Sometimes life really could be crazy. Sitting in the same restaurant as they had the previous night, at a table very near to the one had the had been at the night before, Ronda found herself just looking across the table at Seth. It was amazing how much had changed for her in the very short time since she had met him. When she had signed with WWE as a referee, she had been overjoyed to have such a huge opportunity. She certainly had not imagined having such a tough time with the memories of her neck injury coming back so strongly. Almost everyone she had spoken to had wanted to know the same thing: "Why aren't you a wrestler, Ronda?" The phrasing of the question had varied slightly from person to person, but it was always the same basic question, and always the same answer about having an old neck injury. It had been way too much to deal with. Putting on a brave face on it and keeping all of her emotions bottled up inside had really been taking a toll on her.

Then Seth had stepped in with his persistence, refusing to stop bringing up the subject. It had been tough not to lose her cool with him and tell him in no uncertain terms to stop talking about it, but there was just something about him, something that made him seem so trustworthy and compassionate that had made her crack and talk to him about everything. The release had worked wonders for her but even then Seth was not done. Although the trip out to those stables and the horse ride was a relatively simple gesture, it was one of the kindest things anyone had ever done for her. Seth was not the kind of guy who pretended to care just to get a girl into bed, she could tell that without doubt. No, he actually did care about her and wanted to help her with her issues. Now she was going to have to ask him for more help, this time with her training because there was no way that she could do it without him.

"Enjoying that?" she asked, grinning at him as he vigorously attacked his meal.

Remembering his manners, Seth waited for his mouth to be empty before saying, "You know it. This place is always amazing, and food is always nicer when it's free."

The goofy smile on his face made Ronda laugh. "It's not free," she pointed out, playing along.

"It is for me," Seth grinned even wider.

"Asshole," Ronda laughed.

"That's my nickname, is it?" Seth pretended to moan bitterly. "Asshole?"

"It can be," Ronda decided, still giggling. "You can be my asshole. Wait, how wrong does that sound?"

Laughing heartily, Seth poured another glass of wine for himself and topped Ronda's off for her. "Thank you. Seth? Something happened earlier, when Hunter showed up and asked you to leave."

"You said you were okay, that it was fine,'" Seth reminded her, immediately concerned.

"It was. I am. I don't mean something bad happened. Just, something happened."

"I don't know what you mean?" Seth asked as he cut some more of his fish into pieces, attention fully on Ronda rather than the task at hand.

"You've helped me a lot, Seth. A hell of a lot. But, in a way, that sexist douche Cody helped me too, not that he meant to of course."

Seth's eyes narrowed slightly. "How did being a prick like that possibly help you? He even put his hands on you. If Roman hadn't held me back, I'd have knocked him out."

Ronda allowed a small smile of acknowledgement. "I appreciate you saying it, but I don't need you to fight for me. If he would have taken that step towards me, I would have seriously hurt him. You guys might be bigger than me, but that would have meant nothing in that hallway. Cody thinks the fact that he's got a dick means a woman can't hurt him. I'd have loved to prove him wrong. Anyway, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about."

"So what is?" Seth asked, pleased that he had managed not to smile. It had not been easy to keep his face impassive as he pictured Ronda taking Cody down with some kind of Judo throw and beating the crap out of him.

There was a pause while Ronda ate some of her chicken breast, the only thing she seemed to order on a night out. "Getting so angry at Cody made me feel so... I don't know. Alive is the only way I guess I can put it," she decided. "I've always been that way, whether it was a boxing match, whether it was the Olympics, whatever. I always got this crazy adrenaline rush, and I loved it. Tonight was the first time I've felt that since... what happened. So I..."

"You should say it, not avoid it," Seth cut in gently.

"Fine, since I broke my neck." Ronda said, barely pausing. "So, Hunter asked me if I was okay and said something about me being a great referee. I told him that I wouldn't be a great referee for much longer because I want to quit and train to wrestle instead."

"Oh," Seth breathed in surprise. "You just came out and told him? I thought you wanted to take time to talk to your parents and to think things through before you made a definite decision?"

"By the time that thing with Cody was done I had decided," Ronda said firmly. "I want to be out there in the ring, and not as a referee. I want to be in there competing. I want to feel that rush every time I go out there. I want all of those people cheering or booing me. I want to be the best Divas Champion there's ever been. I want to make all that happen. Hunter said he will send me to Florida so that I can train to wrestle safely, and he will get me some help to move past the fact that I broke my neck." Very deliberately, Ronda had not avoided saying it that time. Confidence was what she needed, and refusing to mention the injury in conversation was certainly not a sign of confidence.

"That's great," Seth beamed. "That's really great. I'm so pleased for you."

"There is one thing, though." Ronda said, feeling a little nervous. While she was confident that Seth would be happy to help with her training, until he actually said it there was still that nagging doubt. "I know I need to learn to take bumps. I need someone to build my confidence up, and I need that person to throw me around a ring like I'm in a match. I need to trust that person, because I need to be sure that I won't freak out. I need you to train me, Seth, please?"

