chapter fifty
❛⠀this is cyberbullying.⠀❜
"hey hey, what'd i miss?" roisin asked, sliding into her chair with a drink in her hand - a wine glass full of ribena. jokingly, she tipped the drink towards her camera, pretending to cheers chat before taking a sip and placing it down on the desk. slapping her headphones on her head, she waited for a response.
"we're just waiting for a few people to be ready." amari answered, her small character running around the ship. roisin's followed after, a child trailing behind her as she took a look at the names of those in the game. ludwig, corpse, amari, sykkuno, dream, courage, river, toast and rae. and herself, of course. "how are you holding up, ro?"
"yeah, i heard about the whole video thing." dream chimed in, "it was so gross. i'm sorry you and corpse had to go through that."
"i mean, it's been eleven days. i've been counting. things usually begin to occupy less space in my mind around the two-week mark, so we're getting there!" she joked, lightening the mood, "the video still exists, but it's not like there's anything different."
"i get that. it makes sense. as long as you and corpse are okay, right?" amari asked genuinely.
"oh, yeah. we're great. two peas in a pod!" roisin hoped that she couldn't hear her lie.
luckily, she got away with it and her chat didn't notice anything off either. they were talking about random things, mainly about dream, all waiting for the rest of the gang to show up - mainly anticipating the first corpse/roisin live interaction since it became common knowledge that they were dating. in all honesty, rosie was waiting, too. she had been streaming for the best part of an hour with the same group, but leslie was swapping out for corpse. she didn't know he would be joining. she wondered if anything would be different.
the past week and a bit had been exhausting, to say the least. axel and her spoke and spent time together and slept in the same bed, more or less like usual, but there was an underlying tension that tugged at both of them. it made her ache, and she knew it was taking a toll on him, too. they loved each other, but they didn't know that. axel thought the comment was a flippant statement, something a friend says to a friend, meaning that he never replied to it. or even gave an indication that he saw it. and the words had never left his mouth, nor were seen on any screen.
she was just tired of it all, tired of the secrets both were keeping and the toll it was taking on them. but she couldn't move past it. she wasn't strong enough to risk losing him, not yet. she had already lost so much.
with baby sitting snugly in her lap, she recognised the new voice in proximity - smiling at the way her cat's ears perked up, too. "what's up?" axel greeted, having just set up his own stream.
"hi, corpse!" rae replied cheerfully.
"good to have you here, man." courage genuinely said.
"can we give it up for the first couple in our among us lobby? corpse and roisin, take a bow. you've made history on this day." ludwig joked, breaking the tension as he carefully toed around the territory of their relationship - not wanting to upset them.
"alright, alright." rosie laughed, moving her white character to the middle of the room. corpse followed after, and she could hear his own laughter through the game. "what do we get for it? a medal?"
"what, am i not enough?" though axel was joking, very clearly by the lilt in his voice, roisin's smile faltered. she plastered it back on quickly, putting their characters face to face.
"you're more than enough. i just really want a tesla, you know?"
"you think you'd get a tesla from dating me?"
"am i not?"
"... should we get a tesla?"
"we don't leave the house enough to need a tesla."
"you're right." he sighed, trailing off. "but we'll keep it in mind?"
"uh... i guess it couldn't hurt." she played along, those in the lobby who weren't afk laughing with them. maybe things were back to normal, the small blip a result of his aching body or her adjusting to a new home. maybe they were okay again. she hoped so - she longed for the normality of their earlier days.
not that their earlier days were even that long ago, the couple had moved so fast. corpse didn't believe in waiting when you wanted something. life was too short. and rosie... she was naive and impressionable in all of the best ways. she manipulated herself as she longed for a distraction, and axel just happened to show up at the perfect time. it was an immaculate, reckless leap into something flawless. perhaps the honeymoon phase was wearing off, that's what it was.
the thought made her feel sick.
"does that make corpse the father of your son?" amari blurted out, and the sudden words and her volume made her flinch.
taking a blurry look at her small white son in-game, she forcefully perked herself up for her chat. "if he's up for the responsibility." she challenged, snapping herself out of her spiralling mind and blinking the haze from her eyes.
"obviously i'm up for the responsibility. look at this guy- he's adorable."
"does he have a name?" courage asked.
"i don't think i named him."
"call him dude."
