Just An Angel
AJ hadn't planned for any of this to happen; to end up where she was. It was a situation no one should put themselves through, but she did. Not that everything had been entirely her fault. Daniel Bryan was the real reason this all had begun in the first place; outside his hotel door, about to end everything.
Their relationship had started off smoothly; Bryan had started dating AJ when she was a contestant on the third season of NXT, going up against some women that were her friends and others, well not so much. Bryan had picked her (AJ not knowing why when Daniel could have chosen someone clearly better than herself), saying that her 'geeky' personality and obsessions with video games and comic books had drawn the former season one NXT contestant to her. For a while, that had been enough for AJ. Daniel was her first boyfriend, and in her mind he was the man she would spend the rest of her life with.
There had been many naysayers to the thought that the young Geek Goddess proclaimed. Kaitlyn had seen how Bryan looked at AJ, trying to warn her best friend. "He looks at you like you're some kind of piece of meat," she had stated; making AJ laugh, though at an inappropriate time.
"He doesn't eat meat, he's a vegan." The reply hadn't fazed Kaitlyn; she knew AJ wouldn't see any of it. How could she when he gave those kinds of looks to her, behind her own back?
It had been when Daniel had won the World Heavyweight Championship, sometime after AJ's days on NXT were over, that the relationship changed. With every loss either one of the pair had, even if one had slipped up in the ring and still came out with a victory, Bryan would start an argument with the Diva. He would first criticize any small movements in the ring she did wrong, then over time in the relationship he moved onto how her eyes were usually looking at a TV screen playing video games or nose in a comic book. Before long, Daniel was pointing out every small thing he didn't like about AJ; her in-ring ability, how much of a nerd she was, even how her petite figure never impressed him.
The criticisms soon turned into frustration and anger on AJ's end, mostly being taken out on whoever was unlucky to be in the ring with her. If it was in the ring against an opponent, then the anger was usually let out on Kaitlyn. Not by AJ's choice, usually Kaitlyn was closer than any soft pillow, couch or bed for her to punch and kick. A slap in the face would occasionally happen if Kaitlyn had ever said anything she instantly wished she could have taken back immediately.
Another argument had happened, this time at the gorilla position where both luckily and unlucky for AJ, no one had been around that she could see. Bryan was yelling about how much AJ had messed up, not listening when AJ tried to tell him that the match went exactly how it should have. Their 'arguments' in reality, where actually more of a one-sided scream fest; with Bryan doing all of the yelling and shouting, leaving AJ to stand back and listen, her head hung low from shame that part of her mind knew she shouldn't be feeling.
Bryan dismissed her, saying that he would be waiting for his girlfriend in their hotel room that night. AJ would have to find her own way back to the hotel; an occurrence that had happened frequently over the months. She was hoping Kaitlyn was still around to give her a ride, but she could have been with Bateman as well. No, best not to ask her best friend to give her a ride.
AJ pulled out her phone from her bag; looking around the Diva's locker room to make sure it was empty. In one of the credit card holder slots in the phone case was a taxi service card (AJ always remembered to get taxi numbers in the cities she went to in case something like this happened) and dialled the number. Her phone had full service bars, however when exiting the locker room freshly changed and everything packed away in her bag, a pre-recorded voice message told her she had no more allowance to make calls on her phone. She had exceeded that amount with calls to family members and cab services.
"Damn it," AJ muttered under her breath, hitting the 'end call' button on her phone's touch screen.
"You alright," AJ jumped, startled by the voice that had sounded from behind her. She didn't hear anyone approach her.
Turning around to face the person, AJ craned her neck up just enough to see a kind face smiling down at her. AJ recognised the person as Justin Gabriel, former NXT contestant from season one as well as former member of the Nexus, now residing as a member of the Corre. Justin took a step back to get a better look at AJ's body language momentarily. Her small arms were crossed, one hand cradling the opposite elbow, her legs were close together but one foot was turned up for her toes to kick and move on the ground in her converse. She was also bitting the inside of her lip from what it seemed, and avoided any eye contact with him. The girl was scared, or at least intimidated by him, definitely.
"You don't have to be scared," Justin said quietly, though AJ still wouldn't look at him. "I'll just stand here so you know I won't hurt you." Justin took another small step backwards, earning AJ's hands to move from being crossed to one holding the phone tightly in her hand and the other holding onto the strap of the bag on her shoulder. She still didn't look him his direction; now her attention was focused strictly on the smart phone.
"I, um – I thought you, you know, would have been gone to the hotel by now." AJ moved the phone closer to her body, seeing the screen flash as Justin spoke. "With your boyfriend, I mean."
Bryan had sent AJ a text message, and she spent little time in opening it up. Her phone had no passcode, with Daniel claiming that if she were to have one she was obviously 'hiding something' from him.
