A/N: Okay, so, new ship — a new otp. lol JoJo and Roman. And another prompt I found on tumblr.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people in the following story. And what happens in here is just a manifestation of what goes on in my own warped imagination. I use fan-fiction to appease my need for validation *snorts*


It's dull at first — a small hum in his heart — he can't pin down the feeling. He's never really put much thought into it. But Roman finds himself attached to her hip more often than not. It was awkward at first because they've both tried to ignore it. Dean was the first to point it out — the unfiltered man was actually the first to point her out — Roman remembers the day clearly in the forefront of his brain.

She was just standing there when they passed — her hair curly and wild — looking more nervous than prepared. She was going to open the show by singing the national anthem.

"Who's the new chick?" Dean had asked absentmindedly as he, Seth, and Roman sat in catering, just enjoying the peace that came with being unapproachable to everyone else.

"JoJo."Roman remembered her from the time Eva had interrupted his work out to introduce themselves to him. He hadn't seen her in person since then. She actively avoided him back the.

He remembers it clearly, the realization that he should have just kept her name to himself, it's been gnawing at the back of his mind since then. Seth wouldn't have broken her. Roman still feels a pinch in his heart whenever he thinks of it — her face being the first he remembers seeing after Seth betrayed him and Dean. JoJo was the first to make sure they weren't suffering.

They learned to take care of each other.

She took her break up with Seth harder than he expected. When they sit together, he can tell she's still unable to stop thinking about that fuck up. It breaks his heart knowing that he's been relegated to friend while Seth still has her heart.

His hand reaches out to tuck a blonde frosted curl behind her ear as she sleeps, wrapped around him. That's what he does — he holds her when she can't sleep — he's there to support and protect her when she wants to cry.

It's not fair.

But no one said it ever would be.

He loves her more than a man should love his (ex) friend's ex. And she's young — God, she's young — Roman reminds himself every day. He can't run from it. But she loves him and he loves her too. They're just different versions of the same feelings — he's positive that he hasn't imagined the last three years of his life. He's pretty sure he's WWE World Heavyweight Champion — he clearly recalls that when as soon as he had passed the curtain, Joseanne had launched herself at him — it's been weeks and he has the belt to prove it.

She's been hiding out with him in his hotel rooms since Seth has returned. The former champion just hangs around backstage, waiting for the okay from management telling him to make himself known to the audience. But she's stayed with Roman. And it's planting small seeds in Roman's head — she could leave him any second. She could go back for another helping of heartbreak if Seth says all the right words. But they're laying together because she wants to prove a point. She wants him to know she's not going to betray him that way. Maybe the reason she thinks his heart would break wouldn't be the same reasons she thinks it would be over, but he appreciates that she doesn't want to hurt him. She's slowly become one of the few people he actually cares about and it's disconcerting to even acknowledge it. He'd tried to tell himself that what he feels for her is completely platonic — that there's some sort of transference happening here — but he's failed, miserably. When she's not around, a piece of him feels like it's missing.

He's lying awake, her arms wrapped around him, listening to her light snores. He has to wake her up soon, they have work in a few hours. It's finally Payback day and JoJo's working as an announcer — she'll get a front row seat to the beating he's going to give AJ Styles. Maybe he may show off a little just to impress her but he'd never admit it.

He rolls over and she's awake, staring at him. Her chocolate eyes are shiny and glassy in the glow of the light coming from the bathroom. He knows her enough to know that she wants to cry. Her finger lazily traces the lines of the tribal artwork of his right arm, and he watches the look on her face shift to worry.

"Hey," his voice is deep, so deep it sends a vibration from his chest to hers. He presses his palm to her face, then moves her hair from her face, "you just woke up and now you already worryin' about summin?" He tries to sound as if he's joking, but he knows this is just how she is. He likes to pretend it's especially for him — but she was the same way over Dean at Wrestlemania 32 — though he knows better.

She cracks her lopsided smile but doesn't look at him, "Shut up. Let me worry about you." He looks at her — thoughts sharing between his grey and her brown eyes — until she's moving to lay on top of him. She's not worried but sad. Sad that he's going to put his body on the line and he'll go under appreciated.

She's so tiny that he barely feels the added weight of her body atop his. Her thighs trap him beneath her as she presses her nose to the middle of his chest, her fingers splayed out other his pectoral muscles. It's an innocent gesture in her mind — at least that's what he thinks — but it doesn't stop his heartbeat from speeding up. She just wants to be close to him without any pressure. She wants to love him. She looks at him and he knows she can feel the beating of his heart. He can hear it in his ears. Thump. Thump. Thump. She sighs and presses her ear over his heart. He looks away because he may explode from the tension.

Before he knows what's happened, she's left a kiss on his jaw and rolled off him. He searches the room for her — his large hand reaching out to find her — then he hears water running and the familiar sound of her singing in the shower. She left the door open. But it's not an invitation, she just takes long showers and he still has to use the bathroom. He thinks that maybe she knows he wants her so she's teasing him. Or maybe it's her young age that makes her blind to him.

