Ten

"Well, this is a nice change of scenery."

Dean smirked when he saw Paul walking towards him. "It's a prison cell."

"I was being sarcastic," his manager said, smiling. "Come on, Axl. I've paid your bail."

A cop came to open the door and Dean walked out, exhaling loud. Paul patted his back. "Are you okay?"

"As okay as I'll ever be," he mumbled sadly, replaying last evening's tumultuous event in his head.

Ignoring Randy's threat, he continued punching Bray until Roman pulled him off. Dean then turned his attention on him.

"Why, Roman?" he asked, starting to tear. "I thought we meant something to each other."

"Dean," he said, trying to come close to him.

Dean pushed his hand away. "Don't touch me, Roman. Don't you put your hands on me!"

He ignored Roman's crushed look.

"I've called the cops. They're on their way here," Randy announced.

They walked to the front of the station where Dean found Roman sleeping on a chair. He frowned at Paul. "What's he doing here?" he asked.

"He's been here the whole night," Paul said quietly. "He refused to go home. I think he's even missed his classes this morning."

Dean straightened his lether jacket. "Well, he's partly to blame."

Paul gave him a look. "Dean. This is Bray Wyatt. And given your history with him, do you really think that Roman would throw himself at him?"

"They almost kissed, Paul. I saw it myself."

"Are you even listening to me? Bray Wyatt, Dean. He's a manipulator and with all that's happened with you both in the past, I wouldn't doubt that he probably pushed Roman into doing something like this."

Dean had to grudgingly admit to himself that Paul was right. "Maybe you're right," he grumbled.

"Of course I am."

"But I have nothing to say to him."

Paul laughed. "Okay. I guess maybe I'll introduce Seth to him then. I know Seth was checking him out-"

"You'll do no such thing!" Dean burst out.

Roman's eyes began to open at the sound of that. He shook his head to wake himself up before his eyes met Dean's and he stood up immediately. "Dean!" he said, slightly jogging towards him. He pulled him into a fierce hug, as if he were afraid that Dean would disappear.

Dean stiffened and tried to squirm.

"I was so worried about you," Roman murmured against his hair. "I'd never be able to forgive myself if anything happened to you."

Dean all but melted against him then. He returned the hug before pulling away. "Well, I'm fine," he said gruffly. "So don't you worry your pretty head about me."

"But-"

"Go home, Roman."

Paul cleared his throat. "Maybe I'll just check the weather outside." He pinched Dean's hand before walking out of the station.

Dean turned his attention back to Roman. "Well? Go home." He didn't wait for Roman to reply and stalked off as well. Roman was hot on his trail as Dean exited the station and began to walk to find a taxi. It was irritating Dean. He turned around and stopped short that Roman bumped into him.

"What?" he snapped.

"You asked me to go home."

"Yes I did."

"But you're home to me, Dean. Wherever you are, as long as we're together, it feels like home."

Dean was stunned into silence then. "What?" he repeated after a while.

"I said you're home to me. I love you, Dean. I had no choice and I thought I was doing the right thing. What you saw about Bray and me-"

"Stop it. Go back to the second sentence."

Roman smiled at him then and Dean felt himself elevate. "I love you, Dean."

Nope. He was not dreaming. He had heard it right the first time around. "You love me?" He pulled Roman to him. "Well, what took you so long to say it?"

"I was scared."

"Of me?"

"Of my feelings for you. Dean, I've never been in love before."

"You've never been in relationships?"

"Nothing of significance to me."

Dean felt humbled to hear such a declaration. He had been in love a long time ago. Sami Callihan. And after that relationship had ended, he didn't think he'd love anyone again.

Until Roman.

He hadn't counted on Roman.

"What are you thinking about?" Roman murmured.

Dean's eyes met his. "You." He held Roman's hand. "Come on. Let's go home… umm my place, I mean."

The two mugs of tea were on the coffee table. An opened packet of Oreos were beside. Dean was lying on Roman's lap, relating to him about the auditions.

"Dean," Roman said suddenly. "I should come clean about Bray."

"Okay. Because I really want an explanation, Roman."

"Bray came to see me last Wednesday at the cafe and he threatened me. He said that if I didn't stay away from you, he'd end your career. I think he knows some people in the music industry, Dean."

Dean sat up and sighed. "Of course he would. It's not the first time this has happened."

"I'm sorry, Dean."

Dean reached out his hand and held Roman's in it. "It's okay, Roman. You're the innocent one in this whole mess."

"I don't understand."

"You are my reason to quit drinking, Roman. You're a wonderful human being. Sami… he's the reason why I started drinking heavily."

"Who's Sami?"

"My ex… Bray's brother." He sighed. "Bray and I used to be friends, Roman. Our bands traveled in the same areas from time to time together. Sami used to be in the Wyatt Family. Oh umm that's Bray's band's name by the way. Anyways, I liked Sami a lot. He and I used to talk for hours when we traveled together. He was just like me. He was carefree, dangerous, wild… so we went out. I fell for him hard. Bray didn't take too kindly to us dating. He was furious if anything. I tried to reason with him and assured him that it was different with his brother and me but he was adamant that I stay away. So Sami and I dated in secret and it was alright in the beginning until Luke Harper spotted us and went straight to Bray. I thought that the Bray would have been furious but he welcomed us together. Said we had his blessings. Or so I thought."

