Work Text:
“Cyno, could you show me how to get to the library-“
“Shhh!” Cyno shushed him, waving his hand over his shoulder.
Sethos had moved in only two days ago, but he had known Cyno for forever. He wasn’t bothered by Cyno’s incessant shushing, though he did become intrigued.
Cyno appeared to be watching a video game stream. There was a v-tuber avatar in the bottom right corner, though it was unlike most v-tuber designs Sethos had seen before. It was mostly in shadow with a wide brimmed hat obscuring most of the facial features except for the very tip of the nose and mouth.
Sethos listened for a second and the voice itself seemed fake too. Or at least that they were using something to modify their voice.
He had never seen Cyno so locked-in on someone or something that wasn’t Tighnari or his favorite card games before. This particular v-tuber didn’t appear to be playing any of the games Sethos had seen Cyno playing before.
“What is this?” Sethos questioned only to be met with more shushing from Cyno.
Sethos rolled his eyes, but the streamer seemed to be wrapping things up. They had won the last round of their game so it was now a full screen view of the avatar as he read a few comments from the chat and said goodbye. The stream ended after a few more seconds of this, and finally Cyno turned around in his desk chair to face his new roommate.
“Sorry. What did you need?” Cyno asked.
Sethos frowned at him, not ready to change the topic away from whatever this was. “Are you going to explain what that was about? Did Tighnari become a v-tuber recently or something?”
“No. Tighnari hates public attention like that he would never become a v-tuber,” Cyno explained.
“Then who was that?” Sethos asked.
“Man, I know your folks sheltered you, but you really haven’t heard about Zushi?”
“Zushi?”
“He’s this streamer and lately he’s been making these crazy predictions that keep coming true,” Cyno explained.
“That’s probably just a coincidence,” Sethos waved his hand, dismissing the idea.
Cyno shook his head. “Apparently he made a joke about Fontaine flooding exactly one week before it did.”
“Like I said, coincidences happen,” Sethos was sort of skeptical about this kind of thing.
“He also predicted the Sumeru Akademiya students' protest and how they got the principal fired.”
“I’m sure half of the Akademiya students could have done that themselves.”
“Well that’s just the thing, now everyone thinks this guy must be a student here,” Cyno said.
“So?”
“So since so many people want to know who this guy is he’s put out a prize. He’s claimed no one would be able to find him or identify him in public,” Cyno explained.
“Ah, so you’re trying to win this prize money,” Sethos said, finally starting to realize why Cyno was so invested.
“Well, that’s only part of it,” Cyno said. “I may have talked a big game in front of Nari, and told him I was sure it’d be easy to figure out. He said if I can’t find any leads I should probably change my major and life’s dream of becoming a detective.”
Sethos laughed at this, “Whatever dude can you just show me the library?”
.
.
.
A few weeks passed and Sethos forgot all about Zushi and Cyno’s determination to find him. This was mostly because he became inundated with school work. And secondarily because he started developing his own hyper-fixation on this guy that sat next to him in history classes.
His name was Kuni, and all Sethos knew little to nothing about him. He always wore headphones around his neck and either a mask or a hat. The first thing Sethos noticed about him were his eyes. Despite the fact that Kuni seemed to be hiding his appearance, he wore this stark red eyeliner that contrasted the natural dark blue of his irises.
Their first few interactions seemed less than friendly. Sethos was asking him about the school and how long he had been a student here when Kuni put on his headphones to ignore Sethos.
Sethos took little offense to this, and continued speaking to him each time he saw him.
One thing that was interesting about Kuni was that he was always early to class, with his laptop set up and was always finishing some kind of meal when Sethos arrived.
But after a week or so of talking to him, Kuni started bringing an extra snack just for Sethos.
“For you,” Kuni said simply when Sethos sat down next to him. He offered him a triangle shaped kimbap.
“Oh, that’s okay! Thank you,” Sethos tried to deny the offer.
Kuni pushed the snack closer to him, “It’s hard for me to pay attention when your stomach starts to growl by the end of class. Eat.” His heart fluttered.
Sethos opened his mouth to protest, but closed it again. He didn’t think Kuni would have noticed how hungry he gets by the end of class. It was because their class started right between meal times so it wasn’t ideal to eat before and it let out so late, Sethos was always hungry after.
