Rubbing Elbows (Taylor + Sarah Gatt)

Taylor had been in a little bit of a funk since losing her first AFW match. She really wanted to win it. She really thought she could. She didn't, though, and it was driving her crazy. So she had been training extra hard, doing her bag work like she was trying to kill someone, doing wrestling drills non-stop, and taking runs much longer than usual. Something was eating at her, and it wasn't just the match. She didn't want to admit it, but she also hadn't made a friend or had a real conversation since arriving in Japan, and it was wearing on her a little. All that training, all that time by herself... she thought that maybe she was starting to go crazy. Maybe she'd actually explode in her next match, or make her opponent explode. If she lost her next one she'd sure wish she could explode, just detonate like a stick of dynamite in a watermelon. That way at least the cleaning staff would remember her.

She arrived at the AFW building one evening to see if she could line up her next match. She had on a blue zippered hoodie with the words "I DON'T SPEAK JAPANESE" clearly printed on the front, a black miniskirt, black fishnets, and her black, strappy, chunky-heeled knee-high boots. Her legs were feeling almost 100%... lucky her she was always a pretty quick healer. She was ready to unload her frustrations and kick someone's ass. She was so focused, head down, not paying attention to anyone else around, that she forgot to watch where she was going. She ran right into someone, and at first was annoyed.

"Hey, why don't you watch... where... oh." Taylor turned to face the person and her eyes slowly widened as she recognized her as Sarah Gatt. She'd heard of her. She'd seen video of Sarah's horrifying brutality. She was a big fan. For the first time since coming to Japan and the AFW, she was scared, and a little starstruck. She fought the urge to run the frick away.

"Um, hey, I'm... you're..." she started stammering, but the look of fear on her face broke into a big nervous grin. She couldn't help it. "Hey! You're Sarah Katt! I know you! Big fan, and stuff. You don't know me, I guess. I technically don't KNOW you. I know OF you. But look! We just met, so now we know each other and hi! I'm Taylor and..." She couldn't help herself and unexpectedly wrapped her arms around Sarah in a big hug, rocking back and forth a couple times and making the noise that accompanies an enthusiastic hug.

"So......... what's up?" she grinned excitedly.

It just so happened that Sarah Gatt, the AFW's resident Queen of Brawl, was in a bit of a funk of her own at the moment. She walked down the halls of the aFW complex, grumbling darkly to herself, everyone in her path giving her a wide berth as she stormed past them. She currently wore a black t-shirt with a big white skull plastered on the front, and blue jeans that hung loosely on her hips. The reason for her anoyance was that she was not wearing her favoured clothing. It had been nearly a month since Vanessa Vander had beaten Sarah mercilessly in the parking lot, and stolen her favourite leather jacket as a result. She had been looking for Vanessa ever since she got back on top, looking to deliver some much needed revenge, and hopefully get her jacket back.

"Fuckin' bitch can't hide forever," Sarah growled. It was then that someone bumped into Sarah, interupting her dark mutterings. Sarah glanced at the girl that hit her, glaring straight death at her. Bumping into Sarah was mistake number one, and was about to threaten the girl when she suddenly started blathering on. Sarah blinked in surprise, unable to get a word in. And then the unexpected happened. The girl, Taylor apparently, actually hugged Sarah.

Mistake number two.

"Get off me you freak!" Sarah shouted, pushing the girl off her in a hurry.

"Oh, hey, yeah... sorry." Taylor said, a little more quietly. She suddenly felt pretty awkward. And a little dumb.

She backed up a step. "Well, hey, I'm sorta new here and, like, you're like the best, so do you want to like, go work out or something? You know, exchange some trade secrets and stuff?" she asked with a near heartbreaking degree of naive hopefulness.

"'Cuz I mean I've been a little down lately, ya know, I'm new and I lost my first match and it really sucked, and I know you've been pretty down lately with losing all of YOUR matches so maybe we'd make good company?" this pitch of her voice climbed awkwardly at the end of her sentence as she realized that maybe she shouldn't be saying any of the things she said.

A single involuntary awkward laugh escaped her. She searched desperately for a subject change while avoiding eye contact. She snapped her fingers. "Oh, hey! What happened to your jacket, man? You always wear that jacket. The leather one. It's like the best jacket, or..." Whew. She was feeling dumber by the second. Get a hold of yourself, Taylor.

"Well, nevermind, I was just here to see about getting a match scheduled, but do you want to go work out? Ya know, work up a sweat?"

Sarah glared at the girl with a look that could kill. She was certainly not in the mood to deal with some annoying little girl, especially one as needy for attention as Taylor. Unfrtunately Taylor seemed oblivious to the death aura Sarah was projecting at the moment. She could barely get word in as Taylor once again blabbed on. And then came Taylor's third mistake, where she brought up Sarah's loss streak, a very taboo subject for the Queen of Brawl. Sarah grit her teeth hard, close to snapping on the bluenette.

Mistake number four came when Tylor brought up the subject of her currently lost jacket. By her count she owed Taylor four punches in the face now. "A match, huh?" Sarh growled, trying to keep her anger in check. a wicked idea appeared in her head. "Why not schedule a match with me? Could be....fun."

