#spring fluff by theflyingfeeling

[theflyingfeeling]

32 paired with 6 for the spring prompts with Olli/Joonas? 🥺👉👈💕

I could have picked the entire list ngl these prompts are all so cute?? ;-;

By now spring has turned into summer and so have the "spring" prompts, I hope you don't mind though! 😁 btw this is NOT the version I originally started writing for this prompt (became frustrated and anxious about the length of that one; maybe one day I'll finish it and you'll get to read it!), instead I'm giving you a glimpse of the AU for which I got inspiration from Dublin 🙊 (a bit of deets in the tags, but beware spoilers!). Maybe after posting this I can eventually push myself to write the whole AU 😅

Thank you so much everyone who sent in their spring prompt requests! Now on to the domestic prompts (finally!) 💕

You can find all the spring fluff in this tag on my blog 🌷

32. Farmer’s market AU: I keep buying your stuff and flirting with you

+

06. Gardener and rich person AU (1986 words)

~

There was a vase filled with roses on the bedside table that Joonas could not remember seeing there when he had gone to bed the night before. They were the kind he loved the most, out of all the different varieties of roses in the garden: dark red, almost black, with thorns that would definitely grate your skin to bloody scrapes if you weren’t careful enough (and Joonas was, ever since he fell into the bush when he was six years old).

Joonas stretched his long limbs but couldn’t quite make himself get out of bed just yet, even though he knew his half-brother would soon storm in and yank the velvet curtains on his window open. Joonas’ only hope was that Joel would be too sleep-deprived to care about him after having been wandering about the cemetery half the night again. 

(It seemed Joel thought Joonas wouldn’t hear his quiet steps echoing in the hallway in the dead of night, and Joonas felt too sorry for the man to bring up the topic himself.)

Eventually Joonas grew bored of wasting the morning in bed and set his bare feet on the soft rug by his bed. He yawned and flexed his arms above his head once more before he stood up and walked over to the window.

Pulling the curtains aside he couldn’t see much for a while, the sunbeams blinding his vision momentarily. Once his eyes had adjusted to the sudden light, he let his eyes wander on the yard that opened before him. From the fourth floor he had quite the view that reached to the farthest corners of the estate, but soon enough his eyes fixed on a small figure by the rose bushes.

A slow smile formed on Joonas lips as he observed the gardener focused on his work, occasionally stopping to wipe sweat off his forehead. Joonas could imagine the gardener’s curls sticking onto his temples and a layer of sweat glistening on his skin, perhaps even on his chest that would peek out from the collar of the gardener’s shirt.

Joonas picked one of the roses to bring it close to his nose. The smell reminded him of a particularly tropical night two days ago, when the temperature inside his chambers had rosen close to the nearly 30 degrees it had been all afternoon, and not only because of the heatwave they were currently experiencing.

He grinned and set the flower on the table while he found a white linen shirt to wear. Then he took the rose with him as he strolled across the room, stopping to grab one of his favourite hats from the rack by the door and headed to the stairway.

~

Joonas made sure to make his arrival heard by the gardener so as not to startle him; it wouldn’t have been the first time the poor man would have dropped his pruning shears upon Joonas greeting him unannounced.

“Hi there,” Joonas said softly once the gardener had lifted his gaze from the roses in front of him.

“Good morning, my lord.”

“Olli,” Joonas frowned, “have I not told you to call me by my name? You know my father’s not here to scold you about it anymore.”

Since he’s been pushing up daisies for four weeks now.

“An old habit,” Olli pursed his lips. “Besides, the butler would not approve if I failed to address you accordingly.”

Joonas turned to look around himself exaggeratingly.

“Is dear old Santeri hiding somewhere in the bushes spying on us?”

“Shhhh, he might!” Olli giggled, with a melody more gay and clear than that of the robin’s song.

“Always knew he’s a little deviant,” Joonas said, just to make Olli laugh a little louder. Joonas bit his lip as Olli’s amusement revealed the gap between his front teeth, just another feature Joonas had always loved about this young man he had known since they were boys and Olli’s mother had been hired as the gardener to look after the perennials Joonas’ own mother had planted a long time ago. 

Eventually their laughter died and the garden fell quiet again, as quiet as it can on a summer afternoon with the birds tweeting above their heads and the wind rustling the leaves of the trees surrounding the estate.

“Well. I shall not distract you more than this,” Joonas sighed, a smile still lingering on his mouth. Then he took a few steps closer to Olli, took his own felt hat off his head and dropped it on top of Olli’s. “Don’t overwork yourself, love,” he winked.

He was already walking away when Olli’s voice called for him.

“Joonas?”

Joonas stopped and turned in the middle of the lawn, waiting for the gardener to go on.

“There’s, umm…a farmer’s market today. In town.”

“There is?” Joonas asked, as if he hadn’t noticed the advertisement falling out of Olli’s pocket the other night.

“And I will, of course, see to my work here in the garden first and foremost, but… I’ve been growing a little something of my own. In the servants’ yard.”

“Are we not paying you enough?” Joonas asked and immediately wanted to bite off his tongue; just last week he had discovered crumpled paperwork in his father’s drawer, a document of the staff’s wages being cut to barely above the minimum since the beginning of the new season. He doubted it was the only one of such measures in the past few years his old man had done in an effort to save the business his own father had once been so proud of.

“No, no, it’s not like that at all!” Olli hurried to correct him, a hint of panic in his eyes. “It’s just…nothing more but a stupid hobby. I’m sorry, my lord, forget about it.”

Olli’s eyes were directed to his shoes now, and Joonas already missed their dark shade. 

Slowly he walked back to Olli and stopped to almost touch the tips of his leather shoes to Olli’s beaten-up ones, covered with brown and green stains from soil and grass. He caressed the smooth skin of Olli’s jaw with his fingertips to make the gardener look him in the eyes.

“Of course you’ll go, Olli. And you’ll sell each and every little vine and herb you’ve grown.”

Joonas himself would make sure of that.

~

“You see that curly-headed man over there?” Joonas whispered to a little girl and pointed towards Olli, tending to his seedlings nervously in his selling booth. “I want you to go and buy anything you want from him with these.” Then he pressed a few coins to the girl's small palm.

“Can I buy the pretty daisies and give them to mommy?” the girl asked with her eyes wide and glistening.

“Why don’t you buy them all and take some to granny as well?” Joonas smiled and slid a few more coins to the girl before sending her off.

He retreated behind a stand selling fresh bread and pies to watch how the girl skipped to Olli’s flower stall and pointed at the basket of pink, yellow and red flowers. When Olli picked up a few of them, the girl shook her head and handed him the money Joonas had given her. The surprise on Olli’s face was evident from how his mouth hung upen and how his eyes blinked a few times before he took the basket, tied a big pink ribbon on it and reached over the table to give it to the girl. Olli’s joyous smile was a mirror of the girls’ as she curtsied to the gardener and pranced along, possibly already picturing her mother’s delighted face upon seeing the basket and its contents.

Joonas observed Olli in his dumbfounded state before sauntering to his stall. Up close, Olli’s eyes gleamed even more brightly than Joonas had been able to see from his hideout.

“So! How’s business?” he asked casually and put his hands in his pocket where more coins waited to be wasted on pretty little flowers and whatever the dark green weeds next to them were.

“I am astounded, my lord.” Joonas winced at the title, but then he remembered they were in public, and even if the people of the town wouldn’t recognise Olli as one of his employees, they sure would frown upon a seemingly mere commoner calling the fresh owner of the Paradise Hotel by his first name.

“That so?”

“Earlier I sold a bunch of roses to a young man who wanted to surprise his sweetheart, and just now little Julia came and wanted to buy a whole basket of gerberas. This is beyond my wildest dreams!” Olli sighed and massaged his cheeks, perhaps to try and hide his excited blush but only ending up making his face even redder.

“I’m pleased to hear that, old friend,” Joonas said and made a mental note to thank the tavern keeper's son later for helping Joonas with his plan. “But I’m not surprised. These beautiful blossoms deserve every bit of recognition they get.”

“These are but shrubs…” Olli mumbled, smiling bashfully at the flowers.

“I mean it, Olli. You should hear how the guests at the hotel keep wondering about the garden at dinner. Some of them I’ve had to bribe out of offering you a job at theirs.”

Olli chuckled and shook his head.

“You expect me to believe that?”

“It’s true, every word!” Joonas argued, because it was; the famous rose garden was one of the main attractions of the whole estate, and on more than one occasion a guest had asked to meet the creator of such wonders. Quite selfishly Joonas had deprived them of the honour, however, as he hated those times when he spotted a vacationer having wandered to the garden and engaged Olli in a relaxed conversation. Joonas wasn’t a jealous type, per se, but he did intend to be the only one to make Olli’s bright laughter chime in the evening air, preferably inside his bedroom if he could help it. 

Olli shook his head again and opened his mouth to say something, but then Joonas saw his eyes move on to someone beside Joonas. 

“How much for the begonias?”

Joonas retreated to the side and let the new customer – this time not one of his own minions – to haggle over the prices of the orange flowers and fiddled with the few coins left in the bottom of his trouser pocket. A moment later they said goodbyes, the woman with an armful of begonias, Olli with a handful of cash and a satisfied smile on his face.

“See? People are practically ripping the flowers out of your hands!”

An attractive shade of pink spreading to his cheeks, Olli put the money carefully in a small purse he kept in the front pocket of his apron.

“Are you here just to mouth off or are you gonna buy something too?” Olli said with his voice low. He looked up at Joonas from under his brows and batted his long, dark eyelashes, making Joonas want to go back to the hotel and empty their already half-empty safe and give it all to Olli in exchange for the colourful plants spread on the table between them.

“Funny you should mention,” Joonas fished a few coins from his pocket. “What might I get with five shillings?”

Olli burst into laughter.

“Just five? Nothing but weeds, I’m afraid.” But before Joonas could put the money back from where he took it, Olli gestured him to lean in closer.

The gardener brought his lips close to Joonas’ ear so that Joonas could feel his breathing on his skin. Shivers of pleasure went down Joonas’ spine when Olli whispered in his ear:

“But perhaps we can come to an agreement of payment at, let’s say, ten o’clock tonight?”

Joonas licked his own lips in anticipation before answering.

“You’ve got yourself a deal, gardener.”

[theflyingfeeling]

Crying over 42 promt 😂 how about Niko/Joel for it?

Excellent 😌

...I made it a College AU, just because! Hope you don't mind <3

42. You get attacked by a goose and I’m the one to help patch you up (3404 words)

~

Joel tied the laces of his right foot sneaker and evaluated the quality of his work. Dissatisfied, he untied and tied them again, and repeated the same exact action for the left one, gritting his teeth as he did. 

“Oh my god, Joel, you can just tell me if you want me to come with you.”

Joel glared at his roommate who was spread on his bed, eyes on the phone he was holding above his face.

“No, thanks. I’m a big boy.”

“Sure you are, but those geese are pretty big too,” Joonas said. “And you almost pooped your pants when we walked past them yesterday.”

“I did not.”

“So you held my hand just because you like me so much? Awwww, babe– ow!”

The textbook Joel had thrown at Joonas may have shut him up momentarily, but the snickering smile on his face returned as soon as the book was off his face.

“They’re just stupid, brainless birds,” Joel muttered as he zipped up his Adidas track jacket.

“Stupid, brainless birds with razor blades for teeth.”

Joel tightened his high ponytail. He grabbed his phone from his bedside table and slid it in the pocket of his shorts.

“And have you noticed they have teeth on their tongue as well?”

“Shut the fuck up, Porko!” Joel snapped and rushed out of the door before his roommate could mess with his head some more. 

Because yes, the aggressive geese that had taken over the campus park had given him a proper scare the day before when he and Joonas had walked back to the dorm and one of them had started following Joel right behind his heels. But no, he wasn’t going to let some vicious, bloodthirsty, feathered animals keep him from going on about his morning jog through the campus.

Or that’s what he had thought, right until he arrived at the park and saw the whole gaggle of geese that seemed to stop and stare at Joel in the middle of their usual geese business, and not because they thought he was a sight for sore eyes.

No; they were out for his blood. 

Joel clenched his hands into fists and took a deep breath. 

Stupid, brainless birds, he started chanting to himself in his head. I am an apex predator, and they are just stupid, brainless, useless birds that have no control over my life. 

He kept his eyes fixed on the lecture building on the other side of the park as he started jogging, perhaps a little faster than he normally would for his morning exercise. The black, lifeless eyes of the geese followed him closely, or so it felt like to Joel at least.

When a few of the geese flapped their wings as Joel passed them, he sped up his steps and tried to keep his breathing under control. He was only about a hundred metres away from the edge of the green area, a hundred more steps away from safety, but the faster he ran, the farther away the campus gates seemed to be.

A couple of the geese were now clearly running after him, and if the thumping of his heart wasn’t the only sound roaring in his ears, he would have heard them quacking loudly at him.

His final mistake was when he glanced behind him and saw a glimpse of the beasts and their disturbingly sharp-looking rows of teeth and yes, even the spiky tongue, but then the chase came to an abrupt end when he collided with something. 

“Hey, woah, watch where you’re going!” a familiar voice spoke to him. 

When he looked ahead again, he saw the guy who always sat next to him in his compulsory English class, glaring at him with his green eyes. His long brown hair framed his permanently annoyed expression, but his exceptional beauty still made Joel catch his breath, like it did every time he stepped in the classroom and found the man’s eyes already staring at him, like he had been waiting to see Joel, even if they never really talked. 

The thought of finally saying something to the man was the last one Joel had before he felt a sharp pain in his ankle. He looked down and saw one of the geese poking his feet with its killer choppers. 

Then everything went black.

 ~

Later that day, when Niko recollected the whole incident to his roommate, he realised he had heard Joel before he had seen the man, his heavy, panicky breathing approaching Niko gradually as he had walked on the gravel, lost in his thoughts. However, it wasn’t until Joel had already bumped into him that he realised who it was that had been running for his life in such a perplexed state.

Their eyes met only for a few seconds, the weird sadness Niko usually saw in Joel’s eyes having given room to terror and helplessness, and then Joel was suddenly collapsing against him, right there in the middle of a path in the campus yard at eight in the morning on a Monday. 

Niko shooed the over-enthusiastic geese away and dragged Joel to a nearby bench. He noticed some of the passers-by had stopped to gawk at the scene, but none of them offered any help in moving the long-limbed blond to a more comfortable position. 

“Joel! Can you hear me?” Niko tried snapping his fingers at Joel’s face, but there was no reaction from the other man. Just when Niko was about to dial the emergency number, Joel’s eyelids began to flutter and a silent sigh left his mouth.

“Ahhhhh, the fuck?” he groaned, and Niko was ready to kiss the guy from pure relief. 

“Are you alright, Joel?” 

A realisation of some sort seemed to hit him, judging by the way his eyes widened and the colour left his face.

“Wh-where is it?”

‘It’, supposedly, meant the large bird that had been after him when he had run into Niko. 

“It’s gone, you don’t have to worry about it anymore.” Niko placed a calming hand on Joel’s shoulder when he tried getting up from the bench. 

“But… what happened?”

“Well, I can only tell what happened after you crashed into me: you passed out.”

“Oh– OH! Oh, oh my god!” Joel moaned and looked like he was about to faint again. 

“Hey! Hey hey hey, are you good?”

“It bit me!”

“What?”

“That son of a bitch! It bit me!” Joel grabbed the back rest of the bench to try and pull himself up as he reached his other hand towards his ankle.

“Fuck, really?” Niko moved his gaze from Joel’s pained eyes to his feet.

“Ahh, it hurts like hell! Ah shit, I can’t even look! Can you tell me, is it bad?”

Niko took a closer look at Joel’s ankle and saw a few, tiny droplets of blood.

“Well–”

“Oh, fucking hell! Do geese have rabies?

“I don’t thi–”

“Ahh, fuck, this is it, isn’t it? This is how I’m gonna go? I’m gonna fucking DIE, right?”

“You’re not–”

“Tell Porko to keep his filthy fingers off my vinyl collection, I’m taking that shit with me when I go!”

From the way Joel always sat so quietly in the back row of the English classroom, sulking and rarely talking to anyone (except for that one time he had noticed Niko’s wrinkly band shirt and started bombarding him with questions, asking if he listened to this and this band, until the teacher had to shush him silent), Niko would never had guessed the man could be so theatrical.

“Okay, listen to me, you drama queen: it’s only a scratch, I’m pretty sure birds don’t transmit rabies, you’re not gonna die, and I have no idea who the hell Porko is, so will you just calm the fuck down?”

