Chapter Text
Liv couldn't remember the last time she was excited to be in an airport.
There were always crowds of people milling around with their Cinnabons and Starbucks while she sprinted to her gate inevitably 15 minutes behind schedule. Passengers acted like there was a prize for being first on or, worse, off the plane instead of orderly lines by row. Somehow the temperature was set to “tropical” or “tundra”, never any reasonable middle ground.
But today, parking the Jeep at the departures terminal, at what might as well be the crack of dawn, felt like Christmas morning. And it was owing entirely to the man insisting on carrying all three of their bags.
“I am working out regularly, Dominik. And I do still have one good arm,” she reminded him, “I can manage a carry-on.”
“Not a chance,” he'd shaken his head. “We're so close to getting you back on the road for real, I'm not risking anything.”
And he wasn't. In line to purchase some post-security snacks, a distracted older man bumped into her, and for a moment a look of sheer rage washed across Dom's face. She had never seen anyone so ready to assault a senior citizen before. After that, he stood at her right side, and slightly behind her, as a barrier between her and the world around them.
She would have been annoyed at the way he was hovering, normally. She might have even lit into him for acting like she was helpless after all the progress she'd made.
But today she was happy to just be there with him.
She was thrilled to have both of their boarding passes on her phone. She reveled in him being so close she could smell his shampoo, rather than giving him a rushed kiss goodbye. She watched him appraisingly as he stowed all their bags and sat beside her.
“Hi,” she grinned at him, as he draped his arm around her.
He chuckled and kissed her hair. “You've been looking at me all dreamy like that all morning,” he pointed out. “What did I do to deserve it?”
“I hate to break it to you, but you didn't do anything in particular.” She shrugged. “I'm just in a very good mood. Aren't you?”
“Are you kidding? A trip to the best coast, with my guerita, some hats and swag, and some real food? I'm in heaven.”
Liv shook her head at the insinuation that In and Out was real food, but bit back the urge to tease him and settled in against his shoulder.
There was a part of her that had settled in to life on the farm without the interruptions of work and travel. The routine of caring for the animals brought a very specific peace that was completely contrary to the chaos of her professional life. She'd grown fond of cooking for them, leisurely mornings, drinking her coffee hot, out of real ceramic mugs. Things that are taken for granted, but which simply aren't part of a life on the road. And she and Dominik had both decided long ago that they preferred animals to most people.
She'd started to wonder if she wanted to hurry back to being WWE Superstar Liv Morgan, or if she was happier just being… Liv. Dominik’s guerita. Feeder of chickens, petter of cows, mama to dogs. Maybe mama to someone else someday.
She had wondered.
But in this moment, she was excited to be preparing for takeoff, tucked protectively in at the side of her partner, on their way to do some work for one of his endorsements. Shed been surprised when they'd asked her to join him. Lids was Dominik’s partnership. But the designer knew her background as a child obsessed with wrestling. He'd been the one to suggest she jump in on the revamped attitude era drop timed for Survivor Series. Did she think she'd be back in action by then?
At least back to work, she had decided. Missing SummerSlam in her hometown had almost driven her crazy. Over her dead body would she miss another PLE in a place special to her or Dom.
So they planned a day trip west together. Dominik had agreed to some time with Peter Rosenberg that morning, and Liv asked to tag along.
“This is the best surprise!” Peter laughed when she sashayed into the recording room. She just grinned, and held her index finger over her lips, gesturing to ‘shush’.
“I'm going to drop some little Easter eggs to rile everyone up.” She said with mischief glittering in her eyes.
And then it on the the photo shoot. Christian met them with a warm and energetic greeting. There was a ton of new Lids merch he was excited to go over with Dom, but Liv was drawn to the new John Geiger collab. She started rifling through the hats and TShirts, admiring each one, setting some to the side for herself, and draping some over her shoulder to show Dominik.
It was like he could feel her thinking of him, when he slunk over to her. He pressed a quick kiss to her temple. She smiled and started showing him the pieces she picked. He pulled into a Stone Cold shirt, after hearing her talk about the older man all afternoon.
