Summer Splash 2020: Belle Christensen vs Valeria Siamko

Tatiana paced back and forth in the backstage area of the arena, her flip-flops clopping along as she went. Her finger went to her mouth ever so often to try and chew at a fingernail, only to discover that she was pretty much out of nail to chew on, her tick wearing them down to the nub over the past few weeks. wanted this day to be over more than any other day in her entire life.

The days leading up to it hadn’t exactly been pleasant, either. When she found out that Belle was set to fight Valeria at this PPV, that it was all written in stone…

She’d known that arguments were a part of any relationship. She understood it was inevitable. But she still didn’t like going back and forth with her girlfriend over this, not over something so crazy. She could understand how important the match was to their relationship - if Valeria was going to attack Belle like this, then having her at a distance was necessary. They could mend things later, after she’d learned to accept she and Belle were a couple. Tatiana wished a fight wasn’t what had to make that happen, but so be it. This was the way her life worked in wrestling. Okay.

No, what she was most against was Belle wrestling while she was injured, that was the insane part. Valeria was a submission specialist, and it wasn’t like her girlfriend’s ailments were a secret. It would’ve been a fairly even match if she was in perfect condition, but with a handicap? Slaughter. Pure slaughter. And Tatiana would have to watch it, and not interfere, and-

She stopped in her pacing and looked back to her girlfriend, checking between her and the clock behind her. Just a few minutes before the match was set. The arena was empty, save for the needed staff. Just them and a referee, while Tatiana watched alongside Kaylee. Her newly minted friend and manager had opted to stay with them, lending Tatiana support, and her presence was sorely appreciated. If not, Tatiana wouldn’t be able to keep from interfering after the bell rang. She needed restraint, someone to talk to, to keep her sane, and the blonde was the best candidate for the job.

Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

Letting them out with a long breath, Tatiana took a moment to run her fingers over her overall straps, fidgeting with them as she struggled with something to say. She didn’t want Belle to think she was mad. She wasn’t. Just frustrated. But regardless, she wanted, needed, to be at her girlfriend’s side and give her all the support she could muster. If she couldn’t talk her out of it, it was the next best thing.

She came over and kneeled at her girlfriend’s side, looking at her straight on, eye to eye. She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it, only to open it again a moment later with a new set of words. ”Valeria is…” She gulped. ”She’s not a brawler, she’s not strong like you. So just...get in close. Try and stay super close to her, and watch out for counters, and she can’t outpunch you. Just corner aher and don’t let her move and you’ll…”

Her voice trailed off, muttering, before she snapped back to reality. Somehow, her hand had found Belle’s and wrapped around without her even knowing, but she kept it there, didn’t let go. As if the match wouldn’t start until she did.

There was no glitz and glamor tonight. As Belle tightly wound tape around her knuckles and wrists, she knew the stakes here. There was no showmanship to be had, no smiles for the camera. She was going to war where if the battle was lost her world would be ending. Back to the states, alone. Kaylee didn't know. Tatiana didn't know. The only ones who were aware were herself, Valerie, and select members of AFW staff that had been involved with drafting up the match contract to sign away liability for what was going to happen today. While others were having fun in the sun for the crowd, they were about to spill blood in this empty arena for no one.

When Tatiana came to her side, she had an absent look in her eyes. Uncharacteristic. Pale with slightly sunken eyes from a long night of worry before this without sleep. The fight had already started long before they arrived in the arena today and the brunette seemed to already be on the ropes. She could feel the worry in Tatiana's voice as her girlfriend rambled. Telling her things both women knew, hoping that the information would tip the scales. They both seemed to understand just how crazy this was and how little a chance Belle actually had of walking away the winner. It hurt to admit, more so knowing everything she would lose.

