Chapter Text
Aleksi pulled his face in with both hands and gave him a heartfelt kiss on the lips. “Bye baby, have fun at work, you’re going to do great.”
His encouraging words were welcomed by Joel who felt especially nervous this morning, but he still couldn’t let the endearment slide. “Not a baby.” He almost pouted, but nonetheless not letting go from Aleksi with his arms around his middle.
“Bye honey bunny .” Aleksi emphasized the pet name with a smirk and gave another kiss to the tip of his nose, Joel groaning shortly and giving up. “And now go and make your clients happy.”
A slap on his butt and Joel was out the door, blinking at the sun but not able to complain about the treatment given as Aleksi had already closed the door behind him. Shaking his head with a light smile because in the end he could only love Aleksi, he made his way to his car. Last thing he wanted was to be late for his appointment.
His boss Tommi had told him this contract would be a great new opportunity for him, whatever that meant. He had already designed countless houses for families, what was supposed to be so different about this one? Whatever it would be, Joel was feeling prepared but also slightly excited, it had been a while since an assignment had truly demanded his complete ability of creativity.
Most newlyweds ready to start a family wanted the same boring essentials. If he ever had to paint a nursery light blue or pink again, he would quit, and so he hoped the new customers were up for something more experimental. Daring even, just to get him out of this monotony he had planned to leave behind by taking up such a job.
At least from what he had read already he would work with a young couple, both men, and that already raised his spirits. The last shop owner, a man close to his eighties, but holding a tight grip on his visions with a loud voice to get his opinion across, had laid Joel’s nerves bare and he needed a good experience after this one.
He definitely liked a challenge but someone more easy-going would also be nice.
As he went by the office last week, he had already gotten the necessary information about the object from Olli and noted down the few rough requirements the couple had given. It was nothing extraordinary: A house with a garden, kitchen, two bathrooms, master bedroom, guest bedroom, living room plus two other rooms that were yet to be assigned a purpose.
Most probably ready to start a family of their own, the couple had chosen a bigger house with enough space to have kids playing around. May they have mercy on him by having a better taste in wall colours than his previous clients.
The house looked really nice from the outside Joel saw as he got out of his car. The neighbourhood was a good one, but he knew better by now to judge the people by their place of residence.
A second after he rang the bell the couple greeted him with wide smiles and led him into the living room where a couch and some chairs depicted the only furniture in the room, but it was enough to sit and talk.
Today was about getting concrete insights in their needs and wishes and Joel giving first ideas on how to implement those within the four walls of their home.
“Thank you so much for coming, Mr. Hokka. Tommi recommended you to us and I’m so happy we’re finally getting this house finished to our dreams.” The one with blonde curls said as he cuddled into the other’s side, grasping a hand and squeezing it in excitement.
Joel himself had to smile as he saw them sitting so tightly together. The wedding couldn’t be far in the past, the honeymoon phase was obviously going strong.
“You can call me Joel.” He told them. He may be a professional designer, but he wasn’t so tight knit that he wanted to be addressed with his last name all the time. And he would spend a lot of time in here, no doubt seeing the two around for almost just as much, so better get down on a familial basis.
“Oh yeah!” The same one lit up as if he remembered something. “I’m Joonas and this is my husband Niko.” He gave him a smile that could only be described as full of love. “We haven’t had the house for long yet that’s why we haven’t gotten around to doing anything with it. And to be honest we couldn’t decide on a few things, so we let it be for a while, and we thought it would be better to let someone work on it who actually knows what they’re doing.”
“Thank you for your trust, I’m sure we will agree on something.” He promised. Joel had yet to leave a customer unhappy.
When it came down to it, it was him leaving with a bleeding heart when again he had to do an underwater themed bathroom, or terracotta tiles in the kitchen for the Mediterranean feeling. They were in Finland for god's sake, if they loved the subtropics, they should spare the money for the tiles and buy a holiday home in Greece.
