Party Hard vs. Novae - Starstruck

The dehydration was becoming a serious problem now, enough that it was starting to get the referee’s curious eye looking her way. It wasn’t that she was sweating too much, but that she wasn’t sweating at all. Where she should’ve been dripping and shining, she was dry and clear. Which meant she was at the end of her rope - if she didn’t finish Belle off and take a break, her body was going to do it without her permission.

Losing because you collapsed right at the end of an epic match? No, that wasn’t how Novae’s debut was going. She was seeing this through to the end, come what may.

She just hoped that ‘come what may’ didn’t include Belle getting brain trauma. That’s what this was starting to feel like.

It seemed like no matter how much Tatiana pummeled her, she just keep standing, kept weathering the assault, pushing herself to stand no matter what. Where was the limit? How much would it take? She’d worked with punching bags that had more give to them.

Tatiana almost got so carried away that she didn’t notice the counter coming through her barrage, but she managed to duck underneath the attack just in time and make her way behind Belle. Dedicated now, she ran forward, leaped onto the second rope, and vaulted backwards, soaring through the air with what would have to be the final move of the match - a moonsault. Throwing her entire body at Belle in one last ditch attempt to keep her down for three measly seconds.

Belle arm cut through the air like a battleaxe, just as deadly, equally as unwieldy in her state. She came up empty again, without anything to stop her momentum she pivoted on her foot, turning with the lariat to swing a wild hook behind her, hoping to catch Tatiana sneaking up on her. The girl was gone, taking to the ropes. Belle took a half step forward to steady the gentle sway of her body as she stared in awe as the redhead bounded off the ropes and took to the sky. History was repeating itself, on a much grander scale. She had seen Kaylee so moves like this all the time, but Tatiana looks so different in this moment. She was transfixed, even as she reached the peak of her moonsault. Belle slowly raised up her hands, perhaps delirious from all the blows to her head... she just wanted to touch her, this angel.

As the acrobat came down on her, belle had gotten her wish. Arms clamping down around Tatiana as she locked them chest to chest. She had been driven down to a knee, nearly toppled, but she managed to catch the soaring beauty from the skies. Her legs quaked as she rose back up to her feet, crying out with one last burst of every through the exhaustion, through the anger, through the confusion, through the want... all the things this match had been, they had come full circle. It was time to finally make good on Kaylee's command and "Drop the Beat". "You're something special... sorry."

She pressed herself firmly to Tatiana one last time as she hiked the woman slightly higher up. Together then plummeted to the canvas as Belle sat herself out and dove Tatiana's body straight into the mat head first. Belle rarely had a chance to use this move. Matches rarely ever came to this. But on the odd occasion she had used it, nobody stood back up. Belle couldn't help but feel a rush of guilt as she brought the redhead to the canvas. It felt as though she had plucked a beautiful flower only to promptly crash it between her palms. It was too late now for regrets.

Belle pushed Tatiana's form over, collapsing over top of her panting heavily. She had nothing left to give. This had to be it. Her forehead dropped on Tatiana's shoulder as she listened to the counts in silence.

The referee, leapt down to the mat, sliding along the canvas to catch Tatiana's shoulders in her sights. Raising her hand she slapped the mat, starting her count.

"...1...!"

In that instant, everything felt so right. As Tatiana arched through air, thousands of lights flashed around, bathing her in a sea of illumination. Even with her hurt leg and hurt body overall, she was able to scrape together enough energy to pull this off. She had to. After a match like this, she had no choice but to end it in grand fashion. Just beating Belle into unconsciousness...would’ve been nearly impossible, given how tough she was. But even if it were possible, it would still be wrong. So wrong.

Tatiana smiled all the way, closed her eyes, and waited gravity to do it work. Which it did. Just not in the way she’d wanted.

”Huh?” She squawked and opened her eyes, surprised to see that, no, she hadn’t flattened Belle into the mat. No, she wasn’t on top of her, waiting for the final pinfall. Belle had caught her. Plucked her out of the sky with frightening ease. What was worse, Tatiana recognized this position, and somehow she doubted it was going to lead into the same move it did, last time.

She fought. She struggled. She kicked. But with so little energy left, she couldn’t make it amount to much. Even if she hadn’t been so winded, she doubted she could’ve gotten free. This was happening.

