After a meeting with Stephanie and Hunter Skylar starts getting together with Finn in the ring every chance she gets. Two days off in Winnipeg gives her the chance to bring some more of her gear back on the road before Raw. Her plane lands in Iowa early Sunday morning. She catches and Uber to her hotel, knowing that The Club won't be in town until much later in the evening. She checks in and texts Seth Rollins. He's quick to respond, letting her know that he'll be there to pick her up in twenty minutes. Without a moment to relax she tosses her luggage onto the bed and changes into some workout clothes. Putting something clean to wear after in her gym bag she heads down to the lobby. Only a few minutes pass before Seth pulls up in his black Tesla.
"Nice car," she admires as she sinks into the soft leatherette seats.
"Thanks!" Seth grins proudly. "Doing what I can to better the environment... And I hate paying for gas."
"For real! Everything should be electric," she laughs. "So what's on our agenda today?"
"Since no one else is around today I have my school to myself. We can work on some in ring stuff with total privacy," he explains. "Have you given any thought to finishers?"
"I've got some ideas," she confirms.
"Cool, we'll try them when we're working out," he guides the electric car through the back roads to his wrestling school. They pull up to a grey brick building at the end of a small cluster of warehouses. 'Black X Brave Wrestling Academy' is what the sign above the door reads. "Here we are, home sweet home."
She picks up her bag and follows him to the door of the building. He unlocks the door and let's them in, flipping a light switch to their right. The open floor of the simple space is illuminated as the overhead halogens warm up. Two rings sit side by side on the far wall of the big room. An office and two locker rooms are off to their left. He sets his keys and wallet on a steel chair by the ring, she follows suit dropping her bag on its own metal chair.
"Is some music okay?" He asks her as he pulls out his phone.
"Please," she nods. "It'll be like having a crowd to work in front of. Put on whatever you'd like, I'm not picky. "
He taps the screen of his phone a few times and heavy music with a female singer starts to play throughout the buildings sound system. The two of them roll into the ring closest to them and start stretching quietly. Skylar can feel his eyes on her fleetingly, making her look over. By the time her eyes fall on him he's focused back on his stretching. When he's satisfied that he's warmed up enough he rolls to a knee and stands up, offering Skylar a hand back to her feet as well. He shows her a couple of drills that he uses with his own students as they continue their workout. They take turns leading each other through some chain wrestling sequences.
"So one of the hardest adjustments I had to make from the indies to WWE was working the cameras," Seth tells her as they catch their breath. "On the indies you've got a hard cam and maybe one ringside hand held. Here you're going to have cameras everywhere. There's the hard cam, two or three different ringside handhelds, and a big rolling boom camera on the hard cam side. Sometimes there's even more than that."
"There's so many," Skylar says quietly. "How do you know which one to look at?"
"If you're working a move in the ring, pick one," he explains. "The guys in the truck will do the hard work. You've got to make sure you're playing to the house audience AND the people at home. Let me show you."
He pulls her in and points to some green squares painted on the wall and floor. Each one indicating a spot where a camera would be. Seth grabs her in a hold and demonstrates working the different cameras before giving her a chance to try. It takes her a few attempts, but with his coaching she figures it pretty quickly. After a few more run through a she's really got it.
"So, what are you going to use for a finisher?" He asks as they get back to their feet.
"I've got to run them by the boss first," she smirks. "But I want to use the Ushigoroshi and the V-Trigger."
"I don't think you can just blatantly steal other peoples moves," he quips.
"It's not stealing when you ask to use them," Skylar crosses her arms in front of her chest sassily. "AJ and I are on different brands, he said it was no big deal."
"And the V-Trigger?" He prods. "Kenny Omega tell you you could use that one too?"
She almost laughs, "As a matter of fact, he did."
Seth rolls his eyes, "Well, don't get attached to them. Hunter is really particular about people sharing moves. For now though let's see what you've got."
He sets up his phone to record in one of the corners of the ring and let's Skylar give him her proposed finishes a time or two. They watch the footage back and Seth seems to be impressed. She rewinds the video and watches it back for a third time.
"Trigger could be a bit tighter," she critiques. "I'll work on that."
Seth shrugs, "Looked fine to me. I didn't even feel it."
"It was okay," she admits. "Not great, but okay."
