Bad Side

Kaitlyn was fairly sure her left eye was twitching. That, in fact, it had been for the last five minutes and showed no sign of stopping any time soon. At least that was what the person stood in front of her and laughing in her face indicated.

"Look at it!" Cameron pointed, grinning stupidly. "Girl, what's going on with your face?"

She'd only come over to the Funkadactyls' area to talk to Naomi about an upcoming training session they had, only to find her away on a coffee run, so to be confronted by the other one instead—someone she thought to be a much lesser version of Naomi—did little to help her sour mood. Especially when that lesser version was doing nothing to disguise her amusement.

"I had a bad night."

"Just one?" Cameron's tone boasted incredulity and Kaitlyn couldn't help but silently admit defeat, knowing there was no covering up a lie with those simple four words.

So truth be told, there'd been a few bad nights now... maybe two weeks worth of it. Staying up late, coffee in one hand and phone in the other, coming in from a delayed flight, rushing into the arena at the last minute, or otherwise, had her stuck in an insomnia-filled loop. She was lucky to get an hour's sleep let alone more, resulting in waking up with bags under her eyes, a body that yearned for just five more minutes under the sheets and... yes, the occasional eye-twitch.

That was something she couldn't hide.

Right now, she didn't have the energy to even complain. "If you see Naomi, can you tell her I'm looking for her? I'll be in catering." Kaitlyn waved roughly behind her, indicating she was about to head that way.

"Okay girl, I'll tell her. Good luck with the twitching. Have you tried a cream? Some sort of make-up? Something has got to be able to fix that..."

A little, barely-there smile crossed the former champion's lips and then she walked away. Lack of sleep led to lack of patience and someone like Cameron, although probably harmless, would be an easy target for her irritation. No, it was better to keep it all inside and stroll casually down the corridor, pretending as though she was in fine spirits... like she wasn't willing the next person she ran into to do or say something wrong so she could react appropriately and let off some steam.

Her mind wandered as she made the short walk over, regrettably to Cameron's last question. Was there something that could cover up the twitching? Some sort of remedy to stop it? It was starting to become too much of a nuisance. How long before she showed up on camera and people wondered what kind of high she was on? The twitch made her look odd - unhinged somehow. Now entertaining the thought of softly massaging her face—maybe that would settle it?—Kaitlyn found herself unprepared for what would happen next.

Mentally elsewhere, she didn't realise that someone was walking towards her, and that that someone had to swiftly reach out to place a warning hand on her shoulder to stop them from bumping into each other. Although smartly planned, the gesture was a little too hard-hitting, his hand smacking against her leather-clad shoulder and pushing her back, much to her surprise.

Ouch.

She looked up, only with the knowledge that someone had just hit her and seemingly for no reason, and glared directly at the culprit. Seth Rollins stared right back at her.

Kaitlyn knew her glare should be softening right about now. The guy standing before her was a well known figure in the wrestling universe and mainly as one of three powerful men who'd barged their way onto Raw and Smackdown with the promise of causing havoc. The Shield arrived; they devastated; they left. Many were scared of them and for good reason—mess with these guys and you might as well kiss your career goodbye, if not permanently then for a decent amount of time.

So while she knew this, while he posed a threat to her wellbeing without even saying a thing, her glare remained. She was tired... no, exhausted... and this man had just hit her. Hard. It didn't matter who he was or what his status around here was; he wouldn't be getting away with it much like he did the destruction of his opponents.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Excuse me?" Seth had to question. He took his hand away, although his fingers brushed against her jacket as he returned it to his side.

"You think that just because you're a part of The Shield, you can go around walking into whomever you like and acting like a jerk? Well let me tell you one thing: you might think you can but not now, not with me buddy." Kaitlyn vexed. To emphasise her point, she raised her hands to her hips, a gesture she didn't particularly care for but felt necessary for the moment. "I'm not in the mood for a lot today – especially getting knocked around by someone like you. Do you think you're tough? A big guy because you've hit a girl?"

Despite what his reputation might say about him, Seth didn't condone violence towards women. In fact, it was one of his biggest beliefs that men who hit women, out of frustration or otherwise, were not worthy of being called men at all. They were cowards and nothing more. So while he realised his right was to be offended in this moment, all he could really do was crack a smile at the woman standing before her.

Of course, she noticed. "You do find it funny. Dick."

