Raccoon Sixteen

...hmn?

Just-barely awake, King nuzzled against his pillow, then yawned as he drifted in and out of consciousness. He would have just let himself fall back asleep right away if it hadn't been for the faint pressure he felt growing in the back of his mind.

As it were, it took him a few minutes to pull himself together enough to blink open one heavy eyelid. Then another minute before his vision cleared enough in the darkness to see.

Wait a second...

Now that he was actually coherent, he could easily hear a faint sniffling sound.

B?

The man had his arms folded on the edge of his bed with his head tucked behind them.

Sitting up slowly, King watched the man for a few moments before moving his left hand against the blankets just enough to make a decent amount of sound.

Baron's shoulder jerked in response, tensing up from being startled. The man himself, however, seemed able to recover quickly and, after a few moments more of sniffling, he tilted his head a tiny bit upward to look up at him.

There were a thousand things suddenly running through King's mind as he looked at that tear-stained face with only an adorable nose and bright eyes visible above his still-crossed arms, but after a moment he quieted his thoughts and forced himself to relax. He knew that Baron could read his mind and the guy was clearly already stressed enough, so there was no need to add more fuel to that fire.

He hadn't even gotten up onto the bed, either. He'd just slept leaning against it.

"Hey there, B..." he finally whispered, paying close attention to both the way the man reacted, but also the mess of anxiety he could hear roaring from him inside his mind.

Baron stared at him for several moments as the situation processed in his tired, frantic mind. He honestly looked extremely calm on the outside, but was clearly struggling pretty badly on the inside.

When everything finally seemed to click, he slowly lowered his chin back to the blankets and nuzzled his cute nose against his arms.

"King... did I wake you?"

His voice sounded terrible...

Doing his best to keep his mind calm and quiet, King reached forward slowly and, when Baron simply watched him with his big, nervous eyes, he gently settled his hand against his hair, then began patting it lightly just as the other man had done before he'd fallen asleep earlier.

"Don't worry, I'm used to being up at odd hours when gaming," he said without an ounce of hesitation, because it was completely true.

In fact, he was pretty much wide awake already.

Baron watched him in silence for a few moments before finally lifting his head up again, then sniffling.

"I... still, I'm sorry that I woke you up. It was just a nightmare," he eventually said in a quiet whisper as his gaze slowly lowered from King's.

That wouldn't do.

"Hey B?"

The man looked up at him again, his eyes anxious and sleepy in the darkness.

"Want to play a video game?"

Baron's lips parted the slightest amount, then he sniffled a few more times before looking over his shoulder and to the left at King's gaming PC.

"I can hook up a controller to my spare computer," King said with a small smile, hoping to keep the man distracted.

In fact, he got up after a moment of silence and dropped down into his seat, then heard Baron come closer a moment later.

As soon as he was beside him Baron slipped an arm around the armrest of the chair, then scooted closer until he was practically hugging it against his side... and just-barely brushing King's clothed leg with his elbow.

King did his best to focus on turning on his computer, then tugging his old spare laptop forward to boot up, too, but as the game's loading screens came up, he was left with nothing to do but stare straight ahead... but his eyes refused to do so for the necessary period of time.

Eventually, they wandered to his left, then downward until he saw gentle eyes staring up at him.

Puppy...

King immediately felt his head get fuzzy and his heart stumble around in his chest as if he'd just drunk a gallon of beer...

"Oh? It looks pretty."

Baron's voice snapped him out of his daze and made him realize that he'd gotten distracted simply staring at the guy!

Quickly returning his attention to the screens, he got the games set up, then hooked up the controllers and handed one down to Baron.

"I'll lend you my spare account. I haven't used it in a while but the gear is still pretty nice. Oh, and you can change the name if you want. I have an extra naming potion."

Baron seemed a little taken aback as the screen for the laptop lit up a little more, showing a rather cute cat boy with fuzzy black cat ears, messy hair, and a tail that swished lazily back and forth behind him.

