So Much It Hurts

Very slowly and carefully, and showing excellent balance, Taylor climbed her way around Akashi like a monkey until she was sitting on her shoulders. Her head nearly hit the ceiling.

"I tug on whatever I want! Be glad I only want to tug on these!" Taylor manuvered Akashi over to the register and called down to the cashier. "Hey you! Scan my tags! There's one on my butt and stuff."

The cashier appeared rather unamused. Taylor huffed. "Hey, don't look at us like we're crazy. Wait, no, I guess that's okay, but it's our job to be crazy! You don't look like much of the wrestling type... And I guess you don't speak a whole lot of English, either. Huh. You don't know who we are, though? Dude, you are standing in the presence of fucking greatness."

Taylor leaned back and kicked one leg up and rolled off of Akashi, landing on her hands and knees on the floor. She popped up to her feet and skipped over to the cashier. "You really don't know the great Akashi Tanikaze?" The girl scowled and said something to Akashi in Japanese. "Oh, man. You didn't even see her historic match against the Gatt? Dude. Here, c'mon, we'll reenact it."

Grinning, she tugged at Akashi's wrist to turn her to face her. "Ready? Here's a dramatic reenactment of the important parts of the match, just for you. Okay, I'm Gatt, and you're Akashi." Taylor grabbed Akashi by the throat, cocked her right fist way back, and very dramatically pantomimed a slow motion punch to Akashi's face.

"No!" Akashi said firmly. "You don't tug on anything! I would be glad if you tugged on OTHER things!" She said and then laughed. "I've been trying to get you to do that since we met!" Akashi then watched as Taylor hassled the cashier. She blushed a bit. "Not everyone has to know who we are, Taylor-chan..." She muttered and said a quick apology to the Cashier in Japanese. She wasn't really out looking for kudos or anything and she doubted even Taylor was but the girl couldn't help herself.

Akashi raised an eyebrow wen Taylor brought up the Gatt match. her eye twitched a bit at what Taylor chose to do. She really couldn't help herself could she? As Taylor grabbed Akashi's neck and pulled back for a pantomime choke, Akashi grabbed Taylor's punching wrist and grinned wickedly at Taylor.

"Great, I get to be Akashi?" She said through gritted teeth. "That means I get to reenact MY favorite part!" Akashi would pull Taylor into a bearhug and squeeze the girl as tightly as she possibly could.

"Taylor-chan's paying, by the way. Since she's the champ an all." She would say back to the cashier as she grinned and nuzzled Taylor affectionately. "Ain't that right, champ?"

"Ack!" She was cheating! Taylor kicked and flailed and pushed at Akashi's shoulders, trying to loosen her freaking stupid grip. She wasn't playing around either. Taylor couldn't breathe at all, and she had to strain to keep Akashi from collapsing her ribs and breaking her spine and all sorts of unpleasantness.

"Fu...gch..." She spluttered. Instinctively she wanted to claw at Akashi's eyes or something, but instead she settled for clamping one hand down on Akashi's nose while using the other to cover her mouth. That way neither of them could breathe. She pushed as hard as she could to bend Akashi's head back. She could do little from her current predicament, but she could at least make things a little uncomfortable for the much, much bigger girl.

Akashi didn't hear Taylor's witty remarks as she spoke. She grinned even wider at first until she felt Taylor's hand against her nose.

Shit! She thought and released Taylor immediately. She backed away and looked down in shame. "S-sorry... Taylor-chan..." She responded meekly. She then let out a sigh and looked up at Taylor and held out her hand and offered a weak smile. With her other hand, Akashi stuffed her hand down her shirt and pulled out a wad of bills and tossed them at the cashier. "Guess I got this one, eheh..." She said meekly as the Cashier sighed and did her best to try and ring the pair out.

Taylor fell to her knees once Akashi let go, but she didn't stay down. She gasped in a breath in and panted for air. She glared cautiously at Akashi, red-faced. She could say whatever she wanted, honor or no honor, Akashi was still carrying around her loss. It was stuck in her, like now she had something to prove. Taylor didn't like it. She didn't like getting crushed half to death, either, especially in public.

Taylor swatted the wad of bills out of the air, and it spilled onto the floor. She kept her eyes locked intensely on Akashi's, and slid her right foot back. She bent her knees, stayed up on her toes, her whole body tensed for a moment and then she was off like a shot. Almost instantly, she took one big step and threw herself up into the air and kicked both feet out into Akashi's chest.

"C'mon, champ!" She shouted.

