The thought of a super congested streamer au Steve 👁️ he’s playing with Robin and/or Eddie and his friends and chat are just like “please go blow your nose or make yourself sneeze, we cannot understand you…”
“What’s up nerds? Today I’m joined by my dearest of friends,” Eddie joked into the microphone, “We’ve got Nancy, Chrissy, Robin and Steve. We’re going to be playing some JackBox Games.”
Oh my god the whole gang!!!
I love you Chrissy!
Jack in the Box games anyone? 😂😂
“I vote we start with Fibbage.” Robin suggested.
“Sou’ds like a pland to mbe.” The younger man turned to the side and coughed.
What did he say???
Oh no is Steve sick? Please tell me he’s not sick.
That explains the glasses….
“Sorry guys, Steve has a pretty bad cold right now.” Eddie typed away into his computer, pulling up the link for JackBox Games. He waited as his friends joined the party room before he started the game.
“By the way, Fibbage is a game where you have to find the correct answer to a trivia question while avoiding the fake answers that we all are going to submit. It’s mine and Robin’s favorite.” Nancy said as she joined the game.
The first question popped on the screen:
What does a funambulist walk on?
A) Hot Coals
B) Broken Glass
C) A Tight Rope
D) Water
E) Ambulances
F) Sand
There was a brief pause as everyone submitted their answers wielding their results that Chrissy managed to trick Steve and Nancy with “Water”, Robin tricked Eddie with “Hot Coals”, and Chrissy guessed correctly: Tight Rope.
“Who wrote ‘Ambulances’?” Eddie asked.
“Steve what the fuck?” Robin laughed as Steve slowly raised his hand.
That’s so off beat lmao
Ambulances???
Steve what?
“Fu’da’bulist… a’mbuladce…?? Sou’ded sibilar.”
“Ummm what?” Chrissy stifled a laugh as Nancy questioned the brunette.
“I said they sou’d sibilar!”
“Steve, sweetheart, we can’t understand a word you’re saying.” Chrissy cooed.
Poor Steve… just wants to be understood
Someone ask him to say ‘McMenamins’ LOL
Fudabulist XD
“I’m an excellent Steve translator guys - he said funambulist sounded like ambulance.”
“They really really don’t, but go off Stevie…” Robin chuckled.
Steve rolled his eyes, “Next questio’d Eddie?”
There was another brief pause filled only with inaudible murmurs as the group typed away at their keyboards for the second question:
Nephelococcygia is the practice of doing what?
A) Pounding a sixer of Red Bull
B) Overstaying your welcome
C) Flossing your teeth every third Wednesday
D) Diving for treasure
E) Finding shapes in clouds
F) Buying thrifted goods
The results revealed that Eddie thought it was diving for treasure, Robin and Nancy thought it was buying thrifted goods. Steve and Chrissy correctly guessed that it was finding shapes in clouds.
“Who the hell wrote flossi’g your teeth every third we’dsday?”
“You know what I appreciate Steve? Specificity. You got a problem with that?” The older man teased.
“N’dot at all. Just aski’g.”
Translator please😩
Steve…
Mans is so sick
“Steve… we can’t…” Robin started.
“Go blow your nose, it might help?” Nancy suggested.
“I tried. M’by n’dose is too stuffy. It is’t worki’g.” He whined.
Eddie sighed and stood up from his chair, leaving frame as he mumbled, “Always have to do things the hard way, don’t you Steve?”
A few seconds later, the group could see Eddie open the door behind steve and enter - they streamed in different rooms usually.
“Eddie what are you-?”
The long haired man held a glass bottle and sprayed two or three spritzes around Steve before exiting, singing “you’re welcooooome” over his shoulder.
Oh… OHHHHH NO
No no no headphone users watch out
That was brutal dude
Chrissy had clicked the chat, “Eddie what did you do?”
Eddie held the glass bottle up to the camera with his other hand behind it the way he’d seen Nancy do in some makeup tutorials, “I sprayed him with some of my cologne he’s allergic to.”
The group watched on in awe and horror as Steve’s nose twitched and nostrils flared.
