thank-you to all those who are following and to my one commenter, i really do appreciate any form of feedback 3
also can we just for a second talk about the fact that payback is a fatal four-way? and how much shade seth was throwing on smackdown during that contract signing? like omg the feels
enjoy!
She catches up with Stephanie the next day, shooting her a text message and then slipping into her office.
"Hey," Ary says, sliding down onto one of the leather chairs. "So, lay it down."
Stephanie goes on to explain how she knows that Ary's character is very solitary, how she knows that Ary Hale, the gimmick, is strong and competent. But how she also knows that Ary Hale, the person, is in a relationship with Colby Lopez, and a pointed eyebrow raises at this.
Ary can't hide the smirk from her face and shrugs her shoulders. "Well, when that feud started between The Shield and Evolution, Paul and Randy were hanging out with them a lot, okay? Stuff happens."
"Stuff," Stephanie snorts, giving Ary a knowing look. "So, I was thinking that we could push that ring wise. We're not talking you fighting or wrestling any of them, just some encounters and a bit of tension."
Ary tilts her head, frowning. "In what context?"
Stephanie shrugs. "Not sure yet. Maybe you interrupt Colby when he's complaining to Paul, or we can push you a little as part of the Authority."
"Not the Authority," Ary muses. She looks up at Stephanie then, eyes bright with an idea. "How about he propositions me? I retain my title against Nikki Bella at the next pay-per-view and he comes out the following Raw and asks me to join, and I turn him down? That'll create a bit of tension."
Nodding, Stephanie smiles. "Good, good. You mentioned the other night that Heath Slater would be a bit of a 'pushover'," Ary guiltily smirks, lifts a shoulder. "So maybe in retaliation he could say if you beat Slater you remained 'the lone wolf', and if you lose you join."
"No," Ary shakes her head. "That would go will with my pride, yeah, but what if we switched it up a little?"
The two continue bouncing ideas off each other, finally coming to an agreement on where her gimmick is heading, and then she leaves to catch the rest of her TV show.
The following matinee house show doesn't really hold much for Ary in terms of wrestling. She goes out and watches Nikki Bella win against her opponent and greets fans and keeps herself looking fierce, but she's missed being apart of the atmosphere and they can tell.
She meets Nikki in the ring for some hands on training right before SmackDown and the two talk about what they're going to say in their promo, using the time to chat and catch up on life outside of wrestling.
When SmackDown rolls around on Tuesday evening, Nikki is up against Paige. The match lasts for a solid eleven minutes and pride rises in Ary's chest when she realises that the crowd is still intensely watching.
Nikki wins and her music hits, but she snatches her arm from the ref's and stomps over to where the microphone is waiting for her.
"I have been called a lot of things," Nikki starts, drawing her words out so that she's clearly heard and understood. "But not good enough?" She laughs, stalks towards the top of the ring, facing the ramp. "Ary Hale you may be the current Divas Champion, but you know what? This pampered, plastic mannequin has been running the divas division while you've been on vacation!"
Ary smiles behind the curtains and crosses her arms over her chest. Nikki's gotten better with her promos as well.
"Next Sunday, when I face you for that title, you better watch your back. You may be the best right now, but at Extreme Rules, I'm going to be better than you."
She drops her microphone and goes to exit the ring when Ary's music hits the arena.
Ary waits until the white noises fades into the song before she rounds the corner to stand at the top of the ramp. She's not wearing any ring attire, but since she isn't set to wrestle anyone until Raw, it doesn't matter. Instead, she's wearing her red trademark sleeveless hoodie and black shorts. Her eyes are lined once again in black kohl, but this time her dark hair is down.
Once the crowd settles, Ary raises the microphone to her lips and breathily laughs into it. "Oh Nikki… last time I checked, you were incompetent of beating me at anything."
"So let me tell you something I learnt while watching you become the 'top dog' of the divas division," she pauses, smirks, raises an eyebrow. "You're just that. A dog." A 'bitch' chant starts somewhere on the left side of the arena, slowly gets louder, and Ary watches as Nikki adjusts her hair. "But I'm a wolf, Nikki, and at Extreme Rules, this little house that you made for yourself? I'm going to blow it down."
Ary waits for Nikki backstage and they high-five as hard as possible when they get close enough to.
"Fuck yeah!" Ary squeals, happiness radiating off of her like a dizziness.
Nikki laughs, saying, "We had them by the balls, oh my God! They were so into it!"
They get multiple pats on the back as they walk towards catering, and somewhere along the line someone passes Nikki some sweats to pull on over her bare legs. The two sit and talk about the up coming match on Raw and when Ary sees Colby, she's off and running, launching herself across his back and pressing a big slobbery kiss onto his neck.
As he gasps and almost becomes turtle-like, Ary drops off him and ducks behind one of the J&J Security boys. He playfully glares at her and holds his arm out, and she fits herself into his side.
