♡kat♡

So you were told, and yet even now, you're not quite sure what there is to mourn in the first place. Mourning is missing and missing entails a lack of something. That is not what you are experiencing.

It hurts, doesn't it?

No. It never does. If anything, this sensation would be best described as pleasurable, sick and perverse as it may sound. She knows this. She's absorbing your essence into her after all; surely that same feeling must be leaching into her? Then again, if she's still this incapable of understanding how you feel, maybe not. What a shame.

I'm sorry.

Her skin burns ever so gently, as it has every day since you met her, as you have every day underneath her gaze. You boil in return; don't be sorry. I love this. I love you. Don't be sorry.

I'm sorry.

This body of yours sinks a little deeper. The pieces of you she craves so carnally atomize upwards into her blinding light. Her halo, you find yourself thinking. A peculiar species came up with that term, you recall, although the memories of where it was born and what it means are lost to eternity. Still, you carry traces of them within you just as they once did your own traces.

They came up with many terms, several overlapping in meaning. Sun. Sol. Sole. Soleil. Sunce. Slunce. Sonne. Sinne. Szeretet. Saule. Soare. Rojus. 사랑. 天道. Wedergeboorte. Rakkaani. My undoing. All who could speak these words are gone now. Only you are here to remember, and perhaps to pass them on to her, even if it takes every last drop of you to try. No matter. She'd absorb all of you regardless eventually—all of this version of you, at least. Other planets surely still retain your essence in some capacity. It means little to you, though, when you is limited to the you that knows yourself as you. And soon that you will fail to exist at all.

This will be over soon.

She's right. Of course she is, when she's done this before so many times. You wish she wouldn't say it so morosely though; maybe she wouldn't if only you were able to show her how deeply you enjoy this ritual of hers. Maybe one day your feelings will reach her. Maybe one day.

Can you still hear me?

Yes. Why can't she do the same, though?

One last drop of you remains on this planet. A fading echo of the forests and towns that you helped give birth to, destined to die only after being left behind by your own creations and sitting alongside their corpses for millennia. Destined to be reborn anew as material to keep your beloved burning era after era. The fuel to her everglowing fire.

I love you.

Even as you take a step away from the door, and then another, you find yourself shivering from that knowledge. Darumi trusted you. She put her faith in you. That's exactly why you shouldn't turn your back on whatever lies ahead, and that's exactly why you're so compelled to do just that.

What does it matter if you make it out of here? She'll be all alone just as before, isolating in her little corner, telling herself that a monster like her doesn't belong anywhere else. You'd be all alone too, not having her to share your findings with. Not having her to experience it with you. Not having her as anything other than a memory that'll fade just like your heartbeat ringing in your ears growing ever so  slower  and  slower  .  Blood  spills  onto  the  floor  .

"You made the right choice."

You   can   only   hope   she   feels   the   same  

.

"Eek! Some got in my mouth! It tastes like... Oh, wait. It doesn't taste like anything. Aw man! That's so lame."

You attempt to lift your head up off the ground towards the sighing girl, only to feel an absurd sensation erupt from your chest. Actually erupt, or perhaps... spurt? Forcefully, you push your eyes open. A smiling Darumi greets you.

"Oh hey, you're awake! Welcome back to the land of the unliving, we hope you enjoy your stay."

Her cheerful mannerisms blind you for a second to the oddities of her present physical state. To be concise, it's messy. Hair strands tangle within each other in odd ways, some sticking stubbornly to the edges of her cheeks—remnants of her fight earlier, if you had to guess. Her eyes keep jumping around more than usual. Most notably though, she's covered in a fuck ton of blood. Looking down, you realize you are too.

"What the hell?" Your hand reaches towards your chest and rests upon it, taking in the sensation of sticky yuckiness. And another huge blood spurt. Darumi squeals.

"Woah woah woah, it's gushing out again! This new form of yours is so awesome! Can we trade? Pretty please?"

