Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Oh hey Phil is in my stream! Hi Phil! Oh no please don't— dammit." You got
knocked out from under the wood, the snowballs ending you. "I hate avalanche with all of my heart."

Checking through your stream donations, you went and thanked all of them, laughing and jokes and answering questions.

"You should play Minecraft in VR.. no, absolutely not." You laughed, turning back to the game as another one started. "No, I'm just kidding. That sounds fun, I'll try it out."

Shooting Range appeared on your screen.

You were fairly good at the party games in Hypixel, but your strong suit had always been pvp— you had to admit, you were good at it. That was what you were known for, even though you were pretty decent at most modes in the game.

"See look chat, I'm in first. I'm going to get a perfect flawless run. Don't even worry about it." Shooting Range was your last game, and you were determined to flawless.

The timer went down, and the game ended with you with fifteen stars. Another perfect run to satisfy your feral chat.

"What did I tell you guys?" you teased, laughing. "Don't even worry about it."

You went back to the hub, walking around in circles and interacting with a few fans who followed you around.

"Okay I'll end the stream here.. It's like one in the morning now," you announced
tiredly. "Are you participating in the Minecraft Monday tournament Keem is hosting..? Yeah, I am. The teams'll be announced tomorrow.. or should I say today. Yeah. Alright, bye everyone!"

The stream promptly ended, and you yawned, slightly scolding yourself for staying up so late.

Your phone lit up with a notification from Twitter— you had turned off your notifications unless close friends were talking to you— to see that Keem had mentioned you in a tweet. Curiously, you picked up your phone and swiped, reading the messages.

'Current Roster for #MinecraftMonday.'

Opening the image, you saw your partner, Skeppy, and you two were in team two. It was honestly a broken team, the two of you were pretty good, but it was just week one. And Technoblade was here too...

Speaking of him, he had mentioned you in a reply.

'@Y/U & Skeppy how did you get that, is Y/U rusty?'

You laughed quietly, typing back a response. You hadn't even known that he knew who you were.

'@technothepig o shit he knows i exist y'all i've been noticed'

You watched his videos often, and knew of him from when he first started getting popular, a few months after you did. Minecraft Monday would probably launch him into fame, you guessed, as he was very good at the game.

A few minutes later, a reply appeared.

'@Y/U nerd I've been watching your videos for years'

Now that really surprised you. You knew he must've watched you a little, his techniques were some you figured he picked up from your videos and advice, but not that much. It was really strange to think that he actually was a fan.

'@technothepig omg ty B) I've been noticed by technoblade none of you idots stand a
chance'

'@Y/U lmao okay gl tmr'

'@technothepig ty you too'

Skeppy— Zak, as you often called him— had managed to get you as a teammate and because of that your fans and his were very confident that you would win. But you also knew that the pair of you would be targeted heavily, as people didn't know of Techno's skill and wouldn't be gunning for him straight off the start. You were well known for pvp, you'd likely get followed off spawn.

Still, you hoped you'd prevail. If you and Zak won, it was likely that you wouldn't ever be able to team again, though.

Deciding to not over complicate it and just to play your best tomorrow on Minecraft Monday, you just scrolled through Twitter, saying hello to fans and thanking those who did amazing fan art for you.. seriously, you didn't look that amazing in real life.

'@Y/U x Skeppy?? lmao'

'@username1 no get out loser'

'@Y/U :('

'@username1 nerd'

The 'shipping' as they called it wasn't something you minded too much, as long as they didn't get out of hand, but you could still joke about it.

You saw others replying to the tweets of the conversation you had had with Technoblade a few minutes ago.

'@technothepig aw that's kinda cute ngl'

'@Y/U the master sensei who trained the blood god'

'@technothepig blood for the blood god'

They were funny, to say the least. It was interesting to think you might have influenced Techno's skill, but he was probably already really good on his own. After all, blood for the blood god.

Chuckling, you charged your phone and set it face down on your nightstand, deciding to go to sleep.

You had a tournament to win tomorrow.

*** 

"Stream is starting.. Yeah, we're video gaming today.. with Skeppy," you said, loading onto the Minecraft Monday server and walking over to see the teams. "You there Skep?"

"Yeah I'm here— yup, okay, got in." You heard a chaotic crash before silence, which made you pause. "Okay— should be good. We starting?"

You picked up your phone to check the time.

"Nah, we're right on time. It's one," you answered, setting down your phone and checking through some early donations.

"Okay, I'm on, sorry about that.. nine rounds of hunger games?" Zak asked, surprisingly calm for once.

"Yea. Look at the teams. Quackity and Gumball, Schlatt and Carson. Oh, Mitch and Jerome, they're good.." you trailed off, looking through the teams. "Oh and Techno with Shot."

"I'm kinda scared about Techno, not gonna lie," Zak said, joining team two. "But it's whatever. We're getting paid today."

You laughed, you wished you would win Minecraft Monday this week.

"We're gonna probably get targeted," you admitted. "We're too good, we're getting banned."

"Yeah we're too good." he paused a minute to read through his chat. "Y/U should record some videos with you and Bad.. yeah dudes we're planning some stuff."

"BadBoyHalo and that French server owner, yeah? Sure, look out for a collab soon," you agreed. "Thank you username1 for the donation, kill jschlatt please be a Minecraft hitman, okay, will do."

"Wait are you actually gonna—"

"I mean it was fifty dollars, I can't turn that down," you laughed, turning back to your screen to join the first round. "Jschlatt, alright. Sorry."

"Yeah lets join the game. Target Techno, I wanna kill him and make fun of him."

***

After that disaster of a first round, which was skipped, they started a new round so they didn't have to count the first one. That was good for you and Skeppy, but apparently Techno had gotten several kills.. which was worrying, to say the least.

And you had been right. Some teams went straight for you when seeing you, though it wasn't toxic, just gameplay. You hoped so, anyways.

"Okay, lets go, real match this time," you said, pumped up and ready to actually play. "We need to kill Techno if we see him, he's doing too good, what a sweaty loser—"

"I got a sword, I got a sword, here here." He threw a stone sword at you, which you promptly picked up. "Grandayy and Dolan here, end them!" Zak yelled aggressively.

"Don't. Even. Worry about it," you said smoothly, stabbing one and letting Zak get the other. "Easy. Holy shit I think I just saw Techno stab Ninja—"

"What? Of course he did. Here, take a pearl." He threw you a pearl, which you quickly put into your hotbar.

"Thanks. Hey! Hey Fitz and Swagger, get them!" you shouted, charging to chase them around the lake. "Go 'round the left, cut them off."

"Got it, got it," he stressed, cutting off Fitz and hitting him off the ledge to kill him. You jumped and sprinted to catch up to SwaggerSouls, knocking him off the same ledge.

"Jump down into the tree, Fitz had iron boots you need."

"How did you even see tha— okay, let's just go."

Jumping into the tree and throwing Zak the items he needed, you quickly shifted things in your hotbar and looked around for easy kills.

"You have a player tracker?" you asked, checking through your inventory.

"Yeah here—"

You picked it up, tracking Vikk thirty blocks away.

"Vikk, he's pretty good, don't really wanna fight him unless he's poor," you analyzed, walking around to check chests and then pressing tab. "Yeah his teammate’s alive, don't wanna do that.."

"OH! CaptainSparklez and Logdotzip!" Zak yelled, and you immediately turned around to help him. You got a combo on Jordan, then chased his teammate to kill him. "Holy crap that was fast."

"Yeah, we're a pretty good team.. Jordan has a helmet for you, did you pick up his teammate's chest-plate? I need that."

"Dude, we might actually win," he said, sounding hopeful.

"Yeah that'd be great.. hold on, borders closing in, let's go to mid," you shouted, mind strictly on winning the game. "No shoot— go that way go to the left—"

"Oh shoot that that border looks fast."

"Pearl in, pearl in!"

The two of you managed to not die to the border, hiding up on top of some trees at mid.

You checked the chat to see if anyone had died to the border.

"Oh good, Shot died, Techno's alone," you told Zak, relieved. "Died to the border. Can't blame him, that was fast."

"Yeah. I wish we didn't need to waste the pearls, but whatever."

"Techno's going in to clean off Dan, I see Woofless and Jschlatt— oh hey I need to assassinate that guy."

Zak laughed at your casualness.

"You wanna go in? We can take Woofless first, Jschlatt looks stacked and Techno is cleaning Dan and his teammate."

"Yeah. Yep. Let's go," you agreed, hopping down from the tree and heading straight for Woofless.

"Got— got him! Oh shit you're low Skep— run Schlatt is— oh my god."

Zak got lowered by fall damage from the tree and Woofless, and Schlatt had killed him.

"Nooo!" he yelled. "Come on, you got this, I believe in you."

Schlatt was straight up running to clean Techno now, leaving you alone, but you chased after him, killing him and leaving you and Techno in a 1v1.

"Got Jschlatt! You're welcome, whoever paid me, now I'm left with Techno. Holy hell, I'm screwed," you laughed.

You saw BajanCanadian's message in the chat from his red username, but was too focused on whatever Techno was doing to read it.

'Y/U vs Technoblade holy shit'

'fight already ffs'

Deciding it was boring to stall any longer, you ran at him with full health to kill him. He was very good at pvp, you noted, but definitely a couple higher ranked players were better or close, like Huahwi and Nestor. You might be able to 1v1 him and beat him in more than half of the circumstances, considering you were ranked typically second or third best on most lists.

"Okay I'm going in," you said, concentrated. "Oh okay yeah he's good— but I'm stacked. And.. I.. got him!"

A quiet mutter of 'holy crap' was heard from Zak as the two of you appeared victorious, at first place on the leaderboard. Eight kills between you two.

Nine rounds of this didn't seem so bad after all.

***

Unfortunately, after you and Zak's excellent first round, people took to targeting you two and Techno whenever they saw you.

In round two, you two had horrible luck with loot and ended up getting stabbed by Vikk and Pete, an unfortunate end as you had only gotten one kill.

It continued, kind of annoying you and Zak, but still, you managed to win one more round of Hunger Games and doing decent in the rest.

"Do you think we got enough points to win?" He wondered.

"Techno and Shot probably won," you said, sighing and acting annoyed and toxic before laughing. "Nah, they deserved it.. Yeah, they won."

The team leaderboards put Techno and Shot in first, you and Zak in third. Checking through the individual leaderboards, you saw you and Zak had similar points, as you typically split kills evenly, with you in third and him in fifth. Good, but not enough.

"Wow.. not even surprised. Good game, good game," you said good naturedly, stretching. "Wanna hop into the discord channel with everyone else?"

"Yeah sure."

You and Zak moved into the channel to see Technoblade there along with several other well known Youtubers you were friendly with.

"Hey y'all," you said cheerfully. "Good game."

"Oh yeah, hella good game," Vikk agreed. "You and Skeppy did really well."

"Yeah we did, still lost though," you laughed. "Congrats Techno."

"Thanks, you did good," Techno responded, evidently a little quieter than usual. You didn't want to press him to respond more.

"Yup, thanks. Can't wait for next week, yeah?"

"Yeah, you know you guys' teammates for next week?" Mitch asked conversationally.

"I think I'm going with Y/U again," Skeppy mentioned.

"Damn, going until you win, huh?" Jordan said good-naturedly. "I'll be with AntVenom."

"I heard James Charles and PewDiePie are gonna be in next week," Jerome added.

"Really? That's sick, I didn't know we had that kind of reach," Vikk laughed.

"Yeah man this was really fun, congrats all, good game." SkyDoesMinecraft was in this call?

Good games echoed around the channel as you all chatted a little bit before leaving.

"Wow, that was fun. We better win next week though, don't throw," you told him teasingly.

"Throw? You're throwing," Zak returned, giggling. "Okay, see you later."

He left the channel, and you promptly did too.

"Alright everyone, that was the stream! See you guys tomorrow for a bedwars stream and next week for week two!"

You clicked to end it, satisfied with what you had done. You hadn't won, but it was enough to be in second on week one.

Immediately, your phone lit up with a tweet from Keem announcing the winners and runner ups. And in the replies, Technoblade, mentioning you.

'@Y/U technoblade never dies nerd '

'@technothepig I seem to remember that there was an instance where you did'

'@Y/U false information. fake news. that was photoshop.'

'@technothepig ok sure loser smh ur so bad'

'@Y/U excuse me'

'@technothepig you heard me'

The start of a wonderful friendship.

Chapter Text

"Stream starting.. Yeah, we're video gaming today.. with Skeppy," you said, loading onto the Minecraft Monday server and walking over to see the teams. "You there Skep?"

"Yeah I'm here— yup, okay, got in." You heard a chaotic crash before silence, which made you pause. "Okay— should be good. We starting?"

You picked up your phone to check the time.

"Nah, we're right on time. It's one," you answered, setting down your phone and checking through some early donations.

"Okay, I'm on, sorry about that.. nine rounds of hunger games?" Zak asked, surprisingly calm for once.

"Yea. Look at the teams. Quackity and Gumball, Schlatt and Carson. Oh, Mitch and Jerome, they're good.." you trailed off, looking through the teams. "Oh and Techno with Shot."

"I'm kinda scared about Techno, not gonna lie," Zak said, joining team two. "But it's whatever. We're getting paid today."

You laughed, you wished you would win Minecraft Monday this week.

"We're gonna probably get targeted," you admitted. "We're too good, we're getting banned."

"Yeah we're too good." he paused a minute to read through his chat. "Y/U should record some videos with you and Bad.. yeah dudes we're planning some stuff."

"BadBoyHalo and that French server owner, yeah? Sure, look out for a collab soon," you agreed. "Thank you username1 for the donation, kill jschlatt please be a Minecraft hitman, okay, will do."

"Wait are you actually gonna—"

"I mean it was fifty dollars, I can't turn that down," you laughed, turning back to your screen to join the first round. "Jschlatt, alright. Sorry."

"Yeah lets join the game. Target Techno, I wanna kill him and make fun of him."

***

After that disaster of a first round, which was skipped, they started a new round so they didn't have to count the first one. That was good for you and Skeppy, but apparently Techno had gotten several kills.. which was worrying, to say the least.

And you had been right. Some teams went straight for you when seeing you, though it wasn't toxic, just gameplay. You hoped so, anyways.

"Okay, lets go, real match this time," you said, pumped up and ready to actually play. "We need to kill Techno if we see him, he's doing too good, what a sweaty loser—"

"I got a sword, I got a sword, here here." He threw a stone sword at you, which you promptly picked up. "Grandayy and Dolan here, end them!" Zak yelled aggressively.

"Don't. Even. Worry about it," you said smoothly, stabbing one and letting Zak get the other. "Easy. Holy shit I think I just saw Techno stab Ninja—"

"What? Of course he did. Here, take a pearl." He threw you a pearl, which you quickly put into your hotbar.

"Thanks. Hey! Hey Fitz and Swagger, get them!" you shouted, charging to chase them around the lake. "Go 'round the left, cut them off."

"Got it, got it," he stressed, cutting off Fitz and hitting him off the ledge to kill him. You jumped and sprinted to catch up to SwaggerSouls, knocking him off the same ledge.

"Jump down into the tree, Fitz had iron boots you need."

"How did you even see tha— okay, let's just go."

Jumping into the tree and throwing Zak the items he needed, you quickly shifted things in your hotbar and looked around for easy kills.

"You have a player tracker?" you asked, checking through your inventory.

"Yeah here—"

You picked it up, tracking Vikk thirty blocks away.

"Vikk, he's pretty good, don't really wanna fight him unless he's poor," you analyzed, walking around to check chests and then pressing tab. "Yeah his teammate’s alive, don't wanna do that.."

"OH! CaptainSparklez and Logdotzip!" Zak yelled, and you immediately turned around to help him. You got a combo on Jordan, then chased his teammate to kill him. "Holy crap that was fast."

"Yeah, we're a pretty good team.. Jordan has a helmet for you, did you pick up his teammate's chest-plate? I need that."

"Dude, we might actually win," he said, sounding hopeful.

"Yeah that'd be great.. hold on, borders closing in, let's go to mid," you shouted, mind strictly on winning the game. "No shoot— go that way go to the left—"

"Oh shoot that that border looks fast."

"Pearl in, pearl in!"

The two of you managed to not die to the border, hiding up on top of some trees at mid.

You checked the chat to see if anyone had died to the border.

"Oh good, Shot died, Techno's alone," you told Zak, relieved. "Died to the border. Can't blame him, that was fast."

"Yeah. I wish we didn't need to waste the pearls, but whatever."

"Techno's going in to clean off Dan, I see Woofless and Jschlatt— oh hey I need to assassinate that guy."

Zak laughed at your casualness.

"You wanna go in? We can take Woofless first, Jschlatt looks stacked and Techno is cleaning Dan and his teammate."

"Yeah. Yep. Let's go," you agreed, hopping down from the tree and heading straight for Woofless.

"Got— got him! Oh shit you're low Skep— run Schlatt is— oh my god."

Zak got lowered by fall damage from the tree and Woofless, and Schlatt had killed him.

"Nooo!" he yelled. "Come on, you got this, I believe in you."

Schlatt was straight up running to clean Techno now, leaving you alone, but you chased after him, killing him and leaving you and Techno in a 1v1.

"Got Jschlatt! You're welcome, whoever paid me, now I'm left with Techno. Holy hell, I'm screwed," you laughed.

You saw BajanCanadian's message in the chat from his red username, but was too focused on whatever Techno was doing to read it.

'Y/U vs Technoblade holy shit'

'fight already ffs'

Deciding it was boring to stall any longer, you ran at him with full health to kill him. He was very good at pvp, you noted, but definitely a couple higher ranked players were better or close, like Huahwi and Nestor. You might be able to 1v1 him and beat him in more than half of the circumstances, considering you were ranked typically second or third best on most lists.

"Okay I'm going in," you said, concentrated. "Oh okay yeah he's good— but I'm stacked. And.. I.. got him!"

A quiet mutter of 'holy crap' was heard from Zak as the two of you appeared victorious, at first place on the leaderboard. Eight kills between you two.

Nine rounds of this didn't seem so bad after all.

***

Unfortunately, after you and Zak's excellent first round, people took to targeting you two and Techno whenever they saw you.

In round two, you two had horrible luck with loot and ended up getting stabbed by Vikk and Pete, an unfortunate end as you had only gotten one kill.

It continued, kind of annoying you and Zak, but still, you managed to win one more round of Hunger Games and doing decent in the rest.

"Do you think we got enough points to win?" He wondered.

"Techno and Shot probably won," you said, sighing and acting annoyed and toxic before laughing. "Nah, they deserved it.. Yeah, they won."

The team leaderboards put Techno and Shot in first, you and Zak in third. Checking through the individual leaderboards, you saw you and Zak had similar points, as you typically split kills evenly, with you in third and him in fifth. Good, but not enough.

"Wow.. not even surprised. Good game, good game," you said good naturedly, stretching. "Wanna hop into the discord channel with everyone else?"

"Yeah sure."

You and Zak moved into the channel to see Technoblade there along with several other well known Youtubers you were friendly with.

"Hey y'all," you said cheerfully. "Good game."

"Oh yeah, hella good game," Vikk agreed. "You and Skeppy did really well."

"Yeah we did, still lost though," you laughed. "Congrats Techno."

"Thanks, you did good," Techno responded, evidently a little quieter than usual. You didn't want to press him to respond more.

"Yup, thanks. Can't wait for next week, yeah?"

"Yeah, you know you guys' teammates for next week?" Mitch asked conversationally.

"I think I'm going with Y/U again," Skeppy mentioned.

"Damn, going until you win, huh?" Jordan said good-naturedly. "I'll be with AntVenom."

"I heard James Charles and PewDiePie are gonna be in next week," Jerome added.

"Really? That's sick, I didn't know we had that kind of reach," Vikk laughed.

"Yeah man this was really fun, congrats all, good game." SkyDoesMinecraft was in this call?

Good games echoed around the channel as you all chatted a little bit before leaving.

"Wow, that was fun. We better win next week though, don't throw," you told him teasingly.

"Throw? You're throwing," Zak returned, giggling. "Okay, see you later."

He left the channel, and you promptly did too.

"Alright everyone, that was the stream! See you guys tomorrow for a bedwars stream and next week for week two!"

You clicked to end it, satisfied with what you had done. You hadn't won, but it was enough to be in second on week one.

Immediately, your phone lit up with a tweet from Keem announcing the winners and runner ups. And in the replies, Technoblade, mentioning you.

'@Y/U technoblade never dies nerd '

'@technothepig I seem to remember that there was an instance where you did'

'@Y/U false information. fake news. that was photoshop.'

'@technothepig ok sure loser smh ur so bad'

'@Y/U excuse me'

'@technothepig you heard me'

Chapter Text

  "HELLO AND WELCOME TO ANOTHER VIDEO," Zak started his intro as aggressively as ever. "Today we're playing four v four bedwars with Bad, French man, Spiffy and me, verse Y/U, Techno, Zelk, and Mega. This was a horrible idea."

  "Why did we decide to let Mega pick the teams?" Bad complained. "We're gonna get destroyed."

  'You literally said you didn't care what the teams were,' Mega said in the chat, causing you and your teammates to laugh.

  "That's true, you shouldn't be mad," you agreed. "Techno here, a fireball."

  "Thank you," Techno said in his typical dry tone, picking it up and tactically running to try to take down the opposite team's bed.

  "Okay okay Techno is heading for us," A6d said anxiously, running to meet him.

  "Want to back up Techno?" Zelk suggested. "I'll defend with Mega."

  "Yeah sure, let me get some blocks.. alright, Techno you good?" you asked, clicking quickly  and running across the bridge he already set up.

  "Yeah don't worry.. yeah, dropping tnt, hold up."

  "No! No!" Bad shouted. "Oh my goodness kill him!"

  Skeppy yelled something similar to hanya hanya hanya before running to bridge up to Techno.

  You dropped, hitting Spifey off the edge and getting a quick combo on Skeppy to knock him  off. Techno dropped after you, breaking the bed.

  "NO! What the heck?" Skeppy yelled. "This isn't fair!"

  "Oh my goodness, oh my goodness—" Bad managed to hit you off the edge as you had been fighting a6d. "Haha gotcha, Y/U! Oh no, oh no—"

  "Die!"

  A6d was knocked off, and Mega came through just in time to knock Bad off the island.

  "Stop. This is hurting my brain," Skeppy groaned, annoyed.

  "We could play something else," Zelk offered.

  "Like Grinch Simulator," you suggested, giggling. "Or Party Games."

  "Did I hear Grinch Simulator?" Techno said, the mild excitement in his monotone voice making you laugh.

  "What even is that? I've never played," Spifey asked, walking circles around you in the hub.

  "Yeah I don't know either," Zelk added.

  "It's a game where you steal presents from orphans," Techno explained. "The second worst thing to happen to these orphans."

  "Oh my god," Skeppy complained. "Not this again. You should be disappointed to be so good at this game Techno."

  Techno only laughed as you, the party leader, joined a game of Grinch Simulator.

  "Time to steal presents from orphans," you said, clapping your hands. "Techno, you're really good at this, aren't you?"

  "Yeap."

  "This is so horrible," Bad sighed. "Stealing presents from these little muffins."

  "Yeah who designed this game anyways?" A6d interjected as he collected a couple presents.

  "Someone who really understands the spirit of Christmas," Techno responded. "Dude, these orphans are getting destroyed."

  "That sounds so bad out of context," you said in return, managing to get second on the leaderboard, despite Techno being at thirty and you and twenty presents stolen.

  "How does Techno have thirty? My god."

  "I'm gonna get to fifty by the end of the game," Techno said, laughing.

  "This is just a countdown to see how far ahead Techno can get from second," Spifey said after a few seconds of silence.

  "Yeah it really is."

  The game ended with Techno at fifty-one presents, which surprised literally no one but Bad, and you at thirty. You should've known to never challenge Techno at Grinch Simulator.

  "That was so sad. I never wanna play that again."

  "Me neither."

  "Let's play a game of Party Games!"

  After a few rounds of Party Games and Bow Spleef, Skeppy ended the recording and left the call, as it was literally midnight for him, you, and Techno.

  As you were preparing to leave, closing Minecraft and about to exit, Techno stopped to say something.

  "It was fun playing with you today."

  "Yeah, you too," you said in return. "Good game. Blood for the blood god, huh?"

  "Yeap. Sorry, I'm bein' awkward.. you're easy to talk to," he said a little quieter than before.

  "Thank you, I was honestly afraid you'd find me annoying, I'm always too busy laughing to really commentate when I'm with others," you replied honestly.

  It was true. You could commentate fine on your own, but you liked to laugh at jokes more than tell them some times, so you and his dynamic worked out well.

  "Nah it's fine, don't worry about it. You're going with Skeppy again on Monday right?"

  You hummed a yes, slouching in your chair slightly.

  "Who are you going with? Gonna win again?" you teased.

  "No idea, actually," Techno laughed faintly. "I'll figure it out, hopefully Keem won't kick me out."

  "Good luck! Maybe you should play with Squid," you suggested. "He doesn't have a partner I assume?"

  "I don't know if he's even in the tournament to begin with. Ah well, whatever. Good night, Y/U."

  "You— you can just call me Y/N. It's weird to be called by my username by friends."

  You hoped that wasn't moving too fast, but you considered him a friend by now.

  "Oh. You can call me Dave, but I mean I honestly prefer Techno in game."

  "Alright. Good night, Dave."

  "Good night."

  You left the call, stretching and checking through some social media. Deciding to tweet something out before going to sleep, you started typing.

  'hello everyone. i have to inform you all of a very special occasion. i am now friends with technoblade, i am on a higher plane of existence. that is all, good night.'

  Within seconds, Techno had responded.

  '@Y/U this is great. glorious.'

  '@technothepig :)'

  Wilbur had responded with a smiley face too, and Jschlatt with a 'technosimp' as practically everyone else was.

  '@jschlatt btw sorry for assassinating you'

  '@Y/U because of you I'm now quitting youtube to pursue my true passion. deforestation.'

  '@jschlatt I believe in you :)'

  '@Y/U thank you very much.'

  Techno liked your reply, then probably going offline as he hadn't responded to you and schlatt's conversation in the replies. You decided to go to sleep as well, after hearting a few replies from Tommy and Phil.

  Tweeting out one last time,

  'good night everyone, love you all <3'

  '@Y/U good night y/n'

  '@technothepig :D'

Chapter Text

"We're video gaming today everyone!" you started the stream brightly. "Minecraft Monday week two, let's go!"

"Yeah! We got this, dude, we got this," Zak said loudly. "I swear to god Techno better not win two times in a row."

"Watch Techno start a 1000 Minecraft Monday win streak," you laughed, logging on the server and checking the chat. "What're the teams lookin' like today Skep?"

"Let me check.. James Charles and PewDiePie in team one.. Techno with iBallisticSquid..."

"Squid?" you perked up, remembering your suggestion a couple nights ago.

"Interesting..."

"Yea. Vikk with MrSavage, Bajan with Lachlan.. those are pretty good," Zak said, walking through the team statues. "Jerome and Phil, strong team.. good teams this week."

"Mhm," you hummed, joining team ten with him. "They've gotta nerf Techno if he wins again," you laughed light-heartedly, not meaning it.

"Techno gets no teammate next week, has to play solo," Zak giggled. "Imagine."

"Techno is worth like three people," you agreed. "So really, it's fair.."

"Oh hold up we got practice round, hurry up, join!"

Quickly joining the game, you ran around in circles around the lobby as the countdown winded down to zero.

"Alright, alright, run to the left behind us, there's an opening through the wall," you decided quickly. "Don't bother with the chest, WillNE will get it."

"Okay, got it, let's go, let's go," Zak returned, hyped.

"Wait! Techno's alone!" you said, seeing no teammate on the glass block above Techno. "Dammit why is this a practice round?"

"What? Can we count this round?"

You knew Techno well enough to be playfully toxic, so you quickly typed into the chat,

'hey Laake let's count this round :)'

'this is cyber bullying I'll be talking to my guidance counselor about this'

***

The practice round had been average performance for you and Zak. It was funny seeing Techno's less-than-average performance without a partner.

"Oh my god, okay, it's started," Zak said, reading the chat before getting distracted by the start of the first round.

Hopping down from the glass, you ran towards the chest in the tree, opening it and finding a stone sword.

"Grace period?"

"Don't think so. Here, a bow.. you want soup?"

"You can keep it, I'll find another," you said simply.

"Hey it's Vikk, don't know where his teammate is, he looks poor but I'm broke," Zak yelled. "He's here, help—"

You turned around and quickly jumped to crit Vikk and kill him.

"Take his stuff, I need that hat."

"Got it, here."

You sorted through your inventory, putting soup in your hot bar, and picking up Vikk's iron sword.

"Let's go to mid, we're stacked," you said, running towards mid. "You got levels?"

"Yeah, fifteen. I'll get sharpness."

The pair of you headed to mid, since the border was closing in anyways. You checked tab to see Techno and Squid alive, along with three teams and two solos.

"A lot of people still alive.. I have diamonds, I'll make a sword," you said, checking in inventory. "Here, take a pearl."

"Alright I'll look around," Zak answered. "Player tracker on Lachlan forty blocks away."

"He's with Mitch, don't feel like fighting them right now.. okay, got some prot and sharpness." You moved away from the enchantment table, checking through the chests to see if any loot had been left behind.

Lighting thundered somewhere distantly, and in the chat you saw Techno and Squid had eliminated team 6, Lauren and Dangthatsalongname. No surprise there. The teams that remained— team 5, Mitch and Lachlan, and team 9, Jerome and Phil. One solo remained, MrSavage, Vikk's teammate that had escaped you and Zak earlier.

You switched to the player tracker, seeing who was close by.

"Tracking.. Squid, thirty blocks away. That means Techno's nearby."

"I think we can take him honestly, we're kinda stacked."

"And that's how we died," you laughed. "We'll see what his stuff looks like. If he's stacked, we kill Squid and run."

"Alright.. hey, hey! It's team 9!"

You followed him across mid to see Phil crouching and watching. You laughed, typing in chat.

'hello there phil'

'hi y/n'

'how are you'

'was doing good until about right now'

'LMAO'

'you wanna run or fight us'

'may we enchant our things first'

"You wanna actually let them enchant their things?" you asked, laughing at the banter. "It'd be funny. Good content."

"Honestly? Yeah, let's make it interesting," Skeppy agreed.

Looking up, you saw Techno and Squid approach, watching the four of you.

'yeah man go ahead'

'thank you very much'

You shifted repeatedly and made team motions with your sword, backing away from the enchantment table along with Zak.

Letting them enchant some of their items, one person counted down and you ran forward to meet Phil, taking him down and helping to finish off Jerome, your adrenaline racing. Jerome had managed to get you to half a heart, but you backed away to let Zak finish him and you could heal from Phil's bonus.

"OH my GOD— Techno's coming in to clean no no no— my pvp street cred, my reputation, I am not dying to a pig—" you yelled, drinking some speed soup and gappling to return to full health and turning around to fight Techno.

Zak finished off Squid, being full health due to Jerome and Phil focusing on you earlier and taking Jerome's bonus. Techno turned around to kill Zak, taking his bonus and trying to end you.

"No, I'm not ranked number two best pvp player to die this way, no no no—" you shouted, stressed.

"Bajan and his teammate coming in to clean!" Zak shouted as well.

You turned around at the last minute to combo Techno, killing him before getting

Lachlan down to half health and then dying.

"Rip. We did good," you said, calming down. "Round one, not so bad."

"Yeah let's keep this going, man, we got this."

***

"Technoblade won again. Why am I not surprised?" Zak asked flatly, jokingly pretending to be toxic. "No teammate for him next week."

"I swear we better win next week— or Techno just doesn't win next week, either or.

Nah, I'm just kidding.. we better win," you threatened, laughing afterwards. "I wish it wasn't just nine rounds of hunger games, though, it gets repetitive."

"Aren't they adding a bunch of mini games next week? I heard so," Skeppy mentioned.

"Oh! Yeah! Dropper, Parkour Race, all of that.." you said. "That's really good, I'm a god at Parkour."

"Oh really? Good, we better sweep next week," Zak said, stretching and yawning.

"Welp, I'll end the stream here. I went to sleep at like one in the morning today, not a good idea.."

"What?"

"Huh? Nothing, gotta go, bye!"

"User has left your channel."

Chapter Text

"Hello everybody!" you said, cheerfully starting your stream. "You're streaming a lot lately.. yeah I am. Minecraft Monday, dudes. I got to become friends with a lot other Youtubers…

"Okay, joining the discord channel! Who am I playing with..? I'm playing with Vikk, Techno, Mitch, Jerome, Phil, a bunch of YouTubers from MCM, yup..."

Clicking to join the call, you saw everyone already in the channel, waiting for you and some muted, most likely reading donations.

"Hey y'all." You invited everyone in the call to the Hypixel party one by one, hearing some microphones get unmuted.

"Hey Y/U," Phil greeted you. "What're we playing today guys?"

"I'm thinkin' something to practice for Minecraft Monday tomorrow, yeah?" Vikk answered, accepting the invite and joining the party.

"We have TNT run, don't we?"

"Mmhm. Yeah, let's play TNT run," Techno agreed.

"Aren't you really good at that?" you asked, joining the game as the party leader.

"Uh, I'm okay," he responded dryly, and you remembered he was a little anxious, so you didn't try to press him to talk and make him uncomfortable.

"Yeah we have three rounds of TNT run this week, should practice that," Vikk agreed, running around in circles as the timer counted down.

"Is there any real strat to this or is Techno just unable to lose?" Jordan joked.

"Just mind ya business is the strat," you answered him. "It's hard to target people in this one anyways."

"Mhm," Phil agreed. "Oh, that was a clutch jump, POG in the chat—"

You were decent at TNT run, not great at all but enough to probably place in the top 15 each game in Minecraft Monday. It had never been your strong suit, but when you excelled at pvp and parkour, you had to be trash somewhere.

"Annnd Techno wins," Mitch announced, spectating said player who was bunny hopping from block to block, waiting for the last other person to fall.

"Good job mate, you're hella good," Vikk told him. "That one hop strat."

After some chatter and banter and a couple more games of TNT Run and Build Battle, the group had decided to play something else.

"We wanna play Murder Mystery?" you asked. "It's a fun game."

"Oh yeah, it's fun, let's play."

You joined the game, waiting for some other players to join you all as well.

"We're going to get stream sniped, we're all streaming, aren't we?" Phil asked, walking around in circles in the lobby.

"Yeah.. and we're not nicked either," Techno answered him.

Your role appeared on the screen— Murderer— and you just silently smiled to yourself, looking at your camera and smirking to your chat. You said nothing, and didn't hold the sword in your hands.

"Who's murderer? No one's gotten stabbed yet," Mitch observed.

In the middle of his sentence, you had killed Jerome without him knowing it was you, hiding your sword again.

"Okay, never mind then, you just got stabbed."

"No! I didn't even see who it was!"

You stayed quiet during the banter, finding Phil and successfully killing him along with two other innocents. Guessing that Mitch was the detective, you hunted for him and managed to get him while he was climbing a ladder up.

"OH— wow, they got me, I dropped the bow at the ladder, go get it—"

Techno was close by, and he went for the bow, seeing you hadn't picked it up— because you couldn't, as the murderer.

"I got the bow," Techno said, aiming at you. You dodged, but needed to get closer to stab him, having missed the throwing knife shot. In vain. He shot you, and you lost.

"Damn you Techno," you said loudly, laughing. "I was the murderer."

"You stabbed me!" Phil gasped. "I can't believe you."

"Oops?"

***

After a couple hours of gameplay and streaming, you all mutually decided to end the stream, bidding each other goodbyes and good lucks for tomorrow's Minecraft Monday.

You left the call, then reading through the late donations.

"Thank you username2 for the fifty, who are you teamed with tomorrow.. I am teamed with Skeppy," you answered.

'username3 donated $10.00! do you know who techno is with?'

"Why are you guys asking me for this? He's with Chris," you said after reading the message aloud. "Skeppy and I are determined to win tomorrow, don't even worry about it."

'username4 donated $2.99! congrats on 9.5 mil'

"Thank you," you replied, smiling. "I have no idea what to do for 10 million subs, it's really crazy.."

'username5 donated $6.70! did you actually train Techno?'

You read the message aloud, laughing before looking back at your camera.

"I don't know where you guys got that one from. Nah, I watched his videos but didn't know he watched mine," you explained. "I didn't talk to him before the whole Minecraft Monday thing."

After reading through some last messages, you ended the stream, hungry, as it was seven p.m.

Reaching for your phone, you messaged Techno over Twitter. You hadn't said anything about it, but you noticed that he had been quiet— quieter than he had been when recording with you and Skeppy the other week— and a little anxious during the stream with the unfamiliar big, well-known YouTubers.

conversation with
@technothepig
hey

halloo

you good? not really my business but wanted to make sure

yeah I'm all good, dw lol sometimes I ADHD zone out thank you

no problem you seemed more comfortable when recording with Skeppy

yup. just not used to fame

ah yeah I get that if you're comfortable with me I'll try and be there to help when you're in those calls?

haha now I'm awkward

well imma blast

see you later Dave

that's nice of you I appreciate it

really do

see you later Y/N

Chapter Text

"I swear you guys keep calling me master sensei, that's not even correct— my god, my whole chat is just—" you grumbled, reading your chat as you started streaming for week three of Minecraft Monday. "I didn't even train the blood god stop acting like I did!"

After some information surfaced that Technoblade had picked up some little pvp skills here and there from watching your tutorials and videos, people had started referring to you as the one who trained the blood god, when in reality you hadn't even spoken to him before Minecraft Monday. It was funny though, and you didn't really mind it. If that counted as training, you had 'trained' your millions of subscribers too.

"Thank you username1 for the ten, yes, we are winning today," you confirmed.

"They've added mini games instead of nine rounds of pvp and it's gonna be great."

"Hello?" Zak tested his mic.

"Hi, I hear you," you answered. "We ready to actually win this week?"

"Yes! We're going to win chat, I'm telling you," Zak shouted. "We've been training for this."

"If training means goofing around and getting targeted because we were unnicked, yes, we trained a lot," you added, giggling.

"Shut up that's not important—"

"Anyways! What're the teams lookin' like today?" you flew over to the team statues.

"Techno with Chris, take the L now, I'm just kidding— Supertraves and Cscoop, that's a threat for sure."

"Okay just ignore me— we have Bajan and Lachlan, Jerome and Phil, strong competition again," Skeppy informed you.

"Vikk is with James Charles?"

"Oh damn. That's cool."

"Mhm," you hummed. "Joining team four, hurry up idot."

"Okay okay! What're the games this week?" he asked.

Walking over to the game list, you checked through all nine.

"Hunger Games first, that's good with us," you checked. "Spleef.. you're good at that aren't you?"

"Yeah we got that, that's fine."

"I'm decent, but we need those Spleef points to make up for Techno who's probably gonna sweep TNT Run," you said. "He's with Chris, hopefully that'll even it out.."

"Mhm. We'll sweep from Spleef," Skeppy agreed. "Dropper, it's okay I guess."

"I'm pretty good at that. Training from playing all those og dropper maps years ago," you laughed lightly.

"Oh yeah I did see your videos on that— oh three rounds of Spleef Laake just told me, that's good."

"Ten dropper levels like usual, and five TNT run rounds is what Laake told me earlier," you mentioned.

"Oh no, not five rounds of TNT run, Techno will sweep the whole thing—"

"Oh my goodness he is," you complained good-naturedly. "Techno is too OP."

"YES! We have Lava Run and Parkour Race, we can sweep! Oh my god we're actually gonna win!" he told you excitedly, reading the games.

"What? Lava Run and Parkour Race?" you asked, looking over the games for rounds five and seven. "Hell yeah, we're winning this week!"

"Game six is Battle Arena, pvp, that's good, and then after Parkour is.." Skeppy clicked to the next game, "Bingo and then Hunger Games again!"

