The Hot Springs Truce

[Monsy]

Auuustria! She never been.

First time in Europe, no less. She was PUMPED to land.
Excited to see the sights, have a nice hotel and exploit all the amenities. Of course, there were treasures too. She wanted to scale one of these mountains! Two! As her week ahead didn’t have any matches, she was left to explore the towns with a little book filled with German phrases to get around and practiced to local faces. Unfortunately… The Austro-Bavarian dialect really fucked her up and she was stuck yelling at a local to SPEAK SENSE. Whatever that meant…

On some of her first nights, she ended up eating at the restaurants and exploring the grounds where the matches take place. She got an early peek at the ice sculptures this way, still being touched-up. Especially the castle. Well, not so much eating, so much as ordering half the menu just to see what the food looked like here in person, then dabbing her finger in each dish and tasting it before leaving the rest and dumping the tab on LAW.

She did trails in the evening. One time, past the normal hours, so she ended up staying a night inside a watchpost with a slightly unhappy Austrian man. She freaked him out majorly. It was already pretty dark, now was heavy, and though the rising mist, approaching him on hind legs, was this silhouette with devil horns and big burly stature ( her jacket’s doing ). Even though she was only 5’3” -- from a distance, she looked like some kind of bear monster. The type you only see in rural legends and folktales. Of course, they couldn’t really go back to the resort at midnight. So she was given a place to sit and fuck around until daylight.

Later on in the same week, she did her first adventure… Or misadventure skiing. She ended up eating shit on a trail and tumbling down a hill. The skis slid off her foot because she insisted on riding them ‘freestyle’ -- which didn’t work out when she hit a jump and her heels came loose.

Shit-Shit-Shit--SPLAT!!

She hadn’t worn a good coat that day on account of being too restrictive to doing any sort of flips or crazy stunts. When told of the learning curve she remarked very strongly, ‘Watch this’ -- and not three minutes later was rolling down almost one-hundred feet of slope, buried under a pile of snow.

That night, Saturday, she wasn’t feeling all too well. She was having chills and the skin under her eyes felt milky. There was a general sense of malaise and soreness from cramps and cold. She just napped the remaining afternoon and early evening. At 10pm, Angelina left her room in the resort to head towards the changing rooms. This place had an indoor hot springs, she heard, and was willing to give this a go to fix herself, wanting to be better for tomorrow to see the card play out. And enjoy the festival.

After getting naked, showering and wrapping herself in a towel, she went into the general area. Empty. It was a wooden deck. Dark brown with a single pattern of planks for a cabin vibe. Hints of hazelnut colour mixed into the accent. The walls had a trim of horizontal plank on the top to bottom, then the rest were vertical except for door frames and the pool’s very edge. It had a clock and temperature indicator on a monitor, sealed up with a plastic case under a lock. And on the other walls, there were the faces of cut bits of log only a few inches thick. Like disks, arrayed in a wavey pattern to resemble the alps.

The best part was the hot spring itself. It was dark blue fiberglass with lights at the edges, giving the water a clear and crystal look. Steam was rising like whispering flowers of healing goodness. It was in the corner with the outdoors open to them in that particular section. Lanterns hung off tree branches and sat on small rock formations. It reminded her of Christmas. Though her experience with the holiday was movies.

A natural rock path down towards a stream flowing by about twenty feet away, perfect to drown someone in. If she needed to. The snow melted in this section, which would make it easier on her sensitive feet. And in the distance, a mountain range that was only a shadow at this time. A crescent moon sat on-top of it all, grinning at them in its quirky sideways way.

Angelina stepped to the edge of the hot springs and looked out. When she got there, the new angle unveiled someone she hadn’t seen from the door. It wasn’t the worst thing in the world. And she couldn’t tell who they were just by their long black hair. So she piped up.

“Hey.”

[CaptainL]

Yuki really needed this.

