Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A girl was sitting crouched down in the corner of the room silently crying.

"Ye Xiu! Are you ok?!"

The girl looked up at the sound of her name. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying. She had probably been crying for a while now.

"Gege..." she whispered between her sobs.

A boy, not much older than her, rushed towards the girl and kneeled in front of her. Panic was written all over his face before it quickly turned in to a frown.

"Was it...father?" he asked with a hint of frustration in his voice. Ye Xiu responded with a small nod before hiding her face again.

Ye Qiu's frown deepened. This was already the 3rd time this week. Why couldn't their father just give her...them...a break? They were still children for crying out loud! Ye Xiu was only 10! How could he be so cold-hearted? He could only sigh.

"I'll go talk to him..." he said as he slowly got up.

However, Ye Xiu quickly looked back up with a gasp and grabbed on to her brother's arms to stop him from going any further.

"You mustn't! Remember what happened last time?" she reminded Ye Qiu with desperation in her voice. 

He grimaced.

Of course he did. It had happened only a few weeks ago. 

Throughout the years, Ye Qiu often found his younger sister crying in a corner somewhere in the house. Whether it be after school or after his trip to the Internet Cafe with his friends, he would always return to his sister crying. It had always pained him to see her like this. The reason for her tears was none other than their father. Their father had been very strict since as long as he could remember. However, he seemed to be much stricter on his younger sister for some reason. 

Enough was enough though. He couldn't bare seeing his precious sister's tears anymore. He had marched straight into his father's room and demanded to speak with him.

He spoke about how he was being too harsh on a 10 year-old girl. She was already doing well in her studies so there was no need to push her any further. She got first place in her piano competition so there was no need to make her continue practicing for insane amounts of time. She was well-mannered when in presence of their parents' acquaintances so there was no need to drill manner lessons into her head. There was no need to scold her for the smallest mistakes when she excelled at everything for the most part. They were overloading the poor girl with way too many things in much too little time. She needed some freedom. She needed time to be a kid. If she couldn't act like a kid now, then when would she ever get the chance?

One thing after another happened and things had quickly gone downhill. His father accused him of being the one at fault. That if it wasn't for him then Ye Xiu wouldn't be forced to do all these things. If he was smarter. If he was more well-mannered. If he was just better there would not be any reason to force her to do anything. However instead of taking responsibility like the heir he should be, he would go around playing games with his friends. But why couldn't he? It was his life. It wasn't like he got terrible grades right? His grades were above average!

Wrong.

He had to be the best of the best. He had to be the top of his class. He had to start learning the ways of their family business. He had so many things he should be doing. The current him was nowhere enough. The current him was nowhere near their father's standards. Because of this regret, their father had decided to start early with Ye Xiu. 

If his son turned out to be not competent enough, it was always safe to have a plan B. His daughter.

The oh-so-perfect heiress. Ye Qiu had thought in disgust. 

He had felt guilt rising up. It was true that if it weren't for him Ye Xiu wouldn't have to suffer like this.

But we shouldn't have to suffer like this in the first place!

Their family business wasn't doing badly at all. If anything, it was thriving. His father was also in good health so there was no reason for either of them to take over the company early either.

Then his father had mentioned a possible arranged marriage for Ye Xiu.

What?

He believed that if plan B wasn't going to work, then he'd need to create a plan C: selling his daughter off to some other rich family.

Ye Qiu had bubbled with rage at the mention of it. Even now the mere thought angered him.

By the end of the argument, Ye Qiu had a large bruise on the side of his face. Ye Xiu had went on an all-out-panic mode when she saw it and made him promise to not confront their father again. At least not for her sake. She was most likely still traumatized because of what had happened back then.

"I won't argue."

"Then?"

He paused. What would he do then? What could he do to change their father's mind? How could he give Ye Xiu more freedom? 

The answer was obvious.

"I'll make a deal with him. You're going to get your life back." he told her with a small smile and gently patted her head.

"Really?" Ye Xiu asked in disbelief. However, Ye Qiu could see the expectation and hope that shined in her still swollen eyes. 

"Really."

 "I'll study harder."

"That's to be expected."

"I'll win the national piano competition."

"As you should."

"I'll become a heir worthy of our family name."

