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„Hey, everyone!” Jack waved his hand at the camera and immediately few messages appeared on his online chat. Even from his position he could see that many of them were welcoming shouts. “I’m Frost and here is the celebrating one million subscribers’ video I promised you!”
There was another waterfall of messages appearing on his chat and he barely had time to read one when ten others appeared after it. Some of the people even sent him a birthday cake emoji. Gosh, it was cute!
“I’m here with my friend Bunny-”
“Aster!” Grumbled the man behind him, probably scolding him with his look.
“Yeah, Aster, who is helping me montage videos. He is also responsible for all cool effects! Hey, Aster add some stars in the background!”
The taller man behind him groaned.
“How do you expect me to add something, when I don’t even have this program opened on my laptop!” He said this sentence like it was the most logical thing in the entire world.
And it probably was. Don’t blame Jack, he was simply just too excited! He really had one million subscriptions. Like the number was right here, in front of his eyes, with so many zeros! He still couldn’t fully believe it. Not to mention Jack could see so many people trying to get to him via online chat. Yeah, this was definitely one of the best days ever.
He felt like he had drunk five coffees in the morning. His muscles were jittery, screaming for some kind of action to be done. There were piles of presents behind him, just waiting to be unpacked and Jack’s hands were twitching, awaiting to read warm words attached to plushies, drawings and… other inappropriate things. Yeah, skip that!
“You’ll add them when we’ll upload the video!’ Jack said, not even for a breath losing his happy attitude. Then he made weird movement with his hand, rolling it, trying to show Aster to move closer. “Why are you so far away anyway, come closer!”
Aster shook his head, his gray hair swishing from one side to the other.
“Nah, I’m good here, mate.” He waved his palm and returned to reading some comic that laid on his lap.
Jack furrowed his eyebrows, but didn’t comment that. Nothing today would destroy his happy mood. He would take care of that. Extra care!
Because this was seriously amazing. He started this channel to play some games and add funny comments to them (his friend Jamie had told him that Jack was making the worst/funny comments whenever he was playing, so he should try putting them on the internet), not to gain popularity. He didn’t even plan to really make it his job. But things moved, fate spinned around him, turning small racks, pushing buttons and toggling levers of his life. And here he was, with one million subscribers, contract and tons of new friends all over the world. It was biggest dreams coming true!
(Well, almost all of them.)
He had money to pay Aster, pay all bills, his student loan, help his family and even donate a lot to charity. Jack couldn’t ask for more from his life now. Not to mention there was so many amazing people supporting him. Just knowing that they were listening to him goofing around or knowing that he had helped them somehow was enough.
He felt like hugging every one of them right now.
“Okay, okay, okay! Guys, first of all…” Jack turned to the camera standing proudly on his monitor and recording his every facial feature – the most noticeable probably his smile taking half of his face. “Thank you for being with me. Thank you for supporting me, watching me, sending me all those amazing letters and just for being there. You all are extraordinary and I’m so happy to be there for you.”
His chat literally buzzed with new messages, many of them thanking him also for being there. There was also message with ‘I want to have your babies :o’ and Jack had to giggle at that, but the text was quickly burned under another ones.
“But as I said, I will do something different for this video. That’s why I asked you to have your cameras switched on.” Jack was literally jumping inside. He was so excited. His lungs now barely worked, but still somehow pushed the oxygen through his veins. “This is because…” Pause for dramatic moment!
Aster behind him sighed heavily, almost ruining this moment. Yet it looked like his viewers were anticipating the answer. And this was what was important right now.
“I will call my first subscriber on the video chat!” He shouted, waving his hands in the air and in the meantime he hit his mic. It swirled around, probably making horrible static noise, but the brave warrior returned to its position on the battle field quickly.
The chat one more time erupted with messages, everyone asking who this person was. Jack quickly read them, forming answer inside his head.
His hand ran through his white strands, trying to calm nerves wracking his body, but even that movement didn’t soothe his trembling palms. It felt like there was a plethora of signals running through his body, alerting every cell to be ready, because something was happening!
