Rag Doll, Harlequin Boy

Disclaimer: I don't own tekken or any of its characters

Thanks to Sachi Gosetsuke, doodles123, Thee Slushee, hibeki, -Kyona-, HWOasUka FORVER! & Estrella.

-Kyona-: Thanks :)

Estrella: Friendship accepted (:

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10:30pm, Mansion

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"So… Hwoarang and Jin are mortal enemies?" Asuka repeated numbly, pressing the cup of herbal tea stiffly in her cold palms.

"Well not exactly mortal," Xiaoyu corrected, placing the kettle in the sink gently, "I think 'rivals' just about sums it up."

"Rivals?" Asuka murmured, "How? How did they meet?"

"Just before he turned nineteen, Mr Mishima sent him and a few members of the MFE to Korea on business. Jin whined to me for about a week about how his grandfather was pressuring him to learn the tricks of the trade, to live up to his name."

Asuka nodded.

"Anyway, once the party reached Korea, they got lost in one of the back alleys and bumped into Hwoarang's street gang, who instantly challenged them."

"What kind of challenge?" she cut in.

"Just an ordinary street-fight. Well, maybe not so ordinary. The first few fighters of the gang would fight against the MFE party, and fight badly - "

"Why?"

"Jin told me that it was a trick to make them believe that they were purposely this bad. The bet would raise to all-for-all on the last match, where Hwoarang would step in and win the match. Except, he didn't win the match."

"He lost?" Asuka guessed.

"No," Xiaoyu explained patiently, dipping her teabag into her mug and joining her companion on the couch, "It was a draw. Jin walked away from the fight."

"Why?" whispered Asuka, oblivious to the chocolate shavings Xiaoyu was generously adding to her tea.

She had never known her brother to pull out of a fight.

"They were beating the crap out of each other, 'Suka," Xiaoyu said quietly, "He never really talked about it, but my guess is that he realized just how much damage they were inflicting on each other. Personally, I think that Jin was the bigger man. Hwoarang would have kept going till the death."

"But - "

A door slammed in the distance, and footsteps echoed in the hallway up to the kitchen. Jin appeared in the hallway, gripping his car keys tightly in his right hand. Asuka felt her stomach tighten in anger, just looking at her older brother.

"I need to talk to you," he spoke in his normal tone, but with a slight tremor in his voice.

Asuka stood up quickly, her chair scraping on the wooden floorboards noisily.

"No."

"Asuka!" he yelled.

"Leave me alone!" she shouted, running out of the room, through the opposite door.

Jin made to go after her, but Xiaoyu jumped up and pushed him back. He stared at her in surprise, and she felt a blush arise from her neck at her daring.

"Don't," he muttered gruffly, not quite meeting her eye.

"Hey, I don't care if you wanna push me out of the way again, but if you want to make things worse, then, fine, go after her," she denounced, defiantly.

He sighed.

"What was she thinking, Xiao?"

Xiaoyu felt a wave of pity for him, observing the quiet, defeated look on his face.

"She didn't do anything wrong, Jin," she protested, "She didn't know anything about it, and anyway, she really likes Hwoarang."

Jin exhaled, pressing his palms into his face, and Xiaoyu thought that she had him convinced. That is, until he spoke again.

"I won't let her see him."

Xiaoyu took a half-step back in surprise.

"What?"

"She's my sister, and I have the right to protect her from him!"

"She doesn't need your protection!"

"Forget it, Xiao. I've made up my mind. She lives in this house, and she has to follow the rules I set."

"You're being completely unfair!" she yelled at him, hoping to get her point across, "Think about it, Jin! Do you think she'll still respect you if you forbid her from seeing the guy she likes!"

"She'll do it if she wants a place to live."

Xiaoyu's mouth fell open, and she slammed down her mug

"What happened to you?" she asked unbelievably, "Why are you being like this?"

His reply was a non-committal jerk of the head, and a decline to meet her gaze.

"Just leave me alone," he hissed.

Xiaoyu picked up her jacket from the lounge and stormed out of the room angrily, pausing at the doorway.

"If that's what you want, then fine. Be alone."

Within seconds she had left, leaving Jin alone in the dark room, gazing thoughtfully at the herbal tea burning into the floor, eyes centering particularly onto the chocolate shavings amongst the mess.

