Year of the Dragon

And there she was. Coming back with flickering eyes, worming her way back to the world of the living. Army grew closer with each passing second, so near that her breaths found their way into his mouth, that he could feel the searing heat from her body. She squirmed, nothing more than spasms and twitches, but enough to make their skin touch and slide against each other. Fresh sweat dripped from his chest found its way to hers, and cascaded to the floor.

There was nothing outside this room. For one, shining moment, the entire universe didn’t matter. Felina, the doctor, the property damage, the door, the match, his job, eating, drinking, sleeping - none of it mattered more than kissing Imugi. Feeling her. Just being with her.

He pressed his lips to hers. He couldn’t not do it, couldn’t resist the urge to take her with them being so close. The slight, wispy worries of being too forward vanished when her arms came up and wrapped around his head, pulling him even deeper into the heated embrace. Her legs brushed against his sides, and he welcomed them with an eager, running his finger over the toned muscle, this time without the distraction of it squeezing the life out of him. He kept his other hand busy running fingers through her, combing it, giving it the occasional teasing tongue.

It couldn’t have last more than a few second, but it felt so much longer, and Army had no qualms making that a reality.

When they parted lips, Army let out a long exhale, his expanding chest pressing down on hers and his steamed breath flowing over her neck. He dipped down, just to plant a slight kiss on the side of her throat, wanting another taste to tide him over. Her question brought a quick, deep laugh from him, one that sent vibrations between their mingling bodies. ”Say we’re even. Means we have to do a tiebreaker.” He drummed his fingers against her thigh, as another hard knock hit the door. Starting to get a bit annoying, that was.

Even so, his eyes never left hers. They were mesmerizing. Easy to get lost in. Stuck with you.

”Come back to my place?” It was a straight question, but he could keep the hunger out of his voice, the silent plea. This couldn’t be a one time thing. There had to be more to it. More to her. ”Rest up. Play some games. Do some other things…” His hand slid higher up her thigh, until it wasn’t grasping anything that could reasonably be called ‘her thigh’, anymore. ”...as long as you like.”

Where had this place been all of her life?

For the longest time, Imugi believed that the world had nothing left to offer her. That fighting tooth and nail in some abandoned warehouse at the edge of a city as lofty as it was filthy was the most her life was going to amount to. Even after she made the journey across the sea, she wasn’t holding out much for the infamous arena of Tension, a land brimming with lightweight males who only loved getting beaten as much as the women enjoyed doing it. Her dorm smelled like puke, her fans wouldn’t leave her alone, and now there wasn’t even anybody beside her to shoulder the burden. Far as she could see, it was her destiny to be alone.

Now here she was, undeniably head-over-heels with the man on top of her, the only person to beat her in over a year. Even if was under some extraneous circumstances, this moment meant more than he could possibly ever know. Part of herself was wishing it could last a while longer, and it seemed like part of Army had a similar sentiment. She felt it, in the kiss on her neck and the question whispered in her ear.

If any other person had asked her that, she’d have shot it down in a heartbeat. She didn’t know how far his place was from here, who might have been there, what someone’s idea of ‘fun’ might have entailed. Really, he just didn’t trust most people as far she could throw them. It was a philosophy that She wasn’t getting those instincts here. Why did everything feel so...right being around Army? Like the world outside didn’t matter? Like she could trust him? Maybe even more than that...

She wasn’t the best at showing it, though. Her trademark, half-eyed expression stayed locked on Army’s eyes, even as his hand traveled ever so subtly up her thigh, drawing a rasping gasp from her lips after it stopped at a more...sensitive region. Her legs unconsciously drew closer together, craving more of the sensation warming up at Army’s fingers. Her smile widened, flashing a devious smirk at the larger man looking down at her.

“I don’t know…” She ran a hand to the back of his head, brushing a bit of hair back with her fingers. “It’d be funny to just do it right here, wouldn't it? See the look on their faces when they get in.” She chuckled and tilted her head back, letting it rest against the mattress, closing her eyes for a moment. “But a shower doesn't sound too bad either...” Her hands slid down the back of Army’s head, crossing them over one another and pulling him closer as she half-opened her eyes again. “Okay. You’re on. Fair warning though…” She brought her head up, drawing her lips, giving it a quick lick along the edge, letting her warm breath run over the saliva. “...I play an awesome Ken.”

