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After an exhausting day of work, you burst through your door and basically slammed your keys down. You weren't upset or anything, it's just you finally had time to do the one thing you were looking forward to all day. It was time to watch your favorite Twitch streamer.
Sighing in relief, you took off your jacket and dropped it on your table on top of your keys. You put down and took off the rest of the essentials, getting into your comfy clothes in your room and turning on your laptop. You got back just in time for the beginning of the stream, perfect.
You waited a couple of minutes for everyone to join on the waiting screen, and then you saw your favorite head of green hair.
"Hey, everyone. Good to see you back, and yes chat," she said, flicking her eyes to the side of her camera to chat, "the results came in. More on that at the end of the stream, but in the meantime, what game should we play?"
You practically jumped off of your bed. You had waited so long to see those results and have gotten so excited. So of course, this called for a mini-dance of your own horribly adorable style. After definitely not jumping around in circles, you finally sat down and watched your favorite Twitch streamer, notmz17, or Maki as her viewers called her, play a game.
---
"Oh my god," Maki sighed with wide eyes, "that ending was insane. You guys saw that last boss, right?? He looked like he just crawled out of an ancient sewer or something-"
You stopped looking at the screen to type out a response along the lines of, "yeah, idek how you were that close to the screen queen :'( "
You saw Maki look to the chat seeing your comment, "It was painful, Pitch, I could've used a mask or something," she joked.
Since you were a regular on her streams, she used the nickname pitch to play off your username, pitchblavk. To be fair, you did comment a lot, so she definitely recognized you when you joined or replied to her. Her community wasn't terribly huge, but she did have enough people to host events and other such things, making it not too hard to keep track of certain users. Even then, you found her in her early days, so that didn't matter much. You would never tell anyone, but your heart may or may not always do flips and gymnastics when she responds to you specifically. Especially when she asks you a question back.
When some more chatting had gone by, the viewers got antsy over the results again.
"Oh yeah, you guys really wanna know, huh?" Maki teased, "Hoping a bit too hard, I see?"
She smiled, turning around in her chair to find a piece of paper. You were hanging onto your seat so hard, it was finally time. This would be a once in a lifetime experience, something you could only have if you were super lucky. Over 4,000 viewers entered, and you were one of them. Why wouldn't you enter? Who doesn't want a whole day with Maki, the absolute most gorgeous and wonderful woman in the universe???
When Maki turned back around, you couldn't breathe. You knew the odds were soooo super out of your favor, but that didn't stop you from picturing the possibility of finally meeting her past the screen. The anticipation was real, your eyes were glued to the screen when she opened her mouth, and then it happened.
"Alright, the tickets were counted and tallied, all of your 'service points' were added up, and everyone who entered was checked to see if they posted their favorite kind of food," Maki took a breath to continue, looking into her camera to build up the tension, "All of you know those were the requirements to get chosen, and out of the 4,682 people that first entered, only 4,231 survived the first requirement," tilting the paper to the side and looking disapprovingly, she continued, "how hard is it to use valid tickets and not cheat, guys?"
You instantly looked away. You thought about cheating when your senses took hold of you. Not surprising you'd do that, though.
When you looked back at the screen, she was looking at the paper again, "After those 4,231 passed, only 3,947 of you passed the next requirement. You had to have at least 40 'service points' for that one. If helping out wasn't your cup of tea, that's alright, I guess."
You smiled at that one. You were still in, you had 684 'service points'. It wasn't hard to help someone you really liked, especially if just volunteering to help scored you points sometimes. All you really had to do was do a couple minutes of serious chat maintenance, answer honestly to some questions about the video quality, and take a few surveys on what new content you'd like to see and what could be improved on. Nothing too time consuming.
"And for the last requirement-" she looked at the numbers, showing a confused expression, "What happened? You guys don't like food?" she joked.
"Only 2,180 of you passed that one. Damn."
You took a deep breath in, you had passed all the requirements. All that was left was to announce the winner.
"Alright," Maki sighed, leaning back in her chair and lightly biting the arm of her glasses. Her arms were propped up on the chair's armrests, her feet laid on the desk, ankles crossed. She shrugged, sliding down in the chair slightly, "Since I just love messing with you guys, I'm gonna announce the top three instead of just the winner."
People in chat seemed very desperate to hear the winner, with messages like, "sigh", "whyyyyy", and "this is killing me" flooding in by the second. Maki saw and quietly laughed to herself before glancing at the camera and back down to the paper again.
