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You twist your head from your phone back towards your monitor, displaying the Discord window showing your current private call with your blue dragon friend.
“Mysta’s WHAT?”
“Yeah, he’s coming along on the trip,” Elira laughed. “You didn’t know?”
“Apparent- ly! What the hell!! Luca, that motherfucker, I’m gonna beat his ass when I see him!”
She howls with laughter as you ramble on and on about how Luca told you everything about their planned trip but didn’t tell you about Mysta’s planned involvement. Once you’re done, she takes many deep breaths to calm down. “You should come with us! It’s gonna be fun. And, you’ll get to see him again.~”
You can’t really see each other’s faces, considering you’re both in a voice call. But god damn, you can hear the eyebrow wiggle in her teasing tone.
“I can’t,” you groaned, “I have finals when you’re there. As much as I wanna skip it, I really need to pass.”
“Damn, you can’t even get a referral from staff to get you here for a business meeting? Unlucky.”
“Can’t even do that anyway. I already told my professor that my trip’s been canceled, so now I have to take it.”
Though you’re not a liver for the company, you are , however, a staff member for the company. Specifically one of the staff in charge of promotions. Of course, you mainly focus on promoting EN and sometimes the other two now-merged branches. In fact, that’s how you got close to some of the livers.
As one of the staff promoters, you have to speak with the associated livers about PR stream offers and their convention appearance invites. Since you’ve been interacting with the livers the most, you’ve become friends with a few of them. Some namely Elira and Mysta.
Honestly, it’s not that you play favorites with the livers. You try your best to keep your relationships professional with them. But your bond with a specific fox-like man says otherwise.
You see, Mysta has been a joy to be around with. Although you haven’t met him in person yet, you have played some multiplayer games with him. Sometimes you check out the EN Minecraft server to see if the installed mods are working properly. Weirdly enough, almost every time you visit the server, Mysta is online. In fact, that’s how your not-so-business relationship started.
When you first entered the server, after double checking if no one was streaming at the scheduled hour, he was the first person you met. You thought you would run into Selen, Pomu, or perhaps Uki during your visit, but you were pleasantly surprised at his sudden appearance. Luckily, he was kind enough to show you around the server while teaching you some mods. With, of course, the trademark Mysta Rias experience packaged with sexual innuendos and teasing about. Well, except he didn’t go completely sexual considering it was your first time meeting him. He has some decency.
After that, you’ve run into him almost every time you visit the Minecraft server. Every visit eventually turned into hangouts, just you two (and sometimes another liver) chatting and building projects in-game. Soon enough, you and Mysta started to play other games together. You both played games such as Overwatch, Clubhouse, and sometimes League if you felt like torturing yourself for some reason.
Obviously, you had to keep the professionalism on both sides somehow. Your fellow staff members, especially some livers, noticed your close bond with the detective. So they usually send you to his DMs to discuss about any promotion offers involving him. Whenever you have your cameras on for a meeting, he somehow always flusters you with sudden flirtatious marks or something of the sort mid-conversation.
“Hello? Helloooooooo? Is someone there??”
Elira’s voice yoinks you out of your thoughts. Oh god, were you spacing out this entire time? How embarassing.
You clear your throat then respond as if you weren’t thinking of someone just now, “S-sorry, did you say something?”
“Oh my god. It’s that bad,” she mindlessly mutters.
Blink blink. “Huh?”
“Nothing,” she quickly retaliates. With a slight hum, she speaks again, “Since you’re gonna be stuck in hell… Want me to get you something? Like a souvenir or a limited edition thing? I literally have your address, man.”
Oh right, she does. Sometimes you and Elira send gifts to each other like figurines or plushies at random times.
“Nah, I’m good. Thanks for the offer, man.”
“Are you sure? I mean, I’ll still probably send some pics buuut… Y’know… Just saying… ”
There she goes again, doing that thing where she wiggles her eyebrows even though you can’t see her fucking face right now. Goddamn it, why did you tell her about your… thing with Mysta? You should’ve known that she’s NOT going to let it go.
You groan, “Just. Just surprise me.”
