Each and Every Step

Taylor backed up far enough to stay just an inch out of range of each punch while still circling. She responded with a little slap of a low kick to Adrian's good leg to knock her knees together when the awkwardness of the changing angles left Adrian's feet slightly crossed.

"We keep all our garbage in Jersey, and being in Pennsylvania doesn't make anything better," Taylor retorted. "Look, if you want me to train you, you're going to have to bring a little more than this. Think about it, don't be an idiot, and then get the fuck in here and hit me you giant pussy. Are you sure you're even gay? You sure don't hit like a dyke."

Adrian was getting more and more frustrated as her strikes still failed to hit the mark, and Taylor's kick was adding a bit of injury to insult as she miss-stepped and got her legs tangled just in time for the New Yorker to smack her knees together.

The taunting wasn't helping, and all the enthusiasm she was developing for working with Taylor was being replaced by the ire that probably kickstarted their whole problems in the first place. "Shut the fuck up!" She snapped, throwing a hook to Taylor's side, if aiming for the head wasn't going to shut her up, maybe just winding her with a powerful enough hit would do the trick

Taylor tucked her elbow down against her side to absorb Adrian's hook and gave with it to lessen the impact, letting it send her a few steps to the side while keeping her balance. The force behind it made her smile.

"You want me to shut up, come shut me up," she said. "But don't get stupid. Use your head. Easier said than done, I know. Retard." Taylor chattered away. She bobbed, stepped, weaved in and threw a series of quick jabs aimed to just touch Adrian's chest while she moved quickly to the side.

"I'm better than you, no doubt about it. I'm not worried about what I'm going to do. You can't get into my head. If I wanted to, I could beat you down right now. Know why? Because fuck you, I'm Taylor Parker. That's why."

Adrian smirked when her hook actually hit, even if Taylor did kind of block it somewhat, at least it was something that broke the constant stream of annoyances, only for them to start back up again, and her focus on just trying to hit Taylor had meant she had completely neglected her own guard, leaving her wide open for Taylor's light retaliatory strikes. "Khhh..." she grunted as she took a step back.

Although she might not have been able to get into Taylor's head, her trainer seemed to excel at getting into hers. Did she have any idea how freaking irritating she was? There were things she could teach about that to Tropical Skin Diseases! Yeah, she really did want to shut her up but with how ineffectual her punches had been for that her mind drifted to other things. Maybe say "Fuck it" to the whole boxing thing and just tackle her to the ground, maybe get in close and headbutt her: show her that she should have picked something less obviously twisted than "use your head", or just crib from the Inoki playbook and sweep the leg before stomping on it to keep her down. But instead she shook her head as she stepped back, trying to push her malice out of her mind as she slipped out of the ring and just rested on the edge.

"Fuck it." She said, surprisingly calmly, taking off the gloves and leaving them on the side of the ring. "Not worth it." she muttered, fishing out a water bottle from her own bag and taking a swig. She wasn't going to be provoked into attacking her like that, she'd come down to Kyoto to start fresh and turn over a new leaf, not fuck everything up again by going ballistic at Taylor again.

Taylor stopped and put her hands on her hips, and shook her head in disappointment at Adrian.

"Well, Jigglypuff, that didn't take long. I'll make it easy for you, if you're so unsure of yourself that you get rattled when someone talks trash, it's no wonder that you fall apart the moment you get hurt. If this is really all you've got, do us all a favor and just quit now. You can save yourself a lot of pain and Natasha won't waste her time picking up another meaningless win."

She scowled. She couldn't realistically have expected Adrian to get it. They were about as different as two people could be, and while Taylor had an innate confidence that was for the most part above doubt, Adrian didn't. She didn't know what would make one person turn out like Taylor and another like Adrian, but she was sure that Adrian wasn't going to be a better fighter by throwing tantrums and quitting at the first sign of unpleasantness.

She huffed. "Too bad you're here for the weekend. If you're gonna puss out and pout, get cozy, 'cause you're not going anywhere for a while. If you want to actually put in the work, let me know. You got my number."

She put on a light zippered hoodie from her bag and stuffed the rest back into her locker before heading out the door. She gave the owner a smile and a wave on the way out, though she was already doubting herself.

Adrian sighed as Taylor walked away. She knew exactly how this looked to her, just Adrian wimping out when the heat got a little too much for her with no further complications other than her being a pussy. "Look..." she started, trying to think of what to say. What could she really say? Sorry but I can't spar with you in case I try to murder you? Sorry but if you want to get anywhere try dialing down the bitch-o-meter a couple of notches? That maybe she should be graeful that she put her attempt at friendship over her own pride and viciousness? What?

"...yeah, I got it..." she said eventually as Taylor just walked out the door, mentally cursing herself. So much for not fucking things up! She couldn't even go one hour without screwing something and now her attempts to not go flying off the handle probably just had a worse result than if she'd just flipped and gone nuts on her. Maybe then Taylor would at least appreciate the fact that she could be a major threat to someone, even if it was someone who didn't really deserve it, but nope! Adrian had to try and take the relative high road and not leave her a bloody smear in someone else's gym.

Deep down though, for all the talk Adrian had about the hostilities being over she still felt a natural animosity to Taylor, it wasn't Taylor's fault or anything and she knew it, but Taylor was the first face she put to all her insecurities, the one person she saw laughing at her whenever she looked in a mirror, who's name often prevented her from getting to sleep. So many months of just utter hatred of her and herself... it wasn't the sort of thing which time alone could heal. She knew that probably sounded really fucked up but it was how she worked, driven to succeed by envy, spite and self loathing. Always talking herself up in public while bringing herself down in private, how pathetic she was, how useless she was. Her own devotion to the winning run as it went on and on felt more like trying to convince herself that she had some reason to be in Japan rather than trying to convince anyone else.

