Summary:
Seth had been restless, excited to meet Dean in a ring for the first time. Opposite to popular belief, their fifteen-minute match wasn't the first time they clashed.
It was the most important moment in their careers so far and Dean almost threw it out the window, leaving Seth to pick up the pieces and try to save the day.
This one shot fic can be read on its own. But it will make more sense if you're reading 'Our Story (Whatever It Was)' and is Part 4 of the 'As Long As We Know The Truth' series. Here we'll see Seth's point of view of the events going on in chapters 11 and 12 to see how he felt through such a chaotic day.
Notes:
Let's take a moment to thank my lovely reader Ruyade for requesting this fic! *hearts*
After chapter 11 and 12 of OSWIW, my readers wanted to know how Seth was feeling through them and I just couldn't say no. You can tell I was inspired when I had to break the whole thing in two chapters as it's over 8K words.
This was posted in AO3 first, so my notes won´t make much sense
Now, enjoy!
WARNINGS: ANGST, panic attacks, violence, explicit sexual content.
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Chapter 1
Friday, 8th July, 2011
05:00 pm, Somewhere near Gainesville, FL
Being early, as usual, it sounded like a good plan to take an exit to eat and take a short nap before arriving at the MLK Center in Gainesville. It was a better idea than being there too early and having to spend extra time around the other guys.
Seth didn't like them, and they didn't cherish him either, so any awkwardness he could save himself was more than welcome.
He felt like he could relax after spending most of the drive practicing his lisp correction exercises and delivering promos; word after word, trying to give them meaning, making a considerable effort on spelling each syllable as cleanly as he was able to.
Seth yawned and stretched out his arms lazily, wiggling his back to relieve some of the tension from driving for over two hours. A small smile spread across his lips as his eyes fluttered closed and he enjoyed the summer afternoon sun, the cool air conditioner brushing his face and arms.
Knowing he couldn't prolong his stop anymore, Seth rubbed the back of his wrists against his eyes, willing the tiredness away. He regretted not leaving Tampa even earlier to take a lengthy nap before the show.
Except for certain moments of stress, it wasn't usual for Seth to have any issues when it came to sleeping. More relaxed after his talk with Dusty and the promise that things would get better for him if he kept working as hard as he was, he'd been sleeping like a baby.
Or he had until he was told he would finally have his first clash in the ring with Dean Ambrose.
Granted, it wasn't a televised event; it was a six-man tag match, but it would be the first time both would meet in a ring for real. Dusty said he wanted to test their in-ring chemistry before launching the feud, just in case anything needed to be modified — or the rivalry would be dropped for good — before it happened.
To hear they would finally wrestle each other, even when briefly and not going all-in, had taken over his ability to sleep. He didn't remember the last time he was so excited for a match, and it had been way longer since Seth had faced an opponent he admired.
Because as he had confessed to Dusty a few days ago when they spoke, he admired Ambrose.
Seth had watched some of his old matches before Dean signed with FCW and had been excited to be able to work with him finally. However, his curiosity turned into impatience after watching his 'I owe pro wrestling' promo during class.
He was unable to stop himself from digging around the Internet, blown away by the challenge standing in front of him.
To say Dean was good at the mic would be unfair. The guy had a way with words and would captivate an audience with just his voice and the feelings he screamed and vomited as soon as a camera pointed at him. It was as disturbing as it was magnetic, something people couldn't turn away from.
Seth envied that. He knew how good he was in the ring, but now he couldn't deny that he wasn't good with a mic.
At first, he felt overwhelmed and angry the moment he watched that promo, the realization that someone was better than him at something related to wrestling cutting a gash through his ego.
But once he shook himself out of it, Dean's words had kept repeating themselves in his mind over and over. Stand up to the challenge or fuck off. And Seth wasn't one to step down from a dare. Nor was one to give up without a fight.
He approached this as he did with anything else he wanted to achieve in his life. With determination and effort. Trying to get better every passing day.
While he hadn't seen any results yet after countless hours of promo practicing and obsessively doing his speech therapy exercises, it also took him a long time before he was able to perform a perfect moonsault. He knew it would take time, but he would get there, would be able to stand his ground with a promo someday and not be outshined by anyone.
Placing his thick-rimmed glasses back on the top of his nose, Seth sighed contentedly and started his car, intent on driving the last few miles to the venue where he would perform that night.
Music blasted through the car the moment the engine was on, and he absently sang 'Show 'Em The Ropes' by A Day To Remember while he drove immersed in his thoughts.
He was glad he had overcome some breakdowns in the last couple of months, becoming a stronger man. While not happy to admit he had been humbled, he knew in the back of his mind that it was necessary and that he'd just been creating obstacles in his way to the top.
