Kita-Ku, Saturday, 7pm

Brittany watched Morrigan prance around the room semi-naked and Brittany couldn't keep a smile off of her face. "If you keep teasing me like that i won't stop until i have fucked you in every room in this house." Brittany said before the covers were flipped up in her face. "Hey now, no keeping secrets from me." Brittany said as she tossed the covers aside to see Morrigan holding onto a box. "Oh my, what do we have here?" Brittany said as she would move behind Morrigan and place her breasts on her lovers back while looking over Morrigan's shoulders. "So, What's inside? I am dying to know."

Morrigan snickered as she felt Brittany's chest against her back. "You want to know, lover?" She said. She then took Brittany's wrist and held onto it. She clasped the metal hand cuff around Brittany's wrist and snickered.

Morrigan then yanked hard and tried to stretch out fast enough to cuff the other end tot he bed post, leaving her lover trapped against the bed as she kicked away the box of goodies.

Morrigan then hopped up and grabbed her pants. She slipped into them and went to the door and pushed out her butt and coyly winked at Brittany. "Shhhh, don't struggle now, lover. I'm going to get a drink. Do you want anything? Maybe I'll even slip downstairs and see how the party's going. You can think about my little question and maybe I'll even bring some fun back with me if you promise to play nice." Morrigan giggled and slipped out the door, strolling barefoot and proud towards the kitchen area.

As long as Brittany didn't make an unholy racket trying to escape, Morrigan would make it up to her. Hell, maybe if she was eager and creative enough, Brittany could even reach the key and unlock herself.

Brittany heard a sudden click as she felt cold metal around her wrist and before Brittany could react she was handcuffed to Taylor's bed. Brittany had a grimace on her face as Morrigan began to walk away. "So you think this is funny, Lover? You had better hope i don't free myself before you get back." Brittany said with an evil smile on her face as Morrigan began to move towards the door. "Also i will pay you back for this." Brittany said as Morrigan just walked away leaving Brittany by herself. "Fucking bitch." Brittany would say as she tried to stretch her leg towards the box hoping to free herself before Morrigan returned.

"Get the fuck outta here Cassie, I swear to god," Taylor held up a cautioning finger to the little Canadian, who stopped short and looked on innocently while Taylor continued to look for the eject button on the Blu-ray player.

Of course there were no buttons. That was the problem. And in the limited light she had to squint at it to see where the eject symbol was on it so she could rub her finger around and make magic happen. Heh.

Which would be easier if Cassie wasn't trying to very helpfully steal her thunder and make her look like she was totally technologically helpless. Which she was, but she didn't need Cassie to drive the point home.

Eventually, after a lengthy investigation, Taylor managed to make the thing spit out the previous movie, which she put on top of the thing. She debated briefly between two, and then put in The Fifth Element. "Yay!" She cheered, and hopped off to the food table to put together another meal.

Cassie was left to actually press play on the thing, and then she turned to walk away and almost bumped straight into a mom and a pink-haired paralegal. She stopped, and for a moment the three of them only stared and blinked at each other.

Then Cassie smiled. Then Junko smiled. Mercy pushed her glasses up on her nose.

"Hi, guys," Cassie said. "Um... How's it hangin'?"

Mercy knew how much of a powder keg it could be putting a bunch of meat head wrestlers in a small room with lots of alcohol. As much as she liked Taylor, she didn't exactly trust the situation. With that thought in mind, she kept herself big girl drink free for the moment. When the inevitable drama flared, she was surprised to see that it was Akashi who was at the root of it.

The girl was clearly drunk but so were some others. Mercy kept her distance from the volatile situation and managed to avoid it herself. In the process she ended up next to Junko, who herself was also clearly drunk, and had a rather nice conversation about AFW even if she could see a bit of lechery in the older woman's eyes.

As Cassie came, Mercy greeted her with a smile. "Hello, Cassie." She said. "Are you enjoying yourself?" She said as she looked over the red head.

Junko grinned widely at Cassie and put an arm around her. "Cassie-chan, fufu~<3" She said. "Come over here, let me get a chance to get a good look at you." She said as she inspected the Canadian. "We haven't really gotten a chance to talk." She said, slowly drifting away from Mercy and corralling her towards a spot away from the party. "How are you, dear?" She said, never skipping a beat. "Are you healthy? Are you excited to wrestle again?" She said.

