Seven Days for Evil's Sake

Mamouru's hand twitched silentlyout in front of him but he spoke nothing as Cassie berated him. He understood her feelings completely but there was more he wanted, and needed to say. She stormed off and first his heart sank. Then he clenched his fists and ran at the turnbuckle and kicked it with everything he had.

"GRAAAAAFUCK!"

He pulled away and huffed before running and punching it. After mercilessly beating the turnbuckle for a good minute, he calmed down and slipped through the ropes. He was about to storm off when he noticed her things. He sighed and zipped her bag up. He couldn't just leave them here. He decided that it would be best if he took them with him. He could drop them off to her and he could speak to her personally when he did and try and explain his feelings. He had to at this point. Other than that... he didn't know what else to do. He felt like going back to Kyoto or something. Ever since he'd met Cassie, his life had been turned upside down. What was the deal? He wasn't even interested in her, was he? He was. It was... different though... He didn't WANT to treat her like he did other girls.

With a sigh, he grabbed her bag and his and began to head out for the door, trying to figure out what his next move would be.

Megumi set down her binoculars and rubbed her eyes. She looked tired, but in truth she almost felt like laughing. It seemed that after all those playboy antics, Mamoru's finally getting what was coming to him. All that was coming back to bite him in the ass.

Since Cassie had left, Megumi had no reason to stay any longer. All Drake wanted to see was what happened when they were together. She folded up the binoculars and put them in her bag, then stood up from her seat. She decided to take a little walk, just to mull over what she witnessed and figure out how to deliver her report to Drake. Megumi didn't like Mamoru, but even though seeing him in such trouble pleased her, she wasn't about to give Drake the wrong idea. She was going to remain impartial and just tell him everything without giving it any kind of bias.

Megumi pulled out her sunglasses and put them on to try and stay anonymous. The last thing she wanted was for Mamoru to recognize her from afar.

Mamouru ended up at his mother's house after walking around the city for a while. Thankfully his mother was gone and he hoped she would be for the evening. A hopeless cougar in the throes of a mid-life crisis was good to allow Mamouru to have some privacy.

He had raided her bar and was doing shots as he tried to think about what had happened in the last week specifically and generally in the time he had known Cassie. He let out a sigh and set the glass down.

He gave Johnny a call and muttered something intelligible into his voice mail, only giving Johnny an indication that he was at their mom's, and then made his way to the ring they kept in their house. As a manager and semi-fighter, the Higurashi's always had a full sized ring and workout facility int heir home. Possibly one of the reasons his mother and father separated. Junko wouldn't let it go even if it mostly collected dust now.

Mamouru stripped until he was just in gym shorts, socks and boots and climbed in. He began running ropes hard, trying to exhaust himself so he didn't have to think any more. At the moment, he just wanted to numb his mind a bit.

Taylor was pissed. She'd spent all of Wednesday night pissed off after having her first ever shouting match with Cassie, and she had no intention of settling down until she'd given the responsible party a taste of her outrage.

It only took one phone call to track him down. She knew he was back in Tokyo, and a call to Johnny revealed that he was at their mother's house. Taylor eventually found her way there and parked her Fiat on the curb.

It seemed like everyone related to AFW either lived in larger-than-average houses and mansions, or in urban squalor, like she did. The size of the house only stoked the coals of her anger, and she curled her lip at the thought of it. Of course he had money, why shouldn't he? He probably lived off of a trust fund and just couldn't understand why women didn't just throw themselves at him.

She marched up to the door and rang the doorbell around a thousand times, hammered on the door with her fist, rang the bell some more, and so went the process until it yielded results.

Mamouru was starting to feel a buzz with how much sake he had drunk. He was finally feeling good enough to forget about whathad been going on lately. Then suddenly and furiously the door bell began to ring. Then the door was pounded on and the doorbell rammed again.

"The hell..." Mamouru growled and stomped towards the door.

He checked to see who it is aand when he saw the familiar blue pigtails of Taylor, he growled again. He swung the door open, a scowl on his face.

"What the hell do you want?" He snapped as he glared at Taylor.

