Super Hyper Exciting Double Debut: Natsuki Tsukino vs. Strawberry Meringue!

"Think nothing of it. I'm always happy to help~" Natsuki whispered out from under Strawberry's armpit, continuing to weakly flail her arms. She tried to turn her head slightly and give her a confident smile, which hopefully no one else would see.

"I can't hear the crowd at all... Well if they're not booing it must be working!" Nice job me!"

Now the problem came with what to do next. "Ummm... Miss Strawberry, what comes after this...? Are we supposed to... Ah wait, you're kind of..." Natsuki suddenly found herself struggling to stay upright as the cute blonde started to lean in on her. Bent over with her spandex clad butt sticking out wasn't exactly a strong stance, and gravity and physics were starting to do their work. "H-hey, Miss- AHH!"

Finally unable to keep her balance, Natsuki fell forwards, hitting the mat face first. Groaning softly, she laid there with her limbs sprawled out in random directions, with Strawberry likely flopped out on top of her.

Strawberry had dozed off again.

This was great for her rest habits, but not great for maintaining a headlock, particularly when Natsuki was in no position to properly support her.  After a few precarious, wobbly seconds, the two girls toppled over, splattering unceremoniously on the mat and jarring the blonde from her impromptu nap.

"......................wha?"

Okay, something had clearly happened.  She'd had a headlock going, and then...uh, she was very relaxed, and now Natsuki was sprawled on the mat with Strawberry on top of her.  There were a few gaps in that sequence of events, something a less apathetic person might have been concerned enough to investigate; Strawberry was not that person, and was content to hypothesize that maybe her wrestling skills had successfully led her to this advantage.  Cool.  Cool cool cool.

"....um...."  Her eyes - and only her eyes, not her head - turned to glance up at the referee.  ".......'one'?"

"She's face down," said the long-suffering, inexhaustibly patient ref girl.  "She has to be on her back for you to pin her."

"....oh...."

Strawberry glanced down to Natsuki, then back up to the ref.

"......are you sure?  I mean.......it's okay.........I guess..............you don't have to count if you don't want to...............I understand if you're busy, or........."

"Strawberry, she is face down.  I am absolutely sure."

"...............oh..................."

A long silence went by, during which the American pondered whether it was really worth the trouble of rolling Natsuki over for the pinfall.  At some point, she lost her train of thought, and the silence both lengthened and intensified as absolutely nothing happened in the ring.

"...
...
...
...
...
...
...Should I just roll over?"

Actually long since recovered, Natsuki remained silent during the exchange between Strawberry and an exasperated ref. However, with that done, the complete, awkward silence that continued to drag on was starting to affect her, causing her inadvertently shift in discomfort. Agonizing over her decision, Natsuki let out a over-exaggerated groan and rolled her body over so that she was now on her back, ostensibly with Strawberry still on top of her.

Granted, it was way too soon for her to actually let herself get pinned, but maybe a close count would liven things up?

It was looking incredibly likely that the fans were about to see the first ever inactivity-based ref standup in pro wrestling history, but then fate - or really, Natsuki's generosity and sense of drama - intervened.  Very slowly.

".....?"

It was a shocking and dramatic twist.  Natsuki was rolling over, seemingly in pain, which would end up with her in a pinning predicament (one that was in no way precipitated or aided by Strawberry, who frankly looked like she might doze off again any second now).  The incredible, high-octane scramble of the last minute had come to a thrilling climax, one that threatened to end the match prematurely right now.

Strawberry rested the side of her head on the other girl's chest, eyes half-closed and heart rate not even close to elevated.  If she was pleased at her sudden advantage, it was not showing, at all.  ".......nice......."  She opened one eye long enough to glance up at the ref.  ".......hey, um..........what about now?"

The ref girl stared in disbelief, hands on her hips.  "Seriously?"

There was an interminable silence while Strawberry thought about her answer, then:  "............................yeah."

Clenching her jaw, the ref got down and slapped the canvas a little harder than necessary.  "One," she announced through gritted teeth.

Natsuki almost cracked a smile of delight as Strawberry rested her head atop her spandex clad boobs, almost breaking her poker faced act. Despite a minor delay, the thoroughly unamused ref laid down and slammed her palm against the mat for the first count.

"This is pretty nice actually. I wish I could just stay like this. That'd probably make the manager-san mad though... Oh this is such a shame. Forgive me, my sweet Strawberry...!"

"Two..."

As the second, excessively forceful count came down, Natsuki's eyes shot open and she carefully sat upright, letting the blonde's head slide down her body and rest in her lap.

"Ah-ahem! You may be- No, sorry... You may be much more skilled than I, but I am well known for my perseverance!" Natsuki sort of half-whispered, half-proclaimed with a dramatic gesture, trying to keep up the act while not disturbing the probably-napping Strawberry.

Foiled.

The count was broken, and as Natsuki sat up, Strawberry just kind of slid down her like a cartoon wolf that had run into a wall.  She flopped into the other girl's lap, stirred briefly, and made an annoyed noise.

".....mrrrrgh," she grumbled.  "Almost, um..........almost had that won......I guess........"