"henry."
"gilderoy."
"bonk."
"your mom."
"william." roisin said slowly. "his name's william."
"oh, my god." axel breathed out, voice low. "that's so cute."
"why? why is that cute?" amari asked.
"it's what she would name her real kid." axel answered. "after her brother - his middle name."
"i have to go." amari yelled, slamming her hands audibly on her desk. "that's so adorable! god damn!"
a chorus of 'aww's echoed around the lobby, roisin sparing a glance to her lightning-fast chat. they were yelling about the fact that they had talked about baby names, some even going as far as to speculate that she was expecting. the infrequent messages made her hold back small fits of laughter as the conversation naturally drifted into something else - coaxed by amari and dream's playful arguing.
"alright, are we all here?" toast asked cutting off the best friends, getting hums and agreements from everyone else.
"oh, by the way, i don't think i've met everyone here. i'm river!" the new girl introduced, her voice a pleasant mix of british and german that almost made roisin swoon.
"the girl that totally blew up, like, overnight." rae commented with a smile. "that was so wholesome. it's nice to meet you!"
"i guess me and you have something in common, then, river." corpse tuned into their conversation, having sorted out his volume levels.
"i'm also a faceless youtuber-slash-streamer."
"there are three of you?" roisin gasped. "holy shit, my day just gets more and more interesting."
"yeah, we know you have a thing for faceless creators, ro." ludwig poked, voice teasing.
"dude, come on. i'm dating a faceless creator, but that doesn't mean i have a thing for all faceless creators."
corpse, much to her surprise, laughed. it was warm and kind and something she heard rarely these days. "so you're telling me that you didn't think dream sounded hot? because i know for a fact you told imogen that you thought that."
"corpse, you cannot expose me right now." roisin blushed, covering her face with her hands. "this is cyberbulling. this is against the twitch TOS."
"you think i sound hot?" dream asked, and she could hear the smirk in his voice.
"alright, clay, i think it's time for you to calm down." amari said. "but there is some truth to this. tell me, roisin, did you or did you not swoon at river's voice just now?"
"start the fucking game! start the game!" she slammed her palms on her desk, making her wine glass shake.
"it's proximity, roisin. you can't escape me that easily."
"fuck!"
as soon as the game started, the girl found herself whimpering and sprinting away from the meeting table. laughter and taunts faded into the background as the others all split off, too. sniffling, very clearly joking despite the bright blush on her cheeks, roisin began to check off her tasks - starting in navigation. she may have stood idle for a second too long, but she was talking to her chat and reading off a few donos.
though she was pressed up against the wall doing wires, rolling her eyes at her crack headed fanbase, she could hear a conversation as clear as day in the oxygen room. she may have only grown close to amari recently, and exclusively talked to dream about his SMP and her possible partaking in it, but she knew that there was something about them that was special - both as a pair, and individually.
"if it was between you and patches and i was the imposter," amari said, "i would kill you without hesitation."
"you'd choose my cat over me? your best friend?" he replied, sounding heartbroken. "come on, angel. i thought we had something special."
"patches is my best friend. you just happen to own patches. i'm not afraid to say that i was using you."
a harsh gasp left roisin's lips, and she made her small character toddle into their range of sight. she knew they were doing a bit, so she played along. "hey guys, you should stop talking about what you're talking about because maybe dream might get upset about it maybe?"
"i'm not upset, rose, don't worry. i knew this was coming." he sighed, just as lud joined them.
"they're having a domestic." roisin explained, leaning into the joke.
"oh, can we- can we be here for that?"
"yeah, why not?"
amari ignored the pair and rounded on dream. "how did you know i was using you?"
"because i was using you!" he dramatically revealed, and every other person in the room let out a sound of surprise.
"i've seen blockbuster movies less interesting than this." lud muttered, pulling a snort from the brunette.
it only got more interesting as both amari and dream picked a target, the girl killing the girl and the boy killing the boy. roisin's white crewmate was split in half and dropped to the ground, and it made her cry out. "no!"
"we got bamboozled!" lud mourned as the imposters walked away merrily.
"i was baited. i was fucking baited. they're diabolical!"
"at least we have each other, ro."
"ludwig, i'm so thankful for you."
"do you wanna go and eavesdrop on other people?"
"you really know the way to my heart."