Based on these two drabbles from a while back, this fic is finally done! Thanks to everyone who convinced me to continue this on <3
Read on ao3
"You're beautiful, you know that, right?"
"Wait, what did you just say?" Vivian turned to the computer screen, holding a cat in her arms. She originally meant to show off the new collar she bought for Apple, but now she had bigger things to discuss.
Irma's eyes widened as they realized they weren't as muted as they thought.
"Shit-Sorry, I thought I was muted." Irma quickly said as the panic settled into the pit of their stomach.
They've had a crush on their online friend for several months. But they’ve only recently accepted that they had a crush on someone who lived on the other side of the country.
They've gotten close to Vivian after they met through being added to a mutual friend's Discord server. Soon they added each other on other social media and DM'd each other almost every day.
Vivian shook her head slowly, putting Apple back on the floor. "No, I heard you. Did you just say that I'm beautiful?"
Irma was now extremely thankful that it was just the two of them in the server’s voice chat. All of their friends who were chatting before had left to go to bed a couple of hours before, leaving Irma and Vivian alone together.
They usually liked having time with only Vivian online, and they could talk about whatever they wanted.
Except right now, this was not the time at all they wanted to be alone with her.
"I-Um..." they stuttered, thinking of a quick excuse to escape this awkward moment. They looked at the closed door of the bedroom and pretended someone walked in.
"My roommate wants something, I'll talk to you later!" Irma said as they scrambled to turn off their camera and mic and leave the voice chat.
"But I thought you lived alone-" Vivian's concerned voice cut off as Irma let out a sigh of relief. After switching their status to 'Do Not Disturb' and turning off Discord notifications on their phone (for good measure), Irma sank into their barely-made bed.
"What the hell did I get myself into?" they said as they put their head in their hands, talking to their imaginary roommate.
Eventually, sleep took over, and they hoped that they would make a better plan in the morning to deal with the fact that they just called their crush beautiful.
Viv may blame it on staying up too late and completely forget about it. Right?
"Truly, a flawless plan."
"What do you mean by that?"
"What I mean by that is that you have no plan!" Gisèle said as she dropped her head into her open hand. Sighing, she looked at Vivian in front of her "Okay, let's go over this one more time, and maybe it will make sense to me."
"I'm flying to the East Coast, and I'm going to find wherever Irma lives and ask them why they called me beautiful the other night," Vivian explained like it was easy for anyone else to understand her logic.
"How do you know where they live? You've only met them in person once." Gisèle asked, trying to remain calm.
"I sent them a poster for their birthday last year, so I'll go to that address."
"And you don't think they might assume you to be a stalker or anything if you show up unannounced?"
Vivian shrugged. "I don't have any other choice. They refuse to answer my messages, and nobody else on the server has talked with them."
"Tell me you at least have a hotel booked or something when you get there," Gisèle asked, hoping that her friend put some thought into this.
Vivian shook her head, "I was hoping that Irma would let me crash on their couch or something." she said sheepishly.
She sighed again, "I have some Expedia points you can use. Just in case you need an actual lodging option."
"Thank you." Vivian smiled and checked the time on her phone. "So you can watch my cats while I'm gone?"
Gisèle nodded with a gentle smile on her face. Her friend might not think things through, but she knew Vivian's heart was in the right place. "Of course, I can do that for you. When should I come over?"
"My flight leaves in a couple of hours, so tonight?" she offered.
Gisèle sighed once again but smiled at Vivian, "A little short notice, but you better come back as Irma's girlfriend."
Vivian was exhausted after navigating the airports, sitting in a cramped economy seat, and giving the confused Uber driver directions to a place she had never seen before.
All she wanted to do was go to her hotel room, shower, and order whatever takeout restaurant delivered the fastest. But she had to try to talk to Irma first.
Traveling across the country took close to the whole day. The sun was getting close to setting outside the correct building Vivian spent ten minutes searching for. Today felt like the longest day of her life, but the hard part had yet to come.
