A/N: SSMUS50S!

CHAPTER X

Lili

My laughter was something I hadn't intended to surface yet I felt so off guard at the moment. Maybe that rum had done more than just a headache on me after all. I swayed my hand in front of Asuka, signaling her to not mind me. "Nothing. No, it's just, you don't even know my shopping habits yet you're already so worried about coming along with me." I said honestly. It was a common horror in the Rochefort Household when I announce that I'm going shopping and I need companions to help me with my buying's.

"I have to be honest with you, Asuka Kazama, but I feel like it's a mistake I even brought you along." I wipe a silly tear off my eye with the face of my wrist. My laughter had staggered short and by now I was back to a composed disposition.

Asuka's eyebrows twisted. "Why? Did you wanted someone else to bring along?"

"No-

"You wanted to bring Leo along didn't you?"

Now it was my turn to have twisted eyebrows. She's been awfully mentioning Leo's name over the last hour. I wanted to try and make a reason why, but my thoughts are failing me. The rum is causing toxic blurriness inside my thoughts.

By reflex, my hand brushes the long side bangs at my left and attempt to tuck it in between my fingers. "You misunderstood me Asuka. I only meant to say that you might get tired coming with me. Everyone finds my shopping eccentric quite a trial to handle."

Asuka's mouth opened in a big circle, surprise catching up in her maybe? Then she managed to fix it into a side frown. "Ah, is that so…" Why, what did she expected? "Don't worry about it, you ate the rum raisin, this is the least I can do to pay you back." She started to look uncomfortable, and I can't be sure that I'm actually hearing her curse under her breath.

She must really be in a bad mood today. And I was planning to make her carry my shopping, but I might invoke more of her temper. With the fuzziness I'm feeling because of the rum, I'm quite sure I'm not in the frame of mind to handle the great all short-fused Asuka Kazama.

"So, uh, where do you buy here?" Asuka interrupted my thought. She appeared calmed now. She pointed at the road ahead of us. Gone were the houses and here replaced are lines of window shops, displaying the multifarious products for sale. Garments, accessories and jewelries, flaunted into wall sized windows next to old wooden doors. The walls were covered in scallops and bricks. The tarps above the door and window having name signs of the shop.

Instead of remembering the shop I frequented here, my thoughts travel to a certain store that I should not really go to. It brought surprise to my body how I even let the image cross my mind. I thought I had gotten over it, but being here again, in Venice, it seems to haunt me still. It was not right, even in the presence of Asuka, how could that reach me?

"Let's not go too far, the shops in the first block look to have enough fashion for my liking."

Asuka snorted. "That sounds like the best news for today."

I glare at her then, I look at the time in the central clock above a nearby lamp post. "How unfortunate Asuka, if we didn't need to be back in two hours, I would have you spend the night with me here."

If I hadn't turned my attention back to Asuka, I would have missed how her body winced at the first drop of my sentence. She shifted her gaze to me, eyed me with a look of mix confusion and, quite unexplainable to me –disbelief. Her body language felt so unnerved, like she had just heard something that would inevitably change everything she knew. She would rather choose to travel back in time and not hear it at all for the sake of keeping sane.

"What?" I scowled at her. What did I blab to get that kind of reaction?

"I gotta say, Lili, you have a way of making your words sound…" Her eyes roll around, obviously trying to choose the right term. "Double-meant."

"Double-meant? What does that supposed to mean?"

"Double-meant means that whatever you meant to say doesn't come out what it means, because they sound like they have two meanings. You know what I mean?"

I consciously tilt my head to the left. "Redundant, Asuka. And no, I do not do double-meant." I air quote the last part.

"Well then you have to be more careful with your word choice if you want me to be the last one to tell you this."

"Careful with my word choice? I'm not the one who keeps speaking in a dialect with radical word slurs."

Asuka waved her hand in the air. "Not that kind of word choice, dummy."

"Then what are we even talking about?"

The ebony with me started to sigh, her shoulders slumping in defeat. "Repeat what you said before you asked me what." I gave her a quizzical look. "Come on, just repeat it, and this time hear it for yourself." She nudged me.

It wasn't hard to collect the words I've just said in a matter of less than two minutes. "How unfortunate Asuka, if we didn't need to be back in two hours, I would have you spend the night with me here."

