Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

You were standing in line to get a damn coffee, that's all. You were on break, there was only twenty minutes left until you had to get back to work. It was a shit job, organizing patient files at the local hospital, but hey, money is money.
"Jesus fucking Christ." You mumbled under your breath, you were highly agitated. There were three cash registers but only one was open, which was highly ridiculous because there were multiple employees standing around doing nothing behind the counter.
"I know right." The man in front of you said. Was he talking to you? Doesn't matter though, fifteen minutes left and the line hasn't moved an inch. You looked back to see the line stretching on behind you, probably gonna start going down the block soon.
"I'd have better luck hopping over the counter and making my own dang cup." He shouted over the people in front of you, probably to the person working the counter. He was tall, so you couldn't see over him, and the line wasn't even orderly, so you couldn't see around them either.
"I could come back in two hours and they'd only have served two damn people." You laughed and then covered your mouth, not wanting it to seem like you were listening. He turned around to look at you and smiled.
All you could see before was his black leather jacket and a mop of curly hair that was ruffled and disorderly. But when he turned around all you could look at were the beautiful brown eyes that he had, you couldn't look away. And his smile, oh gosh, your heart skipped a beat when he flashed it towards you.
"I'm being so freaking serious right now lady, this line is horrendous." You nodded, obviously knowing this information, as you were standing in this horrendous line.
"Oh I know." You rolled your eyes and he laughed. He thought you were joking, but this was just ridiculous. Five minutes left on break and you haven't even moved an inch forward.
"Hey, maybe there's another coffee shop around, you wanna try one of those out?" You shook your head, and looked at your phone. Five minutes left of break. You still have to get into the building and sign in.
"I've gotta get back to work, thanks for asking though." He pouted as you got out of the line and everyone shuffled forward. You didn't know why anyone would even wait this long for coffee, it wasn't even that good.
You walked out of the shop and a gust of wind caught you off guard, like a cold wintery bitch slap to your face. Zipping up your coat and wrapping your scarf around your face to avoid a Rudolph nose you made your way down the streets of New Jersey. The hospital was only a couple blocks away and it wasn't a bad walk to get down to the coffee shop but now the wind was blowing straight in your face making your eyes water.
You heard someone running up behind you, you couldn't be bothered with it though, not having much time to get up to the hospital had you in a hurry, and any type of lateness came off of your check.
He showed up in your peripheral vision, the man from the coffee shop. Sort of creepy, he was cute, but now he was following you, not so cute.
"Hey, how's it going?" Was he trying to make small talk? What could he possibly want?
"Good I guess, I'm going back to work and I'm going to be late." Checking your phone as you said this, yup, definitely late. Only two minutes late as of now, but your boss throws a conniption fit if anyone is a second late, so you're fucked and you're mentally preparing yourself to enter the inferno.
"Well, I was just wondering about that coffee thing, I mean, I didn't mean right now, but maybe some other time?" His voice got higher and higher in pitch as he ended his sentence, and if you weren't in such a shitty mood, you might have just smiled to him.
"I dunno, I'm pretty busy." And you were, you had to work your ass off to pay for your apartment, and on the side you were trying to begin the project that you hoped would soon become your job and your livelihood.
"Too busy to get a coffee with me?" You both were stopped at a crosswalk, the red hand on the sign across the street counted down the time until you could be on your way again.
"I don't even know who you are." He looked down at you, he looked shocked.
"Well, I'll have you know, I am Danny Sexbang, singer in the band Ninja Sex Party." He said this like you should know what the hell he was talking about.
"Danny Sexbang? Ninja Sex Party? Never heard of either." His eyes got wide and you folded your arms across your chest, your inner sass showing through in the way that you were standing.
"Uhm, wow. It's the greatest band in the universe, so, maybe you should give it a listen." He wiggled his head, jokingly mirroring your sassiness.
"Well what does 'Danny Sexbang' sing about?" You put air quotes around his stage name and he laughed at your question.
