NOTE: I know, it's been a while! :)

To the ordinary bystander, the relationship between the Shirai Ryu and Lin Kuei clans was strictly professional.

This was, of course, a LIE.

Anyone who had some connection in either clan's inner workings would promptly provide an exasperated, exhausted look in the poor unknowing person's direction and grimace in pain. Because, the truth was, the Shirai Ryu and Lin Kuei were STILL enemies.

Just... in a less violent context.

No, there was a war waging between the two clans. If you were associated with either one, you were automatically involved. This was an all-out, "sleep with one eye open" type of war that would never have an end.

The Shirai Ryu-Lin Kuei Prank War.

Some argue (to this day) about the origins of this War. Some believe that the War began immediately after the truce between the two clans was called. Others maintain that the War started as a friendly competition between the two clans after months of healing and that this "harmless" war was brought about to remind the clans of their brutal history. Even the Shirai Ryu and Lin Kuei students argue about the placement of the date that started the War.

Even Hanzo couldn't tell you for certain when the War started. How could he? At the time, he didn't even know that anything had been instigated.

No. Dear reader, if you wish to know for certain the exact circumstances of the birth of the War, you would have to ask the man who started the damn thing itself.

And how did it all start? Simple: with boredom and two shakers.

Exactly one week after Hanzo Hasashi had visited the Lin Kuei temple where Kuai Liang had defended his innocence, the cryomancer found himself sitting in the courtyard of the Shirai Ryu temple in wait of the General of the Shirai Ryu.

Kuai knew that things were still very... rocky... between the two clans. Thus, as he waited for Hanzo to make his appearance, the all-professional Lin Kuei Grandmaster had to chastise himself for looking at the cans of paint stacked temptingly against the side of one of the temple walls.

Don't even think about it... You CAN'T pull off a stupid prank.

Kuai pursed his lips as an afterthought came to him.

Not NOW, at least.

He was jolted from his musings as his trained ears caught the faint sounds of footsteps approaching him from the left. Kuai had almost missed it, with the much louder sounds of the gossiping Shirai Ryu students that were still gawking at the sight of the Lin Kuei Grandmaster sitting comfortably in the Fire Gardens of the Shirai Ryu.

Kuai had to wrestle the urge to say something to scare them off the entire wait.

He stood up, managing to find his serious face as he turned to face Hanzo, who was now standing in front of him. The Shirai Ryu huffed, glaring at the whispering students in the background. "Why aren't any of you in class?" he demanded.

With quiet "eep!"s of nervousness, the students were quick to dissipate from the scene, leaving an impressed Kuai Liang alone with the stern Hanzo Hasashi. Kuai chuckled lightly. "I wish I still had that level of authority over my own students. When you get too familiar with them, they seem to lose all respect for you. My first-years are terrified of me, but the senior students have gifted me with nicknames."

Hanzo fixed him with an unreadable gaze. "You are making an effort to connect with your pupils?"

Kuai sighed, nodding slowly as he followed Hanzo, who was leading him out of the Fire Gardens and towards the buildings. "One of the many things that I have decided to change with the Lin Kuei's previous methods of teaching. Most of my students are people who are looking for a fresh start; I know that they are likely having a hard time adjusting, and I'm making an effort to reassure them." He paused, huffing as a wry smile appeared on his face. "I took a page from the Shirai Ryu book, actually. I'm trying to adopt a family-structure in my clan."

Hanzo's face was devoid of all emotion, but he spared Kuai a nod of approval. "As it should be. When you are clan, you are family." He guided Kuai into what appeared to be the main structure of the clan's base, leading Kuai to what appeared to be a small kitchen. "I apologize for making you wait," Hanzo said as he placed a kettle of hot water onto the lit stovetop. "I was dealing with one of my new students; she is anxious. It has come to my attention that she has some others antagonizing her for a speech impediment that she has had since birth - I was putting a stop to it with those at fault."

"I had no issues in waiting," Kuai replied with a small smile on his face. "The gardens are very lovely; I believe I noticed a bush warbler in your cherry blossom trees. I went to get a better look, but it flew away before I could get a proper look."

Hanzo fixed him with a perplexed look. "A bird? You were transfixed with a bird while you were waiting for me?"

Kuai shrugged defensively. "You don't get too many animals in the Lin Kuei area. It's too frigid. Although," he said, eyes sparkling with excitement as he placed his forearms on the edge of the countertop. "In one of my patrolling rounds around the territory, I saw a pack of wolves."

