From the ground, hunched over and on the verge of a panicattack, you find yourself checking the room.

It was a nightmare.

 It was just a nightmare.

Tears well in your eyes, hot and angry, and you clutch yourwrist loosely as you fall against the wall next to you. Rage burns too heavy inyour chest. It weighs you down, stops the oncoming panic attack, and instead ofregulating your breathing like you know you should, you punch the wall withyour bad hand.

It’s a stupid mistake – your gasp of pain echoes in theroom, and a noise of confusion sounds from the bed.

For a moment your heart stops. Then, you remember that youlet Evil stay tonight. That’s a mistake too, you realise, because you don’tknow how to explain any of this to him.

“Y/N?”

“I’m—I’m okay,” you manage to rush out, but it doesn’tmatter how quick you say it; Evil still hears the shake in your voice.

In the pitch black of the room you see him prop up onto hiselbow, face turning in your direction. “Are you on the floor?”

“Yeah,” you murmur back. “I just fell off the bed, gavemyself a bit of a fright. Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you…”

It’s not the first time something like this has happened,but you can count the number of occasions on one hand, and this is the firsttime it’s ever happened with somebody else in the room. Something about yourbrain, something about the way it works or the way it doesn’t work, leaves you perceptibleto sleep paralysis. The entire thing reeks of your vulnerability and you don’tknow how to act now that someone’s been with you while it’s happened.

You crawl back into the bed, ashamed and embarrassed, andEvil curls his arms around your waist and pull you in tight against his chest.

It feels warm. Safe. Something that you haven’t let yourselffeel in such a long time.

Your entire body aches in the morning when you wake. There’sa peaceful moment where the security of Evil’s large presence soothes everyfrazzled nerve in your soul, and you drag a hand down your face when flashes ofit hit you like a punch to the gut.

God, you haven’t had an episode as bad as this one for months.

It lingers against your skin and you let go of a gentle sighbefore you turn to face Evil. Maybe it was a good thing that you let him staythe night…

You press your lips against his muscled shoulder and gaze upat his sleepy face with heated eyes. He’s still fast asleep, snoring softly,and you shift your hips against the side of his body.

“Evil,” you breathe lowly, “baby…”

You grind up into his side again and drag a hand down overhis briefs, softly groping the growing erection. He groans a little and lifts ahand to rub at his face, and then peeks an eye open to stare at you.

“Y/N,” he murmurs, breath still slow and heavy.

“Morning,” you whisper back, lifting onto your elbow to pressa tantalising kiss against his lips.

You push yourself up further to kiss along his stubbled jaw,but his arms snake around your hips and he shifts you on top of him, messy hairtoppling over your shoulders. Light sneaking through a crack in the curtainscatches a few strands, igniting them golden. Evil lifts a hand to tuck thembehind your ear.

“Fuck me,” Evil commands, staring at you with those eyes thatcurl your toes.

You kiss him again, slow and lazy and sensual, biting at histongue and lip until Evil is hard and full against your thigh. Your barebreasts push against the soft skin of his chest, and Evil sighs into your mouthas you roll your hips into him.

Calloused hands move to grip your ribs, rough thumbsbrushing along the curve of your chest as you arch into his touch.

He moans as you bite down on his lip again and then he flipsyou, rushing the breath from your lungs in a quick movement of limbs andexploring hands. Quickly, Evil situates a pillow under your hips, knows thatyou experience a better orgasm with the angled position, and you can feel yourtoes curling in anticipation of what’s to come.

Evil’s mouth presses against yours in an open-mouthed,gasping kiss.

Your bodies move together in a haze of pleasure, your hips rockingup into his brief clad crotch, and Evil is nothing but sin on top of you.

Both of your underwear are gone quickly and with a confidentand leisurely thrust, Evil is buried deep inside you. Your eyes roll back inthe pleasure. Evil hooks an elbow around the bend of your knee and pulls yourleg up, the new position pushing his thrusts deeper into you.

Your voice is trembling with his name, the word coming outover and over again as his hand reaches down to rub your clit, and Evil’s headfalls into the dip of your shoulder as you tangle your fingers in the colourfulstrands of his hair. The stubble along his jaw scratches at your skin, adds a wholenew layer of feeling to comprehend. Your breath is coming out in grunts and youdon’t even think you can last much longer when Evil’s teeth sink into themuscle at your neck.

Your whole body is overtaken with a vocal orgasm, legsquivering, eyes screwed shut and mouth dropped open. Evil takes the opportunityto drive his mouth down into yours, kisses you through the blinding climax andsteals your breath.

It’s not her fault when Kenny Omega walks through that door,boasting a new title and an even bigger grin. It grinds her gears more than shecares to admit. Sure, he deserves it, and sure, she guesses that he’s overcomethe odds, reunited with his lover (or whatever they are), and put gold in theBullet Club split. Sure, he’s a good person, and a great friend to some. But toTess? He’s a fucking douchebag.

