Big day coming, big man. 

That’s what Uriel Cortez was up telling himself in the middle of the night. Staring up at the ceiling in his bedroom, Uriel thought about going out to the living room, but he didn’t want to wake Mateo in the next room. He spent most of the night Skyping with his Mom and Dad back in Mexico. Uriel spent his night... 

He stops staring at the ceiling long enough to look at Holly fast asleep next to him, wearing only one of his shirts. She was a six-foot tall woman herself but it still looked oversized and made him laugh a little. 

Where was his subconscious? 

Oh, yeah. 

...that night was spent somewhere else. He smirked to himself. Mateo had to bang on the wall twice to get them to quiet down before he got mad and took the rest of the Skype call in his car. 

But that was then and this was now feeling like he wasn’t going back to sleep. Oh, well, it was close to midnight so he had more ti…

He rolls over and sees his cell phone. 

2:43AM

“Fuck,” Uriel says quietly to no one. 

Thankfully Uriel was not a tossing and turning kind of sleeper or no one would EVER share a bed with him, let alone the girl he’d been seeing fairly quietly over the last month and a half. But every now and again, especially when big matches were coming up, a touch of insomnia every now and again. He had so many big matches on his DEFIANCE resume at this point. He’d put in a little over two years of wrestling with two big Unified Tag Title reigns with a man he didn’t know well, turning into his best friend and main evented a PPV for the FIST against Oscar Burns. 

Not bad. 

But in times like these as you see now, his mind goes all over the place. 

We put in the work to this Sky High Titans name… what if Morrow somehow takes it? 

There would be no Titan of Industry. There would be no Sky High Kid. There would be no Titans. 

Everything he knew. 

Everything they built. 

Gone 

In the dark, he snapped a finger. 

Like that.

He kept thinking about lots of things. More of this mind racing shit he hated. 

I hope I’m going to be well-rested. 

I hope that I don’t let Mateo down because that’s all I felt like I’ve done. 

I want to tell her, but if I say that NOW, she’s gonna bolt.

He stops and looks over again at Holly. Outside of the ring… it had been the most amazing six weeks. Meeting her after the crazy Christmas party that Jestal threw. Spending three hours helping to fix a tire, though he wasn’t a car guy. Spending a separate three hours at a coffee shop while endless lookers-on passed by watching the two giant people in the corner laugh the whole time. 

Weekly standing brunches at Brennan’s. Which he had Dex Joy to thank for the suggestion. 

Going to the NOLA Swamp tour and seeing the Voodoo Museum. That shit was Uriel’s jam.

The time they went fishing - her favorite hobby. He tried and fell off the boat twice. Holly laughed. He didn’t. 

When she used his finisher to win her match at a BRAZEN show he stopped by for. 

The first night they spent at one another’s places. He broke the bed just by sitting on it. She was shocked to find out how much he had to spend on a custom one for him.

When she came by to check on him in Iris Davine’s medical office after they got attacked by the Lucky Sevens in the parking lot a couple of weeks ago. 

Where many in the BRAZEN and DEFIANCE bubble knew Princess Hoss, he got to know Holly Aldaine. She was a great woman and Uriel was blessed. He wanted to see where this went and so far, things were perfect. But… he didn’t want to jump the gun. Not again. He’d gone on dates, but hadn’t had anyone potentially serious since before DEFIANCE. And last time he dropped the L bomb, Rachel ran away. And that was after eight months. He...

SHUT UP BRAIN.

He just wanted silence. 

He couldn’t afford distractions. 

Their literal name. Monikers. All of it was at stake. He couldn’t let down Mateo aga-

“You okay, babe?” Holly’s voice cut through the mental noise pollution. 

Uriel looks over. He offers her a fake smile trying to stay afloat in a sea of worries. 

“Yeah… I’m sorry if I woke you,” he says. “I always get like this close to these big shows. But I’ll be good.”

Half-asleep, she grabs him by his arm and then slowly crawls over to lay in the crook of his arm. 

“You’ll do great out there,” Holly tells him.

Uriel half chuckles. 

“Thanks for saying that. I, uh…” He sighs. “Only Mateo knows this and I don’t even know why, but I still get nervous before these big matches sometimes. Pre-match jitters. Call it whatever. Especially now. I don’t know if I can let down Mateo again...”

He visibly shakes a little, not wanting to explore that route. Holly inches closer to him. 

“You’re a good guy, Uriel,” Holly says, taking his right hand. “I love how much you care about your best friend. And it’s… sorry to say, it’s a little refreshing. You’re the DEFIANCE star, I’m still trying my footing in BRAZEN but that you’re still human. You worry and you care and all that.”

He snaps again. “Shit, you’ve found out the main roster’s secret.” Then he smiles. “I know you’ll get a call-up sooner than later. You’re there busting your ass off six days a week and sometimes on seven, it’s a wonder we’ve had free time around all this.”

“Thanks… but I’ve only been doing this a couple years. There’s so many people there more deserving. But thank you.”

“Yep. Keep it up and we’ll be a couple of nervous wrecks on the roster together.”

The two share a laugh until a loud knock is heard at the door. 

“HEY! Cállate ahí!” yells Minute from the other side of the door. “Trying to sleep, Uriel!”

Uriel belly-laughs quietly, then raises his voice. “Then why the fuck you knocking my door, Little Man? De vuelta a la cama, viejo!” 

“I’m younger than you!” he yells. 

“Good night!”

“Yeah, yeah…”

Minute slams his door and Holly fights back a laugh. 

“Okay I’m not gonna lie,” she tells him, “Anytime you speak Spanish? I… kinda like that. Can you say something else?”

Thinking on it, Uriel takes a moment, then has his words all picked out. He grabs Holly’s hands (Gently, cause giant) and smiles. 

“Holly... Necesito ir a la tienda por la mañana y comprar huevos. Yo también te amo mucho y no puedo esperar a contártelo algún día.”

“What’s that mean?”

He fights back yet another laugh. “It means I need to go buy eggs when I wake up.”

She raises an eyebrow, then shrugs. “Don’t care. Still hot.”

Uriel grins slyly. “Well, I say how about we get rid of that shirt…”

Another knock. 

“I’m moving out!” Minute shouts. “Encontraré un nuevo compañero de equipo de etiqueta!”

“Then you’ll need to find someone to help you get stuff off the high shelves!” Uriel shouts back. “Good night, Little Man!”

“Good night, Uriel! Good night, Princesa!” He yells back before another slam of the door cuts through the banter. 

“Uh... Good night!” Holly replies, unsure of what else to say before the couple burst out in laughter. 

And with that… the jitters were gone. 

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