Monkey See, Barricuda Do

Akashi plopped on the bench in the locker room. She'd just taken a shower after her workout and was getting on her clothes and preparing to leave after taking a trip around the arena. The Temple Games were in full swing and all of the AFW was buzzing. The electric atmosphere should have been enough to brighten Akashi's spirits but the big sumo just wasn't feeling it. Even as captain, she'd not had much contact with her team after their initial meeting. She wasn't sure what she needed to get back in the groove and even with her own matches coming up, she was excited but not jubilant as she usually was.

She clenched her fist and pulled off her kimono and threw it to the ground. She grabbed her sports bra and wriggled into a pair of tight workout shorts. She marched back out into the gym and scanned it thoroughly. She wasn't looking for anything in particular but she saw the open ring and marched towards it. Whenever she wasn't feeling well, which used to be quite rare, training always helped. She'd been doing a lot of training lately. A lot of angry lately.

Her thoughts kept drifting back to where everything went wrong. WERE things wrong? She didn't really know.She ran ropes, bouncing back and forth, picking up speed and grunting each time she bounced off the ropes. Normally she'd be able to call on anyone to spar with her but she hadn't been able to lately. There wasn't anyone she could turn to. Mina and Taylor had left her, the later kicking her out of her life and the former just leaving. Her other 'friends' hadn't exactly been people she could rely on either. Karina's dirty trick at the tag match had left a sour taste in her mouth. That same match had also left her a little gun shy when it came to talking to Talia. And Sarah... She hooked her arms around the top ropes and skidded to a halt. She threw her hands up and ten leaned over panting. Her heart raced.

All she had was wrestling now and lately, she hadn't even been very good at that. What was she supposed to do? She really had no answer and flopped down on all fours and began to growl loudly as she punched the mat over and over again.

Reverberating from somewhere in the locker room came a voice, youthful and girlish, raw and unrepentant, rhythmically carrying something like song lyrics.

"Yeaah ya tryin' to tire me! Tire me! I can see you in front of me, front of me!" Taylor shouted roughly. In one hand she held her mp3 player, her earbuds connected by a thin, dangling cord. She trailed off and stuffed her mp3 player in the waistband of her gym shorts as she stooped to tie her sneakers. Her bright blue hair was tied back in a pony tail and already sweaty.

Earlier in the week, she'd met her team, Blue Barracuda, and... it could have gone better. It wouldn't have been so bad if Taylor hadn't let herself get so excited for it. She should have known better than to think she could be in a leadership position for any group of people and not have it all go horribly wrong. They all hated her, she was sure of that. They certainly weren't training together and strategizing and watching matches of potential opponents. Half her team only really wanted to do matches that she didn't want to watch. She restlessly skipped her mp3 player ahead for no particular reason.

She came to her evening workouts alone. No team to train with, no friendly competition to make them all better. Cassie had been busy with the million new projects and odd jobs she picked up. She was training for some kind of first aid certification, or something. Taylor was all alone. No one to keep her company but Zach de la Rocha.

"Hungry people don't stay hungry for long..." She resumed with the next song. "The get hope from fire and smoke while the..." She trailed off. She couldn't ever catch that part. Something about weed? As she entered the gym, she looked up to see someone she'd successfully avoided for weeks. Her heart jumped into her throat and her stomach suddenly turned into angry moths.

She left her earbuds in, but stopped her mp3 player. She looked away from Akashi while she made her way to some wrestling mats to stretch out and warm up.

"The mat..." She announced loudly. "Doesn't hit back." She didn't look up at Akashi.

Akashi did not notice Taylor as she entered the gym. So busy was she beating the ring mat into submission that she barely even noticed anything but the rash starting to form on her fist. But she did hear the voice when it rang out, wafting into her ear that twitched suddenly.

She looked up like a deer that had just had a spotlight turned on it by shiners, deciding whether, int hat moment, she would watch them, or turn and run. Her eyes found Taylor and her heart knotted up. She hadn't exactly been avoiding Taylor either, but she hadn't been searching out for her. After the promo she had felt like all she wanted to do was kick butt and take names and forget about Taylor and everyone else. But she'd be lying if she said she didn't miss her.

But everything had gone wrong. It didn't seem that way for Taylor but Akashi didn't really know for sure. She stood up and rubbed her knuckles and turned her head. Now she was standing in the middle of the ring and looked like a fool. Her cheeks were red and she looked around. "Uhhh..."

