Work Text:
[@david_gif omg!! Did you see @matteohno mention you in his latest live?? Asjdkfl!]
David gets home from running some errands and picking up a package at the post office to a couple more mentions on Twitter than he should’ve.
He hasn’t posted a video since last weekend, and he hasn’t tweeted anything today either. His subscriber engagement usually peaks right after he’s posted something, and then kind of dwindles down to the sporadic reply, like or retweet. That’s not to say that the people who follow him aren’t super supportive and let him know that they appreciate him and his work, that’s just how, understandably, the pattern usually goes.
It wouldn’t have been unusual to have come home to maybe a dozen new mentions, tops, but to check his phone and see over a hundred new tweets after not having done anything to warrant that? That’s unusual.
Maybe even a little worrisome.
David puts down the Wish package he picked up and puts his groceries in the fridge, before sitting down on the couch and opening the Twitter app on his phone again.
[@david_gif lol @matteohno mentioned you in his last live and literally it took me a second to compute that cause you two are on actual opposites of the youtube spectrum]
[AMDLDMDKDNS WHEN YOUR FAVOURITE YOUTUBER MENTIONS YOUR OTHER FAVOURITE YOUTUBER?? @matteohno @david_gif PLEASE DO A COLLABORATION!! https://tinyurl.com/yx9ob7d9
[Apparently if you have trouble sleeping you can just go watch one of @david_gif’s tutorials @matteohno]
[@david_gif lol Matteo Florenzi said he uses your videos to fall asleep https://tinyurl.com/peagbfe]
So apparently the reason people are blowing up his notifications, is that Matteo Florenzi mentioned him in a video.
David knows Matteo. Or rather: David knows of Matteo. His videos are in David’s recommended list from time to time, and David sees gifs or pictures on Twitter sometimes. Most YouTubers in the same region do know about each other, even if it’s just vaguely.
David and Matteo have no reason to interact though. David makes art videos and tutorials. Matteo, David is pretty sure, does random prank videos, challenges and live streams of video games. David knows Matteo has been around for a while, and has been made quite popular due to some of his videos going viral. David, on the other hand, has only been on YouTube for a little over eighteen months. He honestly didn’t think Matteo would know who he is, or that he'd watched any of his videos.
David continues scrolling through his mentions with mounting confusion and finally opens one of the links someone tweeted him. It links to a YouTube live that ended earlier that afternoon, and luckily the person tweeting him left it on a time stamp, so the appropriate bit starts playing for David immediately.
Matteo and another guy are sitting on a couch, but the other guy seems to just be leaving.
“Thanks for joining me for that question, Jonas,” Matteo tells him. “You can go back to calling your girlfriend now.”
“How gracious of you,” Jonas replies, ruffing Matteo’s hair before waving at the camera and leaving.
Matteo scowls at him and tries to get his hair back to a semblance of order.
“Okay,” Matteo says, obviously looking at the chat portion of the live, and reading out loud: “Do you ever have trouble falling asleep? I’m a terrible insomniac and it’s ruining my life!”
Matteo seems to think about this for a second before saying: “Well, same. I usually either sleep way too much, or not at all. Lately what I’ve been doing though, and what’s been really helping, is I’ve been putting on these YouTube videos by this guy called David Gif?”
David blinks at the screen, and not just because Matteo just pronounced it jif.
“He makes these art videos, like he’ll start with a little intro and then just starts drawing,” Matteo is continue on the screen. “But it’s actually like super soothing or something, I don’t know. He puts me right to sleep.”
Matteo is squinting at the screen again, obviously reading something, and he has to chuckle.
“Yeah, Jonas no longer single. Sorry girls. And guys.” He reads some more and says: “Yeah, this David guy is on YouTube, I’ll leave a link if I don’t forget or whatever. Try it out, maybe he can put you to sleep as well.”
Matteo then goes on to read a question about what his favorite Crash Bandicoot game is and David exits the video and opens Twitter again.
David’s got to admit that this is not how he envisioned his day going. When he woke up this morning he'd realized he was out of milk, so he'd had to eat his cereal plain, and now one of the country’s biggest creators was talking about him and his video.
A laugh sort of escapes David, unbidden.
He goes back to his notifications that are, yup, still blowing up. Other people seem to be freaking out as well, so David thinks he can be excused that if, in the privacy of his own apartment, he also has a bit of a what the fuck? moment.
David clicks through to Matteo’s account and reads his most recent tweets. There’s a lot of really random things going on there, and also quite some retweets. Matteo seems to engage with his followers quite frequently, but considering the tone of some of his replies he figures at least some of these people are his actual friends.
David, on a whim, decides to hit follow and send Matteo a tweet. In for a penny and all that, right?
It only takes 10 minutes for Matteo to like and reply to his tweet. Next follows a notification saying Matteo’s following him back.
[David: @matteohno thanks for the shoutout in your video, not sure if I should take it as a compliment though]
[Matteo: Definitely a compliment. What’s more noble than helping someone fall asleep??]
David contemplates sending Matteo a private message, but he’s not sure what he’d even say so he just leaves it. There’s probably been more than enough excitement for one day in his little corner of the internet anyway. Instead he likes some of the tweets people have been sending him, and retweets a couple of the funniest ones.
After that he goes and grabs one of the microwave dinners he’d gotten for himself and plops it in the microwave while he opens the Wish package he picked up earlier. He got himself some knock-off copic markers to use for a special video he has in mind, and he wants to have a first look at what he’s gotten himself into here.
---
David spends all day Friday editing the video he shot on Tuesday and Wednesday, and added voice over and text layers to on Thursday. It’s a video for a very short, animated piece that he’s actually quite proud of. He usually does a nice mix of traditional and digital art on his channel, but he hasn’t done too many animations before.
Creating this YouTube channel has really made him have to work on constantly improving his art style and just trying to find new things to film and keep his audience engaged and entertained. Before he’d just been filling his sketchbooks with whatever came to mind. Although that had definitely been cathartic – and he still has moments where he just grabs a pencil and some paper and starts drawing whatever comes to mind and makes him feel good - this has really made him push himself, and improve his skills and just work on a portfolio he’s proud of.
It’s been so rewarding to connect with people from all over and share things with them, and to get all this energy in return from them as well. It’s been really great seeing people send him their art work and animations based on his tutorials and inspired by what he’s been putting out there.
David posts his video on Saturday morning, and he’s finally able to let out a long breath after everything’s been double and triple checked, and then finally released into the universe. After that he’s ready to leave his apartment and his computer behind for a couple of hours, and just walk around town and do some groceries. He’s actually more than ready to look at anything but his screen for a couple of hours.
