Cheer Up, Natasha!

“That would be wonderful, sweetie,” Janet said, laughing and squeezing Natashaâ€s knee. She would like to meet this Anja sometime. The way Natasha spoke of her, it sounded like the two of them had some history together, and the woman had certainly looked like quite the intriguing figure when Janet watched her battling against Natasha.

Janet did notice Natashaâ€s choice of words when describing her, though. The big time Entropy champion. The tone wasnâ€t exactly bitchy, but it still rubbed Janet the wrong way. She would pretend not to notice it, however, and was happy to move on to a different subject as Natasha told her what she had been thinking of these two weeks since returning from Summer Splash.

“Sometimes itâ€s better to just be alone. For a little while,” Janet said, as Natasha mused about the time she had spent thinking. When the blue-haired woman pointed out the subject of her thoughts, Janet hesitated just a second in responding. There was a lot that that briefcase meant. It was a reminder of Natashaâ€s victory over Janet and Azami in a match that Janet honestly felt that she should have won. It also now meant that Natasha would have to go through Azami if she wanted to use what was inside the briefcase. “Oh…well, thatâ€s a big one, isnâ€t it?” Janet replied. “What have you come up with, thinking about it?”

Janet's momentary hesitation did not go unnoticed by Natasha but neither was she surprised by it, having expected that and far worse would happen if she brought up the hentai title contract, the brief pause about the best she could have hoped for regarding that sure to be touchy subject. The mood in the room grew noticeably more somber as the two women turned their eyes towards the briefcase, Natasha in that moment willing to pay anything for a peek into what Janet was thinking just then. That contract didn't just represent her going up against Azami for the title she had just won after all, it was also the prize from a match that Janet was likely still raw over losing given how close it had been in the end.

A silence fell over the room after Janet inquired about what she had managed to come up with in all that time by herself for in all honesty Natasha hadn't made up her mind one way or the other. She had been fully committed to using the contract for a match with Marisa, a woman she had long since wanted to settle things with and one she admired as well, and had even cashed it in only for Lukretia to step in and take what was hers, giving it to a woman who she had beaten to get the contract in the first place.

That had only been the beginning of Natasha's conflicted emotions as she when it came to Azami versus Marisa she couldn't decide on who she wanted to win, one was a dear friend she only wished the best for and the other was a woman she had set her eyes on facing since the previous Summer Splash. There had been no winning scenario for Natasha who had been bound to lose when it came to the title match as either her friend lost the biggest match of her career or she won and made it so Natasha would have to face and beat her if she wanted to hold the title herself. All of this Natasha ran through her mind for the thousandth time while Janet waited for her response and finally she realized she just needed to speak the truth.

"Yea...the big one all right, the one I've waited for since I won that contract. Its a little embarrassing to say but after all this time I still have no idea, if it was anyone but Azami this wouldn't be a hard decision but it is her, it just had to be her...and now what I've fought for these last two years requires me to go through a friend if I choose to reach for it one last time."

Janet did feel just a tinge of annoyance whenever she thought about that Triple Threat Match. Of the three of them, she had been having the best match up to the point that Natasha made Azami cum. Those were the rules of the match, though, and Janet had long since come to terms with them. She already had the Entropy title. She didnâ€t need the Hentai title, too. Not right now, anyway…

Janet banished those thoughts from her mind, as she always did whenever they came up. They were silly, and she really didnâ€t hold anything against Natasha. Now, she was just wondering what was going through the blue-haired womanâ€s mind. Natasha had been quiet for an awfully long time since Janet asked her last question.

Finally, though, Natasha explained the predicament she was in, and Janet could understand how she felt. “Oh…well, yeah, I can see why youâ€re so conflicted. Iâ€m not so sure Iâ€ll be able to help you too much on this one…” Janet would say.

Natasha hadn't expected Janet to have much to say on the choice she now faced but it felt good all the same to voice her thoughts to a friend, even if said friend was dating the subject of her conflicted thoughts. "Don't worry, its not like I expected you to have all the answers to my problems. That would be just a little unfair don't you think?" Natasha replied before letting out a deep sigh, shrugging her shoulders before leaning back into the couch feeling more relaxed all of a sudden than she had in months. She had been worried about how Janet would react to talking about the contract but it appeared her concerns had been unfounded, Janet didn't sound as enthused as a moment ago but she hadn't gotten angry or defensive either.

