What I Live To Do

The flight had been long, but Ace and Bianca had arrived in London. Of course, while it was a long journey, the First Class seats paid for by Bianca’s father made it a lot more comfortable. They would have taken the jet, owned by Bianca’s family, but it was in for check ups and repairs, so Bianca had had to suffer through being among “common people,” as she called them.

Dressed in a plain grey v-neck t-shirt and some loose black workout pants, Ace carried his hand luggage backpack over his shoulder. He was dressed comfortably, but of course, Bianca was still dressed stylishly, despite the fact they had just finished a seven hour flight, she still would not dress down, even for the sake of comfort. She always wanted to stand out, and she always did.

Bianca peered through the windows as the two walked through the corridors leading to Border Control, looking out at the runway and the nearby countryside areas. Bianca was here for a show, as she had recently joined a wrestling promotion based in England, and Ace had seen it as a great oppourtunity to return home and visit his parents. Plus, he had arranged it so that his older brother and sister would be there too, so he would be able to see them for the first time in a few months as well.

“I'm so glad we’re not in that Morgantown place anymore.” Bianca said, interrupting Ace’s train of thought. “You know, when I told daddy I was going there he was so worried. He thought I was going to get mugged!”

“You know I wouldn't let that happen.” Ace replied, reassuringly.

Bianca turned at Ace and smiled, “I know, boo. But that place reeeeaaally was disgusting.”

“Yeah it's definitely not the nicest place we've visited on our tours of the States. But at least we’re here now. This is still home for me, despite how many years I've lived in America.”

They checked through Border Control, after having queued for twenty minutes. They then moved on and collected their bags left the airport, where a pre-booked taxi was waiting for them. They loaded in their bags, one of which contained the Zero Gravity Championship, and climbed in. They had another journey ahead of them, though this time it was only lasting one hour. They arrived at a reasonably large house on the outskirts of London. This was Ace’s parent’s home.

They unloaded their bags, with the help of the taxi driver, and Ace knocked on the door.

Moments later it was opened, and Ace and Bianca were greeted by a joyous Mira Watson, Ace’s mother, who instantly threw her arms around her son for a hug. “Declan! It’s so good to see you!” She exclaimed. Declan, being Ace’s real name, was very rarely used. His closest friends knew it, but many opted to calling him by his nickname. The nickname “Ace” was birthed during his training, back when people just called him Dec, for short. Watson had stood out from the rest in his training, and another trainee, he could never remember who, started calling him an “Ace in the deck,” with “deck” being a play on words for “Dec.” It was a silly thing at first, but it caught on and soon people shortened it down to just the three letter word that he has been known as prominently ever since. Ace. Now it was only ever really his mother who called him by his real name, so it always caught Ace slightly off guard when somebody called him Declan. Bianca used it occasionally, but only when she really wanted something.

Ace hugged his mother back, smiling “It’s good to see you too, mum. I should never have let it go so long between the last time we saw each other.”

They pulled away from each other, still smiling, with Mira furrowing her brows lightly. “Oh it’s okay, all three of you kids are busy all the time. It’s nothing to worry about.” She smiled properly again, before turning her attention to Bianca. “And you must be the lovely Bianca!”

Bianca put on her best cutesy grin and Mira walked over to her, greeting her with a hug. “It’s great to finally meet you!” As Bianca and his mother chatted briefly, about how much Ace had told Mira about the blonde, it suddenly hit Ace how he and Bianca had been together (admittedly, on and off) for over a year, and she still had not met his mother or siblings. Like Mira said, they were all just so busy.

Speaking of busy. “Oh, your sister called. She couldn’t make it. I don’t know if she sent you a message to tell you or not.”

Ace’s smile faded.

“She wanted to be here but an important work thing came up, I can’t remember what.”

“Oh… Okay. She hadn’t messaged me, but yeah it’s okay.” Ace replied. He’d have to arrange another time to meet with her.

“We probably shouldn’t hang around out here, your father is waiting inside and he’ll be wanting to see you too” Mira finally turned to Ace and said.

“I’ve got something he’ll be happy to see too.” The youngest Watson child said, as he turned and picked up two bags, carrying them into the house. Bianca grabbed her own bags too, carrying them inside as well. The couple would be staying here for a few days and they had plenty of stuff with them. Well, Bianca did.

Before they could get to the end of the hallway leading to the living area, David Watson appeared from a doorway, his face lit up as he saw his son, and he followed what his wife did in greeting Ace with a hug. “Congratulations on your Championship win, Ace.” He said proudly, putting a bold smile on the Zero Gravity Champion’s face.

“Thank you Dad, it means a lot coming from you.” David patted his son on the back, before separating a moment later. “I’ve got the belt with me, if you want to see it?”

David’s smile grew. “Yes, of course!” He gestured to the bags both Ace and Bianca were still carrying, “Take those up to your room first. Can’t be carrying them all day!”

