#Im sorry for the cheesy usage of the two lines from the game. I needed to do that for my own well being

[mikka-minns]

"Blessed Curses" chapter 1

An AU by me. In advance, i apologize if its a bit messy. Also, there Will be kuai x hanzo implied/hinted in one of the next chapters (probably third), so i guess i should warn you. This chapter will focus on Kuai and his "origin" + his friendship with Tomas. Its written in Kuai's perspective, even what is in the brackets. There is also a personal headcanon of mine about Kuai that i hope some poeple notice (its just me projecting again! Yay! 🙃)

Tagging @infernoinvictus and @dinainwater cuz yall inspired me to actualy write this instead of just thinking about it. Love ya! ❤️

Also TW: mentiones of abuse and child negelect

The Ones who will pass on his powers. His legacy. The Ones that will bring honor to his clan.

The grandmaster's sons. His pride and joy.

That is a fantasy. But it was real... All until i ruined it.

My father was a grandmaster of the lin kuei. He possesed cryomancy, the ability to control ice. It was a power passed down for generations. For centuries. Once, there were many people who had it. But not anymore. Now, it is only our family. Our bloodline. And we should continue to pass it down no matter what.

That is.... My brother should pass it down... As i cannot.

My brother developed his abilities at a yound age. He started training right away, even though he was too young, even for our clan's standard.

I, however, started training and then puberty before i got my powers. I Also started young, not as young as my brother, but young. It was Expected that i too would become a cryomancer soon enough.

But.... That didnt happend.

The older he grew, the less time could my brother spend with me. He was nine years older than me. By the time i started, he was already going on supervised missions.

All i wanted was to be like my brother. To be with him, by his side. Father couldnt be there for us. All we had was each other. But it soon changed when a boy my age joined us. He was about a year older than me. Closer to my age than my brother's. He was adopted by my father after his family was killed by the guards. He seemed to resent the whole clan. Everyone except.... Me. We were the only children there and so we understood each other quite well. I found out his name was Tomas. I was the first person he told his name. The first person he spoke to, actualy. Until then, we all Thought he was deaf or mute.

What Was unexpected was that that Tomas Also had an ability. But his wasnt genetic. He could control and turn into smoke. We found out when he had a panic attack for the first time, around a month after he was taken in. He was partialy a cloud of Smoke and partialy a human. He barely calmed down and turned his powers off.

What realy scared everyone was that his powers came from a demon named Enenra. Everyone but me. It amused me greatly.

After his ability,his curse, was revieled, Tomas  was proclaimed as a "cursed child". Aperantly, his "family" that was killed, wasnt his family, but the cult member that tried to sacrifise him to the demon. Once that didnt work and the demon possesed him and.... Became his Protector, they tried to sell him to the lin kuei. But instead, they got what they deserved.

I said "Protector" because it seems that Enenra only awakend when it felt Tom (my nickname for him. I love giving nicknames)needed protection from something or Someone. That was the reason why he was never outright attacked or executed for his "curse".

I was his only friend and he was mine. But our father tried to separate us. He Thought i would gain a bad reputation by being close to him, even tho he too was his son. My brother. I wouldnt let that happend. My first brother got taken away from me for no good reason, i wouldnt let Them take my new one away. They couldnt convinced me to let him go. Whatever reason they gave me, it was never enough. "He is cursed" so what? "He is dangerous" only when he is in danger. "He will cannot be controled" GREAT! Neither can i. If anything, i was more of a trouble maker so they should've told him to stay away from me.

"He will hurt you" like the whole clan doesnt already.... Only Tomas didnt hurt. So.... Check mate.

It seemed that however everyone felt about something, i felt the opposite. I never wanted to do something if there was no good reason for it. Sometimes, the older members would tell me that i could never become an important figure in the clan if i associated with people like Tomas, but it didnt bother me. My position in the clan was WAY less important than my relationships with people i cared about.

