It never failed to stun Braun how a person could be so small, and so insanely beautiful. Alexa Bliss was the closest thing he had seen to a real life angel, or maybe more appropriately, a goddess. She had such a pretty face, a gorgeous smile, and a body that was literally to die for, especially that butt. He could look at that for hours and not get bored. Frustratingly, though, look was all he could do. They were tag team partners on Team Little Big, and nothing more.
"You do realise I'm not going to be able to do this, right?" Alexa demanded, standing there with her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face. That feisty attitude was just one more thing Braun adored about her.
"You might be small, but that's no excuse for not being strong," he told her. They were standing in an arena parking garage, in front of an ambulance that had been left on standby by the paramedics. A thick length of rope was tied to the front of it. "Give it your best shot," he instructed.
"If I hurt my back, I'm blaming you," she said grumpily as she picked up the rope.
"Put the rope over your shoulder and pull," he instructed.
With a heavy sigh, Alexa did as he said. Looping the rope over her shoulder, she strained with all her might to get the ambulance moving. Perhaps unsurprisingly, nothing happened other than her feet slipping as she failed to gain traction.
"Pull!" Braun barked, trying to encourage her.
"I am pulling!" she screeched back at him, straining for all she was worth. The ambulance didn't move an inch. After a few moments, she gave up and dropped the rope to the ground and returned to standing with her hands on her hips. "Look, this is stupid. You're taller than me and stronger than me. You're just going to have to get used to it."
"It's okay, little one," he said as gently as he could manage, which wasn't very gentle at all. He was afraid that he had embarrassed her by setting her a task that was beyond her physical limits, as hard as that was to believe. After all, it was only an ambulance he was asking her to move.
"Alright, perhaps we should work up to ambulances," he said thoughtfully, getting a roll of Alexa's eyes in response. He looked around for something a bit lighter for her to work with. After a moment, his eyes settled on the perfect thing. "Come over here," he said, setting off across the garage towards the entrance to the arena.
"What's next, having me tip over the production truck?" Alexa griped as she trudged after him with a sour look on her face.
"No. Something easier than that. All you've got to do is pick this up." He stopped next to a large equipment case and pointed to it.
Alexa hands returned to her hips. "Oh, that's all? Well, I'll get right on it."
"Don't be like that," Braun said, putting an affectionate hand on her shoulder. "I'm trying to help you. You can do it."
Feeling the hand on her shoulder seemed to take the sting out of Alexa's bad mood. She put her own tiny little hand on top of his massive one. Braun's heart jumped in his chest as she made contact with him. He felt such an attraction to her that his chest felt tight just being around her. Keeping focussed on being her teammate was a very difficult task indeed.
"I know you are," Alexa said, her tone having softened significantly as she gave him a break. "I'll do my best to pick the box up."
"You can do it," he encouraged once more.
Looking determined, Alexa took a moment to limber up before crouching down beside the huge box to get her hands underneath its edge.
"Lift with your knees, not your back," Braun said.
Straining with the effort, Alexa put everything she had into lifting the equipment case. To her own surprise, the side that she was lifting began to rise from the ground. The box was too heavy for her to lift the whole thing into the air, but she was at least managing to get one side up. With a loud scream, she flipped the box over onto its side. "I did it!" she announced proudly, face red from the exertion.
Braun didn't have the heart to say that his challenge had been to pick the box up, not to tip it over. "You did great, little one," he told her proudly. "You'll soon be throwing Nia Jax around the ring."
"Team Little Big!" Alexa exclaimed happily, raising her right hand for a high five.
Braun slapped her hand in delight, realising as he did it that he had put a bit more power behind it than he had wanted to.
Alexa took the blow, then looked at her arm in shock. It was bent at a horrifying angle at the elbow.
"Oh no!" Braun exclaimed, seeing the damage he had caused. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…"
Suddenly, Alexa's arm returned to normal. She pointed at him with it and laughed. "Got you! I have double-jointed elbows, see." She bent her arm out of shape again.
"I thought I hurt you," Braun said, sounding mortified by the prospect.
Feeling a little guilty about the trick she had played on him, Alexa took his hand and squeezed it. "I know you'd never hurt me," she assured him earnestly.
Later that night, Alexa was searching the backstage areas for Braun. She was bearing a gift for her partner, along with a similar item for herself. A lot of thought had gone into it, but annoyingly, she had been let down by the people she had entrusted with the job of manufacturing the items.
Rounding a corner, she saw her partner up ahead, idly lifting an equipment box like the one she had struggled to tip over earlier. How someone could be so big and strong was a complete mystery to her, yet there was something undeniably attractive about it. Since they had teamed together, first the previous year and then again the week before at the start of Mixed Match Challenge 2, she had learned that there was a gentler to side to the huge monster. He wasn't all about shouting and smashing things up, even if he did do those too often for her liking.
"You do something to me, Mr Monster in the Bank," she muttered to herself, trying to wish away the fluttering sensation in her stomach that she always seemed to feel when she was around him.
At the end of the corridor, the equipment case crashed to the ground. Braun turned around and saw her approaching. The smile that appeared on his face made her stomach flutter all over again. "Ah, there you are," he boomed. "I wondered where you went."
"I had to go back to my locker room to fetch these," she announced, holding up a pair of t-shirts. One was the perfect size for her, while the other was absolutely enormous – big enough to fit him. "I got these made for us, but there was a bit of an error." She held out the large shirt to him.
"What error?" he asked. The answer became apparent as he was speaking. He had unfurled the shirt, to reveal the words 'Team Little Big' with a cartoon style image of Alexa below it with her gloved hands raised in her familiar entrance pose.
"They put my picture on your shirt, and your picture on mine," she reported, showing him the smaller shirt. It also featured the name of the team, along with a cartoon Braun with its arms raised in his trademark manner.
Much to her surprise, Braun laughed. It was a deep booming sound that felt like it shook the walls. Nevertheless, she was delighted to have provoked it. "I'll wear mine if you wear yours," he said.
Alexa giggled. "Alright, deal." She set about pulling the shirt over her ring attire, while he did the same.
"How do I look?" he asked, spreading his arms wide.
"Amazing," she replied honestly, looking up at him with genuine affection in her eyes. "What about me?" She did a little twirl for him.
"Beautiful," he said with uncharacteristic tenderness.
"Thank you," she said, biting her bottom lip shyly.
"We should get a selfie," Braun suggested, making her laugh again. It wasn't the kind of thing she expected him to know about, let alone wanting to do it.
"Okay, but how?" she wondered, contemplating the frankly ridiculous height difference between them.
Braun crouched down as he took a phone out of his pocket. "Sit on my shoulder, little one."
"Uh, okay," she replied cautiously. Carefully, she sat on his shoulder as she had after their match the previous week, her legs dangling in front of his chest.
Slowly, Braun stood up, being careful not to spill her. He held the phone out in front of them and said, "Say Braun!"
They both shouted his name as he took the picture. A moment later, he was showing her the result on the phone's screen. It was actually a very cute picture, she thought. As unlikely a couple… pairing, she corrected herself, not couple. As unlikely a pairing as they were, it honestly did feel like they were bonding. It bode well for the future, particularly for their upcoming semi-final match in Mixed Match Challenge 2.
A/N: Thank you everyone for the overwhelming response to the first chapter of this story. It really blew me away to see so many people enjoying it, and I hope you all liked seeming Lexi and Braun bonding in this chapter?
Next time it's the semi-final, and you guys are going to have the chance to choose Team Little Big's opponents. Leave the name of *one* male and female pairing in your review, and I'll choose the one I like the most! The person who submits the winning entry will get a shout out.