Happy Birthday, Taylor! (No Longer Open!)

[Thread is open to any participation, though if one is not sure, one should run something by me first to preserve the mojo of the thread.]


About one and a half blocks from the Friction building, sandwiched between an insurance office and a now-defunct video rental store, was a small, American-themed diner. Across the street was the train stop closest to the Friction building, though given the late hour, a little after midnight, not many Friction girls would be likely to pass by. That was a good thing. There were very few Friction girls that Taylor actually wanted to see that night.

She sat in a corner booth against a large, somewhat dirty window, facing out over the rest of the diner so she could keep watch of anyone coming in without them necessarily seeing her. Her face was practically glued to it. She absently poked her fingers at the holes in the ratty vinyl seat covering and picked at the yellow foam padding underneath. The place itself was small, with an L-shaped line of booths and the counter and the kitchen on the inside. She'd seen a few white guys pass through, which was weird. She hadn't seen very many in the wild in just about a year. They were mostly traveling businessmen, still wearing their suits but with the collar open and tie loose, their jackets draped over the back of the seat or missing altogether. The service wasn't very exciting. The staff spoke English about as well as the average Japanese person, but they served hamburgers. That's what was important. It could have been that it had been a year since Taylor had had regular access to decent hamburgers, but they always tasted like the greatest hamburgers in the world to her.

She hadn't ordered yet. A lone can of Coke sat on the table in front of her, open, but full. She was hungry, but it just didn't seem right to eat just then, by herself. It had seemed like a good idea before she got there, she was just going to have her hamburger and fries and a piece of pie or whatever the hell they had and to hell with everyone else. It was her birthday, or at least it was before midnight, she'd just turned 21 and the thought of celebrating it by herself in some random dive that catered to pervy American businessmen made her feel incredibly pathetic. She was pretty pathetic. Her blue pigtails trailed out from under the hood of her gray zippered sweatshirt, and she pulled the strings to tighten the hood down on her head and slouched low in her booth.

It wasn't like she was surrounded by friends at home on her birthday. Her mom was a total bitch, she had always hated Taylor, and her dad... He wasn't there. He had left when she was young, and she always held out hope that he'd get a place down the road and always be there for her, he didn't do that either. He moved around the country, losing jobs in state after state, and never gave Taylor any indication that she was at all important to him. They'd talk, once in a while, though in the couple years after high school those scattered phone calls became less and less frequent. He always did his best to sound like he was interested, but he never was, and if his tone of voice wasn't enough of an indication his complete failure to show up in her life was. Her parents were never really there for her, not on her birthday, so why did it feel like she was missing so much by being so far away from them?

Maybe it was wishful thinking. Maybe she'd just been away for a long time and had forgotten how much things sucked, and if she was home she'd be in the same boat as now, if not worse. It was better being here in Japan. She had focus, she had a purpose, she... sort of had friends, though really it was just Akashi. With her hands now jammed in the pockets of her sweatshirt, she ran her thumb over the buttons on her phone. She had planned on calling Akashi, but she just felt so stupid. What would she say? "Hey, it's my birthday, do you wanna... say happy birthday to me or something?" Of course Akashi wouldn't know that it was her birthday, and she didn't care. She didn't know Akashi's birthday, either. Still, she should call her. Maybe she'd just want to hang out anyway and she wouldn't have to lead with "hey, it's my birthday".

She sighed heavily. The stocky middle aged Japanese dude behind the counter kept eying, as if to make sure she wasn't causing trouble and to guilt her for not ordering. She was going to order, though. Just like she was going to call Akashi. She just... needed a minute. She turned back to the window and watched the traffic, on the street and the sidewalk. She hoped to see someone she knew, but at the same time she felt like if she did she'd have to hide under the table or something. It was humiliating to think of someone finding her in this state. It was everything that she tried not to be around Friction people, and those were the only people she knew. Except for Johnny. He was Tension, but he was away in Kyoto. She missed him. She wanted to see him and hug him and she wanted him to tell her she was special and that she was doing something right. His number was in her phone too, but she just couldn't call it.

"Man..." She mused under her breath. She never saw anyone else like this. She must've been the weakest, most pathetic girl on the roster. She didn't know why she bothered training, anyway, she never did anything right no matter how much she practiced. And even when she did win a fight, she still lost the match... Well, just with Adrian, but that was... She didn't want to think about that.

