A 100% Platonic, Non-Romantic Training Session

[BlackAkuma]

God, Valerie was nervous. Why was she so damn nervous?

It was hard to put a pin on the reasoning, as she stood there and fidgeted in the middle of LAW’s sparring ring. She had to be a weird sight, even for a place like this - a woman her size, nervously pacing about the ring, muttering to herself. Maybe it was what she’d chosen to wear? She’d come dressed in her workout attire, long and baggy pants, and a matching sports bra, white with the pink trim. It was the Valley Doll custom, but maybe it was too much. She didn’t want to seem like she was the type who flaunted her family wherever she went as if that was supposed to give her some special credit with her peers.

And was it too late for this? Valerie had decided to go for a late afternoon meetup, but she didn’t want to cut into Kyo’s time. He probably had an active nightlife. The guy struck her as outgoing, adventurous, and who could always find something to do. A guy like that had to be pretty popular, with a solid social circle. She was already pushing her luck just getting him to come out here, she didn’t want to monopolize his time.

And should she wear her hair up or down? She liked to keep it up whenever she was doing a workout or wrestling, but she didn’t want to appear too serious. This was casual, right? People wore their hair down whenever they were hanging out. But keeping it up was sort of her look, with the whole ponytail and whatnot. Sort of accentuated her face. Not that she was trying to look pretty or anything, this wasn’t a date, but she still wanted to look good, because…

Because…

Because why, again?

”Ugh.” Valerie smacked her head and leaned against the turnbuckle, trying her best not to let her worries get the better of her. She’d been off her game since she’d met Kyo, and it didn’t even make sense. She’d won the match, she’d won the match, why was she stressing out about a guy she’d beaten in a fight? Get it together, damn.

Valerie sucked in some air and forced calm into her system, then fell forward on the mat to do some pushups. Anything to distract her as she waited for Kyo to show up. If he showed up. He wouldn’t ditch her, right? Not that she’d blame him if he did, she had come off a little creepy, and-

”Ugh!” More pushup, more pushups, more pushups.

[Underdoggo]

Hey, you heading to the gym tonight?

Yeah, today's my leg day. It was going to be my cheat day, but Suzume and Kaori bailed on me at the last minute.

Great. Thanks. I'm supposed to be there today but I'm stuck in traffic.

That's what you get for taking the bus like regular people.

Do you have any idea how bad it is to drive in Kyoto?

Get a motorbike. Motorbikes are cool.

I don't care about being cool.

Understatement of the century.

Oh shut up. Anyway, if you're heading to the gym, I have a spar partner I was supposed to meet up with. I dont have her number, so please let her know im running late.

!!!!!!!!!

HER? Omg

Shut up, it's just a spar.

Sure it is. Okay so who's the lady who you'll be trying to tie in knots?

Makie was still grinning like an idiot as she slid out of the women's change room, flicking through her past exchange of messages with Kyo. She was wearing a simple black and white sports bra and identical pair of gym shorts, which showed off her lean yet athletic figure. Not exactly something that matched her tag team colours, but then, when she was working out, she liked to maintain her own sense of style.

Spoiler

She still couldn't get over how lucky her stupid brother had been to get into a match with Valley Doll. Or rather, the daughter of Valley Doll. The daughter of the Valley Doll-- one of her dad's greatest rivals, and, if she was honest, the woman who had gotten Makie herself into wrestling in the first place. As much as she had loved and looked up to her dad, Valley Doll had been something else entirely: confident, athletic, skilled, beautiful...seeing a strong, accomplished woman like her in the ring had made Makie decide, then and there, that one day she wanted to be just as awesome as Valley Doll.

And...while she wasn't anywhere near Valley Doll's level of success, Makie still idolized the woman. And Kyo, lucky jerk that he was, had managed to fight Valley Doll's daughter in the ring. More importantly, Valley Doll III was now waiting to spar with Kyo in this very gym.

Taking a deep breath, and telling herself not to overreact, after all this was just the daughter of her idol, not her idol herself, Makie turned and headed into the training room with the practice mats...

...and nearly stumbled as she bumped into a fit-looking blonde who was busy doing pushups. "AHH...oh god I'm sorry!" Makie blurted as she tried to regain her balance.

