Lapis' mom decided Lapis needed to learn some responsibility. When a babysitting job opened up in the area, Lapis was forced to accept the position despite her wishes not to.
If there was one thing that Lapis hated to deal with, it was dumb, little kids. Kids are always so loud and obnoxious, constantly in need of attention, and always demanding that things go their way. This was an issue for Lapis since she also liked being loud, getting lots of attention, and felt that people should always do what she wants them to do.
Having kids around made it difficult for Lapis to have things go her way.
It also didn't help that most kids are into really boring things that Lapis has no interest in, like videogames, comic books, and movies. Any time Lapis is in earshot of one of these brats, they will immediately start rambling on about whatever it is they think is so cool. Lapis hardly ever gets the chance to talk about things that are actually interesting, like her latest stream, what she had for breakfast this morning, or what she plans for her next stream.
Interacting with little kids was something that Lapis tended to avoid. She much preferred hanging out with adults instead since they were much more open to giving Lapis the attention and praise she desired. That's why it was such an unwelcome surprise for Lapis when her mom came home to deliver the bad news.
"I've just got you a job as a babysitter!" Lapis' mom explained.
"WHAT?!" Lapis replied.
"A nice lady in the neighborhood put out a request for any babysitters in the area willing to watch her son after school while she runs some errands. It'll only be for the afternoon this coming Friday."
"MOM, you can't be serious! What's the point in me watching some dumb kid, anyways? If it's for the money, I already make plenty off of donations."
"This isn't about money, Lapis, this is about you learning some responsibility for a change."
"BUT--"
"No buts. This has already been decided and you will be going this Friday."
With that, the conversation ended and the start to Lapis' weekend was ruined. Lapis was left to sulk on her bed while her mom started to exit the room.
"Oh, and his name is Dylan. Try to remember it."
= = = = = = = =
The day of reckoning finally came and Lapis was driven over to the brat's house.
Lapis and her mom knocked on the front door and were greeted by the woman who had put out the sitter's request. They were both invited inside where Lapis was introduced by her mother. That was when the woman called out to her son to come and introduce himself.
Lapis heard some running through the hall before a young boy appeared from around the corner. Lapis made eye contact with the brat and was surprised to see his expression change to incredible excitement. The kid then bolted towards Lapis with even more speed than he'd been running at before. He stopped right in front of Lapis and gave her a big, toothy grin.
This was when Lapis realized this little kid was taller than her.
See Lapis has always been very short for her age. Lapis was already eleven years old, yet stood at a modest 4'2'' tall. She's been the shortest kid in every class she's ever been in, and was even shorter than most of the kids in the grade below her. Still, she expected a kid so much younger than her to at least be an inch or two shorter than she was.
"m-mom, how is he?" Lapis whispered.
"he's nine, dear." Her mother replied.
"nine?! he can't be nine, he's huge!"
"he's really not, dear."
"mom, this kid could eat me! what do i do if he misbehaves?"
"he couldn't be more than 3 inches taller than you, lapis, he's not going to eat you. besides, his mother told me he is a very well behaved boy. (If he wasn't then I wouldn't have made you take this job...)"
"What are you guys whispering about?" Dylan asked, still standing there and waiting to introduce himself.
"N-nothing. Don't worry about it." Lapis said.
"I'm Dylan! Nice to meet you."
"Hi, I'm Lapis."
"I know!"
Without warning, Dylan reached out and scooped up Lapis into a big hug, lifting her up so she was standing on her toes. The boy then spun around and half-dragged Lapis back to his room, forcing her to scuttle along on her tippy-toes down the hall. Lapis looked back at her mom and mouthed "H E L P M E" before disappearing around the corner.
"Oh, those two look like they're going to get along swimmingly."
= = = = = = = =
Dylan took Lapis all the way back to his room so they could hang out together. Inside his room was a desk with a computer, a toy box, a dresser of clothes, and a shelf full of videogames. Scattered along the floor were a wide variety of socks of differing colours, styles, and brands. Lapis rolled her eyes at how childish the room was and started thinking what excuse she could use to spend as little time as possible here.
Dylan asked Lapis to sit on his bed while he started rummaging through the games on his shelf. For the next 20 minutes, Dylan proceeded to unload every fact about Nintendo and their videogames from his mind vault through disjointed ramblings and poorly worded explanations. Lapis was worried Dylan would be like other kids she had met, talking about nonsense that bored her until they ran out of breath from speaking so much. Dylan seemed to be different in the fact that he didn't need to breathe and therefore never. stopped. talking.
