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Light, airy laughter filled the kitchen, stretching out to the farthest corners and bouncing back, filtering out through the open window and into the quiet streets of the city below. Hitoshi watched as his boyfriend attempted to crack an egg against the rim of a bowl, howling in laughter as the liquid inside spilled all over the counter below.
Leaning against the door frame he wondered how he got here, how his life became so domestic life. How did he go from streaming horror game playthroughs to failing to making bread with a boyfriend he never thought he'd have? How did he go from laughing at Izuku's pathetic screams during their live streams to making fun little YouTube videos with him, the man he couldn't be more in love with?
It seemed like just yesterday he was living in that shitty, old, two room apartment where damp clung to the walls and the floorboards were just the wrong side of 'possibly rotting'. Where his kitchen was also his sitting room, the other room his bedroom and where he kept his computer. There was a small, cramped bathroom leading off from his bedroom, which had a total of 3 completely undamaged floor tiles. The rest were cracked and fractured, some even chipped in places.
How he ever lived like that, Hitoshi really doesn't know, especially when Izuku wasn't yet by his side. Hell, he barely knew the other man back then, and only 'barely' because he'd heard his name thrown around a lot on Twitch.
He could still remember the day he found out who he was.
Hitoshi pulled his headphones off, running a hand through his hair and wincing as it caught in various tangles and knots. There was a slight sheen to his forehead, sweat clinging to his skin uncomfortably. That's his own fault though, for streaming for four hours straight, barely giving himself a water break.
To be fair to him though, he didn't exactly play the types of games where you could just stop and take a water break while leaving your avatar unattended. That was practically asking for trouble, for one of the many monsters of the games to swoop in and decapitate him while he wasn't watching. It also meant he couldn't read the chat, not unless someone sent in a donation and kt read itself. Usually it was just trolls and jumpscares that never worked, but other times it was tips and just general conversation.
Like there was this one time someone tried to ask him out with a rather hefty sum of money, and considering his living situation right now… it probably would've done him well to say yes. He didn't though, he looked into the camera for the fraction of a second he could afford, politely told them he wasn't interested, and then got back to slaying the hydra that threatened to take up his entire screen.
Yeah, his chat could be a bit wild sometimes. They were respectful though, usually, talking away while he played and occasionally interacted with them. He may not be the most interesting streamer out there, with how he never set aside much time to talk to his viewers, but they came to watch him play, not to sit and chat. His interaction with them was just an added bonus, even if a lot of people argued he should spend more time focusing on them.
But again, his viewers were quite pleasant. Although there was one thing that irked him a little. A lot of people in the chat kept comparing him to 'Green' — and wasn't that a stupid name. Seriously, who would ever use a colour as their username? — whoever the hell that was. They were constantly talking about how 'Maniac should be more like Green!' and 'At least Green keeps us entertained. All this guy does is sit there in silence.'
It pissed him off a little… okay so it pissed him off a lot. Why? Well he doesn't exactly like when people say he's not good enough and that he should change himself to be more like someone else. He's had enough of that in his life.
And, as all people inherently are, he was curious. He wanted to know who, exactly, this person was. So like the logical person he is, he migrated towards Google, typed in the words 'Green, Twitch, Streams' — Oh yeah, very technical stuff — and clicked search. To his horror and mild annoyance, it bore no results. When that didn't work, he swapped the words around a bit, but that didn't come up with anything either.
And so the cycle began, streaming, searching, giving up — a cycle that continued until Hitoshi grew so fed up and downright desperate that he opened up a stream one day and waited for his viewers to come in. When there were a good few there, he finally asked the question that had been plaguing his mind for months.
"Who the fuck is Green?"
Instantly the chat was flooded with responses, all flying by so fast he could barely read them. He just sat there trying to click on the chat, the waiting screen of his game all but forgotten about as he tried to slow the chat down. Eventually though, he had to give up and turn back to his game, the knowledge of finally finding out who Green was hanging over his head, motivating him to beat the boss he'd been stuck on for the past few days.
