A/N: sooo yup, back from vacation and back with an update! i'm not exactly happy with this chapter but i've been tweeking it for a couple of days now and this is the best i'm going to get it, i think. so yeah, heres to hoping that i regain my mojo for next chapter. still, tell me what you think in a review! as always, my ask is always open at my tumblr: psychrollins.
/
Slamming the door behind him, Randy leaves Vince's bar with a scowl on his face. There was anger thrumming through his veins, mixed with a shot of guilt. After finishing talking to John and Hunter, he realised going off at Seth yesterday morning was the wrong thing to do. He shouldn't have said that Seth still had it bad for the guy, because even though he knew it was true, Seth had definitely been in dial and bringing it up has wedged distance between them that they really could have done without now that Roman was back.
But he'd been so angry, everything that Roman had said the previous night, insinuating that John had set him up to do the dirty work so that he didn't have to take the fall. He'd believed it, briefly, but after speaking to John and Hunter and becoming more clear on the story behind their old business relationship, he realised he was just being extremely paranoid. John told him that mouthing off like that was a speciality of Roman's and gave his shoulder a squeeze, telling him not to worry and that they had his back.
Of course they do, why should he believe some motherfucker like Roman Reigns over his friends? And that's all they were to him. He wasn't sure what Seth thought he was doing with John, but he wasn't getting involved in all the shit that they pulled, just, using them to his advantage to make sure that Roman Reigns stays out of their lives.
However, in order to keep Seth in his life – who hasn't called like he thought he would – he needs to apologise to him. Not that he feels he needs to, because Seth's the one who's taking the side of his ex rather than him but still, he doesn't want to push Seth away.
Randy hits the gas when the light changes to green, he's got it all figured, what he's going to say to Seth to get him to forgive him. He's done it before, Seth loves all that I'm just so in love with you it makes me do crazy things so that should do the trick, then he can focus on getting Reigns well and truly out of the picture.
The drive to Paul's bar is short, and he makes it there just before it's scheduled to open, which isn't a problem seeing as Paul has always let him in before. If he's being honest with himself, Randy can't remember when keeping Seth in his life became so important. Because he didn't actually intend on ever having anything serious with him, sure he was hot and great in bed, but that was all it was ever meant to be. He played the whole I'll wait for you as long as it takes role perfectly until he'd got Seth right where he wanted him. But then somewhere along the line, 3 years to be precise, things changed and Seth became so much more to him. And now here he is, forced to take drastic action in order to keep someone who he didn't even want in the first place. How things change.
The door to the bar is unlocked and he steps inside, not quite recognizing the place when it isn't full of people. Paul's actually at the bar, but Seth isn't in view.
"Evening Randy, what can I do for you?"
"Hey Paul, Seth around?" He knows Seth has a shift tonight, so he should be here already unless he's late or decided not to turn up. Paul eyes him warily before thumbing in the direction of the back.
"Should be back there, disappeared a few minutes ago." Randy nods his head in appreciation and heads for the backroom. He's been there a couple of times before so it doesn't take him long to find it.
"Seth, babe?" He calls out as he descends the stairs into the backroom where - oh. That's not Seth, it's Roman, stacking old boxes that once held beer bottles. He has a face like thunder and regret instantly floods through Randy. Roman's face still bears the wounds he himself inflicted on, the black eye and cut up eyebrow however, does not make the man look worse for wear like he wishes they did. Instead, they make him look like he's ready to tear someone apart with a seconds notice, or maybe that's how the guy likes all the time, but right now Randy really wishes that he'd never stepped foot into this room.
Roman sneers, placing a box down heavily so that it made a loud thwack onto the below it, making Randy jump slightly. "Seth's outside talking to Archie on the phone, about you, I think. She's out for your head." He guessed that she would be. As much as he loves Seth, he only tolerates his best friend, they'd never really liked each other since the first day Seth introduced them. Archie is much too loud and opinionated for his liking, voicing her problems with him whenever she deems him to have messed up with Seth, which he obviously has this time.
