Work In Progress

"Um, just... Unwinding," Taylor looked around the place with a half-shrug. "There's a bench by the side door going into Friction, along the path, where I used to sit when I was a rookie. Put my hood up and get away there. I used to take the side door so that I wouldn't run into anyone... Then people started recognizing me, so I started coming here instead. I guess today I can't put up my hood."

She laughed a little, but she wished she had her sweatshirt. She felt naked without it. Putting up her hood and sitting on a bench felt like disappearing to her, and sometimes that's exactly what she needed.

"So like... I wanted to tell you something," she said cautiously, feeling her out before jumping in.

Taylor was sitting?

Blossom scooted over and she wasn't even sure why she did. It wasn't like she was taking up much real estate on the bench, and it wasn't like Taylor was known for random acts of violence.

"Yeah, I know the bench. Napped there a few times while I waited for the bus." She had a little giggle along with her as the sun started to peek through the clouds, sending a few real rays of sunshine their way. Helped ease her nerves even further."But okay, sure!" She had a flash of her usual peppiness, before she tugged her shirt hem and brought it down a notch. "I kinda wanted to tell you something, too. You go first, though."

"Okay."

Taylor drew a breath and grabbed the edge of the bench under her thighs. Her knees restlessly bounced up and down, and she willed them to stop. Relax, relax, relax, just stop moving for ten seconds...

"Soooo..." There was no easy way to start it. She looked at the spirited girl, and she reminded her so much of Cassie. Or, at least, the old Cassie, before... things. Maybe that would make this easier.

"What I said before. At the... Ya know." The thing where Angel stomped Blossom in under a minute. "I meant it. But..."

She paused, folded her arms again and crossed her legs. "I've thought about this before, and it's just hard now that I can actually say it, ya know? I'm not really great with words, like..." She sighed. Just talk. "I don't know how you do it. You've got something I don't have, and... maybe you're just dumb or something, but... Like, I keep up with pretty much everything in Friction, and I always wanted to see you win, and it hurt every time when you just didn't have it." She gave Blossom a sober look.

"I cried when you got your leg broken. For real. I didn't want to see you in there with Angel, because like, come on, give the girl a chance. You're built like a truck, but it just didn't look like you had it in you to fight. And loss after loss... I remember losing more earlier in my career. I came in thinking that I was gonna be champ in a week, and instead I lost my first two... I beat like a waitress and some kawaii chick. I was gonna quit and go back to New York before the Natalia match.

"And then there's you, and like, you just kept at it. With me... I push myself so hard and I want so much and sometimes it's like one little setback can fuck me up. I always push through and stuff, but... It's always hard, and I have a lot of help. With you, like, you had to know going into these matches that you were probably going to lose. I don't know what your confidence was like, but to go in there like that... Man. That's heavy shit, ya know? The balls on you. Ya know?

"You kept at it, though, way after I wanted to ship you back to Massachusetts or wherever you came from. First it drove me nuts, because it felt so bad to see you lose like that. Like, it was so offensive that you just kept walking into it like that. But... Then this stuff with Kelly and her girls... The Coalition. I knew what I had to do, and I knew there was a good chance I'd get fucked up doing it, when I challenged Brit and Death Bunny in that handicap match, knowing Kelly would jump on the pile. And I don't know if I would've had the guts to do that without you."

She paused, set her expressive blue eyes on Blossom, her eyebrows knitted up in thought. "You inspire me to keep going." She nodded. That was it.

Blossom was smiling at first. She listened and she sat. And sat. And sat. She didn't say a word. Not. One. Single. Word.

That wasn't to say she didn't move at all. Her face did. It wa subtle, small, so discreet that you'd have to slow down a camera to catch each little flick on her face. But as Taylor spoke, her smile lowered. Her mouth opened. Her lips quivered. Her brows furrowed, and she barely blinked. Her hands rested on her lap, cringing at first, then slowly opening and patting her thighs. She stared at Taylor like she couldn't believe  a word she was sayng, and that was almost true. Not because she thought Taylor was a liar, but because she could not fathom the things she said being true. All Blossom ever did was lose and lose and lose. Taylor was the complete opposite in every conceivable. She was strong, she was fast, she was brave, she was a winner, she was the former champ and she'd probably be again someday, she was taller. She was one of the best wrestlers to come out of Friction, one of the best in the world. Superstar, legend, idol of millions.

Blossom was Blossom. The idea that she could help anyone get through anything, that all the pain she went through had actually meant something...

The wind died down for a while after Taylor's last words, as if the trees were trying to listen in. There were a few people on the trail, but they were so far away she couldn't even tell if they were coming or going. Blossom just gave them a little look, before facing forward once again. She made a noise. Not a word, but a gasp, finally letting all the air she'd kept pent up out. She stared out, blinked, and the tears that had been welling up in her eye for the past seconds finally started to roll down her cheeks.

"I don't-" She sniffled, closed her eyes and leaned forward, placing a hand over her face. There was a smile there, again, but this one was much realer than the one she'd had a minute ago. "I don't know what to say. I just-" She shook her head. "Thank you."

"Yeah, no problem."

Taylor felt ten pounds lighter after saying everything. "I know I probably didn't make a lot of sense, but I only slept like... one or two hours last night. It was rough. It's hard times right now, so I'll take all the inspiration I can get."

She pulled one foot up on the bench in front of her so that her knee was to her chest and hugged her ankle. In her short running shorts, she ended up showing a little more than her bare thigh, but she didn't give it a second thought. Millions of people had seen way more of her on TV, and that fact really shaped Taylor's ideas of modesty, not that she was ever shy before.

"So... What'd you wanna say?"