"Okay, we need to sweep Spleef, Lava Run, and Parkour Race," you counted. "To make up for the TNT Run rounds we're going to lose and also whatever the heck Bingo is."

"Okay, okay. We got this, we got this!" your teammate chanted. "We're actually gonna win this week! We got this you guys, you guys didn't believe us."

Skeppy was good at Spleef, you were decent enough to stay alive until top 5-10, so you weren't worried about it. Both of you were decent at TNT Run, which was the worrying part as Techno was really good. He wouldn't admit it to you, but you both knew.

You excelled at pvp based games and parkour— having Lava Run and Parkour Race would help a lot in winning this. And considering Techno had a nerfed teammate, you would be okay.

"We've just gotta watch out for Cscoop and Traves," you mentioned. "They're really good.. hold on, joining game one."

As the pair of you joined game one, Hunger Games, you noticed a message in the chat from Techno.

'Y/U how much did you pay them to put in lava run and parkour race'

'$15 :)'

'damn can't beat that'

'loser'

The game had started, and you and Skeppy immediately headed away from mid, as there usually wasn't good loot asides from armor. You picked up a good stone sword and some decent armor, glad to find regular soup and a pearl.

"The loot is broken this week— oh, no grace period I think, let's go stab some people," Skeppy said, assessing the items you two had.

"Mhm. Yammy and Callum over there, let's get em!"

Chasing the unsuspecting pair who hadn't found much loot yet, you stabbed Callum, who was your friend, and Skeppy killed his teammate easily. Team 20 eliminated.

"I really wanna play aggressively this round. Those TNT run points by Techno will kill us, and I know Traves and Cscoop are good too.." You picked up an iron chest plate as you spoke.

"Yeah, we need as many points as possible," Skeppy agreed. "We have the stuff to play aggressively anyways."

"Yup, let's look for people to stab. Here's a pearl," you gave yours to him to even the good items between you two, as you had gotten sugary soup.

"Oh! Look! It's Techno and Chris!" Skeppy shouted, jumping down from the ledge to meet an approaching Chris.

"Do we wanna fight them?" you asked uneasily, Skeppy backing away a little.

"Should we? I think we can take them."

"Yeah we got good stuff, you kill Chris then turn around to help me finish off Techno," you agreed, starting to run towards Techno.

Chris was killed in a couple hits, as he hadn't had very good armor. You figured all of Techno's teammate typically fed him all of the good items, making him strong. But teammates mattered, so when you and Skeppy split stuff evenly, it turned out better for you than Techno.

"Oh shit Techno had soup—" you swore, using your own soup and returning to try and get a combo on him.

"I'm here, I'm here," Skeppy shouted, helping to knock him back. "He's running, get him!"

"Why's he running? He had another soup in his hand," you said, but chased him anyways. "He's pearling out, damn it."

He had disappeared. And in the chat, had said,

'the cooldown on soup, why does nobody tell me these things'

'you ran away from me D:'

'you were trying to stab me nerd'

"Okay, we have three kills.. not bad. Let's go to mid."

"Yeap. I want enchantments."

The pair of you ran into Schlatt and Connor on the way, getting sidetracked in chasing and stabbing them, then heading to mid.

You got sharpness and two prots, then hopping down and using your player tracker you had just received to look for any free kills.

"Vikk and James, I wanna stab them," you said. You and Skeppy were good and stacked enough to take them on.

"He's heading towards mid."

Soon enough, you were fighting them, killing off Vikk and getting James down in the process. The aggressive plays were really working out for you and Skeppy this week, and you hoped this lead would help you secure first place.

"Two teams and Techno left," you said when opening the tab. "Traves and Cooper, and Jordan and AntVenom."

"Of course.. okay, let's stab Jordan's team, they're coming towards mid! They have TNT—"

"Got em!"

Immediately, Traves and his teammate had come in to clean, but were a second too late had you and Skeppy had both already healed from the bonuses. You killed Traves and backed away for a second to heal, then helping to finish off his teammate.

A second later, Techno came in to clean, and killed you after a few hits, but Skeppy managed to kill him in the end.

"YES! We got this, dude, we got this!" you shouted, clapping. "Now for Spleef, we need to sweep this too."

***

Spleef was a fun game for the two of you, with Skeppy being a god and you being decent. Winning round one and being second in round two helped increase your lead over Traves and Techno significantly.

"Who's still left alive?" you asked as you hopped around the first floor with Skeppy, both of you still alive and the only two on the first floor.

"Mmm, two left. Traves and Squid."

"Tryin' to kill Traves right now, he's running to your side, get him, get him!"

Skeppy shot at him, making him drop.

"Where's Squid? I don't see him.."

"Oh! Got him, got him!"

Squid dropped into the lava, leaving only you and Skeppy alive, causing both of you to cheer at your amazing run.

"I won the first round so I'll let you win this one," you told him, dropping down to the second floor.

'eat the berries'

'eat the berries already ffs'

'hurry up'

You walked off the edge into the lava, giving Skeppy the win points.

"What're the points looking like?" you asked, pausing to take a drink of water.

"We're a 150 ahead of Traves, good for game two."

You hummed an agreement, seeing your phone light up with a message from Techno during the five minute break. You just laughed and read it aloud to your chat.

"Techno said good job on Spleef but we're going to his domain next, TNT Run.. oh no, we're all dead," you read. "Oh, chat is full of POGs for the Spleef game, thank you very much."

"We did really good on Spleef, not gonna lie. What're we doing next, Dropper?" he asked.

"Yea, Dropper. It'll be okay, mediocre."

You messaged Techno back with some sarcastic response before getting a reply.

'this is gonna be your free win for this week. next week I'm coming back, technoblade redemption arc.'

'ok nerd'

'stop stealing my lines'

':)'

Chapter Text

Dropper had been quite boring, you were good at it, but it was mediocre content, as you had expected it to be. It did help cement your lead in first place, both in teams and individuals.

"That was kinda lame, but at least we got good points.. what's the lead looking like?"

"Traves and Cscoop behind us by 130 points, they can still make up those points easily though," you said, checking the podiums. "Techno's carrying, 170 behind with Chris.."

"Yeah but we're doing TNT Run next," Skeppy said.

"Oh for fucks sake, you're right, we're dead."

Joining the game, you knew that most people didn't really know about Techno's mini game skills— but you and Skeppy knew as his friends, and you made sure to stay out of his way.

"Are you any good at TNT Run? I'm mediocre at best," you said honestly, running around the center and looking around the map.

"I'm okay, not bad."

The game started— five rounds of this, you couldn't imagine if Techno could sweep all five.

***

Techno swept all five.

You had played decently all five rounds, making it to top fifteen every game because of your parkour skill, but TNT Run was just not your game. And those particles this week were horrible, your frames dropped.

"He's probably in second place now, my god he really— wow, I knew he was good, but not that good.."

"That's Techno for you."

You checked through the spamming chat, seeing Techno's message along with several others.

'BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD'

'residentsleeper'

'damn you Techno'

'FIVE IN A ROW'

'-.-'

'gg :^)'

You flew over to the podiums, and your guess had been right. He took your first place on individuals and Traves and Cscoop's second place on teams. Thankfully, with the first three games managing to keep you and Skeppy ahead, and with Traves' team very close behind and able to takeover soon, you were sure you could win this week. Chris was new to the game, he wouldn't be useful.

"Okay.. we're only 70 points ahead, that's way too close for comfort," you assessed.

"What're we playing next?"

"Um.. Lava Run, that's really good, we need more points," your teammate answered.

"I'm pretty good, you're a god."

"I trained this for years, I better be a god," you laughed, remembering being so determined to be good at parkour you trained for hours on end during your free time. "It really paid off, none of these idiots stand a chance."

"Do we know if second and third are good at parkour?"

"Techno's.. good, not as good as Preston, yeah? I think Vikk might be a little better, it depends.." you answered, joining the game and waiting for the break to end. "Traves and Cscoop are pretty good at everything, but I don't know them that well."

"Yeap. You're better than all of them?"

"Probably. But that makes me sound toxic and like I have an ego.. it's just honesty, chat, I'm not to— no, stop."

Skeppy giggled as he joined the game, hopping around in circles in the small lobby.

"This is the week we win, guys, you all made fun of us, but today, we win."

"Yea, today we're gonna win! You guys didn't believe us, but we are."

The game began, and immediately you bolted, wanting to make up for the TNT Run loss and more— both second and third place teams were way too close for comfort, and you wanted to take back first individuals from Techno.

Running through the ice and quickly through the maze, you managed to flawless level one and leave everyone else in the dust. Vikk and Techno were close behind, as the first levels were incredibly easy— but you still led the race.

"My adrenaline, oh my god, I'm shaking, that's not good for parkour—"

"I'm in level two wood too, I see you, I see you," Skeppy yelled. "Vikk is coming up, he's getting close! No— he fell, Techno is about to pass you—"

"Not today." You flawlessed level two, heading on the Desert level. All of those years of parkour were going to pay off— literally, if you could crush the lead Techno gained from TNT Run.

Hopping through the easy jumps, you cleared level three and onto four, with mostly ladder jumps. You jumped from around the blocks, skirting through the invisible maze with ease and clearing another level, barely listening to Skeppy's commentary and complaining as you were so focused.

Your donation sounds actually made you jump as you were so concentrated, causing Skeppy to laugh loudly at your reaction.

"Oh my god chat stop donating I'm trying to flawless—"

"YES! I'm at level five! Where are you?" Skeppy asked, his clicking loud.

"Six.. I don't see Vikk or Techno."

"Vikk and Techno are stuck at the last ladder jump at level five."

"Oh. What losers. The left ladder jebaits you, jump to the other ones."

"Got it. HAHA I'm here! I think they saw what I did— oh no what is this level.."

"I know, it's so stupid," you groaned. "I've been here for like two minutes."

"Wait.. this hurts my brain.."

You took a chance and jumped to the jump you thought you could make— and you made it.

"What? How did you do that?"

"Jump low on the ladder, then climb back up. Then next is a Neo."

"Oh my god.."

You made the two Neo jumps back to back and then moved onto to simple slime jumps, making it to level seven. There was only ten levels, and although you unfortunately didn't flawless, you could at least finish first.

"Level eight is so easy, it's just a couple four block jumps and Neo jumps.. then those stupid jumps you love making kids do when you trap them in your basement.."

Clearing level eight and feeling satisfied by the numerous points racking up because you survived, you went to level nine, which took you a few tries, but you managed to clear and as you made it to level ten, the end stone themed one, you felt very confident.

"The lava is in level seven.. no no no I'm gonna die no—" Skeppy whisper-yelled.

"Run to the end, run to the end! Get some more survival points," you advised, getting to the second half of the tenth level. "Where are Vikk and Techno at? Traves too?"

"Traves with me, Vikk and Techno— shoot, I died, let me ghost—"

You concentrated, slightly zoning out, but just enough to hear him tell you Techno and Vikk were in level nine, struggling.

"And— I— got it!" you shouted, clapping victoriously. "Oh my god, my adrenaline, oh my goodness—"

You and Skeppy cheered, ecstatic at the lead you both managed to get back. It wasn't as much as Techno had gotten last game in TNT Run, because he was good at Lava Run, but you were better.

"Oh my god how are you such a god?"

"I don't know— holy crap okay, okay, that was good. What are we playing next?

What're the points looking like?" you asked anxiously, checking out of the game and back to the hub.

"Let me see.." he answered, and you followed Skeppy, flying over to the podiums. "We're playing Battle Arena next, right? And we're in first by 100 points."

"Okay. They're good, we probably won't get much of a lead on them during Battle Arena, but we can at Parkour Race, hopefully.."

Technoblade had spoke in the chat, message directed at you once more.

'how is Y/U such a god'

'techno is simping'

'technosimp'

You just laughed and responded,

'parkour for the parkour god'

"I'm gonna read through donations during the break Skep, muting myself," you told him, muting your microphone and hearing him say he would do the same.

Scrolling through, you read the names aloud and thanked them, laughing at the memes and jokes.

"Thank you username6 for the ten... are you ever going to team with techno.. not anytime soon," you read the question and answered. "I'd love to, we have a great dynamic when streaming.. if Skep and I win this week, I doubt Techno and I can team next week.. maybe week 5 we will."

You glanced back to your game screen, seeing nothing going on and five minutes left of break.

"Thank you for the fifteen, hello username8, yes, I agree, I am very cool.." you thanked the user. "You should stream with Techno.. yeah, I'm planning on recording and streaming with him soon. You guys are very intent on me recording with him."

Techno had offered to stream playing some Hypixel games with you and with the trio, and video collabs would be coming soon. Your feral chat was just impatient. Plus, you had to trap 100 kids in a box with Skeppy a few times..

"Yes chat, I am going to record with Techno, why are you guys peer pressuring me so much—"

Stopping, you read the message sent in with a donation.

'it's bcuz techno rlly wnated to record with u, he postd a vid this morning talking abt it'

"Really? I woke up late this morning.. well, I probably woke up in the afternoon, but that's not important— I didn't know he made a video about it."

It always surprised you whenever you saw how much Techno had watched your videos— you were on YouTube since 2013. And judging by the fact that he knew your channel's inside jokes, he probably was watching for at least four years. How crazy..

He had reached out to chat with you once or twice before Minecraft Monday, but you barely remembered it.

"Hey you there? We're about to start," Skeppy said, turning on his microphone again.

"Yeap, I'm here. Let's go," you agreed, after turning on your mic and scooting back to your desk.

You and Skeppy spawned in the desert with everyone else, and ran away immediately, starting to plan your strategies.

"We want iron at the least— get apples and sugarcane and leather, I'll go down to get gold and diamonds," you instructed, dropping into a cave.

"Got it. I don't see anyone around.. leather, right?"

"Mhm. Good, we start with stone tools and food.."

"There was a desert temple! No, Techno and Chris got it—"

After several minutes, Skeppy and you got full iron and one diamond sword— which you both mutually agreed went to you. Unfortunately, with only two diamonds, you couldn't make an enchantment table, but you were feeling good anyways.

"Border's closing in, go go go, slash top, slash top!" you warned.

"Got it got it— I see Techno! He's fighting Gumball, let's go the other way—"

"I see some poor people, let's stab them."

"Wait. They just said in chat that loot drops at middle," Skeppy stressed.

"What? Go to mid, go to mid! We're stacked enough to fight I think," you answered.

Reaching mid, you found you were too late as Phil and his teammate were already there— and they were both stacked, Phil with a diamond chest plate and leggings.

"No, instant regret, please Phil, I'm your friend, don't do this to me— nO—"

Jerome eliminated you, Phil backing up at low health and getting killed by Techno anyway. Jerome died whilst burning, and Techno cleaned Skeppy. Overall, okay round.

You had gotten five kills on the way to mid Skeppy had four, so it wasn't terrible at all.

"Who's even left? I just see Techno," you wondered. "Oh, oh my god they're sky basing."

"What? I thought that wasn't allowed?"

"Yeah, it's not.. Vikk is up here, who's still alive.. Nick and FazeM0ngraal.. this is stupid, Techno can't even build.." you complained.

Your chat blew up during this.

'how is this fair'

'y/n protecting techno uwu'

'technosimp'

'y/u defending techno kinda cute tho'

'/TOP /TOP /TOP'

"Oh my god.. Techno got up, Techno got up!" Skeppy said suddenly, and you flew up just in time to see Techno hit Vikk off and jump in the water after him.

"What? He did slash top, didn't he? Oh my— what a god. I'm not even mad, that's just a good play."

"Annnnd— Vikk dead. Nick jumping down," Skeppy reported as Techno easily killed the other player.

Your chat was filled with support for Techno to win at the moment— there was no way he would lose now.

The last other player dropped, FazeM0ngraal, and Techno killed him as well.

"Wow.. that was... crazy."

"Yeah, right?" you read the victory title, and laughed. "They renamed Chris to TechnoWeakness, my goodness.."

You exited the game, returning to the podiums.

In first place, you and Skeppy at 956 points, which was good. Techno and Chris— or, you should say, TechnoWeakness— at 854, and Jerome and Phil in third at 849. The lead was small, but good enough.

"100 point lead.. okay, let's increase that during Parkour Race, let's go," you chanted.

Suddenly, your donation bot read aloud in a monotonous robotic voice,

"Techno said that if anyone else had to win, he wanted it to be you and Skeppy."

"Aww, that's nice," you beamed.

"Yeah that's nice," Skeppy agreed once hearing your donation bot message.

Running around in circles in the glass box, you waited for the game to start. You saw messages of #technoisoverparty and others in the stream and game chat, which sounded a little toxic but you assumed it was all jokes and slight salt that would go away later. The slash top play was just smart, Techno couldn't build up anyways.

"Games starting in five seconds," Skeppy said.

You got ready, realizing you had major speed— luckily, you realized just in time to not fall off, and ran through checkpoint one with ease.

"They gave us like speed 50, what is going on—"

"Oh my god, okay, okay, I got this, I got this."

You looked ahead on the levels, there were only nine, and without the pressure of lava, this looked easy. Mitch was right behind you, but you were going to flawless this and win first.

Hopping quickly through some easy two block jumps and right past checkpoints at an insane speed, you saw Mitch drop and fall at one checkpoint, letting you pass him on your flawless run.

"Top five get to finish," you told your teammate, passing the end checkpoint and successfully being the first one to finish it, Mitch half a minute after you. Mitch simply said in the chat, and you responded,

'GEEGEE'

'GG B)'

"You're already done! What the—"

"Don't get me demonetized!"

"You already got yourself demonetized!"

"Shut up!"

The two of you burst into laughter, you ghosting around and spectating.

"I beat it and Techno's only on checkpoint four, what a sweaty loser, come on Skep, you got this you passed checkpoint five!"

You spectated around, seeing Logdotzip complete the parkour third.

"Sometimes it's tough being the best."

"Oh my god—"

You just laughed, seeing Mitch's new message pop up in chat along with messages from other raging players.

'we found Techno kryptonite— speed parkour >:)'

'9 rounds of this next week'

'hahaha nah wouldn't do that to ya techno'

You playfully typed back in chat,

'yessir more parkour please and thank you >:)'

'NO'

'I'm feeling gamer rage for the first time'

'someone bring in preston'

"AntVenom finished," you said. "Good job to him.. come on Skep, you got this!"

"No no no I was holding shift stop—"

Ghosting Techno, you saw him at checkpoint eight and Skeppy at six.

"And Traves won. That's five, good game Skep. We did good," you cheered.

Skeppy complained something under his breath as you all went back to the hub.

"Oh my god the leaderboards really changed," you said, looking at the podiums. "Us with 1056 points in first.. AntVenom and CaptainSparklez in second with 1006.. and Traves and Cscoop in third with 1003. This is way too close for comfort."

"Yeah, way way too close. We need to win Bingo and then target them during Hunger Games."

Joining Bingo, you knew you weren't excellent at this mode, but honestly, who was good at Bingo? If you won this and played aggressively in Hunger Games and won, you should win this week..

"What're the items?" you asked immediately, checking the bingo card.

"Uh.. we have a gapple, diamond sword, that's tough.."

"Yeap. Bucket of milk, mushroom stew, TNT, green dye, fish, a book, and a bed. They really brought the most random items.."

"Okay, what do we wanna do? What's the strat?"

"Go and kill sheep, cows, creepers, and spiders.." you said quickly, mind working. "I'll get cactus, mushroom, and sugarcane. Then we can go down to mine for the gold and diamonds."

Separating, you quickly got your items, as you spawned near convenient biomes, and started to mine down for gold and diamonds.

Many minutes later, Skeppy team teleported over.

"I got it, I got it. We have seven out of nine, we're doing so good, we're going to win."

You checked the bingo card— you just needed a raw fish and a bucket of milk.

"Here's a fishing rod." you threw a rod at him. "I'll go find a cow, you should be able to find a raw fish quickly."

"Okay, on it. Slash top."

You ran around looking for cows, but they must've all been killed because of people looking for leather— you heard the notification of Skeppy finding a fish, but you just needed a cow.

"I literally cannot find a single cow. This is so sad."

"Oh! Oh! I got one! Here!" Skeppy yelled.

The message in chat showed up, showing Skeppy and you having finished your bingo card. Immediately in chat, Techno had said,

'hacks'

':)'

"We're actually gonna get paid. Okay, hold on, I need to calm the fuck down."

You walked out to get some water, and unknown to you, Skeppy was talking about you and Techno's friendship while you were gone.

"Hi, Y/U's chat. Yeah, I actually did notice that Techno pays a lot of attention to our team, that's cause she's here," Skeppy said in answer to his stream chat. "Are they friends, yeah they're friends, they streamed together like two days ago, idots.."

"I'm back, what's up?"

"Huh? Nothing. Jerome and Phil just finished their bingo card in second place."

"That's cool. Phil and Jerome are playing really well this week. Too bad we're better— no I'm not toxic, Phil is my friend," you laughed, sitting back down and setting down your cup.

A few minutes later, three more teams had finished, and that meant this would just expand your lead.

Hunger Games, the last game, started, and you and Skeppy were extremely determined to not let the second place and third place teams win.

You and Skeppy were in first at 1236 points, AntVenom and CaptainSparklez at 1200, and SuperTraves and Cscoop at 1167. All three leading teams were way too close for comfort, and if you could play aggressively enough to keep your lead, you would win.

"We got this, we got this. We're gonna get paid, y'all." You clapped excitedly, adrenaline kicking back in. "No PIG ++ rank for Techno this week, no sir."

Hunger Games started, and immediately the pair of you ran to start getting loot.

Agreeing to play as aggressively as possible and still not die, you started to stab the closest unfortunate team in sight.

As time wound down, and the confidence in the fact that you would win increasing with every kill, you reached mid to enchant with Skeppy, you at eight kills and him at five.

"Techno killed Jordan's team! Second place gone, oh my god thank you Techno!" you exclaimed. "Just Traves and Cscoop left we really need to worry about.."

As the border closed in on you, you and Skeppy went in to kill a rather unlucky team and Traves stabbed Techno.

"It's a two v two, we got this," you said supportingly.

"They look really stacked.."

"Yeah, so are we.. they don't rank me second best for nothing, and you're really good. Let's go!"

Jumping to kill Cscoop first, you got a combo and knocked him into the mid building, successfully trapping him there in the cobwebs you placed earlier and killing him.

Traves had almost killed Skeppy, but you turned around, using your sugary soup and gapple and overpowering him. It was too easy— you had saved some of the best items for this final match.

"Do we win? I think we won," you said hopefully, exiting the game and going to hub.

A glorious leaderboard awaited you.

You and Skeppy in first place at 1447 points, you in second place individuals at about 800 and Skeppy in fourth at about 600. It was the best you had ever played, and you won— it was amazing. Techno, despite a lacking teammate, still got first in individuals at 937 points— but that was to be expected.

"Oh my god we did it! We won!" you yelled, jumping up for your seat and laughing when you heard Skeppy do the same. "We won Minecraft Monday!"

"YES! FINALLY!"

Quickly you typed in the chat, quoting a tweet from the blood god himself,

'good game, I'm honored to win. I am the fish, and the spoon is victory.'

'wow lmao gg'

'good gamee'

'gg I'm glad y/u won ngl'

'yea y/u deserves it imo :^)'

The messages were a little shady and clearly pointed at Techno winning the last two weeks, and you finally being the other team to win, but you ignored it. Toxicity was to be expected. You were just happy to see the leaderboards.

Keem tweeted out,

'Congrats to Team 4 @skeppy and @y/u for winning Minecraft Monday week 3'

':]'

Chapter Text

"Hey, what's up?" you asked, hopping into the discord channel.

"Hey Y/N," Spifey greeted. "We wanted to make sure everything was set for Vid-Con tomorrow."

"Oh yeah. We got everything set up, right? We're all flying out to Anaheim?" you asked, as you had your plans already set up for the three day trip for Vidcon.

"Yup. Who has the AirBnb address?" Skeppy asked.

TapL, Spifey, Skeppy, BadBoyHalo, Technoblade, A6d and you all planned to travel out to Anaheim for Vid-Con, and had rented a house already to stay in, for the whole week as you guys wanted to spend time together recording and having fun outside of Vid-Con.

You were really excited to get to meet all of your friends in person, and because you were a featured creator on a panel— being a public figure was honestly one of the best jobs you could have hoped for.

"I got it, I'll send it," Bad said, sending it into the group chat with all of you. "Oh my goodness, I'm actually really excited."

"Yeah me too," you agreed. "Can't wait to see all of you idots in person."

All of you chatted for a little while about the trip, before heading off to sleep early so as not the miss the extremely early flight some of you had tomorrow morning.

"We should go to sleep, actually, that'd be responsible, I think."

"You can think?"

"Shut up Techno!"

"Yeah I'm gonna go to sleep, night guys, see you tomorrow," you interrupted.

"Goodnight Y/N," Techno answered, leaving the call after saying so.

You left the call as well. You had a flight to catch tomorrow.

***

Going to sleep early was a good idea— your alarm was set for four in the morning to catch the flight at seven in the morning— since the airport was nearly an hour away and you needed to meet up with Skeppy and Technoblade, as you all lived in the same area.

The three of you had gotten tickets together on the same plane— honestly, probably a bad idea— to fly to Anaheim.

You already knew what both of them looked like, and they knew you, but you were still probably going to be surprised.

Parking your car into the long-term parking lot at the airport, you glanced up at the still dark sky and shivered, walking up to the bus and waiting. Both of the boys had texted in the group chat confirming they were headed towards their airports. A6d was already there, having taken a flight very late yesterday night, coming from France.

Harvey and George's flights were an hour or two after yours, but they were both closer to Anaheim, and Bad was already on his flight. Things had been planned and worked out perfectly so that you would all meet up at the airport together.

You got on the bus, sitting down and checking your phone for messages while waiting.

A message from A6d confirmed he already was at the rented house and would come to pick you all up once you arrived. conversation with

the cool kids B) o.O
you
omw to the airport
istg watch techno be 7ft tall

techno :)
i am 6'2" it's my only good attribute leave me alone

skeppy ._.
why r u so talll im likee 5'8"

a6d >:)
the airbnb is really nice guys

you
skeppy is only an inch taller than meee 💀
better be

techno :)
where are you nerds I'm at the airport already
you guys were supposed to be here YESTERDAY

you
shut up techno I'm on the bus

techno :)
scammed

spifey B)
imagine having a flight at 7 am can't relate

tapL :0
lmao imagine

you
this is cyber bullying

skeppy ._.
bro can u don't

techno :)
I'm talking to my guidance counselor about my feelings

spifey B)
LMAO btw im 6'4"

skeppy ._.
WTF

The bus dropped you off at your terminal, and you checked in your luggage and got your ticket printed, leaving the suitcase with the airline and taking your carryon. It was too early for you to be functioning right now, and it didn't help with the amount of fans that saw you. You weren't incredibly famous, but at 9.7 million subscribers, you were bound to get noticed sometime, even if you were in an airport at 5 am...

"Y/U? Are you the Y/U?" some high pitched voice whisper yelled, causing you to internally sigh and turn around, only to be met with a giggling Zak imitating an obnoxious fan.

"Oh my goodness I'm going to— whatever, hello, Zak," you greeted exasperatedly, hugging him. "We need to go through security and meet Techno."

"I'm so tired," he sighed. "I woke up at four, this has got to the stupidest—"

"Y/U!" a teenage girl and her friend, probably thirteen at most, approached you. "Are you flying to Vid Con?"

Putting on a fan friendly smile, you nodded.

"Yeah, flying to Vid Con with Skeppy and Techno," you answered, moving to take a photo with them and Zak.

"That's so cool! You're flying with Techno? Aren't you excited?"

You could almost see the ship material she was thinking about in her head.

Smiling a little hesitantly, you replied,

"Yeap, it's always cool to meet my friends in real life.."

"Are you going to be filming with him? And everyone else?"

"Yeah, I am. Videos will be out on schedule like usual," you said.

"Oh okay! Well thank you for talking with me! Bye Y/U!"

After saying goodbyes, you and Zak quickly moved to go through security, dodging some questionable fans— especially those old, grimy adults who really should not be your target audience...

"Where's Techno? Waiting at the terminal?" Zak asked, not able to hold still and constantly moving around.

"Text him," you said simply. "Idot."

Zak muttered something under his breath, but took out his phone and texted Techno personally.

"He left me on read."

Stifling a laugh, you pretended to not hear what he said as he continued to complain about how Techno just left him on seen.

"This is so stupid. You text him!"

You sighed dramatically before taking your phone out and texting Techno yourself.

conversation with techno :)

you
hallo
wru?

techno :)
at terminal two waiting for you

you
ty
skeppy's mad u left him on read

techno :)
sometimes it's tough being the worst

"WHAT? Why won't he respond to me! I literally just texted him that I saw he responded to you and he left me on read again—"

"It just wasn't meant to be," you laughed as you approached security and took off your shoes and emptied bags.

After passing through security, you walked with Zak to terminal 2 to meet up with Techno.

"No, we were supposed to go left! I knew I shouldn't have listened to you," you complained. "We probably already passed Techno and he's laughing at us right now."

"Oh my goodness okay let's go your way."

Zak followed you the correct way to terminal 2, and there, you saw the lanky, tall man you assumed was Techno himself. He looked up at you from his phone, smiling a little awkwardly.

"You're Y/U?" he asked, standing up— he was tall. You were by no means short, but he was tall. "And Skeppy."

"Yup, it's us," you beamed, going in for a hug as you had done with Zak. Techno made some sarcastic flyaway comment, but hugged you back anyways.

"Dude why are you so tall?" Zak complained. "This is so unfair."

"I think you're just really short," Techno responded, pulling away.

"Shut up!"

"Both of you shut up," you retorted. "Do they sell food here? Because I skipped breakfast.."

"You.. skipped breakfast. What big brain plays," Techno drawled, picking up his backpack and slinging over the shoulder anyways. "There's a café down there, we can go."

The three of you headed down to the cafe, chatting about what was to come at Vid Con, you being on a panel as a featured creator, and video ideas in general for the week.

As you sat down with Zak and Techno— you still weren't used to calling him Dave— you took a photo of the muffin you got and tweeted out the photo.

'@Y/U
at the airport with @skeppy and @technothepig! <3 see you guys at vidcon! I'll be there
with @spifeyy @tapLharV @a6doff and @saintofgames'

'@technothepig
@Y/U you said you were hungry and here you are tweeting. lies.'

'@username1
@technothepig you're just mad she's not paying attention to you rn’

'@technothepig
no. lies. this is cyber bullying.'

'@Y/U
:0 techno has feelings other than blood thirst?'

"Stop. What was that tweet," Techno complained.

You just laughed and ate the muffin.
An hour later, after playing Minecraft on your phones for a little while and bullying Zak, the three of you finally boarded the plane.

You all agreed to allow Zak to take the aisle seat, with you in the middle— you didn't care, since this plane was smaller and with less seats, there was more personal space— and Techno on your left.

Yawning, you curled a little into yourself, hoping to get to sleep a little bit during the flight. Techno glanced over at you from his phone, and curious at what he was doing— scrolling through Twitter— you leaned over to peer at his phone. He didn't say anything, or prompt you to do anything, but pushed the arm rest between you two up and allowed you to scoot a little closer. You knew he probably didn't feel super comfortable with much physical contact, and you didn't want to push him to do anything or make him uncomfortable.

So you just moved a little closer and leaned back into the seat, watching his screen until you fell asleep.

When you woke up from Techno shaking your shoulders gently, you were in Anaheim— with a snoring Zak besides you.

"We landed," Techno informed you, stretching his arms slightly and reaching to get his carry on. "You were asleep the whole time."

"Sorry." You smiled, a little embarrassed.

"No worries. Wake up Skep."

"Wake up, Zak," you said, shaking him roughly. "Idot."

"Wha— we're here?"

"Yes we're here, get up we need to actually get off the plane."

As you made it off the plane and into the airport, you smiled brightly.

You were in Anaheim— and all of your friends were there with you.

You were looking forward to this next week.

Chapter Text

"WHY are you all so tall?" Zak complained loudly upon seeing George, who only giggled before giving him a jar of Jif.

"Oh my god Spifey how— you're taller than Techno," you said in amazement.

"My height is my only good physical attribute and I get downgraded by Spifey, oh my god," Techno complained in his stereotypically dry, monotone voice.

"Oh come on, you're not that bad looking," you laughed honestly, nudging him with your elbow before getting distracted by an approaching Harvey, not noticing the surprised expression on Techno's face. "Harv!"

"Hey Y/N!" Harvey greeted you, hugging you. As he pulled away, he glanced over at Techno. "You're Techno, right?"

"Yeap."

As the five of you talked excitedly amongst yourselves about the week to come, you saw Darryl turning to corner to approach you guys. You knew him for a long time, since the two of you started channels at a similar time and grew close, so you rushed towards him and tackle him into a hug, laughing.

"Oof! Hi N/N!" he greeted brightly, hugging you back. "Oh my goodness I haven't seen you in years."

"Yeah, I missed you! How's Rat? Did you get someone to take care of her while you're gone?" you asked, walking back with him to the group.

"Yeah! I got my roommate to watch Rat while I'm gone," he told you. "Hi guys!"

"Hey Bad," Zak said. "Wow. Everyone's taller than me. Even you."

"Even me? What's that supposed to mean!"

"Imagine being shorter than six foot," Techno said dryly.

You giggled at the childish conversation as you returned to your previous position by Techno's side who seemed a little quieter than usual. You wanted to not ditch him, so you stuck by his side. Your phone lit up in your hand with a text from a6d.

"A6d will be here in a minute," you reported, pocketing your phone afterwards.

"Oh my god Y/N you actually are the shortest one here," George said afterwards, causing you to scrunch up your nose cutely and turning slightly towards Techno, your back to Spifey.

"Skeppy is only taller than me by one inch," you returned. "And everyone's short to you, you overgrown beaver."

George pretended to be hurt, and the group of you talked further about stupid little topics— and that jar of Jif— until a6d arrived.

"Hey guys," a6d said as he walked up to the group. "We have everyone here?"

The fighting over Jif and cheesy fries between Skeppy, Bad, and Spifey stopped.

"Yeap, I think so," Techno said, glancing over everyone.

"Techno were you even listening?"

"I kinda ADHD zoned out, no," he answered simply. "Like my chat would say, this sounds like my parents."

"Oh my goodness—"

"This sounds like my pa— okay let's just go," Harvey laughed, picking up his luggage that you all had went to pick up earlier.

"Are we planning to do anything today?" you asked, checking your phone again to see that it was 10 am. "Or just chill at the airbnb?"

"Probably just chill," Techno replied. "Aren't we goin' to Disney later anyways?"

"Yeah, we're going to Disney a day after Vid-Con ends," a6d mentioned.

"By chill do we mean watch Techno sweat bedwars or watch Spifey throw a watermelon on the street?" Harvey asked as you walked with the group to the exit.

“Techno being a sweat at bedwars while Spifey throws watermelons in the background?" you offered.

"Honestly, I bet people would watch us streaming that," Bad said truthfully. "There's some weird muffins out there."

"Yeah there is," you agreed. "Which car is ours Vin?"

"The grey one over there," he said, unlocking the car. "It should fit all of your luggage, we got a really big car."

You hadn't needed to bring much, as you were only staying a week. As you were about to lift up your luggage, Techno beat you to it, brushing away your hand and putting it into the trunk for you. You smiled at him, thanking him quietly before stepping into the passenger seat.

You heard some mutter of 'you're such a simp' which just broadened your smile.

You had spoken privately to Techno for a little while, about handling fame— which he recently got launched into because of his two Minecraft Monday wins— and his social anxiety. You made sure to stick by his side in group chats and calls, since it was just the right thing to do, making sure he wasn't getting harassed by other toxic youtubers and making sure he wasn't uncomfortable. Since you were well known in the community and you and Techno were friends, it was the least you could do.

"Who's driving?"

"Not Skeppy, that's for sure."

"Yeah we shouldn't trust Skeppy, I'll drive." Techno agreed, stepping into the car and taking the keys from Vincent.

"What? I'm perfectly capable of driving—"

"I'd rather have Drunk Boy Halo driving than you."

"Hey! I'm not that bad!"

"No, I'm Bad."

"Shut up!"

An hour later, Techno stopped in front of the ridiculously expensive but giant house the group had rented, parking on the driveway.

"You weren't kidding Vin, this place is beautiful," you said, wide-eyed.

"Yeah, you can see the mountains from the pool," he said, accent thick. "Are we going to do a stream?"

"Yeah, a Q&A stream with all of us," Skeppy said. "Since we're all here. And we're playing Skribble too, I think."

"Oh! We should play Slither.io!"

"Yea!"

You stepped out of the car, taking the keys from Vincent and walking to unlock the door.

Techno told you he'd bring your stuff in for you, and after you laughed and said a little comment about him being a simp, you thanked him and unlocked the door.

Again, the luxurious house surprised you. It was beautiful and much more spacious than your small apartment. You'd spoken on your channel about wanting to move into a house like this, but with just you, it'd be lonely and expensive.

“It's really nice, isn't it?" Bad said, calm and steady.

"Yeah. I'd like to live in a place like this someday.."

"What if we moved in together? Or with some of the others," He suggested. "That way.. we're together with everyone. And it's affordable."

"That sounds.. complicated. But wonderful, actually. We could try," you told your best friend.

You stood there, admiring the sunset through the floor to ceiling window, quietly alongside your best friend, just existing with him.

It was a beautiful moment.

At least, until you heard a crash behind you. In unison, you and Bad turned around, saying,

"Oh my goodness.."

"OH! You're recording them— oOF!"

"SHUT UP! You weren't supposed to say anything!"

"Were you getting Bad x Y/U content?"

"Maybe."

Techno walked in, confused.

"What's going on?"

"Skeppy was filming Bad and Y/U ship material," Spifey explained.

"What? Delete that you little ragamuffins!" Bad shouted, chasing down Skeppy.

You just laughed. You were used to all of the fans shipping you and him together, and usually they didn't go too far with it. It was natural for the internet to do that, seeing as you were best friends.

"Are we streaming on my channel?" you asked, setting down your bag and taking out your laptop. Unpacking could wait until later tonight, you were too lazy to really care.

You sat on the floor, phone in hand to read some questions and to be able to read the live chat and donations. Techno sat down a little awkwardly, and you moved to scoot to sit between his legs on the floor. A beat of comfortable silence, then he answered you.

"Yeap, we are." He ran his hand through your hair gently once, and you wondered where this sudden confidence came from.

"Hurry up and get over here you idiots," Vincent called, sitting down next to Techno.

Once everyone had been seated, you leaned back against the couch and started the stream.

And immediately, chat had lots to say.

Chapter Text

“My God Spifey shut up!" Zak shouted from the far end of the couch as George started talking about confusing riddles. "I only have one brain cell, leave me alone!"

Laughing at the banter, you started to read the chat, who had found lots to say about your seated position.

'UWUWUWUWUWU'

'lol skeppy looks like he's on something'

'awwwww'

'TECHNOSIMPPPPPPPP'

'rip bbh x y/u'

'SIMPING'

'TECHNO X Y/UUUUU’

'what's going on'

'are they datinf ???!'

You smiled at the chat but didn't say anything about it, choosing to open Twitter and answer some questions you had told your followers to ask.

"Okay!" you clapped your hands. "Hello everyone! You probably notice the new setting.. and the new people with me."

"We're in Anaheim!" Darryl shouted. "For Vid-Con!"

George, Harvey, and Zak cheered at his words whilst Vincent and Techno gave lazy waves to the camera.

"And I'm here with," you stopped to gesture at each boy as you said their names, "TapL, Spifey, Skeppy, BadBoyHalo, a6d, and Technoblade!"

"Halloo," Techno said as you gestured up at him.

"Yeah, they just landed like an hour ago," Vincent added. "But we're streaming already."

"Yessir, now let's answer some of your Twitter questions."

"We all put out a Tweet asking for questions didn't we?" George asked.

"Yeah but Bad's is probably full of memes," Harvey answered straightaway.

