Chapter Text
Nico disturbed Percy fairly often, even while he was streaming.
It was mildly annoying seeing how his chat would mock him for his past ‘promise’ of no more appearances from his roommate when the stream would essentially see him every other day. Nico would come in to deliver food or tell Percy something, and the chat would spam phrases like ‘Percy Roommate Spotting’ obnoxiously. They even started tracking the appearances. Whole chirp accounts were created for these specifically.
While this was, as he said, mildly annoying, Percy couldn’t ever tell Nico off. Nico just wanted to make sure he was doing okay, and would even deliver water bottles if Percy simply texted him. It was nice to have someone else to rely on, and he would do the same for Nico if asked.
Percy would have liked to get retribution for Nico suddenly becoming a recurring member of his channel in that way, but he was careful to never appear on TheGhostKing’s streams. If he did, the likelihood of someone finding out the two lived together would skyrocket. He was more popular than Nico too, so if anything he wore that was recognizable graced that camera’s view…
Anyways, that is why he avoided appearing on Nico’s streams at all costs. It wasn’t worth the risk, or their privacy.
When they were sitting around in the living room a few weeks later, exhausted from their respective streams, only then did they discuss how living together affected anything at all. While they were talking about various things, their last conversation stuck out in Percy’s mind.
“Why are we even hiding that we live together?” Nico questioned while staring blankly at the ceiling. Percy couldn’t sit still and do that like Nico, so he was occupying his mind with a children’s cartoon about dogs.
Percy hesitated to answer. It just felt so natural to start hiding it. It felt like people knowing they were roommates could cause trouble. People could start labelling Nico as ‘Sea_Jack’s roommate’ or vice versa. If one of them got doxxed, both of them would be.
“It just feels safer,” he replied. “What good could come out of people knowing?”
Nico sat up, no longer staring at the ceiling with unrivaled intensity but instead at the other streamer. “We wouldn’t have to tiptoe around each other's streams. We could do collabs. We could do some vlogs—maybe not that last one. I feel like we’d both be terrible at vlogging.”
“Yes, but I do see your point,” Percy sighed. “Maybe, at some point, we’ll stop hiding it, but right now it doesn’t feel worth it.”
They’d devolved into a comfortable silence after the conversation, but Percy’s mind was still racing. He couldn’t even focus on the wholesome dogs on screen anymore. How would the internet react if they did find out the two streamers lived together? How far could they run with assumptions?
From what he knew, pretty damn far.
Like the one time everyone started saying he and Leo were dating because of their banter. They almost stopped collabing right there and then, but they were both determined to not let the internet ruin their fun. So, they just continued on and ignored it. He still hated to imagine what they could say about him and Nico.
“...Besides, people could start speculating.”
Nico had started watching the show on the TV, but easily turned his attention back to Percy. “About what, exactly?”
“...We’re both openly into guys, and people could think we’re dating after you broke up with Will. Like… a rebound situation?”
Rolling his eyes, Nico turned them back towards the show. “Then they’re stupid, and they have no idea what happened between me and Will. What show is this, by the way?”
Percy wasn’t going to fall for the change of topic, but it felt rude not to answer. “It’s Lewey. But if they have no idea, or the explanation doesn’t fit their limited point of view, then they will make assumptions. That’s the problem.”
“I guess.” Nico leaned forward in his seat, and then put his head between his knees. “I wish people would stop bringing up Will. I go online and I just see people who claim to be fans of mine talking about him. It drives me insane.”
“Is there a banned words list where you’re looking? Some websites actually listen when you don’t want to see certain things.”
It looked like he was going to get a response, but Nico hesitated and then sighed, running a hand over his face. “Uh, no idea. I’ll look into it, thanks.”
They fell back into silence, and this time it stayed that way. Things were settled, and Percy finally felt he could relax after a long day.
He expected the next day to be just as uneventful as the days since Nico’s first appearance were, but that night Nico’s stream notification didn’t pop up on his phone like it usually did. He was used to seeing it every night at the same time, so it threw him off. He thought maybe Nico was just late, but soon the minutes stretched on with no late notifications from TheGhostKing.