Once the four hours were up though, he shut the steam down without a goodbye, a slight grin on his face as he raced to open the chat. Hitoshi was a little ashamed to say that he sat there, reading through four hours of chat history for longer than his stream lasted as a whole. But he did, not that he would ever admit that to anyone
He told his boyfriend on their fifth date. Izuku still teased him about a year later.
It was looking pretty bleak for a moment there, the chat just filled with theories about Green and why Maniac was asking after him, but then Hitoshi stumbled across a single comment about halfway into the stream, finally giving him what he wanted to hear.
Sabertoothhousecat: why does Maniac want to know aboit MightyGreen?
Fuck, Hitoshi could kiss whoever posted that. He wouldn't, obviously, but he was just so thankful that after all this searching he might finally find out just who the hell Green was.
He minimised Twitch and sent his cursor flying towards Google, clicking on it far more than was necessary to actually open the browser, but he really just did not care.
When Google finally opened — it took its sweet time, christ. If he wasn't so busy searching for Green, he'd be opening his email and sending some very strong words to Google — he jerked his arm so quickly to get the search bar open that the cursor slipped off one screen and onto the other monitor. Cursing, he brought it back and slowly opened the bar, letting the white expand as his fingers started to dance across the keyboard. Words filled the bubble, just two this time, 'MightyGreen' and 'Twitch'.
He hit enter, watching the buffering symbol twirl and spin, waiting in agony for it to finally stop and just give him what he waited so long to see–
It disappeared, and the screen was replaced with a list of search results. Hitoshi's hand was on the cursor like it was food, and he, a starving man in the desert. Without even looking, he clicked the top option, the link quickly turning from blue to purple, his screen going dark as Google tried to load once more.
God, that's one of the things he hated about this damn apartment. The WiFi was too shitty to support even the simplest of searches, let alone the games he half-relied on to make money. It was kne of the main reasons he wanted to move. The only problem was the money. He wouldn't be able to afford any place better than this unless he got a roommate, something he did not want. So this was the best he could do for now, even if the terrible WiFi made him want to strangle himse–
Hitoshi's eyes focused back on the screen as it changed, neck snapping back toward his monitor so fast he probably gave himself whiplash. One could argue that his level of excitement was a little — a lot — stalker-ish, obsessive even, but he begged to differ. He was just curious, that's all, curious to see just who Green was and why his viewers kept saying he should be more like him.
But, see, what Hitoshi failed to realise, is that in his haste to open the link, he had double clicked, the second click transferring to the second Web page — which had apparently been MightyGreen's profile page — and landing squarely on the 'Join The Stream!' button.
So instead of seeing a profile page waiting for him, even a Wikipedia page or a compilation of funny moments from his streams, Hitoshi's screen opened up to a sight he would never forget. There was a man with green hair, and emeralds for eyes, so inviting that Hitoshi thought he might just fall through the screen trying to reach them. And this man, this bright eyed, smiling, cute man was staring right at him.
Hitoshi knew, somewhere in his mind, that Green wasn't actually staring at him, that he was only looking into the camera and didn't even know he existed. But God, he'd much rather think about the fact that this man with eyes like rolling hills of bright green grass was staring at him, happy and light, was staring at him.
Suddenly, without the man even needing to speak, Hitoshi realised why everyone was forever raving about him. Who wouldn't, after all, when he was perfect?
His teeth were almost blinding in their white sheen, the smile that showed them off to the world so happy that Hitoshi found himself smiling too, almost happy just from seeing the other man smile. His cheeks were freckled, little constellations tracing the skin, wrinkling from the broad grin that covered his face.
Green's hair was impossibly messy, but it wasn't in the 'I just woke up' messy, more of a 'My hair is a bitch to try and tame, so I don't bother' messy, and damn did it look phenomenal. It just seemed so fluffy? As though his hair was a green cloud, and not the knotted mess it probably was — curly hair was a terrible curse, for all that it looked amazing.
