Each and Every Step

"You mean do I have a gym? Yeah." Taylor said, unperturbed by Adrian's attitude. "You know, for when Johnny's not around."

She tiled her head for Adrian to follow her and walked back to her car. It was more than a little cold for her sweatshirt and shorts and sandals, but she didn't mind. She had never got the hang of dressing for the weather.

She unlocked her little Fiat 500 and slid into the driver's seat. She fiddled with the stereo while she waited for Adrian to get in and get situated. Picking music for a trip often took her longer than the drive itself but she eventually settled on Whitley. "More Than Life" was such a good song, and she found herself listening to more and more of that sort of thing these days.

"So, like..." She said, feeling the need to keep up some sort of conversation. "You're fighting Natasha again and stuff?" She tried her best to pronounce the name without it sounding distasteful, but she didn't succeed.

Adrian clambered into the car, a little nervously though. The last time she had gotten in a car with another wrestler was with Chigusa and that had almost given her a heart attack. Well at least this car was smaller and probably not likely to charge down busy streets at a hundred miles an hour. Stuffing all her bags in the foot well she ended up kind of bunched up but it was fine, she'd get used to it. "...Yeah..." she somewhat groaned, "You ever met her?" she asked, trying to make some small talk.

Taylor breathed a laugh. "Yeah."

She was a mindful driver, so only half of her attention was on Adrian while she navigated the downtown traffic. She sang along softly under her breath "Belief... in the breeze... the smoky morning haze." It was a new experience, sitting in her own car next to a girl that she had so much terrible history with, so much bad blood, and none of it really meant a thing to her anymore.

"The sun... on her face, and the touch... of lovers' hands..." She sang. "The pain that comes today, is here, then goes away..."

She slowed to a stop at a traffic light and seemed to rejoin the conversation. "Yeah, man. Blue Barracudas. I got stuck with Natasha... she's a total bitch. Same with Tsumi. Like, I just wanted to..." She drifted off for a moment, and brushed her blonde bangs out of her face. "I dunno. She was just a total dick. She's her own biggest fan. Out to prove she's better than everyone at everything... I just don't like her. Not my kind of people..." She glanced over at Adrian. "Beat her ass, dude."

Adrian sighed as Taylor started to sing softly. It was kind of weird, sitting in the same car from someone who she'd pretty much made her life mission to ruin at one point now just talking like people who hadn't seen each other from high school. If she hadn't hated

"Hey at least you got members who could actually kinda do stuff, I got stuck with dumb, dumber and freakazoid." Adrian pointed out, although... it was difficult to really say who got the best deal out of that whole debacle... probably Angel, "Yeah, I got that just by being within a ten feet radius of her. Think she's just surprised when she finds someone who doesn't just start worshiping her on sight." she grumbled a bit, it felt kinda nice just being "Y-yeah... sure." she coughed out nervously, of course the whole reason she wanted Taylor to train her was that so she had a chance of beating her ass, or at least not embarrass herself like she did last match.

"Yeah." Taylor said. "Don't worry, you got it."

Taylor pondered Adrian's seemingly total lack of confidence while she waited for traffic. For all her insecurities, Taylor herself was in many ways extremely self assured. She imagined that it must be awful to be that way, like Adrian, and she figured that's why she tried cheating so much.

Of course, she'd always SAID that about Adrian, but she had never thought about if from the other side. It had always been a way to fight back and try to tear her down. The idea of trying to build Adrian up was a little disorienting, like standing on her head.

She pulled into the parking lot behind the gym and parked her car. She grabbed her gym bag from the back seat and slung it over her shoulder as she walked to the building.

"This is a pretty cool place. The owner's a wrestling fan." She said with a smile. "He was a fan. He probably knows who you are, too, but don't worry, he's cool. He's not a creeper or anything." She gazed off at the sky, and mused "Actually, I think more people have recognized me after I quit. And like... I got a bunch of spots for stuff... I was in a magazine, and I was on TV and stuff. I've got some people that still help me out with that sort of thing, and since I'm not working right now the money is a good thing. Anyway."

Taylor pulled open the door to the gym and gave the owner behind the counter a wave and a big grin. She saw his eyes light up first upon seeing her, but then again after seeing Adrian. He looked back at Taylor and tilted his head, and Taylor just smiled and kept going. He didn't talk much, and Taylor liked that about him.

"Let's just get changed and we'll figure out what exactly we're doing." It was actually pretty exciting to have someone to train, even if it was Adrian. Or maybe especially if it was Adrian... She had discovered in the last year that she really liked to teach. She actually had a lot of knowledge about fitness and fighting, she had a technical affinity that mostly went unnoticed.

