You sit in the office helping the Hololive members plan out their weekly schedules, it’s also your responsibility to help the girls if they get in trouble, or damage control once something does happen. It can be a tad stressful at times but you do what you can for the girls to ensure they can work and have fun.
You leave personal bias at the door. It’s nothing too special. It’s just how it goes when you work with a large group of people.
“Please! Just listen to me will you?” your boss sternly speaks on the phone. This distressing phone call is distracting you from your own work at hand, it doesn’t help that you can hear the somewhat familiar-sounding voice on the other end of the phone.
“How many times have I told you, it’s not like that!? You’re blowing this out of–” the other voice snaps hard back at her, completely cutting her off…she sits there taking the verbal abuse lightly pushing up her glasses just to pinch the ridge of her nose..
“Listen let’s just–” once again her sentence was cut short by the crushing sound of the line being cut. The woman lets out a hard sigh before practically slamming her phone down onto the receiver. She glances up, your eyes meet for a moment but you very quickly return my gaze to my computer, typing away a basic report. Nothing really happened this week, or at least nothing that reached your ears…
You hear the sound of her feet heavily walking down your desk…now you really wished you minded your own business…
“(You)-kun…” she almost mutters defeatedly, you glance back at her and are instantly caught off guard by the tears in her eyes. You never knew your boss to be the type to be hurt so badly by getting yelled at…whoever that was must have really gotten to her.
“Is everything alright A-chan?” you ask casually, making her realize that her eyes are watering. She wipes her tears with her sleeve.
“I’m sure you heard some of that…That was Fubuki…” she sighs. Her gaze holds a hint of desperation. Despite that, she grabs one blank sticky note and a pen off your desk jotting down an address.
“I’ve never seen her like this. I know this is a lot to ask of you, but will you please go to Fubuki’s apartment for me? Maybe she’ll listen to you” she slides the note to you.
You grab hold of the note but also shoot a worried gaze at A-chan
“I’m happy you think so highly of me but…what makes you think I’m right for this job?” you weren’t particularly close to Fubuki…though with how she sounded on the phone you’d never guess it was her, to begin with. You were little more than an admirer from afar before taking on your current job.
“I don’t think…Fubuki can trust anyone at the moment, I’m hoping a fresh face will help her open up some. Besides, some things just need a man’s touch” she shoots you a confident grin. Her confidence is a tad reassuring but…hearing how she was yelling at A-chan over the phone was still an unsettling thought, more so when you remember the sweet smile Fubuki gives everyone.
You stand in front of Fubuki’s apartment door…you’ve been standing there for a good half hour now. You were nervous when A-chan asked you to come here, and you hoped that your nerves would ease along the way. Instead, you’re more nervous! You’ve just been standing here and you’re sweating like you ran a marathon. Maybe you should run home and shower first! Do you smell!? Why did A-chan want you to do this again?
A sigh escapes your lips…this could be a serious issue if something doesn’t get resolved. You swallow down all your nerves and finally reach up and push the doorbell…
-click- “go away!” a deep voice harshly blurts from the speaker above the silver button. You knew this was a bad idea…
“um…I’m (You) I work under the HR department…I was asked to come talk to you…” You respond almost too timidly. You can hear her let out a sigh before the door clicks…that wasn’t too hard, right?
You slowly open the door sticking your head into the door–to be greeted by the sight of a flying bottle! You quickly slam the door shut, half a second later you hear the sickening sound of glass shattering on the other side of the door that you’re clinging to.
“I SAID GO THE FUCK AWAY!” you hear her shout from the inside of her apartment. You take another gulp but you open the door again, you’re bringing out your last ace in the hole!
“I SAID–” she stops, seeing your arm hold out a full plastic bag.
“I–I brought burgers!” you weren’t sure if this would work but you decided to order several burgers on the way there. She stands there silently for a moment before clicking her tongue and slamming her chin on the palm of her hand
“Fine, whatever.” she admits defeat.
you cautiously slide the rest of the way past the door, kicking off your shoes at the entrance, and being extra careful not to step on the remains of what looks like a sake bottle…now that you can think straight the entire place reeks of booze.
