Rating: PG - mild m/m content
Continuity: June 27, 2003 - please see notes for details
Characters: Christopher Daniels, AJ Styles
Summary: "But Chris Daniels was six weeks and seven hundred miles away."
Notes: This is about the craziest fic I'll ever write in terms of continuity. This is set June 27, 2003, one day before ROH's "Wrestlerave", three days after a TNA PPV (AMW vs. XXX in a cage match for the tag titles), and seven days before Daniels' tour as Curry Man in New Japan. His New Japan tour didn't actually last a month, but that's why this is fiction.
80 Miles to Philadelphia
It was two hours and eighty miles to Philadelphia. Chris Daniels sat in a chair in the motel room and peered out the side of the curtains, watching the sparse traffic pass by on the junction and the sky gradually take light. The blue glow of pre-dawn reminded Daniels of AJ's eyes, but the man himself was just behind him, sleeping away on the bed. Peaceful, something that was just a fingertips' reach away from Daniels at the moment, though he was neither upset nor disturbed. Too thoughtful, he supposed, as he followed with his eyes the path of an early bird across the sky. He could be warm right now, under the covers with AJ, but he couldn't sleep.
It was AJ's idea to find a motel before they hit Philadelphia, so here they were at the Discount Inn in a room with two double beds for appearance's sake. Sometimes, Daniels thought, there was an advantage to being "small" in the wrestling business. Being six foot four and three hundred pounds might serve one well in the ring, but it brought nothing but discomfort in a hotel bed not catered to the larger-framed. "Small" as he and AJ might be, however, they were still a tight fit on the double, but that wasn't the reason why Daniels couldn't sleep.
Aches would be a part of it. He was just barely three days from that cage match with AMW that finished the PPV with a bang. Fortune had smiled upon them, and nobody was injured, though Daniels liked to think that fortune had less to do with that and more with the combined skills of he, Elix, Harris, and Storm. But once the adrenaline had faded, the old aches returned with new friends, and not even pride at their accomplishment could serve as an analgesic. Even sitting here now, still, he could feel the stiffness in his knees and back that would have to be worked away before arriving at the Murphy Rec Center tomorrow.
So yes, aches had something to do with it.
Anticipation was perhaps the other half of it. Ring of Honor was tomorrow, and his flight to Japan was the day after that. A brawl with Punk and then fourteen hours on a plane was not his idea of a good time, but neither brought true anxiety, nothing that would rob him of his sleep. Maybe there was some lingering concern about his position in TNA, whether he would still have a place in the company in a month's time, but he had come to find that opportunities were always just around the corner. If TNA would not have him, another promotion would.
No, truth be told, what kept him awake was thoughts of the man who slept like a baby behind him. It was two hours and eighty miles to Philadelphia, fourteen hours and seven thousand miles to Yokohama, but Chris Daniels was six weeks and seven hundred miles away. He thought of Nashville, the Asylum, and that moment, six weeks ago, when his lips touched AJ's for the first time.
He couldn't stop thinking about it.
They were both tired and sweaty. AJ's hair was in five million directions, and Daniels' shorts rode up in the most uncomfortable manner. His tag belt kept slipping over his shoulder as he made his way toward the locker room, and all he could do was groan in annoyance when the belt gave up and plopped to the floor. AJ was limping ahead of him, but he stopped, turned, and picked it up for him. As AJ rose, Daniels looked at that face lined with ache and kissed those parted lips like he had been given a sudden commandment.
He hadn't even known he wanted AJ until the moment their lips met. And he hadn't known AJ wanted him in return until AJ kissed back. Hard.
Six weeks of passion, and at the height of their fire, Daniels had to leave for a month. Ring of Honor didn't worry him. New Japan didn't worry him. He had long since grown used to the wear, the schedule, the hectic back and forth. This lifestyle was an old hat, familiar as the back of his hand, but AJ was new. What they had was new. Precarious.
Daniels didn't fear the loss of passion, the dying of the fire. Those things were easy come, easy go, like tryout matches and contract offers. Wrestling was a contact sport and there would never be a shortage of opponents in and out of the ring. But there was something else here. Something more between them. Potential. And he didn't want to lose that.
He didn't want to lose the hints of tenderness that AJ was beginning to give.
"Chris?"
Daniels turned in his seat and found AJ blinking blearily in his direction.
"Whatcha doin' up?"
"Just thinking."
AJ sighed sleepily. "Come back to bed."
It was a request Daniels couldn't deny. He stood from his seat and returned to the bed, climbing under the covers. AJ wrapped around him the moment he settled, and shivered at the contact.
"Brrr, you're cold."
But AJ didn't pull away.
Daniels rested his hand on AJ's arm across his stomach, turned his head, and studied the profile of AJ's face. He and AJ were friends before this, good friends, and he knew that wouldn't change, but they lived in a world where championships could be lost in fifteen minutes: a month was a long time to be away.
He didn't want to lose this. He didn't want this to end before it had begun.
But maybe he shouldn't underestimate AJ's perseverance.
For a long moment, Daniels watched AJ sleep. Then, he leaned in and touched a soft kiss to AJ's lips.
Uncertainty, that was the business, wrestling or otherwise. There was only one thing he could be sure about: he was going to miss AJ.
He hoped that AJ was going to miss him, too.
end