Hazel
Seth: Hey babe, have you landed yet?
Me: 30 mins. We’re running late because of the delay.
Seth: Bummer. I can’t wait to see you in the morning.
Me: Me either, babe. Lita’s going to be there Monday. I can’t wait to see her.
Seth: Would it be weird to say that I used to have a massive crush on your aunt?
Me: Little bit.
Seth: Then I won’t say. 3
I laughed to myself at his reply. The flight had been grueling enough as it was and not seeing Seth when I landed wasn’t giving me much to look forward too.
Because of press, I’d been traveling since last Monday night. Seth was able to join me for two of those days before meeting back up with his team mates for their own press. Fortunately, by some miracle. I was able to get things done sooner than planned and ended up in DC a night before anyone else. Seth and the guys were arriving tomorrow morning and Lita wasn’t going to be in until Monday night before the event.
Me: Finally on solid ground!
I texted him again after we’d landed. After a few minutes of unboarding, I threw my hat back on my head, grabbing my carry on for the overhead bin before walking out to the baggage claim.
Seth: Alright, call me when you get to the hotel, babe.
Babe.
I smiled to myself again. It was still surreal to think of his as my boyfriend. Not that we’d had much time to spend as a couple yet but we would figure it all out. What we did have to talk about was how public we wanted this thing to go. So far it was just what it was. It was in no way a secret that Seth and I were together but that didn’t mean we were screaming it over the rooftops either. How much that would change once the company found out? I had no idea.
“Oh my god!” The little teenager next to me said. “You’re … you’re Hazel! I watch you every Monday! Dad look!” She said, tugging on her father’s sleeve. “Can we take a picture?”
I nodded, mustering up a smile. At least they’d asked instead of trying to sneak one. It wasn’t unusal to be recognized anymore, though it was stressful at the end of a long day to have to stop for pictures when all I wanted to do was go straight to the hotel for a nap.
“Sure thing, babe.” I smiled at the little girl. Adjusting my flannel so it didn’t look as wrinkled before throwing my arm over her shoulder and bending down slightly to pose.
Her eyes lit up as she smiled while her dad took a picture with his phone. I gave her a hug, signing whatever shirt she had on before shaking her dad’s hand. He told me about how they’d been watching the show together since she was a toddler and how she had started gymnastics after watching me during developmental. She wanted to go to an academy over the summer but it was in another state and that prior to this she’d been struggling to focus in school and acting out. It meant a lot to know I was affecting someone in that manner. Sure we had millions of fans screaming our names but we never got to listen to their stories.
I grabbed my bag when it came around and I smiled down at the girl who hadn’t been able to take her eyes off of me and I felt a pull in my heart.
“Are you two going to the show on Monday night?” I asked, watching her face sink.
“No.” She shook her head.
Her dad sighed. “We looked into it, but it was sold out.”
I never did this. Simply for the fact that I couldn’t do it for all my fans but the sadness behind her eyes had me convinced. “I’ll tell you what, why don’t I take down your name and number and make a few calls. Someone should be able to figure something out. It won’t be backstage passes or anything like that but I can at least hook you up with seats.”
“Really?!” She lit up again.
“You’d do that for us?” He asked, his eyes wide in shock.
“Yeah. I remember going to events as a kid and I loved every minute of it.” I pulled out my phone, opening the notes app taking down their information.
They thanked me again and I hugged them both before leaving the airport. I’d made sure to call the event organizer and pass along their information. They’d at least be sent some merchandise if seats were out of the questions. It was the very least I could do.
By the time I got to my hotel room it was around 9pm. A bouquet of roses was set on the nightstand. I set my bags down and approached the flowers, finding a note sticking out from under the vase.
“Hey beautiful. I know hate never having time to stop and smell the roses so I thought I’d make it a little easier for you. Hope these keep a smile on your face until I get to see you tomorrow. – Seth.”
Such a cornball. My cornball.
I smiled, leaning down to smell them before grabbing my phone to facetime him.
While the phone connected, I held one of the roses up to my lips, smiling at him.
“Hey.” He smiled sleepily from the seat of a car. “You like ’em?”
“They’re beautiful, babe.” I smiled, putting it back in the vase.
“Nah, you’re beautiful.” He returned, trying to keep his voice down as he spoke into the headset.
It was a failed attempt because he was heard by the guys who immediately started laughing and teasing him.