Thankfully he had learned to swallow his opinions, letting them out when he was ranting to his boyfriend during dinner, at what horrendous crimes he again had to commit.
“How about you showing me what I’ll be working with? I would love to see all the rooms.” Joel proposed, ready to start working.
Niko and Joonas didn’t let go of their entwined hand when they got up, starting in the kitchen that was open plan with the living room but no less spacious.
“I love to cook, and I want enough room on the surfaces that I can work with. A big cupboard for spices would be nice and an extra counter with barchairs for breakfast. We would want a big table for the dining area because we often have friends and family over, but it would feel lonely if we eat there alone.”
Joel nodded dutifully, writing everything down to read through again later. The ground floor gave enough room to make all this possible and he was glad he didn’t have to cut back on his clients’ dreams.
“What’s with the extra room down here, behind the kitchen? Do you want it to be a pantry, or do you have something in mind?”
“A music room!” Niko said. “We both make music and I have a piano that belonged to my grandma that I would love to see in here. The room should be big enough to house all of Joonas’ guitars and our CD collection also. Make it cozy, so we could sit together with friends and jam, spend a nice evening here.”
That made Joel listen with more interest. “That sounds awesome. Is it just a hobby or are you professionally involved? I actually did some home studios in the past, and I’m also playing, so I think that will be my favourite room to work on.” He smiled, no shame in admitting he would put his heart in this one especially.
“I actually work in music management, but my own bands never worked out, so playing is just a hobby.” Joonas told him and now Joel was really amazed.
Before he had decided on design and actually attended university like his parents had always dreamed of, his passion had laid in his bands also, but like with Joonas, it was never supposed to go further than living room jam sessions and tiny bar concerts, nothing that could support his life.
“My biggest achievement is Octopus Baby, so it’s going great actually, I’m not so sad anymore that I’m not standing on stage myself. And Niko here gives vocal lessons. That’s how we met Tommi by the way. His girlfriend was Niko’s student for a while, you know the singer of Dark Stars.”
Joel had to process this for a few seconds. Of course he knew Tommi’s girlfriend, foremost from company events and parties and then when he and Tommi became good friends he met her at home more often, becoming friends with her too.
Embarrassingly announcing at one dinner party after one glass of wine too many that he loved her band since he was a late teenager and that he once had a poster with her on his wall. Tommi had stared at him not so amused while Aleksi had giggled into his lasagne, but Ella had taken it with humour and invited him as VIP to her next concert.
But Octopus Baby?! That was one of Joel’s favourite bands! And right now he was so close to them, standing in front of their manager!
His fanboy moment had to wait though because he wasn’t here to make connection to his absolutely most favourite band, but to do his job, and he had to stop himself from jumping up and down from excitement. The wide smile wanted to work its way on his face, but he did his best to suppress it, instead staring wide eyed at Joonas, pressing his lips together.
“That’s cool. That’s cool, yeah…I’m sure I can make something out of this room. Maybe we should go upstairs next?”
Avoid the topic, avoid the topic, avoid the topic , Joel told himself over and over as they ascended the stairs to the first floor where all the bedrooms and another bathroom were. If they didn’t talk about the band anymore Joel couldn’t let it slip how much of a fan he was. He preferred to put his focus on the atrocious tiles in the bathroom that gave him a very bad 90’s feeling.
Niko scratched his head when he noticed Joel’s look. “Yeah…that was my grandparent’s house once. My parents lived here for a while and had started to renovate but then decided to move away and gave the house to us instead. So please do something about this bath because I feel like dying in here.”
Joel had to laugh at Niko’s words because he felt very much the same. A depressing bathroom is the last thing anyone needed in their life.
“I’m up for a big bathtub. What do you think, Niko?” Joonas stepped behind Niko to lay his chin on his shoulder and hugged him, a grin on his lips that betrayed his intention with his question. Sure, the bathtub was definitely for relaxing, but not just for Joonas and his rubber ducks to play with.
