Noelle smiled as she heard Teuila call out to her. She hadn't known what she should expect, but she did know what she was hoping for, and the princess had gotten it. She could tell that the Samoan girl was far from excited about this, understandably so. Noelle could only imagine that a good amount of pride had been swallowed in the process of reaching out.
"Of course. Where would you like to go?" Noelle said. "As long as the food is of high quality, I'm not very particular about the type. Say what you would like, and I'll take us to a place that can make it very well. Hmm," Noelle paused a moment as she examined Teuila's attire. "That outfit should do fine for anywhere we might go, it's quite cute actually." Noelle herself had donned an outfit similar enough to her wrestling attire that she could still probably fight in it should the need arise, but still held enough class and propriety to befit a lady out in the big city for a meal. Noelle's dress
This felt so awkward on so many levels. Teuila really honestly wasn't sure what she was doing. But.. Noelle didn't seem to be the way she acted in the ring which was good. But could she trust that? Shaking her head to clear such thoughts Teuila would just focus on the woman in front of her, giving a nod to the silver haired girl as she asked what she liked.
"I'm a big fan of bbq personally. I know there's a few places like that around here, I just uh.. don't know which are to you're standard hehe." Teuila said, trying to break the ice a bit wit a little humor, if it was effective or not she had no idea, but it was the best she could come up with for now. Really she was just glad her outfit was apparently ok.
Even if it wasn't anything too crazy being just a simple yellow and white plaid dress that went a little past her thighs, plus some red sneakers. Whatever the case though the outfit worked, and hopefully her suggestion would as well and Noelle knew something nearby that fit and her tastes.
"Heh, I suppose it makes sense that a girl like you is a meat lover," Noelle said as she pulled out her phone. "Considering you're from an American territory off the coast of Australia and standing in Tokyo, that actually narrows it down surprisingly little. I'm not trying to rag you, I'm actually a little impressed."
"Having said that, which kind of barbecue do you prefer?" Noelle said. "Ribs and burgers buried in sauce, shrimp on the barbie, or local style yakiniku? If you haven't been here long enough to realize, Japan, and Tokyo especially, are very catering to international pallets. Whether you want American, Australian, or Japanese style barbecue, I can promise that we can find something good."
Teuila didn't really know what she was doing here. It wasn't as if she hadn't gone out to lunch with people before, hell she and Harmonia and Nico did it like once every month and Dana or Mara also took her out on occasion, but those were all people she was friends with and liked before hand. Noelle? Not so much. Hell she didn't even know if this was some kind of trap or anything, all she had to go off of was how genuine and nice Noelle was being so far. Which admittedly helped.
Just like Noelle breaking down the types of bbq available which made Teuila blink and blush slightly. After all she had been living in Japan for almost a year and she hadn't noticed any of the differences Noelle had mentioned. To her bbq was bbq but as far as what was closest... "I think yakiniku, the Japanese one is probably the closest to what I like. Kinda simple but bold flavors. So let's go with that." Teuila said after a moment with a nod, at least knowing she had gone to a few yakiniku places with Dana so she'd definitely like it.
"Yakiniku it is then," Noelle said as she began tapping away at her phone. "I'm finding two places of appropriate quality. From what I'm seeing, one place is known for top-notch rice to compliment their dishes, and the other seems to specialize in various types of beef rolls. You can pick whichever you prefer, and then we can pick up a taxi to make the trip."
Noelle knew that she really could've just picked one she personally preferred and Teuila would never have been any the wiser, but the rookie was understandably wary of the Spaniard, and Noelle wanted to get some simpler conversation between the two of them done in an attempt to calm Teuila down a bit. She did already seem a touch less cagey than before they had gone into the showers, so Noelle saw her strategy as worth continuing for now.
It was still really weird for Teuila to be accepting a lunch date from Noelle given the history between them prior in their first match and with how this spar had went today. Yet despite that she was acting.. nicer and really different from their first match. Really she just hoped it was genuine and this seemed like the best way to see if that would be case.
