Author's Notes: Uh... I guess this is kinda... cheesy? [laughs] I was struck with this idea while listening to Fuel, and thought ‘what the hey?’ I’ve noticed music is really sparking some strange, and sometimes scary!ideas in my head. Anyway, yeah... read on. :)
And yes, I know many people are thinking ‘wtf slash Sapph’s writing Xiaoyin!’ ^^;
Disclaimer: I do not own Tekken, or Fuel’s song.
Hemorrhage
Memories are just where you laid them
Dragging the waters til the depths give up their dead
What did you expect to find?
Was it something you left behind?
Don't you remember anything I said when I said...
“Jin?”
Kazama Jin didn’t bother to turn when hearing the intruding, yet peaceful voice. The Japanese fighter retained his perseverance regarding his concentration.
“Jin, I didn’t mean to bother you, but...”
Without hesitation, Jin went ahead and assured himself he could continue his foolish attempts to gather the spirit’s blessings later. Uncrossing his legs, Jin fully stood thereafter.
“What do you want, Julia?” Kazama inquired without having even turned around.
With a short sigh, Julia moved from the hollow of the dojo’s front, fully entering its rather large confines. Other than the presence of herself and the Karate fighter, the dojo’s premises seemed to be completely vacant.
“Jin, it’s about Xiaoyu,” Julia replied simply enough. “Why have you been avoiding her?”
“Xiaoyu...”
Don't fall away and leave me to myself
Don't fall away and leave love bleeding in my hands, in my hands again
And leave love bleeding in my hands, in my hands
Love lies bleeding
“You really do need to stop medaling in other people’s business, Julia,” Jin remarked with an alongside smirk. “I am not trying to appear rude in any way, but it will eventually get you into trouble if you’re not careful.”
Maintaining her strong-willed composure, the young Chang couldn’t help but return the man’s smirk. “Don’t try to change the subject.”
Jin’s eyes narrowed to some degree in tune to this. An order. “Why are you always trying to make yourself look smarter by acting so foolish? I know you’re not stupid, so don’t make it your main priority to ask questions in which you already know the answer.”
Jin was right. Julia did know. “Yes, Jin, I understand you don’t want Xiaoyu to get hurt, but shutting her out of your life is going to hurt her just as much.”
“You know nothing...” was all Jin could say, trailing off in his continued, stern tone of voice. “Everyone around me is in danger. You are as we speak. There could be henchmen, Tekkenshu, or assassins right outside these very walls, and you would have no way of knowing,” the Karate fighter stated in definite clarification. “I didn’t ask for this life, Julia. I bear a curse, and this curse will infect the lives of anyone who dares to cross its path.”
“You’re not your father, Jin. Stop acting like it.”
Jin growled slightly. “Are you asking for me to show you how Kazuya-san would act?”
“You’ve been tricked into viewing yourself in the way you feel others look upon you. You do not wear Kazuya’s mask,” Julia retorted, speaking what she felt was surely honest. “As much as you may try to hide it, you have a good heart. Xiaoyu knows this.”
“I don’t understand.” Jin’s voice was no longer choleric. “Why do you care?”
“Because you are my friend. Xiaoyu is my friend.”
“Hmp,” Jin smirked in response. “Funny how you can call any of these people your friends when any one of them will kill you in heartbeat; many rather you’re fighting against them in a match, or not.”
Julia elicited a frustrated sigh. “You know not everyone’s like that. I can understand that you’re plagued by reoccurring paranoia, but you have to understand there are good people in this world.”
Jin nodded. “I know that, but there are not very many. You and Xiaoyu are both good people. Lei is a good person. King is. Even Hwoarang at heart. And yet none of them have come into this tournament for the right reasons. Lei to help others in order to help himself, King for cold revenge, and Hwoarang to kick my ass,” Kazama once again smirked. “Good people don’t always do good things.”
“You know Xiaoyu truly didn’t enter this tournament in hopes of gaining prize-money, Jin. You know she came here for you. She knows you sent her the e-mail...”
“Just leave it alone,” Jin seemingly ordered. “I will not let the few people in this world who care about me be those to die because of it.”
“Don’t you care about Xiaoyu, though? Don’t you love her?”
Jin redirected his glance to the floor’s hard surface below him for only a few, scant seconds, yet it felt like an eternity to Julia. “I love no one...”
A sudden gasp was heard, as Julia was quick to turn around while Jin set his view behind the native fighter.
Ling Xiaoyu...
Oh hold me now I feel contagious
Am I the only place that you've left to go?
She cries her life is like
Some movie in black and white
Dead actors faking lines, over and over and over again she cries...
The Chinese girl said nothing. Only stood there with a look of pain painted across her facial features.
