But if You Close Your Eyes

Talia nearly swore but didn't when one picture came out perfect with the exception of her finger noticeably in the upper right corner. She groaned just as she heard someone say something to her. The redhead turned around with the crutches to look at the person offering. He wasn't, as expected, Japanese. In fact, he seemed somewhat...familiar. Talia couldn't quite put her finger on where she had seen him before. "Oh...thanks, that would be great actually." At the very least, he didn't seem all that bad.

"Could you get a picture of me in front of this?" she asked as she backpedaled with aid of the crutches until she was at the edge of the grass with one of the tall temples behind her. Having simply one picture of herself in this place was enough for a good memory. It was a reminder of the nearly two years she had spent in Japan. She didn't really want to have to keep remembering all the other stuff that this part of her life brought.

When Talia turned around, John recognized her instantly. His eyes widened for a moment, but he quickly controlled the surprised look of recognition. Of all the people John could have run into, in Kyoto no less, he didnâ€t expect Talia to be one of them.

But, the thought of not helping her never even entered into his mind. She DID need help, and he was always happy to help someone. Besides that, HE didnâ€t know Talia. He knew what Talia did, but he didnâ€t know Talia. He wasnâ€t the kind of guy to pre-judge people.

Within a second, his face returned to its normal friendly expression. “No trouble at all, Maâ€am.” John said as he carefully took the camera from Talia. Last thing he wanted to do was drop someone elseâ€s camera.

Talia stood in front of the pagoda, and John looked into the viewfinder of the camera. He held down the shutter button so that the camera would auto-focus properly, then spoke “Okay, smile…1…2…3!” John said as he finally snapped the shot. He quirked his head a bit as he saw the picture, then looked back to Talia. “Hold up a sec…Iâ€ll get a nicer shot.” John said. He then got down onto one knee, getting a different angle of Talia and focusing the camera in again. “Smiiile…1…2…3.” He said as he snapped another picture." John looked at the screen again “Very good.”

Once he had taken both shots, he got off of his knee and approached Talia. Smiling, he handed the camera back to her. While he had been getting the pictures, he had briefly thought about Talia. He was sure she hadnâ€t recognized him, and had been debating saying anything at all. Eventually, though, his curiosity got the better of him and he decided to speak up. “Anything else I can help with, Ms. Wilson?” This time, he used Taliaâ€s surname instead of ‘Maâ€am,†like he usually used with female strangers. Perhaps when she realized he knew her, sheâ€d either inquire or recognize him.

Talia smiled when instructed to do so. Even if it was staged, she couldn't help but feel a little bit happy that she spent the last of her days here doing this. Pictures like this could help convince her five years down the road that her time in Japan hadn't been a waste. She smiled just the same for the second picture. She kept the smile as the man gave her back the camera. "Thank you so much sir," she said with a nod. "I appreciate it."

Her smile instantly faded when the man mentioned her name. It was never a good thing to be recognized. She had made so many enemies that recognition was universally a bad thing. Talia put the phone in her coat pocket and started to crutch away. "No, thank you though," she added quickly as she put distance between them. She only then remembered seeing him in the audience during her match with Cassie. And she remembered him being one of the ones cheering Cassie on. She put her head down and kept moving away making sure not to look back.

John handed the phone back to Talia, and apparently she did recognize him. She began to walk away rather quickly. This was unfortunate, because John had wanted to talk to her. “You donâ€t have to leave, you know.” John said. He wasnâ€t really sure why he was trying to call her back. She certainly didnâ€t seem like someone who John would want to associate with, based on all of her crazy behavior. Then again, she hardly seemed like she was about to spaz out. If anything, she appeared to be very upset. He wanted to talk to her, get to know her, maybe even see why things had gone down the way they did.

John didnâ€t chase her, he wasnâ€t going to follow her if she didnâ€t want to talk to him. But she was getting rather far away. “I donâ€t have any quarrel with you; I donâ€t see why we canâ€t talk.” John said, raising his voice just enough to keep up with her. “Does running away really help?” He finally said. Even if she did keep leaving, heâ€d at least leave her with that thought.

