A/N: Both Plusle ( u/1119984/Plusle) and I wrote this story together; taking turns writing a little bit each, me writing Lloyd's perspective and Plusle Reimi's. The forward slashes indicate when the writer/character perspective switches. We did this as a fun, casual, little RP type thing to do in our free time so it may be a bit jolt-y but we're really proud with how much we wrote! :) Also, I may have gotten confused with how MiiVerse works as I don't use it much myself, so, sorry if I got some of the functions/mechanics wrong.
Please enjoy!
Reimi curled up in her comfy position on the sofa and switched her 3DS on to game the night away. After a few minutes, the green 'streetpass' signal flashed up showing she had passed someone else with a handheld. She frowned slightly, she lived alone in her flat and wondered if it could be another resident who had recently bought the hardware. Logging into the Mii Plaza she saw she had passed someone called 'HotCoffee199' and that they had been playing 'system settings'. She smirked and sent the message 'Gr8 choice of game' and continued playing Rune Factory 4 until it was time for sleep, though she left her 3DS on overnight in case they streetpassed again, curious about who it could be.
/
"Huh?"
Lloyd had arrived home an hour ago and had just about settled down to play some games on his new 3ds. He had only gotten it yesterday and had taken it out with him today to work. He was excited to see he had streetpassed someone but when he logged in, a weird characterised mii called 'DekuShrub' walked up to his and said, 'Gr8 choice of game' with a deadpannd expression set.
He furrowed his eyebrows in annoyance and quickly typed back the childish message, 'just got this yesterday!'
He hoped to streetpass them again tomorrow.
/
The next night Reimi was pleased to see she had streetpassed 'HotCoffee199' again. His avatar bounced in annoyance 'just got this yesterday!' and she smiled. She felt a little guilty as she realized she may have come across a bit rude but his reply reaction was funny and she felt like pushing it a bit further.
'Party over here!' she typed back.
She then got up and walked to the window to check if she could see anyone nearby with a 3DS but she couldn't so she assumed he was probably in one of the apartments nearby. She ran into her neighbours quite often but didn't know them by name only sight and had never seen them with a games console (obviously as they were walking about).
/
He surprised to see the same mii from yesterday had arrived back in his streetpass queue. He wondered if they went to the same university as him, or maybe they were a customer from work at the coffee shop?
He clicked to see he had gotten another personal message from them.
"Party over here?" He read out loud to his empty apartment. He furrowed his eyebrows once again.
They were definitely still making fun of him.
'better than rune factory!' He had responded back. He knew little of Rune Factory other than the rpg/dating sim joint genre, but he was annoyed and wanted them to be as well. You wouldn't believe him to be a nineteen year old university student living independently, but here he was, arguing with a five year old for all he knew.
/
"Hmm..." Reimi's eyes narrowed slightly at the reply she found the next evening. She figured she was dealing with a young boy whose parents had just bought him a 3DS. Even though a voice in her head told her to ignore him from now on as it was creepy if she was suddenly talking to a stranger's ten year old son, she found herself already tapping out a reply automatically.
"Your face is a Rune Factory"
She couldn't help it.
She pressed send and immediately regretted it. Turning her 3DS off, she watched TV for awhile instead of gaming and went to sleep trying not to think too much about the Miiverse.
/
Okay, so now he knew it was a 5 year old. Even so, he couldn't help but reply back.
'What does that even mean?'
He tapped away furiously at the screen and didn't realise he had sent a friend invite in the process of his frantic actions.
He made sure to keep his 3DS on standby to see if he'd get a reply despite not knowing where they kept passing each other, however, he knew it wasn't at the coffee shop or his uni, as it would only light up in his neighbourhood.
/
Reimi raised her eyebrows at the friend request and put her 3DS down for a second to think it over. She was getting progressively worried she was crossing a line here by befriending some small child over the internet, but at the same time she sort of looked forward to streetpassing him as it made her 3DS ventures more interesting. She shrugged and accepted ythe request, writing back 'Mario Kart 3DS, tomorrow 8pm?' as she noticed he had been playing it recently. She might gauge more about the person she was dealing with after playing a round of Mario Kart with them. She noted they normally streetpassed at about 7pm so hopefully they would see her message in time and take her up on the offer.
