The Princess And The Punk

"Oh, okay." Taylor said. Guest of honor? What the hell was she talking about?

"Well, I don't wear the pigtails all the time. It's just sort of my thing. I like wearing my hair down when I don't have to do stuff." She said, and reached up to pull out the ties that held her pigtails in place. She let her hair loose and shook her head and tousled it so that it spilled evenly over her shoulders.

Trying on kimonos? That would be the girliest thing she'd ever done since coming to Japan, except possibly for the sex with Johnny. It was weird. She was apprehensive about it, but she didn't have any reason to turn her down. Despite their turbulent history, she felt like this could be a good thing. She didn't want to always have to be at everyone's throat, since being at AFW made life hard enough as it was.

"I'm... usually a four. I think. It's been a while since I've even worn one. I think the last time was when I went to see Johnny after his first match. When I... met Cecelia." She pushed the thought out of her mind. "But, uh, yeah, I can do that... You're not gonna try to make me all, like... all girly and stuff, are you? I don't know if I can really pull that off, but I guess you probably know all about that stuff. I dunno. I'm dumb."

Natalia looked at Taylor waist and was surprised to find that the punky girl actually had a midsection not unlike her own; she will fit very nicely in a tight furisode. "oh, girlie doesn't begins to describe it, Taylor-chan..." Natalia said giggling at the punky girl's reluctancy. "I am going to make you a beautiful elegant lady. You'll look like a pristine princess!" Natalia seemed to shine with determination and pride of the task she had set herself on. ^_^

"...with blue hair...." she added as she looked at Taylor's blue hair; it could be read in her blue eyes that she was pondering the best way to dye it.


The blue-eyed cutie then brushed Taylor's hair with one hand checking how silky it was. "Where do you usually go to have your hair done, Taylor-chan?"

Oh, that didn't sound good. Taylor wouldn't make a very good princess. She noticed Natalia eying her hair and regarded her suspiciously. She used to dye her hair different colors all the time, sure, but it had been blue for a long time now. It was part of her identity now.

"Oh, uh, actually, AFW does. There's a guy around here somewhere that has been doing my hair, one of the Friction hair and makeup people. I think he has a thing for me. He does a really good job, I like all the texturing and layering he does, and he gets the bangs just right, and the length... Why?" She brushed her bangs back into place, sweeping them to one side so they didn't cover her eye.

She stopped to think for a moment, and then added "Why are you doing all this? Why do you all of a sudden want to doll me up and have tea and stuff? Not that it's not good, or anything, but like, a little while ago you were going to try to kill me or something. Don't you just hate me and think I'm a bitch?"

"No good." Natalia sentenced as she kept checking the tips of Taylor hair. The dye job as pretty good but she doubted the AFW stylist will know how to do a proper kanzashi coiffure. It wasn't so bad that it was blue, Natalia thought, they'll just have to get a blue kimono that matches the hair and it will be good. "I mean.. your hair is pretty nice, Taylor-chan" Natalia said realizing she may be offending the easily-offended girl. "But we need an expert for this..."

Natalia blinked as she heard Taylor's questioning her motives. "No, Taylor-chan. I don't hate you..." she said with a solemn tone. "And I don't think you are a bitch... just a punk." she added nodding. "I know we don't get along and that is precisely why I want you to throw a Chanoyu for you. The tea ceremony is based in four principles. Harmony. Respect. Purity. Tranquility. They were used since ancient times to commune with oneself and with others, and together achieve these four principles. You see? Samurais of old time invited those with whom they have quarreled to Chanoyu's to make peace with them. It is the best way I know for putting our difference aside and... you know... smooth things out between us..... other than sex that is.... But I know you aren't into that." Natalia said with a slight blush.

"Oh." Taylor said, and then was quiet. Maybe she was just nervous over the whole thing, but something didn't sit right with her. She wasn't convinced that Natalia was... something. She wasn't sure that Natalia wasn't just thinking of herself in whatever way.

"There's nothing wrong with my hair." How typical that Natalia would assume that anyone Taylor used for her hair wasn't good enough. "The dude's good, man, he does stuff for movies, too, and famous people and shit. At least I don't have a freakin' blunt cut, you could cut that with a hedge trimmer."

She could feel herself getting feisty again, and she breathed a sigh and settled down. "Alright, well... wait, how am I not into sex? Dude. Not with YOU, but I bet you I get just as much action as you do, even with your... professional... stuff." She thought about Akashi and shuddered. Why, why, why did they have to be connected... like that? "But yeah, let's smooth things out, I'm up for some smoothing. Just... tell me where to be, and I'll be there."

"I am not saying he isn't good..." Natalia tried to explain. "...the question is... is he an expert in traditional Japanese haircuts? I don't know. Maybe he is. Maybe he isn't. I think it would be better to take you to a house that specializes in this kind of stuff..and where we can also get our kimonos." she added, mostly ignoring Taylor's comment about her own hair as she knew it was beautiful.

"yes... lets smooth things out. And... lets not talk about sex and professionalism, because we are going to end having an argument again... I don't care about your sex life and you shouldn't care about mine..." Natalia said almost like offering a deal to keep those topics of the table for both's sake. She then reached for her purse and took a business card of something called Kanzashi Boutique located in Ginza.

