Seth Rollins was staring out the window of his Health Sciences class while doodling on a piece of paper.
"Good morning class." Mr. Jericho said as he entered the class room and put his coffee cup down on the desk.
"Good morning Mr. Jericho." The class said in unison.
"Today we start out next project and you will all become parents." He said as he opened the closet and pulled out a large container filled with realistic looking baby dolls. "Since our last team project caused such a... commotion, I have decided to chose the teams myself completely at random."
Seth thought back to the 'commotion' last month and looked at the boy that was the cause of it all. Roman Reigns. Roman was the epitome of tall, dark and handsome. 18 years old, 6'3, over 200 lbs of muscle and the captain of the football team. He had long hair and a gorgeous face that all the girls swooned over. He was also the coolest, nicest, most popular guy in school and all the boys wanted to be his friend. All of the boys, that is, except for Seth.
Seth looked down at what he had been doodling. Hearts of various sizes decorated his notebook, all of them with Roman's name inside of them and sighed.
The 'commotion' last month was actually all about who got to be Roman's partner for a class project. Every boy and girl in the class scrambled over to him and two fights actually broke out. Fists flew on the boys side and slaps on the girls and there were a few bloody noses before Mr. Jericho was able to break up the fights and the whole class received detentions because of it even if you were like Seth and weren't involved in the fighting.
Mr. Jericho pulled out a hat with slips of paper in it. "When I call your name, come up and get your baby."
The first names he called were Becky and Charlotte and of course the class started giggling at a same-sex couple.
"Oh grow up!" Mr, Jericho said to the class as he handed a male baby to the best friends.
As the baby lottery continued, Seth hid his doodles and only half listened for his name. It didn't really matter to him who he was paired up with because odds are he wouldn't get who he really wanted.
"Seth." Mr. Jericho called and Seth got up to walk to the front. "And Roman." He continued, pulling another slip of paper our of the hat and almost giving Seth a heart attack.
Seth had stopped walking when Mr. Jericho said Roman's name but luckily his friend Corey gave him a push and he started walking again. When he got to the front of the room and stood next to Roman in front of the desk, it kind of felt like a wedding, but instead of Mr. Jericho pronouncing them husbands, he proclaimed them the parents of a little girl in a purple dress and bonnet. Seth took the doll and wordlessly walked back to his desk. He sat down with a thud and looked down at the doll.
He was Roman's partner for the next few weeks! He tried to cover his face because he broke out into a goofy grin. He had the biggest crush on Roman but was too shy to talk to him, now he would have the chance.
After all the babies were handed out, everyone assembled into their teams and Roman pulled another desk over and sat down next to Seth.
Seth suddenly started to get nervous. Usually he was a talkative guy but he was so nervous he didn't know if he could even talk to Roman right now.
"Hi." Roman said as he sat down.
Seth couldn't speak to the beauty sitting next to him so he just nodded his head.
"What do you think we should name our little girl?" Roman asked in his deep voice.
Seth mentally shook himself. He couldn't afford to fail this class just because Roman was hot and sexy. "I don't know, what does she look like?"
"A creepy doll." Roman answered wryly. "But I doubt we could call her that."
"How about Annabelle, after that evil doll in those movies." He suggested.
Roman laughed and Seth's heart sped up. "I like it." Roman held Annabelle up and faced her towards both of them. "Annabelle, we're your daddies, don't kill us."
Seth giggled, "You goof!"
Roman smiled at him and Seth fell into those beautiful brown eyes. "How about I take her for our morning classes and you take her for afternoon classes so I can go to football practice and she won't be alone. We can alternate nights I guess. Is that okay with you?"
"Sounds good to me." He said
"Are you coming to watch practice tlater?" Roman asked.
"Um." Seth stalled. He didn't know that Roman had noticed him sitting in the bleachers watching practice. He had hated football until he started going to practices and games just to watch Roman, but now he really loved it. "Yes, I think so."
"Then I'll get her from you after practice and take her home tonight." Roman said, flipping through their assignment folder.
"Okay, that means I take her tomorrow night." He said looking at Roman but being careful not to stare.
"Yeah." Roman said, still cradling Annabelle in one arm. "Is your locker still B158."
Seth nodded, shocked Roman even knew where his locker was.
"Then I'll meet you there in the morning and give her to you."
The bell signaling lunch rang and everyone started gathering their things and putting desks in order.
"Remember everyone, I have spies everywhere and if they see you mistreating your babies or anyone elses, you will fail this project. And if you bring your babies back in anything other than perfect condition, you will fail." Mr. Jericho called from the door. "No dirt, pen marks, dents, holes or anything like that and their clothes should be clean too. Dismissed."
Roman gave Annabelle to him and waved as he went to lunch, probably with his cousins Jimmy and Jey and their girlfriends.
Seth gathered his things and waited on Corey to be finished with his partner Sasha. Sasha took their baby and left.
Corey came over to him. "So, did you confess your undying love to him yet?"
