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CJ was not expecting his partner to call him in the middle of a stream.
“Heyheyhey!” he answered. “What up flyfisher?”
The other line was silent aside from a small sniffle.
Instantly he reached to mute his mic, rolling away from his desk and dropping the persona. “Hey, hey, what’s wrong, angelfish?”
“...did I interrupt your stream?”
“Never.”
“I did, though. You were doing your streamer voice.”
“Well it’s never an interruption when it’s you.” He heard a small huff of amusement. “Anywave, talk to me, Flick. What’s the matter?”
CJ could practically see the way their face screwed up with held-back tears as they mumbled, “...it’s stupid.” He wanted nothing more than to reach out and hold it, but it was visiting some far-off island on a bug-collecting day trip.
“Not if it’s making you upset.” He heard shuffling in the background; could imagine the way Flick was fiddling with their net and curling their tail. “Are you somewhere safe?”
“Mhm.” Its response was muffled, presumably by its crossed arms. “Went t’ the muse’m. Bug ‘xhibit.”
“Bug exhibit, huh? Anything cool in there?” He kept his voice low and level, trying to help ground them in the moment.
“Mm, yea… there’s a pretty greenhouse with a fount’n an’... bunch of lepidopterans.”
“Ooh, cool.” CJ wracked his brain trying to remember what group that was. “That’s butterflies, right?”
“An’ moths.”
“Ah, of course, of course. Wish I was there to sea it.” Which island was Flick visiting again? He rolled back towards his monitor to pull up the flight details—a nice little island to the north. No return flight until five in the morning. He checked the time—11:43 pm. Chat was still swimming along at the edge of the screen, probably asking what was happening, but he ignored them. “What kinds have they got in there?”
Flick’s net tapped on the stone floor of the room, echoing through the phone. “Common and yellow butterflies… tiger butterflies… common bluebottle…” He could tell it was looking around as it spoke, voice becoming clearer as it listed off the many species surrounding it. “They’re all sleeping now, but there’s— there’s so many—” and their voice started catching on tears again.
“Hey, hey, what’s the matter? I can’t help if I don’t know what the problem is, dragonfly. Throw me a line here.”
“It’s stupid—” Flick whined.
“It’s not.”
“I just— there’s so many, CJ—” It hiccuped, trying to swallow down a sob, and he wanted so badly to hug it. “And the residents are— they’ve been so nice and— and so generous and I— I can’— I can’t—”
“Shhh, hey, come up for air a second, no drownin’ on my watch.” The joke earned him a watery giggle, and he smiled. “So, the residents have been selling you a bunch of bugs for your collection. What’s the issue then?”
They were silent for a long moment. Just as he was about to repeat the question, they mumbled something.
“Sorry, I didn’t catch that; what did you say, angelfish?”
Another long pause, and then: “...I ran out of bells.”
CJ’s eyebrows raised. “What, in your wallet? I’m sure they have an ABD you can use at their Resident Services—”
“In my account,” came the quiet response.
He let out a low whistle. “Wow. Didn’t you have like, a boatload of ‘em in there? You must have a lot of new little friends, huh?”
It whined again, high and distressed. “But they still want to sell me more, I don’t have— I can’t— how am I meant to turn down any of my chitinous kindred?”
CJ was already pulling up his bank account to make a transfer. “How much do you need?”
His partner seemed to buffer for a moment.
“Hundred thousand? Two? Three? Just gimme a number and it’s yours, dragonfly.”
“I— um— I don’t… know,” they said finally.
“That’s alright. I’ll give you five just to be safe, yeah? That should be enough to last you ‘til you come home.”
“I—” It stopped. Processed. Accepted that their boyfriend was indeed just going to do that. “...okay.” Cleared its throat. “Thanks.”
“Anytime.” Flick could probably hear the fond smile in his voice. “Love you, damselfly.”
They snorted. “..love you too, sea butterfly.”
It hung up the phone. He stared fondly at their contact for a moment before he finally turned back to his stream. “Heyyy what is UP anglers,” he greeted, turning text-to-speech back on for the donations that were flooding in. “Had to catch a reel important call, you know how it is—”
The computer’s monotone voice interrupted.
CJ YOU WERENT MUTED
Finally he looked at the chat— and found them in shambles. Donos kept rolling in, the TTS taunting him.
hello cj welcome back absolutely nothing happened while you were gone
u dudnt mute L we all knew you were a softie
He took off his cap to run a hand through his fur. “Ohhhh buoy.”
Angelfish is such a cute nickname btw
simp
bro u missed that mute button so bad
He rested his head in his paws and sighed.
were never gonna let you live this down kekw
No, they were not.