The War in the Ward

This was it. The most heated, recent battle between Carmen Rodriguez and her perennial rival, Lorenza Saldano. It had been a tough match so far, but Carmen felt she had Lorenza on the ropes now, as her delicate but effective strategy came to fruition. Now it was finally time to reap the harvest, put the final nail in her coffin, draw their grand rivalry to its thunderous conclusion. And she would do it with only five words. A simple question.

"Lorenza Saldano." Carmen looked up from her nearly complete hand of cards, gazing at her fellow Latina boxer in the hospital bed beside her with a devious eye. "Do. You. Have. Any. Threes?"

It wasn't exacty the most thrilling contest ever, especially compared to the royal [url=http://afwrpg.informe.com/forum/backstage-f33/lorenza-saldano-vs-carmen-rodriguez-guerra-t10520.html:1u6uqt6y]beating[/url:1u6uqt6y] they'd given and taken just twenty-four hours ago. That had been, without question or doubt, the most hellacious match of her entire career as a fighter. Nothing in boxing, nothing in wrestling even came close to matching the intensity of that brawl, the sheer brutality of it all, and it made Carmen legitimately hungry for more. As soon as she was able, she was talking to the management about getting into hardcore fights instead of the standard matches. Maybe even make a run at the hardcore title. Lorenza had sparked a fire that wouldn't die for quite some time.

But that was a long time coming. After getting out of surgery, Carmen learned that Lorenza had left her with a bunch of lovely parting gifts from the fight - a few shattered ribs, some damaged arteries, a concussion that was currently giving her a mild headache that got exponentially worse with every loud noise, and she'd picked up an infection, no doubt from fighting in that dirty bathroom. That was just the major stuff, there was a laundry list of small infractions, and they all added up to her spending the next week in the hospital, with a recommended two months before she could even think of stepping in a ring, again.

Fortunately, someone was looking out for her - the cute nurse from their last visit, Carmen suspected. It was very unusual, but Carmen was allowed to share a room with Lorenza this time, the two of them basically having an extra long slumber party. At her request, they were furnished with all sorts of ways for Carmen to beat her rival - a deck of cards and several board games, including Battleship, Monopoly, and her personal favorite, Life. And in the lovely young ladies that occasionally stopped bye to flirt, and this was a little slice of heaven. What more could Carmen ask for?

Well, there was one thing...or a person, to be more precise. And Carmen was seriously hoping she would stop by.

For now, though, she had to make due with stomping Lorenza alone. They'd played a few card games so far, and while Carmen was down on the overall score, she had a good feeling about winning this one. Go Fish had always been her specialty, and she wasn't going to let Lorenza break her precious streak. Getting the cards held right with the casts over her hands was starting to become a major pain. "And don't try to fool me, over there. I can read your moves just as easy here as I do in the ring."

Lorenzaâ€s stony glare moved from her rivalâ€s face down to the dwindling number of cards she held in her hand. Then it moved back up to Carmenâ€s face, slowly. This was the endgame. When it had begun, Lorenza had been confident, but that confidence had been worn down as the two of them had traded off the lead, back and forth. Now, in just the last couple of turns, Carmen had made a couple of lucky guesses and surged ahead, and, when she asked Lorenza for threes, the Mexican boxer would growl gutturally before handing two of them over. “Yes, yes, Iâ€m easy to read. You know, youâ€ve told me that more times than I can count, hermana,” she would say. “Where was your ability to ready my moves while we were playing Monopoly, eh?”

Lorenza had found herself to be surprisingly adept at Monopoly. She had only ever played it once or twice before, but once she had gotten a handle on the rules, she was ruthless, and she had bled Carmen dry during their last game to take the lead in the overall score between the two of them. Now, it looked like the score would be even again.

