Addie-cted

Charlotte M. Ray

Friday

The sound of a car on the gravel outside made Addie’s heart beat faster.

“He’s here,” she said into the microphone, and hoped the others couldn’t hear the smile in her voice. For a split second she thought about muting the mic, but seriously… no, she wasn’t that stupid. The others in the voice chat channel being able to hear what happened was her safety precaution, her lifeline. Everyone knew you weren’t supposed to invite people you met online into your home—at least not if you lived alone. And that was exactly what she’d done, without any hesitation until afterward.

She dragged the camera view off to the side, as she always did when she stood up. She didn’t need more trolls in the livestream chat than she already had. Plus her private life was private. No one needed to know about her disability. It had no impact on her online life.

Trent would find out now, though. That’s why she had butterflies in her stomach. Why she felt almost faint and, if she was honest, regretted having invited him at all. They could have found someone else to tank the raids, if not the whole weekend then at least every now and then.

The doorbell played its happy little victory fanfare from Final Fantasy. It made her jump, even though she expected it. It was too late to change her mind now, anyway. Hell, it was too late two hours ago, when she blurted out that he could come over and use her main computer.

She grabbed the cane and made her way to the door. She might as well get that particular thing out of the way at once.

“Hi,” she said as she opened the door and tried not to stare. Damn, he looked good in real life. Dark hair, shorter than in the pics he’d posted on their guild forum, almost fell over eyes shielded by dark sunglasses. The stubble matched his hair, framed his jaw and slim lips, and gave him a hint of danger. He removed the glasses and stretched out his right hand. She was struck by how kind his dark blue eyes were, completely at odds with the black leather jacket and broad shoulders.

“Hi there, officer lady,” he smiled as he shook her hand. “Great to finally meet you for real. I’m Trent. Or Karaash, if you prefer.”

Okay. She had to think of something to say to cover up for the sudden dryness in her throat, and the tingling that started where his warm hand touched hers, and spread all over her arm. Thank goodness she had the cane to hold on to with her other hand, or she might have face-planted at his feet.

“Yeah well, can’t disappoint all the people that need a solid tank, can we?” she croaked and coughed a little. “Come on in, say hello to the guys on the voice chat before we set up stuff.”

He shot her a glance she couldn’t decipher, and then looked around. Good thing her mother had visited a few days ago, which as usual had ended up with them giving the place a thorough cleaning. It was so much more fun to do it together, mom always said, but Addie knew her mother did it more because it was a pain to vacuum or mop floors with a cane in one hand. Thankfully, she hadn’t had time to make much of a mess since then.

Three monitors crowded the old desk that dominated the small room. The middle one showed the game where her character sat on a mountain top, overlooking green plains and a walled-in city in the distance. The left monitor displayed the recording program with all the different things she needed to keep an eye on, with the camera’s view outside the active field. On the right, she had the windows for the voice chat, music player, and the viewer chat box, which already moved rapidly.

“Is the stream live?” he asked after he took in her set-up. If Addie read his expression right, the rig impressed him, which made her smile.

“Nope, not yet. Just the guild voice chat.”

“You know, if you’re going to stream it, it would be a lot easier if I play on the laptop.” He looked over to the dining table she had dragged out from the tiny kitchen, where her laptop was set up with an old headset. “Then you could have the camera on as well.” He stopped talking abruptly, as if he’d been about to say something more but stopped himself.

“You need the better computer though. Did you bring your own keyboard and mouse?”

“Yeah, I did. Are you sure you’ll be okay with the laptop?” He frowned at the arrangement, especially at the dining chair. “That hardly looks ergonomic.”

So far he hadn’t commented on her foot. She didn’t know if he simply hadn’t noticed—but he had to have seen the cane and the limp, right?—or if he chose not to say anything or if he just didn’t care. Not that she wanted him to care. Right? Or at least care in a bad way. Bad way? That would indicate there could be a good way, too.

Damn. She was getting caught up in her thoughts again. Why did this never happen online, only in real life?

“I’ll be okay. Sure, I might want to switch chairs every few hours, but…” She gave the laptop an affectionate pat and smiled. “I used to raid on this thing for a good while once upon a time when my desktop fried.”

“Before I joined the guild, I assume?” he asked.

“Yeah, back when we were doing Plane of Garathos. Besides, Bonemasha and I decided he’ll raidheal so I can focus on you.”

