Back To Work

Last night, Taylor got a phone call from the last person she would ever have expected.

Well, that wasn't true. Not the last person, but... actually, once she thought about it, she was a little surprised the call hadn't come a long time ago. Regardless, it was still unexpected, and she definitely wasn't expecting to be asked to play trainer for some chump. Taylor found that she actually really liked teaching as much as she liked learning new things about technique and training, and after having been crammed in her apartment with almost no human contact for weeks, she was actually excited to get back out into the world and do something productive.

She took a long shower, taped up her ribs, and took her time to make sure she looked right. She wouldn't be doing any training herself, she still had plenty of time before her body would be ready for that, so she could stand to do her makeup all the way with dark eyeliner and dramatic, smokey, steel-blue eye shadow. She looked at herself in the mirror, at her recently dyed jet-black hair that hung around her shoulders, her long bangs hanging down almost over one eye. It was... weird. She didn't feel like herself.

She gathered her hair up and pull it back into a pony tail, and made sure her bangs would stay put swept to one side. She pulled on a stretchy, electric blue workout shirt that was a little low cut in the front and came down to just above her belly button. She found wearing a sports bra incredibly unpleasant at the moment with how much they squeezed around the ribs, and the shirt provided enough support for her modest bust. She wiggled her way into black pants that fit like a second skin and stopped mid shin, added her purple and black sneakers and was out the door.

She didn't want to risk running into anyone from Friction, so she'd found a combat sports gym across town from the AFW complex. The owner knew who she was and was enthusiastic about the prospect of having her use the facilities for however long they decided to keep going. Honestly, she didn't have a lot of faith in her new trainee's ability to stick with it, especially with how relentless Taylor intended to be, but she was hoping that it would be a regular thing at least for a while. Sitting around doing nothing drove her out of her mind.

She pushed through the doors and looked around. The own greeted her with a big smile and came over to greet her.

"Is he here yet?" She asked him.

The owner nodded back and motioned with his thumb towards an area with punching bags.

"He got here about half an hour ago."

He replied letting her walk off towards the bags to meet her new trainee.

As she approached the bags she would see him working a medium weight bag, hands taped as he threw jabs and hooks into the leather bag. Tai Kamiya had been suspended after his utterly abysmal showing in his tag team loss to Kamikaze a year earlier, and he had not been seen by any other Friction or Tension members since that match. Even his girlfriend, Chigusa Yuuki, was at a lost for where he was. Since then, the boy had been in a depression, eating and sleeping most of his days, ignoring any exercise while letting his body go to waste and lose the tight, hot body he used to be proud of.

His depression lasted 8 long months before he realized that he needed to stop moping and learn what he could from the experience. Knowing now just how outmatched and worthless he was in a ring, Tai decided to scroll his contacts to find someone who could assist him in training. Rather then call Chigusa, or one of the other hentai wrestlers he usually "trained" with; Tai wanted someone with real skill who he respected. Someone who could break him down and remake him from the ground up. With that in mind, he scrolled near the bottom of his list, seeing Taylor's name. Knowing she was just who he was looking for, he broke his self imposed exile and gave her a call, soon convincing her to meet him at a gym of her choice to give him a chance.

Taylor would notice a difference in the boy right away. His once slim and toned swimmers body had a bit of fat to it now, as she would see from the small gut that was poking out from under his white T shirt. His hair, once spiky and dyed bright pink, was now its dull brown original color, and in a surprising change, he had cut his hair down to a simple crew cut. His cheeks were a bit bigger, having gained an extra 30 pounds in his time off. He was dressed to train, adding gym shorts and white tennis shoes to his ensemble.

He continued to hit the bag for a couple minutes, his form a bit sloppy. Clearly, whatever actual wrestling skills the former hentai star actually did once have had been either eroded with time or never existed in the first place. In any case, he was clearly rusty. When he finally stopped, he wiped some sweat off his brow and turned to see Taylor approaching.

"Hey!"

He said aloud, raising his forearm to gain her notice, moving to meet her halfway.