"Well, I sing about dicks and sex and stuff, hence the name Sexbang. Also you missed your chance to walk, and you're probably super late by now." You checked your phone, completely ignoring the beginning of his sentence.
"Fucking shit, she'll be livid, and I don't want to deal with that." You could just call out, you haven't used a sick day since you got the job, so calling out near the end of your shift shouldn't be bad, or maybe it could be, ugh.
"Well, how about going to get some coffee and you could think about it then?" He was so hell bent on getting that coffee so you just shrugged, it was pretty foolish to agree to getting coffee with a complete stranger who says his name is Danny Sexbang, but you were just too stressed to give a crap.
"Fine, we better not be going to that damn shop again though." He laughed and placed his hand on your back and started to lead you down another street. It was full of people, so he couldn't even try to do anything in an area crowded with people.
"Of course not, there's a shop down here, it barely has people in it. Best coffee in Jersey." He stopped in front of a tiny shop, you looked in the window and saw an older couple sitting at one of the five tables, they were the only people in there.
He opened the door and a tiny bell rang as held it open for you to go in first.
The people at the counter looked up and when they saw him they smiled, like they knew him.
"Ah Dan! Welcome back, you want the usual?" Dan nodded to them and walked to the counter, his hand still resting on your back bringing you with him to the counter.
"What do you want?" He asked you and you shook your head. You didn't want him paying for your drink, even if it was cheap, you didn't like when people bought things for you.
"I'll get it." You pulled your wallet out of your purse and Dan sighed.
"Two black coffees, for here. Thank you." He pulled a five out of his wallet and handed it to the man behind the cash register, then told him to keep the change.
"Come on, sit down." You huffed and puffed as you followed him to the table on the other side of the shop. You slumped in your chair, you were being childish, but you had told him that you would get your own, and he completely ignored you.
"I could have gotten my own coffee and paid for it." You said it in a shitty way, letting him know that you were agitated. He raised his eyebrows and leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head.
"What kind of man would I be if I let my date pay for her own drink?" His date? What the hell is he even talking about?
"This isn't a date, I just met you. We're acquaintances, and you shouldn't have bought me my coffee." He moved his hands from behind his head and put his elbows on the table and rested his face in his hands.
"Well, deal with it, it's already done. What are you gonna do about your boss or whatever?" You had forgotten about that problem until he brought it up again, but shrugged. What did he expect you to do? You weren't gonna make a serious phone call in a public bathroom, that was just gross.
"I'll just call her when I get back to my apartment. So, back to you, what's your real name?" You copied what he was doing, your faces were about three inches away from each other, but none of you moved back, the closeness didn't seem to bother either of you.
"Dan Avidan. How about you? What's your name?" He was staring deeply into your eyes, completely fixated on you.
"_____ _________, any other questions? I've asked a bunch, so it's only fair to let you ask a few." He nodded, then held up a finger as he got up out of his chair. Your eyes followed his as he walked over the counter to retrieve your coffees. The way he walked was a lanky stride. He placed the coffees on the table and brought grabbed the canister holding the sugar packets and creamers off the other table and set it down next to our canister.
"Where do you work?" He asked after he took a sip of the coffee.
"I organize patient files in at the hospital. Why did you bring over the other canister of sugar and cream if you drink yours black?" He set his cup down and licked his lips.
"I don't know how you take your coffee, don't know how much sugar or cream you use. Gotta be prepared." You were already pouring your fourth packet of sugar into your cup and you had five creamer cups lined up to be poured in next. He nodded toward your pile of empty sugar packets. "Like I said, gotta be prepared. So, do you like your job?" You took a sip of your coffee, it still wasn't to your liking so you set it back down on the table and pulled a couple more sugar packets a creamer cups out of the container. Dan watched intently as you poured them into your coffee.
