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"We need at least 3 players for this domain", said Tartaglia.
"I know, I can read, dipshit. Let's do something else, then."
"But I need those rewards", whined the insufferable voice in his headset.
Why had he agreed to a collaboration with that idiot? He usually played and streamed on his own, and had been very satisfied that way. But no, for whatever reasons, he had agreed to play with fucking Tartaglia, and he was already regretting it. He didn't care anymore about the promise of interesting rewards from co-op dungeons, it wasn't worth putting up with him.
He was about to snap when two delicate hands held out a cup of tea, barely visible from the corner of his webcam. He looked up to see Lumine's, clearly amused by his irritation but compassionate enough to give him some of his favorite drink.
'Who's that?'
'I can't believe that the fucking Balladeer drink tea of all things.'
'That looks like a girl's hands, does the Balladeer have a sister?'
'Have you seen the way his face became all soft? Obviously it's his girlfriend.'
He scowled at his chat.
"Do I look like a fucking sappy person? And that's none of your goddamn business."
He heard Lumine giggle, too soft to be heard on his microphone, and glared at her. She pretended to look innocent, but she couldn't fool him; she was enjoying seeing him harassed and embarrassed by his fans. To think that everyone thought she was an angel, with her big eyes and nice smile. No one except her twin brother believed him when he said she actually was the devil incarnate. One day, he was going to record her when she was laughing at videos of people falling, and then he would finally be able to out her.
He looked down at his screen, ignoring Tartaglia still whining, and back at Lumine. He muted himself.
"We need a third player for a domain in Genshin Impact. Wanna join?"
"Are you sure? Shouldn't you ask another streamer, or one of your fans?"
"No, they're useless."
This domain was truly tough, one of the hardest ones so far. Doing it with only three players was already a challenge, so asking someone who wasn't great at the game would be a waste of time.
"Fine then, let me get my computer ready."
He unmuted himself.
"Okay, we can do it, I found a third player."
"You did?" asked Tartaglia, sounding surprised. "Where?"
"I asked someone, how else do you think I did it, moron."
"Aww, did the little Balladeer ask his girlfriend to help?"
"Yeah, and?" He noticed her computer turning on in the corner of his eyes, and the game loading on her screen. "She'll be a good teammate."
"Wait, you actually have a girlfriend?" yelped that idiotic redhead, and he couldn't help but feel offended by his surprise.
"Yes! Do you have to react like that, asshat? I have a girlfriend."
He ignored his chat, losing its shit over that fact. What if he rarely talked about her? She didn't want to show her face, which he could respect, and she was a very private person who didn't want too many people to know about their relationship. So he barely mentioned her, and he was fine with it, anyway. At least he could keep her for himself that way.
"Uh. You have a girlfriend that actually likes you. Who would have thought."
"Go fuck yourself, asshole."
Tartaglia simply laughed. "I can't wait to see her play!"
He looked up to see her smiling at him. A request popped up on his screen at the same moment, and he let her join his world. She had barely appeared next to him that he was already inviting both of them to the domain, not wasting time. And yet, in the little amount of time needed for the game to load and for him to run to the giant key, a message had appeared on the in-game chat.
'Hi, Scaramouche's girlfriend! I'm Tartaglia, nice to meet you!'
He could hear her giggle from her side of the room, and he glared at his screen, even more when another message popped up, this time from her.
'Nice to meet you, Tartaglia!'
"Are you ready?" he asked harshly, annoyed by the time they were wasting. And definitely not because Lumine was talking to that moron.
"Wait, is your girlfriend really going to play Ying? I thought you said she would help?"
"Shut the fuck up. She will help."
Maybe he had had the same reaction the first time he had realized Lumine was building Ying to be her main DPS. In his defense, who played the Traveler when you had so many better other characters available? But she had quickly made him eat his words when he saw her play. Tartaglia wasn't going to be condescending for much longer.
He started the challenge, and growled when he saw all the enemies appear on the screen. It was going to be hard, but between the three of them, they were going to be able to do it without too much trouble.
Or so he thought, but after less than two minutes, his character died.
"Haha, you really suck, Scara-"
One of the enemies killed Tartaglia's character at that exact moment, and he sneered.
"You were saying, Tartaglia?"
"This domain is really hard", he sighed. "Let's start over?"
"Lu- She's not dead yet."
"Listen, I know you're trying to be a supportive boyfriend and it's cute", he was going to kill that dickhead, "but there is no way your girlfriend can finish it on her own, especially when playing Ying."
Tartaglia was a fool, but he could sometimes be useful.
"He said you would never win on your own, especially since you play as Ying." he repeated to Lumine.
What that moron didn't know was that Lumine lived on spite and bad decisions. If someone said she couldn't do something, she was going to prove them wrong no matter what. And as predicted, her face became stormy at that, and she looked like she was ready to go inside the computer and kill those enemies with her bare hands. He smirked, relaxed in his seat, and started to drink his cooling tea.
He watched in silence as she quickly and efficiently cut down the remaining enemies, to Tartaglia and his chat' increasing surprise. She had put so much work in building her character that he wasn't surprised nothing could stand in her way.
'She's actually going to do it.'
'Wtf, how is she so strong? I thought Ying sucked.'
'Is she going to win on her own when both Balladeer and Tartaglia died after two minutes?'
'Victory' shone in bright letters on their screens, and he barely held back a smug smirk. He knew that Tartaglia's comment would be enough to make her win.
"I'm taking everything back, please tell your girlfriend she's amazing."
He scowled. "No. Take your fucking rewards and then we're done for today."
Lumine had already rushed to the gigantic tree and taken her own rewards. A notification appeared on the in-game chat.
'It was fun playing with you. Thank you for trying to help!'
Of course she was going to rub their defeat and uselessness in their face, he grumbled inwardly, and glared at the devious smile she sent him. He was quick to put an end to the stream, ignoring Tartaglia's requests to compliment Lumine for him. Like he was actually going to let that idiot harass her with his stupid meaningless words.
"Your friend is an asshole." she claimed once his computer had been turned off.
"He isn't my friend", he answered, offended. "But yes, he's an asshole."
"I had fun proving him wrong", she sing-songed, looking very proud of herself.
"No shit."
She giggled and went to lay down on the couch, looking at him with expectant eyes.
"You're so fucking demanding."
He ignored his own urge to go lay down against her and took his time making sure he had turned off everything. He was about to join her when he noticed a new message waiting for him on Twitter.
Tartaglia : Sooo, can I have your girlfriend's number?