A/N: I'm actually really surprised by the love for this story, and so pleased! I hope you continue to like it, and reviews are never expected, but always appreciated. Enjoy! :)
Dolph yawned.
"Hey, do you want me to take over?" AJ wondered, "I'm good to go after that soda I just drank. I'm probably never going to sleep now."
"No, I'm good," he told her, glancing over at her. She was scrunched up in a corner of the seat, and he wondered how she managed to curl herself into a ball while still being strapped into her seatbelt. She was still buried in his hoodie, and she looked like she was shrinking into it. He half-expected to look over one time and just see his hoodie sitting there. "We're actually really close."
This caused her to sit up straighter and look out the window, "Are we? So we're close to where you grew up?"
"Yeah, we're a couple exits away, then it's about another fifteen minutes and we'll be there."
"Oh cool," she turned to look out the window again, even though it was still dark outside. All you could really see was what was directly under the streetlights on the side of the highway, and that wasn't exactly a view of much but the ground. "Did you like growing up here?"
"I didn't know much else," he laughed, "I mean, it's not like we moved around or anything. This is just where I grew up and I didn't know anything else. Me and my brothers, it was all kind of the same path for us, we all went to the same schools, we all wrestled in some capacity, and we all loved to prank each other and make jokes."
"I've never met your other brother, what's he like?"
"A lot saner than me and Briley, that's for sure," Dolph chuckled as he thought to his younger brother. "And honestly, I think if you saw him, you'd wonder why he isn't a wrestler. He probably looks more like a wrestler than me and Briley. He actually has the kind of look Vince loves."
"Really? But wrestling wasn't his passion?"
"It was really only my passion to begin with," Dolph told her, "I started when I was five, as you know—"
"You've only told me a million times, I'm going to ask your mom for videos so I can see you wrestle when you were younger, I bet you were the cutest."
"Cutest and the best," Dolph said cockily. "You wouldn't know it from now, but I can actually win a wrestling match. Anyways, while my brother wrestled like I did, I was the one who wanted all of this. Briley kind of came along slowly, he saw me doing it, saw all the elements of it that he loved, and he wanted it for himself. Donny's passion is dogs. He loves them, he wants to save all of them, especially pitbulls, he has a couple right now."
"Wow, that's admirable, is there anything bad about your family at all? Don't you have any skeletons? Because as I see it right now, you're all pretty perfect," she giggled, and he sucked at his teeth a little bit. He wanted to tell her all about his family, but he refrained because she was probably being polite. He turned off the highway, and AJ made a little sound as she turned back towards the window. "Are we going to see anything significant to you?"
"No, not really," he told her, glancing over at her again, but she wasn't facing him anymore. He let his eyes linger on her for a second before he heard a throat clearing behind him. He quickly turned back towards the road, not daring a glance in the backseat because he knew if he did, E would be giving him a look.
He wondered if he was as transparent as he felt sometimes. It wasn't even a conscious thing most of the time, but sometimes he just…kind of stared at her. He didn't mean to, but he did, and he knew E had caught him doing it a number of times. E even had a look for it now, one that Dolph didn't feel like seeing in the middle of the night. This was the probably with having three of them in this faction, there was always one other person, hanging around, silently judging you.
AJ turned back and saw E was awake. "Hey, free loader, do you even think you'll get more sleep tonight because you slept the entire way here."
"Of course, I'm still exhausted."
"And you didn't even have a match tonight," AJ shook her head, "how are you so tired?"
"Have you seen our schedules?" E asked her. "I could probably sleep for three days at this point, couldn't you?"
"Maybe, we'll see, we have a show later, so that might not be possible," she shrugged. By now, Dolph was driving through residential streets. "Wow, this is really nice. This is where you grew up?"
"Yeah, this is where I spent my formative years."
"So now I can walk around and dissect the area to see why you are the way you are," she teased as he pulled into the driveway of a house. "Your parent's house is so nice, wow, we never had anything this nice growing up."
Dolph didn't know how to answer that. He knew about AJ's past, she'd told him one night when they were hanging out. She didn't cry, didn't go into hysterics, just laid out that her life was not easy, but her family loved each other, and made it through together. He couldn't see how anyone could not love her just a little bit if they heard where she came from, and how hard she worked to get here.
"Come on, you must be tired, let's get situated."
He stepped out of the car, feeling relaxed in a way that only being home could make a person and he went to the trunk to grab their things, only the essentials though, the rest could be saved until morning. He handed E his bag, and grabbed his and AJ's. She held out her hand to grab her bag, but he shook his head. She tilted her head in argument, stabbing him with a look, but he didn't budge, just shutting the trunk and walking up the path.
