The Bad News

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These last few weeks had been incredibly stressful. It had all really started when she had been given a shot at Friction's money in the bank tournament only to find her career waylaid by some rogue hit and run attackers in the back. It left her in the hospital and her partner Kaylee to take up the mantle and wrestle in her place against a monsterous opponent that had nearly taken them both down in a handicap match months prior.

It had been an emotional rollercoaster afterwards, between her girlfriend Tatiana's meaningful confession of love for the former child actress and the renewed bond of companionship that was budding from coaching Kaylee through a run as a singles competitor all the way up to a shot at the money in the bank briefcase. It was strange to think that being put on crutches had turned out to be such a good positive change for her life, only at the cost of her career, for the time being. Still, in the moment and even now, it was sometimes hard to see the big picture like that.

She was able to spend far more time with Tatiana with less commitments to appearances, but every time they separated again it saddened her to retire to the sprawling estate without her girlfriend. She wanted her to be the one to watch over her, care for her, and be alongside her while she was at her lowest points. Their alarming abuse of the FaceTime app to get a fraction of what that would actually be like helped, but was a poor substitute for wrapping her arms around the redhead.

It had come as a surprise to both women when her tag partner Kaylee had announced she was taking on other talents as a manager and wanted Tatiana was one of her early signings. Expanding their already massive estate into an even larger compound with the express purpose of housing, training, and cultivating prospective talents under her. It sounded like madness at first, but after awhile she couldn't believe she didn't see something like this coming. While it seemed like a woman investing in the future of the business she was taking part of, Belle had begun to suspect this might also be her friend reaching to possibly sign a deal to turn their entire home into ground zero for some sort of reality show dedicated to the lives of wrestlers. It wouldn't be a stretch, one small step past the massive Vlogger fan following both girls were expected to uphold.

When Tatiana had decided to make things official and sign the contract, Belle and her had made the choice to come clean to all parties that they were a couple. It was a fact they had hidden since their hit things off in their first match and the ensuing dates thereafter. It was a strange Romeo and Juliet arrangement, as both Tatiana's sister and Kaylee had more or less whipped things into an all out war between their respective tag teams. To save face and hardship, everything had been kept under wraps. That was all ending tonight… or it was suppose to.

She had been offered a seat at the table in the final meeting between Kaylee and Tatiana, but had turned it down claiming she had other obligations. It was all a ruse of course. The plan was to meet up with Tatiana and already be at the restaurant waiting to meet with Kaylee to surprise her friend and come clean about the relationship. So when she left the estate under the guise of going to discuss an upcoming photoshoot and she received a sudden panic text from Tatiana telling her something important had come up, she was left scrambling to try and hold their plans together.

It was about thirty minutes before the meeting with Kaylee, which meant about ten to twenty before she was supposed to meet Tatiana at Narisawa, an upscale restaurant tucked away on the edge of Tokyo. When she got the text from her girlfriend, it had said something important happened and that they needed to talk… which was fine. The problem was the location. Another restaurant, a different one, that was pretty far out of the way from where the two of them needed to be. It put Belle on the clock to try and settle her girlfriend's nerves and get them to the dinner date with Kaylee on time.

It wasn't uncommon for Tatiana to second guess herself. Belle was more than willing to bet it was something that was a direct result from how her overbearing sister Valerie treated her. She had seen the duo wrestle together as Novae enough times to see how constricting the woman was even without hearing stories from Tatiana that boiled her blood. Her girlfriend was smart, capable, and talented, but there was always that doubt that presented itself due to her sister's constant pushing to be better and perfect everything.

Belle checked the text on her phone for about the thirteenth time in the last few minutes, thunking her head lightly against the window of her Uber drivers car from the back seat. What could have possibly come up to give Tatiana cold feet now that they were in the final hours? In the grand scheme of things, she was confident they could still make this work, but to watch their plans unravel at the last minute was frustrating to say the least. Turning the phone over in her hands, she shot a small text to Tatiana before tucking the device away, removing the constant need to check the time from the equation. The brunette let out a small sigh, fogging up the window glass.

