WrestleMania 35 was proceeding ahead of its initial time at New Jersey. This pay-per-view was awaited by millions of fans, from the actual goers of the show to the virtual audiences, watching online under streaming platforms or through their cable providers. This night, was the time when fans from around the globe to come by.
Anticipated by many, this event was filled with pump-handling, heart-beating matches that most of us had been hyped on through the WrestleMania season. Few of them were outstanding, through storytelling and actions that cannot be missed, episode by episode.
One of these stories that caught the attention of numerous followers was Seth Rollins' journey to gain a victory against Brock Lesnar, for the Universal Championship.
Since he won the 2019 Men's Royal Rumble Match, Seth cannot forget the moment that he was a stomp away from eliminating the future runner up of that time, Braun Strowman. The moment he was in the right time to attack the monster's head, he knew he knew he was going to do the impossible. He didn't overwhelm his destiny. The moment his opponent slipped off the apron, his mind went blacked out when the bell echoed throughout the arena, trying to figure if this was a dream. Fans were cheering, the commentators declared that this was the end of the match. When the ring announcer announced his name as the winner of the said match, his soul went above the cloud nine.
He did it, he did what was fulfilled at his fortune. His mouth agape, like he won the millions from the lottery. Seth Rollins finally realized that this was an actual scene and became aware that he was the declared winner.
From that time until to the current standpoint of his life, Seth experienced one of the wildest rides that he ever went through. From Roman's announcement of his remission against leukemia to Dean Ambrose's shocking announcement of his future departure, he felt many emotions stacked up to his odds. This didn't deter him, he fought these sentiments throughout the season.
His wandering mind, he wasn't paying attention to anybody whom he's looking at him right now. He looked down to his shoulder and stopped meandering through his mind. He started to think about his current standpoint.
That standpoint was he is the new universal champion.
Seth Rollins defeated The Beast, in a shocking, hasty way. He defeated the former champion under a few minutes, three black-outs, and a vicious low-blow. With many people once again taken aback at his performance and his unachievable victory to the mayor of Suplex City, he seemed to recall his time back at the Royal Rumble match last January. He apprehends the fact that he overcame the impossible odds, stacking against him. What a WrestleMania season it was for the now-known-as The Beast Slayer.
Leaning against a wall and resting underneath a piece of stage equipment, Seth's battle scars were visible after that gruesome pre-match assault that he suffered a few minutes ago. His pain was noticeable and obvious, his right knee stinging in ache after breaking the opponent's head. At this particular point, he needed to go back to the locker room, where he can celebrate and heal his possible injuries in a quiet manner.
Walking limply at one foot, he walked his unharmed left knee carefully. After attempting many times to walk normally, he successfully helped himself walking in a regular phase. Trying to ease the pain on his body, he marched peacefully at his path.
He stopped by at a quiet part of the backstage, clutching his right knee, screaming in agony. Seth tried to reduce the pain level by hardly rubbing the concerned part of his body with contentment. The feeling that he gained was off the roof. Seth felt that he can walk now on his own accord once more.
That tinge of sensation drained quickly as his sight caught his attention, his sealed eyes would describe as a corrupted glare. This sight was almost captured as a ghost sighting because Seth saw a ghost, an evil ghost of his past. And no, it wasn't Dean Ambrose nor his former rivals. It was a person whom he hid a secret grudge throughout the years.
He was looking at Stephanie McMahon.
Seth Rollins had a bad affiliation with his sole woman boss since his other boss, Triple H, betrayed him in a Universal Championship match last August 2016. His now-enemy boss was staring at him in an ugly stance.
Both of them stared for a nick of time until Stephanie broke the ice and reassured herself as she rearranged her office coat at her authority attire.
"Seth… Congratulations… Congratulations on winning that Universal Championship…" She aimed kindly to the belt off the champ's shoulder and continued.
"You know that it's an over exaggerating feeling that you achieve your dreams once more. I and the authority are proud of you."
Suddenly, the boss offered a hand for Seth to shake hands to. Seth's eyes bounce back from the offering hand and the blue eyes of his boss. He momentarily had his time to reflect on his current situation. Was she congratulating him for good? Or is this some kind of another despicable trickery that this woman will pull off once again?
