Sonya opened her eyes to find herself facing Mandy, who was already awake. Judging by how tired her eyes looked, she hadn't beaten Sonya to it by much. There was light coming through the curtains, so Sonya knew it was morning. She had slept like a log after the night of passion they had shared.
"Morning, beautiful," Mandy said quietly.
"Morning, baby," Sonya replied, her eyes still adjusting to waking up.
"Thank you again for last night. I can't even remember how many times I came."
"Mmm," Sonya purred, enjoying the memories that came to mind. "I'm glad you enjoyed it as much as I did."
"I really did. I think that's the best gag you've ever put on me," Mandy said. There was a hint of a sultriness in the way she spoke.
"You think so?" Sonya asked, feeling herself start to warm up. Mandy knew full well that talk like that would turn her on.
"Yes. I could barely make a sound, and there's no way I could have got it off. You could have left it on me all night if you had wanted to."
"Oh my god," Sonya breathed. "Don't say things like that to me. That's so hot, Mand."
"I'm glad you think so, because I think you should try it one time."
"But how would you sleep? You wouldn't be comfortable enough," Sonya objected, despite how much she wanted to do what was being suggested.
"I wouldn't be comfortable if I was tied up, but you could leave my mouth taped. I'm fairly sure that's the main turn on for you."
"It is," Sonya said. "And okay, if you want to do that, I'm damn sure not going to object. You drive me crazy, Mandy, you know that?"
"You drive me crazy, too. You made me come just by tying me up and touching me with rubber gloves. That's a talented lover."
Sonya kissed her lightly on the lips. "I aim to please."
"Boy, did you please," Mandy said dreamily. "I'd love to have more sex now, but we'd better get up. Don't want to be late for training."
"Damn training," Sonya said grumpily, but she knew Mandy was right.
Struggling out from under the blanket, Mandy got up and yawned while stretching her arms. "I'll put the coffee machine on."
With a yawn of her own, Sonya got out of the bed. There were crumpled up lengths of black Gorilla Tape on the floor, along with the sexy purple lingerie and rubber gloves that had been the previous night's Daria costume. It was another reminder of the amazing experience, making Sonya long for more sex.
"Maybe later," Mandy said, guessing what Sonya was thinking as she walked up to her and kissed her on the lips.
"I hope so," Sonya said. With that, she forced herself to head to the bathroom.
A few minutes later, relieved and washed, Sonya walked through to the kitchen, where Mandy was fixing two cups of coffee.
"Son?" Mandy asked, hearing her footsteps approaching.
"What, baby?" Sonya asked, opening a cupboard to get one of her favourite breakfast cereal bars.
"I know we've become attached to this apartment, but it is a bit of a dump. We can afford better now, so I'm wondering how you feel about looking for a new place?"
"As it happens, I've thought the same thing a few times," Sonya said. "I hadn't found the right time to mention it, but I had thought it. I'd like to move somewhere nicer, somewhere bigger. You know what else I thought?"
"What?" Mandy asked, turning around and handing Sonya her cup of coffee.
"Thank you," Sonya said. "I was thinking we could find somewhere with three bedrooms. A bedroom for us, one to make into an office or a storeroom, and one for Daria." She saw exactly the reaction she had hoped for in Mandy's eyes. She was sold on the idea from the moment she heard it.
"Oh wow, Daria's own room," Mandy breathed. "I'm excited just imagining it."
"I bet you are," Sonya said in her Daria voice, before switching back. "So what do you say we go apartment hunting at the weekend, since we're not working?"
"I say it sounds like a plan. We'll have a look for places on our lunch break today and see if we can make some viewing appointments. Are we going to look to rent or buy?"
"I think we should buy," Sonya said without needing to consider it. "We could get a good rate if we went for a joint mortgage, considering both of our salaries."
Standing with her back to the sink, Mandy sipped her hot coffee. "That's a good point. And I guess renting is wasting money when you think about it. We should make enquiries to find out how much we could get a mortgage for."
"Yes, we'll need to do that."