Things just looked like they were getting better down in FCW too, because even if he still had to wrestle people who weren't any real competition for him, now he had a challenge.
Seth would never hear the end of it if he admitted out loud that he'd watched each of his promos several times, because he would lose himself in them, too shocked to register what his eyes and ears were witnessing.
Seth wanted to learn from that gift and be able to get everybody's undivided attention even if just talking about how he made breakfast.
He was on fire in the meantime, hours away from going one step further in his career. His excitement only grew as he drove nearer to the arena.
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Friday, 8th July, 2011
MLK Center, Gainesville FL
Steam tickled his nostrils as Seth inhaled the coffee he'd gotten from a member of the FCW crew, humming to the music on his headphones. His smile didn't falter as he pushed the locker room door open and made his way inside.
Most of his colleagues were there already; changing into their wrestling gear, warming up, practicing promos. Other guys were on their phones or playing PSP video games. Different conversations mixed in the air as small groups were gathered together and chatted animatedly.
As usual, nobody batted an eyelash the moment he came into the room. Nor that he cared, but sometimes he was still surprised by how he could be inside the room, surrounded by so many people and feel like there was nobody else around. It wasn't a bad thing in his opinion.
He chose a distant locker nobody was using and placed his stuff on the bench. Seth paused the music application on his phone and stored it in his bag with the headphones still attached to it. A quick look around the room revealed the person he'd wanted to see since the moment he left his apartment in Tampa.
Ambrose was sitting on one of the benches, leaning back against the wall like he wanted to melt into it and his head tilted back against it. Was he sleeping? He couldn't tell due to the dark eyeglasses covering Dean's eyes and the tense line of his lips.
Seth stood on the spot for a while, hesitant to approach him when he didn't look exactly friendly. He was trying to get along with Dean, so he didn't want to be all over the place. But Seth didn't want to let go of a rare opportunity to get back at him and joke around a bit if he had it.
For all he knew, he could even have a potential friend in Dean inside the small promotion, someone to call his equal.
While he was usually infuriated and embarrassed to no end by Dean's mocking and better than thou attitude, he admired the guy, kind of liked him. He was curious to get to know the person behind the character and get to the root of how he'd come to be so good at what he did. It was the only reason Seth endured the endless teasing about him being a diva and following him around like a puppy.
It wasn't like that, but it was true that he was always enthralled when he listened to him speak, he just couldn't help it.
In the end, Seth's enthusiasm ended up winning the battle against his insecurities, so he stepped toward Dean and took a closer look at him, looming over his body to no reaction at all. He noticed the pale clamminess of his skin and what looked like dark rings poking under the tinted glass.
Nerves poked his stomach, torn between being amused by the sight, and the irony of Dean being sick or hungover — most probably both —, the first time they were going to meet inside the squared circle.
He suppressed a chuckle after leaning closer to Dean's ear, finally getting a glimpse of his eyes, shut tightly to the point of twitching behind the sunglasses. It looked like he was going to have fun at his coworker's expense for once.
Seth swung one leg over the bench and plopped down next to Dean, sniggering silently when he flinched. "Woah, ya look like shit, dude," he teased with playful mischief, leaning a bit closer. "Rough night or fun one?" He wondered briefly if both were as nervous about their incoming match, but he'd seen enough hungover people in his life to know better.
Dean sighed in exasperation, shaking his head and rolling it to the side, looking back at him even if Seth couldn't see his eyes before he leaned back against the wall. It took him a while to speak again. "Da fuck ya want?" It was more of an annoyed croak than spoken words. Seemed like all his efforts went into scrunching his forehead and curling his lips.
He couldn't help but chuckle nervously, realizing he hadn't picked the best moment to taunt Ambrose yet unable to back down from it.
Seth looked down and decided just to be honest. "I say rough as fuck. I thought you'd be excited that they're putting us together in the ring today, that's all," he said softly, feeling warm as the words left his lips and images of his future in the main roster crossed his mind. "I can't wait to get out there and see how it goes."
He was startled by Dean suddenly sitting up and turning toward him, openly snarling. Seth had no clue of what was going on but was confident it wasn't his fault, so he didn't let himself be intimidated by the aggression emanating from his colleague.
"I'd be a lot happier if you knew when to shut up," he spat. "Dude, I'm trying to keep it together here and you're just giving me a headache."
Seth bit his lip to keep himself from making any comment that would make things escalate into a physical fight. He still felt like he'd been punched in the face the moment Dean reached up and lowered his sunglasses to the tip of his nose, sunken and red-rimmed blue eyes glaring at him.
A wave of disappointment shook through him. Seth was disgusted.
