February 11
Brooklyn, New York
“Maybe this was a bad idea,” Lachlan Kane sighed, poking at his scrambled eggs. It was the early morning in New York City, and he had already been out for a run with his brother Malachi and gotten in a quick workout at his brother’s temporary gym. Now, he was sitting in the kitchen of his own apartment trying to eat some breakfast, but his mind was focused on the upcoming Blast From The Past tournament.
Sierra Williams looked up from her cup of coffee at her husband, raising an eyebrow at him. “What do you mean?”
“This whole Blast From The Past thing. I thought it would be a good way to get me back into SCW, but now I’m not so sure.”
“Why? When you put your name in the running, you seemed pretty excited about the prospect.”
He sighed again, pushing his plate away. “Yeah, I was. But then…”
Sierra gave a little smirk. “You got paired with the biggest bitch on the roster?”
He gave her his own smirk. “That’s funny, I don’t remember you signing up for the tournament.” They both laughed, but Lachlan’s face fell back into a slight frown. “I dunno. Other than you and Malachi, I’ve never really been a tag team kind of guy. Not to mention pairing with someone I’ve never had any interaction with whatsoever. This could end up being a massive disaster.”
“Or, it could be your ticket straight to a World Title shot.” Sierra leaned over and put a hand under Lach’s chin, forcing him to look up at her. “You know that I’m your biggest supporter, and I’ve said from day one that you deserve to be in the World Title picture. If this is a way for you to get there, I think you should take it. You don’t have to be best friends with Mikah, you just have to work with her long enough to beat every other team in the tournament. And if you work like you did when you and I were the longest-reigning mixed tag champs, this tournament will be a cakewalk.”
He gave her a smile and leaned over to kiss her cheek. “What would I do without my best girl always hyping me up?”
She turned to kiss the tip of his nose. “You’ll never find out. But, I just need you to tell me one thing.”
“Anything, a ghrá.”
“Promise me you’re not into blondes.”
He laughed loudly, pulling her into his arms and kissing the side of her head while he cradled her to his chest. “You have absolutely nothing to worry about. My heart will forever belong to my beautiful, spicy French-Canadian Mexican spitfire. And woe befall anyone who tries to come between us, because I know you’d rip their limbs off and beat them to death with the wet ends.”
Sierra smiled, a little bashfully as she snuggled a little more into his chest. “Flatterer.”
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February 12
Despite the fact that most days he was up before the crack of dawn, Lachlan Kane considered himself a night owl. He loved the peace and solitude that nighttime usually brought with it. The beauty of looking up at an inky black sky and seeing hundreds of thousands of stars glimmering overhead, like a blanket made of diamonds.
Even on a chilly night like this, he loved to sit up on the rooftop of his apartment building, staring out across the waters of Lower Bay as they sparkled and shimmered. His mind was alive with so many thoughts about his career as of late, the biggest one being his imminent return to SCW after a self-imposed hiatus. He figured the Blast From The Past tournament would be a good way to ease himself back into the company, and see if he still held the same passion for the company that he once did.
He sat on the edge of the rooftop, his feet dangling over the side as he rested his hands on his knees. It was a chilly night, but not unbearable, so he dressed for the weather in his favoured black wool peacoat, dark denim jeans, and his ever-present Vans sneakers. Bringing his hands up to his mouth to breathe a little warm air on them, he rubbed them together as he beamed his boyish grin towards the camera.
“Well, hello hello all you SCW faithful. It’s been a minute since you’ve seen the likes of me, hasn’t it? And before anyone comes out with their conspiracy theories, I just want to set the record straight that I was the one that walked away. I needed to take a break and reevaluate my career. Mark and Christian have been nothing but incredibly kind to me in my time at SCW, and I will forever be grateful to them for giving an unknown Irish rookie a chance in their company. It was in SCW that I had my first taste of gold in the States...and it gave me an appetite. One that I’ve been trying to sate for some time now, alas with very little success.”
The grin on his face turned a little more cocky. “But that’s all about to change. See, this Blast From The Past tournament is a golden opportunity...literally. The winners of this little shindig get a front-of-the-line pass for a World title shot in their respective divisions. I mean, when you dangle a steak in front of a starving man, you know he’s going to take a big chomp out of that. So when the opportunity was waved in front of my face, I admit at first I wasn’t really considering it. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized it could be my redemption arc. My way of getting back into the title picture. So, here I am.” He spread his arms out to the side, before dropping them back into his lap.
“Now, I would be remiss if I didn’t address the fact that this is, in fact, a mixed tag team tournament. So by the luck of the draw, my partner ended up being a certified, bonafide SCW Bombshell legend. Now Miss Mikah, I hope you won’t tar me with the same brush you did my brother. I know you had your issues with him in the past, but I’m not him. I’m ready to put the work in to take us all the way to the finals. So if I can count on you, you sure as hell can count on me. Let’s take this tourney by storm and shoot to the top of the ranks.” He gave a cheeky little wink to the camera.
“Which now brings us to our opponents for our opening round match. We’ve got an SCU alum and current GRIME champion making the jump over to the big time, and a true Blast From The Past coming back to the spotlight after so many years away.” He let out a low whistle. “Well, we certainly have our work cut out for us in this first round, I won’t lie. And judging by the calibre of talent in the pool, it’s not going to get any easier from here. But when you’ve got a legendary Bombshell paired with a man who pretty much is an expert in the field of mixed tag teams...well, I think we’ve got the deck stacked squarely in our favour. And remember...it’s not cocky if you can back it up. And we’ll certainly be proving that point come Sunday night. See ya then.”
With a jaunty little salute, Lachlan rose to his feet and jumped down off the ledge to the graveled rooftop, the tiny stones crunching under his feet as he walked away to the steel exit door at the other end of the rooftop. With a heavy CLANG! as it swung shut after his retreating form, the scene immediately cut to a pitch black screen.
