A/N: Well, here goes nothing. Not only have I never written a Shield relationship story, but I've never written a relationship story in general that goes beyond friendship. Therefore, I hope I've done Ambreigns justice. I'll leave it up to all my great readers and reviewers to let me know how I've done either way!

I've loved writing this story; I'd say it's actually been my favorite to write thus far. With that in mind, I hope you all enjoy, and please feel free to let me know what you think :)

Dolph threw another cocky smile in Dean's direction, and it was all Dean could do to keep his fists in his pockets and away from Dolph's smug face. Taking a deep breath, Dean tried for as casual a tone as a frustrated man with his temperament could manage, "Something I can help you with Ziggler?"

"Nope, I'm good," Dolph replied, turning his attention back to packing his gear bag. Ambrose huffed in annoyance.

Turning face–or crossing over to the good side, as Seth liked to call it–had been fun, but the locker room change left much to be desired for the antisocial, hot tempered man. He was used to men that kept to themselves. In fact, that was the way he preferred it. But now, it seemed like he couldn't even change without someone trying to find out how his day was going, or if he was excited about his match against so and so...it was annoying, not to mention exhausting, trying to keep up with such upbeat people. Seth had promised he'd try to get Dean moved out, but so far, he was stuck with Mr. Sunshine–a nickname Dean had hand selected–who wouldn't stop glancing over at him. "If you've got something to say Ziggler, spit it out. If not, then mind your own business and stop staring!"

Seth always flinched when Dean yelled at the other wrestlers. Rollins insisted that they needed to be coordual in this new locker room. He'd pointed out that they'd all be working more closely with the other men in the locker room now that The Shield too, were good guys. However, right now, Seth wasn't there, and yelling at Dolph made Dean feel better, so he cut himself a little slack.

Dolph, alarmed by the sudden, threatening behavior, decided that perhaps it was in his best interest to get to the point of his open gawking, "Weeeelll, some of the guys and I were talking..."

Dean ran a hand through his unkempt hair, well that's never good.

"...and we were wondering if you...," Dolph stopped, and Dean saw the blond, bold, crass man blush for the first time. Oh yeah, definitely not good, Dean thought anxiously, trying to will Ziggler to just spit out the words to get the awkward moment over with already.

Dolph cleared his throat and tried again,"We were wondering if you and Reigns...you know..." he said, using a hand flourish to try to express his unspoken point. Ambrose would have to see the trainer later because he could have swore that Ziggler's words, both said and unsaid, had made his heart stop.

Noticing Ziggler's scrutinizing stare, Ambrose tried to act as casual as possible as he immitaded Dolph's previous jesters. "Me and Reigns what Ziggler? I'm not a mind reader, and I'm sure as heck not a man of patience, so use your words and let's speed this up."

"You and Reigns are, like, dating or something," Ziggler finished sheepishly, his face as red as his bright locker door behind him.

Though Dean worried he would have a panic attack at any moment, he gave Dolph what he hoped was his best scoff, "What?! Where did you morons get that idea from?"

"Well, we were talking–"

"Yeah, I got that part already. This locker room gossips even more than the Divas do," Ambrose said, unable to control the sound of disgust that seeped into his words. He was, however, able to hide a satisfied smile at the hurt look that passed over Dolph's normally cheerful face.

"We were talking," Dolph said again, now more to annoy Dean than for any other reason, "and we thought that the way you and Roman work together in the ring, that maybe you two have a thing or something."

"Seth works with Roman and I too. Do you and your stupid love consultants think that's 'a thing' as well?" Dean asked sarcastically, throwing in air quotes for good measure.

"No."

"Then?" Dean asked in exasperation, rubbing his temples as he tried to fend on an impending headache.

"You and Roman act differently with each other than you both do with Seth."

"How so?" Dean asked, honestly interested.

"Well, for one, you and Roman touch a lot more," Dolph said. Seeing Ambrose begin to protest, Dolph tried to finish his explanation quickly, "Like when one of you gets knocked down or hurt outside the ring, the other rushes over to check on that person. Not to mention you two always grab each other's hands or touch each other's shoulders when you're in the ring together. You guys don't do that with Seth, or at least not near as much."

Mental note: no touching, Ambrose thought to himself, intending to tell Roman the same.

