Putting Things in Perspective

[winner3]

"Phew." Katherine Hart exhaled with a huff as she tread down the halls backstage.

She had just finished up a match. Celebrating a win with the fans in the arena and hanging out with some of the staff backstage were always items on her agenda. But even The Super Kitty grew weary from time to time.

"A hot shower and the leftover takeout I have in the fridge sound like the best way to end the night right about now." Hart said to herself as she opened the door to the locker rooms in this arena.

Katherine Hart

"Where was it again....?" Kat mumbled to herself as she tried to recall where she set up shop before. She was just a change of clothes away from going home and packing it in. She walked down the aisles until she recalled that she had used the locker at the end of one of these aisles, all the way in the corner next to wall. She perked up as she saw her lock, indicating that it was her locker. But feelings of concern crept in when she noticed that right next to her locker, near the end of the aisle, sitting on the bench was none other than Ayame Alan, a woman she had a recent Twitter spat with. A woman who seemed determined to make Kat out to be just another hater attempting to use Ayame to get to her sister, despite Kat's numerous, public declarations stating that she cares nothing at all for Kyoko Akan. Even now, Kat maintained this attitude, despite the fact that Kyoko had gone out of her way to manipulate the staff at Macabre's Sporting Goods to handcuff the luchadora so that Kyoko could have her way with her.

"Hey...." Hart said sheepishly as she approached.

"I'm not here to start anything. I'm sure you've had a long day, too." Kat would say as she tried to point at the corner, just past Ayame.

"My locker's right there. You mind if I just...." She motioned to suggest that she wanted to squeeze past The Wolf girl, hoping that this situation wouldn't combust as so many interactions between LAW wrestlers often did.

[Taskmaster12]

Ayame had been working through the ranks getting Alex matches out of the way so she could actually compete at Apex. She admitted she was having a tough time with competition all fighting extra hard but Ayame was trying just as hard. “So many matches to do. If I still manage to win this it really will be an uphill battle.” She knew it was a rough shot. A one in a million chance even. That just made it better for her to endure it and keep going. No one said the road to the top was easy. Sitting down on a bench and opening her water she quickly downed half of it unaware of anyone watching her. In fact it was only when Katherine Hart; also known as the Super Kitty or one third of the LAW tag team champions, called out to her did Ayame actually notice her. Her bright but tired mood turned annoyed until Kat told her she just wanted to get to her locker where at least she was relieved it seemed Kat wanted to just get her stuff and leave. Meaning she’d leave her alone soon if she complied. Ayame wanted nothing to do with Kat who in the short time she knew her had managed to annoy her because of her exaggerated sense of importance and deciding she could ignore any boundaries she wanted because she was popular with the fans. This of course was coming from someone who had Kyoko Akan for a sister, a person she still loved which seemed to baffle anyone around her, Kat Hart included. So if she was offering to just take her stuff and leave Ayame would be happy to just stand up and let her get through.

[winner3]

The relationship between these two was rocky at best. Katherine Hart and Ayame Akan both had their own respective struggles and their own ways of dealing with them. Kat was well known for the fiber of her character. The love for her didn't stop at the fans.LAW staff, management, and plenty of wrestlers out there both in and out of LAW we're quite fond of her. From her fellow SWAT Cats to trainees in the Young Lioness program, many people looked up to The Super Kitty. And being the type of person that people could aspire to be like saw her take chances to mend bridges where she could.

Ayame had allowed her access to the locker she was using. It'd be a simple matter to grab her belongings and leave. Heading out to go home and shower and eat ice cream before working out was on Kat's agenda anyways. Discussing how she felt about this chance encounter with Ayame with Tracy and Aurora in The SWAT Cats group chat. But no amount of emojis and inside jokes could shield Kat from the fact that she'd be kicking herself later if she didn't make an earnest effort at patching things up with Ayame. Things didn't have to be this way, she thought.

"Hey, um..." Kat began, hoping that she didn't somehow scare Ayame off or even worse, piss her off. This was the same woman that double-teamed her with Kyoko's help and put her through a table. No one following the events at LAW right now could blame Kat if she lashed out or commented on that fact. But Kat found it within herself to be the bigger woman as she very often had to.

"I know you probably don't wanna hear anything from me but..." She opened her locker as she spoke. From the recesses of her belongings within, the tag team champion dug out what seemed to be a small set of plastic cards. She'd hold them towards Ayame so that the wolf-themed wrestler might lay eyes on them.