He has a rule that once he’s posted a video, he leaves the comment section be for a little while. It’s easy to get lost in seeing what people are saying, and looking for that validation. When people are positive, and they usually are, it’s great and it makes him feel seen and appreciated. When people are a little more nasty, which luckily doesn’t happen all that often, it’s kind of more difficult to shake off – it’s something that gets a little easier with every negative comment though.
Either way it creates an environment ripe for obsession, so David likes to just step outside after a video has gone live.
When he gets home several hours later though, it’s clear that more than a few people saw him get mentioned in Matteo’s video.
There’s a bunch of people saying they actually checked David’s channel out because Matteo talked about him. With every new person that found his video through Matteo, telling him they really like his style, and saying that his voice is indeed very warm and soothing, David can feel his smile growing.
Of course, with all the sweet comments also come a couple of smart asses leaving zzzzs and sleepy emojis on his video. David’s used to being teased by people watching his videos though. He’s not someone who tends to edit it out when he does something dumb. Instead, more often than not, he leaves the moments of fail in his videos cause they're either genuinely funny, or because he wants to show people who might just be getting started that it’s normal to make mistakes when you're doing something creative.
So yeah, he’s used to being roasted a bit, and this is a very tame, dumb ass version of that teasing.
David goes through his comments, liking some of them, and answering questions when someone isn’t clear on what he’s been using, or what he meant by a certain thing. He replies to the sweet, heartfelt comments from people saying they’re so happy they found out about him and his art, and he also likes some of the sleepy emoji ones.
David takes a screenshot of the comments and impulsively decides to tweet it to Matteo.
[David: Thanks again, @matteohno]
David watches the likes and replies blow up on his Tweet.
Most people are either laughing at him, or with him, which he’s pretty okay with. Some people seem to think he was being rude though, and, honestly, that was to be expected. David’s found it’s often impossible to not get the wrath of at least one person on Twitter over you.
David doesn’t really care usually, so he’s surprised that he actually starts fretting over it, thinking that maybe Matteo hasn’t replied to his tweet yet because he thought David was being rude as well. David’s about to send Matteo a DM when he notices he’s actually left a comment on David’s video.
[Matteo: was gonna save this video for tonight (zzz) but decided to watch during the day for a change. Good job, man. If I even had 1/10th of your talent I’d be convinced I could rule the world. (So maybe it’s for the best idk.)]
It ends up being David’s most liked video in well over a month.
--
Matteo posts a video that Monday. David clicks through to it from Matteo’s tweet alerting everyone to the new vid.
It opens to Matteo and three other guys sitting around a table covered with large quantities of food.
“We’re mukbanging today!” Matteo shouts into the camera, to laughs from the other guys. “Which hasn’t been cool since 2018 now?” One of them says.
“This is Jonas, the BFF,” Matteo says, pointing at Jonas. “But you guys already know that.”
Jonas gives the camera a winning smile and two thumbs up. “And these are Carlos and Abdi, but again: you guys already know that.”
David spends the next twenty minutes in morbid fascination, watching these four boys eat two pizzas, a hamburger each and finish it off with a lot of ice cream, all the while just talking a lot of shit. David doesn’t know why it’s entertaining, but somehow it just really is. Matteo isn’t even the biggest talker of the group, which is what throws David. He figured that Matteo would be taking the lead, seeing as it’s his channel and it’s him who all these people are here to watch.
When he does speak, he’s funny though. He’s a strange sort of charming that David feels himself drawn to. David finds himself laughing along to their idiotic conversations more than once, and he suddenly understands why Matteo has this many subscribers.
David likes the tweet with the video, and on impulse, retweets it as well.
--
David uses the knock off copics to draw a seascape full of mermaids for merMay.
He doesn’t follow a lot of the challenges or thematic things that go around in the art community, and he definitely hasn’t been drawing a mermaid every day of the month of May, but this particular challenge did spark some inspiration.
David works hard on the video, and is very proud of what he’s made. His seascape includes a pretty bad ass queen mermaid on an elaborate throne made of sharp and pointy seashells, wearing an even pointier crown. She’s surrounded by five more mermaids and mermen, and that took quite some character design. He used dark colors and the knock-off copic markers held up well enough. It was a challenge both because of the theme and subjects of the pieces, as well as because of the tools he was using. But really, that's what made it fun.
Sometimes David needs to be pulled out of his comfort zone a little.
The video is quite long, and David finds himself needing to cut a lot of his narrating because apparently he had a lot more opinions on mermaids than he would’ve initially thought. He finishes editing pretty late on Friday, surrounded by empty cups of coffee and a bag of chips he finished two hours earlier. He’s ready for his usual Saturday posting time though, so he counts it as a win.
He shoots his godmother a quick text, telling her he’ll be able to make it to brunch tomorrow, and goes to bed soon after, feeling quite content.
--
On Sunday morning there’s a comment on his video that’s amassing an astounding level of likes.
[Matteo: I fell asleep maybe 4 minutes into this, but then I spent the whole night dreaming about mermaids??
Also: sick crown]
David laughs out loud at the comment, and he pins it to the top of his comment section. He goes to Twitter to see that his mentions have also exploded again.
[@david_gif @matteohno Please do a collab? It would make my fucking YEAR]
[I can’t believe I never knew that I needed this… but now I know. NOW I KNOW. @matteohno!! @david_giff!! ]
[IS THIS A THING NOW?? @david_gif @matteohno – screencap of Matteo’s comment]
---
David usually doesn’t appear in his own videos too often. It’s not that he’s never shown his face on his channel before, or on Twitter or Instagram for that matter. He’ll post the occasional selfie, and he’s shown his face on camera as well. It’s just that usually the cameras are on the art, and you can only see his hands and arms, maybe the side of his face.
While editing a short little video for Wednesday however - a sped-up drawing of something he’s actually been working on a for a while and that’s now finally finished – he’s come across a shot of himself looking at the camera and rolling his eyes at himself for spilling water pretty much everywhere. It’s pretty funny and David thinks people might appreciate it, so he keeps it in.
Expectedly a couple of people screen cap the moment, or cut a short fragment out of his vid, and post it on twitter and IG. It’s always a little strange when people do that, but it’s also a little flattering. Laura likes to tease him about it, saying he’s turning into a real celebrity. David really doesn’t think they’ll have to worry about that.
He’s looking through some of his tagged posts on Instagram when he sees one where someone took a screen cap from his video and wrote a sweet message to him. Apparently Matteo saw it too, and replied.
[@david_gif’s been really helping me find my creative vibe again these last couple of weeks, bless. Also can you believe how cute he looked in today’s video?
Matteo: 100]
Laura calls him to ask him why he’s flirting with Matteo Florenzi on the internet.
“What’s going on?” She asks him. “When were you going to tell me about this?”