"Thanks for meeting me here...and agreeing to help me train. I...really appreciate it. God knows I need it too."

After his greeting, he raised an eyebrow at her.

"You look...different. How have you been lately anyway?"

He asked, honestly having no contact or even following the news on anything regarding his former opponent.

Taylor's face tightened at Tai's rambling introduction. It was unfortunate that Tai had always annoyed her so much, and even more unfortunate that he seemed to have... changed shape a bit.

"Hey." She said. "I'm great. I was gonna say we should start out with like an overview of technique stuff, but... maybe we need to burn some calories first."

She looked around the gym, noting all of the available equipment and making mental notes about all the things she'd put Tai through. "So are you going to be able to keep up? And are you going to quit on me, or are you actually going to stick with this, because if you're just going to give up you should tell me now."

Taylor knew very well that the only way to persevere through grueling workouts and the mental and emotional stresses of having to prepare to fight other people who are also training to fight you was to decide before hand that under no circumstances would you consider quitting an option. Quitting wasn't an option. Trying it would only get you beat up and humiliated, and leave you in even worse trouble.

She looked Tai up and down and put her hands on her hips. "Okay, time for a run. Pick a treadmill, I'll pick out your workout."

Tai nodded, before shaking his head.

"I'm not going to quit. I swear it. I'm in this for the long haul and nothing is going to change my mind."

He replied, before doing as he was told and picking out a treadmill, getting on and patting his stomach a bit.

"...Though I regret agreeing to the diet Chigusa wants me on now...I'm going to miss pizza..."

But his laments would have to wait, as Taylor operated the treadmill to a speed she found fitting, forcing Tai to shut his mouth and start moving.

"Shit man, pizza should be the last thing on your mind. It's not just about not being fat, it's about being able to perform." Taylor lectured. She set the treadmill to a low warmup tempo and set the timer for ten minutes.

"You knock yourself out with this, try to stay relaxed, if you cramp up, I dunno, just fight through it. I'm gonna find something to write down your new diet... oh, I'll just text it to you. It's not like I have to worry about you getting my phone number now, is it. And forget whatever Yuuki told you."

Taylor pulled out her phone and began thumbing away, assembling a short hierarchy of foods. Greens, other veggies, fruit, brown rice, fish, and a little lean meat. No sugar, nothing fried, no alcohol, no dairy, no white rice or white bread or anything else white. It was a very simple plan, and if Tai was serious he'd figure out how to make it work. That wasn't her problem. If he didn't do it and couldn't keep up with the workouts, she'd just dump him.

"How's it going over there?" She asked. "What happened to your hair?"

Tai chuckled and nodded, starting his light jog on the treadmill. He figured whatever Taylor had him eat would be better then Chigusa. His girlfriend was a decent cook and all...but her love of peaches caused her to want them on everything, which was starting to get on his nerves. Plus she had been really getting into Sushi lately, which also annoyed Tai, who hated the stuff.

He had to chuckle about her comment of him getting her number.

"Heh, I guess you can thank Chigusa for saving you the issue of having me flirt with you!"

He joked as he kept jogging, a couple minutes in so far and his breathing was still fine, and his forehead remained dry.

"My hair? Oh yeah, guess its a shock seeing it like this isn't it?" He said back.

"...I...sort of...went through a depression faze a while back, started to not like looking at myself in the mirror...One day I just went in with some clippers and shaved it all off. Now its grown back a bit, so for now I've decided to keep it short and stop dying it. Chigusa misses the pink hair. She said it made us match, me pink and her purple. I dunno, I might go back to it one day."

He said, the 10 minutes almost up as he maintained his speed, still in good enough shape at least to tackle this part of the treadmill challenge.

"Hm." Taylor grunted, putting her hands on her hips after she sent the text. It seemed like her and Tai had something in common at the moment. Who would've ever thought.

She walked up to the treadmill and increased the speed to a brisk jog. After a few minutes figuring out how to program this particular treadmill, she set it to alternate between two minutes of a fast, flat jog, and one minute of a slower jog at a significant incline. She stepped back.

