Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Connor is just cycling through omegle to connect with fans when it happens. Instead of having the average horror/crime fan start screaming in recognition, he gets a clearly green-screened setup with piano keys at the forefront and a set of floating hands holding up a sign.

“Request a song! Any song!”

Well, then. This is… probably not the strangest randomized encounter he could have had on the internet and it could be much, much worse, but it’s up there. “Oh, wow… let’s see… something spooky… oh I know! How about the soundtrack from Deep Red?”

There’s a small moment of pause that almost has him worried. “Too obscure?”

Not many would know such an old, niche horror movie, but the ghostly gloved hand makes a thumbs up and then starts playing.

Quite beautifully, actually, it’s very impressive.

Connor spends more time than he’d care to admit listening to the beautiful music, requesting no less than two more songs –the tavern theme from the very first Star Wars movie and the Die House song from the game Cup Head— but only kept the first few seconds in his video… it was likely whoever was behind the green screen was probably doing their own version of an omegle fan-meet.

It does get him curious.

Especially after the video goes up and his comment section explodes:

demonictatertot
wait IS THAT MARKUS @ 11:12

                spoopyBOI
                holy shit I think he is!!!

                (32 replies)

Connordaddy
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA MY TWO FAVORITE YOUTUBERS IN THE SAME VIDEO IM DEAD

                CycloneMetal
                11:12 BEST. ACCIDENTAL. MEETING. EVER.

                (15 replies)

MJGames
YASSSSSS, the Horror Narrator meets the Piano Ghost!!!

                SirPent
                Imagine if they did an actual collab though

                (57 replies)

And so forth and so on. Needless to say, it got Connor curious. He puts “Markus” and “piano ghost” in his youtube search bar, and the channel ‘thepianoghost’ pops up.

It’s clearly the pianist from omegle, always either green-screened into disembodied hands or covered by a bona fide ghost sheet. The only reason the audience knows it’s at all a he and that his name is Markus is because of the omegle ghostly piano sessions, which usually start with his disembodied hands holding up the sign “Hi! My name is Markus; can I play you a song?”

Connor watches one video.

Then one becomes two.

Then two becomes seven, when he finds one where the ‘piano ghost’ is also singing –it’s a Halloween video with two friends, one at the guitar and one at the drums, they’re playing and singing Tim Burton songs from The Nightmare Before Christmas in a video titled ‘Piano Ghost and the Spook Duet’. ‘This is Halloween’ is not even halfway through when Connor’s brain decides that Markus’ voice is absolutely stunning.

He subscribes.

Funnily enough, none of the videos in thepianoghost ever show the performer’s face. Markus must either be someone very shy or care deeply about his privacy… not that it prevented his quite vast following from speculating. Zoomed pictures of any images where he’s visible and wearing the sheet point out the different colored eyes peeking out the sheet’s eye-holes.

It could be contacts, just to be extra-dramatic, but… Connor is not sure anyone would bother that much.

He still spends a full night backtracking Markus’ twitter for any possible pre-sheet pictures before giving up –not that he would admit his curiosity to any living soul.

After all, he himself only did a face reveal back when he hit 500k subs, and only because he felt confident enough by then that his fans valued him for the stories he tells, narrated and original they be.

A hand descending on his shoulder as he binges yet another piano compilation nearly makes him jump out of his skin.

“You know, you should stop low-key stalking this guy and just ask him to collab.”

“No one asked you, Niles.” His twin brother’s teasing is not unexpected, but it does make him wonder: why not? Markus is quite kind, for a disembodied pair of hands, and surely even if he turned the request down he’d be polite about it… no harm in trying, right?

Connor opens up his email and starts typing.

This week’s omegle haunting absolutely exploded, apparently. Markus was happy to hear it, and accepted gracefully the congratulations for a job well done, but was confused when his editor mentioned a ‘special guest’.

“Wait, what special guest?” he asks, blinking owlishly at his friend as they prep for the day.

Simon outright gapes at him. “You mean you played three songs straight for him and didn’t recognize your idol?”

Idol? He doesn’t have a—

Wait.

From his seat on the couch, Josh chuckles. “Dude, have you even seen the comment section? It’s been two days, man.”

bachmegood
AAAAAA LOOK AT 4:33 IT’S CONNORREADS

demonictatertot
oh, I see you’re a person of culture

(18 replies)

vivaltitty
WAS THAT CONNOR AT 4:33 OMG

                CycloneMetal
                IT IS CONNOR SEES HIM IN HIS OMEGLE VIDEO AT 11:12

                (22 replies)

SheetLover
holy crap I didn’t notice at first but ConNOR OUTTA NOWHERE

                smetana
                RIGHT?! I did a double take like goddamn

                (20 replies)

ChopinThatAss
THIS IS A MOTHERFUCKIN DREAM COME TRUE PLS COLLAB DGYFEGUGU

                SirPent
                RIGHT??? PETITION TO MAKE IT HAPPEN COMEON PPL

                (72 replies)

Markus is, for lack of a better word, freaking the fuck out.

‘ConnorReadsThings’ has been his favorite youtube channel for months now. Connor is a storyteller, making audiobooks of mostly horror or crime stories. In his face reveal video, he mentioned that he started the channel when his older sister got an amazing career opportunity that saw both her and her young daughter move to Canada. Still wanting to be able to read little Alice all the noir stories her young heart desired, Connor made his first youtube video, ‘Alice in Monsterland’, featuring a horror version of the popular book where Alice fights horrible creatures with an axe.

Ever since finding his channel, Markus always listens to one of Connor’s stories before recording, especially the short ones –the delivery is perfect, building up just enough tension to make your heart race before the final twist. Doppelganger had been one of his favorites. He goes back to it a lot. Also I’m a 911 operator, the first one to feature Connor’s outlined figure in the lower right corner as he narrated.

He goes back to that one a lot, too.

Simon says he has a bit of a crush. Josh agrees, while North…

North says he’s thirstier than a dying man in the Sahara.

Markus always took the teasing with a laugh and shrugged it off –it’s not like they’d ever meet, after all, Connor probably doesn’t even know he exists, even if his channel has been getting bigger and bigger.

He thought their respective areas of work were too different to ever collide…

…and they were, until the fateful evening where both of them put ‘spooks’ as their interests in omegle and apparently blew up youtube.

As far as accidental meetings go, it could have been way worse.

And he never shows his face anyway, so it’s not like anybody would notice him make a complete ass out of himself. Markus sighs as he checks the comment section.

Despite being good for the channel and flattering to have made an impromptu appearance in his favorite storyteller’s video, it leaves a bittersweet taste in his mouth –it feels like a missed opportunity.

That is, until he checks his work email.

From: [email protected]

Subject: Hello! :D channel collaboration???

Hello,
My name is Connor.

I don’t know if you remember me, we bumped into each other by chance while cycling through omegle; and you were kind enough to play three songs for me.
As it happens, I’m a bit of a youtuber and was wondering if you would like to make a video together. I was thinking about having some of your breath-taking music as background and ambiance for one of my stories.

Here’s the link to my channel and to the video you happened to be a part of.
In case you’re interested.
Please feel free to reply to this email if you want to get things going, or even if you just want to decline.
But in all honesty, I do hope you say yes –I’d be thrilled to work together… no pun intended.

Many thanks in advance,
Connor

Holy shit. “Holy shit!!!”

This is huge. This possibly the best thing to ever happen to Markus in his whole youtube career. His friends are almost worried –understandably so, since he’s been staring wide-eyed at his phone with his free hand covering his mouth for a good handful of minutes now.

North saunters behind him to peek over his shoulder and see what the fuss is about.

“Aww, Markus, this is great! Senpai noticed you!” she exclaims, patting him none too gently on the back.

“Shut up!” he protests, but doesn’t deny.

Now both Simon and Josh are interested. “Wait he did???”

“Yup! ConnorReadsThings just sent us a lovely message asking to collab!” She confirms gleefully, faster than Markus could have managed in his still mildly star-struck daze.

“Well what the hell are you waiting for?!” Simon urges, getting up from his chair to go and have a peek himself, “Reply, say yes, you doofus!”

The pianist cannot quite  believe it still. Here they were, just setting up the studio to record the video of the day, and now he’s about to send an email to one of the entertainers he looks up to the most –not only Connor is an amazing storyteller with a beautiful voice and a face to match, he’s also one of the most disarmingly genuine people Markus has ever seen on the platform and, well… there’s a reason he doesn’t try to dispute his friends’ teasing.

They’re usually right.

And they’re right this time as well –this is his chance to meet his youtube crush. Even if it doesn’t go anywhere past a memorable video collab, he’d be a fool to waste such an opportunity.

He takes a deep breath and starts typing.

Hello, Connor.
First of all, I’m thrilled that you even liked my performance that much!

Let me tell you, it’s an absolute honor….

The day ends with enough footage for a video plus spoofs and sheet-related shenanigans, a surprisingly energetic Piano Ghost and plans to meet up with The Narrator in three days.

Markus can feel the excitement threatening to make his chest burst, there’s not enough piano notes in the world to describe it.

He still tries though, and he’ll probably have a small composition done by the time he meets Connor.

Giddily, he wonders whether Connor will like it –he did say he’s ‘really looking forward to meeting in person’, in his last email.

….shit, they’re going to meet in person.

Chapter Text

« Happy Halloween, my love... I just wish I hadn't slit your throat before you could say it back. »

Connor's voice is velvet smooth as it finishes off yet another amazing short story, the deranged love letter of a man wishing a happy Halloween to the spouse whom, as it turns out, he just brutally murdered.

Talk about a plot twist.

To be completely honest, Markus could sort of call it about halfway through the story -part of what hammered down the protagonist's obsessive nature was the occasional repetition of the line "I just want you to understand..." and at one point Connor subtly shifted from "want" to "wanted".

Quite a nice touch.

Markus smiles at his laptop. Since they've been emailing about that collab, he doesn't feel too nervous at the idea of leaving a comment, as opposed to his usual silent lurking.

He didn't think Connor would even see it amidst the thousands of adoring fans praising his writing, his voice or his looks... but apparently he was wrong, because his comment gets pinned and he has to turn off reply notifications.

thepianoghost

Nicely done! Very thematic.
Love the subtle crescendo into madness, it gives all sorts of inspiration.
Well played, friend.
Happy belated Halloween.

(878 replies)

           demonictatertot
           AAAAAAAAA MARKUS

           NathanBreaks
           OMG THE PIANO GHOST DROPPED IN

           poisonapple
           Does that mean they know each other?!?!? Pls tell me it does I need that sweet sweet collab

           bachmegood
           WHAT SORT OF INSPIRATION OH GREAT MUSIC MAN PLEASE FEED US

           florenciarules
           I DONT KNOW WHATS HAPPENING BUT I SHIP IT

           CycloneMetal
           lmao @demonictatertot I see you everywhere how are you always the first to comment?!

...and so forth and so on.

All in all, it seems that both their audiences would respond very well to a collab, so it's a pretty great thing business-wise.

The occasional 'shipping' comment only makes him a bit embarrassed –he doesn't know how Connor would react to it, but all in all it's pretty much an unescapable side of the internet, so he isn’t too worried about things becoming weird, when they haven’t even met yet.

If anything, he's flattered that his fanbase has decided that his musical talents and his voice are enough to mark him up as 'hot'.

Well... he's received plenty of comments over this year about his hands and what people would like him to do with them, but it's not the same as just taking a look at his face or body and dismissing everything else.

It's actually part of the reason he always covers up— he doesn't want people to say he's only made it big on youtube because he's attractive.

He's well aware it's a very 'first world problem' to have, but it's still not nice to have his integrity and his talent questioned because of his looks; which is why he removed those from the equation.

That, and he also is shyer than he lets on... he's fine with texting or chatting over a computer, but something about face to face conversation strips him of all confidence –you can't really backspace and re-type if you're actually talking to someone.

"Hey!" North's voice calls from his side, "Ready to stop stalking your crush and get recording?"

Since the channel's popularity is growing at an incredible rate –it's likely that the impromptu appearance on Connor's channel helped, considering the recent spike in sub count– they've decided to do a q&a, with North and Josh as special guests since the This Is Halloween cover video was made for their channel.

But of course it wouldn't be a normal q&a, that would be boring. It's staged like a séance, with a fake Ouija board on a table beside Markus’ usual upright piano, keys facing the camera, and the green screen background that will be replaced with a stereotypical spooky medium place.

The video starts with North getting close enough to the camera to tap her finger on the lens corner.

"Hello??? Anybody here?"

Josh comes into view off to the side. "What is this place?"

"I don't know, do you remember how we got here?"

On cue, Markus' white satin-gloved hands come into view as well. Just to make it slightly more genuine, he creeps in a second earlier than he said he would and taps Josh on a shoulder, making him jump:

"GAH!!! Demon hands!!!"

North has to stifle her laughter at that. "Josh, I think that's actually our ghost friend!"

Markus picks up the fake planchette, making sure to make the movement theatrical and visible.

"Markus, is that you?"

Upon the question, he places the planchette on the board and drags it to the YES square –Simon will edit in 'Ouija cam' later, to show his answers on screen.

"Do you know what this is?"

T H I S  I S  W H E R E  Q U E S T I O N S  A R E  A N S W E R E D

Gosh, North wouldn't want to be Simon for this. "Questions? Whose questions?"

T H E Y  C O M E  F R O M  T H E  O T H E R  S I D E

Josh nods at that. "So... the internet?" He asks, "Cool, where do we start?"

T A K E  T H E  M Y S T I C A L  P A R

Midway to spelling ‘parchment’, Markus throws the planchette behind him and starts speaking.

"Actually, can we just do this?" He says, "It's gonna take forever otherwise."

"Oh thank the Lord."

"My editor will be the most thankful." Markus comments with a chuckle, removing the green sheet from the chair that they prepared there to make it obvious he takes a seat at the piano –and it's one of those chairs shaped like someone's back with a butt where the seat should be, so it's twice as funny because it looks like part of the ghost's body.

Chairs 'magically' appear for North and Josh as well once they remove the second green sheet and get ready to start.

“Is this the mystical parchment of questions?” Josh asks, reaching for the scroll on the table.

“No, that’s just ghost nudes, I was messing with you.” Josh promptly makes a point of dropping it with a disgusted face at Markus’ words –nevermind the fact that there’s actually nothing on the scroll, it’s an empty piece of watercolour paper. “Here, I’ve saved some questions on this.”

Mobile phone in hand, North starts: “Alright, let’s dive into it with a classic one! SheetLover asks: who is your favorite composer?”

“That’s a loaded question to ask a pianist…” Markus comments, twining his fingers and tapping his thumbs together in thought, to give the people watching at least some form of expressivity to pick up on, “Let’s break it between past and present… past, I’d say Tchaikovsky, I love how versatile he was in merging different sounds, there’s probably no one in the world that doesn’t know Swan Lake, and… well, he was one of the first historically known queer composers, and even though his life and personal relationships suffered when that got out, he didn’t shy away from it.” There’s a small bit of silence at that, almost out of respect for the dearly departed Pyotr, “Honorable mentions though go to Clara Schumann and Lili Boulangér… people tend to not know a lot about women in classical music history and, well, those two names are as good a place as any to hear some positively lovely compositions. As for present composers… Ludovico Einaudi is a current musical crush. I’m weak, he favors the piano as much as I do.”

“Awww. For a ghost, you’re a giant sap.” North chuckles, and Josh leans over her shoulder to read the next question: MysticalSpoon asks: when did you start playing piano?”

“First of all: great name.” Markus makes a thumbs up at the camera, not quite able to hide a chuckle, “As for the question… well, I remember being a kid and playing hide and seek with my brother, I’d often lose because I’d go hide under our father’s piano… but the keys were so inviting I’d just climb up to the seat and start messing with them, making a whole lot of noise and giving away my position. By the time we started going to school and I didn’t really have an excuse to sit by the piano anymore, our dad just took me aside one day and asked if I wanted to learn… fast forward about two decades, and here I am.”

“That’s so unfairly cute, I kinda hate you.”

“Stop deluding yourself Josh, you love me.”

Josh turns to the camera with a deadpan look. “He says, right in front of my girlfriend.”

North just shrugs. “I’m not jealous.” When her boyfriend turns to her with a flabbergasted look, she laughs some more. “What? I read comments. People have things to say. And knowing what I know…” she shakes her head. “Let’s just move on, shall we?”

It’s obvious that Markus face-palmed even if the finished product will see the gloved hand reaching up to empty hair. North clears her voice. “TwoForTragedy asks: what advice would you give to someone wanting to start a music Youtube channel?”

“What makes you think I know what I’m doing?” is the first thing Markus reacts with, prompting laughter for both his friends. “No, ok, let’s see… a good thing to remember is don’t just sit there and wait for comments and subscribers to magically pour in, and don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t happen overnight –it’s not a fast process for most of us, and the only way to get more attention is to get more of your content out there. Be proud of what you do, and do it with all you’ve got. Then…” he absently taps his fingers together some more while he thinks, “Find your own unique style. Don’t just sit in front of an instrument if there’s more to it for you. Channel the things you like into your music. And last, but definitely not least: don’t be stingy on sound equipment. Anything else can wait, you don’t need special effects or super good editing, hell my first video had music playing to a black screen with the sheet music rolling over it in white. If you’re making a music channel, the thing you want to have the most attention is the music itself.”

Josh nods almost solemnly at that. “Fair enough. Demonictatertot asks: even if it’s not related to music, are you using lenses or are you really heterochromatic?”

“Ah, is this from the instagram pictures of me wearing the sheet?” Markus should have known people would eventually start trying their best to figure out what he looks like: you always want to see the things you’re not allowed to look at. “To answer the question, no, I don’t use contact lenses, I’m actually rather queasy at the idea of putting anything near my eyeballs, thank you very much.”

It’s a fruit that’s hanging too low, and North wastes no time: “How can a ghost get queasy?”

“Shut up, that’s how.”

“Real mature.”

“I’m a ghost!” he counters, “How do you know I didn’t die a child?”

“You’re six feet tall, Markus.”

He crosses his arms. “And you’re not supposed to say that on camera.”

North promptly smacks a hand over her own mouth. Right, they had agreed about not even giving any hints to what Markus looks like… it’s not a thing that normally comes up in conversation anyway, this time it just slipped. Josh takes the phone from her again, and changes topics fast.

“SirPent asks: are you and ConnorReadsThings going to collab soon? It would be so awesome if you did! Love your videos and your music, they always bring me joy!”

“Aww, what a lovely person!” Markus legit puts a hand over his chest, smiling underneath the green-screen suit “As for your question… who knows? If I said anything, that would be telling, and a gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell!”

North laughs at that. “You’re a gentleman?”

“Do I not look like one?” Markus asks earnestly, before smacking his own fist and reaching into the piano: “Oh, right, my bad!” he pulls out a black bowtie and puts it on over the suit, so now he’s a set of floating hands and bowtie. “Better?”

North takes a look at the ensemble, thinks about what it will look like on camera and cannot possibly hold it in: “It kinda clashes with the white marble butt, but sure.”

They answer all sort of questions –of course, the customary ‘are you seeing anyone?’ pops up, to which Markus skilfully deflects by pointing out that of course, he sees people every day and is seeing people right now, three of them in fact… then who is his greatest inspiration and Markus is cheesy enough to mention his father the genius painter who always encourages him to be the best version of himself… the question ‘who’s your favorite youtuber?’ also comes up and Markus balks slightly.

“You cannot ask me that in front of my two best friends, who are also youtubers. Next!!!”

After that comes ‘if you could just pick one song to play, what would it be?’ and he shamelessly admits to his love for Ludovico Einaudi’s Primavera.

His viewers also asked for embarrassing music-related stories, and Markus tells the tale of how in high-school he nearly broke his neck trying to lift a piano to impress a guy he had a crush on. They very narrowly avoided disaster and even managed not to break the expensive instrument, but Markus himself went down a flight of stairs and dislocated his shoulder. Not one of his finest moments by a long shot.

“And lastly, spoopyBOI asks: why do you keep your face covered? I mean, you’re entitled to your privacy and I’m sure people would respect that, I’m just wondering why go through all the bother if not for a dramatic face reveal eventually.”

Markus left that question on the list exactly for what his answer is going to be –it’s the only one he actually planned, while all his other answers were improvised: “Ok, there have been many questions like this one in this past year; and I’m answering this one on behalf of all of them, since it’s so nicely put. Alas, I’m not planning to do a face reveal anytime soon, at least for the immediate future. It’s not like I’m purposefully keeping a secret identity, people close to me and those I collab with obviously know me and what I look like… the two main reasons I don’t show my face are: one, I am way more self-conscious than I let on, talking face to face to people, nevermind an entire audience, kind of makes me nervous. Two, I started this as a music channel, and that is what I want to be the main focus, not my big, stupid face— it’s why I don’t have a Facebook account: I don’t understand the appeal of that… would you go to a random stranger and say ‘hey! I like your face! Let’s be best friends!’? …is that contradictory? On one hand, I’m way more confident behind a keyboard, on the other hand… I tend to only connect to people I actually have a reason to talk to, someone I’m familiar with. Does that make sense?”

It makes perfect sense to Connor, when he sees the ‘Ghastly q&a Time at the Musician Séance’, laughing at the funny skits and raptly listening to the pianist’s smooth, warm voice. It’s pretty much exactly how he felt about his own work and why he only did a face reveal after he was confident enough about his channel and the community of book lovers he brought together.

He can’t help himself when he actually leaves a comment:

ConnorReadsThings

Please, friend, I’m sure your face isn’t stupid at all –not that it would make you any less talented a pianist if it was.
(P.S.: the bowtie looks dashing, and do share the secret workout to those marble glutes… like, damn!)

                (778 replies)

Of course, the comment section explodes with all kinds of reactions to that. Even those who ardently shipped the mysterious ghost with Josh, North, or Josh and North get in on the fun.

Markus himself nearly has a heart attack at the undeniably flirty tone of the banter, before he calms down and reminds himself that obviously Connor is just being playful and teasing in good fun. Not to mention giving the internet what it wants, because people have fun with this shit.

So he pins Connor’s comment and replies to it:

thepianoghost

Why, thank you, friend, that is so very kind of you to say.
And there’s no secret to marble butts, you’re either born with it or you’re not ;)

The reply count to the thread only gets higher.

It makes Markus look forward to their collaboration even more –both their fan bases will have a field day over this. Not to mention that they start actually talking, and eventually follow each other on instagram and twitter as well.

He also finds out that they live in the same freaking city: Connor has spent a period of time in LA, to try and broaden his horizons a bit, but eventually came back to Detroit because he missed his family too much, and already his sister is all the way over in Canada –he’s channel is big enough by now that he can do youtube from wherever he wants.

The fateful collab day comes, and Markus still can’t believe he went from lowkey idolizing this guy to actually having him as an acquaintance. His phone buzzes –speak of the devil, Connor is just asking for confirmation of their recording place’s address.

» yeah that’s the right one, the studio is in Ferndale. Look for the sign that  says MindState Records.

» Got it. Be there in 20!

God, he’s so not ready. To avoid getting repetitive, being just a pair of floating hands, and maybe to also give his viewers something to take their minds off his actual face, he’s started painting some masks, since the bowtie was largely very well-received and the general consensus was that more pieces made him more of a character… he’s tested it out with Simon on the green screen, and his editor agreed that it made for a pretty badass impression.

