Symposium of spirited beverages

It had but been a week or two since Summer Splash had taken place and it had gone rather well for Cecilia, she'd be lying if she said her legs was 100%...maybe 90%? Yet she had prevailed and without a doubt proven that she was more than meant to hold that Friction World Championship which was around the detestable serpents waist. Yet the Swede wouldn't let any of those thoughts cloud her today, it wasn't really her night after all as she had taken out Alicia her student instead to try and cheer up the redhead from well...her loss against Adrian Kytes, a close friend of the blond beauty's.

She was walking along town with Alicia, the night was a warm one...maybe cause this was Japan and it had detestably hot weather during the summer and the Swede still hated it when it was too warm. She shook her head, there was sweat drops running along her neck as she was jeans boy shorts, a pair of brown boots, a tight fitting blue tank top with a shirt lazily draped over her shoulders and arms, unbuttoned with the sleeves rolled up past her elbows. She cranked her neck as she walked alongside Alicia and soon even put her arm around the girl's shoulders and pulled her in.

" So..." Cecilia let out as she tried to break the slightly awkward silence that had built up over the past few seconds between the pair. " How did you enjoy your first Pay Per View event ?" Cecilia let out, she wasn't perhaps the best person when it came to the whole cheering up thing, as it probably wasn't for the best to start talking about the whole thing...hell she wasn't even 100% sure if Alicia needed to be cheered up after her match.

If there was one thing Alicia could have done without when it came to Tokyo, it was the heat. She was used to London, which was an order of magnitude hotter than most of the UK, but at least there was the chance of escaping to the countryside when the heat was at its worst.

In Tokyo, when it got like this, she was finding there was almost no escape except that offered by air conditioning. It was the sort of weather that sapped her will to do anything and made her want to just lie around her apartment with a good book.

But Cecilia had offered (sort of) to take her out for a drink and Alicia had felt like company. She’d not had a chance to catch up with Valley since the PPV and she had her first match scheduled soon – her first one in Tension at that. Not that the notion of fighting a man bothered her.

Alicia had been kicking boys’ asses almost as long as she’d been fighting.

But it’d be good to grab a drink, chat a bit…

But she’d be glad to get inside, out of the humidity for a bit. Like Cecilia, the curvy redhead wasn’t exactly wearing multiple layers – calf-high boots, shorts and a t-shirt were the order of the day for her as well – but she was still hot.

Yes, alright, she was always hot. So was Cecilia. That wasn’t what she meant.

Her slightly distracted thoughts about nothing very much drew to a sudden close as she felt a strong arm wrap around her shoulders, pulling her closer against the Swedish wrestler’s side. Cecilia wanted to know about her first PPV.

Summer Splash. Her match against Adrian.

”It was ok,” Alicia allowed, ”Though I’m glad I’m done with hardcore matches for a while. It took me days before my eyes stopped smarting and I didn’t even get that much dust in them.”

She shrugged.

”Nice win, by the way. Sorry I didn’t mention it earlier.”

Cecilia tilted her head a bit as she walked with Alicia, hearing the girl's reaction to it...it seemed as if Alicia wasn't too spirited about her match, who could blame her, a loss was a loss no matter where it was. The Swede would pat Alicia on her shoulder gently as she would then shrug her own shoulders.

" Hardcore isn't really for everyone, Hell even someone like myself is taking a break from it. " Cecilia let out, which was sort of true, ever since she had gotten her hardcore title match ruined the Swede had no overt desire to engage in a hardcore match against anyone other than the woman who had ruined that match for her. She was going to tear Sermis to pieces, a good way to look at it might be that the woman who was was known as the Hardcore Queen was simply storing up as my violence in her heart and mind as she could for Sermis Languis.

" Oh ?" Cecilia reacted to the shift of focus onto her and her match, the blond would let out a light chuckle and softly shake her head. " Hah, don't worry about it kid! It's not like I was gonna lose or anything! Hell, what do you think of your teacher. " Cecilia spoke as she'd bring her hand up from Alicia's shoulder to softly ruffle the back of Alica's head and then pull her arm back to herself. " Nikolette was a tough opponent...but! Not nearly as tough as I am." Cecilia said with a wide grin on her face, she walked onwards with the redhead and then finally they came towards the bar they were meant to go to.

" After you." Cecilia let out as she figure being courteous was the right call for now, a modest courtesy as it was though.

