Locker Room Meeting

Kozue perked up at the mention of John's name. She'd never met the guy outside of a few chats online, but he seemed nice enough. Compared to most champions in AFW, he was a straight-up saint. "Training with the champ? Nice. Very nice. You're in good hands."

She waited for Alaina to finish talking before she chimed in, though, really, she'd hit most of the major points. The Takeuchi's sucked. King sucked. Anybody who liked King sucked. Oh!

Kozue snapped her fingers as she remembered the special friend she'd made in the parking garage a little while back. "Black Dragon. Asshole in a mask, rammed my head into a car because I didn't join his little threesome of dumbasses." She rubbed the sore spot on her head, feeling a litttle pain from the memory. "But yeah, we got tag teams. There's the Ishiis, Ryan Knight and his whole UKE thing, think Johnny and his brother are still tagging around, so that's them. Someone'll be the new champs soon, so maybe you should talk about a title match, you know? Small pond, but it fills up, fast."

Talia squeezed Charlie's hand. "Don't worry, you'll do great dear," she reassured him. He was too humble for his own good. Although that was probably one of the reasons she loved him so much. The mention, though, of Alaina's match with King instantly brought her out her little daydream. She listened to Alaina's words but she didn't really elaborate past her match. The girl overtly swallowed and reached out to pet L.C. to distract herself. It had been almost two and a half years since her match with him. She wanted to forget it ever happened, and for the most part her time with Charlie had helped her do just that.

But she was returning to Tension now. And she couldn't just ignore him now. Even as Kozue changed the topic from him to another group of jerks, Talia's mind was stuck on King as she rubbed L.C.'s belly vigorously. She didn't realize there were so many tag teams in the Tension roster. Maybe everyone had the same great idea as she did. And she knew King regularly did tag matches with some of his friends too. That thought churned her stomach, and she ended up rubbing L.C.'s belly a little too hard.

He rolled to his belly with a half-growl and stared up at Talia. "Oh...sorry little guy," she whispered as she quickly pulled her hands away from him. She looked at the ground for a moment and then back to Charlie. "Do you think we'll be good enough to compete for the titles?" she asked trying to continue the conversation as if nothing was wrong.

"Babe, I am confident that we could win the titles before long." Charlie said as he gave Talia a squeeze. "I just need to get back on the horse ya know? I want to make myself less one dimensional but the brass doesn't have any matches lined up for me right now... it sucks." Charlie said. He wanted to not only stay sharp, but make himself sharper for a legit shot at those tag titles with Talia. he'd done work on expanding his move set into a more technical range, but hadn't tested himself in the ring against an opponent yet. "Hey Kozue, do you have any matches lined up?"

Alaina grinned as she looked Talia over. "Ya know Talia, if you wanted to work with me I bet I could bulk ya up slightly. If you added like 5 pounds and toned up you'd have more power than anyone would expect without sacrificing any of your speed. Charlie always speaks really highly of you and I like working with different people when I'm not over at Taylor's place so I'd love to set something up with ya!" Alaina cheerfully said. "We could even bring Charlie along and show him how its done."

The more Charlie and Talia talked, the more Kozue wanted that drink. It was pracitcally calling her name.

It wasn't that they were annoying or anything - though, really, it wouldn't be the worst thing if they turned the cuteness down a notch or two - it was that they were a pretty stark reminder of the sort of relationship she'd never even come close to having. She kept telling herself that it didn't matter and that the bachelorette life suited her fine, but...

"Got a few things, yeah. I'm set to fight a girl for the first time, that'll be..." Awkward as fuck. "..new. And me and Johnny are trying to get a match setup for the next PPV, take on King's goons and clear the way towards the big man himself. Other than that, don't know."

She finished off the bottle and glanced back at Talia, figuring it wouldn't hurt to learn a little more about her style. If she was getting back in the game, they might face off sometime, and a little reconaissence could go a long way. "So, T, what sort of style do you go for in the ring? You take to the air like Charlie does?"

Talia tried her best to smile at Alaina. "Strength training?" She needed it, that wasn't in doubt. She was just hesitant about training with the Amazon of all people. Alaina definitely had a significant power advantage over her, but as nice as she was she didn't like the idea of working out with who was essentially an ex-girlfriend of Charlie's. She looked at Charlie first, and then back to Alaina. "I guess so, sometime," she muttered. "Do you do most of your training with Taylor nowadays?" she followed up. She may not have known it beforehand but that was an unexpected tie-in. She was curious just how much time Alaina spent with Taylor...and what she may had been telling her.

She then looked back to Kozue with a nod. Well...at least some people were fighting King. And with Johnny no less. At least things were a little different now than they had been. "I use to focus on just that. Running and jumping and all that stuff but...well recently I've tried to be more technical and stuff. When I was wrestling against Cassie Elliot, I had to be more precise and jujitsu-like. So I worked on submissions and reversal instead." It also didn't help that a few of the high moves she had done were downright suicidal at times. Especially that one that landed her in the hospital. Talia slowly resumed petting L.C. who was watching her carefully now.

