Rough;
Sleep is a powerful thing, if you get enough it can reenergise you making you feel fresh and alive. Ready to face the new day with eagerness and determination. Yet on the flip side, not enough could in fact drag you to hell. Well that’s what it feels like anyways. In the Fenris, Aron and Dani household, the three had been riding the waves of it lately. Aron and Fenris were walking on eggshells some mornings, while Danielle crawls from Aron’s room her eyes bugging out of her head, surrounded by deep black bags. Sleep wasn’t her friend as of late but somehow, she was able to power on, work her two jobs without a single slip up. As soon as she walked into the casino she was bright and bubbly and as soon as she stepped in front of a camera for any Sin City Wrestling related work, she was fresh faced and willing to take on the world.
However, a very sad truth was being held back from the world. One story that Danielle wouldn’t let her lips part to tell but it was a dim reality her housemates were forced to live with for the time being. It doesn’t happen every night, just a selected few and well last night was probably the worse it had every been. The night was filled with a hot sweat, dripping from her pores as she tossed and turned between her bedsheets as dreams, well nightmares of her ex-boyfriend re-emerged into her mind. She couldn’t help her dreams, she couldn’t help her natural reaction to scream out, to fight, to try and get him away from her and couldn’t control the fact that her actions had awoken both her housemates. Who both reached her doorway at the same time, both looking in to see her struggle, unsure on what they should do next.
Fenris was angry, he couldn’t understand why Danielle’s subconscious still led her to believe that she was in danger. Although he couldn’t be mad at Danielle, this wasn’t her fault he was tired, beat up from training and the fact him and his brother weren’t exactly seeing eye to eye wasn’t helping the dangerous ticking time bomb that was fluttering to life inside the white wolf. Aron on the other hand, was more sensitive to the issue, yet both brothers stood on the outside looking in, unsure of what their next step was.
“Do we wake her?” was all Aron could whisper to his brother, as he pained look of lack of sleep dragged his face down.
Fenris just shook his head from side to side, this wasn’t something they could help with not while she was in this state. If they woke her, they could risk the chance of Danielle lashing out towards them. It’s not that her tiny fists of fury would stun them, it’s just being woken from a sleep is a new aged game of Russian Roulette at times.
Turning to look towards Aron, Fenris just gritted his teeth before he spoke. “I’ll train her.” It was all he could offer up, as he turned back to watch his roomie stuffer some more in silence.
Aron’s eyes just grew wide as he sarcastically replied. “Are you a sleep coach now, huh?” the air was thick between the two, but they pushed aside their issues to see to the one that was before them.
Just a roll of the eyes is what Fenris could off his brother at this time, he didn’t have time for a tit for tat with him, he was irritated as it was he didn’t need another round of words exchanged between his brother to add to the pile.
“She thinks she is defenceless.” Fenris turned to look at Dani, who had since calmed down. “That’s why she doesn’t fight back.” A yawn followed as Fenris tried his best to keep his eyes from sealing shut. “He can’t hurt her, if she knows how to fight.” That cold evil grin was perched on his face proudly as his mind ran away with his thoughts.
Aron didn’t disagree with Kris and after tonight’s horror he was willing to try anything to rebalance the peace around here lately. A simple nod in agreement is all Aron could offer, as the two bothers looked at each other once more, before walking off towards their own beds to try and sneak in a few more hours of sleep before they had to be up in the morning, off on their own adventures. Fenris’ thunderous footsteps were followed by the clicking of nails across the floor as Kyssa shadowed her master back to bed. Even she looked a little worse for wear with this broken sleep, yet she never complained Kyssa just did her best to offer doggy cuddles in times of need.
The rest of the night was peaceful, not a single sound was uttered from the lips of Dani as she slept. Her dreams of Eli were replaced by darkness and well, she was thankful for those. It didn’t take long for morning to break and well, on cue two minutes before her alarm could even crow to wake her, she was up ready to face the day. Still even with a full night’s sleep her body felt tight, her jaw ached from being clenched, her eyes sagged into the back of her head. Today was going to be one of those days that her sleep hadn’t been good to her as she would wear that fact like a beacon for the whole world to see. Things had to change, and they had to change soon, or otherwise she wasn’t sure how long she could keep this up for.
With a simple yawn, a rub of her eyes she headed towards the bathroom to freshen up. The routine that followed was like clock work as she showered, got dressed in her training gear so she was ready to head to the Steven’s Gym. Yet, she always made sure before she left a fresh pot of coffee was brewing for the boys and that she slipped their crumpets into the oven on a timer. It was the least she could do, to offer some sore of apology for keeping them awake at night and for letting her crash here. She set the island bench up in the kitchen with an array of their favourite breakfast spreads, so all they had to do was roll out of bed and put together the final pieces of their breakfast.