"You don't always have to be the gentleman, you know, I'm perfectly capable of holding my bag."
"I know you are, doesn't matter," he told her, turning around and walking backwards up the path. His face was illuminated by the porch lights and he grinned at her as she glared at him. He turned around and went up to the door, grabbing his key and opening it up. "Knowing my mom she's—"
"It's about time you three got here," Kelly said, immediately going up to her son and giving him a hug, even though he was carrying two bags. "I hate thinking about you out there in the middle of the night on a Saturday, that's when the crazies come out."
"A lot of people would consider that us," Dolph told her, and she pat his cheek.
"You look good, a little worse for the wear."
"Thanks, Mom," he said, "You look like you haven't slept."
"You'd be correct," she moved over to E, who held his hand out for her. "No, shaking hands, just no, come here." She gave E a hug, which he returned tentatively.
"My mom's a hugger, it's a condition we're looking into," Dolph explained.
"It's very nice to meet you," she told him. "You are gigantic in person, but I shouldn't be surprised because I've seen you toss around wrestlers, I see good things for you, I've seen you in NXT since my other son is there, not to brag that I have both sons in the company, but well…"
"And now I see where he gets it," E joked.
"Shut up, dude, I'll throw you out," Dolph speared him with a look, but couldn't keep the laugh out of his voice.
"And I know you, and I'm sure my son knows you by now too if we're being honest," Kelly said, going over to AJ, who was already laughing. They hugged companionably. "Yeah, I think I would want to be with you too if you pushed someone off a ladder for me."
"Oh, you hear that?" AJ said, looking over at Dolph gamely. "Your mom wants me."
"You can't have her, Mom, at least not for now," he told her, "I'm kind of using her at the moment."
"I should hope so," Kelly gave him the same look E always gave him when he was caught staring at AJ, and he quickly looked away. "Okay, let me show you two to your rooms."
His mother lead the three of them upstairs, showing AJ and E where their rooms were before coming into her son's room, gently closing the door behind her. She sat down on the edge of the bed as Dolph unzipped his things and put them on his old dresser. "Don't give me that look, Mom."
"I'm not giving you a look, not now anyways."
"Please don't say anything because I know what you're going to say, and you know what, I know it. I know how I look, I know how I come across, and I'm just hoping she doesn't."
"Why though? She seems like the sweetest, cutest thing."
"I know, and she is, but if she doesn't…then here I am, stuck with her week after week knowing that I have these feelings and she doesn't. We're in this for the long haul, Mom, they want this for a while, and…if she doesn't, I'm just there with my feelings hanging out in the wind."
"I don't know, honey, I think she might feel the same way," Kelly told her son.
"But you don't know, and for the love of God, Mom, please don't talk to her about it," Dolph pleaded with his mother. He knew his mother had good intentions with this, but the last thing he needed was intervention from his mother of all people. He already felt pathetic around AJ, he didn't need to feel like a chastised little boy.
"You know, for all your showing off, you've never been good around women you actually like. The ones you don't, you charm the pants off them, but every time I've seen you around a girl you genuinely like, you turn into a scared, little boy."
"Are you telling me to grow a pair, Mom?"
"I'm saying that it wouldn't hurt," Kelly smirked. "AJ is a good person, you don't need to even know her to see that, but you know her now, and you see it, and you like it."
"I like her, you can say it, Mom, I like her, and I like her a lot. You can't help it. She's just so…uniquely her, and she loves this business, she's been watching as long as I have, I can reference someone like Bastion Booger or Shawn Stasiak and she knows who I'm talking about."
"Well, I'm just saying, I like her already," Kelly stood up and pat him on the back before she went to the door, "Sleep well."
"Thanks, Mom," he said, turning back to his bag as she shut the door. He changed into a pair of pajama pants as he pulled off his shirt. He went into his bathroom and brushed his teeth, happy that he had his own bathroom and wouldn't run the risk of running into AJ. He didn't know why, but seeing her in her pajamas and with him in his own, it would feel…strange and too intimate, more intimate than he could take at the moment. He turned off the lights and climbed into the bed, the mattress familiar and curved just for him. He turned on his back, his arm over his head as he stared up into the darkness for a moment. He closed his eyes, hoping sleep would come soon. They had a show later that evening, and he needed at least four hours sleep.
There was a knock on the door, and he groaned, "Mom, I'm settled in, I don't need anything."
The door opened and from the faint light from the nightlight his mom kept in the hallway, he saw a small outline that definitely could not be his mother. His eyes adjusted to the dark and he saw AJ standing there in a small tank top that lifted a little bit to show off her abs, and some loose shorts that were criminally short in length. His eyes widened a little bit. He'd seen her in less, but his breath still caught a little bit.
"Hey."