Taking matters into his own hands, he went to Nico’s door. It didn’t sound like Nico was talking out loud, which tracked with the lack of stream. He knocked on the door gently.
“Skipping your stream tonight?” Percy loudly asked the man behind the door.
There was silence for about a minute before he heard footsteps approach the door, and then it was thrown open. The doorknob banged against the wall loudly as it was knocked to the side. Percy took a step back, shocked by the sudden action.
Nico’s head was hanging, his face obscured by his dark hair. It was a sad sight to behold, really.
“W-What’s wrong?” Percy asked hesitantly, glancing between the poor door and a rageful Nico.
“Come see.” Turning, Nico stalked back over to his desk where a Youtube video was on screen. Instantly, Percy recognized Will. Why was Nico watching videos of Will? Did he not get over his ex? Percy wouldn’t blame Nico if that were the case. The relationship lasted for a long time, after all.
That didn’t feel likely though. Nico didn’t talk obsessively about Will, but rather he would only speak about his ex when he found it necessary. So there must be another reason why Will’s channel was on Nico’s monitor.
Unlike him or Nico, Will recorded content without ever streaming. Streaming just wasn’t his thing. This video was titled ‘200k Subscriber Q&A! Answering your strange questions!’ which didn’t set off any alarm bells in Percy’s head. A lot of people did Q&As; he did one live when he hit one million followers.
What set off alarm bells was when Nico pressed the spacebar and started letting the video play.
On screen a comment appeared. “A question I’ve been wanting to ask was why did you and Ghost stop dating?” Will read out loud before the video cut back to his face where the video depicted him laughing awkwardly. Percy could feel himself scowl—Will had chosen that comment, he shouldn’t be acting so innocent about it!
He told himself to calm down and keep listening as Will continued to speak to the camera.
“...Well, he wasn’t very communicative. He and I just couldn’t connect after a while.” Will awkwardly laughed again after his explanation. “Actually, I felt like he was being cold towards me. I guess that’s why I broke up with him.”
“That’s not true!” Nico buried his face in his hands, and Percy could tell he was pissed off. “I broke up with him because he was controlling!”
Percy was inclined to believe Nico, not only because Nico lived with him, but because he didn’t see Nico as cold. Sure, sometimes it could be difficult to communicate with him, but cold was not a descriptor he would ever use for Nico. No one who knew him well enough would.
After knowing Nico for a long time, Percy reached a conclusion as to how Nico interacted with people. Nico felt things deeply when it came to himself and even others. However, he expressed these feelings carefully, which could cause him to seem cold on the surface. People who knew him best knew that, Will should know that since the two dated for years!
“What do you mean by controlling?” Percy hesitantly asked.
“I just—” Nico put a hand in his hair and curled up in his office chair. “Honestly, I don’t want to talk about it, I just… I can’t believe he lied.”
Not wanting to pressure Nico further, Percy decided to just reach for the mouse and close out the video. He felt bad for Nico, as his past relationship kept being brought up online, and Percy could see how it was affecting him.
Nico waved a hand at his computer before getting up and moving away from it with a sour look on his face. “Turn it off for me, I’m going to watch a movie.”
Percy did what he was told before following Nico, seeing him sitting on the couch with his legs pulled up to his chest. Settling beside him, Percy decided to not say a word and let Nico choose the movie. They ended up watching a rom-com at first before Nico decided to switch to an action movie instead.
The movie finished before Percy could manage to think of anything to say to Nico, so they both ended up scrolling on their phones. On Chirp, Percy could already see people talking about what Will said in the video.
They were making brutal assumptions about Nico, and most of them seemed to side with the video creator blindly. Percy felt an ugly pain in his stomach as he looked up from his phone to see his roommate, who’s face remained neutral. Was he unaware of what people were saying now?
“I think Will has done some damage, Nico.”
Nico looked up from his own phone and sighed, holding out a hand. “Let me see?”
The expression that took over Nico’s face after Percy handed him the phone was very similar to the one he had when he threw the door open for Percy. Nico tapped on his own phone as he gave Percy’s back.
“I’m gonna make a call,” Nico announced as he stood up to walk back into his room.
