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She closed her eyes as the pain swept over her. This is why she wrestled, it made it so much easier to handwave away any pain she was in as being completely normal and expected. So much easier than explaining why she was in pain and where it came from.
And the speech impediment! “Oh, must have taken that hit to the head a bit hard. I’ll be fine by morning.” And of course she would be, morning was always the...cleanest. There was no best time. She hated it. No matter how much speech therapy she did, it was waiting there, lurking. Waiting for her to get tired, to let her guard down for just a moment. And bam , it was back in full force.
Least of all, she didn’t have to explain where her ‘spending’ money came from. Admittedly, if she was American that would have been harder (as she understood it, if she was American and made too much she’d not qualify for it any more, which sounded horrifying ). And with no explanation needed (or just the assumption of it being from house shows and the independent circuit) then there was no pity for her qualifying for it.
She sighed as she laid in the bed, willing the pain to lessen enough for her to get up and take more ibuprofen for it. It didn’t really *help*, but it did let her get to sleep. With no sleep, everything was even worse. It wasn’t good with enough sleep, but ...not as bad. More tolerable.
It would be worse in a week when she was bleeding. That was really one of the worst parts. Made even wrestling harder to pull off, her muscles just didn’t want to do what she wanted them to. Oh, she could throw a punch, but keeping her hips from just...giving out? Much harder.
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Stressful. She was pretty sure that the other wrestlers from...the islands she was from...knew more about the situation than she let on. They had to. Or was that just the anxiety? She liked them and liked working with them, but the voice in the back of her head would just not let up about it.
To be fair to them, once they knew where she was from , they would have certainly started looking up what information they could on her (and she had done the same with them, so fairs fair). That reminded her, she had meant to go watch Derry Girls again.
She could talk to her cousin about this, since he was here as well, but she hadn’t actually seen him in a few days. And she needed to anyway, she knew he had been talking to her parents. Agh, and that was frustrating. Over-protective much? She had been living on her own for quite some time now! (But she did appreciate their concern)
“Hey, have you seen Sheamus?” Ugh, it was Bálor .
“No, actually, I haven’t. I was looking for himself.” So her dumbass cousin was also not showing himself to others, was he?
“Hrmph. Hiding from me, I get. Hiding from you? Now that’s odd for him.” At least he thought it was odd. It wasn’t like they were super close or anything, but for her to have to hunt him down? Now that was certainly unusual.
She shrugged. “He was talking with my parents a few days ago about how we were doing. If that’s why he’s hiding, I’m going to murder him. If you’d like, you may help.” She hated it so much. She had asked them so many times to not do this, to let other people see her for who she was and not act like she had suddenly been made of glass.
“I’ve been meaning to talk to him about some things, but it’s not quite at the level of needing to murder him. I’d be glad to help, however.” He paused before continuing. “Why would him talking to his aunt and uncle require you to murder him, anyway?”
“They are...overprotective of me and from the last time I talked to them yesterday, I get the feeling they might have told him things they should not have about my hmmm past.”
“And this would make him hide?” Well, he would hide, certainly.
“This would make him hide until he could decide what to do with the information, yes. Luckily for me, the company already has all the relevant information, so he can’t exactly go crying to them.”
“Because they’d be like ‘We know. We are aware. We do not care about any of that. We already made our decision.’ or something else?”
“No, pretty much exactly that.”
“...also, shouldn’t he...like...know this already?” They were cousins . Wait no, it’s not like he could keep track of all of his own cousins either.
“...Bálor...we didn’t grow up together, you know that, right? He grew up in Dublin, I’m from Derry.”
“Ooooo, right, yes. Hell, you’ve probably spent more time together recently than you did as kids.” And that was right so, they’d have crossed the border less when they were kids, indeed.
“Exactly. So, where should we go look first?”
“Well, I’d suggest the gym first since he probably hasn’t actually given up his schedule, so much as be trying to avoid you. And ah…” He didn’t want to ask. He wanted to ask. He needed to ask.