Joel looked at him, breathing heavily and his eyes frightened. Niko used his thumb to rub the side of Joel’s bare ankle just above the bruise left by the goose, hoping it might help the man to cool off. 

“If I were you, I’d be more worried about how you blacked out like that. Has it happened before?”

He saw Joel swallow before answering. 

“No. At least not like this.”

“Do you want me to take you to the emergency room? Or to the campus nurse?”

Joel’s eyes enlarged and he shook his head. Niko noticed him becoming restless again, so he slowed down the movements of his thumb to make him relax.

“Okay, I won’t,” Niko said as calmly and softly as he could. “But can I at least help you back to the dorm and clean the wound and stop the bleeding?”

“There’s blood?!” Joel bolted up, his face as pale as if he had just been given the death sentence.

“Just a tiny scrape, alright? It is bleeding a little, yes, but you will live, jeez.” Niko added the last part under his breath. “It should be disinfected though, so let’s get you back to the dorm now, yeah? Which one is yours?”

“No, no no no no, I am not going near those demons again!”

Under his palm, Niko could feel Joel tremble.

“Fine, no more park for today. Let’s just go round the park, hm? I live in that dorm over there,” Niko pointed his finger at the dormitory building in the farthest right hand corner of the campus square, “so we can just walk past the park and no geese will bother us. How does that sound? Do you think you can do that?”

He heard Joel take a few unsteady breaths in, which made Niko want to clasp the man’s hand instead of his wounded ankle and tell him he was safe, as far as Niko was concerned.

“Okay,” Joel said and nodded, probably more to himself than to answer Niko's question. “Okay,” he repeated and let Niko help him up. 

“Do you need a drink?”

“Most definitely,” Joel mumbled with such solemnity that it was hard for Niko to hold back his laughter.

“I meant, like, water or something. ‘Cause you were kinda going through it just now.”

“Let’s just go get the bandaid, alright?” Joel replied quietly, eyes on the ground as they began walking. If he had been fearing for his life just a moment ago, now he looked like he was wishing for the earth to swallow him whole. 

Niko knew that feeling all too well, so he didn’t bother Joel with meaningless small talk as they strolled around the campus area. And anyway, he was far too busy trying to make sense of what had just happened and how, instead of attending his morning lecture like he was supposed to, he was now tending to the guy from his English class, whose grumpy appearance at the door of the classroom was always the highlight of Niko’s week, despite the fact he was yet to actually start a conversation with him outside the structured class discussion activities. Every time Niko had psyched himself up to finally at least say hi to Joel, the guy had either ran out of the classroom hardly a second after the teacher had dismissed the class or, in some cases, not shown up at all. Niko hated those days, because usually it meant he wouldn’t see Joel during the lunch break that followed either, and left him fretful and melancholic for the rest of the day which, of course, never went unnoticed by Aleksi who would then try all his tricks to make Niko spill the tea about what had brought him so down.

But how was Niko supposed to explain he was merely lovesick for a man he had barely even talked to? Niko wasn’t even sure if Joel knew his name.

“I’m Niko, by the way,” he said when they were halfway to the dorms. “We go to the same English class, remember?”

“Yeah,” Joel acknowledged. Then he fell silent for at least twenty more steps until he cleared his throat. “I’m… Joel.”

Niko swallowed the “I know”, regarding it creepy as fuck, as well as the awfully formal “Nice to meet you”, and settled for awkward “Cool” instead (which wasn’t any better, he realised the second he had uttered it).

After what seemed like forever, walking in the uncomfortable silence, they were at the dorm and Niko led Joel up to his room, hoping Aleksi had already left for his classes. Indeed, Niko sighed of relief when he saw his roommate’s unmade bed empty and his white sneakers gone, and ordered Joel to sit on the only chair in the room.

 The bridge of Joel’s nose wrinkled when Niko tapped on his wound with a cotton pad soaked in way too much disinfectant, which had been totally unintentional from Niko’s part, although he had to admit he would gladly take care of Joel’s injuries another time if it meant he’d see Joel scrunch up his face into the most adorable expressions he had seen from the man so far. 

“There, all patched up now,” Niko concluded when he smoothened the bandaid on Joel’s bony ankle. 

He was expecting Joel to be back on his feet and out the door by then, but instead Joel stayed put on the squeaky chair next to Niko’s bed. He was scratching on something on his nail but said nothing, safe for a small, barely audible “thanks”.

“No problem,” Niko nodded, and still Joel did not move an inch. “So, umm…afraid of birds, huh?”

“Kinda,” Joel replied, with a voice even quieter than earlier. The sight of him was so heartbreaking, like a child whose lollipop had just been snatched right out of his hand, that Niko found it almost impossible to not take the man to sit on his lap, despite being noticeably smaller in size than Joel, and rock him back and forth until he’d forget all about the geese and other horrors of the world.

“Yeah, well, one almost snatched my hat the other day, so…” Niko trailed off and then bit his lip; this was the opposite of what he wanted to talk about, so he took a deep breath and started again.

“You know, I’ve… noticed you in class.”

Fuck’s sake, Niko, that’s the best you can do?

“I mean, obviously I have, we sit next to each other almost every lecture…”

Just shut your dumb mouth already.

“And… like…” he tried, but the words he wanted to say  just didn’t come to him, so he scratched the back of his head in frustration. 

“Yeah, I’ve… noticed you too.”

Niko’s heart almost jumped to his throat.

“And to be honest, this is not how I imagined our first actual conversation to go down.”

“Our first conversation? Have you forgotten about that time you talked my ears off about Nine Inch Nails?”

Niko’s quick wits had been so eager to make the remark that it took him another few seconds to realise Joel had just confessed he had imagined talking with Niko before.

The thought made Niko bite his lip to hide his dopey grin.

“A real conversation, not me blabbering about my hyperfixations after having downed five RedBulls.” Joel’s voice was but a low grumble again, but the rosy shade of red on his cheeks looked insanely attractive on him, Niko thought. 

It also made Niko just bold enough to add another twist to their current exchange of words.

“Well, what would you have said, then, if you’d get your own way?”

Joel’s eyes visibly brightened when he glanced at Niko.

“For starters, I would have told you those checkered Vans look dumb as fuck.”

“Excuse me? They’re retro!” Niko exclaimed, finally letting his lips break into a smile.

“I’m sorry to break it to you but not a single piece of clothing from the early 00s is retro, it’s cringe.”

“At least I own more than two shirts…”

“And you wish they were as cool as my Venom ones!”

“I don’t need to wish, I know they are.”

“Ha! So you admit they’re cool!”

Joel’s triumphant face had erased the last traces of his frown, and his smile was so blinding that Niko completely forgot to watch his own mouth.

“I do like the sleeveless one at least.”

Only Joel’s surprised silence made Niko realise what he had blurted out. 

“You know, ‘cause… like… your tattoos are pretty sweet.”

“Oh,” Joel brushed his upper arm where his labyrinth tattoo was hidden under the sleeve of his track jacket. “Thanks.”

“I wanted to tell you when I first saw it but, umm… didn’t want to bother you, I guess.”

Niko’s eyes wandered around the room until they found Joel’s again. The curve of Joel’s eyebrows had softened and his lips were slightly parted, and Niko tried not to think about how soft they looked.

“I…,” Joel began, “I wish you had, though. Bothered me, I mean. Because… after that one time I was so embarrassed to talk to you again–”

“No reason to feel like that,” Niko told him, fighting the urge to put a reassuring hand on the long, skinny leg that was still stretched out on Niko’s bed after the medical operation.

“You probably thought I was a freak.”

“No, actually I thought you were… kinda cute.”

When Joel chuckled, Niko felt his heart starting to beat again.

“Well… despite the hideous shoes and the baggy pants–”

“At least I’m comfortable!”

“–I think you’re sorta cute too.”

Joel blinked his blue eyes softly, and even in his right mind Niko could not have looked elsewhere. 

What a blessing it was, to be alive on a spring morning and sit with a guy you thought was cute and who thought you were cute too.

Niko wanted to linger in that moment and that feeling forever, staring into the bluest eyes he had ever seen, wondering what kind of secrets and unsaid confessions were behind them, and whether he was worthy of learning about any of them.

He had every intention to find out.

“I should… go,” Joel said eventually, although the look in his eyes communicated a completely different message.

“Yeah, I’m… late for my lecture, too,” Niko said, and both men stood up. Niko waited for Joel to say something more, but when he didn’t, Niko swallowed his disappointment and fixed his hair. 

“I’ll see you in English class, I guess. And hey,” he added when Joel was already on his way to the door, “if those geese ever attack you again, you know where to find me.”

Niko had to consciously command his knees to stay strong when Joel flashed him another bright smile. 

“Yeah,” he chuckled. “Okay, well, see ya.”

“Bye,” Niko forced himself to say, and when Joel closed the door after him, he threw himself on his bed and muffled his frustrated groan on his pillow. 

He had been  so close to confessing how sad he became every time Joel didn’t attend their weekly mutual lecture, and that it had been him who had taken Joel’s sunglasses to the lost-and-found when he had forgotten them in the classroom (he had been too much of a coward to give them to the man himself), or at least tell Joel he’d like to spend some more time together, outside the artificial context of English classes. 

Now, the most Niko expected was them to go back to the awkwardness of sitting side by side in class without saying a word to each other, which, after the latest incident, felt almost worse than one of them moving overseas and never seeing each other again.

Already halfway down to his pit of misery and self-pity, Niko was startled when there was a knock on his door. 

Thinking it was Aleksi who had forgotten his key again, Niko didn’t hurry on his way to the door, and almost gasped out loud when he saw Joel standing at the door frame instead.

Wordlessly they just stared at each other for seconds that lasted a small eternity, but then Joel opened his mouth.

“I was just wondering if… if you’d like to… hang out, maybe? Later?”

As if bitten by a savage poultry again, Joel was visibly shivering. It might have been just the chilly hallway, but when Niko reached his hand to brush Joel’s finger with his own, he saw the man’s shoulders relax and his jaw unclench.

“I’m free tonight.”

[theflyingfeeling]

How about number 7 for (t)twins? 👀

it's a J/J kinda evening 😌💕

(fun fact: I actually wrote a very different kind of version of this prompt first, but it wasn't fluffy enough and I wanted to challenge myself to write something short and sweet about J/J for change 😅 let me know if you want to read the longer and less fluffy version (with a lot more rain and pining!))

07. We’re arguing in the rain and you kiss me (1027 words)

~

“This was a stupid idea, Porko.”

“This was a great idea and you know it, Hokka, as are all my ideas, may I remind you.”

“All your other ideas are stupid too.”

Joonas slowed down his scooter to take a look at Google Maps again. The rain droplets falling on his phone had begun to grow in size and the muffled sound of thunder echoed from above them.

Their hotel shouldn’t be far away, but it seemed the busy streets of Berlin had played a trick on them and now they had been circling the same few blocks for almost 45 minutes in search of their accommodation. A few hours ago, when they had left on their little escapade, it had still been sunny and pleasantly warm, but now the dark blue clouds looming above the horizon were rapidly crawling towards them and the people in the plaza were opening their umbrellas in anticipation of the upcoming downpour. 

“For fuck’s sake, it’s staring to rain,” Joel voiced his insightful observation, as if by now Joonas didn’t have to wipe his phone screen on his shirt every few seconds to keep it dry.

“Well, I’m awfully sorry controlling the weather is not in my power,” he mumbled.

“We could have just gone for drinks at the nice bar we saw the other night, but noooooo, Mr. Tourist just had to gawk at the Brandenburg Gate, as if you haven’t been here dozens of times before,” Joel kept on grumbling as he leaned on the handles of his rental bicycle.

“Oh, chill, drama queen, you can soon spent the whole fucking night at the hotel bar if you wish. Clearly it was my mistake to think it’d be fun to do something different for change.”

Joonas glared at Joel and turned back to his phone, but the more he looked at it, the less he knew which way they were supposed to be going, and the water smearing the screen of his phone only made him more tense about the situation.

“It clearly was, Joonas, for I would have never–”

“Yes, because you never anything, Joel! If it was up to you, we’d keep sulking inside the whole time like some fucking hermits because you’re as fucking paranoid about people these days as you are of the fucking harbour seagulls!” Joonas exploded, finally growing sick of the constant nagging from behind him. 

He slipped his phone back in his pocket to protect it from the rain and hopped off his scooter to park it by the side of the brick wall decorated with colourful graffiti they had driven past at least five times by now. Then he sat on the steps of what looked like the back door of a restaurant and hugged his knees to his chest. The downpour was blasting on them at full force now, drenching their hair and all their clothes in a matter of seconds.

Joonas kept trying to swallow the hopeless sobs pooling in inside his chest; he really had thought going on a little downtown adventure would have helped them both relax after a long day of PR and meetings and content creation, and it probably would have, had the weather and the unreliableness of the damn map application ruined his grand plan to make out with Joel in every corner of downtown Berlin.

A sudden warmth spread to Joonas’ body from his left side as Joel sat next to him, just as wet and cold as he was, but still somehow radiating pleasant heat.

A quick kiss was planted on his cheek, so quick that Joonas wasn’t sure if he had imagined it.

“Hey,” Joel’s quiet voice sounded close to his ear. “I’m sorry.”

Joonas bit his lip to keep himself from saying something snarky in response, such as “you better be”, before he remembered how hard it could still sometimes be for Joel to get as sentimental as to apologise for his bratty behaviour; he was still struggling from time to time, learning how to be a good boyfriend, and Joonas intended to be there with him on every step of the way.

“I know,” Joonas nodded and turned his face to peck Joel’s lips lightly. Joel, however, clearly had other thoughts as he deepened the kiss, catching Joonas’ bottom lip in between his own, which Joonas was happy to allow him. Their rain-soaked hair kept dripping on their faces, and although he knew it was in vain, Joonas lifted his hands to dry Joel’s cheek, all the while leaning in for one more kiss after another. 

Joel’s quiet giggle was the sweetest sound Joonas had ever heard when he began leaving small kisses all over Joel’s wet face and down his neck where he could still smell traces of the aftershave Joel had borrowed from him. He could never get enough of neither hearing Joel’s laughter nor mouthing at his long neck, but Joel’s hands guiding him back up to meet his kisses forced him to do so nevertheless. Luckily sliding his tongue against Joel’s was the perfect alternative, especially when he could hear soft whines leaving Joel’s throat.

“Joonas,” Joel said, breaking their lips apart once more. “I just… You know I don’t actually think your ideas are stupid, right?”

The genuine, sort of worried look in Joel’s bright eyes would have been enough to convince Joonas, had he not already known the truthful state of affairs even without Joel’s sincere confession.

“Like… the one you had about going to Eurovision turned out to be a pretty good one, at least.”

“‘Pretty good’, you say? Really?” Joonas scrunched his nose as if irritated, but still couldn’t help but bump it against Joel’s softly. 

“One of your best, I admit,” Joel smiled. “Way better than this one, anyway.”

“You think so?” Joonas leaned close enough to easily take Joel in for another kiss but just far enough to keep the man on the edge. “Why, I’m afraid it’s just a matter of perspective.”

Then he pushed Joel by his shoulders until his back hit the stone paving flooding with rainwater and leaned over him to connect their lips again.

[theflyingfeeling]

24 and Joonas/Olli, huh?

Childhood friends-to-lovers with mutual pining! My time to shine!! 🍀

24. you always give me your four-leaf clovers (4160 words)

~

The first time Olli did it, Joonas wasn’t quite sure what it meant.

(In his defence, Joonas was seven years old at the time and not quite sure what a lot of things meant.)

“Isn’t it cool?” Olli had asked him, twirling the clover between his thumb and index finger. “My mom says they bring good luck.”

“You’re so lucky you found one!” Joonas marvelled at the small, green plant. “Imagine if you had had it yesterday when you fell on your bike.”

“Yeah,” Olli laughed and they both looked at the clover, as if it was a magic talisman or a secret treasure only they knew about.

“It’s super cool.” Joonas’ eyes were almost glistening as he observed the clover.  He felt a twinge of jealousy, but only for half a second; his clumsy friend needed the good-luck charm far more than he did.

That was why he was stunned when Olli handed the clover to him. 

“Do you want it?”

Joonas’ eyes abandoned the small plant and looked into Olli’s eyes instead.

“But…it’s yours!”

Olli shrugged. “I don’t need it.”

“Are you sure?” Joonas thought back to how his friend had cried helplessly on the ground just the day before, a bruise on his knee and a cone of ice cream upside down on the pavement after he had noticed a frost heave on the asphalt a little too late. Olli had still been sniffling when Joonas returned to him with bandaids, having biked home and back faster than he ever had in his life. Olli had loved the Spider-Man pattern on them, and the new ice cream Joonas had brought him from his mother’s freezer had Olli smiling once more.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Olli nodded and shoved the clover to Joonas. “I’ll keep the next one I find.”

