The Princess's Lioness (For Bare)

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Noelle had been expecting Teuila to ask this question for awhile. She recognized how she had acted during the match, and how stark the contrast was with how she was acting today. It only made sense that the younger girl would be confused. But the Spaniard also thought that it would've been a bit awkward to bring up on her own, so she had waited for Teuila to bring it up.

"Well, LAW set that match up in the first place because they wanted me to send you a message," began Noelle. "You thought that you were ready for the main roster, LAW disagreed. They know that these types of things usually need to be settled through action, so after they had booked us for a match, I was approached and instructed to be a bit... excessive, so that the message would get through to you that you weren't ready to move up yet."

"Now they gave me free reign over how I would carry out my instructions, but it really boiled down to two options," explained Noelle. "I could either be physically brutal, or psychologically brutal. And while our match certainly did hurt for you, I think you can figure out easily enough that I went the psychological route."

"Even then, there was still a decision left to make," Noelle continued. "I could try to humiliate you in a way that would make you depressed or pissed. If I tried to make you feel so worthless as a wrestler that you wanted to quit, then I would've acted a lot differently, and we probably wouldn't be here. But I wanted you to get back up. I wanted to make you so pissed at how you lost that you wouldn't even entertain the thought of quitting before you rocketed beyond what you had been before." The Spaniard sighed before finishing, "I know how cripplingly demotivating it can be to feel that you are good enough to rise up to the next level, and then have somebody who's already up decide to turn around and stomp you back down to the bottom. That's what i wanted to make sure I avoided doing at all costs. And considering you tracked me back down for payback so quickly it was actually earlier than it should've been, I'd say I at least accomplished that."

[Bare]

Teuila wasn't sure if now was the best time to ask this question of Noelle, but she felt it was important to... clear the air as it were with the Spanish princess. Before she sat down and had a meal with her at least since that could be... well more than a little awkward in her opinion given how things went in their match and most recent spar. Really all she wanted was a little context for it all.

Luckily for her Noelle seemed to have expected this and had a answer ready for her. Sitting back and listening to the woman as she spoke a few different emotions ran through the Samoan's mind. Anger at management for having such little faith, at Noelle for following through and at herself for proving them all right.

Simultaneously though she also felt.. relieved and even somewhat grateful to Noelle. Not necessarily that she liked what she did, but now that she had the reasoning and context for why she did so, she did at least appreciate it. Sure it may have sucked in the moment, and Teuila spent the past week furious, but now? Now she was just relieved that the princess was... honestly pretty cool to want to motivate her rather than humiliate her like what management wanted.

Nodding slowly to Noelle as she finished digesting the woman words she would nod slightly. "Yeah you definitely accomplished that goal." Teuila said with a small chuckle at the last thing Noelle said, giving a small nod to the woman before pursing her lips. "Thank you tough... for looking out for me... in your own way." Teuila said struggling with the phrasing just a bit before taking a shuddering breath.

"Wish you could have clued me in on it earlier, and I'm sorry if I was... overly aggressive during the match and after. I was just... so sure I ready and being met with the idea I wasn't and to have it flaunted was so frustrating. Hehe, but I guess that was kinda the point huh?" Teuila said to Noelle laughing slightly at the end even in spite of the frustration laced in her voice, but she was coming around to what Noelle was telling her at least for Noelle herself, as opposed to management.

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Noelle tilted her head down with closed eyes as Teuila bared her feelings. "As I said," she began, "I know the feeling of thinking that you're enough, and then having the world prove to you that you aren't. Not in the wrestling ring, mind you, but I have dealt with people in the past who considered my very existence to be as such."

"As for keeping you in the dark, I do stand by that decision," Noelle continued. "As I see it, letting you know would have blunted the impact. I suppose it would have been possible to let you in on it while still maintaining that presence of a someone with no respect for your abilities, but even that could have had unwanted effects depending on how you responded to knowing that LAW did not have faith in you as a main roster wrestler before you had determined your resolve to keep going. For you to use your pain and anger to grow, it needed to be directed at something you could actually point it towards. You cannot exactly go into a LAW corner office and demand a fight with somebody in there," the Spaniard explained. "While I'm obviously not saying this would have happened for certain, having the sense that LAW as an organization was against you before you had decided to keep on going could have created feelings of futility or hopelessness that might have pushed you to quit. At least, that is how my perception of the situation was."