"This was so much easier when Marisa had the title, we actually had a match back when I was first starting out in the AFW but it was outdoors and apparently no one checked the forecast, it was called off due to rain halfway through." Natasha explained to Janet while her eyes closed shut, the woman picturing the memory in her mind and even laughing softly as she remembered sitting there in the pool of oil in utter disbelief when the ref told them both it was over. "I had it all planned out you know? I told Marisa after last years Summer Splash that I would win her title, won the contract at Avalanche, and was all set to make good on my word when I challenged her except Lukretia....well as we saw she had other things in mind."

“Yeah, that would be unfair, I guess. I do want to be able to help you, though. I feel sort of bad that I canâ€t,” Janet would reply. It would be very difficult for her to advise Natasha in this situation. It was a contract that she herself had wanted to win. And if Natasha wanted to use the contract to win a title, it would mean going through Janetâ€s own girlfriend. The Lakota did want to help her friend, but she was rather conflicted emotionally right at this moment.

“I didnâ€t know you and Marisa had had a canceled match before,” Janet said. She hadnâ€t known that. She didnâ€t know very much of Natashaâ€s past at all, actually. “It sounds like a good plan. But, you know, the best laid schemes of mice and men…”

Janet didnâ€t quite remember where that quote originated, but it was fitting here. Had Natashaâ€s plan been followed through to conclusion, Janet thought it would be a near-perfect story. And she would be happy for her friend. But things didnâ€t turn out that way. No one could expect everything to turn out the way they hoped they would. Janet had seen her own plans fall apart more times than she could count. Everyone had. Azami had the title now, and Natasha had a decision: she could give up and move on, or she could try to adapt her plans to this admittedly much more complex situation.

“So…what are you going to do? Have you talked to Azami about it at all?”

Natasha looked over at her friend with a faint smile upon her lips despite the rather depressing conversation they had been having so far about the hentai contract, reaching out with her left hand to gently stroke Janet's left cheek. "I know you want to help me Janet and I thank you for listening, its about the most anyone could do for me right now." Natasha said softly, her hand lingering for several seconds before she let it slip away to rest upon her lap once more. There really wasn't any right answer for her as either way she either lost her shot at the title or she risked losing a friend, even if Azami didn't seem the type to break their friendship over a title she just didn't know if she wanted to risk it.

"Yes though it was two years ago so I'm not surprised you never saw it. And quoting Mice and Men? Quite fitting I suppose though I don't remember there being someone like Lukretia going around ruining those plans on purpose." Natasha ended the statement with a loud laugh the likes of which she hadn't had in weeks, her breasts bouncing softly within her top as she did so.

Natasha opened her mouth then to answer Janet's latest question but before she could the woman followed it up with another, one that froze Natasha in her tracks as it was one she had expected her to ask since she arrived but still one she hadn't wanted to answer. Janet didn't know it but Natasha had driven by their home at least three times, two before they all flew off to the states and once since they had gotten back, each time Natasha telling herself she was going to talk to Azami but each time she ended up driving past.

Natasha turned her head away from Janet, biting down on her bottom lip as she tried to think of what to say and just how much to disclose, but after a moment she took a deep breathe and decided to just be honest, doing anything else would just make her feel worse later on. "I actually haven't seen Azami since the night Lukretia announced that I wasn't challenging for the title at Summer Splash, unless watching her match against Marisa counts...which I know it doesn't. I've tried to go see her, to just pick up the phone and call her, but the longer I waited the harder it got just like with you wanting to see me."

“Youâ€re welcome. Iâ€ll do anything I can, even though I canâ€t do much,” Janet would reply to her friend, twitching slightly as Natasha surprised her and caressed her cheek. “Oh, and, right, I did think that that individual quote was sort of fitting. Itâ€s better than saying ‘Life isnâ€t fair.†I hate that phrase, and it doesnâ€t really have the same sort of feeling behind it.”

“Now…Iâ€ve never met Lukretia, and I do know how her reputation, but I donâ€t think sheâ€s trying to ruin your plans. I highly doubt she has any sort of vendetta against you. Sheâ€s just doing what she believes is best for business—best for AFW.”