"You're a brat, you know?" He says to her, smiling as she looks up at him with a shit-eating grin on her face. "I don't know why I stick around."
"My ass is too irresistible to you, Lopez."
"If that's what you think," he laughs, pressing a kiss to her head.
She looks up at him and wraps an arm around his waist, eyes questioning. "So, what's Seth Rollins going to do tonight?"
"Nothing, actually."
"These two follow you around for fun, then?"
The two boys behind them snort at her and continue in their own conversation.
"No, Steph asked for a meeting. Something new in the storyline, I guess."
"Oh! Speaking of that," Ary grins, moving to stand in front of her boyfriend. "She made a pretty good proposition to me about a new heading."
Colby raises an eyebrow. "And?"
"Well… I guess Seth Rollins is going to be seeing a lot more of Ary Hale," Ary says with a wink.
When Raw kicks off on Monday, Ary's eyes are glued to the screen backstage and silently she makes a note to herself to pronounce Orton the way JoJo does just to piss Randy off.
He starts talking and his words are harsh, and the people gathered at the back of the curtain whisper to each other as Colby listens for his cue. Ary is standing next to him, hand in his, but her eyes are on the monitor that's showing the live broadcast. Of course, she may also be interested because she's soon about to be a part of the dynamic in the storyline. When Randy says "I'm gonna pick you up by that stupid little blonde streak you got going on", Ary snorts out laughter.
"Really?" Colby says as he smiles down at her. "I thought you said it was cute."
Ary laughs and says, "Oh trust me, it is," before leaning up on her tip-toes to give him a drawn out kiss. Her hands are in his shirt and his are gripping her waist, and she pulls back a little to look up at him. "You gonna finish soon? I need a sparring partner to get warmed up."
Colby smirks down at her and then he's being pushed out to the sound of his music.
When she sees him on screen, Ary clenches her fist and bites her knuckles to stop the grin from spreading across her face.
"Randy, Randy, look; I don't wanna come out here and state the obvious, but man… you really have a bit of an anger problem."
The crowd jeers at Colby, or really, Seth, and Randy looks like he's just been told the dumbest thing in the world. "Are… you just now realising I have issues with anger? Seth, thats not my problem, I don't have an anger problem, I have a Seth Rollins problem!"
Ary snickers to herself and then moves back to the general area where Nikki is.
"So, I'm thinking," she starts, and Nikki looks up from her phone to concentrate on Ary. "No talking tonight. I know that we were going to cut another promo, but I think we should push that back to tomorrow and just wrestle tonight."
Nikki nods, adding a soft, "Yeah, that sounds good to me," but Ary can tell that something's not right. She dips her head to catch Nikki's eyes and the other girl sighs. "Brie's a bit out of it at the moment, she feels like she's been pushed back to the sidelines."
Ary hums in understanding and looks towards one of the change rooms. "I can understand that. She doesn't want to come out with you tonight?"
"No, it's not just that," Nikki shakes her head, "She's worried about Daniel as well, which is great."
"Tell her to go see Steph. I got really into the feud you guys had a couple of months back, it was really entertaining."
Nikki agrees but stays quiet, and Ary knows that there's nothing she can really do, so she stands and makes her way to the change rooms to pull on her gear. It's nothing too fancy, not like what the other divas wear, but she's okay with that. On top of her sports bra is a black cropped shirt, and then it's just her usual black shorts and black knee high wrestling boots.
When she ventures back out of the change room, the title wrapped around her waist, she runs her fingers along the fiery tattoo lines spreading out across the space of her left hip.
Ary rounds a corner and stops short at the camera crew and the production guys gathered around Paul and Colby, pre-recording a little segment now that the evening's in full swing.
She smiles at the two and stands back to wait for them to finish and the cameras to go off before shouting, "Two of my favourite people sharing another on-screen moment!"
Paul rolls his eyes and slaps Colby on the back as a goodbye before walking off.
Walking towards Colby, Ary pulls herself up onto one of the crates and holds her arms out for him to walk into. He slides between her legs and presses a short kiss against her lips before pulling back with a raised eyebrow.
"Still need that sparring partner?" Colby teases, running his nose along her jaw.
A sigh falls from Ary's lips and she drops her head into his neck, delicately peppering kisses into his skin. "No, it was a workout enough pulling these stupid boots on."
Colby laughs into her hair and slips his hands underneath the title, gently popping it off so he can grip her waist, skin to skin. When Ary raises her head, Colby catches her mouth and kisses her passionately, hand moving around to the small of her back to pull her closer to his body.
"Colby," she laughs, pulling away, "You're belt is really fucking cold."
He grins as he watches the goosebumps erupt along her arms, smiles through the next kiss he gives her, and then presses his lips against her head. "Seth Rollins would never give up his belt for a woman."