This was the guy who had taught him a lesson about being humble and he was trying to befriend? The one who made him decide the moment he watched that promo that he would learn from, use the experience to get better at what he did. The person he'd come to admire enough to want to become familiar with his work before they had an actual match.
The person whose words he'd been drinking for weeks now, that he'd lowered his walls around.
Dean was the same guy he had admitted out loud he admired and looked forward to learning from during their FCW feud. He would have grinned at the memory of Dusty beaming after that confession, how it took him back into the legend's good graces.
He would if he hadn't just crashed back into reality.
The guy who kept going on and on about how he was going to show him how stars carried themselves, how to behave in a wrestling promotion and dared calling out his behavior.
Seth felt his face tighten and couldn't stand looking at Dean anymore. He averted his gaze, looking down for a moment before he stood up and stared down at him without blinking. "For somebody who brags about teaching professionalism, I expected to see some."
He didn't miss the flash of regret in Dean's eyes before he turned around and went back to his space, refusing to look at him again. He took out his wrestling gear and his phone, ready to finish his coffee before changing out of his clothes.
A few minutes later, Seth left the locker room and wandered around to get another coffee; he heard a conversation he was sure wasn't meant for him to spy on.
"And you gotta fucking do that the night before the bloody fucking test for the feud that's supposed to launch your career and change the whole fucking WWE?" he could hear Regal screaming, and turning around in the hall revealed he was shaking Ambrose by a fistful of his tee shirt. "We only asked you to do one thing, and you let us down."
Seth couldn't see Dean's face, nor did he hear whatever he seemed to mumble in response to Regal's accusations. His body revealed he was terrified though, and he understood that something serious was going on, way more than his coworker being moody after a long night out.
Pressing himself closer to the wall, like that would avoid him being seen, he watched Regal let go of Dean's clothes and push him like one would hit a door closed. "Grab yourself a coffee and make sure you don't injure anyone out there. Your career depends on it. We thought you were serious about FCW."
Open-mouthed and shaking, Seth dropped his initial idea to get himself another coffee and returned to the locker room. Images of everything he had to crawl through to get to where he was assaulted his mind.
Backyards, the gay softcore wrestling for Cyberfights, the years of knocking on doors that would never open. The effort, the sacrifices, every single thing he had to do to get money out of nowhere so he didn't have to let go of his dream, of what he was convinced he was meant to do with his life.
Seth had to do anything in his power to avoid disaster, and it looked like it wouldn't be easy.
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By the time he stood behind the curtain, watching the heel team come out to the ring, Seth was seething.
His head hurt from the tension and overthinking, and the knot inside his stomach tightened further, still fighting against the anticipation and his hopes that everything would be okay during the match.
When his music hit and the fans reacted with delight, Seth came out holding his FCW 15 championship medal proudly. He suddenly felt more grounded and confident, taking deliberately slow steps toward his teammates as he let the fan's adoration sink in.
He needed to put on a great show and keep cementing himself as the big star he knew he was. As focused as he was, he could barely control his anger when his eyes set on the ring and roamed over Ambrose, who looked a bit better than he did back in the locker room earlier.
The match finally started, and Damien and Seth carried the first part of the action, wrestling each other for a few minutes to gather heat. They traded momentum, and the fans got into it quickly, torn between cheering for Seth and booing Sandow.
The balance set on Seth's favor after he put Damien through an impressive tornado DDT, with the crowd erupting into a chorus of cheers. Seth went for the pin but the heel kicked out at two, launching him a couple of feet away.
Adrenaline spread through his veins as he began to enjoy the performance and the attention, excitement rising together with the fans as he tagged Titus in. Damien and Titus exchanged some blows, slowing down the pace of the match, and soon Sandow tagged Dean in.
Following Dusty's booking, he started to call out Titus the moment Dean set foot in the ring, demanding to receive the tag so he could face him. Now that it was the moment of truth, he had forgotten about everything else that happened earlier, only wanted to wrestle and do what he'd been yearning to for weeks now.
Titus looked from one to the other and smirked, letting Seth have his way and tagging him in.
Facing each other in the ring for the first time, both moved in slow circles around the mat, seizing the competition. The fans got impatient and so did Seth, stopping on the spot after a few seconds of the crowd chanting his name insistently.
He took a step forward and intended to hit a forearm, blocked easily by Ambrose before he could hit it. A little shock ran through him at the contact.
Seth was surprised by the precision and gentle firmness of the touch, which he wasn't expecting given the state Dean was in. Ambrose knew what he was doing.
Their talks on the previous weeks came back to his mind. Did they want him to go all-in and release everything he'd bottled in? Then they were going to get the fucking river they asked for.
"This is not just about you," he hissed between clenched teeth, releasing his arm from Dean's grasp and going for another hit. "Ya gonna fuck it up for all of us."