"In third place, we have 'r3dc4mry'."
This is either very good or very bad.
"In second place, we have 'pitchblavk'."
Your eyes widened, and you suddenly didn't want to know the winner. You didn't know if you even wanted to finish the stream anymore. This was so important to you, and you lost it? Did you not try hard enough? How could you do something like that?
You turned your head away from the screen while Maki went through another teasing pause to mess with her viewers. She was laughing at how impatient everyone was, and you couldn't even enjoy her laugh. The rejection your brain was simulating was hitting very hard, and you happened to hear Maki announce the winner through the cotton feeling in your ears.
"And the winner is!" she did a small drumroll in the air and made a sound for it herself, "the one, the only, 'vinceofevil'!"
Whoever that was, you resented them. They had taken something from you that you deserved. You wanted that place and you tried as hard as you could to get it. How could they just take it from you?
Right after she announced the winner, she got a notification. It was really loud, seemed like it was set that way because it was important. You had heard her receive that notification sound before, courtesy of you being an OG subscriber. It's her management team, but what do they have to say right now? Don't they know it's her event announcement?
Maki takes her feet off of the desk, sits up, and looks at her screen closely to see a message. She looks surprised, but then her lips take a more sly position.
"Well then, seems like we have another cheater on our hands. 'vinceofevil' has been disqualified due to last minute checks. They entered many invalid tickets," she snickered at their futile attempt, "Looks like our winner today, is our wonderful regular, Pitch. Everyone send those clapping emojis!"
Your mouth dropped, you couldn't believe it. This is real, so real. You had prepared yourself and fought hard for this, you knew you deserved it!
Wait.
You had to get ready, it was finally time. Nothing can go wrong. You can't forget anything. You knew you had to leave for Japan tomorrow morning, and this would be the most perfect day of your life.
As soon as you tried to jump off your bed and get packing, you heard Maki say something. She said something to you .
"Hey, Pitch! I know you're watching!" she exclaimed, making you turn your head. One of your feet was off the bed and the other one was still bent at the knee, almost off, and your arms were fixed in a kind of running position, but you stopped and slowly sat back to listen to what she had to say.
"First, send a message to all my viewers in chat, and second..." she paused for dramatic effect, "I'LL SEE YOU AT THE ADDRESS I SENT TO YOU!!!"
Turning your laptop toward you after staring at it sideways from trying to leave, you thought about what kind of message you'd send. You could be humble, rude, passive, anything you wanted really, but you wanted it to be a message Maki would be proud of. You knew something that would fit the bill.
After typing furiously, you strung these words together, "I'll have so much fun in Japan, I'm happy that I won. Too bad you guys, see you next stream!"
A nice mix of appreciation and cockiness, the exact sort of thing Maki would say when looking over a game for the first time. To be fair, she did say this in one of her streams, "Oh yeah, very nice architecture, the buildings and everything looks nice. If I was on that team though, I totally would've perfected everything, maybe gave myself a shout out-"
You knew you guessed right when you saw Maki laugh at your comment, uttering, "Wow, someone knows what they're doing."
---
Packing took forever, but you managed. Good thing everything was paid for by the purchased tickets, otherwise, this trip may have been impossible. The seats in first class were much nicer than you thought they'd be, so you were stuffed and fully entertained by the flight over. You had already gotten your luggage, so the next thing on your list was to find the sign with your name on it.
They got your email from your favorite food post, and sent you the place you needed to be, the airport you needed to take, the money you needed to take said flight to get there, and to request your first and last name. Kaiya Kizu.
The airport wasn't super fancy, which you didn't mind, but there were people everywhere you looked. It was kind of intimidating, but getting to meet Maki was the end goal. No one would stop you.
Descending the escalator, you looked around the crowd for your sign. It took you a pretty long while , but you eventually met eyes with a white haired man wearing a mask. Not really what you were expecting, you didn't come to see a man...
Your feet eventually hit the floor in front of the escalator, and you immediately headed for the sign that called for 'Kaiya Kizu'.
When you approached the man, you were kind of quiet. You didn't really know what to say, you'd never seen him before. He soon solved the problem by greeting you, "Excuse me, miss. Are you 'Kaiya Kizu'?"
You nodded your head, maybe a tad too much, "Yep! That's me!"
Once you two finished your introductions, you left for a park. Of course, you had asked why you were meeting there, why Maki hadn't come to the airport, and how long it took to get there. He only responded with security reasons and in about an hour. You were willing to wait that long.
