Eyes on the Prize

"Don't you think that athletes should also be a fan of their own sport? Maybe you could try to love the act of fighting just as much as winning at it."

A Slightly softer expression, carved from the same base of her earlier scowls but having had much of the malice sanded away, popped up towards him. Only her eyes retained the same deep crevices of shattering pain, through which small tributaries still dribbled over her cheeks.

"Can you honestly tell me that anyone would give a shit about me if I'd never won all those matches." Her voice had evened out to an almost detached rumbling.

"Obviously you want to win. And 99.9 percent of the time you have won. But no one can win all the time, even Vargas has had losses. If you fight for the love of fighting then losing doesn't matter and winning is just the icing on the cake!"

While he had been talking Troy's eyes wandered in front of him, his focus being on weaving together some semblance of cohesive argument from his loose unconnected thoughts and feelings. Having found a good stopping point he looked back towards Ramona to see if she had at all been swayed. A pleasant intimidating shock rippled up his spine to find her eyes for the first time that night probing deeply within his own, her entire face having at some point drifted intimately close to his own. Through the dampness of her eyes refracted a dim inquisitive light, searching him for signs of deceit or mockery. Apparently finding none she slowly parted her lips to breathe out an emotionless voice.

"My whole life is my career. And my whole career is built on being the best. That's what got me here. I can't just throw away everything I've built my life on. It's just how I do things, either I'm all in or I'm out."

"Well tonight you went all in, and you still lost right? So you're out anyways. That philosophy may have gotten you this far but now you've hit the limit. So I guess you either have to find a new way of thinking or else it's all down from here anyway."

Ramona jammed shut her eyes to force out her remaining tears, leaning back against the wall dejectedly while weakly pushing out a quiet moan of frustration. For the first time since her fateful bout the fighter let loose the tension in her body, her legs springing out limply before her as her arms tumbled to her sides in defeat. Depending entirely on the wall behind her for support her body flowed sluggishly down the concrete and across the floor around her.

"How about this..." Troy sighed in exasperation. "Are you happy right now?"

Keeping her eyes firmly closed Ramona's reply slowly oozed up through her new liquid form, bursting out the top of her like gas escaping from fetid water.

"No"

"Okay, were you happy before tonight?"

"I... thought I was..." Her eyes slid back open, releasing a new torrent across her upturned face. "But, I...

Sensing her defenselessness in her defeated state Troy braved gently placing his hand on her nearest shoulder. Ramona failed to react as he felt his fingers sink through the shallow layer of soft tissue protecting the powerful muscles beneath. Although still formidably dense, the iron hardness of her core felt considerably softer in her current relaxed form, much more giving and malleable. Emboldened by the lack of any reprimand he shuffled closer to her and brought up his free hand to lightly graze her cheek in a gentle encouragement to turn towards him. From deep within her mental swamp of directionless and self doubt she gratefully followed the suggestion, rolling her head lazily to the side with a desperate wanting gaze.

"Do you want to stay like this, or do you want to try and be happier?"

His idol's lips, bruised but still beautiful, broke open but no breath escaped. Several small eternities drifted overhead until her distant eyes regained their focus.

"What if I never come back from this? Would you still care about me if I never won again?"

"Yes." he assured her, honestly and automatically. "I would go to your match even if I knew you would lose and I would cheer for you just as hard. As long as you never gave up I would love seeing you fight just as much."

Weakly her cheeks lifted up, pulling the ends of her lips into something resembling a cautious smile. From deep within her a sad self deprecating chuckle bubbled up.

"Why?"

Troy's face reflected her furtive smile, magnifying it and beaming it back at her in a stronger, more earnest fashion.

"I told you, I've always been your fan because of how you fight, not because of your win record. When you're in the ring it's like you're the center of the world, no one can look anywhere else. I've never seen anyone who looks more confident, more in control, than you do out there. You're like some kind of goddess, every punch and step so deliberate and powerful. It's... just so inspiring!" As he spoke a subtle brightness built up behind Troy's eyes, slowly accumulating voltage till light danced out from his beaming expression.