When you gaze at Fubuki you were caught off guard, her beautiful ivory hair is now jet black and her blue eyes burn a crimson red. She looks at you like a pile of trash and the more you gaze back at such an expression the more you start to believe it.
“Well? Are you just going to stand there all fucking day? Or are you going to sit and give me the food?” she snaps, causing you to flinch. You hastily hand her the entire plastic bag filled with burgers. She rummages through the individually wrapped bulbs of sandwiches, the aroma of hamburger harshly mixes with the pungent smell of sake, given the pile of empty bottles beside her you can tell she must really be having a bad day.
While you’re lost in your own head a wrapped burger slaps down in front of you. You glance up, seeing she’s already halfway through one of them
“You got this, go ahead, eat, tell me what you want, then get the fuck out!” she commands…
You pick your burger up and peel off the wrapper. Under normal circumstances, this would be a dream come true. The Fubuki you knew was a ball of sunshine, bringing up anyone and everyone she could. But now…it feels like the air is weighing you down, like you just willingly crawled into a wolf’s den…you suppose that’s exactly what you did, isn’t it?
You take your first bite. It was pretty hard to enjoy the flavor when Fubuki’s scowling right at you, her piercing gaze looks like it was trying to burn a hole through your skull…
“S-so–um…I–uh…” you know what you want to say but your throat is clogging up. This is a lot more pressure than you’ve ever experienced with your job. Usually, you just Damage controlled a yab here and there but this was something else entirely.
thunk the sound of a quark being pulled out of a glass tube reaches your ears. You glance up and see Fubuki wedging the neck of a sake bottle into her mouth, the bottle upside down. She’s not breaking eye contact with you! It’s obvious that she’s telling you to get on with it before she finishes the bottle, or else you’ll get a very intimate look at the bottle firsthand!
“I’M–I’m here to make sure everything’s alright…” I finally let out, collecting what remains of my composure.
“Does it look like I'm alright!” she snaps back. Her face glowed a shade of red from the alcohol flowing through her system.
“I…suppose not. But perhaps you’d like to talk about it?” you sigh…she tosses the bottle of sake behind her. Joining the pile of glass bottles just like it. Another burger takes its place.
“Tell me, do you know the worst thing about being famous–being one of the faces of the company?” she mutters, almost slurring her words. You just silently shake your head.
“The fact that you do what you can for the people under you. And in return, they take a knife and dig it into your back!” she slams her fist on the table, tossing the balled-up burger wrapper on the floor along with the wrapper from the first burger she ate. She takes another burger out and wedges it into her mouth.
“No matter what I do, it’ll never be good enough.” she tosses her balled wrapper on the floor. Grabbing a new burger.
“I’ll keep getting a new fucking knife jammed into my back! And the fans will divide! Call me a bitch! A slut! When Coco quit, her fans blamed me! I should have done more to help! When Rushia betrayed us and I finally spoke out about it, her fans said I bullied her out of the company! Then both of them make remarks about me behind my back! I did so much for both of them! And they treat me like shit!” another wrapper is tossed just to be replaced by another burger.
“AND THE FANS–oh the fucking fans! They blindly believe any little goddamn thing they read online, call me a piece of fucking shit, then beg me to fuck them when it suits their convenience!” another tossed wrapper, another burger takes its place
“They have the nerve to call me ‘their waifu’ when they just see me as a piece of fucking meat! Another pin cushion for someone else to stick a goddamn knife in!” she throws the bag of remaining burgers…you just now finished yours and toss it in the trash bin behind you.
Fubuki’s furious gaze isn’t aimed at you, she stares coldly at her table. Her lips sealed shut…
“um…If it makes you feel any better I never thought anything like that about you…I always respected you and just wanted to see you as happy as you made the people around yo–”
“Bullshit–” she interrupts “–you’re just another loser fanboy. I bet you only moved onto me because your original oshi ‘cucked’ you and you moved onto me hoping to get lucky.” her words hurt, but you didn’t let them phase you. Not when she’s clearly hurting more than you.