“To tell the truth I also don’t know who this person is. Together with Aster we rummaged through my channel, searching for my first subscription. It took time, but we found it! This is why I asked you to also have the same nick as your channels.” Jack took deep breath. Here it goes. “I won’t say the nick out loud, because I want it to be a surprise, but I have it written down here…” Jack patted the notepad laying faithfully near his hand. The name was written there in a messy handwriting, next to some numbers, probably a code to a safe in some game.
For the last two days he stared at the name of his first subscriber with weird feelings inside of him. He wondered who this person was. Dragontamer_10 – wasn’t actually telling him a lot. Only that this person probably liked dragons. Was it a girl? Maybe. Was it a boy? Totally possible! It was a mystery and he didn’t have enough puzzles to solve it or form a coherent picture. Yet maybe because he was unable to solve it, it made it even more exciting in the end.
(Dragons… He knew few years ago a boy that was totally crazy over dragons. But that was long time ago…)
But now he was bursting inside with joy. The happiness ruled over his body. Finally he will meet his first subscriber! How awesome was that?! Oooh, he couldn’t wait!
Aster behind him was already working on his computer, changing few things here, adjusting something there. For Jack it was still a mystery and he was so grateful that his friend was helping him with this job. Without Aster he would never reach this point in his life, but Jack couldn’t tell him that… At least not yet!
Anyway, plan was short – when Jack will call his first subscriber, Aster will quickly add the transmission for everyone to see it and the video with Jack’s face will be pushed to the corner. Simple as a quadratic equation, but for Jack it was still a whole another world.
Jack turned to his friend, unspoken question hanging between them. Aster showed him a thumb up - he was ready!
Jack was ready from the very moment he woke up that day. So he turned to the camera and smiled.
“Are you ready guys?”
And everyone shouted, screamed and yelled in capital letters asking him to finally do it! And who was Jack to refuse all this pleads?
Jack’s heart was hammering inside his chest, when he pushed the letters on his keyboard and the nickname slowly appeared on the search list. It felt even like his heart could actually stop as he pushed the enter button.
But there was the name – dragontamer_10 – with a green point just next to the nick. So he or she was online and was currently watching him. Great! Stay strong heart! Jack wasn’t keen on dying in front of his million subscribers right now!
“Guys, good news, he or she is online. I need to ask you one more time, are you ready?” Jack’s palm was trembling when he moved his mousepad. He clicked the nickname and the green cellphone button appeared just in the middle of the screen.
(Such similar green.)
And every person who was watching him was now probably more ready than Jack was and he started to consider that his first subscriber was maybe somewhere between the sea of messages, urging him to finally call him or her.
So with stomach twisting into knots, legs feeling like a jelly and heart running fast inside his ribcage, he finally clicked the button.
The black video screen appeared next to the chat. The small buffering icon started to circle in the middle.
Oh gosh, now he was nervous. He even started sweating! The cold droplets of sweat fell slowly down his back and ugh, even his hands were wet. He couldn’t even count on his mind properly, because it was banana-crazy! Uh huh, where was this paper where he had everything written, every question, every quick reply in case he would lose his tongue! Oh no! The paper wasn’t on his desk! This was bad, really, really bad. What if he will forget what to say! Now he was even more a tangled mess of a stress. This day can’t go wrong, so where was this sheet?!
Jack started to frantically rummage through items laying on the desk.
And the video chat - such a douche - chose this time to finally appear on his screen, showing him an image of a boy, and his room, sitting in front of his own computer.
The boy on the other side had a funny mixture of emotions playing on his face. His viridian eyes reflected definitely a surprise, disbelief mixed together with a soft touch of happiness and… embarrassment? Freckled cheeks (wow, so many small brown dots, hundred, no thousands of them! Jack wasn’t sure he could count that high) were colored in soft pink, but the tone made those freckles even more visible. The crooked front teeth bit - probably nervously - in his bottom lip, smiling sheepishly at the camera.
The boy lifted his palm and brushed auburn strands of his hair from his forehead. Then he opened his lips and Jack could hear his voice coming from his headphones, just right into his ears:
“Uhh…”
(What?)
And the only thing that Jack was able to answer was:
“Shit!” As he flipped on his chair and fell down, hitting his head on the floor.
