Chapter Text
The sun had barely started peeking through his curtains before his phone started blaring at him. Jesper Fahey groaned, dragging his long lanky limbs over his eyes. It was a phone call.
What the fuck? At 5am? Whoever was calling him better be a close friend of his, otherwise he would throw his phone out of the nearby window. Jesper wiped his eyes with his pajama sleeves, before he blinked warily and looked over at his phone, almost blinded by the screen light.
‘Nina’. He groaned. And swiped.
“Why are you calling me at ass crack in the morning?” Jesper grumbled into the phone, squinting into the screen. “How are you even awake?”
“Jesper! Very important question. You know how I’m in that band?” Somehow she was very chipper for being awake so early, but it seemed like that was just Nina. She had energy for days, and somehow never spent it. Maybe she was a vampire, or just superhuman and never slept.
“Yes…? Neens, why is this important? Lemme sleep.” He groaned, blinking blearily at his crusty paint-peeling ceiling. He’d stayed up late again figuring out how to pay this month’s rent. Along the way, he’d ended up wallowing in his regrets, falling asleep with the taste of despair in his mouth. In truth, he didn’t really feel like talking to Nina. He felt like moping in bed for the whole day. But she had called, he had picked up, and now he felt he had to commit to the day. Never mind the fact that it was 5am and she was somehow talking at several miles an hour while rapid firing questions.
“You’re decent at sewing, yes?” Jesper paused. He didn’t really see how this was relevant, or important enough to justify waking him up 2 hours before his alarm.
“Again, why is this important, Nina.” Jesper frowned, mildly annoyed. He heard her take a deep breath before beginning her ramble.
“So The Crows, our band’s name, which you should know Jesper, because you haven’t come to any of our gigs yet and I’m fully holding you against that. What kind of friend doesn’t go to their bestie’s band gigs? Anyway, we had a performance last night and there was some guy in the audience, and turns out he works for a little mini theatre type thing- seats maybe 80-100 people in it and they’re looking for smaller artists to perform, as a part of a discovery thing they’re doing so that people can become fans of new artists and new artists can get some traction.” Nina took a deep breath before she squealed. Jesper flinched, holding the phone at arms length.
“Nina!” He scowled. It was too early in the morning for this.
“Sorry! Sorry! But they asked us to perform! And for multiple nights! We’ve got our first significant gig that’s not just us playing at bars! This is so big Jesper!” He could almost imagine her running and jumping around her apartment. He felt sorry for her neighbours. And her boyfriend, Matthias.
“How much caffeine have you had…? And why do you need to call me at 5 in the morning for this?” Sitting up, he accepted his fate of not being able to fall asleep again. And if Jesper knew Nina well enough, and he was sure that he did, she sounded like she could be vibrating from pure excitement. Though he still didn’t understand why exactly she was calling him.
“We need costumes, Jesper. You’re the only person I know who’s remotely good at sewing and has got a lot of free time.”
Okay, ouch.
Yes, it was true that he didn’t have a job anymore. It was a matter of urgency, as a matter of fact. That’s why he was waking up at 8, or was supposed to be anyway. Jesper had a job interview, but he couldn’t imagine it going well. Half of his reputation was ruined- both as a person and as an employee. He just simply wasn’t desirable anymore. All because he couldn’t keep himself sane and away from the tables or the bars.
His dumbass would simply drink and drink until the room started to spin and then he just had to find himself with the cards and the tokens and make all the bets he could until he was stripped of his career and hiding in his room until the month's rent expired and the landlord kicked him out. Jesper really couldn’t blame anyone but himself. It was his fault he was often too hungover to go to work or not presentable enough to even make it behind the counter before his manager sent him home because they thought he looked sick. He wan’t, he just looked like the teenage equivalent of a middle-aged man living in his mother’s basement who’s just gone through a heartbreak.
And now he figured that he had to pull himself by his bootstraps and get himself going again before he had to room with Nina and her insufferable PDA regarding her boyfriend- because he would be rooming with Matthias as well. He needed a job. He needed something that would pay well enough to get him out of his own debt. But he wasn’t going to get stuck in something that wouldn’t help his predicament and waste his time.
“Nina, why- What’s in it for me? Would I get paid? Who would even pay me? Do you have an agent or anyone like that?” Jesper huffed, tossing his phone onto the bed beside him.
“I get that I have time, but I also really really need a job, Nina, You know that. I’m not going to spend all this time or money on something that will not help my current situation.”
Nina sighed, empathetic yet pushing.
“We have an agent, he’s the owner of the club we play for most nights. He can pay you. He can get you anything you need. Any fabrics, a machine. I wouldn’t just do that to you, Jes.”
He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
“I know, Neens. Just… how much would I get paid? I need something to keep me on my feet for a bit. I mean, I would love to do it. It’d be something new… and it’s not like my job interviews at the moment are going any resemblance to good…” He could hear a squeal just briefly from the speaker of the phone. Muffled, like she had gone halfway across the room, with a hand over her mouth just to make the high-pitched sound.
“Let me talk to Kaz, okay? You go do that interview today and I’ll be back with your job description!”
