Zack tosses and turns in the Louisiana hotel bed while watching Raw. His neck and back still throb from the NXT title open challenge on Thursday, the trainer refusing to clear him to compete. Kevin Owens is no joke, but he still plans on being in Pittsburg for NXT later on in the week. He just hopes the trainer agrees with him.

When exactly he falls asleep, he's not sure, but he wakes up with a gasped start when a warm hand rests on his shoulder. "Hey, kid, sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Dolph whispers softly, sitting down next to him on the bed. Zack sits up, sleepy, disoriented and his heart racing, and wraps his arms around Dolph, catching his breath as Dolph hugs him back, stroking his hair until he calms down and pulls away, resting back against the pillows. "I would've let you sleep, but I wanted to give you a heads up..."

Zack blinks, yawns, then murmurs, "What's going on, bro?"

"Looks like you slept through most of Raw, so you have no clue, huh?" Dolph sighs, his hand resting on Zack's leg. "Lana was hurt tonight, kid. She was out watching my match and she fell off the ramp and hurt her ankle." Zack is staring at him, not comprehending, and Dolph's just opened his mouth to continue explaining when-

"Dolph? What's going on?" It's then that Zack registers that the door to their room is still open, light spilling in from the hall, and he hisses out a breath, realizing that Lana's been out there, listening, this entire time.

He turns scandalized eyes towards the Show Off and Dolph cringes. "Look, she needs someone to keep an eye on her tonight... I need to go get her... watch this." He pulls his phone out, finds a video and hands it to Zack, pressing play before getting up and rushing to the door.

Zack is momentarily distracted by watching Dolph support Lana, clad in blinding pink, into the room but then the video regains his attention and he watches, jaw dropping, as Rusev corners Lana and eventually causes her to step off of the ramp awkwardly, where she clutches her ankle. Dolph loses against Kane because of this and then, the last sight that Zack sees before pushing the phone away, is Rusev, staring down at Lana and laughing. He swallows hard, abruptly feeling guilty, and watches quietly as Dolph continues to help Lana hop gingerly inside.

His head aches and his neck throbs each time he moves it wrong but he pushes the sheets off and gets up. "I guess I'm getting the couch tonight," he mumbles, painfully getting to his feet and starting to shuffle towards it when Dolph grabs his arm, startling him for the second time in five minutes.

"What do you think you're doing, kid?" he chides him. "Get back in bed." He looks down at the woman. "You'll be ok on the couch, right? I'd offer you the bed but Zack's still recovering and I think you'll fit better on the couch anyway..."

"Of course," she says easily, her accent thick with pain. "I'm grateful that you're willing to take me in at all." She's not looking at Dolph, her eyes boring into Zack's now, and he realizes that he's not the only who's feeling guilty right now.

He says nothing, however, obliging Dolph by crawling back into bed and curling up under the sheets, watching blurrily as Dolph directs her into the bathroom, where she changes for bed, opting to wear one of Dolph's merch shirts- which only tugs at Zack's self-control a little, the horrible vision of Rusev laughing at the woman who only a few weeks ago had been the closest person in his world still fresh in his mind.

Once she's done in there, he settles her on the couch, props her ankle up with a couple of pillows, gives her another one for her head and goes to get another sheet which he hands to her once she finishes freeing her hair from the uncomfortable bun that Zack's never really seen her without. "Good night, Lana," he tells her. "We'll be right over here if you need anything. Just yell."

"Thank you," she breathes. "Good night."

Dolph's smile slips as he approaches the bed and sinks in next to Zack, wrapping an arm around him and kissing him softly. "Rusev's such a bastard," he tells him faintly.

"I never took it seriously," Zack confesses to him. "Never made sense to me why you felt the need to protect her because I never thought Rusev would ever hurt her, but he actually... he laughed tonight. I don't get it, bro."