/
During a free period at uni, he decided to go study at the library. When he went through his bag to get the appropriate books out, he noticed the green light indicating he'd passed someone. He tapped in and, low and behold, it was the weird DekuShrub character again, but this time, it was just a streetpass indicator but also, his 'friends' icon was blinking.
'DekuShrub accepted your friend request! Hooray!'
...
...
..
.
"What?!" He shouted out in the meant-to-be silent library. He got some scolding, amused and some odd looks from the people around him. He scratched his head sheepishly and bowed his head in apology.
'When did I...?'
And there was more. DekuShrub had also sent a message.
'Mario Kart 3DS, tomorrow 8pm?'
He looked at it for a while and eventually concluded it might be best to put his/her money where their mouth is (so to speak).
That night, they played for a surprisingly long time and even more odd, were evenly matched. They drew on most of the cups (both coming first on 2 cups each while the other follows at second). When they finished up, Lloyd sent the begrudging message, 'Not bad...for a kid'
/
"I'm 22!"
She typed back frowning. So that must mean HotCoffee wasn't a kid if he called her one. She had enjoyed playing Mario Kart with him the previous night, surprised he actually proved a bit of a challenge. She was going to ask if he wanted to play again tomorrow night but after his response she didn't feel like it so much.
She left her 3DS on overnight, as she always did now, and went about her day afterwards normally. She was an art intern at a mobile videogame company and mostly enjoyed it but was never challenged to the extent she wanted, being only an intern.
/
"Haha," Lloyd found it hilarious to find out someone he'd assumed wasn't even in double digits was actually older than himself.
'Really?...You don't act like it!' He typed back hoping to get a rise from the other, but when a day passed with no response he wondered if something had happened.
Despite the stranger mainly antagonising him, he found their interactions fun and he began to look forward to them. He even started talking about the mii stranger to his uni friends.
So, when the silence continued for two more days he decided to send a message to a invite them to play MarioKart again at the same time as last.
He really hoped they responded before he got back home.
/
Reimi flipped open her 3DS and read the message.
"Eager for another beating?"
Despite the fact they had drawn last time they played, she couldn't help the fight talk.
When it got to night she was happy to see him waiting in the lobby.
As they raced they were quite even again. When they got to playing Rainbow Road, Reimi tried to bump her cart into his as much as possible, often succeeding in pushing both him and then (accidentally) herself off of Rainbow Road. She found it funny and wasnt that concerned when they placed 7 and 8th, losing the cup. She hoped he found it funny too and wasn't annoyed though he could have been since his character kept jumping around a lot in response.
/
When his long day was finally over and 8pm finally rolled around, he beamed seeing DekuShrub join the lobby. He was so relived when he got the cocky response earlier and couldn't wait to play MarioKart with them.
However...Deku seemed to have another agenda every race other than...well racing.
Despite jumping up and down trying to communicate 'What the hell are you doing to us?!', the whole time he was laughing his head off at his weird companion's actions. He was so happy that Deku didn't appear angry at him any more and hoped they'd continue to message with him.
After the race, he messaged DS.
'What the hell were you doing? Haha!'
/
Reimi chuckled at the message, pleased to see he wasn't angry also.
"Do you have a Wii U?"
She was thinking the 3DS message boxes were too short to properly communicate and maybe he would want to talk more on there. She closed her 3DS and started making her packed lunch for tomorrow. She realized she was out of bread though, and so quickly popped down to the local Sainsburys to get a loaf.
On her way back into the apartment she stopped to reach into her handbag and grab her keys but was spared the trouble by someone opening the door for her. She looked up to see a man with long red hair twist his key in the lock and hold it open for her. "After you," his voice smooth.
She smiled nervously and thanked him and headed inside. As she walked to her apartment the man started to ask her a question but stopped when a door to the left opened and a brown haired guy appeared - "You took your time Zelos!"
Zelos hailed the boy and Reimi hurried away, shy and a little dazzled from the interaction, she didnt have much experience with guys and was a little frightened of them, silly though it sounded.
/
"Sheesh, what took you so long?" Lloyd huffed as he took the shopping off of Zelos.
"Hey, we've been living here for quite a few months now and I've only just noticed that a cutie lives next to us," Lloyd ignored the comment and continued to glare at him.
"What? Class ran overtime," Zelos explained, guilt-free.
"No it didn't, you were probably chatting up the Professor again," Lloyd moaned as he put away the groceries.
