Quitters Never Win!

Taylor's eyes flicked from Adrian to Natalia and immediately her face hardened, anticipating a fight. But she was caught between not wanting to cause a scene and wanting to unleash her attitude on the skinny busty model chick. She breathed in, ready to say something, to tell Natalia off for being... her, but having Akashi on hand helped her to be able to hold her tongue, something she was not otherwise skilled at.

Taylor, despite her instincts to fight back against Natalia, seemed to shrink away from her words. "Oh... good." She said absently. She looked down at the floor and leaned in to Akashi. "What the hell is wrong with her? I didn't do that to her, did I?" She whispered, referring to Adrian.

"Hey, nurse, is she super doped up? She's okay, right? Aside from being nuts, I mean, like, I didn't do anything to her like, ya know... PERMANENT, right?" She asked, her voice quavering with apprehension and concern. She hardly acknowledged that Lukretia was in the room, because doing so would probably just get her geared up for yet another fight, and she really didn't have the energy. She was plenty beat up too.

Natalia now begun to understand why Adrian disliked this Taylor girl so much; just hearing her speak was annoying and irritating. Even though it was quite clear that Taylor was honestly worried about Adrian, Natalia just wanted to punch her ugly monkey face. Why on Earth did Akashi called this girl friend? Then again, Akashi sure had strange ways to chose friends.

The blue-eyed cutie almost felt glad to have dropped Taylor on her head with a reverse DDT, but that thought immediately reminded her that she still owed Taylor, and Adrian, an apology although this wasn't the time. Natalia's cute yet severe expression softened and she let out a sigh. Feeling Adrian's hand she held it with one hand.

"Let's hope you didn't..." Natalia said, trying to not make it sound like a threat without much success. "And if you want to talk with her, I would suggest trying some other time...maybe with less people...and a plexiglass wall in between." Natalia said trying to make situation a little less tense, but maintaining her defensive position between Taylor and Adrian.

To protect, or even care, for someone like she was doing with Adrian was kind of new for Natalia who had grown up in an 'every-girl-for-herself' kind of worl, and it made her feel so good.

"Oh, yeah, definitely..." Taylor complied immediately with Natalia. Definitely this wasn't the time to drag stuff out. She wanted to say something to Natalia, something like "I'm going to make you regret ever putting your hands on me", but she kept her mouth shut and turned to leave.

One look at Akashi, though, and she stopped. She knew she had something to say and she wasn't going to leave without saying it. She entered the room, absently pushing Lukretia out of the way. "No, hey, I've got something to say, and I think it's important. So, you can either let me say it, or you can drop me on my head again and finish what you started. Okay? It's up to you, ya wanna step to the left, sweetie-pie, or do you wanna beat me down?" She said, locking eyes with Natalia, not in a particularly threatening way, but letting her know very clearly that she was serious. She wasn't leaving without getting to say what she came to say.

Chesna turned and looked at Taylor. "Most of her injuries are superficial. She hasn't been doped up with anything very good. Mild painkillers, some sugar. Whatever." Chesna sighed. "It's possible she could be concussed though... I guess..."

Akashi, who had remained silent and away from the commotion for a while, felt the atmosphere beginning to tense up. She stepped past Taylor to get to her side. "Taylor-san came to see Adrian." She said, giving Adrian a hard stare. "You saw the match. If Taylor has any kind of quality then she has a duty to be at Adrian's side at least for a few moments. If warriors who engage in battle don't respect each other then we're nothing more than fighting dogs." Akashi snorted a hot breath out from her nose and crossed her arms.

"I'm worried about Adrian-san too. I don't wish her ill and want to see if she will be alright. Are you still going to turn us away, Natalia-san?

Lukretia stayed silent as Akashi, Taylor and Natalia bantered along but before Natalia could answer, she stepped forward and put a gentle hand on Natalia's shoulder. "How endearing, meine frauline." She said with a smile. "Protecting your friend is quite admirable but vhy don't you come over here und let zem say zere peace." Lukretia would try and guide Natalia away from the bet but maintain contact with the girl so that Lukretia would end up back near the wall with Natalia right in front of her, almost touching her and Lukretia's hands resting against Natalia's hips. That was, of course if Natalia complied with the German's subtle movements.

Adrian was missing most of the conversation detail, the mere mention of Taylor was speeding up her breathing. Her voice was triggering something within her as her voice grew louder. "Go away." She said, panting. She didn't want to see her, not now, not ever. "GO AWAY!"

Natalia's impossible blue eyes locked with Taylor but she remained calm, distant yet adamant in standing in between the two girls; until she heard Akashi's comment about fighting dogs. The sumo cutie would probably not understand why but Natalia found the comment particularly hurtful. The blue-eyed cutie frowned and gave Akashi a harsh look. "Maybe you should try the life of a fighting dog, Akashi-sama. It would teach you a couple of things about respect.