“It’s medical history that doesn’t prevent me from wrestling, Bálor.” She waved him off as though the question was of no importance at all.
“Ah, okay. Cool. I assume a doctor has signed off on you?” Must have. Had to for all of them. Huh. Wonder if anyone else...
“Of course.”
“Then I don’t care. I’m sure if it became relevant you would have said something.” If it didn’t affect him, it probably didn’t matter. If she wanted to talk to him about it, she would have. Or would do so in the future. Either way, if she was cleared to wrestle, then wrestle she would do.
“ Yes .” Nodding to him, they headed out towards the gym that Sheamus was partial to using.
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“Em, Sheamus?” He waited until Sheamus had paused in his weightlifting routine before he spoke.
“What, Cesaro?” Well, that was going to have to be put on hold for now. Cardio then, that was fine.
“I see your cousin and ah she...she looks kind of angry.” Or maybe determined? It was hard to tell. She looked like she might murder Sheamus, however. And while that might be amusing to watch, he also needed the man alive and in one piece for their match tomorrow.
“ Shit. Damn it, I was hoping she wouldn’t find me.” Could he go and yell at his aunt and uncle directly? Maybe? She was clearly capable of handling herself, she was going to kill him!
“...Well, Bálor is with her, so that probably explains how she found you. Wait, what? Why are you hiding from her??” And from Bálor, for that matter. Bálor seemed willing to wait his turn and was ignoring Cesaro (thank god ).
“Damn it, not Bálor as well. Well, no, that’s not as bad. She probably won’t kill me if he’s here. I hope. Also, if I said ‘her parents are overprotective’ and that means I now gotta talk to her about that, what would you say?”
“Probably ‘man up and get it over with’, so why don’t you go do that??” Oh Jesus Christ, just go talk to your cousin. It can’t be that bad.
“FINE.” Easy. Easy. Éasca péasca(1). Sure. Sure. Totally fine. He stomped off away from Cesaro and over to where his cousin and Bálor were waiting for him.
“Why hello, a Sheamus.” And why did she have to say it properly, with the H pronounced as it should be? His head.
“HAIGH.” PANIC
“So, two things. One, stop hiding from me, and two, why are you hiding from me?” She was going to kill him.
“....Your parents are lovely people, mo chol ceathar.(2)” Well, from what he remembered of them. They would make trips to see them, but not that often. Crossing the border had been annoying when both of them were young and now they could go see each other very easily...but not their aunts and uncles unless they wanted to fly home.
“I am partial to them, yes.”
“I eh I they were trying to convince me to convince you to go home?” And had gone on a rambling barely coherent explanation of why she couldn’t live on her own. He could barely make heads or tails of what they had been saying. Something about ‘birth trauma’ and possibly…’Cerebral Palsy’ (which if that was the case, she had a really mild case of it from what he could tell!). She had been doing fine as far as he could see, though.
“They do that a lot, Sheamus. I am quite happy doing what I am doing.” She was trying to look less like she was going to eat his soul. What, had Bálor taught her that? Nifty trick.
“I tried to tell them that, they disagreed.” They barely let him get a word in sideways.
“As much as I care for them, they are very...stubborn and oblivious people at times.”
“So you’re not going to kill me?” Or eat his soul. She did still look like she was going to turn him over to Bálor, however. He didn’t think he was going to murder him though. Just annoy him.
“....a Sheamus, as long as you don’t try to drag me back home to Derry, we’ll be fine. They really do need to learn at some point that I can survive on my own, more or less.”
“You do seem to be fine. And I know you had to have had a doctor sign off on it, so.”
“Well, at least you seem to understand that, even if they don’t.”
“I figure you’d have probably come and told me if it was necessary? That’s what I’d have done, after all.”
“ Go raibh míle maith agat, a Sheamus.(3) Maybe you can convince them of this as well?”
“Unlikely if they haven’t figured it out already, but I mean, it’s not that far of a drive any more. Could visit them with you the next time we’re in the vicinity.”