Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Nico started streaming during his freshman year of college as a way to de-stress after difficult classes, and also as a way to procrastinate doing his work. Turns out, people actually like watching a random emo boy play stupid games in his dorm room. He started gaining a lot of followers and viewers, even though he didn’t even show his face. Nico started focusing on his streaming career instead of his college work. To be fair, he never even wanted to go to college in the first place. But, college did have one good aspect; Will Solace. 

Nico first met him when he almost fainted on his way to class because he had sort of forgotten to eat for the last 2 days. Luckily, Will Solace, a pre-med student, had caught Nico before he could actually fall to the ground and Nico immediately fell in love. Will had gorgeous bright blue eyes that he could just stare into forever.

Nico and Will quickly became friends, and found themselves hanging out every single week. When sophomore year came around, the two boys decided to move into an off-campus apartment together. 

“It’s for financial reasons!” they had claimed, but really they just wanted to see each other more. Nico never talked about his streams and his popularity on twitch to Will. It just seemed like a stupid hobby that nobody would care about, but when they moved in together Will obviously found out about how his friend would play games for an audience of hundreds to thousands of people once a week. Will was supportive of it, obviously, and he was happy that his best friend had found a hobby that he really enjoyed. Will had also made it clear that he didn’t want to be in the streams, however. He knew from being around his parents that he just didn’t want to be known by thousands of people.

When Nico hit 1 million followers, he decided to finally bite the bullet and do a face reveal. Many people had speculated about what he looked like, and had practically begged for a face reveal. Nico wasn’t exactly insecure about his looks, but it was also nerve wracking knowing that so many people would be picking apart his face and hair when he finally showed it. 

At 8pm on a Friday night, Nico started streaming.He titled the stream, “Face Reveal! And some games.” He was on his starting soon screen, and Nico was making sure his camera was all set up and that the lighting was good. He watched the viewers wrack up, and he read chat.

Totallynotleah: Oh my god!! cant wait

frenchfryl0ver: You guys think hes gonna be hot?

Stateofgrace: Nico i cant believe ur finally doing this

SeaweedbrainPJ:  guys he’s hot dw

Nico streamed under the username “TheGhostKing”. It was more of an inside joke if anything. His viewers knew what his real name was, but it was just an unspoken agreement that everyone besides his friends called him by his screen name. He hadn’t exactly told any of his few friends about his hobby, but Percy Jackson, his first crush (long story), had found his stream by accident. Nico was embarrassed at first about it, but Percy was surprisingly supportive and he watched every single one of Nico’s streams. Eventually Jason had also found his streams and  started watching all of his streams too.

Nico wanted to wait a little longer for the views to go up more before he turned on his camera. Nico stayed on his starting soon screen, but he turned on his mic to talk to chat a little.

His views had skyrocketed to 10k while he was talking to chat, and he decided it was finally time to turn on his camera.

“Okay guys, give me one second,” Nico said, and turned off his mic. He looked over to the mirror next to him and attempted to fix his hair. He really should’ve gotten a haircut before this, but the face reveal was a partially impulse decision. Once he felt that his appearance was slightly more acceptable, he turned back to his computer. Taking a deep breath, Nico turned on his camera and mic.

“Uh-hi guys” Nico stuttered. His chat went absolutely wild when they finally saw his face. Nico had shaggy black hair that almost reached his shoulders, and dark brown eyes. He was wearing a black hoodie, and a silver necklace. His background was plain, all that could be seen was a blank gray wall and a dresser in the corner of the screen.

strawberryyogurt: OMG 

TotallynotLeah: HOLY SHIT

basic._.b1tch: of course he's emo

call.me.amy: anyone know if he has a gf!?!?!

withgreatsorrow: bro.

“Uhh, so this is what I look like I guess,” He said awkwardly. He sat and read chat for a minute. It was mostly positive, but there were, however, a few weird comments every now and then. His views went up even more when he finally face revealed and the view count reached almost 20k. Nico was getting even more nervous watching it rise. It was scary knowing just how many people were looking at him. 

“So,umm, let’s play a game.” Nico was eager to take all the attention off himself, and put it on a game, but his chat was still talking about how he looked. Nico knew this would happen when he showed his face finally, but he wanted to do it since it opened a lot of doors for future content. For example, he decided to play Five Nights at Freddy’s that night. He could’ve played it before, but he also knew it was one of those games that was just more interesting with facial reactions.

“ma che cazzo!” He shouted loudly when he was jumped scared by chica. Nico wasn’t very good at fnaf, and he had started to get frustrated, but he was actually having fun.

frenchfryl0ver: what did he just say

maraudersstannn: What language was that?

SeaweedbrainPJ: wow u suck at this game

Nico hadn’t even realized he had spoken in Italian. He had talked about how it was his native language and he still spoke it every now and then before, but there were a lot of new viewers on this stream and they didn’t know that. Nico looked over at his phone that was on his desk, and 

he noticed a notification.

Will

Today 8:54 pm

You good?

Are you streaming?

I heard you yell

Nico quickly replied, not wanting to worry his friend.

Im good sorry

Ya im streaming

I’ll be quieter

Will texted back before Nico could even put his phone back down.

It’s all good

Idc

Just wanted to make sure ur ok

Nico slightly smiled at the text before putting his phone down to get back to the game.