Dean decided that there was only one way to fix this. "Well you can tell your friends that you're all dead wrong, there's nothing going on. Roman, Seth and I are just friends, and that's where it stops. And here's an idea, maybe pay more attention to yourself, and less to everyone else, and you might actually start winning matches again."

Dean closed his eyes. Even he had to admit, that last part was a low blow. It was no secret in the locker room that Dolph had been off his game lately, and he'd been struggling to fight off his bad luck, but to no avail thus far. However, Dolph had shaken Dean up, and he'd gone straight for the jugular where Dolph was concerned. He sighed as he had no doubt that Seth would make him apologize later.

This time, not even bothering to mask the look of hurt as he grabbed his now packed dufflebag, Dolph stormed out of the locker room, nearly knocking Seth over in the process as he charged down the hallway.

With a muttered apology, to Seth, Dolph marched off, leaving the other man to collect himself after the collision. Getting his bearings back again, Seth's face lit up as he saw Roman standing near the entrance to the locker room. "Hey Rome, I was looking everywhere for you. They have one of your favorites in catering today: sushi," Seth said, proud that his mission to tell his best friend the good news was now complete.

Roman just started at Seth blankly before turning around to perform his own storm off to mirror Dolph's. Seth stood, confused. He was torn between whether or not to follow his best friend and try to figure out what exactly he'd done to upset him. Deciding, given Roman's temper, that it was probably best to give his friend some space before approaching him again, Seth opted instead to try to find Dean. Maybe he'd know why everyone was acting so strange today...

Was it the sushi? Seth wondered as he entered the locker room, feeling an instant flood of relief as he saw Dean sitting on one of the black benches, his legs bouncing erratically, as usual. Maybe he'll know what's up, Seth thought.

"Hey, any idea what's bothering Roman?" Seth asked in way of a greeting.

Dean raised his head from his hands, and Seth noticed the ghost of something that looked disturbingly like hopelessness in Dean's eyes. "No. Haven't seen him since our match earlier," Dean said, recalling the brutal, but victorious three-on-three tag match that the three friends had recently finished. Focusing on Seth, Ambrose frowned, "Why?"

Seth sighed, "Well, I was coming in here, and Roman was by the door. I told him that there was sushi in catering, and he gave me a weird...I don't know, empty look I guess, and then he just turned around and stormed off. What did I do? He still likes sushi right?" Seth asked, the last question more of an afterthought.

Seth was startled by the look of horror that flashed across Ambrose's features. "Seth, how long was Roman standing there?"

Seth shrugged, "Not sure, at least since before I walked up. Why?"

Ambrose groaned, causing Seth's eyebrows to furrow as he saw his friend pale, "Hey man, you okay? Did you get hurt in the match or something?"

"I wish."

Dean put his head back in his hands, answering Seth's questioning look with the muffled story of the exchange between he and Dolph moments ago. It was Seth's turn to groan.

"What am I going to do man? I've never screwed up this bad before," Dean asked, uncharacteristically quiet.

Seth ran a hand through his two-toned hair, a habit he'd picked up from Roman whenever the big man was thinking about an unusually difficult problem. The pacing he was now staring, he'd picked up from Dean. "Well, lucky for you, Roman is a pretty forgiving guy. I mean, he's kept your around, and you've screw up countless times in countless ways," Seth said.

Ambrose's fist from balling up in his hair, as he allowed his anger and annoyance to color his words, "Yeah thanks Rollins, you're a regular Doctor Phil. How does pointing out the obvious help?"

"Well," Seth said, his voice softening, "The fact that you've messed up so much, means that Roman will take just about anything you can dish out. That means there's definitely hope to fix this."

Dean shook his head slowly, his hands still balled up in his hair as he continued to stare a hole into the ground, "This isn't like I forgot his birthday, or our anniversary or something Seth. I can't make up to him with an extra nice dinner and a great gift. I'm screwed man."

"A gift, that's it!" Seth exclaimed in excitement as the light bulb in his head went off.

"Heeellllooo, have you been listening to anything I said Rollins?! I just said a gift won't cut it," Dean said. He hated feeling like he was being ignored, a feeling which caused his legs to start bouncing again in agitation.

"But, what if I could tell you that I know something you could give him that'd get you out of the dog house for sure?" Seth offered, wagging his eyebrows playfully.

"We already do that Seth," Dean sighed in exasperation.

It took Seth a moment, but he finally figured out what Dean was referring to. "Ew, no. You two are my best friends, and I love you both to death, but I want no details of any of that stuff thank you very much."

