A Sibling Rivalry

"Well. You're a heel now, rules are meant to be broken." Again, Cora broke a smile.

"It's.. The regret.. I just feel like a fucking idiot." Cora tried to explain.

"Get rid of it." A.J. said. "You don't have to regret it. For your own mental health, you can't hold on to a feeling like that regret that strongly. It wasn't enough to make me regret coming down here."

"But, I'm still so.. so sorry." Cora said, and wiped away a couple of her tears from each eye.

"And I forgive you." A.J. said, "Really. Come on. I was fine.. Hey, I hadn't been knocked on my ass in a few years. I kinda missed the feeling." Then A.J. uttered the words any child would want to hear from their biological or spiritual parent, "I'm proud of you." Cora cracked a smile.

"What I did was not something to be proud of." Cora responded.

"But, on the whole.. I am proud of you." A.J. reaffirmed.

"I really meant it." Cora said, and then shook her head.

"What's the matter?" A.J. asked.

"I, now, have to make a second apology." Cora said. "I've really fucked up a lot today. Let's go back." Cora nodded her head upwards.

A.J. and Cora walked back to Roxanne's apartment. A.J. complimented how mature Cora was for going through the process of making a double apology.

Cora had only alleviated half the dread she felt before coming over. The last time she saw Roxanne, Roxanne was on top of her, and five people were needed to separate the two, preventing them from brawling in the P.C..

A.J. knocked on the door. Roxanne could hear the two of them coming back and opened the door. "Cora can come in, right?" A.J. asked.

Roxanne stared, coldly at Cora, but nodded, and allowed A.J. and Cora to enter.

When they entered, A.J. first thought she should sit between the two, but she knew that it wasn't going to get physical. So she sat on a chair near Roxanne's couch that Cora and Roxanne sat down on.

Roxanne waited for Cora to start. She was relieved Cora wasn't accompanied by NXT's camera crew to film them fighting outside the CWC.

"Let me first say this," Cora began. She was only here to talk.. "Today, right now. Here.. I'm only apologizing for stuff from today."

"That's not a great start, but go on." Roxanne said. Roxanne looked angrily, she was ready to throw Cora out of her house.

"Cora.." A.J. said.

"I'm sorry. To both of you.. What I said in the office today." Cora looked at both women.. "She looked left and right. "A.J.. I shouldn't have used that anecdote from your book against Roxanne like that.. You and Roxanne." Cora continued. "And Roxanne, I shouldn't have talked about you like that.. For *that* I hope both of you can forgive me."

Roxanne nodded. A.J. just said "Thanks."

"I know what I said was the opposite of "female empowerment."" Cora said, she hoped using words like that would get A.J. to accept her apology even more. "I became the exact thing you fought against your whole career. I don't know.. I don't know why I said it."

Then the black-haired young wrestler turned back to her ex-tag partner. "And Roxanne, you're a strong, bad ass *woman*." She said, making sure to emphasize the word "woman," after basically implying she didn't look enough like one when she enters the ring.

"Thanks." Roxanne said, she could see that Cora had already been crying right before she came up. "I know you care a lot about what the fans think too."

"Yeah." Cora admitted.

"Maybe we both do more than we let on." Roxanne said. "So, hey. Maybe you weren't wrong."

"No, I was wrong for saying it. You could've slapped me. I would've deserved it." Cora said.

"I gave you what you deserved later." Roxanne said, but by now, she wanted to move on from Cora's comment in the office. "But you two.. Are cool now then?" She pointed back and forth between the two.

"Yeah." A.J. said. "We're passed the kick. The other thing. I mean Cora, you seem to know why what you said was super-fucked up, and not okay." Cora nodded. "Somebody who puts a story of a traumatic real-life experience in their memoir, didn't write it in there for it to be weaponized."

"I wish I could've worded my apology that well, but, I didn't win first-place prizes in writing contests and shit." Cora said, and A.J. laughed.

"Cora.." A.J. said and then paused. "I'm willing to say we're good. For everything today. Be thankful there wasn't a third strike."

"I don't know." Roxanne said, turning to Cora. "I think *I'm* still mad at you for cheap-shotting A.J."

"Hey. You got me right back!" Cora exclaimed. "I had five people on me. Talking about cheap shot! You could've gotten even more in too. My arms were pinned."

"I just wanted to knock you down. I know I had an opening but.. that was enough." Roxanne said. "And what you said before that-- I can get over that. I can forgive you enough to no longer want to push you over my ledge out there."

