Well-Matched
is a Batwoman/sports fanfic written and illustrated by Caivu, taking place during Kate Kane's junior year at West Point. It is a prequel to Cadet Scrap.
At the academy's annual Brigade Boxing Open, Kate squares off against Sophie Moore, a fellow cadet who is not only her roommate, but, in violation of military policy, her girlfriend. They fight not only to prove the viability of the newly-formed women's boxing club, but to test their mettle against each other for the first time as a couple.
This fanfic provides examples of the following tropes:
- Artistic License:
- At the actual 2010 BBO, red-corner boxers wore gold shirts and blue-corner boxers wore black ones. This is reversed here, for the sake of putting Kate in an outfit with a red-and-black color scheme.
- The real event was much more sparsely attended than the hundreds of people described.
- The story puts the two women's fights at the end of the card, and has Kate and Sophie's fight as the main event, though they're in a lower weight class than the boxers in the match just before theirs. At the actual event, the lone women's match was placed in order of weight as is typical for boxing cards, and was roughly in the middle.
- Artistic License – Sports: Even though the service academies are a little more lax in terms of blood than other collegiate officials might be during boxing matches, Kate and Sophie do enough of a number on each other that the fight would likely have been stopped early in real life, or at least paused to check on them. This is Lampshaded as being a bit of upperclassman privilege, as well as the referee knowing that Kate and Sophie can take it.
- As Himself: Every non-DC character in the story is a real-life person who took part in the event depicted.
- Battle Trophy: Played with. Kate and Sophie keep their bloodstained shirts after the fight, though they each keep their own.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted. Kate and Sophie beat each other bloody in the match itself, and by the end they're sweaty and each have a pair of black eyes.
- Beige Prose: Much of the fight itself is described move-by-move and blow-by-blow in a terse, pragmatic way.
- Blood-Splattered Warrior: Kate and Sophie end the fight with their faces, gloves, and shirts spattered with blood.
- Call-Forward: Once back in ther barracks, Kate and Sophie briefly discuss having an unofficial rematch before the next BBO, which is what happens in Cadet Scrap.
- Continuity Nod:
- Kate wearing a red and black outfit is a reference to J.H. Williams III's tendency to depict Kate wearing those colors in flashbacks to before she became Batwoman.
- Kate makes a brief mention of her time as a gymnast in high school.
- Cross Counter: Happens at least a few times per round, though without much fanfare.
- Crushing Handshake: It's mentioned that Kate and Sophie did this as a mutual intimidation tactic at the beginning of the Open, when all the boxers were lined up in the ring across from their opponent as the matches were announced. Neither gave in.
- Double-Meaning Title: The title refers to both Kate and Sophie's evenness as opponents and their romantic chemistry.
- Fan Art: Several photomanipulations, representing in-universe photos, are used to illustrate the story.
- Fang Thpeak: Kate and Sophie's words get a bit "mushed" while they have their mouth guards in.
- Friendly Rivalry: Kate and Sophie are girlfriends and deeply in love, but are both totally game to beat the snot out of each other in the ring. Afterward, they're both good sports about it.
- Extremely Short Timespan: The whole story happens over a few hours at most.
- Graceful Loser: Sophie loses by unanimous decision, but has no hard feelings.
- Held Gaze: Kate and Sophie do this three times before the match: during the initial fight announcements, just before heading to the ring, and across the ring just prior to the opening bell. Each time it's to intimidate the other, and each time neither of them waver.
- How Much More Can He Take?: Both boxers pummel each other almost nonstop during the bout, and end each round on their feet and bloody.
- Imagine Spot: Kate has two just before the bout starts: first, she imagines Sophie knocked out at her feet, and once in the ring she has a brief visual of her mom and her sister Beth, both long dead, sitting next to her dad in the audience.
- The Immodest Orgasm: Defied. Kate and Sophie kiss as they both climax to keep anyone from possibly hearing.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: After returning to their barracks, each sporting two black eyes, Sophie mentions to Kate how tired she is. Kate's response:Kate: You might say you're... beat?
- Period Piece: Takes place on February 23, 2010.
- Pseudo-Canonical Fic: Chapter notes explain that this story is the result of synthesizing real-life happenings and various pieces of evidence across different Batwoman stories that, when taken together, point to Kate and Sophie having been a part of the USMA women's boxing club from its inception, as well as Kate having won a boxing championship at West Point.
- Pummel Duel: Practically the whole fight is one, but a particular moment in round 3 has Kate nearly blacking out as she and Sophie wing volleys of accurate haymakers at each other for a few seconds.
- Sex Is Violence: Kate and Sophie have sex in the locker room after their fight.
- Shower of Love: Crosses over with Sex Is Violence and Wall Bang Her. After the fight, Kate and Sophie have sex in a locker room shower stall.
- Shown Their Work:
- Apart from the artistic licenses noted above, the BBO is depicted accurately, down to the location, the description of the ring, and the wording on the boxers' shirts.
- The history of how the USMA women's boxing team formed and re-established women's matches in the Brigade Open is accurate.
- The actual fight was choreographed beforehand using video clips of real college boxing matches, and then scored using a 3D scene with accurate scoring procedures and judge placement.
- The story features a decent amount of real West Point jargon.
- Sports Story: Has a championship boxing match as its premise.
- Tears of Joy: Kate's eyes mist up when she's declared the winner.
- Victory Sex: Applies to Kate when the couple has sex after their fight.
- Wall Bang Her: When the couple has sex after the fight, it's against the wall of a shower stall.
- Worthy Opponent: Kate considers Sophie this even before the fight, as they previously fought each other three times for their freshman boxing class, with Kate managing to just eke out a win each time. Her attitude toward the match is to give Sophie the best fight she can, since that's what she deserves as a fellow boxer.
- You Go, Girl!:
- The backdrop of the story involves the formation of the West Point women's boxing club and the return of women's matches to the BBO for the first time in five years, which were both part of the real event depicted. In addition to their Friendly Rivalry, part of why Kate and Sophie tear into each other so much during their fight is to show that the women's club means business.
- There's a brief mention of a female cadet who had made it onto the men's boxing team seven years prior, which also really happened.
