Climbing the Mountain

Eka scooted next to Harumi who was already moving close to her. The Georgian girl was very tactile, and it was nice to see that her new friend was getting more comfortable with being near her. And Eka told herself that she would make sure that the newfound trust would be nurtured. She pulled out her phone, and swiped a few emails away before she clicked on her photo gallery. The ravenhaired girl was not very organized in her real life, but on her phone everything was in its proper place. A click or two yielded her family photo gallery and a treasure trove of memories. She licked on the first one.

"This is us when we first moved to America. I was very scared, yes?" There Eka was standing in the middle of her two parents. She was only nine at the time, and looked positively dwarfed by her parents. Her dad was almost wider than he was tall, with a bright smile that was almost as wide as his massive shoulders. She zoomed in on him for Harumi. "Even when I was a little girl, he was totally bald. I like to joke that all of his hair went to other places," she said, gesturing to his arms. The poor quality of the photograph could not hide the fact that his arms were only slightly less hairy than a gorilla's, and it would be easy to mistake his eyebrows for caterpillars. "I am very lucky that I am not so hairy, yes?" She said with a smile.

All around them was shade of tall oak trees, but they were standing in the sunlight of their backyard. She looked at her own face for a second. Eka had forgotten about how nervous she was moving to a new country. Her parents had helped her with English, but she was still a fish out of water. All around them were the gentle rolling hills of Birmingham, but their backyard was mostly flat. "I remember, it was maybe a few years after this, my father was standing near this exact spot, yes? He beckoned me out to the yard. My dad is a very big man, yes? Heavy, too. And he told me to take him down. I was very confused, but he encouraged me. I ran at him with full force and leaped at him. He stood strong, and I felt like I was hitting a wall, yes? I slid off him into the grass. He just smiled and told me to try again. And when it was nice out we would go out into the yard and he would let me try to take him down, showing me some techniques that I could do take him down. He was a wrestler himself back in the day, not the best but very good. When I was thirteen, I was able to take him down consistently." Eka paused for a bit. She hadn't thought about this in quite a while now. It was a nice memory. "And then he would try to take me down, and I would have to stand firm. That is very hard when your opponent is much bigger than you, yes? But he was kind and patient and he showed me." Eka was beaming now. He wasn't a countrywide champion, but he was the best teacher that he had ever had.

Eka then flicked the screen, looking at her mom. She was a bit taller than he was, slender in frame. Her eyes were a bit narrow in the picture, as if she were curious about what the person behind the camera was doing. "And this is my mom. She is one of the smartest people I have ever met, yes? She is not very athletic and never did sports, but always helped me out with my homework. I talked to her last week over the internet. Both of my parents are doctors, and she has worked her way up to be the head of a whole wing in a hospital. At first she thought wrestling would not be very good for me, but she could not stop me, yes? Especially with my dad there." Eka laughed as she reminisced about her parents arguing passionately in Georgian about whether or not Eka should wrestle. Her dad's bombast and her own passion carried the day, and she was very grateful for that.

Eka flicked over to the next picture. It was her when she was 15, starting to become a woman. She was wearing a wrestling singlet emblazoned with her high school's hopelessly tacky colors and logos on it, holding a trophy up high. "There were no girl's divisions when I was younger, yes? So I had to wrestle with the boys. It was not a super heavy weight class, yes? But still it was amazing to win. This was my first. There were two more, yes?" Eka held up three fingers. "But this is how I got my start, and I am here now, yes?"

Eka swiped over to the next photo. It was her between her parents again. She was wearing a nice purple dress and was holding flowers in her hand. The Georgian girl paused a bit when she saw her hair. Bangs were not a good look on her at all. "This was for my junior prom. I am an only child, yes? Sometimes it can be quite lonely." She reflected for a second. "But my  parents were always there, yes?" Eka's face was of muted happiness, tinged by the fact that she was an outsider, and had always been one.

