Chapter 3:

Rating: M

Disclaimer: I do not know any of the workers of the WWE personally nor am I affiliated with them in any way. This story is a work of fiction and I make no profit whatsoever from it.

Tuesday came by quicker than Seth had anticipated. He hadn't received any more private messages from any other members of the band but even if he had, he was far too busy to notice. While he worked every day through the week at the tattoo shops, his nights were filled up with meetings with potential photography clients but he made sure that he didn't book anything that was on during the Justice world tour which was starting in two months and went for four months. He wasn't one hundred percent confident he was going to get the job but he wanted to be prepared just in case.

He looked at the clock on the bottom of his computer screen. It had just ticked over past 7pm which was normally closing time. He had already flipped the sign on the door over to 'closed' but there was still a couple of people that were just about finished with their ink. He stood up and stretched. He glanced down the back and saw Alex was already packed up. His last client had finished almost half an hour ago but he stayed, waiting for the other guys. Corey was just about finished on the girl who was getting a saying or something on the inside of her forearm. He glanced over to Randy who had just finished his last client for the day.

Seth moved back to his desk as the skinny, guy that was covered in both tattoos and piercings made his way to the counter. He pulled out his wallet and payed Seth the correct amount before waving good bye and leaving the small studio. A few minutes later and the girl that Corey had been tattooing came up to the counter with her friend in tow. He watched as she pulled out her wallet and paid Seth the exact money before waving him good bye. He was just about to turn off the computer when he heard Corey from behind him.

"Have you checked Twitter yet to see if you've won?" Corey's voice called out to him.

Seth quickly opened up the browser on the work computer and logged onto twitter. He had a notification waiting as well as a private message. He moved the mouse to click on the notification first and his heart started beating faster as he waited for the page to load. He had to stifle the scream that he wanted to let out when he saw that he in fact had won. He turned to see Corey grinning at him like an idiot. "I won." He voice was so quiet as he spoke that he was surprised Corey could even hear him.

Corey's face lit up in the biggest smile Seth had ever seen. "You know what that means Seth. Get in the chair."

Seth couldn't help but grin as he followed Corey to the back. Corey was already changing the needle on the gun and was getting his ink ready. Seth sat in the black chair and waited for his friend to look up at him. "Are you choosing where it goes too?"

"I can if you want." Corey winked at him.

"What the hell are two doing?" Randy's deep voice forced both young men to look up at him.

"I won the photographer contest for Justice and I made a bet with Corey that if I won, I'd get his name tattooed on me." Seth said, still beaming.

"You're actually a bigger idiot than I first realized Seth." Randy rolled his eyes. "Just do initials or something Corey, the poor kid is gonna be stuck with your name tattooed on him for life for fuck's sake."

Corey rolled his eyes. "How about on your left hip?"

Seth shrugged. "Sure."

Seth sat up slightly and pushed his pants and underpants down just a little bit, allowing enough room for Corey to tattoo comfortably. He winced a little when he felt Corey's gloved hand press down on his hip. He tried not to shrug away when he felt the disposable razor shave his skin. He looked up at Corey just as he rubbed the alcoholic across the exposed area. His brown eyes widened slightly in curiosity when he saw Corey pull out a small piece of paper that had the outline already done on it. "You had this planned, didn't you?"

"I knew you were going to win." Corey grinned before he pressed the outline against Seth's golden brown skin. He pulled it back and nodded in appreciation.

Seth glanced down at the stencil and nodded in approval. It was a small tattoo, roughly three inches wide and about two inches tall. It simply said the word 'Graves' in a nice, cursive font. "Looks good."

"It'll match mine then." Corey grinned. He stood up and lifted his shirt and pulled his pants down just a touch. On his left hip, that sat just below his underpants line was a single word, 'Rollins'. "I figured we've been friends long enough."

"There is just no words for how stupid you two are." Randy said while rolling his eyes.

Corey rolled his eyes and focused back on Seth. He dipped the tip of the tattoo gun into the small pot of ink before turning it on. He pressed the start of the gun at the bottom of the 'g'. He slowly started to follow the gentle curves of the letters, his attention solely focused on inking his best friend and not on the reaction of Seth, whose teeth were clenched as he tried to adjust to the sensation. The small tattoo wouldn't take too long, maybe twenty minutes tops.

"Hey Seth, you have a message on here too. Do you want me to read it to you while you're getting inked?" Alex called out from the front of the store.

