The Princess And The Punk

"Not this early..." Taylor said. She had got up at around 5am to make sure she was ready by seven. It was a lot of work to look good, and even more to look good in the morning.

"Um, I had a pear. And some water." She said as she climbed into the other chair and turned it to put her feet up on the arm rest of Natalia's. "What... Like, I don't even know... I dunno, like... Up? I guess?" She didn't even know where to start thinking about her hair for a kimono-y thing. "I guess something straight. I don't think I'd look good with any kind of a curl, at least not with blue hair."

She swiveled her chair back and forth a little with her feet and looked Natalia over for a moment. "Your hair seems pretty Japanese-y. It's kinda weird, you seem like you'd do something more... complicated. More showy or something. Where did you say you were from again?" She thought about it for a second. "Oh, right, you don't know. That's pretty freaking weird, man. Like, where were you when you were 12 years old? How do you not remember that stuff? I know where I was because I pretty much never left the city. New York, I mean. It's big enough, ya know, that you don't ever really need to go somewhere else. I dunno, it was alright, I guess."

"A pear and water?... Natalia said as she looked at Taylor, placing her arms over Taylor feet and resting her head over her arms. "...that is no breakfast... Don't you know?... breakfast is the most important meal of the day.... and dinner the most important meal of the night..." Natalia giggled happily and massaged Taylor's shins. She took the catalog she had in her lap and placed it on Taylor's lap.



"Look at these... you may find something that suits you...I wouldn't suggest something too traditional given your...style... You need to pick a nice Kanzashi... it is like a hair ornament with flowers..."

Natalia was in a very good mood this morning, until Taylor began asking question about her past. She pushed herself back, away from Taylor's legs and a shadow of sadness covered her face. She looked away from Taylor first and remained silent for a good while before she finally spoke again. "Yes... she began, speaking very slowly and for some reason avoiding to look at Taylor. "I have a very..how you said it?... Japanese-y hair... although I was apparently born in Siberia. It is hard to explain, you see?" Natalia said pursing her lips and then she bravely raised her head to look at Taylor. "I was an orphan...and got adopted... It wasn't precisely legal..." she said, taking big pauses between words as she was thinking slowly each one of them. "My........ lets call her mother..." the blue-eyed cutie explained with a clear hint of disgust when she said 'mother' "...kept us on the move to avoid authorities... we were all over the world... but I never got to see any of it... since I was most of the time... locked... when I was twelve...." Natalia took a moment to think. "I think we were somewhere in South America..."

When Natalia's face fell, Taylor immediately regretted bringing up the subject. She felt the sharp pang in her chest that one feels when watching someone's happiness break apart, and looked away for a moment while fidgeting uncomfortably with the button of her skinny jeans.

"Oh, uh..." She began, her mind racing to come up with something to say so she didn't come off like she was weirded out. "Sorry." But then she didn't want to sound like she just pitied Natalia, so she quickly added. "What did you do? Like, you were kidnapped? I don't understand. I mean... I'm from Long Island, kinda, and I lived with my mom, and we didn't have a lot of money and stuff wasn't so great, but... I don't know. Um... I dunno."

It seemed weird trying to compare her own experience with Natalia's... story. Not that she didn't think it was true, and Natalia was obviously upset about it, but what even happened? Maybe she shouldn't push it.

"I-if you don't want to talk about... Ya know, just..." She looked over the page Natalia had opened to. "The one on the right is pretty..."

Natalia decided it was much better to change the subject, so she was more than happy when Taylor brought the haircuts back. "Yes, that one seems like it would look good on you..." She said trying to bring back a smile to her lips, but then she had no idea what else to say... and her mind began to race. Natalia didn't wanted Taylor, or anyone else, to know much about her past, it was painful and humiliating and she didn't wanted Taylor, or anyone else, to think less of her... but cutting the conversation there meaning Taylor wouldn't know, only meant that she was now free to imagine all kind of things about Natalia, and with Taylor had heard it already sounded pretty bad.

Natalia took a deep breathe, she began to consider that it would be better to tell Taylor a bit more than have the punky girl imagine things. "It... it was...we were... I..." Natalia tried to say something but she just couldn't. She looked down for a couple of seconds and then she simply said "I was bought. It wasn't nice... and that is all I am going to say about it..."

"You were... oh." Taylor got quiet, and kept her eyes on the catalog, though all of her attention was on Natalia. She really didn't mean to uncover painful stuff for Natalia, it was just that she was always so vague and she was curious... She was still being vague, but at least Taylor knew that there was bad stuff in Natalia's past that she probably didn't want to talk about. At least not here, right now. Everyone wanted to talk about their stuff at the right time, right?

