A rather long and exhausting school day was over now and Taiga, of course still in her school uniform, slowly strolled down the street towards home. Careful to not show anything to other passersby she let a drop of water from the rain, which was currently pouring down, float in her hand absentmindedly.
Yes, she was extremely bored with her life. No real friends meant no real adventure, no interaction with others which she so desired.
But either she is seen as too timid and shy, or as too much of a tomboy. Can't they finally decide on one thing or another? Although she much more preferred being a tomboy than being timid, it seems, she just couldn't get rid of her image she earned once.
The rain was still drizzling around her and completely drenched her clothes, however it didn't really matter to her, no, she even liked it. As her element was water, she felt really at home in it and so she had also managed to become the school's swim team's captain.

Recently, though, a new student had joined the team who really envied her position as captain and wanted Taiga gone. Not that the new student would openly admit that, but since Taiga wasn't stupid the student's scheming obviously did not go unnoticed. It even went so far already that a few of her teammates began detesting her.
For Taiga, today had been the worst day she had experienced so far. The new girl, Heather, had went to Taiga stretching at the pool edge, then she had slapped her on the butt so hard Taiga got hurled into the pool.
A loud laugh had come from Heather then jeering "Hah, the little girl got dunked! Are you gonna cry for your mommy now? By the way, you got no real boobs and no real ass, how old are you? Ten?" Utterly humiliated and also a bit hurt from the hard impact, Taiga had climbed out of the pool, drenched but almost literally steaming with anger, she built herself up in front of Heather, which, to be fair, wasn't really intimidating due to her body size, and bellowed at the over 1.70m girl. "That's the last straw! That's it, Heather! You're dismissed! Get out of here, I don't want to ever see you again here!"

With her finger in Heather's face and her own twisted with anger she did a snap turn and walked to the waterproof folder with the team applications. She took out Heather's application and then a big red marker writing a big "FIRED" onto it. Then she repeated what she had said earlier just in Japanese and a little more offensive. 「退部しろクソヤロ！もうここに顔を出すな！」[Taibushiro, kusoyaro! Mou koko ni kao wo dasuna!]
However, the rest of the team resented her for that, especially since a lot of the girls rather liked Heather, so Taiga called it quits for the day and retreated into the cabin, without even doing any real practice today.

That's when it started raining and she just went for a walk down the street instead of taking the bus. She also now spotted a café she hadn't seen yet and thought to herself <<It's a shitty day already, why not go for a coffee or something...>>
So she crossed the street and slowly entered the cafe, careful not to wet everything with her dripping clothes and waited on the counter.

Erin sucked in some air when the blue-haired girl walked in. Her eyes glanced at the dirty puddles her shoes left, and the thought of cleaning it up made her sigh inside. Rain often meant less customers. Good for her mood, less so for her mother, but the mud and dirt trails that dragged behind the soles of every customer was a pain to clean. She still held back any disgust upon her face though, looking down at the girl with a genial, graceful smile. The smile of a young man. Erin never looked like a girl, and she gave up on trying after transferring schools.

Erin's face did her with the ladies though, something her mother always seemed to be exasperated by. Still, no one could argue with the results. When Erin manned the counter, girls showed their interest in ways that helped balance the books.

Perhaps this blue-haired girl would be no different.

"How may I serve you?" greeted Erin, winking at Taiga. Winking usually meant something intimate, but the one thing Erin's mother told her was that the wallet was the most important part of a customer to be intimate with.

"N͡o̕,͝ w҉e're̶ ͝n͢ot fuc͘k͏in̢g͠ t̷a҉lking͘ ͡a҉b̷o̕ut a͏ ̸fuc͜k̴íng ̵r̨e̸b͟el͘li͞on͜! Get the͜ f҉ùck҉ o̢ut!"

Erin's attention immediately shot upstairs. The office where her mother did the accounts. Whoever was there, talking to her, got up there without Erin's notice. And understood the dragon language. She didn't understand it herself, but knew how it sounded like. From the corner of her eyes, she saw and remembered Taiga.

"Sorry!" She looked back at the girl. The sides of her face creased upwards in an uneasy smile. "It's... uh..."