Lapis barely got a word in between all of Dylan's "Fun Facts" about Zelda games or listing out his "Top 10" Mario characters.
The only time Dylan ever stopped talking was when he paused to hear how impressed Lapis was at his gamer knowledge. If Lapis tried to talk about something he wasn't interested in, Dylan would quickly get back to his quest of impressing Lapis by talking about more kiddy nonsense. He did occasionally talk about things that weren't video game related, like his favorite shows, toys he collected, and streamers he watched on the internet.
"Hold on, you watch streamers online?" Lapis asked, finally interested in the topic of conversation.
"Mhmm, I watch a whole bunch! But, I do have my favorites~" Dylan replied, grinning ear to ear.
"Oh really? Like who?"
"Like you!"
"Wait, me? You watch my streams?? Like, you've seen my streams and watch them online?!"
"Yes, yes and yes! You're a huge inspiration for me! You're so funny and you have such great special effects!"
"Aww, thank you!"
"Yeah, you're the reason I decided to make my own streaming channel!"
Lapis also started grinning from ear to ear. She had no idea that this kid actually watched her show and recognized her at the door. Her opinion on him was quickly turning around now, especially since he was starting to talk about things that actually mattered. It wasn't often she could talk with a fan face-to-face.
"Well, yes, my streams are pretty great, aren't they? Well, I guess I could share some of my tricks that I use to make such great content." Lapis said.
"Yeah, that'd be awesome! Right now I'm experimenting with different games I can show off on my own streams, but I'm kind of running out since my mom won't buy me any new ones until Christmas..." Dylan replied.
"Oh... You're... a gamer streamer..." Lapis said with a distinct lack of excitement.
"Yeah! People seem to love it!"
"...right..."
"Actually, I was thinking... since you're here... in my room..." Dylan started, "Would you want to maybe play a game with me on stream...?"
Dylan blushed and dropped his gaze to the floor as he finished his request. Lapis wasn't impressed with the idea of playing a game on stream. She felt videogames were "fake" and therefore not real entertainment. People needed content connected to the real world, or else what was the point in getting invested? However, Lapis did like the idea of guest starring on another person's stream, no matter who it was or how big/small their audience was.
"I'd love to join your stream!" Lapis exclaimed.
"Really? That's great! What game do you wanna play?? Oh, you should definitely try Zelda!" Dylan said.
"Actually, I have a better idea. Using my superior understanding of online content creation, I know exactly what to do to make your stream more entertaining to viewers~"
= = = = = = = =
"pfft! Lahahahapis! J-just hold on a sec! Hahahaha!"
"Nope, there's no breaks in this challenge."
"B-but, that's not heheheh f-fair!"
"Fair isn't the point! You agreed to play your game while I tickled your feet for extra challenge. It wouldn't be a challenge if I stopped when you told me to, right?"
"Hehehe I g-guess!"
Lapis and Dylan were both out in the living room sprawled out across a couch. Both of them had worked to set up a camera that was connected to Dylan's computer so they could stream this little game they were playing. Dylan was supposed to try and play through his favorite Zelda game, Breath of the Wild, while on Hard Mode. For added difficulty, Lapis was seated on the other end of the couch as Dylan, happily holding onto his feet and tickling them while Dylan played.
The socks Dylan had been wearing were discarded to give Lapis better access to his ticklish soles. It didn't take a lot of effort on her part to make Dylan fidget and laugh, meaning she could mostly just relax while enjoying the pitiful sounds of Dylan struggling to play. Lapis found it especially amusing every time Dylan tried to bargain with her for a break. She enjoyed denying him each time.
Lapis couldn't make the tickling too intense due in part to the fact that she could only tickle one of his feet at a time. She'd need to use one hand to hold his ankle while using her other hand to tickle his feet and toes. If Lapis tried to use both hands on both feet Dylan would just recoil instinctively and Lapis would need to wrestle with him to get his feet back. To make the tickling a bit more spicy, Lapis would use her own feet to reach into Dylan's armpits and tickle them with her toes.
Lapis and Dylan wound up staying up way past Dylan's bedtime and only turned off the stream when his mother came home. She didn't get angry, though, as she could see the two of them were having fun. Dylan said goodbye to Lapis and invited her to come back so they could collaborate again some time. Lapis agreed, and even invited Dylan onto her own stream.
"I've got many more ideas for challenges we could do~"
