Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It’s 4 in the morning and Eric scrolls through Bing attempting to feel somewhat sleepy but in truth it doesn’t help. He’s had a long night but as it went on, he only felt boredom. Before he knew it the sun was rising and he had to get ready for the day. He closes his laptop and stumbles out of bed hoping to find the energy he needs for the day. He walks to the kitchen and whips up GFuel (code PointCrow for 30% off) to achieve some energy. He gets dressed, brushes his teeth, usual morning routine things. As he’s getting ready, he gets a buzz on his phone. It’s from Tanner. His heart races as he picks up his phone and stares at the text.

”I’m coming down to see you ;p” Tanner writes to crow

This was unexpected, this couldn't be happening at this moment right? He hesitates to text back but he pushes through to write to him

“When are you coming?”

“Tomorrow”

They never planned this or did Eric just forget? He scrolls up through their recent texts and there it was. A month ago they planned to do a live stream together trying not to laugh at some memes. Eric was dumbfounded but was excited to see his friend.

“Ok”

That’s all?! Just a simple ok doesn’t have any excitement to it. Crow is embarrassed but turns his phone off and starts to head out. He gets in his car and drives all the way to the supermarket to buy some food, but now needs extra for Tanner’s visit.

Just the thought of Tanner coming makes the crow forget about sadness. It truly made his day, even just a simple text message not stating anything about a meetup could bring joy to this single man’s life.

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Tanner stares at the “ok” that Eric sent to him. Was he even excited or did he just forget? Tanner smiles at the thought of Eric’s confused face. He puts his phone in his pocket and lays on his bed to stare at the ceiling like every main character in stories. He gets another buzz, he pops out his phone hoping its crow but it’s not, it’s from the man himself, the god, the legend, Ludwig.

“BOIIIIIIIII I have a proposal for you. You, me, BATTLE it off. Speed run style. Nuzlocke Pokemon. Hit me up when you wanna go for it.”

Tanner sits up and thinks over the god of streaming’s request.

“When do you wanna do this?”

“This week.”

“I can’t sadly, i’m going down to California”

“DUDE you can come over!”

“I could but I’m staying with crow”

“Crow?”

“Eric” Tanner was confused by this, Ludwig knows everyone.. Right?

“OHHHH that dude! Collectors Anxiety boy alright, cool cool”

“Yeah! We’re gonna do a stream together and just hang out, yknow like friends do”

It’s been about 5 minutes and Ludwig has not said anything, Tanner wondering if he said something wrong?

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10 minutes have gone by since Eric has gone into the supermarket. He is deciphering between what type of cereal to get or is he just thinking of Tanner? He blinks back into reality from a baby crying in the next aisle. Crow grabs both of the cereals and throws them in the cart, money wasn’t much of a hassle at this point.

He continues walking around, at one point making eye contact with the crying baby.

If you know, Eric is not a good cook nor baker but he wanted to attempt.. Actually attempt.. At making a homemade meal for Tanner when he arrives tomorrow. He doesn’t want anything too fancy but yet fancy enough to be romantic. My god why is he thinking that? They’re just friends.. Two friends hanging out. He decides to make something that can make Tanner feel at home, butter tarts. It would be perfect! Wouldn't it..?

Eric grabs his phone and finds a recipe, which seems simple enough. He gets all the ingredients he needs and also gets a backup meal just in case he burns his whole kitchen down. He pays then heads home.
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The day arrives, Smallant is coming to town. Eric wakes super early, earlier than ever and gets ready to see his very close, totally platonic friend. He finds an outfit that will intrigue Tanner. He finds the gray shirt with two white stripes on the sleeves, the one that he was wearing when recording his first youtube video. He finishes getting ready then stares blankly at the kitchen.

He sets all the ingredients out and just stares at them. He does not want to mess this up.

Cut to the airport

Crow stands awkwardly at the baggage claim waiting for Tanner.

To the corner of his eye, he sees someone familiar. Is it Tanner?!

Crow quickly walks towards the person who he expected to be Tanner and jumps behind him with a big hug. Before Eric could say anything, the person turned around.

It’s Ludwig.

Eric hops off, his face red of embarrassment. Him and Ludwig rarely talk but when they do it isn’t the easiest conversation to get through.

“What are you doing here Lud?’’

Ludwig looks around, then looks down at Eric “oh, y'know just.. Oh, there they are!”

He waves his hands up towards the person they’re meeting “there he is!”

Crow turns around to find Smallant walking toward them.

Eric is in shock, why would Ludwig come here for Tanner and how does he know he’s here?? Ludwig runs to Tanner and gives him a hug, making Eric jealous. Eric walks over and Tanner hugs him, “how’s it going Crow?” Hearing Ant’s voice makes him feel better.

“Oh y’know, just chilling” insert bite lip.

Tanner laughs but before he can continue his conversation with Eric, Ludwig interrupts

“Hey so, are you hungry? There's this new place near my house and.. Maybe we can hang out at my place after?”
Crow was too stunned to speak.