Mercifully, what remained of the Go Fish match was brief. Carmen finished Lorenza off in just two more turns. When it was finally over, Lorenza would sigh and lean back into her pillow, her eyes still locked onto her rivalâ€s. “What next, Rodriguez? I donâ€t want to give you any false hope, so letâ€s not waste any time before I whip your hot ass in the next game, eh?”

Lorenzaâ€s mind did drift a short distance. She thought of the match between her and Carmen, which had ended with the both of them crippled, out of the game for at least two months. Lorenza had personally suffered multiple broken bones in her arms, cracks or full-on breaks in almost every rib, a broken jaw, two missing teeth, an infection, a cracked pelvis from the fall, and a hell of a concussion. It would have been devastating, if they hadnâ€t been put together in the same room for the duration of their hospital stay. Competing with Carmen sustained Lorenza, and would continue to sustain her throughout her recovery, even if it was only card games and board games. Lorenza couldnâ€t wait until their arms had fully healed. Then they could hold video game controllers, and she could kick Carmenâ€s ass at Super Smash Brothers.

There was one other thing Lorenza was thinking about: a certain foxy, inked chica with whom she had become quite familiar prior to her most recent match. She knew Lydia would be by soon, but it was simply a question of when.

"So I've only told you, like, ten times? That's not so bad, don't see why you're complaining." A little mean, but Lorenza walked right into that one. It had to be taken advantage of. "And you got lucky in Monolpoly. If we had two others to play with, I'd have dominated. Helps when you can work people against each other, spread the focus." That was utter bullshit, Lorenza was just plain good and ruthless, every bit the tigress on the board that she was in the ring, not to mention that she probably got a little business experience from being the champ. But Carmen wasn't going to give up a compliment that easy.

Carmen weakly threw her fist into the air as she claimed victory, finally dominating her rival in this game of luck and steely nerves. It had been a good long while since she had some time like this. Not since she graduated high school, at least. She had board games at her house, but she rarely could get anyone to play them with her. Army sucked, and the women she had over on occasion were typically more interested in X-rated activities. So was she for that matter, but still, if there was only some way she could mix board games with sex...Twister, maybe?

At any rate, Lorenza was going to be her dedicated playmate for the near future, so Carmen was going to make up for lost time on her board gaming. "Well, let's see." She rolled over on her side and reached down, going through the pile. "We got Rock Em Sock Em robots, if that doesn't break your irony meter. Checkers, Chess. Think a Queen is missing on the Chess board, I'll use my earring for it. Um..." She reached down and moved a few of the boxes around as best she could without fallling off.

"Oh, right, Life. Fucking love Life. Most everybody else hates it, though. What about you?"

Lorenza snorted contemptuously as Carmen gave her that comeback. She had to admit, she had set herself up for that one. “Yeah, yeah, Iâ€m stupid. Very funny,” she would mumble in reply, sticking her tongue out at Carmen rather ineffectually. She wanted to say something more, but her concussion really wasnâ€t being kind to her when it came to formulating good comebacks. She would just have to focus on clobbering Carmen in the next game and taking the overall lead again.

Lorenza would roll over onto her side and look down at all the games as Carmen sorted through them. She had heard of most of these games, but had only played a handful of them. Growing up poor in Tijuana, she had never really owned any board games herself. This was her chance to finally indulge in these childhood classics, while at the same time competing on a whole new level with her greatest rival. They had a seemingly inexhaustible supply of contests to challenge each other in.

“I havenâ€t played Life in a long time,” Lorenza said. “I didnâ€t play it for sixteen years, then I played it a couple dozen times in the span of a year or two, with my aunt and uncle. And I havenâ€t played it since. I always liked it. If you want me to kick your ass at Life, hermana, I say letâ€s do it.”

As the two boxers were setting up the Game of Life, a visitor was just arriving for one of them, walking through the main doors of the hospital, a hallway and a flight of stairs from the room in which Carmen and Lorenza were staying. She had taken half a day off from work to come and see her Puerto Rican paramour. She was still dressed in her business best, with a navy blue blazer, pencil skirt, a red blouse and high heels. Her heels clicked lightly across the tiled floor as she made her way over to the desk to sign in as a visitor.

