The Silly Rabbit and Lucky's Charms

Lucky ran her fingers through her long, silver hair as the warm water of the AFW showers flowed over her, her naked form cloaked from view once with a long, blue curtain, doubly with the warm steam that surrounded her! She had just gotten back from a difficult match, one that had stressed her to her limits... Her opponent had been strong, stronger than HER even and BIGGER too... but Sakura's craftiness and Luckiness managed to turn the tide in her favor! Maybe next time she'd get to see the pretty lady that hid beneath the mask too! As she hummed a soft little tune, her angelically soft voice echoing off the tile-walls of her shower-stall, Lucky's mind couldn't help but flick back to that fight she had with that mean ol' Bun-Bun. There was something about that fight that bothered her... Not that she lost, really because... in all honesty... she could feel right at the start that she wasn't gonna do much in that fight... But it was really how she came out! It was like she had just gotten a call that someone in her family just DIED and she had to come out here and fight her anyway!

*GASP* Sakura froze! Was that true! The cheerleader's eyes shot wide, staring at her reflection in the soft blue tiles! That wasn't true was it....?

...

No... NO it couldn't have been... AFW could be a bit strict on rules and attendance and stuff sometimes but they wouldn't hold someone away from their family in their last moments because of match-scheduling.... she thought... So what could've been bothering her...?

Finishing up her quick wash, Lucky stepped out from the bath, her skin glistening with a light coat of warm, comforting water! An optimistic smile on her face, the cheerleader dried herself off and dawned her traditional school-based attire and stepped out into the world!

Spoiler:

...or rather, into backstage! Her bag hung limply in front of her by her two hands as she wandered around the back, looking for her manager... They had some matches to schedule, businessing stuff to talk about... such was the life of a professional wrestler! She found herself moving further and further back, flashing grins and blowing kisses to each of the other women she passed! Oh, there were so many cute girls today... It must be her lucky day!

D.B.:

*I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived...*

Moments of clarity were a rarefied commodity nowadays. Becoming one of the federations more infamous phenoms who outright instilled palpable fear into the hearts of her co-workers...also came with the odd juxtaposition of being a emulated fan-favorite amongst her overzealous followers online. Strange considering that there was a time where D.B. was a perennial unknown whom the fans couldn't make heads or tails of, and therefore didn't draw worth a dime. What was stranger still was how D.B. was beginning to miss those times where she was an unknown enigma who wouldn't be hassled by the occasional worm executive or talent agent. All of them cowering in trepidation yet somehow bold enough to request she fulfill certain contract stipulations. Life had indeed changed considerably for the Bunny-eared Reaper, but what hasn't changed was her soothing sensation of the meditative solitude that she supremely appreciated, and had finally achieved on what was another hum-drum day of match scheduling and discussing merchandising revenue distribution with her agent doing all of the talking.

...not exactly digging holes and reaping souls...but hey...even Avatars Of Death needed down time in between sending lost souls to sanguine pits of eternal damnation...

So it was that the Phenom herself set about procuring a perfectly hospitable equipment crate to lounge atop whilst lost in the literary clutches of Walden, by Henry David Thoreau. A personal favorite she sought to revisit and help her relax after the day's meetings were in the past, adorned in a loose fitting black tank-top with a purple and white bunny skull and crossbones flashily embroidered on its front, and tattered black jean shorts with ripped gashes sliced into it. The back of her head and spine slouching against the wall behind her as she licked a finger to turn the page, her eyes half lidded but nonetheless engrossed in her reading material. The hallway she parked herself in being close enough to the main hallway to overhear the hustle and bustle of the more sociable wrestlers chattering away...but far enough that anyone turning into the hallway D.B. occupied would see her and therefore opt to take another way around.

Lucky was slowly making her way through the bowels of AFW in search of her manager, the curious silver-haired cheerleader popping her head into almost EVERY room just to make sure! Some were more... bountiful than others, revealing women both naked and half-so, always a pleasure to gaze upon... others were mere dressing-rooms left in shambles of half-cleaned, torn apart by a, no-doubt, frustrated star-wannabe who thought their climb to the top would be less agonizing and spotted. Amidst all these wonderful and terrible things, however, she couldn't help but dwell upon the one for whom she'd been searching, her precious manager being in NONE of her usual spaces! None of the frontal offices could tell her anything, many of the other wrestlers didn't know of her or anyone of a similar appearance... It was like she'd just disappeared or something...

ODD!