This hurt Jin. He didn’t want it to. He didn’t know why it did.
No, that was a lie. He did know...
Xiaoyu was gone in an instance, and once again the hollow of the dojo’s stone entrance was empty.
Xiaoyu felt she could do no more than run at this point in time. All of these years... and Kazama Jin truly felt nothing for her? The sky was dark, and cumulonimbus clouds were shielding the sky like a thick blanket. It was as if every day further into the Forth Iron Fist, the atmosphere seemed to grow darker. The surroundings more desolate. Everything felt so unstable. So empty. It was hard to describe in exact terms, but perhaps this was a sign that something was indeed a brew.
Something evil.
Despite what anyone else said, Xiaoyu would still refuse to believe Jin was the source of it.
Ever.
“Xiaoyu, stop.”
This hadn’t quite been an exclamation, but it was still loudly spoken.
The wind picked up, carrying a certain chill along with it as Xiaoyu’s pink dress was ruffled in slight ripples. Xiaoyu had stopped running, but she had yet to find it in herself to turn around just yet.
“I didn’t mean what I said.”
Don't fall away and leave me to myself
Don't fall away and leave love bleeding in my hands, in my hands again
And leave love bleeding in my hands, in my hands
Love lies bleeding
Xiaoyu mentally scolded herself, in not wanting to have shed a single tear. Still, it appeared she may have. She turned around.
“Jin, I... I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to spy on you, I just wanted to see you and...”
“You did nothing wrong,” Jin clarified. “It’s just as I’ve figured... I return home, and everything becomes even more corrupted than it was to begin with.”
“No,” Xiaoyu retorted, taking a step closer to the Japanese. “If anything, things became worse when you left. Don’t you know how worried everyone was for you?”
“Yes...” Jin muttered with a slight smirk. “It put quite the halt on Heihachi’s intentions to turn himself into more a monster than he already is...”
“You know what I mean, Jin,” Xiaoyu whispered. “Lei was worried, Julia was worried, and you could tell even Hwoarang was distraught.”
“About not kicking my ass.”
“And I was... very worried about you...” Ling trailed off.
Jin sighed, though not at all rudely. If anything, he was reprimanding himself. “I do understand that, Xiaoyu. You’ve told me.”
“But you act like you don’t want to hear it!” she couldn’t contain herself. “It’s almost as if you don’t want people to care about you.”
“I don’t...” Jin immediately remarked, trying to sound cold. Still, his voice sounded anything but. For some reason, he just couldn’t retain his cold pretence. Not around Ling Xiaoyu. Not around her. “Yet I didn’t only leave for me... and I couldn’t trust people to know where I was.”
“You didn’t trust me?”
And I watched as you turned away
You don't remember, but I do
You never even tried...
“It’s not that,” Kazama replied in a softer tone. “I didn’t want you to get hurt, and you know this. Yet... you came here, anyway.”
“I.. don’t.. care..” the Chinese girl said in a stern whisper. “I’ll risk it if it means that I can be with you.”
“You... care about me that much?” Jin asked, even coming off sounding reasonably perplexed.
Xiaoyu looked Jin in the eyes. “I... I love you.”
Brows furrowed in confusion. “Someone... loves me?” Jin whispered, barely audible to the ears.
“I never meant to complicate your life anymore than it already was...” Xiaoyu whispered sincerely. “And... and if you want me out of your life, I’ll understand...”
A few, yet long, moments passed by.
Ling figured the silence was the only answer she needed... knowing it was time to turn around once again.
“No,” Jin spoke upon Xiaoyu’s first flinch into leaving. His voice was even somewhat along the lines of timid. “I don’t want you out of my life. I... I...”
It’d been six years since Kazama Jin had spoken these words to anyone. So long he’d forgotten.
“I love you, too.”
Xiaoyu was almost bemused. She hadn’t expected to hear these words from Jin. She’d hoped for it, though. Ling felt a sting in her eyes, yet it was out of happiness.
Jin stepped forwards, and wrapped his arms around the girl. Maybe he was still capable of some feeling after all. He’d just been so numb for so long... The moments he had spent with Ling Xiaoyu had truly been the only moments since his mother’s death that he felt genuinely happy.
From the rail outside the dojo’s front facilities, Julia watched with touched smile on her face. Maybe her getting in the way wasn’t so bad after all.
Xiaoyu returned the embrace tightly, holding onto Jin. “I feel like my dreams are coming true...” she then gave the slightest giggle when thinking of how corny that must’ve sounded.
Jin looked down into Xiaoyu’s dark, brown eyes, tilting her chin up with his right-hand. “If you have a dream you want to come true, you should make it happen yourself.”