The Princess And The Punk

"I don't mean fat." Taylor huffed. "I mean muscle and stuff, I want to me all lean and sleek and speedy and stuff."

Taylor looked at the two girls who entered, and as they took their positions and gathered their things, while one of them adjusted Taylor's chair, she began struggling with her limited Japanese to explain what she wanted to her attendant.

"Like that one, but can you leave the bangs, like, a little looser, sorta like, I dunno, a little punk? Wait, how do you say loose... or punk... Yanki?" The girls face showed her confusion. "Wait! Matte! No, I didn't mean... Dammit, I dunno, just do what you want."

She sat back in her chair and resigned herself to whatever stylistic whims their stylists had for them. She looked over at Natalia. "Do you do this, like often? I mean, I don't do a lot in my spare time, I don't really use my computer and I don't watch TV unless it's wrestling, so I usually have a lot of time to keep myself put together, ya know, but I don't have other people doing the work for me. It's kinda weird."

"Well you don't look like the muscle type either... you are very lean...and speedy" Natalia said as she let her eyes travel the distance of Taylor's body from the head to her abs to her legs. The blue-eyed cutie relaxed on the chair and let the girl that was going to do her hair start brushing it. She was going to translate for Taylor verbatim, but when the girl started to fumble with her Japanese, the mischievous Natalia couldn't help but giggle and see how far Taylor got. "hehehe... it is ok. I will translate." she finally said, but only after Taylor had apparently gave up. Natalia then explained the hairstylist what Taylor wanted... omitting the part of making it look punkish.

"I do a lot of things besides wrestling Taylor-chan." Natalia said as she relaxed even more in the chair, closing her eyes. "There was a time when wrestling was my life...literally. But know... know it is something I just love to do... and get paid for it... a lot." Natalia explained with a giggle, she indeed was getting paid more than she could spend. "It is a passion... but it is not my life anymore. I have other passions as well. Sportbikes, making movies, playing videogames, tending my bonzais, collecting kimonos, practicing my shodo, shiatsu, shibari... " Natalia said with a mischievous smile as she wondered if she could pass that under Taylor's radar; the hairstylists had a hard time containing a giggle. "... and chanoyu... as you are about to see." she added proudly. "I try to keep myself busy outside of wrestling... otherwise I would go insane, so I don't have time to do my own hair. And well... I don't do my own hair... I am not as good as these girls. Plus... don't you find it relaxing?"

Taylor sat still and listened blankly while her girl began to take out her pigtails and brush her hair as well. Natalia's remark about the Japanese form of bondage went right over her head, but so did the parts about calligraphy and massage. She did catch the bit about chanoyu, though. She might not know much, but she was a quick learner.

"Sure, I guess, yeah. It is." Taylor said, trying to convince herself to relax. "It's just, like, I dunno man, I'm pretty high strung, I think. Ya know? I'm not real comfortable around... people." She fidgeted a little. She wasn't always like that, not really. It wasn't until the people around her became so much more threatening that she became so tense.

"I do pretty much everything myself, though. It's punk, ya know, it's like, DIY. I make some of my own clothes and modify stuff too, and I always do my own hair and makeup and stuff. I do my own wax because I'm hardcore and I don't give a fuck. I just don't cut my own hair, because I don't want to end up looking like a shrub."

The girl behind her went to work with quick, skilled hands and before she knew it, Taylor was starting to relax. She couldn't tell why she was suddenly so friendly with Natalia, since the last time they met she was ready to fight her, again, as usual. Maybe she was just tired of keeping her guard up all the time, with everyone. Maybe for once she could just relax.

"Uh... I see...." Natalia said. She didn't wanted to start an argument with Taylor by second guessing her, since everything was working so smoothly so far, but she just couldn't resist asking the question that was stinging the tip of her tongue. "Why?" she said, and then quickly tried to add some context to make it sound less harsh. "I mean... I used to do a lot of things for myself...and others... but I don't have to now..."

Taylor furrowed her brow, and started to turn her head to look at Natalia, but her stylist stopped her short. "Because I can, dude." She said, as if it was obvious. "I don't need to have someone else do everything for me, and I don't need to have every shiny new thing that a commercial tells me I need. I have a bunch of money, not nearly as much as you, but I don't go out and just blow it on like, fancy, luxury things."

