Back to the boys then and it's about time for some bonding. Also (and this is important to no one but me) the chapter titles are all quotes from that particular instalment, so if you ever want a flavour of what might be coming, there could be some clues.
Daisysakura, Yeah, it was kind of weird without Seth for the first few chapters, like a piece was missing but I love the Dean/Roman friendship especially. I thought it was about time I made Hunter something other than the token bastard (but there are a lot of those in this story too!)
Minnie1015, Haha, I know, no Steph as the boss is weird, but it had to be different somehow. I tried a bunch of different people but in the end felt like Hunter had the pedigree (no pun intended) and the chops to be the boss and Vince would be long retired in the real world!
Mandy, Initially I had planned them both to be in prison, but liked the idea of Roman as the secret good guy so much more because you're so right, it suits him better, or at least we think it does! Plus there's lots more drama to eke out of it and who doesn't love drama right?!
Hayley1001, Well, one thing I can always promise in my stories at some point or another is some Dean angst and an accompanying measure of protective Roman to balance it out, because frankly their friendship is best thing since sliced bread! Plenty of that to come so don't worry!
LHisawesome4ever, Well, I guess that's Dean in a nutshell, who could ever meet him for five minutes and then not think about him?! Always loved Bischoff there was just something about him that always felt off somehow. Plenty of time to find out if that's true in this though!
KyanaM, Haha, cookies make me feel the same way! Yeah, I thought Hunter was a good fit as the boss, can see him being fair but at the same time a bit of a ball buster on things. I can neither confirm or deny that Bray is coming back, but I WILL say there are lots of enemies in this!
Wolfgirl2013, Muchas Gracias (and there ends the sumtotal of my Spanish knowledge). Got some more of the boys finding things out about each other now but maybe not everything…
FreakinLunaticsYard, Twitchy Dean for the win! Sometimes I feel I need to make him more twitchy so I figure prison is a good place to do that since he probably has reason! Thank you so much for the compliments, they make me blush but also smile like an idiot. Hope you like this chapter too!
Stingerette1975, Ah, both nothing and everything are too obvious for this story. Plus there's a whole lot of cameos and other characters coming in, including potentially a whiskery hillbilly who will forever be my favorite wrestling villain in the world *whistles coyly then walks off*
SkittlezLvr79, Yep, angst and havoc will pretty much be the order of the day in this story. Basically I tried to find a setting where there was maximum drama and no chance to escape. It was either this or an asylum, that was my thought process, but I think prison works!
Cherry619, Yep, Sami is going to be a fixture in this story one way or another. Totally agree with the Bray thing as well, the pair of them always had this vibe between them, like they recognised that they were both different types of 'quirky' (let's call it that!)
Ohana1337, Haha, expect the unexpected but also expect the expected and everything else in between. Did that even make any sense? Glad you liked the last chapter, but to make up for the lack of Dean in that one (won't happen often) our boy is back to his quirky best here!
Cheryl24, Not any direct Callihan here, but sort of by association in some respects when Dean is musing (as hopefully you will see). But Sami is certainly going to be mentioned a lot in this story as a whole. Yep, Roman is undercover and not too happy about it, but hey, someone's gotta do it!
Skovko, I have an entire office that talk about Game of Thrones like that even though I have no interest. Kind of feel I miss out on the in-jokes though! And hell yeah, Bischoff always was one bizarre slimy sort of character so a perfect fit for one of my rollercoaster rides!
Guest, Aww, thank you, I'm super proud of this story as a whole, but it's gonna be a long one so strap yourself in and prepare for the ride!
Rebel8954, Bischoff had to be in a story somewhere, he was simply too unlikeable and smarmy a character not to use, but what is he here? Hmm, not telling! Roman will have to find out the hard way. Good luck packing, never fun but miles better than unpacking, yeesh!
Time to assign prison nicknames then...
Raised By Wolves
Dinner is not a fine dining experience so Dean never hangs in the chow hall for long, staying for the time it takes to pick up his rations, find an empty table and then swallow them down.
More often still, he simply skips meals altogether and has done more and more since they hauled Callihan out. There is something about being surrounded by people and the buzz of the place that he totally cannot stand and which makes it apparent to both himself and to others that schmoozing and friendly chattering isn't really his bag and definitely not in the sort of surroundings where the saying the wrong thing is liable to get teeth knocked out.
Dean can't control his damn tongue at the best of times.
Dinner is not the best of times.
It's probably the reason he blows a long breath out as he vaults the metal staircase back towards their room and then swings past the other thick doors along the mezzanine before hurriedly turning right and in through his own. For a second he's worried that his new cellmate won't be there, because that's exactly the sort of shit that the office would pull, by making him think he has this totally cool roommate before pulling an oopsie and then swapping him back out. Maybe for some guy that is a fucking axe killer or some psychopathic asshole that likes torturing birds. But then perhaps even that would be better than the solitude.