Ambrose looked up with a look of mock innocence, though Seth could tell that at the moment, his heart wasn't fully in it, "Not sure I know what you're talking about Rollins..."

Seth just shook his head. They didn't need to get side tracked, especially with this particular topic. "Back to my awesome idea," Seth said smugly, "I think that if you gave him something that showed you really do care for him, regardless of what he heard you tell Dolph, I think he would consider forgiving you."

Ambrose thought the idea over for a moment, then looked Seth straight in the eye. "Every once in a while Rollins, I remember why we decided you were The Architect of the group."

Seth smiled broadly in response, before Dean's darkening face took Seth's smile away.

"One problem though, what the heck do I get him? For special occasions, I have you do recon. Not to mention what I buy him is just stuff, it's nothing...I don't know...sentimental or anything..." Dean made a disgusted face even saying the word 'sentimental.'

Seth thought the problem over. Dean had a point. Being poor for almost all of his life had ingrained in Dean the values of making due with what he had. Even now, with the money he was making in WWE–which could pay for more than a few luxuries for Ambrose–Dean never spent more than he absolutely had to, and only on the essentials. It wasn't like he had sentimental objects laying around. Dean used things until they were such bad shape that they were no longer useful at all, then he stored them away just in case he might need them for something later. Seth sighed, a ripped up old sweatshirt or an old cd player weren't going to cut it if Dean was going to win Roman back.

As Seth paced, a back stage crew member knocked softly on the locker room door. "Um, Mr. Rollins? Mr. Reigns asked that I tell you he's going back to the hotel with the Usos, so you don't have to wait for him."

Seth reddened in discomfort. Clearing his throat, he quickly thanked the man and began his pacing again, this time more to avoid Dean's eye contact than anything else.

Dean was surprised at how hurt he'd felt, hurt that Roman had relaid the message to Seth instead of him. Dean sighed, yup, this is definitely the maddest Roman has ever been with me, not that I blame him...

"Well, might as well head out. Maybe we can think of something to pick up on the way back to the hotel," Seth suggested quietly, coming up with no better plan.

"Yeah, maybe," Dean said, his shoulders already slumped in defeat.

Both men collected their belongings and headed to the car. Dean grimaced as they approached the newlyweds Daniel Bryan and Brie Bella on the way to the parking lot. Those two always made Dean want to vomit. They hung all over each other and stared at one another with those puppy dog eyes...it was enough to make anyone sick. That's it! Dean thought in excitement, finally coming up with an idea that wasn't completely hopeless.

Seth looked over questioningly at Dean, sensing the shift in his friend's mood without Dean having to say a word. Smiling, Dean asked, "Can I borrow the car?"

"What are you talking about? We're riding together."

"Actually, I wasn't planning on it."

"Oh?" Seth asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I need your help. I need you to go to the hotel and get Roman to calm down enough to hear me out when I get there."

Seth hated always being the peace keeper between the tumultuous couple, but if it ultimately lead to their happiness, he'd play referee and councilor every time. "Sure Dean. But how do I get back?"

"Hey Bryan!" Dean suddenly shouted, startling the lovers. "Can you give Seth a ride to the hotel?" Dean asked, having seen the pair in the lobby of their hotel earlier that day.

"Um, sure," Daniel answered awkwardly, glancing over at Brie who simply shrugged her assent.

"Nice Ambrose," Seth admonished as he walked towards his new ride. "Be careful and don't do anything crazy or stupid, got it?"

"I'm always careful mom. Don't worry so much."

Seth rolled his eyes in response. Yeah right, like he could not worry about a man he cared about with the nickname "Lunatic Fringe."

"Really, I'll be okay. I have a plan to fix everything," Ambrose reassured him. If he were the type, Seth imaged that Dean would have been nearly skipping as he headed towards their rental car, leaving three speechless wrestlers in his wake.

"Um, hi," Seth said awkwardly as he turned his attention back to Daniel and Brie, making a mental note to get back at Dean for putting him in this situation.

Well, Dean has an idea, that's usually never a good sign...in the next chapter (getting uploaded tomorrow night) we'll catch up with Seth to see how he approaches a very angry and hurt Roman, and we'll also check in with the Lunatic Fringe to see what he has up his sleeve to win Roman back. Stay tuned for chapter two :)