Belle: ETA three minutes. Hang in there kitten.

Sure enough, almost to the second, her car pulled up to the curb of the Fukamachi, the restaurant Tatiana wanted to meet at. She paid her driver, tossing in a generous tip for having to suddenly redirect from their original route to come here. Opening the door, she slipped her crutches out before scooting  to the edge of the seat to pull her frame up and out. The driver had offered to help but she had assured them she was fine. The brunette had plenty of practice at this by now and was already had the crutches tucked under her arms by the time they had asked. With a side bump of her hips she closed the door behind her and waved the driver off with a faint smile.

Belle had dressed for the original occasion. A custom outfit made to match the dress she and Tatiana had picked out for the redhead. Her attire though, was more masculine. A smart white dress shirt with raised collar, loose up top around the shoulders but tighter on her arms, especially when she moved them. They came down to large pointed cuffs at the wrist, fashioned to jut out a bit more than a more casual button up dress shirt might. She wore a tailor fit smoky grey pinstripe suit vest that buttoned up snuggly fit to her form, not tight enough to feel restrictive. Over all of this was another vest, a smooth black cloth that didn't catch the light at all, though this one was left open to hang and flow. The rest was simple, black belt and dress slacks that had been tailored to have a small fold at the ankle, and a pair of shined dress shoes. Despite her best efforts to look professional, she threw in her favorite belt buckle though, a gold relief of Tinkerbell arm wrestling Dorothy from Peter Pan. Her wild mane of hair had been gathered back into a ponytail, not really styled in any way but it fit her look well enough. It wasn't like anyone but Tatiana and Kaylee would know this was just how she put it up for her workouts.

Belle made her way inside the restaurant, walking with a light hop on her crutches. Technically, she was able to walk without them, she even and a brace at home to help with that. Her doctor had assured her light activity was fine, but she did her best to keep weight off of her knee when out and about regardless to help speed up the recovery process. She had been making good strides with physical therapy, pushing herself a bit strengthen back up after a few weeks of inactivity, so she felt it was best this way to keep a sort of balance. She gave hostess a small nod at the entryway, speaking softly.

"Hey... I might have a reservation or just a table waiting, under Siamko or Christensen…" She shifted her weight idly onto her crutches as the hostess glanced down at her little podium. After a moment they nodded, offering to guide her back to the table which Belle accepted. She made her way through the seating, a bit tight to squeeze through with her crutches, but the hostess was kind enough to move slow so she could follow easily enough.

"Here you go. A server with be with you ladies shortly."

"Thank y-" Belle's words caught in her throat as the hostess moved away to return to the front of the restaurant, Belle was left staring at the woman waiting for her at the table. Even though she had been so preoccupied with navigating here and the hostess in front of her had obstructed her view… how did she manage not see this sooner? The brunette cast glance from side to side, scouting out how many patrons were nearby this particular table before looking back to her own table with it's waiting occupant. Shifting uncomfortably on her crutches she leaned in, speaking in a hushed tone. "Where is Tatiana?"

It had all started simple enough. An ordinary day. Nothing amiss, nothing strange about. Valerie woke up early and did her morning jog, getting in a couple of miles as the sun was rising, and came back to find Tatiana still in the bed. Not at all surprising, really. She had been slacking off in recent weeks, perhaps even since they lost their title shot, no doubt feeling some disappointment for how they had come up short. She was always an easily distracted woman, but it seemed like her mind was in the clouds more often these days, as if she was constantly badgered by plaguing thoughts. As if there was something she wanted to say, but couldn't quite work up the courage to spit it out. She could be timid sometimes, yes, but this seemed odd even by her standards.

Valerie pried. Poked. Prodded. But she came up with nothing, and she had resigned herself to letting the mood pass. They had been here before. Whatever Tatiana was going through, she would either get over it or come clean in her own time. That was the way of things.

