Disclaimer: I don't own WWE or any of it's employees or other pop culture referenced in this fic. This is a work of fiction. I only own a box of mac and cheese and alot of unfinished chapter fic *sweatdrop*

Before it Breaks

The waters had rushed through. The damn had been broken. Two hearts had been shattered. Their faith and trust washed away with the waters of betrayal.

It was the best thing to ever happen to them.

It took a very long time for Roman and Dean to get over Seth betraying them. It took a long time for them to truly understand what all of it meant.

Those first nights after Seth took a chair to Roman and Dean had been the worst. Neither could sleep. Neither could find it in themselves to put 100 percent trust in the other. Because Seth took that from them. Seth broke thier faith in eachother -in thier close knit group. Dean especially had is hard. He didn't even know if it was a good idea to even ride in the car with Roman. He was so sure Roman would do the same to him that Seth had.

Leave him.

Leave him alone and crazy like before.

The whole situation was crazy, in Roman's opinion. He had trusted Seth. He had seen the guy as a friend, a brother, a partner in the business. Roman had truly cared for that kid and he decided to throw what the SHIELD had and go for the glory, alone. He could have waited. They ALL would have gotten their eventually. Roman was so angry. He was furious. So furious he didn't even want to think about what was going to happen next. Would he and Dean stand together against the authority? Would he be the lone beast and Dean the lunatic that he never heard from again? Could he trust anyone else after all of this? He wasn't sure. And it made him want to break the stearing wheel in half.

Dean hoped he wouldn't be alone as he watched Roman practically crumble under the pressure of losing one of thier own, of being taken for a spin by someone they thought was thier brother for life. The SHIELD stood together for a long time and with some smooth words from the Authority and a simple chair shot they fell in a second. I guess it truly does take a grand empire only a short time to fall.

So how could they trust eachother?

They didn't at first.

Just on the first night when they came to thier hotel, Roman gave a withering look at the regular bed (the only room the hotel had left at this hour of the night) and tried to figure out if his bruised up back could take sleeping in the car or on the floor.

"Take the bed. I'll take the floor," was all Dean said as he grabbed a pillow and tried to lay on the floor, facing away from his only remaining SHIELD brother.

Dean fell asleep pretty quickly. He usually did. Roman though, he stayed wide-eyed for a another hour or two, staring up at the ceiling wondering what if and what now.

Eventually, hearing Dean shifting restlessly in his sleep, Roman decided he couldn't take it and got up from the bed, his boxers hanging low on his hips and a strand or two of his hair loose from the quick bun he put them in. He stood over Dean for a second with sad eyes, not even once questioning his trust in the slimmer man, and -despite the backache already in play- hooked his arms around Dean and hefted him up the few steps to the bed. He laid the man on the bed, knowing instantly that Dean had woken up but didn't say a word.

Dean had woken up the moment he felt Roman touch him. He was a light sleeper. He woke up to any noise or any move. And especially now that his nerves were on high, questioning his trust for everyone around him, it's no suprise he woke up instantly. He kept his eyes practically closed, not to alert Roman, and watched the other man's face while he was carried to bed and tucked in.

Roman climbed back into bed on the side he had been on and rolled so his back was to Dean. Dean looked at his back and his mind went blank, just staring at those bruises.

Seth was a dead man.

The days after that were similar. The two men were on edge with eachother, but stuck together regardless.

It became a silent agreement to just get a regular bed and sleep together. It was both out of fear and suspision. This way, if one of them moved in the middle of the night, the other would know. If one was about to strike and betray the other, the other would know. If one was being attacked, the other would know. The other would be there to protect.

Because that's what they felt for eachother, the lack of trust and the intense need to protect eachother.

As the hours ticked in silent car rides and lunches, they eventually started to trust eachother enough.

And then the next week, when they had to see Seth again, it brought a new wave of feelings, sadness.

They were both sad. They knew for sure they had lost a brother.

It was a hard pill to swollow.