Then, just when Hitoshi thought Green couldn't be any more perfect the man titled his head back and laughed. That's when Hitoshi was truly fucked. The second he heard that angelic giggling, he was done for.
Green was laughing, and Hitoshi was maybe a little bit obsessed… but it was fine, perfectly normal, right? Surely everyone felt like this when they saw the cinnamon roll that he was. Right? Right?
Hitoshi sat in his desk chair, staring at the man as he interacted with the chat. He was too scared right now everything going so quickly already and the man hadn't even done anything worthwhile.
Eventually, Green unpaused his game– was… was he playing the Sims?
He was tempted to leave the stream when he saw that… and yet he stayed, watching his mind completely engrossed in the world Green had made listening to every little detail about his Sims and what was going on in their life. The memory even talked about what he planned for the future, different games for him to try out. He asked for people to put them in the chat, that he'd check them later once the stream was over.
And Hitoshi… Hitoshi was a weak man, a weak man who had only just discovered the joys of listening to a man rant happily about his favourite video game and what he was doing and why. He had just now found out, could only now comprehend and truly appreciate why people wanted him to be more like Green. Listening to him… it made everything so much more enjoyable, so much more engaging.
His cursor hovered over the chat as messages and recommendations went flying by and with a courage he didn't know he had — from where he got it still remained a mystery to this day — he typed in a recommendation.
InsomniManiac ✓: You should chrck out Phasmophobia. DM me and we can play it together.
Hitoshi swallowed as he realised what he'd just done. He'd just… offered to play a horror game, with someone he doesn't even know, someone who plays the Sims and gets sad when one of them gets sick.
He turned back to the chat to– Oh no
There, lying innocently amongst the hundreds of messages that seemed to just flood the chat, was a friend request.
But this was no ordinary friend request, no, this was from MightyGreen.
And then suddenly, it was open, the stream forgotten about entirely. He barely realised his hand had moved the cursor and clicked, barely registered Green's "sorry guys, I have to cut this stream short. See you tomorrow!"
All that mattered right now was the innocent little message that took up his entire screen.
MightyGreen ✓: Were you serious about your offer? 👀
Hitoshi's heart pounded as he brought his hands to the keyboard, typing out his reply.
InsomniManiac ✓: Yeah, I think it could be fun.
MightyGreen ✓: Same! So what's the gsme about? All the summaries on Google are being stupidly unhelpful.
He swallowed grinning as he responded.
And it stayed like that, the two of them chatting freely with one another, sending messages back and forth all night until Hitoshi was nearly asleep at his desk. Eventually they signed off, but not without a promise to continue the conversation later in the day and to meet up next week to go over their joint stream.
Hitoshi went to bed happy that night, more so than he had been in a long while.
Hitoshi let the memory dissipate with a smile, watching as his boyfriend made a mess of the kitchen of their new apartment, the electric mixer sending plumes of flour high into the air and all over the floor.
Chuckling, he walked over, encasing the other man in his arms and pressing a light kiss to the nape of his neck. Squeezing his arms drew a round of giggles from his boyfriend, squeals that were like music to Hitoshi's ears.
The ring sat heavy in his back pocket, not because he was nervous the other would say no, but because he'd been waiting for the perfect moment to give it to Izuku.
The light of the camera blinked at him from where they'd set it up on the other side of the island.
Not today, not here and now, but soon. Soon Hitoshi would ask, and soon they would be just as happy as they were before, just with matching rings to symbolise their love.
For now though, he took the electric whisk from Izuku's hands and began to stir the mixture slowly, smirking at Izuku when the mixer listened to his commands and didn't send flour flying all over the place.
Hitoshi may not understand how he got here, how he went from a lonely streamer to a streaming-duo with a loving boyfriend — his, hopefully, soon to be fiancé — but he wouldn't change it for the world. How could he, when Izuku was his world?