Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Come on, Jimmy, dinner is in fifteen minutes!" Sami called out patiently, but he was starting to worry - he'd gone in there with his clothes over ten minutes ago and had long since gone silent. 

It was the night of their big coming out to Nick and Adam, establishing their relationship to make it easier to explain their comings and goings. Sami was in white linen - trousers, shirt, brown cotton tie that matched both his shoes and his eyes. That one had been Jimmy's idea. Speaking of which...

"Mon, uce!" Jey shouted. He was sitting cross-legged on the bed bedside Sami, not at all dressed for the occasion - when it came down to it, they wanted it to be just them and the GMs there, and Jey was pretty happy not to have to squeeze into a suit himself, preferring to order room service and stay in. 

"I don't wanna come out." came Jimmy's voice from the bathroom.

"Well, why not?" Sami asked.

"I look stupid!" 

"I'm sure you don't, cutie." The nickname slipped out and he blushed, but Jey didn't seem to have noticed anything untoward. 

"I do so! I'm not coming out. You go on."

"I can't exactly tell them about my boyfriend without him being there, uce." Sami hissed to Jey. 

"Jimmy Uso, you come out and face your man or I'll come in there and get you!" Jey yelled in the direction of the bathroom.

"Okay! Okay! Just... give me a second, alright?" 

True to his word, the door opened a moment later. Jimmy was wearing black jeans and a white button-up, a blue faux-velvet blazer over his arm a and a brown tie to match Sami's. Jey wolf-whistled derisively and he went very red. "I told you so." He looked at his feet. 

Sami walked over, kissed him on either cheek. "You look very nice. Jey is sitting there in his underwear." 

"Yeah, $60 underwear!" Jey argued feebly. "Jimmy is wearing Nikes to a fancy-ass restaurant." 

Sami looked down; okay, Jimmy was wearing his sneakers, but they were immaculately white. "Hey, speaking of which, you should clean yours," he shot back at his best friend. "Maybe you'd get invited to dinner then." Jey had to break and laugh. "Yeah, I can't rebuff that. Sorry, Jimmy. You do look nice, okay?" Jimmy let Jey hug him and adjust his tie for him. Before they left, he hugged Sami too. "Good luck, uce. Not that you need it." 

***

Dinner was normal, and Sami started to feel a little calmer. They weren't anywhere particularly upmarket at all, so he could relax slightly, and Jimmy's shoes passed muster too. There'd been a couple of looky-loos, of course, but the ones who took pictures were mercifully forced to delete them and thrown out when reported to the wait staff. 

They were well into their food before Jimmy nudged Sami's thigh pointedly. He cleared his throat.

"So, Adam, Nick," he said, taking a gulp of wine to fortify himself. Both men looked at him, and Jimmy squeezed his hand under the table. 

"The reason we wanted to talk to you was... I mean, we invited you guys out tonight... We wanted to tell you about something new that we have in the works..."

"Not another bloody inter-brand stable," said Nick, taking a long slug of his own drink. "No more. There's enough shit going on in my brand."

"No, that's not it," Sami tried to say, but Adam talked firmly over him.

"If you think Raw has any room for another stable either, you can find yourself another brand to wrestle under, Sami." 

"We're together!" Jimmy blurted, his volume control way off from his nerves. The neighbouring tables stared, and Sami wanted to crawl under theirs and hide. This was exactly the opposite of how he wanted this to go.

After looking back and forth between the couple and each other, Adam and Nick finally spoke together.

"What?"

"This could've been an email."

They glared at each other for interrupting.

Sami was scarlet in the face. "You guys asked why I kept disappearing to SmackDown and vice versa with Jimmy. We're together is why. Okay? We're not planning anything malicious, we're just gay. Write that down in your little roster book. Sir," he added guiltily as an afterthought.

There was a short silence, broken by them all taking up their cutlery and starting to eat again, but no longer talking. 

It was out there now, their bosses knew, and they could come and go for dates without arousing suspicions from them. 

They just had to avoid running into anyone they knew while on a date. 

Of course, these things are often unpredictable.

"Hey!" Jey greeted the two later that night as they arrived back to the twin room together. Jimmy immediately stripped off his tie and unbuttoned his jeans, sitting down and helping himself to his brother's nachos. "You just ate!" Jey smacked his hand away. "How did it go?"