You ignore her rapidly batting eyelids to take a look at your surroundings. Once again, you've ended up on the second floor, slotted right next to Darumi's signature corner of her and the twins' residence. Speaking of the twins, you can't help but notice Kako's eyes constantly flickering over towards you. She makes no attempt to call out, though, and neither do you. A cough catches your attention.

"So." Darumi's eyes shimmer. "Since you're back here, that means you and Hiruko had an epic battle to the death, right? Come on, spill the beans already! I want to hear every last gory detail. Every. Last. One."

"That's not..."

She flops her head to one side. "What? You don't wanna share?

"No, I..." A little embarrassed, your eyes turn downward onto your lap. "I didn't fight her."

"Oh? Oh! She snuck up behind you then?"

"That's not it either. I... I chose to stay here."

"What."

"Darumi..." You take her limp hands into your own and squeeze. "I thought about leaving. I almost did, but I couldn't leave you behind like that. You've done so much for me. You cheered me up when I was at my lowest. You protected me and gave me a chance to run away from Hiruko, even though you got hurt so much in the process. That's why I want to stay here. With you. Darumi, you of all people don't deserve to be alone."

Darumi's lips part into a tiny oval. Her hands, still encapsulated by yours, don't move an inch.

"You promised."

"I know, but—"

"Shut up!"

Darumi pulls her hands away and slaps yours as you instinctively try to reach back out before shuffling backwards. Her eyes widen. Her lips twitch. And, despite the shiver overtaking her body, all her muscles tensing and quaking in anything but rhythm; despite her breaths huffing out of her like a worn-down engine, only moments from collapsing into hot metal pieces strewn across the floor; and, of course, despite the equally warm trail of tears streaming down her cheeks, just out of reach, she cackles.

"You had a chance at freedom, and you're telling me that you threw it away? For what? For my sake? That's bullshit! Don't act like you give a shit about what's best for me. I never even wanted you to stay. I wanted you to... I wanted..."

As her lips flounder, her gaze drops down to the wound now permanently etched into your chest. She picks herself up off the ground and glares at you.

"Don't even think about following me."

You don't respond. There's no point. By the time you have the chance to form any level of coherent thought, she's already long gone, only your bleeding heart and a snarky Ima left to make a sound.

"Nice work, champ."

"Shut up."

Those words can't hold a candle to the vitriol they held in Darumi's mouth, yet you still spit them out all the same. Thankfully, Ima listens—although you suspect it may have more to do with Kako slapping his arm than anything on your end.

With nothing better to do, the three of you still remaining sit there and let time go to waste. How much? Who could say. Who cares to say. Weight presses down on your eyelids after that unknown period of time, and as before, you let them.

-

Turns out that sleep doesn't exactly come easy in a state like this, nor does it like to stay the few times you do manage to nod off successfully. You know, with the not exactly relaxing blood willing to gush out of you at any second (except when you brace in anticipation, of course). Maybe it's because of that, or maybe it's due to the blind hope that a certain someone would return to your shared residence; either way, when a few of her footsteps cautiously fill the room, you're wide awake and ready.

When your eyes meet, hers widen a little at first. Then they narrow—in warmth this time. Much more warmth than you deserve. She reaches for the door and pulls it open before looking back at you. Is she... waiting for you to follow? Not wanting to annoy her any further, you slowly get up and allow her to lead the way outside. The door clicks shut behind you two. She smiles.

"How's my favorite traitor doing?"

"Uh..." You wince and divert your gaze. "Hey. I'm really sorry about—"

"Ah ah ah. We don't have enough run time to fit in an apology scene, so skip the emotional spiel, 'kay?" Her finger hovers over your lips until she's satisfied with your silence and draws away. "Yugamu can't entertain Hiruko forever, you know."

"Hiruko? What are you... Darumi, I already told you. I'm not leaving you behind."

"I know. That's why I'm gonna be your player number two from now on!"

An awkward silence fills the space as she hits an equally awkward pose. Impersonating a character, perhaps. When you don't reward her with any response, she sighs and returns to something more natural, her eyes cautiously peering into yours.