Roman straightened. "But what reasons would Bray have against Sami and you?"

"He wanted Sami to focus his time on him. Sami was doing everything for them, Roman. He was their bassist but he was also their personal assistant. He ran errands for them, was doing menial tasks. When it had first come out we were dating, he stood up against Bray. Bray didn't like that one bit. He called Sami an insolent child."

"Bray's got control issues."

"Oh he's got that and more. It was okay at first between Sami and me after Bray's agreement. Until I started to become as bad as Jeff and Matt were. I drank when I was in high school but it was never as bad as it was with Sami. We did stupid things together. We took drugs, drank till the sun came up, partied hard. At that point, it wasn't a big deal with the band. We were performing underground; people don't give a damn about stuff like that. Heck, they thrived on that."

Dean paused for a while, the painful memories flooding his mind. Roman gave his hand a squeeze. "You don't have to talk about this, Dean."

"But I want to, Roman. I need you to understand. Okay, where was I? It was nine months into our relationship and I wanted to surprise him. So I thought I might as well ask Bray for some suggestions. Bray was enthusiastic, probably too much but I never took notice. He kept giving me drinks after drinks till I just blacked out. The next thing I know, water was being thrown on my face. I'm in bed in God knows where with this person I don't know and Sami was screaming at me. I tried to get a hold of my thoughts but he threw a fist at me. I saw Bray behind him smiling deviously."

"Dean," Roman said, his voice strained. "I'm so sorry."

"You weren't the one who did it, Roman. I tried to apologise and get Sami to see it from my point of view but he refused to listen to a word I had to say. And just like that we were over. Or so I thought. Our band had written a bunch of new songs we were going to perform and I had shared those songs with Sami-"

"Oh no. He gave those songs to the Wyatts?" Roman guessed.

"Yeah. The guys were furious with me. Except Corey. He stood by me. There was no way to go to court because those songs weren't performed yet nor were they copyrighted."

"This was before you met Paul?"

"Yep. You can imagine my anger towards Sami though and when I confronted him, he spat in my face and told me that he only dated me for my songs, that it was nothing more than a job he had to perform for his brother. He called me worthless. I started drinking heavily after that, trying to wash away the pain. Eventually it faded with time but the habit remained."

"Dean, you know I wouldn't... That is to say… In the cafe-"

"I know, Roman." He pulled Roman into his arms. "After Sami, I didn't think I'd fall in love again. Until I met you and I really liked you ever since we talked, Roman. You weren't fazed with my fame. You were humble and goal driven… different from the other guys I went out with. You inspire me to be a better person. Your kindness to me even when I had made you feel awful… I am grateful to you, Roman for saving my life."

Paul had good news for the band on Thursday. He had hired a bodyguard for them. He made the announcement to them in the studio where they were rehearsing. Obviously none of them were thrilled about it.

"Do we really need one?" Corey asked. "I doubt we have deranged fans or stalkers."

Seth shrugged. "I hope it's a chick."

"It's not," Paul replied.

Dean made a face. "Then we're not interested."

"Paul, I swear to God if it's that UFC wannabe-" Seth warned.

Paul was excited. "I couldn't say no to him. He's phenomenal."

Luke's eyes darted to Karl's. "Uh… that's AJ. He's the phenomenal one."

"He's special. Brock Lesnar is special."

"Why because he looks like he can beat the crap out of you?" Seth scoffed.

"Actually he can beat the crap out of anyone."

"Okay," Dean interrupted. "Can we talk about the other news you have for us, Paul?" He really didn't want to get into the topic of a man who looked like he was on steroids 24/7.

Paul seemed even more excited. "Oh that. I got you guys a gig on Friday."

Corey spat out the water he was drinking. "What? That's tomorrow, Paul! We haven't even finalise a set list yet."

"I know! Look, you need to perform together to gain experience before your big opening in a week. That way, you won't look like a bunch of rejects thrown together." He looked at Karl and Luke. "No offence, boys."

'None taken," Karl replied.

"The heck are we supposed to play?" Seth whined. "Jeez, Paul."

"Let's just do some covers," Dean suggested. "Stuff we used to jam too. You know classic rock songs."

Luke nodded. "That sounds great. We can play some Bon Jovi, Def Leppard…"

"See?" Paul beamed proudly. "It'll be at the Javawocky. I kind of owed Randy that after Dean's little Royal Rumble on Tuesday."

"Royal Rumble?" Dean replied. "Bray Wyatt's lucky that he's not that badly injured. All he has is a broken nose."

"You can't complain, Deano. Roman will be there," Corey said.

"And Brock!" Paul said.

"What?" Seth complained. "Oh no. I do not want a Lego head to be anywhere near this band."

"He does not have a Lego head!"

"Sure, Paul. Whatever helps you sleep better at night."

Their set list looked impressive to say the least. As the band walked into Javawocky on Friday after a grueling practice session the day before, Dean's eyes scanned the place for Roman. He knew he was working today so that meant he could catch their performance too.

