Title: Five Times Eve Thought About Kissing Dean Ambrose (and One Time She Did)

Author: Karen U/revivingophelia

Pairing/Character: Eve/Dean Ambrose

Disclaimer: no one you recognize belongs to me

Rating: PG-13/T (likely more in the PG/K+ range, but just to be safe)

Summary: title pretty much says it all.

Spoilers: Dec. 2012-Dec. 2013

Warnings: some language

Part One

***December 10, 2012***

She was pretty sure that everyone in the administration was laughing at her. SmackDown General Manager Booker T, his 'advisor' Teddy Long, and even Vickie Guerrero, who was technically in charge of RAW and had been ever since AJ Lee's short stint as GM had been (mercifully) ended.

She knew, of course, that none of them wanted the job she'd been given. The Shield was a volatile group, and they attacked people all the time, often seemingly at random. They wanted to make an impact in the WWE, and they were doing it one beat-down at a time. And now, as the TLC pay-per-view approached, they were going to be in their first-ever match on the main roster... And she was the one that had been assigned to tell them the stipulations for their match against Ryback and Team Hell No. Booker had been the one to tell that team what their match for TLC was, but he was too much of a wimp to seek out the Shield and tell them as well... Vickie had refused as well, and Teddy Long had been conveniently unavailable at the time. Which left her.

She was pretty sure that at least some of those she'd left behind in that office (including a miraculously no-longer-busy Teddy Long) were hoping that she'd end up triple powerbombed or something for her trouble.

Jerks.

Taking a deep breath, Eve Torres squared her shoulders and headed down the hallway, winding her way around, not at all sure where she would find the trio of men. After all, they didn't exactly stay in the locker room with the other guys. They really had nothing to do with anyone else. Yes, a week or so after they'd first shown up, they'd done a sit-down interview with Michael Cole, but other than that? They came and went as they pleased, and instead of doing interviews, they provided tapes they'd made themselves that were obviously filmed from somewhere in the building... It was just difficult to tell where exactly they were filmed. Which made Eve's task of tracking them down to tell them about their first-ever match on the WWE's main roster a bit more difficult than it would be if she were to be telling, oh, say... John Cena about his match. Of course, telling Cena about his match would likely lead to him calling her a hoeski and being a general jackass, and then she'd end up telling him that she hoped he was shoved off of a very high place through a couple of tables in the near future, and then he would call her even worse things and maybe make a completely stupid photoshop of her head on someone else's body and it would devolve from there. So, really, in the grand scheme of things, the potential of being powerbombed by the Shield really wasn't so bad because now that she thought about it, dealing with John Cena would be even worse. Really not a ringing endorsement for the WWE's so-called nice guy. Too bad 'nice guys' tended to be anything but nice.

Shaking her head, Eve turned down another hallway, the woman pausing as she saw two men dressed in black gear reminiscent of that of a SWAT team head off in the opposite direction... Her gaze quickly slid to the door they seemed to have been coming from, the woman frowning as she contemplated her options. First, she could go after them, talk to them in the hallway, which might potentially be safer. She could also wait for them to come back, then tell them about their match. Or, she could check and see if there was still a member of the group in the room and talk to just *him* instead of talking to two of them or all three of them. The more members of the group, the more potential for danger, right?

"Oh, just get it over with," Eve muttered to herself, the divas' champion making her way to the door, noting that it was cracked open, and she thought she could hear movement inside. Taking a deep breath, she lifted a hand to knock, doing so quickly, the motion causing the door to slip open just a little bit more... All sounds ceased in the room for a moment, and then she heard someone approach, the door being yanked open, Eve finding herself face to face with one of the members of the Shield.

Dean Ambrose looked her up and down, his lips curved in a bit of a frown. He quickly glanced down the hallway, looking almost as if he expected an ambush of some sort, which... Well, given how many times the Shield had ambushed people despite being on the main roster less than a month, she supposed she could see why they might be leery of an ambush, especially when they were currently separated. But really...

"If I was helping to set up an ambush, I wouldn't have knocked," Eve said calmly, keeping her voice matter-of-fact. The truth was, if she was going to be talking to any member of the Shield, the man in front of her was definitely not her first choice. All of them were dangerous, that much was obvious, but there was something about Ambrose that seemed to give him even more of an edge than the other two had. An edge that part of her found far too intriguing... Not that she would ever admit it.

