Like a House on Fire

...what did she think of Blade’s apartment?

Hauling around two-hundred pounds of old clothes, older fan posters, and even older Wrestle Angels memorabilia had her mind distracted for the most part. Most of Chizuru’s head had been far in the future for the past hour; where exactly had she planned to hang all of the new fanart she’d been sent for the past year? Should she make a new YouTube video now that she was in a new place and maybe commemorate the moment? How would she use her computer without a desk? Put the monitor on the floor? Could they buy a desk? Amazon, maybe? Did Amazon Japan deliver desks to apartments?

It was only after Blade set the final boxes down and the two of them got the chance to breathe deep and finally shut the door behind them on the setting sun peeking out at them over the horizon that the German-Japanese girl was able to stop and take a decent look around her new home. It wasn’t German imported wood. It wasn’t grandfather clocks in the atrium.

Yeah. Her father would hate this place.

Chizuru felt her brows furrow the longer she looked around. It wasn’t at all a bad living space, nowhere near as dark or heavy as she might have been expecting from Blade. The walls weren't painted black, which was good. There were even some additions she wasn't expecting at all. The kotatsu was very homey and a nice little centerpiece for the whole place. Guitars on the wall, posters to keep them company, even a plant or two that brought some life. Yet there was an awful lot of...clutter. Bit of a kind word for it. Chizuru shared an apartment with two other people and never saw a tower of pizza boxes as high as the several she spotted across the room. And she swore something just moved underneath that drawer.

And this was just the living room...

“It's…” Please say something.

“...nice.”

A half-suppressed cough followed those words out of her throat. The remains of words that were better left unsaid, though Chizuru was fully aware she could have done a much better job at fibbing than that. Her eyes scanned left and right as she strolled around the room, careful not to step on some discarded chicken bones while she tried to spot something to build on.

“I-I-I mean it's very...you! It’s got a lot of character, definitely feels lived in. I feel better already!” Chizuru was no actress. The more she talked, however, the more she seemed able to reassure herself. And hopefully her roommate. She stopped by one of the wall decorations and reached out to touch it...before she noticed some dust caking the surface and thought better of it. “I-I always thought you’d played guitar...a-and a bonsai tree! That’s a surprise. People like Minami or Risako are into that kind of stuff, but I guess you’re pretty responsible too Blade!”

Something struck Chizuru on the head just then. Not literally. Just a thought that never occurred to her until now and probably wasn’t even that important. But as she looked back to Blade, Chizuru assumed it wouldn’t hurt to ask. She was so off-balance now that they were finally settled in the same place together. This was real. This was happening. This was her roommate. “What is your first name? Everyone I’ve ever known has only called you Blade.”

...Yep. Yep this was definitely torture. And Blade would know all about that with a career spanning a few years and a few federations. Where she'd damn near been rear-naked choked into unconsciousness by the so-called Venus Of Submissions, had her spine realigned in torture racks from Migiri Oozara, been ankle-locked by Panther Risako to the point where she could only hobble around on one foot for a month, and worst of all...subjected to some of the most rank, putrid, and toxic cooking Bomber Kishima could serve up. Sometimes being a good friend meant taking a bullet in the line of duty, and partaking of a wretched new recipe Kishima found online was a bullet taken right to her poor stomach. The least said about that incident the better.

But now Blade felt like she was back on the firing line once again as she internally scrunched her face from Chizuru's dreaded first impression about to be salvoed against her. Regrets over not having spruced the place up more were already tearing her up inside, but she had to jet out of here this morning because her alarm clock/cell phone died in the middle of the night. Plus she couldn't find her car keys in the place she always put them cause she left them in her jacket pocket the other day like a total...sheesh, freaking great. Blade knew this dump couldn't compare to the veritable palace that was her old home, she wouldn't even know where to get a grandfather clock around here. Chizuru was probably regretting ever agreeing to this. Wondering if she could have the moving van swing back around to take her back-

"Huh?" Blade gawked at Chizuru's succinct answer, clearly hesitantly delivered with unconvincing acting chops...and Blade could not have felt more relieved. The Okinawan breathing a deep sigh of relief from her roommate's glowing review. A result of Blade just being that desperate for Chizu's approval that even obvious falsehoods and white lies were taken as the gospel truth. "O-Oh yeah, I learned to play electric guitar back in junior high cause I was a heavy metal addict. I was in a band with some friends in high school, but I had to leave when my wrestling training kinda made me choose one over the other." Blade remarked while standing besides Chizu as she asked about the guitars on the wall. "Hm? Oh that isn't my bonsai tree. Risako forgot to pack that tree along with her others when she moved out. I dunno what to do with these things. I just haven't gotten around to-begyourpardon?"