She slouched lower in her booth and loosened her hood. She'd give anything for something to distract her from this stupid, miserable hole she'd climbed into.

The roar of a sports bike broke the silence of the empty street. It was a bright red Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR prototype that steered violently to stop in front of the diner immediately attracting the attention of the patrons inside. The interest of the gentlemen inside the diner for the bike was further increased when they noticed that the pilot was a very curvaceous girl, which immediately became evident as the skin thight red and black leather outfit left no room for doubts about the pilot's gender.

Natalia took off her helmet and shook her head to let her long hair fly lose, she then unmounted her bike, holding the helmet in one hand and walked towards the dinner's entrance followed by nearly every pair of eyes in the place.

The Dream was going home after a small party with a sponsor and realized she was very VERY hungry, which was the reason why she had stop so abruptly in this diner. The blue eyed cutie ignored all the guys in the place that seemed to have been left mute by the way Natalia's leather suit appeared to be painted on her curves.

The Dream had never showed any interest for guys to the point that she had to make a counscious effort to ackwloedge their existance. That made it very easy for her to immediately notice the only girl in the place; not only because she was a girl,n but because Natalia quickly recognized the body posture, the punky dressing style and the blue hair.

"Taylor-chan?..." Natalia said as she begun to walk to Taylor's table. A smile begun to form on The Dream's luscious lips; she was in the mood for teasing someone, and her future opponent Taylor seemed like the perfect target. But as she approached the punky girl Natalia noticed that Taylor seemed to be quite depressed. Mocking someone who was down was more like bullying and Natalia always made an effort not to be a bully.

Without waiting to be invited, Natalia sat on the table, placing her helmet besides her. "Taylooooor-chaaaaan" Natalia sung, lowering her head to try to see Taylor's face under the hoodie. "are you ok?"

Taylor raised an eyebrow at the loud, fast moving bike and it's dickwad rider. Without sitting up, she watched warily as the rider came in, some chick, totally in need of attention. She wondered how long it would be before she was on her back in a hotel room with her ankles behind her ears. She settled on 25 minutes.

Without the helmet, though, it was easy to recognize Natalia. Taylor's heart sank into her stomach and her eyes widened. She sank lower in her seat and really, really hoped she would just order and get out or something.

Please don't see me, please don't see me, please don't see me...

"Taylor-chan?"

Oh, jesus. Taylor's eyes shifted uncomfortably as Natalia approached, hesitant to make eye contact with her, and she dug her hands deeper into her pockets. Natalia came over and Taylor buried her face in her palm with an inward groan.

"Look, Natalia, this isn't the best time for..." She muttered, barely audible. She took a deep breath and sat up. She couldn't force a smile, but she looked Natalia in the eye and spoke up. "I'm fine, no, I'm good. I'm just hanging out and stuff. I... should probably order some food. I just got here, I wasn't just... yeah."

Her phone started vibrating in her pocket, and then it started ringing. She pulled it out and looked at it. It was Akashi calling... she hesitated.

"Um, I gotta take this. Are you, like... whatever, do what you want, I'm gonna take this real quick."

She headed outside and answered the call on her way. "Moshmoshi?" She said, imitating Akashi's accent and trying her best to sound cheerful, without being very convincing.

Akashi had been busy all day. Not with anything related to AFW, though she did manage to hit the gym for a while, but she was out in Tokyo's many shopping districts, looking for the right things. Currently, she found herself walking out from the Friction facility. She struggled to grab her phone and pushed the button to dial Taylor. She had done some research which, entailed looking over Taylor's profile one day when she was bored, and found that her Birthday was coming up. In America, it was fashionable to have parties and celebrate the occasion with friends. She knew that Taylor hadn't made too many friends since her time here but Akashi was going to make sure that she didn't even think about any of that stuff.

She got the phone up to her ear and listened to it ring. It seemed to take a while and Akashi let out a soft sigh as she thought Taylor wasn't answering.

But soon a familiar voice chimed in and Akashi beamed brightly:

"Moshmoshi?"

"Ahh! Taylor-chan! Hehe. How are you doing?"

I'm, uh, I'm alright, ya know. What's up?

