Opossum One

(This is a spin-off from Raccoon :) )

First place...

Leaning back in his squeaky old gaming chair that he'd found at the local thrift store for ten bucks, Ian gave out a long sigh and closed his eyes.

I'm finally number one in the entire game...

They slowly opened a few moments later as he stared at his cute cat boy character on the screen in front of him. It was standing in one of the main cities of the video game and was surrounded by people offering their congratulations, but he had his away from keyboard symbol on, so they'd know that he wouldn't respond right then.

And honestly, there was only one person he wanted to be congratulated by.

Won't you log on and tell me I did well?

Grim was late.

The guy was usually on by six, and it was already close to seven.

He'd seen the other player on an ad for the game a while ago and while he was being portrayed as one of the demons of Infinity, Ian couldn't help but see something else behind the guy's greasy black hair, leering eyes and cold smirk.

Using the last of his money for the week, he'd purchased the game and a subscription for it. He then found the guy's channel and subscribed to him before browsing it and realizing something...

Grim was quite the pervert.

He loved the cat girls in the game and had quite a few modified images of them posted on his channel. Of course, they weren't exactly not safe for work, but they sure as heck were close!

He'd considered making a female cat girl to try and get in Grim's favor, but quickly dismissed the thought. He didn't like the idea of pretending to be a girl just to make someone else happy.

He'd wanted him to know that he was a guy.

So, he'd decided on a cat boy, but made him somewhat cute.

A little notification sound met his ears and had a smile immediately sliding onto his lips. Leaning forward, Ian tapped his mouse a few times, accepting Grim's personal chat request.

As soon as Grim's voice came over the speakers, he could feel his heart thrumming in his ears.

"Bitch, you got number one without me!" Grim chastised immediately, making Ian blush and smile so much his cheeks began to hurt.

Grim had a terribly foul mouth when he wasn't streaming, and honestly, even when he was streaming, but he managed to tone it down a lot after a few warnings from his sponsors.

"Sorry love, the opportunity presented itself," he said, knowing damn well that Grim didn't actually give a shit about whether they did it together or not.

Grim had actually been pushing him to get first place, too. He'd constantly ask him why his little simp wasn't already the best in the game.

It had taken Ian two months to get a paying contract, three months to cap his gear, and four months to become the number one player. People called him a prodigy, but he had just devoted every second of his minimal free time to learning how to play the game as well as possible.

He'd noticed a comment on Grim's channel soon after he'd started playing the game about wanting a chain-wielder for assistance on harder quests and missions, but evidently, most of the ones in the game sucked. At least, according to him.

"Did you get your crown already?" Grim asked, making Ian frown.

When he didn't respond right away, Grim scoffed as his character appeared beside him, then invited him to a private party.

Ian immediately accepted, then followed Grim's stalking character out of the massive crowd that had surrounded them. He evidently hadn't been moving fast enough, though, because his cat boy was soon grabbed by the wrist and tugged along.

Soon they were in his personal digital house and he was deposited in front of his delivery NPC, or non-player character.

Reading the signals loud and clear, Ian clicked on the NPC and opened its menu.

Uh...

His delivery box was completely full of congratulatory gifts ranging from flowers, to fireworks, to gold, but thankfully the first slot was the item that Grim wanted to see. He clicked on it, then selected to withdraw it before exiting the menu, not caring about any of the other items.

He then clicked on it in his equipment screen and equipped it to his head slot before exiting the menu.

Oh, that actually looks pretty cool.

The crown was black and dark red with a rim of spiked gold around it. It also had a glowing dark purple aura.

"Fuck, I'm not a cat boy person, but I'd bend you over with you wearing that," Grim said as his larger character slowly circled his smaller one.

Ian felt his heart thump in his chest at his words.

"I'd let you, love," he replied honestly, though he knew that Grim would think that he was joking, like he always did.

It was fine like that, though.

He never dared flirt with Grim unless the man started it first, but once those gates were open, he would gladly dote on him and agree to the perverted things he said here and there.

Thankfully, he never asked him if he was being serious.

