The Big Brawl: Epilogue

Dixie closed her eyes, letting the hot water from her shower flow over her body, the Texan lost in thought as her bathroom began to fill with steam. She had a lot on her mind, a lot to think about, as she stood there in the shower, relaxing and letting the heat from the water do it's job. It was hot, almost unbearably so, but Dixie loved hot showers. She could withstand a little extra heat. It was relaxing, and there was few things she liked more than just standing in the shower, soaking under the relentless pressure of the shower head.

She wished she could stay in here all night, but tonight she had other things to do. She needed to talk to Asami.

They had been living together for almost a month. Dixie was keeping an eye on Asami, making sure the ninja kept her nose clean and didn't get into any more trouble, and she had to admit she had enjoyed the last few weeks. It had been nice, having someone else around, and she couldn't deny that Asami was a pleasant roommate. Their month together was almost over, and Dixie had decided they needed to talk about a few things.

After several more long, pleasurable moments under the boiling, burning liquid, Dixie sighed, reaching out to turn off the water. She slid a hand past her shower curtain and grabbed her towel, pulling it into the shower with her. She took a few moments to dry herself off, scrubbing the towel all over her thick, naked body, then stepped out of the shower. She tossed the towel to the side and gathered up her bathrobe, pulling it loosely around herself as she stepped out of the bathroom.

"Hey, Asami!" She yelled out, heading to the living room to take a seat on the couch, leaning back with her eyes closed again. "Get out here! Ah need ta talk to ya!"

In the kitchen, Asami was busy putting the finishing touches on the meal she was preparing. During the last month, Asami had insisted on handling the cooking and cleaning, seeing how she wasn't paying Dixie any rent. For the Asian, having practically grown up in her parent's restaurant, cooking was a skill that she had been practicing since her childhood, much like her martial arts. In a weird way, Asami thought to herself, all the cooking she had been doing felt like a form of therapy. Getting back to her roots, so to speak.  Getting back to herself seemed to be a theme for Asami in the past month, and as such, the Japanese woman had cut her hair back to it's short, jaunty style. Clad in a clean, loose fitting, white T-shirt with ' Asian Kung Fu Generation', the name of a Japanese band from the 90's, across the front and a pair of black yoga pants, Asami looked nothing like the troubled soul who came in a month earlier as she went about checking on the Japanese style hamburger steak she was preparing.

Also, training alongside Dixie had taken her back to her wrestling roots, even if they had vastly different methods. She grinned as she remembered scoffing at the amount of weight Dixie set up on the gym's bench press earlier that day.

"Yeah, I'm not lifting that." she had told Dixie. "I'm a martial artist, not a furniture mover."

Instead Asami had elected to work on her acrobatics and flexibility, heading to a nearby large mat to first begin a long series of yoga exercises she used to help keep her body flexible and limber before working on the various backflips, somersaults and cartwheels she had employed in AFW matches. She had also taken her turn on the weights, although at far lesser loads than the Texan. All and all, she had spent the day working out and training with Dixie, same as the other days in the past month. The one thing she absolutely refused to do in this month was spar, either with Dixie, or with anyone from the gym. Her time as Kunoichi had sent her into a dark place, where breaking bones and crippling people were common tactics that had no place in the ring. Those instincts, Asami felt, had to be lurking somewhere in her, waiting for the heat of combat to emerge and do something....well something really bad.

Dixie's yell shook Asami out of her self inspection. The cowgirl wanted to talk about something, apparently. That was good, Asami needed to talk to her.
"One sec!" she called as she turned down the heat on the stove, letting the steaks stay hot as she heard the rice cooker give a small click to indicate it was finished with it's task.

Coming out into the living room, Asami saw the freshly showered Dixie laying on the couch, with her eyes closed. The robe, loosely wrapped about her, revealed just enough make the Asian heatedly wonder about what it was covering up.
*Stop it.* she thought to herself. *Dixie is your host, stupid. The last thing she needs is to see you oogling at her like some perv on the subway!*

"Hey Dixie, what's up? Dinner's about done, by the way...." she said as she bent over the back of the couch near where Dixie's face was. She cast a look back towards the kitchen, making sure that nothing there was going to burn.

Dixie opened her eyes, as Asami leaned over the couch, and looked up at the girl with a light grin on her face. "Smells good," she answered, starting to sit up slowly. "Like always, really."

As she sat up, her robe came a little loose, but as she spoke she grabbed it and casually pulled it back together, scooting to one side of the couch. She gestured at the couch, motioning for Asami to come have a seat. "So, 'sami. It's been about a month since ah made ya move in with me." She smiled, and looked at the ninja, slowly glancing over her, eyeing from head to toe before catching her eyes, staring gently at her. "Yer looking good, a lot better than you did a month ago. Ya seem like yer doing okay, too."

She tilted her head slightly to the side, keeping her voice soft as she spoke. "How ya feelin'? Really? How's the last month been for ya?"

When Dixie sat up, she was given an unintentional glimpse down Asami's loose fitting shirt as it hung down while she was leaning over the couch. The brief look would reveal the Asian wasn't wearing a bra, unknowingly giving the blonde a full view of her breasts for a second before Asami straightened back into a standing position.

