[Modern Family] Ch: 13 [Love rivals & Jason's streaming life] (Patreon)

AN: Didn't get the time to edit. Let me know if you see any mistakes. I'll fix them as soon as possible.

--

Alex closed the front door behind her and leaned down to place her shoes neatly by the rack, taking her time like nothing unusual had happened in the world outside. The house felt normal on the surface, but the silence waiting for her was the kind that always meant something was about to explode.

Claire was already standing near the kitchen counter with folded arms, wearing the expression of someone who had been holding back a question for exactly thirty seconds too long. Phil sat half-turned on the couch, remote in hand, but not actually watching anything. Haley stood near the stairs with her arms crossed, eyes locked on her sister like she had just witnessed a betrayal unfold in slow motion through glass.

“So,” Claire asked. “How was your date?”

Alex froze for half a second, then continued walking like she had not heard the question properly. “It was lunch,” she corrected, reaching for a glass from the cabinet.

Phil leaned forward slightly, curiosity already getting the better of him. “Lunch that ended with a romantic transportation situation and emotional development,” he added helpfully.

Claire shot him a look that immediately shut him up. “Phil.”

Alex poured water into her glass with deliberate slowness. “And it wasn’t a date,” she repeated, slightly sharper this time. “It was just lunch.”

Haley let out a small sound that sat somewhere between disbelief and outrage. “Just lunch?" She said a bit too loudly.

Alex took a sip of water and finally turned around. “Yes. Just lunch.” But she had that smile that said too many things like, 'Suck on that, Haley. He's mine.' Or, 'I saw you peeking out the window. Just for the record, he's mine.'

That was when Haley’s brain replayed the moment she had seen through the window, the exact second Alex had stepped forward, the angle of Jason’s surprise, and the way everything had completely collapsed into something she had not accounted for in any version of her imagination.

Because in every scenario she had built in her head over the past hours, Alex was supposed to be awkward and bore Jason with her nerdy book talk, and she was supposed to lose before the game even started.

Instead, she kissed him. Not him... 'Alex kissed Jason.'

Haley’s eyes narrowed slightly as she processed it again, slower this time like it might change if she understood it differently. 

"You talked to him about me and this whole two-timing thing, right?" She asked, holding back her urges to scream at her.

"Yes, I did," Alex nodded. 

"And?" Haley raised an eyebrow.

"And what? Didn't he say it's his way of saying sorry for ghosting us? So, think of it as a friendly outing or something," Alex said as she put the glass on the table and walked past Haley. She went up a few stairs and looked down. "Oh, by the way, I kissed him. And guess what? It was his first kiss, and so was mine."

Haley closed her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths. She didn't scream or try to rip Alex's hair. She kept her calm and said one word, "Okay," with a smile that said too many things like: 'First kiss? He's a virgin?! Thanks for letting me know. And since you took his first kiss, I'm gonna take his first something too.'

---

<Haley's commentary>

Haley sat on the living room couch, with her arms folded.

"Alex kissed a boy."

She paused.

"I honestly thought she'd spend her first date correcting somebody's grammar or explaining why penguins are technically birds."

Haley shook her head.

"Instead she goes out once and comes back acting like she just won the Olympics."

She leaned forward slightly.

"And Jason's first kiss? Seriously?"

A slow smile appeared.

"That's actually very useful information."

She nodded to herself.

"People think I'm upset. I'm not upset."

A beat.

"Okay, I'm a little upset."

Another beat.

"But mostly I'm impressed. Alex thinks she made some huge move today. That's adorable."

She smiled, already plotting her next move.

"I have plans. I'll take his first too, you know what I mean."

<Haley's commentary End>

--

<Alex's Commentary>

Alex sat perfectly straight on the couch.

"It wasn't a date... Just a simple lunch."

There was a moment of silence.

"We talked about books, environmental issues, global warming, and Arctic ecosystems."

She frowned.

"Why is everybody looking at me like that?"

More silence.

Alex sighed.

"Fine."

A tiny smile appeared.

"I kissed him."

She immediately looked annoyed with herself for smiling.

"And before anybody asks, yes, it was my first kiss."

Another pause.

"Apparently it was his too."

The smile came back despite her efforts.

"I don't really see why that's important."

She replayed the memory of the kiss in her mind.

"...it was kind of nice, though."

