Archive of Our Own

“Kyle, love, is it okay if I post you?” 

You look over to your boyfriend, who was buried in coursework. He wrote something before returning your look, answering a few seconds later.

“Baby, we’ve gone over this multiple times, and I really don’t mind.”

“Might cause a stir.” You shrug.

“Yeah, but I know how much you wanna post that photo.” 

A click of your tongue gives you away—busted. “You’re sure?” you ask, flashing a big, unapologetic dorky grin.

He hums, pretending to mull it over before nodding. "Yes."

“Alright, thank you!” One kiss on the cheek and you’re back to setting. You grin, giving him a kiss on the cheek before reaching for your phone.

Hgloss donated $5: that’s a paid actor yn and you know it

“I’m sorry? Who are you calling a paid actor?” A laugh escapes as you tilt your head, feigning innocence. “What are you guys talking about?”

Scanning over the chat, you’re immediately caught by how polarizing the reactions were. Some continued to convince themselves and them that Kyle wasn’t real and that he was paid, but others were just outright asking to see him. 

A quiet hum leaves your lips as you scroll. Might be time to ask Kyle if he’d want to pop in on stream sometime.

You scoff, jokingly. Still, you try to pass it off as offended. “Excuse you, I’ll have you know that my bag is crazy heavy and that I don’t need your charity. Am I renting out a small, studio apartment in Denver? Yeah, but that means I’m just saving up..”

“Oh, so now I can’t appreciate artistry? Is that what you guys are saying?” You pout. “That isn’t even like 15 dollars, I don’t get what you guys are so worked up about.”

You continue the stream as per usual, eyeing the jabs at you that your chat was making, coming back at them like you don’t know anything about a boyfriend.

You do crack after a while, though. You pay them some heed, just to indulge them a little further, just because it’s nice to talk about something personal for once. Not necessarily outright giving details as to who Kyle is, but just acknowledging that he’s real to your audience. It feels good, oddly grounding, to open up about something personal for once—something that’s just yours.

Then, an uncomfortable feeling settled at the bottom of your stomach. Kyle was probably watching this. That nosy little menace. You know he is, it’s your first stream since establishing that you had a partner.

Ding!

Your phone on the table vibrates, and your head whips to see what it is. Haha. Lo and behold. Kyle.

Kyle 💚: :)

Bleh. Cheeky. Burn .

Being perceived by tens and thousands of people is fine; hell, you do it on a regular basis, but it’s different when it’s him. You’ve seen each other’s worst, but there’s this line of embarrassment that’s being crossed when he’s actively perceiving you gushing about him. You feel like a middle-schooler talking about their crush, not knowing they’re walking right past you.

“You were good earlier, don’t worry,” Kyle assures, but with an obvious amusement at your embarrassment.

Covering your face with your arms, you shake your head. “No, it’s not like that… It’s like fuel for you to tease me.”

“You know I wouldn’t make fun of you for that.”

“...You’re right.” You sigh, letting your arms down. 

He hums, massaging your shoulders to rid you of at least a little tension. “I think you’re really funny.”

“I know.”

“No, like,” Alright, thanks. “We talked about this ages ago, and now you’re just dropping the news?”

“Well, it’s better safe than sorry.”

“I know, I know,” he chuckles. “You’re very thoughtful.”

There’s a small pause that makes you look back at Kyle. You look at Kyle, his face blank to the naked eye but clearly discernible to you. There’s a way he holds his breath that lets you know he has something else to tell you, just unsure if the timing is right or even if what he has to say makes sense.

“What’s on your mind?” You speak up.

There’s just no getting past you ; you read on him. He pauses, opening his mouth but not yet speaking, just to choose his words. “...Well, they don’t know know me. I’m just wondering how far you can push it.”

And so, for the next few weeks, you kept the mystery alive—radio silence, playful denials, and the occasional shameless hint, at least from your audience’s point of view. Sometimes you’d insist he’s real, dropping bold claims like, “He’s real, I swear,” or calling him “definitely not an edited-in image of some random guy.” Totally convincing.

It’s fun seeing Kyle be conniving and scheming with you. It happens often, for sure, you guys love to play small jokes on your friends, but on this scale? It was exciting. Harmless, you know that, and for the most part, you have the upper hand in the situation. It’s like wagging a bone in front of a puppy.

Weeks passed, and the “paid actor” jokes didn’t stop. It almost became a ritual—deny, hint, deflect. But today? Today, you decided that you were going to give them what they wanted. Sort of .

“I’m gonna hop on later, I’ll just be reacting to some stuff,” you hum, resting your head on Kyle’s shoulder. “Are you gonna hang out there later?”

“Sure, I shouldn’t be busy later anyway.”

“Perfect, I need you to do something.”

A few hours later, you start to feel your mind melting because of the content being shared right before you (Courtesy of media sharing and courtesy of your mods). What the fuck is tralalero tralala and tung tung tung sahur ? It’s not vile, not at face value, but you figure you’re probably too old to understand what exactly is so funny with those videos.

“Mods, give me a minute. What the fuck was that,” you sigh, having just seen a video explaining the complete lore of Tim Cheese? A mafia member who supposedly killed John Pork? What? 

