slow burn; sapnap

twenty four

so i haven't wrote in a while on this story and don't really remember what filler stuff i originally planned so if it's okay with y'all we are going to skip to twitchcon and i will most likely come back later for more professional filler lol

hadden and nick had spent the last week together leading up to twitchcon. it was filled with so many fun and sweet moment and both mutually wondering if they should discuss their airport kiss.

the deja vu of the event became real as they arrived back to the airport to travel to san diego for twitchcon. with nick, corpse, and dream being the only content creators she had ever met, this would be her first interactions with other content creators and first ever experience meeting fans.

twitch graciously worked out a creator schedule for her despite her last second registration.

she would have a meet and greet with both tina and sylvee as well as being included on the dsmp panel and the women partners panel.

hadden was a bit apprehensive about joining the dsmp panel due to her lack of involvement over the last year, but dream insisted and started pulling strings before she could say no.

as soon as they touched down in the airport, nick and hadden immediately adorned their heads with masks and and hoods, wanting to avoid meeting anyone until hadden could first meet her friends. the first of these, being george.

"he said their rental is a black tesla." sapnap said looking around the pickup zone of the airport.

"like that one?" hadden pointed to the car pulled up to the sidewalk where she saw both dream and george standing outside of it.

george saw hadden as soon as she saw them and he instantly ran over to greet her.

"august!" he wrapped his arms around the significantly smaller girl, lifting her about a foot off the ground.

"george! oh my goodness i'm finally meeting you." she squeezed her arms around him tight before he sat her down.

"i haven't seen you in a while, where's my hug?" nick frowned as he rolled both of their bags over. george quickly hugged him as well.

"hi august." dream wrapped as arm around her as she wrapped her arms around his torso.

"what's up mr. face reveal?" hadden referenced his most recent video where he finally revealed to the world what he looks like.

the four friends all got into the same car and made their way to the hotel where they and all of their friends would be staying over the weekend. their evening plans revolved around getting settled into their rooms before going to a big content creator party.

at the hotel hadden was sharing a room with tina who had het to arrive yet, so she was able to have some time to herself to process everything that was going to happen. the expectation after tonight would be the regularity of her face in the media. at this point all that the internet had seen of her was what she allowed, but after tonight she would be able to control what other creators or fans posted, which was scary to consider.

hadden decided to bare the anxiety of the situation and she quickly got ready for the evening. she changed from her comfy airport attire and put on an oversized sweatshirt with a mini skirt underneath. she combed out her hair and put on just a bit of blush and mascara.

just as she was wrapping up, there was a knock on her door.

"coming!" she shouted as she adjusted her outfit in the mirror one last time.

"your escorts are here!" a muffled british voice said through the door.

"please don't call yourselves escorts." hadden said as she opened the door, expecting to see dream, george, and nick but also finding karl and quackity.

"woah- oh my gosh, hi!" hadden wrapped her arms around both karl and quackity as they both brought her in for a hug.

"hey august." karl said giving her a tight hug.

"this is so weird. i need to quit having faceless friends because meeting is so weird. like, i know you posted yourself. but this is still weird." quackity rambled.

the group of six made their way to the elevators and downstairs to hopefully meet their uber that they ordered.

"just so you know, we were in the lobby earlier and there are a ton of fans." nick whispered into hadden's ear.

these little things mattered. he knew her mind and what made her anxious. before they left the elevator he gave her hand a quick squeeze of reassurance.

"hey! could i get a picture with you all? i'm a huge fan." a girl who couldn't have been older that 13 ran up to the group.

everyone replied in some fashion of yes, but hadden stepped aside, assuming they wanted their photo with the feral boys. as they were taking their picture, hadden felt a tap on her shoulder.

"hi, are you august?" a boy close to sixteen years old asked.

"yes i am! what's your name?" hadden put on as much enthusiasm as possible to hide her nerves.

"i'm eric. could i maybe get a picture with you? i'm a really big fan and have been watching your let's plays for a really long time."

"of course."

as soon as the phone was lifted to take a selfie, hadden instinctively raised her fingers to do a peace sign next to her face as if it were a signature pose of hers.

once the photo was taken she was instantly surrounded by fans asking if she was august and wanting photos taken. she tried taking as many as she could but found herself getting overwhelmed, and nick noticed.

"i think we should get going," nick said loud enough for all of their friends to hear. "thank you guys!"

he delicately grabbed hadden's hand and led her away from the large group and out the front doors of the hotel where the uber was waiting. they got to the car before the others.

"you okay?"

"yeah i'm alright. that's just a lot. its cool, but its a lot." hadden said staring out the window at the fans trying to peak into the car.

"you did awesome though. a lot better than my first time meeting a bunch of fans."

nick gave her a very knowing smile. it told her that he was proud of her for doing something difficult. it told her that he's proud of how far she's come. it told her he was happy she was here in this moment.