He’ll wear the first one for his collab with Connor and oh god someone is pulling up in the parking lot, he’s here. Crap, he can’t make it downstairs in time to make it seem casual, so he’s gonna have to wait for North and Josh to bring him in…

To say Connor is looking forward to this would be an understatement. Markus doesn’t speak much in his videos, but even over just text he’s an absolute delight of a person, and the q&a video only cemented into Connor the certainty that they could easily become good friends.

He’s actually been stressing out about meeting the elusive pianist face to face –he asked Niles countless times questions like “Do you think he’ll like me?” or “What if I act stupid in front of him?” or even “What do you think he’s like in real life?”…

Niles, being the helpful brother that he is, had the same answer to all of them: “I don’t know! I don’t care about your cryptid crush! Just go meet him already and find out!”

Connor obviously denies having a crush— he’s just excited and maybe a bit nervous because he’s never done a collab like this before. He finds the studio easily enough, and is greeted by Josh and North; he recognizes them from the q&a video and many others he has watched.

“Hello. My name is Connor!” he greets, holding out a hand, “You must be Josh and North.”

“Yup!” North looks at him in an appraising manner, almost as if she’s sizing him up –privately, Connor would admit to being slightly uncomfortable under the scrutiny. “Markus is upstairs setting things up. Come along, make yourself at home!” She gives him a friendly pat on the back that has him nearly doubling over as she goes on ahead.

“Uh. Ok…”

Josh reaches out to pat one of his shoulders reassuringly. “Don’t worry.” He says, “She’s usually like this. Actually, she’s being a lot nicer than she usually would be, I’m kind of impressed.”

…what is that supposed to mean?

Connor doesn’t get much time to dwell on it: he gets ushered two floors up and into a studio –there’s a small sticker on the door reading ‘Jericho’. Josh sees him looking questioningly at it and explains: “That’s the name we take on when we work together… we all go way back, and when we were in college, we’d go hang out by the docks and there was this abandoned freighter we used to hide out in… guess the name.”

A place of togetherness and familiarity –Connor kinda envies the idea, he grew up as a bit of an outcast. Still, he doesn’t let memories or the lack of them sour his mood, especially since Josh and North are nothing but welcoming as they invite him in.

The studio is quite spacious, with not only what he recognizes as the usual backdrop for Markus’ videos, but also several other instruments and a differently decorated wall. Behind the sound and video editing console, a blonde guy is checking cables when they enter.

“Oh, there you are.” He says with a bright smile, “You must be Connor. Welcome to Jericho.”

“Nice to meet you.” Connor says, perhaps a little too eagerly. “Are you Markus?”

The beat of silence during which the three look at each other is already enough for Connor to deduce that it’s not, but when they all burst out laughing he’s sure there’s something they know that he doesn’t.

Still, no reason not to be a good sport about it. “I’m… gonna go out of a limb and say that I was wrong?”

“Sorry. It’s just… not the first time that it happens. I’m Simon, Markus’ editor.” The blonde says, holding out is hand, “He’s getting suited up, should be out any time.”

Connor shakes the offered hand enthusiastically and looks around, his eyes darting about and giving away his curiosity about where the infamous Markus will come from.

“Hey, Simon, have you seen the white mask? The guys and Connor will be up any moment, and—”

The figure in the skin-tight green suit stops short.

If asked, Connor would like to say he’s not that shallow, but even though green-screen suits are unflattering in the best of cases, that is a very nice figure even underneath all that green lycra. The man in green clears his voice slightly. “Case in point.” He says, almost more to himself than to the people before him, “Of course I’d run smack-dab into you while looking like a creepypasta version of Kermit the frog.”

It’s meant to be self-deprecating, but it makes Connor laugh. “It’s not that bad…” it really isn’t… not bad at all –he catches his eyes drifting down to Markus’ thighs and has to snap his gaze back up.

“Still.” Markus says, reaching behind the nape of his neck, “Let me retry for a slightly better intro.”

The green spandex comes off his head with just a little struggle, and if Connor had a drink right now he would have spat it out.

How can someone who looks like that ever be self-conscious about their looks?!

“There. A little better. I’m Markus.” The tentative smile he offers only serves to make his gorgeous eyes stand out more. Definitely real.

Damn, his fanbase is missing out.

Shit, Connor was not prepared for… this. To be honest, he hadn’t formulated any hypotheses about how Markus would look, since nothing about his channel or their collab would be about that, but holy shit, the Piano Ghost is gorgeous. If his fans knew, they’d throw a fit! Still, he clears his voice and tries to avoid drawing to much attention to that, since Markus expressed clear wishes to leave his looks out of discussion.

“That’s okay. It’s very nice to finally meet you, Markus.” He assures, extending a hand.

“Likewise.”

Markus is trying very hard to keep it casual, but North doesn’t let him for long: “Oh, you have no idea how much this dork wanted to meet you” she says, elbowing her friend in the side. “You’re basically his youtube idol!”

“More like youtube cru—”

“Okay, thank you, Josh!” the pianist interrupts, “Why don’t we sit and actually talk about work?”

Considering some of the comments both of them have been receiving, the teasing is not entirely unexpected… but seeing what he’s seen now, he can’t help but feel a little awkward –Markus is definitely attractive and he’s been very open about his sexuality in the q&a video… which means Connor has a chance.

No! Bad Connor, you’ve only just met! And Markus worked so hard not to draw attention to his looks! “Sure thing! I can let you read the story I prepared and you can tell me which music you want to play to it…” he assures with a smile, jumping into familiar and safe territory, “Then, if you want, you can tell me what you had in mind for your own video!”

That is, assuming that Markus would even want to do something with him for his own channel… he sounded happy to meet and collaborate over their numerous emails and texts, but… one can never tell for sure. As it is, it would seem his worry was unfounded, because Markus breaks into a blinding smile.

“Actually, why don’t you come sit by the piano and read it to me?” he proposes, “I’ll try to just start following along.”

“You’re going to… improvise a piece, just for me?” Connor honestly thought the other would just play an altered interpretation of whatever horror soundtrack he thought fitting. This is very kind of him and more than a little impressive he... didn't expect Markus to hold him in such a high regard. “…That would be an honor!”

“Great!” Markus exclaims, zipping the headpiece of his suit back over his face and grabbing a white mask with hand-painted black motifs to wear over it. “Simon, can you start recording? Dim the lights, leave just the one ring light.”

“You got it, Mark.” Simon gets behind his equipment and gives them a thumbs up. “Ready when you are.”

Connor has never read to an audience that wasn’t his niece before, and is feeling slightly self-conscious. “So… why are we already recording?”

“Mostly to get more and more takes as we gradually get comfortable with the new setting.” Markus says, hitting a couple keys to make sure the piano is tuned and briefly turning to the other as he sits at the chair and desk they prepared for him, “Also, since I’ll be improvising, I might need to listen over if I forget parts of it and we need to re-record. It will also probably provide the both of us with footage for spoofs.”

Right. At the end of every Ghost video, there’s usually at least four seconds of sheet or green-screen related bloopers –Markus tripping over cables as he moved from side to side, resulting in the floating hands disappearing from view to various loud crashing sounds and Simon’s laughter in the background, the occasional times where the backdrop screen falls off… then there was the one time Markus tripped on the hem of his sheet and fell face-forward on the floor in a crumpled heap, sheet flying on his back and over his head, exposing jean-clad legs and socked feet…

…most of the comments under that particular video that weren’t about the music itself were along the lines of ‘legs for days’ and ‘for a ghost, you sure have thick thighs’, though it was nice to see the occasional ‘holy shit that looked like it hurt’ and ‘pls be careful bb we worry about our favorite ghost’.

“Okay, let’s get started, then.” Connor clears his voice, trying not to let his eyes drift down towards Markus’ legs in the skin-tight suit again, and brings it to the slightly lower and softer octave he uses whenever he’s reading –it’s an instinct to him, since way back when it was just stories for little Alice they were bedtime ones, but it’s become a staple to his channel and his style: before his face reveal, many of his listeners praised his voice and complimented in all kinds of ways some of them definitely not PG… after the face reveal it didn’t get any better… if anything, he’s got additional comments about his looks on top of everything else.

It’s flattering, if nothing else. He focuses on reading.

“…I felt my back glued to the ground. I tried to push myself up, but I couldn’t get my elbows under me… I couldn’t move at all— my body moved under the will of somebody else. I looked up. The sky was taunting me. The shadow had already taken my place… and put me in its own.” Connor takes a long, shuddering breath and lets his voice take on a trembling tone. “I could hear my own voice… telling people I was okay… but I’m not…” he breathes in and out once more, to finish in a panicked whisper: “Please… someone help. Get me out of here!”

Markus lets the last few notes echo out and stays still for a count of four before letting his shoulders relax in a sigh. “That was… amazing!” he declares, clapping his hands twice, “I think we have our golden take!”

He’s been more than a little distracted at having Connor so close, reading to him with his velvety voice and that perfect, focused look on his face –he’s actually been envious of the microphone the narrator was speaking into, if only because it rested so close to Connor’s lips— but eventually he started getting into the story: a short horror tale about a man who finds out shadows have a will of their own and ends up trapped in shadow-world while his shadow takes control of his life… Markus made a few blunders with his own notes here and there, but eventually he put together an appropriate piece, which will be named ‘Shadowpeople’.

Connor turns to face him with a beaming smile: “You gave me chills, Markus, I could almost see it happening!”

“You could?” such blatant praise from his favorite youtuber makes the pianist glad he’s still wearing the mask.

“Yeah, your music brings out exactly the kind of sensations I was imagining! The subtle urgency, the helplessness…” the other stands up and takes a couple steps towards the piano, “You’re a musical genius!”

“T-thank you…” Markus didn’t mean to sound so bashful, but there’s only so much you can play it cool when your crush is so close and complimenting you.

"So, what do you have in mind for me now?" Connor looks eager and full of energy, even as he keeps his impeccable, trademark composure. Markus balks slightly, because his instinctive answer is not exactly audience appropriate and definitely not something you could say to a guy you've only just met, but luckily the other continues: "You mentioned turning the video into a challenge?"

"Ah, um— yes!" Markus adjusts his mask in place, "Since you're primarily a horror narrator and I'm supposedly a ghost, I thought you could challenge me to make non-scary songs sound creepy, and see if the Piano Ghost can impress the Horror Narrator."

Connor holds back from saying that he's already very much impressed— clearly, Markus is quite shy about interacting with new people, and he doesn't want to push at boundaries that it isn't his place to question.

"Sounds great!" He says instead, quite intrigued by the challenge, "Which songs?"

Markus shrugs. "Any songs."

"Any?" That's a very broad spectrum –pun not intended.

The pianist just nods again, and Connor is more than a little curious: one would need to be an insanely good musician just to be able to repeat random songs on the fly, let alone do arrangements of them.

But he's seen it before in Markus' videos, especially the 'omegle hauntings'; he'd always propose to his viewers to request any song, and he'd deliver every single time, without fail. The man might as well be a human mp3 player.

He’s pointed out to his brother how good Markus is enough times to make Niles snap at him to just go and confess to him, if he likes him so much, and, well… that was before Connor ever even saw Markus’ face.

Hearing him work his music magic live is… definitely going to be an interesting challenge.

They shift a couple things around, Simon gives the ok as he starts recording again and Markus takes off the mask to hide it in the piano –he will start as just the floating hands, then.

As per usual, the video starts with the Ghost holding up his signs saying 'Hello, my name is Markus', but then he rises a new one: 'Today we have a special guest'.

And then another one: 'Connor, the Narrator of Horror'.

That's Connor's cue to come into view. He strides purposefully towards Markus and pokes him in his non-existent shoulders. "So! You fancy yourself a spooky character, do you?"

Markus just lets one hand hover confusedly as the other rummages in the piano for his mask, almost as if he was ignoring the other.

"I said—"

Once the mask is on, Markus speaks: "Can you hear me now?"

"Oh... yes."

"Sorry about that, hard to get heard when you don't have a mouth." Markus makes a show of fixing the mask in place and sits at the piano. "So. You wish to put my spooks to the test?"

"I do." Connor answers on cue, sitting on the chair that is now beside the piano.

"Do you want me to play scary songs to you?" Markus asks, cracking his gloved fingers dramatically –he's a completely different individual behind the ivories, confidence in his skill shining through and making him bolder overall.

"That would be too easy, friend." The narrator shakes his head at the 'unfit' proposal, "How about turning non-scary songs in spooky tunes?"

"Fine by me." The ghost agrees, following with his trademark: "Request a song, then. Any song!"

Connor starts it relatively simple, asking for Eurhythmics' Sweet Dreams –which, considering the Marilyn Manson cover, is quite easy to turn spooky. So he ups the ante, asking for Once Upon a December; and holy crap, Markus is good. The song sounds almost completely different at first, but when it starts properly you can immediately tell, and good God, Connor almost gets swept away in watching and listening to Markus play enough to forget about the challenge.

Thoroughly impressed, Connor goes for a really hard one: "Since it's November already, let's see if you can turn the happiest of songs into something fearsome: play Jingle Bells for me."

The mask shakes in silent laughter— oh, that's going to look so good in post... then Markus starts playing.

"Holy crap." Connor says in a whisper, not wanting to disturb the unbelievable performance. Christmas music never sounded so badass. Maybe it's his youtuber side, already visualizing what the finished product will look like and as such cancelling out the slightly silly-looking green suit, but watching Markus play is amazing. He clearly loves music a lot, with the way his entire body goes into it, even though it goes largely unseen by the final audience.

And to think all of this came out of a chance meeting on omegle.

"Alright, alright, I yield." He says, sincerely, as he puts his hands up, "You are undoubtedly the master of musical spooks."

"Why, thank you." Markus responds, bowing gracefully, "You are quite the spookmaster yourself."

They joke their way through a joined outro, but the ball is rolling and now Connor feels playful: "Damn, I just realized I missed a chance!"

"A chance for what?"

"Making you play the Ghostbusters theme!"

"I can still do that if you want..."

A few seconds of that particular tidbit will probably end up being the post-outro skit, and Markus couldn't be happier about the way the recording went.

They spend a little time drinking water and resting their voices, while Simon saves all the raw footage and makes sure it's ready for editing.

"Well, there we go." He eventually says, "Now all that's missing is my magic touch."

And what a touch indeed. People look at the finished videos and go crazy about Markus, but a good half of the credit goes to Simon's skilful editing and the pianist makes sure to thank him and sing his praises at every given chance, especially considering the long hours his passionate friend puts into it.

Speaking of...

"We can all get some lunch before we get to post!" He offers, knowing it will be unlikely they'd be able to move Simon from his work-station once he starts, "My treat, in honor of our guest!"

It will be a late lunch, considering it's almost three in the afternoon, but everyone perks up at the invite; Connor himself suddenly becomes aware of his own appetite.

He hadn't noticed before, taken as he was with the beautiful music and good fun. His lips tilt up in a smirk.

"Well, if it's your treat..."

Markus actually chuckles at that, and it's great to finally hear him sound more relaxed. "Ghost's honor!" He jokes, "Let me just go change into something a little more human-looking."

It suddenly clicks in Connor's mind, as Markus walks away and into another room: of course he wouldn't wear the freaking green suit to go out! They've really done their job well— he has seen Markus' face already, albeit briefly, and still he can't separate the person from the ghostly character; the green-screen suit does such a thorough job of putting distance between the man and the character that as soon as the mask was back on Connor almost forgot what he looks like entirely.

...He's about to see, really see, what the Piano Ghost looks like in his natural habitat.

If the face alone caught him off-guard, the full reveal just about floors him.

Markus is tall and lean, with a frame fit enough that it's noticeable under the jeans and soft sweater, his skin is a lovely amber and everything about him from his posture to the way he walks makes Connor either want to jump his bones or scream in a fully justified ‘gay panic’.

This guy could give male models a run for their money. Hell, many youtubers that actually use their good looks to pander to their audience would easily be overshadowed by this heterochromatic beauty.

Holy goddamn.

Something must show on his face, because North comes up to him and pats him on the shoulder.

"I know." She simply says, "It's a shock, isn't it?"

"Putting it mildly." Connor confesses, "Just... how can he look like that and still be so insecure?"

He can't help but stare a little as Markus exchanges a few jokes with Simon and Josh, until something he says makes the latter bap the pianist on the back of the head. North seems impressed by his words –or rather, by the fact that he caught on so quickly to Markus actually being insecure around new people.

She sighs, turning to actually face Connor as she speaks. "Well... it's his story to tell... nothing sensational, the short of it is that people are petty and he's heard that he only ever achieves anything thanks to his looks one too many times."

Connor can kind of relate –heavens know he's been called 'prettyboy' more times than he cared to count before people eventually noticed he punches as hard as his cop brother.

Another thing to make him feel like Markus is a kindred spirit.

"So!" The pianist's voice suddenly so close nearly makes him jump out of his skin. "Since you're the guest, you get to choose! Where do you want to eat?"

He blinks, trying to take in the figure before him but still not quite able to match it up to the kind and playful individual he's been messaging with in the past couple of weeks –and possibly growing to like a bit more than a simple collab partner should before they ever even met. "Me?"

"I mean... if you want to." Aaaaand back to self-conscious and skittish Markus goes. It's surreal to see it happen before his eyes. "I can just think up something—"

"No!" Connor interrupts him by grabbing his wrist. It's solid and warm; and he really doesn't know what he expected... it might be because the brain is more easily fooled than one would think, but seeing Markus so often as a disembodied pair of hands made his mind forget about the notion that he could simply reach out and touch.

"No, I'd love to choose a place." He assures when Markus doesn't speak, flashing the other his best smile. "What are my options?"

Markus smiles back, and Connor feels something do a backflip in his insides.

This can either turn in a disaster where he makes a complete ass out of himself or go very, very well.

Either way, Connor is willing to roll with it if it makes his 'ghost' friend smile like that.

Shit, Niles was right.

Chapter Text

They end up at Sam’s Ferndale Grill for lunch –it’s within walking distance to the recording studio and North assured it’s freaking delicious.

Considering Connor mostly either goes to the Thai place across the street or meets Niles for lunch not too far from the precinct his brother works at, he guessed there’d be no harm in changing it up a bit. He also gets a startling taste of the truth behind Markus’ elusive persona: the people who know him, really know him, are well able to go past his intimidatingly good looks and all the way to his personality –which, to be honest, is just this side of dorky, but quite endearing, nonetheless.

“Markus! Almost thought you wouldn’t show up today, kiddo!” one of the older waiter greets, while on his way to a table.

The pianist chuckles and scratches the back of his head sheepishly. “You know how it is… got caught up recording, we came to refuel before going in post.”

Another voice, from behind the counter, calls out to them. “Well, come on in and have yourselves a seat! I’ll send someone to feed you hungry musicians in a sec!”

Connor watches with mild amusement as they make their way to a table without waiting to be shown to it –everyone here seems to know them, they must end up here quite often.

“This is one of our favorite places to come to.” Josh confirms to him as they get settled in, “Any time it gets too late to cook something and Markus hasn’t had the time to bring food over, we usually end up here.”

“Markus?” he’s slightly puzzled at why the pianist would be tasked with that, but Markus himself just smiles and shrugs.

“My hands are good for more than just playing piano.” The poignant silence that follows makes him realize what he just said, and the pianist is suddenly very glad his skin does a good job at hiding blushes. “That sounded wrong. I meant that I’m actually a pretty decent cook, and since my companions take such good care of me, I take it upon myself to feed them.”

“Especially me.” Simon raises a hand almost solemnly. “It’s only fair, with all the bullshit I have to put up with.”

“Hey!”

“Don’t try to deny it, you’re an editing nightmare.”

“…fair enough.” Markus slightly ducks his head, but he’s still smiling, “You’re still my bestie, though.”

“Well, yeah. You’re not getting rid of me.” The light punch Simon delivers to Markus’ shoulder and the pianist’s subsequent jolt at the contact almost startles Connor: his brain is still having trouble separating the youtube character from the actual, physical being underneath the green-screen suit.

He can’t help himself; he almost observes the group as an outsider rather than mingling as a guest.

Their waitress arrives to take their orders; and while most of them have a ‘usual’ Markus tells the girl to hit him with the steak pita and any side dish liable to fuck him up, verbatim.

Seemingly used to it, the waitress laughs heartily and then asks: “Drinks? Coffee, tea?” Her eyes grow mischievous as she adds: “Me?”

Instead of catapulting in the uncomfortable mess Connor was expecting, though, Markus shakes his head with a chuckle. “We’ve been over this, Lisa, no flirting in the drinks, please.”

“Aww, you used to be such an easy target!” The waitress complains good-naturedly, even after her joke has fallen flat, “What happened to cute, easily-flustered Markus?”

The pianist winks at her. “He realized you’re all talk.”

“Spoilsport.”

Ah, so the waitress was not actually flirting with him, it’s apparently a running inside joke from past times when Markus would get uncomfortable at people flirting with him at first sight. It makes sense… and it also makes sense why he’d like this place so much, considering how friendly the staff is and even the flirtatious waitress doesn’t mean anything by it and clearly also moved past his looks enough to consider him a pleasant acquaintance at the very least, if not a friend.

“You know… whatever’s on your mind, you can ask.” Markus’ voice nearly makes Connor jump, and he sinks into his shoulders a little, embarrassed at being caught staring.

“I’m sorry, it’s just…” he chances a look at Josh, North and Simon, casually having their own relaxed conversation, before focusing back on Markus, “This is going to sound horrible, but… I was so used to the idea of you being a pair of floating hands that, even though rationally I knew there was a person underneath, my brain is struggling to take that idea and merge it with the actual you before my eyes.”

The pianist smiles at him like it’s not the first time this happens.

“That’s easily fixed.” He says, reaching out a hand, open-palmed. “Give me your hand.”

Connor curiously holds out one arm; and his breath hitches ever so slightly when Markus’ fingers curl around his wrist. Again, it’s a testament to a job well done that he’s at all surprised that the pianist’s fingers are warm, and it feels so good on his skin, even though Markus’ hands are clearly hardened with calluses by years of music-playing. The biggest shock, if it can be called that, comes when Markus guides Connor’s hand all the way to his own chest.

There, besides a very firm pectoral muscle, Connor can feel the steady beating of a heart underneath the warm body.

Steady and constant, like a natural metronome.

It definitely makes Markus feel plenty real. Connor lowers his eyes to where his hand is covering Markus’ chest, and for a second he almost forgets where he is.

Someone clearing their voice to their left remedies that:

“Sorry to interrupt the boob check, but… food is here?”

Connor nearly jumps out of his skin— his dignity doesn’t feel too bruised though, because so does Markus.

“Damn it, Lisa.”

“What? I’ve been teased for trying to put the moves on you back before I knew you were into dudes. I get to poke a little fun, now.”

The pianist makes a show of being exasperated, but reaches out a hand. “I’ll forgive you, but only because you’re bringing food.”

“So, Connor!” North starts, as they pass plates around to each other and sort out who ordered what, “Where do you usually eat after you record?”

“Well… most of the time I go pester my cop brother, to make sure he remembers to eat…”

“Ooh, your brother’s in the force? Exciting…”

They all start talking in-between mouthfuls, and before they even reach the cheesecake Connor feels like he’s known the Jericho crew for years.

He comes back to his and his brother’s shared apartment with stars in his eyes and quite literally on cloud nine.

“So… guessing collab went well?” Niles doesn’t really need to ask, but he does watch his brother flop down onto the couch and gaze lazily in the distance with a breathy sigh.

