Author's note: this story is going to be a short one, AU, JinxJulia.
'thoughts'
"speech"
stressed words
Disclaimer: I do not own Tekken (Namco), but I do own the plot of this story. Everything here is written solely for entertainment purposes.
Heart Hotel
A Prince Has Come
It was a beautiful, slightly chilly mid-summer evening in Japan.
The sun had set a while ago, meshes of dark red and dark blue decorating the sky, although dark clouds threatened to pour some rain.
A certain man was headed for his all-time favourite café, down in the streets of Odaiba in Tokyo.
In older times, the café used to be part of the Heart Hotel. When the hotel had to be demolished in 2006, the café was saved by owner Leslie Tanaka, who decided not to give the café any other name than Heart Hotel.
It had started raining ever so lightly as the man approached the café with the familiar heart-shaped windows and the red door.
When Jin entered the café, he wasn't greeted as usual. Frowning, he looked over to the bar where 3 men were talking with a waitress. But the talking didn't seem friendly at all.
"You better cough up the cash right now, Chang, or else!" One of the men snarled.
Jin had quietly approached the bar.
"Or else, what?"
The 3 men turned at the sound of an unfamiliar voice. The waitress' eyes widened.
"Is there a problem, gentlemen?" Jin asked the one who looked like the leader of the bunch.
The tall man was wearing an expensive looking suit, and sunglasses. He stepped closer to Jin and lowered the glasses with one hand, revealing emotionless gray eyes.
"Nothing that concerns you, punk," came a smoke-filled voice.
The leader put back his sunglasses, then turned at the waitress momentarily.
"Next time, Chang. Next time…"
The men then took off and slammed the door on the way out, the bells hanging above the door ringing loudly. Jin turned and saw them get in a car and take off.
When he turned back, he finally saw the young woman who he supposed had been threatened by the men who just departed.
She looked like a woman in her early twenties. She had rich brown hair, which she wore in a ponytail and her eyes were a beautiful shade of brown, like chocolate. She seemed to be gazing into nothing, as her petite body trembled visibly.
"Are you okay?" Jin asked, startling the young woman.
"Uh," she blinked, picking up a menu from the counter, "Yes. Yes, I'm fine. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting, sir. As you can see there are no other customers at the moment, so feel free to sit wherever you'd like."
Jin smiled lightly. "Alright, well, how about I'd sit here at the bar?"
The waitress' eyes widened. "Um… of course, sir, but the space might be a little small…" she started, eying Jin's suitcase, assuming he was going to work on something.
Brown eyes followed her gaze down to his own suitcase as Jin laughed kindly.
"Oh no, no. I'm not gonna be working tonight. The past month I've been on a business trip to Osaka and well, I worked so hard lately that I decided tonight's gonna be a relaxing evening," he smiled, pearl white teeth showing.
The waitress blushed slightly, as the customer smiled at her so warmly. She handed him the menu, which he gladly took.
"Thank you!" he said, quickly opening the menu and peeking around the delicious beverages and meals.
The young woman looked at the customer, happily flipping through the menu, looking for something delicious. He was talking to himself a bit, as well; pondering if he should go for the cinnamon or vanilla coffee this time, or as always, for the café special. Maybe he was doing it unconsciously, but to Julia it was cute nonetheless.
Other than cute, the man was also incredibly handsome. Spiky raven-black hair, with thick but silky bangs in front of the most beautiful pair of brown eyes Julia ever looked in to. Next to that, he was wearing a long-sleeved black shirt, and dark jeans, with neatly polished shoes. He looked like a business man, a gorgeous business man with broad shoulders, and graceful hands…
"Excuse me?"
Julia snapped out of her daydream and blinked. She had probably been staring at her only customer for a while now. She blushed furiously, looking down at her skirt.
"S-sorry, I was a little distracted," she apologised, looking up slowly, only to meet the man's gaze.
He smiled charmingly. "No problem, happens to all of us. I'll have the café special! Took me a while to decide, but, it's just so good, I can't resist!"
Julia smiled and nodded. "Coming right up."
Jin had been fondly sipping his delicious coffee and peeking around the eerily quiet café. Where was Leslie anyway? Why was it so quiet here? Sure, Jin had been on a business trip for a month, but Leslie was always here, and there were always some customers…
The waitress was doing some dishes, her face focused on the plate in her hands. She scrubbed it effectively, cleaning it in no time, placing it in a dry-rack. She worked effectively, wasting no time.
Her concentrated expression was somehow beautiful to Jin. Yeah, this young woman had to be one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. She looked strong and confident, and very capable of hard work. But she had looked so frail earlier…
Jin just had to know what happened.
"Um… excuse me… can I ask you something?"
The waitress immediately looked up from her work and put the plate she was holding down. "Of course, sir."
The man ran a hand through his raven black hair, as if he was thinking about how to ask what he wanted to ask.
"Earlier… when those men were here… you seemed awfully bothered, almost frightened," he started, as Julia looked away.
"Well, I…"
"What happened?"
The woman bit her lower lip. "Those men barged in here, saying they wanted money… when I said I didn't know what they were talking about, they got angry and threatened to kill me."
Dark brows knitted together in an angry frown as Jin listened to the waitress' story.
"Why did they want money?"
Julia sighed.
"Apparently, the former owner of the café had borrowed money from these men to save the café. Lately, with the economy being so bad, the number of customers had decreased and the café was in financial distress. When Mr. Tanaka passed away, I took over here, not knowing about the debts the café was in," she explained.