“Thanks,” he said instead.
A week later, he invited Kuni to hangout for the first time. If he was honest with himself, he actually wanted to ask Kuni out on a proper date, but they talked so little before their classes, Sethos wasn’t even sure he swung that way.
Kuni hesitated when Sethos invited him to get coffee. Eventually he said, “I’m busy after class.”
Sethos nodded, “Well what about the weekend then?”
Kuni paused again, “What time?”
“What time works?”
“Before 6pm,” Kuni answered.
“We can do lunch,” Sethos suggested.
Kuni nodded, but averted his gaze. Sethos gave him his number, and tried to shut down the giddy feelings stirring inside. He had to remind himself that this wasn’t a date.
.
.
.
This first weekend lunch “hangout” turned into a weekly activity for the two of them, and it also became the highlight of Sethos’s week.
He finally started to know more about Kuni, but still only surface level stuff. He learned that his favorite food was sushi, and that he was born in Inazuma, but lived most of his life here in Sumeru. He learned that his favorite subject actually was history which is why he was in that class despite being a graphic design major.
However, no matter what they were talking about, Kuni was very prompt about leaving at 5:50PM.
Sethos was frustrated by his overall lack of knowledge about Kuni. Despite the progress in their friendship, he was still very closed off and mysterious.
.
.
.
The following weekend Sethos decided to try a new tactic. He did something they never did at their lunch “hangouts,” and he brought up the topic of school work.
He wondered that if Kuni was such a history buff, maybe he could get him to stay past 6PM just by asking him questions about things that interested him.
Sethos wasn’t sure what his goal was exactly, but he thought maybe if Kuni was thrown off his usual schedule he might reveal something about where he disappears to every day.
The plan worked almost perfectly. He did distract Kuni by telling him he thought the reason Inazuma shut down their border was because of merchants in Liyue raising tariffs on imported goods. Kuni was in the middle of a long-winded explanation that it was actually to do with different factions within Inazuma harboring different beliefs for the future of the country that lead their leader to shut everything down.
However, at 5:55PM Kuni had an alarm go off on his phone.
Sethos snapped attention to Kuni’s phone where he read one single word: “Live”
“Ah, shit!” Kuni said, standing up in a rush. “Sorry, Sethos, I have to leave.”
Sethos gave him the same smile he always did, “You haven’t finished explaining how the tension was resolved in Inazuma, though.”
Kuni snorted at this. “You should read the textbook. Anyway, I do have to go.”
Sethos frowned. Usually when Kuni had to leave, he put on a fake smile and waved him off.
Kuni noticed this, and his own expression fell, “Sorry.”
He turned and left quickly, leaving Sethos to his thoughts. It really seemed like Kuni wanted to stick around longer. Sethos gathered his things and decided to return to his dorm instead of going to the library to study. He was sure Kuni would finish the explanation on Monday anyway.
When he got to the dorm, Cyno was there. He had seen Cyno less and less these days as they became involved in their separate school related activities.
“Nari?” Cyno called out when the door opened.
“It’s me,” Sethos called back.
“Sethos! This is crazy, get in here!”
Sethos rolled his eyes, but listened to his roommate’s request. He leisurely walked over to Cyno who was perched at his computer desk, completely entranced.
“What exactly is going on here?” Sethos questioned as he observed a blank screen in front of Cyno.
“He’s late!” Cyno exclaimed, gesturing towards the screen.
Sethos frowned. “Are you having a video conference date with Tighnari, or something?”
Cyno rolled his eyes, “My dear child… this is obviously a streaming platform… have you spent even one day on the internet in your life?”
Suddenly Sethos was hit with a wave of deja-vu.
“Are you still obsessing over that v-tuber?” Sethos asked.
Cyno nodded. “No one has figured out who he is yet.”
“Oh, look!” Sethos pointed to the screen as it changed from black to a loading screen.
“Sethos, my guy, you don’t understand. Zushi is never late for his weekend streams.”
Sethos snorted, imagining for a second that it was actually Kuni. What a coincidence that Kuni always had to leave at 6PM and Zushi always went live at 6PM. Though perhaps the bigger coincidence was that the first time Kuni was late, Zushi also was.
