Archive of Our Own

[Jey – October 7, 2022]

This shouldn’t irk him as much as it did.

Wrestling revolved, to an extent, around touch.

It’s a contact-based sport, weaponizing the body against anything in its reach.

Words were effective at reaching, too. They could be just as violent and cause just as much ache, and if you were skilled enough, you could pin someone in ten words or less without even looking directly at them.

And of course, the matches themselves were about skin-to-skin. If you hold someone just right, grab them just so, they fold, and you win, laid out on top of their weakened form.

People touched Jey every day.

Each fight was a flurry of chops and splashes and pins and submissions. It was his life. It was his job. It was his responsibility.

So why was this bothering him so much?

At a safe and uncomplicated guess, he would just attribute it to his general distrust of Sami.

The man had been putting on his show for everyone willing to watch, producing impressed nods and bemused snorts from everyone in the Bloodline except Jey. Despite providing the flimsiest arguments for why he believed that he belonged in the family, Sami started to appear in locker rooms, at ringside, at important meetings. As months passed, he showed up more and more and more, and Jey couldn’t understand why Sami was always there.

Not just in the Bloodline.

There.

Sami always managed to end up in close proximity to Jey, as if to egg him on further, to poke and prod and see what he can use to throw Jey under the bus. He walked entirely too close. He stood at Jey’s side in the ring. He sat next to him on couches, squashed between the twins like the ugly duckling.

Jey could usually brush it off with a cutting remark. He counted every single one in his head, every time he said something that managed to shut Sami up. Maybe he’ll actually bring it up to Roman sometime. Maybe he’ll do it in the ring. In front of everybody.

And yet, despite Jey’s best efforts, Sami hadn’t gotten the message. It was possible if not likely that he was just ignoring it, which was almost worse.

He was still right there. All the time.

And if it wasn’t already bad enough –

The words rang through his head again.

It’s your problem now, Sami.

He fought back embarrassed tears that had been burning holes behind his eyes for the past two years. All that time, all he’d done, how many matches he’d desperately tossed himself into, how many defenses he’d just barely made it out of, and he was still the problem.

Not only was he the problem, but he and his outbursts were now delegated to Sami. He was Sami’s problem.

They would undoubtedly be in even closer and regular proximity now. Sami already stumbled his way into Jey’s space on a regular basis, bumping into him seemingly without care. This would only serve to exacerbate the abrasion.

But it’s what Roman wanted.

As Jey sat alone in the locker room, elbows on his knees and face in his hands, he tried to suppress the tantrum he’d been keeping down. It had been burning deep in his throat since Roman had spoken. Hothead.

Naturally, Sami chose this exact moment to burst in, running his mouth before the door was even fully open.

“Hey, my dawg, sooo, I was thinking – oh,” he paused, stopping his wild gesticulating to freeze in place halfway through the door and stare at Jey. “…Um, am I –,”

Jey wiped his face, dropped his hands, tried to give the meanest look that he could from under his brows to scare Sami away. If he had to be punished for it later, so be it. Sami liked to talk, and Jey didn’t want Sami talking about this.

Sami remained motionless, taking on the appearance of someone who was making an effort not to spook a feral animal, which was apt. Jey made a noise in his throat. “What?” he bit out through gritted teeth.

Sami just shook his head a bit. “N-nothing, I…you, uh, you okay, Uce?”

It grated white-hot across his nerves hearing Sami say Uce, like it had been stretched to fit him when everyone knew it didn’t (or, at least Jey knew). He cleared his throat, stood, and stalked over to Sami. “Fine.”

Hopefully, it sounded more convincing in Sami’s ears than in Jey’s.

With the way Sami tilted his head just slightly, Jey guessed it didn’t.

Hesitantly, one of Sami’s hands came to Jey’s shoulder. It patted awkwardly at him at first, and he leveled Sami with what he hoped was an unimpressed glare.

A moment later, though, Sami’s hand stopped. It sat there, firm and unmoving on Jey’s upper arm. That kind of stillness was almost foreign to Jey. His fingers weren’t clawing. His palm wasn’t heavy with hatred the way that Jey had expected it to be.

It felt wrong for too many reasons. Jey didn’t hate it.

“Look, uh,” Sami started, cleared his throat. “I came to discuss some plans with you, since, you know, I’m technically responsible for you now and all.”

The air soured, and Jey stepped back, out from under the confounding fingers. As the other man rambled a stream of nonsense behind him, Jey turned around and walked over to his bag to shove shit in and keep himself from throwing a fist into Sami’s face. Maybe it would feel the same way that Sami’s hand on his shoulder had.

[Sami – October 28, 2022]

Sami had seen glances of the Tribal Chief before.

He knew that he’d only ever grazed the surface of the myth of a man despite being around him for months now. He was good enough of a strategist that he had somehow managed to keep at bay what he knew was right there, teasing like a shark’s fin, threatening but never surfacing. Or at least, never surfacing for Sami.

After SmackDown, he realized that the surface was much shallower when it came to Jey.

Jey had maintained a saw-toothed exterior around Sami for months now, which had been annoying, yes, but it had always been there.

Sami had expected another week of the usual when they made their way to the ring. He would egg Jey on, it would get a reaction, and Sami could enjoy the satisfaction of it backfiring on Jey. Sami’s spot with Roman would become more and more secure with each jibe. It had been that way, like clockwork.

Apparently, it had never truly reached its peak.

Man, I don’t give a damn what the Tribal Chief says!

And thus began a long series of seconds with too many things happening in quick succession for Sami to keep up.

Sami had watched the anger in Jey’s body build to a point and explode out over all of his features. It was something Sami had never seen on Jey before. As he yelled his disregard for Roman’s opinion, he wasn’t just some hothead, running on irrational emotions swung wildly at whoever he had been pointed towards. For a brief moment, it was just…Jey. A raw, uncarved version of Jey.

Almost immediately, it was gone, like it had never even existed. Jey’s face split with the realization of what he’d just said, and his brain quickly began shifting through gears finding whichever one might save him from the most violent death.

Sami watched as Jey decided to hold Roman’s eye, puffing up as the Chief turned around to stare him down. It was a pathetic attempt at a front. It fooled absolutely no one and ended almost as soon as it had started. Then, Jey turned to look at Sami.

In that brief glance, Sami saw a cloud cover Jey’s face, everything suddenly pale and shadowed. He looked like he might puke. He looked younger, like a frightened child. Sami watched as Jey turned around. His head fell, and he fixed his eyes forwards, this time not daring to make eye contact with the Chief. He still kept himself puffed up, swaying like he was trying to convince himself that he was tough. Or maybe he was just preparing to accept his sad and untimely demise.

Witnessing Jey like that had been alarming to say the least, and Sami internally accepted that perhaps this time, he’d pushed too hard. It might as well be up to him to put out the fire, like it always was.

Sami started talking and managed to break the tension, for once attempting to get Jey out of trouble. The Ucey moment pulled them back into safer territory, something familiar, and they finished out the segment without any more overwhelming tension.

But the image stuck with Sami all night, lingering in his head as they made their way backstage to get ready to leave. Jimmy was now openly laughing about the Ucey bit, trying to get Jey to lighten up. Solo cracked the barest hint of a smile, and Sami pointed at it like he’d personally moved the muscles. Sami sat in the corner of the locker room, chattering away as the others started to pack their stuff.

After Jimmy and Solo eventually cleared out, Sami stood slowly, making his way to where Jey was sat on a bench huddling over his bag, tugging a shirt over his head. He paused halfway through, seemingly sensing Sami’s presence behind him without even needing to look. He shoved the shirt the rest of the way down.

“What?” he muttered without turning around.

Sami swallowed. “I’ve never seen you look like that.”

Jey paused, turned his head to the side, still staring pointedly down. “Huh?”

“Out there, with Roman,” Sami clarified. “After you said you didn’t give a damn what he said. You just…you looked so...afraid.”

In a flash of motion, Jey stood, whipped around. He was back up to 100 again. Hothead. “Bullshit,” he insisted, looking at Sami like he was about to spear him. “You don’t know shit.”

Sami wasn’t convinced. “No?”

Jey bared his teeth, shook his head. He rubbed his hands over his face, turned first towards the wall, then back towards Sami, stepping up to him and pointing at his chest. “Man, why the hell did you step in like that?”

Sami’s brows furrowed at the deflection. “What are you angry at me for, I was trying to help you! You’re the one who said that thing about the Tribal Chief! What were you thinking, why would you do that?”

He watched as Jey started pacing, cycling through various answers in his head, all with different levels of outrage behind them.

Jey let out a breath. “Fuck…I don’t know…but it’s your fault.”

Sami sputtered. “M– My fault?! How?!”

“I don’t know Sami, but ever since you come around, it’s been…,” Jey wrung his hands in frustration before throwing them up in the air. “Shit, just off. Off with everybody!”

Sami squinted. “Actually, uh…it seems like the rest of the family is distinctly happier with me around, and you’re…not…so, maybe it’s only you who’s off, Uce.”

Jey paused, turned to look at Sami. Something dark and deep rolled behind Jey’s eyes, like the Loch Ness monster’s tail flicking out of water before submerging again. It was almost as enticing as it was terrifying. Sami swallowed.

“Look, I just calls it how I sees it, and you are the grumpy one,” Sami shrugged. “And…Jey, I’m part of the family now whether you like it or not, so you’ll just have to deal with it.”

The frustration shifted into something sadder, fatigued. Jey’s eyes closed, and he bent forward to place his hands on his knees. Sami watched the muscles of his back shift under the edge of his shirt. He thought about when he’d caught Jey earlier in the month. Jey’s wet eyes. Jey’s warm arm. The phantom feeling of touching Jey’s shoulder flitted over the grooves of Sami’s palm. Almost against his own instincts, he stepped closer, reached up slowly.

“Hey,” he whispered, entirely too soft, entirely too close.

Jey looked up and immediately leapt away from the hand quickly approaching his space. Sami jumped back in startled parallel.

“What the hell you tryin’ to do, man?” Jey questioned, putting more space between himself and Sami.

“I’m just trying to be comforting, okay?” Sami said, reaching back to grab the door handle. “Just calm down, I’m leaving, alright?”

He walked out without turning to see Jey’s reaction.

It didn’t really matter what Jey thought of Sami, anyway. It never had.

He could rage all he wanted. It wouldn’t change anything.

Still, a dysfunctional Bloodline wouldn’t benefit anybody. It definitely wouldn’t keep Sami relevant, keep him in powerful company. He’d need to find some way to get Jey on the same page eventually, something to keep these outbursts to a minimum.

Jey was his problem now, after all.

[Jey – October 29, 2022]

Infuriation and infatuation swirled in equal parts on Jey’s palm, destructive and cleansing like a cold spring storm.

He let every drop crashing and falling against his skin drag him unwillingly into the present moment. Beige and lifeless tiles. Underwhelming water pressure. Plumes of steam filling his nostrils, humidity making him think of home, of the coast, of –

Get some Waffle House?

Heat swam in the divots of his fingertips.

It was him.

Sami had learned something about him. Despite the countless amount of times that Sami had willingly thrown Jey under the bus to Roman, framing his reluctance to be friendly as a fault rather than a feature, Jey felt this shoot right under his skin.