“Eddie I ca’t believe you diiii did thahhh H’aeKT! Hehh… Heh’KTSCH!”
The first sneezes sounded congested and blocked off, but the cologne had done its job and the next set were relieving to say the least.
Steve pressed some tissues to his face, feeling the thick warmth fill them.
“AKT’ssiEW!! AESSSSH!! H’agtCHEW!”
“Ugh gross dude.” Robin mumbled. Nancy had taken off her headset completely while she waited.
“Bless you.” Chrissy offered gently while Eddie just smirked from his gaming chair, waiting out the fit.
Not worth it to bless him just yet Chrissy
^^He’s just getting started
Eddie that was so mean :’(
Steve coughed and then gurgled into the tissues, tossing them to the side and pulling some fresh ones.
This chapter is rated for a Teen Audience, but future chapters for this Modern AU will be Mature or Explicit
———
When Chrissy had come to Eddie asking if he knew how to set up some streaming gear she’d bought, he’d lied smoothly with a grin and said absolutely. Eddie knew that was going to be a slight problem, but he couldn’t help himself. Ever since he’d met Chrissy at 13 years old, he had been wrapped around her tiny finger. They’d been friends for a while now but remembering that first moment they’d met again, always made Eddie’s heart squeeze and drop like he was on a roller coaster.
He had been in the kitchen of the small apartment he shared with his roommates, Steve and Robin, when Steve’s girlfriend, Nancy, had come barging in as usual. Eddie had been hoping for a calm day, complete with him lounging on the couch in his sweats munching on Doritos, so he could prep for band practice that night, but the universe clearly had other plans. Nancy had come in while he was grabbing said Doritos, babbling on and on to someone that he’d assumed was Steve or Robin. He remembered sighing and walking to the small living room to tease and give Nancy a hard time but instead, every thought flew out of his head when he saw her. Chrissy Cunningham.
She was the girl Eddie had dreamed about throughout middle and high school. She’d spoken to him a total of four and a half times when they were in Hawkins together but past that? He was sure she didn’t remember him. But he had always remembered everything about her. The bright cheerleader who made him begrudgingly go to pep rallies, just to have an excuse to watch her smile. He’d had such a lovesick, puppy dog, crush on her from afar but Eddie would never tell a soul that fact. He thought that every boy had that girl in their life, right? But those days were long gone and they’d all moved on to the big city with Chrissy Cunningham being the big “What if?” in Eddie’s mind.
So when he saw her standing in his living room, he felt like an utter idiot when he’d dropped the bag of Doritos he’d been holding and immediately felt like a slob for not dressing better. All he could do was stare, which Nancy had never let him live down after that. He remembered Chrissy’s hair being in a half-up kind of ponytail, with a cute white shirt and pink pants on. Looking back, it was funny since they’d looked like total opposites. Chrissy had blushed just a bit, the pink shade going straight to Eddie’s heart, and she smiled at him in surprise.
“Eddie? Is that really you?” Her voice was exactly the same and the fact that she remembered him at all had stroked Eddie’s ego more than he cared to admit. He faltered for just another brief second before putting on his mask full of bravado once more.
“In the flesh, Cunningham.”
After the unexpected reunion, Nancy had included her in all of their friend group activities. Over the last year, Chrissy had gravitated towards Eddie and he really wasn’t complaining. He was just thanking whatever force in the universe decided he’d deserved it. The two of them had caught up, filled in the gaps of where they’d been, and quickly had a familiar routine between the two of them. If Steve or Robin noticed how Eddie bent over backwards for Chrissy, they thankfully didn’t say anything to embarrass him. The two of them had started hanging out on their own at times and while Eddie wasn’t sure how it bad happened, he still wasn’t fucking complaining. They were admittedly a strange pair. The soft, pastel pretty girl and the lanky, loud metal head. But despite everything, they just clicked. He would do anything for her, which is exactly how he’d landed himself in this situation, researching her streaming gear and setup for forty-eight hours straight.
