But if You Close Your Eyes

Talia nodded along as Zak spoke. He seemed awfully proud of himself. She wasn't sure whether she admired or disliked his self confidence. She laughed and looked down when he joked about being gentle. "I'll pass." She then leaned back into the seat. "Not really interested in getting into the wrestling ring...anymore." She then tapped one of her crutches with one of her hands. "These are actually from one of those experiences. On a pay per view no less."

It was then that their food showed up. Talia immediately turned her attention to the bowl of noodles and soup. "Ahhh..." She picked up the chopsticks and started eating without looking back up at Zak. She was kinda more interested in hearing his reaction.

Once Zak figured out what she mean, he was instantly slack-jawed and awestruck.

"No way," he said, regarding her suspiciously. "Are you for real right now? You're really a..." He couldn't help it. He broke into a boyish grin. He couldn't believe his luck! "That is so hot! Where did you... and you were on TV and everything?"

He smoothed down his hair and thought about it for a second, and a wave of self consciousness passed over him. He did his best to compensate. "Damn, girl! You gotta show me some moves, you know. Help me get ready for the big time and everything. Or maybe you're worried I might end up being competition?" He winked. Was that too much?

Nah, she loved it. Just look at her, she was totally into him.

"Oh..." She backed away from a spoonful of noodles. "That is pretty hot," she added before blowing on it to cool it off. She deliberately seemed more interested in her food. "But yea, it was for Avalanche. It was the last match before all the title bouts." She didn't win, of course, but Zak didn't have to know that. She enjoyed this sudden reversal of interest.

"You're nice and all, but I don't think I can just train with anybody. Maybe after you get your foot in the door we could talk. And believe me, I'm not worried about a little competition," she added. Talia wished she had the social ability to wink but she didn't. So she just smiled and looked up. "You look pretty built, you should be fine. You'll just be wrestling girls after all right?" Talia tilted her head and raised an eyebrow as if judging Zak.

"Ohh, shit!" Zak laughed. She was feisty, too! In a really quiet, girly way, and he couldn't help but imagine what she was like in bed. A girl as quiet as she was with an ass like that, and a wrestler, he bet she could handle plenty of competition.

She interrupted his train of thought before he could explore the possibilities. "Baby, it's not training I'm interested in." Then he was surprised. How did she know he was wrestling girls? It was probably his size... His smile faded and he was quiet for a moment.

He slid his bowl of ramen across the table. "Okay, so teach me this, then." He got up and slid into Talia's side of the booth next to her. "I look Japanese, but I can't handle chopsticks for shit. You gotta teach me how to eat this stuff, since I live here now and everything." He picked up his chopsticks and fiddled with them.

Talia slurped in some noodles. She wasn't really interested in Zak's flirting ways. She knew his kind. He was just like Johnny and Clyde. Then he went a little too far and sat down next to her in the booth. She didn't budge from her spot in the middle of the booth so Zak had to sit awkwardly off the side. Talia looked to her right at Zak and lifted up the chopsticks from her bowl. She simply clacked the ends together in front of him. "Like this." Then she slid Zak's bowl back to the other side of the table and reached back down to continue eating. It wasn't a date or anything. She wasn't obligated to really talk to him no matter much he tried.

"So what are you exactly if you're not Japanese?" she asked as she slurped more ramen noodles in. It was one of her favorite foods since she had come to Japan and she wasn't going to let some overzealous short man ruin this for her. "I mean...you look...pretty Japanese to be honest."

"Alright, alright." Zak held up his palms and retreated back to his side of the booth. This girl wasn't exactly the warm and fuzzy type.

"I dunno, I'm an American. Dad's like half Korean and half German or something, he was American, and mom's all Japanese. I was born here, but we moved to the States when they split. Grew up in DC," he said with an air of pride. He hopelessly fumbled with his chopsticks, but couldn't manage to pick anything up. Eventually, he switched to the soup spoon, and started eating the shredded pork out of his bowl while he regrouped. The noodles would be a problem.