"Well then? Did you or did you not catch the double meaning?"

I roll back the words in my tongue, reaping the hollows of their meaning, word-by-word, then it strikes me.
"I was being sarcastic." I rapidly defend myself.

Asuka smiled, like she just won the lottery. "Told ya."

"That's barely considerable given the fact that I did not purposefully inject that underhanded conundrum."

"You weren't even going for it, but you did so well! Now I'm starting to wonder how many people you've confused just by speaking!" Asuka said the words with a burst of laughter.

"For the record, Asuka Kazama, you're the first one to say this to me. And shouldn't you be ashamed that you actually pick up that up?"

Asuka laughed again. "Please tell me you're joking, Lili, anyone who didn't hear the rest of the conversation would think that that was a booty call!"

My whole body went rigid, coating me in embarrassment. "Asuka Kazama!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry" She defended, holding her hands out like a shield from me.

"Your head is stuck in the gutter Kazama."

"No, it occasionally drops there, but yours, I'm sure it's drowned." She started to make another round of slight laughter. I exhaled and rubbed my forehead, the dulling ache from the rum is starting to worsen after what she just made me think through.

"Oh, you ok?" Asuka stopped laughing and tried to hold my arm but stopped mid-way, putting her hand down again. "I know you need the clothes, but you're starting to look bad."

There's no reason for me to deny it anymore. "Yes, my headache escalated to unbearable now. No thanks to you Kazama."

"Like I'd have a way to make your head to hurt." Asuka dead-panned.

"No, but the ice cream you chose sure does."

Asuka tsked. "Right, forgot about that…so, uhm, want to buy some medicine?"

I stopped rubbing on my forehead. "Yes."

She viewed around the proximate shops. "I don't see where we can buy meds here."

"There's a Farmacia at the end of this block." I point straight to the left, and started to walk on that direction. Asuka followed me without speaking anymore, it must be because she thinks my head would hurt more if she tries to tire me out. But, I really wanted her to just keep talking, it would be a good distraction to the continual thumping at my temples. The side shops and the bustle of bikers and people around the street melted into the background of my mind. My eyes were starting to sting and the flinch of nausea is dimly pushing through my throat.

I hardly have enough balance when I felt a gloved hand go around mine and carefully slip fingers between my own. The clutch came light, taking a grab every second on, until the hold is tight enough to support me.

"Thanks" I say without looking, knowing exactly the owner of the smaller hand in hold of mine.

"No problem. I got you, Princess." Her voice, spoken in a mellow tone carried the smile she made.

It's really unfair, how calm she speaks with her sweet talks. How calm is everything for her, while I half manage to control the urge to ask her to just embrace me right now. How calm and unaffected she is while she walks and pulls on my hand, while I wish that she just never lets go. How, those obviously play fling words of her makes my chest jolt and my body giddy. It's just unfair, that my mind has no thoughts but of her, and my entire body reacts to her even when I don't want it to.

I close my eyes and try to shut away all these convulsing thoughts.

"Hey, hey" I can feel Asuka shaking my hand. I open my eyes and look at her. Standing at my right, her eyebrows are up in tension. "Are you going to faint? Tell me if you're going to faint."

I shake my head lightly, cautious not to trigger any more throbbing. "I just needed to close my eyes –there's the Farmacia." We stop at the corner of the street. The word Farmacia glowing in green, next to a metallic embossed cross, wipes downward on the left red-bricked wall of a square, but tall building. We enter the Pharmacy and find ourselves in a cold, white painted interior. The spacious store only had two shelves on each side, and the counter taking up the whole part of the back. Ladies of age were speaking in frenetic Italian about their health issues with the desk pharmacist. Their loud voices causes another throb in my temples. I walked to the vacant cashier and asked for Efferalgan, the Italian equivalent of Tylenol. It's a tablet that you dissolve in water to drink, so I asked for a bottle of water to go with.

*Sour Grape*

Later on, we find ourselves in an alfresco dining at a stone-baked pastry café.

"So, I guess, you'll still need to borrow clothes." Asuka talked after taking three bites from her ham and cheese puff.

After finishing my dose of Efferalgan; I close the cap of my water bottle. With a dainty wipe of tissue on my mouth, it took me a moment more to reply to Asuka. Too much of a moment for her to actually get another two bites on her bread.

