Takes Me There Every Time

"No...no that's stupid," Talia said out loud and scratched over her work with a pencil. She had been sitting at a Starbucks in one of the busiest parts of Tokyo on her laptop with a pad and paper. There was a cardboard box on the floor wedged between her feet so no one could take it while she was distracted. After her match with Cassie, Talia had been doing a lot of thinking. And all her thinking made her only think more. She couldn't figure out all the answers on her own. She needed some help.

As difficult as it was, Talia needed to mend some ties. She could name so many people she was hostile towards in Friction and Tension but no one to call an ally. She couldn't just keep making enemies. Otherwise, the day would come when she finally did meet that one who would end her for good. And she knew no one would ever come to her aid. But this compromise seemed...excessive? No that wasn't right...

Crazy was the word Talia was looking for.

"Hey, it's Talia, can you meet me at Starbucks? Hee hee!" Taylor said under her breath in an air-headed impression of Talia.

The thick soles of her black Doc Martens thumped along down the sidewalk as she passed another block, on her way to meet the troublesome psycho girl. Last time she'd seen her, she had a chair in her hand, and she ruined Taylor's match with Chigusa by knocking out the idol and then brutalizing Taylor. That was, until Cassie put a stop to it.

"It's so super to see you! Let's talk about our feelings over a tall, sugar-free, soy-milk, vanilla latte! Hee hee!" She muttered, turning some heads with her ditzy impression. Or maybe it was her tall, black boots, and short, pleated red miniskirt. Or maybe her thighs. Since announcing her return to the ring, Taylor had felt compelled to trot out some punk rock swagger again, and her black choker necklace, leather bracelet, nose stud and eyebrow ring, along with her dark and dramatically made up eyes, bare midriff, shoulders, and thighs, definitely got the message across. On the front of her shirt was a raised fist inside of a heart, with her little monogram off in the corner. Now available from her website.

She spotted the Starbucks sign from up the block, and had to wait to cross the street. She wasn't in a bad mood, but she wasn't anticipating a good time, either. She tapped her foot impatiently while she waited for the chance to cross. She had a lot of questions, like was Talia planning on killing her, or was Taylor going to end up doing the killing? What would possibly possess the girl to suddenly reappear in Tokyo, and to text her, of all people. Taylor had a dozen reasons to kick her ass, and she was taking a huge gamble by meeting her anywhere without bullet-proof glass between them.

She found Talia with her nose in a book or something. She looked different.

"What's up, Fuckface?" She said by way of a greeting and plopped down in a chair across from Talia. She slouched low and put her boots up on the table, and immediately noticed a man at the next table glance over for a chance to see up her skirt. She snapped her fingers at him and skewered him with her eyes.

"Oi!" She said, pointing to her eyes with her first two fingers. "<Don't stare at my ass.>" She said in Japanese.

Talia scratched out another costume design she had drawn up when she realized it looked too tacky. After that last match, she imagined the world had seen who she was. The simple fact that Cassie knew who she was was proof enough that Taylor probably knew as well. She couldn't bring herself to return to the ring as Dark Angel ever again. That persona...that motivation and drive died in the ring that day. "God damn..." She muttered as she crossed out another design. Finding the balance between coolness and practicality was difficult, especially when she couldn't be revealing in anyway. She didn't have the confidence for that either.

Then Taylor showed up. And she lost her train of thought. She stared for a moment as the blonde punk plopped her feet on the table and shouted at a nearby man. Slowly, Talia took a very deep breath. Then, slowly, she breathed out. Calmly, the girl reached for her frappe and sipped it. "Hello," she said quietly. She didn't want to sound sarcastic but it was impossible with Taylor's introduction. She looked very different than she did last time. "I see you've shifted back into the AFW smoothly." It wasn't a compliment or anything. More like an observation.

Talia paused. There were many things she wanted to say but couldn't find the courage to say them. It wasn't like Taylor was an old friend she grew apart from. She was the competition on a couple levels, and they never saw eye to eye on anything. There was no way she could trust that this blonde wouldn't chew her up and spit her out. After all, it may very well had been Taylor that pushed Cassie into doing what she did. "Sorry," escaped her lips. With a sigh, she crossed her arms and looked away. "Sorry for that time in the cage...in the gym...everything." It wasn't how she planned it, but it was better than nothing. "I was...I was new and...stupid...but that's no excuse for attacking you...so I'm sorry..." This felt pathetic. She knew the real reason why she had attacked Taylor but it wasn't something she was confident enough to tell the ex-champion across from her.