"Um... yes." Cassie smiled, and mentally blocked out the business with Ace.

She allowed Junko to lead her away from the bulk of the party, with her hands in the pockets of her white dress. It, along with her pink tights and white socks and short navy jacket, somehow made her feel very childish. She didn't know why only Junko managed to make her feel that way. Maybe it was because the woman was her mother's age, slightly older, but so vivacious and bold where her mother was elegant and coy. Maybe Cassie felt like she should be the bold, vivacious one, and that Junko was showing her up.

"I'm doing well, thanks," she said politely to the older woman. "I'm perfectly healthy. I didn't get hurt in my last match at all. It was actually really easy..." She said with a one-sided frown. She felt bad to say it, but aside from a couple good shots, it was really easy. "I can't wait to get back in the ring, though. I feel like I'm really ready now to take my career to the next level."

"That's good, dear." Junko said genuinely. She was glad that Cassie was happy even if she didn't really know the girl too well. From the way Taylor spoke about her, she already felt like family. That, and she never really liked to see anyone out of sorts. "If you want, I could take you on as a client. Taylor and my own "career," she said giggling as she made air quotes, "keep me busy but don't count me out! I'm not so old that I can't keep a handle on two young spitfires like you and Taylor!"

Junko then reached into her sleeve and pulled out her fan. "Speaking of..." She said and opened up her fan, covering her lips and looking at Cassie. She didn't want the red head to see her frown. "I have a serious question, Cassie-san. Why did you break up with Mamouru-kun? I know that he's..." Junko paused. "He's... um..." She felt ashamed as she thought of her own son as nothing more than a lecherous womanizer. "I know how he is, I'm not naive but, please..." She said, her fingers tightening pleadingly around Cassie's shoulder. "Please tell me what the specific reason it was that you ... broke up with him."

"That'd be great!" Cassie clasped her hands together. "I've been kind of in the market for a... um..."

For a new manager ever since I fired your dirtbag son.

Her heart leapt up into her throat when the conversation took a more serious turn, but nothing could have prepared her for what came next. Her smile melted down into a stony look of abject horror. Her face drained of color. Her voice scrabbled in her throat for a moment before it managed to produce sound.

"Wh-why did... why did I..." She glanced over her shoulder, as if she half expected that to be Mamouru's cue to ambush her. She shook her head. "I'm sorry, why did I..." She still couldn't say it. "Um... oba-chan... I... we..."

She drew a deep breath and finally spit it out. "Mamouru and I were never together. He was my manager, and we were friends, but we did not... date. Did he... is that what he told you?" Her face was bright red already.

Junko's frown deepened after Cassie spoke. Her eyes melted and she wanted to hug Cassie. Young love was stupid and complicated.

"He didn't."

Junko sighed. She let her hand slide down and rubbed Cassie's back. "Cassie-chan." She said softly. "Mamouru-kun's always been a polite boy but... I couldn't say he's always been a happy one. You know how he is... with girls. He's had lots of girlfriends but I can't say with earnest that he ever loved any of them."

Junko tried to search Cassie's eyes as she continued. "But when you came around, he was suddenly... happy." Junko smiled weakly. "He was around more often. He had a spring in his step. He wasn't fooling around. Then, after you split up, he didn't just go back to normal, he got worse."

"What else could I think other than he finally found someone he could actually care for?"

Junko felt her eyes start to well up. She wasn't even sure why. She just hoped Cassie could explain.

Well, that was a relief. Cassie couldn't imagine what she'd have done if Mamouru had been telling his mom that they were together. The thought was so pathetic it made her want to cry.

She shrugged dismissively. "Well, I'm glad he was happy and everything, but we never split up. I fired him as my manager because he didn't believe in me. He was holding me back. Now he's just Taylor's brother-in-law and I'm sorry, but I just have no idea what that has to do with me."

She had to get out of there. The walls were closing in and she felt like something terrible could happen at any moment. She bowed her head and started for the stairs. "Excuse me, I have to get some air," she said. She went up the stairs and headed for the back door.