"Oh my goodness.. okay. Wow. I already see magnifying glass tilted.. I hate this," he complained, causing you and Zak to laugh. "N/N read some questions from your chat, they're nicer."

"You guys' chats sound so mean," you commented, opening Twitter to scroll through some replies.

"My chat just holds me to incredibly high standards," Techno said. "I win 4 games of TNT Run in a row and get second on the last one and the chat gets mad."

"Get good Techno."

"What was that? What did you say?" he asked threateningly.

"Nothing."

"First question to me, how did you meet them?" you read aloud, interrupting the banter, setting down your phone and looking around the room at them.

"Oh! I remember!" Darryl said. "You met me because I was a really big fan of yours—"

"—Simp," Harvey interrupted.

"Hey! Rude."

"Oh my god I remember this too," Zak giggled. "I watched your first video with Y/N like years ago before I talked to either of you."

"Yeah! Y/N replied to a few of my Tweets and I was like, wow, oh my goodness, this big YouTuber actually knows who I am?"

"I don't think I was that popular," you laughed. "But yeah, I actually started following you because you tweeted about Rat so much and she's so cute."

"Yea— wait what? You just followed for Rat?"

"What? No, of course not— anyways, I met Bad because of people constantly asking us to collab," you recounted. "And we just became best friends."

"Aw, so wholesome," Spifey said. "No wonder the fans ship you."

You and Darryl just shrugged in unison, sharing a smile.

"You met me because of Bad, right?" Zak asked. "Then you met a6d."

"Yeap, I was there when you guys did the admin application troll," you answered.

"Spifey I met afterwards because of Bad."

"I actually don't remember how you met me," Harvey mentioned. "I think it was a year or two ago.. a UHC or Minecraft event?"

"Yeah, some event we both participated in, I messaged you afterwards and we started filming together," you recalled. "Wow, it's been a long time.."

"And Techno? I think you watched his videos for a long time before, right?" Darryl asked.

You glanced up at mentioned person, nodding.

"Yeap. Watched his videos since like, what, 2017? And apparently he's been watching my videos forever," you teased, poking his leg.

"I'm getting called a simp by your entire chat," Techno complained. "But yeah, I watched your videos since around 10k subs."

"Yeap, I started talking to him for Minecraft Monday, and we started to record together lately," you added, moving on to the next question. "To everyone— do you guys ever want to move in together sometime?"

"I probably couldn't," a6d said dryly. "Seeing as I'm, you know, a little bit far away."

"Aw. I don't know if I could, I might be able to, but that's a lot of stuff we'd have to plan," Darryl answered. "We were talking about it a couple times."

"Yeah, we could try but we're not sure. And YouTube houses don't always end out well," Zak mused.

"Yeap. We'll keep you guys updated on that," Harvey added.

"Third question— are you participating in Minecraft Monday week 4?" you read aloud. "Nope. Not playing this week, Bad's taking my spot to team with Skep."

"Oh, really? Why not?" Techno asked, paying attention again.

"I'll probably be really tired after the trip," you confessed honestly. "Since my flight is getting back what, late Sunday or early Monday? I'll probably end up doing really bad."

"Oh yeah, you and Techno have the latest flight," Darryl recalled.

"Haha idots I got an earlier flight!" Zak stuck out his tongue at you.

"Shut up Skep, stop bullying me," you said, returning the gesture. "But yeah. I'm not playing, Bad's taking my place."

Spifey started opening some questions on his Twitter, comprised mostly of brain cell destroying questions and suggestions.

"Do I have a girlfriend, nope, YouTube is my priority, I don't plan on dating," Spifey answered.

"Yeah, most of us feel that way don't we?" Harvey mentioned.

You nodded, you had mentioned in a video before you weren't too interested in a relationship, that was a lot of emotional investment you weren't sure about yet.

"Yeap. I'm very, very alone," Techno replied in the most dry, monotone voice he could use.

Zak started laughing at him, causing him to reply,

"Shut up Skeppy stop laughing at my loneliness—"

"Okay! Next question!" Darryl interrupted, giggling slightly.

"Where can we meet you guys at Vid-Con?" Harvey read aloud from George's phone.

"Well I think we'll kind of be everywhere won't we?" Vincent said.

"Yeah, we'll probably be walking in this group everywhere," Darryl said. "The only time you won't see us is when there's a meet and greet for some us, I think."

"Yeap. Y/N and I have a meet and greet at the same time for Thursday, and Skeppy has one later that same day," Techno informed your stream.

"If you entered the meet and greet lottery and won, you'll get to meet us!" you said brightly. "I'll also be on a panel speaking late Thursday."

"Oh look at you being so successful," George teased.

"But yep, we'll be walking around Expo Hall and talking to you fans, so it shouldn't be hard to find us."

"Yeah, just look for Spifey's head, he's like 8 feet tall."

"Okay that's a bit of an exaggeration—"

"No, not really."

"Another question, are you guys comfortable with photos? Because typically you don't always show your face."

"I'm fine with it, I'm the one who does face cam regularly," you shrugged. "Hugs are okay too, just don't harass me."

"I'd rather not take photos too often.. but if you wanna, like at the meet and greet, that's fine I guess," Techno answered flatly.

"Yeah, same for me," Darryl agreed.

"I'm the same as Y/N," Zak told the stream, George and Vincent agreeing with him.

"Yup. I don't really care but keep personal place," Harvey added.

After an hour of answering questions and being harassed by 14 and wool wars memes, you finally ended the stream.

“Alright, we're gonna end it here! We'll see you all tomorrow at Vid Con!"

"Bye everyone!"

The stream ended, and swarms of fans from all of your channels had went to Twitter; posts about how close you and Techno were seated and photos of the stream flooded your page on all social media, which was to be expected.

It was fine. You didn't really care, this was nothing compared to some of those crazy 'fans' who threatened all boys you spoke to publicly because they wanted you and Bad together..

'@technothepig
hey, just wanted to say something. don't take it for more than what it was, nerds. now see you idiots at vid con.'

'@y/u
replying to @technothepig
❤️❤️❤️'

'@username1
replying to @y/u and @technothepig
we get it, don't worry king'

'@username2
replying to @y/u and @technothepig
legends supporting legends'

'@username3
replying to @y/u and @technothepig
still ship it tho'

'@username4
replying to @y/u and @technothepig
aw they're so cute'

'@username5
replying to @y/u and @technothepig
y/u x techno??'

'@username6
replying to @y/u and @technothepig
the two best mc players together'

The tweets from fans were cute, you were glad majority of them just shipped it normally and not psychotically. When you were a public figure, shipping with your friends was unavoidable, so you didn't really mind it after being online for so long.

Tweeting out one final time before sleep,

'@y/u
love you all, see you tomorrow ❤️'

'@technothepig
replying to @y/u
:D'

'@skeppy
replying to @y/u
❤️'

'@a6doff
replying to @y/u
yay'

'@saintsofgames
replying to @y/u
yay! :D we love you too! ❤️'

Chapter Text

"WHERE IS MY PASS?" Zak shouted, waking up everyone who hadn't already woken up. "I swear it was right here! Bad did you steal it?"

"No! Why would I ever steal anything of yours?" Darryl shouted in return.

"It's right here, idiot." Techno threw the pass at the back of Zak's head.

You walked out of your room, backpack in hand and featured creator pass around your neck already.

"Good morning," you greeted, despite Zak and Darryl shouting in the background, walking into the kitchen to fill up your water bottle.

"Mornin'." Techno returned, hovering a little awkwardly.

"We're mostly looking around the Expo Hall today right? I saw some of the booths up on Twitter," you mentioned, capping your bottle and putting it in your backpack.

"Yeap. Most things are happening tomorrow and Friday."

He felt awkward because of yesterday's stream, you realized, reading his behavior.

"Alright, poggers." You made to leave the kitchen, but paused and turned around, smiling. "Or should I say laughing crying emojis for you?"

"Oh my god, I'm getting bullied," Techno complained, clearly relieved you hadn't held anything against him. "You're conspiring against me."

Laughing brightly, and glad that you got him to his usual sarcastic self, you left the kitchen to be met with a just awoken George and annoyed looking Darryl.

"Hi Bad," you greeted, stifling another laugh. "Are you good?"

"Skeppy's just being a little ragamuffin." he sighed dramatically but didn't say more on it. "Are we ready to go?"

"What's new in the shoe— oh, what? We're leaving already?" George asked, yawning.

"Yeah man you just woke up?" Harvey asked, walking out from the hallway.

"Maybe."

"Gremlin."

"Beaver, actually."

"Spifey, we've all been awake for at least two hours," Techno drawled. "You were supposed to be awake yesterday, what are you doing?"

"Okay Techno shut up leave me alone," George complained, going back into his room to get ready.

"I found my pass!" Zak shouted victoriously from the other room.

"You mean I found it. You sat there and yelled the entire time," Vincent pointed out.

"That's not important—"

"Shut up and get in the car, muffins!"

***

"Are you Y/U?" a voice asked hopefully from behind you.

You turned around at the sound of your username, smiling to greet a few fans.

"Yep! Hello!" you greeted, excited to be here at Vid Con after you had missed the past few ones.

"Oh my god I've been watching your videos for years, can I take a photo— I'm freaking out, okay, I'm rambling—"

"Awh haha don't worry about it," you laughed, easing the young fan. "Yeah let's take a photo!"

You leaned into camera view, smiling widely and chatting with the small group comfortably about everything ranging from inside jokes on your channel to what videos were coming up. After signing a couple items, they turned their attention to your friend group as well as a larger circle formed of fans.

"You're Bad right?" one asked, pointing at Darryl.

"Yep," he confirmed, smiling adorably amongst the many fans who were either recording or taking photos.

"Blood for the blood god!" someone yelled from somewhere you couldn't identify. "It's the Blood God!"

You turned to raise an eyebrow at Techno, smiling. He just laughed and talked about his upcoming videos— and his hired goons— and past ones, including explaining his fear of eight year old girls.

"How's Floof?" one fan asked. "And Rat and Rocco and—"

"All the pets are fine, I'm the beacon and virtue of honesty, would I lie to you? Of course not." Techno grinned, getting back into his cocky and sarcastic element and personality. "Subscribe to Technoblade."

"Yeah all the pets are fine," Harvey added, agreeing with him. "We actually do need to go to the Expo Hall though, we'll see you all later."

The group had all had arranged to meet up with some other public figures and to host an unofficial meet and greet inside, so you didn't want to miss that, glad Harvey had mentioned it.

As the group left into the building, you briefly greeted a few groups and fans on your way to your designated spot, managing to clear a little area and set your things down.

You also had paused and wandered around a little with Techno who had wanted to see some anime-related booths— expected of him— and you had wanted to look at other games you played on your channel.

"Want to go head back now?" you asked, smiling slightly at Techno's fascination of some of the booths. "They're probably waiting."

"Yeap. Let's go back." he exhaled sharply, a little nervous, you could tell. But what could you do while in public? Not much.

Approaching the group, you saw a short line forming. Majority of the YouTubers who primarily played Minecraft gathered here— a lot of SMP Live boys— to meet up with each other.

"Hey Y/U!" Schlatt called. "You're with Technoblade?"

"Hey Schlatt!" you replied, smiling and approaching to hug him. "Yeah, that's Techno."

"Halloo." Techno stood besides you.

"What was the stream the other day about? I saw that, Y/U," Schlatt teased, laughing. His face really did not match his voice.

"Oh yeah, that was something else," Carson interjected after leaving a conversation with others.

"Oh shut up," you told them jokingly, rolling your eyes. "Both of you saw the Tweets about it already."

"I also saw how you were paid to assassinate Schlatt," Carson mentioned. "Was he only worth fifty dollars?"

"Excuse me?" he asked in return, affronted.

"Y/N!" Zak shouted obnoxiously from only a few feet away, causing you to flinch.

"What?" you shouted back.

"Come on, they want a photo with you!" he continued to shout, making you roll your eyes again, dragging Techno with you so he wouldn't have to suffer awkwardly.

After taking the photo, the fans started asking some questions— ones they claimed the entire fandom wanted to be answered— that were a little personal, but nothing incredibly uncomfortable.

"Have you ever dated one of them?" one girl asked, eyes widely watching you.

You laughed a little uncomfortably, trying to keep up your Internet personality.

"Who do you mean by one of them?"

"Like.. like, one of the YouTubers. Any," she explained.

You raised an eyebrow.

"No," you answered truthfully. "I had a boyfriend but we broke up on good terms, he's not a YouTuber. And now I just want to focus on my career."

She looked disappointed by the answer, while some others shouted something you weren't able to catch.

"Do you have a crush?" another asked, clearly trying to prompt you to say something about one of the boys in your group— particularly Techno, after last stream.

"Nope," you answered, deciding to throw some fun in the conversation. "I once had a crush on Bad though."

"Oh! I remember that!" Darryl recalled, giggling. "I didn't realize until you stopped having a crush on me."

You wrinkled your nose, shaking your head in disappointment at your past self. He was a great friend, and you loved him, but in a completely platonic way.

Chatter started up with Bad and then Skeppy, and you returned to your normal spot by Techno's side, adding in jokes here and there.

"Are you okay?" you asked quietly so only Techno could hear, not making a scene.

"Yeap. I'm fine."

"I feel like you're not but I don't know how to react to that, I'm really sorry," you confessed truthfully.

He chuckled lowly, shaking his head but not holding anything against you.

"Just anxious, don't worry about it."

He brushed his fingers through your hair once before turning back to the conversation.

***

Some time, after an eventful day, filled of meeting fans and wandering around the Expo Hall and other Vid Con grounds, you all decided to head home after having dinner.

Talking about the panels you all had listened to and fans you met, with Zak fast asleep, you sat in the passenger seat as usual, next to a driving Techno.

"Wasn't that fun?" Bad said, yawning.

"Really fun," Vincent agreed.

"Can't wait for tomorrow."

"Is Zak still asleep?" you asked.

"Yeah, this reminds me of that photo he had on Instagram."

"Where he was asleep on vacation? Yeah."

Techno parked the car, and you exited, helping Darryl to shake awake a sleeping Zak who just got confused and irritated when he woke up.

"Wake up, you little ragamuffin! You have to actually get into the house."

"Wha—"

George leaned over to pinch Zak before running into the house, laughing to himself. You shook your head, smiling and walking into the house, tired. With a panel tomorrow, you really needed to sleep.

Sucks that you had a knack for staying up late, unable to sleep...

Shuffling to get ready for bed, you told everyone goodnight before retreating to your room.

"Hey Y/U?" Techno asked suddenly, as you stood before your door.

"Yeah?" you returned softly, glancing down the hallway to meet his thoughtful gaze.

"Thanks. For making sure I was okay."

"No problem," you smiled gently. "You.. you weren't as talkative. I noticed."

"No one else did."

"It was very small, I was by your side the whole time," you justified, hoping you weren't paying too much attention to small things.

Your words made him chuckle.

"You're cute. Good night, Y/N." he opened the door to his room.

"Good night, Dave."

Some time later, perhaps an hour, the house had finally fallen into slumber, a peaceful silence enveloping you.

You watched the stars from your comfort of your bed through the window, wondering if it looked prettier when you looked at it from the balcony.

You decided to try it out. Sliding open the door, you stepped out into the balcony, not minding the cold air.

A beautiful landscape painted with stars awaited you.

Chapter Text

As the hills faded into the dark horizon beyond your vision, welcoming silence surrounded you, the frosty air settling to encase you.

The cold marble balcony felt smooth beneath your fingertips as you traced the lovely carved patterns, following waves and lines that spoke words unheard. You were left wondering the story behind the carvings, before your attention was stolen by the shimmers in the sky.

The moon passed a dim, ethereal glow upon those in its presence, the stars glowing in tandem. Few of the stars flickered and disappeared from view, many remaining brightly shining throughout the time you watched, entranced by their glow.

Despite the less than favorable temperatures and your bare feet, you stood and watched, wondering how lucky you were to be here today— to be able to see this sight tonight.

You were, however, distracted by the sound of the door to the balcony quietly being pushed open, and the near silent steps following it.

You didn't bother to ask who it was. Not when deep down, you already knew.

"You're up late," he said hoarsely, taking an insecure step forward.

"You are too," you remarked calmly. "I've been worried about you."

"About.. me." he chuckled dryly. "I'm fine."

"You've.. said that a lot."

"I have, haven't I?" he sighed, taking off his glasses and dragging a hand over his face.

“You can tell me the truth," you told him, gaze still fixated on the stars.

You couldn't tell if it was the stars or him that kept you from looking at him.

He put on his glasses again, and went silent, thinking. You could tell, even without looking at him, he was thinking too much.

"Don't overthink it. You can tell me anything," you said quietly. "Your dreams, your fears, or whatever you feel okay with sharing."

Another beat of silence, and you finally flickered your gaze over to see him.

"I know I can," he said softly, awkward gaze not quite meeting yours. "I just feel it'll ruin your perception of me."

The moonlight did him justice, he had never been bad looking despite his comments about himself, but the raw emotion etched onto his face was evident to you. How long had he felt this way?

"I'll stand by you no matter what," you said encouragingly. "Come on, English Major."

That got a laugh out of him as he eased into the conversation, more comfortable.

"I'm the only one you don't call by their real name," he said quietly, after a minute of silence. "I mean, it doesn't bother me— it's just.."

He trailed off, not really knowing how to justify it. You didn't press him to say more, and he was grateful.

"I'm sorry about that," you apologized. "Dave."

A little smile curved his lips as he met your gaze.

"It's okay. Y/N."

You laughed quietly, shaking your head and looking back at the stars, trying not to be affected by his words.

Dave sighed, finally looking away from you and down at the mountains and hills beyond the estate.

"You're really good with interacting with fans."

"I try my best," you responded. "I think you're good at it too."

"I feel like I don't have a connection with them the way you do," he said truthfully. "Like.. I'm too awkward to talk to them in person. And I'm not who they see online."

At that moment, you wished you were some social interaction goddess who could answer him. But you were just you, and you had nothing to tell him.

"I wish I had an inspirational answer for you," you said, "that I had some answer that would help you break that boundary... I'm sorry. I have nothing."

"It's not realistic for you to know everything... and I... I wasn't expecting anything." his deep voice washed over you. "I'm just glad you're honest with me.

"I've.. gotten some shit advice. So I appreciate honesty," he continued.

You blinked away a few tears, looking down at the dark forest below you. He, underneath all of the internet bravado, was truly a good person despite some of the toxicity towards him lately.

"Really. Don't worry about it," he said. "You just being there is enough for me."

Silence ensued again, the two of you lost in your thoughts and the stars.

"You seemed to get back into your element at one point," you said quietly. "When we were outside the building."
"There was a lot of people at the meet, Y/N. Not so many outside."

"I'm sorry for leaving you at the meet," you apologized once more, feeling worse about your past actions. "It was rude of me to leave you alone when I knew you needed someone.."

"Stop apologizing," Dave groaned, shaking his head and talking in an attempt to make you feel better. "I'm going to hit my emotional quota for the decade at this point."

You laughed quietly at his words— they were typical of him.

"I think you're doing just fine," you said simply.

There was no need for drawn out, dramatic answers between you two— just honest ones.

"I think I could be doing better," he replied, leaning forward on his arms upon the railing.

"We all could be. But I think here, right now.. I think you're good enough to face the world. Really. You don't need to be some magical being."

The smile on his lips told you all you needed to hear— the words unspoken, the story behind him.

"When you look at me, what do you think?" he asked.

"I think you're just as human as the rest of us."

"Thank you."

You turned away and stood there, doing nothing more than just existing alongside him.

It was all he needed— and when he reached out to take your hand in his, you let him.

Chapter Text

"Y/N? you need to wake up," Darryl called from the hallway.

"I'll wake her up," Dave's deep voice sounded from the hallway.

Footsteps approached your bed as you hazily opened your eyes, squinting at Dave and then promptly hiding under the covers again.

You and Dave had stayed up far too late star gazing and just chatting, and although you could be perfectly energized in a bit with some coffee, right now, you were sleepy.

"Wake up, don't turn into Spifey," Dave complained.

"I'm too short to be Spifey," you muttered petulantly, making him laugh.

"Come on, I'll make you coffee. We have a meet and greet because we're so good at video games, we win these."

Sighing defeatedly, you peeked out from under the covers at the mention of coffee.

"When's the meet?" you asked, sitting up and facing him.

"At two, Skeppy's is at four," he told you, starting to walk out of your room before pausing. "And.. thanks. For being there for me."

You smiled at his words.

"No problem."

"Aww, so cute," George cooed from the hallway, poking his head in without warning.

Dave hit him upside the head on reflex when he got too close, causing his head to hit the doorframe.

"Ow, what the fuck—"

"LANGUAGE!" Darryl screamed from kitchen, despite being so far away you weren't sure how he could've possibly heard you.

"How did he even hear me?" George complained. "Whatever, I'm just gonna go."

You rolled your eyes but smiled endearingly, sitting up and checking your phone to see some messages from Dream about upcoming video ideas.

Making a mental note to check through those messages and talk with him later, you aggressively shooed Dave out of your room to let you get ready.

"Good morning N/N," Darryl greeted as you walked into the kitchen. "Your backpack's in the living room."

Making a dramatic turn, you returned to the living room to see your backpack open and clearly looked through.

"Did any of you steal something from me?" you accused, seeing the backpack.

"I stole your charger," Zak told you, despite his mouth being full with cereal. You wrinkled your nose at the sight.

"I didn't need to see all that," you said dryly, picking up the charger he had left on the table. "We ready to go?"

"Yeah, we didn't get to go see some of the booths on the farther side of the Expo Hall," Harvey mentioned. "No unorganized meets today?"

"No. The one yesterday was so tiring," George admitted.

"Yeap, I zoned out during half of the screaming and yelling," Dave said. "It was good though."

"There was so many muffins there, it was crazy," Darryl sighed dramatically. "N/N Skeppy and Techno have a meet, but they're organized by VidCon."

"Still don't know why they had to split up the MCM YouTubers into two times," you added. "Not all of us showed up anyways."

"Yeah would've been better with all of us," Dave agreed. "I think Schlatt will be ther—"

George interrupted, chaotically screaming something, before abruptly leaving the kitchen to find his things.

A beat of silence, then the rest of you started laughing, wondering what was wrong with him.

"What did he just say?"

"'It's your boy chips ahoy?'"

"My goodness, can we leave him here?"

After a painful car trip, you all had finally almost made it back to the center with a couple hours to spare before your meet with Dave and a couple other YouTubers— only a few minutes left in this car.

"I swear if you guys don't shut up I'll turn this car around right now and take you all home," Dave said jokingly irritatedly, trying to park without hitting the car next to his.

"Wait no I'm sorry, I'll be quiet," Zak laughed, quietening slightly.

"We're here, get out, you crackheads."

Approaching the building and deftly avoiding the large crowds outside via the life-saving security, you met up with a few friends to chat briefly before walking into the Expo Hall.

"Is that a Skittles booth?" Zak asked suddenly, turning to head to the rainbow stand.

"There's so many we didn't get to see yesterday," Harvey said in awe.

"I cannot believe we had to spend an hour just getting past lines," you grumbled. "And meeting with people and fans.. and our meet is in an hour."

"You can still look around though, I think," Darryl mentioned. "Look N/N there's plushies!"

You smiled at his words, seeing there were indeed cute little plushies up at a booth.

"Isn't that— hey, isn't that a Techno plushie?" you asked, squinting at the faraway booth.

"What?" Dave asked. "Oh my god it is. I've got plushies, I'm truly a cult leader, the tweet was true."

You started dragging him over to the stand, greeting the vendor and taking a look at the cute plushies. They had made them themselves, and had made the Trio, Lunch Club, and some others.

"Look! They got the crown and everything!" you laughed, holding it up to his face. "Oh, they have one of Schlatt too—"

Dave took his plushie from your hands, shaking his head and laughing.

After some chatter with the artist and looking around, you decided to get the plushie of Techno and a6d, as they were the cutest. It was a bit odd to own the plushie of yourself when someone else who wanted it could've gotten it— like Dave, who had gotten yours and Skeppy's, tucking them into his backpack after buying them.

"These are like Yootooz," you said, tucking your own into your backpack, letting the head of the plushies stick out cutely. "Just cuter and softer."

"Imagine if Skeppy had a Yootooz, it'd have to be two inches tall if they want to make it to scale," Dave laughed.

"Why do I keep getting bullied by Techno?" Zak complained. "I don't deserve this."

Dave and Zak continued their banter in the background, making you laugh as you followed by Darryl's side to look at the colorful booths.

After a couple minutes, your alarm went off to head towards the private meet and greet area.

"Hey Dave we gotta go," you informed him, tucking your phone away. "You have your pa—"

"You call him Dave now?" George giggled chaotically. "Ooh—"

"Okay it's time for us to go," Harvey yelled, dragging him away by the arm. "We'll meet you guys for the panel afterwards?"

"Yeah," you dragged out, raising an eyebrow at George's words. "See you later."

Turning on your heel, you walked by Dave's side to the meet, excited. It was your first year at Vid-Con and your first major, organized meet.

"Hi, Y/U and Technoblade?" a worker asked upon seeing the passes— and as your face was well-known in gaming, you were easy to identify.

"That's what they call us," Dave replied.

"Over here, you'll see about a hundred people," the worker told you. "You're accompanied by about five others."

"Thanks," you dismissed, setting your backpack down with the cute plushie still able to be seen.

Taking your water bottle out, you took a sip, seeing the other YouTubers arrive.

"That's Mitch and Jerome," you mused. "Phil's going to be here, he told me.."

You looked around for your friend, he had said he'd be here today, and you figured he could be good friends with Dave in the future if they ever teamed for Minecraft Monday.

"Vikk and Preston too I think," Dave added, setting down his things and tucking his hands into his pockets. "That's seven of us."

"Yeah," you agreed, suddenly distracted. "It's Phil!"

You saw him approaching, waving to you and laughing at your pogchamp-esque expression.

"Philza? Hardcore Minecraft guy?"

"Yeah!"

Hugging him, you asked Phil how Kristi was doing along with some other things before returning to introduce him to Dave.

"This is Technoblade," you introduced, smiling.

"Oh it's nice to meet you," Phil greeted. "Double MCM Winner huh?"

"Yeah," Dave replied, smiling. "I've seen your hardcore Minecraft series."

"Oh no way. That baby zombie, I'm telling you," Phil laughed, stepping into line next to you. "We all ready for the meet?"

"Yeah. Jerome and Mitch here? Where's Vikk?"

"I'm here, I'm here," mentioned person shouted. "Hey Y/U."

After chatting with all of your friends, the fans that had won the meet and greet lottery had started to enter, and you got to meet your lovely fans— thankfully for you, no psychotic, worrisome ones today.

"When are you streaming next?" a boy asked, after taking a photo. "Everyone's

hoping for MCM but you said last stream you weren't gonna play."

"I'm not playing next week, unfortunately," you said. "Bad's playing with Skeppy, taking my place next week. I'm streaming.. maybe Tuesday."

"Are you coming back week five?" he continued hopefully.

"Techno who are you with?" another asked.

"James Charles, easy dub," Dave answered, smirking. "We win these."

"I'm coming back week five for sure," you added in after laughing lightly at his words.

"I'm trying to get teamed with Techno but we don't know if Keem will let us."

"The nerfing is really fucking stupid," a fan chimed in.

"There was no way he could've won week three, unfair."

Dave didn't make much comment on it, and you said nothing, not wanting beef with anyone, but he and you did agree.

"All part of the master plan. I'm just too good at video games," he said. "But maybe we can team for week five, yes. That would be great."

The pair was ushered away to meet some other YouTubers, and you were faced with new fans who you took photos with and signed off a phone case.

"Have you heard of the SMP Earth idea? They're launching in a few months right?" a girl who told you was named Liz piped up. "Are you playing?"

"Yeah Wilbur told me.. would love to, but I don't know much about it," you answered.

"Are you going to stream your SMP world next? We really wanna see the progress on your castle!" another exclaimed. "You should bring Techno on!"

You hadn't really took the SMP world you had started with the trio and some others incredibly seriously— just a mini series to give to those who wanted to see you all play together. It was just a fun thing to stream.

"Skeppy brought me on on his stream," Dave explained. "Y/N wasn't there."

"Yeah he's already established that the North is all his territory," you laughed. "We're planning to stream together on the SMP with the trio, don't worry."

With only some few minutes to talk and chat with each person, they had to leave and new fans had approached you from the line.

"Hi! Can we take a photo with you and Techno?" a girl asked, accompanied by who looked by her brother.

You agreed, posing for a photo with them and answering some questions they had and just chatting about their life. It amazed how you wonderfully diverse all of your fans were.

"I'm really sorry if this makes you uncomfortable, but can we get a Techno and Y/U stream?" the girl asked, making her brother roll his eyes as if she spoke about this all the time. "Everyone in the fandom really wants it—"

"Yeah, I get tweets everyday askin' me to play with Y/U," Techno said dryly. "Don't worry. Tuesday we're planning a stream to play Minecraft VR."

"And you guys also said you were trying to team week five?"

"We're trying, but we might be too OP," you smiled. "We have to wait for Techno to throw week four then we can try to team."

"I'm going to get cancelled by James Charles for throwing, but it's worth it."

"The dynamic duo," the boy commented, smiling. "Your strengths play to each other's weaknesses, no one would stand a chance."

You raised an eyebrow, having not really thought about it. He was right, you weren't the best at some of the games Dave excelled at and vice versa.. and pvp was something you two would definitely lead in. Just hopefully you could convince them to let you team.

"Definitely," you laughed. "Thanks."

As the last of the fans had finally left, it had been a considerable amount of time spent, and after so much social interaction, you wanted to hide to recharge.

"Dynamic duo, huh?" Dave said, picking up his backpack and swinging it over one shoulder.

He hesitated, then picked up your own for you, putting it over his other shoulder. You smiled shyly at his actions, thanking him and walking alongside him.

"Yeah. I like the sound of it."

"I do too."

Chapter Text

WEho had made the decision to let you onto a panel? Yes, you might've been considered a big public figure, but to give advice to millions of people on furthering their careers and businesses... it was different, to say the least.

"Hey Skep, how was the meet?" Harvey asked upon seeing the approaching figure.

"Tiring. You weren't kidding, Y/N. It was really fun though."

"Yeah?" you returned, glancing up at your friend. "Good meet?"

"Really good meet, yep. You're going on a panel soon aren't you?" Zak asked.

"Her panel is starting in like thirty minutes. We should really get going," Vincent interjected.

"Oh my goodness really? Then we need to go!"

You weren't really nervous for speaking on the panel, you weren't fazed about public speaking, but you were worried you'd say something incorrectly.

Hundreds of people would be listening to you live today, and even more who would see the recordings online.. you didn't want to give shit advice.

"You look stressed," Dave commented, glancing down at you. "You good?"

"All good. I'll be fine," you confirmed, shaking off the nervousness.

"You got this," he encouraged, hyping you up. "You're a god."

You smiled at his words, murmuring a quiet thank you as you walked with the group to the panel.

The Lunch Club would be there, maybe Misfits too but you weren't as close with them. There were going to be big names at the panel, both listening and speaking, was all you knew for sure.

Stopping before the entrance, you glanced through and saw the familiar YouTubers you were friends with.

Why were you still a little nervous?

Dave brushed his fingers through your hair once, bringing you back to reality to smile at the habit he developed.

"You're gonna do great, I'll be somewhere in there watching," he told you.

"Thanks. See you later," you nodded, walking up to the worker to enter.

"Y/U for the panel?" a worker asked, verifying your pass. "You can enter through here."

You took a deep breath, putting on your social, charismatic people-person façade and waving to your friends as you entered.

It was time to be Y/U, not Y/N.

"Hey Y/U!" Jordan greeted brightly, shaking your hand. "Ready for the panel?"

"Yeah, super excited," you answered, nodding to acknowledge Carson who approached you, spotting Katerino in the back talking to the Misfits. "Hey Carson. How'd you sneak Kate in here?"

"Hey Y/U," Carson greeted, smiling. "Snuck her in. She can't go on panel, just backstage here."

"If I knew I would've brought someone too," you said, slightly forcing a laugh.

"Oh? You would've brought Techno, huh," he said dryly. "Heard the rumors. Hope it's not getting too bad for you."

Thanking him for his consideration, you slowly managed to pull away to talk to some other creators as his other friends had dragged him away.

To your luck, Kate herself approached you. You weren't good friends with her by any means, but were friendly enough with her to hold a lasting conversation, and that was really all you needed.

"Hey Y/N," she greeted shyly, playing the cute girl persona you knew so well. "Haven't chatted in a while."

"Yeah. I've been playing with YouTube streamers lately. Haven't streamed on Twitch for a week or two," you said casually. "Watched your stream the other day. Really good."

"Thank you! I heard so many rumors going around with you," Kate confessed. "And people keep asking me about them because we're friends."

"Really? What were they?" you asked, despite already knowing— people online were far too invested in your relationships.

"Mostly you and Technoblade and BadBoyHalo. Which, I don't even know them. Like, at all.. and as far as I knew you weren't dating anyone."

You nodded, agreeing with her. She knew you weren't interested in anyone, and she also knew that none of the rumors were true.

"So I told stream nothing was going on. But you know, people will believe what they want to," Kate sighed.

"It's all good. Thanks so much anyways. I saw your channel's been blowing up lately," you commented.

"Yeah. Carson's amazing, huh? I'm so lucky."

The corner of your mouth quirked up into a little smile.

"Yeah, real lucky."

Looking up, you spotted a worker at the stage entrance.

"It's time for the panel, see you later Kate," you excused yourself, walking away.

The worker instructed the group to walk out onto stage, telling you all to find your seats according to the placards.

"Welcome our panelists!"

You sat down in front of your mic, seeing a water bottle and some notecards of the questions set in front of you. Setting the water bottle discreetly under the table, you straightened and glanced around the crowd.

It wasn't fans here at this panel, more so creators who wanted advice and notes on jumpstarting their career. From you. How crazy.

Looking around the crowd, you easily spotted a few friends in the front rows, and immediately, Zak making silly faces at you and Darryl who pinched him for doing so.

You suppressed a grin, eyes wandering a few seats down to see Dave, who upon eye contact simply just gave a lazy wave and smile. That got a little smile out of you.

"We have CaptainSparklez, Y/U, CallMeCarson..."

The host ran through the names, and as he finally reached the end, he started asking the questions.

"Alright. We'll start with the audience questions," the host continued. "What is the difference between your YouTube life and your real life, and how do you separate it?"

As you pondered the question, you heard some other YouTuber— Dan, you think it was— start to answer.

"... and that's why it's so important to make that distinction," he finished after some time, the audience cheering for him.

"I agree," you said, despite not hearing much of what he said. "It's important to me to keep in mind— be level headed. Don't say something rash about what personal drama you have going on.

"You'll just regret mixing the two. Even if you have no drama, you'll end up starting it... and don't stick your nose into other people's personal life.

"The major difference between the two is how you act. But I like to think.. don't make it so drastically different that it's hard to switch between them," you advised. "If you're toxic in real life and not online, it'll still show eventually. You can't hide your personality for long with so many people watching."

Claps went up from your words, and Jordan added his own advice to the conversation.

After answering the question from majority of the panelists, whose advice you made sure to keep in mind, the host moved on.

"Public relationships, we can agree, are a mess, right?"

That made you and the other panelists laugh, agreeing.

"Advice on keeping those out of a mess? Particularly between two influencers."

You didn't have much to say on this topic, and so kept quiet. After successfully managing to keep your personal offline relationship off your channel, you were glad you weren't involved in any drama.

"I'd just advise to not bring it out into the public if you don't feel comfortable," another panelist said plainly. "No need to hide it, but don't flaunt it excessively. If your fans get too invested into your relationship, there will be backlash if you break up."

Different advice popped up around the panel, you agreeing with majority of it but just trying to keep silent.

"Next question.. rumors, about everything. How do you deal with it?"

"People will believe what they want to believe," you answered. "You can deny it, but they'll still talk. Just tell the truth and if they don't believe, you can't do anything about it."

"Yeah. Don't let it get to you, especially if it's not that important," another advised. "It's going to happen."

After the initial blow up of people wanting you and Darryl to get together, you had become desensitized to rumors and fans that just were a little too pushy.

Which was why you didn't care what they had to say about you and Dave. It was inevitable, it happened to everyone who streamed with you.

A couple of questions later, all of which you answered to, it had been about another hour. The questions were mostly business-centered, which you gave advice to, but weren't majorly interested.

The panel was ending, and it had been so much better than expected. What a relief.

"And this panel comes to a close. A big round of applause for our panelists, and we'll see you around!"

You stood up and bowed, laughing slightly before waving and exiting to go offstage along with the rest of the panelists.

Meeting Katerino again, along with the other people who were backstage waiting for their panelist friends, you chatted with her as you waited for your group of friends to make it out of the crowd to meet you.

"That was great, you did awesome," Kate complimented.

"Thank you," you smiled, looking up to see Dave hovering by the exit, waving to you. "That's my friend, I'll see you later."

"See you!"

Approaching Dave, he picked up your backpack for you once more, leading you to exit and meet up with your group of friends.

"Dude, you did really good, it was actually inspiring. I almost felt an emotion other than stress or bloodlust."

You laughed, glad you could act more carefree and like yourself now. It was always easier to be like this.

"That's a lot coming from you," you teased, nudging him. "Blood god."

Dave chuckled quietly at your words, but continued in a slightly more serious tone.

"You seem tired."

"I am. I guess a panel that's almost two hours long does that to you," you said. "And a meet just before it."

"Yeah? Come on, let's go get dinner," he said, approaching the waiting group. "Then we can go back to the house."

"Someone's getting confident," you muttered teasingly, meeting your friends and ignoring Dave's surprised expression at your joke.

"Y/N! You did so good on the panel!" Darryl said in awe.

"Yeah that actually got me inspired for a minute," George added, picking up his backpack to get ready to leave.

Chatting with the group lightly about the panel topics and your responses to the questions as you walked to the car, you stepped into the passenger seat, hoping to nap for just a short while.

"You can sleep," Dave said suddenly. "I'll wake you up when we get there."

Giving him a little smile which he returned, you promptly fell asleep. You were exhausted, but despite that, it was an amazing day.

Today was one of the best days of your life.

Chapter Text

"You gotta wake her up, Techno!" Darryl whisper-shouted rather loudly.

"You're gonna wake her up yourself at this rate," Dave said dryly.

"What? Oh, I guess I'm kinda loud," Darryl muttered sheepishly.

"Why don't you guys go in and get a table? I'll go find a parking spot," Dave said, stopping in front of the building.

Harvey made some form of agreement and herded out the rest of the group. They left without much argue.

Just as Dave backed into the parking spot, you had started to awake, opening your eyes to the unfamiliar dark environment.

"We're here?" you asked, sitting up straight and taking off your hoodie. "At least I got a nap."

He averted his gaze as you did so, turning off the engine and clearing his throat.

You raised an eyebrow at him, but said nothing, finding it a little amusing.

He really was not kidding when he said he was awkward, you thought.

"Yeah, we're here. Ready to go?"

"Mhm," you hummed, stepping out of the car and waiting for him.

Walking alongside him to the entrance, you met with your group, chatting more about the panel now that you were a little less tired.

"I heard some people snuck their friends backstage," Vincent interjected. "What was that about?"

"I don't know. Carson brought in my friend Kate, and some other person brought in a friend. I don't think they were supposed to be there," you confessed, thanking the waitress as she took away your menu.

"Who's Kate?" George asked, giving the waitress his menu as well.

"Carson's girlfriend, I think. She was my friend before that. I have a stream scheduled with her sometime next week," you said, taking a sip of your water.

"You guys ready for Minecraft Monday's though?" Harvey asked, switching the topic. "The teams look... interesting."

"They put Vikk and Preston together because he's rusty," you mocked, chuckling.

The messages in the group chat had been quite interesting to read. You still didn't know how they had managed to pass off Preston as 'rusty' and put him with Vikk.