Possibly.
Yeah, okay, probably not.
Not that any of it matters however because when he casts upwards and into their cubicle, there Roman is leaning back on the bed, with his pillows propped upright as he flips through a familiar paperback that makes the copper blonde grin in silent thanks,
"It's good, right?"
Roman keeps his eyes on the pages,
"Read it in college but I haven't picked it up since."
"You're packin' a degree, huh?"
"Sports scholarship, nothing fancy."
"Still a whole lot fancier than what you get where I'm from."
In response to his wry but pretty scathing assessment, the bigger man looks up and then closes the book, letting it rest against his thick chested body as he casually reaches up to pillow his arms behind his head.
"You gonna go back there when you finish your sentence?"
Dean snorts shortly then drops down onto his bed, rolling his eyes as the thing creaks beneath him before flipping himself round and fully stretching out.
He shakes his head emphatically,
"You kiddin' me? No way man. If I go home I'll wind up back in here again."
"Same people from before?"
Dean shrugs at him roughly then uses his feet to kick off his treads since he cannot be bothered to lean down and use his fingers in what seems like a lot of unnecessary work. They slide to the floor with a clumsy sort of thudding noise and then lie in a heap beneath his newly freed feet and Roman watches while the ghost of a chuckle dances briefly over his lips.
Dean presses his cheek against the cool of his pillow,
"Don't get a whole lot of say in that, y' know? Dealers in my neighborhood are pretty convincin'."
"You mean they're violent?"
"Like you wouldn't believe dude, last time they broke three of my ribs for no reason, here an' then this one at the back too – ,"
He lifts up his plain white shirt as he answers and then begins to prod across his skin, landing cold hands in various places that seem otherwise normal beyond some patchy looking scars and that one bone that wouldn't heal properly and so sticks out a bit but that he thinks looks pretty cool. Roman is staring back blinking at the performance but there is something fiery and dark in his eyes, like he actually feels defensive or something, which is totally weird but also feels kind of nice?
Huh.
Dean lets the prison tee fall back loosely and then crosses his fingers at a point over his heart, letting his eyes drift across the plain ceiling which is studded with pits and gouges left by other guys. He grins a little absently,
"I figure I'll go east a ways, maybe find some creepy old cabin the woods, get back to nature."
Roman nods,
"Sounds good uce."
Blue eyes narrow together instantly,
"Uce?"
In twisting his head in the direction of his cellmate, the first thing the copper blonde sees is an actual blush and it seems so at odds with the bigger man's coolness that he can't help but chuckle lightly back in response. Because quite frankly it's a relief that he's not an action movie star and is pretty fucking normally human after all, with the same screwed up ability to spout random shit like he does and therefore cementing what he already knows –
Namely that Roman is a nice sort of person.
Namely that Dean is no longer so alone.
"Uce means brother in my family's native language."
What?
Dean blinks himself back into the room and then tips his head having partly missed the answer or at least somehow feeling like he probably must have done, because no way is a man he has known for five hours claiming him as a relative without knowing what he's like. Not even his actual blood has ever cared about him, so why should the other man?
He swallows down a lump.
"Uh, I mean what language is that then?"
"Samoan."
"That what your badass tattoo is all about?"
Because the scrolling that reaches from the wrist to the shoulder blade is an honest to goodness holy mother of a piece and probably another fucking hell of reason that the guy won't get picked on what with his name and size of course.
Roman grins and studies the artwork,
"Kinda. This right here reminds me where I'm from, like my heritage and culture."
"Then I guess mine would be a six pack an' my old man skippin' his fat ass outta town."
"You don't have a family?"
His bigger cellmate keeps his tone loose, but it is clear in an instant that he is eager to know. Dean kind of figures he comes from an enlarged cavalcade of sisters and uncles and cousins and aunts so likely can't imagine what it's like to have no one or to have spent a poor childhood in a disparate one parent house.
No parent most of the time if he's honest.
He shrugs back roughly and then waves his hands,
"Nah, I was raised by wolves for the most part."
Roman snorts at him,
"Was gonna say you had a nice coat."
Fuck.
Dean has gone for weeks without teasing or human interaction of any real kind, which makes having it back feel almost like a headrush and so he lies himself flat to the stop the spinning in his brain, all the while wearing a grin like an idiot as he keeps on blathering like he might not stop again,
"Sharp teeth too, I kinda have this thing for bitin' when people get too close an' I don't want 'em to. Left marks in my kindergarten teacher that might still be there, almost got my ass kicked right outta school. Ended up in solitary for a month when I got here 'cos I snapped my fuckin' jaws at some kinda handsy guard who was pushin' me around and tryin' to act like the big deal. I mean I didn't even touch him, I straight up literally fuckin' barked."