But he didn’t, Joonas learned years later. Nor the one after that.

~

“Waaaaaaaah, what am I gonna do, Olli?” Joonas whined, rubbing his face. The sun was beaming at them from a cloudless sky as they lay on the grass behind their school, which only made his misery more drastic; the weather was perfect for practising tricks on his new skateboard or fishing by the river, not for worrying about his spring term grades.

“Mmpf,” Olli mumbled next to him. His legs were dangling in the air in an almost carefree way as he lay on his stomach, but the grim pout on his lips told Joonas otherwise.

“I don’t think you’re gonna flunk the whole grade just because of one failed exam, though,” Tommi, ever the voice of reason, offered his five cents. Joonas hated how rational his tall friend could sometimes be, even at the ripe age of thirteen. 

“But I’m not gonna fail in just one exam, I’m gonna fail in maths!” Joonas exclaimed dramatically, throwing his arms above his head against the grass, almost whacking the back of Olli’s head as he did. “Aargh, mom’s gonna kill me, there’s no way she’s gonna let me go to Helsinki if I get a 4. I don’t want to come back to school in June, ugh!”

“You won’t fail, Joonas,” Olli then said, and Joonas turned his head to look at the boy.

“I don’t understand anything about polynomials, Olli. I will fail,” Joonas argued and shot a sullen glance at Tommi, who undoubtedly, although two years younger than him, knew all about the nomials.

“No, you won’t. I promise,” Olli instisted. Joonas could hear a hint of a smile in his voice. 

“How could you possibly promise that?” Joonas grumbled, turning away from his friend again; he was convinced that whatever Olli said or did would be of little comfort to him in his current agony.

That was until he felt something fall on his chest – light as a feather, but still very much there.

A single four-leaf clover.

Just as Olli had promised, Joonas did not fail the exam, he did not need to return to school after the end of the semester, and his mother did let him go to Helsinki to spend two weeks with his cousins. It most likely wasn’t because of the clover, but Joonas carried it with him anyway for as long as it was still green.

~

The most memorable and obvious occurrence, one Joonas held close to his heart, had been when they had both still been in high school. Even years later, Joonas didn’t understand how on earth he had missed all the signs.

(Perhaps he had been too preoccupied with his own hopeless crush on Olli to see any farther than his own nose.)

They were spread on Joonas’ twin bed after school, the back of Olli’s head resting on Joonas’ tummy. Olli was absorbed in the textbook he was reading, Joonas in the silky smooth feeling of Olli’s hair as his fingers played with it absentmindedly.

It was a rainy Friday afternoon in May, and Olli was studying for the last exam week of the semester. Joonas, in turn, should have been preparing for the entrance exam he’d have on Monday.

And he maybe would have, had the softness of Olli’s hair and the weight of Olli’s head on his stomach not been the only earthly things Joonas could bring his mind to focus on at the time.

(Since everything else about Olli was completely stellar.)

“Are you nervous?” Olli suddenly asked him without moving his gaze from the book.

“About the exam?”

“No, about the evening news airing on time tonight,” Olli said dryly. “Yes, the exam.”

“Mmh. I don’t know,” he said, then took a deep breath to build up enough courage to spill out what he was about to confess. “I may not be going, actually.”

Olli set down his book. The hair in between Joonas’ fingers slipped away when Olli rose to lean on his elbow, facing Joonas with eyebrows crunched.

“What do you mean you’re not going?”

“I said ‘may’. But, like… I haven’t studied much because of the cold I had, and anyway I… Yeah, I don’t know.” With no fluffy tufts of hair to fondle, Joonas started braiding the strings of his hoodie instead.

“Well… what would you do then? A gap year?”

Joonas pouted and shrugged, avoiding Olli’s gaze.

“Maybe. Or just, like, see if the band thing works out.”

“And what if it doesn’t”?

“There’ll be new entrance exams,” Joonas said quietly and shifted his position on the bed; Olli’s query was starting to make him feel as uncomfortable as his mother’s questioning look the other night when they had been watching TV together and Joonas had, rather unthinkingly, agreed with a sigh similar to his mother’s that Jason Momoa was quite dreamy.

“I suppose…” At last Olli’s eyes drifted from Joonas’ face (thank heavens), and Joonas let his chest sink as he exhaled with the relief of Olli dropping the topic.

“It’s a tempting option, not gonna lie,” Olli said and ran his palm on Joonas’ bedcover. “I’m not smart enough for med school anyway, so why bother.”

“Hey! Don’t you dare use that tone of voice when speaking of my best friend! You’re smart enough for anything.”

“I’m not, Joonas, and you know that,” Olli insisted, a melancholic smile forming on his lips.

More than anything in the entire world, Joonas wanted to lean over and kiss it away.

“Yes, you are.”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“It’s not a matter of opinion, it’s a fact. Now shut your mouth about it before I shut it for you.” Joonas felt his heartbeat quicken when he realised what he had said.

To his relief, Olli seemed to dismiss his slip of tongue with a short giggle and a roll of his eyes. However, Joonas’ heart did not get the rest it so needed when Olli lay his cheek back on Joonas’ upper body, a little further up this time, just at the lower part of Joonas’ rib cage, dangerously close to his poor, shivering ticker which had not been quite the same ever since Joonas had understood he had fallen for his oldest childhood friend. 

(It had happened the previous autumn; Joonas couldn’t pinpoint when exactly, but he did remember the way Olli had looked lying next to him in the morning after Joonas’ 18th birthday, his lips just inches away from Joonas’, and for the first time he had wondered what it would be like to kiss them without the confidence boost alcohol usually gave him.)

“Whatever,” Olli sighed then. His fingers were scratching the fabric of Joonas’ hoodie slowly while nuzzling his cheek against it. 

Joonas tried not to let himself enjoy their closeness too much; Olli had always been a cuddly creature, constantly sneaking into any of his friends’ immediate proximity for hugs and snuggles for no reason in particular.

That’s just the way he is, Joonas had to keep convincing himself whenever his imagination tried to tell him otherwise.

This time there was no need for that, though, as the tug he felt on one of the drawstrings of his hoodie brought him back to reality like a plane crashing down. 

“I’ll shut up, but on one condition.”

Joonas raised his eyebrow. Something inside his chest tightened its grip.

“I want you to go to the entrance exam.”

“Aaargh!” Joonas groaned and threw his head back. His eyes fixed on the ceiling and focused on the ominous black spot which had been there right above his bed since they had moved in the house and which Joonas still always thought was a spider. The view became blurry, but somehow Joonas could fight back the tears that threatened to escape down his cheeks.

“Please, Joonas.”

“I told you, I have barely looked at the materials.”

“Just give it a shot. Please.”

When Joonas was somewhat positive his eyes would not give away his distressed state, he looked down at Olli again and saw a pair of dark eyes looking into his pleadingly. 

“Fine. But you better go find me a four-leaf clover for it.”

Olli’s eyes largened in a wicked expression that took over the boy’s face whenever he could not believe his ears.

“Have you not seen the weather forecast? It’s gonna be pouring until Tuesday!”

“Your point being?” Joonas grinned and wiggled his eyebrows.

“If you think I’m going out there just to find you a four-leaf clover, you’re being delirious.”

“Oh, so you want me to do badly in the exam you’re forcing me to take? Some friend you are.” Joonas reached his hand to pinch Olli’s cheek, but just in time the other boy dodged his touch with a giggle. Joonas was prepared, however, and used his other hand to slide under Olli’s t-shirt and attack the ticklish skin below his armpit, and soon the room was filled with Olli’s loud laughter, a sound that Joonas had always adored, a  melody he wished to hear every day, a song that felt like home.

“Okay, okay,” Olli said in between giggles. “Fine, I’ll get you your damn clover, if that’s what it takes. Wait here.” He was slightly out of breath and his hair was sticking up when he got off the bed, and Joonas had to suppress a longing sigh as he watched Olli straighten his shirt and fix his hair, his darkened eyes still gleaming with amusement.

Joonas’ gaze followed Olli who walked to Joonas’ desk covered with used coffee mugs, empty plastic bottles, candy wrappers and other junk “normal people usually keep in the rubbish bin”, as Joel had once grumbled when he had been over for a song-writing session. But before Joonas could point out Olli would not find any clovers there, the boy picked up something from the table and turned around, hiding whatever he had taken behind his back. 

“Sit up and, umm, unbutton your shirt a little,” Olli said, his voice falling quiet towards the end. His eyes wandered around the room as he scratched his temple.

“W-why?” Joonas wanted to know, although his fingers were already touching the collar of his striped dress shirt, like some sort of instinct had guided them there.

“Just do it, Porko.”

With trembling fingers Joonas did as he was told, the symbol of good luck long forgotten when Olli climbed back on the bed and faced him, his expression having lost most of its earlier playfulness. 

He felt Olli’s warm fingertips brush his chest when Olli moved away the piece of cloth to reveal more of Joonas’ skin. The touch, albeit faint and brief, took Joonas’ breath away so completely that he almost didn’t notice what Olli was holding in his right hand: a thin black marker. 

“Stay still,” Olli whispered, and in the next moment Joonas felt the tip of the pen on his skin. 

He felt Olli’s hair tickle his nose when his friend leaned in closer for a better view at his makeshift canvas.

He felt Olli’s calm breathing on his bare chest, and by god, Joonas could not have moved even if the fire brigade would have stormed in through his bedroom door, urging them outside to save themselves from the raging fire in the next room.

But the only fire in the house was the one he felt on his skin where Olli had touched when he finally leaned back, putting a cap on the marker again. 

“There,” he said with a hoarse voice and ran a hand through his hair. “That ought to do the trick.”

Joonas tipped his head down to see what had been scribbled down on his chest, but from his angle he couldn’t quite make it out.

“What is it”?

“It’s a clover! With four whole-ass leaves, just like you requested.” Olli poked at his artwork with a finger. Joonas looked up to see Olli avert his eyes in turn, focusing on the pen he was still holding. 

“Thanks. I can’t see it from there, though.”

Or hold it, or bring it to my lips, like I did with the one you brought me from your vacation in Australia during Christmas break.

“No, but there it’s close to your heart. I thought maybe it would be more effective,” Olli replied but didn’t look at Joonas while he spoke.

“Thanks,” Joonas repeated in a whisper. He held his mouth open, held his breath to say something more; what, neither of them ever found out, as in that exact moment Joonas’ mother called them for dinner. 

Olli’s theory about the placement of the good luck token was proven wrong a few days later, but more than that, Joonas’ failed exam had been due to two days spent in lovesick agony instead of in study mode, his mind constantly wandering to Olli’s gentle fingers touching his chest and his dark eyelashes fluttering as he concentrated on drawing.

(Weeks later, the exam long gone and forgotten, Joonas could still make out the traces of the clover when he looked at himself in the mirror in the morning, and traced his finger over the shaky lines, careful not to smudge them away just yet.)

~

Olli had given Joonas a four-leaf clover the day before Joonas came out to his mother.

He had planned to do so one of those days anyway, but Olli’s gesture had been the final push, even if he hadn’t known Joonas had needed one.

“What did she say?” Olli asked him. They were sitting against the brick wall of Olli’s apartment building, the one he had moved into a week after he had turned eighteen.

“That she loves me and that she’s happy I told her,” Joonas shrugged. Now that he thought about it, he wasn’t sure what he had been so nervous about; his mother was the kind of person who, if Joonas knocked on her door at 3 AM with the police after him, would hide him in the basement and charm the officers away with no further questions asked about why he was being chased by the cops in the first place. 

“She’s the coolest,” Olli smiled and nudged Joonas’ head with his own.

“I know,” Joonas agreed, a fond smile tugging at his own lips. 

“Hey, umm,” Olli began and looked down at his phone, his thumb smoothening the crack on the screen, “how…how did you tell her?”

Joonas’ mind wandered back to the day before, when his mother and he had been cleaning the table after dinner.

“Mom?”

“Hmm?” his mother answered while loading the dishwasher.

“Remember that one time we were watching Game of Thrones and you said Jason Momoa was handsome and I agreed?”

His mother closed the dishwasher door and straightened her back, appearing to be thinking for a while.

“Yes, I believe I do.”

“Yeah, that was because I’m gay.”

His mother smiled and reached her hands towards Joonas.

“Come here, baby boy.”

“I just… told her,” Joonas shrugged. He didn’t care to go into too much detail.

“Uh-huh,” Olli said quietly beside him. He kept staring at the broken screen of his phone, his eyes becoming sort of glassy, Joonas noticed. 

“Why?”

You can tell me, Olli.

Please, tell me.

He saw Olli’s chest inflate and then sink again, and then he heard a quiet voice speak:

“‘Cause… I could use some tips, I guess.”

When Olli finally looked up at him, his eyes were watery and his upper front teeth were (barely) keeping his lower lip still.

“Oh, Olli,” Joonas tilted his head and reached his hand to dry Olli’s cheek.

Olli didn’t sob or sniffle as he hid his face on Joonas shoulder, but Joonas felt the fabric of his shirt dampen on the spot he had laid his head.

“You’ll get there,” he whispered in Olli’s ear. “I promise you will.”

After a while he felt Olli relax against him and a hand sliding on his palm, interlacing their fingers.

“Have you told your dad yet?” Olli’s voice was soft and quiet, but Joonas would have heard it from a mile away, he was sure of it.

“That prick? I guess I could text him,” Joonas grumbled, not in the mood to think about the man that had left his and his mother’s lives years ago because he had suddenly changed his mind about wanting to be a loving husband and a supportive father.

(Now he was a loving husband and a supporting father to some other people in another city, and Joonas was only a little bitter about it.)

Nevertheless, he was happy to feel Olli’s body shake with silent laughter. 

“Should I find you a clover for the occasion?”

Joonas wrapped his arms around Olli tighter. 

“Oh, please do. Better safe than sorry, eh?”

~

Joonas leaned against his car and closed his eyes. The sun was hotter than it had been so far that spring, and he wanted to bathe in its every ray before he would close himself in the small, dark room where their band practice was to take place. A Sunday evening was an unusual time for them to be running through tour rehearsals, but he supposed it had something to do with Joel and Aleksi travelling to Berlin for promotional affairs the next day and Niko wanting to take his girlfriend on a vacation before the tour would start, so he had agreed to meet the others at 5 pm. 

He suspected nothing when he entered the room to find no one else but their bassist sitting on the sofa, strumming on Joonas’ acoustic guitar he had forgotten there earlier that week.

“Hey,” Olli looked up when he noticed Joonas.

“Hi. The others are not here yet?” Joonas asked, despite the fact he could well see the others were very much not there yet.

“They…are not coming, actually,” Olli said and set the guitar carefully on the sofa.

“Oh? I thought we were gonna run through the set once more.” 

The serious look on Olli’s beautiful face gave him the chills.

“Has something happened?”

“No! I mean… Well, yeah. Kinda. NOT the way you’re probably thinking, though. The others are fine.”

Olli’s blabbering only confused Joonas more.

“Where are they, then?”

“I don’t know. At home, probably?”

“But…why are they not here? You told me we have practice today!”

“Well, we don’t!” Olli was standing up now, furrowing his brows as he combed his hair with his hand.

“Then what are we here for?”

It was either the world’s most boring and poorly executed prank, or Olli had not been in his right mind when he had texted Joonas in the morning, ordering him to attend band practice late in the afternoon.

“Oh, god, you are thick…” he heard Olli mutter under his breath, rolling his eyes. “We’re here because I’m trying to tell you something.”

“You couldn’t have texted it?” Joonas glanced longingly at the birch trees swaying in the wind in front of the only window in the room.

“Not really.”

“Well, spill it, then? I don’t know about you but I’m sort of keen on going for a beer before they close the deck terrace.”

Olli sighed and picked up Joonas’ guitar again. 

“Here,” he said and pushed it towards Joonas.

Joonas looked at the guitar, then at Olli.

“Huh?”

Olli inhaled and exhaled shakily.

“Look inside.”

Joonas shot another sceptical look at Olli before taking the six-string from his hands. Then he peeped in through the sound hole. At first he couldn’t see anything at all, but when he was about to put the instrument down, he saw something sweep past the hole. He then lifted the guitar close to his face again and gave it a shake, and finally he saw what was hidden inside it. 

Dozens of four-leaf clovers, in varying sizes and shades of green. 

“Olli, what is this?”

Olli looked defeated as he shook his head.

