AFW Red Light District

Taylor was glad for the subject change, because honestly she was just tired of getting into with everyone. In her old age, she had begun to learn when enough was enough.

She breathed a sigh of something like relief. Maybe it was stupid to ask her that, but Cassie was nowhere to be found and Taylor needed to get it off her chest. "Yeah, you're right." She nodded, and stood upright to stretch her arms up over her head. "Oh, uh, no reason. Just, like, I figured you'd... ya know..." There was probably no good way to end that sentence.

"Don't worry about it. Hey, it's been fun and all, but I'm trying to find Bear, and I think maybe she wanted me to meet her on the other end of the street. Later."

Taylor started off down the sidewalk at her usual brisk, hyperactive pace, and quickly disappeared into the crowd.

No more than a few seconds later, Cassie appeared from the opposite direction, holding her phone with both thumbs tapping at the screen. She nearly bumped into Natasha, but she lit up when she recognized her.

"Oh! Hi, Natasha!" She said, and hit send her text to Taylor, I'm here, where are you? Then she tucked her phone into a pocket on the side of her yellow backpack. She smiled warmly up at the French bluenette and waved. "Um... Fancy seeing you here! I'm Cassie Elliot, I'm a wrestler too. How are you?"

Natasha raised an eyebrow as Taylor's attempt to answer her question about the abrupt subject change ended with her stumbling with her words until she just seemed to give up on trying to find an answer for the french woman. "No...I don't know Taylor." Natasha replied, her curiosity starting to get the better of her but before she could probe any deeper Taylor pushed herself off of the wall and bid her goodbye, barely giving Natasha time to answer before she turned around and began walking down the street away from her.

"Bear? Ah well then goodbye Taylor...maybe one of these days we can meet under better circumstances." Natasha called after her, only letting out a sigh of relief once Taylor was out of sight. She certainly hadn't expected to run into someone like Taylor down here, nor to have such a serious conversation, but now that she had Natasha felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Perhaps now she could have that bowl of ramen she thought to herself before turning around to head inside the shop.

Instead she was greeted with another face only this one she only knew from seeing her on television, the very friend Taylor had likely been looking for, Cassie Elliot. She was more than a little caught off guard when Cassie recognized her and it showed on her face as she blinked in surprise. "Uh...hello to you as well Cassie." Natasha managed to say after a moment. "I am uh well, you wouldn't happen to be looking for someone would you?"

"No, why?" Cassie said, and then quickly revised. "Well, yes. I mean, I'm meeting someone. I'm meeting, uh, Taylor. Or at least I'm supposed to, she isn't here yet.."

She slid her fingers into her unruly, short orange hair and pushed it back off her forehead. As soon as she let go, the gentle breeze instantly flopped the same lock of hair back in front of her face, and she gave up. "I , uh... I saw your question at the thing the other day. I kinda don't like hentai either, because, well, I'm... straight. But you seem nice, so it's okay." She smiled sweetly.

Cassie was not exactly what Natasha had been expecting given what she had seen of her matches. In the ring Cassie was known for leaving her opponents broken in the ring, something she had uneasily watched when the woman fought her friend Talia, but now that she was face to face with her Natasha was having a hard time seeing that woman. The Cassie standing before her now instead seemed too kind and gentle to hurt anyone and this stark difference between what she expected and what she was faced with left Natasha at a loss for words.

After a few seconds of silence Cassie brought up her question to Taylor from the other day, expressing her dislike for hentai which matched Taylor's but like Natasha had told Taylor that difference of opinion didn't bother the french woman. "Oh thats alright, its understandable, hentai wrestling isn't for everyone." She said casually, all the while thinking in the back of her mind that this was not how she had pictured a meeting with the person who cost Talia her career would go.

"Well ummm I just was talking with Taylor and she walked on down the street or so she told me...but uhhh can I ask you a question about Talia?"

"She did?" Cassie looked around, but she couldn't hope to see anything through the crowd. "I told her to meet me here. Well, I'm a little late, but... she's silly. I'll just tell her to come back."

She started to pull her phone out of her backpack, but her fingers froze on the zipper. Natasha's question turned her blood cold. "Sure, of course you can..." She said, trying her best to iron out all hesitation from her voice. She retrieved her phone and quickly typed another message to Taylor. Come back!

While they were subtle Natasha did not miss the clues in Cassie's movements and voice when she mentioned Talia's name, the slight hesitation in her voice and the pause she took when the name was said made it clear she was dreading what the question might be. Not that Natasha needed such hints to know that however, it was only natural after what Cassie had gone through with Talia she wouldn't want to hear her name brought up, especially not by someone she hardly knew.