"Times an enemy. We need to get back in half an hour now, that won't be enough for me to choose anything at all."

"Not even a pair of jeans?"

"As long as I can elude it, I don't prefer to be in the garments of jeans."

"You don't wear pants?"

"I do. I have my own personal tailor to make ones for me, I never buy them anywhere else."

It went fast like a snap of a finger. Asuka's brown eyes lost its attention on her half-eaten bread and rested solely on me. She gazed intently upon me, the expression on her face giving away a curious look.

"Is it because she has sensitive skin…" She said out of nowhere, addressing me in second person. I watch her as she moves her stare at all the bare skin that was not covered by my clothes. At first, I saw a flicker of something so close to desire in her look, but I know better than to trust my instincts. Of course, my instincts would deceive me to see that! "I wonder just how sensitive -

My headache is gone but now I feel out of breath from what I'm hearing. The meaning of her words wrap around me like a blanket, giving me warmth. A very uncomfortable warmth "What are you going at?" I split between her words.

Asuka's eyes blink repeatedly and all of a sudden, she slaps two hands on her mouth and this time I actually hear her curse so many times.

"Stop cursing. You're disrupting the other customers." I scold her after I find ourselves the center of glances from people sitting at other tables. Asuka did stop. She groaned and looked at me, a hint of blush forming on her porcelain cheeks before she turns and eats her bread in one mouthful.

"I…I was just joking. Sorry, it was lame…" Asuka tried to explain. Her hand reaching behind her head to tousle the short ebony hair.

Of course, she was joking, see Emilie? Your instincts needs to get a life.

"Good grief, Kazama. Spare me your lousy humor." Honestly, Asuka, please don't say anything more like that again, especially not as a joke!

"I can trade that with your Princess etiquette. I won't commit any more stupid jokes as long as you don't act all courteous with me."

Stupid Joke? Is that what it was to her? "If that's what it takes, Kazama. You have my agreement."

Asuka smiled proud at my answer. "Cool. So, how bout' we start are track back now?"

"We might as well." We leave the café and made our way back to the Gondola docks. Asuka steps in front of me before we board the boat.

"Does your head still hurt?"

"No. I feel perfectly fine now."

Asuka opened her mouth then closed it fast again. "What is it?" I asked her.

"Would you let the fatso sing now?" She tilted her head to the stout man who was going to be our Gondolier for this ride.

I smiled at her enthusiasm. It only came to me that she must have been disappointed at the first ride because I didn't let the Gondolier sing. "Ok, Asuka. He can sing now."

"Awesome." She sank to the seat of the boat and made room for me to sit beside her. The Gondolier moves us to the lake and starts to sing the Italian folk song of Santa Lucia. Being a passenger of these boats for a decade in and out, I have come to familiarize myself with the song. A strong hymned and easy flowing melody that comes out in the hard, and deep voice of our Gondolier. The song remains intact with certain memories in my head.

My mind had gone away from the ride a second time, and Asuka had to repeat a question three times before I understood what she was asking me. "Do you have clothes other than the ones you brought here?"

"Yes. I left them to Sebastian's care back at Japan."

"Would it be enough until the end of the tournament?"

I tried to calculate the remaining days of the tournament. 2 more weeks. I have more than enough clothes to last until then. "Why do you ask?"

"What kind of answer is that?"

"A question to your question. So, why so curious?"

Asuka growled before answering. "Cause' I'll come with you if still need to go shopping."

My eyebrow quirks with her offer. "Wonderful. Since we'll be docking at Tokyo Bay, I would take the opportunity to go around Odaiba and have you as my personal guide."

"Odaiba is a giant commercial hole, but I think you'd love it at Venus Fort inside Palette Town. Its European inspired from what I know, plus they boast that they have more than three hundred brand shops." Asuka covered her face with her hand. She shakes her head in a dismay matter. "I just signed in for a hell trip."

"Congratulations. We'll make it worth your while." I shrewdly smile at Asuka, who sighed before giving me her cricked up smile.

*Sour Grape*

"Why are the two of you together?" Is what Ling Xiaoyu welcomed Asuka and I after seeing us walk our way back to the ship. We were standing at the edge of the ladder, Xiaoyu in a white sleeveless hoodie and matching black skirt and low-cut boots, stands in front of us. Her hands crossed at her chest and her face creased with suspicion.