“There’s not that much to tell,” David says honestly. “He mentioned my videos in a live he did a couple of weeks back, I told you that, right? Ever since then people have been saying we should colab or something.”
“Colab or something,” Laura repeats. “You know I follow all your social media accounts, right? He’s been liking almost all of your posts and pictures.”
“So?” David asks.
“And you’ve been liking his stuff as well.” She says patiently, like if she lets him figure it out for herself, it’ll be a more meaningful life lesson.
“It’s just a like, Laura,” David assures her. “We haven’t even really chatted one-on-one. It’s just comments here or there.”
“That’s one on one,” Laura argues.
“That’s one-on-how-ever-many-of-Matteo’s-and-my-followers-are-watching-along-and-commenting-and-liking.”
“Just keep me posted,” Laura asks of him.
---
Matteo posts a video where one of his friends takes him out to try and teach him how to ride a horse. The whole thing is only 12 minutes long and David finds himself watching it twice, back to back. Matteo looks uncoordinated enough when he’s just walking, so this horse video was pretty much him challenging fate. Surprisingly enough though, everything goes alright, and Matteo even manages a quick round on the poor animal’s back. He looks a bit weak kneed when he’s finally allowed to get off it though, and he clings to his friend's shoulders while she just laughs at him.
David sends Matteo a private message.
‘That poor horse, you’re lucky the girl you were with had a lot of snacks for it or I would’ve been forced to report for animal abuse.’
Matteo answers almost immediate: ‘Mr. Gif, are you sliding into my DMs??’
David snorts out loud and replies: ‘I don’t know, Mr. Hno.’
David has to wait a little bit for a reply. He’s just about to give up on just staring at the conversation, and go do something useful when Matteo’s reply pops up.
‘You know a joke isn’t good when it takes the other person a whole minute to understand it.’
‘What’s worse than my joke is the way you pronounce gif, so I’d say I still have the worse name in this scenario.’
Matteo’s reply comes much faster now: ‘You’d know the jif/gif thing has been a long running joke on my channel if you were a true fan, Mr. Art-Side-Of-Tumblr.’
David has to bury his face in his hands to stifle a laugh for a second. ‘It’s Schreibner,’ he replies. ‘If you insist on calling me sire, you might as well do it right :)’
As he hits send he sees the typo and curses. “Fuck.”
‘Sir,’ he immediately corrects himself.
Any hope he has that Matteo would be the type of person who graciously lets typos go, leaves him when Matteo replies: ‘Oh, I see how it is. I’m sorry your majesty.’
‘Har Har.’ David replies.
‘Now if I’d known I was dealing with royalty…’ Matteo writes.
‘Then what?’ David wants to know.
‘I probably would’ve been a bit more cautious about teasing you, is all.’ Matteo replies.
‘You mean bullying,’ David writes. ‘Cyber bullying.’
‘Oh that’s quite the accusation!’ Matteo writes. ‘Who’s bullying who now?’
David rolls his eyes and bites his lip to stop from smiling too widely. ‘Still you,’ he writes.
A couple of minutes later Matteo tweets #NicerInternet and #StopCyberBullying. The tweet gets a ridiculous amount of comments and retweets, and some local news outlets write an article about it the next day. David is endlessly amused by that. If they only knew.
---
“Hey guys, we’re doing something different today,” David says. “Today we’re actually gonna see if we can keep Matteo Florenzi, AKA Matteohno here on YouTube, awake during this video by actually drawing a bunch of tiny Matteos. If something’s gonna keep him awake it should be that right?” David asks. “So I’ve got my laptop here for some references, and let’s get started.”
David spends an embarrassing amount of time watching videos of Matteo for his ‘references’. He has to turn off his camera at a certain point cause it’s just eating battery while filming David laugh at a bunch of Matteo’s videos.
This is gonna take a lot of editing to make it look like David isn’t totally embarrassing.
After spending another couple of hours watching videos, David has to get started or it’ll get too dark outside and that'll fuck with his lighting set up. He turns the camera back on and goes on:
“Okay, so I’m thinking we’ve got to pick out a classic Matteo Florenzi outfit for this first sketch. I was thinking we need to go with baggy jeans and a very loudly patterned grandpa sweater.” David clicks through some screen caps he took as reference and makes a mental note to add them on screen while editing. “I’s gotta be the cream colored one, that’s a classic, right?”
So he starts sketching out a little Matteo, saying: “We gotta make sure the hair is big enough. Not as big as my hair but, still, pretty big.”
He ends up drawing four little Matteos. One in the big grandpa sweater, one in a shirt and shorts, an outfit inspired by some of the videos he posted last summer, one in a chicken suit Matteo wore for a video last Halloween, and one that David dubs the dad one where he’s given Matteo a flower crown and an ugly Dad Outfit complete with loud Hawaiian shirt and tank underneath. He makes sure that the little Matteo is wearing socks in his sandals.
When David edits the video it’s honestly worse than he remembers, he just skips through all the footage of him watching the videos cause fuck, that’s embarrassing. Luckily he can just delete it and doesn’t have to resort to burning his whole SD card to keep anyone from ever witnessing this.
He’s pretty happy with the art though, and he’s happy with how the video ends up. He edits in some clips of Matteo’s videos, where he’s wearing the outfits or something similar to what David drew. And David thinks that it actually turned out to be a pretty funny video.
He posts it on Saturday and he’s only a tiny bit nervous about it. He didn’t let Matteo know what he was doing beforehand, but then again Matteo never runs it by him either when he goes and says David’s videos put him to sleep.
David breaks his own rule and stays near his computer after he’s posted the video, to check the comments. If he thoughts his mentions got crazy before, it’s absolute madness now.
[@david_gif your new video is so good, I am TT__TT]
[Honestly can’t believe we all get to see @david_gif’s and @matteohno’s awkward mating dance unfold before our own eyes??? Blessed and cursed at the same time. ]
[If @david_gif doesn’t design @matteohno’s new merch then what will have been even the point? ]
[WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON WITH @DAVID_GIF AND @MATTEOHNO CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN??? ]
David tries not to worry that he hasn’t heard or seen any replies from Matteo by noon. He wonders if he overstepped, or something. David doesn’t think he said anything offensive or rude – or more rude than is appropriate when you’re sorta poking fun at someone.
David goes out for a bike ride before he can drive himself insane overthinking things. He ends up dropping by his godmother’s house and she has pie out for him in no time. They chat about everything and nothing, and she can tell that David’s got something on his mind, but she graciously doesn’t push it when he says he doesn’t really want to talk about it.
When David gets back home around 15:00 o'clock he allows himself to check his phone, and sees that he has a message from Matteo timestamped not so long ago.
