Work Text:
Ping!
Mumbo pauses his laptop at the sound, abandoning the latest episode of HotGuy!!! he was watching to check the notification. It’s a comment under a post of his, one theorizing that CuteGuy and the infamous PoultryMan are secretly the same person.
@goodtimeswithscar commented:
dude, that’s what I’ve been saying! it’s way too supsicous that cute guy is always “on a mission” when poultry man makes an appaerance
Mumbo does his best to ignore the typos and lack of capitalization as he types his reply.
@mumbojumbo commented:
Yes! Exactly! Everyone tells me I’m wrong because they have different voice actors, but I’m not buying it
Just as he hits send, another notification appears, then another and another as “goodtimeswithscar” likes the past 15 posts Mumbo made at once. The next ping is a new follower, so Mumbo takes a look at the user’s page. His new follower (Scar, as the bio states) is clearly a huge fan of the HotGuy series. There’s countless reposts of theories and discussions, and a painting of HotGuy HQ that puts Mumbo’s own fanart to shame. Mumbo shares the post, gushing about the accuracy and colors, before following Scar back.
And that’s where it began.
Mumbo didn’t expect anything to come from a random online mutual, figured it’d just be another person who interacts with his posts sometimes. Comments agreeing with theories became conversations discussing new episodes, and somewhere along the line, they became friends. At least, Mumbo was pretty sure they were friends. He never was good at knowing such things.
By the time they were talking daily, Mumbo stopped questioning their friendship. His conversations with Scar shifted from fandom-based to just about anything they could think of. Their other interests, their jobs, what they were up to each day. Mumbo received a constant supply of cat photos from Scar, while Scar got detailed (and confusing) updates on Mumbo’s engineering projects. They even started playing online games together, chatting over the phone for hours.
Scar was a good friend to Mumbo. He didn’t make him feel embarrassed for his nerdy, childish interests. He didn’t question Mumbo’s strange, anxious thought patterns. Conversations felt natural, and Mumbo found himself rereading them on occasion when Scar was busy.
So really, Mumbo shouldn’t have been as shocked as was to realize he’d developed a crush.
Maybe it was the kindness, or the attention, or those damn cat pics where Scar was shirtless in the background. Maybe it was just everything. The late nights and daily chats that made it feel like they lived just down the street from one another.
…
Right. Mumbo is from England, and Scar is in the US. Thousands of miles apart. There’s no way it could work out for them. Sure, people do long-distance, but those are people who met in real life and fell in love, not people who met talking about some cartoon online. It just doesn’t work like that, does it?
Mumbo tried to ignore the way his heart fluttered every time Scar’s username popped up on his lock screen. He tried to stop replying to every message within seconds. “Trying” and “succeeding” are two very different things, though. Despite his best efforts, Mumbo just couldn’t get Scar out of his head. And when Scar’s texts slowly started turning flirtatious, he knew he wouldn’t be getting over this.
“Scar, no- how are you messing this up?” Mumbo laughs, watching Scar fumble another maneuver in the game they’re playing. It’s become a regular thing for them in the past six months, and Mumbo wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Sorry I’m not some gaming-whiz like you!” Scar jabs back and groans as he fails again.
“Mate, I’m not even good at this stuff. I think you just need to Get Good.”
After struggling for a minute more and starting to get genuinely frustrated, Scar gives up, claiming it’s only because Mumbo needs to get to bed.
“I say we call it night, hm? It must be late for you over there.”
Mumbo hums, not buying the excuse. “I’m pretty sure you’re just rage-quitting. But yeah, I am quite tired…”
“Yeah…”
They sit in silence for a minute, neither making any move to hang up.
“I kinda hate ending our calls.” Scar says, huffing out a weak laugh.
“Yeah,” Mumbo says, hoping he’s masking the longing in his voice. “I do too.”
Scar takes a breath before he carries on. “It’d be pretty cool if we lived closer to each other, wouldn’t it? We could, you know. Hang out, and stuff.”
Mumbo’s heart is in his throat. “Yeah. That’d be cool… it’d be nice if we could be together.”
There’s a beat of silence before Mumbo realized what he’s said.
“Not like- together together, obviously. I mean- I wouldn’t- well, it wouldn’t be bad, if that, you know, happened. I just- I meant. Friends. In person.”
Scar is still silent, and Mumbo mentally curses himself for slipping like that.
“So, you… wouldn’t mind if it was the other way?” Scar asks hesitantly, his voice taking on a shyness that Mumbo’s not familiar with from him.
“What, like, dating? Us?”
A pause. “Yeah.”
Mumbo thinks he might pass out with the way his heart is racing. Is Scar asking him out? Is this even real?
“I uh, I wouldn’t mind that. At all. I’d… really like that, actually.”
Scar seems to light up at that. “Yeah? ‘Cause I’d really like that too.”
“I’ve been into you for ages, of course I’d like that.” Mumbo replies, his excitement evident in his voice.
“Oh- really? Wow. Uh. Cool.”
“Cool.”
More silence.
“Now I really don’t want to hang up,” Scar says. “Hanging up on my boyfriend is even worse than hanging up on my friend.”
Mumbo is grateful that they’re not using their cameras, because his face goes bright red when he hears Scar call him his boyfriend. “Me too. It is really, really late here, though.”
Scar sighs. “I know. Well, goodnight then, Mumbo.”
“Goodnight, Scar.”
They both hesitate a moment more, before Mumbo bites the bullet and ends the call. He sits in complete silence, staring at Scar’s icon on Discord.
Boyfriend. He’s Scar’s boyfriend. And Scar is his. Yeah, they’re continents apart, but Mumbo can tell- Scar is worth every mile.