A/N: In the spirit of the season, I had to write a small series of one-shots. This is the first of three. This is also before the Shield split, but I have no exact date. Disclaimer: I don't own anyone familiar, they are the property of the WWE and the people who portray the gimmicks.
Christmas, the most wonderful time of the year. Just hearing the word causes everyone to conger up images of houses decorated in multi-colored lights, slowly falling snow, and people cuddling in front of a roaring fire. Well almost everyone. Dean Ambrose has never had a merry Christmas, his crappy childhood made sure of that.
Dean was laying on the bed in his hotel room. Much of the roster was stranded in Pennsylvania because of an incoming blizzard. At the moment the snow was slowly falling and the blizzard seemed hours away, but that didn't stop the airports from shutting down or driving being limited until it had passed. So here Dean was lying down in a pair of sweats and a t-shirt trying to ignore all the Christmas things happening around him. It was going well until a knock sounded at his door.
"Dean? You in there?" a voice called, which Dean quickly realized belonged to his buddy Roman. Just like Dean, Roman wasn't happy about being stranded in Pennsylvania, but Roman's disappointment stemmed from not being able to spend Christmas with his family, Dean's stemmed from a hatred of the cold.
"Yeah," Dean called not moving an inch, "doors open, come on in." He closed his eyes as he heard the door open and close quickly. Roman walked into his room, bundled up to the t, seemingly ready for a day outside. "What are you wearing?"
"I figured you'd want to pass the time with me outside enjoying the snow." Roman said simply even though he knew Dean hated the snow, there was a reason he lived in Las Vegas it was warm. So Dean gave him his best 'are you shitting me look.' Roman was having none of that and grabbed some of Dean's heavier, warmer clothes, throwing them on the bed at Dean's feet, before leaving his room.
Grumbling, but realizing that there was no fighting with Roman, he got up and changed. "Fine, but I will make it very clear how much I despise this," Dean yelled out after pulling on a thick sweater. Roman just gave him a smile and a nod as Dean emerged from the bedroom.
"Come on, I found out there's a park not far from the hotel, within walking distance," Roman explained making his way towards the door, leaving no room for argument from Dean. Knowing it was better to agree and move on, Dean grabbed his wallet and a thin set of gloves following Roman out the door.
The park wasn't a far walk from the hotel, just as Roman had promised, but it was certainly a cold one. When they got there, Dean noticed that they were the only ones there. Of course, he thought, who would willingly set foot outside when it's this fucking cold outside.
"Hey Dean," Roman called out from a few feet in front of him, "Do you wanna build a snowman?" Dean gave him a confused look, did he want to build a snowman? Probably not, but he couldn't say no to Roman, not when he was missing his family at Christmas. So Dean just gave a little nod and walked over to where Roman was kneeling, already starting to form a snowball.
"Here roll this around until it gets to a few feet all around," Roman explained handing Dean the first snow ball as he worked on a second.
"Fine," Dean groaned sounding both upset and a little happy at the same time. Dean felt like an idiot rolling the small snowball around, making sure it stayed even all around, but it was for Roman he kept telling himself. Repeating the mantra it's for Roman in his head, he began to feel a little less stupid. By the time Dean was finished with the lower body, Roman had already finished the middle and head, clearly more experienced at this than Dean, despite growing up in Florida.
"Ok, now we just have to stack them, and add the face," Roman explained with a giant smile on his face, causing Dean to break out in a small grin. Despite his reluctance at going out in the cold, he like making Roman happy and spending time with his friend. "After this, we can grab some coffee, warm up, and then call Seth for a snowball fight."
The prospect of adding violence to all this torturous cold, made Dean feel better about his stiffening fingers. Roman pulled a carrot for the nose and stones for the eyes and smile seemingly out of nowhere and handed some of the stones to Dean. Roman added the eyes and nose, then waited for Dean, who quickly put the smile on the snowman, wanting to get out of the snow.
"Come on," Dean almost wined, pulling Roman across the street to the small coffee shop, "I want to get out of this stupid snow." Roman let Dean drag him, understanding that he was lucky to get Dean outside this far. When inside Dean ordered his signature salted caramel mocha and Roman ordered his coffee, black with a little sugar.