‘I just woke up to a bunch of messages telling me I look better in 2D,’ the first one reads. ‘Which is great for my ego…’ Matteo went on to write. Five minutes later he’d also sent David: ‘Also apparently now I need merch and you have to design it?’
David grins at his phone and tries to tell himself that the flutters he feels in his stomach are relief.
‘You woke up at 2 in the afternoon?’ He asks.
Also, he feels like he needs to point out: ‘You’re 2D in your regular videos as well.’
‘Oh I wasn’t talking about viewers,’ Matteo replies almost straight away. ‘My friends have been messaging me, saying you made me look more handsome than I do in real life.’
David has to laugh at that.
‘So thank you,’ Matteo sends.
‘Sounds like you have great friends :)’ David replies.
‘The best!’
The next evening Matteo uploads a short, random video that’s half vlog of him bothering Jonas, half him talking about David’s video. He gives David some shit, which was to be expected, but the way he talks about David’s art style is actually making David feel shy in a way it hardly ever does when someone else compliments him.
“He’s just really talented,” Matteo is saying. “And I’m not just saying that cause he chose the best possible muse out there.”
“Uhu,” David can hear Jonas from somewhere in the background.
“Didn’t you tell me I looked beautiful in those drawings, Jonas?”
David sends a link of the video to Laura, cause she asked him to keep him updated, and also because he’s probably going to want to talk to her about all this crazy stuff and he needs her to be up to speed by then.
He goes to Twitter and retweets Matteo’s tweet with the link to the video and adds ‘flattery will get you anywhere!’
---
Matteo sends him a DM with a phone number.
‘Hi,’ David texts the number.
‘Who dis?’ is the immediate reply.
‘A boy you gave your number to?’
‘But which one :)?’ Matteo replies and David takes a selfie of his unimpressed face and sends it to Matteo.
‘Oh, it’s his majesty!’ Matteo replies.
David takes a picture of himself sticking out his tongue, and Matteo replies with a selfie where he’s smiling softly.
He looks like he’s lying in bed, just like David is. David is just stuck looking at that picture for a while.
Matteo looks good, is the thing. And David’s always known that Matteo looks good. It’s just different when he doesn’t look like he’s putting on an act in front of the camera, or when he isn’t pulling a face like he is in most of his selfies on Instagram. He looks sleepy and warm, and it just hits David, a little. That this is the boy he’s been talking to for the past 2,5 weeks.
‘Inspiration for your next Matteo exhibit,’ Matteo writes, and David realizes he never replied to Matteo’s picture.
‘Much appreciated,’ he replies.
‘Good night, David,’ Matteo sends him.
‘Sweet dreams.’
---
The end of May is coming up, so David starts on the video he wants to put out on the first of June.
He’s put a big, A3 sized piece of paper on the desk his camera is set up at. He’s also organized all his sketching equipment and the copic markers he’ll need to create what he’s got in mind. He’d been thumbnailing all of yesterday evening, and actually did all his sketching off camera that morning. He’s only got the line art and coloring left to do on camera.
“Hey guys,” he starts his video. “Today is the first of June and as some of you might know, that’s the start of Pride month. I thought I’d do something to celebrate that and draw a scene from a pride march.”
David didn’t draw anything specifically pride related last June. He’d only been on YouTube for a little while back then and he hadn’t felt ready or even qualified to tackle the topic last year. He hasn’t done anything outright LGBT+ related on this channel yet – he’s sprinkled little queer characters and queer coding throughout some of his drawings here and there, but nothing that would be obvious to people who aren’t in the community.
Now it just feels like the right time to do something more, and start showing a little more.
David starts with the line art for the two girls holding hands on the left of the scene. The girl on the left is a lesbian and the one on the right is an asexual, biromantic girl. He’s labeled them out on his thumbnails so he can go in with the right color scheme later, after he’s done with the line art.
The boy next to them is trans, and David drew him with a slouching pair of dungarees with no shirt underneath so he could draw his scars from top surgery. “No more binder pains for you,” he says, taking care to make sure his outfit is lined neatly.
David goes on to draw a pansexual boy, a non binary person holding a flag and finally a gay boy. The drawing takes him about three hours to finish and he knows the editing is going to take at least that long. He feels accomplished about it though, the end result is definitely worth the work he’s put in.
After posting the video he’s surprised by the response he gets. He’s not surprised by the positive reactions, but he is surprised by the amount of people commenting that they’re genuinely moved by his art and the representation.
[I can't even begin to describe how much this video meant to me, I'm just speechless]
[What's binder pains???]
[Sorry what's a binder]
It’s no surprise to David that representation matters. Of course representation matters. He himself at times has felt deserted by traditional media and the lack of people he can relate to on TV or in movies. It’s slightly better on YouTube, where people get to share their truth independently from what someone else thinks people should be producing, and what other people should be consuming. It's part of the reason why David ended up deciding to start his own channel.
It’s on YouTube that David found so much healing, and inspiring representation. It's where he goes to for advice, and to be around people who are going through the same things he is. After reading the comments on his video he realizes he wants to be there. He wants to do that too, and be that for people.
David’s heard other YouTubers talk about the responsibility they have with their channel and to their audience to talk about important things. Things that are important to them. David doesn’t like the term influencer, doesn’t necessarily think of himself as an influencer either, but if he could influence in any area, he'd want it to be this. He wants to help people who might be confused or have questions, or who just want to be around people who understand.
‘Are you in bed?’ Matteo texts David.
‘Yeah, just got out of the shower,’ David replies
‘What are you wearing?’ Matteo asks.
Matteo’s been getting more and more flirty lately. He’s not particularly good at it. It’s more funny than anything else, but it also makes David feel hot all over to think that Matteo would even want to flirt with him.
He can never bring himself to go along with it too much though. It always feels like there’s this delicate balance he can’t disturb. Yet.
‘Did you watch my video?’ David asks instead.
‘Yeah,’ Matteo replies. ‘It was cool. I really liked it. Your viewers seem to like it too.’
‘I think I’m gonna make another one for Wednesday.’ David types and he thinks: tell him.
Tell him now and get it over with and it’ll be absolutely –
His phone vibrates in his hand with another message from Matteo: ‘Another pride one you mean?’
‘Yeah,’ David replies.
Tell him, David thinks again.
Matteo isn’t a stranger to a coming out video. One of his first videos to really go viral was his coming out video from almost a year ago. David heard about the video back then, and he even thinks he might’ve watched it, or parts of it anyway. He rewatched it today, after he posted his own video.
It showed another side of Matteo, a really vulnerable and open side. It’s David’s favorite video of him he’s seen so far. It’s like it unveiled another facet of Matteo. Seeing it had made David feel like this greedy, greedy guy and like all he wants to do is discover more about Matteo. Get to know him more, get to know him better. Know all the things about him that only David would get to see.