There was a tone and the line fell short, the call ended. Jesper couldn’t help but smile. Bless, Nina and her cotton socks. Maybe he could get himself out of this.
But now, he was awake way too early for a job interview and all he could do was stress himself sick. Great.
-----
Just as expected, the interview went to shit. Absolute shit. The best he could do now was to wait for Nina to message him with a number, a vibe and how many people he had to design and tailor for. He was fucked. Jesper was so totally fucked. And now, all he could do was wait.
And wait.
And wait.
Ping!
And there it was! He had sent her a message earlier depicting some version of ‘surprise surprise, job interview went horrible, don’t care how much money it pays, I will do it. Also will probably need to start living with you and matty boy’, because at this point, he really, desperately, needed something to do.
“Kaz says he will pay you 25 an hour. Will send you 400 to get started.” Holy shit. What the fuck!
Okay… so he’s fully committed himself to that now. And that was a lot of money for just costuming… Was he supposed to be worried? Well… he certainly was at this point.
The worst thing was that Jesper knew nothing about pattern making. Or how to make clothing, particularly for other people. Sure, he had cropped and taken in some of his shirts, extended some pant legs here and there (the price he had to pay for being unreasonably tall) but he hadn’t gone to fashion school, he barely knew how to operate a machine (let alone thread it) and now he had fully dove in headfirst into a pool of bad choices. Hey, at least he would get paid? And had a job? Wait…
‘How many people am I designing for??? And what is the first due date???’
His fingers scrambled over the letters on his phone’s keyboard. He had to correct a few typos to actually make the sentence coherent.
“Come to the bird bar tomorrow night” was the only response he got from Nina. She’d refused to elaborate.
“For the mystery” she had said.
Jesper sighed. Though he probably should’ve been more concerned than he actually was. He was maybe… just maybe, a little bit excited to get to work.
----
Jesper Fahey was not a coward, he was trying to convince himself. The sign on the door of The Bird Bar read that it was closed, yet a minute earlier he had seen a red-headed figure walk straight in. He didn’t know if the person was an employee there, but he did know that the man was pretty, and his hair looked soft and easily tussled. He had wondered if he could get to know him. Whether it was another situation where he just knew he was meant to meet this person, even if it was just for a short time.
He’d explained it once to Nina, and she had said something along the lines of “oh, like if your life is a tv show and one of the side characters from a season ago becomes a main character”. That wasn’t remotely close, but he had agreed for the sake of it.
He found himself still standing at the door. Jesper couldn’t see in, the blinds were drawn, and he was too self-conscious to knock. Instead, he pulled out his phone.
“Neens its closed ??”
“Come IN, you dumbass. Everyones already here.”
“Can you come get me :(“
The door jingled as it opened, Nina scowling at him fondly. Jesper grinned bashfully, shrugging his shoulders. She huffed, rolling her eyes with a stupid smile on her face.
“Come on then.” Nina hummed as she led Jesper through the door and into the bar. It was a rustic-looking environment, with dark stained wood used for both the flooring and tables and chairs, small fluorescent lights hanging from the ceiling, and occasional plants scattered around the place. In the corner, was a small stage. Really, it was just an elevated step up that separated itself from the rest of the bar floor, not quite an actual stage.
Inside were 4 other people. Jesper recognised the wall of Fjerdian muscle that was Matthias. Next to him was a shorter, Suli girl with a very impressive, long braid. She was talking to a scowling, pale man leaning on a cane. Then was the owner of the pretty red curls that he saw enter The Bird Bar earlier. Goodness, he was gorgeous. And his eyes. Any lighter and they’d have Jesper begging the poor man to put in contacts, yet they were deep, and bright. They reminded him of home. Before Jesper had moved to the forever drizzling Ketterdam, when he lived in Novyi Zem where the sky was clear with hues that deserved to be painted almost every day. And he had freckles. Dear Saints…
Jesper supposed he would probably fall all over himself if he ever had the opportunity to kiss him. He wondered about how many universes they had already met. If Jesper felt like this in each one. If Jesper ended up being such a disappointment in every dimension.
Yet, he was here to do a job. So he had to be professional. Jesper Fahey was in a lot of debt, he reminded himself. He couldn’t risk this paycheck.
“Hi, I’m Jesper.” He raised his hand half-heartedly as he greeted the group. He received a few tight-lipped smiles in response.
“Jes is here to figure out our vibe so he can start designing our outfits for when we play the big ones.” Nina grinned. The guy with the red curls eyed him cautiously- Jesper kind of wanted to shrink. He was so out of his depth. Abort mission!
The staunch looking man with the cane simply nodded, and uttered a simple “from the top, crows” before Nina, and everyone else except for him and Jesper took their place behind their instruments and broke into song. Matthias tapped his drumsticks to count them in, the small girl on the bass and Nina on guitar, immediately joining in.