Taylro was probably just going to ignore her. Should she just leave? It felt like she should but instead, she decided to swallow hard and leave the ring. Akashi moved over tot he nearby mats. She'd stretched plenty but she halfheartedly did so again. "So, uh... That's neat they put you as a team captain, right?" She said. There was nervousness in her tone but she tried to act like nothing had happened between the two of them. "That's pretty cool.' She threw her fist in the air. "G-go Team Green Monkey! I'll bet we'll kick your butts for sure!"

That was bad. Why did she have to go there. She didn't even mean it or care, the tone was obvious in her words.

What am I doing!? Baka! She hates you! If you want to make up, don't say something like that!? Do I want to make up?

Taylor's eyes hardened and her mouth spread into a joyless, spiteful grin. She pushed her bangs to the side and shot Akashi a very put on look of feigned arrogance.

"Yeah, hi." She said. "We're both team captains, hooray. We'll beat you, blah blah blah. I'd tell you to go fuck yourself, but you're way ahead of me there. Your new tag partner? She seems nice." She couldn't possibly pack any more sarcasm into her tone without risking physical injury to her throat. "Good to see you don't need me to lose matches."

For all her snark, her words were mostly lacking in any real malice. She was only going through the motions. What would she say that would mean anything at all, anyway? She was too closed off to go off on Akashi. She was too deeply entrenched in her routine of protecting herself whenever thoughts of Akashi surfaced to allow any real emotion out.

"Don't you have someplace else to be, bigshot?" Her voice was so cold that it didn't feel like her own. It hurt, to think of this as their relationship now, with how much affection she had for the sumo. Her friend. Her sister. She opened her mouth to stop the thoughts.

"I'm all better now, you're not going to touch me again." She growled.

Akashi let the words stick to her like aldente pasta on the wall. Taylor always did like trash talking and normally Akashi would get really fired up. But even Taylor didn't want to get into it and that was obvious.

"Yeah." She said sourly. She looked at Taylor with weary eyes. "I don't have anywhere to be." She said and then turned her head and looked at the wall in front of her. She closed her eyes and let out a sigh. This whole scene was making her morose. She couldn't really handle it anymore and then suddenly looked at Taylor again.

She didn't know why, but she suddenly flared up and her eyes sparked. "What. the FUCK is your problem, Taylor-chan!?" Akashi shouted. Akashi had been a bitch, and they had gotten into it, but right now Akashi suddenly felt like she needed to explode. "What the fuck did I do to you to make you so fucking bitter!? Are you pissed off because we got into a fight?! Because I called you names, because I questioned your integrity!?" She did. "You did the same thing to me! MULTIPLE times! After I lost the title, I didn't fucking kick you out of my life, when I probably had every right to!"

Akashi inhaled a breath. "I'm tired of living like this! I'm sick of it and I'm sick of you! I've always stuck up for you and the one time you get it in your head that I don't have your back you fucking talk shit about me and throw me out on the street!? Who the fuck are you!?" Akashi said as she glared at Taylor. No doubt there would be a retort but the way they had been was pathetic. Taylor could act tough all she wanted but Akashi knew better than that.

Akashi was going to fix this problem one way or another, even if they had to kill each other to make it right.

Taylor felt the warmth in her cheeks as she turned a shade of red and clenched her fists. Her mouth twisted into a deep scowl, her breathing picked up, her heart was pounding. She couldn't take it. All at once, she snapped and unloaded on Akashi.

She let out a throat-shredding scream. "FUCK YOU!" She stomped her foot and took a few aggressive steps toward the ring where Akashi stood. "Typical Akashi, high and mighty. Nice pedestal you got there. Here's something to think about. YOU were the BIGGEST FUCKING MISTAKE I EVER MADE!" She screamed, so loud she was sure most of Tokyo heard her, having completely lost her self control.

"I would rather spend a week in the woods with Gatt and her bitches than you. OH, WAIT! You ARE one of her bitches! That's what you got in common, motherfucker, you both think you're SO MUCH BETTER THAN EVERYONE! You might as well move in with her, since you're in the market for a new fuck buddy you sloppy, greasy, WHORE!"

Her blood was pumping. She felt a rush of adrenaline like she was ready to fight. She felt light, like she might lose control of her body at any moment, and she wasn't sure if she was going to run away or bull rush the sumo. She wanted to run away, honestly.

