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It was only slightly entirely exhausting. A new arena every few days. A new arena where he had to find some good places to pray in. Now, they did hit the same arenas over time. Still frustrating and they did renovate after all.
It had taken a lot more effort to explain dietary requirements to the catering staff. And lack of food was even harder to explain to them. “No no. I need to eat before dawn and after dusk. I know, I know, it’s weird. But I really need it set up that way. Yes, I know it’s not set up for predawn, I’ll just...take some from after dusk with me and keep it in the hotel room for that. I know it can’t be hot that way, that’s fine, I’ve survived that before.”
The catering staff at this point was very understanding and accommodating. He prayed with some of them occasionally now as well, even.
His coworkers on the other hand…
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“Saaaaami! Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaami Zaaaaaaaaaaaayn!” Kevin Owens bounced into the room where Sami was, shaking the floor as he did so.
“Listen, Kevin, I’m kind of busy .” Where was his rug? What happened to it? It was right there and now it wasn’t?? Even the travel one wasn’t there? How??? Where did they go? He was going to murder whoever took them damn them all.
“I know , but I found some stuff that I feel like might be yours??” He looked down at the bundle in his arms. He wasn’t sure what they were beyond ‘more important than the rugs that they looked like’ but they seemed important to Sami, and therefore, they were important.
Sami whipped around and stared at Kevin. “My prayer rugs! Where were they??”
“They got put away with the stagehands stuff? I don’t know why?” He thought Sami only needed one. Were these backup ones? Was them being lost common? Were they ...not lost? Had someone taken them from Sami??
Sami chewed on his lips for a moment. “Ah hm. Thank you for finding them?” He had no idea if they had been...mistreated...or not. He knew Kevin wouldn’t have, but not if the people who took them would have.
“I think they’re okay. They put them in the lost and found box?”
“Okay, okay. Thanks for finding them.” He sighed and took the rugs from Kevin. Which of these are least likely to be damaged? Ugh, just shake open the big one then and deal with all of them later. There was nothing written on it this time and it did not smell porky as far as he could tell. He was very used to what that smelled like at this point.
“Erm, Sami?” Kevin shuffled his feet looking at Sami awkwardly.
“ What , Kevin.” It looked fine. They all looked fine. Maybe someone took them and hid them from someone else who had ill intentions. That could be it. That had happened occasionally as well. Not often.
“Do I need to leave?”
“I.do not.care. I waited too long to pray. Just. I am not going to respond to you.”
“Okay.” With that, Kevin wandered over to one of the chairs in the room and flopped down, pulling out his cellphone.
“It’s going to take a bit, Kevin.”
“Evening prayer. It says it’s….four...Raaaahkaaaat? Or Isha’a?”
“Rakat is the sets in the prayer. Isha’a is the name of the evening prayer. More later.”
“Right, sorry.” Kevin went back to scrolling on his phone as Sami set up to do his prayers.
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“Okay. Any other questions?”
“Yea. I thought you’d say things?”
“I mean. Normally. But that’s awkward.”
“Because I’m here?”
“...Yes. Because there’s someone here that’s not praying with me ...though at least you’re not noisily eating pork.”
“People do that?”
“Assholes do that. It was a thing that other wrestlers do occasionally. Particularly when the only place to pray is the locker room.”
“....I see. ” With one swift movement Owens was on his feet and heading towards the door.
“Kevin. Don’t do anything stupid.”
“I’m not the one who has done something asinine here, Sami.” Shaking his head, Kevin left the room, shutting the door firmly behind him.
“....Well that can’t be good.”
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It had taken him a bit of effort on the internet, but he had finally found an an an Halal? Catering place. He knew the caterers for the shows were, but it wasn’t fair to ask this of them and besides he was bunking with Sami anyways, it made more sense for him to this for him.
“Thank you. This helps a lot.” He gathered up the bags and boxes of food that they assured him would be good for Sami for eating for breakfast before sunrise. It was late now, he knew Sami went to bed as soon after evening prayers as he could. When he got back he should be asleep, so that would work quite nicely for him.
“Inshallah, you’re welcome.”
-----
Something...was odd. His alarm went off to wake him up for food.
Something was definitely odd.
Oh?
Oh!
Someone had made breakfast!
OH
“Kevin? Why are you awake? Did you make food?”
“I didn’t make it, I got it from this...Halal? Catering place. I thought you might want food that would reheat well in the hotel.”
“Thank you!” Hot food! Halal hot food! It was great. “Thank you so much, this is great.”
Kevin watched as Sami inhaled the food until he looked like he was slowing down slightly. “Sami, what does Inshallah mean?”
“It just means ‘God willing’ basically. You can use it for almost anything. Why?”
“The lady at the catering place said it to me when I picked up the order.”
“Yea, it’s just an almost generic response. You thanked her, I suppose?”
“Yup and that’s what she said in response. Well that followed ‘you’re welcome’.”
“Shukran. Thank you. In case you wanted to know.”
“Shukran? Thank you!”
Sami grinned at Kevin as Kevin kept saying it quietly to himself as Sami prepared to pray Fajr.