Bear with me, I don't know if I really know what I'm doing.

Cross-posted to AO3.

Disclaimer: All characters are fictitious and no events depicted reflect the personal lives of anyone in the story.

Dean Ambrose is twenty-five years old when he meets Seth Rollins.

It's the middle of June, and Dean's just moved to Orlando as part of his contract with WWE's developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling.

It's agonizingly hot and muggy, the kind of heat that makes his shirt cling to his chest with sweat whenever he does no more than stand outside for more than thirty seconds.

He figures he'll have to get used to it if he wants a shot at the big leagues.

He won't make his official debut for another couple of weeks, but until then, he's been instructed to hang around the facility, "get to know everyone."

So he does. He creeps around in the audience during matches, sizes up the competition, so to speak. He makes sure he's well aware of who has what championship – he knows he wants to make an impact, give everyone something to talk about, and he's decided the best way to do that would be to challenge someone for their championship on his debut.

It's in typical Ambrose fashion that he meets Seth Rollins by crashing into him. He's walking backward down a backstage hallway, yelling at someone further down the hall as he does, and turns the corner without looking back, only to run into something that's definitely not the wall.

Nope, it's Seth Rollins.

Dean's knocked him on his ass, and Seth looks particularly perturbed. "Watch where you're going," he snaps, and there's a bit of an actual edge to it.

Dean likes that he can bother someone he doesn't even really know.

"Sorry, princess," he mocks. He watches as Seth climbs to his feet, eyeing him suspiciously all the while. "Didn't know the dust was gonna ruin your panties." He grins as Seth scowls.

"Who the hell are you, anyway?" Seth asks, and Dean couldn't be happier. If there's one thing he likes to do, it's to get under people's skin. He can tell from the tone of Seth's voice that he's definitely gotten under his skin.

"Dean Ambrose," he responds. "And who the hell are you?" he asks, imitating Seth's irritated tone, only deepening his scowl.

It seems as though Seth manages to keep his anger in check, as his tone now is more cocky and confident than irritated, if anything. "Seth Rollins."

"Seth, huh? Yeah, I've heard of ya," Dean says, his grin from earlier reappearing. There's no warmth in it, just pure mockery. He wants to dig deep under the guy's skin, see if he can break that cocky façade. It would take time, but he knows he can do it. "Aren't you the one with that little gold medal, the, um—"

"The FCW 15 Championship," Seth interrupts, reciting the title by rote. Apparently, Dean's not the first to forget the name of the championship.

"Yeah, that's the one. How come they don't give ya a real belt? Is it their way of saying you're not a real champ? 'Cause I dunno about you, but that thing looks real easy to take."

Seth's eyes narrow; he recognizes the statement as the challenge that it is. "Are you saying you're gonna try to take it from me?"

Dean laughs humorlessly, shaking his head. "Oh, Sethie, Sethie, Sethie," he says. "I wouldn't even need to try. It'd be just like taking candy from a baby, right? Distract the baby… and he won't even know his candy's gone."

Seth frowns, folding his arms across his chest. "I've had the FCW 15 Championship for over 150 days, and no idiot from any fuck-knows-where promotion is gonna be able to just come in and take it."

"Is that so?" Dean asks, bouncing up and down a little. It seems to antagonize Seth further, which delights him. "'Cause I'm sure as hell willing to put that to the test, princess."

When Dean makes his official debut a few weeks later, he challenges Seth for the championship.

Unfortunately, he doesn't get to have his championship match immediately, but that's okay with him. He spends the next few weeks trying to get further under Seth Rollins's skin, calling him out repeatedly, mocking him with all the false lascivious pet names he knows.

Dean delights in interrupting Seth in any way possible, and so he takes the bait in early August to go further with his interruptions. Previously, when Seth was doing a promo, he would just stand off to the side and mock him, gesturing and mouthing things at him, trying his best to irritate him so that look would be captured for all to see. For some reason, the cameras never bothered to face Dean himself, as if they didn't want to reveal the source of Seth's displeasure. But on this particular day, he's been invited to come in front of the cameras to antagonize Seth mid-promo. How could he say no to such an invitation?

Dean stands off to the side for a while, just listening to, and watching, the promo. Seth is wearing a St. Louis Cardinals cap and a faded band shirt, of which the band is one Dean's never heard of. The clothes somehow make him look tinier than he is, Dean thinks. Even though Seth's six feet tall, he barely tops 200 pounds, making him scrawny and thin in Dean's opinion.

Briley Pierce is asking Seth for his response to Dean's continuous verbal attacks, and Dean fights a grin at how Seth's lips curl in disgust at the mere mention of his name. Seth starts going on about defending the championship and how he's "destined for greatness" when Dean approaches, leaving no more than a foot of space between himself and Seth. He can hear the audience chanting "Ambrose," but he pays no attention to them, instead focusing all his attention on Seth, who has trailed off and turned to look at him.

Seth just stares at him, his jaw clenched. Dean raises his eyebrows, silently challenging him to say something, do something. But he doesn't, so Dean just purses his lips in a sort of smirk and backs off, watching Seth all the while. Seth continues to stare at him, his lips pressed together in a thin line, before he slowly turns his attention back to Briley.

Briley looks confused, and Seth looks back at Dean briefly before looking away and shaking his head, communicating a message that's clear to Dean: You'll never have this championship.

A week later, Dean gets to have his championship match.