"Mm," Sami hummed. "They know, that's enough, let's say nothing of how delicately we told them." They'd walked around a little after, just him and Jimmy, hanging out in a park for an hour or so until it got dark and they had to finally head back.

All three of their phones pinged - tags on Instagram. Sami was the fastest, and he laughed and groaned. A photo of them at dinner had gone out after all - posted right before the offenders must've been removed from the restaurant. Luckily it looked innocent, and the caption was some stupid sports news outlet wondering what this meeting meant for their futures at WWE. "False alarm, it's stupid," he said, and the twins sighed with relief. "Maybe they tagged you both because they can't tell you apart? Dumbass." 

"Wait, wait, wait," Jimmy said, his face falling as he checked his phone. "Mine is from a different account, a fan account. How many copies of this are there?" 

Jey walked over to see his screen, then pulled out his own phone. "Mine is different too." Sami groaned - what a time to go viral. Oh well, they were in Cali for the week. Even if someone suspected they were together, they'd have to suck it the fuck up.

With that four knocks rang out at the door, loud and clear. Sami popped his head up, then looked at Jimmy, then Jey. "You order more food, uce?"

"There's no way." Jey had disbelief on his face, horror. "There's no way, right, Jim? That's someone he paid to mess with us. He wouldn't drive an hour and a half on his old ass to--"

There came another four knocks. 

"Oh, for-" Jimmy got up to answer it. "This is just like you! I am grown, and happy!"  

Who was it? Sami struggled to think who else had known the Usos enough to use that knock with them. Maybe a member of the Bloodline? What would they be doing at their hotel room door at this time of night, and why would Jimmy be talking to them like that? 

White-haired, imposing, in sunglasses at 10pm, Rikishi entered the room.

"Dad?!" Jey said.

Rikishi looked right at Sami. "What are your intentions with my son?" 

Chapter Text

"Dad, you really didn't have to come all the way here to talk. You could've called or we could've got on Zoom, whatever."

"I spit on Zoom! When I see my son out to dinner with a handsome man, I put two and two together, and I come to ask him the questions I've asked every partner you've had."

"Oh... my God. You're insane. You know Sami, you've met Sami." 

"I met him when he was your friend. It's very different if he wants into the family."

"What, are we getting married now? We've been on like, four dates!" 

"And you told me about none of them?"

They were speaking Spanish. When the twins were young they'd moved all over the US, and it was impossible to not learn it as another language. Sami had none, but he knew his own name, and his ears pricked up.

"Dad?" Jey piped up, standing beside Sami. "Jim? English, please? For Sami?"

"Oh, he doesn't even have Spanish?" Rikishi said in English. "Pendejo." Even Sami knew that one.

"Dad!" 

"What? I'm being funny, we're being guys together. I just wanna be sure of some stuff, Mr. Zayn." Behind him, Jimmy sank down onto the bed, putting his face in his hands. A nervous laugh burst from Jey, and Rikishi gave him a look that Sami swore froze the air in the room.

"You speak any languages besides English, Mr. Zayn?" Rikishi asked him, looking at him beadily.

"Yes, sir, Mr. Uso. You can call me Sami if you want."

"How very generous. Which ones?"

"Fluent in French, German too, little bit of Arabic, sir."

"Nice and respectful, I like that. You don't have to use it in every sentence, though - cool it."

"Sorry, sir. I mean, sorry." 

"You an American citizen to be speaking French and German and Arabic, but not Spanish?"

"Canadian, sir. I go where the road takes me, and I've met lots of interesting people along it."

"You drive?"

"Never learned all the way. I might in the future, but I've been told I kind of have my head in the clouds, so who knows."

Rikishi squinted at him. 

"Are you a pothead, Sami?" Jimmy shook his head frantically behind him. 

"No, sir."

"You use other drugs?"

"No, never." 

"Drink?"

"On special occasions, I guess." 

"You guess or you know?"

"I-I know."

"Are you nervous, Sami?

"No, I'm not. I'm not nervous." 

"You're sweating, you're stammering. You seem nervous."

