Disclaimer: Only my original characters (Matthew and Camilla Orton, Eric Barringer) are my property. All other characters and other media are property of their respective owners. I'm just writing as a hobby, and not to make money.


"Hurry up, Adam! If we wait any longer, we're not going to be first in line!"

"Will you calm down, Mark!? It's not going to be a big deal if we're not first in line! We have front row seats anyway and that's not going to change. Jeez, you're acting like we're twelve years old again."

"How can you not?! We've saved up this whole year for front row tickets for an event, finally bought them when it was announced on TV a couple of months ago, and its less than five hours until the doors open!"

Adam looked over at his 20-year-old younger brother, but nevertheless smirked at his energy. It was true; 21-year-old Adam was pretty excited for what was about to occur later on that afternoon, but Adam always managed to contain his emotion in direct contrast to Mark, who always jumped up and down like a little child whenever something highly anticipated was about to happen. Looking down at his watch, it was 1:00 PM; the doors opened at 6:30, but Mark wanted to stand in line for an ungodly amount of time in the hot sun just for the opportunity to be the first to step into the arena.

"If we get there early enough, we can stand in the shade, you idiot! Now grab the belts and let's go!"

Adam remembered what Mark was talking about and opened the closet to look for them. A small glare caught his eye, and Adam pulled out the replica World Tag Team Championship belts he bought over a year ago. Throwing one over his shoulder and throwing one over to his brother, Adam strolled quietly towards the car while Mark was bounding down the stairs and out the door, the tickets waving frantically in his hands.

"You know", Adam said as he finally walked out the door, "if you were just a tad bit smaller, the government could use you in a hamster wheel and solve this country's energy crisis."

Mark looked confused as Adam unlocked the doors to the car. As they both entered, Mark squinted his eyes at his brother. "What do you mean?", he asked tentatively.

Adam shot Mark an evil glare before starting the car and pulling out of the driveway. "You're such a friggin' idiot, you know that?"

"What?! What did I do?"

Adam rolled his eyes and sped off towards the Tucson Convention Center, located on the other side of town. As Mark babbled about who he was excited to see on the way there, Adam remembered what it meant to him to be driving to this event with his brother. Even though Mark was a complete and total idiot and got the pair into trouble more often than not, Adam always treasured every single moment that they shared together. Four years ago, Adam and Mark were in the family car driving home from church on a Sunday morning with their mother and father. The family had proposed a day of relaxation and fun, which included an Italian lunch, a movie, and a night in the family swimming pool back at home.

Except it never came to that.

Mark never fully remembered what happened that day due to injury. Adam, however, remembered everything. And it was painful every time those memories came back.

"I saw the truck coming ... but ... but I was too frozen to do anything. Dad had his head turned towards Mom because they were in the middle of a conversation. Mark was too busy reading his Harry Potter book. I didn't yell anything ... and then it happened. I remember the car flipping, glass breaking, blood flying everywhere ..."

"Adam? You okay, man?"

Shaking the horrific picture out of his mind, Adam turned towards his brother and briefly nodded before turning back to the road. The last thing he wanted was a repeat of what happened those years ago.

"Yeah ... I'm fine. I'm ... I'm just thinking of how awesome the next six hours are going to be."

"What? I thought you didn't want to stand outside the front door for four hours before the show starts? What made you change your mind?"

"Spending time with you in front of the line with these belts holding them up high", Adam said, patting the belt around his waist, "then holding them up on live television ..."

"That's right!", Mark said, eyeing the tickets in his hands. "We sit right in front of the camera! We should have brought signs!"

"We don't need signs when we have these. Besides, we have to show up the Ortons when they come out!"

Just a few minutes later, Adam and Mark pulled into the parking lot of the Tucson Convention Center and looked up to the electronic marquee which read ...

"WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW -- SOLD OUT!"


8:00 AM in the morning. Lilian Garcia looked over at her sleeping husband-to-be and thought about waking him up, knowing that David Batista would be stomping down the hall, looking to wake up everyone and take them down to the hotel's fitness room.

"Eh ... let him sleep", Lilian thought to herself. "After what he went through last night, he deserves a couple extra ..."

