The Colour Purple Chapter 50: The Good Guys, a king of fighters fanfic

The Colour Purple... The King of Fighters '95

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This (chapter) fanfiction was originally written circa: [XX.96] (Thank you)

"Which Character are you?"

Note to self: Legacy chapter numbering (32- - -), does not match. [Original chapter written 2013]

THIS CHAPTER was originally Chapter 33.

"I'm done, I'm DONE with you, and all this nonsense!" I couldn't control my voice anymore so I screamed and slammed, slammed and slammed the bottom of my fist repeatedly into the putrid wall next to me. "This.." This is part 2 of END of la Bizarre Love Pentagon.

...

Yuri knelt quietly under the blankets of Robert's short coffee table, letting the heat radiate through her cold body. Her lower back and joints began to ache from what seemed like an eternity because she was so afraid to move. That mere 18" high table however, while not the main topic of discussion, was truly a peculiarity for someone who never saw one before. It was a table, a blanket and a small space heater – but, it was all those things, all at the same time. The ingenious contraption was called a kotatsu. A kotatsu. At the other side of the world was Robert, who leaned to the side while still sitting flat on his bottom. His legs were splayed open; each foot was peeking out opposite sides of the blanket that draped around the edges of the flat surface.

Yuri couldn't help but let her eyes wander in the stillness, left, right and all around, taking in every little bit of what she could see of Robert's living room. Cans peppered the entire perimeter, some crushed, some leaking truth serum onto the floor, and even the walls had remnants of beer stains dripping down them. Ripped ramen packages, and half empty teacups adorned the world around. It was sheer adventure just trying to clear up enough space to sit down and seek refuge within the protection of that warm table. As fate would have it, not one piece of garbage ever found its way into the still immaculate rubbish bin.

In that dark hell, it was frigidly cold, and Yuri had already forgotten what it was like before she had crossed over that door behind her. It could have been summer or maybe it was spring, but right now she wrapped her hands around her body, clawed the back of her arms and rubbed her fingers up and down slowly to pass the time. It was a dark and different territory now…

True, the room looked like a landfill, but it was pale in comparison to Robert's face. Robert was filthy, unshaven, and dark unsightly rings sagged under his eyes. One look at his red, bloodshot eyeballs and it didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened these past few weeks. Yuri doubted if Robert had even set foot in the sun all this time.

There was an awkward, tense silence, the kind that made you want to claw your fingertips into your thighs and just… To just want to fearlessly jump off the ledge of a tall building and not care about the consequences.

You are my enemy now. My enemy was indifference. If I were to stand up and walk away, I can simply say "I don't care, it doesn't matter…" perhaps everything would go away. Robert made no effort to start anything, but surely, it wasn't as if he even could in his current stupor. The millions of thoughts in her mind – words clumped together into decipherable sentences - they began to arrange themselves into a neat ordered list, but as Yuri carefully and cautiously mouthed her questions, she couldn't bring herself to give them voice. Yuri wanted to say something, say anything and everything but held her tongue at the last moment. Yuri couldn't say anything because she didn't know how Robert would react. Yuri didn't know what to say, forgot what she wanted to say to Robert. We again, we were trapped within the safety of rules and their petty social conventions.

Would it have been easier…?

Such uneasiness. Yuri's eyes were calling out for help, but no matter how she silently reached out and begged – her eyebrows weakly slumped, her eyes floated in a wide glare in place caught in between fear and sadness – there was no salvation to be had. He was once so strong…

He was [once] so very strong.

He was once so strong, {I once thought,} Yuri lost herself in her thoughts, wanting to justify everything, {thought that NOTHING and NOONE could defeat you, Robert.} Yuri clipped the hem of her shirt in between her thumbs and index fingers on both hands. She shuffled them back and forth in such a nervous fashion that it seemed that she would soon wear a hole in the cloth. Soon she couldn't help but have her head sink into her stiff shoulders and retreat as she remembered a simpler time – a time when the world was bright and colourful, and she was so small and had no other choice but to look up at the young Robert who towered sky high above her. Robert's shoulders were broad and sturdy. His body was unmovable. When she looked up at his face, she would also see the free light blue sky in the same picture perfect way. The smile that beamed from his face glittered with nothing other than blind confidence. It was okay, we were okay; there was nothing that could defeat him.