Sweaty and in desperate need of a shower, she tiptoed over to their bedside table on bare feet, careful not to disturb her sister, and plugged her phone back into the charger, right as Tatiana’s phone buzzed with a push notification. Careless of her, she’d forgotten to set it for Do Not Disturb while she slept, and the Spotify app was still wide open, not even locked. Any other day, any other time, Valerie would have thought little of it. She glanced at the message on pure reflex, and almost went about her way. Probably just spam from her emails or something on Twitter or…

She stopped in mid-turn, glancing back at the phone. No, it had been a message. From whom? Tatiana didn’t have much of a social circle in Japan yet, hadn’t been able to meet too many people. None who would be texting her, anyway. It wasn’t their parents, they tended to message her, knowing she would more promptly answer if they needed to talk.

She almost let it go. Almost walked away. But her curiosity was too strong. She reached down, took the phone, and gave it a longer look, then a longer look still as she realized who it was from, as she scrolled through the comments and conversations, as she realized what had been happening not just in the past few weeks, but in the past few months.

It all hit Valerie at once, an emotional freight train, and it sent her rushing into the bathroom to vomit, which didn’t wake Tatiana by some small miracle. Questions swirled through her head, popping in and out. Had this really been going on so long? How had she not picked up on it. Why hadn’t Tatiana confided in her? Was this some kind of trick? She didn’t want to believe any of it, like some bad dream she couldn’t wake up from, but all the pieces fit into place. Tatiana’s mood, her random disappearances and the weak excuses she came up for them, her sudden interest in wearing new clothes, the nervous looks and the late night text sessions when she thought Valerie was asleep, why their phone bill kept getting so high...

But what would she do about it? That was the biggest question of all. As she sat on the bathroom floor and stared at the bland beige ceiling, the answer slowly came to her.

She had sent the text to Belle, diverting their little meeting for today. Belle and Tatiana would not be discussing the contract with Kaylee - no, instead, Belle was going to be here. Talking with her. A long, important discussion.

Valerie showed up at the restaurant, the very same one where she’d been ambushed and beaten up months ago, an incident she was 90% certain Party Hard had some involvement in. Dressed simply, still in the running outfit, she wore a pair of long, white and black track pants and a matching jacket, with a black sports bra underneath. Her hair, kept long and loose most of the time, was tied up in a tight bun. She needed no distractions today.

When Belle finally arrived, Valerie was waiting for her. Staring at her from the table. In front of Tatiana’s phone sat, facedown, so the blue case with red hearts could be clearly seen. Judging by her question, she already understood the implications, and they were on the same page.

”You’re not playing dumb. That’s good. We’ve had enough lies already.” Ignoring Belle's question, she looked down and placed a single finger on the phone, sliding it back into her grip to look down at its screen. She kept her eyes on it for the moment, eyes scrolling through one of Belle and Tatiana’s many, many conversations. ”Sit down.” There was an iron authority to her voice, the kind you could only truly get with a thick Russian accent.

Belle's eyes narrowed to steely slits as glared daggered to Valerie, immediately meeting the blonde's aggressive alpha aura with firm resistance. She already thought the worst of Valerie, the only saving grace that allowed her to pretend this woman was a decent person was the bond she shared with Tatiana. It kept her judgements cushioned when they came up conversation as the brunette tried her best to respect the sister's relationship. That didn't stop her from assuming the worst. Had Tatiana come out about their relationship early to Valerie? It wasn't unlikely, Belle could see her possibly do that to keep the sister from finding out someplace out of the news dropped early…

Whatever happened though, clearly it wasn't great. The text she had received was almost assuredly from Valerie, the fact she had her girlfriends phone with her was proof enough. The real question was how much she knew? Did Tatiana keep all their texts? All the pictures? Her girlfriend may have told her sister about them but she couldn't even imagine the redhead surrendering her phone to her sister willingly.

"Where is Tatiana?" She repeated again, slower now. Valerie's clear and authoritative tone was at clear odds with Belle's own headstong nature. She clenched her fingers tightly around the hand holds of her crutches, standing up a bit straighter. While any other day she cut an impressive figure, her obvious injury was a clear blunted edge to what might have been an intimidating aura.