“Shut up! Can I get a little privacy please!?” He snapped at them.
I laughed, knowing exactly how it was being on the road. Unlike me, their interviews were all on one coast so they’d been driving almost non-stop for the last few days until we met all met up in Washington, DC for our next show.
“Sorry about them.” He said, looking into the camera again.
“No privacy, huh?” I smirked, unbuttoning my flannel.
He cocked a brow, an amused smirk playing on his lips. “What’re you doing?”
“Oh nothing.” I bite my lip as I unbuttoned it all the way down, wearing nothing underneath. I slide it slowly off my shoulders, exposing everything little by little, getting a growl out of him.
“Not fair, Haz.” He whispered husky tone.
“What’s she doing? Showin’ her tits? I wanna see!” Dean’s voice came through the mic, making me laugh as the camera shook as they fought for the phone, cursing each other out. .
By the time he came back into view, I’d taken off my pants and thrown on a hotel robe. His face changed into a pout.
“Fucking asshole.” He kicked the seat in front of him. “Now she has on a robe. You happy! And you -” He pointed at the camera with a determined, promising smirk. “You’re going to pay for that.”
“Looking forward to it.” I laughed, blowing a kiss. “How was the last leg of the trip?” I asked, grabbing some face wash and a toothbrush from my bag, washing my face and brushing my teeth while he spoke.
“It was intense. man.” He let out a tired breath. “I’m beat. Between radio interviews and signings, even when we got food we were stopped for pictures. I ended up eating most of my meals in the car so I could get some peace and crash for a while.”
“That sucks babe..” I said, rinsing out my mouth. Picking up my phone, I walked grabbed the remote before getting into the bed. “Speaking of fans. I ran into this little girl and her dad at bagage claim. Apparently they’d been watching together since she was a baby. Turns out she struggled with ADHD and I inspired her to get into gymnastics which helped her out at school. She wants to go to a wrestling academy but there wasn’t one in their state.”
“Damn babe. That’s really cool.” He replied, resting his head back on the carseat.
“Yeah, the show sold out before they could get tickets so I took down his number and called George to see if he could set them up with something.”
Seth’s face broke into a smile, “You did all that?”
“Yeah, I mean it was a different feeling actually hearing someone say that you had that kind of effect on their life.” I shrugged. “You know what would be really cool?”
“What?”
“If we could start a training academy. We could buy a house or a few houses and have the students live there while they trained for the summer. There could be different age groups… I mean people struggle following their passion because of where they’re located. Training gyms for professional wrestling aren’t accessible at all.”
“That’s a really good idea, babe. I remember having to drive back and forth to Chicago almost every day just to train.”
“I know! It’s crazy right? It just really made me do something about it.” I yawned.
“What I wouldn’t give to be in that bed with you right now.” He said in a lower tone.
“What I wouldn’t give to have you in this bed with me right now.” I smirked, rubbing my eyes. “Alright babe, I’m about to pass out. You better be here when I wake up in the morning.”
“Yeah, if Rom ever drives faster than 20 miles a fucking hour!” He said louder.
I laughed, taking a good look at him, lying in the back of a dark car. Heavy-eyed, messy hair, hoodie thrown over his head. He was perfect. He really was
“Night Seth.”
“Night babe. I’ll see you soon.”
Seth
I was exhausted. Physically and mentally tired. We’d been around people nonstop for the last 4 days. All I wanted to do was go to sleep for a full week..There was an insane amount of testosterone cramped into one car for 4 fucking days. We were all cranky.
I texted Hazel that we were finally in DC, expecting her to still be asleep. We’d gotten a couple of hours here and there in hotels on the way but as we pulled into the parking lot I was dying to just get into bed, wrap around her and just not exist in the world for a little while.
That’s how tired I was. I wanted to stop fucking existing.
Somehow, the sight of Haz running through the lobby doors. made it all go away. With a smile on her face she ran across the lot, jumping into my arms. All the soreness in my muscles – the heaviness in my eyes – it all went away. She was a ball of energy and that gave me the boost I needed.
I held her up, legs wrapped around my waist, lips leaving kisses all over before she tucked her face into my neck. I could feel the genuine attachment in everything that she did. From the way she spoke to the way she touched me, she cared.
“God, I’ve missed you so much!” She said, squeezing me tighter.
