#especially when it comes to liu chang/liu sang

[spicybeefnoodles]

in a twist of fate

summary: liu kang loses kung lao anyway

warnings: canon typical violence, hurt/no comfort :)

Kung Lao was always fated to die. No matter what Liu Kang tried to do, his best friend’s life always ended in a premature death and changing his destiny would require a large sacrifice that Liu Kang was not willing to make. Of course, Liu Kang tried to mitigate the ways that Kung Lao could die: he made the tournament non-lethal, made Shao Kahn work for a good Sindel, and everything he could possibly think of to make Earthrealm as safe as possible. And over time, Liu Kang thought his plan had worked: that Kung Lao would die from old age, maybe from his poor eating habits but never violently. The Fire God eventually forgot about Kung Lao’s fated destiny.

Until Shujinko went rogue. The student had gotten too arrogant, too cocky, and when Kung Lao went to talk his student out of it, Shujinko had grabbed Kung Lao by his neck and sent lightning through the monk’s neck, smiling wickedly and dropping his unconscious mentor to the floor. When Raiden had informed him of the situation, Liu Kang had paled and rushed there as soon as possible to track down the wild student and erase his memories. Later, Liu Kang had visited Kung Lao in the hospital, and memories of his own Kung Lao flashed through his mind, the snapped neck and dead look in the monk’s eyes that usually held such mirth.

But, this Kung Lao had opened his eyes, a bit tired and murky looking, but he had let out a smug laugh and said he was honored to have the Fire God worry about him. Liu Kang breathed a sigh of amusement and relief, thankful that Kung Lao had lived. He would have to go through physical therapy, regain his sense of fighting, but he would live and that was enough.

After that, Liu Kang kept a close eye on the hat wielder while Raiden stuck to Kung Lao, acting as a bodyguard, especially when Kung Lao decided to train Shujinko once more and try to correct his past mistakes. Whenever the student’s hands would wander too close to Kung Lao’s neck or sparked a bit too much electricity, Kung Lao would flinch backward, breath quicker and muscles tense, too small of an action for the untrained eye but it was enough for Raiden to cut the training sessions short and take Kung Lao away to help him calm down.

A few more months passed, and nothing happened to Kung Lao. Liu Kang relaxed once more because with Raiden so close to Kung Lao, the Fire God had nothing to worry about. He watched as Raiden and Kung Lao became closer to each other, a twinge of bitterness in his heart as he was reminded of the late nights he used to share with Kung Lao. His heart sang with sadness when he witnessed Raiden leave a gentle kiss on Kung Lao’s lips on a surprise visit, and the Fire God wished he could take Kung Lao all for himself. He missed Kung Lao. It was an ache in his heart that would not soothe itself. Every night, Liu Kang would sit in front of the hourglass and sometimes he could feel the past touches of his Kung Lao drift over his shoulders, his arms, his neck. He would glance back, expecting to see a smug smile and crinkled eyes, but no one would be there.

But, Liu Kang couldn’t just contact Titan Kung Lao and indulge in his memories. Not when they were both so busy. And so, he just watched as Raiden and Kung Lao grew closer and closer to each other, touches lingering on each other’s arms and bright eyes drinking in each other’s bodies.

And then, Shang Tsung came with Quan Chi, attacking the academy in an attempt to erase the initiates and any further resistance to their grab for power. Liu Kang had arrived early enough to see the pair slaughtering innocent monks and relishing in their dying breaths and stealing their souls. He had come late enough to see none of the students remained, all taken down to safety lockdown rooms. He had come in time to see Kung Lao fighting off Quan Chi’s demons, not sensing Shang Tsung right behind him.

Right then and there, as Liu Kang watched Shang Tsung unsheathe the claws on his arms and aim to stab right through Kung Lao’s heart, he grabbed onto the threads of time and pulled. He could not, would not have Kung Lao die again. Liu Kang would not survive if he watched him fall to the ground once more. If he watched Kung Lao die again, the skies would rain fire, and the seas would boil. He would tear through Earth and Outworld to fight for Kung Lao’s life. He would kill to save.

Raiden turned from his own fight, controlled like a puppet on strings and put himself between Shang Tsung’s attack and Kung Lao’s body. Liu Kang watched in horror, too late to try and straighten the threads of time as Raiden coughed up blood and shot streaks of lightning through Shang Tsung’s arm. The sorcerer howled in pain and signaled for him and Quan Chi to leave, disappearing in a dark portal as the demons retreated back to their hell.

Liu Kang would not forget the screams of Kung Lao as he held Raiden in his arms, hands desperately trying to keep the blood from flowing. He would not forget the tearful sobs that Kung Lao let out when he realized that Raiden had died in an instant, eyes cold and unseeing. He would not forget the broken whimpers of Kung Lao as he repeated his love for Raiden over and over again.