Alaina beamed as Talia accepted the offer. "Awesome! Here is my cell number so when you are ready we'll make a nice training date!" Alaina had heard things about Talia, but witnessed other things. She saw how good Talia was to Charlie, and how happy he was. She recalled how depressed Charlie had been this time last year when no one knew if he would wrestle again. Things had come full circle. "Yeah I do a lot over there but work with many different people, not just Taylor. I know theres.... history but I go by whats in front of me ya know? You have always been cool to me and that is all I care about." That last part was not quite true. If Talia was good to Alaina but ever hurt Charlie, there would be all sorts of hell to pay.

Alaina chuckled to herself as Kozue asked ahout Talia's style. A match between those two would be something. However.... "I would love seeing you two go at it," Alaina began to say as she motioned at Charlie and Kozue. "You are the two fastestvpeople I have ever sparred with." After Alaina said that, L.C hopped down and stood between everyone, looking over Charlie and Kozue. He let out a couple barks before making his way back over to Charlie.

"Haha, he thinks I would win." Charlie said with a shrug. "Thanks for the vote of confidence pal." Charlie said as he pet his dog. Kozue seemed like she knew her way around the ring, but so did Charlie. The more he thought about it, the more intrigued he was by the idea of the matchup...

Kozue winced at the Taylor mention, but she figured it was inevitable with all the history swirling around. Sooner or later, things always came back to her and her clique and whatever craziness happened shortly before she entered into the tail end of this drama. It wasn't that big of a deal, really, but it was a niggling little nuisance that kept rearing its ugly head, like a zit that wouldn't stay popped.

Dwelling was only going to keep her pissed off, though, and fortunately LC was around to lighten things up with his doginess. "I feel that, I got a few submission moves and stuff in my toolkit. Might even start doing a few power moves if I can bulk up enough for it." She sat back and did a quick flex of her arm, showing off the definition. She was hardly close to Alaina's level, but she'd picked up some good tone, and the day was coming when she might actually be able to slam an opponent. It was a fun thought.

"My heart's gonna stay in the air, though. Flying around and crashing into people is just too much fun. And you," She smiled Charlie's way and wagged a finger. "If LC wants it, I'm gold. Just let me get this King stuff sorted after Showdown, and I'll set us up a match if you're game, anything you want."

Charlie finished his drink and put the glass down, giving Kozue a thumbs up. "Whenever you are ready I will be there. I won't go easy on you either because anyone who can make Al sweat in practice has to be good." Charlie said. It would be great to step back in the ring, anything to wash away the nasty loss to Abbey would be awesome.

Alaina moved over to Talia and looked her over. "You already look toned up, a little work on adding weight to your frame and you will be able to do some slams to marginally heavier opponents in no time. You could probably scoop slam Charlie here!" Alaina happily said as she pat Talia on the back. "Don't go too crazy with manhandling him though, he might start to enjoy it." She added jokingly with a wink.

"I bet Talia could do it already if she tried right now." Charlie said. "I can't say I would develop a thing for it though. Seriously, who enjoys more back pain than we all have to deal with after regular matches anyway?"

Alaina laughed as Charlie spoke, and had a mischievous look in her eyes. "I got an idea! Talia vs. Kozue in a bodyslamming contest! I can judge who has better form while you take turns slamming Charlie onto the couch!" She was partially kidding, and wasn't sure if Talia would be cool with it. Charlie was shaking his head in a confused disbelief, but Alaina interpreted that as a 'I am ok with it' type gesture.

Talia couldn't help but smile and nod at Alaina. It was strangely refreshing to be taken on a clean slate from someone who actually knew the people she messed with in the past. Charlie was one thing since he had never met Johnny or Taylor or anyone else before her. Alaina, though, trained with Parker, so she assumed she'd just start off hating her. She knew if their positions were switched she'd have done the same.

But instead Alaina seemed honest and almost playful about it all. She couldn't read Kozue but she seemed to be that way too. She did need to put on a little strength if she was going to pull her weight with Charlie too and Alaina probably knew about that. And lifting Charlie didn't seem like a bad idea either. She finally gave a real laugh and looked at Charlie with a grin. Even Alaina's little bodyslam contest made Talia grin, though more in a way that said, Haha, that's a good joke.

"Well...I know you wrestled Johnny awhile back," she asked, dropping the topic back to Kozue and Charlie's little competition. "You did really good there and Johnny's a tough wrestler. He fights with the best..." She then looked back to Charlie with a grin. "But Charlie's Charlie." Talia winked and squeezed his hand.

Kozue bodyslamming Talia around the apartment. That was an interesting little picture. Insane, but interesting.

She grew a little quiet when the match with Johnny came up, feeling nostaglic, Could you really be nostalgic about something that didn't even happen a year ago? It felt longer. So much crap had gone down since then that it was hard to believe how short a time she'd actually been with the AFW. She'd gone from this little nobody in booty shorts to competing at a PPV in one of the top events.

"I'm not even gonna lie, I lucked out a lot in that match with Johnny. And I'm not saying he held back, exactly, but..." She bobbed her head from side to side as she sifted through her memories again, remembering some of the spots. "If it'd been a normal match and not a TLC? Might not have done so good. But!" She returned Talia's wink and wagged a finger at Charlie. "I got eyes on you, man. I'll holler your way as soon as I get this King crap cleared, and we'll make stuff happen."

Kozue stood up and stretched, looking over to Alaina. "Speaking of, I should start making trails. Training's in the morning, and Junko doesn't like me coming in late." Probably because she suspected Kozue was hitting the bottle again. Which, while it wasn't true, was still a legit concern.