“Colleen Murray,” she would say to the woman behind the desk, “here to see Carmen Rodriguez.”

Lydia made her way into the hospital's hall and diverted quite a bit of attention as she went. It was understandable, really. While Japan wasn't quite as conservative as her native Greece, it was still a far cry from being the sort of place where a woman wearing a scandalously short miniskirt wouldn't draw attention. Her particular skirt was jet black leather, like most of her clothes, riding up just short of the point where it would be showing off her thong. Her leg tattoos were on full display, like an art gallery parade. She wore a black shirt that was just a few inches too small, with the white emblem of a satellite dish on the front - the sign for one of her favorite local bands, the Boom Boom Satellites. If that all wasn't striking enough, her fiery hair and black eyes would do the trick.

She loved turning heads. A naughty habit, but there it was.

More than a few of the nurses gave their approving looks, but even if she wasn't already somewhat spoken for, she would've paid them little mind. They weren't her type. Lydia couldn't help but wonder why she was attracted so many violent women. She had never seen herself as particularly violent, managing to avoid physical altercations for the bulk of her life, but, nonetheless, there was no ignoring the rather distinct pattern of her lovers. Strong. Tough. All capable of bench pressing her, at the least. Sexy, dangerous, rough women. There was no denying that she had a type.

Or maybe they were attracted to her? Maybe bigger women prefer smaller women to dominate, if they prefer women at all.

Or maybe she was just overthinking this, and she should focus on the incredibly hot blue-haired beauty that she had come to this hospital to visit and give some sensual bedside manner to. Yeah. That thought put a smile on her face.

She made her way to the lobby, just in time to see a somewhat familiar face saying a very familiar name - Carmen Rodriguez. She couldn't quite work out where she'd seen this one from before, but it was on the edge of her mind and getting closer by the second. "And I'm here to see Lorenza Saldano." She walked up behind the woman, her sandals flopping as she walked. "It looks like we're going to the same place."

Colleen didnâ€t notice the loudly-dressed woman who entered the lobby right behind her. The nurse had handed her a clipboard and asked her to fill out her name, the time she was checking in, and her relationship with the patient she was coming to see. That last field gave Colleen some pause. “Fuck buddy” would be appropriate, but rather vulgar to use on an official document. “Lover” or “Girlfriend” was far too strong to use, especially after just one night together. In the end, she settled on simply “Friend.” No need to define her relationship with Carmen before it had even truly begun.

She handed the clipboard back to the nurse, and just then she heard a very unfamiliar voice, emanating from a heavily-tattooed woman who suddenly appeared beside her. The name that the woman said sounded familiar, though…

Carmenâ€s rival. That was her, all right. Colleen hadnâ€t actually met Lorenza Saldano, but she had seen her. And, now that she thought about it, the woman standing beside her was the woman who Lorenza Saldano had been escorting the night she met Carmen at the club. Colleen looked her up and down. She was attractive, there was no doubt about that, and she obviously knew it, wearing a skirt that short, and a shirt which exposed a good portion of her belly. It was obvious that she was there for the same reason that Colleen was: to make her champion feel better. “I suppose we are,” Colleen would reply, turning to her counterpart and sticking out her hand to shake. “Iâ€m Colleen. And who are you?”

Lydia had a good look at Colleen as she turned around, and it was quite a good look indeed. Aside from glances of her at the club and seeing her fights against Lorenza, she didn't know much about Carmen, but she already approved of the Puerto Rican's taste in women.

She was, perhaps, a little too well dressed for the occasion, looking like she was about to go into a business conference rather than hanging out at the hospital. It was the sort of outfit Lydia hadn't had occasion to wear in almost a decade. Trim and proper, as far from her own style as you could get outside of a nun's habit. But there was no denying that Colleen wore it well. Hell, with a body like that, she probably could have rocked the nun look, too. Frock and all.

