Chapter Text
Coy thought for ages that he was just some mediocre YouTuber. Sure, he had a good amount of subscribers, 300k is a really amazing achievement but it’s nowhere near the amount of subs needed to quit your job and live off of. So when he found himself stuck in North Carolina with Mr beast right next door, jobless and no collage degree in hand, he had to think of some pretty creative ways to survive.
Eventually, after weeks of straining his brain, Coy came up with the idea to make a podcast that simultaneously earns revenue while letting him crash at his friend’s houses and escape the empire known as Mr beast.
And so, Coy wandered into his friends welcoming couches and after having traveled across the u.s. to see his amazing friends, from Jazzy Anne, to Tubbo, to Grace, he finally made his way to New Jersey where he somehow stumbled into none other than Anthony Potrero’s arms.
And that’s where this story begins.
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Coy is a dumbass. A stupid huge fucking dumbass. After consulting with all these friends, he’s just a dumbass for making these people go on a podcast for what?
Monetary value? That can’t be true, he was barely making money off of this stupid podcast.
For popularity? He doubted it, he was less popular than most of the people he was interviewing.
Because they sympathize with him? Because they felt bad? Well that was the most likely answer. But even after making them go on this poor podcast, then he forced them to let him sleep on their couch. (He didn’t force them to do anything). And you know why he’s an extra stupid stupid dumbass? He’s running out of places to couch surf at.
With every friend he stayed at, they were all so nice and providing but Coy promised himself he wouldn’t overstay his welcome. He promised himself he would find a permanent home before finishing his couch surfing journey. But he didn’t. And Coy got desperate. He’s basically willing to sleep anywhere, even with people he doesn’t even know. So after asking a few friends, one recommends him a place in New Jersey. So now Coy is just such a dumbass because now he’s standing outside this house with a large garage, (or maybe an office? A goffice?) with about his entire life in his suitcase, a suitcase that got damaged in customs and has duck tape in some areas, ringing a doorbell to ask to live with some people he’s never even met before.
So yeah, he’s a dumbass. Because when this beautiful boy with the most silky brown hair and bluest eyes he’s ever seen answers the door, he can barely stutter out a hello because god he’s already so frazzled looking, with his red-ish brown hair messy and tangled, and his face is slightly pink and puffy and sweaty from caring around a suitcase and a few bags across town.
“Um, h-hello.” Coy says, dragging his hand through his hair to fix at least a little of his remaining appearance.
“Oh hey! You’re Coy right? My friend told me you’ll be staying with us for a bit.” The beautiful boy stretches out his hand for shaking and Coy shrinks, knowing his hand is probably sweaty and gross, but he doesn’t want to be mean so he complies and shakes his hand.
The boy smiles softly and doesn’t seem to care,(and if he does he’s really good at hiding it) and opens the door wider for Coy to come in.
When Coy comes through the doorway, he is immediately met with a large staircase, and his exhausted self just winces, gripping tighter on his suitcase. Just as he’s about to trudge his way upstairs, someone stops him.
“Hey, lemme take that for you.” The boy says, reaching for his suitcase and he looks so sincere, like it’s not a burden for Coy to be here, and honestly it’s stupid, but Coy’s holding back tears because he’s just so so tired, and this amazing boy comes in with the sweetest smile, and all he can do to repay him is smile back.
“Thank you.” Coy says, and the boy just smiles brighter and takes his green, ducktaped suitcase and their hands brush for just a millisecond but Coy can feel how they’re slightly rough.
As the boy walks upstairs, Coy follows close behind until they enter a door that shows a kitchen. By walking to the left, there’s a door that leads to a small living room.
“You can sleep in here.” He says as he opens the door and steps inside, setting the suitcase beside the wall.
The living room looks like it was designed by a bunch of boys (it probably was), with a singular couch in the middle of it, a few random movie posters on the walls and a plant in the corner of the room that looks like it hasn’t been watered in weeks.
Coy sets his bags down right by the couch and turns around to face the boy. Unsure of what to say, he sorta stands there awkwardly, looking down and picking at his nails.
