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The Royal Rumble had always been one of the most exciting events of the year in WWE, thirty people fighting each other for a spot at Wrestlemania. Charlotte Flair was the 2025 winner, something she’d desperately needed after her injury but it ended up being probably one of the worst outcomes ever, the year that should’ve been hers was given to someone whose career was built on a pretty face and a kinda catchy theme song.
But after Mania something happened, someone wanted to work with her and she had her doubts, obviously, coming from a pretty harsh past and toxic partnership, she couldn’t fully trust any more people; Alexa, on the other hand, had worked so hard to get the Queen to open up, resorting to rage baiting her in order to get her walls down.
And it worked.
And now, for the first time ever, Charlotte Flair entered the Royal Rumble with a friend on her side, someone she’d started to trust without any doubts, without fears, without worrying about being betrayed and left alone. For weeks Charlotte had pondered on whether she would’ve been the one to betray Alexa or the other way around, but it simply didn’t happen, things ran smoothly and there wasn’t anyone else Charlotte would’ve wanted by her side.
But it’s pretty well known that good things don’t last, Charlotte always knew that but she tried so hard to enjoy every moment because after months, the end might’ve been around the corner.
And that corner was probably going to be the Royal Rumble.
She tried to protect Lexi at all costs, she shielded her from anyone else to help her win, to get her to Mania because for Charlotte, now, her relationship with Lexi mattered more than a match at the biggest event of the year. Lexi had simply become the only person to make Charlotte Flair take a step back and leave the spotlight to someone else, Lexi had become her person.
Yet, good things don’t last.
Charlotte knew that, but this time she had convinced herself that they might’ve lasted. It was so good it had to.
She tried her best to pull her away, to bring her back inside the ring but it was too late, Nia dragged her down and she couldn’t stop her, she couldn’t save the only person that she’d ever try to save. She stood there, dropping then on her knees while looking at Lexi who was now on the floor; heartbroken didn’t even begin to cover how she was feeling, she just let Lexi down, she let herself down and she knew she just lost the only person who brought nothing but happiness to her.
She kept going, she pushed herself to her limits and, though she’d never admit that, it was a way to punish herself for what she’d done; was it healthy? Absolutely not. But nothing in her life had been, so why stop now? She didn’t want to win anymore, to dedicate that win to Lexi, she just wanted to unload her disappointment onto anyone that crossed her path in that ring. And she did, until Lash eliminated her.
She went back to the locker room, hoping Alexa wouldn’t be there because she couldn’t face her, not in that moment, not when she was so overwhelmed that she lashed out to some security guard on her way back, and immediately apologized because that wasn’t her, she wouldn’t normally do that; but confronting Lexi, seeing the look on her face and possibly losing her, would’ve broken her once and for all. She ignored everyone, she ignored Kiana asking her if she was okay, she ignored Bayley who waved at her while waiting for her own entrance, but thank god Lexi was nowhere to be seen and she managed to get out of there without being stopped by anyone.
Never in her life had she imagined to be so disappointed in herself for eliminating someone at the Royal Rumble, hell she took out at least four or five people the year before and now she couldn’t get her mind to stop overthinking, every time she closed her eyes she’d see Lexi’s face, those eyes almost burning holes in hers, not in anger, but in disbelief.
Since there were so many people, they got two charter flights and thankfully she wasn’t on the same one as Lexi; so the plan was to go back the hotel, lay in bed because she knew she wouldn’t sleep, and wait for that flight, easy.
Not so much.
She spent at least forty minutes in the shower, not knowing that she wouldn’t feel better, she’d had to literally scrub her brain to clean her mind, to maybe stop thinking about what she’d done to Lexi. She got into bed, blankets over her head but she couldn’t cry at first, she felt so numb she didn’t even notice all those texts from Lexi and from Kiana, even though her phone was right there on the night stand. She had never thought it was possible to feel this bad over something like this, to care so much about a person that she felt mentally and physically shattered for having ruined an opportunity like that for her, Lexi was the only one who had managed to make her feel good and fully enjoy everything, and she had just ruined it.
At six in the morning all of her belongings were in the suitcases headed to the airport with her, hoping once again to not bump into Lexi, since her flight would’ve left less than two hours later and she might’ve been there already.
Tears only came out as soon as the plane left the ground, not fully sobbing yet, thinking about what happened, about leaving Lexi behind and it wrecked her, but it was necessary; she ruined it, the thing she’d hoped would never happen to them happened, because she knew herself and it was simply foolish to think she’d changed. Nope, Charlotte Flair was still the one that betrayed her partners, the one that put herself and a title first, and the Rumble just brought everything back to the surface. Charlotte Flair couldn’t exist without hurting others, she should’ve known that but for once in her life she thought that wasn’t the case, that Lexi was the exception because she brought down every wall brick by brick, day by day for months and Charlotte was happy to let her do that.