"Well, you just gonna stand there or are we gonna go get those items we'd planned to farm today?" Grim said, his voice snarky yet somehow comfortable.

Farming was basically just collecting items from monsters you killed. It was a gaming term he'd learned pretty quickly.

Ian smiled and nodded at the screen as he changed his head gear back to his normal one.

"Shadow that crown, it looks good on you," Grim said immediately, making Ian quickly choose to have the crown as his visible gear, basically projecting the image of it over his normal gear without actually removing the better head piece.

As soon as he was done Grim teleported them into one of the highest level dungeons... that would normally take at least a group of four people to kill anything without someone dying.

"I'm gonna be streaming, babe. Be sexy, okay?" Grim said, making Ian immediately scoot his old chair in and straighten up, determined to make his friend look perfect.

"Why don't you turn on your camera, too, Ren?" Grim added, using the nickname for his game character, Renegade.

Ian's heart did a little flip at hearing it on Grim's lips, but instead of doing as told, which he almost always did without question, he, instead, pursed his lips and sagged his shoulders.

"I know your laptop camera sucks," Grim said, remembering the excuse he'd used five thousand times already.

"You know I'd buy you a good one right now if you'd just accept it," Grim grumbled as they began tearing apart high level monsters like they were nothing.

He'd give Grim everything he had, but receiving something from him felt wrong.

"I wanna see your pretty face, babe. Let's talk about a deal for the camera after my stream," Grim said, not caring in the least that he was already streaming, meaning that his followers could hear every word he was saying.

That doesn't sound appropriate... but Ian didn't respond, because honestly, he was way too busy focusing on the crazy amount of monsters Grim was determined to fight at once!

"My stream has nearly double the amount of people it normally does with you here after your win earlier. Let me at least give you some of my earnings to get yourself a camera if you don't want me to send you one myself. You'll also make more money streaming if people could see your face," Grim continued nonchalantly as Ian's character swung his chains at four different monsters, casting a thunder spell simultaneously.

You said we'd talk about it after your stream...

Compared to the amount of work he was doing, Grim was mostly just sending him some buffing spells to speed up his abilities... which he was already having trouble keeping up with! He refused to look bad in front of the other man, though. Especially since he was streaming on his account right then.

So, he bit his lip and buckled down, putting all of his attention on what he was having his character do.

By the time Grim finally joined him in physical combat Ian was panting quietly, his fingers aching as they flew across the keyboard five times faster than Grim's with his controller.

"I can hear you, babe," Grim purred through his mic, making Ian blush and quickly close his mouth.

Grim chuckled quietly in response, then added, "hey guys, don't you want to see our handsome new king?"

Ian pursed his lips and swung his chains to finish off the final three monsters in their current pull, then leaned back with an exhausted sigh.

"Aw babe, am I wearing you out already?" Grim continued to tease as he began slow-walking towards another large group of monsters.

Needing an honest minute to rest, Ian had his cat boy swing out a chain and secure it around Grim's waist, then tugged the man's character back to him and cast a three minute bind spell.

"My watchers like it when you're rough with me," Grim said as he turned around where he stood, then leaned over and picked Ian's cat boy up by his collar.

"...but I prefer it the other way around."

Ian felt his heart jump into his throat, coloring his entire face a bright red and making him extremely glad that he didn't have a camera yet.

I'd let you top me, he whispered in his own mind, refusing to utter a single word in response for fear that he might give himself away.

Grim's fans already knew that he followed the man around like a dog. He didn't need to make himself look anymore pathetic.

"I'm not sharing," Grim grumbled after a few moments of silence, making Ian raise an eyebrow, confused.

He never read Grim's chat anymore, because the first few times he'd tried he'd just gotten uncharacteristically jealous of all the people trying to get the young man's attention.

"He's my simp, go find your own," Grim continued as his bind effect wore off, freeing him up to go run ahead and grab more monsters.

He seemed especially trigger-happy now that he could move again, and quickly gathered twice the amount of monsters they had before!