'AJ, I do really need to speak with you later. But don't come back yet, I don't want to see you right now.'
"AJ?" Inquired Justin, seeing AJ's expression change suddenly when looking at her phone screen for so long the screen had shut off on standby; he reached out to touch her shoulder. AJ snapped out of her trance, trying not to let any tears escape when she saw a hand going towards her; she quickly retreated several steps back, only to see the worried face of Justin Gabriel in front of her.
'He didn't look like he was going to hurt you, AJ,' her mind said, making her want to answer back but she bit her tongue. 'Not every person is going to treat you how Bryan does.'
"Did you hear me," slowly AJ heard Justin's voice fade in, almost like she was just waking up from being knocked out. Her head moved side to side before he repeated, "I asked if you had a ride back to the hotel."
"No," the response came from AJ's lips before she could think, an involuntary response was something AJ had always tried to steer clear of; her mind and lack thereof at times got her in trouble, according to Bryan, at least.
Justin held his elbow out to her with a smile; a gesture that AJ hadn't seen before, but she still took her hand to softly touch his arm. A tiny smile tugged at AJ's lips before it dropped into a frown again, realising that her boyfriend wouldn't approve of her holding onto someone else in any fashion like she was. The pair walked silently through the backstage area of the arena, with Justin quickly making a detour to his car to grab his phone and keys which had been left in the Corre locker room. AJ's bag was placed in the boot of the car by Justin while AJ moved to sit in the front passenger's seat; quickly followed by Justin a couple of seconds later.
AJ hadn't replied to the text, learning it was best to let Daniel cool down before seeing him. Instead, during the silent and heavily awkward car ride, she scrolled up through all of the messages from her boyfriend on her phone; most looked the same as the recent one, unanswered and cruel toward her. Only several (enough that she could count on one hand) were decent and had one reply she had sent. But that would be the end of the conversation; and that moment was when AJ started to realise what her relationship turned into. Empty text messages, yelling and Bryan pushing her around; as words spoken from her best friend about Bryan sounded through her mind.
AJ stepped out of the car when Justin stopped in the car park, quickly gathering her bag and leaving without a 'goodbye', or a 'thank you' to be heard. But her tracks halted in the elevator when she remembered that Daniel didn't want to see her, and he hadn't been exactly polite in tell her the fact in the text. The fourth floor was where she had ended up, some three floors below where she would be staying that night. Sitting on the floor, the Diva stared at her phone screen at her messages, like by some miracle someone would want to speak with her, to get her mind off of her boyfriend not wanting her around. But that didn't happen.
Well, someone didn't want to talk on the phone with her, at the least.
AJ's attention was once again moved to someone beside her, and her tiny smile showed up. Sitting beside her was the man who she had just left in a hurry, Justin Gabriel, in a closer proximity to her than he was in the arena. Neither person made any attempt to move further away from the other.
"I know something is going on," his voice rang, and AJ decided to put her phone in her bag where it wouldn't worry her. She needed to stop looking over her shoulder for Bryan all of the time. "You should know you won't be getting rid of me easily when I want to know something."
AJ laughed a little, a real smile cracking on her face for the first time in a long time. She couldn't remember any times recently before that when she had laughed without it being force, either.
"Very persistent," AJ observed as Justin ran a hand through his short dark hair, "a quality that can get you into trouble sometimes."
"Says who?" Now Justin became very intrigued by AJ's sudden change in behaviour, her smile now faded to the frown he had seen her wear so much over the past few months when he saw he during Smackdown tapings, just like this night when she was left alone.
For a few moments, AJ made no answer; her brows furrowed together like she was thinking intently, but the slight part of her lips and eyes being almost shut made Justin think that she wasn't thinking hard about what to say, but what not to say. The one word that came from her mouth, whether by accident or not, was enough to alert Justin of her situation.
"Daniel." Justin wanted to reach out and touch her arm lightly, to tell her everything was okay. But when he hadn't been in any kind of relationship that could be considered volatile, how was he supposed to know how AJ felt in the slightest way?
"I don't think you should go back to him," Justin muttered under his breath, concern for this woman he barely knew filled him.
"You might be right," the response AJ had given had shocked Justin, making him blink at her several times before he registered how upset she looked. AJ's back and shoulders were hunched over, her arms holding both of her legs close to her chest, and her chin resting on her knees. Justin finally had some nerve to move a few semi-blonde locks of hair from her face; and AJ didn't reject the contact one bit, instead moved her head to one side while her lip tugged upward a fraction. "Thank you." She simply uttered.
"Are you hungry?" Justin hoped AJ wouldn't mind the subject change, and that she didn't notice that his stomach was starting to grumble in need of food. The woman nodded in reply, with Justin taking it as a sign to stand up and offer his hand to her. "I've got the number for a pizza place down the street."
