Work Text:
1.
The air is warm. Qin Meiyang’s heels clack soundly against the airport tiles as she makes her way to the exit, phone in hand, eyebrows furrowed.
He Ziqiu is picking her up, because Ling Xiao is busy with work and Li Jianjian is busy with work and Li Jianjian’s friends are busy with work and—
“Chengzi!”
She smiles involuntarily as she looks up and meets He Ziqiu’s eyes.
“Ziqiu-ge.”
They walk.
“Freshly graduated, huh?” There’s a teasing lilt to He Ziqiu’s voice, a sound that’s been barred behind the crackling static of a phone call for the past few years.
Qin Meiyang elbows him, the quirk at the corners of her lips wavering as she responds, “Freshly aged, huh?”
“I’m youthful,” says He Ziqiu.
“Funny.”
“Correct!” He moves several steps ahead of her, whipping around and opening his arms as she barely manages to suppress a snort of amusement. “I am funny, thank you very much.”
“Mm. I want noodles.”
“You wound me,” says He Ziqiu. “So many years away and the first thing you want is my ba’s cooking. Not even my own.”
“I never said it had to be your ba’s noodles.”
“Pah,” says He Ziqiu. He rolls his eyes like she’s crazy. She wonders if she is. “Like anyone can make noodles as well as my ba. I’ll tell him you said that.”
Qin Meiyang shakes her head and looks away. “Then...you want me to have your cooking? Or your ba’s?”
He Ziqiu pauses at this. Then, “Ba first. You love his lo mian. I’ll bring you cupcakes tomorrow morning. You should visit your ge after lunch, too.” He hums, almost thoughtful. “Or...I’ll text Ling Xiao and ask if he and Jianjian are free for lunch. Vanilla or chocolate?”
There is so much going on in those words. Qin Meiyang blinks.
“What?”
“For the cupcakes,” says He Ziqiu. His fingers tap relentlessly on the screen of his smartphone. “Vanilla or chocolate?”
“Orange.”
“Orange?” He Ziqiu looks up. His lips part in surprise. “I don’t have orange-flavored batter.”
“Well then,” says Qin Meiyang. “Best get to making it soon.”
“You make my life miserable.”
“I don’t.”
He sighs, conceding, then swings his arm around her shoulders and pulls her into his chest as they walk. “You’re right, you don’t. For now at least. Let’s hope you do nothing to make me change my mind.”
“I won’t.”
A sigh. “I know.”
2.
“So this is your crib,” says He Ziqiu as he walks in through the front door to Qin Meiyang’s apartment. Ling Xiao and Li Jianjian follow behind him, their fingers interlocked between their hips.
He Ziqiu follows Qin Meiyang’s gaze, then pulls a face.
“Don’t act so lovey-dovey in front of the child.”
“She’s my wife,” says Ling Xiao.
“I’m twenty-one,” says Qin Meiyang.
“Ah,” says Li Jianjian. A single syllable, which is fitting for someone like her. She always does seem to somehow get in the middle of awkwardness. She smiles, then hops forward and takes Qin Meiyang’s hands into hers. “Chengzi, show me around! Is this your living room? How many bathrooms do you have? Are you going to get a roommate?”
This is what Qin Meiyang loves about her sister-in-law. She always knows exactly what to say. “Mm, okay. This is the living room.” She gestures around, thumb pointing to the couch behind her. “There’s one bathroom. No roommate for now.”
“Good,” He Ziqiu nods. “The last thing you need is a roommate messing everything up.”
“Was that a drag at me?” asks Ling Xiao.
He Ziqiu makes a zipping motion against his lips. “Well, if the shoe fits.”
“He Ziqiu, I was an excellent roommate.”
“Yeah, and then you got together with our neighbor. My little sister.”
Li Jianjian sighs. “Wow. The single life must be hard.”
He Ziqiu lunges at her, locking her head against his shoulder. “You shut up.”
“Thirty and still no girlfriend!”
“I’ve had girlfriends!”
“Your pillow doesn’t count, xiao-ge!”
“Li Jianjian!”
3.
“Teach me how to bake.”
“Absolutely not,” says He Ziqiu. They’re sitting across from each other at Qin Meiyang’s dining table.
“Then why are you here. I called you over to teach me how to bake,” she says, raising an eyebrow. He Ziqiu doesn’t look up from whatever stupid game he’s playing. “Put your phone away and pay attention to me.”
“I will not.”
“Ziqiu-ge!”
“Fine,” he says, then makes a big show of pushing his device aside. He sets his hands out in front of him. “What do you want?”
“A cake.”
“Okay. I’ll make you a cake. Vanilla or chocolate? Strawberry? Hold on, you’re going to say something stupid like orange—”
“No,” says Qin Meiyang. “I want to make my own cake.”
“Then search for a recipe on the internet.”
“That’s so inauthentic!” says Qin Meiyang. “Aren’t you supposed to be a chef? Which chef would turn away a potential student? I know for a fact your ba taught your ma how to make one of your favorite dishes back when they were still dating.”
“Before they were dating, actually,” says He Ziqiu.