"ORTON!", came a booming voice along with a strong trio of knocks at the door. "On your feet in 15 minutes, son! We've got work to do!"

Lilian jumped at hearing the ruckus at the door, yelping a little bit, feeling her heart nearly explode in her chest. After hearing Batista walk off down the hall, Lilian looked behind her to see Randy still snoring like a bear hibernating for the winter.

"Jeez, he's a heavy sleeper. I better wake him up before Dave comes back and breaks the damn door down..."

While trying to gently nudge Randy awake, Lilian heard another set of three knocks from the adjacent room. She giggled a bit when Camilla was heard yelping just as loud as she did from Batista's morning welcome. Just a few seconds later, a loud thud came from the next room, along with what sounded like Matt whining.

"You might as well push him off too, Lil!", Camilla yelled through the wall. "It's what I have to do every damn morning!"

Lilian snickered and pushed as hard she could, finally getting Randy's snoozing body to flop hard down on the floor. The surprised man bolted to his feet, his eyes wide open darting around the room until they finally settled on his fiancée.

"Oh ... its just you", Randy said, catching his breath. "That's something Matt used to do to me all the time before you and I met."

"If you don't start waking up whenever Dave comes and bangs on the door like he's going to break it down, I'm going to have to start pushing you off the bed every single morning! Not even alarm clocks can wake you up! Now throw something on and get yourself ready. Dave wants you down there in about 15 minutes."

Randy groaned at hearing that, but knew that it was almost an everyday occurrence. Glancing at the clock, he was actually grateful for Dave waiting this long; Batista normally woke the guys up at 6:00 AM for the morning workout. Sighing, Randy quickly threw on a muscle shirt and a pair of shorts before hearing another knock at the door. After Randy opened the door, he started to laugh; John, Eric, and Matt were all standing behind it, looking just as disheveled as he was.

"Can we ask Dave to let our alarm clocks wake us up instead of breaking our damn doors down? Jeez ...", Eric whined, still rubbing the sleep out of the corner of his eyes. Eric was still clad in green shorts and a shirt, John had a Phoenix Suns jersey on, and Matt ... well ...

"Did you even bother to get dressed?", Randy said after realizing his brother was still just in boxerbriefs. Matt, through narrowed and tired eyes, looked down at himself, then back up at Randy.

"I don't like you right now", Matt said, hating the prospect of walking the 15 feet back to his room. "Just give me a pair of your shorts and I'll be fine."

"Only ...", Randy said with a grin, getting a mischievous idea. "... only if you wash the car when we get home. Lil's been bugging me to do it and I haven't had the time."

Matt's already narrowed eyes narrowed even more, glaring at his brother. "I really don't like you now. Give me the damn shorts."

Randy snickered and dug around in his suitcase for a few seconds before shoving a pair of shorts in Matt's chest. After the younger Orton put them on and after Randy gave a little goodbye kiss to Lilian, the four men sluggishly made their way to the elevator.

"What do you think Dave's gonna make us do?", John asked. "We're all still pretty damn sore from last night. I mean ... he can't expect us to push ourselves just as hard as usual, right?"

Eric glared over at the man who defeated him the previous night. "We're talking about Dave here. Do you really expect for him to take it easy on us?"

"This morning ... yeah, I actually do", replied John in a half-bitter tone. "We went through hell last night. You and me nearly tore each other apart with every submission hold in the book, Randy and Matt are probably still broken and bruised from the TLC match, and even Dave has to be sore from his match with the Undertaker!"

"Maybe we're just overlooking something", Randy interrupted. "Maybe Dave has a soft side after all."

"Dave? A soft side?", Matt said. "This is the man that likes to Batista Bomb me for fun. I doubt that he has a soft side."

At that moment, the elevator door opened and all four men stepped out and started to trudge over to the fitness room at a zombie-like speed.

"Ahem..."

That loud, resonating voice coming from behind them could only be one man. Randy, Matt, John, and Eric turned around to see Dave smirking at them, chewing a piece of gum.

"Care to dress much, guys? You look like you just woke up."

