Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or real people portrayed in this story. WWE owns the characters and the real people own themselves. This story is tame at the beginning, but won't be by the end, but don't worry, I'll let you know when it'll change.

A/N: Hello again, Zigglee fans! Another new story here! I was talking with Carly, and we were running scenarios through our heads, and a fic sort of came out of it. So this is it. It takes place after the SummerSlam match, and I think that's all you need to know.

Oh, and it's rated T right now, but it will be eventually moving into M territory, just so you know, anyways, I hope you enjoy, and please leave a review letting me know if you think I should continue. And if you want to be brutal, I'm totally fine with that. :)

Best friends.

He wasn't even sure how two words could slap him in the face so hard, but there they were, smacking him harder than anyone ever could in the ring. He licked his lips a little bit and stared down at the mouth the words had just come from, in a lilting, sympathetic voice. Sympathy was the enemy of Dolph Ziggler, and her sympathy felt like fires burning along his skin, cracking it and fissuring it until he was just burning embers soon reduced to ash.

"Dolph…" The tone of her voice grated on every last nerve until he simply swallowed down the disappointment and hurt. "I didn't—"

"No, we're best friends, and that's cool," he told her, pushing down the bile that rose when he said those two damning words. "It's cool, I mean, I guess I probably just saw too much from this storyline, you know, and that's probably my fault."

She reached for his hand, but he jerked it away from her because touching her right now would be the worst possible thing. It was best to leave their last touch as the slap she gave him in the ring a short while ago because that's what all this felt like, a slap to the face. He'd thought…how could he have misinterpreted everything so wrong between them? How could he not see that she saw a best friend while he saw…so much more?

He'd had opportunities with other women, so many opportunities with other women who would have been more than willing to be "more than friends" with him. And he'd turned them down. Every single time the possibility of more came up, his brain would flit right back to the girl who was only playing his girlfriend, and he'd give pause, and he'd think it through, think about what the other side of any encounter with some other woman might do to his chances with AJ, and he'd stopped himself, and oh, sometimes, it was very hard, but then he'd get a call from her or a tweet from her, and he'd be reminded of why she was so very worth it.

Except he'd been grossly wrong in thinking that they were both just waiting for this storyline to be over before they took the next step. He'd been going along for months now thinking they shared the same silent agreement that when all this was over, they would stop being professional and start being together. He thought the logical step after their onscreen break up would be their off-screen beginning. Maybe he shouldn't have made that such a silent agreement so he and AJ might be on the same page instead of completely different books in completely different libraries in completely different states.

"I didn't want it to be like this, and I'm sorry," she pleaded with him now, hoping he would see her side of the story, but he didn't because when he looked at her, he saw a woman so perfect for him that she blotted out all the women who came before. And he knew that because he'd tried to go back to women who came before just to forget her, and AJ's star shone so brightly that the rest became inky blackness.

"There's nothing to be sorry about," Dolph shrugged lightly, but he was heavy-weighted at the shoulders. He always talked about the chip that rested on his shoulder, well, the other one was now carrying a mountain. "I better get showered, I really want to see the ending of the Daniel/Cena match, should be interesting."

"Okay," AJ nodded.

"Plus, I have that Mick Foley show that I'm going to with Jen," he said, and he wished he was going with some other female that wasn't friends with both of them so he could at least try to make her jealous. Yes, that was what he was reduced to, hoping he could incite some sort of reaction from her by bringing up another female. He'd always thought he saw jealousy on her face whenever he went out with some other woman, but he must have mistook nothing for everything.

"Oh yeah, don't let me keep you," she told him. She stared at him for a second, and it wasn't like he could look away because her face haunted him even when they were thousands of miles apart. She stared down at the ground for a moment before she quickly leaned up and hugged him, wrapping her arms around his neck and holding him for just a second.

He knew she meant well, knew this was her own AJ-brand of trying to make things better, not knowing that she was making things so much worse. One hug from her and his body became alive. He'd been so unhappy with this storyline, the only times he felt like himself were the times around her, and now that it was over, the one thing he looked forward to was a pipe dream, and her body pressed against his, both sweaty and tired from their match, was torture personified.

He reached up and unwrapped her arms from around her neck, reminiscent of their onscreen breakup and he gently put them down, "I better go, AJ," he told her, "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, you will, you see me every week," she told him, trying to make a joke out of it, but neither laughed. He loved her laugh too. It was the first thing he fell for because it always came so easily. She laughed so much, and his love of comedy…but that was silly, she probably laughed at everyone, and here he thought he was special.

Nope, he was just the best friend.