Lexi wasn’t any exception though.
Their relationship was just a ticking bomb waiting to go off.
She got home at four in the morning, once again ignoring Lexi’s texts and calls that popped up when she got off the plane, but she couldn’t find any strength in her to reply, to talk to her and see if Lexi was mad at her or not. Charlotte literally ignored everyone except her father, who kept checking on her but he didn’t fully get what was happening, after all he was just an older guy and while he knew how the wrestling world worked, he didn’t know that his daughter saw Alexa as more than just a partner, more than just a friend.
By Wednesday Lexi stopped texting her and of course Charlotte took it as confirmation that the woman hated her, but who could’ve actually blamed her? She’d promised her she would’ve helped her, but then Charlotte eliminated her so what was even the point of reaching out to her?
And as Charlotte spent all of her time in bed sobbing when she wasn’t sleeping, Lexi on the other hand spent days trying to find out what happened to her; she reached out to everyone, she lost track of her as soon as she was eliminated but she wasn’t mad, she didn’t actually think that she could win, what mattered to her was having fun with Charlotte. Winning would’ve been cool, but as long as she had Charlotte by her side, she knew she would’ve had a great time. Well, she was a bit mad, but just because Charlotte vanished.
On Thursday morning, Charlotte woke up with a loud bang outside her door and at first she thought she was just dreaming, but the second one startled her and she almost jumped out of bed; but when she heard that voice she completely froze, now wishing she could just dig a hole in the ground and run really, really far away from there.
“Charlotte I know you’re in there! Open the door!” Lexi was still banging her fist on the door, but unfortunately she didn’t have the same strength as Charlotte to try and kick it down. Well, she might’ve with all that rage running through her body. “Charlotte!”
Charlotte was seriously thinking about escaping from the back, being seen like that in public now wasn’t as bad as confronting Lexi, especially after hearing that tone. And she actually tried, but as she was reaching for the knob the back door opened and now Lexi was standing in front of her; and that was actually proof that the woman really knew her, she knew Charlotte always forgot to lock that door and the other woman now wished it was someone trying to break into her house, not Lexi.
“Not so fast.” Alexa closed the door and looked at her, noticing her puffy eyes, her nose a bit red probably from crying too much. “Why did you do that?”
A knife would’ve literally hurt less.
Charlotte stood there and opened her mouth, but nothing came out before she ran back to her bedroom and hid under the sheets.
“Charlotte you can’t run away forever!” Alexa marched in there and moved the blankets, just to see tears running down Charlotte’s cheeks as she questioned herself, and if it was all her fault. “Charlotte, please let me in… What happened? Did I do something wrong?”
“No.”
What kind of question was that? Of course she didn’t, Lexi couldn’t do anything wrong in Charlotte’s eyes; some might’ve said it was because Charlotte was in love, but she would’ve shut down those comments in a fraction of a second.
“Then what happened Charlie? Why are you crying?” Lexi’s voice was now softer, as if she was scared of speaking too loud and hurt her even more. “You can always talk to me, you know that…” silence, that’s what she got in return and she didn’t know why. Of course she started to worry, it was Charlotte after all and never in all those months she saw her like that. “I just want to understand why you disappeared.”
“Because I lost you!” Charlotte literally yelled, full on sobbing as her heart broke again when those words came out of her mouth. She thought about that a lot, but saying it out loud was different, it hurt way more than she imagined, especially because Lexi was in front of her.
“You what? What are you talking about?” Alexa furrowed her brow more confused than a few moments before. Charlotte was the one who disappeared, why would she say that? “Can you take a deep breath for me? You need to breathe.”
Lexi’s hand through her hair worked like magic, not because she thought everything was fine, but touching was literally their partnership/friendship/love language.
“I lost you.” the sobs didn’t stop, but at least she was breathing a bit better, enough to form some sentences. “I eliminated you and you hate me. I lost you.”
“What?” her heart almost broke, seeing THE Charlotte Flair distraught for something like that was… new. And nice? “Charlotte… Are you crying because of what happened at the Rumble?” Alexa couldn’t stop herself from giggling, sure she felt bad because Charlotte wasn’t okay, but that was seriously hilarious.
“Yes?”
“You idiot, I’m not mad at you! Why would I be?! I know it was Nia’s fault.” Alexa gave her a tiny smile and slid onto the bed to sit by her side.
