The Princess And The Punk

She didn't even remember.

Taylor's eye twitched. It was impossible that she just didn't hear Taylor address her. Even if she didn't see it, forty billion other people did, and at least one of them had to mention to her that Taylor had said stuff to her. In the ring. In front of the cameras.

It was too humiliating to take, and Natalia's remark about Adrian pushed her over the edge. She rushed back to Natalia and kicked the front leg of her chair to try to tip it over backward, hurting her shin in the process.

"When the FUCK have I messed with HER?!" She shouted in Natalia's face. "We had ONE TINY little run in where I said things I regretted and she fought back, I APOLOGIZED! I SAID I was SORRY and YOU had to get involved! Remember that?" She jabbed her finger in Natalia's chest. "I tried to put the whole thing behind me and move on, but she just kept coming back. WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU PEOPLE WANT FROM ME?!" She screamed.

Taylor didn't even hate Adrian. She just wished she'd never met her. Having her head beaten in with a chair at the end of their match certainly didn't help her opinion of the unstable girl.

She narrowed her eyes and lowered her voice to a growl. "You people think you're so much better than me. Adrian needs help, blah blah blah, but Taylor's just a bitch. I just lost my family a few months ago, of course you didn't know that. My dad just died, and I never got to talk to him or see him or anything. What did you do? You threw me right in a match with your gal pal and that dumb ass bunny girl! That really made my fuckin' week!"

She stepped back and took a breath. So much for staying friendly. "Just leave me alone. You, and all your little friends. Oh, wait! You don't have any! Maybe everyone hates me, man, but at least a couple people I know like me. Fuck you."

As she turned away, her hands shaking and her face red, it hit her how very badly she'd just flown off the handle. The doubts began to set in. She suddenly felt like everything she'd just said was totally uncalled for, and that she was actually just losing her mind. If she was humiliated before, it was a thousand times worse now. She grabbed her bag and made her way quickly out the door.

Natalia mind slowly began to connect the dots and remember Taylor's promo where the punky girl called her in more-less friendly terms, but before she could say something like 'ah that promo', Taylor was all over her. Natalia leaned back in her chair as the blue-haired girl charged and the punt on the leg of said chair would have surely sent her falling backwards if there wasn't a table behind her. Natalia let out a soft whine as Taylor jabbed her chest with a finger, it wasn't that the finger poke hurt but more that hearing Taylor's rant did. Deep inside Natalia knew this was going to end like this, it seemed that was the way things worked between them, either Taylor or her was going to snap... first. The blue-eyed cutie knew she hadn't been far from going nuts herself and although she was happy to have kept some semblance of cool, she didn't felt proud of having drove Taylor to this.

Once Taylor stopped and stepped back Natalia realized she had been holding her breath the whole time and finally exhaled; that had been pretty intense even by Taylor standards and now Natalia felt even more guilty than ever. The fact that were some complete strangers watching this whole scene only made it even more embarrassing. So when Taylor picked up her stuff and prepared to leave, Natalia stood up and rushed to her, trying to grab her gently by the arm although she knew she was risking a punch to stop her. "Hey!... please wait.... I am sorry..."

Taylor tried taking deep breaths. She was used to trying to calm herself down, and she really didn't want to be so wound up, but with Natalia... things never seemed to work around Natalia. To be fair, she wasn't the only one that made Taylor's composure fall apart, but she was unique in that Taylor had no clear idea of where she stood with her. There was the match at Avalanche, the thing before the match with Adrian and Lia, and their run in before all of that, the one that ended with Taylor getting a concussion. She had no idea what to make of her.

She slowed to a stop when Natalia put her hand on her. She sighed. "I'm sorry too." She said, in a low voice that sounded either like she wanted to hug Natalia or fight her. "But... you can't really be sorry, because you don't know what you're sorry for. I don't know what you have to be sorry for, I just..." She faltered and trailed off and turned her head away, turning a slightly brighter shade of red. "I dunno. Whatever, don't worry about it."

She threw her gym bag over her shoulder and turned to leave again. "Look, uh..." She began, facing away from Natalia. "Um... Nevermind." She said quietly, and walked out.

Natalia took a deep breathe as once again Taylor quickly jumped to conclusions; Natalia actually knew why she was saying what she was saying. "I am sorry for many things" The Dream said calmly. And when Taylor turned again to leave Natalia grabbed her by the arm once more, a bit more assertively this time to prevent her from leaving. "And I am sorry for all the mess that three way match ended up being..." she said; it was very hard for her to admit that she had caused a mess. "I though it was going to be fun...please forgive me..." It was very hard for her to admit she had been wrong. "...and I am sorry for your loss... I didn't knew..." Natalia said pulling Taylor to her and hugging her, according to her because she was comforting Taylor, but it had more to do with the fact that Natalia needed a hug.

Taylor only stuttered incomprehensibly until Natalia wrapped her arms around her, and then she stiffened up. She inhaled sharply and held her breath, her whole body was tense, as if she was expecting some kind of trick. Expecting Natalia to DDT her head through the floor again. Her hands unconsciously closed into fists.

The closeness, the sincerity of the hug, quickly overpowered her self-preservation instincts, and she slowly relaxed. She hesitantly brought a hand up to rest it on Natalia's back. She closed her eyes and took a breath, and held it again, with an expression that suggested the great effort it took to keep from crying.