You're damn right he was nervous. He wanted so badly to impress one of the very first branches of the WWE's royal family tree, but more importantly to him he was the father of the man he loved. Sami hoped he'd bless their relationship. 

"Do you have a plan for yourself and my son in the future, Sami?"

"Dad!" Jimmy was mortified. "Four dates!" 

"Well, clearly you're closer than four dates, if you're standing here in my son's bedroom after hours while he's half-dressed." Sami's face burned, and so did both of the twins'; they understood why their dad was so picky when it came to meeting their partners, but why did he have to be like this? They weren't teenagers with their first girlfriends. 

"We actually just got back," Sami blurted. "Sir." he added as they all looked at him. "Please consider it my fault. I asked Jimmy to show me some of his favourite places in the San-Fran area because we drive together a lot but I've been to this part of the state too little. It's beautiful here, always so sunny, and artwork on nearly every street." He was turning on the charm, and Jimmy was amazed to see it was almost working, a hint of a smile at the edges of his dad's mouth. 

"Well, are you two being safe? There's all sorts of diseases out there these days, and if Jimmy got sick it would ruin his career. And you know, you can get some of them without even going in there--"

"Oh my God, Dad!" Jimmy in Spanish and Jey in English. They regretted taking their dad to those Pride brunches.  

Sami had to smother a nervous giggle of his own. He knew Rikishi wouldn't see it as a laughing matter.

"What, would you rather I get back to his financial situation? Because, quite frankly, Sami--" 

"Was just leaving!" Jimmy yelped. "We just got back, and he was just leaving. His room is directly above ours. It's late. Goodnight, Sami." He spoke at top speed as he pushed Sami towards the door, pecking him on the cheek as he did so. "I'm so sorry," he hissed to the redhead. "I didn't realise he'd see it so fast, I should've warned you before today."

"Oh, you mean you should've warned me about the NCIS-style totally bullshit interrogation I was just given?" Sami bit back in a low voice, feeling Rikishi's eyes burning into the backs of their heads. "Yes, you should have! Overkill much?"

"Oh, Sami? He froze.

"Yes, Mr. Uso?"

"How good is your hearing?"

"Um... pretty good, sir?" He didn't understand the question.

"So is mine." Sami felt his face heat again. "Will I need to expect to hear any more of your opinions on my style of vetting you for my son?"

"Yes, sir. I mean, no, sir. I mean-"

"You mean to leave the room, and let my sons and I have a private discussion."

"...yes, sir. Sorry, sir."

Sami got out as fast as he could. 

If he ran he could get to the driver before he left for the night.

***

"Whaaaaaat?" 

"He asked if we were using protection. My boyfriend's 60-something father looked me in my face and asked me that."

"Ha!" 

"I just feel like my boyfriend should've said so, yknow? I don't mind strict parents so long as I get a warning. And he did apologise for not saying anything, but I would've liked to be forewarned."

He'd gone to the Raw venue, not knowing where else to go so late where he could run some ropes and get his nervous energy out. He'd ended up in the workout room in the end, doing endless squats, and when that didn't help he'd started doing increasingly complicated yoga poses. Can't think about anything else when you're doing yoga, after all. It was one of his favourite things about it. But he wasn't alone for very long - referee Charles Robinson had come in to lift, and he felt safe spilling his feelings while spotting for him, though he was careful to say things like "my boyfriend" and never use any names. 

"Man," Charles laughed. "I don't think I'd ever go that far for a relationship, and I'm married. The second my wife's family went that personal with me they'd be outta here."

Sami sighed. Obviously he couldn't know, but it was a little more complicated when your boyfriend's family was decorated with every WWE title ever made and essentially dominated half the company. "Maybe you're right," he shrugged, reaching to help him lift the weight back onto the rests. "Okay, come on, one more set." 

Chapter Text

"You're being ridiculous."

"Speak Spanish, I need to see you still have it after weeks and weeks of wrapping yourself around Casper."

"Fine!" Jimmy was incensed at the insult towards Sami. 

"I don't see why it's any of your business, anyway! I'm 32 years of age, you knew I was two-sexual-"

"Ah! You see, Jey? He forgets his words as soon as he forgets his lineage. Bisexual, Jimmy. Even I remember that one. Choose your words carefully lest you convince me further that this is a terrible idea." 