Her eyes drifted down to their hands. Tatiana was holding hers. So tight but even as she squeezed there was a gentleness to it. It softened her grim expression as she returned the squeeze, reassuring the redhead she was still mentally here. There was so much she wanted to say but couldn't bare to give her goodbyes, couldn't make it real. Instead she pulled her arm back to yank the smaller girl up towards her on the bench to wrap her arms around her, hugging her close. This could be their final moments together.

"I am so sorry for all of this, I really am. All the running and hiding and worrying… I didn't want this for you. I just wanted for you to be happy. For us to be happy. I… love you so damn much. You are like… my personal ray of sunshine every day. I don't know how you do it, but I don't ever want to see you lose that light, no matter what happens. Promise me." Belle closed her eyes, focused on keeping her emotions from getting out of hand, but it was hard. It was a comfort to hold her, resting her chin on the other woman shoulder, waiting to be reassured. She had accepted this match could break her but couldn't bear to see it shatter Tatiana as well… even if Belle failed today maybe the acrobat could still find love… it hurt to think about it but right now she only wanted what was best for Tatiana.

Looming in the doorway, Kaylee had just arrived but waited for the two love birds to have their moment together before making herself known. Dressed for the weather in a bright sundress in stark contrast to the other two women. In hand a metal briefcase, one she had earned at the end of the ladder. These days she voted the money in the bank case everywhere, making sure it was safe. This match had done a lot to detail her plans. Delayed her own promos, brought her here tonight rather than to the PPV proper where she could cash it in on an unsuspecting competitor. That was fine. She was here for Belle and Tatiana. They both knew what she had surrendered to be here tonight.

"They're ready." The blond had been the proxy for the staff, waiting with them for the greenlight before fetching Belle. She had been adamantly against this match and had been the more outspoken one when it came to debating Tatiana's side of things. Belle had only just recovered and now she was risking her health again. The social media star had plans, ones that required her friend to be in good health, not getting into back room brawls. The discussions had turned to heated arguments in the days leading to now. Tensions were high, but now was not the time for rekindling that line of thought. She came here to support Belle and help Tatiana through the stress. To that end she kept any snippy comments to herself.

"It's time." Stepping to the side, she held open the door with a lean.  The dim empty hall beyond holding little comfort with a silence entirely foreign to this place.

”I promise.”

Tatiana responded to Belle without even thinking, as if she’d just been asked the simplest request in the world. In a way, she had - after all, there was nothing she wouldn’t have done for this woman, nothing she could ever imagine denying her. All the same, she couldn’t hide a frown at the way her girlfriend talked, even as they embraced, tight and long. There was a finality in Belle’s words, a fear that she seen since that fight with Valeria, but was worse now than ever. She talked like this wasn’t a match, but like it was the single most important moment of her life, and as if there was a chance they wouldn’t be together when she came out of it.

If she came out of it.

Tatiana didn’t like that, not one little bit. Something was wrong, far beyond all the problems on the surface, but now wasn’t the time to pry. Now was the time to support her girlfriend. If she couldn’t be with her in body, she’d be there in spirit.

”Come back to me.” Tatiana blurted out as Belle started to leave, not even knowing where the words came from. Her mouth just spoke without her brain’s consent, sometimes, but in this instance she was glad for it. ”No matter what happens, I’ll be here for you when you get back. So just...come back to me.”

Valeria honestly preferred this arena without people. Greatly. While she didn’t hate the crowds, having been raised as a performer, they were a constant noise that she didn’t miss, and she already could tell their absence would do wonders for her concentration.

She’d been here for a little while now. Not just in the arena, but in the ring, sitting in the middle of it. She didn’t look like she’d come for a match, eschewing her usual getup for a plain workout attire. Black shorts and top, with nothing but a white stripe down the sids, and matching black shoes. With her hair tied back, she looked like she was ready for a jog in the park, not a vicious street fight.

