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Ye Qiu jolted as his phone chimed, jerking him out of his thoughts and he glanced down to see an incoming call from Su Mucheng and he frowned. His brother’s friend didn’t often call him, they were not particularly close and as such, he was immediately wary about the purpose of the call. Despite her calm and sweet demeanour, the other witch had a mischievous streak and could easily be talked into tormenting someone. Well, tormenting him with Ye Xiu egging her on.
He answered the call and began to stroke his fingers through Little Dot’s fur, the rhythmic motions relaxing him as he answered the call. Before he could speak, Su Mucheng’s voice rang out, filled with exasperation.
“Are you aware that you share a birthday with an idiot?” Well. Of all the things Ye Qiu expected Su Mucheng to say, that wasn’t one of them.
“What?” He wasn’t entirely certain how to respond but the other witch didn’t seem interested in explaining as she continued talking as if he hadn’t said a word.
“Just come and see what’s happened. Quickly. Oh, and bring Little Dot.” With that, Su Mucheng cut the call and left Ye Qiu staring at his phone in quiet confusion. Little Dot huffed from where she was sat, tugging at his ankle until he stood. Her voice rang out in his mind, clear as a bell, as rational as ever.
“Miss Su is asking us to hurry, maybe something’s happened to Ye Xiu, come on, we have to leave!” Ye Qiu allowed his familiar to tug him along, still in a daze. It had been a long while since his brother had contacted him, since the split from his family to pursue his dreams their relationship had slowly deteriorated. Ye Qiu frowned, remembering how his stomach had twisted when he’d returned to realise his brother had left, leaving nothing behind, not a note, an explanation, nothing. How he’d not even bothered to say goodbye to him.
“Your brother loves you,” Little Dot, an eternal optimist, was certain that Ye Xiu had his reasons for leaving so abruptly but privately, Ye Qiu was convinced his brother just didn’t care. After all, it had been years since his brother had achieved his goal, in fact, he’d achieved it four times over and still he didn’t come home. To Ye Qiu, it wasn’t difficult to figure out what that meant.
Su Mucheng looked slightly frazzled when he arrived but no less beautiful than she’d been the last time he’d seen her. Her familiar was coiled around her shoulders, a bright green python and even though Ye Qiu knew this was her familiar, knew she owned the snake, he still took an involuntary step back concerned.
“Oh good you’re here,” Su Mucheng pulled him into the house, leading him into a back room and pointed at-
A cat. Sitting in the centre of the table, swishing its tail back and forth, a remarkably human intelligence clear in its eyes. Ye Qiu frowned, unsure what the purpose of bringing him here to look at a cat was.
“I don’t understand, is this a lost familiar?” Su Mucheng laughed, sound bright and clear while the cat scowled, tail flicking faster now, as if it was offended.
“No, that’s your brother.”
In the silence that followed, Little Dot was the first one to react and scrabbled up onto the table to lick the cat- Ye Xiu excitably, tail wagging back and forth in delight. Ye Qiu could feel her joy radiating through their bond as she nuzzled at the cat, carefully smoothing down the fur she’d ruffled and the cat leaned into the touch happily.
“My brother?” Ye Qiu was having more trouble adjusting than his familiar and Su Mucheng huffed out a sigh.
“Yes, that’s Ye Xiu,” Ye Qiu frowned, eyes narrowing at the cat, he had to admit, the smug, self-satisfied expression was remarkably familiar.
“How did he become a cat?” Ye Xiu’s head ducked down, as if embarrassed as Su Mucheng rolled her eyes, pointing to an empty flask on the table, the remnants of a shimmering green liquid at the bottom.
“He drank something I told him not to drink. It was for a customer, but he’s decided to be an idiot and I need you to help me turn him back.”
“Won’t it just wear off after a few days?” Su Mucheng shook her head but before she could answer Little Dot chimed in with her opinion.
“Can’t we let him stay like this, he’s so cute.”
“No, we can’t, people might miss him.”
“The potion’s enchantment is designed not to break until two people come to an understanding, it’s designed to force two people to talk.” When Ye Xiu let out a disgruntled meow Su Mucheng amended her statement, “force them to communicate.”
“So why did you ask me to-“ Ye Qiu suddenly realised what Su Mucheng meant and he stared at her in disbelief. “No. How can you even be sure that I’m needed to end the effect?”
“Because-“ Before Su Mucheng could speak, Ye Qiu flinched when his brother’s voice sounded in his head, clear as day, as if Ye Xiu was his familiar.
“Because you can hear me clearly in your head as if I were Little Dot.” Ye Qiu flinched bodily at the intrusion into his mind and his brother stretched out, rolling onto his back with a smug cat smile.
“We have to get along to reverse the potion’s effects?”
“No, you have to reconcile the differences between you. Any longstanding issues have to be resolved before your brother will transform back.”
“Maybe we should leave him like this.”
“Ye Qiu!” Little Dot’s voice was admonishing, remarkably similar to the way his teachers used to reprimand him and Ye Qiu held back the urge to bow his head in shame at the rebuke. “You can’t leave your brother like this.”