To her credit, Asami kept her face neutral as the American's robe came loose. Turning away from Dixie for a moment, she went around the couch to take a seat on it. She did however smile when the other woman mentioned the pleasant smell wafting in from the kitchen. As Dixie studied her, Asami smiled as their eyes met before replying to her.
"I'm better. Way better. Has it already been a month? Wow. Well, I think I'm finally, really done with the other identity thing. I don't feel the urge to run around getting into street fight while wearing a mask. That's done, and thank you, really, for dragging me away from that. I can see now, that wouldn't have ended well." Asami answered gratefully, before pausing for a moment.

"But, I won't lie, I miss parts of it." she finished.

She shifted, drawing her legs up onto the couch, her smile fading.
"I wish I could tell you something like 'Oh I miss the look on a person's face when I save them' but that would be a lie and somehow, you're really good at seeing through my....well my bullshit as you'd say. Don't get me wrong, saving people is a good thing, and that's part of what drew me into that life but...yeah that not the thing that keeps me up at night."

Asami sighed her thoughts coming to the dilemma that had been running through her head for the last week.
"I miss the fighting." Asami confessed. "I like to fight. But, that's nothing new, that's been there since I was a kid starting in karate. It's why I got into other martial arts, and its mostly why I joined the AFW. But, I think you get that, don't you Dixie? You might call it something different, competitive spirit maybe.. But its that rush you get when you're putting everything you've got against someone else who's doing the same thing. But that's ok because it was....a clean feeling, you know?  But, while I was out there fighting punks and gangsters, a part of me started liking the feeling of hurting these people. I broke bones, and smiled at the sound. It became instinct, hurting someone like that. I sound like a monster, but that's the truth."

The Asian spoke in a small, haunted voice.
"It's why I don't spar with you, Dixie, or anyone else. What if, in the middle of it, I did something to them? God, what if I did something to you?"

Dixie listed in stony silence to Asami's words, and when the ninja was done, she sat up and scooting to the side, gesturing for her roommate to come take a seat beside her.

"What if ya do? That's a good question, 'sami," she said quietly, looking towards her. "But it ain't important, cause you ain't. Yer a good girl, and yer better than that. Ah'd like to think ah know ya pretty well, and ah know ya ain't going to do anything stupid in the ring."

She turned her head more towards Asami, and gave her a smile, just a small, friendly smile. "So that's why me and you are hittin' the gym first thing in the mornin'. Ah'm dragging yer ass into the ring, and y'all are gonna fight me." She held up a hand, quickly silencing the ninja before she could try to argue with her. "Ah don't want to hear ya tryin' to say no or anything either. Ah ain't givin' ya a choice. Yer gettin' in the ring, and we're gonna spar until neither one of us can move anymore, got it?"

The cowgirl's smile soon spread into a grin, and she flashed the kunoichi a friendly wink. "And if ya do lose yerself and want to try to hurt me, well...ah'd like to see ya try!" She raised one arm up, to her side, and playfully flexed her arm. "Yer ass can try and 'do something' bad to me, but all yer gonna be doing is tiring yerself out. Ah'm too tough to let a skinny lil' thing like you hurt me too much!"

"I-...but you dont-" Asami stammered, trying to protest as Dixie told her that they were going to indeed spar. She scooted closer to Dixie at the blonde's gesture absently, in her distress forgetting her nervousness about revealing her feeling for the American.

However, she quieted down as she processed what the cowgirl had said. Dixie had faith in her, in the person she was before she taken to the streets in her insane crusade. And, after all that Dixie had done, Asami couldn't let that faith down. Which meant that, despite the self doubt, she would have to woman up, face her fears and get back into the ring. Oh, and not screw it up. Easy, right?

"Alright, alright." the smaller woman relented as Dixie flexed her arm. "Now see, that's the smug look I like smacking off the faces of girls like you." Asami replied to Dixie's playful teasing with some of her own. "Fine, if you want me to bounce that big Texan ass of yours around a ring for awhile, who am I to say no?"

Asami had to admit, Dixie brought up a good point. The Texan had held her own, and eventually beaten her during that horrible, violent fight. Granted, Asami was conflicted at the time, but she hadn't been holding back. Maybe the Asian was worried about nothing, after all.

With that, she returned Dixie's grin with a sassy one of her own absently running a hand through her hair....

There it was. That was more of what Dixie wanted to see. Asami in a good mood, with her attitude back. Not the mopey, depressed ninja that she had seen far too much of lately.

She grinned wider, and scooted closer towards Asami, turning to face her more. "Is that so, huh?" She asked, putting her usual cocky smirk onto her face. "Girl, you can try and bounce me around all ya want, but yer skinny little ass can't handle this big Texan ass!" She laughed, and growled playfully at Asami, even reaching out to teasingly punch her in the shoulder. "Ya can try, though. Ah'll be more than happen to toss ya around for a bit!"

She then smiled, and settled back against the couch, glancing over Asami again, watching her run her fingers through her hair. "But that. That's what ah want to see from ya. No more of this self-loathin' crap, alright? That's not the Asami ah know and want to see 'round here, you understand?"