Interesting. What to do? I steal a mild glance at Asuka, careful not to let Xiaoyu see it. It won't do any good for her imaginations to be fueled further. Asuka stands at my right side, her eyes focused on Xiaoyu moves for a second to share glances with me and then she's back to the Chinese in front of us.

"We'd rather not talk about it Xiaoyu…" Asuka tried to speak calmly but anyone would hear the hesitancy in her voice.

Asuka was far from saying the correct answer, she merely heightened the present notion about us. Xiaoyu squeezed her eyes and studied us like an interrogator waiting for the suspect to confess his crimes.

"Ugh, alright, I…just rejected Lili." Asuka spat out, waving her hand on my direction. I twist my head to let her see the non-approval washed on my face.

"What?!" I said in unison with Xiaoyu. Asuka looked to and fro between us. Her expression is a deer caught in headlights.

"Why are you surprised too?" Xiaoyu pointed her index at me.

"Because…" I look at Asuka. She flaps her hand upward in a gesture for me to play along her excuse. "Because we decided to not let anyone know. You can never tell this to anyone, Ling Xiaoyu."

Xiaoyu's hands come down and her hard expression turns into a sympathetic look. "Oh, Lili, I'm so sorry." She jumps on me and embraces me. "It must have been hard for you to take that."

I stand still in the surprising, yet very consoling embrace that she lent me. For a moment, I let myself go in the heart of her comfort. It felt so nice to have someone look after me again.

"And you, Asuka…I can't even start to think how evil you are to choose a place like Venice to break Lili's heart!" Xiaoyu reprimanded her while simultaneously patting me in the back.

I smiled inwardly at the way Asuka was clearly at lost for a reaction. It's time for me to do something. "We have to stop this now if we are to hold on to this secret." I pulled away from Xiaoyu at arm's length and gave her a smile that I hope would tell her that I appreciate what she did just now.

"Lili, keeping this a secret would only make it hard for you. I don't want you acting like everything's good and happy when someone outright pulverized your feelings." She gave Asuka a poisonous stare at the end of her sentence.

"If you want to make it up to me for even starting this situation, Xiaoyu, you will keep this as a secret."

She looked amid my eyes, maybe hopeful of changing my mind. I did my best to stay concrete at my resolute, and she gave up. Xiaoyu nodded twice. "Ok, but you can come for me when you need someone to talk to."

"I will keep that in mind." I added as a measure of reassurance.

Asuka tried to join the conversation again after the settlement. "Uh, what about me?" She pointed both hands to herself.

Xiaoyu carried the poison of her stare to her words when she told Asuka. "Talk to your cousin. I'm sure Jin can teach you something about being sensitive with other's feelings." She then gave me another fast embrace before leaving us at the ladder.

Asuka regards at her leaving figure. "She thinks I'm a jerk now."

"That would be an improvement, comparing how she once called you worse with the A."

Asuka talked with controlled annoyance in her smile. "Not helping."

I shrugged my shoulders. "Didn't intend to."

*Sour Grape*

For the rest of that day, Asuka and I resolved to be as part apart from the whole trip back to Japan. We needed to be distant for the sake of Xiaoyu believing that Asuka is a walking heartless woman and I'm her new victim. There is some truth in that anyways.

"Lili?" I heard the small voice of Leo, so close to my neck that her breath almost made me jump from surprise.

"Yes?" I quickly fake a yawn before she starts wanting to have a conversation.

Though that doesn't stop her. "Is it true that Asuka rejected you?"

I heard the bed make a sound as she sits up in the bed and looks down at me. I concentrated my gaze to the wall at my right. I trusted Xiaoyu, but I know by experience how she can slip on her words. "Did Xiaoyu tell you?" I needed to ask Leo.

"No, no. Kazuya did. Xiaoyu actually convinced everyone that he was just making it up. I believed her, but Zafina told me she can see through the lies."

The information sends me to sit up as well. "How?" I asked in faze.

"She says it's because she's an astronomer." Leo answered and looked at me. She saw the confusion at my face and lifted her hands in the air. "See, I told her she didn't make any sense."

"No. I mean how did Kazuya know?" I asked again, in detail.

"Oh, he said he overheard you guys while he was sleeping under the ladders."