”Well, it’s definitely not for me,” Alicia agreed. Not that she couldn’t take a beating, as now two hardcore matches had proven beyond a doubt, but she just didn’t care for all the tricks and toys they seemed to depend on. Skill obviously still mattered but there was a limit to how far it’d carry her against dust in the eyes or chairs or whatever else someone like Adrian or Abattoir would bring to the match.

So, yeah. She was done with those for a while at least. If she had any say in it, for good.

And no, she hadn’t thought Cecilia was going to lose but…

”Nah, I didn’t think you’d lose,” The redhead replied with a smirk, nudging her teacher in the side with an elbow teasingly, ”I was more worried you’d smear her across the canvas, squash her flat and be bored as hell afterwards.”

Squash matches, as ever, were not something Alicia had a high opinion of. She hadn’t got around to seeing the Valkyrie’s match against Nikolette Tessla in full – only the edited highlights – but those were enough to show it definitely hadn’t been a squash match.

Their walk eventually brought her to what Alicia guessed was the bar Cecilia, who was definitely more of an expert than her on Tokyo’s nightlife, had picked.

”Thanks,” she said in response to being allowed to enter first, opening the door and stepping inside and hoping the place was at least air conditioned inside. If not, she’d be sweating like a pig before the night was through.

Once inside, she held the door open for Cecilia, waiting for the blonde to join her before she went any further.

Cecilia would shrug her shoulders, she could fully understand why someone might not enjoy Hardcore matches, she herself had her stint with them for a while and every now and then went into one. Though the less tricks the opponent brought with them the better for her. She wanted to have intense fights where it was her and her opponents body going one on one until one simply couldn't go on anymore. That was what Cecilia loved after all, while she was pretty darn good at doing so in a hardcore match it had a different feel to it and brought out a different side of Cecilia at times.

She eyed Alicia as the redhead replied with that smirk and nudged her when she let out those words. " Haha, well Tesla was a pretty strong opponent, though no match for me of course." The Swede let out, still lamenting the lingering pain in her leg from Nikolette's deadly submission hold. One day she hoped to fight the young woman again, but her sights now were set on not opponents of the past but opponents of the future.

Once they were at the bar and entered the Swede would enter as her trainee held the door open for her. She walked up towards the bar counter and sat down next to an empty chair to Alica could join her. " Anyways...it's not the end of the world losing a title. Besides, since you don't seem into the whole Hardcore thing it might have been for the best if you lost, you'd probably face more tricks and weird stuff if you had gotten the title after all." The Swede pointed out as she'd shrug her shoulders a bit. " Fifth of whiskey." The Swede let out to the bartender before turning to look on at Alica. " What are you having ? My treat."

”Of course,” Alicia agreed, unable to keep from chuckling as she said it, shaking her head slightly – she really shouldn’t have expected anything else from Cecilia. Well, the blonde had already said Nikolette was tough but not as tough as she was, which was to be expected. Cecilia Northman might be severely on the hot side – Alicia wasn’t exactly attracted to her in that sense, but there was a lot to appreciate in the veteran’s physique that’s for sure – but she left old boots in the dust when it came to the question of toughness.

That was a compliment, naturally.

But, so far as she’d seen so far, they didn’t come much tougher than Cecilia in Friction. Her grin widened, and not in a reassuring way, as Alicia allowed herself a brief daydream of the day she’d go toe to toe with the blonde Valkyrie herself.

Meantime, the redhead followed Cecilia over to the bar, claiming the chair next to Cecilia’s and resting her elbows on the bar.

”Pint of beer – whatever’s good.”

Right now, she didn’t much care and, seeing as Cecilia was paying, she could at least answer the question that seemed to be floating in that lot of statements.

”Honestly, not winning the title doesn’t bother me,” The British amazon said after a moment, ”Like you said, the damn thing would be more trouble than it’s worth. And I didn’t really care about it going in. If anything, I’m mostly annoyed I still fell for half her tricks, even with what Valley told me.”

She shook her head, a little irritated with herself.

”And I’m not going to lie, losing on basically my own turf hurts. If I was going to beat her anywhere, it should have been in that cage.”

The redhead picked up her glass as it was passed to her, tilting it so the light caught the liquid within.

”Shouldn’t have let her get out of the bodyscissors.”

Now that the two of them were finally in the bar and they could start their drinking and spending some good quality time as teacher and student out for the day to just have some good old fashioned fun. Both of them had ordered drinks and all now which meant that their day could commence. 

Hearing what Alica was saying the Swede would nod her head and twirl her glass of hard liquor. " Hardcore title is a troublesome belt. Yeah...Adrian has a lot of funny little tricks up her sleeves most of the time. " Cecilia let out as she would shrug her shoulders a bit. 