When Sami had brought it up during the interview earlier that evening, Jey was left incapable of keeping the smile off of his face as he stared up at him.

He had acted far more put-out about it once the cameras were off, trying to keep up some semblance of an appearance, but Sami had seen. Hell, everyone had seen.

Under bright florescent lights, crammed together into the only available booth, Sami listed Jey’s order out with exact precision, staring at Jey as he did it. He reached his foot across under the table, gently kicking Jey’s crossed ankles.

Jey mostly kept his mouth shut, his face neutral. He grumbled occasional contributions to the casual conversation around forkfuls of scrambled eggs and cheesy hashbrowns as he shoveled them in. Sami only seemed bemused by this, so Jey stopped talking altogether.

Still, Sami was apparently entranced by Jey or something, or maybe he had head trauma, because he wouldn’t stop staring. No matter how much Jey wanted it to simply bounce right off of him, something in the increasing weight of Sami’s gaze was seeping through.

It didn’t make any sense. It left him confused and angry. With everything Sami was always doing to rat him out, make him look stupid, make him look bad, and yet, here he was, making another attempt to appeal to Jey, this time in a startlingly personal manner. Under the ever-present worry of it all being another grift, Jey felt grateful to be seen.

By the time they were on the way to be dropped off for the night, Jey was glowering into the backseat window. His breath had fogged up the glass. He resisted the childish urge to draw pictures.

Sami got out to open everyone’s doors as soon as they arrived, and Jey made to hit the ground running. A firm grip on his hand stopped him, and Jey resisted the urge to whip around and immediately throw his other fist at anything moving.

When he realized that it was Sami who was practically holding his hand, Jey froze. He put on the iciest and most distraught expression he could muster, because what the fuck?

“Hope you had a good night,” Sami spoke. He smiled, almost genuine. It looked wrong when it was pointed at Jey. “I figured, ya know, while we’re here.”

As much as everything in him screamed to shove, kick, punch, Jey was surprised to feel his palm break out in a cold sweat, right against Sami’s calloused skin. He nodded once, looking away as soon as he could manage it. He yanked his hand out of Sami’s.

Stood in the shower now, Jey stared down at the creases crossing his palm.

It burned.

It burned something fierce. Something good.

Jey slammed his head into the wall, willing a split in his forehead to form and pull blood up against its currently steady path downward.

He panted in, out, in, out.

He pulled away from the wall, eyes bleary with water.

No blood smeared beige.

Shit.

Jey bit his lip hard enough to crack and bleed.

Another wrong move as his eyes slammed shut on an image of biting Sami’s mouth, breaking skin and drawing out a stream of blood. In quick succession, a flurry of lurid tableaus featuring various methods of shutting Sami up crossed his mind at once. Jey grunted, pressed his forehead back to the tile as he felt hot water cascade across his back.

Jimmy was surely asleep by now.

Solo was in the next room with Sami.

Roman and OG were who knows where.

An actual moment of alone time, and he was using it to jerk off over Sami.

Jey groaned to himself, shuddered against his will. He was filling out rapidly, rising with each image that flitted behind his eyelids.

His breath fogged the tile as he brought his shaking fingers to curl around himself, the digits still searing with the knowledge of Sami’s touch. He puffed out a breath, tried to pull himself together, pick a quick fantasy to go through play by play without skipping to the end too quickly and ruining the illusion.

The rolodex in his mind slowed to a stop with Sami on his knees in front of Jey.

“Haa-ah, fuck,” he swore. Steam filled his lungs as he broke out in a sweat.

Sami would be talking. Always running that damn mouth like he didn’t know any better. Jey supposed he didn’t.

“Please, Jey,” Sami would say. “You have to. I have to earn my place.”

Something unpleasantly honest occurred to Jey, and his gut squelched painful and slimy around it. Before he could stop it –

“He told me to. He wants you to.”

Suddenly, Jey’s world was turning on its axis. He gasped, inhaling water. As he coughed, he shook his head, desperately trying to save the train of thought without veering right into the unfortunate realm of reality.

Quickly, before it was too late, fix it, fix it now, fix it –

Sami’s eyes sparkled, just like they had across the table at Waffle House.

“Please. I want you to.”

Jey’s abs tensed. He felt himself twitch back into rising again in his loosening grasp, regaining momentum immediately at that.

Sami reached his hands up, grasping at Jey’s waist. His hands fit there so perfectly, like they were crafted specifically to fit into the grooves of Jey’s body. The tips of his index fingers brushed the skin over the edge of Jey’s pants. Sami leaned his face forward, nose brushing down the seam of his pants and inhaling. His eyes flicked up to Jey’s, always seeking contact, demanding his unwavering attention.

Jey pumped himself faster. He whined quietly into his teeth, pressing his mouth painfully against the shower wall to muffle the embarrassing noises.

Sami mouthed at him. He reached around, pulling Jey closer by his ass. His fingers dug in hard, groping something filthy and sharp through thin gear. Jey could imagine the handprints it would leave on his skin.

He felt a bead of pre slide down into his grip, and he momentarily berated himself for how quickly and effectively this was getting him off.

The longer it went, the further Jey peeled back the layers.

His back arched, pressing his nipples into the tile as he imagined Sami pulling him out and guiding him into his mouth with no further ado, eager as ever.

He keened at the idea of Sami tracing shapes with his tongue, spending time on him and making it slow, thoughtful, purposeful. All for Jey.

His other fist hit the wall with a bitten out, “Aaahhn, God –,” as the Sami in his mind pulled off, spit trailing from the crown of his glistening dick and ending at Sami’s swollen bottom lip, painting a truly debauched picture.

Jey could feel himself accelerating towards an impossibly life-altering orgasm. He remembered suddenly that the hand blurring over his dick had Sami’s touch lingering on it. In a flash, his fingers transformed into Sami’s.

Sami reached up, gripping Jey oh so gently but oh so perfectly and wrapping his lips around the leaking tip as he worked Jey’s length with his hand.

Jey’s hips bucked forward, his tip nearly slamming into the shower wall with the force of his hips. “Guh-uhh, S-amiii,” he moaned, hopefully not loud enough to potentially be heard by said man next door.

Sami pulled off, grinned that stupid, toothy smile, smug joy uncontrollably decorating his features. He laughed, but not to be mean, not mocking. It was fond. ‘I’ve got you, Jey. Come on. I’ve got you.’

Jey couldn’t control the image of Sami nodding at Jey with that look in his eye, sticking out his tongue, and bringing it to rest at Jey’s tip.

He threw his head back as he painted splatters of white on the beige wall.

He panted hard, shaking at each tremor that raced over his wet skin until they subsided. Jey let himself live in the feeling for a few seconds before tilting his head down and opening his eyes.

He looked at his own hand, smeared in some of his cum.

Jey stuck it under the water, rinsing off the evidence.

He reached down, turned the handle up to its highest heat. Jey stood under the water until his mind quieted, until his flesh felt like it would start simply sliding off of his bones. Jimmy asked him the next day if he’d jumped into a pot of boiling water last night. He shook it off. He avoided any and all eye contact with Sami.

[Sami – November 18, 2022]

Jey hated him.

Sami knew this.

No matter how many times he’d taken the initiative to prove himself, gone out of his way to be nice, it never managed to impress the perpetually put-out Uso. Unlike the rest of the family, Jey had proven to be immune to his song and dance. Bastard.

It still didn’t matter, not really. Roman still kept Sami around, and that’s what was important. Who else in this company could say that the Tribal Chief Roman Reigns had personally encouraged their ideas and considered them as an honorary member of the Bloodline?

Sami knew he was supposed to be here. He’d known since the beginning. He’d earned his spot months ago. He even had a shirt to prove it. And yet, Jey had barely budged. He’d become more antagonistic and impulsive in the past few weeks leading up to Survivor Series, apparently all because of Sami.

What a crock.

Screw Jey Uso.

Jey Uso was the kind of guy who would run out on a whim and do whatever he thought was right. Roman had always said it; Jey was entirely too emotional for his own good.

Sami glanced up in the rearview mirror to spot the twin curled up in a ball in the backseat. He looked oddly peaceful in his sleep, younger and less angry.

If only he could manage the same when he was awake.

Sami just shook his head, looked back at the road, watched the beams of light draw the dotted lines into pitch black. Chauffeur wasn’t exactly the most brag-worthy role he had taken, but it could be nice sometimes. Driving through the abyss made him feel like a real wrestler, anyway. It was soothing to any soul-deep aches.

The peace was short-lived.

Sami heard a few grumbles from the backseat, familiar to Sami in their general grumpiness. He breathed out of his nose, closed his eyes for a moment. He’d forgotten Jey’s sleep talking. The two rarely if ever roomed together, and he’d always been grateful after hearing the stories from Jimmy.

Thankfully, it wasn’t anything crazy. Vowels. Grunts. Sighs. Sami could handle that. It was not entirely dissimilar to what he heard day-to-day anyway.

Gradually, the noises picked up in intensity, and Sami turned slightly to get a glimpse. Jey was starting to shift around in place, his vocalizations becoming sharper. Sami glanced at Jimmy, still sound asleep in the passenger seat. The infamy of Jey’s sleep talking was surpassed only by the infamy of Jimmy’s dead-to-the-world deep sleep. Sami was lacking in options, unfortunately, but he barely had the time to open his mouth and make an honest effort to rouse Jimmy when a loud thump startled him.

Jey had begun thrashing almost violently, swiping and shoving at the air as sweat quickly beaded his temples.

Sami panicked. With less than steady hands, he brought the rental to a jerky halt on the shoulder. He unbuckled, turned around, and quickly reached back to grab Jey’s flailing arm and shake him. He called his name repeatedly, yelling directly at Jey’s contorted face. Nothing was working. Sami reached up, cupped the side of Jey’s face, slapped his cheek a few times.

Jey’s eyes shot open, and he jerked away from Sami’s touch.

“Whas…whas goin on?” Jey asked, slurred but frantic, his eyes searching desperately in every direction. “Where’s Jim?”

“He’s right here, he’s alright,” Sami told him, pointing at the man next to himself.

Jey unbuckled his seatbelt and stumbled forward into Sami’s space where he was leant over the console. He had a cloud of sleep-warm air around him, and Sami couldn’t avoid inhaling slightly as Jey’s errant curls brushed against his nose. Jey gave his twin a once over, seemed to decide that he was okay, then slumped back into the backseat. Sami missed the heat instantly.

“Sorry,” Jey mumbled quietly as he buckled his seatbelt.

Sami shook his head, leaning further over the console and resting his hand on Jey’s knee. “All good. You alright, Uce?”

Jey’s eyes were still slightly glazed from sleep, but they still softened for just a moment. “Yeah. ‘M good.”

Sami nodded. He patted Jey’s knee, then turned back to the wheel. He took a deep breath, turned the car back on, and returned to their route to the hotel.

Jey was tense the entire ride back. Sami occasionally glanced in the rearview mirror, watched Jey seemingly replay whatever had happened in his dream. His tired eyes flashed with streaks of anger every few minutes, then dulled with resignation. He kept close to Jimmy when they got out of the car.

It wasn’t anything new to Sami that Jey was protective of his family, especially Jimmy.

