Tekken Short Stories

Steve's Birthday

26 November
Nina groaned when she heard the doorbell ring early in the morning. She turned to her husband, who was snoring with his mouth wide open, and sighed. What made it worse was he had his arms tightly around her waist.
She somehow wriggled out, surprised that Adam didn't even stir when she yanked his arms away from her torso and threw them back onto him. Nina shook her head as she went towards her dressing gown and pulled it on before making her way out.
Steve was nowhere to be seen so she was the one who had to see who the caller was. Nina assumed that it was the outer doorbell since she rightly remembered locking the gate up tight right after returning from their late-night shopping trip to the nearby provision shop for bread.
The doorbell was persistently loud and annoying. Nina wondered how neither of the two guys woke up to the sound as she grabbed the keys and made her way to the front door.
Her gun was tucked into the pocket of her dressing gown just in case things got a little messy.
"Jeez, gimme a minute," Nina muttered to herself as she opened the front door. She shivered as she walked down the garden, her feet clad in Adam's large sandals as she tried to see who it was that rang her doorbell.
Finally, she caught sight of a familiar Malaysian girl of Indian descent standing behind the gate, grinning.
"Shasha?" Nina called, pleasantly surprised. "Hey! Why didn't you call before coming?"
Shasha shrugged, a smile on her face. "I dunno, just wanted it to be a surprise. Also, you guys have any plans for Steve's birthday?"
Nina gasped. "Oh my gosh! It's this Monday, isn't it? I haven't had anything planned. Oh no..."
"Darn, Nina," Shasha shook her head. "So what do we do now?"
"I honestly have no clue," Nina sighed.
Shasha grinned. "Wanna have a meeting about it in your basement?"
Nina quickly shook her head. "No way, Steve's definitely gonna notice. But I think I know just the person to distract him."
"Hwoarang!" Shasha and Nina both said in unison.

The Korean was summoned to the smoothie shop and was surprised to see his Malaysian friend there.
"Yo! When did you get here?" Hwoarang grinned as soon as he spotted her. "And is that a nose ring? You became a punk or something?"
Shasha touched her gold nose ring with a frown. "I am not a punk. This is tradition. Have you never watched an Indian movie before? I thought Rajini was famous here."
"He is," Nina nodded. "The Japanese really love him. And they love Tamil movies too, there were a few during the Tokyo Film Festival once, remember?"
Hwoarang nodded. "Oh yes, I do. But I didn't really get to go because I wound up in the hospital because of someone."
The two women ignored his statement.
"Do you know that Steve's birthday is coming up?" Shasha asked.
Hwoarang looked at her in surprise. "The blondie's birthday is coming up? When?!"
"Monday," Nina sighed. "And we haven't planned anything."
"Wait, you're here, and does Steve know this?" Hwoarang asked, pointing at Shasha before turning to Nina.
Nina shook her head. "Adam's distracting him with some British sitcom."
"Is it Mind Your Language?" Shasha smirked.
"That's the one," Nina nodded with a chuckle. "They're binge-watching the entire thing from the first season."
"Oh wow..." Hwoarang snorted. "Yeah, that's the best way to distract Steve. Anyway, what's the plan?"
Nina shrugged. "No idea."
"You guys don't even have a plan?!" Hwoarang asked in shock. "Seriously?!"
Shasha raised her hands in mock surrender. "Don't look at me. I just arrived in Japan."
He then turned to Nina. "What about you? You're his mom! And you forgot?"
Nina turned away sheepishly.
"I know, disgraceful, right?" Shasha smirked at Nina. "She didn't even know until I told her. And I live thousands of miles away. Even I came all the way here."
"Okay, okay, we'll do something, okay?" Nina burst out. "And sorry I forgot. We were all busy with the Mishima Zaibatsu Annual Banquet this Thursday."
Shasha looked at her in surprise. "Am I not invited? Why am I not invited?!"
Nina rolled her eyes. "Did you check your email?"
"Email?" Shasha repeated, confused. She fished her phone out of her bag and checked her inbox, gasping when she saw an email sent from the Zaibatsu's address. "Whoopsie. It's here. You guys actually invited me?"
"And you didn't even see," Nina shook her head in mock disgust. "How nice of you..."
Shasha quickly shook her head. "No! It's just that my inbox, it's been full of advertisements lately. Like from the phone company, subscriptions, newsletters that I have no idea when I got! The invitation was drowned among them."
"Okay, never mind that, what are we gonna do for Steve's birthday?" Hwoarang cut in. "Any ideas?"
"We actually called you here to ask if you had any ideas," Nina shrugged. "And since you don't..."
"We need a Plan B," Shasha smirked. "We forgot someone."
"And a whole gang of someones..." Nina added.
Hwoarang lit up. "Does this mean we're gonna go see Kazama?!"