“Okay. So the plan’s still the same otherwise?”

“Yup. If you’re still up for it. You’re the one who had to drive two hours and will be using a computer you’re not used to.”

“We’ll see how it goes.” He smiled, but gave the mic a meaningful nod. Yeah. They had to remember there were a bunch of eager guildmates potentially listening to them. Guildies who, for the most part, weren’t used to raiding. “Let me sort out my keyboard and stuff, and I’ll be ready to go in ten minutes.”

It took fifteen minutes before they had everything set up. Trent had brought all kinds of snacks and energy drinks with him, and real food too. He looked a little sheepish when he explained he already felt like he was too much trouble, and didn’t want to live on her food too the whole weekend.

He wasn’t any trouble at all. He wasn’t scary, either, and Addie started to feel a little silly for having set up a quick Plan B with Sethinn, another of the guild’s officers and her closest friend in the guild. Sethinn had Addie’s address and phone number, plus the direct number to the local police. To his credit, though, Trent hadn’t even pretend-flirted with her like he usually did. Then again… things were always very different in real life, which was both a relief and a disappointment.

First she needed to get the stream up and running, and then the raid. That’s what she needed to focus on, not Trent and the way he seemed to fit in so well in her home—or the way he was very much in the way when she needed to control the broadcasting software.

“I’ll just get out of the way, shall I?” he chuckled at her, so close she could feel the warmth radiating from his body and smell the energy drink on his breath.

“Yeah, thanks…” She cleared her throat.

Oh boy. This is going to be a long weekend.

“Welcome, welcome, welcome, one and all, to a very special livestream! We’ll be going for most of the weekend here, covering all of The Ember Brotherhood’s achievement raids between me and Delicia’s stream. So I hope you guys stocked up on snacks!”

She proceeded to greet her viewers, the numbers rapidly rising as more people from all over the world tuned in. She kept an eye on the chat on the tablet she had propped up next to the laptop. In the first few minutes of the stream, she repeated the idea of the marathon raids and livestream at least four times, and more were to come. The chat moderators would take care of most of the explanations, though, so Addie could concentrate on the game and keeping Trent’s character alive.

“Okay, one more time. The idea is to help as many guildies as possible get as many raid achievements as possible during this weekend, before the expansion launches on Thursday. We have two core groups of experienced raiders helping our social members out, but they’ll have to work for it too. Our teams will take turns all through the weekend, so when this stream ends, Delicia’s will start.”

Addie took a breath. Yeah, this felt good. Not just the project in itself, which the The Ember Brotherhood’s leadership had spent weeks preparing, but streaming it. Streaming, in general, felt awesome, even if the surrounding circumstances were a little weird and the game looked all kinds of awful on the lower resolution on the laptop.

“Also, we came damn close to having only one team running this weekend, which would have been Delicia’s.”

She glanced over at Trent, who sat rigid in her gaming chair, glancing this way and that from the camera to the right monitor and back to his character on the middle screen, already at the entrance of the dungeon, just waiting to get started.

“Here’s what happened,” Addie told her viewers. “Our wondrous main tank, Karaash, had a major hardware meltdown just a few hours ago.” She paused, let the viewers wait for the punch line and giggled at the response in the chat. People were worried, annoyed, disappointed and indifferent. The chat moderators timed out quite a few of them, mostly the usual suspects or names she didn’t recognize.

“Yes, guys, I can imagine your horror, and it gets worse. Please join me in a quiet moment for Karaash’ graphics card.” She lowered her head, for a moment forgetting she didn’t have a camera focused on her face and broadcasting it for potentially the whole world to see. Damn, she loved streaming. She loved the person she became as soon as she went live, when she knew someone watched her play and maybe, just maybe, she could make that person’s day a little better.

“However, we couldn’t let our guildies down, and we couldn’t let you guys down. So Karaash got in his car and, well, here he is, right next to me, on my main computer. Which is why there’s no camera today, by the way, for all those who have asked about it, and no extra sound effects or any fancy stuff.”

Addie gulped down a slurp of water. She kept talking, she didn’t even know what about, but she tried to keep an eye on the stream chat while waiting for the raid invite. She got up to unmute the guild’s voice chat and reminded the other twenty-four raiders in her group that they were live and what they said could be heard in the stream. Trent smiled when she leaned over him, and for a second Addie thought he sniffed her. Oh man… but that had to be her imagination.

