Thanks to everyone who favorited and followed this story from the last chapter. Now, at long last...
The next morning, Roman woke up just as warm and blissful as he had fallen asleep. Lucy was still sleeping, her head on his chest and her hair splayed across his arm and shoulder. She had one leg thrown over Roman's, an arm draped across his midsection, and looked so wonderfully peaceful. Roman took a moment to appreciate the sight before him until he couldn't resist. He bent his neck slightly and placed a gentle kiss on Lucy's forehead, trying his hardest not to wake her. He took in the scent of lavender in her hair; a smell he realized was quickly becoming familiar. Roman felt a bit of warmth spread through his chest as he continued to look at the girl before him, a sensation that felt like…home.
Roman rested his head back on his pillow and thought about the conversation he and Lucy had before they fell asleep the night before.
"So," Roman said, reaching over and placing the now empty ice cream container on the nightstand, "I think we're uneven again." He shifted to lie on his side and faced Lucy, who was lying on her side and wearing a curious expression. Her eyes drifted down to his naked chest, then to her own cloth covered one, and back to his eyes, slightly taken aback.
"No, I didn't mean our clothes" he chuckled, realizing what she must have been thinking, "although, if you want…" Roman trailed off jokingly, fingering the strap of her tank for emphasis.
"Why mister Reigns, I thought you were a gentleman," she chided, shaking her head dramatically and wagging her finger at him.
Roman captured the hand that was scolding him and brought it to his lips, closing his eyes to place a gentle kiss on her fingers. He heard Lucy laugh softly, and when he opened his eyes he was pleased to see a faint blush on her cheeks
"I am" Roman stated matter-of-factly, his smile only the tiniest bit smug. He lowered both of their hands to his chest, holding them there and stroking his thumb gently across the back of Lucy's hand.
"So you keep proving to me" she replied, making no attempt to remove herself from Roman's grip. "Alright, you were saying. We're uneven somehow?"
"Mhmm," Roman nodded, "I spent a whole night talking your ear off about me, but I'm still pretty in the dark about you, darlin'. And as much fun as we've been having tonight, I do believe I was promised a chance to get to know more."
"I did say that, didn't I?" Lucy said, scooting closer to Roman. She looked contemplative for a few seconds, and started to fidget around a bit, tapping the fingers that weren't entwined with Roman's against her hip. Taking in a deep breath and releasing it quickly, she met Roman's eyes and let a small grin come over her face. "Okay, what would you like to know? Anything in particular?"
"Everything. I want to know about your dreams. Childhood pets. What you had for dinner last night. If you want to tell me, I'm all ears," Roman answered quickly, his face lighting up like a kid on Christmas morning.
"That last one's easy. Pizza. You were there," Lucy teased, kicking Roman's shin gently.
"I was testing you. 'A' plus," Roman said, his tongue poking out between his teeth.
"Thank you, Professor. Hmm, okay. Where to start…" Lucy furrowed her brow in concentration, pursing her lips and quirking them from side to side.
"How about your last name?" Roman said.
"Beckan," Lucy answered, "And my middle name is Olivia. Lucy Olivia Beckan," she finished.
"Lucy Olivia…" Roman mused, "pretty."
"Thank you," Lucy replied, and Roman saw a tension he hadn't noticed before physically leave Lucy's shoulders. Suddenly, she sat up and rested her back against the headboard and looked at him properly.
"Okay, Reigns, you want the real stuff?" she asked, her face determined and, Roman noticed, a tiny bit nervous. She reached her hand up and tucked a curl behind her ear, then wrapped the ends of her hair around her index finger.
"Absolutely," he said, moving to sit up next to her. "Come on, anything you got. I promise, I don't scare easy," Roman maintained eye contact with her, hoping Lucy would see that he genuinely meant it. He needed her to trust him, to know that he wouldn't judge her, no matter what she said.
