Everything is Totally Sweet

God damn it, Ro.

He cringed, hard, the moment Ro read his mind and blurted it out, bringing those words out into the world. Really, he shouldn’t have been too surprised - this was Ro after all. The woman was pretty much 100% Id, doing the first thing that came to her mind and rolling with it from there. Hell, that was the reason they’d hit it off so well in the first place, just kind of doing what they wanted and fuck the consequences in the next minute. Couldn’t be mad at her for it. It’d be the same as getting mad at a bee for buzzing.

Didn’t make it any less of a pain in the current moment, though, as he desperately tried to stop the collision course he knew was coming. It was like watching a car wreck happening from the side of the road - you see the two cars heading towards each other way too fast to stop, you know what’s about to happen, you know it’s about to suck, but the only thing you can is either watch or turn away. For Army, there was no option two.

It wasn’t like he could just run away with Imugi on his shoulder - even if he tried, that would just give her the wrong impression, that he had something to hide when he really didn’t. And he couldn’t really talk his way into a better position. At this point, there was no combination of words in his English or Spanish vocabularies that would help him out. The only winning move was not to play.

So, for the moment, Army decided to just shut up and let Ro and Imugi talk. He did narrow his eyes a bit, giving Ro a ‘please don’t fuck this up’ gaze, but that was about all he had for the moment. That, a sympathetic shrug for the shopkeeper who hadn’t the first clue what was going on.

Ro was reading Imugi carefully. A smug smirk spread across her features as she held her hand out, eager to test this new woman’s resolve and strength—or to see if Imugi would even take her hand. After all, Ro was being polite…right? No reason for Army to shoot her any looks. In fact, Imugi Imugi Blue Imugi should be thankful that Ro just blurted out the actual nature of their relationship instead of just tip-toing around it.

Of course, Ro kept one eye on Army. He was the REAL target of Ro’s amusement here—to make her old friend squirm. A little teasing. No harm meant. Imugi’s feelings were less consequential to the real goal of teasing Army and making his heart pound from anxiety. She gave him a wink as he shot her a warning glance, then looked back to Imugi.

Imugi, for her part, was like ice. Ro noted it, and her smirk grew. Not from arrogance, this time, but because Ro appreciated that quality. Keep yourself guarded, project strength. Ro could work with that, she could respect that.

Now, the next thought that came into her mind was to flirt with Imugi to make Army even more uncomfortable. Plus, Imugi didn’t look half bad up on Army’s shoulders. Perfectly flirtable.

But, that’s not what ended up happening. Imugi surprised Ro when she didn’t take the handshake, and then she started with thinly veiled trash talk. Ro narrowed her eyes and lowered her arm, laser focused on Imugi now. Army could tell Imugi’s response had rapidly changed Ro’s intentions.

This bitch.

As far as Ro was concerned, Imugi fired first. “Well, maybe our buddy Army didn’t want to make you jealous.” Ro said with a smirk. “You know, I left for a while. I was just visiting…but after bumping into Army again, I think I might come back. I’ve just missed the ring here too much. After all, I had so many good times in it…and around it…and in the locker rooms…and really all over the place.” She smirked. “You’re new to AFW, right? How’s the Kawai league?” Ro was obviously making a reference to her height.

Huh. That might be the first time someone used the “kawaii” joke on her.

Honestly, Imugi had been waiting for it since pretty much the day she moved to Japan since she knew it was more of a thing over here. It was far from the first time someone had poked at her height, her looks, but up to now, no one seemed to have been eager to make that connection. Not even in a cheeky Tweet that she’d immediately block.

Visually, she didn’t let much of a reaction show. Like she said, hardly the first time. But inside she could slowly piece together a nice, vivid image of the woman in front of her. The tacky shirt, the strong physique, that cool look about her and that brusque attitude that couldn’t have said ‘I don’t have a single shit to give’ any clearer if she’d taken that neon sign above them and plastered the words on her forehead. Yeah. She and Army would get along. Pretty easy to picture.

She let the kawaii comment go with an innocent-sounding chuckle. As much as she wanted to unload, she didn’t forget that Army was still here. Ro was supposed to be a good friend, right? He probably wouldn’t appreciate her attempts to get on the redhead’s shit list as quickly as possible without getting to know her a little better. Her feelings could take a backseat...for now.

