BCW Pt. 09: New South Tales Ch. 02

"Can we uh, opt-out of this, agreement?" Peyton asked. The four vets smiled at Peyton calling it an agreement, which is what they referred to.

"You can," Kaitlyn began, "But odds are, if you do, you'll be wrestling for a different company in a few months."

Billie and Peyton looked over at Emma. However, their friend couldn't help them here, Emma had been part of what Paige and A.J. detailed. Her fingers were inside the Brit sitting right next to her, at the same time that the two women currently sitting across from them at this table, were doing the same. Emma just scratched the side of her head. She was really trying to say something that would soothe both sides.

"Look." Emma said, "Yeah, it'll most likely happen. I like you two enough that it didn't have to be immediately. It doesn't have to be tonight, although a few rookies have chanced into being introduced right away."

"And when it does. When there's a match you're involved in where you suffer the consequences, we will make sure it doesn't fracture your guys' relationship." A.J. assured them. "We love what you two have too much for it to be ruined-"

"I got it!" Emma was still thinking as A.J. spoke, then cut her off. A.J. looked over. "The best way we can ensure they become a true part of our roster without hurting what they have, is if their first stem, is with each other."

"What's the fun in that? They've obviously screwed each other enough time- ohhhhh." Paige might have been picking up what Emma was putting down, and smiled and nodded.

"Emma?!" Peyton asked, a bit shocked. "Really, why are you-?"

"Because I love you guys, Obviously not in the way.. you two love each other but." Emma began. "I love you two enough that I want you two to succeed, and for some strange reason, becoming a part of this helps, in some weird way."

"I don't quite get it, but go on." Billie said.

"We could've easily dumped this on you like we do most rookies and gotten them in a room with any one of us, depending on the match itself." Emma explained. "For instance, if you were another tag team that was just called up, myself and my partner might say, 'if we beat you, we get to... 'have' you.' However, I like you girls, and you aren't just any tag team. That's why my proposal is this- Tonight, whoever I pick as my partner tonight, if you two beat her and me, we don't have to bring this up.. I can't say ever, because you never know when we're gonna attach something..."

"Like Title shots." A.J. added. "...I always like to sweeten the deal." She winked at Peyton as she said that.

"But if you two lose," Emma continued. A.J. nodded, clearly showing how impressed she was with how Emma's creativity. "The two of you, in a match, a week from tonight, against each other. Whoever wins... tops- and since you two are unfamiliar, top means fuck- with a strap-on."

"Yeah we got it." Peyton said, her face getting more stern and cold. as she locked eyes with Emma.

"... the loser. Trust us, it's not about power or torture, just maximum sensuality." She finished, even though they both got the idea. Paige smiled, while Emma remained playful but serious.

Billie and Peyton smiled and got up, "We're gonna go, uh, prepare for our match. See you out there." She said to Emma. They tried to not be angry or offended by all the questions, and hypotheticals brought to them. They were admittedly intrigued by the idea of their fellow rostermates putting their bodies on the line in more ways than one.

Paige, A.J., and Kaitlyn all loved Emma's proposal for all three of them, but at the same, they all wondered if it was too intrusive. Where was the 'line' here. None of them were currently in a relationship with someone who was also their tag partner. Was this meddling okay?

**

The IIconic Duo got into their ring gear and sat by themselves in a hallway getting ready to go out for their match.

"What are you thinking?" Peyton asked her.

"I'm thinking let's focus on the match, yeah?" Billie said. "We have to start out hot with the crowd or we could be sent back down."

"Yeah, we could also be sent back if..." Peyton trailed off.

"Come on. That's not true. That can't be true, none of them have that much sway." Billie assured her.

"You've thought about it." Peyton looked into her girlfriend's eyes, by "it," they meant that elevation of their sex life discussed earlier. "You could see me, or you wearing-"

"Peyton, stop!" They were in a private space, no one could hear their conversation-turned-argument, one that Billie didn't want to have here. "I said 'get your head in the damn match,' okay? Get all that other stuff out." Billie said.

Peyton tried to, really did. The four vets may not have even intended to add a psychological factor to throw them off their game. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on their plan for the match. But, then, her mind went elsewhere, back to a hotel with Billie, seeing herself secure a waistband around her waist, seeing her attach a long-

"Next segment, girls." A voice from an official snapped Peyton back to. She was gonna try to not let her mind drift in that direction again.

