Stockholm Noir

By: exasperationation

Summary

It's Arvid's 25th birthday. As much as he hates being celebrated, he knew a celebration was coming from his unbearable but charming friends. Mathias suggests a night out; a real, hardcore, drinking night like the old times, where the fun and games would be if they could even find their way home again. But it's not fun and games as the night goes on and things just goes more wrong by the hour. What was supposed to be a birthday party to remember turned into a horrifying, inescapable turn of events none of them would ever forget.

Disclaimer: This story plays on stereotypes and a twisted point of view. I took the liberty to define the characters more, for the relevance of the story, and also changed he names of some of them. Their background-stories will be shown as the story progresses, also fabricated by me, but for now this is all you get. Don't take anything too seriously, and don't fret. This is not a pretty story.

Characters

Arvid Oxenstierna, 25 y/o

Arvid is a quiet and socially awkward Swede, who would prefer building a bird house before a drinking night. Unfortunately, his friends are the exact opposite and loves bringing him along for a good night out. These crazy parties often don't end as well as they started out, but Arvid have not yet dared to make a move on Tino, their Finnish friend. He tends to overthink, and enjoys his own company as much as anyone else's. He's very handy and owns a large construction company.

Mathias Anderssen, 26 y/o

Mathias is a hot-headed Dane, living in Copenhagen but works a lot in Stockholm (he sells properties), who loves himself a good party. Everybody still remembers (or some, don't) his own, wild 25th birthday party, celebrated together with Lukas who also turned 25 that year. Many awkward moments later, it's hard to forget and forgive sometimes, but what problem isn't solved with more liquor?

Lukas Amundsen, 26 y/o

Lukas is a fairly quiet, refined man who likes to make people believe he's not interested in them. Born and living in Oslo, he visits Stockholm frequently and even though he refuses to admit it, spends about half of his spare time in Copenhagen. He too is somewhat of a party animal, even if his wild side is harder to lure out than Mathias' and Tino's. He is very overprotective of his little brother Eiríkur, and hates losing control in front of him, even if Eiríkur is more than old enough to drink. When he turned 18, he became part of his neglecting father's global fishing company, and took over at age 24 when the father passed away. Lukas' mother left him and his father when he was 5 years old, and moved to Iceland where she met someone else. He has never forgiven her and never talked to her since she left, unless it concerns Eiríkur, his half-brother.

Eiríkur Sigurðsson, 19 y/o

Eiríkur was born in Iceland, and only shares mother with Lukas. It took them both a while to accept facts when they first heard about each other's existence (when Eiríkur was 12, and Lukas 19). When he was 16, he left Iceland and moved to Oslo for studies, where he moved in with his brother. Eiríkur is very independent, and isn't afraid to speak his mind. He is however very cautious and critical, and doesn't easily take the leap of faith. He has a hard time expressing his feelings, both towards his brother and his friends. He doesn't have many friends though, but refuses to admit he is terribly shy with strangers.

Tino Väinämöinen, 24 y/o

Tino is a friendly, Finnish guy, who on the surface seem to be a real softie, when in reality he's the most hard-core of them all. He was born somewhere in Finland, but lives in Stockholm. He is a well-paid consultant. He recently bought a house in the Finnish forests outside Helsinki, mostly used to wild drinking parties involving naked bathing in the snow, saunas, and an obscene amount of vodka. He fell in love with Arvid the first time he saw him, but gets frustrated when Arvid doesn't make a move since he views himself as an illiterate when it comes to romance and wooing. He's rational in calm situations, but tends to panic if something serious happens. Isn't afraid to take chances, unless it involves Arvid.

Chapter 1

"Get him wasted and push him into Tino, then we'll bring popcorn and watch the real party happen."

"We what?" Eiríkur said, astounded.

"That's a terrible idea, Mathias. Who knows if he would bail, we'd break Tino's heart forever." Lukas said indolently after a sip of coffee.

"Tsk! Then we need to come up with another plan to get them together." The Dane drug a hand through his hair. "Got any ideas, icey?"

Eiríkur sighed and rolled his eyes. "I'm not a part in your match-making game. And by the way, why are you asking me? I'm not the one taking last-minute flights to Oslo every God damned Friday. I don't date."

Mathias had the good sense to look embarrassed after that remark, because after all, how obvious wasn't his and Lukas' relationship by now? Lukas looked unaffected, but his ears glowed red under his blonde hair that had grown far too long already.

"Anyhow," Lukas cleared his throat, catching their attention. "They are obviously madly in love. And we need to do something about it. I say we plan a party. That's definitely the best way to get together a couple."

