Xiao Yi swung open the door to the two-bedroom apartment and swiftly slipped on black slippers with embroidered yellow smiley faces.
"You're home? Did you have a good trip?" Xiao Qiu stretched awkwardly to glance back at his younger sister from the desk, only to see the younger member standing in a daze. It was as if he were about to tumble over from a gust of wind.
Simultaneously, Xiao Yi felt his energy drain with each step he took as he lifted his veiled eyes, gazing longingly at the coach that his brother was sitting on.
Xiao Qiu wanted to ask about his day, but the younger stiffly ventured into the bedroom and shut the door under the watchful eyes of both him and the stream audience.
Xiao Qiu turned back to the stream with a helpless expression that seemed to say 'My brothers abandoning me, look how pitiful I am'.
Just a moment later, the door flew open and Xiao Yi reappeared with lidded eyes and a new outfit. He had changed into another oversized sweater, a burgundy sweater that covered part of his thighs, and black sweatpants that had been rolled up so they wouldn't drag on the floor.
Xiao Qiu gawked at the outfit. "Aren't those mine? When did you steal them? I thought my closet was getting bigger but it turns out you've been stealing my clothes."
A collection of laughs rang out from the barrage and Xiao Qiu turned back to turn the text to speech off and glared wordlessly at the camera before turning back.
Both the audience and brother watched as the sleepy younger brother ignored Xiao Qiu's questions and walked as if in a trance to the couch. The couch was the only thing in his eyes from beginning to end.
Just a moment later, Xiao Yi plopped on the couch, curled his legs up and his head fell onto Xiao Qiu's expectant shoulder. His hair fell over his eyes, shielding part of his face from view, and his breathing evened out.
Little did the brothers know, the sequence of events would be clipped and uploaded around the Internet with captions such as…
'Q Shen is feeding dogs again with his cute little brother.'
'Where to find an obedient brother who likes to sleep and doesn't fight?'
'Sleeping God shamelessly steals clothes.'
Xiao Qiu turned back to the stream with an aggrieved expression and sighed. "My brother only uses me as a pillow, ah."
"Am I only good as a pillow?"
Xiao Qiu bent one of his arms and softly brushed the bangs out of the younger's eyes as he sighed. "No one can be a better pillow than me, I've had so much practice."
[Q Shen is acting again!]
[Q Shen is acting again!] +1 [Should we vote for him to be the best actor?]
"Hey, if I get the best actor I won't have the time to practice! Don't vote, don't vote!"
[Sleeping God resembles my cat a little…]
"He's my cat then."
[At least you get to be a pillow! My little brother hits me away when I even try to pat his head!]
"Have you tried spoiling him? I spoiled my little brother to the moon and back when he was a child, it's only right that he'd use me as a pillow."
[You're the best pillow… It would be best if you changed your career]
"Maybe I should stop streaming ah, my fans are so mean to me."
[Don't move, you'll disturb Sleeping God's rest!]
Xiao Qiu shook his head and leaned back slightly, pulling Xiao Yi down with him while one of his hands gently protected him from falling. He brought his mouse closer and moved the stream windows so the live stream was the larger bubble and the camera was back in the corner.
Only two games were completed in the time when Xiao Yi went out to play.
The first game was forty-five minutes and consisted of Xiao Qiu nearly flipping his desk as he ruthlessly commented on the decisions of FFS teammates.
To say he was disappointed would be an understatement. He already guessed in his heart that Solar would win but just for the dignity and a bit of petty revenge for the sake of his brother, he really wanted FFS to beat them up.
He had watched thousands of matches in his lifetime, both on stream and in his personal life to hone his own skills and study the matches of would-be-enemies on the playing field. Hence, he had a lot of respect for FFS. They had previously won the worlds when they were an up-and-coming team, and they were present through the growth period that spurred Valley of Light into becoming a mainstream game.
Overall, they could be said to be the only OG team of Gods that hadn't retired from the playing field.
It's just that they were unlucky a few years ago and got bullied by Team X, more specifically, Frost. It left a psychological shadow on them, and they acted like cute little new players when they met Solar on the playing field.
It was pathetic, really. Moon wasn't even the person who bullied them, but they were terrified of him.
If his cute little brother was on Solar he wondered if they would have even dared to participate in the finals.
By the second game he only felt pity for the veteran team, and so did Solar. They stretched the match out to the last hour and fed them a few easy kills so they wouldn't lose their face.
When the third game began, the trash talker, ruthless Xiao Qiu didn't even have the heart to scold them. He only pointed out a few mistakes here and there in a weak voice.
"Xue is the only competent person on the team right now, he should pull the members back and hunt Solar as a team."
"Never mind, throw them away. Xue should hide them and try to pick off Solar's members one by one while they go somewhere else and farm."
"… Just forfeit."