“What do you think it is, Joonas?”

He heard Olli sigh quietly as they stared at each other.

…Oh.

“Olli–”

“I… I didn’t know how else to tell you.”

“Olli–”

“And I’m not expecting you to feel the same, I’m not expecting anything from you, just so you know.”

“Olli–”

“So we can just forget about this, you know, if that’s what you want. I don’t know how to get those out of there, though, sorry for ruining your guitar, I guess.” 

“Olli!”

“What?!”

Joonas didn’t tell him ‘what’.

He didn’t have the words at that moment.

Instead, he kissed him.

He placed his hands on Olli’s neck, where they had wandered so many times before on the pretext of the silliest things, and pressed his lips on Olli’s and just held him there, afraid to move or breathe or think, afraid it might all be just another one of his hopeless daydreams in which he built up the courage and snogged Olli’s stupid face in the middle of a gig.

When they finally did break apart, Joonas felt lightheaded, like he was about to pass out from the intoxicating chemical reactions blowing up his brain. Olli, on the other hand, breathed heavily against his mouth and placed a hand on Joonas’ chest, right where he had painted a scrubby four-leaf clover when they had been just clueless teenagers. 

The drawing had faded long ago, but the imprint had stayed in Joonas’ heart all these years.

Joonas pressed his nose on the top of Olli’s head. His lips moved against his hair as he spoke.

“Where did you even find that many four-leafs?”

Olli chuckled and nuzzled Joonas’ shoulder.

“It took me the whole spring to find even a handful.”

Joonas closed his eyes, picturing Olli at the task, sweeping through freshly-grown grass for four-leaf clovers.

“And there might be a few regular clovers. I wasn’t so picky towards the end.”

“Cheater!” Joonas smiled and planted a kiss on Olli’s temple when the man giggled. “Trying to woo me with deception and lies!”

“But it worked, did it not?”

“Yes,” Joonas admitted, “although a simple ‘I love you’ would have worked just the same.”

Olli lifted his head off Joonas shoulder and looked at him, his eyes wandering back and forth between Joonas’ eyes and his mouth.

“Is it too late to try that now?”

Joonas shook his head. “Never.”

“Good. Because I love you, Joonas. A lot.”

The delighted sound that escaped Olli’s mouth when Joonas booped his nose with his was enough to add at least twenty years to Joonas’ life.

“I love you too. I love you like crazy.”

Joonas had had many kinds of tattoos drawn all over his body, but he had sworn to himself that he would never get a tattoo in honour of a lover; tattoos might have been forever, but love? Who knows.

And yet, on their first official anniversary, on a hot afternoon in May, Joonas and Olli stepped out of a tattoo parlour hand in hand with fresh, matching tattoos representing four-leaf clovers: Olli on the inside of his wrist, Joonas over his heart.

[theflyingfeeling]

J/J and you drag me out of bed to watch the sunrise together 🥰🌄

Oh 🥺

34. You drag me out of bed to watch the sunrise together (1150 words)

~

“Joonas.”

The whisper stirred Joonas from his sleep, although not enough to make him open his eyes.

“Joonas.” 

The whisper was a little more insistent now, and Joonas simply didn’t have the heart to pretend he was asleep anymore, despite his eyelids weighing about as much as his relaxed limbs as he lay on the mattress.

“What is it?” he slurred and turned to lie on his back, yawning as he rubbed his face. The tour bus was still quiet and dark, and with the blackout curtains drawn across the windows it was impossible to tell what time of the day it was. Judging by the heavy snoring Joonas could hear from the bunk below his, however, he guessed it was still hours until the tour manager would start banging the ends of the bunks with a broom, like he did whenever they slept past 11 o’clock (which was most mornings these days).

When Joonas didn’t hear a reply, he opened his eyes and found Joel hovering over him, a strangely vacant look on his face.

Joonas knew what it meant.

“Have you been awake the whole night?”

Joel dismissed the question, which was the least Joonas expected of him.

“Can you..,” Joel paused, as if to hesitate, which was utterly unnecessary, for Joonas would immediately answer yes to whatever Joel asked of him, even (or especially) if it was to abandon his home for three whole months to chase the dream they have been after since 2013.

“Can you come outside for a bit with me?” Joel finally managed to say, his voice full of the special type of melancholy Joonas had only ever seen in no one else but Joel Hokka.

Without answering, Joonas pulled his blanket aside and, minding his head after having bumped it on the board of his bunk about a million times by now, climbed out of the bed as soundlessly as he could, for he knew how cranky each of his bandmates would get if they were woken up prematurely in the middle of the night.

He felt Joel’s eyes on him as he found a hoodie (possibly Olli’s) on the floor and put it on, then a pair of pyjama pants (no idea whose) and Aleksi’s flipflops and followed Joel outside, careful to click the door into a lock behind them.

Joonas knew Joel needed this sometimes; his mind was always in steady motion, but especially restless he grew during the darkest hours of the day, when his demons were the most active. That’s when he often climbed on Joonas’ bunk and pressed his body against his, or simply took his hand and squeezed it a little too hard, and Joonas would let him do it each time, because he knew that Joel only wanted to feel another living creature’s pulse under his own touch to convince himself that he, too, was alive and safe. 

Other times, the small space they shared in the tour bus became too cramped for all his sorrows and he needed to get out. He’d never admit that he was scared to go alone, though, so Joonas saved him the trouble and went along without making more inquiries about it.

Blonde hair peeked from under Joel’s hood as they walked side by side. His lips formed a thin line and there were slight creases on his forehead. To someone else, his face might have looked stern or even impartial. To Joonas, he looked scared to death. 

Of what, Joonas could only guess, so he took Joel’s hand in his and gave it a faint squeeze. The creases on Joel’s forehead straightened visibly.

“Where are we going?” Joonas asked as their footsteps echoed on the pavement of the empty parking lot.

“You’ll see soon enough.”

At the end of the parking lot, Joel took a right turn and led them past a small green area. There was a shabby looking bunch of people gathered around a bundle that looked like a sleeping person on the ground, and Joonas couldn’t blame Joel for not wanting to go outside in the middle of the night by himself.

They hurried their steps when the group’s obnoxious laughter became louder. Joonas heard Joel’s breathing growing heavier and was almost about to stop him and tell him everything was alright, but then Joel did the job for him and froze when they reached the end of the boulevard.

“There,” Joel pointed to a modest lookout spot a few hundred metres away from them, just a bench and a few bushes on a small hill that seemed to rise out of nowhere. Joonas remembered walking past it on their evening stroll after they had arrived and thinking it would be perfect for stargazing, if the streetlights from the city surrounding it wouldn’t ruin the experience.

They didn't speak as they walked up the small pathway that led to the hilltop. Once they sat down on the bench, Joel let go of Joonas’ hand and hugged his knees to his chest. Joonas wanted to caress the soft strands of blond hair that had escaped on Joel’s face from under his hood, but settled for just observing the man: the blue of his eyes was clear even in the dark, but the look in them was unfocused and fretful, somehow.

“What’s up?”

Joel didn’t answer, although Joonas could tell by the way the man pursed his lips that he wanted to. 

Sometimes the demons got the hold of his tongue, Joonas supposed. 

Knowing Joel wouldn’t flinch away, Joonas rested his head on Joel’s shoulder and hid his palms in the pockets of the hoodie he was wearing. His fingers found a guitar pick there and he squeezed it inside his fist. 

“Joel?” 

No reaction.

“You know it’s all gonna be okay, right?”

A shaky breath.

“It’s gonna be okay,” Joonas repeated, maybe to himself as much as to Joel. 

It took a few more quiet, choked gasps until Joel fell silent again and let his own head fall on top of Joonas’. 

They stayed like that long enough for Joonas to allow his eyes to close and drift into a half-sleep of sorts, only to be nudged awake by Joel again a few moments later.

Joel said nothing, but Joonas knew what had been the reason this time. 

Below the hillside, the small suburban town was still deep asleep, oblivious to the most beautiful sunrise Joonas had witnessed in a long while, painting the sky with light shades of orange and pink. 

Joonas smiled at the view and turned his head to see if Joel was doing the same, but the singer’s eyes were closed as his head lay heavy on Joonas’ shoulder. 

“Do you wanna go back to the tour bus?”

Joel didn’t open his eyes but nodded. Joonas couldn’t hold himself back anymore and left a faint kiss on Joel’s forehead.

“Let’s go then.”

[theflyingfeeling]

Spring writing prompt: 42. Joel/Tommi kiitos 🥰

As the previous request I fulfilled was for this exact prompt, I was given a new one with the same pairing! I hope you'll enjoy it 😘

28. You’re a kind nurse and I’m the idiot who fell out of a tree (3203 words)

~

It was all Porko’s fault, but what else was new.

Sure, the kids had played their own part in Joel’s tragedy as well, but Joel wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt; they were kids, after all.

But it had been Porko who had pointed out Joel might have to move under the bridge by September if he didn’t get himself a summer job (not that it wasn’t true, but Joonas would not have needed to mention it at the family barbeque with Joel’s parents present). It had been Porko who had, without telling Joel, sent the job application for a children’s spring camp counsellor for him. And it had been Porko who had convinced Joel to take the job, even if it had been after a few glasses of wine, a good old cry about the uncertainty of future and the soul-eating anxiety it awakened deep inside Joel’s chest. 

Had it not been because of Porko, his big mouth, and his stupid ideas that in mild drunkenness started to seem like good ideas, Joel would not be in A&E with a possibly broken wrist not even quarter of an hour after lunch.

~✨flashback time✨~

“Come on, Joel, this is fun!” Elias, aged seven, called out at Joel from above his head,

Joel knew better than to trust the judgement of someone younger than Joel’s favourite pair of Converse.

“Yeah, you’re so tall, I bet you could climb SUPER high!” little Sara added. 

Sara currently had no upper front teeth, whereas Joel had every intention to keep his, thank you very much.

“Nah, don’t bother, kids, Joel is afraid of heights,” Porko smirked, and if Joel hadn’t taken him for the idiot he was, he would have guessed Porko had known exactly what he had been doing.

“Am not,” Joel grumbled.

“That’s sad! It’s so cool up here!” Leo, aged ‘almost eight’, shouted in turn.

“It’s good I’m not afraid of heights,” Joel heard someone frown, followed by a choir of approving sounds from a dozen small mouths.

“For the last time, I am not afraid of heights! Joonas made that up!”

“Yeah?” Porko’s smile looked devilish even from Joel’s point of view down below. “Then why don’t you climb up here, hm? I’ve saved you a seat.” Porko patted the branch he was sitting on. Although it was about as thick as Joonas’ thigh, Joel didn’t like the way it wavered from the impact of Porko’s touch.

“I… don’t want to dirty my clothes,” Joel said hesitantly, and it was part of the reason, actually; he was wearing his new Nine Inch Nail shirt and not keen on having resin or lichen on it.

“Pleeeeeeaaaaaaase Joel!”

“Joonas will give you a sticker too!”

“Oh, a sticker, well that changes everything!” Joel chuckled; after each camp day, in an amusingly formal ceremony, Joonas awarded every little camper who had done something exceptionally brave that day a motivational sticker with animal characters and a text such as “Keep it up!” or “Proud of you!” or “WOW! You did it!” The kids had gone absolutely nuts about them on the first day already, and now everything they did during the camp was extremely sticker-driven. What had started as “Made it through the day although they really missed their mommy” and “Was not frightened of the frog that jumped on them without a warning” quickly became demands of being recognized for one’s fearlessness in eating their greens (“You’re supposed to do that,” Porko had argued) or going out in the rain without a raincoat (“That’s not bravery, that’s stupidity!”), to the extent it had become an inside joke of some sort. The mention of the stickers evoked a wave of cheers from the kids scattered around the trees in the small forest they had ventured to for their tree-climbing shenanigans. 

“Oh, yes, I’ll give you so many stickers,” Porko smiled and made exaggerated kissy-noises at Joel. Loud giggling sounded from the trees, like a troop of monkeys in a jungle was screeching at him, which then evolved into a rhythmic chanting to encourage Joel to “just do it!”

That’s when Porko jumped down from his branch and walked up to Joel, bringing his mouth close to Joel’s ear. 

“You know they won’t stop until you actually do it?” he whispered, and Joel appreciated the hint of regret and/or apology in his tone. 

Joel closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose as the howling became louder.

“Fuck this,” he muttered silently. “Fine, fine! I’ll do it!”

~

“You need to fill this form,” the black-haired receptionist of the local health centre said as he handed Joel a sheet of paper.

“I can do that for ya,” Niko, who had been so kind as to come and fetch Joel after his incident and drive him to A&E, said and took the paper in Joel’s stead. Joel was grateful for the gesture, considering his own writing hand was currently being kept in ice by his left one, but he felt like a right invalid, having Niko asking for his personal information and other details needed for the handout.

“Description of events?” Niko asked him. 

“Well, it all started when Porko–”

“Really, Joel? You’ve been friends with him for, what, almost ten years? You, if anyone , should know by now that nothing good will come out of any of Porko’s plans.”

The thing was, Joel did know that; yet he fell for Porko’s trap every single time. 

(And that was because, at the end of the day, Porko was actually the one person Joel would trust with his life and with whom he had experienced the greatest adventures and had the best laughs, and would continue to do so, no matter how many bones he would break along the way.)

“You’re one to talk,” Joel remarked, “or have you forgotten what a hassle it was to get an annulment when you two got hitched in Vegas?”

“At least I got a story to tell the grandkids one day,” Niko grinned and winked at the receptionist, who Joel hoped would be rolling his eyes or, the very least, ignoring such poor attempts at flirting, but instead laughed silently as he kept typing on his computer. 

The pain and swelling in Joel’s wrist had not eased one bit since he had been given an ice pack from Olli the camp chef, so he couldn’t help but let out a strained groan of discomfort as Niko took his sweet time filling in the pre-form for him. He furrowed his brows when Niko crouched over the paper, his nose almost touching the sheet.

“The hell are you doodling there? This is serious, Niko, I’m in actual pain here!”

“Oh, I just drew a picture of you falling from the tree,” Niko explained and showed his artwork, a stick figure with a grumpy expression, on his way down from a wonky-looking spruce.

“Are you quite done with the form?” the receptionist asked and took the paper from Niko’s hands, clearly holding back his laughter, just in time before Joel would explode and make a scene in the middle of the waiting room of the health centre.

“The question is, when are you done with your work shift?” Niko asked and leaned his elbows against the reception counter, smiling sweetly at the black-haired young man. 

“Oh my god…” Joel muttered under his breath. Hanging out with any of his friends really was the very embodiment of ‘out of the frying pan, into the fire’.

“Umm, well,” the receptionist said and chuckled, batting his eyes like a Disney princess, “actually I’m working overtime right now, filling in for my co-worker who couldn’t find a babysitter. She should be here in an hour or so though. After that…”

“...After that I’m sure you’ll be in need of some refreshments, no? You deserve it, don’t you, for working so hard–”

“HELLO?!” Joel squealed, making the two men finally break their enamoured eye-contact. “I'm having a kind of a situation here, if you don’t mind…?”

“Oh, yes, sorry,” the receptionist smiled sheepishly, “we have a bit of a queue right now, but one of our doctors will be able to have you within the next few hours.”

“Hours?!”

“I’m really sorry, sir,” the receptionist shrugged with an apologetic expression. “There’s fresh water in that jug over there on the table and a coffee machine just around the corner.”

Defeated, Joel left Niko to court the receptionist and slouched to the seats bordering the waiting room. The next few moments Joel spent with his eyes squeezed shut, trying to focus on anything else but the ache in his wrist and the fact he was surrounded by a dozen of random strangers with various forms of injuries (such as a grey-haired man with his thumb wrapped in blood-soaked tissues, a shabby-looking fella snoring and drooling on his own chest two seats away from Joel, and a kid with a Lego up his nose apparently), until he felt a nudge on his foot. 

Niko was standing in front of him, handing him a cup of steaming Americano.

“Aleksi just told me there’s been a last-minute cancellation,” he told Joel, who glanced at the alleged 'Aleksi', currently doing a poor job hiding his dopey smile as he stared at his computer screen. “A doctor should call for you soon.”

“Thanks,” Joel said quietly and took the coffee Niko was offering him, showing his gratitude both for the caffeine shot as well as for his friend using his charm for the benefit of others for once. Joel proceeded to nod at Aleksi, too; Joel supposed he could have given the free appointment to anyone in the room, so Niko must have promised him one hell of an evening in exchange for such a favour. 

Not more than five minutes later, a man’s low voice called for 'Mr. Hokka' from somewhere down the hallway, and Joel started navigating towards it. 