"You want a fucking piece of me, big shot? Come on. Come down here with all the rest of us common people. I'm not gimped now, bitch, I'll fuck you up, I don't even give a fuck!" She ranted, pacing back and forth like an animal stalking a kill. "Come get me, you know you want to hurt me."

Akashi tightened her fists. The reactions he expected from Taylor. She stood her ground and her features turned into into a more stoic grimace. "That's right." She said, her tone suddenly becoming more even in response to Taylor's bellowing. "Always ready to start a fight at the first sign of trouble. Call someone names and then pick a fight. You're so predictable it hurts, Taylor-chan." Akashi tried to steady her breathing but it was obvious she was shaking too. Her heart was racing fast and she was ready for a fight as well.

"You want to know why I think I'm better than you." She said, narrowing her eyes. "Because I don't think anything that happened between us was a mistake. Not then, not now. Not anything. My life is my life and I'm proud of it, even the bad decisions. All you can do is run and regret. I don't have anyone right now." It was stupid to say something like that, especially around Taylor. "I'm all alone and maybe it's my fault and maybe it isn't but at least I don't have to wonder whether or not the next person I meet is going to put a knife in my back. At least... I can say that much. Maybe someday you'll realize that you're the one who's holding the dagger in your back. Stupid. Baka!" She raised her voice and glared at Taylor when she said the last two words.

Taylor bared her teeth at Akashi and her horribly accurate assessment of Taylor and her... patterns. She scowled and shook her head while Akashi spoke, unable to think of anything else to say, and suddenly, everything so out of control. Maybe what happened between them was only exaggerated in her memory. Maybe it was just a fight, but...

No. Akashi meant the things she said, and she could never take them back. She'd just be lying if she did. Taylor was right to get rid of her. She was better off. It was better to be alone then to keep people around who only acted like your friends. Akashi would never really be Taylor's friend, as long as she was being honest.

The thoughts had stolen away Taylor's fire, and her arms slackened to her sides. "Maybe it wasn't a mistake." She said, calmer now. "It was a lie. And you're wrong, it isn't just me. If you can tell me why you picked Talia to replace me so it doesn't sound like you stabbing me in the back, maybe I'll believe you."

Suddenly, all the energy drained out of Taylor's body. Instead of being ready for a workout, she just wanted to go home and sleep for a week. She sighed heavily, with all the weight of the last few months making her feel like she might collapse.

"You think you know everything. Say whatever you want, but you don't respect me." She said. She opened her mouth to say something else, but then just turned to leave.

"If your weight problem doesn't put you in a wheel chair, I just might." She said over her shoulder, without looking at Akashi.

Akashi furrowed her brow at Taylor's words. Now that Taylor was sobering up, Akashi felt the heat roil in her body. She knew it had to be this way even though it was draining and emotionally exhausting. "When people get hurt, they do irrational things! You of all people should understand that! You're the fucking queen of irationality! I was pissed off! I was upset... and not just at you!"

Akashi clenched her fists tightly. "Why should anyone respect someone when they have to worry that every little thing they say and do is going to make that person run away... OR FUCKING FIGHT THEM!"

Akashi snorted a hot breath through her nose. "I accepted you for who you were. I liked you..." Akashi's faced washed with pain when she spoke her next words. "I loved you... when... no one else would! When they couldn't because you wouldn't LET them!" Akashi threw her hands up in the air. "Even if you don't care anymore, I'm not going to let those feelings just fade away. I never wanted to hate you, Taylor-chan. Unlike you, who was just looking for a reason to do it. If I have to beat that into your thick skull, then that's what I'll do but I won't let you get away with being a brat."

Akashi stepped forward and raised her head to look at Taylor with a scowl. "Onee-chan is going to have to teach you a lesson and afterwards we can go back to being a happy family, understand?"

Of course, Akashi would say that. She just loved being right and telling Taylor all about everything that was wrong with her. If you only listened to Akashi, you'd think she was such a perfect angel and she never did anything wrong to anyone.

Taylor didn't respond, except to give Akashi the finger over her shoulder before disappearing into the locker room. She picked up speed as she went, not bothering to change into or even pick up her street clothes. She went faster and faster until she was running, and she had to put as much distance between herself and Akashi as possible because the tears had already started rolling down her cheeks.

There was only one way this could end, and Taylor knew it.