Rodriguez Reunion (for acuya)

The latina giggled and rolled her eyes at Army’s response. “Yeah yeah. You get what I mean.” Regardless of whether Amy had bruised Army or not, though, his groan was plenty for her to know those punches had stung just as much as it seemed from watching them.

“Yeah, maybe. Or we could use our legs too, then you’d be the one struggling to put up a decent challenge.” she retorted with a smirk. Felina wasn’t afraid to admit her record in standard boxing spars against Army was about as good as Army’s against Carmen. Once upon a time that bugged her quite a bit. But since she’d found her own niche, a way she knew she could even the odds, it hardly mattered now.

The surprise on Army’s face amused Felina quite a bit, though she tried to mask it as much as she could. “Ooohh, for the foreseeable future, I suppose.” she said with a little shrug. “I just signed with Tension recently. So you’re gonna be seeing me around here for quite a while, I imagine.” And there it was. The bomb was dropped. Now she just waited to see what the reaction would be.

Army cringed at Felina's giggle. It was the trademark female Rodriguez giggle, like nails across a blackboard. Even his mother did it, and she wasn't even a Rodriguez by birth.

"Pretty sure my arm reaches farther than your foot. Not worried." He took one final swig from the water bottle and started to unwrap his fists, stripping the sweaty tape off and letting it fall into a pile. It was a little tricky with his fingers numbed up from gripping the bars, but he wasn't about to ask for help and give Felina ammo. She had plenty already.

Army paused and groaned when Felina said she would be staying awhile, though it wasn't too surprising - Carmen loved the company, and it wasn't like there was anything big going on with the kickboxing scene at the moment.

Army huffed and straightened up, looking down at his fists and trying not to seem too bothered. "Well, how long is 'quite a while'? I'm not giving up my room for-"

He stopped in midsentence then turned her way with a quick jerk and wide eyes, as the full weight of what she'd said finally settled in. It was like his mind needed a moment to properly process it and come up with a reaction. "You're...joining Tension? Seriously?" His eyes narrowed, his head cocked to the side. "Seriously?"

“That’ll hardly matter one bit when you’re flat on your back.” Felina quickly replied. Ordinarily, this would’ve been the part where she’d propose they find out for sure right here and now. Though she remembered her promise to Carmen to “play nice”... for now, at least.

Besides, she was loving the reactions her news was getting from Army. The frustrated groan was like music to her ears. And the look on his face once she mentioned signing with Tension as a wrestler? Priceless. Absolutely priceless. She was half tempted to take a picture of it with her phone while she could, but once again refrained from doing anything too unnecessary.

“Damn right I’m serious! Why wouldn’t I be? Already signed the contract and everything.” Felina said, maintaining her little grin. “Kickboxing’s been fun. But I want to broaden my skills a bit more, and I want more challenging competition. After watching you and Carmen wrestle here for a while, coming here just felt like the right thing to do.” she gave another casual shrug.

Army ran a hand down his face and tried not to react too much to what he was hearing, but it was a serious struggle. This was a potential fuck up in so many ways that he didn't even want to bother counting. "The hell would you be doing here? Tension doesn't have a Kawaii league."

Army sat down on the table and looked at her with even eyes, trying to make some sense of all this. Felina wasn't making too much sense, so he'd have to make it make sense. "So, let me get this straight." He hunched forward and finished off the water bottle in a single gulp."Me and Carmen were over here, doing our thing, and you just out of the blue decided you want to do our thing, too? And you couldn't join some league back home, you had to come all the way out here for it?"

She had to admit, she was impressed Army was reacting to the news as well as he was. Either he had just matured quite a bit since their last meeting, or maybe that girlfriend of his was having more of an effect on him than she’d guessed. “Shame. I’m sure you would’ve fit right in.” Felina bit back, before moving to hop up and sit right next to Army on the table.

“Weellll, not exactly. But, you’re not completely wrong either.” she said, giving him a couple pats on the shoulder. “Yeah, seeing you and Carmen do it inspired me to give it a shot, yes. But it wasn’t out of the blue. Well, maybe for you it is, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about for well over a year now. Me and Carmen talked a lot about it, and she was completely supportive about it.” she said, taking another glance over to the ring at Carmen.

“Oh, and don’t act like I’m just trying to copy you guys or 'do your thing.' Was boxing an original idea for you or Carmen? Doubt it. But just because you guys took up something other people in the family did didn’t mean there was anything wrong with it. Same principle here, more or less.”