“That’s so vague! Do you know what that means?”
“Yeah? So? Surprise me.”
“Man… You have no idea how much power you just gave me.” She cackles for the next few seconds, making you start regretting your decision. “Okay, I’ll surprise you. Just don’t forget you asked me to, alright? And no complaining!”
“Okay, alright, fine! I won’t complain! Jeez… Now get to bed, nerd, you have a flight tomorrow.”
“Sheesh, what are you, my mom?” You both chuckle at her remark. “Okieee~ I’ll go pass out now, I guess. Good night!”
“Good night, Ewiwa. Have a safe trip.”
And you both leave call. Well, maybe you should get to sleep too. It’s getting super late, after all.
—
Mysta stares at Elira across the table in disbelief. “Finals? Of all times? Bruh…”
“Haha, yeah! Super uncool and lame and not something I have to worry about soon,” his penguin colleague beside him laughs with a dreadfully crazed look in her eyes. She anxiously reaches out for her soda and starts drinking rapidly.
“Wh— it’s not like I can control it or anything. Shit happens!”
“I know, it’s just…” he drawls off as his gaze lowers to the table. Admittedly, it’s difficult for him to hide his expression. So naturally, the two girls noticed his disappointment. Elira and Petra awkwardly look at each other, then to him, then back at each other.
“Hey, it’s okay, Mysta,” Petra says as she pats his back. “You can always see them next time! Like Nijifest!”
The dragon nods, “Yeah! Or you could see them the next time you take a break. Like going on another vacation or something.”
“If I have enough money for it,” he sighed. But he gives them a small smile to appreciate their attempts to soothe him.
Petra frowns. “ If? Mysta, you’re literally one of the top livers in EN, like? Hello? Mr. One Million?”
“But I still don’t know when that’s gonna happen. Might as well be in a year or maybe like half a year or something.”
Elira’s eyes narrow. She quietly listens to their conversation, or bickering at this point, while taking some occasional sips of her drink.
For the past practically a year, Elira’s been one of the victims to both of your hopeless gushing.
She already knew about your friendship since you’ve talked a lot about it before. She knows the stupid hijinks and drunken confessions that you and Mysta told her about off stream. Her eyes closes as a confused thought crosses her mind, Seriously, how are you two not dating already?
Of course, she’s quite aware that the rest of Luxiem are both of your victims. Hell, when Elira’s alone with the other boys, it’s usually them talking about how astonishing that you and Mysta aren’t together. Sometimes, they make bets on who’s going to confess first. It’s obvious!
Even with the two going back and forth, practically becoming one with the background, she closes her eyes and hums in thought. Finals should be finished next week , she mused. Her visible eye opens as she takes a glance at the ashy haired male. But he’s been so busy lately that they haven’t spoken with each other…
The entire EN branch had a full schedule for the past few months. In fact, their schedule was so full that sometimes the livers couldn’t make their own streaming schedules nor stream in general. Mysta, of course, was no exception. As one of the most popular livers in EN, he’s one of the most busiest people she’s ever known. On top of that, you too have been busy recently too. You haven’t been able to hang out with him as of late despite being a staff member yourself. Life really likes to fuck anyone over, doesn’t it?
She could tell that you two haven’t been able to find the time to talk with each other. The staff picked up many projects that practically almost everyone is unavailable, and you were one of said unavailable members. The only times the livers could contact you was through Slack or by email for business inquiries. But things should be slightly slowing down, for now that is.
Although, it would be nice to have you two meet each other once at the same time, even if it’s a coincidental encounter.
Wait a minute…
A devious smirk lifts her lips, her eyes glinting with mischief in mind. She chuckles to herself as she entertains the thought. Hell, it even looks kinda creepy to the other patrons. ESPECIALLY to her coworkers who’s now staring at her with confusion and a hint of fear.
“…Elira? Are you okay?” Petra asked the dragon.
“Hm?” She blinks out of her thoughts as the penguin’s voice pulls her back into reality. Elira stares at her and Mysta, who also looks a bit dumbfounded, before grinning at them. “Oh, don’t worry about it. Just thought of something.”
