Happy Birthday, Taylor! (No Longer Open!)

Adrian cried into Natalia's arms, refusing to stand back up "She took it all... and she's still laughing at me!" She hissed "I know it! She's probably laughing at how pathetic I am. I can hear it. I can hear it every time I look in a mirror!" She cried. "They're all laughing at me, they all want to hurt me..." she repeated to herself, driving her further down her crazy spiral. "Everyone wants to hurt me, everyone wants to take advantage of me!" She yelled out, trying to throw Natalia off her.

Akashi watched as Lia burst in. She smiled brightly, remembering the fun times they shared when she first met Taylor. She was glad to see the sexy bunny again but it seemed as though in between now and then, some things had happened. Lia didn't seem to recognize her and seemed a bit bristly towards Taylor.

"Hello, Usagi-san!" Akashi said. "It's um... very nice for you to join us!" She beamed but it faltered. The feeling suddenly became tense. Akashi looked down and chuckled nervously. Her face went pale. She couldn't look at Taylor. She let out a soft sigh. She could really use some food. Picking at french fries would calm her nerves.

But then she shot wide as Adrian, of all people, banged on the glass. Natalia quickly ran off and Akashi started to shake. her eyes focused on the two yelling outside. This was horrible. This was some kind of nightmare. Why couldn't these people just go away? Why was there so much awkward tension. She just wanted Taylor to be happy, was that so bad?

As Lia crawled into Natalia's seat and at least attempted to continue a civil Dialog, Akashi sighed. It just wasn't enough and the frustration was getting to her.

Akashi furrowed her brow and slapped her hand on the table hard and stood up. She trudged off, passing the waitress by and grabbing a handful of fries and chewed them angrily as she kicked the door open.

"YOU TWO!" She yelled. "GET THE HELL BACK INSIDE!" She was loud and didn't care who heard her. She wanted the world to hear her. "I DON'T GIVE A SHIT WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE OR WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE!" Tears began to leak from Akashi's eyes. "BUT THE FUCKING KAMIS THEMSELVES AREN'T GOING TO RUIN TAYLOR-CHAN'S BIRTHDAY NO MATTER HOW HARD THEY FUCKING TRY! GOT IT!?"

Akashi was panting and she wiped away her face quickly and stared at Adrian and Natalia.

"ALSO, WE HAVE CAKE!!" She said, sniffling a bit, unable to bring her voice down to less than a yell.

"She hasn't paid yet." Taylor said to Lia, still muffled by her sleeves and the table.

She remained face down on the table until Akashi kicked the door open and started yelling. She jerked upright and watched her rip into the skank and the drama llama outside.

Damn. Akashi could be scary when she wanted to be. She had some pipes on her. Taylor unconsciously resisted thinking too much about what she had said, or had been saying this whole time. This was really not the time for her to get all emotional, though all she really wanted to do was give Akashi the hugging of her life. There were too many shady people around, she couldn't let it hang out like that.

She looked over the remaining crowd, Lia and the giant butch chick at the counter, and then slouched low again. She pulled her hood up over her head and jammed her hands in her pockets.

Lia watched Akashi run out and shout at the two girls who at least had the decency to make a scene out of sight. What a jerk! Lia was barely going to get to enjoy Natalia's food now! "Bah, she'll be fine. She's got all that sweet, sweet porn star cash." Lia quickly grabbed Natalia's burgers, one in each hand. With a start, she took a bite out of one, quickly wolfed it down, and took a bigger bite from the second one, gulping it down so fast she had to pat her collarbone nervously as it went down the pipe. "Gah, two of the same burger. How does she keep the figure?!" Lia quickly grabbed a handful of fries and disappeared under the table, stopping only to remove her rabbit ears before she went crawling. Emerging back outside, Lia slid her ears back on and plopped back into her chair. Hopefully fast enough that Natalia would not see her.

If Natalia came back, Lia would be the first to call out, "I tried to stop her, really. The champ was ALL over your burgers. Sorry!"