"I'm tellin' you, Preston's a Trojan horse. We're going to get destroyed, it's not even funny," Dave complained. "Rusty. I can't believe it."

"Y/N have you seen this tweet going around about you going on the Rajjchelorette?" Vincent asked suddenly, showing you his phone screen.

"What the fuck, no. I would never do that," you said flatly. "Talk to ten dudes and reject nine? No thanks."

"I could never imagine Y/N on that show," George admitted.

"I can't imagine any of us on that show," Darryl added.

As some of the food started being brought out to you and your friends after some time, the table went a little quieter as you all ate.

"How are we feeling about moving in together by the way?" Zak asked. "I mean, it'd probably not be permanent, but.."

"Probably would only be a year or something, but we can try," Harvey agreed. "Sounds awesome."

"Awh. I probably couldn't make it," Darryl sighed.

"Yeah I really doubt I can either," Vincent said dryly.

"Techno?"

"With who?" he asked hesitantly.

"I don't know. Who could do it?" George questioned. "I could."

"Yeah me too," Zak added.

Harvey and you both agreed— because you lived alone in a rather small apartment, it was easy to move anywhere. And living with a bunch of your friends would be more convenient for filming and whatnot..

"I think I could," he said a minute after you spoke. "Sounds fun."

You shot Dave a small smile, which he caught and returned.

Smiling a little wider at the interaction, you turned back to your plate.

***

"We ready to go home?" Harvey asked, standing up.

"Yeah, let's go home, muffins," Darryl said. "I'm sleepy."

"Me too," Zak agreed. "I'm really pooped."

"Probably because you were screaming all day," Vincent told him, standing up to leave anyways.

Your phone lit up with another text from Dream as you were walking back to the car. He had probably watched your panel live today, you realized with a start.

"Oh fuck, I completely forgot to answer Dream's texts," you swore.

"Language!" Darryl shouted.

Dave peered over at your phone from your side.

"What does he want?" he asked curiously.

"Some video ideas he wants me to help code and record," you replied, quickly typing back an apology and letting him know your advice.

"Oh."

Zak shoved his camera in your face suddenly, as you supposed he was filming for his LA trip video.

"Hi?" you asked confusedly.

"Who are you texting?"

"Dream?"

"Oooh—"

You rolled your eyes and playfully shoved Zak away, walking a little quicker back to the car. He was always the one to perpetuate the ships involving you.

"Let's go back to the house, Skeppy is driving me mad," you shouted, hopping back into the passenger seat.

"Me too," Vincent sighed.

Dave chuckled dryly, sitting down and turning on the engine.

Clicking off your phone after texting Dream goodnight, you watched the beautiful city whiz by you. It was late at night, but the town was still alive.

The lights shone in contrast to the slumbering city, blurring into little flecks as you passed. Eventually you fell asleep, simply listening to the conversation around you.

Sometime later, you weren't sure how long, you felt yourself being gently placed onto your bed, and footsteps quietly walking away, as if trying not to wake you.

Opening your eyes, you saw Dave's tall figure at your door, about to leave. Sitting up and yawning, you said softly,

"Thanks for bringing me in."

He froze, turning around after a minute to face you.

"Oh. I didn't mean to wake you up."

"It's okay," you smiled. "It was sweet."

Dave seemed to hesitate for a minute, between leaving and staying, and you wondered what he had to say.

"I just wanted to say you did really good on the panel today," he said casually. "You seemed like you were so sure about everythin'."

You gave him a little sarcastic half smile.

"Public figure, remember? It's an image," you said, waving a hand. "I wish I had your casualness. You're exactly like you are online."

"I.. don't like doing what I don't know," he confessed, quietened. "I just wanted to be who I was."

"And I didn't like doing what I knew," you said flatly. "We both took risks."

Dave walked over to you, sitting next to you on the mattress as you basked in the moonlight with him.

"You think it's worth it?" he asked.

"I mean.. I met you from it," you said, cracking a little smile.

He chuckled quietly, reaching over to take your hand.

Wordlessly, you both understood each other.

"I'm really glad I met you."

"Me too."

Chapter Text

Today was the last and final day of Vid-Con. And despite you having missed allof the ones the years before— both due to you not being interested and you not being well known at the time— you managed to get everything you wanted to done.

The meets with fans, listening to and speaking on panels, and the experience of the Expo Hall was all accomplished, and today was just to look at panelsand meets you had missed prior.

"Aren't we meeting the SMP Live boys today?" you checked, walking into the kitchen.

“Yeah, some of them," Darryl said, offering you a blueberry muffin. "Probably will turn into another unofficial meet."

"Then Disneyland tomorrow right?" Zak asked excitedly, bouncing like a little child. "I haven't been there in forever."

You confirmed his question, munching on the muffin quietly and listening to the chatter as they recorded for their LA vlogs.

"You're not gonna make an LA video N/N?" Darryl asked.

Shaking your head no, you waved to Vincent's camera as it turned to focus on Dave next to you.

There was no point. This trip had proved to give you much more than just a short vacation ever could— and no video could portray that.

"We ready to go? There's a panel at ten and we're gonna have to get through crowds," Harvey announced, rising from his seat to find his backpack.

The crowds were always terrible, especially if they knew your group would be meeting the popular SMP Live boys. The amount of fans there alone would be immeasurable.

You nodded, hopping off the stool and searching for your backpack amongst the pile.

Dave beat you to it, handing you yours and making some sarcastic comment about how you were so slow for one of the best current pvpers.

"Stop feeding my ego," you shot back, taking the backpack from him anyways.

"Is it just Vincent and Zak recording for a vlog?"

"Spifey too," he said, dismissing your first comment. "I gotta warn ya, I've never played on the SMP Live server before."

You looked up, shrugging at the comment.

"You were there for my stream right? I've only been on there a couple times. You should try it though," you suggested, swinging your backpack over your shoulder. "I think you'd get along with Schlatt."

"Maybe," he said unsurely.

As you picked up your phone, you opened Twitter to check on what was in your timeline.

Hearting a few tweets and showing Dave some fanart they had done of you two, you both ignored the screaming in the background as Spifey or Skeppy was likely messing with Bad.

"I'm telling you, you should play with Carson, he's hilarious," you defended.

"Then I'll have to actually try to play good in Minecraft Monday," he said in disbelief.

“I thought Technoblade never dies."

"Not unless it's part of the master plan."

You rolled your eyes playfully, giving him a gentle shove.

"You really are exactly like you are online. I don't know what I was expecting," you laughed, walking with him to foyer. "Come on, I don't trust anyone else to drive."

***

"If you guys don't shut up I'm gonna start scream-reading SkepHalo fan-fiction," you yelled over the noise.

"Oh my god no, I hated that," Vincent complained. "Shut up!"

Finally, Zak went silent, and stopped talking about cheesy fries to poor Darryl.

"That sounds like it'd be funny honestly," George admitted. "Do it!"

"Oh my god.." Dave grumbled quietly to himself.

"Techno would you snitch if I threw Spifey out onto the highway?" you asked.

"No. Get him outta here."

"What? I'm getting targeted—"

"Is that Ted Nivison?" Harvey interrupted.

You turned to look out of the window, seeing the group gathered there already. Flickering your gaze between all of them, you noticed Ted.

How was he so tall?

"I'm so mad, how is everyone so tall?" you complained.

"Who? Oh my god.." Zak muttered upon stepping out of the car and seeing Ted and Schlatt.

"Charlie!" you shouted, waving to him as you approached.

"Huh? Oh hey Y/U!"

You talked briefly to Ted's girlfriend, exchanging the usual compliments that were custom, before introducing your group.

"This is Technoblade," you said. "BadBoyHalo, TapL..."

Once you had introduced them and gotten them integrated into the group, you stuck close to Dave as you spoke with your friends.

“Ted's like seven feet tall, I don't even know how."

"I feel like a midget compared to everyone here."

"Schlatt looks like a dad bringing his son and his friends to the museum," you noted.

"It's the shirt," someone added. "You look like a dad."

"I would be a great father, okay?" Schlatt laughed.

"Schlatt, you give me a you-hang-babies vibe," you said dryly.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he denied in the most monotone voice he could muster.

"Right.. this is why I think you and Techno would get along so well," you said, raising an eyebrow. "He bullies orphans too."

"Well, I mean," Dave said defensively, crossing his arms, "what're they gonna do about it? Tell their parents?"

Your mouth dropped open at his comment as you shoved him, laughing anyways.

"That's so wrong," Schlatt said in between laughs. "But you know what? Let's team for Minecraft Monday. It's the dream team."

"Did I hear Minecraft Monday?" Carson said sarcastically charismatically, sliding into the circle you had formed. "What're the teams looking like next week? I'm not playing."

"Techno's partnered with James Charles, it's the ultimate crossover," you informed him, smiling broadly.

"Holy shit really? I need to get uncancelled," Schlatt said. "I've been in a state of decay ever since he cancelled me."

"Yeah, you haven't eaten in days," Dave played into it. "It's a tragedy."

You rolled your eyes, but your smile contradicted it.

"Heya guys, we got fans here," Harvey called, interrupting the conversation.

Glancing over at him, you saw the groups of fans you knew to expect. With so many of you in one area, there was bound to be bunches of them.

"Hi guys!" you greeted the line of fans in front of you.

Holy hell, you were this famous now?

Returning into your people person zone for strangers, you started chatting briefly with them. Exchanging pleasantries and taking photos, you talked with the fans there— fortunately, it was a secluded part of the Vid-Con grounds— for a couple hours alongside the Lunch Club and your friends.

"Are you okay with us shipping Y/U and Schlatt?" a girl asked you hopefully, hands clasped together.

"People ship me with everyone," you waved dismissively. "Just don't go too far like what they did with me and Bad."

Darryl winced when hearing your words, remembering the peak time of the ship, where almost every single one of your fans wanted you two together. That hadn't been a good time period.

Dave stood a little tenser and closer, as if getting defensive. He hated the idea of them harassing you and stepping over boundaries to fuel what they called an 'ideal relationship' between you and Bad.

"Bye!"

At last, the final fans were attended to, and you could make it just in time to the panel you wanted to attend.

You talked briefly about a few things with Kate— she had asked about you declining to appear on the Rajjchelorette— then following your original group to the panel after saying goodbyes to your SMP Live friends.

"We're going to see two panels back to back right?" you checked, running to catch up to Dave.

"Yeah," he responded tersely, eyes fixated ahead of him.

You glanced up at him. He looked even moodier than usual.

"Are you okay?" you asked softly, so just he could hear.

"I'm fine, don't worry about it." he seemed to pause, as if conflicted.

Instead, he just reached over to brush his hand through your hair once more, before returning his hand to his side. You smiled shyly, finding the repeated action cute.

Behind you, you heard the click of Spifey's camera.

***

"We ready to leave for dinner guys?" you asked, standing up from your seat to stretch.

"Yeah, I'm starving," Darryl agreed. "I loved this panel though! It was so cool!"

"Wasn't it? And I thought my panel was good. I feel like I just went to a therapist."

As the group continued chattering about the panel you just attended, you were stopped just by the exit, by some reporter who looked far too young to work as one, and far too inexperienced— and that was coming from just barely 20-year-old you.

"Hello?" you asked uncertainly.

"Hi, I just wanted to talk to you for a minute about your declining an appearance on the Rajjchelorette, it's been all over the internet," the reporter started.

You frowned. Both Vincent and Katerino had brought this up to you, and you didn't see why the internet made such a big deal out of it.

"Yes?"

"Why didn't you appear on the show?" he reporter pried, clearly not noticing or caring about your uncomfortableness.

"I.. don't want to? And I have no interest in appearing on a dating show, especially when people have a tendency to ship me with others excessively," you explained. "I don't want to be known for boy-related relationship drama."

"You don't have a boyfriend?"

"No, and I'm not looking for one. Are you finished?" you asked.

"Quite. Thank you, Y/U."

As you walked away, you wondered what was wrong with that reporter.

You didn't think about it any longer, though. Tomorrow, you were going to Disney.

Chapter Text

"I don’t like scary things," Darryl complained, looking over at the Matterhorn, easily visible from his spot. "I don't wanna go on that ride."

"Bad, I just saw like a ten year old get off the ride," Harvey laughed, shaking his head. "It can't be that bad."

As they observed the giant mountain ride, you approached them with a few ice cream-esque treats in your hands.

"We just bought Dole Whips, I don't think we should be going on any rides," you interjected, carefully setting them down onto the floor for your friends.

Dave walked alongside you, setting down some as well.

"That actually looks really good," Vincent admitted in awe, reaching for his.

"It better be good, it was so expensive," Dave said. "Watch us get jebaited and it's actually hollow."

Harvey laughed, poking his spoon in to see it was actually, unfortunately, hollow.

"Can't believe we paid five dollars for these tiny hollow ice creams."

“Which flavor did you get anyways?" you asked Dave curiously, sitting down on the floor alongside your group.

"Pineapple," he replied, sitting down next to you. "Didn't we all?"

"I got raspberry." you shrugged. "Bad did too. I think a6d got vanilla?"

“Yup. It's good," Vincent told you.

You briefly looked over to see Zak had already eaten half— what the hell— and wondered if he was okay.

"Skeppy, you good?" Dave chuckled, following your concerned stare.

Zak mumbled something incoherently, and you just rolled your eyes in response, making him stick his tongue out at you.

"You're such a child," Vincent noted.

"Says the youngest of the group," Zak shot back. "You're not even double digits yet."

"I'm 18--"

"Shut up!"

You sighed dramatically, glancing over at a quietly laughing Dave, clearly amused by the childish argument.

"Is yours any good?" he asked you, gaze flickering over to you when he noticed your glance.

"Mhm. You want some?" you offered, scooping some up and lifting the spoon up to his mouth.

He paused, surprised by your action, before leaning forward to eat it. You smiled, setting your emptied cup down when he offered you some of his own on his spoon.

"Pineapple's so good," you said after tasting it. "You like raspberry?"

"Yeah. Yeah, it's good," he said, clearing his throat and looking at the floor.

The actions didn't go unnoticed by George, to your dismay. It was like he was actively stalking you two for as much content as he could find.

"Aw. You guys are so cute," George giggled from your other side.

"I know.. but shut up."

***

"Come on, just go on the ride with us!" Zak half-yelled.

"Yeah, what, are you scared?" Dave chuckled good-naturedly.

"Stop peer pressuring me!" Darryl complained loudly, anxiously tapping his foot.

You were already in the queue and about the enter the building-- it was too much hassle for him to leave now, especially when you all had been waiting for two hours.

And besides, it wasn't like anyone was going to let him leave, and he had too much pride to.

"It's just Splash Mountain, it's not scary at all," you laughed in an attempt to reassure him, moving forward in the queue.

“Maybe not for you, you're crazy," he responded petulantly.

You and Dave had started a running joke of being completely unfazed by roller coaster rides, making straight faces on the photos and laughing at the others' terror.

You called it humor, they called it sadism.

Either way, it was funny. So despite the 50 foot drop on this ride, you were determined to not let the joke die.

"You want to sit in the front Bad?" Vincent teased.

"No! You little ragamuffin!"

Dave laughed at him, telling the worker to put you and him in the front as your whole group would take up one vehicle.

Taking a seat in the front row, you tucked your items into the pocket and pulled it shut so it wouldn't get soaked during the ride.

"Aren't you excited?" Harvey shouted loudly from the last row.

"Oh my goodness," Darryl grumbled. "Don't I need to take off my glasses?"

“Too late," Zak giggled loudly as the vehicle started to climb a small slope upwards.

Unfortunately, there was no splash waiting for you, to which he was relieved. But luckily for you, you passed by the 50 foot drop, which you quickly made sure to point out to your group.

"Pull the most bored expression you can," you told Dave, conspiring against Darryl and pointing at where the camera was taking the photo-- right at the drop.

He laughed, agreeing with you and looking around for any other drops. The ride had climbed yet another steeper slope, but still without any splash, to your dismay.

"Haha you muffins-- oh my goodness what is that--"

The vehicle entered a cave, a drop visible a short distance ahead. It was small, and would really only splash you and Dave the most, but a drop nonetheless.

Zak screamed for dramatic effect when you fell, though not really scared at all.

As predicted, you and Dave got splashed, being in front, and barely anyone else had, only with the side splashes.

"You shouldn't even be scared, Techno and I get all of the splash," you called back to Darryl.

"Yeah well I'm in the boat too!" he shouted back.

Eventually, the boat started making the climb to the 50 foot drop. You clapped your hands, letting out your energy in order to manage a straight bored face for the photo.

The boat climbed agonizingly slowly, stopping for a moment at the top to allow you and Dave to peek over the edge.

"Oh my goodness, this is the 50 foot one isn't it—"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Dave shrugged casually.

"Techno!"

You shared a little grin with him, then switching to your most bored expression you could manage, right as you dropped.

The flash of the camera was instantaneous, and you almost missed it, but you had gotten it anyways.

Laughing brightly and screaming, the quick drop was over and you got soaked by the drop splash.

"That was awesome!" Zak shouted.

"That was terrible," Darryl said in stark contrast. "And in the one place we don't need air conditioning! It's so cold."

"Weak," Vincent snorted.

"A6d! You little muffin!"

As you made it off the ride, you quickly looked for the photos with Dave to see your group.

"Skeppy looks like he's on crack," you gasped, laughing uncontrollably.

"Oh my god.. hey, we did it. We win these."

True to Dave's word, both of you looked bored out of your mind, casual and indifferent compared to a chaotically screaming George and stressed looking Vincent.

"I have to frame that photo in my house," Harvey chuckled when he saw it.

"I hated that. So much," Darryl grumbled.

“Yeah? Let's go on another one!"

"Spifey!"

***

A couple of hours later, you were sitting on the ground waiting for the parade to start, Cheshire Cat Tail pastry you were sharing with Dave in hand.

“It must suck being in those costumes," Dave said, tearing a piece from the pastry and handing it back to you. "Imagine having an actual job."

"Yeah? Look, it's Piglet!" you said, pointing at the pig character that had walked into sight.

"My enslaved brother," he noted. "Poor guy."

You tore off a piece with chocolate on it, eating it. The pastry was so sweet, you couldn't have finished it on your own-- but it was delicious.

"Good?" he chuckled affectionately, glancing down at you. "You have chocolate on your face."

"Whoops." you wiped it off with a tissue, continuing to eat the pastry.

"Where are we going after this?" Zak asked curiously.

"I'm thinking Pirates of the Caribbean," Harvey replied. "It's not too rough of a ride."

"It better not be," Darryl mumbled.

Vincent laughed at his annoyance, assuring him it wasn't.

"I just hope we don't get stuck on that ride, that would be unfortunate," Dave mentioned.

Having gotten stuck on that ride one too many times, you knew what it was like.

Listening to an animatronic sing the same lines over and over wasn't the best experience.

You watched the Little Mermaid parts of the parade pass by, and the parade was coming to a close soon.

Preparing to leave, you gathered all of your trash and took the hand Dave offered you to stand.

"There aren't any drops on this are there?" Zak asked, bouncing on your other side as the group walked to the attraction.

"One. About 14 feet—"

"Are you kidding me—"

"No one will get splashed much except for the first row," you finished.

"Which is me and Y/N," Dave added dryly. "Because you guys are too afraid to sit in front."

"Or because you just hog the seat next to Y/N," George interjected. "And she always sits in front."

"What are these allegations being made against me?" Dave complained, shaking his head.

You smiled to yourself, choosing not to respond to the banter and instead guiding the group to enter the queue for the ride.

After ten minutes, Zak started moving around, complaining about the wait.

"It's just a 30 minute wait Skep can you hold still?" Darryl laughed at him.

"I'm so bored!"

Harvey suggested he play something on his phone, to which he reluctantly agreed.

"He's like the younger brother we have to babysit."

"I can hear you!"

"I'd be concerned if you couldn't," Dave responded dryly.

Checking your phone, you saw more messages from the group chat with SapNap, GeorgeNotFound and Dream, who were discussing some more about the upcoming hunter versus speedrunner video they wanted to record with you.

You would be streaming with Dave on the days you were designated to record, so you supposed Darryl could replace you fine.

"Dream Team wants me to record a speedrun video with them," you announced. "I'll be streaming with Dave though. Darryl you wanna do it?"

Dave looked up at you when you mentioned his name.

"It's okay, we can delay the stream," he said, though not really meaning it. He had been waiting to stream with you forever.

"Don't worry about it, Dream can wait," you waved him off. "I stream with 'em all the time, anyway, so I'd rather stream with you for once."

He looked pleasantly surprised by your words, but just nodded, saying nothing more than an 'okay.'

"With who?" Darryl asked after a moment of observing you and Dave's short interaction. "SapNap and George?"

You confirmed his question, and you then told the Dream Team to record with Bad instead, although you'd still help to code the other Minecraft, but... video later next week.

Tucking away your phone, you walked with your group forward in the line, observing the wonderfully decorated pirate themed queue.

"Y/N and I are sittin' in front?" Dave asked, already moving to the front with you without waiting for an answer.

"Is that even a question?" George rebutted, chuckling. "I say when we go on the matterhorn we put Bad in front."

Darryl started shouting at George in return, calling him all sorts of muffins, but you and Zak managed to put him in the second row, much to his annoyance.

"You know what? It won't even matter, because you and Techno will get all the splash," Darryl said smugly.

“Then why didn't you sit in the second row in all those other rides?"

"...that's not important."

As the boat moved through the attraction, Dave made sarcastic comments back at the pirate animatronics, making you and your group laugh at his dry, casual tone.

"Look! Animatronic dog!" Darryl pointed towards the dog.

"Looks like a homeless Floof."

"Would Floof really help an inmate break out a pirate prison?"

"Floof's not.. the brightest dog."

The drop was approaching, the bigger one of the two-- you had barely even felt the first one-- and when the boat made the 14 foot drop in the darkness, you and Dave had gotten splashed, as well as Harvey and George for sitting on the sides.

“Haha! I didn't get wet! And I sat in the second row!" Darryl told you victoriously.

"Yeah? On the Matterhorn it's one person per row and you will get splashed," Zak threatened.

"Wait what?"

The boat passed through the rest of the ride smoothly, without any stops, which you were grateful for. Listening to an animatronic repeating the same lines over and over for who knows how long with these crackheads sitting behind you would drive you insane.

Eventually, you got to leave the boat, and dry off in the sun rather quickly, heading over to the Matterhorn as promised.

After talking about it all day-- and harassing poor Darryl with it all day-- you got to ride it, and it was going to be amazing.

"Were you actually serious about us getting splashed?" Vincent asked curiously as he walked alongside you.

"Yeap. It's a one person per row--" Dave explained before he was cut off by George.

"Aw, you won't get to sit next to Y/N--"

Dave hit the back of George's head to make him shut up, then casually continued.

"But you get splashed. Y/N you probably need to tie your hair back."

You glanced up at him, nodding. Your hair was braidable-- or able to be tied back-- although slightly difficult to do so-- but you'd manage. Maybe

"Skeppy probably should tie his hair back too," Darryl giggled.

"Shut up!"

Approaching the Matterhorn queue, you observed the numerous colorful banners and flags decorating it, as well as the Yeti foot print stone upon a pedestal.

"What do you mean there's a Yeti?" Darryl asked.

"There's a Yeti. Bad, there's literally a footprint on a pedestal right there," George giggled.

As Darryl mourned his poor choices and had a crisis, you attempted to pull your hair out of the way to avoid hitting someone with it or just blocking a view.

Dave noticed your struggle, offering to braid it back for you.

"You know how to do that?" you asked, surprised.

"I have a sister who makes me do it for her," Dave said with an indulgent chuckle. "Come here."

He took a hair tie and put it around his wrist, starting to braid your hair back gently with quick fingers.

"There."

You couldn't see it, but considering how confident he sounded in his abilities, you trusted him. Running your hand over it, it felt fine. His sister must've forced him to do it often. Cute.

"Thanks," you smiled, and he returned it.

"How did you do that witch craft?" Zak asked in disbelief.

Dave shrugged.

"And you guys wonder why everyone ships you," George said.

"I never said I wondered why," you said casually.

George in return chaotically oohed along with Zak, but you shooed him forward in the queue. Your group was riding in the right side of the Matterhorn, and you were sitting in front with Dave in the second row as agreed upon.

"Me in front and him in second please," you requested politely, to which the worker did so. "Thank you!"

You slid into the first seat, putting your items down and securing the belt.

"Let's gooo!" Zak shouted in contrast to a jittery Darryl.

"Yea let's go! Yeti time!"

"I hate you all."

"That wasn't very nice, Bad," George giggled.

"I'm Bad Boy Halo, I'm not nice--" he was cut off by the vehicle lunging forwards, into the dark, wintry cave and up a steep slope. You could barely see anything asides from light in the distance.

Little patches of ice appeared, which you rode past, the growls of the Yeti becoming louder.

Eventually, the other bobsled riding on the left side met and raced alongside yours, whom which waved at you and shouted as the two vehicles met.

"Oh my god it's Y/U!" one passenger in the opposite bobsled screamed. "And the Blood God!"

"Halloo," Dave greeted casually.

You laughed brightly, waving to her and shouting hello as the bobsleds started to separate to go farther into the cave.

The Yeti animatronic lunged out at you, roaring and completely separating the opposite bobsled from yours.

Screaming from the thrill, the group laughed at Darryl's repeated 'oh my goodness's and shouts as your bobsled once again returned to riding alongside the other from before.

"Oh my god I can't believe I'm meeting you guys on a freaking roller coaster!" a girl shouted as loudly as she could from the other vehicle.

Zak gave her an air high-five before her bobsled started speeding up and passed your own, separating.

Twisting and turning through the cave, the bobsled passed the Yeti animatronic again, who roared and lunged at you.

"This Yeti sucks! It's not even trying to kill us!" Zak yelled.

"Get good!" Harvey laughed loudly.

"I bet he doesn't even know there's a sprint key!" Dave added as the group passed it.

Eventually, you splashed into the water, making Darryl and Zak scream, then returning to the loading station to get off the ride.

"You guys were so mean to the Yeti," Vincent chuckled, getting off the bobsled.

"He deserved it," Darryl justified. "Can we please go on a nice calm ride now?"

"Like It's A Small World?" George suggested.

You shoved him playfully, hating the suggestion. It was full of creepy dolls that sung the same song over and over and danced, and to wait half an hour for that was crazy.

***

You ended up waiting half an hour for the ride.
After hearing yours and Vincent's dismay for the ride, George and Darryl forced you to go. George because he liked terrorizing you, Darryl because he wanted revenge.

"They're so creepy," you fake shuddered for the effect.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you," Harvey said dramatically, making Dave laugh condescendingly at him.

Your little boat passed through all of the parts of the ride, your group making little comments about the dolls, and finally, the song ended as your boat pulled back into the exit dock.

"I demand that we go on Space Mountain now, we didn't go to Tomorrowland at all yet," you said immediately after getting off.

"Oh you'll love that ride Bad," Dave mentioned, reaching over to tighten your braid as it had gotten loose.

"I've been on that ride before, no I won't," he huffed.

"Bad Boy Halo doesn't like scary rides, huh? I thought you used to throw knives for competitions."

"He did," you confirmed.

"This is completely different!" Darryl defended quickly. "But fine. I'll go on Space Mountain."

You cheered at his words, walking with the group to the ride. The fantasy theming faded around you as you walked back to Sleeping Beauty's castle, towards the modern themed Tomorrowland.

"You see the tall spike? That's Space Mountain," Harvey pointed out.

"You're gonna have to put Skeppy on your shoulders for him to be able to see," Dave chuckled in response, ducking from a hit Zak aimed at his head.

“I'm not that short! You're all just over grown!"

Zak was the shortest male in the group-- and got cyber bullied for it-- and barely any taller than you were, maybe even shorter than you, depending on who asked. Quite sad.

"I'm gonna have my eyes closed the whole time," Vincent said, charging his phone in his backpack.

"It's a double seater, by the way. We'll all fit into one rocket. Doesn't really matter who's in front," George added, stretching and taking a sip of his water.

Either way, you or Dave were probably sitting in the front, and Harvey in the back, because they were the most thrilling seats.

Stepping inside the building, you walked into the group queue.

"20 minute wait with a pass, Skep's gonna have an aneurysm."

You chuckled, chatting with some of the people in front of you who had asked for a photo.

"Y/U right? I watched your stream with Vikk a week or two ago, really good stuff," one guy said to you.

Thanking him, you returned to making fun of your friends and playing dumb Charade games until you entered the boarding zone.

"Me and Y/N in front?"

"Is that even a question anymore?"

Dave laughed, gently taking your hand and bringing you over to the first row waiting zone.

It was dimly lit, although beautifully colored, and the worker assigned you to the rows. A smooth silver rocket approached, halting to a stop before you, the doors swinging open.

He let you get into the rocket first, sitting down next to you and tucking away his items.

"We ready?" George asked loudly from the back row with Vincent.

"Unfortunately," Darryl sighed, in stark contrast to a chaotic, gremlin-goblin looking Zak.

The rocket moved forward, stopping in front of silver gates whilst workers checked to make sure you wouldn't get launched out of your seats during the ride.

Eventually, you started moving through a tunnel, 'charging' up your rocket and you climbed a slope through a starry tunnel, the outer space and planets visible ahead of you.

“I don't like the sounds it's making," Harvey said apprehensively.

The rocket passed through the tunnel, calmly making some smooth turns, and you were in the galaxy. It was honestly rather beautiful, and you would've enjoyed the calm moment if not for the steep slope you were climbing.

"Oh fuck--"

“LANGUAGE!"

The rocket started reaching the top, and a robotic male voice began counting down.

All of a sudden, the rocket dropped into the darkness, making severe twists and turns without stopping. You kept your eyes open, but saw nothing other than faint stars that all became a blur as you whizzed past them.

The music played, surrounding your rocket, and your vehicle made another steep, dramatic drop.
"Oh shit!" you were able to hear Harvey yell despite everyone's screaming and yelling.

Dave laughed behind you, clearly enjoying the others' suffering just like you.

You flew past some constellations or star clusters of sort, still mostly in the darkness and still going at alarming speeds.

Finally, you reached the station again, after four minutes of intensity, and you were able to calm down.

"Damn that was so intense Bad didn't even yell at me for swearing," Harvey chuckled, grabbing his things.

"Well I was busy concentrating on us almost falling out, you little muffin!"

You reached for your backpack and took the hand Dave offered, standing up to exit.

"I almost feel dizzy kinda," Vincent said. "That was so much fun."

Agreeing with him, you looked around with Dave to find a place to eat, as it was late now and the group had wanted to watch the fireworks at night, and still had a ride or two you all wanted to go on.

"Hey, there's a place over here!"

You followed Zak to the restaurant, ordering then finding a place to sit.

"Where are we going next?"

You shared a little smile with Harvey.

"The Tea Cups?"

"Oh for fucks sake..."

***

An hour later, your group made it back to Fantasyland, and were in the short line for The Mad Tea Party.

"I'm gonna get so dizzy," Zak complained. "And you can't even put all of us into one cup anyways!"

"Yeah, how about the Trio goes in one cup and the rest of us go into another?" you suggested.

"What, so they can bully me by spinning the cup faster?" Zak glared at you.

“Maybe," Vincent laughed, pretending to not know what he meant.

"You want George with you then?"

George perked up at the sound of his name, liking the idea of getting to bully Zak.

"NO! Oh my god I'll just go with the Trio--"

"These four in one cup, please," you interjected to the worker, gesturing to the trio and Spifey.

Indulgently, the worker put them into a cup, just smiling at Zak's betrayed expression. You stifled a laugh as you followed Dave and Harvey into your own teacup.

There was a wheel in the center of the teacup that when spun made the teacup spin even faster, which you knew they would use to bully Zak.

Especially Darryl. He wanted to get back at him. Tough.

"How are we feeling, we wanna go fast?" Harvey asked, to which you and Dave quickly said yes.

"Let's see how many times we can pass by them, I want to see Skeppy's face," Dave laughed in his iconic manner. "He looks so sad, oh my god--"

The teacups began spinning, and you, Harvey, and Dave promptly began spinning the heavy wheel in return, laughing in delight at the speed.

Your cup passed by Zak's who was moodily glaring at the rest of the Trio and George, who were having the times of their lives at his expense.

“Look!" Harvey started laughing uncontrollably. "Look at his face!"

How Zak managed to look so emo and moody on a tea cup ride you would never know, but it was hilarious.

The tea cups came to a halt, doors sliding open to allow you to exit. You met Zak, who admittedly did look dizzy, laughing quietly at him.

"I hate you."

"Tough."

Darryl was giggling and making fun of Zak with George, chaotic energy immeasurable between them.

"We ready to go to the castle?" Dave asked.

You nodded. The fireworks show was beginning.

***

"Wow, it looks so beautiful."

"Maybe I would be able to enjoy it more if I wasn't so dizzy," Zak shot back, although he had no ill intent.

The castle was lit up prettily, and the zip-line which Tinkerbell would fly on was barely visible to you as you sat at the front of the crowd, near the castle with your group.

Dave settled down next to you, taking off his backpack and relaxing.

"Really nice, isn't it?" he asked quietly, his deep voice startling you.

"Yeah. I feel really lucky to be here."

Silence enveloped you as you listened to the opening show.

"I wonder how different this would be if I never tweeted at you that day," Dave said after a moment.

He wasn't just talking about today, you realized.

"It's all part of the master plan, hmm?" you laughed gently, nudging him.

HIs mouth curved up in a little smile.

"Happiest place on earth, huh?" he returned.

You paused, considering his words.

"I think the happiest place on earth is wherever my friends are. So for today, yes," you answered truthfully.

Dave turned his head to look at you, contemplating something for a moment.

Suddenly, he reached out for you, wrapping his arm around your shoulders.

Around you, the fireworks exploded into the air.

A perfect memory made.

Chapter Text

"Are we ready to stream yet guys?"

It was a makeshift, probably not high-quality stream on a laptop and not so well balanced camera, but it would have to do. After all, you were just chatting for a short time.

"Yeah, hurry up!" Zak yelled from next to you on the floor. "I wanna stream!"

Picking up your phone, you started typing a Tweet out, telling your followers you'd be streaming unexpectedly for a short while, before George leaned over the couch and snatched your phone.

"What the fuck George?" you complained, leaning back to see what he was doing.

He didn't respond, simply giggling like a goblin and typing extremely quickly. When had your standards of friends lowered so significantly?

"I don't want to know how and why you're typing at 300 cps, give me back my phone!"

George willingly gave you back your phone, walking over to sit down next to you.

He really was the only one who was as energetic and chaotic offline as he was online.

Though you could say Dave was the same, but he wasn't really energetic to begin with.

"What did it say?" Zak asked curiously.

"He just said he'd try and give the fans more content to ship." you didn't delete the Tweet— your followers had already seen it anyways— but just put a clarifying Tweet telling them it was Spifey and also adding you were streaming in ten minutes. "Whatever. Where's the rest of them?"

"Here!" Darryl said cheerfully, sitting down forcefully with an oomph. "Vincent is here too and Techno is getting his stuff."

"What, is he getting the shittiest mic he can find?" you asked jokingly, getting on Twitch.

"What was that? What did you say?"

Looking back, you saw Dave staring at you, shaking his head in disappointment.

You offered a small apologetic smile, shrugging carelessly.

"Nothin'," you smiled. "Hurry up!"

"Okay, okay," he grumbled, starting to walk over, only to pause and raise an eyebrow at George, who dramatically moved away from you, offering the spot to him. "Thanks?"

Dave dropped into the seat besides you anyways, taking a peek at your laptop.

"He's such a simp for Y/U," George cooed.

Darryl giggled, mentioning all of the compilations of you and Dave that George had blasted at full volume this morning from YouTube.

"I'm not a simp--"

"Let's start!" Zak yelled impatiently.

Rolling your eyes, you opened OBS and Twitch to start streaming, despite notifications of replies from your friends to your Tweet keeping on appearing.

"There we go. They should be able to see all of us on camera... I didn't turn it on yet, did I?"

Dave pulled up your Twitch stream-- it was cute to you to see that he was subscribed for a long time-- and showed you.

"You're all good. We ready to start?"

Without waiting, you started the stream, taking off the 'stream about to start' image from the screen.

"You have so many channel points," Harvey said in awe.

"What-- what are you tryin' to say?" Dave asked, laughing mildly awkwardly.

Harvey raised an eyebrow, smiling to himself and leaning back into the couch.

"Nothing. You're getting defensive, aren't you?"

You turned to look at him carefully. Was he conspiring with George in order to get content for the fans?

You wouldn't really put it past him.

"Okay... anyways, hello chat!" you interjected, avoiding speaking more on the topic in order to save a somewhat awkward Dave. "We're just chatting today, talking about Vid-Con and the trip since this is our last day all together."

"Aw, that's so sad to think about," Darryl whined. "It's just been like what, five days?"

"Five days," Harvey confirmed. "We got here on early Tuesday, today is Sunday, and some of us are leaving in a few hours, actually."

You would definitely miss rooming with this chaotic group. After knowing most of them for years, and rarely getting to meet them in real life, especially Vincent and Darryl, it was sad to say goodbye, even if you had only stayed with them for five days.

"Yeah. This was really fun," Dave admitted.

For once, George was serious, agreeing with him.

"I didn't expect this trip to be this fun," George said after a minute of thought. "I wanna do it again soon."

You smiled, chin in your palm as you observed the group. The group had often spoken about moving in together, but considering living situations and how far apart you all were, it was difficult to plan.

Maybe you could make it work.

"What's been your favorite part of the trip? By the way I love you guys," your donation bot read aloud, making your glance flicker over to your laptop.

The group went quiet, thinking of an answer to the question, but no one could come up with an answer. Every one of the memories made in the past few days had been favorites in their own ways.

"I don't think.. I don't think I had a favorite part," Zak admitted, leaning forward to rest his arms on his legs. "Everything.. was really amazing."

You shot him a gentle smile, encouraging and agreeing with his answer.

"Yeah. The whole thing.. it was great," Dave sighed heavily, making sure not to bring up everything that had happened behind closed doors. "I think this was more than just a vacation to all of us."

Everyone unanimously agreed, nodding and murmuring little forms of agreement. It had been jokes and all on camera, but offline the whole experience had brought you all closer than before. Your group dynamic shifted to become more comfortable with each other-- and that alone was enough.

And your deepened relationship with Dave.. to become more honest and open with each other, and to support each other.. that was something no-one else would see, but something that meant so much to you.

"I don't think I'll ever forget this," Vincent said softly. "It's been great."

"Man, now we're getting all deep and emotional," Zak groaned. "But it was. As much as you guys are annoying, I love you guys."

You shared a little smile with him, conveying what you couldn't in words.

"I love you guys too." you brought your legs up to sit cross-legged on the couch. "And who knows, maybe we can make that YouTube house one day."

"One day."

As the thoughtful mood started lightening a little, donations asking you bunches of questions started popping up more frequently.

"Why didn't you guys record a video? Specifically Y/U because she said she wanted to?" your bot read aloud the donation message.

You sighed. Everyone kept asking you this question, dissatisfied with your answer that three others were already filming one.

"No video could properly show what I gained and am so grateful for from this trip. No video could do that justice," you confessed. "And Vin, Zak, and George are already doing their own."

Dave looked over at you upon hearing your words, giving you a small smile that made you return your own.

He was a more private person, and so were you. The need to share personal on-goings publicly had never gotten to you before.

More questions appeared from donations, mostly targeted towards specific people, or about next videos or streams. As more people started watching your stream from all of the channels, the atmosphere became more online-friendly.

And because of that, memes were often spammed now that the viewers saw the lightened atmosphere, much to Darryl's dismay.

"How do you feel about recently becoming the biggest and most popular female Twitch streamer? Are you still friends with Pokimane?" the bot read.

You frowned at the question. Why did the internet want drama with you so badly?