He trudged his way back to the locker room, finding it pretty much deserted because everyone was watching the main event. It was better that way, meant he didn't have to talk to anyone after the rejection he just suffered. He grabbed his shower stuff, and went into the showers, his flip-flops echoing against the tiled floor and walls, reminding him that he was just a single guy who loved the girl who considered him her best friend.

"I love you like a best friend because you're my best friend, I can't lose that."

What did that even mean? Can't lose that? He wouldn't go anywhere if he was with her? He wouldn't stop being her best friend. He would just be the best friend she gets to have sex with, and in his opinion, that was not a bad deal, not a bad deal at all. In fact, he'd call that a pretty sweet deal. He could love her and be with her, and they could still hang out and do the nerdy things she loved and the funny things he loved. Everyone thought they were a couple already, so why not?

He tried to stop thinking about, overanalyzing it as he showered and got dressed. The locker room was still empty, and he was still thankful for that. He put all his things away before heading to the closest monitor to watch the end of the show. There were a couple people watching, and it allowed him to kind of fade into the background, which was not his usual wanted place, but right now, it was perfect for him.

Everyone was so focused on the match they didn't notice him until after it was all over and a WWE camera was chasing him as he was trying to leave. He gave a short interview, not even remembering much of what he said, but he was angry, and he just said whatever came to mind, not caring that it probably wasn't good business to call out management. He felt like Daniel though. He felt like a guy who was pushed to the top only to be pushed right back down to the bottom, but at least Daniel would get there soon, he wasn't even sure when he would get another World Title shot, let alone a WWE title shot.

The comedy served as a buffer for the evening, taking him away from it for a little while. For the shortest of times, he was able to forget dark-haired women who thought of him as nothing more than a best friend. He loved comedy for that. He loved that you could lose yourself in the rolling laughter in a packed room or through a joke that you didn't quite get and had to process for a moment. He provided him an escape he desperately needed, and the mingling after the show allowed him to be around people and not her. He just didn't want to be around her.

"That girl is checking you out," Jen said over his shoulder. Dolph looked over and indeed, there was a woman checking him out. He felt flattered, and he could very well go over there and say hello, talk her up, and he could probably score her tonight. It'd be that easy for him. It could be that easy for him.

"Nice," he said simply.

Jen poked him in the side, "Whipped."

"What?"

"For AJ, you're whipped for her, don't think we all haven't noticed," Jen said, "well, no, okay, no, we haven't all noticed, just all the women with our great intuitions."

"Nope, she's just my best friend," he said, knowing he should go over there and prove AJ didn't have a hold on him, not anymore. She thought of him as her best friend, and best friends were free to date other people, any people, all people. Except she did have a hold, and so he stayed put. "I don't have time for that, I have Raw in Anaheim tomorrow, and I'm exhausted, and I'm—"

"Oh, you," Jen said, "best friends? Best friends? I don't think so. If you're best friends then…no, you're just not."

And it was that conversation that stuck with him the rest of the night.

It stuck with him as he rode back to the hotel. It stuck with him as he rode the elevator up to his room, passing her door along the way and trying not to glance at it (he did, he glanced for a long moment, willing it to magically open). It stuck with him as he pushed open his own door and kicked off his Converse (he bought them with her). It stuck with him as he got ready for bed, and it stuck with him as he climbed into said bed, and it stuck with him as he turned off the light.

Then it was just his thoughts.

Then it was just his thoughts and the darkness of night.

"We just have so much fun together, and I do love spending time with you, I really, really do."

"Yeah, spending time together," Dolph muttered to himself, moving so his hands rested behind his head.

"I don't let many people in, which is huge for me."

"But you can't let me in a little further," he spat out, wishing he had taken someone back to his room with him. Anything, anyone would be better than the specter of AJ from earlier this evening. How he pulled her aside after his match, careful to be out of earshot, to tell her that he wanted to take her out formally before her eyes widened and she backed up a few steps so as to give her space to wind up for the death blow.

"You mean so much to me. You have wormed your way into my life."

"But not your heart, can't have that," he continued his bitter conversation with his memory of her. Right now, he could be as angry and bitter as he wanted to be while the him from earlier just tried to save face. But there was nobody around now to save face for. "Can't have the heart."

"I'm sorry if you've thought differently, if you've thought there was more."

"If I thought there was more..." He ran his tongue against the front of his mouth. "Thought there was more? If I thought there was more." No, he refused to believe that it was only his imagination. He could not believe that everything he felt was one-sided. He could not believe that there wasn't one, two, three hundred, four thousand, five million seconds where she didn't feel something for him.

There was more.

There was so much more…