Work Text:
Rhea knew her soulmate hated her.
Ever since she was first getting into wrestling, she felt her soulmate pinch her arm or leg in reaction to random bumps she’d take. It was funny at first, but then she started doing really hard bumps, and one match, on live TV, her soulmate slapped herself in the face. It didn’t feel great to be already writhing on the ground, fearing your spine was shattered by a broken announce table, and getting slapped straight across the face.
Part of her felt bad. I mean, of course she’d have a passion for this job, a job where all she did was hurt. Sure, it hurt Rhea too, but she was used to it. She didn’t mind the pain.
Clearly, her soulmate did.
But to be fair, Rhea’s soulmate experienced pain a lot too.
Rhea never had bad period cramps, but her soulmate did. There was one time they’d had to change an entire promo because she wasn’t sure she’d be able to make it out to the ring without puking. All because of her soulmate’s period cramps.
So that other part of Rhea? Didn’t feel as bad.
Rhea wasn’t sure that she’d met her soulmate yet. No one had come forward and claimed to feel the same pain as her. It was honestly a shock to her too, that no fan had tried it.
She knew her soulmate wasn’t a wrestler. Though it was a blessing in disguise (the company had a real issue when Seth hurt his knee and Becky also had to sit out for a few months), it was also a hard pill to swallow– knowing that Rhea had only ever dated wrestlers. Really, these days, she only ever hung out with wrestlers. She needed to meet new people. But where would she do that? When would she do that?
It wasn’t even until she was hanging out with Toni one night during their NXT days, curled into a ball on the blonde’s couch, that her friend pointed out the intense stomach pain her soulmate felt every month was period cramps.
Sure, Rhea had dated and fucked women too, but nothing was serious with them. Her only serious relationship was with a man, and it had ended pretty quickly after she hit the WWE main roster.
And her soulmate was a woman. Or at least had a uterus.
When Rhea turned 27, she started to get antsy.
She knew people didn’t usually meet their soulmates that young. She knew Damian hadn’t found his soulmate yet.
But then there were her parents, who had met in college. Her mom had always said that the wait was worth it, but they met before they were even twenty years old. Rhea was already almost ten years older than they were when they met each other. Then there was Dom, who had met his soulmate in middle school.
It was annoying. She sometimes wondered if her soulmate could feel the way her gut twisted with jealousy.
Then of course she had to work with Becky for Wrestlemania 40, and then she spent time with her and Seth and their beautiful daughter. It was so cute, so sweet, and Rhea fucking hated it.
She was happy to get away from it during their house show tour right before Mania . And then she had to go off and hurt her wrist. Part of her felt bad for her soulmate, but she wasn’t going to let an injury like that keep her from wrestling the live shows, nor was it going to stop her from wrestling against Becky Lynch at the biggest Wrestlemania ever.
So she taped it up, ignored the pinches on her arm from her irritated soulmate, and wrestled against Shayna and Nia at the house shows.
It fucking hurt. Especially after the last one.
She complained to Damian the whole Uber ride back to their hotel, and told him she was going to shower before she met up with him to eat.
That was two hours ago, and she was ignoring all of Damian’s texts. She felt a little bit of self-pity and moping was in order, and the way her stomach grumbled was merely a reminder of pain. The pain she was inflicting on her soulmate. Her soulmate, who Rhea wanted so badly she felt crazy.
Rhea was halfway through an episode of South Park when her hotel room clicked open. She didn’t even move to look at the door.
“We’re going out,” Damian’s deep voice said before the door closed behind him.
Rhea’s head lifted from the mountain of blankets and pillows that she had made, “No.”
“This is just sad,” His hand wrapped around her ankle and pulled, and Rhea slipped right out of pillow mountain. She groaned the whole way, until her body was chilled by the cold air of the hotel room.
“I wasn’t sad until you came in.”
“Get up and put some clothes on. We’re going out for a drink. It’s Wrestlemania season, and you need a pick-me-up.”
“What I need is a-”
“A beer.”
Rhea glared at her best friend.