"You'll probably start hurting soon. Pain is good. This pain is so much better than the kind people want to put on you in the ring, when you're helpless and all you can do is take it. Beat yourself up in here so no one else can. Got it?"

She sighed. "You... You and Chigusa, huh? I know you guys did the porno thing, but are you guys really a thing? Not for nothing, but... I wouldn't have seen that coming."

Tai nodded in agreement as she set the program for the treadmill,

"Kind of ironic...I've been doing this longer then you, yet I need your help...just one of life's fun times I guess."

before starting to briskly jog for a couple minutes before it switched to the slower jog, at which point he spoke again.

"C..Chigusa and I? We did matches against each other, which may have involved hentai yeah...but after that, we went out a few times and we really connected. Now here we are a year later, still together. Her teammates aren't happy about it, but we're pretty good together. Is it that shocking that we ended up a couple? Or were you just surprised a hentai wrestler could get a girlfriend? We aren't all bad you know."

He wouldn't talk after that, as the program went back to its faster format. He managed this for a few cycles, starting out alright, but after a few times through he started panting a bit, sweat, at first just a small sheen, now starting to slide down his forehead before he wiped it off. His legs started to hurt a little, not used to the new exercise after a long period of inactivity. He didn't complain though. He kept jogging, not wanting to stop and make himself look weak.

"No way have you been doing this longer than me. Having sex in public is not the same thing, and I've been doing stuff like this my whole life. I just didn't get serious about it until three or four years ago."

Taylor didn't say anything about Chigusa. She wasn't sure what she thought about it, just that she was a little surprised. Should could certainly see how Megumi and whatshername might be unhappy about it, but she had one question she couldn't help but ask.

"Where was Chigusa this last year? Seems like she would've kept you in line a bit, or... at least kept you away from pizza a little."

She reached over and set the treadmill for a brief rest period, a walking speed. She hadn't really decided if she was going to keep wearing him out on the treadmill or if she'd find more creative ways of doing that. It was a little frustrating to have to worry about digging Tai out from under the mound of fat he'd buried himself in. It slowed everything down, and he definitely wouldn't be able to perform on technique drills if his body couldn't move the way she needed it to. She sighed. Long, lower intensity workouts were what he needed, even if they were incredibly boring, especially when she couldn't do anything herself.

She climbed up on a treadmill next to Tai and set it to a brisk walking pace. She had to be careful to be light on her feet, or else upset her ribs, but she couldn't help it. She had to move.

"You'd be having a lot more fun right now if it weren't for this." She said flatly, and poked him in the side.

Tai slowed down and let out a low breath as Taylor adjusted him to a walking speed, shooting her a very brief look of appreciation when her back was turned. The extra weight had made it harder for him to move even more then he realized, and he appreciated that she was working with that.

"I started out as a wrestler too ya know...I was offered a chance to join Tension in the hentai league and I took it. Honestly, it takes a'lot more talent and skill, as well as mental and physical conditioning then you would think. I'm still proud of my accomplishments in the league."

He stated, defending his former workplace. He stopped though when she asked about Chigusa, taking a second before resuming his walk. It was certainly a loaded question.

"Well, its not a simple answer. I've been avoiding everyone since our match until a month or two ago, plus she's been busy alright? She's one half of the Friction Tag Team Champions, she's got her singing career, she's even started a modeling career on the side...the girls a workhorse. But we do care about each other and we are good for each other...so you can stop sounding so surprised."

He stated, getting a little defensive now. After all, it wasn't any of her business, he hadn't asked about her love life, and she kept sounding so surprised at the idea of Tai in a relationship with someone that he was starting to get a little offended.

Watching Taylor as she got on the opposite treadmill and started walking, before she poked his stomach.

"Yeah I know....stupid pizza...Its only 500 yen a box! That's like 6 bucks back home!"

He said, patting his pudgy stomach.

"Ugh...your right though. I need to get rid of this. I do miss how sexy I used to look."

He looked over at Taylor with a teasing look on his face.

"You remember right? After all, I believe you did kiss me after the end of our first match..."