Title: This Unexpected Feeling
Summary: "You think they're just moments," she mumbles into his chest, closing her eyes and holding onto him for dear life. A Seth Rollins/Alicia Fox one-shot.
Disclaimer: If you recognize it, I don't own it. This story is a fictional piece, based on fictional characters portrayed in the WWE.
A/N: Alright, I'm doing it. A foxy ninja (I don't know, I'm going to make up my own moniker for them) Alicia/Seth one-shot. Just because I love them individually and I haven't seen it done. I also started this a while ago actually (before Payback), so the Shield was still intact initially and Alicia had that crazy girl gimmick and was feuding with Paige. My first WWE fic – let me know how it goes.
Ever since she stole JBL's hat, people are avoiding Alicia like the plague backstage. Well, except for Tom and Byron. They're the only ones who seem interested in her at all. They're constantly asking to speak with her. Speaking of which…she never did get a text back from Tom. She should probably go text him a few dozen times again just to make sure his phone is working.
But in any case, she doesn't quite understand why people are treating her so differently. So she had a couple of moments. She used to be the Diva's Champion. She had been working so hard to get the belt back, only to have some little girl come in out of nowhere and win it. Her moments were justified.
Plus, she gave JBL his hat back. Apologized and kissed his cheek and everything.
She's a really, really nice person after all.
So one night, when she's sauntering down the halls before her match against Paige, it catches her off guard when she sees Seth Rollins leaning against the wall, watching her with his head tilted slightly. Alicia does a double take and shifts her eyes quickly to her surroundings to make sure it's just him and not all of his Shield buddies trying to ambush her. She wouldn't put it past them if they had decided to go back to their old pastime of attacking random people just out of sheer boredom.
But it's just him.
The look is brief though, and she might have completely imagined it. She hears that she should work on that – you know, imagining things. But it's difficult when everyone gives her mixed signals. Like Tom. One minute he's all over her and then the next day, he won't return her calls. Maybe she should call it quits with him…
Seth goes back to his own thoughts it seems, ticking off his fingers as if he's orchestrating the Shield's next attack.
See exactly. Mixed signals.
She catches him looking at her again when she comes out of the women's locker room, and now she's positive it's not just some coincidence. No one is ever in the hallways just loitering around before Main Event.
It's a bit unnerving. Anytime you cross a Shield member's path is worrisome, but a targeted, singled-out encounter is downright dangerous.
So she just turns and walks the other way.
The third time around, she's had enough of it. After Emma caught her off-guard and unfairly cheated her way to a victory, Alicia's not in the mood tonight. She wants answers and she wants them now.
She walks right up to him, chest to chest.
"What do you want from me?" Alicia yells, throwing her hands up in the air. He actually has the audacity to smile at her in response.
That's it. Just smile.
"Hello," he says simply, chuckling.
Alicia pulls back in confusion and surprise. A smile? A nice greeting? Something had to be up.
"Stop it," she warns, pressing a pointed finger into his chest, before turning on her heel in a huff.
But he doesn't stop.
And the next day, instead of just standing idly like an innocent bystander like before, he smirks at her now, like he's trying to get a rise out of her now that he's got her attention.
Like he's enjoying this.
So Alicia marches up to him again.
"Are you seeing how far you can push me? Are you hoping I'll go craazzy?" she asks pulling at her hair, bugging out her eyes and getting in his face for dramatic effect.
"I like you," Seth begins, rubbing his beard thoughtfully.
She stops her movements immediately. That certainly takes her aback.
"What?" she squeaks out.
"You're interesting," he explains.
"Yeah, well…well, you're weird," Alicia blurts out, unable to form anything more coherent as she rushes off.
Maybe she is as crazy as they all say. She is acting like a seven-year-old after all.
She's the one waiting for him this time. She saw him with his other Shield buddies earlier that night so she didn't want to risk it then, but she knows that Seth always stays behind after the show.
