Happy Birthday, Taylor! (No Longer Open!)

Ciara flinched visibly (twice no less) at Natalia and Akashi's voices. Then her shoulders sank in resignation. These girls still ranked infinitely higher than the scum of the earth she had to deal with today... hell, why not.

That damned blush at the thought of coming face-to-face with Natalia so soon wasn't going away though. Crap.

Tugging her hood back off and turning around in her stool, Ciara shot a weary smirk back at the three girls in the booth. "Not the way I thought I'd meet back up the two of you. The hell are you girls doing here? And who's your friend?" The soldier tried her best to keep her eyes on Akashi's friendly beaming face, and not linger too long on Natalia's gaze... or the rest of her... Fuck.

Even through her embarrassed distress, Ciara noticed the blue-haired girl and how tired she seemed. It's not like it's past her bedtime or anything...Bullshit of life, huh? the hardened young woman thought to herself, well, another one joins the club.

When Ciara turned around and finally exposed her for real, Akashi's eyes widened. She looked over the girl who seemed to be focusing on her. Akashi blushed. She only slightly realized that she was trying to not stare at Natalia, which confused her.

"C-Ciara?" Akashi said and then turned her head. Her thoughts went immediately to Katsumi. Akashi's eyes then went to Natalia before looking back to Ciara.

"W-Where have you been? Where's Katsumi-chan?" She said the last part in a bit of a hurry. She then lowered her gaze and looked to Taylor.

'We're celebrating our friend's Birthday Party." Akashi lifted up her head a bit. "So... things will be difficult for the moment." She added. Ciara was a rough person and Akashi was not going to have a brawl break out during Taylor's birthday party.

Akashi turned back to Taylor and looked at her. "E-excuse me... gomen... Taylor-san." Akashi said hesitantly. This was embarrassing. "This is Ciara Austerlitz-san. She is a friend of an Acquaintance of mine. err... of two of them.... " Akashi furrowed her brow and looked at Natalia. "Apparently three of them..." Akashi let out a sigh. "I know her friend and She knows mine. Her and Sarah Gatt are familiar with each other."

Akashi then looked at Ciara. "This is Taylor Parker-san. Akashi said to Ciara. "Outside of my Significant Other and my family... most of the time..." She muttered the last part with a small chuckle. "She is the most important person there is to me. Akashi added that last part not for Taylor's sake but for Ciara's. "And you ... seem to already be familiar with Natalia-chan..." Akashi said, raising an eyebrow curiously.

Taylor's face soured considerably with Akashi's mention of the relationship between this new girl and Gatt. Was Akashi buddy-buddy with Sarah's whole crew? She wasn't about to start getting all suspicious of Akashi, but still, a night without Sarah Gatt's name being tossed around would be great.

"Hey." Taylor said, without lifting a finger. She stared at the short-haired girl, sizing her up, her upper lip curled irritably. "Welcome to the party. Oh, except you weren't invited. So how about all Gatt nut-huggers wait for their food out-freaking-side? Seriously. Actually, why don't you just eat at Gatt Attack Goddamn Headquarters. I'm sure one of Sarah's bitches would fill up your trough for you. Get the fuck out, and leave my girls alone, you're killing the vibe already." Taylor said venomously. She didn't want to get aggressive, that would instantly kill the vibe.

She shifted her eyes back and forth between Natalia and Akashi, and noticed that Ciara was avoiding Natalia with her eyes. That could mean that they had a history, or maybe she was a giant flaming dyke. Or both. Still, looking at Akashi, she already felt pretty bad for talking like that to a stranger, who for all she knew was some sort of friend of Akashi's. It wasn't her place to trash-talk Akashi's people.

"Sorry, Kashi." She said in a hushed voice with an apologetic look to Akashi.

Ciara was about to respond to Akashi when Taylor spoke up. After listening to the caustic outburst with raised eyebrows, Ciara remained silent for a moment, then doubled over and burst out in laughter. After all of the pressure slowly building up over that grungy day, hearing something so similar to Gatt's own speech ripping apart Sarah and her group was hugely, inexplicably humorous. After a few moments, Ciara managed to compose herself a little.