But that didn't stop Sakura. NOOOOOOO SIR! This was now an investigation... an adventure! And she was gonna find out where that lady was! Pulling up her skirt, adjusting the collar of her sweater-vest, Lucky steeled her nerve and FORGED ahead, eager to find what the bowels of AFW had in store!

...Which was surprisingly little, much to Lucky's disappointment! Past the front rooms where all the magic is concocted and bottled for shows, the luster of the place took a steep decline into the pavement, becoming much as any other place of work might be. Sakura's emerald eyes glanced at the fake potted plants, frowned lightly at the boring, white wallpaper... before she came to a door plaqued upon it's face with an identifier: Break-Room. The cheerleader tilted her head, staring at the door in contemplation as if she were surprised it even existed! AND ALL THE WAY BACK HERE TOO!

"I wonder..." Lucky mused softly, completing her thought internally. Why WOULD this place have so little traffic...? Even if it was, like, in the stomach of AFW, no doubt there were a buncha tired, hungry wrestlers that didn't wanna go home yet that needed a place like this! She would've thought that she'd have to scooch past comers and goers just to get here but... the halls... and the interior once she put her ear to the door... were eerily quiet...

"Gotta make sure..." She whispered to herself as she grasped the knob and turned it... stepping inside to reveal the source of the silence! DB herself sat in a corner on a lone, unopened crate stickered with the words "Ping-Pong", her attention embedded in a book like the fangs of a rabbit in the husk of a carrot. Lucky could only stand there, jaw slightly agape, shocked that she had run into such a DARK and FOREBODING figure on her initially innocent journey... ESPECIALLY SINCE IT WAS ONE SHE KNEW!

"Um... Hiya!" She greeted happily, not at all letting this mild interruption disturb the bubbliness of her quest! "I'm looking for my manager and stuff! Have you seen her, Bunny-chan?"

Somewhat like finding a certain comfortable position underneath the blankets of your bed before the weights upon your eyelids take you to a blissful slumber, or adjusting the furniture in your house until you found the perfect spot for each one...finding the most ideal spot to enjoy yourself in the humble quietness of tranquil solitude could be a chore in and of itself. Of course it was outright impossible to fully escape the sounds and vibrations that came from the hectic activity of chatting passerby's common to any typical office building/exercise facility in the middle the day. And in a way D.B. didn't outright mind that. Overhearing the slight hustle and bustle of people going about their day nearby was preferable to the flat-line, high-pitched pinging sound of abject silence...just so long as it was kept to a distant echo, and nothing more. But D.B. felt like today, she happened upon the perfect combination of peaceful seclusion and brief remembrance of the energetic buzz outside. The faintest of smiles burgeoning upon this realization from finding the perfect way to decompress from the aching stresses of-

"Hiya!!!"

A veritable mini heart attack jolting D.B. from her serene state of mind that had her briefly juggling the book in her hands before turning with bewildered eyes and scared stiff bunny ears to face the person who just spooked the ever loving shit out of her. She recognized the bubbly face and cheerful cadence almost immediately...but that only started raising further questions as to just what the hell she was thinking. The macabre bunny girl may have justified this interruption if say, the building was on fire or something...but when she heard Sakura's vapid reasoning for barging in like that, D.B. could only shoot the high-spirited cheerleader a slant-eyed glance before giving up altogether on this spot. Her fuming irritation being made evident by her scowling visage and slamming shut of the book in her hand.

"...No. I have not seen your manager..." D.B. bitterly retorted while turning about to hop off the crate and stuff her reading material into her back pocket, than standing upright for an imposing stride towards the perky source of her rotten mood. Stuffing her gloved hands into her pockets in with a hunched over stance to her thuggish, imposing steps that carried with it a darkened glower as if the shadows of the room were forming an aura around her as stalked up to Sakura. The Bunny Avatar Of Death stepping in front of Sakura until they were eye to lifeless eye and practically nose to nose.

"..and stuFFFF." D.B. emphasizing the "F" with a resentful inflection before bumping her shoulder into Sakura's in order to make room for her trudging exit back down the hallway. Hands still in her pockets and slogging onward as if a literal darkened rain-cloud was following above her as she grumbled under her breath.

Lucky instantly jumped back in surprise as DB practically exploded from her spot of tranquility, startled from the cheerleader's presence! She must have been so deep in her book, Sakura's greeting might have just RIPPED her out of it! Her reaction certainly seemed to justify that assumption, based on the utter death-stare she was given upon realizing just WHY she'd been disturbed! It was a glare that might've struck fear into her on their first encounter but now it merely put Lucky off just a bit, her smile flickering at the edges but failing to fall under such frosty pressure. Lucky was not so weak-of-will that she would crumble under the glare of a look... more than once, and she stood her ground, a little ball of sunlight asking for it's manager with all the happiness and approachableness one could ask for...