As Dean sipped on his cup of sugar he gave Roman a look over the edge, "Well go on give Seth a call, I want to get into this violence as soon as possible." Roman smiled, of course Dean was looking forward to the prospect of violence. Giving a little chuckle, he pulled out his phone and pressed Seth's contact. It rang a few times before a sleepy voice answered, "Hello?"
"Hey, it's Roman," he said keeping an eye on Dean, making sure he wouldn't bail.
"What do you need? It's freaking 20 degrees outside and I was planning on spending the extra time sleeping," Seth complained like a 5 year old.
"Dean and I are at the park not far from the hotel and we need a third for a snowball fight," Roman explained hoping to placate the man child. Dean in typical fashion was attempting to distract Roman by making faces at him, not forgetting to add the coffee/whip cream concoction to his upper lip. Roman, luckily managed to keep a straight face, but not before giving Dean a swat to the arm and a playful glare.
"Ugh, fine, give me twenty minutes, and I'll be right there," Seth said with a groan, indicating he had managed to drag himself out of bed. With a quick thank you and goodbye, Roman ended the call and went back to watching Dean, who seemed to be having a little too much fun messing with the whip cream that covered the top of his coffee.
"Seth said he'd be here soon, so finish up your coffee and warming up," Roman told Dean, "soon we'll be back outside participating in the violence you seem to be so keen on participating in."
Dean nodded, stopped playing with his coffee and actually began drinking it while warming up. True to his word, Seth showed up about twenty minutes later, bundled up in long sleeves, a jacket, and a thick pair of gloves.
"Let's get this over with," Dean said, rubbing his hands together both for warmth and in anticipation of the violent snowball fight. Roman looked up, shaking his head with a grin on his face, he wouldn't have expected any different from Dean.
The rules Roman laid down were simple, you could have a snow wall to act as your base, no hiding rocks in the snowballs ("yes Dean, I'm looking at you"), and the fight was over when only one of them was still standing. When everyone was informed of the rules, the boys separated to set up their bases. Seth, the ninja that he is chose to hide up in a tree, Dean chose the rock formation in the middle of the park, loaded with nooks and crannies to hide in, and Roman opted for a snow wall of his own design (closed in on three sides, offering more protection).
When all the boys were situated, Roman called for the start of the snowball fight. Snowballs flied left and right, some hitting their marks, others flying far beyond their intended target. Dean in typical fashion treated the situation like all-out war, his snowballs were packed hard, with every intention to take the others out as quickly as possible. Roman and Seth fought much more fair. It wasn't until Seth took a snowball to the face and fell out of the tree that the fight was called off.
"Ok, ok," Roman said running over to the snowdrift where Seth's form had created a perfect outline, "I surrender." Dean emerged from his rock formation with a big grin on his face.
"Oh he's fine, I made sure to hit him in a way that he'd fall into the deep part for cushion," Dean explained running over to Roman and Seth with a big smile on his face. Seth sat up, keeping the outline he created perfect. Roman could almost see the little birdies flying around his head like in a cartoon.
"You ok, little brother?" Roman asked holding out a hand to help Seth up. Seth gladly took it and they slowly made their way back to the hotel to get changed before agreeing to meeting back in Roman's room.
"Guys, you know what we should do?" Roman asked after Dean and Seth had sat down on the couch in his room. The younger men gave him a confused look, they had built a snowman, gotten coffee, and had an all-out snowball war, what else was there to do?
"We should go walk around and look at the Christmas lights," Roman exclaimed with a giant grin, thinking back to all the times he had done so with his family. Seth and Dean exchanged a look, before nodding, causing to Roman's grin to seemingly grow even larger.
It was starting to get dark and Dean, Roman, and Seth walked down the street of the Pennsylvania town. Roman and Seth were more focused on the lights but Dean, Dean was zeroed in on the two men he was with. They were his family, he realized, and maybe he thought to himself, maybe this will be my first good Christmas, because of the two men in front of him.