“Hey uh.” The boy says, which has Coy looking back up. “I’m Anthony by the way.”
Anthony smiles and Coy can’t help the end of his lips turning up. “Anthony right, uh I’m Coy, but I mean—l guess you already knew that.” He laughs nervously.
“Yeah haha, no worries.” Anthony laughs too, scratching the back of his neck. “I suppose I’ll leave you to it, if you need anything you can let me know, oh and—oh! Here’s a key to the house, just in case you need it.” Anthony digs into his pocket for the key, handing it towards Coy, and Coy feels the brush of his hands again, but this time, it lingers just a little bit longer.
“Uh thanks.” Coy says, with just a slight tinge of blush creeping on his face.
“Sure. I’ll see you later.” Anthony says, and then he’s gone.
Coy pauses, standing in the middle of this living room with messy hair. He plops onto the couch and it’s kinda floppy and the pillows are thin, but after months of surfing, it’s not the worst he’s slept in. The key is still in his hands, shiny from his stupid sweat. He’s kinda cold but too tired to get up and snatch a blanket or sweater, so he just curls himself up, staring at his key until he finally drifts off to sleep.
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Just like when he fell asleep, Coy wakes up cold, though this time he’s shivering to an extent that it’s hard to ignore. So he gets up and wanders outside his door.
It’s early, like 2 am early and Coy’s mouth is completely dry. He rubs his eyes until he sees blots of color and then walks into the kitchen.
Coy quickly realizes he has no idea where the cups are kept, and the kitchen is filled with drawers and cabinets, he almost wants to give up and go back to bed, but with a quenched thirst, he looks through drawers, opening and closing them, finding pots and pans and silverware, but no cups.
Finally, after what feels like years, he finds a cabinet with glass cups. Sighing in relief, he grabs one and to his dismay, he drops it on the floor, completely shattering it.
“Fuck.” Coy yelled-whispered.
“Fuck fuck fuck fuck.”
Coy knows that was loud enough to wake someone up, and now he’s scrambling to pick all the pieces up, as the glass pierces his skin and his fingers start to bleed.
“Ah fuck.” Coy finches at the pain. And then he hears a door open and he freezes.
“Are you ok?” Someone asks, out of his view.
Coy looks up to see Anthony. Of course, it’s Anthony. And Anthony rushes over to help, kneeling down to Coy’s level, because he’s already sitting leg first on the floor.
“I’m so sorry.” Coy says and once again, he’s holding back tears with a burning sensation in his throat.
“Coy, I could not care less about that shitty glass.” Anthony says, reaching towards Coy’s hands but hesitant to touch them, as if he’d scare Coy or something.
“I know, but I still made a mess and now there’s glass everywhere and—“
“Coy.”
Coy looks up.
“You’re hurt.” Anthony looks so serious, like he actually cares about this person he just met.
“It’s fine, I just got a few cuts. It’s honestly not that big of a deal.” Coy mutters.
“Look, go sit in there,” Anthony says, pointing at a door that Coy presumes leads to a living room of some sort. “And I’m gonna clean this up, and get you a first aid kit.” He basically glares Coy in the eye until Coy can’t take it anymore and finally gets up.
“Ok.” Coy says and he trudges over to the other room, sitting down on a small couch and planting his head in his palms.
God, how could he have been so stupid? His first night here and he already fucked it up, and in front of the prettiest guy he’s seen in ages, but Coy doesn’t let himself think that part because their is no way he’s gonna fall for a straight dude.
It takes maybe less than ten minutes for Anthony to come into the room with a first aid kit and sit down next to Coy.
“I’m sorry.” Coy says, to cover the silence of the night.
“You already said that.” Anthony responds, almost smiling at his cockiness.
“I know but, I fucked up, in like, the most embarrassing way possible.”Coy says, cringing at the small flashbacks in his mind.
Anthony opens the kit and grabs a few items. “C’mon, embarrassing? You’ve obviously never eaten a bunch of cheeseballs in front of a huge crowd.”
