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Streaming had been a career choice, that much Gideon knew.
She vaguely recalled an argument with her father, the head of GAIUS Industries, telling him she wanted to pursue a career that allowed her the freedom to be herself without the attachment of his name. He didn’t understand it but did eventually relent, allowing Gideon to decide for herself the trajectory of her life going forward. He stopped trying to teach her the family business and backed off, assisting only when Gideon asked.
Which is how Gideon ended up in her current situation.
Granted, it wasn’t bad. Gideon lived in a nice four-bedroom apartment paid in part by her father while she worked toward getting her streaming career off the ground. But it came with the caveat of her roommate, Harrowhark. Gideon had never met a more stuck-up, dour-faced annoyance in her life. Opposites in every regard, where Gideon loved to sleep and actually work her muscles, her roommate was built like a piece of dried spaghetti and would be awake until the sun began to rise.
It should have worked, even if they clashed, but it hadn’t worked like that. Instead, what happened was Harrow would wake Gideon with her late-night streams of horror games, and Gideon would end up waking Harrow up while hollering about “bullshit” in her latest Call of Duty match. Their rhythm didn’t change, but something that did was the audience for both of their channels, which slowly grew over the course of a year. Occasionally, when they overlapped, Gideon would find Harrow raiding her streams; occasionally, when Harrow hadn’t been particularly insufferable, Gideon would raid Harrow’s.
People began to put two and two together quickly, to put it mildly. Some would comment they recognized a mug Harrow had used as one that Gideon was using last week, or point out decor that looked awfully familiar. Then the gossip started, and that was when Gideon had had enough. In a rather viral clip, she’d eventually come clean and explained that she and Harrow were roommates, that the rumors of them dating were not true, and Harrow wasn’t Gideon’s type anyway.
Harrow responded much the same, looking nearly disgusted at the idea of even touching Gideon with a ten-foot pole. The rumors caused a lot of unnecessary tension, or at least in Gideon’s opinion, it was unnecessary. She tried not to sweat it, and her moderators were on top of things quite well and would quash any discussions of Gideon and Harrow’s dating life quickly and efficiently. It was something Gideon had quickly become thankful for while the worst of the talk went on. Gideon knew the internet, and eventually, someone else would jingle the proverbial shiny keys and distract the people with something else.
But Harrow hadn’t taken it nearly as well. Harrow was thin to begin with and rarely left her room unless it was to eat or use the restroom, but she came out even less now. When Gideon did see her, Harrow wouldn’t even look Gideon in the eyes and only give her the briefest one-word answers. She wasn’t sure why, but it stung to hear Harrow talk to her like she was worse than the scum of the dirt on the bottom of her shoes, and she tried not to think about it too deeply. Surely Harrow would come around, right?
It was a cold, rainy December night when it happened. Gideon heard a crash and found Harrow had fallen while trying to finish brushing her teeth. Harrow was paler than usual, her eyes had dark circles that weren’t the result of makeup, and she felt feverish to the touch. Gideon had scooped her up and laid her on the couch and told Harrow not to move. Harrow complained about missing her stream today, and Gideon assured her not to worry about it, that it would be taken care of. Gideon did what she did best: she meal prepped, and for Harrow, it was a blander series of meals.
Chicken Soup, homemade with only the barest of seasonings, as Harrow seemed to prefer her food blander than normal. She’d gone to the store and bought a box of saltine crackers, electrolyte drinks, and everything someone would need to nurse an ailing roommate back to health. For all that Gideon disliked about Harrow, Gideon sure as hell wasn’t going to just stand by when she was suffering.
Once she knew Harrow was settled and resting, that was when Gideon walked into Harrow’s room to see the streamer’s setup already in place and waiting for someone to press the ‘go online’ button. Gideon did just that at Harrow’s usual time for stream. The chat erupted with surprise, rumors, hellos to Gideon, questions for Harrow– it was all quite amusing to the redhead.
“Hey guys, as you can see, your Penumbral Princess is not here today. Harrow’s not feelin’ well, and I just wanted to give you guys a heads up!” Gideon watched the chat scroll with questions about if Harrow was okay, others asked Gideon how she was doing, and if Gideon’s stream would happen tomorrow.