His thoughts were now clearly packed again. He recalled everything that he experienced throughout those darkest years. From betrayal to an impactful judgement of his bosses to him, there was a lot of things that don't need to scheme through. It was plentiful of reasonable doubts that carries him through his mind of what could have transpired, if he shook hands with Stephanie McMahon.
That memory was enough for him to continue his distrust over his former co-leader of the authority. He is absolutely sick and tired of this overall nonsense.
Seth quickly snapped out of trance and harshly slapped the extended hand of Stephanie, who was taken aback at the force of the impact.
"Proud? Proud? PROUD?!" Seth emotionally snapped and continued. "What kind of trickery are you pulling this time? HUH?"
The still stunned McMahon cannot believe on what was taking place right now, her mouth agape at the bombshell that the champion spews out. But she swiftly transitioned her genuine reaction to a serious one, sending a reply over to Seth.
"What are you talking about, Seth? I am just congratulating you from winning the championship and that's a clear statement."
Seth's eyes continue to scowl over Steph's, sending her more vicious retorts. "To clear things up, I don't see the real deal here. This was nothing but a false greeting! I know you're the boss here! I know what my bosses are up to the others, especially me! Who are you to congratulate me, Stephanie McMahon, a backstabbing, liar cheapskate who sold her soul to his vile and disgusting husband?!"
Before he can regenerate more heating statements, Seth notices that Steph's throat has a small lump, attempting to swallow it afterward, but it didn't go through. Also, her eyes were not following his, he can barely see the real emotion of the McMahon. From these criteria, he can assume that Stephanie McMahon was scared of him, she got intimated by his fiery remarks. He was simply surprised at the events that were currently happening right now. For some reason, his mind got pity over Stephanie, while, his gut says otherwise. He got no time to prolong this awful situation but to go over the latter instead of the former.
"Speaking of your husband, I just remember everything I have ever gone through the past years. From the moment I was your choice as the number one pick at the first draft, a few years ago. That was the time I wanted to prove something, something that I wanted to show to the whole world – and that's becoming a fighting champion! When Finn relinquished his Universal Title, I knew it was my time to become a great champion that fans really needed to. But what do I get? A SNEAKY, SICKENING ATTACK FROM BEHIND, BY YOUR IRRESPONSIBLE HUSBAND?! HUH? IS THIS WHAT I GET WHEN I FIRST JOINED THE AUTHORITY, HUH?!" Seth added an unpleasant venom to his remark.
"I… um, I-I... d-don't—" Stephanie meekly stuttered, doing her best to keep her composure but unfortunately failing when she looked back at Seth's flaring eyes of despair as he continued his verbal assault.
"And then you don't know how your husband treats me like that? And then, you suddenly agreed to his actions." Seth paused and nodded in realization. "That's why… that's why I get it… you are so scared to confront me like a boss that you are and you needed Triple H for your assistance. I get it now."
"I AM SO SICK OF THIS BULLCRAP THAT YOU EVER PULL ME THROUGH! I HAVE ENOUGH OF YOUR STUPID LIES! DON'T YOU KNOW THAT THOSE MOMENTS ARE STUCK ON MY DAMN MEMORY? DON'T YOU, STEPH?"
Right before continuing spitting out his spiteful remarks towards the boss, Seth saw something on Steph that he had never seen before that he was taken a step back to look further at her current state in curiosity.
Steph's soft sniffling sound stopped him in his tracks. He didn't have a clear remembrance on when was the last time that one of his bosses crying, because of getting a savage sermon over an employee's heated address.
When Seth saw that a pint of tears was trickling down underneath her eyes, plus with her hands, wringing in anxiety. Her head slightly bowed in shame. Seth never saw this coming ahead of him. He was in question with his mind once more, he battled out if this reaction was a bogus or a legitimate one.
After a few seconds of fighting between imaginative conflicts, he looked at her bow-down face, Steph continues to weep out. From the most people whom he had arguments over with him, especially at the woman, never he had comprehended any emotions of those people… until now.
Seth realized that Stephanie McMahon was crushed. At first, he was clueless on how to address this thing over or how surprising that no one was hearing the whole debacle. But to his hindsight, the one thing that he can fix was to say something natural to her. He was simply regretting that this thing happened to her or to himself.