Jin was shocked. Leslie had died?!
"Leslie died?!" He exclaimed.
The woman nodded slowly. "Yes… died in a terrible car accident, they say, but I don't believe it. They even said that he had been under the influence of some drug…! Mr. Tanaka might have been of age, but he was a good driver and he was certainly not using any drugs…" she trailed off.
"I think it was a set up," she said finally.
Jin said nothing for a while, silently grieving for his old friend Leslie, with whom he had always enjoyed drinking a cup of coffee and having a good laugh after work.
"Those men," he started lowly. "I bet they are guilty of this crime," he balled his fist angrily.
"Leslie…" he mumbled.
Julia saw the regret flash across the customer's face.
"Did you know Mr. Tanaka very well?"
Jin half smiled at the young woman. "Yeah… I used to come here after work, before my big business trip, everyday, and we would drink coffee together and have a laugh. He was a good man… I know he loved this café more than life itself."
Julia followed the man's gaze as he peeked around the small café, taking in the furniture, the black stools with the ruby-red cushions, the cosy marble tables, the slightly sparkling tiles on the floor… the unique arts that Leslie hung on the white walls.
She nodded.
"Indeed… you know, about two weeks before Mr. Tanaka died, I came here for the first time, looking for a job. He immediately said the café wasn't running so greatly at that moment, and said my work here might be of a short period. I still agreed because I didn't have any money," she explained quietly, before meeting her customer's eye once more.
"He hired me and then told me to promise him something. 'If anything happens to me,' he said, 'you must take over the café, no matter what'. Because he loved this place so much," she smiled, brushing a stray lock out of her face, then resting her hands on the bar.
"So… here I am," she shrugged lightly. "I just hope those creeps won't come back here…"
Jin placed his hands on top of the woman's, making her look up at him suddenly.
"I love this place just as much as you do, and Leslie did. You don't have to be afraid, because if they come back, I will be here to protect you and your café," he spoke gently, looking the woman straight in the eye.
His big, warm hands on top of hers, and the gentleness of his voice, the sincerity in his eyes made her feel relieved and happy, but most of all hopeful.
"I… I don't know what to say. Thank you so much, Mr.…?"
"Jin Kazama. Please call me Jin," he smiled. "And you are?"
Julia glanced down at her uniform, realising she had forgotten to put on her name tag. She smiled shyly.
"I forgot my name tag. Sorry. My name is Julia Chang."
Jin smiled kindly. "Well, I will be here for you. I love this place and I cared a lot about Leslie and you seem very nice as well, so, don't you worry about a thing. If those creeps come back, they'll get a special escort right out of the café."
Julia smiled at the handsome man in front of her, whose hands were still on top of hers. So soft, yet so strong. She glanced down, Jin noticed it.
"Ah. I'm sorry," he grinned, slightly embarrassed, as he released her hands. Julia instantly missed the warmth of his hands, as she tucked some locks behind her ear.
Jin finished the last bit of his coffee and was about to leave when Julia stopped him. "Wait a bit," she told him.
She headed into the kitchen, and soon she came back with a big white cup of coffee.
"Here. This is on the house… for a special customer," Julia said, smiling shyly as she placed the coffee on the bar.
"Thank you," he said. She bowed, then turned back to her work of doing the dishes.
The bells above the door rang as a couple entered the café.
"Good evening!" Julia chirped, putting down a cup she just washed, and heading over to the new customers. They returned her smile.
"Table for two? Non-smoking? Yes, how about this table, sir?" Julia asked the gentleman.
The couple sat down and Julia handed them a menu. "Here you go. When you have decided about your order, just call me and I will be right here."
Julia went back behind the bar to look for some matches to light the candle on top of the couple's table. Jin once more examined her concentrated, yet beautiful face and he felt like he had to help her around here.
"Julia?"
At the sound of her own name, the brown-haired woman froze momentarily and not long after, she met the gentle gaze of Jin.
"If it's okay, I would like to help you a bit around here. You certainly can't do everything by yourself all alone, and if those creeps return, I want to be here to protect you."
Julia's heart skipped a beat, at those words.
"I… do you mean that?" she stuttered.
Jin nodded. "Yeah, I love this place and you seem like such a nice person. Leslie left his most precious possession in your hands, so he must've known you were a trustworthy and good person as well. So please, let me help you."
Julia felt some tears of joy well up in her eyes. Rarely had she met such an incredibly nice and sincere person as the handsome man sitting in front of her.
She nodded, then smiled.
Jin smiled as well, holding out his hand. She shook his hand. "Thank you," she whispered.
The black-haired man then asked her something, which made her laugh.
"Is it okay, though, if I call you Julia?"
The brown-haired woman laughed heartily, since he'd already called her by her name. But she didn't mind.
She flashed him a warm smile and nodded, before heading over to the couple to take their order, thinking about the raven-haired man sitting at the bar.
'Everything will be all right, Mr. Tanaka, for a handsome prince has come to my rescue.'
To be continued.
Author's note: Hello everybody! I was suddenly inspired to write a Tekken story again. And yes, again a Jin/Julia love story! Yay.
I want to dedicate this story to LamboCJ, because they sent me a really nice message the other day concerning my big fic "A Never Ending Friendship", and I felt so happy that someone appreciates the fic so much, after so many years. Thank you so much, also thank you to all the rest that read my fic and to those who've read this chapter.
Was it any good?
Please review if you liked it. Flames will be ignored. Thank you so much for reading!
MissDbzMedabots