“You’re pleased by this.” Ye Qiu’s tone was flat and Little Dot huffed from where she was curled around Ye Xiu.
“You need to talk to him sometime.” Her reply lacked any sympathy and he fought the urge to fold his arms. Any interaction with his brother inevitably ended with passive aggressive sniping at each other and one or the other simply giving up. There was a reason he followed his brother’s career from afar rather than being told about it from his brother.
Su Mucheng had her suspicions that Ye Xiu hadn’t drunk her potion by accident, as much as he was utterly useless in some areas of life, such as basic healthy habits like sleeping, he rarely touched her potions without express permission and she’d very clearly explained the potion’s use and effects to Ye Xiu only a few days before he decided to drink it.
“Is there really no other way to break the potion’s effects?”
“Are you so desperate to avoid me?” Ye Xiu’s voice sounded out in his head, teasing but underneath the casual words was a thread of vulnerability and hurt. Ye Qiu frowned, wondering if his brother’s relaxed attitude was merely a façade but he wasn’t ready to confess his old fears. It had all happened so long ago that Ye Qiu felt ridiculous to still be holding onto his hurt. He ignored the question and focused on Su Mucheng who was digging through her notes, searching for an answer.
“Ah!” Her shout of triumph startled everyone in the room and she smiled brightly as she began scanning through the pages. “There’s a specific potion that will reverse this potion,” Ye Qiu brightened at the news while Little Dot did her best to pout. “The only problem, I don’t actually have all the ingredients, you’ll have to visit some of the other teams.”
“Do you have a list of where to go?” Ye Qiu took the information gratefully, “thank you,” before turning to leave. Before he reached the door, Su Mucheng called out from behind him, her next words clearly a ploy.
“Take Ye Xiu with you, otherwise you’ll never prove you aren’t him and Shaotian will likely drag you into a PK and you’ll never get anywhere.” Ye Qiu opened his mouth to protest but his brother hopped onto Little Dot’s back and levelled him with a challenging expression, which seemed to dare him to try and protest.
Ye Qiu, having many years of business experience under his belt, was well aware when negotiation was impossible and he simply gestured for Little Dot to follow him, Ye Xiu curled up between her shoulder blades, getting a free ride as Ye Qiu was stuck with clearing up after his brother. Again.
Ye Qiu shook the bitter thought out of his mind, it wasn’t his brother’s fault that he’d been turned into a cat and it wasn’t like Ye Xiu had forced him to stay with his family once he left. It had been his choice in the end and he was satisfied with it. At least, he was satisfied with his choice most of the time. Little Dot huffed from where she was walking at his side, following him faithfully as she ensured Ye Xiu didn’t slip off her back.
“You should talk to him, if you can get him to change back, we won’t have to walk and use the teleporters.” Ye Qiu frowned but he decided that it couldn’t hurt to try and talk to his brother.
“Are you coming home? Now that you’ve succeeded with your team?” The moment he finished speaking, Ye Qiu winced, knowing that the fastest way to end a civil conversation with his brother was to begin nagging him about his duty to his family. Ye Xiu’s response was filled with surprise, Ye Qiu could feel it lacing his words.
“You know how the finals turned out? You followed our matches?” Ye Qiu suddenly felt the urge to look away from his brother’s eyes, unable to face the emotion that was written across his face.
“Of course I followed the matches, I wanted to see if you were ever going to come home.” From the silence that followed, Ye Qiu braced himself to hear news that he didn’t want and Ye Xiu delivered, his instincts still intact.
“I’m not coming home yet. The global championships, I’m the coach.” Ye Qiu hid the clench of his jaw, told himself that there was no reason to be hurt, he’d expected his brother to have another reason not to come home. He’d expected it. It still hurt.
Little Dot whined softly, it broke her heart to see the two brothers at odds and she nudged her head against Ye Qiu’s leg as they entered the teleporter, tongue lolling from her mouth as she grinned lazily up at him and his hand found its way into her fur, scratching behind her ears until the corners of his mouth ticked up in a smile.
Huang Shaotian was loud. So very loud and enthusiastic. Ye Qiu didn’t get a chance to explain that he wasn’t Ye Xiu before the other man dragged him through the compound towards the training room where Yu Wenzhou was sitting quietly at a computer. His head flicked up at their entrance and he frowned slightly, head tilting to one side.
“Captain, captain look Ye Xiu has arrived, Lao Ye have you bothered to come down here to PK with me like you promised so long ago and then you decided you had better things to do than keep your promise? Always so shameless, acting like I’m a dog for you to call when it pleases you or when you’re bored and-“
“Shaotian.” Ye Qiu watched in surprise as Huang Shaotian went silent immediately and Yu Wenzhou got a moment to speak.
“You aren’t Ye Xiu.” Ye Qiu grasped the opportunity to explain, unceremoniously plucking his brother up off Little Dot and presenting the cat to the pro players.
“I’m Ye Qiu, his brother. Ye Xiu drank something he shouldn’t have and now he’s a cat.” Huang Shaotian immediately burst into hysterical laughter, coming closer to tickle Ye Xiu under the chin, cooing nonsense at the cat while Ye Qiu felt his brother project his unhappiness at this.
