Lunch

Whoa.

Amy’s hands came up in surprise. It seemed as though her revelation had tripped some sort of wire- this was the fastest that she’d ever heard Rachel talk and the loudest that she'd heard Rachel be outside of a wrestling ring. Amy had a little trouble keeping track of Rachel’s questions, but, when Rachel finally stopped to breathe, Amy got the feeling that Rachel was really looking for an answer to one in particular.

When her hands came down, Amy’s face was serious. She squared her shoulders to Rachel so that she could look directly into her eyes, and, when she spoke, her voice rang with unflinching conviction. “Yes. Definitely.” Amy’s gaze did not waver- based on what she’d learned today, Amy had total faith that earning a psych degree was well within Rachel’s abilities.

Then Amy broke her solemn expression with a smile. “I'm not gonna tell you that it’ll be easy. But I can tell you that that passion counts for quite a bit for this sort of thing, and it sounds like you’ve got plenty of that.”

For a moment, Rachel just stared dumbly at the girl sitting next to her. Her eyes glistened vacantly with a deer-in-the headlights look as she tried to process Amy's response. On a rational level, she probably knew Amy would be supportive, but... it was still weird to hear such affirmative confidence in her. All her life, Rachel had people telling her she wouldn't succeed, that she wouldn't amount to anything, that she was just some kind of human trash. Even her dad, who really did want the best for her, had always implored Rachel to keep her expectations low, to keep her dreams small. In a way, it seemed weird to let this one instance of confidence overtake all the negative reinforcement she had ever gotten, but, well, she respected Amy. This wasn't some random schmuck who didn't know a thing about her, this was someone who was strong, smart, charismatic... even damn attractive. If someone like that believed in Rachel, how could any of those other losers be right?

And so, as soon as she broke out of her daze, Rachel did the first thing that came to mind and wrapped both arms around the blond sitting next to her. Part of this was to give the best nonverbal thanks for the support she had gotten, and part of it was because she needed to find a good spot to hide her eyes. Rachel made a point of not crying in public, and while getting beaten senseless had forced her to break that promise on more than one occasion, she still didn't usually shed tears of emotion. So doing so now was more than a bit embarrassing for her.

As luck would have it, that was right around when her good friend, Alex Withers, entered the door. Rachel had let her know where they were meeting up in case she (and/or Amy) needed someone to buddy up with on the walk home, the streets of Tokyo could be a problem for young ladies such as themselves at night, even if they were professional fighters. It felt like bad luck that she'd show up just then, but on the other hand, if anyone had seen Rachel cry before, it was Alex. Almost as soon as she and Amy had hit it off, Rachel was secretly excited to introduce her to her other, eternally upbeat friend, but there was something unusual in Alex's eyes. Her usual expression of carefree joy was replaced with an angry determination. Something had just gone down, and Rachel was a bit worried as to what.
"Hey, we gotta go," the brunette chimed in unceremoniously as she approached them, her attention completely focused on her friend.

"Alex, this is Amy. She's really cool, you should get to know her," she responded, forcing a smile as she tried to ignore her friend's uncharacteristic terseness.

In the very next moment, Rachel’s rapid-fire questioning became the second most surprising moment of this lunch.

Amy’s mouth almost fell open in surprise, but she caught it before it fell too far. Instead, she hugged back as best she could, turning in her seat, reciprocating the embrace with her arms, anything she could do to make their impromptu little hug a bit less awkward.

Not that the sudden contact was unwelcome. Quite the opposite; they’d come a long way from when Rachel couldn’t see Amy except through suspicious glares and side-eyes. And touching afforded Amy yet another layer to her understanding of Rachel. A threatening stinging of the eyes is not seldom in the company of hyper-tense shoulders and taut, shallow breathing. Amy might not have been able to see Rachel’s eyes, but Rachel’s body gave Amy a sense of what was going on. How deep did Rachel’s insecurities run that a virtual stranger’s support could affect her this way? Amy’s hands gave Rachel’s shoulder and lower back firm, reassuring pats, but her words did their best not to give Amy’s realization away. “Wow. See? So much passion.”

No, it was awkward because the girls were seated beside each other in a narrow space. But still- it was nice. Amy grinned next to Rachel’s face. Rachel could be pretty cute.

The hug broke off when a third woman interrupted curtly from behind. Amy couldn’t place her at first, even though the familiarity with which she treated Rachel should have been a big clue. Luckily, Rachel made the introduction, sparing Amy from having to figure it out. Amy smiled, struggling to turn around further in her seat. She stuck out her hand. I’ve seen your bare ass on TV, her brain offered helpfully.

“Hey, Alex, nice to meet you. Do you want to pull up a...” She looked around, but there weren't any empty seats to be had. "...Do you want to split our seats?"

Alex froze for a moment as her brain registered the subtle hints of what was going on. Whoever this Amy girl was, Rachel seemed pretty open with her, judging by the red spots under her eyes, and that was pretty rare. In any other situation, everything would be dropped to meet someone like that, but right now, it was taking all of Alex's self control not to punch someone. Or pile drive them. All she wanted to do was get out of this country so they could stop being professional punching bags for the world's amusement.

And Rachel could pick up on this, or at least that something was wrong. As subtle as the two of them liked to think they were with their feelings, the one person neither of them could hide anything from was each other. "Alex, what's wrong? What's going on?"

"We gotta go. Like, leave the country. Dave, he-" she stopped herself before divulging too much. Dropping a bomb like that, telling Rachel that her ex had sadistically set her up with all kinds of unwinnable fights for his own profit, it was a bit much to unload all at once. "He left. You're all paid off, so let's get out of here."

But Rachel felt something strange inside. Some sense of longing, of needing to stay. Maybe it was because their home was such a dead-end part of town whereas Japan was new and exciting, maybe it was her new friend and support. No, she knew what it was. She finally had a goal, a real goal, not just something to run away from, and she had the means to get there. Rachel wasn't going to give that up if it killed her. "No... I'm going to stay here."

Of course, for Alex, this was pure madness. "B-but why?!" she begged, almost on the verge of tears. "Why do you just want to keep getting beat up like this?"

"Alex," Rachel nearly cut her off, placing a hand on her old friend's shoulder, "I'm going to college."

College. In their previous lives, it had almost been a dirty word, or a joking one at best. Dead beat kids don't go to college, they'd tell themselves. But this time, something in her friend's voice told Alex it was a good word, and piece by piece, reality started to set in. It started with the person at hand, and the state she was in. Any other day Alex would have almost been jealous to see someone she knew was closed off vent to someone she hadn't even met, but right now knowing that Rachel had been getting some bad blood out of her system was nothing but a relief. And then there was the blonde here... Amy, was it? By the look on her face, this wasn't the standard fare for her, either. And then Alex's own day came flooding into her mind: fucking a cute girl she had never met in front of a massive crowd, winning her first match, slamming a guy she had known for almost a decade into some pavement, and storming over here... it was a weird day for everyone. And a tiring one. Lastly, her brain registered the smell of fresh ramen, and with no open seats, she sunk to her knees.

"Got anything to eat around here?"