"If I liked my job I would have just went in late, I wouldn't be sitting here having coffee with you." He nodded and you took another sip of your coffee, it still wasn't sweet enough, but you dealt with it. By the time your were done getting it prepared it would have been cold, so you sipped on your bland tasting coffee waiting for another question.
"What do you like to do?" You thought over the question, you liked to do a lot of things. But he probably meant in a working matter, so you thought more.
"I like to play video games or write. I want to be known, you know. I don't want to be remembered as the girl who spent her whole life in a filing room organizing documents. That shit isn't fun." He laughed and you tilted your head in confusion. What could he possibly think is funny now?
"Well, if you start a gaming channel I'll be sure to shout you out, get you some subs." He laughed again and you rolled your eyes.
"When I'm able to afford all the equipment to even start a channel like that." It would be expensive and you'd have to work your whole life to afford the stuff you'd need.
"Not really, if you'd like I could help you kick off your channel. Plus, it'll be way easier if your start with game reviews, and then make a side channel for actually playing games. You'll do great!" Why was he being so nice? It didn't give you a weird vibe, it was just strange that people could be so nice. You've dealt with a lot of assholes in your time, so this was quite unusual.
"You'd help? How would you do that?" He gave you a look, kind of like a 'duh' look. Like you should know what he meant.
"I'll help you with your gaming reviews, and the shout outs and stuff. Plus I'm a nice guy, I'm always down to help." You nodded, deep in thought. This could work, it really could. He had to have a lot of subscribers, and if he was on your channel and shouted you out, some of those people could subscribe to you and you'd be able to get a little bit of a head start.
"Well, thank you, thanks a lot really." He flashed you a smile, that beautiful smile, the one that stopped your heart and pulled out his phone.
"Maybe I can get your number so that we can set up a day to get this thing started?" You smiled back, it wasn't as big of a smile as his was, but it was the best you could do. You told him your number and he put it into his phone and then a minute later you got a text. He was looking at you expectantly, he must have been the one that texted you and he was waiting on you to check your phone. He most likely had texted you so that you could get his number and have it saved in your phone as well.
You pulled out your phone, all he had said was 'Suppppp', the amount of p's seemed to be redundant, but you unlocked your phone and added his number into your contact book.
"I should probably head back home now so I can call my boss..." You hadn't realized until then that you had been there for an hour and a half already, and your boss is going to be beyond pissed at your lack of responsibility.
"Yeah, oh man, sorry for keeping you for so long. Do you need a ride?" What was up with him? Was he always so nice? I mean, you had carpooled with a coworker who lived in the same complex as you, so you didn't have a ride.
"I can take the bus, it's not too far." The bus wasn't so bad, and there was a bus stop a block away from your apartment, so it wouldn't be horrible.
"Nonsense, the bus doesn't come back around this way for another hour. Plus, a pretty girl like you shouldn't be on the bus, let alone waiting at the bus stop for an hour." You blushed at what had seemed to be a compliment, as you knew he was sort of right. But then again, you shouldn't be getting rides from men that you had just met that day.
"I don't know..." You were hesitant to take up the offer. You still knew very little about him, and you feared what could possibly happen.
"I'll even let you drive, do you know how to drive?" You gave him the same 'duh' look he had given you earlier and he tapped his hands against the table rhythmically before sliding his keys across the table to you. "Will this make you feel better?"
"I guess..." Being able to drive made you feel slightly better, knowing he wouldn't be able to drive you to some secluded dark alley when you were the one driving.
You got up and grabbed your coffee, it would have been rude to throw it away when it was barely drank, no matter how gross it tasted. You could easily sweeten it at home and heat it back up.
