1A/N
This is directly inspired by just a couple lines in the HuniePop fic "People Will Talk" by Missy on AO3. The whole story's only about a thousand words if you want to check it out, but the idea of Audrey and Nikki finding a way to bond by playing games with Nikki doing the gaming and Audrey doing the trash talk was too good to pass up, so I added it to an eventual "to do" list, and its turn came up. Due to the site's rules, I can't post a link to the story, or to the full picture from my thumbnail, but the story's still on AO3 and the picture's still on my DA and FA pages as of publishing.
As is often my way, I wrote a little thing to go along with the picture, and it ended up being longer than I expected but it was worth it, especially when I met my self-imposed challenge of starting the story and writing it to the end in one day. This story doesn't follow Missy's story, but I think the pic works just as well.
Death. Taxes. The tides. Sunrise and sunset. Disappointing sequels. Audrey wanting to go out. Nikki wanting to stay in. The commonalities of these are obvious: They're inevitable, and all but one of them are recurring.
Despite Audrey's well-earned reputation, once in a while, she let Nikki stay in without giving her too much shit. In fact, during those times, she sometimes joined her friend if Tiffany wasn't free. With her massive lack of patience, spending all night sitting around and watching stuff bored her, but she had to admit Nikki had good taste in video games, especially the fighting games she played. It was little different from watching a movie as far as her attention span was concerned, and she could handle that for an hour, maybe two if the game was good.
MMOs, on the other hand, she didn't even consider games. If she wanted to be in a huge world and interact with people...well why the fuck would she be playing games? That was one of the most pathetic ways to pretend to have a life as far as she was concerned. So tonight, when Tiffany had homework to do so Audrey showed up at her other friend's place to demand her time, Nikki's answer that she won an invitation to a new MMO's closed beta (followed by a short explanation of what that means) made the redhead realize she was going to have to endure a night of what she hated most: Boredom.
At least, that's how things used to be. While Audrey could handle the occasional night of watching Nikki play a fighter, that did nothing to stop her from being as chatty as she liked, to Nikki's annoyance. But a while ago, after too many sessions of Audrey's backseat gaming, they found a way they could both enjoy Nikki's favorite pastime when the blunette proposed a way Audrey could get involved, and to give her an outlet for her temper: Nikki played, Audrey trash talked. That way, both did what they were best at and neither had to be left out.
Sure, it resulted in a suspension here, a ban there, but watching Audrey yell at faceless strangers was strangely fun for Nikki. When it was in controlled doses, at least.
And tonight, as usual, Audrey had shit to talk about.
"Oh you bastard! You had one job: Get them to hit you, not us!" she yelled into her mic.
"Maybe you should be the main tank, you haven't shut up for half an hour and I wanna hit you!" their unseen party member retorted.
"You live in Glenberry?! Come 'n get me!" Audrey snapped back.
Nikki just smiled and shook her head. Same as always.
Indeed, things continued like this for a while, and would have probably stayed just another night of Audrey toeing the line of appropriateness, until...
"Goddamn it, this group sucks!" some guy in their party complained.
Nikki took a second to speak, answering, "More like this beta sucks. One of my class abilities just doesn't work, the other is totally OP..."
Audrey, already bored of this game and messing with her phone more than watching Nikki play, said, "Just turn it off and play something else, Nik. I'm hungry anyway. You still got those apples I brought over?"
"Wait a sec, you two are together?" he asked.
"Yyyeah. She's my friend," Nikki answered. "Oh right, you're the new guy in our guild, you haven't-"
She was cut off by laughter from the other end, followed by, "Holy shit, is she always on her period like this?"
Audrey stopped whatever she was doing on her phone and glanced up at the screen. "The fuck you just say to me?"
"I wasn't talking to you. TruthSeeker, or...'Nik' I guess your real name is, what's your friend's problem? Why does her every...syllable have to be so bratty?"
Audrey's eyebrow twitched, making Nikki inch her chair away reflexively. "'Bratty?'" Audrey echoed. "Oh, Hell no..."
"How do you even stand her? You seem pretty chill-"
"How about we just...drop it already?" Nikki asked.
"How about you shut up, Nik," Audrey said with barely contained hostility, "I don't take no bullshit from anyone."
Nikki did what her friend said and kept quiet, ready to enjoy the show.
"And you, keep talking," Audrey went on while she tapped on her phone.
"Hah, about what? Was I not clear when I asked why you're being such a bitch? What, you want me to ask you why a girl's playing video games? Need some easy ammo?" he asked tauntingly.