Joel averted his eyes to assess how much time it would take to replace anything in here, concealing thereby the blush high on his cheeks. Public display of affection had always managed to embarrass him even though he wasn’t involved in the slightest, but just watching couples getting lovey dovey made him uncomfortable. The dirtier it got, the more he wanted to shovel his own grave and hop in there to vanish.
Clearing his throat before turning back around to remind the two of his presence, Joel gave the cue to look into the other rooms.
He made a mental note to measure them all later. He never trusted the plans, more often than not a few centimeters were missing in the end and those could be crucial to getting a table or shelf fit in there and it was said he was painfully precise even if his notes did not always show it. In his head at least it was all there.
“You haven’t talked about family plans yet.” Joel started when they had reached the last room, moderately sized, similar to the guest room. “Should we keep this room for such purposes, or did you think of something else?”
“Well…” Joonas looked over to Niko, both of them still holding hands and at this point Joel wondered if they ever did anything alone. “We do want children one day but not so soon and if it comes to it, we can repurpose the second bedroom. But regarding this room…we had wanted something like that for a while but sadly there was no space in our apartment. To be straight we would love to have a sex room.”
Joel knew he was breathing and standing in a client’s house, but right this moment it could have also been a dream. A very, very weird dream. Or a prank. They did say they knew Tommi, and his five-year anniversary at the company was coming up, maybe this was some kind of joke they did with every employee.
Thinking about it further it didn’t make much sense since Tommi was great at telling jokes but not someone to orchestrate a whole situation like this.
So Joel kept on staring because he didn’t know what to think.
The notes app on his tablet was still open but he couldn’t make himself write it down. He couldn’t just write down sex room .
What even was that?
“A sex room?” Joel asked slowly, getting his eyes to blink after becoming dry, his soul returning into his body after it had tried to leave through the window.
Both nodded, their faces not showing any signs of this not being a serious request. “Yeah, we thought this big house would be a great opportunity to finally make our plans reality.”
So, no joke then.
Joel took a deep breath, somehow readying himself for this conversation because there was no pretending he had any idea what a sex room entailed. He couldn’t say he had ever done something like this.
“Sorry, I don’t know what that is.”
“Oh.” Joonas’ expression softened from enthusiasm into contained eagerness to explain. “It’s what it says on the tin. A room to have sex in.”
“But, sorry if I don’t get it-” Joel laughed awkwardly, feeling beside himself. “Your bedroom is right there.”
Not that he would have thought about their activities in there while designing the room, but it was a bedroom after all and most people engaged in sex, that much Joel could acknowledge, so what was so wrong about a good bed? Hell, if they wanted to, they could use the couch in the living room, or the bathtub, or the kitchen counter too if they felt adventurous but a whole room just for sex?!
Seeing Joonas’ lost look Niko intervened, seeming to be more prone to communicate his wish in an understandable way.
“See if we ever have children, we want a space completely out of their reach. And we have a cat that’s free to roam the house and welcomed in our bed to cuddle. We want to use our bedroom to unwind after a day of work, to sleep and cuddle, relax. We want a space away from that where we can live out our sex life and most of that is just impractical to do on our bed, we have some fantasies that require more room. Those kinks are not really manageable in a simple bedroom. And we thought this room might be perfect, it’s closer to the yard, wouldn’t want our new neighbours to hear us.”
That was a nice explanation and Joel was glad Niko gave it, but still Joel wished he was somewhere far far away.
Sex - fantasies - kink .
Next they were telling him they were shooting amateur porn and they just didn’t want to have their identities revealed by people seeing their private room and their cat accidentally parading through the frame.
Why were they disclosing all this and why did Joel have to listen? Fuck, he couldn’t simply ignore this room, it was part of the assignment and what the client wanted, the client would get. But right now he was ready to search through his work contract to find a clause that stated he wouldn’t need to fulfill all wishes if it went against personal and very private reasons.
