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Basorexia. The uncontrollable urge to kiss someone.
The suffocating desire to press your lips against those of the person you love.
The almost cruel need to express your feelings somehow. To channel your deepest emotions in order to show the other person just how much you love them.
The desperation of needing to join your lips with those of your beloved as if your very life depended on it. Kissing becomes more than a display of affection—it becomes a necessity.
The absence of a kiss becomes almost as agonizing as the lack of oxygen in one’s lungs.
Liu Kang’s heart tightens as he feels basorexia burn within his chest. She is there, so close, yet at the same time so distant on the other side of the table while speaking with Johnny Cage.
He tries to convince himself that he has no reason to feel disappointed. After all, this is not his Kitana. Not the same woman he met during the tournament, not the same one who fought beside him, not his beloved Kitana.
But then why does the uncontrollable desire to claim her lips in a kiss torment him so slowly?
Why does Liu Kang keep staring at Kitana laughing at the actor’s jokes? Why does he hope she will look at him instead of Johnny?
There was no reason for such longing. She was not his Kitana. Liu Kang would have to console himself with that truth.
When Empress Sindel’s banquet finally came to an end, Liu Kang accompanied Raiden through the palace gardens. The two walked peacefully through the night until they eventually parted ways and followed different paths.
As the God of Fire walked among the countless flowers, he noticed a graceful presence following him and did not even need to turn around to know who it was. He would recognize her footsteps anywhere.
“Is something wrong… Princess Kitana?”
She smiled at his question and approached him with an elegance that was almost reverent.
“I feel a great frustration, Lord Liu Kang.”
“I am sorry to hear that,” he replied, trying to appear indifferent.
“You should be, considering you are responsible for all of it.”
The God of Fire furrowed his brow as he watched her approach until she stood less than a foot away from him.
“Forgive me, Princess, but I do not understand.”
“Stop with the formalities, Liu Kang… I see the way you look at me. Stop pretending you feel nothing for me.”
“Wait, Kitana, you should not—”
“What? I should not love a god? I think it is far too late for that, don’t you?”
Liu Kang was startled when Kitana grabbed him by the neck and pressed their foreheads together. Once again, that uncontrollable desire surged through him, but there was still that cursed problem.
“Princess Kitana…” He tried to gently push her away by her shoulders, but Kitana only clung to him more tightly.
The Princess of Edenia kissed the lips of the God of Fire with pure hunger and longing, full of need, as though she depended on his lips to survive.
The resemblance to his true Kitana deeply frightened Liu Kang and, for a brief second, he even tangled his fingers in her dark hair. Yet almost immediately, guilt washed over him and he broke the breathless kiss.
“You should not do this.”
Liu Kang had not created her in this reality to replace his true love—he would never do such a thing. And yet, it was impossible to deny how tempting she felt in his arms at that moment. Was she truly not the same?
“You should not love me in this reality. You… have a better life now. You have everything you ever wanted.”
“I do not have you, my Liu Kang,” she whispered, caressing his face.
Liu Kang closed his eyes and shook his head.
Was there a small chance she remembered something? Perhaps a flaw in reality itself, or simply destiny trying to reunite them?
When Kitana lifted his chin so he would look at her and captured Liu Kang’s lips once more, he could not resist as he had before.
For one brief moment, Liu Kang surrendered himself to Kitana’s kiss because basorexia burned within him. He tightened his arms around her waist, pulling her closer.
It occurred to Liu Kang that perhaps the Kitana of this new timeline also suffered from basorexia.
Pushing her away now felt almost cruel to the life he had created.