"I worked hard to get where I am and I'm really grateful for the support. It's amazing, especially with me hitting 10 million on YouTube soon," you trailed off. "And I see no reason why I wouldn't be friends with Pokimane anymore."

Questions came in asking about the little details of the trip which you answered here and there, though not saying much.

“YouTube house? Please?" a donation was read aloud.

You smiled tiredly. The question was one you got almost every stream, and you were sure that everyone else got it often as well. Everyone wanted your group to move in together, as so many YouTube groups had done.

Before this trip, you would've passed it off as a ridiculous idea.

Now, you were considering it seriously, but it was still difficult. YouTube groups had a tendency to not stay together long, and for drama to start. Though your group was mostly unproblematic, there was always chances.

It was something you were hesitant to do. But something you still wanted to.

"Maybe. It's a messy idea, but we'll try," you said calmly, indulging the topic.

After answering some more questions for another hour, it was time to wrap things up since Vincent had a flight very soon, as well as George.

"Well that's been a nice stream, hasn't it?" Zak concluded, looking around at the group.

"Yeah. Thanks guys for watching, we gotta get these two—" you pointed at George and Vincent "— to the airport. Bad, Skep, and Harv have flights similar time this afternoon... then Techno and I have fly late last. Yay."

"We have to weed out the weak until only the strong remain," Dave explained.

Stifling a laugh, you ended the stream, turning off the camera and beginning to pack it up. Vincent wasn't going to allow to you to make him miss his long flight home.

***

Thankfully, he made it on time with George, with some time to spare.

As you stopped where you couldn't go farther with the group, you said bye to your two close friends once they had already said their farewells to the rest of the group.

"I'll miss you and your moody face in all the photos you didn't walk away from," you chuckled, nudging Vincent. "See you soon."

He laughed, hugging you back then waving as he walked away into the airport. It was likely you wouldn't see him for some while.

"Tell me when you finally get a boyfriend, yeah?" George giggled. "I have something to give you once you do."

You narrowed your eyes suspiciously.

"What're you getting at, beaver?"

"It's just something to remind you where you started from." He booped your nose. "And I know exactly who you'll be with."

"You're like a terrible fairy godmother," you said, shaking your head in disbelief.

"I wouldn't say terrible, I think I've set you up fine," George laughed, leaning over to hug you. "See you soon, N/N."

Rolling your eyes, you hugged him back tightly anyways and waved to him as he left. You'd miss his stupid antics.

"Bye, George."

You watched both of them leave, separating to go their own separate ways in the airport.

A couple minutes later, Zak's phone lit up in his hands. A Tweet had been sent out by George, presumably as he waited to board, tagging all of you.

'Miss you guys already :('

'We miss you too :('

***

Only six hours later, at 6 p.m., you had to see the rest of your friends off, though they were taking the rented car with them and would be leaving from the house on their own. You and Dave had less luggage, and wouldn't need the car, instead taking a taxi, so you decided to let them return it.

"Bye Zak, you idiot," you said, shoving him slightly. "I'll see you in like two days." He only lived about forty minutes away from you, and would likely just come over to bother you for fun.

"Rude. Bye, N/N," he returned, shoving you back before leaving to put his luggage in the car.

"I'll miss you Darryl," you said, looking up at your long time friend. "I haven't seen you in years and we barely got to spend any time together."

"I'll miss you too. Maybe we can make that YouTube house work one day, so we can be together everyday," he said optimistically, making you smile.

"Maybe," you agreed indulgently, hugging him. "Bye, you little muffin."

Darryl enveloped you into a warm hug, sighing contentedly.

"Bye, N/N."

You watched him exit, taking his luggage with him. He paused to look back at you, giving you a beaming smile that made your heart melt before he left.

Who knew when you would get to see him again...

"Don't look so down, we'll organize another trip soon," Harvey smiled, approaching you to give you a side hug after he finished talking to Dave. "I'll miss you though."

"Me too. See you soon, Harv."

"See you soon, N/N."

Walking over to the front patio, you watched them get ready to leave to the airport. Dave joined you by your side, waving back to them when they waved at you for the final time.

You watched them drive off into the distance.

"They're so annoying but I miss them already," you sighed, turning to go back into the house. You weren't going to be leaving for another three hours.

"I miss 'em too, but we'll see them again soon," Dave assured you, locking the door and flopping onto the couch.

You picked up your phone, typing a message into the group chat that you hesitated to send. Were you really about to make such a big commitment?

"Dave?"

You dropped onto the couch next to him.

"Yeah?" he replied, meeting your gaze.

"How do you feel about moving in with everyone?"

***

"You live there?" you asked, surprised. "You're only about an hour away from me, then."

You already had known that he lived close to you, but he wasn't much farther away than Zak was.

"Yeah. You should come visit," he said, stretching. "We ready to go? Didn't forget anythin', did we?"

You shook your head, picking up your backpack. Dave had taken your luggage out to the car already for you, beating you to it.

"We're still on for that Minecraft VR stream on Tuesday aren't we?" you asked, slipping into the taxi.

"Yeah, I tried it, I'll get a six pack by the time we defeat the ender dragon," he laughed, sitting next to you.

"Sounds fun," you replied, tucking your phone into your pocket and enjoying the beautiful scenery around you for the last time in however long it would take to come back here.

"Are you.. are you watchin' my MCM stream tomorrow?" he asked after a minute of silence. "I mean, you're probably tired, but—"

You gave him a little smile, reassuring him.

"Yeah, I'll be there. Blood for the blood god."

He returned your smile a little shyly.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

***

Sometime later, you had landed back home. It was a short flight, but still managed to give you jet lag.

"Who's picking you up?" Dave asked. "My mom and sister are here."

Your gaze flickered over to where his was fixated, seeing a woman who resembled him strongly as well as a little girl in the car who was watching you with wide eyes.

"My mom too. I'm staying at hers for the night and returning to my apartment later to be safe," you answered. "See you tomorrow, Dave."

He hesitated, as if not wanting to leave.

"I.. shouldn't I stay until you get picked up?" he said, chuckling nervously. "I wouldn't feel good just leavin' you here."

His words and consideration touched you, and you agreed, thanking him for waiting.

"Yeah, it's no problem, don't worry about it," he dismissed in his usual monotone voice. "You wanna meet my sister? She's a fan."

Your mouth quirked up into a smile.

"Sure."

Walking alongside him to meet his mother and sister, you found them both incredibly sweet and kind— it really made you wonder how he turned out to murder online for money.

"Hi! I'm Y/N," you introduced, shaking his mother's hand.

"You're Y/U!" the little girl shouted. "I can't believe it, Dave is actually good for something—"

"Excuse me—"

"Can you come over to play Minecraft with me?" she interrupted her brother excitedly.

You smiled endearingly. She was so adorable.

"Of course I can," you said indulgently, seeing your mom's car approach in the distance. "That's my ride, I'll see you later."

Stepping away from the car, you reached over to hug Dave, to which he returned, before walking away.

It was time to go home.

As you set your luggage in the trunk and slid into the passenger seat, you noticed Dave still standing there, watching to make sure you got in safely. "Bye, Dave. I'll see you tomorrow," you called, smiling brightly.

"See you tomorrow," he echoed, stepping into his own car.

So much had happened in one day, and you wondered what was to come tomorrow.

Chapter Text

"Hey Y/N. YOU there?" Dave asked, walking to stand in front of you in the MCM hub.

"Here," you yawned, hitting his character, still sleepy and a bit jet lagged from the flight last night. "I'll leave before first game starts, don't worry."

"Alright. Anyhow, you're spectating? How'd you get that?" he asked curiously, preparing to start streaming.

"I'm friends with Mitch and LaakeB, they kept me whitelisted since I'm playing next week," you explained. "I'll probably float around as spectator, I don't know."

"Ah. I thought you were watching my stream?"

You quietly chuckled at his words.

"You want me to? I can," you reassured him, grinning at his shyness. "You should start streaming."

He remained silent, starting up his stream and waiting for the chat to load.

You opened his stream on your other screen, seeing chat start spamming, mostly consisted of people saying 'mic muted' or 'blood for the blood god.' How unique.

"Hi chat!" you greeted, seeing them explode with messages and say hi back to you. "I'm here for moral support."

"Started the stream," Dave said in the somewhat sing-song voice way he always did. "Yes, today we're playing with James Charles, Y/U is just here to give me support so I don't throw and get cancelled..."

You laughed at his phrasing, assuring chat that you wouldn't be in the call anymore once the first game started. Interrupting his stream would just be plain annoying to everyone.

"I'm so sleepy," you said afterwards, yawning once more.

"You better be getting enough sleep Y/N," he threatened calmly.

"We both went to sleep at the same time, you can't be talking," you returned immediately, though appreciating him keeping up the banter when you were tired.

"You sound almost as dry and monotone as me, clearly you need more sleep. There can't be two of me."

James joined the channel, checking his mic with his stream already started.

"Here we go.. the memes," Dave chuckled, getting back into his regular personality. "I'm getting demonetized so hard today. Hi chat, we're going to be sweeping today's Minecraft Monday. It's not going to even be close, okay, we've been training."

"It's true, I honestly feel prepared," James laughed lightly. "Hey, Y/U!"

"Hey James, good luck, your back is gonna hurt carrying Techno," you greeted him back.

"Yeah I won't even have to do anything, James is gonna start 2v1-ing the best teams," Dave added.

"Okay, I don't know about that. Thank you though Y/U."

You flew over to the podiums, checking to make sure the teams were right according to the list. Some people still hadn't joined proper teams, but they looked fine.

Still, you had no idea how Vikk managed to get to team with Preston, but that wasn't any of your business as you weren't the one approving the teams.

Right, Preston was rusty... you remembered reading that in the group chat then immediately messaging Techno to get his thoughts.

You both had laughed at it, saying there was no way it would happen, but look at them now...

How anyone considered him rusty was beyond you, but they were good, and if they won, they would deserve it.

Logically, if they won, it was likelier to convince Keem to let you and Techno team anyways. All part of the master plan, as Dave called it.

"What're the teams lookin' like?" Dave wondered aloud, flying to stand besides you.

"I heard Vikk is teamed with someone, like, OP," James mentioned.

"He's teamed with Preston," Dave replied dryly. "At first they were like, 'you can't team with Preston, that's ridiculous,' but he said 'oh don't worry he's rusty,' so if they sweep this week, I'm making a Trojan horse meme."

"Oh, absolutely not," James sighed annoyedly, logging onto the server after his stream was up.

"Phil and Jerome are a pretty strong team," you analyzed, flying through the team podiums. "So are Skep and BBH, Ant and Jordan."

"Yeah. Vikk is by himself, what a loser am I right--"

That made you and James start laughing at his casual tone, with you both making comments about him being toxic. The /top play was already enough to piss off some fans.

"I'm kiddin' don't tell his chat.. we got Skeppy and BadBoyHalo, they're both bald, but they're okay at video games," Dave continued. "We got Chris, don't need to worry about him...

"Bajan got bailed on.. and yeah, AntVenom and CaptainSparklez, those are our main teams," he finished.

A message from Mitch appeared in the chat, which you replied to.

'We ready to start?'

'Yeah, let's go. GLHF all!'

***

You had exited the channel to leave them alone, though you still had Dave's stream up on another monitor as you spectated with Laake.

Dave had unfortunately already died in the first round of Hunger Games, but James was still alive, hiding beyond the border upon some roofs of houses, eating soup and golden apples to survive the weak border damage.

Guessing that Dave planned to keep James there for survival points as a strategic play, you watched him along with majority of the other dead spectators, waiting for him to make a move.

Vikk was at mid, and with James taking border damage, it wasn't a fight James could win, so it was a good idea to milk how weak the border was for now.

Eventually, James made moves forward, talking shortly with Vikk in the chat before they fought. Surprisingly, James had gotten him rather low, but died anyways.

Vikk and Preston had won game one. That surprised no-one, but game two was TNT Run, five rounds everyone expected Techno to sweep.

The games started.

You hovered around Dave, noticing him about to fall with about five others alive.

'F' you typed into the chat, seeing James write that Phil was getting cancelled shortly after.

'james pls'

'cancelled'

Waiting for either JustVurb or Vikkstar to fall took a while, but eventually Vurb fell, to everyone's dismay, and Vikk appeared the winner.

Who's bright idea was it to allow them to team?

Round two started up, and as the players started falling, you listened to Dave's commentary.

"Vikk and Preston are still alive! Oh, Phil is cancelled..."

You checked the chat, seeing James had typed, '#PHILISOVERPARTY'

'PHILL IS OFFICIALLY CANCELLED'

'RIP Phil'

'no please no JAMES WHY'

"It feels good not being the one who's getting cancelled for once," Dave mentioned, hopping from block to block.

Skeppy had won the round, Dave winning the next, then Vurb. It was a much more diverse winning group this time, and surprising too. Zak usually did good at TNT Run, but you hadn't seen him win before.

And Dave's notably less-than-usual performance... it could just have been jet-lag, but you wondered if he was slightly secretly throwing.

"And Vikk wins the last round," you muttered to yourself, looking for the leaderboards.

Flying over to quickly check the podiums, you saw exactly what you predicted. Vikk and Preston in first, followed by Mitch and Vurb then James and Dave.

Looks like the blood god wasn't getting another + to his PIG rank this week..

***

"Okay, right click on the ender pearl to throw it," Dave instructed, throwing James a pearl.

"Okay.. I knew that already," James replied, laughing awkwardly in attempts to soften the blow.

"I don't know man, you didn't know about the sprint key," he justified.

The crossover of James and Technoblade was one you absolutely never expected to happen, but today you really learned why it was so surprising-- their dynamics didn't exactly work, and the conversation was a bit awkward.

"Wow, rude, do you talk to your girlfriend like this?" James laughed, trying to lighten the atmosphere.

"I.. don't have a girlfriend," he said in response.

"I thought you were dating Y/U?"

James didn't really know much about you or Dave, so you supposed he assumed that you were together. He had probably heard thing from your fans going to his stream too..

"No," Dave said flatly. "I'm not."

"Why'd she come see you before the game then?" James asked confusedly.

"...she's my friend?"

"Not just a friend for long, huh?" he laughed suggestively.

Groaning, you buried your face in your hands, feeling the second-hand
embarrassment and awkwardness.

You were just waiting for the rumors to die down at this point... and for this tournament to end.
***

As you had predicted, despite Dave and James' best efforts, Vikk and Preston had won. To nobody's surprise.

Loads of Trojan horse memes would be coming from Dave's fan base and many others— when the teams were announced, no one was expecting any other outcome.

At least James and Dave had done well, though. It was a decent game for them, and they weren't expected to win. Fourth place overall and third place in individuals for Dave was good enough

Maybe this would be the chance you had to team with him next week.

After the games had ended, and you gave them time to chat, you hopped into the discord channel to congratulate them for doing well-- it was sub-par for Dave, but good for James.

"You guys did great!" you said, joining the channel just as James prepared to leave.

"Thanks," James accepted your compliment. "I'm gonna go. See you two next week."

"See you next week," Dave echoed.

The noise of James leaving the Discord channel sounded in your headphones.

"Good stream?" you asked, noticing how he immediately became more casual and less awkward.

"Yeap. I missed you."

"What did James do to you? Or what did you do to James?" you teased, fixing your posture in your chair.

"Nothing. I just missed not bein' super awkward," he admitted, and you could hear the little grin in his voice.

"Okay, loser. I'll see you tomorrow for Minecraft VR," you yawned. "I need to get more sleep."

"You should've been sleeping for the past two hours," Dave said dryly.

"If I missed your stream you would've thrown a tantrum."

The chat, visible on your other monitor, was going insane.

"I'm getting cyberbullied, I would not have thrown a tantrum--'

You just laughed at him, telling him you'd text him later and stream Minecraft VR with him tomorrow.

"Bye, Dav-- Techno," you corrected, remembering that he didn't like being called by his real name online.

"Bye Y/U."

Leaving the discord channel, you stayed on his stream for a little while, amusedly reading the feral chat.

'hwo r we not suppsoed to ship them'

'technosimp'

'mic muted'

'nobody: techno: simps for y/u'

'gg'

'rustyyyy'

'team with y/u next week and say she's rusty'

You just smiled to yourself-- fans and the chat were always like this-- leaving the stream and checking Twitter for the tweet Keemstar sent out announcing the winners.

Clicking on the Tweet showing Preston and Vikk as victorious, plenty of Trojan horse and rusty memes were in the replies, likely from Dave's chat.

Tweeting out a congratulatory reply, you shut off your computer to head off to sleep-- because you really needed energy tomorrow to play Minecraft VR.

A message from Dave lit up your phone.

'you better get enough rest'

'aw, you care'

'that's irrelevant. go to sleep'

':)'

Chapter Text

"Hello? You there?" you asked, hearing him join the discord voice channel.

"Yeah, I'm here. Settin' up the game," Dave answered you distractedly.

Hovering and feeling a bit confused, you wondered how you were supposed to act. You had never played or recorded with just him before— and you would usually hold off on some jokes you reserved for close friends, but you wondered how close he considered you two.

"You're not streaming, right?"

"Nah, just you are."

Was Dave just being awkward or oblivious?

"Alright, I'll start a new world..." you trailed off. "Hardcore?"

"Yeah. Let's not get one hit killed by a creeper, alright?" he joked, laughing dryly.

"Okay, Technonoob. We're in an open discord channel, some friends might pop in to say hi... starting stream," you warned, doing so.

Dave had agreed with you to try not to use the break and hit buttons until you got too tired to do the motions on your own— that would be interesting.

Your viewers— you averaged 20k viewers a stream, depending on how engaging it was or what you were playing— started filling in, talking in the chat.

Donations were being read aloud by your bot, as you would have the headset on, so you hoped they were all okay.

"Hi chat!" you greeted them, waving to your camera. "I'm here with the Blade!"

"Welcome guys, we're playing Minecraft in virtual reality.. I saw Shroud play this and I was like 'oh my god I have to try this,' so I dragged Y/U with me," Dave said, talking to your chat. "Anyhow we're playing hardcore because, I mean, what are we, little babies? Come on."

"Imagine dying in a hardcore world," you muttered, putting on your headset and finding your controls. "I put on my face-cam so you all can see me look like an idiot, you're welcome."
"Have you ever played a VR game before anyways?" he asked, joining the world and spawning next to you.

"Nope," you popped the word, shrugging helplessly. "But we're elite gamers, we got this."

"Yeap. Okay I have arms, this is great... is that a chicken?"

You laughed at him getting distracted, thanking a person who had subscribed to you before starting to punch down a spruce tree manually.

"Okay, so we have a button to break blocks," you explained. "But we're not using it."

"There's a button-- that's not the button-- there's a button- that's also not the button... there's a button, there we go, first try." Dave messed around the controls, still clearly trying to orientate himself. "But hey, we're doing it the old fashioned way... punch--

"That didn't work," he grumbled, continuing to punch the tree physically whilst repeatedly muttering 'punch' and 'bababa' under his breath.

You tilted your head, laughing quietly at the sounds he was making while punching the tree.

"And now--" he started reaching for the log above him. "I-- I can't reach it. Wait.."

Wisely, you didn't attempt to follow his actions, simply moving to another tree in order to get more wood.

Eventually, after some struggle, Dave had managed to get the wood, panting heavily for dramatic effect afterwards.

"Are.. are you going to get the one above it?" you suggested, chuckling and placing down a crafting table.

He jumped, and an audible noise of him hitting something sounded through your headphones, making you start laughing at his misfortune.

"I hit my ceiling in real life, oh my god..."

"Imagine being tall enough to hit the ceiling."

While you didn't consider yourself incredibly physically inactive, it was certainly tiring to do everything manually-- but you were determined.

Even though your chat was probably laughing at and cyberbullying you right now.

"This is the most exercise I've gotten in years," you muttered, finally going to get stone.

"I did not think this would be that tiring," he agreed. "You can actually kneel down in this game and hit blocks from there-- do not take that out of context--"

"Could you play with this on Hypixel? And cheat?" you wondered aloud. "I hope Simon isn't watching this stream right now..."

Suddenly, it sounded like Dave had tripped or stepped on something, making you go silent, wondering if he was okay.

"That was a bunch of wires.. I bet I look like an idiot right now," he complained, making you smile broadly.

A couple minutes later, the pair of you made it back with plenty of stone, making tools slowly with the different controls than usual.

"I think I'm slowly getting used to it," you said victoriously.

"Exactly, we're pro gamers, it's all good... it's a chicken! Where is it, we need food..."

Smiling to yourself, you forgot your stream could see your face.

"Here," you said, putting down a furnace and blocking off the entrance. "Cook the food, I'll try and mine to a cave."

After a few blocks forward, your arms started to tire. It was seriously tiring to do everything manually, but it was good for the content and it was pure dedication.

"My arms hurt," you said exasperatedly, chuckling afterwards.

"Okay, don't hurt yourself now-- here, I'll mine for ya."

You clicked the control and moved out of the hallway, taking some cooked food to regain your lost hunger.

"Y/U," your donation bot started, making you turn to the source of the noise despite not being able to see it, "will you compliment Techno more please? It's funny seeing his reaction. Also take my money."

"What?"

"No, I cyberbullied him enough already," you laughed dismissively, ignoring your friend. "I would feel bad."

"Feels bad man," he returned, fake sniffling.

"What feels bad?"

The sound of someone joining your discord voice channel startled you, and you almost dropped your controllers.

"Spifey?" you asked hesitantly.

"Toodledo, kangaroo. So, what feels bad?" he repeated.

You could almost hear his chaotic smile. He had entered the channel strategically, hadn't he? Spifey was like the captain of the ships about you.

"Donation asked me to compliment Techno more, I said I already cyber bullied him enough. Happy?" you rolled your eyes underneath the headset.

"Yeah then why don't you compliment him?" George pushed. "Do it, come on!"

Figuring he wouldn't leave you alone until you did so, you made a flyaway comment.

"Uh. Techno, you have nice hair."

"Thanks," he laughed understandingly. "We need to get a cave."

Taking off your headset, you kicked out Spifey, then put it back on.

"Stay out, you rat," you said good-naturedly, knowing he was listening to your stream.

Mining alongside Dave, you returned to helping him find a cave. A ravine would be nice right about now...

"I have to actually swing my arms to break these blocks," he panted. "I'll have a six pack by the time we fight the ender dragon."

"You didn't already?" you teased.

"We spent a week living in the same house, did you not see me?"

You just half-hummed half-giggled, continuing to mine and ignoring his words.

That clip would make it into a ship compilation, you knew.

"I look like an idiot," he chuckled miserably. "It doesn't even look cool in Minecraft, I look like an idiot in both worlds."

"Yeah? I wish I came over to your house for this stream," you chuckled. "Would be funny to see you walking around like an idiot."

"That is exactly why I didn't want you to come over for this stream," Dave returned.

Following Dave into the cave, you kept torches in your offhand so your viewers would be able to see, stabbing some skeletons on the way.

"Oh fuck!" you shouted suddenly, seeing a creeper appear in front of an opening into a ravine.

"Wait, I'll save you—"

Creepers could one hit kill you, especially when you had little to no armor on, and you didn't want to deal with any of that.

Dying was for the weak.

"Why do they have military strategies?" you asked, laughing loudly at his muttered complaints.

You killed off the creeper carefully, putting your shield up against the skeleton.

"They're all military geniuses, this is unfair," Dave said.

"For once you're the one getting cyber bullied," you mentioned. "Hey! Spider!"

Quickly stabbing the spider, you dropped down into the mineshaft below you, making sure to block off the entrance after Dave.

"Hey, we make a pretty good team," he mentioned casually, walking down one path.

"I know. Dynamic duo, remember?" you chuckled, referencing back to the trip a couple days ago.

"Yeap. Imagine we team next week. Unstoppable. None of those nerds stand a chance."

Walking through the mineshaft, you kept a torch in your offhand as you looked for the loot you wanted.

"Oh shit that's the poisonous spider spawner-- OH--" you yelled, a spider biting you and giving you poison.

"Block it off, block it off," Dave said urgently, killing it as you backed up and put wood over the entrance.

After you had healed and walked through a bit more of the mineshaft, you thought it was most likely a good idea to end the stream and continue another day, maybe sometime later this week or after MCM.

"My arms are so tired," you sighed. "We'll end it here?"

"Yeah, me too."

Taking off your headset, you thanked the last few donations.

"No, we don't have confirmed teams yet for week five," you confessed. "Some teams are, neither of us are confirmed."

"We asked, they said they'd think about it," Techno informed your chat, logging off the game.

"Yeah, we'll keep you updated. And you'll see the roster anyways.. alright, see you guys later!"

You ended the stream, setting away your Oculus and stretching.

"Wasn't that fun?" you said, spinning around in your chair.

"Mhm. You're fun to play with."

You raised an eyebrow, despite him not being able to see you. He was getting more comfortable with you, and bolder as a result.

"Yeah? You are too. I'm gonna go take a shower and head off to sleep," you replied casually.

"Thanks. See you later."

"See you later."

***

As you stepped out of your bathroom some time later, you picked up your phone to plug it into its charger, when you noticed a text notification from Dave.

'i saw you had eye-bags on our stream, go to sleep'

'and you said you didn't care, haha you really do B)'

'i never said i didn't care'
'just go to sleep nerd'

'goodnight blood god'

'lmao goodnight n/n'

Chapter Text

You had actually managed to convince the organisers of Minecraft Monday to put you and Dave together.

There was a running joke in the chat and community about being 'rusty,' and since you hadn't played in 'a whole seven days,' you convinced them into approving the team.

Besides, xqc and m0xy, Zak and Darryl and several other teams would give you a run for your money— it was a rather even playing field, even if Vikk wasn't participating this week.

The noise of Dave entering your discord channel startled you from your thoughts.

"Hey," he greeted casually. "We ready to sweep?"

"I was tempted to put winner's POV in the title but I didn't... so I put it in the description," you laughed, joining the MCM server.

"We're just too good, there's no other option for anyone else to win," Dave said, and you imagined him shrugging casually as he said it. "We ready to start streaming?"

You hummed in response, making sure your camera worked before starting your Twitch stream.

Having put out a Tweet and Instagram story up telling your fans you were streaming today, your fans appeared in droves, racking up your viewer count.

"Startin' the stream," Dave said, standing in front of you in the hub. "There we go. I can see chat, this is great."

You already knew majority of the teams playing this week, especially the threats, but you flew over to the podiums anyways to show your stream. Dave followed you.

"Let's see the teams... James and Bajan? Huh, the crossovers lately," you observed, flying past the podiums. "Vikk's on vacation, he told me. Sucks he's not playing..."

"Skep and Halo are here, they're pretty good," your teammate admitted. "xQc and m0xy as well, m0xy especially."

"I don't know those dudes well, xQc plays Overwatch I think, my chat tells me... m0xy's real good, yeah."

Jerome and Phil were teamed once more-- another good team, and Traves and Cscoop together again. Considering these four teams, it would be difficult, but you were confident.

"Okay, hi chat, we ready to get paid?" you read your chat, thanking a couple early donations.

"None of these casuals even stand a chance."

The first game, hunger games, was starting in a few minutes, and you joined the lobby in advance.

"Who were you going to get teamed with if our team was rejected?" you asked out of curiosity, tapping your fingers on your desk to get out the jittery feeling.

“Uh... Carson, I think. I'm glad our team got approved though."

You pretended to be touched by his answer, forming a heart with your hands towards the camera.

"Aww, okay, games about to start," you said dismissively, seeing a donation pop up. "My donation says, can you tell us one cute thing about Techno?"

"--oh my god--"

"--did you know he can braid hair?" you interrupted excitedly. "He learned how to do it for his sister and that's so cute--"

"It's really not--"

"And he's actually really good at it. Anyways, that's my answer," you giggled chaotically.

Dave went silent, probably shaking his head exasperatedly at you.

Spifey and his chaotic behaviour had rubbed off on you, you realized.

You appeared on the glass block above him, the first game about to begin.

"Okay, we wanna go left?" you asked, serious again.

You really weren't kidding about wanting to win this week now that you had the chance to team with him.

"Yeah," he agreed, turning away from mid. "Traves and Cscoop are right there, let's be careful."

Jumping quickly off the glass, you looted some chests, glad to be back in the game after missing last week's tournament.

Finding a stone sword along with some other items, you dropped and exchanged things with Dave.

"I'm guessing you're used to your teammate giving you all the good stuff, huh?" you laughed good-naturedly, taking a helmet he dropped for you.

"Yeah. It's like having extra inventory space, but we don't gotta do that this week," he replied, hopping down from the car. "You got soup?"

You hummed a 'yes' answer, running with him to the next chest.

Spotting a team approaching from the left side, you alerted him, looking over their visible items.

"Fitz and Swagger.. they look poor, but Fitz has a chest plate you need and Swagger has boots I need," you analysed the team quickly. "Wanna go?"

"Skeppy wasn't lying when he said you were fast," Dave chuckled. "Yeah, let's get 'em boys."

Starting to chase the team, they surprisingly met you head on, and you assumed they had gapples, soup, or TNT in order to back them up.

“Target Fitz," you said, leaning forward in your seat slightly. "Gotem, Swagger's running, he's running--"

"Where do you think you're gonna go? Nowhere... he's dead." You took the heal bonus from Fitz, and went through his items, giving the ones Dave needed to him.

"We're just too good at video games, sorry Fitz, that's a lie, I'm not sorry," you laughed, finding a tracker. "Tracking Lauren, let's get her."

Shifting and using the tracker to find Lauren and her teammate, you quickly caught her off guard and killed her with ease, letting Dave kill off her teammate as you went through the loot.

"Border, border, let's go," you warned, running away from the incoming border.

"I think these guys might want to fight us," Dave mentioned, looking at a lurking team that had seen you two run closer to mid.

"Dan and Think, we can take them," you said, looking over at them. "Come on, let's go, I want the points, Traves and Cooper are killing so many people right now."

Sneaking around some cars and buildings, you met ThinkNoodles halfway, taking him down and backing away to heal from his death bonus.

Dave had no problem killing Dan with the superior armour and you there to back him up, looting his items for what he needed.

"Let's go mid, we got the stuff for it," your teammate said, checking inventory. "I want enchants."

You agreed, keeping an eye on your player tracker as you approached mid.

"Jack and DoniBobes!" you said suddenly, seeing them start running away from mid upon seeing you.

"Get 'em!"

Managing to kill Jack but not his teammate, you let him run as you returned to middle to enchant your items.

"Got sharpness and prot... let's hunt for kills, we're good."

"Yeap. Let's go, we got trackers now... Skeppy and BBH, want to kill them?"

"Let's go cyber bully them," you agreed, smiling to yourself. "They called us sadists at Disney, this is revenge."

Shifting and hiding behind some buildings, you checked to see that they were pretty rich, but you were better, as they hadn't gone to mid yet for enchants.

"For once I have less kills than my teammate, no, my reputation," Dave complained, albeit good-naturedly. He didn't really care.

"Tough-- Skep saw me, get him!" Fighting Skeppy and Bad at the same time was rather difficult, but targeting Skeppy helped-- once the aggressive one was down, Bad was alone, and Dave finished him off.

They had done well this round, but you reached mid before them, and your better items helped.

"Wait... Cooper's dead? Find Travis and kill him," you realised, taking the health bonus. "It's just us, Traves, Mitch, and Jordan."

"CaptainSparklez is right there," Dave replied smoothly, hitting his sword in the direction of a hiding Jordan. "I don't want to get cleaned by Traves, he's also there."

"We can take both, just back up if you're low," you assured him, starting to run towards Jordan.

Engaging him in combat, you used soup and finished him off, taking the bonus before turning around to meet Traves.

"Oh shit! Mitch is behind you, watch out--"

Both Travis and Mitch targeted Dave, making him back up, low.

"Get.. away.. from.. him," you said determinedly, hitting Travis off of Dave and killing him. "And-- Mitch is dead!"

"Oh my god that was stress," Dave chuckled, taking a sip of water. "You're really good at this, actually."

"Shut up, you're gonna make me blush," you replied, smiling and returning to the hub after typing 'gg' into the chat.

"Really? Let me pull up your stream then," he teased in his monotone voice.

"Bet you already had it up to get channel points, didn't you? You're like my biggest fan," you made fun of him playfully in return.

"No, I did not."

You grinned knowingly, trying to get him flustered.

"Your face is red, isn't it?" you cooed chaotically.

"No it's not," he laughed.

"Then turn on your face cam, nerd."

"...no."

Both of you burst into laughter, enjoying the casual cyber bullying between you two.

The vibe in this stream was really nice, and both of your viewers enjoyed it.

Calming down, you flew over to the podiums, checking the team placements. You were in first individually and in teams, a wonderful sight.

"Traves and Cooper in second, Skeppy and BBH in third, that's what was expected," you admitted. "TNT run next? You're gonna have to carry me."

"Imagine not playing TNT run for 25 hours a day."

You joined the TNT Run lobby, checking with Laake for the number of rounds.

'how many rounds?'

'just 3. had to stop ya somewhere lol'

':('

'THANK GOD'

'wow james wow'

"Okay.. let's see a triple win, blood god," you encouraged him.

"You usually get top ten to fifteen, don't you?" he asked, checking through the teams to see the strong teams in this mode.

"Mhm. Average," you confirmed, running around the lobby and waiting for the countdown to finish.

“Alright, let's go."

You started running across the top floor, trying to stay alive before the initial purge, when most of the players started dropping.

If you could survive past that for the points and get to the top ten in a round or two, you'd do well enough to support Dave's wins and not force his points to level yours.

After a few minutes, you dropped towards the end, unsurprisingly, spectating Dave as he used the one hop strategy cleverly.

"Okay, just you and one other person.. you won! Let's go!" you said loudly, clapping your hands.

The next two rounds were similar, Dave winning both and earning him a three win streak in TNT Run, much to everyone else's dismay.

"You love to see it," you laughed brightly. "That's going to secure our lead a lot, oh my goodness..."

The podiums reflected exactly what you expected, your lead ahead of Traves and Cooper well-secured.

"Dropper, okay, I'm not too bad at this but it's really easy," you said, stretching your arms lightly. "Boring game, can't lie."

Joining the lobby, you waited for the countdown to reach zero as the rest of the teams followed.

"Who's FireBreathMan? He's doing really good, in third place," Dave observed the leaderboards, then joining the next game.

Dave had overtaken your first place individual spot in TNT Run-- but that was to be expected of him.

"Random, right? Games starting, let's go." you concentrated, dropping into the water and searching for the button. "To the left, to the left! First."

"Second, we're just too good at video games."

***

Dropper was as boring as ever, and when the game ended, Skeppy and BBH had taken second place from Travis and Cooper, trailing behind you.

"Oh my god.. Y/N, it's Spleef," he informed you, knowing you excelled at the game mode.

"Redemption from TNT run," you said, setting down your water bottle. "Skep and Bad are really good though, tough game mode. You need to go sicko mode, Techno."

"Yeah, I'm gonna go sicko mode," Dave chuckled, standing next to you on the map.

The quick timer counted down, and you immediately targeted your mentioned friends, knowing they'd last a long time if you didn't get them out now.

"Oh fuck! FireBreathMan is really good at this," you shouted, nearly falling to him.

"I got him down for ya," he said, knocking him down to the second floor from behind him.

"My saviour," you teased, aiming for Darryl.

He fell, Zak then turning around to hit you, likely because of his teammate's warning.

Zak was good, good enough for you to not want to pick a fight with him, so you skillfully jumped away from him, running to engage with other players.

Eventually, you saw Zak drop, and you sniped him from the top layer, burning him to a crisp.

"He's gonna text me angrily," you said knowingly, already seeing your phone light up with two texts in the distance. "He already is.. who's still alive?"

"Halo, FireBreathMan, Logdotzip, I just fell."

You were the only one still on the top floor, and you paused to shoot at Logdotzip, watching him get knocked off.

"Let me get BBH, I want to be able to say I defeated him, that little muffin."

Dave instructed you to shoot him, and you backed him into a corner, sniping the block he was on smoothly.

Dropping down to meet the last player-- a random, most likely-- you shot at him multiple times, to no avail.

He was certainly quick, and nearly made you fall, matching your fast pace and skill.

You hopped past him, dodging his snowballs, gathering a last stack and shooting in a wide range, hoping one hit.

A second later, he fell into the lava below you.

"Oh my goodness," you stressed. "He's really really good, we need to target him immediately..."

Dave agreed with you, running around the map and waiting for the timer to reach zero once again.

Unfortunately, the player seemed to want to target you just as much this second round, firing at you immediately without hesitation from across the map.

"Okay, he's cornering me, I'm going to run."

Sprinting away and engaging fights with DanTDM instead, you knocked him down two floors and saw him burn. Points for survival kept racking up, and you remained on the top floor with your teammate.

"How? Okay.. he killed me," Dave informed you. "FireBreathMan and you. You got this, you're a god."

You hesitated to drop down-- last time, you were too riskily confident, and you weren't going to use that play again.

Shooting at him from the top floor, you dodged his own snowballs with ease and after some minutes, you shot him down.

"YES!" you shouted victoriously, seeing your name appear as winner for the second time in a row. "Sometimes it's tough being the best."

"If you wish to defeat Y/U, train for another hundred years," Dave chuckled, obviously proud of you and your performance.

The third and final round, you managed to knock off FireBreathMan early, though at the cost of being at the second floor early on the round as well.

Dave spectated and reported on the other players, letting you know where they were and what they were doing.

"M0xy heading towards you," he warned. "Just you and him, he killed the other guy."

"I want to see to triple win, come on, let's go," you muttered determinedly, gathering snowballs around you.

M0xy shot at you whilst approaching, and you dodged them easily, carefully watching for the right time to shoot him in return. Passively, you dodged and waited.

"He's about to cross that thin snow, get em."

Listening to his judgement, you shot a well-aimed snowball, and he fell in the lava pit below.

"That's my girl," Dave chuckled, looking at your username appear for the third time.

"I'm so good at video games!" you shouted, laughing brightly. "Triple win!"

"Dude, we got a triple win in TNT run and Spleef, we're such gods."

Flying over to the podium, you were returned to first place individuals, though not by very much-- and your team placement at first was very well secured from Zak and Darryl.

You went over to check for the next game, hoping it was pvp, so you two could excel in it.

"Battle Arena-- let's go!"

***

"How does he have diamond armour? Did everyone feed this guy their items?" you complained, running from a chasing FireBreathMan.

"You okay?" Dave asked, too far away to help though he would certainly meet you if needed.

"I'll figure something out," you said, checking that he was still behind you. Quickly thinking, you wondered what you could use to kill him, or at least get him off of you.

Dream and I were talking about these tactics just the other day... right, there's a ravine towards mid, that's where Dave is, you realised, taking some blocks in your hand and preparing to jump.

You jumped into the ravine, quickly placing blocks to block off the water source and running into hiding to meet your teammate.

The player wasn't stupid, having a water bucket in his hand and not dying, but he had lost you, and just decided to leave you be.

"Oh my god Dream is a life saver," you sighed.

"How?"

"Tactics and plays.. anyways, here, I got food."

After a few minutes, you and Dave approached mid carefully, both of you equipped with diamond swords and minimal diamond gear-- though majorly iron.

"That's m0xy and xQc, we wanna go for it?" you asked for his judgement, watching the hiding team not so far away.

"Yeah, let's go."

Running to hit xQc first, you knocked him into the ravine, where he fell to his death-- you blocking off the water at the bottom had been useful, then.

Careful not to fall into the ravine yourself from m0xy, you fought him 2v1 with Dave, easily killing him with the upper hand.

"Did xQc have anything good we need to go down there for?"

"No, we both have diamond boots. You take m0xy's chest-plate, I got his gapples," you answered quickly, hearing deaths all around you.

"Playing like this is actually really refreshing," Dave admitted, making you feel happy that he liked teaming with you.

“Yeah, I bet," you smiled. "Come on blood god, we need to kill more people."

After killing off some easier teams for points, you met a solo and a team at mid-- Phil solo and Zak and Darryl together, all three with three-fourths or all diamond.

