A Late Night Spar

It was a cold night in Tokyo. For Avery Shields it was also a particularly restless night, as well. The nineteen-year-old was still flying high on her debut in the AFW and, even more so, her victory in the match itself a couple nights ago. Her very first match and her very first win; it was a sweet feeling. The fiery redhead couldn't help but feel eager to get back in the ring once more, but until then, it was clear she needed some kind of alternative outlet.  

Tokyo seemed like a pretty amazing city, Ave could have literally chosen from a hundred different ways to try and unwind this night. Yet, here she was walking into the AFW's gym. It was a little ridiculous, she had to admit, but if nothing else it was familiar to her. It wouldn't be the first restless night Avery had dispelled with a good workout. Tokyo was certainly awesome, but the whole city was still literally foreign to her. Eventually, she'd have to find someone to properly show her around the city--or, at least, she desperately hoped to find such a person! The familiar comforts of the gym would work just fine tonight, however.

Stepping into the impressive gym, Ave couldn't help but marvel at the various pieces of equipment at her disposal. The tattooed tomboy also noted a general lack of people currently occupying the gym itself. It was pretty late, after all. It wasn't a complete surprise--if, perhaps, slightly disappointing. Settling by a bench, Ave let the strap of her duffle bag slide from her shoulder before lowering it to the ground. The redhead began to unzip her slim, all-black, hoodie though Avery's vivid imagination was already going to work.

Ave hardly considered herself a dainty flower but she had seen plenty of bigger girls around the AFW. Even her first opponent, Blossom Fields, had held a weight advantage over her--though Blossom was a bit shorter than Ave--and Avery had definitely felt it. The idea of putting on some more weight, and muscle, was certainly a tempting one. For now, however, anything that allowed her to burn off all this restless energy would be lovely.

With so many new and exciting choices in front of her... where would she even begin? Admittedly, it was a good problem to have.

Anne was a gym addict. She was vain, perhaps not so much in the sense of valuing a pretty face, but her goals in the gym were as much for strength as they were for body sculpting. The first thing she did upon settling down in tokyo was to inspect the AFW gym and, by her standards, it had proven adequate. Her scheduled debut match, at the time, was far off in the relatively distant future, and so she had quite a bit of time to waste. She juggled it between training, video games and night outings into the bustling city of Tokyo.

In the last week, however, she had found a new late night use for the gym.

See, the dingy apartment she had rented out when she came over had a barely functioning air conditioner. A week ago, she bid her respects to this brave cold-air warrior, who had fought hard and fought long for the moderate comfort of many, many tenants. But life has to go on, and she had been sneaking into the gym at night, where almost nobody was around, to soak in the aircon while playing pokemon. The training singlet and shorts were almost a farce, the duffle bag a half-life, an 'eh, maybe I'll get to some training later BUT MY MUDKIP IS EVOLVING." She was aware her debut was in a week, and these late night hours could be better spent training or resting up, but eh.

So right now she was lying down on the sit up bench with her 3DS held up and above her head, wondering how a deliberately unevolved mudkip was going to defeat Watson's Magneton after her 2nd blackout, when the gym door creaked open. There was always one or two girls that popped over late at night, trying to get in extra hours. Dillgence, habit or overcompensation? She tried not to judge. She looked over briefly, before returning to the screen.

"Hey," she said, not looking away from the 3DS screen. "Sup?"

"Whoa."

Startled, Ave had clearly overlooked the other girl in the otherwise vast and empty gym. The young redhead recovered quickly as she gave an embarrassed chuckle at her own silliness, "Wow, sorry. I didn't even see you there. Um, Hey!"

The teen couldn't hide a flustered smile though, thankfully, it seemed her fellow gym companion was fairly engaged in her handheld. One glance at the girl's impressive physique was enough of an indicator to know that the she didn't come to the gym exclusively to play video games. Even if that was an amusing thought.

Avery momentarily went back to business, finally slipping out of her hoodie to reveal a black sports bra underneath. And, of course, the various colorful tattoos that sleeved and splashed across the girl's lean and defined figure. Ave paused in thought, almost reaching down into her duffle bag, but instead the redhead found her brown eyes unable to resist drifting back to the entertaining sight of the tawny girl gaming contently along the bench.