Natasha would have simply held her tongue before but after running into Aurora the other day she had questions on her mind that only Cassie could likely answer. "Look its not about your matches with her for as hard as they were to watch I know you both went into them willingly, so despite the outcome I can't blame you for what happened." Natasha said trying to put Cassie at least a little bit at ease though she knew that was unlikely. "Aurora told me Talia had moved to Canada last time she spoke to her and I heard you're from there originally, can you tell me how shes doing now?"

Cassie's breath caught in her chest while she braced herself for the impending question, but when it came she felt a tremendous wave of relief. She just wanted to get on with her life without the Dark Angel shadow hanging over her. She didn't want to be afraid every time someone brought up the subject.

While her cheeks burned, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and let her shoulders fall slack. "She's okay. She has a lot to work through, but I think she's working at it now. But she didn't move to Canada, she just stayed with me and my family for a while. It was good."

Her phone made a cheerful noise from inside the pocket on her backpack, but she ignored it for the moment. She hooked her thumbs under the straps of her backpack to steady her hands, and couldn't quite bring herself to look Natasha in the eye. "You talked to Aurora? Hasn't she talked to Talia lately? Did you guys... talk about me at all?"

Just as Cassie had felt when Natasha's question proved to be far more innocent than she had imagined Natasha felt relieved upon hearing that Talia was doing well. She had been worried about the woman since she vanished not long after her final match with Cassie and her talk with Aurora hadn't done anything to lessen those concerns, but thanks to Cassie she now had her answer, even if it was a bit of a shocking one. "She stayed with you? Wow...I guess you two made up huh?"

It took her a moment to fully process that bit of news but in the end she felt it made sense for after AFW and everything connected to it was removed from the equation whatever had set the two against one another in the first place was gone, giving them the chance they needed to reconcile.

Natasha heard Cassie's phone go off, no doubt a message from Taylor, but to her surprise Cassie ignored it, choosing instead to ask Natasha about Aurora instead. "Considering what you just told me I guess they haven't talked much as of late. Honestly we talked more about Taylor than anyone else, I don't even think your name came up actually." She answered while brushing some of the hair from in front of her eyes aside, leaning over a little trying to get Cassie to meet her gaze. "So another question...if I asked Taylor for a match, do you think she would say yes?"

"Aww..." Cassie looked hurt. They couldn't have been saying anything good about Taylor, and the thought of it stung Cassie's heart.

"Hey..." She said, without immediately answering Natasha's question. "I hope you were nice to Taylor." Her big green eyes were serious and brave, and her gaze demanded Natasha's full attention. "I mean it. She's really upset. Just because you guys compete doesn't mean you're not people too."

She pulled her phone out again. "And I don't think Taylor has ever turned down a match. But please don't. I know you just want to fight her because you don't like her, and I don't like it. Everyone's always at each other's throats when they should be helping each other. We all have a really hard job, and there's no need to make it into... high school."

She checked Taylor's text. "Oh, for crying out loud..." She quickly typed out a reply. "Okay, I'm going to find Taylor." She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Natasha in a quick hug. "Don't worry about Talia, okay? She's okay. Bye, it was nice meeting you."

She had her thumbs on her phone while she walked, and was quickly swallowed up in the sidewalk traffic. A moment later, Taylor emerged, took one look around, and threw up her hands.

"Are you fuckin' kidding me?" She complained, and glanced at Natasha. This was ridiculous. "BEAR! BEAR, WHAT THE FUCK!" She cried, hoping her voice would carry deep enough into the crowd.

"Cassie I was about as nice to Taylor as I could be given how she answered my question during the interview, I had something I had to get off my chest and she responded, nothing more." Natasha answered in a stern tone of voice as she seemingly met the Cassie who appeared in the ring for the first time, the woman's eyes no longer avoiding hers but instead staring into them as she defended Taylor.

Natasha didn't back down from this sudden change however and stared right back into Cassie's eyes, but fortunately the girl's phone rang and the moment of unease between them passed as she checked her messages. Cassie then both gave the answer she wanted to hear as well as one she didn't, Natasha quick to dismiss the woman's opinion that she shouldn't ask for a match with Taylor as Cassie didn't truly understand her motivations behind it. She was still upset with the blonde woman sure, but more than anything Natasha wanted to force the woman to change the opinion of her Taylor had likely held since they first met, and it seemed beating her in the middle of the ring was the only way to do so.

Before she could say anything further however it seemed it was now Cassie's turn to run off into the night in search of her friend, Natasha nodding to the girl showing she understood and even pointing down the street where Taylor had gone earlier. "I am glad to hear that so thank you for telling me Cassie. It was nice to finally meet you as well, maybe we will run into each other again sometime."

No sooner had Cassie vanished did Taylor reappear though, the pair having just missed each other yet again. Natasha blinked in surprise and for a moment wanted to challenge the woman to a match, but thinking about what Cassie had said of helping one another she decided to let it go for tonight. "She went that way." Natasha said with a sigh, pointing in the direction Cassie had just gone.