Canada Day Fireworks & Family

[Saidie Sharpe]

The camera pans over Jordan Freaking Sharpe's obscenely spacious backyard on this sunny and humid afternoon.

Many maple leaves adorn the decorations all around the yard from the flags hung on the fence to the napkins placed on the tables as JFS gets his big ass grill ready for his Canada Day celebration!

Carley California is at his side, sunglasses on her face and a red and white outfit to match the decorations. Jordan fiddles with the dials on the BBQ as he pipes up.

"Exactly how many people are supposed to be coming today again, babe?"

"Ohh there's easily over a hundred. You got enough meat, right?"

Jordan chuckles.

"Baby you know I got enough meat for you!"

She looks less than enthused.

"Yeah, right."

Jordan quickly changes the subject, pointing across the yard to Saidie, who paces back and forth by the patio door, checking her phone as Carley giggles.

"She's nervous. Her girlfriend is coming and she's worried about you and her interacting."

Jordan scoffs.

"Aiya? Pfft. We've interacted plenty. I book her in matches all the time!"

Carley gives him a look.

"Outside of wrestling."

We see Saidie type something on her phone and we go to…..

Meanwhile, at The Drake Hotel, Aiya and her mother, Yuri, are both getting prepared to head out and meet The Sharpe family. Aiya is doing something she would never bother with on any normal day; curling her hair. The auburn color had now been replaced with a more light brown hue, with pink highlights near the tips and edges of her hair.

“You got it okay?” Yuri called out. Judging from the sound of her voice, she was a quick walk away, likely in the hallway and very swiftly heading towards the bathroom Aiya was in.

“Yeah, actually.”

“Mind if I see?”

“No, but give me …”

Before Aiya could finish her request, she saw her mother already standing behind her in the mirror, wearing a wide grin and her own very colorful and floral patterned dress.

“I wish you wouldn’t have been so impatient,” Aiya muttered, a small smile managing to cross her face. “You umm .. you look good. I don’t think I’ve seen you in Western clothes before … definitely not in a long while.”

“And you still look like you’re about to step through the ropes.”

Aiya shrugged, smirking at the quip. “I’m too used to it. But hey, at least the makeup and hair makes it obvious I’m not coming over for a fight.”

“Indeed, it does. You look lovely. This Saidie girl must be very special. If it’s been a long time since you’ve seen me look nice, it’s been an eternity for me to see this with you.”

Aiya stared intently at her reflection, getting a good look on her overall appearance as her mom hugged her from behind.

Underneath the black choker was the half of her dog tag necklace she’d kept for herself. If Saidie had been sincere about never taking her part off, then the same had been true with Aiya. In fact, it was a large part of what helped her decide to leave the hospital in one piece, as well as not give up on her career.

But today wasn’t a professional day. It was a very personal and intimate meeting, one that Aiya was equal parts excited and anxious had arrived. She felt confident enough that Jordan didn’t have any qualms with her dating his niece. But the fact was she still hadn’t talked to him about these sorts of topics ever and, as such, didn’t know the man outside of him being her boss.

“Okay,” Aiya muttered, more as reassurance to herself than anything else as she took a deep breath. “I guess I'm as ready as I’ll ever be. Let’s go.”

“Relax. I’m sure they’ll love you. They’ve had plenty of time to object, you know?”

“Get outta my head. And don’t embarrass me.” As a smug grin appeared on Yuri’s lips, Aiya sighed. “I said don’t. Moooom, come on, I’m serious. I’m in my twenties now.”

“And I’m still your mother. If I didn’t tease you a bit, I would be failing in my job.”

A pair of keys were grabbed off the nearby counter by Yuri. Aiya quickly shook her head, taking them out of her mom’s hands. “Have you even driven outside of Japan?”

“Okay. Fair point. You can drive.” The two exited their room, heading to the rental car they’d gotten upon entering Canada, and driving out to the Sharpe’s residence.

As we find ourselves back at the Canada Day bash we see guests have started to arrive. Among the other friends and family we notice Jordan has invited his PRIME Staff, Eric Mason is laughing at John Livingston trying to dance while Joe Danes shakes his head. Faith Rivers is enjoying a glass of lemonade at one of the tables.