Jesper sat down on a nearby seat, letting the notes take over his world, imagining colours and moods and tones. The aesthetic that the band creates. He took out his phone, creating a pinterest board named The Crows so he could look at inspiration, saving his ideas for a time he could mish-mash them all together, since he couldn’t draw to save his life. But something was missing. That is, until the boy with the bright eyes started to sing. Sure, Jesper knew that they were all young, barely through university, but everything about this man just sort-of screamed ‘youthful’ when he opened his mouth. His voice seemed to cry, growl, and dance all at once, skipping through each emotion like Jesper used to run through his family’s farm and the fields he grew up in. Everything about this vocalist screamed home.
Then everything clicked together.
His fingers worked in a giant scramble to find images, searching up terms he knew would give him exactly what he wanted. Jesper grinned. He knew he would enjoy this job.
Jesper spent the rest of the session listening to their songs, surprised at a segment where Nina passed over her guitar to the vocalist, taking his place behind the keyboard, and the set became more heartfelt, solemn and filled with so much hope. On occasion, he would ask each member a question about their clothing preferences, learning that the bassist’s name was Inej, the man observing them with a deadpan glare was Kaz, their manager. That the vocalist with messy ginger curls and bright blue eyes and constellations of freckles was Wylan. That he mainly wore things that one might see in dark academia movies- sweater vests, corduroy and button up shirts. Pants with pleats and polishable shoes. (Okay, so maybe he mostly asked Wylan about his preferences, sue him.) But Jesper had a pretty good idea of the outfits that would tie the band together. He was itching for something other than his usual methods of self-destruction.
It was… refreshing and melancholic all at once. It felt like healing.
Once the band had dissolved into more chatter than music, Jesper wandered over to Nina, opening his phone to show her his ideas. She gasped, grabbing at his arm.
“So I was thinking, kind-of a pirate-ish older aesthetic, type… thing? Think long, flowy and lavish but also rogue-ish at the same time.” He offered as she took his phone and started wildly scrolling through images. Half of the images were wildly inaccurate for the time periods he was looking at, but that didn’t matter. The inspiration was still there.
“More muted tones, though I was thinking more earthy colours that can get real dark easily. Add some mystery, yeah?” She looked up at him in wonder and he winked, a boyish grin quickly growing on his face.
“Wy, come here! Have a look at this!” Nina waved over Wylan, who was fiddling with Nina’s guitar, picking out some melody on the strings. He looked up with wide eyes, then made eye contact with Jesper and his eyes hardened slightly.
‘Kids got walls.’ Jesper figured. But Wylan hesitantly walked over to look at Jesper’s pinterest board. He gave Jesper a small nod and a hum.
“Very fairytale-eque.”
Jesper felt he could slam his whole being into a desk. How was even his speaking voice pretty? It simply wasn’t fair. He settled for a nervous grin he hoped came off lighthearted and confident. Inej popped up next to Wylan, and peered over at the phone screen.
“Can I be mostly in darker colours? And greeny-blues. I prefer them. And go more modest for me.”
“Gotcha, I’ll leave all of that for Nina. You can be the mysterious bassist.” Jesper winked at her before she shot him an appreciative smile. He beamed. He was finally doing some good!
“Any other preferences?” He cast a long look at the group, trying to look approachable as possible. It wouldn’t help him if he designed something and had to remake it because one of the members of the band couldn’t tell him that they didn’t like something.
“A low neckline for that one.” Nina pointed behind her with her thumb at Matthias, who looked almost ready to bolt. Jesper raised an eyebrow at him and Matthias shrugged with a small smile.
“Sure.”
Soon afterwards, Jesper was out of the door, and he followed Nina to her car.
“So…What’d you think of everyone?” She sung and gave him a knowing look.
Jesper sighed with reluctance, and acquiesced. “They’re alright, why?” She snorted.
“I saw how you were looking at our vocalist.”
“It- Is he always like that?.. Quiet, I mean. Reserved.” He didn’t want to give Nina exactly what she wanted. He looked at her expectantly, but all she did was shrug.
“Usually. But he opens up once you get to know him. Kid’s had a rough life. I don’t know too much about it, I don’t think anyone other than him does, but I can see it.” That made sense to Jesper.
“He’s gotten better in the past year too. I think it’s because he’s been working at The Bird Bar. Kaz has made him get to know the regulars. Kick start some social skills in him, or something. Wylan’s got some snark to him.” Jesper kicked a nearby rock absentmindedly, and huffed a laugh. It didn’t seem accurate to him, to imagine such a sweet face saying something potentially hurtful.
“You can laugh all you want,” Nina raised an eyebrow at him as she opened her car door and sank into her seat, “but I’ve seen him in action. The kid's got quite the sharp tongue. Don’t come running to me when you get cut by it.”
“Gotcha. Also, is it just me or are Inej and Kaz a couple.” He had, in fact, seen the manager stare a little too hard at the bassist when he thought no one was looking. Nina abruptly slammed her hands onto the dashboard.
“Yes! That’s what I’m saying!” She screamed a little too enthusiastically. Jesper had to stifle a chuckle.
“Okay, well I’ll see you later. I gotta do some fabric research.” He tapped the roof of the car a few times before waving as Nina drove off, leaving him to walk home.