[Bare]

Teuila would nod at what Noelle said, finding that most of it made sense for the most part. Hell if anything learning that Noelle had dealt with similar people with similar thoughts about her, even if not in wrestling directly felt kinda good to know. It definitely helped permanently alter the way that Teuila looked at the silver haired woman. A light that had been shifting since their spar, but now it made Noelle seme completely different to the Samoan girl as she nodded gently to the woman.

Even Noelle's explanation for why she didn't tell Teuila made sense. After all could she have said that she'd have the same reaction after her loss if Noelle had told her why she was acting like that? Maybe, but aybee not at the same time. It was hard to say. Ultimately though it didn't matter, what was done was done, and all that either of them could do was live with and move on. That begged the question though, just how should she move on and what should she do?

Looking up at Noelle and awkwardly shifting some hair from her face Teuila would nod gently to the woman. "Yeah you're right. Not telling me is the right call. Even if it kinda sucks in hindsight." She admitted with a nod before looking up at Noelle again, this time with a more determined look. "About what you said before... about people not thinking you're enough... Could you explain a bit more?" She asked before looking up as the car came to a stop in front of the restaurant. "Over food?" She added with a sheepish grin and chuckle before moving to get out of the car and head inside.

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Noelle was admittedly a bit relieved when Teuila took the explanation as well as she did. The Spaniard wouldn’t have faulted the Lioness for being angry and accusing the more experienced wrestler of trying to play and manipulate her. To be completely honest, Teuila probably wouldn’t even be wrong if she claimed that. Noelle had acted in a way which was meant to directly influence the rookie’s thoughts and emotions.

Noelle was about to reply to Teuila’s question about her past, when she too realized that they had reached their destination. ”Yes, over food,” the princess instead said as she paid the cab fare. The two women would head inside, be seated, waited on, and the like. But Noelle would wait until they had their meals in front of them before returning back to the previous topic.

“The topic you’re asking about has very little to actually do with wrestling,” Noelle began. “It does involve how I made the decision to become a wrestler, but that also serves as the very end of the story. I’m not opposed to telling you the story, but I don’t believe that you’ll actually hear the type of information you’re looking for, unless you only seek to simply know more about me.”

[Bare]

Entering the restaurant with Noelle not far behind her who had agreed to answer over food Teuila and Noelle would quickly get seated, put in their orders and surprisingly got their food rather quickly. 'Already a plus.' Teuila thought to herself, impressed at the speed and efficiency but before digging in she would focus back on Noelle as she decided to respond to her earlier inquiry.

Bridging her fingers together in a pyramid the Samoan girl would hum softly at what Noelle said before giving a nod. "How about an abridged version? Like not all the details but the important stuff ya know? Truth is I could just do with hearing about someone other than me for a bit." She said with a sheepish chuckle before pursing her lips, grabbing a pair of chopsticks and picking at her food.

"Also..." She said while looking up, picking up a piece of beef as she did so, focusing back on Noelle before anything else. "I won't lie, it is interesting to me that you'd go from being a princess to a wrestler. Like you probably could have just not had to do anything and you'd be well off, so whatever made you make your decision must have been worth knowing." She said before taking a bite of her feet and waiting for her former opponent's response.

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Noelle, upon hearing that Teuila did want to hear her story, finished the portion of food that she was eating and took a sip of her drink. "Very well then," she said. "Firstly you should know that the whole princess thing is pretty played up. While I am legitimately of the Spanish Royal Family, I have quite literally the minimum possible amount of blood relation to King Felipe as I could possibly have while still being recognized as such. You don't want to know how many people would have to either die or abdicate for me to end up on the Spanish throne."

"From there, I don't imagine it's too hard to figure out where the accusations of inadequacy came from," Noelle continued. "My status does still grant me enough resources that I don't need to be doing this, but it also gave quite literally every single relative I have free material to come after me with if they so desired, and even some people who weren't royalty, but still had a higher position than 'furthest possible relative to the king.'"

