A/N: Well, here it is. I've never written anything quite like this before - the chapter is basically one giant flashback explaining what's gone one and setting up the story. I banged this out in less than 24 hours, so I hope you like it. As always, your reviews/thoughts would be much appreciated :)

Disclaimer: I only own Hannah and my plot.

Chapter One

September 15, 2017
Osaka, Japan

"Fuck, I can't do this." Hannah ducked into an alleyway and leaned back against the cool of the brick wall, letting out a deep, shaky breath. This was an absolutely terrible idea and she never, ever should have let AJ talk her into it.

"Yes, you can." Hannah opened her eyes when she felt Nattie's hand gently grip her arm. She was looking at her the way a mother would a petrified child. "It's just dinner, Hannah, and AJ and I and a bunch of other people will be there. It's not a big deal."

A rueful laugh escaped Hannah's lips. Maybe to Nattie it wasn't a big deal, but to Hannah it was a huge, monumental deal. Because one of the "other people" who would be there was none other than Kenny Omega, and the last time Hannah had been in the same vicinity as him the wrestling world hadn't stopped talking about it for weeks.

Kenny had a huge crush on Hannah, and everyone knew it. He didn't at all shy away from talking about it; in fact, it was something of a running gag on "Being the Elite," the Young Bucks' YouTube series. That was actually how Hannah found out about it: enough people mentioned it to her on Twitter that she had to go watch the videos for herself. And, eventually, she responded.

The first time Hannah tweeted Kenny the fans absolutely lost it. Suddenly every pro wrestling blog and dirt sheet across the internet boasted headlines expounding upon what it could "mean": "Hannah McMahon Finally Responded to Kenny Omega and No One Can Handle It"; "Could Hannah McMahon Coax Kenny Omega to WWE?"; "Are WWE and NJPW In on The Hannah-Omega Saga?" But, in reality, it didn't "mean" anything. Hannah was just flattered by Kenny's persistence to get her attention and so she'd decided to throw him a bone. That was it.

But that sure as hell wasn't where it ended.

At the end of June, WWE's Raw roster had traveled to Japan for two shows in Tokyo. It wasn't necessary for Hannah to go, but she did; she'd studied abroad in Japan in college, and the country held a special place in her heart for it. And, despite that she hadn't interacted with Kenny in weeks, she was alerted to more than a dozen tweets speculating that she was meeting up with him before her plane's wheels could even hit the tarmac.

Of course, Hannah had toyed with the thought of meeting up with Kenny. As much as she tried to outwardly deny it, she was attracted to him – and she'd had to stop herself on more than one occasion from sending him a direct message after having one too many late-night glasses of red wine. But that was all it had been: a deleted thought. At least, it was until Finn Balor got involved.

Hannah and Finn – or Fergal, as she knew him – were close. As fate would have it, she'd been in the crowd for one of his first matches in NJPW, and eight years later she was the one who brought him to NXT. But, more importantly, Fergal was close with Kenny – and he loved taunting his former Bullet Club brother about his crush on Hannah.

"Hannah," Fergal had found her backstage not long after she'd arrived at Tokyo's Sumo Hall. "We're sending a picture to Kenny."

"What?" Hannah's eyes went wide as saucers. "No, we're not," she protested, but he didn't listen as he pulled her into his side. He held his phone up in front of them, the front-facing camera turned on.

"Too sweet me," he said.

Hannah glared at him through the phone screen. "Fergal, people have finally stopped wondering if we're fucking. Do you really want to stir all that up again just to get a rise out of Kenny?"

He didn't even pause to think about it. "Yes."

She scowled at him again; but, with a roll of her eyes, she made the "too sweet" symbol with her hand and touched her fingers to Fergal's. As nervous as it made her, sending the picture to Kenny actually was a pretty funny idea.

"Smile!" Fergal proclaimed, and Hannah put on her biggest and best shit-eating grin while he snapped a few photos.

"Are you gonna text it to him?" she asked as he checked over the pictures.

