Notes

Man, this one feels good. All my real world problems, all my whining and moaning (both to friends and in story notes), and I still managed to come up with something by my self-imposed deadline. I think it's actually decent, too! No guarantees, though. As a bonus, I managed to write my first G-rated story, which was a bigger challenge than I thought it'd be. Apparently I really like to cuss. ...even in narration.

My first side-story in almost two months is another plotline fixer, this time for Leona and Chang. The relationship that started in KOF'98 as a glitch (the developers have tried to deny that, but I refuse to believe them) has become a full-blown mystery in KOFXIV. Why would Leona like Chang, or even respect him? I refuse to chalk it up to "he's her type" - how's that guy anyone's type? - so I tried to come up with my own reason. This fic is the result.

Hope you enjoy!

Respect

The first King of Fighters in half a decade had brought in quite a few newcomers. There were the silly ones, the serious ones, the sappy ones. There were supposed veterans that stuck out like sore thumbs; there were rookies that looked like they'd been there all along. There were even a few that seemed a little bit "off"...but most of them had their reasons, not all of them nice ones.

And then there was Xanadu.

Fighting him (or trying to) in one of the tourney's more secluded venues, Clark Still couldn't make heads or tails of the man. From the white face paint to the braided blue beard to the expensive purple robe to the prisoners' pants he still wore beneath it, Xanadu was a mystery. Then you looked into his eyes - those horrifying, soulless eyes - and you thought he couldn't get any more unnerving than that.

...and then he opened his mouth.

"We are all one with reality," he said calmly, as he pounded Clark to the floor with massive chops and a brutal headbutt (a combination he referred to as "The Distress"). "He who lives does not but live; he who dies does not but die. Whether now, never or forever, we must all in time return to the point of no return. And then we must begin again, and then again, and sometimes more...until we finally achieve the euphoria of everythingness."

"Shut. Up," Clark growled as he staggered to his feet, not sure if he was reeling from the Distress or the distress.

Back on the sidelines, Ralf winced in sympathy - even as he stared in confusion. "Geez, Leona, what's with this guy?" he asked his partner. "He's out of his mind, but strong as an ox! We did not need another one of those..."

"Mmm-hmm," Leona mumbled, distracted.

Frowning, Ralf looked over at her. She, in turn, was looking at Chang Koehan, one of Xanadu's partners, who was cheering on his new boss like a ten-year-old.

"Rrrrgh..." Ralf growled to himself, clenching his fist...but then he smirked. "Say, Lee - maybe this is a good day to debut that new move of yours! You know, the one where you spin around hitting the other guy with your ponytail until one of you falls over?"

"Sounds good," Leona murmured.

"Then I was thinking we could go out for a night on the town," he went on, grinning. "Have a nice dinner, go ballroom dancing - we could even take in an opera!"

"Yessir. Understood, sir," she agreed.

"Or maybe you'd rather do that with Chang?"

Leona blinked. "Uh? Oh...um, yes, Chang. Chang Koehan." She looked at Ralf. "...do what with him, sir?"

"Oh brother," he laughed. "You've got it bad, don'cha?"

"'Got it bad'?" she echoed, frowning. "...if you're saying I'm interested in him romantically, then no. That's not the case."

"You salute him every time you fight him," Ralf pointed out. "I've even heard you call him cute before!"

"Isn't he?" Leona asked.

"...that? That is cute⁇" he shot back in disbelief, pointing at the big man (who, conveniently, was picking his nose at the time).

"Yes," she answered matter-of-factly. "A man with the mind of a child usually inspires thoughts of pity. But this man also has incredible power, not to mention criminal tendencies. The combination makes him a serious threat, but the contrast makes him comical. Whimsical. 'Cute'."

Ralf stared at her, wondering if Xanadu was really the craziest one out here.

"...so you don't have a crush on Chang Koehan."

"No, sir."

"But you're still obsessed with him."

"...I wouldn't call it 'obsessed'," she argued, sounding just a bit annoyed.

"Then why⁇"

She simply looked at him at first. Then she looked past him, her eyes on Chang again - but her thoughts a million miles away.

Many years ago, a young Leona tore through the jungle, chest heaving, eyes wild. She'd tried climbing trees, jumping from hills, doubling back...but none of it had worked. There was no escape.

She didn't know how long she'd roamed, ever since the tall man had made her slaughter her village. She didn't know when she'd entered the jungle, or how far out she was from the next town. But awareness came to her in bits and pieces, and she knew now that at some point she'd taken a very wrong turn. She had managed to get a bear on her trail...and unless the tall man came back and helped her this time, she didn't stand a chance.

The chase didn't last much longer. Leona suddenly broke into a clearing, with nothing but wild grass separating her from her pursuer. If that hadn't been enough, she tripped and fell about halfway through it, her old charm bracelet digging into the back of her wrist on impact. As she scrabbled backward on her hands and rear, the bear kept going at full speed, coming right at her.

"Aha! Sangdae!"