"Okay.. let's see. We honestly should fight Skep and BBH together," you said analytically. "Phil is basically a free kill right now.. yeah, target BBH, he has weaker armour."

Not questioning you, Dave snuck with you, lunging at Darryl when the border got too close for comfort.

Having not expected you, you both got some hits off on them early, and ended them, backing away to heal before teaming on Phil.

"If you wish to defeat us, train for another three hundred years," Dave said. "This is my redemption arc. I'm telling you, they had it too good for too long. Return of the king."

Returning to the lobby, you saw Zak and Darryl close enough to still beat you, as they got second in most games, but still significantly behind you. If you could secure your lead just a little more, both you and Dave would be sure of victory.

"Oh god.. find the button," you sighed. "We might get fucked over here, Jerome and Phil are crazy."

“It's okay, we got this," Dave laughed. "This is actually going so well. But yeah, Jerome is really good."

Joining the game, you looked around, seeing an unfamiliar map around you.

You immediately ran to a more secluded area upon the timer winding down to zero, knowing there were some very good players in this mode-- and neither you or Dave were one of time, quite average.

"49 total buttons and I can only find 19, this is pathetic," you sighed dramatically, looking around for the hard to find buttons.

As the time for the mode started getting closer to the end, you suddenly heard Dave start laughing at something.

"What's happening?" you asked curiously, already smiling just listening to his laugh.

"Don't do it Ant-- I trapped AntVenom in the cell," Dave laughed gleefully, and you walked over to see him trap someone in with only a few seconds left.

"You.. okay, not going to question it.. we still kept first place though?" you wondered aloud hopefully, returning to the hub and checking the podiums.

"Yeap. Second is close but we're still first. Easy, what're we playing next?"

"Parkour Race," you grinned, clapping in anticipation. "Let's sweep this! Parkour for the Parkour God."

Joining the next game, you became more and more sure that you were going to win this week. Despite not winning the most points in Find the Button and Dropper, you had more than made up for it with winning three-for-three in two modes and winning two
others.

Zak and Darryl were close, but not close enough to pass you, and victory was in sight.

The gates opened, and you appeared in the map, in the first wooden level. Easily, you hopped across the birch logs, crossing the short jumps in tandem with your teammate.

Wordlessly, you guided him on where to go through the maze you had memorised easily in week three with Zak. The dynamic was so smooth that you at times didn't even need to speak to understand each other.

"Okay, don't fall, everyone's behind us, don't sprint here," you warned, jumping ahead, side by side with Preston.

"You tryin' to flawless?"

You half-smiled, not wanting to seem cocky and overconfident, but if you tried, you might be able to-- though it depended on how difficult it got in the later levels.

"Maybe. Go, Preston fell!"

Both you and Dave passed Preston and the few in the lead in the ice level, and you passed through the level easily.

You reached the sand level, jumping onto the ladders and passing Dave as you continued to flawless-- having practised these types of maps for ages, they were trivially easy, though you came close to falling when getting stressed.

"Okay, what's going on here?"

"Stop, then jump down," you advised, bouncing easily off the slime block to land. "There you go."

"Parkour god, huh? Oh, FireBreathMan behind you," he warned.

You weren't fazed by his warning, continuing to keep your cool-- stress would only hurt your performance-- and move onto the next level, ignoring the approaching random player.

"Okay, level six," you said after a few minutes of gameplay and commentary. "You in the top five still?"

"Yeap. Fire and Preston behind you," Dave said. "Oh my god, what is this jump? We're all stuck here."

Looking back briefly, you saw your competition, but unfortunately also your teammate, stuck on the jump you had just barely passed.

“Sprint.. I finished!" you yelled victoriously, standing up from your chair. "Oh my god I did it--"

"You're just too good.. okay, I'm gonna glitch on the ladders."

You returned to the lobby once the game ended to check the leaderboard scores-- you were still in first individually and in teams, and looked like it would stay that way, unless somehow you lost hundreds of points in Bingo and the Hunger Games.

"Game eight, let's play!"

***

Bingo had been boring-- as boring as you could make a game, even with you and Dave's best efforts to commentate.

Between Dropper and Bingo, you weren't sure which was worse, but you didn't organise the event, so it wasn't really your choice.

"We finished third, yay," you sighed, finally taking a moment to stretch and relax a little bit.

"So eventful... and Skeppy and BadBoyHalo won," he informed you dryly, seeing your friends' names appear.

"Last game?" you asked, glad it was finally over.

"Hunger Games," he confirmed. "We just have to not throw and suck, and we'll be fine."

"Looking at the chat, looks like they want to target us off spawn," you said good-naturedly, knowing-- and partly hoping-- it was just banter and not toxicity. Though your chat had been telling all stream about some toxicity from other streamers.

"Yikes.. let's go, join the game."

Joining the last game, you ran around in circles around spawn, waiting for the games to begin and reading your chat.

"Chat says we're getting paid, as long as we don't suck in this game, we will, chat," you assured them. "Let's not get our hopes up though."

"We're too good at video games, we'll both have to play solo next week," Dave chuckled.

"You playing next week? I'm probably not," you admitted, spawning on the glass block.

"Yeah. I'm not sure who with."

"You should play with Schlatt," you advised. "You two would be really funny together."

"Well I mean you suggested I play with Squid and it worked out, so I trust ya," he replied casually.

Humming in response, you dropped down, following Dave to loot the closest chests.

"xQc and m0xy, they look broke, want to stab them?"

"Sure, why not?"

Engaging m0xy in combat first, you killed him easily and then let Dave take out his teammate. They both had had poor luck in the beginning.

"I see Squid and his teammate," you informed him as he looted the items the dead team had dropped.

“Are they rich?"

"Middle class," you replied.

"Okay, let's get them," Dave said casually, starting to chase the team that had spotted you incoming.

"The rich get richer," you quoted your friend Schlatt, helping to kill the team. "Oh, that's Skep and BBH, they look like they want to clean-- they do!"

Startled by your friends suddenly diving in to kill you, you healed from the bonus and managed to kill an already low Zak, then dying to Darryl.

"Avenge me!" you cheered, spectating Dave.

He easily cleaned off Darryl, taking all of the loot from the three of you and getting stacked.

"You're gonna need to carry, I think we have enough to win but I'm not sure," you said anxiously, looking around for nearby people.

"Don't worry, I'll avenge you, fallen comrade," Dave laughed, sprinting towards mid. "Anyone nearby?"

"Nope. You're all good. Holy-- Travis and Cooper are going off," you awed, seeing the points they were racking up rather quickly. "FireBreathMan too..."

In a few minutes, Dave had killed a couple others, and met Traves and Cooper and a
few others at mid.

"If you somehow win this I will drive to your house and hug you," you said, not really meaning it.

"My sister wants to see you again anyways," he chuckled. "She really likes you."

You smiled, feeling a little shy at his words.

"Really? Cooper running at you."

Dave struggled, but eliminated him and took his death health bonus, then heading for a low-health Travis.

“You actually won!" you shouted. "Oh my goodness--"

"I now expect a hug in exchange," he said confidently yet dryly, returning to the hub. "And we won!"

"Dream Team, Dynamic Duo, whatever you call us-- we won!" you said brightly, clapping in excitement. "We can never team again, but we did it!"

"We're too good," Dave said, unsurprised but thrilled with the victory.

"Blood for the blood god, huh?"

***

A few minutes after you had ended your stream, after chatting with Dave and the other participants shortly, Keem had sent out a congratulatory tweet. As expected, some fans were annoyed and toxic, but that was to be expected.

'Congratulations to @technothepig and @y/u for winning Minecraft Monday Week 5!'

'@technothepig
replying to @keemstar
i am the spoon and the fish is victory'

'@y/u
replying to @keemstar
yessir'
Team 13-- the winners of this week's Minecraft Mondays.

Chapter Text

Checking your notifications in the morning proved very difficult. Even though you usually had hundreds of notifications from group chats and people messaging you for all sorts of things, you noticed more than usual today.

Particularly, from the group chat with the trio and all of the people in the friend circle.

'good morning idots. our favourite girl gamer is about to hit 10million'

You rolled your eyes, hiding beneath the covers again and swiping open the notification.

The message had been from Zak, and you quickly read through the numerous messages from him and the rest of the goblins you called friends.

conversation with the cool kids B) o.O

6:42 am
zak goblin 1
congrats n/n !!!1!1!1!1!11!1!!

harv
yeah congrats ❤️

george goblin 2
yeahhh she did it bois

darryl o.O
she's probably asleep you guys >.>

finnster
congrats!!

mega
she hasn't even hit 10 mil yet, idiots.
she's at 9.9

zelk
don't be rudeee
early congrats!!

zak goblin 1
where is techno it says he's online

george goblin 2
I bet he won't get on until y/n gets on

7:15 am
you
good morning idots

dave :)
good morning

george goblin 2
I told you

you
I'm at 9.9 something I'm almost at 10
prob will stream for it

george goblin 2
ok ignore me

you
y'all hear something??

dave :)
no, I hear nothing

you
that's nice
alright going to go function like a normal human
see you goblins during the stream

Checking briefly through your Twitter notifications and replying to some tweets about you about to hit 10 million, you finally got back around to your unopened messages.

Dream had been messaging you often lately, talking about upcoming videos and generally chatting.

'hey y/n, you're about to hit 10 whole subscribers'

'double digits!!' you replied, smiling as you typed the message. It was certainly surreal.

You were set by schedule to stream today anyways, and it was your job— so you got ready, finding something to eat and then attempting to look presentable.

Continuing to light up, your phone displayed messages from all of the group chats you were in, including one with the Lunch Club and some others, as well as from Dave.

Today, you just were going to stream Hypixel games, likely with Dave since your fans requested it so often after the MCM stream yesterday.

To your luck, Dave had responded immediately to your message when you sent it.

you
hey! you ready to stream?

dave :)
yeah
for hitting 10mil?

you
well hoping to see it happen haha
you want to bring in trio or?

dave :)
no no it's fine
I'll join the discord channel

you
alr c:

After a few minutes, including you anxiously checking your sub count, you hopped into the channel, making sure you weren't muted.

"Hello?"

"Hey," Dave responded casually. "You're about a couple hundred away."

"Yeah, insane," you breathed, tapping your fingers on the desk. "Let me set up my stream."

He hummed in response, logging onto Hypixel and waiting for you.

After a couple minutes of messing around with settings and making sure everything was prepared, you turned on your camera and started stream.

"Okay.. pulling up my stream on my second monitor," you muttered to yourself, checking your mic and chat. "There we go, I see 'em."

"We're playin' TNT run?"

"Yeah, I seriously need to get better at it," you laughed honestly. "You carried last MCM in that mode."

"I can teach you," he offered.

"I thought I was the one that taught you," you returned cheekily, smiling before turning to read your chat. "Hi chat, yes, I'm streaming to hopefully see me hit 10 mil..."

You joined the public game, the players quickly filling in when they saw both you and Dave in the game.

"I'm handicapped you pig, leave me alone--"

"Congrats Y/U you're 200 away! POG," your bot read the message from Phil.

Thanking him and scolding Wilbur for his messages briefly, you continued to run, listening to Dave's advice. He had purposefully dropped to watch and guide you in spectator, a nice gesture.

After another minute, the final person had dropped, and you had won the round.

"You're welcome," he hummed.

"Thank you blood god," you laughed, checking your live count again. "Oh shit! We're almost there!"

Dave paused, leaving the game and returning to the hub to afk.

"Yeap. You're about a hundred away. Wanna just watch it?"

You agreed, returning to the hub to take screenies with Dave and some fans, there, waiting for you.

"I have the worst feeling that Spifey is about to--"

"What's to eat, Minecraft wheat?" George shouted upon entering the channel, along with all of your friends that came to watch.

"What the fuck, George--" you swore, immediately getting cut off.

"LANGUAGE!"

"Are.. are all of you here?" you asked in disbelief, looking at your discord channel on your second monitor.

Your chat blew up at dozens of YouTubers in the same voice channel, as well as your shocked expression.

Nearly all of your friends were in the same voice channel, from the Dream Team to the Trio and the Lunch Club.

How had they organised all of them to be on at once?

"Yup, it's, it's all of us," Schlatt laughed.

"Hi Y/U," Carson greeted.

"I was just going to stream with Dave, and now all of you crackheads are here--"

"With Dave, huh?" Ted said, a crash sounding from his mic afterwards.

"What.. what are you doing?"

"I have a mini-fridge," was all he said in return.

You just stared blankly at your screen, still wondering how you managed to make so many friends and to have them all support you so much.

Distracted, you turned back to your subscriber count, seeing it only a few away from 10 million.

"Y/N!" Zak shouted. "You're almost at 10!"

"Yeah, 10 whole subscribers, congrats N/N," Dream said, laughing brightly.

Dave stopped running around and stood in front of you, pausing to watch the live subscriber count.

"Holy shit. I cannot believe you guys really got everyone here," you said quietly, in disbelief and so thrilled that you had this much support behind you.

"Yeah, we love you N/N!" one of your friends shouted loudly, popping a party popper and throwing confetti.

"You're about to hit it," Dave warned, making you look back at your screen.

The moment felt so surreal, so impossible, and yet it was happening before your eyes.

The numbers changed.

Ten million appeared on your screen.

Chat went into a frenzy, your tens of thousands of viewers spamming congratulations and pogs and all sorts of emotes.

Similarly, the discord voice channel was filled with laughter, shouting, cheers, and congratulations, almost making you take off your headphones, if not for the love you felt from their chaotic-ness.

"Oh my god," you breathed. "I actually did it."

"Yeah, you did," Dave chuckled calmly in contrast to the loud voice channel. "POG, congrats N/N."

"Thanks," you smiled, hearing the channel finally quiet down. "You guys are so crazy, holy shit..."

"CONGRATULATIONS!"

"Thank you!" you yelled in return, laughing brightly. "Holy fuck! Thank you chat, this is really -- my goodness, I don't even know what to say..."

"Oh right! We have a gift for you!" Darryl said suddenly, dm-ing you a YouTube link.

You stared at it, confused, but clicked it anyways. It was a video posted on your channel two minutes ago, most likely by your editor. It read, 'congratulations.'

"Open it!" Charlie shouted.

"Okay..."

Clicking to open the video, you immediately were faced with a clip of your first video, introducing yourself. You cringed at it, laughing at the old memories.

The clips went through the highlights of your seven years on the platform, though you didn't upload much for the first four years, bringing back old memories. It showed you meeting all of your friends for the first time, your first streams and videos with them, and everything in between.

It went through the most recent LA video Zak had posted, your victory with him in MCM, and even your victory with Dave the other day.

They must've spent ages finding and editing all of the content.

"You guys even got me hitting one thousand subscribers, what," you said in disbelief, continuing the watch the video quietly.

"We got everything," Carson said. "Good, right?"

"Yeah," you breathed, almost in tears, laughing gently. "It's amazing."

The later half of the video was filled with short clips of your friends congratulating you, reminiscing about how you met and the best memories you had made.

The Trio made one clip together, talking about your favourite memories with them. Lunch Club had filmed a short clip when they were all together in LA, reminding you of how you met each of them.

You already knew you'd watch this a million times over, and still find some little inside jokes and Easter eggs you missed before.

Dave ended off the video with a short clip of him thanking you for being there for him when he was at his low points, and though it was just a clip of him in Hypixel with a voice over, you found it incredibly touching and sweet.

The video ended afterwards, and claps rang all throughout the voice channel.

You were stunned, touched by how thoughtful all of your friends were, and how they all helped to celebrate, despite not really knowing each other. They had all worked together because they had you as a friend in common, and that was so sweet.

“You guys are.. so crazy. I love you all too," you laughed, wiping a stray tear.

After chatting with them for a half-hour, you finally got off the stream and out of the channel, thanking them all again.

You ended the stream, turning off your PC and spinning around in your chair. It still felt all so surreal. Even your other friends who weren't involved in the project messaged you, tweeted at you, and did so much more.

Fan art was all over your notifications, congratulatory tweets filling your timeline. You tried to like and reply to as many as possible, but there was so many.

Dave had sent out a Tweet just like majority of your friends, congratulating you and calling you a nerd, a kind hearted message nonetheless.

Even TommyInnit was rather polite and nice in the replies to your Tweet-- though you didn't know him well.

A message notification suddenly appeared, and you tapped on it, seeing it was from Dave.

dave :)
hey, congrats
sorry I didn't say more in the call

you
it's okay! your clip at the end was really sweet haha

dave :)
yeah, I almost forgot to put in my bit lmao

you
you made the video?

dave :)
well all of us helped find clips and record
but I edited it yes

you
you're literally the sweetest nebdsnbanahsbs
thank you!!

dave :)
you're welcome
you're visiting me next week right?

you
yeah I am
gtg, but thanks again!

dave :)
yw you're giving me too much credit

you
no I'm not
accept my love

dave :)
fine
see you later nerd

you
bye c:

Chapter Text

Hitting 10 million really had been an insane, surreal experience for you. It had been almost a week since then, and you were still receiving celebration videos, tweets, and fanart.

The entire week felt other worldly, even as you were grounded on earth.

And today was more new territory— you were visiting Dave.

"Hello?" you asked, picking up the phone call.

"This is Y/U right?" a little girl's voice asked.

Figuring it was Dave's sister, you answered.

"Yeah. You took Dave's phone?" you questioned, turning the corner to drive to his house.

"Maybe," she giggled. "He said you were coming over today, and he said I shouldn't embarrass him."

You smiled indulgently. Both him and his sister were adorable. "Really?" you asked, stopping at a red light and tapping your fingers on the steering wheel.

"Yeah. You're gonna play Minecraft with me right?" she asked excitedly.

"I am," you confirmed. "After your brother's live stream."

She started to say something, before a loud crash rang from your phone, making you blink confusedly.

"What.. what are you doin'?" you heard Dave's distant voice say suspiciously in the background.

Silently, you smiled, saying nothing but listening aptly.

"You're being useful for once so I'm taking advantage of— HEY!"

"You're like three feet tall, don't even try," he laughed, sounding like he was holding his phone above his head.

There was a little arguing, before his sister left the room, and he finally checked who was on the other side.

"Oh.. oh, hi Y/N," he greeted, laughing a little sheepishly.

"Hey," you returned, grinning. "Your sister is so cute."

"No, I'm pretty sure she's not," he chuckled. "You're almost here?"

"Yeah, I'll be there in twenty minutes," you said. "You're teamed with Schlatt today, right?"

"Yeah, I am," Dave confirmed. "You suggested it."

It was cute to see that he took your suggestions seriously, you thought.

"Alright. I'll see you then, I might miss the start of your stream," you mentioned.

"It's okay, I can wait until you're here to start. See you then, Y/N."

The phone clicked, and he had hung up after a moment of hesitation. You checked your phone— fifteen minutes left.

***

Shaking away the little nervousness you had left, you knocked on the door, immediately hearing loud barking and Dave's sister shouting.

After a little chaos, Dave finally opened the door, blinking at you.

"Hey," he smiled, opening the door wider to let you in. "Come in. That's Floof."

The fluffy white dog jumped up at you, barking. You offered your hand, letting the dog sniff you before petting it.

"Floof likes you, he tried to bite me when I first met him," Dave chuckled, closing the door and picking up the fluffy dog. "I'm about to start streaming."

"I think your sister wanted to talk to me," you added, taking off your shoes.

"She's probably hidin' in the kitchen," he nodded in the vague direction of the room. "I'll wait here for ya."

Promising him you wouldn't take long, you slipped into the kitchen, finding his sister sitting on a stool, waiting.

"Hello?" you asked, hovering in the entrance.

"Y/U!" she gasped. "You're gonna play Minecraft with me right? I can't believe I get to play Minecraft with you!"

Straightforward.

"Yeah I am," you chuckled, ruffling her hair. "Your brother's going to stream, though. It'll be after."

She nodded vigorously, sitting back down to return to her tablet.

"I'll see you after? He always says not to interrupt him," she said hopefully.

You smiled broadly, agreeing before turning back to meet Dave again.

"Done? Schlatt said he's waiting."

"Yeah, sorry," you said a bit sheepishly. "He's streaming pre-game?"

He hummed in a confirming answer, letting Floof drop onto the couch safely.

You followed him into some office of sorts with his setup.

"You have a nice monitor," you noted, walking closer. "I need to get a better one but I'm too lazy."

"I would get a better mic too, but nah," Dave said, shrugging and sitting down in his chair.

Dropping into the seat he had put next to his, you took out your phone, seeing a message from Schlatt.

'listen I don't want to know what you guys are doing right now but we have to stream in 10 minutes'

Stifling a laugh, you showed the message to Dave before replying,

'we aren't doing anything, Dave is joining your vc'

'dave huh. okay'

He joined the discord channel, and was immediately met with Schlatt's funny mic.

"Hey Technoblade, hey Technoblade, hey Technoblade—"

"NO, what are you doin'—"

Briefly listening to their banter and Schlatt's comments about you two, you charged your phone and watched Dave log into the server and start the stream.

"It's go time, it's go time!" Schlatt said, clapping.

"We're video gamin—" Dave was interrupted by the sound of Floof barking loudly in the other room. "And my dog immediately starts barking, I hate this, I will sell that dog for a Starbucks coupon that doesn't even work—"

You started laughing at him, before hearing his stream echo back at him.

Pointing it out, he quickly went to mute his stream that he had open on his second monitor.

"I can't believe it. You're late, you're late to Minecraft Monday because—"

"—it's one zero zero p.m., I'm dead on schedule—"

"—because you and your girlfriend are doing too much."

You rolled your eyes, pretending you weren't there but still laughing quietly.

The chat had heard you anyways, spamming that they heard female laughter in the background.

Neither of you really acknowledged it, or he hadn't seen it.

"Hey Technoblade," Schlatt said jokingly, distracting the chat and making them start spamming his words instead.

Staying out of the conversation— you didn't want to intrude on anything— you listened to the banter, and checked the teams.

You reached over to Dave's keyboard, moving to look at the teams as he was speaking.

The movements were a bit awkward, but you looked at the teams anyways.

Travis and Cooper were teamed once more, Jerome and Phil, and Vikk and Zerkaa were decent teams, though you didn't know much about Josh.

It would require a lot of luck to win this week.. which is probably what the organisers wanted, after the excellent performance last week.

"Connor with James," you mentioned to Dave.

"He's a sister now, he's got the gamer makeup," Dave laughed.

"I can't believe this man, he's changed colours, he has the makeup on and everything."

After a little bit more banter, you heard them mention switching to Connor and James' discord channel, and you leaned back into your seat, watching it happen.

"Hello?"

"Wow, that's really homophobic," James laughed.

"Wow Schlatt, you lasted like ten seconds before getting called homophobic," Dave noted, turning to face you.

He reached to brush his hand through your hair absentmindedly, as if it was habit when he looked at you, before returning back to his former position.

"Is that Techno in this call too?" James asked.

"Yeah."

"Oh, hey Techno."

"Halloo," he said, still looking at you and mirroring the smile you gave him.

"I brought Techno in here, because we're buds, you know I'm hoping we can be in good terms—" Schlatt started.

"Actually, I've never met this man in my life, don't listen to him James, we have no association," Dave denied quickly.

"Listen, I just need to get uncancelled—"

"He just uncancelled me, and it took a lot of convincing," Connor interrupted.

Laughing quietly, you continued to listen to their banter, until they left, and waited for the first game to begin.

"You ready? There's some good teams today," you said quietly.

"Mhm. Alright, joining game one."

Dave paused, thanking his donations and reading the chat's messages asking about you.

"Yeah, Y/U's here just to hang out and watch," he explained dismissively. "Let's go, we're going to win two weeks in a row, blood for the blood god."

**

You had left for a minute to get water, and when you returned, you wondered how you could've missed so much happening in just a few minutes.

"NO, my wither!" Dave yelled, laughing uncontrollably.

Standing behind him, you watched a wither you guessed he or Schlatt had spawned get killed by Laake. You had just left for a few minutes during what was supposed to be the most boring game...

"What did I miss?" you asked in quiet disbelief, sitting down again.

"We spawned in a wither," Schlatt explained in between his laughter. "And Techno went and griefed a bunch of people."

You raised an eyebrow at Dave, shaking your head in mock disappointment. He just took the glass from you, smiling broadly.

The guess you made had been correct— they had become very good friends after all.

"Hey Techno, you know what they call me?"

"I— it changes every time you say this," Dave replied.

"They call me the Build Boy. No, they call me the Build Man."

"Okay, they really need to find just one thing to call you."

"How about the Schlatt of all Trades?" you mentioned, reading Dave's chat.

"You know what? I like that."

Stifling a laugh, you scooted closer, continuing to watch Dave play the rest of the tournament.

***

You didn't know how, but they had actually managed to win this week. It was incredibly lucky, but they had still played well— even with Schlatt placing low on individuals, they had pulled through to win.

After you chatted briefly with the winning team, Dave left the channel, still streaming running around the MCM lobby.

"That required a lot of luck, not gonna lie, but we did it anyways," Dave said, stopping and taking his hands off his keyboard. "Two weeks in a row, I'm so good at video games."

"And they thought they could stop you after last week," you replied cheekily, reaching to take his hand and trace circles on the back of it within your thumb absentmindedly.

It was a small action you did without thinking about, but it soothed him.

"You know," he chuckled, "last week you said you'd hug me if I won that 2v1."

"I didn't mean it," you protested, drawing away.

He raised an eyebrow, looking like he was about to say he was kidding, but you moved to hug him anyways.

"Stop looking at me like that, come here," you laughed, standing up and drawing him into a hug.

He was significantly taller than you, and he rested his head on yours, wrapping his arms around you contentedly.

It was nice to be comfortable and at ease with him, even if you weren't sure where your friendship with him was at.

"Ready to end stream?" you asked after a minute.

"Yeah." he drew away slightly hesitantly, sitting down again. "See you next time, chat."

***

After a few hours, consisting mostly of playing games with Dave and his sister and listening to embarrassing stories of him, you finally had to leave, seeing as his parents would be returning home soon and you didn't want to be awkward.

"My friends aren't gonna believe I got to play with you!" she said excitedly. "Can you visit again soon?"

Glancing up at Dave, he shrugged, saying to you that it was fine with him.

"Yeah, I will," you agreed. "I'll see when I can visit again."

"Okay! Bye Y/U!"

You walked alongside Dave to his front door, scratching behind Floof's ears and preparing to leave.

"Today was really fun, thanks," you smiled, setting Floof down.

"Yeap. I'll be... I'll make sure to be watchin' your stream tomorrow."

"Thanks," you said brightly. "See you soon?"

He returned your smile.

"See you soon."

Chapter Text

"Hello chat! Today is gonna be a chill, cool stream," you assured, scooting closer to your desk and taking a sip of water. "We're finishing the castle, yes, the windows."

Your viewers started joining the stream, spamming hello in chat and various other messages.

Today was a simple stream on your hardcore world, just to have a nice chill stream after so much and happened.

From the 10 million stream to Dave's week 6 MCM stream, a lot of chaos had happened and you just wanted to cool down for a bit with an easy stream.

"Hi Y/U, take my money, and also have a good stream," your robotic donation bot read aloud.

"Thanks, I will," you smiled, setting down your water bottle and finding the many stacks of sand you had collected. "Today we're getting the flowers we need to dye the glass."

As you began counting the number of stacks you had in order to estimate how much dye you would need, you noticed George send in a message to notify you that he was here.

"Hi Y/N. Chill stream, you said?" his message read.

Staring in disbelief at your camera, you shook your head. It had to be an unreasonable time to be awake where he lived— how and why was he still online?

"George, why are you such an agent of chaos?"

You could almost see him in his room, giggling and planning what he could do to ruin your stream.

Media shares were on this stream, after all.

Sighing, you just continued to count, marking on a paper the amount you needed.

"Are you playing MCM next week?" the message was read aloud after a donation.

You knew they— both the fans and the organizers— wanted you to play, but with other tournaments conflicting as well as problems with the way it was run, it wasn't high priority for you.

Considering your sub count and popularity at the moment, it was no wonder they wanted you in.

But you found it sad that if you weren't as famous as you were, you wouldn't be considered at all.

"Nah, I'm not playing MCM next week," you answered after a moment, glancing at your camera. "I have tournaments for other games that are too close and they'll probably overlap."

Pausing, you considered what color stained glass you should use for your house, stuck between blue and purple. "What do you think chat? Want a straw poll?"

Seeing a lot of positive answers in the chat to your question, your moderator put up a straw poll, having them vote either one or two.

"Rig the vote for two," your bot read a message from Dave.

"Everyone vote one to spite him." George's message was sent seconds afterwards.

Silently, you smiled, checking the straw poll to see it was divided rather evenly.

"Two minutes left on that poll, for now, let's smelt the rest of it into glass," you decided, getting buckets of lava to put into the furnace.

After you set the rest of the sand to smelt, you checked the poll.

"You guys like Techno more than Spifey? Two is winning," you laughed, spinning in your chair. "Okay, purple it is."

Scooting back closer to your desk, you checked to make sure you had enough lapis, before going on the hunt for at least a few stacks of red roses for dye.

"Okay, it's going to be a couple hours of me just picking flowers and dying glass," you mentioned. "How we have 27k people watching, I have no idea.."

Stacking up, you looked for patches of flowers, jumping off and flying with elytra to the nearest one.

"Chill stream, guys, don't worry," you said, picking up a load of red flowers. "We're just putting in the windows."

A bonus to making lots of friends in the gaming community— they often came to watch your streams. And with friends all over the world, you usually weren't lonely.

Today, Dave and George were here, as they usually popped in to watch. Kate was here as well, she often watched your streams, and Phil was watching.

"You still pull 27k for you just picking flowers in Minecraft, broken," Phil's message was read aloud.

"I'm just so good at picking flowers, no one can match me," you said, shrugging.

Checking your chat, you saw Dave still arguing with George about what color the windows should be, making you laugh at their banter.

"What did Dave just say?" you stared at your chat, pausing in a forest. "'Imagine voting for one, this message was made by the vote two gang.' Okay, we've got a pig and a beaver beefing in my chat.."

Returning to your game, you saw someone had cheered, and you thanked them for the bits.

"Hey, love you Y/U, when are we getting that Dream Team collab?" your bot read.

Concentrating on looking for more flowers, you didn't regard the message until a minute later.

"Dream Team? Uhh, we don't have a set date to record yet," you said. "Bad is doing the next video with them."

Chat had always wanted you to collab more with the Dream Team, as you often helped behind the scenes with coding, but rarely appeared in videos. But you always had a conflicting schedule, rather annoying.

"Oh shit we've got our first media share, and we just started the stream," you laughed nervously, glance flickering between your game and the video. "Wow.. wow, it's George."

You weren't even surprised.

Hearing your own voice from the media share, you glanced over to see George had made a short clip of you accidentally calling Dave by his real name just a few minutes ago.

"Okay, listen, half of you call me Y/N and not Y/U, it's not that big of a deal," you protested once the video ended. "I swear, George is out to cancel me."

You weren't blind, you had seen the fan theories online everywhere. It was just a rumor you were hesitant to say anything about.

Flat out denying it would be a precarious move to make. You still weren't sure about where you were at with him.

But to confirm there was something going on was a rash decision. So you just stayed silent, to not fuel the fire.

"Have you voted yet?" your bot read aloud, startling you and making you jump.

The message had been from Schlatt, you realized.

"Oh god he's here," you muttered, briefly closing your eyes in preparation for what was to come.

"Have you voted? Answer me, Y/U."

Pursing your lips, you didn't answer and instead continued to look for flowers.

This stream might be a little less calm than you anticipated.

***

As the stream went on, you thankfully had no major mishaps with Schlatt or George. The media shares were generally pretty alright, being memes and ship videos alike.

Dave and Kate were watching as well, chiming in with messages read by your bot here and there. A good stream as per usual.

Putting in the last of the purple glass— Dave had gotten his way in the end— you were almost done with the castle.
Though, it seemed like there had been drama elsewhere.

"What's going on?" you asked, confused at your chat who seemed divided and to be arguing.

The messages went by so fast you could read some of them, but not many.

'lunch club had a fight with kate!!'

'kekw'

'kate & some other girl fought some of the lunch club'

The messages seemed to be rather divided in opinion.

That must've explained why she seemed to be in a less than great mood this stream, you realized.

It must've happened while you were streaming, considering there was no way you couldn't have heard of it already.

Deciding to word things carefully, you treaded lightly. Being friends with both sides, your words could land you in serious drama.

"Oh?" you read the explanation sent in. "I see..."

Deflecting some questions from donations, you moved onto some other topics.

Defending either side was a risk you weren't going to take without knowing the details. Your chat could have been very opinionated or biased.

"Okay, we're going to log off for now, guys. It's.. yeah, it's eleven at night, I need to have a functioning sleep schedule for a week for tourneys, it's insane."

You quit the game, stretching tiredly, ready to end it off on a good note when a last minute donation was sent in.

"Did you see the Rajjchelorette article written about you?" your bot read.

You sighed deeply. You were tired, and considering all of the drama you might get dragged in with Kate and the SMP boys, you weren't really having it.

"Listen. This is going to be the last time I'm talking about this," you said seriously. "I declined because I don't want to be involved in boyfriend drama. End of story."

The rumors were already going too far— going on a show like that would make it worse.

After a minute, you decided you were safe to end, and you took your game off the screen, returning to your green screen.

"What, got too many boyfriends already?" your bot read the message aloud from Kate.

You rolled your eyes. Was she taking the piss out of you now? Was this funny to her? Or was she just annoyed and projecting it onto you?

Deciding to flame her back, you fired back heatedly,

"That's real fucking rich coming from you."

You didn't think about the aftermath of your words.

Chapter Text

You woke up the next day to a raging storm. A raging storm to destroy everything you worked for. A raging storm with yourself in its centre— and all eyes were on you to see your next move.

You wondered what you had done to anyone to deserve this.

Minimal backlash was expected, after the comment you had made to Kate on stream, but you didn't expect her to try to falsely expose you for something that didn't happen.

Neither did you expect anything that was going on.

A video had blown up overnight.

All because they used your name, and tried to expose you. After all, you were notorious for being cleverly careful to avoid drama or scandals.

Seven years on this platform without any slip ups. No wonder everyone was so curious. No wonder it had blown up. No wonder someone had finally taken advantage of it.

It was posted hours after your stream, by some small channel you had never heard of.

You clicked on the video, and couldn't believe the lies.

"'Twitch partnered streamer and YouTuber Y/U declines appearing on the Rajjchelorette, and shoves reporter away during interview.' Excuse me? Do you know how unprofessional and rude this was?" the girl in the video said loudly, reading the quote from the article. "This proves how terrible she is—"

You clicked off the video.

Never had that ever happened. Nothing even close.

And after making sure each one of your moves was to keep you out of drama, how did you get dragged into it?

Fear crept up in your throat, silencing your words. Anxiety clouded your rational thoughts.

Where was your usual confidence?

And where were your friends?

"Y/U recently celebrated 10 million subscribers, but how long will that last? Allegations have been made against her..." one commentary channel started his video.

Click.

You exited the video.

Just another person wanting to leech views off you.

Where had it all begun? You refused to believe all of this had happened because of one comment towards Kate.

It had been a statement made in anger. And she had made her own comment first-- that, apparently, was not important to the narrative.

Opening Twitter, you found more beneath the surface. Kate had uploaded a video about you, hours after InvaderVie's and the nameless girl who had made the initial expose video.

Did they want a shitty version of the James Charles and Tati drama? you thought spitefully. Did they think they could lie and get away with it?

You opened the initial video.

It was so painfully obvious that all she wanted was fame-- and to get it, she used your name. She saw an opportunity in that article and she took it.

Cruel, but a clever move for her. She knew exactly what she was doing. It was not out of the goodness of her heart like she claimed.

The internet believed what they wanted to. They heard what they wanted to hear.

After a long, dragged out part of her discussing how you supposedly shoved a reporter, she finally got to the bit everyone was talking about.

"Y/U supposedly declines appearing on the show because she, 'doesn't want boyfriend drama.' She then wrongfully shades Katerino," the girl rants, clearly able to easily manipulate others with her manner of speech. "When she says she does not mind people shipping her with others? And she often fuels them and supports them? Do you not think that is incredibly hypocritical?

"She streams with almost only males. What does that say about her?"

Numbly, you watched, staring in such utter shock at your screen that you had no idea what to do or say.

"And then she chooses to betray her friend Katerino by siding with them.. a horrible, shitty excuse of a public figure..."

The short video came to a close. Comments turned off, and ratio off. You couldn't even tell how people felt about it.

You clicked Kate's video, wondering where you had betrayed her as a friend. One spiteful comment couldn't have set her off that much, could it?

"Hey guys, you probably saw the video on Y/U, I'm here to talk about it..."

What could she possibly have to say? you wondered, dreading her upcoming words.

Kate started talking, and you felt increasingly sickened and terrible with each word that left her mouth.

"... and overall, her and Carson's friendship just makes me really uncomfortable. I wish she would just back off," she finished after a few minutes. "That's my side."

Emptily, you watched InvaderVie's video that came up on autoplay. What else could she have to add to the already horrible drama?

You thought you were friends with them. Clearly not.

Listening to the video, feeling empty and lost, you wondered how you could respond.

Everything felt so hopeless.

Never having had to handle this major drama before, you were lost. And seeing the amount of friends you thought you had make videos on you and leave hurt you deeply.

"She thinks she's a perfect person," Vie said spitefully. "She won't even help any of us. Like, don't say that you're busy. Admit that you don't fucking care about your friends, just yourself.

"She's terrible, and I'm so glad Kate stepped out to expose her. She's a snake. Gives a horrible reputation to female streamers all across the platform...

"Y/U is over party?" she laughed gleefully. "For sure. That's it. See you guys later. She's cancelled."

Your mouth went dry, mind utterly lost and heart hurting. So many of your friends, though you weren't close, had unfollowed you and put out statements against you over night.

Though the more famous ones wisely kept their mouths shut until your side went up, the silence hurt.

How could anyone believe that you would do any of this? To say you would abuse a reporter, to say you would try to steal boyfriends, to say any of it. It made you sick.

The worst of it was the betrayal. Had they all been fake?

You checked your Twitter. So many threads, claiming to know what happened and exposing and defending you. It was so mixed.

The initial reaction was horrible. You were barely hovering above 10 million, nearly about to slip under.

You were nearly about to slip under the ocean's waves to drown, barely able to hold on. Was it possible to feel both hate and guilt for your once friends at the same time? Even if you knew, deep down, you had done nothing wrong, but still felt like you had?

If so, that was exactly what you were feeling at the moment, the soul-shredding feelings twisting up through your heart like a poison. Waiting on bated breath, you let the tears welling up in your eyes finally fall free.

So many of your professional, though less known Twitch streamer friends had abandoned you.

Either believing the lies or not wanting to be associated with you and your drama.

You were grateful your YouTube friends hadn't believed the videos. But judging from the messages, they were just as confused as you.

How did you manage to lose so many friends overnight? Did they trust you so little that one video got them to leave?

They had gotten what they wanted, hadn't they? you realized.

They never looked back on ex-friends. You were one of them once, weren't you?

You released a shaky breath, pain wrenching in your chest.

The anger returned after the pain.

Fury rushed through you like a tidal wave of lividity, the anger twisting to create the wrath you wanted to unleash upon the world.

After the wrath, the calm of the storm.

You wondered where you would go. A boat stuck on the sea, nowhere to go, and about to die.

Everything felt hopeless.

In the darkness, your phone rang. A familiar name lit up the screen.

You answered it.

Chapter Text

"Hello? You hollowly asked, roughly shoving your chair away from your desk and spinning in it to face the window.

It was still so early, maybe four in the morning, your flat illuminated by the breathtaking city lights, bright and colorful.

You usually weren't ever awake early enough to appreciate this scene— and the one time you were, of course, you couldn't.

Waiting for him to answer, the feeling of dread returned to gnaw at you.