His eyes glint in a certain way when he sees her, and hemoves through all his friends before stopping in front of her. He glances atTess, then at his title, and then back at her. “Guess your brother can’tsteal this, can he?”

Tess’s nostrils flare. “Nice joke, should use it onsomeone who’ll laugh.”

But she keeps her promise to her brother and stays out oftrouble. She shuffles out of the New Japan gathering, smiling at the man who’sbrought her along as a plus-one, and walks through the corridors of an emptyarena. She’s only in Japan for a couple more weeks– she’s finishing a long anddrawn out Graduate program by completing an elective of Japanese, and jumped atthe opportunity to study abroad.

Her brother, being her brother, wasted no time inintroducing her to a bunch of his wrestling friends, and then let the resthappen organically. It was only fitting that one of her closest friends inJapan became Kenny Omega, someone who could help coach her through the languageas well as the culture.

They were good as gold until… well, they weren’t.

Tess is lost in thinking about how it all went wrong untilshe catches sight of a someone else in this hallway. Her eyebrow raises whenshe realises who it is.

It’s ironic, she thinks, that they’re both here, having beendone wrong by the one man who is being celebrated without them. Of coursethat’s a little dramatic, and Tess realises as such, but she doesn’tparticularly care to correct her train of thought.

She stops a couple of steps away from him and leans againstthe wall, waiting until his attention is on her; there’s no way he couldn’thave heard her coming. “You look lonely.”

He stares at her for a moment longer before dropping hisgaze back to the floor.

Kazuchika Okada is a shell of the enigma he was yesterday.Tess understands every part of it, even if she’s never talked to the man.“Must be nice not having to force a smile though. You can just sit outhere and grieve in silence.”

Tess doesn’t expect him to reply, and so she continues totalk even when her eyes gaze the length of the corridor. “It’s funny howthings work out. He always knows how to ruin good things, even though he’s gotgood intentions. Can’t blame him for wanting more.”

“You speak good Japanese,” Kazuchika finally says,cutting her off mid-thought. “But if Kenny doesn’t want you, why wouldI?”

It should hurt more, Tess thinks, but she’s already sobitter about everything else that it doesn’t. She levels the former championwith a glare. “Bold of you to assume I’m offering.”

His smirk is humourless. “I wouldn’t ask.”

He’s attractive; cheekbones carved effortlessly into hisface, strong jaw, strong eyes. Wide smile. His blonde hair is pushed back offhis face, but she can imagine the sex appeal when it’s hanging across hisforehead. She knows if she runs her hand across the back of his head, thatstubbly sensation of freshly cut hair will have her transfixed for hours, andshe doesn’t need to know him to know he’d like it. He’s tall, too, imposing andpowerful, even if he tries to pull off that dorky front.

There’s no dorky front here.

Kazuchika meets her gaze head on, eyes unwavering, and there’sno mistaking how heavy the tension that settles between them really is.

“You wouldn’t ask?” Tess finally says.

“I don’t want your company,” Kazuchika replies, standing toall his height, “but your body, on the other hand… I’m not as foolish as Omega,Tess-chan.”

Kazuchika closes the gap between them so quickly that she reactspurely on instinct—her hands plant firmly in the centre of his chest and stophim just short of her body, and she’s mostly surprised with her reaction whenKazu surprises her even more. He grabs her hands and drags them up to hismouth, runs her knuckles across his full lips, and Tess is absolutely captivatedby the walking contradiction Kazuchika Okada is.

“I don’t need to ask.”

His voice is low, deep from the back of his throat, and thenhe drops her hands and presses his fingers into her neck, thumbs tilting herjaw up, and very gently kisses her. Tess returns it just as softly. When her hoodedeyes focus on his, and when she sees how blown his pupils are, how flushed hischeeks are, her toes curl.

The second time he kisses her, Kazuchika surprises her oncemore.

He’s hungry and dominant and overpowering, pushing histongue past her lips and her body against the closest wall. The taste of redwine is intoxicating and making her head spin, and his hands are so large theyalmost span the entirety of her ribcage. He holds her tightly and Tess feels a different kind of small then—fragile and vulnerable and at the mercy ofsomeone who doesn’t care for her.

Tess tries to pull back, but the new angle has Kazuchika chasingher and pushing her into the wall even further.

Something about his moves is desperate. Tess knows thatclaiming her in a way Omega hasn’t will mean that he’ll have something Kennynever will. But something else lays just beneath the surface—Kazuchika isseeping with need and longing and it’s almost as if he needs to prove himself.To himself, to her. To Kenny.

Again, Tess tries to push against his chest to just talk to him, but Kazuchika locks hismouth on her neck and she’s as good as gone.

It’s like her eyes roll back into her head and her body goesslack. Kazu’s arms snake around her body, one hand tight around her waist and theother twisting in her hair and pulling, giving him even more access than he alreadyhad.