If he was nervous earlier, then now he was totally on the edge of dying. This was the end of his inner world! This was doom knocking on his door! His heart was beating even faster – like it was the last few meters in the race and it tried to gain the first prize, faster, faster, faster – because suddenly it couldn’t lose to anything! His stomach twirled, swirled, twisted inside of him, pushing the barely eaten today food higher in his throat that was so dry – it was a desert without sand in his mouth! His lungs stopped working and Jack couldn’t take a proper breath. But his mind – oh boy – it was working on top speed now!
(Hey it’s him! It really is him! Oh my gosh, oh my gosh ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!!)
Because it really was him. How high were the odds of literally him appearing in the video chat?! Definitely low. Near zero! Similar to finding electron on an orbital! And yet it was happening! The impossible was happening right now and his heart and mind was unable to follow it!
Because how high were chances of your college crush (with whom Jack never actually held any proper conversation! This was embarrassing!) to be your very first subscriber!?!
“The fuck Jack?!” Aster was right next to him, looking at Jack from above with concerned yet amused look.
And the only sentence that now left Jack’s lips, as he still laid splattered on the ground, was:
“It’s Hiccup…”
The taller male’s eyes widened in astonishment. He jumped to the computer and leaned on the desk to better see the screen.
“It really is him!” He shouted louder than expected. “Wow, what were the odds?” He added after a while, but in more relieved voice. “Hey guys, Jack is fine, don’t worry, he just flipped. He will be back in a second!”
Jack, still splashed on the floor, lifted his head a little to see Aster inspecting the chat. He also saw black dots in the corner of his vision, laughing at what he had done. But this wasn’t the worst!
Because his mind started to remind him of every secretive glance he had directed at the auburn haired boy back in the college - as he simply walked to another class. Oh, it was so mean to let him remember all those times Jack had sat in the park just to look at him as he was reading or talking with his friends. And yeah, his brain was such a douchebag that he reminded him of this time when Jack had sneaked inside some awards giving ceremony, where he was receiving his second-place trophy! Oh and he remembered as that doofus had smiled sweetly and almost cried - his eyes were shining with happiness, bliss and felicity back then. Yep, he remembered it all and so much more!
And there was only one solution.
“I can’t talk to him Aster!”
Turning to Jack, the man rolled his eyes. He probably knew Jack would act like that, but who could blame him! He wasn’t ready for that!
“Yes, yes you can!”
“No I can’t! I didn’t even talk with him when we were still in college! I can’t do it now!” No, it was out of the question. Jack’s heart couldn’t take it.
Aster looked at him and there was something that Jack didn’t like in that look, but he couldn’t put his mind on it.
“Why?” He asked, crossing his hands on his chest, the angry hint returning to his eyes.
“Because I still have the biggest crush on him! How do you expect me to act?” Here Jack coughed and changed his voice a little. “’Hey you’re my first subscriber! That awesome! But you know what? I have the hugest crush on you since the day we bumped into each other in my second year when I was walking to my classes. Oh you probably don’t remember, but you were holding Astronomy books and was looking for the physics classes and you had the dorkiest sweater with a knitted dragon. I know it was long time ago, but I still have a crush on you, so you know, do you want to date me maybe’?” He ended his monologue with a loud sigh, followed by his hand covering his eyes. Blackness that overtook him was fine. He could hide there and never come out! “No, this is not happening!! This is embarrassing. I can’t do it!”
Jack peeped through his fingers at his friend, because he wasn’t speaking for some time, which made him quite worry. Silent Aster was a bad omen.
Aster looked at something on the screen and then nodded. He returned his eyes at still lying Jack and then smirked in this evil way. Uh oh, Jack already didn’t like it! Silent Aster was bad, but smirking Aster was even worse. He should have run when he had a chance.
“So you’re saying that you still have a crush on him?” Aster asked, unusually prolonging every word.
Jack rolled his eyes. His back started to hurt now, yet the floor was giving some weird form of acceptance and comfort.
“I said it like five times already! Yes!”
“And you wouldn’t mind going on a date with him?”
(He wouldn’t mind also doing other things, but that was now beside the point!)
“Are you joking? This is the image that is lulling me to sleep every day!”