Dave hesitated on the other side of the call. Then, you heard the sound of him picking up his keys.

"Hey, hang in there. I'll be there as soon as I can." he paused. "Are you... are you goin' to be okay for now?"

You were torn between asking him to stay on and telling him it was okay.

What would he think of you? Weren't you supposed to be strong and confident?

"I'll stay on the line, don't worry," he reassured you, the sounds of him leaving his house emanating from your phone.

He understood your silence.

Blankly, your gaze moved back to the city before you.

You wondered who was awake now, who was keeping the city alive now, who wasn't asleep— because they could not sleep.

You wondered how many people like you there were.

"I'm sorry," you said softly. You felt awful for dragging him into it all, just because he was associated with you.

"We all fall down sometimes. And you were there for me when I did," he confessed quietly, taking a deep breath. "I care about you. I can't just leave you alone like they did. And fuck, I'm not good at this..."

Smiling sadly, you stood up from your chair, walking to the window. You sat down on the wide window seat, curling into yourself.

The flat always left you feeling lonely.

Living by yourself hadn't ever been a good idea, had it?

"I always wanted to live in the city," you said quietly, after a beat of silence. "But I didn't realize how awful it would be alone."

"You don't have to be alone."

It sounded like an offer. A tempting one.

"I know."

You reached a hand forward to touch the window.

The glass was ice cold, but you didn't retract your hand, instead pressing it closer, as if trying to push the fiery pain out from you with it.

"Who was it?" he asked after a moment of thoughtful silence.

"Kate. And Vie," you replied numbly. It hurt to think about. "And... so many from my Twitch friend circle."

You should've seen it coming. When you started getting popular, they started using your name to boost themselves. It was partly why you started going back to your YouTube circle.

But Kate-- where had you ever gone wrong with her? Had such a mindless comment back at her really ruined her life like she claimed?

You didn't think so. But then again, people were starting to get suspicious of her long before you had said what you shouldn't have.

Her and Carson's relationship is none of your business, you reminded yourself. Let them sort the rumors out themselves.

"I.. I thought you stopped streamin' with them," he admitted. "You stopped around January."

"I did," you confirmed, bringing your hand back to your chest and dropping your phone carelessly on the cushioned seat. "They pretended we were still friends.. because my name brought them views."

You knew that this career would be messy-- full of drama. Full of people who wanted you dead. Full of people who would use you then leave you behind. But you thought you had mastered the skill of avoiding it.

Clearly not. How would you bounce back from so many allegations and so much hate against you now?

"None of the video is true," Dave said, as if reading your thoughts. "Zak has footage of your encounter."

You didn't even want to think about making a response video. It would have to be done, but it seemed so overwhelming.

The storm had just settled, and you could only focus on the damage left behind-- not the repairs in the future.

Wallowing in pity was never a thing you had ever done, no matter how hard things got for you. And yet, it was so hard not to right now.

"And yet I can't help but feel guilty," you said quietly. "She was right, in a way, talking about who I stream with--"

"She wasn't, and you know it," he cut in honestly, though not unkindly. "She just wanted to put out the most ridiculous accusations to get the clout."

Going silent, you mulled over all three of the videos, by each three of the people, wondering where it had all gone wrong.

Your phone blew up with all sorts of messages. It had been since the first video went up.

A notification appeared from a worried Phil. Another from a spiteful Vie. Hundreds from your Twitch group chat. Hundreds more from the chat with the Trio and their close friends. You didn't want to read any of them.

Minutes passed. You just stared at your screen, and the notification bar that kept appearing.

The few words you could see already hurt.

"Hey... hey, I'm here," Dave said over the phone, his knocking able to be heard from the front room.

You didn't have the will to touch your phone, and instead kicked it to the end of the seat. Swinging your legs roughly to sit up, you stared blankly through the opened door and down the hallway.

Were you really about to let him see you like this?
Moving on their own, your legs stood you up and brought you to the door. Fumbling, you unlocked it, opening it to see a worried Dave.

Immediately, he brought his hands up to your face, brushing away the last tears with his thumb and searching your eyes.

Silently, you turned around, walking back to your room and back to your window seat, sitting and staring at the illuminated city.

It was easier to not think about anything.

"I thought friends stuck by each other," you said, still trying to comprehend how they left you so easily.

You would never have been able to cut them off like they did. You cared for them, even if they hadn't been so kind to you.

It cut deeply to know they wouldn't do the same for you.

"They weren't your real friends. If they were, they wouldn't have given up years of friendship for a moment in the spotlight," he said honestly, sitting closely next to you.

Glancing over at him, you were reminded of how much you needed him by your side.

You didn't need coddling and sweet nothings— you needed the truth to be told to you.

"It's hard to remember that sometimes."

"That's what I'm here for."

You gave him a little smile, actions alone speaking for you. It lightened the weight on you when he returned one of his own.

"I wonder if I'm enough, sometimes," you said, leaning your head on his shoulder.

Taking his hand in yours, you lifted them up, just thinking about how they fit perfectly.

Not about the people who left you when you were low.

"You are. I think you're good enough to face the world. Really."

You smiled a bit wider at that, remembering the words you had told him all those weeks ago, when everything was okay.

He still remembered what you told him that night.
"Do you really think that?" you asked.

He held your hand a little tighter when he answered you.

"I do."

Chapter Text

You stayed up with Dave for hours, looking out on the city and talking about anything and everything that came to mind.

From why Kate suddenly turned against you, to if the flyaway idea of everyone moving in together would actually become reality.

The latter idea had been discussed over and over for ages.

A frequent topic— and yet no one had really been brave enough to take it seriously.

Though, that seemed to be the least of your problems for now, considering the situation at hand...

It was always so easy to speak your mind around Dave. Not having to filter all of your words and add a sweet film on top of them all of the time was incredibly refreshing.

Where would you be now if you had never met him?

The answer to that question was unknown, and yet it scared you. It scared you to be dependent on anyone— and for you to depend on him this much to calm you down, it was another challenge in its own.

You took a deep breath, but it was shaky.

"Breathe, you're getting worried again," he said calmly, squeezing your hand tighter and bringing you back to reality.

You closed your eyes.

The two of you went silent.

He never pressured you to say more than you wanted to. It was a quality you appreciated.

"You're actually really thoughtful," you admitted after a while, voice still a little hoarse. "It.. wasn't what I expected when I first met you."

Never would you have thought this was the way things would have turned out.

He just stared at your intertwined hands, absentmindedly tracing circles on the back of your hand with his thumb.

"I know when l need to protect my friends."

Dave visibly paused, showing you his phone after a minute of scrolling.

"Look, George even put out a tweet defending you."

You peered down at his phone, reading the message put out from George.

'@spifey
imagine thinking that being friends with the opposite gender automatically makes you a
couple. kinda cringe ngl'

'@username8
replying to @spifey
lmfao she steals boyfriends and that's a fact. kate said so herself. idk how, have you
seen y/u's face?'

'@spifey
replying to @username8
have you seen your face? you look like your textures haven't loaded yet'

Smiling slightly at George's words, you felt incredibly lucky to have made friends that stood by you. Despite how annoying he was, he really had your back.

And judging from the other tweets Dave was scrolling through, almost all of your YouTube friends felt the same.

A tweet that he quickly scrolled past caught your attention, though it seemed like he wanted to avoid it.

"What's that?" you asked curiously.

You scrolled back to see a tweet that Dave had put out hours ago, presumably when he woke up to see the mess you were in.

'@technothepig
things have gotten bad enough that I need to step in. not supporting y/u right now is CRINGE. that is all.'

"You're so sweet," you smiled wider, feeling much better with the support from him and your friends. "You have the ability to care—"

"You're starting to shiver, you're getting cold, stop laughing at me," he interjected, attempting to change the subject by throwing a blanket at you as you laughed at him.

You caught it, cocooning yourself into the blanket and returning to your spot next to him. Immediately, he clasped your hand again, as if upset you let go in the first place.

The tears were long gone, and although you still felt tired and pained, it all felt a lot better.

"Hey, Dave?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you, for everything," you said softly. "You really.. didn't have to do all of this."

He turned to look at you, a handsome smile curving his lips. Without hesitation, he reached forward with his other hand, combing through your hair.

He hadn't lost his habit, instead becoming more and more used to it.

"It's no problem."

Content, you returned to leaning your head on his shoulder, watching him scroll through the articles and tweets online.

It was a blissful, euphoric moment— and you were too tired to care what the internet thought anymore.

The damage still lingered, but the fury faded away. The clouds had cleared. The storm had passed.

Together, you watched the sun rise, and the repairs begin.

***

"Yeap, you need to send the footage of the interview, people are idiots and we need proof..."

You heard Dave pacing around your room, most likely talking to Zak.

It was cute to hear him trying to be as quiet as possible.

"Y/N's asleep, shut up."

Perhaps it wasn't so cute to Zak, who had started yelling at him over the phone in response.

Opening your eyes, you woke to a dark room, blinds shut tightly from your window, and your computer off.

You picked up your phone, checking the time.

7:20 am. How unfortunate..

"Dave?" you asked quietly, slipping out of your bed and peeking into the hallway.

He looked up at you, clearly startled.

"Hey Y/N." he set down his phone, hanging up on a shouting Zak. "Are you feeling better?"

You shrugged, walking into your kitchen in hopes of finding coffee.

It would be so hard to get anything done with the drama still fresh in your head— and you had to address it sooner, rather than later.

Letting it marinate and possibly allowing others to chime in and add more nonsense to it was an awful idea.

"A bit." your voice clearly didn't feel better. "Were you talking to Zak?"

"Yeap. He's sendin' the footage of the interview.. I figured you'd need it."

You smiled. He had already planned ahead, knowing you'd use it in a response video.

For them to think they could get you cancelled overnight was quite the endeavor.

They should've known that you weren't stupid— managing a public image was a skill you had perfected over the years.

You wondered how they thought they could get away with it.

"Thanks, I appreciate it." you dropped into the spot next to him on your couch. "The only thing I'm worried about... it's mainly just addressing Kate's problem with me and Carson."

The thought of it alone gave you a headache.

"People pairin' you with others isn't really something you can control," Dave said casually. "Don't.. don't worry about it. Just say the truth."

You took a short sip of the coffee he offered you.

Having been friends with both Kate and Carson before they got together, you wondered how she was able to come to the conclusion that she did.

It had struck a nerve with her.

What if it was true? you wondered. That she was actually cheating, and that she thought I knew?

You had no idea if she was— of course, you had picked up on some strange behavior from her, but it was unconfirmed.

Besides, hadn't Schlatt talked to you about Fitz and her lately?

That was why she turned on me so quickly, you realized. I exposed her on accident— so she wanted to cancel me to make me seem like a liar.

"I will," you said finally.

Dave was right— wasn't he always? He was just as a fast and clever thinker as he was at games.

"I guess the one thing that struck a nerve was her remarks about my ex," you confessed. "And as a result... how I seem to feed into ships."

"It's just petty comments," Dave said dismissively. "They want attention."

He paused, considering his next words carefully.

"I don't think you feed into other ships. People just read too far into things," he continued. "Though... we do kinda feed into ours."

His gaze met yours as he finished his sentence.

You wondered if he was trying to hint at something.

Carefully, you tested the waters.

"Do you do it on purpose?" you asked.

Did he not realize until recently?

Or had he genuinely been trying to drop hints about what he felt?

"Maybe," he replied quietly, not quite looking you in the eyes. "But.. what they think there is between us isn't real."

You went silent, contemplating how to respond.

"Maybe we could make it real."

Dave stared thoughtfully at you, as if wondering how you would react to his next move.

You clasped his hand tighter, encouraging him. You weren't scared anymore.

And when he leaned down to kiss you, you met him halfway.

Chapter Text

Your friends were ridiculous. Absolute goblins.

But you loved them all anyways— and you had learned to love a certain one a little bit more recently.

So much had happened in such a short period of time that it was too difficult to concentrate on anything other than what was directly in front of you.

Picking up your phone to see hundreds of messages from several group chats encouraging you to make your response video, you started to read through them all.

The messages had ranged from wholesomely supportive to downright stupid— but they all were written with good intent.

After all, your upcoming response video to the drama was highly anticipated, and they wanted to support you.

Quackity had even made the special occasion to stop harassing you to play Mancala.

It certainly is a very different day than usual, you thought, sighing and looking around the empty flat. Once more, it was cold.

And even though you usually liked playing Mancala with Alex, today, you had your sights set on something else.

Namely, finally replying to the drama— and hopefully destroying any chance you had of you getting cancelled.

Vie, Kate, all of them— they weren’t worth your time anymore.

And besides, you had someone else to spend your time and energy on now. The toxicity wasn’t something you wanted to keep up.

Dave had sent you the footage of the interview he had gotten from Zak after he went home, along with a short message.

He couldn’t stay, as he had told you, but he promised he’d return in the morning, leaving with a warm embrace and another rare smile that rivaled the stars.

Of course, there was so much to sort out with him too. It had been a mutual understanding that you two were something, but if it was to be announced or what exactly you two were was left unsaid.

The memory left you content nonetheless.

For once, in such a long time, you had someone, and you swore to yourself that you wouldn’t ruin it again.

Opening the message, it read,

'you got this, destroy their careers and absorb their clout. jk, good luck n/n. <3’

You typed back,

'they have no clout to absorb but ty <3'

Sighing, you returned to building back up your usual confidence and re-reading over the script you had open.

Both Dave and Dream had looked over it, and told you it was fine— yet you were still wondering if people would still hate you.

You shook your head. You were right, and you knew it.

Leaning forward, you turned on the camera and started recording.

You had all the time and support in the world right now, and that's all that you needed to remember.

***

"Firstly, the allegations of me hitting the reporter and verbally abusing them," you started after a brief intro. "Those are completely false. In fact, Skeppy has footage of it, I'll play it here."

You paused, allowing a moment for yourself to edit in the video, before continuing.

The words came naturally now— you were no longer afraid of backlash.

No longer afraid of what they thought of you.

"When a reporter comes up to me, when I'm clearly occupied and not willing to talk, of course I would be a bit annoyed. And the questions were insensitive and pushy— what they included in their article were only parts of the truth," you said calmly. "Now that that is cleared...

"The accusations of me fueling and feeding into ships." A touchy subject to talk on. "The Internet will always find a way to make something out of nothing. I say I don't mind it, because it's usually harmless. Your point about me streaming with mostly males also doesn't make any sense in so many ways… especially considering the girl who called me out streams with majority males too."

It feels nice to finally shut down the rumors, you thought. They didn't really think that they could cancel me, did they?

"Being friends with the opposite gender doesn't mean anything more than what it is. Thinking that it does is wrong on so many levels."

After a brief part talking about some of the dumbest accusations you ever heard of, you continued onto the part about Kate.

"I realize that my comment towards the end of my latest stream on Twitch was unnecessary. I can agree with that." you breathed deeply, making sure your next words came out right.

This video and your words would be analyzed and watched over and over by millions— you had to word it flawlessly.

"I want to make it clear that I wasn't accusing Katerino of anything. I don't know anything, either. It was a stupid comment in the heat of the moment— I apologize for that."

Despite you having a strong theory about Kate and how she reacted to your comment, you refused to say it publicly. That would be a disaster.

"But I refuse to apologize for having a friendship with Carson," you said firmly. "Kate says she is uncomfortable with how I started getting closer to him.

"I have always been close with Carson," you continued. "I was good friends with him and Kate long before they got together. And for her to say that he created my career.."

The thought of it alone made you laugh.

"... I just think that's real funny coming from you," you finished after a bit.

Kate would've still been a tiny streamer if not for Carson, so you weren't sure where she was trying to go with that rumor.

You blew up on all platforms before Carson had— she must've had little to no arguments to make to use that one.

"And Vie," you chuckled dryly, amused at her attempt to jump into the drama.

She had clearly just seen the opportunity to cancel you to get clout.

Shame for her that you weren't going to give it to her.

"You say that I'm an awful friend for 'abandoning' my former Twitch circle," you said. "In fact, I believe you all were the ones who left me behind...

"Remember the tourneys we used to play? We stopped in January. I stopped featuring you all on my channel," you continued, keeping your head up. "But you all kept putting me on your videos, in your titles. Because I got the views for you."

Continuing to explain your side of the story, you completely shut down all of her false claims. It was incredibly satisfying to do so.

This video was going to go viral, and you already knew there would be backlash for it, no matter what you said. You just had to speak the truth.

"And to call me money hungry? Weren't you the one who complained about not having enough Twitch subs?" you asked. "Not important to you, I'm sure.."

You finished off the video, making sure you had hit every point brought up against you.

"I have to respect it, at the end of the day. You tried everything you could to get what you wanted," you admitted. "Trying to get it through me, though, was the wrong way."

You smiled to yourself, content with your response.

The camera stopped recording. The video would be up in just a few hours.

You didn't really care what they thought anymore. You had your real friends with you, and that's all that actually mattered.

For now— you had quite a bit of footage to edit and comb through, and too many messages to read.

***

The response to your video was phenomenally supportive— far more so than you had anticipated.

Even if you told yourself you were in the right, that little feeling of self doubt lingered. Having that little bit of you crushed was freeing.

A surprising number of your friends left comments on your video, including the Dream Team, despite them not being involved much at all.

Although there were pieces of hate from old friends and rude stans alike, majority of them were positive. Something you were very grateful for.

'y/u really said uno reverse card'

'holy shit you killed her dude'

'I think I just witnessed a murder'

You smiled, and just closed the tab— looking over the reactions could wait for a little while.

Overthinking everything you said would just make it worse. Instead, you hopped into a discord channel with some of your friends to chat.

"Who just joined?" Darryl asked curiously. "Oh N/N! Hi!"

"Hey Y/N," Vincent said, unmuting his mic. "We just finished watching your video."

You hummed, quickly replying to a message from Schlatt before turning your focus back to them.

"Good?" you asked hopefully.

"Really good. You feel better?" Harvey replied.

Taking a moment to contemplate it, you wondered how it had all really affected you. It felt like you were on a high now— having taken down the rumors easily, but you knew the good mood wouldn't last forever.

When you stopped to think about everything... you had lost so much.

Virtually becoming alone on the Twitch scene asides from a few friends, as well as having an entire group of people actively disliking you— it was difficult.

"Yeah," you answered after a moment. "Could be better. But for right now... it's enough."

"Remember we've got you," Dave said. "No matter what happens."

You nodded, even though they couldn't see it.

It felt like they knew regardless.

"Yeah. No matter what happens."

Chapter Text

You wondered, sometimes, if it made you cruel to make that response video. Other times, you reminded yourself that you were just putting the truth out.

There was a thin line between them. One you found yourself crossing far too often.

Vie had put out a short, terse statement on Twitter, simply calling you a liar and a manipulator and saying she'd be addressing it soon.

Reading it made you sick. You had little to no pity for her anymore— she had done what she could to take you down, and now that she didn't succeed, she was playing victim.

On the other hand, Kate had gone silent, likely working on a response video herself. One you wouldn't answer to either. You wanted the drama to end here, and weren't going to get involved anymore.

And even though Kate had gone to cancel you as soon as she got the chance, you often times felt bad for ruining the friendship you two had previously shared.

You had known her for years.

Even before she started streaming, when you first started YouTube. Neither of you two had met when famous.

Had being an influencer really changed her that much? Had being an influencer really changed her that much from the shy, sweet girl from so many years ago?

People told you that she started it— which was true to a degree— but it really had seemed like you had struck a serious nerve with her.

Despite you attempting to reach out to her, she just didn't reply, didn't read. You left it alone. She clearly didn't want anything to do with you.

It wasn't worth it to chase it anymore.

And asides from the burned bridges, you had received an amazing amount of support lately, both from friends and fans.

Speculation had risen after you had removed the joke about being cripplingly lonely from your social media bios-- which you had done after Harvey had laughed saying you weren’t so lonely anymore-- but neither you nor Dave said anything.

The conversation between the pair of you was as normal as usual, but you knew he was waiting for it all to end before addressing it.

You were scheduled to stream again this weekend, and would return to regular uploads soon, as you had promised your friends and your maybe-boyfriend— it all felt so surreal.

How had so much happened in such a short period of time?

And you were already set to return back to normal?

Your phone exploded with more messages, but this time, from people you actually wanted to hear from. A smile lit up your features just seeing the notifications. conversation with

the cool kids B) o.O

zak
yOOO streaming aaturday right

dave :)
yeah, unfortunately

mega
Aaturday?

zak
ok cool
mega shut up
did u see the video our favoirte girl gamer put up

vincent
yeah. really good

darryl
I didn't know y/n could be mean o.O

you
not mean just telling the truth
tysm guys for the support :)

George requested you to join a discord voice channel, and you complied, quickly doing so.

"Y/N!" Darryl shouted immediately upon you joining. "Oh my goodness, I just finished watching your video!"

"Good?" you asked, chuckling a little nervously and messing around with the wires on your desk.

"Yeap," Dave confirmed smoothly. "You did really good. Most people are on your side."

"The sass in your voice though," Harvey laughed, and you heard your video play from his mic briefly, "it's great."

"Yeah? That's good." You breathed out, finally relaxing your formerly tense state. "I just hope it's all over soon."

"I heard Vie wanted to respond though," Zak mentioned, a little anxiously.

He must've been monitoring the situation just as intensely as you were— after all, a lot of your YouTube circle had come under fire during the drama. It felt awful to know that you had partly caused it.

"Yeah, she said she's going to be addressing it tomorrow and said some really nasty stuff about it," Vincent added, sending the Tweet in the group chat.

You opened it, and read it.

'@InvaderVie
Just watched Y/U's response video and it's so clear how great a liar and how masterful a manipulator she is. Sickening. I'll be addressing it on a stream tomorrow. I hope her career burns to the ground.'

'@Y/U
replying to @InvaderVie
I hope the bus you threw me under hits you xx'

Saying nothing about your reply, although you noticed Dave had liked it just seconds after you posted it, you just exited out of the tweet and continued on with the conversation.

He must’ve had notifications on for your tweets specifically-- you couldn’t say anything, though, when you did for his tweets as well.

"Honestly there's not really much she can say," George said simply. "You kinda already shut down everything."

You scrolled through Twitter a little longer, still listening to the conversation.

There were so many wonderful fans supporting you on all platforms, and you attempted to show your thanks back as often as you could.

It was so heartwarming— your smile just broadened with each passing second.

To be in the comforting aura of your closest friends and to have the worldwide support of so many people— how had you gotten so lucky?

Perhaps it had all really been worth it in the end.

"Are you guys... getting hate from this?" you asked tentatively.

You had seen some worrying replies on Dave's and George's recent tweets, and some were worryingly nasty.

"Nothin' out of the usual," Dave said dismissively, calming your nerves in that easy way he always did. "Don't worry about it. We're all good."

"Just watching to make sure the fire doesn't grow," Darryl added in optimistically. "I think it's okay now though!"

Nodding, you closed your eyes, leaning back into your seat. Just listening to your friends discuss the future.
"Hey... Y/N. Don't worry about it. Really," Harvey said suddenly after you were silent for a bit. "Friends stand by friends, remember?"

"Yeah, even if it's against the world," Darryl added. "So don't worry. We'll get through this together."

Your eyes fluttered open, and when you looked at your screen, you realized just how close you all had grown together in the span of just a few months.

You smiled.

"We will."

After a moment's pause, you finally broached the topic you had been hesitant to take seriously for ages.

Despite them prodding you to agree, you had always been too scared to take the leap.

And now that you knew what it was like to lose an opportunity— you wouldn't lose another with them.

Besides, you didn’t want to be alone anymore, now that you knew what it was like to not be.

"Hey guys?"

"Yeah?" Darryl replied cheerfully.

"Let's go through with that moving plan."

***

After a few hours of chatting with them about what was to come in the next few months, your friends gradually left the channel.

You remained, still in slight disbelief about what you just signed up for.

"N/N?" Dave said suddenly, disrupting your thoughts.

He had startled you. You thought you were alone.

"Yeah?" you asked faintly.

"Thank you. For what you've done for my channel and... for the connections you made for me." He paused briefly. "I really admire you. To be able to take what happened in stride and keep going."

Blinking slowly, you registered his words. You supposed you really had set him up well-- you hadn’t thought much of it, you hadn’t ever seen yourself as higher than him even if you were much more famous. You never had.

He had always been your equal, and you admired him too.

There was mutual respect there, to be able to treat each other as human.

"I don't think I would have been able to without you," you admitted. "You know? I'm really glad you made fun of Zak and me all those weeks ago."

If he hadn't— there would have been little to no open window for you to reach out to him. You would've just remained brief, awkward acquaintances.

It was hard to imagine where you would be now without him.

"I am too," he chuckled, going silent for a second or two before continuing. "It took you three attempts to finally win with him."

"Not everyone can sweep five games of TNT Run like you can," you laughed gently.

"Be quiet."

Interrupting the banter, you noticed George send two attachments and a message alongside it into the chat.

'thought you guys might want to see this'

You clicked on the first photo, only to have your breath stolen.

It was the photo of you and Dave right outside the Vidcon doors, before everything had gone downhill.

Had you and him really come that far? How had you not noticed the look, the stars, in both yours and his eyes that moment?

And how did George still have that photo saved?

"Oh my god..." Dave trailed off, seeing it for himself. “Look at us.”

Honestly, it was no wonder that everyone paired you two together.

You silently opened the second image, of a Polaroid photo George had put up on his mirror. It was of the group, all of you smiling widely and in silly poses, no worries at all.

In the corner, scribbled in your own handwriting... 'goblins together forever ッ'

And for the first time in a while, you laughed with your whole heart, truly happy.

Chapter Text

* Eight Months Later *

"Zak stop slowing down the Wi-Fi!" you yelled down the hallway, poking your head out of your room.

You threw a fierce glare at his innocent blue door, as if he could see you through it.

"I'm not even using it right now!" Zak screamed from his room irritatedly, making you roll your eyes in mock annoyance.

He was almost always the culprit for it, and if it wasn't him, it was likely George. And half the time, you couldn't even tell if George was home.

"Then who's the one using 15 devices at once? This thing is slower than a motherfu—" you swore, only to be quickly cut off by Darryl.

"LANGUAGE!"

Wasn't he in the kitchen?

How he managed to hear you from so far away, you'd never know.

You sighed exasperatedly, walking in unannounced into Zak's room where he was hiding, on his phone as usual.

"Hey, goblin," you started, throwing open the door carelessly and approaching him. "Is George home?"

Reaching over to snatch his phone from him, you peeked at the screen to see him talking to Finn.

You made a mental note to make a Tweet about it, but mutely, you willingly gave Zak his phone back.

"Yeah, he's probably downloading more stupid things to troll me with," Zak grumbled, snatching the device away. "Stupid beaver with his stupid rhombidodecahedron stupid whatevers."

Indulgently, you smiled, listening to him rant for a few minutes before leaving his room. You made sure to close the door behind you when you left.

This house had been having far too many problems regarding closing doors when leaving.

You approached the brown door at the end of the hall, grinning at the odd eyes and smile painted onto it.

"Hey Spiffy!" you yelled suddenly, about to knock down his door before you paused.

You had managed to startle him, judging by what sounded like a dropped phone and a quiet curse.

Somehow, quiet enough for Darryl and his superhuman hearing to miss.

A miracle.

"What?" he responded equally loudly, opening the door a crack.

"Can you stop using 17 devices at once? I'm about to stream," you said, shoving open the door and walking into his room.

Peeking at his desktop, you found what he was working on.

Zak had guessed correctly.

Another mind boggling, oddly shaped Minecraft world was open, and you didn't want to look at it any longer, quickly turning away.

"You weren't supposed to see that," George complained, approaching you. "I was going to film a video with you and your boyfriend."

You shrugged, unable to care less.

The mod would've hurt your last few remaining brain cells anyways— good thing you got to skip it this time around. And besides, Dave would likely be glad to skip out on it as well.

Though, it was likely Darryl would have to take your place instead. If he wasn't being bullied into playing horror games, that was.

"Tough. Are you almost done with your shenanigans?"

"Yeah. You're going to be streaming?" George asked mischievously.

You turned around to face him— wasn't he Head Boy at one point?— and narrowed your gaze, suspicious.

He often interrupted your streams even before living together— now, with all of you under the same roof, it would be a nightmare.

Having just moved in quite recently, you hadn't officially streamed in this new setup yet. You had only done a few streams on social media, but those didn't really count.

This would be yours and Dave's first stream together to test, and George was more than likely to barge into your room and interrupt it.

"And what about it?" you said casually, preparing to leave his room.

"Nothing. Have fun," he shouted as you shut the doors behind you, almost able to hear the smile in his voice as you did so.

Leaving his room, you peeked down the hallway— rather colorful, but not blinding or ugly in any way.

Each of you in the group had painted the doors to your rooms, after a joke that all of the rooms looked identical had started. The amount of times you and everyone else had mistakenly walked into someone else's room was plain embarrassing.

And now, all the multicolored doors were easy to differentiate. Even an empty room had been painted over with black and white paint, resembling Vincent's character.

That door, all of you had painted together, and sent an image to him, reminding him that he belonged in this group too.

A smile crossed your features. It was too heart warming not to smile at.

When had you ever been this close to any group of friends? When had you ever been able to form such a close bond?

It really does feel like home, you realized, smile growing. I've finally found it, after all these years.

You didn't want to be anywhere else.

Walking quietly down the hall, you stopped at the pink door, smiling at the little crown painted at the top.

Without hesitation, you swung open the door. It was always open for you.

"Hey," you greeted, walking into the room. Dave looked up at you, startled. "We ready to stream?"

"Mhm. Spifey stopped playin' on three computers at once?"

You laughed, nodding and looking over his figurine collection absentmindedly.

Both of his own Youtooz were there, alongside yours and Zak's and several others. Similar to your own collection you kept up on a shelf.

A sudden thought crossed your mind, just as he reached over to clasp your hand.

"You need to post something, your fans are starved of content," you mentioned, glancing over at him.

"You don't post either," Dave insisted, as if your own upload schedule justified his.

Even as he berated you, he reached over to mess with your hair, absentmindedly as usual. His habit had only become more frequent now that you lived together— and his room was right next to yours.

And, as he put it, he had an excuse to do it now-- just not on camera quite yet.

"Okay, I still post more than you do. I'm starting to appear more on other people's channels than my own though," you admitted sheepishly.

Recently, you had surprisingly blown up on the internet— a great rebound from that rather interesting drama in July.

Though that was mostly in part due to the people you started working more closely with, and your broad field of skill.

Jimmy and Felix certainly had boosted your audience numbers quite a bit. And working with people from so many parts of the world broadened your reach considerably.

"Don't you have a recording with the Sidemen tomorrow? You haven't posted in like half a month." Dave raised an eyebrow, shaking his head disappointedly.

"Yeah, and Tommy keeps talking to me about him joining the Sidemen." you shrugged. "Whatever. I have time today, so content too, don't even—"

"— okay, okay, get outta here," Dave laughed, kissing you on the forehead before gently shoving you out. "Join the Discord channel already."

You left his room after a little banter, walking back to your own room when you heard a crash from the kitchen, as well as Darryl yelling at someone.

Backtracking, you glanced over at the open kitchen. You regretted your decision immediately.

It was a mess and a half, and it gave you a headache just looking at it.

"You... good?" you trailed off, seeing the trash on the floor.

"No!"

"Skeppy, I'm going to beat you into the next dimension—"

"Oops?" Zak giggled, clearly having ruined whatever Darryl and Harvey were trying to bake.

Blinking slowly, you simply returned to your room, hoping it would fix itself.

It likely wouldn't, but you could hope.

Closing the door, you sat down in your chair, putting on your headphones only to hear Schlatt playing audio at maximum volume.

"Hey Technoblade, hey Technoblade— oh hey Y/U joined!" Schlatt said, stopping the repeated clip.

"I wish I didn't," you responded sarcastically. "Are you gonna be here all stream?"

"You got a problem with it—"

Interrupting his sentence, Dave smoothly moved him out of the channel, locking it as well.

Stifling a laugh, you continued on.

"Okay then, starting the stream," you mentioned, pulling yours up on your second monitor.

It was a different setup, one you would need to get used to, but it was much nicer and more spacious than your previous one.

And besides, your old apartment didn't bring any good memories. You didn't want to remember what it was like to be completely alone anymore— not when now, things were so much better.

"Startin' the stream," Dave hummed. "There we go. Hi, chat."

You waved to your camera. After skyrocketing in subscribers recently, your viewers went up a considerable amount, averaging fifty to sixty thousand on casual streams and nearly a hundred on events.

It was safe to say that you were doing much better after the drama than before.

"Hi Y/U! I'm early today. How do you like LA?" your bot read a donation aloud.

You smiled broadly at the question. Both you and Dave had been planning to talk about the move for a little while, along with talking about the speculations, and this stream was designated for it.

"I love it here," you said honestly. "I love it a lot. We'll talk about that in a minute. Techno's here too."

Walking around the Hypixel lobby, you waited for him to join, reading through some donations.

"Yes, I'm forcing Techno to get content, because he never uploads," you mentioned to your chat.

"I'm startin' to appear more on your channel than mine, nooo," he complained, standing in front of you.

You paused the game for a second, turning to your camera to answer the questions you had been getting thousands of times ever since you hinted that you were in LA and not so lonely anymore.

Just thinking about it made you smile.

"Okay... you guys probably know we're all in LA. All the goblins, yeah, except a6d," you started, now that the major flow of viewers had joined. "And.. yeah, we all moved in together, and made that YouTube house you guys kept asking for."

Your chat exploded once more, and it left you barely able to read the messages as they passed.

"Yes, POG," Dave said amusedly in the driest tone he could muster.

"Harvey, Bad, Skep, Spifey, Techno, me," you said, ticking them off on your fingers as you counted. "A6d isn't here, but he visits like, every few months. And we’re working on getting him to move over.”

It had been exceptionally difficult for him to get the visa to move over, but if you persisted, you hoped it would happen, even if it took a long time.

You all had promised each other to stay together forever-- and the house wasn’t complete with a member missing.

"It's great. I can feel myself losing brain cells everyday," Dave said. "It's all part of the masta' plan though."

You rolled your eyes at his comment, but your wide smile contradicted it. And your own chat noticed that keenly.

"Why did you stop streaming with your Twitch friends? I miss them," your bot read. "You're only streaming with YouTubers now."

"Not really," you shrugged. "I still stream with a lot of Twitch streamers. Just, I would prefer not to stream with my former circle anymore. And besides, I’d rather stream with the people I love than people who I had beef with.”

Your careful response could have been taken in any way. As a pointed jab towards your old circle, as a compliment to your YouTube friends, as a neutral answer. You didn't really mind however they interpreted it, really.

Everything was in the past now, and you didn’t want to look back.

"How long are we plannin' to stay in this house? Not more than two more days, I hope," Dave read the question and answered it dryly, before laughing. "Nah, I'm just kiddin'. We don't know."

"We're trying to make it permanent," you added on. "But that's not a guarantee yet."

It was all so complicated at the moment— moving had been a rush considering the pandemic, and you weren't sure how permanent it could be.

You just hoped the group all collectively made enough revenue to be stable. And asides from that, financially, you weren't incredibly worried. Everyone helped each other out.

After messing around with the stream a little bit, you finally turned your full attention back to your chat, which was going mental.

“Vlog?” you read. “If you guys want, sure. It’s really not as hyper as you think it would be.”

“Really?” Dave asked doubtfully. More buckets of ice cold water had been dumped on his head at two in the morning than he could count.

“Alright, maybe a little,” you conceded, laughing. “Chat needs to calm down there.”

“Just tell us why you removed the lonely bit from your bio,” your bot read the demanding message from a donator, and you hardly acknowledged it.

How would you phrase this? The media would twist your words in any way they could--

“We’re dating,” Dave said flatly, seeing no point to drawing it out or waffling, though he lacked his usual smooth confidence when he spoke. “Now stop harassin’ us.”

Chuckling quietly, you just shook your head, before looking back into your camera.

“Yeah,” you breathed, smiling shyly. “That’s one way to put it.”

He really did bring you back down to earth.

“What, did you want to put out a forty minute video about it?” he asked, and you could hear the smile. “That’s it. Now the rumors can stop.”

“Yeah.” you paused to recover, listening to the next donation that asked you what living there was like. “Honestly, I really love it here. My room’s next to Techno’s yeah.”

“Thank god we’re not next to Spifey or Skeppy, they blast their volume at max all the time,” your partner muttered.

“Even then, we can still hear it,” you sighed. “But yes, have we confirmed everything? Those articles and tweets have been getting increasingly worse.”

And those compilation videos of you and Dave would be getting increasingly worse as well, you thought, but it was a small price to pay in exchange for those rumors to finally die out.

“Should have. We’ll keep answering questions, chat, calm down.”

"Okay... warning, chat, now that we've got six people in this house, this stream might get a little chaotic..."

Your housemates didn't disappoint.

George bursted in your room, and your three other roommates followed him, yelling chaotically, something you couldn't even understand. In his hands, a tray of muffins.

You stared in disbelief, and wondered how awful the kitchen looked right now.

In your headphones, you heard Dave's monotone, disappointed voice.

"A little chaotic, you said?"

***

"No, I can't sneak you into the event."

"You could," George continued, despite your clear insistence of the opposite.

Staring at the overgrown man— boy, you reminded yourself— in disbelief, you wondered yet again why you had gone through with moving in with him. As well as the rest of the idiots in this house.

Being stuck in a quarantine with all five of these infuriating boys was going to drive you insane.

You'd never let anyone know that, though.

After all, there was always good moments. At least, you tried to convince yourself so.

"I won't get anything from it," you said flatly, turning around to walk into the kitchen. "Except for a removal from the Noxcrew."

Dozens of people had asked you to join the tournament, and it really was not your call to make, so you declined them all. And besides, the audacity of some of those people was bewildering.

"I'll be your best friend," George offered, grinning widely and trailing after you like an infuriating goblin with a useless side quest.

"Are you saying we aren't already best friends?" you quipped, suppressing a smile when you saw him falter in his step.

"I never said that!"

Passing him by, you ducked into the kitchen, meeting your favorite roommate by far. You grinned, waving briefly as you dodged both him and George.

"I thought we were best friends," Dave said nonchalantly, stepping to the side so you wouldn't bump into him, and you stopped to stand by his side.

You couldn't hide your smile when he spoke, nudging him in his side before stealing the drink from his hands, taking a sip.

He rolled his eyes, waiting until you were done before he snatched it back, followed by an indulgent kiss on the forehead as always.

It was the one consistent rare sign of affection, as neither of you were really keen on making a show out of it. There really was no point in doing so, when neither of the pair of you were so insecure to have to do that.

"I'll be your bestest friend, and you guys are already dating, how can you be best friends on top of that?" George asked, frowning and glancing at the drink in his friend's hand. "Do we have any more of that?"

"Not for you. Stop harassin' her." He put an arm casually around your shoulders, bantering with the tall man-child.

George pouted, but stole one from the fridge anyways, running back to his room and ignoring the call Dave made asking him what he thought he was doing.

Staring down the hallway in mild disbelief, you heard him crash into Zak, which you could guess easily from the high pitched scream, who promptly started yelling at him.

"I'm trying to sleep!" Darryl screamed so loudly you were convinced Vincent could hear you all in France.

How did anyone in this house get enough sleep at night?

"Bad, it's five p.m."

"I don't see a problem with that," Darryl said casually, and you imagined him shrugging as he said so.

Dave laughed quietly, throwing away the empty can before walking with you to check on the commotion.

Cautiously, you peeked around the corner, hoping nothing was on fire again.

You had asked Ted and Charlie if things were as bad as it was with you when they had stayed together with the Lunch Club in LA— and had only gotten vague, worrying responses in return.

Though, it seemed like the whole group was always like that. Their energy was often unmatched.

Whereas you'd met many influencers who absolutely did not match their online personas, your friend circle and you seemed to match quite well. Less energetic or less exaggerated, yes, but not an utterly different person.