Or maybe he's built something in his mind that will never happen.

His phone buzzes on the nightstand and it's Nikki telling him Dean broke his phone —doing only God knows what — and to meet them at the All-State Arena before Payback. He simply replies with an okay. Nikki's been back for a month and it's like she never left.

He takes JoJo because, why not? She disappears before he can tell her that he'll be with Dean.

His best friend is jokingly lifting Nikki — his girlfriend for about as long as he's known her — in the air, threatening to drop her when Roman arrives.

"She just got back and you already trying to kill her, Ambrose?" He makes himself known and Nikki is out of Dean's arms, launching herself at him from the apron. He catches her easily and she's hugging him like she hasn't seen him in years. "Hey to you too."

She stands on her feet and swats him, "Don't act like you didn't want to see me."

Dean swings his feet under the bottom rope and smiles at him — happy Roman gets along with his girlfriend despite his new shitty attitude with everyone who isn't a little, 5 foot two, Joseanne Offerman. He knows his best friend like the back of his hand. He can tell the Samoan champ is having a hard time with something he hasn't shared yet. But he won't push it. Not yet. Not when Nikki is there to scold him.

"What?" Roman asks, already knowing that Dean is thinking about something.

"Why does there always have to be a reason I'm looking at you?" Dean asks, smiling amusedly.

Rolling his eyes, Roman scoffs, "You right, I'm just that beautiful."

"You got it Rome."

"You guys are doing the thing again." Nikki chuckles, hopping up on the barricade, sipping from Dean's water bottle.

"What thing?" They both ask at the same time.

"Flirting." Nikki jokes. They laugh.

Roman rolls into the ring, "We gonna do this or nah?" He asks, he should be getting in some practice before they have to split off for the night.

He finds JoJo wandering the hallway later, when he's on his way to get showered and ready for the pay-per-view. He needs to get into the right mentality to face and defeat a game AJ Styles.

JoJo beams at him, taking his hand and dragging him down the hallway. It's a new development — the handholding — but he's not in any rush to make it stop so he doesn't say anything about it.

"Where'd you go, Joes?" He asks her. He never calls her JoJo. That's his daughter's name and he'd feel really weird about using the same nickname to refer to his kid and the woman he's in love with. So he made one up. He's never told her the reason behind it and she doesn't ask him about it. He's the only one who calls her something different. It's been years since he's actually called her JoJo or Joseanne. It's been years since the last time she noticed it.

She smiles at him, turning to hold both his hands as she walks backwards. "I had to talk to Mark about something."

"Oh, you're not 'bout to tell me?" he purses his lips, pretending to be annoyed, "So that's what we do — We keep secrets now?" He tries to keep a straight face but when she grins he turns to putty.

She rolls her eyes at him, "Oh shut up, you brat-" she's cut off when he's lifting her off the ground, tossing her over his shoulder. Her shrieks startle people around them, but no one moves to save her because it's her and Roman. And everyone can see how much he loves her.

He claps his palm on her butt, smirking to himself when she exclaims, "What was that?" He asks, lifting his hand to slap his hand on her butt again, but she shrieks.

"Put me down!" JoJo whines, halfheartedly beating her hands on his back. She could easily wiggle her way down, but where's the fun in that?

"You sure?" He asks, buckling, pretending to drop her.

"Roman!" She cries, holding her hands to her face. "Reigns, I swear to god. I'll tell you if you put me down." Pause, he doesn't budge, "Nigga put me down!" He tosses her overhead and catches her bridal style, giving her a lopsided grin. She laughs, her head falls back and she closes her eyes. "I hate you, I swear."

"Yeah, yeah." He sets her on her feet and wraps his arms over his shoulder, waddling like a big, burly penguin as she walks with her back pressed to his chest. "So tell me."

"Nope!"

And then she's running away, her ombré curls blow behind her as she disappears down the hallway. He stays planted in his spot because she usually comes back around the corner to peek at him. Then she usually asks him if he can still have fun at his age — the ripe old age of thirty. Then he's supposed to tell her that adults don't play tag.

It's quite complicated — that exchange. And she's not back to participate.

When he finds her again, she's staring up at Seth like she could kill him. And then her hand reaches back and whips forward. She punches Seth right in his jaw, so hard it hurts her hand. And then Seth lunges forward, trying to grab her. Roman barrels ahead, grabbing his ex-best friend by the collar of his black t-shirt.

Seth is wide eyed, but tries to recover. Roman slams him into the wall — hard. "Don'tchu ever — in the rest of your life — touch her again."

Seth struggles and Roman is vaguely aware that JoJo has pressed herself between them. She pushes Roman back.

Seth's laugh is still as obnoxious as they both remember it. "What, you her dad now?" The blond patch in his hair is gone completely, Roman reaches out to swat where the bleached hair used to be, wanting to snatch him completely bald, but JoJo pushes him with all her might. He doesn't budge but she gets his attention.