I cringe at the thought of him eavesdropping below our feet. "He was sleeping under the ladders?"

"Yeah, he said it was shadier than the dock."

"As shady as he is." I said a matter-of-fact.

"Wait, so Zafina was right? It is true?"

Time to play the rejected victims card. "I don't really want to talk about it Leo." I strained to sound as sad as I can muster.

"Of course, you're heartbroken." Leo hit the center of her forehead with the lump of her wrist. "Sorry, I didn't mean to make it hard for you." Her big blue eyes locked with mine and I can see the genuine consideration for me. I must admit that for the people who started this mess, I never put an opinion that they may truly care for me as well.

The same thing as I did for Xiaoyu, I wanted to assure Leo that she need not be sad about this. Especially because it's all a lie. "It's ok-

"LEO!" The bedroom door unhinges from the lock and opens with a burst of air that sends my hair and blankets away. A scream comes along with the wind, carrying a voice full of tremor and rage.

Leo screams in fear and clutches at my forearm. "Zafina, what are you doing here?" She shrinks away behind me, using me as a human shield from the woman with a shaking livid body in a whole white nightgown.

"Just give it back Leo, and I won't hurt you." Zafina spoke with a hidden menace in her calm words.

"I…I don't know what you're talking about!" Leo answered, still hiding behind me.

Zafina's eyes twisted into a cold stare. She walked to the side of the bed and drew Leo away from me, grafting her to the floor. In a flash, Leo was on her back at the cold wood as Zafina straddles her in the stomach and pulls her red shirt by the collar.

"This is my T-shirt Leo, I don't remember allowing you to borrow it." Leo swallowed her breath in fear. Sweat started to come in bullets at her forehead. Zafina slid her body down to Leo's feet and pulls at the waistband of Leo's knee length black flannel pants. "And I was conjecturing where my favorite PJ's were."

I heard the loud whimper of Leo as she did her best to stand up and get away from Zafina, but the black haired beauty held her by her ankle and dropped her back to the floor in a loud clunk. "I've already warned you, this is a battle you won't walk away from Leo!"

"Wait" I raised my hand to stop the impending fight.

"Oh, you were still here?" Zafina cuffed Leo in her hands. "Leave for the moment, death has come to judge this fool."

Leo slapped her in the arm and fell on her side at the floor. "What do you mean death? You can't kill me for a pair of pajamas!"

"No. I would kill you for taking what's mine without asking for permission." Zafina readied into a long leg split attack. She stood in such a position, waiting for Leo to ready into her own attack.

The German made a jump stand with her hands as a spring. "My bad Lili, I guess you need to step out until we get this over with."

And like so, the door closed and locked in front of my face. It was cold and foggy outside and the moon was a shining disk amongst the thick clouds. I wrapped my body in the blanket I came outside with and rubbed my hands on the wool of the cream jacket that I borrowed from Leo. Several minutes I stood and awaited the end of their fight, wishing every second that the door would open and let me escape this freezing outdoor.

I could hear punches, and frissons, and throwing from inside the door, and at first I doubted that I could hear running. Footsteps coming closer to me. The feel of someone near me caught my attention. When I looked at the end of the hall, right next to the stairs, Asuka was walking fast towards me.

"I've been hearing some ruckus, what's going on?" She sputtered as her hands rested on her thighs to help her catch her breath. She wore a short cotton shorts and a light blue top.

"Zafina giving Leo a catatonic retribution." I said, staring at the still locked door. "She procured Zafina's clothes without requesting. I think it's because I've been using her clothes so she had to take Zafina's to have something to dress for herself."

"Ah, this is why I don't like it that you're borrowing her clothes." Asuka exhilarated with a comb of her hand through her chestnut unruly hair.

That's one thing I had not considered. "You don't like it that I borrow Leo's clothes?"

"What! Did I say that out loud?" Asuka's face whitened, horror appearing clear across.

"Indeed you have. So, you're not going to deny it?"

Asuka prepares to give me an answer when a loud crash goes inside the room and another sound familiar to wood cracking. Asuka looked concerned at the door and pointed at it with her thumb. "How bout' we wait in my room until this stops? It's cold out here."

Well, exciting answer put aside, my weak tendency for the cold has reached its limit. "I thought you'd never ask."

*Sour Grape*

I was naked.

