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“Ember?” A quiet, melodious voice seeps into her consciousness. Her name, rolling off an accented tongue. Ember blinks until the darkness fades away and she is swallowed by the fluorescent lights of the too-familiar medical room.
“Hm?”
There is a young woman standing by her side, dressed in white, and it takes a second for Ember to focus through the bursts of pain in her arm and identify that figure as Kairi Sane. Slowly, it comes back. The championship match. Her arm, now taped to her side, still throbbing. Kairi, an angel poised atop the ring steps, driving her body into Ember’s opponent. The bell ringing.
Ember’s cheeks burn.
“How are you?” asks Kairi. She stares intently at Ember’s every movement, and she can’t take it any more. Ember averts her gaze.
“Fine. Uh, thanks for asking.”
“I ask because I am worried--”
“You don’t have to worry about me,” she says, too quickly. She barks a laugh. “With Shayna on your back, you should be worrying about yourself right now.”
Kairi raises her arm, pointing to her elbow. “No need to worry.”
Ember smiles softly, a genuine motion after her instinctive bristling.
“I appreciate it. The save, I mean. I know you have beef with her, too, but you saved my arm back there.” Maybe even saved her championship, she doesn’t say.
Kairi gives a curt nod.
“It was the right thing.”
Kairi sits at the edge of the bed. They look at everything but each other, enjoying a moment of peace in their shared war. A member of the medical staff swings in, chattering about x-ray results and the administration of painkillers. Kairi stands, gingerly placing her palm over Ember’s hand, and slips away. She glances over her shoulder, eyes sparking with an emotion Ember recognises from her past: desire. For glory, for victory, for the title of champion.
That’s the way of their life; warring by day, peaceful by night. Once the threat has been vanquished, they’ll be competing, fairly, for the same thing. The champion, the challenger.
Ember smiles to herself. It’s a familiar story, alright.