Yeah, sure, he’d lied about knowing how to set things up, but he wanted her to have a hobby that was all hers, like Corroded Coffin was for him. They’d been talking about it on and off for a while now and he was so damn proud of her for wanting to try something new. He wanted this to be as perfect as possible, even if she decided she didn’t like it. It also didn’t hurt that he would get to spend more time with her while he set everything up.
Which is how he’d ended up researching streaming gear and setups for forty-eight hours straight all because he’d lied about knowing how to set things up for her. Just the thought of spending time with her and being the one she called for help was enough motivation. Soon after, he was helping Chrissy put it all together at her place. She’d bought a custom PC and everything, which was pretty impressive to Eddie. The lack of sleep was worth it to see her excitedly turn everything on at the end, knowing she could stream by the end of that week if she really wanted to. Her enthusiasm to do something that was all her own was contagious and Eddie was proud of her at the time.
It’d been a few months since then and it was clear to Eddie that she couldn’t get enough of streaming. He could see why. She was good at it. Chrissy had a laid back personality that made her easy to watch and Eddie made sure to watch every single stream. He felt bad sometimes, thinking of how weird it was to watch the girl who had become his best friend like this. He felt like a voyeur in a way. An innocent voyeur, but a voyeur nonetheless. Of course, he never told Chrissy, instead opting to play it cool and tell her that he caught her streams every now and then. It amazed him how they could be so honest and open about their futures and goals but he still found himself closing this part of himself away from her. He felt lucky enough to just have her at all, so he didn’t want to put anything at jeopardy, even if it meant torturing himself for the rest of his existence. To alleviate some of those thoughts, Eddie also found himself buying a lot of the more expensive items on her wishlist, just to see her smile and scrunch up her nose at the notification. It made his heart thump hard in his chest and do somersaults. He knew that things wouldn’t ever go beyond this. His ego wouldn’t let it happen. Plus, losing a friendship with the one girl he’d ever felt this kind of way for wasn’t high on his to-do list.
——
“Eddie, would you want to help me mod my chat for streams? The channel is growing kind of fast and it’s too much for me to handle alone.” Her innocent question had come out of left field that day. They’d chosen to hang out at her place since she wanted to watch a movie on her off day and they both knew her couch was much more comfortable than the lumpy mess at his shared space. Plus, it meant they had privacy and just the idea made Eddie’s heart leap at the idea that anything could happen here, even though he knew it wouldn’t. Hey, a guy could dream, right?
Her legs were currently draped in his lap as she flipped through the channels on her TV now that the movie was over. The casual touches they shared always drove Eddie into a frenzy but he never crossed the line with her. He realized he’d been a little too deep in thought when she sat up a bit and called his name again.
“Earth to Eddie…” Chrissy gently tugged on a piece of unruly hair and that immediately pulled him from his thoughts.
“Shit sorry!” He shook himself out of his funk to see her looking at him expectantly. “You’re a menace princess, you know that? Give a guy a second huh?” Eddie quickly schooled his features. He couldn’t exactly tell her that he’d noticed her losing focus on stream lately, due to the influx of chatters that were doing their best to get around the auto-mod features she’d set up. Chrissy was cute and that meant some people would be assholes on the internet.
“Uh, yeah,” he tried to be as nonchalant as possible in his response. “I can probably set up an account for modding. It can’t be that hard.” What Chrissy didn’t know was that he would have to set up a brand new account since he already had a secret account. He constantly chatted anonymously with her under his current username, BatSlayer. He’d wanted something to match his personality but also something that wouldn’t let Chrissy know it was actually him.
The only problem was that under the guise of anonymity, Eddie was seen as a regular follower to her. He was there every stream after all, loving the way her eyes would light up when he sent his typical greeting to her in chat. She knew BatSlayer so making a new account with a new username was his only option. Eddie’s cool act was almost blown though when Chrissy leapt over to hug him in thanks, throwing her small arms around his neck. Having her this close sent his brain into overdrive.
“Thank you so much Eddie! You’re a lifesaver!”
“Anytime princess.” His hands naturally fell to her waist, his fingers skimming the skin above the waistband of her sweatpants. His stomach felt like he’d fallen off of a cliff because of her. “Your streams are getting that popular, huh?” He didn’t want her to, but she moved away at his question, and Eddie fought to not look like a rejected puppy.
