Calling it Survivor - also on AO3
~
Yuta walks in on Adam in the showers, and the moment gives Adam the chance to give him an out.
~
Set directly post Dynamite 7/23/25.
~
Adam’s in the shower to clean off Wheeler Yuta’s blood, not for the first time. He chuckles to himself.
“If I had a nickel for every time the only way to make a point to Death Rider was to get a chain around Yuta’s neck, I’d have two nickels,” he laughs interrupting himself, “which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird it happened twice.”
“Thanks for that.”
Adam jumps, fighting the urge to cover himself up with a towel. There’s a whole door and a curtain in between him and the person outside of this place, though they were a whole lot closer a few minutes ago. “The fuck are you doing, sneaking up on a guy in the damn showers?”
“Medical already cleared me, so I figured I’d wash the blood off.” Yuta sounds more tired than Adam’s used to. Or maybe less annoying. It’s hard to tell. “But you’re in here and you were doing a fucking bit about me, so that might be worse than the bleeding.”
“It’s a meme,” Adam explains. “And you have to admit, it is weird it’s happened twice.”
“Sorry, are you millennial-splaining a meme to me?” Yuta snorts. “Dork.”
“Are you calling me a dork when you just got your ass beat on public television?”
There’s silence on the other side of the shower stall, and it’s heavy enough that Adam throws the towel around his waist and pokes his head out.
“You’re – okay then.” Yuta’s head snaps down, then to Adam’s face, then to his chest, then back up. He turns red under the layer of blood. Adam briefly wonders if that’ll be enough to open that cut back up. Yuta looks at Adam, making eye contact that feels a little intense. “You don’t have to remind me you beat me. This,” he gestures down to a chest covered in blood, “is reminder enough.”
Adam sighs. He almost puts his hands on his hips, but then remembers that one time Kenny told him that was going into “teacher mode”. Instead, he let his hands fall to his sides. “Do you need help with that?”
Yuta tilts his head to the side. He looks like a confused puppy with that expression. Then again, lost puppy has been his thing for a while now. “Are – what?”
Adam steps slightly to the side, unsure of why he’s doing this but powerless to stop. “Up to you, Yuta.” Adam watches him carefully. He has a feeling Yuta has been told what to do, how to do it, and how to feel about it for a long, long time. He wants to give Yuta a chance to decide on something outside of the Death Riders.
“Are you gonna kill me in here?” Yuta asks. He follows it up with a forced little chuckle, shakes his hair out of his eyes, rubs at some of the blood on his chest.
“If I wanted you dead, I would have thrown you over those ropes.”
His eyes burn into Yuta’s. And Yuta doesn’t look away.
“They’ll come for you,” Yuta says, stepping in. “They’ll come for both of us.” His gaze drops. “They don’t take well to traitors.”
“I ain’t never been a traitor, and, if you’re gonna make the call to get out, I’d call that a survivor.”
He doesn’t know how it happens, but he helps Yuta in the shower, helps him wash his hair. Yuta flinches at first at every touch, all but jumps when Adam drops the shampoo bottle.
“Not sure what you think I’m gonna do to you,” Adam murmurs, careful as he washes not to brush the stitches. “There’s a lot more interesting things we can do in a shower than hurt you.”
Yuta goes quiet.
“You haven’t been touched kindly in a while, have you?”
Still silence.
Adam gently eases Yuta into the flow of the water, shushing him as he hisses from the sting on his cut. He turns Yuta around so he can rinse out all of the soap. The water stains pink until it doesn’t, and the water is soapy until it isn’t. Yuta still hasn’t spoken, hasn’t lifted his gaze.
“Hey,” Adam says gently. He lifts Yuta’s chin and pushes his hair out of his eyes. “You don’t have to hide anymore. As long as you’re not here to fuck me over, I think we’ll be able to keep you nice and safe.”
“Why would you trust me?” Yuta asks. There’s a mask of defiance in his eyes. Adam wishes he didn’t recognize it. “I’ve tried to kill you a dozen times in the last year.”
“And I burned down a man’s house in vengeance,” Adam says. “This job gives us the opportunity to do terrible things. It’s our responsibility to undo what we can, and atone for what we can’t.”
Yuta is quiet again. Adam’s not sure why this means so much to him, why getting Yuta out matters. But it does. Adam’s kicked Yuta’s ass about a dozen times at this point, three times in a singles match, and each time Adam cared. He cared that the Yuta made it out okay.
