When KC went to his first convention, he was nervous as hell. He didn’t have a huge following at that point, only about ten thousand subscribers, and out of those maybe one or two thousand would show up for live streams.

He’d been invited by a very enthusiastic gamer, because she’d caught some of his videos where he was building some out-of-the-box machinery in a crafting game that was hot that year. Of course, that gamer was RosieRainbow, and she didn’t invite him so much as inform him that he was going to be at the convention.

RosieRainbow: Hihi! You have a spot at the con, so book your hotel now. You’ll be on the tech panel can’t wait to chat in person!

Turned out that they got to chat a lot earlier than the con, when they happened to be flying out of the Halifax airport on the same day. Rose bumped up his ticket to first class, and they got drunk together all the way to California.

He remembered being so in awe of her kindness, not realizing that he’d been half expecting her to be a total douchebag in real life. But she wasn’t. Rough around the edges, trash-talking, but a kind person. He owed her a lot of his internet clout and fame, but really what he was the most thankful for was that it never ended up being about that. That flight was the start of a bond that transcended the online community or professional fraternization.

They became friends, and by the time they flew back from the con, KC didn’t have time to wonder if she was going to distance herself now that she knew where he lived. Before they touched down, Rose insisted that she owed him a beer, they made plans to meet at a local brewery she liked.

Before long, they were talking every day, planning collabs together, making it known to the subscribing world that they were damn besties. Shipping wars rose and fell, with extra drama that time that KC let slip he had a girlfriend. Thankfully, Holly wasn’t into the scene and didn’t pay attention to his videos or streams where some of the comments got so nasty he had to turn them off. At one point Rose threatened to make all of her streams invitation only and only let in people who would shut the fuck up about it, and things died down.

It didn’t work out with Holly, but at least it wasn’t because of the audience. Or at least, not directly. KC surmised the relationship, like most he’d had, didn’t work out because he was married to his work. If he wasn’t gaming he was editing, if he wasn’t editing he was planning a series or project or talking about it. It was hard to maintain anything outside of that.

Except friendships with people who got it, people who were immersed in it too. Most he hadn’t met outside of a computer screen, but it was easier than getting to know people in real life and then having to explain that they only really got a part-time friend, like maybe 1/16th of the time if they were lucky.

Rose got it. They’d joked a few times, privately of course to stave off the psycho shippers, that they should just get married and get it over with, since nobody else would have them. But it wasn’t like that with them.

He loved her, but in the sense that she was a part of him. Like an extension of his own body.

Once, when they’d been celebrating the end of a wildly successful collaborative series, they’d blown a bunch of mdma and laid in the wet grass by the ocean, staring at the stars.

“You’re like, if someone ripped a chunk of my heart off and shaped it into a person-shaped person,” she’d said, and they’d giggled maniacally over the ridiculous delivery and the wording.

But it was perfect because it was true.

KC was sure it sounded dramatic as fuck to say that it was physically painful for him to have her gone. That it left a damn void in the world.

When he heard her voice come through the stream window, relief flooded him that she was alive, that he could even know for sure that she was. It was still panic-inducing that she was in danger somewhere that he couldn’t get to—well, not unless Agent March decided he was going—but at least the edges of the void weren’t so jagged knowing Rose was alive and mostly unharmed.

Neil had caught him up on what was happening, how they were pretty sure that she’d met the actual heir and spewed the whole story of what she’d been through with Rhizaid.

KC was proud of her that she’d done it in a way that essentially flushed him out—it appeared Hex hadn’t realized the queen was still alive and in Drakach’s possession, and by his reaction to the news, it was clear he was emotionally connected to her.

“She’s alone and chilling, should we try to talk to her?” KC asked, practically buzzing in his seat, from anticipation and the intense sugar high from scarfing four donuts.

Neil shook his head. “Anybody could jump in on her at any time, we decided to wait until she’s ready to go to sleep. We don’t want to interrupt any important scenes or info.”

