Starting at the End

It was just before 6 and Darcy was wide awake. It was a different awake to most other mornings. This awake had little do with insomnia and more to do with being on Moxley's couch. Sleep had barely come over her, maybe two hours if she was lucky, because there was a feeling in the bottom of her stomach that she couldn't shake. It was weird.

Darcy looked around the room. The television was huge and the DVD collection was outrageous but there was little else. Colby and Leighla's had been a home filled with decorations and character, Moxley's was some walls with furniture inside.

She looked back over her shoulder when a door was thrown open, banging against the wall.

"Fuck!" Mox swore, double taking when he noticed a figure sitting on his couch. "Right," he pointed at her and nodded, remembering the night before. "You're sleeping on my couch."

Darcy nodded at him and watched him step into the kitchen. She turned her attention back to the television, reaching onto the table for the remote control. The screen lit up and she snorted loudly when she saw what was on it.

"Yo, Mox!" she called out, still laughing. In the kitchen Mox lifted his head and dropped a glass when he saw what channel he had left the television on.

"Fuck it," he grumbled. "Change it."

"She's hot, though, don't you think?" Darcy asked in the most serious voice she could muster. "Definitely someone you could bring home to mama." Darcy looked over her shoulder to see Mox squirming in the kitchen. She started laughing again, "Calm down, dude. Everyone's watched porn before. You're the lucky fucker who gets to watch on a 50 inch TV." A particularly loud moan came over the speakers and Darcy threw her head back in laughter.

"Alright, I get it."

"Why are you embarrassed? Like, you get off to girl-on-girl, so do I."

"Really now?" His interested picked up and he leaned forward across the bench.

"My boyfriend lives in Pennsylvania. I have to get off somehow."

"And you watch girl-on-girl?"

Darcy shrugged, "If it's hot, I'll watch it. What's your poison? Blonde teenage girls?" Darcy asked, pulling a face at the porn on the screen. "That is not possible. Whatever that is."

Mox, deep in thought, said, "You and me, we should watch it together some time."

"I still have a boyfriend, Moxley," Darcy reminded him dryly, finally turning the television off.

"If we don't touch each other, though, is that still cheating?"

"Alright," Darcy said as she stood up from the couch and reached into her handbag. "I am going outside to have a smoke."

"You have to release all those sexual frustrations elsewhere," he said with a cocky smirk. Darcy stuck up her middle finger as she passed him.

"I have a lot of frustrations, and most of them are sexual, but right now I'm going through nicotine withdrawals."

She walked out the back door and sat on one of the patio's chairs. Moments later Moxley joined her outside, lighting up a cigarette. There was an arrogant smile on his face that Darcy merely returned with her own.

"There's a rumour going 'round that you're living with Ambrose." Darcy was standing in front of Matt, punching the mitts on his hands as he called it. "Right."

"I am temporarily living on his couch," she corrected as she threw the punch. "Just like I temporarily lived on your couch."

"You could have come back. Left, right. It's too quiet," he told her. It was easy for him to stand his ground despite how hard Darcy was hitting.

"I don't know how long I'm going to last at his place. It's bare. Not homely."

"What do you care about homely?" Matt asked with a laugh. "Right, right."

"It's weird, that's all," she threw the punches, grumbling when she threw a left first. "Having no stupid knick knacks or photos or anything."

Matt dropped his hands to his sides and shrugged, "You could go psycho girlfriend and fill his house with stuffed toys and weird shit like that."

"Or I could not," she added, landing one last, unexpected punch into Matt's stomach. He groaned loudly and clutched at his stomach. "Pay attention."

She brushed her hair back over her head – making a mental note that she needed to get a haircut – and stared at her friend blankly for a few moments as she contemplated what living with Moxley for more than a week was going to be like. In not even 24 hours she had been able to laugh at him and talk freely about sex so it was proving to be okay. If she got over the emptiness of his house.

Ashley appeared beside her, causing Matt to take a step to the side and let her punch the mitts he still had on his hands.

"Ambrose, huh?" Ashley nudged Darcy in the side with her elbow. "I didn't think you were friends."

"We're not," Darcy mumbled, nudging her friend back.

"You don't sleep on the couches of people you aren't friends with, Darcy."

"I do, obviously."

"Admitting that you're friends isn't going to kill you."

"But it would be a lie."

Ashley groaned, "You're actually unbelievable. God forbid you make new friends. The horror."

Darcy was called into the ring with Norman Smiley shortly after to work on her move set. He, like everyone else, was trying to get her to incorporate her cheerleading history into her wrestling. It was no secret that the general consensus was that Darcy was letting talent go to waste. She was going to prove them wrong if it was the last thing she did.