Then they were off, and everything was business as usual, more or less. Adrenaline kept Addie going—that, and energy drinks—while multi-tasking between narrating the raid to the viewers, paying attention to the raid group and Bonemasha’s voice, and keeping Trent/Karaash alive.

The raid was a far cry from the normal efficiency of their main raid group. The social players in the guild had varying levels of experience. Some of them had apparently never seen the inside of a raid instance before, and it showed. Despite the difficulties, the main goal, that of having fun, was easy enough to reach.

Trent set an easy pace, patiently marking up the targets for his inexperienced off tanks. He had Saltymacsalt backing him up, the guild’s crazy-good role-switcher. Salty could stay alive for a few seconds without healing, often accompanied by panicked screaming, until he either got rescued by a tank or died in a blaze of glory. The stream viewers loved Salty—the healers, not so much, especially not the inexperienced guys. Addie knew exactly how they felt: annoyed at Salty because he was reckless and difficult to keep alive, while also grateful that he did what he did because that gave them a few extra seconds to heal up one of the other tanks to avoid a complete wipe.

The newbies started going all out as soon as they realized even the seasoned damage-dealers couldn’t take the attention of the monsters away from Karaash. Sure, the rookies were spurred on by Salty, but they couldn’t get anywhere near his damage output. As long as they didn’t mess up and attack the wrong target, they simply didn’t hit hard enough to even get sneezed on.

Once the socials got into the groove and lost their nervousness, they even started talking a bit. Addie turned down the volume on the voice chat a little so she wouldn’t shout into the mic. She kept up the babble, every now and then able to glance over at the stream chat on the tablet. More than that, she started truly enjoying the raid.

She couldn’t remember if she’d ever main-healed Karaash in a raid before. Surely she’d remember if she had, because he was an absolute dream to keep alive. Having him in the same room made it even better. She could see him, from the corner of her eye, tensing up ever so slightly every time his health started dropping too low, only to relax again when the large healing spell she’d been casting hit. Still, he never lost focus, never stopped making sure the monsters were hitting him, not one of the healers or damage-dealers. He trusted her to do her job, the same way she trusted him.

“So, guys, if any of you are tanks or want to learn to tank, this is the man to watch,” Addie told the livestream’s viewers. “I’ll tell you why, from a healer’s perspective…”

Her eyes landed on a comment in the stream chat. They were running up a long staircase in the game, so she had time to talk to her viewers with more than a ’Thank you’ for subscriptions and donations. She shouldn’t react to the comment. She knew that, but she couldn’t help it. Chances were Trent had seen it, too, and… damn, they were still far from their usual banter, and maybe this would help.

“Creeperineyes, you’re asking if Karaash is as hot as he sounds?” She waited a second and heard the creak of the chair when Trent sat up straighter. “No…” she continued, aware now that the guild’s chat had gone all quiet as well. “He’s much, much hotter.”

She meant it as a joke. She did. So what if it was true? She might tell Sethinn later, after this weekend, just how sexy she found Trent, but right now she had guildmates to help and people to entertain. Of course, the stream chat wouldn’t leave it at that, and the same went for the raid group.

“Do you two need a moment to put out some flames?” Bonemasha’s voice came through the earphones.

“Nah, Boner, we wouldn’t want to keep you guys waiting all night,” Trent said and turned his head towards Addie and shot her a conspiratorial wink.

And that, right there, was the reason Addie had never tried to keep her livestream suitable for a young audience. Too much testosterone in the raids. Too many slippery comments made by people whose minds were firmly sloshing around in the gutter.

“If it takes you that long to get it up, you might want to see a doctor,” someone else said. Addie didn’t catch who, the name blinked past too quickly, but she’d find out later and come up with a suitably silly revenge.

“In case you missed it,” Trent said in an exaggeratedly husky voice, leaning into the mic and giving her a look that could have melted steel. “Healers are a bit like doctors, right? There’s one sitting right next to me, and she’s doing a damn good job keeping me… up… so far.”

That got the chats going. Some groans, some virtual high-fives and a rapidly increasing number of demands to turn the camera on, until the chat moderators had enough and started giving people time-outs again.

“Ooooh-kay,” Bonemasha said. “I guess we’ll take a five-minute breather before the next boss. ‘Breather’ means cold shower for you, Karaash.”