"Steph..." Seth sighing, looking at Steph, who had still her eyes glued on the floor "…look… I didn't mean to say those things viciously… Steph… I-I'm sorry."
After the message has been sent, Steph looked up to see Seth, who was looking at her in a regretful manner.
"I am so sorry that I was caught up to my emotions because… I have some other things that suddenly came through me and—"
Seth was caught off-guard when Steph embraced Seth all around his pained body. Seth was surprised that he didn't stop the awkward cuddle that fast because he doesn't want the people to get the wrong idea about this lovely encirclement.
The champion felt the remaining tears on his shoulder as he looked upon the leaning Stephanie, who was still crying.
"I-I'm… s-s-so sorry… f-for d-d-d-doubting you…"
Is Stephanie apologizing Seth for acting like a distrusting person? Or was it another part of her venomous scheme?
Seth didn't think of the latter, he realized that it was a genuine reaction that his boss gained from his malicious talk.
From out of nowhere, Steph's face slipped off from his shoulder to his exposed chest, still locking him into a big embrace. Seth did not want to make this moment to be awful as ever. He didn't want to be an awkward person at this situation, he wanted to make her feel a little bit of comfort.
Seth reached forward and began fondling her top of the head and her hair, just to make sure she was okay.
Before any people could watch this sweet moment, Seth firmly separated himself from Steph with a light shove, who was cleaning off her mess over her drenched face. Seth eagerly brushed off all over, his face went to Steph once in for all and realized something.
"Hey, Steph…"
"Y-Yeah?" Stephanie answered back, still swelling from tearing up earlier.
"Do you want to watch WrestleMania… with me? Since I'm going to watch Becky fight later…"
"S-su-sure… not a problem." She nodded and wiped out excess tears on her eyes.
Right before he could say something again, Steph's face became uneasy and didn't bother to look at Seth. Before his mind could fondle to another useless mental conflict, he understood now why was she was emotional at this night.
"Are you nervous, Steph? Are you nervous that your husband could be retiring tonight?"
Stephanie answered with a bob, answering yes silently to Seth.
"Okay, let's go back and watch the show. But first, I wanna get something to eat because I'm so, so hungry…" Seth looked over to Steph. "…aren't you hungry too, Steph?"
Stephanie rapidly responded with a shake of her head, taking a no to Seth's offer.
Seth shrugged it off. "Oh well, come on. You go over to the entrance while I get my food. Got it?" She dutifully nodded.
Seth slung over his shoulder over Steph's shoulder, seemingly surprised at the action that Seth took in a span of seconds. Without anything to bother her anymore, she looked back to Seth, who was oblivious right now, she analyzed Seth.
Seth was nothing but a respectful and a kind of an employee to her, he didn't hold back to anything, whether he was a team player or a lone beast slayer. She was lucky to have her asset, guiding her to anything.
Those thoughts ended and she sent a wide-full smile, while Seth was still ignorant, not trying to mess up this moment.
As if this was a moment that most people will see, watching from the start until the end, most people will find it awkward to both people. But nothing can change their association with each other, beside their disputes in the past. Those days were still haunting Seth, but past lives on the past, he had nothing to do to stop it. Their doubts for one another started to fade and their trust continues to grow upon one another.
"To be the man, you got to watch the man." Seth randomly quipped a famous line, making Stephanie loosely wheezed and chuckled at the baseless joke.
Seth looked down to see Steph, cursing through her covered mouth. Seth looked at her like she was a new person, not an egotistic and mean person, according to his records. Until now, he was just getting started on getting to know Steph's strong points and weaknesses.
Everything felt in bliss right now, both sides' unsettling differences ceased from the scene. This was a pleasurable moment to remember for both Seth Rollins and Stephanie McMahon until tonight.
A/N: Okay, this is my first one-shot under the Wrestling banner. Also, this was so random to think of, I thought it would be cool to post a Steph/Seth fic here. At first, I was torn on how I can pull these kinds of stories – do I want it to be a kayfabe or not? I don't know actually. But hey, I finally pull it off though! XD
Until then…
~Ellu