Work Text:
Sebastian was busy, wearing his classic outfit of worn jeans and a black hoodie and editing his streaming video. Well, he was taking a break from editing by playing some Smash Bros. He was leaning back against his comfortable desk chair while he deftly played the right combos for his character. While his hands were focused on the game, his mind was focused on what he was listening to. He had on noise-cancelling headphones which were connected to the second monitor of his set-up.
Sebastian was mumble-singing along to the pop song playing on his headphones, a genre he wasn’t allergic to, but who he was listening to would be a shocker.
He wasn’t known for listening to boy bands or idol groups, and yet here he was, knowing every lyric to Sidus’s third most popular song, ‘Wishful Love’.
Sidus was a three-man pop idol group: Comet, Orion, and Apollo. Well, those were their stage names. Any average fan knew those. Sebastian was actually proud to know their actual names and even roles in the group. Comet was the main rapper, Orion was the main vocalist, and Apollo was the main dancer. He knew that Comet was also a songwriter for ninety-percent of their songs, as well as—
He straightened in his seat as he heard Apollo finishing his segment, and he was immensely grateful his gaming match was over just in time. He knew whose part was coming up next, and he didn’t want to miss it.
He closed the game and then quickly swiveled in his chair to look at the other screen. It was the performance video of the song and the three members of Sidus were dressed in stylish trousers and flashy blazer jackets. He had seen this video many times since it was posted two years ago, but he still watched with an amazed smile at the choreography. Not to mention that he wished he could pull off the same style as them, but he wasn’t capable of it like Ominis or even his sister…
Sebastian’s heart flipped when he heard the illustrious voice of the collab singer as she came onto the stage. He sank more into his hand as his smile softened while Estelle continued to captivate him.
Estelle had her long brown hair styled to be loose, fluffed, and slightly wavy while she wore light make-up to accentuate her fair, warm-ivory face. Her shoulderless, midnight blue dress was even more stunning, with the taffeta, knee-length skirt flowing from her enthusiastic twirls. The glitter on the skirt glistened from the spotlights, looking like stars themselves.
He rested his elbow on the desk as he placed his chin on his palm, continuing to enjoy the rest of the video. His ears were blessed by Estelle’s angelic voice as she kept singing. He was enraptured by everything about her.
Even when she was done with her part, Estelle stayed on stage to dance with the three boys as they sang the rest of the song. Sebastian chuckled as Comet and Estelle high-fived as they moved past each other. They were brother and sister after all, and Sebastian figured he would do the same with Anne if they were famous music idols.
His smile turned bitter as he saw Orion and Estelle share a fond look. He knew at that time the two were an item, and he did want them to be happy. He would prefer he himself made Estelle happy, but that was not possible when they were in different worlds. But all the same, it was a shame Orion—or rather, Andrew—and Estelle broke up a year after. Was he possibly a little happy to go back to a nearly-zero chance to be with Estelle now that she was single again? …yes. But he knew it was incredibly unrealistic of him to ever meet Estelle face-to-face, let alone date her.
But anyway, Andrelle’s breakup saddened many Stargazers. Some fans took it far too hard. Sebastian remembered seeing social media blow up with toxic fans berating Estelle for hurting their “precious Sidus boy”. It disgusted him that they were blaming her for the break-up when the two stars themselves said it was mutual. But it got worse, and soon enough, Estelle completely disappeared off of all social media platforms, and she stopped collabing with Sidus. She didn’t even go solo, which was something she once said she wanted to do in an interview. It broke some fans’ hearts, including Sebastian’s, but he understood why she suddenly went away. He just hoped she was alright…
SLAM
Sebastian, distracted from his thoughts, jolted so intensely that his elbow slipped off the desk and caused him to be imbalanced. He yelled as he fell out of his chair and crashed onto the floor. He groaned and saw his door was slammed open.
Then he heard a loud drawn out gasp. He instantly sat up with his headphones falling onto the floor. Just as he feared, Anne was staring at his screen with her mouth agape.
She turned to him with a grin. “So you do listen to them!”
Sebastian paled, knowing she was having a field day. “I-I just happened across them.” He hurriedly got onto his feet.
“Right,” she said with skepticism. “Even though I introduced you to them right on debut. Then you said, if I recall—”
“Shut it, Anne,” Sebastian tiredly said as he quickly closed the performance video tab. If his sister saw his video recommendations or his watch history, he would never hear the end of it.
“—‘these are just pretty boys and it’s not even real music’,” Anne finished in a deep, gruff voice.
“I don’t sound like that!” Sebastian ran a hand down his face.
“No, but you do listen to them.” Anne had a full-on teasing grin.
“Okay, fine, I take back what I said,” Sebastian hastily said while waving his hands. “They’re more than pretty boys, and their music is of course real music.”
