A/n: Thanks again to all my readers, I hope you're all enjoying this ^_^
Disclaimer: I don't currently own Tekken, but I've been working hard on my powers of mind control, and I'm confident that when I visit Namco's headquarters in the near future they will agree to had it over. Mwahahaha!
-*-
"I'm going to die. I'm going to die!" Julia was whispering furiously under her breath as the buildings on either side whizzed past in a blur. Her braids flew out behind her, snaking wildly around and bouncing off her back whenever they changed direction, and she held on to Hwoarang for dear life. Just as she was finally beginning to relax and enjoy the ride, it was over. Her cheeks were flushed and her body shook invisibly from the adrenaline coursing through her system as she climbed off the bike.
Leaping off beside her Hwoarang grinned at the way she was swaying a little as she stood on the pavement, trying to look comfortable, despite the fact that she was still unstable after the journey. "Enjoy that?" he asked cockily.
"Just like horse riding," she replied, flashing her most confident smile, before turning and heading into the building. Smirking, Hwoarang followed her in.
Inside, Julia took a moment to survey her surroundings. The Mishima Zaibatsu's main lobby was vast, decorated with deep blue wall hangings, which shone as though made of silk. The room was lit not from above, but from soft, twinkling lights set beneath the glass panelling which made up the floor. Walking across the room was like walking across a field of stars. Stood inconspicuously in the shadows around the perimeter of the room, she recognised the Tekken Force soldiers she had encountered the other night. The lifeless eyes of their masks watched them silently as they entered.
"Excuse me, Ms. Chang?" a stern looking man, wearing an ugly grey suit approached from one side of the room.
"Yes?" Julia replied, frowning at him.
"I'm afraid to inform you that the end of tournament ceremony has been cancelled. Your friend Ms. Ling asked that I pass this message on to you," he explained, proffering a folded slip of white paper.
Silently, Julia accepted the note. The man nodded curtly, and gestured that they should leave, when Hwoarang stepped in front of him, demanding that he explain what was going on. "Where's Mishima? Who won the tournament?!" he questioned, angry sparks flashing in his eyes, and he moved threateningly close to the man. The man, who Julia guessed was a lawyer, merely blinked lazily at the red head, and a couple of the guards stepped quietly from the shadows, enforcing their presence. Hwoarang may have been hot headed, but he was no fool when it came to being on the wrong end of a gun. Casting ferocious looks at the figures in the room he turned towards the exit. Julia followed him outside and stood silently, watching as he cursed and kicked at the pavement, at the walls of the building, his bike, and probably her if she'd been silly enough to go that close.
After a few moments, his annoyance subsided and he turned to look at her. "Well? What does the note say?" he asked bitterly.
"Oh," she said, glancing down at the bit of paper in her hand, "I haven't read it yet." Unfolding it, she scanned the messy scrawling her friend had left her.
'Hi Jules,
They say the ceremony is cancelled and I can't stay here, so me and some of the other fighters are going down to Pizza City to hang out. It's about 10 minutes away, so come meet me there, ok?
Luv 'n' hugs,
Xiao xxxxx'
"She says she's gone to Pizza City with some of the other fighters, and I should meet her there," she told him, looking up from the message.
"Hmm… that's not far. Come on," he directed, climbing back on his bike.
Julia hung her head in an attempt to hide the reddening of her cheeks as Xiaoyu's eyes flitted back and forth between her and Hwoarang as they walked into the restaurant together. She looked as though she might explode from the shock of it, but before she had a chance to comment, another voice interjected. "Hey Jules! And Ke… uh, Ho… Hwoarang, knew I'd get it in the end," Steve declared, with a triumphant smile. "Come and join us!" Steve grabbed a chair from the next table and pulled it over.
"Hi Julia," Miharu, Xiaoyu's school friend smiled shyly at her. They'd only met once, the week before. Xiaoyu just continued to stare at Hwoarang, her eyes wide, and her mouth slightly agape.
"Xiaoyu, I think you're drooling a bit," Hwoarang informed her, taking a seat next to Steve and smirking to himself at the way this made both Julia and Xiaoyu blush.
Xiaoyu made a little humph noise as Julia took a seat next to her, and turned to her friend for an explanation. "It's not what it looks like!" Julia whispered desperately, but Xiaoyu just narrowed her eyes at her.
Fortunately, she was again interrupted before having to try and explain anything to her friend. "Hey there! I'm Christie Monteiro," a bronzed girl with a mass of brown hair and a rather loud shirt smiled at her from across the table, and Julia realised that she hadn't bothered to look at who else was there.
"I'm Julia, Julia Chang," she responded, returning the girl's smile.
"And you?" Christie questioned Hwoarang, a flirtatious smile on her lips and a twinkle in her eyes that made Julia's insides squirm.
"Hwoarang," he told her, eyeing her up and grinning broadly.
"Wow, that's an interesting name. Where you from?" she asked, leaning towards him over the table.
Julia stared downwards, pretending to be fascinated by her fingernails. Not wanting her jealousy to show. "So what happened about the tournament ceremony?" she asked Xiaoyu, trying to distract herself as much as anyone from the subject of why she was with Hwoarang.
"I wanted to thank you," Xiaoyu said quietly, her serious tone surprising Julia. "I spoke to Jin… He came to see me, last night," she continued. "He met his father, and defeated him. And he defeated Heihachi. But he had to leave again, because Heihachi wants him dead. But he said that he spoke to you, and he didn't want me to worry about him, because he'll be ok." Xiaoyu spoke softly, and sighed wistfully to herself. The two girls sat in silence for a few minutes, both lost in their own thoughts. Miharu sat beside them, fiddling with a napkin, and Steve was busy explaining the mess about who would take over the zaibatsu to Hwoarang. It turned out that although both his son and grandson had defeated Heihachi, the pair had disappeared, so it was most likely that Heihachi would maintain control of his empire.