We see Grizzly Duggan got the first taste of meat (of course,) a triple cheeseburger on his plate with a mountain of fries and by the BBQ Jordan is still hard at work grilling up food for everyone. Pestering him is the EWC Indy Champion Gabi Vee, in a red Canada themed sundress and shades as she relentlessly gives him shit about how the hot dogs and fries look.

"This shrimp looks chewy as hell."

Jordan tries to hide his annoyance as Carley and Gabi continue to hassle him. Jordan sighs deeply.

"Ya know Gabi, I was doing fine before you got here. Perhaps you could bother someone else for a while, instead of the grillmaster over here."

Gabi snorts at 'Grillmaster.'

"Yeah yeah yeah, you look like you got in under control, right Carley?"

Jordan gives her a 'don't you dare' look as Gabi sticks her tongue out and walks away. We follow her over to where Saidie still sits alone, not interacting with anyone. Gabi plops down beside her.

"What's the matter buddy?"

Saidie sighs.

"Oh you know, just my usual self! Aiya is coming here with HER FAMILY and they're gonna meet MY FAMILY and I've never met HER FAMILY and I'M FREAKING OUT BECAUSE WHAT IF THIS ALL GOES TO CRAP! WHAT IF I'M WEIRD AND AWKWARD?! WHAT IF JORDAN WRECKS ALL THIS WITH HIS GOOFY ASS?!"

Gabi just cackles and puts her arm around Saidie’s shoulder.

"Girl. STOP. You need to breathe. Sheesh. Look, you like Aiya, right? Maybe even lo—"

"We don't need to get into that word right now!"

"Haha, okay whatever. The point is you've been together for like, a while. Just stop stressing the hell out and just be you! She likes you! It's gonna be chill look at this big party! And despite how yes, he is goofy as shit, Jordan really cares about you. He's not gonna mess things up for you."

Saidie relaxes a bit as she exhales.

"You're right. You're right!"

"As usual."

"Okay, I'm gonna relax about this then. I'm gonna take my time."

"Don't take too much time, I'm pretty sure a car just pulled up!"

Sure enough, the car Aiya was driving did indeed pull up. The window was rolled down far enough to show her smirking as she shifted the vehicle into park, nodding in agreement with Gabi.

“Yep. You can take a few still … in fact, I’ll probably join you. I get that bar-be-ques and stuff usually have a lot of people, but umm …. This isn’t quite the crowd size I was expecting.”

Aiya took a deep breath before rolling the windows mostly up, keeping them a bit open so air could still flow through to keep the car a bit cool before finally withdrawing the keys from the ignition. The keys were promptly stuffed into her pocket and soon, Aiya was standing several paces away, with Yuri quickly walking beside her daughter, wearing her own grin on her face.

“She does look like quite the hanabi, huh?” Yuri mused, causing Aiya to chuckle softly.

“I suppose that’s a word that can accurately describe her, yeah.” When neither Gabi or Saidie looked like they had a guess as to what that meant, Aiya revealed the answer. “Firecracker … hanabi means firecracker and well … she’s not exactly wrong. So umm … you haven’t been waiting too long, have you, Saidie?”

The sound of her mother clearing her throat grabbed Aiya’s attention. “Right. My bad. It’s probably obvious enough, but this is my mother, Yuri. Mom, the other woman beside my little hanabi is Gabi Vee, another wrestler within the company who recently transferred over to the Prime brand and is our top champion.”

Yuri gave both women a polite bow of her head, proceeding to walk forward and extending her hand out towards Saidie. “It’s nice to meet you face-to-face. Aiya speaks very highly of you, you know?”

Gabi slaps Saidie on the back.

"Nice to meet you! Well, you got this Saidie."

And disappears to Saidie's dismay as she does some kind of an awkward bow/curtsey type thing towards Yuri that makes herself cringe but she straightens up.

"It is so good to finally meet you, I have heard so much about you as well, I'm so very glad you could join us for Canada Day today!"

Aiya can tell by Saidie's formality how nervous she is. Yuri lowers her hand, choosing not to push for the handshake in order to avoid seeming like she’s forcing the poor girl. Her head turns as she glances over to Aiya, who raises an eyebrow.

“Oi, sweetie. You didn’t tell her I was a Yankee back in the day, did you?”

“No, because like you said … past days. Nor do I even know what you did back then.”

