#sheith This little au's been bouncing around in my head for ages, have some hcs

Shiro is a videogame streamer/youtuber known for his game accessibility advocacy and his support for indie devs

Keith is a freelance artist known for his intricate landscapes and occasional fanart

Shiro wouldn't consider himself a "big" youtuber, but he does have a couple million subscribers and the number is always going up. People like his channel because he projects this nice aura, he always finds something positive to say about the games he plays

even if he didn't like them much overall, he often features smaller games by indie devs to support them, he's a big disability advocate--he's been very open about his experience losing his arm and his journey to healing and how games helped him through a lot of dark times

(in fact his channel originally started out as a sort of video diary during his rehab)--and he often reviews/promotes game accessibility products. He's also very kind and supportive of his community, and though he cannot personally interact with every one of his fans

(much as he'd like to), he'll often comment on or feature memes and fanart from his followers in his videos. Of course there are some aspects of what he does that he doesn't enjoy so much: he would rather not know exactly how many of his subscribers are purely thirst follows, and

the constant social barrage can get exhausting sometimes. But overall Shiro's well-liked and well-respected in the youtube gaming community and he enjoys what he does; it's helped him find a new sense of purpose after his accident.

~~~

Keith has been doing art for as long as he can remember, and he's always loved painting landscapes the most; it's calming, meditative almost. He also occasionally posts fanart, usually of whatever game he's currently playing.

He's done a couple background and concept art gigs for some video games and between that and his commissions/online shop he's making a decent enough living. He's quite private online, only rarely posts pics or personal updates

(the most personal thing he posts about with any regularity is his dog, a huge, needy and dramatic wolfdog named Kosmo). But the mystery hasn't prevented him from amassing a solid following, in fact, several of his fans would say it was one of the things that drew them in.

He also does art streams sometimes (voice only, no face cam), and he's always a little surprised by how many people show up to watch him work. He once asked the chat why they like his streams so much and most of the answers were along the lines of

his voice+the quiet instrumental music he plays on stream+his drawing make for a chill hang out/make good background noise. (one person said they liked his deep, husky voice with enough creepy implication that Keith banned them from chat)

~~~

It's during one of his streams that Keith lets slip a rare personal detail. He's getting ready to wrap it up when he happens to glance at the time and inadvertently comments on it out loud. The chat fills with people shocked at how late it is and telling him to go sleep

and after some back and forth about time zones and sleeping habits Keith eventually admits he has insomnia and he's been doing streams to try and pass the time until he can finally fall asleep. As soon as the words are out of his mouth he regrets revealing something so personal

and braces for a barrage of lectures and people telling him off for how unhealthy that is. Instead a lot of the comments are supportive, several people saying they have the same problem and suggesting different things to try.

More than one person says they use his streams in the same way, putting them on and letting them play until they fall asleep. Some people also toss out names of other channels they watch when trying to fall asleep, and Keith, curiosity piqued, jots a couple of them down.

He ends the stream feeling unexpectedly warm inside and heads to bed.

~~~

A few nights later Keith is lying in bed tossing and turning and trying to find sleep that won't come when his eyes land on the post-it note where he had written a few of the suggestions from his stream.

Sitting up in bed he pulls his laptop onto his knees and starts looking through some of the channels. None of them particularly catches his attention until he lands on one called "shirogamer" that happens to be live right now. Not only that, but when Keith checks it out he finds

that shirogamer is actually playing one of the games for which Keith had done some background work. Curiosity gets the better of him and he clicks on the livestream, settling back down in bed with the computer next to him.

The first thing he notices is that shirogamer is at Keith's favourite part of the game, and he smiles a little watching the character navigate through an enemy spaceship to retrieve the Red Lion Gem.

The next thing he notices is his voice is really... nice to listen to, smooth

with just the right amount of intonation. Keith can see why people put his videos on to fall asleep to.

The third thing he notices is the guy is really... appealing to look at. Keith has never been one to apply the word "hot" to anyone, but he thinks if he were, this guy'd fit.

Keith ends up watching the guy play for a couple hours, smiling every time he spots one of his paintings in the background of a scene.

He doesn't know when exactly he falls asleep, but he wakes up the next morning feeling more rested than he has in a while,

despite getting only a handful of hours of actual sleep.

~~~

He's lucky, Keith thinks, that time zones make it so shirogamer (or Shiro, as Keith finds out he calls himself on his channel) is often streaming when Keith is trying to sleep, and over the next few weeks Keith finds

himself looking forward to the nights when Shiro goes live. He also--consciously or unconsciously--starts adjusting his own schedule so he's never doing an art stream at the same time as one of Shiro's game streams.