Belle had been presented with very little reason to listen to Valerie's request, doing everything within her power to not lunge across the table  to take her by the throat. Whatever this was, was clearly personal if the blonde had gone through such length to arrange this meeting by tricking her to be here. It would take more than a stone cold look and some barked demands to get her follow suit.

When Belle stayed standing, Valerie lifted her eyes long enough to meet the brunette’s gaze with her own once again, staring hard at each other, as if their looks alone were enough to cause pain. She found herself wondering what this woman was thinking, how much of all this she’d figured out. Did she know that her little game was up? That whatever fun she had with her sister, it was over? Did she really think that Valerie was going to stand by while she manipulated her sister, just allow it to happen without any repercussion whatsoever.

Maybe she did. Maybe she was that foolish. If so, Valerie intended to dispel that illusion.

A moment of steely silence passed before Valerie relented, closing her eyes and letting out an exasperated sigh. ”I don’t know where she is, but had I to guess, she’s with that clown of a woman you call a tag partner, at the restaurant you were originally going to meet her at.” She glanced down at the phone again and scrolled through a few conversations, making a quick check. ”That seemed to be your plan, after all, or at least what Tatiana thinks your plan is.” She didn’t bother hiding the disgust in her voice, hating the charade they were playing with their family.

”Where she is, what she’s doing? It’s not your concern. Not anymore.” She stretched her leg out and pushed the chair across from her forward, the maximum amount of courtesy Belle would be getting.

”Sit.”

Much of the fire in her eyes seemed to summer when Valerie admitted to not being certain of Tatiana's whereabouts. She was almost ready to assume the worst about Valerie, easily and to picture her locking the redhead in a room someplace to keep her from coming. If the panicked text was all a part of this plan to lure her here… it meant the real Tatiana was fine. That was enough for her.

"Our plan." Belle corrected Valerie, much of the edge from her voice had faded, though she still seemed annoyed. Belle had seemingly looked past the initial comments belittling Kaylee, focusing instead on the thing that mattered here. "It was Tatiana's idea for the meeting. I just picked the place because I know the sort of fancy places Kaylee likes to eat."

The skidding chair bumped into her good leg and one of her crutches, the latter issuing out a small pang of hollow metal when it collided with the latter. It made the brunette flinch, lips pulling tight in a face that was clearly working to remain constrained. Without a further word she stepped around the chair and lowered herself down onto it. Quietly she collected the two crutches, leaning them up against the table beside her for the time being.

"Listen, I don't know what kind master plan you think you have just foiled, but the two of us were about to come out about…" she scooted in her chair with a few small hope… this conversation was awkward to be having with Tatiana's sister. "...well, that we are a couple."

This really wasn't how they had wanted to do this. Belle especially didn't want to be the one to talk to Valerie. She owed it to her girlfriend however to try and smooth things out if possible. While the brunette may not have liked the woman across from her, that didn't make her any less of a sister to Tatiana.

"So... I am sitting. What now?" Belle twisted slightly in her seat, extending out her bad leg off to the side to keep it from getting too cramped up. She really wasn't sure of what Valerie's angle was going to be, but she was confident she could handle whatever the other woman could dish out.

Belle did a good job of keeping up her con act, almost coming off as genuine. It was easy to see how she’d managed to control Tatiana. The redhead had been starstruck by Party Hard from the first moment they met, and now that she thought back to that fateful match, the signs were all there for something like this being in the making. She was only curious how long it had been in the making. Had this been Belle’s plan before that match even began, or was it some game she made up on the fly?

Valerie supposed it hardly mattered at this point. Whatever the ruse was, it was ending. Here and now. One way or another.

For now, though, she let the woman speak and lay things out, come clean, or as clean as she was capable of being. She had to admit, some of her mannerisms seemed genuine enough, and she wasn’t sure how much of whatever she and Tatiana had was real or a fabricated fling, but it was unsettling, either way. She tapped her fingers along the edge of the table as she waited, unmoving otherwise, making sure she didn’t miss a single detail in the other woman’s movements.