“Wha—cheeseballs? There’s no way—that was you?” Coy says, thinking a clip of it he saw ages ago, doomscrolling at 3 am and laughing quietly to himself over this guy in a bright orange mask.
“Yeah, and then, throwing them up in front of all of them too.” They both laugh, and then Anthony pauses.
“Can I clean your wounds?” He asks, and how sweeter could he possibly be?
Coy stutters and nods. “Uh y-yeah sure duh.” Pushing his hands more towards Anthony. And Anthony pours a liquid on a cotton ball and dabs it on Coy’s cuts and it does sting, but Coy can’t help but focus on Anthony’s rough hands instead and now that he’s getting a closer look at them, he can see that his nails are ripped or bitten off in some places and his hands are slightly bigger than his.
“So uh,” Coy starts, “Did I wake you up?”
“Ah no, don’t worry I was already up. Couldn’t fall asleep.” Anthony responds, now placing a cold gel on his cuts, which makes Coy squirm a bit.
“Oh ok.” Coy says, relieved that he didn’t disturb anyone. And then, to his disappointment, Anthony places a few bandages and then his warm, rough hands pull away.
“You should be all good now.” He smiles, and Coy just has to smile back.
“Thank you.” He says and he really means it cause it’s not everyday you meet someone as sincere as Anthony.
“And uh, do you guys have any none-glass cups?” Coy asks, smiling more, and Anthony nods and laughs and then leads him back to the kitchen, giving him a plastic cup.
“I don’t know how you’d manage to break this one.” Anthony laughs enough to stumble over his words a bit, but Coy grins and nudges Anthony in the chest with his elbow, not necessarily enough to hurt, but just enough to kinda impact him.
“Yeah well uh, I can’t come up with a good comeback for that!” Coy rambles, laughing too and Anthony god, he’s just grinning and Coy just can’t help but wonder how he landed such an amazing roommate.
Eventually, Coy gets his water and decides he’s gonna try to go back to sleep, so he says goodbye to Anthony, thanks him one more time, and heads to the couch.
This time he uses a blanket and actually gets some good sleep.
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Coy would like to think he’s social. Of course, there are exceptions. When he first meets someone, he’s pretty composed, not showing his usual sarcastic, overdramatic, self.
So when he first meets his temporary roommates, it’s not like he makes a pretty memorable first impression. The good news is, after a few weeks of staying at this house, he’s gotten a pretty good idea of them all.
Berdo is relatively chill. From what Coy knows, he produces music and he’s pretty quiet. He’s simple and doesn’t seem like he’s the type that’s shy, just one that sorta keeps to himself. But overall, he seems like a nice guy, someone you can rely on and has always got your back.
Utah seems like a pretty good guy, but coy can’t really make a complete evaluation on him since he’s in and out of the house a lot. From what Coy knows, he’s a huge foodie, even though he rarely uses is social media, when he does, it’s filled with exotic food and meals that will leave anyone drooling at their screen.
Will might be the silliest person he’s ever met. He’s funny and seems like he could get along with just about anyone. He’s kinda the type of guy where you can’t tell if he’s sober or not because he’s just so, so will all the time. Will is also somewhat new and moved in only a few months ago with his adorable cat Shug who’s just the sweetest animal on this whole planet.
And then there’s Anthony. And god, well Anthony is just one of the kindest people Coy’s come across in a long time. Whenever Coy needs absolutely anything, Anthony is always there to help and he’s just been the most welcoming out of all the roommates. No matter how stupid a joke Coy makes, Anthony always, without fail, laughs at it, sometimes laughing the hardest compared to other people that might be around. And when Coy can be kinda uptight, he’ll hang around Anthony just for a bit and he feels like himself again as they joke around and, and Coy honestly wishes he could have met Anthony so much sooner, after talking with Will and Berdo, who have known him since high school and collage years, he feels like he missed out of so much, well, Anthony.
Anyway, it’s been a few weeks and Coy has thoroughly enjoyed his stay here, doing an episode of both Will and Anthony on his podcast. He feels at home, the most at home he’s felt since leaving North Carolina.