"Cute."

He didn't seem to notice the name right away, but after looking through the character's stats, he actually read what it was and glanced up at King with an are you serious? expression.

"Wh-what? He was a test character for some things so I named him Testcat..."

Now that he thought about it, it was a pathetic name.

Reaching over, he pressed a button on the controller he'd given Baron, then pointed to the screen.

"Just use that name potion and call him whatever you want," he said before turning his attention back to his own game as he tried to ignore his warming face.

He heard the guy push a few buttons, then the sound of letters being put in came from the laptop before he heard the select button confirm the new name.

When he looked over again, he blinked, then looked slightly down at Baron.

"Prince?"

The guy grinned up at him, then shrugged one shoulder.

"I think it fits, since you mentioned Prince was already on your stream a few times."

King nodded his agreement.

"Yeah, he was."

You were, too, once.

King was just turning back to face the computer monitor when he felt a spike of anxiety from Baron, immediately making him turn his attention back to him.

The guy looked about ready to have a panic attack, making King quickly review what they'd said over the past minute or two.

Wait. It wasn't what I said...

"U-um, it wasn't intentional, I swear. I was sitting with my big sweatshirt on, the one Prince likes to cuddle in. Y-you shifted while I was playing, but the only part of you that could be seen was your shoulder and the back of your head. I-I swear there was nothing else and I turned the camera off immediately!"

King honestly felt more anxious than Baron soon as he did his best to keep from shaking while the silence stretched between them.

Baron had turned his attention to the floor and King could sense his mind working overtime trying to figure out what he wanted to do in response to having been told such an embarrassing thing.

He was nearly beginning to sweat when Baron finally looked up at him again, then spoke in a calm, measured voice.

"Are there any pictures from when it happened?"

Pictures?

He definitely hadn't taken any, himself, but he knew who did.

"Yeah, there are..." King mumbled as he leaned forward to grab his mouse, then clicked a few buttons to open his personal streaming channel.

Within a minute he was able to pull up several screenshots of the situation. Thankfully, none of them were anything different than what he'd told Baron. All they could see was his left shoulder and the back of his head.

Even when he'd reached forward to switch off the camera, it was still the same.

He was just about to ask if he was okay now after seeing the evidence when he felt a hint of something inquisitive press against his mind, drawing his eyes down to one of the three comments he could see beneath the pictures they were currently looking at.

PurplePuffyPancakes: Dude, that guy is gorgeous! I wish I could see his face!

He waited patiently as Baron continued to consider the situation, then, after a full minute had passed, King scrolled down a tiny bit in the comment section, praying that he was making the right decision.

Another comment soon caught his eye.

IPlayForTheMods: He really does look like he could be a prince. I'd love to see his face sometime!

Then another...

TheQueen: King found himself an adorable raccoon, and a hot guy! So jealous right now!

OnlyHalfNaked: Right?! Why can't I randomly find an adorable raccoon boyfriend when I'm out exercising?!

The comments kept going and going, and thankfully, the majority of them were beyond positive. As they continued to read through them, he felt Baron's anxiety slowly morph into something more akin to curiosity.

Ah, that's what I'd felt building up.

"They... really think I'm a catch?" he eventually said as he finally looked back up at King with a bewildered expression on his adorable face.

Fuck, you're more than a catch. You're fucking gorgeous and smart, and honest, and—he quickly forced his mind to shut up as he gave Baron a small smile.

"Because you are one! You're a really great person, and you're handsome and nice, to boot," King said honestly.

Baron glanced back at the comments for a moment, then lifted his free hand to rub at the back of his neck for a moment before bringing them both to the controller he had grasped in his other one.

"Should... should we try playing?" he asked as he looked back up at him, then toward the laptop's screen as he pressed a button, confirming his character and transporting it into the gaming world.

King was a bit shocked that he still wanted to play with him, but when he started up the game, he quickly got his own character logged in, too.

"I'll teleport to you, hang on a second," he said as he did just that after looking over to make sure he remembered the city where he'd logged out his test character.