"Was that how you and Mathias got together?" Eiríkur asked bluntly, making Lukas stand up and leave towards the kitchen without a word, and Mathias left too, heading towards the balcony with a cigarette between his lips mumbling something under his breath. Eiríkur smiled smugly and picked up his android again, resuming to stalking people on Tumblr. Maybe one day they'd fall for it. Maybe one day they'd admit their undying love for one another, and that day he'd be there, first in line, camera in hand, making it impossible for both of them to use further denial.

-x-

About an hour and a half later, Lukas stopped camping in the kitchen, and finally sneaked past him in the living room to fetch his laptop in next room. Eiríkur tried his best to look as innocent as possible as his brother sat down next to him on the broad, IKEA sofa, his face locked with suspicion. Mathias must've smoked half a packet by now, or just enjoyed the view over Oslo in extreme detail, but came in soon after Lukas had sat down and went to the kitchen for some chewing gum.

"Get some for me as well!" Eiríkur yelled out to him without letting his eyes avert from the screen, soon having the packet landing in his lap before the Dane took a seat on the other side of Eiríkur. Oh, really now? They were gonna use him as a barrier between them? Come on.

"There are cheap flights to Stockholm this weekend. Maybe we could spend the week there since Arvid's birthday is the weekend after that." Lukas said, not looking up from , his question clearly directed to Mathias. The Dane was flipping through a magazine about cars, also not looking up when he answered. Their voices sounded mechanic and tense.

"Sounds like a great idea. What will Eiríkur be doing?"

Now it was the Icelander's turn to get enraged, and was about to protest that he was old enough for them to not give a shit really what he would be doing during his spare time, but was cut off by Lukas who quickly hooked onto the obvious revenge – a chance to push his complex about being the youngest around.

"Oh don't fret, I'll figure something out."

"I'm too old to be babysat." he hissed through clenched teeth, regretting to have started this in the first place.

"It's not like that, silly. You'll see."

"Then what-"

"It's time to start 'working for your daily bread', kiddo."

However frustrated, he thought himself to hint a smile on both his brother's and Mathias' faces. Surely, he was glad they could stop this silent war they had sometimes whenever he said something a bit edgy to them, but he did not like for himself to get ridiculed for them to make up. Good greatness, what if they actually moved together? Eiríkur desperately wanted a place of his own the day that happened.

-x-

Just finishing brushing his teeth, he almost burst out through the bathroom door in his usual manner, when he thought himself to hear a hushed conversation out in the hallway. He stopped and put his ear up against the thin door.

"He's onto us, Lukas. The kid knows, he's not very small anymore."

A sigh. "I know, I know. But he doesn't need to know. What even are we anyway?"

Another sigh. "We're complicated. You're right. He doesn't need to know. There's nothing to tell."

The utter disappointment was so visible in the Dane's voice, it was heart-breaking.

"I'm sorry." his brother whispered, before footsteps down the hall led Eiríkur to believe he had left Mathias to actually sleep alone on the sofa and not in Lukas' bed, for once. Not wanting to face Mathias, Eiríkur waited until he heard another pair of feet leave the hallway before he dared to tip-toe back to his room.

He wasn't sure what he had expected, but he was surprised to feel kind of sad for their sake. He knew his brother could be heartless, but to Mathias? He felt naïve for thinking they were so obviously in love. But what else would be a reason to soberly share a bed so many times, at their age? He only wanted the best for them both, even if he sometimes said he despised them. Couldn't they see what he saw?

《《

The attraction had always been there. Inevitable, strong, undeniable. How many times hadn't Eiríkur caught them slide closer to each other after one too many shots, seen them fumble with their hands onto each other behind the sauna outhouse at Tino's place, and seen them throw suggestive glances by the dinner table. He'd always known there was something going on between them, ever since he moved to Norway. They had fought, they had argued, they had spat rude words to each other, but never had they parted for longer than a few days. Forever in denial, and it drove Eiríkur crazy. He had even asked Tino about it, and he'd just answered floatingly that love sometimes takes strange paths and had then resumed to win the drinking contest only he and Arvid were still awake to finish.

However, there was this one time in the aftermaths of Mathias' and Lukas' 25th birthday party, where Eiríkur heard something he was fairly sure he wasn't supposed to hear. He lost some words of the conversation, but got most of the picture.

"…love you, Mathias. I love you so much… it consumes me. I tried to kill it… run away from it… I can't. I don't want to anymore. Can we try? I'm sorry." The voice was drunken and slurry, but he could recognize his brother anywhere. The voice that answered was just as deformed after the party, but there was no doubt it was Mathias. He paused in between sentences, probably chain smoking in desperation.

