"Yeah who's the man?! Who's the man??" he challenged to the rows of empty lockers firing himself up for his next match.
"I take it you won your last match..?" a voice questioned.
The boy whirled around, the locker room, he had thought it to be empty.
The boy rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"Uh...I didn't know anybody else was in here." he confessed.
Shyly he observed the intruder out the corner of his eye while he pretended to fix the tape around his wrists. A little younger then himself, of slighter build, Asian, probably Chinese and definitely not in his weight class.
The China-boy smirked and jerked his head in the direction of the auditorium. "You mean out there routing for the undefeated Kazuya Mishima?" Cheers could be heard in the back ground.
"Hardly."
The boy shrugged and fixed his GI self consciously saying nothing.
"I just came in here to meditate before my next match versus Marshall Law." he replied indifferent to the boy's silence.
'Law...' that name sounded familiar to the boy.
"Hey you're Lee Chaolan aren’t you?" The boy's eyes widened. "You're ranked undefeated!" Lee's eyes glimmered.
"Maybe. Who are you, a fan-boy?"
The boy shook his head vehemently. "No...I just respect great fighters is all. I mean you're not in my weight class but that doesn't mean we won't be meeting each other in a fight one day."
Lee caught off guard laughed.
"Oh well you flatter me. You flatter yourself too assuming you'd ever make it to fight with me." Lee took a step closer and the dim light in the locker room illuminated a nasty bruise on his cheek.
"Hey that's rough! When did that happen? I don't remember anybody landing any solid strikes to your face in any earlier matches." The boy inquired concerned.
Lee pulled back affronted and absently placed a hand to his cheek. "Oh it didn't happen in a match..." he mumbled lost in his thoughts for a moment. Lee's eyes flashed and he glared at the boy.
"Maybe you should pay more attention to Kazuya's hit strikes then my own since you'll be up against him. You won't have a hope in heaven of defeating him but at least you could avoid some serious injury." he sneered.
The boy laughed.
"Well I would, but you see Mr. Mishima is nowhere near as captivatingly beautiful as you. When I start watching you, heck I don't wanna stop."
Lee blinked, then smiled at the boys boldness. He reached up a taped hand and stroked the boy’s cheek.
"I should kick your ass for saying that..." Lee teased.
The boy winked at him.
"As I thought," Lee mused. "You really are a nobody."
The boy grinned. "I'm anybody you want me to be."
"Really." Lee hissed pulling the boy into a kiss.
Lee suddenly broke away .
"Did I do something..." The boy began
"Tell me I'm beautiful." he pleaded pain in his eyes.
Looking over Lee's lithe and lovely body the boy shook his head wondering how one so perfect could be so insecure.
"You are the most gorgeous creature I've ever seen." he said with nothing but honesty in his voice. Lee sighed with relief and closed his eyes. Hungrily the boy kissed him again and slowly sat down pulling Lee onto his lap.
Lee squirmed a bit, "Putting the cart in front of the horse are we?"
The boy looked at him puzzled.
"Aren't you forgeting something?"
The boy couldn't figure out what Lee's meant...
"Oh!" he cried slapping a hand to his forhead and looked around for his equipment bag.
Lee laughed as he watched the boy frantically search through it.
"Here we go!" the boy cried triumphantly raising a plastic bottle.
"Hair Gel..." Lee read the label looking at him dubviously.
The boy's head snapped to the bottle in his hand.
"Ooops wrong one!" he threw it over his shoulder and dug through his bag once again, this time returning with his handy dandy bottle of KY jelly.
"You travel with that?" Lee questioned very amused.
"Hey it's a long plane ride from America to Japan!" the boy protested.
Lee shook his head and looked to the boy.
"C'mere." he beckoned.
Lee surprised the boy by being a remarkable lover, he could do things with his body he had never even imagined. Lee's flexability was incredible. He could not get enough of Lee's taste, his smell, the feeling of being inside his body. Lee snuggled his face into the boy's chest and bit into his shoulder leaving faint strawberry teeth marks. The feeling of those tiny teeth biting his shoulder drove the boy over the edge.
After a few minutes of spooning together Lee stood up and looked for his clothes. The boy grumbled to himself wishing they had more time together, but he too had a match soon. They talked in jest about other fighters, as they dressed speculating over who had talent and who would be killed in a match.
"Kazuya all the way." Was all Lee said about the boy's weight class.
The boy felt his heart sink, he wanted Lee routing for him not that electric trick.
"Remember." Lee instructed as he was turing to leave. "This never happened. We just bumped into each other in here and then went our separate ways. Got that?"
The boy looked up from tying his belt at the waist . "Got what?"
Lee chuckled and touched the boy's shoulder.
"You're too smart to be a fighter you know that?" he said sadly.
"You know you're the first one to ever tell me that. Geez what were my math teachers thinking?" The boy never had a problem with poking fun at himself, he knew he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed. Besides if it made Lee laugh then where was the harm?
Lee laughed and looked at him endearingly. "Shame we won't ever meet again. I'll miss you."
The boy's heart jumped a little. 'Never see him again?!'
"Watch my fight versus Kazuya." he pleaded.
Lee seemed to ponder over this. "Okay, I'll watch." he finally agreed. "But you won't win. Heed my advice about his hit strikes and when you get knocked down. Stay down."
Lee turned on his heel and left the boy with words circling around in his head with the only ones he really heard being. "Okay. I'll watch."
