Fan Fiction ❯ Tag ❯ You're It ( Chapter 1 )

 

\/\/\/\/\/`~Tag~\/\/\/\/\/\

You're It

“129.”

The gentle fragrance of cherry blossoms pervaded in the courtyard. It seemed to be eternally spring there, and that warmth was what she needed for encouragement.

She deftly snatched a tiny petal from the air before it lay wasted among the others on the grass. She added it to the soft pile beside her. “130.”

Leaning back on the cement bench, her back against the Yozakura, she watched hundreds more flutter past her. She shook her head. Not even those could distract her for very long.

This is ridiculous. I promised myself I'd go after I caught 100. Yet, there on that bench, lay 30 too many. She knew she was stalling.

 

Lei Fang had been contemplating all morning. Aside from training, there wasn't much else to do, if you didn't have a match lined up. Sure, at the DOA premises, there were many luxuries that even blue bloods dream of. But how many times could you sit by the heated mile-long pool; play tennis in brand new indoor courts; or have a world-renowned masseuse give you a shiatsu, without going soft?

That all changed when she went down for breakfast the day before. On the bulletin board just outside the hotel restaurant, a black poster had been tacked on a little crookedly. It took up about half of the space and read, in bold, jagged letters:

 

TAG

Can you survive?

 

DOATEC invites all serious fighters in the World Wide Combat professional leagues to an unofficial combat competition. Test your skills against talented opponents from all around the world. Competitors will team up and fight tag-style against other teams in elimination rounds. Competition to be held 24 May, on Fame Douglas' own DOA fighting grounds. Details and forms below. Best of luck to all entrants.

The Dead or Alive Tournament Executive Committee

 

She had picked one up excitedly, and read the form. This was exactly the opportunity she had been waiting for! You could only train by yourself for so long before it wasn't effective anymore. This was a chance to meet other fighters from different leagues, prove her skills, and to break up her lazy schedule. And it will give me extra training for the battle that matters.

Lei Fang knew she was there for one thing. It was all about fighting; defeating Jann Lee. She owed it to herself to uphold her dignity. There was nothing she disliked more than being saved like a common damsel. She just wouldn't stand for that.

A mockingbird let out a sharp trill. She blinked a couple of times, shaken out of her reverie. The petals kept falling around her, but she didn't have time to watch them any longer. Lei Fang still had the problem of getting a tag partner. Now she was motivated to settle it. She stood up and marched resolutely back to the hotel, as her meticulously placed pile blew away with the breeze.

 

She took a deep breath. She wasn't really sure why she was there anymore. After thinking about it all day, he seemed a wild choice. Still, if Lei Fang was looking for a change, he was the one to go to. She had a gut feeling about it. He won't be the same as my first choice… She shook her head. There's nothing to worry about. She knocked nervously on his door, 812. He's always up for a challenge, Lei Fang reasoned with herself. He's a gifted fighter, she chanted.

The door swung open and all the calm Lei Fang harnessed flew out the window. “Jann Lee,” she said, caught off guard.

He stared at her with brief disdain, but it soon gave way to his always apathetic expression. “Lei Fang,” he nodded curtly.

Lei Fang straightened up at his tone. Refusing to be intimidated, she said, “Nice to see you too.” She continued in a business-like fashion, “I didn't know you were rooming with Zack. I wanted to talk to him.”

“You wanted to talk to Zack,” he repeated flatly.

“Yes,” she answered slowly. “Is he here, or not?”

“He is.” Jann Lee frowned, clearly disgusted that the Zack was his roommate.

Lei Fang beamed. “Good.”

 

They were silent for a moment. Lei Fang crossed her arms and shifted her weight to her other leg. Jann Lee started tapping his foot.

“Are you going to let me in or not?” she finally asked.

“No,” Jann Lee fished for a reason. “This is a private residence,” he concluded.

“What?” she asked, taken aback. That doesn't even make sense! “Well, this is Zack's residence too. It's not like you--”

But Jann Lee had already slammed the door and was back to his novel before she finished her sentence.

