A/N: Well... I wrote another oneshot instead of updating my other stories. I'll get around to updating my other stories... eventually. Anyways, I don't really have much to say, so lets get to the story.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Dead or Alive series, or any of the characters that exist therein.
Ayane was walking down the abandoned street dimly lit by the light of the full moon.
"Stupid!" She called herself. "Of course he doesn't feel the same way about you. How could he!? You're a cursed child! You're the child of a monster! And even if you weren't, you're still his sister! Of course he wouldn't be able to feel the same way about you." She was close to tears and incredibly angry. This was due to the fact that she was rejected. That's right, she was rejected. By who? That should be obvious...
She was angry, not so much at him for rejecting her, but with herself for loving him... and for actually believing he could ever love her. But how could he? With what she was it was impossible for him to love her. He probably never even cared about her... He never cared about her in the same way he cared for Kasumi, or even in the way he cared for Ryu. He didn't love her as a brother, he didn't love her as a friend, and he most certainly never loved her as... as a lover. What was their relationship then? What was his feelings for her then? Just thinking these thoughts brought her closer to tears, and it definitely... made her angrier.
"Stupid!" She continued to berate herself. "Why did you ever fall for him, you idiot!"
She looked up, taking notice of the young boy standing a distance in front of her with a perplexed expression on his face. She narrowed her eyes, trying to make out his face. A few seconds later and she finally realized who it was.
"Eliot!?" She called out to the boy, slightly confused by his presence. "What are you doing here?" She questioned him, sounding more than a little irritated.
The boy didn't say anything, he just raised a brow.
She rolled her eyes as she approached him.
"Look, I was-" She was cutoff by the boy throwing a fist at her. She blocked the strike, but was confused as to why he had thrown it in the first place. Looking at him with widened eyes, she shouted out, "The hell are you do-" But again, she was cutoff by the boy thrusting his fist into her gut, causing her to fly back a small distance and land on her back.
Okay, now she was even more upset. He just suddenly attacked her. Sure they weren't exactly what she would consider friends, but they definitely were not enemies! There was absolutely no good reason for him to just suddenly attack her! Even if he just wanted to spar with someone, this was NOT the way to request it. Whatever, she really needed a punching bag at the moment, and after the stunt he just pulled... he was practically begging to be that punching bag.
She stood up while rubbing her head. Looking at Eliot, she saw that he had taken his signature fighting stance, prompting her to do the same.
"You're asking for this."
The boy didn't respond, instead, he did something that pissed her off even more. The boy had closed his eyes. Yup, closed his eyes. Was he really implying he didn't need his sight to fight her? Was he really going to insult her skill? All she had left was her pride as a kunoichi, and now this boy was trying to trample all over that? No, she was beyond pissed at this. She was not going to let his insults go unpunished.
She rushed forward, launching a strike at the boy, but to her surprise, he blocked it. She quickly recovered from her shock and launched another strike, this time the young boy dodged it. She let out a growl as she launched more strikes one after the other in quick succession, yet the boy blocked and dodged each of the lightning quick strikes, keeping his eyes closed the entire time.
She was not only angry, but also confused. What was going on? How could he fend off all of her attacks without seeing them? She had no idea what was going on, but believe it or not, it made her even angrier. She didn't know she could get angrier. She thought she was at the peak of anger. Yet, here she was, angrier than before.
She continued her relentless assault on the boy, and he continued to block and dodge each and every strike. Her spins would usually add a certain level of unpredictability to her, but against an opponent who had their eyes closed, there was no such unpredictability. After all, if they don't see the spinning, then how would they be thrown off. Then again, if the opponent couldn't see, then how could the opponent block every single damn strike!
Ayane aimed a sweeping kick at the boy's legs, but the boy did a backwards cartwheel type of thing, dodging the attack. Of course he 'saw' that attack coming. He 'saw' all the other ones coming, so why wouldn't he 'see' that one coming? She stood up throwing more quick strikes at the boy, but of course, he blocked and dodged them all, his eyes remaining shut the entire time.