"…with no trust… how can we truly love each other? We both know it… we're no good for nothing. We have both done things we'll always regret..."

The rest of the conversation was blurred out by the lively town around the small Copenhagen-apartment they were in, and especially since they were on the balcony, Eiríkur heard nothing more no matter how hard he tried to catch a phrase or a word from where he laid on the floor in-between the wall and a giant flower pot. He had eventually given up and gone to listen to Tino's stories and Arvid's quiet, snarky remarks on things they've all done throughout the past. How they found out that Mathias was a really poor shot when they'd tried Tino's rifle, and he accidentally shot himself in the foot. How Lukas once fell down the pavement and broke his ankle in a hysteric laughing fit after way too much liquor (Eiríkur was mostly fascinated that his brother had laughed enough to fall over, since he usually didn't laugh that much at all).

Eiríkur enjoyed the company he was in, most of the time. But when it came to Lukas and Mathias, it bothered him deeply to not ever know what was going on between them.

》》

"We decided we'd stay for a month and a half in Stockholm." Lukas announced over his mandatory cup of coffee at 9 am the next day. Mathias calmly poured up some cereal and stirred a pile of sugar into his coffee, as if last night never happened, but Eiríkur gave out a long sigh over his own cup.

"Great. What am I going to do there for weeks? No offence, but drinking night after night isn't really my forte."

Lukas chuckled ominously, and Eiríkur wished he hadn't said anything. "You're going to work, brother. I've already fixed you an internship on a nice little museum."

"But why?" he knew he was nineteen years old, but still, he couldn't help sounding like a child.

"Money doesn't come for free, and it's about time you learn how to work for them. When I was your age-"

"'I already had a part in our family business and nice reviews from previous jobs, and since I could make myself a fortune then so can you, I'm beginning to wonder if we're even related at all, hence your laziness, Eiríkur'." The Icelander mimicked, using Lukas' usual monotone voice, leaving his brother stunned to silence, his lips pressed thin above his steaming cup, Mathias fighting back laughter harder than ever. Eiríkur too smirked, but couldn't quite let go of wondering how long this shared joy was gonna last.

-x-

"Alright, alright, listen to this." The Dane's hair was messier than ever before and before him on the table were numerous coffee cups with little sips of coffee still in them, crumpled paper, ink pens with and without lids, a plate with half eaten, homebaked bagels and an extensive collection of energy drink cans, piled into a tower at the far end of the kitchen table. Lukas was leaning on his elbows onto the table opposite of Mathias, and Eiríkur had long since seen all the posts on his Tumblr dash and therefore had no choice but to actually engage in their silly attempts at party planning.

Mathias spoke up again. "I say we throw a good old house party, with enough alcohol to bear with it of course. Then we go a bit old-school and play 'seven minutes in heaven'-"

"I always thought it was five minutes." Lukas said warily without lifting his eyes from the cup he was holding with the print of Copenhagen on it.

"I'm fairly certain it's only three minutes." Eiríkur opposed lazily. Mathias sighed of frustration.

"Whatever, it doesn't matter how long, the more the better. Anyhow, we blast some Swedish schlager-shit to distract before pushing Tino and Arvid into the cupboard under my staircase and then let the cramped space make its magic before we flung it open and take a polaroid of them caught in the act before we head out to the real party; I got us all free passes to all bars and clubs that's worth visiting in Stockholm for the night."

Lukas tapped his chin with a spoon he had retrieved from another cup that he had just emptied. "It's not a bad idea. Guests? Only us?"

"Why not just the five of us?" The Icelander suggested, and Lukas choked slightly on the coffee left in the first cup, making a blubbering noise behind the porcelain.

"The five of us?" he spat, his eyebrows raised dangerously high in astonishment.

Eiríkur braced himself for the speech he had prepared for a moment like this. "I've been old enough for a year already, Lukas. I've drunken at home for at least two years. In Denmark I've been old enough to go out for three years. And yet, I've never once been out with any of you. So this time I'm coming with you. Deal with it."

Mathias gave him an encouraging and surprised smile. "Look, the kid even has balls, defying his evil brother and all!" From that he earned a malicious look from over the rim of porcelain Copenhagen. "Of course we're bringing you. Wanna bring someone? We'd hate for you to be the fifth wheel."

The Norwegian raised a neat brow, this time in suspicion rather than surprise, but Eiríkur smirked satisfactory, crossing his arms. "I'll think about it. Otherwise, I'm actually kind of enjoying betting with myself on whether or not you guys will give in to the tension. It's a win-win situation, isn't it?"

Before any of them had a chance to react to his words, he stood up and left the room with an overly cheerful; "I'm gonna go pack my stuff then!"