A Quiet Dinner Get Together

Alaina saw that look on Mamouru's face again, and she got up and followed Mamouru outside.

"Baby, I know that look.... just talk to me and let me in, you know you can tell me anything." She said as she gently put her arm around Mamouru and rest her head against his shoulder. Alaina waited silently, she only wanted to listen to him right now to see what was going through his mind. She didn't care if it was good or bad, so long as he was honest and open with her about how he felt.

Mamouru furrowed his brow when Alaina followed him. When she held onto him, all he wanted to do was push her away. However, he only sighed when she spoke and slipped an arm around her. "The last time Cassie-san fought one of my clients, it was the worst night of my life." He said firmly. "After what just happened, I cannot fathom what would make you suggest a match with her so flippantly."

Mamouru finally pulled away from her and turned his back to her. All he wanted was a moment to think and he couldn't even get that much. "You've already put me in a terrible spot by just casually tossing out the idea like it's no big deal. It's quite a large deal, in fact."

So much for being more confident. It was hard to hear, but on the other hand she was thankful for him being so open. "I... I don't have to face her then. Its just that she sounded like she was on the verge of calling me out. Its just tough to back down from ya know?" She said as she quietly moved to the door and went back inside.

Charlie leaned back in his chair and pet L.C who was starving for attention. He noticed that Cassie seemed eager for a match with Alaina. She didn't seem like the kind of person to want to inflict pain on Alaina just to get back at Mamouru. At least he really hoped not.... "You seem pretty gung ho about fighting Al, did she piss ya off or something?"

"She said she wasn't going to do it if I approved. I don't think that's anything of the sort, Alaina-chan." Mamouru said, furrowing his brow. "I wasn't necessarily opposed to the idea. I just wanted a moment to think about it. That's all I wanted." He said to make his point again.

Mamouru watched Alaina leave and sighed. Now it felt like he was obligated to make the match happen. Alaina wanted it and Cassie seemed to want it to. The only person that didn't want it was Mamouru and now he almost felt like signing Alaina up just to show her why he didn't want it. If she was going to keep trying to force feelings out of him, she wasn't going to like what she heard. He was trying very hard but Alaina seemed to be trying too much in the opposite direction. Mamouru leaned against the wall on the opposite side of the entrance tot he apartment and slid to the floor. He buried his head in his hands and curled his fingers around his hair.

Cassie looked at Charlie with a muted, closed-mouth expression of shock. "Gung ho?" She echoed. "I didn't even say anything about fighting her. She's the one who brought it up. I just asked if she thought that I was one of the people she wanted to fight, I mean, to prove herself or... whatever she's trying to do..."

Taylor's protective instincts kicked in, and usually that meant fireworks but for the sake of everyone there she kept it under control. Still, she spoke up to take some of the pressure off of Cassie.

"I know Alaina's your girlfr- er, your friend, but don't jump on Cassie's back. Okay? Just don't." She might have continued, had Alaina not walked back in, this time without Mamouru. She noticed Cassie, who was silent again, with her chin tucked down, staring at the table while her cheeks reddened noticeably. She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples and drew a deep breath.

"Look," she said with as much patience as she could muster. "You guys are new, I get it. But I think once you get your feet wet you'll start to get how these things work. We're AFW wrestlers. Most of the time, if any of us get a leg up in our career it's on someone else's back. Know what I mean? Feelings get hurt in this business, and sometimes you can't all just get together and barbeque like regular old nine-to-five suburban Americans." She jabbed a finger at Charlie. "You're dating the chick who made it her personal fucking mission to ruin Cassie's life, when all Cassie did was stop Talia from beating my face in with a motherfucking chair. And you," she turned her finger to Alaina. "You're bumping uglies with the biggest womanizer in the world, who just happens to have a very complicated history with Bear. Maybe it's not your fault, but you can probably see how being here is really fucking unfair to her."

"I'm fine," Cassie said quietly.

"So if you just want to ignore all the psycho shit your psycho girlfriend did last year, that's fine. And if you want to play house with the dude who, twenty dollars says, is just going to hit it and quit, that's fine. But don't be surprised when a nice dinner party with all of us starts to fall apart, a'right?" She shook her head, and let out a breath like she was deflating. "Sorry, I'm sorry, we all really appreciate the gesture and everything, but we should probably go before a fight breaks out." Especially if it involved Taylor.

