I'm Not Who You Think

Akashi stood up. "Cassie-san." She said and looked at the girl. Either of us would do the same thing. Protect the people you care about. Protect yourself. There's a good chance that we might have even taken things too far. Gotten so angry that we really put the girl in the hospital and threatened to end her career."

Akashi shook her head. "I wanted to hurt her. I almost did. I almost ran out a few times myself. Maybe I should have. Taylor feels the same way, I know. but..." Akashi paused. both her AND Taylor had opportunities to deal with Dark Angel and they hadn't. Probably because they didn't want Cassie to think that they thought she was a kid. But now she made an adult decision and was reaping the consequenses in a way that felt very childish to Akashi.

"Neither of us would have agreed to an ambulance match, though. Certainly we wouldn't have asked for one! We would have done it with a cage, in a cell. Through a table. No DQ's. There are lots of ways to hurt a girl that let you go too far..." Akashi turned her head when she said the words.

In her match with Sarah, despite being friends, she had really been trying to break the brawler's ribs and almost succeeded, pounding her with a barricade, among other things. Hell, she was practically trying to kill Taylor during their match too. She looked at the blonde briefly.

"You don't deserve anything like that. You did what you had to do. That's it. But.... " Akashi sighed. "How long have were you planning an ambulance match before you actually fought her?!"

It was nothing in particular that Akashi said. It was more her tone that made Cassie's cheeks flush and her jaw clench. She was heated by the time Akashi got around to saying something that actually made her angry.

"Why does that matter?!" Cassie burst out. "You think... you think that was my plan all along? That I just wanted to... to... I talked to Lukretia, and she told me I should do it, because... If you want to know anything about that, then you'd just have to ask her." She folded her arms tightly and avoided looking at anyone.

"Bear, no one's calling you any names, here. If Akashi gets up in your face, I promise I'll help you beat her ass. Like... Kashi, maybe you need to back the fuck off. Right? What are we even talking about anymore?" Taylor interjected. "Akashi and me have done some serious shit to each other... If I knew it was an option, I might've gone for that match type at Avalanche. Shit, man, I was trying to put you in the hospital, I'm just not as good at it. Look, I don't know how to break this whole thing down at all, but I'm here, and I'm going to be here, and anything you need you just tell me, okay? I'm not gonna tell you what you need, so right now me and Kashi are gonna go hang out downstairs and you can just chill out."

"It matters because..."

"Well..."

Akashi tried to interject when Cassie was talking but couldn't find a good spot. By the time she was finished, Taylor was picking up with where Cassie left off and Akashi sat and smoldered, listening to Taylor's words. "I would have liked to think that I wouldn't have picked that choice." She said, flaring her nostrils in defiance. "But, I won't back down!" Akashi said and stood up. "I'm fucking pissed!" She growled. Not at Cassie or Taylor, however. "Of fucking COURSE, Lukretia's name comes up in all of this. Now everything makes perfect sense!"

Akashi shook her head and tugged at one of her long locks of hair in frustration. "It's pretty clear what happened here now. It was the perfect opportunity for her to swoop in and wreck the lives of two young girls because she's sick in the head. Dark Angel clearly isn't innocent in all of this but I'll bet it was a heck of a lot easier for her to get away with the things she did with Lukretia turning a blind eye, or probably encouraging her! And I'm sure that Lukretia knew that you weren't in the right state of mind to make match decisions when she tossed out the idea of an ambulance match! You're damn right I'm going to talk to her!" Akashi growled angrily.

"She's trying to break everyone I care about! I'm fucking sick of it!" She said, throwing her hands in the air. "Yeah, I'm done." She said finally. She was too pissed off now to continue to engage in a conversation and try and help out Cassie. Right now she figured the best way she could help her friend was to pound Lukretia into paste.

Cassie reddened, and said nothing. She'd lied, and she knew it, but she couldn't tell Akashi, especially given her reaction. If Akashi was in a rage over Lukretia, Cassie wasn't going to stop her. She probably deserved it anyway.

"Okay, Pants, I'm going to go get Kashi in a cold shower. You just hang out and do what you need to do, and if you don't feel like yelling or whatever just send me a text." Taylor said, and began herding Akashi out the door. She paused before leaving. "Hey... love you, Bear. We all do."

She closed the door behind her, and once she got she got Akashi halfway down the stairs and out of earshot, she crammed herself next to her and pushed Akashi against the wall, just hard enough to let her know that that was where she wanted her.

"Hey," she said in a hushed voice. "Are you gonna be cool about this? Because if you're going to get pissed at Cassie or start running your mouth when you shouldn't, you and me are gonna have a serious talk. A'right?" She looked her directly in the eyes and didn't so much as blink until she got an answer.

Akashi was all but eager to leave Cassie's room. She knew she was creating a bad atmosphere and probably upsetting both Cassie and Taylor but how she felt was how she felt. She let herself get nudged out of the door and tried to flash Cassie an apologetic look before the two were gone and halfway down the stairs.

Akashi furrowed her brow when Taylor wedged her against the wall. "I'm cool!" She growled. "I'm not pissed at Cassie-chan. I'm fucking pissed at Lukretia! I'm tired of her using the AFW as her personal playground so she can keep jacking up all my friend! She's fucking sick and I'm going to break her face!"

Akashi was also stubborn. "I love Cassie-chan too, you know! You think I like this whole situation? It doesn't please me one bit! I know she just got done going through shit! But this is the only way I know how to be there for her, ok? I don't know what magic words there are to make everything better! I can only do what I can do and if means snapping that German bitch in half, then I'll do it!"

"Yeah," Taylor said, without letting Akashi off the wall quite yet. "Man, if you go after Lukretia, you know you count me in on that. I at least want to be around to makes things worse with my delightful goddamn personality. Just don't fuck with Cassie. Don't do it."

She backed off, and went the rest of the way down the stairs. "I'm not gonna threaten you or anything. You know what I'd do if I heard that you were fucking with her." It would probably be violent, with lots of yelling and name-calling. It's how business was done.

"Let's get the fuck out of here, man, Cassie's got to sleep. Let's go get a drink or something, shit. I'm in a mood, Akashi, I'm in a goddamn mood and I need some air before I set this whole place on fire. And you're fucking buying, Little Miss I-Still-Have-A-Job."

"Why the hell would I fuck with Cassie-chan!" Akashi spat back. It was like Taylor was ignoring the fact that Akashi had feelings for Cassie too. When Taylor went home, Akashi still had to LIVE with Cassie. Akashi remained stoic, but she didn't think that Taylor was actually going to throw down right here in the house. But, at the moment, Akashi was ready for anything. She certainly wasn't afraid of Taylor coming at her anyway.

Akashi sighed when Taylor walked down stairs and Akashi followed. What Taylor suggested sounded like a good idea. She grabbed her keys and stuffed some cash into her boobs. "I'm pretty worked up too. I know a dive we can go where there's a good chance we'll end up with a few bruises and someone else's blood on our shirts." She said as she slapped Taylor on the back and ushered her towards the foyer.