“You’re not?” Charlotte was seriously confused by that, she was fully convinced the other woman hated her, but hearing those words made her feel better, as if she could breathe again after days. “I thought…”
“And you were wrong, that’s why you talk to me. We don’t do that, we don’t disappear because that’s not how relationships work… Friendships.” it was going well, until she slipped and literally cursed herself, so she had to try and find a way to sway the conversation. “Charlotte Flair crying for her tag partner… Who could’ve imagined.”
“You’re not just my tag partner Lex.”
“I know, I know we’re allies of convenience turned friends!” Alexa laughed a bit too much, but she was so nervous she could feel every single nerve in her body tensing.
“That’s not what I meant.” Charlotte looked at her, mostly to see her reaction, to see if Alexa really got what she was trying to say. “You think I’d feel like this if it was someone else?”
“Well, I hope not! I’m special!” that was getting too serious, and not because Lexi didn’t want that, but it was so damn scary.
“You are special.” Charlotte couldn’t hold herself back anymore, she had to say those things out loud or it would’ve been weird between them while at work; or was it just her mind trying to push her to say the truth? “Yes, you’ve been a great tag partner, people now like me because of you. But it’s not just about that, it’s the way you make me feel outside of work Lex…”
Again, that was new. That was unexplored territory and Lexi literally panicked. Was Charlotte hinting at having a crush on her? She said Lexi was her person after all but again Meredith and Cristina weren’t together like that when they said they were each other’s person, so no, it couldn’t be… Right?
“I know this might make you run away, it scares me too… But you just said I can talk to you, so I’m doing it.” she took a deep breath, already regretting what she was about to do but she couldn’t back off now. “You’re not just my tag partner anymore… Every time I try to convince myself this is just a partnership or a friendship, my heart proves me wrong. And somewhere along the way I might’ve started falling in love with you.”
Not that Lexi didn’t notice the way Charlotte acted lately, or the way she looked at her, or how good it felt when the taller woman played with her hair, which seemed to please both of them. And not that Lexi ever wondered, especially, how good it would be to feel those lips on hers, how soft they would be and which spot would be Charlotte’s favorite to kiss. Not all of that, no.
“Charlie…”
“I know, I’m sorry. It’s not your fault and if you don’t want to work with me anymore I get it, I won’t hate you.” Charlotte looked down at her hands, ironically fidgeting with one of their matching bracelets that fans made them.
And Lexi couldn’t take it anymore, she couldn’t look at Charlotte and keep ignoring the fact that her heart was yelling at her to kiss the other woman. She just put one hand on her cheek and drew her closer, finally realizing how fucking soft her lips were and right there Alexa decided she didn’t want to live without them ever again. “Don’t you ever be sorry about loving someone. Well, if it’s not me you should be… Otherwise you’re good.”
Charlotte couldn’t be more stunned, if Lexi slapped her she would’ve understood, but that? That stirred something deep inside her, something she didn’t even know she was capable of feeling; it was unfamiliar, terrifying, and wonderful all at once. No one had ever made her feel like that before, no one had ever looked at her and made the world fade into the background so effortlessly. And yet there she was, frozen in place, realizing that whatever Lexi had just awakened in her, there was no turning back from it.
“I…”
“You’re good Charlie, I promise.” she gently ran her thumb on Charlotte’s cheek, before placing a kiss on the tip of her nose and lying down on the bed, pulling down the other woman. “I may have taken my time to realize that, but loving you has always been so easy. As a friend… And now way more than a friend.”
“I’m sorry for disappearing…” Charlotte placed her head on her chest, immediately bringing her had through the other woman’s hair, like it was a magnet.
“It’s okay, but don’t do that again… Just tal…Wait, what is this?” she then pulled away the sheets and noticed something very yellow and very, very familiar. “Charlotte…” Alexa proceeded to pull out whatever it was that was pressing against her leg, confirming it was what she thought. “Why is Charly here?”
“Shut up…” she mumbled and pressed herself closer to her, feeling Alexa’s chest moving when she started laughing.
“You love her!” she kept giggling and moved the doll on the pillow next to them, before placing a kiss on Charlotte’s forehead.
“I love you, so…”
“I love you too Charlie.”
“What if they wanna split us at work?” she inevitably furrowed her brow thinking about it, she knew it could happen any time but she couldn’t handle that, not now.
“Then you use your nepo baby powers to help us.” Alexa giggled and started drawing little circles on Charlotte’s back with her fingers. “But don’t think about that now, you need to rest.”
And Charlotte didn’t need to be asked twice, she closed her eyes and let herself drift off in seconds, curled up against the woman she loved as peace finally washed over her.