Imugi, as Army had repeatedly established in the past hour or so, was an amazing woman. She was funny, she was tough, she fought like a comanche, but she didn’t take any of this too seriously. Small, but built better than most men, a compact and powerful frame. Maybe she wasn’t built like some of the runway models the AFW had to offer, but none of them backed it up with this crazy, sensual edge that was driving him crazy.

So, yeah. He liked her. She liked him. He liked that she liked him. But when she said that she was a Ken main, probably guessing that he had Street Fighter back home and that it was right up his alley...

With those few words, she somehow became twice as attractive. It was weird. Well, weirder.

He opened his mouth to say something, and just had a laugh instead - half from what she just said, and half from the image of Felina busting in to see them fucking like animals. It would scar her for life, and that fact alone was made it tempting. But he’d rather have some comfort to go along with it. ”We’ll see what my Chun Li thinks about that.” He cut his laughing off with a heavy grunt, as he began to pull up and bring her with him. ”Come on, I’ll get you there.”

As hurt as he was, getting Imugi up wasn’t too hard, hefting her light weight up with a bridal carry.  He used his foot to work the door open, just as a startled Felina was about to give it another hard round of banging.

For one long, awkward moment, Felina stood there, frozen with her arms raised, as Army stood there with a defeated Imugi in his arms, a trashed room behind him, and a dreamy smile behind his mussed up hair. When that moment passed, Army shrugged and walked past her. ”See you back at the pad. Might want to give it a few hours.”

That was where he left her, and what Felina did after that, he had no clue. His biggest concern was getting back to the apartment - which he did, pretty fast - and making sure that he and Imugi got the relief they were both craving - which they did, not all that fast. It was every bit as wild and rowdy as their fights had been, with them both tapping into their reserves and ignoring their aching bodies, still trying to top each other and get some advantage. At times it seemed like they were just having another fight, but then things would get a little tender, quieter, softer...only to rev back up again a few seconds later.

In the end, it resulted in Army’s messy room becoming even messier, with one of his poor Gundam models broken beyond repair, sheets strewn about, and a slight dent in the wall. He wasn’t quite sure where the dent came from. It was all a little hazy. So hazy, that he couldn’t really saw which of them had come out on top in that whole exchange. A doover was in order.

They would get to it in a little while. For the moment, however, Army was intent on proving the superiority of his Chun Li over her Ken in Street Fighter V, an effort that was…

”I got you, I got you...no, fuck, super, shitshit!”

...not going too well, no.

Army huffed as Imugi proceeded to eat a big chunk of Chun Li’s life bar. Not enough to kill her outright, but to bring her down to a third of health. She’d won the first round, too. Not looking good.

He sat crossed legs on the bed, wearing nothing but the black and white boxers he’d slip on a few minutes ago - playing videogame 100% naked felt a little weird for reasons he couldn’t articulate. He leaned to the side and gave Imugi a nudge, just to see if he could mess her up and score a cheap combo. ”Fuck, they nerfed Chun to hell in this season.” He smacked his lips, not even bothering to hide the bullshit. She could probably see through it, anyway. ”Not saying that that’s the reason. Just throwing that out.”

Imugi wasn't new to sex. None of the Starlets were, now that she’d thought about it. Not something many people knew, surprisingly enough, but it also wasn't a line of thinking their fanbase was willing to indulge.

Something that people liked to overlook was that the idol industry wasn’t strictly limited to pretty girls. Plenty of pretty boys, too. They weren’t particularly macho or anything, barely singing at a pitch higher than their female counterparts, but it didn’t stop them from being every teenage girl’s dreamboat. How could they not be? They were good talkers and even better kissers. They were gentle, they were funny, they were cool, they could be downright irresistible in the right lighting. They knew how to wrap almost any girl around their finger with a couple sweet words whispered into their ear and a quick smile.

