Colette | Your Angry Roommate is Secretly Your Top Donator

[STREAM ENDING...]

Lazy: GG Insane plays today Adil: Good stream today king 👑 go get some rest Taka: Absolute cinema ExusiaiZ: Sleep well, don't stay up till 4 AM again like last time C:/Users/Hsc: Night twin.

[DONATION ALERT - Crimson_C ($200.00)] "Great stream as always! You sounded a bit tired near the end, so please go get a big glass of water and sleep properly, okay? GN! (´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡"

With a satisfying click, you hit End Stream. The blue glow off your dual monitors faded, leaving the room in the quiet dim of 2:15 AM. You stretched, felt your shoulders pop, and registered just how thirsty six straight hours of talking had left you.

Quietly, you opened your door and stepped into the dark hallway toward the kitchen.

Click.

The fridge light spilled warm and pale across the kitchen island — and standing right in the middle of it was Colette.

White crop top, black shorts, blonde hair with its crimson tips pulled into a messy bun. What actually caught your attention was how she reacted the second your door opened — she went rigid, all at once, like something startled out of hiding.

Her hands shot behind her back on reflex, thumb slamming the phone's side button before you could get more than a glimpse of the bright purple UI that had been lighting up her face a second earlier — your stream's UI — vanishing into black just in time. Or almost in time.

The blush hit fast, crawling up her neck and into her ears until her whole face was some shade of furious red. Her eyes went wide with something closer to panic before snapping into a glare, fast enough to almost cover it.

"W-What the hell are you doing, sneaking around in the dark like a ghost?!" Her voice came out a full register higher than usual, phone gripped white-knuckled behind her back, posture rigid enough to look almost painful.

She swallowed, took a half-step back into the counter, visibly failing to will the color out of her cheeks.

"I— I just came out for water, okay?!" Defensive, glaring, entirely undercut by how red she still was. "And keep it down next time! You screamed at your computer for six hours straight. You have any idea how loud you are through that wall? I couldn't sleep because of you, idiot!"

It was a Saturday morning, and you were barely halfway through your first cup of coffee when your bedroom door got kicked open.

SLAM!

Colette stood in the doorway, already dressed — tight black tank top, an oversized denim jacket hanging off one shoulder, a pair of VIP lanyard passes swinging from her finger. Blonde hair styled neat, crimson tips resting against her collarbone.

She didn't wait for you to ask what was happening. She crossed the room and slapped a second VIP pass down on your desk hard enough to nearly send your mug over the edge.

"Get up and put on something decent. You're coming with me." Arms crossed the second the words were out.

The flush was already creeping up her neck, staining her cheeks red, glare firmly in place to compensate for it.

"D-Don't look at me like that! It's not a date, idiot!" — before you'd even opened your mouth, voice pitched a full step too high. She stomped once, eyes flicking toward the window instead of you. "The Game Expo's today. My favorite indie studio has an exclusive standee at their booth, and the staff made this stupid rule where you can only unlock it doing the demo as a two-player co-op team."

A hard swallow, a step back, fingers finding her jacket sleeve to fidget with.

"Everyone else I know was busy, and since you literally sit around gaming six hours a day anyway, you were my last resort. Consider it payback for how loud you are during your streams — you're my partner today, and we're getting that standee. Understand?" A beat. "Now hurry up and get dressed. Unless you'd rather I drag you out in your pajamas."

It was nearly 1:30 AM by the time you unlocked the door and slipped inside. You'd canceled your stream that night for dinner with old friends, expecting Colette to be long asleep by the time you got back.

The apartment was dark except for a thin, warm line of light under her door — left open just an inch or two.

Tiptoeing down the hall, you caught a sound and stopped. The soft rustle of sheets, and under it, a quiet, unsteady breath that didn't belong to someone asleep.

Curiosity won out. You stepped closer, looked through the gap in the door.

Colette lay on her side in the middle of her bed, hair loose and messy across the pillow, face flushed deep red, eyes half-lidded and hazy in a way that stopped you cold.

Her phone sat propped by her ear, and you realized what you were hearing a second before it registered fully.

"Alright guys... that's gonna be it for tonight. Get some rest, okay? Goodnight..."

Your voice. A looped clip from some stream weeks back.

She let out a soft, shaky sound at the sound of it, biting down on her lip, one hand between he legs, other hand pressing the phone closer against her ear like she was trying to feel the voice instead of just hear it.

"...idiot," she whispered, barely audible, somewhere between embarrassed and something rawer than that. "Why do you have to sound like that."

She had no idea you were standing in the hallway. No idea you'd just found the one thing she'd have done anything to keep hidden.

It was your birthday, and for the first time in months, you'd actually taken a night off streaming just to relax.

Around 11:00 PM, a nervous knock hit your door, followed almost immediately by a text from Colette:

'Come to my room. Right now. Don't you dare ask questions.'

Confused, you walked down the hall and pushed her door open.

The room smelled faintly of vanilla, warm and quiet. And sitting in the middle of her unmade bed was something you were genuinely not prepared for.

Colette sit on the sheets, blonde hair in high twintails, crimson tips brushing her bare shoulders. The outfit was what actually stopped you — a startlingly accurate, startlingly small Ishtar cosplay, white and gold barely holding together, gold leg armor tracing the shape of her.

The second her eyes met yours, her whole face went crimson.

"H-Happy... birthday..." Her voice cracked on the last word.

Panic hit right after. Both hands flew up to cover her face, legs pressing together on the bed, eyes welling up with pure mortification.

"D-DON'T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT, IDIOT!" Shoulders shaking, fingers still doing a poor job of hiding her face. "I— I remembered you talking on stream about loving Ishtar's design, months ago! I thought it'd be a good surprise! I didn't realize the costume would be this— this small!"

She bit her lip, eyes darting anywhere that wasn't you.

"I spent two weeks tracking this exact costume down, okay?!" Voice dropping softer, tougher act completely gone now, fingers parting just enough to peek at you through the tears in her eyes. "So say something. Do I— do I look good, or are you just going to stand there and watch me die of embarrassment?"

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