“See?”
“But they were in love,” he continues matter-of-factly. “We are not.”
“Okay,” says Qin Meiyang. Her tongue works faster than her brain as the words fall through her lips. Raindrops. A waterfall. “Then let’s date.”
Silence.
He Ziqiu is looking at her in—not disgust. Actually. It’s not an expression she was expecting.
(She doesn’t know what she was expecting.)
“Idiot,” He Ziqiu finally says, three—maybe four—seconds later.
She sighs and leans back in her chair. Her heart thumps wildly against her bones.
4.
ziqiu-ge
Movie nighhtttttt
Are you coming
me
what movie
ziqiu-ge
Idk lingxiao is picking
me
aw
ur including me?
ziqiu-ge
Yueliang invited you
me
not you?
then i don’t wanna come
ziqiu-ge
You’re so annoying
Isn’t it me who’s inviting you personally??
me
hmm
ok i’ll come
ziqiu-ge
Whatever
5.
Qin Meiyang sits next to He Ziqiu as the movie drags on. Their arms clash every now and then. A spark ignites in the depths of Qin Meiyang’s chest every time.
The movie is bad, which makes sense because Li Jianjian picked it. But He Ziqiu is warm. So, so warm.
6.
“Ge,” says Qin Meiyang. “I have a problem.”
“Hm?” Ling Xiao looks over to her from where he’s standing in the kitchen. “What is it? Do you need my help with something?”
And because Qin Meiyang is—and always will be—as blunt as possible, she says, “I like someone.”
A pause.
“Oh,” says Ling Xiao. He coughs, then visibly swallows as he looks down at the dirty, unwashed plate in his hands. “Chengzi, I think maybe I should get Jianjian—”
“She’s at her studio,” says Qin Meiyang.
Ling Xiao nods slowly. “And you can’t wait?”
Qin Meiyang shakes her head. “It’s Ziqiu-ge.”
The plate drops onto the mat by Ling Xiao’s feet and thankfully doesn’t shatter.
“What?”
“Yes. Is that okay with you? Tell me it’s okay with you.”
“Chengzi, I—”
“Is that a yes? I’m taking that as a yes.”
“But he’s—”
Qin Meiyang slaps her hand down onto the table and moves to stand up. “Wonderful. I’m leaving then. Bye bye, ge.”
Before Ling Xiao can say anything more, Qin Meiyang is already out the door.
7.
She’s lounging in her living room when the doorbell rings.
“Ziqiu-ge,” she says, voice way too breathy for just another normal Tuesday afternoon. “What are you doing here?”
He Ziqiu is holding three bags, full to the brim with what looks like…
“Baking supplies,” he says, holding them up to her face. At her dumbfounded expression, he sighs. “I thought you said you wanted me to teach you how to make a cake.”
Oh.
“So many things for a cake?” she asks a few minutes later as they’re setting everything down on the table.
“I wasn’t sure,” He Ziqiu starts, then stops for a fraction of a second, “what kind you wanted to make.”
“Lemon,” says Qin Meiyang immediately.
He Ziqiu blinks. He stares at her face for so long that she wonders if he notices the rouge color tinting her ears. “I,” he says, “got vanilla. And chocolate. And orange because you’re crazy and self-obsessed, and marble, and red velvet.”
“Hm,” she says, “but lemon?”
“No,” he says. “No, I did not get lemon.”
“Then let’s blend everything together.”
He Ziqiu stares down at the boxes of cake mix in wonder. Then, “You are absolutely right. That’s so chaotic. I love it. Let’s do it.”
Batter flies everywhere, because as it turns out, Qin Meiyang is not a very good cook.
“You’re so…” He Ziqiu trails off as he reaches forward and flicks a speck of wet dough off of Qin Meiyang’s cheek. He pauses there for some reason, and Qin Meiyang’s eyes widen in surprise.
“Stupid?” she finishes for him.
He starts, then smiles. “You know yourself so well.”
“I hate you.”
“No you don’t.”
She presses her lips together and bites down her grin. “You’re wrong about that.”
“Am I?” He leans closer till her lower back hits the counter. “I don’t think so.”
Is she breathing? Probably not. Who cares about breathing. Holy—
Her phone suddenly goes off, the ringtone sounding throughout the bright white lighting of the room.
They spring away from each other immediately, because of course. Of course.
The caller i.d. reads ge.
She hates her brother so much.
8.
“Have you really never had a girlfriend before?” Qin Meiyang asks as she threads her chopsticks through her bowl of noodles. Across from her is He Ziqiu, who’s halfway through a hefty bite of his own.
He promptly chokes.
Qin Meiyang sighs and passes him her glass of water. “It’s just a question,” she mutters.
“Why?” he asks.
She shrugs. “I’m curious.” And, to ease the tension, “You don’t seem very good with girls, is all.”
“Excuse me?”
“Your ba told me you asked Li Jianjian to marry you,” she says, ignoring the way he immediately yelps at her words, “because you wanted to be on her family’s registry.”
“Will you shut up?”