"Well, when I was five years old, I wanted to be a dancer…"
And so the night had continued from there. Roman heard all about Lucy's dog, a sheltie named Skipper, and that she was an only child. He found out that she had dyed her hair every shade from blonde to burgundy in high school, but it was finally back to its natural hue. Lucy had told him all about how she had become a wrestling fan because of one of her roommate's boyfriends, and that her favorite television show was The Office. She gushed on and on about her desires to travel the world, even though she had never ventured out of the state of Florida.
Roman's favorite part, however, was when he learned that Lucy went through a laundry list of possible careers before ending up as a journalist. She had wanted to be a ballerina as a child, then somewhere around middle school had found herself debating between singer and lawyer. Then it was Broadway. After that it was party planner. When Roman had asked her about how, out of all of those things, had she ended up writing for a magazine, Lucy's face lit up brighter than he had seen it anytime in the admittedly short time he had known her.
"I never really realized I wanted to write," Lucy began, her eyes sparkling "because I didn't…I didn't know I was doing anything unusual. It sounds crazy, but it was as natural as breathing to me. Have you ever felt that way about something? I don't know how to explain it, but…" Lucy paused, leaning her head back against the headboard and closing her eyes. After a moment or two, she opened them back up and took a deep breath, then released it slowly with a smile, "Putting thoughts into words and putting those words on paper was so instinctual that it never entered my mind as a skill or trade. When people brought it up, they made it sound like the most obvious thing in the world. For me, thinking about writing as anything more than a reflex was like that David Foster Wallace quote, the one about the fish that didn't know what water was. Once I realized my passion, my view of my little world and what I was doing was never the same."
Lucy had continued from there, telling Roman all about writing articles for her college newspaper, and agreeing to email them to him after some gentle prodding. Roman had already gone online earlier that day and subscribed to Living the Local Life, much to Lucy's surprise.
While Roman was recalling every detail about Lucy- Lucy Olivia - he hadn't even noticed that the woman in question had woken up in his arms and was now staring up at him curiously.
"You know, I can practically feel your brain thinking up there," Lucy said, her voice throaty from being asleep.
"Hmm, good morning to you, beautiful," Roman smiled, tipping his face down to kiss her lightly, morning breath be damned. When they separated, Roman really looked at Lucy, her messy hair resting against his arm and chest, her sleepy eyes and lazy grin fixed on him, and he couldn't shake the feeling that this felt right. His brain told him that, logically, waking up to someone you just met a few days ago should be at least a little awkward. But it just wasn't.
"Do you have time for breakfast before you go to fight off all the bad guys?" Lucy asked, rolling off of Roman and onto her stomach, stretching her arms, and let out a contented sounding yawn.
Roman sat up, reached over to the nightstand and grabbed his phone to check the time, and saw that he had two unread messages. The first was from Seth.
Hey dude, guess you're still with Lucy. Just wanted to remind
you that it's your turn to drive tomorrow, but it's only an hour
or so away. Have fun! And remember, no glove, no love!
Roman rolled his eyes and half smiled, tapping his screen and deleting the message as soon as he finished reading. He clicked on Dean's message to open it.
I am SO proud of you right now. From Samoan monk to
Walk of Shame in 48 hrs. Nice! All kidding aside though, Seth
And I talked and if you screw this up we might choose
Lucy over you. See ya in the morning. ;-)
Roman laughed out loud. He couldn't blame his brothers for their quick attachment to Lucy- who was he to judge on that front, anyway? He settled back into the bed and held the screen in front of Lucy's face, gesturing for her to read the message.
"Ha! That's amazing," she giggled, then swiftly reached over Roman to grab her own phone, rested back on her stomach and propped herself up on her elbows. She took Roman's phone as well and closed out of his messages. His curiosity spiked, Roman leaned over her shoulder to see what she was doing and saw that she was in his contacts.
"Hey there, nosey, what are you looking for?" Roman asked, his tone light, before placing a tiny kiss on her shoulder.
"Dean's number, so I can text it to myself from your phone," she said, her eyes focused on the screens in front of her.