"It's okay." She managed to say. She wasn't sure if she was forgiving Natalia or comforting her. She didn't linger too long, though, and she broke away from Natalia and took a step back. As she looked into her eyes, she had no idea what to do next. Should she just leave? Or... stay?

"Um..." Was all she could think to say.

Natalia had a special love for hugs, mainly because she spent all her childhood without getting any, save for bearhugs intended to crush her, so she had some weird ideas of how long and how hard one should hug others. The friendly honest hug she was giving Taylor, was a bit too tight and wasn't letting go. Natalia was in a mood that really called up for a hug, even if it was for someone like Taylor. They definitively weren't friends. Calling each other enemy would have been taking things a bit too far, rivals wouldn't really describe it either; although there were enough elements for that, considering that Taylor kicked her ass for a title belt in a PPV, Natalia didn't felt that kind of vibe with Taylor.

Natalia let out a soft purr. Despite how strange her relationship was with Taylor, she just needed to feel someone hugging her back to feel better. Natalia realized after a bit that she may been hugging Taylor for more time than it would have been called for...and knowing how sensitive Taylor was to any girl-on-girl thing, she decided to let her go abruptly. Only to a second later regret it and feel like she shouldn't had broken the hug like that, but thinking it wouldn't help to hug her again. "eh..uhm...sorry..." Natalia said blushing deeply. And then there was a long silence.

"Want to...go out and have some tea or something....after the photoshoot?"

Taylor had honestly lost track of how long the hug had gone, and was a little surprised when Natalia broke it off so abruptly. Maybe she needed a hug just as bad as anyone. The only hugs she got were from Johnny and Akashi, and she was used to Akashi's uncomfortable long, crushing bearhugs. Natalia didn't seem out of the ordinary, really.

Her eyes widened and she became tense. Her eyes wandered away nervously and she opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again without a word. She tried several times to summon her attitude back and dismiss the tension with some vaguely insulting quip, but she could come up with nothing.

After a lengthy string of choked stuttering, she finally said. "Idon'tdrinktea." She took a breath. "Sorry, I've, uh... I've actually... technically... I don't know if I've ever had it. But, um, I mean... sure. Yeah. Why not." She didn't even know why she was so nervous anymore. What did she have to lose? "I think I'm done here for today, so... I dunno, should I get changed and stuff? I think I look kinda dumb in all this stuff. I mean it's not all that different from my usual... like, I dunno. It's just more of it. Do you think I... Whatever, let's go."

Natalia blinked. It took her a couple of seconds to understand what Taylor was saying. "you...never..had...tea?" Natalia brought one hand up to cover her lips as she giggled. Of course Taylor hadn't understood. "I am not inviting you to have a cup of coffee Taylor-chan..." Natalia said with a sudden excitement. This was a perfect opportunity for her to practice her Hakobi-Temae for the summer season and share something with Taylor. The punky girl sure could learn about the virtues of Chanoyu, wa (Harmony) kei (Respect) sei (Purity) jaku (Tranquility).... Respect, Tranquility, Taylor... it was going to be quite a challenge, Natalia thought, but she wasn't the kind of person that backed off challenges, plus she could also use some tranquility too.

"I am inviting you to a Chanoyu... you know... ancient Japanese Tea Ceremony?" Natalia explained. "I want you to be my Shokyaku, Taylor-san" Natalia said with a polite bow. "It would take a couple of days to prepare..." Natalia said rubbing her own chin as she looked at Taylor's face. "You don't happen to have a kimono, do you?"

Taylor stared blankly back at Natalia while she giggled away at her. She could laugh all she wanted, but Taylor wasn't joking. She'd lived in Japan for over a year, and yet she had experienced very little of life in Japan. Her only friends were both Japanese, but she was very careful about trying new things like food, things that changed her daily habits.

Ancient tea ceremony? Taylor blinked. "You want me to be your what, now? How long does tea take to- kimono? No." She said. "I have a bathrobe." She added, as if it might suffice. "Why? What's a shoke...yak...koo..?"

She felt incredibly dumb. Maybe she should've tried harder to learn the language and the culture, so that she wouldn't feel like such a fish out of water in these situations. She absently tugged at her black fishnets.

"Um, well, whatever you want, I guess. All I do is train and get my ass beat, and sometimes AFW wants me to do stuff like pose for pictures or sign autographs or answer questions. Oh, and Johnny, too. I really don't... do much." She probably shouldn't be saying things to embarrass herself anymore. Be cool, Taylor.

"So... what?"

"Shokyaku, Taylor-chan. My guest of honor. And no, a bathrobe won't work. You need a kimono." Natalia explained with a mischievous smile. Putting Taylor in a kimono and making her go all over a tea ceremony surely sounded like a lot of work...but also like a lot of fun.

"Don't worry, Taylor-chan. I will get you a really pretty one. " Natalia explained as she took a step back and looked at Taylor up and down. Then she step closer and touched Taylor's hair as if feeling its texture. "We will have to do something with your hair too... You can't wear a kimono with pigtails." the blue-eyed cutie said leaving it clear that it was not a matter open for discussion.

Natalia's eyes went down to Taylor's waist? "What dress size are you? Are you free tomorrow to try kimonos?"