Old Frenemies

"Thanks." Adrian said softly, she was bringing up Kelly, that meant she knew about Adrian's disguise "Hope it doesn't come to that, but you can never tell with her..." Still, there was something bothering her. "How did you know it was me? I was in heels and stuffed my bra so I looked different even with the helmet."

"Haaaaa!" Taylor laughed. "I didn't, until just now. But... I was pretty sure."

She looked Adrian up and down with a faraway smile on her face. The two had met when they were both brand new to Japan and AFW, and had always brought out the worst in each other. It made Taylor happier than she'd admit that they had come to a place where Adrian would do something like saving her from Kelly... Even if maybe her primary motivation was attacking Kelly and not protecting Taylor. Their match at Summer Splash had to be her favorite of all time.

"Adrian, we've known each other for almost four years. I watched you when we were both rookies here. I spent two months obsessing over you, watching tape on you every night and studying everything you did. People don't really think I do that stuff, but I do. I know how you move. I know your body. And I know that when someone shows up in a costume, with some goofy kitty-cat helmet, my first guess is Adrian Kytes."

She shrugged. "I dunno if you did it for me, but still, thanks. You saved my ass, me and my... me and Junko. So I owe you one."

She gazed out over the many rows of machines in the gym, from cardio to weights, mechanical and free weights, and remarked "And for you... circuits."

Adrian cradled her face with her palm, for someone who made a hundred costumes god damn did she suck at keeping up a disguise. "Ughhhh..." she groaned "At least I didn't go 'its not me' when someone asked this time." the cosplayer half-joked, but Taylor seeing through the disguise was probably fair enough, it wasn't just the cat ear helmet, it was being able to move really fast and jump around while wearing a cat eared helmet. "I just saw it and I was like 'must buy' even though I didn't spend too much on my scooter it was still like I was never going to see that again if I didn't buy it now, or at least felt that way." she admitted before blushing at Taylor's thanks.

"Come on... it's not like its the first time I've done something like this, it's no big deal, really."

"Ha, yeah. If you told me it wasn't you, I'd probably believe that too, but it was just your style." Taylor shrugged. "Done what before, though?"

She pulled out her phone and began tapping away to write down a quick conditioning circuit for Adrian. Adrian had some natural physical gifts, but her biggest strengths were her mind and her technique. Once she stopped fucking around and trying to cheat her way through her matches, the world found out that Adrian Kytes can wrestle. While Adrian's conditioning was also suspiciously good, given her reputed work ethic, Taylor had always questioned the girl's courage. After their last match, Taylor honestly didn't see any weaknesses with her, not really, but... that also wasn't her business at the moment.

"This should be a good workout for you..."

"Bailing out someone getting attacked after a match," Adrian explained "I bailed Cec out after ...you-know-who..." she said to avoid mentioning a certain name that was guaranteed to make their blood boil "tried to shave her bald... it didn't go as well as chasing off Kelly but yeah... even at my worst I never went for the post-match exclamation points like some people would, that's why I always felt myself above the likes of Kelly and Brittany even when I was trying to scam my way to the top instead of you know, doing it right." The cosplayer rambled, not noticing Taylor was on her phone already typing out a workout schedule. "Oh, cool! Uh... thanks." she said as she peered over to take a look at the long list, nothing that particularly filled her heart with dread at the thought, so that was something.

"Oh. You mean Gatt?" Taylor didnt specifically remember who that was. She didnt follow Cecelia's career too closely. Or Gatt's. "Man, I coulda used you at my match with Gatt. She definitely didn't just try to shave my head."

She laughed. She couldn't change what happened, so what do you do? You laugh it off. Move on.

"And yeah. No fuckin' extra stuff while I'm around. I don't put up with that shit. Did you see me fuck up Kelly when she went after Akashi after Rebecca..." She stopped short. "Well... Anyway. How's Cecelia doing these days? I don't see her around anymore. Not that I'm upset about it, as you can probably imagine."

"Yeahh... that was probably... when did that even happen? That might have been like just before I signed up and got a match." It was strange to hear Taylor laugh something like what Adrian could only imagine must have been pretty fucking horrible off so easily, whereas most of the things that happened to Adrian's early career left much darker impressions. It wasn't as though she hadn't gotten over them or still bore a grudge, just there was going to be a long time before she could look back at stuff like the I Quit match and laugh. "Cec? She's um... she's doing fine. Think she's moving on to other things and the like, still has the occasional match but I'm pretty sure she's moving onto more business stuff and the like. I think..." The cosplayer rambled, not particularly thinking straight, the awkwardness in the air was palatable whenever the conversation drifted back to Akashi and Rebecca.

"Oh..." Taylor said absently while she finished sending the text to Adrian. "Okay. I sent your circuit. No pec-deck," she said, and stuck out her tongue. "Should be good for you and your body-type and stuff."

She put her phone back in her gym bag and straightened up. "I need to put in my late morning workout, though. This one won't be so bad. You can watch, but you might just end up jealous."

With a game, blue-eyed wink, Taylor waved and started for the open mats on the other side of the gym. "See ya later. I..." She paused. "I guess we'll just hope that, like... no one dies, and..."

The Rebecca-Akashi situation would hang over her head until it found some kind of resolution. If it did. But it was something she had to live with, and she still needed to be able to clear her head and focus on what was in front of her.

She shrug-nodded, and waved again, and walked away.

"!" Adrian's phone pinged when Taylor finished sending her new schedule "Ookay, so a few rep of those... then those... than cardio..." She thought out loud as she looked over the long list of things to do, ignoring the usual comment about the blonde's impressive physique "Yeah, seeya around I guess. Hopefully after this whole thing blows over so we can get back to... whatever it was, fighting over titles? We're probably gonna be fighting over titles."