“Yeah, yeah– Don’t worry about my stream, we’ll have it as scheduled. Harrow might be gone for a few days, though. She’s got some kinda cold, and I don’t think her voice will be up for stream until she recovers.” After another few short exchanges, Gideon checks to make sure every project that Harrow had been working on was saved– of which Gideon named Harrow's most recent compilation project: Who would win, 1 goth girl vs zombie horde. When Gideon exits, she sees Harrow had turned on the television, pulled Gideon’s massive blanket over herself, and was currently watching Gideon leave her bedroom.
“Griddle,” she croaked, “Why were you in my room?” Her tone isn’t accusatory; it’s just curious and riddled with fatigue.
“Oh, saw you had your setup ready to go for stream tonight, I just let ‘em know you’re not feeling well and you need to rest.” Gideon heard Harrow groan and a muffled complaint of ‘please don’t do that again.’
Gideon also caught the ghost of a smile on the tired girl’s lips, and for the first time, Gideon felt her heart skip a beat. It was like she had seen Harrow for the first time in that moment. She ensured Harrow had an ample supply of blankets, water, crackers, and a fresh cup of tea with honey and lemon in it before returning to her own room.
Stream the next day was interesting. Chat hadn’t begun talking about shipping again, but asked genuinely about how Harrow was doing. And Gideon, to her credit, talked candidly, informing chat that Harrow was still not well but Gideon was doing her best to make sure that Harrow needed everything. There were comments about how sweet the gesture was, or that they wished they had someone like Gideon when they were sick.
Gideon hadn’t thought much of it until a week in, and Harrow wasn’t getting better. Fortunately, she wasn’t getting worse either, but Gideon was spooked. The bird-boned girl’s lack of appetite was notable on a good day, when she was sick. Getting her to eat anything was like pulling teeth, and Gideon bet pulling teeth was still a hell of a lot easier than this. It’d gotten to the point where Gideon had canceled her stream that morning to take care of Harrow. She was currently sitting on the couch with Harrow resting against her shoulder.
“Griddle…” she muttered hoarsely, “You know you don’t have to do all of this, right?” Harrow watched the brow on Gideon’s left side rise, and then Gideon let out a long ‘whumph’ sound, a whoosh of air through her teeth.
“Yeah, Harrow, I know I don’t have to, but– I’ll be honest here, alright? You pissed me off a lot when you moved in. Some of us like to sleep when it’s dark outside and do activities when the sun is out. I find your attitude fucking abrasive sometimes, but–” Gideon noted the not… hurt, but genuine look of regret on Harrow’s face. “But… I also wouldn’t trade it for anything else, my Midnight Hagette.” Gideon grinned. “If there’s any good to be had coming out of this experience, it’s that at least, we’ve sort of grown an audience together.”
Harrow’s tired, wry smile made Gideon’s heart stutter unexpectedly. “I suppose that’s true, Griddle. We’ve certainly grown together, by the way, did you ever play that game I recommended?”
“The vampire dating simulator?”
“Yeah.”
Gideon laughs, full and hearty. “Yeah, Harrow, I did. I thought it was rather ironic that there was a dateable character that looked an awful lot like you.”
“Hm, who did you romance?”
Gideon pauses and fights the flush of blood to her cheeks.
“Who do you think, Harrow?”
Harrow hums for a moment, and then with strength that her frame didn’t suggest she had pulled Gideon’s chin down to briefly brush her lips against Gideon’s.
“I think I know.”
In spite of herself, Gideon grinned. “Gross Harrow, you’re gonna give me the plague.”
Two weeks later, when both of them had recovered, the first stream back was their first Duo Stream– which Harrow had begun to teach Gideon the ins and outs of Harrow’s second favorite game, League of Legends, after Gideon accused Harrow of never playing any games that are actually competitive. Things were lively, but never more lively than when a tired, messy-haired Harrow walked in on Gideon’s stream as she practiced for their next duo stream and pressed a kiss to the redhead’s temple, and delivered a cup of freshly brewed coffee.
An announcement went live later that week.