The Georgian girl put her phone down. "Before we moved to Alabama, we did not stay in any one place for too long, yes? So that is the only real home that I have ever known." Eka paused for a second. She shrugged. "Sometimes it is better to be ambitious, even if it means finding yourself in a new place by yourself. That is what my parents taught me, yes?"

Harumi unintentionally cuddled up right next to Eka. She was overcome with curiosity, wanting to see Eka’s upbringing and what exactly she was raised like. As the Georgian flipped through the pictures of her past, Harumi noticeably became more and more excited. It didn’t show on her face, but it was her actions that gave her away. The way she fidgeted about in her cushion, her hand subtly reaching for the phone before retracting quickly to her lap. She even leaned in every time the photos swapped to another scene. She drank in each picture in a greedy fashion, her cheeks a bright red as she tried to hide her pleasure from viewing her friends’ photos. It had been so long since she had seen another’s history in such an intimate fashion. No matter how practiced her expression, Harumi couldn’t hide the excited joy she was experiencing.

“Your parents are…very charming.” Harumi said, trying to contain herself. “Your father seems so very happy, though I have never seen anyone with so much hair on his body. Was he a wrestler as a teen? Or perhaps…did he wrestle while going to school for his doctorate? Surely, he was proud to have a beautiful daughter follow in his footsteps.”

Harumi listened to Eka, smiling at her story and nodding in agreement. Her mother was a bit taller than the father, making a charming little contradiction between short and stout with tall and thin. It was certainly an interesting little family, one who seemed happy with the simple joys of life. Nothing proved that so as when she swapped over towards a school picture, wherein Eka had apparently been apart of her high schools wrestling team. It was a bit surreal, seeing her humble beginnings, and knowing full well how talented and powerful a competitor she had become.

Her junior prom picture was…surprisingly sweet. Harumi took an extra long glance at those photos. She had always wanted to see what a prom was like. Having been homeschooled, all she really knew was some history, academics, and martial arts. Dancing, music, all of that…Harumi had only learned about such things. The music she listened to were not the sort of things they played in such places. A part of Harumi wanted to ask if she got to dance with anyone that night…but held her tongue, for fear of offending the Georgian.

“It’s kind of funny, if you think about it…You have travelled to so many places, done so many things and met so many people…yet you seem so lonely. I have only just left the walls of my family’s home. I only travelled to tournaments, then came right back into those walls. Everything that is old for others is brand new for me. This place is all so exciting, yet alien. It can be a bit lonely for me as well. I suppose…opposites attract, yes?”

Harumi noticed how close she was to Eka, and scooched over to give her guest some space. She subtly pushed her cup of pudding over towards the Georgian as she did so.

“Ambition is important, there is no doubt about that. Without it, we would never be where we are today. It can lead you to new lands, and great spoils if you do so…but it is nice to have a soft spot to come back to and call home. I hope, if you ever feel the need, this can be such a place for you, Eka.”

The blush on Harumi’s face was hidden as she looked the other direction, suddenly taking interest in a hardcover book that was laying across the counter top.

Eka felt the warmth radiating off the woman sitting next to her. Or maybe it was the excitement? She could not quite tell. Either way, she thought it was a little bit funny how Harumi leaned in slightly every single time that Eka swapped photos. There was no hiding that fidgeting at all. The ravenhaired girl had Harumi's rapt attention, and she was going to make the most of it. Her wrestling skills had made her a bit of a showman, and Eka could not help the urge to let her voice rise and fall a little bit more as she spoke. And to be honest, she was not quite sure if that was all just the showmanship. The Georgian girl rarely had a chance to show off her family, whom she loved very much and was very proud of.

It was true, the more Eka thought about it. Her father was literally the most hirsute person she had ever laid eyes on. Japanese people were not a particularly hairy lot, but her dad would have stood out anywhere in the world that was not the chimpanzee enclosure at the zoo. Eka rested her finger on her chin for a second, trying to recall what her father told her about his wrestling days. "He wrestled in school and in university. I think he wrestled some in medical school, but that is very hard yes? His focus was mostly his studies. So he would go to the gym sometimes and find people on the mats. In Georgia, it is not that hard to find someone who will wrestle with you, yes? And he is very proud. He watched all of my matches growing up. He tells me that it is hard to watch AFW sometimes, so he only follows my matches when I wrestle here." Eka said.