Where was this all going?!
“Okay… so what would you do if Hiccup would hear everything that was said here in the past five minutes?” Aster’s eyes shone with that devilish glint that would definitely haunt Jack forever.
“Probably die of embarrassment… Why do you ask?”
Aster grinned and moved away to show him the screen, where the video chat was still going and the chat was buzzing like a beehive on drugs. Very heavy drugs. Combined with alcohol. And even more drugs.
Oh no, don’t tell him that nor him, nor Aster turned off the mic and the whole world (and more importantly Hiccup) had heard him speak about his biggest crush (and how maniacal and creepy he was). But yeah, it definitely happened. The lamp on the mic was blinking ironically at him, showing that it was still transmitting data all around the globe – and yeah, his confession was now global wide!
“I even turned up the volume, so you were better heard, mate…” Aster moved away. “Now it’s all yours…”
WHAT?! Aster did what?! No, no, no, no, no you traitor! Jack need to kill him sooner or later, probably sooner!
But it was done. He had to move, he had to do something after his embarrassing fall. He couldn’t now leave his fans! No, Jack got it. He somehow will clear this, will somehow fix everything, everything will be fine…
Who was he deceiving, he was doomed! Done, kaput, dead, finished! He wanted to be now buried alive! He just needed to be sure he would get a nice grave, maybe white, marble. He always loved marble.
“Your fans are waiting!” Aster shouted, then laughed as he sat near his own laptop. Seriously, in Jack’s mind Aster suddenly was some kind of villain that terrorizes the city for fun at night.
Jack swallowed hard and lifted his body, feeling every bone cracking beneath his weight. His back hurt as hell. His vision was blurred for few seconds, but it cleared quickly. With a heavy heart (that felt like it could shatter any second) he put his chair back and then sat down. He grabbed his headphones, put them on his head and turned to the screen. Robot Jack reporting for duty.
Yep, his insides were crumbling down.
Hiccup still sat there, now red as a firetruck – the color was so strong that it made all freckles hide behind the lovely red curtain. His eyes were directed at the camera and when he spotted Jack, he smiled shyly, showing his uneven, adorable teeth. Hiccup almost didn’t even changed since the last time Jack had seen him…
(Jack, stop it! You’re not a child anymore. Do it like an adult!)
Jack quickly looked at the chat. There was ton of messages, every one of them as he expected it to be.
‘You need to marry! :3!’ ‘Ooooh look hez so flustered!’ ‘I can’t take it!’ “Just kiss already =DDDD!’ ‘I have new OTP!’
He lowered the volume on the mic (yep, it was the highest possible), cleared his throat and faced the truth and world.
He was a mess inside. Every possible wires got disconnected. Now they were scattered all over his mind and Jack didn’t know where they really should be put in. Yet somehow, in some miraculous way he was able to speak.
“Um hey.” He said, but his voice was hoarse, dry and he had to cough at the end. He also made some odd movement with his hand - a miserable imitation of wave.
Hiccup, on the other side, lifted his hand and moved it – left, right, left.
“H-hi Jack…” His voice was soft. He stuttered in that cute way of his and of course Jack’s heart started once again to run wildly inside him. Because, fuck, few years wasn’t enough to get over his dumb crush that was probably unrequired! And he probably just destroyed poor Hiccup’s life. There were presumably tons of messages in Hiccup’s mail now and Jack hoped that they weren’t bad. But great Jack, thumbs up, you really fucked up now!
No, he didn’t want to destroy his life. Ugh, this wasn’t how this day - this video - was supposed to go. It was a disaster now. All his joyful emotions ran to cover, hid deep inside some corners of his mind. Well at least Jack was sure of one thing - he needed to apologize.
Jack massaged his face, trying to brush away the blush and warmness of his cheeks, but no matter how much he brushed it, it was still there, showing the world his true feelings.
Hiccup stared at him with those eyes, still so alive, lush as he remembered them to be. His mind was buzzing inside his ears, every alarm switched on, beeping dangerously.
Okay, you got it! One, two three…
“Okay, first I’m sorry for…”
“Hey! It really is Jack!”
Jack blinked, totally taken aback by the sudden voice coming from his headphones.
