BEACH

"How'd I know that Uce would already be in the water?" a chuckling Seth asked, setting the cooler he had been carrying down by Dean, who was lounging in one of the three beach chairs on the sand.

Rollins, Ambrose and Reigns had made it to their next tour stop a day early and had decided as a group to spend that extra time enjoying the nearby coastline.

"I barely got him to set his bag and shoes down first." Dean chuckled, watching his surrogate big brother splash around in the ocean like a little kid. "You know, in a weird way, it's actually kind of adorable how he turns into an overgrown 5 year old kid when we get around a beach."

"I'm surprised. You're usually right there in the water with him." Seth replied, taking off his shirt. "Not feeling it today?"

"Nah, I'll probably go join him here in a bit." Dean said, casually folding his arms behind his head. "Right now, I want to just lay here and soak up the sunshine. Noticed that I'm getting a little pale when I watched the replay of the show the other night."

"Well," Seth teased, sitting down at the chair at the other end of the row. "I didn't want to say anything, man, but Sheamus is starting to look tan compared to you."

"Oh, shut up." Dean glared at Seth until Roman approached, getting his attention. "Thought you'd be spending the entire time in the water, Aquaman."

"Water's still a little cold, so I thought I'd come warm up for a little bit." Roman shrugged, shivering slightly before picking his towel up off of the middle chair. After drying his hair, a content sigh escaped Reigns as he sat down with a big smile on his face. "Sun, sand, ocean, good buddies and a couple of cold ones in the cooler? THIS is exactly what I needed! Ah, yessir!"

"You spent a lot of time at the beach when you were younger, didn't you?" Seth smiled, unable to help but notice how happy and relaxed his friend looked. It was the first time in a long time that one couldn't tell that, at least Roman felt like, the weight of the WWE rested on his broad shoulders.

"Yeah." Roman nodded with a fond smile, "It's what you did when I was in school, man. You would spend almost every weekend at the beach with your girl if you had one."

"Well, I've always imagined that you had no problem in that area, brother." Seth nudged him with his elbow, "I bet, even as a teenager, you had to beat the girls off with a stick!"

"I was kind of popular, yeah." Roman shrugged.

"And did you ever…" Dean asked, wiggling his eyebrows. "You know with one of those girls?"

"How'd I know you guys were going to take it there?" Roman blushed, suddenly unable to look either of his friends in the eye. "Yeah, a few times actually."

"I knew it." Dean laughed, exchanging a look with Seth, who was smiling.

"You dog!" Seth remarked, "Does Galina know about this?"

"She was one of them." Roman admitted, his usual tan cheeks a solid crimson. "The last one actually."

"Nice." Seth replied as all three shared a laugh. "Well, you were lucky, Uce. When I was in school, back in Iowa, we had to make due with taking our girls out to the corn fields. Not nearly as romantic."

"Corn fields?" Dean repeated in disbelief before he and Roman cracked up. "Please tell me that you did it! Please tell me that little Sethie got dirty down in the dirt!"

"Once or twice." Seth shrugged, prompting both Roman and Dean to howl with laughter. "Like I said, not nearly as romantic and there was always the chance of having to stop and outrun some pissed off farmer with a pitchfork midway through."

"Oh, my God!" Dean laughed, holding his stomach with one hand and clapping the other on Roman (who was laughing just as hard)'s shoulder. "The mental image! I can just see your stupid face as you're running for your life because this guy's coming after you! It's SO good!"

"Sounds like it should be one of your weird-ass stories, D." Roman agreed, still chuckling himself but not as hard as Dean.

"Nah." Dean shook his head, finally able to compose himself after a moment. "See, in my neighborhood, we didn't have any beaches or corn fields. You just had to go out the back window before her dad caught you and shimmy down the drainpipe from their third-story apartment. Oh, and you needed to go fast as you could because, more than likely, he had a gun and knew how to use it."

"Shimmy down many a drainpipe, did you?" Seth raised an eyebrow.