~

The doctor’s hands were pleasantly warm as they fondled Joel’s writs.

“Does this hurt?” he asked. In the echoey hallway, his voice had sounded sharp, but hearing it up close, it was just as soft and gentle as his touch.

That, combined with the broad shoulders and the neatly-barbered facial hair the doctor was sporting, Joel’s blood was rushing to all the places it wasn’t supposed to. 

(Porko would be proud, he thought.)

“N-no,” Joel stammered. He had to grab the edge of his chair to keep himself from falling on the floor when the doctor’s thumb lingered on the vein on his wrist, as if to feel his pulse. Conveniently, Joel’s heartbeat quickened against his will, making the doctor lift his gaze from Joel’s hand to his eyes.

“It’s hot,” the doctor said to break the brief silence.

The look he gave Joel was kind, almost like a wordless ‘it’s alright, you’re safe’, although it terrified Joel to think the man would know the cause of his current distress.

“Uhm…huh?” Joel was not sure he had heard the man correctly, from all the rushing of blood in his ears.

“Your wrist. It feels hot. For how long did you apply ice to it?”

The doctor was still holding Joel’s hand, his thumb now brushing the inside of Joel’s wrist back and forth  in a calming movement.

“I…ermmm…”

“How did you fall, if you remember? Your friend’s, ehm, drawing isn’t quite that detailed, I’m afraid.” 

Joel’s hand felt instantly cold when the doctor finally let go of it and turned to look at the form Niko had filled in. It was obvious he was trying his best not to laugh at Niko’s silly doodle.

“It happened so fast,” Joel replied. His hand felt lonely, somehow, resting on the tabletop, without the doctor’s careful attention.

“Did you hurt your head?”

Oh great, Joel thought, the handsome doctor thinks I have a loose screw or two. 

“No, I don’t think I did,” he answered, unsure whether his trembling voice did anything to convince the doctor.

“Hmm,” the doctor hummed, “You were lucky, then. The wrist doesn’t seem too bad either, possibly just a strain, but let’s wait for the x-ray results anyway. They should arrive in a bit.”

Joel nodded and moved his eyes from the doctor to his poor wrist, still red and swollen, but perhaps throbbing with pain a little less than when he first had arrived at the health centre in Niko's car. He knew it was foolish, but he couldn’t help but think that the doctor’s attentive touch alone had worked miracles on it.

“There’s one thing I don’t understand though,” the doctor said. “If you don’t mind enlightening me, how come you ended up in the tree in the first place?”

Joel looked up at the doctor. His lips were a thin line, but there was a twinkle in his eye that made Joel’s own lips quiver with amusement.

“If you have friends like mine, you wouldn’t be so surprised.”

“Ah, a daredevil, are you?” The doctor raised his eyebrow, his mouth blooming into a full smile.

Joel beamed back at the man; ‘daredevil’ sure sounded a lot more presentable than ‘provoked by 7-year-olds’.

“Well, as your doctor, I’m afraid I have to order you to restrain yourself from such exploits for a while, if you can.” The attractive curve remained on the doctor’s lips as he typed something on his computer. “Or at least avoid putting too much strain on the wrist. No lifting heavy things, no erratic movements…”

After the meaningful glance the doctor shot at Joel, accompanied by a subtle wink, it wasn’t difficult for Joel to imagine what kind of 'erratic movements' the doctor referred to, and suddenly Joel was squirming in his seat again, failing at his effort in trying to think about anything else except the doctor’s large hand offering Joel the help he would indeed be needing sooner or later, if the man kept on giving him such suggestive looks.

Soon the x-ray results came and, as the doctor had expected, there were no bone fractures in Joel’s wrist. The information was relieving, of course, but there was a part in Joel that dreaded the moment he’d face Porko again and undoubtedly receive a truckload of ribbing for how Joel had screamed as if he was to breathe his terminal breath any second, lying in pain on the soft turf.

“So! Is there anything else I can do for you?” The doctor stood up after he had prescribed Joel some strong painkillers. Joel’s chest sank; only then he realised their private time was about to come to an end, far too soon than he would have liked.

His wrist was now aching again, but not because of the injury; he craved for the other man’s touch on his skin once more, and his mind was now frantically working to find a solution to how he could feel it again.

He thought about his closest friends, imagining them in the same situation, although he knew it was no use; Porko would, undoubtedly, already be snogging with the man in the nearest cleaning closet, and Niko, too,  would most likely be well on his way to running his hand over the chest hair that peeked from the collar of the doctor’s shirt. Even Olli the camp chef would probably have charmed the man already by now, if not with his beguilement that was clumsy at best, then at least with the intimate bedroom eyes he mastered when he was feeling bold enough after a couple of beers, an intense stare to which even Joel wasn’t immune.

Joel himself, on the other hand? He was no flirt, despite his best attempts at the bar sometimes, encouraged by Porko and Niko who were in the firm belief that all of Joel’s problems were, essentially, due to the fact he was “so desperately single that their local corner pharmacy received half of its profit from Joel’s regular Bepanthen purchases to ease the blisters he got on his palms from having to jack himself off every other day.”

Alas, he had no go-to pick-up lines, no signature moves that would secure him at least a kiss at the door. He could only rely on the only decent human action he could think of in that moment that would, hopefully, not make him look as weird as he probably already seemed.

He extended his healthy hand for the doctor to shake.

“I, umm… thank you,” Joel sighed when he felt the soft skin against his again. He probably imagined it, but he felt the doctor’s thumb smooth the back of his palm, and for the two, maybe three seconds it lasted, Joel felt like the world around them disappeared. 

The doctor blinked at him slowly, and his red lips parted. Maybe he was about to say something, but a high ping sounding from Joel’s phone woke them both up from the trance they had momentarily fallen into, and soon Joel was already sitting in Niko’s car again, staring at Porko’s text message that had ended his moment with the doctor prematurely. 

He had been so lost in the man’s touch, his eyes, and his blinding smile, that he had completely missed the name tag the doctor had obviously been wearing.

They were almost at Joel’s apartment when he had an idea.

Dismissing Porko’s text asking if everything was okay, he opened the electric prescription the doctor had written him. His eyes didn’t have to wander on the phone screen for long before he found what he had been looking for. 

“What are you smiling about like that?” Niko looked at him side-eyed.

“Oh, nothing, just happy it ended up being nothing but a strain, after all,” Joel smiled.

He might not ever see the doctor again, but at least he had a name to moan when he would slide his hand down the front of his pants later that night.

~

Joel tried to wiggle himself out of Niko’s grip as his friend kept pulling him along the street. 

“I told you, Niko, I’ve just had a mild injury, I am not in the mood for a night out!”

Quite the contrary, tagging along to Niko who would, without a doubt, be sticking his tongue down his new date’s throat was the opposite of how Joel wanted to spend the evening after the day he had just had.

“Joel, I promise you, you’ll want to come.”

Joel grumbled all the way to the bar as Niko dragged him forward like an exceptionally unenthusiastic dog on a leash, but once they arrived, Joel understood what the hassle had been all about.

Niko walked them to the bar counter, where the receptionist named Aleksi greeted him with a kiss on the cheek.

Next to him, Joel’s doctor, Tommi, as Joel had read from the prescription, was sitting with a beer in hand.

“Oh. Hi,” Joel said to Tommi who nodded at him. His smile was even brighter than Joel remembered, even though only a few hours had passed since he had last seen it.

“Hey there, Joel,” Tommi replied and handed Joel a beer. “Fancy seeing you here.”

[theflyingfeeling]

Aww, so glad to see you doing promts!

Olli/Allu & 26, with some kisses under the rain? ❤

So glad to be WRITING prompts! 🥰 ..even though for some reason this particular one appeared to be a little more challenging and it took me two failed attempts until I finally got it right, so I REALLY hope you'll like it, anon 🥺

(bonus: it's a mökki/summer cottage AU! 😍)

26. I’m picking wildflowers for you when I get caught in the rain (2193 words)

~

Aleksi grimaced as the loft stairs creaked under his feet when he tried to sneak downstairs without waking up Olli. The sun had been above the horizon for several hours by now, and Aleksi had taken advantage of the situation by letting his eyes rest on his sleeping boyfriend, oblivious (or simply unbothered) by the light that illuminated the small bedroom despite the curtains drawn over the windows or the persistent mosquito flying right in front of his nose. Aleksi had been reluctant to squash the bug to death in between his palms in fear of disturbing Olli, so he had had to settle for simply blowing on Olli’s face to drive it away, which had only made the devilish creature more aggressive (and Olli hug his pillow with an even more content smile). Eventually the need to use the outhouse had grown too strong for Aleksi to resist and he had gotten up, minding his every step as he went down the wooden stairs of the Matela family’s summer cottage.

Olli had invited him over for the annual spring cleaning to tidy the place up before the upcoming season, and although Aleksi knew he would be of little to no use in actually helping out with any of the tasks – other than making sure the flames in the fireplace would not die out as he shivered in front of it, cocooned inside his sleeping bag – he found it impossible to turn down the invitation when Olli had looked at him with his worst (best) puppy eyes. Olli’s promise to try out the new swimming trunks Aleksi had bought him had settled the deal, even if the water in the nearby lake was still far too cold for any sorts of water activities they’d normally engage in.

At the bottom of the stairs Aleksi stopped to listen if Olli had awakened, but there was no rustling of sheets or sleepy yawning to be heard from the bedroom on the loft, so Aleksi proceeded with his tiptoeing through the mainroom and to the back door. He held his breath as he unlocked it and slipped outside, careful not to grant entry to any more mosquitoes. The rising sun hit his eyes with its ray and he lifted his hand to protect his vision as he made his way to the outhouse, wincing as his bare feet touched the cold ground wet from the morning dew. Opening the door of the small hut, he greeted the spider dwelling in the far right hand corner; they jokingly called it Joonas, knowing how much the friend in question would detest having an arachnid named after him, and even Aleksi had to admit that with its eight freakishly long legs spread in all directions as it sat in the middle of its web was an unsettling sight. Aleksi and the spider had made a deal, however: as long as it minded its own business the way Aleksi minded his, he supposed Joonas the spider could stay and do its part in trapping the flies and other flying insects that would be far more irritating company in the tiny booth.

Once back inside the cottage, Aleksi grabbed a crocheted quilt from one of the armchairs to wrap it around himself and crouched in front of the fireplace. With the house having stood lifeless and cold for seven months, everything was still unpleasantly cold and damp, and the mornings in particular were the worst, with the fire having died out and the temperature outside having fallen close to zero degrees during the night. In the comfort of the bed they slept in on the loft, with Olli’s warm body pressed next to his, it was the least of Aleksi’s worries, but downstairs he found himself chattering his teeth as he waited for the fire to flare up.

Soon enough the sound of cracking firewood filled the room and Aleksi could continue with his early morning chores. Walking past the dining table, he smiled fondly at the half-eaten box of assorted chocolates Olli had surprised him with the previous night and popped one in his mouth. He hoped the evening to come would be just as romantic and full of small miracles, with the two of them all cuddled up in front of the fire, their lips speaking sweet nothings as their hands explored each other’s bodies under the layers of clothing that would eventually become too much, and not only because of the heat of the flames.

However, the memories of the night before disappeared almost as easily as they had entered Aleksi’s head when he saw two empty water gallons on the kitchen counter and remembered they had used the last drops of fresh water to wash their teeth before tucking in.

“Ah, fuck,” he muttered to himself, saddened by the fact he wouldn’t get his morning coffee until either of them would bike half a kilometre to the well and fill the gallons again. 

“Whahh?” he heard Olli call out from upstairs.

“Nothing! Go back to sleep,” Aleksi replied, but a minute later Olli was stepping down the stairs, his eyes barely open and his hair an adorable mess. 

“Something wrong?” he said as he walked straight to Aleksi’s arms and placed his head on Aleksi’s shoulder, as if to continue his slumber there.

(Not that Aleksi would have objected.)

“We’re out of water.”

“Coffee?” Olli’s sleepy voice asked, making Aleksi smile into Olli’s hair helplessly; he had always found Olli’s inability to form full sentences in the morning insanely endearing. 

“No coffee, sorry,” he said and smiled even wider when Olli let out a quiet but lengthy whine.

“I’ll go and fill them,” he patted Olli’s back before sitting the man down on a kitchen chair. “I won’t be long.” Then he left a quick kiss on Olli’s forehead, grabbed the empty gallons and someone’s old windbreaker from the coat rack on his way out and headed towards Olli’s grandmother’s old Helkama.**

~

Despite being very much a city person and, thus, used to having all the basic facilities within his reach at all times, Aleksi did take some pleasure in the simple life at the countryside cottage. Sure, the lack of running water and electricity made a lot of things more complicated than they needed to be, but he enjoyed all the stillness and peace, the fresh air, and the fact that he was already in nature as soon as he stepped out the door. 

He even treasured the bumpy path to the well, much too narrow and rough for cars or any other motor vehicles to drive on. At first he had found it terribly inconvenient that they’d have to exercise in order to get fresh water, but once Olli had pointed out all the beautiful scenery there was to see on the way to the well, Aleksi no longer minded making the journey, even if driving back with two full water containers hanging from the handlebars was a task that required one’s full concentration. 

That was how he had, already on the first day of their extended weekend, learned that taking breaks to admire your surroundings was key to a successful water-fetching trip. On his way there, he stopped at the simple cabin Olli had told him was over a hundred years old and nowadays used as a smoke sauna by one of their cottage neighbours. The purple and yellow violets someone had planted below the smoky window provided a striking contrast against the logs greyed by the rough weather of the lakeside, and Aleksi took out his phone to snap a picture he would send to his mother later that day.

At the well he sat on the wooden bench that had most likely been put there for unsuspecting city boys such as himself to rest on when they grew tired of pumping water with the old hand pump. He didn’t have to wait long for the bird they had named Niko to fly on one of the spruces and begin his steadfast cuckooing; Aleksi liked to believe it was only eager to tell them about all the happenings of the nightime, but Olli had been convinced its only purpose was to annoy the shit out of them.

“That’s what Niko would do,” Olli had grinned, and it had been difficult for Aleksi to disagree.

His eyes taking in the forested scenery opening in front of him, he took notice of the dark blue clouds in the horizon and the fresh-smelling wind that had suddenly started playing with his hair. The signs of the approaching rain gave him the boost he needed to finish pumping water into the gallons until they were both full again and start making his way back to the cottage.

The wind was carrying the clouds towards Aleksi slowly but steadily. Still, Aleksi saw no need to rush, not when the quietness of the early morn nursed his mind and body to the extent that even the steep uphill that had him panting as he pedalled it up could lower his spirits. Nevertheless, he decided to give his thighs and calves a moment of rest and leaned on the handlebars to catch his breath once he had reached the top.

Then his eyes fixed on something he had missed all the previous times he had biked the path (or perhaps the magic had happened overnight): surrounding a large rock covered in moss, dozens of small white flowers were spread on the ground like someone had spilled a milk churn all over the green crops sprouting around the rock. Aleksi was not enough a horticulturist to recognise the flower and he hoped they weren’t protected or poisonous when he carefully set down the bicycle and the water gallons and stepped closer to pick up a few for the old <, chipped porcelain vase he remembered seeing on the kitchen windowsill. But once he got closer, he realised the blanket of white flowers extended far beyond the rock, and he became so mesmerised by the view that “a few” became a handful, then another, and soon enough he had enough flowers to fill the basket attached to the front of the bicycle. 

And so enamoured he had been with the pretty blossoms – as well as with the mental image he had of Olli’s face when he’d see the flowers – that Aleksi had completely failed to notice how the clouds had sneaked directly above him and were already drizzling small droplets of rain when he stumbled back to the path. By the time he had reached the old smoke sauna, the rain was coming down in buckets, drenching all his clothes and making the balancing with the two 10-litre water containers even more challenging. The flowers he had carefully set in the basket, however, remained completely dry and safe from the downpour under the baseball cap Aleksi had put on them. 

When he finally arrived in the yard of the Matela cottage, he was wet from head to toe, but still managed to give a smile to Olli who was standing on the porch, sheltered from the rain.

“Oh god, are you completely soaked?” he asked and jogged to help Aleksi with the water containers.

“Nah, it’s just a little shower. Refreshing,” Aleksi chuckled.

“What took  you so long? It’s only a few minute’s drive and you were gone for almost half an hour!” 

That was when Aleksi turned back to the bike and took the baseball cap, now also soggy down to every fibre, and revealed the bundle of white blossoms that had remained perfectly immaculate under the protection of his hat.

“I picked these for you.”

