Back To Work

Chigusa almost recoiled away from Tai when he came over, but in the end she decided to hear him out. She swallowed back her tears and her own hurt feelings and heard Tai out. Tai's explanation slowly pushed away the feelings of betrayal as she understood why Tai acted the way he did, though it did nothing to fix the gut wrenching feeling Chigusa had inside of her. She silently hugged Tai for a moment, before starting to shake a little, and soon she was bawling her eyes out right into Tai's shoulder.

"Baka! Baka Baka Baka!" Chigusa said, her small hands beating Tai's back, "W-why didn't you say anything to me? I thought you abandoned me or something... You made me worry so much! BAKA!"

She hugged Tai until she got control of herself again, taking a few deep breaths before stepping back. She wiped her face, blinking the last few tears out of her eyes before looking back up at Tai and Taylor again.

"Thank you Taylor-San, for doing this," she said, "I know Tai is difficult to deal with, and for you to put up with him like this to bring him back, I'm very grateful."

"That being said... I can't believe you don't think I can't train you like Taylor can," she said, back at Tai this time, "You really underestimate me Tai... Don't you think I can get you back into shape just by fucking you?" A small smile crept onto Chigusa's face, as the idol tried to lighten the situation a little bit.

Tai sighed as Chigusa finally seemed to calm down and thank Taylor for her hard work, blushing as she claimed she could sex the weight off of him.

"Yeah well.....Im a little too self conscience for doing sex right about now..."

He rubbed the back of his head.

"Soooo....what now?"

Taylor took two steps back and conspicuously averted her eyes with a hand casually placed on the back of her neck. This was a bit more of Tai's personal life than she really needed to experience, and seeing Chigusa lose it was a little uncomfortable. She stood in the background and tried to give them privacy until they finished.

She nodded to Chigusa. "No problem, I-" But Chigusa kept right on talking, to Tai this time. She closed her mouth with a small, ironic smile.

As for what to do now... "Well," Taylor said. "I'll make it easy and just take off." She grabbed Chigusa's hand and pulled it out, palm up, and then jangled and imaginary set of keys before dropping them into her hand. "He's all yours, man."

"You're better off with her anyway, Betty." She said to Tai. "She's way nicer. Nice to see you again, Yuuki." She said dryly, and then turned to head for the locker room to collect her stuff. She wondered what she would do now, but she wasn't so worried about it. Her time spent in the gym, even if only to whip Tai into shape, had got her reacquainted with it after her long absence. She didn't feel as alien as she did before. Even if she couldn't train herself, not at 100% at least, this was where she belonged.

Well, almost. The one she belonged in had a big "AFW FRICTION" sign over it.

"See ya." She said with a nonchalant wave as she passed by the pair again with her duffel bag over one shoulder on her way to the front door. She tried her best to not make any comparisons between their little reunion and her own separation from Johnny.

"Taylor-san, wait!" Chigusa said, quickly holding out her hand and grabbing Taylor's shoulder, "Don't go before your job is done!" She pulled Taylor back and tried to turn the girl around, grabbing her hands and holding them tightly.

"I'm really glad for what you did, I mean it. So... I would like you to continue," Chigusa said, "What Tai said is right, there's no way I can give him the drive he needs to get back into shape. We'd end up... Well.... Fucking. So I would really appreciate it if you continued with him. I mean... I hope it's not too much to ask. You're really great Taylor, better at this workout stuff than I am. You can help him more than me."

Chigusa took a step back. "I'll be waiting for you when you're done Tai. Also, recover quickly Taylor! I want to face you in the ring when you're all better!"

Taylor's face tightened and she held up her hands, palms out, to Chigusa. "Chigusa, I don't wanna get in the middle of anything..." She said, shaking her head.

But Chigusa was serious, and she had a point and all... Flattery didn't work so well on Taylor, at least not from her, but she was enjoying her time training Tai, even if she didn't show it.

She winced when Chigusa eluded to her injury. She had very specifically not said a word about it to Tai. She pursed her lips and glanced over at him before forcing a smile for Chigusa.

"Okay. Sure. I'll get him in prime baby-making shape." She said, and inadvertently grossed herself out with the mental image of a flabby Tai flopping around on Chigusa.

If she was sticking around to keep training Tai, she would want to get Chigusa out of there. She'd be too much of a distraction. Tai would either not pay attention or act like an idiot to impress her. She realized she'd been staring at Chigusa with one hand on her hip.

"Okay, so..." She glanced at Tai again and took a couple steps back from Chigusa. "Guess we'll get to it. Tons of work left to be done."

Tai smiled as Chigusa asked Taylor to continue training him, which he was rather glad for. Taylor was the best choice above anyone else for the job and he was really hoping Chigusa wouldn't try to take over. He was even starting to rather enjoy the workouts himself.

He noticed and rolled his eyes when Taylor winced and glanced at him after Chigusa mentioned her injury.

"Oh come on, I'm not retarded or anything, you think I haven't noticed?"

He said back before the women continued talking.

Finally they wrapped it up, Tai nodding in response to Taylor stating they needed to start, moving over to give Chigusa a small farewell hug.

"Thanks for the support Chigusa...I swear, next time you see me, Ill be back to my old sexy self..."

He promised to her, before heading off to do whatever torture Taylor planned for him.

"I don't care." Taylor dismissed Tai irritably. Of course, she did care. She didn't want anyone to ever see her hurt.

