Latch

Roman shifted the groceries he had bought from the bodega down the street from one arm to the other as he walked up the flower lined path to his apartment building. He took the short stairs up to his apartment on the second floor.

As he got closer to his own door he noticed that the door to the apartment next to him was open. That apartment had been vacant for at least six months but he heard voices coming from with in so he guessed that he had a new neighbour.

A short guy with red hair walked out seemingly exasperated. " Dean! You're impossible. Why do I have to carry your shit?" He yelled to whomever this Dean was inside of the apartment.

" Because Zayn, that's what best friends do."

Roman watched as the responder came to the front door. He was around Roman's height wearing a white t-shirt and faded blue jeans. He cockily propped himself up against the door frame and smiled cunningly at the Zayn guy. " Aww come on Sami, I'll owe you a six pack."

Sami or Zayn or whatever he was called was about to respond when he noticed Roman watching them. " Hi!" He called out to him, tipping his head in acknowledgement.

Roman shifted the heavy bag in his arms a bit. He hadn't even realized that he had stopped to watch them for so long. " Hi. Are you guys moving in?"

" Why are you asking?" That came from the Dean guy. His eyes had narrowed suspiciously at him. Auburn curls almost covering them completely but Roman could see the distrust in them coming through.

" Well," Roman fished into his front jeans pocket and pulled out his keys. " It's because I live here."

" Oh." Dean's stance changed completely and he seemed to have relaxed but not quite. " So you're my neighbour?"

Roman nodded. Dean had the last apartment at the end of the hallway. " It seems that way." Roman tried to put on a friendly smile even though he wasn't quite so sure of this Dean character. " I'm Roman Reigns by the way." He carefully balanced his groceries in the crook of his left arm as he stretched out his right arm towards the auburn haired man.

Dean looked down at Roman's outstretched hand for a few seconds as if he was puzzled as to what to do with it. He heard the Sami guy muttering to Dean not to be a dick and that seemed to be the magical piece for it to click to Dean and he shook Roman's hand. It was a firm handshake.

" I'm Dean Ambrose." His smile was wide but not what Roman exactly would call friendly.

" I'm Sami Zayn." The smaller man had stepped forward on his own accord and offered his hand. Roman shook it and noted that Sami's smile was more genuine. " I'm Dean's best friend."

" Oh god," Dean groaned. " Did you have to say it like that? It makes it sound as if we're five."

Sami rolled his eyes. " I'm sorry. I meant to say that I'm Dean's only friend."

Roman couldn't help but to grin when Dean sighed melodramatically. " Great. Now Roman thinks that I'm a loser."

Sami shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. " Well ..."

" Don't you dare finish that sentence Zayn." Dean ruffled Sami's red hair affectionately. " Now go bring me my stuff."

Sami looked at Roman. " You see how he treats me? This is why he doesn't have any more friends."

Roman laughed as Sami dodged the playful punch that Dean swung at him.

" All right, all right. I'm going." Sami put his hands up as he walked away.

Roman smiled as he unlocked his door. At least Sami seemed cool. Dean on the other hand, he hadn't gotten a clear reading on yet.

" See you around." Roman said as he glanced at Dean.

"Oh, what?" Dean turned around to face Roman as if he had already forgotten about his existence. " Um, yeah sure."

Roman gave a brief nod as he walked into his apartment. The familiar sound of the television greeted him as he closed the door. " I'm home!" He called out as he made his way to the kitchen to finally put down the heavy bag. He always wondered why he did that. He never got a response anyway.

He followed the noise of the television into the living room. As usual he found his cat curled up on the carpet at the foot of the couch with his own remote right beside him covered in claw marks.

" Hi Colby." Roman reached down and scratched between the cat's ears and he purred lovingly, tilting his head back.

Roman picked the ginger and white cat up and placed him in his lap. He continued to pet him as he tried to figure out what Colby had been watching. Deadliest Catch. It figured that Colby would be watching a show about fishing. He would never forgot the evening when he came home and he could hear his television blasting from the hallway. He had been certain that something was wrong. He had hurriedly unlocked the door and rushed to Colby. He had been sitting in his usual spot and his head was moving left to right to the beat of the music as he watched graphic visuals on television. Somehow Colby had discovered one of the audio channels and he had the volume turned up to almost all. Roman had immediately turned it back down to a normal level and Colby started meowing loudly to let him know his displeasure. Colby was a smart cat. He had figured out which button controlled the channels and which had controlled the volume, from watching Roman all of the time. But Roman got tired coming home to find his remote clawed and chewed up so he bought Colby his own and left it on the floor, while his remained on the coffee table. This arrangement worked well as Colby left his alone and only used the one that Roman had brought for him.

Colby rolled over on his back and stretched out as Roman scratched his tummy. " Guess what Colby? We have a new neighbour. His name is Dean Ambrose." Colby only shifted his front paws from left to right and couldn't seem to give two hoots about a new neighbour. " He seems a bit, I dunno, weird I guess." Roman thought about his new neighbour for a couple of minutes. He didn't have much to go on. He just hoped that he didn't bring any sort of trouble home with him.

