Disclaimer: Nobody you recognize is my own. They're property of WWE.
"One Long Island Ice Tea and a shot!" Kaitlyn, Texan beauty and a Barrett's Vault bartender, called out as she handed the drinks to a pair of male friends who smiled at her.
"Thanks, Kait." Heath Slater, a regular for Kaitlyn and lead singer of the local band The Three Man Band, spoke as he took the Long Island Ice Tea into his hand.
"Yeah thank you, love." This time Drew McIntyre, the lead guitarist of the group, spoke. He was another regular.
In fact the whole band, including Jinder Mahal the bassist of the group, was regulars. They constantly played at Barrett's Vault all thanks to McIntyre who had known the boss, Wade Barrett, from somewhere. Kaitlyn had just assumed that Europeans all always seem to know each other; which would've been a comical overstatement if Wade and Drew hadn't known so many Europeans that had entered the bar before. It always amused Kaitlyn, especially when she'd jokingly ask if a European customer knew Wade Barrett and they'd say yes. Though, they all did live in a moderately medium sized town so the prospect of Wade knowing a ton of people, even those who didn't have an accent, wasn't all too farfetched or weird for the Texan.
"Hey, no problem! Just doing my job." Kaitlyn waved their gratitude off before propping her elbows on the bar.
"Aw, it's just bein' polite, Kaity." Heath smiled, sipping his drink before continuing to talk. "You're the best bartender here after all."
Kaitlyn made a show of placing her hand on her heart. "Well aren't I tickled pink!" She chuckled, hearing as the boys did too.
"He's right, love. I rather have you then Aksana." Drew nearly muttered, looking over at the very feisty Lithuanian. Aksana was usually Kaitlyn's comrade during late nights like this one and Kaitlyn didn't mind her at all. Sure, her accent would trip her up sometimes but Aksana was feisty and quite hilarious. She also got in a lot of tips and was not cheap enough to keep it all herself. Honestly, Kaitlyn had tried to stop Aksana from sharing but she always fought that it took two to do this job and Kaitlyn deserved the tips just as much as she. Kaitlyn did bring in her own tips as well though, and of course, shared hers with Aksana.
Aksana was generally kind to all the customers, especially a certain bald man that was apparently called Antonio, but she just couldn't get along with Drew. Kaitlyn was not present for Aksana's and Drew's first falling out but from what she heard, or could understand between Aksana switching from English to Lithuanian back and forth, Drew had treated her disrespectfully.
Kaitlyh had, at first, thought the situation was serious but after further thorough investigation (just asking Heath what happened) Kaitlyn was informed that Drew drunkenly tried to mimic Aksana's accent. Drew had tried to apologize a few times now but to no avail. Aksana didn't want to hear any of it. Aksana was a stubborn woman like that Kaitlyn supposed.
"She'll accept your apology one day, Drew." Kaitlyn patted the man's shoulder as he downed the drink. Kaitlyn eyed the shot glass as he slammed it on the bar. "Are you guys performing tonight?"
Heath nodded. "Yup! Just gettin' loosed up a bit before headin' on up there. Don't want my nerves stuntin' me tonight!"
"Don't want the same thing that happened last time to happen again, yeah?" Kaitlyn smirked, hearing Heath groan as Drew let out a laugh.
"I thought we agreed not to talk about that anymore…" Heath pouted, looking between Kaitlyn and Drew.
"Don't get pouty on me now you bloke!" Drew clasped his hand on Heath's shoulder. "I'll make sure to have Kaitlyn get us a bag just in case chunks fly again."
"Shut up!" Heath snapped at Drew, who merely laughed again as the southern male brought the cup back to his lips. He swallowed the drink down quickly before climbing off the stool. "Let's just go find Jinder and get ready."
"Alright!" Drew said, fishing into his wallet and slapping down some bills in front of Kaitlyn.
"Oh you do-"
"No." Drew interrupted Kaitlyn. "I know you're going to say we don't have to pay but I feel obligated to. So take the money, keep the change."