Belle slammed Tatiana’s skull into the mat, and the world instantly turned bright white, as the pain coursed its way through her spine. By the time sense and logic returned to her, she had just heard the referee slap the mat, followed by a saddening: ”2…!”

It was over, and yet, somehow that didn’t bother her all that much. The whole objective had been for Novae to look good and get some heads turned, and they’d done that with one of the best tag matches of the year. They had a good showing against a strong team, and still came close to the win.

She had done a good job. She was satisfied. More than ready for this to be over, Tatiana closed her eyes and waited for that final count.

Belle had closed her eyes as she lay draped over Tatiana, just to take in the last of this moment. It was sullied by the pain, the throbbing headache, not knowing how much she might have actually hurt the woman under her. She still found herself drawn to the smaller things that seemed to push through all reasonable concerns. How it felt to just be here, with her, in this moment. There was some small comfort in being draped over the redhead. Something about feeling the ride and fall of her chest beneath her. She could swear she could hear her heart beat, but from her pounding head and forehead buried against the girl's shoulder, it was likely just her own.

It felt wrong for her to enjoy the scent of Tatiana so much. She had a nose for the small things, often times finding hints of beauty in odd places. Belle helped cultivate recipes for her perfume line, something not many people even realized was something she even did. She had left her name off of everything having to do with publicity, opting for all of that to fall under the general branding Kaylee and her shared. It was her baby, her pet project, and she found herself often times ashamed of it. Belle enjoyed being a strong woman, liking nice and kicking ass, but hated most of the feminine aspects that came with it. Liking perfume was a guilty pleasure. Liking it so much she turned a hobby into a business, was something she didn't like to really delve too deep into.

"...3!" The referee leaned back onto a knee, calling for the bell, it was all over.

Belle didn't stir, not yet. It was reasonable to assume she was just too weary to rise, but it was only a half truth. getting to her feel would have been a labor, but she only remained because she wanted to stay like this a bit longer. This felt like a genuine connection to her, she knew that it was likely just herself coming down off the adrenaline, getting sappy and sentimental... But she didn't have a whole lot of honest, simple moments in her life. Not like this anyhow. From being raised as a child actress to being thrust into a world of social media she really didn't care for, her only real human connection had been Kaylee. Other people came and went, but Kaylee had always been there for her... at least in some degree. She was blind to how stunted she had become under the umbrella of their relationship. So she took this moment when she had it. Like just about everything else, it would be fleeting and things were just return back to where they had come from.

---

Kaylee had been waiting in the wings, watching tail end of the match from a safe distance away from Valerie, skulking like a bandit in the night just around a corner. She had wanted to take a few more digs at the woman, but after having lost the advantage with her sisters dirty, nasty, little trick, the state of the match had been up in the air. She had been spamming tweets none stop, reacting to every high of Belle's, even getting #Partyposers trending with the surprised face of Tatiana she had snapped in her moment of cheating. Nobody seemed to care she had done it, not in the echo chamber she had.

She had cringed, clenching her phone tightening as suspense gripped her until the very end. She was almost certain Belle was going to lose. And then a miracle happened. She had plucked the girl from the sky, and committed murder in the ring. She had never seen a finisher quite that lovely from Belle, mostly because Kaylee was normally the one to steal the thunder of victory. Her head bobbed with every count of the pinfall until it was over. Party Hard had won! They were the greatest!

Slipping from around the corner, she casually strolled behind Valerie, stopping to look over at the television. "Oh, did we win?" She stepped up beside Valerie, feigning ignorance. She looked bright eyed and surprised. To anyone else, Kaylee may have seemed rather genuine. She certainly looked it. The girl was an impressive actress. "I'm shocked it took Belle that long. She must have liked toying with her or something. That whole cat and mouse dynamic you know?" She tilted her chin to glance up at Valerie the act fading as she grinned rather wickedly up at her. "Better luck next time I guess. We'll be certain to leave you plenty of scraps to gnaw on if you intend to keep living in our shadow. The novelty act is cute."

The whole time she had left her phone on, recording. The back camera of her phone pointed subtly up at Valerie from the hand at her side. She wanted this moment captured, not so she could savor the blond's reaction, no. To catch her in the act. If she managed to rile her enough for the submission specialist of Novae to make the poor mistake of assaulting her back stage, she was going to make the woman's life a waking nightmare. Her lawyers would have a field day with tearing this woman apart, and Kaylee would be there to sign off on all the papers. "Too bad, so sad~"

”3.”

