Bitches man....bitches.

"Psh, I'm not drunk. I'm not that much of a lightweight."

Ace said with a small smile, rubbing herself against Valley as she held her close, Ace enjoying the feeling as she raised her dart, practicing the motion a couple times before throwing the dart...which bounced off the bottom of the dart board.


"....Uh....practice shot?"

She blushed a bit, before shrugging,

"Taylor's a friend...or was, I guess. She invited me, and I thought it could be fun. Plus, I wanted to meet Cassie, after hearing so much about her."

She shook her head at the mention of Akashi.

"No, this was the first time we've interacted since that match. Why she's deciding to be a complete bitch instead of acting with some of that honor she's always bragging about, I don't know."

Valley suppressed a snicker at Ace's shot, only a few inches from falling off the board. "Well, you hit it. That's a start." She nuzzled their cheeks together, pushing her head more on target. "Deep breath. Focus forward. Avoid distractions." She gave her a playful lick on the cheek.

Valley sighed and stepped off, looking at her from the side. "Well...okay, let's be fair here. Maybe it's not you. Maybe there's something else going on, something deeper that you just sort of stepped on? A landmine, you know?" She folded her arms. "Wouldn't be your fault, I know. People can be weird sometimes, though. Like little puzzles."

Ace smiled again as her girlfriend teased her, focusing harder, her next shot at least hitting an outer target, though she wasn't close to hitting the center yet.

"Feh...maybe. I dunno."

She let out a long sigh, rubbing her temples, having festered on this for a couple hours now.

"I suppose...I can't really be mad at Taylor. She didn't actually do anything. I'd have asked me to leave after an issue like that too. Akashi though. I've no fucking idea. She made no attempt to explain any of it. She just yells about honor, even when showing none of it."

Ace shook her head, tossing another dart, again in the outer circle.

"I dunno. I can't keep festering though.."

She backed up, giving Valley room to shoot.

"Distract me? Why don't you tell me more about yourself? Seems every time we meet your either saving me or comforting me, we've haven't had much chance to get to know each other."

"Well, you can keep festering. It's just not very healthy. Or productive." She took up position and bounced the darts around in her hand while she gauged the distance.

"From the way you tell it, Taylor was right to ask you to leave, just wrong to be such a bitch about it. I'm guessing." She threw out a dart, getting a hit about halfway to the target.

"So on one hand, I'm glad you're standing up for yourself, that's always good. On the other hand, I don't think you want to push friends away. Friends are good. Especially in this business. So, my take?" She threw another and hit just a little higher. "I think you should ask yourself if you want them to be your friends or not, and if this is really worth all the effort. If it's not..." She waved her hand about and let that sentence finish itself.

Her last dart hit just off the bullseye, only a few inches away. Close, but not close. "Still rusty. Used to be really good at this." She walked over and started plucking the darts out, chuckling when Ace asked about her. "That's probably because your life is a lot more interesting, sweetie. But sure, if you want to know more about me, ask away. Just don't be surprised if I'm a bit open-and-shut."

Ace nodded, Valley's words making a lot of sense to her. Taylor was right to have her leave, given all that had happened. Had she stayed, she'd probably have attacked the sumo and god knows what would have happened then. Her other point, about friends, was valid as well. Ace had been tired of being lonely after the last 4-5 years of this job, having given up her teenage years and her old friendships in the process. Since she intended to stay in AFW, instead of absorbing what knowledge and training she could get and moving on, she wanted to reconnect with people.

She had done that, somewhat, with Cassie tonight, the two having bonded a bit, and she already considered Taylor to be the first friend she had made in years. She didn't want to push that away.

She shook her head. That kind of thinking would have to be saved for later, along with any apologies she might have to make. For now, she wanted distraction.

"Well, I admit, life does seem to be exciting when your swinging at every girl above your pay grade. I think I'm done with that for now."

She ordered another drink from the bartender before turning back to Valley.

"Well, I know you told me your mom was in the business...what was that like? Growing up with a wrestler mom?"

