pairing: fem!reader x the elite [kenny omega + matt jackson + nick jackson]

plot: fem!reader sustained an injury and tried to hide it from her friends because she didn't want to drop the title. they know her too well though.

genre: general

warning: injuries

word count: 3.3k

author's note: uhh, i don't think fully platonic fics like this is my strong suit ksjnejdndjdn

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britt baker vs you.

it was a match everyone has been foaming at the mouth for. ever since she got herself over with her match against thunder rosa, they'd been begging all over social media to have you and her fight. you're the top woman to beat in aew's women's division so there really was no question why. you two are the most over wrestlers on their roster.

britt's easy enough to work with. you have tons of more experience than her, but she learns quickly and is eager to learn. you found out that she seems to have a good eye for the business, knows what would get over and what wouldn't. she knows her strengths and weaknesses as well and knows how to capitalize on them as much as she can.

the conversation went as smoothly as it could be. you and her already had everything planned out, from the more difficult sequences, the little moments before said sequences that would give the audience just a little taste of what's to come, along with the bigger spots you wanted to pull off.

by the end of your planning, you were sure you were making it to that pay-per-view's highlight reel.

you both wanted to get that match of the night stamp on your bout and you wanted it bad. you both wanted to blow the crowd out of the water and have them eating out of the palm of your hands. you wanted to show them what women's wrestling was all about and what you two were capable of, especially because you two have something in common, something that always gets thrown on your face by people on social media: you're both friends with the evps.

nevermind the fact that you both have worked your ass off to get where you are, nevermind the fact that just like any other wrestler, you've had to go through many less-than-pleasant bookers, nevermind the fact that you both have sacrificed so many things to get to aew, nevermind the fact that you've gave this business your blood, sweat, and tears.

apparently you were just here because you're friends with the evps. you're dead set on proving the people who say those things wrong.

but maybe you were a tad bit too keen.

the closing sequence was supposed to be you and her fighting on the top turnbuckle and grappling for the upper hand in what you hoped to be an exciting moment that brought the audience to the edge of their seats, you delivering a nasty looking upper cut which sends her falling down into the canvas below with a thud, you doing a moonsault off of the top rope, her rolling out of the way, you landing on your feet and doing a standing moonsault, a maneuver she dodges once more, then you finally delivering a standing shooting star press, something that she wouldn't be able to dodge, then you going for your finishing move.

it didn't exactly go to plan, but judging from the crowd's loud, rowdy reaction, you didn't think they noticed it. you don't think neither britt nor bryce did as well because they didn't check up on you.

you did though. the very moment you landed during the first moonsault - the one you executed from the top rope - you  immediately knew that something was seriously wrong. when your feet hit the ground, it was like all of your body weight only landed on one leg and pain shot up in a snap, making you quietly hiss to yourself as tears involuntarily spiked the corners of your eyes. somehow, someway, you still managed to deliver another moonsault without skipping a beat and a picture perfect standing shooting star press, but at that point, it just felt like muscle memory. mentally, you were thousands of miles away and most definitely not okay.

you then did your finishing move - thankfully it didn't rely too much on your legs or else you don't think you would have been able to do it - and pinned her for the one, two, three.

the crowd was on their feet and clapping in an instant, just like that you wanted. if your hamstring didn't feel like it was being pulled apart like the meat from a pulled pork sandwich, you would have soaked it in more, but you just couldn't. you felt like you couldn't show them how bad you were feeling either, so instead of clutching your thigh like you were aching to, you sold it like any other spot. you stood to your feet, most of your weight on the leg that wasn't hurt and raised your hands up in the air in victory. thankfully for your character's sake, you still had it in you to talk trash to the camera while looking good as you did so.

when you walked backstage, you were greeted by almost, if not all, of your coworkers greeting you with a standing ovation. the claps and praise they gave you were like music to your ears and made it seem like maybe, just maybe punishing your quadriceps was worth it.

out of all your friends, matt was the first one to greet you with a hug that lifted you off your feet and swayed you both ways. "it'd be an honor losing my motn spot to you, [y/n]."

then it was nick who gave you a less enthusiastic hug than his brother, but you still felt the love and warmth in it. he kissed the top of your head, then ruffled your already messed up hair. "knew you could do it."

earlier that night, the bucks told you that they had a surprise for you which would appear after your match and they were right.

the sea of coworkers crowing you parted like the red sea and in walked kenny as if he owned the place. he has his signature smile on his face as he walked over to you and crushed you to his chest in a familiar-feeling hug.

