Rin and I encompass Kei into a hug. Maki stands up, leaning against the back of the couch in order to join our awkward group hug. We feel Kei relax against the contact. Sometimes Iworry Kei is touch-starved. He joins our snuggle piles but only when we need them. They’re always for us, never for him. Plus he always pushes people away whenever he can until he’s too desperate to say no.
“Even if we don’t live here, this will still be the hang out spot. Even if we move out, we’reneverleavingyou, Kei. We love you,” Rin tell him.
“I love you, Kei. You’re my best friend and you’ll always be my pack alpha,” I say, giving him one last squeeze before pulling away.
Kei leans his head against the back of the couch, staring up at the ceiling. Finally, he nods. “Yeah, okay. I can live with that.”
Rin smiles before his face turns serious. “The charity stream is tomorrow.”
Kei nods his head and looks at me. “We’re gonna have to find some makeup.”
“Stop fussing,” Wizard says, dabbing more of his concealer against my neck. “Jesus, even I don’t look this fucked up and I was in heat last week.”
“I know better than to mark you up when I know we’ll be on camera,” Azaad says with a chuckle.
It feelsso weirdto see Wizard and Azaad in person. This isn’t the first time we’ve met them but every time, I can’t help but feel a weird sort of marvel. We know them so well online butseeing themin the fleshis so strange in a wonderful way. It always surprises me to remember they’re short kings, especially compared to Rin, Kei, and myself.
Wizard is wearing a black skirt that goes just above his knees, a black long-sleeved shirt with buckles and chains that go across his chest. His makeup is perfect like always. Azaad on the other hand is all soft pastel colors with his cotton candy blue shirt and orange overalls decorated with 70s inspired flowers all over them.
They seem so opposite yet fit together so well. They’re adorable.
“I’m not fussing,” I say with a pout, letting Wizard cover all my marks with his makeup. Thank Christ he knows what he’s doing because I’m clueless.
We start the stream in about an hour and already, the website with our fundraiser is collecting donations. We haven’t even started and we’ve already hit three of our stretch goals.
“There we go,” Wizard murmurs, doing a final pat over the marks. “No one should be able to tell now.”
I stand up and look in the mirror, tilting my head back and forth. “You are brilliant. Thank you.”
“No worries! Always happy to help!”
The three of us step out of the bathroom. There’s a group of people all huddling in the kitchen, doing all the last minute prep for the stream. Our living room has been rearranged with our streaming equipment. The TV is all set up as well for when we do the racing game together later.
“How’re we feeling?” I ask, stepping into the kitchen.
“Good,” Rin says with a grin.
“Stressed,” Kei says at the same time but he’s smiling.
“This is gonna beawesome,” I tell them both, slapping them on the back. “What’s the latest number looking like?”
It’s Kei who answers. “We’re just about to hit 50 thousand.”
“Already? Jesus,” I hiss out, smiling as Gayle wraps an arm around my middle, sidling up beside me. “Should we change any of the stretch goals? We’re probably going to hit them all really fast at this rate.”
“Keep them as they are,” Azaad says, taking charge. He’s been working side by side with Kei, taking care of all the behind the scenes stuff together. “I have a few we might add if we really need to, but let’s play them by ear.”
“You ready to make the auction go live once we start?”
Azaad nods. “I’ll hit it once you guys explain it. Then I’ll share the link on everyone’s social media accounts.”
“Perfect!” Rin says, putting a hand on Azaad’s shoulder. “Thanks again for being here. We couldn’t do all this without you.”
Azaad’s face goes bright red. “No problem. Happy to help,” he says with an awkward chuckle. Wizard watches with a soft, affectionate look on his face.
We get our water bottles before heading over to the couch. Rin, Kei, and I sit on the main part of the couch while Maki sits on the floor beside Rin’s feet. Gayle sits on the arm of the couch beside me.
Azaad counts us down before hitting ‘go live’. We have a monitor off to the side, showing us what the stream sees along with our total live donations. We’re live on Rin’s channel but all of our channels are hosting his so if anyone went to our streams, they’d be redirected to this one. All three of our mods have been given the mod status in Rin’s chat so they can help direct everyone and keep things running smoothly.