**

The IIconic Duo's music hits, they came through the curtain, and walked down the ramp. They get some boos, but some cheers, as some of the crowd enjoyed their work as heels thus far. They were both holding microphones, Billie spoke first.

"Ah Peyton. So this is 'Nawlins.' One of the few places in America where their accents sound more foreign to Americans than ours." Louder boos from the crowd come down as the two laugh.

"Beautiful city though, Billie." Peyton responded

"Gosh, I agree, Peyton." Billie said.

"Although I can't figure out why the Zephyrs found Wichita, Kansas more appealing." Peyton and Billie fake scratching their heads, and making finger on their chin motions. More boos come down when they reference New Orleans' AAA baseball team being relocated to Wichita two years ago.

"Mauro, I don't even think these two have even *been* to Wichita." Byron Saxton says on commentary.

The two hit the ring as Emma's entrance music hits, as they await the announcement of their partner.

"Well, well." Emma says. "Fancy meeting you two here." Obviously alluding to the years the two had known each other. "I bet you're all wondering who I've chosen to hand you two your first loss in BCW..."

In a not-so-surprising turn of events, Paige's entrance theme hits. The woman whose series of questions, lead to the stipulation, that no one in the crowd knew of. Paige stands next to Emma. They fist bump, and Emma nods at her as a way to thank for tagging with her.

After that the two charge the ring, Emma goes after Billie, and Paige and Peyton start striking each other. "Oh, and Byron, it is on like Donkey Kong, or should I say, Koala Kong!"

Billie gets the better of Emma in their exchange, and the IIconic Duo hit a double-clothesline on Paige. Peyton heads to the corner and lets Billie start the match. With Paige still wobbly after taking the double clothesline, Billie takes advantage and knocks Paige towards their corner.

Peyton and Billie grab Paige's arms, and kick twice, once at her back, and once at her stomach, then Peyton tags in.

"What methodical teamwork, we're seeing from these up-and-comers, so in sync." Mauro calls.

Peyton and Billie spend a few minutes beating down Paige. At one point Peyton hits a spinning heel kick on Paige and goes for the cover. "And Byron this could be it without Emma getting into the match, 1...2." Paige kicks out at two. "Peyton almost pinned a former Women's Champion!"

Billie enters the ring, and picks up Paige from behind in a wheelbarrow. "Oh, and check out the strength from Billie Kay!" Mauro yells. Peyton runs and hits another hard kick on Paige, suspended in the air, and Billie drops her on contact.

"And Mauro, the IIconic Duo call that move 'Poison Drum.'" Byron notes.

Billie picks Paige back up, "And the IIconic Duo, looking more than a just a 'lil' scrappy,' 'oh Kay, Kay Kay.'" Peyton picks up Paige from the other side, as they attempt their finisher, Fall From Grace. Before they can hit their move on Paige, Emma comes off the top rope and hits a flying crossbody to the back of Peyton.

"Oh, and it's thwarted by the third Aussie in this match." Mauro calls as Emma alternates forearm strikes on her countrymates. The ref pushes Emma and Billie back to their corners, but when Billie turns her back, Paige dropkicks Billie, who rolls out of the ring.

Once Emma gets back to the other turnbuckle, Paige stumbles over to their corner, while Peyton has no one to tag in. Emma comes in off a hot tag and clotheslines Peyton. When Peyton gets back up, Emma clotheslines her again. Emma kicks Peyton in the stomach, pushing her back to Paige and Emma's side of the ring.

Billie has crawled over to their side of the ring, but Paige sees her and kicks Billie in the skull, sending her back down, as Emma hits her Emmamite Sandwich turnbuckle crossbody on Peyton.

"Oh, and an homage to 75% of the competitors in this match's homeland, an Emma-Mite sandwich!" Mauro calls. Emma locks Peyton in her submission, the Emma-Lock, gripping hard at Peyton's chin, putting pressure on her neck and back, which she had hit with her Flying Crossbody earlier. Peyton refuses to tap. She knows what this means. Emma and Paige were making a game out of their personal lives, and yes they'd go along with it, but she still doesn't want to change...

