Small World After All

Clyde's eyes narrowed as Taylor seemed rather unhappy with his answer and turned away despite being completely honest. "I Am bein' real!" He tried to tell her as he started to get a bit aggravated in his voice. It appeared that things were going back down a similar path again.

He couldn't help but drag his fingers down through his hair as Taylor went on about how's forgiving and that she knows people more fucked up than him ("Unlikely") while seeming to think his interest with Mercy was not as innocent as he made out. It ticked him off, he really thought they were past this crap.

He did as she asked him and looked Taylor right in the eye sternly. "What I want is to show Mercy that I can be better than what she and everyone else thinks I am. You might find it kinda farfetched but I owe her my life in a way and I've had my mind on her since the night after we hooked up, just wishin' I could have another chance with her under better circumstances. Yeah I got my hopes up after a dang one-night stand because I felt I needed someone to go on. But I don't. Not anymore." Clyde would admit, sharing otherwise private feelings that probably left unsaid in his book.

Clyde let out a sigh. "I think she cares a little bit. Just a little. That's plenty good reason for me start chasin' after her. I only got with her 'cause I wanted to get laid and try to move on. But I got attached to her and I moved on from Heather. And I got my opportunity at a second chance with Mercy, granted I don't know her too well but she seems worth chasin' if she can give even me at my lowest a shot. I just wanna be her guy. I'd like ta' make her happy. I'd like to find somone else who could give a damn 'bout me. And I think she could end up bein' that gal. I hope anyway. That's all." Clyde would let out uneasily. He disliked talking about his feelings with Taylor. Much easier to keep it all bottled up and try to keep acting like Clint.

"Get a good laugh outta that?" He asked before letting out a shaky sigh to turn around and leave Taylor to head back towards the saleswoman and make a purchase.

Rei's eyes were wide with excitement as she walked down the mall as she excitedly picked out Christmas presents for her friends and family. Now, Rei was normally a very upbeat and energetic girl who was hyperactive enough to drive anyone up and over the metaphysical wall. During the holidays, Rei's body was bursting with energy fueled with the spirit of Christmas itself. Her green eyes gleaming with such wonder as the holidays were so quickly approaching. Her cheeks were rosy with the pump of her young heart as the kid in her was resurrected as she did a few cartwheels within the confines of the mall. The purple haired girl wore a red Santa hat along with her red pro wrestling outfit which matched her perfectly. She had come rather early to the mall to pick out presents before she would enter a shop.

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Rei hummed the tune to 'Jingle Bells' as she danced into the store like a red hurricane as she had a stacked set of presents which hid her presently. The leaning tower of presents had somehow stayed in tact before she put them down and began looking around the store.

"Hmmm...." Rei pondered as this wasn't her type of store at all. Her green eyes analyzed the store as she saw a certain blonde haired man. Her lips formed a wide grin as her target was sighted. The Cosplay fighter ran at full speeds holding nothing back as she would jump at Clyde and wrap her legs around his chest and begin shaking the poor soul's shoulders with such vigor.

"CLYDE-Sensei! It's you! HAPPY HOLIDAYS! IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT! CAN YA? CAN YA? CAN YAAAA!" Rei said with her eyes shining with Christmas spirit.

Taylor listened to Clyde, but wasn't sure what to think. Even on friendly terms she distrusted him, and she was torn between giving the poor sap a chance and protecting her girl. If she could call her that, she liked Mercy and they got along, but she hardly knew her. Sometimes Taylor thought that she didn't trust people enough, but then she remembered all the reasons she had for not doing it, namely one big fat sumo reason with stupid curly hair.

"Well, no." She said with a straight mouth and bright eyes. "You're not funny. Anyway, about this stuff, I think since it's... it's... um..." Taylor trailed off, and her eyes were pulled over to a girl entering the store. She was conspicuous, to say the least, and she was... were those knee pads?

"Incoming..." Taylor said to herself and took one step out of the way to let Rei cannonball into Clyde. Her face couldn't have possibly held any more confusion.

"Holy hell." She muttered. "Dude, you literally just pull chicks like that? Outta nowhere?" She put a hand on her hip and looked around so as not to stare at the happy couple. "I think it's the facial hair. Japanese chicks want a dude with facial hair, and us white girls want a Japanese dude without it. Grass is always greener and stuff. Sometimes it's blue..."

"Wasn't tryin' to be funny." Clyde thought as Taylor spoke, waiting for her to finish whatever she was about to tell him, keeping his eyes fixated on her and not even noticing the bright red blur that was torpedoing right towards him and would remain not seeing her until at last she leaped at Clyde.