[BlackAkuma]

Kyo had a girlfriend. He had to have a girlfriend, right? He was handsome, polite, athletic, built like a supermodel, had great hair, a great smile, and came from wrestling royalty, what more could you ask for from a guy? He had to have someone waiting for him back home, it was inconceivable that a catch like him could stay single for any real amount of time. She was barking up the wrong tree. If she was even barking at all. And there was no way he was into her like that. She was bigger than him - not by much, but enough that it was probably a turnoff. Most guys, especially Japanese guys, were turned off by her bulk. The ones that weren’t tended to be into some weird stuff, pitching ideas to her about being their ‘mommy’ or domming them, no doubt looking into her mothers’ brief foray into hentai wrestling and expecting the same out of her. She hadn't had a boyfriend for longer than a week, just never worked out, and it wasn’t going to work out with Kyo, so she needed just to nix these thoughts and focus on having a perfectly normal professional relationship with the boy. Man. Man-Boy.

Hell, what if he was gay?

Valerie was so wrapped up in her thoughts and the push-ups that she didn’t notice someone walking over her way, right up until the moment said person bumped into her and knocked her over. She fell to her side, then stood up as fast as she could, bowing towards the woman - it was her fault, really. Should’ve picked a better place to do pushups, so she wouldn’t get in people’s way.

”ごめん, sorry, forgive me.” She signed and blew a few errant hairs out of her face to get a good look at the woman. ”That’s my bad, I shouldn’t…”

Her voice trailed off as she got a good look at the woman. She was smaller, but athletic, a build that reminded her a lot of her mother’s wild days. But more than that, there was something about her hair, her eyes, her face, that all struck a familiar chord. ”I…” She blinked a few times, narrowing her eyes, than straightened. ”Sorry, I just…do I know you? You look familiar.”

[Underdoggo]

Idiot, Makie thought to herself as she nearly tripped over the other girl who had been busy doing a set of pushups. Off balance, Makie nearly toppled over and had to brace herself against the nearby wall. It was her own fault, really: she had been so lost in thought that she hadn't been looking where she was going. Hopefully the other girl wasn't too upset.

For her part, the woman she had tripped over was quite the opposite of angry: she was apologizing profusely, even bowing as she stood to her full height: while Makie was not exactly the tallest person in the world (she got irritated whenever anyone described her as "short"), this blonde towered over her, her gym attire barely hiding her well developed arm and leg muscles, washboard abs and amazonian build. Admittedly, Makie nearly lost herself in a moment of sapphic distraction.

Wait, was she blushing just now? Fuck, I'm blushing. Calm down, Makie, before she notices--

It was too late: the woman was now staring intently at her. To Makie's surprise, she blonde then mentioned something about her looking familiar. It was then the realization hit Makie that this blonde also looked familiar: the blonde hair, the tan, the facial features...and the fact that she had seen her, not long ago, while lazily watching a rerun of one of Kyo's more recent matches.

Makie barely managed to suppress a squeal of excitement. "AH...ahem...you...you're Valley Doll, right? I mean, the current Valley Doll, not the world-famous one, I MEAN--"

Oh my god, Makie, stop rambling.

[BlackAkuma]

There was a moment of awkwardness between them, one that Valerie couldn't help but be aware of. To say the least, she was quite aware that she was being stared at, though she wasn't sure why - was there something on her face? And why was she blushing, what was that about?

Thankfully, the woman spoke up soon enough and broke the silence, rightfully guessing her ring name. That was a little surprising, she wasn’t that big of a name yet, even with her pedigree, so she wasn’t expecting some random wrestler to know her, especially outside of her ring gear. So who was this?

And then it clicked. ”Oh!” She snapped her fingers and lit up. ”You’re Makie!”

Valerie might have read Kyo’s Wikipedia page. A few times. She’d seen Kyo’s sister on it, and briefly looked over her section. Apparently she was a high-flyer, in a similar vein to her predecessor. She certainly had the right body for it.

”Uh, yes, I’m Valley. Call me ‘Valerie’, though, please.” She was going to have to make that correction a lot, wasn’t she? ”It’s nice to meet you, but…” She straightened up and looked about, a small hint of worry creeping across her face. ”Is Kyo with you? I was expecting him, and…”

She scratched the back of her head, trying not to sound too disappointed. He hadn't stood her up, had he? This wasn’t some thing where he sent his sister to let her down easy? He wouldn’t do that, right?

[Underdoggo]

Makie's heart skipped a beat. Wait a minute, Valley Doll III knew about her? The daughter of the legendary Valley Doll knew about her? She could feel her face reddening even further. Had Kyo told her about her? That had to be it: he must have let her know she was coming ahead of him. But...Kyo said he didn't have any way of messaging her, so how could he have--

She was brought back to reality as Valley...wait, no, Valerie... asked her if Kyo was showing up. At this, Makie straightened up, remembering the specific reason for her being here. Well, other than to get some leg work done.