“No where close to how much I’ve missed you, baby.” I said, meaning every word.
Despite how new this all was, the more time I’d gotten to spend with her, the more time I hated being away. With our jobs, keeping a relationship was hard enough on its own even with someone in the business. We had different schedules, different travel dates, all we could do was work around that to make of work as well as possible. It just made moments like this all the better.
“Alright alright, break it up you two. Don’t be all gross.” Dean teased, grabbing his shit from the car.
I put her down and they both greeted her with a hug and a kiss on the head before walking inside. I had no idea when that started happening but harmony between the most important people in my life wasn’t something I wanted to complain about.
“I have a call with Stephanie in a couple minutes. Why don’t you wash you and go to bed for a while, then we could go to the gym before dinner?” She asked, grabbing my carry-on from the back while I grabbed my suitcase.
“Nah.” I shook my head. “I’ll go shower but why don’t we go out and see the city? Come on, how often do we get into town early enough to explore? You’re always catching red-eyes and then we’re training. We can smell those roses together.”
She cocked a brow, speechless for a few seconds as if what I said was either unheard of or taboo.
“Wow, I’d love to go sightseeing. We never get to.” She said, finally answering me.
“Alright good.” I chuckled, walking into the elevator with her. “What’s the call with Stephanie about?”
“I wasn’t assigned a match today.” She shrugged, pushing the button to her floor.
“Not everyone gets a match every time babe. Besides you took a pretty hard hit last week.”
She shrugged again, leading me to her – no, our – room before opening the door. Setting my bags down next to hers, she crossed her arms over her chest. “I deserve a match to get back at that bitch for what she did to me last week.”
I loved how feisty she was. With a smirk, I pulled her into my arms, backing her up against one of the walls before cupping her cheeks and kissing her. I’d missed her touch, the feel of her lips, the smell of her perfume, all of it. It’d been hard as hell being on the road without her. All the video calls and sexy pictures at night, if it wasn’t for being exhausted, I swear my dick would’ve been rubbed raw.
She let out a soft moan against my touch, her fingers curling into the hem of my shirt to pull me closer. I parted her lips with my tongue, massaging hers with mine, pressing my hardening dick against her as I lifted her up in my arms, wrapping her legs around my waist. Her arms reach up, fingers tangling into my hair, letting it out of it’s band as her body arched into mine, tits swelling as they pressed against my chest.
I wanted wanted to be inside of her.
No.
I needed to be inside of her.
Holding her up between my body and the wall, I reached for the button of her pants making quick work while she did the same with mine. I tugged them down as our heavy breaths filled the room, our bodys calling for one another.
Then her phone rang.
“Motherfucker.” I growled.
She laid her head back on the wall, closing her eyes in attempt to catch her breath, chest rising and falling rapidly. “Fuck.” She whispered.
I set her down and she reached for the phone in her back pocket, holding up to her ear. “Hello.” She answered.
I brushed her long hair aside, brushing my lips against the exposed skin of her neck, sucking and kissing on it while keeping my hips pressed against hers. She bit her lip, trying to hold her composure.
“Stop.” She mouthed with an amused smirk on her face.
I bite her softly with a smile then pulled away to go get the shower ready. While the water heated up, I pulled off my shirt, taking a moment to watch her pace as she spoke on the phone. She was breathtakingly beautiful and she was all mine. Every bit of her.
Damn, I was a lucky man.
I waited for her to join me during the shower, but she didn’t so I assumed she was still on the call. Rinsing off, I wrapped a towel around my waist and walked out to see her protesting whatever was being said on the other end.
“Yeah.” She sighed. “Thanks a lot. Bye.” She said, hanging up.
I stepped closer, placing a hand on her hip and kissing her temple. “Everything okay?”
She shook her head, letting out a frustrated breath of disappointment. “No. This company is all about politics.” She said, taking a seat on the edge of the bed.
“What do you mean?”
“What’s best for business? Is what’s going to put money in their pockets. It’s not what we want, what the fans want. It’s not what’s right. .”
“Haz, what happened?” I asked, squatting down in front of her so we could be eye to eye.