A red haired man, perhaps in his thirties, stumbled down the stairs, his businessman-like clothing in a dishevelled mess. He rested himself with one hand on a nearby wall, then looked at the counter.

Or to Erin, he glared. With a gulp, she could sense the anger in him. The indignity of a dragon, stuck in a form of those they thought were weaker than them. He wanted power, and he was denied his birthright.

The glare stayed with Erin even as he looked away and exited the cafe. Fortunately, no one else saw it. No one but the blue-haired girl.

"Uh.... weird things happen. Can I have your number?" Erin quipped nervously. She never asked for numbers from girls and never gave hers out when asked. But the mere prospect of obtaining Erin's handphone number had an effect on girls she couldn't qualify.

Immediately Taiga felt bad for the pretty-faced, but also rather feminine guy behind the counter. She looked at the trail of mud she left on the ground and felt sorry for being so egoistical.

However, before she could say a thing, her sharp ears picked up commotion upstairs. It sounded like dragon language! And they were talking about rebellion... Without consciously knowing it, her facial features slowly deteriorated.

When the lad behind the counter tried to explain stuff, a female voice kicked a clearly male voice out of the shop. As the red haired man came down the stairs, he frighteningly glared at the young one behind the counter.
His glare send cold shivers down Taiga's spine and reminded her of the kind of "people" who chased her family out of Japan. Vile dragons... and Taiga was very sure, that dude was a dragon, too. Still, it seemed strange to her that upstairs would be another dragon. Too much of a coincidence, if you'd ask her.

When that red-hair dude left, the lad on the counter asked for her number. Tilting her head she exclaimed the following:
"First of all, I'm sorry for the mud, really. Secondly... you do know this doesn't really work like that, you know?" With a free hand she twirled her hair and placed the other on the counter. "First you get to know the girl a bit, names and everything. Then you ask her out for a dinner, where you then inquire her number." Taiga tilted her head to the other side. "'Thanks for the help, Taiga, now I can finally get the girl of my dreams'", she imitated his feminine voice. "No problem, you. Just invite me to your marriage ceremony, will you?" She didn't even try to conceal her accent for which she got teased for a lot of times already.

The Japanese girl grinned as the hopeless romantic in her came out. However, she did plan on questioning the ongoings of prior... a few measures had to be taken beforehand, though.

The girl's expression definitely showed a reaction to whatever happened upstairs. Erin did not like it one bit that Taiga's face showed less confusion, and more... of a grim understanding of whatever was said. Well, it then seemed like this girl called Taiga, with a strong Japanese accent, knew more about what was said than her. The sole consolation rested in a potential half-truth; if Erin didn't understand what was being said upstairs, she could say, "I did not understand what they were saying. I don't speak whatever language they were saying."

Small comfort, but small comforts were all that mattered when the dragon language was uttered out loud in front of strangers.

Her lecture about the details of dating felt a little patronising, but Erin held her smile. Taiga did not seem that enchanted by her looks. Which meant escalation.

Erin's hands reached for Taiga's, and she grabbed the short girl's hand.

"Dear, dear Fräulein. I'm sorry for being so forward with you," cooed Erin, looking straight into Taiga's eyes. Eyes were the windows of the soul, and staring into them would make the girl forget, even for just a moment, whatever happened upstairs.

Erin's gaze faltered, but that was on purpose. A calculated look of tenderness. She glanced away, and the saddest images from films in her mind surfaced, bringing a few tears to her eyes. Crocodile tears looked a bit more real if there was emotion behind them.

"How can I make things right, dear lady?" whispered Erin.

Taiga shied back and then slapped Erin. "Ittai..?! You hentai!" (What the heck...?! You pervert)
A giant blush had appeared on her cheeks. Never had someone tried to flirt with her, especially not in that way. The only one before was a girl in her swimming club over in Japan. But Taiga didn't really like her way of flirting, and neither did she like what that obviously German influenced pal did. Not that she didn't like Germans, but the way he tried to flirt with her was so old-fashioned and Taiga didn't like old-fashioned at all.

Still, she sensed something wrong with him, almost as if he wasn't a guy at all. Whatever he said right now, she didn't pay any attention to it, since she was staring into his eyes, when she blurted out. "Kimiwarui... You look a lot like a girl... don't you??" (creepy)