Disclaimer: I do not own WWE or any of the characters mentioned.

Chapter Five: Make Me Feel Like I Am Breathing

Come Monday morning, Dean's pretty shocked when he realizes that he's searching for Seth. Usually, his first thought is to find Roman, but now, he wants to see Seth. He wants to invite him over again. He wants to spend more time with him. It's funny, because he feels different around Seth than when he's around his best friend. Seth makes him laugh more, makes him smile more. Makes him want to have fun again.

He decides that it's because Seth has this childlike innocence about him that he's never seen in anyone his age. He knows that Seth is the youngest of the group, being as he skipped a grade and all, but it's not even that. It's just… Seth.

"There you are!"

Dean hears Seth's voice to his left, and he's smiling already. "You were looking for me?" He jokes.

Seth rolls his eyes in a playful manner. "Of course. But honestly, I really just wanted to tell you that I had a lot of fun this weekend. More fun than I've had in a long time."

At that, Dean can't help but furrow his eyebrows a bit. He wasn't really expecting that. "Really?" He can't help but ask.

The younger looks at him with slight confusion, as if he doesn't know why he would even question the fact. "Yeah, I really did. You sound surprised?"

He shrugs. "I guess I kind of am. I'm not very… sociable."

Seth admits to himself that he's not 100% sure what Dean could be implying by saying that, so he drops it altogether. "Well, like I said, I had a lot of fun. We should really hang out more often!" The cheerfulness has now returned to his voice. "I really don't get why John was so worried about me hanging out with you."

As if he was queued by the comment, John appears from seemingly nowhere, fingers tightly laced with Roman's.

"Hey guys." He says. "What's up? How was your weekend?"

He gives Dean a look, but Dean can appreciate the fact that it's not as judgy as it usually is. Dean does have to admit that John's very good at giving people chances.

"We had so much fun! We played video games for hours. Totally lost track of time." Seth beams.

John looks both pleasantly surprised and skeptical. "That's all you did?"

Seth isn't fazed by the implication. Didn't even catch it in the first place. "Yeah, it was really fun." He says again.

"You got Dean to bust out the old PlayStation? Damn, not even I've seen that thing in years." Roman says. Dean looks proudly at John.

"See? I didn't kill your boy or anything. We got along really well, didn't we, Rollins?" He puts his arm around Seth's shoulder, and he notices for the first time how close in height they are. He's always been the smallest of his friends, but now Seth is there to balance that out.

Seth brings his arm up to mimic Dean's gesture. "We did, Ambrose."

…

When school gets out, Seth, John, and Roman meet in the parking lot at John's car. They had all made plans to go to see the newest action movie. It had originally been planned as a date for John and Roman, but they decided at the very last moment to invite the other two boys. Seth happily agreed, and Dean only did because Seth did.

"Where the hell is he?" John asks. School had gotten out about 15 minutes earlier, and Dean is still nowhere to be found. They had all tried calling and texting him, but no reply.

"Maybe he got detention." Roman suggests, opening the door to John's white Dodge Charger and taking a seat, his legs still resting on the ground of the parking lot. "He's about overdue for getting into trouble."

Seth laughs and even though he knows the answer to his next question, he asks it anyways. "Does he get in trouble a lot?"

It's not John's turn to laugh. "Oh, that's an understatement. Dean getting in trouble is a pretty regular occurrence. He just hasn't gotten into any "big" trouble lately."

Seth chuckles in reply, and the waiting game goes on. After a few moments of silence go by, John decides to strike up a rather important (by his standards) conversation with the newest member of the group.

"So Seth, what do you think of Dean?"

"Oh no…" Roman mumbles, earning an elbow to the arm from his boyfriend.

Seth looks slightly caught off guard by the question. "What do I think of Dean?" He repeats. John nods. "What do you mean?"

John looks to Roman as if to silently ask for help, but Roman pretends to take interest in his nails. He knows in that moment that he's on his own, but he does hope that Roman won't be mad at him for bringing his best friend up like this.

"Like, what is your perception of him?"

The younger takes a moment to think. To be completely honest, he doesn't really understand what John is asking, and he really doesn't know why. He doesn't know why John seems to have these reservations about the dirty blonde. He's been constantly dropping hints to Seth that give him the idea that John doesn't want him having anything to do with Dean, and he really doesn't see why. As far as he knows, Dean hasn't given Seth any reason to be cautious of him.

"I really like him. He's really funny. Like, hilarious. And he seems like a great friend; very loyal and protective, you know?"

John has to nod because John has to admit that those things are true. As much as he doesn't like the guy, anyone could appreciate how funny he was. If the joke wasn't directed towards you, he could have you laughing in mere seconds. And he really was a good friend. A damn good friend. He sees the way he is with Roman, and John really respects that. One of the reasons that John and Roman never fight is because they both worry how Dean will react if he finds out that John had upset Roman.

It happened once. Never really happened again.

