Chapter Text
And then Kimi had left.
Not because he’d had any particular reason, to be honest.
He had a supportive family, and a perfectly normal family life with his mom, dad, and his older brother. He hadn’t been outstandingly good at school, but he hadn’t been the worst – he’d got good grades in the classes he’d liked, and he’d got not so good ones in the classes he hadn’t.
He liked to think he hadn’t been a hard to deal with teen.
Yeah, obviously Kimi had gone to parties when he’d bee younger, but his parents had never had to pick him up in jail after a wild night out.
After high school he’d decided against any form of higher education, not because his grades hadn’t been good enough, but simply because he had no idea what he’d wanted to do with his life.
He’d still got a job at the place where his brother Rami worked, an office job, a typical nine to five at a big company, where the boss had been too busy to know his name or remember his face, where his colleagues had become his Friday night crowd, and where he had been sitting in his cubicle one day, and had stopped working for a second – and the realization had hit him.
“That can’t be life.” had been the only explanation he’d said to his mom that evening.
And the next morning he’d left.
Not like he’d had a plan.
Kimi had just got in his car, and had driven where the highway had taken him, a left here, a right there, running away from the only thing he’d ever known.
He’d only stayed in one place as long as he’d wanted to, and he’d taken any job that had been available to finance his travel.
He’d been a sailor in Norway, and had sailed across the Lofoten Islands. The sight of the dramatic, snowy mountains rising from the sea had reminded him of home.
He’d worked in a kitchen in Iceland in the high season. His living quarter in Reykjavik had been carved into the granite walls of the fjord.
He’d done vinicultural work at a vineyard in Tuscany, harvesting the grapes under the hot Italian sun.
He'd taken care of horses in Amarillo, Texas, and had probably learned more from the animal than he’d learned in any of his previous jobs.
He'd taken the night shift in a warehouse in California, and he’d watched the sunrise every day after his shift from the rooftop.
Kimi had been all around the world, and that wasn’t an exaggeration.
He’d spend way too much time on the highway, leaving a million miles of memories on the road, and he would probably have been still driving, if it hadn’t been his empty tank, and the big Welcome to Willowbrook sign on the side of the road.
Call it fate, call it destiny, call it divine intervention, or whatever, but the moment Kimi had passed the old building on his way to the gas station of the town of Willowbrook, Luisiana, he’d just known.
The small, decaying building had been half buried in the high grass, the large holes in the peaked roof had gaped from afar – just like the huge letters on top.
JOE’S, the sign had said, but the building seemed like its owner, Joe, had left it behind way too many years ago.
“Are you really sure about that?” Mr. Sainz, the mayor of Willowbrook had asked him when Kimi had walked into the city hall with the intention of buying that old building. Kimi had seen how the man had questioned his sanity.
“Sure.” he’d nodded simply, and not even five minutes later he’d walked out of the place with the keys of his new beginning in his hands.
It hadn’t been easy, per se.
Kimi had done everything with his bare hands. Yes, he’d had to repair the roof, and change the sing on top. The paint had peeled, and the windows had been shattered, but Kimi’s had four walls, and a foundation without a crack, and that had been something he could have worked with.
And six months later the KIMI’S had opened its doors.
***
“Hey, bartender!” Kimi turned towards the voice. “Can you bring us some beers?”
Kimi turned around to draw the beers the guy asked for. He didn’t know the people around the table – a small sign of how famous KIMI’S had become through the years.
Well, maybe well-known was a better word for that.
By the time Kimi had opened the bar, most the people of town had already knew him.
He’d still been the newcomer, an outsider who had been blown in by the wind, but somehow it had just made the interest even bigger. Kimi had been asked about the bar every time he’d gone to the gas station, or the one and only store of Willowbrook.
Mr. Sainz had visited him from time to time, to talk about how the renovation had gone, and to ask about his future plans with the building itself.
“Call me Carlos, please.” the man had offered him one, when Kimi had showed him around in the empty place, and that had been the day when Kimi had known that he had finally been accepted into the community.
The KIMI’S might haven’t been a big place, but its opening had been a big thing for the people of Willowbrook.
And now, almost two years later, he didn’t just have people coming there from the neighbouring towns, but Kimi already had his regulars.
Kimi served the group of guys at the table in the back, and on his way back to the bar he was stopped by Christian.
The man had just walked in one day, asked for Kimi’s most expensive wine, and had sat down at a table alone. Kimi had been glad he hadn’t listened to Carlos, and had called the winery he’d previously worked – it had seemed like the man had liked the taste of their wine.
And ever since Christian visited KIMI’S almost every day –
Just like the other man at another table.
Christian had been already sitting at his usual table when the man had walked into the bar.
“Torger.”
“Christian” the man had nodded to the other, and after introducing himself as Toto Wolff, he had politely asked for a glass of whiskey.
And had sat down at the table furthest away from Christian.
Kimi hadn’t asked back then, and he still didn’t, partly because it wasn’t his business, but mostly because he didn’t care.
Torger and Christian both drank quality alcohol, the expensive type, and that was the only thing that mattered for Kimi.
“If you become more popular, you should consider getting some help.” Christian told him when Kimi stopped at his table.
“I don’t think I’ll need that.” Kimi shrugged looking around. It was now just Christian, Toto, and the group of five guys at a table in the back. It wasn’t his busiest of nights, but he didn’t really mind.
He walked back to his place, behind the bar, from where he could see his personal little kingdom.
Kimi hadn’t left home because he’d been looking for something – leaving Finland hadn’t been a conscious decision. He was still a hometown boy, who called his mama every once in a while, and it didn’t matter where he had been in the past, or where he was now, he’d always carry his family and home country in his heart.
He remembered reading once that sometimes we didn’t know what we were looking for until we found it – and as Kimi was standing there, the jukebox playing some shit one of the guys put on, Christian reading a book, and Toto reading the exact same dook three tables away, he realized that maybe he’d actually been looking for it.
In the lights of New York.
In the Hills of L.A.
Down to California, and up to Idaho.
A left at Tennessee, and a right at Florida.
Hidden in plain sight here it was.
Willowbrook wasn’t home – home would always be Finland.
But KIMI’S was his home away from home.
As he watched the blond man and the five-ish kid walk into the bar, he didn’t even know that maybe KIMI’S could be home for someone else too.