Help Wanted

Cassie scuffed her way through the slushy snow on the sidewalk leading to the AFW building. Her heavy, fur-lined boots came up much higher on her calves than they would on someone less vertically challenged, and kept her legs warm against the chill in the January air. Her blue, knee length winter coat did the rest of the work, and her short orange hair poked out around her face from under the furry hood. She was cozy as could be, and in no hurry to get out of the cold.

She was used to it, anyway. Japan never seemed that cold compared to home. She missed the clean, invigorating of Ontario, and the stillness and peace that came with them. There was nothing like that in Tokyo.

And the snow. Tokyo hardly got any compared to home, so she was tickled pink to actually have a fresh blanket of wintery white to play in for the time being.

She kept her hands in her pockets, only once removing one to check her phone for any messages from Mamouru. He was meeting her here to talk about her upcoming match against Dark Angel, some girl with a mask who didn't seem to like her much, and help her prepare.

Cassie was a little early, so she occupied herself by writing things in the snow. She hopped out into the clean snow, and then carefully put one foot in front of the other while she began making tracks in the shape of a heart, at least ten feet across. She stopped at the bottom point and smiled at her work.

Then she began writing again, this time working on the letter M, and then starting a circle next to it.

Unlike Cassie, mamouru had to take a train from Kyoto to Tokyo. He'd gotten the early one to make sure he could be on time, but he was delayed by traffic and a quick stop to his mother's house. Still, despite all that, it seemed like he was ready to meet Cassie on time. Though, he preferred to be early.

As he walked up tot he steps tot he AFW facility, he pulled out his phone and began to type away at it with one hand. He was bundled up as well in a nice dressy wool long coat and a beige scarf. He also had a briefcase tucked under one arm.

He clacked away almost subconsciously and hit send:

'Arriving @ AFW now- M'

But as he sent it, he saw a figure off int he snow. He turned and looked and saw the bundled up yong girl and noticed the orange hair peaking out form her hood. He smiled and turned and looked at Cassie. "Cassie-san?" He called out, pulling down his scarf.

Cassie had to turn her shoulders to face Mamouru, due to her hood. She smiled at him, and then turned back to the snow. A few more hops and carefully placed steps and she had finished the word "more".

She leapt back onto the sidewalk and marched up to Mamouru. She leaned back to look up at him from under her hood, hands still in her pockets, and examined him carefully before speaking.

"You look nice." She said, and then turned to scuff her way down the sidewalk and into the building, pausing before the doors to stomp the slush off of her boots.

The rush of warm air when she stepped inside felt uncomfortably hot, and she began to shuck off her coat. She pulled down her hood and shook her short orange hair loose, and then unbuttoned and unzipped it and slid it off. Underneath she was wearing a simple white dress, the hem falling just above her knees so that the coat had just hidden it. She had a khaki cloth belt with roses embroidered around it cinched around her waist.

"So." She said as seriously as she could. "What do we know about Dark Angel?"

mamouru greeted Cassie with a polite bow, smiling at her and glancing past her to see her snow words. He smiled and then looked at Cassie. "Arigatou Cassie-san. And you as well." He said before following her inside. He puled away his scarf when they entered and unbuttoned his coat, lettign it hang open to reveal a black suit and tie underneath.

Mamouru let his hand slide to gently touch her shoulder and guide her towards the backstage area while he flashed his badge at the secretary. "Not much, it seems." He began. "The management has kept her identity a secret. All we know is that her name is Dark Angel and she seems to have a desire to really hurt and injure the girls she's competing against." Mamouru let out a sigh. "She's only been here a short time, but in her debut match, she injured a girl so badly the she is still comatose." Mamouru's tone was serious as he led Cassie throught he hallway.

"I have a review of the tape if you haven't seen it. Some things I would like to point out to you. But I think my best advice would be to take her seriously. I think with your expertise that you should be able to handle her well enough. But it seems like if she has the chance to do something dirty, that she will definitely take it. Please.. please... try and overcome your good-naturedness." Mamouru then stopped and grabbed gently onto Cassie's arm. "I'm not saying you can't be friendly with her or that you have to sink down to her level. You shouldn't need to do that. Just don't let her bait you into anything, ok? Don't unnecessarily overextend yourself."