Ant looks at crow, then at Ludwig, but then back at the crow. “Actually I’m gonna go with Eric.” Eric smiles happily knowing that Ant was loyal to him. They all three walk out together, Tanner switching from conversation between him and Eric and him and Ludwig. In the end though, Tanner makes it into Eric’s car and they are on their way back to the Crow’s nest, as Tanner puts it.

The drive wasn’t too bad, they found it easy to talk to each other. Eric wanted to bring up Ludwig but didn’t know how. He tried to forget about what happened at the airport and focus on Ant.

They arrive at Eric’s apartment and when they walk in, they can smell the butter tarts. Tanner hugs Eric from behind and kisses his cheek, “how nice of you to cook for me”. Eric blushes “just be thankful that I didn’t burn my kitchen down.”

They both walk over to the kitchen, Ant dropping his suitcase on the couch. They stare at the tarts, they were burnt.

“Sorry I ruined them” Crow said sheepishly

Tanner grabs one and takes one whole bite. He throws a thumbs up to Eric which makes him very happy, though the tarts were a bit dry.

Later they sit on the couch watching Gravity Falls eating the burnt tarts. Suddenly Ant gets a buzz, it’s from Ludwig.

“Yooooo so like, you up to hang tomorrow?”

Ant looks over at the crow who is invested into the show, tanner looks back at the message and texts back.

“I’m hanging with Eric but you can join us if you want”

A few minutes go by without a message from Ludwig, then he finally answers.

“What about the day after?”

“Can’t, streaming with crow”

As the minutes go by, Crow is nearly falling asleep. Another text from Ludwig

“Is there any time this week where you and crow won’t be hanging out?”

This threw Tanner off guard, the way he typed it was like he was.. No, there’s no way right? He thinks for a moment, then finally answers.

“I think Friday i’m free”

Ludwig instantly responds, “great! We can meet at my place.”

Tanner turns off his phone then turns to Eric who is already asleep. Tanner puts his arm around Eric and pulls him closer, takes his glasses off, and gives him a kiss on the head.

“Goodnight my little crow”

Chapter Text

Two days have passed since Tanner arrived. Him and Crow hung out together and did their try not to laugh stream, which ended in Eric losing by 4 points. Luckily, there wasn’t much of a punishment from when Eric and Trey did the same challenge.

During those two days, Ludwig has been contacting Tanner and asking how his visit has been. Whenever Tanner brought up Eric’s name though, the conversation took a strange turn but Tanner didn’t think much of it.

The light shines in Eric’s face and he wakes. He sits up and stares at a full breakfast consisting of pancakes, milk, orange juice, and toast from that $400 toaster that he got on stream. He looks up to find Tanner smiling cutely at him “morning my little crow!” Eric smiles and pulls Tanner down for a kiss.

They both eat breakfast on Eric’s bed, crumbs lightly falling but Crow is too focused on Ant. You can hear birds chirping outside, it was the perfect moment. Just them two talking, laughing, and eating. Nothing could ruin this moment… except for a knock at the door which happened.

Tanner gets up and tells Eric to stay there. When he opens the door, he finds Ludwig in a gray turtleneck and saluting. Then puts his hand down embarrassed, but he laughs it off.

“Hey Ant, I found this place where we can go today, you said you were free right?”

Tanner forgot about this.

“Uh.. yeah great, let me get ready.”

Tanner closes the door while Ludwig waits there. He goes over to Eric to tell him what was happening today.

“Hey so I’m heading out with Ludwig.. You weren't planning on doing anything with me today right..?”

Eric was mortified hearing that Ant and Ludwig would hang out, but he doesn't want to keep Tanner from hanging with friends.

“No, do whatever you want, I don’t mind”

“Cool cool, Ima get ready.”

In under 5 minutes, Tanner speedruns getting ready and heads out the door leaving Eric behind. Eric doesn't feel betrayed but yet doesn’t want to stay at home alone. Instead he starts up a stream, that was last minute, to boost his spirits.

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Tanner puts his phone away after seeing the notification that PointCrow has started streaming. When he looks at Ludwig, he notices that he is closer to him than they were before. Tanner steps a bit away but to his surprise, Ludwig puts his arm over his shoulder. Ludwig points to some ants on the sidewalk “hey, it’s your family!” Tanner chuckles but that doesn’t satisfy Ludwig. As they continue walking, Ludwig brings up jokes which make Tanner chuckle, not laugh but just chuckle. Am I doing something wrong? Ludwig thinks to himself That short crow boy makes him laugh out loud.

After countless jokes, Ludwig pops up a conversation about Pokemon Cards. This sparks up Ant’s interest. They walk and talk about the different rare cards and who has what and so on. Suddenly, Ludwig stops and slaps his head “darn it, I forgot my wallet at home! Is it alright if we head over to my huge mansion to find my tiny wallet?” Tanner nods, after hearing about his huge mansion he is very intrigued into going now.