Janet would take a deep breath, and then she would pose those two interrelated questions to Natasha, waiting for the blue-haired girl to process them and respond. It took a few seconds as Natasha seemed to have a thousand things running through her mind as she thought of her reply. Finally, it came. “I understand,” Janet would reply. “But, you know, since this really seems to be gnawing at you…you should really talk to her. You know Azami—she doesnâ€t have a mean bone in her body. Sheâ€ll understand. This is really the sort of thing that you should express to her.”

She sighed. “I mean, thatâ€s all I can really tell you. Talk to Azami about it.” She would reach out and pat Natashaâ€s shoulder.

Natasha pulled her hand back just as Janet mentioned Lukretia, later on she might come to believe what the woman said about the manager, who in her eyes had ruined her perfect match for the hentai title, but for the moment she just couldn't think of Lukretia of anything but a conniving bitch.

"You might not say that if you saw the joy she took in announcing that the match at Summer Splash was no longer mine." She said after a short pause, the softer tone of voice she had adopted just a moment ago gone as quickly as it had come. There was much Natasha didn't mind talking about, even if some of the subjects were a little painful to think about, but Lukretia was just not amongst them.

She would listen to Janet after that in silence, looking into the woman's eyes as she told her the same thing she had been telling herself since the very moment Azami defeated Marisa and took her championship as her own. Yet coming from Janet the idea seemed to click in her head better than it had when she was just thinking of visiting her, perhaps hearing it from a trusted friend was simply far more convincing than anything she could say to herself. Her ocean blue eyes glanced down to the hand upon her shoulder while her lips curled upward into a smile, Natasha placing her left hand over Janet's giving it a firm squeeze as she then looked into her eyes.

"You're right...obviously." Natasha replied with her head tilting forward, giving the french woman a good view down along the curves of Janet's body, a light flush appearing on her cheeks before she brought her gaze back to the woman's face. "Actually why didn't she come with you?"

“I do hear that she can be a little sadistic in that way, sure. And I havenâ€t ever actually met her. But I have met people like her.” Janet would hold up a finger. “Her primary motivation is business. She wouldnâ€t take you out of the match if it wasnâ€t what she felt was best for the company. Maximizing profits, and thereby maximizing her own power, is her primary goal. And while that might sound selfish, or evil, it isnâ€t, not really. I can understand why she would do what she did, looking at it from her point of view.”

Janet liked to play the conciliator, and hopefully she had convinced Natasha that Lukretia might not be quite so much the villain that the blue-haired woman had played her up in her mind to be. Lukretia might be a villain in other ways, but Janet didnâ€t see this being one of them.

After trying to get Natasha to look at Lukretia in a different light, they would now move on to the slightly more important, slightly more sensitive part of the discussion. Luckily, Natasha seemed to be in agreement with what Janet said as soon as she said it. Maybe the French woman just needed to get assurances from someone else before talking to Azami. “Why didnâ€t she come with me? Well, she had business to attend to, I think.”

"You can understand can you?" Natasha said rather coldly as she rose from the couch and walked over to the window at the other side of the room, keeping her back to Janet as she stared out over the large courtyard in front of her family home. Janet would have come up the winding road which ran from the main road several hundred meters up to her front door, walking past the gardens on either side before making it to her front door, Natasha picturing the woman making that trip now as she gave herself a moment to calm down before she said something she would regret later. It was rare that Natasha felt like she was so close to going off on someone, she prided herself on always being able to keep a cool head even when others couldn't, but when it came to Lukretia and her stolen match at Summer Splash she just couldn't remain calm for very long.

She bit down on her bottom lip struggling against her desire to say something, anything to Janet that wasn't about Lukretia but in the end she simply couldn't and turned around to face Janet. "Janet I don't need a lesson in business or did you forget I'm from a family where its expected I one day run our international corporation. I know business very well and what Lukretia did has far more to do with her personal desires than the good of the company. But you are right that her decision wasn't made with me in mind, at least not entirely, it was however made because of some interest she has in Azami, and if you knew Lukretia at all you would be just as worried about Azami as I am right now."

Natasha then froze as she realized she had just said something even she hadn't thought about until that moment. Lukretia was famous for playing favorites, giving matches to those she found interesting or wanted something from, but these same favorites of hers often paid for it in the end. That was not something she wanted for Azami. "Janet I need to talk to Azami, do you know where she is?"