"Wait... what?"

That was unexpected. Taylor was suspicious first, and she regarded the crazy girl carefully. Maybe it was a ploy to get her to drop her guard and then bam, Taylor was in the back of a cargo plane headed to Bolivia in a cage with 5 dozen chickens while Talia showed up to console Johnny.

Well, maybe not that specifically, and judging by the look on Talia's face she wasn't kidding either. Taylor's voice softened a little, and she spoke reasonably. "Oh, hey, it's cool. Don't worry about that stuff. I know Johnny can do some crazy stuff to a girl." She laughed. She meant it in more ways than one... "But... yeah. You fuckin' tried to beat my ass when I had broken ribs. That's really uncool, like, what if I'd punctured a lung or something? You just can't do that shit." Talia probably knew all that, Taylor didn't need to rub it in.

"But seriously, that's pretty cool. So just forget about it. Never happened. Okay?"

Talia wasn't sure if Taylor was mocking her or not. After all, she did get her ribs broken. And it did puncture her lung. Cassie, Taylor's best friend and roommate did do that shit. But the look on the girl's face seemed to be sincere. Talia promised herself she wouldn't go further than that. She didn't want to open up to anyone, least of all Taylor. But she wanted to explain herself and show that she wasn't just some crazy bitch hellbent on ruining lives. She hugged her arms even tighter against herself. "I'm sorry I was just...just so upset. I thought I had finally found something here in Japan but...but then I saw the look on Johnny's face when we ran into you and...and I knew I still had nothing."

She really didn't care about Johnny anymore. Several things had happened afterward that just pushed her further and further away from her initial attraction to the man. Not that she didn't have any feelings towards Johnny anymore. She still hated how he led her on. And the way he just shoved that ring in her face at her restaurant. "Oh...before I forget..." Talia put the pencil down and reached under the table. She pulled a tall rectangular present out of the cardboard box and put it on the table. "I ran into Johnny a few months ago...he mentioned you two got married and well...I got you something." She pushed the present across the table to Taylor.

"It's a blender," she stated quickly. It ruined the surprise but she didn't want Taylor to suspect she had just pushed a wrapped up bomb in front of her. "I know you're vegan and all and well...smoothies are the best." Talia tried to smile but her thoughts still weighed heavily on her. "I saw your promo!" she stated with a bit of excitement in her voice. "Coming back stronger than ever?" she asked with a tilt of the head. She could still smile about things not related to herself after all. "I'm sure you'll give them a run for their money...And I'm glad you're back. There's too many psychos in the AFW right now...they really need more sensible people like you to balance them out."

"Oh, no way!" Taylor grinned. A wedding present? The two got married only a few days after deciding it was a good idea, and they were married privately. They didn't have time to plan anything, and no guests at the wedding meant no wedding presents. Which made this one that much more exciting!

"Awesome, thanks!" She said. The fact that once she retired she'd stopped eating pure vegan, or that she already had a blender, in no way lessened her appreciation for the thing. It didn't matter what it was, it's not like she couldn't just buy whatever herself, but the fact that Talia got her an actually thoughtful gift made her feel... like things were turning around for her. For everyone.

But... calling Taylor sensible? It seemed like Talia was laying it on a little thick. Maybe she was nervous, or maybe she was secretly a fan or something. It was probably nothing.

"Yeah, dude, check me out." Taylor flexed her right arm. She was very slightly, but noticeably, bigger, but the increase in her muscle definition was unmistakable. Her slender arm was rock hard, the product of an enormously increased weight training regimen. Johnny was a good trainer. He provided lots of motivation.

"So, like..." She said, sitting back in her chair as she changed the subject. "Where did you go? After the cage match, you were just gone. Like, I wasn't worried at the time, but... Did you go home or something? What's up now?"

Talia seemed legitimately happy that Taylor enjoyed her gift. She better. It took her twenty minutes just to get the department store worker to understand what she wanted. Then she lost the receipt. There was no way in hell that blender was being returned. There were moments where she thought Taylor was about to suddenly throw it in her face. This was going far too good to be true. Perhaps being open and talking things out really did work on occasion. Maybe it was just because it was Taylor.

While no one had ever rushed out to help Talia in the past, there was a single person who saved her from pain. And it was a very ironic moment as well. Back in the cage match, Cassie had Talia's arm ready to break. Taylor, despite having lost the match and being hit with a chair by Talia, ended up being the one that pulled Cassie off of her and saved Talia's arm. She never thought too much into it afterward. After all, it was the thing people were suppose to do. At least she thought people were. Since then, her thoughts on why people do what had changed dramatically. Looking back now, Taylor was the only one out of everyone she had met that exhibited some form of decency.