AJ took his hand, getting hauled to her feet without any effort from Justin; not realising for a short period of time that she still had a hold of his hand. A light flush of pink ran up her neck to her cheeks as she released her hand, picking up her bag behind her in the process.
"So, um, where to?" Justin pointed to the door beside them, the one directly across from the elevator.
"My room is just here," AJ wondered how convenient of a spot the room was considering what could happen in a hotel at late hours of the night. "We can put our stuff in here and order what we want over the phone since the walk isn't too far away."
With their belongings in the room, Justin dialled a number on his phone that he got from a card on the hotel refrigerator. AJ settled herself on the floor in front of the single bed in the room, taking in her surroundings. The room was clean for a start, which she assumed was because Justin wasn't rooming with anyone in this hotel they were staying in for a few nights, it smelled clean and not of foul smelling vegetables and aftershave that somehow Daniel loved, and it was a fairly large room. Usually, and AJ wondered if Daniel had requested it, the room she would stay in with Daniel was small, very cramped. They often didn't have a lot of room, with a smaller bed to be shared, not much room between walls and the bathroom would be awkward when getting ready every morning and night. AJ often tripped in any hotel room she stayed in with Daniel, and she didn't doubt that she would when she went back to him later that night.
Justin ordered after asking AJ what she wanted, happily surprised that she liked to have very cheesy pizza, with most kinds of meat on top. He ordered a large pizza to share with her.
AJ slipped on a jacket to go over her Batman long sleeved shirt, seeing that Justin had slipped on a leather jacket. She would have been lying if she told anyone that he didn't look good in the jacket, not that she told anyone.
The two WWE employees soon exited the hotel, Justin carrying his wallet and hotel key; walking close to AJ and looking like he was looking out for something or someone. Not that AJ minded her new friend being close, Daniel never walked closely with her, and if he held onto her hand he would stand far in front of her. What would be seen as a nice position for AJ to have with Daniel, she always felt cold and emotionless when holding her boyfriend's hand since he had started being cruel to her.
"For you, lovely lady," Justin opened up a bottle of coke, handing it to AJ while bowing to her. A giggle erupted from AJ, despite trying to be serious to the South African man in front of her.
"Easy, Gabriel," she replied, taking the bottle. "We only really just met." AJ took a sip of the drink before replacing the cap. She barely noticed anyone else in the store with them, only seeing Justin pay for the food and grab their pizza and his drink in his hands. AJ grabbed Justin's wallet from his hand so he had less to hold, which he quickly thanked her.
"Alright," they looked at each other and smiled as Justin continued, holding up his bottle with AJ repeating the action. "To new starts and friendships for us." Both took sips of their drinks and AJ took a bite out of a slice of pizza she had on a plate in front of her.
"This is so cheesy!" She exclaimed, with a mouth filled with food. Justin was eyeing his food when he laughed, not looking at AJ to be distracted by her.
"It wasn't that bad of a toast," Justin tried not to let AJ see his cheeks go a little pink, he did mean what he said about the 'New start' and hoped AJ thought so too.
"No," AJ replied as she placed the slice on her plate. "This pizza is really cheesy!" Justin looked up at the woman sitting with him and laughed loudly at her.
AJ was trying to eat her pizza, however there was more cheese then she expected, with the stringy food coming up from the pizza to a trail to her mouth. AJ was struggling to not have her hair fall onto her pizza, while trying to sort out her problem. Justin reached over, detaching a large amount of the trail, and AJ ate the rest without her hands.
"Really, though, your speech was cheesy." She took another bite of the pizza; luckily the second bite hadn't turned out like the first. Justin kept looking at AJ's lips, though trying to not be distracted by her again. Something that had happened with the past hour or two to any bystander, however she had held his eye for quite some time.
Justin had seen how Bryan was treating AJ; and how he had treated AJ that night at the gorilla position after her match was the last time he would stand back with the Diva knowing he was there. She needed a friend, someone to actually care about her; since it seemed like Kaitlyn was too wrapped up in her boyfriend to care about her friend. He didn't want to tell her how he thought her smile was beautiful, that he loved whenever she skipped down to the ring, how she knew everything to do in the ring and every movement seemed perfect; but most importantly, how great it was to see her happy and smiling after months of being miserable with Daniel Bryan.
He had to focus! 'If you haven't noticed, she is still with the troll,' Justin mentally hit himself. He actually thought something mean; well not that Bryan didn't deserve it. Bryan was mean to and undeserving of AJ in every way. Justin silently hoped he could get into the ring with Bryan and literally knock some sense into him, as well as knock him out and beating him to a pulp.
The pair ate, and AJ, who had placed her phone from her bag to the table, looked at her phone. The screen lit up, showing part of a message from her boyfriend. Justin only glanced at the phone before looking to the worried face of the woman in front of him. AJ swallowed the disgust in her throat, pressing the on/off button on her phone once to put it on standby.
