The Pecking Order

[BlackAkuma]

As Dizzy made her way down the Tokyo streets, she stopped in front of a storefront window and took one last look at herself, making sure that everything was perfect, down to the last detail.

Her hair? Cut in that cute little bob cut.

Diamond stud earrings she’d borrowed from her Mom, fancy and expensive looking.

A couple of shimmering silver bracelets on her arms giving her that slight jingle every time she moved her arms.

A dark red choker with a white heart at the center, a little kinky but not too out of the ordinary. The color helped draw the eyes to it.

A strapless black minidress, showing off her shoulders, with a flared skirt to give off the schoolgirl vibe.

Matching sandals with raised platforms to add a little extra height.

And, of course, the purse, though hers wasn't holding the usual things. She'd come with a phone and some some skimpy athletic wear, on the off chance things got more energetic at any point.

It was the total package, and after taking a moment to wet her lips and shine up her black lipstick, she was satisfied. She was rocking the cuteness, but not too much. A little sexy, a little serious, a little playful. It was suitable for a casual day out or something more adventurous if things came down to it, which she hoped they would. After all, this was an important day: Her first private sit-down with Millicent Kaiser.

Just thinking that name made her scurry along the street, hoping she wasn’t running late. Millicent didn’t strike her as the sort of woman that would let that sort of thing slide, and unlike most of the times when she met up with anyone for anything, she actually cared what this person would think of her. After they’d met and sparred and hashed things out with her Mother, she’d only grown more curious to see what the redhead was offering with this ‘training’. She’d been vague about it in the gym, but it was clear she didn’t want Dizzy to serve as her squeeze toy and body pillow - not just, anyway, though the tiny Italian would’ve been pleased in that role.

No, the German had plans. Where would Dizzy feature in those plans? No clue. That was what this was all about, right? She had to go into this with an open mind. ‘The right attitude’.

After another minute of scurrying through foot traffic, she stood outside the entrance of Kayabe Coffee, a quaint café in the heart of Tokyo. Not too upscale or busy, relatively out of the way, but modern and clean with good star ratings. The kind of place where a reasonably recognizable hulkette wrestler could hang out without worrying too much about unwanted photography. The perfect place to meet without too many prying eyes. Of course, Dizzy would have preferred to drop by where Millicent was living and have an intimate chat, in every sense of the word…but that wasn’t to be, and she didn’t want to push the matter. She’d never been one to take things slow, but if this was the pace that the German wanted to work at, this was the pace she’d go with.

For now, anyway.

One step at a time, though, and those steps led her inside the café. The smell of freshly brewed coffee washed over her face, still going strong as the breakfast rush wound down. After a brief nod and a token smile from a waiter, she made her way around the establishment, looking to see where Millicent was at. It shouldn’t be too hard to spot a nearly six-foot-tall redhead in the middle of Japan…

[Crossedes]

With a distaste for others seeing her struggle with anything, Millicent had worked incessantly for the last few weeks to make her Japanese socially passable. After succeeding with most of the more often-spoken European languages, Japanese presented a more difficult challenge. But she coolly picked her way through her order perhaps because she had teased the waitress with the right amount of lustful eyes and cleavage on display in the process. Her success and a compliment on her pronunciation from that same waitress had her in a positive mood as she sat at a table against a railing, legs crossed like she owned the place herself.

Short of glancing at a few passersby, her eyes remained glued to a notebook in front of her, alongside her pen. She was barely old enough to have known a world without smartphones or tablets, and her old-fashioned footballer of a father had instilled the need to sit down, write, draw, and visualize goals both in pitch strategy and in life. At the top of her page sat her name, and "Desdemona Belti" occupied one quadrant below and to the right, circled, with a handful of words scattered about to the sides. She was adding "problems with men?" within the circle when she checked her watch before scanning the cafe. If Desdemona did not want to be late, she ran short of time.

