Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Author Note: This fic was written and set in 2014 before Paige's character changed during her feud with AJ Lee. Title is a modified lyric from the song 'Coming Home' by Diddy-Dirty Money featuring Skylar Gray.

OUR KINGDOM AWAITS

Seth wanted to roar, he wanted to sneer and snarl at the pitiful remains of Evolution, at Hunter playing the family man while also having entire livelihoods unmercifully destroyed. Seth wanted to laugh at Randy Orton, a snake in the grass who truly believed his own publicity, and at Kane, a demon on a leash. What would his brother say?

Seth wanted to sink a fist into all of them. Instead, he wore a tailored black suit and smirked at his former business associates. He unleashed his fury on Dean and told the world that Dean belonged in a straitjacket in a rubber room and that Roman had no idea how to succeed without Seth there guiding him. He looked as though he relished the power that he'd bought into, the money and the perks. He looked as though he had no regrets.

God, he hated this. He was surrounded by sycophants, he was pretending to be one of them but he wasn't enjoying it at all. The only thing he was enjoying was getting under the skin of the Authority, learning their secrets and collecting a lot of usable leverage. It'd been the only way to truly make sure that Evolution and eventually the Authority too were stamped out for good. Dean and Roman hadn't liked the idea of him going so deep undercover both long-term and without back-up but they'd seen the value of his plan too. How else could they make sure that the injustice of the Authority was permanently wiped out? What better way was there to achieve that than to take it apart from the inside out?

Seth missed his friends, his brothers. He missed his girlfriend too. He missed long hours spent on the road with them all, grabbing meals in crappy diners, arguing over radio stations and finding the best places to call home-base in every new arena, the places that the Authority never found. Seth had recently revealed a few of those locations to his new 'friends' but he knew that Dean and Roman had already found new places to call home.

He didn't know what those new places were, he couldn't. He couldn't speak to his former Shield cohorts at all, unless he was sneering or verbally abusing them. That was what the Authority needed to see and believe so Seth did it with gusto. He tried not to think about how torn up Roman's back was or how hard he'd hit Dean. They understood, they had to.

He had to show the world and especially the Authority the attitude that they needed to believe in every minute of every day. It was extremely wearing. His hotel room was the only time and place he got any peace and where he could actually be himself, not some Authority puppet drunk on power.

He could survive alone, without anyone he actually trusted at his back. But he didn't like or enjoy it, at all. He was drained to his very core, not that the Authority knew that because he was very good at wearing this particular mask. Thank fuck the Authority didn't expect him to spend every night with them. Hunter was with his family, Randy had gone out looking for tail, and Kane had gone to whichever pit he currently called home. Seth was thankfully heading to his own hotel room.

Once he'd gotten inside, he did his usual check for listening devices. So far, he'd only found a couple of very sleek expensive ones hidden very professionally in the various luxurious hotel rooms that the Authority had booked for him on the road. He'd deliberately not touched them, ignoring them instead, revealing nothing that'd make his employers suspicious of him. The Authority liked to have eyes and ears on their chosen ones, especially those who'd just switched sides. Seth couldn't fault them for that.

Tonight, there were no bugs; they trusted him a lot now. So he pulled off his black suit jacket and began unbuttoning his shirt. He called down for room service because it wasn't safe to stop for food on the road, not when so many of the locker room were looking to end him. It was a good thing, he had to keep reminding himself of that, because if the locker room was convinced then the Authority had to be too.

There was a knock at the door. "Room service."

"It's open."

A trolley was pushed in by a slim figure clad in a maid's uniform. Seth didn't notice how familiar she was until she locked the door behind her. Seth looked up sharply, about to ask what the hell she was doing. Then he realized who he was looking at.

Paige launched herself across the room into his arms. Seth held onto her tightly, full of shock as his heart raced fast and his breaths shuddered. For a long moment, neither of them spoke. They were locked together in the warm stuffy silence. Seth wondered briefly what would happen if he spoke, would Paige disappear?

Paige kissed him, her mouth hungry and glad. Seth more than matched her. He could feel her fingers digging into him hard enough to bruise. He welcomed the marks, he needed them. The fact that she was here was enough of a miracle, he knew that she wasn't going to be able to stay all that long.

God, she was here. Seth held her tighter.

"You're here," he finally spoke, unable to stay silent any longer.

Paige's laugh was sharp and familiar. "There's no fooling you, is there?"

She kissed him again, tasting of tea and the cold metal tang of the outside world. Seth sank into the kiss, wanting more of her taste, wanting to feel it down to his bones, wanting, needing, to be surrounded by it. The barriers he'd kept up over the past few weeks fell away, at last he could let go.

