Angelica Vaughn’s legendarily long legs curled up behind her, bringing knobby knees to her chin. The perpetually cheerful smile was absent from her face and her blue eyes dropped without so much as a glint of their usual joy. Her body rose up as she breathed in deep through her nose, held strong, and then slowly lowered as she pushed the air out through her mouth.

*knock knock knock-knock-knock*

Angie’s face finds its normal smile. She knew that knock. She knew its rhythm. She knew its intent. It was comforting. And the voice behind the door was soothing. Playful; but compassionate.

“Do you wanna build a snowman?”

“Come on, let’s go and play!”

The door to Angie’s locker room…which she did NOT share with a certain Maddy Junior, despite what SOME PEOPLE have intimated, thankies SO much…burst open and the black and red blur that was her sister came through. Like herself, Sarah was still wearing her wrestling gear, and also like herself, it was a full bodysuit, though their colors were different. Angie’s was a perfectly nice pink whereas Sarah’s was black with red and white spiderwebs. As with most things they did in life, Sarah’s was more extravagant and screamy, whereas Angelica’s was softer and more modest.

“I am STILL finding legos in my hair. Freakin’ JIM.”

Angie shook her head and smiled as a blue brick fell out of Sar’s braid.

“And don’t EVEN get me started on THIS! I swear to Baby Jesus, if this leaves ANY kind of mark WHATSOEVER, Graves will be in ETERNAL PAIN!”

”“I’m sure it’s a totes nabs, Sis.”

Angie sent a silent prayer to Baby Jesus so that he wouldn’t weep. The gash across Sarah’s forehead from being sawed into by Michael Graves’ 2x4 during the Jim Jimson Birthday Bash was, in fact, quite large. Thankfully, none of them had TOO many scars at this point, and none on the face. Angie was pretty sure her and Sarah’s faith had to do with most of that. And they prayed extra hard between the two of them to cover for Kenzi and Roxy, too!

“Bah! That’s not even the REALLY important part.”

Sarah spun around and sat behind Angie in the same manner with her legs curled up, their two backs pressed against one another. It was a natural way for them to sit, something that just started happening one day. Sar had mentioned before that she and their father used to do the same. Would she and he have done it, too? Angelica liked to think so. She had never knew their father personally, but Sarah had always assured her she’d have been loved, just like she was. Somehow, that thought was both comforting and painful.

“...what are you doing?”

She could feel Sarah rummaging through her bag next to her, could feel her sister's boney elbows poking into her. All of their gear was in this room, as they shared everything when they were on the road together, which she hoped would be more often, since Sarah had signed a new XWF contract. It had been a long time coming. Wrestling was in their blood. That was the way.

“Writing a STERN letter.”

Angelica could hear the top of an inkwell pop free and a feather pen dip in. She couldn’t help but grin. At least she hadn’t conjured an old fashioned type writer out of her bag, which she wouldn’t put past her big little sister.

“Strongly worded, I bet eh?”

“Oh, no DOUBT! I canNOT beLIEVE that those imbecilic announcers were referring to me…MORE THAN ONCE, I MIGHT ADD…as a ‘former’ XWF Universal Champion. Pfft! Bah! Tsk, I say. I am THE Universal Champion.”

Angie shook her head as the sound of the feather pen scratched across paper…no doubt some old parchment from their family home in Maine.

“Well…I mean…you did-”

“Get stripped of the title for insubordination by Vinnie over two years ago, yes yes, I know. BUT STILL!”

Angie shook her head as Sarah continued to write her strongly-worded letter to poor Heather and Pip. She realized there was going to be no stopping that train of thought tonight, so she left it alone.

“...but at least tonight was a great night.”

Angie blinked in surprise. That did not compute.

“…wut”

“Tonight! It was great! Aside from stupid Jim and Graves trying to make alterations to my era-defining beauty, I still came back tonight and BOOM! Two wins. That’s awesome-o-3000, and all.”

Angie blinked again, looked at her own gym bag, and frowned at the empty space within. It was strange how quickly you missed something while it was gone, even if it had been a pain to maintain.

“Ummmm… You DO, like, totes realize I lost my taggie team title tonight, right Sis? Like, I wasn’t pinned or anything, but that dastardly Dolly and her shenanigans… I still can’t truly process what happened out there, but I do know I’m not a champion any longer.”

Angelica could FEEL Sarah rolling her eyes, the strain of it sent slight convulsions throughout her entire body. It felt like a tingle in her spine.

“Well…yes…there IS that. But, honestly, it’s a good thing.”

Angie’s eyes bugged out.

”“X to the P to the vinnie vinnie Lane?”

“Simple math, Dear Sister: Now that you’ve lost that championship to my ward and the hobo she’s currently shacking up with, you’re now ALSO minus one giant dumb-dumb of a partner. Never has the world known a better riddance! Now WE can challenge for the titles together! I’ve already talked to Atticus about it, and he was all-”

”NO!”