"WAH!!" Clyde let out as he was glomped by a random girl, stumbling back and nearly losing balance from the impact, flailing his arms about to keep himself up before he straightened his posture, only to have his shoulders and the rest of upper body being shook violently by none other than... Rei. His energetic brawling idol in training who nearly gave him a heart-attack and made his cheeks turn red from the sudden and unexpected greeting.

"I-Immmmmm-B-Bout Taaa' feeeel it innn Myyy Waaaaalleeet..." Clyde let out as Rei shook him before he tried to get his hands on Rei's arms to stop her shaking before he heard Taylor's remarks towards the little scene. Her first couple of words making him crack up a bit. He ego demanded he go along with it.

"Well of course." He lied with a sly grin before he heard Taylor continue on about facial hair and such prompting him to look at Rei and tilt his head at her, giving Rei a look as he mulled over the concept before looking back at Taylor.

"You sure that's every white girl or just you?" Clyde would ask with an eyebrow raised at Taylor. His experiences told him such a concept was dumb but part of him was actually a bit unsure.

"Uhhh... Rei, this is Taylor Parker, Former Entropy Champ. Taylor this is my Padawan Learner: Rei Tomizawa... Now could you let me go?" Clyde said, trying to introduce the two while seeking to get free from Rei and the embarrassing position.

"Alright! Alright!" Rei chuckeld as she released Clyde from her glomp and finally got off of her. The girl blinked a she looked at Talyor not taking not of her before. The Cosplay fighter leaned to the left, then to the right, toe to head and head to toe as she looked at Taylor Parker. "Hmmmmmmmm..." Rei said as she placed her hand under her chin as she eyed the blue haired American girl with skeptic inquisition before her lips formed a pleasant smiled as she slammed the side of her fist into the palm of her hand as if coming to some profound conclusion.

"Nice to meet you Taylor!" Rei said offering her hand to her to shake, "Oh wow! The former Entropy Champ! I hope we get along!"

Rei turned over to Clyde as she unintentionally flipped the white ball of her Santa hat to the other side of her head.

"Wow... Clyde I didn't know you had such a cute girlfriend, she's adorable!" Rei said with a smile taking a step back and making a triangle with her index fingers and her thumbs with Clyde and Taylor in it as if she was taking a photo of the couple.

"Hey, what's- Fffuck, dude!" Taylor interrupted herself and gave Clyde a shove on the shoulder. "Don't introduce me as the chick that lost the stupidest title in the thing! Shit. Just call my Taylor, a'right? Holy shit."

She took a breath and calmed down, and then raised an eyebrow at Rei when she saw the spritely little girl checking her out. Taylor cautiously looked her up and down too, and sized her up. She was more or less Taylor's size, but she looked way smaller than she really was. And she was apparently a wrestler wannabe, and wore her shit around town?

"You missed Halloween. It was a while ago." Taylor said dryly, ignoring Rei's flattery, if that's what it really was. She shook her hand and started to say something else, but choked.

She recovered quickly and tried to suppress her urge to choke both of them at the same time, or maybe run away, or maybe even hide in a clothing rack. What a world. She coolly took out her phone and found her way over to her pictures. As humiliatingly incompetent as she was with computers, she was a pro with her phone.

She held the phone up to Rei. On it was a picture of Johnny, with his spiky silver hair and his chiseled abs and chest. It was obviously a picture that was meant just for Taylor, but at least he was only naked from the waist up.

"THIS is my boyfriend, squeaky-pie." She said firmly. "Not THAT." She jabbed a finger at Clyde and shuddered.

Clyde groaned and rolled his eyes as Taylor shoved him and complained about the introduction he gave her. He didn't feel it was his fault, she didn't really have alot to work with.

He felt Taylor's response to Rei was kind of uncalled for given the manner of her attitude. This was certainly a first, Clyde usually did as he pleased and never found himself caring when other people may have been rude, but given it was Rei, Clyde felt a little defensive. Maybe Taylor just enjoyed commenting on the appearance on others that didn't suit her tastes. It made him weary about the suit for a moment but he shrugged it off.

Clyde was about to say something too before he heard Rei's remark about them being a couple. His eyes went wide and he released a wheezing cough. This was no laughing matter.

Clyde then looked over as Taylor pulled out her phone and showed the picture of Johnny on her phone, Clyde's cheeks instantly puffed out as he suppressed the urge to burst out laughing at the pic of the silver haired hedgehog that Taylor drooled over. He didn't even care when Taylor insulted him..

He covered his mouth as he struggled to hold in his laughter before he turned to Rei with a very wide grin and opened his mouth to speak.... "....PPPFFFFFTTTTTTTT-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! EEEEeehheheheheheheheheheHOHOHAAHAA!!! WOOOOO, THAT'S GOOD SHIT, MAN I BE TELLIN' YA, BOI! GODDAMN! HAHA! " But would just crack up yet again and begin to laugh hard like a southern Mark Hamil with no class, unable to stop a few tears from developing at the corner of his eyes upon seeing the pic.