"Oh, is that all?" he asked, voice full of amusement. He knew Dean wouldn't do or say anything too embarrassing…probably.
"Nope," she grinned slyly without looking up, "I need Seth's too."
"Anybody else? Should I just forward you the roster phone list?" he teased, relaxing next to her flat on his stomach, folding his arms and laying his head on its side to look at her.
"Am I sensing a little a jealousy over there, big man?" Lucy asked, shifting her gaze to him with a self-satisfied look on her features.
"Nope. My contacts are your contacts, no worries here. Want my mom's number? My brother? My little niece? She's seven and has a nicer iPhone than me" he finished with a chuckle, reaching his foot over and running it up and down the bottom of her pant leg.
"I think I'll stick with the guys, for now." Lucy finished her task, sliding Roman's phone across the mattress back to him and looking up from her own to meet his eyes. "So, pancakes?"
"Pancakes. And coffee" Roman affirmed, giving a sharp nod, "but we should probably shower first. While I'm pretty sure you could never smell bad if you tried, I feel a little gross."
"Have I mentioned how ridiculously sweet you are yet?" Lucy asked, reaching forward to caress his beard, a fondness in her eyes that Roman was positive was mirrored in his own. Roman felt his heartbeat to start pick up and for some reason he couldn't find the words to speak, so he just shook his head and let his mouth curve into a smile.
"Don't worry, I won't blow your cover with the WWE universe," she continued, letting her fingers move up and down his stubbly cheeks. "It'll be our little secret."
"Thank you, Ms. Lane" he answered, finally regaining his voice. He leaned the side of his face into her touch, nuzzling her hand with his scratchy chin.
"Ms. Lane?" Lucy asked, an amused and bewildered grin coming over her.
"Well, if I'm Superman…" Roman trailed off, raising his eyebrows a bit and beaming a little bigger.
"Ah, Lois Lane," Lucy said, grinning and nodding her understanding, "but wait, she never knew Clark was Superman until, like, way down the line."
"I never really bought into that," Roman said, "I mean, come on, she was an investigative reporter for crying out loud. No way a pair of glasses and a missing cape disguised his identity from a girl that smart. She definitely knew."
"Huh. I didn't realize I was dating such a nerd," Lucy remarked, tapping his nose with the tip of her finger, giving him a teasing smile.
Roman's heart swelled. Dating. They were dating. Trying not to let her see how giddy she had just made him, Roman cleared his throat and gave Lucy a mocking glance.
"Yeah, yeah. Like you've got room to talk Miss 'I've been reading Shakespeare since I was nine.' Talk about nerdy," he said, dramatically rolling his eyes and shaking his head.
"Fine, we're both dorks," Lucy acquiesced. "I guess that's a good thing, if I'm to be your Lois."
"And I, your Clark Kent," Roman nodded, returning the gesture of tapping her nose.
"Alright," he said, scooting backwards off of the bed and standing up, "how about I hop over to my room to shower and grab some fresh clothes, so you can wash up here, and I'll meet you in the hall in twenty minutes?" He held his hand out to Lucy and pulled her up to her feet.
"Twenty minutes?" Lucy asked skeptically, reaching up to grab a handful of Roman's hair, "No way this gets clean that fast."
"You'd be amazed at how quick you learn to shower travelling around and living out of locker rooms," Roman said, "and I wasn't planning on washing my hair, anyway, just cleaning up a bit."
"Well, you'll have to teach me how you do that so fast sometime. Alright, twenty minutes" Lucy answered, as she continued playing with Roman's velvety locks.
Roman bent at the waist and pressed a sweet kiss to Lucy's lips, causing her to tighten her hold every so slightly on his hair and place her other hand against his impressive chest. His hands were magnetically drawn around her waist as she leaned in and deepened the kiss, the soft trails of her hand setting his skin ablaze. As the intensity started to build, however, Lucy softly drew back and pushed lightly at Roman's abdomen, letting out a small giggle at his whine of protest.