...Only for it to be swiftly stomped on by the bemused... and downright callow Death-Bunny. It was now that Lucky's smile fell, her brow furrowing in aggravation as the woman mocked her style of speaking, throwing her "and-stuff"s back at her with exaggerated vitriol as if Lucky deserved such treatment! Sakura's emerald eyes flickered between confusion and outrage as she stared into those annoyed, shallow sockets of Death-Bunny's, her expression practically screaming "What's wrong with you" in the quietest of ways. If she was mad about her reading being interrupted... WHY WOULD SHE DO IT HERE!? Yeah, this is the back-room and stuff but people have homes for a reason! And another thing... WHAT DID LUCKY DO TO DESERVE THIS... JERKY BEHAVIOR!? One could see along Lucky's jaw that it had become slightly clenched in the face of such disrespect and passive-aggression, not understanding how she could have hurt her so much to deserve this. What, was she still smarting over their match? Did she do something she hated? WAS THERE SOME KIND OF GRUDGE THAT SHE WASN'T AWARE OF!?

...Whatever Death-Bunny felt for Lucky, she either didn't have the time or the will to explain it. Instead, she walked right past her without another word, making a point to SHOVE right into her shoulder with her own, sending Lucky spinning off the the side, arms waving wildly to her sides in shock! BARELY able to regain her balance before Gravity ripped her off her feet, Sakura whirled back around on DB... an open expression of anger now fresh upon her lips...

She didn't understand...

What did she do!?

WHY DID SHE HATE HER!?

"H....HEY!" She called after the dark-clouded Bunny, reaching out to grab her shoulder, from behind, her grip light enough to be easily broken... meant only for grabbing attention. "What's your deal? Why do you hate me so much?" She asked, deciding that being blunt would be the "best" possible decision.

"All I did was ask a stupid question!"

Sullenly soldiering onward with her day seemed to be the best course of action now that her private reading session became far less "private". Sakura may not have spotted it upon opening the door, but behind her were the inquisitive eyes of several personnel and lower card wrestlers passing by down the hallway. D.B.'s cover had officially been blown and should she have stayed there, she would have been beset upon by either cocksure wrestlers looking to start a fight towards gaining a reputation by taking down one of the top dogs in the yard...or worse...executive producers trying to pitch her with more ideas of ways they can further merchandise her already immensely profitable likeness. Not that any of that was necessarily Lucky's fault...but simply because it was her who did it, well that only ramped up the Grim Hopper's aggravation levels several notches with the chipper cheerleader who D.B. already had significant issues with. So with a brooding bitterness to her aura, D.B. trudged forward with her hands on her pockets...

...and a sudden tug on her shoulder from behind. There was a stiffened abruptness to which her death march came to a stand still, as if the mere presence of Lucky's hand was the sole reason for her sudden stoppage. The next few seconds having the awkward unease of abject silence from the two of them as a creeping turn of D.B.'s head allowed her to spy over her shoulder with ice-cold indifference in her eyes the bright ball of sunshine who apparently had a question she demanded an answer to. It was still to be determined whether Lucky was remarkably brave for standing up for herself...or impossibly dense and naive to not realize the dangers she just invited. Maybe she was just straight up mentally unhinged. In any case, D.B. felt entitled to reward such a brazen act of boldness considering she wouldn't have expected it from such a flowery pushover. Plus she had nothing better to do with her time but humor this woman. A trudging rotation brought them face to face once again, hands still in D.B.'s pockets but she was  standing upright now.

"...Alright. Tell you what. I'll answer your question...IF...you answer mine first." D.B. queried, a bit more tempered calmness to the bunny girl's expression to show she was going to try and hash things out all civil like. "Why...EXACTLY...do you care? Why do you care whether I hate you or not when you have millions of other people cheering you on and oodles of wrestlers in this league who you seem to make friends with, and make out with, before the bell even rings?"

Lucky was almost put off by the lack of hostility the Death Bunny spewed at her, the lack of venom that dripped from her teeth as she spoke back to the cheerleader. While there was still a clear presence of disrespect and obvious distaste for her... She was no longer yelling, snarling, baring her fangs. The icy cold chill that the Irish Bunny's presence invoked was reduced to a mere uncomfortable breeze now, Sakura pausing in surprise in both the question... and the person delivering it! If i wasn't obvious before with her temperment, Lucky judged that this girl was a loner. Whether by choice or by circumstances remained a mystery but as her eyes gently zipped about the girl's from... she could only assume that she was a lonely woman. Whether or not she knew it yet or cared to acknowledge it, Death Bunny looked almost sad to her... Scared, perhaps, to interact with people like her. "Friends" weren't something introverted, lonely people did well... especially when their mood grows sour... and then they cover it up with more sour behavior and... well...