…but now, Yuri closed her eyes when the bright sun in her dream was too much to bear. Yuri opened her eyes once again when she thought it was safe - and the sun, the bright blue sky and the fearless laugh she remembered was replaced now with a rancid, filthy darkness in that small apartment room. Instead of the fearless hero she always faithfully turned to in her mind, he was replaced with a broken and beaten man that slumped in half and looked downwards pitifully at the table in front of him. The horrible darkness, the feeling of dread and despair framed the girl and boy in an ugly picture. Denial. Anger. Fear. Depression. Acceptance. While not always in that order, was the sequence of inevitable events that would touch each and every single one of us when death finally came to take you away. Like clockwork, the promises would have their wicked way with you, and the sooner you realize it, the better it would be for everyone – when you accept the merciless fact that we were ALL simply slaves to the world who offered us nothing but suffering.

Would it have been easier to face you…if…?

Robert cursed out openly to the air in some language - Italian probably - Yuri couldn't tell, and he just leaned over the table, knocking over some more beer cans in order to get to the towering sake bottle at the other side of the world. Yuri couldn't understand it at first, and maybe she just fooled herself, saying she didn't notice any of it. However, she couldn't deny herself much longer because Robert couldn't hide the short but violent trembling in his body when he reached out and extended his arms. The world around the two was so very empty, so empty that Yuri easily heard the pained, sad, silent voice that barely escaped Robert's lips – when he further subdivided and issued simple commands to his limbs, his body that could hardly keep pace.

To reach out, focus on target, stay still and not tremble… he didn't want it to show, Robert didn't want Yuri to see him shake because he couldn't even will his appendages to reach out and respond to the most basic of commands. He couldn't even focus properly and weakly moved in slow motion. Yuri bit her lip, and though she wanted to look away, her shoulders tensed and kept her gaze locked onto her beloved friend who couldn't even properly reach for a bottle of poison just two feet in front of him without breaking apart. He was coming apart, unraveling at the seams. His elbow propped him on the table and it was about the only thing keeping his upper body upright. He opened his hands, reached out, but grasped only empty air. Robert didn't even realize that he was clawing out aimlessly, and it took him three tries to grab onto his target - that tall glass bottle filled with clear poison. {Don't do this… Stop it please…} Yuri's shoulders trembled and begged silently. {Don't do this…} she pleaded, her face slowly curled into a contorted visage.

Would it have been easier to face you NOW… Would I not falter, if you were…?

She once again remembered a time, when Robert bit down on his lip and wiped the blood that ran town his cut mouth with the back of his hand, but he didn't want to give up. The shadows that were cast by their gigantic shoulders, those two towers were what protected her as the glow of the setting sun enveloped them in drama. Now, and now, that vision – a perfect vision of her hero that reached up to her brother's shoulder to hoist himself up to fight, was replaced with something more horrible. Something so terrible, it slowly ate away at the memories of a once perfect picture.

Robert proceeded to pour himself a drink.

Love and liquor. The poison. It takes one poison to overcome another.

Would it have been easier, if you were, instead, MY ENEMY!?

Yuri slammed her palms on the table furiously – the thundering aftershock made the glasses jump up with a familiar clink and toppled the crushed cans on that tabletop. Yuri's fingers twisted in grotesque angles, ready to pierce into the wooden table. Now, her eyes were reduced to pinpoints and her brows had furrowed downwards, twisting her face in rage. My ENEMY.

"Damn it. Why are you doing this?!" Yuri tore open her lungs and shouted to Robert. She was ready to turn the table over and reach over and tear that man apart! My ENEMY.

...

WHY, are we – why are the both of us, still alive?