”…wut”

Angelica didn’t know why, but she jumped up from the bench with a burst of athleticism that probably would’ve surprised even herself, had she been able to think straight. Adrenaline coursed through her veins. Her hands balled into fists so tightly that she nearly drew blood. She was a moment away from screaming “RRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!” at the top of her lungs. She didn’t know why, but Sarah’s assumptions got to her. On a deep, fundamental level.

Sarah seemed surprised, naturally. Outbursts like this were rare for her little big sister, usually reserved for when she had a fit of her own. After all these years, they still seemed to discover matching traits in each other. This one was slightly alarming, though.

Angelica started pacing the room wildly, as Sarah looked on with her mouth ever so slightly ajar. But for Sarah, that meant it might as well have been agape. Angie turned towards her sister, who had moved her back against the lockers, carefully putting the strongly worded letter to the side and closing the inkwell. Something told her that was the prudent thing to do in this scenario.

”SIS! I canNOT beLIEVE you! Don’t get me wrong, nobody is happier that you’ve signed a new contract than I am! From the deepest dungeon to the tallest peak, nobody is more overjoyed than ANGELICA VAUGHN to have SARAH LACKLAN back on the road permanently, meaning we’ll be spending a TON of time together, as I have MISSED so so so SOOOOO heckin’ much! Because as much as I LOVE this life, it’s just not the same without you! And Kenz is as good as retired, and Rox can’t fight in this place because her forever fiancée is the owner. I’ve missed us. All of us. BUT! It’s like you don’t even realize what it has done to me. It’s like you’ve been deaf to all the things people have been saying to me, or about me! Even your ‘ward’, whatever that means, was all too eager to jump on that lazy rhetoric of ‘Angelica is just an inferior version of her sister’. It’s pretty much all I’ve been hearing since day one! They don’t know me, but they know you, so they try to use that against me even though it makes ZERO sense!

And can you even BEGIN to fathom what this is going to look like? I can already her them, their voices dripping with mockery. ‘Yeah, Angelica lost her title because she’s totes horbz! But hey, luckily there comes SARAH LACKLAN, SWOOPING-‘”

”…swooping?”

””Yes, ‘SWOOPING in to save the day and carry her on her back, as we all knew she would have to if Angie wants to have even a modicum of relevance in this business!’ Meanwhile, they don’t even seem to KNOW that I’ve beaten you a load of times when we fought…”

”Hmpf.”

”…or that the very reason I hung on to the Vaughn name was so that it wouldn’t look like I was trying to leech off of the rich legacy that you and father have built for our family. I did ALL of that, and still people see me as a weak, defenseless bird that can only scrounge together a living by eating the worms her much superior sister digs up for her! And that’s EXACTLY what they’ll ALL say or ALLUDE to, because it’s predictable as HECK and it’s all they’ll be able to think of, once again! So NO, sis, me losing the Tag Team titles is NOT a good thing, because I managed to drag John Madison Junior, talented yet unfocused, through a title match and a title defense, only for it to come to a screeching halt, having proven NOTHING. I am frustrated, and… I’m angry! And I’m hurt that you would think that losing a championship title belt means so little to me, regardless of who my partner was! Or that you feel this need to try and prop me up because you don’t think I can do it on my own! I am not helpless! I can define my own destiny, write my own legacy! I’m not WEAK!! And I’m tired of being looked at as if I am, don’t you get that??”

Angelica gasped for air. Long rants weren’t her thing. She took a deep breath and rested her hands on her knees, slightly hunched over. Sarah, meanwhile, slowly got up from the bench and faced her sister. Even now, Angelica still towered over her, but that was nothing new. Sarah was stoic, her red eyes piercing Angelica’s body and peering into her soul.

”Are you quite done?”

It wasn’t as harsh a question as it sounded. Sarah put a hand on Angelica’s shoulder, who slowly nodded.

”Yeah. I’m done. Sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”

”There is no need to apologize. You’re quite right to be emotional about losing, even if it was through no fault of your own. We all saw that match, dear sister. We know who was to blame for the outcome. But there is one thing you’re very wrong about.”

Sarah gently guided Angelica back to the bench and made sure she was breathing properly before sitting down next to her, their shoulders touching. She took Angelica’s hand and gently cupped it, letting it rest in her lap.

”You’re concerning yourself with the opinions of fools. That’s not your thing, it’s my thing. You’re supposed to be the calm and collected one. The nice one. The one who kills with kindness and doesn’t let anything pierce her armor. See, there are a bunch of nitwits out there who will try and get under your skin by saying you could never be me. But trust me, that’s a good thing, probs. What they don’t realize is that I will never be you, either. Not because I don’t want to, but because I can’t. And I’m not talking about what we can do in the ring, sis. You’ve proven countless times that you’re a force to be reckoned with. And I’ve proven that I am a Universal Champion who ONLY had her title STRIPPED because VINNIE---”

”Erm, you were saying something about the other thing?”

