❊ "you're here. there's nothing i fear." ● rora v. vanity

[Rora Sky]

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❊ INT. THE BACKSTAGE AREA - CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING MONTREAL - OCTOBER 9TH, 2015

“Are you scared?”

Aurora Vaillancourt looked up into the face of Sebastian Fournette and shook her head. His hands were wrapped tightly around around the small of her back, and prior to looking up, her face had been pressed against his chest.

“You’re here. There’s nothing I fear."

He grinned at her Titanic reference. It would forever be her favorite movie and together they must have watched it a thousand times. He gave her a squeeze and buried his face against her neck, his lips lightly touching her skin. It was a gesture that meant nothing to them, but to outsiders it was so much more. Aurora sighed, so full of gratitude that she was able to feel their closeness once again. It had been such a rocky year for them, but Sebastian had never given up on her. He would never give up on her, and now they were moments away from starting their second career together.

“You’ll be perfect,” he whispered against her ear, his breath hot against her soft skin. Aurora touched her dainty hands to his face and gave him that special smile reserved only for him. It was the only one she had flashed in months. “We’ll be perfect,” she corrected and that’s when their music hit.

“Rora Sky and Stian Fournette will be perfect.”

And honestly, at least that night, they had been. The ice dancers turned combat sports enthusiasts could not have been more dazzling in their professional wrestling debut.

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❊ INT. THE SEB AND AURORA’ S APARTMENT - NEW YORK CITY - MARCH 1ST, 2018

With a sigh, Aurora slowly removed her headphones and tossed Seb’s phone down on the glass coffee table that sat in front of their black leather couch. She had been listening to a podcast that Dijuanna had sent him, trying her best not to be annoyed that they had tried to keep it from her. Seb especially knew how sensitive Aurora was, so the intentions had been pure.

“Hey, Rory? Have you seen my phone?”

Seb walked in from the kitchen, apple in hand. Aurora pointed at the coffee table and almost immediately Seb felt suspicious. It wasn’t as if there were any boundaries between them. Neither of them understood what privacy was so looking at the other’s phone was literally nothing to them. He didn’t say anything to her though. He simply picked up the phone and slipped it into his pocket.

“So I listened to the ‘Wrasslin Is Real’ podcast Di sent you for motivation.” It was cute the way she pronounced ‘wrasslin’ as ‘wrestling’, but the look Seb was getting from her wasn’t at all endearing. “Like you could have shared it with me. Stuff like that doesn’t bother me.”

He shrugged as he took a bite from his apple and sat down next to her. “You don’t need to listen to that garbage. They’re just marky idiots trying to get themselves over.” Seb shot Aurora a looked that was anything but apologetic and the delicate ice queen felt the heat rise to her pale cheeks. “We’ve had people doubt us our entire lives, but we’ve always risen above that. It doesn’t bother me what two people on an internet podcast have to say. They pointed out the fact I’ve only ever had three singles matches in my entire life and that I lost all of them. So what? My record in wrestling thus far doesn’t matter and do you know why?”

Seb looked at her amused. “Why?”

Aurora gave him a confidant smile. “Because The Factory is a new beginning. To be frank, everyone is undefeated in there, including the both of us. My opponent Vanity Fullbright is not someone I’m intimidated by. I don’t care that she’s apparently never lost a match.”

Seb sat his half-eaten apple down and wrapped his arm around Aurora's shoulders. She always felt the safest and most confident when she was tucked against his side. Instinctively, he placed a kiss against her temple. Aurora practically beamed.

“There is no power advantage in this match because she only outweighs me by four pounds. Whatever strikes she throws at me, won’t nearly have that great of an impact. She won’t be able to place them where she needs because of our training. Dijuanna is a former Strikeforce champion and she’s taught us both exactly how to move when people come at us, looking for a kill-shot. Vanity’s seven years of experience between training and competing can’t give her an advantage against me because I’ve been competing on stages much bigger than The Factory since I was 7-years old. Does it honestly get much bigger than the Olympics? One single moment might have ended our skating career, but here at The Factory we… well we won’t have distractions.”

“We had distractions in Sochi?”

In the four years since Russia, neither one had ever discussed that failed skate with the other. In fact, Seb was shocked to hear Aurora mention it. She was always the one who shut down when it was brought up.

“This is just different,” she carefully replied. Aurora felt a prick at her heart but composed herself quickly. She would never go down that road ever again. It was a single unfortunate moment in her life and the scars she carried on her soul that lead up to that moment had mostly healed. They weren't going to be reopened. “It’s different because now that we know this a hardcore kind of thing, we can do whatever we want. Like I’m not going to sit here and pretend that I’m comfortable using an actual weapon to fight someone with, because I’m not. I don’t feel like that’s necessary. But it does ensure that there is an even playing field for everyone involved.”

Aurora gestured towards the coffee table. Seb hadn’t noticed earlier, but a box of thumbtacks happened to be sitting right in the middle of it. He watched as his Rory opened the box and plucked one of the offending objects out of it.

