set my heart
afire

The first time it happened, Donghae swears it wasn’t his fault.

He had moved into his new apartment not that long ago and somehow must have overheard the landlord saying that the smoke detector in the kitchen is monitored, thus connected to the local fire department. If he had heard it, of course he would be more careful and this wouldn’t have happened.

At least that’s what he likes to think.

Donghae had woken up in a good mood that day. He got out of bed with a smile on his face, had finally slept for more than 5 hours, his slippers were as fluffy and comfortable as ever and most importantly, it was a Saturday. It only made sense that what he expected was to have a nice morning, make some french toasts and coffee, and relax.

What he didn’t expect though, was frantic knocking and 4 firemen to push through his door as soon as he opened it, approximately 15 minutes after he might have kind of slightly – but only slightly, he swore – had burnt the first (attempted) serving of French toasts.

Did Heechul really follow through his threats of sending me strippergrams if I don’t get laid? was the first thing that flashed through Donghae’s mind.

, wait, no, was the second.

“Where’s the fire, is everyone okay?” demanded one of the firemen.

A particularly hot fireman, on top of that, Donghae noted. He felt his jaw drop at the sight of those delicious, plump lips, dark eyes and jaw so sharp running a finger along it would slice it open.

Donghae made a sound that could be vaguely classified as something between a moan and a yelp.

“What?” the fireman turned back to him, the worried and confused expression still on his - oh my god, so gorgeous - face.

“Uh,” Donghae tried again slowly, in hopes to regain his composure.  “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about right now? I think you probably got the wrong apartment, there is no fire.”

“Sungmin, don’t tell me you got the address wrong again,” the fireman groaned and looked back at one of his colleagues (presumably Sungmin).

“First off, that was one time, Hyukjae, you promised to let it go, and no, it’s definitely here,” Sungmin crossed his hands on his chest and glared at the other fireman - Hyukjae, Donghae noted. “People at the central station said so.”

“Look, did your fire alarm go off or did it not?” another fireman butted in, annoyance clear in his voice.

“Stop that, Kyuhyun, there’s no need to be an ,“ Hyukjae groaned.

“Don’t talk to him like that!”

“Sungmin, I swear to god-“

“Actually, “ Donghae interrupted quickly, noticing the sense of impending disaster that hung in the air. “Actually, I might have set the alarm off, but I don’t really understand why you’re here? I’ve opened the windows and got rid of the of the smoke and the fire alarm eventually stopped, so.”

“Why didn’t you turn the alarm off yourself, though?”

“Why didn’t I what?”

“Turn the alarm off,” he repeated patiently. “Didn’t your landlord, or someone, explain to you that you need to turn the alarm off by yourself? The smoke detectors in this building are all monitored, which means that if you don’t do it, we get the message and head out.”

“I might have overheard that,” Donghae grimaced and rubbed back of his neck self-consciously.

Hyukjae sighed. “Okay, just- next time, remember to turn it off, okay? I’m sure I don’t need to explain to you how much of an inconvenience false alarms like this are to us,” he said in a gentle voice, probably sensing Donghae’s embarrassment.

“I’m really sorry about that,” Donghae said, giving the firemen an apologetic look that a kicked puppy could be jealous of. “I promise you it won’t happen again. Can I offer you breakfast or something as an apology?”

 “Considering the fact that your breakfast was the reason why we’re here, I’ll pass,” Kyuhyun muttered.

Hyukjae shook his head politely, pointedly ignoring Kyuhyun. “No need to worry about that. We’re just doing our job after all, false alarm or not. We’ll be leaving now, I hope we won’t have to see each other again,” he said jokingly with a big, gummy smile plastered on his face. He bowed, before ushering to follow his colleagues out of the door.

For a split second, Donghae contemplated arson.

~ ~ ~

The second time, Donghae also swears it wasn’t his fault.

After talking himself out of setting fire to any of his belongings, he slowly came to terms with the fact that the one accidental meeting with the handsome fireman was all it was destined to be - one accidental meeting.

Some part of Donghae still hoped they actually were soulmates and another meeting was only a matter of time, but he managed to shut that part up. Mostly.

So when he was cooking ramyun and accidentally put the little plastic bag with dried vegetables down on a heated range, he didn’t feel all that bothered. That was, after he got rid of the dark grey smoke, stopped coughing, and scrubbed the melted plastic off of his stove.

He answered the door with a sheepish smile, already knowing who was behind the door.

“Another false alarm?” Hyukjae asked with a raised eyebrow as he took in Donghae’s unharmed appearance and