A/N: Thank you for all the feedback, always appreciate it so much, and hope you enjoy the chapter. :)

AJ was bouncing on the balls of her feet as she waited for Dolph to slide the keycard into the door. Once he did and they were inside, he threw his arms around her and swung her around in circles before putting her down. She hugged him around the neck and they held each other for much longer than was necessary, but neither one cared. They clung to each other like the entire world was spinning down around them and if they let go, they'd never find each other again.

Finally, they pulled away from each other, but kept in a loose embrace. "I can't believe it, I feel like I could do anything right now," Dolph told her. "I don't think I've come down from the adrenaline high of winning."

"I'm the same way," AJ admitted. "I don't even know what to do with myself right now, but God, I don't think I'm going to sleep tonight, I think I'm just too amped up right now to sleep."

She pulled away further now and went to sit on the couch. She just sat there for a moment before a weird squealing noise came out of her mouth and she looked off in the distance. "I couldn't believe what I was watching. I mean, I've seen some impressive Rumble performances, but you…you outlasted so many people, and they were all going after you, and you beat them all back, it was amazing."

"Thanks," he said, the corner of his mouth turning up in a smile as he sat next to her. They sat in comfortable silence for a short while, each one thinking about the events that transpired earlier that evening. "I kind of didn't think I had a real chance."

She was surprised by the admission. Dolph was usually so confident, and she felt like he thought if he showed any sign of weakness, it would be a bad thing. So for him to share that with her felt more genuine than most of the things he'd said to her since they started their friendship. She looked at him, studied his face, and the earnest look almost took her breath away.

"You were always good enough to win," she told him, her voice low and breathy.

"I knew that," he said, chuckling a little bit, "but it's a hard thing, you know, going in there, knowing you will have to last a long time, knowing guys will be fresher than you are, knowing that guys will try to team up to take you out, it's draining mentally and physically, and by the end, you just want to fall over. Being number one made that worse."

"Think about it now, though, you get to tell Vickie off tomorrow, you get to go out there and thank her."

"Thank her?" He raised an eyebrow, which was telling her to explain herself.

"She gave you the choice of being number one or number two thinking that you would exit early, she gave it to you because she didn't think you'd win, but look at you now, you get to go down in history as one of the men who won the Rumble from the number one position. She gave you a spot in the record books, and I think you need to thank her for that."

Her voice was malicious and he nodded his head, "I see where you're going with this. I should thank Chris Jericho for coming back too so that it would give me another chance to humiliate him."

"That's the spirit," AJ grinned, "too bad I'm not GM so I can't make another match between the two of you so he can get fired again."

"I wish," he told her, "I can't believe I won, I mean, I won the Royal Rumble, the only time I ever did that was in WWE video games, and that was because I made myself face 29 Brooklyn Brawlers."

"Well, believe it because it happened, and unless we're in a fever dream, we both saw it happen," she reached out to touch his arm, rubbing it a little bit. "You actually did win, you are going to WrestleMania to face the champion. You are going to main event WrestleMania."

"Wow," he breathed, letting it really sink in that this was happening. After the moment passed, his face took on a gritty, determined look, and she could only think that he was already plotting out his reign in his head. "Okay, let's get down to business though, I have my match set, but you don't have yours."

She took pause for a moment to watch him as he pushed himself so he was sitting on the edge of the couch and started tapping his knees with his palms, thinking hard. She was surprised because tonight was about him, tonight was about what he accomplished and where he was going, and it was about how his career had just taken a huge step, and here he was, talking about her.

"My match…" It was more a question than a statement, and her voice was small and full of wonderment that this man had so ingrained her into his life, took on such a huge part of her that on the night he should be out celebrating, drinking, cavorting, but instead, he was in a hotel room with her, the girl he was pretending to be the boyfriend of even though after tonight, no, she wasn't going to dwell on the kiss.

"Yes, your match, you know, the one you want to have against Kaitlyn," Dolph said. "We have to get you the match as the #1 contender before some other chick comes along and acts like she has claim on it."

"Yeah, yeah, you're right," she said, getting into the conversation because this was what they wanted to do.

"You've been barreling through the division, but I don't think that's enough, you need to get people really into it, make them absolutely think that there is nobody else but you that can even contend for the title."

"How do I do that? I've been proving I'm better."

"You have, but we need you to do more, like, okay, do you think you could take both of the Funkadactyls?"

"You're kidding me, right?" AJ had to laugh at that. "Of course I can take them both down, are you kidding me? I could take them both out in my sleep."