She can't get their conversation out of her head. What did he mean by "You're interesting?" Was it a trick? Some kind of ploy to get her to go off on everyone so that the Shield didn't have to be the only ones striking fear in the locker room? Because it wouldn't work. She doesn't like the crazy label she's been stuck with lately, but she prides herself on being a bit unpredictable in the best way possible. So when she sees him turn the corner alone, Alicia's the one who catches him off-guard this time.
"I am not interesting!" Alicia declares, slapping Seth in the face. Seth rubs his cheek a bit at the force of it.
"Okaay," he responds slowly, nodding his head while trying to unsuccessfully hide his amusement. For a guy who's supposed to be a badass from the Shield, Seth Rollins seems to find a lot of things funny. He must be egging her on. She just knows it. He wants her to break.
"I know what you're trying to say," she raises her voice, shaking her index finger in his face. "It's what they all say. You're trying to say that I'm crazy. That I'm a raging, erratic mess. Well, let me tell you something, Seth Rollins," she spits out, poking him in the chest at every syllable for extra emphasis, "I am perfectly stable. And I am perfectly fine." Alicia then gives him a huge grin from ear to ear to prove her point.
"So you're stable. You're unstable. Whatever. I don't really care," he shrugs.
"What?" Alicia asks, a little startled at his apathetic response.
"You know Dean Ambrose is on the Shield, right?"
"Yeah, so…" she stares at him a bit confused.
"Yeah, your little moments are like a 5 on the Dean Ambrose unexpected outburst spectrum," he laughs. She relaxes instantly at his reply, her accusatory demeanor gone. It's replaced by giddiness.
"Really?" she asks, going back to grinning uncontrollably.
"Trust me," he assures her.
"You think I have 'little moments?'" Alicia asks in awe.
"I mean, I can teach you how to reign in your emotions during a match. I mean, how do you think Dean manages to not punch himself in the face?" he says good naturedly.
Alicia goes in to hug him tightly. Seth makes a groan in protest.
"You don't think I'm crazy," she sighs into his chest happily.
"Uhhh..wait. I never said-"
"You're so nice and pretty," Alicia interrupts, staring adoringly up at him.
"Umm…"
"And your hair is so soft…" she coos, petting his head. "Do you use conditioner?" He places his hands squarely on her shoulders and pushes Alicia away.
"This is exactly what we need to work on…Boundaries," he advises. Alicia nods her head and grins like she understands completely.
But then she goes in to hug him again.
"You think they're just moments," she mumbles into his chest, closing her eyes and holding onto him for dear life.
She gets an unsigned note the next day under her locker room door that tells her to show up at a dark, secluded storage room backstage.
"I'm here," Alicia calls out. "Seth? I don't like people wasting my time…" she starts impatiently.
"Lesson one," he starts, coming out of the shadows, making her squeal in surprise. "Never reveal yourself or your intentions without people to back you up."
"You scared me!" she yelps. Seth jumps over a couple of boxes stacked up on the concrete floor, before casually making his way towards her.
"Lesson two: Never underestimate the element of surprise."
"Are you criticizing me already?" she warns, her eyes narrowing, "Because I will not tolerate being treated like a child. I deserve respect."
Seth smiles as he puts his hands in the air in a show of surrender.
"I know. You're just passionate. You just want everything too much," he responds, nodding his head. Alicia smiles immediately.
"That's what I've been trying to tell everybody," she exclaims.
"And you can get everything you want by demanding respect," Seth says seriously. Alicia nods her head and doesn't argue back.
She wants a lot of things, after all.
It's weird, to say the least.
She doesn't know why, but they work. He calms her down and for some reason, he makes her listen to him.
She wasn't always this crazy after all. Something in her just snapped after losing again to Paige. She can even admit that she lost fair and square, now that she's gone through a few days of Seth's instruction.
She is getting better, slowly but surely, at controlling her actions. Focus your energy on your opponent, Seth says. It doesn't matter if you lose the match. Make your opponent quiver in fear the next time she sees you. Regroup and win the war. Just the other day, instead of antagonizing the crowd and announce team, she just beat down one of the Bella Twins after the bell had rung.
People don't run the other way when they see her backstage anymore either. They cower a little, but they don't shift their eyes as if they're bracing for her to explode. The Divas are finally starting to see her as a legitimate competitor again and not some loose cannon.