KC understood, but he was impatient. He wanted her to know that she wasn’t alone. He wasn’t sure exactly what she’d seen when she closed her eyes, if she could see the whole chat screen or just the words, or what. He wasn’t sure if when they’d cut the stream she’d just lost everything entirely, or if she was just seeing a blank frozen chat. Either way, he could practically hear her strained voice in his head, asking for someone, anyone to respond.

She dry-heaved and KC stiffened. “What the hell?”

“I think she’s trying to barf up the missive,” Neil said, wincing as vomit splattered across the stone.

KC refused to tear his eyes away from the screen, his heart rate rising as she began to gasp and splutter. “She’s choking.” He grabbed Neil’s arm. “She’s choking.”

“It’ll come out,” came the reply, and it sounded so sure, so confident.

“You can’t fucking know that!” Fear pulsed through KC’s veins like a tsunami, and he whirled around to face Agent March. “Do something!”

She didn’t reply, and a small logical part of him new it was because there was literally nothing she could do. Even if she tossed him the disk and let him put it in a machine in that exact moment, the chance of him spawning anywhere near her were slim to none.

“One of the demons has got to be within earshot,” Neil said, and KC whipped back around to face the screen. “Though then they’d know that she was carrying a message.”

KC wasn’t as worried about that part. “She could just lie and say she didn’t know it was in there.” He clenched and unclenched his fists, to keep from gripping the desk. “Rhizaid could have put it in while she was knocked out or something.” The words came out in a quick stream, as if his mouth were trying to distract his brain.

How many times would he have to watch her die? If she respawned, would she still have the missive? He groaned a string of obscenities.

As if on cue, Rose pitched forward and a little tube of metal plopped into the vomit below. KC took in a deep, ragged breath of relief, surprised to note that Neil’s shoulders relaxed as well. It seemed he’d been more nervous than he’d let on.

As Rose inspected the tube, trying to get it open, the guy to Neil’s right murmured something, pressing a hand to his earpiece.

“Okay,” Neil said, and adjusted a few dials on the mixer next to him, cranking up some of the audio channels.

KC leaned in, wishing that they had a set of headphones for him too, so that he didn’t have to listen to the speakers. He wanted to snatch the ones from Neil’s head, but he was trying to make nice with these people so they’d let him stay in the room.

From what he could make out, Hex and Jian were speaking about the queen. The guy beside Neil scribbled furiously on a notepad in front of him, but KC didn’t want to distract himself trying to read what it said. He was more concerned about Rose getting caught eavesdropping.

Jian seemed to scent her vomit, and there was a scuffle and splash as Hex came out of nowhere.

“Holy shit,” KC breathed as he watched their exchange, “he is fucking into her.”

“Yeah, they’ve been flirting back and forth,” Neil said with a wave of his hand. “It’ll come in handy if she can keep it from getting complicated.”

Complicated, KC thought. As in as long as she didn’t catch feelings and compromise the hundreds of conflicting missions she had going on. He couldn’t deny that this Hex was exactly her damn type, too. When he’d seen the disk on her stream in the first place, he’d been ready to make cracks about how many times she’d been flicking the bean over the sexy demon character.

Rose generally wasn’t one to catch feelings, also being married to her work, so he hoped that if she was going to mix pleasure that it wouldn’t fuck up any decisions she had to make. He hated to admit that Neil was right, that if Hex were the one to catch feelings that it could be advantageous to her. At least in theory, hopefully it would help keep her protected amongst all of the bloodthirsty monsters.

“Can I see a transcript of the conversation between Jian and Hex?” Neil asked, pushing back from the desk and rolling across to one of the other guys.

KC glanced down at the keyboard next to his, the one plugged into the computer that ran the streaming software. It wasn’t live, but they had his account monitoring it, which meant he could essentially chat to himself.

Or, in theory, Rose.

Before he could talk himself out of it, he took the moment by the horns and reached over, quickly typing Rose, can you see this?? and hitting Enter.