It's All Fun and Games

Chapter 7: All's Fair in Love and War

For the most part, the past few months had been surprisingly smooth. Both on-recording and off, Aleks and James had been managing to act as normally as possible. When they were with others, the two kept up their charade of a purely platonic relationship, which everyone seemed to believe. Though, if the other Creatures noticed it, nobody said anything to them. Even more surprisingly, despite the fangirls clinging to any 'evidence' of their 'relationship', their fans as a whole hadn't accused them of actually being together.  Of course, that didn't mean that things would stay like that. Aleks and James weren't stupid-- They realized they'd have to be careful up until they came out, if they ever did, or risk ruining their friendship with the others, or worse, their careers.

That wasn't to say that they spent every moment together fearing being caught, however. Rather, they only truly opened up when they were alone or when they were sure there were no prying eyes. Having to hide their relationship may have been awkward at first, though James was rather used to it now. 

Letting out a groan, James rolled his shoulders, pushing back from his desk and standing on his tired legs. Spending the last few hours editing had truly taken its toll, as he was more than slightly exhausted at this point. To think that playing games for a living could become so overbearing. As grateful as he was to work on his own terms, for the most part anyway, he had to admit that it grew rather tiresome after a while. Maybe that was why some of his YouTube buddies took frequent vacations. . .

Upon hearing the familiar noise of a Skype message, the man's eyes flickered to his computer screen. Sure enough, a small notification flashed proudly, demanding him to check the message. James, however, didn't feel like it was important enough to care for. Honestly, he probably should've just gone offline to avoid this from happening. Whatever it was that someone had to say, they could tell him later. Preferably when he wasn't exhausted or working.

Apparently the world disagreed, however, as the obtrusive sound of his cellphone going off broke the silence. With all the composure he could muster, James pulled the phone from his pocket, answering it without even checking who it was.

"What do you want? I'm kind of busy right now." He all but growled, drumming his fingers against his leg to keep from snapping.

"James?" Aleks asked, his voice anxious and uncertain. "James, we have a serious problem." His voice cracked and James could hear him draw in a deep breath, as if he was fighting back tears.

"Shit, what's wrong? What happened?" The older Creature replied, trying to coax an explanation out of Aleks.

The Russian drew in another ragged breath, followed by a muted sob. "Check your channel." He started to continue before falling silent, too distraught to say any more than those three words.

A wave of pure dread swept through James as he swallowed, rushing to his computer. Since he began editing a few hours back, he hadn't bothered to check his YouTube, as he had no reason to. But something in Aleks' voice told him that that had changed-- that something was wrong. Hastily, James pulled up his channel, just like Aleks had told him to, his heart racing as the page loaded.

Then he saw it.

A new video, titled "The Truth About ImmortalHD and UberHaxorNova!!"

His stomach flipped, a sense of nausea passing through him as he clicked on it, watching footage from what should have been private moments. Clips of him and Aleks kissing, holding hands, exchange shy smiles, and everything in between were shown before a picture of James' necklace and  Aleks' ring took over the screen. There, in bold font, the hacker detailed how they had 'taken it into their own hands to discover the truth between Aleks and James'. Despite the video only being posted an hour and a half ago, it already had a half million views and just as many comments. Scrolling down the comment section, each one was similar to the one before. 'that's gross!!' 'i'm unsubbing omfg' 'i cant believe it!!' and things much, much worse were all he could see.