"Sure." Seth yelled back.

"Okay so it's from some dude named Dean Ambrose." Alex called back. Seth's heart started beating faster at that moment. "He says, 'Congratulations on winning the contest Seth. We're having a BBQ at Punk's house tonight and we'd love for you to come around so you can hang out with us. Bring a friend too if you want.'. Then it has an address but I won't read that out. Do you want me to reply for you?"

"Yeah, just tell him; 'Thanks. I'll be over in about an hour. I've just finished work.'" Seth yelled back. He could barely believe it. An invitation to Punk's house from Ambrose? He wanted to jump up and down and scream from all his excitement. He looked at Corey. "Do you have plans with Emma tonight?"

Corey shook his head. "Nah man."

"Good. You're coming with me." Seth grinned back at his friend. He checked out Corey's handiwork and was so far pleased with the results. He leaned back further in the chair, trying to relax while he felt the dull scraping of the tattoo gun permanently inking him while trying to let everything set in.

Just over an hour later and Corey and Seth were standing at CM Punk's front door. Seth had insisted that Corey drive instead of him because he was far too excited about hanging out with the band tonight. He was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet as he waited for Corey to get out of the car. He had spent a good twenty minutes standing in front of the mirror getting ready to come tonight. The hot, Summer sun had cooled off a little bit now and it was starting to get dark so he pulled on the tightest pair of dark grey skinny leg jeans he owned and paired it with an equally as form fitting v-neck black t-shirt. He had his usual snap back hat on and his hair was pulled back into a low ponytail.

He looked over at Corey who was also dressed more appropriate to the weather. Corey was also wearing a pair of dark grey skinny leg jeans but his were at least the right size and not molding to his ass. He was also wearing a black, faded, sleeveless Metallica t-shirt while his hair was spiked up into his trademark style. He grinned at his best friend who narrowed his thickly lined eyes at him.

"Seth, c'mon man. Quit fucking fangirling." Corey said sharply.

Seth rolled his eyes as they walked up the few steps towards Punk's huge white front door. He could already tell that Punk's house was going to be as extravagant as the front of it made it out to be. He looked over at Corey before he lifted his hand up the door. His finger pushed hard on the doorbell and he rocked back and forth anxiously on the balls of his feet. He avoided Corey's death glare warning as they both heard the telltale sound of someone shuffling around inside, no doubt heading towards the door.

A few moments later the door was opened by the owner of the house. Punk grinned at both of them. "Hey Seth. And sorry, I don't think I know your name." He looked Corey up and down once.

"This is Corey. He's my guest for tonight." Seth beamed back at the singer.

"Nice to meet you Corey." Punk smiled softly at Corey who tried desperately to resist an eye roll. "Well, let's get inside. Everyone's waiting."

Seth grinned at Corey as soon as Punk had turned away. The excitement in the young man's eyes was addictive and almost too hard to resist. Even Corey's lips curled up into a grin as they followed Punk through the large, exquisitely decorated house out towards the back where both young men could hear the happy sounds of people talking.

Corey trailed somewhat behind Seth as the trio headed out towards the immaculately kept backyard. He immediately noticed just how green the grass was. Of course it was perfect. He wanted to turn his nose up at the people he often proclaimed as his heroes. They must have sold out majorly to have a house like this. Not that Corey blamed them one bit. He would have too given the opportunity. He glanced around the yard and noticed the entire band happily standing around chatting with each other and who he assumed was their respective other halves. He caught the back of a young looking girl with long black hair and an amazingly fit yet pale body. He watched her turn around and his heart started racing when he realized it was Paige. But his heart definitely stopped when she got up on her tip toes and pecked Wade Barrett on the cheek.

He nudged Seth who looked oddly at him. "That's Paige."

Seth looked over in the direction that Corey was looking. The girl was pretty, very pretty, but he was suddenly glad that she was taken by a guy that could quite easily knock his best friend out. "You miss out dude." He mumbled, following behind Punk as they got closer to the band.

Dean's eyes just so happened to look up the instant that Seth approached the small flight of stairs that would lead down to where the band was congregated around the pool. He was smoking his cigarette and grinned around the thin, white stick at Punk who had a matching one on his lips. Things had certainly worked out for the better for them in regards to Seth. He took a couple of long drags off his cigarette before he stubbed it out in the ashtray.