"Yes, I never stopped moving, really. Even now." She looked back at her phone. It contained so many memories, so much of her life that were now thousands and thousands of miles away. She looked at Harumi wistfully when she said that opposites attract. It turned out that this girl was lonely too. She found her heart beating a little faster, her smile becoming a little bit warmer. The Georgian girl was not terribly experienced when it came to romance, but she knew what was happening now. Harumi even said that she always wanted this place to feel like home for Eka.

The Georgian girl scooted closer to Harumi, but slightly off to the side. "I hope this place always feels comfortable for me too. I hope for this very much, yes?" She was opening her eyes a little bit, desiring very badly to make eye contact with the Judoka, something that Harumi was making very hard for her. That was fine. If opportunity would not be presented to her, she would make one.

"Can I, um," she began, halting a bit. This was a big ask, especially of Harumi. "Can I rest my head on your lap?" Eka asked as she leaned down a bit, pre-empting the question.

Harumi could feel Eka’s blue eyes staring at her with such intensity. The Georgian had crawled a bit closer to Harumi, even after she had scooted away from her to give her some space. It wasn’t that Harumi minded such close contact from her friend, but rather she was not sure if she was entirely used to it yet. When she got close to someone, it was usually to flip them over onto a mat or practice an attack with them. Social interactions were still a bit…new. Harumi didn’t shy away this time. She would let Eka stare at her for another moment before turning her way with a smile on her face.

“Well, lets work hard to make sure you feel that way. No guest is ever unwelcomed in my home. At least…I would like to think so.”

Eka came closer and closer, her face right in Harumi’s in a slightly surprising display of closeness. It forced the Judoka to abandon her good posture in order to lean backwards a bit in order to give herself a bit of space. She could actually smell Eka, her lavender shampoo wafting from her hair and calming Harumi’s nerves. The steady beat in her chest grew a bit louder, but her expression hardly changed.

“Is there something I can help you with?”

Eka’s response to her question made Harumi’s eyes shoot wide open. She didn’t expect such a bold request from Eka whatso ever. Harumi was actually stunned into silence for a good few moments as her mind raced to try and figure out Eka’s reasoning. Perhaps…that was simply a way friends interacted? They had just established that Eka had grown up in a much different culture than Harumi did. They had both spoken about loved ones and family, and how far away Eka’s were. Was this really so strange?

No, it wasn’t.

Harumi adjusted her posture so her soft thighs were open to the Georgian. Harumi shyly looked away, and gently patted her lap. Her emerald eyes went from Eka to the floor, then back. Despite how new she clearly was to such interactions, Harumi’s strong will and conviction to comfort the Georgian shined through, with her welcoming posture and soft tone.

“If that is what you wish…”

Eka very much wished for that, and she was not going to be shy about it at all. Harumi even took the measure of patting her lap, giving Eka a nice little landing zone to place her head. That gave Eka some comfort, as she thought she would be a little bit more welcome that way. She touched down softly, and rolled onto her back. Her blue eyes looked up at the Judoka, and her hand went to her belly. "Your food was so good, yes? I could not resist the urge to eat a little bit too much." She patted her stomach a little bit. The pudding cup was teetering at the edge of the table, within her reach. But she had to resist.

Her friend was looking away still. That was okay. The Georgian girl thought she had a way to bring her back. "When I was very young, my parents would always hug me very much, yes? You can imagine my dad with his big hairy arms all wrapped around me, and I would feel very safe and loved." She mimicked her dad as best she could from her prone position, spreading her arms nice and wide. "But it was not him who I turned to when something hurt. When my stomach or head was hurting I would go to my mom, and she would sit down and insist that I lay my head on her lap. She told me that women's laps were powerful." She looked up at Harumi to see if she was looking back. "It is very silly, yes? But it is hard to rid yourself of old habits."