Roman lived in a nice, peaceful neighbourhood in Queens, that bordered Long Island. Sometimes he even forgot that he was a part of the Big Apple. Out here had a more of a small town feel and he enjoyed owning a car and not having to deal with public transportation. He was a personal trainer by trade and used to walk the few blocks to the local gym where he worked a couple days a week, most of the time. He mainly got a car for when he had to go to his clients who were scattered through out Queens, Brooklyn and Long Island.

" Okay Colby," he lifted the cat up and placed him back on the floor. " I have to go make dinner."

He smiled when Colby's ears perked up at the word dinner and meowed at him expectantly.

" Give me a few minutes, alright?" He headed into his bedroom to change his clothes before starting dinner.

Half an hour later, Roman was sitting at the breakfast counter eating his meal of chicken and vegetables while Colby crunched noisely on his dry food in the corner. He picked up his cellphone and checked his calender to see his schedule for the rest of the week. He was distracted when he felt something furry rubbing against his leg.

" Hi Colbs."

The cat meowed in response and looked up at him expectantly and watched Roman hard as he placed a piece of chicken into his mouth.

" I just fed you."

Colby meowed again and rubbed himself even harder against Roman's leg.

" That's not going to work this time."

Colby purred and then butted his head gently underneath Roman's knee.

Roman laughed as he placed his fork down. " You don't ever like hearing the word no, do you?"

He tore off a piece of meat from the chicken breast. He held it over Colby's head. " Okay just one small piece."

Colby got up on his hind legs and eagerly bit the piece of meat that Roman was holding, pulling it out of his fingers. Roman watched as the cat ate the meat with relish before returning to his own food.

Meow.

Colby was looking at him expectantly again.

" I told you just one piece."

Colby just cocked his head to a side. Green eyes wide.

Roman sighed and handed his last piece of meat over to Colby who snatched it out his fingers with his paws and placed it on the tile to eat it.

" You're gonna get fat you know. And how is that going to look? A personal trainer with a fat cat."

Colby was not concerned or interested in Roman's dilemma as he ate the chicken and Roman washed the dishes.

Saturday morning found Roman cleaning his apartment while Colby was at his usual spot watching television. Formula one racing was on and he seemed to be fascinated by the cars speeding around the track.

Roman had just emptied the dust pan into the garbage when there was a knock at the door. He was a bit surprised when he opened the door and saw his new neighbour standing there.

" Um hi." Dean shuffled about on one foot. " It's Roman right?"

" Yeah." He observed him curiously.

" Yeah sorry to bother you but the air conditioning is out in my apartment and the super says that it will be a couple of hours before the repair guy gets here. Do you mind if I crash here until he comes?" He said hopefully. " It's really hot in there."

Well fuck. He couldn't really turn him down even if he wanted to. Although Roman didn't. " Yeah sure you can stay here." He opened the door wider. " Come..." before he could finish the sentence Dean had already walked in and Roman noticed that he was barefooted. Though it didn't really make any sense to put on shoes to go next door he reasoned.

" Nice place." Dean said as he took in the warm earth toned hues with splashes of burgandy.

" Thanks." He watched as Dean went over to a side table and picked up an ornament, examined it with his fingers and then placing it back down before picking up another one. Roman wondered if he was planning on stealing it.

" Do you want something to drink?" He offered.

" Yeah, thanks." Dean picked up a silver picture frame of Roman and his twin cousins.

Roman walked away nervously as Dean ran his finger along the edge of the frame. He really didn't know anything about the guy he thought as he grabbed a soda out of the fridge.

When he came back out, Dean had made his way to the living room and he heard Colby meowing loudly as if he was in distress.

" Colby, what's wrong?"

Colby was standing and glanced over at Roman and meowed and looked up at Dean.

" I don't know what's wrong with your cat man. I just picked up the remote and he started going off. Why is it so chewed up though?"

Roman laughed lightly. " That's his remote. You took up his remote." Roman picked up the remote that was on the coffee table. " This is mine."

Dean looked absolutely perplexed. " Your cat has its own remote? And why did you name him after cheese?" He set the Colby's remote back down on the floor and took the drink and remote that Roman offered him.

" Yes he has his own remote. He's home all day and I got tired of replacing mine. And I didn't name him after cheese on purpose. I just liked the name."

He watched as Dean sat in the middle of the couch and saw how Colby narrowed his eyes at him as he draped himself over his remote.

" So what do you do?" Roman asked as he fixed a stack of fitness magazines on a nearby table.

Dean popped the ring on the can of soda and the familiar hiss of the fizz sounded as it hit the air. " Stuff."

That didn't make Roman feel any better about Dean possibly stealing his possessions. However, he couldn't exactly kick him out with out any proof that he was thief. " What kind of stuff?"

" You know, odds and ends." He took a sip of the drink. " Do you have the History channel? I wanna watch Pawn Stars."

