Work Text:
Taemin sighs and grimaces when he glances at his time after he beats the boss of the second area. He’s still two seconds behind his normal time. He can’t fucking believe that bullshit in the first area with the flashlight guard. He knows he should have made that jump and as soon as he finishes this run he’s going to go back and check the footage himself.
As the cutscenes play, he puts his controller down and reaches for his water bottle to take a sip. He glances at his watch too; almost eleven at night. Kibum should be back–
Right now, apparently. Taemin glances at the door as it jiggles and his flatmate comes inside, glittery and leathery and with a hot babe under his arm. He smiles a little bit. He’s always impressed with how easily Kibum can bring home babes to frick.
“Hey,” he says, lifting one hand to wave at both before he looks back to the tv.
“Hey,” Kibum says back. “This is Jonghyun, I’m gonna fuck him.” Taemin doesn’t even have to look to see to know that he has the biggest, smuggest grin on his lips. “Jonghyun, that’s Taemin, he doesn’t mind if we fuck,” Kibum adds. Taemin nods absently at the tv. The first cutscene is almost over and he has to switch over to the next level as soon as possible after. As he mashes the buttons to hurry to the next cutscene, Kibum continues to murmur little words to Jonghyun in between soft kissie noises. “I gotta get some stuff ready,” he hums, “sit with Taemie for a minute, kay?”
“Yeah, okay,” Jonghyun says. He walks over to stand behind Taemin on the couch and puts his hands on the back of it.
“Hey,” Taemin says again.
“Hey,” Jonghyun says back. He points at the screen. “Is this Sly Cooper?” he asks. Taemin glances up at him and nods with a grin. He always likes when people recognize his old games from sixteen years ago.
“Yeah,” he says. “The first one.” The third is his favorite, but it’s too long to speedrun for him. He glances back at the tv as Jonghyun hums a “nice” just as the second cutscene is ending. He takes a deep breath and wiggles his fingers. Time to focus again.
As soon as he gets control again he’s off, jumping, sliding, whacking enemies, collecting sneaky thief clues. His fingers move almost on muscle memory and he chews on his bottom lip to focus. Behind him, he assumes Jonghyun is watching intently, or at least politely, because he doesn’t interrupt. When he reaches the end of the level and the mini cutscene plays he checks his time again. Now he’s a little less than two seconds behind. Fuck yeah.
“Are you speedrunning this?” Jonghyun asks suddenly. Taemin nods automatically as he goes through the main area.
“Yeah,” he says. He hops into the next level and while it loads, he points Jonghyun to look at his laptop next to him streaming the footage and time to his twitch channel. “Hundred percent glitchless,” he adds. He doesn’t see the point in speedrunning a game if you’re not gonna play the whole game. Jonghyun whispers a “nice” again as Taemin starts going through the next level.
He runs, he jumps, he sneaks, he reaches the end of the level and then goes right back into the same one for the game’s time attack mode. It’s as he’s using one of his powerups to skip a small section and save a few seconds that Jonghyun gasps loudly and points dramatically at Taemin..
“Oh my god,” he says. “You’re–Taem–are you Taenana?”
Taemin bursts into giggles immediately at the mention of his twitch name. He loves it so much. He made the account when he was like twelve years old and it still cracks him up every time.
“Yeah,” he grins. “That’s me.”
“Oh my god,” Jonghyun says again. His hands pap excitedly on the back of the couch. “I love you?” he says. “Your jump acceleration strat is so cool. I love when people do tiny little things that add up over time, it’s so meticulous, I love it, it’s my favorite strat. No one else does it.”
“Thanks,” Taemin says. He is proud of his jump strategies. He worked hard on them. His cheeks feel full and round with his smile as Jonghyun continues to flap his hands on the couch in excitement. He has a fan and his fan is so cute. And he’s flattered that Jonghyun even knows his different strategies to well to have a favorite. It’s almost throwing off his focus as his fingers play through the game.
“This is so cool,” Jonghyun is still saying. “I’m subbed to you on twitch and patreon,” he adds. Taemin glances up at that in the middle of a tricky move just to gasp softly in appreciation. Jonghyun beams back at him, dark brown eyes bright and giddy.
“Oh my god,” Taemin says, looking back to the screen. “That’s so nice, thank you so much,” he says. He gets a whole ten dollars a month from this hot glittery babe.
“Jonghyun,” Kibum says then. Taemin doesn’t glance up from the game but he assumes from his smooth flirty voice that his flatmate is all ready to bang. His footsteps come down the hall and kissie noises come from behind the couch. “Come play,” Kibum murmurs.
“Oh, yeah, sure,” Jonghyun says distractedly. “One sec– thank you, too, Tae,” Jonghyun says. “I play your streams in the background while I work all the time, they help me focus. And when you got the world record a few months ago? I was there, I saw it.”
“Oh, wuh?” Taemin says, the word halfway between what and whoa. “That’s so rad?” That was one of his proudest moments and it’s so neat to know that Jonghyun was one of the hundred or so viewers that were celebrating for him in his chat.
“Jongie,” Kibum pouts. Taemin finishes a level and the loading screen comes up, he glances up at Jonghyun with a grin.
“Hey,” he says. “What’s your username?” he asks. “I’ll give you a shoutout or something next stream.”
“Oh, what, seriously?” Jonghyun asks. He beams, eyes bright and sparkly, and hops lightly. “It’s–”
“Taemin, on my god,” Kibum huffs. He wraps his arms around Jonghyun’s waist and tugs him an inch away jealously. “Will you stop stealing my dates? Every fucking time, you do this.”
“I–what–I don’t even–fuck you,” Taemin huffs. He gestures with his controller in offense as he continues to play. He is so tired of being accused of stealing dates. “What did I do!” he demands. He never does anything but exist and offer polite smalltalk to Kibum’s babes. “I’m just playing a viddy game! It’s not my fault I’m more interesting than you,” he adds in a mutter.
“Fuck you,” Kibum snaps back. He tugs Jonghyun a little further away. “Quit ignoring me for gremlin boi,” he grumbles. Jonghyun giggles loudly, then sucks himself up and presses his own kissie to Kibum’s face.
“Sorry, babe,” he says. “Lets get to the booty pounding.”
“Fuck yeah,” Kibum says. He grabs Jonghyun and tugs him back down the hallway; Taemin sees Jonghyun turn and wave at him from the corner of his eye.
“I’ll message you later, Tae.” he calls. Taemin lifts his controller and nods to show that he heard. Then Kibum tugs Jonghyun into his room and slams the door. Taemin smiles fondly at the tv. He’s known that he has fans and everything, but he never expected they would be so enthusiastic about him or so cute and nice. He’s never felt more soft and validated in his life.