"Ah, you got me. Not everyone can practice abstinence bud,"
"Ha-ha," Lloyd dead-panned in annoyance, "I just...I dunno," He finished with a shrug.
"...How are we friends? You don't even let me date our friends at uni,"
"Haha, they won't let you date them, and also, I want to hang out with them again,"
"What does that mean?"
Lloyd just laughed as Zelos tried to defend himself, and got out his 3DS.
"Oh! And now you're ignoring me to talk to your 5-year old friend,"
"I told you they're 22!"
"Whatever, bud. I'm going to go finish some uni work and might go out later. Wanna go?" Sometimes Lloyd forgets Zelos is a serious student now (not so much in high-school but he seemed more enthusiastic since college).
"I've got some work to do too so I'm not sure,"
"Alright, I'll ask you again later,"
After they went to their separate rooms to work, Lloyd cocked his eyebrow at the new message (that he had refrained from mentioning to Zelos) and wondered if there was a particular game they wanted to play. He typed back a quick, 'Yeah! Same I.D. as this one :)'
He smiled to himself, realising that DekuShrub seemed to be having just as much fun as he was and hoped to get a friend request soon.
/
Reimi woke up in the middle of the night after having a bad dream. Her room was dark except for the soft green glow of her 3DS streetpass. She checked the clock - 4am - but the possibility of having another message from HotCoffee drew her out of her sleep-filled haze. Besides she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep right away after her nightmare.
Reading his comment, she got out of bed and turned on her Wii U, adding him as a friend with the longer message 'I have Mario Kart 8, Sonic and All Starts Racing Transformed, Splatoon and Super Smash Bros'
to see if they had similar games to play.
She turned off the system, forgetting to write a message over 3DS streetpass to HotCoffee, but she was falling back asleep and didn't think on it too much.
The next day she was leaving for work when she saw a note stuck under her doorway. She cautiously picked it up and read 'Hey neighbour, didn't get to talk to you yesterday, how about coming over for tea tomorrow? I live at number 36 (Reimi lives at 42)'
Reimi frowned for a moment and thought about it, she decided when she got home tonight she would reply - she didn't want to be rude but she was also really scared of new people.
/
Before uni, Lloyd logged into his wii u and beamed when he saw a familiar username under his messages. He replied asking if they'd want to play splatoon later tonight. He quickly logged out and turned off the wii u , heading to leave for a long day of studies and kendo club but he was most excited for tonight's meeting with shrub, and it was the weekend tomorrow, so maybe play again after his coffee shop job. Similar thoughts carried in his mind throughout the day.
When he eventually got home, he was both surprised and slightly annoyed to see Zelos lounging on the coach with a girl who actually looked quite shy and unhappy herself.
I was wondering why we didn't walk back together after kendo.
"Hey bud, say hello to our neighbour," He smiled leaning back into the coach as his arm sat along the back of it. Lloyd wasn't annoyed at the stranger but just at Zelos' inconsiderateness for both their stranger and himself (he had a game to play later!).
"Hey, nice to meet you," Lloyd smiled and the girl smiled back but timidly. Zelos was right about one thing, she was really sweet (well, he said cute but, same thing) and pretty, but he couldn't help but hope that she didn't stay too long...
/
So Reimi had found herself round her neighbours flat. She was almost relieved to see it would be just the two of them as she couldn't handle meeting a lot of people at once but then, realising that it WAS just the two of them she grew nervous and hoped he didn't have any expectations about it.
To Zelos credit (she found out his name on the letter) he was a very relaxed and welcoming host. She found out both he and his flatmate, Lloyd, went to Uni together, though they studied different subjects. Zelos took mathematics and Lloyd woodwork. He sat talking with her for a little while and then, upon finding out she worked in videogames, asked if she wanted to play a few rounds with him. She happily accepted, as it meant less frantic searching for conversation topics, and vaguely wondered if he could be 'HotCoffee', though after playing a single round the thought left her head as he was quite awful.
After they had played a cup, Reimi could tell that Zelos was feeling bored so she suggested they talk a little more and was surprised when they were interrupted by a key turning in the door.
Lloyd walked in and did a little double-take seeing Reimi. She wondered vaguely if Zelos had told Lloyd she was coming over but introduced herself politely, though felt herself withdraw a little. Lloyd was very cute.
