Author's Note: I won't lie to you, friends. This story is a product of a tired mind, but I had tons of fun writing it!

Literally Speaking

Becky Lynch was a filthy, dirty cheater, if Alexa's words were to be taken to heart. Not only had the Irish woman successfully dodged her challenge at No Mercy - as if Alexa believed in Becky's fake 'injury' for a second - but now she was retaining her championship with cheap tricks. There was no way Becky didn't see her foot clinging onto the bottom rope, unless she was legally blind. That would at least make some sense, considering that Becky looked like she barely knew how to dress herself.

"I didn't quite catch that. Care to repeat it?"

"I said that you can barely dress yourself!"

"Oh really? That's funny coming from you. I bet you can barely reach the top half of your closet, wearing the same getup every day."

The catering hall was far from the perfect place to have this argument, but when Becky had 'accidentally' bumped into her, Alexa had no choice but to verbally retaliate. If she was being perfectly honest, she didn't care where they were or who heard them. Becky Lynch was a filthy, dirty cheater, and she'd exclaim it from the rooftops if she could - she'd tell everyone that they knew, everyone they worked with, because it was true. The Smackdown Women's Championship belonged to her. Right now, the only thing Becky was doing with it was tarnishing it.

"I don't even know what your problem is with me. I'm not the one that made the decision!"

"My problem is that you're holding onto something that's rightfully mine! You're afraid to fight me fairly."

Alexa placed a perfectly manicured finger onto the championship belt worn around Becky's waist. Becky slapped the finger away, maybe a bit too harshly, causing the smaller woman to glare intently at her.

"Oh, I'm willing to fight anytime, anywhere. But I am sorry that the referee didn't see your little foot on the rope. Maybe if you had an extra inch on you…"

"I swear," Alexa stomped in frustration, "if you call me short one more time!"

"Would you two be quiet already?!"

A shout from a nearby table ceased the pair's war of words, though didn't relieve any of the tension. Alexa turned to her left, to see who would dare to cut her off mid-menacing threat, before her eyes caught sight of the current WWE World Champion, AJ Styles. Of course, she'd recognize that long southern drawl anywhere. When neither woman paid him any heed, AJ stood up and marched over to them, annoyance written on his face plain as day, a plate of forgotten food likely going cold.

"Listen, I don't care what you girls are on about this time, but I'm trying to eat here, and I'd like to do it without a pair of birds squawking at each other."

Alexa remained unimpressed. She didn't care what he had to say. If anything, he was interrupting her, and she wasn't going to stand for that, especially when she had more pressing matters to attend to.

"Uh, who the hell do you think you are?!"

"'Uh,' I think I'm the face that runs this place." AJ slapped his belt a few times for extra, albeit largely unnecessary, emphasis. He proceeded to get up in Alexa's face, receiving an eyeroll from the blonde for his troubles. No amount of rhyming was going to intimidate her, no matter how catchy it was.

"Great. You've gone and made Dr. Seuss talk. I hope you're happy, Alexa."

"Me? It's your fault! If you'd stop being so loud!"

"You're the one that's yelling about me being a cheater!"

"For god's sake," AJ started. "Would you just shut up? Shut up, shut up. Shut. Up."

AJ was having no more of their arguing, it seemed, his eyes narrowing as his temper began to flare. AJ being annoyed only served to make Alexa annoyed tenfold. This wasn't even about him - he was phenomenally spectacular at pissing her off with his mere presence.

"I am so sick and tired of you two flapping your gums about your match. Every night I have to hear the same old garbage. 'Becky's a cheater, Alexa's a baby.' You can't even come up with original insults anymore."

"This wouldn't be an issue if you'd go away." Alexa crossed her arms over her chest, tapping her foot, as if waiting for the man to leave them be.

"Watch it. I am the WWE World Champion! I deserve some peace and quiet when I want it. Can't you, like, cry and hug it out or whatever it is losers do? Hell, I'll even give you a topic to bond over - how phenomenal AJ Styles is! Man, that'll get you talking for hours."