"I need actions, not words."

"I'll..."

He paused. This was it. There was no going back now.

"I'll give up on games."

For you meimei.

"Oh really?" his father questioned. The older man stopped working on his paperwork and looked up to meet his son in the eyes.

"Do you realize what you just said?" he asked the younger boy while raising an eyebrow in both doubt and surprise. He knew how much games meant to his son. The boy used all his spare time to play games whenever he could. He had installed security programs on their PCs and forbid his wife from gifting their son a gaming system but Ye Qiu had managed to find a way out of it anyways. He often ditched cram school and his piano lessons so that he could go to an Internet Cafe to play instead. It was fairly obvious after so many years now.

Ye Qiu gulped. 

Do I?

Honestly speaking, there was no other way to help his sister. None that he knew of anyways. He had thought over it for quite some time now and this seemed to be the only way. As much as he didn't want to give up something he loved to do...He loved his sister more.

There was no way he could choose games over his sister. She just meant too much to him. He didn't want her to suffer anymore.

"Yes. Yes I do."

"Ye Qiu, what did you tell father?"

"Hmm? What do you mean?"

"He has gotten much more lenient with me! What was the deal that you made with him?"

Ye Qiu dragged the blankets up and patted her on the head.

"No need to worry about it. Go to sleep."

Ye Xiu pouted. Her brother was being secretive. Again.

"Come on Ye Qiu. Don't I have a right to know as well? And it also seems like you've gotten busier recently too! Its become much harder to see you around!" she whined.

Ye Qiu only hugged Ye Xiu and dug his face into the crook of her shoulders.

"Ah, that tickles!"

"Well are you happier now?" he asked quietly.

"Definitely! I don't get scolded as much anymore!" She answered happily with a big smile. Ye Qiu smiled back in response.

"Then that's all that matters. Let's go to sleep."

Chapter Text

"Damn it!" Ye Qiu cursed loudly as he stomped into his room and slammed the door closed.

5 years had passed since the promise was made. 5 years had passed since he gave up on his favorite hobby. 5 years had passed since he had to deal with his father's nonsense. 5 years too long in his opinion. He could never satisfy his father no matter how hard he tried. Even when he had ended up as the top of his graduating class, all his father did was give him a nod. The old man hadn't even appeared at his graduation this week. Only his mother and sister had come to congratulate him on his achievement. Some father he was.

Ye Qiu had turned 18 not too long ago. He was legally considered as an adult now. He could technically do whatever he wanted. He didn't have to stay under his father's rule. He no longer had the patience. He scowled.

Right. I'm not gonna deal with that man's shit anymore.

In blind rage, he stomped towards his closet. He slammed the door open, quickly grabbed onto the luggage bag nearest to him, and threw it on to the ground. Then he started randomly tossing some of his clothes into the said bag. After stuffing a few more essentials into the bag, he forced it closed and pushed it to the corner of his closet where it would be hidden from view. He then stepped back a bit to look at his handy work. He had left plenty of clothes behind to make sure that nobody would notice anything. It wasn't like he lacked clothes anyways. He had a bunch. Nobody would realize that a handful were missing. He even had a place that he could potentially crash at. Though he didn't know how happy the owner of said place would be if he had appeared out of nowhere suddenly, requesting for a place to stay in. Plus, if he remembered correctly, that guy was a siscon. The guy might not even let him stay if that meant him living under the same roof has his "precious sister". Siscons were really weird.

While he was in his thoughts, he heard a knock on his door.

"Ye Qiu? Are you in there? Is everything ok?" he could hear a small, feminine voice ask through the door.

Ye Qiu froze.

Ye Xiu. Ye Qiu had forgotten all about Ye Xiu for a second during his fit of rage. He had done everything in the first place for Ye Xiu. If he were to back out of everything right now then everything would return back to how it had been before. That wasn't something Ye Qiu could accept. Ye Xiu had finally started smiling more often after what had happened. He couldn't take her smile away. He couldn't just leave her here by herself with his father. His mother had been absolutely useless when it came to their father. She wouldn't be able to protect the girl from him. But it wasn't like he could take her with him...could he?

"Ye Qiu?" she called out again impatiently.

"Just a minute!" he shouted back.