Then she got up, got dressed, maybe re-brushed her teeth, and they went out for some food and a few drinks. Damian somehow always knew where the good bars were in every town they went to, which was nice. People there weren’t swarming them, and the food was decent. Damian did order her a beer that was gross, but Rhea didn’t let it show how much she hated it.
She started people watching when Damian got distracted by a tall blonde across the bar. She rolled her eyes at his fake chuckle, the one he used when he was only trying to get into someone’s pants. She had been on the receiving end of that laugh only once in her life, back in NXT when they first met. Rhea thought it was funny now, but when she realized, months later, that that was his flirting laugh, she had smacked him upside the head.
She started tuning Damian out when someone caught her eye from across the room. There was a woman looking at her, eyes stuck on the brace around Rhea’s wrist. The woman was gorgeous, Rhea could admit. They made eye contact, and she smiled at the beautiful stranger.
The stranger just stared back.
Okay… Maybe it was a fan who recognized her. Rhea awkwardly smiled again, and averted her eyes back to the nasty beer Damian had ordered her.
Seconds after she took a sip of it, Rhea’s right arm bloomed with pain, a familiar pinching feeling that she knew as her soulmate being irritated with her.
“Oh come on,” Rhea had to swallow her beer harshly to say. She reached up to hopelessly rub at the pain in her arm.
“She’s pinching you again?” Damian must’ve given up on the pretty blonde, because he was back to facing her at the bar.
Rhea rolled her eyes, “Yes. I don’t even know-”
A harder pinch.
“Ow!” Rhea covered her burning skin, as if it would stop the phantom pain from happening, “What the fu-”
“You!”
Rhea turned around.
The beautiful girl from across the room was standing next to her now. She didn’t look thrilled.
Damian turned and squared his shoulders a little bit as he looked over this new person. Ever the protector.
“Can I help you?” Rhea wished this beautiful creature was not acting so strangely. If she’d had enough alcohol in her, she might’ve even asked the girl back to her hotel.
The stranger didn’t say anything, just lifted her arm up, then the other, and pinched her own shoulder.
It was a hard pinch, and Rhea grabbed at her shoulder in pain, “Would you stop that!”
Everything hit her all at once.
Her soulmate. Rhea reached up and pinched her own arm, and the woman glared even harder.
Damian’s laugh beside her was some sort of mixture of glee for his best friend and amusement that Rhea was finally getting what was coming to her after putting the other woman through so much pain her whole life.
“I would slap you, but that would just be redundant,” The woman said. There was fury in her eyes as she looked up at Rhea.
Rhea wanted to laugh, she really did. She had to will herself not to laugh in the face of this furious angel who was getting increasingly upset at Rhea’s stupid smile.
“I’m sorry.”
“Do you like pain or something?” The woman complained, her voice rising a little higher than it probably should have. Rhea could see Damian chuckle from the corner of her eye, but she couldn’t bring herself to look away from this woman’s face.
“Sometimes, yeah,” Rhea breathed, feeling entirely stupid, but not having a single care in the world that her brain was short circuiting.
“Are you in a fight club? Do you have really kinky sex? What’s the matter with you!?”
Rhea had never been more in love.
“I’m a wrestler. It’s my job.”
“Your job is to get me fired from mine!? Great!”
Rhea’s eyebrow furrowed in confusion, “What? Fired?”
“It was in high school, but that’s beside the point. That shit hurts! You need help! Your wrist really fucking aches, man. Are you okay? What did you do? God, you’re beautiful.”
“You ask so many questions,” Rhea sighed, smitten, “Do you wanna go somewhere else and I can answer all of them?”
Her soulmate stared at her for a few moments. She looked Rhea up and down, briefly, and Rhea was suddenly grateful for Damian telling her to wear something nice.
Her tattoos were out, including the ones on her stomach.
“Fine,” Her soulmate said, and then she extended her hand to Rhea.
Rhea took her hand, barely even glanced at Damian before they started walking toward the exit. She thinks she briefly heard Damian yell out, “Okay, bye!” before the front door shut behind them.
