Chapter 6: Earning your trust back

Seth was making his way back up to his room when he spotted Roman sitting alone in the waiting room area on his phone. He thought about going over and speaking to him but decided not too. Instead he headed to the elevator and up to the room he shared with Dean who was putting on his shoes when he got there. "What are you doing?"

"I was going to go and look for you." Dean says dropping his shoes. "Where did you go?"

"Just for a walk." Seth says walking past him. "My head was hurting and I thought if I walked a while it would help but it didn't. If anything it only made it worse." He walked over and started going through his bags. "Where did you put the aspirin?"

"In the side pocket." Replied Dean. He followed Seth to the bathroom and leans against the door while Seth takes the aspirin.

Once Seth was done he sat on the toilet and looked up at Dean. "So I heard that Roman told Kelly about us."

Dean folded his arms over his chest. "Oh yeah and who did you hear that from?"

"Kelly." Seth says. "I saw her on my little walk and she told me. She even apologized to me for coming between us." He watched Dean closely tried to read his face. "What are you thinking?"

"I don't know." Dean says. "I told him to show me that he's truly changed and wanted to be with us."

"Well this is a start, don't you think?" Seth says. He frowned when Dean walked away from him. "Hey." He grabbed his hand. "Don't do that, I hate it when you shut me out."

"I'm not shutting you out Seth." Dean says turning to face him. "With everything that happened I'm just trying to figure out how I can trust him again, if I can trust him again." Sitting on the bed he ran his hands over his face. "Can we just talk about this tomorrow because I'm tired."

Seth sighed and sat next to him. "Okay, I love you."

Dean leans over and kisses Seth. "I know and I love you too."

...

The following night

Before the taping of smackdown

Seth found himself once again watching Dean as he got dressed in his wrestling gear. As a result interfere the night before Dean now had a match against Rybaxel and if he couldn't find a partner it would be a 2-on-1 handicap match. To make matter worse Seth was banned from ringside courtesy of Vince. "So you weren't able to find a partner?"

"No I wasn't." Dean says. "Because theses homophobic assholes don't want to work with me now that I'm out and the ones who did Vince shot them down. Saying that it was bad for business for me to wrestle c and d class superstars, old prick."

Seth nodded. "So you're just going to go out alone."

"I don't have a choice here." Dean says. "I gotta go, we're kicking off the show."

Seth got up. "Wait, what about the situation with Roman?"

Dean paused, hand on the door knob. "We'll talk after my match okay." He turned and left the room, other superstars and staff eyed him. He was standing by the entrance ramp waiting for his music to start. He couldn't stop thinking about his conversation with Roman the night before. His emotions were all over the place and he honestly didn't know how to feel about the whole situation. He was pulled from his thoughts when his music started, getting into character he made his way down the ramp. Inside the ring he stood in the corner as Rybaxel made their way down. He was starting things off with Axel but just before the ref was about to ring the bell Roman's music started playing. The entire arena started screaming and he looked up in the stands to find Roman making his way down.

Roman's eyed Dean as he hopped the barrier and got into the ring.

"What are you doing?" Asked Dean when Roman stepped up to him.

"I thought you could use a partner." Roman says.

Thirty minutes later Dean and Roman were getting their arms raised in victory. Dean couldn't help but smile, teaming with Roman brought back so many memories. It felt good to wrestle with him again. When they got backstage Dean was still smiling from ear to ear. "Man we kicked ass out there."

"I know." Replied Roman. "It felt just like we were the shield again, the only thing missing was Seth. How is he doing by the way because you never told me last night."

Dean frowned, his conversation with Seth coming back to him. "He's good...um I better go."

"Wait." Roman's hand shot out and grabbed Dean's arm. "I wanted to talk to you about something else."

"If it's about Kelly you don't have to." Dean says. "Kelly told Seth everything last night and he told me."

"I know you'll probably never forgive me but I am sorry." Roman says. "I told Kelly...Jimmy...Jay and I plan on telling the rest of my family. I just want us three to be together again." He took Dean's other hand and stepped closer to him. "Please just give me another chance."

"Rome I don't think we should be doing this out here." Dean says. "I mean someone might-" He was cut off by Roman's lips on his own. He wanted to push the larger male away but instead found himself melting into the kiss. In that moment he realized how much he really did miss the Samoan. After what felt like an eternity Dean pulled away, hands resting on Roman's chest. Silently he moved out of his arms and walked away. He could still feel Roman's lip on him. When he got to the locker room he shared with Seth he found him laying on the couch watching the show. Seth immediately perked up when they looked eyes and he knew what the reason for it was. He remained silent but went over and sat next to Seth. "Do you think Roman is serious about wanting another chance? Do you really think he's ready for a public relationship?"