DOWNWARD SPIRAL!

Suddenly, a warm, sunny smile spread across Lucky's lips as she reached out to take Death-Bunny's hands... right before they slipped into her pockets... More closed-off body-language... BOY did she have a lot to work on with this one! Still, instead, she spread her arms wide to either side, opening herself up to Death Bunny, exposing her chest, her stomach.. all the parts one wouldn't show off to someone that could clearly punch holes in her!

A sign of trust! Maybe one this woman hadn't seen in a while!

"Do I need a reason to make a friend?" Lucky asked with a cute, little giggle, her expression reflecting a ray of sunshine. "I care because I don't think you're a bad person! You coulda done a LOT worse to me in our fight and probably.... maybe... gotten away with it! I care if you hate me... because I like you!" Sakura paused, realizing how that sounded before shaking her head and smiling nervously, cheeks blooming into a hot pink. "B-but not in that way! I think you're a nice lady underneath all that... um... scariness... and... yeah."

She giggled nervously again but she kept her arms extended, not at all wavering in her beliefs.

"So yeah! That's why!"

D.B. hoped this wasn't going to get as schmaltzy as she feared. Someone as abysmally chipper as Sakura was not exactly instilling faith in the bunny tyrant that this wasn't going to become just that before this clandestine conversation was through. To her, this was all meant more as a pondering inquisition...something to help D.B. ascertain as to just what was this girl's deal anyway. This was actually a noticeable step-up from how she would have handled this situation in her earlier AFW days. Via Sakura's face being brutally smashed into the plate glass window of the door beside them. Or the hundred other ways D.B. had already envisioned making that sunny-shiney face of Lucky's significantly less so. D.B. just figured this mild temperance on her part had to do with having someone at home who would admonish her for such acts...and because it was the middle of the day after an early morning workout, so she was already kinda fatigued.

...Of course, D.B. didn't think Sakura was going to literally open up to her via the overly dramatic extending of her arms as if she were attempting to showcase herself as non-threatening to some manner of feral beast who was distrusting of mankind. D.B's hopes for this not getting awkward were officially snuffed out...and this was before the uncomfortable love confession? that had the bunny girl balk with a cocked eyebrow and an uncomfortable "...uhhh..." before Sakura attempted to salvage the meaning behind her words. A bright blush being shared by all, D.B. now really getting flashbacks and thoughts back to Blossom. D.B. huffed out a beleaguered breath and raised both her arms to take Sakura by the wrists and start calmly bringing the cheerleader's arms back inwards.

"Do NOT...misconstrue restraint...for empathy. I would have done much worse had you not already been kayoed before I could even work up a sweat." Bunny extolled while trying to get Sakura to abandon that ridiculous pose of hers by bringing her arms in, now looking down at the flowery cheerleader with dead-eyed coldness after clasping Sakura's own hands back together against her soft chest. "Let me spell it out for you than. I'm not your friend. I'm not your buddy. I'm not someone who wants any of that. I'm someone who comes from a place where your darkest demons dwell...where someone like you has no earthly business stepping into the same ring as me. But because you shake your ass for the cameras and compete in fluffy pillow-fight matches, people think it's acceptable, or funny, to pit you against me. While I don't think it's funny, I do think it's a joke. And that's what you are. So you compete for your wet t-shirt contests over there..." D.B. pointed to one end of the hallway. "And I'll do what I do best over here." D.B. adjusted her hand to point her thumb in the opposite direction. "We clear?...and by the way...don't ever touch me again." A darkened inflection to her voice as she snarled and pushed Sakura back while beginning to trudge back down the hallway before she was so rudely interrupted.

Lucky's arms were quickly FORCED down at her sides as DB made her position UNBEARABLY clear to her and anyone else that might've been around, commenting how that their relationship was nothing less than what it appeared to be: Cold and unbearably neutral. Sakura's smile fell into a skeptical frown as Death Bunny attempted cruel-stab-after-cruel-stab at the woman's heart, doing everything she could to make it ABSOLUTELY CLEAR that she didn't respect Sakura... not in the least. In fact, from the cheerleader's perspective, she saw her as little more than a joke, a glorified advertisement to draw in the male-watchers given her cutesy looks and expertise, someone nobody truly cares about... and so on and so forth.