Alexa wanted so badly to slap AJ right across the face, but Becky beat her to the punch, reaching an open palm out in AJ's direction. He barely missed Becky's hand, leaning his head back far enough to avoid any impact.

"I'm gonna pretend you didn't do that. I'm gonna pretend that you did not try to slap me." AJ held up his hands - he couldn't believe that someone would try to lay a finger on the champ!

"I would've nailed you pretty good if you hadn't moved."

"Tch, that's probably the only way you can win in a fight," Alexa chimed in.

Becky looked as though she was getting ready to hit Alexa with another stunning display of verbal mediocrity, and she was ready for it. However, a gloved hand wrapped itself around Alexa's wrist, and glancing over at Becky, the same had been done to her. AJ had a firm grip on them both, and Alexa was pretty positive that Dean's rampant lunacy was rubbing off on him.

"Get off!"

"No. I've had it up to here with you idiots. If I have to listen to this for one more second, I'll lose my damn mind. So, we're taking a little 'trip.'" AJ followed that up with a laugh that made Alexa's skin crawl, visibly shaking in disgust. Suddenly, he made a pull at their arms, before beginning to drag them along the hallways. Neither woman could fight out of his grasp, the man stronger than either had initially thought.

As AJ continued to lead them along, Alexa turned to Becky for assistance - not that she was really expecting it - only to see the Irish lass-kicker shrug her shoulders in defeat. Alexa sighed as the trio passed by security and backstage crew alike, a slight hint of embarrassment creeping up on her - she felt like a child. She turned to Becky again.

"Seriously, can he really do this?"

"Well, he is the basket case that runs the place. Don't think we have much of a choice in the matter."

"I can still hear you!" AJ stopped walking for only a brief moment to speak, before turning back around and leading them along again, their legs moving faster to keep up with his pace. Finally, after a few minutes of endless bickering and wandering, AJ stopped in front of a door. 'Storage closet,' the sign read.

"Ooh, a spooky closet. What're you gonna do - lock us inside, put us in timeout?"

Though Alexa had said it in jest, AJ gave her a toothy grin. As quickly as his arms allowed, he shoved the two women into the closet, blocking off any attempts at escaping with a well-placed chair. He dropped onto the chair with a 'plop,' ignoring the myriad of banging fists against the other side of the door. "You both stay in that closet until you kiss and make up - then maybe I'll let you out, if I deem it fit!"

Alexa could barely process what was happening, suddenly becoming very uncomfortable. She was effectively trapped in a tiny space with her mortal enemy, said mortal enemy beating the door with her fist. "Give it up, Becky. We're doomed."

"Geez - how many tons does this guy weigh?!"

"Enough to keep us locked in here. Great. Just great. If you had watched where you were walking, we wouldn't even be in this mess."

Becky's eyes widened, unable to believe that Alexa was this petty. "Unbelievable. Is there anything you won't blame me for?"

"There's still talk that a meteor didn't wipe out the dinosaurs. Know anything about that, dino killer?"

"Hilarious…"

Giving the brute force method one more go, Alexa and Becky both kicked the door, a laugh from the outside signaling their efforts to be fruitless. "That don't sound like 'making up' in there!"

Alexa dragged a palm down the front of her face. This was getting them nowhere. She brought her voice down to a whisper before addressing Becky again.

"If he wants us to make up, then fine. Let's just pretend to be best buddies and get out of here."

"Alexa, pretending won't get us anywhere."

"What? Pretending gets people everywhere. For instance, I pretend that you're a halfway competent person that can go along with a simple plan!"

"No, you don't get it."

Why was Becky being difficult about this? It's not like it would take Broadway level acting to fool AJ Styles. If anything, he was too concerned with how shiny his belt looked to pick up on something so subtle. All Alexa wanted to do was get out of this stupid closet and go about her business - the business of hating that moronic referee, that is.

"Ugh, what's your deal? I get that you always want to be miss 'straight fire' and do things your own way, but can't you - for once - do something that makes sense?"

Becky shook her head in response which caused Alexa to seriously consider pulling her own hair out.