Quickly casting an offensive reflective barrier around himself, Ian ran forward and claimed all the monsters, pulling them to himself as he began spinning his chains in a circular motion like a tornado.

He then added an actual tornado spell into the mix, sending all of the monsters flying, then crash-landing hard on the ground around them. All but one died instantly, with the last one barely struggling back to its feet before Grim flicked it in the forehead, taking away its final three hit points.

"See guys? This bitch is mine. He's too damn good to be wasted on noobs," Grim said, clearly not caring what other people thought of his words as he grabbed Ian's character's wrist and began tugging him further into the dungeon.

They cleared a few more groups of monsters and fought one of the extremely hard bosses, getting two of the items they'd been looking for, before Grim finally turned off his streaming camera, then abruptly teleported them away from the crowd that had grown around them.

Now they were at Grim's in-game house and he had just been pushed into a pure black Victorian-style chair.

He then found himself looking up at Grim's gruff in-game character as he crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at him.

"Now then, about that camera. Which model do you want out of these three?" Grim asked at the same time he heard a notification in their chat channel, making Ian frown and click into it, then glance over the three links he was given.

Three hundred dollars... for a camera?

The first one, unfortunately, was the least expensive!

Three-hundred would last me nearly a full month of groceries if I was really careful.

His stomach growled at the idea.

"...did you eat today?"

Shit.

Ian quickly reached forward to turn off his mic, but before he could push the button his character was grabbed by the collar again, but this time, instead of being lifted up, Grim leaned forward, getting into Renegade's face.

"Babe, what did you eat today?"

The acidity in Grim's words had Ian's heart twisting painfully in his chest as his stomach growled a second time. He had terrible luck when it came to hiding his lack of food. Grim had caught him several times because of his loud stomach.

He heard Grim grumble out a few expletives under his breath, then heard a chime from his game signaling an incoming message.

Swallowing down his nerves as best he could, he clicked back into the game and read the message.

Grim: Give me your Paypal or Venmo or whatever the fuck you receive money with.

Err, the guy was really mad if he was only typing now.

Ian reread the sentence three times before shakily replying.

Renegade: IanLReese212

He waited silently for several minutes, his heart beating in his ears, before his phone beeped, making him reach for it and nervously glance at the screen.

"Today was my match day. You are the reason I got so much, so take what I just sent you and get a god damn good camera and some fucking food."

Ian pressed the accept button with a shaky finger, but couldn't bring himself to look back up at the screen. Thankfully, Grim ended their voice chat at that moment, then ended up logging out a minute later.

That's when Ian finally glanced sheepishly at his lone character on the screen, sitting comfortably in Grim's fancy chair, as if he had no idea how stressed his other half was.

He had never accepted help from anyone in the past six years... ever since he'd run away from home when he was seventeen.

His mother and step father had practically starved him half to death for the majority of his high school life after he'd told them that he didn't have time to sweep, mop, do dishes, laundry, dust and weed the yard by hand every single day before he had to do all of his honors homework for the special classes they insisted he take.

All while his half siblings did nothing but play video games and hang out with their friends...

So, the day before he would have became a senior he dropped out and run away, then got a shitty job at a warehouse sorting packages after faking his age.

Fast forward five years and he was struggling to make ends meet, even with two jobs, was having trouble eating even when he could afford food, and was honestly just uncomfortable in his own skin. He'd just been going through the motions in a hungry haze but unable to stomach much when he stumbled upon that video for Infinity with Grim in it...

And he suddenly felt like he could breathe again.

Leaning back in his squeaky chair in his nearly-empty, eerily quiet studio apartment, Ian held his phone above his head, staring at the number being reflected back at him on the screen.

Five-hundred dollars.

It was more than enough for a good camera and food.

His stomach growled again, making him lick his lips as the image of Grim's frustrated face settled behind his eyes.

He hadn't planned on eating that night, because he barely had enough food right now, but since Grim had sent him money and specifically told him to use some of it to buy food...

Looking at his watch, Ian realized that the grocery store across the street would still be open for another thirty minutes and made the decision to slip on his old tennis shoes and go do as he was told.