The living room is cozy, the kind of space that actually feels used, not just staged to look perfect, but lived-in, broken into, familiar. There’s a massive sectional, a coffee table cluttered with a few stray pieces of mail and a headset that looks like it’s been tossed there and forgotten.

The kitchen is open, clean but not obsessively so, just enough to show that someone actually cooks here.

I don’t ask about the second floor, even though he keeps glancing up like something is pulling at his focus. He doesn’t mention it either. Instead, he finally turns back to me, clearing his throat. “Wanna check out the new gaming PC I just got?”

I blink, caught off guard by the shift. “You? A gaming PC finally? I thought you’ve just been all talk this whole time.”

He smirks, moving toward a side room, gesturing for me to follow. “What? You think I only want to watch from the sidelines?”

I laugh, stepping in after him. “I mean… yeah. Thought that was your whole thing.”

Carter just shakes his head, grinning and leading the way.

The setup is exactly what I should’ve expected, high-end, custom-built, the kind of rig that makes a PC gamer weak in the knees. Along with a desk so clean it’s borderline suspicious.

I whistle low, stepping closer, my fingers skimming the edge of the desk. “Damn. You really went all out.”

Carter leans against the doorway, arms crossed, watching me like he’s waiting to see how I react. “Figured it was time.”

I snort, glancing over my shoulder at him. “What, finally decided to actually play instead of just lurking in my stream chat?”

His smirk twitches, but he doesn’t respond.

I’m too busy taking everything in to press further, too distracted by the way the soft glow of the PC casts light over the rest of the room, the way it catches on something near the outside of his door. A mask, a red neon light mask. I pause. Frown.

It looks exactly like the one the asshole on the server wears, the one I’ve spent an embarrassing amount of time cursing at through my headset. I tilt my head, processing, rolling the thought around in my brain like a loose marble, trying to connect something that doesn’t quite fit yet. Then without really thinking, I laugh. “You didn’t tell me your brother is one of those guys,” I say, nudging the chair with my foot, nodding toward the mask. “I bet he’s the kind of player who hides in corners with a shotgun.”

I glance at Carter, expecting him to roll his eyes, expecting him to laugh, to agree, to give me some snarky comment back.