Kita-Ku, Saturday, 7pm

Cassie finally let up on the armlock, but didn't let go. "I am not," she said quietly. "Well, you didn't try hard enough. I don't like you anymore. But if you keep doing this stuff, no one ever will, except for people like..."

She suddenly remembered about Brittany and looked back over her shoulder to see her sprawled out and unconscious on the porch with Morrigan standing over her.

"Her."

Cassie avoided looking at Mamouru as she disentangled her arms from his and got up. She stood, arms at her sides, and looked blankly at Taylor and Johnny, and then padded by them toward the house. The her pink tights were dirty on her knees and the bottoms of her feet, and she looked more like she had been playing in the dirt than beating somebody up. She disappeared back inside the house.

Taylor watched her go, and then turned to Morrigan. Under different circumstances, she might've punched the girl in the face for what she had apparently done, but she gave her only a steel-eyed stare.

She nodded in agreement about Brittany. After Morrigan was back in the house, Taylor spoke to Johnny. "I was right. Him and her were a bad idea. Especially him." She nodded toward Mamouru, pitifully sprawled on the grass.

"You're a mess, Mamouru," she spoke up, weary of him and everything else that followed him. "Get your shit together, but Cassie's staying here tonight so get it somewhere else." She sighed. "I need to go check on everyone else..." She followed everyone else back in the house, leaving the twins and the unconscious brunette alone.

Mamouru closed his eyes as Cassie got off of him. He barely even heard Taylor's words. Same old bullshit. After a moment he stood up and scrubbed his eyes. He slowly stood up and looked at Johnny who had a lopsided frown on his face as he looked down at his brother. He held out his hand and Mamouru slapped it away.

He stood up and looked at Johnny. "I'm going."

"Ok, I'll get Ma."

"No." Mamouru said. "If you want that woman out of your house, then do it yourself."

"What? Dude, what the hell, bro!"

"No!" Mamouru shouted. "I didn't want to even COME HERE! She begged and begged and begged and I decided to come for HER sake! Great for her. She gets to go get drunk while my life is completely RUINED! The only girl I ever loved hates me. Your wife hates me. Everyone hates me. Nothing's ever fucking good enough for anyone around here. I'm done with it. If everyone wants me out of their life so badly, then wish, fucking, granted."

Mamouru stepped away from Johnny, rubbing his sore arm. "I'm never speaking to that woman again. She can focus on the daughter she loves so fucking much. And her perfect fucking son."

Mamouru left, pulling out his phone to dial a cab. He left the house quickly and headed outside.

Johnny stood bewildered at the scene. He really wasn't sure what to do. Everyone was right about Mamouru, of course, but they were bros. He couldn't really hate his twin brother. His eyes fell to the unconscious Brittany. He wasn't even sure how they were making out or, whatever they were doing. He didn't even think Brittany LIKED dudes. He shrugged.

A few moments later, there was a gentle pat on Johnny's back. He turned and saw Morrigan, who was twirling a pair of metal cuffs around her finger. She grinned at Johnny as she slid over to her unconscious lover, rolled her onto her stomach and hand cuffed her arms behind her back.

"I'm going to see if Taylor can't drive us home. I know you've had some beer or I'd ask you. But do you think you could at least help me carry her to the car? Well, maybe I need to wait for Taylor." Morrigan sighed. "I'm sorry she caused a fuss. I'll try and go help clean up. Even if she wakes up, there's not much she can do now." Morrigan said and gave Johnny's chest a pat as she slid off to try and find Taylor.

"Sorry guys," Taylor said to the remaining guests, Akashi, Junko, Ro, Nikolette, Mercy, and Jess. "I can't say I didn't see this coming, but like, I'm probably gonna have to take care of some stuff. But don't feel weird or anything, okay? You guys can live down here if you want, though, like I'm not gonna kick you out or anything. It's cool. If you're too drunk to walk to a cab or whatever, definitely just crash here." She directed the last part mostly at Junko and Akashi. And Jess.

Jess, who had been trying to coax Mercy into dancing with her, despite the lack of music, couldn't help but feel embarrassed. She wondered how much of it was her fault. "Hey babe, thank you so much for the invite and everything, but I think I'm gonna jet." She said, as she stepped up to Taylor. They hugged, and Taylor gave her a pat on the shoulder while she headed for the stairs.

"Nik, dude, I wanted to ask you about some stuff," Taylor said. "For the stuff with my match with Adrian, but I guess I'll catch you later. Mercy I'll see you Monday, okay?"

It seemed like half the people there Taylor either trained with or trained or helped in some way to prepare for something. She should open a gym or get a certification or something. On her way up the stairs, she bumped into Morrigan.

She fixed her with another hard stare. "You owe me some sheets, dude. So not cool."

