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When Standing Wasn't Easy
By meremortal2k5
I stood when standing was easy. My papa is gone. Life is different now. I fight. We fight.
"Rose?"
I can hear the smile on her lips as she speaks my name.
"Are you sure that you want to come?"
I lift my eyes from the cards spread out in front of me. She asks me every time and my answer never differs. "Of course." I return her smile. "Someone needs to watch your back." Her smile widens and so does mine.
She has been trying to teach me Wu-shu ever since Nash and I returned but I have never been the most co-ordinated. I usually end up in a tangle on the floor with Chun-Li on top of me. We used to laugh when we fell until we fell for each other.
I have never hated Chun-Li for what she did. I watched her as she killed my papa but I didn't feel anger and hatred. I still remember that cold look as he lay on the docks. There was something inside of me that saw, in those palest of blue eyes, all of the hurt and the pain he caused. Papa … Bison … was evil. The papa I thought I knew never was and she helped me to see.
I was always lost until I found her and I think she feels the same. Chun-Li is … spring beauty. She is life. She is my life and she has been since she found me on that boat.
I close the distance between us, sliding my hands up her arms until I could finger the soft hair at the nape of her neck. "Is Gen coming too?" I just needed to make sure that someone would really be there to watch her back when she would need it.
She kisses me softly, nuzzles at my cheek and then nips at my ear. "Ryu's coming along for this fight."
I breathe a little easier even as my heart races. Only she does this to me. My eyes flutter as she mouths the tender skin below my ear. "We don't have time for this." I gasp as she bites me. My knees almost give but she's holding me tightly to her body so I know I won't fall. She never lets me fall anymore.
I can feel her deep breaths on my skin inflaming me further as she tries to reign in her libido. If she let go, I would be helpless to follow.
"We don't have time for this." She repeats my words. "After we find Cammy?" She lifts her hazel eyes to mine.
"After we find Cammy." I chuckle as I kiss the tip of her nose.
"So," She needs a distraction and starts to smile again as she turns us so that we can both look at the tarot cards I was dealing before she came into the room. "Tell me our future."
She still asks even though the cards tell me the same as they did last time and the time before. Our future together never changes.
We stand when standing isn't easy but we stand together.
The End