Everything is Totally Sweet

Teramachi was Imugi’s kind of shopping district. Indoors, air-conditioned, plenty of places to pick up some local bites. Shopping wasn’t usually Imugi’s first thing to do on a Sunday morning, but she’d been needing some new apparel since she’d left Korea. There was a slightly different fashion sense here in Japan and she’d been meaning to get out and see the city a bit more anyway now that she was back on the roster. The shops and walkways were about as compact as she was expecting. It made navigating a little difficult, but she was just happy to spread her wings a little. Enjoy some time to herself without worries.

Well, not exactly by herself.

Army had the day free too. She made sure to check for his name when she ran down AFW’s schedule for tonight and called him up before she stepped out. It may have been short notice, but something told her he wouldn’t mind. Clothes shopping wasn’t the most exciting thing maybe, but Harajuku Chicago had a good variety of western styles that he might have been into.

If only they could find the damn place.

The hustle and bustle wasn't making it easy, but Imugi managed to get a clear view of the shopping street. She’d had a perfect vantage point from the best spot in the entire district: on Army’s shoulders. A lot of eyes were roving their way now and then. It was pretty much expected. The two of them together were about the oddest sight on a Japanese street even on a normal day. Now they were only a step and a pair of spinning plates away from a circus act. It wasn’t like Imugi minded, though. She was used to being in the limelight and, for some reason, she seemed to care about everyone else even less when Army was around.

Her eyes peeled to narrow slits as she looked out over the crowd with her hand above her head. She found herself glancing the same signs a few times as they moved forward. She peered into the windows as they passed and further ahead to every other new display that occupied a space on the side of the walkway, practically designed to get everyone's attention including hers.

Kyoto had too much stuff in it.

“Yeah, I don’t see crap up here.” Imugi sighed and sunk a bit against his head. She leaned forward with her hands at his cheeks, looking at him upside down with her droopy eyes. “Duuuuuude. Didn’t I tell you to look at the map or whatever when we walked in? You're the worst bus guide ever.”

Army had been in Japan for going on five years now. Enough time to became fluent in the language. Enough time to understand the customs about as well as any outsider could ever hope to. Enough time that people in the area were so used to him and his family that they didn’t get weird looks all that often. It would never be as comfortable as Puerto Rico was, but calling it a ‘second home’ wasn’t too far.

You would think, at some point, he’d have absorbed a good understanding of where everything was in the city, enough to get around reliably.

You would think wrong.

Teramachi was a directional nightmare for so many reasons. It was cramped, with so many places that looked the same to his eyes, and there didn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to the way things were laid out. It was all too easy to go this way thinking you were on the right track, only to make a slight detour which you thought would be a shortcut, only WHOOPS, it was a dead end, and then you went back and tried to go on the right path, only you didn’t, you turned the wrong way at the fork, and oh look, you’re back where you started and you wasted five minutes of your life that you’ll never get back.

It was a good thing that he had Imugi on his shoulder, as annoying as it might have looked. She was just about the only thing keeping him sane at this point.

When she dipped down and got in his face, Army hit her with a strong gust of wind from his lips, clearing some of her hair out of his eye. ”I’m telling you, I’ve got this. It’s a shopping district, not the fucking Temple of Doom.” He put some bass in his voice, sounding confident, even as he walked by the cheap iPhone case kiosk for what had to be the fourth time. ”Just getting my bearings a little, that’s all. I’ve got fisherman in my blood, direction comes natural.”

He wasn’t sure if that was true, to be honest. Made sense, though. Puerto Rico was an island and not a super big one. You shake the family tree enough, a fisherman or two is bound to fall out.

Ro actually loved Teramachi, at least she normally did. It was sort of a weird indoor SoHo crossed with the old Elizabeth Street shopping arcade from back home (before two thirds of it closed down). When she had lived here full time, this was a favorite spot for her, Amanda, and John to waste time and get some amazing food. Ro always enjoyed walking around in here, despite the fact that Ro was never patient enough to clothes shop the way Amanda did, taking hours to try things on and looking through a half dozen stores before making a single decision and purchasing a single item. Finding her way usually wasn’t too big of a deal, she was used to navigating cities and crowded spaces.