Denial. Anger. Fear. Depression. Acceptance.

…

It took Robert a few seconds to comprehend what Yuri had just said. As his reply, he chugged down the shot of sake, wiped his lips with the back of his hand and gave a stern look.

"OI KORA!" Robert called out. Yuri lurched back sharply, not by Robert's tone, but instead, by his breath that reeked of disgusting alcohol. "What'dya care?!" he continued.

"What'll you hope to accomplish!? Getting drunk and wallowing in self pity, Robert?" Yuri spat, this time slamming her fist hard on the table. Again and again, louder, until she couldn't hear herself think, until she couldn't turn back from the edge of that tall building.

"You're in MY house, so say what you want and GET OUT OF HERE." Robert pointed his index finger through the girl and out the door, sternly.

Yuri pulled herself back, she calmed down because she knew well enough, working in a bar, and from that experience - that anger could only take you so far, and with these diminishing returns, was no way to deal with a drunken man. He was a man who was now reduced to his simplest parts, devoid of fear and inhibition. She paused a moment, collected herself and brought together carefully measured words so that she wouldn't accidentally utter something she would eventually regret saying out loud.

Yuri couldn't bring herself to look Robert in the eye. She thought of random words, imagines random scenes in her mind – some inconsequential train of thought to keep herself from remembering, and so she wouldn't tell herself unconsciously… so she wouldn't see that time when Robert was perfect – and realize now that he was…

Yuri slowly wrapped ten fingers from both hands around Robert's trembling hand. With a conscious and determined intent, she slipped her soft fingers in between his in a valiant effort to pry that cold glass from his. Cautiously and slowly she continued to do so – with her left hand she caressed the back of the man's knuckles to ease him, reassure him… Yuri, with sincere intent bade Robert to let that glass of poison go for a moment.

"I need you to come back. You have to take King away from Clark."

"Who is it for? You want Clark too?!" Robert's voice began to climb again.

The glass was now finally in Yuri's hands and with a slow, clear voice she replied as she set the glass down onto the warm table…

"It's not like that." Yuri looked up to meet Robert's gaze calmly. She pleaded for him to stay with her for a little bit longer.

"Then who is it for? What do YOU care about me? What do YOU care about King? What's in it for YOU?! Eh?!" Robert roared, stumbling about in a weak desire to launch to a stand.

"Don't you care about King? You told me you loved her… right?" Yuri continued her slow monotone – eventhough the audience could tell that her trembling voice was about to break… but… "Don't you want to do anything? I just want everything to be the way they once were. I want to have my world back again." …but she stood her ground and kept calm and sane.

"You're so selfish." Robert mumbled. "How do you know King isn't happier now than she was before?" Surprising words coming from a drunken man who now cradled his throbbing forehead within his open palms.

"You can't fool yourself. You know King, I know King." Yuri reasoned. "I can't do it alone. I have no right to fight for King. Only you can." Yuri reached out…

"BULLSHIT! You're scared." Robert snarled, slapping Yuri's plea with the back of his hand mercilessly. The back of Robert's knuckles collided with Yuri's palm; then there was silence even long after the cold resounding slap was reduced to echoes.

Even when she tried her best to hold it all back, the flow and ebb of time slowed to a standstill when she felt the back of Robert's hand swat her pleading tears away. Yuri tried so hard to reach out to him – in the hopes to somehow connect once again to that one perfect vision she saw before. When she was angry, when she was sad, when she was lonely, and that time when she had no one to turn to – he was there. And now – with such a simple action – when he threw the back of his hand and slapped Yuri's prayer aside, the world split in half. Yuri bit down HARD and gnashed her teeth in a feeling she never thought she would ever experience… Perhaps… as the black and white lines launched vertically to reduce their bodies into sketchy images, this would be known as a feeling of betrayal accented by her disbelieving eyes.

When the sensation ripped through her open palm, it felt more painful than anything else that she had experienced before. Slowly… the memory faded away and was replaced with a dark veil and a gnashing, horrible sound that turned the world inside out mercilessly abound.