When the door opened, Taylor took her hands out of the pockets of her sweatshirt cracked her knuckles. "Hey, what's up Mams?" Taylor cocked her head to the side and said with some mock congeniality while making no effort to conceal her anger. Her heart was already pounding like she was ready for a fight. She gave Mamouru a rough shove and stepped inside.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" She shouted in his face, punctuating by shoving him against the wall. "What the hell did you do to Cassie? What are you trying to pull, huh?" She shoved him again. "Huh? With all the slutbags around for you to pick from, you gotta play mind games with her? That's low, even for you, and you gotta know that if you mess with her you're messing with me, and here's the big difference between me and Cass: she's nice, and I'll fuck you up."

She fumed. She looked like she was likely to punch him then and there, but she had more self control than that. She was pretty sure.

Mamouru was shoved into the house by Taylor. His fists clenched and scowled but he didn't resist her. As long as she didn't throw a punch, he shoving was just posturing, even if he was pressed up against the wall. He listened to her rant and rave. Worse yet, it was about Cassie. Were they that close? This was exactly the last thinghe needed but he let her go.

When she was finished, he lifted his hands up and shoved her hard off him. He wasn't going to let her push him around. "Don't you dare come here and talk to me about her!" He shouted back. "Whatever the fuck you think you know, you don't know shit!" He pushed himself forward and looked Taylor in the eyes. "Get your threats out of here! I'm not one of those little sluts you beat up on. I'm not afraid of you!"

He smiled suddenly and laughed sharply. It was probably the alcohol. "I don't have to explain myself to you. Get the fuck out of here!"

Taylor almost took a swing at Mamouru when he shoved her back. She smoldered while he lit into her, and then her lips curled into a bitter sneer.

"Fine." She growled. She took a deep breath while she glared up at him. "But you have no right to mess with someone like her. I fucking told her that no matter what, you will always sleep with the next hot girl that comes along. No one can trust you for shit. You're a dog, and I have no fucking clue why she hangs around you."

She turned around and marched straight out the door, flipping him the middle finger without as she went without turning around. She rounded her car and opened the driver side door. "Johnny says there's more to you. I don't see it, but he's your brother so whatever. Cassie's gonna figure you out ya know. She's not dumb."

Mamouru went to the door and watched Taylor trudged to her car and swung it open. She continued to call him out and he looked her over carefully. He shook his head. "You have no idea." He said and stepped forward. "Don't stick your nose in her business right now. The last thing she needs is someone like you messing everything up for her."

Mamouru was certain this would get a rise out of Taylor but he was actually being honest. Cassie was under a lot of stress and Taylor was an instigator. Maybe she wasn't to Cassie but it certainly seemed like they had already gotten into it.

Taylor shuddered with rage and clenched her fists while she fought the urge to scream back at him or march over there and punch him in the face. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"She told me she likes you." She said, calmly, and a little begrudgingly, setting aside all posturing and bravado for the moment. She rested her arms on the roof of her car and stared back at Mamouru. "And I told her she doesn't. She likes everybody, but she doesn't know the difference between being friendly and being a girlfriend. I told her that you will always just be looking for the next easy lay, and she didn't believe me." She said, thinking back to her fight with Cassie the day before. She'd never seen Cassie that angry. And at her! Taylor was only trying to help.

"You are going to steamroll right through that girl if you try anything with her. You are going to hurt her for real. She's not like the sluts you bag that hardly remember you a week later anyway. Trust me, she's not for you. She's not going to put out, anyway."

She climbed into her car and started the engine and rolled down the passenger side window. "One of these days," she said, leaning over to the passenger side. "She's going to meet a nice Japanese boy who will treat her well, and she'll forget all about the first flashy, smooth-talking guy who bothered to learn her name. Bye Mams."

She put the car in gear and pulled away from the curb. She spent the ride back home tortured by thoughts of Mamouru using Cassie and tossing her aside, of what it would do to Cassie. Worse yet, what if they hit it off, and Mamouru spoiled her? Someone like Cassie seemed so pure, and it seemed like such a delicate balance that allowed someone like that to exist.