"How good is this thing?" She asked, and reached down to smack Adrian on the thigh, just above her knee on her bad leg.

"yeah yeah, I... I got it." Adrian sighed as Taylor parked the car, slipping out with all her bags. Just politely smiling and nodding as she followed Taylor through and waving at the owner "You were pretty popular back then, maybe it's just cause no-one really has to go through anyone to contact you for stuff that you're getting swamped. A lot of people get more offers as free agents or retirees than when they were wrestling in the big leagues." she suggested, "You were always kinda popular."


Wincing as Taylor slapped her right above the knee, the shockwaves provoking a very tender area. "It's good enough." she said through a pained expression. Truth be told she had been overstating how fast the recovery process was. When she first picked up the injury, she was told it would be fine if left alone for 5 months and well... she didn't get those 5 months of rest and rehabilitation... so she should have been out for 7 or so. She really was trying to rush her way back, it was generally fine for most things, but if someone targeted it... she'd be pretty fucked.

"Good enough, huh?" Taylor said.

She shucked her gym back onto a bench in the locker room and stripped off her clothes. She wiggled into a pair of skin tight, black workout pants that stopped at mid-shin and stretched a black sports bra over her head.

"Man, I don't really remember," Taylor said as she pulled on a tight, red, racerback tank top. "But like... I really hope you're not gay." She made a funny face at Adrian, slipped her sandals back on, and walked over to the door.

"So how'd you fuck up your first one with Natasha?" She asked nonchalantly, leaning against the door frame with her arms folded.

Adrian knew enough to quickly turn her back while Taylor started to take her top off "If it's any concelation: you're not my type." she said quickly, as she started to get changed, revealing only her back to her new coach if she could help it. While a lot of people, Taylor included, were proud of their bodies, Adrian... wasn't. Her back was scratched and scarred from wrestling over the years, her abs weren't as well defined as Taylor's and she was always worried that she was starting to get a little chubby, especially when she hadn't been able to get exercise in for a while, the faster she could get changed, the better.

Her work out attire wasn't that much different to what she wanted to use in the ring now that she was starting to drop the whole cosplay aspect somewhat. A sleeveless top over a tight sports bra, baggy workout pants and a pair of trainers. It wasn't anything special, most of the stuff she'd gotten on the cheap anyway, but it allowed her to slip on a knee brace underneath for extra support without giving away an obvious weak point.

"What didn't I fuck up..." she muttered darkly to herself, still trying to lace up her trainers.

Taylor rolled her eyes, Adrian was such a drama queen, but then she hesitated. Her eyes drifted off to the side and she breathed a laugh. "I know the feeling."

Taylor had already put in a run earlier in the day, and was already feeling good. Adrian, though, had been sitting on a train, and then in a car, so she'd have to start her out easy. And it would be stupid to put her leg through things that it couldn't handle yet... She'd have to start slow.

"A'right, let's get you warmed up." She said, and walked out into the gym. "Get loose and jump on a treadmill. I promise I won't try to kill you this time. Buuuuuuut for my own safety... I'm gonna take this one over here."

She hopped on a treadmill against another wall and started off at a light jog, just to keep her blood moving while Adrian warmed up. Looking at her former rival, she had her doubts as to whether she'd be able to help her at all. She had no idea how to fix what was wrong with her.

But she knew what was wrong. It was obvious, and Taylor knew a thing or two about it, so maybe if she just tried her best she could help bring her around. The irony of the situation had still not worn off, and when she realized she was staring she quickly averted her eyes.

"So how's your fuckin' Brontosaurus doing? Is she still in Tokyo?"

Adrian nodded when she got told to warm up and start on the treadmills. I was a good idea, get warmed up then do some cardio, and then move onto other stuff, see if she still had the stamina she used to have... and at least this way no-one was pulling anyone off anything, come to think of it, why was it for Taylor's safety? Wasn't she the one who pulled Adrian off? And that was almost 2 years ago! She wouldn't be so petty as to try and get that back: she'd have to be falling off the treadmill herself to reach that low!

Stretching out before setting off for a light jog to try and get the pins of needles of travelling all morning out she quickly found that there was something definitely wrong. Her leg wasn't painful or anything but she could still feel it, instead of just jogging normally she was constantly having to correct herself so she didn't stumble, it probably looked weird from the outside, that the small little ticks were what was slowing her down so much, she used to be able to walk at this pace. "She has a name!" she snapped before instantly regretting taking her mind of the ball, stumbling on the conveyor belt and having to rely on her arms, grabbing each side of the device and pulling herself up off the track, before trying to settle back down again.