Blink blink. “Like what?” Mysta asked this time.
Again, she lets out a chuckle and flicks her wrist to wave off the concern. “Like I said! Don’t worry about it! Y’all will see it eventually.”
Soon enough, the waitress arrives with their orders. Elira turns to face her and helps her with the food. On the other side of the table, the two livers tilt their heads in confusion and eventually give each other an unknowing look as the table is served.
—
You lie in bed snuggled underneath your covers, but the lights are still on as you scroll through Twitter on your phone.
It’s been about a couple weeks since your call with Elira. She’s been sending you updates, videos, and pictures of the group’s adventures in Japan. Sometimes, she’d call you before going to bed to tell you what happened during the trip in case it was a story she couldn’t explain over text. Of course, there were times when another liver like Reimu and Nina would join in the call and give you the tea. As much as you wished you wanted to be there while dying in exams, you felt warm as you saw the livers enjoying themselves on their vacation.
Then, you noticed how fast the month flew by. Eventually, it was time for the livers to fly home and say goodbye for a while. They all had different flights, obviously, but there was a specific person who didn’t leave the country yet.
You were looking on Twitter while watching the members’ story time streams on a pop-up viewer. Although, you didn’t see Mysta’s waiting room or tweet indicating his return to streaming yet.
Suddenly, you remembered why.
“He wants to stay back for a bit,” Elira answered over the sound of her packing. “Dunno why, but I don’t blame him. He was in Japan for work last time.”
That he was. Though disappointing it is that you can’t hang with him for a while longer, at least he’s having fun.
“Oh, remember the thing I asked you about?”
She asked you something? When?
“What thing?” You asked.
“Uh… The souvenir thing?”
Oh shit, you forgot about that. And apparently, she noticed your forgetfulness as indicated by her laughter.
“I got you something,” Elira continued, “but I’ll send it to you when I get back.”
“Why not now? You can just ask headquarters to send it to me.”
“It’s not something in a box though.”
You blinked in confusion, unanswering.
On the other end of the line, you heard her chuckle, “You’ll see.”
Your brief conversation did, in fact, make you scared. Although it’s Elira, your local dependable dragon, sometimes she can be as unpredictable as… well… the rest of Nijisanji. Not just EN, but Nijisanji in general. Remember that one time you watched her stream where she suddenly jumped into a hole in that Forest collab? Yeah…
Now, some time has passed since the trip and she’s been home for about almost a week. It’s something not in a box, right? So what’s taking her so long? Is it digital? Or did she fuck up somewhere with the delivery?
Currently, you’ve been juggling schoolwork, personal work, and work-work. Needless to say, it’s been a stressful time, especially around this type of year. Seriously, why is everyone so goddamn busy around this time? Idle thoughts aside, you’ve also been anxiously waiting for Elira’s souvenir. For the past week, you’d constantly check your phone and your PC for any email or DM from Slack and Discord with Elira’s name attached to it. Every time you get DM’ed or emailed, it’s always been another liver or staff member whose name doesn’t start with Elira and end with Pendora.
But hey, at least you got funny memes from Luca and Mysta in the mean time!
Honestly, at this point, you might as well just give up. Maybe she did run into issues, or she just forgot.
You let out a sigh as you refreshed your feed for the umpteenth time tonight, accompanied by the ghost’s voice eminating through your speakers. Yet suddenly, a notification banner from Discord slides down onto the screen.
Elira Pendora
SURPRISE!!!!
Oh.
Huh.
So she didn’t forget??
Confused yet astonished at the same time, you pull down your notifications bar and tap on the DM to see what she sent.
As the iconic Discord logo pops up on your screen, it eventually loads your conversation with Elira. When you look past your previous chat, a message larger than it should be fills about a third of your screen.
A plane ticket to London next week. Seat number and all. And most notably, it has your name.
…
“HUH?”
You frantically tap on the textbox and type.
