slow burn; sapnap

thirty two

"are you kidding me?!" nick screamed into his headset as he continued his unlucky streak in valorant where he was continually dying quickly. "they're targeting me, chat! i can't even move without dying! are you seeing this?"

hadden looked up from the spot where she had made herself comfortable sitting on his office floor with a blanket while doing some work on her laptop. she stifled a laugh as she noticed nick dramatically gesturing to his screen.

"mhm." she said quietly before returning to her own screen where she seemed to be endlessly scrolling through apartment listings with no luck.

"did i not say august is here? well, she is. she's working on her own stuff." nick informed his viewers since the lack of a face cam didn't allow anyone to see them.

"hey chat!" hadden shouted very monotone as she continued scrolling.

"tell august i said hi!" punz said into his headphones.

"mm, no." nick joked before sitting up and getting focused again.

her apartment hunt was proving very difficult. she hadn't keyed in anyone too much because she really wanted to be able to take this on herself.

dream promised that he would connect her with any professionals he could find. nick offered multiple times to take her to view any units she found. george continually asked why she didn't just fully move into the guest room she had already been in.

"i am literally on my own. punz you suck. oh- one second, i'll be right back." nick quickly muted as he felt hadden tap on his shoulder.

"what?! we're in the middle of a game!" punz yelled as nick took off his headphones.

"what did you find?"

hadden sat her laptop on his desk and began clicking through pictures.

"the pictures seem really nice. its spacious and is even two bedrooms and still in my price range."

"it is but thats a very rough part of town. i wouldn't want you living there alone." nick pointed to the address on the screen.

hadden threw her head back and covered her face with her hands. she let out a groan in frustration that was slightly exaggerated but still felt appropriate to her.

"hey, don't do that. c'mere."

nick grabbed her arm and pulled her to sit in his lap. she crossed her arms to really convey her frustration and stubbornness but still pulled her legs up to her chest to get as close to him as possible.

"i'm sorry, haddy. i just want you safe."

"it feels impossible to find something in a good area and in my price range that also has enough room. maybe its not even worth moving right now. i have a perfectly fine apartment in texas."

nick began combing his fingers through the ends of her hair.

"you could, but do you really want to? were you really happy?"

"no," hadden was emotionally bending at his touch. "i don't know. i don't know what i want."

nick sat still for a moment, his face making it obvious he was thinking.

"i've got it," he quickly leaned forward to unmute while still holding hadden in his lap. "sorry i'm gonna go ahead and end. good luck punz."

just as quickly as he unmuted he then ended stream and left the call. nick then gave hadden all of his attention and turned her face to his as if he had life altering news.

"you need a break. you need to clear your mind. my dad has been bothering me about coming to visit for a while now so why don't we do a roadtrip? we can do a week of no streaming and no working. you can take the time to figure out if you really do want to move and i can show you where i'm from and you can meet my family. my dad and stepmom have been asking to meet you for a while. and then if you feel like you do want to move we will head up to dallas and pack up your stuff. what do you think?"

"so you've been talking about me with your family for a while?" hadden said with an eyebrow cocked.

"is that all you heard?"

"no, no. you know what? why not?"

"really?" nick struggled containing his excitement. "okay, awesome. i guess i'll call my dad and let him know we'll be coming."

hadden got up and deciding to leave him alone to call his family. she had barely gotten out of the room by the time he was already on the phone.

"hey dad, you busy?" she heard and although she didn't want to be intrusive, hadden couldn't help but stand and listen for a moment.

"i think hadden and i are finally going to come visit. yeah, yeah. no, not yet. hopefully with this trip. i just want it all to be perfect and the timing to be right." hadden heard nick's muffled voice say through the door.

"eavesdropping, are we?"

hadden jumped as george seemed to have appeared out of thin air.

"ssh! i am not. just curious." hadden whispered with her arms crossed in defense.

"that's alright. i may or may not have listened a few minutes ago when you decided to go to texas with him." george shrugged before going back to his room where hadden immediately followed.

"george," hadden said nervously before sitting on the end of his bed. "can i ask you something?"

"sure." he instantly tossed his phone to the side to give her his full attention.

"what does nick say about me? and like, about us?"

"you're so obsessed," george teased before hadden leaned over and punched him in the arm. "ouch, just kidding! jeez. well, he obviously really likes you. when you're around he can't pay attention to anything else and when you're gone he is constantly bringing you up. what do you want to know?"

"why hasn't he made us official? nevermind, this is stupid. i sound like a high schooler." hadden felt embarrassed that this had taken up so many of her thoughts. she immediately got up and began to leave.

"i think sapnap's worried about messing up again." george began, making hadden stop in his doorway. "he really screwed up last time so he's being, i don't know, delicate? he is worried that one wrong step and he will have messed up again. just, go easy on him."

hadden slowly processed was was said as she left george's room. she didn't know those things even still bothered nick.

without much thought she went back into nick's office where he was still on the phone. he pointed to his phone and mouthed "one second". she ignored him and went and placed a kiss on his lips before leaving him without saying anything.

"what? oh, um- can you say that again? sorry you must have cut out." nick said flustered.