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5:30 am, Apartment 12B

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Why couldn't he get the one thing he wanted most?

The one thing he was willing to change for, to actually give up everything he had, to just have it within his grasp.

Why was fate sitting in the front row with God, Karma and everything else that had been just as useless to him, ensuring that he would trip and fall, as he had done so many times in the past few years?

Hwoarang groaned, his brown eyes squinting up at his apartment's ceiling. With one hand resting underneath head, and the other balancing a cigarette between two fingers, he closed his eyes and wished for nothing more than to sink into the earth.

In his head, he could hear his master yelling at him, asking him why he was being such a fool. This was the last thing he remembered hearing from his respected Master Baek right before he disappeared. They were quarrelling again, something that they had done a lot of, especially after Hwoarang had taken to street-fighting.

"Yeah, that's right, master," he spat bitterly, "I'm just a stupid fool."

She was his sister.

The very man he loathed, and endeavored to one day defeat. Of all the girls he had to fall for, he had to fall for the one that was Jin Kazama's sister. He had given everything up for their bitter rivalry; he had abandoned his friends, his home and everything that had meant the tiniest bit of importance to him to chase a ghost. A ghost that did not know it, but held the outcome of Hwoarang's future in his palm.

And it fucking killed him.

Hwoarang jumped up, putting out his cigarette on the cracked surface of his dresser.

There was no way he could stay still at a time like this.

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Asuka closed her eyes as tight as she could, trying to block out the sun rising from behind the palm fronds. She shivered, and rolled onto her back, covering her face with the back of her cold hands.

"So you found me," she sighed.

"Imouto."

She could feel his presence there before he even spoke.

"Don't," she found herself snapping.

"I want to talk to you. Just listen, please?"

Unwillingly, she let her hands drop and sat up, glaring at him intrusively. Jin was in his training gi; he must have come straight from training.

"Why? I won't like what you're going to say."

"How do you know that?"

Asuka bit back a spiteful smile, slowly stretching up.

"Because I've been out here all night, wondering what answer you'll finally come up with that will dull your guilty ideals and fit for my best interests, and I bet, with no doubt, that you have picked the easy road. You don't want me to see Hwoarang. You don't want me to have a life. And you want me to turn Eunuch, like you."

Jin, driven by a sudden rush of anger, darted forward and grabbed Asuka by the wrist, twisting roughly.

"Don't ever speak to me like that again," he seethed, smoke breathing through his gloved hands.

A look of surprise and fury adjoined on her face and she retaliated, side-kicking him in the stomach. He jumped back, his face contorting in pain at her sudden blow, but didn't release his hold on her arm.

The pair continued to throw sloppy attacks at each other, with Jin's fingers still tightly gripping Asuka's arm. Jin seemed completely impervious to her efforts, evading her attacks with a simple, precise step onto the next tile. He wasn't intending on hurting her, only to dodge the attacks she was inflicting upon him; it wasn't until Asuka momentarily arched her body, infuriated that he wouldn't let go of her wrist, and launched her clenched fist at his face, when his instincts took control.

He blocked her fist before it met its target, and tossed her over his back, releasing his hold on her arm.

A wave of victory hit him, like the triumphant cheer at the end of a fight, until he realized what he had just done.

He gasped in horror, as he watched his sister's lifeless body slide from the rafters, almost like a rag doll, her limp hair twisting and catching and her ivory skin scraping roughly on the coarse tiles.

He had completely forgotten that they were on the roof.

He threw himself forward, latching a hold on the same wrist, bruised with purple welts made from his grip, and he heard her scream of terror and a crash as her body collided with the top floor's window. In the corner of his glassy eyes he could just see the broken shards slowly descending into the still courtyard, and with a sickening jolt, he realized that that could have been his sister.

Fear tore at his heart, and he struggled to maintain his grip on her. Eventually he tightened his hold, and pulled her up, but she pushed him off her, crawling away, winded, with blood and glass etched in her skin, without even a back glance.

"I hate you!"

These words hit him like poison; Jin fell back, a muted sigh escaping his lips. The sun had already set behind the trees, the golden sky doing nothing to help boost his officially depressed mood.

The cold breeze tickled his raven locks into his pensive gaze, as once again, he found himself completely alone.

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