Disclaimer: Believe me, if I actually owned Xiaolin Showdown I wouldn't be wasting my time writing fanfics (okay so yeah I would) but I'd make 'em into episodes too! Actually, it's probably a good thing I don't own XS, I mean you'd get lots of fluff but the plot? Pfft, there probably wouldn't be a plot... lol
Title: The Best Thing To Do
Summary: He'd been about to drink the Loa Ming Lone soup, and she had never been more scared. .Rai/Kimi.
Author: Silverflare07
Dedication: Uh, to be completely honest, this one doesn't have a dedication. So this one goes out to you guys! For being such wonderful people and reading my stories! Thanks guys!
Author's Notes: Okay, this takes place after Time After Time (2). I just thought it was so cute how Kimiko was so openly against Raimundo drinking the Loa Ming Lone soup. And of course, I squealed when she kind of jumped on him at the end...so this is what you guys get, a one shot that I hope you'll like.
Stuff You Need to Know:
"Speech"
It was a strange sensation, the feeling that everything that had once seemed simple (the numbers were dwindling with everyday she spent at the temple) could suddenly seem complicated and frightening. It was even stranger still that that this sensation could be brought about from the simple motion of an arm, and intensified by a single sentence...
Kimiko Tohomiko gazed out across the temple grounds, reminiscing about the alternate timeline that she and her friends had recently had the displeasure of experiencing. She was sitting on the branches of a tree that had been growing peacefully on the temple grounds for a thousand years, maybe more. It was her spot to think and reflect, a place to be able to view the world from a different perspective.
It was also his place.
They'd met there completely on accident. She'd jumped up to think some things over one day and he'd been there, so deep in meditation that he hadn't even noticed she'd intruded. After that, it had become his place and hers. Sometimes they were there by themselves and other times they were together. They never talked, not about what was on their minds or in their hearts. They only sat in silence, enjoying each other's presence and the fact that they were, in another sense of the word, still alone with their thoughts.
She'd never learned exactly when he'd started coming to that particular spot to think things over and she'd kept the same information from him as well. It was enough for both of them to just know that they weren't completely alone. They'd reached a silent agreement; regardless of who had been there first, it was their spot now, and it would stay that way.
But, for a little while there, it hadn't. It was strange; Omi had frozen himself and suddenly she'd gone from fighting evil to wrestling pigs. But Omi had returned, they'd all been captured, and in order to save them all, he'd offered to drink the Loa Ming Lone soup.
He'd held up the bowl and she'd felt her heart squeeze. It was as if his grip on the bowl was really a grip on her heart. And as he'd announced what he planned to do, she'd felt that grip tighten. She'd grabbed the bowl from his hands, crying out and clutching it to her chest. She'd hadn't been able to figure out much at time, things had been changing and happening too suddenly to make much sense of things at that point, but she had know that without him, if he had become evil again, things would have been very wrong.
She'd always thought she'd understood a lot about who she was. She'd always thought that she'd had herself pretty well figured out. She'd thought she was a smart, independent person who was strong enough to be all right on her own. But as she'd cried out she'd realized, independent as she'd thought she was, she had, in some sense, come to depend on him.
She'd also realized, as he'd knelt before her, gently trying to coax her back into giving him the soup; as she'd looked into his eyes, eyes that were honest, green, and not the least bit evil, that somewhere along the line everything that she had ever known to be simple had become complex. It had been a decision between two worlds, and the obvious choice was to give him the soup, to fight for and find the better world. The choice should have been easy.
But her heart had complicated things quite a bit.
It had hurt her so much to imagine him as the horrible thing Omi had been describing Chase as. It had been so painful to imagine herself fighting him again, only this time; he would be really and truly evil. It still brought tears to her eyes to imagine having to treat him they way they treated Chase Young all the time. As the enemy, the ultimate evil. If Chase hadn't taken the soup, if she'd been forced to give it back, if he really had become evil...
She'd never liked the idea of him going to the Heylin side, it had been so painful the first time, and just as painful the second time, even if it had only been for pretend. But at least the one time he really had switched sides, well, he'd still had his emotions. He'd still been angry with Master Fung, hurt that they had all risen to a new rank without him. He glared at them with fury, angry, and maybe just a little hate. But to have him stare at them, at her, with the same cold, cruel, emotionless eyes that Chase Young had...
She shuddered as the very idea made her tear up. It had meant so much more this time because there had been a definite chance that, if he had drunk the soup and become evil, he wouldn't have returned to normal after they fixed the time line. After all, he'd still had the wounds from their final battle with alternate Wuya, Hannibal Bean, Monk Guan, and Chase Young when they'd returned to the present (she knew this for a fact because she'd helped bandage him up). What was stopping the Loa Ming Lone from working the same way?
She was snapped out of her thought-induced trance by the sound of approaching footsteps. She looked below her and, sure enough, it was him. He was probably coming out to think about something; he'd been doing that a lot since he'd made Shoku Warrior, not that she could blame him. She decided to let him know she was there incase he needed to be alone with his thoughts. She jumped down from the tree, landing gracefully on her feet a few feet ahead of him. He stepped back in surprise; obviously, just like the very first time, he'd thought he'd been alone.
"Kimi..." He watched her, probably wondering why it looked like she'd been crying.
"Rai..." She said his name and suddenly it became too much. She found herself racing towards him, her arms wrapping securely around his middle. She was crying again, she realized, as she felt him place a hand on her head.
"What's wrong Kimiko?" He was speaking gently, using the same tone he'd used to try and make her give him back the soup.
"Just please!" She looked up at him, her blue eyes still brimming with tears. "Don't ever drink that soup!"
"Wha...?" She saw confusion flit across his face before he figured out what she was talking about. "Oh." His eyes widened, as he fully comprehended the direct meaning of her words, and all the underlying ones. "Kimiko..." he wrapped his arms around her. "I promise, I won't ever even consider drinking the Loa Ming Lone soup."
She sniffed. "You do?"
He smiled and wiped away a tear that had managed to escape down her cheek. "Of course."
And then, suddenly, his lips were on hers. It was a desperate kiss; she could feel his urge, his need to tell her that she would never have to worry. And suddenly, everything seemed simple once again. She understood now that, no matter what happened, as long as he was there to hold her like he was doing just then, everything would be all right. And as they stood there, simply embracing, she realized that she knew the answer to her seemingly complex question.
Whatever the outcome, whether good or bad, grabbing the Loa Ming Lone soup and refusing to give it back, was the best thing she'd ever done.
There you go! I hope you guys liked it! I'm not sure why, but my writing style was different for this particular one shot. I like it, and I hope you will too. I think it's just been the types of stories I've been reading, they're kind of written in that style. I guess this might be like a beta test to see if I can write in that particular style.
I also want to apologize for any horrible OoCness that might have occurred with Kimiko, it's been so long since I've seen the show. We had that, like, three-month break before we got these new episodes so I'm probably a little out of sync with the characters (which is probably why there's only two in this one-shot). Anyways, hope you guys like it. And I'm sorry it's so short.
R&R! Tell me what you think!
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