~~
Rougher;
Training, the good the bad the ugly; nevertheless, people only want to show when things go well in training never when things go bad and today well, today had been a head scratcher for Gabriel. Danielle and Gabriel had gone over the moves, the same moves they had been doing for months, it was just today nothing was sticking, nothing was blending, and nothing was coming together. It was a giant mess, something that was well out of his control. In fear of risking any injuries to himself or to Dani he had stopped the mat work early today and the rest of Danielle’s training session was used to enhance her cardio. Just unfortunately something was missing, there wasn’t that perk in her step that Danielle normally had, she seemed flat euthanistic and even when she tried to rally herself up, nothing not even a spark was enough to light the fuse.
As Gabriel watched Danielle struggle with a simple running drill, his hands flew up as he called time. Danielle knew that was never a good thing, when Gabriel shut down the training session early it meant that you were either doing one of two things. One fucking around and wasting his time, or two you weren’t getting it and it wasn’t worth his time to continue. As she defeatedly walked across the gym back towards him, her head lowered she didn’t want to see the look of disappointment across Gabriel’s face. she looked up to him, not only was he her trainer, but he was the level of greatness she aspired to become in Sin City Wrestling, Dani didn’t want to walk in the shadows of the females she wanted to burst out and be one of the greatness names in this business, in Sin City Wrestling. She wanted to be timeless, like the man that was now standing before her, with his hands crossed. It was rare for Gabriel to yell at any of his students, Danielle had only ever heard of a few stories where he had ever lost his cool and this moment felt like it was going to be one of them.
“What’s going on with you?” Was all his harsh accent could muster as he looked down at Dani who was already about to cry. “I’ve seen bad days, but I think this one just topped it.” He was defeated, and he wasn’t going to lie about it.
Dani just looked up at him, a blank face was all she could offer. She didn’t have words right now she didn’t have the answers all she knew is that today just wasn’t her day. Dani couldn’t fake her way out of this one as Gabriel could see the truth all over her face, no amount of make up could hide the big black rings under her hazel eyes.
“Jesus Christ Dani, did you get any sleep at all last night?” His voice turned to concern.
The sound of the word sleep was enough to bring a yawn from her lips, meaning that she didn’t have to answer with words as her actions were just doing fine to sum up. Gabriel just shuffled his head in disappointment as he was about to kick off the talk.
“You know that coming to training, lacking sleep is not just dangerous for you… it puts others at risk as well?” He lectured her, as he looked into her eyes. “If you’re working to much at the casino, you need to let Daniel know.” Was all the advice he could offer.
Danielle just looked at Gabriel and sighed. “It’s not that, I can handle that. I have been handling it.” Another desperate yawn escaped her lips as she continued. “Just had a bad night dream wise.” He voice was shaky and defeated. “I’m sorry, the last thing I wanted to do was upset you.” He head dropped as she looked towards the ground.
Gabriel just reached out in in true father style, he wrapped his arms around Dani’s shoulders and tucked her in for a hug. He knew all about what Danielle had been though, Fenris, Aron and Daniel had filled him in to explain some of her actions. It was enough to make his blood boil and enough to make Synn and himself want to go a venture of their own, but they held back and let nature take it course. After hearing about Fenris’ little incident they knew they wouldn’t have to worry about Eli coming around the gym anymore, as a smart man would learn to stay away if he knew what was good for his own health.
“How about you head home and try and get some sleep?” his harsh tone softened as he looked at her. “We can pick up again tomorrow to get you ready for Apple and Amy.” A hint of concern was in his tone.
Truth be known he wasn’t sure of Danielle was going to have what it takes to stay focused in this match if she didn’t sort herself out. Amy was a hard person to wrestle with, she was direct and aggressive something that Danielle had never encountered while Apple was new, with tricks up her sleeve that were yet to be revealed. Danielle had made leaps and bounds to come from, bad to good but she was striving for great but with performances like today all she was doing was hindering her own success. Dani did stay to fight Gabriel’s instructions, she just bowed her head and thanked him once more before she made her way to the showers. Lucky for her she had the afternoon free to try and fix this, but it was only a few day away before her title defence and on the outside looking in, Dani was far from ready.
~~
Roughest;
Dani had showered, changed and headed away from the gym yet she hadn’t followed Gabriel direct instruction to go home and rest as she made a quick d-tour to the casino. She wasn’t rostered on to work, she just knew that at this time of day it would be a quiet time, so she could sneak in and see her work friends grab a bite to eat before she swung home to get some sleep. As she walked in the front door she was greeted by Osbourne, who had a smile from ear to ear as he was dragging someone out of the door by their collar. Danielle didn’t even have to ask, she just assumed that it was a dodgy man that couldn’t handle his alcohol that was causing a scene, so he had to be removed.