Emerging eventually from her thoughts, Xiaoyu decided that it was about time she found out just what was going on between her friend and the Korean red head. Standing up, she announced to the whole group that she was going to the toilet. "Come on Julia!" she commanded, grabbing her hand and pulling her off before she had a chance to react.
"Why are they going together?" Steve asked, shaking his head in wonder. "Girls are so weird."
"Hmm… I feel like I'm missing out on some juicy gossip, maybe I should go join them," Christie suggested.
"You better not, Xiao would kill you if you interrupted her mid-interrogation," Miharu explained.
"Ah damn, now I'm really curious!" Steve groaned. "This got something to do with you?" he asked, turning to look at Hwoarang, who just shrugged sheepishly.
"Well? Are you going out with him?" Xiaoyu blurted out, as soon as the bathroom door shut behind them.
Leaning on the sink, Julia examined her reflection in the mirror. Tracing the dark shadows under her eyes with a fingertip, she told Xiaoyu that there was absolutely nothing going on between her and Hwoarang.
"But you were on his bike with him! And Jin said that you drove off with him yesterday, after he left." Xiaoyu responded.
"So I gave him a lift, and he gave me one. That doesn't mean anything's going on," Julia told her, though she knew it was hopeless trying to convince Xiaoyu. She was probably already picking out her bridesmaid dress in her mind. Taking a deep breath, she told Xiaoyu all about meeting Hwoarang at the bar, about seeing the army vehicles, and going to rescue him. "And they were watching his place, so he stayed at my hotel last night," she finished, mumbling the last words in the vain hope that Xiaoyu would miss their significance.
Naturally, Xiaoyu did no such thing. "You slept with him!" she squealed excitedly, her wide eyes sparkling wickedly.
"No!" Julia protested. "He slept on the armchair."
"Huh?" Xiaoyu sighed disappointedly. "So absolutely nothing happened?"
"No."
"You didn't even kiss?" At this, a shadow briefly flickered across Julia's features and Xiaoyu clicked that she wasn't getting the whole truth. "Oh my god, you did kiss him!" she cried, and Julia was afraid that the people in the restaurant might hear.
"No…" she whispered softly under her breath, hanging her head sadly. "He kissed me, and I wish he hadn't."
As over-excitable and hungry for gossip as she was, Xiaoyu could still tell that her friend was upset about this. "You can talk to me about it, it's ok," she comforted, placing her hand gently on Julia's back, and looking at her with eyes full of concern.
Leaning her back against the wall, Julia raised her head and stared up at the ceiling. She took a few deep breaths before continuing, fighting not to be overcome by tears. She told Xiaoyu what had happened with Hwoarang, when she'd had the nightmare, and then in the shower that morning.
"You saw him naked?!" Xiaoyu screeched, distracted form her Julia's sombre mood by the content of her words. "So what's he like? Is he, you know, uh… down there?" she grinned cheekily, making suggestive hand movements.
"Xiao…" Julia sighed. "I didn't really look."
"Oh, right. Sorry," Xiaoyu said, clearly disappointed at not being drawn a full diagram.
"It's just…" Julia went on, "he makes me so angry, and we've had more arguments in the last week than I've had with anyone in my entire life. But at the same time, I want him. I want to be with him so badly."
"So why'd you throw him out of the shower?" Xiaoyu moaned, exasperated by her friend's confusing actions. "I'd have done it with him right there," she announced. "He's hot!"
"Well you can have him then, because I don't want him," Julia responded, tugging at one of her braids angrily, annoyed at herself for getting in this situation.
"But you just said you did!" Xiaoyu growled, equally irritated at how irrational and inconsistent Julia was being.
"No, I want him to want me!" Julia explained. "I want him to care about me, but he never will. He cares more about fighting and revenge that he ever will about anything else. It's not fair…" Julia stared blankly into space, unsure what to do now that she'd finally said what she'd been feeling.
"Oh…" Xiaoyu gasped delicately. "Are you sure about that? Maybe you should tell him," she suggested. She didn't like to see her friend so lost in sadness. Julia had always been so happy and light. Xiaoyu didn't realise that she could get like this about a guy.
"There's no point…" Julia replied quietly.
Xiaoyu really wasn't happy about how Julia was acting. She had to do something to cheer her up. "You know, I think you're taking the whole thing way too seriously!" she stated, turning away from her friend and playing with her hair in the mirror. "So what if he's not going to fall desperately in love with you, and never think about anything else. You've only known him for like a week, so you can't really be in love with him, you hardly know him. The way I see it, since he's not looking for a serious relationship, why should you? I say you have as much fun with him as possible. If he leaves and you never see him again, then at least you had a good time. And you never know, you might be so incredible that he comes crawling back to you, wanting more!" Xiaoyu grinned at her as cheerfully as possible, and hoped that Julia would take this new philosophy on board.
There was a long pause as Julia digested what Xiaoyu had said. It had only been a week since she'd met him… and she really hadn't spent that much time speaking to him. They always ended up fighting anyway; he'd be a terrible long-term boyfriend. She looked up at her friend and smiled. "You're right, I'm just being silly. I shouldn't be getting so worked up about this. I should be having fun! He's just some bad-tempered street thug who has nothing good to offer. I don't want him." With a nod to confirm her new viewpoint, Julia headed back out into the restaurant, determined not to obsess about her feelings for Hwoarang. After all, she didn't have any. Xiaoyu followed behind her, worried that what she'd said hadn't had quite the right effect.
