"Standing in the Way of Control"

Written by SRC

Chapter I

"Look, Brian! There's a message in my cereal! It says "oooooh"."

"Peter. Those are Cheerio's."

Milk and partially chewed up Fruit Loops, came spewing out of John Cena's mouth and running down is chin as he laughed out loud. He brought the bowl up to catch any mess that had not already landed on the floor in front of him and wiped at his mouth with the back of his old high school football team's sweatshirt sleeve. The soft navy blue cotton was already speckled with various stains from the bad habit.

Lounging on the typical springy, lumpy, hotel couch, in a pair of mesh gym shorts and a backwards Red Sox cap, he was also sporting a large heating pack that was sandwiched between the sweatshirt and a old ratty wife-beater. The wire snaked out from under his shirts and was plugged into the wall along with his laptop battery, where "Family Guy" was taking his mind off of a couple strained muscles and a headache that seemed to bloom from the back of his eyes.

It was the afternoon after the match between Hunter, Adam and he and he had been up since 8:00 am alternating between icing and heating his aching muscles. The three of them had practiced the scene a dozen times, nearly all of them flawless. But when Hunter went to slam him down, he fell directly on his back, instead of taking some of the impact into his legs like he had practiced. So, for the last day in Chicago, with no work tomorrow, John was stuck on a couch, not checking out Wrigley Field, or strolling down Michigan Avenue.

This must be bad karma for something, he thought as he readjusted the heating pack and turned his attention back to the monitor and Peter Griffin and pouring himself more Fruit Loops.

Just as he took a giant spoonful of fruity cereal into his mouth, Shawn Michaels knocks on the already open door.

" -slurp-Cmmnnn.-slurp-" More milk came out of his mouth as he tried to speak.

At some sort of recognition, Shawn stepped fully into the dimly lit room. The first thing he noticed was that the bed was still pristinely made with all corners still tucked in. But that was the only thing kept about the room; clothes were everywhere. T-shirts and jeans mostly, but also some dress shirts, ties and khakis from a few press conferences. Taco Bell bags were hap-hazardly crumpled up and thrown at the trashcan by the door; Cena only had about a 50 accuracy rate. Carefully maneuvering his frame around the clothes and garbage, he made his way over to the sofa where John had stationed himself.

As John swallowed the food, he looked up to see the Heartbreak Kid. Shawn was stylishly dressed in well fitted khaki cords, a snug zipped-up cobalt blue hooded sweatshirt that seemed to make his eyes even more blue, with a tweed sports blazer on top. His dirty blonde hair was pulled cleanly back in a ponytail.

He gave a crooked grin to the older man. "Hey, man."

Shawn leaned against the wall and crossed his arms across his chest and gave a nod of recognition.

Once again taking in the man casual attire, he asked, "So what did you do all day?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "Walked around Michigan Ave. and Rush Street, then some of the girls wanted to go to the zoo, so we walked around Lincoln Park for a bit."

"You went to the zoo! I haven't been to the zoo in like, 18 years!" He tried not to make that sound as sulky as he wanted too.

Shawn looked at him strangely, "Ok? Are you a ten-year-old little girl? Or a 27 year-old-wrestler?"

"Don't be a smart-ass. I was stuck in this couch all day, while you were out there, walking around. Yeah I know, this is my own fault."

He walked over to where the young man was. "Are you still in that much pain? Because Between the pain killers and the icing and heating, you should be getting at least a fraction better."

"Yeah. I think it's just my muscles. I've just hit that stage where you have to get worse before it feels better."

Shawn put his hand the base of John's neck and massaged and watched as John immediately straightened up and squeezed his eyes shut. He laughed a little, "You'll be alright, kid."

He opened his eyes and scowled before rolling out his shoulder. "Oh well, thank you, Doctor."

Shawn let out a throaty, gruff laugh and smiled so big John got a glimpse of dimples and laugh lines. "don't be a smartass", he continued to chuckle.

John chuckled back, "so did you come to make fun of me, or did you have something else?" He continued to spoon in cereal and munch loudly.

"Yeah, totally. Um… right. So a couple of the guys and some of the girls are going to do the whole bar hopping scene. Hunter decided to take the Red-eye back a day early though. You in?"

"Chris, you're hogging up all the fans."
"Well, you're hogging up all the... ugly!"

And with that line, John once again lost control and burst out laughing, spraying Shawn with a fine spray of milk.

Shawn just stood there with his mouth open. "That's disgusting, John." But Cena was to busy choking on fragmented fruit loops to comment back.

"What are you even watching? Cartoons?" as the older man focused on the monitor.

Still laughing, "What? Oh, yeah. Just think of it as this generation 'The Simpson's'."

Still watching the show and cracking a smile and a chuckle at the scene playing, Shawn grunted a 'huh.'.

"Hey you want to hang out here with me tonight? I was going to watch "Anchorman" for the 100th time." He gave Shawn puppy eyes. "And I'm in serious need for human interaction… I'll buy Chicago style pizza…" he bribed.

"Ha. You're funny, man. We're in Chicago, one of the biggest cities, and you want me to stay in and eat pizza with you?"

"And watch "Anchorman" John said defensively.

"No, man. Sorry. We have like one night off ever week. I need to get out of the hotel."

"Yeah, it's cool man. Have a good time." And he grabbed the blanket that had fallen to the floor and pulled it around his waist as he laid his head against the throw pillow propped up against the arm of the sofa and continued to watch Family Guy.

Shawn stared at the young man and watched him for a minute before turning to leave. "Feel better."

Notes:

This is my first wrestling fic. It's slash, because within the last two weeks or so, Cena and Michaels have been in the most compromising positions. I just had to do it.

Enjoy and Review.

Pee Ess. I don't own anything you recognize. Are we kosher?