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i. the smosh holiday party
Damien, entering the Smosh holiday party, does a double-take when he hears Angela shout his name enthusiastically. The most he usually got from her was a nod.
Then, he is so far taken aback he is practically in the parking lot because Angela hugs him.
“How much has she had to drink tonight?” Damien asks a grinning Amanda walking by.
“I'm not drunk!” Angela protests. “See, I'm even drinking water.” She shoves a red solo cup in his face.
“Mmm-hmm,” Damien hums doubtfully. “Let me have a sip then.”
“NO!” Angela shouts while hiding the cup behind her back. “Fine, it's vodka.”
“Sit.” Damien gives her a gentle push towards the couch. “I'm getting you a water.”
Angela sat, pouting. “Don't talk to me like I'm a dog.”
“Be a good girl,” he replies sarcastically, patting her on the head lightly.
“Fuck off!”
Damien laughs while he walks away. He comes back a minute later with water and is happy to see that Angela's still there, scrolling on her phone.
He passes her the bottle. Angela makes a face at him. He makes a silly one back.
She laughs a little before drinking some of the water.
“Happy?”
“Yeah, at this moment right now.”
Angela rolls her eyes at his response, and says, “You know you don't have to babysit me all night.”
“It's not babysitting. We're hanging out. I like hanging out with you.”
Angela makes an annoyed noise but smiles. She shifts around to bring her legs up onto the couch with her.
“Last chance,” she warns, “I'm about to put my feet in your lap.”
“I'm not scared of Italian feet, Angula.”
Angela makes good her (not much of) a threat and they talk a bit about their holiday plans. Damien laughs at a joke she tells him and Angela, without any warning, says, “Your face is so annoying.”
Damien laughs harder. “Um, dog, what?”
“AND,” she continues, ignoring him, “it's annoying how nice you are all the time. But you're funny when you're not nice too. ANNOYING!”
“I repeat, what?”
“But it's fun when we're in videos together. I like you. I like hanging out with you. You make me laugh a lot.”
“That's so sweet. You make me giggle a ton too.”
“Shut up.”
“Take a compliment!”
“You're just being too nice again.”
“No, I'm not. You're the funniest Italian I know.”
“You're Italian!”
“Yep.”
They have a staring contest and Damien struggles to keep from smiling or laughing. Angela is just too cute.
“Come on, bitch,” Chanse says, draping himself over the arm of the couch, causing Damien to break eye contact. He tugs on Angela's arm. “We're playing flip cup against Amanda and Arasha.”
“Wait, wait, wait.” Angela scrambles up. Damien stands to keep her from falling.
“Don't forget your water.”
Angela salutes him sarcastically but does take the bottle. Damien watches as he walks away with Chanse. To his surprise she looks back at him and sticks her tongue out before waving.
“How's the head?” Damien asks Angela, once they've returned from holiday break and are chilling in the green room between shoots.
“Better now. Sorry if I was over the top that night.”
“No, you were fun,” he reassures her.
“For a drunk girl?”
“You're always fun, Angela,” Damien says, meaning it wholeheartedly. “I really enjoyed our conversation. It meant a lot to me.”
A panicked look comes over Angela's face.
“Hey, so, I don't actually remember everything I said. I remember us hanging out on the couch. But what did I actually say…”
“Oh.” Damien tries to keep his disappointment out of his voice. He knows drunk words aren't always honest thoughts. But he really hoped Angela meant it when she said she liked him. “Just that you really like Smosh. And, you know, us getting to hang out together.”
Angela sighs in relief.
“And that I was annoying. And too nice,” Damien adds in a joking tone.
“I'm so so sorry.”
Damien, seeing her panicked face, tries to brush it off. “No worries, I am annoying.”
“I didn't mean it like that,” Angela explains. “You being nice and annoying — it’s actually good! Those are good things. You're just such a good person. It makes me so jealous that I'm annoyed. It was a compliment.” Angela puts her hands on his shoulders and gets on her toes to make eye contact. Damien inclines his head down to help her. “Please believe me?”
“I believe you,” Damien replies sincerely.
“Can I give you a hug?”