Blade balked and went stark wide eyed at Chizu for asking something...she REALLY should have known about by now. But Blade still couldn't help but smile and start laughing cheerfully from the silliness of moving in with someone whose real name you don't even know and...well, how much this innocence endeared her to Blade. Or rather..."Kyouko...My name's Kyouko, Chizu. But you can call me Blade, or just roomie. It's a pleasure to finally meet you." Blade merrily introduced herself while placing an arm around Chizu's shoulder and hugging her closely from the side. "I suppose next you're going to tell me that Chizuru isn't actually your name, right~..."

Did Blade just laugh?

It was that kind of thing that was incredibly obvious when you kept in the back of your mind and probably incredibly familiar without even thinking about it. Of course, Blade laughed. Compared to some of the other Wrestle Angels Chizuru had come to know over a long and intimate career, Blade fell a lot closer to the "normal" end of that myriad of makeshift personalities. She'd probably heard Blade laugh all of the time if she thought back a little further. It was there on the borders of her memories. It shouldn't have surprised her all that much.

But it wasn't just that she did laugh. It was the way she laughed. Unguarded, sincere, and at ease with herself. Maybe it was just the way Chizuru had always been used to seeing her. If Blade wasn’t high-diving off the tallest thing she could find in the immediate vicinity or throwing a stiff punch into the faces of blonde-haired beauty pageant judokas around the world, the Suplex Specialist never seemed to have trouble finding her by the sound of that boisterous voice from Okinawa echoing around the backstage halls. Here, in the dimming afternoon sunlight of a cozy lived-in apartment just beyond the reach of Tokyo’s sounds and lights, there was a relaxed and honest air that just seemed to make all the difference in the world.

Chizuru raised her eyes and felt a faint heat beneath the skin of her face. Her chest felt lighter as if the atmosphere in the room had suddenly changed watching Blade move closer towards her.

"Kyouko."She hummed the word a little bit in her throat and couldn’t resist the urge to smile, even as her arm wrapped around her shoulder and pulled her close in a sisterly embrace. "That's a pretty name. It’s nice to meet you too, Kyouko."

The German-Japanese girl was so busy smiling and blushing that her roommate's question almost sailed right over her head, but she was glad she caught it. Wrestling was so closely tied to her identity, not many people inquired about that part of herself. She flashed a grin up at the Okinawan. “Sort of!”

She exclaimed proudly about that little-known fact. Rei probably didn’t even know that. She stood upright and pointed a finger to herself beaming with excitement that seemed to be coming from nowhere at all. “My name is Chizuru! But when I was born in Berlin, papa named me Jeanne. Jeanne Nagahara.”

She reached around and tapped Blade square on the nose. “But you can still call me Chizu. You’re the only one who does after all!”

Blade certainly hoped the overall consensus among the wrestlers backstage was that her birth name was not actually "Blade"...as badass as they may have been now that she thinks about it. Although it did end up becoming the name everyone began to know her by before she even realized it. Once it became her official in-ring name, almost overnight fellow wrestlers backstage started greeting her as Blade and used it to get her attention. Like she had started a new life, and was and was given a new identity to go along with it. Although the more practical and less extraordinary reasoning is that her wrestling name was just easier to say, she reckoned. Blade supposed she couldn't hold it against Chizuru for not knowing her real first name. Still...the notion that someone would move into the same apartment and share lives with someone whose name she didn't even know-