"... Really?" Hanzo asked, humoring Kuai's odd passion for wildlife, even if he had absolutely no interest in the topic whatsoever.

The cryomancer didn't seem to pick up on Hanzo's lack of interest, nodding emphatically. "They were hunting a large elk together. It was very fascinating; I've never encountered any animals in the territory before."

"So you've said," Hanzo replied patiently. "Didn't you say that you found a clutch of Ice Dragon eggs?"

Kuai immediately forgot about the wolves and the elk, switching to the discussion of the dragon eggs. He described his aspirations of hoping to nurture the dragons when they hatched and use them in the defense of Earthrealm.

Hanzo had hoped that the topic of dragons would be more interesting, but he found his focus waning significantly. He excused himself from the conversation, making an excuse to use the bathroom, and left Kuai alone in the kitchen.

And that, right there, was his first mistake.

As soon as Hanzo was out of sight, Kuai felt his fingers automatically drumming on the granite countertop of the kitchen, listening to the kettle start to whistle, signifying that the water had finished boiling. He stared out the nearby window, looking to see if there would be another bush warbler to capture his attention, but unfortunately for the cryomancer, nothing made its appearance.

He sighed, leaning back in the chair and slumping in his seat as he was forced to wait - again - for Hanzo to return.

And it was at that moment when the bored Lin Kuei's eyes drifted to the area beside the stove where the salt-and-pepper shakers were.

Kuai immediately turned in his seat to look down the corridor where Hanzo had disappeared, trying to see if the Shirai Ryu would turn around the container to return to the kitchen. After a good couple of seconds spent to see if Hanzo would return, Kuai turned back to face the shakers, brown eyes fixated on the small items with precision-like focus.

Immediately, he shook his head, turning around to look elsewhere. He couldn't switch out the contents of the shakers; that would be childish and mundane of him. Besides, he was here on professional business.

Then, his eyes narrowed in speculation. Had Hanzo run off because he was bored by his talks of wildlife? No - he wouldn't have. Would he? Kuai frowned in thought, eyes drifting back to those damn shakers that were stirring familiar feelings inside of his gut.

Desire... want... NEED...

Kuai's mind was made up. He leaned in his seat to peer cautiously down the hallway again before staring back at the shakers. He nodded to himself once for reinforcement before getting up and moving to the shakers.

He unscrewed the lids, looking inside to try and gauge what the contents of the shakers were. He frowned in confusion as he realized that both shakers had a white, crystal powder in either one of them. Kuai was tempted to throw them at the wall in frustration. What kind of moron needed TWO shakers for salt?

But wait! Kuai tasted the substances in either one of them, eyes widening in sudden understanding. One of the shakers held salt, and the other held SUGAR. Had he had time to mull over this discovery, perhaps he would have been disturbed by the fact that the trademark, usual pepper had been replaced by SUGAR, of all things, but Kuai was transfixed with his task.

He carefully emptied the contents of the salt into his left hand, cupped and cradling the substance. When the shaker was empty, Kuai quickly retrieved the sugar shaker and poured its contents into what had been the salt shaker. Once the sugar was taken care of, Kuai took care in pouring the salt in his hand into what had been the sugar shaker. He replaced the lids, moving quickly to place them down in their original spots, and hurried back to his seat, struggling to keep a straight face.

It was at this moment that Hanzo had decided to return from the "bathroom," returning to his guest who appeared to have not moved a muscle. Kuai greeted him with a friendly smile, hiding the shit-eating grin that was begging to appear on his face.

Hanzo took no notice of the twitch in Kuai's eye; months later, the Shirai Ryu would be much more knowledgeable in the Lin Kuei Grandmaster's habits and would understand that this famous "Kuai Liang Eye Twitch" meant trouble.

Always.

But alas, how was Hanzo to know? He didn't know about Kuai's tendency to turn straight to fun and trouble at the time, and the poor unsuspecting General of the Shirai Ryu turned his back to the Lin Kuei (stifling laughter behind his hand, the asshole) to pour the two of them tea. And it was then, that Hanzo asked the question that turned the afternoon from good to GREAT.

"Do you want sugar?"

It took absolutely all of Kuai's training and self-restraint to control his facial features to look cool and composed. Wrestling the bubbling laughter down his throat, he shook his head in response, clearing his throat. "No thank you."

Hanzo nodded shortly, reaching for the sugar-shaker-that-was-really-a-salt-shaker. He held it up, reading the label under the shaker to ensure that he had picked the right one, and poured salt into his tea, thinking it was sugar.