It was just that, though. A coincidence.
The loading screen finally changed and there appeared the v-tuber with his animated background. Cyno shushed Sethos even though he wasn’t even talking, and turned up the volume.
“I wonder if he’ll say anything about being late,” Cyno said.
Zushi started off reading some of the commenter names and welcoming them to the stream. After a few minutes of this, Sethos started to grow bored. He was about to leave when finally Zushi read off a fan’s question.
“‘Why are you late today?’” Zushi read off, and then gave a forced laugh. “This would be crazy to say, but it isn’t the first time the intricacies of Inazuman politics have disrupted the flow of my life’s schedule. Relax you guys, I’m human too.”
Cyno sighed, unsatisfied with this reply, but Sethos’s eyes shot wide open at this comment.
“Holy shit,” Sethos breathed. “I know who Zushi is.”
Cyno whipped his head around to look at Sethos. “What?”
“I’m friends with this guy,” Sethos said.
Cyno was skeptical at best, “No way.”
.
.
.
After explaining to Cyno why he thought Kuni was most likely definitely this Zushi guy, he went on to explain that it was impossible for him to reveal that publicly to anyone.
As far as Sethos could tell, he was Kuni’s only friend so if this news got out, he would almost certainly be pissed and would stop talking to Sethos which would definitely kill any shot he had at anything further developing in their relationship.
However, Cyno was insistent that he say something the next time the two of them were alone.
Over the next week, Sethos finally started tuning into Zushi’s streams. He sometimes played games, but more often than not he would just chat to the commenters. Sethos left a comment once or twice, but they got drowned out in the sea of fans.
The more he watched Zushi’s streams the more he drew the connections between him and Kuni. Zushi used an AI voice filter. While this changed the pitch and tones of his voice, it couldn’t change his overall speaking patterns. Sethos noticed that Kuni had a unique verbal filler and often ended sentences with “you know what I mean?” Zushi had the same exact verbal filler.
Additionally, Zushi often made obscure references to history just like Sethos had heard Kuni do on countless occasions.
Sethos paid close attention to the stream schedule and how it compared with what he knew about Kuni’s schedule. They had history two times a week from 3-5PM. Zushi went live those same days from 12-2PM. It would explain why Kuni always packed a lunch and was eating in the classroom before their class if he was indeed using that time to stream. He also knew Kuni’s Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule was packed to the brim with his major coursework. Coincidentally Zushi had no streams on those days.
Through watching his streams, he also felt as if he was finally learning more about Kuni too. Zushi made jokes when women in his comments made advances towards him. He let them down gently too, but enforced that he wasn’t into women. This gave Sethos a tiny spark of hope. He also talked more about his childhood and that he grew up learning both martial arts and ballet. Sethos also learned what kind of things Zushi was scared of (ghosts, the supernatural) and what things he wasn’t (spiders, the dark) based on the kinds of games Zushi played and talked about.
Sethos felt like he was intruding on Kuni and finding out information he wasn’t supposed to know. However, he couldn’t stop watching either. He was fully invested in every word Zushi had to say.
.
.
.
After a long week of analyzing Kuni and Zushi’s every word, Sethos was confident that this was the only answer. It was finally time for the weekly lunch “hangout” and Sethos could feel his heart pounding in his throat. He wanted to say something, but he wasn’t sure how to bring it up.
There was a lull in the conversation and Kuni looked at him, waiting for Sethos to return the eye contact.
“You alright? You seem on edge today,” Kuni said. Sethos finally met his gaze and surely enough, he felt his heart relax.
He took a deep breath.
“Have you heard of Zushi?”
Kuni visibly tensed at the question, but kept his facial expression neutral.
“Hmm, sounds familiar. Is this some celebrity?” Kuni asked, coyly. Sethos wanted to laugh and shout out that he knew the truth, but he supposed he would play along.
“I guess in a way. It’s some streamer. My roommate’s been obsessed over figuring out his true identity,” Sethos said.
Kuni closed his eyes and pretended to think, “Oh right! I heard he’s kind of a big deal here.”
“Mmm,” Sethos hummed. “I don’t see the hype personally.”