Months later, Rhea blamed it on the beer that she so blindly trusted a stranger. In some twisted way, it comforted her that when she twisted her wrist a certain way while they were walking, her soulmate turned around to look at her with concern.
They were walking somewhere random, not much being said between them. Rhea knew they were in a town near a river, and when they passed a few buildings to get to a river park, Rhea realized why the other woman was leading her in that direction.
The woman led her to a bench, and Rhea took a deep breath before sitting down next to her.
“I sit here a lot,” Her soulmate said, “I come here at night.”
“It’s beautiful.”
It was beautiful. Lights glittered over the river, and this bench had a perfect view of it. There was a lantern attached to the tree above them, and it was just enough lighting for a cozy viewing spot. Though it was a little cold, Rhea was comfortable, and happy.
She turned to look at her soulmate and-
“Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays,” The other woman blurted out.
Rhea’s eyebrows came together in her confusion, “What?”
“Those were the days you hurt the most. I started keeping track so I knew when to make plans.”
Rhea looked down at her feet. She thought about meeting her soulmate all the time. She thought about finally feeling love and joy and destiny. What she never imagined was this much guilt.
"I bet you hate me. I'm really sorry." She didn’t know what else to say. Her eyes were focused on the scuff across the top of her right shoe, until her soulmate took a sighing breath and she looked up.
“Hate you?" She shook her head, "I'm relieved." Rhea's head tilted in her confusion. "God… I- you scared me so much. I thought-” Her soulmate's inhale was shaky, and there were tears in her eyes, “I loved you so much, and I thought someone was hurting you. It made me so sick to think about, and there was that one time I got mad and I-”
“So you hit me too?” Rhea’s eyebrows raised.
“It…” She paused for a second, “You make it sound really bad.”
Rhea just stared at her.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” She exhaled, sniffling a little.
Rhea reached out and grabbed her hand. Her soulmate's hand was warm, and it felt nice opposed to the cold night air.
“I can you show the bump I took. It was on TV, you know,” Rhea said softly, “You can kinda see me smile a little after you hit me.”
Her soulmate blinked away some tears, “You smiled?”
Rhea snorted, “I liked that you were with me.”
“Were you wrestling tonight?”
Rhea nodded, her hand slipping out of her soulmates. She missed the contact as soon as it was gone. “It’s almost Wrestlemania. We’re on our little untelevised tour before the big show.”
Her soulmate looked lost.
“It’s like WWE’s superbowl.”
“WWE? Like John Cena?”
Rhea smiled again, “Yeah. Cena, The Rock.”
Her soulmate nodded, “You’re in the WWE?”
Rhea laughed, “Yes. I’m actually Champion.”
Her soulmate’s eyes were wide. She looked at Rhea’s body again, her eyes catching on Rhea’s bicep. The raven haired woman laughed a little.
“You should’ve led with that, you know.”
Rhea laughed some more, “What, telling you that I’m rich and famous would’ve helped?”
“No,” Her soulmate smiled too, “Telling me it's something you love and something you’re good at. Being a champion is really cool.”
Rhea shrugged, feeling a little sheepish.
“You know, I am sorry. I’m used to the pain. I’ve built up a tolerance to it, you know? I didn't mean to hurt you too. I would never do that. You always seemed so far away and so-” Rhea shrugged again, as if to convince herself it wasn’t as emotional of a topic as it was, “I didn’t think I’d find you, really.”
“What do you mean?”
Rhea met her soulmate's eyes, “It just would’ve been my luck, I felt. I mean, all of these good things happen to me. I have good friends, I’m working my dream job, I’m champion… All I’ve ever really wanted was you. Thought it would’ve been some sick joke to have every good thing happen but you. Ya know?”
“Can I kiss you?” Her soulmate blurted out.
Rhea smiled, made eye contact with that beautiful thing that was her soulmate.
She didn’t even say yes, just leaned in and pressed her lips to her soulmate’s. All the loneliness, all the phantom pinches on her skin, all the collective pain Rhea had ever felt had led her to this moment.
Her mother was right. It was worth it.