Pulling up to Ludwig’s mansion, Tanner is in awe. It’s bigger than he imagined. They walk out of Ludwig’s car and walk inside, Ant still in awe. The inside was bigger than the outside! He wanted to look around but didn’t want to interfere with Ludwig’s roommates.

“Make yourself at home” Ludwig says, opening his arms out and walks around like he owns the place… well.. he does own it.

Ant excitingly sits on the couch and stares at the fireplace. “Eric doesn’t have a fireplace, '' he said to himself. He hears some running and turns around to find Ludwig chasing someone, maybe it’s one of his roommates.

While Tanner watches whatever is going on, he feels something sit on his lap. It’s Ludwig’s cat, Ludwig Jr. Ant happily pets his cat while he is watching the show.
“Give it back!”

“It’s mine now!” Slime, his roommate, is holding Ludwig’s wallet.

Slime then trips over an invisible thing ”Bitch”

Ludwig grabs the wallet and holds it up like Link getting a chest. “I got it hehehe!!!”

Ludwig Jr. jumps off of Ant as he gets up ready to go.

“Y'know.. There's nothing really to do out in the city, why not just hangout here!” Ludwig says as if he was planning this or something.

With no hesitation, Tanner says yes; he just wants to stay in this mansion cause it’s a mansion. Ludwig puts his arm around Tanner again and starts walking with him “I’ll show you around.”

They walk around the home, Tanner not saying a word and just taking in what he is seeing. They stopped in front of an open door, inside was another one of Ludwig’s roommates.

“Nick, come meet my good friend Tanner, Smallant. You probably have watched me stream with him.”

Nick takes his gamer headphones off and walks over to them. He looks Tanner up and down then puts his hand out to him, “nice to meet you Tanner.” Ant shakes his hand and Nick looks at Ludwig, relaxes on the wall “when are we doing our podcast again?” “oh, tomorrow actually”

Nick smiles at Ludwig, Tanner watches and thinks he’s into Lud. “Aight will cya later bud!” he puts his arm around Tanner’s shoulders again and they both walk off, Nick watching feeling jealous. He sits back down, places his headphones over his ears, and looks at the content that Ant creates on Twitch. He doesn’t want to stalk him, he’s just interested in what his videos are like.

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Eric finally finishes his stream and is now laying on the couch watching Demon Slayer. Every second he looks at the door waiting for Tanner to walk right in or knock but there’s no sign of him. He checks his phone, no message or call, Eric was slightly worried but knew that Ant would be safe. Just in case though, he messages him to make sure he was alright. A few minutes go by and Eric gets a call, instantly jumps and grabs his phone hoping it’s Tanner. To his disappointment, it’s not but it’s his good friend Archit3ct. He answers the call.

“Heyo, Eric, I see that you and Smallant are together”

Eric freezes; does Trey know about him and Tanner? How does he know??
“If you two were doing a collab, you could’ve called me up haha”

Eric sighs of relief knowing that he was talking about Tanner visiting and nothing else.

“Oh y-yeah haha”

“Yo so i’ve been thinking about something recently and I wanted to tell you something that’s been on my mind.”

“Oh.. what is it..?”

“Well” Trey sounds hesitant “i’ve kinda.. Wanted.. I..”

There was this awkward pause, Eric didn’t want to say anything until Trey said what he wanted to say.

“I like you”

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Hours have passed, Eric has finished his stream nearly 30 minutes ago, and Ant is still at the mansion. Him and Ludwig are sitting on the kitchen counter talking and drinking water. From behind, Slime jumpscares Ludwig which makes him spill water all over his shirt.

“DUDE!” Slime yells

“IT’S JUST WATER!”

It goes silent for a while, then they both laugh out loud, bringing attention to Nick and that one other roommate, Aiden.

“What’s all this commotion?” Nick says, kinda worried something bad happened. Aiden looks at Slime and Ludwig, then at Nick. “looks like Ludwig got water on Sli-” “I didn’t ask you” said Nick, interrupting Aiden. Aiden just goes and sits in a corner with popcorn he brought from his room, this was a show to watch and he knew more would happen.

Ant gets up “I think I should head back”

Ludwig instantly turns to Ant “no no! It’s ok you can stay! This is just the usual here.” Ant looks at the huge window, showing that it’s getting dark “it’s getting late, I bet Eric is worried”

Ludwig sighs, then smiles at Tanner “oh don’t worry, just text him that you’re alright and we can hang out here some more! Maybe watch a movie in my room?”
Tanner grabs his phone and looks at the message Eric sent a while ago “no, sorry but I think I should go see him, he’s been home all day i’m sure of it.”

Ludwig puts his hand on Tanner’s shoulder and gets close to him, “just.. Stay, a few more minutes”

Tanner starts to feel uncomfortable, Ludwig has never done this before. Then the realization hit when their lips were on each other, Ludwig likes him. Tanner quickly steps back, Nick runs to his room and cries, Aiden follows to comfort him.

“What’s wrong Tanner?” Ludwig says “I mean I thought we were-”

“I’m dating Eric!