"True." John decides to take a different route with it. "Does he ever tell you about what he… What he likes to do for fun?"

"Uhhh…" Again, Seth is left utterly confused. "Not really."

John nods. "Well-"

"John, stop it." Roman hisses. He knows how Dean can be. He knows it, but he doesn't think it's fair for John to take Dean away from Seth before he even has the chance to do anything wrong. From what he can see, Dean and Seth have been getting along just fine, and he doesn't want John to ruin it.

Seth looks back and forth between the couple, who are now sending each other tense looks. What is going on? He thinks.

"Guys, what-" Before he continue, his phone vibrates in his back pocket. They both watch as he retrieves his phone and reads the message:

Hey, I decided that I don't wanna go see a fucking movie. Movies are boring. Wanna ditch Cinderella and Prince Charming and do something else?

Seth accidentally laughs out loud, which draws the couple's curiosity.

"Who's that? Is it Dean?" Roman asks.

Seth looks up and shakes his head as casually as he can. He shoves his phone into his pocket and starts to back away from the pair. "No, it was, uh, my mom. Wants me home. Sorry guys!" And now he's running to his car.

John and Roman look at each other, a bit baffled by the sudden turn of events.

"Um, alright?"

Once Seth makes it to his car, he locks himself inside and puts on his seatbelt. After carefully making sure that he hadn't been followed by Roman or John, he retrieves his phone once more and sends Dean a text:

What's the plan, captain?

…

"A little more to the left. A little more… Yeah! Right there!"

Not even 20 minutes after ditching Roman and John, Seth finds himself in a bar across town. He'd been a little hesitant when he first arrived, but seeing as Dean was a regular and all of the workers knew him, he didn't feels as nervous. They all treated Dean as a sort of pseudo son, and just because he was with Dean, they treated him the same. It was all smiles and hugs from the moment the two walked in.

It was an interestingly comfortable atmosphere, Seth realized. The place was dimly lit with televisions practically everywhere, each playing a different sport. Football, soccer, hockey, even horse racing could be found on any TV around the bar. But all you could really hear was talking and laughing. The drinking seemed casual and fit into the conversing of the people; nothing like the obnoxious drinking habits seen in movies. It was a cozy little place.

Dean had dragged Seth to a pool table as soon as he had seen one vacated, and currently, Dean is trying to show Seth the tricks of the trade. All the right angles of which to shoot. After giving his direction, Seth makes the shot and lands the ball.

"Holy shit, you're a natural!" Dean yells over the other voices in the bar. Seth laughs and jumps up and down a few times.

"I can't believe I just did that!" He skips over to the pocket he just shot the ball into and laughs again. He looks up at Dean as he points to it. "I just fucking made that!"

Dean walks over to Seth and pats his shoulder while smiling a proud, yet cocky smile. "Just don't forget who taught you how to shoot when you become a big shot pool player."

Seth shakes his head and playfully shoves Dean away. "Oh stop, did you see how smoothly that landed in the hole? Clearly, you can't teach that."

The dirty blonde rolls his eyes. "Clearly." He laughs.

"This is so much fun." Seth says as he lines up another shot. He misses this time, but he doesn't care. Frankly, he could care less if he never made a shot the entire game. He's pretty sure that he could sit in an empty room with Dean and have just as much of a blast. "Thank you."

Dean glances up from the shot that he's lining up to give Seth a questioning look. "What the hell are you thanking me for?" He's pretty sure that no one's ever thanked him for anything.

Seth shrugs, and waits for Dean to take his shot to answer. "Everything, I guess. For taking me in as a friend. For making me feel like I've been your friend for years. For making me feel, I don't know… Happy."

Dean's face flushes. Happy? He's never made anyone happy. No, he couldn't have heard right. Dean Ambrose is the most selfish person that Dean Ambrose knows, he didn't… He couldn't have…

"I'm sorry, is that weird? That's weird, isn't it? I'm sorry…" Seth says, and now both men are standing with completely red faces.

"No, it's not… It's just, I'm…" Dean scratches awkwardly at the back of his head. "I'm not used to hearing shit like that, you know?"

Dean suddenly feels like his throat is closing up. His stomach is churning and he feels like he can't fucking breathe. This is all too new to him. No one has ever seemed to damn happy to be in his presence and he didn't know how to handle it.

He was trash. He was worthless. He was discourteous, malevolent, egotistical; he'd heard it all his entire life. And now, here comes Seth, basically fawning over how great a friend he'd been to him. It didn't make sense.

"I, uh… I have to go." Dean practically squeaks out before quickly moving around the pool table and out the door.

Seth watches as it happens, a horrible feeling mixing around in his stomach. His stupid mouth had always gotten him in trouble. He had always had this willingness in him to say whatever came to mind, and he'd gotten himself into a lot of awkward situations because of it. But this… This somehow felt like the worst. Did he just lose someone who was beginning to mean so much to him?

A/N: Title from the song A Little Death by The Neighbourhood