" You'll get her next time, that's if you two square off again." The Swede would take a swig of her drink. 

" Hmm...I remember that when I had that belt it didn't exactly garner a lot of respect. Back before I had it it was practically a dead title. Like to think I revived it a bit, but who knows. Maybe it's just my life here that people are gonna disrespect me ~ " Cecilia let out a loud chuckle following those words, thinking back to the whole thing before Summer Splash with Kelly, Akashi, Nikolette and Death Bunny.

Troublesome. Yeah. That sounded a good way to put it. It wasn’t as bad as the 24/7 belt over in Tension, where anyone could try their luck at any time, but Alicia was pretty happy she hadn’t got it in the end.

She rolled her eyes at the mention of Adrian and her tricks though.

”If we square off again, we’re fighting on my rules,” Alicia vowed, taking a good swig of beer, ”No weapons, no tricks, just good old fashioned brutality. Let’s see her squirm out of that.”

Not that she was particularly bothered either way but, if it did happen, she was going to make sure it was on her terms. Not Adrian’s ‘win at all costs’, ‘all that matters is getting away with the belt’ rubbish. But, at the end of the day, the match was done. There was a good chance that any rematch would be just as unsatisfying and Alicia was hoping she was done with the whole mess.

Silently, she listened to Cecilia’s thoughts, chuckling in turn.

”I think you kind of like it. It gives you lots of decent opponents to go up against, lots of motivation to kick their asses besides…”

The big redhead took another swig of her beer.

”If people disrespect someone with your record, they’re idiots. And deserve to have their asses kicked.”

She raised her glass, offering a toast. Thinking about good fights was a good way to cheer herself up from the blasted hardcore belt.

Cecilia had to admit she enjoyed spending time with her little student, Alicia had a lot of the same views as her, which made their whole teacher-student relationship work rather well. 

The blond took a sip of her hard liqoure and then shook her head a bit. "I mean...you've got a point." The Swede spoke out, but she then shrugged her shoulders, " I showed Nikolette just why it doesn't do well to underestimate me, I'll show anyone that...Kelly, that bunny eared freak, anyone." Cecilia said with a grin and a hearty laugh escaping her lips. 

When Alicia raised her glass up for a toast the blond would follow suit, clanking her glass with the lovely redhead's. " You're alright Wells. Good student, fun drinking partner, enjoyable sparring partner." Cecilia let out as she would then move up to stand a bit more straight.

Placing a hand on Alicia's shoulder as she'd look on at the redhead. Smiling at her, " Just so you know, if you ever need my help kid. Don't hesitate to ask. Not gonna jump into anything unless you want me to, but if people mess with you...just know I've got your back, should you need it." Cecilia said as a wide grin would appear on her face after speaking. 

" Now...let's get to more cheerful stuff, like...talk about fun times in some good old matches ?" 

Clinking glasses together with Cecilia, Alicia bobbed her head in acknowledgement.

”Thanks,” she offered with a grin, ”You’re not bad yourself, Northman. Hope you don’t mind taking me on in the ring proper sometime, when I’ve kicked enough ass around this place.”

That ought to be interesting by itself. Sure, there were plenty of losers around Friction to waste her time with but then there were people like Cecilia or Valley who Alicia was itching to try herself against. While that was a fun goal to set herself, she thought the way to it would be pretty fun too.

Her first reaction to the offer Cecilia was to consider it. People generally didn’t offer her help and, to be honest, she didn’t immediately know what she’d need help with. On the other hand, hell, it couldn’t hurt to have a former hardcore champion on her side if the time ever came. And she did appreciate the unspoken vote of confidence – Cecilia wasn’t going to try and fight her battles for her but, if she asked, the blonde would be there. That Alicia could get behind.

”Thanks,” She said after that brief pause. ”Most people who mess with me, I’m happy to deal with them myself. But, hey, if I need someone to watch my back, who better than the Valkyrie herself?”

She raised her glass again, tipped it the blonde powerhouse’s way.

”I’m always up for talking about good matches,” The redhead agreed with a cheerful grin, taking a mouthful of her drink before continuing, ”And I’m guessing you’ve got some cool war stories. Toss a coin to see who goes first?”

She could have offered to start but she’d honestly like to see what tales the ex-champ might go for. On the other hand, Alicia did like to make things interesting – if the coin went her way, she’d have to think something up.

Well, she’d been in plenty of fights. There would be something.