Fifteen minutes later he stood ready for his match versus Kazuya. Lee had kept his promise, he was there, sitting in the first row. The boy kept throwing little glances over at him trying to convince himself he wasn't dreaming. Lee had won his match against Marshal Law and was now champion in his weight class. The boy felt his chest swell with pride and he wanted to walk up and congratulate him on his win yet respect held him in check.
His rival on the other hand was sitting beside Lee, almost too close. The boy grit his teeth in jealousy as Kazuya leaned in and said something into Lee's ear. Lee jerked away and spat something venomous at the raven haired boy. Kazuya grabbed Lee by the back of his neck and slapped him in front of everybody.
The boy stood there stunned and looked to the ref.
"Why doesn't somebody do something?" he questioned as Kazuya repeatedly slapped Lee.
The ref looked away. "Well normally we would, but we try not to get involved with family issues."
"Family issues?"
"Yes. Didn't you know? Lee and Kazuya are brothers...well Lee is Kazuya's adopted brother." So...that's why Lee and Kazuya's moves looked so similar, they were trained in variations of the same technique. Suddenly the boy knew all too well who had given Lee that nasty bruise on his cheek.
"Family issues are one thing but he's hurting him!" he argued passionately shaking with rage.
"Yeah well..." the ref mumbled "That tough guy is undefeated and a live wire. He's never seriously hurt Lee and nobody knows when he'll go off so why start problems y'know?"
The boy's jaw dropped, he wanted to protest some more but the ref turned away from him and signaled to the other judges and Kazuya.
Kazuya smirked at the judge and let go of Lee pinching his bruised cheek before he left.
"Love the sneakers...really." the boy mocked as Kazuya entered the ring.
Kazuya leaned in and jeered at him.
"You're nobody."
The boy scowled. 'Asshole.'
"Oh is that the same thing you said to Lee?"
Kazuya's brow darkened.
"What do you know about anything?"
The boy sneered but held his tongue. He had promised Lee.
The announcers voices boomed throughout the stadium.
"The final match of this competition, introducing the competitors. Wearing white GI pants, trained in Mishima Fighting style karate, ranked undefeated, Kazuya Mishima!" The crowd exploded, people were hooting and hollering from the seats. All of them that is except for a stoic man with even weirder hair then Kazuya. The boy caught a glance of him out of the corner of his eye and thought it odd. Kazuya too had seen the man and he seemed to enrage the electric trick.
"His opponent in the red GI, master of Alpha fighting style, also ranked undefeated, Paul Phoenix!"
He recieved a spattering of applause not that it mattered for he could not hear it. Every sense was focused upon Kazuya.
Eagerly he cracked his neck and knuckles.
"Get ready bitch, cause I'm gonna slap the taste out of your mouth." he promised.
"Baka American." Kazuya said with a shake of his head.
"Fight!" the ref cried.
Neither boy held the advantage for long. Blocking and landing blows, they threw everything they had at each other. Every time Paul made Kazuya eat floor he knew he had won a point for Lee. Finally after an unending amount of rounds a draw was called.
Paul stood silent, ignoring the praise eyes searching the bleachers for Lee.
Kazuya stood seething in the ring, rage radiating out of him so powerfully it could almost be seen.
Through the haze of his pain Paul managed a small smile as he saw Lee making his way towards the ring. 'What the fu...?'
Instead of throwing his arms around Paul in joy as he had expected, Lee instead went to Kazuya and touched his arm.
"It's okay you didn't lose." he heard Lee whisper. "You're still undefeated."
Kazuya slapped the hand away and grabbed Lee by the throat.
"I don't need your pity!"
Rage eclipsed Paul's shock and he charged Kazuya smashing a shoulder into his back. Kazuya staggered and he released his hold on Lee's throat. Kazuya quickly regained his balance and whirled around to face Paul.
"That is how you treat your brother?"
Kazuya scowled and looked to the left as he threw a sucker punch at Paul.
Moments before the fist would have smashed into Paul's chin a hand appeared catching Kazuya off balance and shoved him over backwards.
Paul looked up into the face of his savior and was surprised to see the same man who had been sitting silent in the audience. Up close the man was powerfully built and obviously a fighter, he was powerfully intimidating and something about his stare made Paul uneasy.
"Mind your business old man!" Kazuya snarled from the floor kicking Lee's assisting hands away.
"Mind my business?" The man's voice boomed. "When you soil our family name by your un-sportsman like behavior then it is my business. Pick yourself up off the floor and go meditate till you can act like a civilized human being."
Kazuya rose from the floor fixing Paul with a murder's stare, and smirked once at his father before stepping on Lee's hand as he stalked off.
Paul felt something die inside of him as he watched Lee's eyes sadly follow Kazuya's departure. The man turned to Paul with a smile upon his face. "Congratulations Mr. Phoenix. I've been waiting for someone to put my son into his place. I trust we will be seeing each other again." He gave Paul a knowing look and departed in the same direction as Kazuya had left in.
"Are you okay?" Paul asked looking at Lee with eyes full of sympathy.
"Go fuck yourself Phoenix." Lee sniffed rubbing at a bloody nose.
"Hnnn seems like you already did that for me." he joked half-heartedly.
Lee flashed him a look that could kill and turned to leave.
"Lee." Paul called not wanting him to leave like this. "Why do you let him treat you like that?" Lee paused and looked at Paul over his shoulder.
"You don't understand. You don't know the reasons behind why he does the things he does. Why he is the person he has been forced to become."
"That's no excuse! Hell I had a shit life too ya'know! But I don't take it out on everybody else! I'd treat you a million times better then him! Why? Why him and not me?"
"I love him." Lee replied simply and walked away.
Paul shook his head in disbelief.
"This is not over." Paul vowed before he too walked away.