"Mate, I need a break," I told my friend Tom over Skype just as we had finished our DOTA match, "I think my legs are going numb."

"Are you still sitting on that bin?" he asking, laughter filling my headset. We had just been screaming at each other for half an hour, but as always we were fine once we stopped playing the game.

"I just moved in!" I defended.

"Four days ago mate!" he shouted back, his boisterous personality shinning through both his playing and banter.

"I set up my desk?" I shrugged, saying goodbye to Tom for a few minutes as I walked around the new flat. Boxes and a pullout sofa that I had been using to sleep on because our bed wasn't built yet cluttered the main living area. I had unpacked a box of clothes and all of my gaming equipment, but other than that, I hadn't made much progress. Amanda's things had already arrived as well, and I knew she would kill me if I touched those without her being here.

I shuffled around a stack of boxes which were ambiguously labeled 'computers' and padded over to the bright tank on the other side of the room. "Hey mate," I greeted the sea cucumber, "You going to do something interesting for me tonight?" Kevin had been specially shipped through a service overseas, and I was surprised when I picked him up at the local veterinarian clinic that he hadn't expelled all his internal organs (Which is apparently something they do when they get too stressed). I couldn't imagine breaking the news to Amanda that her precious pet had committed unnecessary suicide.

"Sit," I told him, reaching into the tank to check the temperature. My girlfriend had given me specific care instructions for the few days that she wasn't going to be here, and keeping a constant temperature was one of them. Of course it wouldn't be an issue if the heat in my flat wasn't absolutely broken and it was pumping out hot air 24/7, which explained why I periodically turned a fan on his tank in hopes that it cooled it.

"Roll over?" I tried, watching him sit there, immobile. I quickly realized how stupid I seemed talking to the glorified slug, and looked around my empty flat to make sure no one had seen me. Looking at a clock I had set on one of the boxes by my sleeping area, I saw that it was already 2:34 in the morning.

"Manda is coming in a few days Kevin," I said, continuing to talk to the echinoderm, "Don't you worry..." I patted his tank, shook out my legs, and trudged back over to Tom and the rest of my crew.

"Listen, I'm going to sleep," I told them, earning a chorus of boos and swears, "I think I've had enough of this stress for one night." As much as I loved DOTA, it's probably taking years off of my life; if I were a sea cucumber, I would have probably expelled my internal organs by now.

I said goodbye to the guys and shut off my computer, plunging the flat into darkness. I figured I didn't have to go and hit the light switch to navigate my way to the couch, so I took my chances and felt my way through the gauntlet of boxes.

I was too late to stop before I hit the first box, kicking in so hard I felt my foot go through it and I scrambled to the left so I wouldn't fall on top of it. My elbow it the side of the couch, so I was able to lessen the impact on the rest of my body, but I still felt my face heat up with embarrassment. I hoped it wasn't one of the boxes labeled 'computers', and I scrambled for my phone on the cushion near me to get some light. As I had expected, there was a large hole where my foot disappeared on the side of the crushed box, and I could just make out a memo scrawled on the side in Amanda's bad hand writing.

I detangled myself carefully from the cardboard and used my phone to navigate to the light switch by the door, lighting the room up with a dim glow. The box had been forced open on impact, and the contents spilled across the floor. The thing that surprised me the most was the number of sketchbooks that all slid across one another like a stack of cards, and I groaned at the idea of having to explain what happened to Amanda.

I picked one up and started to stack them on another box, telling myself I would make it look more presentable tomorrow; right now I was just checking for major damage. A couple of pictures were scattered loosely between all the books, and more were framed among the rubble. I checked for cracks in the glass, observing Amanda at various stages of development and posed with various people. There was one man in particular who dominated most of the photos, and from his facebook profile I could tell it was her brother.

After I had gotten most of the pictures and books stacked safely away, I started to sort through all the other materials here. A big cut of red cloth was neatly folded at the bottom of the destroyed box, and after pulling it out I realized that every inch of it was covered in patches. There were large, collections of patches that looked as if they belonged in a set, and others were labeled for things like specific summer camps or something called a 'national jamboree'. I smiled and shook my head, having not realized how big a part of her life it used to be. Some of the pictures I had seen had been of her and other teenage boys and girls in uniforms, or of Amanda surrounded by kids in matching camp shirts. I would have to ask her more about it when she got here; I'm sure she had some entertaining stories to tell about some of these pictures and patches.

I yawned, letting out a tired moan as I finished clearing out the box and threw it in the vicinity of my chair/the bin; I would do something with it tomorrow. Since I was already in just a pair of pants because of the heat, I just fell onto the sofa, not even bothering to pull it out into a proper bed. I knew I would have to clean up the dirty clothes, pizza and takeout boxes, and beer cans before I pick up Amanda Thursday, but that infernal game was probably going to continue to keep me from it. I absently thought about what it would be like balancing my girlfriend and my evening and very early morning gaming life; I would probably have to use actual dishes and silverware, as well as wearing actual clothes.

I curled up under a thin blanket, trying to will myself to go to sleep. My brain continued to fire from my game, but what bothered me more was the stack of sketchbooks that sat only a few feet away from me. I had been sensitive enough not to root through her stuff when she wasn't around, but since they were easily accessible and I hadn't actually opened the box, my curiosity was once again spiking.

"I'll just skim through a few of them," I muttered to myself, throwing off the blanket and plugging in a desk light that was in one of my own opened boxes. The books were all labeled by year, the oldest one being 04-05. That would put Amanda somewhere around 13 or 14, and since it also had the label 'art, bell 9' I assumed it was her school sketchbook and didn't hold some kind of dark secret or anything like that.