She couldn't take it anymore, the boy wasn't going to take her seriously! He was going to spend this entire fight with his eyes closed. He was pretty much telling her that he needed a handicap just to fight her, that a handicap was the only way she would be able to stand a chance against him. It pissed her off so much! What pissed her off even more, however, was the fact that the boy's unspoken words seemed to be true. She wasn't holding back, yet he was blocking and dodging everything she threw at him, even though he was 'handicapped'.
"Stop mocking me!" She yelled at the boy as she threw a powerful punch directed at his face.
Such a punch was not the girl's style. Sure it was a powerful strike, but it was also sloppy and it left her completely open. It was a costly mistake, one she normally wouldn't make, but she had let her anger get the best of her. Her anger at this boy... or was it her anger at herself...?
Eliot's body disappeared from her sight, rendering her confused. Eliot had dropped down, extending one of his legs through her own, and planting his foot firmly behind her. He then grabbed the wrist of her extended arm, and placed his free hand on her stomach. Before she knew what was happening, she was already flipped over the boy, her back hitting the ground quite hard. This would be the end to the fight, as the girl, while she would still be able to fight, didn't want to continue. She didn't even make any effort to stand up.
"Stop mocking me." The girl spoke softly as she lay on the ground. "Why are you mocking me too?" The anger seemed to have melted away, leaving only sadness in its wake. She lay her head against the ground, several tears escaping her now closed eyes. "Why does everyone disregard my feelings...?"
"Ayane," The boy finally spoke, his voice sounding gentle and caring. Ayane opened her eyes and saw Eliot standing over her, his piercing blue eyes soft and full of warmth. "Are you okay?"
To say she was confused by the boy would be an understatement. He had mercilessly attacked her... actually, he only attacked at the beginning, he spent the rest of the fight on the defensive, but that's not the point. He attacks her, then he asks if she's okay? Where was the sense in that!
"You don't need to pretend to care. Just go away."
"I'm not pretending" The boy stated as he offered her his hand.
She looked at his hand with a little surprise. She turned her vision to Eliot's face, seeing the sincerity in it. After a few seconds she finally slapped his hand away and slowly stood up. She walked over to a building and sat down, leaning against it like it was a wall.
Eliot followed suit, sitting down beside her. She turned her cold gaze to him, narrowing her eyes in irritation.
"You can go." She said that in the coldest way she could.
"Nah," He stretched his arms as he spoke, "I'm fine right here. But thanks for your consideration!" He smiled at her. She gave a low growl at his words and actions.
They both sat there in silence for a while. Him with his legs extended out, and her hugging her legs and resting her chin on her knees.
He watched her with a perplexed expression on his face, however, she ignored his gaze. She was pretty much acting as if he wasn't there, and for a moment, he started to question whether he was or not. Deciding to break the silence, he spoke again.
"So..." She looked at him, her cold gaze making him a little hesitant. He cleared his throat and continued. "Are you okay, Ayane?"
She let out an annoyed sigh as she gave her curt reply.
"I'm fine." She went back to resting her chin on her knees.
"Are you sure you're-" A glare from her made his words die in his throat. "Okay..."
Again they sat there in silence, she continued to act as if he didn't exist, he just sat there feeling awkward. Every so often he would cast a glance her way, but she didn't react to any of the stares. Perhaps he should have left like she told him to? He shook his head at those thoughts. He felt it wasn't a good idea to leave her alone in this state. Of course, she wouldn't acknowledge the state she was in... at least not to him she wouldn't.
He awkwardly scratched his cheek, deciding to break the silence once more. This time, however, he wasn't going to be bringing up how she felt, he was going to talk about the accusation she brought up against him.
"You know," Ayane looked at him once more, the irritation very obvious on her face. She was deciding upon whether or not she should leave. "Before the fight ended you shouted, 'Stop mocking me!', I want you to know that I wasn't mocking you..."
Ayane's eyes slightly widened, and her mouth hung open in disbelief at his words. Was he really trying to deny what she had seen with her own eyes!? Yet, the sincerity with which he said it almost made her believe his words. But she knew better than that. He was lying, that was what she truly believed. Why he was lying, well, she had no idea about that.
"You closed your eyes for the fight. You were telling me that you didn't need to take the fight seriously to beat me." As she stated these facts, anger started to bubble up within her again. "And you know what!? You were right! I fought you as seriously as I could, but I still lost! You were right! I wouldn't have stood a chance against you if you didn't have that handicap! I still didn't stand a chance against you when you had it!" She felt anger at herself.