He would think this over later but for now, he had to hide the evidence. He grabbed onto a bunch of his clothes in the closet and threw them over his bag. There was no way he was going to let Ye Xiu find out that he had planned to ditch. He had let his emotions get the best of him and acted rashly for a moment. If he was indeed going to run away, he would need to figure out what to do with Ye Xiu first.

As soon as he judged that the bag was no longer visible, he quietly closed the closet door and rushed out to greet his sister.

"Sorry. Had to take care of something before opening the door." he lied.

"Oh. Were you busy? Sorry for bothering you." Ye Xiu apologized obliviously. His sister was sometimes the most oblivious person in the world and at this moment, he thanked the heavens for that.

"No, no. You're never a bother. Did you need something though?" he quickly asked.

"I was worried when I heard you shouting and slamming the door closed..." she answered honestly.

She had been on her computer playing a game when she jumped from hearing a loud slamming noise followed by her brother's cursing. Her room was situated right next to her brother's (At first their rooms were located in different areas but the siblings requested their parents to put their rooms side by side) so it had been hard to miss. She quickly paused her game (which her brother had secretly helped set up on her computer) and turned to go see if he was fine. She knew that he had been stressed from everything recently. Father hadn't even come to see him graduate. She was still angry at the older man about that. Ye Qiu had also been overworking himself ever since their father had gotten more lenient on her. She could bet that it had something to do with the "deal" that the two men made a few years back. As much as it upset her knowing that he was overworking, there wasn't much she could do.

"Ah...Sorry about that. Just...Dad things you know?" he tried to explain.

Ye Xiu nodded in understanding. Of course. It was always their dad.

"Oh yeah!" Ye Xiu exclaimed suddenly and quickly ran back to her room. Ye Qiu tilted his head in confusion at his sister's sudden action.

A few seconds later, she returned. She was struggling to carry a decently large box that was nicely wrapped and decorated. What it was he did not know but seeing his sister struggle to carry it, he wasted no time in taking it off her hand.

"What is this?" he asked her. It had quite the weight to it. It wasn't really heavy but he could see why his sister had a hard time with it.

"Grats on graduating high school gege!" she beamed.

Ye Qiu blinked.

"A... graduation present?" he asked.

"Yup! You're finally done with school! You'll finally have a bit of free time now right? Before starting getting into the business anyways-" she said with a big smile, quietly whispering the last part. She knew that there was a large chance that her brother would finally be starting the process to take over the family business soon. He had graduated high school but he had done college level courses on the side so he would be able to get a degree as soon as possible. It probably wasn't long now before he would graduate college. She estimated 1 year at best. He was an over achiever but she was very proud of him.

"Thank...you?"

Ye Qiu honestly didn't know how to react. He hadn't expected to get a present from the young girl. He guessed that he had gotten used to his father's words about things being "expected as such" from him.

"Open it!" Ye Xiu encouraged him with a big smile.

Ye Qiu entered his room and lowered the present onto the floor as he sat down. Ye Xiu followed him into his room to watch.

He hesitantly grabbed onto the ribbon and pulled on it to loosen it then went on to carefully tear the wrapping paper to reveal...

"Surprise!" Ye Xiu exclaimed as soon as he saw the contents of her gift. Ye Qiu didn't respond right away and just blinked at the box in front of him. In the front of the box, the word PS4 was written on it. Next to the word was a picture of the said game system. He stared at it for a bit longer than looked up at his sister in confusion.

"I mean...I know you'd rather go to an internet cafe to play those online games with your friends but...you haven't been able to because of father, right? I was thinking maybe you could try playing games again! Secretly from father I mean! You have a TV in your room so it may work out...? Plus, I doubt mother would ever" she explained herself. She felt uncomfortable under Ye Qiu's questioning gaze and started fidgeting with her fingers. She had expected the older boy to like it. She remembered how much he used to love playing games. He had even introduced her to the gaming world so she could play in his stead once he had gotten busy. It probably wasn't what he wanted but it was still something.

Ye Qiu slowly stood up and pulled his sister into an embrace, gently caressing the back of her hair with one of his hands. Ye Xiu's body stiffened up in surprise.

"Gege...?"