That was probably why Imugi was never really into them. It was hard to fall for affection that had been groomed. She could get the same out of a relationship with them as she could making out with a plastic doll. Maybe that was why she was the only one in the agency without a relationship. Without someone to call that wasn’t her manager. Without someone to laugh with, talk with, eat with, cry with...and whatever else boyfriends apparently did. Sounded lame, if she was being honest. Not that she’d ever given them a chance. When the night was over and the heat faded away, she was either fast asleep or already out the door before they’d woken up, willing to forget everything when they inevitably ran into one another again.

Needless to say, tonight was...different. Way different.

She wasn’t sure how it started, even less how it ended. The only thing she knew for sure was that it was wild, tender, passionate, sloppy, and amazing all at once. She remembered how fast and heavy they'd come in. She remembered how good his body felt against hers in those quiet moments, how they seemed to last forever before things picked up again. She remembered the climax and how high she’d climbed and quickly it fell, sending shivers up her spine and permeating her being all at once. Her mind became a haze for a while, unsure of the moments that followed, but the one thing Imugi was certain of was the lingering craving for more.

For now, though, Street Fighter V would have to do. Like Army apparently, she wasn’t too keen on playing naked, kinky as that sounded. She threw her hipsters back on, but didn’t bother with the bra. It was...somewhere, but she didn’t care to try and track it down. She wasn’t leaving, so why not get comfortable? All of her clothes were back in the dormitory, and there was something about putting her ring gear back on that felt a little weird. Thankfully, one of Army’s spare shirts somehow slipped out from the drawer and hung off the knob by its tail end. It fit her like a poncho, but managed to cover most of everything from her mid-thighs upward. It was comfortable, though, and that was all that was important. And kicking Chun-Li's ass. That too.

“No holds barred!”

Imugi shouted out alongside Ken. She threw a look to the side up at Army with a big, cheeky grin on her face as she let the super play out. She was laying flat on her stomach on the bed, her legs kicking up and down slowly behind her as she turned her attention back to the screen in time for more of Army’s healthy excuses. She thought the first round was bad, boy was he stepping it up now. He might regret the shove, though. It did save him from a combo, but it escalated the battlefield now to a place he was probably going to regret next round.

“No. You’re so right. That’s totally the reason. It had absolutely nothing to do with that kick spam you were doing before." She nudging Army’s arm with her elbow. "You take losing better in real life. You're like...in reverse.” She said with a small laugh. She was in a really good mood, more so than she usually was. She’d never played video games after sex before. Maybe she should do this more often. “Might wanna activate that V-Trigger, by the way. Unless you know this round’s mine. Good choice then.” She said, shooting another Hadouken halfway across the screen.

Army had never been a ‘sex after videogames’ proponent before he came to Japan, in no small part because pretty much none of the women he’d been with back home had really been into videogames, or really doing much of anything after beyond the boring stuff. Getting something to eat, dozing off, watching some Netflix, having a shower with or without him. That was fine, back then. Some of them liked to do a little cuddling and pillow talk, which he wasn’t crazy about, but could along with. He tried to be adaptable with that sort of thing.

Kyoto, however, had turned him on to quite a few new things. Most of the women he’d been with were fellow wrestlers, the sort that had no qualms taking on and taking down a guy his size. Special women. Wild women. Imugi, no surprise, was every bit of that.

He was trying to stay focused as he played. Half because being competitive was just something that came with being a Rodriguez, but also to get a leg over Imugi, to really win over her. It was hard to put a finger on, but every so often he’d look over and see her laying there, wearing his Wonder Woman t-shirt, with that driven look on her face, her bright blue eyes shining in the glow of the screen…

Gah. Videogame. Focus.

”It is not ‘kick spam’, it’s a totally legit tactic, and shitshitshit!” Army just barely managed to leap over the Hadouken with a well-timed wall jump, saving him from what would’ve been the start of the end. He breathed a short sigh of relief, with a quick laugh on the end. As much as he’d pretend-bitch, it had been way too long since he’d had the chance to play games with an actual human being and not some faceless challenger over the internet, and it was something he’d missed. And his opponent was a fun, sexy, possibly-crazy woman who’d just redecorated with sex. A big plus.

