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Despite what everybody around him claimed to know, there had been absolutely nothing easy about leaving the Bloodline.
Not with how much brotherly love and genuine friendship he’d felt towards Solo and Jimmy.
Not with how much he used to in equal measure look up to, respect and fear Roman.
Not with how fond he’d grown of Paul and his smarmy weaseling ways and his at times invaluable advice.
And especially not with how tits over ass in love he’d found himself with Jey.
He genuinely had no intention of ever leaving the Bloodline behind the way he did, despite seeing the writing on the wall for a while, until he swung that chair at Roman’s back. But once he did, he couldn’t find it in himself to regret it.
Not even when it meant destroying what he’d built for himself for months and months.
Not when it meant turning on his found family.
Most of that had been an illusion anyway if the recent weeks had been any indication.
In that moment - the one that changed the trajectory of his life in ways he still couldn’t fully wrap his head around - he simply couldn’t bear the thought of spending even one more minute stuck under Roman’s thumb, playing his cruel games, letting himself be used like a puppet on strings.
So despite how it all went down, he had no regrets when it came to himself.
The way he’d betrayed Jey though? The way he’d left him behind? That part was still eating him alive.
He’d had an inkling about where their relationship was headed before all of this happened, his feelings for Jey growing stronger by the minute and Jey not shy about his own feelings towards him either. Not that they’d ever really said it out loud. But Sami thought it had been heavily implied at least. He could be wrong though.
And that’s just the thing - where others would’ve long since given up and moved on, writing it off as a failed relationship, an ‘it simply wasn’t meant to be’, he wasn’t gonna let Jey go this easily. Romantic or platonic love, chance or no chance, he’d seen the betrayal and the hurt in Jey’s eyes at the Rumble and he couldn’t ever let him down like that again. Not when there was still hope.
Jey had refused to attack him alongside his brothers. He’d left. Disappeared. Gone radio silent on his entire family, hell even his own twin, for weeks. One didn’t have to be a genius to know what that meant.
The night Jey chose his family over him, honestly, it shouldn’t have been a surprise. Roman had threatened Jimmy, after all. And there was nobody in this world Jey would ever love as much as his twin.
So really, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to him that after a fierce hug - one that still played on a constant loop in his head - Jey had given him a proper ass whooping.
And yet here he was, still completely thrown off his game by Jey’s obvious choice. A choice that should have been a clean cut if there ever was one.
Except it wasn’t.
Yes, his heart was aching at the mere sight of the Uso, but the familiar longing and the insistent pull were still there.
Call him foolish or delusional, but he had no intention of giving up on Jey anytime soon.
And so he kept seeking him out every single week, stubbornly trying to drill the words into Jey’s head, trying to get him to understand, trying to help him break free.
And every single week he kept watching in silent fury when his words seemed to have the exact opposite effect.
Instead of breaking free, Jey threw himself deeper into the arms of his family, willingly submitting to Roman’s mind games, his now borderline obsessive obedience to his cousin stronger than ever before.
Sami was pissed off at the situation as a whole. He was just about done with Roman. The urge to add a sequel to the chair incident at the Rumble was truly overwhelming.
But even more than that, more than anything else, he was furious with himself and the fact that he couldn’t seem to do anything right anymore when it came to Jey. It honestly felt like he just kept making things worse.
The fact that they were now pitted against each other for WrestleMania sure didn’t help.
As time went by their promos kept growing more and more hostile and antagonistic, heated and emotional in a way he could’ve never anticipated, and more often than not they ended with fists flying everywhere.
Still, violence and hostility be damned, week after week he kept approaching Jey the second he was alone - much to his own tag partner and best friend’s bewilderment and annoyance - cause he still had hope.
They’d had a genuine connection before and something like that didn’t just go away, did it? It still had to be there for Jey as much as it was for him.
He believed in Jey. He always would. And he’d be damned if he ever gave up on him.