Disclaimer: I don't own anyone.
Rated: M
Warning(s): Slash, Daddy!Kink, Sub!Roman, Daddy!Hunter, Dom/sub, Allusions to Past Domestic Violence, etc.

Dean looked at Roman, concern evident in his eyes. "Are you sure that you're okay, man? You look like hell." He hated that he hadn't gotten there sooner, hadn't been able to help more than he had.

"I'm just a little sore." Roman confirmed, but his voice was breathy and strained. All the color seemed to have drained out of his face. "Its nothing that won't pass. I just need to," here, his fingers ghosted over the various buckles and snaps holding his vest together, "take this thing off."

But Dean was far from convinced, "I think that maybe you should go and see the trainer -,"

Roman cut him off. "See the trainer? That's just asking to get pulverized next week. All I need is to find out I have broken ribs, or something worse, and have Hunter exploit it."

"I thought things between you and Daddy were getting better?" Dean asked.

"They were." Roman nodded, "Until he had you arrested. I haven't talked to him in a week."

Dean sighed. He hated that Hunter and Roman's relationship was strained on his account, but he was immensely grateful for all that Roman had done on his account lately. While the Shield might not be a cohesive unit any longer - at least, as far as most of the WWE Universe was aware, anyhow - it was nice that, to some degree, they were still allowed to interact informally. They weren't a group anymore, true, and the current storyline was undoubtedly meant to destroy their on-screen relationship,,, but at least it wasn't like it was for Seth.

They didn't think that they'd ever seen Seth so stressed-out before. On-screen, he was the cocky, arrogant, WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Off-screen, he was the youngest sub, terrified that he'd finally pushed the storyline too far and had alienated everyone. One minute he wanted to be held, the next he was threatening bodily harm if you so much as breathed in his direction. One minute he was Daddy's favorite boy, the next he was threatening to run away and find a new Daddy. His little tantrums hurt, but they'd learned not to take them too seriously.

"Speak of the devil." Dean said, cocking his head in Hunter's direction. The COO was storming down the hallway, the look of displeasure on his face obviously directed at his two boys.

"Seriously?" With a huff, Roman fell back against the wall. "I'm already in enough pain. I don't need a headache to top it all off." Tired fingers slowly began to attempt to undo the straps of his vest.

After watching him struggle for about thirty seconds, Dean sighed, "You want some help there, big guy?"

Dean had successfully unlatched two straps by the time Hunter arrived. A big fist landed beside Roman's head, and was completely ignored. "Dean?" There was a soft hum of acknowledgement. "Would you mind going and tracking down Seth? I would like a moment to speak with Roman… alone."

Dean thought about arguing, but thought wisely against it. "Yes, Daddy."

As soon as he was gone, Hunter turned to Roman. The exhausted wrestler wasn't making eye-contact with him, but instead was looking up at the fluorescent lights in the ceiling and lazily shielding his smarting ribs with his right arm. "You pushed yourself too hard out there. You can barely stand up."

"Oh? And whose fault is that?" Roman hissed.

Before he could receive an answer to his rhetorical question, he opened the door to his locker room and stormed inside, slamming the door closed behind him. Hunter could hear the sound of the door locking, followed by a strangled moan as Roman finally gave into exhaustion and collapsed in a heap on the opposite side of the door. Hunter frowned. Now was his time to take care of Roman, to step up as the Daddy that his boy needed. He'd been firm on the show, seemingly taking delight in terrorizing the Roman Empire. But behind closed doors, he desperately wanted to set things right.

Over time, he had learned that Roman was the most fragile of the three former members of the Shield. It seemed like such an odd thing to say, but it was true. In their seven month gap between leaving their former dom and coming to be with Hunter, Roman had been the glue that had held the three of them together. He was the strong-man, the protector, the defender… But what few realized was that Roman, while not one to trust easily, fell in love hard. And that made him particularly susceptible to any fluctuation in the tides of the relationship, no matter how small they might seem to others.

Roman wasn't overly vocal, he held a lot of his pain inside. Hunter knew that there was pain from the previous dom that would never be erased, no matter how hard he might try. In Roman's opinion, they were broken, unable to ever be what Hunter might want them to be. So why would he want them at all? When Seth was upset, he cried. When Dean was upset, he became violent. But what did Roman do? He locked it away inside, and that was dangerous. And now, with the potential for so many things to have gone wrong with Roman's body tonight… he couldn't afford to let the strong-man bottle it up any longer.