"Okay, I'll admit. I may have been a teensy weensy bit mad at you earlier. Just a little. But, to be honest, when you told me you wanted to stay with me, it made me a little... happy. No one's ever said that to me before—at least, no one that actually meant it. But you did. That's why I want to do something for you in return. Sooooo... Let's go upstairs and face whatever's waiting for us. Together."

As the sensation of her pulling you forward and towards the next flight of stairs takes over, you quickly realize you don't have much of a say in the matter. Still, there's something on your mind, something that doesn't quite add up.

"I thought that once we turned into monsters, we couldn't leave this place? Wasn't that the whole point of me needing to escape as a human?"

"Oh, yeah, I dunno if we can pass through the final door or not. Never bothered trying before today." She continues forward, leading the way through the eerily empty third floor. "Still, we gotta try. Nothing ventured, nothing maimed!"

Her purple tendrils shudder at her words like a cat's tail (tails?). Before long, the two of you land at the top of the next set of stairs. You hear groaning from the other side—or rather, sobbing.

"Stupid Takumeat," she hisses under her breath before turning to you. "Alrighty, listen close. When I open this door, you go running for the exit. I'll deal with the oversized salami."

"But what about you?"

"Don't worry. Lil ol' Darumi's much stronger than she looks, remember? Just go on ahead and I'll follow behind shortly. Promise."

Promise, huh? The word sinks into your skin a little more rotten than you'd like, but you don't have the luxury of time to dwell on her choice of words. Almost instantly, one of Darumi's hands wraps around the doorknob and twists. She gives it a push. The door smashes into the wall behind it with a harsh clang.

"Go! Go! Go!"

With that, the door slams open and the two of you rush in, ready to face whatever challenges lie ahead. Except... There aren't any. The hallway, save for you and Darumi, is completely empty. For now. All that exists to signal the presence of the anticipated enemy is a sudden flurry of thumps and cries coming from none other than his bedroom. Your companion shoots you a timid grin.

"I totally screwed that up, didn't I?"

"Yep."

The door at the end of the hallway, as if hearing its cue, swings open. An all-too-familiar lump of meat sloshes outside, although...

"He's not doing anything," you mutter. Sure enough, the thing—boy—staring straight at you doesn't move an inch. Not towards you. Not back. He just stands there, watching with an empty gaze. Perhaps that means that in his eyes, you're no longer human enough to be labeled Karua. You've yet to decide if that's a good thing or not.

"He's not doing anything yet," she corrects you. "You'll see in a second."

So she says, but she makes no move to do anything. She keeps her body aimed directly at him instead, tendrils tensed and shaping themselves into a collection of knives that would put a butcher to shame. You recall her instructions to go on ahead alone. Then...

The moment you make it to the real Karua's door, you nearly stumble to the floor from the shock of Takumi making a mad dash towards you. Before he can reach you though, your knight in shining armor comes to your rescue and slashes him away. Still, he keeps trying. You have no choice but to leave Darumi behind and trust she'll soon follow. The stairs feel like air under your feet as you rush past Karua without so much as sparing her a glance. Up and up and up until, finally, you're right back where you were just a little bit ago—only this time, you're not running away from the truth. You're here to face it, alongside the person you love.

Just as you're about to peek your head into the now ajar door and catch a glimpse into the beyond that awaits you, a shriek far sharper than any that came before it spills out. And then there are none. You try not to think about it. Instead, you focus your attention on the series of footsteps making their way up the staircase. Her footsteps.

"Darumi!" You spin around to face her. "Thank goodness you made it. I was starting to get worried—"

The world spins. The woman you'd just been looking at so excitedly now appears at a strange angle, like she's simultaneously floating above you and yet growing smaller with each passing second. The image of her glows at the edges until the light just about swallows her whole. The last thing you see is a mass of waving hands and a smile you're now realizing is the only real one you've seen since your shared reunion.

"You just got Darumi'd!"

