"Hey, broski, guess who's gonna be at Raw tonight?" Dolph greets him, waking him up with a lazy kiss.
Zack makes a faint humming noise, blinking sluggishly. "Who?"
"Hugh Jackman." Ziggler smirks down at him, shaking his head. "Don't get any ideas, I don't want a repeat of 2011."
"Me neither," Zack mumbles, stroking a sleep-warm hand down Dolph's jaw, remembering when Hugh had punched him on Zack's behalf and fractured his jaw. It had been inadvertent, Zack had felt terribly afterwards, but there was little he could do about it at the time. Even so, it's always cool when there's a celebrity backstage, more so when they'd been on Raw before, so Zack's stoked to get there, see what's up with Hugh, what he'll be doing this evening.
They both get dressed quickly and head out for the arena, unsurprised to find things already bustling and wild when they arrive, the crew working to make sure the show will go off as well as possible. There's a locker room set aside just for Hugh Jackman and Dolph peeks in, not too surprised to find it empty. He shrugs at Zack and they walk off side by side, peeking into catering and other parts of the arena where they think he might be just to find nothing. "Weird," Dolph mumbles, the two of them returning to the locker room. Zack remains in his street clothes, since he's not booked for anything, but Dolph is slated to introduce Hugh so he changes into his gear to go do so. He hesitates at the door upon realizing just how quiet Zack's been the last ten minutes. "Hey, kid, are you ok?"
Zack looks up, a strange look on his face. "Oh yeah, bro, never better," he says with a forced smile.
Dolph pauses, still staring at him, but a tech bustles up then. "You're up, Ziggler," he says forcefully, looking like he's going to drag Dolph out of the locker room if he doesn't get moving.
"Oh, right, yeah. See you later, kid," he says quickly, the door clicking shut behind him as he goes.
Zack gets up after a moment and goes out into the hall, watching as Dolph makes his way to the ring on the monitor. He's still standing there when a group of people walk forward, Hugh Jackman in the midst of them. They're talking and waving papers at him, and Zack can only imagine how busy Hugh is this close to another movie release, but still it hurts when Hugh's eyes seem to look straight past him, his role in their segment together a few years back clearly forgotten even as Dolph plays back footage of that night in the ring. He sighs, his shoulders slumping, before ducking back into the locker room. He can vaguely hear what's going on in the ring, "Magneto" challenging Hugh and getting destroyed for it.
When Dolph returns, he's grinning and laughing, staring eagerly at Zack. "Hey, kid. Did you watch my segment?" Zack doesn't answer and he frowns a little, approaching him. "Kid, are you ok?"
"Did you have fun working with Hugh again?" he asks, staring down at his phone. "It sounded like it was."
Dolph grimaces, sitting down next to Zack. "C'mon, kid. It's not that bad... we aired footage from that night, you weren't completely forgotten."
"Right," he says quietly. "He walked right by me earlier and didn't even notice." He shrugs. "I'm getting used to it."
Dolph reaches over and palms Zack's phone, tossing it over onto his bag and ignoring his boyfriend's complaints. "Kid, take a breath." Turning to look at the door, he smiles. "You can come in now."
The door opens and Zack gapes as Hugh Jackman himself enters, as charming and intense as he'd been when Zack first met him. "Uh," he squeaks.
Dolph laughs and stands up, pulling Zack to his feet as well. "Someone was feeling left out, sorry about leaving you out there for a minute," he tells the movie actor.
"It's fine," he shrugs. "Hey, Zack, how's it going?"
"It- it... it's fine," Zack gasps, overwhelmed. "Uh, I was trying to speak to you in the hall, but I guess you didn't hear me..."
"No, sorry, I guess I didn't," Hugh says, sitting down next to Zack. "I'm always busy even when I appear at these things, there's always something- an autograph, a schedule that needs kept to, whatever else. I'm glad I was able to get a few minutes to say hello. It's been awhile."
"Ye- yeah it has been," Zack nods, slowly relaxing under Hugh's familiar attitude. He hadn't changed from when he and Zack had worked together, and the two fall into discussing WWE and Hugh's upcoming movie, Zack's eyes shining with happiness. Even when Hugh gets pulled away by his publicist to go over some more business before he leaves, Zack's pleasure remains, the two of them fist bumping before he leaves.
Dolph takes Hugh's spot and glances over at Zack, smirking slightly. "Better now, kid?"
"Yes," Zack breathes out, nudging him. "Thanks for setting that up, bro. I really thought he forgot me..." He trails off, releasing a soft sigh. "I guess I should have more faith sometimes, huh?"
Dolph nods, looking over at him. "Yeah, kid. You're pretty hard to forget." Zack grins at him, leaning against him and Dolph wraps an arm loosely around his shoulders. "Wanna get out of here?"
"Yeah, bro." When they venture out of the locker room, Hugh is still there, swarmed by more people than Zack can count... but this time he looks up and waves at them. Zack's grin grows as they walk out of the building. "He's siiiiiiiiick, bro."
Dolph stares at Zack for a moment, taking in the happiness that is overwhelming his expression, something so rare these days, and has to agree.