It's said the moment you start hating snow: your childhood is officially over. And although Adrian may claim tobe a kid at heart she was really really hating all the snow and ice today. "First" sniff "day without crutches and" sniff "It's freaking freezing!" She moaned, trying to deny the existence of her developing head cold, she needed a distraction badly before she just got a taxi, headed home and bundled in the covers from now until spring.

Fortunately in the near distance she managed to find the perfect one "Cassie!!!!" She yelled out, hobbling along the icy street as she tried not to fall over before ramming into the young man standing next to her. "Hiya!" She said, ignoring that she may have toppled Mamouru over when she used him as an impromptu brake.

"Uh huh." Cassie nodded and smiled warmly while Mamouru got right to the point about the Dark Angel thing.

She had heard that she'd really hurt people before, but Cassie was probably way better than them. And if she was going to make a career out of this, she couldn't let those things get to her. There were only so many things an opponent could do, all Cassie had to do was prepare for them.

She realized she wasn't really listening to him very closely when she was snapped out of her train of thought by the sight of Adrian limping her way through the doors.

"Oh my goodness, Adrian!" She exclaimed and rushed to her, as if she'd fall over if Cassie didn't hold her up, but she collided with Mamouru before she could get to her. "Mamouru, this is Adrian Kytes! She's a really big deal here. She's a wrestler, and she's... really nice." Cassie said, having found the only true thing about Adrian that she wanted to say out loud.

When last they had seen each other, Cassie had tried to get Adrian to try to patch things up between her and Taylor. She'd failed, and it made her sad. Truthfully, she was still a little frustrated with Adrian, but she was too glad to see her to let that come out.

"How are you? How's your leg? I saw... you know. Stuff. Are you okay?" She asked, her green eyes wide with concern.

Mamouru furrowed his brow as he spoke to Cassie. Was it the tone in his voice? She didn't seem to be paying complete attention. But he sighed and tried his best, nonetheless.

However, he was unprepared as Adrian came sliding in and when he felt her crash into him, his eyes widened and he turned, grabbing her by the waist so they didn't topple over and nearly pulled her into the building with them, setting her down and stepping away, panting softly as Cassie suddenly became ecstatic.

"Ah.. Ah..." He said smiling and bowed to Adrian. "I have seen Kytes-san in the ring, yes..." He said. "it's nice to meet you." He said bowing once more. "I didn't realize you were such a fan of her work, Cassie-san."

Cassie giggled quietly. "I'm not..." She said to Mamouru with an apologetic smile, and then she gave Adrian a bigger grin. "But I still like her."

"Wah!" Adrian squeaked out as Mamouru grabbed her by the waist and pulled her around. "I'm okay!" She asserted when she got set back down. "Yeah! I'm fine, no longer on crutches! Wooo! Thinking positive~" Adrian answered, turning back to Cassie. She knew Cassie wouldn't have much to say about the cosplayer, what with Adrian being the cheatingest cheater who ever cheated a cheat, but she was just happy to have someone to talk to, and get indoors away from the slush and the snow.

"Anyways, wanted to ask you something. kinda really important for now, got to get it out of the way before I can talk other stuff. Is Taylor really retired, I mean perma-out, not Ten minutes away then coming back because this pays better than a lot of stuff." Adrian asked, she had seen the promo: but she never believed on screen retirement announcements, getting it from a reliable source would be more... reliable.

"Ohmygoodness, yes!" Cassie's face lit up and she couldn't help but hug Adrian, careful not to bowl her over in the process.

She took her inquiry about Taylor to mean that she was concerned about her or missed her, and that maybe she wanted to talk to her, and maybe if they did they could finally become friends and how awesome would that be! She could probably just get her on the phone right now and they could meet somewhere and everything would be great.

In the back of her mind, she realized that her reaction probably sounded a little odd, but she didn't care. She let out a high pitched noise and rocked back and forth while she hugged Adrian, until she popped and let go of her.

"I'm so glad you asked! She... is." She said, her face taking on a shade of sadness as she thought about Taylor being gone. She recovered quickly. "Did you know that she's married? Hee!" She flung her fists up in the air and kicked up one leg with a huge, squeeze-eyed grin, imagining that she was a star and her smile was the twinkle. "Isn't that great?" She exclaimed with a giddy hop.

"She's so happy now, I've never seen her this happy. Most of the time, anyway..." She said, trailing off as she thought about the moments she'd caught Taylor with something else in her eyes. She knew that Taylor missed everything, and that a part of her would never be convinced that it wasn't a huge mistake to leave it.