David stomps down all those thoughts.
Instead he types out: ‘Did you end up finding that kiddy pool you needed? For the jello thing?’
‘We ended up just buying a new one. We’re gonna fill it this week if the weather stays nice. Are you ready to see me become the ruler of everything jello?’
‘I thought I was the royalty here?’ David asks.
‘Well, who says there can’t be two kings, one day?’ Matteo replies.
---
David’s never felt more like puking after publishing a video.
He genuinely thinks he’s going to be sick for a minute. He refreshes the video the first five minutes it’s live to see the view-count start going up, and the numbers start climbing.
It’s a relatively short video. It’s only 14 minutes during which he’d addressed some of the most frequently asked questions and published comments on his pride video. There’d been a lot of confusion on what he’d meant by binder pains, and what a binder actually way. So he’d done his best to explain all that, and reply to other questions.
Then he’d basically told everyone on YouTube that he’s trans.
He might actually be sick.
On a whim David packs a bag and texts Laura to ask her if he can come and stay over at her place.
‘Always,’ she replies.
He’s at her door two hours later.
“Saw your video,” she smiles at him gently, engulfing him in a hug. “I didn’t know you were gonna do that.”
“I didn’t really know either,” he answers.
“How are you?” She asks .
He doesn’t want to leave her embrace but he has to look at her face and ask: “What are people saying?”
“Want to go check?” She asks him gently.
They sit on the couch and she reads him comments. David doesn’t know if she’s skipping the bad ones, or how many bad ones there are, but she only reads him super sweet messages. Some of them a simple “Good for you!” but a lot of them are long paragraphs full of support, or people telling him how happy they are that he told them.
David isn’t much of a crier, but he cries on the couch with his sister. She wipes away his tears and kisses the top of his head.
“Look at how many people you made happy,” she whispers to him. “Are you happy?”
And he isn’t sure, but he thinks he is. He feels warm inside, at least. And relieved.
They go out to the park nearby Laura’s apartment and David doesn’t want to read any comments or messages yet, but he makes a couple of Instagram stories of the park and the pretzel Laura bought him, so people can see that he’s doing fine. A functional adult who has a live outside of YouTube and worrying what other people think. He takes a selfie with Laura and puts star gifs on their eyes.
He gets a message from Matteo:
‘You’re in Berlin?’
‘Yeah,’ David answers. ‘Last minute decision.’
Three dots appear and then disappear again without any new messages.
David hands the last piece of his pretzel to Laura, not hungry anymore. ‘Have you seen my new video?’ He asks. ‘Not really one to fall asleep to," he tries to joke.
No answer from Matteo.
David puts his phone away and tells Laura: “I think I did something stupid.”
“Hm?” She asks around the bite of pretzel she just took.
“I think I like Matteo.”
“YouTube Matteo?” She asks, even though David knows she knows very well who he’s talking about.
“Yeah.”
“Why is that stupid?” She asks.
He shrugs. “I guess it doesn’t have to be, but it feels stupid right now.”
“Things like this usually feel stupid,” she agrees. “It’ll be fine,” she promises and David wants to believe her so badly.
“It’ll be okay in the end,” She says.
“If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.” David says and she smiles at him and ruffles his hair.
The next day David stays inside and watches a whole season of Schitts Creek. Laura leaves him to it for most of the day, but she forces him to come out and come cook with her in the evening. He sleeps in his bed-away-from-home in the guest bedroom and helps her with laundry the next day.
He posts a picture of the two of them at the grocery story to Instagram and captions it: “My sister from the same mister.”
Matteo likes the picture.
‘How much longer are you in Berlin for?’ Matteo asks that evening, right as David’s getting ready to turn his phone off and go to bed.
David panics.
‘I’m going home first thing tomorrow,’ he says. Suddenly worried Matteo would want to suggest they meet up or something.
‘Oh okay :(‘
‘Did you watch the video?’ David asks again, cause he needs to know.
‘Yes.’ Matteo says. ‘Stayed awake for it and everything.’
‘Okay.’ David replies.
‘You need a ring light.’ Matteo says. ‘You looked like you were filming in a dark cave.’
The laugh that bursts out of David is so unexpected, he has to put his hand on his mouth so he doesn’t wake up Laura.
‘That was the vibe I was going for,’ David sends him.
‘Oh so that was an artistic decision that you made on purpose.’
‘Yes.’
‘Dark Cave Boy Makes Emotional Video,' Matteo texts.
‘Exactly, it’s my new aesthetic.’ David replies.
‘Can I call you?’
David stares down at his phone for a couple of minutes before he manages to type out: ‘Sure.’
His phone starts ringing almost immediately.
“Hey,” David whispers.
“Hi,” Matteo says. “Fuck, I actually hate talking on the phone.”
“Well, you were the one who called me,” David points out.
“Yeah, I thought maybe that was more appropriate,” Matteo mumbles.
“Appropriate,” David repeats, amused. “This is the first time we’ve talked on the phone.”
“Yeah,” Matteo agrees. “Your voice sounds different.”
“That’s cause I’m whispering,” David says.
"Why are you whispering?”
“I don’t wanna wake up my sister.”
“So that girl you’ve been with the last coupe of days? That’s your sister?” Matteo asks.
“Yeah. You know that though, you liked my Insta pic.”
“Oh, did it say she was your sister?” Matteo asks and David doesn’t buy it for a second.
“Yeah, it did.”
“Well, I can’t read,” Matteo says.
“I should’ve figured.”
“You should tell me next time you’re in Berlin,” Matteo says softly. “Or I could – I could come up to you?”
“Oh. Okay,” David says. “Yeah.”
“I’ll let you sleep now then.”
“Oh,” David says again. “Okay. Goodnight.”
“Sweet dreams.”
---
David braves all the comments and messages he’s been ignoring on his train ride home the next day. After telling Matteo that he was leaving, he felt like he had to because he didn’t actually want to be lying to him.
Laura hugged him goodbye and promised to come up for a visit that month, which had made him feel a lot better about having to say goodbye to her.
So David had grabbed some breakfast for on the train, and had started going through his comments and messages.
Luckily there aren’t that many people on the train with hm, cause he ends up shedding a couple more tears into the napkin he got with his coffee. Everyone has been so supportive and nice, and David’s heart feels so full.
[Matteo: So proud of @david_gif]
---
Jonas, Abdi and Carlos add him on Instagram and Twitter. All three of them do it at almost the exact same time, on both apps. David follows them back, and almost immediately he get a message from Jonas.
‘Hey dude, this is my number’ followed by a phone number.