He didn't expect any reply; there was no question in the air but a warning. Blocking the second strike again, Dean quickly spun over his heels and grazed a kick to the back of his knee. Seth did his part and dropped down onto his back rapidly before jumping back on his feet, and they went assessing each other again.
Seth wasn't playing any games, and it infuriated him to see Dean slipping into his psycho wrestling persona, taunting both him and the audience.
He almost laughed in satisfaction when his hand collided painfully against Dean's cheek, slapping a loud 'Fuck!' out of him. He wasn't holding back.
Dean wobbled on his feet, but he hit back, not as hard as Seth did, but there was a hidden threat of the blow which he didn't care about. He just wanted to beat the real shit out of him at this point, live up to his 'The moment I get in the ring with you, I'm gonna fucking kill you.'
Something crossed through his opponent's features, confusion, pain and something else taut that Seth couldn't put a name to.
So he did what made sense, slap him with all his might again, but this time Dean just stopped and stood there for a few seconds, cradling his cheek and fixing a dead stare back at Seth that made his blood freeze.
Seth had no time to duck before Dean lurched forward and smacked the air out of his lungs with a hard forearm. He bent over in pain and couldn't manage to cover himself before it was immediately followed by a real kick to the stomach and a hard shove. The back of his head bounced against the canvas, and he lied there paralyzed by fear, unable to believe he was being attacked for real in the ring and how things had taken for the worse.
He tried to whisper and demand him to stop, but Dean didn't seem to hear him. Fuck, he didn't even look like he saw Seth at all. It was out of instinct that Seth rolled away from danger as he saw a punch coming his way.
Gasping for air and clutching at his stomach, he crawled desperately toward the ropes, hoping somebody stopped Dean before he had to defend himself and their futures went straight into the trashcan.
Dean looked around, the crazed, empty look still set on his features. Seth was trying his hardest not to snap himself and control the situation. He needed to do something to stop this and get both of them out of the ring.
He sat against the turnbuckle and held onto the first rope, still gasping for air as his mind worked hard to stop Dean without fucking things up any further. Ambrose didn't look like he could be stopped though, his fingers painfully digging into Seth's thighs as he tried to tear him away from the ropes.
"What the fuck are you doing!" He snarled as he tried to kick him off, finally seeing the referee appear behind Dean. Seth didn't dare move any further.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" The referee hissed as he tried to tear Dean away from Seth. Since it didn't work, he started a count in the corner. "He's getting up and kick you out. You stay down after," he instructed, shoving Dean harshly.
That seemed to snap him out of whatever he'd gotten into, and Seth found himself looking into shocked, damp blue eyes as Dean stumbled back to his feet and took a step back. Ambrose directed his attention to the crowd, suddenly playing his heel character again while Seth just stared.
Seth tried to regain his balance and held onto the ropes as he carefully rose to his feet.
Dean quickly turned around to continue the sequence and as advised, let Seth kick him on the head. Seth's nostrils flared as his eyes followed his coworker dropping to the floor upon contact and roll out of the ring.
The referee approached Seth to check on him and discretely instructed that he tagged Rotundo in immediately. Boy, he didn't have to tell him twice, he was dying to get out of the ring, struggling to calm his heartbeat down as it pounded so hard Seth thought he'd pass out.
It gave Dean enough time to crawl back into the ring and tag Cannon in before he rolled out again and laid down on ringside.
He watched the match continue from the apron, and it didn't take long for Rotundo to hit his finisher on Lucky Cannon for the win.
For an instant, the world froze around Seth until the crowd lost their mind with the babyface win. It was an unspoken rule to send fans home happy, and by the sounds making the venue shake, they did it.
Seth was still shaken as he celebrated the win in the middle of the ring with Bo and Titus, trying not to look at the heel team as they made the walk of shame toward the backstage area.
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Notes:
I will add the second part of this tonight! It seems like I can't make these two happy, does it? *shows her heel writer card* This came out quite easily because even when the series is told from Dean's POV, I know Seth's as well to build the whole thing.
What do you think so far? I know this whole thing may not be what people were expecting, but it's how Seth lived the events of that day in my story. I will talk more about this once the second part is up.
I LOVE it when people comment. The only benefit I get out of writing this is my own enjoyment and (hopefully) yours, so please feel free to let me know what you think -comments are open to guests too-! What you liked, what you didn't or hated, what you think will happen or anything you want to share with me. Are there any parts of their story you'd REALLY want to see through the ALAWKTT series? Let me know; I may deliver at some point!
Remember you can also drop me a line on Tumblr (Besaster) if you want to and that I keep posting previews, updates, old FCW interviews and pics, and little random bits on the process of writing this mammoth of a series.
Thanks for staying with me, see you later! :)