Unraveling Loose Ends (For TiefBlau)

It just after an hour that Clyde Gastin and his sister Bonnie Gastin had their Tag Team Title match against Dante Sunderland and Alessa Mason, which the twins lost after a long gruling battle for the belts. It was after-hours at the Tension Arena, the pay-per-view event was long over and everyone had gone home, everyone except a certain blonde haired alcoholic by the name of Clyde Gastin. He was sitting alone on the floor of the locker room, drunkenly slouching a bench with a half empty bottle of whiskey in his hands, wanting nothing more than to drown his troubles away, if only for a moment.

"Bonnie...Pfftt... Who needs 'er..." Clyde spat out bitterly to himself before taking another swig of the bottle, thinking back to how his sister had simply abandoned him in the arena after their match. It was something she had never done before and that affected Clyde quite a bit. Bonnie had always been there beside her brother since birth, but now it appeared now that she was finally done with him. It bothered Clyde a lot, but he tried hard not to care. Just like he tried not to care about losing the tag title match and possibly fathering a child with Heather Sunderland. In Truth, it all was troubling the texan to no end.

Clyde didn't know where to go at this point. He didn't feel welcomed at Bonnie's place and he didnt want to be reminded of what Heather had done to his life by going back to her. He instead chose the bottle and decided to remain in the locker room, and down that bottle until it was bone dry.

Long after the tag titles match, Dante and Alessa had been planning to take the night out somewhere. Their reunion was successful in the fact that they were able to capture the Tension tag titles on their first try. They felt like celebrating it, living it up, however something was on both of their minds that was nagging away. Dante's sister and Alessa's friend, Heather. They haven't even heard from her since that false kidnapping incident. Dante hasn't even heard from her since their tag team match with The Gastins.

They were both quite worried about her, and judging from Clyde's words they knew that he knew something. Unfortunately, after that tag match, they had went their separate ways considering Dante and Alessa thought they would be ok. However after realizing their worrries, they started looking all over the place for Clyde. They had no idea where to start so they searched all over the AFW facility.

Finally after hours of looking, they came into the locker room, an area they probably should have checked much earlier, and there they found Clyde. However the state they found him in they definitely weren't expecting. Alessa tilted her head as they entered the room, and Dante looked on with concern. Walking up to him, Dante was about to talk to him before Alessa stopped him. She wasn't blind, she's seen how Clyde feels about Dante. So instead, Alessa crouched down next to him as she looked in his eyes.

"You ok?" She simply said as she stared at him.

After taking another swig of the bottle, Clyde hears a pair of footsteps getting closer, prompting the texan to slowly tilt his head up in order to who was approaching. It was the new tag team champs, Dante & Alessa. Clyde honestly felt that he should have expected them to show up.

"Well, well, well... Look we got up in here... The newly crowned Tension Tag Champs. Yall come to... gloat 'bout yall'sss.. win? Or did yall just miss me?" Clyde would ask with a drunken grin that faded rather quickly, slurring his words as he spoke to pair.

He goes quiet as he sees Alessa approach him before crouched down next to him, stareing at Clyde right in the eyes with the kind of gaze that Clyde didnt bother returning, he just couldnt look Alessa in the eyes for some reason.

"Heh... Never Better..." Clyde would respond to Alessa with a small laugh before his face curled into a frown, lying to Alessa before taking another long hard swig of the bottle that was almost empty. "...T-Thanks for askin' though..."

Alessa tilted her head at Clyde's words. His drunkenness was incredibly clear and it confused her a bit. She wasn't quite sure what to say to him at first, or how to act towards someone who was like that, but she put on a determined look on her face and decided to give it her all. She shook her head at Clyde's words and put her hand on his shoulder.

"We didn't come here for that. We looked for you for a while now." Alessa says, Dante standing up behind her as he nods her head. It was the truth, they had spent hours searching for him before they found him like this. "You don't look ok. In fact, you look worse than you did after you went through that table in the match."

Alessa pats him on the shoulder a couple of times before shrugging her shoulders a bit. "You helped me before. Let me help you. You should tell me what's wrong." Alessa says, trying to give off a calm, caring tone. In her mind she really wanted to repay him for what he did, or at least tried to do for her. She was still in debt and she figured through helping him, listening to his story, she'd probably also be able to find out more about Heather.

