JUST FRIENDS
After one more quick and hard jab, the bag burst open and sand immediately began to pour out. He watched it trickle down to the freshly-waxed floor and smirked. He needed to take out his frustration somewhere. Sweat dripped from his forehead and mixed with the sand. He wiped his upper lip with his wrist and turned away from the destroyed punching bag while pulling off the boxing gloves on his hands. He had a good workout, and he was clearly exhausted.
As he marched over to the long, wooden table against the wall across the room, images of a particular young blonde played in his mind. He shook his head, grabbing a cold water bottle from the basket on the table.
She was so young, so naïve. He was too old, too…impaired.
He turned and glanced at the sand on the ground across the room, then wondered just when it was exactly that he began to think such things about this particular young blonde. They hadn't known each other for long, after all; just a couple of months, to be exact. He still couldn't figure out whether it had been fate or coincidence that they had met in a jewelry store in downtown London.
He'd been shopping for a birthday gift for his mother, while she was simply browsing around since her father was stuck in some meeting discussing important business with some British officials. He had asked for her opinion on a piece of jewelry and thus, a friendship bloomed.
He hadn't intended on making friends with her when he'd first spoken to her, but after discovering how cute and charming the girl actually was, he decided it wouldn't be so bad to gain a new friend. She was a lonely girl with a rich father; he was a lonely champion boxer. Both were in need of friends, and both could easily find that in each other. And that was exactly what he thought he had always seen her as: a friend.
So why was he suddenly thinking inappropriate thoughts about her? Inappropriate as in, thoughts of holding her hand, and kissing her? It just didn't feel right. Was he developing…feelings for this girl? He refused to believe it, but somewhere deep down, he knew he was willing to accept it.
He was five years older than the girl, for crying out loud! She would never want to be with someone as old as him…Or would she? She did often flirt with him whenever they went out—as friends, that is. Maybe she was just a natural flirt—she was and is still a teenager.
Steve shook his head again with his eyes closed in frustration, and tried to erase any thoughts of the young girl in his head. Surely, he'd be assassinated on the spot if her father found out his sixteen year-old daughter was dating some twenty-one year-old boxer from England; not that it would happen, of course.
If it did, there was also little to no doubt that the press would have a field day.
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Ah, a new one-shot from me after a pretty long hiatus; not that anyone cares, I'm sure, haha. Did I throw some people off with the summary? lol, I usually write about Xiaoyu and Jin (yeah, yeah, they're my "OTP" as some like to call it--so sue me :P) but I wanted to try something new! Plus, I've always wanted to write something about Steve Fox 'cause he's cool. I was originally planning to write an actual fanfic starring Steve Fox with minor characters like Lili (kind of step out of the whole, "Xiaoyu-Jin-Hwoarang-Asuka" thing), but I realized that I totally suck at finishing stories so I sort of took apart everything and wrote a one-shot about what I had intended for Steve and Lili (which, I know, is an odd pairing, but I thought it'd be fun to write about them and, not to mention, I wanted to write about characters I hardly use) instead. Sorry for this excruciatingly long author's note and as always, please feel free to criticize my work and thanks for taking the time to read this!