Millicent did not want her to be late, either, but she settled back into focusing on the page and bouncing one leg atop the other. Having a mentee with so much promise fail the first and easiest test would be disappointing. She wouldn't jump to that conclusion yet, and Desdemona still had plenty of time.

It was another minute before she looked up again, and though her initial scan did not reveal anyone that she could surmise was Desdemona, someone who crossed more clearly into her vision as she started to lower her head had her doing a double-take. While she would not have known her as the same young woman without having studied her face so intently the first time they had met, she could spot Desdemona despite her looking so unlike the cub in the gym that she almost missed her. Good - she knew how to properly dress for the occasion. Some of it was more than Millicent would opt to wear, but Dizzy had made an effort. Millicent quickly wrote that down before locking eyes on the Italian.

When she could tell Dizzy had seen her, Millicent gestured to the lone chair across from her at the table. She watched her until she reached earshot. "I don't think your mother inspired any of this," she said, looking Desdemona over and tapping her pencil against her chin, considering. Everything led to new questions, new knowledge. "Is this what you would wear by choice, or is it only something to impress me?"

Spoiler

[BlackAkuma]

Upon seeing Millicent, the first thought that went through Dizzy's mind was how much she wished to be this woman's shirt. The lucky garment worked overtime to keep her gracious assets in check, and the rest of her outfit was under similar strain. There was no denying it suited her well, though. Form-fitting but casual. Sexy, but not so much that it was out of place. The sort of look that served multiple purposes all at once - drawing eyes, commanding the area, exuding authority.

Plus, the earrings were cute.

Dizzy made her way over, taking care to walk with a medium pace - not so fast as to seem overeager, not so slow as to make her wait, with an appropriate amount of sway to her hips. Head up, eyes half-lidded, coy smile. Perfection.

She followed Millicent’s silent instructions and daintily sat down at the chair. She looked curious at what the German was writing on, one of those legendary notepads that people used to write on before smartphones came around, back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Dizzy tried to make out what she had on it for two seconds before she remembered that she couldn't read any language outside of Italian well enough to make it out upside down.

She shrugged, sat up, and leaned back as she crossed her legs, getting comfortable. She pondered Millicent’s question momentarily, then tilted her head to the left. ”I only wanted to impress you...” And to the right. ”...and this is what I chose.” She leaned in and batted her eyelashes. ”Did it work? Because I could go and come back in something sexier if this doesn’t do it for you, padrona.” She kept the tone playful but with some seriousness underneath. She was only half-joking. Maybe a quarter.

[Crossedes]

Millicent could tell when people were trying. She only took a guess about the outfit - she didn't know Desdemona's preferred style. But watching the cub sway her way over to the table, Millicent caught tell-tale signs of blatant performance. It was both encouraging and a touch overdone, but Millicent already knew that her potential mentee needed some tutelage in the ways of subtlety. Too many wary women would see her coming from a mile away, and she would neither get what she herself wanted nor what Millicent wanted from her.

Her blatant nature clearly made it easy for her to admit when she was pandering, too. Millicent peered over the Italian again with a thin smile. "I am half-surprised you did not show up totally naked. You don't seem to have many inhibitions." The same note was written on her page, and she tapped it with her eraser. "That is a valuable trait. Very much like listening and... mmm, hero worship." Millicent would hardly call it "hero" worship, but she supposed Desdemona would follow.

"One thing I should note," she said, straightening in her seat to begin the day's business. They could banter all they wished once Millicent had secured the cub's agreement. "I do not do... overt displays of 'affection' in public. What I allowed in the training ring was as much as I am willing to allow, and that should be considered a treat." Her tone was firm. "That is not to say you entirely lose what I know you see as a perk to working with me. But that is one rule - one that should be easy to remember, ja?"

[BlackAkuma]

Dizzy had a cooing laugh at the idea of coming in naked. An exaggeration, but not that far off the mark. She had far more risque things hidden away for special occasions in her closet, tucked away in the back where her mother wasn’t apt to stumble along them, things that wouldn’t have been out of place in a hentai match, and the idea to wear one did cross her mind. If they’d done this at her place, she probably would’ve whipped one out.