"You better get over there now before I drag you into the shower with me and we never leave this room," she said, dropping her hand from his hair. Roman let out an exaggerated sigh, but he was still smiling.
"Okay, I'm going. But make it fifteen minutes now," Roman said, gesturing to Lucy's head. "No hair. It looks gorgeous just like this." Lucy made a face and slid a hand through her tendrils, but nodded her assent.
Not wanting to tempt her, or himself, again, Roman placed a quick peck on her cheek and left Lucy to her shower.
"Hey, there he is! Have a fun night last night?" Seth questioned enthusiastically, as Roman walked out of their bathroom wearing a towel and over to the dresser beneath the television. His hair was twisted into a neat bun at the nape of his neck and was bone dry, as promised.
"I did, in fact. How about you two, do anything exciting?" he replied distractedly, rooting through the drawers until he found a pair of faded blue jeans and a light grey t shirt.
"Yes we did, but stop deflecting," Seth replied, before taking a long swig out of his water bottle. He was covered in semi-dried sweat and wearing only a pair of clinging shorts, obviously just back from an early morning CrossFit session. "What did you guys do? What did you talk about? Unless, of course, there wasn't any talking…"
"Roman, just answer him so he'll shut up" Dean grunted from the bed, still half asleep and clearly not pleased about being woken up by his teammates. He rolled over to glare at the two of them and sat up, marks from the pillows on his face and his hair sticking up in every direction.
"Well?" Dean continued, gesturing for Roman to start talking.
Roman cleared his throat and started to get dressed, not meeting either of their eyes. But as hard as he was trying, Roman couldn't stop a grin from covering his face.
"We ate dinner and watched a movie-"
"Which one?" interrupted Seth.
"Clue. Have you seen it?" Roman answered.
"Nope. Any good?" Seth asked.
"Really? Even I've seen it. It's pretty funny" Dean interjected hoarsely, still acting annoyed but clearly interested in the conversation.
"Yeah, it was great" Roman agreed, sitting on the bed opposite of Dean and bending down to tie his sneaker, "Lucy says it's her favorite."
"I knew I liked her" Dean grinned.
"Yeah, I know, I got your text" Roman said, scowling playfully at him, "Now, are you two going to let me tell you about my night, or are you going to keep interrupting? Because I have a breakfast date to get to."
"Alright, alright, go on" Seth said, making a waving motion with his hand. Dean nodded silently.
"So after the film, we ate ice cream and talked for a long time about Lucy and her childhood, her dreams. Guys, she's amazing…" Roman felt himself smiling a huge, goofy grin now, but he didn't care.
Seth and Dean shared a look, but it wasn't as mocking as Roman was expecting. Roman couldn't make out what the two of them were thinking, but it seemed to be positive so he figured he'd let it slide for now. Realizing he was probably out of time, Roman stood up and gathered up his wallet, room key and phone.
"Wait," Seth said, "so that's it? Nothing else happened? Just watching movie, talking, and sleeping? Interesting…"
"Well…I mean, we-um- we didn't…we sort of-" Roman stammered, his face turning red and the pattern of the hotel carpet becoming fascinating to him.
"Seth, what I think big brother is trying to say is 'please stop prying into my sex life. I will not go into detail about what happened, but when we bone I'll let you know,'" Dean said, with only a hint of teasing, "Right, Ro?"
Roman's color deepened, but he grinned just the same. Leave it to Dean to be supportive, helpful, and crass all in one sentence.
"That was pretty much the sentiment, yeah," Roman said; over his embarrassment enough to flash Dean a thankful smile. Just as he was about to excuse himself, there was a knock at the door, causing all three men to look at it.
"Probably housekeeping" Dean muttered, tossing the sheets off of his lap and bounding out of bed, walking over to open the door. Instead of a maid, however, was Lucy standing there, a bright smile on her face.
