the first time stef and germ ever met was in a crappy little cd store in ottawa, ontario.

at this point in time, stef was actually living in gatineau where he was attending university, and chose to get a job on the other side for additional english practice. whereas germ had somewhat recently moved to canada from poland and was living with his current boyfriend florian and dear little vern. germ was actually working 2 jobs, this one being less significant as his other job was in a computer repair shop which was, well, the actual career he wanted to pursue.

stef had been working there for a couple months already when germ was hired in. upon looking at germ's face for the first time stef's eyes went to his extremely thick lensed glasses, then the fact that his left eye was closed, which then led to the fact that the left side of his face was quite scarred. and stef immediately knew what he was going to comment on, if germ happened to have a personality which stef could dislike in any way possible. if germ happened to be very sweet and kind then stef would likely have just bitten his tongue.

you have to remember this was when stef was a very mean and troubled individual, and he was intending to hate on germ in ways that could be considered discriminatory. i suppose it would be fair to assume that, even though it is very cruel to think so, focusing in on these features specifically would give you the idea that this is individual is not very easy on the eyes.
however, this is germ stonoga we are talking about, and he has a very attractive facial structure. he is very attractive period.

therefore stef did not really know what to think.

germ was feeling indifferent upon seeing stef for the first time. he did not care. that's just his new coworker. he was not looking for companionship, he was here for more money and also another excuse to stay out of his house. his intentions for this job was to sit on his ass behind the register and read books all day. he thought stef's haircut was a little silly, but had nothing to say otherwise.

manager left them alone and they shook hands. stef squeezed germ's hand very hard and germ did not react. and this is how their friendship began.

as many many weeks went by germ did exactly what he intended to do which was not do any work at all and just sit around. stef hated him for this. stef also hated him because he was rude. anytime stef spoke to him he rarely responded with any more than 2 words. and any time he did respond with more than 2 words it was to call stef a loser and to tell him to go home and do his homework. something along those lines. to be quite frank germ did not really want to actually argue with him, he just thought it was really funny to say something like that to him while not even looking up from his book, and then continue to not react when he got really angry. stef nearly hated on him for not being able to understand his accent very well and the fact that his grammar was not very good, however unfortunately for stef though english was not his first language either and he knew that would get turned right back around onto him, even though his grammar was significantly better than germ's was because he was literally getting a university degree in english. he also knew that germ could also speak kazakh which stef, upon learning this information, forgot that kazakhstan was a country that existed and said something along the lines of "what the hell is that", which gave germ some dirt on him for a looooooooong time. so, ideally, he would not be bringing intellect into the arguments.

to germ it was rather evident that stef either was enduring or recovering from something, because the way this guy behaved was actually a little ridiculous. we must also remember that while germ is a very smart individual, he is also not a very kind one. so despite having come to the conclusion that stef was dealing with something very intense, he was still being the biggest asshole anyone's ever known, which in germ's mind overrides any sympathy that would be given to him regarding his (potential, because this was still just a hypothesis) personal issues. stef was getting set off by quite literally everything germ did so really, being mean right back to him was completely fair.

but, you know, eventually it was kind of getting to be too much for germ. remember this is when he was with florian, who, err. germ got this job partially to be able to get away from florian for longer, but that was not really working out for him anymore because he'd leave his home where he was doing literally all the work in the house and getting emotionally abused just to go into this other establishment where he was getting berated. not ideal, right? far from it, actually! the only bit of peace now was his computer repair job but now he would basically just zone out for the entire time he was there. and he'd go home to just to sleep on the floor of verns bedroom. okay, im not going to keep trauma dumping on his behalf but im just getting the point across.

so one very very very late night he's laying on the hardwood floor, staring at the slanted ceiling of vern's attic room, unable to sleep. and he realizes, manager does nothing to intervene. manager is also paying him in cash basically under the table. manager does not give a shit. so, he is just going to not go to show up to work there anymore. and then he rolled over towards the wall and pinched himself for being so stupid as to not think of that sooner. he hoped he'd never have to see stef again in his life as he finally fell asleep.

now from stefs perspective germ is a bum. because he goes to work and doesnt do anything and barely speaks to him or even the customers for that matter. and now all of a sudden he just isnt showing up anymore. well ok, so be it. little bits of evidence of him having worked there were still around but it didnt bother stef anymore. he had found peace once again. and you know, his girlfriend at the time found peace too, because nearly every single day he would go home to her and rant about germ. one evening stef went to a church and genuinely listened to the service only to stay long after everyone had left and knelt infront of the huge statue of jesus in front of the stained glass to pray that he'd never think about germ ever again.

---

so, you know, i know, we know, neither of their hopes stayed true.

well, they did for a while. they both bettered themselves and forgot about each other.
stef graduated and got a job with the government. he moved to the tiny town of gingham where he continued to make good money. he healed (mostly) from all the bullshit that made him so constantly unhappy. he got his anger issues under control (somewhat). he's a happy man
germ won the jackpot from a scratch ticket right there in a gas station in front of like 2 bewildered middle aged trucker dudes. he told nobody but dear sweet darling little vern and they, also, moved away to the tiny town of gingham. well, almost. the outskirts of gingham. a few years later than stef did.

how on earth did that happen?
stef probably went there because he had a lucid dream where some like godly thing was telling him he needed to go there. some kind of bullshit like that i really have no idea. germ was just frantically looking for *some* kind of property far, far away that he and vern could move into as soon as possible. it just happened to be there.

time went by, as it famously does
germ and stef go down opposite ends of the aisle full of seasonings at the grocery store in town. theyre walking towards each other, right. "huh thats weird ... that person on the other end almost looks like ... dang i havent thought about that guy in ages jesus christ .... " you know. and theyre getting closer, and its like, shit, theres no way. theres absolutely no way this is happening. but, it is happening. and they stop right in front of each other. they both really do look quite different at this point but when you have a history like this with someone its impossible to forget them.
now to be honest i couldnt tell you how exactly their first conversation in years went. it was made up of very intense bewilderment and confusion. they stood there and talked for a very very long time. about various things. stef apologized right away. and he was forgiven, somehow.
and they both left by patting each other on the shoulder and planning to keep in touch.

now germ went home and explained this entire situation he had just been involved in to vern. and vern nearly went into the kitchen and grabbed the cast iron pan and hit germ over the head with it. and stef went home and immediately called angie to explain this entire situation he had just been involved in and she hung up on him mid sentence. and he called her back and she picked up again only to listen for a minute before hanging up on him mid sentence again.

but you know, despite such negative reactions from the people closest to them they proceeded to rekindle their relationship simply because of the sheer absurdity of it all. really, though, can you even blame them? this town has a population of barely over a thousand, and they run into each other here of all places. you'd kind of be out of your mind to assume anything other than the fact that this was kind of meant to happen. they eventually got really close.

yeah, really close. honest to god i couldnt tell you how or why they fell in love with each other, but they did. they probably couldnt tell you either. its a little funny when you consider stef's negative opinions of germs facial characteristics which are still just as apparent now as they were then. to be honest, at that point they were probably occupying each others minds exactly the same amount that they are now, just, err. much differently. ha ha....