Paige pulled back in order to breathe and, for some reason, yanked the lids off of the room service dishes. It was everything that Seth had ordered, how had she managed that? He asked but she just raised her eyebrows and swiped a fry off of one of the plates. Right, she wasn't going to tell him because if he needed to keep the Authority on side he had to give up those kind of secrets carelessly, like he was maliciously glad to tell them. And while he'd do everything he could to protect Dean, Roman and Paige, he'd give up Paige's friends if he had to. She understood but she'd do everything to look after the people she cared about too.

"Same place you got that outfit?" he teased.

Paige smiled, plucking at the cheap material. "It suits me."

"Oh completely."

She'd made an effort to look different, the uniform did most of the work, her trademark black eye makeup was absent and her hair was very smartly pinned up. Seth started on the pizza, lifting a slice to reveal an unexpected bonus – a cellphone. Paige's smile was proud and firm, her arms still wrapped around him. Neither of them were willing to let the other go.

"Don't bring it to the arenas. We'll get burners to you if we can."

A lifeline. Seth touched the screen. He'd actually be able to talk to his friends, the relief he felt was enormous. Paige squeezed him tighter and shoved a couple of fries into his mouth. His heart sank when she checked her watch.

"I've got about a couple of hours until my ride gets here. If there's any Authority movement, we're covered."

A couple of hours. Seth swallowed and crushed his mouth to hers. Paige responded immediately, beginning to undo the rest of his shirt buttons as he pulled at her clothing. They had a lot to talk about but this intimacy, this Seth needed just as much. Paige kicked off her shoes and dragged him onto the bed.

Seth pressed kisses to her neck, her collarbone, her breasts. He felt her nails scrape down his back as he marked her with his teeth. It wasn't too long before he was burying himself in her. They fell into an urgent rhythm, her heels locking low at his back, their mouths slipping together and apart in gasps. Both of them dug in, wanting to leave their mark.

Time didn't mean anything, Seth couldn't keep track. He knew that he kissed the curves of Paige's breasts again and again and reveled in her porcelain skin, the aspects of her that were uniquely unequivocally Paige . He knew that he relearned her, touching places that made her breath catch and her whole body heat up. He knew that every pulled-taut part of him loosened and melted.

Eventually they almost stilled, lying tangled up together, flushed skin cooling, both unable to stop touching one another. Seth pressed a kiss to her hairline, breathing her in. He'd missed her and he knew that she'd missed him, they'd just communicated that and more.

Now Paige lifted her head, her gaze serious. She was all business. Seth snapped into the same mode just as thoroughly. He felt rejuvenated and they had work to do.

"You really went for it. They knew you had to but they're still healing," Paige started off with.

Seth winced, just a little bit, because he'd waled on Dean and Roman with a steel chair pretty conclusively. Everyone watching, from the fans to the Authority, had seen the shock on Dean and Roman's faces and the vicious triumph that Seth had been wearing. It was supposed to look real and it had, because Dean and Roman hadn't been braced for the attack – Seth hadn't given the agreed-upon signal, he'd just gone for it because their shock had been an important selling point.

"They're okay though."

"They're fighters." Paige paused for a moment before continuing, her tone staying matter-of-fact. "And you enjoyed it."

She didn't sound like she was judging him but Seth still tensed, anger kindling through his veins. Yes, he, Dean and Roman didn't always see eye to eye and there'd been times when he'd been so sick of being the glue that'd held the Shield together. Dean did get a little too crazy sometimes and Roman got a lot of fan attention which never helped keep things even and he frequently needed to get a lock on his volcanic anger. Seth just wanted them both to shut the fuck up and get intent on being a team. When they were all on the same page, the Shield was unstoppable. Sometimes, Seth had been the only thing keeping them focused and it had fucking worn him down. When it came to him turning on them, the whole idea was for it to look authentic so he'd called on a lot of authentic anger.

"We've all got demons," he settled on out-loud. "Mine helped hammer this plan home."

Paige nodded, her fingers touching his chin gently. It'd been a while since Seth had been handled with such tenderness, it made something ache inside of him. He pressed into the touch, wanting it to last.

"Like I said, they understand," Paige told him softly.

The way she spoke told Seth all he needed to know – Dean and Roman had noticed the release he'd felt amid all the vital viciousness. Fuck. But Paige knew them both pretty well now and if she thought that they understood, then maybe they did. Seth hoped so. He didn't want to emerge from this triumphant, only to find that two of the few people he could trust and actually call friends didn't want anything to do with him anymore. It'd be just his fucking luck.

