Back to Dean then, I know you have all been patiently waiting to find out what's the haps with him and Bray so here we go!
Squeegee Beckinhime, Moi a tease? Surely not. Lol. Yep, I do love my shadowy characters who have to be unravelled piece by creepy piece. Glad I've got you thinking about Bischoff but he's not the only potential danger because in this chapter I'm loading them up!
Hayley1001, Oh yeah, Roman's big brother senses are firing super hard already and the good news is they are practically going to go off the charts in this chapter so I hope you enjoy the angst and brotherhood because you've waited so patiently for it (first of many!)
Cheryl24, His whole creepy sexist boss angle was so totally convincing that I will never be able to see him as a good guy in any context (I'm sure in real life though he's very pleasant). Yeah, super heel and just so icky. Good acting on his part though!
Mandy, Aww, I'm glad you think I caught Mick well. I just always see him as this slightly kooky but really friendly and affable kind of a guy. He's impossible not to like and since R-Truth was only fleeting in this I felt the boys needed at least one more friend in there!
LHisawesome4ever, Haha, I'm pretty sure that Mick Foley in this story (and possibly real life too who knows?!) could tell you a thing or two about breaking mailboxes and being arrested. But with that said I genuinely didn't know that...lucky break on my part!
SkittlezLvr79, Yep, Bischoff is a certainly bizarrely interested in his inmates...time will tell why! As for Mick, I wanted him in there but didn't want him to be a murderer or something too heinous. Then I saw a video of him being whacked with a chair and it all fell into place, lol!
Wolfgirl2013, Thank you so much, got more drama for you here because this story is now officially hotting up even though we still have a long way to go!
Guest, Thank you!
Minnie1015, Well, that's not to say that Gallows and Anderson aren't skulking around in the prison somewhere too, in fact I think they probably are but the boys just don't bump into them. Does that work?! Bischoff knows everyone and he wants them to know it!
Cherry619, Don't worry, Roman is indeed hurrying (well, sauntering) back to his cell so the drama is totally coming. Aww, I'm glad you like Mick. He always reminds me of a really loopy labradoodle or something and I had so much fun writing him. He's in it quite a bit too!
KiaraKitty08, Haha, well you dream away there and enjoy yourself! Super happy you like Mick in this because he's going to come and go throughout and he's going to be instrumental a couple of times, but I'm not going to say why that is just yet…
Skovko, Heehee, I'm very happy to have made you want to punch Bischoff. I was going for smarmy and obsequious so looks like I scored! Dean and Mick playing board games and punching each other is hilarious. Maybe throw some monopoly and charades in too?!
Stingerette1975, Thanks for the kudos for my chapter title, sadly I even tittered to myself when I wrote it (I don't get out much, what can I say?!) You know I love my bromance/angst parts so will Roman walk back into the Bray Wyatt thing? Um...
Daisysakura, I know, sorry, the chapters are a little shorter in this story because I wanted to keep them like snippets as opposed to my longer rambles! But you are totally right with the whole cake ananolgy and...great, now I want cake (side note: I always want cake!)
Here we go...
Reconnecting With Old Friends
Roman sees them the second he pivots the corner after having climbed the stairs two at a time to their cell and he recognizes them too because they're pretty damn obvious in their bright orange uniforms and with their crazy ass hair.
He narrows his gaze and his fists clench tightly,
"There something you two boys are after up here?"
Luke Harper looks across in response and then smiles at him but his eyes are unblinking and so it looks kind of unhinged and makes the air seem to shiver around them because whatever the hell is happening is damn well isn't right.
Dean.
Roman's blood chills fast in his system and a warning alarm goes off in his head, which seems totally misplaced since the two swamp brothers are right in front of him and theoretically should comprise the entirety of the threat –
But they are standing far far too close to the cell door and it strikes the big man that they look like they're standing guard, which is never a good sign in prison or out of it and so he shoves them aside then roughly pushes his way through, the adrenaline starting to pump through his system with a tell tale measure of fear thrown into it as well,
"Uce?"
He positively skids through the doorway, or at least as much as his sizable bulk allows and then freezes in instantaneous bafflement on the threshold as he tries to wrap his head around what is happening beyond.
The hell –
Dean is being pushed up against the locker by someone who has his lapels in his hand and is trying to tighten them fast around his windpipe, while the copper blonde struggles and attempts to heave him off. They are standing practically nose tip to nose tip with the blue eyes sparking up a storm as Dean tries to pry the chubby fingers from his collar and get the other man to back up and give him room. He is grunting too from the frantic exertion, which is getting him pretty much nowhere fast and so before he even knows what the hell he is doing, Roman finds himself moving in like a dart, ploughing across the space in between them and grabbing the newcomer by the back of his shirt and then yanking him back with every muscle in his body in a veritable underarm pitch towards the door.