Natalia opened her mouth to keep arguing with Akashi, but before she could mutter a word Lukretian came in from the side and very gently began to move her. The Dream doubted if she should or not oppose resistance to Lukretia's push but when she heard Adrian's scream, Natalia stood stiff on the spot and moved her hands to grab Lukretia's wrists gently but firmly. "How about we all leave and let her rest?" Natalia suggested in the more conciliatory tone she could mutter.

Taylor quietly put a hand against Akashi's stomach to tell her to back off. The last thing she needed was to be accused of having Akashi fight this battle for her too.

She frowned. "Hey, that sounds like a great idea. Everyone clear out so I can talk to Adrian without all this hassle." Then she locked eyes with Natalia again, keeping her composure and her tone firm, telling her that she wasn't going to back down from her. "I'll talk to you later, alright?"

The exchange between Natalia and Akashi about dogs and fighting and all that mostly went over Taylor's head, but she didn't miss the flicker of emotion that it drew out of Natalia. Taylor found that she couldn't take her eyes off of the girl, and she didn't know why. She felt... something. She was ridiculously hot, sure, of the sort that Taylor typically turned her nose up at, but that had nothing to do with it. This wasn't really the time for Taylor to think too hard about it, either, but maybe she'd have an opportunity to sort that out later. Right now she had ten stupid words to say to Adrian, and goddammit she was going to say them.

"...no..." Natalia said with a flat dead tone and a mysterious predatory smile on her luscious lips. "I'm not leaving you alone with Adrian...and...yes... We will talk later..." Although Natalia had been moved away from the bed and to the wall she remained in a protective attittude, even with her relaxed body posture and having Lukretia in the way, it was easy to see that Natalia was ready to jump at Taylor if the blue-haired girl tried to touch Adrian.

"Fine, dammit. Everyone stick around then, I don't care." Taylor said with a scowl.

She walked to the side of the bed and paused for a moment looking down at the beat up and batshit-crazy Adrian. It was somewhat uncomfortable to look at. She screwed up her eyebrow and tightened her lips and lifted a hand, slightly shaky. It hovered over Adrian for an uncertain moment before she finally placed it gently on Adrian's stomach.

"Hey." She said, mostly just to buy herself time to try to clear her head and think about what she was trying to say. "Um... I know you're kinda crazy right now, and that's great and all, but like... you can still hear me, right? Like... nevermind. Okay, um, I just wanted to say that... Well, I know you don't like me, and I don't like you, and..."

She paused. This was harder than she thought it'd be, and she had to say something fast before she lost the will to do it. "I just want to say that... I guess I know that you didn't book the match to try to come after me or anything. I guess that was probably just Lukretia, and who knows if you can trust anything she says, so, that's cool, but that was a lot rougher than usual. Ya know. And... That's not me, like, I just wanted to hurt you and that's not how I fight, ya know, and... I don't like how it feels. I don't like how it felt. In the match. So I guess what I'm getting at is... sorry. For that. And I'm done with, like, this whole trying to kill each other thing. If you still want to come after me or something, or sic your girlfriend here on me, that's fine, I know I probably deserve worse than what anyone could even think to do to me. But... When you come back from crazy-land, you don't have to worry about me. I think I'm better than what I just was out there, and I think you are too, and... Um..."

She took a deep breath. All this spilling her guts had her tense and a little shaky. "Oookay, well, I guess that's all I needed to say, I can't think of anything else... I guess I know what you guys mean about fighting dogs. Okay." She started to leave and slowed as she passed Natalia. She couldn't muster up any sort of glare or intimidating, defiant look. She felt like she was going to cry. Again. It was exhausting.

Adrian weakly pawed out for support when Natalia was removed from her grasp, the wrong people seeming to have taken Adrian's instructions of "go away." It took all of what remained of her fractured will power to not just completely lose it again while throwing everything she could lay her hands on to keep the Blue haired girl who put her in this situation came closer. Fear taking over her as she stepped to the side, trying to hide her face, seemingly afraid to even look at her.

Words got stuck in her throat, she couldn't speak, she wanted to scream at Taylor, to cry until she left her alone but as she could do nothing but listen she... well she didn't calm down that much. Her heart rate was still probably way to high to be healthy but was Taylor apologizing? For being as mean as she was, saying that she's normally better than that? All Taylor had done since the two met was antagonize her, some of which with fair justification but still... to say that the cosplayer was better than she acted in that match.

"I...didn't like it either..." she said faintly, thinking bac to how she lost it in the match, curling up tighter into her own little ball, she hated how she became so unhinged just like that. It scared her, if that side of her came out in the rematch she owed Natalia... that really scared her. "Can you... go now... please?" she asked as nicely as possible. As much as Taylor apologizing would mean to her if she was feeling better, she really wasn't up for heartfelt stuff. She had enough trouble speaking as it is.