you smiled so hard your cheeks started to hurt. you've missed him so much because you haven't seen him in such a long time thanks to his injuries and you weren't used to that. he'd always been there for you through the ups and the downs and the good and the bad of your career which made it more difficult for you to be away from him. the phone calls and facetime sessions didn't do it justice. "you're really gunning for that "best bout machine" name while i'm not around huh?"

hanging out with your friends and having your coworkers fawn over you took your mind off the pain for a while.

the pain was back again when you woke up the next day in your hotel room. you originally planned to start the day early and get an early morning workout at the gym, but now it sounds horrible. you really didn't know if you were going to be able to properly do anything with a messed up hamstring. hell, you didn't even know if you were gonna be able to walk without limping everywhere with a messed up hamstring so you decided against it. no gym for today. thankfully you still had a few day's rest until that week's dynamite and you're hoping that by that time, your body would have healed up some.

after making the decision to not go to the gym, you also thought that staying in bed - or just off your feet in general - would be the best course of action for you to take to lessen the force on your injury, so a lazy day it was. but of course your days never goes according to plan.

"{from: good christian boy #1}: hey, kenny's staying in the area for a week and we wanna hang out and make the most of it. wanna join?"

if any other person asked you, you probably would have said no and turned it down, but these are your best friends. most importantly, one of the people joining you would be your best friend who you haven't and won't be able to see for a while. it was simply too tempting and you're only human. plus, if you turned it down, you're sure that they would suspect that something's up with you and that's not something you particularly want to delve in to.

if they find out that you're injured, they'd probably take the women's championship away from you and you're not gonna let them do that. you've worked too damn hard, spent too many hours in the gym trying to better yourself, spent too many hours studying your past matches to learn from them and know the areas where you can improve.

you've just worked too hard for them to just take away the aew women's championship away from you like it was nothing.

"{to: good christian boy #1}: i'm in! where will we be going?"

when he told you that you guys would be going to the mall, you hoped that you guys would be frequenting the restaurants as well. while many stores had chairs for you to sit on inside, it would be way too suspicious for you to spend the whole day sitting down. you were usually a fairly loud and hyper person whenever you're with your friends so that was without a sliver of a doubt out of the equation.

although probably useless if you were going to spend the whole day walking around, you still tried to take it easy on your injury during the hours prior to you meeting your friends. if it was possible for you to stay off your feet, you'd do it.

you made breakfast that was easier to prepare and if you had to stand up during the process of making it, you'd be leaning all your body weight on the counter. when you took a shower, you'd sit on the edge of the tub whenever you could and if you couldn't, you'd try to stand on one leg -- bless your sense of balance. and thankfully, you were able to sit down while dressing yourself.

you were on the couch scrolling through articles about things you could do to help you heal faster when there was a knock on your door. your friends in the elite, mostly likely. you weren't really expecting anyone today.

your suspicions were proven to be true once you opened the door to see them. "hey, [y/n]. hope you don't mind us coming to get you. by the looks of it though, you're just about done."

"we know you so well." nick smiled before pulling you down into a side headlock then proceeded to mess up your hair by giving you a noogie.

you yelped, not only at his actions, but also because for a quick second, he shifted some of his weight on you which would usually be no problem except for the fact that by doing that, he shifted your combined weight on your injury as well. you were grateful for the fact that they didn't seem to hear you whimper in pain.

matt thankfully lightly pushed his brother away from you before you did. "okay nick, they've just put on one hell of a match last night, leave them alone."

"yeah, nick. leave me alone!" you pushed the hotel room door closed with a quick flick of a wrist instead of kicking it, then took a small step forward with your good foot so you could cling on to matt's side, hugging him as you closed your eyes and childishly stuck your tongue out at the younger buck. you only heard the man mock you in response.

to further annoy him, you beckoned kenny over to you and gave him a big hug as well. like always, his hug was warm and comforting and lifted you off your feet. it felt like a real hug and not just one given to spite one of your friends and you love that. it was something you needed since last night and though you have been the recipient of numerous hugs then, it simply wasn't enough.

"kenny, matt, have i ever told you guys that you're my favorite members of the elite ever?" you beamed up at kenny. while still in the blond's embrace, you leaned back to reach out to matt so you could pull him into you as well and even if it wasn't actually physically possible, you could have sworn that you could hear nick rolling his eyes and crossing his arms.

when you turned to look at him, he was doing just that. you smiled innocently at him. "you're cool too, nick. you're like.. matt's side kick, it's great."

you looked back at kenny to ask him a question. "every superhero's gotta have a side kick, right?"

you didn't get an answer from him though because nick pulled you from kenny's arms and trapped you in his "just gimmie my hug." he muttered as he stuffed his face in your neck.

again you winced and hoped they didn't notice. the moment he pulled you away from kenny, you were out of balance and you instinctively shifted your weight to both feet. you only noticed when the pain hit you like a punch in the gut that had air escaping your lungs.

after complying to what he wanted, you pushed away from him, resting against the wall and crossing your arms. "so where will we go today, boys?"