“You get a suite with them?” he asks, checking the rest of Yuta’s body for stubborn blood or cuts that need to be cleaned.
Yuta nods slowly. “I – I did. I –”
“Don’t you say you’ve got nowhere to go,” Adam says. He doesn’t want to sound too firm, too aggressive. He doesn’t want Yuta to be reminded of Mox and them. “You can come with me. I got something better. My own Airbnb place. Champ privileges.”
“I can’t,” Yuta chokes out. “I – I can’t until the match is over. I can’t until Claudio is done.”
Adam nods. After all this, he still won’t leave.
“Then after,” Adam says, as sternly as he can. “After, you find me.”
Yuta nods. Adam can barely hear him say, “Okay.”
Claudio is in the main event, which means Adam has to get his ass involved. He does his best not to give hints to the conversations he’d had with Yuta. At this point, even when he sees Mox feign affection through touch, it’s all he can do not to rip Yuta out of there. But, after one last look over his shoulder, Yuta locks eyes with him. It’s the briefest of seconds. But Adam hopes it’s enough.
~
Adam’s half hidden as he waits for Yuta by the back door. He’s not convinced Yuta will be here; doubt is a powerful thing. There’s no reason Yuta will trust Adam over the Death Riders, let alone Mox.
But, after what feels like endless waiting, there he is. Yuta is skittish, looking over his shoulder every other moment. But he’s here.
Adam is able to all but smuggle Yuta out of the venue. He’s heavy as Adam guides him out, the weight of exhaustion barely transferring to Adam.
“You’re gonna have to get yourself in my rental or somebody’s gonna think I’m kidnapping you,” Adam says as he half drags Yuta through the parking lot.
Yuta’s head snaps up. “Are they here?”
“You’re like a spooked horse,” Adam mutters. “No, nobody’s here. Just get in the car, okay?”
Yuta slides into the car, and they drive in complete silence to the little house Adam is renting for the month. It’s a bit out of the way, down a long, winding, dark road, but Adam feels at home there. When he opens the door for Yuta, he can tell Yuta isn’t quite feeling the same way.
“You good, man?” He waits a second for a response. He doesn’t want to push it. Yuta’s like a kicked puppy in his best moments, but right now it’s a little beyond that.
“This isn’t a setup, is it?” Yuta asks. There’s no tone in his voice beyond resigned indifference.
“Sure,” Adam says, “I have allowed Jon Moxley, a man who has tried to kill in the past and who literally gave me a concussion, to come into my home when I’m not there just to get one over on you.” Adam flicks on a light so Yuta can see his face. “You hear how that sounds?”
Yuta shrugs. “Wouldn’t be the worst thing he did.”
Adam stares it him for one beat. Two. Three. “Mox has really lost his god damned mind, hasn’t he?”
Yuta shrugs again, but he steps inside anyway. He looks ridiculous with the bandage around his head. If he knows the Death Riders, they probably made him redo what medical did. There have been rumors of Mox not trusting medical lately.
“Is that bulky?” Adam asks.
“Hmm?” Yuta looks up for a brief moment as he toes off his sneakers.
Adam nods to the bandage. “The, uh, shoddy bandage job?”
“Oh,” Yuta says, touching his fingertips to the gauze like he’d forgotten it was there. “Yeah, Mox doesn’t like the antibiotic medical started using, so instead he cleans it and dresses it with his own stuff.”
“That is fucking unhinged,” Adam says. “Like, clinically, medically unwell. Has anyone tried anything with him?”
“Not really.” Yuta shrugs. “Can I, um. Can I sit down?”
“Yeah, you’re good. You’re not bleeding anymore or anything.”
Yuta frowns at him, then sits. Adam sits next to him as gently as he can. “Yuta,” he says quietly, “do you have to, like, ask to sit down?”
“Nah,” Yuta says, and Adam is relieved, even though this feels like this is a little bit of an out of body experience. “Just – wanted to make sure it’s okay is all.”
“You take care of yourself,” Adam says. “There’s a second bedroom in here. Comfy bed, good pillows.”
“Okay,” Yuta says. Adam wishes he could get more out of this guy. Something, anything, that indicates Yuta is a person under the shell of anxiety he’s sensing.
“Get some rest, Wheeler,” Adam says carefully.
Yuta’s head snaps up. “What?”
“I – if you don’t go by that name anymore, I won’t call you by it.” Adam has his hands up in front of him. He’s fought with Yuta enough tonight. He doesn’t find it reasonable to make it worse.
