Each and Every Step

"That's the whole problem!" Taylor raised her voice, brimming with frustration. "You don't do it! You don't have faith in yourself, you don't know how to work, you try to cut corners, you make nice with bigger, stronger girls so they'll protect you. It's like you've never had to try a day in your life! If you don't just get lucky, you get someone else to do it for you!"

She turned away for a moment to try to stow her rage and calm down, but it didn't work. The rage came right back and she spun to face Adrian again. "Can I just say? That, YOU. Drive me fucking nuts! I spent two years of my stupid fucking life trying to do what you do, and I couldn't! What the fuck does that say about me! And it doesn't even matter what you do, because it always works out for you anyway!"

Adrian took a step back when Taylor started yelling, this was exactly what she was trying to avoid, this kind of confrontation with Taylor where she just let everything out at her, especially after what happened yesterday during training, she thought maybe she could be calm through this whole thing: let her trainer finish her rant and just let her cool off and try to explain casually. But whenever Taylor ranted at her there was always something bubbling away inside her, demanding that she fight back. She fought back yesterday, years before and wasn't going to make an exception now "Two years?" Adrian repeated. "You're bitching at me for not being able to do in two years what it took me Four!?" Her own voice raising to equal Taylor's in volume and spite "And you think I don't know how to work! Newsflash Blueberry, you're not the only one who puts in effort. As soon as I finished highschool, I didn't even think about college. I went straight into wrestling. I worked my fucking ass off! I bet you never had to dig light tube shards out of someone's back just to get change for the bus. I've had so many injuries that they've probably all evened out to make my entire body a gigantic weak spot. I got smarter, I learned how to cheat, not because I needed to cheat to win: but because it made the promoter more money. I worked every bit as hard as you did to get to Japan, I just did " She ranted, trying to get her side of the tension out in the open.

"Do you know what your problem- One of your problems is? Since you did the same thing all the fucking time, you think everyone else does the same thing constantly. I finish a workout and relax before starting again? Oh I must be the biggest slacker in the world: playing videogames when I should be killing myself working out more! Hell, if this was the first place we met up, me walking to the pizza place from the gym: you'd be wondering why I wasn't a three hundred pound fatty! Just because you're a workaholic, doesn't mean no-one else can actually get some fucking balance in their lives. In fact, that's probably why you didn't make it further before you realized what you were doing was dumb. You said it yourself, you can't just put all the hours into training, but that's exactly what you tried to do and it turned out to be a shitty way to do things!"

Four years? Taylor opened her mouth to shout back, but clenched her jaw instead. Two years in AFW! She paid her dues too, she started at 18 too, right out of high school. She couldn't go to college even if she wanted to, since she'd been broke and a total fucking fucktard.

Adrian continued, and Taylor's jaw dropped. She couldn't believe this bullshit! Adrian was telling her... well, talking to her like she didn't know a single fucking thing about what she was doing. She was better than Adrian and everyone knew it! And...

"You stupid fucking cunt," she snarled. Without warning, she stepped in and threw a hard uppercut into Adrian's stomach, and then moved one foot in to trip her when she gave her a stiff, two-handed shove.

She pointed her finger in Adrian's face. "Who the fuck do you think you are?" Her NYC accent came through loud and clear. "You think being such a fuck-up that you had to learn to bend the rules makes you something? Fuck you. Stop trying. When are you going to learn that nobody is ever going to give you that pat on the back?

"Fuck the ring, I don't even give a shit. I will fuck you up right here. And you know what, people are going to watch your match. To see Natasha. Nobody wants to see you, some skinny-ass, twelve-year-old boy who can't fight and faints at the first sign of blood. Fuck you."

She stepped back, red-faced and breathing heavily. "And I am not a workaholic."

By the end of her rant, Adrian was no longer sure of what her argument was, why it was so important to get it out or if what she was actually saying made any sense or if she was just fighting back for the sake of fighting back. She felt like a cornered rat, nowhere to go but straight through whoever cornered her but after she was finished with her seemingly never ending stream of BS she just felt bad. Opening her mouth to apologize before Taylor cut her off painfully.

"Huuurrk!" she let out as Taylor's fist buried it's way into her gut. Any notion she had to apologize instantly evaporated as she was shoved down to ground, her back arcing off the pavement as she looked up towards Taylor, venom renewed. She didn't have to put up with this bullshit, she didn't have to just lie there and take it from anyone! She still had that amount of pride left. "THINK I CAN'T FIGHT!?" She yelled back, scrambling to her feet to try and charge down Taylor, spearing her to the ground in the middle of the street.

"Pretty much!" Taylor wasn't thinking clearly. She just wanted to unload on Adrian. She didn't try to get out of the way before Adrian's shoulder slammed into her stomach, folding her in half and sending them both crashing down on the sidewalk.

Passersby backed off immediately and exchanged hushed words. Some gave them a wide berth and tried to skirt around the pair, a woman put her hand over her mouth, another pulled out her cell phone to take video. Taylor was completely oblivious to all of them.

She hooked an arm over Adrian's and kicked one foot against the ground, bucking her hips to try to roll Adrian over onto the bottom.

"Eat a dick, Glass Joe!"

Adrian wasn't exactly thinking normally either, even the sharp pain of practically sliding on top of pavement, grazing and breaking open the exposed skin while she focused on trying to get at Taylor. Even as her former rival turned her over onto her back she wasn't going to be defenseless "Fuck you Dan Hibiki!" She yelled up, trying to headbutt her from below.

"Shut up, Cuty Kanai!" Taylor shouted back. Who the hell was Dan Hibiki?

"Urk..." Adrian's forehead smacked into the space between Taylor's eye and her nose, and made her blink. She shook her head, grit her teeth, and returned with one of her own. She grabbed Adrian by the hair, reared up, and smashed her forehead down into the girl's face.

Meanwhile, a couple more cellphones had appeared, and most people were now avoiding them altogether but a small crowd of gawkers was gathering. Mostly punk kids.

"Not so tough now are you creampuff?" Adrian mocked as Taylor recoiled from her stinging headbutt, that'll teach her to compare her to kawaiis for a while. But not nearly long enough as Taylor fired back, smashing her back on the forehead and forcing her head back to bounce off the pavement, making everything around the edges start to fade. "...Asshole..." she mumbled as she lay on the stone, trying to stay awake enough so she could actually get some force behind her next punch... whenever that came, for now she was stuck pushing the agony to one side to concentrate on hating Taylor all over again.

Taylor leaned back to keep her face away from Adrian's fist, and cocked one of her own, ready to hammer the stupid geek's face until she stared bawling. She went to put her other hand on Adrian's neck, but stopped. She closed her hand prematurely and pulled it away. Adrian totally wasn't even worth the effort.

She stood up. "Know what? Screw this. Screw you. I knew this was a bad idea. Yeah, everyone you know hates me, and I hate most of them, but that we can get past. Problem is that there's still you and me," She wagged her finger down at Adrian. "And that's just not gonna work."

She turned and walked a few steps away, noting the couple people taking video of the ordeal. She suddenly felt just a bit embarrassed, and motioned behind her for Adrian to get up.

"A'right, c'mon, get up."

"Well screw you too." Adrian retorted, slightly annoyed of how sloppy a punch she threw as Taylor stood up, looking down on the cosplayer. "So now what? I just pack my bags and head back? Because I don't think we can just go to couples therapy."She said bitterly, picking herself off the floor, small bits of gravel sticking to her palms. Making threatening motions to those people who were stupid enough to keep their cameras out.

"So how long were you planning that outburst?"