"Hey there, Sleeping Beauty" she greeted Dean, who clearly had forgotten he was still in just his tank and boxers from being asleep. He looked down at himself, shrugged, and then looked back up at Lucy.
"Mornin', Lucy" he grinned, pulling her in for a quick hug and shutting the door behind them, "You coming to steal our boy?"
"He did promise me pancakes," Lucy answered, opening her arms to hug Seth as well, "Do you guys want to join us? I was thinking of going to the little diner just across the street."
"Coffee does sound good," Dean answered with a yawn, scrubbing his hand down his face.
"I could go for some serious carbs right now. As long as that's cool with you?" Seth asked, turning his attention toward Roman.
"Of course," Roman nodded, smiling affectionately at Lucy and his brothers. He pointed at Seth and Dean in turn, "but hurry up and get dressed. I'm starved, and I owe this pretty lady some breakfast."
Lucy smiled at Roman and sat next to him on the vacant bed to wait for Dean and Seth to change.
"Okay, give us five minutes" Dean said, grabbing his duffel and racing to the bathroom, which caused Seth to squawk in protest and follow after him, muttering something about "smelling worse after a work out than sleeping in like a bum."
Roman and Lucy looked at each other and immediately burst out laughing.
The foursome chatted amiably over breakfast, and the subject turned to the next coming week.
"So you two are planning on cramming in as much together time as possible before we leave for Europe?" Dean asked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. Seth elbowed him in the ribs, but laughed just the same. Then Dean's expression changed from mocking to thoughtful, "Hey, you should come with us."
Roman and Lucy looked at each other, neither one really clear about what Dean had was suggesting.
"You mean to Vegas, with you two, next week? That's sweet but, I was kind of hoping- well, we were, I think-" Roman answered, looking at Lucy for help and confirmation. She nodded and chewed her lip, obviously not wanting to disappoint Dean or Seth. Just as she was about to reply, Dean seemed to get what they were saying.
"What? No," Dean said, shaking his head impatiently, waving off his brother's confusion. "I meant Lucy. You should come with us on the European tour. I bet you could even write some article about it for your magazine."
Roman perked up at the idea. Even though he continuously felt sappy for growing such a quick attachment, he was dreading leaving Lucy for two weeks. He was just getting to know her, and secretly he worried that going away for that long would kill their momentum.
"Oh, um, I don't know if they'll let me" Lucy answered quickly, taking a bite of her toast and jam. After she swallowed, she took a huge sip of her coffee, all the while shifting around in the booth.
"It's worth a shot to ask, right?" Roman said as his smile faded, her less than enthusiastic reaction not going unnoticed, "I bet we could cross a few things off of that bucket list.
"Yeah, I guess," she shrugged noncommittally, not meeting any of their eyes, "I mean the magazine, it's about local living, so I doubt it. And I've just been gone for this week. But um, yeah. I'll see about asking."
"Well, let us know and we'll talk to Hunter," Seth said slowly, giving Roman a questioning look across the booth. Roman frowned back at him and glanced over at Lucy, who seemed to be engrossed in her coffee cup.
After a minute or two of silence, Dean perked up.
"You guys got anything planned for this evening?" he asked.
Roman huffed out a small breath, grateful for the change in conversation.
"I'm reviewing a restaurant this afternoon", Lucy said, finally looking up at them, though to Roman she still seemed uncomfortable, "and then I'm meeting some friends later on tonight. You guys have Smackdown, right?"
"Yeah," Roman answered with a nod, "any chance you'll be free after?"
Lucy seemed to contemplate his question for a few long seconds, before finally smiling and nodding.
"I think I can make time for you, Clark" she said, her grin now returning to its full beam.
Relaxing somewhat, Roman grinned back at her and to his brothers, both of who were eyeing him carefully, but smiling politely nonetheless.
After a few minutes, the four of them settled back into gentle conversation. While Roman couldn't shake the feeling that something about Lucy and him was off, he would just have to wait and see what the evening held.