Emma gives up on Peyton tapping. She tags in Paige, lifts Peyton back up, and tosses her toward the Brit. The pressure put on Peyton's back made it hard to keep her balance, allowing Paige to easily hit her Cradle DDT Finish, the Ram-Paige. Paige goes for the cover as Emma looks to the ring floor to see that the chance of Billie getting back up is almost nil.

The ref counts, one... two... three! *bell rings* Justin Roberts announces, "The winners of this match, Emma and Paige!" Paige and Emma have their hands raised in victory. When the ref lets go of their hand, Paige give Emma, not just a firm pat on the back, she rubs Emma's back in a way that would get more than a few people's attention.

"And Paige and Emma slow the roll of the IIconics, handing them their first loss on the main roster!" Mauro calls. Peyton rolls out of the ring and checks on Billie. The camera gets shots of clear concern for the other as they both ask the other if they're okay. They're already showing excellent camera awareness and facial expressions, as they each hang an arm over the other and walk up the ramp. A few fans cheer, mixed in with the majority of boos from the New Orleans crowd.

Before they talk to anyone else, they needed a moment with each other. Billie and Peyton found another quiet hallway. It was there that it sunk in, the two were going to have to wrestle each other, and the winner... They still didn't want to think about that.

Almost a minute passes without either of them saying anything. They can hear the next segment being set up, but the two of them are sullen and dead silent. Another minute passes.

"Hey," Billie says, "We should... I don't want people to see us like this." Peyton nods, holding back tears, as clearly the emotion was overwhelming both of them.

The IIconic Duo walk to the back. They each hug Paige and Emma, who complement the rookies on a great effort. "It was great to be in there with you two again." Emma said. She didn't want to address the elephant in the room. Surprisingly, neither did Paige. Maybe they'll regret prodding into their lives so personally. As they briefly talked about the match, and yes, trying to keep the focus on the match, they both silently questioned if they should rescind this stem of the agreement.

As the four are about to head out of the arena for the evening, Billie finally addresses it. "I uh, don't want to speak for the pair of us, but, I'm okay, with next week, as is, as we were..." Billie trails off and looks at Peyton, who nods, showing she was as well. No one else was even going to mention or allude to it tonight, but since they did, it did get the other women a bit more excited.

**

One week later, the IIconic Duo arrive at the Simmons Bank arena in Little Rock, Arkansas...

They step out of the car. They've been anxious about this night all week, they've also not had sex in well over a week.. They figured build up even more anticipation.

"Maybe they're right." Peyton says.

"Hmm?" Billie looks at her girlfriend, wondering what she means.

"That it will change our relationship for the better... And I won't say anything else about it for the rest of the night." Peyton says.

Once they walk in together, they go their separate ways. Peyton goes to the far back corner of the room, Billie goes to the far left. A few did ask each where the other was, fearing that the two were unhappy with each other with the buildup to tonight. But no, they were just playing up the fact that they were wrestling each other, and that the separation would help them be more.. adversarial. And everyone who did know what this match meant made sure not to mention it, and really, none of them said more than a polite, "have a good match."

**

On RAW, a segment is shot with Billie and Peyton to set up their match. Emma walks by, "Hey, you two still figuring out who was more to blame for losing to Paige and me last week? Peyton for taking the pin, or Billie for being unable to help Peyton?" Emma walks away after instigating them, chirping back after their match last week and their interaction after their debut.. Peyton and Billie look angrily at her when she walks away, then look back at each other.

**

Later on in the episode Billie and Peyton enter the ring at the same time, their characters acting like they have a tag team match...

General Manager Eric Bischoff's music hits, and the GM comes out. "You two ladies, ARE booked for a match tonight, but... it's against each other!"

"What?!" Peyton shouts and looks at their boss with her mouth agape.

Billie has her hands over her head, she walks forward, leans against the ropes on the side of the ring facing the stage and shouts, "You gotta be joking me!"

The crowd is stunned too. Over the past few weeks, they've seen the on-screen friendship between Billie and Peyton, and now they'll get to see them wrestle each other.

"Oh, by the way." Bischoff continues. "Our Women's Champion A.J. Lee, was highly adamant that I made sure you two actually fight it out. Plus, we have the rest of the show to get to, so don't bore this crowd with you two just standing there. A.J. wanted me to go as far as to say we will lock the doors of the arena and keep all the fans here until your match is over. There are way too many legal reasons we couldn't do that. But, I still think she could have my job one day." Billie and Peyton nodded at their new boss.

