Ignition Point

Chapter 5

WrestleMania would always be Seth's favourite big event, and main-eventing it was still high on his wish list. Royal Rumble, however, was a close second. It felt bittersweet this year, though, since it was so close to Becky's birthday. Her Christmas presents were still at his house, and it had been a struggle to not get anything for her birthday; cancelling the reservations had been hard enough. The temptation to keep the bookings was so strong that he actually had Roman cancel them—or, more correctly, Roman took all the contact information and terminated them one by one. "This isn't the time for grand romantic gestures," Roman had said after the final reservation was cancelled. "Wait until you two are talking properly first."

Seth could see his point. The problem was that he and Becky weren't talking at all. As everyone from his mom to Roman to Marek had suggested, he gave her space at first, not calling or texting after his initial messages, biding his time until the Royal Rumble when he could see her in person. Watching her on SmackDown only made things worse, but he did it anyway, even if it meant he had to stay off social media afterwards so he wouldn't be tempted to comment. She was flourishing in the ring and even backstage on RAW, there were rumours that she was either going to win the women's Rumble match or be in the title hunt soon.

"Do you think she's winning the Rumble this year?" he asked Roman as he tapped the necklace under his shirt for good luck. He had never been much into jewellery, but he had been wearing Becky's promise ring on a chain at home and it helped him focus, so he was starting to wear it to events as well.

Roman pinched the bridge of his nose. "And here I thought you talked a lot about Becky when you were together, man." He slapped a hand to Seth's chest to stop him from fidgeting. "What is that? What are you doing?"

"Just... thinking." Seth grimaced as he said it. He tried to keep the ring under his shirt or in his bag so the other wrestlers wouldn't see it, but lately he had been toying with it even when he didn't realize it. Marek and the students at Black and Brave didn't care, but of course Roman would pick up on it.

"And you keep your brain on a necklace now? Well, I guess it's small enough." Roman hooked a finger under the chain and pulled it out of Seth's shirt, heaving a sigh when he saw Becky's former ring. "Really, man?"

Seth batted Roman's hand away and tucked the ring and chain back under his collar. "I'm not giving it back to her," he said defensively. "It just... helps me think."

Roman sighed again, but it was less abrasive this time, and he looped an arm around Seth's shoulders. Almost two months had passed since Becky went to SmackDown, and most of the animosity towards Seth had settled into numb neutrality: the majority of the locker room wasn't shunning him, but they weren't going out of their way to include him in invites either. There were still hold-outs, of course, like Charlotte and some of the other women, but even they weren't as frosty as they could be. Seth wasn't sure if the McMahons had issued an order or not, but no one had come after him. "You still haven't heard from her?" Roman asked gently.

Shaking his head, Seth smoothed down the front of his shirt so the bump made by the ring wasn't as obvious. "No. I don't even know if she checked her messages. I found some of her workout clothes at Black and Brave and I gave them to Joshy, so maybe...."

"Seth." Roman snorted out a breath, and Seth could practically see him lining up potential replies and knocking them down like dominoes. "There's always going to be something you could use as an excuse, but you can't. This right here? This is why Becky was so hesitant to date within the business. Because it gets messy when things go bad."

"But when things work...." Seth forced himself to stop. When he and Becky had been happy, things were amazing. Most of his other relationships had failed because he was on the road so often, but he and Becky could travel together. One's strengths bolstered the other's weaknesses; when neither of them had a clue, they could learn together. They weren't a flawless couple, but she was a better fit for him than he ever could have imagined. "When things work," he finished softly, "it's incredible."