Tess grips at his shoulders tightly, whining softly in hisear. His teeth are pulling at her skin but just as quickly being replaced by histongue, and he’s doing it over and over again and, in the process, bending hercompletely to his will.

Tess gazes up at the roof through half-lidded eyes and seessomething shift out the corner of her eye.

Kazuchika doesn’t stop—he pushes his hips against hers andthen lifts her leg around his waist, but Tess is too busy staring down the hallwayto grind back.

Kenny, with the championship around his shoulder, has slowedto a stop. He’s staring at them, face unreadable, and in a split decision, Tessmakes a choice that seals their fate.

She flings both arms around Kazuchika’s neck and tangles herfingers through the waxed hair on top of his head. The length of her body curlsup into him, lips pressing against his in an open-mouthed kiss, and it isn’tsensual in the slightest, but full of anger and burning desire and a desperationthey both seem to share.

Kazuchika is desperate in his search for being better than goodenough. Tess is desperate for Kenny to see this. She wants him to see her, like this, finding release througha man that isn’t him. Tess is desperate for release of his hold on her. Kazuchikais willing to give that to her.

You glance over your shoulder at a man’s retreating figure,squinting through a haze of drunken coherence, and try to figure out whether it’sa phone in his hand or just the light reflecting weirdly. You pretend that you’reone hundred percent in control of your inhibitions, but it’s so far from the truththat you can’t help the smirk spreading across your mouth.

The good news is that you won’t die from alcohol poisoning.The bad news is that the person behind this door just might kill you.

It’s a gamble to assume you’re even at the right door; thenumber’s a bit blurry, and you’re relying on a memory that’s already shot withalcohol from when it all happened… but the alcohol’s gotten you this far, sowhy doubt yourself now?

You’d like to be able to call yourself a functioningalcoholic because you drink on days ending with ‘y’ exclusively and you haven’tdied just yet, but you don’t know howyou’ve made it this far without completely checking out. What you do for money…it doesn’t want you to live happy, it follows you home. Rips apart your house. Youdon’t have any family here, thankfully, because if you did, they’d disown you.

Maybe that’s why you’re at this door.

Because he was the only one that accepted you the way youwere. Because he was the only one that cared, even if he did fuck it up. Evenif you did fuck it up even more after that.

You squint at the door for a long moment before taking adeep breath and knocking.

Then, you wait. Longer than you want to, really, and youfind yourself leaning on the frame just as the deadbolt clicks back. Almostfalling into the man pulling the door open, you press your centre of gravity inthe other direction and stumble back a little, hiccup over a nervous chuckle asyou meet humourless eyes.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

You sober almost instantly. There’s a moment when you guessyou should feel vulnerable under the eyes glaring at you, but you know this mantoo well and too intimately to be afraid of him. That’s your first mistake. “Iknow… I know I’m literally the last person that you want to see, but… I need…help.”

The man’s face remains deadpan. “Whatever it is you’relooking for, you’re not going to find it here. I’m not going to comfort you. I’mnot going to let you cry on my shoulder.”

“Please, just… let me in.” You stare at Taka, who refuses tobe addressed by his actual name, and almost call him that before correctingyourself. “Evil, please. The world has been cruel to me today.”

“You don’t know cruel,” Evil spits. His eyes are angry andthere are warning sirens sounding in your head, but you’re to inebriated toregister anything. “You don’t know anything about pain. Y/N, tell me, aftersleeping with my brother, what did you think would happen if I ever saw yourface again?”

A lump forms in the back of your throat. “Taka…”

He blanches, and a hot red flush starts to crawl up hisneck. “Don’t fucking call me that. You want cruel? I can be cruel if I have to… I’ll show you, even. That’s why youcame here drunk, yes? Because you want closure. Because you know you fucked up,and you need to know that at least one person still wants to fuck you.”

Evil’s words hit you in the chest like a gunshot, pushingyou back a couple of steps in shock and ripping through your heart with no remorse.

For a moment, regret flickers in Evil’s eyes. It’s just as quicklyreplaced by stone-cold resolve. He means every word he’s just said, and you can’tblame him for any of it. You don’t think you even have the right to feel upset,because he’s right. You fucked up. Badly fucked up, and slept with fucking Seiya, of all people.

You take a deep breath and meet his eyes through blurredvision. “I fucked up. And you don’t have to let me back in, ever, but I got kickedout of my apartment because I didn’t pay rent on time and I have no where else to go.”

“You could have goneto Sanada.”

The words bite into your skin. “Maybe I should have,” youmurmur back. “But I thought maybe… I don’t know. I didn’t want to go to Sanada.I wanted to come here. It’s habit, and I’m sorry, so I’ll… I’ll go.”

You’re halfway down the hallway before Evil calls out toyou. “Y/N… you can sleep on the couch.”