"Inspiring how?" Ramona felt herself being swallowed up by his unbridled enthusiasm, her dark smooth skin beginning to bubble and twitch as tiny sparks of excitement flew off him and sizzled onto her.

"Well, I've never been the most confident person..." Troy explained, displaying a momentary dip in gaiety. "Social anxiety's something that I've always struggled with and for a long time I had trouble believing that I'd ever be able to amount to anything." His smile wavered, threatening to turn over and pour out its cache of positivity accumulated from his electric expression. With a single small movement his eyes focused deep into the watery pools of Ramona's face and in the fantastic colorful refractions created by his bright countenance within her tears once again found strength from his idol. "That's why I was so awestruck by your presence. You seemed so much stronger than I ever thought any one person could be, and without any effort at all! I told myself that if I could manage to be even a fraction as sure of myself as you were, then I'd be set."

"But I'm not strong..." Renewed pity rippled through her as she flipped her face away from his enlightening presence. "not strong enough. It was all just an act, don't you get it? I'm not undefeatable. I'm not the invincible goddess you thought I was."

She braced herself for his inevitable rebuttal, to try and convince her she was wrong. Even if a part of her deep down wanted to hear those things, to be praised and worshiped in her moment of weakness, the bestial specter of her shame and weakness smothered her. That ravenous creature released upon her downfall which fed on pride and burned all positive thought inside her, using her past accomplishments as further proof of the magnitude of the night's failure. From where it writhed in pleasure within the burning humiliation it eagerly awaited the addition of yet more fuel to throw upon the fire.

"Of course I know that." He instead chided her through a small gentle grin. "I'm not like, a dumb fanboy or anything."

Caught off guard, her inner demon tumbled aside from the sharp movement of Ramona's face snapping back towards Troy in confusion. Though only a moment ago dreading to hear the generic praises she had become accustomed to, the young man's flippant response threatened to reignite her ego. Glaring anew at her fan the faint beginnings of her fiery temper smoldered in the corners of her tear soaked eyes, seeming to warn him that she was the only one who was allowed to speak ill of herself. Rather than the meekness or fear that she perhaps expected, the re-emerging warmth of her glower only seemed to reassure the young man beside her.

"Obviously it's an act, but it's the best act I've ever seen. That's what was so inspiring about it. You showed me what real confidence looks like, you gave me something to emulate. Anytime that I ever got anxious or was in a stressful situation I'd just think back to you. I'd remember your face and your strength never wavering even in the face of an opponent nearly twice your size, no matter the challenge no matter the odds you never let in an ounce of doubt. That's what I wanted to be, and that strength you presented, real or not, was what I clung to. It guided me. It got me through college, it let me start making friends, it even helped me to fucking finally lose my V-card at 24 damn years old"

Throughout Troy's speech his words had tumbled uncontrollably out of him in an unbroken breath of adoration. Only towards the end of his sermon did its content reach his own ears to sting them full of embarrassment over the inadvertently intimate details revealed. In an inverse of earlier in the conversation Troy now found himself turning away from Ramona's lingering stare, fighting to dribble out his last sentiment in the matter.

"Obviously you're not really invincible, and maybe it's not entirely healthy the way you could say I 'worshiped' you. But the way you inspired me, and gave me so much without ever even knowing I existed... it really did feel like you were some kind of goddess."

Facing away from Ramona he couldn't see the embers in her eyes drip inward, carrying a deep blistering heat down into her core further down than any emotion had ever touched her before. For as long as she had remembered, Ramona Bell's world had begun and ended with herself. She was a flash of brilliance alone in a dark room, her dancing photons reverberating endlessly back and forth off of four simple walls. There were always cracks in those walls of course, hairline fractures through which the outside sometimes seeped in. But always Ramona was careful never to let herself leak out, not out of fear or jealousy or even vanity, simply of habit. Those walls were all she knew and they were how she had lived, the outside held nothing for her she thought. Staring now at the greatest fissure yet to break apart her cell she considered for the first time in her life taking those intrepid first few steps into that outside abyss.