Yup. He was definitely going to steal his stuff. " Uh, yeah."

" Awesome." Dean flipped through until he found it.

Roman decided to try a different approach. " Are you from New York?"

" Nah. I hate it actually. I'm from Cincinnati." Dean already had both arms stretched out along the top of the couch making himself quite at home. Dressed in a white tank and grey shorts, he looked more relaxed than Roman did, who was wondering what sort of man had he let into his home.

" So how come you're here?" He had finished fixing the stack of magazines.

" Work."

Roman waited in hopes that Dean would continue but he didn't.

" So what do you do?" Dean took another swig of the drink without taking his eyes off the television.

" I'm a personal trainer."

That caused Dean to actually break his eyes away from the television. He was checking Roman out in the way that people usually did when he told them that he was a personal trainer. He was dressed similarly to Dean in a tank top and shorts. He was pretty proud of how buff his arms were.

" What's up with the full sleeve tat?"

" Oh, I'm Samoan. It's a cultural thing that we do."

Dean nodded. " That's cool. I don't like needles." With that he turned his attention back to the television apparently ending the conversation. He had been dismissed in his own house. Unbelievable.

He decided to go straighten up his bedroom. He was certain that Colby would alert him if Dean did anything funny.

When he came back out half an hour later, Dean had his feet up on the coffee table and Colby had fallen asleep on top of the remote.

" Hi, I'm going to make a turkey club for lunch. Do you want one?"

" Yeah sure, it sounds fine." He raised his hand up holding a bottle of soda. " I got another one, if you don't mind."

" Yeah, it's cool." There wasn't anything he could do about anyway. Dean had made himself a bit too comfortable in his home rather quickly for his liking but he didn't want to seem inhospitable.

Roman was carefully putting together the sandwiches on his kitchen counter when Dean strolled in.

" Can you put some of that fancy dijon mustard that you had in your fridge on mine?" He requested folding his arms on the counter to rest on them.

" No problem." Roman reached across for the fridge door and pulled it open and took out the dijon mustard from the door.

Dean watched in amazement as Roman unscrewed the lid and dipped a knife into the bottle. " Don't you ever say no?"

" Excuse me?" Roman spread the mustard across the bread and then locked eyes with Dean still holding the knife in his right hand.

Dean smirked and pushed the curly auburn locks out of his eyes but they still came back. He had icy blue eyes. Roman guessed that he would have admired them more if he wasn't busy being preoccupied at getting angry with his houseguest.

" I mean are you always this accomodating," Dean reached across the counter and placed the bread on top to cover the sandwich and then took it up with both hands. " Or only to cute guys like myself?"

Roman stared at Dean as if he had lost his damn mind as he took a bite of the sandwich. " I never said that you were cute." And he didn't think that Dean was cute, not really.

" Lies." Dean gestured with his hand holding the sandwich and a piece of lettuce slipped out and dropped on the ground. Of course he wouldn't use the plate that Roman had provided. " Everyone says that I'm cute." He took another bite of the sandwich. " This is a pretty good sandwich."

" Thanks." Dean was making Roman feel a bit uneasy. He didn't know if to eat his sandwich there in the kitchen or in the living room. However Dean munched through his without a care in the world.

The familiar tune of an old country song suddenly assaulted the air and Dean pulled a cellular phone out of his pocket. " Yo." Dean popped the last piece of the sandwich into his mouth. " Yeah I'm next door. I'll be right over." He dusted the crumbs off on the side of his pants, so of course they fell to the floor.

Dean ended the phone call. " That was the repairman. He's here." Dean reached over to pat Roman on the shoulder. " Thanks man."

As soon as Dean placed his hand on Roman's shoulder he heard a loud hiss. Both of them looked over to see Colby was awake and very angry. His back was arched and his hair nearly stood on end as he hissed loudly at Dean. He raised an eyebrow and slowly took his hand off Roman's shoulder. Colby stopped hissing. Dean slowly placed his hand back down on Roman's shoulder, holding it firmly. Colby hissed and looked as if he was about to attack him.

Roman knocked his hand away. " Dean stop. You're upsetting Colby." He went and scooped his cat up, who made a great show of rubbing itself against Roman's chest.

" I'm upsetting Colby?" Dean repeated staring at the two of them incredulously. " I barely touched you and he's ready to attack me. Your cat doesn't like me." He actually sounded quite upset about it.

" He doesn't dislike you, he just doesn't know you yet." Roman said as he accompanied Dean to the door while petting Colby.

" Uh huh." Dean opened the door and looked back at the cat who narrowed its green eyes at Dean so menacingly that a chill nearly went through his body.

" That cat doesn't like me." He repeated as he headed back to his apartment.

A/N: So this is the next multi-chapter fic. Do you like it? Should I continue? Let me know.

And yes the cat's name is Colby and yes it's on purpose :)

The name " Latch" is from the song by Disclosure ft Sam Smith. I wrote so many stories while listening to this song last year and this year that I thought that it was time that it got its own story.