Talia noticed Zero glancing at her back and blushed. She had been taking proper care of the gashes, and the shallower ones were already closing and scarring over. They would fade over time but Talia wondered if the deeper ones that were still healing would ever go away.
"Well....Sweet Talia, how do you know Zero?" The tone the girl spoke in was irritatingly familiar.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"So this is sweet little Talia." A teenage girl circled a younger Talia, sizing her up. Talia stood, shaking nervously. "Don't worry, I won't bite." The girl said, mockingly. "You're too scrawny to make a meal of."
The girl walked away, sneering at Talia as she went. "Why in the world the master decided to keep this runt, I'll never understand." She purposely spoke aloud so Talia could hear. The girl walked over to a table where Eevee sat. Eevee ignored them both, watching out of the second story window as Trace talked with Riku outside, below.
"I-I'm not useless!" Talia yelled to the older girl. This piqued the mean girl's interest and she walked back, bending over to Talia's eye level. "Oh, you're not useless?" She grinned. "Why don't you prove it then? If you can get a kiss from Trace, I'll admit you're not useless." The girl stood straight, hands on hip. Her eyes saying 'I dare you.'
Talia bit her lip and turned on her heels, running down the stairs to find Trace. When she got outside, Riku was no where in sight and Trace stared into the woods. "Trace?" He didn't turn to look at her or even bother to answer. "Trace..." Talia stood in front of him now, scared. Simply asking him for a kiss wouldn't work. He was only ever nice when he wanted to be, which was rarely, and he was never nice when she asked. Talia swallowed the fear in her throat. As Razor had taught her, she pulled forward the inner power and released it in her voice. "Trace...kiss me."
Trace finally looked down at her, but it wasn't the look Talia was hoping to see. He wasn't under hypnosis. he was pissed off. He slapped her hard, making her fall to the ground. "Don't you ever ttry that s**t on me again," Trace growled and left her, disappearing into the woods.
Talia rubbed her cheek, which felt like it was burning. It was already swelling and was likely going to need to be iced. Behind her she heard laughter. Talia turned and saw the dark haired girl laughing maniacally. When she finally calmed, she shrugged her shoulders, smiling triumphantly. "Ah well, useless. Let's go Eevee." She placed a hand on Eevee's shoulder. Eevee took a glance at Talia and simply shook her head, then they were gone.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This would prove to only be the first in a chain of challenging events where the girl later known to be Angel would challenge Talia's usefulness, competance, and even fighting skills. All of them, Talia would fail, until the challenges ended after about a year. Angel would disappear and Talia, happy to finally be rid of her, would forget about all she had gone through with the damned dark haired girl....Until now...
"Ah, Angel...I met Zero at the bar, we got to know each other afterword." Talia answered smiling.
"Pretty mature for a little kid aren't we?" Angel said, staring at Talia's chest. Talia still smiled, though her mask of friendliness was slipping. "Why yes, thank you, and I'm still growing!" Talia gritted her teeth, trying to keep the calm facade up.
"Do you have business with my man?" Angel asked, and Talia's smile slipped. She glared at angel, her smile turning from something sweet into something more sinister. She heard Zero deny their relationship but didn't further deny it after Angel shushed him with food.
"So...Talia is it? Sweet Talia..." Angel continued.
That name again. Talia narrowed her eyes at Angel. She had long ago hated that name the dark girl called her.
"Sweet Talia." "You're so pretty, you know. Why don't you go find a guy for yourself over there. Someone like you should be able to get a man easily am I right?" Angel pointed toward a table of three boys that, to put it nicely, rated a three on a one to ten scale. And that was the score for the least detestable one at the table.
"Why should I shop for meat when I know exactly what I want? Doesn't like like it's in your cart yet." She replied, she wasn't sure weather to be proud or facepalm at her metaphor.
Riku is contageous, she thought to herself.
"Uhm....are you two okay?" Zero asked, looking a bit worriedly between the two girls.
"Fine, were fine...love." Angel replied moving to Zero's side and entwining her arm in his. "We're peachy..." she grinned triumphantly to Talia. That same self-satisfaction playing on the dark girl's lips from Talia's childhood. Talia felt her face burning in anger, but instead of blowing up, she exhaled slowly and felt the heat subside. She smiled to Zero. "We're just having a woman to woman chat, you don't need to get it." Talia rose and stood on the other side of Zero.
"By the way Zero," Talia said, slipping a finger under his chin and forcing him to look up at her. "You have pie on your lip." Talia quickly bent and licked the crumbs from Zero's lips slowly. "Mmmm yummy,"she whispered, pressing a warm kiss to his lips before she stood and smiled sweetly. "Well, unfortunately, I have places to go, people to see. Let's continue this again sometime, Zero. Laters!" She winked at Zero and then again at Angel, then turned and walked away before she could hear a word from either of them.
Her face was burning with embarrassment and excitement.
Kyaaa! Her inner self screamed and her heart was pounding. It was the first time Talia had ever done anything so daring without using her influence to help things along and it was absolutely thrilling.