If Cassie was staying, Akashi was too. Everyone else had already been starting collect their things when Taylor came down. Johnny was nearly asleep from the combination of alcohol and anxiety.

Nikolette hadn't had much to drink so she was in her sorts. Mercy had only been a little tipsy. She had avoided the big girl drinks but two beers had made her swimming a little. She had been halfheartedly trying to fend off the sexy green haired girl who had been shamelessly flirting with her. It felt nice to get that kind of attention from someone other than her puppy dog boyfriend. Even if it was probably because she was ripped off her ass.

"Y'all can talk ta me anytime ya want." Nikolette said with a smile. "Hey, uh," she said loudly so everyone could hear. "If anyone's headin back ta Tokyo, I can make sure y'all get home safe and sound. It ain't a big deal, really." She said as she helped to corral the stray members who were leaving.

Morrigan grinned when Taylor spoke to her. "Oh, deal with it." She said with a mischievous flutter in her eyes. "It was the most fun part of the evening and it kept Lilith out of everyone's hair for most of the night."

Morrigan then grabbed onto Taylor's arm to hold her in place. "I'm mad at her, Taylor." She said. "For making out with your brother. who knows how far it might have gone. What if something would have happened to her? What if she had gotten pregnant or something like that." Morrigan lowered her head, a concerned look on her face.

"She doesn't think about the consequences of her actions. Maybe she's not an idiot but she doesn't think. I'm sorry she ruined your party though. She just doesn't think." Morrigan shook her head. "But ... calling her out in front of the whole party? Even if she WOULD have apologized, how could she in that position? YOU should have known better and I'm surprised at you. I think you're lucky what happened with Lilith is all that happened. Anyway, can you drive us home? I'd ask Johnny but he's been drinking and I don't really want to drag her to a train station. Obviously we're not going to stay here."

Morrigan looked at Taylor with soft eyes and spoke in a calm voice. She was asking and hoping that Taylor would say yes.

"Brother-in-law," Taylor corrected, almost instinctively.

She raised an eyebrow at Morrigan. What if Brittany had got pregnant, and with Mamouru's baby? There would really be no escaping that hell. She shuddered at the thought.

"I should've known better, huh?" She said in a hushed voice. "I know Brittany's your girl, but that's my mom. You know perfectly fucking well what she did to her. Shit, you probably laughed your ass off when she told you. I owe her, man, and I only asked her to say she was sorry for you. If it weren't for you, I'd have just beat her ass stupid right there in the basement."

Were it not for Brittany, there was no telling where Morrigan and Taylor would stand with each other. They could've been friends by now, but Brittany Fucking Luvve was a wedge forever between them. As long as she was in the picture, Taylor and Morrigan would always be one step away from killing each other. She didn't like it, but she couldn't let anyone do what Brittany did to her mom without catching a serious ass kicking for it.

"And yeah. Straight home, or to the train station?" She went to get her keys. "I'd ask you guys to promise not to murder me and steal my car, but we both know how that shit works, don't we?"

Morrigan never made promises to her, and that was good. They wouldn't have meant anything if she did. And it broke her heart.

Morrigan grunted at Taylor's words. "I don't care that you did it. She DOES owe you an apology." Morrigan said. "Even if I DID laugh my ass off about it." Morrigan shrugged. "She's probably owed an ass beating too. Lots of them. But YOU'RE the "adult" around here and you thought that putting her on the spot like that wasn't humiliating at all? That she'd just apologize? If you're going to be better than her than BE better. That's all I'm saying. YOU'RE not the one that has to deal with her bitchy ass for most of the day."

Morrigan followed Taylor. "Home, please. Well, Lilith's place. I'll crash there tonight." Morrigan lowered her head. "Thanks... again... I'm sorry again for what she did." She added quietly.

Taylor shook her head with a scowl. Of course Morrigan was right, at least on paper, but in the real world sometimes you had to play rough. "I never said it wasn't humiliating," she said grimly.

She sighed so heavily she might have deflated like a balloon and piled up on the floor. "You gotta ditch her, man," she said. "But you wanna talk about being better? I don't care about what she did. I don't expect anything good out of her. But you?" She looked into Morrigan's eyes. No matter what anyone said, she knew what she saw. "Everyone says I'm stupid for expecting more out of you, but I do. So go ahead and laugh your ass off when someone assaults my fifty-year-old, non-wrestling mother-in-law. But you're taking your chances."

She walked out the front door toward the car. "You get her in the car. I'm not touching that thing."

"The assault wasn't funny. The swirly was." Morrigan said. She closed her eyes. "I hear what you're saying, Taylor. There's lots of reasons I should ditch her, even ones that don't involve being a goody, goody. Selfish bitch reasons why I should. There's a problem though." Morrigan said as she started to walk towards the back door.

"I care about her."