That's progress, she thinks.
And at this rate, the Diva's Championship would be back around her waist in no time.
Eventually, she feels comfortable enough to greet Seth in the halls when there are other people around. And he actually gives her a friendly nod when she rushes past him and his Shield brethren.
She really likes having a friend backstage.
"What's up with the mat, teach?" Alicia eagerly greets Seth. "Are you going to finally show me some of your cool moves?"
"We're going to wrestle," Seth says.
"You know a lot more than me," Alicia starts unsurely.
"Show me what you got," he encourages. "Think about what I've taught you so far."
"I'm a girl so you have to go easy on me," Alicia informs him.
"Yeah, well, I'm your mentor so you have to go easy on me," Seth counters with a smirk.
"That's not fair! How am I supposed to-" She stops suddenly and punches Seth in the gut. Seth stumbles back in surprise, but Alicia just takes advantage of the positioning as she wraps her arms around him and lifts him up before slamming him to the mat with her Northern Lights Suplex.
"-beat you without making you look completely silly?" Alicia calls out as she holds her position over him.
"That's nice," he breathes, his voice strangely preoccupied.
With his eyes facing her backside because of her maneuver, she realizes that he might not be paying attention to her words at all.
Alicia blushes at the thought but luckily for her, he can't see her in her bridged position. She collapses onto her back and sits up. She turns away slightly, as he dusts off his pants and jumps up.
"Well, you know…" she begins, flipping her hair back, trying to hide her embarrassment, "It's all about surprise, right? I like to show off my skills."
"I don't mind," he smirks, offering his hand to help her up. She looks up at him, wide-eyed, as she takes his hand. Is he insinuating…is she getting her signals right this time?
"I've always wanted to be on the receiving end of your Northern Lights Suplex," he comments. "You've obviously figured out how to use the element of surprise to your advantage," he grins.
"Oh. Right," she says, a little disappointed.
"Getting a good look at your assets is just a bonus," he teases. Alicia raises her eyebrows, surprised and delighted at the same time. So he was looking.
"That's how it's done!" she squeals in protest, her tone just as much reproachful as it is playful.
"Mmmhmm," he nods.
"Stop!" she laughs, slapping his forearm. "Show me again how to do that cool thing where you flip yourself over me."
"See, I knew I wasn't the only one wanting to get a better look," he chuckles. He flashes her a big smile, and she can't help but respond back with one of her own.
Interesting.
"When are you going to make your move?" Alicia asks the next time they see each other.
Seth doesn't move and stares at her blankly.
"I mean, why did you help me?" she elaborates.
"What do you mean?"
"You and I both know that your offer to help me win back the championship wasn't random. You never do anything random. So you devise a plan to have these little meet-ups in quiet, dimly-lit rooms where you can get close to me by showing me how to wrestle. Am I close?" she asks.
"Alicia-"
"So are you gonna make a move on me or not?" she interrupts. "Because I'm a hot commodity. Time's ticking," she says, tapping on her wrist.
"I'm sorry if you got the impression that I was interested in you in a more than platonic way," Seth answers. "I like the relationship we've developed here, but I just saw an injustice that needed fixing. You're talented and you deserve that championship."
"Oh," Alicia instantly deflates. "So I guess I messed that up," Alicia says, scrunching her eyebrows together.
"Don't worry about it," Seth responds.
Alicia can't pinpoint what's wrong exactly. The words coming out of his mouth sound forced and practiced and she doesn't know why. Is he just lying or does he have some ulterior motive? As bold as Alicia is, she doesn't call him out on the response. She knows that this arrangement with Seth is odd. It started with him stalking her and offering her lessons for improvement. Maybe this is some big, twisted plan with The Shield. Get into her good graces before striking and all that.
Or maybe he wasn't stalking her at all and it was all just coincidence. Maybe she is reading into things a bit too much. Or maybe he wants her to think that.
Maybe her paranoia is finally setting in. That sounds right.
"Thank you," Alicia says quietly at last, as the voice in her head die down. "You know, for helping me."