“No, it’s just – I haven’t really – people usually just call me Yuta and I guess…” He trails off. “Kind of forgot about people just calling me Wheeler without the Yuta at the end.” He throws what could be a smile if Adam could see him underneath all that hair, and walks into the guest room.
So Adam goes to bed. And hopes he made the right decision.
~
He wakes up to screaming.
He throws the blankets off of himself and sprints to the door, yanking it open hard enough that it slams against the wall. The world of possibilities goes through his head – Swerve is here, and it’s all been a ruse. Mox found them. Someone is robbing them.
Instead, he sees stillness in the living room, and hears the fear coming from the guest room. He slams the door open and –
Yuta is in the bed, the screams turned to aching sobs, his hands wrapped in the sheets. He’s pulling at them, ripping them off and away. Some of them are around his face. It looks like he can’t get the blankets off.
“Wheeler,” Adam says, as firm as he can with still the hint of gentleness. “Wheeler.” He grabs Yuta’s wrists. Wheeler’s wrists. “I’m here. Wake up.”
With a choking gasp, Wheeler’s eyes open, and Adam sees the fear. He holds Wheeler a little less tightly. “You’re okay,” Adam whispers. “I’m here.”
Without thinking, Adam releases Wheeler’s wrists and pull him in. For a split second, he can feel Wheeler’s body prepared to fight him. And then all that fight disappears. Wheeler collapses in Adam’s arms.
Adam doesn’t say anything, just holds onto him. He can’t tell if it’s rage or tears coming out of Wheeler, but he figures it doesn’t matter in the long run. Wheeler’s hands half claw at his back. Adam hadn’t even realized he wasn’t wearing a shirt, and he hopes there aren’t nail marks all over him after this. That might be hard to explain.
Wheeler eventually calms, relaxing heavily against Adam even more, and Adam stays silent. He’s not sure words are his way to work right now.
“I’m sorry,” Wheeler whispers. “You don’t need to deal with this.” He still hasn’t let go of Adam, though.
“I chose this,” Adam says, and it comes out differently than he meant. Oh well. “You’re safe here. I’ll make sure of it.”
He stays there for god knows how long, until Wheeler’s breathing settles and he starts to slip. Adam lets him down. He can rest.
~
He wakes up in the morning with a start. “What the fuck are you doing?” He should be more freaked out by the look of Wheeler Yuta looming over him.
“Can you cut my hair for me?”
Adam blinks. “Dude, I just woke up.”
“Then after coffee,” Wheeler says. He holds up a tray. “I didn’t know what you’d like so I sort of just got three things.”
Adam blinks. “Did – did you take my rental?”
Wheeler shrugs. “You were still asleep.”
He checks his watch. “It’s six thirty in the morning.”
“I usually wake up at four.”
Adam shudders. He hasn’t had to do that shit since he was a kid on the farm. “Gross.”
He slowly wakes up, though, and Wheeler follows him around a bit like a lost puppy. Eventually, he sits down on one of the bar seats in front of Adam and holds out the scissors again. “You done with your coffee?”
Adam sighs, because apparently there isn’t anything to do with this guy, and decides to chug the last half of what’s in the cup. At least it’s an iced latte. Wheeler did good on that end. “I’ve never cut hair before, dude.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Wheeler says. “I just want it off.”
“Alright. I can’t promise it’ll be good.”
“It doesn’t have to be good,” Wheeler insists. Adam takes the scissors. “It just has to be gone.”
~
Without clippers and even further lacking skill, Adam’s pretty happy with the end result, all things considered.
“What do you think?”
Wheeler reaches up, touching the now shorter hair. It’s not all gone – Adam didn’t trust himself enough to give a buzz cut with a razor a try – but it’s out of his eyes and he looks lighter. “It’s better,” Wheeler says, playing with his hair. He reaches his hand through it, catching on nothing at the ends. Adam remembers doing something a little like that, a while back. “It’s way better.” He looks up at Adam with a tentative smile. “Thank you.”
“Any time, man.” And Adam means it.
~
I tried to make them bang but neither of them were in the mood for it. They decided instead to have ~feelings. This also got wicked joss'ed because I took to long to write it WHOOPS. Anyway I hope you enjoyed it!
Mini Playlist: Look After You - The Fray Good to You - Marianas Trench Unbreak - Ryan Star Iris - The Goo Goo Dolls