Yuri couldn't hold it back and exploded, "RAAAUHHHHGGGGGG!" she shrieked. She shrieked to the point that her throat twisted into knots and she imagined blood gushing in all directions from her mouth - swatting the array of beer cans and miscellaneous garbage over the edge of the table with vehement furvour. She slammed both of her open palms onto the table.

FUCK! FUCK.. FUCKFUCK! FUCK! Yuri closed her eyes from the burning sensation and waved her head back and forth. The remnants of glitters filled the air, and we were left with IT.

"Goddamn it! FUCK!" Yuri roared when she came unglued. She gripped onto the edge of the table with all the might her small hands could muster, those small hands that shook uncontrollably in rage and viciously, leaned over, staring Robert straight in the face. "Look me in the face. LOOK ME IN THE FACE, and TELL me that you really think King is happy." Yuri turned her hand round and jabbed her index finger into her own chest. "TELL ME you don't care about King. Are you just some chauvinist pig, and everything you said about your love was all for the spur of the moment." Ripping, clawing. Yuri released her grip and as she launched to a stand, she clawed both hands into her temple wildly. All ten fingers wanting to sink hungrily into her brain, so it could somehow stop, somehow numb that penetrating pain. "IS THAT WHAT ALL YOU MEN TANTAMOUNT TO?!"

YOU ARE MY ENEMY.

"..." Robert curled back, kept silent and looked at the drop of sake running around the bottom of his glass. He didn't want to say anything. He was speechless. He was without speech.

"Well, what the fuck... I'm just wasting my time here with garbage like you..." Yuri hissed as she was about to collect herself and take her leave.

Robert threw his glass to the wall, and Yuri stopped in mid thought. The glass shattered into a million gleaming shards and settled down like snowflakes, splitting the tense moment. Robert looked Yuri in the eye, sincerely, all the anger slowly being washed away with tears.

…like snowflakes, LIKE STARS. Shattering for me, in the dark sky. Did you promise me?

"I'm scared..." Robert whispered pitifully.

"Scared..?"

"What can _I_ do against an arranged marriage? I have no right to stand in. What will King's father say? Because of my selfishness – KING, she has to suffer… again."

"...You're.. You're just afraid of being the bad guy aren't you?" Yuri said. Again.

THE BAD GUY.

"I don't want to be like the rest of [them]. Satisfying their own desires – for love and for justice. No matter what the cost. What if Clark loves King? What if King's father loves Clark? What if..." Robert's voice began to falter and break again… I don't want to see it again. I don't want to go back to 10 years ago. What if…?

"What if your mother's a fat greasy bitch?!"

Robert slowed down. "What?" He held his one hand in the other to stop the fear.

Without apologies, Yuri's foot embedded themselves through the wooden cabinet beside her. As the splinters erupted from their slumber, in their wake was a wild beat that had come unchained. The fangs jutted and drove themselves into the sides of Yuri's mouth in slow motion.

"Pride. It's all a question of pride. Are you worried about being the bad guy or your pride?"

"I... don't know." Robert replied sobbing.

"Once a man loses his pride he has nothing. If you truly love King even if it isn't returned, you have to at least fight for her happiness. It is what love is about. To fight. It's what makes you human."

...

{If she is willing...?} Robert thought.

Robert closed his eyes, vaguely recalling that King had done the same, or had it been a figment of his imagination? Robert was trapped in a world of long denied fulfillment, and in a state of uncertainty. Then he did the stupidest thing a person could ever do. He asked himself, he rationalized for once in his pathetic pea brained life... He asked himself if he really loved King.

...

PLEASE… ROBERT…

Robert slowly lost his strength and took refuge in his indecisiveness. HE rummaged through the pile of garbage next to him, trying to scavenge some bits of chips and uncooked, now stale ramen noodles. Finally he found another small glass, and eagerly poured more sake into it. He carefully put the bottle next to him and savored the cup as slow as he could, trying to buy time trying to forget about everything. Yuri took pity at Robert now, who looked like some beggar, some useless bum that no one loved.

