Team Little Big were in an office which had been cleared of all furniture apart from a desk and a chair, where Braun was sitting, and a chalk board, which Alexa was standing next to. They were wearing Team Little Big shirts, this time with the cartoon characters the correct way round.
"I don't see what we're doing here," Braun complained loudly.
"We're here to teach you that everything doesn't have to be about smashing things up," Alexa said sternly, aiming a pointer in his direction. She was ready to use it to direct him to the question written on the chalk board. "Last week, when you tore that shirt off? That was the final straw. You need brains as well as brawn, uh, Braun." She looked a little puzzled herself by that sentence.
"Braun!" he shouted, raising his arms.
Alexa rolled her eyes. "Yes, brawn. But also brains." She aimed the pointer at the writing on the board.
Someone provokes you for no reason. Do you:
A) Ignore them
B) Start plotting a way to get revenge
C) React violently
"There's the question," Alexa said before reading it out loud for him, along with the answers he had to choose from. "So, how do you react?"
Braun seemed to rack his brain for an answer, not wanting to disappoint her. After a moment, he got up off the chair.
Alexa stood there with a quizzical look on her face, not sure what he was doing.
Braun walked around the desk, approached the chalk board and punched it as hard as he could, breaking it clean in half, knocking the stand over, and sending the whole mess to the floor.
"C," he announced.
Eyes wide, Alexa looked down at the wreckage, before slowly looking all the way up at him. "I guess C will work," she said timidly.
"I have the brawn, you have the brains," he told her. "That's why Team Little Big is going to win tonight. And when we do, we will celebrate."
Alexa didn't respond. They just stood there staring longingly into each other's eyes. It was apparent what kind of celebration they were thinking about.
"It's now time for the finals of Mixed Match Challenge 2," Tom Phillips announced. "It's going to be Team Little Big taking on AJ Styles and Becky Lynch."
"What a match this is going to be," Saxton said.
AJ's music was first to play, drawing a warm reaction from the crowd. Styles and Lynch entered the arena, both looking fired up for the match.
"And here they come, the favourites in many people's eyes once all of the teams were revealed at the start of the tournament," Saxton said. "Becky Lynch and AJ Styles have looked virtually unstoppable in their two matches so far."
"I think it's going to be a different story tonight, though," Graves countered. "Team Little Big have been my pick all along, and they've already disposed of Andrade 'Cien' Almas and Zelina Vega, and Seth Rollins and Bayley. That's no small feat at all, and to me Alexa and Braun seem to be making each other stronger as they go along."
"We've also got the current WWE Champion on one team and the current Raw Women's Champion on the other," Phillips said.
Becky and AJ entered the ring and posed for the crowd before their music faded out.
"Braun!"
The fans went wild for Team Little Big. Strowman walked out onto the stage, with Bliss sitting on his right shoulder as she had for their previous entrance. They both had their Team Little Big shirts on. Stopping at the top of the entrance ramp, Braun raised his left arm in the air, and Alexa raised her right. They both shouted, "Braun!" along with the crowd.
"It's hard to determine who the fan favourites are here," Phillips said. "Quite frankly, they're behind both teams."
"Maybe they don't have a preference," Saxton said. "Like me, they're probably just hoping for an excellent match, and I think that's what we're going to have here."
Braun set Alexa down on the ring apron, then followed her into the ring by stepping over the top rope.
"I'll start," Alexa told her partner confidently.
Braun deferred to her greater wisdom and stepped out onto the apron, allowing the match to get underway.
Saxton's prediction of a great match was proven correct. For nearly twenty minutes, the action went back and forth at quite a pace, with some thrilling moves from Styles and some incredibly powerful offence from Strowman to accompany the more technical side of the contest put on by the female participants.
As was often the case with tag team matches, the build up to the finish began with a hot tag and the match descending into chaos. On this occasion, it was AJ who hit the ring fully rested and fired up, taking the offense to Strowman. Meanwhile, Alexa and Becky ended up fighting on the outside of the ring, near the commentary table.
"Look at Becky Lynch going after Alexa Bliss right here in front of us!" Phillips called the fiery Irishwoman flailed away with right hands.