“I couldn’t tell you, sorry. The people who run the Kawaii fights aren’t really into girls with meat on their bones. I’ve been in Tension since the moment I hopped off the plane from Korea.” Her eyes looked down and she grew a real if small smile, tapping Army on the top of his head with the flat of her palm. “That’s when we met for my first match. Kicked him around a bunch. Barely broke a sweat through the whole thing. Easy peasy. I really didn’t see the point in leaving after that and haven’t hated it yet.”

She reached down and lightly slapped her hands against his cheeks, playing them like a pair of bongo drums. He could probably feel the smile behind it, if not see it. It was only for a second before her attention went back to Ro. “Undefeated so far. How about you?”

Army had done something to deserve this, he just wasn’t sure what it was. Maybe he’d kicked a puppy or something and forgotten about it? Had to be like that.

Leaving this situation to fester wasn’t going to make it any better, that was about as clear as a brick to the face, but what he wasn’t sure on was how to...de-escalate? Yeah, that was a good word for it. This situation needed some major de-escalation, because at the rate it was going, there was about to impromptu hardcore match in the middle of this crowded market full of lovely people who would probably sue the hell out of them. He knew Ro. He knew Imugi. This was fire and oil.

So, if he couldn’t stop the explosion, the least he could do was make sure it didn’t blow anyone else’s eyebrows off.

”Barely broke a sweat, yeah…” He muttered at Imugi’s boast after she slapped his cheeks, and looked up at her with a face that couldn’t have said ‘Really?’ better if it were written on his forehead. He was fairly certain that could’ve only been true if she’d gone into their match totally dehydrated, but he managed to keep it down for now. Not important. Not now, anyway. Fodder for later, though.

”Okay, can we just, uh…” He looked from side to side, until he spotted a restaurant off to the side. Couldn’t tell what they served, and he didn’t even care. Any distraction. ”You guys hungry? I am fucking hungry.”

He’d eaten an hour ago. A full lunch.

”Let’s sit down, get something to eat, not get into a street brawl, what do you think?”

“Heh, so far.” Ro smirked, mimicking what Imugi had said. “You must still be pretty new, then.” No, Ro wasn’t undefeated. She wasn’t going to SAY that, though. But after wrestling in two countries, dozens of cities, and a bunch of promotions (plus being best friends with a former world champion), of course she had lost on occasion. That rational answer, though, didn’t come to Ro. She just got annoyed. And angry.

This bitch…

Ro was glaring the smaller woman down. She had rapidly gone from thinking that Imugi was cute and planning to flirt with her to wanting to tear Imugi off of Army’s shoulders and curb stomp her stupid face. It only made sense, after all. They were too similar not to want to beat each other up five minutes after meeting each other.

Ro took a step forward, but as she did, Army caught sight of her fight mode glance. “Why not? I love street brawls. Triple threat, everyone vs everyone, my cup of tea.” She said with a smirk. She didn’t break her glance from Imugi’s eyes, keeping them locked, not even looking at Army as she answered him.

Then suddenly, she broke out laughing.

“I’m just fucking with ya.” she grinned. “Love to make him squirm.” She smirked. Her gaze lingered on Imugi for a second, then she broke it. ”I WANT YAKATORI!”

Ro was weird.

Well, she was a lot of other things too. She was outspoken, she was upbeat, she was really goddamn loud. But she was also independent, easy-going, and looked and sounded strong enough to hold her own in more than just the verbal sense. Amidst all that and given the kind of job they all shared, being weird was hardly a negative.

But yeah. A lot of things, alright. Things that Imugi could see that Army could see the appeal in, even if she hadn’t spent as much time with him as their mutual “friend”. Something about that was making her eyebrows furrow.

Personally, Imugi just wanted to go. It was too early to say she was annoyed by Ro, but if they kept up like this then this shopping was going to take all day. Or, worst-case scenario, she tagged along with them. Coming to blows wasn’t even a thought on her mind. Just the idea of continuing this conversation for longer than five minutes was already wearing her out. She had to sever the cord on this, and if that meant kicking Army’s best friend’s face in and moving as fast as possible in the other direction, well...she’d gotten away with worse.

That being said, it was cute to see him trying to play mediator. She could feel Army’s tension from the moment he saw Ro’s face and the entire atmosphere suddenly shifted. Her eyes quickly glanced at the restaurant he suggested. It didn’t look like a bad place. Pretty casual, practically a diner, and not a bad attempt at a distraction if she was honest. But she had a better, faster way of dealing with this. She was already set up for it, getting her feet up on Army's shoulders and readying herself for the dropkick.

...if her stomach hadn't rumbled at the mere mention of food. She stopped dead in her tracks, a mix of humility and fatigue overcoming her all at once. She was feeling too lazy to make breakfast this morning and now it seemed that decision was coming back to bite her. Tagging along it was.

