Title: Change
Fandom: TNA
Pairing: Christian Cage/Kevin Nash (with mentions of Christian Cage/AJ Styles)
Synopsis: Christian thinks about how his life, his career and more importantly, his relationships, have changed.
Dedications: My two very best friends. My wifey and waifu, Jasmine and Penny. Everything they do and say seems to inspire me in one way or another. Thank you two, for being such amazing friends. I don't know where I'd be without you.
Author Note: So, I've finally decided to do an actual songfic! The song in question is 'Change' by Sugababes. And I know some of you may think that Christian and Kevin is a stupidly random pairing, and I bet you're all saying "Nothing has even happened between them that makes their relationship remotely slashy!" Well, that's not what I saw on this week's episode of iMPACT…! There's something there. It may be subtle as hell, but I can see it.
Disclaimer: I own nothing mentioned in this fic. All I own is a bitchy Christian!muse who is now grinning from ear to ear at me because I've written this.
And by the way, to my loyal readers of Ties That Bind… I'm working on chapter 6 right now. I don't know when it's going to be finished. But it shall be soon. I promise. I love that fic AND you guys all too much to ever think about putting it on the backburner.
Christian Cage was backstage, making his way down the corridor, his entire body feeling sore from the beating he'd taken from Team 3D and the Angle Alliance less than an hour before. As he found himself outside the dressing room door of the man who had only recently become his newest ally, he took a deep breath, exhaling slowly as the nights' events replayed in his mind once again.
If I could hold you close, like you were never gone
If I could hear your voice, you'd tell me to be strong
He thought with a sickening shudder how AJ and Tomko had held him down in that ring. How they would have been perfectly happy to let Team 3D callously slam that steel chair down on his throat. If it wasn't physically impossible, Christian could have sworn that those two weren't the same AJ and Tomko who, just a few months earlier, had loyally stood in his corner, been not only his teammates but his best friends. And even more than that in AJ's case.
The many memories that he'd made with AJ. The love that they'd shared. It all seemed to flash before Christian's eyes, and to see it all again felt like a dagger in his heart. AJ had betrayed him, plain and simple. And what made it worse is that he never even gave Christian an explanation as to why.
But sometimes I just can't, I just don't understand
Why you had to go, why you had to go, I guess I'll never know
He reached down to the handle on the dressing room door and pushed it open. It made a slight creaking noise as it moved, and he stepped into the room. There was a grey-haired man sat on the leather couch, the right leg of his jeans rolled up, wincing as he pressed an ice bag to his bare knee. He hadn't even noticed Christian's arrival.
"Hey Kev, you alright?" Christian asked, with an amount of compassion in his voice, so much so that it startled him to hear it. Was he supposed to care so much? After all, Christian Cage wasn't supposed to care for anybody but himself anymore. He'd taken that risk with AJ and Tomko, and what had it left him with? Nothing but a broken heart and a knife in his back.
Ain't it funny how you think you're gonna be okay
Til you remember things ain't ever gonna be the same again?
Kevin glanced up, seeming as though he wasn't even fazed by Christian's sudden appearance. "Yeah, I'll be alright, man," he replied, "I've taken worse beatings." He grinned, and Christian couldn't help but grin back.
Kevin's gaze fell back down to his own wounded knee, and Christian made his way across the room, taking a seat on the couch next to the older man.
Neither of them spoke a word to the other, and Christian took the opportunity to just sit there and watch Kevin closely. It was funny, really… Christian would have never in a million years guessed that he'd end up in some kind of unlikely alliance with Kevin Nash and Samoa Joe. The three of them had all insisted that their getting together was nothing to do with friendship, and was simply a business arrangement. But now, Christian could have sworn there was something between him and Kevin. Were they friends? A part of Christian - the stupid, naïve part that he never showed to anyone - hoped that they were. He needed at least one person he could turn to. And Kevin was a good guy, that much was obvious.
…Or was it? AJ had seemed like a good guy at first. And so had Tomko. Christian couldn't make another stupid mistake like that. As much as it hurt him to think it… meeting those two had been a mistake. It felt that way to him, anyway.
Christian didn't want, or need, another person to fuck around with his head and his heart.
"By the way," Kevin said as he looked up at Christian again, breaking the somewhat awkward silence, "If you need me on your team at Lockdown, I'll be there. There's no doubt in my mind that Tomko's going to at least pick AJ for his team, and I'm down for helping you whip both their asses again."
Christian's face seemed to light up. "Yeah?"
"Yeah."
The smile never faltered on Christian's face, as he grabbed the ice bag out of Kevin's hand, and gently pressed it back down onto the older man's bruised knee.
"Man… where have you been all my life?" Kevin said, his voice laced with amusement.
Christian chuckled. "I said that to you earlier."
"Works both ways."
The two men gazed at each other for a few moments, another silence forming between them again. But this time it didn't feel at awkward at all. Christian could have sworn he felt something… a spark?
You don't see it coming, when the future comes knocking
It can make you or break you too, you just have to make it through
Maybe he could learn to trust again. Not every person in the world was like AJ Styles, or Tomko. Just maybe, he decided, this could be the beginning of something beautiful.
Ain't it crazy how you think you've got your whole life planned, just to find that it was never ever in your hands…