<Alex's Commentary End>

..

<Phil and Claire Commentary>

Phil and Claire sat together on the couch. Claire looked tense, while Phil looked like he was trying to find the bright side and losing confidence with every second.

“I think it’s great,” Phil said. “Alex had her first kiss.”

Claire turned her head slowly toward him.

Phil’s smile weakened. “And Haley found out Alex had her first kiss.”

Claire kept staring.

“With the boy Haley likes,” Phil added, quieter. "Technically, both of them like."

Claire chimed in. “When Haley and Alex start competing, people get hurt.”

Phil nodded. “Emotionally.”

Claire looked at him.

“And sometimes with objects,” Phil added, lowering his voice slightly. “I’ve already started moving things out of reach around the house. Luke’s toy guns, bowling balls, Haley's heels, the decorative swords, and basically anything that can be used as a projectile in a moment of poor judgment.”

Claire blinked at him.

Phil continued, warming up to his theory. “Love makes people lose perspective. Suddenly a decorative vase becomes a strategic advantage. A throw pillow becomes tactical cover. It’s basically chess, but louder and with more yelling from the staircase.”

Claire leaned back slowly, staring at the ceiling for a second like she was calculating how her life had ended up here. Just then something clicked in her mind.

"We have decorative swords?" She asked.

Phil looked guilty.

"Not anymore."

<Phil and Claire Commentary End>

--

[Three Days Later]

Jason had spent the past three days moving between hobby stores, electronics shops, his editing room, and one increasingly crowded guest room that now looked like a cardboard museum had exploded inside it.

The old shop owner had kept his word.

When Jason arrived that evening, the man led him through the back storage area with a flashlight in one hand and a ring of keys in the other. Dust covered the shelves, old posters curled at the edges of the walls, and several forgotten boxes had been shoved behind stacks of comic inventory that had not moved in years.

"This is most of it," the owner said as he unlocked a metal storage cage. "My dad ordered like an idiot whenever something got popular. Half this stuff sat here because newer cards came out before anybody cared enough to buy it."

Jason followed him inside, trying very hard to keep his face calm.

The shelves held old sealed Pokémon products, many of them worn around the corners from age but still factory sealed. Some had faded price tags. Others had handwritten notes from the previous owner. Jason saw a few modern-era boxes that would probably gain value someday, though they were not what made his pulse jump.

Then the owner pulled a plastic sheet off a stack of boxes near the far wall.

Jason stopped walking.

Three First Edition Base Set booster boxes sat inside a cardboard shipping crate, each one still wrapped in clear factory plastic. Beside them rested two Skyridge booster boxes, two First Edition Neo Destiny boxes, two EX Team Rocket Returns boxes, and one Aquapolis booster box.

For several seconds, Jason simply looked at them.

His future knowledge kept throwing numbers at him so fast that he had to force himself to breathe normally. These were not just old card products. In his mind, they were pieces of financial history waiting quietly for fifteen years to pass.

The owner looked at him with mild confusion. "You alright there?"

Jason cleared his throat and nodded. "Yeah, I'm good. I was just checking the condition."

The man shrugged and began explaining the prices like he was getting rid of old boxes of cereal. The three First Edition Base Set boxes carried the highest price tags, though even those numbers looked ridiculous to Jason. The Skyridge and Aquapolis boxes were cheaper than they had any right to be, while the Neo Destiny and EX Team Rocket Returns products felt almost insulting considering what they would become later.

Jason did not haggle.

He bought every box.

The owner stared at him while writing the receipt. "You sure you know what you're doing?"

Jason signed the paper and handed over the payment with a relaxed smile. "I have a feeling I'm going to be very happy with this purchase."

The old man looked at the stack again, then back at Jason. "People usually say that right before buyer's remorse hits them."

Jason carefully lifted the first Base Set box from the counter. "Then I guess I'll find out eventually."

He did not stop there.

Over the next two days, Jason searched smaller local hobby stores with the patience of a man looking for buried treasure. He drove through older neighborhoods, checked comic stores with dusty displays, and walked into tiny card shops that barely had enough room for two customers to pass each other.

Most of the places had nothing worth grabbing immediately. A few had loose modern packs, damaged tins, or shelves full of newer Diamond and Pearl products that Jason had already stocked up on.

Still, every now and then, he found something worth keeping.