The bear looked in the new voice's direction with a roar - just in time to take what looked like a cannonball straight to the snout. As it tumbled backward, the iron ball flew back like magic to its owner, who was stampeding into the clearing. He was a massive mountain of a man, probably twice as big as the bear; he looked rather fat, but seemed more like solid muscle to Leona. He wore a drab, gray bodysuit, but his head made up for it, the top bald and shiny and the bottom covered in a thick black beard. Like a young Santa Claus, she thought half-deliriously.

Despite the size difference and the likely broken nose, the bear roared back at the man in defiance. It charged in fast, and defense wasn't the man's strong suit; within seconds, the bear had sunk its teeth into his forearm. But he just grinned like that was his plan all along: he closed his other hand on the animal's neck, then lifted it up in the air, pulled it to the side and smashed it into the ground. ...then he did it five more times, switching back and forth between his left and right sides each time.

The bear was strong; that didn't break it. But it did run away from the man at top speed, realizing this was one fight it wouldn't win. "Yaghan!" he laughed after it, shaking his "wounded" arm (the bear had barely broken the skin).

As the rustling from the trees it ran through died down, the man turned to look at the girl with a frown. He said some words in a language she didn't understand, and she looked back at him blankly. After a moment, he figured out the problem and tried again: he raised his arm slowly, looking a question at her.

...get up? Did he want her to get up? Wincing, Leona picked herself up off the ground, scuffed but not injured. The man's face lit up with a grin; after a moment, he beckoned her toward him, then turned around and started walking.

He wants me to join him, she thought, breathing hard. Now she remembered why she was out here: to get away from people. She didn't know if what the tall man did would happen again on its own; if she was near anyone, she might kill them at any moment. ...but then she blinked, as she looked again at the behemoth moving away from her. The guy looked ten feet tall and must've weighed a thousand pounds. If there was anyone she'd ever met that would be safe from her, it was him.

Hurriedly she caught up to him, and soon they were walking side-by-side. After a moment, she thanked him, fidgeting with her bracelet; not understanding, he just looked at her with a shrug and a sad smile. A moment after that, she stumbled again and almost fell, and when she looked at him again he was holding out a hand. Gratefully she took it, and they walked in silence with hands clasped for the rest of the journey.

They made it to a small village in something like an hour. Leona had been afraid of this, and she thought about bolting...but when she smelled the afternoon's bread, she realized she hadn't eaten in days. The man with her had attracted a lot of attention, and he attracted a lot more when he bellowed out something in his own language to the entire village. Timidly a woman answered in it, and they started talking - about her, Leona knew, as they both looked at her repeatedly.

Finally, the woman said something in their language, and the man looked at Leona and repeated it. "Good bye and good luck!" he told her, with a wave and a goofy grin. Then he started walking again, and when she tried to follow this time the woman stopped her.

"This man says he found you in the jungle. Is it true?" Leona nodded, and the woman shook her head. "Oh, you must be starving. Let's get you some food and clothes and a bath, quickly."

The girl pointed at her savior, not saying a word.

"He said he couldn't keep you with him," the woman told her sadly. But then her face turned stern, and she added, "He's not a good man to follow anyway. Take a look at his pouch." Leona did, peering at the pouch on the back of his belt...and seeing her charm bracelet, undone and hanging halfway out of it.

She couldn't have cared less. Let him keep the bracelet; it wasn't worth a dime, and she had no attachment to it. It hurt her far more that he had to leave her now, since she could never stay here past nightfall without him there to watch over her. But even so, he'd led her to food, water, and new clothes - after fighting off a bear for her. She would never forget this mountain of a man, who had saved her life twice in a little over an hour.

"I respect him, sir," Leona told Ralf simply.

Of course, Ralf wasn't one to let a subject drop that easy. He kept pestering her right up until her turn in the ring, trying several different tactics (none of them remotely polite). Luckily her turn came up pretty quick: Clark managed to get past Xanadu, only for Chang himself to enter the ring and even the score.

Leona joined him there soon after, trying not to stare at him too much. She didn't care that Clark was glaring at her; she didn't care that Ralf was shaking his head. She didn't even care that Chang had never acknowledged her when she did this, and had probably forgotten her. She would always know.

As they stepped back to their starting points, she looked at him and snapped off her usual salute...

...and then, to her utter shock, he saluted her back.

Of course he remembered her.

He'd just needed to get out of Korea for a while. He'd just wanted to try out fighting some bears, to see if that Russian was right about it being a good workout. (It wasn't.) Instead he'd found a blue-haired girl running around in rags in the middle of the jungle. How could he not remember her⁇

But for some reason, he hadn't wanted to show it in front of Kim. He knew the man would ask questions, and somehow he felt like he wouldn't want to answer. (Then he'd have to do about a thousand pushups as penance.) But he wasn't with Kim, anymore. His new boss wouldn't ask questions, at least not in a way he'd understand...and Choi already knew the story.

So when she saluted him this time, he returned it just as seriously. He was rewarded with seeing her smile for the first time, and he felt glad again that for once, he'd taken a little time to help somebody.

Maybe he'd even give her back her bracelet someday.

(...stupid thing wasn't worth a dime anyway...)

End Notes

Welcome to fanfiction, Xanadu! Someone as crazy as you is sure to fit right in.

See you next time!