"Jeanne? R-Really?!...uhhh, wow." Blade cleared her throat and hoped her gobsmacked expression didn't let on how much she of a surprise that name reveal actually was. Oi. What a blindsiding blunder this was. And one that highlighted just how much more they have in common than Blade realized. Oh well, at least she got a good laugh out of it. Perhaps one of the more genuinely wholesome laughs she'd had in a while actually. Except that Chizu's nose booping elicited a blinking blush from the Okinawan, now realizing she was hugging Chizuru. Closer than they'd ever been outside of a match or from when the Suplexer tackle-hugged her on the front lawn earlier in the day. The snuggled warmth shared from being side by side still not matching the tender sunshine of that smiling face, both of them basking in the golden radiance of a setting sun and Blade's realization this is the first time they've been truly alone together.

"J-Jeane's a...it's a...S'a beautiful name. But, uh Chizu it is then. If-If you...prefer. You can, uh...You can still call me Blade too, if you like, heh. Everyone else does, but...but that won't make you any less special to me." Blade's stuttered speech becoming clear and pronounced towards the end, muttered and softly spoken words though they were...until the eyes that were longingly locked upon Chizu's suddenly widened in abject fright from what the fuck she just said!!!! Lips a quiver on her terrified visage when in one aggressive motion Blade started forcefully guiding Chizuru back down the nearest hallway. "WHY DON'T I SHOW YOU TO YOUR ROOM!!!! YOU PROBABLY GOT LOADS OF SHIT TO UNPACK, STUFFED ANIMALS TO FLUFF UP THE PLACE, ALL THAT GIRLY STUFF RIGHT??!! HAHAHA!!!" Blade bellowed to the heaven's while guiding Chizuru by the sound of her scrapping sneakers on the floor to her new shindig, opening the door to a grandiose flourish and waltzing inside herself. "Now I know it's kinda drab and stuff, but I figured that just makes it more like an empty canvas for you to decorate, ya know?" Blade proclaimed after propping her balled up fists on her waist, desperate to not talk about what just happened.

Ta Da~...:

Blade went red really easily, huh?

Chizuru hadn't had the chance to be around her so often. Ever since their match together it was like she was seeing a new side of Blade on a physical level just as much as the emotional level. The Okinawan was a surprisingly sensitive person beneath that fierce persona of a high-flying daredevil. Maybe all of this summer weather was getting to her.

She looked like a tomato.

All of a sudden, the German-Suplex girl whipped around and was led by the arm quickly down the hallway to the nearest door. She looked between Blade and the hardwood panels, unsure of what exactly to expect on what was waiting for her on the other side. The view beyond left her wide-eyed and completely silent for the first time in hours.

“It’s beautiful!” Chizuru turned and gave her roommate a quick but full hug with both arms before she pulled away and turned to face the entire room again. "Drab? Pink and yellow is my favorite! It's like...a big cotton candy room!"

"Oh-oh! I'll put our Super Mega Death Team poster there! And my picture of mom and dad there! And my flower vase there! Oh, let's get tulips and put them in the window there!" Chizuru's mind was a million miles a minute. She was swept up in it that she almost forgot who she had to thank for all of this. The German Suplex wrestler turned around and clasped her hands together in an attempt to control all of this jovial energy that basically didn't work at all.

"Thank you, Blade! Thank you so much! I knew this apartment would be nice but this room is just...just...I don't even know what to say! I just wanna jump up and down on that bed and-!" There was a cockroach under the bed.

Eh?

...Eh?

There was a cockroach under her bed. Just out of the shadows. It was looking up at the both of them and flicking its whiskers in four different directions at once. Chizuru and the hundred-legged parasite stared at each other for a long and quiet moment, the breath in her lungs entering and exiting quicker and quicker with each passing second. Neither party seemed certain of what their next move should be.

…

The roach skittered towards her.

…

It must have been two hours now?

Chizuru was sitting on Blade’s bed, her legs tucked close against her and using her oversized t-shirt to cover her bare legs. She let her eyes take one last look around the room for about the fifteenth time in the past couple of minutes. It definitely felt a lot more lived-in compared to the one Blade had set up for her. Clothes on the floor, drawers half-open, not in a million pieces, and a bed halfway out of the window. Yeah, they might have to call Pablo for that one. She turned her head to the door, still hearing the sink running in the other room.