“Well, I can promise this much,” Yuri looks back over towards Saidie, giving her a genuine, reassuring smile, “I don’t bite or anything. And even though my father did serve in the second World War, I’m by no means a drill sergeant or anything of the like. Relax. I doubt you’re always this tense, so be your real self, okay?”

Seeing that both Aiya and Saidie are incredibly anxious, Yuri pivots, turning her back to them.

“If you two wanna hug, kiss, whatever …. Go on. I won’t judge.”

… That doesn’t really fix the remaining crowd that’s still around, Aiya thought. Still … her mom wasn’t otherwise wrong. She gave Saidie a brief glancing, seeing if she would object.

“I’ll start slow if it helps,” she muttered before pulling Saidie forward and hugging her tightly. With all of the tension from losing to 3pAC, battling depression in the hospital - to the point she nearly questioned what the point of trying to keep living was - this actually did wonders. Being able to see and feel the very reason she nearly forgot about … it helped Aiya’s body relax. Something Saidie would be able to note as her head gently rested atop her right shoulder.

For a good nearly two minutes, Aiya was perfectly fine to just remain in the embrace. She even closed her eyes, able to feel that relaxed and calmed down.

But then … her hand swiftly rose and lightly smacked the back of Saidie’s head. “We need to talk later about your own in-ring appearances, or lack of. But you better not be quitting on me. If I can’t give up, neither can you. Not without a damn good reason, anyway.”

Aiya smirked as she lifted her head up, looking straight into Saidie’s eyes as she spoke …

"Nahhh nah I'm not quitting, don't worr--"

Saidie is cut off as Aiya decides ‘fuck it’ and leaning forward, pressing her lips gently against hers into a quick but still very passionate kiss.

“Okay, you’ve had enough time by now I hope, right? So, let’s go meet your uncle and the others before I lose my courage and run from this party.”

Saidie looks so flustered and dazed by this for a split second as she gives Aiya a look and then nods her head, leading her by the hand across the giant yard to the aforementioned 'grillmaster' as he stands talking with Carley and saying hello to people. The two walk up as Saidie waves to Carley.

"Hey Car….. Jordan… So I wanted to officially like.. OFFICIALLY introduce you to Aiya…. I know you've seen her at the arena and stuff and I know you know about her and everything but she's not just some roster member to you or whatever she's my girlfriend and she's really important to me. So.. Officially… Aiya this is Carley and my uncle Jordan, guys this is Aiya."

Only after Saidie finished speaking did Aiya chuckle softly, rolling her fingers over Saidie’s hand. “Geez … girl, Gabi was right. Breathe. Hell, hearing you this nervous is making me more so myself.” She lifted her head, now shifting her gaze between Carley and Jordan as The Headhuntress subconsciously squeezed down on Saidie’s hand. “Nice to officially meet you both.”

Aiya gave a nod behind her, pointing out Yuri. “That would be my mother, Yuri Belrose.”

Yuri took her turn to politely bow to both Carley and Jordan. “It’s likewise a pleasure for me to also be able to get acquainted with you two. It was very generous of you to allow us to come to your residence, and we greatly appreciate the gesture.”

Before either Carley or Jordan could speak up, Aiya finally got what was no doubt one of the main things lingering in her head off her chest. “So ummm … you really don’t mind us? I mean … there’s not really many official couples in the EWC, or many other companies for that matter. Were I working anywhere else, it’d probably be considered a very unprofessional display and stuff, so … this is fine? For real?”

Jordan gives a steely stare at Aiya and then rubs his chin stubble for a moment or two.

"That depends…"

He points his BBQ Tongs back and forth between them.

"What are your intentions with my niece?"

Well … this was it. She hadn’t expected a cue to pop up quite this fast, but the hell with it. Aiya would gladly accept it. If nothing else, it pushed her to go through with this rather than backing out of it.

“Whether she knows it or not, Saidie has saved me more times than she probably realizes. She’s very precious and special to me. And … I’ve never felt like this with anyone else before. Eventually … I wouldn’t mind settling down. Marrying her. Being with her for the rest of my days. For now though …”

Her free hand dug into a pocket, producing a box. Inside it was a silver band with “I Love You” engraved on the inside.