“Yeah, it’s kind of insane? The channel’s grown so much faster than I thought and I can’t really handle the chat moderation by myself anymore.” She fidgeted with her hair, seemingly nervous. Eddie knew she was being modest. Her channel had exploded after a few clips of her had gone viral. “I wanted my first moderator to be someone I could talk to easily. That way we could figure out the best rules to enforce and exactly how to do it as a team. You helped me set everything up after all, so I thought you’d be a good person to ask.”
“Anytime. Just say the word and you know I’m here to help.” He grinned at Chrissy, hoping she wouldn’t realize just how true that statement was. All she had to say was jump and he would ask how high. She ducked her head down at his smile, cheeks flushing. Eddie wrote the behavior off as her lingering excitement to him agreeing. He always did that when her cheeks were flushed with that sweet color of pink he now only associated with her. She’d never shown particular interest in him romantically, always opting for friendship, but that was fine. Eddie was happy to just make her happy if that’s all she wanted.
“It’s not too bad, honest!” She pulled her legs off of him, getting excited to tell him all about his new job. “For the most part, my regulars are super sweet and supportive. It’s mostly the random viewers that get weird.” Chrissy scrunched her nose in thought, trying to convince him, even though he’d already agreed. It made Eddie’s stomach flop over again.
“Who are the regulars I should know about? They sound pretty good to me if you like them.” Eddie chuckled, playing with fire a bit as he asked the question. He just wanted to see if she would mention his BatSlayer identity. It was childish and stupid, but he still wanted the chance to hear her say something nice about him.
“Well, there’s one person with the name BatSlayer and they always say the best things in chat! They’re super sweet too! Honestly, you’ll probably love them Eddie.” Her eyes softened as she spoke about his alter ego and he felt his heart twist at that.
It was so completely, and utterly stupid to be jealous of himself, but here he was. Sure, Eddie knew he was BatSlayer, but to Chrissy they were another person entirely. That’s why it made Eddie’s jealousy rage inside of him. The thought of Chrissy looking at or thinking of someone in that way was painful. He wanted to be that person, wanted to be the only person like that for her, but he was too scared to say anything. Eddie had found himself pushing his feelings for Chrissy to the back burner over and over again so that they could stay friends. Eddie felt lucky to be with her and he didn’t want to rock the boat.
“BatSlayer huh? Pretty fucking metal of ‘em.” He chuckled when her face lit up at his approval. God, he had it bad for this girl. “Just tell me when the first day on the job is and I’ll be there.”
“How about on this Friday’s stream? I can text you the time I start prepping. We could even hop on a call beforehand to make sure you’re all set up too.” Chrissy looked at him, excitement shining in her eyes, the thought of him joining her world making her glow from the inside. She took his breath away and she didn’t even know it.
“Sounds good. I should be free that day.” She didn’t need to know that he was always free during her streams and that he’d made sure of that a long time ago. Again, she would probably think he was extra weird if she ever found out.
“Thanks Eddie,” she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and looked up at him through the lashes of her big, blue eyes. “You really are the best.”
Eddie fought the urge to groan at the sight of her, and then fought the growing urge to grab her face between his hands and kiss her senseless. Instead, he managed to croak out a small “Yeah, yeah, Cunningham,” as he got up and went to grab some water, all to hide the blush creeping up his neck. She was going to get him into trouble one of these days and Eddie secretly couldn’t wait for that day to happen.
StreamerAU Eddie does like a giveaway and whoever wins it gets a FaceTime call with him and Chrissy? They’re streamer friends, he’s dating Steve, but she’s still sweet to bless his sneezes every time and hand him tissues as needed. Can be sick or just a bad allergy day 😊
“Hi everyone!!” A high pitch voice yelled excitedly. “Just waiting for Eddie - what else is new?”
Oh my god
Of course we are LOL
Always fashionably late
Chrissy laughed as her screen shifted, Eddie’s big brown eyes popping into view.