"Lets meet there tomorrow at seven in the morning. That would give us time to find us a nice pair kimono, kanzashis, do our hairs and at noon we could be reaching the tea house." Natalia said pursing her lips as she was already making a mental list of all the things she had to do for tomorrow. "Ok Taylor-san?"

"Yeah..." To be fair, Taylor really had no idea what Natalia was talking about, so maybe her guy really wasn't cut out for the job. Who cares, anyway.

Sex did seem to be a pretty volatile subject for the two blue-eyed wrestlers. Taylor really wasn't sure why. Natalia thought of Taylor as some kind of prude, and Taylor thought of Natalia as a glorified whore, or at least as a talented girl who wasted it all by being a ho. Taylor wondered for a moment why she was so worried about what Natalia thought of her, and why it riled her up so much to think that she thought of Taylor as some kind of undesirable loser.

She sighed and adjusted the strap of her gym bag on her shoulder. "Yeah. I- SEVEN IN THE MORNING!?" Who the hell got up that early? Her eyes wandered over the room and she squirmed for a moment. She had been getting up earlier lately. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. "Okay. I'll meet you there. Um... Yeah. I gotta go, though, have fun with your... thing."

Taylor looked at the floor and backed up a step before turning to leave. She looked back at Natalia over her shoulder and said "See ya... Natalia."

What started as a really good day was sort of derailed for a bit by all this unpleasantness with Natalia, but... what if it all turned into something better?

Natalia had arrived an hour earlier to the Kanzashi Boutique so that when Taylor arrived everything would be ready for the two of them. She had had to beg a bit but she had managed to get her two favorite hair dressers, an advantage of getting up so early. She had also made a reservation in her favorite Tea House to have one of the private gardens with a beautiful Chashitsu for them.

The Boutique was more like an spa and as such it had a small sauna where Natalia was relaxing and getting her mind in the right state for this. She had been so busy trying to arrange everything for today that she had had little time to think much why she was doing this, but now that she was all alone and just waiting for Taylor to arrive, she had enough peace of mind to ponder what she was doing and why she was doing it. Taylor was so different from her and she wasn't sure how she should feel about it. It was clear that they didn't got along well and that in part was what Natalia wanted to mitigate today. There was also the fact that Taylor seemed to think Natalia was not a real fighter and just a slut who couldn't win if it didn't involved sex; that really annoyed Natalia, and the fact that when they had fought Taylor kicked her ass made it hurt all the more. After all Taylor had made her tap out twice and refused to surrender to the point Natalia had to knock her out.

Natalia shook her head to drive those thoughts away, she wasn't going to prove her mettle as a fighter with a tea ceremony. 'I don't need to prove anything' Natalia told herself as she got out of the sauna and into the shower to wash away the sweat. 'I wrestle only for fun....and money' she thought giggling as she toweled herself... but she just couldn't get that shadow of sorrow from her chest. Deep inside she still felt that if she lost she was nothing, and it worried her not to be able to get that out of her mind. Her happiness couldn't depend on winning fights.

She took a deep breathe and started to get dressed, putting on only her bra and panties and a light summer dress with sandals. She didn't needed to wear much, she was going to get in a beautiful silky kimono very soon.

Taylor woke up with plenty of time to get ready, and she was still late. She was still bleary eyed when she stepped out of her little Fiat 500 and began shuffling her way up to the boutique. She'd taken the time to do her makeup and her hair, admittedly because she didn't want Natalia to look down on her for not looking right. She was actually very good at both, she was very serious about making sure she looked good. Despite her demanding schedule, she found that she had plenty of spare time in which to do those sorts of things, given that none of it was eaten up in front of a computer or anything like that. She hated computers, largely because they were such a mystery to her.

She looked up at the sign in front of the building and sighed. She rubbed her eyes, careful not to smudge her dark eyeliner or steel-blue eyeshadow, and pushed through the front door.

"Ohaiyoo..." She said to the clerk, who bowed and greeted her. Taylor bowed back. She was getting the hang of talking to Japanese people, even if she barely spoke any of the language. "Um... uh..." How on earth do you say that in Japanese? "Un, donde esta... Natalia... and stuff?"

The people at the boutique bowed politely at Taylor and although they didn't understood Taylor's Japanese, they knew who she was; Natalia had already told them that the other girl that will be getting her hair done and all dressed up in a kimono was an American girl with blue hair, so they knew what to do. They guided Taylor to a private room that looked exactly like you would expect from an elegant Japanese beauty salon and left Taylor there.

Natalia arrived a few seconds later. "Taylor-chan!" Natalia welcomed the punky girl with a happy smile and a respectful quick bow. "Still feeling sleepy?" The blue-eyed cutie asked as she took a closer look at Taylor's face. "I thought you woke up this early to train..." Natalia giggled and then she sat on one of the hairdressing chairs, using a lever on it to make it lean all the way back so she could lay on it as if it was a bed. "You can lay like this and sleep a bit if you want"

"Did you had breakfast already? Have you thought about what kind of hairstyle you want?" Natalia asked, realizing a bit too late that she was a bit over excited and wasn't waiting for Taylor to answer before making the next question.