Charlotte knew that getting a lackey would pay off somehow. She watched Dana struggle with both of their bags with some amount of amusement. They were at the airport and had just passed through security. Charlotte was sticking around watching Dana put all of the things that the TSA made them take out of their bags to put them on the conveyor belt when she noticed it.
Superstars, despite popular belief, were not all on the same flight. Some of them would overlap, and they'd see one another at the airport often, but it was rare that all of them would be on the same flight. Sami, whom apparently on the same flight as her according to his phone conversation that she'd over heard, was stepping through the metal detector, his stuff all laid out on the conveyor belt, when a TSA agent stepped in his path and gestured him over to the side. She watched with confusion as Sami deflated, almost as if the hope he'd had evaporated, though seemed more sad than annoyed or confused. She looked back at Dana, who was still gathering both their stuff. Seeing that she was still distracted, Charlotte inched closer trying to overhear what the problem was.
She and Sami didn't know each other. If they passed in the hallway Sami would always smile and say hello. This normally wouldn't be very noteworthy, and Charlotte let him know so the first time he did it by turning her nose up at him. The thing that made Sami special, or at least special to her, was that he continued to smile at her and say hello whenever they passed in the back. He did it so often that Charlotte began to expect it, look forward to it even, though she still didn't give him the satisfaction of the queen's attention. Maybe part of it was that Charlotte didn't want to corrupt something to seemingly pure. Maybe it was the fact that Charlotte didn't want to have a weakness. Maybe Charlotte was afraid that if she really allowed for conversation between her and Sami, then she'd be hooked and would never be the same after their lives collided. The TSA agent speaking broke her out of her thoughts.
"You've been selected for random screening. Step right this way."
Charlotte watched as Sami was brought to the side and his stuff was yanked off the belt. She inched closer trying to see what had triggered this fiasco. Her displeasure and anger seemed to grow by the second.
Sami's stuff was pulled out of his bag and looked through, which Charlotte didn't realize that they could do. She watched as Sami's wrestling tights were stretched out, the Arabic writing obviously being the focus of this "investigation."
Charlotte didn't have time to feel outrage or sympathy before she heard her name. "Charlotte, what are you doing?"
She looked up and met Sami's confused eyes as well as the beady eyes of the TSA agent. She didn't answer Sami's question and instead looked at the TSA agent who was sizing her up. "Ma'am, you're free to go."
Charlotte bit the inside of her cheek, seeing that Dana was, in fact, ready to go. She shooed her away and was quickly obeyed by the shorter blonde before turning back to the large man and crossing her arms. "I think I'll stay here, actually. Sami and I were getting lunch at the terminal anyway." She cocked her hip and looked down her nose at him. Sami was too nice and, perhaps, not in a place to stand up for himself, that's fine, she would make sure that someone did. It was a queen's duty to look out for the subjects who pleased her. 'Yeah, that's the only reason,' her mind traitorously whispered. Though that little whisper made her more confused of her own actions than she was before.
Sami cleared his throat awkwardly. "I can catch up, I don't want to keep you."
He winced at the glare she threw at him. "Nonsense. I'm not going anywhere." She directed the last part at the security guard, though she was sure she saw something in Sami's shoulder relax.
The TSA agent didn't look too pleased about that, but there was nothing he could really do about it unless he wanted to make a scene. Sami was still looking at her like she'd grown a second head, but didn't say anything to contradict her. Why was she doing this? She didn't know Sami; she didn't owe him anything, and yet seeing him… inconvenienced like this annoyed her.
He asked Sami questions, asked for his passport, asked him his reasoning for traveling, and a ton of things that they didn't ask Charlotte at all. She stood there getting more and more annoyed as Sami simply dutifully answered the questions without complaint or even a trace of anger in his stupid cute face. Charlotte blinked at how out of left field that thought came from, damn her traitorous mind, and continued to focus on the ongoing shake down before finally she snapped. "God, he's with the WWE and we are going to miss our flight. Haven't you abused your power enough for the day?"
The TSA agent grinded his teeth before handing Sami his things back, the other agents throwing his stuff into his bag, less than neatly, and handing it back to him. Sami thanked them before moving next to Charlotte. She turned and grabbed his hand, (why the hell did she do that?) and pulled him along quickly from the security area. They'd made it half way to the terminal when he dug his heels in and stopped them.
"Um, Charlotte?"
"What?" She looked at him and he ducked his head, blushing through his beard.
"Why-um-" She didn't seem to know how to articulate what he wanted to ask. After what seemed like several minutes he settled for a simple, "What?" He was cute when he confused. (Get a hold of yourself, Charlotte.)
"That was bullshit. Someone needed to do something, and well," her voice got softer, not wanting him to think she was accusing him, "I figured they'd take complaints better from a white woman, than if you got belligerent." He nodded knowingly, while she continued. "They were already giving you a hard time, I just didn't want them to go further than that."
"We aren't friends though. We don't even know each other. You're-"
"A bitch?"
He flinched, though he smiled up at her with humor. 'You love when he smiles.' She told her mind to be quiet for what seemed the millionth time today before focusing on what Sami was saying. "I was going to say royalty…"
She felt her stomach clench up with butterflies, fighting off a smile. "Well, I can't disagree with you. But, no one deserves that. Especially not someone who is so disgustingly nice that they say hello to… royalty." She used his word for her, and felt her stomach clench further when he smiled bashfully.
"Well, you look like you could use a smile thrown your way every now and again. I was just hoping to make your day better when I did that. It's no big deal."
It is a big deal to her. Charlotte wants to tell him that those hellos quickly became the high point of her days. Charlotte wants to tell him that those caused her to start watching his matches whenever he wrestled. Charlotte wants to tell him that she started rooting for him in those matches. Instead she clears her throat, trying to mask whatever pleasantness she had on her face, not wanting to give too much away too soon. "I'm not a liar."
He frowned, obviously not expecting that. "I didn't say you were."
She shook her head, thankful that she'd done her hair today and that it framed her face nicely. "No, I mean, I told that jackass that we were getting lunch and I'm not a liar, so you best not make me one." She turned, taking his hand again and began pulling him towards the terminal and, hopefully, a restaurant close to there.
She couldn't mask the smile that came over her when Sami squeezed her hand, caught up with her, his smile shining through. His bad mood from the security checkpoint was forgotten. "I'm buying. I owe my knight in shining armor a drink, at least."
Charlotte frowned, turning her head to him in confusion. "Can queens be knights?" The question left her mouth unbidden, causing her to blush. 'Traitor,' her brain told her body.
Sami grinned at her and winked. "Not all queens. Just you."
As he pulled ahead of her all Charlotte could think was that she had doomed herself as soon as she decided to stay at that checkpoint. She was already hooked.