It was an attire that suited her fighting style best, allowed for maximum movement and flexibility, one of the many advantages she would enjoy tonight. She wanted as many as possible to have this match firmly in her control at all times. It wasn’t enough to just win. She had to dominate, and needed to purge Party Hard out of their lives in decisive fashion. It was that thinking that made her push staff into letting her come out and wait in the middle of the ring. She wanted to focus, and spent her time sitting there, legs folded, contemplating all the ways she would break this woman.

The leg. That was going to be the main target, but she wouldn’t go after it exclusively. If she did, Belle would likely quit far too early for her tastes. No, she would hurt it just enough to hobble her and make her completely useless, and then she would go to work on the other limbs. A broken arm. Fingers, too. Perhaps a few knockouts to keep her disoriented.

Slow. Methodical. Though she wasn’t smiling, there was a real part of her that would enjoy this. It was catharsis, and the fact that it was necessary just made it all the more so. She had been waiting for a way to put an end to this little feud for so long.

Valeria was ready. She just needed her target.

There had been so many lonely nights, so many drunken nights, so many loveless nights spent in the company of others. She had seen the darkness in herself, been lost in it more time she cared to remember. Tatiana had changed all that. It wasn't just having her around that made everything better, it was the fact that she made Belle want to be a better person as well. She was eating better most days, sleeping better up until recently, and had made an effort to drink less. She wanted to be someone Tatiana could look up to, respect, love. She hated every moment of what Valeria had done. Hijacking their relationship. Trying to break the apart... trying to... possibly succeeding after tonight.

She squeezed Tatiana so close, she didn't want to let her go. The sudden feeling of regret and building dread was overwhelming. Even as her girlfriend made the promise Belle had asked of her... it hurt. It hurt because she knew what it was she was asking and Tatiana had no way of understanding, not right now, not with how little Belle had told her. It was best this way. The burden was on her... and if she failed, maybe the redhead would hate her for making this choice all on her own. It would make it easier for her to separate. She could move on... She brought her lips to Tatiana's forehead, giving her a kiss.

With that, she pried herself away, straightening up and taking in a deep breath. Turning on her boot heels she stepped over the bench and made her way towards the door where Kaylee stood. When Tatiana spoke, she stopped. A silhouette in the doorway in a halo of ambient light. There was a long silence when she stood there, letting the request linger in the quiet locker room. She turned her head, stopping herself before looking back to Tatiana, knowing if she did, she might break down. So instead she faced forward and walked away without a word knowing she might not be able to honor a promise made like that.

Kaylee watched Belle go, giving her a faint smile and a supportive nod. She could tell her tag partner wasn't in a good headspace, could see her weathered features and sleepless eyes. The last thing she would want now is to be pandered to with generic words of encouragement bogged down by words. So the blond instead made her way over to Tatiana, sighing softly as she gave her friend and client a small smile. "How are you hold up?"

The corridors were long, they felt narrow. each step echoing as she walked with heavy steps to the end of the hall. The long march to the executioners chopping block. All her choices up until now, flashing in her mind, playing back all the ways she could have done things better, different. With a ducked head she dipped through the black curtains onto the stage.

From the stage the empty arena stretched out all around her, and eerie ghost town. Her eyes fixed upon Valerie in the center of the ring, the eye of the storm that had manifested around the relationship she had with Tatiana. All the lies, sneaking, social media shit flinging... it all culminated in this moment. A spiral of hate that would finally meet in a sharp deadly point that regardless of who won here tonight, would drive a stake through one of their hearts.

She looked like she had stepped off the streets and into the ring in a mix of styles for function and comfort alike. Deep red tank top tucked into frayed denim shorts, the shoulder straps of a form fit sports bra visible beneath. A weathered leather belt with her lucky belt buckle of Tinkerbell arm wrestling Wendy from Peter Pan. High rising ring boots that reached all the way up to kneepads. There was a elastic black material over the pads, one side notably bulkier than the other as it covered the rather obvious knee brace she wore beneath it. Her knuckles wrapped and ready with tight taping for an added layer of protection from getting torn up when she inevitably started to cave in Valerie's face with her fist... it also helped keep her wrists from twisting but that was an afterthought. Lastly, her normally wily mane of hair was tired back with a black band into a ponytail. Stepping into the ring, she stared down at the blond for a moment before speaking.