"That's good! Um... where are you at? I've been around and stuff and haven't really seen you today. Was hoping I could get ahold of you."

"Oh, yeah, I kinda hung low today, ya know, just kinda one of those days... I'm actually at this diner right now, it's pretty stupid. It's by the train station."

"The train Station? Diner? Oh... so.. does that mean you want to be left alone?"

"Oh, uh, I don't... um, I'm not sure, I guess I... Well no, no I don't need to be alone, whatever, it's just been sort of a weird day and stuff. I was... gonna call you, too, I just... hadn't yet. What are you up to? Are you good?"

"Oh... ok! Yeah! I'm great! Well I gotta run, there's like some guy yelling or some angry traffic or something! See ya, Taylor-chan!"

*click*

Akashi chuckled. It was cute for Taylor to answer her phone that way. But she had gleamed all the information she had wanted and Taylor was none the wiser. She made her way in the direction of the Diner, she was pretty sure she had been there before. Akashi did like American burgers, that was for sure. There was a little bit of a problem though. In her hands, was a pile of colorfully wrapped boxes that was mostly covering her. she was trying to balance the top one, trying to keep it from sliding off. She had been shopping for birthday presents most of the day and honestly it felt kind of good to spend her money, especially on a good friend like Taylor.


After a fairly grueling walk, she was at the Diner. She kicked the door open with her foot and it jangled open.certainly she would be discovered entering and the boxes MIGHT be a give away but Akashi was sure that she might be able to keep herself hidden. Instead of her usual billowing hakama pants, she was wearing extra tight, semi-stretching jeans that showed off every curve of her body. For her top, she wore an extra tight t-shirt with a little chibi sumo on it. That was obscured by the boxes as well as her ringletted hair. She pushed forward and set her boxes down nearby and with a bright smile shouted to the whole Diner.

"Happy Birthday, Taylor-chaaaaan!"

She spoke with a wide grin and stopped when she saw Natalia. "Oh... Natalia-chan." She said blushing a little bit. "D-Did Taylor-chan..." Akashi paused. Maybe Taylor had already planned a day with Natalia and THAT'S why she hadn't called her all day even though it was her brithday. Taylor DID sound pretty weird on the phone. When did Natalia and Taylor even become friends? Akashi was a little confused and her motuh fell open slightly as she waited for an answer or something.

Natalia resisted the growing temptation to pester and taunt Taylor. As much as she loved to tease her opponent after, during and before matches, she felt that mocking Taylor now would be too mean. The punky girl looked like she had been dumped by her boyfriend or something.

Feeling a bit of curiosity about what was happening to her future opponent and just for the sheer pleasure of being a tease, Natalia decided to stay on her seat obnoxiously invading Taylor's table. The Dream picked up a menu while Taylor went to answer the phone. She wasn't much of a fan of American food at all but she was in the mood of something with a lot of cheese.

Natalia was determined to stop ordering more food than she could actually eat, but that meant she had to settle for picking just one or two things and making up her mind had never been one of her strengths. So she spent several minutes looking at all the different hamburgers with the sensation she wanted a bit of every one, when suddenly she heard a familiar voice.

Natalia turned around to see Akashi, carrying a huge pile of presents. "Akashi-san..." Natalia greeted with a smile ^_^
"Oh... So Taylor-chan's birfday is today?..." the blue eyed cutie asked, not really surprised as she already knew Taylor's birthday was around this month.

"Happy birfday, Taylor-chan!" Natalia cheered happily, and she looked at the pile of gift, biting her lower lip trying not to get too jealous.

Taylor looked down at her phone to make sure that Akashi had actually hung up. That was weird. Maybe Akashi didn't want to get stuck talking to her for too long.

With a sigh, Taylor pushed her way back into the diner and headed back to her booth. She eyed Natalia, but she couldn't find the energy to be brash or defensive. "So what, are you going to jump me? Break my legs so I can't make our match?" She asked, her voice low and dull. She didn't figure Natalia for the type to frequent cheap, dirty diners. "That'd be a total dick move."

Without another word, she slid back into her booth and rested her chin on her palm. "So what are you doing here? The food's good if you like greasy, nasty hamburgers. How much did you pay to get shrink-wrapped in leather like that?" Natalia was such a show off. Taylor wore a gray sweatshirt and a good pair of jeans with her red Chuck Taylors. She felt sort of oddly under-dressed.

