Title: An Early Text Message

Summary: In which a certain text came earlier.

I sighed as my Saturday came to an end. Such a waste of my time. I finally had a weekend to myself, and my sister decided to foist her game onto me while she went on vacation.

Absolutely zero sense of consideration. Don't even get me started on how she bought a game and refused to play the actual game part.

... Then again, the actual game part was pretty egregious with its difficulty. Aside from the odd choice of genre for an Otome game, it was bafflingly difficult. So much so that the company was tanking due to the egregious micro transactions.

As I got ready to go to bed for the night, my phone buzzed.

Gremlin: I'm having such a good time on vacation, Big Bro! Just checking in to make sure that you're still working on my game. You better have it finished by the time I come back, you'll forever be my perverted Big Bro. Teehee!

This girl... she's such an inconsiderate and conniving child.

She wasn't the only one who could play that game.

Me: Oy! You should have already cleared that situation up by telling Mom that it was your Fujoshi shit that you hid in my closet!

Gremlin: But that would have made living at home so awkward.

Me: How do you think I feel?! Now our parents think I'm gay and haven't been able to look me in the eye since!

Gremlin: But you live on your own already, and it's not like you come to visit in the first place.

Me: Hang on. If telling the truth would have been so awkward for you to live at home, how exactly do you plan on telling them that the gay shit you have is yours?

Gremlin: I'll just say it was one of my high school friend's stuff. The one who had a crush on you, but you were too dense to notice.

Me: Right, because you had a friend that was interested in me.

Gremlin: (-.-)

Me: Wait. Really?

Gremlin: Our parents were really upset you broke my friend's heart.

Me: And you didn't tell me?! And who?!

She didn't reply and went offline. That... that... ugh. I considered giving her some leniency if she would have spat out the girl's name. Since she hadn't, I decided I didn't care much about being blackmailed.

Screenshotting my text, I sent my parents the image with some background details such as how much money she had taken from me. I also asked how she had enough money to go on a trip since I know she didn't have a job.

With that my weekend was saved.

The next morning, I woke up to someone banging on my door. Ugh, who could that be? My bratty sister was on vacation, and I wasn't the most sociable individual. No one should be at my doorstep.

"Ryo," a familiar voice called.

Ugh, shitty Pops. I groggily got up and dragged myself to the door. Looking through the peephole, I saw both my parents at the door. With a sigh, I reluctantly unlocked my door and opened it.

"What do you two want so early in the morning?"

"I can see that growing up hasn't done anything for your attitude," Pops groused.

"Look, I've finally got a break from work. If you plan on just lecturing me, I'll just be going back to sleep," I said as I moved to close the door.

Pops had other plans. He stuck his hand out and stopped me from closing my door.

"Your phone. Show it," he said while stretching out his hand expectantly.

"Why?"

"It's about that message you sent us last night," Mom said while looking nervous between Pops and me.

"... Should've expected that. Even photographic evidence isn't good enough for you too," I grumbled as I let go of the door to go pick up my phone. My parents let themselves in judging from the footsteps.

Turning around, I saw they were staring at my TV. Looking at it, I saw the screen was still on the game. I must have forgotten to turn off the game last night. My electricity bill was going to be pretty bad this month.

Pops scoffed at what he saw.

"And you wonder why we don't believe that photo. This was a waste of time."

"And if you bothered to care, you'd recall the texts showed that Sis was blackmailing me into playing this game for her."

"Easily fabricated."

I tossed him my phone and said, "Check it yourself."

Walking to my fridge, I opened it and noticed it was barren. Right, yesterday was supposed to be when I went grocery shopping. All I had left was a six pack I had been planning on drinking yesterday.

"You should be taking better care of yourself," Mom said behind me.

"I do normally, but I figured clearing up this misunderstanding was more important."

"To the point of starving yourself?"

"Yeah."

I heard my phone ding. It could have been from work for all I knew. Couldn't just let Pops see that. NDAs and all that.

"It's from your sister. She wants to know if you finished at least one route for her."

A devious thought came to mind.

"Why don't you give her a call from my phone? Just so you can dispel any notion that someone else is using her number."

Rather than respond to my cheek, he made the call.

"Hiiii, so how far along are you?"

"Where are you?" Pops growled.

"Ehhh? You know... I'm at a friend's place getting ready for finals..."

Rather than respond, Pops just closed the phone and handed it the me. He didn't apologize or anything. He just walked off.

That was more intense than I was expecting. I knew my Dad was a hardass, but he was never that stone cold with my sister. I don't even recall him being that domineering with me.

I looked at Mom. Instead of saying anything about the situation, or apologize to me for believing my sister over me, just quickly shuffled after Pops. So business as usual. I got the misunderstanding cleared up, but it looks like nothing would be changing anytime soon.

The only difference now was that my situation was outed as the gremlin she was. Not like it would have made much of a difference. My sister was the favorite child and quite clever. She'd get a slap on the wrist at most.