She leaned forward with her elbows on her knees, rubbing her hands together as she shook her head. “Apparently, since getting the title, there’s been a spike in ratings and I’ve become the face of the company. They don’t want me to go after Charlotte. She said that would be handled privately by them. They don’t want me getting hurt like last week so I can pose for their magazine next week and their promos for the European tour. Apparently my looks are more important that my talent. That’s not what I joined this company for. I didn’t join just to be another pretty face, Seth. I’m more than that. I’ve worked my ass of for this. They want me to face Charlotte for a pay per view event but until then they just want to match me with opponents that’ll be easy for me so I can keep my image.”
She was right about that. Regardless of being trained by her aunt, she worked her ass off through the ranks. She was there with me in FCW, she worked in TNA, we both moved up to NXT, and now this. She wasn’t given any privileges with this. And she was one of the most talented women in the business. This wasn’t right.
“We’re all pawns, Seth.” She sighed,”We’re pawns that they can control and manipulate depending on who makes them the most money. The Shield is all about fighting injustice, yet you guys are practically the henchmen of the most unjust people in this business.”
“Woah woah.” I shook my head, lifting her chin to meet her eyes. “We’re nobody’s henchmen. We’re -”
“Open your eyes, Rollins. You’re not fighting injustice. You’re putting fear into those who don’t fall in line with the authorities plan.” Standing up, she ran her fingers back through her hair. “I need a drink.”
“Haz -” I grabbed her arm before she could reach the door.
She lowered her eyes to the ground, running a hand carefully over her face so she wouldn’t hurt her still injured cheekbone. “I’m sorry, babe. It’s just – I didn’t come all this way to be told to sit pretty and smile.”
“I know baby..” I pulled her into my chest to hug her, unsure of what to say. I’d heard about them doing this to other people in the company but to see it firsthand was eye-opening.
After a couple of beers at the bar, Hazel was in a better mood and we decided to explore the city. Without Roman’s big ass and Dean’s loud personality, we were able to keep it low key and blend in. Hazel wore a pair of cutoff jean shorts and a Jack Daniels tank top, with the sides low cut showing off her black lace bra, a pair of black hightop converse on her feet and ray bans covering her eyes. Aside from her pink hair she was practically indistinguishable as a superstar. Unlike my ex, she didn’t require ten inch heels and dresses and massive amounts of makeup and jewlery. She was just easy going and simple. All the more reasons to love her.
Love.
I was using that word a lot.
We went to see the White House and Capitol Building. Grabbed sandwiches from a foodtruck and ate them outside the Washington Monument. Went shopping in one of the districts. Took a trolley around. Even got on the giant ferris wheel. Practically any touristy type thing, we tried to cram into the day.
By the end of it, we were tired but it was all worth it to get her mind off of work and see her smiling and being herself all day. We had gotten recognized a few times and took some pictures, but for the most part it was the most normal I’d felt in forever.
We made our way back to the Lincoln Memorial overlooking the water. Hazel laid her head on my shoulder, staring out at it as the stars reflecting into her blue eyes. She’d gotten a little sunburn on her nose from being out all day and it brought out the freckles I’d never noticed she had.
“You know what I should do?” She asked, breaking out silence.
“What?” I replied, leaning back on my elbows on the steps.
She had a devious smile on her face as she turned to look at me. “Just to piss them off, I should change up my look.”
I laughed, “Change your look how?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged, “Like my hair. I could change the color. That would piss ’em off.”
“What If you did the black and blonde like mine?” I offered, running my fingers through her hair.
“Blonde and black.” She countered, actually considering the idea. “Wouldn’t that make it to obvious we’re a couple?”
“Are we trying to hide it?” I asked.
It wasn’t like we were sneaking around, but we also hadn’t let the company know. Or most of the other wrestlers for that matter. I wouldn’t be against the whole world knowing she was all mine one bit. Already was like a female version of me. Fighting styles, the way we dressed, the music. The hair would just confirm it without us saying a word.
“I haven’t been…” She replied.
“Neither have I. If it were up to me, everyone would know. ”
“Oh really?” She leaning into me.
“Hell yeah. It’ll give people hope that if a schmuck like me can get a girl like you, anything’s possible.”
She laughed, rolling her eyes as she hit my chest. “Enough with the flattery anyone’s lucky, it’s me. You know your social media is full of people looking to take my place.”
I laughed, throwing my arms up in a shrug. “Well, let’s not act like you’re isn’t the same. In the end, all that matters is that you belong to me, and I belong to you, right?”
“Touche, Rollins. Touche.” She smiled, leaning in to press her lips against mine.