"Because you're a hundred times the man he is," Dolph sighs, pressing his forehead against Zack's. "Thanks for being cool with letting her stay tonight, kid. She looked so small and scared, I couldn't just leave her on her own."

Zack nods, nuzzling closer to him. Taking comfort in each other's warmth, they're asleep within minutes.

Unfortunately it only seems to last for a few minutes when Zack wakes up, immediately on alert. For what, he's not sure, but... Dolph is fast asleep, breathing in and out deeply, but there's something... a soft whimpering noise. Decidingly female. His brow furrows and it takes Zack a long time to remember but finally... Lana! Gently freeing himself from Dolph's grip, he sits up and stares towards the couch. "Lana? Are you ok?"

She gasps and seems to squirm around a bit before sitting up to look at him. "Oh, uh, for the most part, yes." But she shifts and immediately whispers again, Zack slowly crawling out of bed, careful not to wake Dolph up. He pads over to the couch and she looks up at him, eyes wet with tears. "My ankle hurts so badly," she finally confesses. "I cannot sleep."

There's no way he can get fresh ice without waking Dolph and half of the hotel- unfortunately the ice machine in this building is old and loud- so he stands and ponders for a long moment. "I have painkillers over here," he tells her, feeling around in the darkness until he finds the bottle. Wandering over to the fridge, he searches out a fresh, unopened bottle of water, and brings that to her as well, shaking out a couple of pills into her outstretched hand. As she downs the medicine, he hovers for a moment longer, pondering how else to help her. "Do you mind?" he asks quietly, lifting her feet up from the couch gently.

She coughs and stares up at him, shaking her head. "No, it's fine," she murmurs. He sinks down on the couch and stretches her legs out over his lap, watching her as his fingers search her ankle, feeling how swollen and sensitive it is. Being in this business for almost a dozen years, however, he's aware of how to at least ease the pain from certain injuries and this happens to be one of them. Deftly pressing against her ankle, he massages carefully, following her responses to give her the most relief. When she drops her head back against her pillow and sighs breathily, he grins.

Something is nagging at Dolph, disrupting his thankfully pain-free sleep, and he moans, rolling over and feeling around for Zack. But the other side of the bed is empty and he grunts, opening his eyes. The sun is starting to rise, a dull grey light filling their room, and he sighs, thinking Zack maybe went to the bathroom... but soon he hears the familiar breathing that he falls asleep to almost every night, steady and deep, from across the room. Sitting up, he stares at the couch in confusion before his sleep-adled mind catches up with what he's seeing. Kicking free of the sheets, he gets to his feet, stumbling over to Lana and Zack, he takes in how Zack is sitting, his hand loosely resting against her leg. The broski had clearly fallen asleep while massaging her ankle.

He wonders how long Zack's been over here, his lips twitching as he kneels in front of him and grimaces, aware of how sore he's going to be after sleeping like this. Cupping the back of his neck, he leans in and gently kisses him. "I love you, kid." Turning to Lana, he realizes she's awake, dark eyes locked on them. It's awkward, he's pretty sure she was actually getting attached to him, but he hopes that this quells that, that she can accept Zack is the only one he wants in his life like that. That she and he are only going to be friends and nothing more.

Her lips lift into a gentle smile and he immediately relaxes, relieved to see that this is indeed going to be the turning point in their business relationship. "You two are, as you Americans say, adorable," she sighs.

He glances back at Zack before turning to her. "Do you mind?" he asks, lifting her from the couch when she shakes her head. "He may be adorable but no one wants a cranky broski. Besides now you get the nice, fluffy bed all to yourself." She chuckles as he rests her against the mattress, winking at her before turning back to the couch. It takes some manuevering but he sits down and draws Zack over, laying him across his lap with his head pressed against Lana's abandoned pillow, stroking his fingers through Zack's soft hair.

He's fallen into a bit of a doze when... "I love you too, bro," Zack murmurs sleepily, his fingers finding Dolph's hand and loosely squeezing it.

Dolph smiles.