Becky grabbed Alexa's head and slammed her face first into the top of the table.
"Bliss is in big trouble here!" Saxton cried. "Straight fire from Becky Balboa!"
On a roll, Lynch gabbed Bliss's arm, lining up to whip her into the ring steps. However, as she attempted the move, Alexa was able to counter, sending Becky shoulder first into the steps instead with a loud crash.
At the commentary table, attention turned to Styles, who had just managed to sucker Strowman into trying to pick him up from the canvas, only to hit him with a Pele Kick, knocking the huge monster down.
"Oh, look at AJ Styles!" Phillips called as the WWE Champion stepped out onto the apron and turned back to face the ring, preparing to deliver one of his finishing moves, the Phenomenal Forearm.
"If Styles hits this, it's over!" Saxton exclaimed as Braun struggled to get back to his feet, shaking his head, looking dazed by the kick he had taken.
With the fans cheering him on, Styles pulled himself up onto the top rope and launched himself into the air in one fluid motion, expecting to deliver his giant-slaying blow. Unfortunately for him, his plan went drastically wrong.
"Oh! Strowman picked Styles out of the air!" Graves cried over another loud cheer from the fans. "Styles is on the monster's shoulder, and…"
"Running powerslam!" Saxton yelled. "Strowman makes the cover!"
"One!"
"Two!"
"Three!"
"Team Little Big win!" Phillips called. "Alexa Bliss and Braun Strowman win Mixed Match Challenge 2!"
Alexa had disposed of Becky just in time to see the finish go down in the ring. As Braun got the three, she slid under the rope and rushed over to him, looking delighted with the victory.
Braun was on his knees when Alexa reached him, making them a similar height. She walked right into his arms for a hug that delighted the audience. It was greeted with possibly the biggest cheer of the night.
"What a win, and what a celebration," Phillips said. "We've really seen a friendship blossom between Strowman and Bliss these past few weeks."
Saxton laughed. "A friendship? Are you blind? There's more between these two than friendship. Look at how they look at each other!"
Braun and Alexa parted after the hug and he stood up. His music had been faded out, leaving only the cheers of the crowd to fill the arena. Alexa stood there looking up at Braun with an unmistakeably loving expression on her face.
"Kiss her! Kiss her!" the fans started chanting.
"You can hear what the people want to see," Graves said. "Surely the goddess isn't going to be kissed by the monster? That can't happen, can it?"
"Yes, it can!" Phillips exclaimed.
Braun had scooped Alexa up off the mat, hands under her butt, and they had started kissing passionately. The roof nearly came off the building.
"It's a modern day fairy tale," Saxton said happily.
"Fetch me a bucket, I'm going to be sick," Graves said. "I was hoping Team Little Big would win, but I didn't see it going this far. What is Alexa thinking?"
A cameraman had gotten a close-in zoom of Alexa's face just in time for the audience to lip read her saying, "I love you."
"She loves him!" Saxton exclaimed.
"That's not the way she meant it," Graves protested.
"Could have fooled me," Phillips chuckled as another passionate kiss was happening.
Meanwhile, a "Yes!" chant had filled the arena. Everyone was delighted for the winning couple, who apparently now actually were a couple.
After the second kiss, there was a close-in shot of Braun's delighted face. "I love you too, little one," he said.
"Alright!" Saxton cried.
"One more thing we need to do," Braun said to Alexa.
She knew exactly what it was. "Put me on your shoulder," she said happily.
Being careful not to drop her, Braun shifted Alexa so that she could sit on his right shoulder again, and they ended the segment the same way they had begun it: raising their arms and shouting, "Braun!" along with the fans.
"Alexa Bliss and Brawn Strowman victorious," Phillips said. "It's impossible not to be happy for them."
Graves brought the show to an end. "Apparently this is not the last we'll see of Team Little Big."
END
A/N: Many thanks to everyone who read and reviewed this short story. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it.
Shout out to stuey97 for suggesting the AJ/Becky partnership.
My question to end with is this: Is Graves right? Will we see Team Little Big again in the future?