After downing more of the whiskey in his hands, Clyde tilted his head up to look at Alessa as her hand upon his shoulder, finally looking her in the eyes with his half-opened ones. Although Clyde didnt look like his mind was all their due to his intoxication, he was giving Alessa his utmost attention as he listened to her speak, surprised to hear that Alessa and even Dante had actually been looking for him. He couldnt help but frown though at Alessa's statement of how he looked worse than when he had fallen off the ladder and plummeted though a table during the Tag TLC Match. Prompting Clyde to lift himself up a bit from the bench he was slouching on to examine the cut on his back that he had earned from a sharp piece of the broken table. It was patched up, but blood was still cleary visible on the wound.

Clyde then looked back to Alessa as she began patting his shoulder before hearing her next set of words that actually made him feel a bit guilty inside. He and Bonnie had acted coldly to Dante and Alessa during the entirety of their match, and despite that, Alessa was still willingly indebted to the texan and wanted to help him. Clyde honestly didn't think Alessa would care that much, even if she was just paying off her debt and wanted to find Heather, Clyde wouldnt know, he figured it just Alessa being Alessa, the natrually caring type.

"It's uh... a long story... Started ever since I met Heather..." Clyde would confess to Alessa. "Not sure I should be tellin' this to yall, though... " The Texan would add as he looked at the pair, feeling like the situation would get awkward and strange really fast if he told them everything.

"Heather?" Dante said suddenly as he heard his sister's name being mentioned. It was the think that was on his mind the most as he came to see Clyde. Her being missing for so long. He was hoping this would be the start of leading towards getting some answers. However he stopped there, he didn't want to push it because he noticed Clyde was having a hard time with saying what the problem was.

"If you really don't want to talk, then it's fine, but I'd like to try and help you sort things out just like you did for me." Alessa says, a caring look in her eyes. She genuinely wanted to help Clyde out, even when she heard it had something to do with Heather. She was good friends with her, and she wanted to know what was going on with her as well, but she was focused on helping Clyde out with the problems he was having.

"If you want to tell me, you can. There won't be any problems. We're worried about her too anyways, she's my friend and Dante's sister. Maybe this whole thing can help all of us in the end?" Alessa continues, trying to think of how to reassure Clyde. She was being quite a bit more talkative and serious than usual, but when it came down to something like this, she thought she knew the words to say. It was important to get down to what was going on, and she could tell Clyde definitely needed some help.

Clyde would nod his head a bit at Dante to confirm what he had said earlier about Heather. Although he was having a hard time deciding whether or not he really wanted to talk about all this, he felt he had to explain somethings and get some help on the matter.

"It ain't that I don't wanna talk... It's just... Kinda hard 'ta explain all this to ya. But I thank ya for wantin' to help me, Alley." Clyde would state Alessa while looking at the two with an almost embaressed looking expression on his face before he began nervously scraching the back of his head.

"Guess I'll start from the begining... 'Bout a week ago I got into a lil' confrontation with Heather in the Girl's Dorms. It was just a straight up fight at first... But then... Things got a lil' 'Hot' between us when we landed on a bed durin' our fight, which ended in a draw after we went through so much... Tension...." Clyde would say to the pair, clearing his throat just after finishing his last sentence.

"That night didn't bother me much... But I think I did a number on Heather... Especially after me and Bonnie managed to win our Tag Match match against Heather & Her Bro, even though she pretty much beat me during our fight and put me on a stretcher... She wasn't too happy 'bout losin' that fight either..." Said Clyde before taking another swig of the bottle of whiskey in his hands, clearing his throat to speak again after downing more of the drink.

"When I woke up that night in the hospital I met Alessa, and heard her lil' story involving the two of ya... How she came to Japan strictly for YOU, Sunderland." Clyde would say before he sat up a bit to point his finger at Dante with a slight glare before slouching back against the bench.

"The BOTH of us didn't like the idea of You and Bonnie hookin' up, so we staged that fake kidnapping to lure you to a warehouse to fight me so you could save Alessa and have a wonderfully happy lil' life together..." Clyde would say to Dante as he staired up at the ceiling for a moment before turning back to the pair to speak again.

"...But YOU, Sunderland! Never showed up! Heather did instead! She thought our stunt was Real and Kicked my ass for it! Later, When Bonnie showed up, Alley decided to pick a fight with her! And DURING that lil' scrap Heather tied me up and just straight up fuckin' kidnapped me for reals!" Clyde would exclaim as his voice grew louder throughout the small locker room, getting a bit heated by the past events that he was detailing for the pair before taking yet another swig of the bottle, finishing what was left of it.

Alessa nodded as Clyde thanked her. She was ready and open to hear Clyde's story about the whole happenings that have occurred up until now. However what a impactful story it was. One that even Alessa as she was prepared wasn't even ready for the things Clyde was about to say.

