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By the time Kevin had beaten the hell out of Gillberg, Sami was certain he’d put everyone on red alert for nothing. Jericho was so happy. Kevin was…not happy, not really, but Kevin was never happy about pomp and circumstance. And $7,000 sculptures and classical paintings and Craigslist magicians were definitely—no, the last one wasn’t pomp or circumstance, but the rest!
It was the video of Kevin talking to Triple H earlier. That was what made Sami run to everyone who was free and shout about how the Festival of Friendship was going to turn bad, how something awful was going to happen, how it was only a feeling but he knew he was right..! Except everything was going fine. Everything was…fine.
Pretty much everyone had ignored his warnings anyway. Some people had joined him in the viewing area he’d had staked out, but only The New Day stuck around. Everyone else who’d even shown up had wandered off to do other things. Things were going soooo great in the festival, after all.
Kevin went back into the ring and Jericho started to talk from the heart. He loved Kevin. He thought of him as a brother. He would have his back. “Always.” Jericho said, so full of affection that Sami felt bile rise up in his throat.
Everyone probably thought he was jealous, seeing disaster when things were clearly going great for Kevin and Jericho.
...Maybe he was jealous.
“I got you a gift.”
When Sami looked back up from his lap, where he was trying to stop twisting his hands together because nothing bad was happening, Kevin had gotten a box from an aide and was handing it over to Jericho. Jericho smiled, deflected Kevin’s bashful talking down of his gift, and opened it.
“A new List!” Jericho smiled. “I’ve been needing a new one,” he said, picking the clipboard out of the box, “my old one’s all—“
The clipboard said The List of KO.
Sami only saw it for a moment, but he saw it. Kevin’s initials taped over the bottom of the list where Jericho’s name usually was. His stomach twisted violently and he hoped, he prayed it was going to be okay, that it was a gesture of friendship, showing interest in the List, that it wa—
“How come my name's on this?”
When the tv feed went to commercial. When Sami could finally tear his eyes away from the brutality in the ring. When the breath came back to his lungs, Xavier had him in a gentle hug and was muttering apologies in his ear. Sami blinked and felt water fall down his cheeks. “Wh—“
Xavier quickly cut in. “Is the hug okay? You were shaking, and I just—”
“The hug’s fine,” Sami said softly. “What happened to Jericho?”
Xavier let go enough to get his phone out of his pocket. He checked it, then said, “Kofi says they got him an ambulance.” Sami nodded a little. “I’m sorry we all thought you were blowing things out of proportion. It really was that bad.”
As bad as it had been for him. Jericho must be feeling….pain. Not sadness yet. Sadness during the attack, yes, but afterwards it was just pain. It was just pain for a long, long time.
He didn’t like Jericho, but he was the only person in the world who really knew now what he’d been through two years ago.
“Can we, “ he coughed, remembering suddenly his barging into the coffee-snow thing the New Day had done the other day and their friendly(?) taunts about him always making things about him. “Would you mind…”
Xavier waited, glancing at the screen when the commercials ended. Sami didn’t watch. He could hear the ambulance sirens.
“Could you…stay here?”
Xavier hugged him a little tighter, then scooted closer to do it more comfortably. “Yeah, of course. Whatever you need.”
What he needed was……
not this.
He didn’t know what, but he knew it wasn’t this.
-------------------------
Sami didn’t see much of the tag team match, as the other two members of the New Day returned around then and had a chat with Xavier. Sami didn’t listen in—he didn’t want to be rude again—but Xavier tugged him from the chairs to the floor and sat behind him to hug him. Kofi and Big E sat on either side of them and did their best to show support and solidarity with him.
“Zayn?”
Sami blinked and looked at Kofi. “Huh?”
Kofi’s brow furrowed. “Did you hear me?”
“No, sorry. What were you saying?”
“I asked if you wanna go out on the town with Sasha and Bayley and us after the show.”
“It’ll be a celebration!” Big E added, “Or consolation. So it’ll either cheer you up or you’ll fit right in!”
“Aaaaand,” Xavier said with a smile in his voice, “Bayley gives way better hugs than me. I’m trying, but she’s the real hugger champ.”
Sami smiled a little. “Obviously. It’s on her shirts.”
“Oh, excuse me! Are you really from the Underground, then? Where underground?”
Sami’s smile stuck around. They bantered until the start of the main event, then grew quiet as they watched Bayley fight her heart out to win the RAW Women’s Championship off of Charlotte.
Which she did.
Sasha helped out with a crutch to the interfering Dana and a sharp jab to Charlotte herself when the ref was busy watching for Bayley to tap, but if Bayley didn’t know, then Bayley didn’t need to know.
“Turnabout’s fair play!” Xavier said, pulling Sami to his feet. “She’s earned it!”
“All’s fair in love and war,” Kofi added. Sami tried to hold back a flinch.
The four of them walked out of the area and down the hallway a good forty feet before Sami stopped. “I left my bag in the locker room!”
Big E turned and nodded. “Meet us at the west exit?”
Sami nodded and ran down the halls in the other direction.
Down the hallways, a wrong turn or two later, a splash of water caught his ear and brought him to a stop. The sound came from one of the other men’s locker rooms. It was followed by a sharp intake of breath and Sami…Sami knew that sound. Carefully, he pushed open the door. Just a crack.
Just enough to see Kevin standing listlessly over a fallen water bottle, hands clenched at his sides. He was facing away from him, and with only the dim light coming in from the hall to see by, it was hard to see much more detail. Sami wondered why Kevin was standing around in the dark, but thanks to the motion sensors in the room noticing the door being opened, that wasn’t a wonder for long. The room was suddenly filled with light.
“Damn it!!” Kevin shouted, whirling around. Sami looked right at him, about to apologize and flee, except that Kevin’s eyes were red and his cheeks were dripping water too neatly to be from an upturned water bottle.
Neither of them said anything. Sami wondered if Kevin ever cried for him.
“Get out.”
He shut the door. He walked a little faster as he got to the other locker room and got his bag. He needed to hurry. Everyone was waiting for him.
Kevin would have had Jericho waiting for him if he hadn’t just sent him to the hospital.
Sami met up with his friends, gave Bayley a hug worthy of a champion, and stepped out into the bright lights ahead.