Seth stood in the lobby of WWE Towers, scrolling through his Twitter on his phone. It'd been nearly a month of the two of them being properly public, and things were going about as well as they expected. They tried to just approach it as matter-of-factly as possible, without going overboard with making it known. He'd tag her when he posted about a restaurant she took him to, and she posted a gym day photo with Sasha that included the Black and Brave shirt he'd bought her. Most of the comments on those sort of things were fine, fawning over how cute they were, bragging about calling it, and telling Seth he was lucky (as if he didn't know). But once in a while, there was a nasty one, accusing her of being a gold-digger or saying something vulgar about the things they'd do together in bed. Renee had warned them of that and he tried his best to ignore it.

"Seth?" a voice came from over his shoulder, Stephanie was walking up to him. "Do we have an appointment?"

He laughed, "you're not the only one who works in this building, Steph."

"We're a long way from Buffalo."

"The drive's not too bad, closer than Europe next week."

"Must be important."

"Taking your advice, actually,"

"My advice?" she tilted her head, mocking him.

"Signing the paperwork with HR with Charly,"

"Oh are you two still together?"

"Yeah, we are, fancy that."

"Hmm, good for you."

"Thanks," he sneered, "you would know all about navigating a backstage romance. Or two."

"Ha," she glared at him, "watch yourself, Rollins."

"You telling me you can dish it out but you can't take it, Steph?" he met her stare, their faces just a tiny bit too close. "C'mon, you're better than that."

The bathroom door swung open and they jumped apart and Charly emerged, running her hands through her hair.

"Hey," she said, an eyebrow raised.

"Hey, Char!" He smiled at her innocently as she looked from him to Steph. "We were just...chatting about HR."

"Oh, that's…nice," she forced a smile and Stephanie returned the painted-on expression.

"Trust me avoiding the messiness is worth giving up the secret," she smirked, "not that it's really an issue for you two anymore."

"Thanks, Stephanie," Seth cut in, "we've got to go,"

He pulled Charly away, nodding to Stephanie politely. As they came to the hallway outside of the HR office, she eyed him from the side. Sheepishly he met her gaze.

"What?"

"What was that?"

"Nothing," he shook his head, "just a stupid pissing contest. She's just being…Steph about it."

"Are you trying to make her jealous?"

"No, I'm not trying to do anything Char, just firing back."

She didn't respond, keeping her gaze on him, her lips pursed.

"It's nothing. I don't care what she thinks about us,"

"Do you care about her?" she crossed her arms.

"Char," he sighed. "Are we doing this here?" he glanced around, the hallway was empty but he'd learned the hard way that wasn't a guarantee.

"It's a simple question, Seth," she scoffed, "so why is it a problem?"

"It's not a simple question and you know it." He sighed and looked towards the office, "do you wanna walk away? We don't have to do this today, we can come back."

"People have seen us, we have to do this today."

"Okay so then," he gestured at the door, "can we do this?"

"Yeah," she breezed past him, "let's do this."

XXX

Seth grumbled his way down the hallway at Monday Night Raw in Dublin. It had been raining since they landed, his knee had gotten tweaked at a house show and was bugging him, Charly had not quite let go the Stephanie issue but hadn't brought it up since. And now, to top it off, he was on his way to her office because "management wanted to see him." She probably wanted to run him down about his relationship, god she was petty.

He knocked on the half open door and pushed into it.

"You wanted to see me, Steph?"

"Steph?" as the door opened it was Hunter, not Stephanie, who sat at the desk. "That how you address my wife?"

"Hunter. Haven't seen you around here recently."

"Steph can't travel, ear infection, I have to fill in." He motioned to the chair. "Sit."

"What's this about?" he asked, crossing his arm as he took the seat.

"You know, I've learned a lot from my father-in-law. Nothing, and I mean nothing, happens in this company without me knowing about it."

"Ha. Really, H?" Seth couldn't help but smirk but Hunter glared at him, "never mind, please, continue."

"Which is why a copy of this came across my desk the other day." He slid over a piece of paper, one Seth immediately recognized as the consensual social relationship waiver he'd signed with Charly late last week.

"Isn't that supposed to be confidential?"

"Nothing's confidential in this business, kid. I'm sure you read it before you signed it."

"Of course I read it. Neither of us can sue for sexual harassment, neither of us can show favoritism to the other, no kissing at work, although I think we both know that's a load of crap around here. Blah blah blah, you know the drill."

"I do, I know it pretty well. There's actually a second one when you're married, in case you divorce."