His brain stutters before he says yes.
Angela wraps her arms around his middle and Damien pats her back awkwardly.
“Hug me back, dude. Or I’ll think I'm forcing you. I’m not, right? You like hugs?”
“I like hugs,” he reassures and hugs her back.
“Are we hugging?” Courtney says, coming into the room. “Angela gives the best hugs!”
“Thanks, Court!”
Honestly, Damien has to agree with Courtney.
ii. the valentine’s day stream
“Are we sure Angela with sharp objects and alcohol is a good idea?” asks Damien to the room at large at the start of the Valentine’s Day-themed stream.
Damien’s not sure at what point in the process it was suggested they add a bottle of wine to the mix, but he is genuinely worried about the shenanigans a tipsy Angela might get into.
Although, admittedly, it didn't go bad for him last time.
(She hugged him. Again. Sober.)
“These aren't even that sharp,” Angela dismisses, waving her safety scissors around. “Besides, that's why you're next to me.”
“To get stabbed?”
“To protect me from myself,” Angela says simultaneously. “Well, if like getting into the line of fire is how—”
“Yes,” Damien says, nodding emphatically, “I will allow myself to be stabbed to protect Angela.”
“You heard it here first folks,” Spencer says off-camera.
Damien looks directly into camera and says, “I'm getting stabbed!”
Angela motions with her scissors but doesn't actually get close to him.
"I need suggestions, chat," Chanse says. "What theme should I do?"
Courtney, sitting next to Chanse, mentions, "I saw someone saying Spud Hut."
Angela perks up. "Smosh characters would be so fun!"
"A Gerald Cakes valentine would eat," Courtney says.
Chanse gives them a flirtatious look. "I certainly would eat his cake."
Angela leans over the table to give Chanse a high five and Damien goes to save her wine glass from spilling.
"Thanks, Dames," Angela says, noticing the spill that almost happened.
Damien smiles back at her. "No worries, that was way easier than getting stabbed."
"It could still happen."
Damien shrugs one shoulder at her, still smiling. Not that he can ever really stop when he's around her.
He has to force himself to look back at the chat, scanning to see what other suggestions fans are throwing out there.
"Oh nooo," Damien says, giggling a bit. "Someone just suggested the Bystander."
Angela lets out one of her short screams.
"You're okay. Just remember your training. Use the blades, Angela," he says, putting on a serious trainer voice.
"Ha, ha, ha," Angela says, mocking him.
Damien finally sees a suggestion he likes and picks out the color of construction paper he needs. His hand hovers over the discarded pair of scissors. He makes eye contact with Angela. "May I borrow your weapon?"
"You're such a dork!"
With a chuckle, he takes the object and glances at Angela's valentine but she covers it up.
"Don't look!" she cries. "It's a surprise."
Damien averts his eyes but is even more curious. He resists trying to take another peer.
“This is going so well!” Angela announces, with a toothy grin after a few minutes, which melts Damien's heart again.
Angela turns to glare at Chanse and Courtney from across the table. “Since I didn't get fucked this time.”
“Ang-” Chanse barely gets out before bursting into laughter.
“What am I missing here?” Damien asks, knowing he's red, mostly to the off-camera crew.
Courtney, through giggles, explains what happened at the sip and paint stream.
“And no glare either,” Chanse says, wiping years from his eyes.
“You guys are laughing now but you're not once you see my valentine.”
“Okay,” Chanse replies with a roll of his eyes.
The discussion moves on and Damien ends up sharing a story about one of his voiceover gigs, which leads to Chanse starting an anime discussion.
Angela chimes in a few times (mostly to ask jokingly if Damien's been a voice actor in the shows mentioned) but otherwise stays focused on her valentine.
Spencer, having walked onto the stage once the discussion started, asks, with a laugh, “Hey, Angela, who's your favorite anime character?”
“Umm…” Angela glances at Damien. He tries to mouth a suggestion to her. “Damien Haas!”
Damien blushes again as the room laughs. He knows it was a joke but it makes him warm for Angela to say he is her favorite anything.
“Um, not quite,” he says, avoiding looking at Angela.