The rest of the raids went along those same lines, and Addie loved every moment. When the raids and stream ended for the night and Delicia’s team took over, it felt as if no time had passed at all.

“So, let me get straight to the point,” Trent said as soon as he’d settled on the couch with the one beer he’d brought. Addie stiffened. She couldn’t help but glance at her phone, still laying face-down next to the laptop.

“Tomorrow, we need to set you up with the camera.”

Wait, what? She didn’t know what she’d expected him to say, but that certainly wasn’t it. “Eh…”

“I saw some of the stream chat,” Trent continued as if he hadn’t noticed her confusion. “Some of them come to watch the game, sure, but a lot of your viewers come for you. They wanted to see you. They missed having your face there in the corner of the screen. And I don’t want to be the reason you get less viewers…” He let the words taper out, shooting her a glance she couldn’t decipher.

“I can live with less viewers for a weekend. No worries.” But that wasn’t true. Not completely. The plan had been for her to broadcast this weekend’s raids not only for the benefit of the social members, but also to raise interest in The Ember Brotherhood as a whole, and last but not least, ensure that she could keep streaming for a living. That meant she had to, at the very least, keep her numbers up, and hopefully increase them too. Trent’s graphics card dying hadn’t been part of that plan. But maybe she could use it to her advantage.

“Hell, I just thought of something.”

Trent waved his hand for her to continue. He shifted on the couch, leaning forward.

“Straight to the point?”

He nodded.

“I know some guys come only to see a girl gamer, but then again, some girls come only to see a girl gamer as well.”

Trent chortled, and Addie felt a quick wave of heat rise on her cheeks.

“Not like that,” she laughed. “I mean, young girls who might still need encouragement. They need to know it’s okay to be a girl and still like gaming. That they’re just as capable as guys when it comes to technology and streaming and kicking virtual ass.”

“You’re a great role model,” he interjected, but Addie silenced him with a raised hand.

“That wasn’t the point.” Mentally she added a winking smiley-face to make her statement gentler. “The point is, those girls might want something, or rather, someone, to look at as well.”

Trent stared at her for a while. Addie wished she’d known to shut up, until his lips turned up at the corners and a huge smile lit up his face. “You want to use me to attract girls? I can do that, absolutely.” His grin faded a little. “We’ll be bumping elbows, though, but at least you’ll get your chair back.”

Addie squirmed. Her back popped several times and she had to force herself to relax her shoulders. Her right one protested, sending a dull pulse of pain up toward her scalp. The dining table’s unfamiliar height and the hard-backed chair made her sit in a way she wasn’t used to, and she certainly felt it all the way from her neck to her lower back.

“Well, that’s all for tomorrow, anyway. I think for right now I’ll just get you set up on the fold-out couch and then take a hot shower to fix this,” she popped her shoulder again to show what needed fixing. “I’ll be good as new tomorrow.”

“Just tell me where to find stuff,” Trent said before he stood up and stretched. Damn, he really was handsome. Tall, but not overbearingly so, with good posture and a suitable amount of muscle. Addie found it difficult to combine the real him with his character in the game, the withered, hunched-over gritty warrior. Then again, she rarely had time to look properly at his character either. All she usually saw in the raids were health indicators rising and falling and the ground at her own character’s feet.

“If we do that tomorrow…” she started. “Show you off, I mean, you’ll need to be prepared for tons of silliness.”

“I know,” he replied. “I always watch your streams when I can. I know what your viewers are like, and I like it. I like how loyal they are to you.”

Addie’s heart skipped a beat. She hadn’t known he watched her streams. That changed everything. Except…

“How? Most of my streams are of our raids. You’re supposed to be tanking in them.”

He looked down at where his toe traced a line on the floor. “I may be slightly Addie-cted to the re-run site,” he admitted, and a shiver danced along her spine when he used the name her online community had given itself.

The hot shower helped her shoulders, if not the rest of her body, but certainly not her mind. She couldn’t help but think of the fact that she stood there, naked and wet, while Trent moved about in her living room. Not that he made much sound, but she knew he was there. Her heart fluttered again at the thought, and a shiver of desire passed through her. Shit. She couldn’t deny her attraction to him, which was stupid and impossible. As an officer in The Ember Brotherhood, she shouldn’t risk her relationship with the main tank of their best raid team. People could take it the wrong way if things worked out, and if things didn’t… that was even worse. Not that he showed any interest in her as anything else than a guildmate. Which presumably was the reason he watched the stream, right?