You
GIRL
WHAGT THE FUCK IS THIS
Elira Pendora
your souvenir! ☺️
You
WDYM SOUVENIR THATS NOT EVEN RELATED TO JAPAN??? 😭😭😭😭
also
HOW DID YUO GET MY NUMBER??? AND MY EMAIL????? :monkas:
Elira Pendora
I had to pull a few strings with staff
just normal coworker things
You
:thonk:
“normal”
Elira Pendora
but like you should go!!!
I didn’t go through all that just for you to not see him
and you really needed a break so 😎
You
??????
but hes Still in japan?????
Elira Pendora
yeah but he’s flying back home next week
I asked him earlier and had to like try to figure out how to get you to meet him at the same time
or like
around the same time 😌
You
man idk if i should thank you or yell at you
Elira Pendora
LMAO EITHER WORKS IT’S OKAY MAN
better get ready!!!
You
wait what about the hotel
Elira Pendora
what hotel? ☺️
i’m sure he wouldn’t mind letting you stay for a few days tbh
and yes I will also pay for your return trip
You
BUT YOUR LEN FUNDS……
Elira Pendora
I KNOW 😭😭😭
but it’s worth it! go get your man bitch!!
but :thonk:
I think I’ll try to pass out now since I have something scheduled tomorrow soooo
GOOD NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!
You
gn ewiwa :D
Well! Looks like you have a trip to prepare for.
—
The gray haired detective lounged comfortably in the AirBnB’s living room, resting on the sofa as he scrolled through Twitter. He let out a chuckle here and there, sometimes full on laughing whenever a funny meme popped up on his timeline.
“Meesta!” Elira called out to him from the kitchen island.
He turned around to look at the unusually giddy dragon. Confused, he asked, “What’s up?”
“When are you heading back?”
“Uh…” Pulling out his phone, he quickly went through his gallery to find a screenshot of his ticket. Once he found it, he examined the ticket for its boarding time and date then put it away. “In like a couple or so weeks. I thought I told you?”
“I don’t think you did,” she answered.
She motioned him to give her the device, or at least show her the screen. Of course, he complied. Though insane she is, he does have immense respect for her and Lazulight. Mysta stood up from his seat and approached her. Once in the kitchen area, he flipped his phone towards her, letting her singular visible eye take a peek.
Elira hummed as she inspected the ticket details then pulled back. “Cool. Thanks man!”
She walked away from the kitchen, carrying a glass of water upstairs leaving him even more confused.
It’s been three weeks since his unusual encounter with Elira. He sits idly at a bench by a luggage conveyor in the airport, waiting for his bags to unload from the plane. While waiting, he leans back into his seat and lets out an exhausted sigh. Luckily, no one is seated beside him, so he could just take up all the space on this uncomfortable bench. Still, he couldn’t help but reminisce onto their conversation.
Was she planning something? Was she just curious? What was she cooking?
Now, he’s back in the dreaded land of England, land of the beloathed. He pulls out his phone and immediately checks Discord. The EN server is lively as always, everyone’s practically home but the sense of energy radiates from the screen despite being digital. Like any other liver, he hops in the conversation a bit, sometimes memeing around with the others in the general channel.
Although, he noticed that your icon hasn’t appeared at least once since he landed. He was even paying attention to the top left corner of his screen for a red dot indicating your message. Normally, you’d send him a meme or something to see while he’s asleep or busy. But strangely enough, you haven’t yet. Maybe he should send you something? Or maybe call?
Mysta continues to catch up and reflect on the livers’ vacation in Japan on the server, his attention eventually caught by a familiar bag on the conveyor.
Welp. Looks like he’ll call you later.
—
Thank god Elira had the brain cells to make sure your flight isn’t after his own. Of course, she had to take in account about the flight times since you’re both literally across the globe from each other going to London. To avoid missing him right after landing, you were booked super early into the morning. But sometimes, there’s a possibility that you might be too early when he lands. And, unfortunately, that seems to be the case.
“He lands around midnight,” Elira told you on phone prior to checking in. “So you should be a biiiit early.”
Yeah, by like, 2 hours.
Man, what the hell are you supposed to do for two whole hours? Well, at least you have your phone AND your luggage. You could even people watch in the lobby. But that’s 2 hours!
