Fun in the Sun

It was a sunny day on Oarai beach. Hot, but not too hot. Low 90s, that magical point where it was hot enough to be comfortable and let some skin show, but not so hot that you found yourself looking around for shade to stand in.

The pounding waves filled the air with a cooling mist, and since school was in session, there weren’t many annoying kids running around, littering the place and filling the air with irritating music.

Valley Doll couldn’t have asked for a better time to get some relaxing in. She’d found a nice spot, just far enough from ocean to avoid the tide, laid out her towel, and now she was having a good, relaxing time, laying down and soaking up all the rays the sun had to spare, catching a tan in pink bikini.

To some it would’ve seen like the most boring way to spend a day, just laying around in the sand. For Valley, however, it was cathartic. A chance to just lay back, listen to some instrumental rock tunes on her phone, and worry about nothing at all.

No Kaylee, no matches, no rivals, no anything. Just her and herself. She would be meeting up with Haley a little later on for a short training session, but that was the only thing on her day plan. There were plenty of moments to be had between now and then.

She crossed her legs, stretched out, and prepared to have herself a power nap…

Alaina emerged from the water, having just gone in to move around a bit and cool off. She only went waist high so her hair was still dry as she flicked it to her side with a snap of the head. She was wearing a light bleu bikini with a slight metallic shine to it, catching a few glimpses from other beach goers as she walked back to her towel, a healthy sway in her step now that the powerful amazon was a newly single wrestler. As she made her way back to her towel she saw a familiar face laying down on a towel.

Alaina wasn't sure if she wanted to say hi. Ever since Valley beat her for the Entropy title things were just weird between them and it was mostly because of Alaina. Her stubborn pride just made her a jerk sometimes, and that was the case with how she treated Valley immediately after. She felt like it may be weird but she owed it to the lady to say hello. Alaina approached and smiled as she waved at the lovely pink clad lady. "Hey Val, long time no see? How've you been?" Alaina asked a bit sheepishly and not with quite the usual amount of cheer. She was just worried Valley might not receive her as well as she used to.

There were a lot of weird things that came with being a wrestler, but one of the things that never ceased to boggle her was the way they seemed to bump into each other, no matter how far they went. Japan, last she checked, had a population well over 100 million, far less than one percent of that included wrestler, and not only did she regularly bump into her colleagues, but more often than not, she came across wrestlers that she personally knew. Her only explanation was that God Himself was a wrestling fan, and he just liked setting this stuff up.

For that reason, Valley was surprised, but not much surprised, when she heard Alaina’s cheery voice coming from nearby. The Slamazon had seen the Amazon in...god, months, at the least. Finding her hear was a welcome surprise.

”Hey!” She smiled and waved Alaina on over, sitting up to greet her. [color=#Ff00ff]”Fancy seeing you here. Should’ve known a Cali girl would come out to appreciate the rays.”[color]

Alaina was relieved that Val was happy to see her. It was like a weight lift off her barely clad shoulders. "Of course it is a top priority! It is even more fun when I can flaunt the figure a bit." Alaina said with a smile and wink. That was true, as heart breaking as her breakup was she was trying her best.... some days being better than others.... to try to get back on the dating scene.

"So what is new in the life of the sexy slamazon?" Alaina asked, wondering how things had been going with Val since their last meeting in a gym, leading to what may have been the most intense spar of Alai as life.

And what a figure it was. Valley honestly never looked at Alaina that way, but now that she was here, wearing that bikini, slick and shimmering with the water all over her body...well, she would be lying if it didn’t stir a little something. A little something that made her nervous, given her current situation, but she knew she could trust Alaina. Last she checked, the woman was spoken for, anyway.

Valley sighed and patted the sand beside her, motioning for Alaina to sit if she wished. ”It’s been...interesting.” She rolled her eyes, not even sure where to start with all the craziness that had been her life in recent times. ”I’ve kind of got a thing going with Kaylee Rush, this wrestler who has a...thing for me. You know, a ‘thing’.” She even threw up the air quotes for it. ”I’ve got a match with her coming up, kind of ugly business, but that’s the job.”

