Title: Meet me at Midnight
Author: Karen U/revivingophelia
Pairing/Character: Eve Torres/Seth Rollins
Disclaimer: No one you recognize belongs to me
Rating: PG/K+
Summary: So it's New Year's Eve, but there's still mistletoe because AJ's crazy. Eve reaps the benefits.
Spoilers: just the general current storylines. set on 12/31/12.
Warnings: a little language.
Notes: This just sort of happened. Sorry.
The divas' champion ducked her way through the corridors of the arena, warily keeping her eye on the ceiling, where mistletoe seemed to be hanging in half the doorways and various other random locations. Rumor had it that in a fit of crazy - or perhaps in what seemed to be a continued attempt to kiss the entire male roster in the span of a year - AJ Lee had been the one to put up the mistletoe despite the fact that Christmas had actually been six days ago and it was now New Year's Eve. And of course the fact that it was New Year's Eve had just led to even more stupid jokes about her name that people thought were funny, punny, or whatever. It was annoying, and Eve Torres just wanted to get through the rest of the night so that the name jokes would stop. She also wanted to get the hell out of the arena without being caught under the mistletoe. Some of the others were having fun with it... Kaitlyn was apparently showing her weirdness by trying to corner every guy with a mustache under a sprig of the wretched plant (Eve seriously didn't understand the idiot diva's fetish for that particular form of facial hair), and Santino had been kissing everybody he could find until an unfortunate incident with Kane had left him in the trainers' room.
Which at least meant that Eve wasn't going to have to deal with the man. Which... thank goodness, 'cause Santino had always seemed annoying and a little bit creepy to her. Of course, even if she made it through the show without getting cornered under the mistletoe, there was still the company New Year's party to get through... But she kind of hoped she could find a corner and just sort of glare at anyone that tried to approach her as midnight came around.
Heaving out a short sigh, Eve adjusted her grip on the title she had slung over her shoulder - a title that she'd now held for over a hundred days now, thank you very much (CM Punk had sent her a congratulatory text message about it when she'd reached the milestone, and she'd responded with a congratulations for his own four hundred day title reign because, you know, *respect*) - the woman rounding the corner and nearly stepping into Layla as she did so... Quickly, Eve veered off to the side, not wanting to give the annoying British diva an opportunity to get a cheap shot in (physically, anyway) and it was because of that quick sidestep that Eve didn't realize that someone else was coming from one of the side hallways (her view was totally blocked by an equipment case that was bigger than she was) and she ended up running into a body that was definitely bigger than hers, her divas' title falling from her shoulder and hitting the concrete floor of the hallway with a clatter.
Hands automatically slid to her waist as the person she'd run into attempted to steady her, and Eve bit back the 'watch where you're going' that threatened to slip from her lips because odds were that if she couldn't see the guy coming around the corner, then he probably hadn't been able to see her, either. Stupid equipment case.
As she looked up to see who she had run into, Eve found herself doubly glad that she hadn't made a nasty comment because the guy she was looking up at wasn't some idiot loser like Zack Ryder or the Miz or whatever. No, not even close. The guy she was looking up at? Was a member of The Shield. That was probably a big reason why Layla wasn't making any snide remarks about the situation; no one wanted to piss off The Shield. Not that they'd gone after any of the divas or anything yet. But that was the operative word: yet.
Quickly, Eve glanced around, trying to get a look over the guys' shoulder to search out the other members of the group - they always seemed to travel in a pack - but no... There was no Dean Ambrose, no Roman Reigns. They were nowhere to be seen. The only member of The Shield that was in the hallway with her was Seth Rollins.
"Sorry, I..." was all Eve managed to say before she trailed off, the diva's champion starting to take a step back from the man, blinking in surprise when his fingers seemed to tighten on her waist for a moment before he let her go.
"It's fine. Accidents happen. I didn't see you, either," he replied, his voice soft, his eyes still on hers, and for some weird reason, Eve found that she couldn't quite make herself turn away. Well, maybe not so weird a reason. After all, ever since The Shield had shown up, despite how dangerous they'd seemed - or maybe because of it - Eve had been a little intrigued by them. Yeah, okay, she didn't necessarily want to run into any of them or make any of them angry, but still... They were fascinating. Especially the one that was in front of her right now. But just because she was fascinated by the tall, dark, and dangerous (not to mention handsome) guy standing in front of her right now didn't mean she should just stand there and gawk like an idiot. Especially since they had an audience, and the audience was someone that really didn't like her.
Eve cleared her throat. "I should just... go," she finally said, feeling like all sorts of an idiot for acting the way she was... But Seth Rollins was hot and he was dangerous and for all her usual confidence around men, that combination sort of unnerved her. Or maybe she was unnerved by the fact that Rollins, Ambrose, and Reigns had already put a few guys on the shelf with injuries and no one really knew exactly what their true motive was. Yeah, that was probably a big reason she found him unnerving. Well, that and the way she still couldn't seem to turn away from his gaze.