"As for how this turned into wrestling, it was at a casual family gathering. Well, as casual as royalty gets," said Noelle. "I think it was a male... second cousin to the throne if I recall. He tried to lord his status in the family over me by trying to make me debase myself to him and wait on him like a handmaiden. I told him to stuff it, and he challenged me to a wrestling bout with the intent to prove his superiority to me by making me submit to him by force." There was pride in the smile that came over Noelle's face before she said wait Teuila could probably guess what was coming, "In reality, he was three years younger than me and hadn't hit puberty yet, so I ended up making him submit beneath me as a painful lesson as to what consequences were."

"It was the first time I ever got to get one up on somebody in my family, so naturally wrestling had quite a good first impression on me," Noelle explained. "One of the benefits of my royal blood being so faint is that people usually care a lot less what I do, so when I decided I wanted to pursue wrestling, I was able to do so without much pushback. Few years later, and here we are."

[Bare]

As Noelle herself had mentioned this was a bit off brand from what they had been talking about in regards to pro wrestling and why she had done what she done. Yet it didn't matter all that much to Teuila. Really she just genuinely wanted to know more about Noelle. In a way she was like a benefactor to her, even if in a abstract and backdoor kind of way that involved embarrassing her. Still it all left Teuila wanting to know more and more about the woman, especially what had brought her into the world of professional wrestling.

Eating while Noelle talked Teuila would nod a bit to show her understanding and listening of what she was saying. It made sense, she had known to some extent that Noelle was, while a royalty, not exactly next in line. But furthest from it while still technically royalty? That was news to her, and really the thought of anyone putting the woman down was.. crazy. Noelle always seemed so confident bordering on arrogance it was hard to imagine anyone lording superiority over her in all honesty.

Sitting back after putting her fork down Teuila would nod softly before smirking a bit hearing Noelle talk about the cousin that thought he could flaunt his status over her despite being so much younger and getting humbled as a result. "Heh, sounds like a royal brat to me." Teuila said while sticking her tongue out playfully before nodding as the woman finished her story.

"I see though... honestly it kinda sounds nice to me. Like you get the best of both worlds. You get to compete just for the sake of it, for yourself. It really means that you're in it just to try and be the best. I really respect that honestly." Teuila admitted with a nod, digesting everything in full with a nod before she took another bite of her food.

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"Heh, him and most of my damn family," Noelle said after hearing Teuila's thoughts on her cousin. "Of course, it isn't like I don't have my own moments. Especially back when I still lived in Spain. Conceit and arrogance are comically easy for a child to learn when they're raised being told how special they are purely for existing."

"Yeah, being royalty gets you the best of many worlds," said Noelle. "I have no doubts that I was blessed by my birth. When the biggest problem you have that you can't be handled with more than a simple choice or decision is 'being mocked for not being royal enough,' well, I think they might need to make a new phrase that's beyond 'first-world problems' for that."

Noelle thought that Teuila looked to be enjoying her food, which wasn't surprising since the Spaniard knew that this place was good. Her own plate of steak-fried golden rice drizzled in garlic butter was more than appetizing. "Back to you for the moment," Noelle eventually said. "After our match, I'm assuming you tried to find what shortcomings you had that were holding you back, yes? I'd like to ask what you found. What do you believe to be your greatest flaw as a wrestler?"

[Bare]

Teuila actually ended up chuckling a bit as she heard Noelle's response to her joke about her cousin. This was honestly the most comfortable and amicable things had felt with her in... her entire time knowing the silver haired woman, and she liked that. Smiling and nodding along to what the woman was saying admittedly definitely being able to relate, but on the opposite end of the spectrum having come from a pretty poor background herself. Really they were almost like total opposites yet, with Noelle's arrogant facade dropped, they were a lot more similar than Teuila would have expected.

As Noelle pivoted the conversation back to her though the brunette would blush softly at the question. Mostly just how... vulnerable it made her feel. Having to not only acknowledge but explain what her weakness was. Luckily she had a decent idea of an answer. "Well... I looked back at our match. As well as others that I've had, just to see if there was any pattern... and there is." Teuila admitted, using her chopsticks to play with her food a it before deciding to answer.

"I think.. its my emotions. I tend to get... riled up cause I wear my heart on my sleeve. Sometimes it works for me. But a lot of times it makes me kinda... dumb in how I respond, trying to brute force my way through things... and that clearly doesn't work against people either more technically better, or who are baiting that reaction from me and are expecting it." Teuila explained, wondering how Noelle would receive her thoughts, hoping it was good enough for the woman.