Ace nodded.

“I’ll show you up there.” Mira said, eagerly, and started walking towards the stairs, Ace and Bianca following behind her.

They came to their room on the first floor. It was a big bedroom, larger than the average “spare room” you’d find in a normal house. A creamy-white sheeted king size bed with dark brown wooden frames sat against the back wall, in the middle. There were three windows along the wall, looking over the garden and the neighbour’s house. A dark brown desk, matching the bed frame, sat below them.

“There’s an en suite bathroom in there, and you’ll find more clean towels in the airing cupboard next door.” Mira paused, and there was a knock at the front door, which caused the sixty-one year old mother of three’s face to light up again. “That’ll be Henry!” She walked out, heading back down the stairs and towards the door. Ace and Bianca stayed in the room for now, and started unpacking their things.

“I think mum likes you.” Ace said with a slight smile.

“I like her too, she’s nice.” Bianca replied, emptying out her pink suitcase and putting them in the dark brown wood wardrobe.

Ace chucked a few clothing items in a chest of drawers (also made out of dark brown wood) and decided he would do the rest later. He wanted to see his brother, and he wanted to show off his title belt to his father. He knew David would be proud of him.

“I’m gonna go down now, I’ll come do the rest of my stuff later.” Ace said to Bianca.

“Okay, I’ll come down soon.” Bianca said as she moved the first of her suitcases to a place which would be out of the way.

Ace walked past Bianca, stopping as he got beside her, and placed a quick kiss on her lips. He grabbed the bag containing the belt, which he had left by the door, and headed down the stairs. Henry had just been let out of a hug of his own from Mira, and was then moving into a hug with his father.

It had been over nine months since Ace had last seen his older brother, and it was great to see him again. Ace waited for his father to end the hug, and their conversations to simmer to a brief pause… “Henry!!!” Ace shouted, raising his arms out gesturing for an exaggerated hug of his own.

“Ace!!!” Henry replied, just as loud and lifted his arms up too, a smile on his face at having seen his brother for the first time in a long while.

They walked towards each other, both letting out a matching “Ayyyyy” as they met for a hug. It seemed to be a day of hugs, but then again, family reunions always were.

“How you doing man?” Ace asked, as the hug broke away.

“Things are going good! I’ve got a really interesting project coming up soon. How’s you?” Henry replied. Henry Watson was an up and coming movie director. He had made six short films, four of which received awards in film festivals, and was just about to start work on a full length film.

“Yeah I’m doing well too! It’s great to see you, Henry.”

They briefly exchanged a few details about what was going on in their lives as they walked through to the living area. They all sat down.

“So I saw your Fates of the God show, Ace.” Henry brought up suddenly, as if he had not noticed the bag Ace had been carrying with the VoW logo on it.

“Thought you didn’t like wrestling?” Ace said, playfully. David chuckled. Henry’s dislike for wrestling had always been a prominent part of their lives, and an interesting one, considering Henry was the oldest son of a now former wrestler, in David Watson.

“Yeah well I watched the show, because I knew you were in a big match. Congrats on your win.” Henry smiled, then nodded towards the bag beside Ace. “Is that the belt in there?”

Ace grinned. “Yeah… Wanna see it?”

“I think Dad may want to more than me, but yeah sure.”

Ace unzipped the bag and pulled the Zero Gravity Championship out. David watched intently, a subtle proud smile on his face. David had seen his fair share of wrestling championships, many of them were kept on the wall in his study room. All with plaques underneath them with the dates he won them written on them. But this belt was different, it was his son’s. And he was very happy to see Ace finally win a championship.

Ace looked over to his father and saw the look on his face. They met eyes, and David nodded once, gently. And in that moment Ace felt better about his achievment than he ever had before.

=============================

A red light shines gently on a black curtain backdrop which sits at the back of a dimly lit room. The dark room was lit mostly by a spotlight shining down on the Zero Gravity Championship, which was sat rested against the back of a chair in the middle of the room.

Moments passed, then Ace Watson stepped into frame from the right hand side of the screen. He slowly walks to the center and picks up the Championship belt. He puts it over his shoulder, and sits down. The camera sliding down smoothly with him as he did, framing him to be in the center of the screen.

He looks at the camera for a few moments. Then he speaks.

“I’m sure you’ve all been eager to hear what I have to say, regarding my first Zero Gravity title defence. And I do have a lot I wish to say.”

“People have criticized my reign as Champion so far. They’ve not even given me time to prove myself. I have had one match since winning this,” he gestures to the belt over his shoulder, “and it was a match that I should not have lost. If the referee had have seen my shoulder off the mat before he called for the bell then it would be a whole different story right now. But yes, I lost.”

“What people forget to remember though, is the loss came to someone who had just come out of a World Title match,so its not like I lost to someone I should have easily wiped the floor with.”