Ary raises an eyebrow and pulls away, crossing her arms. "Oh, really?"
Colby pokes his tongue out at her in response and then wriggles his eyebrows. "You're unarmed, diva warrior," he threatens, and then pokes her in the ribs. Ary squeals and jumps, then glares at her cackling boyfriend.
"Traitor."
He laughs as he darts forward to poke her again, and then she launches at him, flinging herself onto his back to wrap an arm around his throat in a gentle chokehold. One of his hands is on the soft skin of her thigh and the other on her arm around his neck, and he cringes as she blows raspberries into his neck.
Out of the corner of her eye, Ary can see Nikki approaching as she calls out, "Come on you power-house couple, let's go, move it, we have a show that's still airing."
Nikki walks around them and slips the title over her shoulder, and Colby sets off after her, Ary giggling into his back as he bounces in his steps.
"You two are so gross," Nikki remarks, sending a look over her shoulder.
They reach the curtain just as Nikki's music hits. She quickly hands the title back to Ary, who is now on the ground, and prances out into the arena.
"Go get 'em, tiger," Colby whispers into her ear, smacking her ass as he walks back towards the change room.
Ary glares after him until she's being pushed out in front of the crowd, Halestorm's Daughters of Darkness booming through the arena.
The lights flicker and when Ary is drenched in the spotlight, her arms are spread wide, head lowered, eyes glaring down the ramp. She walks forwards then and once in the ring, slips the belt off her shoulder and holds it high in one hand.
"Ary looks ready for a battle tonight, John."
When the bell rings, Nikki and Ary dart forward, lock up quickly.
Two years ago when Ary first stepped into the world of WWE, she'd fallen in love with Nikki Bella's in-ring style. She'd told the other diva as much the first time they'd met, and had since developed her own unique kind of style with her help.
Nikki pushes her back into the ropes, head underneath the top, and waits until the three count to let go. They circle each other again, Ary rolling her shoulders. The crowd are chanting something incomprehensible, but it doesn't matter to either of the divas.
Launching herself at the other diva, Ary goes for a headlock, linking her hands together, and then drops Nikki onto her knee in a modified back breaker. A quick cover, a push off, and Nikki stands, an arm caressing her back.
The two lock again. The Bella twin pushes Ary into the ropes and catches her under the chin with a drop kick and goes for a quick cover with kick out at one.
"She powers out of that cover, and John, I don't think I've seen Ary protect her wrist once."
After a grapple and some hair pulling, Ary is sent flying into the turnbuckles. Her head bounces of the padded corner with a sharp thwack. Nikki moves quickly, climbing up the ropes to slam her fists into the sides of Ary's face, and then in a sudden change of pace, Ary rams her elbow into the other girls stomach, sending her flying off the ropes.
While Nikki's down, Ary drops on her knees and attempts to lock in her Kimura submission move. She fumbles with the limbs but in the pure strength that Nikki has, the diva lifts them both to their feet and throws Ary over her shoulder. The latter stumbles back into the ropes, but bounces off them to deliver a heavy clothesline. Nikki's straight back up, and Ary slams her arm across her chest again.
When Nikki gets back up, Ary lands a kick into her stomach and wraps her arm around the divas neck.
"Ary Hale is dominating in this match-up, and it looks like she's getting ready for The Bite!"
Ary runs at the ropes and bounces off the middle, then the top turnbuckle, flips over Nikki and pulls her down in a reverse DDT. She covers Nikki after rolling her back onto the other diva and waits for the three count before rolling off.
Colby laughs at Ary when she walks out that evening. She wants to naturally curl her hair, so she has two tightly wound buns either side of her head.
"Shut up," she says as she points her finger at him, "if you can have that blonde streak, I can leave my hair like this."
He throws his hands up, but still can't wipe the smirk off of his face. She collapses onto the bed and into his arms, sighing into his neck, curling herself up into him.
They're at the hotel in the Green Bay, taking the night off until 1AM, where they will travel into Seth's home town for the recording of SmackDown. And they're both feeling very exhausted, decide they need a quiet night in.
"So, I was thinking about this whole story-line thing," Colby breathes into her hair. "I'm not sure I like the physicality of it, Ar, you could get really hurt. Like more than just breaking a wrist kind of hurt."
"I know."
When she doesn't offer anything more, he sighs. "So you don't care, then?"
"Of course I care, Colby." Ary shifts on his chest and rests her chin on above his heart. She looks up into his eyes with no barriers. Just honesty. "I know how wrong this stuff can go. We go out there four to five nights of the week and put our bodies on the line to give good performances. Randy broke his collarbone from landing wrong, you've had your fair share. If I didn't think I could handle it, I just wouldn't do it."
"And what if you get hurt?"
"Then we deal with it."