Playing With Fire

Part 1

Author's Note: This assumes that the reader is extremely familiar with the WWE, NXT, the Mixed Match Challenge, and Finn and Bayley and their history. If you are not please see the Backstory and Characters page first as it will help you from being completely lost.

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"That was so much fun!" Bayley said as the two of them stumbled back through gorilla and the backstage area. She felt so happy with the way things had gone and how useful she'd been able to be, and okay, maybe a little embarrassed too about accidentally groping him, but mostly happy.

"Damn that felt good. You were amazing, just like old times, huh?"

"Yeah, it really did feel like we brought a little of NXT back there for a second."

"It did, I don't think I've had this much fun on here in a long time."

"Me either, thank you Finn. I know you asked for this, and I appreciate it."

"You're welcome. As much as I like Sasha, I knew no one could make a better team than the two of us, and I'm glad we finally made it happen."

"Me too. Hey, you want to go out and celebrate tonight?"

"I wish I could, but I've got some stuff to take care of. Can we tomorrow night after everything instead?"

"Yeah of course. You want me to see if I can get a group together?"

"We can do the group thing another time, it's been a while since we got to hang out just the two of us, if you're okay with that."

"No, that would be great. I'll be looking forward to it," she replied before she instinctively went in for a hug. There was an awkward half second where she realized what she was doing and started to pull back away before he grabbed her and pulled her in against him, enveloping her in his strong arms. It felt nice. It had been too long since she'd felt this kind of closeness with him. A long time ago this had been a normal part of their friendship, but then life had happened. They'd been on different shows, he was injured, then she was injured, and they'd drifted apart. They'd also both had to deal with jealousy and suspicions from their significant others, which hadn't helped matters.

They hadn't talked about it much, but she'd known that his girlfriend at the time had objected to some of the things he'd posted on social media. She'd been friends with her too, or at least she'd thought they were, but after her's and Finn's on stage story became more romantic, everything changed and it was like they'd never even spoken before. She'd assumed jealousy was the problem, but she'd tried to stay out of it.

She'd been dealing with a similar situation of her own, and she hadn't had the time to worry about Finn's problems too. Her boyfriend kept fluctuating between seemingly having a good sense of humor about it and being completely irrational over it. One minute she'd think everything was good, then he'd see a post or a video, and turn into a jealous asshole.

It almost hadn't been worth it, except they'd had so much fun together. That time period was absolutely the best she'd had so far in her career, and the bond between them was something neither ever expected. They'd never crossed a line, had always been nothing more than good friends, but they'd clicked in a way that she never had before with anyone, male or female, including her boyfriend, and she suspected he'd known that. She'd let him get away with behavior she normally never would have tolerated because deep down she'd felt kind of guilty even though she had no control over it.

Things had improved immensely with her boyfriend after Finn had been drafted to the main roster, and the few occasions she'd gotten to interact with Finn over the last couple of years hadn't seemed to be a problem. She'd learned to stand up for herself a little better too, stopped letting guilt prevent her from speaking her mind, and their relationship had gotten ten times better for it. She'd accepted his proposal, and even moved halfway across the country with him so he could work on his career. For the most part life had been alright, though not quite the same as it had been back then.