As the Crow Flies...

It was getting late. Valley, normally, wasn't a night owl, but she'd broken her usual habits and came out for Taylor Parker's Friction Spotlight, wanting to get in with the crowd and see history being made along with Haley. It hadn't gone exactly the way she'd planned, and she wound up saying some regrettable things, but it was over. It was done. The thing she wanted to do most right now was go home and sleep in her own bed, put all of it behind her.

"...Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev, Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc..."

But she wasn't doing that. Instead, she was walking around the arena, heading to the backstage area, humming 'We Didn't Start the Fire' to calm her nerves while she looked for the last person she wanted to talk to at the moment: Taylor Parker.

Because Valley had a girlfriend. A girlfriend that was friends with Taylor. A girlfriend that was, understandably, a little ticked off about the way things had gone down, and wanted her to go back and apologize. Valley doubted Taylor would lose even a wink of sleep about it, if she even remembered it all, but that didn't matter. Haley cared. That was a good enough reason, by itself.

"...Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team, Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland...

She slipped in backstage and started to look through the dressing room area, worming around the stage crew as they went about their business, asking a few people here and there if they knew where to find the former - and, most likely, soon-to-be - champion. Taylor was a busy woman, and chances were good that she had already left for the night. But if Valley made a decent try at finding her, it would probably satisfy Haley for the time being...

Morrigan yawned as she typed away on her phone. While Taylor was doing her business after the interview, Morrigan was hard at work checking with publicists and media people and everyone else who wanted a piece of Taylor Parker. Good, bad or indifferent, if they wanted a piece of the former champ and their name wasn't Rally Fortuna, Hilde or Lukretia Von Creuzfeldt or Melissa Sellers, then they had to go through her.

She'd already told a few of the wrestlers who passed by to slod off, and finally it seemed like most of the people got the picture. Now she had to deal with actual business people, many of whom did not know one lick about the industry, or cared, she surmised. AFW was always a hot ticket and tonight's affair would be great ratings regardless of whether it was posted on the AFW website or shown on Good Morning Tokyo.

It didn't take all that long for Valley to lock in on where she needed to go. Everytime she asked someone where to find Taylor Parker, they pointed her in a specific direction, then went about their business as if they'd been asked the same question one too many times. Eventually, she found who she was looking for...or, at least, the person who could get her to who she was looking for - her advocate. As she came her way, the first thing that she noticed was the long, red hair streaming down her back. A tad familiar...

Valley approached the woman from behind and gave her a light tap on the shoulder. "Excuse me." She stepped back and gave her some room. "Looking for Taylor. Few quick words, that's all I need."

Morrigan turned when she felt the tapping on her shoulder. She was annoyed she didn't see the blonde coming but a particularly interesting Twitter war involving Taylor and Kelly's fans had caught her attention.

She went from surprised and annoyed to annoyed and disgusted when she saw who it was. Though she had some distaste for the girl over their match, she had watched the interview and could feel the bitter, jealous vibes coming off of Valley when she spoke. Morrigan furrowed her brow.

"Blag off!" Morrigan said, her Irish accent coming through. "She doesn't need anymore of your words tonight!"

Valley stood there, silent and still, staring at Morrigan as if she couldn't believe what she was looking at. Because, well...she couldn't.

"You."

The latter half of 2014 had been a trying time for Valley, and this woman had a lot to do with it. It wasn't that Morrigan had beat her - she was a good, if a bit vicious, competitor, and Valley was off her game. She hadn't done her homework, and she'd paid the price. She could accept losing, she spent most of that year doing it.

But Morrigan went beyond that. After Valley was stripped by the devilish redhead, she had one of the most mortifying experiences of her life, as she had to walk up the ramp buck naked, in front of a laughing crowd. Afterwards, she looked up just enough about Morrigan to be disgusted, and then promptly tried to push her and the match out of her mind as far as possible. She didn't succeed. She still had the occasional nightmare about it, and then there was the time she had to explain to her mother just why she'd switched outfits from the one she's gotten as a present back in the States.

And now, here Morrigan was, just standing there, and...and...

Valley blinked and snapped out of it, as the gears began to turn in her head. She narrowed her eyes and canted her head. "You. Work for Taylor Parker?" She pointed a finger at Morrigan's chest. "You?"

Morrigan looked down at the finger that poked at her chest and narrowed her eyes. When the two had fought, Morrigan already worked for Taylor and she was in the process of turning over a new leaf. She wasn't going to fight dirty and she kept her promise to herself ever since. Her taser had been long gone, replaced by a small can of mace just in case she ran into someone she couldn't handle. Her boxcutter stayed at home as well. Valley had been the girl she had fought when the last vestiges of her old life had still caressed her and though she didn't cheat in the match, she had still done something very cruel to the blonde.

And while she had turned over a new leaf and become a good girl, there was still, there probably always would be, that thin layer that simmered and bubbled underneath her where she stuffed all the hate she'd built up. The part of her that wouldn't mind jamming a boxcutter into someone's back or stripping someone naked and laughing.

Morrigan grabbed the finger and twisted, just enough to hopefully get Valley to back off. "Yeah, what of it?" She asked. "I'm good at what I do." She said seriously. "And that means you aren't getting anywhere near Taylor, so... blag off." Morrigan let go of the finger and shoved, staring down Valley.

Valley hissed as Morrigan twisted her finger, and she quickly pulled it away. But she didn't back off. She couldn't. Not from her.

She gave Morrigan a shove back and stood her ground, staring hard right back at her. "That's fine. I came to apologize, but suddenly, I'm just not in the mood." She looked Morrigan over. "And yeah, I know what you're good at. Everyone does." She scoffed. "From what she said out there, I thought Taylor had some good standards. I guess not."

Morrigan stumbled but quickly recovered and pushed right back into Valley's face, nearly forehead to forehead and certainly chest to chest. She stared down the blonde, not budging an inch as she spoke.

"You don't know shite about her, you trash talking cunt." Morrigan said. "And you don't know shite about me either... other than I can kick your arse, so... I'll say it one more time.." Morrigan leaned forward and pressed their noses together. "...blag off, twat."

Valley couldn't help but give a quick, half second glance downward as their chest/ collided. She didn't regret getting the reduction surgery - her back hadn't felt this good in years - but, being honest, she was going to miss having the best chest in the room. Oh, well.

Valley had a quick chuckle and moved away just a bit. "Did a little more than that, didn't you? But, no, Morrigan. You could kick my arse." She pressed back even harder than before and spoke through gritted teeth, so close to her now that their lips were almost touching. Very close to awkward, but she wasn't easing up if Morrigan wouldn't. "Once. A year ago. A lot's changed since then, and if you don't believe that, I'll gladly demonstrate it to you in the ring. Anytime."

A small crowd was starting to gather, as the stage crew began to wonder if a fight might be breaking out.

Morrigan found the position a little less awkward than Valley. It's not like she was looking to make out with the skank, even if she could feel the girl's breath on her lips. "Heh, well you don't have to worry. This time around, I'll keep you nice and covered after I kick your arse. Got all of that shite out of my system." Mostly. "I'm sure the crowd would appreciate it too." Morrigan said, turning her eyes down to look at Valley's form for a moment before she scrunched her nose and then grinned at Valley.