“Markus is amazing and talented and he composed a song just for me…” he says, all in one breath, before righting himself up and taking a more excited tone: “Do you know how he seems like he can play any song? He’s got something called ‘absolute pitch’, it’s something he was sort of born with but it can be trained if you start early enough, basically he can accurately tell what notes are played when he hears them and reproduce them perfectly—”

“Connor, slow down!” Niles sits by his side with a chuckle, holding out a hand to shake his brother by the shoulder in order to make him stop rambling.

“Niles, you were right, I think I do have a crush.”

Not surprising, he’s been gushing about this guy ever since he sent the goddamn email. Niles shakes his head, but is unable to resist asking the million dollar question: “So… is he hot?”

“My God, you have no idea!” the emphasis in Connor’s words is unexpected, but not any less amusing, “Aside from the green and blue eyes, which are very real, he’s like, tall and fit –like seriously fit, almost as buff as you are– and he’s got freckles, Niles!”

Markus took selfies of them all together on his own phone but sent them to Connor already with a big honking ghost emoji covering up his face and most of his torso –the narrator understands the need for privacy, and it was still nice of Markus to give Connor something to share on social media about their outing.

His brother keeps teasing him even after the collab videos go up and actually blow up their fanbase, and he knows his tweet only adds fuel to that metaphorical fire.

@Connor_Reads
Had a blast recording with the amazing people of @JerichoCrew… never seen a ghost up close before, and I must say… your fanbase is missing out, @pianoghostmarkus!

The attached photo of all four of them with Markus almost entirely covered by the ghost emoji with only his arms poking out, coupled with Connor’s words, made Markus’ fans all the more convinced that their beloved pianist is secretly stunning-looking.

Which is true.

For a few dreadful moments, after the tweet, Connor fears Markus would resent him for stoking that particular flame, but the other replies in good fun:

@pianoghostmarkus
@Connor_Reads alas, you discovered my terrible secret… I am just too beautiful to be gazed upon by mortal eyes. Now you are under my spell. FOREVER.

It easily turns into a funny back and forth where supposedly Markus’ spell has enticed Connor for all eternity and now he’s hopelessly in love… predictably, both their fan-bases take it and run with it.

It takes all of two days before fan art starts popping up.

Some of it is slightly disturbing, but there are quite a few really good pieces –Connor personally really likes the one where Markus is just a barely sketched out silhouette at the piano, eyes shining blue and green behind the porcelain mask of their collab video while Connor sits beside him and raptly watches him play.

Weeks go by, and they keep messaging and popping up in each other’s comment sections –they both have a laugh at their fans trying to choose a ‘ship name’ for them because neither their names nor their usernames merge easily… ‘GhostShip’ pops up more than all the others, because it’s the title of one of Connor’s stories and has the word ghost in it… Markus doesn’t comment on it and neither does he, but they do have good laughs about the whole thing.

They end up doing more collabs –after they learned they live in the same city, it was almost inevitable.

Connor writes an entirely dialogue-based short story, and invites Markus to be his counterpart to read it.

Comments under that particular video are plentiful and hilarious.

demonictatertot
EARGASM ALERT

MJGames
IKR? *fans self* IDK who had me dying more

(28 replies)

CycloneMetal
Goddamn, y’all are thirsty

                SirPent
                CAN U BLAME US? XD

                CycloneMetal
                …guess not.

                (33 replies)

SheetLover
this is the best thing ever. don’t @ me.

                smetana
                Can we also take a moment to appreciate how fucking good they both are? They could be voice actors, it’s THAT good.

                (26 replies)

It’s all very flattering, and Connor finds himself featured on the ‘pianoghostagram’ in sheet-related shenanigans more than once over the weeks, until, by popular demand, he invites Markus to one of his nightly gaming streams— the Narrator’s Nerdy Night off.

Markus promptly declared he loved the alliteration and enthusiastically accepted— their youtube careers crossing paths aside, they’ve grown close quite fast, thanks to both their shared tastes in noir tales and entertainment and their kindred mind-set over quite a few issues.

So there Markus is tonight, in black jeans and a thin, long-sleeved green shirt, pulling his sheet over his head just before Connor starts the stream.

“Alright… are we live?”

“You’re asking the wrong person, friend, I’ve been a ghost for like a year now.”

Connor can’t quite help the snort of laughter, and already the people joining the chat are metaphorically screaming in all caps about them streaming together. It already brings a fond chuckle to his lips.

“Yes, hello!” he says, voice broken by his giggles, and the chat is now going on about how precious his smile is –flattering, to say the least. “Welcome to the Narrator’s Nerdy Night off! I am joined today by a very special friend! Say hello, Markus!”

“Hello, Markus!”

Connor glares half-heartedly at the sheet-wearing man. “Okay, I walked right into that one.” He begrudgingly concedes, eyes still skimming over the chat as he sets up the last few touches for the game they’re playing, “So! Just waiting for the last few people to join… hey guys! Hi! Yes! Niles is working the night shift tonight, so we can’t have another night of Anderson Twins gaming it out… instead, I’m giving you the stream you’ve all been waiting for!”

Markus theatrically opens his arms in a ‘ta-da!’ sort of motion from under the sheet, hands poking out up to the forearms.

“The chat is already asking if you walked all the way here while wearing the sheet or you got ready in my living room.”

“Oh I am appalled they would even think that!” The pianist makes a show of tutting in disapproval, “Clearly, I teleported. Sheet and all.”

Already there are comments flowing one after the other like ‘oh this is gonna be good’ and ‘yasssss, SO glad I can stay up late tonight’ and so forth and so on.

The screen finally comes to life and the vintage quartet-inspired music comes on, and Connor gives his guest a big smile. “Okay, Markus! We’re going to play one of my favorite games tonight! A very difficult one, for people with fast reflexes…” he says, letting the chat squeal and rejoice at the title screen, “Tell me, how deft are your fingers?”

Showing off his hands to the camera as he mimics harmonies over imaginary keys, Markus gloats: “Oh, I can finger at the speed of light!”

There’s a poignant pause at that, during which all-caps comments like ‘HE DID NOT JUST SAY THAT’ and ‘THIS. THIS IS THE QUALITY CONTENT I’M HERE FOR.’ scroll through the chat and Connor does a poor job of holding in his laughter.

Markus has never been happier to be wearing a sheet. His mismatched eyes narrow at the chat. “That sounded wrong. I meant that I’m a pianist, damn it!” he protests, when Connor only giggles more, “Start the freaking game!”

“Okay, okay…” Connor is not even holding it in anymore… then he throws Markus a sideways look and… well, the bait is on a silver platter. “I’ll be player one, you’ll be player two… will you be the Mug Man to my Cup Head?”

He’s pretty sure he sees someone in the chat typing ‘wait for it’ but it’s gone by too fast, and Markus bites anyway –he’s probably blatantly giving the shippers what they want just for shit and giggles as well:

“Oh, I will Cup your Head anytime, dude…” the split-second of pause is too perfect not to be intentional. “Wait, that sounded wrong too.”

Too late. The chat is already going to town; and Connor himself throws his head back in laughter. This is already more fun than he even anticipated. “Well. Prepare your gifs and captions, everybody, it’s clearly going to be a wild time!”

Markus is still lowkey star struck to actually be there right now. Maybe star struck is not the right term, but you spend so much time fawning over a guy on the internet… it gets pretty surreal to not only meet him briefly for one collab, but to actually make friends with him and stay in contact over time.

Connor is an amazing individual. For one, he did everything in his youtube channel by himself, and Markus knows how hard it is to be a one-man crew from before he got Simon involved in his videos and started working together with Josh and North as well; on top of that, he stayed humble throughout his very fast rise to popularity and he’s a kind and genuine person— whenever he makes a vlog or just talks to his audience… that’s actually the real him, he’s a literal case of ‘what you see is what you get’. Markus admires that a lot.

They made fast friends and got along better than the pianist ever hoped, so much so that he was not even nervous about spending the night at Connor’s place and he isn’t nervous as they play together –not even after all the dumb innuendos at the start and the chat dropping the occasional shipping comments— they’re having fun with it, and playing such a good game alongside someone like Connor is… probably the best time off-work Markus has had for a while, even though he’s technically still working.

They're going through one of the run levels by this point –they've probably been grossly underperforming, what with the pressure of commentating while playing and doing so before a live audience, at that.

He's got the sheet to give him a separation of sorts, so he really hasn't been messing up that much; Connor on the other hand has been bearing the brunt of their combined expressivity, and as such it's not that much of a surprise when he dies halfway through the Funfair Fever.

"Shit! I walked right into that!" He chastises himself.

"Yeah you pretty much belly-flopped on that dude, like 'take me'!" The pianist laughs and teases but oh, they're so far along... Markus really doesn't want to do it all over again.

He steps up his game and focuses.

Connor reads a few comments from the chat cheering him on, while relaxing a little now that he can -not that it stops him from excitedly rooting for his friend as well.

In the heat of the moment, Connor utters one particular phrase:

"Markus, I swear to God I will legit kiss you if you pull this off."

Neither of them notices in the here and now, but the chat is already panicking with screams of 'LET'S HOLD HIM TO THOSE WORDS' and 'COME ON MARKUS, MAKE OUR DAY'.

"Why am I being fired at by a hot dog?" The pianist asks, during the very last stretch, "Come here, you fat bitch!" He yells at the giant hot dog monster –finally defeating it and successfully completing the level, without having taken a single hit since Connor died.

Taking a deep breath, he focuses his eyes –the only visible part of his face— to the camera, since they can finally have a breather in the victory screen. "Sorry for my language, I didn't mean it like that... it's just that technically a hot dog is, by definition, full of saturated fats... I don't know, it made sense while I was playing—"

Connor laughs nervously by his side. "I don't think anyone holds it against you, Markus."

"Hm?"

Chancing a look, the chat has indeed disregarded his shouting at the pixelated pork sausage and is now a chorus of 'Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!', or 'welp, Connor, you know what you gotta do', and last but not least 'is this real life???'

Shit. Connor did say he'd kiss him if he won –Markus distractedly registered that, but he was so focused on not taking hits that the implications of it didn't really carry through. The chat though, oh, they remember. And they're probably not gonna let them away without at least one little peck.

Thinking fast, he raises a hand. "Hey, you didn't specify where!"

"Don't give them that power, Markus, or I could end up kissing your hand while making deeply sensual eye-contact." If the excited comments instantly popping up at Connor's sarcastic portrayal are anything to go by, they wouldn't complain.

It makes Markus feel decidedly less awkward about any other alternative; and he chuckles as he proposes a solution:

"Well, you're obviously going to kiss me over the sheet so a peck on the cheek will have to do."

A good half of the chat is disappointed, but there are just as many people practically shaking in anticipation of the cute gifs they'll be able to make out of this.

Markus dutifully leans his head sideways. "Come on, pal, bring it in!"

"Never let it be said that I don't keep my word for you guys." The other briefly shakes his head at the camera, then sighs and puts a hand roughly where Markus' chin should be, guiding him in and going for a quick peck— acting as if he hadn't been contemplating grabbing the pianist and kissing him without the sheet between them, for the last few weeks.

Of course, as it just so happens, it's easy to aim wrong when you're kissing a blank cotton sheet and, while muted by the fabric, Connor definitely feels the outline of lips just at the corner of his mouth –judging by how Markus jolts minutely, his assumption is correct: he just accidentally kissed his friend practically on the mouth.

"Oh shit, was that your mouth?"

"Kind of, yeah."

“Sorry about that.”

“Nah, it’s ok.”

For one moment, Connor hopes the mic didn't pick up their exchanged whispers, but a quick look at the chat tells him they had no such luck:

demonictatertot: THEY KISSED! I REPEAT, THEY KISSED, THIS IS NOT A DRILL

sven99: THAT WAS SO CUTE WTF YOU GUYS HAVE NO RIGHT BEING SO CUTE

CycloneMetal: come on guys it was an accident, cut them some slack

spoopyBOI: AWWWW BUT THAT WAS ADORABLE

donthateeatcake: IM DEAD NDJFHKLQBDBEGU

...And so forth and so on.

"Well." Connor comments, shrugging, "There goes tumblr content for the next four months. Looking forward to slow-motion clips of this with Careless Whisper in the background."

Considering the presence of the sheet, it's a mental image silly enough to make Markus throw his head back in laughter and distract him from the fact that he and Connor basically just kissed.

"Bold of you to assume we won't do anything stupider within four months..." he adds, in between fits of giggles, while in the meantime Connor has brought them back to the level selection islands and stopped right in front of the Barbershop Quartet.

"On that note..." he presses the A button and lets the song play, "We're gonna have a quick break ourselves, ordering some pizza and stuff. So you guys can have a break too, go to the bathroom, have a snack and stuff, okay?"

"Now that you mention it, can I use your bathroom?" Markus asks, already standing up and thus out of view except his legs.

"Go for it, second door to your left." Just to be a tease, Connor makes a shushing motion at the camera and holds before turning it off for a second –it doesn't reveal Markus' identity, but it does provide a few frames of the sheet lifting up from his legs that will probably be made into gifs and immortalized for days to come.

"I saw that!" Markus jokingly accuses just as the screen goes dark and then the still image he usually puts up during stream breaks appears.

"I don't know what you're talking about—" is all the audience gets of the resulting bickering, just before Connor cuts off the audio.

Pizza and beers is good, if a bit stereotypical in a way, and they spend their break half eating and half laughing about the whole incident.

"So, do you think we broke the internet?" Markus asks, grinning against his bottle in a way that shouldn't be legal.

"Well..." Connor muses, trying hard not to let his gaze fixate on the other’s lips, "If the accidental kiss didn't do it, your legs on camera were the coup de grace."

"Nah, it's nothing they haven't seen before."

"You underestimate the power of your Shakira-hips." Connor delivers it with a smile and a wink of his own, just before realizing he just lowkey admitted to thinking Markus has a nice ass.

Which is true, but entirely beside the point.

Mercifully, Markus just raises an eyebrow at him, chuckling and shaking his head.

So that either went unnoticed or, more likely, the pianist thinks he's just joking.

Well. Connor is content to let him think that, for now –they've barely known each other for a month or so, face to face... he's not quite ready to admitting his ridiculously smitten crush yet.

It's worth watching Markus smile and laugh, if nothing else.

The chat is still going strong when they settle at the couch again, enthusiastically welcoming them back.

Connor can't help but smile. "So... Baroness Von Bon Bon?"

"Ugh, this fight actually made me dislike candy for a few days." Markus complains only a little, because when playing on his own he found that particular boss to be slightly bullshit. "...Fine. For the stream."

"How kind of you." The other teases, but they both focus a little more even as they try interacting with the audience.

Despite the many different things going on at the same time, they still manage to beat the boss eventually, after six or so tries, and put on a decently entertaining show in the meantime:

"What do you think is the story behind the Baroness?" Connor asks at one point, storyteller side unable to stay down, "I haven't looked into the lore, did she sell her soul for control over all of candy-land? The illusion of immortality? She takes off her own head multiple times in the fight without dying, so maybe she made herself immune to physical harm but the Devil tricked her and she's still vulnerable to magic; and maybe that's why she wants to kill us so badly?"

"You're making it very dark, very fast— watch out for the waffle!!!"

Once the candy castle starts walking, things get really crazy, but they manage to pull it off.

Struck by inspiration, from there Connor makes up a dark story for each boss they fight; it becomes increasingly difficult for Markus to focus on the game rather than the tales the other can spin on the fly, just like that, and they start dying and failing a lot more.

As they're passing by the Die House to the next Isle, Markus stops Connor for a moment:

"Sshhh! Listen!" He encourages, as the Die House song plays, "Do you know it's a woman singing this?"

"I think I read something about that... you mean it's true?"

The pianist nods, and Connor is more than a little impressed.

"Alana Bridgewater. Such an impressive voice range, holy fuck." Markus fanboys over her just a little, promptly proceeding to try and imitate the song's pitch... not quite the same, but close enough to receive praises from the chat and requests for more.

Connor claps politely for him, before picking the controller back up. "So... wanna go fight a robot?"

Fun and mild rage resume, complete with sheet shenanigans when a wrong movement makes it shift over Markus' eyes and he has to play blind and one handed for a couple seconds while cursing and flailing to readjust himself -needless to say, they end up restarting that particular level.

Eventually, a jaw-cracking yawn breaks Connor's words mid-sentence, and Markus can't help but chuckle fondly.

"Feeling sleepy?" He asks, eyeing the chat as people inevitably start fawning over how cute groggy-Connor looks.

He's privately inclined to agree.

"I'm awake!" It would be so much more believable if the narrator's head hadn't been nodding forwards just now.

Markus has to actually take the controller as it slips from the other's hands before it falls to the ground. "I think it's time for an outro." He suggests, setting both controllers down and reaching out to minimize the game screen and enlarge the one showing them sitting on the couch, "What do you say?"

Connor yawns once more and, despite his best efforts at staying awake, he is indeed starting to doze off.

"Alright. So... yay! Three hours and then some of streaming with Markus!" He exclaims tiredly in mock excitement, leaning his head on the pianist's shoulder as he tosses his hands up and then lands them around Markus as if hugging a teddy bear.

"Um... Connor?"

"Your fault for wearing a sheet." Is the only explanation offered. "I'm comfy and I'm not gonna move."

Markus is so, so glad the sheet is covering his face right now. He clears his voice nervously. "Okay, then... thank you everyone for tuning in... thank you Connor for having me over..."

"Thank you for coming over, Markus!" Connor still has the presence to say, "And for being an excellent pillow!"

The pianist does a half-hearted attempt at shoving him. "Shut up."

"Well, we hope everyone enjoyed the stream, and..." yet another yawn interrupts Connor as he speaks, "...and I'll fall asleep any minute and I haven't even seen my guest out yet, so I really should cut this short. Bye everyone!"

"Bye!" Markus echoes him just as Connor cuts off the stream.

It takes a few moments for Markus to realize that, with the camera off and no chat to watch them anymore; he is alone in Connor's apartment with a lapful of sleepy narrator.

He inevitably starts freaking out on the inside. "...Connor?" He tentatively tries, "Hate to make you move, but I have to take off the sheet and go."

"Fuck that, just stay the night."

Wow. Looks like sleepy Connor has considerably less filter than his awake counterpart. Markus chuckles, but still gently disentangles himself from their position on the couch to stand up.

"I'd love to, but I still have things to record tomorrow... plus, I'd rather not prove the shippers right so soon!"

Connor just barely laughs at the not-quite-joke, which is how Markus can tell the other is really tired.

"It's so late though... are you gonna be alright?"

The question takes him slightly off-guard. Side effects of having a cop brother, perhaps? Either way, Markus folds his sheet back into his duffel and bends towards the couch, instinctively running a quick caress through the other's messy curls. "I'll be alright. I'll text you when I get home, if it makes you feel better?"

"Sure."

It just about breaks his heart to leave Connor to fall asleep on the couch, however comfortable it seems right now... but even as the offer to carry him to bed before heading out is on the very tip of Markus' lips, he knows it would be crossing a line and he'd end up doing something stupid like kissing him goodnight or giving away his feelings in some other way.

"I'm off, then." He eventually whispers, putting a more respectable distance between them, "Goodnight, Connor."

"Goodnight, Markus."

He leaves the apartment with a smile on his face but the taste of a missed chance in his mouth.

Too soon, Manfred, get a hold of yourself!

Come morning, the internet is predictably still going apeshit over the stream in general and the kiss in particular.

Markus finds four missed texts from North, two from Simon and one from Josh.

North's messages were clearly the most invested; and not even her sass stops the fond smile from blossoming on his face at the thought that she actually tuned in:

»north-star
  01:33
  MARK I'M LURKING THE STREAM WHAT WAS THAT

  01:35
  oooh you sly little ghost you, was that on purpose???? You're smoother than I give you credit for if it was! 10/10, A+ levels of tease!

  02:18
  Considering the lack of a follow up on the kiss, I'm starting to think it really was accidental.

  02:19
  ....son, I am disappointed in you. Dishonor!!!

Simon is much more chill, by comparison, and possibly more pragmatic:

»simonsays
  01:40
  Yo I just got sent a compromising screenshot from North ;p that would've looked so much cooler if you also wore the mask!

  01:58
  Shit, now I'm going to have to come up with flirtatious ways to make fun of you two in edits, aren't I?

If he wants to be current with the memes, he will have to. But even his editor already thinking in work terms doesn't hold a candle to the lone text Josh has sent him while his phone was respectfully turned off:

»areujoshinme
  01:56
  North woke me up to make me tune into the stream because apparently you accidentally, INDIRECTLY kissed your crush through a cotton sheet. If that doesn't spell "step up your game, man", I don't know what does. Next time I get woken up at ass o' clock at night, let it be at least for third base.

Markus is both amused and embarrassed to realize that Josh kind of has a point.

Their mutual fan bases are already largely rooting for them, it's not like it would be a big deal...

Would it?

But all things considered... why not? Connor is kind hearted, smart, funny and weird in all the best ways. They work well together, and he knows that at the very least the other likes him well enough for some friendly teasing.

Try as he might, he can’t find a reason not to pursue it –for the first time in a long time, he feels like he really wants to get close to someone… and, for the first time in a long time, he actually feels confident enough to.

The first one he replies to is Josh.

»first of all: rude! Second… fine.
  but I’d still like to keep at least a little privacy when I actually ask him out.

Chapter Text

The stream consolidates Connor and Markus as the most popular pair involving the ghostly pianist –Josh adds fuel to the flame tweeting 'I've been dethroned! Le gasp!' over a gif of the accidental kiss with way too many emojis laughing their ass off.

Simon also jokes about that making Connor officially part of the Jericho crew: apparently, whether by accident, dare, or spin the bottle games from high-school times, all the crew members have kissed Markus on the lips once.

The piano ghost himself doesn't really refute that too much.

@pianoghostmarkus
@JerichoCrew @areujoshinme @Simonsays you guys make me sound like a loose ghost!

But of course he just can't catch a break:

@Connor_Reads
@JerichoCrew @areujoshinme @Simonsays @pianoghostmarkus I mean... it was pretty easy to get a kiss out of you. Just saying. ♡

This guy. Connor being a cheeky little shit is already a revelation, but the goddamn little heart emoji at the end— for all intents and purposes, it looks like flirting.

Markus is having a hard time deciphering what is just food for the shippers and what is actual flirting –trying to figure that out might as well be the death of him.

Still, the fact that Connor is at all willing to go along with the joke means that he at least has a chance, right?

@pianoghostmarkus
@Connor_Reads consider that a freebie to welcome you into Jericho. You'll have to work harder for the next kiss! ;)

Might as well take the banter, run with it and see where they end up.

With impeccable timing, Connor sends him a text:

»Shouldn't you be recording that super-secret 'Winter Romance' collab that you're not telling me anything about, you merciless tease?

It makes Markus smile that he can at all ruffle the usually calm and collected narrator.

»The guys are getting everything set up, and we're waiting for Josh to man up and take off his shirt.

»...do I want to know?

»It's North's Christmas present to their fans.

Considering Josh is slightly taller than Markus and more heavily built, Connor can definitely appreciate that.

»Ah. Well, let me know when you upload. I'm having lunch with my brother today but I'll be able to check in the evening.

»Will do. Have fun.

»You too.

"Texting all day already?"

Connor almost jumps out of his own skin when his brother finally makes his presence known, looking over his shoulder.

"Jesus, Niles!" He punches him in the arm in retaliation, "You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"Oh, come on, the Master of Horror can't survive a little jumpscare?" Niles teases, but he is grateful for the way his brother comes by to break the dreary routine of police work— when you see so many terrible things per day, a sibling visiting you is a blessing, no matter the amounts of sass.

"Just for that you're buying lunch."

