#like i missed steph when she took a step back from gtlive

[mostleemorethansmut]

That was twenty-eight years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-x7GcwT-Tk

[A/N: Well, if you want a spoiler for this story's plot, go ahead and listen to the song. If you don't want spoilers, still listen to the song, just don't note the lyrics. Anyway, this one came to me when I was watching the Fran Bow stream where he describes going to a dance at a catholic school. The framing device of where they met came initially from a ShAmy fanfic I was meaning to write, but then... GTLive happened. I don't think there's much more to add. Also, Matthew describes his first kiss on one of the Higher or Lower streams, but I'm going to say he's lying]

Matt was fed up with his life. Not in a bad way. He wasn't so fed up that he wanted to go jump off the roof of a dorm building[extremely unsubtle Life is Strange reference], but he was fed up. No, fed up wasn't the right word. Bored. Yes, he was bored. He was bored with his life.

Sure, he'd just finished the eighth season of Game Lab, and on his 40th birthday he'd happily handed down the Game Lab torch to his protege, Quinn.(Actually, they'd be splitting the next season to help the viewers get used to her) The team had just added the tenth show to the main channel and officially were releasing daily. Film Theory moved to posting every other day, and, though they hadn't announced it yet, Matt and Steph were hoping to have a kid soon.

He was bored because every day was the same. It'd gone from running around constantly trying to catch up with life, but soon it'd gotten routine. A literal routine. Get up, have food, research til lunch, get exercise, record script, livestream, more research with dinner, translate evidence into script, go to bed. Sometimes they stayed up late together because they wanted to work ahead for traveling, but he never had to record while away anymore. He almost missed recording in a foreign closet now. He even missed recording in a closet, ever since they started paying for a professional recording studio. Their getaways felt routine now, too.

He wanted to break from the norm.

*

Matt jumped up and down in the backseat. It was so exciting. "Mom, are we there yet?" he asked.

Mrs. Patrick laughed from the front. "We won't be there for several more hours," she called back. "But we are almost to New York."

"Don't you have a game-boy back there?" his father asked. "Two of them in fact?"

Matt sighed and fell back into the seat. It was true, he had the games back with him, but could you blame him for being excited? It was his first time out of Ohio. He had never gotten to the national science fair before. He sighed and reached back to his Pokemon red. After a few failed attempts at finding Missingno, he set it down. There wasn't anything left to do. Wait, he hadn't beaten the game using only the first Pokemon he'd captured. He'd try doing that.

*

The word "ahead" didn't even begin to describe the two theorists. In fact, they were so far beyond their work load, Matt almost wished for the days when they'd pull all-nighters trying to write a new episode.

Matt sighed. He pulled up the N-Switch and decided to go for a retro night with another run-through the remastered Subnautica. Stephanie took the seat across the room from him and pulled open the newspaper. Matt stared at her for a few seconds, remembering the days when she'd cuddle up on his lap, no matter what he was doing. Then he focused on the game again.

Matt was zooming through the game, and was almost ready to build a base when Stephanie interrupted his thought process. "Hey honey," she called. "Listen to this:

"I'm a middle aged man who is waiting for life to stop running by him. Yet all attempts of kindling a new lustful flame have failed. And I want another chance at the past. So, probably hopelessly, I put out this ad. I call upon a woman; a girl when I met her. I met her at a national science fair in New York. We were young, but it was there that we kissed. It's unlikely that she lives in Los Angeles, but I'm willing to try to put out a call.

Sincerely,

Pokemon."

"Do they still have letters like that?" asked Matt, absentmindedly. He knew the answer very well. He was the one who put the letter in there.

"Apparently," responded Stephanie.

*

"Time to get up," called Mrs. Cordoto. "We've got a big day ahead of us."

Stephanie refused, wrapping herself up in the blankets. "I don't wanna," she responded.

"You don't?" her mother called. "You've been looking forward to this science fair for the past months. You wouldn't stop bothering us. You're seriously telling me you don't wanna go."

"I wanna sleep," Steph playfully whined. "I'm still tired from last night."

"Now what did we tell you about going to bed late. If you're going to got to bed late, you're gonna have to live with the consequences."

Stephanie understood her mother. She was already getting up and trying to stay awake while warming up the shower. They'd traveled to her cousin's house last night and the whole of the day was spent partying. She was still pretty pumped for today's performance. She wanted to show everyone her science project.

*

Matt frowned as his wife walked back into the house. "Where did you go?" he asked, giving up on the pages he was looking through.

"I went to mail a letter," she responded.

"What for?" he asked.

"Oh, you know," she dodged, "stuff."

"Steph, what's up."

Stephanie avoided eye contact by looking to the ceiling. "I was just... contacting a friend." MatPat gave a dubious look, but she continued. "I've been wanting to make a decision now for a while, but before I did, I wanted an old friend's advice."

"And you couldn't call her."

"Some things just have to be written down," she replied, directing her gaze to the computer, trying to absorb herself in that day's work.