She forced herself to look Natalia in the eye. "Sorry." She said. She felt like she was ruining Natalia's good time, and their whole outing. "I didn't... We don't have to talk about it now."

She looked back down at the catalog, and tried to think of something to say that would change the subject and restore the mood, but she came up with nothing. She gave Natalia a weak smile.

Natalia took a deep breathe and tried to smile back, but she couldn't. Luckily for her someone knocked the door right when the silence between them had become way too uncomfortable. "Yes..come in" Natalia said quickly and quite relieve. The door opened and a woman entered the room, pushing a small breakfast cart with a pair of platters with a pair Japanese breakfast, steamed rice, miso soup and a slice of grilled salmon...and coffee. Natalia quickly took one platter and put it on her lap, grabbing a cup she started to serve coffee, she sure could use a cup or two. "Domo arigato..." Natalia bowed politely to the woman that soon left and once again there was a sort of an uncomfortable silence.

This time however there was food, so Natalia jumped quickly to change the subject. "Say Taylor-chan... how are you adapting to Japan? Have you taken a liking for the food yet?" she asked before taking a sip of her soup.

"Arigato." Taylor said quietly to the woman before she left.

"Yeah, um, I'm making progress. I held out for a long time, but I'm like, learning how to cook and stuff, and I can't eat hamburgers and stuff. I actually don't really eat meat at all, and Japanese food actually works pretty well for... oh... salmon." Taylor hadn't had salmon in a long time. It happened to be her favorite animal-related food.

She glanced up at Natalia. She always had tremendous difficulty eating in front of people when she wasn't totally comfortable, but... food. Salmon. She'd also taken a liking to miso, and she'd forced herself to acquire a taste for kelp. She cautiously took her plate, picked up a soup ladle and began to stir up her miso.

"Anyway, I just try to pay attention to how people make stuff, and then I use some of it when I make stuff. Mostly I just eat big piles of vegetables with rice, ya know, with sauce and stuff. I feel like keeping it simple like that gives me the most energy, like I don't have anything weighing me down, and you know I've got to stay fast and stuff, or else.... whatever."

She carefully sipped at her miso, and it was good... Her hunger quickly won over her nerves, and she grabbed chopsticks and began to quickly eat her rice and salmon, periodically trying to make sure to take smaller bites and trying to hold herself back.

"You can't eat hamburgers?" Natalia asked a bit confused, but happy that the attention was going somewhere else, she did her best to try to forget about the previous conversation by engaging a bit to eagerly in the new one. "But you were eating hamburgers at your birthday party... are you vegetarian? or is it just red meat that you don't eat?" Natalia asked a bit lost. Well, Taylor eat Salmon, but then again who didn't.

Natalia looked at Taylor eating expectantly for a few seconds, although she had no idea what she was expecting at all. "Any other... dietary restriction?... You...you drink Sake and tea, right?..." she asked a bit worried; she knew how Akashi drank, so she had assumed Taylor drank Sake too.

"I can... I just don't." Taylor said, adjusting her bangs while she tried to think of how to explain. "Like... I don't want to carry more weight, ya know. I want to stay real lean and stuff, I don't want to bulk up like Cecelia or something, because like... what good would that do? I need to be light and fast, like a bullet, so... there's a lot of stuff I can eat, but usually don't."

She nodded, and tapped the toes of her shoes together while she finished chewing a bite of rice. "I think I drink tea, I dunno. I don't really drink, like, alcohol, at least not a lot. Every now and then I'll go drink with Akashi or something, but... I have like a low tolerance, anyway, so it can get, uh... embarrassing." She looked away, starting to feel a little embarrassed and a little prudish with all of her restrictions. "But I do drink." She added, to compensate."

She looked around. "So... what's next?"

Natalia looked at Taylor up and down with clinical eye. "You don't seem to me like the kind of girl that struggles with her weight... and with all the exercise you get..." she said giggling. "I try to watch what I eat... but I can't..." she added.

"don't worry... we will be only taking a bit of sake and lots of tea... not going to get drunk or anything... " Natalia said. She had heard a couple of stories about Akashi drinking, and guessed that Taylor had followed her sumo friend down that road a couple of times, apparently much to her shame.

"And now we get our hair done... Are you sure you want that style?" Natalia asked as she picked a tiny belt to ring. A couple of seconds after that in came a handful of girls. <My friend wants this one...and I would have...mmm...this one> Natalia said in Japanese to the girls as she showed them the hair-styles on the magazine. Natalia suddenly felt weird. She had called Taylor a friend and she didn't felt that was right to say; she had no idea what Taylor would think about it. Then again she had said it in Japanese, so Taylor may have not noticed.