No Hard Feelings (for HighFly)

Akino’s good eye slowly opened, and the blue haired girl finally started to wake up. It had been a while now since her match - or more accurately, her absolute decimation - against Alaina Sanders. Things had gone fairly smoothly for a while, until the amazon had practically crushed her ribcage and powerbombed her onto the point of the steel ring post. The pain in that moment had only lasted a second before she’d gone unconscious, but it was still the most pain she’d ever felt at any given point in her life. That was the last thing she remembered. And as she looked around and realized she was in a bed in a hospital room, she could pretty easily guess how the rest of the match had gone.

A heavy sigh left her lips as she laid her head back down. “Great...” Her attention shifted toward the door as a doctor then entered, and as she started to sit up, he motioned with his hand for her to remain still. With his hands in his pockets, and a forced smile on his face failing in an attempt at masking an obvious sense of worry, Akino could already tell he didn’t have good news for her. “How bad?” she asked plainly and simply.

“Well, there’s good news and bad news.” the doctor said almost immediately. “The good news--” “No.” Akino interrupted. “Bad news first.”

The doctor shrugged, but relented. “Well, you’ve got two broken ribs. You’ll probably need to stay out of the ring for a month. Maybe two, depending on how quickly they heal.” It took every ounce of willpower Akino had not to pull herself out of bed and start trashing the entire room in pure anger. As if he could see this, the doctor quickly moved on to the good news. “But, you’re lucky that’s all it is. Had that last impact hit a different part of your spine, it easily could’ve paralyzed you. You may never have been able to wrestle again.”

That did manage to calm Akino a bit, knowing she’d miraculously avoided a potentially career-ending disaster. But at the same time, it made her want to get back in the ring even sooner. Moving her hand under the hospital gown, she felt tape around her ribs, then looked at the doctor again. “Where are my clothes?”

“Right over there, in your bag.” the doctor said, nodding toward Akino’s bag, which had been set on the ground near the bed. Not saying another word, she winced while sitting up and getting off the bed, moving right for the bag. When the doctor predictably started trying to tell her she needs to lay back down and rest so they can do more tests to evaluate her condition, Akino shot him a sharp glare. “Fuck that. I’m not just gonna waste my time lying around.”

Not listening to anything he had to say after that, or even caring that he was there, Akino stripped off the hospital gown changed into her training gear: tight black shorts and a blue sports bra, then picked up her back and walked right out. Ignoring the doctor, and anyone else who tried to tell her to stop, Akino took her phone out of the bag and called for a taxi as she left the hospital. The taxi arrived soon and Akino climbed in, telling the driver to take her to the Friction arena.

Minutes later, the one-eyed girl was walking into the arena and making her way into the gym. Put her bag away in the locker room, then immediately made her way over to one of the punching bags. Whether she was doing this more to vent her frustrations, or because she wanted to work on her striking, she wasn’t sure, nor did she really care. It was probably a bit of both. In any case, once she was there she took a deep breath, then started to lay into the bag with a series of roundhouse kicks, wincing a bit in pain with each kick at the strain it put on her ribs.

Alaina still felt terrible about what she'd done. She lost sight not only of what was important in wrestling... clean athletic competition.... but she lost sight of herself. Being down sucks, and it had an effect on her. Thankfully her friend Julia was there to show her what she'd done.

Now, as she walked into the hospital she planned on taking some steps to make up for her wrong. In her hand was a covered plate filled with cookies she baked for Akino. Who didn't like cookies?

Unfortunately for Alaina, she found out that Akino had left the facility, not wanting to lay around and heal. Alaina understood the mindset, but also knew that being rash would only delay her full recovery. Alaina thanked the staff for telling her, and tried to think of where she would go if she were Akino..... As Alaina tried to put herself in Akino's shoes, she got into her car and drove off towards the Friction gym. It wasn't far and Alaina remembered trying to jump right back into things after her match with Brittany. She had to wait a couple weeks before she could even do full training and it was a month before she got back in the ring for an official match.

A few minutes later, Alaina got out and made her way into the gym. She wasn't dressed to train, wearing shorts and a t-shirt with sneakers... but that didn't stop her from heading in and trying to find the one-eyed wrestler. As she looked around the gym, she saw someone in a sports bra and shorts who fit the bill perfectly. Alaina took a deep breath and made her way over silently, holding the cookies in hand...

One kick after another slammed into the heavy punching bag in the gym, causing loud smacks to ring out through the room with each one. How long had Akino been at it now? 10 minutes? 30? Hard to tell, though she didn’t make much of an attempt to. However long it had been, she was starting to sweat, and fatigue was quickly building. Finally, she roared out with a loud shout, then slammed one final kick into the bag as hard as she could.

