Raw Fallout

The stinging pain from the lashes of the steel chair paled in comparison to blind pain inside his chest. Seth had betrayed them. He still couldn't come to grips with it. Not even after seeing with his very own eyes Seth delivering that first lash to Roman. The cold shock that went through him watching Roman fall against the ropes. Time had breaked to a halt. Everything was still. He couldn't hear the crowd gasping behind him. He couldn't hear Triple H's signature chuckle. All he could focus on was Roman lying like a broken pile of bones at the edge of the ring.

No, not Seth. Never Seth. He was the architect of The Shield. He was the backbone of the group. The self proclaimed glue of the group. But it was true. He was. When he took two steps towards him to ask him why he had just done that, he struck him too. That first crack took all of the wind out of him and after that everything was fuzzy. He remembered Seth stomping his head to the steel chair and then he heard Evolution's theme music streaming into his consciousness and then nothing.

As he walked along the corridor trying to make his way back to their locker room, he was vaguely aware of all the eyes that were watching them from the sidelines. He knew that deep down that they were all glad that this had happened to them. They were too cocky. Too arrogant. They acted as if they owned this place. Three young hot shots who had decided that the WWE was their personal playground. Now the rug had been pulled from under them. They had been humiliated in front of the entire WWE universe by one of their own. Justice had finally been served to the hounds. And it was bitter.

Dean unlocked the door to the locker room and pushed it open. It was only then that he turned to look at his remaining teammate who had been walking silently next to him. His eyes were red and bloodshot. His jaw tight. A coldness to his persona that instinctively Dean knew that he wasn't in the mood for conversation right now. That was good. Neither was he.

Dean slowly stripped himself of his clothes wincing everytime he moved an arm or a muscle on his back. Seth had directed most of his anger towards him. But why? What had he done that was so horrible that he had deserved this treatment? He watched as Roman took off his vest. He felt his hearstrings tugging as he took in the battered bruises on his body. The fresh bruises from the chair shots mixing with those from the kendo stick that were barely twenty four hours old. Roman's back looked as if it had been through a war and Dean knew that his didn't fair much better.

As Dean wrapped a towel around his waist as he headed to the showers, some things still weren't making sense. He knew that more often than not that he pressed Seth's buttons and made him angry on purpose. It was a kind of a game to him really and he figured that Seth had played along to an extent. But Roman? Seth used to light up whenever he came into a room. Those two were always attached at the hip. More often than not, making Dean feel like a third wheel. They knew what the other was thinking by a look or a glance. They were so insynced and yet there was Roman moving like a broken man who had lost his will to live.

He wouldn't say that he felt pity towards Roman as he watched him start his own shower but he did feel something. Roman loved Seth. He positively adored the man with the bi-coloured hair. Anyone could see that whenever they interacted that they did have a bond. A brotherly bond they called it but all three of them knew that it ran deeper than that.

The water drops from the shower felt like purgatory. Blissful yet painful all at the same time. He could see the stripes of red bruises forming across his arm. Seth's and Randy's handiwork. He gritted his teeth and nearly bit his lip off as he raised his arm to wash his back. Fuck. That shooting pain would have brought him to his knees if he had been a weaker man. He looked over at Roman. He hadn't even bothered to attempt to wash his back. He just backed the shower and allowed the water to hit him. His eyes were blank and far away. Dean could see that that the betrayl had seeped in and had taken ahold of him. His trust and Dean would wager, his heart had been broken by the one person Roman would have laid his life on the line for no questions asked. There was no recovering from that. Dean had been there too many times. The best a person could do is cover it up and move on. Then on those lonely nights when the wind blew just right and all of those surpressed memories came flooding back, one would welcome the comfort of the devil's favourite liquid until he passed out until morning.

When he opened their hotel room door. He wished that Seth was on the otherside. He wished that Seth was sitting on the bed crosslegged and grinning. Telling them that it had all been a ruse. That he was going to bring down Evolution from the inside. That he couldn't let them in on it because he wanted the shock on their faces to be authentic. But there was no Seth here waiting for them as Dean dragged his bag inside the room.

He didn't realize that he had audibly sighed until he saw Roman looking at him. Their eyes locked for a few tense seconds. All they had left was each other. That was when the gravity of the situation became real to both of them.