"Anytime," Seth replies.
If Seth is using her for some nefarious purpose, well…she'll deal with that later. Right now, it's sort of nice knowing that at least someone thinks she has value.
"Do you ever dream about when you'll become heavyweight champion?" Alicia asks, swinging her legs as she sits on a crate.
"Not really," he admits, shrugging. She looks at him for more explanation. "It's not a dream if I know it'll happen."
"Wow, you sure think highly of yourself."
"Pot meet kettle" he smirks. Alicia just gives him a mischievous grin. She likes the routine they've fallen into recently. They still meet up in a deserted maintenance or storage room after the shows, but there's rarely any learning or teaching going on anymore.
"I had never dreamt about winning before I actually won the Diva's Championship. It wasn't until I lost it that it plagued my dreams," she sighs.
"You'll get another chance," he assures. "You'll get it back."
"You don't know that," Alicia sighs again.
"I'll make sure of it," he says giving her a sly smile.
She wants to ask how, but she knows better now than to question the mind of Seth Rollins. So she just shoots him a small smile back.
She likes surprises. And he – all of this – has definitely been a surprise.
She loses on Payback. He wins, of course. Backstage, after her surprisingly restrained breakdown, she finds him waiting for her at the front of the locker room.
Despite her loss and her own mental breakdown, "You're crazy" is the first thing that comes out of her mouth.
He just chuckles, before wincing and grabbing his arm.
"You okay?"
"I will be," he assures her.
"Let me see," she demands.
"I'm fine." He rolls his eyes, but doesn't pull back when she takes his arm gently. "I just need an ice pack and some rest. It's nothing."
Alicia gingerly holds his arm and moves it around. It's intimate. Even though they've wrestled each other and they've been much, much closer than right now, Alicia can't help but think that this is different.
"You shouldn't do things like that," Alicia says quietly, after concluding that his own diagnosis seems accurate. She realizes that she's still holding his arm and drops it, a hint of embarrassment on her cheeks. There's a brief pause between the both of them, but he doesn't comment on it.
"It wasn't any different from what I did at Elimination Chamber," he finally points out, shrugging.
"One of these days…"
"I get it, Alicia," he stops her, raising his good arm to gently touch her shoulder with his hand. She momentarily stops breathing and looks at him. She doesn't know why he still manages to affect her so much, especially not after all the conversations she had with herself about why it wouldn't work between them. "I'll be more careful."
"Good," she says softly. He drops his hand back to his side and Alicia lets out a heavy sigh. Another silence hangs in the air for a few moments.
"Why are you so worried about me anyway?" he smirks a bit.
"I'm not," Alicia huffs, crossing her arms at his implication.
"I think you are," he smiles. "It's kind of adorable."
Alicia can't help but grin before quickly covering it up. Seth just laughs, catching the change in her expression. She pushes his good shoulder so that he stumbles backwards and lets out an exaggerated cry of pain.
"You keep talking and both your arms will hurt," she warns teasingly.
"You'll be there to nurse me back to health though, right?" He wiggles his eyebrows a bit and Alicia just giggles a bit at his response.
"Maybe," she relents.
She can tell that she's different around him and she kind of likes it. Her unpredictability, her friendliness, her insecurity, her tenacity, her pride, her thoughtfulness…All of the traits that define who she is all come together when she's with him.
And that scares her and excites her at the same time.
Despite Seth's shocking turn on the Shield, Alicia still finds him exactly where he always is after the show – leaning against a storage crate in the dark room where they have their little meetings. She goes over and stands next to him.
"You turned your back on your friends," Alicia starts, staring straight ahead. There's no judgment in her voice, but Seth sighs anyway.
"They weren't my friends," Seth replies.
"That's not what it looked like to me," Alicia purses her lips.
"Yeah, well, not everything is what it seems," he says vaguely, turning his head to look at her. Alicia furrows her eyebrows and looks back at him intently, searching his face for some kind explanation, but he's stoic. She stops suddenly as a thought occurs.
"So are we friends?" she asks a little timidly, hopeful and confused simultaneously.
