Tokyo Bound

Office drone types seem like the kind of girls that would want Clyde to constantly dress up fancy, so thatâ€s why John didnâ€t end up being too shocked. But liking paper work…thatâ€s just abnormal. John would not be so rude to say this, but his ‘old lady†sounds IMMENSELY boring.

“No, not really. Iâ€m not much for the brass either. Nor am I much for whose got the title now. But then again, the management put me in the Title Shot tournament. Already advanced to the next stage. Hoping I win, give Kent an actually fight instead of letting him pick on people half his size…present company excluded, from how Iâ€ve seen you fight, I figure you could take Kent if you put your mind to it.”

As he was finishing explaining about how he was in line to possibly be the Number One Contender, Johnâ€s eyes quickly glanced to another woman who appeared to know Clyde. From the look of it, she had just thrown something on and come down to the buffet. John had no ill judgment of that, he was never one to dress especially to impress, he just put something on that fit.

Her food was totally different than John and Clyde. John and Clyde both had heavy western food on their plates, and John at least deliberately took the western utensils. He could use a chop stick set, but heâ€d rather the western utensils. And at any rate, he wasnâ€t even using them as it was all finger food. Cassiesâ€s food was healthy and looked very nice compared to Johnâ€s plate of oily food and heaps of jello.

John had noticed her because she had said hello to Clyde, but as she walked away, John began to feel watched. As he tucked into the jello, his glance soon was cast back to Cassie. Unfortunately for Cassie, it was right at the moment that she appeared to have a complete spaz attack trying to drink tea. Her checks, red with embarrassment, were easily mistaken by John for being red with a failing and desperate effort to breathe.

John wasnâ€t sure if this was an actual emergency or not. He pushed his chair out, so he could move quickly, but didnâ€t rise. Instead, he called over to her table. “Are you all right, Maâ€am?”

This would probably alert Clyde to why John had just tensed up. If she didnâ€t answer, John would go over to help.

Clyde raised an eyebrow immediately. "You got put in the title tournament?" Clyde asked with a frown, he heard about that happening and Clyde wasn't included, the last title shot opportunity he was given was for the Hentai title, but he didn't want that.

"Well anybody's a better champ than Kent, best wishes, man." Clyde stated, feeling like John was a good enough guy to be champ here, though he felt odd at how someone with only two matches was given this chance while Clyde had not been included. But that was the way it went sometimes. "You goddamn right though! I'd kick his muthafuckin' ass!" Clyde declared proudly before he heard someone call to him.

He turned slightly. "Howdy." He said bluntly before seeing it was Cassie. "Oh hey!" He said with a smile before turning back to John. Cassie was cool, such a nice sweet young girl who... Injured Dark Angel. Clyde nearly forgot about that and prior to that she had her battle with Jocelyn. Clyde felt his stomach churn just slightly as he thought over everything until he heard Cassie chock and cough out her drink, he gave her a subtle stare as he watched her while John asked if she was okay before he went to finish his burger.

Please don't notice, please don't notice, please don't notice...

"Are you alright, Ma'am?"

Cassie's body performed some intestinal gymnastics are her stomach turned and her heart sank. Her face turned a slightly brighter shade of red and she lowered her head as if she was a turtle and could escape detection by pretending to be a rock. She tucked her chin down and her arms tightly against her sides, with just her one hand holding chopsticks above the table.

Then she realized that he, they, were probably waiting for a response. She looked up and forced a nervous smile and waved with her chopsticks held in her fist, and noticed again how unbelievably attractive the red-haired guy was. Then her eyes were quickly glued to her tray again. Maybe it would just blow over.

When Clyde turned around with what was left of his burger in his hand, he saw Cassie acting all weird, he titled his head in confusion at how she was bundling herself up for a bit until she looked up and gave that nervous smile and wave with her chop sticks. Clyde didn't know why but the way she was acting was rather cute and amusing, it made him grin wide and he just returned her wave with a dopey grin before he waved back at her.

He then leaned towards John and whispered "That's Cassie Elliot. Friction Gal, she's... Cool. Sort of a friend, You dun' mind if she sits with us, do ya pardner?" Clyde asked curiously before turning back to Cassie.