Case in point. Niles shakes his head with a chuckle. "Noodles or burgers?"

They know each other so well. "Noodles. I'm feeling like Wasabi today."

"Got it." His brother pats him on the shoulder to spur him out of the reception chair. "Come on."

It's less than four square meters between the wall Connor was sitting by and the exit, but on the way he counts at least four dreamy "Hello, Detective Anderson" greetings and almost as many silent doe-eyed looks. Female and male alike. It makes laughter bubble up in his throat.

"Good to see your fanbase hasn't diminished."

"Shut up."

His giggles only increase. "Hey, I said it's a good thing! Even some of my fans like you, you're a pretty popular guy!"

"Yeah except when you ruined it when you showed me the creepy drawings they did of us together."

Connor can concede that point. The internet is... what it is. But some of the art is pretty good, when it doesn't get creepy. Regardless, that isn't the reason he likes teasing Niles for all the attention he gets: for all that he can shrug it off when it's only directed at his looks and doesn't mean anything, Niles has no fucking clue on how to act when someone is actually interested in him or vice versa.

Connor still remembers Chloe— she was in one of their classes in high school, and Niles had a huge crush on her...

Being who he was, Niles only ever said all of three words to her, while thanking her for a borrowed eraser. At one point he tried to get Connor to ask her out in his stead, but he refused –he already knew his tropes and could see it going wrong a million ways.

Predictably, they all lost touch after graduation and Chloe became the memory of a missed chance.

"Tell you what." He says, bringing himself back to the present, "I should introduce you to some of the Jericho crew. That way maybe you'll hit it off with someone and people will make drawings of you with someone other than me!"

Niles shoots him a flat look. "That sounds like a terrible idea and you're quickly losing noodle privileges."

"Fine! Fine, I'll shut up!"

It makes Connor think, though— Niles is always so busy that the only other people he socializes with nowadays are his coworkers. It would do him good to meet someone who doesn't have to follow a schedule.

Thoughts of getting his twin to socialize more momentarily evaporate from Connor's head that evening, when he gets Markus' text:

»Video is up. Enjoy making fun of all of us.

The first thing he sees really doesn't make him laugh at all.

First off, he didn't even know Josh could play the saxophone; second, he does cut quite an impressive figure, shirtless in the low warm lights and dark background, and third... the gloved hands covering both his eyes like a grey velvet blindfold only serve to further do things to a viewer's mind.

It has to be intentional— some of the Josh x Markus shippers will rejoice.

It could be a proper music video –every now and then the camera switches to the piano, over which the usual disembodied hands made of velvet run slowly and softly, accompanying the main melody, or to North, sitting behind her drum set and also leisurely following along, making it look effortless.

The best –or worst, depending on perspective– thing about the whole song is that Markus is singing, aided every now and then by North as his back-up vocals.

Normally it wouldn't be so unusual; but when a tune seems tailored to ignite desire and the lyrics leave extremely little to the imagination, if anything at all, it’s a lot. Combine that with the fact that, even as an invisible voice over, Markus sings with a low, breathy and warm tone that makes him think of melted caramel and other hot, drippy things...

smetana
YES WE WANT MORE SAXOPHONE JOSH

         SheetLover
         Yassssss Josh plays like 4 instruments he's so goddamn talented

         (21 replies)

SirPent
Can we spare a word for North, drumming AND singing?

         bachmegood
         Ikr? Absolute Goddess.

         CycloneMetal
         All hail Queen North!

         (33 replies)

florenciarules
The new gloves tho. Mm-mmm!

         MysticalSpoon
         THANK GOD I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE AND THAT FINDING JUST A PAIR OF HANDS SEXY WAS WEIRD

         (29 replies)

Connor is eyeing the comment section once it's over; one in particular catches his eye:

demonictatertot
Forget the like button, where's the NUT button?!

He hits ‘thumbs up’ on that without thinking twice. Even though his own comment was much more measured.

Predictably, it sends their now combined fandom into a frenzy: 'demonictatertot' has a twitter and not two hours later posts a screenshot of their notification.

@tatersanddemons
GUYS. GUYS. Connor agrees on Markus’ voice being nut-worthy, you heard it here first, folks!!! Is this real life??? @Connor_Reads @pianoghostmarkus #GhostShip #shirtlessJoshthough #AllHailQueenNorth

Connor laughs heartily at that— back when he first met Markus, he would have flushed scarlet at the idea of being exposed like this, but actually being friends with the guy it's just really amusing. And if he’s committing to actually making a move on Markus eventually, fandom or no fandom, he can at least own up to it.

@Connor_Reads
@demonictatertot what? I have ears, tyvm.♡ I would also like to thank @pianoghostmarkus and all of the @JerichoCrew for the lovely Christmas present… especially @North-Star. You have the best ideas.♡

"See? I told you I'd step up my game." Markus seems especially proud when that particular exchange reaches them, the next morning.

Josh just laughs at him. "I'm sorry; I just can't take you seriously right now."

The pianist is already in the green suit, gloves and mask ensemble, this time with a Santa hat on top of it all, as he will be for the rest of their videos all the way to the 24th... it does look pretty ridiculous all things considered, but it will build up to their proper Christmas omegle video, "The Ghost of Christmas Songs", so that'll be neat, at least.

And, for what it's worth, Connor calls him a tease again when they text to make plans to all hang out together –at the very least, he liked it. Their back and forth was almost about to spiral into blatant flirting again, when the narrator suddenly changes the subject:

»hey, is it ok if I bring my weird cop twin over? He's having a shitty day at work and could use a pick-me-up...

That's another thing he loves about Connor: under all the sass and the attitude, he's actually really kind hearted.

»I'd love to meet the famous detective brother!

»Be gentle with him, ok? He talks a big game but he actually has no idea how to interact with humans that aren't either perps or vics.

»don't worry. Worse comes to worse we'll give him to Simon.

It would sound odd to anyone else, but Connor has come to learn that Markus' editor friend has the innate ability of putting anyone at ease. He's just so nice and open, you can feel acceptance emanating from him in waves.

It's with a smile on his face that he calls up his brother.

“Connor, I’m at work, you’ve already gushed about how hot your pianist not-boyfriend sounds for the entire night yesterday—” Niles gets interrupted by a definitely not-fanboying brother. Which is a welcome change.

"Yo. Take your lunch on time; I'll be waiting for you outside."

Used to his brother's never-ending attempts at getting him to make more friends, Niles takes it in stride and meets Connor at the station's entrance without question.

He didn't expect to be taken to Ferndale and ushered into a recording studio –for which apparently his brother has a spare key.

But that's not the weird part. No, the weirdest part is when Niles is nearly blinded by the beautiful faces welcoming him with bright smiles and open arms.

“Hey, you made it!” Impossibly pretty green and blue eyes— check. Definitely the infamous Markus that Connor keeps gushing about.

“Come on in, we’re having pasta!” Long strawberry hair and face like a top model? Must be North, the official ‘goddess’ of the crew.

“Yeah, help yourselves! Markus made enough to feed a small army.” Textbook definition for tall, dark and handsome? Josh.

“To be fair, we do sometimes eat like a small army.” Yet another set of beautiful baby blues beaming up at him on top of a lovely smile? By exclusion, this has to be the elusive and more camera-shy Simon.

How is it even possible to have so many good looking people gathered in one place?!

Niles remembers pointing out to Connor how unlikely that was, and Connor made actually a really good point: a person’s perception of someone else’s attractiveness actually depends a lot on what they know of them— funnily enough, the whole ‘beauty is on the inside’ thing is a lot truer than what it would seem: an ex-partner from a harsh break up will suddenly look a lot less attractive if seen again, while someone you find out you have a lot in common with and that makes you feel good when you spend time together will gradually look more and more pleasing to the eyes, because your brain associates their face with good feelings.

Of course, there are exceptions to that and some people are just naturally gorgeous, but it does make sense –Connor has not shut up about how great these people are and how he absolutely has to meet them… it might have given Niles a sort of amazement-tinted lens on the whole situation.

Whatever the case, he suddenly feels shy.

"Uh... hello?"

Markus stands up from where they're all sitting cross-legged on the floor around a small coffee table, walking up to the studio's tiny kitchenette and reaching for more plates to fill from the tupperware container he brought, seemingly taking it upon himself to actually get the two to sit with them.

"Here. Niles, right? It's great to finally meet you." He holds out a plate of admittedly delicious smelling pasta.

Seeing Connor readily accept his own and take a seat just to Josh's left, Nines decides to just roll with it too –they're being nothing but nice, after all.

Markus' wording choice does beg the question: "To 'finally' meet me?"

The pianist resumes his own seat on the floor. "Sure! Your brother talks a lot about you... plus, you star in what may or may not my favorite video ever."

That's never a good sign. "Oh God, which one?"

Connor is already holding back the laughter, their antics are plentiful and forever immortalized, but he too is curious to know which one is Markus' favorite.

"The Sea of Thieves stream." Namely, one of Connor's nightly streams where the Anderson twins played a pirate themed game and Niles suddenly freaked the fuck out over an approaching enemy ship.

Connor added Pirates of the Caribbean music and scattered subtitles to it in post, which made it even funnier, and the episode was titled ‘Captain!!!!’ in all caps.

To this day, Niles is still the only one that manages to make Connor lose his cool, mostly because he himself is usually pretty calm so if Niles freaks out, his brother instinctively starts freaking out too –almost like a comedic version of twin telepathy.

"Wait, you watched that? That's from months ago!"

It's Markus' turn to become suddenly shy. It's something he hadn't mentioned to Connor. "I... may or may not already have been subscribed to his channel back then."

"Ooooh, exposed like the fanboy he is!!!"

North crows good-naturedly at Josh's side as they all laugh at their unspoken leader.

"Hey, I'm flattered if anything!" The Narrator himself diffuses, but it's too late, they're already running with the joke:

"Ok, that's it, Niles." Josh sentences 'solemnly', "You might as well just give Markus a smooch so we can welcome you in the ranks."

"Wait what?"

Markus rolls his eyes. "Ignore them. It's an inside joke going on about how everyone here has kissed me at least once."

"Awww, but think of the comedic potential, Mark!" Simon protests, "We can get the camera rolling, plant you between them and you can go 'Oh wow I had a dream that started like this, once!', it would be gold!"

The fandom would probably combust.

"Please don't, people have already drawn me in creepily compromising positions with my own brother." Niles visibly flinches, and the guys relent as the revelation sinks in.

"Oh." A disturbed look crosses North's face before she replaces it with an overly cheerful one: "Moving on!" She declares loudly. "Connor tells us you're in the force! Do you have any cool scars?"

"Well..." he tries to make himself smaller, but Connor grins at him and nudges him slightly with an elbow. With a sigh, he goes up to his knees and lifts his shirt, revealing a spread scar on the lower left part of his abdomen.

"Okay, we get it, you're ripped, no one likes a show-off!" Simon jokes, making a show of covering his eyes in pretend annoyance. "Seriously, though, that looks rough, what happened?"

Niles shrugs while covering up. "Shotgun blast. A perp got a bit too trigger-happy during a hostage situation."

Predictably, they're all pretty impressed.

Markus looks at Connor, who just smirks back. "Shit. How did you even survive that?"

"Eh, the vest took the brunt of the damage." Niles says as if it was nothing, "Also, the perp let go of his hostage to shoot at me, so my partner was able to take him down... yay for small victories?"

"Holy shit, Connor, your brother is a badass!"

The Narrator all but beams at North. This is the kind of thing Niles needed to distract himself a bit from the grim and harsh work he has to grind through every day.

"What can I say, it runs in the family." He says proudly, reaching over to ruffle his brother's head -obviously, a struggle ensues. "He still spent two weeks between home and hospital... but that's how the Anderson Twins Gaming Nights were born, so silver linings are a thing."

Niles had been unable to sleep because of the pain but disinclined to take more medicine than he already had, so Connor set up a game and gave him a controller to help him get distracted and sleepy. Since they were having so much fun, they decided to start up a stream... the rest is history.

They keep making companionable conversation as they eat, then the crew plays rock, paper, scissors for who does the dishes and Simon loses.

Connor was about to offer to help anyway, but Niles beats him to the punch, getting up and following instead of giving his plate over.

"So... sound editing, video editing, and household chores?"

"What can I say; I'm a man of many talents."

Niles chuckles at that, rolling up his sleeves to dry the plates while the other washes.

"You know... you remind me a lot of this girl I used to have a giant crush on, back in high school."

Unexpectedly, Simon tenses up and his body language is suddenly much more closed off. "...That so?"

It makes the detective feel awkward to see the gentle and open one sound suddenly so tense. "It's, uh... it's the hair and the eyes. Her name was Chloe, she had blonde hair and blue eyes too..." despite the atmosphere, he chuckles to himself even as the other keeps silent. "Man, I never had the guts to even talk to her." When he doesn't receive another plate, Niles turns to find Simon staring wide-eyed at him. "Uh... Simon?"

"No fucking way." It's barely a whisper, but it's there. Simon swallows, and asks: "Her full name... was it Chloe Hardcastle?"

Niles blinks. "How do you know that?"

"Because that's my sister's surname!" Simon exclaims, gasping out a chuckle, "Oh my God, yes, you're brooding douchebag #4! How did I not recognize you?!" His laughing turns into a full-on chortle, leaving poor Niles even more confused, "I'm sorry, I'm not sure you remember me, I used to pick up my sister from school on my bike and keep guys off her back!"

Relieved that it's nothing too serious, Niles chuckles sheepishly. "Um. Sorry if I ever gave the impression I was creeping on your sister." He says, eyeing Simon while trying and failing to summon up a memory with him. "Man, I'm mortified to say this but I don't remember you at all..."

"It's ok. We only ever crossed each other in passing, and..." from the corner of his eyes, Niles can see Markus, Josh and North follow the conversation with bated breath, which doesn't make sense until Simon steels his gaze and finishes: "...and, back then, most people still called me Allison. Pissed me off to no end, too."

Oh. It makes a little more sense now why Simon tensed for the first part of the conversation. Niles smiles and shakes his head. "Nah, I don't remember an Allison either." He says, wringing his fingers just a little in the dish towel. "Though... it's too bad we didn't ever get to talk. I'd have definitely remembered Chloe's biker brother. I'd have definitely remembered you."

It's subtle, but Simon catches the meaning and his expression brightens enough to illuminate the whole goddamn room.

"It's okay. We met eventually... and I'd much rather you know me as I am now."

"Fair enough." If he were to be completely honest about it, Niles is thrown for quite a loop by how open and unafraid Simon is, as he talks about himself... but he can't comment on the other’s courage without sounding condescending, considering they only just met, so he doesn't. Simon seems to appreciate it regardless.

Niles' phone buzzing nearly makes them both jump out of their skin.

»I know that dumbstruck face. Your pan ass so wants a slice of the resident cinnamon roll.

"Duty calls?"

The detective pockets the phone before Simon can see and shakes his head. "No, my brother is just being a douchebag."

"Ah, so that runs in the family, too?"

"Ok, woah, I came here to have a good time and I'm honestly feeling so attacked right now."

A collective hoot runs through the crew, but Markus legit claps for Niles.

"Reviving some old, glorious memes!" He can't help but chuckle, "Prime Anderson material. You two combined are a force of nature."

Connor makes a show of being offended. "Me? What are you talking about? I'm innocence personified!"

The pianist shoves him playfully and they easily fall into banter while the others either watch and laugh or egg them on for more shenanigans.

As he observes the scene, Niles has to admit his brother was right: he's barely spent an hour with these people and already he feels like they've all been friends for years.

Wait. An hour?

"Shit!" He hurries to grab his jacket and car keys, speaking his next sentence all in one breath: "I have to go or Fowler will have my ass! Sorry to cut it short, guys, and thank you for the food! It was lovely to meet you all!"

He's gone so fast, in a flurry of grey, blue and brown, that the crew minus Connor is left to wonder whether he was there at all.

Eventually, the Narrator breaks the stunned silence: "...Damn. He was my ride."

The complete deadpan of the supposed epiphany sends North into guffaws again.

"It's okay." Markus assures over her laughter, "Either Simon or myself can give you a ride if you need to go."

"Oh god, why was that so funny?" In the meantime, North is just barely recovering, clinging to Josh for dear life.

"Because you're weak to slap-stick comedy, babe." He would almost sound judgemental to the untrained ear, but in truth Josh is keeping his tone even to avoid making her laugh more— North is an easily giggly person, and more than once she's gone to the point of not being able to breathe with how hard she was laughing.

"Ow, my belly hurts..."

Markus rolls his eyes, but it’s starting to get to him too. “North, are you done?”

“Don’t look at me!” trying to hold a conversation will only make her laugh more. She flops forwards on Josh’s lap, still erupting in fits of giggles.

The pianist pointedly turns away from her, and Simon flat out covers his face.

Connor is confused and a little worried. “Is she gonna be ok?”

“Yeah, just give her a minute.” Markus stands up and tugs gently on Connor’s arm to prompt him to follow, “Come, I’ll drive you wherever you need to be. Hey Simon, can I steal your bike real quick?”

His editor sends him a look. “Sure. Just treat my baby with care.” He tosses the keys to Markus, internally praising the initiative— he really can be smooth when he’s not acting like a gay mess: taking Simon’s motorbike rather than his own car means that Connor will have to hold onto him for the ride.

The Narrator himself seems to have caught on, and he looks at Markus with a slight smirk. “I’d like that, thank you.”

Well played.

“Will they not be pissed that you’re slacking off?” Connor asks as he puts on the helmet.

"Nah, we're taking it easy for today." The pianist assures, "We have behind the scene footage from last video already cut, we're gonna upload it to North and Josh's channel, since people are thirsty for more shirtless saxophone Josh."

"You're just using him as a decoy to take attention away from the fact that you're still too shy for a reveal."

The look Markus sends him as he straddles the bike does things to Connor's insides.

"You found me out."

He tries very hard not to let it show. "My brother's a cop, you know?"

"Just tell me where we're going and hop on."

Shit, he might be in serious trouble if just that smile makes his chest feel like it's literally melting— not even as a physical attraction thing, just the sheer warmth of Markus finding an excuse for them to spend some time alone together, even if it's going to be only twenty minutes silently riding on a motorcycle.

Actually getting to do it affects him even worse. Markus' warm chest feels like heaven in his arms, and Connor relaxes behind him like he belongs there. And oh, isn't that a thought?

'No! Bad Connor, don't you start getting boners while you're pressed up right against his ass!' Fortunately for his self-restraint, the stray thought that they might crash if he squirms so much that he distracts the other serves well enough to kill the sudden spike of arousal.

He sighs deeply.

"Woah, getting a bit handsy, back there?"

Connor can barely hear it over the engine, the traffic and the wind, but it's not any less mortifying.

"I'm sorry!" He tries to yell out, "I didn't notice where--"

The pianist's laughter still rings clear and warm over the noise around them. "I'm just messing with you! Hold on!"

Just to be cheeky, Markus take the chance to accelerate a little as they hit a fairly empty road.

Okay, maybe he also did that so Connor would hold tighter onto him.

"Turn there, you can actually park."

"Good, so I can walk you to the door."

The Narrator smiles to himself at that. "A true gentleman."

"Obviously." Markus points out, making a show of being offended that anyone would think otherwise. "Do you not remember the bowtie?"

God, that was the stupidest looking thing ever. Connor flat out laughs at him.

"Ah, of course."

He realizes belatedly that Markus doesn't retort, and has just been watching him laugh with what is undeniably a fond expression.

Butterflies returning full-force, Connor clears his voice awkwardly and lowers his gaze for a second.

"Well... thanks for the ride."

They're standing close enough that he can feel Markus' body heat radiating off of him— he's so close and warm and there, so open with his hands in his pockets and his head tilted the slightest bit forward...

"Anytime, Connor—"

The pianist kind of stops short when Connor surges forward to plant a kiss on his cheek.

It's a fleeting, chaste thing, but they're both hyperaware of it. After what happened with the sheet, Connor had been wondering what the other's skin would feel like under his lips; and Markus has the sinking feeling that the sensation of Connor's lips on his face will be seared under his skin until he gets more.

It's the perfect chance to say something. Anything.

"I, uh... I should probably go."

Anything but that. Such a fucking coward.

"Go, before your editor comes after your ass." Connor just winks at him, cheeky little shit that he is. If he is in any way disappointed by Markus' lack of balls, he isn't showing it. "I expect you to text me when the video goes up."

"Oh, you're in for a treat." The pianist assures, throwing a look over his shoulder while he walks back to the bike, "Text you later?"

"You bet. Now vamoose."

Markus can only hope that riding away on a motorcycle is sexy enough to give Connor some food for thought.

Predictably, Simon immediately demands the keys to his baby back, holding out his hand and asking: "Did you at least get a proper kiss?"

"Yes..?"

North scoffs at him. "You don't sound too sure."

"I mean kinda. On the cheek. But at least he really meant it?"

"Fucking hell, you're hopeless." She shakes her head and turns back to the footage they were reviewing. "If even with Simon's sick ride you cannot score a kiss, you're a bigger disaster than we thought."

"Hey! I'm working my way up to it!" Markus knows North means well, so his protest doesn't sound too offended -he knows better than to take the teasing personally and that they're actually all rooting for him. "I just... want to make sure, you know?"

They do know.

Josh instinctively tightens the arm he's got slung around North and sighs into their snuggle –they’ve known Markus for a while, and he’s less confident than his looks and attitude would lead anyone to believe… the situation with their fans shipping them so hard opened the way to a lot of friendly flirting, but it also made it harder for Markus to know for sure whether Connor’s feelings are genuine or just going along with the joke, no matter how much they tell him he should believe in himself more and that Connor wouldn’t do that if he wasn’t at least a little interested.

After all, the Narrator has gotten quite close with the crew in the past couple of months, and his sometimes disarming bluntness has opened the way to more than one joke— Connor isn’t the type to say or do things he doesn’t mean.

There’s a small bout of silence, but then Markus’ lips stretch into a smile just this side of mischievous: “Hey, enough about me. Can we talk about Connor’s brother immediately putting the moves on Simon?”

The editor promptly ducks his head back behind his monitor. “He was just making conversation.”

Markus gives him his most unimpressed ‘bitch please’ look. “And he opens with ‘You remind me of this person I crushed on for years’?”

“He’s got a point there, Simon. And don’t think we didn’t see you making eyes right back at him!”  North adds, going back to how openly Simon spoke about himself –it’s not that unusual for him, Simon doesn’t shove his business in everyone’s face and chooses wisely when and to whom start talking about it, but refuses to hide anything if it does come up in conversation, firmly convinced that the most efficient way to fight transphobia is to talk about his truth enough that it doesn’t feel like this weird things that never really happens in everyday life and make it real.

It has its ups and downs and he’s had to fight his fair share of bigotry, but they have always been there to back him up and he never really felt unsafe— fact stands that he did surprise himself a bit just outing himself to a guy he just met. He shrugs into himself a little.

“Hey, Come on, guys… it’s Connor’s brother, we knew he’d be cool.”

Markus is the first to return the smile. “Fair enough.” When he said the Anderson twins are a force of nature together, he meant it in more ways than one. “…So, how’s this behind the scenes video coming along?”

True to his word, the pianist texts Connor as soon as they upload: »You can tune in now. Have fun.

For the joy of their fanbase, the video opens with shirtless Josh holding his saxophone on camera, but the atmosphere is lessened by the green arms coming up at the sides of his head from behind as Markus covers his eyes, giggling like an idiot.

“You’re breathing down my neck, dude! Stop that!”