"Shh." He whispered. "Of course not, he's just my partner in class not in life." Corey was the only one that knew Seth was gay and he knew about his crush on Roman too. Corey was always encouraging Seth to ask Roman out but Corey didn't understand. Corey successfully asked out any girl he wanted but a gay guy couldn't do that. If Roman was straight, he could laugh or worse beat him up. School life was hard for a gay guy.
"He's not going to wait for you forever, you know." Corey said, hefting his backpack over his shoulder. "Use this as a chance to get close to him then make your move."
"I'd be happy just getting an A on this project. He mumbled to himself as he followed after Corey.
The last class of the day ended and Seth was at his locker packing his backpack to take home. "Well Annabelle, time to go see your Daddy." He put his bag over one shoulder and cradled Annabelle in his arms as he walked out to the football field. He chose a spot on the bleachers and put down his jacket as a makeshift bed for Annabelle to lay on. He passed the time waiting for the players to come out texting with Corey and his cousin Dean and before he knew it, Roman was running out onto the field. He gave the practice all of his attention, watching as Roman gracefully ran play after play; they were going to have a great season this year thanks to Roman.
When the team took a break, Roman took his helmet off and took a drink of water before turning to the bleachers and smiling right at Seth.
Seth squeed internally and waved back, hoping he didn't look too goofy or eager. Roman waved back and went back to practice and Seth picked Annabelle up and squeezed her in a tight hug.
When practice finally finished, Seth waited outside the locker room for Roman to finish showering. His shyness around Roman seemed to be going away now that he had actually spent some time with him and seen for himself that Roman was a great guy.
Roman finally walked out with his wet hair up in a bun and smiled when he saw him waiting there for him. "You're a guy, you could have just came into the locker room you know, instead of waiting out here."
He ducked his head in case he blushed. "I didn't want to bother the team." More like he was worried that seeing Roman naked would ruin him for all other men.
"No bother." Roman said nonchalantly. "Our friends come in there all the time.
They lapsed into silence and Seth cleared his throat. "Well here's the baby." He said trusting Annabelle into Roman's arms.
"Okay, I guess I'll see you in the morning at your locker?" Roman said, turning to the door.
"Yeah, see you then." He said half-heartedly.
Roman continued walking and gave a casual half wave over his shoulder.
Seth slapped the heel of his hand to his forehead. He was an idiot.
The rest of the week went smoothly and Seth felt more and more comfortable with Roman. He was just another guy after all, an incredibly hot guy, but just another guy. It turned out that they had more in common than just football and being in the same class. They both loved wrestling, pineapple pizza, video games and camping.
It was Saturday afternoon and they had decided to meet up at Romans house to work on their project. Seth was sitting at Roman's desk and Roman was on the bed.
"Hey Seth, can I borrow some paper?" Roman asked.
"Sure." Seth said, gently tossing his binder on the bed for Roman. He heard some papers rustling and continued typing on his laptop.
"Uh, Seth." Roman said, "What's this?"
Seth turned in the chair and froze in terror as he saw what Roman was holding up. It was his pages of doodled hearts. Some with Roman's name, some with Roman + Seth, and some with R.R + S.R. He briefly wondered if he could jump out the window before Roman caught him and beat the crap out of him.
"Seth?" Roman asked again.
Seth looked down at his hands. He couldn't stand to look at Roman and see disgust on his face. It was time to come clean.
He stood up and tried to look as confident as possible. "I'm gay and I have a crush on you." He took a deep breath. "You don't have to worry, I'm not going to make a move on you or anything and the only other person that knows is Corey so you won't be gossiped about for hanging around with the class 'fag'."
He kept his head down and tried to grab all of his belongings but he had to duck around Roman to get his binder. He held his breath and went for it but Roman grabbed him by the shoulders.
"It's okay, Seth." Roman said gently. "I'm gay too."
Seth looked up into Roman's eyes and time stood still. Roman was gay! They really did have a lot in common. He watched as almost in slow-motion, Roman's face got closer to his and then Roman's lips were on his. It wasn't his first kiss, that had gone to Corey when Seth was 17 and worried that he hadn't been kissed yet but it was his first real kiss and it was even more wonderful than he had imagined. Roman's lips were firm, yet soft and moved on his own so tenderly.
He reached his arms up and wound them around Roman's neck and pulled him closer. Roman ran his tongue over Seth's bottom lip and he shivered and opened his mouth and then they were kissing for real.
"Roman, Seth, it's time for lunch!" Roman's mother yelled up the stairs causing them to jump apart guiltily.
"Okay, Mom!" Roman yelled and looked at Seth apologetically.
Seth smiled shyly and held Roman's hand and Roman smiled back.
A week passed and they were officially dating. Their schoolmates more or less accepted them but the girls kind of hated Seth for taking Roman off the market. The guys still thought Roman was cool and still wanted to be his friend which kind of made Seth jealous, but he dealt with it because Roman was the perfect, attentive boyfriend. Oh yeah, and the icing on the cake was they got an A+ on the project that brought them together in the first place.