That night Dean paced while Roman sat on the bed. And then Dean sat down, breathing heavy and Roman watched him with tired eyes.

"I'm going to get him for what he pulled on us," Dean whispered, voice hoarse and thick. "That Bastard thinks he can take us and hurt us like he did and that we won't fight back?"

Roman idly scratched his jaw. "I... I don't even want to think about him," Roman said after a minute. "You can take care of him if you want, I'll get his buddies. That way he won't have as much help while you beat the living shit out of him."

Dean looked back at him and they locked eyes. Agreed.

After ironing out some details, they laid in bed, darkness around them, back to back. Dean spoke quietly, almost wishing Roman couldn't hear him. "Can I even trust you Rome? If he starts to get me good, will you be their to help or will you let him because you stopped caring? I mean, if you do care for me."

Roman practically growled deep at the whispered rant. "First of all he'll never get you good. He's a rat and he's nothing without us. And Secondly, I will always be there when you need me. Shit, you could be in jail for something stupid and I'd still be there to get you out." He sat up in the bed, the sheet pooling around his middle. His eyes were intent on Dean's back. "I care for you. I care for you as much as I cared- still kind of care- for Seth. You are my brother and you always will be, unless you pull a bitch move like he did."

Dean, in all his insecurities, felt the lump in his throat and the slump in his shoulders. He felt relieved. And, although he wasn't exactly looking back at Roman, he offered his closed fist over his shoulder. And Roman, seeing it through the streaming light of cars passing by outside the shitting motel, bumped fists.

They slept a little more sound that night knowing each other was there. And in the morning, Roman stirred first, sun hitting his eyes from over Dean's shirtless upper body. He felt a weight on his chest and looked at Dean to find the other man's arm slung on him. He gave the smallest of smirks. He didn't mind, really. At least it meant that Dean wasn't afraid of him anymore, as he shouldn't be.

Roman gently moved Dean's arm around to the side as he got up to use the restroom and get a good shower.

Of course Dean had been awake. He woke up when he felt Roman stir. He must have felt it more since his arm was on the Samoan. Ironically, since Dean was sure it was going to happen, he didn't tense up, and stayed comfortably across Roman until he was moved. And once Roman had the shower running, Dean opened his eyes and just stared at the bathroom door, waiting for his friend to return.

As more nights passed before the next live Raw, going to Smackdown and then houseshows, each morning they awoke the same ways, but some days it was Roman who had his arm over Dean's shoulder or Dean's body curled into Roman's. One day Dean woke up first to find his back against Roman's chest, those strong Samoan arms around him tight. They were confusing mornings followed by awkward car rides to do interviews and/or workouts.

They both silently questioned why waking up the way they have been hadn't bothered them the way they expected it to. They found it more relaxing to know they still had eachother. And better yet, they trusted eachother more now then when they were grouped up with Seth.

Mostly because they only had eachother to trust.

Day in and Day out they got more comfortable again. Roman would drive as Dean would fidget with the radio and tell stupid stories from his indie days about whatever town they were in. And for the first time in weeks, they would laugh openly and take jabs at eachother.

"You were such a man-slut, Ambrose."

"Ha-ha at least I don't look like Fabio with all that hair."

"Don't be jealous of my gorgeous hair, man. It is undeniably sexy."

Dean looked over at him, digging his hand into an almost empty bag of doritos. "Yeah," He said, bluntly. "It is pretty nice." And then after a weird pause, thick with some unspoken, unknown tension, Dean added, "What do you use on that? The blood of your enemies and a little Herbal Essence?"

Roman hummed, amused. "Nope. It a little of the blood of my enemies, the tears of hot ring rats that I reject, and some Pantene."

One night, after getting no where with his revenge on Seth, Dean furiously paced the motel room, throwing his hands up in the air and swearing up a storm that could rival a sailor.

"That fucking peice of shit. When I get my hands on him I'm going to rip his smarmy smirk off his face and shove it up his ass," he huffed. "oh he thinks he can play games with me? He's got another thing coming for him. I will mess with his head until he cracks. They're gonna have to pull me off him."