Akashi was surprised that Taylor swatted the bills out of her hand and when she turned her head, she saw Taylor glaring at her. Akashi turned her head even more. She couldn't look at Taylor. Maybe she went too far but the fact that she thought that sort of pissed her off. Why was it that she was supposed to hold everything in and Taylor could just be as big a bitch as she wanted? Akashi sighed but then she saw Taylor move and kick her in the chest.

"Uggh!"

She let out a grunt and stumbled backwards into the counter with a loud thud, rattling it. She looked up at Taylor. Her eyes were begging Taylor not to continue. She had to turn them away from the girl. "I'm not going to fight you ..." Akashi said simply and bent down to try and start picking up the money she had dropped.

Taylor clenched her fists. She couldn't bear to see Akashi so... something. Her faced flushed hotly and her hands shook.

"Get up!" She screamed! "I know you want to! Don't I just fucking piss you off? Let's have it, killer, let's see Akashi Tanikaze MAD for once!"

As she was verbally unloading on Akashi, she had no idea where it all was coming from. It was true that Akashi and Taylor never fought... at that moment, she felt like they both had a lot bottled up. Maybe Akashi needed to kick her ass. If not, maybe she'd kick Akashi's ass. Nothing said 'I love you' quite like getting beat up, right?

Taylor shoved Akashi with her foot. "What, you're afraid you're going to hurt me? I'M the one with a title, here, and YOU'RE the one on the floor. As usual. Why don't you stay down for another hour, someone's bound to pin you eventually. Or maybe you don't want to fight me because you've lost your fucking touch. Get angry, you fucking pussy!" She screamed. The cashier had already fled to a safe distance, and the pair was attracting attention from passing mall people in the hallway outside.

Akashi's eyes widened when Taylor screamed at her. But she ignored the girl. Taylor as ridiculous and now she was throwing a tantrum but Akashi had to ignore the girl for now.

"You don't piss me off..." Akashi muttered as she scooped the bills into a pile. "You just..." Before she could finish, she was shoved to the ground. She continued to not look at Taylor as the girl screamed at her. It was like Taylor never lost a match before and it was likeAkashi had just got off of a big losing streak. Akahsi wasn't perfect, she never claimed to be and Taylor was acting like she was SUPPOSED to be.

Akashi looked up at Taylor from her sitting position and Let out a "Heh.' followed by a quick grin. "I'm not afraid of hurting you, that's for sure." She said. She then stood up and brushed herself off. "I hugged you because you crossed the line." She said in an even tone. "It's fine to joke and rib me for a loss, or whatever you like to do, but a friend doesn't humiliate another friend in public the way you did." Akashi turned her head and turned up her nose at Taylor. "I got you back and maybe I was too rough, but you're obviously fine since you have the energy to keep being a brat. And I'm not going to give you what you want if you are just going to try and goad me into it." Akashi then turned her head back at Taylor and smirked. "Unlike you, I have no desire to humiliate my best friend in front of the world."

"You... you..." Taylor was speechless. She very rarely thought things through, instead she went with what felt right in the moment, and while she wasn't sure why she'd flipped out on Akashi right then it felt like there was something there that had to be settled.

But once Akashi had answered her, in none of the ways she was looking for, she felt sick to her stomach. She was breathing heavily, her hands still shook, but suddenly she felt weak.

After a pause, she spoke. "Well, fuck me, Kashi. I'll make sure I never cross the fucking line, then. Goddamn."

She walked off to collect her clothes and her jacket. She pulled some money out of a pocket on her jacket and quietly counted out about twice as much as would be necessary to cover both Akashi's and hers. She looked around for the cashier and found her by the exit. She pressed the money into her hand.

"You probably just want to get rid of us. That's okay, I think she does to." She said, referring to Akashi.

She turned back to Akashi. "C'mon. I don't want to waste my time humiliating you in front of so few people." She said, and turned to walk away, pulling tags off of her new clothes as she did.

Akashi watched as Taylor shut down. Akashi furrowed her brow. Taylor couldn't ever just let things be. It was always something. Always some kind of drama. She always had to act like she was the victim, even when she was the one who started things, no, ESPECIALLY when she started things. Akashi's fists clenched as Taylor took her verbal shot and began to walk off.

Akashi waited until Taylor turned her back. She wasn't trying to cheap shot Taylor, but she had to make a point. When Taylor turned, Akashi ran at her and shoved her to the ground as hard as she could. Now that Taylor was backing down, Akashi could feel the adrenaline running through her body. Now SHE was itching for a fight. But she had to show Taylor that if a fight happened, it would happen on Akashi's terms, not on Taylor's. A brat like Taylor didn't get to decide when they fought. Akashi did.