"Its not too late. We can call this off... Work this out. She's here, in the back. Kaylee too. You can say your piece and we can hash this out." She didn't want to compromise. It was past that point for her. but she wasn't asking for her. She was asking for Tatiana. There would be no way to keep what happened after this point a secret, no need to. the redhead had turned on her step sister already without all the dark details involved with her willing to have her deported to keep them apart. She was willing to take that to the grave if Valerie could just let them be happy.

Tatiana had clasped her hands together in a small prayer, muttering it out quickly as Kaylee came over to her. Hardly an hour had passed in the last day where she hadn’t send a few words to heavens. God was probably getting a little irritated with it.

She eased up, letting her shoulders sag as she turned towards the blonde. ”I’ll be okay. We’ll be okay.” She nodded, as if trying to convince herself those words were true. ”Thank you for being here. Really.” She put a hand on Kaylee’s shoulder, then moved in to take the woman with a sudden hug, without even thinking much about it. Kaylee had really been a pillar for the past few days, and she was continuing to come through, showing how steadfast she could be. It was almost impossible to believe she’d ever been at odds with the starlet, as she saw more and more what her girlfriend saw in her.

Valeria stayed still as Belle came her way, stalking down the ramp. The woman was at least pretending to take this seriously, she would give her credit for that - she had wondered if the brunette would come dressed up in one of her silly, frilly outfits, and now she had her answer. To look at her now, even she would never have guessed this woman came from such a pampered life, that she was all glitter and smiles on the side. She looked built for the street. Tough. Rugged. Like a true threat.

But Valeria knew better. Much better.

She stood up with arms folded, glaring down at the brunette - more importantly, she focused on that knee of hers, the tempting target, before centering on her face ”There’s nothing to ‘hash out’. Your time with Tatiana is done. Over. One way or another, it ends today.” She pointed down for emphasis. ”Tatiana may be mad about it for a while, but she’ll get over it. She’ll forget you. She’ll see that she deserved better than you. And after she sees what happens to you in this ring, she won’t be able to look at you without disgust.”

Hearing Valerie talk felt like white noise at this point. Her vitriolic hatred had grown to such a degree that she couldn’t even consider what Tatiana and her had was genuine. What had Belle done to warrant this, really? Was this some sort of preconceived anger that was directed at her solely because of her closeness with Kaylee? Likely… but maybe this was just an issue to do with Valerie. Truly, who else had she or Tatiana befriended since coming here to AFW? Anyone? She didn’t know, but Valerie seemed like the sort of person that was “us vs them”. They were family. By parental connection but also from their tight knit circus group. It was fine if she didn’t want to trust the world, but Tatiana was free to live her life.

“Have you ever… just once considered what she wants?” Belle brought a hand to her face, dragging her fingers across her sunken features, massaging her the bridge of her nose in frustration. She stopped motion at something Valerie said. Her lips tugging at even more of a frown. “You’re right… she does deserve better than me. Deserves better than you too.”

Belle gave a hard sniff, shaking out a few strands of hair from her eyes as she took a half step back, balancing lightly on the balls of her feet. Her arms came up, fists clenched at the ready, stretching the wrappings to their limit. “But she saw something in me… believes in me. I can’t let you do this to us Valerie. I just wanted to give you one last chance to see sense but if this is how it is going to be, I intend to tell her everything once we are done here. She didn’t want to see you or speak to you before. The truth behind what you are doing is going to devastate her.”

The bell rang out in the vacant arena, lost in the sheer vastness of the empty seating.