"Avery Shields, by the way. You can call me Ave, you know, if you want."  

The redhead's words were tentative but friendly. It seemed awkward to simply leave things as they were before, this girl seemed friendly enough.

"Name's Anne, nice to meet you, Ave." she said with a smile, looking up momentarily to meet her eyes, before returning to pokemon...and then doing a double-take. Ave was anything but plain: striking red hair, the body of a avid sportswoman, and a tattoo parlor's worth of content etched all over her arms. She would look like a typical thug, if her demeanor had not suggested something else.

Wait, where had she seen her before? Ave, Ave, Ave...What was her name again? Ave, Ave, Avery Shields...

"Wait a minute," Anne said, sitting up from her relaxed position on the bench, closing her handheld. "Were't you the gal that beat the Blossom chick in your debut a bit back?" Her smile widened into a huge grin. "Oh my god, that was a sick hurricanrana. Congrats on the win." She hadn't actually been there to see the match. She just caught the few defining moments on a youtube vid, captured by some cheap phone cam, but the diminished quality of the video did not diminish the quality of Ave's win.

"Oh my god, you actually saw that?" Avery beamed as her freckled face flushed. It was simply impossible for the teenager to contain her genuine surprise and clear exuberance upon receiving such a compliment. How awesome was this!? In truth, it took every bit of the redhead's willpower to battle the urge to self-indulgently perform a fist pump. Any cool points she may have possessed with Anne would have surely evaporated if she had allowed herself to do such an extremely lame gesture. Fortunately, Avery did manage to regain a little composure. She wasn't about to blow a moment like this even if she had worked endearingly hard on the execution of her modified hurricanrana, dubbed the Aveinator--super-awesome name, by the way.

"Wow, I don't even know what to say... Thank you! I'm really glad you liked it," The teenager flashed Anne an even brighter smile though her fair cheeks were still notably flushed. "Anne, right? So, you're a wrestler, too?"

It seemed like a pointless question considering both of the girls' current location. However, it wouldn't stop the genuine interest in Avery's tone as she brought herself a few steps closer to Anne position on the bench. Look at those eyes, Avery, of course, did not gawk, but there was no missing the striking nature of the mocha-skinned girl's pretty, blue, eyes. Who couldn't appreciate pretty eyes?

"Yes. Yes, I did." Anne was pretty sure mentioning that she had seen her moment of triumph on youtube in the shittiest of shitty quality was going to pop a needle through her bubble of enthusiasm. And Anne wasn't going to do anything that would take that away from her. The first victories, after all, were some of the sweetest. Baby steps, yes, but some of the sweetest.

Ha, look at her talking like that. She was a veteran back home, but a newborn babe here at AFW.

Anne gave her a quick 'duh' face, before chuckling and returning to that friendly smile. "Yeah, I guess. My debut's in a week. I'm not too nervous about it, I think. I'm no stranger to the ring. Used to do Muay Thai back home and around the world. I like to think I'm pretty good at it." Humblebrag, Anne, humblebrag. Don't tell her you've won world titles in more than 2 weight categories. "I moved to MMA a year or two ago around some of the asian circuits, then decided to try my hand at this wrestling stuff."

Ave found herself slightly in awe. Anne couldn't have been much older than Avery and, yet, she had some impressive sounding accomplishments as a fighter; Muai Thai around the world, MMA in Asian circuits and, now, the AFW. Perhaps, there was a little cockiness to the girl's swagger but, most of all, she just seemed confident. With consideration to Avery's own self-confidence and competitive nature, the teenager would be quite the hypocrite to hold something like that against Anne. Besides, it was kind of cute.

"Jeez, I was so nervous during my first fight here. They have cameras everywhere around the ring and I thought for sure I'd do something stupid, like face-plant on ramp during my intro. I'd be viral on Youtube the next day with millions of hits," Avery snorted playfully at the thought, "But I do know what you mean, I've done a little MMA myself back home in the United States. Once I actually got into the ring, I found my rhythm pretty quickly... And, man, when that crowd roars, it's so awesome." A little MMA was a bit of an understatement, but the tattooed tomboy wasn't about to try and impress the experienced, mocha-skinned, girl with her relatively meek and humble beginnings in comparison.