He was already sure there was nothing, but how was he supposed to survive this?
“Okay. Yeah, that- that uhm- “He rubbed his forehead, not looking at either of them as he willed himself to write the request down. “We can come back to that. It’s rather specific and I would like to start with the big things like the living room and kitchen and…and bedroom.” Joel breathed out the last word, just serving to remind him what they had just talked about.
Another cough to get the awkwardness out of his body, Joel rotated once on his axis, giving the room a last glimpse and made his way back to the ground floor, the couple following him, fortunately not looking put off by his behaviour.
“So I will write you a mail with additional questions and it would be good if you could answer those within this week. You can put any other wishes and details you want in there too for me to look through, and then I will start with the design and come back in a week to show you the first concepts. In that stage we can always make adjustments, but once all that is set, I can go to work. That’s everything from me right now. Do you have any questions?”
He had given his run down with an ease that came from having internalized this a long time ago, and waited with bated breath if they would mention their more unique demands again or if Joel could leave this house without a face as red as a tomato to maintain some dignity.
To his luck he was spared, and they parted here, Joel almost sprinting to his car.
Gripping his steering wheel, he hit his head on it several times so as not to scream. Although the picture he was currently giving couldn’t get much worse and the people walking by would already think he was a weirdo, what could some velociraptor screeching add to that.
But he could just so keep himself together. And instead of screaming in his empty car he would rather scream at somebody else, namely his boss. Fishing his phone out he quickly dialled his number, knowing he was in the office right now and should have an ear free to listen to Joel’s statements of dissatisfaction.
“Hey Joel, anything you need?” Tommi accepted the call, sounding bored.
“ Anything I need? ! I’ll tell you what I need: new clients! You knew what you did there, didn’t you?” He didn’t pretend that there was any other reason for his call and immediately accused Tommi of being aware of his clients’ plans.
Despite having no proof, he could swear Tommi was grinning as he answered him. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, could you be a bit more precise?”
“They want a-” Joel started scandalized and with a loud voice, now gritting his teeth and continuing in a lower tone, making himself say it. “- a sex room. I don’t know anything about that, you need to reassign them.”
“There’s no one else who can take them on.” Tommi destroyed his wishful reality without hesitation or remorse. Not even an apology! “Should I have given them over to Miro who can’t keep a girlfriend for longer than a month? Or our new intern Alma who needs supervision still and would have you at their place anyways? You will do it Joel, have some faith in yourself.”
Joel couldn’t believe it. “You can’t just decide that on yourself-”
“I’m your boss.”
“-and not consult me first in case I want to refuse-”
“I’m still your boss.”
“-then at least have a word with your friends first before they spring it onto someone without warning and then-”
“Joel, I am-”
“Okay!” Joel burst out, sensing Tommi wouldn’t budge even the tiniest bit. “I understand, you’re my boss, you get to decide everything, fine!” He probably sounded like a whiny baby, but he didn’t care, at the moment he was fed up with Tommi. “Then I’ll do it, are you happy? But I won’t have a repeat of this after this one! Do you hear me, Tommi? Tommi, are you listening to me?” He repeated himself but the beeps in his ear indicated that Tommi had already hung up on him.
Joel groaned loudly and frustrated, the veil of irritation almost letting him forget to buckle up before he finally left the street he would see far too soon again. He needed to go home and scream his soul out, hopefully Aleksi could leave their home studio for an hour to grant him this little stress relief.
Before he would rip Tommi’s head off and in the process Olli’s too because he most likely had been in the know along with Tommi, he cancelled the trip to the office and took the route straight to home. If Tommi wanted him to work on the case, then he would do it his way and if that entailed him ignoring his boss for a while then so be it.
He was relieved the second he opened the door to his apartment, he needed to relax before he started to gather ideas. Debating to drink a strong whiskey to knock him out for a nap, he walked into their kitchen.
