I hope you all have a VERY Merry Christmas! Happy reading!

Carter was standing next to Becky as they watched the NXT show the night before Wrestlemania. They were huddled off to the side, hidden in the dark and shadows in the back of the arena, with a handful of other superstars that were there to watch the show. Everyone wanted to give the younger talent their support. It was also a way to get their minds off of the fact that their biggest pay per view of the year was the next morning.

She reached for her phone that she had tucked into the top of her boots since she didn't have a pocket to put it in and she frowned to herself at the blank screen. Seth had gotten there that morning and apart from him telling her that he had landed and was headed to the hotel; she hadn't heard a peep from him and she was very close to tipping over the edge of being annoyed with him.

She knew this was a tough weekend for him and she knew that more than any other time he was probably going to be moody. She knew he was busy and he had to cram a lot of work related things into the 48 hours he was going to be there. He could at least manage to respond to her and her offers to grab dinner or a drink or breakfast.

Becky glanced over at her friend and nudged her with her arm, "you okay?"

"I'm irritated but I'm fine," Carter replied with a shrug. "Seth has decided to go MIA and it just…it annoys me."

"Were you supposed to hang out?"

"Yeah we had talked about it but it's like he got here and he just went completely radio silent. I get it, it's Mania weekend, we're all busy and we're stressed out and I know he's in this little black hole about the whole situation but he could at least say something. Like 'hey, C, thanks for the breakfast invite but I'm just not up to it. I'll see you at the show.'" Carter folded her arms across herself after she returned her phone to her boot. "We talk almost every day, you know? We hung out in Florida. So why do this now?"

"Because men are morons," Becky replied and offered her friend a shrug and small smile.

Carter chuckled, "yeah I think moron is understatement most of the time. Although, it's not that you have any right to talk because Ferg is perfection."

"Oh if you think he's perfect you're welcome to come live with him for a week and get back to me on that."

"I'm lonely, Becks, don't tempt me with that."

Becky gave her friend an amused look and then reached out to give her a one arm hug. She added a little extra squeeze and laughed, "I would gladly share him with you- any time."

"Thank you," Carter shared her laugh, "I'll let you know when I get that desperate. I'm going to go grab some tea, I'll be back."

Becky gave her a nod and glanced at her briefly before turning her attention back to the ring.

Carter bit her lip and turned on her heel to disappear through the curtains and make her way to the catering area. Her mind was wandering as she walked and she wasn't really paying attention to anything other than the floor ahead of her. Knowing her current luck she would fail to pay attention and trip over something and make a scene in front of God and everyone in the arena.

Truthfully, she felt, she was mostly annoyed with Seth because she was in her own bad mood and it was easiest to just deflect it on him. Her Mania week hadn't really been stellar and she was trying to be grateful and just happy she was there and that she was going to be able to support Brie; but it was hard to let her frustrations slip away completely.

Did she have a right to be annoyed with him? Yes. Did it need to be as much as it was? Probably not.

She sighed to herself and ran her fingers through her long hair and then collected it in both hands, forming a ponytail that she let fall over her shoulder. She glanced to the side of the curtain as she got to it and paused when she saw Seth.

Oh, she thought to herself.

His eyes were on her, his gaze locked with hers as soon as she had spotted him and he gave her a soft smile. She didn't return the smile and it only took a couple of seconds for that to register with him. She watched his smile fade and picked up on the motion that he was about to move and approach her.

She rolled her eyes slightly and licked her lips, breaking her eye contact with him, and continued through the curtain before he had the time to move and approach her.

Never mind everything you just told yourself, Car. He absolutely deserves it.

He was standing next to the curtains when she walked back in, almost directly in her pathway to get back to Becky, and there was no way she could avoid him. She didn't need to avoid him and she knew that but the fact that she had turned around and seen him there bothered her.

She stopped next to him and sipped her tea without speaking.

They stood side by side for a few minutes, in silence, watching the match that was unfolding in front of them.

"You're mad at me," he stated.

"I wasn't."

"You weren't?"

"No, I wasn't, and then I turned around and saw you standing five feet behind me and that changed."

"Well fuck…" he mumbled.

"You don't have to ignore me, you know? It's not going to hurt my feelings if you tell me you just want Seth time; I get that, but say that. We've talked about this before."

"I have had a really hectic day. It's been slightly overwhelming."

"Seeing as how you're standing here, watching this show, it hasn't been that hectic."

"I know. I'm sorry."

"I'm glad you're sorry," she replied coolly.

"Well will you at least let me explain? Does the dinner or drink or breakfast offer still stand?"

"Sure but for now I'm going to enjoy the rest of this show; find me after," She looked at him for a moment and then sighed to herself before moving to return to her spot next to Becky.

Finding her after the show had proven to be a little bit more difficult than he had expected. It didn't really make sense to him since backstage was such a small area. Had she disappeared on him, now? It didn't help that he had been pulled in several different directions to say hello to people that he hadn't seen in several months.