Kuni snorted, and Sethos raised an eyebrow at this, wondering if that would be enough to get him to confess. “Well then why do you bring it up?” he asked.
“Just curious if you had any idea who he is,” Sethos dismissed.
“Ah… no. I don’t tend to get wrapped up in that sort of thing,” Kuni said.
“I see,” Sethos said, unsure of how to press on. It was getting close to 5:50 again.
Kuni checked his watch, “I should probably head out soon.”
Sethos’s breath caught in his throat. This chance to know more was slipping away from him. He had to know the truth. “You’re Zushi.”
Kuni held his gaze for what felt like hours. It was expressionless and agonizing. But then the unexpected happened, Kuni’s lips curled into a grin that spread across his face. Sethos hadn’t seen Kuni smile often, it was almost disturbing to look at.
“What makes you so sure?” Kuni asked.
Sethos blinked, he wasn’t ready for this reaction or this kind of question. He had only assumed Kuni would deny everything. Feeling nervous, he swallowed. He wasn’t about to explain that he spent the last week meticulously listening to his every word as both Zushi and as Kuni, and comparing their schedules to work out the details.
So instead he said, “The intricacies of Inazuman politics?” It came out as a question.
Kuni just laughed at this. It was a loud laugh that filled the empty corner of the cafeteria to the brim. It clashed at the same time his phone alarm went off. Kuni picked up his phone to silence the alarm, and then continuing his streak of unexpected actions, he offered a hand to Sethos.
Sethos stared at the hand, thinking he should grab it, but unsure why.
“Would you like to see?” Kuni asked.
Sethos frowned, but he took hold of Kuni’s hand. His heart was already pounding from the tense conversation, and at the contact it only worsened. He didn’t have time to dwell on this as Kuni pulled him quickly out of the cafeteria. He dragged him through the streets of campus, past dozens of students. Whether or not others noticed them, Sethos didn’t know. He was fixated only on Kuni and the way his hair bounced as he ran ahead.
At least if Kuni could feel his heartbeat, now he could blame it on the cardio workout he was just forced into.
They didn’t stop until they reached Kuni’s dorm. He was in one of the nice dorms. The layout was two separate bedrooms connected by a small shared space and a shared bathroom. Essentially Kuni had his own bedroom. Inside, it became immediately evident he was in fact Zushi.
His entire gaming setup was underneath his lofted bed. Sethos was speechless, and slightly overwhelmed. He didn’t notice Kuni booting on the PC, fiddling with his microphone, and putting the headphones that were always around his neck over his ears.
By the time Sethos processed what was going on, Kuni spoke, but it wasn’t to him.
Kuni started up his livestream. Sethos’s eyes widened, and he became nervous that he would fuck up the livestream somehow. He sunk to the floor in his spot to avoid being picked up by the motion capture camera. Though Zushi was a v-tuber which meant his set up didn’t allow for any actual video from his dorm room to be transmitted.
Sethos was thankful that Kuni had a rug on the floor. He propped himself up again the wall and watched.
It was so bizarre seeing this other side of Kuni’s personality. At first when he drew the connection between Zushi and Kuni he thought the two couldn’t be more different. But he started to think that perhaps Kuni was a much more guarded and tight-lipped version of Zushi. Zushi was free to say whatever he wanted and interact with people on his own terms. Perhaps Zushi was the real Kuni all along that Sethos was dying to know.
After exactly 90 minutes of streaming, Zushi wrapped things up and said goodbye to his chat. Sethos watched as he turned off the camera and the microphone and shut down the stream once again.
He turned in his chair to Sethos.
“Why are you on the floor?” Kuni asked.
Sethos gestured wildly around the room as if there was somewhere else for him to sit.
“Ah… We can sit on my bed if you want. Might be more comfortable,” Kuni said. He stood up and offered a hand to Sethos to help him off the floor. Sethos took it and tried to ignore the tingly feeling that returned when he held his hand again.
“Are we just not going to talk about this anymore?” Sethos asked. Kuni kicked off his shoes and climbed up to the top of his lofted bed, leaving Sethos no choice but to follow. It would be too weird to have a conversation on different levels.
Kuni waited for Sethos to join him before answering, “What more do you want to talk about? You figured out my secret.”
