Chapter Text
The year was 2007, YouTube was finally becoming popular with an assortment of increasingly popular influencers, you know like Jac Vanek and Audrey Kitching, YouTubes most popular scene queen duo or perhaps Ryan Ross, casual video-blogger and secretly Panic! At The Disco on the side.. but we’ll get into that soon. For now let’s start this story with Brendon Urie, a small town nobody.
Brendon was obsessed with this musician on YouTube, they went by the name “Panic! At The Disco” Brendon always thought having the exclamation mark in the middle of their name was stupid, just made it more annoying to type out every time he wanted to listen to their songs, but man was their music good so you could say it was worth it.
Christmas was approaching rapidly and all Brendon wanted was a piano so he could play from home. He’s known how to play for years but has never had the privilege to own his very own piano. He’s been working a lot at his local smoothie shop taking shifts whenever he can, even volunteering to cover for other employees whenever he could, safe to say they’d never pass up that opportunity. Working there was terrible, the manager would lay you off for the slightest mistake so Brendon was always on high alert, he couldn’t afford to lose this job.
Brendon starts work in an hour so he has time to watch a few YouTube videos before heading out. He opened up his laptop and sat in his bed, already wearing his work clothes of course. He decided to watch his favourite Panic! At The Disco lyric video for the hundredth time probably. The video ended and he browsed through his recommended to see what he wanted to watch next, probably had time for another 10 minute video or so, so he’s opting for a video blog. He scrolled past a video titled “Scene Queens Secrets ft. Audrey Kitching” while rolling his eyes, man did he hate Jac Vanek's videos, she always seemed so stuck up. Underneath her video though there was a video with barely any views, a mere 57, but the boy in the thumbnail was so cute he had to click, he didn’t even bother looking at the title or the channel name. The boy in the video's voice sounded a little familiar but he couldn’t pin point where he had heard it before. He was soft spoken, seemed a little shy and had very awkward mannerisms, these beautiful amber eyes, light brown hair and a face that reeked of innocence and purity. Brendon watched the entire video absolutely captivated by this boy and once the video ended he immediately checked out his profile, after subscribing of course. He only had a few videos, barely any subscribers and barely any views. Brendon saw this as an opportunity so he went back to the video he had just watched, left a short comment related to the video and suggested the possibility of being friends. Sure, friends, that’s believable. He then closed his laptop and went to work.
Brendon got to the smoothie place 10 minutes early where his friend Jon was waiting for him on one of the tables outside. “About time you got here it’s freezing out, let’s go in” Jon said with a slight tone of irritation in his voice, perhaps just the cold, Brendon did get here 10 minutes early after all, so what could he be annoyed at him for? Brendon and Jon both went inside where their boss, Cassie, awaited them, already bickering with Brendon’s coworkers, probably over something insignificant as usual. “I didn’t know Cassie was going to be here today, I thought she was on vacation with her new boyfriend” Brendon said visibly confused “They broke just before the trip and she’s making it everyone else’s problem” the taller boy replied. Brendon reluctantly put his apron on and clocked in, ready for possibly the worst shift of his life but he was willing to do whatever it takes for that piano.
Some time goes by, Brendon serves up some smoothies, agrees with everything Cassie has to say and flashes an empathetic smile at her whenever she seems more sad than angry or annoyed. At the end of the day Brendon’s never been in a serious relationship before so he didn’t understand how she was feeling but was empathetic towards her nonetheless.
Cassie gets quieter and quieter as the shift goes on until she finally says she’s clocking out and going home. A quiet sigh of relief escaped both Jon and Brendon’s mouths upon hearing this as it was becoming more awkward by the minute. They bid farewell to Cassie but don’t have much time to talk about that weird situation they were just put through as a sudden rush of customers came in. Jon’s taking everyone’s orders as Brendon frantically makes smoothies and calls out names once they are ready. He makes a mixed berries smoothie for the next customer, quickly calls out their name “Ryan!” and leaves it on the counter and immediately turns around to keep making smoothies, no time to greet customers, there’s simply too many orders. He realises that’s the same name as the boy he watched on YouTube just a few hours prior, what a weird coincidence, sure there’s plenty of Ryan’s in the world and there’s no way it’d be him, but a weird coincidence nonetheless. He turned around just to see if it somehow happened to be him but the boy was already at the door, all he could see was the back of his head. Brown hair, same shade as the Ryan’s from YouTube, another weird coincidence Brendon thought. The door shuts and Brendon gets back to making smoothies for all the customers.
It’s finally closing time, Brendon and Jon tidy everything up, clean the whole place top to bottom and head out. “See you soon, Brendon” Jon said as he waved goodbye and started walking off quicker than usual, probably just needing a good rest. Brendon waved goodbye and started walking home himself, thinking about that boy. He was so occupied during his shift he didn’t have time to even wonder if he had possibly replied to his comment. Brendon picked up the pace as he wanted to check as soon as possible.
The walk home felt eternal even with Panic! At The Disco’s music accompanying him on his journey via his mp3 player and cheap headphones that made the audio sound a little off. Brendon eventually arrived at home, he went straight to his room, vaguely acknowledging his parents presence in the dining room. He grabbed his laptop as fast as possible and flipped it open, straight to YouTube and.. no reply. Predictable, why would this kid even reply? He probably thought he was some creep. Well whatever, he can still observe from afar by watching his videos right? That’s good enough for him, surely.
To combat this disappointed feeling in Brendon’s chest he decided he’d sleep the rest of the day off.