"Get your damn hands off him."
Roman is seething –
His body is caught in an actual pulsating rage and it fires through his fingers and makes him twitch bodily as he slides into place creating a barrier to his friend and then studying the assailant through a red mist of fury that gets thicker and darker as he drinks the features in.
The man is bulky and blighted with the same hair growth that seems to have also inflicted the still hovering Brothers Grimm in the fact that it is wild and characterized entirely by a long wispy beard that hangs off his chin. Much like Luke Harper the new man is also grinning but he carries a unnatural sort of aura about him too, which could quite possibly be misinterpreted as a type of charisma if the whole damn portrait were not so skin-crawlingly weird.
Roman glowers,
"Who the hell are you?"
Instead all he gets is a wry sounding chuckle which makes the broad shoulders judder,
"You mean you don't know? You haven't heard my name being echoed down the hallways or had it blown into your ear when you're asleep in your bed?"
Behind him Dean is smoothing his shirt out and huffing like he's pissed at the entire damn thing and Roman can't really blame his poor brother since being set on without warning hasn't been part of their routine and particularly not when the out of nowhere attacking is done by an extra from a budget horror film or who has taken his hairstyle from an old eighties rock band like chest length beard hair is a desirable thing.
Dean bites out the answer shortly,
"Bray Wyatt, his name is Bray fuckin' Wyatt."
Damn.
Because this must be the guy who had been referred to as the cult leader and on sheer looks alone that description isn't wrong and must also be why the swamp men are on the mezzanine like a pair of eerie bodyguards.
Their leader has come home.
Roman feels his fists clench tighter and he takes a hot step towards the other man who simply watches him moving in closer with the same self-smug grin stamped in over the whiskered face.
"What the hell do you want with my cellmate?"
"Me? Oh I'm just reconnecting with old friends, catching up on what I missed these last few months."
Dean snorts,
"Apart from how nice it was without you? No bayou stench in the halls if you know what I mean."
Bray's expression tightens instinctively into something a whole lot less kind as the previous amusement slowly lifts off him to be replaced with an expression of unknown intensity that looks murderous at worst and injured at best,
"Now, now boy, that ain't nice talking, don't make me wash your mouth clean out."
"Uce – ,"
Dean knows that his newfound bigger brother is moving before Roman realizes the motion himself since the next thing he registers is the copper blonde in front of him with a hand around his wrist pushing his raised fist back down. There is a deeply warning note to his tone and his expression that he further underlines with a jerk of his head, which carries his gaze towards the silhouetted doorway where a prison guard is standing glaring in at the scene.
"Is there some sort of a problem here gentlemen?"
Bray reacts to him surprisingly fast and with no small amount of irritating false cheer that the undercover cop wants to instantly wipe off,
"Not at all officer, I was just getting reacquainted with two of my oldest buddies over here."
Dean laughs loudly but it isn't from amusement and ends up echoing harshly around the cell in a way that makes them all wince bodily and pours a heap of bullshit over what has just been said.
"Yeah, an' now he's leavin' his two oldest buddies before one of them puts their foot clean up his ass."
In response to the missive the prison guard puts a hand up but resists the urge to use the digits to pinch his eyes and instead waves it wearily in the direction of the haired one like he doesn't have the time or general reserves of patience to repeatedly have to put up with inmate shit,
"Alright Wyatt, out you come now."
Bray grins widely,
"My pleasure officer,"
He tips his hat, or at least he would have done were he actually damn well wearing one but in the interim makes do with lightly miming the gesture, like the eerie guy is dropping his date back home again after a romantic night out at the theatre –
Roman growls.
All wrong, all wrong.
Bray shuffles back but then pauses on the threshold with his hand on the door jamb.
"Be seeing you Dean."
Roman is stepping in towards him in an instant but the wearied prison guard reacts quicker than that, in a turn of pace that startles almost all of them but manages to haul the creepy bayou man off.
For a second after he's gone they continue to stand there, like perhaps they're both waiting for an unexpected reprisal round, but gradually through the general clatter of the cell block, they hear the thud of footsteps heading down the metal stairs and it acts as some sort of a pressure release valve because Dean blows out a sigh and then lets his shoulders relax.
