Punking the Ace (For Blue)

"Umm...well..."

Ace blushed, fiddling with her short hair a little. It was one thing discussing simple, match related, things, but more personal conversation was something she usually avoided, one of the reasons she had hired Tai to talk for her. She felt discomfort discussing such things even in best of times, but talking about how she was a high school dropout with a large bank account could only lead to trouble, so she felt.

Still, she couldn't just ignore the question...and Taylor had been nice and helpful to her so far...it just didn't seem right to Ace to lie to the girl, and give her some bullcrap story that would be certain to have holes in it, especially considering how good she had been treating her so far. The girl had invited her, a rookie, into her home, just to help her out, she wasn't even getting anything out of it! She could have slammed the door in her face, or dropped her on her head in that german suplex earlier. Instead, she had given her some useful tips, offered to work with her a little, and was even buying her lunch! Her!

Rubbing her arm, Ace made up her mind, darting her head back to make sure that Morgan hadn't entered the room.

"...Alright look, just...don't spread this around alright? I'd probably never be left alone if word got out. I haven't even told Tai this, I've had to lie to keep him from knowing."

She sighed, trying to go with the short version.

"My real name is Haley, I'm from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. I'm only...20 years old... My family owns the mining and logging rights to Canada's Boreal Forest, so we're really wealthy. When I was 16, I told my folks I wanted to quit school and become a pro wrestler....so they gave me access to my inheritance and I've spent the last 4 years paying for training in different countries around the world. I went to Mexico, the U.S, Germany, England, and finally came to Japan last summer, right after AFW's Summer Splash event...where I met Tai, who said he could get me into AFW..."

Taylor blinked in surprise. "Oh, wow..." She nodded and said nothing at first, and tried to resist the urge to just mouth off and tell Ace what she thought about spoiled little rich girls.

"Well..." She began slowly. Her own story was pathetic by comparison. "I'm from Staten Island. I didn't leave the city until I was sixteen when I went on a school field trip to Toronto, so I haven't really been anywhere but New York City and Japan in my whole life. I've seen more of Japan than I have of the States... I finished high school and worked shitty jobs to scrape together enough money for gym fees. And, ya know... my mom, ya know, she didn't really care. Ya know. She didn't, eh..."

Maybe that was enough talk about Taylor's glamorous rise to the AFW. She began to feel more and more insecure about her shitty family and growing up broke. She was at once jealous of Ace's seemingly easy life and disdainful of her never having to work like Taylor did for the things she got.

Either way, Taylor finally had something to show for her years of hard work and sacrifice. On top of a husband and good friends, she had held a title, been in magazines and on TV, she had fans and her own business, more or less, and she had more money now than she knew what to do with. That made her feel a little better, but it did little to ease her insecurities.

"So, like..." She started slowly, looking for the words. "Have you ever had a job? Like, have you ever had to work?"

Morrigan yawned as as looked at the screen of her laptop.She was doing busy work but was honestly s little bored. At least the food would arrive soon. In the meantime, Morrigan decided to close her laptop and shut her eyes. A little cat nap might not be so bad.

Almost instantly, however, the bell rang. Morrigan growled in annoyance but got up and got the food. She quickly set it out on the dining room table and walked to the gym. When she was inside, she cleared her throat.

" Food's here." She stated simply before turning her head and focusing on Taylor. "So did you kick her ass so badly, she's crying like a bitch yet?" She stated as though Ace weren't even in the room and it was the only possible conclusion this encounter could come to.

"Actually yeah....I mean, I had to use it for paying for training, usually with extra on top to convince the trainers to give me a shot, since I was young and all...The rest of the time though, I got odd jobs wherever I could, usually just making enough to be able to sleep in the schools I learned at. I didn't want to be seen as the spoiled rich bitch just buying her way into everything, ya know? You don't make anything but enemies and false friends with that kind of attitude."

Ace rubbed her arm again, this being exactly why she tried to avoid these kind of conversations. God only knew what Taylor was thinking of her at that moment.

"So I rarely use it unless I had to...I mean, nobody likes rich people even in the best of times, and I didn't want anybody trying to use me for my money, or, more likely, build some grudge and try to maim me in the ring just because I had money. That's why I didn't tell Tai about any of it. I need to be able to trust him to have my best interests after all."

She groaned, shaking her head.

"Look, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything about it, its just you've been really helpful and nice already and I didn't want to lie and...."

She stopped as Morgan came in, blinking at her choice of words.

"Umm....n-no she didn't.....was she supposed to?"

Aces head moved between Taylor and Morgan, her suspicions from when she arrived, which had relaxed completely during her time here, creeping up again.