“Hey Chris! Sorry I’m late. Steve and I went to the park and just got back.” He looked directly at his camera teasingly, “what’s up losers?”
“Behave!” Chrissy laughed. She and Eddie met at school but had been inseparable once they started streaming together. Something about their witty banter and sibling-esque relationship really set the fans off.
“So there’s no game stream today. I know, I know, lame right? Wrong!” Eddie was back at the dramatics, a characteristic Chrissy loved about him.
“Eddie and I actually have an announcement to make!”
Immediately, the chat started to go crazy:
They’re dating omg omg
No they aren’t shut up!!
Maybe they’re doing a partner channel??
Eddie and Chrissy both cackled reading the reactions. “Oh my god guys, you KNOW we aren’t dating. I’m a Steve guy. Huh babe?”
Eddie turned over his shoulder revealing Steve lounging on the couch on the other side of the room. Eddie whipped back towards the camera after a muffled response came. Eddie scrunched his nose spoke into the microphone, “you can’t hear him but he says yes.”
“Hi Steve!” Chrissy waved enthusiastically.
A slightly more audible, “Hi Chris.” Came through the stream.
“Anyways. Do you want to tell them what the special announcement is, Eddie?”
“Yeah!! So snFF we decided to do a gihh H’aktCHIEW! H’NGtschEW! TschEW!”
Bless you!
Uh oh, don’t start…
How does he make something as simple as sneezing look cute??
“Bless you!” Chrissy watched as her friend held up a finger and turned away from the camera, moving his mic out of the way. He steepled into his arm.
“snf SNFF GT’schIEW! hehh H’itsch’EW!”
“Bless you times two!” Chrissy chimed.
That’s five
Good lord
You okay there Eddie?
“snF, sorry the park m’bust’ve set off m’by allergies.”
“That’s okay! I’ll tell them what’s up!”
Eddie have a thumbs up and muted himself as he pulled som tissues from the box Steve was holding out to him and blew his nose.
“Eddie and I are doing a giveaway!! Whoever wins will get a short discord call with me and Eddie, and honestly probably a guest appearance from Steve.”
OH MY GOD ILL DIE
stfu what’s the contest???
I am UNWELL 😩
“We haven’t decided just yet what we want to do as our contest, we have a few ideas floating around at the moment. Heck, maybe who can guess the number of times Eddie sneezes in a stream.”
Eddie unmuted himself momentarily and leaned into the camera, “N’dot fu’ddy.”
“Fuddy? No, but I thought it was hilarious.” Chrissy imitated Eddie’s stuffy nose and he rolled his eyes.
“Prombise I won’t be this s’deezy on the phone call with whoever wins.”
Take your allergy pill sir
I mean if I’m on the phone with THE Banished, idgaf if he’s sneezy or not
There was a murmur from Steve. Chrissy squinted, unable to make out what the other man said.
“What did Steve say?” She asked.
Eddie shot Steve a glare, the younger man was laughing. Very unamused, Eddie said, “Steve told mbe to not make prombises I ca’t keep.”
So I know lots of people will write for Streamer AU so I’ll just disclaimer rn that this is how I envision/write for my version of it:
•I think it was a gradual thing. Slow because Eddie *mostly* streams his music and stuff but will occasionally play like animal crossing or some shit like that. Steve is like. Full on gamer or Reddit reader etc etc
•They started playing games together just as like mutuals but over time became more familiar with each others’ voices and recurring usernames.
•Eventually they meet at some streaming event - either a convention, a brand deal, a grand opening, etc - and they just totally hit it off. First time talking in person could be hella awkward, but this feels so natural.
And we know Eddie is eccentric as fuck so at any panel or interview he’ll be like “oh and my NEW BEST FRIEND STEVIE” and like pull him into frame.
•I think they both know that the pining is mutual here and they’ll eventually bite the bullet and one will ask the other out.
•Enter from stage left, fruity four doing group gameplays. Chrissy is also a streamer and games with Eddie, that’s how he got into animal crossing.
Chrissy is actually really good at some of the more hardcore games too though and Steve loves that about her.
