Hi again! I'm back with a new TKK story. An idea suddenly popped into my head and I decided to try something new. When it comes to the recent TKK movie, everyone writes about Dre, Cheng and MeiYing, but whatabout Dre's best friend (who is usually forgotten), Harry? Here's my take on what happened to him after the movie. Don't fret, guys. It won't take long. It's just a one-shot.

Disclaimer: I still don't own it and I don't think I ever will...

A Silver Lining

"What? You can't come? Why?"

A male teen's voice echoed off the empty school corridors, save for the owner of the voice and his friend. Silence overwhelmed them for a second or two before the other person replied.

"I…I have some training to do with Mr. Han. I'm joining this year's kung fu tournament again and I wanna make sure that I'm ready enough to make it to the finals. You know, buff up these guns," he flexed his arms. "You're my best friend, Harry. You'll understand, right?"

Harry grumbled. "It's not fair. You never hang out with me as much as we used to ever since you won the kung fu tournament. It's always Mr. Han this and Mr. Han that. Then you're busy competing with Cheng in his dumb challenges. Then there's Mei Ying. The girl is off limits, Dre. She's been hanging out with you more than practicing her violin or studying."

"Woah, woah, wait a second," Dre stopped in his tracks, causing the blonde to halt too. His face displayed a mixture of annoyance and suspicion, which is hard to imagine but he somehow made it possible. "Since when did you ever care about Mei's studies?"

Harry shrugged. "It doesn't matter who I'm talking about Dre. The main thing is you're straining our friendship with everyone else."

"I am NOT straining our friendship," Dre cried. "Dude, what the hell is up with you? You've been whining about all this ever since I won the tournament."

"Me whining? How about you and Mei Ying becoming each other's distractions?"

"And that's another thing. What is up with you and Mei Ying? Do you have something against her? No wait…" Dre's eyes narrowed. "Do you like her?"

Harry's own eyes widened at that and he shifted from one foot to another awkwardly. "Uh…yeah, I like her and all, but don't get me wrong, Dre. I have no feelings for her whatsoever. It's just that you've been spending time with her more than me. You're my bro, Dre and I'd hate to lose you to some girl."

This clearly infuriated Dre and the black boy started back on his foot and walked off, leaving Harry behind. A few feet ahead, he turned around and said, "She's not just a girl, Harry. She's amazing. I wish you could see that and understand how I feel about her." He waited for Harry to respond but the boy only looked down in silence, making no indication to answer. Dre sighed in frustration and left just as a few students walking down the corridors passed by him.

Harry watched his best friend go his own way and sighed. Life sure sucks sometimes.

Before Dre came to China, he was a 'nobody'. The local kids called him 'The White Boy From The West' or 'Yellow Hair'. He had no friends but he managed to converse with a few of them by learning Chinese. This brought some good to him but more bad especially when he ran into Cheng and his gang by accident.

From then on, they had picked on him every single time they crossed paths and Cheng made sure to have everyone around them watch him humiliate Harry to tears and leave him with bruises. Harry was terrified of him. He had felt so alone and often lied in his mother's arms whenever he got injured.

His mother would stroke his head every night and tell him that everything would be alright, that life in China would turn out great, that things would get better in time as there is a silver lining behind every cloud. Harry held on to those words and prayed every day that it would come.

Then, two years later, and out of the blue, Dre came along and proved to be a really good friend and someone trustworthy. Harry had believed that Dre was his silver lining.

He tried to help Dre get use to the place and advised him to learn the local language. He even invited Dre to play basketball at the playground with some of the other kids just to invoke some familiarity in the new kid since Dre felt out of place in the new land.

He even tried to help Dre get together with Mei Ying. This was when he brought the dark clouds back on himself when he forgot about Cheng's threats, resulting in his new friend making an enemy with the playground bully on his very first day. He had meant to do good but ended up hurting Dre in the end. It was because of this that Dre wanted to learn kung fu so he could defeat Cheng.

By sheer luck, Mr. Han saved Dre from Cheng and took the boy under his wing and it was even more so that the maintenance man just happened to be a kung fu expert.