By all accounts, she should've been making the most of what was essentially a paid vacation. She was staying at a mountain resort, surrounded by the natural beauty of the Alps, and when her match was still a week out, she had plenty of time to enjoy it. She'd explored the towns nearby, she'd even gone on one of the hiking trails, and - thinking back on her discussions with Satsuki Hayano - she had even decided to sample the hotel bar in the spirit of living it up a little, though she had to go back to her room when she started feeling dizzy. But no matter how much she tried to distract herself, and no matter how many times she tried to convince herself she was just here to relax, there was always something lurking in the shadows - something looming in the distance that wouldn't let Yuki forget why she was here.

Next week, in Salzburg, Yuki was scheduled to take on Angelina Tarrant in a match that was to settle their long-standing rivalry once and for all. And, as of Angelina's latest promo, the stakes for that match were higher than ever. Not only was this going to be the culmination of a long and brutal feud, one that had left its mark not only on Yuki but on everyone around her, it was also going to be a Loser Leaves Town match - one where the loser would be forced to leave LAW for good. If Yuki won, she would end the threat Angelina posed to LAW, once and for all. But if she lost...she would have nowhere to go. She'd have lost the one place in the world she truly felt a sense of belonging from. And the world of uncertainty that surrounded her if she didn't have LAW was deep and dark and harrowing.

She'd gone to the hot springs in an attempt to get away from all that. She hadn't been to one of these in a long while - it wasn't since she and Haruka went one weekend; was that back while she was in high school? She really didn't get out much any more. But it seemed like just what she needed. It would be a reminder of home; a taste of normalcy. The warm water would soothe her muscles and give her the time to reflect. She could get to a calmer place of mind, and considering everything that lay on the horizon, Yuki desperately needed that.

She'd picked a late hour of the night in the hopes that she would have the hot spring to herself, and luckily enough, it seemed like she'd have just that. Breathing out a long, deep sigh, Yuki had waded into the water, sinking down and let it wash over her. The warmth seemed to massage over her body, smoothing out the aches and pains and letting her ease herself lower into the pool. For a moment, everything else seemed to fade away. Finally, Yuki could forget all her troubles. Finally, she could be at peace. The future didn't exist - she only had the present to concern herself with. And the present was nothing more than warmth and calm and peace.

But even that wouldn't last. Yuki didn't know how much time she spent here alone, but it was just then she heard a voice behind her - someone must have entered without her noticing. She started at first from such a sudden disruption of the peace she'd settled into, but she spun around to face it. "Huh..?"

And then, she froze.

No. It couldn't be. Right across from Yuki, staring her down, was her. Angelina Tarrant. She was unmistakable - that red hair, those horns, those purple eyes, that face that had burned itself into Yuki's mind. Of all the times she had to run into her, why did it have to be now? Even amidst the warmth of the hot springs, an icy chill ran down Yuki's back as she sucked in a gasp. Angelina wouldn't allow her any peace. At any moment, it seemed, she was ready to swoop in and shatter any hope Yuki had of getting a calm moment to herself. And now, she had never felt more vulnerable. She was alone, she was naked, she was in the water where Angelina could easily have held her head below the surface if she wanted to. And how could such a coincidence have even happened? Did Angelina know she was here, at this hour? In that instant, Yuki's heart leaped into her chest. What was supposed to be her chance to get away from it all had now turned into a confrontation she wasn't even sure she would make it out of alive.

Drawing back through the water and pressing herself up against the rim of the pool, Yuki drew her arm up to cover her chest. It wasn't so much out of modesty, given the situation, as it was out of her own feelings of vulnerability. Her eyes wide, her breaths quickened into pants as she stared straight through Angelina. "W-What...do you want!?"

[Monsy]

Well this was fucking great.

Yuki, the ever universal problem that likes to be a bump in Angelina’s road. She can only picture Yuki planning to stay at the same lodge, lurking in the shadows around her and then attending this pool when she thought she’d be safe. Whatever that meant. Yuki could be fucking with her, for all Angelina knew. It made her eyes roll deep into her head.

No day was peaceful when Yuki was around. Lord knows Yuki deserves to feel afraid and scramble to the pool’s rim. She watched unmoved externally, following her retreat with dead and half-sickly eyes.