"Peachy,"

"But see, when Steph and I were dating, and then got in trouble for not signing this off the bat, we weren't in a brand-extension. We are now. Which means there's this clause at the end…"

"No guarantee of going to the same show, sure. Who cares? The draft already happened."

"But she's not a drafted talent. She's contracted, so she goes wherever she's told to go."

"What're you saying?" his eyes narrowed.

Hunter chuckled to himself, "I jus think it's funny you just signed away any right to protest being split up."

"What other choice did we have?"

"Well you didn't, did you? That's how this goes, the company has to protect itself."

"I thought that form was to protect us, you know, from retaliation over the relationship."

"Sure, can't fire her over it, or stall her professional progression. But hey, reassignment happens all the time, it's not personal, we need our best talent where we need our best talent. NXT's really suffering without her."

"You…" he shook his head, "you wouldn't…do that. Why would you do that?"

Hunter smirked, "or you know, things are getting hostile with Renee and Maryse over on SmackDown, maybe a switch would be mutually beneficial to both working environments."

"Oh don't rope Dean and Renee into this,"

"Standing up for your brother? That's cute."

"C'mon. This is you and me, Hunter, I'm the one you hate. No one else needs to suffer."

"You love her, Seth?"

"Charly? Yeah. Of course I do."

"I sure hope so. I hope you love her more than you do Steph."

His heart dropped, "she told you about that?"

He scoffed, "she didn't have to. But thanks for the confirmation. I see it, Seth, for how much you two hate each other you seem to always end up alone in her office."

"That's business,"

"No, it's not. You're always near each other, always exchanging glances. If I didn't know any better I'd say the affair never even ended."

"It did end! Hunter, I don't know what you're talking about, Stephanie and I, we're nothing. We're not even friends anymore. She doesn't give a shit about me."

"You're gonna tell me what's in my own wife's mind?"

"Well you seem to be oblivious," he spat.

"So, Charly Caruso to SmackDown, I'll send the email," he started clicking on the computer, and Seth knew it was a bluff but he didn't care.

"Stop, wait, Hunter, don't." He sighed, looking at his former friend with wild desperation. "What is this? What do you want?"

"I want you to stay the hell away from my wife."

"That's all? There's no affair-"

"Oh I don't mean no secret meetings in her hotel room, I'll kill you if I find out you're at those again, don't think I won't. I mean no chats, no private audiences, no texts, no phone calls, no emails. No pleasantries or small talk, no social interaction whatsoever. If it's not about work, you don't even breathe the same air as Stephanie. Do I make myself clear?"

Seth paused for a minute, trying to run through all the times in the past week they'd had one of those social interactions. There were almost too many to count.

"And Charly stays here?"

"Sure."

"She goes where I go?"

"You're not in a position to be making demands. We'll talk when the trade comes up."

"Okay. No social interactions. Deal."

"And if you slip up, if I catch you in her inbox or at catering, if you so much as look at her, Charly's on the next flight to SmackDown."

"Fine, got it."

"I sure hope you love that little girlfriend of yours more than you want Steph."

"We done here?"

"Close the door on your way out."

XXX

Seth stormed through the halls of the arena, fuming. He was pretty sure that a PA jumped out of his way in terror, so it must have been written all over his face. Charly was just coming out of an interview when he passed her and she smiled at him.

"Hey," she said cheerfully, "just finished up for the night are you-"

"C'mon," he grabbed her arm and led her down to the end of the hall, into one of the small private locker rooms that he'd gotten as the Universal Champion. "I'm not letting them take you from me."

"What?" she sat on the small couch that took up most of the space. "Seth, what're you talking about?"

He was pacing back and forth, running his hands through his hair.

"Triple H just fucking blackmailed me, threatening to move you to SmackDown or back to NXT if I step out of line."

"Step out of line how? Maybe it's a bluff."

"You really willing to take that chance? He's a paranoid bastard, he's trying to keep me under his thumb so that he can keep me away from his wife. No social interactions, as he put it."

"Okay?"

"Okay? What do you mean okay?"

She leaned back and crossed her arms, "so don't have any social interactions with her. Should be easy for you, right?"

"Don't give me that look, Char, I know that look. You use it to get what you want out of your interviews."

"I don't see the issue, Seth," her voice sharpened, "explain to me the issue."

"The issue is he's a crazy person, no chatting, no texts, no private meetings-"

"Were you having chats and texts and private meetings?"

"I-Char, we work together. It's not like I can just not speak to her."