One tiny shop near an aging strip mall had two First Edition Jungle packs sitting behind the counter for twelve dollars each. Another owner sold him two Neo Genesis packs for ten dollars each because they had been sitting inside an opened box for months. A comic store with a back room full of forgotten inventory had two Skyridge packs marked at eighteen dollars each, while another shop had two EX Team Rocket Returns packs for eight dollars each.

The final find made Jason grin all the way back to his car.

A small collectibles store had two First Edition Base Set packs inside an open display box. The owner sold them to Jason for sixty dollars each after assuming he wanted them for nostalgia.

Jason bought all ten loose packs without blinking.

By the end of the third day, the guest room held three First Edition Base Set booster boxes from 1999, two Skyridge boxes from 2003, two First Edition Neo Destiny boxes from 2002, two EX Team Rocket Returns boxes from 2004, and one Aquapolis booster box from 2003.

The loose packs sat in a separate storage case beside them.

Two First Edition Base Set packs.

Two First Edition Jungle packs.

Two Neo Genesis packs.

Two Skyridge packs.

Two EX Team Rocket Returns packs.

Jason stood in the middle of the room with his hands resting on his hips, staring at the collection.

"This is insane," he murmured as he slowly turned in place. 'I'm standing inside a future retirement plan. Next is to invest my money for a stable income. Maybe I'll buy a triplex and a quadplex near universities and rent them to students. That'll earn me a stable income. And given the Great Recession, I can buy them cheaply. Right now, I will face some losses and fewer people looking for a rental place, but if I keep the rent low, I can still get some tenants, and it's a huge future investment. Humm... Gotta think this through.'

Next, Jason had hired a small renovation company to transform one of the unused rooms upstairs into a proper climate-controlled storage space. The old furniture had already been removed, the carpet was being replaced, and workers had started installing insulation, reinforced wall panels, a sealed door, a temperature-control system, and a humidity monitor.

The foreman had explained that the work would take roughly one week.

Jason had nodded through the explanation while mentally calculating future values.

"Keep the temperature around sixty-eight degrees," Jason told him earlier that morning. "I want stable humidity too. Somewhere around forty-five percent."

For now, every sealed product went inside protective cases. He lined the boxes carefully along the room's inner wall, away from sunlight and the nearby window. He had also ordered several digital thermometers, humidity monitors, sealed storage bins, and thick acrylic cases for the loose packs.

The room looked ridiculous.

It also looked beautiful.

..

Jason dropped into the chair and opened YouTube.

Three days earlier, he had uploaded his first major Top 10 video.

Top 10 Hardest Boss Fights of 2008.

He had expected a few hundred views. Maybe a thousand if his video fell under YT's algorithm or people from the gaming forums got a sniff of his channel and decided to take a peek.

Instead, the video had started moving.

The comment section became a full-scale argument within the first evening.

Some viewers agreed with Angelo Credo being near the top of the list. Others argued that Saren should not count because a well-built character could destroy him easily. Several Call of Duty fans complained that Heart of the Reich was a mission, not a boss battle, despite Jason mentioning that 'Technically this isn't a boss fight.' He added it due to the insane difficulty that killed him more than any bosses. 

Jason replied to as many comments as he could.

One viewer wrote that Heart of the Reich had traumatized an entire generation with grenade spam. 

Jason replied, "If somebody can survive fifteen grenades landing beside them at once, they deserve a medal and check their PC; they might be using a cheat or a trainer."

Another commenter argued that the Hive Mind was easy if players upgraded the correct weapons.

Jason responded, "That's true, but most players reached that fight with three med packs after fighting through the hordes. And don't forget, one-hit kill."

The comments kept coming.

People argued over rankings.

They suggested bosses Jason missed.

They shared stories about dying twenty times in the same mission and how his video helped them get through the fights. 

Some even began tagging friends under the video and challenging them to play certain games on the hardest difficulty.

The engagement slowly pushed the video further.

By the third day, the upload had reached 8,700 views.

It had over 120 comments.

The rating sat at 4.8 stars. [YT used to have a ratings system for likes and dislikes as far as I remember.]

More importantly, Jason's subscriber count had climbed from 188.

Jason stared at the dashboard for several seconds before leaning back in his chair.

"Okay," he said quietly, unable to stop smiling. "That's a big jump. Gotta keep up with the forum updates."