“This is not quite an engagement one. It’s a promise ring, but … to prove I’m serious about staying with her, I’m offering this to you here and now. Will you accept this, Saidie Sharpe?”

Saidie looks at her wide eyed as Jordan clears his throat and chuckles.

"You know, I was totally messing with you right there, Aiya, but this has worked out way better than I expected. Please continue."

Saidie nods to Aiya, and says yes, seemingly totally overwhelmed as Carley smiles at them. She puts the band on as Jordan walks over and puts his arm around Aiya, and her mother.

"NOW! I hate to ruin this special moment but y'all are family and family gets fed so we all need to eat! Besides I have a very illegal fireworks display coming up after a bit that I'm allowed to do because I'm famous."

Saidie looks very annoyed at first but keeps looking down at the band Aiya gave her instead and looks incredibly happy.

“ … You sounded incredibly serious. But disregarding that … I had full intentions of doing this anyway. Thanks for the confirmation though, Mister Sharpe.”

"Don't call him Mister Sharpe, that'll just go to his head. Dumbass works just as good."

Yuri quietly glanced between the two young women … before slapping her daughter’s back. “You sneaky one! When did you get that?! I don’t remember seeing you buy this.”

“During one of the errands you sent me out on. It’s why I took a bit longer … because I added another one you didn’t ask me to take care of.”

Yuri smiles proudly, tilting Aiya’s head up and giving her forehead a kiss. “I’m very proud of you. I know this had to have been difficult to do.”

Aiya merely offers a look that practically has ‘No Shit’ stamped across her forehead, but still manages to smile at her mother. As Aiya finishes placing the ring on Saidie’s finger, she grins happily, tracing her fingers over the knot.

“Looks even better on you.”

Aiya’s head lifted as she felt Jordan’s arm go around her. “It has been a while since I’ve eaten, so that sounds great. Come on. Let’s go, shall we, Saidie?”

As the realization washes over Saidie that everything is just normal, she takes the opportunity to push Jordan the hell out of the way and back to his BBQ as he protests to no avail.

"You had your little jokes now get back to where you belong and cook us some dinner!"

Gabi laughs from across the yard as Jordan yells at her to shut up and Saidie throws her arms around Aiya as they walk away. Only the two of them can hear their conversation.

"You are going to get such a good present in return for this. You have no idea."

“Not an exact one, no,” Aiya quips, smirking at Saidie. “But for real? Right now … you accepting the ring is a damn good gift. I meant it about you saving me, you know? That wasn’t just some cheesy line or anything.”

"Ehhh maybe a little bit cheesy, babe, but I like cheesy!"

The two of them enjoy the evening as the sun starts to set and we get closer to the Canada Day fireworks. Saidie has a hammock in the corner of the yard with a great view and she's cuddled up to Aiya while they look at the stars.

"Did you ever think you would be in this spot back when we were beating the crap outta each other?"

She laughs to herself as she asks. Aiya swiftly shakes her head, gently scoffing.

“Hell no, nor did I think I’d ever fall for anyone. I was honestly ninety-nine point nine percent certain I’d die alone and a virgin. I’m glad I could prove myself wrong about that.”

"Tell me about it. Back in high school nobody had any interest because I was awkward as shit and had a flat ass. Thank god that worked itself out. And I definitely did not know I liked girls until you came along……"

Aiya clicks her tongue and rolls her eyes as she hears the ‘ass’ comment, remembering several other roster members have uttered similar remarks.

“Don’t be stupid. It’s perfect as it is … and so are you.”

Aiya smirks as she takes advantage of the darkness to sneak in a light smack on Saidie’s rear.

“The hell with what any of them say or think. For better or worse, you’re stuck with me now. Everyone else can go away and find someone else to bother. The next person who says something stupid like that will get a busted nose, if not worse. Until then … ignore them. They don’t matter.”

Aiya’s attention moves to the sky as the fireworks begin exploding in the air. Her smile widens as she rubs her hand along Saidie’s arm, keeping her lover close as the two enjoy the view. A million thoughts are racing through The Headhuntress’ mind, but right now, she’s only focusing on one; her future with Saidie.

Close behind, however, was telling everyone in Shinijoshi the news and appropriately planning a proper celebration. Until then … she continued enjoying the fireworks display, remaining snuggled up against her promised lover.

"Happy Canada Day."

Fade To Black.