Of course, today was a little bit less than an ideal visit. Instead of taking in the sights, Ro was trying to restrain herself from literally grabbing a shop keeper’s neck and choking the little motherfucker out. While one gaijin spectacle was gathering attention walking around on the street, Ro was creating her own spectacle as she raised her voice louder and louder. The poor clerk, who was struggling to keep up with Ro's fast Brooklyn English (let alone her rage) looked panicked.

“We have a seven day return policy...”
“SEVEN DAYS?!”
“I'm sorry...”
“I'm ONE DAY LATE!”

As Army and Imugi got closer and closer, they could probably hear the argument getting louder and louder. A red headed American woman was standing at one of the shops which opened up onto the walkway, with dozens of different racks and shelfs holding various clothes all for passersbys to inspect. She was loudly arguing with a store clerk over a return. Ro was wearing one of her usual crazy t-shirts, which hugged her chest just right. Cookie Monster’s eyes bulged out as the shirt struggled to contain Ro’s amazing breasts.

“The return policy is on the receipt.”
“The return policy is FUCKING FUCKED!”
“Maybe a store credit voucher…”
At that suggestion, Ro pounded her fist loudly against the counter. The bang was so loud that it attracted attention from everyone near the open shop turned to see what had happened.
“Maybe I give you a voucher for a free fucking suplex! Seriously, people pay me money to throw them around a wrestling ring. It's about as valuable as your fucking store credit!”

What is with all that screaming?

The thought was almost immediate in Imugi’s head the moment she heard it. Japan was usually such a quiet and reserved place that those kinds of sounds weren’t typically made in public places. She could walk down the busiest street in the city and barely catch a few idle conversations between all the murmurs and phone calls. Walking through Teramachi wasn’t much different from a really busy walk in the park with that weird teriyaki smell in the air.

That tranquil air was shattered in an instant by the blazing redhead going off not even ten feet away from them. Imugi’s head moved without her even thinking about it. It was an ugly spectacle, to say the least. This meek clerk, barely a few inches taller than even herself, looking long for this world as this force of a woman loomed over him. A built woman at that. Tight shoulders, good biceps. With that tight - if pretty tacky - shirt she was wearing, it was almost like she wanted to show off all those gym hours. Imugi watched for a few seconds longer than she was expecting before she made the summation of her thoughts known.

“Wow.” She crossed her arms and ignored the urge to let a cruel little chuckle slip out. Had to set a good example. “Must have missed the label not to bleach.”

Nobody seemed to be paying much attention to them. Passersby kept a bit wider berth and only a few heads craned off to the side to meet them. Traffic on the walkway slowed a little at best, but that was also a few more seconds Imugi was given to browse their shelves from up high on their perch. As much as she would have loved to keep on trusting that ‘fisherman blood’ of Army’s, she did like the selection they had on display, but getting into the store might be a little awkward with that fiasco. She put a finger to her lip.

Well, they could keep wandering around lost for another half hour and hope Army's spidey sense eventually kicked in, or...

“Hey.” She patted him a couple of times on the cheek and leaned a little down to talk closer to his ear. “Why don’t you help that guy out, Mr. Muscles? It’s not like I care...but that jacket on his left? Totally calling my name.”

Army heard the screaming, too, and for a second it almost caught his full attention. It did sound a little familiar, but then, there were a lot of voices in this sea of humanity. It wasn’t even the first voice he’d thought he’d recognized since coming here. Really, he was kind of surprised he hadn't run into any other wrestlers yet, given how they all seemed to have this weird power to gravitate towards each other at random times. This had actually turned out to be a nice outing with Imugi, one that didn’t seem poised to turn into a random tag match.

He was ready to pass the disturbance on by and not give it any mention, but it seemed Imugi had other ideas...ideas that  probably had less to do with helping out the poor man and more to do with scoring the sweet jacket nearby, which, yeah, would’ve looked sweet on her. About her size, good color, matched her hair well. Just what they were looking for.

”Which name?” He looked up just enough to nuzzle her face for a moment while she had it close by. Just a little reminder of the secret she shared with him on their first night together. Made him smile every time he thought about it. ”But sure, since it’s for a good cause and everything…”

He shrugged and made she was secure, shifting her a bit on his shoulders to get her into the best seat possible, before he started to mike his way towards the noise. He couldn’t see whoever it was all that well, too obscured by the crowd, though he could just make out the top of their head and see the blazing red hair. Really bright, too, reminded him a lot of-

”Ro?!”