"Hah, me as one of Gatt's bitch-buddies? I'd eat in their headquarters if it didn't mean chewing a cheeseburger while getting plowed by some complete stranger in a run-down motel room!" Ciara declared with a genuine smile. "Akashi means 'familiar' as in Sarah's fists and mine being overly well-acquainted with each other's faces. I still have a score to settle with that girl... but not as heavily as last time," the soldier explained, adding on the last part to assure Akashi.

"Don't worry about a couple of hasty insults, though, I've gotten far worse sent my way these past months," Ciara grinned at Taylor, "Besides, you've already shown that we're going to get along, just fine. Happy Birthday, miss."

Ciara turned back to Akashi and nodded. "I got called away to an early stint when an airport incident kicked off. More dodgy crap is flying around Russia than can be believed, if you catch my drift," she told the Champ, "Katsumi hasn't gotten back yet, she had something pretty personal to take care of. When she does come back, she'll probably want to see you. She's had a damned poor year thus far, but it's not my place to say why." Ciara deliberately omitted that Katsumi was actually already back in Japan, but the other sumo had wanted to be alone for a while to recover from her ordeal.

Deciding it wasn't in her to simply ignore Natalia the whole time, Ciara turned to the Dream with a flat stare. "And you. Keep your hands to yourself while we're in a public restaurant. I know you're damn good at your profession, but I'm still trying to figure out if you coordinated that set-up with Lysandra or not. At the very least, Tremaine was perfectly aware that I was out of my depth when I went." Ciara was unawares of the slight blush that crept around her cheeks and the slight pout in her lips as she complained to her previous opponent.

American food!... Such as it was. It beckoned to Lia, like a fresh slice of home away from home... she hoped. Mostly, Lia had a coupon. She had not heard of this place and was actually more than a little iffy about it. Still... a coupon's a coupon. After what should have been a thirty minute trip to the bad part of town turned into an all day affair just to buy one stinking set of brass knuckles (When it came to security, her own and the 'Bitch von Cruezwhatever's' there were no points for style or class. And this was not a town she could afford to take it easy in.). It made getting a gun into Japan seem almost easy.

Lia stepped in and glanced about, her trademark rabbit ears bouncing playfully, but the rest of her guarded relatively heavily in a tight coat. Lia's eyes immediately set upon the shrill voice of... that blue haired girl. Ark... T... something. Whatever. She was like the single most annoying person in all of Japan. What a waste of a coupon.

Lia was about to turn and leave when the larger, curvier girl next to her caught eyes with Lia. Oh great. Lia immediately forced a smile, "Well, well, well if it isn't the champ-een!" Akashi's name escaped Lia. She still did not know what to make of the sumo. She seemed charming... but in the way Hilde was. Lia could not figure either of them out and that was off-puttng. She bounded across to the booth where the four girls sat. No escape now. Grabbing a chair from a nearby table, Lia "And... you." Lia cooed with as much as a sneer as she could muster with her playful, bright tone, glancing only briefly at Taylor. She added in a cutesy hiss, "Stop stalking me, jerk."

Lia's eyes quickly turned to the other two women at the table. She did not recognize the curvy woman in the jumpsuit. Lia knew she was no small potatoes at Friction but... that was all she could recall. Still, the bunny girl definitely paused for a second to take a second glance at her. "Why hello there. Lia Cross." Lia extended her hand to Natalia, "And you are?"

Turning to the final, powerfully built woman, Lia paused, still smiling brightly but taking in something about her. Her face looked familiar... prior to the AFW even... but Lia could not place it. "And a good aft... eve... whatever time it is to you, Miss." She extended a hand, staring Ciara in the eyes, not trying to challenge her, but definitely trying to figure her out; to make whatever mental connection Lia was unable to recall...