Army activated the V-Trigger, totally not because she suggested it and all of his own accord, then tried to press his luck, throwing his all into a final do-or-die push and hoping his sweaty fingers didn’t fail him. He wouldn’t nudge her again, but he could bank on some small talk to distract her. And he did slide a bit closer, to press against her side. Just to feel her again. She was soft, but a weird kind of soft, the kind that you only got with a body as firm and hardened as hers. Highly kissable abs.

”Okay, so, I Wikipedied it, and Imugis are, like...dragon-snakes? Kind of? Which is neat, but I’m guessing that’s not the name your parents put on you?” Kind of a roundabout way to ask ‘What’s your real name’, but he didn’t want to seem to pushy. Still playing it cool.

Yeah, she knew that question was coming. It was kind of surprising it hadn’t come up earlier, really.

Might have been all the violence and sex in between that let it slip their minds, but she was also probably because Army wasn’t from this part of the world. Imugi probably could have easily passed as some weird non-Japanese name that managed to slip through between the crowd of natives. The ‘Blue’ adjective was probably what tipped him off. Not that she had any reservations about it. It was just a stage name. She had a real one.

So why was she finding it so difficult?

Unlike Chun-Li. Imugi only pouted her lips and shook her head slightly at the ‘legit tactic’ justification. It was kind of sad, but also funny, because he was actually pretty good at Street Fighter. She’d played in a few tournaments in her downtime, and she could safely say Army could maybe scratch the quarter-finals with some proper coaching. Maybe she’d tell him that, but for now, she was having enough fun baiting that spinning bird kick.

Then the question came. Her face straightened out before she did the same with her head, bringing it upright and away from Army’s bicep. She threw a quick jab and bounced her Ken away from Chun-Li for a bit, hopping him to the other side of the screen for a bit and watching for projectiles. Her mind was too busy thinking of an answer to fight back, not that you’d know it by looking at her face. “Your guess is as good as mine.” She shrugged. Her change in thought could be noticed when she had Ken stop running around the screen, stopping at the right corner and throwing a quick Shoryuken to whittle down that last bit of health. “Never knew them. Not sure if I even really want to. Kind of stopped caring years ago.”

That little factoid may have been difficult for most people to admit, but Imugi kept on staring at the screen, rattling it off like she was reminiscing on what she ate for breakfast this morning. “What about you? Armando isn’t exactly a popular name around here.” She puckered her lips. “Unless you like Pornhub.”

Being honest, Army had wanted to ask Imugi that question pretty much the moment they met again in the examination room, and he very well might have if they hadn’t decided to use their bodies to redecorate the room. Strange as it was, most wrestlers in the AFW went by their actual names, for better or worse. Imugi probably wasn’t the first he’d fought who went with a codename in the ring, but damned if he could remember anyone else who did.

On another, smaller note, it just occurred to him: he’d wrestled so many people in the AFW that he couldn’t remember them all offhand. Wow.

The absence of her head on his bicep was sorely missed, and the slight shift in tone didn’t go unnoticed. Army eased in the bed and spared a quick glance her way, wondering if he’d maybe stepped on a landmine. Asking a name wouldn’t have been taboo with any other woman he’d been with, but Imugi was different. She was different in a lot of ways, he could already tell. He didn’t know what to call whatever they were cooking with each other, but he wasn’t trying to fuck it up this soon, and…

...and Chun Li was dead. ”Ah, fuck.” He slumped forward as Ken kicked up a flaming storm and got his victory quote out. ”Ken and his dumb plastic hair.”

With that bit of saltiness out of the way, he focused back on Imugi, not missing the fact that she didn’t really answer his question. Tempting as it was to push, he doubted it would’ve gotten anywhere. She didn’t care or didn’t want to care. Either way, he’d take a hint and let that sleeping dog lie.