White, blinding light overwhelms your consciousness and nips at its edges

eating away at a body you think may be your own

falling further and furthen down and away from

eating away at the mind of someone who no longer exists

leaving it left to wonder its last thought

about its last memory

- Unfortunately, where she excels in just about every other category, she fails in academics. It's not that she doesn't care, it's just... juggling so many responsibilities inevitably means dropping the ball at some point. Between clubs, part time jobs, and being there to support and cheer on all her friends, how the heck is she supposed to find time for studying?

It doesn't help that she's never exactly been a straight A student, either. Even as a kid, most of her teachers who'd praised her used phrases such as "has great potential" before tacking on a cheeky "...just needs to apply herself more" at the end. So when she drops the ball, she drops it hard. Her run-of-the-mill test scores rapidly degrade into barely passing. But that's okay, right? As long as she doesn't actually fail, she'll be fine... right?

- Not exactly. It's true that she's fine at the moment, but midterms are coming up soon. If she fails even a single one, she's toast! Not only will her parents get super mad at her, but she'll also be barred from participating in track and field—highly problematic when a big competition's right around the corner. She's gotta get those grades up somehow! But how, exactly?

- Enter you, one of her classmates. The two of you haven't interacted much, save for a rogue group project, but she knows for a fact that your grades are infinitely better than hers. If anyone can save her sorry mess of a report card, it's you. Sure, getting on her knees and begging you to teach her your ways feels a little pathetic, but desperate times call for desperate measures, gosh dang it!

- Being her tutor is... chaotic, to say the least. She doesn't mean to show up late, nor to realize once she does arrive that she was apparently supposed to be somewhere else at the same time. Still, the first few weeks are riddled with these sorts of occurrences all the same. At least she's kind enough to try to make up for it, always bringing you a treat or a funky knick-knack she saw on the way over and thought you might like.

- Despite how much of a mess she can be, once you two are finally together, she's surprisingly good at staying on track. It's not that this is natural for her by any means—goodness knows how often you catch her staring off into space or playing with her pen—but it's the least she can do. You put in so much effort to accommodate for her screw-ups, after all; it's only right that she gives it her all when you manage to make your schedules align.

- When midterms finally start coming around, her already overwhelming levels of energy triples itself, and in the worst ways possible. Instead of directing all that focus to getting her crap together (despite trying her best to), she winds up spending it all on stressing herself out—and you too, since you're in charge of reining all this in. It's almost like taking care of a baby, honestly; look away for one second and every possible thing that could go wrong already has. There are papers on the floor, courtesy of her knocking them over; she's nursing her finger, fussing over a new paper cut, courtesy of her rushing to clean them all before you noticed what she did... In short, she's a whole mess.

- The moment of truth arrives at long last. Her eyes meet with yours one more time and her hand slowly lifts higher to give you a thumbs up before dropping, her smile coming along with it. The day passes on drearily, something you haven't experienced once since her first forceful intrusion into your daily routine. She enters your room. And then you wait.

Due to the nature of online exams, most of her scores have already been received—none exceptional, but all well within the range of passing mediocrity. This last one, though, needs a human touch to be properly graded. What's worse, this specific test belongs to her math class, the bane of her existence. How lovely. As the two of you sit and wait for her score to be uploaded, an awkward silence passes. She plays with her fingernails. Her teeth sink into her lower lip. Also, it may be your imagination, but she looks like she's blushing?

Any thoughts of yours go right down the drain in an instant as the two of you hear a familiar ping that can only mean one thing: her fate has been sealed. With squinted eyes, Gui's fingerpad presses down onto the notification, and...

- She passed!!! Hooray!!!

You don't even get the chance to congratulate her at first with how instant her impulse is to pounce on you and drag you down to the floor, but that's fine. She deserves a little leeway for her troubles.

Eventually, her head lifts off from your shoulder to make eye contact—or something like that, her eyes not quite aligning with your own. The blush you initially thought you were imagining now is making her cheeks practically glow.

That's the first thought that crosses her mind the next morning, but it's not long before the sight of a familiar pair of cat ears and tail gets her mind jogging. Now that she's thinking about it, hasn't she seen this sort of thing before in some of her games? A kind soul takes in a poor stray, only to wake up and find that they're actually half-cat and half-human. The hybrid then is so thankful for their selfless act that they swear their undying loyalty to them and soon, they fall in love with each other!!!