"Okay, two things." He spoke finally, waiting a moment to see if Kaitlyn would interrupt and then carrying on – although not without caution – when she didn't. "Firstly, I didn't hit you. Not intentionally anyway. You were about to walk into me and I stopped you by putting my hand out. I didn't mean to hit you that hard but you were coming straight at me."

Oh. The perfectly rational explanation irritated her... or was that the lethargy? Either way, all she could bring herself to do was nod silently, her voice seemingly trapped and unable to produce the appropriate apology.

"And secondly, is your eye twitching?"

Any sympathy she may have felt for him was quickly swept away, replaced with a building anger. Two people had commented on her damn twitching eye and while that didn't seem like many, it was enough of a problem to cement the bad mood she'd been trying so desperately to avoid today.

"You." She pointed directly at him. After a moment's pause with Seth waiting expectantly for her to say something, Kaitlyn said in frustration, "Just stay away from me!"

Not her best parting words or the best position to be put in but it was enough for her. Kaitlyn held her head high as she sauntered away and onwards to catering. She was already throwing that moment away, never to be acknowledged again.

Seth Rollins, on the other hand, would be thinking about it for a while to come. Perhaps with a smile whenever it crossed his mind.

A month later, and finally with a decent amount of sleep in her system, Kaitlyn felt a lot more like herself by the time Halloween rolled around.

The occasion was always well-celebrated backstage at the shows and since she didn't have much going on at the moment—the spotlight was currently on AJ, ugh, and Brie Bella's feud—she was taking part in another diva duty: a photo shoot. If she was going to wander around on a Monday night with nothing to do, might as well participate in something so the wrestling universe knew she was still alive, right?

Even if it was in a goofy shark suit.

The now-brunette wasn't going to pretend like she'd been forced into the Halloween outfit. Kaitlyn had proudly picked it out for herself, in spite of, not despite, noticing that the other divas' costumes this holiday ranged from cute to cool to sexy. Mainly sexy. She didn't mind; she was bringing her own brand of awesome to this photo shoot, and felt like it represented who she typically was as a person.

Dressing as a shark was funny and a goofy thing to do... even if it was getting a little hot and sticky in her attire. She glanced over at where Cameron and Naomi were posing for the photographer together and then over to Rosa, the next girl to go on. A knowing sigh spilled from her lips – Rosa would take ages getting the perfect few shots for the website, meaning that it would be a good half an hour or so before Kaitlyn even got in front of the camera.

In the meanwhile, she needed water from down the hallway, and she wouldn't wander too far adrift from the photo shoot. Plus if they needed her, would it really be that hard to track down a giant walking shark?

She was only alone for a couple of minutes before Seth crossed her path again. This time, he was with Roman Reigns and the two were talking discreetly amongst themselves, although their hushed conversation came to a close upon seeing her. Kaitlyn was tempted for a second sigh at the entertained look to wash over Seth's face—if she hadn't won the first war of words a month ago, how was she expected to now looking like this?

Without speaking, Roman walked off, giving the impression that he was much too serious for such a stupid moment. She noticed Seth remain in place but attempted to ignore him, reaching clumsily for a bottle of water from the table in front of her and nearly knocking it over instead. That was where Seth came in, offering his unopened bottle out to her.

She looked at it for a moment, suspicious, prompting him to react, "The lid's still sealed so there's no chance I poisoned it or whatever you think I've done to it. Although of course you can't trust me since apparently I like to go around hitting women..."

"I'm not going to apologise." Kaitlyn blurted out, grabbing the bottle in one fell swoop.

"I'm not surprised." He shrugged. "Nice costume by the way..."

"It's for a photo shoot. Obviously."

There it was again – that irritation seeping back into her tone. What was it about Seth Rollins that turned her back into an immature fourteen year-old girl? She was supposed to be this kick-ass, dorky, fun-loving diva, not a snarky mess around him.

"Obviously." Seth echoed.

"Okay, smirk all you want, I don't care. I'm leaving now."

She'd just about turned around in her shark costume when he called out again. Rather than struggle to face him again, Kaitlyn simply listened to his voice instead, hearing the comment, "The new hair suits you. Light brown – it's nice."

Stood in place, she had to question the remark. He was saying something nice about her in a non-amused way. Well, this was new. She chose to ignore it and walked ahead, imagining the look on his face as she went, but knowing that there was a small smile pushing its way onto hers.

Was she – dare she say it – pleased by his comment? I've been in this outfit for too long, she eventually told herself as she unscrewed the bottle lid and took a sip of water. The heat is making me think inappropriately. Yep, that's it.