She yawned again.  Some of the audience appeared to have succumbed to the aura of malaise that surrounded the blonde, and had managed to nod off in the middle of this riveting action.  The ones who remained appeared too lethargic to even boo.  All in all, it was pretty tranquil.

Strawberry glanced up at Natsuki and considered narrowing her eyes menacingly before dismissing it as way too much work.  ".....I'll, um...."  She paused, trying to re-rail her train of thought.  ".....I'll get up and press the, uh, (yawn).....advantage...."  Man, it was warm in this arena.  The lights were so much hotter than the ones back home.  "....yeah....I'll do that, uh.....................momentarily......."

This promise was almost certainly empty.

Now would be the time to stage her great comeback!

...If she had to heart to do it at least. Natsuki still felt kind of bad, like she had greatly disappointed Strawberry, though it was kind of hard to tell. The girl's lethargy was starting to creep in on her as well, as a long yawn escaped her.

"Providing a lap pillow to such a nice girl like her is such a fulfilling experience! Ahhhhhh, I don't know if I can bring myself to move!"

Looking around, she could see the audience pretty much sitting there in silence, kind of staring blankly. Some of them even looked like they were nodding off. Pretty much the only person unaffected in the entire room was a very irritated referee, standing right next to the two "wrestlers", arms crossed and tapping her foot impatiently.

Looking up at the rather attractive girl, Natsuki gave her a beamingly innocent smile, hoping to try and calm her down. "It-it seems like my legs have fallen asleep... Haha... Leaning back down against the mat yet again, the Japanese girl patted her breasts gently. "You look a bit stressed, why not lay your head down for a bit? I've been told it's quite comfy~"

The ref, however, somehow managed to look even more unamused.

"So... Is that a no?"

Tempting though it may have been to just stay put and drift off to dreamland, Strawberry was at least kinda-sorta focused.  By her standards.  Which admittedly didn't mean much.

"Yeah...." she mused, shifting sleepily in Natsuki's lap.  "....that's a good idea, I'll...."  A pause.  "...................wait."

She thought very long and very hard about that offer.

"......hey, don't.......don't think I'm some kind of rookie.......or something....."  There was a faint hint of indignation in her voice, buried under a mountain of apathy.  "I know a trap when I....(yawn).....when I, um......"  A pause.  "You know what, as soon as I'm up, you'll see how good I am at, um..........at........y'know........wrestling, and wrestling type things.  Yeah...."

With a supreme burst of effort, she managed to roll off Natsuki's legs and flopped onto the mat, face up.

"Okay.  So now....yeah...."

There was another pause.

"...........can one of you help me up?"

"I should've listened to Dad about getting that engineering degree," the ref girl said mournfully.

First being refused by the ref and then having Strawberry roll off of her lap was like a tragic double rejection that left Natsuki hurt for about half a second or so until she got over it. Turning her focus back to the "match" and her "opponent", she sat back upright and addressed the nearby, prone blonde.

"Why I would never dream of deceiving you, Miss Strawberry!" Maybe engage in some rampant infidelity, sure, though Natsuki really considered such things as having an "open relationship". "However, I am quite excited to see your graceful body in action, up close and- Oh yes, of course."

Making her way over, Natsuki knelt down next to the sleepy Strawberry, sliding one arm underneath the girl's neck, while the other under the her rear (With perfectly pure intentions, mind you! Not that I'm not enjoying it though), then slowly and gently lifting her upwards in a princess carry like fashion. Making sure her foe's skirt didn't flip up or inadvertently expose anything in the process (See, it was for good reason!), she leaned over to her side and gingerly set the blonde down on her feet.

Kneeling right back down again, she took one of Strawberry's hands and gently kissed the back of it, "It is my pleasure to serve you, Miss Strawberry."

To her credit, Strawberry didn't protest at all at the handling, regardless of whether or not it might have been done with secret impropriety.  She settled back on her feet and resumed her characteristic dull-eyed slouch, looking vaguely discontented with something (specifically the fact that she was probably about to have to put effort in if she wanted to win this thing, her daring attempt at a pinfall earlier having been narrowly avoided).

"........................thanks."

She watched Natsuki kiss her hand with seemingly-impenetrable passivity.  Not a blush, not even a batted eye.  It was as if the brunette had announced that her tax returns were going to be due soon.

Still, despite everything, Strawberry might have been at least a little impressed (it was hard to tell, even for her).  Most people didn't have the patience to enable her, especially not in a competitive setting like this.  Usually she'd been six miles behind her opponents, wandering around in an Ambien-induced haze while they assaulted her with ever-escalating violence and frustration.

"....you're pretty cool," she decided, nodding somberly.  It was high praise.

"Can you, um....."  The blonde glanced down at their clasped hands.  "....since I've already got this, I'm just gonna, um....go for the irish whip."  She made a half-hearted nudge towards the ropes that barely qualified as a whip, accompanied by an audible sigh from the ref.  "....but no pressure....I mean, if you don't feel like getting irish whipped, that's cool too.......I wouldn't either, to be honest......"