Their exchange did not go unnoticed by Roman who groaned before he took a long drink from his third beer of the evening. He was more than a little annoyed by his singer and lead guitarists' antics. He knew that Dean and Punk had this weird sort of connection between them, hell, he'd even walked in on some pretty compromising situations between the pair but he usually allowed it to slide. But not this time. He couldn't allow letting some twenty-year-old kid to just be welcomed into what he deemed his family. Especially not in a way that was out of the norm.

Punk cleared his throat at the top of the small flight of stairs. Both Seth and Corey stopped to stand next to them. Seth's face was beaming with joy while Seth didn't look quite as excited. "Everyone, I have some one I'd like you all to meet." He started. Seth was still almost bouncing on the balls of his feet out of excitement. Punk put his arm around Seth's shoulders. "This is Seth. The winner of our competition to find a fan photographer to take on our tour with us. He's going to be spending a lot of time with us in the coming months." He turned to look at Seth. "Come down and I'll introduce you to everyone."

Seth was so caught up in being dragged away by Punk that he had forgotten about Corey who walked over to the first empty seat he found and slumped down on it, pulling his phone out and playing with it while Seth was the centre of attention for the night. The band was sitting in an uneven semi-circle, sprawled out comfortably on the backyard furniture Punk had collected over the years.

The first person Punk stopped in front of was a lady with straight, bright red hair. She had a stern face but once she saw Punk, her entire face lit up. She was a fit woman with tattoos covering her arms. She was dressed in a pair of mid-thigh length shorts and a white, sleeveless Justice shirt that was cut into a low V, revealing her ample breasts. "Seth, this is my girlfriend Lita." Seth reached his hand out only to have it smacked away and pulled into a tight embrace by the older lady.

Punk pulled him along to the next person sitting next to his girlfriend. The next woman that was sitting next to Lita was quite short, had long brown hair that was loosely pulled into two pigtails. She was dressed in a black midriff top that showed off her toned abdomen. She was wearing short shorts that were half black, half pink and went perfectly well with her knee-high converse shoes. "This is AJ, Dean's girlfriend." Seth was pulled into a tight embrace by the much smaller woman but upon hearing who she was, he immediately felt ill and he didn't even know why. Of course Dean was straight. And there was no way in hell that he would switch teams for Seth anyway.

Punk kept pushing him along. He stopped in front of yet another woman. This woman was much taller than AJ (although that wasn't exactly hard) and had quite broad shoulders that matched her rather large breasts. Not that Seth tried to look but he felt they were shoved right in his face. She was quite pretty with delicate features that were a stark contrast to her very muscular frame. Seth wondered if this girl had bigger muscles than he did. She had two-toned coloured hair, blonde on top of black. She was wearing a skimpy black singlet that really didn't leave much to the imagination as it the material strained across her chest and a pair of the shortest blue denim shorts he'd ever seen. "This is Kaitlyn, Roman's fiance." Kaitlyn also pulled Seth into a tight hug that almost had the young man gasping for breath when he was finally released. He could already tell that this girl was probably much stronger than he was.

Punk moved him along yet again to stop in front of the last woman on the end. She looked younger than the other three with a bright smile that matched her long, wavy, dark red hair. She had big green eyes that were surrounded by fake eyelashes and mascara but didn't take away from her natural beauty. She was dressed in a skin tight long sleeve, short black dress with a pair of tall, red heels that complimented her lightly tanned skin. "And this is Maria, Sami's girlfriend." She reached out and hugged him tightly before pressing a hard kiss to his cheek, leaving a bright pink lipstick mark there.

Seth tried to rub it off with the back of his hand as Punk pulled him over towards where Wade was chatting with Paige. Seth grinned as they both turned around and smiled at him. She was just as pretty as Corey made her out to be with her big, dark eyes, long, flowing black hair and pale skin. Her eyes were lined in thick eyeliner and mascara. She was wearing a pair of black, denim shorts and a black scoop neck t-shirt that fit her perfectly. "This is Paige, Wade's girlfriend and this is of course, Wade." Punk gestured to the tall man that stood with a hand around the young woman. He shook hands with the man who looked less than enthused to be meeting him while Paige looked at him curiously.

"I think I've met you before." Her voice was soft and definitely had some sort of British accent. He didn't know the exact dialect, only the country of origin.

"I'm Corey's friend. Emma's boyfriend." Seth smiled back at her. At Corey's name, however, Paige's entire face seemed to light up. "Corey's here if you want to say hello."