She closed her eyes for a second to see if the dull ache in her stomach would abide for a second, but it did not. She breathed in. "I have not shown that photo of me at my prom to many people. Nor of me when I was a very young girl. I am very happy to share it with you, yes?" She smiled for a second, her big blue eyes still closed. "I am only going to rest my head here for a minute. Then I am sure that my ache will go away." She looked up at Harumi now.

"When you first saw me in the ring, what did you think?" Eka asked. "They always make me fight large girls, and I do not know why, yes?" Eka shrugged. "But I thought your outfit was very cool. I was happy that you were not like 3 meters tall or something. And you seemed very composed. Like a lot of girls come here and they do not know what they are doing. It seemed to me that everything you did was deliberate and earnest." Eka was just sort of talking now. She had shared so much of herself. And the look in her eyes silently wondered what they had between the two wrestlers.

Eka took Harumi’s offer with more enthusiasm than the Judo woman expected. Within seconds, Eka had gently laid her head upon the silent woman’s bare thighs. Her gentle, freshly washed mane caressed Harumi’s skin as Eka settled in and became comfortable, relaxing as if she were absolutely familiar with her new friend. Harumi could only remain so strong for so long, but as those sky-blue eyes looked up at her with such content, the Judoka looked away. The Georgian didn’t seem to mind, simply looking up into the ceiling and rubbing her stomach to help her digest the dinner she seemed to enjoy.

Thankfully, Eka broke the ice b continuing her story about her father. Harumi’s head moved back so she could listen, and her eyes were once again focused on her friend. While she listened, Harumi began to absent mindedly began to stroke Eka’s hair. The judo prodigy didn’t even seem to notice she was doing it, as her fingers brushed Eka’s bangs away from her face and stroked her softly. Harumi listened carefully, smiling as Eka told her more stories about her parents…her father’s hairy arms, and her mother’s gentle lap. It brought back certain memories of her own mother. One that gave her an idea.

Harumi always kept her mother fan nearby, and soon she was gently fanning the Georgian with care. The traditional looking fan had a slight scent of lavender radiating from its gentle breeze, looking to calm Eka’s nerves. Harumi had grown focused on her own technique, clearly basing it off of her mothers from memory. Whether she did so correctly was unknown…as the woman who created the technique was not there.  

Eka looked calmed, closing her eyes and assuring Harumi that she would only rest her head for a moment. Harumi’s smile only grew a bit brighter, since she used to say the same thing to her own mother, before falling asleep in her embrace. All of her siblings fell before the soft comfort of their mother’s touch. Perhaps it was a touch she had inherited.

Harumi was ripped away from her thoughts when Eka asked a rather provocative question. Harumi stopped her fanning for a moment looking down at Eka with her emerald green eyes with a quizzical look. Harumi had only ever heard of someone asking that type of question before, and it was when a boy attempted to date one of her older sisters. He had broached the idea with that very question. Harumi stared at Eka to try and figure out the Georgians intent, and why she had asked. Eka explained what she thought of Harumi upon first glance, and when she finished, she would find Harumi still looking at her, a mixture of her stoic mask and shy troubled expression on her face.

Harumi would resume her fanning, before sighing quietly, deciding to tell Eka the truth.

“When I first saw you in the ring, my first impression was something like confusion. I had heard about you before, and the years you have spent at this place. Of course, I had even heard about the strange practice of AFW, and so when I noticed you had so little fan fair, so little cheers despite your beauty the appearance of a competent wrestler I had no idea what to think. You smiled when you were clearly conflicted. You waved and posed when no one was cheering or looking…you pretended to be happy when it was clear you were hurting.” Harumi seemed to be recalling that day, as she had an absent-minded look in her normally stone eyes, “Then when we began to fight, it just compounded everything. You were surprised by compliments, but grew violent over criticism…I know I am terrible at giving advice, but I meant no harm. It was my fault you grew that way, and yet the Kimura you unleashed was one that I had never experienced before. I can’t say I was fond of it.”

“But…As we continued, I feel like you found yourself. You changed, like you got some confidence. I can’t say for sure that is what happened, but you got a bit…sweeter?”