Eventually the utter, unrelenting cruelty of the rabbit faded into indecipherable background noise as the cheerleader's attention to it faded, rather it focused on DB's dead, icy features and what all this could mean! It didn't take much for her to come to the conclusion that Death Bunny was SO defensive because she was LONELY... whether she inflicted it upon herself or not. When Sakura looked into those deadly, predatory, icy eyes... she saw defensiveness. When she heard the sharp edges in Death Bunny's voice GRINDING DOWN on Lucky's ego and sense of self-worth... she heard a subtle whisper for help! When she felt Death Bunny's fingers CLAMP around her arms like the talons of a deadly bird... she felt the desire for human contact...

She felt the tiniest flame of humanity within this woman... one Sakura WANTED to help stoke with a hug... AND SHE WOULD HAVE TOO... had her arms not been pinned to her sides.... and then again when Death Bunny made it UTTERLY clear she didn't want to be touched! Those words... Sakura caught. The cheerleader tilted her head, a very sad smile curling up along her lips as she concluded what a sad, hopeless and needy woman Death Bunny HAD TO BE on the inside, realizing that she was only this MASSIVELY SCARY because she had so much humanity to hide...

"I understand..." Sakura agreed, nodding lightly... With that, Death Bunny would turn to walk away, likely to avoid Sakura's eternal radiation of sunshine... only for her to have one last message float over her shoulder:

"I still wanna fight you again, though!" Lucky revealed, crossing her arms over... or rather under her chest! "I wanna get stronger anyway and you're like... REALLY strong! Besides... if what you're telling me is true... You'd wanna beat me up again! It's a Win-Win!" Lucky smiled warmly at the bunny's back, her glow returning in force, brightening the darkness that seemed to constantly flare around the poor, lonely irish woman! Sakura would walk up behind her, careful to keep a respectful distance, the cheerleader's emerald eyes sparkling with determination!

"What do ya say, Bunny-chan? Wanna go another round? Betcha I can do better this time!"

Trust her...it was all better this way. Being the heartless messenger of undeniable truths was a role D.B. had resigned herself to when it seemed wrestlers around here seemed to live in their own private bubble. Vacated by just them and their own deluded notions about their respective skill level and misguided presumptions about others. Sakura clearly being the worst perpetrator of both of those symptoms, but especially the latter if she insists on befriending someone who nearly pummeled her into a coma when last they met. How little Sakura knew of the wrestling outside of her fluffy safe spaces...if she went up to anyone in D.B.'s past grappling underworlds and tried to pull that adorable shtick, not one iota of that pure-hearted innocence would be spared from the butchering feast upon her soul...so yeah, D.B. was actually operating with kid gloves in her book this time around. Better she get admonished with choice words than the unrelentingly violent alternative should see pull that shit on someone else far more bloodthirsty than D.B.

Considerate kindness through savage cruelty was about the only fathomable way D.B. could have gone about any of this. Still...it was getting kinda exasperating always having to shatter the dreams and stomp on the souls of people who just didn't know any better. You'd think someone else around here would have the common decency to do the same and pick up the slack. The cantankerous bunny girl scratching the back of her head with a weary huff towards what she intended was going to be the rest of her day...until AGAIN being stopped in her tracks by the cheerleader's chipper vocals. It was as if all of Bunny's tempered words of warning went straight in one ear and out the other, showcasing once again that she should have just relied on her initial instinct of slamming Sakura's head into the plate glass window nearby. A twitch to D.B.'s eyebrow signaling the last nerve Sakura was getting on....but than again...

*Hmm...* D.B. stroked her chin with a stiffening to her bottom lip, thinking methodically on Sakura's proposed rematch before turning back around. Facing the perky fan-favorite with something perhaps scarier than any foreboding scowl or murderous grimace...a devilish, unconformable smile creeping across the reaper's face as she stood toe to toe with the shimmering ball of light before her. "Funny thing is...I know you're trying to play me...but you're right. It was undeniably satisfying digging my fist into that chipper face of yours...so you got yourself a rematch. Catch you around..." D.B. uttered with a grinning sneer, fully aware that Sakura was trying to goad her into granting her one more chance at redemption for her lackluster offering the first time around by dangling the carrot of getting her marauding hands on Sakura one more time. If this was what it was going to take to get D.B.'s point across, than she was MORE than willing to take Sakura for another trip through the school of hard-knocks. D.B. attempting her third exit for the day, hopefully uninterrupted this time around as turned to walk away.