Tired Eyes and Broken Bones
Marlow Lancaster: Wildcat Masterlist
Tagging @painful-pooch - let me know if you want to be added/removed!
CW: lady whump, exhaustion, broken bones
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Marlow glances up at the woman behind the coffee shop counter, hiding her bruised face underneath the hood of her sweatshirt. “Um, drip coffee with five shots of espresso please.”
The barista seems a little taken aback, but she nods and puts it into her register. “Anything else I can get for you?”
“Yeah, uh…” Marlow rubs her face, blinking rapidly. She’s tired. She’s so fucking tired. “Can I get two of those?”
“Two drip coffees with five shots of espresso each. Your total is twelve dollars and seventy eight cents.”
Marlow fishes in her pocket and pulls out a handful of cash and coins, passing it over to the barista. “Do you know what day of the week it is?”
The woman doesn’t glance up from counting out the bills and change. “Today’s Saturday. It’s about…five in the afternoon.”
“Thanks.” When the barista holds out the change, she shakes her head. “Keep it.”
She smiles and nods. “Thanks. Drinks will be at the end of the counter.”
Marlow starts walking that way, her head racing. Saturday afternoon…the last time she slept was Wednesday night. Been up since Thursday, four in the morning. She’s not even capable of doing the math of how long that is. But she has to keep going. Rico let her out of training to go grab coffee before her fight. If you can call it training.
He held her head underwater and then yanked her out and had someone attack her. She was barely on her guard, the man caught her right in the ribs. She learned not to make any mistakes after six or seven times. She knows better now.
Rico hasn’t gone easy on her. It’s hours and hours of training, hours and hours of getting beat up in all sorts of ways. And still, he thinks she’s not ready for a big fight. She has a small one tonight, and she’s grateful for it. She doesn’t think she’d last a big fight.
Rico had given her a break from training, and she tried to go to the library and study, but she felt herself drifting off at her desk. He’d kill her if she slept. It’s just one more night. She can make it one more night. She has to.
The barista passes Marlow her two cups of coffee, and Marlow heads down the street towards the arena. She finishes both cups of coffee before she gets there.
Marlow takes five in the alleyway by the building, leaning against the brick wall and catching her breath. The caffeine is kicking in, hopefully it’ll last her until tomorrow morning. She just needs to breathe. She just needs to get herself under control before Rico sees. There’s a reason he’s making her do this, right? There has to be a reason. It’ll make her a better fighter. She’ll be strong. She’ll show the world who she is and what she’s capable of.
No one’s going to hurt her again.
Back inside the arena, she heads right to the locker room and stores her jacket. Rico is probably waiting for her in his training room, and she really doesn’t want to piss him off. Marlow makes her way to the room.
“How’d your break go?” Rico asks as she walks in, setting down his book. “You’re three minutes late.”
“Sorry. Had trouble getting back.” Marlow cracks her knuckles and bounces on her toes, trying to hide how jacked up on caffeine she is. She’s still tired. She’s so fucking tired. “So what’s next? Or can I just warm up before I’m on?”
“I’m having a friend look after you tonight. Kovacevic. If you do well with me, you’ll be working for him soon too.” Rico stands up and pats the balance beam. “Up on this.”
Marlow gracefully jumps up in one smooth movement, landing on her toes. He’s been having her practice a lot of gymnastics skills, more than she ever thought necessary. None of the other coaches do this, but Rico does. Or at least, he does it to her. Marlow doesn’t normally mind, but she’s so tired. She can barely keep her balance on the thin beam with all the caffeine and the exhaustion.
“Just…walk around, do some cartwheels. You know the drill. Listen, Marlow. Just a little bit, and then I’ll get the mitts and go through some punching drills with you. I’m doing this to test your agility. I know you’re tired. I know today was hard and I wasn’t the nicest, but everything I do is because I believe in you. Everything I do is because I think you’ve got a good shot at success here.” Rico smiles at her and pats her leg. “So suck it up, Wildcat. Make me proud.”
Marlow takes a deep breath and nods. He’s right. She has to get better even if it hurts, even if she struggles. She carefully does a lap on the balance beam before she thinks she’s stable enough to try a cartwheel.
Her foot barely lands on the beam. She’s shaking from how tired is, the caffeine isn’t even helping. But still, she stands up and straightens her back. Okay. A few more steps to the end of the beam and she turns around. A few quick steps and she flips forward, trying to land her front flip.
Her foot slips. Her foot slips and her heart skips but she lands it at the last minute, hunched over and terrified but still, upright. Fuck. “R-Rico, I don’t think this is a good idea,” she stammers out. “I don’t feel well…I…”
“Shut up, Wildcat.” His voice is light but his eyes tell a different story. “Stop being a bitch and just do what I fucking told you to.”
Marlow looks away. She has to do this. He can’t think she’s weak. She takes a moment for herself, visualizing the beam, and then turns around so she can perform a backflip. She can do this. She has to show Rico that he made the right choice with her.
She throws herself into it and knows her balance is off right away. Her foot slips on the balance beam, and while the rolled ankle hurts, it’s nothing compared to the pain that shoots through her hand when she lands on it.
Marlow screams and jolts up, clutching her wrist. Her fingers are twisted and throbbing and already bruising, she can prod around and feel her broken bones. Tears form in the corners of her eyes, she looks at Rico pitifully. “M-my hand…hurts…fuck, why can’t I just go to sleep?”
Rico leans down and grabs Marlow’s broken wrist, making her cry out in pain when he squeezes her broken hand. “You’re fine, Wildcat. Get up. We can move onto mitt work now.”
“I need to go to a hospital!” Marlow snaps back. “Look at my fucking hand!”
“Less talking, Marlow. More fighting. Get up and tough it out. So what, you broke a few bones. You’ll be fine. I thought you wanted this. I thought you wanted to be the best fighter here.”
She stands up. She looks at Rico, then her broken hand, then Rico. He’s right and she hates it. So she doesn’t protest. She doesn’t ask to see a doctor, doesn’t ask to sleep. She just smiles and says, “Ready when you are.”