And then she heard it. A giggle. Definitely not from her or the man standing in front of her, but definitely nearby which meant... Layla. Because of course Layla El of all people was just a few feet away and probably thoroughly enjoying the sight of Eve reduced to a bumbling fool just from bumping into a guy.
Preparing herself to snap at the other woman, Eve turned her head to look at her, frowning when she saw that Layla wasn't actually looking at her and Seth Rollins and was instead looking... above... them.
Oh, hell. Oh, no. This was not...
Steeling herself slightly, Eve forced herself to look up, somehow completely unsurprised by what she saw hanging over her head.
Stupid freaking AJ.
Because hanging from one of the exposed pipes that ran along the ceiling was a sprig of mistletoe. Of course.
"You know what tradition dictates," Layla said, the smirk evident in her voice, and Eve figured that the other diva probably thought she was scared of Rollins (which she wasn't; she was just a little nervous and more afraid of the idea of The Shield as a group) or maybe the woman had noticed how flustered Eve was and figured out that she was more than a little attracted to the guy. Whatever, it didn't matter. Either way, Layla was a pain in the butt.
"I've never really been much of a traditionalist," Eve replied, finding her voice more easily as she snarked at Layla than she had when she'd tried to say something intelligible to Rollins, the diva quickly turning away from Layla, which was kind of a mistake because that meant that she was once again looking at Seth Rollins and his eyes were on hers and there was this little smile playing on his lips...
"Maybe I am a bit of a traditionalist. About some things, anyway," Rollins replied, and before Eve could even open her mouth to remind him that it wasn't even Christmas anymore so the whole mistletoe rule probably shouldn't even apply any longer, the man had lifted his hand and wrapped it around the back of her neck, drawing her closer as he leaned down and then his mouth was on hers and Eve was pretty sure her mind went completely blank.
Well, except for maybe thinking 'holy crap he's a good kisser'. His lips were soft and warm and he knew how to put just enough pressure that her mouth just sort of slid open and then she felt the brush of his tongue against her lips and then his tongue was in her mouth and his hand had moved up into her hair... And somehow, her hands had come up to slide over his arms and up to his shoulders, her fingers digging into the material of the black t-shirt that he wore. And Eve had no idea how long they stood there like that, his mouth on hers, the diva giving as good as she got when it came to the kiss, but eventually they had to come up for air, and Eve found herself lowering her feet more fully to the ground (she'd somehow ended up standing on her toes as she'd clutched at him) the diva staring up at him in a way that could probably only be described as wide-eyed.
"Holy shit, that was hot," a distinctly British voice muttered from a few feet away, and then there was the sound of someone hurrying off, and Eve just knew that Layla was running off to tell everyone she knew what she'd just seen and how Eve was such a skank for kissing a guy like that under the mistletoe.
Rollins gave a bit of a smile, just the corner of his mouth turning up. "She's not wrong," he said quietly, leaning forward to drop another kiss on her lips, this one pretty much the chaste kiss that would be more appropriate between two almost-strangers beneath the mistletoe. "She also wouldn't be wrong if she ran around saying it was something I'd wanted to do for awhile."
"It... She... She wouldn't?" Eve echoed, more than a little flabbergasted because she'd sure as hell never seen anything to indicate that Rollins or any of his group had given a second thought (or even a first thought) to any of the women in the company. They'd pretty much seemed intent on just making a name for themselves by beating people up and hadn't seemed to have time for anything else.
"Definitely not," he replied, that little smile on his face again, and Eve just knew that he could read the interest all over her face. She was usually so good at hiding that... But he'd pretty much managed to just about kiss her brains out a few moments before and her excellent poker face wasn't exactly on right now. His smile deepened slightly, which just made him all the better looking. "I've wanted to do that for awhile."
"Good to know," Eve told him, watching as his smile widened even more, and then she frowned slightly as he suddenly leaned down, the diva blinking in surprise when she realized that he was bending down to pick up the title belt that had fallen when they'd bumped into each other. She started to reach out to take it from him, but he pulled it back slightly, then carefully draped it over her shoulder, much as she'd been holding it before.
"I should go. Before Dean and Roman come looking for me," he said, starting to step around her, then stopping, turning his head to look at her again. "You know, tonight's New Year's Eve," Rollins stated, and Eve found herself bracing for some sort of stupid joke... But none came. Probably because Seth didn't have the same kind of juvenile sense of humor as guys like Cena or Zack Ryder did.
"I might be aware of that," Eve replied, and the man smiled at her.
"Yeah, well, maybe I'll see you at midnight," he told her, smiling again before he headed off down the hallway, leaving Eve to consider the more or less mandatory company party after RAW that night and then contemplate the possibility of a repeat performance of that kiss if she just happened to be next to the man once the countdown to the new year rolled around.
Damn straight he'd be seeing her at midnight.
The End