Which all starts breaking away when he’s called to the kitchen, coming in and seeing all his roommates waiting for him. It’s unusual to see them all in one room, especially since Utah isn’t here very often so of course Coy gets nervous.
God, he knows he’s been here a few weeks but has he really already overstayed his welcome? He thought he might be able to stay another week maximum, but maybe his roommates just couldn’t take much longer.
Anthony starts to talk first. “We’ve noticed that you’ve been here a while.”
Coy nods, sweating slightly, man why was he always sweating? “Yeah I know, uh I’m sorry, I can move out soon, I just need a bit more time to find a place to stay-“
“Oh no, that’s uh not what we ment.” Berdo says, which gets everyone’s attention since he rarely says much. and Coy lets out a breath he didn’t even realize he was holding.
“We’ve all really liked spending time with you and we’ve had no problem with you living here so…” Berdo continues, sorta trailing off.
“we want you to move in!” Will exclaims happily.
“What-really?” Coy says, brighting up by the second, his smile growing wider and wider. “You mean it?”
“Course we mean it.” Utah says, grinning to because it seems Coy’s smile is beginning to spread to every one of the boys in that room.
“This is great news because I genuinely have no idea what I would have done otherwise.” Coy laughs, and the others laugh as well. “I can’t thank you guys enough this is like, my saving grace.”
“It’s not like we could just send you out into the world again, knowing you don’t have anywhere to stay. That’s like leaving a puppy on the sidewalk for it to fend for itself” Anthony laughs, running his hand through his hair.
“Aww comparing me to a sad puppy, I feel so seen.” Coy says sarcastically, placing his hand his chest and the group cracks up.
“But seriously guys, thank you.” And Coy goes to each roommate to give them a hug, starting with Will, who squeezes him tightly, Berdo, who awkwardly complies and gives hugs him back. Utah, who pats him on the back lightly, and then Anthony.
When Coy walks over to Anthony, he’s greeted with the sweet smile he knows and loves, and this time, it feels even more sentimental than usual. When they lean into each other, the seconds feel like hours even if the hug is short but Anthony’s so close, and Coy can almost feel Anthony’s warm breath, and as quickly as it happens, it’s over, leaving the tip of Coy ears, just a little pink.
“Now let’s celebrate!” Will yells and of course the rest of the boys cheer as well, taking any opportunity to drink.
And they grab beers out of the black hole they call a “fridge” and laugh together over stupid things as they gradually move into the living room, watching as Will and Utah play beerio kart, and it might be the alcohol, but Coy’s insides feel fuzzy and Anthony’s sitting so close on the couch Coy’s been sleeping on everything feels so loud and quiet at the same time and now Anthony’s leaning over to him, talking to him, and Coy has to snap out of the trance he’s in.
“What’d you say?” Coy asks, slurring his words a bit.
“I said I’m glad you’re staying.” Anthony says, and he’s sorta looking down at Coy cause even though Coy’s taller than him, It’s only by legs, and Anthony’s spine is taller than his.
Coy’s stomach flips over and it’s wild because holy shit it feels like Anthony actually means that from the way his smile is the only thing coy can’t keep his eyes off of and blue eyes that pierce into his soul and god has Anthony always been so pretty? But Coy’s thoughts are getting too loud and he still need to reply so he gulps and try’s to play it cool.
“Yeah well, I hope you stay glad cause you won’t be getting rid of me that easily.” And Coy laughs at his own joke, just in case Anthony doesn’t, but of course Anthony does because Anthony always laughs at his stupid jokes.
When the laughter quiets down, Anthony isn’t done, and Coy kinda wishes he was because he doesn’t know how much more of this his heart can take.
“I’m serious though, we’re all glad to have you here. You like, complete us.” And Coy might be imagining things, but Anthony looks a little flushed too but he’s 90 percent sure that’s it’s probably the alcohol peaking.
“I’m glad to be here, with you— all of you.” Coy smiles and Anthony nods, smiling wider, and Coy just feels so at peace it’s almost stupid and yeah, it took 5 months of couch surfing, but Coy finally found a home.