The one thing Lia could immediately pick out, though: This woman was a soldier. Of what sort, Lia had no idea. This worried her. Still, Lia tried not to let anything slip. Turning back to the group as a whole, Lia chuckled playfully, "I'm telling you, it seems like EVERY time I go out I meet some new Friction pals!"

Natalia giggled as she noticed how Ciara avoided looking at her. It was really funny to see the hardened soldier evade her. Then Taylor opened her mouth and the usual Taylor-stuff came out, making Natalia gulp. Natalia immediately hit Taylor's ribs softly with an elbow trying to hint that she should better shut up if she wanted to keep her spine unbroken, but it was too late. Fortunately Ciara seemed to take it easy and Natalia breathe more calm.

The Dream gasped amazed and amused at Ciara's accusation. She was about to say something when suddenly a weird looking girl with bunny ears sat on the table...and didn't recognized her. There was nothing Natalia hated more than people reminding her they didn't knew her. She frowned cutely crossing her arms in front of her chest and laid back on the bench looking offended.

"Can you believe the stuff I have to stand, Taylor-chan?" she complained, turning her face to the window as to avoid looking at Ciara and the unfriendly bunny.

She didn't know why she was walking this way, Adrian's legs were on auto-pilot as she thought about everything that had happened yesterday. She knew that she shouldn't be out on her own with enough people around that probably wanted to hurt her but... she needed some time to think about things. Not plan, but think about things by herself. Something she couldn't do cooped up in the apartment. Not with Cecilia, Rebecca and all the rest in the building.

All of this was just making her hungry, why did every other building has to be a restaurant? She was supposed to be doing some big introspection or something not thinking about what to eat!

"Man..." she groaned, all this weight loss thing she was trying at the same time was really making her hungry, there were so many things she shouldn't eat... she'd lost about 10 pounds since she joined AFW and was still trying to get down to 120. All because of a certain someone's comment months back that she couldn't get out of her head... "Dammit..." she growled.

Maybe that diner would be the best place for her, forget the diet! Get a burger and not have to settle for zero calorie soda! She was decided. The best way to get over her problems would be on a full stomach. Just when she looked through a window, mainly to see how busy it was so she wouldn't have to wait, her heart sank.

There was Taylor, sitting in one of the booths, with Akashi, Ciara, some girl with bunny ears and... Natalia.

Traitor. she thought venomously. She couldn't believe it, Natalia knew what she felt about the blue haired bitch, she knew what she was like to an extent. So why... "WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU WITH HER!" She yelled, slamming her fist against the window. "How..." she whispered to herself, thinking that one of her fist friends in Japan was just hanging out with her like it was nothing not to mention how long it had been since the two saw each other last. Did Natalia feel that it was better hanging out with Taylor than Adrian? Tears reaching the side of her eyes, she dashed away, praying that no-one saw her.

Being so close to the window it was hard for Natalia not to notice Adrian. The blue-eyed cutie blinked startled as she saw the cosplayer dash away crying. She immediately realized what was happening and let out a sigh. "Please...excuse me... I need to attend to some...personal matters..." she said as she stood up and begun to push her way out of the booth, passing besides Ciara and running a hand thru the She-wolf hair as she got away. "Don't eat my food!"

Natalia left the dinner and looked around to see were Adrian had gone, rushing after her as soon as she saw her again. The blue-eyed cutie tried to reach for Adrian's arm and pull her back. "Adrian...wait!"

Adrian was still in tears as she ran, stumbling over a few loose paving slabs alloying Natalia to catch up to the crying cosplayer. "Let me go!" She shrieked instinctively as Natalia grabbed her arm, slowing her struggles down when she realized what had happened. "Oh..." she said in between sniffles, trying to hold back the tears "Hi Nat..." Adrian mumbled trying to stop herself from blurting out what she thought of The Dream right now, desperatley trying to avoid eye contact.

Natalia let Adrian go as soon as she managed to stop the cosplayer. She placed her hands behind her back and looked at Adrian in silence, pouting while she waited for her friend to compose herself. After some time she lowered her head to look at Adrian's face. "Are you ok, Adrian-chan?"