Soon they were together, but he didn't bother Baron right away. Instead, he allowed him to look around the city and read over the quests and missions the character had been working on previously.

When he decided on one he wanted to do, King followed him with his higher character, aptly named King. He got quite a few greetings from random plays as they went, and some even tried to tag along with them, but he made sure to politely decline until they were finally left alone out in the open world.

"Alright, here we go. So in order to do the mission you selected, you follow the prompts on the right side of your screen. I'll help you if you get stuck on anything, but the game is pretty straightforward and I suggest just playing around with your buttons to learn what works best for you."

Baron nodded and began doing as told, working his way through his character's skillsets and weapons, quietly focusing. While he did that King made sure to keep the monsters away from him, easily cutting down the lower level mobs without any issues.

"Okay, I think I've got the hang of this. I need to kill those little goblins up there on that hill for this part," Baron said as he directed his character towards the creatures.

King followed close behind, because he knew what was going to happen...

Soon Baron was being accosted by not just the goblin he'd been targeting, but three of its friends, too.

"They are a type of mob that links. So if you shoot one, you might end up with four," King explained as he healed Baron back up to full hit points with one high level cure spell.

Baron nodded at his explanation, then put all of his focus on taking down his first target. Once that goblin was dead, he looked at the other three that were using ranged attacks on him from a good distance away.

He was about to offer him advice as he healed him again, but bit his tongue when he felt the man's thoughts swirl around in his mind.

...far for physical without a bow.

Maybe a distance magic spell, but it says they work better closer...

King's heart nearly stopped as he heard that adorable voice in his head.

Even cuter than when he speaks!

"Okay, I killed them all," Baron said out loud, snapping King out of his euphoric daze as he blinked at the screen, then frowned.

"Oh... you did kill them all."

That was fast.

Much faster than the first one...

"I casted poison spells on the three from a distance, then got closer to do physical damage before switching my weapon back to a staff in order to cast an area-wide fireball," Baron said, surprising King enough to make him speechless.

When the confirmation for the mission being completed chimed, Baron grinned and looked up at him.

"Not too bad."

Not... not too bad.

"How did you know that you could switch your weapons like that in the middle of a fight? How did you do it so quickly?" he asked, finally able to talk again.

Baron shrugged one shoulder as he crossed his legs to get more comfortable.

"I just assumed that I could if I could, and I couldn't if I couldn't. Turns out that it worked really well."

I mean, it did work really well. Much better than it should have, honestly.

Spells were almost never used in close range combat because even the simplest of hits could interrupt your casting, yet Baron had run in and just nuked the entire group after beating them down with his axe!

He wanted to ask him to do it again, but before he could voice his request Baron was on his way back to the city to turn in the mission.

Not wanting to bother him when he was clearly entertained, King simply let him do as he pleased.

They soon fell into a comfortable pace with Baron clearing mission after mission as if he'd started the game from level one instead of sixty-three.

Within an hour he was level sixty-five and getting better and better at rotating his abilities and managing his spells.

While starting from the beginning sort of drilled into a player that their character should be only physical or magical. Most players couldn't even manage switching between abilities and weapons quickly enough to utilize both playing styles, so seeing someone who could, like himself, was beyond rare.

And yet here my sweet guy is, flipping this game on its head after only playing for two hours.

He was giddy.

It was five in the morning and he was giddy as all hell!

He was just setting up his character to automatically follow Baron's so that he could relax for a moment when he noticed movement and glanced up at his spare screen. He'd left his personal channel open and it was now being flooded with comments.

PingPongBong: Am I high or is a raccoon now playing this game?

DabMaster9000: You probably are high, considering your name, but I swear I saw King running around with someone named Prince!

Gay4King: Bro I got a screenshot! There really is a Prince now with King!

The screenshot was attached to the comment, and sure enough, it showed them both heading for Baron's second mission of the morning.

I guess it was only a matter of time.

