Disclaimer: I do not own anything relating to the Tekken series.

Chapter 3 - Reconciling The Moment

Xiaoyu woke up in Jin's bed. She rolled over, hazily looking around. Hwoarang was searching the room. "What am I doing here?"

"Don't ask me, you're the one that came to this shithole." Hwoarang sharply retorted.

"I know that, you jerk. I mean in Jin's bed." She rubbed her eyes, trying to shake loose of the haze.

"You fell asleep while were hiding. Oh yeah, I think those people were from Mishima Corp."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because Heihachi was with them." He glared to himself.

"I wonder why he'd come all the way here." She looked at Hwoarang and noticed he was only wearing boxers. "What are you doing?"

"None of your business." He dumped a shoebox of papers on the floor and sifted through them.

"You're still an asshole?" she glared "It must be in your bloodline. Anyway, I was talking about your clothes."

He stood up straight, looking irritated "First off; I am an asshole, and I'm proud of it. Second, I don't know if it's in my blood or not. Lastly, you fucked up my shirt and came on my jeans. I'm washing them. Are you done questioning me yet?" he looked back down at the scattered mess he'd made.

Xiaoyu seized one the pillows from the bed and threw it in his face, knocking him off balance.

'Bitch.' He thought to himself.

Xiaoyu huffed, glancing at the clock "Oh my god! Grandpa is going be so mad at me! She grabbed her shirts and started slipping them over her head. The opening at the top of her shirts got caught on her pigtails, she flailed her arms erratically. Hwoarang yanked the bottom of her shirt, pulling it down over her head. Xiaoyu gasped for air, "umm.. Thanks. I'm sorry and all… so listen, I'm gonna get grounded if I don't get home soon. So could you drop me off?"

"You only get one free ride, I'm not a taxi." He cocked his head.

Xiaoyu blushed "Shut up, you jerk! If I didn't think I was gonna die, that wouldn't have happened!"

"Whatever. I just did it so when Kazama gets back, I can at least piss him off. You're really not worth getting steamed over but I'll give it a try anyway."

Xiaoyu was flabbergasted, tears welling up in her eyes. She turned around and ran out the door.

'If she wasn't Kazama's girl, I'd actually feel bad about making her cry.' He thought, then shrugged "Nyah."

Xiaoyu sniffled wiping tears from her eyes as she walked into the house. She walked all the way up to her room, took a deep breath "I'm home!" she slammed her door. She slid down against it, curling her arms around her legs and bawled.

Her days went by slowly. After school she'd been going straight home.

It was raining outside, she opened her umbrella and headed off.

"I think I found him."

Xiaoyu ignored him.

"Hey, Ling,-"

"I have nothing to say to you." She barely managed to keep her voice even.

"Don't ya want find your precious boytoy?" he touch her arm in an attempt to make her stop.

"Jin and I were never together to begin with! We were just friends!" tears broke free halfway through her sentence.

"You loved him and all that shit, right?" he shrugged.

"Yes!" she screamed at him "But He never showed the same kind of interest in me! When he finally did, he disappeared!" Her umbrella and bookbag hit the ground, she buried her face in her hands and whispered "…Why can't you just leave me alone…"

'Shit, I really did upset her.' He patted her shoulders awkwardly "I'm sorry, Ling. I, uh, fuck man." He hugged her. No matter how rude he was on the outside, he always full of regret on the inside. And it got the best of him this time. She Really didn't deserve to get hurt like that. He knew he shouldn't have just assumed they were 'together'.

Xiaoyu struggled at first, until he placed his hand behind her head and rubbed her back "Shh," he whispered.

Xiaoyu tangled her fingers into his wet, messy hair "Why are you doing this?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure. I don't exactly know if I can stand you or not, but we both want to find Kazama."

"You're weird." She murmured.

"Why?"

"You're always exacerbating things and then you do something like this."

He thought for a moment "Eh, thanks??"

Xiaoyu opened her mouth for a moment and paused "…Do you even know what exacerbate means?"

He paused again "Not a clue."

They both laughed, she wiped some of her tears away "It means that you're always making things worse."

"Oh, well, yeah. I told you; I'm an asshole." He felt her smile against his chest

"I know… So, what were you saying earlier?"

"Jin's last location was Osaka."

"What, really? How do you know?"

"I just know. Now are we gonna go get him, or what?"

"I can't go to Osaka, it's too far away." She pushed away from him.

He grimaced "Why?"

"A; I'm already grounded. B; it'll get worse if I disappear."

"Fine, I guess I'll see you in a few days." He mounted his bike "Did you want a ride home?"

Xiaoyu raised her eyebrow "I guess so? What's with you all of the sudden?"

"You'd better just take advantage of my good mood. It won't last long."

She grabbed her bookbag and umbrella "Can you drive slow?"

"Why?"

"I wanted to keep my umbrella open." She struggled onto the bike.

"That's retarded. You're already wet."

She sighed "Fine. I just didn't want to get sick."

The drive to her house was a silent one. "So I guess I'll just find you when I get back."

Xiaoyu climbed off the bike. "Are you sure you want to go?"

He flashed a striking smile to go along a sloppy, yet super-sexy, salute "I'll be back."

"Promise?" she held out her pinkie, worry plain on her face.

"Ooh," he said sardonically "the sacred pinkie-swear." He wrapped his pinkie with hers.

Several days passed by, she was a little worried. "I wonder if they got into a fight?" put her pencil down, she knew she'd never get her homework done with such a heavy burden on her mind. She suddenly heard tapping at her window.