And with that Heath and Drew walked away to go find their band mate. Kaitlyn shook her head as she fished the money and made it to the cash register, registering the price and keeping the change as Drew said.
"Kaitlyn." Aksana's accent rang. Kaitlyn turned to look at the raven hair lady as she slung her purse over her shoulder. "I'm going on my break."
"Alright, 'Sana." Kaitlyn smiled, waving at Aksana as she walked out. She didn't miss when Aksana accidentally bumped into Drew. It looked like he was about to apologize but Aksana flipped her hair out at him and strutted out of the bar. Poor guy was never going to get his redemption.
Kaitlyn continued to watch as the rest of the band started to set up. Though they were not the best band around town, they were still good, and Kaitlyn did like when they'd play. Plus, they were the only band that took her requests. Though they don't really have to ask much anymore, it's always Lips of an Angel anyways.
A sound of someone obnoxiously clearing their voice caught Kaitlyn's attention. She looked around, quickly spotting a man sitting in front of her with his arms lazily lying on the bar. His blue eyes looked hazy as he raised his head slightly to speak to her.
"Give me a beer." He spoke, his raspy voice sounding slightly slurred. This man was definitely drunk or at least getting there. Usually Kaitlyn would place her own personal policy about handing over drinks to people clearly on their way to alcohol poisoning but this man looked well worse for wear. He also still looked like he could balance himself up right, so she figured giving this guy a beer wouldn't be too bad.
"Coming right up." She said with a smile, turning to the cold beers and popping the cap open. She placed a glass on the bar and was going to poor when the man held up his hand while shaking his head.
"No glass. I ain't trying to be fancy with my beer." He snatched the bottle off of Kaitlyn's hand, much to her surprise, and slammed down some bills. They were crumpled about and slightly damp from the man's sweat. Using the tips of her fingers, she lifted the bills and put them in the cash register.
Looking back, she noticed the man slouch on the bar stool as he clutched onto the beer bottle. His eyes were downcast to the bar as he slowly moved the opening of the bottle to his lips and tilting his head back to gulp down the contents in it.
Kaitlyn had seen this before. Working in a bar causes you to run into people who aren't always happy with their lives. Whether it be for financial reasons, problems within family and friends or problems between someone and their significant other. Sometimes people only had one of these worries; sometimes two or all three. This man was clearly another victim to life's unfortunate challenges and he was getting beaten up good.
By instinct of working in the bar too long, Kaitlyn made her way back over to the man. There wasn't much else people in the bar area, especially since The Three Man Band started playing. She watched as he watched her; not much of any expression on his face. Poor guy looked dead.
"Howdly doodly." Kaitlyn greeted lamely, instantly scolding herself for always awkwardly turning to Simpson references when she wants to console someone. He didn't say much of anything, merely a grunt of acknowledgement. So Kaitlyn continued. "I know it's not my place to ask but you look like road kill. And maybe you don't want to talk about it to me considering I'm a complete stranger, but I figured as a decent human being I should ask if you're okay."
The man did not answer at first as he merely stared at her before sitting up slightly, bringing the bottle close to his lips. "Why are you bartenders so fucking nosey?" He asked finally before having the bottle touch his lips as he sipped more beer.
Kaitlyn was not surprised by this question. She had gotten plenty of different variations of this after she asked a customer if they were alright. She smiled as she shook her head. "We're not nosey, we just see people like you all the time."
The man scoffed. "People like me, huh? And how would you know they're like me if you don't know what the hell is wrong with me?" He put the bottle back on the bar.
"I don't mean people with the same problems as you, though I'm not counting that out as it always seems to be the same stuff, but I mean someone who looks like life kicked their puppy." She responded with a shrug.
"You guys just like gossip." The man shook his head, looking up at Kaitlyn. "If you want fucking gossip fine I'll give it to you, not like it fuckin' matters anyways. Not like you know me or anythin'."
"Exactly." Kaitlyn nodded. "It's also good to talk about it too."
Dean raised his eyebrows as he took another huge gulp of his beer, feeling as the weight lightened dramatically indicating the drink was almost over. "If you say so, sweetheart." He placed the nearly empty bottle on the bar again before leaning his palms on the bar and leaning forward slightly. "My girlfriend cheated on me with some jerk off at work."