“But she's got the spirit,” Courtney says.
The stream continues until they're nearing 20 minutes left and start presenting their Valentines.
Courtney's done one for Gerald Cakes, looking over his shoulder and huge ass with a speech bubble saying, “I made this cake for you.”
Her second is of The Chosen saying, “You are my chosen one.”
Chanse managed to make three valentines, each in the theme of his celebrity crushes.
Damien is surprised with the accuracy of his Tom Holland Spiderman offer an upside-down kiss on the front. Of course, this does start a short debate about which Spiderman is superior.
Damien is proud to present his valentine of a goose saying, “I honking love ya!”
Angela presents her last card which shows the main Sword AF characters and Gunthar.
"And look!"
She shows the other side of the heart where she's written “It's the heart of the cards,” in block letters.
“This is really good Angula!”
“And you spelled everything right!” Spencer says.
“Take that performing arts high school!” Damien says over Angela telling Spencer to shut up. “And middle school!”
“You really like it?” Angela asks him quietly.
“Yes, I'm absolutely going to hang this on my refrigerator.”
“MOM,” Angela yells. She grins at the camera. “I'm going on the refrigerator for once!”
“For once,” Damien repeats, unheard from the rest of the room laughing. “I'll always put your artwork on the refrigerator.”
“Thanks, bud.” Angela pats his arm and leaves it there for what feels like a minute to Damien before she starts waving to say goodbye to the stream.
Later that night Damien sends her a photo of his refrigerator door, Angela's valentine in the middle stuck by a magnet.
“YAY,” she texts back with a bunch of emojis, including a heart, which is enough to almost make Damien's heart stop.
iii. the don’t win mario stream
“Hey,” Trevor says, twirling the fake mustache of his Waluigi costume. “Who let Barney on the couch with us?”
They're all dressed up in character for a special Don't Win Mario Party stream as part of their promotions of a new live show. Of course, Angela decided to put the art team to work to create a Birdo costume for her.
Angela, face peering out from the snout of the costume, shoots an offended look at Trevor. “Hey!”
“Barney is purple,” Damien corrects. He’s in a Mario costume from the reunion they shot long ago.
“She's Dinosaur Barbie,” Shayne says. He breaks into peals of laughter and his fake Wario mustache almost falls off.
“Shut up,” Angela says, “your mustaches make you look like you do 70’s porn!”
Most of the room erupts into laughter at Angela's roast.
“Watch out, Shayne,” Damien warns, not losing focus from the mini-game. He almost has Shayne's Wario in first place. “Birdozilla might get you.”
“I'm trapped on a couch full of haters!” Angela complains.
Damien raises his hand as if asking to speak. “I think Birdo is adorable. Just like Godzilla.”
Angela's face scrunches in confusion. “Thank you?”
“Yeah, chat,” Spencer says with a smirk, “Say thank you to Damien for not kink-shaming our monster-fucker fans.”
“That's it! I'm fucking smushing toad!” Angela yells. She basically ends up on Damien's lap as she tries to climb over him to get Spencer.
He can't help but let out a nervous laugh. “Why am I being attacked?” He tries to move his head to see over Angela but her bow is blocking his view.
“Ange, you just lost another mini-game,” Trevor says smugly.
That gets Angela to move back enough for Damien to see Birdo standing on the #1 podium on screen. He almost feels bad for not getting Shayne first but was admittedly distracted.
“What? That's not fair. Spencer was being a meanie.”
Damien stifles a little laugh at her word choice and the pout on her face.
“You lost, take another sip,” Shayne says.
Tommy brings in another drink for Angela to try. She struggles with getting the straw into her mouth, the snout of the costume getting in the way.
“It's like you're wearing the cone again!” Shayne says, through chuckles at his joke.
Damien looks at her and asks, “You need help?” before she can get riled up again.
Angela nods. He takes the margarita glass from her and helps direct the straw towards her mouth. Angela's hands cover his as she takes a few sips.
She leans back and makes a face to Tommy off-camera. “Tastes like pop rocks.”
“The two best musical genres besides musical theater,” Damien says.
That gets a big laugh from her and Damien openly smiles back at her.
