Milkshake Hearts

Chapter 14: Okay With It

A/N: Without spoiling anything, some of the Smosh people take on incorrect roles to what their actual roles are at various points in this fic, but we can just let that slide. Also, this chap is the start of a section of the fic I quite like, tbh, so I hope you do too!

 ———————————————— 

They have their biggest slip-up ever on a Smoshcast recording in September, just shy of their 4-month anniversary. It's a very loosely planned episode of the podcast with just Courtney, Shayne and Ian. Ian is bitching about his coffee not long after they've started recording – as he often is –, and Shayne jumps in with a story about his own coffee press screwing up on him. It would be fine, except Courtney is a character in the story, and they all talk for a good four minutes working under the assumption that yes of course Courtney shares a bed with Shayne and stays over at his house and he makes coffee for her in the morning to try and drag her out of sleep, and-

"Uh, guys?" Kevin pipes up, their Smoshcast producer for the day, when Shayne pauses for a second and before Ian has a chance to interject. Their eyes all shoot to him – it's rare for one of the guys taking supporting roles on sound or producing to say anything while they're recording the podcast, it's usually a straight-through conversation – "Unless this is your way of going public, Shayne and Courtney, we might need to redo those last few minutes."

"Oh, fuck," Shayne mutters, burying his face in his hands. "Shit, sorry guys," he adds, lifting his face back up and running a hand through his hair.

"Hey, none of us picked up on it," Courtney reassures him, hand momentarily resting against his thigh under the table before she shifts back to recording mode.

"Yeah, all good guys, we'll just start from my favourite coffee again," Ian confirms, and they carry on, this time without any stories which feature Shayne and Courtney in domestic bliss.

It's their lunch break after they finish, and Shayne doesn't say anything after they cut, walking silently behind Ian and Courtney through to the kitchen, grabbing the lunch he'd made himself at Courtney's earlier in the morning out of the fridge and silently taking a seat at one of the stools along the benchtop, two seats down from a couple of their writers.

"Hey, Shayne," Courtney says, softly, taking a seat beside him a moment later with her own lunch. Ian goes to sit beside them, but he glances between both of them, before moving off to join the group of writers further away from them.

"I'm just... so pissed at myself for slipping up so badly. And yeah, we all went with it, but I just... didn't think about it. I should be better than that, I mean, what if I fuck up like that in one of the live shows coming up? I don't want to screw this up for us," he rants, squeezing his eyes shut as he lets himself lean sideways, leg pressing against hers.

"Shayne, it's fine, okay? We caught it, and it's fine. I don't blame you at all – it's really hard with the podcast, because it is us being ourselves and talking about our lives, and yeah, our lives are now intertwined to the point that it's difficult to talk about anything without letting anything on. The live shows we're doing are all try not to laugh and sketch stuff – it's not going to be particularly risky there, and just because you've slipped up once doesn't mean you're going to keep doing it," she reassures, pushing her lunch to the side so she can rest her chin on her palm, moving closer to him.

"I guess," he sighs, reluctantly looking up and meeting her eyes. "My neighbour made a comment the other day that he thought I'd moved out because he hasn't seen me around for so long. I told him I'd just been at work a lot, but I- yeah. It scared me. The last thing I want to do is spend less time with you, I guess we just need to get better at- being aware of things, I guess."