Milkshake Hearts

Chapter 56: Podcast

A/N: This is quite a long chapter, because it needed to seem like enough conversation to be an entire hour-long podcast. So... enjoy!

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They have a podcast recording day of sorts on a Monday, the week before their Shourtney-cast, as it has now been nicknamed (by people other than them), is due to go out. They're both part of the silly debate podcast they record with Ian in the morning – a very last minute recording for release two days later –, and Shayne is part of a boys' cast they record straight after that one, due to be released two weeks later. It leaves their two-person recording for after lunch. It's a quiet enough day in the office as it is with no actual video recording, and half their coworkers have taken a half-day if they were there at all, leaving by the time they wander into the smaller studio space they use for the podcast. Greg is in there with them running sound, Kevin producing, and the four of them chat for a little while amongst recording the promos to throw through the middle of the recording before they ease into the actual podcast.

"Hey hey guys it's your weekly Smoshcast!" Courtney gives the introduction, before throwing a little extra drama into her tone, "this week featuring myself, Courtney Miller, andddddd one Shayne Topp – and no one else!"

"We don't do two-person podcasts often, do we?" Shayne speaks up, helping ease into their discussion as smoothly as possible.

"We really don't, I know I did one with Ian a while back – and you and Damien did a besties one a few weeks back, yeah?" she confirms.

"Yeah, we brought back a slightly less games-y version of the Damien and Shayne show a while back," Shayne nods in confirmation, "I like our big group podcasts, honestly, gives us a lot more to bounce off everyone and keeping the conversation interesting – but the two person ones work pretty nicely too, especially when they're those of us who are closer outside of work."

"Mhm, yeah, definitely – you think we're close enough for this podcast to work out?" she jokes, and he laughs lightly at her and good-naturedly rolls his eyes before she continues, "no, we aren't going to dance around that – yes, we're doing this podcast as a little bit of a Shourtney episode. For the record, we don't actually refer to ourselves like that usually but – that's what all our filming schedules say this episode is called."

"It was our decision to do this one. We have been slowly getting more and more open with things in general since we went public – hey, we posted about the engagement less than a day after I asked – but it's just kind of... as we get more of an idea how that fits in with maintaining the level of privacy we want, too. Because we definitely still want privacy in a lot of ways, but as we've settled into the public thing a bit more – I mean, I kind of love talking about stuff between us because it's such a positive, exciting part of my life," Shayne admits, not hiding from the fact his tone turns warmer as he speaks. They don't shy away from genuineness on their more serious podcasts, anyway.

"Yeah, absolutely. And it's not like we've changed our minds on what we're okay with sharing as such, it's more just a case of... things changing with time as we get more experience with living this whole thing. And, yeah, I love talking about it too. Oh, that'd be a terrible drinking game – every time we say the word love in this next hour or so..." she trails off, with half a laugh.

"Alternative suggestion, make it a water drinking game because hydration is good for you," Shayne grins, winking directly into the camera. Courtney laughs.

"Yeah, yeah, you and your health bullshit... okay, but, back on the sharing thing... so, basically, we have noticed that people have questions for us, and there's quite a few questions that come up a lot more often than others. And, like, happy to answer them, but they deserve a little more than an Instagram comment reply," she explains.