Open the Glass

By: PhoenixJustice

Disclaimer: I don't own anything WWE related; whether that be the storylines, the characters, or the people who portray them. I only own this and make no profit from it.

Warning: Rated T for language, kayfabe, etc.

Character/Pairings: Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, mentions of Dean Ambrose/Seth Rollins, etc.

Setting: During the October 6th Raw.

Summary: They were Brothers. With each other until the end, trusting one anothers back...until Seth ruined it with a chair to the back of those he vowed to be there for. To love.

A/N: I couldn't help myself with this. A few things happened during this Raw which just screamed at me to write fic. 1: Reigns in Brooklyn updating about his condition. 2: Ambrose leaving on the subway to god knows where. These things just kind of clicked in my mind and demanded I write a piece. My first Shield piece.

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"What the hell are you doing here?" is the first thing he hears from Dean as he bursts through the room, all high strung and full of restless energy as he always was.

"Nice seeing you too." Roman says mildly. He stretches carefully in his bed. He was still very sore and tender from surgery and wasn't up to much, but he couldn't exactly say no to WWE when they wanted to get a on-air telling of his condition and how he was recovering from surgery. He was just as anxious as the fans were to get back in the ring. For many reasons. One of them was staring holes into him as he paced the floor of the hotel room he had just burst into (he had left the door unlocked because he assumed that the other man would make an appearance soon enough. He just didn't expect it to be in the middle of Raw.) "Shouldn't you, I don't know, be on the show?"

"What? And help that prick, Cena? Fuck no. I need to, I dunno, something."

"Well at least sit down. I'm not paying the bill if you run a hole through the floor."

Ambrose snorts but sits anyway, a foot tapping the floor rhythmically. Roman knew Dean had his compulsions, things he couldn't help, it was just part of his makeup; both genetically as well as from the kind of life he had led. One that Roman would never envy anyone having had to live. It was a miracle Dean had come out of it as sane as he had. Most might argue with the sane bit, but Roman didn't listen to others, and Roman knew Dean. Knew him greater than almost anyone else in his life, save one, and that one had turned his back on them so maybe he didn't know him too well after all...but Dean? He knew Dean.

Dean was his Brother. They had come from different places, lives, but had come together from the bottom and formed more than a mere team. They bonded. They rode together, talked together, talked about their dreams, their desires, they had each others backs. In a world where to get to the top was a hard road, they had each others backs. They fought for one another. It had been idealic, perfect. And then... He shakes his head. It wouldn't do good to dwell on that now. Not with Dean so close. Maybe later, but now? Not now. Dean was such a fragile thing. For all he portrayed a cocky badass (and he certainly was), there was also a fragility there that Roman was sure that no one else saw in his eyes, his actions, other than himself.

And Seth.

It was hard not to think about him, their brother. Betrayal or not, it was hard to think of him as anything other than their brother. The person he had laughed with, the person who had quietly talked about his desire to reach the top after all the hard work he had put in the business, the person who had never faltered, who had had their backs...until he put a steel chair to them.

It had nearly taken everything out of Dean, that betrayal. Not to say it didn't hurt him. It did. It tore at something deep and primal within him and it hurt as bad as the physical pain he was dealing with post surgery. Dean was a person who had been burned badly in the past by things and his trust was a fragile thing. To be given Dean Ambrose's trust was a thing that one should never take for granted. Roman knew what it meant for Dean to trust someone again, to not worry if someone would attack him, stab him in the back, not have to sleep with one eye open. To be able to relax, well as much as someone with his energy was able to. Roman understood what it meant to have it. He knew Seth did too. Seth had to. Even if he betrayed them, he knew that trust. He knew what it meant for Dean. Especially when it came to Seth.

They didn't talk about it. It was still too fresh (maybe it would always be so). Dean refused half the time to talk when Seth's name was mentioned, other times would rant and rave and would curl up into himself, refusing to speak for hours or even days. Seth had been Dean's world in a way that Roman was not, would never be. It wasn't like that between them. He loved Dean. Dean was his Brother and always would be, no matter what else happened, but it wasn't that kind of love between them.