When she was done, she balled her fingers into a fist and stowed the extra phone away in her pocket, readying herself to engage. ”There is no ‘couple’, here. No ‘coming out’. No ‘master plan’. She sat forward now, elbows on the tabl, as if she were ready to pounce at a moment’s notice.

”Tatiana is young. Innocent. She doesn’t see what you’re trying to do here and she can’t tell how you’re playing with her. I, however, can see you. I see through you.” She pointed straight at her chest. “I don’t know exactly what this is. If it’s just some ploy you two morons have going on to get back at us, or if you’re just trying to have a little fling for fun, or if it’s part of some ridiculous Punked prank show you have going on. Frankly, I don’t care, and it doesn’t matter, because it’s over, whatever it is.”

Tatiana leaned forward, speaking in a hushed tone herself now, voice dripping with venom and her lips close to a snarl. I am not going to let you break my sister’s heart. Understand?”

Belle could see judgemental wheels turning in Valerie's head as she spoke to the blond, very familiar with that sort of look from Kaylee when she was in one of her moods. This all came in line with much of what she assumed of the woman from Tatiana's stories… she had to keep telling herself to try and file that away and behave.

This was for Tatiana… this was for Tatiana…

The brunette leaned back as Valerie leaned forward, trying to be as non-confrontational as possible. She had aired her thoughts, now she would just let Valerie do the same… like normal people. God, this was so forced.

Then Valerie launched into her little tirade and Belle's open minded expression that showed she was trying to find common ground slowly became flatter and flatter. Valerie was speaking about Tatiana like she was a child… she briefly considered informing the blond that Tatiana was actually older than her but decided petty comments like that would just worsen the situation. Though once the elder sister of Novae had finished, she found herself no longer as concerned with keeping up impressions. It was time to lay things out.

"This may come as a shock to you, because you certainly don't hear it from her… but you really aren't the boss of Tatiana. You don't get to tell her or me for that matter, how we choose to live OUR lives. You especially don't get meddle in OUR relationship." It took everything in her power to keep from raising her voice and making a scene. Fingers clenched she balled up her fists out of sight in her lap, lightly drumming them on her thighs as a reminder they were there so she didn't start throwing them wildly.

"Heh… this whole conversation is just… man, it's so much. You see through me… you don't even know anything about me. I am starting to wonder how much you really know about her either." She gave a small shake of her head.

"Listen, the two of us aren't going anywhere. It doesn't matter what you or anyone else tells us, got it? The whole running around in secret stuff is over… so you can either accept it for what it is and be happy for us..." She leaned in closely, closing some of the distance between the two, staring Valerie dead in the eyes as the candlelight on the table played off their features. "...or piss right the hell off… understand?"

”Fucking Americans.”

Valerie had been doing her best to remain level and calm throughout all of this. She was the adult in this situation. The voice of reason. Tatiana didn’t see what was going on, and Party Hard was too wrapped up in their antics to realize the harm they were doing to her with this game of theirs. It was going to be a disaster, no matter how sincere Belle was about the whole mess, and she was doing her best to keep her sister from being in the midst of it all. She had to be composed to maintain control.

But there was something about the way that Belle spoke, that defiance, that made it all crack with a hard, harsh laugh. She couldn't put a finger on it at first, couldn't define what tickled her about this woman, but the more she thought on it, the clearer it become.

”There it is, that entire attitude. As if you know anything.” She held up a hand and shook it, fighting back the growing urge to just lash out and slap this woman in the face. ”I have known Tatiana for years. Years. We grew up together. I know her better than you ever could. I know her better than she knows herself, which is why I’m stopping this before she makes a mistake she can’t fix.”

Valerie leaned in now, her hot breath making the flickering flames dance, planting her palms down flat on the table for support. ”Spoiled brat. You think you have control here, you think my sister's a little toy I can’t take away from you? Wrong. This is not America, this is not your stupid TV show, you don’t get to have your way all the time.” She reached into her other pocket and brought out her own cell phone now, waving it at Belle.