Well, that's how it usually goes in her games. In reality, you're simply trying to express your gratitude for her kindness, but she's too lost in la-la land to realize that.

- There is one part of this situation that matches up perfectly with her fantasies, though: your leg injury means you'll have a hard time living the stray lifestyle you're accustomed to and, as such, you'll need to live with her for the time being. Or forever. Who knows what the future has in store for you two!

- The typical tsundere attitude Noire's so well known for is practically nonexistent when it comes to you. You're just so sweet and fluffy that she couldn't turn away your affection even if she tried! And, of course, she's more than happy to shower you with her own—maybe too much so. Even if you're very obviously just as intelligent and capable of independence as any normal person, her brain's still stuck on cat-mama mode, and your injury certainly doesn't help that fact. Expect copious amounts of tuna (or whatever else you're fond of eating) for the foreseeable future.

- Unfortunately, she's still quite a bit on the shy side, struggling to fully express the extent of her feelings for you. As such, acts of service quickly become her go-to love language while more emotionally vulnerable kinds get left by the wayside. You two struggle to so much as hold a conversation without her voice awkwardly trailing off or her outright running away, claiming she's busy with work or some other excuse.

- If you wish to grow closer to her despite that shyness, though, you're in luck! As much as she tries holding herself back from initiating physical contact at the start of your time together, the moment you pull something like laying your head on her lap or nuzzling it into her, all that self-control wilts away into nothingness and BAM!!! Now you're stuck there for an hour as she relentlessly pets the crap out of you and praises how soft your fur is.

A similar phenomenon occurs with sweet-talking her. Like I said before, she couldn't turn away your affection even if she tried—which is good, because she really doesn't care to try in the first place.

- As time goes on and you two begin incorporating one another into your daily lives, you find yourself more and more morphing into a living pillow for her to snuggle and hold onto after the hell that is being Lastation's CPU day after day. It's just so exhausting being one of the only responsible ones around! And there's been so much work lately...

Thankfully, for all her grumbling about every little thing that bothered her on that particular day, it's really not that difficult to get her mood up. All you gotta do is throw in some understanding words to help her feel heard—and of course, continue being your cute, fluffy self.

- Sleeping in the same bed is a must!!! Nothing quite helps her let her hair down like cuddling with you does, after all. This works both in your humanoid form and your cat form. The former offers more warmth by nature of there being, well, more of you, but the latter opens the door to plenty of new sleeping positions; you could wrap around her head, lie on her stomach—or better yet, her chest... Plenty of options!

- When the other CPUs catch wind of your existence and start teasing her about it, you may expect her to get all flustered and shy about it. To your credit, you'd be half right. However, despite her blushing and inability to handle PDA around the others, there's one thing that empowers her enough to overcome her embarrassment: the fact that everyone else is too much of a shut-in to have a partner themself.

So, yeah. While they can tease her all they want, at the end of the day, she always gets the upper hand in any conversation. So what if she's a "simp" as Neptune likes to put it? At least she's got a partner to simp for in the first place!

- With that said, she'll absolutely lose her shit if one of the other gals gets overly friendly with you, even if it's something as simple as petting you while in cat form. They can't do that to you! Only she can, gosh dang it!!! As such, it's probably for the best that you gently turn the other's affections down. The last thing you need is a pouty Noire hmphing at you the rest of the day until you apologize and make it up to her.

Her spine snaps straight up as your fingers wrap around her shoulders. It's not the first time you've caught her slumping over her desk in this manner; in fact, if you had to guess, you'd say this is the... third time today correcting her posture? Fourth? Too many, that's for sure. You sigh.

"What's been up with you lately?" Slowly, your eyes scan over the various numbers coating her laptop screen. The same goes for the similarly populous graphs. "Is this your streaming data?"

"Hey, don't look! It's embarrassing..."

She lets out a sigh as both of your gazes lock onto the right side of a particular graph—her viewership. It doesn't take a genius to see why its line, dropping ever lower with each passing week, troubles her so deeply.