“Are you sure you don’t mind me sharing this side of the bed?” She called out into the hall to her roommate on the other side of the bathroom door. “I really am okay with the couch. I don’t want to be a bother on our first night.”

More than she already was, she meant. "Did you get all of the wall plaster out of your hair too? I think I saw some behind your ears."

"I-It's fine, lot of it came off in the shower. Jus giving my hair another rinse just in case...and to wash off the stink of failure." Blade uttering that last part under her breath and out of ear's reach while keeping her head underneath the faucet in the bathroom sink. Not quite remembering how it all started, just that she had her back turned to Chizuru while she was fawning over her new room when the Suplexer suddenly piggybacked upon her for dear life and blinded her with an arm wrapped around her head. Panicked flailing, screaming, pandemonium, and her tripping over a light-cord and landing headfirst into the...ah, screw it. You can probably guess the rest. All of it was a cautionary reminder of how freakishly strong Chizuru was, and a rather memorable way of discovering her new roommate's crippling fear of cockroaches. Blade knowing better than to mention to Chizu that her room was actually the cleanest one in the house...well, at the time.


Blade raised her head out of the sink after turning off the water, now ruffling and drying up her hair beneath a beach towel as she continued the the dialoguing across rooms. "And that's a big N.O., Chizu. Ain't no way I'm havin my roommate spend her first night here scrunched up on the couch like a drunken New Year's Eve party guest. We're gonna end this day on a comforting and pleasant note no matter WHAT, goddammit." Some of Blade's frustrations being blurted out as she finished up her drying efforts and tossed the towel into the hamper, swiveling her head left and right like a wet dog with her spiky locks whipping about as well. Blade looking into the mirror and whipping off the residual steam from her shower so she can take a long hard look at herself. Breathing out a melancholy huff before leaving the bathroom and turning off the light behind her, dressed in boyshort panties and an AC-DC t-shirt that reached just below her waistline.

"Sheesh...what a rotten day. Chiz, I'm sorry about how today turned out. I did my best to spruce up your room...really I did!!!...but I guess I'll just have to call up an exterminator or somethin. If, uh...if you want, you can always just hunker down in a hotel until I can…I can…move you back home. Jus might take me a couple of days...weeks...*sigh*...month." Blade dejectedly scratched the back of her head and kept her half-lidded eyeline diverted to the floor as she started waltzing over towards the thankfully Queens-sized bed that was only just large enough to accommodate them both. A bed she flopped face-first upon as if in defeat from the absolute beating the day had given her. She'd had matches with Beauty Ichigaya that weren't as fatigue-inducing as what this disaster of a day had in store for her. From bartering with an enraged mover, to narrowly losing her life to Chizu's vice-like Dad clutches, and this was all before the ACTUAL moving process started with those heavy ass boxes and...nnngh.

Chizuru didn't even want to think about how much money it would take to get that bed frame out of the ceiling. Could they hire movers for that? Did they have to have a carpenter with them while they were moving things around? How long could they hide all of this from the landlord? Did the landlord even know Chizuru had moved in yet? Would she even want her around after this?

Questions, questions, and more questions that she was just too tired to deal with. Guess that was all going to be a problem for Tomorrow Chizuru. Today Chizuru just wanted to sleep and forget about everything. Well, almost everything.

Her head perked up when Blade finally entered the room. Her hair was better than a moment ago, but the same couldn't be said for the rest of her. Even the German Suplex artist couldn't miss the sagged shoulders and the tired expression weighing on her gray eyes. She watched fall onto the mattress, making Chizuru buoy up and down on the spot as the Okinawan sank into the mattress. It was kind of amazing how every time she didn't think she could feel worse.

“You really want my dad to find out you put me in a hotel room after all of that?" Her tone was much more mild-mannered now, accepting of their situation. The reality was that staying here was the only way to guarantee Blade's safety. She really hoped she didn't have to elaborate on why.

