“My paper?” Gibson says skeptically. “Buddy, pal—I don’t have time to write my paper, okay? I’ve got a speedrun marathon to watch.”
Anon rolls their eyes, the movement powerful enough to roll their head along with it, and pushes his laptop aside to slam a hefty tome in front of him. The Unabridged Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume I. Ugh.
“Look, man,” Gibson says, already pushing the book away, “the first run of the day is Kingdom Hearts. I’m not gonna miss a Kingdom Hearts run to write a paper.”
Anon looks at him sternly.
“What?” Gibson says.
Anon looks at him even more sternly.
“No—come on, Anon, don’t give me that look.”
Anon looks at him even more sternly.
“Jesus—fine. Fine.” He hates to admit it, but they do have a point. This paper is due at midnight and he’s on page zero out of twenty. Whatever. “But I’m leaving the run on while I research.”
Anon heaves an unnecessarily heavy sigh, but this is as close as they’ll get. They drop the subject and turn away as Gibson turns his attention to the stream. The host is talking about technical difficulties delaying the run. He groans. Now he doesn’t have an excuse to avoid doing research. Gross.
He grudgingly opens a new document and flips the book open to a page he already has a sticky note on. Why did he put a sticky note here? A cool quote or something? A word he needs to look up? He skims the page for clues, but all he finds is boring garbage.
He hears Anon searching through a drawer then, and he turns to see them shirtless and looking for their workout clothes. Probably for the morning jog they’ll take as soon as they find their things. Gibson pauses to check them out, watch their muscles work under their skin, simply appreciate the sight. He grins as they finally pull their clothes out.
“Hey,” he says, and Anon looks to notice him watching. “I thought you wanted me to focus on my paper?”
Anon huffs, and Gibson laughs as they throw their shirt in his face.