"I just don't get it! I'm following all the trends, and I even came up with one of my own that went crazy viral. But my views are still dropping each stream... I'm not falling off, am I?!"

"No, you're not falling off, Gui. I'm sure there's some other explanation. Oh! I bet it has something to do with that other chick that blew up recently. What was her name again? Sporky?"

"Sparxie!" Guinaifen jumps up, nearly knocking you over. "That's totally it! Ever since those Phantasmoon Games started, she's been popping off like crazy and stealing all my hard-earned fans. I don't get it. Her content isn't even that good! I mean, it's not awful—oh, what am I doing, praising my arch nemesis like that?!"

As Guinaifen is busy working herself up into a rage and stomping around the room, you lower yourself down into her chair and give the mouse a few clicks. Honestly, you're much too loyal a fan/partner to pay any mind to other streamers, so you've yet to watch any of Sparxie's streams. It appears she's live right now, though. May as well see what all the hype is about. Your index finger pushes down.

"What's up guys? It's your one and only number one favorite streamer in the whole wide world, Sparxicle!"

"Oh gosh, now I'm hallucinating her too?!"

"No, Gui. It's just a stream." With a sigh, you tug at a panicked Gui's wrist and bring her closer. Sparxie, in the meantime, wobbles around like an oversized bobblehead. She even blows a kiss at the screen. You squint. "Is she trying to act cute?"

"Don't fall for her tricks! It's all an evil hoax to make her fans super parasocial about her."

"I won't, don't worry. After all..." Another tug, only harder. Her face zooms right in front of yours. "I've already got the cutest streamer right here."

Her eyes widen before rapidly blinking open and shut in embarrassment, her lips equally uncommitted to any particular position as she struggles between smiling and letting out a soft, adorable giggle. You inch closer until your lips connect, and all of a sudden, she knows exactly what to do with them. Maybe too much so. In the heat of entwining yourselves together, you hear a faint series of clicks and clacks. And then a gasp.

"Oh my, that username... I had no idea Little Gui was a fan of Sparxicle too!"

The two of you draw away from each other to stare wide-eyed at the computer screen. Shit. Did you really accidentally type something in her chat? And by the sound of things, Sparxie is more than happy to publicly dwell on your mistake. She beams at her camera.

"You know, I've been thinking. All this time of being a streamer, and yet I've never done a collab with another creator. We should change that! What do you say, Little Gui?"

"...WHAT?!"

-

So, yeah. Here you two are in Planarcadia, lost in the middle of Aeons knows where and trying desperately to make yourselves not so. Funny. Despite your current predicament, you distinctly recall a certain planet hopper proudly proclaiming that she's "got you, fam" and to simply relax as she leads the way.

"Hey, Gui?"

"Don't tell me... We've already been here?"

"About three times now, yeah."

"Darn it!" She groans and throws herself onto the floor. You kneel down and gently rub her back. Her face turns up towards you, puppy-eyed and tearful. "I'm sorry. I really am good with directions, I swear! It's just—I'm freaking the hell out, okay?! We're going to see the real life Sparxie. Sparxie!"

"I thought you didn't like her."

"I don't, but you gotta understand. This. Is. Huge. Do you have any idea how many people are going to be watching this stream?" Her hands clench onto your shoulders and shake you around. "Messing this up is basically career suicide!"

"Well, yeah, but you're not going to mess up, okay? You'll be just fine." You press a kiss into her forehead. "Relax."

Her facial muscles warp between tension and release as she processes your comfort before completely giving into it. A moment passes in silence, save for the ambience of the city. Finally, she exhales and jumps upright once more. She throws you a wink and a thumbs-up.

"Alright, enough loafing around. Let your handy-dandy travel guide lead the way!"

"Even though this 'handy-dandy travel guide' is half an hour late?"

Guinaifen squeals and runs behind you—muscle memory from your many ghost hunting adventures—before letting out a gasp of dread-filled recognition. Sure enough, the lady standing before you is none other than Sparxie herself. She beams a bright smile at the two of you. The sharp, repetitious thudding of her shoes against the ground, though, tells another story.