Maybe this wouldn't work out. Maybe they were never meant to room in with each other. Maybe this was a sign about getting too ambitious for her own good. Maybe someone of Blade's calibur was just naturally beyond her and she should have been happy with her station in life. Maybe maybe maybe maybe…

Chizuru groaned and flopped back onto the bed beside Blade. It sucked seeing her like this. Didn’t they already have their whole bonding moment just a couple of hours ago? This wasn’t things worked before. The German-Suplex Girl was done with thinking for today. She turned herself over on the covers and buried her face into the pillow, sinking into the mattress of their mutually malignant misery.

"Why is it all so different now? I miss everyone." She muttered into her pillow. Who or what exactly she was referring to was just about anyone's guess. Things rarely made sense when it came to Chizuru as it was.

A Siberian bitterness swept throughout the frosted over recesses of Blade's psyche once Chizuru reminded the Okinawan of her Father. That same subarctic chill trailing down Blade's spine and creating an involuntary twitch that briefly solidified her ramrod straight while still hiding her face/shame against the fluffed softness of her pillow. Whatever engraved memory of Chizuru's dad that Blade may have retained from this morning was now thoroughly distorted thanks to an overactive imagination and the lingering trauma having been scarred into her soul. The German juggernaut from earlier now being reminisced about twenty feet taller than his actual height with demonic wing and horns. Eyes alight with the infernal hellfire of damnation itself with his clawed finger cast down upon the petrified Okinawan, all to the ominous orchestral symphony of Night On Bald Mountain...

"...on second thought, let's just put a pin in that idea for now." Blade's muffled words thankfully still being audible to Chizuru due to her close proximity, but it did little to penetrate the sullen pall blanketing the forlorn wrestling duo after what was one whopper of a day. A tangible reminder of how moving days are feared and maligned the world over with Blade somehow feeling defeated despite the fact that the overall goal of getting the German Suplexer into the apartment was accomplished in the end. Throughout the day it just felt like for every righteous victory, there was an anchored setback to bring the mood back down into the dispirited depths. Overhearing what Chizu said did catch Blade's attention though. It was enough to have her swivel her head out from beneath the cushioned pillow so she can cast a perplexed glance towards her downtrodden roommate.

A few stark realizations becoming readily apparent just from witnessing Chizuru adopt the same pillow-diving posture as herself. One was the striking radiance of Chizu's hair now that Blade was this close to inspect it without arousing her roomie's suspicion. Like a seraphic, auburn-haired angel come to grace her presence with-A-ANYWAY, the second truth was that for all of Blade's glowering defeatism, the person making the actual change in her life and who had every right to be distraught was actually the other woman currently muttering indistinctly into her pillow. "Oh...uh, sorry. I take it you must really miss your family, huh? Umm, you can always give them a call if you want. It's kinda late, but I'm sure they'd understand. Just uhh...d-don't mention anything about the hotel idea to your Dad. I dunno why, but I get the feeling that you're Dad is the type of guy to always have a shovel in the trunk of his car...just in case."

Tired. It has been a while since she'd felt this tired. Hauling her entire room's worth of sentimental value up ten flights of stairs covered her workout for the day. The last thing she needed was a metaphorical dump truck of emotional baggage weighing her down.

Chizuru felt like she could just sink into the depths of the memory foam and never come back out until the morning. Pulses of excess fatigue ached her muscles from the strain in her back to the worn tips of her fingers. It was only a little better after a shower but she could only imagine what Blade was feeling. First her dad, then the moving boxes, then what was supposed to be her room. They were going to have to tackle that upside-down dresser in the hallway first thing in the morning. She wasn’t interested in thinking about all of that and neither was her roommate.

It only occurred to Chizuru after she said it that her statement might have been a little misleading. Today was an afternoon chock-full of change for everyone. It was easy to get confused.

"Oh, no. Not them. I mean, you're right. A little...I just meant-" Chizuru stopped and caught her breath. She turned to face Blade, but couldn't raise her eyes from the pillow that kept her face half-buried. She found it a little hard to look her in the eye, keeping her attention on her finger drawing a circle into the covers. "I meant everyone. All our friends, our fans...Wrestle Angels."