“It’s going to come down to who can withstand the most amount of punishment. So I've sorta been testing my pain threshold, and well. I think I'm going to be okay. Vanity likes to use a chain, but there will be other objects around. I've been YouTubing hardcore matches and apparently thumbtacks are super popular. So...” Aurora took a deep breathe and gave her soulmate a nervous look.

Seb watched in pure horror as Aurora plunged the tack right into her own leg, then bite down on her bottom lip to conceal the cry she wanted to let out.

“What the fuck?! Have you lost your mind?”

Watching Aurora harm herself caused something inside Sebastian to just snap. She actually looked startled for a second, temporarily forgetting she had just shoved a thumbtack into her own skin. Seb had made it perfectly clear that he wasn’t happy with the thought of his perfect Aurora competing under such horrific and unimaginable circumstances. This was his worst nightmare and it was taking place in their own home.

Regaining her composure, Aurora pulled the tack out and tossed it down. “Relax, Seb! I’m okay. I’m not a breakable China doll.”

Realizing his outburst scared her, Seb took a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”

He'd known people who broke their bodies competing in matches of this style and he couldn't begin to fathom Aurora breaking bones or bleeding from a razor cut. The gravity of the situation fell on him. She wasn't breakable, but she was determined to succeed and prepared for anything. He just didn't agree with this type of preparation.

"I'm sorry," he breathed again. "This is just…”

“Hey,” she softly interrupted him. Aurora placed a comforting hand on Seb’s foreman. She traced her thumb across the scar her skate had left when she sliced him open in Sochi during the fall. “I get it.” Her other hand caressed his cheek and their foreheads instinctively touched. “Do you think I want to watch you get in the ring against people like Jamie Quinn and Ryan O’Reilly? I don’t. This isn’t our element but we will make it work, Sebby. We will get in there and do the absolute best we can. We will show everyone who doubts us that we can adapt to any situation and we will do it our way. I will use my speed to run circles around Vanity and get her to point where she’ll be too tired to use a weapon against me. I’ll take to the skies and fly high above her, not allowing her to hit a strike or use her in-ring awareness against me. Regardless of the match type, we can adapt and we can overcome.”

Aurora’s soothing voice calmed Seb’s nerves. He pulled her close and buried his face in her neck, his lips brushing the tender spot of skin right below her earlobe. Aurora closed her eyes and melted against his touch, feeling completely and totally whole whenever they were like this.

“The one thing no one can touch,” she whispered once her ability to speak returned. “Is the fact we have each other. Vanity has no one down there with her. I’ll have you.”

Forever.

But they both kept the ‘forever’ part to themselves.

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❊ INT. THE PARKING LOT AREA OF THE FACTORY - NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - MARCH 5TH, 2018

Aurora waited patiently for Sebastian to pay their Uber driver and gather their bags. She had probably went overboard on her packing, bringing along two bags and a makeup case. Deciding what to wear for literally a single night’s work was a much more daunting task than it seemed. The two were still in touch with their old costume designer and she had literally jumped at the chance to make them wrestling gear.

“Do you think we should just drive from now on?” Aurora asked as Seb started leading them towards the back entrance of The Factory.

“Unless you want to fight Manhattan traffic into Newark, then no.”

Aurora didn’t. Silently she followed her longtime friend and partner until they reached door. Sebastian paused, sat their things down, and took Aurora’s hands. “You want to go through with this?”

The brunette nodded. “I owe it to Vanity Fullbright to put forth my best effort tonight. I love performing and you’ll be right there at ringside with me, right?”

“You will never be alone out there.” Sebastian’s voice was firm and Aurora smiled sweetly up at him. “You’re ready for this match, Rory. I believe in you.”

He always believed in her and that made Aurora’s heart burst with happiness. They held each other’s gaze for a minute longer than two friends would, and finally Sebastian let go of her hands. Before either of them could open the door for the other, it banged open and slammed into Aurora. The force of the door knocked her back and caused her to tumble to the ground, absolutely shocking her and enraging Sebastian.

“Awww fuck. You okay, babe?”

Sebastian, who had already dropped down to check on Aurora, shot a look of pure venom up at the offender.

“Her name is Aurora, not babe. And you should watch where the fuck you’re going.”

The guy who hit Aurora wasn’t paying any attention to Sebastian. He was glancing down at the stunning brunette, stars practically in his eyes. Sebastian scowled and turned to his Rory. Much to his chagrin, a flush had crept across her pale cheeks.

“I’m fine,” Aurora softly replied.

The guy extended his hand and after hesitating for just a second, Aurora clasped it and allowed this stranger to pull her to her feet.

“I’m Alyx,” the guy told her, his free hand running through his messy brown hair.

“Aurora.”

They didn’t immediately let go of their handshake. Suddenly, for at least one brief moment, Sebastian didn’t exist.