Warning: Has not been beta'd. You have been warned.

There are a lot of things a four year old should be; a four year old should be playing with dolls or eating candies and pastries of all sorts, a four year old should be laughing in her parents arms or taking a nap under the warmth of broad sunlight. What a four year old should not be though is mourning the death of her mother after a cold, deathly blizzard storm as her father cries in anguish while patronizing vile hatred in his tear filled eyes.

“I should have believed in the fortune tellers,” Daniel Song regretfully grits through the spaces of his teeth. “I should have sent you away when they told me to!”

All that the child can see in her father’s once gentle eyes are streaks of red veins and tears as large as pearls falling from his thick, long eyelashes. At the age of five, there is very little that she understands.

Sensing uneasiness, their steward quickly sweeps into the room and gathers the young miss into his arms. “Master, it’s getting late, I’ll Miss Victoria to her bedroom.”

Daniel whips his head the other way, clenching down on his jaw.

After they’ve left the room, Victoria tilts her head against the steward’s shoulder, wrapping her small arms around his neck. She asks, “Anthony, am I really bad luck? Did mommy die because of me?”

The steward smiles helplessly and cradles the young miss in his embrace. “Nonsense.”

Falling into silence, the little girl obediently allows Anthony to tuck her in, settling beneath the covers and hiding her face from the light of the room. Only after she hears the lights flicker off and the doors click close does she allow the cries she has been withholding to slip from her eyes.

She becomes breathless, chest hollow and fingers numb; her mommy has left her and her father curses her existence, there is no one she can truly turn to for comfort.

When Victoria wakes in the morning, Anthony and several other maidservants prepare her for an outing. Only, this time, she knows she won’t be coming back.

“I’ll miss you, Anthony,” the young Victoria says, forcing a smile as she presses a quick kiss to her steward’s cheek.

Sad to see the young miss go, Anthony does the same as he pats her little head of hair and helps her into the car.

On the way to the airport, Victoria remembers a lot about the mother that has just left her not too long ago; she remembers her mother’s smile, she remembers her mother’s tears, she remembers that her mother had promised to bake a cake for her on her birthday just a month away.

The chauffer bites down on his lip when he hears the child sniffling, glancing at her from the rearview mirror. “I hear that France is a beautiful place, Miss Victoria.”

“Do you think mommy will like it there, Vincent?”

Vincent, the chauffer, smiles weakly with a soft nod. “Madam would love it.”

Suddenly, France doesn’t seem like such a bad place to be anymore.

Turning nineteen is a big year for most young adults and for Victoria it is no different. However, the now nineteen year old Victoria is not raveling over the fact that she can party and drink (legally); as a matter of fact, she is relishing in finally receiving the honor of having obtained her undergraduate degree in finance and marketing and preparing for her studies for a graduate degree in risk and operations management.

Ever since she was sent to live with her aunt in France fifteen years ago by her father, she decided to walk a path of her own that meant success greater than any other to prove that she was worthy of her aunt’s keeping.

“Do you need a vacation?” Her boss asks her, raising an eyebrow when he sees Victoria walking into the office with her arms piled in textbooks.

She purses her lips and narrows her eyes at him. “Don’t even think about it! The moment I take a leave, you’ll be all over the new cars and forgetting about reading and signing your contracts.”

Yunho kicks back and relaxes while Victoria settles in her little desk towards the other end of the office room. “I know you’ve got exams coming up soon. It won’t hurt for you to take a week or two off, you know.”

“I’m fine,” Victoria reassures.

Shrugging, Yunho returns to typing away at his keyboard and Victoria takes a deep breath, shoving her books into some drawers and turning on her own computer.

The first thing she notices in her inbox is an email from a familiar name that she hasn’t seen in a long time.

“What’s with the long face?” The boss asks from a distance.

Not even glancing his way, Victoria simply clicks the email open and mutters a lazy, “just spam.”

Even though he doesn’t believe her, Yunho lets the matter rest and asks Victoria for a cup of coffee. She closes the email and starts walking towards the break room when Yunho suddenly calls her back. “Did you get my text last night?”

“Yes. Why?”

“Have you thought it over?”

Victoria looks her boss directly in the eyes. “I don’t currently have any plans on relocating for a promotion.”

“It’s a good opportunity,” her boss reminds her.