Taking up the pair of gloves that Taylor had left, she taped them back on and moved to one of the heavy bags and just started swinging, no real technique just something to pound on, maybe she could pretend it was Natasha, or Taylor, or herself.

Taylor stomped back to her car, cursing Adrian the whole way. Inside she was squirming with second thoughts, both about walking out and about agreeing to train Adrian in the first place. What did she even care about what happened to that psycho? She should love seeing her get her ass beat by some no-talent slut like Natasha.

She put her key in the lock of her car and stopped. Was she doing the same thing that she had just been trying to teach Adrian not to do? Was she proving a point that Adrian needed to toughen up, or was she just taking the first available out? Maybe a little bit of both, but the more she thought about it the more she realized that she couldn't be the one to give in and walk out. She put her hands against her car and bonked her head against the window three times.

"God dammit, Adrian," she muttered. She turned back to the gym, put her hands on her hips, and sighed heavily.

Adrian's attitude had always cut through Taylor like a knife. Easily defeated and weasely, a frightened little girl with a propensity for flipping out like a total psycho, she was everything Taylor didn't want to be. And yet, Adrian was monstrously successful compared to Taylor. While Taylor had accomplished almost nothing, she'd won a meaningless title and had a couple high profile losses, Adrian was practically the top of the heap. It kept her up at night.

Fuck that, Taylor thought. She wasn't going to let that pussy get to her. She told her she was going to train her and that's what she was going to do, even if she kicked and screamed the whole way.

She shoved the doors open and stormed up to Adrian without slowing down for a second. She put her hands on Adrian's chest and shoulder and threw her back into the wall.

"Listen, motherfucker," she lit into her. "This bullshit attitude of yours has got to go. You want me to help you get better? You ever think that maybe you need to grow some fucking balls?" She shoved her back against the wall. "My job is to make things hard for you, the right way, so that you figure out how to get better. Your job is to fucking man up! Here's a tip, if someone talks trash to you, don't get mad, don't get hurt, don't think you've got to one up them, just do what you gotta do. A'right? Let 'em talk, it doesn't mean anything, because your Adrian Fucking Kytes and they can go fuck themselves. Don't let people control you just by running their mouth, you little shit! Fuck, you make me so angry I wanna punch myself in the face."

She backed up a step, but not far enough to let Adrian off the wall. She stood her ground and glared at her while her mind worked. She waited to see how Adrian would take it, though she knew perfectly well how she would. Adrian Kytes only had one setting: pussy.

Adrian had only really gotten started slugging at the bag when Taylor stormed back in, marching towards her with a purpose, "Oh yeah," she said, stopping her punches to turn and face her "These are kinda your- UGH!" Was all she got out before she was shoved back into the wall. "Ahh... what the fuck!?" she asked before Taylor really laid into her.

She had a point, of course she had a point: she was probably the easiest person to goad into backing down or fighting, heck: it's what got her stuck having to do the rematch in the first place. But there was still something wrong about Taylor just throwing all this in her face, like she was so superior: it's not like she was confident 24/7. She had her insecurities too, or she wouldn't be back here just yelling at her. "There's a difference between trying to get me to man up and you taking whatever advantage you can to be a bitch!" she snapped back. "Hell, you should be thanking me that I didn't go crazy and kick your ass! I knew what was going wrong, and took steps to calm down instead of getting worked up about it, like you have." she pointed out.

"I admit it, I have issues: had them for fucking ever. It's easy to get to me, even when people aren't trying to! But I know that's a problem and I can start to work on it, if you didn't set your ass-o-meter to 11 on the first fucking try. Besides: I thought I couldn't get in your head? And I didn't have to say anything to set you off while you've been poking me constantly, trying to get a rise out of me when you fucking KNOW that I'm also trying to take Cassie's advice and at least try and be friends with you instead of just getting better out of spite while you try to cut me down. Unfortunately, unlike you: I didn't graduate from the asshole's school of psychology so since you already know what my problem is, what the hell is yours?"

"Wha- You-" Taylor tried to butt in, but she could only fold her arms and scowl. She could barely even argue with any of it, and that combined with the fact that Adrian was the one saying it all turned Taylor's stomach.

"Alright." She said in a low growl. "First off, you're only in my head because I let you in there, because I took this stupid job, or whatever it is," She counted each point on her fingers. "Second, bullshit, you're not taking anyone's advice on anything. You just want to get back at me, just like always. I'm sorry that I'm your own personal motherfucking antichrist, but you called me, okay? And if you're not having a good time, maybe it's because you didn't just ask me to show you a good time."

Taylor took a breath. There was something to be said for professionalism. If Adrian was an opponent, then she'd have a wall to separate herself. Anything she said would just be more bullshit she could use to piss her off so she'd have an easier time taking her head off. But now that she actually had to care about how Adrian did, now that, god help her, she was actually trying to treat Adrian like a...

Whatever. It didn't matter. She had a job to do, and she wasn't going to quit. She didn't need to get all cuddly with Adrian, she just had to make her work.

"Fine. Are we going to do this, or are you done?" She asked, and was horrified when her voice came out sounding just a little hurt. "...Bitch."

Adrian scowled straight back at Taylor after finishing her tirade, trying not to talk back when her trainer growled at her for just trying to get back at her, well maybe if you stopped trying to get to me, I wouldn't have to get back at you. she thought bitterly, but pushed it out. She did call her to help and her going off on one or just backing away so she didn't have to go off on one wasn't helping. "Fine. I'm here for the weekend aren't I? Let's get back to it."