Chapter Text
The chat messages flooded in.
Look how he lights up when Ghost walks in the room.
He’s like a lovesick puppy.
Cute!!!
Gay!<3
I need a man that looks at me the way Soap looks at Ghost.
Soap was sure there were negative comments here and there, but his mods took care of them before he could read them.
“What do you want?” he asked, but he couldn’t keep the grin off his face.
“I’m looking for Johnny.”
Soap turned around to check the sunny spot by the window. He had set up the spot with the softest blanket and kept it in the background view of his camera.
“Haven’t seen her.”
Leave it to Ghost to adopt a stray cat in the month he spent moving out of his apartment in England. She was an ugly thing with one eye and notches on both ears, but she liked Ghost’s lap, and Ghost felt responsible for her. She kept showing up during the weeks he was selling his furniture, and he couldn’t resist her charms.
Unfortunately for Soap, Ghost also couldn’t resist naming her John MacTavish.
The chat exploded with requests to see Ghost and the cat. Soap glanced at them but didn’t give them any response.
Ghost had remained firm in his decision to keep his face hidden from the world, and Soap respected it. It was a little disappointing that he couldn’t appear on camera with his partner, but the possessive part of him liked having Ghost to himself.
“Are you playing Lethal Company?”
“I am.”
Ghost approached the desk, standing behind the monitors so the camera couldn’t see him, but the microphone would pick up his voice.
“It’s a shame you have to sit on that.”
Soap flipped him off. “Don’t say it.”
“It’s the company’s best asset.”
“Gaun yersel, ya scum!” Soap threw an empty water bottle at him, and Ghost retreated, batting the water bottle away. He closed the door behind him gently so Soap’s mic wouldn’t pick up the noise.
Soap returned his attention to the chat and resumed his game. “He’s a bastard,” he told the chat, but they continued to send messages about the smile lingering on his face.
Since Ghost had transitioned to producing content that was more focused on game play and less focused on personality, their mutual fans devoured any bit of Ghost’s presence on Soap’s streams.
Soap vacillated between feeling endeared by their interest and violated by the lack of respect for his privacy. But Ghost seemed content that his privacy was respected — for the most part — so Soap was content too. Ghost seemed to get a kick out of appearing just long enough to provoke a reaction out of Soap while he was streaming, and Soap, despite acting annoyed, enjoyed how much Ghost seemed to enjoy it.
Soap played a few more rounds, bickering with Gaz, Farrah, and Alex about who was finding the most objects and who was costing the team the most money by dying too often. It was easy to slip into the rhythm of the game. He could forget everything except his stream and his friends, get lost in the experience. And when the stream was over, he could gently return to the world as he bid his friends farewell and responded to his chat.
He was answering a question from the chat about upcoming releases on his to-play list when Ghost returned to the room, holding a squirmy brown tabby cat in his arms. Soap had been deliberately procrastinating the end of his stream, hoping Ghost would bring the cat in. He didn’t do it every time, but the chat always exploded when Johnny the Streamer held Johnny the Cat.
Soap rose halfway out of his chair and held his arms out to accept the cat. “Where was she?”
“Pantry,” Ghost said. “I think she likes the smells in there.”
Soap cooed at her and held her up for the camera. As expected, the chat went wild.
Soap grinned and settled in for a few more minutes answering questions and milking the opportunity to show off Ghost’s cat. Ghost leaned against the door jamb, smiling as he watched. Soap caught that grin and returned it with such intensity that the chat recognized it as the smile he reserved for Ghost.
Soap’s cheeks went hot at the realization that they could read him so easily. But he loved the man in front of him, and he liked that everyone knew it. Even if Ghost didn’t like to be in front of the camera, he had given Soap patience and flexibility as they navigated finding a comfortable level of online presence for Ghost.
Unable to keep himself away from Ghost any longer, Soap bid his chat farewell and closed the stream, balancing Johnny with one hand as her nails pierced through his shirt. After triple checking the stream was closed, Soap got up and went to Ghost.
“Hi, handsome,” Ghost said. He caught Soap around the waist with one hand, and the other hand stroked along the cat’s spine. He leaned in for a kiss, and murmured against his lips, “Nice stream.”