She smiles softly. “I know, Mr. Jung, but I think I’ll have to discuss with my aunt before I make a decision.”

“Fair enough,” he agrees. “Stop by Selene’s office on your way back, she has a budget report I need you to audit before noon.”

Glancing at the clock hanging on the wall, Victoria takes a deep breath before throwing an almost frosty glare at Yunho. “You couldn’t have told me when I just got here? It’s fifteen minutes till!”

“I just remembered,” Yunho grins, “and I haven’t even written you up for being late again!”

“I wish they sold memory boards for human brains,” she grumbles, rushing out the door. A few steps later, as though suddenly realizing something, she swirls around on her heel and shouts loudly towards his office with her hands balled into small fists.

“And I notified you yesterday that I would be late, you old devil!”

When Victoria returns to her apartment that night is when she finally remembers about the email she never got to finish reading earlier in the day. She grabs her cell phone from the nightstand by her bed and accesses her email.

It’s from Anthony.

Miss Victoria, I hope you are faring well. You are deeply missed. The young master has asked about you today after Master Daniel left for a business trip and I showed him the photo album Madam placed in the library. Master Tao is proud to have such a beautiful sister; he would love to hear from you. Your humble steward, Anthony

Attached to the email is the photo of a young boy, hugging a photo album to his chest and smiling a smile that flashes the pearl white of his teeth.

That young child is her half-brother, a twelve year old boy with sharp eyes and a gentle smile, much like what she vaguely remembers her own father’s smile to be.

Victoria hesitates for a moment before saving the photo to her phone and then switching it off, returning it to the nightstand.

She knows that Anthony is not the type to disturb her unless the situation has gotten out of hand. From previous messages and interactions, Victoria has learned that Zitao is a good child but definitely has a few of his own tempers.

Thinking about Anthony and the others brings a small smile to her lips, her heart feeling embraced by warmth. Back then, only they did not blame her for her mother’s passing.

In the first few years after moving away, she missed home horribly and would constantly call Anthony and a few others, searching for comfort that she did not find in France. A few years later though Victoria matured and learned from her past mistakes; with her maturity came hard earned independence.

Of course, it wasn’t as though her aunt mistreated her. Her aunt was a sweet and kind hearted woman, much like her mother, and she sheltered Victoria from as many troubles as she could. However, because her aunt also had a family of her own, the love was shared and could not be relied upon too heavily.

Victoria knows what it feels like to lose a mother and she did not want to bring that sadness upon any other. Therefore, she decided to move out the year she turned eighteen.

Although the memories are hazy and confused, she can feel the softness of Anthony’s arms around her when she cried and Vincent’s smile that assured her when she was hesitant. There is so much that she remembers, yet, so little that she can truly grasp.

With those very thoughts, Victoria falls into deep slumber.

By the time day rises again, she wakes to the smell of fresh brewed coffee and crisp eggs and bread. Victoria then smiles wide, getting out of bed and quickly washing up.

Once she’s at the kitchen, that familiar figure is standing at the stove, tossing and turning some vegetables in a small frying pan. Silently, she walks up behind him and wraps her arms around his waist, resting her forehead on his shoulder.

“You’re in a good mood today,” he laughs.

Victoria bites on his shoulder and he turns off the stove, swirling around and collecting her into his arms.

“Did you sleep well? I didn’t mean to wake you.” His gentle fingers sweep across her cheek before he leans forward and presses a kiss to the tip of her nose.

She nuzzles her face into the material of his clothing, hugging him a little closer. “Yunho wants me to think about transferring over to our office in Lyon for training in a management position now that I’ve graduated.”

Her boyfriend brushes the hair out of her face and kisses her forehead. “That sounds great!”

Peeking up at him, she sighs. “I’ll have to leave for nearly six months and then who knows where they’ll transfer me to again for an actual managing position?”

“It’s a really good opportunity, even if only for the experience,” the boy says with a warm smile.

Victoria buries her face into his chest again. “Aiden, I might be gone for forever! Won’t you miss me?”

With a small chuckle, her boyfriend pulls her out of his arms and sits her down at the dining table. Aiden finishes up preparing breakfast, placing the plates onto the table and gesturing for her to eat.

As obedient as she always has been, Victoria starts biting into the food. Aiden’s food has always tasted the best.

