Damsel In Distress

"Johnny..."

They had talked about this! More or less.

Taylor gasped as his tongue hit home, but instead of indulge in the incomparable pleasures his tongue brought she pushed him off. At the very least, he should know that sex never managed to shut her up. If anything she talked more during than she did before.

"Johnny, I know it's a risk, but if it wasn't then it wouldn't be worth doing!" She scooted back on the couch and pulled her underwear back up and straightened her glasses. "You really don't need to tell me everything that she's done. I know all about it. But I'm trying to do something, and if you're not going to support me with it I really need to know!"

Johnny barely got a taste before he was pulled up. Not enough to satisfy him. He wanted more and the way things were going e was pretty sure that would be a hard prospect.

He sat himself up on the other end of the crouch and crossed his arms. "Climbin the top ropes for an elbow drop is a risk worth taking. gettin' a tat or takin' out a loan for a house. Those are risks worth takin. I just dopn't see how ivin a psycho who has actively tried to end your career a schedule of your day and keys to your house is a risk worth takin."

Johnny sighed and rubbed his temples. "Listen, babe..." He said. "Ok, I don't really get it but you have got somethin in mind with it. I trust you. I support ya. I just don't really get it and I can support ya without really likin it and junk, ya know?"

"Well, Johnny..." Taylor protested. It wasn't easy to explain.

"Yeah, I know, but... I want you to want the same thing as me. Like I might be completely crazy for doing it, I know that, but I hope I'm not and I don't want you to think I am." She slouched back against the arm rest and folded her arms over her chest. "I was never a good kid, Johnny. No one really gave me a chance until Akashi, and... I guess Cassie did before her, I was just... People need a chance, and you can give it to them just by treating them like they might do better next time. Like, what's the difference between Morgan and one of the kids from the program? And I know none of the kids have ever attacked and tasered anyone, but... It's AFW, babe, kicking ass comes with the territory. It's just something we get to deal with."

She sighed and stared off absently into an empty corner of the room. How much easier would everything be if Morrigan just gave her one little sign that she wasn't completely wasting her time?

"I'm somebody now, babe. I'm like a C-list celebrity, and we have lots of money, and I just feel like we shouldn't be like, fuckin'... Cecelia or whatever and drive cars that cost five times more than our house. We don't have to worry about money anymore, so maybe now we can worry about..." She huffed out of frustration. She didn't know what she was saying anymore. "Well, whatever, it's something I want to do, and I really wish that you were with me on it and not just behind me."

"I don't think you're crazy, babe." Johnny said defensively. He was never worried about Taylor's craziness. It was the taser wielding psych he had issues with. "And I don't think we're like that either. We've got a nice house and a few nice things. We don't really need to worry about bills and when we have kids, they'll be set too. I don't think that really makes us rich snobs like Cecilia."

Johnny furrowed his brow. He was going to try one more time. "I'm just sayin, I think if you want to give people a chance, that's totally cool. Like, the kids in your program. That's pretty awesome. If you want to put in some time with some other charities and junk, that's cool. You know I'll help with that if you want. I'm just sayin, there's got to be better ways to show someone you're tryin to help them then lettin them into you're life and home and hopin they don't trash everythin."

Johnny looked at Taylor. He didn't like this at all. "Besides, it's not like I said you couldn't do it. I didn't say that. I'm just a little concerned, that's all. I don't know how that's not supporting you!"

Taylor cocked an eyebrow at him. "Dude, I never said you weren't supporting me. That's not even what we're talking about!" She had to pause for a second. It was starting to get mixed up in her head, and she felt dumb. Her cheeks reddened slightly.

"It just, like, it might be nice if you thought it was a good idea too! Like, you're supposed to be my husband, right? And... And a'right, give me a better way to do it. There's no after school program for people like her. So what am I supposed to do? Nothing? I..." She took a breath. "Look, I don't know why I picked Morrigan, or... maybe I do. But it doesn't matter, all that matters is that she's a human being, and maybe if she works for me and at the end of the day I tell her good job instead of whatever Lukretia used to say, she'll feel good about something and maybe then she won't keep on... doing..."

