Star Gazing's Not Boring

Taylor giggled, and that boiled up into a boisterous laugh, which then calmed back down into a chuckle. "Hee. You're hilarious. I wonder what you're like on a first date? 'So where are you from?' 'I hate you! You have bad attitude!'" Taylor said, pantomiming each of the parts and using an exaggerated impression of Lia for her part.

"And now look at you. I mean, I can relate. I've fought a lot and stuff. But you look like someone with something to prove." She took a slow, measured step to stand almost nose to nose with Lia. "Want me to get that chip off your shoulder? You're such a big, dumb faker and it looks to me like whatever you're trying to cover up is angry about getting covered up. I wonder..." She said, slowly and deliberately lifting on hand, placing it in the middle of Lia's chest, and giving her another shove.

Lia merely nodded sarcastically with Taylor's comments, forcing a smile as she stumbled back once more. "Where I come from, prying gets you in serious trouble." Lia shrugged, "Maybe your friends don't care. Mine do, however." Lia glanced around, "Speaking of which, you are getting awfully uppity. Is the big bad champ around to bail you out of trouble again? Smarting off is always easier when your fuckbuddy will clean up after you." Lia seemed to be a bit more sour talking about Akashi than she even was with Taylor right now.

Lia turned back to Taylor, "Anyway, you clearly already know everything about me. Why even bother asking questions? Go on. Tell me more about me. I love hearing it." Lia put her hands on her hips and shrugged, "And, seriously, shoving? Are we in grade school? If you really are trying to pick a fight with a big useless lousy fighter bunny, do it like a real woman. Take a swing." Lia stared coolly at Taylor, relaxed, arms in her coat pockets. "I don't play half-measures, Sparky."

Taylor's brain skipped a beat when Lia implied that she needed Akashi around to get her out of trouble, and within the next two sentences she was fuming, her jaw clenched and her hands tightening into fists. Lia goading Taylor into taking a swing almost worked.

"Alright." She started slowly, her voice tense. "Funny how you accuse me of talking like I know you, and then you go ahead and... and... I have never had anyone to help me. What Akashi did... sure, I might've died or been crippled or whatever, but she didn't have to do that. I didn't ask her to. And you... dried up, bitter, lonely, pathetic, broken, overgrown child, have no right to talk about me, or Akashi, like that."

Taylor turned away for a moment. The park wasn't quite empty. She looked up and for the first time noticed how clear the sky was. There was enough of a break in the city lights that the stars were clearly visible. She took a deep breath. She didn't want to lose her cool, but maybe it was too late for that.

"Okay, so what do you want me to do, huh? You don't want to talk, but you're still here. Maybe you want to fight. Why? Why should I spend my time and energy beating you down? I'm not leaving, I was here first." She said, sounding just a little childish at the end. She slid her right foot back just a little, ready in case Lia tried anything, keeping her blue eyes fixed on the bunny-girl.

Lia slid her hands into her pockets, any slow movement to hide her satisfaction at finally scoring a barb on this irritating, irritating girl. Lia let Taylor's barbs slide; the tone of voice that delivered them was enough to cause Lia to have to bite her tongue to keep herself from smiling.

Still, she needed correcting, "Never? Bullshit. You had two people who totally would have gone to bat for you." Lia shifted her weight, turning to look up at the stars too. "And then you spent the better part of the evening hunting for their buttons and pushing them lightning fast like the damn brat on the elevator." Lia turned back to Taylor, "You were lucky one of them happened to be even crazier than me, or you'd be back at zero." Lia threw her hands up, "I mean, that's TWO TIMES you've been ganged up on. Maybe, at some point, you'd start to think that maybe, the fact that you're alone and they're not, maybe, just maybe, you should consider why that is. You sure as shit could amass a better circle of comrades than that thug Gatt if you figured out how."

Lia was beginning to run out of words. She was not one for these sorts of speeches, "Yeah, whatever. You're right. This really is a waste of time." Lia threw her hands up and turned around, "Fuck, you almost make the kraut seem tolerable, and she TRIES to be a bitch."

Taylor's expression soured more and more as Lia talked. "What?!" She exclaimed at the notion that she had people on her side and lost them. She held her tongue.