”Oh, yes. What I’m saying is that you’re not a weakling. Never thought that, never will. Even when we first met, I invited you to the #CoolKids table, did I not? And trust me when I say that I only dine with peers, or those with the potential to become one. And that was before we even knew we were sisters! SO! Stop feeling sorry for yourself!”

”Pardon?”

”I TOTES mean that in a good way! Other people and their foolish perceptions shouldn’t matter to you. Have you HEARD the pops you get when you go out to that ring? Many would KILL to be so beloved. You know I care little about the admiration of the plebs --”

”Pfsh, you’re not fooling anyone with that one, sis.”

”LET ME FINISH! As I was saying before I was so RUDELY interrupted, the people who SHOULD love you, do so. The people who SHOULD know your worth and value, do so. And you can count me among them. And believe me, the list of people who I consider to be worthy of such, is very small indeed. So NO, I don’t want us to team together because I want to SWOOP in and save the day to prop up my poor sister who can’t fend for herself. I want to team WITH you, because I want to DO things WITH you! I think Father would have wanted us to be a strong team. And I know we are. In the end, I just want to tag with my ridiculously overgrown baby sis and do the stuff we both love and are good at. And I hope you feel the same.”

Sarah gave Angelica a slight pat on the hand and their eyes met. Angie’s lip wobbled, and so did Sarah’s, instantly.

”OBVS I DOOOOHOOHOOOOOOOOO~~~***”

And thus commenced an epic sesh of happy ugly crying. One thing was for certain. They would always be there for each other.

---

---

”Hi-hiiii~! Ang here, on CoolTube, which YES, is still a totes amazeballz platform OBVS, no matter what the haterz be hating! I’m not going to stop doing it because of weirdos being totes jelly as flame! N-E-Ways, I find myself in an… interesting position, to say the leastest! Usually when a champion loses a title, they get some sort of rematch for it. At least that’s how it USED to be done, but Vinnie has never been a stickler for traditions, eh. Like, he doesn’t even believe in marrying his fiancée! That’s, like, the greatest tradition of all time! Although that might also just be Roxy’s fault.

Anyhoover, this time I AM getting some kind of rematch, although it’s not with the partner I lost the tag team championships with in the first place. HOWEVS, I do believe it’s a significant upgrade. I’m sure you all know who I’m talking aboot, hee hee. That was Candaian, obvs!

I’m talking about none other than the Return of the Lack! My very own big little sister, who is currently doing makeup or some such. She always takes, like, AGES! Otherwise she’d TOTES be here to enthusiastically greet all of you, the fans! I’m sure! And we’re facing off against the team that, admittedly, did manage to snag the title belts away from myself and J-Madz. I think Maddy June and I made a decent team, all in all. We certainly were good enough to beat Dolly and Vita! Seems like I’ve done nothing but face off against Dolly in recent weeks. Whether it’s here or in the LFL. The results have been… mixed. But it’s totes time to get back on the Dub Column!

Now, hopefully we’ll have a referee at Snow Job who understands the definition of ‘foreign object’, because… What the heck was that? Now, that’s no excuse, but oh my lordy potatoes, there were SO many illegal things happening that I’m one hundred percent certain Baby Jesus was bawling his baby blues out; and slightly surprised Ruby didn’t rush out to the ring with the rulebook and a megaphone.

Now, what can I say about Dolly and Charlie that I didn’t say last week? Not that much, other than that this match’ll be a whole different animal for them. Because I won’t have to look over my shoulder every five seconds to check if my partner is loafing off, or smelling the bath salts he tucked away in his underwear to stop the smell. I won’t have to divide my attention, because my partner and I are EQUALS. Yes, EQUALS. There will be NO riding of coattails. There will be NO carrying one another. There will be one well-lubricated… Erm, ew, poor choice of words there… There will be a well-oiled MACHINE out there, one that runs on the thickest blood in the biz, propelling the thickest thighs and fiercest kicks in the whole heckin’ company!

So come at us, with all of your lazy takes and predictable putdowns! I’ve had some sense talked into me, and I can assure you that those words can’t hurt me. Bring your sticks and stones! Bring your wheelchair again, if you must. Team HSU is ready to take the tag team titles… and never give them back!”

And right as Angelica is about to turn off the feed, we hear a familiar voice in the background.

”SIS! WHY IS THERE CAT HAIR ON MY MAKEUP BAG?? I HAVE TO DO MY EYEBROWS!!! I SWEAR BY ALL THAT IS---”

”Woops, gotta bounce! Toodles, Vaughnstars! Stay amazeballz!”

*fin*