Royale Jitters

Kozue sat in the dressing room, squeezing into her oufit while she watched Clyde Gastin getting curbstomped in a handicap match on her iPod. The battle royale would be starting soon, probably after they were done cleaning what was left of the Texan out of the ring.

Around this time last year, her biggest concern had been which motel she'd besleeping in for the night, or whether she'd just screw it and sleep in the back of a busted up Dodge Charger behind the bar. It hadn't been an ideal life, just slumming it around the United States, going from party to party with only the occasional bar fight to break the monotony. But it had been simple. These days, life was anything but. Wrestling was craziness by itself, but ever since she met Johnny, things had been spiraling. Now she had Taylor and Johnny to deal with. Now she had Black Dragon to worry about. Now she was in a battle royale for a shot at the grand prize - John Mitchell, the Tension World Title.

It was insane, and as Kozue finished wrapping up her legs, she couldn't help but wonder if she even deserved to be here. She didn't have the best record. She wasn't a vet like Clyde or Johnny or even Bree. She had a few good matches, a handful of fans, but she wasn't main event material. Not even close. A few months ago, she'd come into Tension just to make some beer money and have some laughs. Now she was fighting in front of the whole damn planet.

Little Kozue Kaburagi from down the block, that girl with the weird name, can't even tie her shoes half the time, gnoshing on Skittles all day and hanging around the skate park, drinking things she shouldn't be drinking. Look at her now.

She glanced at a flask in her gym bag, a little container that was meant to hold water, but definitely wasn't. Part of her wanted that drink. Just a few gulps, enough to calm her nerves. But the smarter part knew better - I was never just a few gulps, and the last thing she needed was to get burnt right before the single most important match of her career.

No, there were better ways to calm herself, like talking to people. The only problem with that was that she had an embarrassingly small social circle, and there was only one person on it who would even be within walking distance. Not to mention that talking to him alone was likely to cause varying degrees of shit. A repeat of the locker room incident was the exact last thing either of them needed now. Or ever.

But screw it, no one ever accused Kozue of being smart. Her life was an endless string of bad decisions, why break the pattern?

She patted her leg down to make sure the tape was holding, then stood up and made her way out of the room. Her target? Johnny Higurashi. With the royale starting soon, he'd be close by, with any luck. Shouldn't be too hard to track down.

Johnny was in the training room as he got ready for the upcoming Battle Royale. In one corner, the television was showing off the handicap match. Johnny was only half paying attention to it. The poor bastard. It seemed like Melissa had really stepped up her game to make sure that a man wasn't going to be the next title holder. Though, a part of him wished he could be in the match. Against three girls, Johnny wondered how it might go? Clyde seemed to be doing pretty good all things considered. Until the blue haired chick blew out his arm. Poor bastard.

But Johnny wasn't totally focused on that. In front of him, he had what looked like a small chemistry lab. Johnny had gotten really into the "science" of muscle and a good way to keep his mind preoccupied was to get lost in it. He'd brought some juices and vitamins and was now laying them out before him, setting times of when he should take what so that they gave him maximum effect before the match. It sort of made him feel a little smart.

However, inside hsi stomach was knotting up. Even if King wasn't going to be in the royale, he knew a few of the other names. Kozue would be there. Ro too. He heard Bree as well and while he'd never pass up a chance to fight any of them, he preferred it to be one on one. He wondered if any of them might try and eliminate him in an opportunistic way during the match. Maybe they could even get together to double team him.

Johnny sighed. He didn't think he could fault them one bit if they did. A part of him might even be proud because that meant he was that much of a threat. But even in the Battle Royale, Johnny just wanted to fight hard and get that chance at the belt. He didn't want to have to be constantly looking behind his back.

A small timer dinged and Johnny took one of his supplements and washed it down with a frothy looking purple liquid.

Finding Johnny was easier than Kozue thought. All she had to do was ask two women and a gay guy from the backstage crew, and sure enough, she was able narrow it down.

She actually smelled him before she even saw him, or, at least, she smelled something as she rounded the corner. It was a weird, heady sort of odor that made her nose tingle, like sticking her head into a bowl full of random spices. Strong stuff, reminded her of her mother's health nut phase.

She peeked in and saw him sitting in front of a junior mad scientist play set, right as he started to drink something that looked like it had no business in a human body. She stayed quiet as he chugged it, looking at the setup. Pills. Vitamins. Supplements. Everything a growing wrestler needs. It made Kozue realize just how lacking her own diet was. She ran a lot, spent a good deal time working out, but the main reason she weighed so little was because she'd been eating on a strict budget for so long. Now that she had some real money, eating right hadn't even occurred to her.

Kozue knocked on the doorjamb to get his attention. "Hey, hero." She waved and stepped in. "Bothering you? I can come back when you're done changing into Mr. Hyde, if you want."