"Uh, yeah, duh. You suck. She doesn't."

Taylor wasn't sure that she believed Ace's story. She'd never heard of a rich girl who didn't just use the trust fund for everything. It didn't seem likely.

But then Morgan entered to dispel the tension, and replace it with a different sort. She tossed her bangs to the side when they crept down into her face, and put a hand on her hip while she twisted to look at the redhead.

"That only happens if they're a bitch to begin with," she said. She gave Ace a look that was unamused and apologetic at the same time, and then turned toward Morgan and leaned her elbows on the ropes. "You don't really know if she sucks or not, do you? But I'm glad you're such a big faaaaaan!" She teased, with a sharp grin.

"Don't worry about her, she's new." She assured Ace, and then slipped through the ropes and all the way to the floor in one step. "Time for food! We can talk more about whether or not you suck while we eat. Morg, are you eating with us?"

"Uh huh." Morrigan said dryly, adjusting her glasses. "Have you seen her ring gear? She kind of dresses like a slut. I mean, not in the 'hey, look at my tits' kind of slutty way but the 'I wrestle in a den of iniquity and I'm not going to make it very hard for deranged sex fiends to get in my pants' kinda way." Morrigan said with a straight face as she followed them to the kitchen.

"I mean, you dress kinda slutty too, boss, but at least it's an actual wrestling outfit. Of the two of you, it'd be way easier for me to take advantage of her, if I was trying. That's all I'm saying, really."

"And sure, I'll eat with you." She added casually as though she hadnt just been extremely rude.

Ace really had no idea how to reply to Morgan's behavior, blinking rapidly before following Taylor out of the ring.

"I was supposed to have short tights underneath....just couldn't find any in silver is all..."

She said, noticing that Morgan was acting like she wasn't even there.

"Besides, I didn't want to be entirely uncooperative with the way things in AFW seem to run....though I refuse to do any hentai matches...ugh..."

She stuck her tongue out, both partly at the thought, and at Morgan, since her back was too her.

Turning to Taylor, she got a little quieter

"So.....is this gonna be an issue with us?"

Taylor looked quizzically at Ace. "Is what gonna be an issue?" She glanced up at Morgan as she was leaving the gym. "Her? Nah. Why, is she getting to you to?" She laughed. "Man, you've got to have a thicker skin than that if you want to stand a chance here."

She went back into the house and passed through the living room on her way to the dining room. "Morgan," she called ahead. "Don't call me boss. Just Taylor." She poured herself a big glass of water before sitting down to eat her salmon and greens, quinoa salad, and miso soup. She leaned back in her chair, salad container in one hand and chopsticks in the other, with her feet propped up on the unused forth chair.

"Hey, thanks for taking care of lunch," Taylor said to Morgan before a mouthful of roughage, and then glanced over at Ace. She didn't speak until she had swallowed and taken a sip of water. "So do you guys have an idea for your next match? Maybe start a little slower than just jumping straight in with the beast?"

"Actually, I meant the mon-"

Taylor moved ahead of Ace before she finished the question, leaving Ace to shrug. Maybe it wouldn't be an issue and she was just being overly sensitive about it all.

Following Taylor into her dining area, Ace followed suit, getting some water before joining her at the table.

"Thanks Morg!"

Eagerly eyeing her oriental chicken salad, though she soon ended up biting her lip as she struggled with the chopsticks that came with it, having a child's skill at using them, meaning she could hold up a piece of chicken just long enough to get it halfway to her lips before it fell back to the container. Finally getting frustrated after the 4th time, she finally put them down.

"Uh....could I get a fork? I think I had an easier time getting out that bitches torture rack..."

Once she had taken delight in spearing the elusive chicken and enjoying its taste, she responded to Taylor's question.

"Kinda. We don't plan on challenging Iron Maiden yet. We're kind of at an impasse. I mean, I'm not dumb enough to say, challenge Akashi and get sat on, but he wants me to start of slower then I'd like. If I'm going to prove myself, its going to be by punching above my status."

She took another bite and swallowed before continuing

"I mean, I'm not going to improve or learn anything, or make a mark here if I challenge jobbers like Tai's suggesting, I need to find the real competition and fight against them. I mean, if I want to get anywhere here and not get trampled by everybody else in the AFW rat race, I need to find the best they have and see where I rank with them. If I'm not good enough at first, I'll be able to get better."

"So I told Tai that if he can't get me a match with a good quality fighter, then I would make an open challenge in the ring to anybody willing to show up. Actually, I'd have done that by now, but Tai insisted on keeping me at home until I healed up from the match with Maiden. I think he's trying to be protective......kinda sweet."