Kaitlyn's eyes softened at that. Relationship problems; she had to sympathize for this man. Love was always the hardest one on the person whenever they would arrive. Kaitlyn has seen plenty nearly drink themselves to an early grave because their girlfriends, boyfriends, wives and husbands cheated on them. "Oh no, I'm sorry."
The man scoffed again. "No you're not. My sorry ass is here buying your fucking drinks, by the way get me another one, and you're making money. But your artificial sympathy is appreciated."
Kaitlyn grabbed another bottle as she gave the man a look. "I do care! Despite being the bartender here, I really don't want people coming here buying drinks when they're sad. They can danger themselves."
"Good. Maybe if I drink another one of these I'll be drunk enough to get hit by a car or something." The man smiled humorlessly. "Or maybe I'll be a dangerto Randy." His face turned to one of disgust as he looked up at Kaitlyn. "That was his name, by the way. He looked like a fucking snake and he was a snake, slitherin' into someone else's girl. I was thinking about finding this guy and fucking killing him but I can't go to jail. Don't wanna get penetrated or some shit."
Kaitlyn couldn't help the soft chuckle at his last words; the man seemed to have appreciated her chuckle as he chuckled a bit himself. "She left with him. Just like that. I told her that I knew and she just packed up all her fucking things and left. Suppose it's a good thing. I don't want a cheating, lying, unfaithful bitch in my house."
Kaitlyn nodded. "I'm sorry to hear about that…uh…"
"Dean." The man answered, waving the bottle as he shook his head. "And stop apologizing. You didn't do anything."
Kaitlyn nodded. "Well, Dean, I think this is good."
Dean looked up at her. "Good?" His eyes looked angry and she quickly waved her hands.
"Not the cheating! That's not good, that's bad." Kaitlyn quickly explained, putting her hands down and leaning her elbows on the bar. She proceeded to talk carefully as she continued to slowly explain what she meant. "I just mean, it's good that you know she was cheating on you and that you confronted her. Now you know she was never to be trusted in the first place and you've got the negativity out of your life."
Dean shrugged at those words, not saying anything else. Kaitlyn didn't know what that meant but she could only assume by the lack of a drunken response he either agreed with her words or took them into consideration. After a while Dean placed the empty bottle onto the bar and stood up.
"Thanks for the talk, toots." Dean slurred slightly, his hands stuffing themselves into the pockets of his leather jacket.
"No problem." Kaitlyn said as she watched him turn to the door. He walked over to it before turning back and giving Kaitlyn one more small wave before exiting. She could only hope she had helped this man realize that this was good for him, if only a little. He was a good looking guy, despite the shit look he had, and she was sure he could bounce back soon.
Kaitlyn was ripped from her thoughts when she heard her name called from the stage area. Looking over she saw Heath smiling at her.
"Lips of an Angel?" He asked, making the attention of the bar goers turn to her. She smiled as she nodded.
"You've got it." Heath said into the microphone before Jinder and Drew started up the chords. In a matter of minutes Heath was singing Lips of an Angel and Kaitlyn had gone back to running the bar, pushing aside Dean's problems from her mind.
A/N: Yup, this is another multi-chapter fic. I know I probably shouldn't be writing another considering I have not finished Seeing Red yet but I had this idea in my head and this is more of a fun fic then anything else. I don't expect this one to be too long and it's more of a fic I will update and such from time to time. I just needed a change of pace from writing regular wrestling fics to writing AU fics and I'm actually pretty happy about this one I've thought up. I think the plot is rather easy and laid back and it'll be fun to write and fun for you guys to read. Just to make it clear the ships in this fic are Dean/Kaitlyn, Seth/JoJo and Roman/Bayley. I know it's quite an odd mix but I like them and hopefully you like them too/are willing to give them a chance! There will also be tiny side ships that aren't going to be as focused on as these three but may have tiny snippets of updates on them and the like. Anyways, I hoped you enjoyed this! Please review?