Asami laughed as Dixie's teasing punch grazed her shoulder, the Asian turning to face Dixie, tucking her legs under her as she rose to her knees on the couch. She was about to reach out and snatch at Dixie's wrist, perhaps even taunt her about being slow....

But when Dixie talked about not wanting to see her slide into her cycle of self hate, Asami settled back down, the grin fading. While she had come a long way from the morose lump that sat staring out the window for hours on end, Asami still felt those feelings of worthlessness and self loathing bubble up inside her, mostly in the lonely hours of the night as she waited for sleep to claim her.

She chewed her lip thoughtfully as she thought about what to say to Dixie. Lying to the cowgirl was out. Somehow Dixie could read her like a book and pick apart her falsehoods. Best to just try and explain it, she decided.

"I can't promise you that'll always be the cheerful, sassy girl you see before you all the time." Asami began. "I still feel...like I'm worthless. Not all the time!"
She cut into her own speech, waving her hands to ward off Dixie thinking that she Asami felt that way about herself 24/7.
"But, there are times like when I'm lying awake at night, or if I'm being idle somewhere, and I think about my parents disowning me, or what I tried to do to you back at that warehouse and I feel like absolute shit." she confessed honestly. "I will tell you something though..."

The Japanese woman's brown eyes fixed on Dixie's sky blue ones as they narrowed in determination.
"I'm different than when you first brought me here. I'm done just moping about, brooding and looking out the window, watching the world go by. I don't want to feel worthless anymore, and I refuse to wallow in my self pity. So, I may not always be happy go lucky, but I promise, I'm done letting myself get trapped in the quicksand of self hate I was in...."

Dixie met Asami's gaze, staring back into her eyes as she listened to the girl, letting her words sink in. She smiled, and gave the kunoichi a nod, before speaking back up herself again.

"Good. Yer ass had better keep it that way, too. Ya ain't worthless, and ah don't wanna hear ya talkin' like that again, alright?"

She went silent again, thinking to herself for a moment before suddenly reaching out, grabbing Asami and pulling her into a sudden, tight hug, squeezing the ninja against herself, her voice growing softer as she continued her words. "Yer...yer important to me, you know? Ah can't stand seein' ya down in the dumps..."

A tiny little blush crossed Dixie's cheeks, and suddenly she became all too aware of how close she was to Asami. She gave her another quick squeeze, then let her go, looking away as she started to stand up, rising up off the couch. She looked back down to the ninja, and forced herself to grin again, gesturing with one hand towards the kitchen. "Come on. You had better get back to cookin'. Don't want to burn my dinner, do ya?"

Asami smiled as Dixie told her she didn't believe that she was worthless. She was regaining her own sense of self worth, but it was still good to hear it.

Especially from Dixie. She had admired the woman since the first time she saw the American. It was too bad she had messed up their first meeting in the ring by using sexual antics out of the ref's view. It was a stupid lapse in judgement, brought on by a moment of competition and attraction that probably ensured that Dixie couldn't see her the same way she would her fellow Roses. But still it meant much to the Asian to hear Dixie say it.

She was about stand up when suddenly, Dixie caught her up in tight, but tender hug. Asami's eyes widened in surprise, but then, when the Texan said that she was important to her, her mind went into overdrive as she wrapped her arms around Dixie's waist.

*Wha...important?! Important how? Friends? Does she like me?* the thoughts raced through her head. *You're not reading it right, stupid girl! Get a hold of yourself. And get your hands off of her back!*

Asami felt another squeeze, and then Dixie pulled away from her, standing up. When the Texan talked about dinner, she gave a nod as she stood up. That's when she noticed a very slight tinge of pink on Dixie's face. Maybe...no, it doesn't mean anything....right?

She stood back up with a brief nod in response to the blonde's talk about dinner, starting to turn towards the kitchen.

Or was she wrong in thinking Dixie couldn't see past that first meeting? After all, Dixie was the one who came to her when she was at her lowest, and saved her from the worse part of herself. Asami believed she would do that for a friend....but what if there was something more? Something that just needed a nudge? Questions...questions. What to do? She should go finish dinner, that's what she should do.  

*Screw it! All or nothing!* came a thought from within Asami, from the side of her that reveled in leaping off the top ropes, or surfing on Shonan Beach, or any other adrenaline pumping activity she had done. It was an impulse, the first time one in a long time, that wasn't born from violence, sadness or rage. So she went with it...

Asami turned back around to face Dixie.
"Let it burn." she stated about dinner.

Then, the ninja girl practically lunged into Dixie! A hand went to the back of the taller girl's head, drawing her down firmly so that Asami's lips could meet hers, passionately. Her eyes closed as she placed her free hand on Dixie's cheek, pressing her body against the other woman's. The kiss went on, Asami giving Dixie's lips a slight brush of her tongue at the very end before she eased her face back slightly. Her eyes opened slowly, regarding Dixie with an expression of mingled adoration....and a bit of anxiety as reason caught up to impulse. Well, it certainly couldn't be taken back now....

"Dixie...tell me I didn't just misread this, that I didn't screw up. Cause..." she trailed off, waiting on the cowgirl's response...