This was…different.

Jey didn’t put up a fight when Sami came into the twins’ hotel room. Jey might not have even registered Sami’s existence. Jimmy was lights out almost immediately upon hitting the bed. Jey eventually lay down on his respective bed, his eyes never leaving Jimmy. 

Sami didn’t know why, but he sat there watching until Jey’s breaths evened out.

[Jey – WarGames, November 26, 2022]

It was the first time in months, maybe years, that it felt like Roman might’ve actually heard him.

“I looked him in the eye like I said I would, and I saw everything I needed to see.”

At Roman’s words, Jey became slightly less worried about what might happen that night. What he was almost positive would happen. Everyone would watch the serpent finally emerge from under the flower, and Jey would be the one to behead it.

Jey would be respected in his own family again. No more questioning. No more doubting. No longer anyone’s problem.

Sami had lied about Kevin, right to Jey’s face.

Part of Jey wanted to kill him for it.

Part of Jey admired him for it.

It was a sign to Jey that Sami was clearly capable of protection, real protection, the kind that risked something. Jey hadn’t believed Sami was truly capable of that kind of attachment to anyone anymore, least of all to Kevin.

Jey knew on some level that buried in his brain, he had memories of what Sami had been like before, years and years ago. Smiles and dancing. Sami’s hands weren’t the same anymore, no matter how he wrapped them. Jey knew.

It didn’t matter. It was time for the match.

Roman had informed him ahead of time that he’d be the first in. Immediately upon hearing the decision, something that was curled up deep inside of Jey clawed at his stomach, tugged at the injured joints of his fingers and pulled on the knotted muscles of his back. He simply nodded, kept his eyes forward.

When Roman hugged him before sending him to the ring, Jey didn’t breathe.

From his first step into the steel, he counted down the seconds until Jimmy was sent in.

But of course, he wouldn’t be so lucky.

Jey’s eyelid twitched. He was not unaccustomed to being bait on a frayed line.

He tried to keep his distance for the majority of the match. He brushed off Sami’s attempts to help, ignored whenever Sami stepped in to save him, shrugged as he watched Sami collapse from a kick not originally meant for him. Jey knew better.

Without warning, everything started to move too fast, as they tended to when so many people occupied one space. With a full audience now present in the cage, Jey had become entirely too focused on Sami. From the mat, he watched with bated breath as Sami and Kevin squared off. This was it.

It was overpowering, waiting for his moment to finally feel vindicated, to finally shout that he’d been right all along, to see what Roman saw, what Jey had always seen, and show everyone.

They would all have to watch as he raised the chair.

Instead, Jey had to watch as someone he’d never seen before stepped into (or maybe out of) Sami’s skin.

The lines of Sami’s face stretched over emotions Jey had decided weren’t even available to Sami anymore. It was disorienting, and Jey felt his brain trip over itself trying to process what he was seeing.

Despite delivering the low blow, Sami hadn’t made a move to finish the job. In those agonizingly long seconds, Jey nearly jumped him on pure instinct, planning the strike he’d deliver once Sami returned to his body and decided that he should kick Jey in the face for the hell of it. When that didn’t happen, Sami looked up, gestured to Jey. Not to Kevin. Not to Roman. To Jey.

It was as clear a signal as any.

Jey didn’t waste any time after that.

He landed the splash.

It was over. It was his.

Jey gripped the mat, trying to stabilize his spinning head.

For years, Jey had watched Sami scratch and claw for anyone’s attention. The man had spewed so much fantastical nonsense in any direction in hopes that it might not just echo back at him. He’d put the majority of the past eight months into getting Roman’s attention, getting Roman to see him, to hand him the respect and the power that he’d been desperate for.

And yet, Sami had handed Jey the win. Sami had handed Jey himself.

Jey saw Sami. For possibly the first time ever, Jey actually saw him.

Roman had told him beforehand that he'd looked into Sami's eyes and seen all he'd needed to see. Was this what he'd seen?

He was wholly overcome with the desire to hug Sami. It was a destructive thing, the way he crashed into the man’s body, crashing out of his own body at the same time. His arms slid over Sami’s, and it didn’t chafe like their previous touches had. It was like they’d both grown new skin, or maybe just sloughed off the old, and they were touching for the first time. Familiar but foreign. The magnetic pull that had guided their collision suddenly felt cleaner, clearer without the layer of outgrown and decayed flesh dulling its pulse.

He bounced around as they walked backstage. He hugged Sami a few more times, brushed their shoulders, clapped his back. Sami was still a bit…off, had been ever since the low blow. Still, there was something in his hesitantly wide smile that Jey hadn’t noticed before.

On their way out, Sami finally asked, “What changed your mind?”

“Man, nothin’ changed,” Jey brushed off, pulling Sami into another hug.

Sami hummed. “Nah, something definitely changed.”

[Sami – pre-Royal Rumble, January 28, 2023]

Sami could already feel the edges of his world begin to narrow.

Things had changed at a rate that would give anyone whiplash, and the downhill incline sharpened exponentially with every minute that inched closer to whatever Sami was about to be asked to do. More importantly, what would happen after he didn’t do it.

He knew well enough what the trial earlier in the week meant for him. He knew what his actions at Survivor Series had said. He knew what his inactions at Survivor Series had said even louder.

Jey heard them differently. Or maybe Jey was just different.

Jey was the only one in the group who looked at Sami with acceptance anymore. He had swapped the distrusting glare to the rest of his family, and he now wore a face full of adoration and protectiveness that had never been awarded to Sami before. Nowadays, he shone with a newfound fierceness.

And damn, did Jey shine.

Sami had spent nearly every day since Survivor Series feeling like he was orbiting a newly forming star, burning bright and blazing with warmth unlike anything Sami had ever seen.

A meteor storm should’ve been expected.

Roman’s ire was suddenly red hot. It was time to give Sami his proper welcome to a proper family.

It only took one night for him. One barrage of belittling to the face. Sami dug crescents into his palms watching the footage back as Jey immediately shot an arm out in front of Jimmy. Flailing arms in the backseat of a rental car. It was enough for Sami. Every day that went by, he anticipated his expulsion from Jey’s orbit, if they weren’t smart enough to extinguish Jey first.

But then, Jey stepped in for Sami at the trial.

It was an undeniably Jey thing to do.

After all, he was the kind of guy to run out on a whim and do whatever he thought was right.

Sami thought he’d started to get an idea of what the man was really made of a few months back throughout late summer and early autumn. The trips to Waffle House, the barely obscured smiles, all of the tiniest cracks in the armor.

But it didn’t even scrape the surface of everything that had flooded out of Jey after WarGames. Sami could undoubtedly say that he knew the real Jey now, the one underneath every layer of Roman that had been plastered incongruently into the mold of a Right Hand Man.

And damn, was it a privilege to know Jey.

Sami knew Jey’s laugh, his real laugh with all the teeth and crinkles. Sami knew Jey’s heart, the kind that made sure they ate at places Sami could get a full meal at.

In possibly the most beautiful development, Sami now knew Jey’s hugs.

Their hugs were pure joy, unwavering and explosive in their excitement to be close to one another. There were moments, here and there, when hugs would linger. Hands would slide up to the backs of necks. Arms would loosen as the tension of the day dropped. Embraces always lasted longer behind the scenes, and Sami no longer doubted that it meant something.

He’d seen the looks Jey had been aiming his way. Eyes that used to hold calculated coldness, rehearsed for years on people who didn’t know any better, now held a fondness and a gratefulness that threatened to make Sami’s knees fold.

The way that Jey bloomed and preened under Sami’s returning gaze made him believe there existed a world in which they could do more than look.

Sami knew the chances of being in that world were slim.

They weren’t zero, though. He was willing to force this world into that one, anyway, carve it out with blistered and bruised hands so that Jey would never have to dirty his own again.

The sound of approaching footsteps interrupted his ruminating, and nothing could stop the way his heart leapt into action at the sight of Jey rounding the corner. They hadn’t seen each other all day, per the orders of the Tribal Chief. It had been some of the longest hours of Sami’s life, and judging by the way Jey’s face lit up, the same could be said for him.

Sami was nearly thrown back with the force of Jey practically leaping into Sami’s arms. They laughed, full and happy, patting each other on the back a few times before pulling away. Jey’s hands were still on Sami’s forearms, so Sami took the opportunity and mirrored what seemed to be an acceptable form of contact.

“You ready, Uce?” Jey asked, smile teasing at his lips.

“You know it,” Sami replied with a mask of confidence. “I’ve got no idea what I’m in for, but with you backing me, I think I could do anything.” It was the truth. Mostly. Partly.

They both chuckled softly, and Jey looked away for a moment as his fingers twitched against Sami’s skin. When his gaze darted back up, Sami saw something flicker behind his eyes. Jey often tried to hide the conflict from his features, but it was always clear to Sami. Decision danced in his pupils, his face morphing into something almost pained for just a millisecond.

Before Sami could ask him what was wrong, he was pulled into another hug. This one was gentler, Jey’s arms encircling Sami’s neck, but not too tightly or jagged with edges of energy.

Sami’s own hands hesitated, suspended in the air. When Jey made no motions of slipping away, Sami let them slowly drop down onto Jey’s body. They slid gently to the small of Jey’s back, resting solidly over the knobs of his lower spine.

Jey exhaled into the crook of Sami’s neck, and the muscles under Sami’s palms relaxed.

They stood there in each other’s arms like that for at least a full minute. It felt much longer, like they’d lived a whole lifetime there in a single embrace. The kind of life that Sami had only imagined glimpses of. Their breaths started to come in sync, slow and steady, measured.

The hugs they’d been sharing were always nice, affectionate to a point.

This hug wasn’t holding back the emotions it conveyed.

This hug said, I missed you, because Jey couldn’t.

This hug said, I think I love you, because Jey couldn’t.

Sami let himself give in, then, leaping onto the surface of the sun. He folded himself carefully into the warmth of Jey Uso. He buried his nose in Jey’s neck, breathed him in, let his hands dare to skim down to the edge of his shirt, cut tantalizingly too high not to fall victim to its pull. Sami felt Jey relax even further as Sami’s palms slid up under the fabric, caressing the smooth skin until it broke out in goosebumps under his touch. Jey felt good. It felt good to touch Jey.

A puff of warm air hit Sami’s collarbone. “Did I hit my head at practice or somethin’?”

Sami chuckled breathlessly, held Jey tighter. “No, Uce. This is real.”

Jey exhaled shakily, and Sami moved to cradle his face, pull him back and look in his eyes. They were watery when they met his own. Sami smiled, slid one hand up through the curls at the base of Jey’s neck, and Jey shivered, tilting his head slightly into the sensation.

His eyes darted down, and Sami inhaled sharply. The world outside of the two of them returned to his mind, and he remembered exactly what was about to happen. He gripped Jey’s hair softly, stopping his slow lean forward into Sami’s mouth. He closed his eyes, brought their foreheads together.

“I want to, Jey, I swear I do,” Sami whispered. “Just…not now, okay?”

He pulled back to gauge the reaction.

Jey smiled, big and beautiful and unfiltered. “Okay, then. After.”