“Guys, I’m not that old.” You quickly shut them down. “Like, tops, I’m sure I’m less than 10 years older than you.”

“Thanks. You’re all so nice to me, I can’t ask for a better community.” 

At that exact moment, you hear a soft knock on your door. You know who it is. It can’t possibly be anyone else.

“Come in!” You call out. To the audience, the exhaustion on your face was immediately wiped off. They can only really assume who it is.

The door opens, and you greet Kyle with a wave and a “Hi, love.”

“Hi.” He waves back and finds himself a seat across your streaming setup.

You laugh, reading over the chat. Some, like EmoPirate, were repulsed by your affection, and some (again) accuse you of hiring an actor and setting them up. Regardless, you continue telling them that your mystery boyfriend is very much real.

Kyle muses around with your chat’s reaction and your subsequent reaction. “How’s it going?” He pushes a little more, just to prove his existence to the audience.

You sigh, laughing at the ongoing antics. “They are literally never satisfied.”

A month or two later, you find yourself promptly setting up your camera, testing your mic, and all that jazz as you wait for your fans to come in, with Kyle sitting beside you the whole time.

“Okay, but when do we go live?” He asks, curiously watching you work. 

“Right about now—give me a title for the stream.”

“I mean, I can’t think of anything more creative than ‘Boyfriend reveal! Real!’”

“‘Boyfriend reveal, real,’ it shall be, then.” You hum, typing in the title and hitting the button. You were now on air, though your camera and mic were still blocked off.

You and Kyle sat around for a few minutes, waiting for the audience to pour in. In the meantime, you got your phone out and took a shot of you and Kyle’s eyes, announcing the impromptu stream.

He reads a few of the comments, most of them in disbelief. With how long you guys have been playing this up for, it’s probably just a forever mystery to them. He finds them pretty entertaining, so he spends the time reading over them.

“No going back now,” you mindlessly say, replying to a few messages on your phone.

“I know what I was signed up for.”

You set your phone aside and looked at him. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” He smiles at you, locking hands with you under the table.

You give him a peck on the lips, immediately redirecting your focus to the screen after. “Good, have fun.” You finally turned on your camera and microphone, adjusting them to capture the both of you better.

“Hey!” you smile. “What’s up? How are all of you guys?” You greet, holding in a laugh as you just watch the chat explode.

“This is Kyle. He’s my boyfriend.” You hook him by the neck and bring him closer to you. “You guys happy now? This is the elusive Kyle. Yes, he’s real. No, he’s not someone I’m blackmailing.”

“Hello,” he waved rather meekly.

A few minutes pass by. You entertain the chat, and they ask questions and whatnot. It’s fun. You glance at Kyle every so often to gauge how well he’s holding up. To a small surprise, he was enjoying himself. Hell, you think you could just let him maintain the stream himself.

“Alright, alright,” you drag a hand through your hair, taking a sip of your water. “You’ve seen him, you’ve got to talk to him a little, our interrogation session begins now.”

He raises a brow. “Interrogation?”

“Yeah.” You flash a smile, patting his back.

“What should we answer?”

“Whatever you want.”

“Hmm,” he scans over the comments. “Someone asked how long we've been together—like, over a year now.”

“Yeah, the initial photo of us I posted that sparked all this was, like, a week or two before our anniversary.” You nodded, leaning into Kyle as you swayed your hands holding under the table. “Here’s one: how did you guys meet?”

“We met through mutual friends. Our best friends are dating, and they just wondered what would happen if they set us up.”

“We didn’t get along right off the bat, I was pretty awkward, especially since Kyle had been friends with the couple since they were kids,” you awkwardly laughed. “But we got to know each other a lot better when I invited him to watch the Cure live with me.”

“Dude, that concert was kind of crazy. I had been a huge fan of them for a few years already when I went to see them, but they were out there playing songs that I’ve never heard of.”

“Right? Hearing Lovesong live is a core memory of mine, though.”

“For sure.”

You two sat there for a good while, going back and forth with questions and sharing details of your relationship.

“Oh, here’s one from Sydney, uhh,…numbers, numbers, numbers: how much is rent in Colorado? Surely, bills aren’t that bad.”

You roll your eyes. “Okay,-”

“Good question, Sydney, they usually—”

“Oh, my god,” you jokingly groaned, cutting him off. He clicked his tongue and laughed along with you.

“So how are you liking them so far?” You whispered in his ear, bringing your mic farther away from you two.

“Overwhelming, but definitely fun.” He murmured back.

“Yeah, that’s what you said to Stan after our first date, right?” You laughed, your voice a little louder now but still mostly indiscernible to your viewers.

“My god,” he rolled his eyes, moving his hand to your scalp to mess it up.

“You aren’t denying it, though!” Your voice was now booming; your audience could definitely hear you now. 

“I’m not confirming or denying anything!” He laughed.

“Uhuh,” you sarcastically replied, nodding as you leaned into him briefly to give him a kiss on the lips. “Totally.”

Your chat was now exploding.

“You guys are so disgusted, but this isn’t even a fraction of a fraction of the things I do to your moms on a regular basis.” You sigh, gaining a laugh and a punch in the arm from Kyle.