Red, White and New

Allie growled when Syd mentioned her father again. "Stop it." She said coldly. "Just because your Step-Dad got tired of funding your bored psycho tantrums doesn't mean it's the same for me, understand?"

Allie gripped Syd's wrist harder. "My Daddy... wasn't rich at all. I doubt he ever had much more than what he could carry in his pocket. My mother is the one who figured out how to make it in the world. If you wanna thank anyone for your movie ticket, thank her.."

Allie let go and sighed. She walked up to the booth and then stopped. The movie should be easy enough. "Frozen." She said. Now the hard part, she needed to count to two. 'Ichi... I remember that one.' she remembered that one. The next one started with an N. Na? No? Nu?

"Ni!"

She beamed brightly and held out her fingers in a Vee. She was proud of herself! The apathetic ticket taker roboticly ripped off the tickets and handed them to Allie. She spun around and handed a ticket to Syd.

"Fun!" She was suddenly excited to see a movie with Syd. "Soooo..." Allie said hopping forward. "Do you want your sugar mama to get you some popcorn or a drink?" She winked at the white haired girl.

"Corn is what they feed pigs to fatten them up," Syd said as a matter of fact. She stopped as Allie jumped in front of her and looked down at her with her hands in her pockets. "I don't care. Well... Actually, get me a big drink." Then suddenly her eyes went wide and she looked nearly giddy. "WHOA, HOLD ON! Is Japan like Amsterdam or whatever? Can you buy like hash oil brownies here?"

Clearly, the thought of buying narcotics from a concession stand was the most exciting thought in the world for Syd. It took a conscious effort to pry her mental fingers loose from the idea and to get her body to settle down and be cool. "Probably not. This place is stupid. The sheep here would probably have their brains explode if they even saw good drugs."

Allie rolled her eyes at Syd. She sure knew an awful lot about animals. Must have been all the hee hawing she did about how cool it was to be 'dark' or whatever emo thing Syd was doing. Allie was just going to get a medium popcorn for herself that way if Syd decided she was good enough to feed her piggy belly, Allie would have some. Plus, she could drink from Syd's drink if she got thirsty.

"Fine, but I'm getting a diet." She said as she stepped to the concession stand only to hear Syd flip out about special brownies. "What? I don't know!" Allie said, wrinkling her brow at Syd. "I seriously doubt they sell pot brownies here. This place is even more uptight than the U.S... kinda..." She muttered. There were some weird things in Japan. She kind of got that much of the gist just from some mild research.

"Anyway, don't tell me you're some druggie, not like I'd be surprised." Allie said, waggling a scolding finger at Syd. "If you are, you're gonna start kicking that while you're in Japan. The last thing I need is for you to be tweaked out in a match. You're messed up enough as it is!"

Allie shook her head and brushed her red locks from her face as she looked at the concession guy. "POP CORN. MEDIUM." She said, pointing to the picture and saying it loudly as if that would help him understand. "DIET COKE!" Allie said again, once again pointing tot he picture. "LARGE!"

Allie's hand gestures helped and after a moment of confusion, the man was fetching her items. "You wouldn't even know where to get drugs here." Alie said, almost to herself. "What am I worried about." Allie shook her head as she fished out some cash from her wallet. "Do you need money? In case we get separated? I don't want you out there in Tokyo without anything. But, I don't plan on letting you out of my sight unless I absolutely have to. At least until we get situated." Allie said, speaking with an almost concerned tone about her older client.

Syd snorted, and rolled her eyes, putting at odds the predatory look of her red eyes and the petulant adolescence of her mannerisms. "I forgot. you're only fifteen. You don't know anything about the world, let alone the things beyond it," she said with an air of superiority.

"You're like my slave. You can follow me around and do things for me." She walked off toward the entrance to the theater, expecting Allie to hurry along after with the food.

The ticket taker ripped her ticket and handed her the stub, and she glanced around at the sea of same-haired little Japanese people milling around the place with a sneer as she strode into the theater. She had heard that Japanese people were really uptight, but if they didn't speak English they couldn't yell at her about anything.

She found a seat toward the back and slouched down low, propping her legs up on the chair in front of her. She couldn't get the subject out of her head, and so it came up again. "How long until I get my first match? And what are you gonna do during it?"