Sami took stock of the unhindered grin, the blissful tone, the open body language. He pulled his hand around, brought it to the other side of Jey’s face so he was holding him with both palms. Jey leant into the touch so nearly imperceptibly that Sami thought he might’ve made up the sensation.

Sami sighed. He nodded small, replied, “Yeah. After.”

[Jey – March 6, 2023]

The glimmer wouldn’t leave him alone.

No matter how many times Jimmy hugged him, praised his choice, thanked him for always being there, told Jey that he was right, he had done the right thing like they all knew he would.

Jey kept going back to the same moment.

It had been an idiotic risk, hugging Sami the way that he had. He’d paid the price for it immediately upon seeing the look in Sami’s eyes when Jey had pulled away to really sell it. The look of After, dancing around with so much hope.

He knew, long before he walked out there, that he had to do something to scrape Sami off of his bones for good.

So, he pushed, put the potential of collapsing as soon as Sami’s arms wrapped around him out on the table for everyone to see. He hugged him. He drew back. He only lost himself for a second in the promise of After. He found himself again when he then looked up at Jimmy. He looked over at Sami. Sami turned his back.

It was the coward’s way, but it was all Jey could muster. Never quite cruel enough, but it got the job done at the end of the day.

He landed the kick. How could he not?

Every ounce of emotion built up inside flooded from Jey. He laid into Sami blindly, hoping the man wasn’t looking at him too closely. Sami’s gaze had proven to be a dangerous one.

And yet, when Jey grabbed ahold of the man’s beard, yelled as loud and as eviscerating as he could manage right into the man’s slack face, he saw the glimmer.

It was hard to truly catch someone like Sami off guard, Jey had learned. The man was so used to it all that rarely was he ever really shocked.

But there it was.

On Sami’s face, only visible to Jey, was hurt.

He was hurt.

Jey had actually hurt Sami.

For a moment, Jey felt good enough. He’d finally gotten it right. This was what he’d been waiting for. The pieces might have finally fallen into the right places inside of him, clearing whatever had wiggled its way out recently and blinded him of his true purpose.

He had gotten to Sami.

And just as quickly as the rush of success washed over him, a feeling of cold ice water drenched his spine.

He’d hurt Sami.

He’d hurt Sami, and it didn’t feel right.

Jey tugged Sami’s slack body up, threw him into the ring and rolled him away before the ever-keen observer saw Jey realize that his internal celebration was preemptive.

This was what He’d meant all those years ago. This was how Jey had to act to get it, to finally understand. Now he understood.

But it wasn’t him.

After all this time, it still wasn’t him.

And that made him furious.

At least he had an outlet. Something to land kicks on. Someone he could reach.

The only problem being that he was apparently still reachable, too.

Jey sat precariously on the edge of the bed in his hotel room that night. His pacing had started to rub blisters into his feet against the rough carpet. The need to move had been burning in his skin, as if he could physically shake the thoughts if he never stopped moving long enough to think them.

People turned on Roman all the time. People hated Roman all the time. People weren’t Sami.

Jey wanted to scream at the top of his lungs again, right into Sami’s face, until his vocal chords snapped, and the only sound left was raspy air and the steady drip of blood from his mouth. And still, Jey somehow knew even then that Sami would reach out, wipe up the blood, and hold Jey like he was something to be revered.

He could feel Sami’s phantom touch. Jey balled his fists in the comforter on the bed. He had hugged Sami for what could be the last time that night.

Sami’s hands had felt so relieved on Jey’s body. They had placed themselves there with the capacity of a lifetime of more, promising and threatening to never leave. In the moment, that alone was nearly enough to override everything else in Jey’s racing mind. Ultimately, Jey knew that’s why what he’d done had worked so well.

But he couldn’t stop thinking about that glimmer.

He prayed as hard as he could that Sami didn’t see the same in his own eyes, for both of their sakes.

[Sami – WrestleMania 39, April 1, 2023]

Sami knew Jey.

This was Jey.

Sami had spent the majority of the match as the Usos’ punching bag, mostly Jey’s.

Sami could practically feel every emotion in every hit that landed across his body, laced in tangled loops around Jey’s fist like tape. Every shove to the face, he felt Roman bleeding out of Jey, trying to cut into Sami with the same effortlessly precise cruelty.

Jey could never be quite so effortless, though. Fundamentally, he just couldn’t.

Sami knew every kick was a futile attempt at overcompensation. Every scream was a poor performance showing too much emotion. Every shove to the face was a reminder that touch was supposed to hurt. It was all a façade paper macheted over pain, but it was all a part of his job. His responsibility. He couldn’t be caught slipping now. What else could Jey do but dig his heels in deeper?

The evidence of why Jey could never let go of the ghost was standing at the other corner of the ring, waiting for his turn to superkick Sami’s brains into the mat.

For now, though, Jey was still overflowing with everything he couldn’t let anyone else feel except Sami.

Each swipe of Jey’s skin against Sami’s burned with something different. Rage at Sami, for leaving, for getting away with it, for the mere threat of taking these titles from him. Rage at himself for wanting to let go, wanting to lose when it mattered, wanting to win when it didn’t matter. Rage at Roman for making him win, for giving him power, for robbing him of the pride in that power.

It'd all been there in their segment together weeks prior, when Jey had asked for his presence directly. Sami had been furious, enraged at watching Jey abandon everything he’d become in those few short months. Sami never backed down from a fight, and he loved a good reason to punch someone in the face. This had been different, though.

He’d realized that Jey, the real gooey-center Jey, was still in there as he exploded on Sami. Sami watched the cracks expose themselves even further as he bit back, shouting everything he knew would target the crumbling foundations being held together by desperate duct tape.

Sami knew it would end in a brawl. It couldn’t be anything but that for Jey. Not yet.

But Sami could wait.

Even now as his limp ragdoll body was being dragged around and pummeled, no doubt a form of punishment for betraying Roman, Sami knew it wouldn’t last.

Jey was trying so hard. Sami watched through blurred vision as Jey did everything he could to fight, as if Sami’s body was a proxy for Jey’s heart.

The titles were important. Sami knew that. He wanted them, of course he did. He wasn’t just doing this to make a point. He and Kevin deserved those titles. Anyone in the business would fight with all they had to keep that power.

But, as the match went on, Sami watched that motive stop being enough for Jey. Even in the state he was in, Sami could see Jey losing steam. Every time Sami kicked out, the cracks expanded.

He knew that the twins were doing everything they could think of, especially in isolating Sami from Kevin. And yet, when he kicked out of the 1D, Sami watched the gears shift in Jey’s mind. He watched as Jey realized that they were about to lose.

It was sad to witness Jey fully disappear into Roman, or at least, a mirage of him, an illusion of an idea of what it meant to be Roman. The slapping, the shouting, and the kick to really drive the point home.

Sami knew what it was supposed to be, and it guaranteed that he and Kevin would win, simply because he didn’t believe any of it for a single second.

He was still only human, though, and the lashings were taking their toll. He briefly considered letting himself be pummeled until Jey got it all out of his system or until he passed out, whichever came first. He had just started to fade, to go into reserve mode until it was safe to come out, when he heard his cue.

“SAMI!! NOW!!!”

The bone-deep drive he’d had in him for as long as he could remember set ablaze. In an instant, he was up. He tagged in. He let the finality of the match settle in his aches and propel him forward.

He looked across at Jey.

Time to finish it. Time to start all over again.

Sami ran, landed the kick, but he caught Jey’s body before it could fall.

He held Jey up, held his face, looked down into the man’s eyes.

Sami watched the watery brown pools focus on him. Something shifted into place behind them, then his lids slid closed, and Jey relaxed in Sami’s hands.

For just this moment, Sami felt Jey concede. He watched as Jey placed himself delicately and intentionally into Sami’s hands. The responsibility shifted to Sami. If Jey couldn’t take this from Roman, he at least trusted Sami to do it, if only just for this second outside of time.

Sami shook his head, brought their foreheads together, if for no other reason than to be able to have another point of contact. Jey pressed into it hard, nearly hard enough to split skin. It felt like a promise.

Barely audible, hopefully invisible to the world outside the two of them, Sami whispered on an exhale, “I’ve got you.”

He felt Jey nod against him.

That was it.

Sami pulled away, set him up again, landed another kick.

He stared down at Jey, held his face in his hand. He allowed himself a full second to admire how beautiful Jey looked, pliant and panting and all Sami’s. Sami distantly heard footsteps coming from multiple directions. It didn’t matter. Not when Jey was still looking at him through his lashes like that, like he was willingly giving everything to Sami. He barely noticed the scene unfolding next to them, looking up just in time to see Kevin prevent Jimmy from interfering.

With one last glance down, Sami set Jey up for the finisher.

And finally, in the last moments of the match, Sami let himself feel the joy in winning, feel the passion he normally would in a match. It was no longer Jey in the far corner. It was just his opponent.

He landed the kick.

He pinned Jey’s limp body.

After 3, it was over.

Sami left the warmth of Jey’s body knowing in his heart that it wouldn’t be the last time he’d feel it, and he stood to celebrate, letting himself put the bumpy road ahead in the back of his mind for the rest of the night.

[Jey – April 7, 2023]

He’d won.

Jey reminded himself of this as he paced in the parking lot.

Maybe not when it mattered, but he’d beaten Sami nonetheless.

He’d proven himself. To everyone. Including Sami. Especially Sami.

A chip slotted jaggedly and imperfectly back into place inside of Jey, where Sami had knocked it all loose on his way out the door.

Solo’s interference played out again in his head. Solo appearing to ensure that Jey wouldn’t lose. Solo taking away Jey’s chance to do this for himself. Solo playing his part.

Jey couldn’t help it. He let himself imagine how it would’ve gone without Solo.

If he’d lost, if Sami had beaten him again, would he have been as upset as he was now?

Jey’s insides felt like scattered shards of glass again.

Can’t think like that. Don’t.

He tried to pull in deep breaths, shift his train of thought.

It only pissed him off further the way Sami kept treating him in the ring. He’d seen Sami fight hundreds of times, bursting with passion and never holding back on anything, ever. Sami always saw the other man as his opponent, fought with determination and grit. In the ring across from Jey, he was different. Jey wanted a fight, he knew a fight, and he knew what a fight with Sami should be like.

So, why did they always go like this?

God damn it, why does he feel like this?

He had to be doing something wrong, feeling something wrong. His mind snagged on one particular moment. People didn’t smile and laugh in Roman’s face like that (well, most people).

Sami had smiled at Jey like he knew something.

It didn’t matter. Jey won, so it didn’t matter what Sami thought he knew. They’d both been wrong about Jey. And yet, Sami had still fought him as if it suddenly mattered how his hands fell, like he hadn’t landed endless vicarious blows throughout all of last year. Hothead. Or maybe his hands fell like he was trying to apologize. Jey could still hear the syllables of Sami’s I’m sorry through the ringing in his ears.

Sami touched him in the ring like he wasn’t a serrated tangle of emotions.

Jey stood helpless with the sensations of every handprint adorning his body. Sami had left invisible trails on his skin, like he always had, and Jey tried to convince himself that he wanted nothing more than to burn them off.

He wished that the touches had been meaner, harder punches that left darker bruises. Something that hurt. Something he could handle.