Hwoarang crawled through the window as soon as she opened the curtains.

Xiaoyu gasped "What are you doing in here? Are you crazy?"

"No. I'm not just gonna knock on your door, I might give your grandfather a heart attack." He joked.

She ignored him "What happened?"

"He wasn't there, apparently he disappeared again right before I got there." He grimaced.

"Oh…"

"Anyway, hungry?" he changed the subject.

"Not particularly. I kinda wanted some ice cream though."

"Alright, lets go." He grabbed her arm towards the window.

"I am not going out the window. Plus I have to tell grandpa I'm leaving."

"Hi," she said to the employee behind the counter "can I have… a large cup of vanilla ice cream, with bananas, cherries, whip cream, sprinkles, gummy bears and chocolate syrup?"

"You sure know how to ruin a perfectly good treat." He joked.

"I can't help that I have an extravagant taste." She smiled.

"And for you, sir?" the girl asked

"Small chocolate." He glanced at Xiaoyu then back at the girl "Plain."

They sat down at a bench "So what was that comment, the one you made in the closet, about?"

He pulled the spoon out of his mouth "Which one?"

"The one about me not wearing a bra?"

He thought for a moment "Oh that, it was kinda random… I didn't expect that I guess. I mean, the only women I've ever met that didn't wear bras were whores. And you just down fit that profile."

"If you haven't noticed, I've got small boobs. I don't need to wear one really."

He sighed, as if he wasn't listening. "Ling, I'm sorry about what I said in Kazama's apartment."

Xiaoyu looked puzzled "What?"

"…Actually, let's just change the subject. I don't wanna exassermate… ah, fuck it. I don't wanna piss you off again."

"You're forgiven…For all the times you've made me cry. This totally makes up for it." She smiled, using her spoon to point to the ice cream.

"That was easy. Now I know what to do the next time I fuck up."

"Hwoarang, don't push it."

They both laughed. Hwoarang down all his ice cream in one bite "Ow, fuck."

"Brain freeze?"

"Yeah." He rubbed his temples.

Xiaoyu giggled "That's not gonna work, silly." She leaned over the table and stuck her fingers in his mouth, putting pressure on the roof of it "Better?"

"You know," his voice was muffled by her fingers "I could bite your hand off right now."

"Oh come on, stop being a 'tard. Does it feel better or not?"

"Well, yeah, it does."

She sat back on her side of the table, looking down at her ice cream, "What… brings you to Japan?"

"There's nothing left for me in Korea." He said aloofly.

"Does your family live here with you?"

"Don't have any."

"What? Why not?"

"I don't know."

"Do you even have a real name?"

"Yeah."

Xiaoyu laid her head on her hands "What is it?"

He looked down, "Haneul."

"What's wrong with that?"

He shrugged "Nothin'."

"What's it mean?"

"I donno."

"Don't bullshit me, you liar."

"Heaven and sky. It's gay."

"Oh, so it's better than 'Blood talon'?" She kicked his foot playfully.

He tried to smile but it came out looking awkward.

"Do you have a last name?"

"Yeah, but it's even worse."

She rolled her eyes "Oh no, what could possibly be worse than Haneul?"

He rolled his eyes mocking her, smirking and pulled out his motorcycle license to show it to her.

The read it carefully, glancing back and forth between him in the license "What kind of name is Smith?"

"American."

"Is that the name you were born with?"

"My birth certificate says so." He shrugged.

She raised an eyebrow, looking him up and down.

"What?"

"You don't look any bit American." She toyed with cherry in her mouth.

He looked down at himself.

She followed his line of sight, and nearly choked on the fruit "Oh, that's what you meant!"

"Yep, one hundred percent natural." He proudly stated.

She nodded "You know, my given name means-"

"Yeah, I already know. I also know what Ling means."

"What then?"

"Bell chimes."

She cutely scrunched up her nose, sticking out her tongue.

'Man, she's sweet, funny, and pretty. I don't understand why the hell Kazama would give something like this up.'

They pulled up in front of Xiaoyu's house "Thanks for hanging out with me, Hwoar- HANEUL." She teased. "But really, I did have a lot of fun. It's been months since I've done anything other than homework."

"No prob. I can pick you up from school tomorrow, if ya want." He said aloofly.

"Sure. I'll see you tomorrow then. Good night!" she flashed a sweet smile and waved goodbye.

Hwoarang waved back and sped off on his motorcycle.

I think I didn't do a very good job on this one, mostly because Hwoarang's personality did a complete 180 in this one chapter. Oh yeah, um… I hope none of y'all are mad at me for mauling Hwoarang. I mean he is kind of a mystery man and all. His whole name thing, I looked names for almost an hour trying to find the perfect name. I wanted it to be something that a guy like Hwoarang would hate, to make him give himself the Blood Talon nickname. And as far as his last name goes, and the fact that I made half American is because I think Hwoarang looks just like Brent Smith of Shinedown (during the release of their Leave a Whisper CD). A good plus to their similarities is would be the fact that they both dye their hair an unnaturally shade of red. Oh, and it's the same length. And as for Xiaoyu, I figured she'd be a whole like Shuichi Shindo of Gravitation, you look at her wrong and she'll start bawling. Oh yeah, and final note, I promise, I know that Japanese people probably don't eat their ice cream like that but that's close enough to my super-special sundaes I make as a kid (I miss those things).