"I think your pay grade is a bit higher than you think. You gave two seasoned vets a run for their money, and you even beat one - though I'm not sure how high my own pay grade ranks, these days." She laid the darts down and took a seat, finally going at her own drink.

"Anyway, my Mom - yeah. Valley Doll the 1st." She slid the cup from hand to hand as she thought it over, some memories coming back. Some fond, some not fond. "Well, that would depend on when you asked me. If you ask me now, I'd say it was a good time, really, and I'm glad I lived through it. Back then, though, not so much. I had this really rebellious teen phase for a little while, where I was seriously hating on wrestling and just being an all-around bitch. I didn't even want people calling me 'Valley Doll' for a little while, just to get out of my Mom's shadow. Just felt like the whole life was crowding me. In fact..."

She hesitated for a moment, then reached in her back pocket and pulled out her wallet, looking at Ace with a serious face - or a pretend one. She still couldn't help a hint of a smirk leaking out. "Okay, I'm going to show you something that I would never show anyone else, ever, under any circumstances. After you see this, I will allow you to laugh, but I swear, if you breathe a word of this to anyone, I will never sleep with you. Silver Ace - do you accept these terms?"

Ace listened, cracking a smile at the thought of a young, rebel, Valley. As someone who had issues with her parents when she was younger, Ace could sympathize.


Her face quickly got serious, however, as Valley threatened to never sleep with her if she repeated whatever secret the older blonde was about to tell her. Taking the threat very seriously, Ace leaned in close, her eyes focused, not even cracking a smirk.

"I accept these terms."

Ah, that was worth it. Ace was so cute when she got her serious face on. It was like being stared down by Winnie the Pooh.

Valley whipped out a picture that she'd brought along, just in case Ace was more downtrodden than she'd expected. It was a desperate move, but if this didn't get her smiling, nothing would.

"I present to you, one Valerie Dolores-Castle Wells, circa 2000, in her gothic phase."

It was a picture of Valley as a teenager, which would have been embarrassing enough in and of itself, but this was during the few months when seriously deep in rebellion mode. Her hair was dyed black, with little red streaks in it, and she was wearing black stocking with long combat boots. Black fingernails. Black lipstick. Black eyeliner. A black jacket. A black skirt. Even a black backpack. Sitting on the front steps of school, looking like she was too cool for the entire planet she was sitting on. Flipping off the camera, for effect.

Valley laid the picture down and sat back, folding her arms and looking off to the side. "Go ahead and get it out of your system."

Ace looked at the picture slowly, blinking, her expression blank as she saw all the black colors and such, and the flipping off of the camera.

She slowly looked up at Valley, keeping her face blank and neutral, as if she was unphased by the picture, or that it was so traumatic that it broke her.

Then her lip twitched, and her attempts failed completely.

"HAAAA! OH MY GOD! NO WAY!!!"

She laughed, holding her hands over her mouth, which only lessened the volume a little bit, her other hand smacking the table a little as she laughed, shaking her head and burying her head in her arms. It took a few minutes before she finally calmed down a little bit, holding back chuckles as she looked at it again.

"You are like, the most adorable little gothy girl I have ever seen."

She nearly started laughing hard again, though she held it in.

"So were you like, totally into Bauhaus and The Misfits and The Cult and stuff?"

She said with another chuckle, shaking her head again.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I should stop...its so cuute though!!!"

Valley just sighed, letting Ace go off. They were getting more than their fair share of stares, but it was okay - she was laughing, and that was important thing. She had a honeyed little voice when she got like that - it was weird. Even when she was laughing in full, it still sounded like a giggle, somehow.

She just propped her elbows on the table and watched as Ace petered out, looking back at her with a lazy smile, occasionally blowing off some stray hairs from around her face.

"I choose to take that as a compliment. And for the record, I was big into Linkin Park. Really, everyone was back then. I even had the overpriced collab thing they did with Jay-Z." She reached forward and put her index finger on the picture, starting to bring it back...before she pushed it forward once more.

"No. You keep it."