”Tatiana is here on a working visa, one that our parents setup, under their name. All I have to do is make one call, one call, to tell them about the mess she’s found herself in, and they can revoke it and send us both back home. Like that.” She snapped her finger, hammering the point home. ”I don’t want to. I like this country. I like wrestling. But if it means keeping Tatiana out of harm’s way, I’ll do it in a heartbeat.”

Belle didn't have a lot of ammunition to throw back at Valerie that didn't throw Tatiana under the bus with shared stories she had been sworn to secrecy to not retell. It was an exercise in restraint not to just spot back her own venom of her take on the sister's relationship or simply tell the older woman some of Tatiana's own frustrations with the stilted power dynamic between the women of Novae. It was when Valerie claimed to know her girlfriend better than even Tatiana knew herself that had her unintentionally burst out with a brief fit of laughter before she quieted herself.

"Christ, you are a bitch… you smother her and make her miserable all the time and bless her heart, she loves you even despite it all because you're sisters. I don't have any earthly fucking clue how the two of you could be related…" Belle remained seated, having the wherewithal to not try and rise on her bad leg. She kept imagining how easy it would be to just… grab a handful of Valerie's hair and drive her face into the table. Life was so much easier when she didn't have to worry about the consequences of punching someone.

All the anger and hated drained from her face along with her color as Valerie explained the sister's working visas. She had been riding high on the fact Tatiana and her would soon be living together. This conversation had been a formality in the grand scheme of things as a burned bridge would only serve to hurt Valerie in the end. This new information was a horrifying revelation that neither her nor Tatiana had even considered.

Belle sunk back into her seat, eyes shuddering visibly as her mind tried to think of a way around this. They have come so far, together, and now it wasn't just them seeing demons around the corner. This was the reality, the potential end game that would end them. Her breathing quickened as she stared forward, not even looking at Valerie, lost in the moment in stunned silence.

"I… I love her." Belle's eyes came back to focus on Valerie. She seemed small, weak, desperate. Leaning her weight on the edge of the table, pleading. "We love each other… you… you can't just do that. You wouldn't. You don't have the right. This is her career, her life… don't you dare do this to us." Her fingers curled on the top of the table, bunching up the covering cloth in a white knuckled grip.

The first part of Belle’s response didn't phase Valerie. If anything it hardened her, and made her all the more resolute in using the card in her back pocket. She knew this type to well, had spent a lifetime performing for men and woman like her at the circus. The entitled ones, the ones who thought they couldn’t be denied what they wanted, that they were always in control of every situation. She’d always tried to keep an open mind about people across the world, didn’t want to think the worst of those she’d never met, but now that she was here and had this American bravado thrust into her face, she could say how little of a taste she had for it.

If nothing else, it was satisfying beyond words to throw all of it back into Belle’s face. Valerie sat back with folded arms after she threw the bombshell, watching as Belle reacted. She didn’t speak her mind at this moment, but she didn’t need to. Her face told the tale well enough. She was rushing, thinking of some way to counter what she’d just said, and coming up empty. Scanning the board, checking all her Chess pieces, desperately trying to figure some way out of the check she had been put into.

She would find none. Valerie didn’t want to go this far, she’d hoped she could talk some sense into Belle and just end this in a peaceable manner, but now that she was at the edge she had no qualms in using every tool at her disposal.

The response she received, however, was a surprise. Remorse, anger, spite, disbelief, these were things she’d expected from Belle. Instead she was given sadness. This overwhelming desperate sadness that took her off guard, as Belle pleaded and begged. It left her eyes wide and her mouth agape, sitting back, not sure how to respond for several silent moments.

When the time passed, though she steeled herself, closing her eyes and raising a hand to Belle, as if she could just shove that display away with a single push. ”No, no, you don’t. I love her, and I’ll do what I must to protect the person I love.” She opened her eyes and met Belle’s gaze for what she hoped would have to be one of the last times.

”Call her. Tell her it’s over. Make any excuse you like or tell her the truth, it makes no difference to me. But your little games are over. No more.”