Heath stares up at the ceiling lights after being pinned by El Torito. It's embarrassing and it sucks and he has to keep his eyes locked on the entrance ramp or the sight of the fans on either side of the titantron, pointing and laughing at him, would cause him to lose it so he walks backstage, his hands clenched at his sides. He arrives backstage and releases a deep breath as everyone looks up at him, the divas giggling and the men smirking. He takes it all in, unable to look away, before walking forward, his hair shielding his face.
"Excuse me, Heath-" Renee Young interrupts, microphone at the ready.
He freezes for a moment, staring at her through the curtain of orange strands of hair, before shaking his head. "Not right now, Renee," he snaps, sounding like he's close to losing it. She wisely backs away and he continues to storm through the halls until-
"Not your night, was it, Heath?" Curtis Axel laughs at him, their usual banter grinding down at him.
Losing to most people had become part of Heath's reality, but a bull... the very thought of it makes him itch, desperate to tear everythign apart and start anew, with a new identity, a new name, whatever's needed to make people forget that he'd just endured all of that humiliation. "SHUT UP, Curtis!" he screams at him, eyes blazing as he glares at him. "Leave me the hell alone!"
Everyone freezes at this, not used to him losing his temper at one of his friends backstage, Wade stepping forward. "Slater-" Heath pauses only for a minute, glaring warningly at Wade, before brushing past him and storming towards the exit. "Heath!" he calls after him, this too ignored. "Bollocks," he grunts, running a hand through his hair before looking around at the others. "Show's over, get back to doing whatever nonsense you all were doing." His accent is thick, authoriative, and he's relieved when they actually listen, the whispers and giggles slowly subsiding as they disappear into locker rooms or catering. As soon as he's alone, Wade closes his eyes and releases a breath. "Dammit, Ginger..."
Rushing through the Bad News segment that he has scheduled for the evening, Wade then ducks into the locker room and collects his bag, then Heath's, before heading for the car. He's halfway there when he realizes that Heath may have taken it, but no, it's still in the parking lot when he arrives. Which means Heath had probably taken a taxi back to the hotel. He sighs tiredly and rubs a hand down his face before getting in the car and driving as hurriedly as he dares to the hotel. It's thankfully only a few blocks away but he stops on the way to pick up some subs, aware that Heath hadn't ate catering and doubting that he'd thought ahead to get anything on the way to the hotel.
By the time he makes it inside, he finds that the room is quiet and dark, Heath's steady breathing coming from the couch. He turns a light on and stares down at him for a moment before tossing the sub down onto his chest before going into the bathroom, listening to him stir with a startled gasp. Wade showers slowly, washing off the day's stress and tension, before returning to the main room, toweling off his dark hair.
Heath is sitting up, picking vacantly at one of the subs, barely seeming to notice as Wade reaches down and snags the other one, eating it in a few quick bites before sitting down next to him. "I'm sorry," he mumbles after a moment. Wade looks over at him and he swallows. "I shouldn't'a lost it out there, and left you at the arena and everything... I just couldn't... I lost to El Torito and everything was just... too much." He looks up, desperation and pain in his eyes. "I'm not sure how much more of this I can take. And I don't want it to ruin us, either, but I just... WWE's always been my dream, I don't want to just leave it, but..."
Wade listens, not sure what to say, what Heath needs to hear right now. "This won't ruin us," he tells him quietly. "Whatever happens, wherever you go... we'll always be... us. I do like working in the same company as you, but considering what's been going on, I don't blame you for thinking of other ventures." They sit quietly for awhile before Wade releases a breath. "It's late. Let's go to bed, you can sleep on it and think more about it tomorrow." He reaches forward and runs his fingers down Heath's face. "Alright?"
"Yeah, alright," the ginger sighs, getting up and heading for the bed.
Wade watches him for a moment before collecting what's left of Heath's sub and heading to bed. "Here, eat the rest of this," he tells him. "You'll feel better." As Heath works on that, Wade crawls into bed and waits until he finishes, cleaning his hands on a napkin before crawling into bed next to Wade. "No matter what you decide, I will support you, Ginger," he promises quietly, leaning over to kiss Heath.
"Thanks, Brit," he mumbles. "G'night."
"Good night." Wade wraps an arm around him and listens until Heath's breaths turn steady and slow again, finally allowing himself to fall asleep too.