She shuddered at the idea that any of Tai's older selves were remotely sexy. She shook her head. "I'll get him back in shape, but he'll be just as ugly as before. Way to take one for the team, by the way." She said to Chigusa.

After she was out the door, she turned back to Tai with a devious expression while she thought of all the things she'd put him through. She knew well enough how to train smart and not to over-train. Over-training was worse than under training. She saw a lot of people come in and put in massive workouts that must kill their whole bodies, but she didn't see anyone do that twice a day, every day. It wasn't about who did more, it was who did it better, and who did the right things for their own body and their own style. Taylor thought a lot about it. She had strong feelings on the matter, but she never talked about them, because no one ever cared what she thought. Especially not girls twice her size.

Taylor managed to work up a good sweat along with Tai, though she couldn't do half of what she had him do. She frequently resorted to modified versions of the exercises, and she had to take several breaks, not to catch her breath so much as to let the pain in her ribs calm down. After a break, during which she downed a bottle of water and set to stretching out some more, she started drilling Tai on basic techniques. She start, as always, with her favorite one to practice: the dropkick.

Tai's fundamentals were never clean. He didn't seem to have the same kind of obsessive, perfectionistic drive that Taylor did. While she didn't believe in over-training, she did believe in repetition. Over and over and over again she had Tai dropkicking a full size heavy bag. Sometimes she offered corrections and criticism, other times she just had him do it again and again.

"Nope." She said, dismissing an imperfect dropkick. She didn't care that he was obviously tired. No one ever fought fresh, unless you could get the other girl out of there in a couple minutes. It took discipline to execute properly when your body didn't want to.

"Nope... nope... nope... nope..." She said over and over, like an infuriating broken record. "Are you planning on trying at all today?" She said, just trying to get a rise out of him, but also partly just letting herself be a jerk to him. "This isn't gonna cut it, Betty, and you're a little big to make Kawaii."

Tai had quite a workout thanks to Taylor, who seemed, in his mind, angrier then usual at him, possibly thanks to Chigusa's sudden appearance.

After a long while of exercises, she set him to work at a heavy bag, where she informed him that she wanted him to start doing dropkicks.

Tai had never performed a dropkick in his life. And it showed.

oooohhh booyy did it show.

Over and over he jumped and kicked, always fucking up somehow, on one point missing the back entirely, despite its inability to move. Each time, Taylor just chipped in with "Nope....Nope....Nope..." on and on and on.

Finally, Tai attempted another imperfect dropkick, hitting the floor on his side and rolling to lay on his back, wiping a sheen of sweat off his brow as his chest heaved, panting deeply as he tried to regain his air while Taylor just rolled her eyes and insulted him.

"...Your...face..Kawaii....*pant, pant* Can't...breathe...*pant* will...insult...*pant, pant* ....later..."

He replied, taking over a minute before he rolled over and started pushing himself back up to his feet, bending over and placing his hands on his knees as he finally regained his air.

Taylor scowled and folded her arms over her chest. She knew perfectly well that Tai wasn't going to perfect a technique in one day, but she wanted him to show her that he had the heart to try all the same. If there was one thing she hated, it was quitting.

She strode up to Tai while he was bent over and grabbed him by the shoulders to straighten him up. "Ready." She said. She bounced lightly in place like she was ready to fight and stood immediately in front of Tai, then she jumped straight up in the air, up high, coiled her knees up to her chest, and kicked out with both feet into Tai's chest, knocking them apart. She turned in the air for a light landing on her palms and the balls of her feet, and then was immediately back up.

"That's one." She said, and waited for him to straighten up again. She jumped again, not high this time, and a with a little forward momentum, and leaned her body over to the side to get her head out of the way of an imaginary incoming attack. She coiled her legs, not quite to her chest, and kicked both feet out into Tai's thigh, knocking his leg out from under him. She stood up again.

"That's two." She said. Then she launched herself forward into three fast running steps and jumped, flying at Tai at high speed, and kicked her feet out into his chest again, the combination of her momentum and the force from her kick blasting Tai back while the impact cushioned Taylor's landing.

"Three." She said, and got up, holding her side and wincing. "Get it?" She asked. He probably didn't. "That's why you need to know this. Knock someone on their ass and get away, stop them short without giving up ground, and fucking rock their shit into next week. You've got to have the body first, then the technique, but that's not enough. You need to be smart to use them, and you need to have the balls to try."

"W...What are you DoGAH!"

Tai was cutoff as Taylor's feet suddenly slammed into his chest as she dropkicked him, knocking him to the floor.

Getting up, her glared at her, about to say something, only for her to dropkick his thigh, sending him down to one knee and making him yelp and growl a little.

"Damnit, would you stop alread--!"

He was again cut off as Taylor not only kicked him, but was carred forward and ending up standing on his chest afterwords, leaving him winded and coughing as she got off and began to lecture him on the importance of dropkicks.

He shook his head and looked up at her, glaring at first, not exactly appreciative of the hands on experience...but got back up and turned towards the heavy bag, continuing to jump and kick out with his dropkick attempts, realizing that she was trying to teach him something.....though he personally felt she didn't need to get that physical just to tell him-

"Grow some balls and master dropkicks already."

But chose to assume that she simply wanted to abuse him a little herself.

Either way, there was a bag to be dropkicked.