"No, I'm tweeting it to him," he replied. Hannah felt her stomach drop. If he put that photo on Twitter it would send the rumor mill into overdrive – and that was exactly what happened.

Mere minutes after Fergal tweeted the photo – boasting the simple caption, "Hi KennyOmegamanX" – Hannah's phone had erupted with mentions from fans and wrestlers alike. She only read a few of them before putting her phone on silent and banishing it to her purse. If someone wanted to talk to her, they'd just have to do it in person.

She'd completely avoided Twitter the rest of that day and tried desperately not to wonder how Kenny might have responded, if he had even responded at all. But avoiding the situation would soon become impossible.

After the show that night, Hannah reluctantly went out with Fergal, Seth Rollins, Luke Gallows, and Karl Anderson to have a few drinks. She hadn't wanted to go, but then Seth had given her that look—the one he knew she couldn't resist. And lately she'd been finding it harder and harder to resist Colby.

Colby and Hannah's relationship was, in a word, complicated. They'd been taking turns dancing around their feelings for each other ever since 2014, when Rollins had turned on The Shield and Hannah had been written into a storyline relationship with him. Up until that program, Hannah had never considered Colby anything more than a friend; but after a few weeks of kissing and canoodling on TV, suddenly she'd found herself thinking about her friend in ways she'd never imagined before. But Colby had been engaged at the time, and so Hannah had buried the fledgling feelings and done her best to ignore them.

But when it came to light that Colby had been cheating on his fiancée with some newcomer down in NXT, Hannah had been equal parts angry and jealous: angry that he'd done such a disgusting thing, and jealous that he'd done it with someone who wasn't even worth it. And it certainly didn't help that, as Director of Talent Relations, it was literally Hannah's job to do damage control after Colby's fiancée had hacked his Instagram account.

But, throughout all that, Hannah and Colby had remained an onscreen couple; and Hannah's real-life feelings had remained, too. And when Colby's relationship with the girl he'd cheated with unsurprisingly fell apart, suddenly he started acting like maybe those feelings were reciprocated.

But Hannah couldn't cross that line with Colby, no matter how badly she might want to. He'd cheated on every girlfriend he'd ever had, and Hannah refused to be just another notch in his belt. As she'd told Nattie and a few of the other girls, Colby was her best friend and she trusted him with her life; but she didn't think she could trust him with her heart.

Nevertheless, the feelings were still there, and she'd rather spend time out socializing with Colby than in her hotel room alone, so here she was.

"Goddamn, Hannah, you're gonna drink me under the table," Karl said as he watched her kick back another shot of sake. It was her third of the night, or maybe her fourth. She couldn't really remember.

"I told you, I studied abroad here in college," Hannah returned. "Sake's like water to me."

"Touché."

She turned to Colby, the sake still warm in her belly. Maybe it was the affect of the alcohol or the exotic locale, but he looked particularly irresistible tonight. "You tapping out already?" she asked, eyeing the shot sitting in front of him. "When'd you become such a lightweight?"

Colby didn't say anything in response. He just picked up the glass, sent Hannah a wink, and downed the sake. A shiver raced down Hannah's spine. She'd better get some water in her, or she'd be liable to do something she'd regret tonight.

But when she glanced around the bar looking for their waiter, the sight of three people coming through the front door instantly sobered her: Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson, and Kenny Omega.

"Oh fuck." She clamped her hand over her mouth; she hadn't meant to say that out loud. But it was too late. Karl and Gallows had spotted them, too.

"Well look what the cat dragged in!" Gallows boomed. For a split second, Kenny and Hannah locked eyes; but then she glanced furiously at Fergal. She threw a balled up straw wrapper at his head to get his attention.

Did you do this? She angrily mouthed across the table. He just sent her the same sly grin he'd flashed for the picture earlier.

