Disclaimer: I only own Bella.

A/N: Just a quick one shot I threw together when I came across a writing prompt. Enjoy! Review.


Something had been bothering Bella all day and Seth was going to get to the bottom of it. His normally bubbly and talkative friend was quiet and frowning backstage during RAW. The only time she smiled was when she made her way to the ring. After her music ended and Liv's started, her smile dissolved, seemingly falling into her scripted anger with the blonde she was going to wrestle.

When they weren't busy, Seth made numerous attempts to talk to her and figure out what was going on. She would respond with 'I'm tired', 'I'm fine', or just a shrug to indicate she was anything but fine. Instead of driving back to the hotel with him, she had opted on leaving earlier in the night with Nattie.

On his way back to the hotel, Seth stopped at an all night convenient store and picked up her favorite pint of ice cream, Doritos, Dr. Pepper, and Snickers. Armed with the bag of goodies, Seth went to her hotel room. He knocked on the door, anxiously waiting for her to let him in.

When Bella finally opened the door, Seth's face collapsed into concern when he saw her. Her big brown eyes looked sad, worn, and defeated. Her normally smiling lips were turned into a frown and she had hardly said anything to him when she let him in.

"I brought your favorites." Seth announced with some cheer in his voice. He dumped the entire bag on her dresser. He picked up the ice cream and held it out towards her. "It was the last one. It was meant for you tonight."

Bella took the ice cream that was in his hand and plopped down onto the bed. She looked at the ice cream before looking at Seth. "I can't eat right now, Seth."

"Bullshit." Seth remarked. With his own ice cream in hand, he sat down next to her and started peeling the plastic around the lid off. "Talk to me. What's going on?"

"I don't want to talk about it, Seth."

She started picking at the plastic around her ice cream lid.

"You know you can tell me anything, Bella." Seth reassured her. "Please, I've been worried about you all day. You can talk to me."

His words hung in the air as she finally peeled the plastic off. She grabbed the plastic he was holding in his hands and got up to toss it in the trash. She went to the little kitchenette and got two spoons. She handed Seth his and then sat down next to him again.

"I don't even know where to begin."

"The beginning is a good start." He smiled when he heard her small chuckle. "There's the girl I know!"

Bella glanced at Seth and with a shake of her head, she sighed. She had played a similar scenario in her head all day long, hoping to find the best words to explain what happened the night before. But nothing she thought of sufficed. In every scenario, she could see Seth's shock and eventual rejection. On top of everything else that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, she wouldn't be able to handle Seth blowing her off. At the same time, Bella knew if she didn't say anything she would go absolutely mad.

"Baron and I broke up."

"What? When?" Seth asked, shocked.

Bella and Baron had been together for the last five years. They had both signed with WWE around the same time and were even featured on NXT programming around the same time. They had spent a lot of time together in developmental and eventually started dating until they just became a thing.

"Last night." Bella replied with a shaky breath. She got up and set her untouched ice cream on the dresser in front of them. "We just had a big blow up fight and it was over. I couldn't handle the fights anymore."

Seth hadn't even known they were having problems. He put his ice cream down next to hers. He popped a squat in front of her, his hands resting on her knees.

"How long have you been fighting?"

"About three months." Bella cried. "We tried like hell to work it out, but we couldn't find a way around it."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want to make you feel bad."

"Look at me." Seth chucked her under the chin. "Nothing you ever say or do will make me feel bad."

Bella tilted her head back and looked up at the ceiling, a weak effort to hide her tears from Seth. She wiped them away and then looked at him again. Her lower lip was quivering in an attempt to hold her tears back.

"We started fighting three months ago. That was right around the time I went to Moline with you. Remember? I spent the week with you to train at Black & Brave."

Seth remembered it well. He remembered the good time they had, being away from anything WWE related and just being able to hang out and have fun in the ring. He also remembered Baron constantly texting or calling Bella. Seth wasn't stupid, he knew that Baron didn't like that they were such close friends. He hated whenever they were all together and Baron would wrap an arm around Bella and then smirk at Seth, as if telling him to backoff.

"I think it goes without saying that Baron never liked the friendship you and I shared. Up until then, he never showed his agitation. I noticed he would just grow quiet if I mentioned traveling with you or hanging out with you, but he never outright said anything. After that visit..."

Her voice trailed off when another round of tears started. Seth wiped them away with the pads of his thumbs.

"It's okay, calm down. Take a deep breath." He coached.