It had a bunch of assignments and papers talking about basic drawing techniques and color theory, but I got luckier at the back of the book, finding what looked like more personal art. I couldn't help but snort at the pathetic attempts to draw faces, and it was even funnier that they all seemed to be bands or very scene and emo looking men and women. Amanda had joked about her '7th grade emo phase' before, but I had no idea it was this bad. All the faces had horribly skewed features or messy looking line work, nothing like the more recent work she always sent me.

I set that one aside, and decided against all the other ones with stickers and picture collages on the front covers, knowing I would probably get the same result from them. One with a scene from space painted across the cover looked promising, and I saw that it was from her freshman year. Again, there were a lot of assignments in it, and it looked like she took potery or sculpture that year. The face studies in it weren't much better than what I had seen in the first book, but at least she seemed to be drawing less bands and emo idols and more of her friends and family.

I spent a lot more time going through the high school books. As she progressed, her sketchbook techniques seemed to improve, and by senior year she had pressed leaves, collages, photos, articles and magazine clippings, theory references, and just a more professional and impressive use of space. It seemed that junior and senior year was big years for her art, and I assumed that's when she had decided to switch her major and follow art.

I couldn't even begin to describe her university sketchbooks. For one, they were all differentiated by class, which made up the bulk of all sketchbooks there. The sculpture ones were filled with technical looking drawings and plans, and every page of the mixed media book was filled with color and printed pictures and painting techniques. I especially loved the ones that pertained to her major; there were dragons and fantastic creatures and environment art that looked as if they all belonged in video games or movies or that card game she was always showing me. There was even a very miniature sketchbook that had comic panels filling the pages, and I knew I had to read that at some point before she gets here.

The last sketchbook was labeled 'portraits' and had penguins decorating the cover. I opened to the first page, seeing my girlfriend smiling back at me. After seeing all the terrible drawings of herself and others from middle school and early highschool, this was the book I was most excited to see. There were recognizable people filling the pages, and all her work was breathtakingly impressive. They got better (if that was even possible) as I flipped the pages, and I noticed video game characters, book characters, film and TV stars, and countless numbers of Youtuber portraits. I smiled when I saw Ross and Trott, and gave out a tiny exclimation when I flipped a few more pages and saw a portrait of Amanda and myself. We were both laughing, big grins frozen on both of our faces. The signature and date at the bottom right-hand corner told me that she had drawn this long before we had started dating. It felt silly now that we've been dating for almost two years, but just knowing she was thinking about me as much as I was her in those first few months after Minecon made me feel warm and comforted.

I pulled out my phone once again, seeing that it was still pretty early in Texas. "I love you," I typed quickly into the Facebook messenger, eager for a reply.

"Smith, it's 3 in the morning over there!" she replied almost instantly, "What are you still doing up?"

"I was too excited," I told her, adding a wink at the end of it.

"There's this great porn site I know that can fix that," she said, and I let out a bark of laughter at her dry humor; I could almost hear the sarcasm in her voice.

"I meant that I'm so excited to see you in a couple of days that I couldn't sleep" I informed her, only half lying.

"I'm not Santa," she typed, and then continued, "The only present I bring is half the rent for the month."

"And you're breathtaking beauty," I japed.

"I'm almost sure you've seen what I look like when I wake up in the morning," she remarked.

I actually hadn't seen her in the mornings much because she always left for runs before I woke up, but on a few occasions I had witness her bed head at it's worst. Still, I was fine with dealing with a white girl afro if it meant waking up next to her everyday; just thinking about it made my heart beat faster and my lips to pull back in a smile. "Shush. You're gorgeous," I told her, "I love you."

"I love you too, now please go to bed. I don't need a sleep deprived Smiffy tomorrow during recording," she told me, adding an emoji with his tongue sticking out at the end of it.

"I've recorded on less sleep before," I pointed out, "And besides, I have a lot of IMPORTANT things to do."

"You're playing DOTA arn't you," she replied, and I knew it wasn't a question.

"I'm the star player!" I joked, actually tempted to get back on my computer and pull an all-nighter. That's also something I had done before, although regretted it the next day when I had to record for the main channel.

"At least get a couple hours," she said, adding a sad face, "I'll call you guys around 11, your time."

"But that's so EARLY," I emphasized.

"Goodnight Smith..." she typed.

"Goodnight beautiful," I replied feeling mildly flirty.

"Sleep tight!" she added, "Don't let the bed bugs steal all the food from our fridge!"

I scratched the back of my head and laughed. "We don't actually have a refridgerator right now," I told her. The one that was here had broken, and still had moldy food in it from the last owners when I had first checked it. The landlord had ordered us a new one, but I didn't bother to go buy perishable food until it actually got here (which also explains why I've been eating fast food for a solid five days now).

"Wait, Really?" she asked, and then quickly added, "Actually, I don't want to know. For the last time, goodnight Smith!"

I sent her a heart to finish the conversation, and I watched as her icon went off line. Turning off the light, I curled up into the sofa for the second time tonight, but after that conversation it was much easier to fall asleep. My head was filled with thoughts of her as I drifted off into sleep, and more images of her flooded into my dreams.

A/N Good day! (Or night... it's late here...) I'm really sorry I havn't updated this in so long, but now that the story is starting to pick up again I'll have more motivation to write it. I'm thinking that a long time jump is in order, but I don't have many concret plans to speed up the story and bring it to the present yet. If you're also following Hardened, you'll already know this, but I just want to let you guys know that I've been sick for the past few months (Lots of virtigo and some fainting, but I'm anemic and trying to claw my way through finals, so there's alot of things that could cause that), so if my stories haven't been written or planned out very well, or my updates are kinda slow, I want you guys to know why. Thanks for all your support as always, I might do a face reveal or Q and A sometime soon as a kind of reader appreciation thing, so until then, happy reading!

PS. I love you guys <3