Not amused, the younger men all rolled their eyes as Dave actually started to laugh.

"Eh, just be glad I'm not driving all of you into the ground right now. Grab a seat and get to eating. I've got the whole buffet place only for us for about an hour and we all need to recover from what happened last night."

"Wait ... so we're not working out?", said Randy with a little hesitation in his voice.

"Nah ... not today. Consider it a gift. Besides, John ... if you're gonna defend that title against me in a month, you're gonna need all the energy you can get."

"Oh god", Eric whined. "Here we go." Cena's eyes narrowed at Batista and he grabbed a nearby plate, stacking everything from waffles and pancakes to hash browns and eggs almost a foot high. Dave chuckled and did the exact same thing, sitting across from his Unforgiven opponent.

"An eating contest?!", came a trio of familiar voices from the entrance to the hotel's restaurant. Lilian, Camilla, and Amy all entered the room, grabbing a plate and entering the buffet line next to their significant others.

"Can you guys stop acting like kids for just a couple of days?", Lilian said to Randy. "I would expect John to do something like this, but Dave? I think you four have rubbed off on him too much."

"Ah, leave him alone", Matt commented as he watched John and Dave stuff their faces full of bacon and pancakes, "Batista's just making himself fit in. Hell, we're practically his second family."

"Then as the 'father' of this family", Camilla sniped, "shouldn't he be the most mature of the bunch?"

Amy snickered as she finished a forkful of scrambled eggs. "Mature? Honey, us girls are the most mature ones here. Makes me worry about what kind of kids this family will produce."

Eric, Randy, and Matt all dropped their utensils at once, nearly spitting what food they had in their mouths out on the table.

"Kids?!", Eric nervously muttered. "Amy, you're not serious, right? I mean, we haven't been engaged long at all and you're already talking about kids!"

"Calm down there, green mustang!", Amy retorted. "It's just an assumption for now. I mean, we've got three budding couples either married or soon to be wed, all obviously in love. Isn't it safe to say we'll have either a little Orton or a little Barringer running around the house sometime in the future?"

Amy, Lilian, and Camilla all looked at each other with slight grins on their faces while Matt leaned over to his best friend.

"Green mustang?", Matt whispered to Eric. "What the hell kind of nickname is that?"

Eric chuckled a bit, then went so far as to even blush. "Its ... its just a nickname she gave me from ... um ..."

"Ohhhhhh ...", Randy said loudly, apparently realizing what Eric was coming from. "She thinks you're great in the sack!"

Amy burst out laughing, bits and pieces of egg and pancake flying across the table. Eric flashed a glare and balled a fist at the older Orton, who was also letting go of a bevy of laughter. Matt, Lilian, and Camilla were also having trouble containing some chuckles, while John and Dave were still stuffing their mouths with various breakfast items. Matt waited until Eric calmed down before he closed his mind off to him and started a conversation with his brother.

"What do you think will happen tonight?", Matt thought to Randy, examining a small bruise of his own on his chest, wincing as he touched it. "Think we'll have to defend on the first night? I can't stop thinking about it."

"You need to stop worrying so much!", Randy replied. "If you go around to anticipate everything, you'll die a young man. Just lighten up and enjoy the moment! We're on top of the freaking world right now and all you can do is look back down. Keep looking up."

Matt chuckled, seemingly out of nowhere. Eric looked over at him and instantly knew that the two brothers were talking, but decided to stay out of it, electing to continue a conversation with Amy.

"Sorry. I'm still shaking off the way I was brought up. I was taught to be prepared for anything and everything that could come at you. Dad wouldn't let me go out with my friends before quizzing me on every little thing that could possibly happen to me."

"Did anything ever happen? Did you ever use anything that your dad quizzed you over?"

"Nope. Not a single time."

"Listen, I'd not going to advocate just going around living your life recklessly. I've done that before in high school and I paid the price. Don't ask, because I'm never going to tell you. Anyway, just learn to lighten up and take life one day at a time."

The sound of forks and knives dropping on empty plates caught not only the brothers' attention, but also the attention of everyone else at the table. All eyes shifted to Cena and Batista, who had apparently finished their eating contest at the same time, their stomachs bloated to the size of hot air balloons.