You walked with him to his car, you were twirling the keys around your finger, and he was giggling. He had probably thought you couldn't hear him so you decided not to react to it. He stopped at his car, it was a small four door black sedan. You hit the little button on the remote control on the keychain and walked around to the drivers side and climbed in. He was already in the passenger side and buckled in, and when you got in you looked around the car. It wasn't dirty, but it wasn't spotless. There was an empty water bottle in the cup holder and notebook paper that had been thrown to the back seat at some point. You put on your seatbelt and started the car, you don't know why you were so nervous. Maybe it was because you had never driven anyone else's car but your own. You had the same type of car though, so it shouldn't be much of a problem. You adjusted the mirrors so that you could see out of the back and you moved the seat up closer to the steering wheel.
"You gonna just fuck up the whole setup of my car?" He jokingly asked and you sighed.
"It's not my fault you're so damn tall, your seat was too far back, I could barely reach the pedals." He laughed loudly and patted your shoulder.
"It's okay, not everyone can be so awesomely tall." You laughed and started driving. The joking conversation had eased your nerves so completely that you forgot why you were even nervous in the first place.
"Oh yeah, it's so awesome being able to reach all the shelves at the grocery store." You gave him the side eye and he was smirking, most likely thinking of a comeback.
"Damn straight, I know for sure you wouldn't be able to reach the top shelf." You nodded in agreement and he busted out laughing.
You pulled into a parking spot at the apartment complex and fished your wallet out of your purse. You found a ten in your wallet and tried to hand it to him, to pay him back for the coffee and for gas.
"No, I refuse to take it." He folded his arms across his chest and looked out his window, it was quite childish. You put the ten in his sun visor and opened up the door and got out. He did the same thing and met you around on your side.
"I'll text you and set something up, you're gonna be huge." You nodded and he got in his car and drove off.
You walked into the complex and waited waited outside of the elevator for it to get to the bottom floor. You thought about what he said about you being huge, it seemed impossible right now.

~~~~~~~~~2 Years Later~~~~~~~~

You were living in LA now. You constantly thought back to the when to how you had gotten this far.
Meeting Dan in the coffee shop had been a god send, and you had worked with him for nine months, he was the reason you got as far as you are now.
He moved to LA a year ago, and after that he stopped keeping in touch with you, and although it hurt, you knew that it was purely a working relationship with him. He helped you get on your feet, and when he saw you were good he left to pursue his music career in California. You occasionally checked his channel, he was doing great. You were proud of him and everything he achieved in the short year that he had been here.
You had achieved a lot too, you reached 500,000 subscribers on your gaming channel and 1,000,000 on your review channel. You had started dating Barry, the editor for the Game Grumps about three month ago. You contacted him about a week after you moved to LA to ask him about editing, you only expected a Skype call to sort of help you out, but he ended up wanting to meet up to "show you how it's done" as he had said. It became a weekly thing, and you both hit it off really well.

You were sitting at you desk working on the finishing touches to your latest video when Barry came in and slumped down on your couch. You looked up from your screen, waiting for him to say something, when he didn't you went back to working on your video. It was better not to ask, if he wanted to talk about what was bothering him he knew he could come to you.
"Hey, so you know how Jon said he was leaving?" You looked up from the screen again, giving him your full attention.
"Mmhm, did you find someone to take his place on the show?" He nodded and you rolled your chair out from under the desk and got up to go sit next to him on the couch.
"Yup, we've been talking to Arin's friend, he did some animation on one of his videos, and the guys super cool, so we chose him. Jon's gonna be gone in a week though." You understood completely how they all felt. Jon was leaving so he could work on his show, and everyone was proud of him, but you all would miss him. You'd gotten to meet him on several occasions when Barry would take you out to lunch with the Arin, his wife Suzy, and Jon. They mostly talked about the show, and they would recommend games for you to play on your own show. Jon was a nice guy, sort of loud, and quite funny, so him leaving had upset you too, not as much as the rest of them, but enough to allow you to sympathize with them all on the situation.
"Are you guys having a farewell party thing?" You had heard something about one from Suzy, but you didn't know if it was a solid plan yet.