What Troy had said was true, she had grown as large as possible within her current habitat, leaving escape as her only option. In nervous glances she had peaked at the outside through the holes in her world, witnessed vistas of frightening enormity and open spaces of untenable freedom. Ramona had reached an impasse. She realized that this time had always awaited her, she had no choice but to burst free of her confines but was afraid of losing herself within the vastness of those worlds. For the first time in her life she wanted for another, as strong as she pretended to be she could not face a world so wide by herself. Looking longingly at Troy and seeing him for the first time as an equal, as a fellow human being, she subconsciously scooted towards him until their disparate bodies joined, the soft hot flesh of their shoulders rubbing together. Ramona felt the unfamiliar need of companionship claw its way out from the recesses of her hardened heart and run through her body as a new form of heat and life. Every acre of her skin sizzled with this alien sensation, the yearning to be touched. Ramona gently leaned her head upon the fan's bare shoulder, transmitting a nervous ripple through him as he felt her heavy body wilt against him.

Sitting naked beside the athlete Troy for the first time in their interaction began to feel the same overstimulating vulnerability he had experienced during their earlier encounter. Hot violent buzzing broke out like hives across his bare flesh as he felt the athlete's body make contact against his own. Electricity jumped through his being, stinging his muscles till they quaked incessantly and forcing him into motion as he feebly began to stand up.

"Y-you um... probably want to be alone now, right?" He said mostly to himself as he clambered up the cold concrete wall behind them. "I mean, it's late so I should-"

A new burst of burning energy cut off his excuses as Ramona reached up and laid a hand upon his naked chest, her long slender fingers running up his torso to curl gently over his clavicle before firmly reeling him back down beside her. Once again his bare skin lit up with sensation as he felt himself becoming enveloped by Ramona's prodigious appendages.

"No..." she whispered sheepishly to him. "Actually Troy, I think I'd like it if you'd stay."

The humid air suddenly became impossibly thick within his throat as he attempted to choke out any form of reply. In her core Ramona could feel that powerful new emotion expanding within her, expanding beyond her and reaching out towards her new object of affection. That foreign feeling of needing someone else, newly born from Troy's infectious empathy, reached out for him. It's very existence was owed to him and it drove Ramona to embrace him. Without waiting for any further consent Ramona dove passionately against him, her powerful limbs entangling themselves around his form. The larger woman plunged her still weeping face deep into the crook of his neck, inhaling his scent as she tightened her awkward but heartfelt embrace.

Once again Troy felt a fiery sensation fluttering out from his heart. After their last rendezvous he was hesitant to allow the athlete to use him as a sex toy again, despite that previously being a common fantasy of his the reality had turned out to be much more emotionally taxing than he had anticipated. Unlike the last time however, rather than the fierce iron grip she had used to restrain him Ramona now ran her hands softly over him in a comparatively gentle caress. From the earnestly clumsy and almost hesitant way she raked her fingers down his chest he could tell she was now holding back her strength.

Ramona turned to face him directly, one knee planted firmly on either side of his curled up form. Even with her attempts to be more gentle a not entirely unpleasant feeling of being permanently encaged beneath her huge frame tickled the underside of Troy's skin as he huddled defensively beneath her shadow. His idol stared down with as close to a reassuring smile as she knew how to make before pulling her hands back to herself and gripping the lower hem of her skimpy spandex top, lifting it over her head in a single graceful motion. As the sweat soaked fabric slid upwards along her body it clung jealousy to her rich smooth skin, tearing away in an audible peeling sound. The low continuous hiss nearly functioned as an anticipatory drumroll as Troy became mesmerized by the fluid motion of Ramona's breasts spilling out from beneath the garment. What seemed like miles of perfect brown flesh wobbled free until one after the other both hemispheres popped out, two stiffened eraser nubs each surrounded by dark quarter sized areolas bounced forward in a knockout one-two punch combo before the dazed fan. Ramona threw up both arms, shoulders drawn back and chest puffed out as if celebrating the reveal of her unblemished tits. A deep breath of relief and freedom rumbled through her chest, further accentuating the already surprising size of her boobs as the yellow top still stained with the blood and the grease of her fight plopped unceremoniously to the floor.

