READY PLAYER TWO ↳ mrfreshasian

THREE

The second I unlocked the door, it instigated scrambling on the wood floor from the other side. "Bye Blues! We'll play again another day, okay?" There was a small bark and I opened it to let a ball of brown woolly curls cannon in, his little paws sliding and skidding on the floors. "Calm down, boy; sit down. Sit. Good boy." The cockapoo pup let out a 'ruff' and I picked him up, heading back to my PC to sit with him in my lap.

"Okay, Fresh. It was nice meeting you, too, and thanks for the win. And okay, [Y/N]," she tried to respond to everything and, before leaving the game, added a hasty, "Give Chewie a hug for me!"

"Already on it!" I scratched the dog behind his ear and Chewie lifted his muzzle to pant, tongue out and dark chocolate eyes wide and curious. As Blues left the match, I took my hand away from the pup's playful nipping, squeezed him with a gentle hug, and set him back on the floor to sniff around my room. "And then there were two."

Fresh hummed his agreement and echoed, "And then there were two," then silence took over after his pause. "Sorry, I was just setting an alarm. Who's Chewie? Your dog?"

For a second my eyes lingered over the 'return to lobby' icon, then to the open door, but in that second I didn't want to leave this seat. "He's our cockapoo pup. Kinda looks like Chewbacca." I spun the swivel chair and Chewie pounced my toes when I stopped, trying to tug off my neon green sock. "Chewie... that's my sock... Why are you setting an alarm? Playing too much Fortnite?" If we could see each other now, I definitely would have wiggled my eyebrows at him. "Hm? Need to make sure you actually stop at some point?"

I did wiggle them, not that he could see it. It would have been embarrassing if mom or dad saw me doing that to absolutely nobody. I also wiggled my exposed toes and sighed inwardly at the sight of the pup trotting away with my sock.

"Oh, a puppy. I get it. Chewie. That's epic." Fresh sounded like he had a smirk on his face, but he went quiet again and drawled out a little later, "I'm looking for breakfast, too, so give me a second, Peps." After a moment, he continued to explain, "Just asked chat what I should order."

"Chat?" My attention went back to the screen and my [E/C] eyes flickered around skeptically. Was I on his stream? Like, right now? Oh, jeez. Blues really wasn't shitting. While he did that, I went back onto my phone and finished keying in 'Mrfreshasian'. For research purposes, of course. I got a decent amount of hits; YouTube, Instagram, Twitch, Twitter, a couple of fan fictions? I chuckled nervously, unsure what to think about actually talking to a real streamer.

"Yes. Chat. I'm streaming. Fake Fresh is streaming. Is that alright with you?"

"No, no, that's..." Kinda daunting? Nervewracking? I tried to lean my elbow casually on my desk but missed the flat surface and slipped, causing me to yelp. Although, I'd also tried to slap my hand over my mouth as fast as I could to muffle the sound. To no avail, of course. I'm on stream, how embarrassing. "— that's okay."

"You sure?"

"Yes, of course." My face had heated up; the rounds of my cheekbones were warm and it was an uncomfortable feeling. Maybe even an uncomfortable sight if I saw myself in the mirror.

The boy cleared his throat, "Yes? You sound kinda unsure about that."

"Pffbt, nah, man." I tried to play it off, be cool. This was kinda cool, talking to an actual live streamer.

"Nah?" His voice sounded as if it'd gotten closer to the mic, taunting to get a rise. Cheeky boy.

I locked my phone for a sense of control and spoke out, raising my voice in an attempt to change the subject as swiftly as possible, "How about we play another match, Mrfresh? Your chat doesn't scare me." Straightening up in my seat, I puffed out my chest in determination only to hear a whine from Chewie. I looked down and he had his head cocked with a look that I translated as, 'what the hell is this human doing?'