Olli’s mouth fell open, his eyes going back and forth between Aleksi and the flowers. It was even cuter than what Aleksi had dreamed back in the forest.

“For me?”

Aleksi blamed the adrenaline rush of hurrying back to the cottage for the warmth that was now spreading on his cheeks.

“Yeah. For you.”

Silently Olli took one of the flowers in his hand and stared at it in awe, like someone would stare at their newborn baby the midwife had finally put in their arms. 

“No one’s ever picked me flowers before.”

The revelation made Aleksi’s lungs free themselves of air. 

“Then I’ll go back tomorrow to make up for all the missed opportunities.”

Olli didn’t meet Aleksi’s gaze when he set the flower back in the basket, but then his arms wrapped tightly around Aleksi’s shoulders – even though his clothes were dripping with water and clinging on to his skin.

“You’re adorable,” Olli said and began covering Aleksi’s face with small, quick kisses that made Aleksi hungry for the man’s lips.

“Do you happen to know what those are called?” Aleksi asked him as his own lips tried to chase Olli’s mouth.

Olli could barely find the time to shake his head before proceeding with this important task of drowning Aleksi in another attack of sweet kisses. 

Neither of them ever learned what the name of the white forest flower was, but in his mind, Aleksi would always refer to them as Olli’s flowers.

~

PS. Yes, they have named other wild animals residing near the cottage after their friends as well: there’s Joel the seagull who screams at them from the skies when they sit on the front porch after sauna, and they really hope they’ll never cross paths with Tommi the brown bear their cottage neighbour’s remote camera had captured the other night, less than half a kilometre from their cottage 😬

~

**Helkama = a classic Finnish bicycle manufacturer

[theflyingfeeling]

I'll try to change my request, so let's try 37 with Joonas/Niko 🤗

Well chosen, friend! 🥺

I gotta say, I really love writing stories like the one below; stories that leave just enough for the reader's interpretation. In this one there's quite a bit left to read in between the lines... ✨

37. I keep wishing for you on dandelions and you catch me one time (2042 words)

~

I wish you looked at me the way you look at the crowd every night, like it’s made out of gold and everything that glitters.

I wish you’d hold my gaze after every time we kiss on stage, so that I’d know you’re losing your mind over it too.

Joonas was sitting on the doorframe of their tour bus, twirling a fluffy white dandelion between his fingers.

He still remembered what his mother had once told him, when he’d been about five or six years old.

“Did you know, Joonas, that if you close your eyes and make a wish as you blow on one of these, your wish might come true?”

“Really?!” little Joonas had squealed, his thoughts instantly wandering to the cool toy truck with a crane he had seen in the supermarket the day before.

“Do you want to try?” his mother had asked, holding a dandelion to Joonas.

So Joonas did as his mother had advised and squeezed his eyes shut. He used all the capacity in his 5-year-old brain to focus on his heart’s current desire, filled his lungs with air and puffed at the flower in his mothers hand. When he opened his eyes again, only a few tufts remained, and his mother blew the rest into the air. 

“Hey! It’s my dandelion! Find your own!”

“I was just helping you out,” his mother had smiled.

“But you don’t know what I wished for!”

His mother had said nothing more, only caressed Joonas’ chubby cheek, and Joonas had spent the rest of the day sulking at her for ruining his first ever dandelion wish.

“I promise I won’t intervene this time,” his mother had said in an attempt to make him try again, but Joonas had turned a deaf ear to her appeasement. The incident had been forgotten the next day, although Joonas had strongly refused to touch a dandelion again, until his faith had been restored when his grandparents had paid them a visit a few weeks later, bringing with them the toy truck of his dreams. Since then he had relied on dandelions in every turning point of his life.

Such was the case now, as Joonas looked at the ripe flower, trying to decide how to word his wish. 

I wish you wouldn’t let go of me so soon when you hug me.

I wish the moment we shared backstage yesterday had meant something; that your lingering touch had meant something; that you don’t show that soft side of you to anyone else but me.

I wish you liked me more than just a friend.

“Hey, Porko, we’re about to start the soundcheck!” Joonas was pulled back to reality when Joel shouted at him from the back door of their venue of the evening.

Sighing, Joonas settled for an incoherent combination of all his yearnings and blew the dandelion. Then he stood up and followed Joel to the dark of the venue.

~

I wish you’ll always laugh at my stupid jokes.

I wish you weren’t so quick to laugh it off when we drink too much and accidentally get boners while grinding on the dance floor.

I wish you’d have stayed longer in my bunk this morning.

Joonas’ ears were still ringing from all the loud noises of the concert as he leaned against the tour bus and took another drag on his cigarette. His other hand was clutching the now bald dandelion, its fuzz long gone with the wind.

Why was it so easy to express his feelings to a damn flower, but when Niko looked at him with his eyes brighter than the northern lights, the words got caught somewhere in Joonas’ throat and never saw the light of day? If Joonas hadn’t known any better, he would have started doubting the power of dandelions again; it was beginning to look like Niko was too far out their reach, after all.

It was eating him alive, to have Niko so close, yet it sometimes felt like he was miles away, heading somewhere Joonas wasn’t sure he was supposed to follow him.

“Joonas?”

He had no idea when Olli had appeared next to him, his shoulder pressed against the tour bus as he faced Joonas. 

“‘Sup,” Joonas acknowledged him.

“You good?”

Joonas couldn’t stop the sad chuckle breaking out of his mouth. 

“I’m alright,” he replied nevertheless and took one last drag before dropping his cigarette on the pavement and putting it out.

“You sure? You’ve seemed..off, lately.”

It was foolish to assume his oldest friend would not have noticed his lovesick exploits. That is why Joonas only exhaled deeply, trusting it would speak louder than his words could have in that moment. 

“Is there something I could do to help? At all?”

The offer made Joonas smile again; Olli may have been a bit of a simpleton sometimes, especially when intoxicated, but damn if he wasn’t a great friend.

“Hand me that, will you?” Joonas pointed at the lone dandelion sprouting in between the asphalt and the concrete wall of the venue. 

“This?” Olli said as he ripped the flower off its barren seedbed.

Olli held out the dandelion for Joonas, but instead of taking it from his hand, Joonas wrapped his own fingers around Olli’s fist.

“I’m gonna need your help a little.”

“Uh-huh?” Olli’s  confused smile told Joonas the bassist had no clue of his intentions. 

“I need you to close your eyes and empty your mind,” Joonas ordered, then added with a lower tone: “...which should be easy enough for you.”

“Hey!” Olli exclaimed, but his eyes were already closed. “Okay, now what?”

“Blow on the flower when I say ‘now’, alright?”

“Alright,” Olli shrugged.

Then Joonas closed his own eyes, clearing his own mind of anything else but a pair of emerald eyes. 

I wish you’d come to me tonight. 

“Now,” he commanded, and together they blew on the dandelion, sending the white seeds twirling in the air.

Perhaps another person’s contribution was just what was needed to strengthen the magic of dandelions to affect even someone as magical as Niko?

~

The more Joonas stared at the dandelion, the more it began to look like an oil painting. Something hot rolled down his cheek and he caught it with his thumb just before it would have fallen down and hit the ground.

I wish I could forever fall asleep playing with your hair.

I wish the warmth of the mattress next to me wasn’t the only evidence of your presence when I wake up.

I wish I knew what it means when you don’t even look at me the whole day, then once the sun sets you’re in my space again and it kills me a little more than it did the day before.

Joonas didn’t know how he was supposed to wrap his head around it, around Niko. He only knew that he wanted to wrap his arms around the man and keep him there for as long as he could help it, with his nose buried in Niko’s hair and his ear pressed against Niko’s temple, if for nothing else but a creative attempt to hear Niko’s thoughts. 

They say that the eyes are the window to one’s soul, but Niko’s, albeit dazzling and intense, could sometimes be so dark and unreadable that Joonas could only dream of knowing what was going on behind them.

Holding on to the thought, Joonas took in a quick breath and blew the dandelion fuzz into the air. His watery eyes followed them as far as they could against the orange sunset sky, until they disappeared from his sphere of vision and all Joonas could see were tiny flying bugs buzzing around in the spring evening. 

Joonas glanced at the instrument case next to him, resting against the back tire of the tour bus. For a second he considered taking out his guitar and strum his sorrows away while the others were enjoying the headline concert inside the venue, but then his eyes fixed on the only remaining dandelion growing on the small patch of grass next to the parking lot.

He crouched to pick it up, and that’s when he realised he wasn’t alone.

There had been no footsteps, but Joonas would recognize the shape of the shadow any day, anywhere.

“Wishing on dandelions or what?”

Joonas quickly wiped his nose on his wrist and stood up, crushing the stem of the dandelion in his palm.

“What if I was?” he chuckled. The lump in his throat was suffocating him when he turned to look at Niko; his eyeliner was smudged, his long hair was a mess and there was a sway to his step when he walked closer to Joonas.

The sight was eerily imperfect and all Joonas could make himself look at in that moment. 

“I’d expect nothing less from you, Porko,” Niko grinned and didn’t seem to be able to stop his feet from dragging himself to Joonas, so close his nose almost bonked on Joonas’ chest. Niko giggled to himself as he leaned against Joonas, and from the light melody of Niko’s laughter Joonas could tell it was going to be one of those nights again.

The kind of night that made Joonas feel foolish for believing in such things as dandelion wishes the morning after, until he’d feel Niko light up a sparkle of hope inside him with the faintest of touches once again. 

But when Niko looked up at Joonas and stared into his eyes, Joonas noticed he maybe wasn’t quite as drunk as he appeared to be.

“What do you wish for, then, dreamer boy?”

I wish you knew.

“I can’t tell, obviously,” Joonas forced his trembling lips into a smile. “They won’t ever come true if I do.”

Niko kept their gazes locked, and in that moment it felt as if Joonas’ whole universe consisted of this gorgeous man and the dandelion he was still clasping in his hand.

“Does it work?” Niko asked quietly. “Have any of your dandelion wishes come true recently?”

I wish I knew how to tell you.

Joonas shook his head.

“How come?”

I wish I knew why.

“Maybe they’re on it, but so far no luck.”

Niko nodded, like Joonas’ explanation was in any way plausible.

“But you’ll keep trying still?”

I wish I wouldn’t have to. 

“I have to,” Joonas said.

“Why?” 

Niko’s eyes kept staring into his, until for the briefest moment they focused at something below Joonas’ nose. 

I wish you could see it.

“Because I don’t know what else to do.”’

The green eyes were back on Joonas’ then, disarming Joonas from the defence he never had to begin with.

“About what?”

Joonas didn’t want to make himself believe the fierce, almost knowing look Niko gave him was nothing else but the makings of his vivid imagination and wishful thinking.

“I…” Joonas tried, but the harder he begged for the words to come out, the farther away they hid somewhere inside him.

His fingernails dug into his palm as he kept holding on to the dandelion.

I wish–

He never got to finish his wish, the one he had been saving for when he would be most desperate.

Because in the blink of an eye, he had no dandelion to wish on; with a quick motion, Niko snatched the flower from his grip, lifted it to his lips, and with one sharp puff of air he blew it free of the white tufts, never breaking eye-contact with Joonas. 

And in the next blink of an eye, Joonas felt hands on his cheeks and a pair of lips on his own.

Hundreds of dandelion wishes sent off with the spring breeze, and the one stolen right out of his hands ended up being the one finally fulfilling them. Joonas would have laughed at it, had his mouth and vocal chords not been otherwise occupied.

When they broke the kiss, Niko’s cheeks were flushed and his eyes looked even wilder than before. Even halfway into getting lost in them, Joonas could see Niko’s lips moving and hear his voice speaking, quiet and soft, but the sound would ring in his ears for days, weeks, years to come:

“I wish for you.”

[theflyingfeeling]

#13 sounds like Olli to me, with Aleksi or Joonas, as you choose

Since I already did Olli/Joonas (and I've got more of them to come with later prompts), I'm gonna go with the always cute Olli/Allu for this one 😌

13. I’m having a bad day, starting with falling backwards into the local fountain, and you help me out (2114 words)

Olli sighed and pulled his cap deeper in on his head to keep it from taking off with the wind. He looked at his watch and tapped at it to make sure it hadn’t run out of battery. A second later the minutes changed from 30 to 31, matching the time on the old bell tower clock next to the market square. 

Aleksi was late. 

Olli shouldn’t have been surprised, really, as Aleksi had a habit of finding the comfort of his sofa much more alluring than getting up and going on about his day, more often than not. Olli had spent enough nights (and, consequently, mornings that followed) at Aleksi’s to have noticed this by now, and although he couldn’t help but admit Aleksi’s sofa was pretty comfortable indeed, being on the receiving end of the other man’s lethargic tendencies drove him up the wall sometimes.

With a defeated grumble, Olli sat on the edge of the fountain they had agreed to meet at before going on a brunch together. It had been two weeks since they had last seen each other in person, with Aleksi on a business trip in L.A. (and Olli, well, doing little else but writing his master’s thesis and waiting for Aleksi to come back), so Olli was growing rather impatient about getting to wrap his arms around Aleksi and burying his nose in his hair once more. 

He took out his phone and stared at his lock screen, a picture he had taken of Aleksi just a day before Aleksi had to leave for California, on the first warm day of the spring. They had lain cuddling in bed almost until noon, and having realised what a beautiful day it was – and how empty Aleksi’s fridge was – they had leisurely sauntered downtown for late breakfast and ice cream. The way Aleksi’s tongue was licking the raspberry gelato in the picture Olli had snapped without the man noticing made Olli crumple up by the side of the fountain; the last couple of days of Aleksi’s trip had been pure misery from Olli’s part at least, seeing how exhausted Aleksi had been after a long day of meeting and not being able to comfort him other than with slightly awkward words of affection and an endless string of heart emojis. But now, finally back in the fatherland, Mr. Worldwide had the audacity to not even show up.

Sure, Olli knew it had been well past midnight when Aleksi had returned home, and despite Olli’s reassurance that he would not mind in the slightest staying up and waiting for him or even meet him at the airport to bring him home, Aleksi had insisted he should go to his own house instead as to not disturb Olli’s sleeping schedule. Aleksi had justified his decision by claiming he would probably be terrible company after his flight anyway, sleep-deprived and stressed out, although Olli knew he only wanted to appear chivalrous and modest, or at least that’s what Joonas had managed to convince him when he had complained about the arrangement to Joonas just the day before. 

Once Olli had successfully held back the tears of longing and budding resentment, his eyes focused back on Aleksi’s tongue. The busy market place around him disappeared when he imagined how the tongue would sneak in between his own lips and explore the insides of his mouth, how it would travel down his neck, past his chest, maybe do rounds at his nipples before heading further down and oh lord, Olli was going to need a cold shower, because greeting his boyfriend for the first time in weeks with a boner down his pants was not how Olli had planned for Aleksi’s homecoming to go.

(Not at this time of the day, at least.)

As it turned out, he had been so lost in his miserable, Aleksi-less world that when a sudden gust of the wind blew Olli’s cap off his head, it was already in the pool of the fountain before his reflexes had him groping on thin air.

“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath, eyes fixed on the cap as it floated in the water like some kind of metaphor of his current despair. 

He kneeled on the edge of the fountain, which was easier said than done, considering its rounded shape that wasn’t exactly ideal for balancing your body weight on. However, the calm, yet persistent current of the water kept drifting his hat further away from him by the second, so Olli had no time to lose if he wanted it back before it would disappear in the vortex created by the fountain in the middle of the monument.

With his left hand supporting him against the edge, he reached his right hand towards the now soaked cap, and just when his fingers were only centimetres away from finally grabbing it, a familiar voice spoke to him out of the blue.

“What are you doing, honey?”

“Aleksi!”

It was all Olli had time to yelp before he fell head first in the water.

On the bright side, he no longer had to worry about his semi-hard erection, as the chilly water did its job in cooling him down from head to toe, so that when he finally climbed out with the help of his boyfriend, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, the only desire his body was shivering from was that of wanting to climb back to his bed and wallow in his self-pity. 

Aleksi’s hand rubbed his back softly as he coughed water out of his lungs.

“What just happened?” Olli was saddened by the fact that he could not truly revel in hearing Aleksi’s voice right next to his ear instead of through the speakers of his computer.

“You were late!”

Soaked strands of hair were swept off his face. 

“I know, honey, and I’m sorry! I was so sleepy when I came home that I fell asleep the second I lay down and forgot to set the alarm, and then I got stuck in traffic and couldn’t even text you because my phone had ran out of battery overnight and I didn’t have a charger with me in the car and I’m so so sorry, Olli!”

Feeling cold and wet all over, Aleksi’s kisses on his cheek offered little warmth.