Sometimes, it was a good thing and a bad thing.

"Oh— hi, N/N!" Darryl greeted cheerily, despite the sandal in his hand that he was about to hit George on the head with.

You blinked slowly, trying to comprehend the scene before you, your partner equally as stunned as you.

"I'm about to die," George complained, hiding in the far corner of the hallway, having run away.

"Then you shouldn't have woken me up!"

"Me? I didn't do anything, Skeppy you little—"

"I think we should go," Dave interrupted dryly, dragging you gently by the hand to his room. "We have to call Phil and Wilbur."

"Wait don't leave me here with—"

He shut the door soundly.

In the distance, you heard continued yelling, glad it was muffled and barely audible anymore.

"We're talking to Wil and Phil?" you asked, pushing the second chair over to the desk.

You spent so much time in his room, either sitting next to him watching him play or just talking with him, that you had just gotten another chair and left it in here for you. After all, you both had done the same thing in your room. Asides from the door colors, there was little difference between the two rooms.

"Mhm."

"Why do you need me here then?" you wondered, sitting down next to him.

"No reason," he hummed, making you instantly suspicious.

You watched dubiously as he joined a channel.

"I don't believe you."

"Come on. I'm your best friend and your boyfriend," he grinned, trying to convince you that nothing was going on.

Did he drag you into this to try and pry for information about the tourna—

"Where the fuck is that ugly— oh hey Techno!" Wilbur instantly changed, and you could almost hear the shit-eating grin in his voice.

"Hey dude!" Phil greeted brightly, in stark contrast.

"Where's the child?" Wilbur asked, setting down something before returning his focus.

"Not sure," Phil chuckled. "Is Y/N there?"

Hearing your name, you glanced up at his screen, leaning closer to the microphone.

"Here," you called in response. "Hi Phil!"

The eldest of the group, he had taken on a father figure role in the dynamic, and it showed— especially when he'd talked to you after the drama all those months ago.

As a polar opposite though, you'd slowly started talking to Tommy through Dave, and he was... he was something else.

"Oh hey! Okay, so we've got a question," he started, making you turn to glare at the man besides you. "Since you're in the Noxcrew—"

"— no."

"Okay listen," Wilbur continued, attempting to be serious, despite clearly joking , "we know that you know all the games, and you've played in the test tournament, so... maybe show a little favoritism?"

You stared blankly at Dave, who said nothing.

"This is so sad," you said, shaking your head. "You guys walk into the tournament knowing how to beat all the games all of a sudden and no ones gonna be suspicious?"

"I mean.. we've got Techno as an alibi," Wilbur laughed. “If he’s with an admin…”

"You guys should've asked me from the first tournament," you complained. "I can't tell you anything anyways."

"I mean.. you could."

"No."

They went quiet, and you knew they were silently peer pressuring you, despite you not being able to see any of their faces asides from Dave's— and he always looked bored or expressionless.

"I'm helping moderate the tournament next week, there's literally no way I can say anything," you persisted.

"Okay, okay," Phil laughed, brushing it off. "Let's talk though. That Rocket Spleef game."

"There's some areas you can glitch on," you added, though not clarifying which. It was common knowledge anyways.

Wilbur listened aptly to what you were saying, and you already knew what he might try to do.

"Yeah? What's the maps this time around?—"

Interrupting Phil's question, one you wouldn't have answered anyways, Tommy joined the channel.

"Hello gentlemen."

His tone of voice was, as usual, exactly the way that he typed, capitalizing random, odd words and you wondered how he sounded exactly the same off and online.

TommyInnit was a wonder of nature in every possible way.

"Hi, Tommy," you greeted.

"Oh, a woman, hello Y/U."

Rolling your eyes, you just smiled and continued on with the conversation between them, only hinting at certain glitches in the game but saying nothing specific.

It was funny to play devil's advocate at times— and these were your best friends and your partner anyways. Little hints here and there would hardly hurt.

After all, you knew some of the other moderators on the team had been talking far more than you ever had. But really, that was none of your business.

"I actually wanted to team with Vikkstar," Tommy mentioned. "Probably next one."

At the mention of your Sideman friend, your eyebrows creased, worried.

Tommy had already made quite the impression on Vik when he had passed the information to him through you that he wanted to join the Sidemen. Tommy's first impression— knowing him— might be bad.

Actually, who were you kidding? It would absolutely be bad.

Considering how he left an impression on you and Dave, you just hoped he didn't come off as strong as before.

"I don't think you should—" Phil started, only to be cut off.

"Nonsense," he dismissed, despite the entire group's interruptions. "I will join the Sidemen, and replace MiniMin—"

Cutting him off in return, Phil spoke, briefly hiccuping from laughing so much.

"Okay. I really think we should go to sleep," he started. "It's about two here, yeah, Wil?"

"Mhm. Good night," Wilbur chuckled. "Maybe tomorrow N/N can use her admin powers and—"

Abruptly cutting him off, you reached over to disconnect Dave and you from the channel, only after quickly saying goodnight.

“I'm going to push you off the platform in Hole in the Wall," you warned, standing up from your seat. "And I'll make it look like you fell."

"That's a bit uncalled for," Dave laughed, standing up as well and turning off his computer.

You shrugged, even if he couldn't see, and checked the time.

Along with dozens more notifications of messages, as well as a couple from George complaining, the eight o'clock that appeared at the top of the screen surprised you.

Had you really been talking with them for that long and not realized?

If you had been in a stream— not even a call, goodness knows you barely called them privately at all— with your old circle for three hours, you'd be counting down the minutes until you hit a reasonable streaming time.

After all, your careers used to come before yourselves. You were glad your new friends weren't the same.

"Did George die?" you wondered aloud, opening the pink door a little.

It wouldn't have been surprising if Darryl had managed to kill him, honestly.

"Maybe," Dave replied, sounding like he couldn't care less if so. "We can turn his room into a theater then—"

"— I can hear you!"

Both of you went into shocked silence for a second, before laughing loudly and walking out into the hallway.

Pushing the door wide open, you peeked into the warmly lit hall, seeing the brown door at the very end opened part way as well, and an annoyed George staring at the pair of you from behind it.

It was honestly hard to take him seriously when he was standing by his door, with his character's stupid face painted on it.

Did he have to look so chaotic and opposing at all times?

The sheer amount of times you'd woken up to see him standing in your doorway creepily, looking like he was eight feet tall, was insane.

"Were you eavesdropping, you rat?" you accused light heartedly, walking closer to him.

“Of course not," he chuckled awkwardly, immediately losing his annoyed expression and attempting to close the door.

You yanked it open, sticking your foot in so it wouldn't close.

"You're not even in the tournament, why would you need to—"

"— wasn't that a lovely conversation, well good night, it's really late."

"It's eight," you said flatly. "And you don't go to sleep until three."

George blanked, knowing you were right, but managed to shut the door anyways, with the nerve to text you a smiley face straight afterwards.

"He's not in the Championships anyways," you complained, walking back to Dave's side. "Bloody tosser."

Dave simply hummed indulgently in response, walking with you back to the living room.

Passing through the archway, you turned on the lights, watching them flicker quickly to life and bring to the room a lovely luminous glow.

You dropped onto the couch, bringing your legs up to your chest and looking over the games set out on the table, likely by George. He had a knack for always leaving them out, despite you and Darryl's insistence that he cleared them up. It honestly seemed like you and Darryl were forced into parenting all of the goblins at times.

The sound of Harvey and Zak talking loudly in the dining room flowed through the hallways, and you reached to pick up one of the controllers on the table.

"Want to play?" you asked, pointing to a game that was already in the console.

"Sure," Dave said, shrugging. He usually didn't care, as long as you were okay with it. "Why not?"

Waiting for the game to load, you rose, walking over to the large windows and peering out onto the city.

It glowed, pulsating with life and hopes and dreams— it had everything you had ever wanted and so much more.

The city was just as pretty as where you used to live— not even a year ago, and yet it felt like centuries.

Mutely, Dave joined you by your side, and you wondered if he knew what you were thinking.

At this point, you didn't even know what you were thinking anymore.

It was a blur of the past and the present and what would come in the future, and all of it together-- it had made you, and who and where you were today.

The loss still stung, even if it shouldn't have. But you had gained so much... and wasn't it time you let go?

All of the time you had spent believing you were better isolated--

The silence drowned you.

"You're not alone anymore," Dave said quietly, reminding you of your past words.

I'm not. How had it taken me so long to accept that? you wondered.

You smiled lightly, and he reached over for your hand, like he had done so many times in the past.

Quietly, you agreed.

"No, I'm not. Not anymore."

The stars hadn't ever shone so brightly before.

***

You woke up the next day feeling like shit. Absolute shit.

The sheer timing couldn't have even been worse. With a championship to moderate today, as well as a video to record and a stream to join, your schedule was packed. And your body chose today to catch a cold?

It was infuriating. Grumbling incoherently, you rolled over to the edge of the bed to pick up your phone. Was the screen always this bright?

The room was dark, despite the glowing warmth of the sunshine peeking through the blinds only a few feet away. The sun was awake, and by the sounds of it, the city and your roommates were too-- how had you slept in so much?

Not pondering over it much further, you searched for the bottle of water you kept by your bedside. You had so much to sort out today-- there wasn't any way that you could record or moderate with this pounding headache.

Pausing in your motion to get out of bed, you sat up fully. Your partner had been pestering you about your schedule lately.

Though you hadn't seen any problem with it, he often insisted you were taking on too many projects at once, and despite you joking and brushing it off, you wondered if he was right.

Sighing, you conceded. Wasn't he always right?

After blowing up in popularity, it was quite obvious even to you that the amount of collaborations and projects you were taking on was insane. You shook your head, agreeing to just take today off, and sort it out tomorrow with a clear head.

Picking up your phone, you texted Vik, briefly apologizing before sending a similar message to the Lunch Club's chat.

They'll understand, you reminded yourself. You've known them for ages. Stop overthinking.

You peeked out of your room, seeing the clock at the end of the hallway read twelve. Frowning, you stepped out fully, noticing all of the doors closed or partially closed asides from Darryl's.

Right. He was going out to get groceries. You would've gone with him, had you been awake… Dave must have told him to go without you.

Of course. They always went to him to ask about you, and vice versa.

Ducking into the bathroom adjacent to yours, you took a deep breath. Being sick really just made everything worse, and your feelings of guilt for not being there to record and stream just deepened the horrible mood.

You closed your eyes. Everything would turn out okay. Didn't they always?

***

"I told you so."

Dave grinned smugly, crossing his arms after he spoke, making you glare at him in return.

"Shut up!" you said loudly, despite the growing smile on your face. "I didn't know I'd get sick today--"

"Did you tell them you can't record or should I?" he interrupted smoothly, sitting next to you on the window seat.

His room, as you often mentioned to him, was one of the nicest in the house, and your opinion on that hadn't changed, even as you sat in it now, still feeling miserable-- though he often just told you to move into his room since you stayed in it so much anyways.

You narrowed your eyes at his words.

"Are you going to assume that I'm just not going to record?" you asked, glancing at him and meeting his indulgent, calm gaze.

"Are you actually goin' to record with that headache?" Dave returned without missing a beat, raising an eyebrow.

Rolling your eyes, you huffed defeatedly. He wouldn't let you record anyways, the last time you'd fallen sick, he'd acted the same way.

"I already texted Vik and Schlatt," you answered his earlier question and ignored the latter. "Though, I should tell Noxite he's solo today."

"I'll message him for ya, don't worry about it," he mentioned, reaching for your phone and unlocking it. "You really shouldn't be doing that many projects at once."

"I don't want to hear it from the guy farming potatoes sixteen hours a day."

He stared at you in disbelief, shaking his head with nothing to say. Instead, he offered you some of the Tylenol he'd taken from the kitchen and his water bottle, muttering about your idiotic insistence that nothing was wrong.

"I'm flattered about how much you care about me," you grinned widely, sitting in the chair by his desk and seeing some messages open with the rest of his Championships team.

Tapping on his keyboard, you sent a message to the chat, saying hello to the team and wishing them good luck. Though, with your current state, you'd likely just end up watching their stream anyways. It was unlikely Dave would let you out of his sight.

"You know, Tommy asked me to ask you--"

"-- the answer's no."

He laughed, sitting in the chair next to yours and regaining control of his desktop before continuing.

"He asked me to ask you to set him up with Vik next championship," he finished, glancing over at you and checking if you were still awake.

"Vik's going to say no anyways," you said flatly, feeling the headache lessen in intensity, glad the medicine was slowly taking effect.

"Would he really?"

Sighing, you agreed to at least bring the idea up to Vik, knowing it was likely that Tommy would harass you until the end of time if you didn't. And you liked the kid anyways, he had quickly become your annoying little brother after meeting him.

After a few minutes further of chatting about the upcoming game and strategies for them, Dave returned back to harassing you-- why did you decide to have a room next to his, and even less, start dating him?-- about your project schedule, insisting you were doing too much at once.

His concern for you would have been endearing, if it was not accompanied by his usual sarcastic remarks.

"If I drop the server projects and give them to Dream and George, will you be happy?" you asked, reaching over to link arms with him.

"That's barely anythin'," he pointed out. "Drop Minecraft Ultimate. It's just causing more stress."

"Then you need to end the potato war," you countered. "How many times have I been woken up at three in the morning because you set your alarms to get up and farm?"

"If I talk to Squid about ending it, will you drop those projects?" Dave asked dryly, though still scooting the chair over to link arms more comfortably with you.

Grinning, you agreed, and he just smiled indulgently in response, dropping a kiss on your forehead before turning back to his computer.

Closing your eyes, growing increasingly tired, you listened as he continued to type and chat with his team, and leaned into his side. He moved his arm to rest on your shoulders, and you were glad that he had been able to grow comfortable with you.

"I'm gonna join their call, okay?" he mentioned quietly.

You felt his concerned stare on your face, and simply nodded. There was no reason for you to stop him from doing so.

"It's the Blade!" Tommy's notorious voice immediately sounded, instantly recognizable.

"Hey Techno."

"Hey," your roommate said monotonously as ever. "We ready to win?"

"Hell yeah. I heard N/N got sick, is she okay?" Wilbur mentioned.

Schlatt must've told him.

"She's fine... I think."

"I'm okay," you affirmed, despite the slightly hoarse voice. "I'll be watching the stream from here."

"Get better soon!" Phil piped up.

"I will," you laughed, watching as Dave left the call. "Hurry up and start streaming."

The Championship was scheduled to start soon, and you'd rather not have him late because you got sick.

Sitting up straight, you reached over for the water bottle on the desk, taking a sip. The headache had lessened over the hour, a little more bearable— but it seemed you might sleep through a good portion of the event.

"Okay, started the stream," Dave mentioned. "Hello, chat. Oh my god, the early donations... yes, send me your money."

Pausing, he stopped to look over at you, concerned. You waved him off lazily, sticking your tongue out.

"I'm fine," you added quietly, gesturing for him to continue on.

"Are you sure you don't need anything?" he asked dubiously.

"I'm fine! Now shut up and win," you laughed, hitting him lightly.

“You guys are so cute, it’s disgusting,” Wilbur said.

Reluctantly, Dave turned back to his monitors, checking to make sure his stream was working, but you saw the little glances he sneaked your way.

A smile grew on your lips with each one.

"Win for me, yeah?" you asked, grinning slightly.

"Yeah." he cleared his throat, mirroring your smile. "I will."

***

There really wasn't anything that made you smile more than seeing your friends truly happy.

And as you watched one of your best friends, your partner now, in his element, finally truly content with where he was, you realized just how much he meant to you.

How had things ended up like this?

The pair of you had always made jokes that you two were destined to be alone— never quite fitting into a tightly knit small group like the others in the house. And yet, now, he was in a group of his own, and you had each other.

Everything, truly, had fallen into the perfect place. For now— everything seemed perfect.

Of course, the sun wouldn't be out forever.

A dance in the spotlight was rewarded with roses, but each rose had its own thorns.

Somebody was waiting for you to trip— you just had to make sure you wouldn't fall entirely.

Reaching for your phone, you unlocked it, half-listening to the pre-game chatter as you did so.

A small smile crossed your features, but you stamped it down immediately.

It was cruel to laugh at such things, you had to remind yourself, no matter how much it felt like karma had played its part.

You had made the right call with Kate after all, it seemed.

"You good?"

Glancing up, you met Dave's steady and concerned gaze, nodding mutely.

The headache had eased, and though you were growing a little sleepier, you were feeling much better. He seemed to doubt your insistence that you were alright, though.

"Really. Just focus on winning," you said easily, scooting the chair a little closer and peering at the screen. "You should join that call."

Casting one more doubtful glance your way, he shrugged then joined the proper discord call with the rest of his team.

You remained silent, just listening and watching— there wasn't really much else you could do. Setting down your phone, you checked to make sure you wouldn't be late to the start of the first game before rising from your seat.

Not missing a beat, a hand quickly reached out to encircle your wrist, causing you to pause and glance over at your boyfriend.

He raised an eyebrow, silently asking, making you smile slightly.

"I'm just going to check on Bad, don't worry."

“If you pass out, it's all your fault," Dave warned, but let you go nonetheless.

Laughing lightly, you waved him off, ducking into the hallway just as you heard Tommy join the call.

Dodged a bullet there.

You peeked down the hallway, quietly closing the door and making a mental note to get Dave a bottle of water before you returned.

"Y/N?" George whisper-yelled from a few doors down.

It had been common practice to shut your door completely when recording, sleeping, or occupied, and slightly or barely astray when not— and judging by the three firmly shut doors, there were several people recording today.

"George? I didn't know you could wake up before two in the afternoon."

"I felt a disturbance in the house today," he grinned. "Who died?"

"I'm about to," you returned, rolling your eyes and passing him by. "Not really. I just got sick."

"You shouldn't have taken so many projects on at once," George said rather unhelpfully. "We all told you."

"Dave already grilled me about that," you grumbled, shoving him slightly, though good-naturedly, when he caught up to you.

"Him, of all people?"

"That's what I said!"

“I don’t understand how you two have the time to even be together,” George admitted.

You understood what he was saying-- you had thought the same way before as well.

“It’s kind of easy when you live together,” you said casually. “Besides, we always manage to make time to relax.”

“Somehow.”

Reaching for a bottle of water, you shrugged helplessly.

"He's streaming MCC right now," you added conversationally. "If I go back in there to watch, Tommy might give me another headache."

"Still asking about Vik?" George asked, offering you a piece of the chocolate he was eating.

Gratefully, you took it— George did have some good qualities after all.

Even if he was the cause of a lot of the chaos in this house.

"I agreed to at least bring the idea up to Vik," you affirmed. "Who knows, maybe Tommy will be teamed with him and Pete next month."

"Maybe," he agreed, stifling a laugh as he accompanied you back down the hallway. "Tell Techno I said good luck."

"Will do," you replied, pushing open the pink door and peering into the room.

Slipping inside, you shut the door quietly and returned to your own seat, setting down the water bottle for him to see— since you had stolen his today, and you'd rather not see him sick.

"Guess who's going to be in the jungle, boys?" Wilbur asked, and you watched Dave walk through the winners podiums from the past championships.

"Oh, we are the jungle boys—"

"Lets pose in front of it," Dave added, glancing at you from the corner of his eye.

Silently, you nodded, affirming that you were alright, a smile growing as you listened to the banter.

"I was gonna put winner POV in the title," your flatmate admitted. "But I figured that would be BM, so... I put it in the description."

Phil laughed loudly at the words, and you briefly heard him type in something when a notification from him appeared on your screen.

'techno mentioned you were sick, you alright?'

'yeah dw!! I might fall asleep lmao but I'm okay'

'okay cool just making sure (:'

Checking through the other hundreds of messages popping up on your phone, you listened as the first round of voting began.

“Skyblockle? That game honestly stresses me out. Like, I do well at it, but it stresses me out," Dave said a little anxiously, stretching as the game loaded in.

"Right? Oh, who's bridging, Wilbur?"

"Yeah, Wilbur."

You stopped listening for a little while— it really was becoming hard to multitask, something you usually were excellent at— instead focusing on the messages to sort out new recording session times with your friends.

After you managed to sort things out with the Sidemen, you really just needed to take a nap. Being awake right now was just an inconvenience. And if you could avoid that inconvenience, why wouldn't you?

"— so, just how much is my life worth? Just so I can judge—" a dramatic gasp followed Wilbur's cut off sentence, startling you.

Dave stared blankly at his screen, hoping it wasn't what he thought it was. But judging by the death message in the chat, it was.

"Oh come on, man," Tommy complained.

Dutifully, Phil continued on with Wilbur's job, as he slammed his desk in the background and started to gain a foul mood from the slip.

"At least it's just game one," you offered optimistically.

"Yeah, it's not worth much just yet... come on guys, we got this. Wilbur, spy. This was our plan the whole time, don't even worry about it."

Shaking your head, you returned to leaning back in your seat, continuing to talk with Simon about rescheduling— it would be difficult with eight of you with busy schedules, but you'd figure it out. Didn't you always?

"The Dynamic Duo!" you suddenly heard Tommy shout, and you realized just how much time had passed when you saw the scores appear on the screen.

"Tommy redemption arc?" you asked, straightening your posture and grinning widely.

"Tommy carried, oh my god."

"Actually, I'd like to thank Wilbur for carrying," Dave added, reaching for his water.

Smiling, you ended off the conversation with Simon, agreeing to talk to him more about it when the time grew closer for the recording.

For now, you had a bigger priority— getting this sickness away and returning back to your normal routine. Even if it was substantially less than it was before.

Watching the voting for the second game of the championship, you hoped it wasn't Build Mart. You had tried to advise Dave on the shopping carts, but it seemed he wasn't quite as skilled with them as he was with other things, and you worried that he might spend more time falling into the void than actually building.

After all, you had helped design those drops and holes to fall into yourself. You knew the likelihood of falling in with those quick shopping carts.

"Come on, let's get Big Sales at Build Mart out of the way," Dave advised, throwing his egg at the respective corner.

"I don't want to play Big Sales, buddy," Tommy said uncertainly.

"Me neither. That's why we get it out of the way now, so the points are worth nothing," he rationalized, and his partners followed suit, voting for the game.

Slightly worriedly, you watched as they entered the game.

After it seemed like they would hold up fine on their own for a little bit, you started to check Twitter again, before hearing something that caught your attention.

"What's this about you losing your coupons, Techno?"

"Shut up."

Laughing quietly, you read the death message, one you were very familiar with— after having helped write them.

"I told you these carts were wild,” you said.

"And I told you that you were workin' too much, look where we are now," he grinned, elbowing you lightly.

Rolling your eyes playfully, you returned to leaning back in your seat, closing your eyes— just for a minute.

***

When you woke up next, you knew immediately it really had not been just a minute.

Usually, the stream and the constant shouting and chatter from next besides your would have woken you up ages ago— but it seemed like your resistance and endurance to it had built up over the months you stayed here.

And as you peeked at the screen, you realized they were already on game five. You had missed the voting tweet, but you figured Dave had rigged it for Rocket Spleef anyways, as he had confessed to you.

"What games?" you asked quietly, stretching and reaching for your bottle of water.

"Survival games, didn't win, homeless, still did good," Dave updated. "Then TGTTOS, good."

Nodding, you brought your knees up to your chest, continuing to watch the partly finished Rocket Spleef game.

It was expected for them to do well or at least average in both games— and you knew that your flatmate had been waiting to finally play To Get To the Other Side for ages now, so it was likely he did well there too.

Closing your eyes from the bright screen, you started to relax a little bit before hearing a sentence you never thought you'd hear before.

"Oh! Just killed a woman, feeling good," Tommy said smartly, causing an eruption of responses in the call in return.

"What?"

"Is that— is what going in the quote book, Wilbur?"

"Yes, yes, that's going in the quote book— my god—"

"Oh my god, Tommy!"

Struggling to stifle a laugh, you stared at the screen in disbelief, realizing just how much that clip of that one sentence was going to be used from this point onwards.

"And you're wondering why I'm having a hard time to convince Vik to team with you?" you asked dryly, shaking your head.

Listening to the banter between them a little longer, you noticed Pete dominating the Rocket Spleef game, and the techniques they all had started picking up— as well as that notorious glitch Wilbur had used.

Mutely, you watched the rest of the games, growing more and more confident of their victory with each point that racked up— it was just a matter of winning the finals, now.

They had played especially well in Battle Box, which was expected of them, and Dave had done exceptionally in Hole in the Wall as well— nearly ensuring their position in first.

The points for winning the latter game were extremely crucial to obtain, and they had successfully cemented their lead.

As you watched the finals, you had to make an effort to stay quiet, knowing it was not your stream nor your place to be there, but the nerves were getting to you.

So as that final shot from Tommy hit Vik in the middle of the arena, you cheered for the victorious team, thrilled that they had won.

You were really proud of them this month. They were doing better than you had expected, and the dynamic of the group and the overall stream was amazing.

To see them all like this, in a group where they could laugh and work so perfectly together— it just made you so happy for them.

And despite the sickness plaguing you today, you couldn't have felt happier.

"Hey,” you called quietly. Immediately, he turned to face you, concerned.

"Yeah?"

"Congratulations. You deserve it." you beamed, grasping his hand gently.

The smile he sent your way in return was beautiful.

You wondered just how lucky you were to find a partner like him.

***

Maybe you shouldn't have underestimated the sheer willpower of seven very motivated best friends— but there was no way you could've seen this coming.

"Do not tell me that's—" you cut yourself off out of pure shock, staring at the man exiting the taxi.

"How did he even book a flight out from France right now?" Dave wondered.

"Are you going to just stand there?" Vincent asked, seemingly unimpressed, though his growing smile contradicted it.

He waited for the taxi to leave before taking his luggage in his hands and approaching the house, and you could hardly believe your eyes.

"You said you couldn't get the flight in time!" you shouted, running to embrace him, an equal grin mirrored on your lips. "Zak's not even home yet!"

"You let him out of the house?" he raised an eyebrow, tugging his luggage into the house behind him when you let go.

"Bad and I were busy recording," you explained airily, reaching for Vincent's backpack, but retracting when Dave swatted your hand away and took it for you. "So we sent Zak out to get the groceries— not a good idea, in hindsight."

"No, it really wasn't. Hey." Dave nodded briefly, welcoming him. "We weren't expecting you."

"Harvey knew," Vincent laughed casually, waving to the mentioned man as he entered. "Hey."

"That rat. We were literally just talking about what to do with your room the other day—"

"My room?"

"Yeah, your room. We sent you a photo of the door we painted for you, didn't we?" you walked down the hallway, searching for the black and grey door. "Here."

"I didn't think you guys would actually leave it empty," he admitted. "I thought you'd turn it into an office or something."

"We've already got an office and it's hardly ever used." you shrugged, taking the backpack from Dave's hands, not missing the mild glare he threw your way, and placing it on the mattress. He had always carried things for you. "And we figured you'd find some way over here anyways."

The second part was partly untrue— you had strongly doubted that he'd be able to obtain a visa to visit, and hardly to move here. But he'd done it anyways. And somehow had kept it from everyone.

"Oh really?" he appeared nonchalant, but you could see what the gesture had meant to him. "Thanks."

Giving him a side hug, you continued,

"Don't worry about it. We can order in some furniture too— we didn't know what to put in here other than a desk and chair and that kind of stuff for recording," you admitted. "But, soundproof walls. Mostly, anyways. If Bad hits Zak with a sandal for breaking something, you can still hear it."

"That's... oddly specific," Vincent chuckled, setting down his luggage.

"How long are you staying for?" Dave asked, absentmindedly reaching out for your braid, the one he'd done this morning, and fiddling with it.

"Maybe a month."

The words shocked you, making you suddenly turn to look at him.

"What?"

"Well, I'm not really in any rush to get back, not like I have anywhere to go right now," he said casually, looking around the room and picking up the microphone left on the desk for him. "I've been home quarantining for months."

Silently, Dave put out his hand, and you gave him another hair band, with him putting the old one on his wrist.

"Honestly, you could just move in now."

"Yeah. The room's still yours," Dave added.

"Mhm." Vincent set the microphone down, walking to the floor to ceiling window, illuminated by the golden sunshine. "In that case... my stuff is being shipped over in May."

The words stunned you into silence.

"You're joking."

"No, I don't think I am." he turned around to glance at you over his shoulder, giving you a wide grin.

"How did you manage to pull all this off?" you wondered, as Darryl burst into the room to meet his best friend again.

"Hey, sorry, I had to take care of something on the server... Vincent!" Darryl grinned, hugging him.

"Bad, he's actually moving in! What the fuck, how did you hide this from us?" you swatted him lightly. "Harvey!"

Peeking through the doorframe at the sound of his same, Harvey waved a little sheepishly, walking in to greet his friend as well.

"I didn't have to hide anything if you guys weren't asking about it," he explained. "You didn't expect it, so it was easy to get it done. Hey, Vincent!"

"Yeah, I didn't have much to ship over anyways," he admitted. "Now I'm finally actually here."

"And you can finally teach Bad how to say Doctor Pepper and Pepsi in French," Dave muttered, letting go of your braid, satisfied with his work.

"Never again."

"Where's that overgrown beaver? Sleeping?" you asked, brushing past Dave to look into the hallway.

The brown door was firmly shut.

"It's five p.m.," Vincent said. "You weren't kidding when you said George had a bad sleep schedule."

"No, we weren't," Darryl sighed, walking with you to George's door. "Wake up!"

You opened the door, hesitantly peeking inside the room to see a sleeping George, completely unfazed by the yelling.

"Hold on, I've got something."

Reaching for the water bottle he'd brought with him, Vincent approached the bed, opening it and dumping it over George's head.

A beat of silence.

George didn't react.

"What the hell, is he dea—"

Cutting him off, George suddenly screamed, sitting upright and staring at the culprit, before bursting into laughter.

"I knew it, we're living with a psychopath," you muttered, closing your eyes exasperatedly.

Dave chuckled, linking arms with you and watching the chaotic scene unfold.

"Vincent!" he shouted.

"No, don't hug me," the mentioned man laughed, backing away.

"He's moving in," Harvey added nonchalantly.

"No way. Are you serious? You're crazy," George said disbelievingly.

"So I've heard." Vincent grinned knowingly.

The group started to chatter about future videos and the possibility of a group channel, something similar to the Lunch Club or Sidemen, and you simply listened with an indulgent smile.

Interrupting the conversation, however, you heard the front door crash open, and Zak yelling faintly in the background.

Shaking your head, you let go of Dave's arm, ducking back into the hallway and rushing to the foyer with Darryl racing behind you.

"You dramatic princess!" you shouted.

"What?"

Zak was perfectly fine— at least, it seemed so— and didn't want anything other than help with bringing the groceries in.

"I thought you broke something!" Darryl shouted, hitting him on the back of his head. "Stupid ragamuffin!"

"I'm going to break my arms!" he defended, making you laugh before reaching to pick up the bags on the floor.

"So, we've got a surprise for you," you started, throwing him a wide grin.

Zak oohed chaotically, bouncing and looking around the house as the three of you walked.

Dropping off the grocery bags in the kitchen, you ushered him over to George's room, reaching for the door.

"No, I don't want to lose more brain cells this early in the morning," Zak began to complain, before you shushed him and dragged him in.

"Oh, hey Skeppy," Vincent said, waving.

"French man!" Zak shouted, running over to hug him tightly. "Are you finally moving in? Say yes right now or else—"

"— yes, I am!"

"Finally!"

You grinned, satisfied now that everyone was here, and the house would, at last, feel complete.

The last piece of the puzzle fell into place, and the house was nearly glowing with the excitement for the future and what was to come.

"Come on," Dave started, "we have a stream in an hour, don't we?"

His words brought you back down to reality, and you remembered the scheduled stream for today.

"That, we do. Come on, let's finish your set up, Vin," you said, gesturing him back over to his room. "You most likely need to log into a lot of things."

"Okay, no problem."

Ensuring that his computer was connected to the wifi, you checked that the media shares would appear for him as well before letting him handle the rest.

"All good. Join the channel after you've got it set up, I'll start up the world and make sure it's working," you confirmed, straightening and preparing to leave again.

The rest of the house was already preparing their own streams and set ups— you had to do so yourself now, in half the time.

"Hey," your new flatmate called.

You paused.

"Thank you. It's really nice to finally be here."

Smiling, you turned around to face him, waving it off.

"Don't worry about it. We're all best friends, aren't we?"

Despite you brushing it off casually, you felt the same way as him.

It was so wonderful to not be alone anymore.

"I know." he smiled. "See you in the call."

You nodded, leaving his room and shutting the door firmly. The entire hallways' doors were shut— asides from the pink one, neighboring yours.

"Dave?" you called softly as you approached his room, hearing his typing.

"Yeah?"

Going silent, you wondered what you even wanted to say. It was so easy to talk to each other, yet your words were stuck in your throat.

Where would the future lead you? When things had been so unpredictable so far?

You hadn't ever liked not knowing what was going to happen.

As if sensing your doubt, he turned around, leveling your gaze.

"Don't worry," he said easily. "We're champions, aren't we?"

You smiled.

"Whatever happens, happens," Dave continued. "And we're all here together."

"I know. Champions," you echoed, turning around to return to your room.

"Good luck setting that up," he called.

"Thanks," you returned, ducking back into your room.

Sighing lightly, you returned to your set up, flicking the camera to turn it on before checking the commands set up within the game.

It was fairly simple— you had done it for the Lunch Club before, so there was no problem repeating it for your own group.

You made sure to join the discord channel, asking a couple questions to make sure the new setup worked.

"Vincent, your microphone working?" you asked.

"Mhm."

"Okay, good." you typed in the kill command, seeing everyone else die when you were killed. "Alright, looks like everything's working."

"Did you set up the media shares to go to everyone?" Dave asked, messing around with his setup.

"Yes, it should be working," you replied. "Test media share."

A video, only a few seconds long, appeared on your second monitor, of when Darryl had gotten drunk a few weeks ago.

"Hey!" he shouted, despite the loud laughter in the call.

"Oh my god," Dave muttered.

"Okay," you managed to say without laughing, "let's start, guys. The donation bar is at the top, I'll send the total donations to the charity towards the end of the stream... ready?"

"Ready."

Clicking to start your Twitch stream, you waited for a minute before talking to your chat.

"Hi, chat!" you grinned, waving.

"Different set up, yes," you heard Vincent say. "Wonder where I am."

"Skeppy finally kidnapped you and put you in his basement," you said, running to the village close by.

"Wait, hold up—"

"Anyways!" Harvey clapped his hands. "Today, we're playing Minecraft— but if one person dies, all of us die."

"Not stolen from Lunch Club," you added. "I coded it for them. So don't cancel me."

There had been a steady increase in people out to ruin your career lately, as there would be, with growing fame. You just had to be more careful than ever.

You had learned that it was very easy to make something out of nothing on the internet.

"Okay, let's go!"

Decisively sprinting towards the village, you checked through the mediocre loot before finding some iron. You weren't going to die, but you were worried some certain others would.

And by the sounds of Zak's yelling, you might have to put your iron golem murder plans to the side for a minute.

"It's been, like, ten seconds, dude," Dave complained. "Can you not?"

"Yeah, Skeppy, what is— oh my goodness!" Darryl suddenly screamed. "You're trying to kill me!"

Hearing Zak's uncontrollable laughter only made you roll your eyes before running around the corner, Dave killing the golem for you instead.

Zak had been attempting to push Darryl into the lava lake nearby.

"If you make him die then don't ask for help when he beats you up with a shoe," you warned, making him sober up and apologize.

"Okay, okay! I'm sorry!"

"Yeah, you better be," Darryl muttered. "Stupid muffinhead."

After you picked up a sword left for you, you went back into the forest to hopefully find that ravine Harvey mentioned and pick up some wood.

"Is there water down there, Harv?" you asked, breaking down a tree.

"There's like three sources, don't worry about it."

"A ravine? I want to go!" Zak said, running up to meet you.

"Yeah, jump," you said absent-mindedly, making a shield before hopping down after him.

You watched as Darryl prepared to jump down as well, having caught up.

To your dismay, about ten seconds later, just when you had paused to read over your donations, you were automatically killed.

Darryl had not made the jump-- all because Zak had blocked off the water source right as he jumped off. You knew you shouldn't have let Zak down here with you.

"Skeppy!" Darryl screamed, in the midst of George and Zak's chaotic laughter.

"What?"

"You stupid little-- ragamuffin! How could you?"

Vincent only sighed heavily before trying to go to retrieve his items again, Harvey following you back to the ravine.

"Oh my god," Dave muttered. "This was such a bad idea."

"You agreed to it," you reminded him. "You were the one who told me to, actually."

He had insisted on you doing a project you were actually interested in doing for yourself and not for others for once, after all.

"I was trying to be nice," he complained. "Okay, whatever. It's all part of the master plan. We didn't really need that stuff, right?"

"Right. Come on, we got this," Zak said encouragingly, as if he didn't just single-handedly cause all of you to lose all of your belongings.

At least it was early in the game that you all had died-- whether that was a good or bad thing, you couldn't tell just yet.

***

The media shares had been successfully linked to everyone of their second monitors, and throughout the stream, you often paused to watch them, even if you and the others pausing caused some deaths here and there.

As you neared the end of the game, however, you concentrated more on defeating the dragon rather than the media shares, not wanting to die when you were so close.

"Someone give me an arrow!" you shouted, watching the dragon fly off. "It's almost dead!"

Dave dropped sixteen for you to pick up, and you aimed carefully, giving it a second before firing as many shots as you could.

The dragon returned, and the group moved in to swarm it.

"Come on!"

The health bar steadily dropped, and you watched as it crumbled to death.

Zak had gotten the last hit in.

You watched, smiling widely. After so many deaths and close calls, you had done it.

"Oh my goodness, is this..." Darryl trailed off, and you finally looked back to your second screen, seeing another media share.

Playing out on the stream, a compilation of wholesome moments from various streams, posts, and videos posted from the entire house ran through.

Briefly, you saw a clip of the last time Zak had managed to set a tray of cookies on fire, when it quickly switched back to the video clips of the group painting the colorful doors.

They caught moments where Zak swore at Darryl-- which had not ended nicely-- and ones where George set up numerous pranks in everyone else's rooms.

Easily one of the best compilations of you that you had ever seen, you thought, smiling and turning back to your screen.

"Wow," you said softly, as the short video ended.

"Wow indeed," Vincent exhaled. "That was really good."

"Yeah. Really good," Zak added. "Great way to end off the stream."

It was quiet. You hadn't really realized you were making memories-- it just felt like you were having fun.

"Okay, I'll end off my stream here," you said after a moment. "Thank you for that media share. Love you guys."

Your best friends echoed the sentiment, and you chatted for a few more minutes to your chat before ultimately ending the stream.

That stream would make out to be a wonderful highlight reel.

Turning off your computer, you checked the time-- it was surprisingly late at night. That stream had lasted longer than anticipated.

A knock at your door interrupted you from your thoughts.

"Yes?" you called.

Meeting Dave's stare, you nodded, prompting him to walk in, leaning on the wall as he looked over your setup.

"Good stream?" he asked conversationally.

"Really good," you said simply, rising from your seat.

He was the quiet company you hadn't ever known you needed.

"We've found home," he said quietly.

"We have," you agreed softly, walking into his open arms, welcoming the warm embrace.

You wished you could remind yourself of that more often.

But that’s what Dave was here for.

Right. Because you had someone now.

Living in fear of what could go wrong made you blind to everything that had gone right.

You weren't alone anymore, and you were no longer afraid.

You would repeat that until you finally believed in it.

"Hey, Dave?" you called, tilting your head up to meet his gaze.

"Yeah?"

You exhaled softly, leaning up to kiss him.

"Thank you. For everything."

He smiled, and you swore that the stars glowed brighter when he did.

"Don't worry about it."

Together, you watched the sunset, and met the future-- whatever it held for the two of you-- with open arms.

You were good enough to face the world, and so was he.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”