Yet, I couldn't help but feel as though I did something wrong.

Two weeks later, I saw my sister sitting in front of my doorstep as I came back from work.

"Huh, what do you want?" I said with a sigh as I was exhausted from work.

My sister looked up at me. Her face had tear streaks and her makeup was ruined. I guess she had just come back from her vacation and gotten an earful from Pops.

"Mom and Dad kicked me out," she wailed.

Ugh, this sounded like it would be a pain in the ass. With a sigh, I unlocked the door and gestured for her to come in.

"I only got canned tea."

After hours of my sister crying, me calming her down, getting some small bits of information, her getting into another crying fit, and following this cycle, I got the general gist.

Pops had not taken kindly to my sister dawdling on coming back. He ignored the fact that she was likely broke from her spending and couldn't just buy a ticket to comeback immediately. Because of his irritation, my sister's punishment had become more severe.

First off, she had been kicked out of the house. This was specifically because she had misled my parents about my interests, which had 'strained' their relationship with me. I scoffed on the reasoning for strained since I had started distancing myself from them since they weren't exactly subtle about who the favorite child was. Mom and Pops inability accept my words just sealed the deal. If not then, at some point I would have cut them out of my life anyways.

The second punishment was that they decided to cutoff from her monetarily. No allowance and no tuition for her university education. My sister, evidently, had suckered money out from them for the vacation by saying she needed money for a license. Because she seemed to be so effective at making money, she could find her own university expenses.

Not going to lie, while the punishment was fitting, it felt overly harsh. What the hell was Pops thinking cutting off his daughter like that? With how expensive university was, she would have to drop out. She didn't have any savings since she had been coasting along thinking Pops would pay for her education.

What's more, dropping out of school at this point would have sealed my sister's fate. The job opportunities were not great to begin with. But to make enough money to get a roof over your head with no savings, it was basically a guarantee that my sister would have to work either as an escort or as a prostitute. Job professions that would guarantee that she would not be welcomed back to the family ever.

My budget was going to be tight in the foreseeable future.

"You've only got a year left, right?"

"Big Bro?"

"You can take the couch. I'm not breaking my back for you," I said as I rustled up today's newspaper. Opening it up, I saw there were a few job openings for some part time work. I handed her those.

For once, my sister didn't complain.

Six months in, we had a working system in place.

On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I would prepare breakfast and go to work while my sister slept in. She didn't have classes on those days and opted to do her part time work from 12-5. She worked at a generous family diner that would let her bring back a meal back home at the end of her shift. The manager was a simp. I would have preferred if he could've given my sister two meals, but that obviously would have been pushing it. No guy wants to feed another man.

On Tuesday and Thursday, she would prepare breakfast since she couldn't stand eating my basic meal prep on a daily basis. On those days, she would go to class and come back late after cramming in the library. She often complained about being exhausted now that she had to do a job on top of studying.

On Saturday, she would go do the groceries timed sales and spend the rest of the day trying to beat that godawful game while I did my job. Often, I would come home to the scene of my sister spitting expletives at the screen.

"I surprised you still want anything to do with the game after all that's happened," I said as I cracked open my weekend beer.

"Hah? I paid for the damn thing! Of course I'm going to... Oh goddamnit! Another game over?!"

"For crying out loud, it's been six months. How have you not finished?"

"It's just so damn difficult!"

"I mean yeah, but why not just buy the DLC?"

"Look at Mr. Moneybags here! I live paycheck to paycheck!"

"You only live paycheck to paycheck because you keep going out with your university friends! Be more frugal, woman!"

"Well I can't just drop my friends like that! College is about networking!"

"Right, networking. And you're not doing that now because?"

"Oy! We all gotta spend time relaxing somehow!"

"Relaxing? Right. Screaming at our TV. Just real relaxing. I can feel the stress melting away over here."

"Well everything is pretty fun, but except for the goddamn strategy game part! Like, what were they thinking?!"

"Milking the dumbasses who bought this game with almost mandatory DLC?"

"Can't you just help me? I know you can clear the game since you managed to do two routes in a day."

Yeah, not on your life.

"Look... At this point, you're clearly not having fun and you've wasted more than the equivalent amount of time of the DLC costs. Just buy the damn thing and get on with your life."

"But I only have one route left. It's just that the true harem end scales the difficulty compared to the rest of the routes."

"... Fuck it. This is too depressing," I said as I pulled out my credit card. I also pulled up a guide on my phone.

"Huh?"

"Let me show you the power of a working adult."

I'm sure we could pound this out in one night.

"By the way, one of my university friends wants to have a one-night-stand with you," my sister said as we ate out at a ramen stand after beating her game.

I proceeded to choke on my noodles. She then chose to steal a bit of meat from my bowl. The gremlin.

"Not funny," I groused as I threateningly hovered my chopsticks over her bowl.