"Shhh...Not now. Give me a second." she nodded back in response and made herself comfortable before hugging the boy back with a satisfied smile. They continued to stay in this position for a minute or so.

"Congratulations on your graduation gege."

Ye Xiu rubbed her eyes tiredly before realizing that she felt a weight on her head. She looked up to see that her older brother had fallen asleep on top of her.

She recalled that Ye Qiu had opened his present and set it up to his TV quickly so that the two could try it out right away. They ended up playing games on it for a few hours (With the door locked. Ye Qiu also put up a 'Do Not Disturb' sign just in case.) before both of them had started to feel tired. Ye Xiu had kept dozing off until she finally gave in and fell asleep on Ye Qiu's shoulder mid game. Ye Qiu had exited the game not too long after that and repositioned himself so that she would be more comfortable and leaned his head on top of hers before he soon fell asleep as well.

Ye Xiu smiled. It had been a while since the two had last spent some quality time together like this. They could usually only accomplish things like small talks because of his then busy schedule. Now that he had graduated, it seemed like he had a bit more leeway.

She cautiously stood up from the sofa they had fallen asleep on while holding his head to prevent him from waking up. She then slowly lowered his head onto the other end of the sofa, on top of a cushion that had been lying down next to her. She walked over to his other side then lifted his legs up on to the couch so that he could comfortably extend them while sleeping. As soon as she deemed him comfortable, she smiled and headed over to his closet. If she remembered correctly, this was where his spare blankets were (She didn't really want to mess with the blanket that was neatly prepared on top of his bed; he could use that one later when he slept on his bed instead).

After opening the closet door, she headed towards the corner where she knew he kept his extra blankets. As she was about to grab one, she noticed a huge stack of clothes lying on the floor next to it. That was strange. Ye Qiu wasn't the cleanest person per se but he wasn't the type of person that would let dirty clothes just stack up like this on the floor. Had he really gotten so busy that he couldn't clean up after himself? She shook her head as she sighed. First thing was first.

She took the picked up the extra blanket and walked over to her sleeping brother. She unfolded the blanket and covered the sleeping boy with it to make sure he wouldn’t get cold. As soon as the blanket was on him, Ye Qiu instinctively snuggled into the new source of warmth. Ye Xiu smiled at that. Her brother could be so cute sometimes.

Putting that thought aside, she went back into the closet. She decided to be a good sister and help his brother clean up a bit. He never let the maids come clean up his room because he hated it when other people touched his stuff. However, she knew he’d leave it be if it was her. The benefits (?) of being his sister.

She grabbed his clothes and examined it for a second. It was strange. It didn’t seem dirty at all. Why was it lying down on the floor though? Maybe he had been trying to be…fashionable and tried on a bunch of clothes then just threw them on to the ground when he deemed them unfit? Whatever the reason, she decided that she’d hang them back up rather than wash them again. No need to wash clothes that were already clean.

After hanging a handful, she realized that there was a luggage bag below the stack of clothes. Curiosity ended up getting the best of her and she opened the bag. In it were enough clothes and essentials to last a person for…quite a while. This confused her. As far as she knew, he didn’t have any trips planned. If he did, their father would know about it. If anything, she would know about it. It didn’t help that she found his ID lying around inside the bag upon closer search. There was no way a person would just stash his ID inside a bag and leave it there. She frowned.

What is this?

She could think of a few reasons but one stood out to her. It also happened to be the one choice that she hoped wasn’t true.

Was he planning on running away?

Had her brother been pushed so far to the point that he decided that running away was his best option? She didn’t know but honestly that seemed to be the possibility that made the most sense at the moment.

Should I talk to him about this…?

“Mm…Xiuxiu?” she could hear a sleepy voice groan out.

Maybe later.

She quickly put everything back as they were and made sure to hide the bag again with the remaining clothes that she hadn’t hung up yet. Before she exited, she paused then turned back one last time to look at where the bag was.

What are you thinking Ye Qiu?

“Ye Qiu. If you had a choice to do anything you want… If you weren’t so restricted about everything you did… What would you have done?” Ye Xiu asked while she sat on her bed watching him play games on his PS4. It had been a few days now since he had been gifted the gaming console from his younger sister. He had been using it whenever he got the chance, away from their father’s prying eyes (and always making sure to lock his doors first). Their parents had left the house for a business trip yesterday night and Ye Xiu was on vacation so they decided to chill together for a bit.