She squinted at him with her hands on her hips. “You’re hiding something.”
Sebastian forced a laugh. “No, of course not. I just want privacy like any decent human being.”
Anne kept staring at her brother, though, and he stared back. She hummed. “So, you wouldn’t mind if I took a look around?”
“It’s my room! You don’t need to inspect it!”
He tried to grab her jumper and drag her out, but she instantly made a loud squawking sound and fought back. The two siblings started to bat each other’s hands, which somehow led to the two falling onto the floor.
Then Anne noticed something else. She stopped hitting her brother, and he paused, confused on why she stopped. Then he followed her gaze to under his bed, and his stomach dropped.
“Wait, Anne, don’t—” He tried to stop her, but she already grabbed the items and pulled them out.
The six fancy book-like albums of Sidus spread out onto the carpet, including their debut mini-album Astral Devotion, the collab mini-album with Estelle known as Illuminate, and even their most recent album Castle.
Anne gaped at the last album where the title was in silver, script font over a dark blue background, and the design was of the Sidus logo, three stars making a triangle, as a golden wax seal.
“You have the premium version?” She cried out. Sebastian tried in vain to take it back, but she just jumped away and stole it to look at it closer.
“Anne—” He begged.
“You have their signatures!” Anne gasped with full betrayal, and she stared at him with wide, chestnut brown eyes. Her eyebrows were so high up that they were hidden under her bangs. “You went to their fan meet last month!”
“I–maybe!”
Anne grinned victorious. “Oh, you don’t just listen to them. You’re a full-on dedicated Stargazer!”
Sebastian gave up trying to cover this up. He knew his own sister would have found out eventually, but he wished it didn’t happen like this. “Okay, yes,” he conceded. “I was curious about why you were obsessed with them—”
“I’m not obsessed!”
“—so I decided to listen to them on my own without you constantly squealing and commenting.” He waved a hand, ignoring Anne’s glare. “Then, well, I started to really like some of their songs, and I was even more interested in the group. Also, their choreography? Their silly dynamics?”
“Ooh, you watch their interviews too?”
“Of course,” he said as if it were obvious. He blushed. “But, er, Illuminate and even the side album Constellations are my favorite.”
“Constellations was only a duet collab between Andrew and Estelle when they were—” Anne stopped and Sebastian’s face grew hotter. “Oooh, your bias is Estelle! You loooove her!”
Sebastian sputtered, incredibly flustered at the stone cold truth. “I-I do not!”
“You do!” Anne cackled. “Oh, wait until Artemis hears about all of this!”
“Ha!” Sebastian shouted, pointing a finger at her. “She already knows about my secret fanboying! You can’t use that against me!”
“She knows too? You two were conspiring this whole time? You bloody son of a—”
Their phones simultaneously pinged with a new notification. They both gasped at a new post on social media. The official Sidus page dropped the post of a new concert in London, and tickets were going to be available a couple hours from now!
Anne squealed. “We gotta go!”
“On it!” Sebastian got back in his chair and opened a new tab. He started to go to the official website to camp out for tickets. Anne watched with her hands on the top of his chair.
“Just think: we would get to attend all of the fan meets and concerts together!”
“Yeah, no more hiding in the back of Artemis’s van and sneaking out later when she drops you off.”
“Wait, what?”
“Nothing.”
~~~
Estelle was laying on the sofa with her feet swinging behind her as she rested her head on her hand while she watched a video on her laptop. It was the same streamer she always watched, Igneo. He was wearing a black hoodie and jeans and walked to his famous gaming chair. He sat down, showing his entire appearance of cocoa brown hair slightly mussed and styled to the left, and all of his freckles that starred his face.
“Welcome back, Flames, to another stream,” Igneo started with a boyish grin. Estelle smiled with a blush and a fluttering heart, but she knew he was just smiling at the camera. He cracked his knuckles and slipped on his headphones. “Today, we’re going to go back to The Last of Us. I’ve got a good feeling for today, and I’m not gonna lie: I’ve been invested in this story and want to see how it ends.”
Estelle was invested in the story as well, enjoying seeing the game play out this way. She remembered coming across this streamer while she was needing to find something to watch to calm her performing nerves. She saw his first ever stream, and she was hooked. Was it maybe at first because she thought he was cute in his iconic look of a hoodie and jeans? …Yes, but then she was a goner for his mannerisms and gaming expertise. He was fun, goofy, and he was sincere as he grew attached to characters in the games. He wasn’t an overreacting gamer like other streamers, and she liked to see someone be genuine after being in the entertainment industry for so long. When things got really hard for her…his streams always made her feel better.