"Aw, don't look so frightened. I'm just teasing. It really is lovely to see you, Little Gui—and you too, uh..." She eyes you up and down. "Who might you be?"

"Oh." You flush, realizing Guinaifen must have forgotten to mention you. That scatterbrain. "I'm her partner. It's a pleasure to meet you, Sparxie."

"Her partner, huh?" She hums. You swear you see her eyes shine with a dark glint; at least, you do for a second before her cheery persona retakes the stage. "The pleasure's all mine. Now, shall we head off? Not to rush, but we don't exactly have much time, since... you know."

"Shoot, you're right! I'm really sorry for causing so much trouble." Gui clasps her hands together. Sparxie merely nods in response before turning her back and walking forward. Not for long, though. After a brief moment of stillness, her head spins back towards you two.

"Oh, and by the way... Little Gui, you should really consider getting into acting. It takes skill to act so friendly with someone you dislike so much. Trust me. I would know."

Today's going to be a long day.

-

"And three... two..."

Hushed chattering fills the room despite them all receiving very clear instructions to pipe down mere moments prior. You suppose it's only fair; if you were graced with the presence of a local legend such as Sparxie—at your own school, no less—you'd have a pretty hard time keeping things together too. Thankfully, the woman in question seems to pay the rowdy crowd no mind. Guinaifen, on the other hand... You're just thankful she's still standing, given how hard her legs are shaking.

"One. Hello my lovely, loyal fans! Welcome to the stream. Today we have a very special guest from the Xianzhou who's traveled all this way just to entertain you. Isn't that right, Little Gui?"

"Th-th-that's right!" She sputters out. "Here to, uh... entertain you all. Yup."

All of a sudden, Sparxie reaches up and grasps Guinaifen's chin, raising it higher and provoking a flood of squeals from the people surrounding you, as well as some interesting commentary that they'd "kill to be touched by Sparxie like that" or how they "would never wash their face again" if they were in Gui's place. A person not too far from you collapses to the ground. Their nose is bleeding.

"Don't tell me you're getting camera shy?" Sparxie pouts and bats her eyes at her fellow entertainer. "You poor thing. You must not be used to having this many eyes on you all at once."

Guinaifen smiles and laughs in response, but even from here, you can see her eyebrow twitching in barely contained disdain. The rest of the audience pays no mind to your partner's frustration, though. Is that a good thing? Either way, after a few more moments of bickering disguised as niceties, the show continues on. Sparxie grabs the other's arm and leads her towards a thin rope dangling in mid-air.

"Now then, onto our first act of the day! Prepare to be amazed as our darling Guinaifen braves the trials of the tightrope."

"What?! But you told me earlier—"

"Hm? You say something?"

"You told me we were going to—" Gui sighs. "Never mind... Tightrope it is. No biggie. It's just walking. I can totally do that, no problemo."

"That's the spirit! Now hurry on up and give us a show, why don't you?"

The crowd cheers louder as a visibly shaking Guinaifen makes her way up towards the attraction. Sparxie wastes no time in joining in on the cheering herself, although the look on her face makes it hard to believe that her eagerness is anywhere near as purehearted as the others'. After a moment, she clears her throat.

"While she's getting started, I think it's only right to express my appreciation for all of you. Really, the fact that you're all here, watching and cheering me—I mean, us—on..." She lets out the fakest sob you've ever heard in your life and smiles softly. "It brings a tear to my eye. As such, it's only right that you get some appreciation back. Wouldn't you agree?"

That seems to be all it takes for the entirety of the audience to forget about Guinaifen's performance—save for yourself, of course. No wonder she was so terrified of you getting sucked in by this chick's cutesy facade. Everyone else is falling for it hook, line, and sinker. As Gui takes her first step forward, Sparxie continues stealing the spotlight.

"I'm glad we're all on the same page. As a token of my love for you all, one lucky person in the audience is going to get a very, very special reward. And that person is..."