"He was just paranoid after that. Any time I mentioned seeing you, or he saw the rumors online, he would lose his shit. We would fight. It would take me hours to convince him that we were only friends. It took me hours to convince myself that I was happy with Baron and that I felt nothing but platonic feelings for you."

"What?"

Seth wasn't sure where this was going. He wasn't sure if he had heard her right. Yes, he'd always had feelings for her, but never said anything. There was never a time where they were both single that he could tell her about his feelings. Now, after ending a five year relationship, she was telling him.

"I've always struggled with my feelings for you. We've always only been friends." Bella sucked in a breath. "Someone would always say that we should be together and I would always laugh it off. But the thought would always be in my head afterwords, wondering what we would be like together. Then, I would just have to remind myself we were friends and that these people were just trying to confuse me."

He remembered back to that visit three months ago. He remembered how they fell asleep watching Game of Thrones and how they woke up. His arms were around her shoulders and her head was on his chest. He remembered waking up before her and just smiling down at her, wishing it could always be like that.

"Ever since that trip to your house, I've been thinking about us and I would have to constantly trick myself into thinking there was no us. At least in that sense." Bella swallowed back the lump she felt in her throat. "When we were filming Up Up, Down, Down with Xavier yesterday, he saw how you and I were playing around with each other. We were having a good time, just picking at each other, trying to make the other lose, and he hated that. When we got to the hotel last night, he called me out on it. He accused me of sleeping with you. Of course, I denied it. You and I never..."

Seth ran a hand through his hair. Was this really happening?

"Are you all right, Seth?"

"I'm fine."

Seth got up and sat next to her on the bed. She cuddled into his side, her head resting on his shoulder. Seth felt her shuddering against him and he knew she was crying again.

"For the last three months, I've been trying to deny the feelings I've been denying all these years and last night I couldn't anymore. I can't trick myself into thinking I'm still in love with Baron, when I know I'm in love with you. I love Baron, just not in that sense anymore. It was more of a comfort thing this last year or year and half and I didn't know why until he kept mentioning it. I just ended it because of you and my feelings for you."

"We've been best friends for ten years and you very recently broke up a very long relationship. Here you are now clinging to me. Listen, I don't want to be your rebound and– wait what do you mean the two of you broke up because of me?"

"I don't know what is going to happen now, but I couldn't go on without telling you how I felt. Seth, I love you." Bella admitted. "I know this is completely insane. I was with Baron for five years and I broke up with him because I couldn't do it anymore. I know it's fucking nuts."

They fell silent. Seth looked at the two pints of ice cream in front of them, probably all melted puddles of cookie dough and mint chocolate chip. This was not what he was expecting. He wasn't expecting her to tell him she broke up with Baron and that she loved him. Yes, he always wanted to know she felt the same way about him, but he never thought it would be this way.

"Say something, Seth."

He let her go and rose to his feet. He looked at her and then started pacing the room. Was now the time to tell her how he felt? How he always felt? Maybe, he should wait until she had completely gotten over Baron and their breakup. They had just broken up, he didn't want to be her rebound.

"I love you too, Bella."

These were words that should have made her happy, instead they made her feel anxious. His pacing and lack of eye contact unnerved her.

"But?"

"You just ended a five year relationship!" Seth exclaimed. He stopped his pacing and stood in front of Bella, looking down at her. "It's not something you just get over at the drop of a hat. I love you, Bella. I won't deny that. I don't want to be the rebound. I don't want us to get together now and then for us to breakup in the end because we dove in too fast."

"What do we do then?"

He got down in front of her again. "I want nothing more than to kiss you right now and hold you and be with you." Seth whispered. "It's killing me that I have to restrain myself. We admitted that we love each other. I'm so happy, but I don't even know what we do now."

Seth got up to his feet and just stared down at her, hoping she would say something, anything. There had to be some kind of a solution that he hadn't thought of and she did.

Bella smiled for the first time that night. "Just shut up and kiss me."

Matching her smile with his own, he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers. He slipped his tongue into her mouth, tangling it with hers. He cupped the side of her face as he tilted his head to the side, deepening the kiss. He could feel every vein in his body catching on fire. He wanted her and now he had her.

Bella twisted her hands in his shirt, scooting further back onto the bed, making Seth crawl onto the bed with her. He was hovering over her, the kiss broken, their eyes on each other and their breathing heavy. He held himself up with one hand, while the other cupped the side of her face.

"This isn't the solution."

"No." Bella smiled. "But it is the beginning."


A/N: Just some angsty, fluff for you to enjoy.