David adds it to his phone and texts him: ‘David’s number.’
David’s added to a whatsapp group in seconds.
‘Hey David,’ Jonas says.
‘Yo, David,’ a number David doesn’t know types. ‘I’m Abdi, Matteo’s best friend.’
David saves the number in his phone and returns to the chat to see another unknown number’s typed: ‘Carlos. Matteo’s actual best friend.’
‘Boys,’ Jonas has typed. ‘We all know I’m Matteo’s number one.’
‘Hi,’ David types out. ‘What’s up?’
‘We just thought we should get acquainted!’ Abdi writes. ‘Introduce ourselves.’
‘Yes, Matteo’s being hush hush about you, so we had to come to to the source," Carlos writes.
‘Yeah, so anyway. Now you have our numbers.’ Jonas sends. ‘So don’t be afraid to say hi or whatever from time to time.’
‘Okay,’ David says. Sending the boys a thumbs-up.
He returns to his chat with Matteo and says: ‘Your friends just gave me their phone numbers.’
‘??’ Matteo replies.
‘Jonas sent me a message on twitter.’
‘UGH WHAT ARE THEY SAYING?’ Matteo asks.
David sends Matteo a screencap of the conversation and Matteo replies with a face palm emoji.
‘I’m sorry, they’re so embarrassing.’
‘Haha, it’s fine. I think it’s kind of nice of them," David replies.
‘So, I’m not the only one who’s sliding into your DMs then?’ Matteo sends him.
‘Huh?’ David replies.
‘Jonas,’ Matteo says.
‘Actually, if you remember correctly, I was the one who sent you a message first.’
‘True :)’ Matteo replies.
---
"Today I am doing the boyfriend tag with Jonas!” Matteo says on David’s laptop screen.
David had seen the title and the thumbnail of the video so it shouldn’t be surprising and yet it still is.
“Happy pride month, everyone, by the way. And Jonas is not my boyfriend, but he is a boy who is my friend so I thought we could do the boyfriend tag anyway, right, Jonas?”
“So actually like a best friend tag?” Jonas asks, smiling at Matteo fondly.
“Yes, but I’m gay, so.”
“Gay people still have best friends,” Jonas says. “We’re a prime example of that.”
“Boyfriend tag gets more likes and views though,” Matteo says, looking at the camera all cheeky.
“Then you should get yourself a boyfriend,” Jonas shrugs.
“Working on it!” Matteo says, before clapping his hands loudly and saying: “First question.”
David watches the video another two times before bed.
---
David takes a week long break. He didn’t post anything the day after he got back from Laura’s, and he doesn’t post anything for his usual mid-week slot either. He’s been drawing a lot though, but more for himself. He’s been filling his sketchbooks with patterns of knitted sweaters, and he’s been drawing a lot of birds taking flight.
Matteo texts him every day, and it's David's favorite moment every day.
They still flirt, and it still makes David feel hot all over, but it doesn’t make him feel worried anymore. He revels in it now. Goes along with it, and initiates it himself more and more. It flusters Matteo sometimes, David thinks, cause he’ll get quiet and he’ll send David selfies and David can tell he’s blushing. It emboldens David.
He posts a sped-up video of him completing a piece he’s been working on for a while now. He was stuck on it, and left it be for weeks, but after coming back from Berlin he'd found his inspiration again and finished it, finally.
It’s a quick enough edit, cause he’s not doing a voice over or anything. It’s just the piece or art, speaking for itself. It feels good to post again, and it feels good to see that people are still showing him support.
[Matteo: When @david_gif posts a video without voice-over and you don’t know what you’re gonna fall asleep to tonight. ]
[@matteohno heartbreak]
[@ matteohno How beautiful was that piece though]
[Matteo: When @david_gif posts a video without voice-over and you don’t know what you’re gonna fall asleep to tonight. ]
[David: @matteohno I can call you and tell you a story? :)]
“Can I request what this story is about?” Matteo asks when David calls him later that night.
“No,” David replies immediately. “But if you could, what would you request?”
“I don’t know,” Matteo says. “Maybe something about a handsome king?”
“And what would this handsome king be doing?” David asks.
“Maybe he falls in love,” Matteo says.
“Oh, I know this story,” David smiles. “He falls in love with the jester, doesn’t he?”
“I wouldn’t call him a jester, per say.” Matteo says. “Maybe more like: the court’s entertainer?”
“Ah, I see.”
“A noble calling, if you ask me.” Matteo continues.
“Hmm,” David hums, “Obviously. And well, the king fell in love with him in return, didn't he?” David says softly. “So he must’ve been something else, this court’s entertainer.”
“Oh yeah,” Matteo agrees.
“So it’s a love story then?” David asks.
“I always thought of it more as an adventure,” Matteo replies.
[Matteo: If my video is late tomorrow it’s because @david_gif just couldn’t hang up the phone tonight]
---
David’s got his laptop in bed with him when he presses play on Matteo’s latest video.
“Hey guys,” Matteo says to the camera. He’s on his bike, and he’s got his camera high up so it catches the other three boys on their bikes behind them. “Today we’re gonna be – well, we’re gonna be eating again, aren’t we?” He directs that list bit at his friends, and they all grin.
“Let’s go!” Carlos yells, while Abid calls out: “I’m hungry.”
The video cuts to some shots of them making their way to, seemingly, their first stop.
Next they’re all sitting in a booth with food around them.
“Oh shit, I haven’t told what this is about yet,” Matteo tells the camera. “So, as you all know, I’ve got some really gross friends and today we’re testing out all their gross food combinations. First up is Abdi and we’ve got some perfectly good pizzas that we’re gonna ruin with hollandaise.”
“Improve,” someone says off screen, so Matteo turns the camera to Abdi, who repeats: “We’re gonna improve it.”
“Firstly, there’s no improving on pizza, and secondly,” Matteo turns the camera back on himself and says: “Ew.”
They eat and rate the pizzas. Everyone gives the pizza a pretty high score, except for Matteo who’s being difficult about it, David is sure, and gives it a 3 out of 10.
‘You’re such a difficult boy,’ David texts him.
Matteo replies with the emoji with the sunglasses on.
‘I’m watching your video,’ David clarifies. ‘But yes.’
David continues watching the video, and the next place they hit is a grocery store and Matteo films the boys filling up a basket: “Apparently we’re going to try bananas and peanut butter next,” Matteo makes a face at the camera.
“Dude, it’s so good,” Jonas is saying.
“We should try bananas and something crazy like mayo,” Abdi remarks in the background.
“Pickles and whipped cream.” Carlos says.
Matteo says: “I think I’m gonna be sick.”
“We’re also picking up some stuff at McDonalds, and then we’ll check back in with you when we’re home.”
