DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything having to do with the Tekken series.

Chapter 4: This Was Supposed to be Fun

They pulled up to a crowded back ally "Hwoarang, I don't think I should be here." She looked at all the hulking people.

"Whatcha mean?" he tucked his keys in his pocket.

Xiaoyu stood on her tippy toes and whispered, "They're scary."

He chuckled slightly "You'll be okay."

She clung on tightly to his undershirt as they wove through the crowd. "Hey, Kane," he said to a shady-looking man "put me up next."

The man nodded "We've got you a new dog to play with! He'll go first."

"Aw, come on, man… You know I hate fighting new people. All the old dudes could actually block some of my attacks."

"Yeah, well. No one else wanted to fight you today. The new guy wants to, though, 'said he could knock you out in one punch."

Hwoarang burst out laughing, "Okay, okay. Bring him on then. This'll be funny."

Kane looked at Xiaoyu "New kind of wager?"

"Nope. She's with me." Hwoarang shrugged his shoulders, trying to get her attention. To no avail, she stared into the middle of the fighting ring where two men were practically beating each other to death with two-by-fours.

Kane raised an eyebrow, then shook his head.

They walked into the edge of the ring, then he stepped to the middle by himself.

A younger boy beside Xiaoyu tapped her on the shoulder "You really know Hwoarang?"

She smiled nervously, "Yeah, briefly."

"Wow, that's cool! He's so awesome! He's fought hundreds of fights –maybe even a thousand- and he's only lost one time."

"…Who beat him?" she asked hesitantly, thinking she already knew the answer.

"I can't remember his name, but he wore the same kind of uniform you do. Mishima High?" he asked.

"Yeah." She nervously brought her hands together. 'No wonder Hwoarang doesn't like Jin. Though it's only one fight, it probably hurt his pride really bad.'

The kid nudged Xiaoyu "Here," he handed her a beer "everybody gets free drinks."

Xiaoyu tried to hand it back "No thanks, I don't drink."

"When in Rome, do like the Romans do. It's the only reason I don't kicked out."

Xiaoyu grimaced as she took a sip "Ugh, it's disgusting."

The crowd suddenly started cheering as the fight begun. The ref quieted the crowd "Over here," he announced to the crowd "We have the challenger, Takashi, hailing from Osaka! And over here, we have our champion, the Blood Talon, Hwoarang! Before we begin the fight, both of you are required to empty your pockets to make sure neither of you have weapons on you."

"Ling!" Hwoarang shouted.

She looked at him.

He tossed his keys to her and readied himself to completely annihilate his opponent.

"You ready to lose your 24-0 record?" Takashi taunted.

Hwoarang laughed "24-0 isn't my best, it's actually 97-0. So all together I'm at 121 wins and 1 loss." He flashed a cocky smirk "You know, since you're so confident that you'll beat me, I'll let you have your one punch."

The guy gulped and swung as hard as he could.

Hwoarang didn't even flinch. He punch him square in the nose, then walked out of the ring "Anyone else who wants to go against me next better be able to fight better than that guy."

Xiaoyu jumped on him "You're great! You know that?"

He quirked an eyebrow "Are you drunk?"

"No, no, nooooo. I just had this one and, well, I don't feel a thing!" She giggled.

Takashi finally recovered, wiping blood from his nose "Who's next?"

Hwoarang rolled his eyes "He's gonna try to gain back his pride. Pathetic."

Xiaoyu shoved her drink and his keys back to him "I'm next!"

Hwoarang grabbed her by the wrist "No, you're not."

Kane put his hand Hwoarang's shoulder "You know the rules." Then he pulled her into the middle of the ring "What's your name, kid?"

"Ling Xiaoyu."

"Okay, well, since you heard that announcement earlier, you know you gotta take that shit off." He tapped one of her bracelets.

She pouted but obeyed and tossed her bracelets to Hwoarang.

Kane stepped out of the center and shouted "Fight!"

Xiaoyu started things off with her "Dark and Stormy" mini-combo.

Takashi was only able to block the first punch, and soon became angered "You little bitch…" he raised his fist and charged her.