It only makes Markus laugh harder. "Good, think of the shippers"

"I thought you and Connor were the new OTP!" Josh turns slightly to look behind and promptly starts laughing too.

"Shush, people are free to dream!"

It doesn’t get any easier. "God, I keep seeing your dumb green fucking face in my mind."

Swearwords are beeped out, but it’s still pretty obvious what they’re saying. Markus lowers his voice in a pretend-charming tone:

"Just think of me as a sexy green ninja!"

Josh flat out snorts. "Oh yeah, Genji Shimada would be so proud."

"Excuse you. Genji Shimada is fucking hot." That was North, from somewhere off-camera.

From father away off, Simon’s voice also gets picked up: “Oh yeah, guys how about some Quick Play later?”

The scene promptly cuts to North sitting behind her drum set as they run the sound check. She notices she’s being filmed, smirks and starts twirling her sticks and doing tricks with them… until one escapes her hand and she juggles it for a few seconds before it finally clatters to the floor.

“Oh fu— shit!” she breaks in giggles when her scrambling turns ultimately fruitless. “Don’t keep that in!”

Josh’s tone is teasing and affectionate: “I’m so gonna keep that in.”

“Whyyy???” she stomps her feet in a fake tantrum.

“Because it’s cute, babe, you can’t be badass all the time.”

“I fucking hate you.” And yet she’s smiling at the camera with an expression loving enough to make Josh let out a literal ‘aww’ sound.

The feed cuts again.

It’s from the angle shooting the close up of the piano keys where Markus’ gloved hands play, but the lid is on while Josh plays the saxophone in his corner… and yet the gloved hands are still playing an imaginary tune, following along.

“Look at it.” Simon’s voice prompts, “Look at it. This guy never stops. Get him lost in thought anywhere near a flat surface and he’ll start playing ghost music on it.”

Caught, Markus chuckles but still stops somewhat self-consciously. “Well, what do you expect?! I am a ghost!”

The video briefly cuts back to shirtless Josh, this time getting tickled by Markus’ gloved hands as he laughs helplessly and tries to stay still.

“Dude, I swear to God I’m gonna smash this saxophone in your face!”

And then back to the piano, with Simon whispering:

“He’s doing it again!”

“Man, can you let a bitch live?!”

And back to North it goes, showing her drumming away passionately to the slow beat— until one of the sticks flies out of her hand again and breaks something in the distance. To her credit, she seamlessly plays it off, grabbing another one from the stash hidden at her feet, but Simon’s “Oh shit!” gets picked up by the microphone and they have to re-record anyway.

“Ah, come on, dude!” North stops and shakes her head, “I had that!”

“Sorry, you nearly sniped me with a drum stick, I got slightly startled!”

Off in the distance, Markus’ laughter rings out. “That was some pro recovering, though, hats off!!!”

The entirety of the video is shenanigans and little moments like that, but it ends right where it started: standing shirtless in front of the camera, Josh shivers slightly.

“I’m getting cold, too.” He complains, though without any real bite into it. “Will this have been worth it?”

From behind him, Markus reassures him: “Of course it will. Think of all the porn people will draw, you sexy man!”

All of them laugh, although Josh does so begrudgingly.

“Oh yeah, that makes me feel real better.” He deadpans. “I fucking hate you.”

And cut.

Connor is in tears by the time it’s over.

The comment section is already filled with mirth, jokes and memes, like the person that just quoted Markus’ line “Think of me as a sexy green ninja” and just put ‘Markus, 2018’ under it —that’s definitely one for the history books— or the dozens of people saying ‘Rip Simon’ because of the flying drum stick accident.

Once he has his giggles back under control, he types:

ConnorReadsThings

My brother and I are watching our dad’s dog while he’s out on a case, and I laughed hard enough to wake Sumo up. I love all of you. But now I’m looking forward to “all the porn” that was promised.

It immediately prompts a flurry of replies, among which the most liked one has over 1500 thumbs up:

                florenciarules
                YOU HEARD THE MAN, PEOPLE. GET DRAWING AND WRITING!

                (96 replies)

A part of him thinks that he maybe should feel weird about people making up imaginary sexual scenarios featuring him and other people he knows, but having been on the internet as long as he has it’s just too funny.

Then again, his lenience towards the whole thing might be because the fans shipping them so hard is what brought Connor to meet Markus in the first place, and oh boy he is grateful enough for that to let fan-art and fanfiction slide. Big Time.

Coming to think of it…

» Hey, I know it’s way too soon, but are you making any special videos for Valentines? I just had THE BEST idea ever.

Markus texts back in less than fifteen minutes, and soon they’re making plans for February the 14th.

Who knows, it might be the day he gets to take his chance –or get back at Markus for being such a cruel tease, at the very least.

Whatever happens, it will definitely be an experience.

Chapter Text

The Ghost of Christmas songs omegle extravaganza is a big success, with Connor making yet another small appearance as he asks for the full orchestra version of Carol of the Bells. Markus doesn’t have an orchestra on hand, but he does the best he can covering the first minute on piano and lifting a sign saying ‘Screw you’ that was apparently created specifically for Connor.

It’s lightning fast, but in post Simon adds a subtitle on the lower right corner reading ‘Yeah you’d like that’.

The comments rejoice at seeing that Jericho’s master editor is on their side.

Connor has his own Christmas special, uploaded on the 23rd –a very special one indeed: in a recorded skype call with his sister Kara and his niece Alice, he takes a break from horror and reads a shortened version of A Christmas Carol with Alice and Kara themselves co-reading some of the other characters while Connor himself reads mostly for Scrooge.

Alice gets instantly dubbed cutest and most precious young reader ever, and Connor’s Readers rejoice when he tweets about going to pick them up from the station as they will spend the holidays with him, Niles and their gruff Lieutenant dad.

The holidays are a time for family for the Jericho crew as well, so Connor doesn’t see Markus much –even Simon went back to spend time with his sister and their parents, Josh and North take turns going to their respective families’ dinner; and the Piano Ghost himself goes back to spend time with his father and brother.

@pianoghostmarkus
Look at him. LOOK at him. Betrayed at Christmas. Brother, how could you? #xmasjumpers #merryghostmas #whoyougonnacall #IcookyouafulldinnerandthisisthethanksIget

Connor has only heard about Leo occasionally, from Markus himself and only about how hard of a time they had growing up together while clearly having different moms –surely there’s a story to be told in there, but it’s not his place to know.

Either way, Leo looks nothing like Markus, but he smiles proudly in the picture while wearing a Ghostbusters –themed Christmas jumper.

The internet has a good laugh about it and immediately deems Leo a genius in his own way –Connor has to admit, he cracked up when he saw the tweet. It’s also a great move from Markus: he and Leo look nothing alike, but now the fandom is wondering.

And they’d have it all wrong. What a magnificently cunning jackass.

New Years’ Eve comes and goes with a lot of eating, a lot of loved ones and a quick call just minutes after midnight that just about melts Connor’s heart: Markus beats him to the punch, ringing first… which would have been fine and almost romantic, if only Niles hadn’t reached over to put the call on speaker.

As it is, his whole family hears Markus’ voice:

«Happy New Year, Connor!!! I know you’re with Niles and your family right now, but… starting the New Year without hearing your voice would have felt just wrong.»

Niles whistles loudly while two simultaneous ‘awww’ sounds come from Kara and Alice.

“Damn it, Niles. This is why we can’t have nice things!” Connor kind of wishes the floor would swallow him up, especially since his pining ass is about to be exposed in front of their father as well. “You’re on speaker, Markus.”

«Oh. Um. Happy New Year, everyone?»

Hank Anderson has seen a lot of shit and didn’t have the easiest time raising three kids, especially after his wife passed away; but he would legit die for each and every one of them, so he made it a point to clarify that he didn’t care who they ended up with or what gender they found attractive or bullshit like that, so long as they were safe and happy –Kara and Luther being a perfect example of what ‘together and happy’ means.

He chances a look at the couple in question, his tiny granddaughter sitting on her dad’s lap; then he looks back to Connor, who is actually blushing over a phone conversation.

He’s never seen him with his feather so ruffled. He shakes his head and baps Niles behind the head.

“Hey. Let your brother have a minute with his boyfriend, why don’t you?”

“Dad!!!” Connor knows that his father is well aware that he and Markus are not together –yet— but clearly nothing goes past Hank. He was a decorated officer after all, and the reason why Niles himself followed in his footsteps to become a detective.

Markus’ carefree laughter is warm and all kinds of torture to hear over the phone.

«It’s okay, they’re making fun of me the same exact way over here. My brother is making kissy noises.» Someone shouts something that doesn’t quite make it to the receiver and Markus just laughs some more, «Well. I’m gonna make the rounds calling the others too…» there’s a small pause and Connor can hear the pianist’s tone growing mischievous before he even speaks again: «Niles, I can say hello to Simon on your behalf if you want?»

Yes, thank you, you fantastic bastard. Now Niles is going to be pestered about boyfriends too.

Smells like payback.

“You know what? Dad’s right, you two should have your chat—”

Connor fights to hold back his laughter. “Oh, now you want to respect my privacy? I mean… I’m sure Markus could give you Simon’s number if you asked…” his voice gets the sing-song quality it always does when he’s teasing, which makes Markus chuckle more on the other end of the line.

«Sounds like I’ve sowed enough chaos for one evening. Happy New Year again, and please don’t let the twins murder each other.»

They end the call, mercifully, but immediately after Connor receives a text he proudly shows Niles:

» Btw, you’re absolutely right about Simon, he’d probably be quite pleasantly surprised. Nines left an impression. ;)

It still takes four weeks and a lot of pestering to finally convince Niles to man up and ask for the editor’s number –but at least he does it on his own and to Simon’s face.

“It’s just— you’re really easy to talk to, and even though I like to pretend Connor is just an annoying brat, he’s kind of right… I… don’t have a lot of people I could say that to.”

They are all hanging out at the Ferndale studio again for lunch; and Markus actually smacks a hand over his heart and hides his giggles in North’s shoulder. Simon goes the color of tomatoes, but manages to clear his voice and nod. “Well, I’m happy I can be that for you.” He assures, leaning over to pluck Niles’ phone from his pocket and punch his own number in, “Believe me, it’s important to have at least one person in your life that you really feel you can tell everything to.”

Simon hands the phone back to Niles with this gentle smile, knowing and disarming like only the face of someone who’s dealt with a lot of shit can be, and Niles feels his heart plummet into his stomach a little bit.

His eyes are so blue— people in Connor’s fan-base think he has blue eyes, but they’re actually more grey than blue. Simon’s eyes are so blue. He normally doesn’t like poetic bullshit, but it’s literally like the gods took a swatch of sky and put it in those eyes in case they ever forget what color it’s supposed to be.

Niles clears his voice awkwardly. “Um. Thank you.” Okay, fine, maybe he’ll cut his brother some slack about how much he’s pining after Markus –after all, Connor does him the courtesy of keeping his mouth shut during the entire exchange… granted, he was stuffing himself with delicious oven-baked chicken, courtesy of the resident pianist, so that’s probably not saying much, but still…

They’ve always worked better as a team rather than rivals. Their new mission? Building up the courage to confess to their respective crushes.

January is mostly a blur, YouTuber life does tend to mash the days together and make one not really aware of time as it is, and the time comes for what may be Connor’s funniest idea yet: a Valentine’s Day special reading slash fiction of him and Markus together… with the pianist reading as himself.

He started preparing one week before, with the tweet that shook their fandom:

@Connor_Reads
Send me links to your favorite GhostShip fanfics! Be as cheesy and cringy as you wish, just keep it under 2k words! #Valentinesdaystories #GhostShipweek #ValentinesSpecial

The hashtag GhostShipweek produces a lot of interesting result, and by February the 13th they’re in Connor’s studio, recording together.

Markus is sitting right beside him, green-screen suit, mask and gloves in place, flipping through a fake script –the sheets are all blank, they’ll be reading off a screen, but the pianist wanted something to do with his hands: the only downside to never showing your face or body is that to have any kind of expressivity you need to rely on motion a lot.

“Hello, my fellow book lovers.” Connor starts while Markus isn’t into view yet, “We’re taking a break from horror stories today, since it’s Valentines and I wanted to do something nice for you guys… I have asked Twitter to supply me with love stories and oh, boy. You delivered.” He chuckles and shakes his head. Some of the things he read would get him demonetized so fast, holy shit.

He clears his voice and continues: “Today I’m joined by a very special guest!”

“Boo!” Markus jumps into view, velvet hands ‘floating’ scarily. “You thought you could actually get rid of horror? Think again!”

It will look good in post, but since Connor is looking at the pianist in the green fucking suit, he just sends him an affectionately exasperated look as he deadpans his reaction. “Oh no. I am so scared.”

Markus cannot even pretend to be offended. "Shut up." His voice is already broken by barely held back giggles, "So, what are we doing today?"

"Glad you asked!" Connor waves his arms enthusiastically, "Since it's a time for lovers, we're going to do a dramatic reading of slash fan-fictions featuring the two of us!"

The pianist feels his brow rise underneath the mask.

"Wait... how dramatic? Are we going to get flagged?"

Connor has to refrain from pointing out that Markus may get flagged as sexual content just for showing his face, if he ever cared to. Instead, the Narrator just chuckles.

"Nah, don't worry, I sifted out the R-rated ones." He reassures instead, biting his lip once he realizes what he's just implied a split second too late:

"Ooh, but that means you have read them!" Markus teases, "Someone's been naughty!"

He gets actually punched in the shoulder for that, which probably looks hilarious in post, but he does rein it back a little.

"Now. If you can stop being an ass about it... we can start." Connor clears his voice and pulls up the first story.

It's a really cheesy one about Markus being super star-struck at the Narrator and trying and failing to confess in increasingly ridiculous ways; one of those 'five times when x and one time when y' clichés.

Now... Markus will privately admit to having fanboyed over Connor quite a bit, but from there to tripping on his own two feet and into Connor's arms... it's a stretch.

"Well, that was something." He shakes his head at the blatant trope usage, but at least that got a good laugh out of them both. His eyes roam the screen and one gloved hand points. "Hey, how about this? I'm an actual ghost in this one!"

Connor was slightly distracted at the moment –thoughts of actually having Markus in his arms like in the story unsurprisingly got to him a little, especially since they've started flirting more and more blatantly over the last few months... so all he can say to try and stop the other is: "Markus, you're reading from the wrong list—"

It's too late.

"Connor wasn't expecting the night to end like this, but he'd be a liar if he said he wasn't enjoying the sensation of being bent over the piano, feeling every moment and every inch of Markus' ghostly— woah, okay, that's demonetization right there!"

"I tried to warn you..."

Not even Connor's voice chastising him in that sing-song tone of his can tear the pianist's eyes away.

"Oh my God, it goes on for a while!"

"Yeah, they have a high opinion of your stamina..."

"I mean, if I'm a ghost it's not really something I have to worry about..."

Markus' eyes, hidden beneath the mask, skim over the story some more.

"It's like watching a car accident... I don't want to, but I can't look away!" Also, ghost-Markus enjoys pulling Connor's hair quite a bit in the story and, well... considering the embarrassing amount of times he jacked off while thinking about it actually happening, the people writing this definitely got one thing right.

"Yeah, it gets pretty intense." Connor can only shake his head and try not to think too much about the fact that Markus is reading someone's fantasy about the two of them having horror movie-like sex while they're in the same room and recording.

Shit, the camera!

"B-by the way, I will link all of the fics we read in the description. Go and give those writers some love if you liked any of them!"

"Was that a stutter, mister Narrator?"

"No, shut up."

"Is someone getting a bit bothered? A bit hot under the collar maybe?"

Connor knows Markus is just trying to be cheeky for the video, but it's getting really hard to resist the urge to do something stupid, like yanking his mask away and kissing the shit-eating grin off of him. So he just swats the gloved hand poking at his shirt collar away.

"Hey, paws off. Just because you wear sexy velvet gloves doesn't mean you get to get handsy whenever you want to."

It's a low hanging fruit. "Excuse you, I'll have you know that there's people who would legit pay to be touched by these hands."

"Well, you're about to catch mine if you don't behave." Connor doesn't quite take the bait, but he ruffled his feathers enough for the threats of bodily harm to come out. “I said we’re keeping it PG-13.”

Markus grins wolfishly beneath his mask.

 "First off: rude." He starts, shaking his mask disapprovingly, "Second, let's not kinkshame anyone and just move on."

After a beat of silence, the Narrator concedes. "Fair enough. This one is by TatersAndDemons, so I have a lot of expectations..."

True to form, their funniest follower wrote a crackfic full of concentrated memes and inside jokes. Both of them are in near tears as Markus reads the last line.

"...it is with a fond expression that Markus says it, but it strikes as true as the pillow he throws at Connor: 'I fucking hate you'."

The over-exaggerated tone the pianist read the whole thing with already has Connor slouching in his chair with barely restrained laughter.

Markus raises a gloved finger in between giggles. "You know... to be fair, I would so try to decapitate you with a pillow if you pulled shit like that."

"I don't doubt you would." The Narrator chuckles affectionately at his counterpart; and holy shit it would be the perfect moment to just say fuck it and dove for a kiss –they even read a story that used the trope of them getting together because of fanfic, it was all very meta... as it is, Connor just shakes his head.

Four stories, one almost-nsfw mention and several minutes of weird anecdotes to shave down a little later, they have all the footage that they need. People are going to lose their shit over some of this— Markus brought some of his A-game voice acting to the table, actually going breathy and shit when the narration called for it...

Connor is quite glad that his camera set up only captures him from the chest up.

"Whew. I'd say that's a wrap!" The pianist sits up straighter and then stretches. Now that Connor is not looking at the capture footage anymore, the reality of having Markus in his studio wearing little but a skin-tight green bodysuit sinks in; and he suddenly needs to not look at the pianist lest his eyes wander places... especially when Markus stands to walk out of frame to grab his clothes, facing away from Connor.

If he was one for horrible pick-up lines, this would definitely be one of those 'hate to see you leave but love to watch you go' situations.

But his staring does tell him something: the suit zips up on the back— Markus will need help changing out of it. He did say he left with the suit already under his clothes since North was at the Ferndale studio to help him put it on when he stopped by to get it.

Now, though, it's just the two of them.

"Um... would you mind?" Connor can see that Markus is slightly nervous about it too, when the face cover comes off.

He does his best to be casual about it. "Not at all!" He assures with a smile, reminding himself over and over that the other doesn't like it when the attention is only ever brought to his body.

As he gets behind Markus to pull the zipper down, though, he does get the urge to be a little shit about it and doing it very slowly. "There's a cliché our fans haven't explored." He almost whispers it at the nape of Markus' neck, if only to get back at him for teasing him while they were recording. What he wasn't expecting is the feeling of Markus tensing slightly under his hands— well, he wasn't expecting the pianist to be affected by this at all, since he's had a strong tendency to dismiss his blatant flirting as a part of their online personas.

But together with the tightening of his shoulder-blades there's a slight catching of his breath that Connor knows he didn't imagine, even though Markus laughs it off immediately after:

"Ah, yes, the obligatory undressing scene that leads immediately to sex."

They both chuckle at first, but it dies in their throats when they both realize that, even though the suit is now open and Markus could continue on his own, Connor is still holding one side of the suit while his other hand rests on the pianist's hip; and Markus himself has made no move to step away.

Connor's brother and father are both in the police force. He knows how to read body language and behavioural cues.

It's now or never.

"W-well..." is his voice trembling? God he hopes not. He lets out his following words practically against Markus' bare shoulder as he pulls the suit down his chest for him. "That might be going a little fast for my tastes, but I wouldn't mind turning you around and kissing you right now."

There. He said it. It’s out in the open now— Connor refuses to think the pianist is so dense that he’d dismiss him saying that while physically undressing him as a joke.

Luckily for his estimate of Markus’ intellect, what happens next makes his breath catch: Markus turns into his arms to face him and tugs both hands free of the suit to let them rest at the sides of Connor’s neck.

“Really?” he asks, as if he’s genuinely surprised that Connor would like him –and with a subtle wariness that just about breaks Connor’s heart: Markus still thinks Connor wants him for nothing but his looks. “…How long?”

The Narrator bites at his lower lip, almost sheepish. “Somewhere between the fifth email and the marble butt chair video.”

“But you hadn’t seen me yet…” it’s almost amusing how little Markus thinks of his own personality and wit. Connor shakes his head, turning to kiss the palm of his left hand.

“It never mattered. I didn’t need to look at you to know you were a beautiful, extraordinary person.”

Markus looks genuinely surprised –it’s incredible how those people think have it easy can have their own insecurities; and sometimes they get ridiculed if they try to share them, on account that they shouldn’t complain. Connor will never understand –sure, his looks are a bonus, hell, he’s the first one to think Markus is gorgeous, but he’s so much more than that.

It’s about time somebody showed him.

So he just holds tighter on the pianist’s hips and dives for the kiss.

“Fuck, this was months overdue!” is all Connor manages to breathe against Markus’ lips before kissing him again and deeper, feeling the other open his mouth to bite at his lips slightly and taking his chance to make it more intimate.

The studio has heating, but Connor still feels the pianist shiver under his fingers when he drags his hands up Markus’ mostly naked back. Immediate sex might be still too much too fast, but he’d be a liar if he said he’d be averse to messing around some more.

Judging by what a thin lycra suit definitely cannot hide, Markus is getting in the same kind of mood. Connor pulls slightly away from the kiss only to lean down and grin against the pianist’s neck.

“Hey, kiddo! Your brother is tied up with a case, he doesn’t know until when but it’ll probably be a while, I brought pizza and— Jesus Christ, Connor!!!”

Both youtubers nearly jump out of their skin and spring apart as if burned.

“D-dad!” Right. Hank has a key and a tendency to drop by unannounced whenever one of them is gonna be out for longer than usual. “I’m, uh… grateful for the pizza, but Jesus Christ might have a thing or two to say…”

“Yeah, like finally you got the balls to love thy neighbour instead of pining after him like a lovesick puppy!”

It inevitably makes Markus shoot an intrigued glance at Connor, eyebrows raised and all. The Narrator decides to just suck it up: he squares his shoulders, clears his voice and goes for it. “Well. Dad, this is Markus.” He introduces them, matter-of-factly as if he hadn’t been just caught making out with a man in a lycra suit. “Markus, my father. Lieutenant Hank Anderson.”

“Lieutenant—”

“Hell no.” Hank interrupts Markus before the pianist even finishes extending a hand. “I mean, delighted to meet you, but I’ll shake your hand after you’ve put on some pants.”

Not even someone with a persona as cheeky and confident as Markus can withstand unscathed the gruff authority of a hard-boiled Lieutenant. “Um. Yessir.”

As he peruses the studio’s small bathroom, Markus hears Hank jokingly reprimand his son:

“Fuck’s sake, Connor, I drop by to bring you dinner and I find you snogging a half-naked Sex Muppet?”

Sex Muppet? That’s… a new one.

“Dad, please, I’m already mortified enough—”

“You were right in view of the fucking front door, boy.”

“I— forgot, okay?”

There’s a small silence before the Lieutenant speaks again. “Shit, this guy must’ve tasted real good.”

Well, at least the man sounds more amused than anything else. Markus comes out in his much more presentable jeans and sweater, green-screen suit balled up in one hand and his best smile on his face.

"So... Connor, if you—" he struggles just a little with his words, "If you need any help with the video you can send me the files, and..."

"Where exactly do you think you're going, kiddo? Stay, have some pizza!"