Paige grinned, pecking Wade once on the lips before scampering away to find the other young man.

Punk disregarded the action and instead continued moving Seth around. His arm squeezed on Seth's shoulder as he pushed him towards where the other three members of the band were standing talking. Two of them were smoking while the third was drinking a beer. Seth tried not to show his disapproval for their smoking habit as he made their way towards them. "Okay, so this is Roman." Roman's face remained stern and barely lifted into a smile as they shook hands. "And Sami." Sami's face however changed into one of the biggest grins Seth had ever seen as he reached forward and clapped Seth hard on the shoulder. He liked Sami. "And last but not least, Dean."

Dean didn't say anything, merely looked over Seth with an approving glance before he locked eyes with Punk and winked arrogantly. He stubbed out his cigarette before he turned his attention back to Seth. "What are you drinking Seth?"

Seth felt his cheeks colour slightly under the intense gaze. "Uh, just a Pepsi."

"C'mon Seth, you can have whatever you want. How about a beer? Bourbon?" Dean grinned at him.

Seth laughed nervously. "I shouldn't, I'm underage."

"Oh really?" Roman let out a short, unamused laugh of his own. "And how old might you be Seth?"

"I just turned twenty." Seth answered nervously. He turned to look at Roman who looked more than a little annoyed.

"Well twenty sure is better than seventeen." Roman scoffed before he downed the last of his beer. He walked away after that, glaring at Dean before he left.

Punk rolled his eyes. "Now I'm pretty anti-drinking but if you want to drink, I'll let you. Are you driving?"

Seth shook his head. "No my friend Corey is."

"Great!" Dean beamed. "C'mon Seth, let's go get you a drink!"

Seth felt Punk's arm drop from around his shoulders and he followed the lead guitarist around through the house and into the kitchen. He got a good look of Dean from behind, admiring the way his jeans although they weren't skin tight like his, definitely showed off his muscular legs. His eyes raked up and he had to resist the urge to run his hands along Dean's muscular shoulders that he could quite clearly see through the thin, cotton material of Dean's white t-shirt. He was also close enough to his idol that he could easily inhale his scent without being too much of a creep. He smelled very masculine with the hint of some sort of fruity shampoo.

Dean turned around and grinned when he saw that Seth was very obviously admiring him. "See something you like Seth?"

Seth's eyes looked up once into Dean's icy blues, an overwhelming feeling of embarrassment washing over him. He dropped his gaze immediately and instead leaned against the granite covered kitchen bench. He didn't know what to say. Hell, he didn't want to say anything. He was beyond embarrassed by his own actions.

Dean smirked as he stepped over to the fridge. He pulled the door open easily before he retrieved a beer for himself. He glanced over at the young man. "What are you having Seth?"

"Oh, I'll just have a beer. Thanks." Seth said quietly.

Dean twisted the lid off of the top of his and slid it across the bench top to Seth who caught it easily enough. He pulled out another beer and twisted the lid off. He took a long sip before he looked over at Seth who looked kind of upset. "Everything alright Seth?"

"Yeah." Seth said quietly before he took a sip of his own. His brown eyes looked up to see Dean staring back down at him. "Does Roman not like me or something?"

"What? No, of course he does." Dean quickly explained. It may have only been the half truth but there was no way in hell he was going to let Roman's judgmental views ruin what this could be. "He can just be a little weird around people he doesn't know that well. He'll warm up to you."

Seth nodded as he took another sip of his alcoholic beverage. He didn't know why it was upsetting him so much but the feeling soon left him once he felt Dean's strong arm wrap around his shoulders. He looked up at Dean who was steering him back towards where the rest of the band was. He felt his cheeks colour again when he felt Dean's eyes lock onto his. He was trying to remain calm and collected but with Dean's arm, Dean Ambrose's fucking arm, wrapped around his shoulders, he was having trouble focusing on anything other than the very attractive man next to him. He knew his heart was beating hard against his chest with every step they took, bodies pressed together.

Dean's lips curled into a smirk. "C'mon, let's go and celebrate your victory."

TBC

A/N: so Roman isn't exactly approving of whatever Dean may have planned haha AND it was super hard to pick girlfriends and that for them, like ridiculously. I pretty much have the next chapter written so it should be up a little earlier. thanks to everyone for reading/reviewing/following/making it a favourite. Really appreciate the feedback! :) GatesVengeance x