AEW / WWE IMAGINES: Wrestling With Your Dreams ✨ (request closed)

hangman request // drowning

TW: alcohol abuse, domestic dispute

"Why the long face, Cowboy?" I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, kissing his neck lightly.
"Not now, Liv." He whispered.
"Oh, okay..." I backed away slowly, confused on where his mood shift had came from lately. We had everything, Kenny in the palm of our hands, the Dark Order watching over us, keeping us safe.
"I just...I don't know what you want me to say," he downed the rest of his drink in one motion.
"You're drunk. I expect you to say absolutely nothing." I picked my purse up off the table and went to find Alan. Five had become a noble friend, someone you could depend on if the world turned against you. He would fight anyone, at anytime, over anything.

"Wanna play cards?" He said without looking up. "Oh hey!" Once we saw me, he smiled and motioned towards the table against the wall of the room that had become the DO's favorite spot.
"Where is everyone?"
"Not sure, you know they don't tell me much." He sighed and shuffled a deck of blue playing cards. "Where's Adam?"
"Where do you think?" I sighed, fighting the tears that threatened to escape my eyes.
"Ah...got it," Five went back to silently dealing out the cards. We played two games of rummy before anyone else came in. Alex and John came in laughing about who knew what and joined Alan at the table.
"Liv, I don't want to be that guy...but Adam won't answer the phone. He won't come hangout with us anymore, and it's just like...that's not our vibe, yanno?"
"Trust me, I do. He's just got a lot on his mind right now with Kenny and the way The Bucks are being. He's just got to get out of his own head, all we can do is be there to support him and hope he understands we're not leaving," I don't know if I said that last part for John or for me. Either way it felt heavy, Alex made some joke and we all laughed; but it felt forced. Like our brains knew we should laugh, but we didn't care if it was funny or not.

When I walked into the apartment, the clock said 1:03. I checked everything bathroom, every bedroom and the kitchen twice, no signs of Adam. I pulled out my phone:

Me: Hey, I'm going to sleep. Come home soon, I love you.
Adam: Hkdubahy b hom sodhr

I climbed into the big empty bed we used to share. When I first met Adam, he had so much heart. It was his warmth and passion that pulled me towards him. I didn't care that he was friends with the Bullet Club, I didn't care that he lost at All Out. I cared that he never let that stop him. He was golden. He was my yellow, now it's so hard to find that same light in him. He hadn't been himself for months. This time I didn't fight the tears, I just let them fall until everything faded to black.

The next morning, I reached next to me to still find the bed empty. I checked my phone to find no more messages or missed calls. I instantly got up and went to look for him. Not in the kitchen, not in the bathroom, the couch was empty and his truck wasn't in the driveway.

Me: you've got two hours to get the hell home before I call TK.

I spent the next 119 minutes pacing before I picked up the phone. "Liv! What's going on?" Cody's slight lisp answered.
"I can't find Adam."
"What do you mean?"
"He didn't come home last night."
"Who else have you called?" His tone instantly changed.
"No one, I just didn't know if you were here or in Atlanta and I-,"
"Don't call Tony. I'll be there in 30 minutes." He sighed and then said, "Olivia. I hope you know you're better than this" before hanging up.

I sat with my knees to my chest and waited for Cody. While I waited, Alex called and asked if we'd come out for lunch. That means they don't know where he is either... "you okay? I know this isn't easy on you either." Alex said and I hung up before crying again.