She stopped. She could feel herself on the verge of tearing up, and she was not going to do that right now. She fixed her blue eyes on Johnny and scowled.

"Whatever, it's my problem, anyway." She stood up and buttoned her shirt while she walked back to the bedroom.

Johnny groaned in frustration as Taylor spoke and then walked off. He stood up and followed her. "I think the idea is good!" Johnny said, trying to talk while she walked away. "And it's not like I'm not your husband suddenly, man." he added. "I just think... there's a bunch of people who you could have done this for and I don't get why it's her!" He said. Johnny raised his hands and let them flop to his sides.

"I said I supported ya anyway. I said that and junk!" He added. "Like, I am." He didn't know what else he COULD say. The discussion seemed to end because Taylor was done. Johnny shook his head. and looked at Taylor for a moment. How the hell did they go from about to have awesome sex to having no sex? Johnny frowned. "I'm gonna go work out at the facilities." He said. Meaning Tension. Meaning an hour and a half away. "I'll bring home dinner when I get done." Maybe then she'd have cooled off and things would be ok. He didn't really know and at the moment, he didn't really care. He just needed some time to relax and cool his head.

"Yeah, okay," Taylor said, while rooting through her dresser.

She really didn't think she was being that unreasonable, but Johnny was talking about it like she was a total spaz. She just wanted him to be on her side! And she wanted to feel like she wasn't a complete idiot for hiring Morrigan, regardless of her motivations. Which... she might be.

Johnny was a really laid back guy and everything, and that was cool, but sometimes Taylor thought he could be really unfair. Taylor was definitely the more fiery of the two, but it wasn't like she spent all of her time screaming her head off about shit. Sometimes Johnny treated her like she was losing her head when she really wasn't, and what could she even do about it? That's what really made her upset.

She slowly drew a deep breath like she'd practiced so much to keep herself calm, and it was slightly unsteady when she let it back out. She looked at her hands, and then at the book on her nightstand, and frowned. She took off her black, rectangular-frame reading glasses, put them in their case in the drawer under the nightstand. She didn't feel like reading anymore.

Instead she took out her phone and thumbed out a text to Akashi.

"Am I nuts for hiring morg?"

She wriggled into a tight pair of skinny jeans and stretched an orange tank top over her head. She flopped back on the bed and stared at the ceiling, and then called Morrigan.

Morrigan checked her phone when it buzzed, not really surprised to see Taylor's number. She hit the button and lifted it to her ear. "Yeah, boss? Uh, Tay, what's up?"

"Hey, are you busy?"

Ugh. She sounded like she was calling up a girlfriend to chat. Morrigan was Taylor's employee, not her friend. Not really, anyway. She'd had Morgan working on chasing down retailers to carry RSG stuff. So far they had had not even a little luck, and business wasn't exactly booming. Morgan might not have been the personality for sales, but she could at least manage appointments and pass along information.

"I mean, like, if you can get away and stuff I was wondering if you could help me take care of some stuff? I wanted to actually finish what we started before, ya know, before the Silver Ace match." It was as good an excuse now as it was then. They never got around to the shopping that day, and Taylor had plans for Junko's house that she assumed she'd be cool with.

Morrigan had just walked out of a department store, trying to get a kiosk set up with some of Taylor's stuff. It was annoying, made more annoying by the fact that she didn't speak a lot of Japanese. She spoke zero when she came to Japan and when the first person she met in the league was Lukretia, she really didn't have time to learn it then, either. She had tried learning German, and accomplished a little success, but she was having more trouble with Japanese and she even thought she might be unlearning how to speak Irish. She couldn't even remember the last time she spoke her native tongue.

"I'm just..." She started. "Yeah..." She said. "I'm still on the clock, boss." She said and shrugged. She wasn't really sure when she was OFF the clock, but that came with the territory. She was always on with Lukretia and Taylor kept less demanding hours. She didn't mind.

"Where do you want me to meet you? There's not much going on in Hamamtsu, really. I haven't tried Tokyo yet though. I've been waiting." She said. Hamamtsu was a good testing ground for her. She could try what she wanted to do and if it worked, it worked. If it didn't, it didn't. But for Tokyo, she'd need to have a plan. She'd need to be professional. "Where do you want to meet up?