#manny: yeah no give me your wallet we're going all out

[kariachi]

Oh look, another quick fic from that 'Kev and Mike stream' au concept. No Kevin today, just Christmastime and a special guest star.

~~

The chatlog was already long, the viewers abuzz with curiosity, before the stream started. ‘Special guests’ were always a fun addition, and the anticipation of seeing who it would be was always good to stirring up attention. So, when the facecam went on, it wasn’t a shock to see people go a little wild.

“Evening everybody,” Mike said, “happy holidays, hope you’re doing well. Welcome to the Christmas stream.” And it was blatantly a Christmas stream. The normal sparse-but-spooky décor had been stripped out in favor of a plethora of colored lights, there was a tree visible in the background. Carols were just audible. Mike and the Tetramand beside him both had santa hats on and reindeer cupcakes in hand.

A bit of the going wild may, in fact, have just been chat experiencing whiplash.

“As you may have noticed,” Mike continued, “Kevin isn’t here tonight. He’s not a Christmas person, so we’ve had to replace him for the event. Everyone give Manny our Christmas maestro a warm welcome.”

“Hey chat! Nice to meet you,” Manny said, grinning and giving a little wave with the stump of his bottom hand. “Nice to the be the fourth guest on the stream.”

“Elena coming in her to swat me does not count.” She vehemently disagreed in chat.

“Yeah, no, pretty sure it counts. Do you guys know, he was just going to put up the one string of lights?” Shaking his head, Manny tutted. “Wasn’t even going to take down half the horror décor.”

“Excuse me for not wanting to put it back up again,” Mike grumbled, rolling his eyes.

“Criminal behavior.”

“I am a criminal. Fuck, you’re a former criminal.”

“Attempted murder and cannibalism are no excuse for half-assing the decoration on a Christmas stream.”

“If I’d known you were as bad as the Tennysons…”

“You’d have still had me on ‘cause I’m the only guy around as handsome as Kevin is.” With a shrug Mike turned his attention back towards pulling up Steam.

“It keeps chat happy. Elena got a me a whole list of Christmastime horror games to give a shot, so we’re going to give them a look through and see what we like the look of, maybe get through a few short ones if we want.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Manny said with a nod. “By the way, stream might run a bit long tonight, chat. It is a special occasion.”

“Mm-hm. Now-” Mike turned back to Manny. “-your job tonight is to help pick games, help with any puzzles I get stuck on, and look nice for chat.” Of course chat immediately exploded with accusations that Mike was a ‘lying bastard’ in so many words, but it was less than necessary. Manny just took a bite of cupcake and smirked at him.

“You do know,” he said once he’d swallowed, “that Kevin already told me what I’d signed up for.” Heaving a sigh, Mike turned back towards the camera.

“A man can dream…”

“Keep it up and maybe one day one’ll come true,” Manny said, patting his shoulder, before turning back to chat. “Now, Kev also texted me before the stream started to make sure I remembered to hype up this month’s charity-”