"Haven't I been embarrassed enough?" Difficult to refuse the invite of a man that just caught you kissing his son. The pianist searches Connor's eyes for any signs that he would be uncomfortable with it, but he only shrugs with a tentative smile.

The final nail in that one is Hank:

"Son, I was a teenager in 1968. Whatever the two of you were up to, I've been there." He then throws a smirk at him, "And trust me, based on what little I've seen, you got nothing to be embarrassed about."

Connor goes scarlet. "Dad!!!"

"What? Did you forget who helped your brother's pan ass figure himself out?"

"Dad, TMI!"

"I mean, I knew someone like my boy would not land anything less than a solid 10—"

"Can you please stop?!"

Markus has to admit, watching the Lieutenant tease his son fills him with fond amusement, but he steps in regardless: "So, I guess I'm due a shovel talk soon, right?" He asks, making himself useful and taking the pizza cartons from Hank's hands to set them down on the counter that separates the recording area from the tiny kitchenette in the studio.

"Nah." Hank assures, "I usually let Niles do that, he's extremely protective of Connor and has a gun." Markus chuckles at first, but it dies in his throat slightly when the Lieutenant expression goes stone cold: "I'm serious, you give any grief to Connor and he will go full Terminator on your ass. I'll just have to provide an alibi for him."

That is... mildly terrifying –Markus has seen the shotgun scar; and if Niles can easily take something like that and keep going until help arrives, he shudders to think what he could do to one pianist at full force. Still, the fact that they are ready to rain vengeance on him should he hurt Connor means that not only the other has a family that would support him and be by his side, but also that Connor has talked about him enough that they expect them to be together for a long time.

He breaks into a smile. "Crystal clear, sir."

Connor covered his face with his hands the moment Hank started the embarrassing tirade, but hearing Markus taking it so well makes him look up in surprise.

Hank and Niles have scared away more than one potential boyfriend –sometimes with good reason to— so to see Markus react with warmth rather than fear makes Connor fall for him all over again: leave it to Markus to carry nothing but kindness and acceptance within himself.

Hank certainly seems caught off-guard, which upturns the corners of the Narrator's mouth in a knowing smile.

"Now that the death threats are out of the way, let's eat then, shall we?" He moves to stand by Markus' side and help him open the pizza cartons.

Well, he actually only does that to sneak a kiss to the side of his neck, but it's worth seeing the pianist jump slightly in surprise.

Hank watches them silently for a couple of seconds. When he finally realizes that both young men have caught him staring, he waves a hand dismissively.

"I was looking for a scathing remark of some kind to make fun of you, but... ah, screw it. You guys make for a cute couple."

Indeed. The internet has been saying that for nearly four months now, and nobody even really knows what Markus looks like.

The pianist stays over one full hour to chat and let Hank interrogate him –'get to know him, Connor, come on, it's only natural!'— before he retrieves his duffel and heads back.

The first person he texts is North.

» You're not gonna believe this.

The reply is nearly immediate:

» No way! You've finally put the moves on Concon??????

» He put the moves on me, actually.

» ...figures.

» Hey, I didn't run away this time! His father caught us making out but he called us a cute couple in the end!

» MARKUS WTF HAHAHAHAHAHA YOU'RE A CERTIFIABLE DISASTER OMG

» Oh, ha ha. Is Josh with you?

» Yeah, he just read over my shoulder and squealed like you wouldn’t believe.

» Not gonna ask. Ok, so there’s only Simon left. Then I can also tell him to square up and follow my lead with Niles.

The last text from North makes him chuckle out loud in the train.

» I sincerely hope he doesn’t, it took your pining ass four months before you stopped hiding from yourself.

That’s fair, he supposes.

The Lieutenant's threat doesn't quite match up with the sweet and mostly shy person they've gotten used to, but things are always different when you're protecting family.

Still, that means he'd care for Simon the same way— now they only have to convince their editor friend that he can let himself have this: Niles has never regarded Simon as anything but himself, so he probably will accept him for who he is, even on a more intimate level.

But that is Simon's own issue to work out, at the pace he and Niles feel comfortable to. Markus can only hope it will be sooner rather than later.

One of the first things Connor and Markus ask themselves as a couple is what to tell the internet.

They're all in the Ferndale studio about a week after the Valentine video's rousing success; and Markus can finally relish in the feeling of snuggling up to Connor's surprisingly strong arms -having a cop twin apparently means a pretty strict workout regimen.

"I say we let them stew a little bit more." He offers, turning his head to hide a mischievous grin in Connor's shoulder, "Kick the online flirting up a couple notches and then say it outright. Maybe in a video."

Josh shakes his head. "Oh, you are evil."

"It makes for a good build-up, though." Simon is still at his console, adding a few last touches to the cover North and Josh just recorded, but they have placed a plate beside his non-dominant hand so he can take a bite whenever he doesn't need both hands on the keyboard. "God, the fandom will explode, it's gonna be great."

"You do understand that your relationship will literally be under everyone's nose?" North is frowning slightly -a strong fanbase is a great thing, but on the off-chance things don't work out, people will have theories and pick sides... it could get very ugly, very fast.

Markus and Connor seem to read all the underlying implications to that question, and Connor just tightens slightly the arm he holds around Markus' shoulders.

"It's part of why we want to wait a bit before we say it." The Narrator explains, searching Markus' eyes with his own, "We want to have this to ourselves a bit longer and be sure it will work out, before we say it."

From his work station, Simon shakes his head.

"Fuck, you two are so cute it's gonna be hard for me to keep the shipping down in my edits."

They all laugh at that until Connor gets jolted by his phone buzzing loudly.

It can only be one of two people.

"Jesus, Niles you scared the shit out of me!!!"

«Eh, if you weren't recording or making out I don't care.» he's not on speaker, but Markus is close enough to hear and double over in laughter, «Hey listen, I'm close by and with half an hour to waste, is it cool if I come up?»

From the precinct to the Ferndale studio it's a fifteen minute drive to 'be close by'. Connor looks at Markus with an expression that clearly says 'oh boy, you're gonna get it'. "Sure. The guys are all here... Simon, too."

«Great! I'll be right over!»

Hoping to mellow out his twin some, Connor asks Simon to be the one who opens the door to him. It works, but only marginally:

"Hey— oh. Um, hi Simon."

The editor's smile serves to momentarily melt him. "Hi, Niles."

Markus shakes his head minutely as he whispers to Connor: "Shit, is that what we looked like? It's painful to watch!"

His newly found boyfriend just shushes him between giggles as Niles is let in.

"So, how's life at the precinct?"

"Same old. I have to be at the doctor's in a little while but they let me off for the day as soon as I get my report done." With some difficulty, Niles takes off his jacket to reveal a ripped sleeve and bandaged arm to show Josh.

Predictably, Connor doesn't take it too well. "Niles, what the fuck?!"

"It's okay, it's just a graze—"

"God damn it, you're not robocop, and if I hear one joke about flexing your sleeves off—"

"I'm okay, Con. Really. They gave me painkillers so I can't even feel it." Reaching out his good hand, the detective pats his twin on the shoulders and turns to North, who just sat down cross-legged like a child waiting for a story.

Niles shakes his head but obliges. "Armed robbery." He explains, "The criminals had hit four different stores already before we tracked them down. I may or may not have been slightly too cocky about my own speed and reflexes."

"I swear to God, Niles, if you keep collecting scars..." Connor's exasperation only earns him another shoulder squeeze, but Simon's big baby blues serve well to sober him up:

"You should be more careful. The people who love you get worried."

Niles has the decency to look sheepish at that. "I... I guess."

Obviously outraged at how the same line that fell on deaf ears for a long time works now that Niles crush is the one saying it, Connor is about to say something; he just doesn't go past the initial intake of breath because Markus covers his mouth with one hand.

"Well! Simon is right, but you're welcome to stay until you're due for your doctor's appointment."

"Mark—" and the second way to shush Connor comes as a quick, chaste kiss on the lips.

"I'm gonna go wash these dishes now, okay, babe?" He whispers, nose to nose with the other, "You be good and don't antagonize your brother."

"...Ok." Connor agrees begrudgingly, if only to get another kiss in parting.

It proves to be pointless though, because as soon as Markus splits from the other to go to the kitchen Niles is quick to follow.

"Oh, wait, let me help you!"

There it is. It was pretty obvious to everyone what exactly Niles has come to do here if he's disregarding a bullet graze, might as well give him what he wants.

"You do know I'm not going to let you wash dishes with that arm, do you?" He asks, placing what is left of lunch in the sink but making no move to start yet.

"That's okay, I just wanted to have a word with you—"

"Let me guess, you're very protective of Connor, you have a gun, and you'll find me no matter where I hide if I ever do him wrong?"

The menacing aura Niles was building up sizzles down slightly. "...you've met our dad."

Markus smiles. "I did. He's delightful."

Hank has been called many things by Connor's past boyfriends... delightful had never been one of them. Maybe there really is something special to Markus.

Still, it's his duty as the taller and buffer brother to dole out the threats. "Well, whatever he said, it's worse." He warns, narrowing his greyish blue eyes at the other, "Connor is my twin, seeing him hurt is worse than any shotgun blast I could ever take and I will waste no time in pumping the source of his suffering full of lead. Capisce?"

Very few people can say they have family so close that would literally murder for them. Markus is almost tempted to answer with a funny joke, but the look Niles is sending him is the kind you don't mess with.

"As I've said to your father... crystal clear, sir."

Only then the detective cracks a smile, and seeing him relax gives Markus a thought he never had before:

"While we're on the topic... just what are your intentions with Simon?"

"Excuse me?"

The pianist keeps his eyes gentle and his tone calm... for now. "Please. It's obvious you have a soft spot for him and you two are dancing around each other as much as Connor and I were in the beginning. My question is... why haven't you made a move yet?"

"What?!"

"Are you just stringing him along? Because if you are, so help me God—"

"I'm not! I swear..."

“Good. Then sort yourself out.” Markus doesn’t quite know where he gets the authoritative tone from, but, he sees Niles fall silent and continues. “Look. Simon is more well-adjusted than most. You can talk to him about anything. And ask to talk about himself too, he won’t have any reservations, if your feelings are genuine. I’m not a cop, I never trained in combat, and I don’t normally go around threatening people…” he takes a deep breath and focuses his eyes on the other. “But Simon is my friend. And if you hurt him, for any reason, I will find a way to make you pay and Connor will break up with me because I murdered his twin.”

“Markus, you do know that we can hear you from here, do you?”

The editor’s voice saves Niles from having to form a reply to the strange apparition that is Markus –a person so kind and compassionate that he’s only second to Simon himself– giving him a shovel talk that would have lesser men run for the hills.

“Hey! Someone has to look out for you!” the pianist’s protest is half-hearted at best, and they all easily laugh it off.

When Markus goes back to sit in Connor’s lap, he gets a kiss at the temple for his efforts.

“You know, it’s sweet that you want to stick up for your friend.” The Narrator whispers, keeping his voice saccharine the whole time, “But if you hurt my twin brother I will make you into a real ghost.”

Markus looks at him with a confused frown for a second, before he just lets it go and chuckles. “Duly noted.”

If he had to be completely honest, the pianist wasn’t really going to act on his crush at first. But, as more and more comments about how cute he and Connor acted together, and specifically more and more people in the Narrator’s comment section claiming that Connor’s feelings for him were so obvious… Markus got it into his head that it was worth giving things a shot and stop running away.

He’s never been happier to have listened –mostly to his friends, but the internet gets part of the credit too.

Oh, people are going to love it when they finally announce they’re together.

Chapter Text

The next collab video on North and Josh's channel opens to a slew of screenshots of youtube comments scattering with 'ding' sounds around the screen, all asking the same thing in different variations:

CycloneMetal
can the next collab be a gaming one?

florenciarules
can you make one gaming video for your nerdy fans?

SirPent
please do a gaming video! Connor could join!

And so forth and so on, enough times to completely fill up the screen before it fades to black.

"Alright, bitches, who's ready?" North's voice is the first thing that is heard once the game of Prop Hunt appears.

"Ok, guys, I'll be using mostly my own screen, but if you remember to record your own I can add intermission at funny moments, like a North-cam, or a Markus-cam or something."

Josh is heard laughing at Simon's choice of words. "Markus-cam! That sounds like something inappropriate!"

"Hold on, why am I the inappropriate one? I never even show my face!"

"Because you have thousands of teenaged girls screaming about how hot your voice is every day.”

"You're one to talk, Mr. Shirtless Saxophone God." It's made all the more funny by the fact that having Josh shirtless for that one cover was actually Markus' idea. "And why not Connor? He shows his face and has just as many people thirsting after his voice, if not more."

"Well yeah but if I make fun of him he'll kick my ass."

"Guys, can we please choose teams and start?" The final surprise is Niles. The Anderson Twins are challenging the Jericho Crew –but since two against three would be unfair, Simon steps in and joins Connor and Niles.

The last thing before the round starts is North's slightly ominous laughter: "Oh, this is gonna be fun."

And it is quite fun. Connor and Niles are quite relentless as hunters while they tend to overthink as props; but they slowly start getting roped into shenanigans, mostly by Markus.

"Oh, shiiiiit."

Like right now.

Connor's amused chuckle rings out, and a subtitle reading 'awww, sweet cinnamon roll OF DEATH' appears on screen for a second.

"On a scale from slightly askew to stuck floating into a wall, how screwed are you, Markus?"

"Not as screwed as I'm going to be when you find me." The screen switches to Markus' pov and his prop is in fact stuck in a wall. It's a bathtub, floating over a knocked over plant and stuck in a wall.

The subtitle 'yeah you'd like that. #GhostShip' still shows up.

Connor does eventually find him, and just absolutely loses it, laughing so much his brother starts laughing as well.

"Connor, we can talk about this—”

The Narrator's character equips the grenade launcher.

"Connor, babe, wait—”

He inches closer.

"Babe, babe, babe—” Markus pleads 'babe' in rapid succession with a slightly panicked tone, and a 'babe' counter shows up on the screen, rapidly growing up to x28. The writing 'c-c-combo breaker' blinks furiously underneath before the whole thing fades.

Since they're not official yet, Connor pretends to do a double-take.

"Wait; did you just call me babe?"

"Several times over, to boot." The screen switches to Niles' vision, a subtitle in a corner reading 'the only mostly sane one' as he catches up to where is twin is holding bathtub-Markus at gunpoint.

"Where even are you guys—" And back to Simon's screen. He's clearly the only one who hasn't fallen for Markus' scheme and is actually looking for Josh and North instead, but the map is huge, he won't have much luck on his own. "—wait, if they start flirting I don't wanna find them."

"I mean... Connor is a babe."

Having finally found Markus too, Niles makes an exasperated noise. "Flattery will get you nowhere!"

He shouts that just as Connor giggles a bit. "No, no, flattery will get him everywhere." He counters, "Tell me more about how handsome I am."

"...Well—"

"Tell me I'm handsome or I'll blow you to pieces, you floating bathtub motherfucker!"

The others can be heard laughing their asses off in the chat.

"Connor—"

Whatever Markus was about to say gets cut off by Niles launching a grenade right at him.

"Ooooh too late." He mock-laments, but notices with a split second of delay that the shot didn't kill the prop: bath tubs have 200 health, and his grenade just dislodged Markus from the wall.

"Hahahahaha!!! I'm free, bitches!"

Connor is immediately after him, spraying him with machine gun bullets while Niles is still asking himself how he survived that.

With two hunters on his tail and 4 health to his name, Bathtub!Markus is easily cornered and gunned down, but he then reveals his devious plan: “You may have slayed me, but others will continue the fight in my stead!”

The screen switches to Josh-cam, showing him standing as a lamp in a room full of lamps and bedframes and giggling like a little boy; then it also goes to North-cam –she’s a traffic cone sitting on a stack of boxes on the outside area of the map.

“…And you only have 1 minute and 40 seconds to find both of us!” she mentions, “Nice one, Markus! Tick-tock, gentlemen!”

Connor-cam shows him shooting a few holes in the wall in frustration. “Damn it! We’ve been played!”

“You shouldn’t have let the bathtub seduce you, Connor.” Simon’s masterful editing and his penchant for commenting show themselves again as the subtitle ‘things Niles didn’t think he’d say today’ briefly flashes on screen.

The Narrator lets out an outraged sputter. “Me?! You came right where I was and started throwing grenades!”

“Guys, can we please focus— oh shit, I found Josh, he’s a lamp! Hallway on the— left side!” it’s hard to give directions, and Simon just chases Josh with everything he’s got. Epic music gets edited in the background, until Josh lures him into the kitchen and when Simon launches a grenade in a last ditch attempt at catching him, they’re already in the kitchen, so the multitude of ‘innocent’ props that get caught in the explosion make the editor lose all his health and flop to the floor.

Josh rejoices and can be heard high-fiving North.

“What happened, where are you?” Niles is obviously the first one to ask.

“I’m dead!”

“What?”

“I’m in the kitchen, I grenaded a bunch of shit!”

More laughter can be heard in the background as Markus, North and Connor all lose it.

“Why would you do that?!”

“I was trying to catch the fucking bucket!”

At this point, Niles is really the only one trying, and he’s quite confused. “Didn’t you say he was a lamp?”

“Well he obviously changed props! Come on, I know you’re not just a pretty face!”

North is laughing so hard that she coughs every now and then. “Oh no, it’s happening—”

Yeah she’s gone. She’s probably not even looking at the screen anymore. Connor eventually finds her and stares at the traffic cone for a good 20 seconds, before he sighs. “This feels like a cheap shot, but…”

North’s traffic cone explodes with three quick shots, but she’s too busy trying to catch her breath. “Sorry babe…” she gasps out at Josh, “It’s up to you now.”

Which is only fair, considering North basically carries their asses whenever they’re the hunters.

“Shit we only have fifteen seconds left!”

Niles is still in the kitchen, but there are several different buckets.

Josh taunts among them. “You want to try your luck, hunter man?”

“…screw it.” Niles equips his second and last grenade. “Simon, this is for you.”

Anything that was still standing in the kitchen explodes in complete chaos. Niles drops dead, but so does Josh’s prop –with three seconds left on the timer.

“Oh! Last second!” it’s Connor’s turn to high-five his brother off screen, the subtitle ‘my one and only hero’ appearing over Niles’ little character even as he crumples to the floor.

North is still catching her breath while Markus lets out an amazed little chuckle.

“Wow, ruthless. Well played, man.”

“I kinda feel bad for Simon. He always dies first.” It’s made all the more hilarious by the fact that Josh is saying that.

“I always— you killed me!”

“Not exactly true! I just made you lose all your health.”

“Which killed me.”

Simon’s perfect deadpan makes them all just laugh more.

“Hey, at least Niles avenged your death!” Markus offers, sounding not sorry in the least, “So… in loving memory?”

That’s how the video ends. The screen goes black and white and soulful piano music starts playing. The frame fades to black and writing appears:

‘In loving memory of Simon – he always died first;

and Niles – he shot the damn bucket at last.’

The amount of comments they get under that particular collab is insane, ranging from people thanking them for the best laughs to those casually pointing out that if the music thing doesn’t work out they can all become Letsplayers.

And of course, everyone noticed the hints.

Granted, many people have also noticed Simon’s instinctive preference for Niles over Connor— of course, it could simply be because he clearly has endured his companions’ shenanigans for a long time and he’s about 100% done with their bullshit, but adding subtitles like that is a low hanging fruit, and there is no running from the internet. They’ll probably have a ship name as well, soon.

Even so, the majority of the comments still centre around the ‘power couple’.

bachmegood
Can we talk about 12:24 for a second? TWENTY. EIGHT. TIMES.

demonictatertot
lmao the title of this video should’ve been “babebabebabebabe”

(24 replies)

MysticalSpoon
“Tell me I’m handsome, [...] you floating bathtub motherfucker!” – Connor, 2019

                CycloneMetal
                too bad Markus got grenaded before he could show his flirting A-game

                (41 replies)

SheetLover
“how screwed are you?” not as much as he’d like to be, I bet! ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

                smetana
                Simon seems to think so too lol

                (31 replies)

SirPent
OMG MY COMMENT WAS ON SCREEN AAAAA.
um. I mean, great video! Loving the not-so-subtle #GhostShip hints, lmao

                florenciarules
                Simon the real MVP, bringing us all the good GhostShip content!

                (22 replies)

There’s also a comment stating “friendly reminder that THIS is canon” with a link to a tumblr gif of Connor accidentally kissing Markus during their first stream together.

The more this happens under their respective videos, the less daunting the idea of people finding out about them becomes for Connor and Markus. It’s been a couple of months now, the honeymoon phase is well over and done with, and they still work well together, highs and lows, good and bad.

They have their disagreements, but what couple doesn’t?

“I guess I just… don’t like to see you limiting yourself so much.” Their latest one is about Markus and his adamant refusal to do a face reveal. Connor has never pushed the issue, but Markus has started getting a lot of video ideas that sadly would not work if people aren’t able to see him, and as such has scrapped potentially good projects in favor of keeping his face hidden.

The pianist sighs. “You know why I put that limit on myself.” They’re relaxing together on Markus’ bed— it was strange for Connor at first, he would’ve thought that the man who was so guarded about himself would be reluctant to let someone into his space, but no.

At one point they were out together, it was late and Markus’ apartment was close by… lo and behold, the pianist had no problem in inviting Connor to sleep over.

Granted, they did much more than just sleep, but still a part of Connor expected to be kicked out come morning; instead, he got breakfast in bed and butterfly kisses on his cheeks.

Markus insists that it’s because Connor really knows him and he knows he can truly, openly be himself with Connor, but the Narrator can’t help wishing his boyfriend would be a bit more confident.

“You should have more faith in yourself…”

“I’m keeping my face a secret because I’m supposedly too good-looking to have any other merits.” Markus chuckles, but there’s a hint of bitterness, “Any more ‘faith’ in myself and my ego would be the size of Texas.”

Connor sighs. Turning in place so he can lean both arms on Markus’ bare chest, he searches his boyfriend’s eyes.

“See? That’s where we’re disagreeing. You still don’t think enough of yourself as a person if you believe that one look at your pretty face would be enough for them to forget any other accomplishment you achieved so far.”

“People back in music school would start rumors that I was sleeping with one or more teachers whenever I’d do particularly well.” Which is mostly the reason why Markus removed his face from the equation whenever music was concerned. He told Connor all about it, while Connor shared his own stories about wannabe bullies getting the surprise of their lives when the prettyboy-twink knocked them down on their asses.

“I know, love, and it sucks.” The Narrator reaches out a hand to caress Markus’ cheek, “Teenagers can be cruel and bad experiences like that can leave an imprint on you as a person… but you’re all grown up now. You’re stronger than that. And you deserve to have a face. To receive recognition for everything you’ve done up to now, without relying on anything but your talent.”

Huh.

Markus never thought about it like that. Some of his old hecklers would possibly combust if they realized that he managed to make a name for himself on youtube, only with his music and without showing his face for… nearly a year and a half, now.

Plus…maybe Connor is right. People have exclusively known him through his music up until now. The fact that he also happens to have a prettyboy face would not be enough to erase that.

He’s enough of an adult to admit that he’s been stalling this so much just because he’s insecure and doesn’t what to give up what he has for something uncertain.

Considering what happened the last time he gave something different a chance, though, it might be high time for him to just square up. He reaches a hand up to caress Connor’s hair. “You know what… this might still be the afterglow talking, but… you may have a point. I’ll think about it.”

Connor laughs heartily and turns his head to the side to kiss the palm of his boyfriend’s hand. “Come on, Mark. I’m good, but not that good.”