Roman eyes him steadily,
"What the hell was that?"
"You know what it was man – I told you – it's Bray."
Dean pushes past him like the answer is obvious and then moves towards his bed to collect up a book. It is sprawled across the mildly rumpled up covers and Roman guesses that it has somehow been upset in the fight –
Or, okay, not full and proper fight exactly but whatever crazy scenario had just gone down.
But for all of his coolness the copper blonde is far too casual and also refusing to meet his broader cellmate's gaze and Roman knows that the younger man is rattled and he hates that fact fiercely so therefore won't let it go.
"No, that's who is – it sure as hell ain't what happened."
Dean waves a terse hand,
"Then what do you want? I don't know any more than you do right now man. One minute I'm in here barfing like an amateur and then the next, there he is – like – right outta nowhere."
Roman sighs heavily and then moves to the doorway before looking out along the mezzanine floor on the mild possibility that someone is stood there, or that one of the swamp beasts has tried to pull a fast one and is hovering around like some Thing from Beyond. Luckily however the level is deserted since most folk are spending time out of their cells and so he moves back in and then leans by the lockers before leaning across to flush the vomit away.
Dean grunts his thanks from his position on the mattress where he has sprawled out like a teenager to stare up at the ceiling lights and for a minute or several, neither one of them says anything until Roman clears his throat and tries hard to sound calm,
"I'm going to need the full story this time."
"What full story?"
"About what this is all about."
"It's – ,"
"No dodging this time either babe, you hear me? What exactly does this weird ass Bray Wyatt guy want?"
In response to his question the blue eyes sparkle and then turn in his direction with an amused looking smirk, which voices itself with a note of confusion and the return of genuine humor as well.
"Did you just call me babe?"
"You're avoiding the question."
"Okay sugarplum, what question was that?"
Roman rolls his eyes and drops down onto his own bed but he is loosely fighting back the ghost of a smile nonetheless because the lopsided grinning insolence is oddly reassuring for all that it is covering Dean's obvious uneasiness.
"Uce, come on, I'm gonna need to hear it."
"Hear what?"
"Why this guy is so focussed on you."
Dean snorts back,
"My fabulous bone structure? I mean, I'm like a work of art, y' know?"
"Babe."
It's only one word but it still sounds heavy and the second time around it doesn't draw the same mirth and instead at last manages to break the final wall down since it is followed by a long but resigned sort of low groan,
"Ugh, fine but did anyone ever tell you that you're like some weird truth nazi?"
"It's on the top line of my resume."
Dean lifts a brow in an allusion to amusement but then relents to the questioning and pulls himself up, tucking himself back until he is pressed against brickwork and for first time since it all happened, snapping up his blue eyes.
He shrugs,
"Bray thinks we're kindred spirits or somethin' or – I don't know – some crap like that."
"Why?"
"Because we're both damaged or screwed up or broken an' I just – ,"
Roman stops him with a single note,
"Hey."
Dean has gone back to worrying at his hangnail but seemingly without really realizing he has and in the harsh cell lighting he looks paler than ever although whether from the drink or the assault is hard to tell. In spite of that though there is still a grumpy fire, which the bigger man doesn't think that Dean will ever be without and it settles him a little because the one thing he isn't in any way shape or form is broken at all.
The copper blonde drops his hands down onto the bedsheet and then grins up wryly like he's thinking the same thing, before snorting a little and shaking his head against brickwork in a way that implies he finds the whole thing insane.
"Guess he wants to turn me into another swamp beast."
"So is that all it is?"
Roman isn't too sure, because there seems to be something borderline unhealthy and sort of intense bubbling beneath the whole thing, or at least based on the few tiny titbits he has gathered and the brief but messed up meeting with the guy he's just had and it churns a sense of knowing and unsettlement deep inside of him which clearly isn't lost on Dean.
"I don't know man, he's just kinda touchy – tryin' to paw through my hair and that shit, an' like for the most part I think he's just tryin' to rile me but then at others times – ,"
He breaks off with a shrug.
I don't know.
For the first time maybe ever Dean looks mildly frightened, albeit in a gruff and angry sort of way, but regardless it still makes Roman's brow darken and he reacts to it instinctively,
"Hey, uce? You're gonna be okay."
Dean snorts,
"Yeah?"
He doesn't seem to buy it and it's probably little wonder given all that he's been through. But the bigger man is neither kidding nor reassuring him.
He is making a promise.
"His ass ain't getting to you again."
Next chapter Bray makes his big return to the prison populace and the boys found out something new which may deepen the case.