Imugi was already starting to forget this little spill for a second before her mind started drifting to what might be on the menu...until a suggestion rang in her ears and threw her into a rapid blinking fit. She simply stared at Ro for a couple of moments, letting her proposition ring out and turn more than a few heads their way. Slowly and silently, her eyes fell from the redhead to Armando. The confusion on her face was palpable. “Is that Japanese for ‘takeout’?”

Army wasn’t psychic, but he and Imugi were on the same wavelength with a lot of things, it seemed. She was a straightforward sort of person, they both were, one of top entries on the ever-growing list of reasons he liked her. As such, he could make some reasonable guesses on what was going through her mind at the moment, and he had a pretty strong feeling that her next move was going to involve violence of some kind, which normally, he would’ve been all about. Watching her wail on people that weren’t him was a fun pastime, second only to being the one she was going up against.

But with Ro, here, in public, with all the awkwardness that was bound to come out of it…

No. No, he’d rather not lose his damn mind today.

Thankfully, Army’s silent prayers were answered - God was either taking pity on him, or He thought this whole situation was funny and didn’t want to see it end in a jail cell just yet. Either way, the black hole that was Imugi’s stomach saved his ass, or at least bought it a few minutes. His wallet wasn’t too happy about it, though.

Army regained his balance as Imugi settled back on his shoulders, planting his foot down hard to stay stable. He had a long sigh of relief - along with the man Ro had been harassing earlier - and started to march away, heading towards the restaurant and hopeful salvation. ”It’s like, uh, what is it…” He snapped his fingers as the right word popped in. ”Shiskabob. Meat on a stick. Chicken. Pretty good, actually. Carmen’ll cook it for you sometime, stop by and she’ll fill you up. Or try to.”

There was a pair - a woman who loved to cook and a woman who loved to eat. Imugi and his sister would get on like a house on fire.

The thing with Ro is that she IS easy to distract. She had actually forgotten the main reason she was here. She was supposed to be getting…a jacket?...why did she already have a jacket in a bag?...the wheals slowly turned, until Ro’s eyes went wide.

REFUND!

“HEY! WAIT A SECOND, FUCK FACE!” Ro suddenly spun around. “Gimme my…”

The poor man, who looked somewhat frightened, was holding a receipt and stack of bills. “You have to…please…my manager says just sign this…and, uh, do not come back. At any time. Ever.”

“I fucking won’t, don’t worry.” Ro grinned, eagerly snatching the money and signing the receipt. Old school carbon copy, very retro. Meanwhile, relieved of the annoying and unflattering jacket, Ro turned back to Army and her new…friend…as they walked away.

“Ohhh, she'll fill you up all right." Ro smirked. She wasn't 100% sure that worked as a joke, but if there was a chance to make innuendo she'd go for it. "Ahh, Carmen. I haven’t seen her in ages. Remember…” Ro grinned, suppressing a chuckle. “Remember when we got into her room and…” Ro had to bite her fist to avoid bursting out laughing. “Fucking awesome. Ohhh, I missed her to. I wanna go another few rounds against her while I’m here. Dam, she’s fun.” She grinned.

Good times. She had missed them. Her own dam fault.

Meanwhile, she turned and looked up to Imugi. “So, Blue Hair Lady, how serious are you two? Has he shown you off to Carmen yet? Are you two…” She grinned, then wiggled her eye brows. “Going steady?”

She didn’t care about the actual answers, she was just trying to be annoying. Part of it was annoying Army by being so childish about his new girlfriend. Part of it was reminding the bitch who wouldn’t shake her hand—rude—that Ro had known that family far, far longer than she had.

Imugi could say this about their mutual redhead: she was a woman who knew how to get what she wanted. Before they even had a chance to walk off, all of a sudden the yelling was back at all cylinders. Imugi glanced over her shoulder at the mayhem. She’d completely forgotten that rep was even there and it was pretty obvious he was hoping the same thing. Nope. They were walking away with that receipt one way or another. Part of her dug that kind of brazen attitude. The other part, man.

That reminded her why they stopped here in the first place. Imugi glanced over at the jacket on its hook only to find it wasn’t there anymore. Someone else was wearing it, laughing as she looked it over with her friend snapping a few photos off to the side. For good reason. It looked good on her.