Cassie's face had only grown a brighter shade of red. She was humiliated by the attention drawn to her situation, and by the fact that everyone was mostly being so nice when Taylor decided it was a good time to go off on them. She didn't feel good about anyone there, but she was the most mad at Taylor.

Except Johnny. She didn't feel bad about Johnny.

"Yeah, I fucked up." Alaina admitted. Not that she intended for any of this to happen. "I wasn't looking to shit on Cassie or make things awkward for Mamouru because I didn't know there was a history before tonight. I also understand that Charlie is dating someone who sounds completely psycho but don't hold anything she did against him." Alaina said before reaching into her pocket. She felt bad for Cassie, but worse for Mamouru. His own sister-in-law had no faith in him, and Alaina didn't do anything to help his cause today either. All Alaina did was drag him through an emotional roller coaster. "I'll also take you up on that bet." Alaina added, putting some yen on the table roughly equal to $20. Taylor... hell... none of Mamouru's family had faith in his relationship working out, but Alaina did. Maybe it was blind optimism borne from her wanting it to work out that badly...

When Cassie spoke up, what she said made sense to Charlie. His dumbass mouth got him in trouble yet again. It's things like this that are the reason L.C makes for the best of company but before he could say anything to apologize to Cassie, Taylor spoke up. "Oh joy.. lets drag Talia through the mud again and add in a hint of guilt by association vibes..." he thought to himself as Taylor spoke. He let her say her piece and then, before he could say anything a second time Alaina decided to speak up. Sure, she was sticking up for him but he was sure her rant came across to the others as badly as Taylor's came across to him. And since when did Talia become a "psycho?" Just because Alaina heard other people say things she also got to jump on Talia's back? At this point all he could do was throw his arms up as a look of frustration and confusion settled on his face. How the heck did having people over for dinner become so damned complicated?

"Uhhh... so, our bad. Next time all attendee's will fill out pre-socializing screening sheets to avoid this mess. See ya later?" Charlie really wanted to have a word with Alaina, but the priority right now was not having a fight break out. Once everyone left he'd chat with her about Talia, at least what he had seen in Talia on his own as opposed to what everyone made her out to be.

Johnny watched as Taylor finally exploded. He shrank in his seat. not because he was embarrassed or felt that Taylor was wrong but it just seemed like when she got like this, the best thing to do was give her space until she got it out of her system. He kept glancing back and forth between Taylor and Cassie. Cassie was bright red and Taylor seemed to be too for different reasons.

After Alaina was finished, Johnny finally stood up. "Man, sorry and junk but, shouldn't you have known about this ahead of time? He's yer boyfriend and junk and none of this stuff is exactly a secret." Johnny scratched his head. "Uh, like, settin the personal stuff aside, you gotta know what's goin on in the place ya work for. It just makes sense from a professional standpoint to, ya know?"

Johnny shrugged. "Anyway, ya. Gonna head out. Thanks for the food and junk and sorry it like... yeah, sorry..." He said finally. "You ready, shorty?" He asked Cassie. He wasn't even going to give Taylor the option to say no. Cassie could take a cab if for some bizarre reason she wanted to hang around a bit but him and Taylor were leaving ASAP.

Taylor knew what Johnny was doing. And she knew why. Given the choice, she probably would've stayed to fight it out. That's why it was a good thing she had Johnny, to keep her somewhat levelheaded.

Cassie looked at Johnny, but didn't respond right away. She was thinking. Finally, she looked directly at Charlie and said "Talia's my friend. She was before Dark Angel, and she is now that Dark Angel is gone. But... sometimes I catch myself thinking about them like they were two separate people. I have to remind myself that it was Talia who did all those things. I think that to really be a friend to Talia, you need to know what happened." She looked back at Johnny. "I'm ready." She specifically avoided looking at Alaina while she went to lace up her Converse.

"Thanks for everything, guys, I mean it. It sucks that sometimes things work out like this, but this is our line of work. Shit gets heavy, man." Taylor said with a sympathetic twist in her eyebrows, and then followed behind Cassie to get her shoes. "Maybe I'll catch you in the gym or something, right?"