‘Did you really eat bananas and mayo??’ David texts Matteo.
‘Keep watching then. Honestly, SPOILERS,’ is the reply he gets.
The video cuts to the inside of Matteo’s kitchen, where the boys are setting up around the table. They do indeed try the bananas and mayo, but that gets a solid 0/10 from everyone, except Abdi who’s willing to give it a 4.
The Bananas and peanut butter get good grades over all, especially after they also add some chocolate sauce.
“It’s like a very good Peanut butter cup,” Jonas says, licking his fingers in the background.
“Okay, and now for the last one," Matteo says, opening his fridge and taking out the McDonalds bag. “I put these in the fridge cause it’s ice cream.” He looks in the bag and says. “They might still be a little runny though. Oh, who left the fries in here as well?”
“Dude, you put the bag in the fridge.”
“Well, this is off to a great start,” Matteo says. “So we’re gonna have warm, runny milkshakes with ice cold fries.”
David gapes at the screen and texts Matteo: ‘You didn’t.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’ Matteo sends him, just as David can hear Matteo on the screen say: “Cause apparently Mr. Schreibner, AKA David Gif,” and he pronounces it jif, “thinks fries and milkshakes are good. Like. Actual fries dipped in actual milkshakes.”
“That could be good,” David hears Jonas say from the background. “If some idiot hadn’t put the fries in the the fridge.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
David calls Matteo on the phone. “Slander," he says when Matteo picks up.
“How is it slander when it’s true?” Matteo asks.
“It’s slander cause you’re always laughing at me.”
“If you think I’m laughing at you, it’s cause you yourself have to admit that it’s laughable.”
“No.”
“Did you finish the video?” Matteo asks.
“I’m finishing it now. I’m listening to you in stereo.”
“You’re always listening in stereo,” Matteo is a smart ass.
“Shhh, I’m listening to an even dumber Matteo on my screen now.”
“Okay that’s a solid -2.” Matteo says on screen, making a face.
“This is worse than the banana and mayo?” Carlos asks.
Matteo seems to ponder that before saying: “Okay then this is a +1 and the banana and mayo is a -1.”
“Seems more fair,” Carlos agrees.
The camera turns to Jonas who shrugs and says: “David, man, I’ll go eat fries and milkshakes with you, bro.”
“No, you can’t," Matteo tells his best friend.
“Why not?”
“Just. You can’t. Okay, anyway," Matteo turns back to the camera. “That was it for this week. Next up is probably Jonas and I playing SIMS 4 and murdering some people okay, bye!” The video cuts off abruptly, like Matteo’s videos usually do.
“Why can’t Jonas go and have fries and shakes with me?” David asks.
“Cause,” Matteo says.
“Cause?”
“Yeah, cause I get to do that. I’m gonna get jealous if you’re going out doing things with my friends.”
“I see,” David says, wondering if Matteo can hear the smile in his voice. “You’d face a 1/10 food for me then?”
“I’d even face bananas and mayonnaise for that.”
“Oh wow,” David says softly. “I feel special.”
“You should,” Matteo agrees.
“So when then?” David asks. Thinking that if he’s been waiting for the perfect time, this might as well just be that. Cause he’s done with waiting and he’s done with trying to talk himself out of it, and he’s done with not giving this a real try.
“When what?”
“When can we go and do that?”
“Oh,” Matteo says.
[Prime content, once again! @matteohno dragging @david_gif never gets old]
[Have to agree with @matteohno (puke!) Those were all gross and they’re all weird as fuck @david_gif]
[When will @david_gif and @matteohno go on that date already? ]
[@david_gif I’d totally go have fries and shakes with you]
---
Matteo’s posted a selfie on his Instagram stories with a question sticker saying: ‘Who am I on my way to see?’
He’s replied to some of the funnier answers, and the final answer he’s replied to says “DAVID????” Matteo’s made the background of the IG story a picture David sent him of himself eating soup. It’s a dumb pictures and it’s a little embarrassing but Matteo’s put a bunch of smiley faces over it, so David can forgive him.
David got to the train station to wait for Matteo super early, so now he’s obsessively refreshing Matteo’s Instagram and Twitter, before moving back to their whatsapp conversation.
‘Train still running on time?’ He asks, as if he can’t tell that from the station.
‘Yup.’ Matteo replies, sending David a short video of the view he’s got from the train windows, the scenery rushing by.
It’s another twenty minutes before Matteo’s train finally gets there. David gets up from the bench he’s been waiting on when it arrives. He wipes his sweaty palms on his pants.
Matteo’s one of the last people to get off the train, and David doesn’t even know what his insides are trying to do once he spots Matteo.
“Hi,” he smiles, unsure if they should go for a handshake or a hug, so he just stays where he is when Matteo doesn’t make a move to do either.
“Hi,” Matteo replies, smiling back before breaking eye contact. If David didn’t know him any better he’d describe it as shy.
“Train ride okay?” David asks and Matteo shrugs.
“Okay, let’s grab some lunch then?” David says and Matteo follows him out of the station.
They grab some sandwiches in a shop near the station, and David tries to tell himself they’re both just nervous. Matteo is how David expected him to be, except maybe a little more quiet, a little more calm. Shy comes to mind again.
David gets it though, he’s feeling a lot of the same things.
The conversation goes well though. Matteo compliments his shirt and David compliments Matteo’s taste, which makes Matteo chuckle.
“I’m a good dresser,” David says.
“Well, I wouldn’t really know,” Matteo says. “I mostly just see your hands on video.”
“That’s kind of the only thing that needs to be on camera,” David says. He wiggles his fingers at Matteo and says: “These are the money makers.”
Matteo grabs his left hand when David’s wiggling fingers get too close to his face, and pulls it down on the table. Matteo continues to hold his hand over David’s, while trying to look like it’s not a big deal. David can feel his cheeks flush and tries to make himself look like it’s not a big deal for him either.
After lunch David takes Matteo to the lake close to his place, and they walk around for a couple of hours, just talking and laughing. They listen to David’s playlist on a bench near the shore. Matteo’s sitting close to him, leaning against his arm and throwing him a smile every once in a while.
They grab pizza from an Italian place near David’s place and walk back to his apartment to eat it there. Matteo looks around his living room, seemingly taking in all the little details, before sitting down on the couch and wolfing down the pizza with David.
“I’m happy you aren’t actually making me eat fries and shakes,” Matteo tells him when they’ve finished.
“I’m saving that for our three month anniversary,” David tries to joke until he realizes that maybe he shouldn’t be coming on so strongly.
Matteo’s fingers are dusty with flour when they curl in his hair and his lips are oily when they lean in for a kiss. David puts his own hands on Matteo’s jaw, and tries to chase Matteo for another kiss when he pulls back to smile.
