Asuntos Familiares

Felina groaned weakly and turned her head in small, slow motions. Her hands and feet started to shift, and gradually her eyelids began to ease open until…

“Ngh!” the kickboxer hissed and immediately slammed her eyes back shut, while turning her head to face away from the painfully blinding light right above her. That’s when she noticed the intense throbbing pain in her skull, and her arms moved to cradle it. “Agh, Jesus Christ…” she groaned, wondering just what had happened to give her such a massive headache. Then she felt a pair of gentle hands wrap around her wrists and guide them away, before one of the hands went to rest softly against her forehead.

“It’s alright, Felina-chan. You’re in the infirmary. Everything’s going to be ok,” a smooth, soothing voice said. It took her a few seconds to place it, but she eased her eyes opened and quickly recognized who it belonged to - Rizu Umeda. The Tension nurse smile and aura as always were sweet and warm, as if it were her own child she were looking after. “Doc? What the hell happened?” Felina finally asked.

A small sigh left the nurse’s lips before she answered. “You just had a rather hard hitting affair in the ring with Killer King. You took quite a vicious drop onto your head at the end.” And then it all came back. Felina remembered teeing off on the beast with the most brutal kicks she could muster. She remembered the intense impacts she’d endured when he retaliated. And she remembered being hoisted onto King’s shoulders over the top rope. That was it. Everything had gone black, and the next thing she knew she was waking up here.

“Ughhh…” Felina groaned at the realization that all this pain was the result of a losing effort in the ring, but Rizu just moved her hand pat to the Puerto Rican’s shoulder. “You were lucky. That last move from King could have seriously injured you, or...worse. As it is, I think you escaped with only a mild concussion. We’ll do some tests just to be sure, will you two mind?” Rizu asked, turning her head over to the side to address a pair of familiar faces the still dazed and recovering Felina hadn’t yet noticed in the room.

Carmen Rodriguez was going to kill Killer King.

Not literally. Of course not literally. She wasn’t a murderer, obviously, and she was hardly the first to think it. It was a wonder to her that so many had tolerated a man like this for so long - he just went around, beating up who he pleased, doing what he wanted to whom he wanted in whatever way he wanted. She knew that beating him up wasn’t enough to make him stop, but as Carmen stood there in the doorway, Army beside her, waiting as Rizu did her work...the temptation was strong.

Those thoughts didn’t completely vanish when Felina woke up, but they were pushed back the moment she saw light in her cousin’s eyes. She resisted the urge to rush in, wanting to let Rizu do her thing - the nurse was an expert, having patched up Carmen a few times in the past year or so, and she was glad to have her excellent bedside manner waiting for Felina when she woke up.

”Not at all.” Carmen moved over and pulled a seat to Felina’s side. She leaned over the bed and gave her cousin a quick kiss on the forehead. ”Welcome back to the land of the living, primata. Had us worried for a minute.”

”Pfft, not me.” Army strolled over to the other side of the bed and found a nice wall to lean against, switching his concerned face out for a bored one now that Felina was awake. ”Head as thick as hers? Knew she’d be fine.”

The idea of having to stick around and have tests done didn’t sound like good news to Felina. It was possible they wouldn’t reveal anything troubling, but she’d always tended to fear the worst when it came to stuff like this. Fortunately the sound of her cousins’ voices quickly distracted her from those thoughts, and a small smile found its way onto her face when Carmen and Army moved close enough for her to see them.

She had to chuckle at Army’s comment, though it hurt her head slightly to do so. “Hey guys... Sorry about that out there. Guess I shoulda been more careful…” Story of her life, really. Impulsive and rash. How much of that had to do with the bad state she was in now she couldn’t really tell. It’d probably be more clear to her after she watched the match back...if she did. As much as it paid to learn from one’s mistakes, Felina sort of doubted she’d want to relive that experience in any particular capacity.

“Now, now, don’t blame yourself, Felina-chan. This wasn’t your fault,” Rizu chimed in, her tone and smile sweet and motherly as ever. Then she turned to face Carmen and Army again. “I’ll leave you all together for a little while,” she said, then gave a polite bow of her head before slipping out of the room, leaving the cousins to speak alone.

Carmen gave Rizu an appreciative nod as she left the room, silently thanking her for taking care of Felina. The appreciation was quite real, too. While the AFW had a good medical staff, they took care of so many wrestlers that there was a mechanical feel to many of them. Most of them didn’t seem to like wrestling much at all, didn’t know much about the wrestling lifestyle, didn’t care much to learn. Rizu being able to properly pronounce their names was a welcome touch all by itself, and Carmen could tell that the woman cared.

She took a seat by the bedside as Army commandeered the remote control and began flicking through the DVD selection. She could already tell he was thinking about playing Guardians of the Galaxy and ruining the mood, but she would deal with that if she had to.

”You should’ve been more careful, yes.” Carmen’s tone took on a harsh tone, the same one her father had. It probably sounded enough like Felina’s father to be effective, and she softened soon enough. ”But you don’t have anything to apologize for, okay? It’s not your fault Killer King is...Killer King.”

She sighed and reached up, stroking Felina’s lovely head of hair, trying to put her at ease. She was mad, but she was going to direct all that anger at one person.