a/n: by now i'm sure we've all seen the roman reigns father's day psa with his adorable little girl, and after raw on 6/2/14, i wanted something fluffy because i was just a fountain of tears. i'm finally getting around to writing it, so here it is. ramenreignss deserves credit cause in her review for my first fic of roman/paige "hold your head high, heavy heart," she wanted a happier slant on them.

~*~empress~*~

This thing – whatever it was between them – was just that between them. Being on the road and having little to no days off wasn't easy. Sometimes you needed more than just your friends or in their case the families they had created for themselves.

Most of the time they sought each other out on the nights when being a world away from home hit her hard and when skyping with his daughter just wasn't enough.

She missed the muggy, rainy days of Norwich. Its deep evergreen pines, hearing the click-clack of her boots on cobblestone streets, her mum's steak and kidney pie and riding around on the tube in London just because.

He missed the sound of little feet sounding like a herd of buffalo as she raced around the house, shrieking about how he couldn't catch her or how she would pounce on him to wake him up, and how she would take out her own hairbrush to brush his hair before batting her lashes and saying, "can i give you a braid like mine, daddy?"

He never said no.

There were always exceptions to rules, however, and Paige had never been anything less than a rule breaker.

Singles matches for the three members of The Shield were rare, but no one was surprised that Roman was getting his fair share lately. The company was hell bent on giving him a push. One he deserved, of course, not that he was necessarily comfortable with it.

It was like he told her in the dark when they were a tangle of limbs in that deep bass of his, "This next big thing shit, needs to cool out. I just want to do my job better than I should, ya know? And I wouldn't be called an a+ player without them. They get their push with me or fuck it all."

And tonight was that exception. Tonight wasn't about missing home for the young Diva's Champion. No, tonight was about staking her claim. It was about reminding him that Summer Rae could drape herself all over him in the ring, could whisper whatever dirty things she did in his ear as a way to get back at Fandango, but she wasn't the one who could turn the vaunted powerhouse of The Shield into a mess with a well-timed lap of her tongue and a perfect squeeze of her thighs.

Or at least she thought it was going to be.

It was rare that Talia would come to shows, and Roman – much to his chagrin – knew it would only become more so as the years went on. Right now at six years old school was all about the basics; learning how to add and subtract, writing, reading, spelling. Soon, sooner than he liked to think, his little girl wouldn't be so little anymore and traveling would be harder and harder for her to do because of school.

And even during the summer, she wouldn't necessarily want to be there. She'd be spending hours backstage instead of being with her friends.

"Daddy," Her voice broke his train of thought, something he was thankful for because he didn't like where it was going, anyway. "You look sad; how come?"

He laughed at the concern on her soft features. He reached across the colorful board of the game of Candy Land they were playing, scooping her easily into his arms, wrapping his arms tight around her squirrely frame as she kicked her legs a whine in her tone, "Daaaaaady, it's your turn to roll. Sethie and Deanie will be back soon, and then that means it's almost bedtime. I wanna finish playing!"

"Don't worry, we'll finish. I can still roll with you in my lap."

"But how am I supposed to reach my piece? My arm doesn't stretch that far!"

"I'll move your piece. Just stay here, okay?" His tone was serious, something he knew Talia sensed because she twisted herself, so she was facing him, her features thoughtful as her brows furrowed slightly. "You look sad again."

So matter-of-fact was her tone, like she was telling him the sky was blue or when he was doing her hair and she would say "no, daddy, the bow you made doesn't look like mommy's; you have to do it over," and his heart was heavy in his chest.

"Tomorrow's going to be here before you know it and you'll be on your way back to Pensacola with Mommy, but I'll be going to Cleveland with Seth and Dean, and I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too. Why can't I go to Cleveland, too? I don't have school anymore because it's summer time. You should call Mommy and tell her that you'll miss me and don't want me to go."

If only it was that easy, Roman thought idly, an arm tightening around Talia's little body once more. Though, maybe he could… Maybe Jessica would understand and give him just a few more days. But just as he was about to reach into his pocket for his phone, the knob on the locker room begun to turn. He expected Seth and Dean to walk through, arguing and shoving, about when the latter was finally going to pull his head out of his ass about getting together with Emma, and the familiar "Talia's here, watch your dirty mouths!" was on the tip of his tongue, except his stable mates weren't the ones walking through the door.

Once Paige knew Rollins and Ambrose were at catering, she confidently made her way to The Shield's locker room. She hadn't even changed out of her ring gear, knowing how much Roman liked to slide down the zippers of her boots, peel the tiny shorts off her body, dragging them down slowly so she'd growl, "hurry the fuck up, reigns," but he'd just smirk and go even slower.

Her skin grew hot just thinking of how much she liked the burn of his perfectly trimmed goatee and moustache along the inside of her thighs.

And so without preamble, she opened the door expecting the Samoan to be either changing out of his ring gear [hopefully he would be] or coming out of the shower [even better] or dressed [please don't be] and waiting for the other two so they could get on the road.

The scenario she was presented with, however, hadn't entered her mind.

It's not like she wasn't aware of the existence of his six year old daughter Talia. On the contrary, she was actually very aware. Though, they didn't do much talking when they were alone [why would they], every once in a while she would come up. He said he told her because Dean would whine about how he was talking about her too much and if he speared him or superman punched the Ohioan like he wanted, he'd only whine more.

"I, um, oh…I…" Her brain was moving faster than her mouth and complete sentences were unable to be formed, and she felt utterly stupid standing there blinking like an idiot who'd never seen a man with his daughter before.