"Good, so I think tomorrow, we get time at the top of the show to talk, and really, we should get that because I just won the fucking Royal Rumble, and I have to declare that I want to face The Rock because I have the World title briefcase, so why would I go after that when I have the sure thing here."

"Of course," she nodded along.

"Then we demand that you get a match at WrestleMania, and we can say something like you'll prove it tonight that you deserve the match," Dolph told her, "and we can have you face both Naomi and Cameron in a handicap match, you beat them, statement towards Kaitlyn."

"I like the way you think," she told him, psyched that this was all working out. When she'd come to him, it had been with apprehension. She wasn't sure how the two would work together or if they even could work together, and she also feared that he would use her to gain something for himself then leave her behind, but neither was happening.

"I hope Rock is still champion when WrestleMania comes around, I'd love to win it off him. It's just like, who does he think he is coming in here for five minutes, grabbing the title then taking off again? The company needs a guy who will stick around, who wants to be here, you know, part-timers, they're the worst," Dolph ranted a little as AJ watched the emotions flit across his face, all anger and intensity.

"Yeah," she said, really just wanting to hear him rant because there was something oddly comforting about his show of emotion, how much he let out in her presence.

"Since I'll be main eventing, you'll already have the title on you at that point, think about it, you and me walking out of there, end of the show, fireworks, confetti, and just us with the titles," he looked over at her with excitement dancing in his eyes.

"It's a dream," she said, and unconsciously she was moving closer to him. "This is so much more than I ever could have imagined. Thank you, thank you for being there and for helping me."

"No, thank you for lighting a fire under me." He reached out and hugged her again, and they held each other like they'd done a short while ago upon entering his hotel room.

When she started to pull away, it was like there was a bolt of electricity that flared through the both of them. Their faces were still close together, and their lips were inches apart. She lifted her eyes to his, and he was staring at her intensely. She swallowed audibly, biting her bottom lip a little bit as his forehead came to rest on hers. Her head tilted slightly to the side, and his nose was now nuzzling against hers, and they stayed that way, the moment stretching forever as they stared at each other.

Her lips were about to brush his when he breathed out her name, "AJ," he whispered, and the force and emotion behind her it were terrifying.

It brought her back to reality though, and she pulled away quickly, "I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me, I'm sorry."

"AJ," he said again, but this time it wasn't said with the reverence of a few moments ago, and she quickly ran a hand through her hair to calm herself.

"I think it was just the emotions from tonight going a little wild," AJ said, finally finding the courage to look up at him. He looked confused at best, his eyes searching hers, and she quickly averted them because he was getting too good at reading her emotions, and she wasn't even sure what she felt right now.

"Yeah, emotions," he repeated, but sounded unconvinced. "Uh, can we talk about what just happened or almost happened? I think that we need to have a talk about certain things."

She had to spearhead this right now, "I'm not looking for a relationship," she told him quickly, still not looking at him. "I don't want to be with anyone right now, I'm fine, I don't want to be with anyone. I just…I don't need anyone, you know."

"I get it," he told her, and she didn't dare try to analyze his voice. "It's just…"

"I can't," AJ said, "I can't think about it because I've been burned too many times, and I just need to not be with anyone because it's too hard, and I go in too deep, and we need to keep this professional."

"I think we passed professional a while ago, maybe past that first night," he tried to lighten the conversation.

"We're friends then, and you've been…you've been like a best friend to me," she looked at him, showing him that she was telling the truth. "You've been everything I've needed, and I can't lose that because of my impulsiveness. I can't lose you from my life, I've lost too much, I can't lose you too."

"I'm not going anywhere," he assured her. "AJ, I mean…yeah, it was just the whole emotions of tonight thing, nothing more. Plus, we've kissed so many times, it's just become natural, so it was probably just that."

"Yeah, I agree, so I have to go," she said, "I'll talk to you tomorrow, we'll talk, and we have Raw, and we'll figure out what we're going to say, and we'll get my match, okay?"

"Sure," he nodded, following her to the door. "I'll see you tomorrow, I'll text you."

"Sounds good!" she breezed through the door with her bag and headed quickly for her room down the hall. She needed to breathe because the situation in there was getting very hairy, and she couldn't think about it. Entering a relationship with Dolph, falling for him, it would only hurt her in the end, he would only hurt her in the end, like all the other guys, like they all did to her, it would be the same, it would end the same way, with her heartbroken and alone.

Wouldn't it?