She hunched over and started gasping for air, one hand resting on her knee while the other moved over her taped up ribs. The strain she’d put on them had built throughout her training/venting session, and now they were screaming at her and letting her know how stupid she was for not resting right now.

Her thoughts were then disrupted when a peculiar scent made its way into the room. Was that...cookies? She sniffed the air a few times then turned her head, stopping when her eye caught sight of Alaina. Sure enough, there were cookies too...right in the hands of the woman who had come dangerously close to ending Akino’s career. But, it didn’t seem like the amazon was holding nearly as hostile a mindset toward her as she had in the ring. Quite the opposite, in fact. Considering what had happened, and what she was seeing now, guessing what this was all about probably wouldn’t be too hard. But she didn’t want to jump to assumptions prematurely.

“What’s this? Having some kind of party or something?” she asked, glancing at the cookies for a moment, then back up at Alaina again.

Alaina heard Akino's voice and took a deep breath. She knew what she wanted to say, she just didn't know exactly how to say it. Here goes nothing...

"Akino I just wanted to say I'm sorry. I went way too far and should have pinned you sooner. I was acting like a crazy bitch, and I want to make up for what I did. I figured these were as good a start as any." She said holding the plate out for Akino to take.

Alaina meant what she said, all she could do was hope that Akino realized that. "I should never have put you through all that. I just got carried away, worried about what other people thought of me after my own match gone wrong."

If Akino made a list of impossible things that she thought would never happen, someone almost snapping her spine in half, then apologizing to her with cookies just might’ve been at the top of the list. Yet here she was, seeing the regretful face of a woman who had nearly ended her AFW career in only her second match, and a plate of freshly baked cookies just for her. But could she even trust this girl? What if she was just being lured into a trap so Alaina could finish what she’d started in the ring?

Though, that didn’t feel like the case. Alaina may have had a bit of trouble saying what she wanted to, but Akino could tell her words were sincere. The blue haired girl relented, and somewhat cautiously stepped forward to take the plate from Alaina. Taking the cookie on the top of the small pile, she lifted it to her lips and took a bite out of it. “Hm... They’re good.” she said, nodding her head in approval. “Thanks.”

She then pondered over the amazon’s apology for a moment, before finally addressing it. “No, you shouldn’t have. There’s a difference between fear and respect, and you don’t need to cripple people to get the latter.” She gave a brief sigh before continuing. “A month. Maybe two. That’s how long they said I’ll likely be out, and they said I was ‘lucky’ for that. I don’t mind that I lost. Sucks, but it happens. But the last thing I need right now is ring rust piling up in addition to it. You know what that’s like?”

Alaina closed her eyes and thought about what Akino had asked her. "I have never experienced that personally but I have seen it. I know someone in Tension who messed up his knee before he had a debut match. His start got delayed 10 months because of knee surgery... and he's a speedy flier." Alaina said finally. "He also rushed his comeback a bit and is paying for it. Its hard when you want to stay sharp but your body needs longer to recover than you want."

Alaina took another breath before continuing, worried that Akino would rush back into action prematurely. "Don't make the same mistake he did. Make sure you are at 100% before you get back to kicking people's asses." Alaina reached into her pocket and gave Akino a slip of paper that had Alaina's contact information on it. "If you need anything, let me know. Its the least I can do..."

Akino listened intently to Alaina’s words as the taller girl spoke. She could only imagine how limiting it must’ve been for a high flyer to have a serious knee injury like that. It was more or less equivalent to clipping a bird’s wing. That had to be rough, especially considering how long it kept him out of the ring. “Yeah, it is hard...” Akino replied, already understanding Alaina’s point even before she arrived at it. It was a hard pill to swallow, though. It was only a month, roughly, that she was supposed to be out. But not even 24 hours had passed and she was already itching to get back in there again.

As Alaina held out the slip of paper, Akino took it and saw the girl’s contact info, then nodded to her. “I doubt I’ll need anything but I’ll keep it in mind. Thanks.” she said, putting the paper into her pocket before glancing at the plate of cookies again. “Oh, and thanks again for that. I...really wasn’t expecting anything like this.”

Alaina kept eye contact with Akino and nodded. "There's no need to thank me. It shouldn't have happened and before I came to AFW I never expected anything like that from myself." Alaina said somberly. "I should probably be going, but just remember I am here if you need anything at all." Alaina said before taking a step back. She was stuck. Should she give a cheerful goodbye, a quiet one... what was appropriate for the situation? She honestly had no idea.

"See ya around." She said with as much of a smile as she could muster. With that she left, hoping Akino understood what she was trying to say.