---
"You must be Pitch! Or Kaiya, yeah, but I've known you longer this way," Maki greeted you.
Your eyes were beaming, this was the best moment ever, "Yep, that's me! I know you go by Maki on stream, but do you want to go by anything else outside of that?"
Maki shook her head, "Nah, it's alright. Maki is my real name, anyway."
You were surprised she used her real name for Twitch, but you quickly shook that off to ask another question, "So, what are we gonna do today?"
She gave you a devious smile and non verbally asked if it was okay to touch you, pointing at your wrist. After giving her confirmation, she grabbed onto you and pulled you in a random direction, explaining that you were going to some sort of game place.
You supposed she really loved gaming and was sharing her interest with you. You felt really special and felt your wrist start to heat up to her touch. Goodness, you've fallen in deep, haven't you?
---
Everything was paid for, and the first thing that happened was the creation of the game plan. You had gotten into some make-shift huddle with Maki, and decided to do laser tag. She was really serious about this stuff, wasn't she?
You had crashed and burned in the first game, but you didn't feel bad about it. Maki had won. You practically felt her excitement jumping through you, you were happy for her. In the second game, you won, and she hyped you up in a very fun way. You connected your hands and jumped in small circles, much like you did by yourself yesterday.
You both did a ton of things, including, laser tag, rock climbing, carried oxygen tanks, ate lunch, jumped on trampolines, and many other activities. After all that, it had reached closer to the end of the day, but you still had one thing left to do.
"All right!" Maki checked off a box on her mental checklist, "Since we just finished up at the jungle gym, we can go see a movie of your choice."
She turned around to look at you since she had dragged you by the wrist the entire time, "What would you like to go see? Here's the options."
She passed you a brochure she pulled up on her phone. You took it from her and scrolled until you happened to come across your favorite movie, The Lion King.
You passed her phone back gently, "How do you feel about The Lion King?"
She praised you for your decision, "Very nice. I love Disney movies."
Arriving at the theater, you being you, you grab as many snacks as you can. It's all paid for, why not? Having a feast while watching a movie is the best part about the theater.
You earned a wide grin from Maki but a very pale look from the clerk. When everything was checked out, you both headed to the room you were supposed to be in and headed to the best seats. Good thing you got them when you did.
---
Everything was super quiet, neither of you had said a word for a while. The stars were just too beautiful. After leaving a place like the theater, a secluded, quiet place is just the place to be. Maki knew this specific place was very nice, and she brought you to it. This got you thinking, why would Maki bring you to a place like this when she just met you?
That wasn't a question you'd like to dive deep into, so you stopped yourself from overthinking about it and just asked her, "Hey, this place seems really special. Why did you bring me here? We only just met in person today."
Maki's eyes softened towards the sky, "Well, I feel like I've known you forever. You were one of the first people to support me on Twitch, you watch all of my streams, you comment every time, and you being there has become this stable thing that I can sort of count on," she looked down kinda sadly, "Even though I have a decent sized channel now with some good money coming in, I have a rocky living situation. Rent and the rules are always changing."
Your eyes traveled to the grass in front of you, "I hate that you have to go through that, Maki. I understand how unstable environments are, my childhood home was one. My mom and dad were always fighting, but somehow whenever mom said she wanted to leave, dad loved her again and made her want to stay. Sometimes, we would actually partially move out, and about two to three weeks in, we'd come back because mom wanted to."
She nudged your shoulder, "I hate that too. We have a good amount of things in common, and you're really fun."
Maki paused, not knowing if it was okay to continue after you didn't respond, but did anyway, "If it wouldn't remind you of your old unstable house, would you like to stay and live in Japan with me? You can take all the time you need, I won't rush you. If you say no, I'll understand."
You were honestly surprised she even asked. Thinking you got a day with your favorite streamer and then getting a chance to live with them? Who can say they've gotten the chance to do that? Well, it's not like you'd be leaving anyone. You had no friends, you cut off your toxic parents, and you didn't have any work connections. The only person you had was Maki, so why not?
You finally broke the long silence between Maki's offer and your question, "Of course! I'd love to. I'll have to head back to get my things and put in my two-weeks notice, but this will be amazing."
You both got excited, and you threw your arms around Maki. When she accepted and pulled you in closer, your perfect day turned into the absolute best moment and decision you ever made.
It was time to start living your best life.