Less than a minute of talking, and it was already getting awkward. Had to be a record.

”But in happier news, I’m branching out a bit, trying Tension a bit.” She snapped her fingers, just remembering. ”Even had a match with Charlie, not long ago. I think he was a little rusty, but you know how it goes.”

Alaina listened as she sat down next to Valley, wincing a bit once she heard the nasty business about that whole Kaylee business.  "Damn, she sounds like a creeper obsessed fan or something."  Alaina said with a shiver.  "I managed to right the ship, won some big matches including one against Akiha and one against Belinda even though I dropped a couple upset losses..."  Alaina said, Yuki coming to mind.

Then Charlie came up.  Alaina smiled initially when Valley mentioned Tension as Alaina had roughed up a few of their wrestlers also having a notable rivalry with the Takeuchi's.  Her smiled faded as she took a few deep breaths.  "Yeah, I heard you took it to him fast."  Then it sure went after the match.  He was on a plane to his old job at a dead end gas station in San Diego, his confidence and hopes of making it having had the final nail moonsaulted to the coffin.

”Something like that.” She sighed at the thought of Kaylee and the deal they made, remembering all the strings they’d attached and what she had to look forward to. She didn’t want to to discuss that with Alaina. Partly because it was all deeply personal, partly because explaining it would’ve taken longer than she cared to spend on the task. ”It’s complicated, but I’m dealing with it. In a few weeks, it shouldn't even be a problem.”

She tried to smile again, but that attempt faded when she saw the look on Alaina’s face. Her head canted to the side as she looked up at the bigger blonde, not sure what to make of that frown. ”Yeah, I wanted to make a good debut, so I turned it up pretty hard. Guess he just couldn’t keep up. It happens.” She shrugged. ”Did something go wrong? Is he’s okay?”

Oh wow... where should Alaina start to answer this one? Her head bounced back and forth, and the look on her face was one of confusion more than anything. "He is physically all right, at least as good as he can be. He never recovered from that accident. His career never took off and you were the first match Tension gave him in over a year. By the time he called me and told me he quit wrestling after the match he was already moved out and back just outside San Diego working at the same old dead end gas station." Alaina sighed a bit and shook her head. "The idiot knew he couldn't tell me while he was still here or I'd try to talk him out of it. He had more here than he does back home even if his career was a disappointment."

”Oh.”

To say that wasn’t the response Valley had been expecting would be a severe understatement. She knew that Charlie hadn’t wrestled in a long time, and she figured that was the reason he’d been a bit slow in the ring, why she’d managed to roll right over him. She’d seen it happen all the time - a wrestler took some time off for whatever reason, came back after the hiatus, lost a handful of matches before their groove kicked in. You could train and spar all you liked, but nothing came close to the real thing. It wasn’t just a switch you turned on and off, you had to connect.

”Well...huh.” She blinked, sat up and sighed. ”That’s too bad, I guess. Maybe it was for the best, though? If he wasn’t feeling it, he just wasn’t feeling it. Better to hit the brakes than go too far and get himself hurt again, right?”

Alaina shrugged and shook her head. "He was healthy again, but the powers that be over there never gave him a match after his business with Talia. It was like they knew you would annihilate him and it was just the final nail in the coffin. He is the reason I got into wrestling at all so it is just tough to watch. I would probably still be back at this hospital which isn't an awful thing but him? He really had nothing going for him when we came over back in early 2014." Alaina said as she thought of her friend.

Sure, he said things were great two days ago. But that didn't change the fact that he had no family. Daddy was still in jail for a couple armed robberies. Mommy was still in rehab because she loved heroin more than Charlie growing up. The fact that he stayed on the straight and narrow still astounded Alaina. To that end she would do anything she could for the guy. She had a friend in the US she could stay with when she visited her parents. His rent in turn would be suspiciously low, as Alaina found out who the landlord was and used some of her endorsement money to pay a good chunk of the rent so what he owed seemed like a bargain.

With her career where it was now, being single again, trying to help train Peggy out of her funk... she missed the guy.