"Ayane..." The boy started, looking at the ground instead of her face, "Me closing my eyes were NOT a handicap... It was actually one of the reasons I won."
"What!?" Her brows furrowed in confusion.
"It's a technique I learned!" He turned his head to her, giving her a bright smile as he explained, "If I watch an opponent, then I can be thrown off by their confusing movements. But if I can't see their movements, I won't have that problem." He scratched the side of his forehead as he continued, "But if I close my eyes, I'll run into another problem. How do I know what to block? But that's what this technique is for! I close my eyes and heighten my senses. I create this bubble around me. If anything invades this bubble, I'll 'see' it, and thus, I'll know what to block! It gives me an impenetrable defense! Sort of... No defense is one hundred percent, after all. And this technique is highly dependent upon the users ability to block attacks as soon as they 'see' it."
Ayane listened to his explanation with slight confusion. It made sense in concept, but to be put into action... that would be extremely difficult if not impossible. But this boy said he could do it. Not only did he claim to be able to do it, she had witnessed him doing it! It should be a technique that took a lifetime just to learn, apparently that wasn't the case for this boy...
Also, he only listed this technique as good for defense, but it could also be used for an offense. He displayed that when he launched the counter that ended the fight. If she were to describe the technique, she would probably say something like: A simultaneous offense and defense. That seemed to be the best way to describe it.
"If you have that technique, why don't you use it more?"
"It isn't that I don't want to use it more..." He gave a complicated expression. "But one needs to be calm, clear of mind, and stuff like that... not... full of rage."
"Full of rage? You?" She had a hard time believing this boy was full of rage. Always doubting himself, kind to almost everyone, and pretty soft spoken, no way was he full of rage.
He gave her an awkward smile.
"Whenever my master sees me fight, he tells me I'm full of savage rage... He's right too. It only happens when I fight. As soon as the first strike is thrown I can feel it inside me... There were only two or so other occasions before now where I wasn't full of rage when I fought."
She still had a hard time believing that this boy was full of, as his master liked to call it, 'savage rage' whenever he fought, but he had no reason to lie about that. Now the question remained, why was he full of rage EVERY time he fought? Sure, sometimes she felt rage when she fought, but not every single time. And why was this time so different for him? Why wasn't he full of 'savage rage' when he fought with her? Well, it probably didn't matter... right? Right now, the boy looked a little upset about the whole rage thing... She should focus on helping with that.
"You know, rage isn't necessarily a bad thing when fighting..." She offered to the boy, hoping it would make him feel a little bit better. She wasn't good at comforting people...
"Yeah, I know your right..." Yes! It worked! Or so she thought... "But it isn't helpful when you can't control your rage. If your rage controls you, you'll become rash, impatient, and impulsive. It'll go every which way, looking for anyone or anything it can sink its fangs into. It's the complete opposite of that technique which requires you to wait and be patient. Rage was the second reason I beat you." He looked into her eyes as he continued. "You got angry, frustrated... full of rage. You abandoned technique and lashed out at me instead. You let your rage control you."
She couldn't deny his words, they were true. While there were those times the rage helped her, it almost always made her careless. She would take bigger risks and make more mistakes. While the rage did help her sometimes, it was also unhelpful at others. Rage was like a fire, if one used it correctly they could burn their opponent, but if they used it wrongly they could end up burning themselves. She had both burned others and burned herself.
It was as the boy said, while one could become faster and stronger by harnessing their rage, it would also cloud their minds. How well one could fight with their rage depended on two things, their control over it... and luck. Actually, one other thing seemed to help as well. Rage lacked direction, it goes every which way, desiring to sink its fangs into anything it can, however, one could use their killing intent to direct their rage. Rage, without the killing intent to back it, lacked direction. Of course, rage would still cloud your mind no matter how much direction it had. That was where control came in. The more control one had over their rage, the less it would cloud their mind. And the more control they had over it, the less luck they would need when using it.