In front of her eyes she looked at the main bar, her bar that Lacey was working behind today with four others. She was pleased to see that they weren’t getting hammered and things seemed to be neat and tidy. Mackenzie and Charlotte were in the seating area, deep in conversation. While Daniel and Nick were missing, yet she had a sneaky feeling they were upstairs in the observation deck, so the brunette just fired off a playful wave in that direction. Making her way up to the bar, she waited for her turn to be served, before she grabbed a vodka and cranberry before she ordered some food. Lacey told her that they would bring it out to her, before she made her way over towards Kenz and Charley.
Even though they were two of the most feared women in Sin City Wrestling, they had always been polite and welcoming to Danielle. As she took a seat, they smiled towards her before their eyes looked directly as the make up covered rings around her eyes.
“Fuck me, do you even know what sleep is?” was all Kenz could bark out as she grabbed Dani’s wrist and pulled her closer towards her.
Once Kenz was finished inspecting the rings to make sure they weren’t bruises she released her vice like grip around Danielle’s wrist. Dani instantly reaching up to rub away at the skin on skin burn that was left there.
“Whoa… why so aggressive?” Dani said with a smile, hoping that they weren’t about to grill her for her current lack of sleep.
“Sorry, it’s second nature” Kenz just shrugged it off, if only Dani knew how true that statement was.
Charlotte just looked across the table at Danielle and decided to take the more delicate approach.
“Care to explain?” She tapped her own eyes, so Danielle couldn’t miss what she was talking about. “Who’s the lucky man keeping you up all night?” Charly said with a wink.
Kenz just coughed her drink back up as she held back a chuckle. “Is it Aron? I mean… you wouldn’t have to go far for that.”
Dani just rolled her eyes, she knew they were joking but she wasn’t in the mood for it.
“Sadly, I’m on a dry spell… have been for almost eight months now.” She huffed. “I’m just not sleeping, or at least taking it in.” She brought her drink to her lips but before she took a sip she uttered “Just some bad dreams, that’s all.”
She didn’t have to say anything else as the girls knew what she meant, that and the fact that Fenris had informed Daniel of his grand plan to train Danielle so she was ready for anything. It wasn’t a bad idea, well it wasn’t one that Daniel disagreed with. It was funny how all their lives intertwined all because of tis crazy wrestling world they lived in.
Reaching across the table Kenz held onto the top of Dani’s hand. “You need to get your shit together girl, or this Sunday night… Amy and Apple are going to walk all over you.” She gave her hand a little squeeze.
“And none of us want either of those two being at the head of the division.” Charlotte scoffed at the thought. “I’d rather rip my fucking eyes out then have to listen to those two twats ramble on about how they’re the champion.” She shuttered at the thought.
“So, get your fucking head on right.” Mackenzie was almost barking at her as she held Danielle’s attention. “Fix this fucking thing.” She pointed to her eyes, hinting at the lack of sleep. “Hell… you need to find a shag, that will fix all of it.” She said with a smirk that was from ear to ear.
Dani just rolled her eyes. “I don’t think sex, is going to fix this.”
Much to Danielle’s shock as soon as those words escaped her mouth the sound of Nicky George clearing his throat from behind her was enough to have her cheeks flushing red. She didn’t know what it was about him and his timing that always made her feel uncomfortable. Daniel just gave Nicky a look, that told him to behave but he couldn’t help that cheeky playboy smile on his face.
“What are you lovely ladies, talking about over here?” His English accent was intoxicating as he took a seat at the table.
Daniel followed, making sure he squeezed Nicky’s shoulder as he walked past to remind him of his position.
“Oh, just that Dani is on a dry spell, can’t sleep and if she doesn’t fix that… she is going to fuck up her title reign.” Mackenzie said with a smile.
The daggers that Dani was shooting across the table towards Mackenzie seemed like puppy eyes as the group let out a laugh at Danielle’s expense.
“You’re going to have to try a lot harder, love… those little puppy dog eyes won’t hurt me.” Kenz chuckled once more as Danielle just shuffled in her seat.
Danielle just got up from her spot and started to walk off, leaving the group a little on edge. The last thing they wanted to do was upset her, but truth be told Danielle just needed a moment to collect her humility.
“Aye, where are you going?” Was all Charlotte could call out.
Turning around on her heels Dani just fired back “To go get my food, I can’t stomach this.” She pointed towards their table. “On an empty stomach.” She was a little feisty with her bite back, but it was a sign of growth for the group.