This led to a series of events that ended with Dre coming out as the champion of the kung fu competition, earning respect from Cheng and his Fighting Dragon mates, and finally getting the girl.

Mei Ying.

It all started because of her. Harry had thought she was pretty and friendly at first but now he secretly resented the thought of her. She took his only friend away and now that Dre is famous, other kids including Cheng would not leave them alone. Harry had spent less and less time with Dre after that but he still stood up to support him in all those challenges that Cheng had set up.

Mei Ying. Mr. Han. Cheng.

What about Harry? Didn't Dre care about him?

"I wish I could just leave this place and go back to America," Harry said to himself when he was sitting alone on one of the playground benches after school. He would usually go there to think and contemplate about his life.

"Then, by all means, leave," said a familiar voice. A small chuckle followed soon after.

Harry whipped his head around to find the former playground bully staring back at him, with that famous smirk he usually preferred to wear over a smile.

Cheng plopped himself on the bench. "What are you talking about, Blondie?"

Harry grimaced at Cheng's favourite nickname for him. "Nothing. It's nothing concerning you."

"Don't talk crap with me, Harry. I heard what you said. Are you and Dre at it again?" he said knowingly.

'How does he know about this?' Harry thought. "I told you. It's none of your business."

Cheng made no effort to leave and pressed on, "Dre told me about your PMS-ing and I just came here to clear everything up. Now you better tell me what's wrong or I'll punch your eyes out of your sockets." He balled his fist and held it up to Harry's face, making the latter gulp anxiously.

Harry tried to hide his nervousness. Although Cheng hung out with them a lot nowadays, he still couldn't get over his fear of the bigger kid and he never felt comfortable to be around Cheng without Dre. "Dre and I just had a little fight. It's not a big issue, really."

Cheng furrowed his eyebrows. "You know, Harry. I consider you as one of my friends now since any friend of Dre is also a friend of mine. So, if you have a problem, I want to help you."

When Harry seemed unconvinced, he rolled his eyes, "I'm not a monster, okay? Look, if it makes you feel any better, I'm sorry for picking on you before. Let's just forget the past."

Harry let out a long a breath that he didn't realize he had pent up. He shook his head, embarrassed to be letting out his problems to the one kid that used to terrify him. Oh, what a coincidence! It couldn't get any better.

"Dre and I had an argument about…" Harry paused.

Cheng raised an eyebrow, expecting him to continue.

"It-it was my fault, I guess. I must've felt jealous of his new friends. I felt…threatened that I would lose my best buddy. I'd felt he was spending way too much time with them and hardly with me. I thought he'd rather hang out with you and your kung fu group more than me."

Cheng didn't say a word. He just listened to whatever Harry had to say.

"I thought I could never be accepted by your group like Dre 'cause I don't know any kung fu. Anyway, I'm not the famous kid who'd beaten you in the competition. Everybody likes Dre now. Nobody cares about me. To them, I'm just the yellow haired friend of Dre. I guess I'm not a really good friend, am I? Dre's got much cooler kids to hang out with than me."

Harry looked up to see Cheng deep in thought. He waited for the Chinese boy to say something. It seemed a long time before he did.

"You know, Harry. I think you've got a low self esteem," he began. Harry felt slightly offended by his statement and was about to retort but Cheng went on, "I think you need to stop having self-pity and go find other people to talk to. You seem to be depending too much on Dre to keep you company. He's got a life too, you know."

Harry blushed furiously. "It's easy for you to say. After all, he's hanging out with you."

"At least I've got my other mates to talk to if Dre's not around. I am the leader of my own gang, Harry. I don't need to follow Dre everywhere I go."

"So are you saying I should get a gang?" Harry felt unsure about this. He couldn't even join in any conversation in school, be it among the Chinese kids or the foreign kids. They never bothered to invite him in their conversations anyway.

"I'm saying you should open up and try getting along with everyone else. How do you expect people to come to you when you don't approach them first? Not just in school, but anywhere. You can make tons of them if you just take a walk outside of school instead of moping about in the playground."

Harry was surprised. Who would have thought that someone like Cheng could be so wise? 'Maybe there is more to this kid than meets the eye,' he thought.