He wished that the touches had been gentler caresses, repeating every naïve promise Jey wanted to accept right out of Sami’s mouth. Something he didn’t know if he could ever handle.

But he’d made his choice.

His fist balled and moved before he could stop it. The sound of the mirror flying off of the side of the rental car and onto cold, wet pavement rang out in the empty space, bouncing off of a few of the big tech trucks.

“Pretty sure that’s not gonna help,” he heard from behind him.

Jey felt his back tense immediately. He closed his eyes, clutching his now throbbing hand to his abdomen. He didn’t want to turn around.

“Leave,” he bit out, hoping the level of venom he injected into it was believable enough coming from his mouth. The other had been immune to it up to this point. Still, no harm in trying. Jey couldn’t do anything else.

Two footsteps. “You’re not going to fix it, Jey.”

Jey shook his head, desperately tearing off a piece of his fraying shirt to wrap tightly around his now-bleeding knuckles. Stupid, you work with your damn hands. “Nothin’ to fix.”

He could nearly feel the breathy chuckle from behind him. “Yeah, right. You can’t believe that, I know you can’t.”

“You don’t know shit,” Jey muttered, hissing as he flexed his fingers in and out of a fist.

“I think I do,” Sami said. “I think…I know you. I think that you and I –,”

Jey whirled around. “There ain’t any ‘you and I.’ Not anymore, you made damn sure of that. So don’t even go there, don’t you dare…”

Suddenly, he was out of breath. Tears were beginning to build against his will, and he needed to escape before everything was too much, before Sami could start talking again, before Jey could listen.

As Jey reached for the door handle, Sami stepped closer. Jey prepared to slap away a well-intentioned extending hand, but it never came. He looked up to see Sami a safe distance away. No visible attempt to touch him had been made. Jey swallowed down the bitter wave of disappointment.

“Jey,” Sami spoke unfairly gently. “Jey, you know you can leave. And, I know you know, because you watched me do it.”

Jey’s lip twitched, angry as all hell for a few seconds, then he broke into laughter. He laughed so hard that the tears finally fell, bringing more and more along. He brought himself to lean back against the car door, trying to catch his breath.

“You think I’m really that stupid? You think I need you?” Jey asked, pointing to Sami and wiping tears from his face.

Sami didn’t speak, just looked at Jey. Always looking at Jey.

Jey felt his derision fade, his smile dropped, and he got angry again, all from the way Sami looked at him like he wasn’t who he was made to be. It was all too much like Roman and wholly the opposite at the same time.

“You think I’m helpless?” Jey asked, standing up off of the car and slowly making his way into Sami’s space. “That you need to rescue me? You need to – to make that choice for me? Think that I can’t make choices myself? That I wouldn’t have hit him with that damn chair if I thought I could?”

“Could you?”

It stung, like Jey knew it was meant to. Could he?

Jey blinked, shook his head. “You just don’t get it, man, you couldn’t get it. It –…it was my choice. Always. You’re right. I can leave, yeah. But why would I? What good’s it gonna do me to walk out, huh? Who am I if I leave, Sami, huh, answer that!”

Sami smiled small. “You are Main Event Jey U–,”

“I was!” Jey scoffed, laughing before bringing his hands to slide down his face. “...I was.”

“You are,” Sami assured, stepping closer so they were nearly a foot away from each other. “Jey, you know you are.”

Jey closed his eyes, tilted his head down. “…I can’t be.”

“Jey–,”

“Sami, I told you, man, you made your choice,” Jey spit out, shaking his head with his eyes still slammed shut around tears. “You…you chose…What fucking choice did I have!?”

Silence.

Silence with Sami was still bizarre to Jey.

He was about to open his eyes, expecting Sami to have simply popped out of existence, to have been just a figment of Jey’s imagination.

Something brushed alongside his hand, and Jey jerked slightly. He looked up through wet lashes to see Sami reaching for his wrapped fingers. Sami paused when Jey jumped, and Jey looked up to see Sami clearly waiting for a sign to step away.

But Jey was tired.

Sami nodded just slightly, then looked down as he took Jey’s hand in his.

With precision and care unfit for a hand like that, with all the things that hand had done, Sami unwrapped the strip of cloth torn from Jey’s shirt. Ever the responsible locker room leader, Sami pulled a wrap of bandage from his jacket pocket and began to rewrap the wounds.

They stood quietly in a frighteningly intimate moment. Sami worked carefully, brushing against only the clean, unbroken skin. The silence filled with warm air, emanating off of Sami in small bursts, fighting the lingering coolness of mid-April. Jey found himself leaning closer.

Still, he bit his tongue.

Jey knew if he even breathed wrong, it would reveal itself as a mirage, a hallucination crafted to calm Jey’s mind.

Leave it to Sami.

“Like those crop tops need to be any shorter,” he muttered as he tossed the shredded fabric away, then looked up to gauge the reaction.

Jey just made an unimpressed face, and Sami laughed softly. Jey could kill him.

“Good as new,” Sami whispered, holding Jey’s now properly bandaged palm between his hands.

Jey smiled sadly. I wish.

Despite everything inside of him telling him not to, Jey stepped backwards towards the car. His hand slid down to his pocket for his keys.

Sami was kind enough to take it as his cue to leave. With a final nod, he stepped away.

Jey stood in their residual warmth until it fully dissipated.

[Sami – SummerSlam, August 5, 2023]

The entire thing was a blur.

It was difficult to find the will to watch the match when he knew Jey wouldn’t come out victorious. Still, Sami watched it start to finish with his fingers digging into the fabric of his sweats. It was entirely too short and too long at the same time.

The weeks leading up to this had been some of the longest of Sami’s life, and he wasn’t even involved. Not really.

Everyone had watched Jey get the pin at Money in the Bank.

It couldn’t have been anyone else.

It was beautiful to hear the audience fall so rightly behind Jey. The raucous reaction when Jey held up the title was possibly the biggest threat to Roman, bigger than any one person could ever be. Sami smiled to himself every time it happened, every time the pop wriggled and rankled under Roman’s skin.

It was Jey.

Everyone could see Jey now, full of everything that had laid dormant for years now ready to come alive and execute the ultimate revenge.

The only problem was that Jey hadn’t seen it in himself yet, not truly.

Solo dragged Jey’s body along the ground. Sami could picture Jey’s face.

When he seemingly became tired of that method, Solo picked him up and slung him over his shoulders like he was nothing.

Roman also handled Jey like Jey was nothing. Like Jey was unworthy of even being in the ring with him.

Jey was worthy, undoubtedly more so than anyone else, Cody’s story be damned. But Jey wasn’t ready. Sami saw him try and fail to avoid all the festering wounds tearing open with each bump. Years of lacerating words didn’t disappear on a whim, not when you grew to believe them.

Sami watched Jey fight himself. It was a good fight, even if it wasn’t the right fight. The match was nearly over, and even though Sami knew the outcome, he pretended he didn’t like everyone else.

He watched the judge, jury, and executioner bring the chair down.

He watched the enforcer go through the table.

He held his breath, shot up from his seat at the pin.

It was Jey.

The referee was pulled away.

It barely even stung when he watched Jey’s eyes darken at the thought that this might have been Sami’s doing.

Then. Jimmy unmasked, and a betrayal so deep and visceral split across Jey’s features.

It was Jey.

Sami knew it was over.

He turned the tv off before the three count even started.

He brought his hands to his face.

He wished he could be there. He couldn’t decide if Jey would punch him or not. He hoped maybe there was a version of the day where they hugged.

Sami pulled out his phone. He sent Jey a single text with a hug emoji.

Before he went to bed, he saw that the message had been read.

Good enough for now.

[Jey – September 4, 2023]

When he had extended his hand, Jey hoped that his smile could hide the nerves wracking his system as he opened his arm to Sami.

It was a risk after all these months. He would even welcome a fist.

If the shaking in his knees wasn’t enough, the look on Sami’s face alone nearly knocked him over. The force of every emotion laying out in the open on every feature was strong enough to make Jey want to punch him instead simply because it would be easier.

Sami’s hug nearly finished the job, threatening to send them both toppling over. He managed to get himself to reciprocate, running off of the joyous roar of the crowd. When Sami pulled back and reached up to hold his face for a moment, everything they’d done to each other since January evaporated, and Jey was right back in that hallway before the Rumble, hoping and praying he could finally have this.

If only it were that easy. Sami made it sound like it could be. Jey wanted to believe him.

They separated for a bit after the segment, Sami likely running interference on Kevin. God. Jey wasn’t even anywhere near ready to deal with that, but he knew it would get to him eventually.

But it was his mess. And, like always, he’d clean it up.

Still, the tension from the segment hung steadily in the air. He knew that he would cross paths with Sami again tonight, somewhere not on camera in front of thousands. That all too familiar invisible pull was back, constantly nagging in the back of his mind that they weren’t through yet, not for the night, at least.

As Jey wandered, hoping not to run into anyone he wasn’t ready to see yet, hoping to run into the only person he did very much want to see, it happened. The moment they locked eyes, Jey’s body screamed to be closer. He felt as if he would simply explode if he wasn’t in Sami’s space immediately.

They walked slowly. No need to rush after what happened in the ring. It was all out there, now.

Jey paused an arm’s length away, his chest tight. He could practically feel himself punching at his own insides, trying to pry his way out like a person from a pod, emerging something new and clean.

Sami tilted his head up, gave a small smile, and stepped closer.

Jey’s swallow was audible.

Neither of them spoke. Anyone in the vicinity could likely hear their hearts chugging to meet the other’s.

Sami breathed out of his nose, just barely opened his mouth.

Jey stepped forward, nearly plastering their fronts together. They met each other’s foreheads in the middle. Simply being this close to Sami felt like lightning in his veins, reviving him. It was like Frankenstein, Jey thought. He was the creature, stitched painstakingly into a monster. A whole no more equal than the remaining parts of him haphazardly clinging together. And yet, Sami managed to see his mangled pieces fitting together as something new, something functional, and brought him to life. That’s how that story went, right?

Both of them let out audible sighs. Sighs of relief and release and recognition.

It wasn’t enough, though. Jey’s mouth was dry, but he dropped his wet forehead to Sami’s collarbone, whispered into the freckled skin, “Sami, please.”

Sami didn’t hesitate to slip his hands into Jey’s open center. With steady palms, Sami painted patient patterns onto steadily heating skin. It was like balm on every wound Jey had gained across his body over the years. Sami touched him like he was healing him.

Jey flexed his fingers in fists dangling at his sides. His want was immeasurable.

He could feel Sami’s heartfelt smile above his head. “You can.”

Jey huffed. Sami of all people should understand why Jey couldn’t.

His mind flashed to the last time he’d put his hands on Sami, to every time he’d touched Sami after that last hug in March. It made his stomach turn, and he clenched his fists again. He fought the acid building up in his throat, urging him to spew a never-ending stream of “I’m sorry”s until he’d wrung the shame out of his system.

“Hey. It’s just me,” Sami whispered, then he barely stifled a laugh. “Uce.”

It cracked a bit of the tension building under Jey’s skin, and he couldn’t help but breathe out a laugh. “Stupid,” he murmured, shaking his head against Sami’s body.