Everyone, even my other brother, was trying to convince me to drop the emotions and focus on my training and "what mattered" until they decide that i was Also something.... Not normal.

That was the day i finaly got my powers. But those werent the powers everyone was expecting. True, some People were sure i will never have cryomancy, but even they couldnt predict this.

I had pyromancy. The ability to control fire. It happend sudenly when i was fourteen. I was hanging out with Tomas. We were talking about something (i still cant remember what) when i felt something in my chest. It was a weird feeling that i've never felt before. Now, it seems that i felt.... Nostalgic. In that moment, my whole body was covered in flames. I was so happy.... For some reason. Truth be told, i was always attracted by fire. The little flames on the candles. The fire on which food was cooked in the kitchen. The big flames that i only dreamt of when i was young even tho i have never seen them in real life. Fire was so colorful. So free. So.... Warm... Something that wasnt common in Artica, where we lived.

To my suprise, nobody except Tom was happy for me. No one was proud of my powers. I thought that i would be special. No one else had fire abilities. At that time, i didnt even know it was possible to have them, i didnt know they had a name. The only person that had similar powers was Tomas, so it excited me that we had something similar.

But that was the same thing that the clan was afraid of.

"He is cursed!" an old clan member yelled as he saw me walk into the temple, still burning.

"See! He was around the cursed child and now he is cursed as well!" another one proclaimed. Quite proud.

My father only stared at me. Terrified. The closer i tried to get to him, thinking he would be proud, he only got further away. The next thing i remember, i was frozen. Not by my father, but by Bi han... My older brother.

I woke up in my Bed. No one was in the room with me, but i could hear many voices right outside.

"Let me in! He needs me!" that was Tomas, no doubt about it.

"Stay away! You caused it! Grandmaster, allow us to-"

"Let him in." my father demanded.

Tom flew right in and hugged me. His eyes were red and puffy... He was crying... This was the first time i was ever hugged....

Soon after, my father walked in. He looked at me.

He wanted to say something, but he didnt. He left Tomas and me alone to calm down.

Later that week, when i was able to get out of my room, he told me to stay away from any type of fire and to never, ever, use my powers. From that day on, i hated fire, warmth and everything related to it. It made my life a living hell! I was deemed deserving of any kind of disrespect and abuse the clan would put on me. "The lin kuei who cant become the honor of the clan, must become it's burden! " as if anyone in the clan was honorable.

Both Tomas and i were forbiden from using our powers. That didnt stop Tom, cuz it didnt stop Enenra. I dont hate Tomas, or his powers or even Enenra. I knew they werent truly a curse. Enenra might be a demon, but it was more honorable, more caring than anyone in our cruel clan. There was a reason why it let Tomas live instead of taking him over completely. There was a reason why it awoke only when he was in danger.

I could not say the same for myself. I dont use my powers. They were a curse. The only way to control fire was to learn to do it, and even that was Almost Impossible. The only Ones born with it... Are demons from the netherrealm..... Some would say that i was actualy a demon child and that i was a replacement for grandmasters real son who was take to the netherrealm. Some even called me a "changeling". My powers were seen as a punishment from gods. An "unfair" punishment. I know that, since i saw Enenra as something good, i should have seen my powers as somthing positive as well, but i couldn't. I just couldn’t. My powers.... my curse, was a punishment. I was a punishment.

The one thing that brought me comfort were Tom's words "Were there is smoke, there is fire. We may not share blood, but we are brothers. I will always be by your side, Kuai Liang, dont forget that!" and i never did.

And i continued not to use them until my father's sudden death, when Bi han became the grandmaster. He ordered me to train my powers and master them as soon as i could. I did. It felt... Good. But i still could not complitely feel positive about them after all they caused me. All the pain, shame... They were uncontrolable at first, which made us all think that they realy are just danger, but Bi han said its because i didnt use them. Because i was scared of them and didnt trust them. He was right, it seems.

He also ordered that whoever speaks negatively of me and Tomas and our abilities will be punished. But that couldnt take back what Was already said... And done.