She sighed with a smile as she watched Igneo continue to make a couple comments in response to the in-game dialogue. He had quick wit like her brother and friends, and she wondered if he was this charming in real life. She hoped so; she liked a man that could have fun and make good wordplay. He was also great at Smash Bros., one of her favorite video games of all time, and she wished she could play it with him. Maybe they would exchange fun banter and even lightly shove each other’s shoulders, clearly just enjoying each other’s company.
In the end, she couldn’t help but feel something toward him, like a celebrity crush. She got to see his following grow from a hundred to half a million and it was still increasing. She was happy for his success and wished the best for him. She might have also daydreamt about the impossible scenario of running into him. Maybe she would have some of her stage charisma and actually ask him out. He’d happily accept, and then they would have a good time playing games and just being together.
She was so lost in her daydream that she didn’t hear someone approaching from behind.
“Is Hawthorn in this stream?”
Estelle shrieked and hastily slammed her laptop shut before turning on the sofa to see her brother lift his eyebrow at her. She huffed with a burning face and pushed herself up. “No, Igneo just uploaded another part of The Last of Us.” She pouted and sat on the cushion like a normal person. “I would have let you know if he was collab streaming with your crush.”
Cael gave her a stink eye with a small blush, but he didn’t deny her claim. Hawthorn was another streamer Estelle found while looking for content to watch and relax to. Hawthorn was a chill girl with white hair and cute black cat headphones, and her playstyle was different from Igneo’s but she was still fun to watch. While Estelle was drawn to Igneo, Cael was captivated by Hawthorn. Who said pop stars couldn’t have their own celebrity crushes?
They both heard rapid footsteps into the vast sitting room, and two young men ran in. Amit with disheveled burgundy hair frantically searched the luxurious home while Andrew had a sword prop in his hands, ready to attack something.
“What happened?” Amit worriedly asked. “We heard a shriek.”
Estelle rolled her eyes. “It was just my prat of a brother startling me.”
“Hey!”
“Oh, thank goodness,” Amit sighed with relief. He yawned. “Well, goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Apollo,” Estelle said with a giggle. He gave her a smile and wave before slowly walking back up the spiral stairs to his room.
Andrew let out a long breath, going back to his calm stature. He nodded to the twins before going into their spacious kitchen.
“Wanna get something to eat? I don’t think you had anything for dinner.” Cael worriedly asked.
Estelle felt guilt writhe in her tiny stomach. Then dark thoughts festered in her mind. “I know I should eat something, but…”
“Come on, I know you’re hungry.”
“But-”
“What if Igneo asked you out to dinner? Shouldn’t you ‘practice’ your appetite for that?” Cael dryly asked.
Estelle blushed and stayed quiet for a moment. She indulged her wild imagination for such a scenario. Maybe Igneo would take her out to an Italian restaurant, and they’d share a bottle of wine, and have lighthearted chatter over romantic candlelight… But she would of course want to have a nice salmon dinner and maybe share a slice of tiramisu with him…
“...I hate that your tactic worked,” she grumbled before standing up.
He smirked victoriously and patted her back. “As long as you eat something, that’s what matters.”
“Can…we order Italian? I’m now craving it.”
“Of course!”
Cael took out his new phone and started to order take-out when their phones chimed almost simultaneously. Estelle curiously checked her phone, and she nearly dropped it in shock.
“They’re here!” She exclaimed before sprinting to the front door. Cael caught up to her and even passed her as they opened the door. Sitting on the porch were two medium-sized cardboard boxes with their entertainment company’s address stamped on it. The company already checked to see if they were safe. A precaution that came with being famous.
Now that they were approved…
Each sibling grabbed a box and ran back into the house. Estelle slid to a stop on her socks at the quartz kitchen island. Cael was right beside her as they excitedly opened their boxes.
Andrew merely watched them with amusement in his brown eyes before he sipped from a blue glass water bottle.
Estelle happily gasped at her package, pulling out a new black hoodie with Igneo’s logo of a fire in gradient colors with red at the bottom to a bright orange and then yellow, then white at the very tip. She hugged it to herself, very happy with the official merchandise.
Cael was just as happy, holding a cream t-shirt with Hawthorn’s name in bubbly cursive font, a hawthorn flower to the right of it, and even a black cat curled up on the name.
Estelle instantly slipped on the hoodie, purposely picking a bigger size to drown in the insulated fabric. She looked at her sweater paws as the bottom of the hoodie reached mid-thigh for her. She noticed something else in the box, and she curiously took it out. It was a little card that had Igneo’s logo, but inside was the handwritten message:
Thank you, Flame, for your support! Stay fired up! - Igneo
Estelle smiled at the message, feeling her own heart surge with affection and warmth from the words. What she wouldn’t give to personally meet him and tell him just how much he meant to her…