As he had listened to the last few sentences Seth had known where the conversation was going. His answer was already prepared. Looking across the table, he did not see a woman he was dating, and certainly not a work colleague. What he saw in that moment was a woman who trusted him; a woman he loved. He knew it was too soon to say so, but he felt it nonetheless. "Of course I'll train you," he said gently. "We'll get you past this neck injury and, oh lord, you're going to be such a star in that Divas division."

Ronda surprised him by setting down her knife and fork and taking his hand. She squeezed it and smiled. "Thank you. This means so much to me."

"I know, I can tell what it means to you. I'm here for you on this, and on anything else," Seth promised her.

There was no response from Ronda, but as they looked into each other's eyes and held hands they did not need to communicate what they were thinking verbally. They had both just decided to make a serious go of this thing. This was now a relationship. "I don't feel very hungry any more," Ronda said softly, feeling a very different kind of appetite threatening to overwhelm her.

"Neither do I," Seth said, finally taking his hand back from Ronda and using it to signal to a server.

A few minutes later, Ronda had used her card to pay for both of their meals, after rejecting Seth's offer to pay himself, despite what was agreed earlier. The server wished them a good night and they stood to leave. "I wasn't really going to pay you know," Seth teased as he took Ronda's hand. He grinned even before he got the response which he knew was coming.

"Asshole," Ronda said, trying and failing not to laugh at the absurdity of calling someone an asshole in an affectionate way.

Seth grinned for the same reason as they walked out of the restaurant. Five minutes later, they were outside of Ronda's room - the same room where so many tears had been shed the night before. Now, however, the mood was a lot different. Ronda unlocked and opened the door, then turned around in the doorway.

"Well, thank you for a lovely evening. Good night," she teased.

"It's not over yet," Seth smirked, enjoying the teasing, but also feeling his balls aching.

"It's not?" Ronda asked innocently.

"No," Seth said firmly, starting to playfully push Ronda into the room. Going along with it, Ronda used all of her strength to try and stop him, actually surprising Seth with how strong she was.

"Are you getting physical with me, Seth Rollins?"

"Yes."

With that, Seth kissed Ronda passionately and they both moved inside the room. Ronda moaned with pleasure as Seth kicked the door closed.

Waiting for a departure gate to be announced at an airport was one of the most boring, and frequent things about life with WWE. This time, however, Seth had enough to keep his mind busy, number one being thinking back to the incredible sex that he and Ronda had enjoyed both the previous night and again that morning. He had never been with a powerful woman like Ronda before. He had found it a different but incredible experience.

"Hey, come here," Ronda said from beside him, bringing him out of his thoughts. Turning to look at her, he saw that she had her phone in her hand and wanted to take a selfie with him. He smiled for the picture, then Ronda looked at it on her phone. "Awww, it's a really nice one," she said happily.

"Let me see it," Seth smiled, reaching his hand out for the phone.

"No way," Ronda giggled. "You'll see it in a minute."

Moments later Seth's phone chirped its notification alert. He touched the notification, bringing up the Instagram and the picture that Ronda had uploaded. She was right, it was a nice picture, but what made him smile was the caption underneath which read: I love this guy. On reflection, he considered the words to be well chosen. The most that could happen was that people could begin to speculate if Seth Rollins and Ronda Rousey were in a relationship, as the words could also mean that he and Ronda had become close friends. Both of them knew the truth, of course.

"That's very sweet," Seth said, leaning in for a kiss. It felt great that Ronda had written the word love, but it was too early to actually say it.

Ten minutes later, Seth's phone rang. He saw that it was a FaceTime call from Roman. Again, he had missed Dean and Roman at breakfast as he and Ronda had agreed to wait until they got down to Florida to hit the gym together. Thinking about the missed time with his brothers made Seth feel guilty. He could not keep avoiding them like that, new relationship or not. Maybe they could all go for a meal the following Monday after Raw? Yes, he decided, that would be a good idea. "It's Roman, I'm going to take it," he announced.

"Of course," Ronda smiled. "I need to call mom and tell her I'm not coming home anyway."

Seth stood and walked away from where he had been sitting, over to a quieter part of the waiting area as he answered the call, seeing both Roman and Dean appear on the screen. "Hey guys."

"Hey, bro," Roman greeted. "Where are you?"

"I'm at the airport already. Sorry I missed you again this morning."

"You with anyone?" Dean asked. Seth picked up on something in his close friend's tone that told him that he was not the only one thinking that he had not been spending enough time with his second family recently.

"Ronda's here. We're heading out to Florida."

"You're with Ronda?" Dean asked, sounding disappointed. Seth felt a little hurt by that. Surely the guys could cut him a little slack? "He's with Ronda," Dean said to Roman.

"Yeah we knew that, remember?" Roman said. Seth felt as confused as Dean looked, having no clue what was going on.

"We did?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, we saw it Instagram," Roman said patiently.

"Oh yeah," Dean supposedly recalled as a grin broke out on his face. "Ronda said she loves him," he announced incredibly patronisingly. "Ain't that just the sweetest thing?" Now Seth realised that this whole call had been a wind up from the start. The guys had called him to rib him about the picture and its caption.