"If you say so," he reaches around her shoulders to take his phone back
His fingers brush over her hand lightly as he takes the device. Butterflies scatter insider her as her stomach flip flops. She hastily pulls her hand away, trying to hide her flustered face. Luckily he doesn't seem to notice. They step out of the ring and hit the showers
Skylar takes a few extra minutes to dry her hair and put on a touch of dark makeup before reemerging from the locker room. She finds Seth sitting at his desk scribbling on some paperwork. He's cleaned up nicely in a pair of dark denim jeans and a maroon button up shirt. Skylar looks down at her own dark grey shirt and black jeans, feeling a little underdressed.
"Going someplace fancy?" She asks with a smirk.
His big grin makes her pale cheeks flush, "Nah, nothing special. Unless you'd like to grab dinner for something."
She starts to decline, but the growling in her stomach has other plans, "Actually, that sounds pretty good."
He finishes up his paperwork and leads her out to his car. He takes her on a short tour of the town, showing her a few of his favorite places before taking her to a nice restaurant near the hotel. They settle into a quiet booth in the far corner of the dining room away from the majority of the foot traffic. Their meal is great and the friendly conversation never really stops. Skylar finds herself staring at him, just admiring his features, more than she would care to admit. She catches his gaze on her as he settles their bill. Even though she had tried to pay for her own mean, he insisted. On their way back to the hotel Skylar gets a text from Finn letting her know that he and the boys had checked in.
Seth pulls the car into the front of the hotel and jumps out the moment he puts it into park. Before Skylar can protest he's at her door, opening it for her. She swings her short legs out onto the concrete and stands up next to him, giving him a grateful look. Her phone rings moments later. She grabs it and sees a call from her brother coming through.
"I've got to take this," she tells Seth showing him the call coming through. A quick hug and a thank you for dinner, she turns away to answer the call. "Hello Hoshi! How was your day?"
"What's the matter Hoot? You look tired today," Karl laughs as they finish up their pre-Raw workout.
Skylar yawns, "I did a lot of working out yesterday. Then I stayed up late playing video games with Kenny."
"I'm surprised you got any sleep at all then," Karl laughs at her misfortunes. "I saw 8-Bit Hoot tweeting about games well into the morning. That boy can go!"
She nods and follows her friends up the ramp and into the back. She checks her pre tape schedule and heads off to take a shower. The locker room is buzzing when she gets back. The girls are excited to main event the show for the first time. She picks out a black and red halter dress from her suitcase and steps into it. Her wrestling gear tucked back into her bag she hits up hair and makeup to prepare for the live show.
The glam squad takes care to make sure Skylar is camera ready. When she leaves their chair her hair is styled and her smoky makeup looks flawless. She thanks them for working magic and heads back to the locker room to grab her heels for the first of two pre tapes. Sitting on the bench next to her bag she slips the first shoe on absentmindedly. Her thoughts wander back to dinner the night before with Seth. As she stands up her ankles wobble and she almost crashes to the hard ground. She looks down to see that the heels of her shoes have been snapped off.
"Cool," she grumbles to herself sarcastically, realizing that it would be next to impossible for both of her shoes to break on their own.
She shrugs it off and heads to the filming area, barefoot. Charlotte and Sasha give a heated back and forth interview leading up to their big match. As soon as the camera cuts Charlotte sneers at Skylar and leaves the area quickly. A smile creeps onto her face when she sees that the Shield guys are her next segment. Roman and Dean are quiet while Seth gets the chance to cut a long promo on Finn and the Balor Club. The camera cuts out with Seth laughing cockily. She smiles at him as the other two Shield members disappear to catering.
"Decided to boycott shoes today?" He jokes looking down at her.
"I wish it were that easy," Skylar rolls her eyes. "Someone broke my shoes. Can't imagine who that could have been..."
"That's horse shit," he says angrily. "I'm going to say something..."
"Don't," she cuts him off. "They're just jealous. I'd rather just prove to them that I deserve it through hard work. I'll just buy a luggage lock until then."
He chuckles, "I don't think that with stop their cattiness."
"You're probably right," she giggles. "Kenny said it was way worse before NXT too."
He furrows his brow at the mention of Kenny's name, "If you'd like to get together again tomorrow we can do some promo work at the hotel if you want."
"Sure!" She nods excitedly. "How does nine tomorrow morning sound?"
"That'll work," he tells her.
"I'll bring you a coffee," she promises as she slips away to go find Gallows and Anderson.