"Don't worry about what I am to her, a'ight? Don't think about her at all." Roman points at the younger man, his hand upturned in the shape of an L. It nearly sounds like he's snarling. But he's completely calm — which scares JoJo for Seth even more.

"You think you're so tough, don't you?" Seth presses, reaching over JoJo's shoulder to push his palm against Roman's jaw, effectively whipping the larger man's face away. "You're the man? You get my championship, and now you think you can have my girl?" Seth is digging himself into his own damn grave. JoJo is offended that he's talking about her like he is — likening her to a championship — like she's a prize to be won.

People have collected around them, notably, Mark Carrano — ready to report someone to those above him on the payroll.

Roman moves forward, lunging at Seth. She hears a slew of angry curses when she's pressing herself to him. "Can we go please?" He doesn't look at her. She presses her palm to his face, moving herself into his space, stepping on his foot gently to get him to take a step back. She sends a glare over her shoulder at Seth as he stands there looking so calm; Like he wasn't being one big instigator. She rubs her thumb against Roman's stubbly beard. "Please, you have a match tonight. Don't make it your last, not over him."

He huffs, letting her take his hands. He glares at the people who have congregated around the scene. He rarely, genuinely, gets angry. But when it's JoJo — the one other person, besides him and Dean, who's been exposed to Seth's toxicity — she's been through enough. And the bastard was going to hit her.

He takes a deep breath and let's her lead him away.

They don't talk for the rest of the time before she has to take her seat at ringside to act as the announcer for the night. But he's holding her hand, letting her rest her chin on his shoulder. It's comforting to be able to just sit in silence with someone.

She has to go, so he lets her. He wants to apologize to her for putting her in harm's way in that hallway but he can't find the right words. She's out the door before he can really wrap his head around the situation.

Nikki stands by the curtain with Dean, waiting for Roman. "Good luck." Nikki grins. She's in her gear — prepared for her match — smirking at him. "Give me something to follow." The Women's Championship match is the main event for the first time ever.

"You know it." Roman smirks at her, hitting his fist against hers and then Dean's — who's sweaty from his match against Cesaro.

His music hits and he adjusts the title on his shoulder as he soaks in all the boos the crowd echo around him — recently, their hatred from him is fuel because he's tired of them. He's a monster, a bad ass, the man. He's going to demolish AJ. And they'll secretly enjoy it.

Then he sees her. And the monster is just a man, a very flustered man.

JoJo is wearing a Roman Empire t-shirt and dark wash jeans. Her heels are a ridiculous height. He forgets where he is for a second. He's caught off guard — is she allowed to do this? — he's sure he's broken character because she's smiling at him, virtually ignoring a very confused AJ Styles, referee, and everyone in attendance at the All-State Arena. Then it clicks, she was asking Mark if this would be okay earlier when she disappeared.

"The following match is for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship!" She smiles wide. The confusion seems to wear off for everyone else, they cheer in anticipation. She introduces AJ first, a sneer obvious on her face. Then she's introducing him. He's so enamored, he barely remembers to play to the crowd. He gathers himself long enough to muster up a cocky look and raises his nose to the crowd.

When he wins, he grins. AJ gave him a run for his money — despite all the shittalking he'd done — his opponent wanted his championship— but no one gets up from a spear. He rolls out of the ring, mid official announcement of his name. The look on his face is serious, and everyone is dead silent when he approaches JoJo. He can hear Michael Cole and Jerry both arguing over his attentions. JBL is telling him to leave JoJo alone. She looks scared for a moment when the serious expression doesn't drop from Roman's face. He pulls her into his arms, and she shakes with relief. The hug is short, but it means more.

She wanted to be the one person who was on his side when no one else was — Dean and Nikki don't count. He kisses the very corner of her mouth. She's shocked and the commentary table is silent. He holds his title above his head and is gone up the ramp before anyone says anything.

"What. Was. That?" Dean asks as soon as Roman passes the curtain.

"Nothing." The Samoan shrugs, smiling.

"Do you have any idea what you're doing?" Dean asks. Nikki stays quiet, she stretches, preparing to make history against Charlotte. Dean squeezes her hand to ask for support but she says nothing.

Roman grabs a water, "She was wearing my shirt, I couldn't not acknowledge her." Dean doesn't want Roman to love JoJo. He's fine with their friendship, but more than that was… more.

"You kissed her!" Dean hisses, crossing his arms. "Seth is gonna be pissed, you idiot!" Not that he cares about their ex friend, but Jesus, the idiot would make it his mission to target Roman.

"One." Roman places his championship on a nearby table, holding up his thumb, "Lower your voice." Then he raises his index finger, "And two, fuck Seth."

Dean sighed frustratedly, dragging his fingers through his hair, "Do you understand that this girl will be the end of you?"

"I understand." Roman laughs, shrugging, "Completely. But — thing is, I don't care."