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“Dude, I was watching this streamer play the weirdest game last night.”
“Where is this going?” Scaramouche looked at his lab partner as he sat down next to him.
“No not weird in a bad way, weird as in it’s so complicated, he’ll be talking for half an hour and I won’t understand a single thing,” Sethos grinned, “It’s uhh- Trail of Banishment or something?”
Scaramouche deadpanned, “Why are you telling me this?”
“Well you said you didn’t want to talk about your fashion choices when it came to hats,” Sethos said, “So I figured I’d try talking about something else.”
“How ridiculous,” Scaramouche chuckled, quieting down as the professor entered the classroom.
.
Scaramouche facepalmed later that night as he sat in front of his computer, about to start streaming. He hadn’t thought much of Sethos’s words earlier, but as he opened the game he usually streamed, Path of Exile, he realized that Sethos was just mixing words up.
He sighed, it wasn’t like he was the only streamer for this game, surely it was just a coincidence. Scaramouche shoved the thought of his lab partner watching him stream to the back of his mind. Not like he used a face cam anyway, and he usually spoke differently while streaming.
.
“Dude I spent like an hour listening to a streamer argue with chatters about something I knew nothing about.”
“Why are you telling me about this again?” Scaramouche deadpanned.
“Just making conversation,” Sethos smiled, “Anyways the guy in chat was saying the streamer’s build was trash or something, then the streamer took a look at his character and started going in on him about how he was missing all these stats because his items were trash or whatever, I don’t know.”
Scaramouche’s eyes widened, that was… he’d done the same thing last night. Maybe he’d been a bit harsh, but it wasn’t his fault that people couldn’t follow his builds, they were simple if you just had a brain. He shook his head and returned his thoughts to the present.
“Why do you watch this streamer if he only plays a game you don’t understand?” Scaramouche asked.
“I never said he only played that game,” Sethos pointed out.
“My question stands.”
“I like his voice,” Sethos admitted, “It’s kinda cute.”
Scaramouche fought to keep his cheeks from heating up at that comment. What the hell about his streaming voice was cute? Did Sethos enjoy listening to him argue with people?
“Is- is that it?” Scaramouche said after regaining his composure.
“Well he’s pretty funny as well, and the music he plays on stream is a vibe,” Sethos said.
Scaramouche rolled his eyes and looked to the front as class began.
.
That night Scaramouche sat, watching his chat as he crafted items, telling backseaters that they did not know how to do the crafts better than him and that they needed to take a statistics class. He then noticed a familiar username in chat, “BusyBee”…
Wasn’t that Sethos’s gamertag? He clicked on the account name and his eyes widened. He’d been a sub for 3 years? That’s about as long as Scaramouche had been streaming. He laughed to himself, forgetting to mute his mic. What were the chances?
.
“Why don’t you try to learn that game you watch all the time?”
“You’re starting this talk with me now?” Sethos grinned, “Did I pique your interest?”
“I’m just curious, did you just start watching him or?”
“Nah I’ve been watching him for 3 years, he’s played the game that whole time,” Sethos smiled sheepishly, “But uh, I tried playing once but it was really complicated and I gave up.”
“Why don’t you just ask in his chat? Surely someone would help you,” Scaramouche didn’t know why he was suggesting this. Maybe he just felt weird knowing that such a longtime viewer understood nothing of what he was doing each time he streamed.
“I’ll give that a try maybe,” Sethos nodded.
.
Scaramouche watched his chat, and just as he’d predicted “BusyBee” left a message.
Hey guys anyone have any tips for someone wanting to get into this game?
Scaramouche was about to say something when he saw another message in chat responding to that one, from some weird ass username, “Escher”.
Dude you’ve been subscribed for 3 years and don’t know the game? Are you dumb or something?
Scaramouche felt like that way of typing felt familiar, then it clicked, he unmuted his mic, “Dottore is that you on another fucking alt? Tartaglia ban him.”
Scaramouche smirked to himself as Childe did as he asked, and now chat was all laughing about Dottore being banned yet again, and Sethos’s question went unanswered. Why did Scaramouche care anyway?
He ignored the thoughts in his mind and went on with his stream.
.
After about a week of listening to Sethos tell Scaramouche about his favorite streamer “The Balladeer”, who was actually just Scaramouche, he decided to have some fun with Sethos. And by that, he meant he’d decided to turn on face cam for part of his stream. He felt lucky to have Childe as a mod because he kept his chatters in line, he only saw a few out of pocket messages that made it past his mod. He didn’t care about that though, he was going to enjoy Sethos’s reaction the next day.
.
Sethos came in and looked at Scaramouche with wide eyes, and Scaramouche knew that his plan had worked. Sethos sat in his usual seat next to him and just stared at Scaramouche for a few seconds, before finally gaining his voice.
“Dude.”
“Yeah?” Scaramouche said innocently.
“Dude it was you?”
“Took you long enough,” Scaramouche smirked, “Thanks for all the money by the way.”
“Dude I was gushing to you about how much I loved to listen to your voice,” Sethos realized, burying his face in his hands, “Dude that’s so embarrassing-“
“Let’s see, in this last week you’ve said I’m the funniest person you’ve ever watched, I have a voice that’s, and I quote, “eargasm worthy”, and that I sound like your type,” Scaramouche teased.
“I- yeah I have no defense,” Sethos chuckled, so embarrassed that his only course of action was to laugh at himself.
“If you liked my voice that much why not just ask me out?” Scaramouche’s eyes shone with mischief. He’d long ago come to the conclusion that, if Sethos asked him out, he could do far worse. But right now he wasn’t expecting Sethos to actually have the composure to ask him out. It was mostly a joke anyway, but…
“Will you go out with me then?”
“What?” Scaramouche momentarily forgot he was in class and raised his voice, then glared at a few classmates who snapped their heads to him, “I- screw it why not.”
“Awesome!” Sethos grinned, all embarrassment gone in an instant. Scaramouche wondered what he’d just signed himself up for…
.
One month later
Scaramouche started his stream, clicking the new character option instead of clicking any of his existing characters.
“Chat today I’m gonna be doing some coop with my boyfriend while I teach him the game.”
This stream, a certain “BusyBee” was noticeably absent from chat, and Scaramouche wondered how he hadn’t recognized that username earlier. He chuckled to himself as Sethos predictably named his character “BusyBee”, and ignored the reactions from chat as he prepared to finally teach his boyfriend the game he’d been watching for 3 years.