Dean dropped his suitcase unceremoniously next to the queensized bed that was next to the window. He plopped down on the bed and stared forlornly at the floor for a few seconds before coming back to his wits. He peeled his jacket off and dropped it on the floor. He then kicked his shoes off, watching as they flew across the room hitting the beige wall. Normally Roman would've scolded him for his messy habits instantly but not a sound came from the powerhouse of the Shield.

He wanted to do nothing more than to sprawl across the bed and forget that this night had ever happened but his years as a wrestler had taught him better than that. He had to ice his back. He rummaged through his suitcase looking for some small towels. He supposed if he'd pack things in order instead of just throwing them in there that the task would have been a lot easier and quicker. He heard the dull thud of Roman's sneakers hitting the carpet. As he pulled two small towels out of his suitcase he watched as Roman struggled to pull the t-shirt over his head. But Dean knew that he would never ask for help. He was too proud.

Once Roman was free of the shirt, Dean took the towels and left the room. He walked down the hallway to the ice machine and made two ice compacts with the towels, knotting the ends carefully.

When Dean made it back to the room, he locked the door and turned around. Much to his surprise Roman was lying down on his stomach in nothing more than a pair of boxers sprawled across his bed. Roman was actually in his bed. The one close to the window.

The bruises on Roman's back were turning purple and ugly as Dean carefully laid one of the ice packs on his back. Roman grunted when he felt the coldness touched his skin but nothing more.

Dean crawled over him and then looked down at him. He had taken up most of the room in the bed and there wasn't much space left for Dean. Telepathically however, Roman seemed to have gotten the hint and moved around. The bed barely had enough space for both of them but they made it work. Dean was right up next to Roman and the body heat was welcomed. Roman took Dean's ice pack out of his hand and placed it on his back for him.

They were two broken souls with two broken hearts. Misery loves company.

Dean didn't know how long they stayed like that but when water was trickling down his back he knew that he had to move again. He reached behind him and took up the sagging wet towel and then retrieved Roman's as well. He got up and dropped them in the bathroom sink and then got back into bed.

The pain from the chairshots had faded significantly but it was still there. He turned to look at Roman and saw that he had been watching him quietly. Dean decided to watch him too. Their eyes had the conversation that their mouths weren't brave enough to say. They were both hurting. They both wanted to know what they had done wrong. Why did Seth chose now to turn on them after they had beaten Evolution sucessfully twice? Had Triple H made him an offer that he couldn't refuse? Was he ever going to come back to them?

Roman's eyes were starting to brim with tears and Dean couldn't handle it. Anything but this. Give him the barbed wire and glass matches. Give him the chainsaws to the head but don't dare give him a crying Reigns. His heart couldn't handle that.

He did the only thing that he could think of to do. He pushed that silky black hair off his face and then he kissed him. He clamped his lips over Reigns' and kept them there. This had to work. This had to distract him somehow. But when a drop splashed against their lips, meandering its way between them and Dean could taste its saltiness, he felt his heart give out. It didn't work. He broke the kiss and as his eyes drifted to Roman's he felt a hand brush his cheek and it was then that he realized that the tear was his own. He wanted to speak. To defend himself from the humiliation but what could he say? For once in his life he didn't have a snappy comeback. Roman's hand was still on his cheek. His watery grey eyes were searching his face but Dean knew that he would find nothing of worth that he could offer. They both wanted the same thing. The same person and yet there was nothing that the two of them could do about it.

Dean was certainly surprised when Roman leaned in and kissed his lips softly. Maybe there was something he could offer him after all. They weren't always on the same page but they always stuck together, no matter what and that had to count for something.

Roman rested his head back on his pillow as he regarded Dean's countenance. The hours ticked by and finally that first tear spilled down Roman's cheeks. That tear brought his first words for the night. They were spoken so low but yet they seemed to take up the entire space of the hotel room.

" I miss him."

" Me too."

A/N: Oh my god. The feels! After riding high from the Evolution victory at Payback to Raw. I wasn't emotionally ready for that ( truth is I would never be, but still). I was like " MY BABIES!" Oh how could they do that to me? Logically my mind was like, well this is an interesting set up for MITB, wonder how this is going to all play out but internally I was like Seth Rollins go to your room and think about what you just did! Lol, oh I can't. This is like Undertaker losing at mania all over again.