Liu Kang came over, trying to explain himself for the action, not aware that Kung Lao didn’t know that he had directly caused Raiden’s death. That was his mistake. When Kung Lao looked up at Liu Kang, eyes filled with confusion then hatred as he realized that Lord Liu Kang had inadvertently killed Raiden, Kung Lao screamed at the god, not caring of his position. He screamed that this was Liu Kang’s fault, to bring Raiden back to him. To bring him back so Kung Lao could tell him that he loved him. To bring him back so that Kung Lao could take him to Madam Bo’s and propose on the anniversary of their first date. To bring him back so that they could grow old together. To bring him back so that he could hold Raiden’s warm body in his arms again.

Liu Kang flinched backward when Kung Lao threw his hat at the god, screaming and wailing as he held onto Raiden’s cooling body like a lifeline. Liu Kang disappeared after that. He watched through the hourglass as Kung Lao fought tooth and nail to keep Johnny and Kenshi from taking Raiden from his bloodied hands. In the end, Johnny had to knock Kung Lao unconscious to get the monk to let go of Raiden’s pale body.

Liu Kang watched the white funeral for the champion that Kung Lao didn’t attend, still distraught and in denial about his lover’s death and spotted an engagement ring on Raiden’s finger, a ring of simple design with a pattern of cherry blossoms and blue lightning streaks.

Liu Kang watched as Kung Lao became a shell of himself. He didn’t eat, didn’t train, didn’t do anything except sit in front of Raiden’s grave everyday.

Liu Kang watched as the monk drank at every opportunity, and he listened to the prayers that Kung Lao sent his way, begging him to bring Raiden back to him before switching to angry insults about how Fire God Liu Kang was a terrible god. That he did not deserve his title.

Even Geras, Liu Kang’s most loyal friend and trustee had criticized him for his actions, saying that he should not have messed with the threads of time, and Liu Kang knew that he was wrong for trying to protect the sliver of his past that he held onto.

Eventually, Kung Lao healed, went back to his training, started talking to Johnny and Kenshi again, and quit drinking himself into a stupor. But, there was a certain slowness to his movements, a part of his soul that died with Raiden. His smile never reached his eyes, his words were shorter, sharper than before. He would reach out for someone after accomplishing something, turning with a smile for a ghost. When Liu Kang came back to the academy to check on the student's progress, Kung Lao only greeted him cordially and escaped the room, uninterested in talking to the god when before Kung Lao would spend every waking moment with him.

Liu Kang watched as he lost his best friend all over again, and how there was nothing he could do to change that.

a/n: yeah, this is based on @helsensm Kung Lao's Dead AU. what're you gonna do about it?? in all actuality, while i love seeing kung lao die (i love torturing my faves), i wanted to see kung lao suffer the emotional brunt of death and how that would happen. consider this an au of an au. if you see any grammatical mistakes, no you didn't. i whipped this out in like two hours; cut me some slack.

[yichens]

get to know me

am going to mix these two different tag games into one post so thank you a lot for tagging me @jazthespazz and @i-am-just-a-kiddo ♥

it’s somehow funny to do these same games again after a while so let’s see what I come up with:

Part I

name: real name petra but i prefer vish/vishie over here ^^ 

pronouns: she/her

star sign: aries ♈

height: 178cm (which am coming more and more proud of while i realize how damn tall every cdrama actor is lol)

time: 10:37pm as am answering this one

birthday: 10th april!

nationality: finnish 

fave bands/groups: ah well this is always a hard question but let’s go with these: BTS, DAY6, OneRepublic, Hurts, Oneus, Hoppipolla, TXT, Red, Mamamoo

fave solo artists: (forgive me if i’ve assumed any of these wrong) Novo Amor, Talos, Crywolf, Liu Yuning, SYML, EDEN, PVRIS, Joker Xue, NF, Halsey, Sleeping At Last, Nuz, HyunA, Sam Smith, Taemin

song stuck in your head: it’s OneRepublic’s Rescue Me bc of the song tag game i did earlier today :’D that one always gets stuck in my head whenever i as much as see the title lol 

last movie you watched: i think it’s The Yin-Yang Master (2021)? I haven’t watched any movies after that bc am so busy with all of my dramas haha

last show you binged: i think binged would be The Journey Across the Night! I watched that as a whole in 4 days

when you created your blog: in 2013 

the last thing you googled: ummm i think it was “what is a ball of wool called” bc of fic purposes haha as a non native speaker i always get a bit lost with words like this 

other blogs: none, i just dump everything here like the idiot i am 

why i chose my url: dates back to my intense summer of binge reading J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Vishous was my favorite of the brothers haha. i first used this username in some random game on my nintendo ds lol 