"Good." Cora said. Now she felt relieved. She had apologized for both inferring that Roxanne had the lack of "fuckability" that was once said about A.J., and for kicking A.J. in the face when she didn't expect it. There was some silence now that the air was fully cleared.. While she accepted her apology, Roxanne was ready for Cora to leave her apartment now..

"So, uh.." Cora said, breaking the silence. "...Now that that's all cleared up.. Why were you two about to kiss?"

...

...

Cora had seen them! Behind the window and through the curtain. A.J. was shocked. Not only had Cora seen them, she had the impressive mental fortitude to wait until she got everything off her chest that she needed to get off her chest, before finally asking about it.

...

"What?!?!" Roxanne replied.. When A.J. saw Roxanne trying to deny it, she found herself following suit.

"Huh??" A.J. echoed, trying to play it off. She knew it was a failing effort for both of them..

"Oh my God, you two are denying it!" Cora said. It was true. A.J. and Roxanne were caught, and still denying it. Now it was both Roxanne and A.J. showing 'childish' behavior.

Cora looked back and forth. "Guys. I saw you both sitting right here! Through the curtain. You don't have anyone else here in your apartment do you?" Cora started laughing, as Roxanne didn't even respond. She knows she didn't imagine it. She sat closer and closer to Roxanne, but didn't move.

"Cora.." Roxanne said but trailed off. Cora was just inches away from her. "We were sitting right there, but we were just talking." Roxanne said with a smile, still laughing off Cora's account.

She couldn't prove it, but she was convinced. So, Cora leaned her head so she could demonstrate how closer Roxanne and A.J.'s faces were to each other. She was close enough that their noses could almost touch. Again Roxanne didn't move. "There's no way you two were having a conversation with your mouths this close together..." And in Cora's mind, she wasn't embellishing the space, or lack thereof.

'Okay.' A.J. thought. 'So Cora definitely saw.'

"...Alright." Roxanne confessed. Cora leaned her head away, but stayed sitting as close to Roxanne as she was. Roxanne was admittedly, slightly embarrassed, and so was A.J.! They wanted to keep that a secret, if their lips actually had connected.

"Your idiotic statement from today had come up somehow.." Roxanne began, but she didn't want to finish.

"Again, I'm sorry." Cora said.

"And, somehow the conversation turned to..." Roxanne stumbled over her words. She couldn't, and didn't want to, explain how their talk got to that point.

"Really.." Cora said. "But how did that lead to you two.."

"Our talk just.. snowballed from there." A.J. said.

"She made it sound enticing." Roxanne said. By "it" meaning dating or sleeping with another woman, though Cora didn't quite pick that up yet, but she was pretty much putting the pieces together in her head of what happened right before what she saw.

"*I* wasn't trying to entice her.." A.J. began.

"No!" Roxanne agreed.

"Again, I could only see shadows, but you looked... enticed." Cora said to Roxanne. "Permit me to be more than a little surprised."

"We were just gonna kiss. That's it though." A.J. said.

"What the fuck." Cora said. "Okay. Never mind how your conversation snowballed. Roxanne if you came up to me tomorrow and said you and A.J. kissed, I'd still be this weirded out."

"Yeah. Yes. I can see why.. I know." Roxanne studded. "She.. the way she was talking, just... I just wanted to see how it felt, and that's it. We weren't gonna do--NO!" ...Roxanne cut her words off and yelled over to A.J.

Cora turned around when she noticed Roxanne's focus shift. Since Cora was facing Roxanne as she talked, she didn't see A.J. making a gesture with her hand, a smile creeping over her as she non-verbally conveyed an idea to Roxanne as she talked. "What?" Cora said.

"I think.. A.J.'s trying to imply that, instead of her, you and I should..." Roxanne said.

"Oh.." Cora turned around and laughed over at A.J..

Roxanne laughed with her, telling her there's no chance. This was the woman she was close to physically fighting this afternoon, in a non-training setting. Roxanne was still looking over at A.J. and said, "Yeah that's not---"

...

...Roxanne was cut off by a hand on her head. Cora's hand. Roxanne was looking over at A.J., so she missed Cora's right arm lean forward and clasp the back of her head. Roxanne didn't have time to relent or fight back, before she knew it, her lips were on Cora's lips.

"mmmmmhhh!" Roxanne shrieked from surprise, silenced by Cora's mouth. Cora leaned her own head in too quickly for Roxanne to reject. Cora took A.J.'s gesture all too seriously, and she, not A.J., took initiative and kissed Roxanne. It was brief, and the kiss was cold. Roxanne's mouth barely moved, and there was no synchronicity between their lips. But it was still happening.

