Spring Forward

Another day in the Friction Gym. Just like anything involving the AFW, the place was a constant source of action in all sorts of forms. Though it had all sorts of machinery and free weights to work with, the main attraction was the wrestling ring it had in the middle, perfect for training...and other things. Like fights. Real fights. And, even though it was against the rules, sex. As much as they were told not to, AFW wrestlers had a hard time keeping their hands off each other. Sparring matches could get hot, one thing would lead to another, and, well...

Luckily, there were employees who monitored the gym and took care of cleaning up after those kinds people, as well as helping out with the training. One of those such people was a small brunette, who was currently scrubbing the middle of a ring, getting out a few stains, humming to the music in her wireless headphones.

”While I was playing fair, baby...you played a cheating game. Boom, boom, boom…”

That brunette’s name was Blossom Fields, and while this sort of thing had ticked her off when she’d first come to work in the gym, she’d gotten used to it soon enough. After all, she’d been a wrestler herself not all that long ago, and she’d gotten into certain sundry activities from time to time in certain unseemly places. She was in no place to judge what anyone else did.

She sighed and had a little chuckle about it as she focused on a particularly troublesome spot, thinking how she might’ve been the one making such a mess just a year or so ago. Had it really been that long since her last match? Didn’t feel that way. Felt short. She could still remember the thrill of it all, the bright lights, the crowd’s cheers, the raw action.

The losing.

Okay, that last bit, she didn’t miss so much. But the other aspects were a different story. She was happy serving a role behind the scenes now, but couldn’t help but wonder what life could’ve been if she’d stayed the course, remained in the ring, kept trying to improve. Even if she hadn't had a match in forever, she was still in fighting shape...

Oh, well. Blossom pushed that bad idea away for the hundreth time, facing reality. She was in a good place, mentally, physically, financially, spiritually. There was no reason to mess all of that up by putting her boots back on.

Things had grown boring in Minerva’s large and exquisite home. Some time had passed now since she had released her pet, a feisty blonde German girl named Sig, from her captivity. She still felt it had been the right decision, but it had been nice being able to come home to someone exert her dominant streak on to her heart’s content.

But now it had been a while since she’d been able to give herself that sort of thrill. Perhaps it was time to test the market and see what she could find. It was unlikely she’d find someone worthy of being made a pet of hers as Sig had been, but if nothing else perhaps she could simply find some decent entertainment for herself.

The gym, as always, sounded like a good place to look. But when the Dane strode in through the doors, clad in a black silk dress with a matching fur coat and boots, she was dismayed to find the place all but empty. The one person there was some lowly janitor cleaning the ring. Hardly something that would interest Minerva. But then, something struck her as odd. Most janitors, at least among those she had any recollection of, were men, typically middle aged or older. But this was a young girl, not the most gorgeous she’d seen, but certainly too cute to be working a job like this.

There had to be some story to this. Curious to learn about it, Minerva strode to the ring then climbed up onto the apron and stared at the girl for as long as it’d take to be noticed. Whenever the brunette did see her, Minerva would smile and say, “I don’t believe I’ve seen you around here before. Who might you be?”

”Doo doo doo, da dada da, doo doo doo, da dada da...”

While she was listening to music, Blossom kept one earbud out, so she could at least have some idea of what was going on around her. She’d heard someone entering the room, but hadn’t looked around to see exactly who it was yet. Unless they needed help with moves and training, most of the wrestlers didn’t interact with her much.

So she was a tad surprised when she felt someone climb on the ring apron. ”Huh?” She looked over her shoulder a second, then turn all the way around and sat on her butt, staring right at…

Hm. Blossom knew this woman. At least, she was sure she’d seen her wrestle before, but she couldn’t quite place where and what off the top of her head. Something with the hentai title, she was fairly sure. Whatever the case, she wasn’t exactly dressed for a vigorous workout in her fur coat and silk dress. As hot as it made her look, she couldn't help but wonder what she was here for.

Still. Politeness.

”Oh, hi!” She gave a little wave after the woman addressed her. ”Blossom, Blossom Fields. And I’m small, people tend to miss me if they don’t look down enough.” Joke. Probably wouldn’t score. Blossom had a little chuckle, then moved on. ”Nice meeting you, miss…?”

Minerva’s eyebrow raised and her grin widened just slightly at the joke. The joke itself she didn’t find humorous, but there was something about the brunette’s attitude she found amusing.

“Minerva,” she answered, before her eyes took a moment to scan over the smaller woman. The more Minerva looked at her, the more out of place she seemed. Not that Blossom looked like she should be wearing a crown and ruling a kingdom exactly. But a janitor? Maybe she was just overthinking it, but it just seemed off to her.

“I understand Friction allows only women to compete in their ring, but I wasn’t aware that rule also applied to those cleaning it. And you seem rather young to be...involved in such a line of work. Were you perhaps on the losing end of some unfortunate wager?”