"She doesn't scare me." Which is a stupid thing to say really, and he knows it is the moment Roman snorts, once again slamming a box down.
"Then you're an idiot, because she scares me." Roman says, smirking. Of course she does, because Archie does scare everyone once she gets herself into one of her moods.
"You don't scare me either." Another stupid thing, what the hell did he say that for?
"Nice," Roman says, slamming the final box down, "Are you saying that more to yourself or did Cena tell you to say that?" Randy bristles, Roman doesn't quit with his fucking John Cena shit.
"John Cena told me to say jack shit." Randy growls, his shoulders hunching in annoyance. He should have seen it really, the bubbling anger he'd triggered inside of Roman the moment he stepped down the stairs. Roman's hand is wrapped around his throat in seconds, pushing him up against the wall and physically lifting him off his feet. Roman's hand doesn't constrict his breathing too much, he's not choking, but his heavy hand allows his laboured breathes to ring loud in the room, his fright evident.
"Listen to me and listen very carefully, because I've been calm about this for far too long now and I'm only going to say it once. You have my whole world in your hands and I mean my whole world, so if you think I'm just going to let you get away with hurting him my son you are sorely mistaken. That kid cried fucking buckets because you betrayed his trust and let me tell you that a piece of me dies when tears fall from his eyes so you better start bucking up and treating him like he deserves. Get your ass away from John Cena, Seth doesn't need that sort of stuff back in his life, if John's got a score to settle with me tell him to come to me directly." The hand around his throat tightens and he swears that Roman's eyes could cut him down right now.
"Secondly, I don't wanna' hear anymore about you upsetting Seth because if it happens again, I damn well swear to God that I will tear you limb from limb. If I as so much smell sadness on Seth and it's because of you, I will not hesitate to give you a taste of your own medicine, you got that?" Randy manages to nod, feeling the pressure build in his head before he's suddenly released, his body dropping to the ground in a heap of limbs and gasping lungs.
"Don't fuck with me Orton, don't even try it." Roman's heavy footsteps head up the stairs the moment Seth walks in from outside. His eyes widen when Randy pulls himself from the ground.
"What the hell?"
"I came to apologise," Randy says a little breathlessly, he doesn't mention that Roman just strangled him, instead he acts as normal and tries to smile, though he's painfully aware that there's a red mark around his neck and his face is just as red.
"Apologise..."
"Yeah, I said some pretty shitty things the other day and I just, Seth I hate arguing with you because I love you and I guess I just got so, jealous and over protective because of Roman being back and I took things too far. I'm sorry." Seth's face is hard for a moment before it dissolves into hurt, his big brown eyes making Randy feel like shit.
"You obviously don't trust me Randy."
Randy sighs, stepping closer to Seth and being thankful that he doesn't step away.
"I trust you, just not Roman." He places his hands on Seth's cheeks, rubbing the soft skin with the pads of his thumbs. "Listen, I love you, okay? And I don't ever want to hurt you." Randy kisses Seth's forehead, a wave of success running through him when Seth wraps his arms his waist.
"I have to get to work now, you're still not completely off the hook, though." Seth says into his chest and Randy places another kiss to Seth's forehead. He follows Seth up the stairs and back to the main area of the bar with a grin on his face.
xXx
Roman bristles the moment Seth appears from the back with Randy in tow, who has a shit eating grin on his face. If it isn't obvious from the look on his face that he managed to win Seth over, then it's obvious when Randy pulls Seth in for a kiss. Disgust engulfs him, setting his fire alight so that he has to look away to stop himself from saying something. Roman busies himself with wiping down the bar and stacking glasses above the shelf, only turning around when he feels Seth's presence beside him.
When he turns around, Seth is standing next to him looking at him with those big fucking puppy dog eyes.
"What are you lookin' at me like that for, Seth?"
"Did you have anything to do with the red mark on Randy's neck?" Roman grinned slightly, resuming the cleaning of a whiskey glass before putting it up on the shelf.
"Maybe."
"Roman."
"I didn't hurt him, just warned him is all."