"Ya know, you don't talk much," he remarked, while trying to cut off a part of his egg with the spoon. "That's cool, though. So you're like smart and shit, though. You should talk more, I like it." He blew on some broth.

Talia's eyes were fixated on her bowl of noodles. It was almost half empty by the time Zak commented on her social skills. She swallowed a bit of broth and looked up at Zak. "Sorry if I don't seem to be talking much but...well I'll be honest." She cleared her throat and put her chopsticks down. "I've never...ever met a decent male wrestler in my entire career. Every single one I've come across in the AFW Tension league...has been an insensitive, misogynist, prick." Talia suddenly felt full. She pushed her bowl towards the center of the table.

"I don't know you, I understand that." She pulled out a purse from her coat pocket and dropped some yen on the table. "But from what I do know...I can tell you are going to fit right in." She slid into her coat while still sitting down and grabbed her crutches. "Thanks for the seat, Zak. I need to be somewhere." She then got to her foot and began to limp towards the door.

"I... oh." Zak closed his mouth tightly. He wasn't really sure what a misogynist was, but he knew what a prick was. But he was not insensitive! No way! His mom always used to tell people he was, and he had to have a serious talk with her to get her to stop. That shit's embarrassing!

He just nodded when Talia stood up and watched her start to hobble away. He tried to wrap his head around the jarring turn his day had just taken, and he couldn't for the life of him figure out where it all went wrong. He hoped all the girls weren't quite so anti-dude, that would definitely take all the fun out of it. Maybe he hadn't really thought his current career venture through before uprooting his life and moving all the way to Japan.

Well, whatever. That's that. He stirred his ramen around with his spoon. He'd have to look up who that Talia girl was later, and make a note that she was kind of a bitch. Sweet ass, though. He went back to eating.

Talia spent most of the rest of the day traveling by bus around the city. She took plenty of pictures of the buildings and things she passed by. It wasn't ideal, but it worked. The bus stopped at Tō-ji and Talia decided she needed to get out to see this place. She hobbled out on her crutches into the cold weather. The old Buddhist temple was located smack dab in the middle of a developed area. A perfectly square plot had been reserved for the old temple and its surrounding grounds which were just as beautiful and ancient.

The redhead walked around the gorgeous grounds amongst other tourists. Apparently there was a school of some sort here too but it was off limits obviously. The architecture was majestic and awe-inspiring. She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out her phone. Unfortunately, though, all her pictures were coming out blurry since she had to balance herself. She would try to balance herself only for the picture to still not come out right. "Come on..." she grumbled in frustration.

John loved running and taking walks. Though he wasnâ€t the fastest runner, he simply loved the exercise. For an American city, New York had pretty good air, but Kyoto blew it out of the water. It seemed like all of Japan did, and John loved to be outdoors. Even in this cold December day, he was still quit happy to be out for a jog.

John was just wearing a pair of black running trousers, black sneakers, and a gray hoodie. A small, olive green hat and some black gloves finished off his attire and kept his huge body warm enough. He never really minded the cold, and the physical activity kept him pretty warm anyway. On this day, John was exploring a new part of Kyoto. He was quite pleased when his run took him past Tō-ji. It was a nice area. It wasnâ€t thickly green like a park, but it had some very beautiful trees and little ponds. Over the tree line, John could see the huge pagoda of the temple.

He was quite pleased to jog around this place for a little while, but as he did he noticed a small women struggling with crutches. She appeared to be trying to take a photo. John approached her. “Uh, sumimasen…” John began to speak in Japanese, but right as he did he could hear the woman mumble ‘Come on!†in English. “Excuse me, Maâ€am, Iâ€d be very happy to take that picture, if I can be of any help.” John didnâ€t see the womanâ€s face, since he was behind her, but he could tell the poor girl was having trouble using the crutches and camera at the same time.