"Hell no!" Dean grinned, "See, I was smart! I would hide under their beds until about 3 in the morning and then, I'd go out the front door while her old man was asleep."

"Of course you did." Seth chuckled, exchanging a glance with Roman, who wasn't laughing and looked conflicted. "What's up, Uce?"

"Well, part of me wants to laugh at that." Roman smiled, "But the Dad in me is now screaming at me to set up a security camera under JoJo's bed."

"And don't allow her to go to the beach without supervision." Seth added.

"Or corn fields for that matter." Dean snorted, prompting Roman to laugh.

"In fact, how about we just don't let her leave the house without supervision until she's 35." Seth replied with a nod.

"And any boy has to meet the Uncle Seth and Uncle Dean standards of excellence." Dean said, turning towards Roman. "By the way, I STILL want details on that kid she told me about the other day!"

"She's been hanging around this boy in her class lately." Roman explained to Seth, "Tyler is his name, I think. He's also in her karate class."

"Ooh, Tyler." Seth winced, "Sounds like trouble already."

"Seriously, Uce." Dean continued to say, "Whatever you can get me on this kid. Address, family life, criminal history, etc."

"Criminal history?" Roman shook his head, "He's 9 freaking years old, man!"

"Can still have a criminal history." Dean shrugged, "But if you want your daughter hanging around some little deviant who robs candy stores, then that's on you."

"Do they even have candy stores anymore?" Seth wondered, prompting Dean to stare at him like he had grown another head. "What?"

"I hate to quote the Miz, but really? Really, Sethie?" Dean exclaimed, "That's what you're focusing on in this conversation? The existence of candy stores? All the while, there's a little miscreant running around, trying to corrupt our adorable niece?"

"So, Big Dog," Seth asked, deciding to change the subject. "What's it like? Sex on the beach?"

"Well, it's all right." Roman shrugged, a teasing grin on his face. "I mean, you know I'm more of a beer guy, but I'm not going to turn down a cocktail if someone puts it in front of me."

"You walked right into that one." Dean smiled, looking at Seth.

"Yeah, I did, didn't I?" Seth admitted with a nod, lightly punching a chuckling Roman in the arm. "You know what I meant, jackass. You've been hanging around Dean too much!"

"Hey!" Dean exclaimed.

"Well, it's really not as pleasant as you boys might think." Roman said, scratching the side of his face in embarrassment. "Sand gets in places you'd rather not have it get into, you know?"

"Yikes." Dean winced before shaking his head. "Renee was talking about it the other day, but definitely going to have to tell her that that's out now."

"That actually came up in conversation?" a stunned Seth replied, "How?"

"You don't talk about things like that with your—" Dean started to ask before he remembered that Seth was currently single. "Hand?"

"Ooh." Roman winced as Seth narrowed his eyes at Dean. "Bit harsh there, Deano."

"What?" Dean replied, spreading his arms out innocently. "I'll have you know that I have had GREAT conversations with my hand before!"

"Believe that." Roman replied, nudging Seth before getting to his feet. "Going to head back into the water for a while. Might go check out that surfboard rental place down the way."

"You can surf, Uce?" Seth asked, prompting Roman to nod his head. "I never knew that."

"Yeah, Matt taught me when I was like 5, I think." Roman smiled, thinking about his recently deceased older brother. "I think he got tired of me begging him to every time I got him to take me with him. Some of the best times I had with him were out there on the water, man. Even when he made it to the big time and was busy on the road, he made sure that he spent at least a little time with me out there when he was home." A sigh escaped the dark-haired man and he turned his gaze towards the ocean. "Haven't been to a beach since he passed actually. Reminds me just how much I miss him." A moment of silence passed among the three friends before the tall, dark-haired Samoan man turned back to the other two with an apologetic smile. "Sorry. That was kind of a buzzkill moment, wasn't it?"

"Hey, Roman." Dean wondered after another moment of uneasy silence among the three. "You think you could teach me how to? I've wanted to learn how to surf since I was a kid, but, you know, growing up in Ohio and all, I never got the chance."

"Be more than happy to, D." Roman smiled.