…But they did offer a little warmth, in the end.

“I missed you,” Olli said quietly and leaned against Aleksi’s touch when the man wrapped his arms around Olli’s shoulders. He could sense that the other people in the market square were looking at the scene they had caused and that he probably was a miserable sight, but with Aleksi’s lips on his temple it was difficult to make himself give a shit.

“I missed you too, oh god, how I missed you! You don’t know how many times I almost called my boss and told him I was gonna take the next flight home.”

Somehow, hearing Aleksi had shared his sentiments over the past weeks made Olli feel a whole lot better.

“Then tell me.”

“Huh?” Aleksi asked, lips still pressed against the side of Olli’s head.

���How many times did you almost call your boss and quit because you missed me?”

“Ohh,” Aleksi finally retreated his lips and rested his chin on Olli’s shoulder, “every time I said goodnight to you. I wanted to be there with you so bad, to tuck you in, sing you a little song maybe...”

The confession made Olli chuckle. “You’ve never sung me a lullaby before.”

“No, but I intend to start now.” Olli turned his head enough to see Aleksi smile at him. “And I hated waking up alone in that pompous hotel, with no one to share the room service breakfast with.”

“Oh, yeah, sounds like you had a terrible time there.”

The arms around Olli tightened their hold on him. 

“Okay, I admit the hotel was pretty sweet, but I hope you can believe me when I tell you that it would’ve been so much better if you had been there with me.”

Olli’s eyes fell close when he felt a nose nuzzling his cheek.

“Maybe you should take me with you next time, then.”

“Maybe I will,” Aleksi purred and, at long last, cupped Olli’s cheek with his hand and guided him to a kiss. 

When they pulled apart, the spring breeze made Olli tremble in his sodden clothes.

“Seriously though, what on earth were you up to before I came?”

Olli turned his head and tried to locate his hard-luck headgear. He found it having gotten caught on the foot of the sculpture jutting out from the middle of the fountain.

“My cap fell in,” he explained and pointed a finger at the accessory in question. 

“And then…you fell in,” Aleksi recalled the events. His restrained tone made Olli snap his head to look at the man again, only to find him sucking his lips in, his shoulders shaking subtly.

“You’re laughing!”

“I’m not!” Aleksi argued, but the smile that broke on his face wasn’t in line with his words.

“You are laughing at my tragedy and you are the worst boyfriend,” Olli continued, although he did a poor job in holding back his own, helpless smile when Aleksi squeezed him even tighter. 

“I’m sorry, honey,” and with one more kiss to Olli’s cheek, he was forgiven. “Let’s get you into some dry clothes now, yeah?”

~

“You can’t be serious, Aleksi.”

“I'm very serious, now let’s go in,” Aleksi pulled Olli along by his hand, but Olli held back.

“You cannot drag me in the BOSS shop looking like this!”

Aleksi seemed to notice the distress he was in, as he pulled Olli aside from the doorway they were blocking and brought a hand to Olli’s shoulder. 

“Listen, I’m friends with the store manager, it’s alright.” He then looked Olli up and down, taking in his soggy state, and pursed his lips contemplatively. “Okay, wait here a second.”

And before Olli could tell him he was in no hurry to go anywhere except his own apartment to try and disappear off the face of earth, Aleksi had already entered the store and left him alone by the door, feeling utterly exposed under the gazes of passers-by who glared at him like he was a pile of dog poo someone had neglected to pick up after their poodle. After a while Olli saw the security guard approach him, his massive fist almost crunching the walkie-talkie in his hand, and was certain the hunk was about to call the cops on him for tainting the store’s immaculate image with his sorry existence, but then Aleksi appeared as abruptly as he had left him and took Olli by his hand.

“Come on!”

Aleksi hurried them through the store, and if Olli hadn’t been busy trying to keep up with his boyfriend, he would have died of the embarrassment of stomping around a luxury fashion store looking – and feeling – like a drowned rat straight out the sewer.

Having reached the farthest corner of the store, Aleksi pushed him through a door, and suddenly Olli found himself standing in the middle of what seemed to be a private fitting room of sorts. On the wall, a perfectly clean and dry outfit of a black dress shirt and a pair of jeans, complete with boxer shorts and white tennis socks, was placed neatly on coathangers as if waiting for Olli to put them on.

“You…arranged this? In like, what, ten minutes?”

But Aleksi only smiled, and soon his arms were around Olli’s neck again and his lips found Olli’s in a gentle kiss. The situation was surreal, to put it nicely, but Olli swallowed any complaints that were about to leave his mouth when Aleksi’s firm body pressed Olli against the wall of the small room they were in, because had that not been exactly what Olli had been waiting to do every minute of every day for the past two weeks? It would have been pure madness to turn Aleksi down then, when his mouth was so hot against his and his fingers so soft on his chest.

Not to mention the leg that was slowly, so slowly massaging the front of Olli’s trousers.

“Aleksi,” Olli broke the kiss when he felt his cock twitch under Aleksi’s teasing touch. “Aleksi, we can’t. We are in public, for Christ’s sake.”

Aleksi’s pupils were blown when he stared into Olli’s eyes; Olli should have known better than to argue with him in this state.

“I guess you better keep quiet, then,” Aleksi smiled and went down on his knees.

[theflyingfeeling]

Prompt no. 10 with joonas/olli? 🥺

Awww, that's a cute one! 🥰

10. I have SAD and you drag me out to do all the fun spring things to wake me up from my hibernation (2866 words)

~

Olli could tell who was behind the door by the way the doorbell chimed exactly four times; Joonas may not have been the most neurotic of Olli’s friends – it was Joel who had that credit – but he did hold an irrational loathing of odd numbers. “What if the leftover number gets lonely?” had been the answer when Olli had once asked him about it, and although Olli had been tempted to point out that mathematical figures likely have no feelings and are, thus, unable to grasp the concept of lonesomeness, he had simply smiled and nodded, as if the Porko way of thinking was logical in any aspect.

He noticed his thoughts had begun drifting again when the doorbell sounded another four times. The soft but insisting noise had him nuzzling his face against the throw pillow under his head and muffle his helpless wail on the worn fabric. Apart from having a thing for even numbers, Joonas was also known for having an exceptional hearing, scaringly so, in fact; on more than one occasion, Olli had suspected the man could hear inside his head, which was unsettling to say the least.

There was a short silence after the second sequence of the rhythmic doorbell melody, and then there were exactly four knocks that Olli could only just hear through the double door. When he cracked his eyes open enough to see his phone screen light up on the coffee table, he thanked his past self for turning the device on mute. 

He wasn’t avoiding Joonas, mind you. He was avoiding everyone.

He was avoiding Niko, whose spirits were 100% restored once the thermal spring started, and it was a rare evening when he wasn’t bombarding the group chat with invitations to get beers at every terrace in town (Olli had beer in his fridge and a balcony opening from his living room, so excuse him if he didn’t quite understand the appeal).

He was avoiding Aleksi, who always seemed to panic about the amount of sunlight each spring and was, therefore, working twice as hard as he had been during the darker times of the year (it usually passed as the spring progressed, but it made Olli feel awfully bad about himself for the time it lasted nevertheless, as all he could find the willpower to do was drinking aforementioned beer on aforementioned balcony).

He was avoiding Joel, who was actually his usual nervous self even in springtime, safe for the pitiful longing he always adopted on his face when the sunset gave Aleksi’s bright eyes an orange hue (it was none of Olli’s business of course, but it was eternally frustrating, knowing the vocalist would rather let the market square seagulls peck him alive than admit his crush to their percussionist).

He had had faith in Tommi, given the man was unlikely to let even the sudden arrival of the next ice age destabilise his daily affairs, but this spring in particular Tommi, too, had a new kind of glow to his eyes that made him view the world with such delight and confidence that even his company had been unbearable lately. 

Olli knew he was being a proper downer and he hated himself for it, but he simply couldn’t force himself to even pretend he got a kick out of being out and about, surrounded by laughing, sociable people basking in the sun as if their lives depended on it while all he wanted to do was bury himself under the blankets and instead pretend he didn’t exist until the seasons would change to be more in favour of shy and socially awkward basket cases such as himself.

He wasn’t sure why, though. His best guess was that all the increased sunlight made him feel exposed, somehow. Perhaps he was afraid that without the shield of darkness and shadows, everyone would see him for the clumsy fool he was; the sun would point its flaming finger at each and every one of his errors and mishaps, so he’d rather stay in, where nobody could call attention to his many faults (an unreasonable fear, he knew, yet it always navigated to his chest every year in April and built a nest there like a migratory bird (the common chaffinch, Olli liked to think) and laid a dozen eggs there that wouldn’t hatch and fly away until the leaves started turning yellow and red again in late August).

And yes, Olli was avoiding Joonas as well, but not because the man had embraced an insufferable habit around the time of the vernal equinox; no, Porko was Porko 365 days of the year. His only fault was, ironically and rather tragicomically, being too good a friend.

To Olli’s great frustration, Joonas saw it as his personal responsibility to try and bring Olli back to the land of the living from the comforting zone of his dusty apartment he had locked himself in last November with no intention to step outside unless he ran out of beer. Joonas’ methods, however, were eclectic and many, and more often than not Olli would eventually surrender and pop his head out, just to see what Joonas was on about. 

And the thing about Joonas Porko was that if you gave him an inch, he’d soon take a whole goddamn yard.

Not this time, though, Olli thought to himself as he pulled his blanket to his ears and snuggled deeper into his sofa. I’m perfectly fine over here, hidden from the world and that giant, blazing star you all worship so; you can stick it up your bums for all I care and laugh your stupid fake-laughs about it until you choke on your artisan ales.

His phone screen had turned off a while ago, Olli realised, and he was surprised to see how quickly Joonas had given up on him this time.

That was when Olli heard the mail slot clank, and then the echoes of the deserted stairway of the building carried the sound of the front door opening and closing. 

He managed to fight his self-control a good five, maybe ten minutes until his curiosity got the best of him and he stood up, still wrapped in the fleece comforter his mother had given him for Christmas last year, and plodded to the hallway to see if the noise had been nothing but a trick of his mind.

The inner door creaked when Olli opened it and revealed two yellow dandelions on the floor. 

Olli sighed and shook his head when he picked up the flowers, but as he looked at them, he imagined Joonas crouching by the side of the road to pick up weeds, counting them as he did; one more always became two more, because flowers would definitely understand such human sentiments as loneliness  (at least if you were to ask Joonas Porko). 

The smile Olli had so bravely tried to resist was reaching his ears by the time he was back in the living room with a phone in his hand.

~

“We’re gonna do what?” Olli frowned when Joonas led him down the road, a gloved hand holding his already freezing one. 

He was already regretting letting Joonas drag him out when he had appeared at his door in the morning.

“We’re gonna climb a tree!”

Olli looked at his friend as if he had just announced he was going to build a spacecraft and travel to Mars.

“Why?!”

“Well, why not?” Joonas shrugged, like climbing a tree was an every-day activity for him.

(And, well, knowing Porko, it might just have been.)

“Because we’re not eight years old?”

“And haven’t you missed it all these years, huh?” Joonas stopped walking and stepped to stand in front of Olli. His hand rested at the back of Olli’s neck, his fingertips playing with the tufts of hair there. “Now, wipe that silly pout off your face and relax, alright?”

Olli rolled his eyes.

“For me, Olli? Please?” Joonas batted his big eyes and tilted his head just enough to perfect his most insufferable pleading face. 

The funniest thing was that Joonas wouldn’t even have to use his puppy eyes on Olli; “for me?” did the trick just as fine. 

(Because for himself, Olli could barely manage to open the fridge and cook himself a meal some days, but for Joonas? Oh, for him, Olli would make the whole world from scratch.)

Olli instantly missed the warmth of Joonas’ hand when they arrived at a tall oak tree and Joonas let go of him to grab one of the lowest branches. To Olli it didn’t look nearly thick enough to carry the weight of a grown man, but Olli was in the firm belief that Joonas would learn the best from his own mistakes.

Indeed, the branch let out a questionable creak when Joonas leaned on it, after which the man abandoned the idea and tried another, a notably steadier one on the other side of the trunk and hurled himself on it before extending his hand towards Olli. 

Olli was only a little nervous when the branch creaked ominously as he sat next to Joonas, but his worries were replaced with peace and birdsong when Joonas’ hand wrapped around his waist and his nose touched Olli’s temple. He leaned against the touch and closed his eyes, a smile tugging at his lips.

“Not sure this counts as climbing a tree, though.” Olli said, dangling his feet barely half a metre above the ground.

Joonas’ breath felt warm when he chuckled against Olli’s cheek.

“Santeri would kill us if we showed up at the tour bus in June with plaster casts.”

Olli agreed, although the scent of Joonas next to him had erased all the vocabulary to voice his opinion off his already scattered brain.

~

Olli was quite satisfied with himself for having survived One Spring Activity™ and contently thought it would be enough to convince himself and others that he was, against all odds, a functionable human being. Joonas, of course, begged to differ, as Olli was soon to find out when his oldest friend appeared behind his door again the next day.

“But it’s raining!” Olli complained and, for good measure, pointed out his window in case Joonas had somehow missed the downpour on his way to Olli’s apartment. “What could you possibly do in a weather like this, other than lie in bed watching films?” he asked and wistfully glanced at his TV, currently paused halfway through The Two Towers.

“You’re gonna help me plant my herbs.”

Olli smiled but shook his head.

“No, I’m not.”

“You are,” Joonas nodded insistently, “Joel would come too, but he’s busy this time. It’s our annual tradition, actually.”

“Sure he is,” Olli muttered, and no matter how hard he tried, he could not imagine Joel getting his fingertips black unless it was nail polish. 

Still, sooner than Olli registered, he found himself filling a brick red claypot with soil and some smelly stuff Joonas said was fertiliser. 

“This will be basil,” Joonas explained as he worked on his own pot. “What shall we name him?”

Olli blinked, but seeing how Joonas went on with his task without dropping a beat, it appeared he was dead serious about giving a seed plant a name.

“But it’s…a basil,” Olli pointed out nevertheless, although he knew it would be in vain.

“Yes, and he should have a name, so that I’ll know who I’m directing my praise and encouragement to,” Joonas elaborated patiently. 

Olli was horrified to find himself thinking that it almost made sense.

“Can’t you just name it…Basil.”

“Basil the Basil?” Joonas looked at him unimpressed.

“It’s a name,” Olli assured him and hoped Joonas wouldn’t take out his phone and check if it actually was, for Olli himself actually wasn’t half as certain as he may have sounded.

“Alright,” Joonas shrugged to his relief, “but I’ll have you know that among friends he’s called Olli.” 

The look of triumph on Joonas’ face was equal amounts  endearing and annoying, and for a second Olli considered throwing the lump of soil in his hand at it.

“Then I guess it’s only reasonable we name the tarragon after Joel.”

To hell with the singing of the blackbird; Joonas’ hearty laughter was much more beautiful to Olli than any sound of the spring.

~

Although they had had fun sitting on an old oak watching the brimstones fly by and naming Joonas’ unborn herbs after all their mutual friends, Olli was all but ready to retreat to his bedroom for the rest of the spring and maybe come back out to join the others at Niko’s summer cottage for midnight sauna and beers. Yet, when the doorbell rang four times once more the next day, Olli did not stop his feet from walking to the door and greeting Joonas. He was wearing a dandelion behind his ear and offered Olli the one in his hand. 

“Come,” he said and grabbed Olli’s hand, “today I’ve got something special to show you.”

Olli did not know where Joonas was taking him, walking them down narrow alleyways Olli would have avoided at all cost had it not been full daylight and Joonas’ hand in his, until they arrived at the gate of a small park Olli vaguely remembered having biked past a couple of times but never really paid much attention to before.

As if to check everything was alright, Joonas glanced at Olli and squeezed his hand before stepping in through the gate and leading him ahead with determination in his step. It was an elegant and well kept park from what Olli could tell, with colour-coordinated plantings and even a small fountain, which was why Olli was surprised the only people they saw were an elderly man resting on a bench and a young woman walking her spaniel. 

Somewhere in the middle of the park there was a small log cabin. Olli’s eyes lit up when he noticed the menu hanging on the wall next to its front door – Joonas’ unexpected appearance in the morning had interrupted his intentions to get breakfast – but then he saw the sign on the door that read SORRY WE’RE CLOSED and pursed his lips that would not get to wrap around a BLT or a brownie after all.

After his disappointment had passed, he was about to ask where in the world was Joonas taking him if not for a brunch at this secluded little café that seemed quite special indeed, but then he was being pulled behind the cottage, and suddenly he understood. 

