Over the next week Skylar's social media completely blows up. The day after Christmas Nick puts out the newest episode of Being The Elite and the footage from the Bullet Club photo shoot has the Internet wrestling community absolutely buzzing. Hunter had sent her a text with a thumbs up and a money bag emoji after the episode hit YouTube. She takes this as a good sign and continues to think of new things to keep the Internet interested, making a point to post at least one picture of her and someone from the Bullet Club each day. She can't even keep up with all of the Twitter and Instagram comments from fans.
After an intense workout with Tama and Fale, Skylar and Kenny get ready to go out and celebrate New Year's Eve with their friends. A text from Seth comes through and she quickly responds with a smile. Kenny shoots her a look, not quite sure that she's not hiding something. They leave Kenny's place around eight and head into Roppongi to meet up with the rest of the Bullet Club at a karaoke spot.
While the Bucks and Kenny abstain from indulging in any alcoholic beverages the drinks flow freely for everyone else. Drunken karaoke with a few sponsors and local friends goes on for hours. With lots of cheering and celebrating as the clock strikes midnight. Another round of drinks appears, curtesy or Bad Luck Fale. Skylar can see Kenny getting antsy in the corner of the small private room.
"You don't have to stay Hoshi," Skylar tells him quietly. "I'll crash at the hotel tonight and cash in on their free breakfast tomorrow morning."
He looks at her skeptically, "Are you sure Koneko? I don't want to leave you alone in a foreign country.."
"Oh, like I've never been drunk in Japan by myself," she snorts with laughter. "I'll be fine. Go home. I don't want to bestow my cranky hangover mood on you tomorrow morning anyways."
He nods an appreciative thank you at her and takes another sip of his water before making the rounds and respectfully saying goodbye to everyone. The Bucks leave soon after him. Not being drinkers the appeal of staying out late partying just isn't there for them. Masa pays for the next round of drinks and the night continues for everyone else. By three AM Skylar is absolutely trashed. Luckily Marty volunteers to escort her back to her hotel.
The walk there is like a game for the two intoxicated gaijin. They laugh and goof off the entire distance of their little adventure. Avoiding cars and sneaking noisily through the shadows has them thoroughly entertained. They ride in the elevator up to Skylar's floor together, taking pictures and making faces in the mirrored wall of the lift. Giggling madly they make their way down the hall to her room where she fumbles with the keycard a few times before finally letting them in. She tosses her phone and hotel key onto the nightstand before kicking off her shoes into the corner of the room.
"You tired?" She slurs.
"Not particularly, no," he admits.
She picks up the TV remote and clicks the power button, "Let's watch a movie." She thumbs through a few channels until she realizes that all of them are in Japanese. "Oh, right."
Marty starts to laugh at her discovery, "Oh come on. There's got to be something on." He flips through a few more stations before settling on an old Alfred Hitchcock movie with Japanese subtitles. "This will have to do."
"I love this movie," Skylar smiles. "When I watched it as a kid I was terrified of birds for MONTHS. Kenny made fun of me nonstop."
He can't help but laugh at the thought of her hiding from any bird she sees. Skylar sits down on one side of the king sized bed and invites Marty to sit on the other. Not even fifteen minutes into the movie and she's asleep with her head on his chest. He can't help himself. He carefully pulls out his phone and snaps a selfie of the two of them. He posts it on his Twitter and Instagram with the caption "The Villain captures Sleeping Beauty." and tags her in it. He pulls the blanket up over them as best he can with one hand and finishes the movie before drifting off to sleep himself.
Sunlight peeks through the half closed blinds the next morning. Skylar yawns and rolls over, surprised to discover a sleeping body in the bed next to her. She opens her eyes to find Marty tucked in on the other side of the bed snoring softly. She starts to panic, unable to remember what exactly had happened the night before. She shoves his shoulder in an attempt to wake him up, earning her a groan from the Englishman.
"Marty!" Her whisper comes out desperate and harsh. "Marty wake up!"
"What?" He grumbles rolling over to face her.
"Umm.. Did we...?! Uhh... What happened!?" She can barely make a full sentence with her hungover blindly panicked brain.
"Did we wha...?" It takes a moment for what she's asking to register. "No! No!" He throws his hands up defensively. "Look! I'm under a totally different blanket!" He peels back the comforter to reveal that he's fully clothed under the sheet while she's just under the comforter. "You fell asleep during the movie. I didn't want to push you off of me. You looked adorable."
"Oh thank god," she sighs exasperatedly.
He yawns, "Since we're up can we at least get breakfast?"
She runs her fingers through her long raven hair, "That's probably a really good idea." She throws her legs over the edge of the bed and stands up. Too quickly apparently as her lower extremities tremble. She catches her balance on the nightstand, her phone lighting up with a text alert. "Jesus, my phone is absolutely blowing up!" She realizes when she sees the back log of missed calls, texts and social media tags.