"Of course."
"How do I know if you're lying?" she asks quietly. "Ambrose and Reigns obviously thought you were best buddies." She rarely does anything quietly, even after all this time with Seth, but she's not sure if she wants to hear this answer.
"Where have I been after every show?"
"I don't know what you mean…You've been talking to me…"
"Exactly."
"But they…you weren't always…" she falters. What he's saying starts to hit her. She was never part of some master plan with the Shield.
"It's not how I envisioned us when we came from NXT," he interrupts her thoughts. "The last couple of months wasn't what the Shield was meant to be," he admits. "With the Authority, they can give me what I want. They can give us what we want."
"What are you trying to say?" Alicia treads lightly.
"Join me?" Seth asks.
"Join what? Seth, what are you even talking about now?" She just stares at him like he's out of his mind.
"Look, I know it sounds insane, but it's everything I've been teaching you really," Seth perks up a bit as he explains it to her. "The Authority demands respect, they have power and they make wrestlers like us get to the top using any means necessary."
"Seth, it's the Authority. You've been talking about all the ways the Shield was going to destroy Evolution and the Authority and all of their pals for the last three months. And now you have a change of heart? It's like you've been brainwashed."
"I just…I was tired of fighting," he concedes exasperatedly. "I was tired of not being able to do anything about it. I thought that turning against them would help all of us get to the top of the WWE, but no matter how many plans I made or how many blueprints I drew up, they threw something new at us. The outcome was always the same. We dominated everyone, but we never went anywhere."
"So stab your team in the back? Give in? If you can't beat them, join them?"
"I did beat them…the Shield beat them," he corrects matter-of-factly. "But the war would never end. I came here to be WWE world heavyweight champion. You came here to be Divas champion. We have to look at the bigger picture," Seth pleads.
He pauses and takes her hands into his. And in the softest, most vulnerable voice she's ever heard, he says, "I'm not asking you to join the Authority. I'm asking you to join me."
Alicia stares at their entwined hands and then turns her gaze back up to him. She stares deeply into his big brown eyes and sees something that startles her and entices her at the same time.
Stay.
She realizes that this is it. This is the moment where it is finally about them.
"Okay," she breathes. Her response is quick, like she's been waiting for him to say it since the first day she confronted him in that hallway.
He breaks into a smile at her answer and gently rests his forehead against hers, as she takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. They stay like that – fingers laced together, foreheads pressed against one another, noses touching and lips millimeter apart – for what seems to be forever. They never kiss, but they don't need to because they have never been closer, have never understood each other better than they do in this moment. When they pull apart with big, stupid grins on their faces, everything just feels so right.
She's putting her trust in him because this is what she needs. He is what she needs. And she has the feeling that she might be the thing he's been searching for too.
"Promise me something?" Alicia asks suddenly, pulling away. Seth tilts his head slightly and nods. "Promise me you'll talk to me before you decide you don't want me anymore?" she squeaks out meekly, looking away from him.
"That won't happen," he reassures her. His eyes seem honest, his smile genuine. But she's sure that's what he looked like when he went up to Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns two years ago.
Seth apparently hasn't cured her of her so-called craziness. Considering all of the people she's slapped, the wedgies she's pulled and items she's stolen, this may be the craziest thing she's ever done. Saying yes to this ridiculously vague proposal from a man with now highly-suspicious motivations.
Maybe she is setting herself up for heartbreak.
When he gets up and offers her his hand though, all that logic goes out the window and she laces her fingers through his own. She can't help it. Sometime ago, her unpredictable, fun-loving, divalicious self fell for the two-toned, combat boots-wearing, calculating pragmatist in Seth Rollins.
All this time, she tried to rid herself of the crazy label everyone gave her. But maybe, she thinks as Seth and her walk out of the dark room together, being a bit crazy isn't such a bad thing after all.
A/N: I had initially planned to end this differently, and then Rollins went and turned his back on the Shield…So I kind of wanted to incorporate the turn and drop in some subtle hints about his heelish characteristics but I don't know if it worked. Thanks for reading, and reviews are always appreciated!