“I’d ask the same to you.” Now…What to do about it? She felt an inner duty to at least try and smash her head against something. Or hold it beneath the water until her fingers were prune. Drag it to the outside to the stream. Probably a better place for a drowning.

“As for me. I wanna get in.” Angelina went towards the steps. She dropped her towel along the way, letting herself be naked. Her body was on the thinner side of Lightweights. Her waist was small compared to her hips. Belly tight. Her shoulders weren't very broad and her chest was a C-cup with a bit of perkiness. After rolling her shoulders, her foot was first to step into and feel the nibbling heat. Stream rose from her shin and calf. Then the second step. The water was at her mid-thigh. Just deep enough for her fingers to flex and get a taste.

“That a problem, Yooks?”

[CaptainL]

"What do I...want?" Yuki's whole body was tense. Her back was flat against the rim of the pool, and she had stood up straighter as her stance stiffened, trying to make herself as tall as possible and rising up until the water was at her hips. Her eyelid twitched nervously, and she studied every motion Angelina made down to her breaths. At any minute, she thought, Angelina could strike. There were no cameras here. There was no one around. Yuki had been caught off guard, and she had no way to defend herself. If Angelina wanted to attack now, no one would be around to see it, or to stop her. It seemed like the perfect plan. Yuki was sure that she had to be plotting something. And despite all this...she had the nerve to ask that same question to Yuki?

"...I'm taking a bath. What does it look like?" Yuki sputtered. And then, the red alert her mind was swimming in paused for just a moment. Angelina, she thought, wouldn't have had any way of knowing she was here at this time. She probably just wanted to take a bath herself...and she had picked the absolute worst time to do it. The dark-haired girl looked down and bit at the inside of her cheek, grumbling to herself. What was she thinking, being so suspicious? Was she really going to let her anxiety rule her this much?

Nevertheless, she kept a close eye on Angelina. Even if the Marauder didn't have ill intentions going into this, Yuki wouldn't put it past her to go for a more opportunistic strike. That also meant she saw as Angelina let her towel drop, and she saw her body in all its glory. She could see every curve, and every toned muscle...and she was reminded, once again, of how pitifully her own A-cups must have seemed next to Angelina's. Blushing, she lowered herself down into the water enough to cover her chest, just so no one would have to acknowledge it. Though...her eyes would still wander. It was hard to look away, even if Yuki wasn't so anxious. And her cheeks would only blush hotter, knowing she was this captivated by the body of the absolute last person she wanted to be captivated by.

With a huff, Yuki looked aside, though she glanced back at Angelina a moment later anyway, never wanting to take her eyes off her for long. "Look, I can't stop you. Just...don't do anything funny," she huffed. Here, Yuki was hoping she would have the chance to relax, unwind, and prepare herself for the next match. Now, it seemed, she would know no peace, whether or not Angelina was even trying to disturb her or not.

Letting out another sigh, Yuki glanced back up in Angelina's direction. "...Funny this just had to happen, huh?"

[Monsy]

"...I'm taking a bath. What does it look like?"

( Oh, so SHE gets to be obvious… )

Now that Angelina was somewhat in the water, she was beginning to feel her toes relax and de-stress in a way that blankets weren’t helping before. She wiggled them, waited to see if Yuki would have a heart attack ( please do ) in the pool and drowned. But unfortunately, she was just hanging in the water because she wanted to submerge into a crocodile.

Lovely.

“Funny… Right.”

Quite a way to describe what Angelina was picturing. But, she didn’t have the brainpower to care that deeply. Instead she got in all the way. The water reached just over her belly button. She sensed a faint smell of bromine. And her skin felt instantly relaxed like dipping into a vat of cleansing water. She’d have to ask about any additives here…

For now, though, she merely sat down on the bench near the side. The steam was a grace for her aching sinuses. Though Yuki’s voice was enough to tighten them back up again.

"...Funny this just had to happen, huh?"

