Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. They are the property of Vince McMahon and the WWE, I'm only borrowing them for a little while. :)
AN: Hey there, just another HBK/HHH fic to read right here, but since I've been reading a lot of Merlin/Arthur fanfics lately, I got inspired, so I wrote an reincarnation fic! Let me know what you think. :)
The first time they ever saw each other, they didn't even know the other's name. There was an assembly at the center of the village, with a stage set up, all ready for an execution. Apparently, a thief had been caught trying to steal gold and jewels from the king's castle and as this was one of the highest offence in the kingdom that you could accomplish, the scoundrel had been sentenced to death.
As usual, the public execution was quite the affair. You could count the crowd by the hundreds, even by the thousands to see this criminal getting what he rightfully deserved. Among those present was a simple peasant, dressed in high black leather boots and a ragged coat, with his blond hair tied up in a ponytail and brown eyes darting left and right while chatting with the person next to him. He had come like the others to witness the macabre spectacle and had made a spot of his own in one of the first rows of the assembly.
The crowd suddenly hushed as the executioner brought up the steps a man in chains, struggling to keep up the pace. He too, like the peasant, had long blonde hair, but his was darker and his eyes were bright blue. The thief was brought down to his knees with a loud thud, but kept his head down as if he was too ashamed to face the crowd that was looking at him, judging him. The masked man above him asked in a loud voice: "Do you have any last words, criminal?" as he picked up his mortal instrument. The thief didn't respond and raised up his head, a look of defiance on his face when suddenly, he made eye-contact with the brown-eyed man standing in the second row. An inexplicable moment happened between the two of them, because even though they had never seen each other before this very moment and had never spoken a word to one another, a bond was created somehow between the two of them with neither one knowing and all they could do was stare at each other.
The last moment the peasant saw the thief alive was just before the axe fell on his neck, when the scoundrel simply stared at the other man, with a smile on his face.
The peasant never forgot that smile and those eyes as he went on with the rest of his life and until his grave, he wondered the other's name.
The second time they saw one another was a couple of hundred years later. This time, they at least learned the other's name. One was Hunter, the other was Shawn. And they had at least had a couple of conversations. They had to, because they were cellmates. It was a time of revolution here in the new land and they had fought in the same army with their muskets and cannons in tow. Unfortunately, they had been found one night trying to infiltrate an English post by the enemy and had been arrested along with a couple of others, had been found guilty of treachery and were now being sentenced to death. Somehow, in that cluttered cell, they found companionship in one another and found their conversations fun, enlightening, even sanity-saving. Because both of them knew what awaited them and their only solace was the other's presence. Then, on the morning of their supposed deaths, a guard came and entered the cell. "The King of England has pardoned you, Michaels, so you can leave now." Ecstatic, Shawn burst up in tears and joyfully hugged Hunter as his chains were removed. "Wait, what about him?" Shawn asked after a moment when he realized that Hunter wasn't being released from his own set of chains. "Oh, he's coming with us. Come on now, out you go!" the guard replied as he grabbed Shawn's arm to drag him out of the cell while another grabbed Hunter and began walking him to the execution court. Desperate, both men tried to reach for the other, trying to escape the guards' grips while shouting to be let go. In the little time they had together, the bond that been formed previously with just a look and a smile had grown now that words had been exchanged between them. They had quickly become friends and didn't want the time that they had spent together to be cut so short.
In the end, it took three guards to drag a thrashing Shawn out of the cell and thrown into the street. As soon as he was released from the guards' arms and the huge doors of the prison closed, Shawn threw himself at them and began shouting: "Let me in! I have to see him! Hunter!" But it was all in vain as the next sound he heard was rounds of bullets being shot and he knew at that moment that he would never see the other man again.
The next time that they were together, they were brothers in arms. They had grown up together, they had laughed, played and fought with each other time and time again, their bond having grown exponentially. Right now though, they were fighting side by side in a war, somewhere along the European countryside in the 20th century.
"Come on buddy, we're almost there, only two miles to go now!" Hunter encouraged Shawn while carrying him with an arm around his shoulder, the other man with a bullet stuck in his gut. They had both been caught in enemy fire and while trying to save Hunter from a fatal blow, Shawn was the one who ended up gravely injured. He was getting in and out of consciousness, partly from the blood loss and partly from being tired from walking towards the infirmary that was supposed to take care of him. The only thing that was keeping him awake now was Hunter keeping talking to him and shielding the most of his weight now on himself.
Shawn had lost track of time now, with being awake and out of it all this time when he suddenly felt himself stop walking and being laid on something. He opened his eyes a bit and asked in a weak voice: "Where are we?" "Sorry, Hunter replied, just taking a break, a bit tired."
Shawn used some of his remaining strength to move his body upwards and looked around. They were in a muddy ditch that the enemy had occupied long ago, there were empty shells and blood stains everywhere. He looked at Hunter and somehow found him paler than he usually was. Shawn rested his head on Hunter's knee where it had been previously laid on when they had arrived and tried to close his eyes to rest, but the bullet wound was causing him more and more pain as he tried to breathe.
As Shawn tried to put pressure on his wound with his hands, his weak eyes found themselves looking once again at Hunter, who was also doing the same, blood sipping from a wound of his own on his left shoulder, near his chest. Somewhere, somehow, Shawn realized now why Hunter had stopped their trek.
"We're nowhere near the infirmary, are we?" Shawn asked weakly, tears starting to form in his eyes.
"No, sorry about that." Hunter replied, trying to focus his eyes on Shawn but failing, his breathing growing shallower and shallower by the minute.
"It's okay, at least we're in this together, from the start until the end, just like we promised, right?" Shawn said, the hand that was holding his wound reaching out and touching the other's, their fingers becoming entangled and bloody.
"Right." Hunter answered, his eyes closing and a smile forming on his face.
This was how they were found the next morning, both dead for the world to see, in that old muddy ditch, with hands entwined and a smile on their faces.
The last time that they were together, they knew each other's names along with other things nobody else knew about. They did nothing punishable by death and the wars that they were taking part of were fake. They had become the best of friends almost the moment they first laid eyes on each other and the silly situations they could get into and the discussions they had could last sometimes deep into the night. But somewhere along the way, the bond that they had formed that they thought had begun just a couple of years ago but in reality had started a lifetime ago had developed into something even bigger than the both of them. What were once friendly looks became longing glances, what were once pats on the shoulder became lingering touches and then one night, after a late dinner after a show and a stroll down a park somewhere, the bond finally accomplished its final goal when in the light of a lamppost, a hand reached out and entangled another hand, in the light of the moon in a hotel room a pair of twin smiles approached each other and kissed for the first time and in the light of dawn two people entangled in white sheets satiated and happy said their love for one another for the very first time.
And it was at that moment that the both of them knew they would be together for a very long time.
Please leave a review, it would mean the world to me, thanks a lot. :)