This was not on Cora's agenda when she came over to Roxanne's place. Even as their lips separated and Cora took her arm back, Roxanne still pushed her arm away in disgust.

"What the fuck, Cora?!" Roxanne said. And Cora just laughed.

"What? A.J. flew out here to help us work things out, and.. just now she.. That's what she said we should do." Cora said, she turned back to A.J. and winked.

A.J. smiled. "Yeah. I don't think that's what anyone at the P.C. meant." Roxanne said.

"So I was able to help *you* and us." Cora said.

"Sorry Roxanne. It just made sense, when you two were millimeters away from each other's faces." A.J. said and got up.

"Doesn't make sense to me." Roxanne said. Looking right over at the woman who just kissed her, and over-aggressively wiping her lip with her sleeve. "But.. At least now I know.. Cora, you can go home now."

Ignoring Roxanne, A.J. walked over to the couch and gestured for Cora to stay there, and move over so she could sit between the two younger wrestlers. "Surely you two can do better than what I just saw." A.J. said, referring to the emptiness of Cora and Roxanne's kiss.

A.J. turned to her right, and looked into Roxanne's eyes. "Alright. Whether you wanted this or not..." A.J. turned her body slightly.. This time, she was the one to inch her face closer to Roxanne.

What almost happened before the sudden knock on the door was happening now. A.J. had changed her mind, and she and Roxanne kissed, A.J. tenderly putting both her hands on Roxanne's cheeks. A.J.'s lips moved softly, as she guided the two of them.

Seeing the obvious hesitation between Cora and Roxanne made A.J. want to show them how it's done. They continued, with Cora watching closely, the kiss lasting 15 seconds, then 30, then 60, with several pauses in that one minute. A.J. and Roxanne stared at each other. The young girl A.J. met as a fan nine years ago was a fully grown woman now, and now even more so in her eyes. A.J. got off the couch and moved to Cora's right, so now Cora was between her and Roxanne. A.J. lightly pressed her hand against Cora's back. "Are you two ready to try again?"

They both paused. The brief coldness of their previous kiss made them hesitate. A.J. crept closer to Cora and moved her head above Cora's right shoulder, almost resting her head on it. This time Cora seemed to be entranced, frozen, not moving.. "Hey." She said softly in Cora's ear, just to get her attention.

Cora turned her head sideways, and when A.J. turned her head the opposite direction. A.J. planted a soft kiss on Cora's lips. When A.J. added another, this time Cora was prepared for it, and accepted her lips to kiss her back.

As incomprehensible as it was, now all three ladies had kissed the other.. Two people locking lips with someone they looked up to in their adolescence, and a pair of rivals, who hated each other entering today.

Now A.J. wanted to see if they could put that hatred aside. Cora approached Roxanne similar to how A.J. approached her seconds before Cora's knock on the door. She propped herself on her knees and leaned her head forward. Roxanne turned and sat with her feet on the couch in front of her. She arched her back forward as Cora approached.

There was still some obvious hesitation. Everything from the past two weeks flashed through each woman's minds. Yet, they still found their faces drawing closer together. A.J. watched them move at a snail's pace, she had half a mind to literally push Cora forward, to metaphorically push her to kiss A.J. again. She wondered where the absence of hesitation Cora just had to kiss Roxanne the first time went.

But, A.J. stayed still, and silent. She wasn't going to force it to happen again.. She didn't have to...

Roxanne and Cora's lips met again. This time they actually moved their lips, actually coordinating with the other. A.J. had clearly inspired both of them.

A.J. grinned as they kept going. Their lips broke off a few times, but one or the other would re-ignite their kiss again. The steam that was absent when Cora surprised her was here now. Cora had her hands on Roxanne's shoulders, while Roxanne's hands explored Cora, after her hands were frozen when she kissed A.J..

They kept at it. Their kiss turned to full on making out. The sounds of their lips were fueled by a mix of aggression, and unbelievably enough, passion. A passionate kiss being shared by two women who were literally engaged in a very much un-scripted physical altercation that day. They were both flushing out their animosity, or their animosity helped fuel how hard they kissed, erasing the surprising split-second that was their first embrace.

Cora was getting stiff knelt on her knees, so she broke off the kiss to shift positions. How was this happening? Cora processed how stunningly good that was as she turned her legs around, and sat on the couch normally, her legs off the couch... She had thought that was enough.. She was wrong...