The third time Kaitlyn and Seth saw each other again, she'd had time to think about the situation. What she had determined with all this thinking going on was how much she shouldn't be thinking about The Shield member so much; furthermore, that Seth Rollins wasn't even supposed to be a blip on her radar.

When her eyes locked onto him standing around backstage, she found herself grateful to be in an okay-ish mood for once. She didn't have a match scheduled for tonight – and she suspected she wouldn't in the foreseeable future – but she was alright with that for now. With less media rounds to do her sleep was caught up on, and without a Halloween costume on she was free to rock her natural look.

And maybe it helped her confidence to know that her new hair was "nice", no matter how vanilla the comment appeared to be.

"Something you should know about me is that I don't like feeling like I'm in the wrong," was Kaitlyn's opening comment. He looked up from his phone to her, a recognisable look of confusion crossing his face then, but she powered on anyway. This was her time to speak. "So I'm coming over now – as a decent person – to formally apologise for the way I treated you in the past. I was running on no sleep when I bumped into you the first time, and I was just plain embarrassed the second time in that shark costume... even though it was awesome. Anyway, you didn't deserve that treatment and I guess you're an alright person, so I'm sorry."

Seth struggled for something to say for a moment, but eventually responded with a quiet, "Okay..."

"And that's it. That's all I wanted to say. Goodbye."

"Hey, hold on a second." He chuckled. He looked like he wanted to reach out to stop her from going off, before thinking better of it and keeping to himself. "I might have wanted to get under your skin," he admitted, shrugging slightly.

"What do you mean?"

"When you bumped into me I saw you at the last second. I was going to walk into you if it hadn't been for that second where I looked up. Then you spouted off all that spiel about how I was acting like a jerk and it made me laugh, so I laid the blame on you. Oh, and made the comment about your eye."

"Oh... by the way, my eye doesn't normally twitch. That's not a thing that happens usually." She cleared her throat. "Like I said, I was running low on energy and yeah... I guess I just needed my sleep."

He nodded, clearly amused. "Sure." Then he added, "And the second time, well, it was just too easy to make fun of you dressed as a shark."

"I get that, but at least I had a reason to act that way towards you. You were just plain rude."

"Well you know what they say."

He broke their gaze to look down at the floor but she remained focused on him. "Uh, no? What do 'they' say?"

"That sometimes the reason you get under someone's skin is because you like them." Seth looked up then. A boyish smirk tugged at his lips.

Kaitlyn stared at him for a long moment. Time seemed to drag in those few seconds since the words left his mouth and while she tried to make sense mentally of what he was saying, it seemed like her mouth had already come to a conclusion. "Psssshh." The odd noise tickled her lips. Reaching awkwardly to play with the once-black tips of her hair, she added, "Yeah, but that's something you say when you're like... a kid, right? We're both adults here in an adult environment, so obviously you didn't get annoy me for that reason. Right?"

"Right." He nodded, and then said a moment later, "I'll see you around then. Thanks for the apology."

Just as he turned to leave, another weird noise escaped her lips. It was an almost whimper that Kaitlyn was ashamed to admit was her way of telling him not to go. Not just yet.

Seth caught onto this and met her stare again. "So," he asked casually, that same boyish look on his face, "You wouldn't want to go out on a date with me or anything like that sometime?"

The tingle that shot through her body was embarrassing. She didn't get like this around guys; she was one of the guys. But there was something about the man standing in front of her that got to her. Maybe it was because he was part of The Shield; maybe it was because she'd never been attracted to someone like him before; maybe, just maybe, it was because for once someone was on her level.

Whatever that something was, it made the decision for her.

"I mean, I guess I would." Kaitlyn shrugged nonchalantly, although not entirely convincingly. "But it would have to be a good date, you know? Not a typical one. Something that wouldn't disappoint me."

He laughed at that. Seth's smirk settled into a softer smile. "Wouldn't dream of it," and just because he couldn't help himself, added, "I'd hate to get on your bad side."

The comment made her snort-laugh, a characteristic of hers that she wouldn't put on her worst enemy, and after awkwardly apologising for it despite Seth seeming entertained by it, Kaitlyn exchanged numbers with him and they parted ways.

Sometimes, she thought as she headed out of the arena and towards her car, I wonder how I get myself into these situations. I really do.

A/N: I don't know where this one-shot came from - it just happened! Nevertheless, I find these two cute and it's my first time writing them. Hope you liked it!