They make out on David’s lumpy couch for hours, and they completely lose track of time. Matteo has to hurry to catch the last train back to Berlin. David kisses him on the dark train platform and he can’t stop smiling all the way back home.
‘Text me when you get back home,’ he sends Matteo.
‘I will <3’
‘I had a really good time today,’ David texts him once he’s gotten home himself.
‘I had the best time, you’re a very good host :)’
Matteo sends David a selfie in bed once he’s home, and captions it: ‘I’ll put on one of your videos, and I’ll be asleep in no time.’
‘Ha ha,’ David replies. And then: ‘Okay goodnight, sweet dreams, have a good sleep.’
---
A week later it’s Matteo waiting for David at the train station in Berlin. David wasn’t sure how long he was staying for, so he’s got a huge gym bag full of stuff with him.
“Are you actually moving here?” Matteo asks, obviously happy about the idea.
"No, I just had some stuff for my sister is all,” David rolls his eyes, throwing his bag over his shoulder and leading the way to his sister’s place.
Laura greets them with smiles and hugs.
“Finally get to see you in person,” she tells Matteo. “After only seeing you on video for so long.”
Matteo had told David he was nervous about meeting his sister, but it doesn’t take him too long to chat with her and crack a couple of jokes. David can’t help but think he’s got the nicest smile, and he hopes Laura sees it too. Hopes she can’t quite see how far gone David is already though, just from what his face must be doing now.
“Okay, I’ll show you my room,” David says, when Laura has been monopolizes Matteo’s time for just a bit too long.
She shoots him a knowing look, that David pretends not to see.
Matteo doesn’t seem to notice or care though, and follows David into his room.
“It’s actually just the guest room,” David says. There’s some of his things here, though, and he stays there far more often than anyone else. His art on the walls as well, Laura's even put some of it in frames. Matteo take a little look around until David steps closer to him and kisses him gently.
“Hi.”
“Hey,” Matteo replies.
They don’t leave his room for the rest of the day. Luckily Laura had to run some errands cause David thinks he’s just a bit too old to be judged by his big sister for making out with a boy he likes all day.
They have dinner in Matteo’s flat that evening, and David gets to meet his roommates. They’re nice and welcoming, and they make David happy, knowing that Matteo gets to live in a warm home like this. They escape to Matteo's room right after dinner and David spends the night.
“Just one thing,” Matteo whispers, and David swallows and nods.
“Are you expecting me to call you sire in bed as well or...?”
“You absolute idiot,” David pushes Matteo onto his back and straddles him. “You’re a jerk and you just completely killed the vibe.”
Matteo is giggling underneath him. His hands have come up to David’s wrist, to try and keep him from poking and pinching. But they slide up to hold David’s hands soon enough.
Matteo didn’t kill the mood, he made David laugh and forget for a second that they were both nervous and a bit awkward.
“I’m your idiot, though,” Matteo says. “I’m your jerk.”
“I’ll show you jerk,” David says, raising his eyebrows and stifling the laugh that elicited in Matteo with a kiss.
They make out with him on top of Matteo. David’s right hand escapes from Matteo’s to wind up in his hair instead. Matteo’s freed hand finds its way to David’s back, while his other one squeezes Matteo’s hand tightly.
“I’ve thought about this for so long,” Matteo confesses in between kisses and it’s such a disarmingly Matteo thing to say that David has to stop for a second and just look at him and catch his breath.
They get roped into having breakfast with Matteo’s friends the next day.
Matteo is still sleep rumpled when they get to the café, and everyone keeps throwing them smirks and they make fun of Matteo’s bed hair. Matteo buries his face in David’s shoulder, hiding away from the world and his friends, and David doesn’t mind being that hide-away for him.
They go out and play football with the boys in the afternoon, and Matteo has to go lie on the grass ten minutes in. Out of breath and sweating in the warm July sun. They go out for ice cream afterwards, and a couple of girls recognize Matteo cause they start giggling when they see him, and come up and ask for a picture. They throw David a couple of glances, but they don’t say anything to him.
[Did @fairenoughnotenough and I just run into @matteohno and @david_gif in the park?]
They go back to Laura’s that evening and watch a bad horror movie that’s playing on the TV. David thinks Matteo is tired at first, cause he keeps snuggling closer to him, until David realizes he's actually scared.
“Are you scared?” He whispers.
“No,” Matteo snorts. “No, I’m not scared.”
“Okay then,” David replies, laughing when Matteo hides his face in his throat after the next jump scare.
They film a video together the next day, and David gets to see Matteo’s creative process – which is to say he just presses record and then wings most of it. They play Mario Kart and end up trash talking each other the whole time. They turn out to be pretty evenly matched, but David is just that little bit more competitive.
“Oh, what’s that face?” Matteo asks him after David’s lost a round. “Oh but I like that face.” He cackles.
After that he seems to be more invested in winning than ever.
They take a couple of pictures for Instagram that evening. David kisses Matteo’s cheek in one of them, and Matteo asks: “Can I post this?”
David shrugs, “Yeah. I mean, if you want to.”
“Yeah,” Matteo says.
“Send them to me as well?” David asks.
“Sure,” Matteo says, tapping away at his phone. “What should I tag it though?”
“Hm?” David asks.
“Like #DavidGif,” he says, “Or #ArtSideOfYoutube. Or maybe #Boyfriend.”
David tries to control his smile and pretends to think that one through for a moment. “#King has got a ring to it as well,” he teases.
Matteo rolls his eyes. “Of course you’d say that.”
David pulls Matteo in for a kiss and tells him: “But boyfriend sounds good as well.”
“Okay,” Matteo nods. “Boyfriend.”
---
If saying goodbye to Matteo last week was difficult, leaving him behind in Berlin this week is almost unbearable.
“We’ll see each other in five days,” Matteo says, and David isn’t sure if he’s trying to comfort David or make himself feel better.
“Yeah,” David agrees. “And then you can meet my godmother.”
“And then we won’t have any sisters or noisy roommates around…” Matteo trails off, biting his lip before leaning in for another kiss.
“That’s also true.” David nods.
It helps a bit, but it still sucks.
On the train ride home, David notices that Matteo posted that picture of them on Instagram. It’s already got a couple thousands of likes, and the comments are full of hearts.
‘5 days!’ David texts Matteo.
‘Video call later?’ Matteo replies.
‘Depends on what you’ll be wearing.’
‘One of my grandpa sweaters, of course.’ Matteo assures him.
‘It’s a date then.’
[YESSSS BOYFRIENDS]
[Oh wow!!]
[I love love, you guyss]
[HASHTAG BOYFRIEND OH MY GODDD]