“Please don’t tell me you're hiring a hitman,” Percy joked. He was given a glare in return, but he swore he could see the scowl on Nico’s face dwindle. “Kidding! Have a good call!”
He wondered who Nico could be calling. Maybe a friend? His father? Who would he want to call? Percy decided to try to not think too hard about it, and swiped out of Chirp. That place was a pit of negativity and anger, and a lot of people didn’t know anger could be addictive.
Trying to figure out something else to focus on, he decided to look at some fanart of his Subnautica streams to pass the time.
“Will!” He heard Nico yell. His thumb paused and hovered over some really good fanart, but he couldn’t admire it properly when he just heard Nico being so angry.
Like he said before, Nico wasn’t cold. His emotions burned hot. Though he was a little ashamed of it, Percy went over to Nico’s door to listen to the phone call Nico was having.
“I broke up with you, asshole!”
There was a pause.
“Wasn’t it obvious enough? You know how direct I am! I was telling you it was over, and you seriously didn’t believe me!? You had to be the one to end things, otherwise it didn’t count?”
There was another pause.
“It doesn’t even matter anymore, you need to take that video down! That is our personal life, Will! Strangers shouldn’t be drawing conclusions about us like this!”
There was another—okay, you get the idea.
Percy hoped Will would take the video down, but he was curious who was actually correct when it came to who broke up with who first. He also felt that barely mattered, because it was mutual in the end. The two seemed a little hung up on it though.
He heard Nico sob through the door. Was he crying??
“Will. Take it down. Yes, cutting it is fine, just remove it… Thanks. Bye.”
Then he heard the sobs start up again, and he felt a little powerless about it. Waiting a minute or so, he decided he needed to make an attempt to comfort his friend, even if it was a little awkward. Percy knocked.
“Nico?” He asked softly. Percy didn’t have to wait very long before the door was slowly opened, a stark contrast to the last time he knocked.
Honestly, Percy thought Nico looked kind of messy. He must have been laying in bed, because his hair was a bit messed up and the trails of wet skin from tears seemed to move across the bridge of his nose.
“What do you want?” Nico asked as he wiped at his face with a hand.
Percy didn’t want to do anything but comfort Nico, so he silently offered up a hug. It was all he could really do right now, but to his knowledge there was a hot chocolate mix in the kitchen he could use later. Thankfully, Nico didn’t seem to mind his lackluster attempts at comfort and accepted it instantly.
“Did you hear everything?” Nico asked, his voice muffled as he hid his face in Percy’s shirt.
“Yeah,” Percy decided he didn’t want to lie, “I heard everything.”
Nico lifted his face from Percy’s shirt, “I’m sorry, you shouldn’t have to hear me yelling. I should have been calmer I was just so mad at him that I couldn’t stop—”
“—It’s okay.” Percy let go of Nico and headed into his room to pick up a blanket that was laying on the floor, folding it as he talked. “Want to have some hot chocolate with me? I think it could help us relax after all of this.”
After accepting his offer and heading into the kitchen, they made their own cups of hot chocolate. Percy laughed at Nico’s disappointment over the fact they didn’t have whipped cream, but ended up digging out some marshmallows to put in the drink instead.
“Do you think marshmallows ever expire?” Percy asked while he dunked the marshmallows into the cocoa over and over again with his spoon.
“No idea.” Nico sipped his drink and grabbed a marshmallow out of the bag of them, eating it. “They feel stale but the taste is pretty much the same.”
The staleness of the marshmallows wasn’t noticeable when they melted into Percy’s drink, so Percy shrugged and enjoyed his time with Nico. They left their phones on the living room couch too, so all they could do was talk to each other.
“I think I’m going to take another break from streaming, maybe for a few days,” Nico announced. Their hot chocolate mugs were sitting between them, sadly empty. “I should get another job…”
“The job market is pretty difficult right now, Nico.” Percy leaned back in his chair. “I’ll cover for whatever you need, seriously.”
Nico smirked at that. All Percy could think was— oh no.
“Fine, then I need a lambo.”
“I mean, if you really need it…”
“Of course not! I was joking!”