A/N: I'm planning a longer story for these two, ala Open Your Eyes, but I ended up finishing this while I was on vacation and, after some debate with myself, just decided to upload it first. Once the longer story is uploaded, I'll reflect it by changing this story's title.
Dolph Ziggler breathes in, eyes half-closed as fingers run softly through his hair, trying to soothe him after his match against Ryback that had just been an excuse to beat him down even further. He's never felt more annoyed or tired his whole life; the loss of the World Heavyweight Title had been bad enough, but now, all of this...
He sighs and turns his head, burying it in the side of the person who is holding his upper body across their legs, trying to block out the world. "It's ok, bro. You're gonna be ok," Zack Ryder speaks up, tells him quietly, shifting his fingers to rub down his neck and shoulders.
Dolph just hums, breathing in the scent of Zack's aftershave as he listens to the TV drone on behind them. "I know."
Zack smiles and runs his fingers down his spine. "Bro?" he whispers, leaning over so his lips are right against Dolph's ear.
"Yeah?"
"I feel bad for Cody, I do... and this may make me a really horrible person, but..." Zack smiles wanly as Dolph raises an eyebrow at him, beyond curious at the usually outspoken man's reluctance to say what he's thinking, especially when he's the only one around who's paying any sort of attention to the Long Island broski.
"But what?" he demands when the silence has gone from adding to his curiosity to merely annoying him. "Zack, either tell me, or-"
"I'm glad it was Cody who was fired and not you," he admits in a rush, closing his eyes as Dolph stares up at him. "I know, I'm terrible-"
"Well, then, we both are," Dolph tells him quietly, taking his hand and kissing his palm lightly. "Because I'm glad too. I don't want to leave you, ever."
Zack chuckles and leans over to kiss him, not seeming to mind the awkward position this puts them both in to accommodate it. "Hey, I wouldn't want you to either," he murmurs, burying his fingers in the other man's hair as he tries to get even closer to him. Dolph grins and sits up enough to make all of this more comfortable for them both, resting against Zack until they slowly break the kiss. "I love you, bro."
"I love you too, kid," he breathes out, the two of them reluctantly turning their attention back to Raw, however disinterested they may actually be in the rest of the show while entangled in each other, wanting nothing more than to ditch the arena and just go back to the hotel and relax in each other's arms for real there. The only thing stopping them is a reluctance to anger HHH any further: no matter how little they may respect him, they do value their jobs and hope that the opportunity to make something of themselves will reveal itself someday in the near future, as long as they can remain together, patiently hope for better times ahead.
Dolph looks up once more at Zack and can't help thinking, If this is possible, after everything that's happened, I'm sure pretty much anything is, after all.