"But socially?"

"I-we-" he sat next to her, cradling his head in his hands.

"Got it."

"Charly." He crossed his arms, "it's not like that, you know that it's not like that."

"I don't know that."

"Do you not trust me?" He could almost feel the steam rising from his ears. After everything they'd been through…

"Do you care about her?"

"You didn't answer my question."

"You didn't answer mine."

"Fine. Fine, yeah, you don't just stop caring about a person like that. It's not that simple. It doesn't mean I'm caught up on her."

"Don't you see what he's doing?"

"You didn't answer my question," he said again through gritted teeth.

"Seth he's making you chose between us. He's playing with you, making you give her up completely or lose me-"

"Answer. The question. Charly." He got close to her face, his brow furrowed and snarling. She stared him down, not backing off. The tension between them was white hot, and it was growing as she opened her mouth and very slowly, very softly spoke.

"Why do you ask questions you don't want to know the answer to?"

That was it. It was too much. His lips were against hers fiercely, grabbing the back of her hair. She kissed back with equal ferocity, like it had been building up inside of her too. He pushed her back onto the couch, fighting against her lips for dominance.

"Seth!" she managed as he moved down to nipping on her neck.

"You know, Char," he growled in her ear, "you've been trying to get me to be rougher with you for weeks"

She chuckled, "you can be a little precious,"

"Well lucky for you," he moved to the other side of her neck and she moaned, "I am real pissed off right now. That's not going to be an issue."

Charly bit her lip and met his eye, shining deviously.

"I have a feeling you need this as much as I do," he pushed her silky blouse up and reached behind it to undo her bra. She shivered as his hands palmed her, but kept his gaze.

"We talk after this is done."

"Deal," he kissed her roughly and her hands came down to the waistband of his gear. "Get your screaming out now."

She slipped them down off his legs, laughing ever so slightly at the athletic briefs underneath. Pushing her skirt up, he pulled down her panties to her knees and held her hands above her head. He positioned himself between her legs, running up and down her thighs.

"Seth-" she moaned.

He pushed in and she let out a yelp. "Is that what you wanted?"

Kissing him roughly, she didn't bother to respond. Her hips bucked against his, and he gave it to her. She didn't hold back either, wiggling under his hands and moaning. He swirled one of her nipples with his tongue and bit down.

"OW! Seth!"

"Too much? Sorry." He kissed it lightly to a blissful murmur and moved to the other. Her hands were pushing against his and he pushed them back into the couch. "Don't even think about it."

"Like you don't want my hands all in your hair," she scoffed.

"Fine," he let them go so that she could tangle them in his hair. "But I get this," he looped his arms underneath her legs and lifted them to his chest.

"Fu-" she started but he caught her mouth with his. Pounding into her, he watched as she came undone underneath him, her hands pulling at his hair. She was breathing heavy, a mess of moans.

"Oh, that's right baby," he growled, hearing how deep he was hitting. She yelped a few more times, holding him close to her face, her grip not loosening until he lost it. He collapsed down onto her, his hands in her hair and kissed her temple. "Fuck Char… you are so good."

"Someone had some pent-up aggression." She rubbed her leg against his.

He gulped, "did I get too rough?"

"No," she smiled smugly, "it was fun. But don't think it solved anything, Seth."

"Nothing like some mid-fight sex to cool things off," he pushed himself off of her and found a pair of sweatpants. She adjusted herself, tucking her shirt back into her tight mini skirt and fixing her hair. He sighed, watching her find her shoes that had been kicked off. "I love you, Charly."

"I know you do. Which is why," she readjusted her bra underneath, "you're going to cut her off, whatever social interactions he's so concerned about, you're done with them. He'll get over his paranoia, and I'm not going anywhere."

"You're really going to back him on this?"

"I don't wanna go to SmackDown, Seth, I wanna stay here with you. Placate the man, so what?"

"Yeah, this has nothing to do with the fact that you want her out of my life too?"

"You're not getting an encore by picking a fight."

"I'm not picking a fight, you're giving me one."

"Seth! This should be simple. Why can't you let go of her?"

He sighed and sunk into a chair, hanging his head, "I'll stay away from her."

"Okay." Her voice was heavy, but for now, at least, she accepted it.

"I should- you know you can stay in here whenever you want,"

"Yeah, sure," she smoothed her skirt, nodding.

"Good," he stopped again at the door to the bathroom, "is that…is that how you want it? Rough and wild and-"

"Quick?" she giggled, "sometimes."

He nodded, "my command."