Xiaoyu dropped to her hands and tripped him. She performed a few backward cartwheels and placed her hands on her hips after landing on her feet "Ha! Still haven't hit me yet!"

The crowd cheered when Takashi sloppily rose to his feet. He let out a slight growl of frustration, wiping blood from his nose again.

"You know, mister? This is the most fun I've had in a while." She smiled cheerfully, having her hand.

He charged her at full speed, snapping his teeth and snarling like a rabid animal.

She simply flipped over him to dodge him and grabbed his right leg. Using her foot and a little momentum successfully made him spin uncontrollably in the air.

He fell with a hard crash at the feet of a few members of the crowd, showing no sign of moving.

Xiaoyu spun around on her heel and took a quick bow while Kane announced her as the winner.

". . . I'm. . . not . . .losing. . ." Takashi angrily mumbled to himself.

Hwoarang glanced from Xiaoyu's proud gaze down to the hemorrhaging mess of a man laying on the cement. He saw Takashi reach into the crowd, he squinted his eyes to see what he was up to.

Takashi grasped a bloodied two-by-four nearby and forced himself off the ground "TO A LITTLE BITCH!"

"Ling!" Hwoarang yelled to her and dashed towards her from across the ring.

Xiaoyu turned around halfway through Takashi's swing, but didn't have enough time to do anything else. She let out a sharp shriek when the weapon connected with her body and she went flying backwards three feet. She became disoriented; she wiped hair from her eyes as she attempted to shake off the blow.

Takashi raised the two-by-four above his head, and swung straight down in one fluid motioned.

Hwoarang grabbed it halfway through the swing, the muscles in his arms straining against Takashi's entire weight being pushed on the large piece of wood. "Arghhh!" he forced Takashi's weapon against him, sending the enraged man flying backwards. "You think that was fair?! You could've killed her, you mother fucker!" he yelled as he broke the two-by-four over his knee. And threw the pieces to his sides and commenced to pound Takashi's face.

Kane ran to him and broke Hwoarang away from the Takashi-mush that Hwoarang pounded into the ground "You're gonna end up killing him, dude, stop!"

Hwoarang popped his knuckles, briefly glared at his friend and retreated to Xiaoyu's side, kneeling beside her "I'm so sorry, Ling- You were right," he carefully wrapped his arms around her "I shouldn't have brought you here." He shook his head in agreement with his spoken words.

Xiaoyu was still obviously dizzy "I'm fine," she gasped, using Hwoarang's arms to pull herself up "I just need to catch my breath."

"Can you walk okay?" he helped her to her feet. As soon as he let go she started sinking back to the ground. He scooped her into his arms.

"Lemme go-" She squirmed out of his grip.

"No, you're hurt. You need help-" he interrupted him.

She stood on her own, wobbling slightly "Shut up! You're just like Jin! Neither of you think I can't handle myself! I told you I'm fine, I won the stupid fight!" she stumbled, "This is nothing, okay?!"

Hwoarang held her up, shaking his head in disbelief "Kane… hold on to my cash for me, okay? I've gotta get her out of here."

Kane slowly nodded, half-expecting Hwoarang to show some form of anger, hatred or anything. He knew who Jin was, he remembered announcing him the winner the day Hwoarang lost.

Hwoarang sat her in front of him on his motorcycle, keeping his left arm wrapped tightly around her. The bike roared to life and they were off.

At the stoplights, Hwoarang could hear her mumble incohearant words. His eyebrows knitted briefly as he lightly shook her "Stay with me, Xiao." He saw a drop of liquid roll down her face. He gently wiped the tear away 'The only reason she wanted to fight was to defy him. To prove she's just as powerful as us. How could anyone try to make someone feel to belittled? That's wrong…'

Yep, so Xiaoyu gets mauled trying to prove she was a good fighter even though Jin wasn't around to see it. I wanted extend Xiaoyu's fight with Takashi but the chapter was already getting so long I figured people might just skip to the next one. But she'll get more in a later chapter and she'll really kick some ass . Jealously is a powerful thing ;).