Saraya was her training partner for the day, only making Darcy work harder. The tension was still high between the two – purely because Darcy refused to let go of her jealousy – but they wrestled without argument. As they did so, Darcy paid close attention to how applied holds and her general demeanour in the ring. She may have been overly jealousy of the British woman, but Darcy could not deny that she was a good wrestler.

Pulling her headphones from her ears, Darcy looked sideways at the car that was driving slowly beside her.

"You sure you don't want a ride? We're going to the same place." Darcy chose not to respond to Moxley. "It's a lot further to my place than it was to Colby's."

"Then I'll get used to the distance."

"It's hot as fuck outside, you'll dehydrate." Wordlessly, Darcy pulled a drink bottle out of her bag and held it up to him. "Come on, get in. I'll let you walk when the Performance Centre opens up in Orlando."

"You'll let me?" She snorted. "How nice of you."

"Get in the fucking car, Darcy. Don't be a pain in the ass."

She raised her eyebrows at him and he stared back at her, daring her to argue with him further. The stare down lasted for nearly a minute before Darcy let out a disgruntled sigh and pulled the passenger's door open. Moxley smirked at his victory and drove off the second she had closed the door. As they started to move, Darcy threw her bag over into the backseat and kicked her feet up onto the dash.

Her head dropped so that her chin was resting on her chest, she closed her eyes and opened the window, letting the breeze cool her down. Sleep, as hard as it was to come by during the night, crept over her at odd times during the day so Darcy had to take any opportunity that she could.

"Don't fall asleep in my car," Mox grumbled, causing her to lift her head and look at him through one open eye. "Seriously, just wait until we get back to the house."

"I won't want to sleep then."

"I'm serious; do not fall asleep in my car."

"What's the big deal?" she asked through gritted teeth.

"If you fall asleep then you'll snore or drool or both and then when we stop I'm going to have to wake you up and deal with your grumpy ass." He did a sharp turn and Darcy had to brace herself so she wouldn't slam into the door.

"You need to drive better," she told him, pulling her feet back onto the floor. "I'm grumpy whether I've had a lot of sleep or not."

"Are you ever."

Knowing that she would be woken up if she tried to get some sleep, Darcy crossed her arms over her chest and stared out the windshield, watching the road disappear in front of them. The radio was playing a pop song that made Darcy die on the inside but she kept her mouth shut. Living with Moxley was going to require a certain amount of control on Darcy's part and she wasn't sure if she would be able to take it.

"So, Colby said that you buy the food." Moxley dropped down onto the couch, the cushions sinking on his side causing Darcy to be lifted up slightly.

"I buy the food instead of paying rent or bills, yeah," she nodded. "Do you need something?"

"You're going to have to go to the store tomorrow."

"I don't go alone," she said with a laugh. "I'm not your girlfriend; I'm not your maid. I am your new roommate. You come to the store with me."

He shrugged, "I'll write you a list."

"If you don't come with me I will get nothing that you ask for. Seriously, you just have to come to the store with me."

They argued back and forth before Mox finally relented and said that he would go with her. He was already beginning to regret offering his couch.

He stretched, his neck cracking as he did so, and slumped further down into his seat. Darcy was watching something on the Discovery Channel, not that she was particularly interested it was just that nothing else had been on, and the two sat in silence watching lions devour zebras.

"Would you say we're friends?" Darcy asked suddenly, turning her head to face him.

"Yeah, sure," he responded dismissively. "You're sleeping on my couch. I guess that makes us friends."

"I'm not good at this friends thing, just so you know," she warned him.

"Great, neither am I. We can be horrible together." He wasn't talking directly to her, nor did he sound particularly interested in the conversation. Darcy didn't say anything back to him, she chose to take the opportunity to check him out.

His lack of shirt was making her increasingly aware of how attractive she found him. His 'fuck the world' attitude appealed to her because she related so much. He was charming in a disgusting sort of way, a way that a lot of people would be put off by. He was everything Darcy had learnt to avoid since leaving high school. He was everything she had known before learning that.

"Stop staring at me."

"I'm not staring at you," she rebutted, quickly looking back to the television. "I was plotting your death."

"Make it soon." His tone was casual; he didn't care if she was joking or if she was serious. Her stares were unnerving him.

"You won't be waking up in the morning."

"Right," he nodded slowly. "I'll be sure to come back and haunt you. I'm sure you look great naked."

Darcy guffawed, "Get your mind out of the gutter." She reached behind her back for the cushion before using it to hit him in the face

"I can't leave you down there by yourself."

She grunted, "Fuck off."

"You are," he started, facing her with a smirk, "the most polite lady I have ever met. It's very attractive." The sarcasm dripping from his voice made her roll her eyes. Darcy stood up, brushing her short hair out of her face, and flipped him the bird.

"Eat a dick." She redirected herself towards her bags, readying herself for a shower. Moxley laughed and found a comfier position lying across the couch.

"Your wit astounds me."

"Your arrogance astounds me."