Flames

Royal Rumble 2019, part 2

The waiting was always the worst part. Normally the storylines were already sewn up before a show, let alone a pay-per-view, but for some reason the brass were still debating about how to put Becky and Ronda on a collision course. Becky didn't think it was that difficult. She had already lost to Asuka at the top of the Royal Rumble—and she could only hope they would give Asuka a good title run too, because she definitely deserved it. But now the bosses were debating whether to put her in the women's Royal Rumble match or find some other way to reignite the feud that had been unceremoniously curtailed just before Survivor Series.

She was sitting on one of the huge prop trunks in the back, heels thudding against the side, trying not to stare a hole through the door of the office where Stephanie and Triple H were trying to work their magic on Vince. "Vince and his blondes," she muttered, taking a deep breath. As of that moment, the plan was still to have Ronda and Charlotte square off at Wrestlemania. All that hard work Becky had done, all the self-promotion on Twitter, all the investment of the fans—it was all going to fall flat again.

"Hey, Irish." Becky glanced up to see Seth approaching. "Why are you hanging out in the lap of the gods?" It wasn't a term widely used backstage, but some of them had started calling the area outside the McMahons' office 'the lap of the gods'. Sometimes it certainly felt like a Greek myth, the hero doing everything right and yet failing because of the whims of some fickle god.

"Waiting to hear if they're going to put me in the Rumble," she replied, gaze flicking over to the door. No movement yet, and she could barely hear anything. That wasn't promising.

"They should." Then Seth grinned. "Then we can both fight in our flame gear at Wrestlemania so you can shut up about it already."

Becky couldn't help but smile. "Me shut up about it? I haven't mentioned it all year!"

"All year?" Seth laughed. "Irish, January's not even over yet!"

"Doesn't make it any less true," Becky replied, shaking her head. She missed this, the goofing around and the puns. She loved being The Man, but it was nice to let her humorous side out too. "I haven't mentioned it all year." Then she stopped herself. Between interviews, promos, Twitter, and all the other avenues she used, she couldn't say for sure. She had been spending most of her time and energy on Ronda, but it was possible that a flame-gear jab had slipped through.

She was about to bring up the Mixed Match Challenge, ask Seth if he would take part; the bosses probably wouldn't want to tie up one of their biggest male stars in what was essentially a fun little tournament, but if Becky could build herself up through social media, then maybe she could gather support for Team Pants on Fire. Before she could figure out what to say, though, movement to the side caught her attention. Someone pushing a large trunk, definitely larger than the one she was on, was trundling around the corner and not paying attention. "Hey!" she called out. The crewman kept pushing; he probably had earbuds in. "Watch out," she said to Seth, meaning to move to the side to give him space to get out of the way.

That was what she meant to do. What happened was that Seth tried to press as close to the parked trunks as he could, and ended up between Becky's knees instead. As the crewman rumbled by, he finally noticed Seth and muttered an apology without breaking his stride. "Sorry about that," Seth murmured.

"No worries." Becky scrambled for something else to say. Seth was still standing between her knees; his hand had landed on her thigh when he jumped out of the way and he hadn't moved it yet.

So naturally that was the moment the McMahons decided to open their door, making Seth jump back so quickly he nearly tripped. Hunter was the only one who came out and he nodded at Becky. "You're in, Lynch. We're going to play up Lana's injury and then you'll go out and ask to take her spot. We're working out the final details, but we should know in about ten minutes. Sound good?"

She just nodded. It wasn't fair to Lana, but Becky's legs were still tingling from where Seth had been pressed against her and she was having trouble switching back into work mode. "Sure. I'll go get ready."

"Good." Hunter gave another nod, this time to Seth. "Rollins. Nothing's changed for your match."

"Cool. Thanks." After Hunter went back into the office, Seth met Becky's gaze and managed a quirked smile. "You got your birthday present early, Irish. Don't forget to point at the sign."

"Likewise." Becky eased off the trunk but kept a hand on it to steady herself. If you had asked her five minutes ago, she would have said it was the cogs of her dream in motion that had her so lost in her own thoughts. Now she couldn't be so sure.