“Yet still I’m called a bad champion. In fact I’ve heard myself being called the worst Zero Gravity Champion of all time.” He paused and looked directly into the camera for a moment. “We all know who said that.”

“But I’ve never cared for others’ opinions. I don’t listen to what they say about me. I just let them say whatever drivel they want, and let myself thrive on it. I always have done so. I did so when I won this Championship, when people were trashing me, disregarding me as a possible winner of the triple threat match. No one expected and no one wanted, me to come out of the biggest VoW pay-per-view of the year holding this title. But I did. And I did it with the help of all the sh[BEEP] people say about me.”

“I live to prove people wrong. I live to smile smugly as I do what they did not want me to do. The look of a perfect mixture of disbelief and anger on people’s faces, when I succeed, warms my heart. It is that look that drives me further.”

“And once again, people expect me to lose. At Heatstroke everyone expects Katie Moicelle to have her hand raised as the new and once again Zero Gravity Champion. Which is crazy, considering until Breakthrough 49, Katie Moicelle was on a losing streak. A losing streak that proved exactly why she should not be champion.”

“You see, Katie Moicelle is always one step away from a complete emotional breakdown. She’s one personal life incident from losing her mind at all times. Someone like that should not be Champion. Someone like that should not be representing the best of the VoW roster.”

“What I bring to this title is stability. You won’t see me being one of the people who locks themselves away in a room because they got left out of someone’s friendship group one time, or because someone didn’t make them their “WCW.” There is a lot of madness going on in this company, and I’m not a part of it.”

“And once I’m given a god damned chance to actually prove myself, you will all realise that as Champion, I make VoW better.”

“And what better way to prove myself finally than by defeating the woman who held the title before me for almost half a year. What better way to make sure everyone knows I’m better than Katie Moicelle than by chalking up my third recorded victory in VoW over her?”

“And you can criticize me all you want for referencing my past victories over you, but I know for a fact that if you had any wins over me you would do the exact same.”

“But you don’t. And that’s my point.”

“In every oppourtunity we’ve had to prove who is better than the other, I’ve come out on top. Nothing will change at Heatstroke. I will still be better than you, Katie.”

He looks away for a moment, then he turns back.

“And you’ve tried to force this thing on me, making it out that I don’t see you as a threat to this title. But I do. And you’ve basically been trying to force an underdog story onto yourself, when really there is no underdog in this situation. You’ve done this to try get the fans behind you, to get them thinking that by beating me you’d be taking down the evil bad guy and ending some kind of reign of terror.”

“When really, what you’d be doing is taking the company back to a place that it needs to move on from. A place where someone like Katie Moicelle is a champion.” Ace is disgusted by that last line.

“And the thing is, I’ve tried to respect you. I may not have shown you, but I’ve tried. Yet you, and your friends, consistently trash me. You trash my career, my life, my relationship. Yet I’m supposed to be the big bad guy. I’m supposed to be the one everyone hates. I’m the one that is actually looking for this company’s best interests! I’m seeing what is best for the future. I’m seeing me as Champion for a very long time.”

“Yes, you could beat me. Yes, you as Zero Gravity Champion could happen again. But it just won’t. What’s going to happen is, we’ll have a match, put on a good fight. I’ll be the clear victor, using my size advantage, my speed advantage, my strength advantage, my awareness advantage… I could go on… And in the end, I’ll pin you. The referee will smack his hand down onto the mat three times, the bell will ring, the Zero Gravity Championship will be given back to me as my hand is raised.”

“And then what’s going to happen is, I’m going to celebrate. In front of you. You’re going to watch. And like I’ve said before, you are going to put on your best sad and defeated face for the cameras. All the fans will see you. All the fans will see you cry. All the fans will see you muster up what energy left in you that I haven’t beaten out of you by the end of the match to stumble your way up the ramp, as I hold my title high in the air in the center of the ring.”

“And you’ll go backstage. You’ll go join your friends, they’ll tell you Ace Watson is a bad bad man, that you still deserve this Championship. Those same friends who seem to be constantly having a competition over who can be the most depressed.”

“You’re going to go back to them, Katie. And they’re going to console you as you slip once again into a dip of self hate and regret over not being better than me. They’re going to console you as you slip into obscurity, into nothing. Until, eventually, they give up. Even they will lose hope in you Katie. All your friends will forget about you, they’ll move on to bigger and better things. Just like I will, after I beat you.”

“There is no scenario I can see, and I can see a lot, which could happen at Heatstroke that end in you as Zero Gravity Champion. And it’s not because you are bad, or because you are weak. It’s because I am just so much better than you.”

“And when I retain my Zero Gravity Championship there will be a hell of a lot of people who will think twice about ever doubting Ace Watson.”


"Heatstroke, August 18th. The day Katie Moicelle becomes nothing, and the day Ace Watson truly begins a legacy making reign as Zero Gravity Champion."


Fade to black.