#hermitrpf

She's doing a damn bad job at managing right now, with Grian right next to her at Gamers Outreach. They're still setting up, not streaming yet, so thankfully it doesn't matter that Gem is blushing. At least, not yet. Before tomorrow Gem needs to get herself under control so it won't be a problem once they're live. Grian leans closer to her as he explains the plan for permit master, pointing at the bullet point notes on her screen. Gem is already distracted by him, but this makes it worse. She can smell his bodywash. If she looked up she could see every detail of his face, his crows feet and cute smile. (Don't look up, don't look up, don't look up.)

"Gem, are you even listening?" Grian asks, pulling her out of her thoughts with a hand on her shoulder.

"Sorry, sorry, go on."

Grian laughs, short but teasing. "Normally it's me who doesn't pay attention but this time it's you. What's up?"

His hand really doesn't make it easier to focus on what he's saying. It's still on her shoulder, warm and lightly squeezing her. (What if he would start moving it, or his fingers, draw circles in her skin?)

"Just nervous, sorry," Gem puts on her best Canadian accent for that sorry, knowing it'll make Grian laugh.

And that it does, the beautiful sound right next to her ear. Afterwards, his mood quickly drops to normal again, "Yeah, me too. But we can do this, you and me."

There it is again, Gem's traitorous heart speeding up at the way Grian sees them as a unit. And he believes in her. Gem finds herself nodding and then pointing at the bullet list herself, asking Grian a clarifying question.

With that, they're quickly back to talking about work, the personal talk forgotten, if not for Grian's hand on Gem's shoulder. It stays there until he leaves, briefly brushing her neck as he pulls away. Gem outright shudders at that, the touch unexpected but so so intimate. It was probably an accident. She shouldn't read into it. Shouldn't turn around to watch him go with a smile on her face like she does. Hopefully none of the other Hermits saw.

As the day continues, Gem keeps catching herself looking at Grian. She isn't used to being around him for so long in person. She isn't used to hearing his laugh without the filter of a mic, to see his face wrinkle when he grins as he does something stupid. She knows she's being stupid. Nothing can ever happen so she shouldn't be indulging this, shouldn't be so obvious that she enjoys being around him. But can you really blame her watching his arms when Grian is shoving around Jimmy? Can you blame her for enjoying the random touches to her shoulder when she's been mostly on her own lately and yeah, she'll admit she's a bit touch starved? Anyone would like this. Shit, she's seen the fans, she knows other people like Grian like that too.