Natalia had more important things to worry than her burger. Her friend seemed to be having and emotional break-down and Akashi's yelling wasn't helping. Then again, Natalia didn't felt it was fair to ruin Taylor's impromptu birthday party, so she picked Adrian and dragged the cosplayer towards the back of the dinner.

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Taylor kept her head down, but couldn't help looking out the window. Adrian and Natalia quickly disappeared from view, but Taylor's mind remained fixated on them. She glanced around at everyone from under her hook, Akashi standing in the doorway after her attempt to rally everyone failed. An uncomfortable silence had settled in.

She slid out of the booth and quietly made her way to the door. She turned sideways to slip past Akashi. "I just need some air, back in a sec." She said, and walked outside.

Akashi's shout finally registered in Lia's ears once she was no longer fixated on petty revenge against Natalia. Wait, Taylor's whaaaat?! Lia shifted nervously as Taylor seemed to run out, "Er... uh, happy birthday!" She called after, her voice quickening to get it all out before Taylor had left earshot, "Don't worry your food is safe Idon'twantyourcoooties!" Reaching across the table, Lia stole another quick bite of one of Natalia's burgers. "You see her figure?" Lia spoke, more to herself than anyone, "She'd puke this back up anyway." Pursing her lips, Lia glanced down and patted her stomach, "Aw, I probably need to pick that habit up. Civilian life! Eugh!" Still talking half to herself, Lia sighed, glancing at Natalia's plate and then the door, "She's... not coming back, is she? Drat." Lia turned back to Ciara, "Eh, come here often? Is it usually this filled with psychopaths?"

Ciara sat with her back to the counter warily as she took metered bites out of her meal. There was a lot of raw emotion being tossed around that she knew she shouldn't touch, so she did the best thing in her current position: listen. She noticed the emotional side of Adrian and a couple new facets to her relationship, Akashi's ever-present instinct to protect the feelings of her friend, and Taylor's increasing discomfort with all the new arrivals. She was almost afraid of smashing her blunt speech into the middle of all the conversation; for all she knew, it could set off something more volatile than the fight with Sarah.

But something still nagged at the back of her mind about the silly-acting girl with the bunny ears. There was a certain tone when Lia spoke "civilian," however, that rang with her; it was almost the same tone she or anyone else on her team took when talking about the same thing.

"First time here," Ciara responded, "although I should try and come more often. This food is pretty bloody good. A bit dodgy, and not for any proper diet, but still bloody good. I wouldn't know if it's always like this, but maybe I should have expected a little lunacy. It's almost within a stone's throw from the AFW building, after all. Now don't take this the wrong way, but something's bothering me about you. Bugger all, your face is a tad familiar... just not with the silliness and... the ears." The soldier cocked her head to one side as she observed Lia. Damn, she was supposed to remember faces at lightning speed in her line of work, what was wrong with her? She childishly blamed it on the bunny ears.

Lia's rabbit ears twitched as Ciara seemed to recognize her. Lia chewed coyly on one of Natalia's fries. Lia wracked her brain. There was really only one logical explanation. Ciara had the build for it, too, so they must have worked in the same business. "Hrm... lemme guess, big fella." Lia turned back to Ciara. They could dance around it all day or they could just throw their cards on the table. "You shoot people in your day job... used to or still. One of them." Lia winked playfully, speaking just quiet enough to avoid provoking Ciara more than necessary.

Natalia returned to the diner and went directly to the table. She was feeling still down but much better. The nausea sensation having disappeared meant she was even more hungry after the physical and emotional confrontation with Adrian.

The Dream frowned cutely but quite angry as she saw a bunny-girl sitting in the table eating her food. Natalia's lovely face began to turn red again, for someone who had had to fight to be feed having someone eating her food angered her at a very personal level. The blue-eyed cutie felt like the universe was conspiring to make her lose her sanity.

She resisted the urge to grab those stupid bunny ears from Lia and after a few seconds of paused breathing she calmed down. Then she went to Ciara's side of the table and sit down, pressing herself against the She-wolf. She looked at the waitress and pointed at Lia. "Bring me what the stupid ugly bunny is eating, please. Thank you"