"Well this is just fucking fantastic," Colby muttered under his breath. Hannah tensed – she wasn't the only one who'd had newsworthy online interactions with Omega. Earlier that year, Kenny had taken to Twitter to accuse Colby of stealing one of his finishing moves, and they'd gone back and forth a bit until Kenny finally quipped, "That's fine, I'll just come steal your manager and bring her back to NJPW." Colby's manager was, of course, Hannah; and when Kenny arrived at the table, she didn't miss how Colby protectively shifted closer to her, his arm draped over the back of her chair, as if Kenny would try to steal her away right then and there.

Karl took it upon himself to make the introductions. "Seth, meet Matt, Nick, and Kenny; Matt, Nick, and Kenny, meet Seth."

Colby shook each of their hands in turn – squeezing Kenny's a little harder than the others'. "Nice to meet you," he said. It sounded more like a threat than a greeting.

Finally, Karl turned to Hannah. "And while I'm sure she needs no introduction, this is Hannah McMahon. Hannah, this is Kenny," he said, completely ignoring Matt and Nick. Hannah froze, all too aware of the seven pairs of eyes watching her – until Kenny mercifully said exactly what she was thinking.

"Wow, Karl, you couldn't possibly have made that more awkward."

"I try my best," Karl grinned, and with the ice sufficiently broken they all settled in and got down to catching up.

Hannah didn't say a word the entire time. Instead, every few minutes she'd catch Kenny looking at her. Or he'd catch her looking at him, back and forth until her face was completely flushed and she couldn't stand to be there a moment longer. So when Kenny got up to use the restroom, Hannah leaned into Colby.

"I'm ready to go. Meet me by the bathroom." With that she slipped out of her seat and rushed toward the back of the bar and into the restroom. She just needed to splash some cold water on her face and go back to her hotel room. Alone.

She dabbed her face dry with a paper towel and made sure her makeup wasn't running before turning to step back out into the bar. Hopefully Colby was already out there waiting—but when she opened the door she found herself face to face with Kenny, who'd emerged from the men's bathroom at the exact same moment.

They both stopped, unsure of what to do or say, like two middle school kids suddenly faced with the crush they'd only admired from afar. It made Hannah feel vulnerable and excited all at once.

Kenny was the first to make an attempt at conversation. "You okay? You look tired." He visibly cringed as soon as the words left his mouth, likely realizing that it would have been better to say literally anything else. Hannah smirked at his nervousness. It was cute.

"Yeah, it's just been a while since I've had sake," she returned. "I feel like I'm two minutes from completely crashing so I think I'm just gonna head out."

"Oh," he said. Had Hannah imagined it, or was that disappointment she heard in his voice? "Yeah, it definitely creeps up on you," he quickly added; but his eyes glanced over her shoulder. When Hannah felt a hand on the small of her back, she knew it was Colby.

"You ready?" he asked.

"Mhm," she mumbled. "It was nice to finally meet you," she offered with a glance back up at Kenny.

He nodded, his expression neutral. "You too," he returned, and with a wordless goodbye between the two men, Hannah and Colby left the bar.

When she arrived back at her hotel room, Hannah had a knot the size of a grapefruit in her stomach. She fell face-first on the bed and let out a muffled groan into her pillow. That hadn't at all been the way she'd imagined meeting Kenny Omega for the first time. It couldn't have gone worse, and she wouldn't be surprised if she never heard from him again.

But then her phone chimed. She fished it out of her purse and checked the notification. It was a Twitter DM. From Kenny.

Hannah unlocked her phone, her pulse quickening. Her blood rushed to her ears when she read his message.

Hey. I know we didn't really talk tonight, but I didn't realize you were with Seth. So if it makes you uncomfortable I can back off on BTE and stuff. And I'll tell Fergal to knock off his bullshit, too.

She read over the note a few more times, triple checking that it was actually from him. Once she was certain, she didn't waste any time typing up a reply.

I know, I'm sorry we didn't talk more. But you misunderstood. Seth and I are close, but we're not together. That being said, you can totally still tell Fergal to knock off his bullshit.

She hit the send button, and she didn't know whether she wanted to stare at the screen until he responded or throw her phone clear across the room. But before she could decide, he'd already replied.