The stream continues and through luck Angela somehow gets fourth place.
“I won?” Angela stands up in shock. “I beat Damien!”
“You did!” Damien congratulates her and offers her a high-five. “Who cares who else is on this stream,” he adds, earning a snort of laughter from Shayne.
Angela, not paying attention, twirls her tail in victory before freezing in place. Her eyes dart around in panic. “That was so embarrassing. Can we cut that?”
“This is a stream, Angela!” Spencer reminds her.
She collapses to the floor, dramatically. “I’m drunk. I can’t be held responsible for what I’ve done.”
“No, I’m pretty sure it is a crime to be this ador…” Damien cuts himself off from finishing his sentence. He cannot directly call Angela adorable on stream, even if it is true.
Thankfully, there’s enough crosstalk from all the drunkies in the room that Damien’s pretty sure it covers his slip up.
Angela does seem to spiral a bit into the end of the stream.
“You good?” Damien checks in once the stream is over.
She’s taken off the headpiece art department had made for her and is now just in her pink jumpsuit. “Yeah, I’m good. Just never, ever going to look back at this stream.”
“You did awesome. You even beat me.”
Angela half-smiles. “I know deep down it pained you to say that.”
“Not as much as the clips from this stream are going to pain you later.”
“Hey!”
“Is what horses eat.”
“I will pummel you.”
“You would hurt 'It’s a me, Mario?' A fellow Italino?”
“Don’t use my heritage against me,” she says sternly but cracks a second later. Damien feels a little rush of pride that she now has a genuine smile on her face.
iv. vidcon
Damien decides to leave the little hangout they’re having in Mac’s hotel room at Vidcon sometime after 11:00 PM. To his surprise, Angela decides to go with him.
“Angela,” Damien says, grabbing her attention from her phone, “we’re in an elevator.”
She gives him a confused look. “Yes…”
“So my top ten favorite voiceover roles, in no particular order are..”
“STOP IT! STOP IT!” she yells and starts whacking him on the shoulder with her hands.
“Angela! Ow!” Damien steps away from her. “That’s my tattoo arm!”
“It is? Oh my god. I'm an idiot. Are you okay?” She goes to touch his shoulder again but ends up hovering over it.
“I’ll live.”
“I feel awful. What can I do? Are you hungry? I’ll UberEats you some pasta!”
Damien honestly can’t tell if this offer is because she’s so drunk or so Italian. Probably both. He says as much aloud.
“Okay, well, so I already got spaghetti carbonara sent to the hotel lobby.” Angela gives him a sheepish smile. “Help me eat it?”
“Sure,” Damien agrees with a shake of his head.
They ride the elevator down to the lobby to pick up the food, then go back up to the room Angela’s sharing with Chanse and Arasha.
In the room, they end up sitting down on the carpet between the twin beds, takeout box between them. Angela grins at him, then rubs her hands together. “Let’s crack this puppy open and see what’s inside.”
“I don’t want to see dog bones, Angula,” Damien replies dryly.
She shushes him. She opens the box up and hands him a fork. They take the first bite at the same time, and Angela immediately makes a noise.
Damien shoots her a look at the sound.
“Sorry, this is just better than expected.”
Damien lets out a nervous giggle. He eats a couple more bites but mostly remains distracted. Angela’s noises are interesting. He’s never heard her sound like this during Eat It or Yeet It or during lunches.
Before he knows it the pasta is gone and Angela’s lying back. The box is discarded. Her head is not in his lap but is close enough to make his heart beat faster.
“Are you going to buy more tank tops? Show off the tattoo?”
“Maybe,” he responds after a bit. “It might take away from my stupid pants budget.”
“I like your stupid pants. Your entire fit rocks.”
“Thanks.”
“You're not going to compliment me back?” Angela says, sitting up and giving him an offended look.
“You know you always look good.”
“I'm wearing hoodies or weird costumes most of the time you see me,” she dismisses.
“And you light up the room.”
“Stop it!” She shyly covers her face. “Don't look at me.”
“But I want to.”
Slowly, Angela drops her hand and stares at him.
