channel (red)
Miles and Ganke received the scolding of a lifetime when they got home. But it didn’t last, not when Rio and Jeff couldn’t keep it together looking at their boys. Their outfits were practically swapped, with his mask looking at her blank as can be, Ganke’s glasses with a practiced sheen reflecting moonlight so she couldn’t see his eyes. Jeff about lost it when Miles started scratching his head, telling Rio that “stupid podcaster hat” needed to come off.
“Yeah, alright. Just- at least tell us you’re gonna leave even if we say don’t leave.” Rio says, going on back to her room, even though it’s already two-thirty and she needs to be at work at six.
“Okay Mami.”
“Alright Mrs. Morales.”
She yawns out “call me Rio” as she and Jeff go back down the hall.
“That went better than I thought it would.” Ganke says, a little surprised.
“No, we just got lucky.” Miles adds, tossing his clothes off where he stood. “Dude I wanna sleep for four days straight.”
“Sounds like a date.” Ganke says, climbing into the bed. Miles gets in after him, shoving him onto his side. Ganke hit the wall with a thud.
“Shit, sorry- no I’m not.”
“Fuck you.” Ganke mumbles, nestling into Miles’ chest.
“Love you too, night Ganke.”
“Night’.”
“Miles, Ganke.” Jeff knocks a few times.
“Five more minutes.” Ganke calls, pulling Miles’ jacket over his head.
"Five more hours." Miles emphasizes, covering his ears and eyes with Ganke's beanie.
“Y’all can sleep some more later. There’s some people here to see you- uh. Hobie? Pav? One’s tall and the other’s pretty short-” His dad laughs as Pav tries to protest his height, the sound less grating on his ears now that the sun’s up.
“Ain’t no way you eighteen and still five-foot sumn.”
“I’m five foot eight!” Pav defends.
“And you round it to six feet.” Hobie’s accent chimes in.
“Five point eight is basically six.”
“Ion think that applies here Pav.”
“Bro let me have this oh my God-”
Their playful banter continues through the house and over to his door, where his dad leaves his friends to it.
“Dude where are my glasses.”
“Here, but where did my shirt go?” Miles asks, retrieving Ganke’s glasses- smudged with oil from inside his bonnet. “I don’t even remember taking it off.”
“I do.” Ganke mutters, earning him a smack on the arm as Pavitr and Hobie open the door.
The pair came with food, get-well-soon cards, and little gifts from their respective dimensions for both him and Ganke. Ganke’s in the middle of pulling his pants up while Miles is just finding his shirt- balled up in the bedsheets.
“Did we interrupt something?”
“Damn, two dudes can’t fuck now?” Ganke questions, hoping the other two will take the bait.
“Right.” Miles cosigns, straightening himself out. A weird sense of deja-vu washes over them as Pav and Hobie continue to dart their eyes around the room.
“Alright, we’ve got gifts out here when you’re ready.” Hobie ushers Pav out of the room after he gives them a teasing thumbs up.
“Babe, do you know where my slippers at-? Why is one of them on the fire escape.” Miles sighs, jumping to get it down.
“I don’t know Spiderman, why is your slipper- ow!”
“That’s exactly what you get.”
Miles retorts, slipping another shoe on instead of the one he threw at Ganke. Now he’s got on one sock and slipper, and one slide like an idiot. As they walk out of their room, Ganke knows he’s not going to correct him on it either, even if his walk is a little wonky because of the shoes.
Pav and Hobie made themselves comfortable, curled up on the couch with Hobie ruffling Pav’s hair. They’re in their hero gear still, and Miles simply can’t have that. Not while they’re at his house anyway.
He also can’t have them do nothing, so he tosses the four of them controllers and starts up Mario Kart. For some god awful reason, no one checked if the recording software was off. On the contrary, it was excellent to have footage of how fast everything went to shit, seeing as it went downhill as soon as the game loaded.
Hobie gasps at the red box that swiftly took his character.
“Fuck you Miles I wanted Yoshi.”
“Yo ashy ass needa pick Dry Bones.”
“Shut up nigga where’s Shy Guy- Ganke you a bitch.”
“Pick another color you idiot. There’s like nine.” Ganke gestures to the screen, his green little shy guy bobbing around in the seat.
“Remarkable, it hasn’t even been a minute.” Pav chuckles.
“Pav shut- oh nice setup!” Pav's cart is built for speed and nothing else, a very nice choice on his part.
“Thanks Miles!"
“This on two-hundred cc?” Ganke asks as the countdown starts.
“I hope so, that’s the only way to play.” Pav chimes, missing the takeoff but his cart's so fast it doesn't even matter.
