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It was kind of a fact that Ian Hecox liked attention. Ok loved attention. Sometimes he even went to drastic measures to obtain it by doing stupid things to make people laugh. He used to be a shy child, then he met another shy boy in school, and when they were together, their shyness was canceled out. They played together at recess, just the two of them giving each other their full attention.

When they were in high school and Anthony got a car, Ian would bum rides off him like the moocher he seemed to be. And even if Anthony groaned and complained over it, he secretly liked taking Ian to school in the morning. And when they had classes together, they became close friends when they shared similar interests and soon their friendship hit the best friend level. They hung out at each other’s houses every week for several hours, abandoning important homework to goof off and do stupid things.

Anthony liked the way Ian followed him around, happily walking along his side and enjoying his company even if they were sitting around, bored. Sometimes Ian’s loyal behavior reminded him of a pet. As long as Anthony paid attention to him, Ian would follow him around and do whatever would please him.  Anthony never told him this but maybe Ian felt the same way. Maybe Anthony was like a loyal pet, too who followed Ian around because he made Anthony feel special. Or maybe Anthony was just making up weird theories and they weren’t like each other’s pets at all. They were human friends. Not animals. Duh.

They remained best friends as adults and were now working together for a living. Every week they were among dozens of people who worked for them. They were engulfed by their film crew who shot their videos for them. Ian and Anthony just had to be the stars, and the crew did the rest. Both of them got direct attention and they loved it. And that boost of their self-esteem didn’t decrease when the crew left at the end of the day. Because they had each other. In a more than friends kind of way. They made each other feel complete, and just being friends wasn’t good enough anymore. They wanted to be more.

They could give each other a new type of attention. They could hold hands, hug, kiss, and say how much they meant to each other without feeling weird. Their craving for each other’s attention could have been called obsessive at times, and now that they were in a loving relationship, that obsession was a good thing.

They would sit on the couch at night sitting close together, snuggly warm under a soft blanket and Anthony would have his arm around Ian’s shoulders, and Ian would have his head tucked into the crook of his sweet boyfriend’s neck. They watched anything and everything, but Ian loved watching Too Cute! A TV show about baby animals growing up to be a few months old then go off to be adopted. Three different cat or dog breeds would be featured, and you would see the kitties and puppies as newborns who would crawl with shut eyes and meow or howl for their mother. The babies would play with each other and get into mischief as they got older, stressing the mom out who had a difficult time looking after her several kittens or puppies.

Ian would giddily watch the show, grinning childishly and “Aww”d when the babies did something cute which was all the time, hence the show’s title Too Cute! Anthony enjoyed watching Ian look so adorable and innocent himself. A lot of the time in their Smosh videos Ian would be corrupted, perverted, angry, or just plain weird. He was acting of course, but his adorable behavior wasn’t shown on camera much. And if he was to act adorable, it always turned out disturbing which made it funny. But when Ian was watching his cute animal show, his adorable behavior never turned out weird. And Anthony loved that.

Ian loved watching the kitten episodes the most. He often spoke of wanting a cat just because of that show. He wanted a kitten to play with, to snuggle and cuddle with. He wanted to pet a kitty’s soft fur and look into their big cat eyes that always held mystery and curiosity. The more he watched the show, the more he wanted a kitten. He talked to Anthony about it, saying: “Oh, babe! Wouldn’t it be awesome if we had a kitty? We could feed him and play with him, and we could teach him tricks like you see in those Youtube videos! Ah! We would make him his own channel like we did with Charlie! Wouldn’t that be great, Anthony?” Ian was becoming obsessed with cats to a weird level, and his constant craving for one was getting a bit annoying. So like the giving and kind boyfriend he was, Anthony got him a kitten.