"I have the ability to choose my own partners. Sami makes me laugh, he's handsome, I've known him for a long time‐"

"I have also known John Cena for a long time!" Rikishi snapped. "People can change." Jimmy blinked at him, astounded he'd compare the two.

Don't say it, Jey mouthed behind their dad, reading Jimmy's mind. Jimmy ignored him, drawing himself up to his full height. If his dad really wanted to make a comparison like that, he'd take it as far as he could.

Don't! Jey warned him, but Jimmy's lip curled into a smirk.

"Well, when John Cena touches your dick, Dad, you let me know." 

The slap could be heard from the corridor, and Jimmy's ears rang, one side of his face turning red. 

"How dare you turn this into a joke? This is about your future and the future of your children!"

"Sami is my boyfriend, okay? I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, but I was enjoying the privacy. My bad, I guess!"

"You are my son. You are an Uso. There is nothing private between us, and there never will be. If you're courting, if you love this man, there are steps to be taken."

"You are so old fashioned!"

"Well, do you love him or not?"

"YES!" Jey roared, shutting them both up as they turned to stare at him. 

"I'm sorry Dad, I just can't sit on this any longer. Yes, Jimmy loves Sami, and I love that he loves Sami. Sami is so legit!" He was stood up now, striding back and forth in front of his shell-shocked dad and brother. "Sami speaks at least three languages, and Jimmy just somehow found a formal tense for the word "dick" in Spanish! Sami cooks, and last week I saw Jimmy eat a Twinkie for lunch! Nobody else is ever gonna date him!"

"Hey, harsh." 

"Shut up, Jimmy. You also snore like a pig, which is perfect, because so does Sami. But none of this is really important, because I know what matters to you, Dad, is us competing, us being Usos, us keeping the family on the map in this company. So I'm giving you an ultimatum." He stood proud before his dad, bristling with confidence like he'd always wanted. 

"You let Jimmy live his life, or I'll go way beyond cutting my hair. Remember when you freaked out about that? I'll go right to Adam Pearce and have him remove me from the roster effective immediately. Big old Not On TV blanket. No Uso on Raw. Nobody yeets. Nobody gets excited. Boring as shit watching Gunther enter. I sit at home eating your food until you meet Sami again. Or, we could prevent all of that, and you could agree to check him out for real. Dinner, you three, sometime soon. Sort your shit out, uce!" His voice cracked with emotion, and he waited. And waited. 

"I will meet him," Rikishi said evenly. "In a neutral space, as you suggested. With clothes on. Not dinner, not yet. He must pass inspection first." Jey almost sobbed with relief.

***

"You think it's gonna go well?" Ron asked him. 

He and Jey were incognito at the very small coffee shop that Rikishi had agreed to meet Sami at. Well, Jey was wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses and hiding behind a menu. Ron was just sitting there. 

"Won't know that until we see for ourselves," Jey whispered and the bell over the door jingled as the three men they were waiting for walked in. "Shh, shh, here they come." 

He waited until Rikishi was seated between Sami and Jimmy, separating them - an intimidation tactic his dad had used on many a potential love interest before - and they had ordered their drinks and gotten into conversation before speaking again. "Okay. How does it look like it's going? How's Sami look?"

"Uh..." Ron took in Sami's clenched jaw, his strained smile, the way his leg was bouncing under the table. "He kinda looks like he has to pee."

"Damn it, I told him Dad doesn't like sloppy water drinkers and to hydrate beforehand instead. He must be nervous. Jimmy better wrap this up fast. You remember the time you got up to piss during one of my dark matches - not even anything big - and Dad wouldn't let you into the house for a week?" Ron laughed. He remembered. "And we'd been friends for years by then. If Sami fucks this up, I don't think he'll ever get another chance."

Sami was nervous, and he did have to pee, but he thought he was doing a remarkably good job of pretending like nothing was bothering him. He'd answered Rikishi's first few probing questions in a way that seemed to satisfy him that Sami, though he was a full eight years Jimmy's senior, was not there to manipulate him. He smiled across the table at Jimmy, wishing he could hold his hand. Rikishi cleared his throat between them, and Sami swore he'd heard the exact same sound out of Jey before.