"Ey, Ms. Cassie! You sitting' with anybody? You wan' come sit with us?" He asked loud and clear.

John continued to look over with concern as, for a moment, Cassie appeared to be acting very strangely. Finally, Cassie waved with her chopsticks a bit. John put his chair back, sitting normally again, and figured that she was probably just embarrassed for being so public with the choking.

Shortly thereafter, Clyde preempted John (who was about to ask who she was) by explaining who Cassie was. John shook his head as Clyde asked if he minded. “Not at all.” He said casually, then he smiled at Cassie as Clyde called her over. “Yeah, join us.” he smiled. John was very eager to meet new friends in Japan, especially since it looked like heâ€d be living in country, at least for the foreseeable future.

"W-what?" Cassie stammered. She looked around, as if she were trying to come up with someone that she was meeting who just hadn't sat down yet. "Oh, um, uh, I... O-okay. Sure!"

She carefully set down her chopsticks and picked up her tray. She held her breath for most of the walk to Clyde's table, and she couldn't help the grade school flashbacks. At least now she didn't have braces.

She sat down next to Clyde, giving him plenty of space, and completely avoided looking at John. She sat with her knees together and her arms tight against her body, hunched slightly over her tray. She looked tiny next to the two guys. She speared a slice of banana with her chopsticks and bit half of it while she tried to think of something to say.

"You wanna come sit with us?" Clyde repeated when Cassie said what. Starting to recall how nervous the girl could be when he was around, that wierded Clyde out a bit, by the way she wrestled she seemed like she should be a very confident person.

But finally Cassie came along and Clyde smiled pleasantly as she came over. He liked having friends, he had too many enemies and the last thing he wanted was for someone to see him a douche-nozzle cause he acted up while he was plastered. Cassie was a nice girl after all... When she wasn't trying to kill you.

Clyde watched her sit down and kept smiling. She was saying nothing, he looked over at John and then back to her, noting the silence and how quiet she was being while she ate a slice of banana. Clyde chuckled slightly. She sure was cute.

"Uh Ms. Cassie, this is... My friend John from Tension. John, this is Ms. Cassie Elliot, she wrestles for Friction and she took down Dark Angel, someone I ain't beat. Another crazy chick, man." He said that without thinking, just being honest, it wasn't until after that, that he felt weird about it, resports said her jaw was crushed. Really brutal. He looked to Cassie before back at John. It felt weird. Like it was bittersweet but he couldn't explain it. He just told himself that the bad guy had it coming.

John had to suppress a chuckle as Cassie walked over to the table. She seemed very nervous somehow, as if the thought of eating together was intimidating. John didnâ€t realize that it was he who was intimidating her, nor that she was somewhat smitten.

Of course, though, as she sat down and deliberately avoided looking at John, he was beginning to realize something was up. He quickly looked down to make sure there was nothing on his shirt, then wiped his face with a napkin, in case she was averting her faze from some gross thing he had going on with the food.

After a moment, John watched her stab the food with the stick. She did look kind of cute, even if John knew she wasnâ€t meant to use the chop stick quite like that. Doing that was the way he had picked up the phrase ‘gaijin.†John looked at Cassie, then towards Clyde as he introduced her. When Clyde introduced John, he nodded politely. It was not until Clyde mentioned who Cassie beat did John recognized her…somewhat. “That was you? One hell of a match, I watched the video of it. Impressive.”

It was actually a bit more than impressive for John, he remembered that match as being distinctly brutal. This close up, cutely eating her food, she didn't seem like the same woman. John was always reminding people about deceptive appearances, and this was a good case.

Cassie's heart froze. The conversation immediately turned to Dark Angel, and she couldn't realistically expect anything else. It was what she was known for now. Injuring Jocelyn's leg set her up for it, and hospitalizing Dark Angel... she'd never live it down.

"It wasn't anything..." She said in a tiny little voice. She took a bite of fish and chewed it a million times.

Clyde grinned brightly at Cassie after hearing her quiet response. "Aww she bein' modest." He said before turning to John. "Ain't she cute when she modest, man?" Clyde asked his amigo just to tease Cassie, nothing but harmless teasing fun.