how many people are you following: 358 which somehow feels like a lot but also like way too few?? i should probably search for some new blogs with other topics than cql, bts and/or dmbj bc i do love a lot of things at once 

how many followers do you have: over 800 

average hours of sleep: i’d say around 7h

lucky numbers: i remember answering 5 previously? i don’t really have a lucky number but 5 pops into my head

instruments: nope, no. not touching those tyvm. i admire everyone who can play any instrument tho

what i’m currently wearing: black jeans, socks with foxes on them (plus my woolly socks), a gray cardigan (my fave thing ever!) and an orange/brown top

dream job: writer would be ideal but that is very faaaaar into the dream zone 

dream trip: around different parts of asia to taste all the amazing food ;; maybe a road trip of sorts through europe? or inter railing? another trip to london bc i miss that ;; a trip to the very northern part of lapland to see all the auroras etc! i’ve never been that far north :’D 

fave food: if i need to quickly name something then sushi. otherwise am pretty fine with anything spicy 

top three fictional universes you’d like to live in: i remember thinking about this a lot the last time i answered this but hmm. currently i’d say dmbj still bc that world is fascinating AND i would love to talk to the characters. mass effect would be the second one currently bc i miss those games and the space stuff is super cool! and the third one would be assassin’s creed rogue bc that is my fave ac game and i like the northern sea and the places in it AND i could probably be one of abstergo’s employees instead and just test/play those simulation games haha 

Part II

Last Song: am currently listening to my playlist with just everything so i have Andrew Belle’s The Enemy playing right now (also I only just now realized that Andrew Belle also sings Pieces which is one of my fave songs? my bff linked that to me after it played in some tv series she was watching)

Last Movie Last Stream: i didn’t want to mention the same movie again or skip this question and i’ve wanted to talk about this anyway so! i watched Liu Chang’s bday live last night :’D it was so much fun even if i couldn’t understand anything. it was just nice to watch him being himself and have fun and chill with his fans. also the songs were amazing ;; i cried with Liu Sang’s character song as well as the ending. and all the while i couldn’t turn my gaze away from his eyes! he has such pretty eyes and they were absolutely Sparkling throughout the whole stream, it was so nice :’)

Currently Reading: Devotions by Mary Oliver (i adore her poems! they’re a very nice change after Siken haha) and then some uni stuff for a course about culture and mental health plus my thesis

Currently Watching: Douluo Continent, Word of Honor, The Long Ballad 

all of these are amazing and make me feel different things! i started Douluo Continent just a while ago and am now on ep 16 i think? it’s been very pretty and very chill and i watch it during the weekend while i wait for new episodes to the other two :’D it’s nice to see Xiao Zhan again and i’ve enjoyed the rpg game type of feeling in it? the group of seven is doing amazing and it’s interesting to watch them craft their team work! Word of Honor again has reached the ending and i just hold my breath with it. am not too far gone with it so i am not getting as heavy feelings about it as i probably could but i enjoy it  alot still and i do cry at times ^^ and then The Long Ballad has just blown me away! i didn’t expect to love it this much and be this invested in it but everything about it has been such a positive surprise and it keeps making me super emotional! i love the characters and the story and the romances even! it’s a great accomplishment for me. also yes i cry on the daily bc of hao du and bc of ashile sun’s hair haha

(i am also rewatching Ultimate Note kind of and been thinking about getting into rewatching Reboot bc it has been on my list ever since i finished it)

What is antipoetry to you: okay hmm i had to google this too and have to agree with Kiddo here. i don’t have strong feelings about poetry tbh, i wasn’t into poetry that much before maybe a bit over year ago? Siken has really blown me away haha. but i have always loved song lyrics which i never thought as poetry but then Kiddo said to me that they consider them poetry and yeah ok. i agree? so idk poetry can be whatever i suppose. i’ve never seen any rules in it anyway. i know there are many rules for different types of poetry but then again. i feel like poetry has always been just words put together to feel things and i guess that is the core purpose of every written type of art in the end right? 

Currently craving: a drama as good and as personal as The Journey Across the Night. that show really just stole my heart and i want that feeling back. i think about that show every day. i miss Li Jia and his two partners. i miss the vibes. i miss sitting on my floor watching it and just sobbing my heart out haha. also! craving a properly subbed, whole version of Anti-Fraud League. only the first 12 eps are badly subbed out there. wetv has... blocked? deleted? the whole show??? i need it to my life, i wanna see Xiao Yuliang being cute as Mi Ruo and i wanna know where the story goes smh 

thank you so much for these both! i had fun ^^ also am sorry this is so long but haha if you’re asking me to talk about myself and my interests then this is what you get :) 

tagging (to do which ever part you want or both!): @cross-d-a @jockvillagersonly @humanlighthouse @kholran @xcziel @minmoyu and @leonzhng ♥