The German Suplex girl let out a sigh. She turned over and sat up on the bed. She leaned forward and hid most of her face behind her knees as she wrapped her arms around her legs, tucking herself into a ball.

"Every day used to be so much fun. It just made sense then. Panther, Beauty, Yukiko. Everyone wrestled because it was what they loved to do. Because they had a dream to chase after. We all had our differences, but it felt like that didn't really matter in the end because we all still used to be a...family. The Director called us that once, remember? He was such an amazing person. He kept to his ideals and his kindness no matter how bad things were for us. Even when we saw him for the last time. There's no one like him here. Not in the administration. All anyone ever talks about now is money and titles and...sex…"

Chizuru's voice whispered on that last word. She hugged her legs closer against her to hide the red growing on her cheeks. Although her eyes seemed to glint in the light when she started to blink, welling up with thin moisture. It was a little hard to speak. "I...might have tricked myself into thinking that by coming to AFW with everyone else it would be like those days again. Rei is gone, Mika is gone, maybe I'll go with them...maybe I don't…maybe I'm not..."

Oh thank goodness. Blade couldn't help but become awash with overwhelming relief once Chizuru clarified that she wouldn't be chatting it up with her Father about how much of a nightmare factory this relocation had devolved into towards the end. She had a feeling that no matter how much Chizu attempted to sugarcoat the truth and insist upon her satisfactory well-being, her pops would interpret her nonchalant remarks as a trumpet call to come driving down the expressway in the dead of night to rescue his beloved "Chi-Chi" and recommence strangling the ever-loving life out of a certain spiky haired tomboy. Well, at least that's what would Blade envisioned in her terrifying thought bubble. But in all honesty, if it meant Chizuru attaining some peace of mind, Blade would have handed her the phone herself if it meant attaining the reassuring comfort Chizu seemed to really need at the moment.

Byuuut...it turned out to be nowhere as simple as any of all that. Not anywhere close. Blade listened on, riding the same wave of nostalgia as Chizuru as she reminisced longingly about their defunct federation. The Okinawan having never quite considered, up until now, that what they had back than could be considered as a "family". The locker-room and backstage scene in general just seemed like a random and chaotic hodgepodge of vastly differing personalities from one side of the spectrum to the other. From teeny-bopper idol princesses to masked goliaths who practically never said a word back in catering. But we were all united under one banner, one thing tying us all together. Infighting. Heartfelt Friendships. Going To Eachother's Wedding's. Blade never thought about it before, but what more could there be to being family aside from that? Although Blade coyly glanced to the side and wobbled her hand in the air in a wishy-washy manner when Beauty was mentioned. That was one part of Wrestle Angels she could have maybe done without.

"HeyHeyHey..." Blade instinctively halted wherever Chizuru was going with those last sheepish comments as she crawled over and swathed her arms around Chizu from the front in a warm-hearted embrace. Halted a few seconds later with Blade leaning back but with one hand placed on her friend's shoulder. "...*sigh*...you know what?...I miss Wrestle Angels too. The Speaker telling me he liked my taste in music even though I could spot him wincing from how loud it was...Pranking Yukiko whenever I got the chance...Panther reprimanding me whenever I got caught. The beachside photo-shoots, and all of us gabbing on the bus rides there...But what? Didya think you could bring back the good ol' days as simple as all that? I'm sorry, Chizu...but, all that stuff's in the past now." Blade's tender voice becoming more solemn once she started laying down some heavy truths...but perking back up with a caring smile and slight jostle on Chizu's shoulder. "Except that it doesn't mean you'll never have fun like that ever again ya know? Panther's still around, mother-henning us all to death, and Bomber would love to drag us all to a baseball game one of these days. There's loads of fun times still to be had...and even without Rei or Mika...you're still you, ya know?...but hey, if that's enough..."

Blade smiled tenderly for a brief pause...before ducking to the side and curling up Chizuru into a small package pin attempt on the mattress, hooking it in deep as one could amongst all of the pillows and the fluffy comforter. "I can always help ya relive some old memories right here and now, like when I pinned yer butt in the squared circle!!! One! TWO!!"