Johnny turned when he heard the knock and when he saw Kozue, his eyes lit up. He smiled and his cheeks blushed a bit. "Hey dude, how's it goin?" He said. His eyes glanced quickly down her form. He'd gotten a peek underneath before but he wasn't looking past now. She was in her wrestling gear and soon enough, they wouldn't be friends. He just hoped they wouldn't be enemies either.

"What's going on, man? I'm just getting ready for the fight." He said and glanced at his little pile of stuff. "And, it'd probably be more like turnin back into the other guy, eheh." Johnny flexed, showing off his strong, muscular arm. "Don't wanna go back to bein a little dweeb, man!" He grinned.

Johnny turned and grabbed the glass he had and poured some more of the liquid into it. He then handed it to Kozue. "Try this man, it'll keep ya peppy during the match and junk. Good stuff, completely natural too. I've been rockin this shit, man. I get my body hard as fuck and all the good stuff comes right from nature and shit. It's pretty awesome to be able to stay shredded and not even have to think about steroids and shit, ya know?"

Even though Johnny was talking casually, he was still nervous and was avoiding asking why Kozue was here or about the match in general. He was quite good at playing it cool.

Kozue smiled on the outside, had a little laugh, but inside she was sighing as he gave her a flex. Why couldn't he just stop being hot for five minutes? And his blush hadn't escaped her notice either. More than anything, though, she was impressed with his calm. One of the biggest matches of his life, just an hour or so away, and he looked like he he could have just been sitting at the beach. Just his usual, happy self.

She eyed the glass warily as he made her way toward her and offered her a cup of what she guessed was a smoothie. Kozue questioned whether it was as natural as he suggested - so far as she knew, 'frothy' and 'purple' water common qualities in nature. But, on the other hand, Johnny had bulletproof abs. He was doing something right.

"Eh..." She gave it a sniff, and looked between him and the cup, reassuring herself that a guy with a face that cute wouldn't try to poison her. "Fuck it. What doesn't kill you..."

She took a long drink, filled her mouth, and gulped it down. It tasted like a tree, but Kozue did feel a burst of energy, and her body shivered as it ran through her system.

"Oh. Wow. Kickass." She had a little giggle as she wiped the purple mustache off. "Mind if I finish off the glass?" She gave his chest a couple of taps with her fist. Rock solid. "Think I'm going to need it a bit more than you will."

"Sure thing, dude." Johnny said, grinning at Kozue's approval. He wasn't going to drink any more of that stuff tonight. Not till after the match, anyway. Johnny opened his mouth to speak when Kozue mentioned the match but another timer dinged and he turned around and poured a different juice and downed a different pill with a quick gulp.

"You'll do alright, man." he said, waving his hand at her. "I mean, there's a lot of luck involved in these things. When you enter and junk like that. If I come in the middle, I'm probably fucked. Everyone might go at me at the same time just to keep me from even gettin the chance." Johnny shrugged and looked back at Kozue.

"You're like a ninja and junk, right? Just be all stealthy and shit in the ring. Then you'll prolly wiin." He encouraged.

Kozue took another swig of the stuff and tried to pretend she was drinking a milkshake. It helped. "Yeah." Her voice dropped, staring into the cup. "I'm like a ninja and junk."

She shook her head and straightened up, walking after him. She took a seat on the bench press as he downed some more stuff, and she got a better look at the layout. A bunch of things with ingredients she couldn't even pronounce. All legal, no steroids, but still, more than most people would take. More than most could, probably.

"Kind of hard to be stealthy in a ring, man. Aside from hiding behind you, not many places to go." She licked her lips clean and took another sip."Guess I could just go through the bottom rope and hide under the apron. Kind of a bitch move, though."

Kozue shrugged it off and grew silent for a moment, tipping the glass back and forth and letting the smoothie roll about as the weight of it all started to come down on her again. "Hey. Johnny. Got a question for you, be honest, I'll take it." She looked up at him with a straight look, serious and serene. "You wrestled me. You've seen me wrestle. You've got experience with this. Do I really belong in that ring? The small chance I've got, do I even deserve it?"

Johnny looked coyly at Kozue. It WOULD HAVE been a bitch move. He did think that it was something he could see Kozue doing but at the same time he didn't think she was a bitch. Even if she hid in a locker once. However, her next question caught him off guard.

"Huh?" He looked at her and once again took in her form. She was half his size soaking wet. She'd fought him hard but he wondered about a rematch. A rematch with no weapons. How would it go? He knew HOW she fought. He didn't honestly believe a rematch would be as close as their first encounter. Maybe she was wrong though? She did have a lot of guts. She kept getting into the ring with guys like him and stood up against dudes like King. She even got sassy with his wife which was probably the most dangerous thing she could do of all of it.