Mandy remained silent for a moment while Sonya unwrapped and started to eat her breakfast bar.
"What?" Sonya asked, wanting to know what was on her mind.
"There's something else I think we're going to need to do sooner rather than later."
"Yeah," Sonya said, picking up on what she meant straight away. "It's time we came out to the locker room. I've been thinking the same thing."
Mandy nodded. "Right. Especially now we've agreed to travel with Zel. It would be weird trying not to be ourselves around her all the time. I don't want it to be like that."
"Neither do I," Sonya said. "Besides, the girls all know us well enough now. We've been sharing locker rooms with them for months at live events. I honestly don't think we'll have any problems with them."
Mandy sipped her coffee again. "Neither do I. Sasha might be a bitch sometimes, but I don't see her as a homophobe. She's just hard to get along with, and she has a huge ego."
Finishing the last mouthful of her breakfast bar, Sonya put the wrapper in the trash. "That's how I see it too. Like I said, I was thinking that we'd need to come out. I was going to bring it up. My idea was that we could do it when we show up for the tapings. You know it'll be a real feel good night, plus we'll be traveling with Z soon after that."
After considering it for a moment, Mandy nodded her agreement. "Alright, sounds like a plan. Although we agreed to keep our relationship to ourselves, now that it's time to come out I actually feel excited about it. I'll be so proud to tell everyone that you're my girlfriend, Sonya. I love you."
Sonya walked over and kissed Mandy on the lips. "I love you too, Mandy. And I couldn't be happier or prouder to be with you. I'm truly blessed."
"We both are. Blessed to have each other."
That was a perfect way to put it, Sonya thought. She told herself to remember it for when they addressed the women's locker room at the TV tapings. The moment would come around before they knew it.
Arriving at Full Sail University for the first time as members of the NXT roster was an amazing feeling for Sonya and Mandy. The building itself was not new to them, they had been there several times to experience TV tapings backstage. Tonight, though, they were not going to experience it from the back, they would be out there in the ring, performing in a match that would be televised.
As Sonya led Mandy into the locker room, all of the women who had arrived before them started applauding. It felt extremely embarrassing to Sonya, who stood there feeling like she didn't know where to put herself. That kind of greeting was the last thing she had expected.
"Please, you don't have to do that," Mandy said, also embarrassed.
"Just a little NXT tradition we have for trainees who make it this far," Bayley said at the far end of the room as the round of applause began to die down. She had such a broad smile on her face that it was impossible for it to not be contagious.
"Congratulations," Sasha said. Standing next to Bayley, she was smiling too. It actually seemed like she was genuinely pleased for them, which came as a pleasant surprise to Sonya.
"Thanks guys, it means a lot," Sonya said, hurrying over to her locker to try and put the awkwardness behind her.
The door opened again and Zelina entered. "Aww, damn," she said. "I wanted to be here before my Golden Gloves. Did they get all shy when you applauded them?" she asked the room as a whole.
"Yep," Becky Lynch replied with a laugh.
"But we did really appreciate it," Mandy clarified. "It was a lovely gesture. Thank you."
Smiling, Zelina walked over to the soon-to-be members of her team. "All set for tonight? Got your gold ring attire?" she asked brightly. "I bought myself some truly awful-looking gold leather pants for the first night I manage you."
"Gold leather pants? Someone actually makes those?" Sonya asked with a big grin.
"Apparently so," Zelina chuckled. "What about a double team move? Do you have one yet?"
That took Sonya by surprise, and looking at Mandy, she saw the same reaction. It hadn't occurred to them to think of a double team move. Hunter hadn't said anything about it, but now Sonya realised that it was kind of obvious that they should have one, and they should have had something ready. "Uh, no," she admitted, feeling embarrassed again.
"Not to worry, we'll come up with something before we go out there," Zelina said.
"I've got an idea," Lacey Evans said. As ever, she was only a couple of lockers down from Mandy.
"Let's hear it," Mandy said openly.
"Mandy, I'm picturing you lifting up the opponent the way Beth Phoenix used to do for her finish, whatever that was called," Lacey said.