"Thank you so much for dinner," Cassie said. She paused, as if she might add something else, and then turned to leave without another word.

Johnny nodded along with Taylor and Cassie. "Yeah man, see ya." he said and slipped behind Taylor and followed her out the door. After they left, Mamouru looked up at the three of them as they closed the door behind them.

Johnny looked down and met his brother's gaze. "Yo, bro. Is everything cool?" He asked sincerely. "You goin back in there or...?"

Mamouru sighed. "In a minute or so." He said. "I'm sorry there was trouble." He said again, running his fingers through his hair. "I honestly had no idea that you were coming if I had..." Mamouru waved them off. "Anyway, I'll talk to you later. Ja ne."

He gave Cassie one last look and then dropped his head into his hands once more. Johnny nudged Taylor forward so that they could leave Mamouru in peace.

"It is what it is, see you guys later." Charlie said with a nod and wave.

"I'm sure we'll all bump into each other there, we all spend enough time in that place right?" Alaina said with as much of a laugh and smile as she could muster as they all left, leaving the roommates alone for the time being.

Charlie figured now was as good a time as any to see what the deal was with Alaina and Talia. "So..... I thought you got along well enough with Talia? All of a sudden because everyone else dumps on her, and due to their history understandably so, you get to join in on the "fuck Talia" parade? What did she ever do to you?" Charlie asked as he looked up at Alaina.

"That many people can't be wrong about someone! Its not that they have a history, did you hear what she tried to? What if you do something that rubs her the wrong way? It sounds like she'll try and strangle you to death in your sleep!" Alaina shot back. She wasn't angered at Charlie talking to her like this, but she was surprised.... he'd never done that before. "I'm just trying to watch out for you thats all!"

"Maybe you should worry about yourself more OK? You want a match with Cassie? You are good, don't get me wrong but Cassie..." Charlie was stuck. He didn't want to finish that sentence, he knew Alaina's confidence was already shaky because of a rough start. Charlie knew she'd snap out of it and after getting experience she'd be moving up the ranks in no time. The problem is, Cassie had a reputation as one of the best if not the best submission wrestler in Friction. Because of that he felt like he needed to say something she didn't want to hear. "..Cassie's an awesome grappler and submission wrestler. One wrong move and you're done. Al, she's gonna win. I'm sorry to say it because I want to see you win, and I hate it when you lose as much as you hate it."

Now Alaina was angry. Charlie all of a sudden thought she'd lose? He used to be the one always telling her to take up any challenge in front of her! "So thats it? I'm going to roll over like a heartless fuck-wit and let Cassie have her way with me if we have a match? I really think that Mamouru and I are the only two that have any faith in me becoming anything in the AFW! What happened to the Charlie I used to know? The old you never got butt-hurt just because someone said something bad about your girlfriend, or blew up at people, or just started to shit on their roommate when they were trying to move their fucking career forward!" Alaina said as she glared at Charlie. Ever since he started dating Talia, he wasn't quite the same in her eyes. A moment of silence felt like ten minutes as she glared at him. He looked like an odd mix of shocked, pissed off, and hurt. "You know what... maybe we've just spent so much time on top of each other here that it'd be best if I moved out. We're still friends, its just that we wouldn't see each other every day and all that. I think the space will help us both sort of grow, ya know?" She said. It wasn't until after she spoke that she realized exactly what she said. Ever since she dated Mamouru she felt a little awkward living with another guy, even if he was just a friend. He had to have felt the same way since he met Talia.... Either way, Alaina couldn't wait for Mamouru to come back inside.

"Maybe you are right. Maybe we've both changed since we got here. I know you are expecting Mamouru to come back so I'll just head to my room, see you tomorrow." Charlie said flatly as he snapped his fingers. L.C came running over and entered Charlie's room as Charlie shut the door behind him. He sure as shit wasn't happy with Alaina but he was trying his best to understand where she was coming from. Maybe having his own place would be nice? As Charlie thought about things he pulled out his cell phone and sent a text.

"Baby, I just met a couple people who know you. Cassie, Taylor, Johnny and Mamouru. They told me that you have a history with them, and did some nasty things, but Cassie stuck up for you. I just wanted to say that no matter what anyone else says I still love you."