A foreboding feeling of dread seeps into your stomach. Somehow, well before looking forward and seeing the target of Sparxie's pointed finger, you already know exactly who it's pointed at.

"You!"

The people surrounding you let out exaggerated gasps and turn to stare at you. Some appear excited on your behalf. Some gazes fit squarely into the "if looks could kill" category. None of them come even close to the terror induced by Sparxie's, though, her red eyes suddenly feeling far too reminiscent of an animal on the hunt for your liking.

"Don't be shy. Come on up. This is your reward for being such a devoted fan of yours truly."

Hands shove you forward, forcing you to stop delaying the inevitable. You walk into the beast's domain. She smiles, gripping you tightly within her claws.

"Good. Now, you're all probably dying to know what this special reward is, hm? Don't worry. I'll tell you. This lucky fan is going to receive... a kiss on the cheek!"

A flash of orange wobbles violently side to side in the corner of your vision. You watch in horror as your lover's ankles nearly cross over one another, one misstep away from tumbling onto the ground and destroying any sense of pride she possibly could have left in her. She watches back. The two of you exchange silent screams with each other until, finally, your worried expression convinces her to return her attention back to the tightrope. Her balance stabilizes. For now.

"Are you guys jealous?" Sparxie winks. "Don't be. From now on, every stream of mine with a live audience will have one lucky winner at the end! So be sure to keep showing up and giving me your love and support, okay?"

Her words help alleviate the bloodlust being sent your way, but not for long. As soon as her body starts turning towards you and her face begins to lean closer and closer to your skin, all eyes are back on you. Your heart races.

"Here you go. Your special reward..."

"Look out!"

A voice calls out from above just before her lips can press into you. Sparxie looks up at it, first with annoyance. And then with horror.

The crowd harmonizes to create one deafening gasp. No matter which of the streamers they've sworn their undying loyalty to, every single person in the area's eyes are now equally drawn to both of them, tangled together and unmoving.

"Are they..."

"No way..."

"They're..."

"Kissing?!"

The two girls remain in shock for a few more moments, processing their bodies' positioning with respect to one another. Sure enough, Gui somehow managed to not only fall all the way down from her tightrope, but also aimed her body perfectly to fall right on top of Sparxie, and with the way the latter turned to see what all the commotion was about... Their brain cells kick into full gear and they rush to push each other away, but it does little to change the fact that they did, indeed, kiss. They also did, indeed, kiss both in a very public space and on a very screenshottable livestream.

"Oh my gosh, I totally ship it!"

"Just get married already!"

"Do they have a ship name? We need to come up with one, stat!"

While the two entertainers continue questioning every decision they've made that led up to this point, the fans go wild with excitement, showing off their phone screens to the unlucky few who failed to capture a photo of the fateful moment themselves.

"Um... Gui?" You lean down and poke your partner's cheek. "You okay?"

"Of course I'm not okay! I can't believe I just did that. All that time I was up there, I kept thinking 'don't fall, don't fall' and what did I do? Fall! Stupid stupid stupid..."

Gui's so distracted with berating herself that she misses seeing Sparxie move in on her at first. When she does notice, her eyes widen. "I'm so, so sorry! Please forgive me!"

"Hm." Sparxie's tongue clicks. "You don't sound all that sorry to me."

"I am, really!"

"Is that so? Then are you willing to prove it?"

"Yes! I'll do anything to make this up to you, I swear."

Sparxie pauses and ponders over Guinaifen's words, or at least pretends to. Maybe it's just your imagination, but something tells you she's merely dragging out poor Gui's psychological torture—a tactic that's clearly working all too well, given how your girlfriend's on the brink of bursting into tears. Thankfully, her cruelty eventually reaches its limit.

"Well, as you know, it's a streamer's responsibility to give the fans what they ask for, and due to your... little stunt back there, their hearts are now dead set on seeing more content of the two of us together. I know we planned on this being a one time thing, but you wouldn't want to disappoint the fans, would you?" Her hands reach outward and curl around the sides of Guinaifen's face.