A tale of cheat day snacks and friendship(For Tai)

Grey eyes flitted about madly as the raven-haired girl was rendered silent for the moment. Mostly from embarrassment, but also a bit because of brain-freeze, more so as the seconds passed. Quivering and wincing from the stabbing chill of the mochi, Hayasui at last nodded to Hawkeye's second question, leaving the first with only silence while she tried to fight back the chill, chewing the mochi and the ice-cream at its core for a few moments before swallowing.

"A-ah, no no, I meant for regular sparring, I just misspoke, that's all, my apologies," she said quickly, before trying to change the subject and hopefully salvage that near miss, "You should give the mochi a try. Before it winds up sticking to the bowl."

Hawkeye couldn't resist a small giggle as Hayasui shivered from her brain freeze, picking up a mochi ball of her own and poking at it. "Oh. Alright. I misunderstood I guess. But yeah, if you're looking to spar and train together, I'd be happy to spar with you anytime. Hopefully just not in the cafeteria, you know?"

With that said, the awkwardness and silence now passed, Hawkeye poked the strange dessert a few times before shrugging and taking a bite of her mochi, as Hayasui suggested.

"...Mmm. It's good! Cold, but sweet. Not bad."

She took more small bites, finishing her first before moving to a second. "So, what made you decide to join a wrestling league?"

Hawkeye's question resonated with something in her, the raven-haired girl chewing on her mochi as she thought it over. What indeed had made her pick a wrestling league. She'd gone through countless other fighting circuits, won most, lost the first time against a couple. AFW was the exception to that rule, but then again, AFW was also the only place she'd wound up in hentai matches. That only answered what had kept her here, however. Nothing about why she came here in the first place...

"Well, I didn't really get to go out and do much growing up," Hayasui said, parsing through what she could tell the blonde without outright lying to her, "I grew up with martial artists, and between school, training, and extra-curriculars, there wasn't really much 'me' time. Guess that's what had me running away to begin with, but...well, I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy what I did, and a place where I could find some good fights seemed like fun. I was still keeping up with my training at that point, but without the other stuff to worry about, I had plenty of free time to enjoy trying out whatever came up. I ended up finding a fair bit more than just some good fights, but that's more about what made me stay. What's kept me coming back, really."

There. There was that feeling again. That feeling of being watched. There was no hostility with it, and Hayasui did her best not to let it show on her face, but it was there and it was obvious what it meant. She could practically hear her uncle congratulating her on making a friend and reminding her not to fuck it up.

Hawkeye sat and listened respectfully to Hayasui's story, munching on some more Mochi, enjoying the cold treat as it slide gracefully down her gullet, followed by some warm tea. It was enjoyable, a snack the former soldier had wished she had heard of before. She really needed to embrace the culture here more, now that she was back to stay.

"A runaway from home huh? I...actually kind of understand what that's like. I come from a military background, most of my direct family lineage served in the military in some way, going back to the American Civil War...as the only daughter of two soldiers who loved their country, how could I possibly have been anything other than a soldier myself?"

*sips more tea*

"But...I never wanted that. I didn't like feeling pigeonholed into something like that, being told I HAD to be something I didn't want to be. All this family legacy to live up too, soldiers telling me how much they respected my high ranking grandfather and saw all this potential for my military career...ugh. Not fun. I was a terrible soldier anyway, always screwing up formation, could never just get the training to stick in my head, ya know?

So when my little...inappropriate conduct happened with that superior officer, and I made it clear I never wanted to be a soldier in the first place, some strings were pulled, out of respect to my families military history, to just get me an honorable discharge, instead of a court martial, and got me out of service. After that, family didn't want to deal with me, and I had no other real skills, so fighting became the next reasonable option...which eventually led to Japan and Tension...and that's how I got started. Gotta admit...I'm glad to be here. Kinda feels like I found my calling, ya know?"

Hayasui nodded along as Hawkeye spoke, alternating between mochi to cool down and green tea to warm up again. Unable to help drawing the parallel between the expectations the blonde was talking about and the one she'd faced back home before she left. She'd been surprised at first, with how little her family had to say about it either way until she'd come back of her own accord. In hindsight, perhaps not having some renowned name behind her had some ancillary benefits of its own, but there were better times to wonder about that.