"A match? With you?" Taylor's voice caught a little on the last part and then she paused. As she thought it over, a grin spread across her face that was dripping with mischievous, chaotic excitement. She looked Sarah in the eye.

"Oh, I know you're probably real busy." She said. The tone of her voice had changed just a little, though it was still accelerated and unsteady. "I mean... I mean...

"I mean you're probably real busy, and I can't rank that high on your priorities. I'm just a new girl with a bad record, it wouldn't mean much to fight me. I mean I'm sure you have more important things to do, like, I don't know, heal up? Go shopping for a new pleather jacket... maybe find some clothes from the WOMEN'S section." Once her mouth built up some momentum, there was no stopping it.

"With you dropping losses all over the place there's probably a long list of girls waiting to kick your ass. And you probably want to prove that you haven't lost a step, and probably a win over me wouldn't mean all that much to them. But, I mean... if you lost? Well..." she relished every word. "That'd be something."

She laughed out loud and cocked her hips to one side. "Oh, you look like you've got something to say? Or... wait, are you going to cry? You look like you might cry. Do you need a tiiiissuuuuee?"

Sarah clenched her fist so tightly it started to drw blood in her palm. Avein appeared on her forehead. In all her days in the AFW no one had pissed her off quite like this little bitch. As it was, Sarah was having an extremely hard time controling her anger, which for her was a pretty big deal.

No longer.

Sarah slipped a hand into her pocket. "Hey, what's that?" she said suddenly, pointing over Taylor's shoulder. Whether the girl stupidly turned to look or not, Sarah's fist would shoot out of her pocket with alarming speed, now armed with brass knuckles, to plow itself deep into Taylor's stomach.

Taylor's face soured and she opened her mouth to tell Sarah that of the two people she'd encountered in AFW, both of them have tried to get her to look over there. She had barely made a sound when Sarah's fist slammed into her stomach. She doubled over and dropped like she'd been shot, head down, one elbow on the floor and the other arm clutching her stomach.

"Holy shit," she managed under her breath while gasping for air. She looked up at Sarah, trying to smooth out the pain from her face and managing most of a grin. "So the match is on then? I was actually sort of hoping to fight someone who didn't hit like they just came from the hospital. Oops... you probably DID just come from the hospital, didn't you."

She sneered and pulled herself back up to her feet, wary of Sarah now, careful to stay out of her range. In spite of her burning desire to lay down and curl up in a ball, she was light on her feet, ready to move if need be. She wasn't about to give away many more shots like that.

Sarah flezed the fingers in her armed brass-knuckled hand, glaring down at Taylor as she collapsed on her knees. There was no joy on her face when she did this, mostly because even through the pain Taylor managed to mock her. This girl was either stupid or had a death wish.

"I'll tell you what," Sarah said as she started to approach Taylor. "Why don't I beat you so bad that you need to go to the hospital? That may we can even." Sarah would throw her armed fist at Taylor's face again, but this was just a fient. If Taylor ducked under the punch, Sarah's knee ould rocket straight into her face. If she didn't duck, the knee would instead nail her in her stomach.

Taylor wanted nothing to do with trading shots with Sarah standing here in the hallway. She backed away from the punch and hopped back from the knee. She took a couple shuffle steps back so she was a good distance away.

"Maaan!" she rebuked, wagging her finger at Sarah. "Control yourself! If you want to fight me, do it proper. Why fight for free when you can get paid? And with people watching! And as long as you're still jobbing it up, I don't mind picking up an easy win. Really, though, seriously, I'm doing you a favor here. Everyone knows you're on your way out. You'll just take a few more beatings, disappear... eventually turn up in weird, Japanese porno with like... octopuses and stuff."

The words just fell out of Taylor's mouth with a will all their own. She knew fully well how ridiculous it was for her to be saying this to Sarah, someone she'd only a couple minutes ago said that she looked up to. However, she was also well aware of how bloody angry she could make Sarah. Turn her into a raging dumb animal, then put her down. That was the plan. Wondering whether it would work or not put butterflies in her stomach.

"So... When's a good time for you? You'll at least have to go change into something else... I want people to know that I'm on the Friction roster. If they see me beating up on some dude with what looks like... brass knuckles... they might get confused."

Sarah frowned when Taylor jumped away from her shots. Much as she wanted to murder the girl in the face she held off for now. Honestly, she had never met someone as infuriating as this girl. Though she had to admit her idea was...desirable. A chance to destroy Taylor in front of everybody and expose her as the little bitch that she is. It had been awhile since she completely destroyed someone.

Sarah marched up to Taylor, grabbed her by her collar, and got right in her face with bared teeth. "You want to do this you fucking blueberry?" she snarled. "Fine. We'll do this nice and proper. In a fucking cage match! That way I can break all your fucking teeth and it'll be nice and legal. And if you even think for a moment about backing out, I will hunt you the fuck down, and settle things my way." Sarah's green eyes burned righteous fury. "You hear me?! I will fucking hunt you DOWN!!!"