“Yes, definitely!” She agreed, thoughtfully plucking another from the pile over her arm, and draping over his head. They cut up with laughter and bright, genuine, toothy smiles, and for a moment they were the only two people in the room, maybe the world.
Christian nudged him amicably with an elbow when they were aside for a moment.
“You better lock her down, Dom.” The stocky man teased. “She's a keeper.”
“You don't need to tell me,” Dominik smiled softly, not taking his eyes off the bubbly blonde. There was joy all over her face, looking at the new designs, talking with John, and occasionally throwing a flirty glance over her shoulder at him. He beamed at her. “She's a blessing.”
Liv was effervescent. There was nothing in the world she loved more than Dominik. But Dominik being here, while she gushed over the merch ideas, and reminisced about wrestling from the perspective of a young fan, had made it a really special day. It being a day back to ‘work’ felt even better.
It had taken more out of her than she had expected, but she didn't quite mind. Their peaceful little life was waiting for them. For now, they had a balance of chaos and calm that seemed to be just right.
“Hey, do you think you can do me a favor?” Dom asked quietly.
“Sure, man, what do you need?” Christian asked.
“Just, give John my number after we leave… ask him to text me.” Dom shrugged. “I have a… design idea he might be able to help with.”
“Nice, a new collab?”
He chuckled. “Something like that,” he replied.
A couple hours later, Liv was knocked out leaning against his side on the flight home when his phone buzzed against his thigh. He checked to make sure she hadn't awakened before he unlocked his screen and opened the new text message.
JG: “Hey, Dom, it's John, what's up? Christian said you had an idea?”
DM: “Yeah, sort of. I'm not sure if it's anything you'd be interested in, it's more of a personal project.”
JG: “I mean, I'll help if I can. What are you looking at?”
DM:“I want to revisit an old logo, update it a little. You ever see the Mysterios logos when I was in a tag team with Rey?”
He thought on how to describe it, but the words failed him, as he so often felt they did when he had something specific to say. Maybe it was the years of not getting a say at all.
Instead, he opened his photos and thumbed to his favorites. He scrolled quickly to the oldest. There, among about 100 photos of watches, cars, luxuries that were novel to him at the time, was a photo of something else that had felt so new, special and thrilling.
From a backstage segment, a screenshot picture of a younger Liv, with bright blue eye makeup and rhinestone ‘tears’ dripping down her grinning cheeks. Wearing a white ‘The Mysterios’ hoodie.
JG: “Wow, nice throwback.”
JG: “Not the clearest shot of the logo 😉 but I can find it”
DM: “What can I say, it wasn't exactly the whole reason I saved the picture.”
JG: “Right, the whole reason.”
It had been part of the reason, at least. He had felt utterly ridiculous when he'd given her a piece of WWE merch as a gift. And his merch of all things. It had felt so conceited and presumptuous, at a time when he was anything but.
But she'd seemed over the moon when he gave it to her. And then a few weeks later, his heart had nearly stopped when there she was on TV, wearing it. Wearing his merch. Wearing the present he had given her. And he thought his life might never get better than it felt in that moment.
So yeah, he'd saved the picture. But not for a logo.
DM: “I'd like it updated a little, for me and Liv to use in mixed tag matches, but still recognizable. Maybe use my new font, add her XOXO somewhere… I'm not sure. Design isn't my thing, but that's why I asked for you. After today, I definitely trust your eyes.”
JG: “Yeah, I got you, that'll be fire. What do you want it to say, what are you calling yourselves as the team?”
Dominik grinned at his phone in spite of himself. On a commercial plane, with a plastic cup of Sprite, someone in coach hacking a horrific smokers cough, and a tiny blonde beauty sleeping peacefully on his shoulder, he blushed and smiled while he typed, feeling like the naive lovestruck kid who first gave Liv a sweatshirt years ago.
DM: “If I'm lucky,” he typed “when it's ready to debut, The Mysterios is still going to be just right.”