"I won't let him worry me when I'm enjoying myself with you." Justin shrugged, pretending not to make a big deal about the statement from AJ. She narrowed her eyes, picked up a piece of pepperoni and threw it at Justin's head, landing square on his nose then dropping onto his plate. He ate it to the disgust of AJ. "That's so gross!"
"Aw, sorry," Justin faked a pout, and then threw a smirk to AJ. "Here I thought you were fun!"
"You-" AJ began, standing up as Justin did, both running around the room. Justin eventually caught up to the small Diva, picking her up by her waist on an impulse; accidently (but happily admitting to be a good mistake) falling backward in the process and the pair landed on the larger bed.
AJ looked over at Justin, who had his head turned to the wall away from her, and reached across to rest a hand on the centre of his chest. She could feel a light, and rapid, thumping all through her hand. His heart was beating faster.
"What are we doing?" Justin mumbled, slowly moving one of his hands to hold the hand AJ held on his chest. He still wasn't looking at her, but he knew it wouldn't be a rational idea to look at her now. AJ shuffled closer to Justin, running her thumb over his knuckles.
"I don't know," AJ replied quietly, shifting up a little to be more comfortable. Taking her hand away from Justin's, AJ moved it to his face. Her thumb ran along his cheek bone slowly, turning his face over so he could look at her. "You've shown me a kindness I haven't had in a long time; it's given me enough sense in just a couple of hours to see what I should have done months ago."
"What's that?" AJ's face moved onto the bed, closer to Justin's.
"To leave Bryan; to be happy again." Her voice was a whisper, so low it was barely audible.
That was what both wanted, just something to be happy about; making life worthwhile once again. Justin quickly moved his head forward, his forehead bumping hers as their lips collided. The kiss had been nothing like anything she had experienced with Daniel, a great experience. One of Justin's hands moved to her back, pulling the small woman closer as he rolled on his back. AJ's chest rested on his, as the rest of her body down was beside his. They pulled apart slowly, Justin opening his eyes before AJ did. He saw her smile and landed a quick kiss to the tip of her nose.
"You're really leaving him?" Justin inquired when AJ's eyes opened and she sat up. He leaned up, elbows behind his back a little bit. Almost hesitantly, AJ nodded.
"Yes," AJ stood up, taking her phone from the table. "There isn't a code on this, check the last message Daniel sent me for yourself. I'll be back in a few minutes."
Justin caught the phone in his hand when AJ threw it at him. He opened it when AJ walked out the door, sitting up with his forearms on his knees.
'I know I can't change what I've done, AJ, but I do really care about you. Please come back to me soon, baby, I need you.' Justin scoffed at the message, placing the phone on the bedside table for AJ to grab.
"Yeah, right," Justin smiled to himself, not caring that he was talking out loud. "She needs you out of her life!"
AJ knocked on the door with her head down. She cheated on Bryan, and didn't feel one iota of guilt for doing so. She knew eventually she would either leave Bryan, or he would break her so bad he wouldn't want her. So, AJ would choose option one, giving herself power over the situation so Bryan wouldn't be oppressing her anymore. She was done with feeling sorry for herself, and that night her happiness had been restored. Justin had made her happy, and he in return shared it.
A.N. So, I thought this would be a quick one shot that would only take me between half an hour to an hour to write; then slowly it got longer and soon I ended up with this 4,000+ word one shot that took me about four hours (not consecutively, I had stuff to do in between). Impressive! This was just nagging me all day, so I ended up writing this, and I feel good about it too.
Also, I actually wanted to highlight the fact that body language is an integral part of human beings, something that I wanted Justin to pick up on when seeing AJ. It really helped to show how nervous/upset she was, and seeing as several friends of mine have showed these poses (though sometimes will not speak with me about what is wrong) I thought it would be a good thing to bring it up. I do not encourage cheating on another person in anyway, so that is why at the end I had AJ go to Bryan, subsequently breaking up with him. So, I put a couple of lessons in here, wow! That is new for me.
Hope you all enjoyed this! It is strictly a one shot and I might not even do anymore on this pairing. I didn't have a particular time frame, I don't even know if the Corre and the verbally abusive Bryan/AJ storylines were in the same period of time but it shouldn't matter too much. And so you guys know, the ending scene (with all of the cuteness involved) was actually playing out in my head like a movie, so if that had a little more detail in it then that is why.
Oh, and I hope you guys liked what I did with the title. If you don't get the joke of saying it really fast and then think back to the FCW Justin then that's okay because it's still cute. Don't forget to review and fave, all of that good stuff, it really helps out with this, especially since I'm slowly getting more writing done over time. Have fun and like I said, I hope you all enjoyed this bit of cuteness!