Lydia couldn't help but don a devious grin as she looked her over. She was about to spend a good deal of time surrounded by three exotic women. Even if two of them were in traction, this was well worth closing the shop early.

She took the clipboard and signed in. "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady. Or just Lydia." She passed the clipboard back, staying turned to Colleen the whole time. "A pleasure."

The nurse scanned the clipboard with a sigh, throwing a level gaze at Lydia. "Professional Sexual Affiliate? Really?"

"Really." Lydia winked at Colleen and offered her an arm, motioning her to hook up, if she so wished. "It's only a short walk. I think they'll be surprised to see us come in together."

“The Tattooed Lady, huh?” Colleen would repeat, a little surprised by the title that her counterpart had bestowed upon herself. Obviously, the name was fitting, but it conjured up images of some sort of carnival freak, rather than the trim young woman with ample assets who stood before Colleen. “Itâ€s nice to meet you, Lydia.” Colleen would shake the other womanâ€s hand.

Colleenâ€s attention was grabbed when the nurse read off what Lydia had written on the form. The lighter-haired woman snorted and laughed. “See, thatâ€s what I should have put down. Good thinking, good thinking.” She tapped a finger on her temple, then pointed it at Lydia. “Iâ€ll stick with you. Even if you are with the competition.”

She laughed and would gladly hook her arm through Lydiaâ€s so that the two were joined arm and arm, their sides pressed together. “I think they will be surprised. It should be fun. What do you suppose the two of them are doing now?” Colleen couldnâ€t imagine being put in a room for weeks with a woman who had just done her best to break every bone in her body. But, from what little she knew of it, the relationship between Carmen and Lorenza seemed to be a very healthy one.

Lydia enjoyed the closeness to Colleen as they walked, feeling her body as their hips grazed against each other. For the moment, her own body was on reserve - not that she was willing to put Lorenza into the firm 'girlfriend' category just yet, but the blue bombshell was more than enough woman for her to handle at the moment. No need to go crazy and start throwing a third party into the mix.

"Oh, I'm sure I could imagine all sorts of things those two would be doing in the same room." She bit her lip, going over that insane street fight in her head once again. She'd particularly liked the little amorous interlude the two had on the stairs. Quite steamy stuff, and just looking at it brought Lydia back to their romp under the DJ booth, one of the hottest experiences of her life.

"But most of that would require them not to be wrapped up like mummies and I'm not sure Carmen could survive another round even if they weren't, so I can't honestly say." She shrugged, lifting Colleen's shoulder along with her. "So I'm sure they're relaxing, having a nice chat about things that would make most people faint." She chuckled as they made they started up the stairs, only stopping for a moment to let a pair of discussing doctors walk by. "They're a unique pair, our two."

Colleen enjoyed the closeness between the two of them, as well, and, when their hips would graze against each other, she would push hers outwards teasingly so that the contact was even closer and even more prolonged. Lydia seemed nice, and it seemed that Lorenza Saldano had excellent taste in women.

When Lydia made her wistful comment, Colleen remembered the interlude which her counterpart was referencing. In the middle of such a brutal battle, that passionate kiss between the two rivals had been positively remarkable, and the steamy image was burned into Colleenâ€s brain. Yes, it had been very nice to watch. She preferred to be the one doing the kissing when Carmen was involved, however. Still, though: “Heh heh…yes, if they were both uninjured, we would walk in there to find them either fighting or…” She trailed off, but the other F-word on her mind was obvious.

The comment Lydia made about Carmen stuck in Colleenâ€s craw. She laughed airily, bumping her hips a little harder into the Tattooed Ladyâ€s again. “I donâ€t know if your Lorenza could survive even another punch, in the condition Carmen put her in. They really are a remarkable pair, though. The way they fight is…almost sexual, I think.” She would take the stairs quickly along with Lydia.