Anyone At All

Taylor tossed the lump of clothes on the floor and picked over it for a moment, but then she caught sight of herself in the mirror and stopped. She straightened up and looked at herself, tugged at her hair and sighed.

By the time Mamouru rounded the corner, she'd already done the world's fastest job of brushing out her hair and had it up in pigtails, and went through her well-practiced makeup routine of eyeliner and eyeshadow. Living alone and having spent such a long period of uninterrupted loneliness in her apartment, she wasn't in the habit of closing the bathroom door just to get changed. Mamouru arrived in time to see her pulling a tight, nearly translucent black t-shirt down over her defined midsection, covering the tentacles of tape that crossed over her ribs on both sides. The bruising still wasn't completely faded.

Despite having excused herself because of her lack of pants, this time she was only wearing black string panties that enticingly showed the fair skin of her round, firm butt and her long, muscular legs. She almost jumped when she saw him, but she kept her cool and only raised an eyebrow.

"Bitch, I look good with any color hair." She said, as if she were the most confident person in the world at that moment. "Sure you don't wanna fuck?" She said, in straight-faced mockery of Mamouru's earlier question.

She wriggled into a pair of tight, dark blue jeans and brushed her bangs out of her face as she strolled over to Mamouru to see what he had to show her. After a moment of confusion, her face lit up.

"Oh my god, dude!" She exclaimed in a fit of girlish excitement. "How did- I mean where... who..." She grabbed the laptop out of his hands and pushed past him, her eyes glued to it.

Under her absent grin she couldn't help but get emotional. It wasn't just the fact that she had fans that would do that for her, or for whatever reason, it was how she looked in the clips. She looked to full of energy, so alive, so much in her element... She hadn't felt like that since her last tag match with... her. Before she knew it her eyes were welling up with tears, and once she realized it she quickly put the laptop down and discretely wiped her eyes before turning to face Mamouru again.

She pushed past him again, shoving him against the wall with one hand as she went back into the bathroom to grab a sparkly silver belt, a silver necklace with a kitty-cat pendant, and her bracelets. She quickly put them on and went back to her bed to pull on socks and a pair of bright red, ankle-high Doc Martens.

"We're gonna fuckin' go out, right now, we're getting food. OUTside the house." She grabbed Mamouru by the front of his belt and towed him out the front door, but stopped abruptly and turned to face him.

"I'm gonna get Johnny back." She said soberly. "I... I know I fucked everything up being a spaz, but... I don't know, you probably wouldn't understand. You've always had someone. You always will. But... I'm gonna make things right. Just... not tonight. Tonight I need to feel good."

Mamouru smiled as he literally caught Taylor with her pants down, or off, rather. Unlike most gentleman, he didn't turn himself or excuse himself. He very conspicuously slid his eyes down her body and took in her legs and ass with a smirk. If there was anyone who would appreciate it, Taylor would if only for a few seconds before he creeped her out. "I never said the others were bad!" He confessed quickly, throwing up his hands in surrender. It was never enough with her. But, that's why he liked her. She played the game so well. She wasa good adversary to have. Though, he might like her a little better if he felt there was more than a 0% chance of nailing her. Oh well. He sighed and tried to fend off her next coy barrage.

"You wouldn't know what to do with me." He said in the casualest tone possible before chuckling and walking away, dragging his feet just long enoug to see her shake her hot ass into a tight pair of jeans.

Mamouru legitimately grinned at Taylor's reaction to the video. He WAS glad she was feeling better and he knew her change in attitude would be good for her, and more importantly, Johnny.

Sounds great, Taylor-chan." He smiled and let her shove him and pull him too and fro as she desired, barely snagging his jacket as she pulled him tot he door.

"Good. I'm happy. Believe it or not, I want the best for the two of you. Well, mostly Johhny, I guess." He said and gave her a sly look. He slapped her on the shoulder gently and looked her in the eye. "Let's go make you feel good then, Taylor-can." He slid past her and began making his way outside as he slipped is jacket on. "But you know that could be done a whole lot better in there then out here." He said with a laugh.

"Please," Taylor said with a roll of her eyes. "You wouldn't know what to do with me."

She turned to stride out the door of her apartment building and onto the street with the first bits of real confidence she'd had in weeks. She walked like she knew Mamouru couldn't help but watch, despite not being able to do anything about it. He deserved to get messed with a little, after all.

"I'm driving." She said.

Taylor returned home after a night out with Mamouru and went straight to bed. It felt good to get out again and to feel a little like herself again, but it was exhausting. She managed to get through the night without having to talk about Johnny, though, and that was all she could really ask for.

She woke up late the next morning and rolled over to fish around on her night stand for her phone. It was unlikely that anyone had called, but that didn't stop her from checking it whenever she had a second. She realized that she'd forgotten it at home the night before, and while she was at dinner with Mamouru she had missed a text message.

It was from Cassie. It read "back in jpn, need to talk to you. call you tomorrow morning". Taylor read it over a few times. Cassie had been away visiting her folks in Canada for a while. Taylor got the impression that her AFW career wasn't all she thought it would be, and maybe she was thinking of quitting. Maybe she just needed to recharge. It was hard to tell with Cassie sometimes, because despite being the world's worst liar it was anyone's guess what went on in that head of hers.

