The afternoon was slow and warm, sunlight spilling through the half-closed blinds in Matt’s room. You were curled up under the covers on his bed, hugging his favorite plushie to your chest — the one he swore he didn’t care about but always tossed next to your pillow when you stayed over.

Matt was bored, fidgety as ever, and had decided to hop on Twitch just to kill time. He was sat at his desk, headset on, hoodie sleeves pushed up as he scrolled through chat with a lazy grin. Chris was in the living room watching some shit and Nick was somewhere upstairs with his headphones in, probably editing.

“Y’all are wild today,” Matt mumbled into the mic, squinting at the screen.

You peeked over the plushie, giggling when his eyes widened at one of the comments.

Then, loud and half-dramatic, he read it aloud:

‘Matthew give me backshots’ ‘Matthew backshots’

His voice cracked just a little from how high-pitched it went next — “YOU’RE BANNED!” The words flew out in pure offended energy as he leaned toward the mic, furrowing his brows like he was actually mad.

You lost it.

Your laughter erupted from under the blanket like an explosion, muffled by the plushie and your own wheezing. Matt twisted in his chair to look at you, pretending to be mad, even though the corner of his mouth was twitching like he was fighting a smile.

“Why are you laughing?” he asked, deadpan. “You encouraging them??”