I was naked under a piece of white towel when I first entered this room. Now I'm fully garbed in a jacket and tight pants, but the same feelings of jolting stomach and heart racing is not different from the first.

Screech.

I look around and found Asuka sit at the bed, a considerable distance from where I am.

Screech.

We both look up, understanding the source of the sound. "It's from the bed." Asuka says.

"I'm afraid they're breaking everything inside there. What if they completely demolish the bed and Leo and I would be forced to sleep on the floor?" I chortled after I said my thoughts. "That is the most disgusting thing I ever imagined."

"So you two sleep together in the bed?" if not for the honest curiosity of her tone, I would think that it was a joke she was asking me such a question. Why would I share a room with anyone if not for that one reason?

"Yes, and unfortunately it's much fitted and Leo gets skintight by the time she's deep in her dreams. I can't complain about that though, not after she lent me her room and her clothes and besides, Leo falls off the bed by morning and I have it all to myself then."

Asuka remained quiet after I stopped talking. The atmosphere that seemed so welcoming for a while became heavy in a down pour. The easy read of night relax on Asuka was gone and now she wore a near indifferent mask as she stared at the cabinet opposite the bed, as if forgetting that I was inside the room with her.

Did I say something wrong? I wondered as I grasped to make sense of her sudden shift in mood. Only with that deep thinking did I comprehend that the sounds of fighting had stalled. I stared up at the ceiling and listened for the noise that never came.

"I better get up now. Surely, Leo would need some help to bed." I announced nonchalantly toward Asuka.

I don't think she would respond until I reach the door and she starts talking. "You should give her the bed to rest for the night. If Zafina beat her up good then its best she has all the bed to sleep on."

"That is a good suggestion. Only one problem, where do you intend me to sleep?"

Asuka's indifference disappears and replaced in her face is the light coloration of red and a shy appearance. She made a rather small nod to her bed, so small that I would not have seen it if I were not paying attention. No, Emilie, you should not.

"I'll see to Leo first." I leave the room and head up to Leo. As I open the door, I see Leo on her stomach at the bed. Her body weak as a sick person and her clothes changed into her usual fighting attire. She lifts her head when she notices my figure at the door.

"Lili, ouch, ahh…Zafina won, but don't worry, she didn't hurt me an inch, haha, just help yourself to bed." She smiled and I'm convinced that she was faking it. It was obvious by the way her feet were unable to move and her hand unable to balance her correctly that she hurt everywhere.

"It's ok Leo. I'll sleep someplace else for tonight. Get some rest and appeal for a rematch with Zafina tomorrow."

"Huh? Where will you sleep?" Leo's head raised a bit above the mattress, and she did her best to keep her slight swollen eyes open.

"At…Xiaoyu's room." I'm sorry for all the lies.

It must be the pain and fatigue that caused her to accept it without hesitation. "Ok then, good nigh…" Leo falls into slumber before being able to finish her message. I turn around from the door and close it back to its frame.

I inhale sharply and slowly let the air out. And then, after the quickest sprint of my life, I knock on Asuka's door. She opens it, and I come in.

Romak 1997: No, unfortunately I haven't been to Florence or any part in Italy. It's real far away from my country and very expensive to go to, but I love Italy just by looking at pictures and videos, I do hope to visit there once in my life :D Hoh, Thank you, Lili gets the upper hand for once ;) Will be returning to Tekken but theres going to be more Europen Chapters after that.

Sneeringflame: She doesn't even know she's making her jealous XD, well, not really that intriguing huh...

Mhuki: Yeah, I like it too. More cliffhangers! yipee!

Nutellaholic: Haha, well I think I didn't say it directly but Asuka was at that conversation about who Lili would stay with, she was just being quiet in a corner though XD Oh, we all love bed scenes don't we;) *winks suggestively* I'm getting a hang on that blonde :D Italy is just too beautiful not to describe in justice! I think unless you're a regular alcohol drinker you'd get a headache too if you eat two giant scoops of Rum ice cream, the rum they put on gelato is too strong for a non drinker XD more cliffhangers! cliffhangers!

AsukaEnergetic1: Haha, oh yes, no mercy with jealousy! and love instead of awkwardness, I can work with that ;D

DaMastah101: Yup it is :D They did their little tour around Venice and the Stazzione.