The hands on his waist pressed firmly into him. “Please. I want you to.”

His fears were overshadowed suddenly by his desire to give Sami anything and everything the man wanted. Sami deserved that and more.

Jey finally nodded against the collar of Sami’s shirt. He reached up slowly, wrapping his arms around Sami’s neck and shoulders. His palms slid down slightly and melded over the ridge of Sami’s spine. He could feel the muscles there quickly flex and relax in quick succession, and it filled Jey with something warm to think he had an equally strong effect on Sami.

“I missed this,” Sami’s voice trembled. He wrapped his arms fully around Jey’s torso, pulling him in impossibly tighter. “I missed you.”

Jey shuddered out a breath. “You mean it?”

“Of course I –,”

“No,” Jey shook his head, his hands curling into fists full of Sami’s shirt. “Whatchu said earlier. Out there. You meant all that?”

It was Sami’s out. To take the chance to course correct. To make Jey work for it.

But it was Sami.

“Every word,” Sami assured. “I’ve got you. Always.”

Jey thought about what Sami had said, about how he’d done the work to break free, about how Sami knew what was in his heart. Jey knew now that he was better than the way he had been treated. That didn’t mean he was quite good enough for Sami yet.

Sensing Jey’s hesitation, Sami pressed a kiss to the side of Jey’s head, and that was all it took.

Jey folded, melting into Sami’s receptive and accepting arms.

They stood there for who knows how long. It didn’t matter. Not a damn thing in the universe mattered more than this right now. He felt reality warp around them, and suddenly, it was January again. Suddenly, there was an After again.

Jey knew Sami wasn’t going to pull away first. Despite his desperate urge to stay in that hold forever, Jey bit the bullet and put a few inches back between them, at least so he could (try to) meet Sami’s eyes.

“Is it…,” he started, but his voice warbled halfway through. He cleared his throat. “Is this…are we doin’ this? Like for real this time?”

Something pained shifted over Sami’s face, and he exhaled sharply. “Jey, you…fuck, you don’t even know how badly I want to do this. But…you just got here, and you’ll have stuff to deal with, and there’s complications with –,”

“Kevin,” Jey interjected.

Sami’s mouth clicked shut. He nodded. “Yeah. There’s Kevin.”

Jey withdrew a bit further, his hands resting on Sami’s forearms. “I get it. Don’t have to explain that to me.”

Sami gripped his sides tightly, preventing him from fully slipping away. He made sure Jey was looking at him. “This isn’t like last time, like at the Rumble. I swear, it’s different now. I…I want it to happen, it will happen, it…it just can’t happen yet, okay? But this is…"

His hands left Jey’s sides and came up to hold his face again. “This is good. This is…right. Please, just…don’t forget this.”

Jey smiled small, sad. “Couldn’t forget you if I tried.”

Sami sighed, pulled him in close one last time, forehead to forehead, then extricated himself fully. The warmth they’d generated lingered in the air between them, as if parts of them were still static in that embrace.

“I’ll see you next week, yeah?” Sami questioned, stepping back towards his and Kevin’s locker room.

Jey nodded. “Yeet.”

[Sami – October 9, 2023]

It went about as well as anyone could’ve guessed it would go…if not worse.

Sami had trudged backstage with Kevin in a daze, trying to untangle the never-ending web of emotions sticking to the crevices in his chest. He’d clung to Kevin as tightly as he could. Kevin had held him back. It was a safe and practiced routine.

The two sat in their locker room for a bit, silently going about their packing. It wouldn’t make any difference now for Kevin to start in on him about all of it. He was grateful that for once, Kevin understood and kept it to himself. If Kevin was well and truly all that pissed, Sami would be losing hearing right about now.

He was awarded one hard slap of indeterminate emotion on the back before he heard the door open, shut, and he was alone. He dropped his head between his knees and took deep breaths, clearing the cobwebs in his lungs.

Before too long, the door opened again, shut again.

He watched a pair of shoes walk up until they were right in front of his own. One unceremoniously kicked him in the shin, and he winced, reaching down to rub at the spot.

“You wanna tell me what the hell that was ‘bout?” came from above his head.

Sami didn’t look up. “It was a title match. Nothing personal. You should understand that.”

He didn’t know how hard that one would land, but he couldn’t keep the bitterness down right now. That was not how he’d wanted the tag title rematch to go. Conflicting feelings crashing wildly between his ears had kept him from chasing the titles how they deserved to be chased. Sami was pissed. He was pissed at Kevin. At Jey. At Cody. At himself. He needed somewhere to put it all. He could apologize later.

Jey had yet to react to the jab, and Sami waited for the man to slap him. He’d deserve it. It might even make him feel better. But the hit never came, and Sami felt Jey seat himself on the bench behind him so that their backs were pressed together.

“Didn’t have to go so hard on Cody, at least,” Jey offered, measured.

Tension rose in Sami’s gut, and he almost regretted how much progress he’d helped Jey make over the past month. In that moment, Sami wanted the old Jey. The hothead. He wanted a fight that he knew he could win. Guilt poured into the swirling pool in his chest.

Sami breathed in deep. He could keep it under control as long as Jey could, but he knew it wouldn’t last. Anything he could think of to say would come out too honest right now. They weren’t walking out of this clean.

“I wanted to win. We wanted to win,” Sami said.

“Uh huh, yeah KO really seemed like he was thinkin’ ‘bout the titles while he was beatin’ the hell out of me,” Jey mumbled.

Hook, line, and sinker.

“You said you knew guys in the locker room would have issues with you being here,” Sami reminded him, “and you said that you were here if they wanted to do something about it. It might not be as easy as you thought, but this is what it's gonna be like.”

“He's different,” Jey replied curtly.

Sami bristled at that almost entirely on instinct. Decades old hair on the back of his neck stood up, and he gripped the bench. “What's that supposed to mean, Jey?”

The muscles pressed against his back tensed.

“Aye, like you said, it’s just business, right, Uce?” Jey spit. Sami heard Jey wince slightly at just how petty the words sounded as they fell from his mouth, probably meaner than he’d intended.

But Jey didn’t have the trademark on jealousy. “Hey, let me remind you, I’m not the only one who teamed with someone else, remember?” Sami said defensively.

“Oh, I damn well remember,” Jey bit back.

An empty parking lot. Busted knuckles. What fucking choice did I have!?

It hadn’t taken very long, but they’d reached the crux of it. Judging by the painful silence that followed, they’d seemingly reached a standstill as well.

Of all of the things they had talked about, Kevin came up only when absolutely unavoidable. It had been the elephant in the room that neither had been willing to point out, not when everything else was so good. And damn, was it good. Jey didn’t know all of the details of Sami-and-Kevin (and who really did), but Sami figured that he knew enough to not ask.

Kevin’s dislike of Jey at this point was an amalgamation of anger and jealousy too convoluted for Sami to even want to get into. Jey’s dislike was multifaceted as well, but that one Sami could mostly understand all the puzzle pieces of.

It wasn’t worth getting into now, though. Not like this.

Jey shifted uncomfortably, but he didn’t move to leave. That was a good sign, at least.

Despite the itch under Sami’s skin, he knew a fight wouldn’t help either of them right now. It had been hard enough in the ring. For most of it, he could only bring himself to focus on Cody. It had been easy enough to just keep Cody from interfering and costing a potential win. He was but an unfortunate recipient of everything in Sami’s head. Sami would have to apologize later.

For now, if they were going to move from this bench in the near future, he might as well try to dispel the tension a bit. Sami had always been good at that part.

“I saw what you were capable of first,” he grumbled. “He just swept in before I could, all blonde and good and righteous. Doesn’t even have a beard.”

It got a strained chuckle out of Jey, and Sami considered it a small victory. He felt Jey’s back shift as he let out a defeated sigh. It sounded entirely too dejected for someone who had just retained in a title match. Jey leaned back so that their spines were lined up, the backs of their heads resting against each other. Sami was grateful for the contact.

“Guess it’s just not in the cards for us, huh, Uce?” Jey questioned, his voice cracking with traces of disappointment in every word.

Just like that, Sami wanted to throw everything he’d been worrying about out the window to make sure that Jey never sounded like that again. Screw the titles, screw Kevin, screw all of it. He couldn’t let the sun go out.

He shook his head. “I don’t believe that.”

“I don’t know, seems like we’re, uh, what’s it called? Star-crossed lovers?” Jey offered.

“We’d have to actually be lovers at some point for that,” Sami muttered, and he felt more than heard Jey’s sad laughter.

Sami swallowed. He knew they couldn’t avoid this, not if they didn’t want it to fester and rot out this fragile thing between them. He reached behind him, blindly grasping for Jey’s hand. He felt Jey hesitate, but he intertwined their fingers carefully.

“Look, I know I picked Kevin,” Sami said calmly, leaving the over you unsaid and hanging in the stuffy air. “But…it’ll always come down to him. Just like for you how it always came down to Jimmy.”

“That’s different,” Jey countered immediately.

“Yes, we’re not biological brothers, I know, but he’s…he’s my soulmate, alright? It’s…we are meant to coexist, as whatever fits in that time and space.”

Sami squeezed Jey’s fingers in his. “But you’re…you.”

An admittedly lacking argument, but Sami was still too upset about everything from that night to drag out any more of his own painstakingly honest feelings. When Jey didn’t respond, Sami let go of his hand and slowly turned around.

Jey’s head was tilted down, seemingly stuck looking resolutely at some spot on the floor. Sami gently placed his hands on Jey’s waist, resting right over where his usual crop tops would personally terrorize Sami. He took Jey’s lack of tensing at his touch as a good sign. “Look at me,” Sami pled quietly.

After a deep breath, Jey slowly turned in place until they were facing each other. His eyes darted around a bit, and Sami reached to tilt his chin up. Their gazes finally met.

“It will be our time,” Sami spoke determinedly as he cupped the side of Jey’s face. “I know it. It’s a bumpy road, but…that’s nothing new for us, yeah?”

Jey chuckled. “Yeah, got that right.”

“Exactly,” Sami said. “And we’ve been nothing if not patient.”

Jey nodded. He turned into Sami’s palm for just a second, closing his eyes and inhaling, before pulling back. He shot Sami a teasing look as he stood and moved to leave. “Sorry ‘bout the titles.”

Sami smirked. “Yeah, well…could’ve gone to worse people, I guess. Congratulations. I’m proud of you, really.”

Jey grinned, peaks of teeth and crinkles. Sami wanted to kiss him. Sami wanted to steal him away. Sami wanted to keep him curled up in his ribs like any other organ.

Sami just nodded and stared unashamedly at Jey’s ass as he walked out.

[Jey – Survivor Series, November 25, 2023]

“It’s my fault, man, I know it.”

Sami looked like he might become motion sick if he watched Jey pace any longer. His patience with Jey over the past week since the announcement of Randy’s (possible) return had been incredible, but it might be running thin right at the finish line. Jey wouldn’t blame him.

After Kevin had been shipped over to SmackDown, the two of them had finally been able to mend some of the fences he and Sami had neglected in their excitement to finally be around each other. It had been nice. Fuck, it had been amazing. And, it had been ruined very suddenly earlier that week.