She was quiet until Lia finished, then there was a pause. "It's a lot more than two times." She said quietly. The longer she looked at Lia the angrier she got, and finally with dangerous eyes, she spat "A'right, fuuuuck yoouu, okay? I know you're just playing head games with me right now. You're a total bitch. Bullshit. Akashi is the only person who has ever stood up for me, and I don't even... know why. How the HELL am I getting reamed out by some skank in fake bunny ears?!"

She got quiet again, but her voice quavered a little as she spoke. "I. Don't. NEED a gang of skeevy girls to go rumble with Sarah's crew. I'm NOT afraid of her, and I can deal with her mySELF. YOU, though, are manipulative and unfair, and... Ya know what, fuck it, I'm getting to the bottom of this tonight. We're going to open you up and take a look, bunny-girl. I want to see what you're actually made of. Let's see you bullshit your way through this."

Taylor suddenly threw a straight right punch, putting all of her body weight into it, aimed at Lia's jaw. Her speed was still uncommonly good, but she wasn't relaxed and wasn't thinking straight, and so wasn't quite moving at 100%.

Lia took a limited amount of satisfaction from Taylor's increasing frustration. She was too annoyed herself to REALLY enjoy it, but Taylor getting flustered was definitely worth hanging around. Manipulative? Really? I haven't been called that in a while... Maybe I do still have it.

Lia saw the punch coming and steeled herself. Her head turned with the force of the blow and she stepped to the side a bit, rubbing her cheek. She took a step back began circling Taylor, facing her with a feral wolf-like grin. "Finaaallly." Lia relished the opportunity to put some bruises on Taylor's ego, and hopefully, the rest of her. Anything would be better than this endless morass of bitchy moron talk. She put her hands up in a fighting stance. "Let's dance, sweetpea," she let out in what was almost a growl.

With a start, Lia would bolt forward, charging at Taylor. As she closed the distance, Lia would suddenly leap to the side, running past Taylor, outside of her reach. She would turn around, running backward as she slowed down, "PSYCHE! HAHA! You TOTALLY fell for it. Your face was-EEK!" Lia had bounced backward against the bench and flopped completely over it. "D'ah... Fuck..." Lia climbed back to her feet. "Okay, that didn't work."

Taylor crouched low as Lia charged, feet set wide, ready to move, ready to... watch Lia try to act like a fool. Taylor straightened up a little and watched with some annoyance as the girl ran away. Until she fell. THAT was funny. She stifled a grin as she charged.

She nimbly ran up the bench, one foot on the seat and then one on the back, then jumped off, coming down with her knee aimed at whatever part of Lia happened to be under it. She was usually so careful not to overextend herself in the air, but this time she was coming down with every bit of momentum behind her knee. She was done holding back with this one.

Lia was recovering when Taylor began her charge and realized the punk girl was serious very fast. As she cleared the distance to the bench in a quick bound, Lia began to push herself to her feet. With a quick shove, she bounded back and up to her feet, momentum propelling her another half step back, just barely evading Taylor's risky high-flying move. Her knee would hit the grass, and Lia would waste no time or movement. Bouncing her momentum back forward, Lia would step in, aiming a heavy punt toward Taylor's gut or head, preferably the gut, but Lia would take the head if it was a clearer shot. Taylor did not have anything useful in her head to damage. Her breath was a bit juicier a target; slow her down.

"Agh!" Taylor cried out as her knee sunk over an inch into the dirt. If it had been pavement, she wouldn't have got back up. As she grit her teeth and began to push back up to continue going after Lia, she caught a boot to the gut that stole the air from her lungs. She hated being hit in the stomach. Hated it.

Far be it from her, though, to actually curl up into a ball, regardless of how much she wanted to. She wrapped her arms around Lia's leg and clung desperately to it while charging into her, trying to use her weight and momentum to bowl Lia over and put her on her back.

"Whoah. Hey! Let... go!" Lia yelped as Taylor grabbed her leg and speared her with it in hand, sending the two girls tumbling to the grass. Lia fell on her back, with Taylor landing atop her, forcing out a huff of air. "Gah! Jerk! I'll get grass stains on my coat!" Lia growled. She brought her other leg to bear, trying to trap Taylor between them. Though not really able to get her in a good hold while Taylor clung to her leg, Lia hoped to keep the punk from getting better position. While doing this, Lia would try to launch a quick couple of jabs at Taylor's face to convince her to put her hands somewhere else. If she could get her leg free, Lia would try to get both solidly around Taylor, if not to secure a hold, to at least get her in a risky position.