But Seth and Dean? It hadn't gotten to that point, but...it could have. You had to have been blind not to see what it was between them, the what could have been. Not to see that look in Dean's eyes that had surely never been there before, a look that Roman was afraid Dean would never feel, or allow himself to feel, again. They had gotten close, so close, with just a little more time...but then Seth betrayed them and in doing so, burned the bright light in Dean's eyes.

Dean had somehow, after all he had been through in life, managed to put back the pieces of his shattered self with tape and glue, barely managing to hold together but had been holding together, strengthened by him and Seth with him. When Seth hurt them...hurt Dean, he had shattered something that had been so fragile to begin with, and Roman wasn't sure if he could mend it back together again. Not on his own.

"I just couldn't take it anymore, you know? Cena all up n' my face and shit, and all the shit with him." He knew the him that Dean was talking about. You think as much as he said Seth's name on tv he'd be able to say it fine outside of it but it was the opposite; he knew how much it hurt Dean, and how hard it was, to say Seth's name, to speak at him, look at him, after everything. Getting his hands on him and hurting him was just about all that was left holding him up. "Needed a break. And to see you." He runs one hand through his hair, pointing a finger at Roman. "You're supposed to be healing up, Ro, not sitting around doing shit for Vince and the other guys."

Roman snorts. "You think I lap up everything they tell me to do and say? You know better than that, Am." Dean flinches and he nearly does as well. Shit. He didn't mean to say that, had been very good and careful about steering away from things, phrases, nicknames, that Seth used to. He didn't mean to slip up, but he'd still berate himself about it later. He wouldn't say sorry though, that'd just make it worse. Best to ignore it for now. "Just getting restless. All this downtime is driving me crazy."

Dean rolls his eyes. "Yeah, well at least you don't have to deal with the Authority right now. Cause let me tell you; they're annoying pains in my ass."

"So you're just going to stay away the rest of the night then?" He asks Dean. "Wouldn't this be a great opportunity to get back at them? I mean Kane and Randy'll be out there as well as, you know," he continues carefully. "And Cena."

Dean rolls his shoulders, standing back up again, seeming unable to control himself anymore. He starts pacing again.

"Yeah, but they'll see me coming. I mean I left, but you know they gotta be thinking when I'll be back, not if. Angry or not." Dean was many things but stupid was not one of them. He might give off the impression sometimes of pure impulsiveness (and to be fair, he was impulsive often) but he wasn't just impulsive. There was also a lot of thought in there too, swirling around in the complex, and fragile, mind of Dean Ambrose. "I'll have to do something to surprise 'em."

He lets Dean stew there for a bit. What Dean needed was a few things. He hoped time would help with what was the real issue, but knew that there wasn't enough time that could help Dean with what troubled him. Not tonight. Maybe not the next night, or the next week, or the next month, or the next year either. However long it took, though, he'd be there for him. And although he didn't understand why Seth did what he did, maybe he never knew, he wanted to. He wanted so badly to grab Seth by his silly leather outfit and throw him in a room with Dean and hash everything out. The odds of that were slim, but it was a hope he held onto. A hope that kept him from feeling sorry for himself while injured, a hope that made him work all the harder to get back quicker. If he had to sit against the door to keep them from getting out, he would do so. One way or another. He refused to let his family splinter off permanently. He refused to think of Seth as anything less than his Brother, as Dean was his Brother. He'd make this work.

But first, Seth could do with a little humilation. To start to make up for what he did to Dean. It had been done to him as well, but it wasn't the same. Seth was his Brother. But to Dean, Seth was Seth. Something different from his Brother, something special. So, humiliation it was.

"Hmm. I heard you were hungry; there's a hot dog vendor a couple blocks away. Sells some good stuff."

Dean stops his pacing and glances at Roman.

He grins.

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A/N: So I was watching Raw and kept getting bombarded by plot-bunnies to write this. Everything just seemed to click into place and it felt like, hey, Reigns is in Brooklyn (I remember a site or something saying he'd be in Brooklyn or something to that effect) and Ambrose took off, so why wouldn't he go off to see Reigns? Things kind of spiraled from there lol.

I hope you enjoyed this!

Let me know what you thought!

-PhoenixJustice