Talia continued to limp away as if John was about to run her down and beat her up like everyone else always did. She ignored his words as he called after her. That's what everyone else said. I just want to talk. That's what Taylor had said, that's what Johnny had said, that's what Akashi had said. It was never just to talk. She was smart enough to learn from those experiences. Or so she thought. His last question made her stop. She propped herself up and turned around. "I'm not running away," she stated as if it was a matter of fact. "I have a lot of things to do today. Besides, what would you want to talk to me about?"

John had to admit, he didnâ€t really have an answer to that. Why did he want to talk to her? The truth was, he was curious. “Anything, everything.” The truth was harmless, so why not just say it. “Iâ€ve spent all this time hearing about you, reading about your matches, watching clips. Can you blame me for being curious?”

John didnâ€t approach her, he got the impression that she was somewhat intimidated by the fact that he was loudly cheering on Cassie before. That was perfectly understandable. To avoid worsening that, he did not approach Talia. “Thatâ€s really it. Iâ€m curious. Iâ€m going to be looking around for a little bit. If you wana walk with me and talk, Iâ€d welcome it. You donâ€t wana talk, your busy, you have business, then Iâ€m sorry I held you up. “

Talia stared for a few seconds at John after he finished speaking. She wasn't precisely sure how to take his curiosity. Kelly Flowers was curious and it annoyed the hell out of her. Why did you do bad things? Why did you lose? What were you thinking dumbass? She assumed John would just ask the same things and in the same way. People rarely ever gave her a chance to explain herself, especially those who were already friends with Cassie.

After contemplating for a few more moments, Talia sighed and crutched back over to the man. "What are you curious about? I'm sure Cassie already told you anything you needed to know." With bias, of course. "How do you know her by the way?"

“You donâ€t, uh…well I guess you donâ€t follow Tension.”[/color] John didnâ€t mind not being known, in fact he preferred it. Something that had worried him about the championship was the complications of minor fame. “Iâ€m a Tension wrestler, we met while I was visiting the Friction building.” Everything John said was true, but it was the minimal story. All she needed to know, really. And he didnâ€t flash the fact that he was the new champion, but that was mostly because he didnâ€t want to seam a braggart.

“And Cassie didnâ€t tell me anything. She didnâ€t want to talk about you. It made her sad. But I was hoping to learn about you, not Cassie.” John said, then he slowly turned and began to walk towards the pagoda. “You coming? The say this Pagoda is a ‘national treasure†of Japan.”

Talia didn't say much as they walked over to the pagoda. As soon as she heard Tension she had already predetermined what John was going to be like. He was just another misogynist...or a sadist...or whatever scum Tension was hiring nowadays. She really hadn't kept up with it since committing to her rivalry with Cassie. It wasn't like there was any point in paying attention since she beat Johnny Higurashi. That was the only real goal she had left in that league.

Admittedly, Talia only felt worse about her situation when John mentioned Cassie being sad. It didn't matter at this point, though. It was all over. She ignored his question casually. "Could you take a picture of that as well?" she asked as she pulled out her phone again. "And what is there to learn?" she suddenly followed up.

Talia didnâ€t answer his question, but she did seem to want to talk. “Gladly.” John said politely as he took the phone. He snapped a picture of the Pagoda on its own. As he concentrated on the camera, he heard Talia ask him what there was to learn. “If I knew that, I wouldnâ€t need to learn anything.” He smiled a bit, “Just what youâ€re like. Who you are….youâ€re waiting for me to ask ‘why did you do that, was it worth it, why are you so mean to Cassie.†I figure everyoneâ€s asking you that over and over and over again. Iâ€m just curious because Iâ€ve seen you in the ring a half dozen times, now the rumor is that youâ€re coming back to Tension. Chance lead me to meet you, so Iâ€d like to get to know you. And, I am curious if the rumors are true.”

John looked at the phone, “Shall I step back and get a shot with you standing infront of it?” He said, suddenly getting back to the conversation.