She had a certain level of control over her rage, but it was far from being in total control over it. But whatever problems she may have with her rage, it looked like this boy had even bigger issues with his. After all, he was apparently ALWAYS full of rage when he fought. But why was this time different for him? Why wasn't he full of rage? Was it because of her? She shook her head, dismissing that idea from her mind. After all, he did say there were about two other occasions where he would've been able to pull off the technique. It couldn't have been because of her, right?
"Ayane?" The boy's words broke her out of her thoughts.
"What?" She asked, looking back at the boy.
"After the fight, you asked, 'Why does everyone disregard my feelings?', you also asked, 'Why are you mocking me too?', what did you mean by those words?" The boy was genuinely curious.
She narrowed her eyes at him. She was really tempted to tell him it was nothing and leave it at that, but... he did tell her about one of his issues. But that didn't mean she had to talk to him about her issues! But... she kind of wanted to tell him. Why did she want to open up to him? Was it a natural response to him opening up to her, even if only a little? Whatever the reason, the fact remained that she wanted to tell him. That she wanted to open up to him a little bit.
She shot him a glare, causing his body to tense up.
'Well, he seems to be a little bit afraid of me.' She thought. 'So why are you still here!' She had unknowingly let out a quiet growl as she thought that, causing the boy to give a small jump, one she didn't notice.
While she was still thinking it over in her head, the boy decided to speak.
"Um..." At his voice she was snapped out of her thoughts, and she directed her attention to him, "It's alright if you don't want to talk about it..." He scratched one of his slightly red cheeks as he continued, "I just thought... you might feel better if you talked about it... But if you're not comfortable with it, you don't need to force yourself to tell me..."
'Fine...' She thought. Against her better judgment, she decided to tell him what was up. Maybe it would make her feel better.
She let out a quiet sigh, turning her head away from him. At the moment, she found it more comfortable not to look at him.
"I... I was..." Why was this so damn hard!? "I told someone..." Get on with it! "I told someone..." Just say it! "I told someone I liked him!" Her face turned red at her confession. "But he didn't feel the same..."
"Ah... I'm sorry..." He said softly, trying to comfort her. To be honest, he wasn't really good at comforting people either.
"I was just so stupid!" Did she just shout that out? Why did she shout that out? She wasn't supposed to say anything else. Why was she still talking? "I should have known he wouldn't feel the same way! It was impossible!"
"Ayane..."
"I mean, look at me!" Stop talking! "How could he love me!?" Stop! Stop! Why won't you stop!? "I was just deceiving myself!" She wanted to stop talking... but she couldn't... it was too late. The floodgates had opened, and now it was all going to come pouring out. "I was telling myself that maybe... just maybe... he could!"
"Ayane..."
"Even if he didn't return my feelings, I always thought it would be enough if he loved me as his sister." She shouldn't have told him about her problem, she shouldn't have tried opening up a little bit, now... now she couldn't stop. "But he doesn't! He doesn't even love me as a friend!"
"Ayane..."
"In his eyes, I was just a weapon to point at the enemies! He wasn't trying to hide that from me! I just blinded myself to this fact! I chose not to see it. I chose to believe there was something more between us, that even if he didn't return my feelings... there was still something more..."
She lay her forehead onto her knees, hiding her face from him. Several tears flowed from her eyes. Why was she crying? She didn't cry, crying was weak. Was she weak too? Why couldn't she just die... wouldn't that be easier?
She let out a gasp as, suddenly, warmth began to envelop her body. It took a little while, but she soon realized that the warmth came from the boy wrapping his arm around her and pushing his body against her's. He was hugging her? Why was he hugging her? He should have just left... that would have been easier. Why would he stay? He had no obligation to stay, yet he did.
"I was so stupid." She said softly.
"No you weren't, Ayane." He tried to speak in as soothing a voice as he could. "You were just in love."
"I should have known he wouldn't feel the same."
"You had hope, you can't be called foolish for that."
"Look at me, how would he have been able to love me?"
"Because..." His cheeks reddened, "You're a very beautiful girl, you're an extremely skilled fighter, you're smart, you're kind... in your own way, and most importantly, you loved him. You loved him as much as you could. There's not anything about you one could hate..."
Did he mean that? Did he really believe what he said? She would have looked up at him, but their positions wouldn't allow it. She could have just broke off the hug, but she didn't exactly want to, it was rather... comforting. So, she resigned herself to staying as she was.