"The Glam Slam," Bayley helped out.
"Thank you," Lacey said. "Mandy, you lift the opponent up in position for the Glam Slam and hold them there. Sonya, you run at them, jump in the air and blast them in the head with one of those martial arts kicks you do, then Mandy plants them on the mat in the second part of the Glam Slam. How does that work?"
Sonya and Mandy looked at each other, liking the sound of it. However, Sonya didn't know the move that they were talking about. "I'd have to look up the Glam Slam," she said.
"Here, I'll do it," Mandy said, phone already in hand. A quick YouTube search brought up a short video of Beth Phoenix delivering the move. Sonya watched it, looking over her girlfriend's shoulder.
"So I'd hold them up like that, while you kick them in the head," Mandy said. "Works for me. I think it would actually look pretty sick."
"I agree," Sonya said. She turned to Lacey. "Thanks for that. You came up with it so quick, too."
Lacey shrugged. "I was going to use it if they teamed me with someone, but you can have it."
"Thanks a lot," Mandy said gratefully.
"I'll even be your first victim," Lacey offered. "You can hit it on me in the battle royal."
"That's awesome of you. Thanks again," Sonya said.
"No problem," Lacey said easily. "There's no sign that I'm ever going to be on a tag team, so someone might as well make use of the idea."
"We could call our version the Golden Slam," Zelina suggested.
Mandy nodded. "Sounds good to me."
At the break in conversation, Sonya set about unpacking her things from her travel case and arranging them on the bench in front of her locker, while Zelina walked across the room to her own locker. Sonya felt herself getting nervous, and it had nothing to do with the upcoming Golden Gloves debut. She was thinking about the fact that it was soon going to be time for her and Mandy to announce their relationship to the rest of the women. Coming out was never an easy thing to do, even when it was to people who were likely to receive the news favourably.
Beside her, Mandy had also unpacked her things. When she was done, she looked at Sonya. "Do you think we should, uh…?" she asked quietly.
"Ready if you are," Sonya said, giving what she hoped was a reassuring smile.
Mandy took a deep breath. "Alright, let's do it."
"Do you want me to speak up, or do you want to do it?" Sonya asked.
"You can, if you want."
Just go for it, Sonya told herself. She turned around to face the room and said, "Guys, if I can have a minute, there's something Mandy and I wanted to say to you all."
"We're not going to apologise for applauding you," Shayna Baszler said, drawing a ripple of laughter from around the room.
Sonya managed a smile. "We don't want you to. What we wanted to say is that, as you all know, we've lived together since we signed for NXT. Well, we're not just housemates, we're actually in a relationship."
"And we're very happy," Mandy added shyly.
"That's lovely," Bayley said warmly. "I'm really pleased for you guys."
Sonya took in the smiles that were on display around the room, and the simultaneous expressions of congratulation and well wishes. It struck her that the reaction was basically no different than she would have expected if she had just announced that she was dating Seth Rollins, and that was possibly the best reaction of any she could have hoped for. Her colleagues saw nothing different about a gay relationship compared to a straight one. It was wonderful.
"I think you guys are the first gay female wrestlers in WWE," Becky said. "And about time, too. You could make that a powerful thing, if you wanted to use it to send a message."
"We'd rather just go about our business as usual," Mandy replied in a friendly manner.
Sonya nodded her agreement. Although Becky clearly meant well, neither she nor Mandy wanted to be screaming from the rooftops about being gay. They had simply felt it was right to tell their colleagues.
"Fair enough," Zelina said. "I think I speak for everyone when I wish you every happiness together."
There were nods and words of agreement from around the room, then people went back to talking in their usual groups. The news had been received and accepted just like that.
"Well, that went easier than I expected," Mandy said quietly to Sonya.
"Agreed," she muttered back. "But don't complain. Now we can focus on the show, and on making the right kind of impact with our debut."
A/N: Shout out to everyone who left a review on the previous chapter.
Next time, Sonya and Mandy will be in the ring for their first ever televised match. How do you think they will do?