"Pride is seldom delicate, it will please itself with very mean advantages." Samuel Johnson

Pride had been her flaw since before she met him. It was pride that kept her from admitting just how in love with him she really was, pride that kept her from going after the one thing she wanted in the world. Their first meeting was proof enough of her pride.

She had come in, fresh off the street as a cynical young woman. Growing up in an orphanage did that to a girl. Detroit had been a rough city, rough enough that once she got out of the hell hole orphanage she had learned to handle herself in a fist fight. That passion for fighting, mixed with the pride that would never allow her to quit is what inspired her to go into professional fighting. Her first career choice had been the WWE, even if it was just as a jobber. They told her no, because of her look.

Dia Banks had expected that. After all, she wasn't the bombshell type that the WWE wanted in a diva. She was tall, curvy, and a rebel. Her black hair barely reached the bottom of her ears and was usually streaked with a different color, blue being her favorite. Her arms were lined with all sorts of tattoo's, the most notable of them being a pair of dice showing seven with four on one and three on the other. She didn't show off much cleavage and the only skirts she wore were usually over leggings or tights. Nothing about her was conventional.

Her loss of a WWE contract, however, did not make her want to give up her goal of becoming a professional fighter. She decided she'd try a little known company called Ring Of Honor. It was there that Dia met the man who would tempt her pride to a breaking point. His name was Colt Cabana and he was everything she was not.

Colt was even tempered, humble. To him, everyone was on the same playing field. Dia was hot headed, arrogant. To her, she was the best. That's why Colt took her under his wing. He hoped that he could bring her back down to Earth some, to try and show her she didn't have to be as in contempt of others as she was. He taught her to utalize all she had learned, her pride allowing it. After a while, Dia met the one thing her pride wouldn't allow her to do: admit she was crushing on Colt.

Her pride kept her from admitting the real reason she followed him around like a lost puppy. His friends: Adam Pearce and CM Punk and Bryan Danielson, became her friends. Colt didn't regard her any different than he ever had. The kisses to her cheek and playful shoves weren't different. But Dia existed on two levels: the inner level and the outer level. Her inner level knew she wanted to admit it to Colt, to tell him how she really felt. Her outer level was all controlled by her pride. She kept the same, I'm better than you attitude, just with the few added things that Colt had taught her breaking through every now and again.

But not even pride can beat the evils of alcohol.

It all started with a playful challenge after a show. Adam Pearce had jokingly told her that he was gonna drink her under the table. Her pride had loved the idea of winning yet another challenge. She had stoop up with Adam drink for drink, only managing to get drunker and drunker. It had ended with her so drunk that she couldn't walk straight. Not wanting his best friend to end up hurt, Colt drove her to the hotel and helped her to her room.

The moment they locked eyes, Dia said to hell with pride.

Their lips met, their hands tearing at each others clothes. Colt had wanted this for just as long as Dia. He was afraid of being hurt. But in that moment, the melding of their bodies sated the fear Colt had and the pride Dia had. It was just pure, raw emotion.

But a drunken stupor doesn't last forever.

Dia awoke the next morning, head pounding and pride furious. Colt would surely hate her. Or at least that's the idea her pride drove through her. She looked at Colt's sleeping form and decided there what she had to do. She would rather be alone and unknowing about her one night stand than to live as a failure who had ruined the relationship she had with her best friend.

Pride made her leave that night.

Pride broke Colt's heart.

A/N: I know, I know. I should really be focusing on my Sheamus/Nolee fic. I just can't decide where I want to go with it. For the time being, you all will have to do with little ficlets like these. Who knows, I may give Dia her own story if you guys like her background enough and may turn these little ficlets into full fledged stories.