Every feeling of betrayal and anger. Every feeling of pissed off brooding and mistrust. Every damn feeling of fustration and the need for retribution came bubbling up in Dean in that moment. He started by grabbing his bag and throwing it across the room, most likely waking up the people sleeping next door. He then grapped Roman's and kicked it the other way. Next he smacked down one end table and then chucked the lamp at the bathroom door. How no one called the cops in the moment was still mind-boggling days later to Roman.

But in that moment, Roman decided to grab Dean and stop him from making further damage and getting them kicked out and owing a hefty fine for destroyed property. What they really needed was those TMZ scumbags getting them on camera being arrested.

Roman restrained him from behind, putting his arms securing around Dean and shouting at him to stop.

Dean of course struggled free. He turned his blazing eyes at Roman. "What? What do you want? You went after Orton and stuck me with that fucking bitch, alone. Are you afraid Rome? Huh? You afraid that you can't handle him? Is that why you went running after everyone else and I'm fighting Rollins? Can't face the fact that we got left? Is that it? He left us out to dry and die while he kisses Hunter's ass and sucks Steph's twat for good measure. He's not coming back! You just don't want to face him, because you're a bitch like him."

If Roman hadn't become so pissed off from everything that Dean had just said, he probably would have just realized Dean was speaking out of anger. But, Instead Roman punched Dean square in the jaw.

Dean moved his jaw with his hand, assessing the impact as his crazy eyes watched Roman, heavily breathing with anger, watching him back.

And then Dean pounced and Roman readied himself to fight his crazy pissed off friend. Instead, Dean grabbed Roman's face with one hand and his long hair with the other and brought thier faces together in the most passionate, anger-induced, kiss either had ever had. Teeth clashing. Tongues waring. Hearts slamming in thier chest. Adreneline pumping in thier blood.

To this day, neither man could tell you exactly how everything happened, but several hours later, as the sun cracked over the horizon outside, through trees and highway signs, Roman and Dean lay on the floor near the bed, still breathing heavily, but for different reasons. Their clothes had been torn off into shreds. Thier bodies were marked with bruises and bite marks. Hair was sprayed out around their heads and they tried to catch thier breaths.

They had had the most brutal, pissed off fuck ever. Just throwing eachother around all night and getting the intimacy they needed. Getting thier stress relieved and their anger sucked out.

Dean looked over at Roman from the corner of his eye, too tired to move. "Well," he cleared his throat, "that was ..."

He had trailed off and Roman finished for him "Fucking amazing."

They laid that way in silence after that, just listening to everything around them, but mostly to the other man's breathing. Evetually they knew they had to get up and clean up this mess. So they moved around in a bit of an awkward silence, cleaning the lamp pieces from the carpetted floor and straitening the knocked over tables.

In the car, they drove off without knowing what to say, like those first nights all over again. The What ifs and the What nows.

It was only that night after the Smackdown tapings when they sat eating some junkfood in the parking lot of the gas station, waiting for the car to fill up, when Dean brought up the only topic they were avoiding all day. "Look, about last night-"

"If you want to forget about it, I understand. It was a stupid heat of the moment mistake," Roman said cutting Dean off before he could finish.

Dean gulped some soda from his cup and looked up at Roman timidly. He wanted to say what was on his mind, but the other man's tone just now was final. So Dean shut his trap and sat back in the car and waited to head off again, folding his arms over his chest and staring out the window until he fell asleep.

Somewhere down the road after that fateful night, when they had first fucked, they stopped thinking about it, once more focusing on work. But then it became an unspoken ritual. One of them would get undeniably angry and turned to other for some good ol' angry fucking, taking out their fustrations on eachother. Scratching. Grabbing. Shoving. Bruising.

But they would never talk about it.

Roman thought of it as the Seth Curse. It was a curse that only they could understand. That Seth Rollins had cursed them to be alone despite being together. He had put a curse on them so that they could never be okay together again, whether from lack of trust like in the first days, or from passionate bouts of relief that lead to confusion. Neither Dean nor Roman knew what they were feeling for one another.