She dragged herself out of bed, put on a pair of loose cotton pajama pants to go with her white tank top, and shuffled off to the kitchen to get her morning glass of water. While she waited for the slow stream of water from her refrigerator to fill her large water cup, she stretched her neck to either side, rolled her shoulders, curled her toes under and yawned. She had halfway downed the glass when someone knocked at her door.

Who could it be? Was it Johnny? Taylor quickly dismissed the thought, she knew who it was. She opened the door.

"Hey Cass."

Cassie wasted no time in giving Taylor a big hug. She was gentle, conspicuously so, which meant that she knew all about her injury, but she wrapped both arms around Taylor and pressed her head against the taller girl's shoulder. Taylor opened her mouth to say something vaguely witty and snarky, but close it again and only patted Cassie on the back.

When she finally stepped back she looked Taylor straight in the eye with the serious look she got when she meant business. "Hi Taylor." She said, and walked in.

She leaned up against the kitchen counter and folded her arms. She stared at Taylor, as if studying her, and Taylor just stared curiously back at her out of the corner of her eye as she tipped back her water cup. Once she finished, she put the glass down on the table and shifted uncomfortably.

"What?"

"I spent a lot of time with my parents." Cassie said.

"Well, yeah."

"And, ya know, my dad sort of helped me put things in perspective. He didn't really mean to, the way he did, but... You'd really like him, actually, I think. I think you guys would get along and everything."

"Uh huh." Taylor said, waiting for her to get to the point. Cassie took the hint.

"I don't think I'll ever be champ here. I'm too small and too... nice, and I just don't think I have that killer instinct to go out there and fight and win. I like jiu jitsu competition, it's physical but it's technical and controlled and everyone has good manners. Wrestling here... it just isn't my thing."

"Cassie..." Taylor said in disbelief. "Are you quitting?"

"Quitting? No! No. I just... I figured out that I was having so much trouble here because I didn't know what I wanted. The thing with Mamouru, trying to teach me to act like a bad girl so that I'd... assert myself more and win matches. It didn't work. I realized that I don't want to be champ, and it's okay." Cassie said. "I want you to be champ."

Taylor furrowed her brow at her. "Okay..."

"I want to help you." Cassie said. Taylor looked away, uncomfortable. She didn't like hearing that. "And before you go and try to stop me... you can't. This is what I've decided to do, and, for a long time I've sort of gone with the flow. I'm just happy to be around the people that I love, like you. But right now, I'm telling you how it is."

Taylor raised an eyebrow. "Oh, you are, are you?"

Cassie nodded sternly. It was funny, Cassie was just too adorable to be taken seriously. But this time, Taylor didn't say anything about it. Cassie really was serious about this stuff.

"I want to be at ringside for your matches. I want to help you train, because your grappling still sucks."

"Well, jeez, Cass-"

Cassie wasn't to be interrupted. "I want to protect you, because you won't protect yourself. I think you're really really awesome, and you're the kind of person that deserves to be at the top, and I'm not, but you need someone to watch out for you. That's me. Also, I think we should move in together."

The cute little redhead pushed her short hair out of her face with a little nervous gesture, and it was her turn to fidget. What if Taylor said no? She grabbed the skirt of her yellow sundress and swished it back and forth a little while she waited for Taylor's response.

"Wow." Was all she could think to say. "I guess... I dunno." Part of Taylor wanted to just tell Cassie off, but she couldn't. It was Cassie. And, more to the point, it seemed like she might be right. It made sense, in a weird, weird way.

"I'm just kinda looking for new roommates..." Cassie said. Her little Finns were starting to run wild, and it had become apparent that maybe she didn't need to be sharing an apartment with them. She did so miss the old days of spending time with Taylor back in NYC, at their pro wrestling school. She was so excited about the idea of doing it again she had to hold her breath.

"Okay." Taylor shrugged. "You're for real about this so I guess I won't fight you. We'd have to find a new place, though." After being so alone, the idea of having the company was never more welcome, even with all of the spritely Canadian early-riser's quirks.

Cassie contained her glee and nodded with a smile. "Awesome. Awesome, awesome, awesome." She said, nodding her head. "I'm gonna go, I've got some stuff to do. I picked up a little side job just for some money and to fill up some spare time and get out of the apartment..."

"Doing what?" Taylor asked, and raised an eyebrow.

"Walking dogs."

"Oh."

"It's really fun... anyway, Taylor. Um... You're going to be okay, eh? I know you're hurt and everything, but you're going to heal up and come back and you're going to be great. Everything's going to be great." She gave Taylor another quick hug. "I love you, Taylor."

Taylor returned Cassie's hug. "I love you too, Cassie." She said without thinking, and was surprised to hear the words come out of her mouth, even more than Cassie was.

Cassie left with a spring in her step, and Taylor stood in the kitchen for a while, thinking over what had just happened. As she poured another glass of water, her tears fell onto the outside of the glass and she smiled. When Cassie told her she'd be okay, she believed her, and that was someone worth keeping nearby.