She just thought all that Dark Angel stuff she did would've forced even the most accepting people to never trust Talia again with anything, even small banter and compliments. Then Taylor's words explained everything. She didn't know. Talia never bothered looking things up on the internet or on the television. She wanted to forget that it ever happened and just assumed everyone knew who she was. But apparently that knowledge was restricted to only Mamouru and Cassie. At least that she knew of. For a moment, she froze. She hadn't planned on this. It was good. But it wasn't what she expected.

Talia looked down at her ad and had an answer. "I've been training to make a comeback just like you. I've been thinking about costumes so this time around I actually have...you know...a persona or something. I'm hoping people take me seriously if I show a little character or something-" Talia stopped as her jaw locked up. She cringed and rubbed her chin. She suddenly became very apprehensive about her brown hair as well. She was fine a few moments before. Now she was paranoid about letting her secret out all over again. "But don't worry...I won't be in your league...I'm a tension girl after all. You won't have to worry about facing me anytime soon." Talia managed to force a playful but challenging smirk to Taylor.

Taylor nodded slowly. There was something Talia wasn't telling her. She didn't just disappear off the face of the earth for a year, a whole year, to train for a comeback. Talia definitely needed the training, though. As far as Taylor knew, the girl had spent all of her time getting her ass beat by guys twice her size. She didn't understand Tension booking sometimes, but other times, unfortunately, she did.

She didn't push it, though. A girl's entitled to her secrets. "Oh man," she said with a cool smile. "Good thing, too. With my luck, I'd get booked in a Steel Chair I Quit Cage Match with you. Screw that." She laughed. "I really do hope I don't get so many bullshit losses this time around. Ya know, a loss is a loss, but... I just want fair fights, ya know."

She put her boots back on the ground and sat up straight in her chair. "So..." She said, leaning over a little to peer at Talia's papers. "Whatcha workin' on? Your diabolical plan to take over Tension?"

Talia looked down at her work. She had horrible drawing skills but things were at least recognizable. "I need a new outfit...Rather, I need an outfit, period." She inspected the paper to see if anything looked incriminating for a split second before rotating the pad around and pushing it towards Taylor. "Everything is...scratched out but you can still make out what I was thinking of." She tilted her head with a curious look on her face as if now re-examining each outfit she had drawn. "This one was too...tacky...like I was wrestling in an old 1980s video," she stated while pointing at one that was a simple one piece suit.

"This one...I think was too revealing," she said with a little discomfort. "When you're wrestling guys...distraction is nice but you don't want them getting any ideas." That was still a very haunting memory in Talia's basket case of a mind. It was a gold two piece set of tights with very short shorts but a not-so revealing top that barely revealed any of her abdomen. "And this one..." she pointed at a third one that closely resembled... "...is too much like Cassie Elliot's outfit." Talia looked down, then back up at Taylor.

"How is Cassie by the way?" she asked with as straight of a face as she could muster. It was obviously a subject she never expected to bring up. But, with the circumstances the way they were, perhaps she could clear some of the doubts in her head. "I imagine you're not roommates anymore but...do you keep in touch at all?"

Taylor's interest was immediately piqued. Talia definitely needed a look, that much was true. Of the three... well, none of them were it, really, but one was interesting.

"Oh, dude, a one piece suit can be crazy awesome. I have one, but..." She nearly blushed. "It was originally an idea I had for my ring gear, but right now it's just for Johnny... Anyway, I think you'd look awesome in a suit like that. You could do the pads and boots, it's like... not old school, but like squeaky clean technical girl. The no-nonsense type. That's you, right? I mean, the only time I saw you fight dirty was way too close for comfort, and you don't want to go too girly-girl, since you already are pretty girly."

Then came the shift in conversation, and Taylor wasn't smiling anymore. It was a moment before she replied. "She... not so good right now, man." She said, with a concerned look. "She's... all this shit with that Dark Angel bitch, she's just going through a lot of stuff right now. It's tough. I definitely keep up with her, though, man, she's my best friend if you don't count Akashi. I've definitely spent some more time in Tokyo lately. I've been living in Kyoto since me and Johnny got married." She sighed. Cassie was obviously weighing heavily on her mind.

"Man, I'd say that I want to beat that Angel chick's ass, but... Cassie already did that. What's the point now?" She shrugged.