Hiccup on the other side jumped and turned around on his chair. Behind him stood a girl with blonde hair. Jack instantly recognized her as the girl with whom Hiccup had been spending a lot of time in college (like Jack knew they sat together in classes and often met after them). So they were still friends… or maybe even more… this though made him cringe inside, his heart sinking like a destroyed ship. Damn, he should had known that. He thought they were together, even back in the college!
But even if he should expect that, the though wasn’t less hurtful.
“A-Astrid don’t sneak on me.” Yelled the Hiccup on the other side, glaring at her. His eyebrows moved closer to each other, like they were ready to battle. “And I told you it was him!”
The girl shrugged, moving a little bit away from the camera, so now only her arm was visible.
“I know, I just didn’t believe you. And you are his first subscriber! That so sweet!” She cooed in unusually sweet voice. Jack rarely heard her like that. Well they never talked, but he had heard her voice on the corridors.
The messages on the chat agreed with her, showing support with bazillions of ‘Hell yeah!’. Why did the world want to see him embarrassed! By the way, what was sweet in confessing your feelings to someone, who probably didn’t even know Jack that well, in front of the entire world?
“Hey it almost like destiny!!” Astrid suddenly yelled and clasped her hands together, like it was the most amazing thing she heard in ages… or today.
Jack still didn’t know what was amazing in confessing your feelings accidentally on the online livestream and destroying poor boy’s life. This wasn’t amazing, this was disaster!
Hiccup probably agreed with him, because he glanced at her with anger written on his lips that formed a thin line. He was fuming a little. Gosh, he looked adorable. No, Jack, stop it!
And then Astrid simply said:
“Hey, hey, hey tell him that one time you went to the Gym just to see him lifting weights!”
And Jack’s mind short circuited. What did she say just now? Did he hear it correctly? Wait, was it true? Did Hiccup really had done that? Or was it his mind playing tricks on his hearing?
Hiccup’s cheeks turned even more red. It was almost unbelievable for human skin to have this kind of tone, but here was Jack, seeing it with his own eyes. It was the eighth wonder of the world! And it looked delightful, even after such a long span of time.
(Jack never got tired of looking at it)
But wait, wait, wait, what did she just say? Brain, report now! Mayday, mayday!
“I… I…” Hiccup mumbled very quietly, glancing only once at the camera, like he wanted to see if Jack really heard it. He didn’t even finish his sentence.
“Well those were fun times, I still have the receipt in my book!” The girl laughed. Her voice was a little disturbed and sounded like a robot beeping, but Jack never felt happier hearing such kind of laughter. “Or tell him that you sneaked inside his lectures just to stare as he was presenting some project!”
What, what, what?!?! No, this wasn’t true, right?
His brain was working fast! Information flowed through his body, adrenaline was pumped inside his veins, pain already forgotten. Analyzing data in progress. Scanning sentences. Loading the final report. Proceeding to show results. The buffering circle moved around in his head. Jack leaned closer.
“Astrid, please be quiet, he is hearing it!!” Hiccup whined, now frantically glancing between Jack and his friend.
The girl moved, so now her face was visible in the camera and the surprised look on her face couldn’t be faked.
“Oh! Oh…” She said slowly, as Jack waved at her, still dumbfounded and totally taken aback, processing what was happening around him. “But now he also knows that you have a crush on him since like forever, so it’s good right? It’s a win-win situation!”
System failed. Error occurred. Do you want to retrieve previous data? It might take a while. Yet Jack literally punched the ‘yes’ button inside his head, needing to know the results!
Hiccup groaned and hid his face in his small hands.
(But they looked as warm as few years ago)
But did Jack hear right? Did he hear that his crush has a crush on him? This wasn’t a dream right? He heard it right!?!? What? No, this wasn’t right. This had to be a dream, a virus in the computer showing him his dreams!
Rebooting, rebooting! The data were successfully retrieved. Click enter to show data.
“Aaaaastrid I will kill you…”
The girl looked at Hiccup, then at the camera and put her hand near her mouth. Smirking to Jack, she whispered to the mic:
“I’ll leave it for you. Bye!” And with that she moved away. After a while Jack heard the sound of closing doors.