But the public setting told Dizzy that Millicent was up for that sort of play. Not today, anyway. So she opted for something a little more…acceptable. But still eye-catching. While she didn’t get an answer on how much her tutor liked it, she was willing to take the lack of outright denial as a positive sign. ”Mmm. ‘Worship’.” She steepled her fingers and laid her chin to rest on them. “I like that word when you say it.”

As fun as this was, Millicent was a businesswoman, and Dizzy could tell from the change in posture that she was about to get down to it. She also straightened up, mirroring the pose, and sat at attention like a good little soldier while Millicent laid out a ground rule. Nothing too crazy in public? Fair enough, she had an image to maintain. The German wasn’t shutting any of that stuff off, just limiting where it could happen. She could work with that.

”Ja.” She repeated in a decent German impression. To her ears, anyway. ”No public bread buttering.” She glanced at the waitress and nodded for her to come over, figuring she might as well get some food on her stomach while she was here. ”I know I come off super horny, and I am, but I can be discreet. Kind of have to, with my mother.”

[Crossedes]

For all her obsessions, Desdemona struck her as a good soldier, the kind who would sass her commander but ultimately do what she was told in the end. Millicent knew she could gauge the right tone to take with her. "Stimmt. Worship," she repeated, throwing out treats. It was easy, cost her nothing, and Desdemona was eager to eat them all up and ask for more.

As Dizzy explained her capability to control herself - and Millicent knew she needed to test that before this meeting ended - she caught onto one particular comment. The rest she expected. She did not need Dizzy to repeat that she was horny, and she did not have trouble figuring out she could be discreet if matters called for it even if she did want to know precisely how much or what Desdemona might have gotten away with in the past. Questions for later. But with the subject being broached...

"How close is that relationship?", she asked, her pencil hovering over where she had made a note about Angela. Their previous chat had given her clues, but she wanted the whole picture. How much would Angela interfere? "It's not hard to tell that you keep a great deal from her. I would guess I have learned more about your sex life in twelve minutes than you have ever let her know." If there was a small wedge to drive between people to have what she wanted, Millicent didn't shy from hammering it, but she wanted to be subtle, gentle, and see what she had to work with. Familial relationships didn't cause problems, but the empress wanted Desdemona's eyes on more attractive prizes than pleasing her mother.

[BlackAkuma]

Dizzy kept a relaxed face, all smiles and sighs. Nothing too silly, she knew that they were talking business, but she was flirty by nature, and it wasn’t something she easily turned off. The two of them seemed in a good place, as far as the tone went. Millicent threw a little back to her, enough to keep the appetite wet. As much as the Italian loved the physical stuff, this wordplay could be fun, especially with someone who could keep up with her.

But then came the question. That question.

She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it with a pout as she decided to put a little more thought into it. Some things shouldn’t be given pithy answers, as fun as they could be. ”Close.” She finally let it slip with a soft hum. ”She’s always been there for me. She’s the only parent I’ve ever had, never knew my Dad. She doesn’t, either, for that matter.” They were getting into personal details, stuff Dizzy didn’t talk about too often, but it wasn’t like any of this was hidden knowledge. If Millicent didn’t know already, she could find out easily, and she struck her as the sort of person who did her homework.

”I love her. No question. But I need to live my own life. So while it’s close and I don’t want it to ever not be close, I need it to be less close. If that makes sense.” She lightened up and rubbed her neck. ”Does that make sense?”

[Crossedes]

Millicent had indeed done her homework. She put no stock in tabloid writing, but she had seen mentions about pregnancy-related retirement on more reliable sources, too. But the German also didn't assume. She would imagine an only child with no knowledge of her father would grow close with her mother. The beginning of Dizzy's explanation confirmed as much to the empress' dismay. People who grew too close even to family members could be difficult to deal with in other relationships, like those students in school ready to tattle to the teacher over any slight. Millicent didn't want that, and hearing that the two were all but attached at the hip concerned her.