"See, this is what AJ's talking about. You're so angry at me, and when we get out of here, it's going to be the same thing it always is. I'm tired of arguing with you all the time. Why can't you drop the mean girl thing so that we can be friends or something?"

"Please. I'd never be friends with you."

"That's not true - 'member Full Sail? We used to be great friends. You know, back when you knew how to smile."

Alexa had to stifle a chuckle. Their NXT days were far behind them. She barely considered a majority of that time to be real, having spent half of her time trying to cozy up to the fans. That got her nothing, aside from a few measly friendships here and there, one being with Becky. It wasn't as if any of that was real though, right? Did she ever even care about Becky - did Becky even care about her? She'd always harbored some form of respect for Becky, but that's all it was, respect.

Upon further evaluation, Alexa realized that her line of thinking might not be exactly true. She recalled numerous training sessions they'd shared together - hours and hours spent trying to physically and mentally better themselves for their careers. She remembered all of random pictures they'd take, all of the videos they'd shoot, all of the faces they'd make. How could she say that none of that was real?

But just because it was real then doesn't mean it could be real now. She always admired Becky - she was one of the women that paved the way for every women in the WWE following, including Alexa herself - however, there were more important things to focus on. The Smackdown Women's Championship was at the top of the list, and Becky was holding it. While she didn't necessarily mean every vicious word that came out of her mouth, she was still cheated out of her opportunity. She wasn't going to be so forgiving about that. Alexa Bliss was no pushover.

"All of that stuff is in the past. You cheated me, and I can't accept that."

"Hey, I do feel bad about that, alright? So, I will personally go to Daniel Bryan and ask him to give you a rematch."

Alexa was stunned. Had she heard Becky right? She was gifting her a rematch, just like that.

"Why?"

"Like I said - anytime, anywhere. Think of it as a peace offering. That fabulous title opportunity and more can be yours for the low, low price of a renewal of friendship. Take it or leave it."

Becky thrust her hand forward, gesturing for a handshake. Alexa looked at the hand hesitantly, thinking how typical Becky Lynch this all was. Always had to be the good guy, always had to try and be the bigger person. She was a mystery, the Irish woman was. Alexa took hold of the other woman's hand, clasping her fingers around it in a firm shake.

"I'll play this game, for now. But no more height jokes."

"Aw, gotta short fuse for those puns."

"You-!"

"I can't help it. You're just an adorable little thing when you're annoyed, aren't you?"

Becky pinched Alexa's cheek before having her hand shoved away. They joked back and forth like this for a while, before an overzealous Alexa stumbled over a loose wire, her unceremonious crash to the ground avoided due to Becky's quick reflexes. Alexa went to thank the older woman, but lost all train of thought as she stared into Becky's eyes. What was going on? Not even an hour ago, she was ready to push Becky off of a cliff, and now she was entertaining the thought of maybe - just maybe…

AJ let out a loud yawn, not bothering to cover his mouth. Waiting for these girls sure was a tiring task, he thought, having nearly dozed off on more than one occasion. His butt remained glued to that seat for roughly thirty minutes, and yet the two troublemakers hadn't begged for a release from their closeted prison. Come to think of it, they hadn't made a sound of any kind in quite a while. Wondering if they'd somehow managed to escape through some hidden back exit, AJ hurriedly pulled the chair away from the doorknob. He flung the door open, and almost fell over in shock.

Becky's tongue was halfway down Alexa's throat - Alexa was leaning against Becky over the left wall. They were like a couple of deer in headlights, staring wide-eyed at AJ as the opening of the door also brought extra lighting into the dimly lit closet.

"… When I said y'all should kiss and make up, I didn't mean that literally."

With not so much as another word, the two women picked up where they had left off, their mouths colliding once more. Leaving them to it, AJ simply closed the door.

"At least they're out of my hair now. Heh, I'm good at everything, aren't I?"

Patting himself on the back for another job well done, AJ made his way back to the catering hall, knowing in his heart that they'd never be disrupting his alone time with their arguments again.

He really did run the camp, didn't he?

End