Rings and other pretty things

Chapter 1 (In which STAR is stupid)

     STAR screamed as he watched his block character hit the ground, his face becoming illuminated by a red light the classic game over screen emitted. He hadn't realized how dark his room had become, it's easy to get into the groove of streaming. Time passes quickly and he often found himself sitting in a dark room only illuminated by his computer screen at ungodly hours because of his habits.
        The chat began spamming "L" once again and he sighed into the warm air surrounding him.
             "Alright chat we've discussed this already, no L's" despite his authoritative tone a crooked smile was plastered on his face. He didn't need to worry about that though, just one of the perks of being a faceless streamer. Chat could never pick apart your reactions and body language.
           His smile brightened as he watched the chat switch to "F" after his chastising. This was a familiar game they would play and he let himself savour the teasing from his supporters before carrying on with what he had been doing.
         For the last two hours STAR had been desperately trying (and failing) at making it to the nether. Admittedly it should not have been that difficult of a task. But between reading his chat, push-ups, singing breaks, and the constant ambush of skeletons it had proven to be more of a challenge then he had originally hoped.
         A new string of text popped up on the side of his screen indicating that his chat had picked up speed. Curiously he let his eyes skim over the messages, which were mainly just "CHUMP!". He smiled, his bestfriend always had a warm welcome in his community. His smile however dropped when he read the message from said friend.
       "How did you manage to die again, rip" the text next to their online name teased. STAR rolled his eyes, but when he remembered the gesture couldn't be seen he audibly scoffed as a substitute.
         "Quiet Chump, as if you could do better" he continued mining into the tree in front of his character. He had been far away from his spawn when he died, and wouldnt even know where to begin looking for his now misplaced items.
       Once the tree had been successfully chopped down he moved his attention back to the chat.
       "Yeah I actually could" Chumps message was followed up with a few other comments from his usual viewers. "The girls are fighting", "Uh oh trouble in paradise", "Just kiss and makeup you two".
        Usually these types of jokes would cause STAR to laugh and debate ship names with chat. He had spent many moments with his fans making jokes about 'Juststruck3d' fanfics or fan art. Although Chump would avoid it like the plague, STAR used to get a kick out of it.
         Key word, USED to. Recently STAR found the jokes uncomfortable. Not because he hated the idea of being shipped with his friend, no he still thought it was funny, endearing even sometimes. However lately it made him freeze, his hands would quickly busy themselves fiddling with cords to his setup, and a heavy feeling settled into his chest that lingered far after the conversation was over.
        So in reality it wasn't the jokes that made him uncomfortable. It was the feelings that came with the jokes, the forgotten promises of evaluating them later brushed away every time Chump appeared on his stream. That is what made him uncomfortable.
          A text to speech dono broke the silence in his room, forcing him to snap his attention away from his thoughts and back to stream.
          "Uh STAR? you there?" Now realizing he had zoned out for a few minutes he cleared his throat before speaking.
         "Yeah! Sorry chat I'm just tired, you know how bad my sleep schedule has been" He then continued on his quest to the nether all while ignoring the messages asking what had happened and the burning flush of his cheeks.
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      He sighed once his profile had shown he had gone offline. The stream had gone on a lot longer than originally planned, although he did usually chat for a few hours longer than intended every time he went live. Which significantly hurt his basically non existent sleep schedule.
       "I should probably try to get some shut eye huh" he wondered out loud and reached for his laptops power button. Before he could press down on it though, a discord notification came through.
        "You never made it to the nether" STAR glared at the message from Chump, narrowing his eyes before reluctantly clicking the application open.
       "I was distracted" his fingers typed the message out quickly, almost without thinking about it. Admittedly he felt a little bad about not being in the mood to chat but he was pretty tired. His eyes trailed to his bed sitting across the room. Staring longingly at the comfortable heaven laid before him, he decided to say goodbye as soon as possible.
        "What was distracting you?" The simple response made the burning sensation return to his cheeks. The truth was that Chump was the reasoning behind it, but he couldn't tell them that. STAR himself didn't even understand it so how would he explain to Chump?
        His hands were frozen over the keys while he struggled to formulate a response that wouldn't warrant any unwanted questions in return.
        "I'm just really tired, so goodnight Chump"  His finger slammed down on the power button with an unusual amount of force. A breath of relief rang out into his room and he let himself relax fully in his chair.
         "What is wrong with me?" his voice was quiet, the silence that followed the question was even quieter. With one last glance to his computer he pushed up and away from his chair. Sulkingly stepping towards his bed and plopping down with a huff.
         Now facing the ceiling a shaky breath escaped his lungs. Lately when he thought of Chump it was different than it was a few months ago. That was for certain. It was a gradual change, going unnoticed until one day STAR caught himself smiling a little extra at his friends antics and  the anxiety of the situation began to bubble up for the first time.
         Why did his brain freak out so much when he tried to sort out his thoughts about this situation anyways? He wanted to understand. It's not like he hadn't tried to. But he physically couldn't without the all too familiar presence of fear gripping at his stomach.
       STAR turned on his side and shut his eyes, pushing away the thoughts that weren't doing him any good. Finally he let his eyes slide shut choosing to skip his nightly twitter visit. Snuggling closer into his blankets he let one thought escape before falling into a light sleep.

"what are you doing to me Chump?"