Entropy Belt Match

The pain Natalia was feeling when way deeper than just her neck, that was being bent brutally making many in the crowd look away in horror; it was deeper than how wrecked her arm arm felt trapped between Taylor's legs, or how bad her injured knee ached; it was a pain in the soul. For Natalia, not only her body but her pride felt shattered. She had give it her all and it hadn't been enough. It was the most painful thing to admit, but Taylor had her beat. The punk had outwrestled her and The Dream knew she was not taking the gold home tonight, only a bitter defeat.

But at the same time she felt crushed she also felt a sort of new found connection with Taylor. Natalia couldn't but respect the girl that had owned her at her best. There was no point in keeping this up and ending badly injured in the hospital. She was done for, it was over and she could hear in Taylor's demand that she tapped out that the blue-haired girl agreed too. It would be a dishonor to her opponent and herself not to admit defeat, Natalia had gave her best and, this time it hadn't been enough, and so she decided to surrender... That and the pain was just way too much.

Natalia closed her tearfull eyes and her body went limp in a second, relaxing and not struggling anymore. She swallowed some saliva to help herself swallow up her pride, raised her hand in the air, in front of Taylor's eyes so the punky-girl could see it, and began to tap out on the mats furiously as the crowd went completely crazy.

*tap tap tap tap tap tap*

Taylor let go the second Natalia started tapping, before the ref could even make it over to separate them. She let Natalia flop down on the mat, and rested her forehead on her opponent's back. She closed her eyes. She was too exhausted, too spent physically and emotionally, that she couldn't even feel the thrill and elation of the victory. She was just glad it was over.

She rolled off of Natalia and got to her knees. Everything hurt. She raked sweat soaked hair back from her face with one hand. She heard the bell ring. The referee stepped over to her and reached for her arm. Taylor laboriously got to her feet, and the ref raised her arm up over her head.

Over the PA, the ring announcer raved "HERE IS YOUR WINNER, FRICTION'S VERY FIRST ENTROPY CHAMPION, TAYLOR, PARKER!" The crowd exploded. Taylor looked out at them as if she just remembered they were there. The sight of it, all those people... and the sound, they were all cheering for her. Her eyes widened and she froze in place for a moment. Little by little a grin spread across her face. There was the elation.

Inevitably, her eyes began to well up with tears, but she didn't care. She dropped back to her knees and closed her eyes. She took a moment to just take it all in and savor the moment. It was good. After all her hard work and being so uncertain about her place in AFW, she finally felt like she'd accomplished something. Like she belonged there. It wasn't the end of the road for her, she'd only just arrived, but it was a start. It was good.

She couldn't help it. She covered her face with her hands and cried the greatest tears she'd ever cried.

Natalia was very greatful that Taylor released her immediately, a second more and she may have ended with and injured neck. Her cute face hit the mats but she didn't cared about the pain in her nose and lips right now, there were other parts of her body that hurt way more, as did her pride. She heard the bell signaling the end of the fight and the crowd celebrating her defeat and cheering for her opponent. She quickly moved her arms to cover head head and rub her hurting neck. She didn't wanted anybody to see her cry. She had failed. All her efforts, all her victories, all the trainning, all the sacrifices had ment nothing, she had been bested and lost her chance at the title. The first really important match at AFW and she had lost it.

Natalia struggled with herself to contain the tears, she felt so down and so broken. Badly humiliated by Taylor, who althought she couldn't say she hated the punky-girl she certainly felt some kind of animosity for her...and also a lot of jealousy.

Natalia's emotions began to sink deeper and deeper. She felt like trash, she was a loser, she was nothing. She had no friends, no family, no no-one. All she had was fighting. It was her life. It was all she was...and winning was the only thing that mattered...but she had lost. Taylor had taken everything away from her.

'Enough...' Natalia told herself, Shaking her head violently, tired of feeling pity for herself. There was no point in tormenting herself over this now. It was over. All she could do now was pick herself up and keep going. The blue-eyed cutie slowly rolled to her back, holding her neck with both hands and opened her eyes to see the right lights shinning blurry above her. She cleaned the tears from her face and looked at Taylor posing victoriously for the crowd and a bitter smile formed in her lovely lips.

Natalia used the ropes to drag herself to a sitting position and remained laying there for a few seconds as she looked at Taylor. Then with a lot of effort and a few pained groans she managed to get up to her feet. Favoring one leg, the one with the injured knee, Natalia approached Taylor and looked at her in the eyes intensely. The crowd went quiet as the two woman stared.

And after a few tense moments Natalia finally bowed her head politely. "Congrats, Taylor-san. You got me good..." she said barely containing some more tears, to the extend a hand offering it to Taylor. "You are very good..."

Taylor couldn't stop crying, and she couldn't stop smiling. It was a weird feeling. She couldn't have cared any less that multiple cameras were catching her tears in high definition, or that they were being broadcast to who knew how many people. This was her moment.

The crowd grew silent, and Taylor opened her eyes. She looked silently up at Natalia from her knees. This girl... She knew so little about her, but she'd dominated so many of her thoughts. She had wanted to kick her ass, she'd been afraid of her, she'd been intensely jealous of her... She was still jealous, in some ways, but she wasn't afraid of her. She'd felt more insecure around Natalia than anyone else she'd met in Friction. She knew why.

Taylor wiped tears from her face, pulled herself up to her feet and Natalia spoke. Immediately, Taylor felt the tears coming back, but she held them off. She looked Natalia in the eye... her blue eyes were only a few shades lighter than Taylor's. They reminded her of her own. She held out her hand, expecting Natalia to offer a handshake, but she didn't, leaving her hand stranded awkwardly in the space between them. She smiled weakly and put it on Natalia's shoulder.

"I-I..." Taylor tried to speak, but instantly was choked up. Rather than trying to talk through her tears and sounding like an idiot, she shut her mouth.

She stepped closer. She slid her hand up behind Natalia's head and pulled her in to rest her forehead against her own. She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. When she separated, she silently gave Natalia a little smile and a wink, and then backed away from her.

Now she just had to receive her belt and she'd be off to see Johnny, and maybe she could catch Akashi before her match.

Natalia stood there with her hand extended and for a moment she feared that Taylor was going to ignore her and use the gesture to further humiliate her, but the Taylor hugged her head and brought their foreheads together in a cute embrace. "Careful..." Natalia whinned with a grimace of pain in her cute face. "Neck hurts!"

Althought the crowd seemed to love it the hug was very brief, and Natalia was trhankful because she couldn't bare to stand in the ring another seconds. Still she took her time to show her pink wet tongue at Taylor after the punky-girl winked at her.

Then as they got separated, Natalia begun the painful walk out of the ring and the arena. She held her head down, too ashamed to look at the fans or turn around to see the ring, moving as fast as her injuries allowed it, but as she was reaching the entrance area, she could hear that there were still quite some of her loyal fans cheering for her. She turned around and blew them a kiss before disappearing from the arena.

"Sorry..." Taylor said quietly. It was weird to feel remorse for hurting her now, when only moments ago she had done her best to hurt her as badly as possible. She laughed, but not because it was funny.

She didn't watch Natalia leave. She just stood in the middle of the ring, one hand on her aching neck, and grinned while she soaked in the sight of the cheering crowd. It might just have been the highest moment of her life, and it was only interrupted when the house lights dropped.