"What did you say to him?"
"That I would tear him limb from limb if he made you cry like that again."
Seth sighs, "Roman."
Roman slings the towel over his shoulder and shrugs. "Dude had it coming to him, plus, he needed to be set straight, you've forgiven him so he needs to know what'll happen to him if he steps out of line again. Doing my duty as a friend." He's not sure how he manages to say the word friend without sounding like a kicked puppy. After Archie had called him and Dean yesterday, telling him that she'd gone around to Seth's to find him a blubbering mess on the floor, surrounded by broken porcelain; the two of them had instantly stopped what they were doing to go round there.
He'd gotten Seth to calm down and tell him what had happened, and it had taken him most of his strength not to go looking for the shithead named Randy Orton but he stayed, opting to put cheering Seth up at the top of his list.
Archie had not been happy about the whole situation; she'd been muttering expletives the whole time she was cleaning up the broken mug and those expletives only ending when Dean promised her she could take a pop at the man when she saw him next.
"He said he was sorry, I couldn't just break up with him over some petty argument." Seth says quietly, looking down at his fingers.
"Seth, you don't have to explain yourself to me. He's your boyfriend and what happens between you two is your shit and it's your prerogative whether you take him back. But, I stand true on what I say, anymore tears fall from you over him, he's dead." He squeezes Seth's shoulder as he passes him, heading to give the tables a last wipe down before the customers started tumbling in.
God, this whole 'I'm gonna' be supportive of your relationship with an asshole even though I'm still incredibly head over heels in love with you' thing wasn't as easy as Roman thought it was going to be. He decided that showing Seth that he wasn't all gung ho on doing anything to get him back wasn't the best way, and decided showing him that he could be a mature man about something that literally broke him into pieces was a better way, showed Seth he still cared about him. It was harder than he'd anticipated, though.
Especially when Seth made those big puppy dog eyes around him and when Randy kissed Seth in front of him well that made him want to kill the motherfucker. But he had to stay calm, slog this one out. He wasn't going anywhere, this place was his home (anywhere where Seth was, was home.) and he wasn't going to leave just because he hadn't managed to get Seth back yet. These things took time and for Seth he would wait until the end of time.
xXx
It was amazing really, the self control Roman had learnt in prison. The Roman Seth knew was a guy who was cocky and almost shameless even, now here he was, giving him support in taking someone other than him back. No remarks about their past relationship, or anything like Roman used to be. The Roman that liked everyone to know that Seth was his boyfriend and was just the right side of possessive, this Roman was different and he was struggling on whether he liked it or not.
He liked not having the stress of Roman hovering around him all the time, trying to get him back – which is what Seth thought was going to happen after the day Roman turned up at college for the first time, but had since backed off – but he did not like the fact that he felt Roman was giving up on him. Maybe it wasn't self control that Roman had learnt. Maybe he didn't care anymore, Seth had been a dick and not even broken up with the guy properly, that in itself was enough to drive someone away.
Seth sighs dejectedly, pouring a whiskey for a regular. The man smiles at him, sliding the money across the bar before heading back to his table. The night was slow and boring, he and Roman hadn't said much to each other all night, only beginning to talk when Dean walked in.
"Yo Rollins', get your ass over here!" Seth turns to see Dean crooking his finger at him and Seth swallows as he makes his way over to his friend whose sat at the end of the bar. This can't be good, Dean looks like he swallowed some bad food.
"What's this I'm hearing about you taking back that tattooed dish rag?" Seth creases his brow, dish rag? Dean always did have a wild imagination when it came to insults.
"We hadn't broken up in the first place, Dean, we just had an argument."
Dean scoffs, "An argument that had you throwing cups at the door. Look, it ain't my business I know that, but you deserve better than that piece of slime."
"You don't know him like I do, Dean." Seth says quietly, Dean pays him no mind though, to caught up in watching Archie push her way through the crowd towards them. Dean does turn to him right before Archie gets to them and points towards his best friend, whose serving a bunch of rowdy girls a round of tequila.
"You deserve better."