The door clicked shut behind him. Saval dropped his keys into the ceramic bowl by the entrance and slipped off his shoes without making much noise. The house was dark, the only light coming through the kitchen window, where the moon cast faint lines across the floor.
As he walked to his room, he thought about Mia. The outing had been... quiet. No awkward silences, no strange tension. The movie was fine, and the dinner afterward too. Mia knew how to keep a conversation going without making him talk more than he wanted to, and he appreciated that.
Still, something didn't quite sit right.
He remembered the moment when she leaned in a little to whisper something in his ear. She had smiled, and so had he. But he didn't feel anything beyond that. No spark, no wondering. Just... another outing. Friendly. As it should be.
He sighed as he reached his room, where the boxes of cables he'd moved with Semiel the day before were still stacked. The desk was still neat, the microphones in place. Everything was ready for the next morning's stream.
He opened his laptop and turned it on—more out of habit than anything else. The wallpaper flickered to life, showing the pixelated silhouette of his Minecraft skin. He stared at it for a few seconds, as his thoughts suddenly drifted somewhere else.
He thought of Semiel.How he had held his hand to keep the ice cream from falling.How he let out that dry laugh when he tripped over a rock.How he'd stayed over, and how he had slowly begun to relax in a way he hadn't seen him in a long time.
And how he looked at him, with those eyes that couldn't lie, when he told him that this moment with him made him happy.
Saval closed his eyes for a second.
He didn't want to hurt him. He didn't want to delude him. But he also couldn't help thinking about him. In his company, in the way he spoke when he felt comfortable, in how his presence lately took the weight off his day.
He opened Discord and texted him without thinking twice.
"Are you awake?"
The reply came almost instantly.
"Yes. Everything okay?"
Saval leaned his elbows on the table and typed.
"Do you feel like playing a game for a while? I'll stream. Nothing serious. Just chilling."
—Minecraft?—Minecraft.
A little face appeared on the screen. Then, a link to the server.
He turned on the camera and microphone. The viewer count started to rise slowly. He greeted the chat, threw out a couple of random comments. Then Semiel joined the world.
They spent the next hour exploring a new area, running into zombies, building a ridiculous tower that kept collapsing every time they tried to make it symmetrical. Semiel cracked unfiltered jokes. Saval laughed more than he expected. The chat did too.
As midnight approached, they stood still in a virtual clearing, their characters staring up at the blocky starry sky. Even though they were in the same house, each at their own computer, it felt like they were sitting right next to each other.
—What if we go out and film something next week? —Semiel said, his voice sounding a little softer through the mic.
—Like what?
—A chill vlog. We walk, talk. You upload it. I can edit if you want.
Saval thought for a moment.
—Could work. Exams are coming up, but there's still time.
—Exactly, before we're buried in assignments —Semiel joked.
—Alright. Let's plan something.
—Cool.
They stayed there a few seconds longer, in silence, their pixelated characters gazing at the cubic moon. Saval thought that this calm, but I like this.