He had finally spotted her sharing a quick word with Bayley and Becky, giving them a small smile and then turning to head towards the doors that led to the parking garage. He watched her face change as soon as she stepped away from the girls and he couldn't help but wonder if it was her anger with him that was causing it or if she was having a bad day herself.

He slipped by the people that were standing around in the hallway and made his way through the double doors that she had just disappeared through. She wasn't too far ahead of him and he called out her name.

Carter stopped walking and he could see her shoulders rise and fall with a sigh and then she turned around to look at him. Her mouth was tight and she studied him as he closed the distance between them, arms folded across her chest.

"You know, it's really not very nice to tell me to 'find me after' and then you run away. You also seem to have a thing for making me chase you which also isn't very nice seeing as how I just had knee surgery."

"Well coming from someone that swore to me a hundred times a few weeks ago that you were ready to get back in the ring, chasing me shouldn't be much of a problem."

"It wasn't a hundred times, it was maybe five, ten tops."

She didn't crack a smile and he realized pretty quickly that his usual sharp tongue and sarcasm wasn't going to work on her in that moment.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm great."

His eyebrows rose, very clearly not believing the dry response that had just come out of her mouth.

"Are you really?" he asked again.

She sighed and glanced around the parking garage before locking her gaze back with his. "No, I haven't really been having a great day and it's progressively gotten worse. I want to go back to the hotel and go to bed."

"Well at least tomorrow you'll be waking up to Mania," he smiled, mentally urging her to smile, too.

"I guess."

"Carter, come on. You've been like a little kid on Christmas for at least a week talking about how excited you were for Mania. It's your first. You can't be grumpy…"

"You're the only one allowed to be grumpy, I guess?"

"Hey, I'm not grumpy."

It was her turn to raise her eyebrows at him, not believing what he was saying.

"You've been grumpy since the first day we spoke," she responded.

He sighed and buried his hands in his pockets. "Will you talk to me, please? Whatever it is that's going on, that has you in this mood…just, talk to me."

"I've been trying to talk to you, Seth. I've been trying to talk to you all fucking day and you haven't been there. And don't give me the "things have been hectic" line again because they haven't been that hectic. You had time to stand in there and watch that show. How long were you in there before I saw you? How long did you stand there and know it was me and not say anything? I get that these two days are busy for you but don't throw out a line for someone to see you if you aren't going to follow through with it."

"Carter, I'm sorry. I got into a hole about all of this and I know that you've been texting me and yeah, I did know that was you standing in front of me. I…I definitely knew that was you standing in front of me. I should've spoken."

She made a soft noise at his statement.

"But I'm here now, and I'm apologizing, and I'm asking you what's wrong aside from the obvious…"

"You're here now because you got caught," she replied. She shifted her weight from one foot to another and shook her head. "I always pick up my phone for you; always. I offered up my friendship and I've been your friend and maybe I'm just…maybe I'm just too big of a person, maybe I'm stupid for expecting the same from other people. You know, maybe that's my fault. Maybe you're just selfish and you live in your own little Seth Rollins/Colby Lopez world; I don't know. I know I want to go to my room and I want to sleep this off and tomorrow I will be back to being peppy, helpful Carter."

"Okay," he responded meekly. He swallowed hard and sighed, "be careful going back to the hotel. Are you on your own or are you with one of the girls?"

"I'm on my own."

"Well be safe."

"I can handle it."

He rubbed the back of his neck and frowned at her. He was clearly frustrated and wounded. "If you decide that you still want to talk to me, you know how to find me. I'm still up for breakfast…"

He shrugged and she nodded, biting her lip.

"Thank you," she said. She cut another look at him and then turned to continue on her way to her rental car.

Seth's phone vibrated in his pocket as he entered his hotel room. He had just gotten back from the NXT show and he was ready to crawl into his bed and go to sleep. It had been a tiring day and it didn't help that after Carter walked away from him he had gotten sucked back into saying hello and small talking with everyone that wanted to say hi to him. He should have just left when she did instead of getting stuck there.

He looked at his phone and let out an audible 'oh' when he saw the text on his screen.

Does you offer to talk still stand?

Of course it does.
I just got back to my room can I call you in a few minutes?

He responded to Carter and set about to kicking his shoes off and changing his clothes. He heard his phone vibrate on the desk he had discarded it on. He assumed, or hoped, that it was her saying it was fine for him to call when he was free.

He crossed back across his room after swapping his jeans for shorts, looked at his phone and then called Carter.

"Hi," she said when she picked up after a few rings.

"Hi sunshine."

"I'm not much of a sunshine today. I'm more of a black hole of bitchiness," she responded.

He cracked a smile and chuckled quietly, "it happens to the best of us."

"Well, I might as well get it out of the way and tell you that I'm sorry for biting your head off. I'm still mad at you but I shouldn't have…I should have given you a chance to…I'm just sorry, ok?"

"I'm sorry, too."

"Hmm."

"You were right that you're always there for me and I didn't return that to you today. I do have a tendency to be a little selfish sometimes, thank you for the reminder, and sometimes I have to be snapped out of it."

"Yeah, I was warned that you were selfish…" she muttered.

"Seriously? By who?"

