Sayonara, Koguma

Shinobu nodded when Taylor smiled at him. He returned the smile, but then it faded and soon she was gone. Shinobu was left alone, lowering his head. This party had been quite bittersweet, that was for sure but parts of it felt much more bitter than sweet.

As he contemplated things, he heard a knock on the door and perked up. He walked to the front door and opened it. Standing before him were two girls, a shorter blonde and a taller red head. One was wearing a pair of bunny ears and a bright grin and the other had a scarf and barrettes in her hair and had a much less sunnier look on her face.

"I maaaade poutine, ehehe!" Nicole said as she held up a dish. "I know it's not exactly healthy, but who cares, eh? This is a party, let's live a little!"

"Ahh...." Shinobu blinked and looked them over.

"Oh, is this the right house? We're here for Cassie Elliot!"

Shinobu shook himself out of his stupor and nodded, shuffling them in. "Oh, yes! Arigatou. Thank you for coming. I know Cassie-chan really appreciates it." He said and bowed as he ushered them in.

"Oh, hey, thanks! I had to get a hug on on Cass before she headed back to Canada. I'm Nicole, by the way. This is my sister, Gabbie. C'mon, Gabs, at least say hello..." Nicole scolded lightly.

Gabbie turned her head. "Gabbie Desjardin." She said and nodded her head, blushing at the scolding as she hugged her arm against her chest and held onto her other arm.

"Oh, ok!" Shinobu said and bowed. "I'm Shinobu Fujiwaru. Pleasure to meet you. Here, let me take this, ok? I will make sure and get Cassie-chan."

He took the dish and walked to the kitchen, setting it down on the counter. He looked at Taylor and smiled weakly. "Ahhh, I'm not all that familiar with the new guests..." He said, raising his eyes hopefully.

After a moment, Taylor reappeared from the kitchen, eyebrows raised and blinking several times like she had something in her eye. She dabbed at her eye with her fingers.

"Hey," she said to the Canadians. "They're kinda like Bear's rivals from Canada. Hey, Nicky." She reached out and touched Nicole on the arm, and then turned to Gabbie.

She froze the smaller blonde in place with her stern gaze. She subtly lifted a finger to her, and didn't relent until the message was clear. One wrong word...

"Hey." She turned and pointed up the stairs. "They're up there." In case the noise didn't give it away.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Cassie had pulled Johnny across her shoulders in a fireman's carry, and with good form and a look of intense focus she slowly squatted the bigger boy down, and back up, and Bucky lost it.

"Oooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" He clapped his hands. "Now do Akashi!"

"Hey, Taylor! Nice to see you again, eh?" When Taylor touched her shoulder, Nicole brought it in for a hug on the blonde. After a quick squeeze, she slipped away.

Gabbie, meanwhile furrowed her brow as Taylor looked at her. With red cheeks, she puffed out her chest at the wordless scolding. She didn't come here for this! Not from Taylor for sure.

She turned to glance at Nicole, her eyes silently saying 'see!?' but her sister was already halfway up the stairs and not looking back.

Having been abandoned, Gabbie blushed furiously and stared down Taylor for a long moment before she finally lowered her head.

"I'm... Sorry..." She muttered.

A wave of relief washed over Taylor. Parties at her house had a way of becoming spectacular, for the wrong reasons. She was hoping very much that this one didn't go the same way, and if anyone was going to start a fight, it was Gabbie.

"Okay," she said. "Go up and say hi. Cassie thinks you hate her, so... Ya know."


"Nicole!" Cassie exclaimed and threw her arms up in the air. She two-foot hopped her way up to her fellow Canadian and gave her a big hug. "Thanks for coming! You know everybody, right?"

Bucky, ever the well-mannered young man, appeared next to Cassie and extended his hand to Nicole. "Hi, I'm Jake. I'm Cassie's brother," he said, with his boyishly handsome smile.

"He's BUCKYYYY!" Cassie corrected.

"Cass!"

Nicole returned the hug with a big squeeze and grinned. She looked around the room. "Oh, not really!" She said and laughed. "But I'm sure they're all just fine, eh?"

Nicole laughed again and as Bucky approached, she took his hand and pulled him into a big hug, patting his back and squeezing him tightly. "I'm pretty sure I remember you!" She said. "I guess it's been awhile, eh?" She said and pulled back. "Guess you've grown up since the last time. Me to, eh?" She said and laughed.

Nicole turned back to Cassie and grinned. "I'm glad I got to see you but we're going to stay in touch, ok? I'm going to yell at Pa-pah and make sure he does the same! Jacque's almost done with high school but I'll bet he has a few competitions left in him, eheh. It's the perfect excuse to get the families together!"

While Nicole chatted away, Gabbie silently appeared at the entrance. She looked around at the scene and frowned. She did know everyone and that just made it weirder.

She crossed her arms under her chest and lowered her head. Her blue eyes danced around the room, but they always fell back to the same thing. Cassie.

"We sure have," Bucky said evenly with a reserved grin.