Johnny stepped in front of her and set his hand on her head. He smiled widely at her. "Do you WANT to be here, man?" He asked. "Wrestlin's kinda in my blood but when I started, I joined this league just to, like, pick up chicks and junk. My bro and I signed up just so we could score with some hotties and get paid to do it. That's fuckin crazy, man."

Johnny pulled his hand away. "But now, like, it's changed. The more serious I got the harder it was. Chicks don't like it when you tell them that you ain't interested. Then they start tryin to fuckin kick your balls into the cheap seats. And if you aren't a scumbag like King, then you have guys LIKE him tryin to beat the shit out of you and crazy ass chicks like Bree thinkin they can just follow you around and do whatever."

Johnny shrugged. "And, uh, there's other... complications too, and junk." He said, breaking eye contact with Kozue and blushing a bit. "But man, the harder it gets the more I LOVE it. Maybe I'm fucked up but I think that you gotta be to be in this business. If you can get your ass kicked and then wake up the next day looking forward to the next time you get your ass kicked, then it's all good, man." He said.

"And plus, you seem pretty cool and junk." He added. "I get the feelin you like bein here. At least, I hope so. I think it's pretty cool you're around... and junk." Johnny's timer dinged again and he quickly grabbed another vitamin and inhaled it. This time without water.

Kozue cocked her eyebrow at the beginning of his pep talk, trying to imagine Johnny just wrestling to pick up quick fucks. Hard to picture. Impossible really, but then, she'd only ever known Inconveniently Married Johnny. Single and Mingling Johnny might've been a whole different story.

Kozue finished off the smoothie and let the last mouthful sit on her tongue, swishing it about. She needed a moment to devote some thought to that. Actual, real thought.

Five or so seconds passed as she mulled it over, but she finally swallowed and looked up at him. "I do love it. I do." She fell back on the bench, laying down all the way. "Remember in our match, when you threw me up and I just came down on King like the fucking hammer of god? Which was awesome, by the way, thanks, but seriously don't ever shake King's hand again." She shot her a playful glint and a smirk. "That was amazing, dude. I think that's why I like jumping off stuff so much. Aside from it being about the only way I can deal real damage." She rolled her eyes and scoffed. Annoying, but true.

She stretched her arms up and made a frame with her fingers, reliving the moment between them. "It's crazy. You jump, and there's this split second where everything just stops. You don't know whether the guy you're going for is there anymore. The cameras all flash. I swear, you can feel every eye in the arena on you, you can feel the air getting sucked out as they all breathe deep." Kozue breathed deep herself, her flat stomach fall and rising again like heating bread. "I don't even believe in god, but that is holy. I love that. This is the first thing I've done where I even came close to having a feeling like that, and I'm happy. I want to wrestle."

She sat up and cranked her neck his way. "Same time, though, there's a lot of guys who've been doing this for years. You." She glanced at the handicap match and winced. "What's left of Clyde. Ro. Hell, Bree. Even in Friction, you've got people who've been going after the title for years, like..." She grunted and let that sentence finish itself. "I just come in out of the blue, and all the sudden I'm at the big dance, what is that? Like, it's too far, too fast. You know?" She swiveled around on the bench, facing him. "I want to belong in that ring with you guys. I just worry that I don't. Yet. It's only the third level, and all the sudden I skip, like, ten, and I'm up against the final boss."

That last part was just to make her feel better. It helped to work with what she knew.

Johnny listened to Kozue and nodded. He smiled along with her. He wasn't a high flyer but he had the same moments. Putting someone up in an X-Japan or slamming someone after they had been kicking his ass. It was something that could hardly be believed without experiencing it.

"If you wanna wrestle, then you belong. Don't worry about what comes of it." Johnny said. "I mean, like I worry about titles. I'd love to be the champ but I don't worry about it. It'll happen eventually. In the mean time I mostly just worry about kicking all the ass I can. Eventually I won't be able to be denied. That's how I look at it and junk."

Johnny tutned and looked away from Kozue. "I had fun wrestlin with you and junk Like against and as a tag team. That was pretty cool. It would suck if you didn't think you could handle it. I dunno, dude." Johnny said after a moment. "The worst that happens is someone tosses ya over the ropes. I sorta look at this match as house money. Nobody's gonna be watchin our backs so I can't get mad at someone for takin me out if I've got my back turned and junk. Like, that's how it goes." Johnny scratched his head. "Like, you know what I'm sayin and junk?"

"I dunno man. Just go out there and kick a lot of ass and have a lot of fun and if you and I are the last ones standin, then don't feel too bad when I toss you out of the ring, ok?" Johnny said, teasing her a bit as he grinned at her.