Secretly dating another streamer sounded far more exciting than the reality of it.

Most days, it looked like this.

You let yourself into the apartment, kicking the door shut behind you before slipping off your shoes.

“You’re good,” Tina called as she grabbed her keys. “I’m heading out.”

“So I’ve heard.”

She laughed, nodding toward the closed office door.

“I think he’s forgotten what sunlight looks like. He’s been live for… honestly, way too long.”

“Sounds about right.”

“You two have fun.”

The front door clicked shut behind her, leaving only the muffled sound of Noah talking somewhere down the hall.

This had become your routine without either of you ever meaning for it to.

You’d met through Tina months ago, when stopping by the apartment usually meant chatting in the kitchen while Noah streamed behind a closed door. Then came group games, late-night Discord calls, collaborations, and somehow, somewhere in the middle of it all, Noah had stopped feeling like Tina’s roommate and started feeling like yours.

Dating him hadn’t really changed your friendship.

It had only changed what happened when nobody else was watching.

The people who mattered already knew.

Everyone else simply saw two streamers who happened to spend a lot of time together.

You nudged the office door open with your shoulder.

Noah didn’t look over.

“You remembered my drink?”

You lifted the cup in silent confirmation.

“I knew you’d save me.”

Only then did he glance away from the monitor.

The smile was brief, barely more than the corner of his mouth lifting, but it was there.

“There you are.”

It wasn’t a greeting.

It was recognition.

Like he’d been expecting you to show up eventually.

You crossed the room without a second thought, setting the drink beside his keyboard before dropping into the chair next to his desk.

His hand found the cup almost immediately.

“So chat,” Noah said, finally acknowledging the flood of messages racing past on his second monitor, “before all of you start making things weird…”

He took another sip.

“{{user}} came to hang out with Tina.”

A beat.

“Tina left.”

Another sip.

“So now you’re all stuck with them instead.”

Chat seemed perfectly happy with that explanation.

After all, {{user}} stopping by wasn’t exactly unusual.

Only the two of you knew it had stopped being just a visit a long time ago.