"So, Sami," Rikishi said. "Am I to understand that you, like my sons, have biological children?"

"One." Sami said. He cleared his own throat. "One child, a son."

"His mother?"

"We're separated, sir."

"Amicable?"

"Dad, if he was still with the kid's mom, why would he want to date me?" Jimmy burst out. Rikishi was still looking at Sami, and he realised he wanted an answer.

"Yeah, uh... yes, sir. Good friends, not such good partners."

"Is that your fault or hers?"

"Dad! That is so not your business." Jimmy said, looking at Sami apologetically. "Or mine, for the record," he added quickly.

"No, it's okay, Jimmy," Sami said. "Neither. She wasn't happy being a mom, and since being with me was what made her a mom in the first place, we talked, and came to the conclusion that she needed to change that." 

"If you and Jimmy were to be married-"

"Oh, my God." It was muffled, as Jimmy had put his head down on the table. 

"Don't you interrupt me. You asked for this. If you and Jimmy were to be married, would your son become his stepson, and vice versa? Would you expect him to be treated with all the same privilege as a born Uso?" 

"I-- Well- Well, I-" Sami was taken aback by the question, obviously - this is not how meeting his partners' parents for the first time usually went. He guessed this is what happened when you fell in love with someone that came with a legacy attached.

"Wells don't build a village, boy," Rikishi admonished, and a wild desire to laugh seized Sami. He'd have to remember that one. "Speak." 

"Yes, I would." Sami said. "I'd want him to have everything that I'd be giving Jimmy's children - trust, warmth, safety, and love. I don't care how much money you have, Mr. Uso. I don't want anything from you but your blessing to date your son. Just date. And maybe we talk about the bigger stuff down the line. But right now, I--" 

He let himself say it. Easy. Why was it so easy?

"I just want to love your son. I do love him, sir."

His words hung there, brightening Jimmy from the inside until his smile was beaming.

Rikishi took one look at the smile on Jimmy's face, and knew in his bones that nothing, past, present or future, would make his son happier than this Sami was now. 

"Sami, you idiot, I love you too." Jimmy said, jumping to his feet and pulling Sami across the table to kiss him. There was a small outbreak of applause - apparently the few customers apart from them had gotten a show with their afternoon tea.

"Okay." Rikishi said with a supreme effort.

"Okay?" Jimmy repeated, looking slightly stunned. "That's it? All of that, and just "okay"?" 

"If you hurt him," Rikishi began, and Jimmy groaned. "I will snap you like a tiki torch." There it was. "That is no exaggeration, it is a promise. It also applies to the consequences of you disappointing me." Sami well believed it, and he nodded enthusiastically, not trusting himself to say the right thing. He held out his hand politely and Rikishi almost crushed it, but he refused to wince, and when his hand was released, he had a feeling he had gained just a modicum more respect. 

Rikishi got up, knocking over an adjacent chair ("Ah, they're too small anyway!") and fished a few bills out of his wallet. "Our coffee, the tip," he murmured, then raised his voice and looked directly at Jey and Ron, who made a clumsy attempt to hide. "The two over there who think I can't see them can pay for themselves." He guffawed at his own joke and left, the bell jingling heartily. 

Sami and Jimmy stayed where they were, holding hands across the table.

"You speak Spanish?" Sami said suddenly, quite interested in ways he could render Jimmy incapable of English. 

"You speak all those languages?" Jimmy asked him, thinking the exact same thing. 

They jumped as Ron and Jey joined them; Sami had genuinely forgotten that they'd arranged surveillance.

"Well, that's that," Jey said. He made a garbled sound as Jimmy grabbed him in a hug, Sami on his other side. 

"You took on Dad for us, uce. We never would've got here without you. You played the "quit wrestling" card, and you only get one of those."

"Well, neither of you would admit you were in love with the other, so I kinda had to!" 

There was a loud trumpeting noise and they all looked around as Ron emerged from a wad of tissues, his eyes swimming. "What, am I supposed to be made of stone now? Y'all are in love, uce!"

They laughed together, four friends and two boyfriends who had finally said what they needed to. 

Sami leaned his forehead against Jimmy's. He looked forward to saying it much, much more.