flustered ~ dreamwastaken

chapter 22: late nights

Laughing, I set my phone down on my nightstand, falling back into the soft sheets of my bed and letting out a loud yawn.

Switching my attention back to Quackity's stream, I let myself relax while listening to the laughs and giggles of Karl and Alex, my eyes starting to flutter shut.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The familiar sound of a ringtone filled my room once again. Rubbing my eyes open, I took in my surroundings— the stream still playing in the background— I must have only been asleep for an hour or so.

Groaning, I reached for my phone slightly annoyed, but this went away quickly after seeing a particular contact name flash on the screen.

"Hi,"

"Hi," Clay repeated. You could hear the smile in his voice and it drove me crazy.

"Why are you calling me at 3 am again?" I laughed, faking annoyance, but I couldn't actually be angry with him.

"Hm no reason," he teased. "Are you back home?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah," he yawned, "I think Sapnap's gonna be staying with me for a while actually; too bad George has to go back to the UK."

I smiled, sitting up straight on my bed again, "Yeah that's cool and all, but when are you coming back to visit me?"

"To visit you? I don't know..." he said teasingly and then continued, "I could, however, just fly you out."

"No way,"

"Yes way."

Through my stupid smile, I joked at him again, "Wow they weren't lying when they said sugar daddy dream."

"Drop the sugar and you'd be spot on,"

I broke into a loud wheeze at his joke, "PLEASE!". He joined me in laughter as I giggled into the sheets of my bed, not removing the phone from my ear.

I've never liked someone like this before, a significant other had never doubled as a best friend, but he made me realize how much I had missed out on it.

Another scream came from my computer, taking me by surprise. I completely forgot I had Alex's stream running in the background.

"Was that Quackity's stream?" Dream laughed. "Yeah, jesus that scared me." I replied, leaning over to turn the volume down.

I glanced quickly at the twitch chat in the side bar, hundreds of messages flying by. "What's streaming like?" I asked randomly.

"It's pretty fun," he sighed, relaxing in his chair, "But can be stressful at times."

"I mean how stressful could it be you basically get paid to play games with your friends in front of a live audience." I joked.

"True, but you always feel there's a certain expectation content-wise and a pressure to stream, which makes you want to do it less. Not everyone's cut out for it."

"Yeah," I agreed. That side of streaming had become more and more apparent to me as I noticed Karl's nonstop work. A while ago he didn't sleep for 3 days straight, just working on his Tales from the SMP series.

Then a random thought popped into my head, "Do you think I would be cut out for it?"

I could hear Dream shuffling and sitting up through my phone's speaker, "Are you interested in streaming?" he asked, intrigued.

"I don't know, maybe. I always thought it wasn't for me, but the more I get closer to all of you guys and closer to the fan base the more I kind of want to try it." I thought out loud.

"Then you should go for it!"

"Really?" I was surprised by his quick support, but then again he had always been incredibly supportive.

"Yes! I think you would be a great streamer, and to be honest, with a raid from one of us, you'd get good viewership in no time," I could hear the excitement start to come out in his voice, knowing he loved new projects.

"Ok," I couldn't hold back my wide smile, "Maybe I'll ask Karl about it tomorrow."

"I'll help you! Ask him now, Alex just ended!" he sounded like a child trying to wake his parents up on Christmas morning.

I laughed at his eagerness, looking to my computer, seeing an offline screen where the twitch stream once was. "Ok, ok!"

I kept Dream on the phone, putting it on speaker, as I walked down the stairs into the recording room. Alex and Karl were sat in front of a monitor, discussing their next stream plans.

"Hi guys," I said to get their attention. "Hey," Karl responded without looking up from his monitor, but Alex turned around to smile at me.

"I'm here too!" Dream yelled over the phone speaker, making everyone laugh slightly. "What's up?" Karl's focus finally left the screen.

"Well.. I was thinking—" I started.

"SHE WANTS TO START STREAMING!" Clay shouted once again, interrupting me.

"They can hear you fine you don't need to yell!" I laughed, and then looked to Alex and Karl who already looked just as excited as Dream was.

Then Karl broke the short moment of silence with a cheer, "FINALLY I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT!" he jumped up and down and looked to Alex, "DIDN'T I JUST TELL YOU HOW I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT?"

Alex laughed alongside me, "Yeah, you did, he did." Then he turned to me again, "So! What's your first stream gonna be?!"

We ended up talking logistics and stream ideas for hours, switching to a discord call with Dream and after George landed in the UK, he joined as well.

They helped me set up a twitch account, streamlabs, and a layout. Designing all the small details was way more fun than I expected and while most of the guys didn't have any fancy designs, Karl helped me make a cool starting soon screen similar to his.

After several hours, I finally crashed on the spare couch in the recording room, Alex and Karl still chatting with Dream and George on a call in the background. If I wasn't so exhausted I probably wouldn't have been able to sleep from the excitement though.

//author's note
yay a new section in the story!! (even though i literally thought i would have ended it by now LMAO) also sorry for the late update i've been super busy lately :]

word count: 1045