PRIDE

Set after the February 19, 2018 RAW. Kayfabe compliant.

"Huh?" Seth muttered groggily as a dinging noise like one would hear in an elevator brought him back to reality. No longer feeling the rigid trainers' bed underneath him, the dark-haired man was puzzled as to where he was. His eyes feeling still too heavy to open, he would have to rely on his other senses to figure it out. Judging by his sense of touch, he would have to guess that someone was carrying him piggyback style as they walked forward, their muscular arms wrapped tightly around his legs and his face resting against their shoulder. The smell of coconut filled his nostrils as he took a breath.

Wait. Coconut?

"Waking up on me back there?" the person's deep, friendly voice asked as Seth slowly opened his eyes.

"What's going on, Roman?" he replied sleepily, seeing the hallway of their hotel pass by as Roman walked, indeed carrying Seth piggyback style on his back.

"You passed out hard in the trainers' room." Roman explained, continuing to walk. "And I mean Ambrose hard, brother! Whenever anyone would wake you up, you just kept going back to sleep. Dr. Amann couldn't find anything wrong with you other than mild physical exhaustion, so Trips told me to get you back here and make sure that you took it easy the rest of the night."

"Oh, man." Seth groaned, slightly embarrassed. "Everyone probably thinks that I'm dying or something."

"Nah, everyone understands that you had a rough night." Roman shook his head as the pair finally arrived at their room. To Seth's surprised, he knocked on the door instead of getting his key card out. "Cena and Finn helped me get you into the car and Finn said that he'd grab our bags for us. Also…"

"You made it!" a blonde-haired woman said as she opened the door and stepped aside to let them enter. "Did you carry him the entire way up here?"

"Ok, why is Renee in our hotel room?" a confused Seth asked before noticing that his bed had been turned down for him.

"I did." Roman grinned at Renee, setting Seth down on his bed. "I've actually had plenty of practice carrying your husband's drunk ass back to the hotel room after a night out."

"Why does that not surprise me?" Renee smiled, covering Seth with the blankets.

"And to answer your question, Roll," Roman continued, turning towards him. "Renee is here, because…well, when you get around to looking at your phone, brother, you'll see that certain someone has been blowing it up all night."

"If it's anything like mine and Roman's anyway." Renee giggled, handing Roman his keycard. She nodded her head at the nightstand between the two beds. "Oh, Sasha and Bayley dropped off that Gatorade for you, Seth. Said that it should help." A buzzing noise was heard coming from her purse, forcing her to groan. "I didn't pick it up the first 50 times he's called. What makes him think that I'll pick up now? I guess that's my cue to retreat to my own room and fill him in."

"Make sure that you tell him that if he calls me or Seth again tonight," Roman chuckled, "I will Superman punch him in a certain area that is nowhere near his face."

"After I curb stomp him." Seth added with a smile.

"Will do." Renee replied with a mock salute before leaning down on giving Seth a quick kiss on the cheek. "You just some rest, all right? I know that I speak for Dean when I say that we're both proud of you."

"Thanks." Seth smiled back at her.

"I'll walk you to the door, baby girl." Roman said, wrapping an arm around her. "Thanks again for your help."

"Not a problem." Renee waved off as they walked to the door. "Did you want me to call Galina for you?"

"Nah, I already texted her that I'd call her tomorrow." Roman replied, "You tell that lunatic husband of yours that I'll call him tomorrow morning, all right?"

"Will do." Renee said, walking out into the hallway. "Good night."

"Night!" Roman repeated before closing the door and walking back into the main room. Seth hadn't moved from his bed. "So, how are you feeling?"

"Embarrassed." Seth shook his head, still smiling. "I mean everyone's making a big deal out of nothing really! I'm just tired. You didn't have to carry me all the way up here like that, Big Dog."

"Well, if it makes you feel better," Roman said, shrugging his shoulders and sitting down on the other bed in the room. "Because I did carry you all that way, I'm not going to do any dead lifts tomorrow at the gym."

"Good." Seth said before taking inventory of himself. "Other than that, I still feel tired and a little sore, but nothing that feels like it won't go away before Sunday."

"Well, you just wrestled your heart out for an hour and five minutes." Roman pointed out, "Hell, someone calculated it out and that's more than Lesnar wrestled all of last year. Proud of you, little brother!"

"Thanks." Seth replied, looking at the other man. "But you know that it takes at least two people to make it work, right? Had a good time out there with you, Uce. Thought for sure that you had me a few times."

"Warned you that I'd bring my A game, didn't I?" Roman nodded, "Knew you'd bring yours too because that's how we do it!"

"Every time." Seth agreed, "We go out there and burn it all down! What's that thing you like to say? Yes, sir?"

"Ah, yessir! Yessir!" Roman laughed before staring straight into Seth's eyes. "I know that I said it already, but I AM extremely proud of you, Seth! You went out there tonight and showed the entire fucking world that you ARE indeed the man! Not that anyone should have been doubting that in the first place."

"Thanks, Big Dog." a blushing Seth nodded, "It means a lot to me to hear you say that."

"Well, it's the gospel truth, man!" Roman replied, "You really are one of, if not the, best around! You're on a level that I can only dream about being on and will never achieve."

"Now that is not true." Seth rolled his eyes, "Come on, man! You…"

"Hold on! I'm not finished." Roman said with a smile, "Now I know that you don't believe in religion and all of that, but I want you to know that there isn't a day that goes by that I don't thank God for meeting you and Dean, and having us all become brothers. Both of you guys have taught me so much in and out of the ring."

"I'm thankful that we met on this crazy road called life too, Roman." Seth smiled, looking at the man in front of him, who he considered as much of a big brother as he did his own flesh and blood. "Life would definitely be different if you and Ambrose weren't around."

"Yeah, it definitely would be." Roman agreed, "All right, enough of this gooey emotional stuff before we both lose our man cards! I'm going to hit the shower. You just get some sleep, all right? Seth? Seth?"

Looking over, the Samoan man could see that the other man had fallen into a deep sleep. A smile crept over his face as he adjusted the covers for him.

"Sweet dreams, little brother. You earned them."