"Okay then," Matt agreed, dropping the conversation.

*

Matthew crawled through the sea of early students. It seemed that everyone except him knew to show up early. They'd arrived when the letter had told them to, but the room seemed to be filled with overachievers. Matthew finally saw two open spots. He decided to choose the spot at the end of the table.

Matt set out his experiment. He'd chosen something video-game-themed. It was, "How much damage would Pikachu's thunderbolt do?" 'TotPat' helped compare size and facts that he could collect from the video game. From what he found with the size of pokemon and how much damage was dealt, relatively.

This was all decent, but, after finding a power strip, he pulled out his final product. There were two buttons that he'd rigged up to show Pikichu's weaker and stronger attacks. The second one was able to kill a person, so he just rigged a pretty shocking button and told everyone to imagine it 20 times worse.

Matthew had just set out a sign to check with your medical details before touching the buttons; when a girl set down her project next to him.

*

It was Matt's turn to read the newspaper tonight. Stephanie had claimed the television a while back to play Silent Hill 2.

Matthew scanned the paper. "Say Steph, do you know where that article from last night is?"

She raised an eye at him. "I didn't know you were so into the personal column all of a sudden. It's on page 8C, if memory serves correctly."

He flipped through the paper. "Hey, it seems someone answered."

"Oh?" asked Stephanie, clearly uninterested. "what did they say."

"Dear Pokemon,

I'm surprised to hear from you. I almost didn't even remember when I first heard the story. Now I remember. I am a now middle aged woman who would love to try to re-kindle her lustful flame again. How about we meet. Kennedy, two days from now. Same place we hid all those years ago.

See you then,

Doom."

*

Stephanie set out her cardboard display. It was a pretty cool project she had in mind. She had done a research project into the natural resources on Mars and weather or not it would be feasible to have a base there.

She had gotten the idea from the video game Doom and had used a lot of comparisons to the game world and how accurate it was. She went through and showed how the levels were mapped, how big they would be in real life, and what technology it would take to get there.

She looked over at the boy next to her. He was slightly taller than her with glasses and a strange hair-do. He was pretty cute. "Hey," she called, "my name's Stephanie." Steph held out her hand nervously. "What's yours?"

The kid took her hand. "Matthew," he introduced, "What's your project about?"

"Well, um," Steph stuttered. She was always embarrassed to tell people that her project was based on a video game. "It's about building a base on Mars." She gestured at the tri-fold.

Matt examined the board. "Oh my gosh, this is all about Doom. That's cool. I haven't gotten to play it because I only own a console. Have you played it?"

Stephanie was surprised at the kid's response. "Um, yeah. Lots of fun. I really enjoyed it." She looked at the boy's presentation. "Say, you like Pokemon?"

"Yeah," he responded, turning his attention back to her. "Do you?"

"Don't have have a Game Boy."

"I have an extra one. You wanna play some?"

*

Matthew put on his jacket. It was a bit chilly outside today. Stephanie had to run to the store, so now was the perfect time. He got in the car and drove to Kennedy Elementary School. The building was buzzing with activity. It was a science fair, after all.

Matt took a deep breath. Was he seriously going through with this? Cheating on his wife for a girl he barely remembered? Deciding that there was no time like the present, he got out of the car and headed inside.

He wandered through the dozens of science fair projects. After roaming through the sea of children and mediocre projects, he finally found the back door. He stepped out and glanced back and forth. Then he saw someone there. The woman had shown up.

*

Matt and Stephanie were sitting right next to each other. They'd snuck out of the science fair and escaped out a door in the back. "I don't get it," little Stephanie swore. "Why are all of my grass types unable to even harm your one fire?"

"Stephanie, that's the whole point of Pokemon. An extreme game of rock, paper, scissors." Matt grinned and patted the top of her head. "Video games can be hard sometimes."

Steph glared at him and sent out a water type. Matt gulped and tried to escape. Stephanie grinned as the tide suddenly shifted in her favor. She still lost, but it became fun by the end.

They were laughing and discussing their last match when someone said something over the loud speaker. "Sounds like they're about to announce the winners," Matthew said. He stood up and they shook up.

"This was a lot of fun," Stephanie thanked, "thanks Matt." The little girl leaned in and gave the little boy a kiss on the lips. Then she skipped off inside.

Matthew stood there, stunned at what had just happened.

*

The couple's reunion was a bit awkward at first. Stephanie stared at Matt and vice versa. "I remember now," she figured. "I can't believe I never figured it out."

"Me neither," laughed Matt. They both burst into a giggling fit. "C'mere," directed Matt, pulling her into hug. They happily snuggled together.

Stephanie chuckled as they separated. "I guess everything worked out in the end."

"Almost," Matt joked, "we have yet to re-kindle that lustful flame."

"Well that's pretty easy to do," she smiled.

Matt nodded, then his expression changed to panic. "Wait, you don't mean here?"