“Huh. Not sure. Why the sudden question?” Ye Qiu answered while concentrating on his character on the TV screen. Ye Xiu looked at his thumbs danced around on the controller to maneuver his character on screen. He was really good. She remembered when she had first seen him play on the computer as well. She had been amazed by how fast but graceful his hands moved across the different keys, it reminded her of the time when he had played the piano for her when she was younger.

“Just curious. You don’t really have anything you want to do then?” she asked again.

Ye Qiu shrugged. “Not necessarily. I’ve never thought about it to be honest.”

And it was true. He’d never really thought about it before. He had been too busy to have such thoughts in the first place. It wasn’t everyday that he got time to do whatever he wanted and relax.

Ye Xiu hm-ed in response and went back to watching the TV screen. That meant even if he had run away, he wouldn’t have had a goal to work towards. That was so like her brother: just living life as things come, not having a goal in hand. He wouldn’t have survived out there with such a thought process. Then she thought.

What would I have done?

“Missing? What do you mean missing? We only left for a week and you lose your sister who you’ve been living with for the past week?”

Ye Qiu growled.

As mad as he was, his anger wasn’t directed towards his father. It was directed towards himself. For not noticing. For not paying attention. For being a failure of a brother. But that didn’t mean his father and mother’s constant questioning wasn’t annoying him. They’ve been asking him the same question over and over again. He got it already. He got it so couldn’t they just leave him alone? He was frustrated too! He was frustrated at himself! There was no need for them to rub salt in the wound!

Everything had been going fine this week. There was nothing wrong or out of the ordinary. If anything, it had been great. There parents weren’t anywhere in sight and the two had more free time with each other than they ever had. They had played games, they had gone out for food and shopping, they had done many things together without needing to worry about a strict father waiting back at home. How was he supposed to know that his sister would pull a disappearing trick right before their parents came back?

“Shouldn’t you spend more time looking for her then standing around yelling at me like this?” he spat out. It looked as if his father was about to punch him in the face until his mother gently grabbed on to the man’s shoulders and shook her head. All his father could do in the end was glare at him.

Ye Qiu could care less though.

Go ahead. Punch me in the face for all I care.

He just wanted to run out and find his sister. Who knew where she could be? She could be somewhere all by herself, hurt. He didn’t even want to imagine what kind of state she could be in right now. Why couldn’t his father understand that? Whatever happened to “actions, not words”? So much for being a man of his words.

“I don’t have time to deal with this right now. I’m going out.” Ye Qiu declared and turned back to go to his room to pack, ignoring the shouts of his father.

When he got to his room, he went straight to his closet to fetch the bag he had prepared not too long ago. However, to his surprise, it was gone.

I swear I put it here though.

None of the maids had been into his room since the time he had packed everything so there was no way it was one of them. He thought hard about where it could have possibly gone as he looked around the closet to make sure he hadn’t misplaced it. As he was searching, he found a folded piece of paper laying in the ground. He didn’t remember ever seeing that there before. Why would he have brought paper into his closet of all places in the first place?

He picked it up and examined it a bit before unfolding it. He gawked at the contents.

Hey Gege,

If you’re reading this, I guess you’ve finally realized your bag is missing.

As your can see, I found your bag.

Trying to run away now, are you (I kind of invaded your privacy and looked through the contents of the bag to check what it was. Sorry for that!)? Well, you’re not allowed to!

I realized long ago that father becoming stricter on you was somewhat because of me. If I’m not here I’m sure you won’t have any reason to deal with his nonsense.

As a result, I’ve decided to run away for you!

Knowing you…If you ran away, you would spend your entire time worrying over how I was. You probably would regret leaving me alone with father and everything.

But if I leave, you won’t need to worry over such things! Without me in the way, you can be freer.

Go think about what you truly want to do~

Plus, I deem you unfit to run away. You wouldn’t know the first thing to do out there.

So sorry, not sorry!

Much love,

Your favorite sister

P.S. Don't worry about me or look for me. I'll be fine~

It had been his fault this all happened then!

“Meimei, how could you abandon your brother like this…!” the boy bemoaned himself.