Well in that case, would you like to get coffee tomorrow?

Suddenly, the knot in Hannah's stomach fell away – and it was replaced with a flurry of butterflies. Her fingers flew over her phone's keyboard. Yes, she replied, and added a smiley face for good measure.

The next afternoon, Hannah got a second chance at her first time meeting Kenny Omega—and it was perfect. He was funnier, sweeter, and more humble than she'd thought, and they spent hours talking about everything and nothing. The date—if that's what it was—only ended because Hannah had to get to Sumo Hall for the next Raw live show; but before she left, Kenny suggested they take a picture. But not just any picture—he wanted to take a picture exactly like the one Hannah had taken with Fergal the day before. Hannah agreed, and Kenny tweeted it out with the caption, "Hi FinnBalor."

If the fans had exploded before, they went absolutely nuclear when they saw that picture.

For the next couple weeks, there was nonstop speculation that Kenny and Hannah were an item; and for the next couple weeks, Hannah did talk with him nearly every day. But then it went from nearly every day to every three days, to only once a week, and eventually not at all. By the time September rolled around, Hannah had figured he'd lost interest, and she'd decided against traveling back to Japan for SmackDown's one-night-only event in Osaka.

At least she had until, one day off at home in Connecticut, she got a text from Kenny.

Please make my week and tell me you'll be at the Osaka show on the 16th.

Hannah read the message without unlocking her phone, stubbornly refusing to answer. Truthfully, she was conflicted as what to do; the text itself was enough to make her melt, but she was miffed that he hadn't said a word to her in weeks. So instead of figuring out how she felt, she went back to reading her book. But she'd barely finished a page before she couldn't keep herself from responding any longer.

Well hello to you too, was all she typed back. He wasn't getting off the hook that easily.

Her phone chimed less than a minute later. I know, I kind of disappeared and I'm sorry. It's not an excuse but I was busy with the G1 and dead tired for four weeks straight. Forgive me?

Hannah turned up her nose at the text. She'd been aware that the G1 Climax, a month-long round-robin tournament held by NJPW every August, would dominate his time, but he was right—it wasn't an excuse. But before she could think up a response, another text came in.

Come to Osaka and let me make it up to you. Pretty please?

Hannah bit her lip. As annoyed as she was, she didn't want to stop exploring whatever this was between them.

I suppose I can make time for it in my very busy, incredibly important schedule, she replied with a smirk. Kenny's response was near instant.

Thank you. I promise I'll make it worth your invaluable time ;)

A knot formed at the base of Hannah's core. There were a lot of implications behind that winking emoji, and suddenly she needed a drink.

But her anticipation at seeing Kenny again didn't last long. As the Osaka trip drew closer, she grew more and more nervous about what might happen. She couldn't help but think that this relationship, or whatever it was, was doomed from the start. Kenny had a full-time career in Japan with WWE's biggest global rival; Hannah was WWE's Director of Talent Relations and Vince McMahon's daughter. It was almost like they were a modern day Romeo and Juliet – and everyone knew how that story ended.

As her anxiety over the situation worsened, Hannah had been ready to just call the trip off – but then AJ Styles, another one of Kenny's former Bullet Club brothers, had taken it upon himself to get involved. "I'm planning on meeting up with a few of the guys while we're there," he'd told her one night backstage at SmackDown. "You invite Kenny and we'll just all get together as a group. He's a good guy, Hannah. It'll be fine, I promise."

After some deliberation, Hannah agreed – but only after Nattie had promised to come along, too. And so here they were.

"Is your tea kettle settled?"

Hannah couldn't help but laugh as Nattie's reassuring voice brought her out of her reverie. She stood up straight, regaining her composure. "Yeah. Is my makeup okay?"

"You're literally the hottest person in Japan right now."

Hannah rolled her eyes at her grin. "You don't have to lie, Nattie. Come on, let's go." And with that, they walked off toward the restaurant where Kenny was waiting.