Harumi didn’t exactly know how to out it, and she looked away for a moment as if she were trying to think of another word, but couldn’t.

“Once you found yourself, you became more…I guess I would say striking…in quite a number of ways.”

This time, Harumi hid her face behind her fan, her green eyes peering down at Eka with a strong gaze, one that was unflinching and just as stoic as the samurai always seemed to be. It appeared as though the Judoka was drinking in Eka's features, memorizing her friends content face as much as she could before it went away.

Hands were going through her hair now, which was a sensation that Eka had not enjoyed for a very long time. Maybe ever. Harumi even touched her face with her warm hands, and a feeling of quiet peace pervaded. When her stomach hurt, she would sometimes sweat, and was very grateful to her new friend that she was getting fanned. There was even a scent of - was that lavender? - something that was very pleasant that helped her feel a little bit better. Eka just wanted to bask in the moment forever, to be there until the heat death of the universe. She thanked whatever bright fortune brought her here.

Then it stopped. Eka looked up with one blue eye, not quite sure what she was going to get at the other end. Eka's question seemed to disturb the woman, which was fair. She had spoken without really thinking about it, which she had a nasty proclivity to do. The Georgian girl wondered if she had perhaps gotten slightly too comfortable, and gone a little bit too far. When Harumi said anything at all, she took that as a good sign. She thought that the Judoka might just clam up and opt not to answer Eka's inquiry. It was probably really silly anyways. But, it wasn't. Harumi answered, and answered in good faith, and Eka loved that about her.

"There were very many things on my mind, yes? I have done very many things that I regret very deeply. And they clouded my vision. And sometimes work and school and all that stuff is very stressful, yes?" Eka closed her eyes and winced a little bit, with all the demons from her past creeping along her consciousness, dispelling the pleasant feeling that she had held not even a moment ago. "And it is very difficult to me to just let things go. Like when something gets into my head, especially if it is a bad thing, it will be there for a very long time, yes?" She was speaking a little faster now. "I know that I put myself into bad situations. And I know that I do not handle things very well sometimes." That particular truth came out with a sad look on her face.

"But I do think things are better now, yes?" Eka's blue eyes traced up, towards Harumi's face. Well, to where she thought Harumi's face might be. The Judoka's pretty visage was obscured by the fan, which made her new friend all the more alluring.

"And I think you are more, uh, striking than I am." Eka said with a laugh. "Look at you, you have played this game many times before, yes? What is a poor little girl like me supposed to do against your charms?" The Georgian girl adjusted a little bit. "I am sorely tempted to reach up and move that fan so I can see you in all your glory. But it is more fun to watch you work, yes?" Eka reached her head and patted Harumi's thigh before running her fingers down a little bit.

Harumi actually felt a bit charmed by Eka’s quick words, the motherly Judoka once again stroking the Georgians head to try and calm down her friend. Watching Eka relax after she got herself fired up was a surprisingly pleasant sensation, and like a child Eka seemed to cuddle up to Harumi’s thighs as though it were completely natural. It was hard to believe that the two of them had only recently met one another, and had only been friends for an even shorter period of time.

The hint of lavender on her fan helped keep Harumi calm, her expression unflinching even when Eka turned to look at her. She didn’t hide her observatory eyes, and the Georgian didn’t seem to mind. In fact, she almost seemed to welcome Harumi’s gaze, it seemed to help grow a confidence inside of her. Eka would go on to describe Harumi as even more striking then herself…Harumi stifled a chuckle when Eka described the situation as Harumi charming her like a pro, and she was just a helpless victim falling for Harumi’s wiles.

“I don’t play games very often, Eka. When I do, I’m not very good at them.” She said, clearly smiling behind her fan, “But…it makes me happy to know you are pleased with the nights events so far. I admit…it was rather fun playing a host to someone so interesting.”

Harumi would strike Eka’s head for a few more moments, getting lost in the softness of her friends’ mane before deciding that she too needed a shower.