She looked outside and replied plainly. “One way to put it…”

Then she zoned out, staring up at the ceiling with a deep inhale and exhale routine.

After one rep, she let her cheek fall against her shoulder. She looked at Yuki with a forced smirk and a finger curled at the gates of her lips.

“Ya look very jumpy.”

[CaptainL]

Yuki's gaze was fixed into the water beneath her. She didn't even want to look at Angelina, not for a moment - and not just because she was afraid she'd make her feel things she felt weird about. It seemed that Yuki just couldn't escape her. That no matter where she went, or what direction she turned, that menacing horned shadow was always going to stretch her way, all-encompassing and all-devouring. Even when she was in another country, in another continent, Angelina would still follow. Even when she was trying to get away from it all, and to get in some much-needed time to decompress and regroup before she threw herself headlong into the fire in the most high-stakes match of her life, Yuki couldn't even have that - Angelina wasn't going to let her have a moment's rest.

She shut her eyes and bit her lip. Just pretend she isn't there, she told herself. She sank a little lower in the water, bringing her knees closer to herself - almost as though to shield her vitals. She tried to concentrate on the warmth of the water lapping around her, on the steam rising lazily into the air, on the quiet...but it was no use. She knew, through it all, that Angelina was here. And as long as Angelina was here, Yuki could know no peace. Wherever Angelina went, there was danger. There was fear and terror and a threat. And now, that threat was closer than ever.

Yuki couldn't just ignore that - if anything, if she let her guard down, it would only make her a more inviting target for Angelina to strike. Sucking in a deep breath, she lifted her head once again, looking back at Angelina with a watchful eye...but then, Angelina wasn't doing anything. She was just sitting there. She was just...taking a bath. Yuki's eye twitched - was she really letting herself get this worked up? Was it really this big a deal?

Even Angelina seemed to question her on such matters. But as Yuki heard those words, her body grew stiff, and her back pressed up against the wall behind her. No matter how silly she felt - or how silly Angelina made her feel, rather - Yuki couldn't take her eyes off Angelina now. Any cue to strike would surely be one that Angelina would go for. Had she forgotten what Angelina had done to her before - and how she'd threatened to do so much worse? No; paying close enough attention to Angelina was the difference between life and death...quite possibly literally.

An awkward pause ensued. "...I mean..." At last, Yuki's words broke the silence, though she let out a huff in between the words. She wanted to breathe out the tension in her body, but it wouldn't budge. "After everything you've done...do you really blame me? Next week, I'm going into the most important match of my life. And...you're making me ask if I'll even make it there."

[Monsy]

Even when her eyes were fighting to close, she was peeling them wide open to observe. Especially with her Yuki, who couldn’t seem to relax herself ever since she got here. It left her wondering about the ring, both at their promo and date ahead. Would she have been this way if they got too close? On-guard at all times, fidgeting, lip biting and that little hint of inner disturbance.

Like she was swimming with a shark.

Angelina turned to point her body at Yooks. She rose from the water so about half her chest was out. Her elbow went on the side and made some water splish-splash as she adjusted. A propped up fist now against her cheek. Because what Yuki had to say, no matter what she thought of it, was important to absorb. The Dynamite Schoolgirl’s squirm was also a sight to behold.

And, almost expectantly, she was slapped with the blame. She just didn’t have the energy to frown about it.

Even with the last bit of nuance. Which was totally something you ask when the room is bugged. She didn’t know that for sure. But she’d most certainly never play the chance.

“Think I’m like that, huh?” Angelina’s brow raised. Then she smirked. “You’re fuckin’ insane.”

Another pause. The topic itself wasn’t worth a response. She raised an index from the water, slowly. It was a lazy finger, with Angelina’s expression falling flat.

“Both times we met outside the ring, ya were always the one to jump the gun and hit me first.”

She stood up fully after pushing off the side. Her boobs came above water, now as shiny as her purple cat eyes. Her head tilted one way.

“If ya ask me, I think yoouuu like that feelin’, dontcha? Risk and dangah get ya off?”

