Chapter Text
Click, click.
"You are late again, Erik."
Erik sighs from his seat - legs propped up on his computer desk, headphones settled on his shoulders to tune out Hendrik's rambling as he boots up World of Warcraft. His headphones shriek in complaint, every word from Hendrik's mic causing a painful amount of feedback, and he considers momentarily throwing the entire headset across the room.
He settles for angrily opening a bag of Cheetos.
"Work ran late," he says when the lecture has finally stopped (and really, Hendrik doesn't talk that much, but the man's as serious as a heart attack.)
"Let us know next time, please," the voice crackles, and Erik imagines Hendrik must have the worst worry lines.
"Honey, give him a break!" cuts in another voice - and now Erik is genuinely considering slamming his head on the keyboard, because Sylv and Hendrik require at least 24oz more caffeine than he’s consumed today.
He should've checked the lineup for tonight, he thinks, as the vanilla loading screen reminds him to be nice to his fellow party members if he wants to be invited back.
"Is Lev here yet?" is what he finally settles on engaging with, finally pulling his headphones onto his ears and setting his feet onto the ground. As if on cue, the noise of a user joining their call pings twice.
"Homework took longer than expected, sorry!" the robotic text-to-speech that functions as Lev's voice says.
There's a crinkle in Hendrik's mic - Erik thinks he probably tried to nod, the dense idiot - and then his voice, still nearly too static-filled to be comprehensible.
"Alright. Neither of the twins will be around, and so.."
Hendrik coughs. Erik has a feeling he won't like what comes next.
"..I invited Jasper."
"You did what . What about Jade?"
"Busy - with Rab. It appears they are on a trip, of sorts."
"Faris?" Erik asks, painfully hopeful.
"Oh, darling," Sylv responds, a hint of slimly characteristic smugness in their tone - like a cat that caught the mouse, and was moving onto catching Erik next. "We love Faris, but he's not going to be able to do this. Besides.." their tone drops to a conspiratory level. "I heard Jasper is bringing the key."
"Junkyard +27," Hendrik confirms.
"No. No fucking way. We are not going to make timer if I have to work with him.'
Erik is about five seconds away from logging out, washing his hands of this, and going to beat Mia in a few rounds of Smash when his notifications light up.
[🐰: please erik?
🐰: it's push week and you know we've been looking for a good junkyard..
🐰: i promise i'll make it up to you.]
Erik's face goes red. He can think of things make it up to you could mean, and he knows it doesn't, but a man with a crush can dream, right?
[Hendrik: @chadrik Are you alright? I understand this idea does not appeal to you.
sylvia💕: oh, give the darling a moment~~
chadrik: ok ok ill do it
chadrik: but hes paying my repairs for a month
Hendrik: I will suggest this to him.
eleven: i'll pay them erik!]
Erik drums his fingers on the spacebar, the call unsettlingly quiet. Downstairs, he hears a door open and slam shut - Mia must be home from her friends'. Maybe he should use her as his get-out-of-Mythics-free card.
Except for the fact that she's somehow friends with Jasper.
"He'll do two weeks," Hendrik says after an uncomfortably long silence - and really, Erik thought he was too proud to agree at all, and the Junkyard is tempting, so…
"Invite him."
[ > Good to see you, silverspheres!
chadrik has changed silverspheres' nickname to jassper.
chadrik: not rly good 2 see you
jassper: The feeling is mutual.
jassper: Why do you have nickname privileges locked?
chadrik: why do u type like u have a stick in ur ass
sylvia💕: now now, boys! do we want to time this or not, hm?
chadrik: i hate it when ur right
sylvia💕: 😘 ]
Erik tabs back into the game when he hears Jasper join the call, focusing on jumping in circles as he debates whether he's actually going to bring his demon hunter.
"I will be tanking," Hendrik says - as if that was ever in question.
"I'll be your healer for tonight, darlings!"
"Do you want my hunter?"
"That'd be good, Lev," Erik says, fondly, sighing as he logs out of his demon hunter and stares at his rogue, a character he'd meant to throw away and had ended up maining.
Mia had damned the damn thing Gyldygga, and he knew she'd know if he ever changed it. The moment he logs into the cursed thing, Hendrik shoots him an invite - before he even gets a chance to change specs. Jasper is saying something annoying - not that Erik's paying attention, because everything Jasper says is annoying - and so he focuses on his Cheetos and running to Mechagon.
He wonders if he could at least get away with race changing from gnome before Mia killed him in his sleep.
[Hendrik: Erik, I am aware you aren't listening. Jasper will take the first Shockbot and the first Greasebot.
camus (mythic): ughhhhhhh
Hendrik: He's playing Arms tonight.
camus (mythic): UGGGGHHHHHHHHH
camus (mythic) fine dad ill stealth to the cave one]
Hendrik's mic shrieks horrifically, which means that calling him dad was worth it.
A few moments later, Hendrik drops a route in chat, and Erik sets himself to Do Not Disturb and messages Mia to inform her in no uncertain terms that she will never get to graduate highschool if she interrupts him now. He makes a point ignoring her asking if he's on a date with his Internet boyfriend, instead rifling through his bags to find his flasks.
The countdown timer isn't long enough for Erik's palms to stop sweating.
The dungeon is blessedly silent - really, it's exactly what Erik needs. Nothing but Hendrik's callouts, because the man refuses to use any sort of addon for things like that, and he finds that Jasper doesn't make a bad addition to their team. He's quicker on interrupts than Erik is, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that Jasper's the one who made the route.
Keystone Upgraded! +1
"Woo-hoo!" Erik can't help but cheer as they finish the final boss - it's the highest key he's ever done, and it's gonna look great if he decides to actually apply for a bigger guild.
"Is this worth celebration to you?" comes Jasper's voice, irritating as always. "It is a push week."
"Jasper," Hendrik's voice comes this time, a surprising tone from him, almost a warning - and to Erik's surprise, it actually succeeds to shut Jasper up.
"We did it, darlings!" Sylv's own voice cheers - and Erik settles back into patting himself on the back, because they did do it.
"What key did you get, Jasper?" comes Lev's robot voice proxy.
"Underrot."
"Do you want to try to do it?"
"Wasn't Veronica looking for it? If Jasper has the time to spend with the little leagues again before reset, she can have my spot."
Erik's chair creaks as he leans back in it again, letting his eyes flutter shut. He'd take anything to avoid Jasper again, no matter how useful he might be - and annoyingly good.
Unfortunately, his life was staunchly against letting him have any peace, and he lacked swift enough reflexes to realize Mia had a) entered his room and b) mute his mic before she spoke.
"Erik! We're gonna get a noise complaint if you don't shut the fuck up, and I don't care how hot your Internet boyfriend is!"