Luckily, Zelos spoke for her.
"Bud, you got to play a round with us, Reimi wiped the floor with me,"
Reimi blushed a little "I just play it a lot. You could definitely get as good as me, no problem,"
Lloyd hesitated, looking at his bedroom door once, before saying "Just one game, I've got plans tonight,"
"I need to head off soon too, I'm meeting a friend tonight," Reimi put in, a little worried she was bothering them by being over this long.
Zelos started up Mario Kart.
/
"Wow, you're really good!" Lloyd was astonished at how Reimi kept up with him. None of his friends could beat him at MK...well, except for DekuShrub.
"Haha, so are you," Reimi laughed as she hit him with a green shell.
The way she played reminded him a lot of DS and kept glancing at Reimi, thinking they could be one and the same. But, she seemed too timid, whereas DS had a more teasing edge to them, so, he put the thought away for now.
Although she didn't say much, Reimi was really nice to be around. She seemed easy to get on with and she seemed the type to open up more over time, not that he was sure they'd meet again. Zelos had gone to watching as he got too frustrated with losing.
Despite having a good time with Reimi, Lloyd still really wanted to play and chat with DS, so, he kept glancing at the clock. He actually saw Reimi do the same a couple of times and when he caught her, looked down guiltily which Lloyd thought was unnecessary as she already mentioned meeting someone.
When the cup finished, it was half six, and Lloyd was planning on meeting DS online at 7.
"Thank you for having me over. Sorry to put you out,"
"Zelos was the one who forced you over, so we're sorry to have put you out,"
"Hey! I was being neighbourly,"
You've never cared about our neighbours before.
"Anyway, we all had a good time. Win, win!"
Reimi laughed sweetly and Lloyd automatically smiled at the cute noise. And before he even knew it, he said, "You're welcome to come over any time."
Zelos looked over to him in surprised before smirking in understanding, "Yeahhhhh,"
Lloyd started to feel himself blush. I didn't mean it like that...
Reimi smiled nervously, seemingly unsure how to respond and just gave a quiet 'thank you' before saying goodbye and leaving back to her apartment.
/
As the door closed behind Reimi she allowed herself a little smile. She felt she had done well today and she was even invited back if she wanted to. Of course, she probably wouldn't bring it up first or maybe she should invite them over next time, but she would worry about that later.
She hurried back to her apartment to sort her dinner and set up the Wii U to play Splatoon with HC.
Just before they were due to play she received a message from him on the Wii U. As the message length was longer than on their 3DC communication, they could now say more. It read.
"Hey, sorry to ask this but I was just curious. Are you a girl?"
Reimi frowned a little. She generally hid her online gender because she didn't like the reaction girl gamers seemed to get. Why was he asking this all of a sudden?
"Are you Professor Oak or something? And actually I'm an alien." she replied back, hoping he had played Pokemon to get the reference to the first part. Even if he didn't she wasn't going to reply truthfully.
She again wondered why he was asking her this. She had thought earlier it was possible that Lloyd was HC, but he was playing a different character (that maybe because Zelos had taken Dry Bones though) and he also played differently against her. Whereas HC would have no hesitation in hitting her relentlessly with shells and items, Lloyd seemed to hold back and wouldn't hit her multiple times if he had already attacked her once.
After sending the reply she fired up Splatoon and enjoyed a couple of hours worth of matches with him. She wondered if after the game he would reply again and dreaded it slightly, though more because she liked just having fun with him like this with their real-life personas aside.
/
"Are you Professor Oak or something? And actually I'm an alien."
Lloyd laughed a little at the response, but wondered if it was a bad idea to have asked their gender. It's just that he couldn't get the idea that Reimi was DS out of his head. He enjoyed speaking and playing with DS so much that he was growing more and more curious to their identity. Their gender wasn't particularly important...but a part of him was hopeful that they were a girl. He felt really guilty for that though. No matter who they were , he generally wanted to be their friend and meet them and hoped it was mutual (apparently not). He knew it was silly as they didn't even know each other that well, and even if they were a girl, it's not like they'd be attracted to him back. So, for now he'd just enjoy their time back.
He quickly typed back, '...I should have guessed -_- Well, I'm glad there's a reason to your craziness! Alien suits you much more, yep, yep. Sorry for asking. It doesn't really matter but my curiosity got the better of me. Wanna play tomorrow as well? It's saturday so maybe you're busy?'