Beggars. Why do they lose direction? At that moment, Yuri wanted to hate Robert. Yuri wanted to hate all the bums, the filthy beggars like him. Do you remember your mother telling you how you would end up like a bum one day if you don't try hard enough? Remember how you feared the thought? Remember how you hated and despised them? Well then… does it make them bad? Being weak? Just because the world determined that they would lose, and they should just not exist? Should Yuri hate bums because of that weak shell? Yuri couldn't understand how she could lose such faith in a person she had such high regard for before.

"Please... leave me alone." Robert begged. Robert hugged himself, shielding himself from the cold, the cold that made his insides shiver, despite the heat that warmed his toes. An image flashed in Robert's mind, of King's face - an image caught between indifference and sadness. Something he couldn't forget all these long, crippling weeks. Robert trembled feverishly and his hand shook spastically as he tried to reach for his sake bottle once more. Yuri slapped Robert's hand and the sake bottle fell to the floor. The clear sludge spread across the laughing, selfless world around them.

In slow fashion the silence ended. Could it be, that the pain had driven me mad beyond it all, and now I could only hear a slow guitar ballad, plucking each string. Carefully, I began to hear violins start to calm me, and ask me… Even when we had become content with a peaceful existence. We smiled because nothing could harm us here, nothing could take us away from this perfect place. Because down there on Earth, women relied on men – even when these men were indeed so weak. When they were indeed so helpless. I want to give up. "Even when you tried so HARD one time before?" Robert couldn't break away from Yuri's now serious face and killing gaze that seemed to soar so high from heaven above. A perfect picture of a [beast].

The salty pools of tears started to bubble and now he began to laugh erratically. Robert laughed uncontrollably and it sent shivers up Yuri's spine. Was Robert going insane? Robert got down on all fours and started sucking up the spilled alcohol from the filthy floor, like a dog.

Yuri put her hands together and lay them flat on her knees, and gazed upon what was left of Robert.

"This stuff is expensive. Shouldn't let it go to waste." Robert said in an empty tone. The BOY put both hands beneath him and without a shred of shame didn't think of anything other than licking up the putrid rice wine that was ever so slowly seeping its way through the cracks of his apartment ground.

UNMEI KAERU! The sudden realization of a change of fate.

Robert looked up for a moment and saw that Yuri was there with him too, and now, she had replaced everything and was on all fours like he was, sucking up the disgusting liquid.

…

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!?" Robert yelled.

Yuri paid no attention to Robert's scream and continued doing so.

"ANSWER ME DAMN IT." Robert said forcefully and got up.

Yuri looked up to face Robert. "Ask yourself the same. What are YOU doing?"

Robert soon began to realize...

"Are you going to be a dog for the rest of your life? Are you going to be the good guy this time and then be a dog for the rest?" Yuri said.

Hey Robbie… I will come for you – when you are WEAKEST… and take away…

Yuri was too engrossed in her thoughts, hoping, wishing, that she didn't even feel Robert's body draw close and immediately overcome her when she wasn't prepared.

Robert weakly put his arms around Yuri and set his head on her shoulders, pulling her close, pushing her upright from that despicable pool of hatred. The boy, not thinking of anything else, let his head stumble forwards and put his lips next to her ear. He mumbled something indecipherable to Yuri's. In a swift motion, Robert grabbed the back of his best friend's sister's jacket, and with the other hand intertwined his fingers onto her hair and pulled her face close to his.

"I don't love King anymore. I love you instead, Yuri." Robert said. Robert pulled Yuri's jacket down slowly over her shoulders, brought her close to him and kissed her full on the lips.

Yuri froze on the spot with her eyes wide open. Her body didn't move but her mind was screaming.

...

Chapter 50: The Good Guys

Give wine to those with bitter hearts...

And beer is truth serum...

...or is it just an excuse for insanity?