"Okay, breathe, Eiru," they mutter to themself. "Takenouchi is doing you a huge favor by organizing this meetup. So what if your voice is a little high? It's what's scoring you a chance to meet your role model."

And, oh god, there's the anxiety.

What if the Prince thinks they're a girl? Sure, they've traded very trace emails where Eiru had to reread their own responses about what felt like eight thousand times to make sure they didn't overshare, but still. What if their voice screws things over?

Their voice has always been a problem, causing them to be mistaken for another. Caused them to get into situations they didn't know how to handle, drawn attention when they didn't want it. Ugh, especially when gross older men tried flirting with them on the street. That was always the worst. And how awkward it got when the very rare few realized they weren't a girl, biological or otherwise.

What if the Prince was expecting them to be a certain way because of their voice? All he had heard were demos so far. But what if their appearance caused the Prince to think lower of them.

Ugh, they hated that their voice caused them to be so different.

Reject something different.

Utilize something different.

That's what they had thought the last time they had doubted themself. They were different. Why not use that to their own advantage? And who cared what others thought in the end? If it really came down to the worst, they still had their fans to help them out.

They pull up their social media, the page for their account, CallMeEiru, splashed across the page.

'About to meet the Prince for the first time. Wish me luck!'

They post the message and switched their phone to Do Not Disturb. Just the stockpile of liked post notifications will be able to calm them down if they get nervous.

And hey, it's alright to be nervous. Not many people got to meet their role models, after all. Especially when they were famous.

They fiddle with their phone a bit, leaning against the wall of the lobby in the building where the Prince's studio was. Soon, they got a text from Takenouchi saying that the Prince was ready for him to come up.

"Ah, you must be Eiru," the Prince greets as soon as he enters. It's kind of frightening, if he's being honest. Being in the room of one of the most famous people in the city一 especially when he's known for his apathy. But his green eyes and wild mane of blonde hair seem friendly enough, so Eiru approaches with what they hope is as little caution as possible.

"Um. Hi. Oji-san, right?"

"Nonsense, just call me Eiji," the Prince insists, and oh god Eiru's gonna die. First name basis with a celebrity when they first meet? Hopefully, they're like that with everyone and it's not just specific to them.

Takenouchi gives an encouraging grin. "Hey, Eiru. We're gonna go over what we want to achieve today, then record some demos. Sound good?"

"Whatever's clever," Eiru shrugs.

"Ah, I like that," Eiji says. "'Whatever's clever.' Such a fun phrase."

Eiru can't tell if his apathy is a front or not. Probably. But they can't help but feel that was genuine with a level of sarcasm to keep up his image.

…they want to go home.

"So, here's what we were thinking," Takenouchi quickly takes over and hands Eiru a small stack of papers. "We got that script, do you remember approving this one?"

Eiru takes a moment to scan through them. The words are familiar. "Yeah."

"The plan was to do a run-through and see how well it works out, and once you two are ready, we'll start up your respective streams and blogs and perform it for your fans. What do you think?"

Eiru looks up at the Prince who is watching them, neither a frown nor a smile on his face. Purely neutral. "Would you mind if we did a couple read-throughs? Live performances like this aren't exactly… what I'm used to." They knew that once they started recording and getting into the groove of it, it'd become more comfortable, just like when they had first started streaming.

The Prince looks her in the eye, a small graceful smile appearing. "Whatever's clever," he says.

Maybe working with their role model won't be as bad as they thought.