During the day when he has free time Keith starts watching some of Shiro's older videos, and that's how he learns about his accident and his arm and how much of a genuinely good fucking person he seems to be. Keith tries to remain skeptical,

he knows well that people's online personas are often carefully crafted and don't represent fully who the person truly is. But Shiro just oozes sincerity, in every video, every tweet, and Keith finally has to admit to himself that he's a fan.

Watching Shiro's streams is by no means a miracle cure for Keith's insomnia, but he finds that the sleep he does get is more restful when he finds it with Shiro's steady voice in his ear. Some nights, when sleep is especially elusive

and Keith is left alone with his thoughts after Shiro ends his stream, he thinks it might be considered weird to be using this man's voice as a sleep aid, but he tells himself he's never going to interact with the guy anyway so it's no issue.

~~~

A few weeks later Keith decides he wants to expand his horizons a little, try painting something outside his usual style, like maybe a portrait. He's mindlessly refreshing twitter looking for inspiration (yes, really, shut up Kosmo) when a new post from @/shirogamer appears.

It's a picture of Shiro outside, clearly taken while he was out on a walk or something, and the rich late afternoon sun makes his grey eyes burn gold and catches in his dimples as he grins wide and carefree.

It takes Keith's breath away.

There's some corny caption about living fully or appreciating the simple things or something like that, but Keith doesn't even read it as he scrambles to his desk. He works on the portrait for hours, erasing and starting over several times, never quite satisfied.

He didn't expect it to be so difficult, but portraits aren't his forte. He's determined though, there's a drive, a need to capture Shiro's likeness, the way the light caresses his face, the way the wind tousles his hair just so.

It takes him the better part of a week, working on the portrait in every spare moment between his job and commissions, but he finally produces something he's satisfied with.

When he goes to post it online though, Keith hesitates.

It's not that he's worried about Shiro's reaction--the guy has made it clear several times that he absolutely loves receiving art from his fans, has featured several pieces in his videos--it's just that Keith doesn't think he's ready for that level of direct interaction

with the person he may or may not be developing a small crush on (he's not sure what else to call the fluttery feeling in his chest whenever he sees a new post or listens to a new video from Shiro, he's never felt anything like it before).

At the same time though he's really fucking proud of his painting and wants to show it off.

In the end Keith opts to post it on his oft-neglected instagram account where there's less chance of Shiro seeing it, and adds a simple caption that doesn't directly mention Shiro but

does link to the twitter post with the photo for the inspiration.

Despite making no direct mention of Shiro, the post attracts an almost overwhelming amount of attention, and for several days Keith is inundated with comments from both his regular followers and Shiro's community.

The vast vast majority are positive, admiring, encouraging, but he does get one or two people accusing him of stealing the art or of cheating in some way because it's so different from his other stuff. Keith ignores those comments and blocks the users,

he doesn't have to justify himself to jealous trolls.

Though several people tell him he should tag Shiro or send him the art, Keith is actually kinda glad the man hasn't seen it. He doesn't think he could handle that, especially on top of all the attention he's already getting.

A week later things have more or less returned to normal for Keith, people gave up trying to interact with him fairly quickly when it became clear no new shirogamer art was forthcoming & he wasn't a chatty person online.

So when he receives a DM from one of his longtime mutuals,

Hunk, while he's working on a commission, asking if he's seen Shiro's most recent video yet, Keith frowns a bit but doesn't think too much of it. He and Hunk have chatted back and forth in the past, on twitter or during Keith's streams, so that's not too out of the ordinary.

And Keith knows Hunk also watches Shiro's channel. But something about the directness of the question and Hunk's evasiveness when Keith asks why he's asking sets him on edge.

Keith saves and sets aside his work, quickly opening his browser and navigating to Shiro's channel.

The newest video is one of those ones where Shiro goes through his subreddit and highlights his favourite memes and fanarts from the community.

Equal parts excitement and dread wash through Keith's mind; he knows, he just knows that his art is gonna be in there.

He doesn't know how Shiro found it, hidden as it was on Keith's instagram, but he both can't wait and can't bear to hear what Shiro will say about it.

It comes towards the end of the video, because of course it does, and Shiro says he kept the best for last.

"I was absolutely floored when I saw this, couldn't believe my eyes. It's so totally gorgeous, you captured everything so beautifully. Thank you so, so much reddit user No1ShiroFan."

Keith's blood turns to ice, and there's a ringing in his ears.

((and now, I sleep ^.^ I'll continue this tomorrow))