He smiled and went to making some dinner as he waited, hoping for a reply.
As he cooked, Reimi kept popping into his head. She was really sweet, but because he didn't know her well, he didn't feel !00% comfortable going full force on her in MK8, although he realises now he shouldn't have worried as it seemed she could definitely hold her own!
He debated whether or not to go see her tomorrow...although he might be bothering her. He pondered and thought nervously about the prospect of approaching her.
/
Reimi sighed in relief at his response. She was glad he had dropped the subject.
She replied "Yeah, I'm free most of Saturday though I will be having a lie-in til at least noon! Maybe around 3 you want to play?"
After receiving his positive reply she washed up for the night and got ready for sleep.
The next day she went out in the morning to do some shopping, and also picked up a small box of chocolates for Zelos and Lloyd for having her over to stay the day before. She left it outside their apartment with a small note saying 'Thank you for the tea! -Reimi' and hurried back into her room, too shy to knock in case it led to an awkward meeting.
Then she went back into her apartment and got ready to play more Splatoon with HotCoffee. Around 2 she heard a knock on the door and opened it, surprised to see Lloyd waiting for her. She flushed and self consciously stood close to the door.
"Hi," and then noticing the chocolates in his hand, "O-oh, you got them. That's good,"
/
Lloyd scratched the back of his head sheepishly. He had no idea why he had come over, but when he saw the chocolates and note, it was so sweet, he was impelled to see Reimi. However, he had NO plan whatsoever.
Reimi stayed closely to the door, most obviously uncomfortable.
"A-ah, yeah, thank you so much, but we were just happy to have you over. Also, I'm pretty sure Zelos forced you against your will," Lloyd awkwardly chuckled the last part.
"N-no, w-well, he was definitely enthusiastic about it, but I was really grateful for the invitation. I had a good time," Reimi smiled nervously, as she kept her hand gripped around the edge of the door.
"Yea-yeah! We did too, um and we were wondering, I know we already told you you could come over whenever you wanted but I doubt you'd ever take that up, haha, but, well, would you want to come over again tomorrow? Oh, but it's Sunday, so, you're probably busy," He was beginning to ramble and began to feel extremely embarrassed.
"...I'm free," Reimi replied in a small voice. Lloyd was thrilled- "but..." and then his heart sank a little. He was about to say a bunch of apologies for bothering her but then she continued, "Maybe this time, because you guys had to host and attend to me with tea and everything, um, maybe, if you two want, you could come to my place? Only if you want to, of course," Lloyd could tell she was scared of asking but he was happy she did.
"Yeah! That'd be great! And Zelos and I could bring games, controllers and snacks and stuff-" Lloyd cut himself off as he realised he sounded like an excited kid, but Reimi was laughing and he didn't care anymore.
"Haha, yeah, that sounds good, thanks. It's handy we live so close," Reimi smiled warmly.
"Yeah," Lloyd said in bewilderment, "s-so um what time is good for you?"
"Um...because I tend to sleep in on the weekends, is 2pm okay?"
"Yeah, that's perfect. I'm the same, haha," he refrained from saying he was worse.
Reimi smiled again and they stood their awkwardly for a moment.
"Well, I'll see you tomorrow!"
Lloyd was ecstatic and even more so, as he was about to play with DS in half an hour.
/
Reimi was still grinning to herself when she set up her Wii U half an hour later to play with HotCoffee.
They played Splatoon for about 3 hours before Reimi's stomach growled, alerting her it was dinner time. She sent HC a message apologizing and saying she had to go and also wouldn't be around to play again til Monday evening now, but asked whether he wanted a rematch then. She also sent him a little drawing of a Deku Scrub hitting a mug of Hot Coffee with a Splatoon paintbrush and logged off for the night.
As she got into bed she wondered once more about whether Lloyd or Zelos could be Hot Coffee. She kinda hoped it was Lloyd, but again, she had noted a different play style between the two so it was unlikely and Zelos wasn't that great at games so...
She decided when they came over, if they played on the Wii U she would log in with her backup Mii, the one that looked more like her, so that just in case Lloyd was HC as she still didn't know much about him and quite liked the way things were now. She hoped that he (HC) felt the same. She didn't have that many friends who also played games so it felt like a big deal finally having someone regular to play with. She was happy.
/