He arched a brow at her, leaning against the frame of the door. It was clear that he didn't intend to invite her in, and that was fine with her. She wasn't sure she wanted to be in any type of enclosed area alone with the man, and from what she could tell, the room beyond his shoulder looked to be a storage closet.

"Since you came knocking on our door, I'm assuming you were looking for us?" he said, and Eve nodded, very aware that he was leaning a bit closer to her, but refusing to step back. She didn't want him to know that, intrigued by him or not, she also found him more than a little intimidating.

"I was. I was sent by the General Managers," she told him, and he gave her the slightest of smiles as he looked at her. Given her heels and the way he was standing, the man hunched over a bit as he leaned against the frame of the door, they were actually pretty close to eye to eye.

"What happened? You get the short straw?" he wanted to know, the man lifting a hand, Eve standing very still as he reached out to her, casually tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. She was pretty sure that he was trying to get a rise out of her, but she wasn't going to show that he had any effect on her, so instead of moving away or flinching, she just went on as if nothing had happened.

"I'm here to tell you what the stipulations for the match at TLC is," she informed him, her tone cool, and he sighed, shifting away from her slightly, frowning as she eased back a bit as well.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Ambrose told her, and Eve frowned.

"I never said you would."

"Maybe not. But your eyes told a different story. I don't hurt women. I like 'em too much," he said, then smirked slightly, looking her up and down again. "And I sure as hell wouldn't hurt you."

Eve rolled her eyes, not really realizing what she was doing until she'd already done it and caught the smile on Ambrose's face at her actions. Shaking her head slightly, she went back to the matter at hand. "As I said, I was sent to inform you of the stipulations for your match at the pay-per-view."

"We getting tables, ladders, or chairs?" he wanted to know, and Eve bit her lip, immediately stopping when she noted that drew his attention to her mouth.

She cleared her throat. "All of them, actually. They've decided that the match will be the Shield vs. Team Hell No and Ryback... In a tables, ladders, and chairs match," the woman told him, and he frowned, his brows furrowing slightly. Stepping back, he reached back into the room behind him, coming up with a bottle of water, the man then going back to leaning against the frame of the door.

"Isn't there usually something hanging over the ring in a match like that?" he wanted to know, and Eve nodded.

"That's true. In this case... It's going to be pinfall or submission only. Basically, it's a no disqualification six-man match in which the use of tables, ladders, and chairs is openly encouraged," she told him, and he actually smiled at her, a real smile, and it was enough to make her blink in surprise because... Well, he still looked dangerous, but in an entirely different way.

"You know, that sounds like my kind of match," he said, his smile widening as he nodded. "Yeah... Definitely like my kind of match." He arched a brow at her. "I'm guessing the big-wigs thought we wouldn't be pleased about that?"

"I think it may have crossed their minds."

"Well, too bad for them... Because the Shield? Is going to use TLC to show just how good we are and just how scared everyone else should be about facing us," he told her, the smile no longer so big, but still there, the man shifting a little closer to her again, though she didn't think it was done to intimidate her this time. And maybe it hadn't been done to intimidate her the first time, either; she couldn't be sure. But this time? It was just a shifting of his stance, the man moving a little closer to her, his eyes on her face... He lifted the bottle of water he'd retrieved earlier to his mouth, taking a drink from it, licking the excess from his bottom lip as he lowered the bottle, Eve's gaze drawn by the movement, the diva immediately - or almost immediately - lifting her gaze back to his because really she was not staring at his mouth... Even if it was kind of a nice mouth.

He arched a brow at her, something in his gaze making it clear that he'd noted where she was looking, much as she'd noted him looking at her lips earlier... The man smirking at her again, shifting a little closer to her, and Eve found herself shifting closer to him as well, her heels and his slouched stance putting them so close to the same level, close enough that she would just barely have to lift herself up to-

And what in the hell was she doing? What was she thinking? She didn't even know this guy, he was dangerous, and just because he had a nice mouth didn't mean she needed to get up close and personal with it. No matter how damn intriguing that part of her that refused to shut up found him.

Shaking herself, Eve took a step back, moving away from Ambrose, the man not lifting a hand to stop her, instead continuing to watch her calmly, and the diva cleared her throat.

"I... I should get back. I'm sure the others are waiting for me. I trust you'll tell the other Shield members about the match?"

"As soon as they get back," he told her, and Eve nodded, her gaze flicking to his mouth one more time before she spun on her heel and headed back down the hallway, back in the direction she'd come from, not looking back even once... But all too aware of the eyes that watched her as she walked away.