“Personally I like a cool one-fifty.”
“Course’ the Brit would say that. You like a leisurely stroll through Wimbledon too?”
“Pav? My own brother?”
Pav watches his Toad spin out by from Hobie’s red shell, and get bit by the piranha plant as he passes. “Hobart James Brown, you are no brother of mine.”
“Miles move out the fucking way-” Ganke yells, the gap between their carts narrowing.
“I’m literally in second place, you need to go for Hobie.”
“He’s in seventh.”
“Exactly.”
“Y’all can die actually.” Hobie laughs, deploying two Green shells straight at Pav that hit him after he crosses the finish line.
“What did I ever do to you?” Pavitr asks, absolutely apalled.
Miles stifles a laugh as he crosses the finish line behind Pavitr, taking second place. Ganke took fifth because Pav’s green shell from two laps ago clocked him before the finish line as Dry Bones and Rosalina darted past. He inhaled sharply as his cart sputtered across.
The next few rounds are pretty much the same, with curses and death threats being thrown at light speed. Ganke and Pav duke it out for first each lap while Miles and Hobie are focused on sabotaging each other as much as they can.
"Why you throw that banana You fuckin Pip Pip Pop smoke."
"Shut up Kid Arachnigg-"
"Arachnigg-?" Miles shrieks, a breathy laugh following shortly after. "I'm not the one throwing bananas, monkey."
Pav hollers, his car promptly flying off the track. Ganke tries not to laugh so he can finish his lap, but his Shy Guy moves erratically across the screen.
Just like that, they've forgotten about the gifts. Right now, there’s only four boys in front of a Playstation 4. And for a while, that is all there will ever be.
It's pretty late when the boys tire themselves out and move back into Miles' bedroom. Ganke discovers the footage as he checks his computer. All seven glorious hours of it.
"Dude." Ganke chuckles, clicking through a couple of spots. "This is great."
"Yo, Hobie, Pav- do y'all mind helping us edit this?"
"Sounds like fun!" Pav says, "I can give you my gift too- it's in the kitchen, hold on."
Miles is about to question that until the microwave starts beeping. Pav comes back with three round trays of Indian cuisine, some vegetarian and some meat heavy. He's got a container of naan on his shoulder as well, tossing it on the bed.
"Pavitr, I could kiss you right now." Ganke says after sampling some mutton, and Hobie scoffs.
"You just gonna let your man say that?"
"Shit, I'll suck his dick for another lamb chop." Miles agrees, Ganke nodding as he samples one off of Miles' tray. "No but seriously, tell Maya Auntie she's a great cook."
"Tell her thanks for the scraps too." Hobie adds, "I needed some fabric for the holes in my suit."
"She knows you're both thankful." Pav says, "But I'll tell her anyway."
The boys settle into their spots against each other, heads draped on chests and arms around shoulders as Ganke presses play on the footage.
Miles and Hobie's jaws drop when they hear the heated arguments between Ganke and Pav. It's almost as bad as the ones they had during the video. Hobie looks on, his voice failing him as Pav keeps going in on Ganke, both reverting to their native languages at parts. While neither knew what the other was saying, they instinctively knew it was heinous.
"Guys, I think we need a channel." Ganke says.
"Okay but what would we call it?" Miles asks.
"S3G1E, for three Spidermen, one guy? E for entertainment?" Pav suggests.
They look towards each other, snickering in a moment of collective realization.
"That is a good name though, we'll just pronounce it as "siege "." Hobie says, the others nodding as Ganke pulls up the settings.
"You wanna get a channel banner real quick?" Miles asks, the boys collectively piling in for a selfie on the floor. They don't move away when it's done though, enjoying each other's company.
"Wait, your masks are off, you wanna retake it?" Ganke inquires.
"Nah, I'm good." Pav pipes up, Hobie and Miles make noises of agreement.
"Yeah, we'll be fine. We'll be the only ones that know what it stands for anyway." Miles says, "To others it just looks like another random gaming channel."
"Cool. What about the profile? Actually, nah I got it."
Ganke snickers. Hobie and Pav immediately start cracking up when the picture pops up.
"Bro I thought you deleted that nooo-" Miles whines, cringing at his phone.
"Sorry babe." He says, sending the footage to their group chat.
They get the final video uploaded at three in the morning. It's an hour and a half long, with a short intro and outro made up of other random videos they found deep within their phones. They even got captions and little faces to denote everyone's screen. The four are snuggled underneath a blanket on the floor, devices left to turn off or die as they sleep peacefully until the morning comes.