BlasphemousFruitLoop: Wait, if King is gaming with Prince, then that means that Prince is in his human form right now!

There was a plethora of spamming comments that could only be considered equivalent to fangirls squealing, then came what he expected.

WTRMLN: Stream! You've gotta stream, King!

GigglesAndShiggles: Please stream! I'll donate fifty tabs!

WafflesAllAroundUs: I can do 20!

CandiedArmadillo: I only have 5, but you will have my unending gratitude if you stream for us now! We want to see Prince!

"What is a tab? Are they actually offering to pay you to turn your camera on?" Baron asked, immediately drawing King's attention.

"O-oh, uh, yeah. They usually are really good when they promise that kind of stuff," he said, then reached forward and scrolled up with his mouse to the top of the page.

It was normal to see a few donations everyday, but when he scrolled up, he noticed that it was already close to two-hundred dollars, and rising in steady increments of five to ten dollars every few seconds!

Dang, they really want to see him.

"I... should we turn the camera on?" Baron asked, looking at him with an adorable nervousness.

Absolutely not! No way! There was absolutely no chance that he'd turn that camera on and let other people see his Prince's sleepy eyes, messy hair, and... and... and there was no way in hell he was going to share him!

"It's this button, right?" Baron asked, making King nod without really thinking.

He was still fuming in his own mind about others wanting to get a peek at what was his, so he didn't even process what the other guy was doing.

A loud beep notified him that the camera had been turned on, making King frown, then blink at his computer screens, confused for a moment, since he hadn't been the one to do it.

The sudden flurry of chimes he heard from the comment section right after that quickly snapped him back to himself. His eyes widened as he looked at the little box on the right side of his screen, reflecting his own unkempt image back at him.

IThinkIJust: Died! I just died!

Floop: HOW FCKING CUTE! OMG THAT BED HEAD!

BelatedlyLate: My future husband is so adorable!

WetCat: Dear god, I thought he was handsome, but he's downright adorable when he's fresh out of bed and embarrassed!

The comments kept rolling, along with the donations, but King could only stare, dumbfounded and embarrassed enough to reach up and try to hide his blush behind his hands.

He knew that he was getting a ton of money right then, undoubtedly because he definitely looked a little mussed up from having gone straight from bed to gaming instead of properly getting washed and dressed, but uh...

His emotions were quite a mess, but as his mind turned into mush, he felt a string of new emotions coming from Baron.

Before he realized what was going on, the other guy had reached forward, just out of view of the camera, and clicked it off.

GlitterInYourSocks: Noooo, he turned it off!

SexyMarsupial: Wait, he didn't even move his hands from his face...

ILovePrince: PRINCE TURNED OFF THE STREAM! HE HAS TO BE IN HIS HUMAN FORM OMG!!!

King stared blankly at the screen for several long moments as people began swarming around their characters at the entrance to the city where they'd intended to start Baron's next mission.

He didn't snap out of his thoughts until he felt something gently wrap around his left leg, then press up against it, drawing his eyes downward until they landed on the back of Baron's head.

The man had settled with his back against a small extra portion of his gaming chair cushion and was leaning the right side of his head against King's left knee.

And the arm that was wrapped around it had since brought its hand back to the controller, allowing him to begin moving his character in silence.

B... Baron?

The man looked over his shoulder, his nose softly brushing the fabric of the sweatpants King had worn to bed.

"That was going to be too distracting. We can stream another time," the man said in a stern, calm voice before he looked back up at his screen, clearly not interested in discussing the situation further.

That was a good thing, at least, because King couldn't even think of a single word to say in response. His mind felt like a crumpled up newspaper. A million words were present, but nothing would make sense until he could smooth it all out again.

And, considering that Baron was literally hugging his leg to his side as he nonchalantly played his favorite game... well, it was going to take a long time for King to figure out how to speak again.

Thus, he simply followed his Prince around like a lost puppy, healing him and helping him with mission after mission, just as obsessed with him as his followers were... if not more.