Imugi puffed her cheeks and blew out the air nice and slow. That sleepy gaze turned back to the conversation at hand as Ro rejoined them. A shishoba or whatever sounded pretty nice, though. Chicken on a stick was a popular snack for picky idols around Seoul, not that she usually partook. She was more interested in hot dogs and fried food, but apparently that wasn't 'publicly adorable'.

She found herself ruminating on Army’s idea a little longer than she expected. It wasn’t like she needed less excuses to see him and she was kind of over takeout at this point. Maybe they could even talk hairstyles. Imugi recalled her having a pretty nice braid going and she’d been looking to reinvent herself a little. Carmen was the cousin, right?

Probably a good idea to get that straight later. For now, her stomach was making all the decisions. It was kind of amazing how quickly everything else fell into white noise as she started picturing the menu from her mind, peeking the diner windows from afar.

And then the third wheel came screeching back in and here they were again. Never in her life did she think she would regret missing a dropkick as much as she did now. Her mind was brewing a tiny storm, but the Korean Girl’s face read like a blank slate. There wasn’t much to read beyond a simple nod

“Imugi.” She put a bit more volume into her voice. “And we’re 'going' just fine. Not that it’s any business of yours what me and my boyf-”

That last syllable fizzled away in the back of her throat somewhere. She wasn’t even thinking of it until it was already on the way out, but...yeah, that’s what this was right? She never actually faced the idea until now. It felt so right, yet her tongue slipped whenever she went for it. Something in her gut just wouldn’t let it free at risk of being wrong.

One thing she knew for sure: like hell she was going to let Red run away with it.

“Actually.” She folded her arms and stuck up her chin. “Nevermind. I don’t have to explain anything to you, Red Hair Lady. Hm!” She whipped her head to the side like every bit the adolescent schoolgirl that only she could pull off. PR would be proud.

As this all went on, Army found himself considering his options. Fleeing was always one of them, he figured, though he wasn’t sure how far he would get. Imugi wasn’t heavy, not at all, but he could only go so fast with her on his shoulders. Ro was quick enough to run him down at short distances. Kind of like a dwarf, in that way.

It was tempting, but he decided against it. After all, he’d known this sort of thing was coming, sooner or later. Wrestling was tight knit, and fate had a way of drawing people together. He’d had flings with several women in Tension, things that reached various levels of seriousness, and it was only a matter of time before he ran into a situation like this. This was the deck he’d been handed.

Man up. Deep breaths. And…

What?

Army had been off in his own little world for a bit, trying to get his brain down from DefCon 5, when he heard Imugi start to say something that sounded an awful lot like ‘boyfriend’. That made him pause a bit, nearly stumble, though he keep straight at the last second and saved them an embarrassing moment. Probably earned him another leg squeeze...which wouldn’t be the worst thing, really.

‘Boyfriend’, though. That word came up sooner or later. It had been a big thing with the last girl he’d seen, and he wasn’t sure how the blue-haired dragon on his shoulder would feel about it. Army wasn’t a fan of labels, liked to just let it be whatever it would, but he could get why she might care. As long as they were undefined, they could do whatever. Even if they didn’t stray, there was no pressure. Army wasn’t some crazy player, he wasn’t sharing beds with anyone else, hadn’t given another woman his time, but there was nothing stopping him.

Boyfriend/girlfriend made it real. That came with things. He’d been there before. Had she?

It was a deep, important question, and god damn it, Army couldn’t have picked a worse time to contemplate it if he’d tried.

Army quickened his steps, getting them to the restaurant before a weird fight could break out while Imugi was still on his shoulders. Lucky for all of them, the place wasn’t too busy at the moment, didn’t have much in the way of peering eyes. A good thing, since he had a feeling this scene was about to get louder than anybody nearby would like.

”Okay, food. Food is good.” He came over to the table with Imugi still on his shoulders, taking care to dip low enough for her to avoid any inconvenient ceiling fans. The waiter earned himself a decent tip by picking a good corner booth for them to all sit off, one in a far corner.

After dropping down and letting Imugi disembark, he slid over and took up a spot between them - a tactical decision. Ro and Imugi would have to get over him to get at each other, which...well, it wasn’t beyond either of them, but at least they might think twice like this. It also would stop Ro from giving him footsies, which she definitely would’ve done at a table. That was the absolute last thing he wanted, for Imugi to look in his lap and see her foot there.

Now, for phase two of the plan - find something to talk about that wouldn’t make the situation worse. He had just the idea, too. ”Soooooooo, Ro.” He eased back into the seat. ”How are John and Amanda? They come with?”

A two-fer. Nice, neutral topic, but one he was curious about.