He scoffs at that but the noise goes uncopied and when he turns back his bigger cellmate is noticeably tight browed,
"You've spent time in solitary confinement?"
"It's no fun dude – like – total fuckin' buzzkill, got no plans on goin' back."
"Did anything kinda happen while you were down there?"
Dean blinks mildly,
"Anythin' like what?"
In response the bulky man blows a puff of air out and then tries to backpedal his question a little bit, only the sharp eyed copper blonde can see the sudden change in him and it piques his interest and sort of makes him grin. He figures that his new cellmate has seen one too many prison films and imagines a dark cell with someone bouncing a rubber ball, or maybe sadistic guards who like beating inmates senseless and then walking them off to the electric chair half concussed.
Roman carries on,
"Anything unusual, or out of the ordinary – stuff like that?"
Dean lets his eyes drift back to the ceiling and wonders how the men who had the cell before them had managed to reach themselves right up to that height and then what they had used to chip chunks from the concrete or frankly why the hell they had even wanted to.
"In this place everythin' is outta the ordinary, I mean it's prison y'know? It's meant to be jacked. I mean some guy did hang himself in his cell while I was down there, but I don't know if that totally counts as bein' weird?"
Roman's head bobs up a bit at that part and the brown eyes turn to stare between the narrow gap and again Dean takes the look as general bewilderment since the guy is still new to the whole prison thing which is why he then tries to sound deliberately casual, like at the time the thing hadn't rattled the bejesus out of him.
"Yeah, I saw 'em cartin' him outta here, white sheet across the body – that whole messed up deal."
"Do you know what happened?"
"I heard he tore his bedsheets and hung 'em round a pipe, but you hear a bunch of stuff in here, an' only like a quarter of it is the real thing anyway an' the rest of the time it's just crazy made up shit."
Roman nods but his eyes stay narrowed,
"What about the warden?"
"Bischoff?"
"Does he come by?"
Dean reaches a hand towards their tiny little nightstand and swipes a book from his new cellmate's large stack, that he assumes has been left where they both can dip into it and which strikes him at once as a pretty nice touch. He is greeted with a thick and slightly yellowed copy of a novel that seems to be set in the Ancient Egyptian times and instantly decides that he might as well read it since it looks pretty cool and makes a change from his usual stuff.
"Dean?"
"Huh?"
Roman is still looking over because oh yeah he asked a question which kind of got lost and Dean thinks back then remembers it vaguely and the fact that they were talking about the prison big boss.
"Bischoff – uh – he comes by sometimes, wearin' a leather jacket like he's one of the guys."
"But not very often?"
Dean snorts,
"Would you come down here or would you stay all pretty in your ivory tower and pretend like the rest of us didn't exist? I bet he even has his own executive bathroom, so he kinda leaves us to it."
Roman nods back,
"Uh huh."
For a second or two there is simply an easy silence and the smaller man resists the urge to let out a happy sigh, because having someone there is a warming sensation, made so much more welcome for the fact he likes the guy and won't feel the need to sleep with one eye open like he has honestly been preparing himself to have to do.
He sits up suddenly,
"You need a prison nickname."
Roman blinks slowly like he's not following him,
"A what?"
Dean waves his hand to emphasize his statement but the words are too fast for the move to assist. He laughs at it though since he feels fucking chirpy which in the scheme of prison life is a pretty rare thing and is also why he pushes on through the confusion with a nod of assurance,
"It's kinda like a status thing."
"I thought you said my name was good enough anyway."
Dean rolls his eyes,
"Yeah – I mean – it is, but who doesn't want a totally fuckin' badass handle?"
"Such as?"
He thinks for a second then clicks, snapping his fore and middle fingers together until the noise bounces in off the walls then right back and the brown eyes swing towards him pretty calmly, like Roman is indulging the younger man as if a kid.
"The Big Dog, you like it?"
Roman grins,
"Yeah I like it, so what about you?"
Dean quickly shakes his head, bumping his shoulders in a stab of disinterest that tries to downplay the next sentence he says and which he evidently fails at making sound casual since his cellmate's lax expression folds up almost at once,
"People in here tend to call me crazy, or – I don't know, like – the lunatic fringe?"
Roman shakes his head,
"Nope."
"You got somethin' better?"
"Sure, like I told you already man, you're uce."
All hail the bonding session which I sincerely hoped you like because there's plenty more to come. Next chapter Roman takes his chances in the chow hall and possibly comes a little closer to the 'Truth?' (Hopefully those quotations will make sense when you get there).
See you in three!
