Work Text:
“Pssst…..hey….hey Punk.”
Punk whips his head up in the empty locker room, trying to find where that voice is coming from. He sees Seth standing in the doorway, waving his hand to get his attention.
“Buddy, I have a question.”
Punk hums, shoving his ring gear into his duffel bag, struggling with the zipper while he waits for Seth to continue.
“Would you be interested in, potentially, uh,” Seth hesitates and sighs, probably playing with his hair if the shuffling sound Punk hears is anything to go by. “Having a playdate with someone?”
Punk turns to look at Seth, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, if I were to potentially know someone who also regressed, potentially of course, would you be interested in hanging out with them? Potentially.”
“That's a lot of potentiallys there dude.”
“Please just answer the question, Punk.”
Punk sighs, picking up his bag and walking towards the door. “I mean, it depends. But sure, Seth. I guess.”
Seth smiles and throws both his hands up, putting up two thumbs up. “Great! Ok thank you!” He disappears from the door, practically running away, leaving Punk standing alone, extremely confused. Punk shakes his head, sighing, and leaves the locker room.
-
It's been a few days since that weird interaction in the locker room, and Punk has mostly forgotten about it, shoved it to the back of his brain. He's supposed to be meeting Seth for lunch today, much to Aj's excitement and Drew's disdain, and the other man had been both weirdly excited and nervous. Punk had been in the weird in-between space of not being little, but also not trusting himself enough to drive a car, so he had Aj drop him off at the restaurant, his stuffed bear in a bag holding his phone and wallet that she made him bring. He'd truly be completely lost in this world without her and Drew.
It's some sort of Italian place, and he walks in, bag clutched in hand, scanning the place for Seth. His eyes catch on the long haired man's face, and he brings his hand up to wave at him, before he recognizes the faces next to him. Roman Reigns is standing behind him, permanent bitch face on, holding onto Seth's shoulder with one hand and with the other….Dean Ambrose? Punk puts his hand down, honestly just debating calling his mama and telling her to come back, but he doesn't want to inconvenience her, and that train of thought means he's definitely lost the battle to be big.
Punk sighs, deciding to not wave, and just walks over to where they're standing. They don't notice him at first and he hears the tail end of their conversation.
“-swear he's going to be ok with this?” That's Roman's deep voice, and Seth immediately replies.
“Of course he will be. I just know, ok?”
Dean isn't saying anything, just standing there, rocking back and forth on his feet, fiddling with his hands. He's the first to notice Punk, and his eyes widen as he waves at the older man. Punk waves back, and Dean whips around, tapping Seth's face to get his attention.
“Daddy look.” It's whispered, definitely not meant to be overheard, but Punk can hear it clear as day, and suddenly Seth's random question in the locker room isn't so random anymore. Punk can't comment on it though, as Seth is throwing his arms around Punk, laughing as he does so.
“Hey bud! Glad you could make it, how are you?” He pulls back from the hug and puts his hands on Seth's shoulders, a smile splitting across his face.
“M been good. You?”
Seth can tell just from the word pattern that he's little, and he rushes forward again to hug him. If looks could kill, Punk would be dead though, because Roman is glaring at him. Dean's not looking at him, still fiddling with his hands, leaning his back against Roman's stomach.
“We've been great! I know you've seen some of our matches, Deano here's been kicking ass lately!”
Roman grumbles something Punk can't hear over Seth's excited rambling, but it makes Dean smile, and Punk really really wants to go over there now and just hug him as tightly as he can. Cuteness aggression or whatever it's called. Seth takes his hand and leads him to the table,motioning for the other two men to sit down as well. Punk slides into the booth and puts his bag on his lap, Dean sitting down next to him, Roman and Seth sitting on the seat opposite of them. No one talks for a bit besides Seth, rambling on about whatever it is he's excited about at the moment.
Dean is messing with something hidden under his jacket, and Punk pokes at him, silently asking what he's got. Dean just stares at him for a few seconds before he slowly pulls his hand out of his jacket, holding a stuffed duck. Roman's distracted by something Seth is saying, Seth's hands waving wildly around, so Punk reaches into his own bag, pulling out the bear that Drew had bought him. Dean gasps lightly, reaching out a hand to pet her, only making contact when Punk nods that it's ok.
“Whas their name?” Punk has never found another wrestler adorable, besides Drew, but right now his heart is melting at Dean's voice, and he smiles.
“Her name is honey! My mama helped pick out her name.”
Dean's eyes widen at Punk's words, but he doesn't say anything, just offering to let Punk pet his duck.
“He's named Mr. Quack.”
Unbeknownst to the two currently engrossed in their own little stuffed animal bubble, Seth and Roman have both gone silent, watching the exchange with soft smiles on their faces. Seth curls his arm around Roman's waist, kissing his cheek as he laughs.
“Told ya it would be a good idea babe.”
Roman grumbles, pushing Seth away, but he really doesn't care, snorting while he does so. Dean and Punk are currently trying to build a…fortress looking thing out of the sugar packets, laughing at each other when the packets fall and/or tip over.
“Here punker.” Dean's got the whole container of the sugars in his hand now, going through them to choose the specific color bag while Punk waits patiently next to him, kicking his feet a little bit. Punk uses one hand to grab the sugar packet, using the other hand to wrap around Dean's shoulders. When the food finally gets here, Roman helps them clear the packets up, letting Dean arrange them in the box how he wants to so he doesn't throw a fit. Punk seems to know exactly how Dean wants things, somehow, and is helping him to speed up the process.
Seth has to help Punk cut up his food, but they're fine otherwise, talking randomly about matches recently, with Punk and Dean occasionally going off on their own side conversation when something reminds them of a cartoon or something.
“Ooh Dean wait-” Dean has a bit of his sauce spilt on his shirt, and he looks up at Roman.
“M sorry papa.”
Before Roman and Seth can tell him there's no need to apologize for an accident, Punk is shaking his head, and dipping the edge of his napkin in his water.
“Don apologize, just give me a moment.” Punk sticks his tongue out in concentration and daps at the sauce on Dean's shirt, laughing in success when he gets all of it off. Dean lets out a little cheer and wraps his arms around Punk in a hug. The angle is awkward, both half turned sideways to reach the other, but it's comforting nonetheless.
Dean shoves his face into the crook of Punk's neck, mumbling. “Thank you Punker.”
Punk hums, squeezing Dean closer to him as a response. Roman sighs and turns to Seth, knowing he's never going to hear the end of this. “You were right.”
Seth chokes a bit on his bite of food, eyebrows sky rocketing up in question. “I'm sorry, what?”
“I said you were right, about introducing Dean to your friend. Don't push your luck because I'm not saying it again.”
Seth throws his head back in a laugh, smiling wide. He looks back at the two boys in front of them, currently sharing pieces of their food, and his smile softens. It's nice seeing Dean this relaxed with someone else, his boy deserves to have a friend who truly understands him. Roman bumps his knee with his, rolling his eyes at Seth.
“You're such a sap.”
“Yeah, but you are too.”