Vivian stood in the hallway, triple-checking that 307 was the right door she should be knocking on, and hoped that Irma was home right now.
Pushing down her anxieties with a deep inhale, she knocked on the door, but it was too soft for anyone to hear.
“Come on, Viv. You can knock on a door.” She said to herself quietly, still standing alone in the hallway. She shook her arms at her sides, wiggling her fingers to shake out the nerves.
This time, she knocked on the door harder and more urgently. Vivian heard the television mute and footsteps on the other side of the door, and the deadbolt turned inside to be unlocked.
Irma looked like they hadn’t seen the sun in person in the past few days. They had bags under their eyes, and their dark roots were visible on the top of their head. Upon seeing Vivian, Irma’s eyes grew in confusion and panic.
“W-What are you doing here?” they stuttered out hand still on the doorknob.
“We need to talk about what you said the other night,” Vivian said in her best stern tone. She tried her best to sound serious so that Irma would at least let her inside.
Irma shook their head, “No, we don’t, that’s okay. Goodbye.” they quickly said as they tried to shut the door, but Vivian’s foot prevented that from happening.
The two stared at each other silently for a moment through the small opening of the door until Vivian decided to be the one to break the ice. “Please?”
Irma pursed their lips before answering, “Fine, we can talk.”
“Good, because you’re hurting my foot.”
“Oh shit, sorry.”
Several minutes later, both were sitting on opposite ends of the couch, awkwardly avoiding eye contact. This is what Vivian was working up the courage all day for. But now that she’s here, she has no idea what to say.
Irma didn’t know where to start either, so she felt better about that, at least.
“So…Who’s watching your cats?” Irma asked, glancing over to the blonde.
“Gisèle, I think I showed you pictures of her with me before,” Vivian answered, trying not to pick at the skin of her nails.
“Wasn’t she the one you had brought on voice call before?”
She thought for a moment as she remembered when Gisèle spent the night a few months before, “Yeah, that’s her.”
“She seems ni-” Irma was interrupted by the attempt of small talk.
“Why did you call me beautiful?” Vivian quickly asked, wanting to cut to the chase already. She wasn’t sure if it was the nerves or not having real food in the past six hours that caused her impulsiveness.
Irma’s eyes grew in panic as they tried to scramble for an answer, “Because uh- Because you are?” they said, unsure of what else they could say.
“You think so?” Vivian asked, slowly gathering the courage to look at Irma. “Does that mean that you like me? Like a crush?”
“I-I mean- I do like you a lot, but I never really-” Irma rambled out before Vivian scooted closer to them on the couch.
“Because I’ve liked you as more than a friend for months.” Vivian blurted out loud as she got Irma’s wide-eyed stare in return.
“You do?”
She never realized it until she thought about the video call from a few nights before that she had a crush on her friend. The way she smiles when Irma sends her memes out of the blue. Or whenever they sent her heart emojis, she wanted to screenshot every message. Maybe it was the good morning messages she woke up to every morning.
She nodded, “Yes, but if you aren’t ready to talk about-”
This time, Vivian was the one who got interrupted by a pair of lips crashing into her own. Their first kiss was nothing like she had with other people she dated. It felt urgent and needy, but she felt herself melting into the kiss.
She felt Irma pull away, but their hands rested on her waist. “I like you more than a friend too,” they said, finally looking relaxed for the first time that evening. “But I probably should have asked to kiss you before I did that,” they admitted as their cheeks grew pink.
“It’s okay, but maybe you can take me on a date while I’m still in town?” she offered.
“Let me think of some good places, and I’ll pick you up in the morning.”
(And to Gisèle’s satisfaction, Vivian did come back as Irma’s girlfriend.)
call me actually crazy, but it's so nuts to see the tumblr presence of Vivian Vanderpuss fans cause 💀 like... hold on
This is from her birthday bingo night 😭 LIKE SHE'S A LOCAL QUEEN FOR ME 😭😭 I've literally dragged all my irls and multiple members of my family out to see her because she is incredible!! It's so crazy to see so much love for her on tumblr
