Disclaimer: The author is in no way, shape, or form in any form of association with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), any of the wrestlers mentioned in this story, or anything else. I just wrote the thing. Please enjoy.
Dean had never had a pet before. He doesn't expect pity to come from that statement, it's just a fact of life. It had always been a foreign concept to him. While everyone he met seemed to have some kind of pet, he just never had that opportunity, and it wasn't for the lack of trying. When he had been going to school, there had been one time he had made a friend who told him all about their dog. If he looks back, he can remember going home that day and asking his mom if they could have a dog, only to be told that he was responsibility enough. The words had stuck with Dean throughout his teen years until he forced himself to forget.
In the indies, Dean had come across a few folks with pets who were dedicated to them. They had their apartments and they had their animals that they treated like children. They had let him babysit their pets on a few occasions, if only to let him get the feel for it. Dean just remembers enjoying the company, but somewhere in his mind, he knew he would never be able to give an animal the attention they deserved when he was so dead set on making it big.
Of course, then he gets to the WWE, he gets to FCW and he meets this guy who had two little yorkies who were his life. This guy with two little dogs that was still a champion and still doing this balancing act. It impressed the hell out of Dean. Seth Rollins had always impressed Dean Ambrose.
"I've had dogs my entire life," Seth tells Dean after inviting him back to his apartment, where Dean was introduced to Kevin and Poopoo. "I really don't think my life could ever feel complete without them now."
It… changed Dean's perspective, in a way. He started spending more time at Seth's, trying to figure out what made dogs just so special. It led to them falling into a relationship. It led to gentle kisses and mornings curled together with two little dogs at their feet. Dean decides that it's the family aspect that made them so great.
Really, though, the reason they're here now, heading into an animal shelter with Seth bouncing excitedly at his side, is all because of Roman. It had been all Roman's fault when he made the mistake of asking when they were going to adopt more. Seth's face had lit up as he looked right at Dean, that bright smile still in place when he asked, "I dunno, when are we going to adopt more, Dean?"
Now it's six months later and they had been awake since 6AM this morning getting everything they might need for the animal they would adopt. Seth had been talking animatedly about getting another dog ever since Dean had agreed. Dean was more than willing to just go along with it all. He knew nothing about what animals were the best to get anyway.
"Oh, this is exciting," Seth is murmuring to him, his eyes alit as they go in through the front door. At the front counter, there's a woman who smiles at them. "Hi!" Seth greets, "We're interested in adopting a new addition to our family."
"I'm so glad to hear it!" The woman says, the smile still in place. Dean looks around, hands in his pockets. "Were you interested in looking at dogs or cats?"
The question is… odd really. Dean has little experience with cats. All of his experience comes from dogs. He has heard about cats, though. He has watched a ton of videos, had pictures sent to him from Cesaro. Adopting one had never crossed his mind until now.
"I think we're more interested in adopting a dog, but let's look at both!" Seth says with a smile that the woman returns before leading them into a door. It's a corridor. There are several doors that littered both sides of the wall and made Dean feel like they were in a scene from Scooby Doo. Seth is right behind the woman, but Dean trails behind, glancing into each door that he can. "I'll show you the dogs that we have first," she's saying, "They're all down in this door to the right. The cats are right through this door, here on our left."
Dean looks at the door that she had pointed to, though she isn't looking back. He hesitates for only a moment before he slips through it. He's just going to take a look around on his own, without the pressure of someone looking over his shoulder.
The room is just like another hallway, except it's filled with rows of cages. Well-sized cages that acted as make-shift homes for the cats. Most of them seemed to be sleeping. Others were at the front of their cages to investigate the sound of a door opening. Dean slowly begins to walk through.
Each cat – like dogs, Dean thinks – are… individual. They all have different looks to them. Dean is absorbed in looking at them, all of them mostly calm, that he's startled when he steps in front of a cage and a loud hissing sound erupts at him.
There's a cat with matted fur at the back of its cage. Its gray-and-brown fur is all puffed out – or rather, as much as it could be – and its eyes are deadly as they train on Dean. It looks frightened, more than anything, Dean has to admit. It looks like it was prepared to fight for its life.
At the bottom of the cage, there's a little laminated paper with all the cat's information. It was male. It didn't have a name. A yellow sticker was stuck on the lamination and it reads "I need a home before" and it has a written date on where a line had been blank. Dean feels sick to his stomach, moving closer to the cage. The cat continued to hiss, swatting out a threatening paw. Dean just leans down some to get at eye-level with the cat.
"It's alright, little guy. I'll give you a home."
In through the other door, where kennels of dogs were lined up, Seth is listening to the woman talk about each dog without fully comprehending what she was saying. He is appreciating the sight of all of the dogs that lined the walls, feeling a certain pull to every single one. It wasn't hard to tell that he was a dog person. It's towards the end of the line – his mind already filing through the dogs that he had taken an interest in along the way – when his eye is caught by a dog standing at the forefront of its cage.
It couldn't have been older than a year, honestly, as Seth gets closer. It's wagging its tail excitedly, hoping up slightly to put his paws on the chain-link that separates it from Seth. It looks happy, healthy. It's a small dog, but it's bigger than both Kevin and Poopoo. As Seth gets closer, he realizes that this dog – black and white in color – is missing an eye.
It throws him off for a moment, but the dog is still wagging its tail like it's happy to be noticed and Seth is enthralled in it. He moves right up to the cage and smiles softly. The woman has stopped talking, as if she's holding her breathe.
"How much is this little guy?"
Seth and Dog meet in the middle, with Seth and the woman coming out of the dog corridor and Dean coming out of the cat corridor. The woman looks a bit disgruntled at Dean having come out alone, but doesn't say anything.
"See anything you liked?" Seth asks and Dean is immediately nodding, opening the door to the corridor again and leading them inside, right to where the hissing and angry cat was still just as hissy and angry as before. Seth looks apprehensive, but after seeing the yellow sticker, he seems to get where Dean is coming from. "Alright, well, I found us a dog. So… both?" Seth asks, almost hopefully. Dean doesn't hesitate in nodding.
Hope you guys enjoyed it! I thought leaving it there was the best place to end it without rambling on for another 2000 words or so!
Reviews would be so nice! Love you guys!
~Ash