Damien feels a swell of affection so big he can't help but want to tell her. “Angela, I—”
“Bitch, did you eat all the pasta?” Chanse stumbles through the open hotel door.
The moment lost, Damien turns away from her.
“You're about twenty minutes too late.”
“Damn.” Chanse’s face falls dramatically. He does a double take. “Wait, Damien? When'd you get here?”
“Well, it all started in a military base in Germany—”
“Gesundheit,” Angela cuts in.
“ —And now it's time for me to say goodbye.”
“No, I'm kidding.” Angela grabs his forearm to keep him from getting up. “You don't have to go.”
“Yeah, stay,” Chanse adds, crawling into the queen bed.
Damien shakes his head. “No, I should head back to my room. We have an early checkout tomorrow.”
He convinces himself that he imagined the disappointment in her eyes and heads back to his room.
While he’s finishing washing his face later that night, his phone buzzes with a notification.
mold queen (1:29 AM): soryyy i made thins awk tonight
garland (1:30 AM): No way
garland (1:30 AM): You didn’t
garland (1:30 AM): I had fun
mold queen (1:32 AM): so u didnt run outtt room
mold queen (1:33 AM):?
garland (1:35 AM): Who runs from the light
mold queen (1:36 AM): vampires
mold queen (1:36 AM): like you
garland (1:37 AM):🙄
garland (1:37 AM): And yet I suffer willingly
mold queen (1:38 AM): good nite 🦇
garland (1:39 AM): night
garland (1:39 AM): drink water
garland (1:40 AM): don’t let the bats bite
mold queen (1:41 AM): no that’s just for u
garland (1:43 AM): ?
garland (1:43 AM): wut
mold queen (1:45 AM): lol
mold queen (1:45 AM): urr a vamprie
garland (1:47 AM): …
garland (1:49 AM): Goodnight, Angela
+1. The Halloween Party
“Hi, I’m Mariah,” the witch that opens the door to introduce herself. Mariah sticks out a hand for him to shake.
He takes it, and gives it a firm, if awkward shake. “Damien.”
“Angela’s new bestie!”
He gives her an awkward smile. “You might be confusing me with Amanda.”
“No, you’re the one Ange can’t stop mentioning.”
Damien laughs. Awkwardly, of course.
He follows Mariah into Angela’s apartment. Mariah stops to put his coat away for him and Damien takes the opportunity to take in the decorations. He’s honestly impressed. Angela is a true theater kid at heart.
Unsurprisingly, the place was packed. Angela had told him her Halloween party would be for close friends only. At the time, Damien had been elated he had made the cut. Now, after taking in the room, it seemed Angela had quadruple the amount of close friends as he had. Which, honestly, fair.
Speaking of the devil and angel of his life, Angela catches his eyes and breaks away from the group she was talking to.
“Damien! You’re here!” She grins up at him, bouncing on her feet.
Her excitement is infectious and causes his smile to grow. “Are you…”
“I’m Lefou!”
“A sexy Lefou,” Mariah says, elbowing the shorter woman lightly.
“Well, that’s just obvious,” Angela says, twirling and making her petticoat fan out. “Have you seen Chanse yet? He’s Gaston! The V-neck on his shirt is so deep I’m pretty sure you can see his belly button.”
“I haven't yet. But can you guess who I am?”
“You’re that guy,” Angela says, eyes scanning his costume. “From that…show!?”
“Still in Antarctica but take a few more guesses. You might catch a plane to the tropics.”
Angela makes one of her growly frustrated noises at him. “A movie?”
“Slightly warmer.”
Angela looks to Mariah for help, who puts her hands up in a helpless manner. “This is all you babe.”
“You’re some kind of vampire…”
He raises an eyebrow at her.
“No, no, wait I can do this.”
Her face scrunches up in thought. Damien takes a full minute to enjoy the sight before stating, “I’m David from The Lost Boys .”
“David?!” Angela makes a disgusted face. “What kind of vampire name is David?”
“Oh, what? You expected it to be Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way?”
“No! But David? David is not a sexy vampire name. Even your actual name, Damien, is, like, more fitting.”