"Oh yeah, the new guy is gonna be there too. Him and Jon are good friends too, so it won't be awkward or anything. It's gonna be on Friday, you think you can make it? We'd all really like it if you could." You had videos to edit and more videos to record, but it's Monday, and if you could just get it all done by Thursday night you could go and make your fans happy. It would be hard, and you'd have to stay up late every night just to get it done, but it was worth it.
"Hm, I'll try. Just gotta get some stuff done." Barry grabbed your hand and rubbed his thumb across the back of it.
"You work too hard, I can help if you need me to, don't be scared to ask." You weren't scared to ask though, you just knew that he had as much work as you did being the editor for the Game Grumps videos and you didn't want to put another show on top of that.
"Im fine." Okay, maybe you weren't, you were constantly exhausted and you drank more coffee than any human should, but you were happy with your life and the people that were in it, and that was all thanks to the line of work that you were in. So although it drained you physically, you wouldn't change it for anything.
"Can you at least take a break? Just for a day. You're constantly falling asleep, everywhere, you fell asleep at your desk while you had food on the stove, it's becoming dangerous." You bit your lip and looked down at your hands which were still in his. You had nothing to say, it was dangerous at times, but you had practically given up on cooking meals now and relied on coffee and Pringles for sustenance. That also wasn't healthy and you knew Barry didn't like how hard you worked yourself, but you couldn't do anything about it.
"Barry, you know I can't just take a break. I have things to do." He moved his hands up to your face and you looked up to his. He kissed you softly and ran his thumb across your cheek.
"That's what I'm here for, just one day, for me, please." You sighed and finally agreed to taking a break. "Good, now, you want to go get some dinner, I'm famished. We can go to In and Out or Sonic, whatever you want."
"I've got to finish editing my video..." He looked at you, a warning. Dinner was one of his ways to get you to take a break. "But I'll finish it when I get home."
"No you're not, you're gonna get into your bed with me and we're gonna go to sleep, you can work on it tomorrow." You slapped your hands down onto the couch and pushed yourself up, you were unable to argue with him, especially when he looked at you with those big blue eyes.
You slipped on your shoes and walked out of the front door which he had opened for you.
You lived in a quaint little apartment complex with four floors. You lived on the second floor in an apartment on the other side of the hall.
It was a one bedroom, one bathroom apartment, and that was enough for you right now. Your front room was your living room in the front and your computer desk was set up in the back against the wall. Your kitchen was probably the largest room (aside from the front room), it had everything you needed. The rent was cheap, so it was perfect for you.

Barry held the elevator open for you and three other people. They were your neighbors, pretty nice people, they had helped you bring in your furniture when you first moved in. They smiled kindly at you and Barry as you waited for the elevator to go down to the bottom floor.
You and Barry walked out and he pulled his keys out of his pocket and unlocked his car. It was stifling hot outside, California in June was like being in a sauna at the highest temperature even in the evening, and it was literal hell. The walk to the car shouldn't have had you sweating bullets as if you had just ran a marathon, but when you finally got in the car you turned the AC on high and allowed it to blow on your face for a couple minutes.
"It's just going to get hotter in the next two months." Barry said as he backed out of the parking spot and you slumped down in your seat. "I'll get you one of those handheld fans." He grabbed your hand and held it as he drove.
"So, are you gonna tell me about the new guy or is it going to be a surprise?" You asked, trying to make casual conversation.
"I think I'll just let it be a surprise for you, unless you really want to know." He smiled over to you and you shrugged. It wasn't really a big deal for you to know, as long as it didn't affect your work.
"Eh, I'll wait till Friday. Are we going to In and Out?" It was right up the street and it was closer than Sonic, and you were more hungry than you'd ever admit to Barry.
"If you want to." He looked to you for an answer and you gave him a quick nod letting him know that it was what you wanted to do.
He pulled into the left lane and waited for the light to turn green so he could pull into In and Out.