Her eyes drifted over to the door as a big girl, almost totally obscured by boxes, teetered through the door. "K-Kashi?" Taylor said, completely surprised. Her brow wrinkled when she saw the boxes while she tried to piece together a scenario that could reconcile the existence of them. Maybe Akashi had just been shopping for herself and hadn't been home yet? That seemed like it was reaching a bit.

Then she caught sight of Akashi herself. "Kashi!" What was she wearing? It was the first time Taylor had ever seen her in normal clothing. She looked... awesome. Even being as big as she was, tight jeans paid off. "W-what are you..." Akashi caught sight of Natalia and was confused. "What?" She said, a little irritated that Akashi would think that she'd rather see Natalia, of all people, over Akashi.

Natalia giggled immediately picking on Taylor's irritation. It was just to much of a chance to not tease the punky girl. "Come here Akashi-san..." Natalia said waving to the sumo-cutie. "Taylor-chan and I were having a... Date... With a romantic dinner...." The Dream said struggling not to laugh. "Hamburgers romantic dinner.." she added finding it increasingly harder to contain a laught. "But you are sure welcome to sit with... US!"

When Natalia did not know that it was Taylor's birthday, Akashi beamed and moved forward with a bright smile. "Taylor-chan! I found out today was your birthday so I was hoping that you might have had something planned but you never called or anything, which is fine because then I was able to spend the day shopping even though I'm not very good at shopping. But I was hoping that I could catch you but then you are here for some reason but that's ok! I guess any place is a good place for a celebration!"

Akashi stopped and panted softly having said all that in mostly one breath. She then looked at the guy behind the counter. "Gimme three cheesburgers, two plates of fries, some yakitori, a bowl of rice and some ... um... gimmie some scrambled eggs too." She then looked over at the girls and grinned. "Oh, and whatever these two want too, my treat!"

Akashi then went to Natalia and furrowed her brow at the girl's teasing. "I'm certain that you and Taylor-chan are not having a romantic date. I'm pretty sure that she has a boyfriend and I am also pretty sure that if she ever decided to get romantically involved with a woman, she would pick me... . right.... Taylor-chan...." Akashi said dryly, almost mumbling.

But then she brightened up and practically frog splashed into the booth, laying herself over the girls and giving them a double hug, kissing Natalia on the cheek with a big, "mwah!" before grinning up at Taylor and licking her lips coyly.

"if Taylor-chan wants her presents, she's going to have to get a birthday kiss firrrst!" Akashi said with a wide grin on her face before puckering her lips and makign a fish face at Taylor.

"Taylor... A boyfriend... You surely jest...oh wait... Is it Tai?" Natalia said giggling and showing both Akashi and Taylor her pink wet tongue mocking them. But then Akashi jumped on them and Natalia was squeezed and kissed in the hug.

"Aughhhhh! Akashiiiiii!" she protested as she tried to break away from the hug, finally slipping free when she was released to slide to the far side of the bench closest to the window.

"Oh, totally, Kashi, if I were into chicks I'd totally go for big, burly types with really good balance. Of course it'd be you, but only if you keep dressing like that. Damn. But it's too bad I do have a boy-NO IT ISN'T TAI!" Taylor shouted at Natalia. "Totally uncool."

Taylor hugged Akashi back, and when Akashi demanded her kiss she cracked a smile and looked away. "Man, I'll need a few drinks to work up to that..." She said and slid into the booth to make room for Akashi.

She looked at Natalia, she wasn't sure how much she needed to be on her guard... Natalia didn't seem to be looking to start anything with her, so that was good. Taylor pushed Natalia out of her mind for the moment, and looked up at Akashi.

"Wait... You got me a present? Presents? How did you know it was my birthday? You... uh..." She didn't really know what to say, but she stopped talking to hide the sound of her getting a little choked up. Her and Akashi were friends, though she was never totally sure how much Akashi liked her or whatever... She would never have guessed in a million years that Akashi would go out of her way to do things for her like this.

She shook her head, and put a straight face on. "So Natalia, what'd you get me? I've always wanted to be vacuum-sealed in leather or spandex or whatever that is, so that's something." She said, trying hard to sound cool and disinterested.