"Awww," Roman joined in, trying not to laugh. "Ronda loves little Seth. The girl's going to start carrying him around in her purse."

"Fuck off, guys," Seth griped, but he could not keep a straight face as he said it. Dean had got him good by playing offended. All three men spent a long moment laughing and now rather than feeling guilty Seth felt great. Of course he knew that the guys would understand him spending his time with Ronda at the moment, they were both in relationships and had been where he was right now themselves.

Over the next few minutes, Seth floated the suggestion of the meal for the following Monday night and Roman and Dean agreed that it was a good idea. Seth and Roman had another good laugh at Dean, who, in their opinion, would be the one showing up on a leash if Renee was around. The conversation moved on to Seth telling the story of why he was going to Florida with Ronda, and after both Roman and Dean had told him to wish her good luck from them, they ended the call. It was good timing because the departure gate for Seth's flight had just been announced.

"Okay," Seth said, holding the ring ropes apart for Ronda to follow him into the ring. "The first thing they usually teach us is how to hit the ropes properly. It's actually a lot harder than it looks."

"This place is amazing." Ronda looked around the WWE Performance Center, with its seven training rings and various other state of the art facilities. It was late afternoon on the day that she and Seth had arrived in Orlando, but she had not wanted to sleep on the fact that her first session awaited her, preferring instead to get right on with it at the first opportunity. When they had arrived in the building, they had learned that Hunter had called ahead and ordered that Seth Rollins and Ronda Rousey were to be given one of the training rings to use any time they desired, and they were to be left alone while they were there. No one questioned direct orders like that from the boss.

Ronda returned her full attention to Seth. "Sorry, I'm listening. Hitting the ropes?"

"That's usually what they do first," Seth nodded. "But you don't need me for that. Anyone can show you that. What you need me to do is show you how to take moves safely. And more importantly you need me to... Well, you need me to do some simple moves on you to give you some confidence, right?"

"Right," Ronda nodded, starting to feel nervous and hating herself for it. This was why it was so important that it was Seth who standing in front of her. If it was anyone else, she would likely have bailed by now.

"Okay, well, the simplest bump you can take is from being knocked down with a punch. Remember, you can only use open handed punches. Hell, I don't need to tell you this, you've been a referee for how long, you've seen how we sell punches. I guess I'll go over it anyway. Throw a punch at me and watch how I throw myself down and how I take the fall on my entire back. You've got to really throw yourself back to make it look good."

Ronda threw the lamest looking punch ever. Rather than sell it, Seth shook his head. "Nope, I said throw a punch. Hit me." He half expected this to start becoming at lot more difficult than he had first imagined, wondering if Ronda might say that she was unwilling to swing at him. But no, she did not need telling twice, smacking him straight in the jaw with her open fist.

"Good," he said from his new position lying on the canvas a second later. "Did you see how I did that?"

"Yeah," Ronda nodded. Of course, she had seen it hundreds of times in matches before, but Seth was doing the right thing. Square one was where she needed to start. Luckily, acting like a know it all when she really did not know much was not her style. What she did know was what was coming next, and she felt her stomach knotting up at the prospect.

"Now you," Seth said. "I'm not going to punch you, obviously, but throw yourself back just how I did."

Ronda wanted to do it, but her legs would not move, would not propel her backwards. Her nerves would not let them do it. It was easy for Seth to see the conflict that was going on inside her head at that moment. The logical part of her mind was telling her that there was no way to injure herself simply by throwing herself to the canvas, and that her neck was fully healed, but there was another part that insisted on planting that seed of doubt and asking, "What if?"

"Look at me," Seth said gently, walking over and putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "This is why we're here, why I'm here. You're not going to get hurt, okay? I promise. Remember Bobby, the horse? You were afraid until you got on him, but then you realised that you were fine. Eventually, you even enjoyed it. This will be the same. By this time Friday you'll be throwing me around the ring like I'm Cody Rhodes."

He was delighted when a smile appeared on Ronda's face. "It's not throwing you around that troubles me," she clarified.

"I know," Seth smiled back. "Okay, here we go. This time is going to be the toughest. It's all downhill from here. Suck it up and do it, when you're ready."

There was no way to delay any longer. Ronda knew that there were two choices in front of her: do this, or quit. She told herself that she was no quitter. Then, fighting off the fear as best she could, she threw herself backwards onto the mat as possible, just as Seth had shown her moments before. Lying on the mat and looking up at the building's lights, she felt relief washing over her to such an extent that tears stung her eyes. She was unhurt.

"You okay?" Seth asked, standing over her and offering a hand to help her up.

Ronda took his hand and stood. "I'm okay," she said, smiling. "I'm fine. I'm pathetic though, right? Being afraid to do that?"

Seth could see that she was a little overcome with emotion, so he gently pulled her into an embrace. "No," he told her quietly. "You're not pathetic. You're very brave to be here doing this. Very brave," he repeated.

"Thank you," Ronda said softly. His words meant so much to her.

After holding her for a moment longer, Seth pulled away. "Right, again," he ordered and Ronda slammed herself to the canvas, this time with a lot less hesitation.

"Good. Up you get. Do it again."