"Oh, that'd be awesome!" Cassie exclaimed. "I'm sure we could get Nicky to come home for a while and everything. I think they'd all get along great. Even if they are really... different. Oh!" She suddenly spotted Gabbie by the door. She hadn't expected to see her. "Gabbie!"

She went off to give the little blonde a hug, and Bucky took her place in conversation with Nicole. "I can hardly recognize you without a gi. You look really great, though. Are you still practicing jiujitsu?"

"Hi... Elliot..."

Gabbie avoided Casse's gaze and stared at a point between her chest and her chin. "I just... Can we go... Somewhere?" She said and nodded away from the group.

Nicole grinned and turned herself as she talked to Bucky. "Oh, do I need to go put one on?" She asked. She was wearing a black pleated skirt skirt that came to her mid thigh with a bunny tail sewed in the back, mismatching knee high socks with sneakers and tank top that had a picture of a cartoon bag of sugar that had the word Sweet! on it.

"Oh, I try and keep up, eh. But, even when I'm not doing Jiu Jitsu, I'm still training hard, eheh. I joined Momentum. I've been really into boxing and kick boxing." She smiled. "I guess somewhere the Savate never really left me but! I also joined Friction too! I don't really have any wrestling experience, but then agaaaain, eheheh..." She sheepishly turned her gaze away from Bucky and rocked on her heels, her hands clasped behind her back as she grinned.

"I mean... If you want to," Bucky joked. His eyes never wandered from Nicole's. "I'd be happy to show you a thing or two."

His own tailor-fit style of dress was a far cry from Nicole's. He had his blue-and-white striped dress shirt tucked into his slim-cut jeans, with the sleeves rolled to his elbows and a snug charcoal vest over it. He was a smaller guy, but fit and handsome and every bit as clean cut as one would expect an Elliot man to be.

He leaned back and regarded Nicole skeptically. "Who do you have to train jiujitsu with here?"

It took him a moment, but then he got what Nicole meant about the rest. He gave a modest smile, and took the high road. "Well, I know you'll do great in anything you do. You were really something before. We were all big fans of yours."

Cassie pulled Gabbie into her bedroom, now mostly dismantled with bare walls and boxes on the floor. She gave the door a nudge behind them. "What's up?" She asked attentively.

Nicole raised her eyebrow and tilted her head at Bucky. "You, show me?" She said with a big grin on her face. "You've almost got me fired up, eheh!" She said and giggled. It WOULD be nice to spar a bit. It had been a while since she sparred with a boy, but she had no real issue with it. She rolled around with her brother all while they were growing up.

"No one, really." She said and shrugged. "Aside from Gabbers, maybe, but she's only as good as I can teach her to be. She can hold her own, but she's definitely not on my level unless we're talking about striking. Then, she's probably better than me, eheh..." Nicole blushed. "Well... thanks, eh." She said. "I know you were rootin for Cass, but that means a lot, I suppose..." She said. She kept her smiling face, but turned her head and looked off at the wall. So, they were always hoping she came in second? Looks like they were rooting for the right person then...

"Eheh, anyway, maybe when I go back to visit Pah-Pa, I can do some sparring at your school, eh?"

Gabbie watched the door until it was closed and then tucked her chin into her chest and stared through Cassie once more. "Why did you leave?" She said, trying hard not to make a face. Her fists slowly began to clench, but her face remained calm, even if her eyes were piercing.

"Nicole... I'm an Elliot." Bucky put on a smug look and half shrugged at the girl. "I'm kind of a big deal."

He quickly became sincere again, and listened to Nicole with a smile. "Of course we wanted Cassie to win. But there wouldn't have been any shame in losing to you. No one put pressure on Cassie to win as much as Cassie did, but we just all love jiujitsu. It's not so much about winning or competition, it's about our love for jiujitsu, and you were always a part of that. You should be really proud of what you've already done, and you're so young. You could be the greatest submission grappler of all time before you're done!"

Bucky smiled, and put a reassuring hand on Nicole's shoulder and gave it a little shake. He could imagine how she must have felt... He played second fiddle to his brother growing up. Of the three Elliot kids, his jiujitsu was the weakest... Though it was still very good. It was hard sometimes to live in someone else's shadow.

"Well... Would we be really uncool if we rolled a little bit right here?" He asked, raising an eyebrow and gesturing to an open area on the floor of the little gym-room, with his disarming smile.


Cassie pursed her lips and her expressive eyebrows crept up. She regarded Gabbie with concern, though a part of her was instantly made defensive by the question.

"When I finished high school, I saw pro wrestling, and I was really in awe of it. It looked like the greatest thing ever. But now I've done that, and... It's not. I love jiujitsu. I love my family. I love my home, and I want a family of my own. I don't want my whole life to be about violence and bitter rivalries and hate. I don't feel like myself here. I... haven't been happy for a long time." She nodded grimly, staring off at the floor, and then looked up at Gabbie. "Why? Do you care?"