[CaptainL]

When Angelina began to rise from the water, Yuki went tense out of instinct; she drew an arm closer to her side. Even the slightest sign of movement, coming from the Marauder, seemed like an intent to strike. A second later, she saw that Angelina wasn't making her move - all she was doing was lying there in the water, watching her. Yuki's teeth clamped down even harder at the inside of her cheek as she sucked in a hiss of a breath. Why was she this nervous? Why, when Angelina wasn't even doing anything? Was she really letting herself be this jumpy - when she had always attributed to her success to her keen eye, her planning, and her ability to keep her composure under pressure? But, at the same time...Angelina had given her more than enough reasons to keep that suspicion close to her heart. And it seemed just as much of a failure if she didn't take that seriously.

She was so casual about it, too. For Yuki, merely being around Angelina seemed like it was a matter of life and death...which might not even have been that much of an exaggeration. Yet, here she was. Floating there in the water, calmly and unassumingly, as though it were the most normal and innocent thing in the world. As though she couldn't even begin to comprehend how much this meant to Yuki.

It even showed through in her words - when Angelina once again pointed the finger at Yuki. Insisting she was the crazy one. As though there was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary about anything she had done. When she called Yuki insane, the Japanese girl's mouth dropped open - but whatever words she had to say in response died silently in her throat. It was what Angelina said next, about their encounters outside the ring - in Yuki's personal life - that made Yuki realize silence wasn't an option.

She wanted to write the script. And in doing so, she wanted to cast Yuki in the worst light possible. As an ungrateful violent savage. As, yes, a psychopath. How could she be anything else, if she had attacked Angelina unprovoked? Because, by how Angelina told it, it was unprovoked. But Yuki knew better. Yuki knew that wasn't true at all. And she couldn't be silent about it - she couldn't let Angelina tell her how she lived her life.

She rose higher, up to her shoulders. Her eyes fixed on Angelina, and there they narrowed down into a glare. She folded her arms under her chest, even if they mainly stayed beneath the surface; exposing her weak spots still felt like suicide. "And you mean to tell me it's perfectly normal and reasonable of you to...find out where I live? Track me down? You're really telling me that's something people do? And you really think my response wasn't what anyone would do? Your act might have worked on my family, but I know you. It's not going to work on me." Angelina, it seemed, was forcing Yuki to confront her very notion of what was real and what wasn't. And that wasn't a game that Yuki was about to play.

Though...when Angelina made her next accustation; that Yuki liked this? That struck her square in the heart. Yuki thought she was ready to stand her ground, but this still managed to slip through her defenses. "...What!?" she blurted out. Now, she hopped back to her feet, rising to Angelina's eye level so that the water came up to her waist. She still had her arms crossed, but now she pulled them closer to her body, as though trying to shield herself. Her eye twitched, and her teeth bared in a grimace. "I'm...what sort of a question is that!? I never asked you to come here! I never asked for any of this, you know! It could've ended with that one match, but you had to-!" She winced, almost too afraid to finish the sentence.

[Monsy]

Now she was yelling. Poor baby. And it wasn’t so much the accusation that it could’ve ended in one match that was striking, but the fact…

“Oh, I get it.” And her finding made her smug. “Ya accusin’ me of comin’ here was my plan all along. Just waitin’ to get ya alone.” God, you’re so fucking paranoid... “No cams or bystandahs. Not even a cricket.” Good.

She shrugged. “Sure. That’s me.”

Her hands raised out of the water, spread like a surrender. “Guilty as charged.”

Sigh. An index finger folded down to point at Yuki.

“Just sayin’, though. Ya keep peddlin’ that schtick that it could’ve ended aftah one match, but the first thing ya did aftah the first was call me out and ask for a do-ovah. Or did ya willingly forget that?”

She swam a little closer to Yuki. Only four feet apart, slowly eroding.

“Ya sweat and itch every time we meet. You look at me like I’m sorta fuckin’ monstah. And treat me like one too. Not as a rival. And every chance we had at comin’ to an undahstandin’, who stops that by swingin?”

Her finger points. “That’s you.”