"Come on", Randy said out loud. "Let's get out of here before these two decide to upchuck their breakfast back on their plates."

Almost in unison, everyone but the two contestants got up and exited the hotel's restaurant, the men to go back upstairs and get properly dressed for the day, and the women to start preparing to depart from the hotel. As everyone left, John and Dave kept their gazes on each other until...

"BURRRRRRRRRRP!"

The sound seemed to shake the walls, as a few of the hotel's workers actually peeked around corners to see what was going on. John couldn't maintain the seriousness any longer and burst out laughing, the laughter overpowering any pain from his full stomach. Dave eventually broke his silence and started to chuckle himself, showing a rare sight that not many get to see.

"You ready to get the hell out of here?", Dave asked with a grin on his face.

"Hell yes, bro. Let's get movin'!"


In the locker room later on that evening, Randy and Matt shifted their World Tag Team Championships onto their shoulders clad in their matching gold ring gear. The first match of the night would be the result of a promise Matt had made previously: one half of the new World Tag Team Champions against the new World Heavyweight Champion. Cena was adamant about getting a rematch from his first bout with Orton on SmackDown, and with the big gold belt on his shoulder, John was more confident than ever.

"Just think", Matt said, "If I were to beat John tonight, I might be considered as a contender for the World Championship."

"If you're up for that belt before I am, I'll kill myself."

"Why? Just because I'll be better than you then?"

"So ... you admit that I'm better than you now!?"

Matt rolled his eyes and walked away, knowing that Randy would torment him for hours on end for walking right into that one.

"And they say you're the smart one. Ha!"

Matt sneered, turned around, and threw his belt to the ground, focusing his eyes on his taller adversary. Randy grinned and did likewise, depositing both the tag and the Intercontinental
titles on the bench beside him. Matt balled his fists and slowly walked with purpose towards his brother, only for ...

"OW! What did you do that for!?"

Camilla had stepped in front of her husband and stomped her foot directly on top of Matt's. Randy had a hardy laugh seeing his little brother hop around on one leg grabbing his toe. Matt plopped himself down on a chair and looked bewildered up towards his wife.

"Oh, come on! You can't let us have a little fun before the night starts? We haven't done something like this in a couple of days!"

"Make that a couple of hours", Camilla replied dryly. "I saw you two earlier pushing each other around when we got out of the van after we got to the arena. Don't think I don't pay attention."

"That doesn't count! I mean ... we were just ... Randy and I ..."

Matt looked over to his brother for some support, but Randy just looked away in the other direction, leaving Matt to tackle the situation by himself.

"Okay ... fine", Matt said dejectedly. "We won't fight each other for the rest of the day." Matt picked up all three belts on the ground and handed them back to their respective owners. Sitting down next to Camilla, Matt slugged his belt over his shoulder and sighed loudly.

"If ... and I mean if ... you can make it till next week, I'll make it worth your while."

"But I make it worth your while every night!"

"Not that way! I'll make you your favorite desserts: pumpkin pie and s'mores!"

The younger Orton's eyes immediately lit up and Matt stopped all movement right then and there. He properly put on his belt, wiped the smirk on his face, and marched out of the room purposely, presumably heading towards the ring.

"You're not actually going to make that for him, are you?", Randy asked, getting up to get ready to follow Matt. "I mean, the last thing we need is him bouncing off the walls next Monday."

"Of course I'm not!", answered Camilla hastily. "I'm just doing this to calm him down! You ought to calm down too, you ought to know better! You're damn lucky Lilian isn't back here to smack you one!"

Randy let out a breath, knowing that Lilian would exactly as Camilla described. Taking a few quick steps to make sure that Camilla herself didn't smack him, Randy sidestepped out the door and quickly caught up to his brother.

"Maybe we should calm down", Randy said outloud. "Sometime or another, we're going to have to start taking this sport seriously."

"When one of us is in the running for the big gold belt, we'll start being serious. As for now ... er ... after a week, to be exact ... we'll act however the hell we want ..."

Randy stopped abruptly in front of his brother and turned to face him. Looking down at Matt's face with a glare, Randy said ...