For a moment she gave in to the insecurities. Yes, Trent was gorgeous. She knew she wasn’t bad looking, but her personality was completely different in her private, offline life than when livestreaming or playing the game. Online, no one saw or knew about her bum foot. No one knew she needed a cane to move about without falling over every so often, and no one could see the scars on her ankle where the surgeons had tried to fix it.

Not that she aspired to become the object of desire for a foot-fetishist, but still. If it put her off, after living with it for years after the accident, then it had to be even worse for someone who saw it for the first time.

Which, of course, was the answer. It was the best way to make sure Trent didn’t see her as a possibility for any kind of romantic notions. All she needed to do was to show him what she was like in private, bum foot and all. Then they could get right back on track to become good friends and he could, if and when he wanted, go find a girl who could walk properly and run and stuff. No problem. She’d be happy for him … except that the mere thought made her chest feel tight and her eyes sting.

Shit.

She couldn’t. This was just stupid. She didn’t even know him properly. It had to be something hormonal, because this didn’t feel rational. Online he’d always been nice and funny and friendly, and they’d always liked bantering and pretend-flirting. Apparently that had gotten to her, and now that she liked how he looked in real life, she overreacted. Yeah, that had to be it. That, and the relief that he didn’t show any signs of being a rapist or general creep.

There was still a bit of steam, remnants from her hot shower, rising from her when she returned to the living room in her footless teddy-bear onesie. Cane in hand. The onesie was to make it clear she had no ulterior motives, the bare feet to make sure he’d be suitably disgusted.

“Isn’t that the one you wore to the slumber-party dual stream you and Delicia did a couple of weeks ago?” Trent asked, giving her a once-over.

“Yup, the very same. I didn’t know you watched that,” she said. Trent didn’t seem to even notice her cane. Or her foot. No, his eyes were focused on her face, framed by brown fuzzy fabric.

“It’s cute,” he said, then turned his attention back to the livestream playing on the middle monitor, where Delicia’s team cheered at the victory over a particularly tricky boss-monster.

He’d folded out the couch and changed into PJs. Or rather, what Addie assumed went for PJs. Plaid cotton boxers that looked new with sharp creases and a very faded, previously black t-shirt with Yoda’s face on the chest.

“I’m kinda impressed with the socials, both in our group and Delicia’s.” He nodded towards the monitor. Yeah, Addie hadn’t even noticed what he was watching.

“Me too. I was a bit worried we’d fail hard, but they did better than I hoped for.”

“Do you want to leave Delicia’s stream on all night?” He yawned and stretched, and Addie couldn’t help but notice the muscles on his stomach when the t-shirt rode up. If she was to reach out and tickle him, or worse, blow a breath across the smooth skin, would they ripple? The thought made her quiver, and she had to grip the cane tighter.

“Jeez, when do you have time to work out?” she said before she could stop herself.

“I don’t,” he said, patting his stomach. “This is courtesy of working for an office-moving company. Do you work out?”

His question was innocent enough, but Addie saw it as the perfect opening to make sure he noticed her foot. Self-preservation. She needed it. “Not with this foot. I can barely walk properly, and pain doesn’t exactly turn me on.” She shrugged, as if it wasn’t a big deal, but kept her eyes on him, wanting to see for herself how he’d show and then try to hide his disgust.

He finally let his gaze drop to the scars and twisted toes. Addie had anticipated his mouth to transform into a grimace, or for him to recoil and look somewhere else, but he just looked at the foot for a few seconds and then back at her face. “Were you in an accident? Because my cousin’s foot looks a bit like that, too. She goes swimming since she can’t jog.”

Addie didn’t know what his words made her feel. Relief, dread, hope—all that and more. None of which she should feel, because this was Karaash, and they had two more days of raiding to do with the guild, and she couldn’t let things get awkward when so many people relied on both of them to be there and do their jobs. Not to mention they had two more days of sharing her house and computers … and if she wanted to make this marathon stream a success, they’d be sitting very close to each other tomorrow.

“Well, I’m off to bed. Sleep well,” she said abruptly. She needed to get some space between them before she did something stupid, like pretend her foot gave in so she could fall into his arms. “Just leave the stream on if the sound from the computer doesn’t bother you. You can just shut the monitor off.”

She hobbled off, not even waiting for a reply.