Roxanne wasn't done. Roxanne and Cora weren't done. Roxanne waited a second, but she pounced. She crawled toward Cora and then climbed on her. "Whoa." A.J. held back from exclaiming, sitting right next to them. Roxanne lifted her right leg over Cora's legs, and faced her arch-nemesis. She lowered herself, practically straddling Cora, and they kissed again.

They kissed again, with more energy than before. Between Roxanne's defense of A.J. at the P.C., and right now--Cora couldn't help but note how many different times, and ways Roxanne was on top her today..

She had been straight her whole life, and Roxanne was her best friend, but if Cora and Roxanne had *only* ever been friends, why was she enjoying having Roxanne's weight on top of her own? Again, at that. Why was she moving her hands along more of Roxanne's body? At one point, Cora looked over at A.J. sitting beside them, as if to ask what kind of spell she put on them.

This had turned from experimental to sexual. From playful to passionate. It took Cora a minute to notice, but Roxanne was lightly grinding against Cora. Both young girls were fully clothed, but there was still contact between each of their lower regions. They continued to kiss, Cora lowered her hands down to Roxanne's waist. Roxanne's movements were very faint, but Cora's hands followed her. Roxanne barely realized what she was doing as she.. they, were doing it. When they stopped their kiss, Roxanne was frozen on top of Cora.

"You still want me to leave?" Cora said. She winked at Roxanne, knowing she'd have to get off her lap first. Roxanne stayed in place, her hands on Cora's shoulders for a few more seconds before she hopped off.

The younger of the two sat in between A.J. and Cora and looked to her right. She thought for a second, all three silent... "It should be you two. Both of you.." She spoke softly, as if she had the courage to act on what her body was feeling, but without the conviction.

"What should be us two?" Cora asked.

"My accidental temptation earlier." A.J. said to Cora. "What if you were that instead."

"And you said you didn't mean you." Roxanne answered.. "But what if it's you *and*..." Roxanne turned her head, "...You."

Cora paused. So much was running through her mind, and chest right now. Did she, in the truest sense, "want" Roxanne right now? Did Roxanne want both of them? Was the kiss just now a segue into something more?

"I..." Cora stuttered. She looked at her former tag partner. She was still a bit behind having missed the conversation that led them here. She thought their powerful makeout made Roxanne look older in her eyes. It was harder to see that sweet, babyface on Roxanne's face now that they'd locked lips...

'No way.' She thought. There was a huge difference between kissing Roxanne and actually having sex with her, but.. something just felt so right.. Something was stopping her from saying no...

"I'd do it." Cora surprised herself with the words that escaped her mouth. "I mean.. I would... I mean..." She looked at A.J. and trailed off, her mouth agape.

A.J. thought it over too. No. This wasn't how her trip down to Orlando was supposed to go. In wrestling, fans are accustomed to expect the unexpected. Maybe that was true for the wrestler's real lives. "Roxanne..." A.J. turned her head and looked at Roxanne. She really wanted to see if she was serious.. There was still something too.. cute.. about Roxanne that prevented A.J. from accepting her advances, and it wasn't just the elements of their friendship prior to today.

"I don't know Roxanne.." Cora began. "Maybe we should let A.J. go back to her hotel, and you and I could.. take A.J.'s initial advice." Cora paused. She was stunned by what she just said.. It took her a minute to process.. She just agreed to have sex with a woman she woke up hating..

"But.. y'know," Roxanne added, with Cora now on her side. "You should be here to make sure it's as good as you say."

A.J. had to really think about it. Should she be there? Should she partake?? Roxanne had used her words to try to convince her. "Are you sure?" A.J. said. Roxanne nodded.

"Are *you* sure?" A.J. said to Cora. Cora nodded.

A.J. crawled closer to Roxanne. She put her left hand on her shoulder, and her right hand on Roxanne's knee. "Are you SURE?" A.J. asked Roxanne again, this time much softer, with her face right in front of Roxanne's. Awaiting Roxanne's response, A.J. moved her hand slowly up Roxanne's wide right thigh, and closer to the top of her jeans she was wearing.

Roxanne felt a bit of a tingle with A.J.'s hand on her inner thigh, making its way up to...

"YES." Roxanne said. A.J. kept her hand where it was, right at the crease between Roxanne's leg and her waist.

"Well..." A.J. said and gulped. Then shook her head, still in disbelief. "It's your house, if you want to stay on this couch, we can, or we can head to your room.

Roxanne stood up.

"Lead the way." A.J. said. Her and Cora followed Roxanne down her hallway and into her bedroom. She was thankful that it had been pretty cleanly for the most part. She paused as she opened the door, standing in front of the doorway. 'My God,' she thought. This is really gonna happen.