"I'm just a curse..." She whispered.
"I believe you're also a blessing... even if you're unable to see it, even if you don't want to see it... I believe there are some people who see you as a blessing, and never once considered you a curse." He wasn't able to tell her that he was one such person. He may not have known why she believed herself to be a curse, or why anyone else would, but he never did.
"That sounds nice."
"I truly believe it. I want you to believe it too."
"Yeah..."
After staying in silence for several more minutes, Eliot decided to get something off his chest. He felt rather bad about something, and he really needed to apologize for it.
"Ayane?"
"What?"
The two still stayed in their earlier positions, him hugging her, and her forehead resting on her knees as she hugged her legs.
"I feel pretty bad about attacking you without warning earlier... so, I'm sorry."
"Oh yeah. You did attack me, didn't you?" She had forgotten about that little thing. But now that he had brought it up, she never did figure out why he had. "Why did you do that anyways?"
"You looked like you needed a fight, so I figured I'd give you one."
"That was why? How thoughtful of you. But you know, I could have used a punching bag more."
"Yeah, I thought that too, but then I realized that your punches hurt... a lot..."
She giggled at that.
"I don't hit that hard."
He smiled.
Seeing that she seemed to be cheered up... ish, he broke the hug and pulled away from her. She frowned, she wasn't exactly pleased at him breaking the hug. She may not need the hug anymore, but it still felt kind of nice. To be fair, she didn't receive too many hugs in her life. But even though she still wanted to be hugged, she wasn't about to admit that to him. Thus, she stayed silent about it.
She leaned back, now resting her head against the wall. She released her hold on her legs, allowing them to extend outward.
"Ayane, I'm sorry you got hurt."
She gave him a soft smile.
"Thank you."
She leaned her body against his, laying her head down on his shoulder. This caused the boy's cheeks to turn bright red.
'Why did I just do that!?' Unbeknownst to the boy, her cheeks had also turned red. 'Why am I still doing this!?' This was not her style. She didn't know why she did this, it just happened. She didn't know why she was staying like that either.
Eliot was about to say something, however, before he could...
"Ayane!" They both heard a voice shouting for her.
She sat up. She recognized the voice. It belonged to...
"Hayate?"
"I thought ninjas were supposed to be stealthy." Eliot scratched the top of his head. "Shouting isn't very stealthy."
"We're off duty right now." She informed him.
"Does it really work that way?"
"Ayane!" Another shout from Hayate.
"Why is he looking for me?"
"Maybe," Eliot spoke up, bringing her attention to him, "He actually does care about you. Whether that is as a brother or a friend I don't know. But maybe you should go find out." He gave her a reassuring smile.
She looked a little troubled about going to him, so Eliot said.
"He came out looking for you. You should figure out why, or else you'll regret it."
She smiled at him, "Right!" She stood up.
She started running off in the direction of Hayate's voice, but then suddenly stopped. She turned enough to look at the boy.
"Wait, I have one more question."
"What?"
"Why were you even out here?"
"Oh, that..." He gave an awkward smile. "Well, I was-"
"Ayane!" The boy was cutoff by another shout from Hayate.
"Go. I'll tell you next time."
She narrowed her eyes at him and frowned.
"Fine, but you better tell me next time we meet." She ran off after saying that.
He watched her fading form with a smile on his face.
"Well," He stood up, stretching his arms, "Back to it I guess..."
A/N: The End! I hope you all enjoyed this story from me!
So, I'm sort of stuck in a ship circle with these characters. I ship Ayane with Eliot, but I also ship Ayane with Hayate. I ship Hayate with Ayane, but I also ship Hayate with Hitomi. I ship Hitomi with Hayate, but I also ship Hitomi with Eliot. I ship Eliot with Hitomi, but I also ship Eliot with Ayane. See, one big circle. Although, I think that I lean more toward Eliot x Ayane, and Hayate x Hitomi.
Now, I'm not saying Eliot can beat Ayane in a fight. As the story explained, there were several things that put him at the advantage. The biggest thing was her 'Rage' reached the point beyond her control.
If they felt out of character, then I apologize.
Well, that's it for this.
Bye!