Army jumped back when he came through enough of the crowd  and popped out to see his former lover just...standing there, moving back so quick that he almost let Imugi fall. He managed to correct fast enough to save her and straighten up, so he avoided that catastrophe, but that by no means meant he was in the clear. He’d known she was back in Japan since they’re little one-nighter a little while back, sure, but hadn’t expected to run into her all that much since she wasn’t back on the active roster, yet. But there she was. Standing there. Her and his favorite Sesame Street character.

This was going to be a weird day.

“Listen, you swarmy fuck-face…” Ro was in the middle of unveiling a stream of creative threats and insults towards this hapless store clerk when the strange Armugi creature with four arms approached her. She was in no mood for this nonsense, either. The clothes were in perfect condition, still tagged, unworn except for when she tried them on. When the Armugi creature approached, Ro was ready to kill anything that moved.

“What the FUCK do you want—ARMY?!” Ro spun around, preparing to confront whomever was about to make the serious, serious mistake of trying to calm her down. Instead, she found her favorite muscly stud with…some random lady? on his shoulders.

Ro was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, though. “HA! NOW THERE’S TWO OF US, BITCH!” Ro exclaimed, spinning back around. “TWO AND A HALF, EVEN!” Obviously Army was here to back her up. No way he’d be stupid enough to try to calm her down.

“I-I-I’ll…talk to my manager…” The poor man scurried away. He was terrified. This crazy woman had suddenly produced a massive, hulking Puerto Rican boxer with a fierce looking blue woman on his shoulders! Clearly, she was a powerful mage if she could produce Armugi on demand.

With that, Ro spun around again. She had a very self-satisfied grin on her face. “Well, well, well, what are you doing here, muscles?” Ro chuckled, stepping closer. She brought a hand up and stroked his right arm, caressing his powerful muscles. “Are you stalking me? Not that I’d object…” Ro chuckled, glancing up to the strange blue woman on his shoulders.

“Y…quíen es la baja niña?”  Ro’s pronunciation was…gringo. Very high school Spanish. She accidentally swapped where the adjective and noun should go, of course, and her American A’s were very noticeable. Nevertheless, “who is the short little girl” came across more than clearly for Army to get. Though technically, she had said "who is the little girl short?"

So...this was happening.

Imugi wasn’t one to get taken off guard by...well, anything really. But between their last meet-up and today, Army seemed to be going for some kind of world record in the amount of times he could make Imugi’s heart leap from her chest.

Things started out sweetly enough. He picked up on her suggestion, rolled with it, gave her that affirming little nuzzle on the forehead she was coming to love, and marched away to collect their prize. Even now, her eyes weren’t anywhere near the bickering woman or the clerk she was putting down, even with all that blazing red hair whipping around. Her eyes were just on that jacket. The snug, sleek texture and striped design running down the lengths of the arms right to the cuffs, not to mention the matching color, and the-

And then she got bucked.

Almost fell off, even. Her arms whipped about with her eyes wide and legs kicking about in a momentary panic. He caught her just as quick, but she still and latched her fingers together of his forehead and tucked her body close. Her thighs locked together around his neck and pulsed, partly to cling on for dear life, mostly to remind Army what not to do ever again.

It was for only an instant, the couple seconds her heart needed to steady and regain her balance. They were back at square one in no time, right when “Ro” started talking. She didn’t miss that bit in her panic.

That’s when she started seeing warning lights. The candor, the tone, the Spanish, the touching. She never had a relationship herself, but it didn’t take a romantic savant to read the telltale signs that could torpedo anyone’s chances before they’d even got started. One look at Ro, at that lingering caress that couldn’t have lasted longer than a couple seconds, and two bold letters like 10-ton weights fell upon Imugi’s tiny cranium with enough force to knock her from her perch: Ex.

Imugi didn’t let her mind speak for itself, though. Beyond a pair of scrunched blue brows that looked more confused than startled, she kept a cool look about her. She would just wait and see how this played out for now. She sat upright and shifted her hands from Army’s head to her thighs. Her eyes went from Army to Ro, back to Army, then back to Ro, then back to Army.

“You two know each other?”

In hindsight, this sort of situation was going to happen to him sooner or later. Wrestlers hooked up all the time in the AFW, true, but Army was sort of rare in the respect that he actually tried dating his ‘coworkers’ - more often than not, other wrestlers had one night stands and let it go, or were happy to just be fuckbuddies or rivals with benefits. Even his sister, for all the crap she gave him about a variety of things, couldn’t hold a solid relationship for more than a few months before it ended in craziness.