One of the girls Carmen was training with glanced their way and giggled when Felina sat beside him, completely shrugging off his expert putdown. Three years ago, that one would've gotten a lot more bite out of her, but it seemed like she'd gotten thicker skin. Either that or he was losing his touch.

...nah, she just got thicker skin.

Carmen got the girl straightened out before she enjoy the rest of the show. "Carmen was supportive. Right." Army rolled his eyes, but yeah, she probably was. She'd always been big on elevating the Rodriguez women, and it wasn't like Army was against it. Just not with Felina. And not in Japan. And not with the AFW.

"Less. Way, way less." He had a long and deep groan. "Me and Carmen were following the tradition - you know, boxing? The thing we do, the thing you don't do? You couldn't box, so this is you just trying to get in the limelight any way you can. Not even close to being the same thing."

Felina had done a good job of not letting Army’s words get to her thus far. She’d expected this kind of reaction anyway, and was ready for it. Or, so she thought. But, he finally put a nice, big crack in that defense of hers. The whole boxing issue was a personal one, especially considering it made up the vast majority of the family legacy. Clicking her tongue, she turned to face Army, her amused expression now replaced with a little glare.

“Yeah, I couldn’t box as well as everyone else. What the fuck about it?” she snapped. “Just because I don’t throw hands the way the rest of you do doesn’t mean I can’t throw down. I have been kicking ass over the years, and I’m damn proud of it, and so is my family!” The latina was getting starting to get more and more heated with each word that left her lips, and she hopped down from the table to stand right in front of Army.

“‘Trying to get in the limelight?’ Please. If that’s what I was worried about, the LAST thing I’d want to do is copy you of all people. You were never good enough to beat your sister, so you tried to compensate by coming to Japan to find girls you actually can beat up. And you think I’m the one with something to prove? That’s cute, Army. Really cute.”

And he'd finally hit the raw nerve. Took him a little longer than Army expected, sure, but he hit it.

"I never beat my sister?" Army rolled his eyes and hopped off the table, standing over her and looking down.. "I never fought my sister. Like spars and shit count." Army pointrf straight at her and gave her chest a little tap. "And yeah, you've been kicking ass, but that's not the way it's supposed to go, is it? You couldn't cut it the normal way, so you just gave up. On to the next thing, like it was just some fad you can give up."

He held up his hands and leaned back against the table. "I ain't got nothing to prove. I'm just here, doing my thing, having fun. You're the one riding Carmen's coattails, and we both know how this'll go - you'll get a few matches, you'll lose a few matches, then off you'll go, right back to kickboxing. Maybe go off to Thailand, where they actually give a fuck about that shit."

He started to move around her, heading towards the lockerroom while he rubbed his shoulders. "So why don't we just skip the crying? Go back home, make it easy."

“Spar or not, you never could and I bet you never will either.” She said, poking his chest right back, though her poke was much more like sharp jab than a tap. “I didn’t give up. I found what I was good at and made the most of it, and that’s all there is to it.”

She crossed her arms in front of her, her glare never letting up for a minute on Army. “If I wanted to ride Carmen’s coattails, I would’ve stuck to boxing and aimed for something big like the Olympics. And that wouldn’t have ever happened, so it would’ve just been a big waste of time. Get it? I chose my own path, and I don’t need to ride anyone’s coattails!”

As her cousin started walking away, a thought then came into Felina’s head. “Hey!” she called out to him. “You’re so confident I’m gonna fuck up here and bail? Alright, lets test it out then. You and me, one on one, in the ring! How about it, big boy?”

Army rubbed the spot where Felina tapped his bare chest. Sharp nails. Ouch.

"Bla, bla, bla." Army turned around and once more began the trek back to fabled the Men's Room. "Maybe you'd have made the Olympics, maybe not. But you didn't try. That's kind of the whole point."

He stopped in his tracks after the next thing that came out of her mouth, though. Should've known it would happen sooner or later - he just wasn't expecting it to be this soon. Army spun around on his heel and folded his arms, looking her up and down. She did look a bit more solid than he remembered, so she probably wasn't kidding about the training. Still, he wasn't worried. Not much. Maybe a little. "You want to fight me, right off the gate? Live?" He scratched his head. "Or do you just want to spar in the ring? Because that would be silly for you to do, but like, ten times less silly."