"So," Bischoff continued, "If you try to walk out of the ring, consider yourselves walking out of your jobs." Even as Bischoff speaks, the two on-screen friends, off-screen lovers stand with their arms folded. Not wanting to do it.

There were obvious reasons why they were hesitant, well, one huge reason. The bell rings, and in the seconds before, what was actually on the line crossed both their minds. Each one wishing the other women didn't get in their heads so much. The stand across from each other, conveying their collective hesitation, letting the at-home viewers see that neither one wanting to hurt their best friend.

Bischoff kept the mic in his hands after the bell rang, knowing that the match would start out this way. "Ladies, I came up with one contingency that was, mmmm.. slightly less illegal than A.J.'s- For every 15 consecutive seconds in this match where there isn't an offensive move, you'll BOTH be fined! I won't get into the Australian to American dollar conversion, but a fine nonetheless."

They raise their arms to lock up, but still take slow steps toward each other. They finally do. Mauro Ranallo calls the pacifcity of the first few seconds, "And Byron, to see these two friends being forced to fight each other, is a bit unfortunate. People forget that Tupac and Biggie were friends once upon a time, and look how that ended up. As these two best friends lock up in the center of the ring."

They start off with barely any hint of a struggle for power. They each take one turn barely moving the other's arms, before letting go, backing away, and circling each other in the ring. Billie and Peyton step 180 degrees to opposite corners.

They take a step further. "Come on!" Billie says raising her hands again.

"No YOU come on!" Peyton barks back. They meet again, and it's a little more of the same, except this time, when one of them pushes back on the other's hands, they take a step back, and it repeats twice. They let go again. Some of the crowd claps to try to encourage them to do something, but some of the crowd is silent.

"And Mauro, even though the match has begun, we can see on our monitors, on the faces of Billie and Peyton, that there's still some hesitation from them." Byron observes.

"That's right Byron, these two are as stuck as a container ship in the Suez Canal." Mauro responds.

They back away, making direct eye contact. It's clear neither of them want to fight the other, but they agreed last week, and had to honor it. Peyton shakes her head, holding back. She walks towards Billie. They couldn't walk out of the ring. Billie raises her arms to lock up with Peyton a third time. Peyton mirrors her again, but as her arms go up, she quickly raises her left arm higher than Billie's, presses down on both her arms to drop her guard, then slaps Billie in the face.

...Peyton and Billie had practiced hundreds of different moves on each other in training, neither had ever slapped the other in the face, in either realm of their lives.. Billie pressed her hand up to a cheek with a look of clear shock on her face. Her mouth was more agape than when Bischoff booked the match. Peyton looked down at her right hand and wonders how she even did that. There's more sadness and shock on her face than on Billie's.

"Is... is she gonna cry?" In the back, the rest of the women's roster watches closely. Kaitlyn scoffs at the look on Peyton's face, hoping she could show just a hint of wanting to win. To protect their privacy, only the four women who've eaten with them at catering know what's actually at stake here. They try not to show that they have an extremely vested interest.

"Are we rooting for anyone here?" A.J. laughs, and then quietly asks, seeing if anyone else had a... visualization in mind for the loser's consequence.

"No." Kaitlyn started to say, "And I can't even tell who you want to..." Kaitlyn didn't want to say the words 'on top,' knowing that'd be a little too not-so-subtle. The IIconic Duo were of very similar size and stature. Billie was an inch taller than Peyton, but in the ring, there really didn't look like much of a size difference. Kaitlyn knew that A.J. herself loves dominating the rest of the women's roster most of whom, bigger than her, but here A.J. wouldn't see that, or at least not as large a difference as A.J. and herself.

Back in the ring, a now fired-up Billie charges Peyton and hits a forearm to Peyton's face, with more aggression than Peyton's slap. Peyton copies the look of shock on Billie's face. Now that they've each landed one strike on each other, there was no turning back. They finally felt comfortable enough striking the other, and then they spent a few minutes getting harder hits on the other, and trading standing and seated leg locks.

At one point, they have a series where they exchange a few more strikes, before they each raise their leg to kick the other, and once they approach the other's mid-section, they each catch the other's feet. They briefly hop in one place, and comedically put the other's foot down. They each point at the other and wag their fingers, smiling at how in sync they were.