People are her business.

Taylor walked along next to Aurelia, and for a moment she wondered if she was going to say anything at all. She looked down at the floor. Maybe she was getting ahead of herself.

Then Aurelia stopped. Taylor had to look up to make eye contact, and the woman's words froze her in place. No one said that sort of thing to Taylor. Well, Akashi did, but she was her friend. Praise from friends never meant as much to her as it did from people who didn't know her or like her or owe her anything. For a moment, she thought she was going to cry, but she quickly shook it off. She couldn't cry all the damn time.

But she expected her to perform better? Was she not good enough? What did that mean? She was the AFW Entropy champ now, and that was great, but it wasn't the Friction title. It was sort of the title for people who aren't there yet. Maybe she wasn't good enough. Not yet.

Her mind raced, and it took her a moment to realize that an awkward pause had passed between the two. Her cheeks flushed. She had to say something.

"Um..." Not a great start. "I... will? Tha... uh... Yeah. Okay. Well, I don't care what you expect. I'm going to do what I do, a'right, and I'm gonna be the best. I'm going to be better than Akashi and take the belt from her. I'm going to be the best anyone's ever seen. And... I'm not fucking around. I don't do the skanky sexy shit these girls do, I don't party and shit. I'm for real, and... and..." She ran out of steam and looked down at her shoes. "Thanks."

"Um. Can I ask why you think I'm good? I don't wanna, like, be weird or anything..." She looked up at Aurelia with her dark blue eyes and couldn't conceal the hopefulness in them.

Aurelia smiled softly and shook her head. It was almost shocking how easily she had the girl eating out of her hand.

"Now you're just fishing for complements. That wasn't an opinion. I didn't say I thought you were a good wrestler. You are a good wrestler. We have metrics for that sort of thing. Did you think I chose you for the new belt randomly? You and Natalia are both good wrestlers, and you're a good match up."

Aurelia paused and looked back out towards the arena for a moment. Nibbling first and then pausing before she bit down on the bait. She turned back to Taylor and finished her statement.

"When I do express my opinion, it's always correct. So here is my opinion of you. You may not be the best wrestler, but I think you have incredible potential that we've only begun to see. Now, you should get down to the fight doctor and get yourself checked out. What good is the best wrestler ever with a concussion?"

Of course she had incredible potential. There were so many here with incredible potential. Taylor didn't have to be the best. AFW had to be the best, and with this kind of talent around Aurelia would make sure of it.

"Oh." Taylor said. She felt a little dumb. "I wasn't fishing for anything, man, I just wanted to make sure you were, like, serious." She said quietly.

Taylor's expression changed as Aurelia continued, and she became suspicious. Her guard was up. She took a step back and put a hand on her hip. "Oh, I get it. You're always right like how Lukretia's alvays right. Well, what's your opinion on who would win in a fight? Me?" She jabbed her thumb into her chest. "Or you." She poked her finger into Aurelia.

She tossed her hair back like she did when she giving attitude and covering up her nerves. "You might be wrong about that." She gave Aurelia her very coldest look and turned to walk off toward the medics.

"And I'm fine. She can't hurt me." She said back over her shoulder, reminding herself as she did of the time Natalia actually gave her a concussion. Did Aurelia know about that? "Don't worry about me."

She walked off, but not toward the medics. She would go there with Akashi after her match and they could get checked out together as new and defending champs. It'd be awesome.

On her way back to her dressing room, she couldn't help but smile. Not only that she was starting to get some recognition, seemingly unbiased recognition, but she thought that just maybe she actually liked Aurelia. She seemed like a bitch, though, but... no one was perfect. If not for the pain in her neck, she felt up for another match right then and there.

Lukretia had been right behind the two as they walked out of the arena but she was paused just a bit as she made sure everything was ready for the title match, a phone call and directing the maids away. By the time she was moving again, she saw Taylor and Aurelia up ahead talking and listened in carefully to their conversation. When Taylor went off, Lukretia stepped forward and smiled at Aurelia.

"You are far too nice to her. Of course she has talent. I vouldn't vaste meine time with a girl who did not. But a girl like zat needs to be backed into a corner to perform at her best. If she's coddled she'll get soft, fat und lazy. She may very vell be ze best some day but she never vill be unless she's ridden into ze ground."

Lukretia stepped forward and looked Aurelia in the eye, tilting her head upward even though her posture remained as if she were as big as Aurelia. "Ve are running a business, not a day care. I hope you von't be viping all of our employee's behinds."

After Taylor had left Aurelia let out a single, "Ha." loud, and cocky at the hilarious suggestion that Taylor would be any match for her in a fight. That girl was so delightful. What a crowd pleaser.

Aurelia turned back towards Lukretia as she approached doing a wave followed by a faked hair pat. It was her signature, "Hi, shorty." greeting for the German woman. She grinned smugly as Lukretia began to berate her behavior.

"News flash, Lukretia. Most people don't react to 'being ridden into the ground' by suddenly putting a maid costume on and becoming your' sub. I think it's great that you've gotten to live your' life on a magical ivory pedestal, but you don't know thing one about dealing with people that can't be beaten into submission."

Aurelia stepped forward with each sentence forcing Lukretia to bend her neck further back until the bronzed woman's chest was nearly in her face. Then she narrowed her eyes and lowered her voice.

"You hate me, because I represent something you're bad at. I was hired because of it. Someday you're going to have to face the fact that you aren't perfect. I'm worried for you because that will be an awful long fall," (for such a short woman).

Her doom-saying complete, the taller woman stepped back and put her hands on her waist.

"But you are excellent at logistics and accounting, and I'm not. We both need each other. Which is why, at the end of the day, we're going to get along."

Lukretia narrowed her eyes as Aurelia stepped forward, nearly having a face full of breasts as she carefully listened to what the woman had to say. When she was finished, Lukretia turned her head and laughed as though Aurelia had said something very funny.

"Don't mistake vere I am now for never having known vat ze bottom looks like. It is zat very reason zat I know exactly how to properly motivate people. I bring out things in people zat zey did not even know zey had inside zemselves. If you can spot a talent like frauline Parker, ven anyvhere else vould most certainly cast her aside as vorthless, zen you have some talent but I have no time to vaste on people who are not strong. If you bring in ze best, zen zose vorthless dogs of an audience vill slobber und drool over zem in mass. But along vith ze strong you vant to prop up every veakling as vell. Before long, no one vill be able to teal all ze pearls ve have amassed from ze sea of useless rocks zey are buried in."

Lukretia then smiled genuinely and slid her finger down one of Aurelia's arms. "Und you are mistaken. Who said zat I hated you? You are obviously a voman of strength like myself. For zat alone ve should be on good terms. I just think you are..."

Lukretia stepped away and pressed her finger to her lips. "A little misguided. Perhaps all zose flashy idols und cute little girls have gotten to your head?"

Aurelia smiled confidently. That was exactly what she was hoping to hear. Not exactly what she had expected to hear though. Lukretia had seemed more, distant, when they had spoken in front of Cassandra.

"I think we'll make an excellent team. You don't have to understand my reasoning to accept it. Just know that no one 'gets to my head'. I'll see you at the after meeting, shorty." finished the blonde turning to move down the side hallway towards her office.

Now her heart? Maybe. Maybe they would get in Aurelia's heart. But no one got in Aurelia's head, and Aurelia's head was always in control.



end