What’s even more fucked up is that you can’t really use your phone unless you find the wifi. But airport wifi is kinda shitty, especially in England of all places. Talk about a British debuff.
You let out a heavy sigh and collapse into your seat. Napping is out of the question, even though you’re still kind of tired from the flight. Don’t wanna risk missing him by a smidgen, of course. So you ended up roaming around the airport for a while, getting yourself some drinks and snacks to keep you occupied while waiting for your friend. Luckily there were plenty of places to lounge while waiting, so you found a place to sit and enjoy your haul of snacks while waiting.
You did get to connect to the public wifi to look at some memes, but again, it’s the airport wifi. With how slow your phone’s been loading, you eventually disconnect yourself from the wifi after moments of mindless scrolling.
But then you realized something.
You have absolutely no idea what gate he’s in.
Panicked, you scramble to pick up your bags from your side and stand up. Shit, did Elira tell you what airline he took? God, having data in another country would be so helpful. There’s absolutely no way you’re gonna reconnect to the public wifi, it’s too damn slow! If you did have data, you’d look back to your DMs and scrub through your brief conversation from last night.
With a quick glance at your phone, the clock flashes briefly on the screen. 9:20pm, that means his flight’s arriving in less than an hour. Oh shit.
Immediately, you pace briskly throughout the terminals. As you scrounge through the crowds just to take a good look at the terminals, you ask staff for international flights from Japan along the way to help narrow down as much as possible. Throughout the search, you occasionally checked the clock on your phone. 9:40? Shit, his flight should be here now or soon.
“Mysta!” You suddenly shout, passerbys looking at you strangely as you start calling for his name. Your luggage rolls and bumps against the crevices of the floor, bags jostling as you promptly continue your search throughout the terminals. “Mysta Rias!”
Meanwhile, in the same area…
An ashy gray haired man stands in front of the carousel, waiting for the rest of his bags to drop onto the conveyor belt. He pulls out his phone from his pocket, taking a quick glance at his notifications and Discord. His mouth lowers into a frown, his brows furrowing in worry as he notices the lack of notifications from you. Did they fall asleep?
Clink-clang!
Sunset kissed eyes shift towards the carousel at the sound. Spotting his luggage on the conveyor belt, he walks over to his revolving baggage and lifts them onto the ground. Maybe he’ll shoot you a dm later when he gets home. The handle on his large case clicks as he pulls it up, soon dragging it on its wheels behind him as he heads towards the direction of the exit.
You continue running and searching for him, frantically calling his name throughout the terminal. Your head turns left and right as you look into the surrounding late night crowd, your gaze briefly analyzing each arrival for any hint of his gray hair or his tallness. As you remain standing in the middle of the hall, looking for him, you see a tall man wearing small shades on the bridge of his nose. Gray side hairs framing his face sway into the air as he lugs his bags from the baggage claim and towards the nearest exit.
Without a second thought, your feet starts moving towards him. “Mysta—“ you call. “Mysta!”
After seconds and minutes of searching for him, calling his name and pushing through the crowd as you chase after him. Just a little more…!
“MYSTA!”
And finally… Finally, you see him.
With a clear shout of his name, the gray haired man halts.
Bewildered, he looks left and right until he turns around to see you panting. His heart stopped as he stares at you astonishly. The ambience of the crowd and muffled intercom speakers drowned out as he zoned onto you.
He looked at you.
The person standing just centimeters away from him.
The person who he thought was someone he’d never meet face to face ever.
The person who helped him find a reason to keep going even in the darkest of times.
It felt like hours just staring at each other. It didn’t even feel like there was an ocean of people swarming about and passing by. Without a second thought, Mysta slowly approaches you as if he were to scare you off. As if he didn’t want to wake up, if he is dreaming.
As he gets closer and closer, you didn’t make a move. No, you merely stared at him with wonder and excitement im your eyes.
You both stood across each other, only a few centimeters apart. He blinks several times, even pinching his wrists to disprove his thoughts. But he felt a stinging pain on each part.
An airy huff somewhat resembling a laugh escapes from him. Relief washes over him, and he whispers with a smile, “…Hi.”
You smile back.
“Hi.”