Work Text:
"Ajax, you're here! Hi!"
Ajax forced himself to downplay the blossoming happiness in his chest as he walked directly in front of the table where Sangonomiya Kokomi, the rising idol of Teyvat Entertainment, was smiling and waving at him. He adjusted the fit of his face mask to cover the lower half of his face, and his cerulean eyes twinkled in delight as he held out his hand for Kokomi to hold and shake.
Handshakes are a common thing to do in Kokomi's meet-and-greet signings. She specifically requested for her agency to allow her to do so, stating that it was something she used to do a lot as a rookie idol back in her hometown in Watatsumijima, halfway across the world. She once explained to Ajax how she likes to show appreciation for small things, and one of those is handshakes during fanmeets.
That's why it's engraved in his mind to reach out for her warm touch every time he attends one of these sessions exclusively advertised in her official fanclub.
"How are you, Ajax? You're usually within the first handful of people I meet, but now you're the last one in line!" She giggled when he felt his cheeks heat up, but instead of responding immediately, his left hand reached for the pastel blue paper bag beside him, lifted it, and placed it on the table.
He paid attention to the way Kokomi's amethyst eyes widened as she pulled out a present he picked out for her this time. She had to stand up to pull the big narwhal plush out of its confines and he heard a gasp as she turned the soft material to look at the face.
"I was very late this time because the security was suspicious about the big gift, they had to make sure it was perfectly safe so I can give it to you."
He chuckled as she took one good look at the stuffed animal before cuddling it.
"Ajax, this is so big! Are you sure this is really for me?" Hopeful lilacs met amused azures, and Ajax fidgeted with his face mask once more before nodding earnestly.
"Of course! I specifically chose this for your comeback! Quite fitting for the underwater theme of 'Koi ni Naritai AQUARIUM', don't you think?"
"You're too nice to me, Ajax!" Kokomi responds as she tried to settle the narwhal on her lap. "Always giving me gifts during fanmeets but barely telling me anything outside of how you like my work so much." She turned to her right where an assistant was holding a copy of her newest album and a sharpie, takes it in her hands, and places it on the table.
"Now then, as a thank you for the big plushie..." She signed the album, taking her time to scribble extra words and finishing off with a tiny doodle. "...here you go! An extra special sign from me to you!"
She handed over the album to the man on the other side of the table and he was careful enough to avoid touching the sharpie ink in case it gets smudged.
"Thank you for always supporting me, Ajax! I hope to see you in my next fanmeet!"
---
"Hey comrades, thanks for joining in the stream!"
Tartaglia watched as the chat window he had on this second screen started to fill in with 'hello!' and random emojis. It was his usual Thursday 'Just Chatting' stream and people are excited to hear about the topic of the night. He glanced at his streaming program one more time to see if everything is working as intended and checked his stream statistics. The viewer count was starting to climb so he took it as a sign to start the show.
Of course, it's none other than his review of Sangonomiya Kokomi's newest album. It was highly requested by his subscribers and of course, it is no secret that he's a big fan of the idol. Finding her through his music recommendation stream during her debut sparked his admiration and respect for Kokomi and since then he had risen in popularity on this streaming site. Joining the streaming group Harbingers helped him grow an audience, and aside from his popularity through supporting Kokomi, he's also known for his hilarious interactions with his housemates especially with his fellow Harbinger, Scaramouche.
He's nothing compared to bigger streamers like Alatus or Barbatos, but Tartaglia is proud of his little community where he can talk about and share the things he like with people who think the same. To give back to the people who support him, he is heavily involved in many charity and campaign streams where he gives out so many prizes and donates to organizations which visions resonate with him.
"Thank you for the donation, trafficcone! Let's see...trafficcone asks, how did the fanmeet go?" he reads from the chat as soon as he turns on slow-mode.
"It was nice! It took a little while, but I managed to pass my gift onto Kokomi during the session." he reclines on his seat a little bit, opting to not mention how much questioning he got from the security in the event. He understood the repercussions of bringing a big gift to an idol event, but he was glad to have prepared for it.
So much as to ask the stuffed toy store to help him confirm it's safe, asking for some sort of an authenticity letter. He'll make sure to send a gift to his legal adviser Miss Yanfei for her helpful suggestion.
The chat suddenly turned to chaos even in slow settings, and all he can see is different people talking about the 'big narwhal plushie' he had to custom order to match Kokomi's signature color: pastel pink. He has hinted about the narwhal plush, but never fully disclosed how it looks like and how big it is.
He didn't linger on the narwhal plush talk and continued answering questions from his audience, or, as he calls them, comrades. One asked if he's had dinner yet (Yes I did, my housemates ordered pizza!), another asked when will a collab stream happen with Scaramouche (When he's available! We've talked about it and he's down to play APEX Legends or something like that.), and another one asked if he's running a streaming campaign for Kokomi's comeback music video (Of course! It'll be announced on a later dated stream, I'm still sorting out prizes and logistics!).
He was setting up his stream to open the main segment of the stream — the album review — when he gets a bunch of donation notifications. One of them was high enough to enable the text-to-speech function and he visibly freezes on stream as the donation message was read out:
'CHECK KOKOMI'S INSTAGRAM MY GUY, NARWHAL MADE IT!!!'
All plans of the album review were thrown out the window as his chat laughs at his 'down bad behavior'. He changed his stream scene to put on Kokomi's Instagram page and his facecam on the lower right of the screen.
He clicked on the first post, and then on his screen was Kokomi, holding the pink narwhal stuffed toy to her cheeks. It was a photo taken after the fanmeet, he recognizes the background of the fanmeet table with sharpies and extra copies of the album. He turns to read the caption and he slowly slides down his seat as he realizes what Kokomi has written. He hunches over, his right palm covering (at least, he tried so hard) his reddening cheeks. The chat calls him a simp and someone donated to activate the TTS function just to congratulate him on being noticed in Kokomi's Instagram post.
Little did they know, the streamer is blushing for a completely different reason than just being featured on the post.
Kokomi wrote: "Got this big cutie from one of my sweetest fans today! Thank you so much for coming to my fanmeet, and I hope to see you all again in the next one!
I named him Ajax, isn't he cute? Say hi to Ajax, everybody!"