"Of course it isn't. Another one of my friends wants to jump your bones."

"Ha ha, I get it. No need to lie. I'm a dense idiot. You never even told me who was your friend that wanted to date me in high school."

"I wasn't lying."

"Hoh? And want kinda woman wants to have a one night stand with their friend's brother?"

"Ok, fine. She doesn't want to have a one night stand. She actually wants to try dating you, but knowing you, that relationship would only last a night... and not even the fun way."

"Oh shut it. You're a virgin too."

"See! Right there. That's why you're a virgin. Instead of trying to get lucky, you'd rather rib me!"

"Fine, fine! Why does this girl have any interest in me? I'd figure that she think I'm scum of the earth for getting you kicked out by our parents."

"... She doesn't know that."

"Huh?"

"Why would I shit talk about you to my friends?"

"... You don't?"

"Do you?!"

"Don't have any to shit talk with."

"... That's just sad, Bro."

"... So what do you tell your friends?"

"Hoh? And what makes you think I talk to them about you?"

"The fact that one is interested in dating me despite me having zero recollection about meeting them?"

"... Not much to be honest. Just that you're super dependable and didn't leave me on the streets when Dad kicked me out."

We just sat at our booth slurping our ramen.

"Pops is shit."

"Yeah, Dad is shit."

"... So what does this girl look like?"

"Ryo, don't be a scumbag. Ask about her personality first."

"Are you any better?"

"No, but at least I have the looks to get away with it."

"Ouch."

"If you must know," my sister said as she drew out her phone and pulled up an image. It was of her and her friend in bikinis playing on the beach. Must have been from the trip. "Her tits have grown a size or two."

I whistled. "Natural blonde?"

"Dyed. She wanted to splurge for the trip. Hated how it attracted creeps thinking she was some easy lay. She's decided to try being a brunette. I think she naturally has black hair."

Just hitting my tastes in the right places. Meaningless if the interior was shit though.

"What's she like?"

"About time you ask," my sister said with a scolding tone.

AN

1) Got my hands on a physical copy of the light novel since I enjoy this series enough to officially support the author. After rereading the prologue, I got to the part where Leon even admits he could've saved his weekend by sending the screenshot earlier. I then thought about how there are almost zero fics of Leon's life before reincarnation.

2) Figured this would be a fairly accurate depiction of what Leon's family dynamics might have looked like. The only details from canon that we got was that Marie was the favorite child (no questions asked), Leon does look over Marie of his own accord, the Mom is both accepting and judging of Leon's perceived interests, and the parents are entirely willing to cut off a family member from their life. Thus, I decided to make the Dad just a straight up a stubborn hardass whose only 'redeeming' quality is that his punishments match the crime with the caveat that the side consequences are ignored by him. Fair in the most stupid way possible.

3) I can imagine Marie's friend being interested in Leon by the sheer fact that Marie probably gases him up to her friends without realizing it. From canon, we do see that she has a high opinion of her brother in her thoughts and when she talks about him.

4) I'm getting distinct Oreimo vibes from this.

Review Response

Dimensionador: Bruh, I lowkey hated how the writer wrote that scene. I don't personally mind OliviaxAngelica being a thing, but it was done so poorly. At this time, I don't have a story idea for that.

HalfMoonSilver80: In the great words of Yuki Suou from Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings In Russian, "It's only good when they're blood-related!"

babaga he who laughs at anime: Knowing Olivia, she is just a cucking machine. That is just her designated role. Even cucked Leon with Angelica before they all finally got together.

Pembaca Sampah: In the great words of Yuki Suou from Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings In Russian, "It's only good when they're blood-related!"

Halo: Literally everyone wants to get it on with the androids.

Kuroi-Ryu-San: By this point, Kyle already cares for Olivia as a person (at least from what I gathered from the cruise arc of Marie-route). The thing that makes Kyle a punk for me is that he sees that using Julius's name got Olivia in trouble and is told not to do it again, but insists on readily wielding their name again. He gets called out on it by Olivia, the Redgrave girls, and basically every noble in the room that night. He even witnesses how badly things can go when nobles start invoking family names. He still insists that he is right. And then he proceeds to admonish Olivia for trying to get close to the guy who basically saved him and Olivia from something disastrous from occurring.

Golden Nova: No, but I think she can't help but relate Leon to her brother from time to time. That sorta been the schtick of Marie-route's web novel.

hnh058513: No, but I think she can't help but relate Leon to her brother from time to time. That sorta been the schtick of Marie-route's web novel.

Rebiele: I personally use dobelyuwai at Wordpress. It's machine translated though, so some translation gets funky at times.

daimahou (50): I mean, YoRHa was created after human extinction and the data was hidden from them (according to the guidebook), then the functionality would not be there. That being said, Leon would definitely make an offhand comment.

daimahou (51): Leon canonically only wants all natural breasts. Marie asking for breast reduction...