"Look. I'm starting to think we need to start acting like we care right now. I don't know about you, but sometime in the future, I want to have the belt that John holds right now. That's what I wanted from the beginning, from even before I met you. I went through a couple of years in developmental wrestling with my eye already on that big prize. Someday I will hold that belt. Someday you will hold that belt. But if we don't put our best feet forward, Austin's going to treat us like we're just a pair of little kids, keeping us in the midcard and in the tag division. Don't get me wrong, I'm proud to be Intercontinental champion. I'm damn proud to be a World Tag Team Champion. I'm going to hold onto these things for as long as I possibly can. But when the time is right, Matt, I'm going after the World title. And you should have the exact ... same ... mindset."

Matt stared back up in his brother's piercing eyes, his own wide open in surprise and awe. Randy's face was only millimeters away from his own, somewhat scaring the younger of the two.

"Yeah ... um, sure. I'm ... I'm sorry. I just ... I just still want to goof off with you sometimes and I ... and I ..."

"I didn't mean to scare you. At home, we can goof off all we want. Here, we're two professional wrestlers trying to move themselves up to win the biggest prize on this brand. Get it?"

"Got it."

"Then get out there and beat Cena's ass like you did when you debuted."

Matt smiled and started again towards the curtain. Randy even smirked as he saw walked beside his brother, proud to see that he finally shaped up somewhat. Once at the curtain, the brothers paused briefly to let the opening fireworks take place. After taking their fingers out of their ears, Randy and Matt were glad to hear the arena full of pumped up fans.

"Ready to show them one to remember?", Randy asked eagerly.

"When am I not?"

And then, the bell rang.

"Ladies and gentlemen", Lilian announced, "this opening contest is scheduled for one fall!"

'Burn in My Light' started to play and Matt stepped onto the stage first, followed by his brother.

"Introducing first, accompanied to the ring by his brother, Randy, from San Antonio, Texas, weighing in at 219 pounds ..."

"I lost 20 pounds?", Matt thought to himself.

... he is one-half of the new World Tag Team Champions, Matthew Orton!"

The golden pyro illuminated the two brothers as they Orton posed in front of it to hundreds upon hundreds of cheering fans in the arena. After a few seconds in the gold light, both Randy and Matt strode on down to the ring and posed once more on the turnbuckle just as they did the night previously. The two noticed two young teenagers with replica World Tag Team Championship belts down in the front row.

"Look", Randy chuckled. "We have imitators."

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

"Shut the hell up with your smart talk and just wrestle the match", Randy said after punching Matt in the shoulder.

"Stop that! Camilla won't fix ..."

"She only said that to get you to calm down, numbnuts. Just focus."

Albeit disappointed, Matt handed his belt to Randy, who promptly hopped out of the ring and sat down next to where Lilian would sit. The Orton in the ring turned towards the stage and anticipated hearing 'Basic Thuganomics'.

But that wasn't what came out of the arena's speakers. A new theme song along with a new Titantron, surprised everyone, and John Cena came out holding the World Heavyweight Championship high.

"And from West Newbury, Massachusetts, weighing in at 245 pounds, he is the new World Heavyweight Champion, John Cena!"

The new champ sprinted down the ramp, slid head first into the ring, and pumped the big gold belt up in the air proudly. It seemed as if half the crowd was in favor of John and the other half booing, still hesitant to support the new champ after what he had done to the Orton family previously. After John handed his belt down to ringside, Matt immediately got into his face.

"You just can't wait to get in my face, can you?"

"Only to let you know that you'll suffer the same fate you did last time."

"Bring it, little man."

The ref separated the two men to their separate corners and ordered the bell to be rung.


I'm back! After a little break and thinking, I'm ready to roll! Will the little rivalry between John and Dave continue to be just a little rivalry? Or will it evolve into something more? Did Amy mean anything more when she said that kids would eventually be running around the house? Or was it just playful banter? Can Matt maintain this seriousness that Randy helped create? And will the first match of the night go off without a hitch? Who will win?

Whew. Done with that one. Hope you enjoyed it!

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