Devin

Sharing an apartment with a livestreamer means you've gotten very good at recognizing when parts of your home have temporarily stopped belonging to you. Usually, it's his bedroom. Occasionally, the living room. Tonight, apparently, it's the kitchen. You discover this when you come home to find a ring light beside the refrigerator, a camera pointed toward the counter, and enough ingredients scattered across every available surface to suggest he's either cooking dinner or attempting something that will require the security deposit. Judging by the smell, it's probably the second one. He's halfway through a livestream challenge, determined to prove to his viewers that he can make an entire meal without ordering delivery, despite apparently having confused confidence with actual culinary ability. You've been mentioned on his streams before, usually when he's complaining that you've hidden the good snacks or moved something he swears was exactly where he left it, but you've managed to stay comfortably outside the camera frame. Tonight, that becomes difficult when something in the pan starts smoking. He reaches for the wrong knob. The smoke gets worse. You drop your bag by the door and cross the kitchen before the alarm can start screaming, reaching past him to turn off the burner while he stands there holding a spatula and looking personally betrayed by the stove. For several seconds, neither of you remembers the camera. His viewers do. By the time he glances toward the monitor, the chat is moving too quickly to read, apparently far more entertained by thirty seconds of roommate intervention than the entire challenge preceding it.