"Money in the Bank," Paige refocused him.

"The word is Bryan's out for a while so Hunter wants the title back under control. He's talking about Randy taking it in the ladder match."

"You won't be-."

"Not in that match, but a Number One Contenders Ladder Match could be set up."

Paige began drawing out her thoughts on his skin, her fingers firm. "And you'd be in that match to have the whole title picture locked down."

"Right."

"If Dean keeps focused on you, he needs to be in that match."

"If he keeps doing what he's doing, I'll insist he should be included, you know, because he'll make himself part of the match anyway so."

Paige smiled, her expression telling a lot of stories that Seth wasn't privy to because he'd been buried in the Authority. He shoved away the pain that he was feeling. He wouldn't be mired here forever, he couldn't be.

"Roman'll work on getting into the title match then."

Seth smiled now and caught hold of her hand. "I know he will."

Paige didn't offer any thoughts on how Roman might do that because things that important needed to be kept separate just in case. Seth hated not knowing what his friends were doing, he hated not being able to help them, at least this way he couldn't. It was better, safer, this way, for everybody. It still made something clench sickeningly inside of Seth though, because he should be watching his friends' backs. He was, by playing the long game, but it was still crushingly hard to sit back and act thrilled when they got beat.

Paige stayed until her phone buzzed; her ride was ready. She didn't say who it was or how she'd gotten hold of both a maid's uniform and Seth's room service order. Seth didn't ask, he watched as she redressed and pinned her hair back up since it'd come dramatically loose unsurprisingly. She was moving quickly, checking that she had everything she needed. Seth drank her in, not wanting to miss a single detail for so many frustrating nights to come. He missed good company; Dean throwing rocks at passing cars that'd annoyed him, Roman's football workouts during ridiculous heat, Paige laughing and rolling her eyes, firing off jibes about the differences between America and England.

Paige suddenly straightened up. "In case of emergency, call and hang up."

Seth nodded. Paige pressed fingers to her lips then extended her arm towards him. She wasn't going to get close again, it'd only make it that much harder for her to leave. They both had work to do, this had just been a glorious vacation, a rest stop that they'd both needed and earned. Seth clenched a fist to his chest in reply, Paige's smile broke a little at the edges but she still turned resolutely and walked out, her head dipped deferentially, her gait completely different.

Seth lay still for a moment, his body aching. There were marks on his neck and chest, marks that would be comfortably hidden by a shirt. Even in the heat of passion, Paige had had her mind on what was ahead. Seth could still smell her, he took a deep breath. He had a lot to think about.

He got up to grab more pizza because fuck, he was ravenous now. The food was still warm. When he turned towards the mini-bar, he caught sight of the phone Paige had brought him. He picked it up, there were no numbers saved on it. Another precaution. Seth got himself a beer and opened it with his teeth. He sat down, still naked, still holding the phone in one hand, a beer in the other.

Tonight was turning out to be a night for reconnection, for bolstering for battle. Paige had needed to see him as much as he'd needed to see her. Maybe she wasn't the only one.

He punched in a number that he knew by heart and took several sips of beer. His heartbeat felt loud in his ears, his foot was jiggling. If they hung up on him, he'd understand. Paige had said that they'd gotten why he'd done what he'd done but she'd also said that they were still healing.

There was a loud garbled noise in his ear when someone picked up. Then Dean was shouting at somebody or something, it was hard to tell. Seth grinned instantly, he remembered so many nights like that, Dean itching to release the anger that frequently made him shake. Roman was probably there too, silently warning anyone off who wanted to take serious issue with Dean. Seth missed that, he missed wearing jeans and his parachute vest, he missed that armor. A tailored suit was a completely different kind of protection, one that was working well for him so far.

"Speak up, Jude."

That was Dean, sounding deliberately laconic. Jude for Judas, even out on the street Dean was keeping his covert connection to Seth a coded secret. Seth's grin widened, they had layers upon layers at work here and the Authority hadn't even seen through the first one. Oh, this victory was going to be emphatic and iconic. Fuck, it was good to hear Dean's voice without any cameras around to affect things, to hear the actual truth of Dean. Seth felt that clench begin to unfold in his chest. The situation had bruised and exhausted all three of them, maybe it'd cut them all deep. But they all still had each other, they were still brothers. Seth's grin was vicious again, this time because of an entirely different kind of victory.

"We're loud and clear here."

No hang-ups on either end, it still wasn't an emergency yet.

-the end