"I picked these up from Macabre's Sporting Goods the other day...." She was hoping the subject would provoke some conversation between them. The Akans seemed to be close family friends with the lady who ran the store, Miss Akiko.

"I wanted to support the store. So I brought a ton of these and I've been giving them to people that might use them. Do you wanna take a few, Ayame? Each gift card is 100 bucks you can spend there. I'm sure you know some guys and gals that could use some of the gear they sell."

[Taskmaster12]

Ayame had her attention set away from Kat to let her pass and be out of her hair. Nothing that would cause an argument when she was just looking to get dressed and go home where she could rest. Kat seemed to be getting on her way until she heard her speak, making it clear that this meeting was not going to end without words being exchanged. Ayame was just going to ignore them until Kat gave up and moved on. Then Kat moved some gift cards in her face from Macabre and offered her the chance to give them to people who needed them. “What?” Ayame was surprised. Akiko was known in small circles from Japanese wrestlers she used to make outfits for but Kat was not anyone she would have done business with before she retired for all but the Akans and a few friends. Beyond that she was just an owner of a sporting goods store who kept a low profile outside of her town. She wanted to ask. She really did. She hit her tongue only to keep up her desire to stay quiet and slowly took the cards. “She could use the business. I’ll make sure to hand them to those in need of her stuff.” She tried to be vague about knowing too much. Something told her Kat already knew and yet Ayame stubbornly played dumb.

[winner3]

This type of tension wasn't the usual sort that you'd see in professional wrestling. Normally when one woman put another through a table, the gloves were off in all subsequent encounters. And yet here, it was clear that both ladies had things they needed to work through. The atmosphere was awkward at best and charged/heated at worst.

No one wants a forced conversation. But Kat did her best to do something in the way of making amends or at the very least, gain some ground into the territory of making things right. If things stayed like this, Ayame would likely only ever see Kat as a nefarious third-party bent on using her to get to her sister, and in the mind of The Super Kitty, that couldn't be further from the truth. If there was even a small chance that the two of them hashing things out, Kat was going to take it. That was just the kind of person she was.

After handing over the gift cards, Kat paused for a few seconds. The buff blonde then let out a sigh. She avoided eye contact and looked down at a section of the bench next to Akan.

"Hey...I know...that you don't wanna do this but....you mind if I sit down? Can we talk? Just the two of us?"

[Taskmaster12]

Ayame was not used to feeling uncomfortable by being around someone. She still wasn’t sure how to feel about her attack on Kat after the scolding her mother gave her about it. She knew she should feel bad about it but she knew that after she saw Kyoko close to being out through that table she knew that she didn’t regret a thing. Because of that she couldn’t apologize either. What good was an insincere apology? Kat putting her in the category of just being her big sisters lackey dampened any desire to mend bridges. It was clear Kat was trying by the fact that she wasn’t leaving and soon started to ask Ayame to sit down with the intent for both of them to talk things out. Ayame had so many urges to say no and walk off. She didn’t come for a chat and if Kat wanted to talk they could have done so already. Backing off could have been easy but some sense of stubbornness made her unwilling to bail when given the chance. “Talk? I don’t know what we’d talk about. I heard enough to know what you think about me and what I did.” She honestly didn’t see the point. She couldn’t even explain her actions that night besides what felt right and when you couldn’t even do that how could she explain herself or give a meaningful conversation that would make this worth anyones time? All the same she stayed on the bench. Something in her decided to just let Kat say what she wanted to say so she could leave and keep it here and not anywhere someone else might overhear. “You can sit.”

[winner3]

It was an on, almost awkward situation. Many a fan and many LAW personnel would tell you that Kat had done absolutely nothing wrong. In truth, she never viewed Ayame to be her sister's lackey or a means to getting to her. She didn't rate Kyoko whatsoever. That was the basis of her rivalry with The Belly Queen. But Ayame was someone that she couldn't possibly have a full opinion on. The Wolf, as she likes to go by, came to her sister's rescue from out of the blue, at Kat's expense. And yet, here the two of them were with plenty of unresolved feelings. So much so that just holding a conversation was difficult.

Kat took a seat on the locker room bench next to Ayame. The luchadora intertwined her fingers. She let out a sigh and tried to gather her thoughts for a second before speaking up again.

"Look....I know....I'm probably the last person that you wanna see right now, let alone talk to. I'm sure you feel like I have an axe to grind with you. That I'm out to get you." Kat paused briefly to exhale.