Without any hesitation she lifts her top up, revealing her perky modest breasts. It catches you off guard as a shade of red flushes across your face.
“What are you–”
“This is what you wanted right?” she takes a step toward you, leaving her breasts out. You try to avoid looking but you accidentally catch glimpses of her pink nipples.
“You just want to fuck me, right? So what are you doing, get it out!” she takes another step
“Take out that dick and just fuck me then toss me aside, that’s all I’m good for! I’m just a stupid whore! So hurry up!” she starts shouting, but her voice becomes shaky. Her eyes begin to swell.
“HURRY UP AND FUCK ME LIKE THE SLUT I–” she takes a wrong step onto a bottle and tips forward. You quickly attempt to catch her but wrap your arms around her and topple down. She lays on top of you, her bare chest pressed against yours but you don’t care, you just hold her in your arms. Her labored breaths fill your ear as she tries to hold back the tears that easily flow out. You gently rub her back, trying to comfort her. But she just bawls into your shoulder.
“They were my friends! I did so much just to try to make them happy but it wasn’t good enough! We did so much together and they just threw it away like it was nothing!” she practically chants to you. You just silently rub the back of her head and trail it down her spine.
“I can’t even bring myself to hate them…I’m so pathetic even giving a fuck about anyone! Much less the ones who hurt me most!” she continues.
“There’s nothing wrong with being compassionate…sadly I think the people who can be compassionate are the ones who get hurt the most… it takes a lot of strength to hold that compassion. That’s what I admire about you. You do what you can with a smile on your face, but I never considered how much pain was behind that smile…maybe no one does. But it’s that smile that draws people to you. It’s why the other hololive members rely on you. You’re like everyone’s big sister.” you finally speak out. When you glance at her hair you see the roots are slowly changing back to white.
Fubuki lifts her head, still crying holding her pained expression. One of her eyes slowly fades to blue as more of her hair returns to white. She gently lowers her head and rests on your chest.
“Thank y-you I…appreciate…it…” she mutters out before closing her eyes, and falling asleep…you gently stroke the top of her head.
The next morning she next morning Fubuki’s azure eyes shoot open and she quickly flings herslf up like she had a nightmare. The sudden motion causes her head to get a little dizzy. She glances down, noticing that she was still wearing her t-shirt and shorts from the previous day. Not just that, but her apartment was cleaned up. No bottles, no burger wrappers…nothing but a sticky note on the table in the middle of her apartment. She walks up to grab it,
“I’m sorry I couldn’t do much more to help, I put the remaining burgers in the fridge, feel free to throw them away if you don’t want them.
I know it can be hard, but you don’t need to shoulder all the burden by yourself.
–sincerely: (You)” a soft smile grows on her face reading the note.
You sigh, rolling your shoulder while typing up another report. You didn’t get any sleep at all since you cleaned Fubuki’s apartment. Every once and again your eyes shut and it becomes more difficult to keep them open.
“Excuse me, (You)” you hear A-chan, your eyes shoot open
“Y-yeah! Sorry it was a long night and I–”
“It’s alright! Why don’t you take an early break? I’ll finish up your report, okay?” she speaks warmly to you. You just weakly nod and stumble out of your desk and stroll out of the office to make your way to the lunch room, maybe some coffee will wake you up. As soon as you make it a few steps into the hall you feel a hand gently place itself on your shoulder. When you turn you’re greeted to the warm smile of Fubuki
“Good morning, (You)” she speaks sweetly “mind if I join you for lunch?” she asks almost timidly
“N-not at all! I’d love to.”
A wrapped burger plops down on the lunch table, directly in front of you. You glance at her puzzled
“What, you left me way too many burgers, there’s no way I can eat them all by myself you know!” she says as a matter of factly. Unwrapping one burger for herself
“
So…you better get used to eating lunch with me,” she speaks with a warm grin. a hint of a blush adds color to her cheeks. Your heart skip a beat but you nod returning that same smile back to her
“I suppose I will…” you concede with her request, enjoying your burger beside her. perhaps this was the beginning of your friendship...but maybe it can become something more in the future.