Then there was silence. Silence inside his headphones. Silence on the chat. Silence around his room. Silence everywhere, but not inside his ribcage as he slowly put together all puzzles, connected data and put back all wires.
Inside his body, heart, mind was a storm. Storm of swirling emotions. It was a hurricane of disbelieve, hope, happiness, embarrassment, bliss. And he didn’t want to block it, no, he even wanted to show it to the whole world. Because, suddenly this day started to be even better. It was really all his dreams coming true.
(Even this one.)
If he could he would totally hug out the living daylights out of the girl!
Hiccup finally turned to the camera. He peaked behind his thin fingers at Jack. His voice was a little changed due to the mic and his hands.
“I’m sorry for her…”
And Jack couldn’t contain himself.
“Was it true?” He asked, his voice weirdly loud, but not in a bad way. He himself even felt this something radiating from it - a longing touch that left his dry lips formed a sound wave.
And Hiccup moved his hands, showing him - the world - his eyes (two full beautiful orbs that could hide so many emotions, but in the same time they were the gateway to whole another universe - world so amazing, so enchanting that Jack wanted only to stare at them) and after a second nodded slowly.
The happiest nod in Jack’s life so far.
“Yeah.”
“Are you still living in Burgess?” Jack immediately asked.
He couldn’t stand this. He couldn’t hold all those… emotions bubbling inside of him. He felt like a lit dynamite, just waiting to explode. His ears perked up and he hoped, prayed, begged that the answer would be:
“Yes.”
And then the fireworks burst inside his head, lightening everything in their colorful light, wrapping in a warm hug. Because, wow, this was really happening! That was reality, not some kind of weird figment of his imagination. Jack was really living through it and…
He couldn’t lose this chance. So he gathered the last pieces of his bravery that were now scattered around his mind, put them together, glued, stuck, soldered and took deep breath.
“Do you want to go maybe to the cinema tomorrow with me?” He asked, his voice cracking a little at the end, as he hopefully stared at the video transmission between them.
And then Hiccup blinked and ugh… smiled softly at him, still with this rosy blush dusting his cheek. His eyes shone with something new, something that Jack had never seen (he could see sparks literally dancing around his eyes), and then he…
Hiccup nodded - his fringe fell back on his forehead and his nose scrunched at that movement, but even after that Hiccup was still grinning (with those small dimples in the corner of his cheeks), when he gave his reply now voicing it loud for the entire world to hear:
“I would love to.”
And Jack literally shouted in ecstasy as his online chat came to live with another thousands and thousands of messages, hearts flying around, covering every one of them, decorating his livestream with love and support Jack didn’t know he would ever feel to this point.
He felt like flying, shouting with joy, dancing, and even crying, because wow, wow, wow! This was amazing. This was reality! He didn’t know he would ever be so happy, so… alive and full.
‘That is amazing <3!’ ‘I love you guys ;____; Please make a livestream wedding!’ ‘Ugh you’re so cuteeeee!<3<3’ ‘Can you feel the love tonight~! =DDDDD’ ‘Im crying, so cute <3’
And Jack chuckled, feeling this support and – holy shit! – his eyes did actually get watery and he had to brush it to not literally cry in front of his million fans, but he was so happy. He literally could explode right now.
“Wow, wow don’t cry!” Hiccup on the other side said, sending him a happy-confused-worried expression. Jack grinned even more seeing it directed at him. Only at him!
This was really the best day of his life.
And then Aster patted him on the arm and pushed something inside his shaking from stress hands.
“I’m happy for you too, but I found the sheet with questions for this livestream, so you can move forward now.” He said, the smirk playing in the corner of his lips.
Jack thanked him, cleared his throat as somehow his eyes scanned the questions (which was hard, because his hands were trembling, because – God! - This really happened, he was the happiest person alive!) and he looked up at the video transmission.
Where Hiccup – his crush and maybe not too soon someone even more – smiled with that delightful crooked twitch of his lips at him and Jack felt that he couldn’t ask for more from his live. Yet there was still a livestream going all over the world.
So he asked the first question with smile glued to his face:
“So tell me Hiccup, why did you decide to subscribe me?”
THE END