Blossom had to take a moment to wipe away her tears with the collar of her shirt and compose herself, not wanting to speak while she was a crying mess. When it passed, she was still talking a lot softer, but was more or less back to normal. It would do. She really wanted to get the next part out, especially now that she had a better view on Taylor's perspective and what she'd been struggling through.

"Yeah, just one thing. I wanted to apologize." She nodded Taylor's way. "Not for me, but for my friend. Death Bunny." Blossom slowly shook her head from side to side. "I'm not going to make excuses for what happened with her. I've always known her to be a good person, and I know a lot of people find that hard to believe, but it's just how I know her." She shrugged. "It's hard for me to really understand that the woman who hurt you and worked with Kelly, she's the same woman who came over to my silly little slumber party and let me paint her toenails and watched corny horror movies with me, but I saw what I saw. I can't deny it. And it's probably not worth anything at all, but there it is. I'm sorry she put you through that."

Blossom could almost feel the weight coming off her shoulders. "You're a good person. You derserved better."

Well, this conversation took a turn.

Instantly Taylor's face blanked. Her jaw clenched and she didn't react outwardly as Blossom spoke. She wanted to grab the girl by the shoulders and shake some sense into her.

"Yeah, she seems like a sweet girl." There was no sarcasm in her tone, but none was needed.

Again, Blossom reminded Taylor of Cassie. The same doe-eyed, beatific optimism, choosing to see the good parts while being almost oblivious to the rest. She couldn't criticize Blossom for it... But look where that got Cassie. Hurt. In a way that wouldn't soon heal.

"Look, um..." Taylor struggled to find something to say, and grappled to keep her emotions in check, but her expressive face and acrobatic eyebrows kept few secrets. "I've gotta job to do, right? And that job might just be beating that girl's ass in the ring, but that's all. I promise... I wont do to her what she does to people. I just want to beat her, I don't want to make her... I don't want to make anyone suffer."

She paused, and looked down at her feet. Her brow knotted up like the pressure of her emotions was building up beneath. "But... How far does being friendly to one girl go?" She asked. "Does that get her off the hook for everything? When do you just say yeah, she's a bad person."

She gave a resigned shrug. "Well, anyway, man... If you ever need anything, you let me know, okay? We run a gym in Tokyo, Johnny and me live in hamamatsu. If we can help, just say so. Okay? C'mere."

She leaned into Blossom and twisted to give her a big hug that lingered for a moment. She gave her a squeeze and a pat and let go. "You're amazing. Okay?"

And now the awkwardness was back. Blossom was glad Taylor went first, because if they'd switched turns, she sincerely doubted she would've gotten as nice a speech. It had to be said, though. Somebody needed to apologize for what happened.

Blossom nodded, glad that Taylor confirmed what she'd been hoping. "I didn't think you would, but it's great to hear you say that. Thanks." A small part of her realized that it would only be fair if her floppy eared friend got what she'd served out along with the rest of the Coalition. But watching a friend suffer was something she didn't want to go through, regardless of whether said friend deserved it. Death Bunny was better than that, and maybe her memory just needed a little jostling to remember.

She understood where Taylor was coming from when it came to calling Death Bunny a bad person. Honestly, 'bad person' was about the nicest thing she'd heard anyone say about her in a while. It wasn't an argument she could ever really expect to win, but still, regardless of the circumstances, Death Bunny was her friend. That wouldn't change. It didn't make sense to most people, it didn't make sense to her half the time, but that was the fact.

She didn't get long to really ponder it, as Taylor managed to take her by surprise, again - with a hug. Blossom reflexively hugged back, then giggled with glee as she pulled away. As much as she liked Japan, there were precious few huggers around, and a good public embrace was seen as bad form. Very rarely got to do that these days.

Blossom looked down, trying in vain to hide her blush. "I'll take your word for it." She gave Taylor a playful punch in her bullet proof abs. "And good luck getting your title back. I'm really looking forward to seeing less of Kelly Conway on TV." Even though she said it like a joke, she meant it. 100%

"Yeah, me too," Taylor said, and got up to leave. Before she did, though, she became pensive again.

"Man," she mused. "I just wish I could meet people and make friends and stuff without the bullshit. Like, you seem cool and everything, but you come with the bunny, so I kinda have to keep my guard up. Ya know?" She gave a tired smile and breathed a sigh. "Maybe my next job, people won't all try to kill me."

She nodded to herself, it was a nice thought, and then turned to leave. "Hey, fight hard. See ya, hotshot."

Of course, she hadn't planned on leaving, but it would be awkward to stay on the bench now. She suppressed her instinct to keep running and decided instead to walk, partly to keep her promise to Junko, and partly because... a walk would be nice.

The worst part of the day by far was the nagging thought in the back of her head, the lone, distant hypothetical... What if shit went down with Death Bunny, and Blossom got in the middle? Whose side would she take?

She tried her best not to think about it. It was a nice day. She should pay less attention to her shoes and more to the sunshine.

It was lunchtime and Alaina couldn't be happier as she walked into the kitchen. Clad in a yellow sports bra, and black workout shorts she had just completed an eventful morning of training. That on its own was tiring enough, combined with the fact that she was awoken at 3 AM to have to pick up a friend at the bar meant that Alaina was a zombie right now. Essentially burned out, her body was on autopilot as her morning workout took everything she had.

She grabbed an apple and slumped in a chair, happily sitting down to chow down. She wanted to eat healthy, but she also wanted to go all-in with something delightfully terrible for your health but satisfyingly delicious. In the end Alaina opted to go with some scrambled eggs, another apple and a couple slices of toast. Sure it was more of a breakfast, but who doesn't love breakfast later in the day?