"Dre said that I don't understand his feelings for Mei Ying." He could feel himself treading on dangerous waters as Cheng's forehead creased and his face tensed up. "Wh-what do you think about them?"

"What do you care about what I think of them?" he snapped, his change of tone so sudden that it caught Harry off guard.

In normal circumstances, he would have apologized and backed off for asking such a personal question but he remained calm this time. Maybe he felt more comfortable to do so after opening up to the other about his current dilemma, something he had never done before.

"I just want to know," Harry shrugged. "I like Mei Ying but I kind of regret helping Dre ask her out. You like Mei Ying too, don't you?"

Cheng didn't answer. He seemed to be having a monologue in his mind. His eyes closed and he took a deep breath. Harry waited.

"I admit, it's difficult, painful even, to see them together," Cheng finally spoke. "I like Dre and have the utmost respect for him but…I care about Mei. Our parents are close and we may have quarreled a lot but she's like…she's like a little sister to me. I felt it was my duty to take care of her but now, I don't quite see her as my sister anymore. It's scary, these feelings of mine. I never wanted them to change but it just happens, I guess."

"Is that the reason why you picked on Dre in the first place?"

Cheng stared at Harry, trying to decide whether or not to tell him. He sighed.

"Yeah, you're right. I was jealous. I didn't think. I just went up to them and yelled at Mei. Then Dre got on my nerves so I resolved my anger the way I always did. I beat him up. I felt bad about it at first but I was so scared to lose Mei that I ignored my conscience. My old kung fu master taught us the motto, 'Buneng xinruan (No mercy)'."

Harry put a hand on Cheng's in a comforting way, "It's okay. We all make mistakes. I'm sure Mei Ying has forgiven you."

Cheng looked down. For some time, the two of them kept quiet, both enjoying the silence and each other's company. The sound of the children laughing and playing on the playground was like a peaceful melody and the pleasant tune engulfed their surroundings.

Up to this day, Harry had never thought that having a talk with Cheng could be quite so comforting. It was nice to be able to confide in someone at times and he felt all his self-pity and misery from earlier that day dissipate.

After what seemed like an hour to Harry, he broke the silence and said, "Thanks, Cheng."

Cheng broke out of his reverie as well and looked up. "For what?"

"For the advice and lending an ear to my complaints," he laughed lightly. "I really appreciate it."

Cheng smiled slightly. "No problem. I'm lucky to be of help."

"I feel honoured too."

"Why?"

"That you'd trust me enough to talk about your feelings towards Mei Ying. I guess I sort of understand Dre now."

Cheng's smile receded. "I wasn't planning to tell you that, Blondie, but you insisted."

"Still, it was interesting to listen to you." He smiled when he saw Cheng frowning. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me."

"Yeah, it better be because if you tell anyone…" Cheng raised his fist again. "I'm not a bully anymore but you better not mess with me."

"I promise." Cheng looked at him suspiciously. Harry held up his pinky finger. "Pinky promise?"

Cheng remembered Dre making those silly pinky promises with Mei Ying before. He even imitated the foolish gesture to him. 'Must be an American thing,' he thought.

Looking around, making sure nobody was watching them, he linked his pinky with Harry's and pulled away a split second later. Harry grinned widely.

"Wipe that smile off your face, Blondie," Cheng grunted. "This doesn't mean we're best friends now or anything."

"I know," Harry said. "But I'm still happier now, thanks to you."

"Yeah, well, I'll best be leaving now before anyone sees us talking," Cheng got up. "Remember what I said, Harry. Don't be mad at Dre, alright?"

Harry nodded.

"Good luck." With a swift turn of the head, he headed off towards the basketball court and hollered at some of the players there. "Hey! Wo yao wan! (I want to play!)"

Harry smiled inwardly as he watched them play, pleased with his newfound friendship with Cheng, as he would like to call it, despite what the other boy said. Maybe, just maybe, he had finally found the silver lining behind those clouds.

So, what do you think? Please leave a review or a comment so I can improve. If you're too lazy to, fine, but thanks for reading anyway.

~talking-hat~