“Don’t eat too fast,” he warms her.

Victoria slows down, glancing his way. Ever since she’s known him, Aiden has always been a very slow paced type of person; his movements are careful and his reactions are always a step behind but he never seems to miss a single thing.

Sometimes, just watching Aiden calms her down.

“Have you taken your medicine yet?” Victoria asks, seeing his paling complexion.

Aiden smiles at her.

She immediately walks to the fridge and pours him a cup of milk before running off to the living room couch to fish into his pack for his medication. Just as obediently as Victoria, Aiden takes the pills and swallows them easily.

Victoria then plants a small kiss to his lips before returning to her seat.

“It’s sweet!” Victoria grins.

Shaking his head, Aiden reaches for his fork and takes another bite of sausage. The medicine today really isn’t anywhere near as bitter as it was the day before.

Without Aiden by her side, no matter how fast paced the world may seem, time still drags on like she’s living in a whole new world.

They continue staying in touch often, at least two phone calls a day and seemingly endless amounts of text messages. When she’s working, she engrosses herself into her duties but once she’s off the clock, she can’t help but want to go home.

Home; to Victoria, home is now a place where there’s the scent of fresh laundry, baked bread and fried eggs. To Victoria, Aiden is where home is.

She ends up training for nearly nine months, putting her education on a pause, before she is finally able to return to Paris. Aiden is waiting for her at the airport with wide spread arms and the biggest smile she’s ever seen him to have. He’s lost a bit of weight and his skin has paled even more, but she can’t say any different about herself, really.

“Welcome home,” he whispers into her ear before swooping in and possessively claiming her lips.

Victoria’s cheeks redden as she clutches the back of his shirt, inhaling the unique scent that only belongs to Aiden. When they finally part Victoria finds a rhythm for her heartbeat again before whispering into his chest.

“I’m home,” she says, and has to force her tears back into her eyes. “I’m finally home.”

Four months later, Victoria is offered an interview for a Chief Audit Executive position in the Beijing branch of their corporate company.

“It’s a huge opportunity,” Yunho says casually, taking a sip out of his freshly brewed coffee.

Victoria bites down on her lip and continues translating Yunho’s cryptic handwriting into a readable human language. “I’ll have to discuss it with someone.”

Smiling knowingly, Yunho nods at her and begins filing through some paperwork that has been messily spread across his desk.

There’s only another year and a half left before she achieves her graduate degree; right now, she has to make a choice that once would have been much easier for her than before.

In the past, if it meant having to return to Beijing, she would have instantly rejected. However, because of Aiden, Victoria has begun to re-evaluate her emotions.

“I found your old phone while I was looking for your watch last night,” she remembers hearing Aiden tell her.

She took the cell phone out of his hands and laughed, joking about how old and out of style the phone was, but after she turned it on and began to browse through old photos, she found the photo she saved of Zitao from the email she received from Anthony a little over a year ago.

“Who is that?” Aiden asked her.

Victoria smiled at him and leaned into his arms. “My little brother.”

“I don’t remember you mentioning you have siblings,” Aiden frowned, “I’ve only met your aunt and your cousins.”

“We’re not close,” she told him; “actually, I’ve never even met him before.”

Sensing her sudden change in mood, Aiden decided to change the subject and about her awkward smile in seventy percent of the pictures that they take together. Sure enough, Victoria eventually forgets about the photo of Zitao and falls asleep in his arms.

Now that she has Aiden, those past memories don’t seem to hurt anymore. All of a sudden, Victoria feels like maybe she hasn’t been as fair to Zitao as she should have been, just like how Aiden is always fair to everyone, even if they don’t always seem to deserve it.

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AN: You guys are pretty creative with your pairing suggestions! lol. Unforunately, I only write Victoria related pairings so I'm afraid I won't be able to match the several other female idol suggestions made in the poll. Sorry! Hopefully this first chapter wasn't boring but you know how it goes; the first chapters are used for introductory purposes >_<; Can anyone guess who Aiden is? lol. He is actually a kpop idol (Korean) and Aiden is his English name! Haha. Anyways, until next time~ ♥Xue

P.S. Oh, and I am seriously having the hardest time deciding which Victoria pairing I should post next and there is a tie in the poll that I put up... ;___; Help??? I'm about to have a breakdown T_T