"Oh, about that," Marty holds up a finger, his accent making his expression even more amusing. "I may have tagged you in a photo last night."
Her expression goes from one of bewilderment to one of hilarity as she comes across the picture on Twitter, "Well you weren't wrong. I definitely did look cute." She checks a text or two. "And boy is Kenny hot at us! Shocker."
"I'll call him. It was my post," he offers.
"Good, you do that," she laughs. "I'm gonna take a shower."
She grabs a fresh change of clothes and disappears into the bathroom. Turning on the hot water she can just make out Marty's voice on the other side of the thin hotel wall. "Kenny! I didn't sleep with your sister!" A short pause where she's sure that Kenny is chastising him. "I'm not a fucking numpty! I promise nothing happened!" She giggles to herself as she steps into the steaming shower.
The next few days are the fastest ever while simultaneously seeming to drag on for eons. Kenny had gotten over his initial anger concerning Marty's picture, his focus now solely on Chris Jericho and his US Title defense. They train, eat and breathe Wrestle Kingdom. Skylar tries her hardest to enjoy the last few days leading up to the big show. Between workouts with the boys she keeps in touch with Finn, Seth, Luke and Karl. They keep her up to date on the goings on of the WWE while she relays messages from the New Japan camp to their stateside friends.
When the morning of Wrestle Kingdom is finally upon them Skylar and Kenny barely speak. She doesn't want to break his concentration before possibly the biggest match of his career to even attempt conversation. They get to the Tokyo Dome early just to settle in. Skylar takes a few moments to post some of the photos from the previous week's shoot on her Twitter and Instagram. The comments start pouring in just seconds after the post loads, and people are excited. The hardcore fans can't decide if she jumped ship or not while the casual fans are just confused about who the guys she's standing with even are. She shares two or three more images ending with the shot of her and Kenny standing back to back holding out their finger guns. A smile graces her lips as she admires the two of them, doing what they love together.
"That's a good picture," a familiar voice says just behind her.
Startled she spins around to see her local hometown hero, Chris Jericho, standing behind her as he checks himself into the building. "Thanks," she stammers. "I think it's my favorite from the shoot."
"So what are you doing here? Aren't you under contract with Vince?" He smirks curiously.
"I am," she nods. "But Hunter thought it would be a good business move to send me to Japan for Kenny's big match."
Jericho nods, "That's not a bad idea at all. We can try and work something into the match if you want."
She shakes her head, "Nah, I don't want to take any attention away from you and Kenny. I'm going to walk him out and let you guys do your thing."
He smiles, "I appreciate that. Hey when you get back stateside get ahold of me. I'd love to get you on the podcast to tell your story."
"Thank you! I will!" She tells him excitedly.
She watches Jericho walk off towards his own locker room before making her way to the Bullet Club's. Talent slowly begins to trickle into the Tokyo Dome while the crew sets up in a frenzy of activity. As showtime creeps closer Skylar starts to get ready. She changes into a pair of ripped up black skinny jeans, a custom cut up Bullet Club shirt and her shiny black patten leather wrestling boots. With only two other women on the show she has tons of mirror space to do her hair and makeup. Her long black hair gets curled and she applies smoky silver and black eye shadow before checking herself out in the mirror.
By the time she's done Kenny is handing her the leather jacket he had gifted her as she prepares to walk the Young Bucks to the ring. His warm genuine smile chases all of her nerves away. He pulls her into a tight hug and squeezes her.
"Go out there and give them hell Koneko," he tells her.
"Thank you Hoshi," she can't stop the grin from spreading across her face. "I wouldn't be here without you."
"Ready?" Nick asks as he and Matt come up behind the siblings.
A nod from her and their music hits. The three of them enter the arena to thunderous cheers from the gaijin fans who adore the Bullet Club. The fans that recognize her go absolutely insane. They hit a few poses in the ring before Roppongi 3K make their entrance with Rocky Romero shooting off his crazy smoke cannon. The bell rings promptly and the match begins with Skylar and Rocky on the outside cheering on their teams. At one point Skylar grabs the ankle of Yoh as he hits the ropes sending him crashing face first into the mat. This, of course, upsets the defending champions. Yoh rolls to the outside to argue with her and Rocky quickly joins him. She shoves Rocky, who clearly has reservations about hitting a girl.
She glances up to the ring to see Matt hit the ropes on the opposite side of the canvas. She smirks and steps away from Yoh and Rocky with a sassy wave as he dives over the top rope onto them. Sho is next, diving out onto the trio. Skylar rushes in to check on Matt while Roppongi 3K pull themselves to their feet. In an instant Nick is on the top turnbuckle. He leaps off with a corkscrew moonsault, taking out everyone in his path. The match continues with Skylar and Rocky laid out selling their injuries until finally after twenty grueling minutes Nick manages to make Yoh tap out. Skylar rolls into the ring, grabs the IWGP Junior Heavyweight titles from the referee and hands them to her victorious friends.