"You want drive-thru or do you want to go in?" You didn't really want to go in so you suggested the drive-thru. He never disagreed with you unless it was something that affected you physically or mentally. He wanted to keep you happy, not that he didn't do that already. "What would you like?" You thought for a second and decided on a regular cheeseburger with everything on it and he got the same thing with a large side of fries and you both got large cokes. He pulled up to the second window and the girl at the window told Barry how much it cost and he gave her his credit card. When she handed it back she finally looked down at him and when he grabbed his credit card back she slid her hand across his and it made you feel uncomfortable. He wiped his hand on his shirt and when she handed him the bag of food he grabbed it from the bottom so that her hand wouldn't touch his and when she handed him the drinks he handed them both to me. When she finally noticed me in the car she rolled her eyes and bitchily told him to have a nice night.
He pulled into a parking spot to check the bag and then handed me my burger and put the fries in one of the cup holders.
"You alright with eating here?" Always asking for your acceptance, it was sweet, but sometimes you wished he would understand that whatever he did was alright with you, and he didn't always have to ask you if it was okay.
"Of course, so are you sleeping at my place tonight?" It was alright if he didn't, you'd be able to stay up and finish your editing, but you also liked when he stayed the night. Cuddling up next to him was something you looked forward to whenever he told you he would stay the night.
"Mmhm-" He said while chewing his burger. You took a bite of yours, it was delicious. You had gotten so used to the taste of Pringles and coffee that even the taste of a fast food burger was like heaven.
You both finished your food and drove off back towards your apartment. It was quiet and Barry had turned off the AC and rolled down the windows which was a lot more refreshing than you thought it would be. He had turned on some music as background noise and the ride back was peaceful. You looked out the window and watched the streetlights as they went by, dimly illuminating the streets below and the few people who were still out walking.
He pulled into the parking lot of the complex and Barry quickly got out to open your door for you. You thanked him as you got out and you walked hand in hand into the apartment.
"Are you tired?" You asked him as you waited for the elevator to get to the bottom floor and he shrugged.
"I guess, why?" You looked down at your feet and you heard him sigh in defeat. "An hour, I'm giving you an hour to finish editing your video. If it's not done you can finish it tomorrow. You need sleep." You looked up to talk and he cut you off. "Falling asleep at your desk doesn't count." You looked back down at your feet and you heard the elevator ding as the doors slid open.
Barry grabbed your hand and pulled you in. He wrapped his arms around you and you laid your head against his chest. The sound of his heart beat was soothing and you felt yourself slowly falling asleep to it. You fought to stay awake, but he pet your head, almost as if he was trying to get you to fall asleep.
When the elevator got to your floor you pulled away from his chest and yawned. He grabbed your hand and led you to your door and he unlocked it with the key you had given him earlier this month.
"Come on, you're too tired to edit tonight." You tiredly tried to walk over to your chair at your computer but he kept his arm wrapped around your waist and basically dragged you to your room.
You flopped down on your bed and pouted at him. He smiled and leaned down to kiss you on your forehead. "I'm doing this for you, you know that." He helped you slide out of your shirt and slip out of your pants, he knew that you liked to sleep in just your underwear after staying the night multiple times. He did the same and climbed into your bed and you slipped under the blankets with him.
You turned to face him and trailed your fingers up his chest, his neck, finally resting your palm against his cheek and leaned in to kiss him. You pressed your body against him as he kissed you back, you felt him getting hard through his boxers and he inhaled deeply before pulling away.
"Mmph, not now ___, I want it to be perfect, and it won't be if we're both tired." You sighed and laid flat on your back, you didn't want to push him or force him to do it, it's not like you needed it, but it's something that you wanted. But if he wanted to make it perfect you wouldn't fight against it. He always wanted to make things romantic and just right for the both of you. "I want to just as much as you do, but I want it to be just right. Now let's go to bed." He kissed your temple and wrapped his arm around you pulling you back against his chest. You dozed off slowly, peacefully in his arms.