"well, we were supposed to go to the mall so we can go shoe shopping for bte, but brandon's out, caught a flu so maybe we can just wander around the city. heard there's cute little parks here and cute little food stalls. i don't wanna give him more footage to edit if he's sick." matt shrugged.

oh joy. walking around. parks. just your luck.

the moment you got back to the hotel room, you basically just collapsed on the bed face first. you felt so frustrated with everything. with yourself, with your thigh, with the damn park, even with your friends even if they haven't done anything wrong and you agreed to hang out with them. you were just so annoyed that it was getting out of hand. you needed some sleep and rest and you were glad that aew's schedule wasn't super loaded for you.

you just couldn't walk properly. at first you made an effort to at least try to put some ounce of normalcy in your steps even though you were certain there was still a bit of a limp, but after a while, you just became so engrossed in your conversation about the things that kenny has been getting up to ever since getting time off that it slowly slipped out of your mind.

even recalling the mental images of you limping everywhere earlier made you cringe and want to pull your hair out by their roots and scream.

you hated every single second of it and just prayed that they were as into the conversation as you and didn't take notice. at this point, it was all you could do. it was too late now to do anything else if they had noticed it.

much to you relief, the days before dynamite went well. you guys still hung out with kenny, but this time it was mostly spent on facetime because the bucks - being huge family men - flew back to california for time being, unlike you. you stayed in the city that the pay-per-view was held in because flying would mean more time on your feet and that was something you avoided at all costs now. that meant that you had more time to be physically close to kenny before he went home which was appreciated, something good that your injury brought you. you only parted ways with him when you got to the plane for that week's dynamite episode.

by that time, you have mastered the art of limping around without making it obvious and even better was that there has been significant progress on your thigh, but still not enough to be a hundred percent. you probably should still get your hamstring checked out by a doctor, but you didn't. not that it mattered, you only have a segment for this week. it wouldn't get physical either. it was just the number one ranked woman, kris statlander confronting you, it seemed easy enough.

much to your surprise, kenny was there when you got to the arena. he was way too hardworking and cared way too much for his own good. you were glad to hear that he was just helping out backstage and not making a way too early in-ring return though. the audience wouldn't even know he was there unless someone were to leak it -- or at least that's what he said.

spotting the galaxy's greatest alien was a breeze. you saw her right away when you went to the women's locker room to drop off your things. turns out she was already there waiting for you.

you guys went over your plans for your promo as well as points you want to hit when it came to the feud that was brewing between the both of you. the conversation was pleasant and you found the way she thought about things interesting. needless to say, you were very excited to progress this story between the both of you. you already knew it was going to be different than your other feuds in the past, but in the best way possible.

just as expected, the segment went according to plan and you finished not a second too early nor a second too late. you guys celebrated backstage by her giving you a boop to the nose and when you just cheered and clapped once it happened, you told her that you'd sell it better when you're actually face to face in the squared circle.

your smile immediately dropped when you saw matt beckoning you over with a serious look on his face though.

you followed him as he lead you to the evp's locker room and you felt your throat tighten when you saw the other buck and kenny where, all looking as serious as matt.

"are you okay?" nick inquired knowing full well what the answer is. for some reason unknown to you, you played dumb and lied. "yeah, perfectly fine. why do you ask?" as if you had no idea what was about to happen.

"you've been limping. been limping since after your match with baker, since we've hung out. you've also been limping all over the place today."

"we're not stupid, [y/n]. we rewatched your match with britt." only now did you notice the tv in the corner of the room. it was paused around the time when your injury happened. suddenly, with a click of a button on the remote kenny was holding, it started to play. you unconsciously winced the moment your feet hit the ring canvas.

"look [y/n], i get why you're doing this, i promise, i do. but you know you have to get your hamstring check out, right? because if you don't, it's only gonna get worse."

you bit your lip at kenny's words because you knew they were true. that's the part that hurt the most. your eyes cast downwards and you gripped the championship just a tad closer to your chest, something that your friends noticed.

"look, we'll find a way, okay? you don't have to immediately drop your title. we'll just get you check out and go from there,"