“No,” says Qin Meiyang. “No I will not. So?”
He Ziqiu sighs, eyes roaming around the thin noodles in his bowl. “Whatever. I don’t have time for all of that.”
She raises an eyebrow. “And yet you come out to each lunch with me every day.”
“You don’t have any friends here!” He Ziqiu exclaims. “I’m just being a good person. I don’t want you to feel lonely in such a new city.”
“I’ve been to China before,” Qin Meiyang says, temples flexing. “Many times before.”
“But now you actually live here and everything. With a job.” He visibly cringes. “Gross. Adulthood.”
“It’s not that different,” she says.
He drops his chopsticks down, and the sound of them rattling against the edge of the porcelain thuds against the yolk of her ear. “Whatever. I don’t have to eat with you if you don’t want me to.”
A laugh escapes through her nose, and she smiles. “No no. I like bothering you.”
“I knew you’d say that,” he says.
“Wow, Ziqiu-ge knows me so well indeed.”’
“Tch.”
9.
Li Jianjian’s jaw drops to the floor.
“Xiao Chengzi, you like xiao-ge?”
Qin Meiyang groans and turns to look at Ling Xiao. “You told her?”
Ling Xiao smiles in that...that Ling Xiao way of his. Infuriating. “I can’t keep anything from my wife. You know that.”
Qin Meiyang huffs.
“Actually,” says Li Jianjian, “I’m not very surprised.”
“What?” says Qin Meiyang.
“Yeah!” Li Jianjian nods, then tilts her head as her signature smile overtakes her features. “Remember that time you and your ma came to China and you made xiao-ge take you to his cafe?”
“He babysat her,” says Ling Xiao.
Qin Meiyang sticks her tongue out at him. “Don’t make it weird.”
“It’s already weird,” says Ling Xiao.
“It’s not.”
“It’s not,” Li Jianjian agrees. “Chengzi, ignore him. I’m on your side.”
Qin Meiyang grins. “Jiejie is my favorite.”
“Keep calling me jiejie and I’ll keep taking your side,” Li Jianjian says, then reaches up and pinches Qin Meiyang’s cheeks. “Have you told him yet? You should tell him immediately. Don’t do what ge did.”
Qin Meiyang stares at her. “What did he do?”
“Nothing,” says Ling Xiao.
“Exactly,” says Li Jianjian. “Nothing. He did nothing. He almost kissed me in my sleep and then confessed to me in an elevator the next morning.”
Qin Meiyang gasps. “Ge?”
Ling Xiao rolls his eyes and pulls Li Jianjian in by her shoulder. “Well it worked, didn’t it?” He shakes his head. “Chengzi, he likes you too.”
Those words, from anyone else, would be utter nonsense. But Ling Xiao is Ling Xiao. He’s Qin Meiyang’s older brother. The one her entire world has revolved around since she was barely eight years old. He’s the one who’s jumped over hurdles upon hurdles to be with the one he loves.
But still.
She narrows her eyebrows. “I don’t believe you.”
“You should,” says Ling Xiao.
“You should,” Li Jianjian nods.
And well—isn’t that just something.
10.
“Remember that time when you sat me down right here and told me that I was a bitch?”
He Ziqiu looks over at her, hands paused over the cake he’s currently icing to perfection. “I never did that.”
“You kind of did,” says Qin Meiyang.
He Ziqiu sets the pipe down and walks over to her. “I just knocked some sense into you.” With that, he reaches over and flicks her forehead with his thumb and index fingers.
“Yeah,” says Qin Meiyang, “which is indirectly calling me a bitch.”
He Ziqiu laughs. “Is it now?”
“You used to treat me like a child,” she continues. “You don’t do that anymore.”
“Do I not?” he asks. “Hm. I should probably fix that.”
“Try me.”
He shakes his head, a faint sparkle in his eyes. There’s no one else here, behind the scenes. The cafe closed ages ago, and the workers have already flittered away to their respective homes.
“Ziqiu-ge,” Qin Meiyang says after a few long moments. “Let’s date.”
He Ziqiu snaps his head up to look at her again. He’s silent for several seconds.
“This again?” he asks, but there’s—there’s something else there. She’s sure of it. More than sure of it.
“I’m not joking this time,” she says. “I wasn’t—” She falters here. Swallows. “I wasn’t the first time either.”
“Chengzi,” He Ziqiu says carefully, “I hope you realize that the only almost-girlfriend I’ve had is my now-legal younger sister.”
That’s not a rejection.
“Yeah,” Qin Meiyang says. “God, you’re so stupid. I still can’t believe you did that.”
“Shut up,” says He Ziqiu, but now he’s smiling. And it’s everything. And she’s never felt this way about anyone before. And she wonders how long she’s been in—
“Well?” she asks, inclining her head forward. “My answer, please.” She holds out her hands, gently cupping the air.
He Ziqiu doesn’t move for a long time, and when he does, it’s to grab her by her outstretched wrists and pull her against his chest. She yelps in quick surprise, but steadies herself as he darts his face downward.
The kiss is summer sweet. She melts like a popsicle.