Perhaps, she was being too self-conscious? Ave pushed aside the embarrassing thought, she knew had more pride then that. Anne certainly possessed a rockin' physique, she looked very formidable. Such a diverse background, too...

I bet I could beat her, the thought sneaked its way stubbornly into Avery's mind. Seriously, Ave? We just frickin' met. She couldn't help but bite at her bottom lip softly, both reveling in and against the attractive thought.

"Yeah. Yeah, it is." For a moment, Anne seemed to be caught in her own reverie as well, of old triumphs and and the base thrill of pushing yourself and overcoming another human being determined to do everything in their power to make your lose, to physically tell you that they were better than you. "I was a mess when I first got in the ring. Nervous, jittery, completely lost. Never wanted to do any of this at first, not one bit. Then I started liking it. Then I started loving it." Of course, she completely failed to mention she was in the ring before she was even 10. What did that documentary call people like her? A buffalo girl? What a terrible label.

"I do have one concern about this trade though," Anne said. "This whole thing seems as much about winning as it is showmanship. I'm really not that good at the latter. That Hurricana you pulled? I doubt I could do something that flashy in the rush of the fight. Still, it's good to meet another person with an MMA base. The girls here are," She looked around. She knew the gym was empty, but she wasn't much for gossip usually. "They're a colorful bunch, and not all of them are professional athletes. Oh god, I'm being elitist again. Damn." She gave an apologetic chuckle.

Avery would laugh cheerfully, clearly amused by Anne's words and her otherwise conflicting predicament. She does have a bit of a cocky streak, doesn't she? Ave certainly had not missed the older girl's somewhat more-superior-than-thou attitude in regard to some of the other wrestlers in the AFW. While Ave didn't necessarily agree completely, she did understand some of the sentiments. Some of the other contenders certainly seemed questionable on the surface. However, how could a tattooed-covered teenager like Avery hope to get anywhere in the world if she expected books to be judged simply by their covers. Clearly, that wasn't the young redhead's style though she wouldn't begrudge Anne over a friendly conversation. Cocksure or not, Ave found herself simply enjoying the company of the other girl.

"Oh, I don't know. I actually really like it. I mean, MMA was strict and structured, and there is some novelty to that. But around here, it's just more... exciting! You never know what you're going to face next. Have you seen the size of some of these girls?" Avery's brown eyes grew wide with youthful exuberance. No matter how many tattoos covered her fair skin or how many people she beatdown in the ring, it was moments like these that seemed to betray the girl's trained and hardened exterior; she was, after all, a nineteen-year-old girl.

"Seriously though, the showmanship is the best part! I have a hard time believing you're really such a stick in the mud." Ave's eyes flashed over the girl a moment before narrowing almost mischievously. "Look at you, you could totally pull off a hurricanrana if you tried. Let's do it? Right now!"

Avery nodded her head towards one of the empty rings nearby as her smile turned into a wide grin. Did she really think Anne could pull off a hurricanrana? Well, maybe. Would it be fun to find out? Absolutely, yes. If nothing else, it would totally beat working out alone or slacking off, playing a 3DS. One look at the redhead's pretty, determined, brown eyes would be enough to let Anne know she simply wouldn't take "no" for an answer.

"I more used to knowing what I'm facing. There's a bit too much color and variety here sometimes." Anne said, her striking blue eyes fixed on Avery's brown ones. The girl was certainly more open than her, or maybe she was still drunk off the powertrip that came from her first big win in this first new place. She certainly envied that, envied the ability to enjoy the sport and the fight for it's own sake. She had been trying to recapture those moments again, the tooth-and-nail victory that drove her to even greater heights, rather than experience the shadow of it when beating a clearly inferior challenger. "I suppose I did join this league for that though. The unpredictability, the opportunity to fight outside the weight class and against different style- did you just call me a stick in the mud?"

She contemplated Ave's offer for a moment. On one hand, she really wanted to complete her Omega Ruby run to the 7th gym by friday. On the other hand, she enjoyed Ave's company. She seemed...normal for someone of this league. And then there were those persistent, brown puppy-dog eyes...

Well, she needed training partners anyway. My as well get networking.

"Alright," she said. "Ladies first."