When asked about the two places Teuila would hum softly in thought but ultimately wouldn't take long for her decision. "The place with the rice, I like good sides with my main dish." Teuila said with a nod as she moved to head out of the gym, figuring Noelle would follow while ordering the taxi for them.
"Works for me," Noelle said with a smirk, pleased that Teuila had happened to choose the restaurant that she herself preferred. "Let's head out. Taxi's usually hang out around gyms because people will walk/jog/run here as part of their workout, and then take a taxi home because their too tired afterwards to want to do that on the way back. It's not 100%, but more often than not, you don't even have to call and wait, you can just get one."
Just as Noelle said, she spotted a taxi waiting for somebody to get it before they even left the building, as it was visible from the gym's front window. The two women hailed the cab, and the Spaniard gave the driver the name of the restaurant that they were going to before turning her attention back to Teuila, "So, what did you think of our spar just now compared to our match? How well did your adjustments work? Was there anything different you noticed that you weren't expecting to change?"
Noelle explained about the taxis usually waiting outside and sure enough she was right making Teuila blink softly. "Huh never even thought about that. Shows how much I use public gyms." she said with a chuckle which was true since she typically used either the young lioness gym attached to the dorms or Dana's private shadow fortress one. Either way no wait was totally fine by her.
Stepping into the cab and buckling up Noelle would ask her a question making Teuila blink softly before humming in thought as she considered the words of the princess. "Well it went better obviously. I anticipated your holds better, which I'm glad about. But you adapted way faster than I expected and it threw me off." she said before huffing. "Plus I had a handicap and still lost so now I have to think about how it would have gone had you been fresh." Teuila admitted, frustration clear in her face and voice.
"Well as long as the gym is good, I wouldn't think that it really matters who run it," Noelle said concerning Teuila's comment on the gyms she usually frequented. Once the Samoan gave her comments on the spar, Noelle would provide her thoughts as well, "When you're against a competent opponent, my rule of thumb is to expect them to adapt after two, and be ready for them to adapt after one."
"Now that isn't to say that you can only go for something twice over the course of a match," Noelle continued. "Like if you have something to make a move particularly tricky, or if it's been awhile since you used a move and you don't think your opponent is thinking about it." The Spaniard couldn't help her smirk when Teuila brought up the handicap, "Well there was a reason I gave it to you."
"When you look back on our first match, I assume you see it mainly from the perspective of your anger and humiliation," Noelle said. "Those emotions are good things to draw motivation from, but they're poor for a proper analysis. Once we're done, I'd recommend looking back through it while doing your best to your emotions aside. Doing so while watching that will be a decent exercise for your mental strength, plus I think it will help you pick up a few new things. Regardless of what there may or may not be to find in the actual fighting, I did lace some genuine bits of advice into my mocking if you have a good enough ear to catch it."
"Well I more so meant that I don't normally need a ride anywhere at those places." Teuila said in response to what Noelle said before nodding slightly at what the woman said. It made sense of course and realistically somewhere deep down she understood that was the case and the wisdom of those words Noelle had spoken.
Of course it wouldn't stop the silver haired beauty from offering a form of advice about it nonetheless. It made sense too. Reusing moves or a tactic wasn't bad, it just had to be properly timed to actually catch someone off guard with it. Really it was her own overzealous desire to try and beat Noelle that made her try the same tactics over and over because she was so sure that she had the woman with them.
As if reading her mind though Noelle would speak up again. Offering more advice to her about how to deal with the painful emotions from her defeat at the hands of the woman sitting next to her. That if she looked at the match with a clear head she might find some worthwhile advice during it. It was a hard pill to swallow admittedly... But it was one she would have too. Even so there was something else that was nagging at her... that she had to get out.
"Yeah.. You're right I've been so.. angry about it that I haven't been able to think straight for the past week." Teuila admitted with a sigh before looking at Noelle in the eyes. "Can I ask though... why are you doing this? Even in that match, if you were offering advice but acting so cruel, but today... you were so helpful... Why?" Teuila asked with curiosity lacing her voice with just a hint of desperation, clearly wanting nothing more than to know why Noelle was helping her.