For fuck's sake, Bevis, she chided inwardly, get it together. You were her once. How many times had you been in the locker rooms and backstage while Dad and Mum were promoting?

"Candy Land, huh?" The Brit mentally slapped herself at how lame she sounded to her own ears. She could only imagine what Roman was thinking right now.

"You're Paige, the Diva's Champion, aren't you?" Talia spoke up before her father could.

"Y-you…" More blinking and less incomplete sentences followed. "You know who I am?" Eventually stumbled out, and if there was a God a hole would open up underneath her feet and swallow her whole, because could this get any more embarrassing?

"You took the title from AJ." It was so matter-of-fact, like she was reciting the alphabet. "It made me sad cause I liked her. She had knee high Chucks like I do. She got to work with Tamina, too, and I liked watching them together. But…" The little girl sighed, eyes raking over the deep purple of the Brit's ring gear. "You wear purple and purple's my favorite color. Also, you beat Alicia Fox and she throws things and yells at people and that's not nice, so I guess since AJ's not coming back, I could like you instead."

Too absorbed in talking with the Diva's Champion, Roman was sure Talia hadn't noticed the way his arms had tensed around her as soon as Paige walked through the door. He knew why the Brit was here. She had obviously seen Seth and Dean at catering and assumed he was alone in their locker room, as he normally would be.

Judging by the stumbling of her words and the blinking, she hadn't expected to find him playing Candy Land with Talia.

Just like he was sure she didn't expect Talia begrudgingly offering her support, only because her favorite Diva AJ wasn't coming back. One day, a smile crossed the Samoan's full lips, he'd tell Paige about the tantrum Jessica told him Talia threw after the title transfer on RAW all those months ago. He knew she'd definitely get a kick out of it.

He hadn't ever thought about this moment, about what would happen if Paige ever met Talia. They weren't in a relationship, exactly. They weren't even really friends. Not like he was friends with Seth and Dean and she was with Emma and Bayley, even if the brunette was still down at NXT.

They just, you know, were. They didn't label the thing between them and didn't tell anyone else. It was something – the only thing, really – they had for themselves. He was one third of The Shield, the next face of the WWE and she was the Diva's Champion, but together in the dark, they were just Roman and Paige.

He liked it more than he should.

"Well, thank you," Paige's voice snapped Roman back to the present. It had the familiar confident lilt, instead of the shaking stumbling she had been doing earlier. "Maybe when you see me wrestle more, you might like me because I'm a good champion and not just because AJ isn't here anymore."

"I'll really like you if you promise not to beat Tamina up too bad. She's teaching Daddy how to do hair bows because his always come out sloppy, and she can't do that if she's beat up."

"Tamina's teaching your Daddy how to do hair bows, huh?"

Roman rolled his eyes at the excitable glint in the Brit's dark eyes. Before he could say anything, Talia spoke, "But don't tell anyone. It's a secret. Daddy has a reputation and stuff. Everybody's supposed to think he's scary."

Paige laughed and held out her pinky saying, "How about I pinky swear not to tell? That way you'll know that I really won't."

Talia nodded vigorously and the Brit bent forward as the two hooked pinkies. After they let go, Talia looked thoughtfully at the Diva's Champion, biting down on the inside of her cheek before her sable eyes flickered back to the board game and then back to the Brit. "Do you wanna help Daddy and I finish our game of Candy Land? You can move my piece for me. Daddy wants me to stay in his lap, but if I stay I can't reach."

It was an innocent suggestion from a six year old girl, but to Paige it couldn't help but feel like a test. If she said no, what would that say to Roman? But what would it say if she said yes? Would saying no mean she didn't want more? Would saying yes mean she did?

She thought back to how she felt watching Summer drape herself all over him, the way her blood boiled as she touched him, how her teeth had tugged on his ear as she whispered dirty things in his ear before he shoved her away.

Was it so wrong to want more out of this? To not just go to him when she was feeling lonely? Or when she missed her home and her family?

No, she decided, it wasn't wrong.

"I would love to help your you and your Daddy finish your game. As long as," She bit down on her lip, her tongue swirling over the metal in her lip, as she met Roman's grey eyes through hooded lashes. "Your Daddy wants to. He's playing too, and it's only fair that we ask him if he wants me to play."

There was a familiar twinge in Roman's gut as he looked at Paige. One he had been trying to push away for a few months now. He knew what it was; he just didn't want to acknowledge it. It was easier to just put this thing between them into the category of scratching an itch, of a way to cure the loneliness that being on the road constantly brought, but deep down he knew he was lying to himself.

That this – whatever they had going on – could be something. He just didn't want to put himself out there again. Not after what happened with Jessica. Even if she did give him the best thing in his life. It was messy as hell and nearly cost him his chance at making it to NXT; she had messed him up so bad.

But Paige wasn't her. She was here, in this company, dealing with everything he was. The struggles of being on the road, the backstage bull shit, the injuries, living out of a suitcase, all of that.

"Just be prepared to lose." He said as his way of an invitation, smirk curling his full lips.

"Lose?" Paige's eyes widened before narrowing as she moved to the other side of the board, sitting Indian style. "I don't think so. I'm Diva's Champion, Reigns, I do not lose."

"Yeah, Daddy," Talia piped up. "Paige is Diva's Champion, so you should get ready to lose."

"Hey! What's up with this? You're going to turn on me now, munchkin?"

"Papa always says Reigns' play to win, and I'm a Reigns, so I'm playing to win."

Paige threw her head back and laughed. "Oooooh," She snickered. "Talia told you."

"She won't be telling me nothin' in a couple hours when it's bedtime." Roman grumbled as he rolled the colorful dice, starting the game up once more.