"...'Bout a week ago I got into a lil' confrontation with Heather in the Girl's Dorms. It was just a straight up fight at first... But then... Things got a lil' 'Hot' between us when we landed on a bed durin' our fight..."

Hearing this, it was Dante who was first to react. He couldn't believe what he was hearing, even though little did he know it was hardly the start of it. He couldn't imagine his sister being involved doing such a thing. A fight on the bed? He's heard of those types of matches in this company, but never thought he'd have to worry about it. He couldn't help but getting a little mad at hearing such a thing. He clenched his fists just a bit but tried to keep his emotions inside to let Clyde continue.

"...even though she pretty much beat me during our fight and put me on a stretcher... She wasn't too happy 'bout losin' that fight either..."

This one still hit Dante, but in a different way. He knew he was letting her down before during the match when he lost it, but hearing she was already going through such a thing, and then to be that close but he caused her to lose, he almost felt responsible for some of the trouble Heather was having. Alessa kept nodding at each thing, but she would be mentioned in the next part of Clyde's story.

"When I woke up that night in the hospital I met Alessa, and heard her lil' story involving the two of ya... How she came to Japan strictly for YOU, Sunderland." "...we staged that fake kidnapping to lure you to a warehouse to fight me so you could save Alessa and have a wonderfully happy lil' life together..."

Alessa let out a small blush as she put her head down hearing Clyde talk about this. Dante knew about her love for him, but she still was embarrassed when he talked of it again. "I-I'm sorry about that whole thing.." She says to Clyde, not wanting to look back at Dante. Dante couldn't help but let a small smile escape when he heard again of Alessa's feelings, but still his mind was focused on the rest that happened those few nights. He waited for Clyde to go on, on edge anticipating the next to be revealed.

"...But YOU, Sunderland! Never showed up! Heather did instead! She thought our stunt was Real and Kicked my ass for it! Later, When Bonnie showed up, Alley decided to pick a fight with her! And DURING that lil' scrap Heather tied me up and just straight up fuckin' kidnapped me for reals!"

Hearing this, another confirmation that the events that occurred could have been prevented by him, Dante's fists were completely relaxed in comparison to how they were clenched earlier. He had a sharp pain in his chest and an uneasy look on his face, feeling bad for all the events that could have happened. He completely understood why Clyde would dislike him so much. He didn't blame him in the slightest for all of that. But now he's finding out he could have well been one of the causes for his sister's disappearance.

"I'm the one who should be sorry. I should have realized something was happening. Then because of me not coming there in time, that whole thing happened with Heather...Is..there any more?" He said reluctantly. Part of him not wanting to hear the rest but he knew he had to and he knew for sure that there WAS a rest of it.

Clyde was barely paying attention to the reactions of Dante and Alessa as he continued to explain his story to the pair. He would, however hear Alessa saying sorry to him about the whole warehouse kidnapping incident, which Clyde quickly dismissed with a careless wave of his hand, as if to silently tell Alessa not worry about that.

Clyde then hears Dante's apology and frowns instantly before he brought the empty bottle of whiskey back up to his lips, forgetting that he had just finished finished the contents of it.

"This all ain't worth cryin' over whose sorry, ya'll! We all had a dang ol' part in this one way or another..." Clyde would say to both Dante and Alessa after Dante finished speaking before he suddenly halted his words, unsure if he wanted to talk about what happend after that.

"More? Yeah, there be plenty more of this dang ol' story, that's for damn sure. But... I'd rather not share that with ya'll... Better off talkin' to Heather 'bout all that..." Clyde would say as he turned his head away for the pair, speaking to them without looking towards them, as if he was troubled by what he was hiding from them.

"Dunno if she even wants to talk though..." Clyde would add before looking back at the two, as if expect something else from them after he finished speaking.

Dante reluctantly nodded his head at Clyde's words. He was still feeling bad for the part he had in all this, but he knew Clyde was right. Blaming himself wasn't going to help or solve anything. Alessa too nodded her head. Hearing everything up until now, it was clear that things had to be settled somehow and apologies weren't going to be the things that did it.

Hearing the rest of Clyde's words, Dante looked over at him. "Well, thing is we don't know where Heather is. She didn't tell either one of us where she was going, and we haven't seen her for the longest time." He said, hesitating to ask him the question, however Alessa stepped in and asked it in his place.

"Clyde, I hate to ask this from you but, do you think you could let us know where Heather is? Maybe take us there or at least show us the way?" She says, knowing in his drunken state he wouldn't be doing any sort of driving, but being the navigator shouldn't be too tough for him. "We would definitely appreciate it, and I'd like to hear from Heather the rest of the story.