Besides, the Pornhub thing got a full laugh out of him. ”Oh, so you know all the popular names on Pornhub, huh? Johnny, Manuel, Peter...” He moved back on the bed and laid back as he waited for the next screen to load. He was okay with a rematch if she wanted one, but just laying like this was fine for a while. ”Go to Puerto Rico, spit out a window, and you’ll probably hit an Armando. We’re all over the place. Here, yeah, I kind of stick out. Took some getting used to.”

He was looking down the length of her back towards her face, but his hand reached out to idly stroke the back of her thigh, without even thinking. Was it weird that he just kind of liked touching her? Probably. Oh, well.

In the back of her mind, Imugi hoped she wasn’t giving off any negative vibes when she responded to Army’s not-entirely-direct question. She was just being honest, speaking without much filter like she usually did. On any other day, in any other situation, she wouldn’t have thought much of it. This just so happened to be one of the very few occasions in her life that she wished she’d shut up and put more care into her words. She liked this, for whatever it ended up meaning. The last thing she wanted was to go and ruin it over something that hardly even mattered.

He seemed to brush it off though, giving her some space for the rebound. and hearing his laugh brought back a stroke of the smile she’d had moments before. It came back in full when she heard him laugh. Thought that might get him.

“Don’t make fun of Manuel. He’s doing his best.” She smiled and nestled further into the bed, bringing the controller a bit further in front of her as she laid herself out for Army’s viewing pleasure. Her attention seemed split between their small talk and the roving fingers gracing the back of her thigh. A light shiver traveled up her back as her skin tingled, letting out a soft sigh and giving her goosebumps against the sensation. For someone so big and brash, his touch couldn’t have been any more delicate. A few minutes of this could have likely put her into a gentle sleep. Maybe an idea for later.

She didn’t miss what Army was saying though, quirking an eyebrow without looking back at him. Imugi had more or less pieced together that he wasn’t from her corner of the world from the moment she’d laid eyes on him. Foreigners made up a large chunk of AFW’s roster, but that was public knowledge, no surprise there. The trip across the sea from Korea had humbled her a bit though, giving her a better understanding of how much went into moving between countries. Between different cultures. Korea was about as close to Japan in that regard as you could get. She could only imagine how much “getting used to” Army had to go through.

It just made her wonder what the reasons were behind a change like that. “Hmm.” She hummed with her mouth half buried in the blankets, still enjoying a bit of the fingertips at her thigh, somewhat oblivious that the next round was about to start after their fighters reset. “That’s an island, right? You’re a long way from home.“ She snickered, roving a lone eye over her shoulder towards Army. “What happened? Were the men over there too tough for you? Thought some pretty women would be more your speed?”

Two fingers. Then three. A fourth, a few moments later. The more Army touched Imugi, the more he wanted to touch Imugi. He could see that coming off as creepy, but in his defense, she made herself hard to resist. It wasn’t just that she had an amazing body, but she was great at putting it on display. Just laying there. Not even trying. Her skin moving at his touch, goosebumps popping on it it like raindrops in a lake.

She stretched out to give him more room to work with, and he happily accepted the unspoken invitation, moving from her thighs to the even more interesting muscles right above them, graduating from light touches to teasing squeezes. ”Oh, you like Manuel’s work? I’ll let him know at the next family reunion.”

Army did have a cousin with that name, and he did make a note to remember she said that and tell him the next time he had a chance. He’d get a kick out of it, knowing him.

As she spoke, Army got a bit more comfortable, laying back on his side and letting his head rest on her thigh, while his hand continued to explore above. At her question had another laugh, thought he kept his mouth closed for this one and let it rumble between their bodies. They were playing a game, weren’t they? Almost forgot. Eh. It could wait.

He needed a second to think, and he gave her leg a bite while he took it, just to wake her up a little. Maybe it was just his imagination, but he swore, Imugi was constantly on the edge of taking a nap. ”Yeah, Rico’s an island. Not like this one, though. Japan’s like...twenty times bigger. Smaller island, smaller population, smaller buildings, smaller...everything, really. Just your size, you’d like it.”