At what seemed to be the backyard of the café, they were soon standing on a small pathway shaded by trees not taller than two metres, growing on both sides of the trail, their branches reaching over the gravel like an arch. When Olli looked up, instead of the blue sky he saw small, pink flowers blooming among green leaves, slightly smaller than what Olli had seen in the pictures he browsed whenever he daydreamed about a trip to Japan, and perhaps they were a little stunted as well, but he was still speechless and could only gawk at sight above them.

“They’re young trees, so the blossom isn’t very strong yet,” Joonas said quietly (to not hurt the flower’s feelings, Olli assumed). 

Olli heard his friend inhale and exhale deeply before he continued.

“But I couldn’t wait for any longer,” Joonas turned to look at Olli. “I wanted for you to see them.”

Joonas’ thumb rubbed the back of Olli’s palm, and Olli used it to ground himself enough to speak, despite his lungs being short of breath and his mind empty of coherent thoughts at Joonas’ words.

“You did?” He wished he’d have something more intelligent to offer to the conversation, but the way Joonas’ blue eyes reflected the colour of the flowers was too mesmerising for him to keep his head clear.

Joonas smiled and squeezed Olli’s hand so hard it almost hurt. “I thought it could…äh, nevermind.” Joonas laughed briefly and looked down at the gravel beneath their feet. A single pink petal fell on his blond curls.

“No, tell me,” Olli insisted and stepped closer, not realising what he had done until Joonas looked up again and touched Olli’s nose with his.

“I thought it could make you see how beautiful spring can be. If you stop and look,” Joonas said. The blue in his eyes had turned hazy.

“I never doubted it,” Olli told him. 

“Then what is it?” Joonas but whispered as he pulled Olli closer and looked at him in a way that had Olli believe he wanted to hear about all his sorrows. 

“Rather I…doubt myself, or something,” Olli chuckled but held his breath when Joonas’ fingertips touched his cheek.

Joonas’ smile was affectionate and warm, not sardonic or dismissive like Olli had always feared. 

“Why would you?” Joonas’ lips were almost touching Olli’s now. “You’re way more beautiful than the cherry blossoms and the spring itself anyway.”

It wasn’t easy for Olli to place confidence in Joonas’ words, but the way his lips moved against his own sure helped with the matter.

[theflyingfeeling]

Could you do 05 with Niko/Olli? I think it's something Niko would do 😄

P.S. not Finland, and it's been more than +15°C for only 3 days here, so you're not alone 🤝

Oh, most definitely! Great choice, my friend 💓

P.S. And isn't it the worst? 😩 Spring, where art thou?

05. I’m reading under my favourite tree and you introduce yourself as the author. (2545 words)

~

The weather was a bit chillier than it had looked when Olli had peeked out the window in the morning, and he regretted not bringing a warmer jacket. Stubborn to enjoy the little sunlight he was being graced with, Olli packed his backpack with a light lunch of rye bread sandwich and a smoothie he had blended the night before, a small pillow to sit on and his current read, and stepped outside. He defied the gloomy, blueish grey clouds that roamed just above the horizon, hoping they’d have the sensitivity to dodge at least the park he was headed to. 

Arriving in the green area, his eyes immediately focused on the large, budding  elm that towered over its smaller siblings and distant cousins, its far-reaching branches offering a shadow for all sorts of leisure time endeavours, such as playing mölkky with your friends, having a romantic picnic with your sweetheart, or reading an entertaining novel, which, indeed, was Olli’s chosen pastime.

He was pleased to find the shade of the tree vacant, as one would rightly assume at eleven in the morning on a weekday. He’d have a generous couple of hours to kill before he’d have to return home and start getting ready for his afternoon shift at the library café, and he intended to spend them by resuming the fairly new paperback he had picked up from the library the other day.  From what he had understood after twelve chapters, it was a coming-of-age story of sorts, narrating the tale of a young man in his twenties with a dream of becoming a world-famous musician while also battling against the demons of his past. As the plot unfolded, Olli realised he could easily recognise himself in some of the insecurities of the main character Robert, which was comforting and troubling at the same time, while also being the main reason he found it impossible to put the book down.

At the end of the chapter he had left off the night before, Robert had just been invited to an underground party by a rather flamboyant person Robert referred to as “Pork” with whom he had made acquaintance earlier in the chapter. Olli was yet to find out the real name of the new character – not to mention the story behind the unusual nickname – but he was positive it would all make sense in the end (or at least he really hoped so).

Olli appreciated the author’s impatience as he began reading chapter thirteen and noticed the hero of the story was well on his way to the mysterious gathering; it didn’t take long for Robert to find “Pork” and for the two of them to seclude themselves from the rest of the crowd in some deserted restroom.

Then the plot took an unexpected turn.

Olli’s mouth went dry as he read about “Pork” gripping Robert by the hips and pushing him against the sink while grinding his own on the other man’s crotch. The situation escalated quickly when the third-person narrator described how Robert’s tongue slid along “Pork’s” exposed chest and neck, and suddenly Olli felt a heat pool in his own lower stomach. Now even more than earlier he was happy he  seemed to be alone in the park as he fixed the front of his shorts to make himself more comfortable.

Robert felt his arousal awakening when Pork panted in his ear, whispering obscenities that would have had a more bashful man turning scarlet. Not Robert, though, for he was just as eager to undress Pork of his tight leather pants, through which he could already feels Pork’s hardening mem–

“Hi!” 

The greeting came out of the blue and frightened Olli, absorbed in the recent events of the story, that he flinched and slammed the book shut with haste, causing the nearby flock of pigeons to take wing with a surprised choir of coo.

Once Olli recovered from his initial shock (and subtly adjusted his shorts once more), he looked up and saw a man with long, brown hair and a sugary smile staring him down.

“Sorry!” the man laughed, “didn’t mean to spook you. I just passed you by and, well, I couldn’t help but notice…” he gestured towards the paperback Olli was now clutching to his chest, as if to hide its sinful contents from the outside world. 

“Wha– what of it?” Olli’s fingers wrapped around the spine of the book as he felt his cheeks heat up.

“How do you like it?” the man asked, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Olli liked it very much indeed. 

‘Liked’, in fact, was a strong understatement in the current situation.

“It’s,” Olli paused to clear his throat that had gone dry again, “it’s alright, I guess.” He wasn’t at all sure of how indifferent he had managed to sound, and decided to shrug to emphasise just how alright he thought the latest plot twist was.

“Just ‘alright’?” the man pouted. “Jeez, I believed I had done a better job than ‘alright’.” The crunch of the man’s forehead deepened as he crossed his arms over his chest, wrinkling the thin fabric of his loose, white button-up. A light breeze waved his hair around in a calm motion and a few strands got stuck on his lips. A reflex of some kind almost had Olli getting back on his feet to brush them aside, but then his brain finally took in what the man had just said.

“You…sorry, what?” 

“And here I was thinking all those publishers had been in the wrong for rejecting me. Buh!” the man harrumphed, puffing the hair off his face.

“You mean…you wrote this?” Olli took a glance at the cover of the novel to read the author’s name, written in the same messy handwriting as the title: Niko Vilhlem.

“Not sure how proud I am to announce that now, but…yeah. That’s me.” The sly grin that had previously decorated Niko’s lips had now turned upside down, his hands no longer on his chest but in the pockets of his baggy, black trousers.

Olli thought the shift in Niko’s mood was all his fault and, considering how he, in fact, thought the book was certainly more than ‘just alright’, he saw it as his job to save the situation somehow; he stood up and walked closer to the man.

“I’m sorry, I was just confused for a second there. I’ve actually been enjoying the story.” He tried not to think about exactly how much, but felt his cheeks catching fire again. “I’ve enjoyed it a lot, in fact,” the daredevil in him added anyway.

“Thanks, but I don’t need your pity. There’s a reason why it’s self-published,” Niko muttered to the ground and kicked an invisible pebble.

“No, I’m serious! Your story-telling is super intriguing, I’ve hardly put the book down since I found it in the library the other day.” 

(Olli didn’t see it necessary to specify that by ‘found’ he meant ‘I was actually trying to get the book next to it but the shelf was so high that I had to stand on my tippy toes because my friend Tommi had been busy and I lost my balance just as I was reaching for the book and this one fell on my head instead’.)

Niko shook his head, unamused. “You’re just saying that to be nice because you’re feeling bad for the sad, pathetic author whose prose is equivalent to that of a primary school spelling book.”

“You think I’d come here in my favourite park to sit under my favourite tree and spend my precious freetime reading a book I’m not into?” Olli raised an eyebrow.

Niko looked at him for a while, as if evaluating the truthfulness of his words. Then he shrugged.

“People do the weirdest things for fun.”

“Well, I don’t, thank you very much. I know a great story when I see one, and this,” Olli patted the book’s cover, “this definitely is one. And I’m not just being nice.”

Slowly, the corners of Niko’s slips started curving upwards again as his eyes moved from the book Olli was holding to his eyes.

“Yeah?”

“Hell yeah!” Olli tried his best to make his enthusiasm appear as sincere as he was. 

“Well, what else do you like about it, then?” Niko asked and dragged his foot against the gravel in an almost bashful manner.

The question made Olli straighten his posture; it wasn’t every day one was given the chance to discuss a novel with the author who wrote it.

(“That’s because all your favourite authors died about fifty years ago,” Olli could almost hear Tommi’s monotonous voice in his head.)

“For starters, I really love how you put into words the thoughts and struggles we all probably face at some point in our lives without being dismissive or tedious about it. Like… I can sort of relate to a lot of this, if I’m being honest.” Olli cursed his fair complexion that probably revealed his blush in no time, so he glanced down at the ground where Niko was still drawing shapeless patterns with the tip of his Vans.

“I’m happy to hear that,” Niko then said softly. “That you find it relatable, that is. Not that you’re struggling, or anything,” he added, and Olli was delighted to notice he wasn’t the only one getting colour on his cheeks, which gave him just enough confidence to go on.

“And the characterisation is…refreshing, for lack of a better term. I particularly like this “Pork” that was just introduced in the chapter I finished last night.” 

And all the fun he brought to the plot, but I’m not gonna tell you that.

“Ah! I actually based him on a friend of mine.” Olli was melting at the brightness of Niko’s smile. “And believe me, he’s double the madman he is in the book. I even had to tone it down a little.”

Hopefully not too much, Olli wanted to comment, but bit his hip and grinned instead.

The sun forced its light through the branches and cast a thin, persistent ray right across Niko’s face, so that when he looked at Olli, the green in his eyes seemed as if it was being mixed with liquid gold, and still it was only half as dazzling as the smile on his lips. Only when Niko cleared his throat and fixed his hair, averting his eyes to look elsewhere, Olli became aware he must have been staring at him for a little longer than was appropriate from someone you had just met five minutes ago.

“So, umm, I suppose I’ll leave you to it,” Niko nodded at the book and took a few steps backwards, drawing away from Olli. 

Later that night, when Olli lay in bed contemplating the happenings of the day, he still couldn’t pinpoint why he had done it; was it merely a desperate whim to make Niko stay with him for a little longer in case their paths never crossed again, or was it something out of his control, a higher power of sorts, although Olli believed in none, that made him walk after Niko and force the man to hold his gaze.

“Unless…” he said and could only barely stop himself when his hand went on to reach for Niko’s, “unless you’d like to read for me?”

He swallowed as he watched Niko’s mouth fall open. His heart was beating rapidly, and he was given probably a whole five seconds to regret opening his mouth or stepping outside of his house in the first place before Niko answered.

“I… ” The thumping in Olli’s ears became louder. “I mean, I’ve never read my work to anyone out loud but–”

“It’s okay!” Olli nearly yelped in his haste to unsay his absurd, inconsiderate request, “I understand! It’s– it’s too weird, obviously, silly of me to even ask–”

“I’d love to,” Niko interrupted Olli’s panicked blabbering. 

The thumping in Olli’s ears stopped, and for a minute he was convinced he was having a stroke and would drop dead any second. 

“No one’s ever asked me before,” Niko continued, supposedly to fill the awkward silence Olli’s brainfreeze had suddenly caused. “Well, to be fair, I’ve never met anyone who’s read my book, other than my family and friends, and they’re all more or less sick of hearing about it by now. I’ve always thought it would be fun to read it to someone, though.”

If just a few seconds ago Olli had been stiff like a corpse, now his knees were about to give up on him upon hearing Niko’s quiet confession. He exhaled in relief and took one step closer to the other man. 

“In that case…” he held out the book for Niko, “I’d be honoured to be the first.”

Their eyes kept staring into each other when Niko took the book out of his hands.

Olli should have known better when a mischievous smirk appeared on Niko’s lips.

“So. Chapter thirteen next, is it?”

~

*three years later*

Olli’s keys made a clunking noise when they fell on the porcelain bowl on the side table next to his front door. It had been a hectic day at the café with a broken espresso machine and a sudden swarm of senior citizens on a field trip, so the bliss he felt was priceless once he closed the door behind him and listened to the perfect silence of his house.

Perfect, safe for the faint, rhythmic tapping of a laptop keyboard.

With a drowsy smile, Olli padded to his spare bedroom they had renovated last spring; a new window glass to replace the old cracked one, and a proper windowsill for the plants Joonas had gifted them back when Niko had moved in. Niko’s extravagant friend had also fallen in love with the old, rustic cabinet Olli had inherited from his grandmother; he had been happy to give it away, as it had been far too big for any of his rooms, and its removal conveniently gave enough space for a small two-seater sofa for when Niko wanted to write in a more relaxed position.

(And for cuddles, of course.)

“Hey,” Olli said softly as he entered the room. He walked behind Niko and wrapped his arms around the author’s shoulders, pressing a kiss on his cheek. “How’s writing going?”

Niko said nothing at first, his eyes were fixed on the laptop screen and his fingers dancing on the keyboard, but then he tapped the enter key one final time before planting a swift peck on Olli’s mouth in return.

“Just finished rewriting chapter 24.”

Olli’s lips caught Niko’s before they would escape again, melting into a lazy, loving kiss Olli would have gladly let go on until the next sunrise if his position hadn’t been quite so awkward.

“When will I get to hear it?” he mumbled against Niko’s mouth.

“Whenever you have the time,” Niko told him with a husky voice.

It was all that was needed to make Olli throw himself on the sofa, and soon enough Niko joined him, lifting Olli’s legs to put them on his own lap while balancing his laptop on the armrest and giving Olli’s soles a light tickle.

Then he began reading.

[theflyingfeeling]

...

[theflyingfeeling]

My BC writing

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Check out the links and tags below to find all the Blind Channel fanfiction I have written so far:

theflyingzimmergaudi on AO3

Valentine's Day Fluff by theflyingfeeling

Spring Fluff by theflyingfeeling

Domestic Fluff by theflyingfeeling

random tumblr ficlets by theflyingfeeling

24 Days of Gift-Giving (Olli/Allu advent calendar)

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Behind the cut you can also find a compilation of the highly unorganized and very silly bullet point AU summaries I have done as part of an ask game.

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I'm not taking requests as of now, but my ask box is always always always open for headcanons and shippy asks 💕

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*a short story included

Ancient Rome / Gladiators

Around the world in 80 days

Ballet dancers

Blind

Buddy cop

Circus

Coffeeshop

Cowboys

Deaf / HOH

Detective*

Detention (boarding school)

Exotic holiday

Fairytale (..ish)*

Finnish College (teekkari)

Firefighters

Floweshop/tattoo studio

Friends (the TV series)

Gardener

Ghost / Horror* (not actually scary)

Gods

Groundhog Day (time loop)

Hairdresser*

Heist

Hobbit / LOTR

Hockey / Sports

Hockey player/figure skater*

Interrail (fic by @milirii)

Kindergarten teachers

King/servant*

Les Misérables

Lumberjacks

Mafia

Make-up artist/actor

Medieval street musicians

Mermen 1 / Mermen 2*

Misfits (TV show)

Morning TV show hosts/crew

The Musketeers (BBC 2014)

Nurse/patient

Painter/model

Physical disability

Pirates

Princesses (modern royalty)

Regency Period / Bridgerton

Scientists

Shapeshifter*

Space / Sci-fi

Spy

Superheroes / Superpowers

Survivor (reality show)

Teachers

Theatre

Venom/Spider-Man

Vikings

Wedding guests*

Werewolves (or more like Teen Wolf lol)

Witch/werewolf/vampire* (poly)

Wizards / Magic

Wonderland*

Zombie apocalypse

Zoo keepers

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PPS. this Merlin/medieval royalty AU I'm keeping for myself for future use, but you may look 😌