"Well, so long as you've found something you're happy with," Hayasui nodded, her curiosity piqued by what Hawkeye said, "...So what's it like in the military, anyway? Never seemed like my sort of thing, but that doesn't stop me from being curious."

Hawkeye shrugged at the question, finishing one mochi and taking a sip of tea before starting on another, enjoying the cold treat, becoming more and more relaxed as she talked to Hayasui, starting to get the feeling she was talking to a kindred spirit, despite the awkward circumstance of their meeting that day.

"Well." She leaned back in her chair, tapping a finger against her chin, remembering those old days. "It's like what you would expect. Lot's of drills, lots of order, lots of structure. You do exactly what your told and that's about it. I mean, its not a bad thing, it's the military, it's what they do. They make you tougher, more orderly, more disciplined and indoctrinated.

I think for me though...there was just a lot more pressure. More was expected of me, and I couldn't live up to those expectations, nor did I want too, and that confused and I think actually offended a lot of the other soldiers, especially my commanding officers. CO's are supposed to break you down in training, so that they can build you back up into something better and stronger. With me, my CO really believed in me, really thought I could live up to that legacy, so I think he was harder on me as a result. I would make a minor slip up, and get harsher punishments for it than one of my fellow boot campers...it was just a lot."

She didn't talk for a minute, finishing another mochi ball and taking a long sip of warm tea to follow it before continuing. "...If you can put up with it, it can be good for you, but for me, it was wasn't worth it and I was so glad to be out, ya know?"

Hayasui let a small frown crease her lips as Hawkeye went on about army life. The discipline certainly sounded nice, but she'd gotten enough of that out of her own home life...more or less. The rest of it, however...

"Hrm, sounds like the kind of stuff I ran away from home over in the first place," Hayasui noted, "The discipline certainly sounds good, but the rest...not worth it. Definitely not."

Allowing for a short pause while she finished off her mochi, Hayasui looked thoughtful for a moment before finally speaking up.

"So, what's next on your schedule? Mine's pretty free after training, unless I've got a match coming up, and I'm still waiting to be scheduled for one," Hayasui said, her curiosity getting the better of her.

Hawkeye shrugged. "Well, I've got that hentai match next, and there will still be one or two matches after that, but, I think I can make some free time to..."

She was cut off, as her phone went off in her purse. Pulling it out, she flashed an apologetic smile at Hayasui before answering. Within a minute of conversation though, her eyes would go wide, and she'd bop herself in the head with her palm, apologizing to whoever was on the phone before hanging up, looking rushed.

"I'm sorry, really sorry. I completely forgot. I was supposed to meet with Tension management today to talk about changing my contract so I can cross over to do Friction matches as well, I've got to get back to Kyoto." She stammered, looking embarrassed that she had forgotten her own schedule. Taking a pen from her purse and grabbing a napkin, she quickly wrote down a phone number on it, sliding it to Hayasui.

"Here, this is my cell number. Feel free to call me anytime. I'd love to meet up sometime and spar together or work out or get some more mochi on our next cheat day." She smiled, holding her hand out to the girl who just earlier that day she had nearly come to blows with over iced cream.

"It was really nice meeting you Hayasui!"

Hayasui munched and listened, nodding along as Hawkeye listed off her own schedule, when suddenly she was cut off by her phone. The raven-haired girl canted her head to the side curiously as the blonde talked with whoever was on the line, observing her changes in expression with growing concern and vague amusement.

Finally, she finished up the call and explained the situation, Hayasui giving her an understanding look, then a little excited as she realized the implications.

"Crossover matches, huh? Hm, maybe I should talk to management about those too," Hayasui said, taking the napkin, "Thank you, I'd be happy to, when you're free. Who knows, if you're crossing over, we might even meet in the ring."

With that, the raven-haired girl took the offered handshake, "Same. Glad we didn't end up beating each other up over ice cream."