As Danielle walked off to get her lunch from the kitchen, Daniel turned to look at Nicky who was like a dog with a bone. That cheeky grin splashed on his face permanently as he watched Dani walk away, without ever even trying her little round bubbly butt was all he could focus on, before Charlotte clicked her fingers to steal his attention.
“Oi…” Charley snarled at him, her teeth gritted. “She’s not for you… you tart.”
Mackenzie just nodded in agreement. “She’s already had one fucked up relationship, she doesn’t need the likes of you fucking her up more.”
That smirk didn’t leave his face as he turned back to look at the group, his eyes gleaming as he dragged his finger through his long blonde hair. “I’m not a doctor, but I’m pretty sure I could fix this.” He just winked.
A slap sound was heard as Mackenzie knocked him on the back of his head. “You don’t fix hearts, you break them… so knock it off Romeo.”
Nicky fake wounded as he placed his hands over his heart, faking that it was broken.
“All I’m saying is this.” He kicked off with his gruff tone. “She’s on a dry spell… She’s tired… she needs to be worn out to get some sleep.” He smugly winked. “Pretty sure I could offer a solution to said problem.”
Another knock to the back of his head, however this time it was harder, and it came from Daniel who just rested back into his chair.
“Not happening son, unless you want me to turn your bollocks in to a bow tie?” He held his glare with Nick, who just placed his hands up in innocence.
“Alright, alright” Nicky fired back, yet his smile never left his face as the thoughts of still tangling up with Danielle were still rampant in his mind.
The group waited for Dani to return, yet when she came back she had enough food for all of them. She had a lot to think about with High Stakes just around the corner and she would deal with that as soon as she enjoyed some lunch with her friends and got some sleep.
~~
High Stakes is just around the corner, in fact it just at the end of this week and to ask if Dani is ready? Well compared to the start of the week... I have to admit it does look a little doom and gloom. Yet, I can promise you that she has her head in the game and she is ready willing and able to defend her Sin City Wrestling World Bombshell Championship.
She is refusing to go down without a fight meaning that Amy and Apple better plan on bringing their a game because when it’s all said and done and the bell tolls at the start of the match, Dani can’t stop and won’t stop until she walks out with her head held high. There is a lot of pressure on her back, there is a lot of weight on her shoulders and Dani will be damned if she is going to let all of that cloud her hard work and dampen what she has done thus far in her Sin City Wrestling career.
High Stakes won’t be Apple’s moment in the sun, it won’t be her moment to rise to the top. It will be here reality check... it will be the match that she learns that right now she isn’t worthy of the top of mountain regardless of how royal she thinks she is... the throne isn’t for the taking and all her moves to throw Dani off with mind games will be pointless... she’ll be the “queen” of Sin City Wrestling without a title, without a crown and with nothing to defend.
High Stakes won’t be Amy’s moment to re-climb the mountain either. It won’t be her moment to just swoop in and claim the World Bombshell Championship. It will however be a chance for her to try and prove her worth and there is not doubt in the back of Dani’s mind that she won’t take it. She will fight tooth and nail to win what she wants, however sometimes chances come and go... sometimes they are given while other times they are taken away and at High Stakes... Amy’s silver platter opportunity won’t be a golden one. She will just have to watch from the side lines as it passes her by.
So you two better be ready on Sunday night because Dani is more than ready to defend her title and nothing will stop her from showing the world just how far she has come. In a world where everyone is claiming to be the best, Dani is going to close her mouth and let her actions and training do the talking.
She doesn’t have to have a name title to claim that she is the queen, she doesn’t have to have a reputation in Sin City Wrestling either... but she does have heart and a lot of it and that’s how Danielle has gotten to where she is today and that’s at the top looking down.
This Sunday night Dani just has to do what she does best and that’s defend her Sin City Wrestling World Bombshell Championship. Each and every defence making her better than the last... preparing her what now doubt will soon come... when Mikah wakes up and decides that she wants what is hers.
Regardless of how little Amy and Apple think of Dani she is going to do everything in her power to show them at High Stakes she is one controlling the odds and well... everything at the end of the night will be coming up Weston. Her competition have ruled her out and that’s what makes her dangerous because she is the wild card they believe they have beaten, she is the one that believe is a one hit wonder but at the end of the night and at the end of the match... with her hand raise and her title still safely by her side Amy and Apple will be forced to take notice as their hope of becoming the Sin City Wrestling World Bombshell Champion, just breezed on by... and while everyone is claiming that Dani can’t do anything on her own or anything right... Dani will prove to them without doubt that she did this and defended her title well and truly for self and by herself.
Dani will see you on Sunday ladies and well, may the best girl win.