He’d almost walked out on the whole thing that night. Cody ran after him as he stomped through the backstage hallways. Sami stayed back with Seth. He was more familiar with putting out that brand of fires.

Once Cody had got ahold of him, stopped him on his path directly out of this match, Cody did what he always did. He talked until it sounded just good enough, gave Jey his word about Randy. Jey listened. He wished he could see people the way that Cody did. Must be nice.

Jey didn’t give up on his team. But now, he was damn sure it would cost them.

His feet were at risk of blistering at this point. They only had half an hour until the match, and their fifth member was still MIA. Sami had come in a few minutes ago to check on him, and he was now sat on the bench, eyes following Jey’s short path back and forth.

“Jey, look at me,” he quietly insisted.

Jey bulldozed right past it. “He’s not showing cuz of me.”

“It’s Randy,” Sami tried to remind him. “He’s complicated.”

“We shelved his ass! That ain’t complicated at all,” Jey shouted, more at himself than at Sami. He turned to him, hands wringing at his sides. “You think he’s gonna forgive me just like that?”

“I did.”

Jey shook his head. “’S different.”

“I told you the night you came back. It’s in your heart, Jey,’ Sami assured.

Jey shook his head. “No, not…not after all that shit I did, I mean, fuck, Sami, all the shit I did to you. It’s…that’s what he made me, Sami, he made me him.”

In an instant, they’d crossed into dangerous territory, and Sami’s face fell. It hadn’t come up a lot, it honestly hadn’t needed to between them, but Sami had known it was still in there. Jey had managed thus far not to crumble under it. In a moment like this, though, even he was liable to the carefully planted cracks.

“You’re not him,” Sami said, unwavering. “Even if you tried to be. Even if you wanted to be. You’re not him. You’ve never been him. And that’s good, Jey, it’s good that you’re not him.”

“Then…if I’m not him…,” Jey sighed, shaking his head, tears building too quickly for him to blink them away. The alternative explanation suddenly felt a hell of a lot worse, and it clawed its way up his throat, out of his mouth. “What if…it was me? Not…not him in my head. What if…fuck, I mean…S-Sami, if it wasn’t Roman, was it all me?"

Sami stood from the bench at that, stepped closer, finally reached out and grabbed Jey by the shoulders. “No, Jey, it wasn’t you.”

“Then who the fuck am I?!” Jey cried out.

The outburst startled even him, and he immediately covered his face. It was all too much. He couldn’t go through with this, not now. He was going to have to drop out, put them short another man. What would he even say to them? At least Seth might understand his struggle, maybe. The others –

“Jey,” Sami whispered.

Jey didn’t respond. He tried to pull out of Sami’s grasp, but the hands on his arms held firm. He heard Sami take a deep breath.

“You…are Jey Uso. You have sacrificed yourself time and time again for the ones you love. You fought and pinned Roman Reigns, the first to do it in over three years. You walked out, knowing everything you were giving up, and still did it anyway.”

Sami reached up to gently pry Jey’s hands off of his face. Jey looked up.

“I would not be who I am right now without you,” Sami assured. He reached up to Jey’s face, wiped away an errant tear. “You’re Jey Uso. And right now, I need Jey Uso. We all do.”

Sami was looking at him with such reverence it almost knocked the wind out of him. It was the same look he’d been on the other end of for months. It was too much.

Jey scrunched his face. “Aight, enough.”

Sami blanched, opened his mouth to question what exactly he meant, but Jey had pulled him in before Sami’s brain could even catch up to his mouth.

It started as a rushed press of dry lips smushed together awkwardly, too much facial hair and teeth. Before he could seriously consider pulling back, though, he felt Sami smile against his mouth, and Jey sighed, pressing in again. Sami cupped Jey’s face gently, holding him in place as he kissed Jey again and again and again. It was nothing and everything all at once, and Jey carefully moved to hide, his lips sliding across Sami’s beard as he leant forward.

“Did I ruin it?” Jey questioned into the crook of Sami’s neck.

Sami laughed. “No. In fact, it was so non-ruining that I’m considering sitting out of the match to do it over and over and over again.”

It made Jey grin, and he looked up to meet Sami’s entirely too fond gaze. “Couldn’t be as patient as you been with me,” Jey said. He held Sami’s waist. “Thank you.”

Sami kissed him again and again and again.

Jey also thought sitting out of the match sounded like a good idea, actually.

Cody cleared his throat when he walked in. He continued sending smirks in their direction as they waited for Seth to join them. Before Cody could open his mouth, Sami punched his shoulder lightly, telling him under his breath, “You’re in no position to be doing any of that.” Jey snorted. Cody reigned it in after that, just a bit.

[Sami – WarGames, November 25, 2023]

Sami would be pleasantly surprised if he managed to make it through the match without running across the ring to kiss Jey again.

The four of them walked out of the locker room in a group, but Sami felt that he was entirely alone in his own little cloud. The daze of finally was completely fogging his brain, and he was having trouble keeping track of where exactly he was in time. Jey bumped his shoulder to try to get his attention, and for a second, they were both wearing red, walking out to a chorus.

He looked at Jey, and the blue of his sleeve tugged Sami forward a year. Right. Same cage. Different people. Mostly.

The team they were on this time around was just about as dysfunctional, although for a variety of different fun reasons. Sami could at least relax with the knowledge that he and Jey weren’t jumping through the hoops of whatever the hell Seth and Cody were doing.

Sami watched the two dance their intricate dance around each other in gorilla. He brushed elbows with Jey, nodded at the pair. Jey glanced at them, then shrugged back at Sami. Fair enough. They’d been the ones stuck in a not-so-different dance a year prior.

Cody gave Jey one last reassurance, like any good liar, then went out first. Jey started to jump in place, take deep breaths. Sami gave Jey one last side hug that lingered just a little bit too long before shoving him over to his cue spot.

Sami stood back, smiling up at the monitors through Jey’s entrance. The audience was with him the way they always were. They saw him the way they’d seen him for months, for years. Sami just hoped they wouldn’t see the kisses smeared on his lips. Though, it wouldn’t be that bad if they did.

Sami shook himself, preparing to go in next. He looked over to Seth, who was giving him a look not unsimilar to the ones Cody had been nonstop aiming at them earlier. Sami only managed to roll his eyes and quickly flip him off before his music hit, and he bounced out and away from the echoing cackle.

Seth had opted to be the sacrificial lamb this year, for which Sami knew Jey was very grateful. Second in was close enough. Sami gave Jey’s hand a small squeeze before he went in. Sami trusted Seth with Jey, and Jey with Seth. They were enough alike that it wouldn’t all go sideways. Not yet, at least.

Despite making a promise to himself he wouldn’t spend the entire match defending Jey like they were the only ones in there, he couldn’t help but whale on Damian when given the chance. The man kicked Jey right as Sami was coming in, it was totally on purpose. Sami definitely didn’t wink at Jey afterwards.

He was mostly just thankful that he was in the ring with Jey before Drew was.

Drew was the first big hurdle. Sami gave Jey a nod, trying to convey to him that he could do this. Jey looked scared, but a different kind from the first time Sami had seen him scared. This was a good scared, a kind that made Jey look ready.

It was an uphill battle for their team from there, flashes of fast motion and fire-hot pain. They were separated, kept down. They got up, got a few hits in.

Sami held his breath as he lay on the mat and watched Cody tug out the bull rope. He exchanged nervous glances with Jey. He watched Seth make a decision, and he finally let out his breath as they took out Finn.

They were up again. They were down again. And when they were really down, Rhea’s music flooded the arena. Sami’s heart threatened to stop. His stomach turned, and he tried to get a clear focus on Seth.

Then another theme started. Sami’s eyes shot to Jey, then to Cody.

Cody had better be right about this.

Sami’s attention was split for the rest of the match. He kept Jey in the corner of his eye at all times, never intruding, but never letting them evade his watch. When it seemed like Jey was in the clear, Sami began scaling the cage with Seth. It was almost done. Almost done.

The RKO was loud. The applause at Cody’s pin was louder.

Sami and Seth patted each other, sharing tired smiles filled with years of pasts that had ceased to exist, or maybe pasts that still existed without them. Sami gestured vaguely to Cody and Jey, shrugged at Seth.

“Hotel bed’s big enough for four,” Sami shouted at him over the crowd.

Seth glared. “Tempting, but no.”

Sami laughed, turned back to the ring. He found Jey grinning unabashedly up at him, and he couldn’t help but start to make the climb down. He needed to be closer to that smile as soon as physically possible.

Jey pulled him into a hug as soon as he could, and he pressed his lips to Sami’s skin. Barely audible, he asked, “After?”

A burning star in the palms of Sami’s hands.

“Yes,” Sami panted, his eyes glossing briefly before he laughed, pulled Jey closer into another hug. “Yes. After.”

[Jey – November 25, 2023]

Sami’s hands had glued themselves to every part of Jey that he could reach in their current position.

Over Jey’s glistening shoulder, Sami leant forward to kiss his collarbone. His beard tickled, and it made Jey giggle. He tensed slightly. Wrong reaction –

Sami’s smile against his shoulder halted his spiral. “My beard?” he breathed over the sweat-sheened skin.

Jey sighed, chuckled. Sami had spoken, finally, and it was all okay. It was still real. They were real. “Heh, yeah, Uce…not really, uhhh…used to facial hair, you know?”

Sami nodded. “Let me know if it bothers you, yeah?”

Jey wanted to shout that nothing in the world would bother him if it included Sami touching him like this, like he always touched Jey. The potential to respond with such a declaration of want was dashed as Sami’s suddenly wet and warm fist wrapped around Jey’s dick. Jey choked on his spit, hand shooting down and gripping tightly to Sami’s forearm. His other arm wrapped around behind them to grip the soft, messy curls at the base of Sami’s neck.

To an outsider, it probably looked as if Jey were entangled in some strange submission hold. And wasn’t he? Both of them on their knees, Jey’s back plastered to Sami’s front, arms ensnared around each other. Jey certainly felt like he was submitting to Sami. Submitting to them.

He let the reality of what was happening wash over him fully for the first time since the end of the match.

They’d stuck pretty close together after leaving the ring in an attempt to avoid the chaos between the tantrum Seth was throwing at Punk, the eyes Cody was throwing at Seth, and the eyes Randy was throwing at Cody. It was easy to skip the post-show celebration knowing the fallout would lead to a no-show all around.

The two remained mostly quiet as they moved through the heavy air filling the empty spaces in the arena. Still, they always knew the other was there. They bumped shoulders walking down the hall. Brushed arms as they crossed the locker room for their bags. Skimmed knuckles as they packed to retreat to the hotel. Every touch sparked in the steadily rising tension to the point it could’ve caused thunder.

Jey had to take measured breaths as Sami’s hand crept up the inside of his thigh the entire drive. He was half-hard by the time Sami jammed the gearstick into park.

All the while, neither spoke. Months later, they both knew how fragile this still was. One wrong breath could knock it over. Best not to shatter it, yet.

The second that the door was locked and bags hit the floor, Sami was on Jey. His hands seemed to multiply, covering as much ground as they could now that they were allowed. Jey could barely keep up, trying to give as good as he could get, stifling embarrassing sounds at each shove of Sami’s thigh higher between his legs. They pressed together impatiently against every surface but the bed. Their clothes were discarded to the wet sounds of their lips. Sami’s thumb dug into the hinge of Jey’s jaw, holding his mouth open so Sami could do filthy things with his tongue.