She gaped at the door for a few seconds, then started pounding. “Zack? Zack!” she called for the other tenant. Lei Fang pounded on the door for a few more minutes. “The nerve! Arrogant…rude too…” she grumbled. “Selfish…mean…no wonder he doesn't have any friends.” Lei Fang sighed and rested her forehead on the door. There go my chances of trying something new. Maybe I'll just call him. Then she put her head up, hearing a scuffle inside.

“What's with the noise, yo?” she heard faintly, when the door finally opened.

Zack, in all his fresh-from-the-shower dripping glory, was standing there in a white hotel towel and terry kitty slippers. Oh, and his sunglasses too.

Lei Fang glanced at his attire and smiled a little, then said, “Hi, Zack, is this a bad time?”

He leaned on the doorway and said, “Of course not, baby, the ladies are always right.”

Behind him, Lei Fang heard someone snort.

She smiled again. “Well, DOATEC's hosting an inter-league tag competition, and I was wondering if you'd be my partner?” she asked shyly. Please don't let me down…

“Me? Sho' enough, but why didn't you ask Soprano Jann over here to be your partner?” he asked, tilting his head towards him. Jann Lee mumbled something behind his novel. “You two got that `Mandarin rhythm' going on in the fighting ring.”

Lei Fang looked away uneasily, while Zack stood there trying to demonstrate `Mandarin rhythm.' He never stood still for very long.

She remembered what happened yesterday, and hoped it wouldn't happen with Zack this time. Lei Fang ignored that thought and looked back at him with a gleam in her eye. “I'm asking you, Zack, because it's supposed to be fun.” She said the last word over his shoulder. She didn't actually care about enjoying herself anymore, but she needed a reason for joining other than “I want to be better than Jann Lee,” even though she was in it just for the training.

Jann Lee dropped his novel and glared at them. “She did ask me. I turned her down,” he stated to Zack, matter-of-factly.

Lei Fang blushed. She had brought it up yesterday with him, in passing. The only way to defeat someone was to learn everything you could about them. The training that would surely come before the competition could have given her an advantage.

She would not be embarrassed by him. Shrugging it off in what she hoped was a casual way, she replied, “I only suggested it.”

Jann Lee jumped off his bed and sauntered towards them. “And I `suggested' that we keep our eyes on the task at hand: winning the official DOA tag competition. With the practices we have now, there won't be any time on the side for games like that.”

Zack took a careful step back from the crossfire. Then Lei Fang started speaking in Mandarin Chinese.

“You take this competition too seriously. Practice with you is like boot camp!” is what it translated to.

“I'm not the one who needs the practice,” he countered calmly in their native tongue as well.

“What the hell? They're talking in Asian now, it must be SERIOUS!” Zack took another step back.

“Since when have you cared about what I do?” Lei Fang asked.

“Since my chances of winning depended on you getting better.”

That struck a nerve in Lei Fang. She knew she couldn't defeat him yet. That was why she was training. But as long as he was dedicated to winning, her chances were slim.

“There's more to fighting than winning. Have you ever heard of fun?”

“Is that all you care about? That's only because you never work hard,” Jann Lee answered derisively.

She was really angry now. What he didn't know…The late nights she spent in the sparring room, the laps she spent running around the fighting grounds…she would have bet she was working among the hardest, but she didn't want to blow her cover now. She calmed herself down a little.

 

“Yeah?” she said quietly, in English again. She stepped up to him. “Well, I…” she grabbed Zack, “We are going to work hard and enjoy doing it. And don't doubt that we are going to win,” she finished, pulling Zack into the hall with her.

“Work?” Zack flinched.

“OH yes!” Lei Fang said with determination. “Lots of it!”

Jann Lee crossed his arms and raised a skeptic eyebrow.

“Starting now,” Lei Fang said, putting the emphatic cherry on top.

“Now?” Zack asked. “But…”

“Come on,” Lei Fang said, yanking him down the hall.

 

Zack sighed. He started having second thoughts about accepting her offer back at the first mention of `work', but he felt sorry for anyone who got on a woman's bad side. With his lack of clothing, among other problems on his mind, Zack thought, Sucks for Jann Lee.