“Eka…I’m a little jealous of how clean you smell. I think I will freshen up a bit myself before we do anything else…If you want, you can have the rest of my pudding, and drinks are in the side door of the fridge. Please make yourself at home. I’ll try not to be gone for too long.”

Harumi would slip a couch cushion underneath Eka’s head before getting up to walk towards her bathroom. She had worked up a sweat during her morning routine, and then sparred with Eka. It was a little embarrassing to still be in such an outfit after Eka seemed so clean and relaxed. Soon, the shower would be spraying warm water, and Harumi would rinse her bare body clean of any sweat or gross feelings she had.

Eka watched her. She was being a little forward, and Eka was terribly curious how Harumi would take it. The woman had been a stone wall for most of the evening. Eka could be quite charming when she wanted to be and she was turning it on now. Interesting could mean quite a lot of things, but she thought that she knew what it meant here. And she was going to test her theory out. Before the Georgian girl had a chance to move the dial up to eleven, Harumi made an exit. She smiled a little bit and fluffed her pillow. It was nice and comfortable, but it lacked the warmth and the strength of Harumi's legs. It was nothing more than an ersatz stand in for what Eka really wanted.

But that was okay. There was more to come. The Georgian girl sat up and surveiled her surroundings. It was clear to Eka that Harumi did not want to finish her pudding, which she was more than okay with, as she grabbed at it and shoveled what remained into her mouth. It was just as sticky as the first time, and it was nice. The Georgian girl got up to throw it in the trash and then looked at the sink. She held the spoon up, and eyed the faucet once again, slightly warily. Eka recognized that the right thing to do was try and clean it, but everything was so immaculate. She felt that cleaning a spoon, a task so simple that a child could do it, was beyond her grasp compared to how Harumi would have cleaned it. Still, she made a concerted effort and managed to make it so that water didn't even go everywhere. After she accomplished her monumental task, she put the spoon back where she thought it might belong.

The Georgian girl then wandered back to her pillow and sat on it. Then she moved so that her elbow was resting on the table and her long legs were off to the side. Her long dark hair fell down to the floor. The modern Cleopatra, she thought sardonically.

And she wondered what Harumi would look like with the fanfare of steam coming out of the bathroom door.

The warm water cascaded over Harumi’s body, relaxing every tensed muscle and calming every frayed nerve that was burning in the woman’s body. It had been a strange day, one where many different twists and turns had taken place…and still it was not over yet.

Harumi had finally gotten to play host to someone. A friend had finally come over to her home, and she was able to take care of them in a way she thought would make her family proud! For the first time in a very long time someone looked past her stony expression and Judo history and began to dig into the woman beneath all of that prestige. And perhaps…the Georgian was looking for a little bit more.

Every time Harumi thought about what Eka may be hinting towards, her face felt warm as though she had a heat pad on her cheek. Eka had been rather forward before she had entered the shower. Talk of romance, family, and loneliness may have gotten a few feelings to shake loose from the Georgian woman…or perhaps that was simply how friends treated one another? The questions that swirled in Harumi’s mind made it difficult to make a decision on what to do next. She knew she would need to find out soon. No matter how much she wanted to, she couldn’t hide in the shower forever.

It would take a few minutes, but finally Harumi exited the bathroom. A small gust of steam followed behind her, but she paid it no mind. Her hair was dry enough to fit back into her average side ponytail, and she had managed to find a white button up to wear. Her eyes noticed a slight puddle on the floor in front of the sink, but chose to ignore it for the moment. Instead she walked over to her waiting guest, and sat across from her. She needed things to be clear, and get everything she could out in the open before it drove her crazy.

“Hey, um…Eka? About your question earlier…I was wondering…what you thought about me? Not as a fighter, or what I was like in the ring. Just sort of, how I am? Like...normal me?” Harumi was fidgeting the entire time. Her green eyes only occasionally looked up to meet Eka’s face. the question had a deeper meaning hidden beneath a thin layer of innocence. Harumi wasn’t great with these sorts of situations…but she wanted to know what was going on in her friends head before any miscommunication happened and ruined their bond.