"I'm nineteen!" Allie called out, chasing after Syd and plopping next to the white haired girl. "I'm not your slave either. If anything, you're MY charge. And you ducked my question..." She added, taking a sip of her drink before offering it to Syd.

She watched at how rude the girl was but ignored it. Who really cared if they got kicked out of a theatre? It was Syd's idea to come here anyway.

Allie shook her head as Syd continued to complain about the match. "Are you sure YOU'RE not the fifteen year old? We'll go tomorrow and see about getting you a match. Just stop whining about it." Allie sighed audibly and took a few pieces of popcorn and plopped them into her mouth daintily.

When she was finished, she looked at Syd. "I'm gonna watch you beat up some stupid bitch. I hope you dont need my help in your first match." She said as she playfuy stuck out her tongue and nudged Syd.

"I'm your charge?" Syd echoed, sneering, her eyes fixated on the giant advertisements occupying the screen.

Then she turned to look at the little redhead, and her creepy red eyes lingered on her for longer than would have been comfortable for either of them. Now she wasn't smiling. "Don't call me that," she said bluntly. "I don't need help. Don't tell me I'm whining. Or else." She grabbed Allie's wrist and squeezed it tightly. "You're going to get me matches, and in the ring, you're going to do what I want. Got it?"

She let go, her cheeks reddened slightly under the cover of the theater darkness, and looked back at the screen while a Japanese-language pre-preview announcement played on the screen.

Allie winced when her arm was grabbed and her neck craned away from the white haired girl as much as it could. However, she didn't look away and even furrowed her brow when Syd turned back away.

"You're here with me," Allie started back, whispering while the trailers played, "because you're intimidating and tough. But you're not going to beat me up or be like that to me. Without me, you'd still be in Chicago with no sugar daddy and probably kicked out of that league. In jail, probably," Allie quipped. "I'm sure you'd like that. You'd get plenty of fights. Until some ugly bitch shanks you or turns you into a rough trick."

Allie grinned proudly and crossed her arms under her chest like she had won. Her eyes took in the beginning of the movie and Allie moved her hand and patted the top of Syd's hand. "We're partners. I think we can act like it at least a little bit. Popcorn?" Allie said, offering some to Syd.

"Without you, I'd have a match tonight," Syd said bluntly.

And she's still be working at a gas station, and her match would pay her almost nothing. But if she wanted to be in AFW, she would, with or without Allie.

As the movie began, she settled into a deep, scowling trance, as if her thoughts were displayed in the air halfway to the screen and visible only to her. She reminded herself that even if Allie could help her do something she couldn't do herself, it didn't mean anything. There was no significance to it, it was just more stuff that happened in a world that didn't care.

She sort of hoped Allie did find her sister, and the sister beat her to death. She wanted to see the look on Allie's face when she realized that force was all that mattered, not words.

As the movie went on, she unknowingly began unironically following along. When she realized it, she silently scoffed and turned away, as if to dismiss the idea that she would ever watch something so stupid. She was only there to make fun of the idiot sheep that were entertained by something so sophomoric.

"A stupid match." Allie quipped back childishly and then 'shhhh'd Syd as if she was the last one to speak. Allie had gotten into the movie far more than she thought she was going to. She always thought of herself as a princess, but now she was getting older. She thought she could push away the childish aspects of her 'royal' airs now that she was mature but it seemed as though a good story was hard to ignore .

Except for Syd, apparently.

As the credits rolled, Allie stood up. "There's no way even a grumpy pants like you could get all emo about seeing that. It was pretty good."

As they left the theatre, Allie looked at Syd. "Anything else you wanna do or can we find a place to stay tonight?"

Syd was closed-mouthed and moody when the movie ended. She ignored Allie until they were back out on the neon-lit street.

"I'm tired," she said, without elaborating. She all but ignored the bustle on the sidewalk that persisted even well after dark, and looked around at the cityscape. It was so utterly different from Chicago, and combined with her increasing sobriety the moment gave her a feeling of immense dread. Not of being far away, or in a new place, or a strange place, but of something that no one knew but her, and even she knew it only by its absence.

She caught herself once looking at Allie with her inscrutable red eyes. She couldn't wait to get to a hotel and put her hair up and take out her contacts and finally be by herself.