── [ 𝐓o 𝐁e 𝐁y 𝐘our 𝐒ide ] mika m .

VIII

Dec. 28th, 2023

"Mika-mika! Hi!" You greeted cheerfully, picking up the second Mika called you on discord. Today was her graduation. "Hey, Aether." She chuckled in response to your enthusiasm - which, for the record, didn't last long.

"That was quick." Mika remarked with a raise of her eyebrows. "I'm watching your stream, I was just waiting." You replied with a faint giggle. "I can't tell if that's sweet or stalker-ish." She quipped.

"Maybe a bit of both." You shrugged. "Anyways, uhm.." You trailed off, your gaze flickering between your desk and your monitor. A silence thickened the atmosphere, resulting in you trying to suppress a laugh. You didn't know what it was about the fact that you were acting like it was the end of the world all of a sudden - it was a bit funny to you.

"Okay, before we get consumed by pure silence," Mika starts. "Thank you for coming." The monitor of yours that was used to display Mika's stream showed a rather obvious smile on her face. Normally, you would use that one to display the chat. But, of course, you weren't streaming at the moment.

"Of course." You bowed your head, as if she could see. "I wouldn't miss this for the world." You drawled on your words in a bit of a tired manner, to exaggerate the feigned seriousness of them, and to keep the mood lighthearted.

"Well that's just bullshit." Mika laughed. "But it's sweet, I'll give you that." She shrugged. "That's literally the most generic thing I could say, what do you mean?" You deadpanned - once again, acting like she could see you, even when you knew she couldn't. This was only a voice call.

"Gotta appreciate the classics." Mika remarked. "So you're like the Mozart of flirting now." She added. "I wasn't even flirting." You mentally face-palmed.

"Damn and what if I like Mozart?" She raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't change the fact that I wasn't flirting." You weren't gonna give up on that.

Mika clears her throat for a moment, before beginning to talk again. "Did you know," she starts, before activating reverb. "You're a little piece of shit?" It sounds almost like she was using a call of duty mic, as her microphone clipped when she raised her voice. And all that, just because you wouldn't play into her narrative of you flirting.

"For the record, you're shorter than me." You remarked with a smug smile. "Hey! You're- oops, hold on," Mika didn't have the chance to turn off reverb before she spoke again, making for quite the moment to clip. "You're supposed to be nice to me." Her voice wavered with laughter at her own slip-up.

"Says the one who called me a piece of shit." You deadpanned. "Oh- wait, we're getting off topic." Mika realized. Though, it wasn't easy to avoid. Whenever you were with Mika, your conversations felt completely natural. As if there weren't thousands of people watching - as if she wasn't graduating.

"Well this topic isn't something I wanna talk about, how 'bout that?" You remarked, only half-joking. You wanted to keep laughing with Mika, keep having fun, and keep making her happy. But you could only do so for so long. Yet another silence filled the atmosphere.

"Okay, jokes aside," you trailed off, not really sure what exactly to say. "I just wanted to say thank you." "Thank me? For what?" Mika interjected with a tilt of her head.

"For, uh.. making me feel like I fit in, I guess?" You responded, feeling a bit awkward. "And for helping me get through some.. tough times." You added. "It, uh, means a lot.. to me." You really wished you could take back all your words to rephrase them in a more appealing way.

And yet, to Mika, the authenticity of what you were saying was beyond heartwarming. All your awkward pauses, all your genuine words - she just wants to hear it, one more time.