Valerie’s shoulders slumped and a great wind flew from her lips, as if she’d just let go of a heavy weight. Strange as it sounded, a sense of relief came over Valerie when the final count came down. She wanted to win. Of course she wanted to win. As much as she enjoyed wrestling, she would’ve enjoyed winning at wrestling, too. The whole point of this venture was to push the Cosmic Circus, to bring a new audience towards their brand, but she wanted it to be the right kind of attention. That simply would not happen if they lost often, and this was not a good way to start.

But it was over. Thank God, it was over. She and Tatiana would talk, in great detail, about what happened here later on, but for now she simply want to go to the ring and collect her sister. She turned around and headed out to do just that.

Or would have, if not for the obstacle in her way. Kaylee, the last person in the universe she wanted to see.

As the little witch prattled on, Valerie found herself imagining all the myriad of ways she could punish her. Holds she could put her in. A slap to the face. Taking her phone and throwing it in the nearest available source of water. Many options, and she would enjoy them all, if only she had the time, the patience, and the energy.

She did not. Not today.

When Kaylee was done talking, Valerie closed her eyes and stood stockstill for moment, summoning her will to keep her feelings in check. ”There is going to come a day, Kaylee, when you will be in intense pain. When you be screaming in agony. On this day, you will wonder why such things are happening to you.” She opened her eyes and leaned forward, just enough to enter Kaylee’s personal space. ”When that day comes, you will remember this moment, and then you will have your answer.”

And that was all Valerie had to say. Finished, she walked away and headed for the curtain.

Back in the ring, Tatiana sagged under Belle, enjoying the moment. Granted, her head hurt like someone had taken a hammer to it, but aside from that, it was a pleasant scene. The crowd was deafening around them, on their feet with applause after such a climatic finish, acting as if they’d just watched the end to a PPV instead of a debut match in the middle of a Friction episode.

And Tatiana did not hate the feeling of Belle on top of her. Her body was soft and inviting, surprisingly so far one so bursting with muscle, and she had the most pleasant smell you could expect from a woman drenched in sweat. A small part of her wished she could stay like this for a while longer.

But no, she could see Valerie coming to the ring out of the corner of her eye. This wouldn’t last for long. She had time for one more thing, though.

”We...should talk.” Tatiana whispered to Belle, though it probably wouldn’t have mattered if she shouted at the top of her lungs right now. ”I’ll send you an email, we can go from there.” She nuzzled against Belle’s chest without thinking too much on it. Just enjoying the warmth. ”Awesome move, by the way. You’re such a badass.”

Kaylee half turned making a good show of seeming shocked by Valerie's tone. She even brought her free hand up to cover her mouth with a small gasp. She wondered if she could force a tear or two, just in case someone happened by them to see the scene. Try as she might, she was a bit to dehydrated to force it. She instead sniffed softly, fully aware Valerie was immune to her aura of bullshit... it actually made her ham it up even more just to get under her skin.

As Valerie leaned in, her hand slipped away as Kaylee graciously closed in some of the distance between them. She was tempted, for a moment to kiss the girl, just to dig her nails into her one last time. A good old F-U to what Kaylee thought of her threat. She thought against it. Anything that came of it wouldn't be good for her original plans in recording this, so she let it slide.  

As Valerie moved away, she stopped the recording, reaching out to give the blond woman's backside a solid slap on the ass. "One for the road, in case you didn't have enough being spanked by us tonight~" She had made sure to wait until the woman was just at the edge of her range, fully prepared to turn tail and head for the hills if she spurred her on to violence. She was ready to take one to the chin when she was going to get something from it. Now? Not so much.

---

Belle half opened one eye at the sound of Tatiana's voice, giving away the fact she was still in fact alive on top of her. She could have sworn her heart skipped a beat, though maybe she had just blacked out for a micro-second again. They should talk... about what? Was it the collab again, was it about them? Her head lifted slightly. "No... "

"Er... I mean yes, but not my email... it's flooded all the time." It was, most of the time it wasn't even her who went through it either. Her public email was more or less a fan mailbox. They actually paid three separate people to manage those. They would skim through most of the messages and pull interesting stories for them to read on air for their monthly fan mail video or take suggested ideas to use down the road. It was all very corporate... really impersonal. Despite understanding the necessity, she hated it.