It took every fiber of her being not to rush forward. She had been thinking about burying her fist in this other woman's face. Pictured wrapping her fingers around her throat to just squeeze… She couldn’t afford to be rash. She was tired, she was injured, and everything was on the line. The brunette tried to stay light on her feet but it was so uncharacteristic not to brace and sure up her footing. She needed to play things smart and defensive and hope Valerie was just as compromised as she was when it came to the raw emotion of the situation.

”You’ll be too busy screaming to tell her anything.”

Standard operating procedure in a match like this was to play it slow. A methodical approach favored Valerie far more than Belle, giving her ample opportunities to work away on that injured limb. In typical times, she would’ve grinded a leg to get it to this point, but the work had already been halfway done. There was no time limit. No pressure. No rules. The pace of the match was almost entirely hers to decide. She wanted to draw this out, anyway, looking to make Belle truly pathetic over an extended time.

That was the plan, and she had intended to stick to it. But something about the way Belle spoke, the tone, the way she seemed so determined, as if she had the right of things here, like she could even pretend to be the wronged party, and what she said about her ‘deserving Tatiana’...she had been sneering fierce ever since those words came out, and a cauldron was bubbling beneath her skin. The pressure built and built, and when the bell rang, it all came out at once.

She rushed Belle at full speed, closing the distance in an instant, zero hesitation, no fear. It looked for all the world like she might try to lock horns with her opponent at first, but that turned out to not be the case - she had a lower goal in mind.

Ducking down right before the collision, she slid around to Belle’s side, her long hair whipping about as she spun. Valerie reached out and tried to grab her foe’s leg, wanting to get a hold of it early on, hoping to strike at the juiciest target right away, before her defenses were fully up.

“Tch.” All Belle could do was scowl. Was this who Valerie always had been? It was hard to envision Tatiana and her side by side let alone the redhead having any kind of love for her sister. Who said things like that and actually meant it outside of a psychopath? Given the lengths the blond had gone to separate the two of them though, she wasn’t sure why she was so surprised at this point. Her girlfriend didn’t need someone like this in her life, a corrupting influence this toxic.

When Valerie snapped towards her, Belle’s first instinct was to swing. It was how she handled most threats in her life, head on with physical force. It was bold, it was reckless, it was stupid and she couldn’t afford to take chances like that in a match like this against an unhinged woman like Valerie. Instead of trying to meet the blond in the middle, she was trying to circle away, leading with her good side, keeping her braced leg as far as she could from the blond. They both knew it was a target. Belle wouldn’t give her the chance to exploit it.

Her eyes followed Valerie closely, waiting for her top make a move. When she lunged in, Belle was ready… mostly. The blond was faster than she thought, making the brunette hopping backwards to avoid her grasping claws almost not enough to outrange her. Dodging wasn’t enough. She needed to make it clear if this was what Valerie wanted, she wasn’t going to get it. As she circled, Belle drew back her arm, firing a wide hook down at the blond as she skirted just around her reach, trying to tag her with a counter punch for her effort.

Belle had the good sense to protect her bad side, Valerie would give her that small sliver of credit. While she wasn’t as fast as her sister, the elder Siamko was no slouch in that department, more than capable of outmaneuvering most of the roster even on her worst days. She reached out for the leg, tried to snag it, but her opponent managed to circle away in time to make that effort pointless. That was fine, she was ready for a longer game, willing to work for her target. Sooner or later, she would find that leg, and they both knew it.

Undeterred, she tried to move in as Belle circled away, only to find a punch coming her way from above. She brought up an arm to deflect it, and immediately regretted not using both for the effort - even injured, the brunette could put power into her blows, and she had enough force to knock her blocking arm away and nearly tag her on the cheek before she could jerk away. This was a dangerous range, but it was one she had to work in, and one in which she would exceed.

Valerie leaped back, putting distance between them for a moment, before moving back in with a rush. She dipped down with grasping arms, looking as if she might lunge for the leg again, even though Belle was quite aware of the tactic - instead, she shot herself up at the last second and threw her body into her foe’s chest with a shoulder block, trying to knock her towards the corner and give her less space to move.