"Ayame, I never once had you pegged as being in Kyoko's shadow. To tell ya the truth, I understand why you did what you did. I don't have any siblings but I'd fight tooth and nail for anyone in my family. You can believe that." Kat began to lean in closer as she spoke more directly to Akan.

"I think we got off on the wrong foot. I don't expect us to suddenly be cool with each other. I don't expect you to like me or even care about me, Ayame."

"What I do want is some kind of common ground. Some kind of mutual respect. Emphasis on "mutual"." Kat gestured back and forth between herself and Ayame.

"It might sound silly. It might sound out of left field, but you and I are sharing a locker room right now, aren't we? If we really didn't see eye to eye on anything, if there was no chance we could understand each other then you'd have told me to piss off and we wouldn't be having this conversation right now." Kat put her hands together and concentrated as she searched for the words that followed.

"I can acknowledge that...after what happened...I came at you a way on Twitter, and that I should apologize to you for it. I'm sorry. I mean it...." Hart paused.

"And I think that you can acknowledge that I might still be feeling a way after what happened to me out there a few weeks ago...."

[Taskmaster12]

Ayame wasn’t used to being angry at someone. Even when she was insulted at the beach in a way she didn’t like the anger only came out because that person attacked them. Even when dealing with cruel opponents like Kathleen Ayame was still able to do the match without feeling anger. Her anger at Kat was beyond the fiasco with Kyoko since Ayame wasn’t even mad at her, only looking to keep Kyoko from getting herself hurt. Some of it was directed at her for falling into the very issue she wanted to avoid while Kat only piled on to that by openly stating the position Ayame feared she put herself into. That she was only Kyoko’s sister and not anyone they would respect on her own. Kat’s apologetic tone put her at ease that she wasn’t going to step on that subject again though Ayame remained frosty with the champion. “That sounds silly. We can never see eye to eye without having a conversation. If I walked away from anyone who bothered me once I’d have fewer friends and I could actually keep. I do converse with most people except the ones who would rather put their fist to my face than fist bump.” If she managed to keep one of her hated rivals like this for a chat she might be into something but right now Ayame was only someone she had fought once and had a brief Twitter spat with. Not the thing if hated rivals or sworn enemies. She stopped to let Kat finish since it was obvious Kat was working for the words that wouldn’t turn this into round 2 or have Ayame stomping away in annoyance. So far she had claimed to not have meant what she said on Twitter and now she was very carefully apologizing for it while insinuating that Ayame had something to apologize for as well. “Wasn’t something I planned or liked doing. I felt cowardly in the act but couldn’t stop my body and I all I got for it was an earful from my sister for making her look like a coward and another earful from my mom for acting in a way she didn’t like. Now because Good ole Kat Hart had to run her mouth on Twitter everyone going to see me the same way they always did. Guess you win out there.”

[winner3]

"I couldn't call that a "win" in good conscience, now could I?" Kat gestured with her palms out and upward. She continued sitting next to Ayame on the locker room bench hashing all this out.

"All I did was make you feel worse than you already did. Except unlike your family, it's not my place to do that. I shouldn't have vented on Twitter. I should have talked out with you, woman to woman, just like we're doing now."

"And that's why I owe you an apology, Ayame." Kat looked Ayame in the eye.

"My beef was never with you and it isn't now. So if I could try to get on the right foot with you now....if you'll let me try to, at least...I'd really appreciate that."

"What do you say...?" Kat would raise her fist in a slow and measured manner. Her arm was still bent. She maintained eye contact. It was a clear offer for s fist bump. One she hoped Ayame would take as she looked at her with sincerity in her eyes.

"We cool...Big Bad Wolf Girl?" The luchadora would wink and chuckle lightly.

[Taskmaster12]

Whatever was a win for her wasn’t anything Ayame could answer. Despite her popularity the truth was Ayame and Kat didn’t know each other at all. It was only by reputation and word of mouth. Even the brief talk on Twitter couldn’t do the job a real conversation could. Right now whatever way Kat did come at her she was trying to make it right. Ayame was angry about how things went down yet to let that stop her from accepting an apology that seemed sincere was something Ayame would regret for the rest of her life. You don’t grow up holding grudges. Slowly she closed her fist and moved it towards Kat’s fist before giving it a light tap with each others knuckles. “If everything you said is true, yeah. We’re cool.”