“Now who’s selling themselves short?”

They laugh and bicker through the early hours of the morning, until it’s high time to part ways and go record for the day.

In the afternoon, Connor receives a text:

» My editor just screamed loud enough to make us all deaf, so I’m guessing your brother finally asked him to go steady. Now I get to live out my dreams as Beethoven’s secret successor.

He –an actual, grown ass man who is his own boss, pays taxes and everything– legitimately hugs his phone to his chest at the news.

» Shit, really? No wonder Niles looked so constipated when I met him for lunch, he was afraid of rejection! I told you those dorks would be fine ♥

Not that it saves his twin from a good amount of teasing when he comes home from work. Niles protests and shoves and waves him off, but eventually returns the hug.

“You know, I’m really happy for you.” Connor says, breaking the hug to hold him at arms’ length and give him a long, proud look— that then turns just slightly murderous: “Don’t fuck this up.”

“I won’t!” the other assures, “I really do like him. A lot.”

Which is really what Simon needs and deserves –someone who met him as himself, and fell for him, just the way he is. Not making any comparisons with a past that had no business coming back up.

The evening he sends off Niles for his first official date with Simon feels like he’s a mama bird watching his little bird son fly for the first time. Markus teases him endlessly for that comparison, but admits to feeling the same— and to think they were far worse, back when they both thought the other wouldn’t really return their affections.

North called them both morons on multiple occasions and said Markus has no room to give advice to Simon.

She may have a point there.

Connor is spending the night at Markus’ place again tonight, and he’s helping his boyfriend wash dishes after dinner, when the pianist drops a flat out bomb:

“You know, since I’m coming up to one million soon, I thought we could use the milestone to both announce we’re together and make a face reveal.”

“Wait, what?!”

“Woah, easy! That could’ve dropped on your feet!” Markus clearly anticipated Connor’s stunned reaction so he grabs the metal pot that falls from his boyfriend’s hands quite easily.

“Do you really want to do this, Markus?”

“Oh, now that I want to do it, you don’t want me to?” he can’t help but tease.

Connor shoves him jokingly, but then tugs him in for a hug and leans his forehead on his shoulder.

“I just don’t want you to only do it because I’ve been pestering you about it.”

He gets hugged close and Markus even cards a hand through his head like he always does when he feels particularly cuddly. “Connor, babe, I am crazy about you, but not even you could ever make me do something I don’t want to.”

“Ok.” He nods against the pianist’s shoulder and relaxes in the embrace, “Just making sure.”

“…do you maybe want to let go of my ass, so I can tell you about my idea?”

Despite himself, Connor grins. “I mean… we could keep talking like this.”

“Connor, come on—”

They end up fooling around for a good half an hour before they get even remotely close to talking about recording. Not that Markus is complaining –it was supposed to be a night off anyway.

Connor is giddy like a schoolboy on the day they all meet to record Markus’ face reveal.

In a previous q&a, Markus had mentioned choosing not to play certain songs on camera because the combination of the gloves on his hands and the green-screen suit over his entire face makes it hard to see and coordinate, leading to more mistakes than he’d like and often forcing him to re-record things over and over.

Today’s video is called ‘Improv Challenge: Video Game Soundtracks’.

It starts as usual, with the floating set of hands and mask greeting the audience with a paper sign.

‘Hello, my name is Markus.’

He throws the first sign behind his back and shows off the second:

‘Today I have my friend with me.’ On cue, Connor walks on camera with a big black marker and corrects the sign:

‘Today I have my BOYfriend with me.’

Markus brings a hand to the mask’s mouth in mock-surprise, but Connor just kisses his cheek as a response. The pianist pretends to swoon for a second.

“…for God’s sake, Markus, will you just say something?”

The Piano Ghost chuckles heartily. “You know I love waiting until you can’t take it anymore.”

“Oh, I know. Believe me.”

There will probably be a slew of comments about that. Especially because, knowing their editor, Simon will deliberately leave that in just so people can properly lose their shit over the innuendos.

Markus promptly clears his voice after he realizes the meaning of what was just said –a split second late, as usual. “Moving on!!!” he exclaims cheerfully, “Yes, we are finally coming out as a couple. Today is a very special day— we hit a milestone in this channel that I never thought possible. Like seriously, it’s been holy fuck levels of crazy that so many people would just come here and listen to a faceless pianist. Are y’all even real???”

Connor can’t help but smile fondly at his boyfriend’s excitement, and lets him carry on.

“So! To celebrate one million subscribers, we decided to confirm something that the internet has suspected for a while now. GhostShip fans, you can rejoice: it is canon!” he gestures wildly with his hands for a second, and when Connor looks at him with a confused expression he explains: “Simon will add cannon effects and explosions to make it funnier.”

A subtitle comes up reading ‘whoops my bad, lol’ and suddenly there’s a bunch of cannonballs being shot on screen and loud explosions during the two seconds of awkward silence that follow.

With beautiful timing, Connor then comments: “You do know he’s going to take this chance to absolutely mess with you, don’t you?”

The pianist sighs. “…yeah, probably. Anyway!” he doesn’t let that stop him, though, with full faith in his editor’s penchant for comedy, “It would not be a milestone without a challenge, and since by now most of you will have read the title, let’s just get on with it! Connor, my dear, my love, my studmuffin, would you kindly announce the rules?”

Connor is taken aback by the pet-name ‘studmuffin’, confusedly mouthing it back at his boyfriend for a second, but he composes himself quickly enough. “As the nerdier one between us, I will challenge Markus to improvise some of my favourite videogame soundtracks. If it’s from something he doesn’t know or never listened to before, he will get one go at listening to the song, and then he will have to play it for at least one minute.” He dutifully explains, turning with a challenging expression at the other, “No sheet reading, no pre-recording, no nothing. Full improv. Winner gets… what does the winner get?”

That’s something Markus hadn’t thought about either. “Bragging rights?”

Connor snorts at him. Trust him to come up with an elaborate challenge, but no stakes. “Sure.” He shakes his head and chuckles, “Fine. Whatever. First song?”

“First song! Simon, remember, from now on, there have to be no cuts!”

Say what you will about the man, but his strong sense of honor and the lengths he goes to, to prove he’s not cheating, are undeniably endearing.

“I’ll start you easy; I know you’ve heard this before: Lancer’s theme, from Deltarune.”

Markus laughs heartily. “Hell yeah, that’s awesome!” he cracks his fingers and starts playing –unsurprisingly, his impromptu cover is nearly flawless, and within one minute Connor is tapping his foot and clapping to the rhythm.

“Okay, alright…” Connor shakes his head once the pianist starts changing the song to plug unnecessary harmonies into it, “Okay, you can stop showing off!!!”

Markus tugs slightly at his collar –the suit feels tighter today, because he’s wearing clothes under it, but for now he can still manage. “Come on, gamer boy; hit me with the next one!”

“How about… Metal Gear Solid? It’s a classic; I might break up with you if you don’t know it.”

“Connor, Solid Snake was my very first crush.” Connor holds back the laughter at the confession, but the subtitle ‘honestly? hard same’ passes through the screen as Markus starts playing –and oh, he puts in a lot of effort. He’s clearly familiar enough with the soundtrack to be able to play it by heart.

Connor takes the liberty of going a bit more obscure, asking specifically for the Shop theme from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It’s the first one from a game Markus hasn’t played, and his boyfriend dutifully lets him listen once.

He thoroughly enjoys the changes in Markus’ expression as it goes from curious, to weirded out to finally laughing his ass off. “You ready?”

“Goddamn it, babe…” the pianist shakes his head, but positions his hands at the ivories again. “Yeah I think I got it.”

It’s just as hilarious on piano as the original, and eventually Markus breaks out in giggles and has to stop playing for a moment, not so much for the song itself, but because Connor starts dancing, shimmying his shoulders left and right and waving his hands, all the while looking directly at the camera with a perfectly stone cold deadpan.

‘Good job, Connor, you broke him.’ briefly flashes on screen.

“Oh gosh, I’m gonna die…” Markus nearly slumps over the keys, before remembering that there have to be no cuts for this challenge. He sits up straight again, beckoning Connor to give him the next challenge. “Come on, we’re three for three so far!”

They go through a couple more –the time limit of one minute is more of a maximum than a minimum, to bear in mind that the video will be uncut and as such they can’t go on too long, and finally, Connor presents the challenge of challenges.

“Last one!” he says, already holding his phone up, “This is from a game I know you haven’t played. At least not this specific one…”

It’s Jin Kazama’s theme from Tekken 3. Markus didn’t know any of the Tekken games until the sixth in the saga came out, not really being one for fighting games like that. “Are you fucking kidding me?!”

Yes, Connor chose quite a hard one.

The pianist listens to the song closely, and gives the phone back to Connor with a sigh.

“What? Don’t think you can do it?”

“Oh I know I can do it.” Markus counters, “But I need to play at my 100% for this, so… gloves are off. Literally.” He dramatically removes his grey velvet gloves and throws them aside, before finally doing what will probably make the internet explode all over again: “Oh, and I’ll need to not have my eyesight impaired, either.” He takes off the porcelain mask, setting it down on the piano, and then the green-screen cap, finally revealing his face, while Connor unzips the back of the suit for him so he can just pull his arms out.

The shit eating grin on the Narrator’s face is entirely too excited. “Holy shit, this is real.”

“Indeed, who would’ve thought? There actually is a face under the piano ghost!” Markus pushes the lycra suit down to his waist so he wouldn’t interfere with his piano, and now he’s visible to the world in all the glory of his mismatched eyes and tight black t-shirt. Connor can already imagine tumblr going absolutely nuts.

But he keeps it in for now: the challenge is still on. “Ok, now you have no excuses. Hit me!”

Markus takes a deep breath and starts playing. It’s probably not as good as it would be after sitting down properly, listening to the original a couple more times and actually trying it out, but it’s impressive enough that Connor just forgets they’re shooting a video, any witty commentary completely evaporated by the vision that is Markus finally playing the piano as himself, facial expressions visible and all of his movements, the drive, the passion that goes into it; it’s all there in the way he rocks his shoulders back and forth, turns his head, bites at his lower lip…

Oh, there will be gifs.

Subtitles float on screen one after the other to the side of Connor’s face, first ‘holy cow’, then ‘is he even real’ and finally ‘achievement unlocked: Music Boner’.

Not too far from Connor’s actual thoughts— he’s enraptured enough that the one minute mark passes and he doesn’t stop Markus… it’s the last song anyway, and they did the face reveal now.

Markus hits the last chords with a deep sigh and Connor has to refrain from commenting –he’s pretty sure their fanbase will notice the music-gasm as well.

“So… did I win?” the fact that his breath is actually a little short is quite telling of how ‘into’ it he got.

The Narrator has seen Markus play plenty of times, either while wearing the sheet or with the green-screen suit on, but the experience is completely different without those physical constraints; and it clearly is as different a feeling for the pianist as it was a sight for Connor.

There’s no other possible answer. “Hands down.” He confirms breathlessly, “Complete domination.”

Markus raises an eyebrow at him. “I like the sound of that.”

For a moment, a lennyface starts to appear on screen, fading in until full opacity and then fading back out. Then Connor punches Markus in the shoulder. “Head out of the gutter! We’re still rolling!”

The pianist gives Connor a last, long-suffered, head to toe and then back up look. With a sigh, he refocuses on the camera.

“So!” he throws his hands up in the air. “One million subscribers. One million people to follow my crazy ass and my green-screen shenanigans. I am absolutely floored and incredibly grateful for each and every one of you.” Then he points at his own face. “This is not permanent, by the way. My Ghost persona is the whole theme of the channel and it would feel like a betrayal to abandon it. It’s just…” he pauses for a moment, throwing a sideways glance at Connor and feeling reassured when he finds his boyfriend’s affectionate eyes on him. “You guys have been wanting to put a face to my name for so long. Plus… I owed it to myself. To be able to finally have people look at me in the eye and know that I am that one piano guy. Once again, thank you guys so much for all the love and support, please check out Connor and the rest of the Jericho crew, links are in the description and also here, here, here and here.”

The rapid-fire way he points at different corners of the frame also makes Simon add a subtitle at the bottom: ‘See? This is why you’re an editing nightmare.’

The pianist finally turns to Connor. “Anything I’m missing?”

He shrugs. “I don’t think so?” he snaps his finger after a moment of thinking: “Ah, obviously thank you guys so much for your support of us as a couple, the GhostShip tag actually got us together and it makes us laugh our asses off all the time. By all means, keep it coming!”

“Oh, yeah. It also gives us ideas…”

“Markus I thought we were keeping this PG-13!”

“And I thought you said things stop being PG-13 anytime I show my face.”

“…touché.” Connor tries to hold Markus’ gaze as the other bats his eyelashes ‘innocently’ at him. Failing spectacularly, he turns to the camera and clears his voice: “And on that note…”

“See you next time!!!”

Markus takes a deep breath once they’re done filming. “Too much?”

“Relax.” Connor assures, hugging him close, “People are going to love you.”

Realistically, they both know there will be comments of all kinds –good ones, bad ones, and the worst ones, the ones just left there for the sole purpose of spewing hate. It’s a reality in every community big enough to attract attention.

They’ll simply have to not let the few bad apples ruin the big picture for them.

Still, as Connor holds Markus, whispering how proud of him he is, he still hopes with all his heart that whatever comes next will be nothing but good.

Markus deserves as much.

Chapter Text

A large portion of the comments under the reveal video is very predictable. Connor was right, the internet gets flooded with gifs, both of the face reveal and of various moments of Markus’ most passionate performance on video caught to date, often accompanied by Connor’s face as he looks on and the “Music Boner” caption. Not that anyone blames him.

demonictatertot
babe alert! BABE ALERT! I WAS NOT PREPARED FOR THIS WTF

SheetLover
ok but HOW and WHY did he ever cover his face?! (on a side note I’m so happy he and Connor are actually together, first time one of my ships is actually canon!)
(34 replies)

CycloneMetal
Can I just say: S T U D M U F F I N lmao
(51 replies)

Yeah, that particular pet name left Connor with a couple questions, too.

florenciarules
SHIT HE WAS TELLING THE TRUTH IN HIS TWEET ABOUT BEING TOO BEAUTIFUL FOR MORTAL EYES

                bachmegood
                right??? the eyes, the hands, the movements… holy shit.
                (29 replies)

spoopyBOI
can we pause for a second and talk about FRECKLES???? Like how DARE you be so gorgeous

cinnamonrollOFDEATH
I love how Simon takes absolutely every chance to mess with Markus and the video still gets approved as is. That’s true friendship right there.

                vivaltitty
                lmao of course markus goes along with anything simon does, guy’s a comedic genius! “achievement unlocked: Music Boner”? gold.

MJGames
aaaaaaah too much to bear!!! The coming out, the reveal, the everything omg!!! But seriously, the way Connor looks at him at 9:44? Total heart eyes, these boys are in LOVE
(33 replies)

SirPent
First off: MAD props for all the covers, the Metal Gear one had me in shivers, and the Jin Kazama theme? Holy fuck, didn’t think that was physically possible with just two hands. Second: so glad to hear you guys are together and comfortable enough to tell the internet!!! Congrats!♥
(47 replies)

The overwhelming amount of support makes both Markus and Connor smile a lot as they scroll through the comments, enough to drown the occasional trolls, spammers or outright hate messages.

ThotPolice
oooh, so he fucked his way into getting a shoutout? That explains it.
(187 replies)

Like that one. There are a couple others like it, but Markus’ followers already have things to say about anyone insulting the Piano Ghost’s integrity, so the overall response is still quite positive.

It still tugs a frown along Markus’ brow, and Connor heaves a sigh.

“You know that’s bullshit, don’t you?”

The pianist closes his eyes and leans into the caress to the side of his head. It still stings to read the same shit over and over again, but by now he has his friends, he’s an affirmed pianist, and he has this.

A person that loves him and cherishes him for who he is.

Breathing deeply in and out, he eventually nods. “I know. It’s annoying, but it doesn’t matter. They don’t matter.”

Connor can tell Markus is still affected by it, but at least he's letting him be the support he wants to be, without trying to hide it.

Eventually, the pianist cracks a smile: "I'll just have to think up a really stupid video idea to make a huge ass out of myself and the balance will be restored."

"Oh, gosh..." Connor chuckles. "Should I be scared?"

"Very." Not too believable, delivered in a whisper and with a quick peck on the lips, but he wouldn't have it any other way.

They sit in comfortable silence for a little while, cuddling on Markus' couch, but eventually Connor has to ask:

"So... do you wanna tell me the real reason why we're up at near midnight and not making out?"

Having been caught, Markus can't help but shrink into himself.

"Tonight Simon and Niles are out on their third 'proper' date."

Ah. Connor learned pretty early on that, despite being second oldest, Simon is considered the baby of the group and all the others are very protective of him— his identity notwithstanding, he's just too kind of a guy, and that means he's very often open to the risk of getting hurt.

"I'm sure it'll be fine." He assures, kissing Markus' temple softly, "He's out with my brother after all. He’s also a grown ass man, give him a little credit, will you?”

“I know. It’s so stupid, I just—” Markus leans more into his boyfriend’s touch as he speaks, “Simon hasn’t had many partners in the past, and he’s the type of guy that tends to disregard himself so long as he makes others happy… I worry.”

Connor shakes his head, but smiles as he shoves Markus lightly: “You’re cute when you worry, but you’re being an idiot.”

“Hey!” the pianist shoves him back, but Connor’s teasing does manage to get a laugh out of him.

“Come on… I know my twin brother. Hell, Niles himself was terrified of fucking things up with Simon!” He says, opening his arms to let Markus snuggle back into him, “Tell you what: for your peace of mind, if anything happens, I'll hold Niles down while you punch him."

"Babe, you know he'd kick both our asses. But I do appreciate the sentiment."

To be completely fair, Simon has also been quite nervous about it and he texted the Jericho group chat no less than four times before his date –two texts were about what to wear and generally panicking about wanting to impress Niles, the other two were mini freak-outs about the chances of boring his date if he gets into any more tangents about video editing and cinematic special effects.

Niles is basically a dream, he doesn't treat him like being a trans man is the be all end all of his person, but at the same time asks questions, the genuine type of questions that someone who knows very little about something and wants to be informed would ask.

During their previous outings, they have discussed anything and everything under the sun, from the intricacies of gender identity to the hardships of being a homicide detective and still trying to believe in the good of humanity.

Obviously, there were also plenty of moments where they just ended up sharing jokes and anecdotes; Niles is a geek at heart, just like him, and Simon found himself pretty often laughing so hard he couldn't breathe because his date would bring up internet memes with his impassive, stone-cold detective face.

So yeah, sometimes he stumbles through his doubts and makes it a bit awkward, but overall? Dream come true.

"Is North still saying that she'll kick my ass if I hurt you?"

Simon looks up from the apparently not so discreet text he just read and smiles at Niles across their table. It’s a bit ridiculous, honestly, that they all act like such mother hens the very second anyone shows interest in him –heart-warming to some degree, but there’s really no need to. Sure, he has a history with giving way more than his partners gave him in return; but hey, he learned his lesson and he also can decide for himself which chances he’s willing to take… not to mention that Niles is a pretty amazing person to begin with.

He sends one last reply to North, telling her to take a goddamn chill pill and that he’s done looking at his phone for the day so he can actually enjoy his date. Raising an eyebrow at Niles, he asks: "I don't know, is your brother still replying to your texts?"

Caught, the detective ducks his head in a chuckle. "Connor's last reply was a typo-ridden mess, I think Markus is getting handsy."

"What say we grab the check, get out of here and follow their example?" It's out of his mouth before he can realize exactly how bold and out of character for him that sounds.

For the first time, the ever-so-stoic detective flushes scarlet, but it only makes him more attractive to Simon as he bites on his lower lip and nods.

Since Connor is staying the night at Markus’ the two end up at the Anderson twins’ place.

Simon tries, very hard, to maintain at least a semblance of etiquette and looks around with a hum, offering a cursory “Nice place!” before almost literally tackling Niles to the couch.

“I thought I’d offer you something first… but this is just as good.”

Sneaking both hands around Niles’ neck, Simon chuckles against his cheek before trailing little kisses from there down his jawline and neck. God, this was a long time coming— they had already been dancing around each other long enough when they finally traded numbers, nevermind the dates prior to this one.

“We’ve already had dinner.” He whispers, sitting back slightly to strip off his button up. “I think it’s high time for dessert.”

Niles’ breath catches in his throat as he watches, taking in every detail about his blond companion: the thin trace of something that must’ve split his left eyebrow in the far past, the faint stubble Simon keeps as closely shaven as he can… then down the curve of his shoulders and to his trimmed waist, where deft hands are already at work to unbuckle his belt.

Any sight of past surgery scars is barely even an afterthought, if at all even there, especially since Simon’s voice calls the detective’s attention back to those gorgeous baby blues. “Hey. Not that I’m not flattered about you enjoying the show, but why are your clothes not across the room yet?”

“Oh. Um— you… you’re really handsome.” Very eloquent, Anderson. Goddamn it, you sound like a schoolboy at his first crush! He chastises himself, but Simon seems to find it funny.

His fingers start toying with the buttons of Niles’ shirt and his smile grows as he talks.

“Why, thank you. I may not be as buff as a detective with anti-riot training, but I do try to stay fit.” His expression shines of mischief when he leans in to hover his lips over Niles’. “Care to test your stamina, detective?”

Connor finds them the morning after still snuggling on the couch and shakes his head. He asks Markus to finally add him to the Jericho group chat to calm down the collective mother hens:

» Our babies more than got their happy ending. They may or may not be married. I’m gonna make them breakfast, it looks like they’ll need it. Now everybody act like adults and let a bro (or two) LIVE.

He receives several heart-eyed emojis from Markus (obviously), a “Thank the Lord, finally” from Josh and several messages from North about being so proud of her bouncing baby boy.

Waking up to the smell of eggs and bacon, Niles knows two things instantly.

One, his brother is back and thoughtful enough to make breakfast for them.

Two, Connor will undoubtedly be a little shit about it some way or other.

“Hey.” He greets without turning, to give them at least the illusion of a few minutes’ more privacy as they stumble out of their embrace and join him the breakfast bar. Niles is in his underwear, possibly because Simon has thrown his brother’s shirt on, boxers still peeking out underneath it.

But when Niles sits in front of what he thought was his serving, Connor slides it over to their blonde guest instead.

“I’m giving the big plate to Simon.” He explains with a deadpan, “If you were anything like what you are when we spar, he needs the extra calories.”

Simon chuckles, cheeks only colouring slightly –he’s more than used to good-natured teasing and badgering, courtesy of the Jericho crew, while Niles goes adorably scarlet again, trying fruitlessly to cover the lower part of his face with one hand. “Oh, I hate you.”

“Not after I feed you, you won’t.”

“Touché.” The breakfast does smell divine –Connor must have been taking pointers from Markus.

“Come on, Niles.” Simon pokes him on the shoulder with his fork, “I’m sure you teased him well enough when he was hopelessly crushing after Markus.”

“Hold on, hopelessly?!”

Niles seems to content to ignore his twin’s indignant reaction in favor of looking fondly to Simon. “That’s fair.”

“Hey, I wasn’t hopeless—“

For all his usually kind and slightly bashful attitude, Simon quirks his eyebrows at Connor in a way that clearly says ‘bitch, please’. “I’m sorry but it’s true. Both of you were painful to watch.”

“Absolutely nightmarish.” Niles confirms.