She didn't want that line of conversation to go somewhere hostile, so she quickly tried to soften it up. "Besides, I like making my shirts. I was going to make one with a picture of you on the front in black and white and a big check mark through it." She teased with a sly grin and stuck her tongue out. "Maybe you'd want the "Taylor is overrated" one, though. I should start selling shirts and stuff, man, I don't really need the money but it'd be fun."

"Very funny, Taylor-chan..." Natalia said frowning cutely pretending to be a bit mad. "You can give me the 'Taylor is overrated' one..." Natalia said with a mischievous smirk. "... and be thinking of a real cool design for 'Taylor tapped out'!". Natalia giggled as she opened her eyes and looked into the mirror, seeing what the hairstylist were doing to their hairs. "Maybe you should put a punk fashion online store, Taylor-chan... to have something to do besides wrestling... and if you don't need the money, you can give it to me..."

Taylor grinned. She didn't mind making fun of herself, as long as she knew the company she was with at the time wasn't planning on trying to hurt her. She wondered for a brief moment why she had become so comfortable with Natalia, of all people. She was still fairly certain that Natalia didn't actually care about her.

She laughed again, louder, when she pictured the two of them gossiping about AFW girls, sitting in a line getting their hair done like old women in Brooklyn. It was just so completely out of character for Taylor.

"Maybe I will, man..." She mused out loud. That did sound like a fun idea, but she didn't want to sell things on a website. She wanted to be able to see the customers or fans or whatever and talk to them, anything to connect more with them and be of some use to them. She always had such a good time when she got to rub elbows with the fans. The internet was just so impersonal, and... confusing. She didn't use her computer much because honestly she had no idea what the hell to do with it.

"Please, if you think you need more money, you've got a problem. I won't feed your addiction." Taylor said with a laugh. "Although I've got a few thousand yen on me if you want it. For all I know you've spent your way broke."

Taylor wondered what it was about Natalia that made her gravitate so much toward luxury and extravagance. From what little she knew about her upbringing... maybe she was compensating for something? The idea seemed weird to Taylor, it seemed too "psychological", and if she indulged it too much she'd have to look at herself, and she wasn't comfortable with that.

She turned her head back and forth a little to get a look at what her stylist had accomplished. It was so surreal, so out of place for her, but so... pretty. Without realizing it, she blushed.

"oh don't worry, Taylor-chan... you are my guest..." Natalia said with a friendly smile. "You can pay when you invite me to do what you like..." Natalia said giggling...and then a horrible idea creep to the back of her brain. Do what Taylor likes? Natalia suddenly worried Taylor may want to punk her up... that was so totally not going to happen, that Natalia decided to change the subject quickly.

"You look lovely, Taylor-chan... and I got you a real nice Kanzashi to hold your hair in place..." Natalia said as she pointed at the long metal hair pin that the hairstylist was about to secure on Taylor's blue hair.



"I made sure to get it blunt so you don't stab anyone with it..." Natalia added giggling at her own joke...although she indeed had asked for it to be blunt.

Taylor giggled, imagining herself and Natalia moshing and headbanging and fist pumping at a Stretch Armstrong show. The idea of Natalia doing anything so... raw just seemed silly. Her light, lilting giggle gradually blossomed into a contagious, delighted, feminine laugh.

"Yeah, maybe next time we'll do the Brooklyn tea ceremony. Except, instead of tea it's like... Red Bull and cigarettes." She laughed. "But I don't smoke!" She was quick to assure Natalia.

"Oh, huh..." Taylor said, curiously looking at the big hair accessory. It honestly wasn't her bag. She'd feel weird with it on, but she didn't want to piss off Natalia, so she went along with it. "It's cool." She giggled more at Natalia's remark, once she caught the giggles it was hard to stop. "It doesn't need to be sharp! I can still do some damage with that!" She said, making little stabbing motions at Natalia.

"Okay, let's do this." She said while the stylist put the finishing touches on her blue hair. She looked in the mirror and... didn't see herself. It wasn't a bad thing, just weird.

"Wow." She said. "How do I look?"

Natalia looked at Taylor and the shock was evident in her lovely blue eyes. Taylor looked so... non-taylorish. Natalia was too impressed to tell lies. "Weird... but good. You look very pretty..." Natalia said moving her head closer to Taylor and picking the former punky girl by the chin, gently moving it from side to side so she could see Taylor's head from all angles. "In a very different way..." Natalia added giggling.

"now you just need a kimono and nobody in the world will know it is you..." Natalia said giggling cheerfully. She was pretty sure Taylor wouldn't recognize herself. "but what do you think, Taylor-chan? Do you like it?"