It was with that in mind that he took a deep breath and knocked on the door to Roman's locker room. He had the key, of course, but thought it might be better to try and be diplomatic first. "Roman? Roman, if you can hear me -,"

"Fuck off, old man. I'm not in the mood." Hunter tried to ignore the pain of blatant rejection from his boy, but it tore through his chest like a knife and he suddenly found it very hard to breathe.

"Look, baby, I know that you're hurting. I know that, and I'm sorry." Here, Roman laughed brokenly. It must've been killer on his ribs. "But I just want to try and make it better, okay? I just want to take care of you."

There was the sound of Velcro unlatching, followed by a low moan. Hunter assumed that Roman had just taken off his vest. "Oh yeah, that's real rich. Did you want to take care of me after my match with Barrett? What about after Henry's World's Strongest Slam broke me in two? Or when Bray bashed my head off the apron?"

"Roman, your ribs are bruised, at the very least. At worst, they're cracked -," but Roman cut him off.

"Like I'd tell you!" Roman laughed again. "I tell you about my ribs, next week I end up in a handicapped match with both of my hands tied behind my back, getting beaten within an inch of my life. Hey, maybe I'll even cough up blood again! Wouldn't that make good television?"

Hunter placed his forehead against the door, eyes closed. He hated this. He never wanted Roman to get hurt. Never. "Roman, you know that that's not true."

There was a moment of silence, then, "If you think that you can just stack the opponents against me, and it'll make me regret what I did, regret the side that I chose, you're wrong." Another moan, followed by the shuffling of material. "If you think that you can beat me into submission… you don't know me very well at all."

"Please, just let me in, Roman." Hunter was pleading now.

It occurred to him then that, even if Roman might want to let Hunter in, he might not be able to make it to the door. Hell, Hunter had been impressed when he'd managed to hop the barricade at the end of the show. Reaching into his pocket, he turned the key over in his hand. He could use it now and risk that Roman simply just didn't want to see him, or he could continue to argue with him and risk never getting to tend to the damage that he'd caused. In the end, it turned out to be a no-brainer. Unlocking the door, he let himself inside. And what he saw hit him like a second shot to the chest.

Roman had managed to get his shirt off, and was lying on the floor, breathing shallowly. His chest was practically one giant bruise, roughly about the size of Mark Henry's mid-section. Every breath was clearly quite painful. And then there was his left eye, which was practically swollen shut. He remembered pulling the ref aside and personally reaming him a new one for that particular mistake. He might be forced to abide by this stupid storyline that Stephanie was selling, but that didn't mean that he had to let such poor and shoddy work slide. One way or another, he would protect his boys.

"Roman… oh God, look at you… what can I do?" Hunter asked, not wanting to touch anything without knowing how much it was hurting his boy.

"I thought I told you - there is nothing you can do. I don't want, or need, your help." He took a deep, trembling breath. "Besides, what's done is done."

But Hunter wasn't about to cave. "I'm not leaving you like this. That's something that Paul would have done. Do I look like Paul to you?" Roman tensed at the very mention of the man's name. "You are my boy, and I am your Daddy. When you're broken, it is my job to put you back together again."

"Is it your job to break me first?" Roman countered sarcastically.

Hunter knelt down beside Roman, pleased when the big man didn't flinch away. "These aren't ideal circumstances by any means. But if we sit around and wait for perfect, well…" he trailed off. "But I'm going to sit right here next to you for however long it takes for you to believe that I won't hurt you."

"You already hurt me." Roman replied flatly.

It took a great amount of strain on Roman's part, but he managed to drag himself to an upright position and over to his carry-on, which had some bruise salve in it. With nimble fingers, he applied the salve to the purple-black bruise on his abdomen, applying it in a thin, even layer. Once in place, he tossed the container back in his bag and then carefully hauled himself to his feet. With a great deal of care, and leaning heavily on the wall for support, he started to make his way to the shower. Hunter remained unmoving, not about to break his word to Roman this late in the game.

"I'm going to go take a shower." Roman announced to nobody in particular… then he vanished around the corner.

An hour later, and Roman returned with a towel draped loosely around his waist. Hunter hadn't so much as budged. "You still sitting out there like a stubborn old fool?"

"I made you a promise, didn't I?" Hunter replied immediately. "And I intend to keep it."

His fingers ghosted over his bruised abdomen, barely even grazing the abused skin there. "The pain is unimaginable. But it isn't anything that I can't handle."

"You shouldn't have to handle it alone." Hunter said softly.

"You really want to help me?" Roman asked.