Kuai bit the inside of his cheek, hiding his smile by raising the teacup to his mouth quickly as Hanzo stirred the salt into his beverage.

Taking a deep breath to steel his nerves, Kuai risked a look at the proud, authoritative figure that was the Shirai Ryu General, stirring his tea. This was the man that had returned from the dead and refounded the Shirai Ryu clan from the ashes. This was the warrior that had tormented Kuai for such a long time and was now on a quest to kill Quan Chi. Hanzo Hasashi was a warrior - full of honor and a presence that demanded respect.

Hanzo raised the cup to his mouth and took a mouthful. The man had lasted a simple second before the salty beverage was spat out (into the sink, at least).

All that aforementioned respect?

Yeah, Kuai had shit on all of that.

Hanzo sputtered, wiping his mouth as he glared at his tea in disgust. "I apologize, it appears that one of my students must have replaced the salt with the sugar this morning."

Kuai - on the inside - was secretly rolling on the ground and clutching his stomach as he howled in laughter, tears streaming down his face. But, with the experience of a lifelong prankster that had gotten away with nearly everything, he simply flashed a sympathetic smile in Hanzo's direction.

"How unfortunate. I hope that you'll find the culprit," he replied, fake-sympathy lacing his voice.

Hanzo nodded, eyes drifting back to the two shakers with his brow furrowing in confusion. "I could have sworn I checked the contents just an hour ago," he muttered to himself.

Kuai simply took another casual sip from his teacup, nodding once in reply and saying nothing.

Kuai Liang had pranked a great many amounts of people in his past.

As a child, he had enjoyed his time with childish pranks on his elder brother and best friend, Tomas, with the everyday pranks that would be normally held between pranks. Shaking a can of soda before handing it off, dumping snow under the bedsheets, and even faking his own death was up for grabs between the close friends.

However, his interest had also spanned elsewhere. Kuai took much more delight in tormenting those who antagonized him every day; the Grandmaster and his son, Sektor, were two people that Kuai took immense pleasure in pranking. With these people, he had to be a little more creative, as to not arouse suspicion in his direction. So, instead, he affected things that were usually the tasks of other people. If the food was tampered with, the cooks got a stern talking to. If everything in Sektor's bedroom was shifted one inch to the left, it was one of the superior members who had access to his bedroom. If the Grandmaster's cloak was left in tatters, odds were, his prized peacock was standing on the ruined cloak with a piece in its beak.

Kuai had even discretely pranked his Earthrealmer and Edenian friends on special occasions, whenever one of them became too annoying or bothersome (Johnny). If Liu Kang was suddenly criticizing Kuai's footwork in a patronizing tone, all of his headbands disappeared mysteriously. If Jax clapped Kuai on the back one too many times, his protein shakes were replaced with Kool-Aid Grape mix.

And with Johnny, Kuai just did it whenever the urge appeared.

When he had claimed his title as Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei, the students were quick to pick up on their Grandmaster's mischievous behavior. Every time that the Special Forces soldiers and Shirai Ryu students would make remarks in admiration of Kuai Liang's schooled and principled outlook, the Lin Kuei students would simply share suffering looks with each other as they blatantly lied in agreement.

But they knew the truth.

Of Kuai's hit-list, no one amused his fancy more than Hanzo Hasashi of the Shirai Ryu, himself. Kuai didn't know why he enjoyed tormenting the Shirai Ryu over the others; he supposed that one part of it was that unreasonable, petty side of him that reveled in getting back at the man who had killed Bi-Han and tried to kill him.

Okay, in hindsight, maybe that was a big reason why.

But another reason why Kuai knew that he enjoyed pranking Hanzo was because of the man's reaction. There was something about the way that the normally-bitter man would react in confusion and utter bewilderment at another bizarre circumstance that made Kuai eager to piece together his next plan of attack.

There was also another aspect to the pranks, but Kuai would never admit to it. In truth, he knew that pulling the pranks was helpful for Hanzo - it made the man drop his mask of pain and agony for a second and trade it for a reaction that was much more human. And over time, Kuai hoped that he would eventually get his pranks to inspire Hanzo to retaliate in kind and have a little more fun.

Because everyone - even the Elder Gods - knew that this man was in need of some fun.

But perhaps, Kuai should have thought twice over Hanzo's answer to the pranks.

As the saying goes: "Be careful what you wish for..."