#vaivi

T | 717 words

for Blubfishblue as part of @mcytbattleship

“Someone’s going to die,” Novel warns as he sits down across from her.

Maivi rolls her eyes. “We’ve been dying—who cares?” The others laugh and settle into a loose circle.

Vale stays behind her. “Seriously, baby, how did you get fucking Uno onto the server? And how did you keep it hidden from the whole time?”

Maivi tilts her head back to grin at him. “I’m smarter than you, that’s how. Now, are you going to shuffle or should I?” She holds up the deck of cards and he snatches them away.

T | 949 words

vale, on being american(?) and maivi and cigarettes

As much as his Euro friends clown him, Vale knows he actually isn’t that American. He’s lived outside the US for too long, in too many different places. Every time he visits his parents, there’s some new American bullshit for him to be baffled by. Sometimes it’s not even new. Sometimes it’s old American bullshit, that he’s finally seeing for what it is.

(“Reverse culture shock” the US state department website tells him it’s called, before directing him to the Amazon page for some book. He skims the sample, reading about home and change and returning. There’s a quote from a businessman, some faceless suit that somehow looks him in the eye from lines on the page: “My advice about coming home? Don’t.”

He doesn’t buy the book.)

Chamber does something to rage bait him and somehow it's endearing. It grits against his skin, both in a way that's truly irritating but also drenched in this longing. It's like nostalgia, static-like and just out of reach, an I miss you, that he grinds down between his teeth. If he doesn't say anything, then maybe it's not a real feeling.

They have a Stardew Valley world, over 100 hours and near completion. They also have a City Skylines save file, full of Novel's careful strategy, and Chamber's stupid asks that always get fullfilled. Their Minecraft world, just theirs, and once also Addie's during a hard time but she hasn't been on in months so now it's theirs alone and Novel feels stupid when he moves things around in his house so he can put two beds together.

They aren't a thing. They aren't. He won't admit it. They're just hanging out. They're friends. Good friends, Vale would say, snickering over the script for a video where he pretends his girlfriend isn't the light of his fucking life. Maybe they are more. Maybe Novel doesn't want to know if they are, because the very careful balance of their relationship is about all he can handle before he has to look at himself in the mirror and consider a label like 'bisexual'. He isn't ready for it yet.

So, like a good friend does, he texts Lynx he won't be able to make it for his birthday. He'll send a gift, he's so sorry, maybe next time, if he sees Chamber then Something is going to happen and in the spirit of worst case scenario he'll it assume it will be an extreme like fucking in a bathroom with their friends unaware on the other side of the door.

And then like a total idiot, he deletes that text and books his flight.

T | 822 words

while maivi plans his next video, vale daydreams about moving in together

for @i-got-hit-by-a-planet

Everyone else has left the call when Maivi asks if he’s seen any nice houses lately, which is why Vale doesn't hesitate to gush. there really is no other word for what he’s doing: he’s gushing about an absolutely gorgeous house he saw, just outside London.

In his defense, it's a good looking house.

He’s pulled up the listing and shared his screen so she can see, can really appreciate the details that really make this house. “It’s way out of budget,” he admits, scrolling so she can see just how many zeros they’re asking for. “But it's just... look at it Maivi.”