Sethos sat a couple feet away from Kuni, but next to him with his back pressed up against the wall and legs sticking out. Sethos let out a heavy breath, tired from climbing, “I didn’t realize how athletic you were.”
Kuni laughed. “Maybe you’re just out of shape.”
“I am not!” Sethos replied, mildly offended. He rolled up his sleeve and flexed his arm, showing off his biceps, “See!”
Kuni moved over to reach out and touch Sethos’s arm, squeezing the flexed muscle with both his hands. “Ah, I guess so. Maybe you just need to work on your cardio then.”
Sethos’s breathing was still irregular, though now he suspected there was a different reason for it. He needed to redirect the conversation before he said too much.
“I thought you would have denied being Zushi,” Sethos said.
Kuni shrugged. “Why’s that?”
“Wasn’t that like your whole schtick? Mysterious streamer that no one can identify?”
“Not exactly. That’s what everyone else made me out to be.”
“I’m sorry, I’m confused,” Sethos said.
“All I said was that no one in real life was close enough to me to figure out who I was.”
“But didn’t you want to keep it a secret?”
Kuni considered this, “Maybe I wanted you to figure out my secret.”
The way he said this, made Sethos’s heart jump in his chest. “Why?”
“Maybe I’ve enjoyed getting to know you, and I’ve been waiting for you to get to know me too.”
Sethos blinked, feeling dizzy from all the eye contact. “Wasn’t there like a prize for figuring out who you were?”
Kuni shrugged, “I think the fans made that one up too.” After a pause he added, “did you want there to be a prize?”
Now Sethos shrugged. “Did you have something in mind?” He asked, trying his best to keep his eyes on Kuni’s, but he failed, glancing quickly at Kuni’s lips. He wondered when did Kuni get so close. Kuni raised an eyebrow at him.
“Maybe you have something in mind, hmm?” he leaned ever closer. Sethos felt his breath hitch.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sethos said. He put all of his concentration into maintaining eye contact, but once again, he got curious and glanced down at Kuni’s lips. He wondered.
At this, Kuni let out a snort, and doubled forward from laughter. His forehead crashed into Sethos’s neck as he leaned his body weight into the other man. Sethos felt his hands come up automatically to Kuni’s shoulders to try and steady Kuni who was hysterical with laughter.
When he calmed down, Sethos looked nervous as ever.
“Do you want your prize to be a kiss?” Kuni finally said.
Sethos opened his mouth to reply, but no answer came out, so he nodded. Without any more hesitation, Kuni leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on Sethos’s lips. It started off barely there, but Kuni pressed in more with time and began to move his lips against Sethos. Sethos felt his heart racing once again. He grasped the back of Kuni’s head, to bring him closer still until they slid down from sitting down to laying down.
Kuni continued to eat hungrily at Sethos’s lips from on top of him, and Sethos reciprocated until their lips got sore from the intensity of it all. He was sure his lips would be swollen from this, and it was getting hard to breathe, but he didn’t care.
They broke apart after some time, Sethos had no idea but it wasn’t long enough.
“Question,” Sethos managed, looking Kuni in the eyes.
“Hmm?” Kuni hummed, laying his chin down on Sethos’s chest.
“Can my prize be more than one kiss?” Sethos asked. He was fairly confident Kuni wasn’t just kissing him to satisfy him winning this imaginary game, but he also had to make sure.
“So greedy,” Kuni said with a mock gasp. “How many kisses did you have in mind?”
“Hmm,” Sethos thought. “How many subscribers does Zushi have?”
Kuni grinned, “I think he’s almost at one million.”
“I kinda think I deserve a kiss for every subscriber I beat out,” Sethos reasoned.
Kuni laughed at this incredulous statement, but he played along, “Then we better start making those up…”
He leaned up to connect their lips once again. This time, much more relaxed and moving slower than before. Sethos relished the feeling. Kuni trapped Sethos’s bottom lip in his own, slowly licking and sucking on it.
This kiss lasted just about as long as the first one, until Kuni pulled back.
“That’s two,” Kuni said with a wide grin. Sethos couldn’t wait for the next nine hundred-thousand kisses that were yet to come.