45 minutes later Cody came through the door with an almost passed out Adam over his shoulder. He slumped over the side of the couch as Cody dropped him, not so much as speaking.
"You realize we WORK there right? You realize the guy who signs your paychecks, his office is RIGHT DOWN THE HALL from where you decided to pass out. This is fucking pathetic. You have the WORLD at your fingertips and you're too busy throwing a goddamn pity party to even recognize it, Adam! Who the hell are you anymore? You're mad at Nick and Matt? Do something about it? Don't just become the thing they've tried to make you be. Be the better man, be the hangman." Cody screamed at Adam in a way I don't think I've ever heard him scream before. Adam just rolled over the face the couch instead of Cody.
"Where's Liv?" He muttered. Nice to know I still lived somewhere in the brain of his.
"I'm right here," the words got stuck in my throat. I could feel myself getting angry and heartbroken, prepared for whatever dumb thing he was about to say.
"You should break up with me. We shouldn't do this. I'm bad for you, Liv. I can't do anything good for you. I'm not that guy, I can't be the person you want me to be-," he slurred every word that came out, but I could put the pieces together. I refused to believe I just heard him say those words. I refused to believe that he meant any of what he just said, until I thought about it.
"I'm not breaking up with you and giving you another goddamn thing to throw a pity party about. If you want me to leave, say it. Say we can't be together anymore. Say that I need to pack my shit and go. Say it. I'm not being the one to leave, I'm not being the one to walk away from this when I know how good of a man you are. You've just got to find your way out of this."
      "Fine, then I'll leave. Cody take me to Atlanta." He said it in such a cut and dry way that I believed that's what he really wanted, I believed that he didn't love me. He didn't want me to be there, and I wasn't going to fight him. I silently went upstairs, packed his suitcase and handed it to Cody.
"Liv I don't think that,"
      "Take him. Take him home and let him figure out his shit. Take him to DDP. Take him to rehab, I don't care. I'll make sure it gets paid for. I just cannot take him here in this house anymore and it's obvious that here isn't where he would like to be either." On that note, Adam stood up, walked to the door, threw up and waited next to the truck for Cody.
"Don't think I never loved you," he slurred, barely about to hold himself up on the door. I laughed, turned and went back in the house. I waited until the truck got off the gravel to start crying.

The next three months were the hardest days of my life. I had always laughed at Bella in New Moon, how she sat in the same spot for days and days. Waiting for a phone call, a letter, any sign that Edward was still there. But nothing ever came. And I didn't dare to ask Cody. When I got to work, I went straight to the production meetings and said thanks every night that I had a job that kept me out of guerrilla. Anna and Alan would come over and I'd try to have fun, I just couldn't. They had entirely eliminated Adam from TV too. For all I knew, he has retired. I kept the ringer on my phone on, I didn't change his contact. I didn't try to call, email, text or write. I just waited. Everything felt mundane and burnt out. I stayed home six days a week and nothing felt, tasted, smelled or even looked the same anymore.

Adam: Hey, I don't know if you deleted my number or not but it's Adam. I just wanted to tell you I'll be at work on Wednesday and I'd really like it if we could talk.

I let that message sit for 14 hours before I texted back a simple "okay" and then hated myself for sending it at 3 am.

Adam: Can you meet me at the venue early?

Me: okay.

I didn't know what else to say. This felt too much like a dream. I didn't know how to talk to him anymore, I didn't know what I was going to say at all. I walked into the venue at 12:17 when I normally wouldn't arrive until 5:00. I paced the Dark Order's room anxiously, not knowing when Adam would be here.

An hour later, in walked my ray of sunshine. His hair looked healthy, his body looked toned and cared for. Most importantly, his smile and his eyes gleamed again. When I looked at him, I saw everything I had fallen in love with to begin with and it was hard to accept that he wasn't that person anymore. "Liv..." he just looked at me, stopping maybe 10 feet away.
    "Hey, you look great!" I said as I jumped on the counter. I tucked my hands under my legs to keep from nervously picking at my fingers.
"I wanted to just tell you how sorry I am and the things I said to you came from such a dark place when all you ever tried to do was show me the light. Show me what I could be if I changed my mindset, and I'm so so sorry and I will never be able to truly express how sorry I am but I want you to hear me try. I've already talked to every else, apologized to everyone else. But I had to build myself up to you. No ones opinion of the man I am matters to me besides yours. You've told me since the day we met that I am your sunshine, I am the thing that can make you smile like nothing else and I'd really like to get back to being that man." He smiled and closed some of the distance between us. Feeling how close he is to me now, my body ached and longed to be held. For him to wrap his arms around me and not let me go. I needed that to help me heal.
"I wish I could tell you how long I've waited for you to say that." He wrapped his arms around my waist and I melted into his familiar embrace. "I'm so proud of you, for everything."
"That's all I ever needed." He wrapped his arms tighter around me. "Not a drink since the day I left, I know who I am. I know what I want and I know that all I need is you by my side." He slowly tilted my chin up and kissed me in the deepest, sweetest of ways. We wouldn't have broken apart for hours if Alan, John, Alex and even Uno and the guys came busting in.

The gang was back together again.