Japan was big, but wrestlers had a habit of gravitating to each other, and Army knew there was always a chance that any woman he dated might cross paths with another woman he dated, and he might even be in the area when it happened. Fate would catch up with him.

He just didn’t expect it to happen so soon with Imugi, and he damn sure didn’t expect Ro.

He gritted his teeth hard as Imugi clamped down on his neck, pressing into him with legs that were far harder and stronger than he’d ever thought possible from someone her size. A small part of him, the deeply male part, made a note to explore that more later, but for now he was focused on the growing obstacle and what he was going to do about it. So focused that he didn’t even notice Ro giving him that little touch until it was too late to do anything about it. Not that he had any plans on what to do about it, anyway.

Army had a little cringe at Ro’s Spanish - not the worst he’d heard, but still cut his ears. What came next were the inevitable questions from both women, with him caught in the middle.

Calm down. Don’t panick. It wasn’t even like he was cheating on anyone with anyone else. This was an awkward situation, but not undoable. Roll with it. The pitch had been made, he had to swing.

He had a good cough, shook his head and straightened up, settling Imugi back proper on his shoulders. ”Yeah, this is Ro, she’s a good friend of mine, we go back.” ‘Good friends’ didn’t lovingly caress your arm when they met, and he knew Imugi knew that, but there was no way he was about to add on ‘and we fucked a lot’ to that sentence. ”Ro Larren, meet Imugi...Imugi. Blue Imugi.” He thumbed up her way and tried not to look as nervous as he was feeling. He thought he did a half decent job, but only half.

Ro’s Spanish may be terrible, but it served her well enough to call Imugi short. That was one of Ro’s original purposes in learning Spanish, to talk to Army (and perhaps some other former lovers…) in front of them in a language which others might not understand. Meanwhile, Ro smirked as Army tried his best not to drop Imugi and then managed to stumble over her name. “Well, hello Imugi Imugi Blue Imugi. How's the view up there?" Ro said with a chuckle, rapidly mimicking Army’s fuck up. Then she glanced back at Army. “Jesus, muscles, how come you sound like ya fuckin stepped on a leggo…ohhhhh.” Ro smirked. The jig was up. Ro figured it out. “Ella es tu novia…” ‘She’s your girlfriend,' Ro practically whispered.

Ro knew. And she had no intention of behaving herself now. The sly look on Ro’s face told Army everything he needed to know. Like an annoying little sister, Ro was about to torment him for her own amusement.

“Just Ro. And by old friends, he means we used to fuck a lot. I’m sure you’ve seen the old matches.” Ro smirked, raising her hand high up to shake Imugi Imugi Blue Imugi’s hand. Ro’s handshake, should Imugi have accepted it, was very, very firm. She was feeling Imugi out, testing her strength. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna pull ya down." she winked.

Something in the back of Imugi’s head was trying to convince her that everything was fine. This was just a friend. And, now that she thought of it, that shirt actually was kinda cute. The bigger, primal, more instinctual part of her head was making her focus on the reality of things. Ro was beyond relaxed and that just made Imugi even more tense.

Having Army’s head between her legs wasn’t doing her many favors in that regard. She could feel that brief, momentary tension that overtook him. Imugi didn’t know what kind of history laid between these two, but she could tell from a few seconds together that it was more than what meets the eye. A long and winding path and she’d just stepped right into the middle of it.

If there was a speck of worry anywhere on her mind, though, Imugi didn’t make it known. She was fine sitting right where she was, giving Ro a quick look over now that they had the chance to be up close and personal about things. All sorts of things started standing out about her, which was impressive considering what her first impressions were. Strong, crazy, and wild were just a few things off the tip of her tongue, but “direct” was what stood out the most at the moment. Very direct. This lady did not mince words.

Imugi felt her brows furrowing and her cheeks start to burn. Talking so lightly about something like that. In pretty much any other situation, she might have been about as amused as Ro seemed to be about this whole thing. A pair of folded arms said everything about her thoughts right now. The Korean girl only watched the hand offered her ways through icy cool eyes, lingering them back towards Ro after a long, quiet moment.

“No, I haven’t. Can’t say I’ve heard anything about you at all. Maybe you’re just not all that big nowadays.” The slight chill in her voice might have been intentional. She didn’t seem to have much control over it. “Are you still part of AFW?”