But Desdemona's desire to be "less close" restored her optimism. That did sound like a wedge ready to be hammered. "Very much so," she assured. "We must eventually outgrow people we love in some sense." She knew because, for all she had in common with her father, Millicent had outgrown him. He had allowed the politics and struggle of sports to grow into a depression when he became too old to tackle everything with energy and enthusiasm, and she had no interest in living that way.

Desdemona did not totally allay her concerns, however. "Time away can help with that. But I do want to know-" She leaned in, trying to make it clear through her body language that she considered this an important matter. "-say you and I..." The correct English wording eluded her at first, so she knocked her fists together. "...disagree on something. Are you going to be taking any problems straight to your mother?"

The waitress arriving pulled her out of the depth of the thought, and she leaned back, letting Dizzy mull her answer while she ordered.

[BlackAkuma]

Dizzy nodded along with Millicent’s words, giving her silent agreement. She didn't want to pry, but she got the distinct impression that the redhead was talking from personal experience. She wasn't a great investigator, but she made a mental note to do a little homework herself when she had the chance - she doubted that a woman like this sprang up out the ether one day, fully formed. There was an interesting story behind Millicent Kaiser, and even if she didn't learn anything useful, it would make for an engaging read.

Dizzy had started to slip into her thought, pondering possibilities, when Millicent leaned in and asked her a question with a little more weight to it. While she still didn't know what her designs were, she could tell that this was striking closer to them - whatever she has planned, Angela Belti didn't factor into the deal. Fair enough, the last thing she needed was a pissed off Italian giantess breathing down her neck.

Valid concerns. Dizzy would put them to rest.

She took a moment to place her order, going for a croissant bagel with bacon and egg on the inside, ordering it in perfectly passable Japanese. While she hadn't mastered it yet, traveling so much in life had taught her how to get the basics of wherever she lived in short order, enough to get by and pick up the local ladies effectively.

With that done, she waited for the waitress to scoot off before she took a deep breath, sat up, and spoke with perfect clarity, turning off the charm for a few seconds. ”No.” She laid it out flat, let the word sit, then moved on. ”Whatever happens between us, stays with us. I love my mother and always will, but like I said—I’m living my own life, my own path. I understand that it's one she can't follow me down, and I’m fine with that, for better or worse. That means I don't go crying to her when things don't work out. If they don't work out.”

That was about as serious as she could stand to be, and she was all too happy to relax and sit back. ”So, no. I don't think we’ll have any…” She knocked her fists together, too. ”…disagreements. But if we do? My problems are my problems.”

[Crossedes]

While Desdemona ordered, Millicent wrote a short summary of what she had learned thus far. Most amounted to confirmation, but she liked to be thorough. The empress had also studied her psychology. When people watched others write notes about them, they felt an immense desire for those notes to be positive. Fortunately for Desdemona, they were so far though Millicent imagined she could not read more than a word or two of it.

She looked back up at a more serious Italian when the waitress stepped away. Good. She must have realized that this matter could be an obstacle to her. Millicent patiently listened, unreadable, hanging on each word to see if she heard something that might give pause. None of it did, and once Desdemona had finished, Millie took a sip of the coffee she had abandoned for the last few minutes.

"Excellent," the empress declared, pleased, as she returned her cup to the table and pulled the notebook onto her crossed leg. They could have a more enjoyable conversation with that matter aired. "That is precisely the attitude so many people lack. You are what.... twenty? Twenty-one? You know who you are better than most, and I can show you how to promote that outside of having 'Belti' attached to your name. That is what I can do for you, outside of your... baser interests."

She let that sit for several seconds before she spoke up again, expression brightening. "With that said... besides licking your way through gym bottoms, what are you good at?"