She opened her eyes to stare down at Tatiana. The hair on the back of stood up as her face reddened at the girl beneath her nuzzling her form. She found herself sinking into her again, breathing out a long sigh.

Focus!

"Uh... Use my personal number..." She rattled off her digits slowly, making sure they were clear and concise.  "Just... text me to let me know its you and not some random creep-o who got my number. Or not. It's whatever." When was the last time she had given out her number to someone when she was sober? She couldn't recall. Truthfully with how out of sorts she felt, she might as well be drunk with how she was acting. Did she seem desperate? She wasn't... Its not like she was interested in any of this stuff anyway... So tsundere this one.

Time froze the second Kaylee’s hand touched Valerie’s behind.

The stagehands had been going about their business, moving to and fro, not paying them any real attention. It was just two wrestlers having a staredown and threatening each other, just a normal thing, nothing to pay any real attention to...until Kaylee stepped over the line. That smack rang through the area, and every eye turned towards them, watching as Valerie’s spandex-covered butt jiggle from the impact.

For what could’ve been the longest five seconds in recorded history, Valerie didn’t move. Didn’t speak. Didn't even look over her shoulder at the offending woman. She stood there, fists clenched, looking ready to explode, like she would spin around at any second and murder the woman behind her, long before security could stop her.

That never happened. Instead, Valerie had a couple of deep, long, haggard breaths, clenched her teeth and walked on. ”One day, Kaylee.” She simply spoke, as she moved through the curtains. ”One day.”

---

For some reason, Tatiana’s heart sank when she heard that ‘No’ coming from Belle’s lips. Had she read this wrong? Was she out of line? There was unquestionably something between the two of them, but she could’ve been getting mixed messages. This was wrestling, this sort of contact happened all the time, maybe she was looking too much into it.

Relief came quickly, as Belle straightened things out. Right. Should’ve realized the email was a bad idea - anything she would send her way over that would just get lost amongst the flotsam, adrift in a sea of frenzied messages and spam. There had to be a better way of doing it.

She was just about to give Belle her number when the brunette beat her to the punch. Not what she’d been expecting, not from Belle or...anyone, for that matter. Most of the time she was the one who gave out numbers when it came to potential relationships, but this was different. Special. She was certainly not complaining.

”867-5309...867-5309…” She repeated the numbers like a mantra, over and over, until it was ingrained in her brain. She giggled and slid her way out from under Belle, crawling to the ropes while her sister came in to help her leave. ”There won’t be anything random about my creepiness. Promise.” She gave Belle one, finale wink. ”Take care. See you around.”

Kaylee had slipped a foot back, fully prepared to make a run for it, just vanish in a woman shapes cloud of dust you'd see in a cartoon. She could tell Valerie was thinking about it, possibly playing through how likely she could get away with choking her out and how hard it would be to stash her body.

Good. She wanted to leave an impression on Valerie. So every time they passed in the halls or she caught sight of her on the television the other blond could remember today with perfect clarity. This is what you got for thinking you could step to Kaylee. Fucking. Day... Bitch.

She had smiled sweetly as Valerie defused herself and walked off. "Have a lovely night, don't forget to follow me on Twitter and Instagram, you're going to be all over my feed tonight."

---

As Tatiana began to wiggle out from under her she eased herself back slightly, making it easier on the girl. She should be going too, they had done enough to the poor referee already. Dropping back from her knees to sit on her legs she watched Tatiana leave with Valerie out of the corner of her eyes. She didn't want her to know she was watching. She was still blushing.

She slowly rose to her feet when the two women vanished behind the curtain, wobbling as she stood tall with a long sigh. The crowd cheered and the referee shooed her. Carefully she navigated her way out of the ring moving as if she were suffering from third degree burns. She felt like absolute garbage now that she had gotten a moment to rest. Tatiana had really done a number on her.

As she hobbled up the ramp to the backstage area she came to a sudden stop. Her brow knit in a moment of confusion as she finally processed one of the last things Tatiana said to her. "There won't be anything random about my creepiness..." She glanced back down to the ring as if it held some answers... Which it didn't. "What the hell does that mean?" She suddenly hoped she hadn't just made a huge mistake.

Slipping past the curtain she found Kaylee waiting for her, grinning like an idiot. She didn't have patience enough to humor her so she just kept going intent on heading home to lay in bed, possibly forever.