It's a normal day, really. Or at least it starts off that way. Zack is waiting for Dolph's flight to land after the week's Raw, doing the few rehab exercises he's cleared to do- carefully- on his own. Every day, he gets a little stronger, finds a bit more flexibility in his range of motion. The doctor's optimistic, but even more important, he's optimistic that he'll be back in WWE within a month's time or so. He doubts he'll have an opportunity to get back at Rusev- or if he'd even want to, honestly, determined to avoid further injury for as long as possible- when his phone flashes.

He grunts and rolls over, picking it up with his recovering hand... remembering when he couldn't even lift it a month ago. Ah, the marvels of modern medicine, he thinks, staring at the screen. "Wait... what? WHAT?" he all but yells, immediately getting to his feet and staring in disbelief.

It had been a joke, probably, some dumb, random comment by some dumb, random fan... to Dolph's brother, of all people, inquiring how long he knew Zack and Dolph were a couple. Which would've been easy enough to ignore, if Ryan hadn't responded "I knew for some time."

Zack's frozen in place, can't take his eye off of those five damning words. He wants to murder Ryan, briefly, all thoughts of revenge against Rusev swept far to the back of his mind in leui of this betrayal. It had been a quiet thing, really, only those closest to them were aware that Zack and Dolph even were a thing, and yeah, Ryan had been trusted with the information shortly after they'd gotten back together, when they were sure it was going to last. But Zack had never thought he'd publicly out them like this.

He's not sure how much time passes before he hears the front door open and Dolph walk in, humming under his breath. Probably unaware, as Zack had been tagged in the tweet, but not Dolph. Zack closes his eyes as Dolph walks up to him and lightly presses a kiss to the injection site on his upper shoulder. "Hey, kid." When Zack doesn't answer immediately, he pulls back and looks at him with a frown. "Kid? Is everything alright?" Zack exhales and hands him the phone, which Dolph stares at blankly for a moment. "Ugh, that idiot," he sighs, handing the phone back to Zack.

Zack watches as Dolph leans over, picks up his bag and wanders back into the bedroom to discard his clothes and things to repack for the next week. Gnawing at his lower lip, he follows him. "Bro, he outed us! On social media! What if the 'news' sites pick it up, and then the whole world knows, and-?"

He's on the verge of a panic attack for real when Dolph turns sharply, drops his bag and cups Zack's face, staring into his eyes. "That's not going to happen," he says soothingly. "The people who do see it, they're just going to decide that my brother is making another stupid joke, which he and I are well known for by now, right?" Zack swallows under his fingers but, before he can respond, Dolph lightly kisses him. "And even if the whole world knew, that wouldn't be so bad, would it? It's almost 2015, kid. Times are changing. Slowly, but they are. We'd deal with it together, everything would be fine."

Zack attempts to follow his lips as he pulls away, exhaling. "I know. You're right, it's not that big of a deal, I just... we both get enough grief on there as it is. But yeah." A sort of resolve fills his gaze and Dolph smiles lovingly at him. "Together we would be just fine, no matter what." Pressing his forehead to Dolph's, they stare at each other for a few moments. "I still kinda want to kill your brother though."

At this, Dolph laughs and leans in, exploring Zack's mouth with a deep, lengthy kiss. "Fine," he mumbles. "But just wait until after the holidays, kid."