Her smile in the moment otherwise betrayed her point. She wasn’t hurt by this fact at all, but instead so annoyed by Yuki's insistence of total victimhood, she found it funny.

“You’re not a victim here, Yuki. You’re a playah. You took every chance to hurt me, even with our mutual pink friend. You used her to get rid of me. Tried. And very passionately too—because ya love the game. You wanna win. And somethin’ tells me, ya have a certain affection for me. Not just for my tits ya keep peekin’ at.”

[CaptainL]

Somehow, it wasn't until Angelina had turned it around on her, and spelled it all out right in front of her face, that Yuki truly realized how ridiculous she must have seemed. Really, what were the odds - how likely could it be that Angelina had somehow known exactly when she would be at the hot spring, no less when she would be alone? Was that really so much more believable than the two of them just happening to have been in the right place at the right time? She bit at the inside of her cheek, letting herself sink lower in the water as she hugged an arm closer to her side and glanced off. For as much as she was trying to contest Angelina's allegations of her being a psychopath, Yuki wasn't really doing a good job of it. And knowing that stung most of all.

"I'm..." The word slipped out in a sigh, but Yuki didn't say anything beyond that. She knew what she wanted to say. I'm sorry. She knew she was being unreasonable. She wanted to fess up to that. She couldn't claim to be the bigger person if she kept trying to insist that she was right, and Angelina was wrong, no matter what - not even if the truth was plainly obvious. And yet, she stopped then; the words froze in her throat. She couldn't say that. It would be an admission of vulnerability - and to Yuki, here and now, in front of Angelina, that was a step too far.

When Angelina crept closer to her, through the water, Yuki looked up, and her eye twitched nervously. A part of it was that she heard what Angelina threw her way - that she was being too jumpy; too nervous - and it made something tighten inside of her to consider that, yes, no matter how much she hated to even give that thought the time of day, Angelina did have a point. And, yes, even if Yuki had tried to ignore it, she had indeed brushed off Angelina's victory as a mere stroke of luck. Her teeth clenched. The one thing she hated more than dealing with Angelina was the thought of Angelina being right.

But there was also the fact that Angelina had proven herself to be a danger. Not just in the ring, but out of it. She knew what she had done to Shimmerlace - and what she would have done, had Yuki not been there to intervene. She knew what she had threatened to do to Yuki herself. And right now, Angelina was the last person Yuki wanted to be open and vulnerable around.

But...Angelina had her in a predicament. Yuki couldn't exactly strike out and defend herself either - because that would be proving Angelina's exact point. Every other time their paths had crossed, and every other time they'd come to blows...it was Yuki who had started it. And if she tried to strike out at her now, so soon after Angelina had left that ball in her court, it wouldn't exactly do any favors for her cause. A sickly feeling sunk down in the pit of her stomach. Yuki hated to admit it...but she knew, then, that the Marauder had her caught.

So, instead, after a long pause, Yuki sucked in a deep breath and looked up at Angelina. "Forgive me for being anxious, but...after you threatened to eat my eyeballs, I think I have the right to be." She sighed and crossed her arms - she glanced aside, only to look back at Angelina a moment later when she realized the risks of taking her eyes off her for long. "But...if you really insist that you don't have any ill intentions. Fine. I'll believe you. Call it a truce. For now. Just for as long as we need to take a bath, if that's what we're both here for."

Wth the weight of that off her chest, Yuki looked down at the water again. She had plenty of things she wanted to say to Angelina. She wanted to tell her that she wasn't trying to use Shimmerlace against her - Shimmerlace had been the one to come to her. But she knew there was nothing she could say that Angelina was actually going to believe. But...there was one last thing that Yuki just couldn't ignore. And at the insinuation, she jumped up in the water, a jolt going through her body like someone had just tapped her on the back of her neck.

"...What!? Affection..? What...what on earth gave you that idea!?" And as she thought of that next part, Yuki's cheeks deepened a few shades of red as she looked aside - averting her gaze in a way that didn't really help her point. "Also, I am not."