"Damn right, it's all about me."
-Look Who's Talking by BoA

It was early Thursday morning, the bright light of the morning sun just barely beginning to creep up over the horizon. The birds had not even begun their morning serenade, yet there was some amount of movement, coming from the Winterborn household in Oceanside, California.

Focusing in on the bedroom, Phoenix Winterborn is seen sound asleep in his bed, snoring away lightly while lying on his back. However, his eyes twitched open as the sounds of someone in his home came drifting up the stairs. He was awake immediately and threw off the comforter, rising to his feet quietly. Creeping out of the room and down the stairs, he hugged the wall as he made his way towards the source of the sounds, which seemed to be coming from the kitchen. All kinds of scenarios played out in his head as to what was happening, all except for the most obvious one...

He whipped around the doorframe, putting himself into a fighting stance and yelling loudly. This caused the "intruder" to scream loudly and whip around from the counter, immediately throwing out their leg for a roundhouse kick. But it was stopped in mid-air, as Phoenix laid eyes on his attacker.

"Mari?!" he said in shock. His heart was hammering in his chest at the sight of his girlfriend's slender foot mere inches from his nose. He placed a hand on his chest and collapsed against the doorframe.

Mari Saito's cocoa-brown eyes widened in shock as she lowered her foot to the floor. She put her hands over her open mouth, clearly regretting her actions. "Phoenix? Oh Lordy, you scared the living daylights out of me!"

"Likewise," Phoenix said, pushing himself off the doorframe now that his heart rate had slowed considerably. "I thought you were a burgler."

Mari bit her lower lip, and immediately bowed her head. "Gomenasai! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you!"

Phoenix wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her to his chest, stroking her hair lightly. "Don't worry about it; it's my fault. I forgot that you stayed the night last night. It's been a while since I've had overnight guests...especially in my own bed."

Mari's cheeks blushed a flaming pink, but she hugged Phoenix around his waist. "Thank you for having me over. I don't think I would have made it home after the flight yesterday!"

Phoenix laughed lightly, before his gaze fell on the counter. "You're making breakfast?"

Mari turned to look at her interrupted handiwork. "Oh! That's right. I got up early to make you a traditional Japanese breakfast!" She got up on her tiptoes to kiss him on the nose before bouncing back over to the counter. Phoenix followed behind to peer over her shoulder. She had a large assortment of food spread out across the marble countertops, none of it which looked like any breakfast food that Phoenix had ever seen. He saw rice, fish, some kind of vegetables, soup...But he was openminded, and besides, Mari had got up so early to work hard on it, so the least he could do was to enjoy the meal.

"You got up this early just to make me breakfast?" he said, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder. "Aww, I feel special now."

She giggled as his breath tickled her ear, spooning some steamed rice into two bowls. "Well, actually...I got up early because I wanted to go train this morning. A friend of mine opened up a dojo in Los Angeles, and he's been bugging me to come see it. I figured it couldn't hurt to brush up on my skills a little bit."

"Well, why didn't you tell me? I would have come with you, if you wanted," Phoenix replied, lifting himself up to sit on the counter.

Mari began slicing up some tamagoyaki into thick pieces which she laid on a plate. "Well, you were sleeping so peacefully, I didn't want to wake you. Besides, you have your own match you need to focus on."

"Oh, I see," he said knowingly. "You're prepping for your match against Trish on Friday night."

She finished with the tamagoyaki and moved on to the natto, opening the package and placing the fermented soybeans into a bowl and adding soy sauce. "Of course I am. After what happened at Civil War, I don't want to be unprepared again." She stirred the concoction vigorously, nearly snapping the chopsticks in her hand.

"What do you mean, unprepared?" Phoenix asked. "You and I trained like fiends for that match. I mean, Hell in a Cell is an unpredictable match. There wasn't much we could do to be prepared for that kind of brutality. But we still trained our butts off regardless."

Mari sighed, setting the bowl aside and turning around to face Phoenix. "I know. It was just something Trish said in her promo...about me being more concerned with partying and going out than I was about that match. It set something off in me...I mean, I've worked hard my entire life to get to the level I'm at with my martial arts, so it's a crime to take a little time off now and again? I mean, I was in my home country. It's not often I get to be home nowadays, so I just wanted to catch up with some friends. Is that so wrong?"

"Of course not," Phoenix said, taking her hands in his and bringing them up to his lips for a kiss. "She just wants to get under your skin. You know you work hard, I know you work hard...and that's all that matters. Let Trish and the others think whatever they want. I know for a fact that you are Women's Championship material."

Mari smiled brightly at him. "Arigato," she replied, nodding her head towards him. Turning back to the meal, she placed the bowls onto a large tray and started towards the stairs, Phoenix following behind her as they made their way back to the bedroom. There, they snuggled back under the covers and began digging into Mari's traditional Japanese breakfast. To his surprise, Phoenix found that he enjoyed almost everything (except the natto, but Mari explained that it was an acquired taste even to the Japanese people). Setting the tray aside on the night table, Mari curled up onto Phoenix's chest as he wrapped his arms around her.

"I'm just tired of everyone thinking that I'm not pulling my weight around the company," Mari sighed, staring out the window towards the ocean. "I've shown up for every match I've been in lately."

"And won all the singles ones, I might add," Phoenix interjected helpfully.

"Exactly. Not that I'm bragging about it, but when Kaylee Adams said that we weren't pulling our weight, it was like a slap in the face. I've worked my butt off since I stepped foot in this company. I've never complained, I've never walked out, I've never once given anything less than all I have in my matches. Just because there are some bad examples in the division isn't a reason to take it out on us all."

"That's true," Phoenix said. "But then again, it could just be Kaylee's way of lighting a fire under everyone's asses. You know, get them motivated again. It seems to be working for you, anyways."

Mari grinned up at him. "That may be true, but why would she have said it if she didn't believe in it? I have noticed that there are some girls that haven't been showing up, but the rest of us that do have always put our all into our matches. She could have at least recognized that much."

"Well, it's not the point anyways. You've gotta set your sights on Trish this Friday night. She'll no doubt be motivated after Civil War, and she'll most likely be expecting you to be as well."

"Well, she'll be right," Mari said, a note of determination creeping into her voice. "But this match isn't about settling the score from Civil War. Well, at least not entirely. The way I see it, this is about me proving to not only Trish, but to Kaylee Adams that there are still some women in this company that are willing to fight to get what they want. We're still ready to go out there and put on a damn good show for the paying public to see. I'm ready to start staking my claim around here. I'm not going to stand idly by anymore and watch as the things that I've worked so hard to attain in my career just pass me by. I'm gonna start fighting to get what I want. If it's a fight that they want, well they're sure gonna get one out of me."

Just as she finished the last sentence, the sun broke over the distant horizon, its orange rays sparkling across the water and shining into the bedroom. The light fell over Mari's face, illuminating her in an ethereal glow as she smiled up at Phoenix, a knowing glint in the depths of her warm brown eyes.