He turned to Rei and put his arm on her shoulder while he tried to maintain composure. "Hehehe...It Was... Oh ho... It didn't work out... It was Very hard to compete with the neighborhood Backstreet Boy...I'm sorry he just looks SOOOOOOO gay, Dood." Clyde would remark before trying to dry his eyes. He understood that Johnny was sadly a babe magnet and he was not. Sometimes that got to him. But other times... It was laughable.

"Oh and don't worry!" Rei said with a smile taking her comment literally. "I didn't miss it this year! And don't worry! I think you're awesome even if you lost the belt... in the stupid thing-"

"Oohhh.... My bad..." Rei said at the error she had made as she looked at the phone as she put her hand under her chin like a detective.The girl then grinned at the two looking at both of them as they bickered. Putting her hands on her hips, the Cosplay fighter listened what he two had to say before glancing back at the picture.

"Hmmm...." Rei said shaking her head. "No, I don't think he's gay and don't worry Clyde you pull off the tough guy with a big heart look very well. You certainly do look more manly then John here but, I'll be quite honest. He's really cute like K-pop cute!"

"And about the facial hair thing it really depends on the girl, I'm not too much a fan of it myself but, it is a nice feature on manly guys like yourself!" Rei said punching Clyde in the arm.

"So I'm going Christmas shopping! Why don't we stick together! it'll be fun!?" Rei asked.

Taylor was thoroughly unamused by Clyde's outburst. She did her best to ignore him, but she looked like she might just punch him in the face.

"Try harder." She muttered.

She put on a smile for Rei. "Clyde's pretty insecure about Johnny." She explained, but the little girl never stopped talking.

"More manly? I'm more manly than- K-POP?!" Taylor was horrified and offended and shocked, Johnny certainly was nothing of the sort. He'd be so... so...

Taylor's face broke into a grin and she giggled. "Oh my god, I have to tell him you said that. What was your name again? Rei?"

She pulled out her phone and pulled Rei in shoulder to shoulder, leaning in with a big grin and a wink while she snapped a picture of the two of them. She typed out a quick message to Johnny.

"Jun bug this chick says you look like a kpop idol!!!"

She pushed send. "He'll be so pissed. It'll probably just make him work out more. And dude. Dude. There's no way this whiny bitch is more manly than Johnny, and my Johnny is amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing in the sack. Like, oh, my, god, amazing." Taylor said. There was no malice in her tone, and by the end she started to get starry eyed and uncharacteristically girly. She had a dreamy smile on her face, but quickly shook it off.

"Christmas shopping? Isn't it a little early for that?" Christmas wasn't for another month, and Taylor never thought that far ahead about anything. "I dunno, man, but I think I'm gonna jet soon. I've got to go see my k-pop star." She grinned. "I know what this dude wants for Christmas, though." She jerked a thumb at Clyde.

"Insecure? I don't even know what you tryin' to say." Clyde was never too bright. So he didn't get what Taylor meant to the fullest, but he was SURE it was WRONG.

"Pft. Call me a pansy too why dontcha?" Clyde remarked after Rei said he pulled off the tough guy with a big heart look very well. Like he the wanted to project that. "Well... Thanks Rei." Clyde added in regards to the facial hair. Still he couldn't help but develop a bit of jealousy as Rei reffered to Johnny as cute while Taylor went on her schoolgirl tangent about her guy that made Clyde want to barf.

He didn't understand why he felt the way he did, he wasn't trying to impress Rei and Taylor afterall, still Clyde wasn't up for playing 2nd banana to some fairy punk, or being called a whiny bitch while Taylor praised her guy. He remembered that Taylor and Cassie were quite 'firm' that Johnny would win a fight between the two in a landslide. Something like that ate at Clyde's pride and ego, cutting inside deeply.

Still, Clyde didn't know what to think as Rei offered for Taylor to keep tagging along, who seemed to be fixated on doing her own thing, all while making note of what Clyde wanted for Christmas. Or rather Who.

Clyde kept silent, crossed his arms and lowered his head to try and hide the widest and most shameless grin he's ever put on in front of anyone. "I still have to buy her a present. " Clyde remarked before he turned to Rei and ruffled her hair teasingly. "I guess you too, Padawan... Like whiskey & eggnog?" Clyde asked. He'd have to get Rei something too, but he didn't know what. Bonnie as well. He didn't know about Taylor though.

"And what do you want for Christmas, Ms. Parker?" Clyde asked curiously