The numbers were nowhere close to superstar territory. He understood that. Less than 200 subscribers would barely register beside the giant creators who would eventually dominate the internet.

Still, this was 2009.

Online gaming content was scattered across forums, tiny channels, random uploads, and people recording terrible footage with cheap microphones. Jason had structure, consistency, decent equipment, a comfortable commentary style, and knowledge that most people would not gain for another decade.

That gave him an edge.

The next stream proved it.

Jason had picked up Sherlock Holmes Versus Jack the Ripper the day it released and spent several hours setting everything up. He made a clean thumbnail with Sherlock standing beneath a foggy London streetlamp, a shadowy figure placed in the background, and bold text across the bottom.

SHERLOCK HOLMES VS JACK THE RIPPERFULL CASE PLAYTHROUGHLIVE ON THE GRID

He started the broadcast shortly after dinner.

The first few minutes felt familiar.

His YouTube stream began with thirty-six viewers.

JustinTV started with fifty-two.

That was already more than he expected.

Jason adjusted his headset, checked the microphone level, and leaned toward the screen with a grin. "Welcome back to The Grid. Tonight we are solving crimes, wearing Victorian coats, and probably accusing several innocent people because I have absolutely no detective training."

Chat started moving almost immediately.

R34P3R: yo the boss fight guy is playing detective now

Dex: this game actually looks good

ILF: don't spoil anything please

Jason laughed as he launched the game. "No spoilers from anybody. I want to embarrass myself naturally."

The game pulled viewers in faster than he expected.

Sherlock Holmes Versus Jack the Ripper had a slower pace than F.E.A.R. 2 or NecroVisioN, though Jason made the investigation entertaining by treating every clue like a chance to involve chat.

When he found a suspicious letter in the early case, he leaned closer to the screen and said, "Alright, detectives. We have bad handwriting, weird phrasing, and somebody clearly trying too hard to sound important. My first suspect is every guy who has ever written poetry after midnight."

The chat immediately began throwing theories at him.

Dex: that sounds personal

R34P3R: maybe it was a girl though

ILF: bro is profiling the whole city

Jason clicked through another dialogue option and smiled. "That's fair. I'm keeping an open mind. Victorian London had plenty of dangerous weirdos."

The first session lasted almost four hours.

Jason never lost energy. His enhanced stamina made long streams easier than they should have been, though he still forced himself to take water breaks whenever chat reminded him. By the end of the night, his YouTube stream had peaked at 340 viewers, while JustinTV reached 185.

The next evening, even more people came back.

Viewers who had found him through the Top 10 video showed up curious about the mystery game. Horror fans from F.E.A.R. stayed because they liked hearing Jason react to disturbing crime scenes. Several regulars began calling themselves Grid regulars without Jason ever suggesting the name.

During one tense investigation sequence, Jason paused the game and looked at the chat moving across both screens.

"You guys are way too invested in this," he said with a grin. "We have people arguing over suspects, somebody accusing the police chief, and three different theories involving a cursed umbrella. I respect the commitment."

ShadowWolf89: cursed umbrella theory is still alive

Dex: it has motive and opportunity

Jason shook his head while clicking through the next clue. "I can't believe I gave the cursed umbrella theory attention."

By the time Jason finished the full gameplay run, the final stream had peaked at 402 viewers on YouTube and 291 on JustinTV.

The numbers were still modest, but for Jason, they meant everything. People were showing up early. Some became regulars, while others were asking when the next stream would happen.

His Sherlock Holmes videos also brought in a different kind of audience. Several viewers left long comments about the mystery, while others asked him to cover more detective games and older hidden gems.

Jason read every message and replied to some.

Then he opened his YouTube dashboard again.

The Grid had crossed 300 subscribers.

Jason stayed still for a moment, staring at the number. "Weird, isn't the number going up a bit too fast? Oh, well, I must be doing something right. Let's go with the flow."

A few weeks ago, he had been a tired guy streaming to almost nobody in another life.

Now he had a growing audience, a small community, a room full of sealed Pokémon products, and a future that no longer felt like a distant fantasy.

His phone buzzed again.

A text from Haley. Tomorrow he's taking her for that drive. 

--

Quick Note: I did some research and found out that the YouTube livestream wasn't available to the general public in 2009. So, think of it as an AU world with tiny changes to fit the narrative.