Damien’s pretty sure his brain short circuits at hearing Angela say his name and sexy in the same sentence.
“Congratulations, Angela. You’ve figured it out. This is my true form.”
She reaches out to grab the collar of his coat. “I knew those cloaks weren’t for show.”
He realizes how close they’re standing together. He glances around to see if anyone’s noticed, but even Mariah’s wandered off.
“You want a drink?” Angela offers. Damien, ruminating over their close proximity, takes a moment to process her question.
“Yes, I like my blood shaken, not stirred.”
She rolls her eyes at him with a smile and starts pulling him by the wrist further into the apartment. They end up in the kitchen and Angela ends up making two drinks without alcohol.
She must be able to read his surprise well, because she explains. “I’m not drinking tonight either.”
“I hope it’s not on my account.”
“Nah, I gotta make sure my place doesn’t get trashed. Especially by me.”
He snorts. Together, they cheers their drinks.
They’re still joking together when someone Damien vaguely recognizes from her Starkid stories comes up to Angela and draws her away.
Unfortunately, that’s the most he gets to speak with Angela for the next hour and a half. Of course, he sees her, jumping around from group to group but it’s never one-on-one. Damien spends some time with familiar Smosh people like Chanse and Erin. He speaks to some newer people who seem to already know who is. And not for his voice acting or Smosh. Or even So Random. He ends up hearing, “The heart of the cards,” more times than he can keep track of. And only one of them actually even knows what Yu-Gi-Oh! is.
Damien, spotting Angela sitting on the arm of her couch and not directly in conversation, goes up to her. He lightly touches her shoulder. It’s bare, as she’s lost the petticoat sometime in the night and now is just wearing a red vest. Damien resists staring at the bow around her neck.
“I think I’m going to head out.”
She stands up and Damien expects her to hug him goodbye. Instead, she says, “Let me go get your coat for you.”
Angela leads him back to a room down the hallway. She’s holding his coat in her hands. He can feel her staring at his face.
“What?”
“Nothing. I was just…just wondering; If, uh, how do you kiss with the fangs?”
“I don’t really know, um, know, I guess.”
“Do you want to?”
Damien blinks hard multiple times, unsure she’s saying what he thinks she’s saying. If only she would say —
“Do you want to kiss me?”
“Fuck yes,” he replies instantly.
“And you want to kiss me?” Damien asks, just to be sure.
“YES,” Angela answers, just as emphatically as him.
There’s no denying the flush on Angela’s face when he’s this close, even in the dim light of the room.
He leans down and she tilts her head up. She must also try to get on her toes a bit, because she stumbles, falling into him. He wraps one arm around her waist, balancing and bringing her close.
Angela brings her hands to his face and gently pulls his face closer. “Damien,” she whispers, urgently.
With care, their lips finally meet. Damien is enraptured by the touch of her soft lips on his, her small hands on his jaw, and the warmth of her body against his.
Angela makes a noise, and he resists his heart urging him to brush his lips against hers again Instead, he rests his forehead against hers. “You okay?”
“Yes, that was a happy noise. We should do that again.”
Damien makes a noise of agreement, before actually thinking. “What if someone comes in for their coat?”
Angela looks at all the coats on the bed back to the door.
Damien sighs. “Angela, you can’t just throw all these coats out of the room.”
“Why not?”
“Angula .”
“Fine,” she agrees with a pout. “I wish I didn’t throw this party.”
“Why did you?”
“I needed a reason for you to come over.”
“I would have always come over.”
“Yeah, but I also needed a distraction if this, um, didn’t go how it went.”
Damien gives her an incredulous look. “Angela, how could there have been any doubt?”
“You’re so nice that I wasn’t sure!”
“I’ve had a crush on you since before the Christmas party!”
“I basically told you I had a crush on you then!”
“What? No, you didn’t! You said my face was annoying!”
“It is. It makes me want to kiss you all the time!”
Before Damien can think of a response to that, there’s a polite knock at the door.
An unfamiliar voice comes from behind the door saying, “Um, can you guys stop fighting or, uh, flirting for a sec? I need my jacket.”
They share a look before bursting into shared laughter.