It had been a blurring shift of bodies to get to the position they were in now.

Jey panted, gripping tightly to Sami as he stroked Jey steadily, learning what made his breath hitch and his knees shake beneath them. Sami’s mouth was trailing along the taught lines of the muscles connecting Jey’s neck to his shoulder, pausing to occasionally pull on the heating skin with his teeth. Jey hoped it left marks to match his tattoos.

He became acutely aware of Sami filling out behind him. The curve of him brushed against the top of Jey’s ass at the base of his spine, and it sent a bolt of heat through him knowing Sami was right there with him, like always.

Sami’s breath caught as he seemed to notice it, too, realizing his own pleasure outside of Jey. He rutted forward slightly, his grip on Jey tightening.

“Shit, s-sorry,” Sami mouthed into Jey’s skin. “Just…fuck, you don’t even know what you do to me.”

Jey’s blood ran molten. He turned his head over his shoulder to press his face to Sami’s. “Show me.”

Sami made a low noise in his throat that rumbled against Jey’s shoulder. Sami’s thumb teased gently at Jey’s slit, and Jey squirmed, jerking in Sami’s unyielding hold at the intrusion as he keened against Sami’s lips.

“Tell me, please,” Sami spoke, his free hand coming to rest dizzyingly at the base of Jey’s throat, “what do you want?”

The answer swam in his vision, a clear and familiar picture behind his eyelids. It had been the reason for many body-wracking orgasms he’d pulled from himself on late nights in hotels over the past year. Even after the Rumble. Especially after the Rumble.

Still, the words wouldn’t come out. Jey couldn’t get the muscles in his mouth to shape out the syllables of I want.

He was distracted by Sami biting down on his neck. “Words, mon cher, just a few words.”

“Sami,” he choked out, frustrated and turned on more than he’d maybe ever been in his life.

“Come on,” Sami whispered. “I think I know, but I need you to tell me. I want to know what you want, Jey, because I’m going to give it to you.”

Jey shuddered, pressed his hips back into Sami. It made Sami falter and breathe out a moan against the bite mark that was surely forming. He rutted forward again, intentional this time, and Jey’s brain finally shoved aside the doubts long enough for him to brokenly plea, “Need you to fuh–uck me, Sami, please –,”

Sami squeezed him, pressed his palm flat and wide across Jey’s sternum. “Of course. Stay here.”

When Sami stepped away to grab lube and a condom, Jey held in an indignant whine at the loss of contact.

The absence was quickly rectified, though, and soon enough, Jey was bent over slightly in front of Sami as he worked two fingers into Jey’s willing body. Jey’s breath caught whenever Sami slid his fingers in to the hilt and spread them.

“Another one,” Sami told him gently.

Jey nodded, humming and sighing as he felt the pressure increase inside of him with the addition.

“Good, doing so good,” Sami whispered.

Jey shuddered on an inhale, and his hips bucked, sending a string of pre flying up onto his stomach. Sami chuckled just slightly, and Jey reached back and smacked his arm halfheartedly. “Shut up,” he panted.

“Never,” Sami promised.

When he was deemed ready, Jey turned around, wrapped his arms around Sami and collapsed on top of him. He momentarily forgot about what they were doing, distracted by the heady feeling of wanting and being wanted by Sami Zayn, and he took advantage of the positions to simply grind and writhe as their slick skin slid together. They panted and whined into each other’s open mouths, grabbing whatever they could and holding it like it was something to be cherished.

Sami slid his hands to Jey’s waist, down to Jey’s ass, then over his thighs. He forcefully spread them, shifting them to a position with Jey straddling Sami’s hips. Their cocks pressed together in a burning slide wetted by an excess of pre that had built and clung to their bodies. They breathed in each other’s resulting gasps, teeth clacking and spit stringing.

“Wanna do it this way?” Sami asked onto Jey’s lips.

Jey nodded weakly. “Yeah. Wanna see you.”

They arranged themselves, setting up pillows and meticulously placing limbs.

Jey got a hand around Sami. He watched the contortions of pleasure on Sami’s face, mapped what motions elicited what reactions. He carefully slipped the condom on, then smeared a handful of lube over top.

Sami looked up at him, blissed out like Jey had never seen him. “Don’t know how long I’m gonna last.”

Jey shook his head. “Me neither. Don’t care. Jus’ need it. Need you.”

As Jey slid down onto Sami, he was immediately and wholly overwhelmed with the fullness he felt. Sami tried to guide him slowly, but Jey chased and chased until he was sat firmly against Sami’s pelvis.

He breathed heavily, learning the feeling of being so utterly fulfilled, satisfied to his bones in ways he didn’t know he needed.

Jey opened his eyes. He drank in the sight of Sami, who looked quite disheveled but entirely enraptured by Jey. He was beautiful. Sami was so damn beautiful.

When he began to move, everything only intensified, which he didn’t think was possible. He began to develop a rhythm, seeking what felt best, what made the sharp noise go shivery static for just that second longer. His nails dug red into the skin of Sami’s chest, snagging chest hairs into tiny tangles.

He realized Sami was saying something to him. Maybe his name, followed by a handful of swears in languages that Jey didn’t understand. His brain homed in on a croaked out, “So pretty, making me feel s-so good, hha–aah, Jey,” and suddenly, he was hit with a familiar axis-tilting feeling.

Jey reached forward, desperately grasping at Sami and tugging him to sit up to meet him. He pulled the man as close as he could get at this angle, their foreheads meeting in the middle as Jey panted wetly into Sami’s mouth. Their skin was tacky, hair sticking together in wild directions. The point of contact was overwhelming in its intimacy.

He swallowed, ground down, hitting just the right spot deep inside of himself. He scrunched his eyes shut, whined loud and broken into Sami’s mouth, and reached up to grip him by the sides of his head.

Sami’s hands came up to Jey’s ass, squeezing before tracing up his hips to the small of his back, guiding Jey’s movement just right.

He was so lost in every place that their bodies met, every small shift that propelled him even further into a euphoric state. He didn’t even realize what was happening until it hit his tongue with a punch of salt.

His eyes flew open, wet clumps clinging to his long lashes. He felt a tear bulge then fall over the ridge of his eyelid. Before he could panic, fall victim to the rapidly tilting axis of his world, Sami held him tight, reached up with one hand to swipe the stream off of his cheek. “It’s okay, you’re okay.”

Jey’s spit-wet lips trembled. “S-Sami, I don’t –,”

“You do,” Sami panted, closing his eyes and pressing their foreheads even harder together, to the point of a pleasantly distracting pain. “Jey, ya rouhi, you deserve it all.”

Jey’s keen turned into a sob, and he started to shake in Sami’s hands.

Sami reached up to place his hands over Jey’s on the sides of his head, then grabbed them and tugged them down to his chest. His heartbeat hammered steadily.

“I’ve got you,” he breathed out. “Always.”

Jey’s breath caught. He swallowed. He nodded against Sami’s skin.

Finally, Jey let himself give in completely.

It was all he could do to simply hold himself up and let Sami drive into him with deep and targeted thrusts. Jey thought he might pass out before he even finished, but Sami leant up, bit his earlobe, tugged on the silver hoop with his teeth, whispered, “My Jey,” and Jey’s orgasm struck him like white-hot lightning, branching shocks spreading through his limbs.

In the throes of it, as he painted Sami’s blotchy red abs with crisscrossing white streaks, he felt his own rapid and unrelenting clenching drag Sami right along with him. They shook against each other and breathed into each other’s mouths in a way that almost felt like they were melding into a single being, changing and becoming something new. Jey found comfort in their metamorphosis.

Jey stared at the shower drain. He watched as the water swirled around itself before falling in.

The warm post-coital haze was slowly abating. Every moment more exposing than the last that Jey recalled washed colder and colder over his body despite the steady stream of hot water spraying from the showerhead. At some point between the bed and the bathroom, the inexplicable pleasure of being seen so completely had transformed into the profound dread of another human seeing the full extent of gnarled scar tissue knotted up under his ribcage.

A hand skimmed up Jey’s arm. He didn’t flinch, but the instinct still laid dormant in his motor neurons.

“Hey,” Sami whispered.

Jey blinked the water out of his eyes. “Hey.”

“Did I…,” Sami started, but his voice warbled at the end, and he sighed.

It sounded nervous, unnecessarily so.

Jey turned around. Sami’s eyes met his. They held a fear that Jey couldn’t ever recall seeing in them before. It was bizarre, and it was wrong for too many reasons, and it was just so –

Jey never wanted to see Sami look at him like that again.

He leant in, kissed him as sweet as he could manage. Sami sighed out a small sound and reached up to hold Jey’s face and neck. Relief radiated off of him and made its way slowly through Jey’s skin. They kissed until their skin pruned.

[Sami – After]

“So…whenever?”

“Mhm.”

“Like…even when the cameras are rolling?”

“Sami, it’s not like we’re doin’ anything nasty. It’s hugs, handshakes, ‘I love you’s, stuff like that.”

“I know, but…whenever I want?”

“Aight, you got me regrettin’ this already.”

Sami smiled. He tugged Jey closer, making the other man protest slightly. He was sat on a box backstage with Jey standing between his spread thighs, hidden (mostly) from anyone’s potential view. Jey fixed him with a glare before giving their surroundings another scan.

“I think it’s too much power to bestow,” Sami said as he tilted his chin up at Jey. “I always want to touch you.”

Jey groaned, reaching up to cover his face with his hands.

It had been a very lovely idea, Sami had to admit. Jey had proposed they let themselves be more physically affectionate at work. They had always been pretty touchy anyway, so it shouldn’t make any difference. Casual brushes were comforting and reassuring and them.

It was extremely tempting, though, to not push it further now that Sami carried the knowledge of what nearly all of Jey felt like.

Sami slid his hands down from where they’d sat on Jey’s exposed waist. He grabbed two handfuls of Jey’s ass, yanked him unceremoniously into his lap.

Jey gasped, nearly choking on his spit, and he shoved Sami gently across his chest, but made no move to leave. “Man, the hell are you doin’?”

“Taking your suggestion,” Sami spoke matter of fact-ly.

“Yeah, I don’t think that’ll fly on live tv,” Jey breathed out as Sami continued groping him. “Damn, watch it! Got a match in 30 minutes, Uce, chill!”

Sami scoffed. “Plenty of time.”

He watched Jey almost consider it, then gently extract himself from Sami’s grasp. “Nah, we’re not risking that. I don’t have any extra gear, and you don’t get to ruin these pants before I have to be on television.”

He straightened his clothes out, shaking his head. He looked good flustered.

Sami stood slowly. He raised his forearm in offering, asked “How’s this, then?”

Jey looked up. He tilted his chin up, slid his sunglasses on, lifted his own arm, and did the handshake that had at some point become theirs. They did make a few small but notable changes. They went on to a full hug rather than a half one at the end. They slid into a soft kiss that they would both deny initiating. Sami landed one last slap on Jey’s ass as he walked out.

(In future aired versions of the handshake, these changes were not included.)