Another player chimed in, "Both of you, shut up, people're streaming and recording, y'know."
"No, now I got it. I know this voice," Audrey said with a little giggle, "holy shit, I can't believe it, but I know you."
"Izzat so?" the player intent on tempting fate asked.
Nikki's eyes went back and forth between the screen and Audrey before she said, "I mean, this guild I'm playing with right now, we're mostly local, like from back in school and some still go there, so..."
"Peeerfect," Audrey purred, a predatory grin spreading across her face even as Nikki typed a message in the game's chat without sending it so Audrey could read it:
DON'T SAY HIS NAME, AUDREY. Don't get me in deep shit.
"Chill, Nik. I got something better. Now, you, gamer guy, lemme ask you something. April 3, two years ago. That date ring any bells?" Audrey asked.
"...No?"
"Maybe you remember...sneaking around a certain locker room at a certain school?" she asked.
"...Should I?"
"I'd hope you would. Because I wasn't there, but someone else was. Someone who caught you doing something bad. Someone I knew."
"You think you know."
"You were in the girls' locker room and going through their stuff like the most virginal loser of all time," she said confidently.
"Don't project your kinky fantasies onto me," he answered dryly.
She was quiet for a few seconds as she tapped on her phone, then stopped and sat still for a bit longer. And then...
"How the fuck did you get this," he demanded, "and how do you know my number?!"
By now, scattered laughter was dotting the chat, and Nikki was covering her mouth to silence her own chuckling.
"Toldja I know who you are, and aren't you lucky that number I got from looking you up was you and I didn't send 'em to some rando to maybe post on the net?"
"You fucking..."
"I gotta know, were you already wearing those panties when she took that video, or did she make you wear 'em first? She never told me."
"I swear to God..."
"Oh don't be so modest, that's one of the worst pictures. You look sooo much better in the pink ones."
Nikki clamped her hand harder over her mouth as sputters of laughter broke through her fingers, mixing with the hoots and howls in the chat and a stream of cussing from their former teammate. Audrey, meanwhile, grinned at the screen before the contagious laughter spread to her too.
Finally, she was able to speak again, sort of. "Heheheh, so if you don't want...haha...your parents to see those...just f-f-fuck off," she chortled, "and stay outta my way."
"Go to Hell!" he spat before a message popped up in the now-very-active chat that he'd logged off.
-A Week Later-
ring ring
"Hey, Audrey."
"Yo, Nik! Tif's finally free. You down?"
"No. Thanks to your thing last week, I gotta find something new to fill my time."
"What?! You were so hyped up for that game! And you were laughing as much as I was at that loser getting put in his place! Haha, I can't remember the last time you laughed so hard."
"And someone else who was recording posted the footage and audio to the forums, and now the community's heard it."
"Really? Kick ass!"
"Yeah, they're laughing, but the devs aren't. It got me kicked out of the beta. You're lucky it didn't get me kicked out of my guild, and they like you, but that guy's stopped coming."
"Tch, you probably have others. No party-less nerd is ever in just one cult."
"Now I'm actually glad that game looks like it's kinda gonna suck in the end, feels like I'm not missing much."
"Sooo you're gonna bum me out and sit in your room again?"
"And play something I already know's good. We had our fun last week, go party with Tiffany."
"Hey, check it out, you told me why it's called a beta. Now we know my reason."
"What?"
"Playing that beta game sucked but watching me 'play' that beta male fucking rocked."
"...God damn it."
"I can hear you smiling."
"Goodbye, Audrey."
"Hahaha!"
A/N Cont
And with this, I've gotten the achievement: "BLUE FIRE: Produce a work that centers on Audrey and Nikki." This continues to be a fun game to write about from imagining how these characters would interact with each other if they had more shared screentime than they do, but Audrey and Nikki's meeting at the club has always been one of my favorites, with me being able to quote it for years after I first saw it and before I finally played the game. Knowing me, I would've thought that if I ever wrote something about them, it would be about them as more than friends but sometimes I surprise myself.
HuniePop (c) HuniePot.
Inspired by "People Will Talk" by Missy on Archive of Our Own.
Picture and thumbnail done for me by NailsTRabbit.
This story's copyright policy: "Sharing is caring." Do what you like with this story, not like I can do anything to stop you, in fact I'd be flattered you'd want to share it or save it so you can read it whenever you want. All I ask is that you link back to the original source. Versions that can be copied are on my DA, FA and AO3 pages (I'm Evertide there too).