SeaweedbrainPJ: who ya texting neeks ;)

“Fuck off Percy,” Nico said when he saw the chat. 

***

Nico had only grown since his face reveal, and he had gotten to almost 1.1 million followers only a week after it.

“What movie are we watching tonight?” Will asked Nico when he finally woke up and came into the kitchen for coffee. The two had started a tradition of having a movie night every Saturday. They alternated who picked the movie, and Will picked last week, so it was Nico’s turn.

“Not sure yet,” Nico said, picking up the coffee pot, pouring it into his mug. “I’ll have to think about it.”

“Well if you don’t pick anything, we're watching Star Wars again.” Will said, and grinned at Nico.

Nico groaned. “We are not watching those god awful movies again . I’d rather just skip out on movie night all together.”

Will put his hand to his chest and acted shocked. “I cannot believe you would even consider doing that!”

“God you’re so dramatic,” Nico mumbled, but Will heard it.

“Oh don't act like you don’t love it.” He said.

Nico just stuck up his middle finger and walked back to his room, coffee in hand and a faint blush on his cheeks.

***

Nico eventually decided on the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. He and Will settled onto their cheap gray couch in the living room. Will had made popcorn and set it on the coffee table in front of them. Nico had the remote in his hand and was trying to find the movie.

Pirates of the Caribbean wasn't exactly one of Nico’s favorite movies, but he would watch anything if it meant he wouldn't have to watch Star Wars. Secretly Nico didn’t actually mind Star wars, but it was sort of a running joke between him and Will that he had a deep hatred for the franchise. It also made Will so much happier when Nico actually agreed to watch it. Nico just loved seeing that bright smile on his face.

He finally found the movie and pressed the play button. 

He tried to keep his eyes on the movie, but they just kept drifting back to his best friend. Nico had been crushing on Will since the moment he met him. The blonde boy was just so perfect, how could Nico not be in love with him? Nico could never actually act on his feelings, though. He didn’t even know if Will was gay! They had been bestfriends for over a year now, but the topic just never came up. He didn’t want to risk ruining the friendship just for some stupid feelings. Will was his best friend, and Nico was happy keeping it that way, at least he pretended he was.

They were about halfway through the movie when Nico started to feel tired. He had a fucked up sleep schedule, and had only slept for 3 hours the other night. His eyes started to get heavy, and he was struggling to keep them open. Eventually, he couldn’t fight it anymore, and he closed his eyes.

***

Nico woke up in his bed, but didn’t remember falling asleep there. He struggled to recount the events of last night, but he distinctly remembered falling asleep on the couch. Had Will carried him to his bed? No, he wouldn't do that. Or would he? Nico shook those thoughts away, and sat up in his bed. He ran his fingers through his hair and got fully out of bed after a second. 

Will was already in the small kitchen when he walked in. He was leaning against a counter, head in a textbook, and holding a cup of coffee.

“Mornin’ sleepyhead,” he said, looking up from the textbook for a second to look at Nico. His southern accent peeked through a lot more in the mornings, and Nico had to hide how much he loved it.

“Ugh, sorry for falling asleep early last night,” Nico said.

“All good, hope you don’t mind that i put you in your bed. Didn’t want your back gettin’ messed up on the couch.” Nico had suspected that Will carried him to his bed, but he didn’t think Will had actually done that. He had just thought that maybe he was going crazy and he did actually fall asleep in his own bed.

“Uh- No, it’s fine. Thanks,” Nico said.

Nico decided to stream that night. It was the second time that week, but one of his professors canceled the class he had the next day, so he decided to just go for it.

Nico played a lot of different games, ranging from horror games to simple indie games. That night, he was playing Stardew Valley. Many of his viewers enjoyed watching him play it, and they loved comparing him to one of the characters, Sebastian.

He was in the middle of yelling and cursing at a monster after he died in the mines for the 4th time that stream, when his door was pushed open.

“Nico!” Will said when he opened the door. Nico quickly turned off his mic and pulled off his headphones. Luckily his door was out of the frame of his camera, so nobody on his stream actually saw Will.

“Shit, you’re streaming, sorry.” Will started to close the door, but Nico called out.

“No, no, it's fine, I'm muted. What do you need?”

“Oh, I just wanted to know if you wanted Mcdonald’s for dinner.” Nico smiled.

“I think you already know the answer to that question.” Will nodded, and left the room, closing the door behind him.

Nico turned back to his computer, out his headphones back on, and unmuted. When he looked at chat, he was shocked by how many people were talking

broke.a$$.b1tch: WHO IS THAT

call.me.amy: gf?

child.saftey.lock: that was obviously a guys voice, u guys are insane

withgreatsorrow:  bro whos he talking to??

plastic.bag_floating: GhostKing actually knows people irl?!?!?

strawberryyogurt: i think that’s the first time i’ve ever seen him smile

“ Dio mio ,” Nico muttered under his breath. “Guys, that was literally just my roommate. Calm down.” He shook his head slightly before getting back to the game.

cry_myself2sleep: GhostKing has a social life?!

strawberryyogurt: “roommate” ;)

Nico almost screamed when he saw that in chat. He had never said he was gay or anything, and Will’s voice was obviously a man’s. Did people really think he was dating Will just from the tiny interaction they had seen, or was it just some kind of joke? Nico pushed the thoughts aside and focused on the game.

One McDonald's happy meal, and some yelling at Marnie later, Nico ended stream.