"No, Kyo is on his way, but...well, he chose today of all days to take the bus. In heavy traffic. He can be a bit of a dunce sometimes." she said, allowing herself to relax a little. "Soooo, he kinda sent me ahead to let you know, seeing as he doesn't have your number apparently. And to say sorry. So...yeah, he's on his way, but you might have a bit of a wait."

Typical Kyo, Makie thought ruefully, getting late and forcing her to apologize on his behalf...

[BlackAkuma]

Valerie breathed a sigh of relief when Makie clarified the situation. She should’ve known, really - she’d lived in Japan her whole life, she knew how annoying the traffic could be. She preferred taking the metro, just for reasons like this, annoying little delays that could set her back.

”That’s good.” She thumbed back to the ring. ”I was just about to do some drills in the ring, get limbered up. Do you want to join me?”

Valerie made her way over to the practice ring and hopped up on the apron, looking down at Makie nearby and centering on the woman’s face. It had been a little red to start, and it was now practically glowing like a street light, impossible to miss. She didn’t want to say anything, but curiosity and mild concern got the better of her. ”Are you okay?” She circled a hand around her face, miming what she meant. ”Your face is seriously red, right now. Do you need some water?

[Underdoggo]

Things seemed to be going reasonable well now. Valley Doll's daughter...no, Valerie (but wasn't her mom also named Valerie?) seemed to be a fairly chill person, and the more Makie set herself at ease, the more she realized that she was speaking in perfectly fluent Japanese, which wasn't something you saw that much from the Westerners in LAW (Makie had had to learn to speak decent English just so she could converse with, or taunt, half the people in the LAW roster, so this was a refreshing change).

Makie's calm dissipated, though, as Valerie proposed to do some drills with her in the ring.

Makie felt her face reddening even further, and then, to her horror, Valerie then commented on it! "EH?!! Ah...n-no, I'm fine!" Makie stammered with a nervous smile. It's just that the daughter of one of my greatest heroes...and a person with smoking hot abs...wants to spar with me. Absolutely no big deal "Ab...absolutely nothing to worry about! Sure, I'd love to spar with you! Any ground rules you were...um...thinking about?"

[BlackAkuma]

Valerie looked Makie up and down, not bothering to hide the concern etched on her face. Something was distracting the woman, a blind person could see that, but she couldn't quite put a finger on what that would be. She was trying not to come on too strong, didn’t want to intimidate her, and couldn't imagine saying anything wrong or offending her with how little they’d interacted so far.

Whatever the case, she knew better than to pry, and she let it go with a shrug as she made her way to the practice ring. ”Rules?” She took a moment to think something up. ”Well, let’s keep it light. I want to save myself for Kyo.” She winced, thankfully with her face turned away from Makie. ”For sparring. I want to save myself for sparring with him.”

Valerie jumped on the apron, grabbed the ropes, vaulted over them, and made her way into the ring with a single bound. She landed near the center and bounced on her heels, getting heated up. ”I’m thinking no strikes. Just keep it simple, grappling, technical stuff, fundamentals.”

[Underdoggo]

I want to save myself for Kyo. Something about the way Valerie had said that made Makie take notice. It was brief, only a few bare seconds, but the way Valerie caught and corrected herself so suddenly was notable.

Could Valerie be interested in her brother?

The comment caused gears to start clicking in her brain. Valley Doll II, even at the height of her career, had been open about her sexuality (in fact she had been something of an LGBTQ icon in the wrestling world at the time). Makie, perhaps wrongly, had assumed that Valerie would be just as queer as her mom. The way she seemed so intent on sparring with Kyo again...could it be more than just another chance to test her skills against a strong opponent?

A part of Makie was a little disappointed that this meant she had no chance with this blonde tower of power...but a part of her also took some measure of mischievous glee from this knowledge. It was something she could absolutely tease Kyo about later.

Makie put this in the back of her mind as Valerie proposed some rules. Nodding, Makie stretched and began to limber up. "Sounds good enough to me," she said, giving a light stretch before she slid under the ropes. While Valerie clearly had an advantage on her in size and strength, Makie was never one to turn down a challenge...and besides, in a grappling match like this, a girl with a light build like hers still had plenty of advantages. Stepping up to the centre of the ring, Makie rotated her shoulders. "Okay...ready when you are!"