Work Text:
You were in a voice call with the server. BIGLADY, two2, June, onionthief, and nightowl were in the call. Owl had his cam on and was playing server class clown, Biglady was making actual XD facial expressions, and June and Two were keeping up animatedly.
It was the afternoon of the early days of summer break, and Onion was too busy packing his things to contribute.
All signs of him still being there were the drone of an electric fan and sounds of cardboard boxes: being pushed on the floor, stacked, or taped. Occasionally, there'd be empty, previously folded ones: the shallow sound of cardboard flaps scratching against another. You came into the call late, and if the others haven't told you what Onion was doing, you would've thought they were sounds of mice.
"Onion, you still there?" BIGLADY says, her eyes crinkling and face glowing with mirth.
Very XD.
"If we didn't know any better, we'd think you're some rat or something," Two added.
Oh, your exact thoughts.
"Should we tell Xyx to get Cat?" More eye crinkling, interrupted only by stifled laughter in between sips of boba tea.
"Guyyyyys," June piped in. "Leave him alone."
"You just don't want him here, June."
"I don't want to hear that from you, Nightowl."
"My bad, my bad~"
You continued to hear more cardboard sounds and wonder if Onion could hear any of you at all.
You heaved a sigh of relief when it's replaced by sounds of Ziploc bags, then nothing.
Not nothing as in the sounds stopped, but nothing as in even the electric fan was silent. And you didn't hear him switch it off.
In a blink of an eye, his camera is on.
As expected, there were storage boxes and several books on the floor. Onion was somewhere off-frame. At the lower right corner of the interface, the microphone icon was now crossed out. You looked back up and saw that the fan turbine was still spinning.
"OMG," June squeaked. "Careful with the books, Onion!"
"That's a lot of books," Two added. You half-expected to see him make the same confused face as Lola.
"What's going on?" Biglady and Owl ask at the same time.
You could see Biglady switching tabs in her eyeglasses' reflection, while Nightowl shifts from his bed. He had his laptop cam on, but was using his phone and earphones. He propped onto his elbows.
"Oh, it's just Onion turning on his camera," June explained.
"Well, what do you know. Mr. Perfect likes some live company, too!"
Onion enters the camera's view and shoots an annoyed look, but says nothing.
He was wearing wireless headphones.
"Hey, Onion~" you said, forgetting his mic was on mute.
You were about to wave when he waved instead.
Oh, right. He can hear you.
Wait, so he was listening this whole time?
His brows and eyelids were still dipped, and after many video calls with Onion, you still can't tell if he's neutral or frowning.
"So USUI," BIGLADY called.
You zoomed out your attention to the general surface area of your screen. "Yeah?"
"What made you decide to join the call this time?"
"Yeah, Lovely was sad they couldn't meet you," Nightowl added.
"XD Lovely? Get a room."
"You're chatting with LovelyLola?"
"Yeah, typing-- Well, it is their display name!"
"Psssh~"
Sounds of typing.
"And it IS true~"
"You're making me choke on my boba pearls."
"Careful, Biglady," June hummed.
"Well, I thought it'd be a nice way to start the summer?" You offered, answering Biglady's question.
Two beamed like a puppy. "Yeah, I'm so happy school's over!!"
"No break for me. I have 6 units this intersession," June lamented. Whenever June complains, it still doesn't sound depressing. She just had that sort of voice.
"Don't remind me. Let's not talk about courses," said Nightowl.
"Yeah, let's talk about university applications instead!"
Before you could register the smirk on Biglady's face, you hear a loud outburst from Two.
"No! No talk about school!"
"University isn't school."
"No! No education!!"
"Aww, don't be mean to Two."
"Yeah! How would you feel if I talked about work on summer break?"
XD "We don't have summer break."
Four voices groaned then laughed. It was true. When you were working, you didn't have regular summer breaks anymore. Still, it was because of this that you wanted to go along with it anyway, and arrange a call that matched most of your schedules: to celebrate the first days of summer.
You're in high spirits and glance at Onion's window. He was smiling, too.