He sat the controller down for the moment, content to let Ken and Chun Li stare lovingly in each other’s eyes from half stage. He’d start up if Imugi started up - and she might, never knew - but he was content to just lay here for the time being. No rush.

”Well, I came to fuck with my sister. Tick her off.” He was quick to add that in. Never hurt to be clear on that sort of thing when you were talking about the AFW. ”Okay, let me start over. I’m a boxer, my father’s a boxer, my sister’s a boxer, we’re a family of boxers. And a handful of priests. My sister was big time - Olympics, world title, that stuff. She wanted to start some stuff here, so she joined the AFW to help pay for a gym. And I joined the AFW because I knew it’d annoy her a little, and I didn’t have anything else to do at the time, and it’s easy money to wrestle with hot women. Why not, right?”

He inched up a little and laid his head on a part of her thigh that he thought was a bit fleshier than the rest, right around the thigh. Closed his eyes. Nuzzled into it. So soft. ”Was only supposed to be a summer thing. Do some fights, go home, back to my Dad’s gym. But I made some friends here, got into it, got better, made some decent money, and I just kind of stuck. Dad didn’t approve, screws up the family legacy, but fuck it. I’m happy.”

He had a waning smile - not sad, he wasn’t sad, but there was some regret there. Just thinking about the roads not taken. When he looked up her way and saw her laying, wearing his shirt, looking back at him with blue eyes through her even bluer hair, it was easier to see the positives. ”Yeah. Yeah, I made the right call.”

Army wasn’t bad at this whole pillow talk thing. Way better than in her usual experience. Whenever it wasn’t just painfully awkward, she was just left in the afterglow, staring at the ceiling and guessing on when would be the right time to get up and leave. Granted, she wasn’t much of an aficionado in the art herself, and this was something of a special case, but it didn’t change the fact this was the most open she’d felt in a long while.

Not tonight. Tonight didn’t have those barriers to entry like she was used to dealing with, this lingering worry of saying the wrong thing or being too forward. They were past all that. Thrown in a ditch a million miles away. It just felt good to laugh at jokes that weren’t her own. Couldn’t remember the last time that had happened.

“If you would, please.” She was tempted to ask for Manuel’s autograph, but her instincts told her to not push that joke any further before he started getting the idea she was serious. Yeah. Serious. Wouldn’t want to be anything like that...

Imugi shook her head and shuffled her a bit, giving Army a little more room to work with as he settled on top of her. Her body jumped a little bit from the playful bite against her thigh, half-surprised by the sensation, a bit more by the boldness of it. Then again, she totally should have known Army better than that by now. That was why she had a small smile on her face as she propped herself up on one elbow, placing her hand against her cheek.

She listened closely as he spoke, despite only looking forward and having her eyes closed. It was an interesting little tale, even if she was getting the Cliff Notes version. She took him for a boxer from the moment they’d locked horns, but the family legacy thing threw a little extra on top of that. She didn’t show it nearly as well as she could have, but it did pique Imugi’s interest a bit. She figured there was more or less a reason a guy like Army would end up in a league like this. Their boxing brand was in the dumps last she checked, Tension didn’t pay quite as well as Friction, and the only real market was for men that liked to lose. Army definitely didn’t fit into that category. He knew how to fight, how to have fun, could even be a proper champ in the right setting. If he was here, it wasn’t for the popular reasons.

The answer finally coalesced in the soft look he gave her from down the bed, as sure of himself as he could be. A bit of warmth welled up in her cheeks before played it off with an honest chuckle. “You're shameless.” She curled her leg back, giving his cheek a gentle rub with the back of her shin. “I think I like that about you. Other than the accent, I mean.” She put her arm back down and rested the side of her head against her arms again, letting out a sight as her mind wandered. “Just wish I could empathize with something else there. A family of boxers sounds cool. I didn’t have parents. Yeah, said all of that before, but I didn’t have family either. Didn’t have any expectations put on me. Didn’t have a home to go back to. Didn’t have friends to-”

...why was she talking about this? “Sorry.” She relaxed a bit, letting go of the tension she’d been unconsciously clinging to. “Killing the mood, I know.”