Troy could only stare upwards and gawk as the harsh buzzing light carried down the heavenly visage before him. From where Ramona kneeled her face was in shadows, the light behind her flowing over her shoulders before skipping playfully off the very tips of her breasts and directly into his reverent eyes. Slowly she began to lean forward, eclipsing the young fan in momentary darkness as she took both of his hands within her own.

"You can touch me this time, if you want" she said in an uncharacteristically sheepish breath as she brought his hands towards her body, placing them on her chiseled abdomen just below the slopes of her breasts.

Breathlessly Troy flattened his hands against her body, needing desperately to feel as much of her as possible. As he pressed into her perfect skin he could feel the powerful musculature of her core pushing back against him, her stomach and solar plexus rippled with strength. Letting his hands flow up her torso he soon brushed his fingertips against the soft undersides of her breasts, eliciting an electric jolt directly to the amazon's heart. Emboldened by the new found freedom she had granted him he quickly planted his palms directly on top of her erect nipples and firmly grasped her boobs, shuddering at the sensation of her hard nubs digging fiercely into his hands and the comforting feeling of her titflesh pillowing out between his fingers. His digits sank deep into her reaching a part that had never before experienced this kind of attention, forcing out unfamiliar bolts of pleasure to radiate up Ramona's spine. Brand new and raw sensations rattled her brain, rolling her eyes back into their sockets.

Driven by a newly unleashed instinct Ramona began exploring Troy as well. From where she still had her hands on his wrists she sent them sliding up his arms, sensuously rubbing along his forearms past his biceps and over his shoulders to land on his nervously quaking chest. Passing by his exposed nipples as she continued down she experimentally gave the protrusions a couple playful flicks, setting off a series of involuntary gasps and twitching from her plaything. Her hands traveled further south and soon arrived at their ultimate destination, curling possessively around his bulging member. With her eyes still softly closed she could only navigate his length by feeling alone. Her long slender fingers ran the full length of his erection, tracing every vein and pushing around the loose velvety skin that glided over the steel like firmness just below. Troy continued to tremble helplessly as her fingertips frolicked over his cock head, dipping themselves in the constant trickle of fluid from his glans and sloppily spreading it over his dick.

With his mind consumed entirely upon the sensations from his crotch, Troy's own hands took it upon themselves to continue their expedition through the fighter's bountiful wilderness of flesh. Sliding down from her magnificent mountains the pair raced across the great rigid dunes of her abs till the natural delta of her graceful hips funneled them into the waistband of her tight shorts. Eagerly his fingers tugged down the fabric in a desperate scramble to gain access to her nethers, getting only an inch or two before the tight garment became caught on Ramona's outstretched thighs. After a moment of struggling with her bottoms Ramona finally took notice and awkwardly balanced on one knee to allow her other leg to swing inwards so the shorts could be pulled further down. As Troy worked to peel the fabric away she continued to shuffle from side to side above him in an unintentionally provocative way, her movements further complicated by a total refusal to release his dick from her grasp.

By now she was stroking him in clumsy but firm motions, even her casual grip being strong enough to threaten his circulation. He could feel her powerful squeezing defeating the rock hard rigidity of his erection, compressing the flesh and tissue and pushing around the enclosed blood to such an dramatic degree that his weeping cockhead could almost be seen to change coloration as her hand swept towards it, flashing red with engorged pressure like a warning light. Any such warnings his body might have been trying to give him however were lost in the cacophony of explosions set off within him, fireworks launched from his groin continuously screamed up his spine to detonate in blinding pleasure around his brain.

Miraculously his hands were able to retain the required coordination to bring his partners shorts down past her knees at last, wherein she leaned in tantalizingly close in order to slip one leg completely out of the garment. Rather than lean back to her old position however the dark goddess continued forward as she placed her newly freed leg back on the hard floor, her unsteady breath giving only seconds warning to his lips before her soft pouting mouth mashed against them. Displaying a ferocity and devotion not unlike her fighting style Ramona took total control of the kiss, moaning deep into him as she pinned him against the wall.