"Dean…"

"Wow. Really?"

"Yeah, it…it wasn't in a mean way. He wasn't trying to…talk shit about you or anything. Dean is Dean, he's your brother, he loves you…but he just told me that you have a little bit of a tendency to be self absorbed so I shouldn't be surprised by it. That you don't usually know you're doing it; it's just…you. To be fair, I haven't really seen that in you very much…"

"Well that's good to know," he mumbled.

"I haven't really noticed a lot of the things in you that I've heard about you from backstage gossip. Either people don't know you or you've changed."

"I think it's probably safe to say that people don't really know me. But almost seeing your career and dreams and life disappear tends to change someone a little bit so it may be like 90/10 on that."

"Understandable."

"Part of me wants to know what you've heard about me and what people think about me but the bigger part of me doesn't want to know that."

"Everyone loves you," she replied.

"Right; why haven't you brought this up before?"

"I didn't feel a need to bring it up."

They were silent for a few moments and Carter could tell he was letting her comments swirl around in his mind.

"What are you doing?" he finally asked, breaking the silence.

"I'm sitting in my room eating pork dumplings and watching hockey."

"Where did you find Chinese food?"

"In the 'hotel information' folder on my desk; there was a menu, I called them, and they delivered it to me."

He turned around and looked at the desk in his room and flipped open the three ring notebook with the basic hotel information in it. He went from cover to cover and didn't find anything.

"I don't have one of those."

"Maybe it was just meant to be for me, then. Thank you to whoever formerly occupied this room." She smiled to herself and laughed lightly, "I can text you the number if you really want it. You sounded really disappointed."

"I am, a little. Please do." He sat down on the edge of his bed and reached for the remote for the TV. "So are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

"Are you?"

"You know what was wrong with me," he retorted. "Just being around everyone and seeing the fans and getting asked a million times if I was going to show up tomorrow night or how the rehab was going or when I was coming back; it was tough, especially since I don't really have those answers. I know it didn't give me an excuse to be an ass but…it was just easier for me to be on my own and let it soak in."

"You could've told me that."

"Next time I will."

"I got booted off the pre show," she said abruptly. "They're going to put Amy on the pre show since she's making the announcement about the new women's title."

"So what are you going to do then?"

"Nothing."

"You got benched at your first Wrestlemania…" Seth commented.

"I'm going to go down to the ring and watch Brie's last match and I'm going to celebrate a little with the girls after and then I'll be right there with you, in the suite, watching the show."

"We're pretty close to Vegas…you can call in a hit on Renee or Lita and then they'll have to put you back on the show."

"As tempting as that is, I would like to keep my record and my conscience clean."

"I'm sorry, Carter. I know you were really excited about tomorrow…"

"I just don't really know what exactly I'm doing here."

"You're hosting panels, and doing interviews, and blowing up Instagram and twitter with pictures and behind the scenes stuff and saying hi to your fans and taking in everything."

"Yeah well there are other people that can do that."

"Hey, putting Lita in your place is not a reflection of you, Car. It's Vince and that's just how he is. I know it sucks. I know that it sucks- being on the sideline is the worst. But Monday night things will go back to normal and you'll be back backstage, doing your thing, and…next year that preshow will be all you."

Carter was silent in response to him and after a brief moment he started laughing.

"Why are you laughing?" she questioned.

"Oh god, is this what I've been like the last 4 months?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"I'm so sorry that you've had to deal with me. I mean…shit; I'm not trying to discredit your mood and your feelings, Car. I understand it and I get it- if I had a match that got bumped, I would be upset about it too. I know you've been all over the place this week and you've been killing yourself so it makes it sting even more. I just meant…I know I always try to beat myself up and throw myself under the bus and you never let me and I'm sorry you had to deal with that."

"We're a lot alike, Rollins, as much as I hate admitting that. I'm the better looking out of the two of us, though."

"I won't argue that."

She sighed loudly and chuckled, "I guess I did pull a 'you', huh?"

"You didn't cry though, so hey, you're one up on me."

"I'm going to tell the whole world that I heard you cry."

"Don't test me, Kelly."

"I should go to bed. It's going to be a long day tomorrow. Thank you for letting me vent and…letting me bitch you out."

"I was slightly deserving of it but you're welcome. Get some sleep, try and cheer up; there's always a chance something will change tomorrow and you won't be up in the suite with the rest of us peasants."

"Do you still want to get breakfast?"

"Yeah, just text me when you're up, wake me up if you have to, I'll come meet you in the lobby."

"Ok, but I'm going to have a bloody mary and I expect you to keep your mouth shut about it."

"My lips will be sealed."

"Goodnight, Seth."

"Send me the Chinese food phone number!"

He caught her giving him a 'yeah, yeah' before he heard the beeps signaling that she had hung up. He chuckled and smiled and his smile grew a little bigger when her text came through with the phone number.

Thank you. He responded to her text.

Ask for extra soy sauce if you drown your food in it like I do. They shorted me the bastards.
Also you're paying for breakfast…you owe me for being kind of an ass today.

Deal.