Along with what he was searching for he also found Aleksi there, making himself a late lunch as it seemed. Aleksi gave him a surprised look when Joel came in but continued to lick the chocolate cream from the butter knife slowly.
It didn’t stop him from asking questions though even if the tongue darting around the tip of the knife distracted Joel. “Oh hey, you’re home already. How was it, are they nice?”
“Yeah, yeah, they’re real sweethearts.” He muttered, instead of the whiskey settling on a coke and taking it with him as he walked into the living room. He grabbed his bag on his way to the couch, he had to work sooner or later after all.
Aleksi followed him out, carrying his plate. “And you think it will be fun?”
“Probably, it’s a nice house.”
Joel knew he sounded uncaring, but he couldn’t bear another talk of today’s events and if he was honest, he was also a tad embarrassed to go over this with Aleksi. If he could, he wouldn’t tell anybody what he was about to work on, what he would earn his money with.
While also knowing that it was stupid, and it was Aleksi, no stranger; Aleksi, his beloved boyfriend who knew more stuff about him he should be ashamed about than just designing a room for his clients to fuck in.
It was entirely different to designing for retail, or a lovely family home, and hadn’t he asked for a good challenge? That was the outcome apparently, shouldn’t have opened his big mouth.
The tablet in his hands felt heavy and he couldn’t make himself open the program, not as long as Aleksi was around at least, discomfort and modesty already burning his face.
“Is everything okay?” Aleksi asked and Joel wished he didn’t.
“They have-” He took a breath. If he had to tell this one more person he would combust. “-very specific needs.” He rushed out to say.
“Oh? Nothing too complicated? I’m sure you can do it.”
“Not a sex room.”
Aleksi coughed out a few crumbs of his sandwich. “A what?” He asked with half a breath stuck in his throat.
“Yeah.” Was all Joel said. He would not repeat himself.
Then Aleksi had the audacity to laugh and Joel had the feeling he was laughed at, and he didn’t like it a bit, starting to grumble and made to get up.
“No, wait, I’m sorry.” Aleksi grabbed for his arm and yanked him back down. “Sorry, sorry, I swear I’m not laughing at you, I just…I didn’t expect that.”
“Neither did I.” Joel said, still sounding peeved. Which he was, he couldn’t deny that. He was pissed honestly. Fuck Tommi for doing this to him. Probably the whole office knew and was now laughing about his predicament, well thanks.
“That’s uhm, that’s certainly a new one. What are you going to do about it?”
Aleksi’s question reminded him that he really had no clue. He was playing outside of his field here in more than one way. Ignoring that he had never designed such a room, the topic in itself left more open than he desired.
He wouldn’t exactly call himself a prude but outside of his relationships he rarely talked about his sexlife and history and the likes. He rather liked to keep it all to himself. For him it was a very private topic that he couldn’t discuss with everyone. Even with friends it was hard to open up, but such intimate matters were to be shared between him and his partner, he wasn’t interested in other people’s gossip regarding that subject.
But so what, that was just who he was, and he wouldn’t be made feel guilty about it.
Nevertheless, the next weeks will be hard, Joel knew it. Groaning he let his head fall on Aleksi’s shoulder, a hand immediately coming to card through his hair. “I have no idea.” He whined pitifully into Aleksi’s chest. “I should probably do some research.”
“Research, eh?” Aleksi’s tone made Joel look up just to see his boyfriend wiggling with his eyebrows playfully. “I could help you with that.” Now his voice had taken on a seductive edge that had Joel lower his eyes to Aleksi’s mouth and before he knew it he was pinned to the couch with Aleksi stating he needed to take a break from work either way and what better way was there to screw his boyfriend before he got back to answering mails, and it was a much more successful method to relax than singing, Joel found when Aleksi had him rendered thoughtless by putting his mouth on him.