"I am the face that runs this place!"

The band turned to see a frustrated AJ Styles complaining to Randy who looked amused at what was going on in front of him. "No, you're not. I own this place and I don't see your name on the performers' list."

Chris Jericho adjusted his scarf and stood beside AJ. "Listen to us, you stupid idiot. We'll play where we want, whenever we want. So you just pencil us in that clipboard of yours and we're good. Do you understand what I am saying to you?"

Randy laughed. "Both of you, get the hell out before I call the cops on you two meatheads."

AJ looked miffed. "You'll regret this. You'll regret messing around with Y2AJ!" As they grabbed their guitar cases, AJ saw Karl and Luke. "Guys!" he said, nodding his head.

"Phenomenal," they both replied.

"I'm getting out of this dump," he announced.

Randy smirked at him. "Sure. This dump doesn't welcome you either. Oh and by the way, send my regards to Cena. He's welcome here anytime."

"Cena no longer plays the guitar," Karl informed Randy.

AJ laughed boisterously. "How could he anymore? After what I did to him? I did what I had to do and that was to beat up John Cena!"

"He's now into rapping," Luke explained to Randy. "He's doing underground rap battles as the Doctor of Thuganomics."

Randy sighed. "It's a shame. You guys still in contact with him?"

"Yeah. We're going to his show tomorrow," Karl said.

Dean smiled as he watched Randy take out his name card. Sometimes things had a way of working out, he realised. Just like Roman and him.

"Can you give this to him? I'd love to see him again. He was here last week for lunch but I forgot to give him my number," Randy said, passing his card to Karl.

AJ was furious. "What? Why are we talking about him? The Phenomenal One is here! You don't have to be a fan of Cena anymore; you can be an AJ Styles fan."

"You're still here?" Randy laughed at him.

"Let's get out," Chris said to AJ. "This place is infested with losers."

They exited, grumbling about rejects. Dean smiled at their direction before he walked over to Randy. "Have you seen Roman, Randy?"

Randy adjusted the microphone stand. "He's on his break. You just missed him by five minutes. Usually, he goes out to grab a salad or something. He'll be back by two."

Dean sighed and was about to text Roman when Paul announced, "Alright, guys. Twenty five minutes to go."

Brock Lesnar showed up true to Paul's words and he was standing behind Corey who was tuning his rhythm guitar. The man was literally breathing down Corey's neck. Seth was annoyed with the whole thing and expressed his disappointment to Paul who asked Brock to stand in the corner and keep a lookout for anyone suspicious.

Upon hearing that instruction, his eyes fixed on Randy who was chatting with a customer.

"That's the manager," Luke informed him.

The place was packed to the max by one thirty. Dean looked over at Corey who gave him a thumbs up. "Thank you all for being here," he boomed into the microphone. "We really appreciate it. Today, Steel Hounds will be covering some classic songs for you. But first, we'd like to take this opportunity to introduce to you our two new members, Karl Andersen, our drummer and Luke Gallows, our bassist. You might remember them from The Club."

There was applause from members of the audience.

"I was going to dedicate this song to someone who means a lot to me. Someone who's inspired me to just turn my life around… who saved me from self destruction. He's not here right now but uhh… guess we're going to play it anyways. This song is called Waiting for Superman."

He's talking to angels, counting the stars

Making a wish on a passing car

He's dancing with strangers, falling apart

Waiting for Superman to pick him up

In his arms yeah, in his arms yeah

Waiting for Superman

Roman walked in then, with a white plastic bag. When he heard Dean's voice, he stopped and just stared.

He's out on the corner trying to catch a glimpse

Nothing's making sense

He's been chasing an answer

A sign lost in the abyss, this Metropolis

He says "Yeah, he's still coming, just a little bit late"

He got stuck at the Five and Dime saving the day"

He says "If life was a movie, then it wouldn't end like this"

Left without a kiss

Still, he smiles, oh the way he smiles, yeah

Dean smiled at him before going into the chorus:

He's talking to angels, he's counting the stars

Making a wish on a passing car

He's dancing with strangers, he's falling apart

Waiting for Superman to pick him up

In his arms yeah, in his arms yeah

He's waiting for Superman

To lift him up and take him anywhere

Show him love and climbing through the air

Save him now, before it's too late tonight

Oh like the speed of light

And he smiles

He's talking to angels, he's counting the stars

Making a wish on a passing car

He's dancing with strangers, he's falling apart

Waiting for Superman to pick him up

In his arms yeah, oh in his arms yeah

He's waiting for Superman

There was a thunderous applause and whistles from the audience. Dean grinned at them. He leaned into the microphone. "That was for you, Roman. You're my Superman."

A/N LOL a bit of Centon there. The song Dean sang was Waiting for Superman by Daughtry. I love that song! I'm so happy you guys love the story so far. I hope you can bear with me. Just as Roman saves Dean, you will see Dean saving Roman too.

On a side note, I'd like to know if you guys are okay with a flash forward to Roman's internship. Let me know your thoughts in the reviews :-) xoxo