Chapter Text
Firefly exhaled, then took another breath in. She narrowed her eyes at the woman at the other end of the ring. Miss Stelle, of the Astral Express.
“In this match, the two opposing sides are, the Galactic Baseballer - Stelle!”
Stelle twirled the hat in her hand around, and placed it on top of her head. She smiled. Oh, she’s using psychological attacks now.
“And SAM - from the Stellaron Hunters! My goodness, I can't believe it's actually the savage and ruthless Stellaron Hunter!”
Firefly shrugged, then activated her boot thrusters. SAM's cockpit began to heat up.
“What are you going to do, Stelle? Are you going to face this terrifying opponent head-on?”
Stelle's smile turned into a smirk. “Just like old times, eh?” Stelle said, putting her hat away as she pulled out her bat and went into a guarding stance. “Remember when we fought like this the first time?”
“I’d rather not,” Firefly replied, her voice distorted through a voicebox until it turned into that gruff and intimidating sound of SAM.
“Once you’re back in the real world,” Stelle said, embellishing her words.
“Shut up.”
The crowd started murmuring amongst themselves.
“remember to tell everyone about the Stellaron Hunter-“
“IPC owl, can we start yet?” Firefly snapped. Oh, she was about to teach Stelle a lesson both inside and outside the battle.
“Uh! Yes! Go for it, Stelle!” Owlbirt’s puppet yells from the booth. “Defeat SAM and hand him over to me! We’ll split the bounty half-and-half!”
The lights around the arena go off, and Firefly lunged forwards, twisting her body to deliver a kick right to where Stelle was standing. All she hit was Stelle’s hat as she swung herself around Firefly, using the movement for a chance to swing her bat around towards Firefly’s back. Firefly twisted around, blocked the swing with her arm, and balled her other hand into a fist in order to hit the Trailblazer in the chest. A moment before the punch connected, Stelle smiled, and said, “You wouldn’t hit your girlfriend, would you?”
“Stelle, this is a fighting match. Yes, I would.”
The will of Preservation stops her from flying too far, and Firefly could tell the Trailblazer was laughing as she stuck her lance onto the ground, somehow wedging it into the deck. She yanked it out, the smile on her face warmer than the inside of Firefly’s suit, and lunged at the Stellaron Hunter, zipping forwards and managing to land a hit against the front of her armor.
“You know, I was convinced my rizz would protect me here. I even told Luka about it.”
“Rizz?”
“Yeah, like charisma.”
“Stelle, you need to stop watching stuff on Ghostly Grove.”
"Actually, I got it cause Silver Wolf kept saying it."
Sure, Firefly didn’t really want to hurt Stelle, but using those annoying terms which Silver Wolf had integrated into her vocabulary was the last straw. Firefly grumbled, and flexed her fingers again. She urged her armor to heat faster, and expel that heat through the exhaust ports until she reached complete combustion. “Until everything… burns to ashes!” she shouted, and her swords appeared in her hands. “Fight… to live!”
Stelle narrowly ducked under one attack, swinging out with her bat to try to connect with Firefly’s armor again. She couldn’t land a hit, though, and before too long had passed, Stelle had gotten a sword to the chest, a sword to the thigh, a sword to the butt, and a sword to the back of her head. All with the blunt ends of course, and just enough to knock her to the ground.
Firefly stood over her. She could hear Owlbert yelling in fear, and the crowd’s loud shouting.
She leaned down to the face of the girl she had just triumphed over, and turned off the voice changer.
“I’ll be seeing you in your room after this,” she whispered.
Stelle’s red face was absolutely worth it.
"When you said you'd be seeing me, I thought you meant..."
Firefly continued to rub the medicinal ointment into the bruise on Stelle's stomach. "I hurt you pretty bad. Didn't want to just leave you bruised afterwards."
"Sorry for all the taunts during the match." Stelle winced as Firefly hit a sore spot. "I was being annoying on purpose."
"I know you were just messing around." Firefly reached behind herself, grabbing an ice pack and pressing it against her girlfriend's bruise. "It was fun. I really liked sparring with you."
"Would you believe it if I told you that I'm not technically in this competition?"
"That's surprising." Firefly raised her eyebrows. "But if you're not competing, why would you be fighting in this battle?"
"I've been coaching Luka. But when I saw that you were in the lineup here, I decided to just go and enter myself into a fight. You know. To see you again." Stelle blushed a little while saying that last comment. "Since we rarely ever get to."
"That just makes these periods all that more special," Firefly said. She stepped back from the bruise and wrapped her hands around the back of Stelle's neck. "Not that I wouldn't mind things being this special every day."
"Firefly, I love you."
"I love you too."
Their lips met, and Stelle instantly forgot about any of the soreness her bruises had.
Luka "Strongarm" from Belobog was getting tired of waiting outside his Wardance room.