“How can we help change him back?” Yu Wenzhou asked while Huang Shaotian chimed in with his own opinion soon after.
“Ah captain, no let’s keep him like this, he’s much more pleasant if he can’t talk and he’s such a cute little kitty, we should just leave him like this, he could be a little mascot-“ Huang Shaotian dodged a swipe of Ye Xiu’s newly acquired claws and he bopped the cat on the nose in admonishment. “Bad kitty, be nice.” Ye Xiu yowled unhappily forcing Ye Qiu to speak over him.
“If you don’t stop screaming then I won’t be able to explain what we need.” Ye Qiu let out a sigh of relief when his brother listened to him and fell silent while Yu Wenzhou waited patiently for him to speak.
“Su Mucheng asked if we could borrow your cauldron, it’s the oldest one in the vicinity and she requested that you send it over for her to brew the antidote in.” Yu Wenzhou paused for a long moment, mulling over the request in his mind, hesitant about lending such a valuable artifact.
Ye Xiu mewled from where he’d retreated behind his brother’s familiar to avoid Huang Shaotian’s attention and Yu Wenzhou glanced over at him and was startled by what he saw. The other pro player’s emotions were clear, playing out in his aura and the main one was helplessness and Yu Wenzhou made up his mind.
“Of course, I’ll send it over immediately.” It set the tone for the reminder of the requests. Despite the fact that everything he was asking for was rare, precious or expensive, his brother’s friends handed everything they needed over without a second thought.
Ye Qiu found himself surprised by how readily Glory’s pro players handed over their artifacts, rare ingredients and conduits. He glanced down at his brother who was curled up on his bedroom floor with Little Dot, purring contently as she groomed him. Unused to the bond between them, Ye Qiu’s thought rang through their connection, startling his brother.
“Are they the reason you don’t want to come home?” Ye Xiu’s head snapped up and he padded over to lie on his brother’s feet.
“What do you mean?” Ye Xiu frowned, as much as a cat could ever frown, when his brother refused to answer, keeping his mind shielded and guarded. Ye Xiu, lacking the qualms that would stop him from maiming his brother, unsheathed his claws to dig them into his brother’s leg, distracting him and reopening their bond.
“Are you never coming home?” The thought floats across their connection and Ye Xiu flinches at the amount of hurt and betrayal radiating off the words. The next revelation makes his heart clench in his chest painfully. “Did you leave because of me?”
“NO!” Ye Xiu forced all his mental power into one word, infusing it with sincerity, desperate for his brother to believe him. “I left because I wanted to follow Glory, not remain trapped in the past.” Ye Xiu waited for his brother’s next words, paying close attention to their bond. The words are so faint that Ye Xiu barely catches them, as if Ye Qiu was ashamed of them, as if this was a hurt he’d been nursing for years.
“Then why didn’t you say goodbye…” Ye Xiu feels his heart twist in his chest, a sharp ache shooting through him at the reminder that he walked out of his home without stopping to say goodbye to his brother.
“Didi,” Ye Xiu tried softly but Ye Qiu refused to meet his eyes, head bowed and gaze fixed on his lap, pulling himself away from the conversation, no longer willing to engage.
“It’s stupid, I’m sorry.” Ye Xiu jumped from the floor at those words to situate himself firmly on his brother’s lap, forcing Ye Qiu to meet his eyes as he pushed his thoughts through.
“I thought you’d try and stop me if I talked to you.” Ye Qiu’s scoff is harsh and bitter, torn from his chest as if it were painful.
“Would you really have stopped if I’d asked?” The question was dismissive, Ye Qiu was certain he knew the answer and his eyes widened when his brother spoke.
“If you’d asked me to I would’ve stayed, for you didi, I would have stayed.”
“You never called or messaged, I had to hear about you from grandpa, you didn’t-“
“I thought you wouldn’t want to hear from me. I left you with the weight of our family. I thought you’d not want to see or hear from me didi.” Ye Qiu’s laugh was wet and shaky but laced with gentle joy as he wiped the tears from his eyes.
“I would always want to hear from you gege.” The two broke out into watery laughter and Ye Qiu wrapped his arms around his brother, holding him tightly against him.
“I love you.” Neither of them know where the words originated from but they bounce between them faster and faster until everything outside their bond is a blur and with an audible POP the mental link snapped and Ye Qiu was suddenly being crushed under his brother’s weight.
The chair, not equipped to handle the sudden influx of weight, made a last groaning protest before giving up and depositing the two on the floor, still locked in their embrace until Ye Qiu broke away to wipe at his suspiciously shiny eyes, catching his brother doing the same. They stare at each other for a long moment before Ye Xiu breaks the silence.
“I will come back eventually didi, I promise.” Those words, just one sentence, burrowed into Ye Qiu’s heart and reassured him that eventually his brother would come home. Perhaps not straight away, but eventually he’d come home. It was a promise.
“I told you he loves you.” Little Dot’s voice floated through his mind, each word dripping with smugness and Ye Qiu had to concede the point to his familiar.
His brother loves him, and he loves his brother. It is enough.