’s pretty sure Even knows this, is why he’s rambling and not really asking Isak any questions, just letting his soothing voice calm Isak down little by little. Isak really appreciates him, he probably deserves a blowjob in the near future.
Once they get on the tram, though, Isak’s mind starts going a thousand miles a minute again. At this point Isak consciously knows that he’s being ridiculous, and completely overreacting, but if he could control his own anxiety he probably would not have like 80% of the problems that he currently has, so.
“I am nervous” Isak cuts Even off in the middle of a sentence, “I lied before. I lied, I’m nervous” it takes a lot of strength to look Even in the eyes, but he does and they’re so blue and pretty and Even looks actually endeared.
“Baby…”
“I know, I know, I shouldn’t be nervous, it’s just your parents, I know” Isak rambles “Can you just- can you just tell me something about them? Anything, so I know what to talk about? Or what not to talk about? I don’t even know their names, Even” he pleads. He knows, logically, that knowing their names will probably not make him feel any better, but he needs to hear something, anything, to at least pretend he has some kind of grip on the situation. Even indulges him, because he’s the best boyfriend in the world. Maybe he deserves two blowjobs, Isak will have to think about it.
“All right, okay, calm down” he puts his arm around Isak’s waist, and it would usually probably make Isak uncomfortable – they are standing in the middle of the tram after all, there are people all around them – but in this moment it feels so soothing he couldn’t care less if the Pope was watching them “so, my mom, Lisbeth, is a doctor,” he begins, rubbing Isak’s back with the arms he’s holding him with “she taught me how to cook, and she loves sports. She’s like, hyperactive, almost, can’t sit still for more than fifteen minutes, she’s always doing something” Isak smiles and thinks about the countless hours they’ve spent lying in bed watching movies.
“Okay, so you got your love for films from your dad, then” Isak can feel himself starting to calm down, Even’s soothing voice and soothing hand and all around soothing presence making his nerves slowly die down.
“Actually, my other mom, Therese is the one who loves film. She teaches at the art academy in Oslo, actually, she’s a musician, taught me how to play guitar,” Even smiles fondly.
Isak blinks.
“What?” he asks. He knows it’s a stupid question, there’s nothing about what Even said that he could ask this to but. What.
“What?” Even shoots back, shrugging.
“What did you say?”
“She teaches at the art academy?” Isak is honestly. About to strangle his fucking boyfriend.
“No, Even, not that she teaches at the fucking art academy! What the fuck?” Even is looking at him like he’s crazy which is Not Acceptable because he’s not the one who’s acting absolutely insane in this situation “Your other mom? You have two moms?”
“Yeah,” he shrugs, as if it was no big deal “Did I not tell you?” and Isak is. Fucking fuming.
“No, Even, you didn’t fucking tell me that you had two fucking moms, what the fuck” Even just keeps looking at him as if he’s gone insane.
“Do you have a problem with it?” he asks and like, is he a fucking idiot? Did Isak really dating someone this dense?
“No, of course I don’t have a fucking problem with it!” Isak is slightly aware that he’s swearing way too much, and he’s probably talking too loud, and there are little kids on the tram but, he honestly thinks he’s excused because what the fuck “But you decided to withhold this piece of incredibly important information? Until we were five minutes away from meeting them?”
“I don’t know what the big deal is. It doesn’t make a difference if it’s two women or a man and a woman or just a woman or whatever” Even’s tone of voice tells Isak that what he’s saying probably makes sense. He’s still too shocked to process it, but, he’ll trust his Even-senses. “I’m sorry I didn’t mention it before? I didn’t really think about it”
“You didn’t think about it?” Isak knows he’s in the verge of being rude, but Even is making no fucking sense “How do you not think about something like that!?”
“Are you thinking about the fact that you have a mom and a dad all the time?” and that makes Isak pause because. Well, Even’s got him there. Having two moms is obviously what’s normal for him, so he doesn’t really see it as something strange, or something he has to clear up.
So he releases a big breath. Then inhales again, counting the seconds, and blows it all out. It’s okay, freak out over. He can do this.
“You said,” he starts. A pause in the middle of a sentence to take a breath and blow it out again. He can do this, he’s fine “When you invited me you told me your mom said she wanted to meet me. Your mom. Like, singular”
“Yeah, because my mom Lisbeth was working when I went home, so I talked to Therese and she said she wanted to meet you” Even explains. And okay, maybe now Isak can see how he was overreacting.
In his defense, he still does believe that the fact that Even has two moms could have been brought up pretty much at any time during their time together, and it’s obviously important to Isak. But, Even has a point, he’s not thinking about that all the time. Isak really needs to stop being a dick and realizing this two seconds after he’s done it.
“Right. Sorry” Even smiles and kisses the crown of Isak’s head – which, now that his freak out is over, he realizes that there are lots of people who are sort of staring at them, so. Not ideal.
“No problem. I’m sorry I forgot to tell you” Even smiles so easily and it’s just - that’s such an Eventhing to do. Isak just almost had a complete mental breakdown in the middle of the tram and the second it’s over Even’s back to smiling at him and looking all loving and now he’s back to talking about his fucking movies and Isak just – loves him so much. Feels nothing but love for this boy who holds so many wonders, who never stops surprising him for better or for worse, who loves him back.
He’s pretty much back to normal (his normal amount of anxiety, which is nowhere near zero) when they get to their stop.
“Maybe I did tell you, and you just forgot”
“I’m going to murder you”