"You never know when you're ready for something that big but he's trying." Seth says. "He's trying to make things right with us and I think we should hear him out."

"Turns out Kelly wasn't the only person he told, Jimmy and Jay know too." Dean sighed. "Seth...Roman kissed me after we got backstage. I didn't push him away instead I kissed him back, I'm so sorry."

Seth smiled. "You don't have to apologize for that." Reaching over he took Dean's hand. "What we all need to do is just sit down and talk to eachother."

Dean nodded. "Okay but Vince wanted to see me so I'll just meet you back at the hotel."

Later that night...

At the hotel

Randy entered the room he was sharing with Roman for the night and found him laying on the bed on his laptop. "Hey, why didn't you tell me that you made up with Seth and Dean?"

"What are you talking about?" Roman says closing his laptop.

"Dude you haven't heard." Randy sat the bag on the spare bed. "Someone apparently saw you and Dean kissing and spread the word."

Roman sighed. "Well it was bound to happen sooner or later."

"You don't seem upset about this." Randy says.

"I'm not, I'd rather be out and happy with the people I love then spend the rest of my life alone and afraid to be myself." Roman sighed. "If someone has a problem with that they can just kiss my ass."

Randy sat on the bed. "Your tag team match with Dean is now the number one trend around the world." Randy says. "I mean is it official, are the three of you back together or not."

"I don't know." Replied Roman. "The ball is pretty much in their court now."

"Well I hope everything works out." Says Randy. "And I think the shield coming back together will be good for business."

...

When Dean got back to the hotel Seth was asleep. His conversation with Vince was still fresh on his mind. Kicking off his shoes he removed his shoes and laid down, completely exhausted.

"So what did Vince want to talk about?"

Dean looked down to find Seth staring up at him. "Hey?"

"I was going to wait up for you but I fell asleep." Seth stretched out before sitting up. He winced slightly and rubbed his head. "So what's going on?"

Dean sighed and looked down. "You know there's a battle royal this Monday for the U.S title. Well Vince thought it would be a good idea if I be in it. I told him that it would be pointless because once you're cleared we'd go back to being partners but he didn't think it was best for business."

Seth looked down. "What else?" Dean remained silent. "Dean?"

"He said that even in the shield you were the weaker one." Dean says. "Said that you don't have the talent, power and voice that me and Roman have. You'd spend the rest of your career as a mid-card superstar. Fucking asshole doesn't know talent if it punched in the face." Looking over at Seth he frowned. "Hey."

"Maybe he's right." Seth says. He moved to get off the bed but Dean grabbed his arm and pulled him back onto his lap.

"Don't be stupid." Dean says. "You became the first NXT champion, multiple tag team champion. Ever night you're in that ring you give one hundred percent. You a badass wrestler and one day you're going to be wwe champion. Don't let that asshole or anyone else tell you otherwise, you hear me."

"I hear you." Seth says. "But there's no timetable for my return and I don't want you to fall down the list. I want you to be in the battle royal this Monday. Just forget about Rybaxel, okay."

Dean remained silent.

"Dean?"

Dean wrapped his arms around Seth's waist and rested his head on his shoulder. "Fine but when you do come back-"

"I know I know." Seth replied getting up.

...

It was now around three and Roman was still awake. He couldn't stop thinking about his former partners. Finally having enough he got up, got dressed and left the room. He made his way to Seth and Roman's room but couldn't bring himself to knock on the door. He leaned against the wall and pulled out his phone but just as he was about to do anything the door opened and Dean appeared. "Hey."

"Hey I thought I heard someone out here." Dean says. "It's almost three in the morning, what are you doing here?"

"Sorry I didn't mean to wake you I just...I couldn't sleep."

Dean folded his arms. "Well to be honest Seth and I can't sleep either."

"Who's at door?" Seth yelled.

Dean unfolded his arms and stepped to the side. "Do you want to come in, maybe we can talk?"

"Yeah." Roman says a little to quickly. Pushing himself off the wall he stepped into the room. Seth was sitting up on the bed and when the two-toined man looked up at him he smiled. "Hey Seth."

Seth returns the smile. "Hey Rome."

...