“Tall talk, considering I had to teach you how to flirt…”

Needless to say, the rest of the morning is mostly brotherly banter and laughter over delicious-smelling food, until Niles has to leave for his shift— Connor politely retreats to have a quick shower while they kiss goodbye after Simon assures he can go and he’ll give Connor a lift on his bike should his twin need it.

“So… how did Markus take the reactions to the big reveal?” Simon eventually asks, once they’re both properly dressed and heading out.

Connor shrugs one shoulder. “Pretty in stride, I have to say. Some of the hecklers bothered him a bit, but he didn’t let that ruin this for him.”

“It’s a good thing he has you.”

“No.” the Narrator shakes his head, “It’s a good thing he has us.”

They have, after all, been one big team for quite a while now. Simon nods with a grin. “Ride to your studio or ours?”

Connor’s gaze piques with interest. “You guys are not using it today?”

“Nope… now that he’s not confined to the green screen anymore, Markus has ideas.”

Connor would have remarked that they should be frightened if that were the case, but Markus has discussed his many projects with Connor more than once and…

…this world doesn’t deserve his boyfriend.

He sees the video when the rest of the internet does, exactly at eight pm, titled “A chance to change”. It’s the first video on Markus’ channel since the reveal of the other day and it’s absolutely beautiful.

At first, there are a few shots of people walking down the streets of Detroit, the city bustling and busy as usual, the captions “We walk. We hurry… Isolated. Focused on ourselves.” flitting across the screen.

More shots of crowds boarding trains or running along the sidewalks. “We forget the people around us.”

Then the camera stops on a particular street, where a homeless man is sitting by the sidewalk with a paper cup in front of him and his belongings comprising of a rolled up blanket, a canvas shopping trolley, and a bucket.

“Today we change that.”

North is seen approaching the man. “Hello, there.”

He is confused as to why the beautiful lady would want to talk to him as if they were the best of friends, but returns her greeting with a “Hiya, miss.”

“Do you mind if I borrow your bucket, just to drum a little bit?”

Even more confused, the man blinks. “You want to drum on my bucket?”

She smiles warmly at him and sits cross-legged on the subway beside him. “Yeah, you know, make some music.”

The man wordlessly hands her the bucket, and North wastes no time delivering what is an impressive drum solo, considering the improvised instrument she is playing bare-handed. Already it brings an amused smile to the elderly man’s face. “Not bad.” He says.

“Thank you.” North takes off her pretty straw hat and leaves it upside down on the sidewalk. “Let’s try something different.”

She starts beating out a rhythm again, but this time it has an order and a reason to it, and at the second count of eight Josh has separated from the crowd and sat down with an acoustic guitar.

He joins in, just playing at first, but soon enough he starts to sing, sharing affectionate glances with North as they sit and make music across each other.

“Some usual day
Everything seems okay
Lights in the murk, are perfect for work
Your headphones are
like a shield to the silence
But what would be, if you had taken a look?”

Finally, as Josh sings, Markus can be seen approaching and taking a seat, as he joins in just in time to add a second layer to the chorus:

“Ooh oooh another chance to change is gone
There will be new ones, but first you’ll have to find them
This is the day, we don’t look away
From the winks of humanity today
Cause this life, life, life, life, it’s too short to waste… a chance .”

By this time, several people have gathered around them and more than a few dollars have been dropped into North’s straw hat, while the man watches on in puzzled amazement the three young people huddled around him and singing for him a lovely song of meaningful words.

“Every evening you're watching TV
There’s another misery
Only pictures and numbers you see, but you don’t mind
Like every day, close your eyes and go to bed
But what would be, if you had taken a look?

Ooh oooh another chance to change is gone
There will be new ones, but first you’ll have to find them
This is the day, we don’t look away
From the winks of humanity today
Cause this life, life, life, life, it’s too short to waste… a chance.”

Once the song ends, there have to be at least a couple hundred bucks in North’s hat. The three musicians gracefully accept the applause, then North leans forward to take her hat and hand it to the man.

“Thanks for letting me use your bucket, sir.”

The man is speechless, unsure as to whether even accept the hat and its contents or not, when North holds out her other hand to shake. As he finally takes it, he is slightly teary eyed.

North asks him a few questions, about his name and trying to get to know him, but his answers are too faint to be picked up by the camera. When the time to say goodbye comes, they take turns hugging him and wishing him a good day, the man repeats “Bless you” to each one of them, and Simon expertly lingers behind them to film their backs as they walk away, North and Josh hand in hand and his arm slung across Markus’ shoulders at his other side.

The video’s description is unusually long, but it lists quite a few important things:

Firstly, a reassurance that they have indeed informed the gentleman he was being filmed and asked for his consent to divulge the video. Second, that the video is meant to raise awareness for the many people who live at the fringes of society, complete with links to multiple articles on the matter and to the websites of several associations that work to improve the life of people without a home across the Country.

Only after those two points there’s the usual links to the Jericho channel, each of their social media accounts and all the other things Markus usually lists.

The last line is ‘Sorry for not playing piano in this. The day I get strong enough to carry one around I’ll become a street pianist!’

Predictably, the fandom explodes… yet again.

The comment section is a cacophony of exclamations ranging from how precious the looks North and Josh are sending each other are –and how they should just get married already– to how beautiful all three of them are, how much Markus’ eyes stand out now that he’s not hiding under the mask anymore; and even how nice their initiative is.

Of course, the occasional troll rears its head, complaining that they’re just trying to show off about being ‘good’ people, but no one pays them any mind, especially after Markus himself addresses the entire community and requests no hate to be directed towards those who criticize him: people are allowed to dislike him, and if their hate it’s truly meaningless negativity rather than honest criticism, then it’s best to just ignore that kind of comments.

Connor can’t help but leave his two cents regardless.

ConnorReadsThings
This. Things like this one are why I fell in love with you without ever even seeing your face.

                thepianoghost
                you know all the right things to say to make a ghost blush ♥

                JerichoMusic
                LIES. We all know it was the Shakira hips lmao. J/K ConCon we all love you too.
                (86 replies)

The Narrator of Horror actually takes inspiration from that and talks to Markus about doing periodical Charity Streams, both separately and together. His first one features him re-reading some of his first stories, since he has become much more confident about that by now, and taking questions from everyone who makes a donation to the link he provided, which will gather the money in favor of an association that provides a higher education to teens living in poverty and that couldn’t otherwise afford it.

His brother is with him the whole time, clumsily stumbling through a few side-characters for dialogue but with every intent to help and entertain, and during one of the Q&A breaks they even manage to make a quick call to the Jericho crew –as per the audience’s request to have Markus answer a question, and maybe play a few quick notes for his boyfriend.

Markus plays Shadowpeople for him, they say their goodbye in “I love you”s and the call actually terminates with North’s yell of “Get a freaking room!”

Gotta keep up the tough girl persona, after all. Too many people have called her precious and noticed the secretive little glances to her boyfriend intensifying as of late, and she needs to buff up her image again.

The stream is a rousing success, raising just under 100,000 dollars for charity and actually getting talked about in a few articles over the internet.

It’s the happiest he’s been with his career so far.

Which is why Connor wasn’t expecting the feeling of his stomach dropping with anxiety when Markus asks him to come meet his family for a Sunday lunch.

The pianist sees through him, and he laughs softly. “I promise you, they don’t bite.”

“Easy for you to say…” he protests meekly, “You’ve met my dad at the most embarrassing moment possible, it’s been easy cruising for you ever since then.”

True— after getting caught almost literally with his pants down, Markus has been much more confident in all the occasions he met Hank, confident that there wasn’t much else the man hadn’t seen about them; while Connor still has a chance of making an impression on the Manfred household.

No matter how many times Markus assures him he will be dearly loved, he is still slightly nervous when they walk up to the mansion’s front door on the scheduled day –holy shit, this is a nice house.

The pianist didn’t tell him his father was Carl flippin’ Manfred until a few days ago –it’s a bit intimidating.

“Hello?” He recognizes Leo from Markus’ many tweets about his brother –they had a bit of a rocky time until their teens, but are just about inseparable as adults– and still it surprises Connor when the youngest Manfred grins at them and bellows a call towards the inside of the house. “Dad!!! Markus brought his hot internet boyfriend!”

“Damn it, Leo, I said subtle!” clearly, siblings never miss a chance of being little shits.

“Oh shush you’ve been gushing about him for like six months now, you’ve lost rights to subtlety!”

Leo’s instant rebuking of Markus’ protest reminds Connor of the back and forth with his own brother and admittedly serves to ease his nerves a little –he even manages to chuckle and bump shoulders with Markus.

“Six months, huh?” they officially got together on Valentine’s day and it’s been barely over two months since then. It means the pianist had been crushing on him for about as long as Connor himself has.

…wow, they really were idiots.

“Not a word.” Markus pretend-grumbles, before pushing gently at his back to urge him inside and follow Leo, “Come on in.”

“You must be Connor. It’s great to finally meet you.”

Carl Manfred is a rather petite man, made even smaller-looking by the fact that he is currently sitting on a wheelchair and won’t stand up to his full height anytime soon; and yet he exudes an air of quiet authority that in different times would make anyone before him take the knee.

He also has light blue eyes, bright and full of wonder even through his age, and is probably the one who carried the heterochromatic gene to Markus –the most surprising thing is the full sleeve tattoos, really.

“It is my honor to meet you, Mr. Manfred—”

“What am I? Some kind of old fart? Carl will do.” And that’s apparently where the Manfred brothers get a good deal of their mischief from, as well.

“Well… making introductions would be pointless, since we’re all over the internet all the time.” Markus gestures for Connor to take a seat on the couch and they all get settled in the living room, “Are you guys gonna be good in the two minutes I go into the kitchen to check on the food?”

Leo has been at their dad’s place for the whole day, since it’s the healthcare assistant’s day off –he and Markus take turns doing that– and has started cooking for all of them.

It’s actually the reason Markus is such a good cook: his baby brother is a professional chef.

“It’s adorable that you worry about your beau, but you know we’re gonna pull out baby pictures the second you’re out of the room, do you?”

Okay, that sold it. Connor wants Leo to be his brother in law. The pianist laughs and shoves at him, but does get up. “Fine. You guys get to know each other for a second.”

“And don’t ruin my pot roast!” Leo calls after him as he walks away, which prompts Markus to flip him off without even turning back while Carl is content to just watch his sons bicker with a fond smile.

Clearing his voice slightly, Connor looks around the room a bit and tries to make conversation: “You know… Markus never told me his father was one of the most famous painters in Detroit.”

“Hm. That’s because there’s photos of us three together basically everywhere, and he was really keen on that whole secret identity gig.” Carl explains, gesturing to Leo to get out his phone, “I’ve been stuck on this thing ever since they were barely teens, in a house full of ramps, so they grew up pretty fast to stay close to their old man.”

Leo shows Connor several photos of the three of them at various gallery openings and other such events.

“This is one of my favorite ones.” He says, as he shows Connor a picture of Markus standing by Carl’s side, looking barely over sixteen and being talked to by a comely but definitely older-looking lady that is standing entirely too close for comfort. “My bro’s first encounter with cougars. Rawr.”

Judging by the giggling, Leo is the one who snapped the picture. What catches Connor’s attention, though, is the black curls on Markus’ head, like whoa. He was adorable.

He will never admit to making the sound he actually does while looking at the picture. “Oh no, he’s so cute!”

“Okay, alright, what are you two showing to my boyfriend?” Markus comes back from the kitchen just as a delicious smell wafts over, and Leo is quick to snatch the phone out of sight.

“Oh, you know… stuff.”

Carl is not as merciful. “Do you remember Mr. and Mrs. Perkins, Markus?”

“Oh, sweet mother of God.” Hard to forget a woman making advances on an underage boy in front of her husband –who didn’t even bat an eyelash.

Now that he’s back, Markus not so subtly steers the conversation to more pleasant avenues, even as Carl greedily asks for details on how they got together –specifically on how Connor managed to get through Markus’ thick disaster brain.

There’s a whole lot of teasing going on about it, but the kind that makes you smile about it and it becomes clear how tightly knit they are as a family when they are getting the table ready to eat and Markus, being considerably taller than Leo, just rests his chin on top of his brother’s head at one point, stretching his hands to the side like a totem statue.

“Markus, come on…”

No answer.

“Markus I have to take the roast off the stove.”

“Make a sacrifice to the Kitchen Gods, first.”

“Markus, I will head-butt you in the neck.”

That makes him move, though not without complaining: “You’re no fun.”

Yet when Leo comes back from the kitchen and hands his brother the ladle he used to mix the spicy sauce, his eyes light up. It would seem being allowed to lick the proverbial spoon is an acceptable sacrifice to the Kitchen Gods.

Connor guides Carl to his place at the table and the painter chuckles at his sons’ antics. “It’s been like this ever since Leo started cooking school: anything he made, Markus taste-tested for him, and in exchange he’d get to do that.”

“Especially effective when I make cakes.” Leo adds, as both of them come into the dining room and start setting down servings for everyone, “Anything with chocolate would also get Markus to clean the kitchen for me, if I let him watch how I did it.”

“…and that’s how you find yourself with a boyfriend that cooks you amazing meals.” Markus finishes, sitting by Connor’s side.

The lunch is practically perfect, Carl and Leo seem instantly enamored with Connor and easily include him in the good-natured ribbing they dish out to each other, especially when they hear the face-reveal video was the first time he actually saw Markus play without his disguise.

Obviously, that cannot do, and Markus gets all but pushed to the grand piano that decorates the lounge.

“Okay! Okay!!! But I want to hear no whining about my song choice.” He says as he sits down.

Leo understands instantly. “Oh boy, he’s gonna serenade you.”

“Wait what?”

Markus smirks. “Nope!” he declares, before he concedes slightly: “Well… not exactly. I’ve been composing this for your latest story…”

His latest story it’s called ‘The Carillonneur’ and it’s themed around Carnival horror tropes, specifically puppetry and music boxes. Of course. Typical Markus: how else to serenade a Horror writer other than creepy, carillon-like music?

The pianist flashes him a knowing smile and starts.

The song is perfect for his story: it has a slightly repetitive scheme, even Connor can notice that, but it does well for the atmosphere –the obsessive, relentless cadence will do wonders for the rising tension, and the way it winds down at the ending… Markus might as well have plucked the melody from the deepest recesses of Connor’s fantasies.

After all, the character for the phantom carillon player may or may not be inspired to his very own ‘ghostly’ boyfriend. Markus wasn’t sure how flattered he should be, to be portrayed as a murderous musician spirit, but hey. The story is cool.

“Goddamn it Markus, just when I think I couldn’t possibly love you more.” Connor says it with no shame and no hesitation, which makes Leo and Carl share a knowing look.

Definitely a keeper.

Predictably, Carl offers them all to stay the whole day and the night too, since there are like four bedrooms in the house and hardly any ever get used. That night, as he and Markus cuddle together in bed, Connor hears the story of how Markus’ mother, significantly younger than Carl, apparently had second thought about starting a family and skipped town not long after he was born. Leo’s mother, instead, was taken by the same accident that confined Carl to his chair.

It would seem that their father had decidedly poor luck with the ladies. Times were definitely tough, but they stuck together, and eventually became what they are now.

Connor, in turn, tells Markus about how Hank raised Kara, Niles and him on his own after their mother eventually succumbed to her illness, and how hard it is not to see his niece as much as he’d like to –Markus never met Kara, but he saw her and Alice in Connor’s Christmas video and they look equally sweet and charming… he also can relate: if anyone ever told him Leo would go live in another Country, he’d probably cry his eyes out for weeks.

Family is fucking wild. It does bring a smile to his face, though.

“So… are you calmer now?” he asks, “They clearly love you.”

The Narrator turns in the sheets, to be able to hug Markus properly and rest his head on the other’s bare chest. “I haven’t heard a shovel talk yet. It worries me.” He jokes.

“Nah, it’s just not their style— Carl doesn’t really believe in the whole hurting people who hurt you thing.” Markus explains in whispers and kisses to Connor’s brow, “He’d much rather spend that time comforting the one who was hurt.”

“You know, meeting your family explains so many things about you.”

The warm laugh Connor is rewarded with makes it very hard to keep his hands to himself. He manages, if only just barely as Markus kisses him properly as goodnight.

“I may have heard that once or twice. Now sleep.”

Connor’s latest story very quickly becomes a fan-favorite, and more than a few people point out the vague similarities between the creepy Carillonneur and their very own piano ghost… Connor himself doesn’t confirm or deny, content to let the fans have their theories –it does spawn a whole bunch of new content in the #GhostShip tag, so there’s that, at least.

The Jericho Music crew collaborates more and more in various initiatives, using their music to bring awareness to several important topics, and the PianoGhost keeps haunting omegle and all around causing crazy shenanigans –only, this time, when amazed people ask “Are you Markus?!” he gets to remove his mask and smile as he waves.

All in all, life is fucking great.

Until another bombshell explodes— Markus and Simon know North and Josh all too well, so neither of them is surprised about her being the one taking the knee to propose.

What’s more surprising is that she managed to do it in great secret, over a private, homely candlelit dinner and without telling any of them first, since she couldn’t risk their blabbermouths slipping up to Josh.

They all wake up to Instagram feeds going nuts over North’s picture of their joined, engagement ring-wearing hands and the caption “He said yes!!!” accompanied by various hashtags about eternal love.

As dutiful, long-time friends, the teasing immediately starts.

@pianoghostmarkus
S H O O K ! ! ! How did you not tell any of us?! For shame! j/k Congratulations, Queen♥ ♥ ♥ I knew you’d be the one to make a move, lol.

@Simonsays
Oh, Josh is going to be so pretty in his dress.

@ConnorReads
Holy shit! How have I missed this?! My brother is a cop, ffs, I should have seen the clues! Congrats, guys, you’re the best couple all over the internet! <3

Connor was obviously much more diplomatic –he’s a romantic at heart, he cannot bring himself to tease too hard about this type of things.

But wow, it takes them all by storm.

JerichoMusic video traffic goes down from three to two videos a week, as does Markus’ since they’re all busy with preparations –North and Josh had already been living together for almost two years, but they’re still both pretty nervous about it and it’s incredibly endearing to see them panic about  wanting everything to be perfect.

Contrary to rom-com clichés, North does not go hysterical about her wedding, but she does get very particular about her dress. Her final choice is a lace dress with a specific feature: the bulk of the skirt is detachable, so once all the formality is over she can chuck the heavy, uncomfortable thing and be left with a simple, A-line dress she can actually move around in.

No one is surprised –particularly because she took the Anderson twins along as her style advisors and both are firm believers in functionality and comfort.

Simon becomes practically Josh’s babysitter, cheering him on and reassuring him constantly, and is also in charge of the bachelor party. Which, instead of the usual, tasteless endeavor about “one last night of fun before the ball and chain” becomes instead a night to remember in celebration of the wedding itself, in a “holy shit guys I’m getting married!” kind of spirit.

There is a reason Simon overviews and edits all of their videos, after all.

Come the big day, there are a lot of people that Connor holds dear and a lot that he doesn’t even know, but the atmosphere is of bubbly excitement –despite the crew offering, the couple has hired both musicians and photographers, insisting that none of their friends have to work on such a day.

Simon still gets his phone out at the moment they have to exchange the vows and starts recording.

Josh is repeating after their officiant, as he slips the wedding ring on North’s finger.

“I, Josh Paul Idris Adeyemi, take you, North Renee Ingstrom…” the surprise at hearing their full names momentarily distracts Connor, but he too catches what Josh says next: “To be my waffly…” it should have been ‘lawfully wedded wife’, but clearly, the nerves made him stumble on his words. “And pancakey wife…”

“Oh, nice recovery!” Niles whispers to him, since Markus is at the altar with them, what with being the best man and all.

North’s shoulders are already shaking in giggles as Josh mutters “Been afraid of this my whole life…” but then he clears his voice and makes it even better:

“To ham and to honey from this day flapjacks, for butter and for toast, for raisin bread, for pop tarts, in sausage and egg, until doughnut do us part.”

North lets out a sound half-way between a laugh and a scream at that point, and she all but doubles over in a fit of giggles.

She’s lost.

At their side, Markus chuckles and addresses the crowd: “Just give her a second.” His gaze meets Connor’s across the hall, and they share a fond, knowing look.

North scream-laughs again, and she needs to lean on Josh for support.

It takes almost five full minutes to calm her down and recite the rest of their vows –which they absolutely do not change, and she takes Josh as her waffly wedded husband as well.

That will definitely go up on a vlog.

Once the ceremony is out of the way, North sheds the bulky part of her skirts and the newlyweds’ first dance is, obviously, a kizomba instead of a waltz –other melodies including but not limited to the skelewu and taracha: as a musician, Josh has always been fond of traditional rhythms and even though he was born and raised in the States he loved North’s idea of a tribute to where his family is originally from.

It was definitely appreciated.

“It’s much better than any boring waltz, that’s for sure.” And Markus studied as a classical pianist, he would know.

Eventually, the time comes for the best man to make his speech, and Connor squeezes Markus’ hand in encouragement as he watches him stand up.

“I have known North and Josh since we were a bunch of schoolkids waking people up with all our noise…” he pauses for the chuckles and a good-natured grumble of ‘don’t we know it’ by North’s mother, “We’ve grown up together, and I can’t imagine seeing one without the other. More than that, I can’t imagine my life without them. You guys have something rare and special: you complete each other, as equal partners on any adventures this floating space rock has to offer, boundlessly and fully… and that same passion touches whoever is around you.” Connor rolls his eyes slightly at him with a smile, mouthing the word ‘cheesy’ at him. Markus just narrows his eyes slightly and carries on. “I’ve heard you guys play, sing, speak and even fight, and I can say: no two people in this world make as balanced and beautiful a harmony as you two do.”

There is actually a collective ‘awww’ at that. Well played, mister pianist.

“…And if in fifty years we’ll all still be here, laughing and being idiots, striving to better each other, and being all together, I will be able to say I desire nothing more in my life." It might be a play of her shimmer make-up, but Connor could swear he just saw North’s eyes get shiny with tears there –hell, there’s near tears in his eyes, considering Markus took his hand beneath the table top as he said those words. He culminates his toast with a smirk: “To Josh and North, waffly ever after.”

Laughter and applause ring out at the same time, accompanied by North’s shout of “Oh, you dick!!!”

People can say what they want, it’s the best goddamn wedding reception Connor has ever been to.

They do decide to upload the wedding vlog, titling it “My Waffly Wedded Wife” and featuring both the scene at the altar and the tail end of Markus’ speech.

Predictably, the comments under that are fantastic.

Most of them praise Josh’s fantastic recovery, that was some seriously great improv, especially considering how under pressure the situation was –what with being at the altar and in front of all your friends and family.

Then there’s the usual cascade of comments about how North’s crazy laugh can cure all diseases, how adorable they both are, the beauty of North’s dress or how good Josh looks in a tux… and the hashtag #AllHailQueenNorth is followed by the hashtag #JeriLove but, among all those comments, one particular person catches Connor’s eye:

SolidnileS
This is fantastic and all, and your speech was great, Markus, but when are YOU going to propose to Connor? #GhostShip

                demonictatertot
                now THAT is music to my ears!
                (76 replies)

“Goddamn it, Niles!!!”

It’s way too soon for anything of the sort, but he has to concede one point: the day Markus tells him he wants to be with him forever, it will probably be better than any song could possibly ever sound.

Well. There’s plenty of time for their ‘waffly’ ever after.

For now, he’s more than happy for the songs he gets to hear every day.