So much tension.

But still, even on those nights they didn't spend screwing like rabbits, they woke up in eachothers arms. And Dean was itching to talk to Roman about it all, but was so afraid of being rejected, of the feelings he didn't even understand being turned down.

He needed Roman. He needed Roman around him all the time. He craved it. He wanted to feel those strong arms hold him down and hold him together.

But did Roman feel the same? Or was Dean just a good fuck to him?

And Dean just didn't know how to ask the Samoan man about any of it. On top of not trusting anyone but Roman, he couldn't even talk to anyone about any of this.

Roman watched as Dean slammed his fist on the bed after Money in the Bank, where Seth had won, and once again left Dean and Roman in the dust.

Dean was so upset with himself. He couldn't win the briefcase and he couldn't figure his own crazy mind out.

It was something enigmatic to think that Roman was looking him with eyes he couldn't control, eyes that were exuding caring and worry. If only Dean would look up and know Roman had those same feelings. And Roman kind of suspected Dean and him were developing those feelings for eachother, but Roman just didn't know if he could lose another brother if this all didn't pan out. So he kept his mouth shut, so far.

But that night, as Dean sat dejectedly, Roman decided to throw caution to the wind and care for the man before him. He walked over from where he was sitting across the hotel room and grabbed Dean's face to look up at him. And he stared down at those confused eyes with warmth that Dean couldn't describe with all the words in the world.

They both leaned in and thier lips brushed together softly, much much more softly then all their other locks. They seperated, Roman's eyes watching Dean's reaction, before half-lidding and leaning in for more when he knew he made the right desicion.

Dean's clenched hands unclenched and threaded through Roman's loose hair, loving the feel between his fingers.

Roman pulled away and stood back up straight, looking down at the sitting man. "Dean, you have all the time in the world to get back at Seth. And I know you will. He'll never truly understand how much he hurt us until he gets his head kicked in. But I know one thing that came out good from him being a lying snake."

Dean looked up at him with his glazed over eyes in question.

"This. This is the good that came out of it all. The fact that this -whatever it is we have together- is happening."

They came together again a little more passionatley then before, but still less angerly charged then their previous affairs. It was tender and set everything in Dean's swirling mind to rest. It made him calm.

Dean put his hand on the one Roman had on the back of his neck and moved it up to his messy hair. Roman smirked and gripped it tight, pulling it the way that he had found drove Dean crazy and leaned in for more forceful kisses. He picked Dean up by the perfect hips and pulled him up the bed before laying next to him.

"You mean the world to me, Rome. Don't ever leave me or I will kill," Dean whispered, a playful smile on his face paired with serious eyes.

Roman smiled back. "I don't doubt it since you're crazy as hell. But I would be too if I ever left you."

It was somehow thier mutual pain that brought them together. At first it was carnal. But somewhere deep under the feelings of betrayal and suspiscion, these two men found it in eachother to trust again and to love the other in ways they had never thought of before. Seth was still going to get his ass kicked hard by both Dean and Roman in the future, but they were almost thankful he did what he did, because it brought Roman and Dean together. Maybe that's why eventually Dean laid off and went on to other rivals only meeting again when a common golden goal brought them face to face.

Roman was almost content that Seth betrayed them. He got away from the poison that Seth was without even knowing of the danger (until Seth hit him with a Chair of course). And he gained Dean in ways he didn't think he could.

And as they laid in eachother's arms, falling into a good night's sleep, they were truly happy for the first time since Seth left them. Because they realized they never needed Seth, just eachother. Because to Dean, Roman is the only person he wanted around. And for Roman, Dean was the crazy clown he needed to level out the seriousness of life. They both craved eachother now, and well, they found that out before they bent too far and broke even more than what they were because of Seth.

Thier pain over Seth won't ever go away. They still think about him and what he meant to them. But they found love in the end of it. And that was the best thing that ever happened to them.