Roman tossed the salve at Hunter's chest, and Hunter caught it with ease. Plopping down on the faux leather couch, he made himself comfortable and awaited for Hunter to decide what he wanted to do with the salve. Slowly, Hunter rose to his feet and, unscrewing the lid on the container, dipped his fingers in the salve. Gently, he rubbed the salve into Roman's achy skin, wanting to do his best to take away the pain. Roman drew in a deep breath, body shaking when Hunter would accidentally press too hard and aggravate one of the bruises. Hunter whispered sweet nothings under his breath to soothe him.

When he finished, he leaned forward, hovering an inch away from Roman's lips. There was a brief pause, and then they met each other's eyes. Finally, Roman leaned forward, claiming his Daddy's lips in a brutal kiss. The bottle of salve fell away and Roman's legs, still slightly stiff from his earlier matches, slowly fell open, allowing Hunter to slip between them. After a moment, Hunter drew back, drawing a disapproving moan from the body beneath him. But he couldn't help but feel like he was pushing too hard, too fast. An hour ago, Roman had hated him. Now, he wanted sex?

"Why the sudden change of heart?" Hunter asked softly.

"You're not Paul." Roman said, his tone matter-of-fact. "It's been over a year that the four of us have been together, and there was a seven month period where the three of us wandered aimlessly." There was a pause, "Paul wanted to hurt us. Sometimes… he succeeded."

Hunter knew that they were treading into dangerous territory. Roman never discussed their time with Paul. The closest he'd ever come to hearing about it was from Seth, who had a tendency to talk in his sleep. "Roman… you don't have to…"

"I was his favorite, you know. I'm stronger than the other two… can take a beating and get back to my feet, no problem. I was his toy, and he loved to play with me." Roman confessed.

"I'll kill the slimy bastard." Even if it was almost two years ago, the act was still despicable and he still deserved to be punished for his inexcusable behavior.

"It doesn't matter now." Roman was starting to strip, before dipping his fingers in the nearby baby oil to prepare himself.

"It matters because he hurt you." Hunter said.

"He can't hurt me anymore." Roman countered.

Hunter wanted to keep talking, wanted to press the issue further, but then Roman was sinking one finger into that tight ring of muscle and holy shit, was it a beautiful sight. Roman almost never had need to prep himself, because he almost never bottomed. He almost exclusively topped Dean. The fact that he was preparing himself for Hunter now was just… well, it was simply breathtaking. Roman was breathing heavily, practically drugged on the mixture of pain and pleasure coursing through his body. And just like that, he slipped another finger into his channel.

"I want you to take me." Roman said, voice breathy for an entirely different reason this time. "I won't pretend like it will magically fix everything - hell, I'll probably still be pissed about this for awhile." Roman said, causing Hunter to flinch. "But I know that you're not Paul - I know you don't want to hurt me."

"God, baby, that is the last thing I would ever dream of doing! You, Dean, and Seth are my world. You three are my precious boys. How could I ever sacrifice that?" Hunter asked.

Roman slipped a third finger inside himself, scissoring them carefully. "I hope that we never have to find out."

Hunter forced his boy to meet his eyes. "I'm promising you right now that you never will."

Removing his dripping wet fingers, he unzipped Hunter's pants and removed his fully erect cock. He smirked darkly, adjusting his body so that the tip of Hunter's cock rested against his entrance. "Take me, Daddy."

Hunter smiled, pressing his lips against Roman's forehead. "Gladly."

Pushing inside of his boy's tight heat, he took a moment to ground himself as he bottomed out. Roman's hands were on his back, short fingernails cutting thin lines into his expensive, personally tailored suit. And then, he started in on the fast and brutal pace that he knew Roman was awaiting. Each thrust made the big man's body jostle, aggravating bruises and abrasions in the process. But Roman didn't seem to be too terribly bothered by it, if his moaning shouts were anything to go by. And then, he angled himself perfectly, striking the boy's prostate. Roman was seeing stars.

But it couldn't last forever. With a crooked grin, Roman clamped his heat down around Hunter and ordered, "Cum for me, Daddy." And, seconds later, he did.

Roman followed suit, thick ropes of white coating his stomach. Breathless, he collapsed down onto the sofa. He barely even registered Hunter pulling out. "Feel better, baby?" Hunter asked.

"Yeah." Everything was far from okay, but this was a definite start.

"I love my baby, remember that. Okay?" Hunter kissed his forehead again.

"Love you too, Daddy. Love you too."