Wow, was it that obvious? Was she that out of place? Blossom tried to blend in, but, well...yeah, she doubted many American’s traveled to Japan to scrub rings in the AFW. She was clearly a fish in the wrong pond.

”Oh, well, no, I wasn’t on the losing side of a bet. I was more on the losing side of…” She waved her hand around for a moment. ”...everything.”

Blossom had a wistful sigh, then went back to scrubbing. This one particular stain wasn’t going down without a fight. ”I came in the AFW a couple of years ago, but it didn’t really work out. Tried some matches, lost them all hard, big time, over and over. Figured it wasn’t my thing, you know? So I hung up the boots. But I loved the sport, so I stayed, just to be around it. Help out if I can. Train with people.”

She looked up and shrugged with a little smile. That was the story, for better or worse. No reason to be ashamed of it. ”What about you, though?” She scratched her head. ”I remember seeing you in a couple of matches. What’s your story?”

Ah, now the pieces were starting to fit together, and suddenly the picture before her made a lot more sense. So Blossom was a wrestler who had her taste of the big leagues, wasn’t able to cut it here, but couldn’t leave it behind. Such loyalty to her passion would be seen as admirable by most. But to Minerva, what she saw was something a little different.

A wrestler who struggled to win her matches, and a woman who showed a healthy balance of loyalty and obligation toward that which she was dedicated to. To Minerva, those were signs that screamed “easy prey.” A thought which made her little grin stretch a bit wider.

For the moment, however, the focus had been shifted to her. “If you’re referring to my career, that’s a rather long story. If you’re asking what brings me here, I simply came by in hopes of finding someone to have a little spar with. I must say I was dismayed to find only you here at first. But now that I know you have some experience, I’m wondering if you might be willing to being my opponent. What do you say...Blossom, wasn’t it?”

Minerva liked to smile a lot, it seemed. Not that Blossom had any problem with smiling. She tried to make it her default look, really. So they had that in common, even if everything else about their look was a stark contrast.

”It was more about your career, yeah.” Blossom spun around on her butt and ended up sitting with her legs crossed. ”And I don’t mind a long story, I got time.”

She really was interested to hear what the deal with Minerva was, what brought a woman like her all the way to Japan. But that could come later. It was time to work.

”Sure, we can spar.” Blossom pushed up to her feet and started kicking her rags out of the ring. She was ready to go, but her eyebrow raised as she looked Minerva over.  ”But, I mean...you’re not exactly dressed for it. Are you going to the locker room first and switch up.”

Not many people had bothered to ask Minerva much about herself. And despite how confident she was that she was simply the greatest living thing to grace the planet, her story wasn’t one she eagerly told to many people. Not that it was anything she wanted kept as a secret, but she was weary about letting too many people get to know her too well. Conversation was fine. But vulnerability was something else entirely.

Perhaps she would tell Blossom her story sometime. But that would have to be another day. For now she was eager to see what this former wrestler could do in the ring. And a soft chuckle escaped her lips when the brunette remarked about her attire. Without answering directly, she peeled off her coat and hung it over the nearest ring post, then pulled her dress off and laid it down across the corner of the apron. Beneath those, Minerva already had on her violet top and matching tights, and even her black boots.

The Dane stepped through the ropes to enter the ring, then grinned at Blossom. “You were saying...?” she replied teasingly.

There was an awkward moment, as Minerva started to peel off her clothing, where Blossom became incredibly confused and thought she was about to wrestle in her underwear. Or nude. Not that she had any problems with either of those possibilities under normal circumstances - Minerva was a very lovely, curvaceous woman - but she liked to be serious when she was on the clock, keep the hanky and panky for after-hours.

So it was a good thing that wasn’t what she had in mind, and they were saved the awkwardness. Minerva’s teasing aside, she looked ready to go.

”Sweet!” Blossom gave Minerva a quick clap, then moved back and lowered her stance. One foot out, the other away, back arched, hands out, eyes forward. Professional stance, clean and polished, save for the way she was bouncing on her heels and the wide smile on her face. Couldn’t help herself. ”Come on in, the water’s fine.”

Minerva gave a soft chuckle in response to Blossom’s comment. Despite being much smaller than her, the girl didn’t seem intimidated in the slightest. If anything, she seemed to be excited about mixing it up with her. Amusing. Minerva was curious to see how long that would last.

The raven haired amazon stood tall as she circled the brunette, then crouched into a stance of her own. With her hands held out, she lunged forward to try to initiate a lockup with Blossom. Should she choose to accept, Minerva had no intention of simply trying to grapple for control.

Instead, she’d try to march forward with her legs in an attempt to quickly drive Blossom straight back into one of the corners. She wanted to demonstrate her superiority in strength right off the bat.