WARNING: Slash (as in boy/boy) and some swearing. If you don't like those things, press the back button.
Disclaimer: If I owned WWE, Heath and Justin would still be a tag team and Heath would turn face.
His number one fear was that he would become Prince Charming.
Not that there's anything wrong with fairy tales, of course... It was just that the idea of becoming one scared him senseless. Prince Charming never had a personality, or any aspirations beyond marrying a princess and becoming a king. He was a blank canvas- generic, lifeless, a clone of every other prince before him. That was his worst fear, that he would cease to be Justin Gabriel and only be known as Prince Charming and The Pretty Boy and That South African Guy.
He was so much more than that. He had so, so much more potential... Didn't they see that when they labeled him? Didn't they see the pain it caused to be judged and given a permanent stamp that defined who he was?
No, nobody saw it.
Well, nobody but Heath.
Justin's always felt that Heath knew him better than anybody else in the world. Heath saw past the "pretty boy" exterior, past the expectations, to who Justin really was inside. And in return, Justin did the same thing for Heath, going past what everyone thought, tearing down the walls to reach the core, Heath's real self. The bond between them was incomprehensible, indestructible, something beautiful and rare...
But then Fate stuck Justin with Kelly Kelly.
Kelly she was exactly what the media portrayed as an "All-American Girl": she had long blond hair, blue eyes, and a stick-skinny waistline. She smiled constantly, keeping up a façade of sweetness and innocence that she never dared to break in public. Justin, similarly, was attractive and kind, the sort of man that women would fight over. On paper, they were the perfect couple...
Just like Ken and Barbie.
Just like a Disney princess and her Prince Charming.
Just the way that Justin never, ever wanted to be.
It wasn't that he didn't like Kelly- he did. She liked to talk and Justin liked to listen. She was nice (to him, at least), and they talked all the time about fashion and celebrities, sometimes gossiping like giggly teenage girls.
And there was the issue: she was more like a vapid teenage sister to him, not a sexy and perfect Barbie girlfriend. He just never thought of her like that. Their relationship, when you got down to it, was more like that of best friends. When Kelly had a problem, she would run to Justin to complain about it; they would get their hair done together; they would chat and gossip and hang out and act like best friends.
And nothing more than best friends.
The idea of being with her (or with any woman, for that matter) made him feel all kinds of wrong inside... Heath understood the feeling, though he never expirienced it himself- and yet Kelly just didn't get it.
She saw it like a math equation, really- one plus one equals two and it always will, no exceptions, finis. But real life is never like a math equation, with definite steps to get to a definite answer that will never change no matter what you do. Life is an always-changing, always-flowing realm of possibility. There are so many answers and so many paths that it's over-whelming, something that nobody can truly understand, and to think that things will always end up one way is stupidity at its finest.
And yet she still believed that they were meant to be.
So Kelly flirted shamelessly with Justin, batting her eyelashes and inviting him on dates that he never knew were dates, until the day that he was so entangled in her web of expectations that he simply couldn't get out. It felt like he was drowning, but he was too deep in the water to break through the surface again, and he didn't even realize he had gotten in so deep.
It felt like the worst thing in the world when she kissed him. Her lips were too soft and too red- wrong, wrong, wrong. Justin wanted to tell her how horrible it was, but Heath had advised him against it.
"You don't tell the chick you're datin' that her kisses make you sick," he'd said, "She'll think you're gay or somethin', naw mean?"
"I think I am gay," Justin had whispered, looking away from his friend.
Heath raised an eyebrow at that. "It's fine if you are, Angel," he said, using his affectionate nickname for his friend, "then you gotta tell 'er that or else you'll both be miserable."
Heath had been right.
But how, exactly, does Ken go about telling Barbie that he's gay?
Everyone else thought that they were so perfect together, like God had created Justin for the sole purpose of being with Kelly. It was sickening, really, to think that his whole world should revolve around her, that he was her soul mate. And, despite the many, many people who said it was true, his heart always said No. Because, deep down, Justin knew that his heart belonged to Heath.
It made so much sense- much more sense than being with Kelly. Heath understood him, and understood his desire to be seen beyond Prince Charming. Whenever they saw each other they would smile uncontrollably and, honestly, the idea of not having Heath anymore made Justin want to die.
The day that Heath kissed him, Justin felt like he was about to die of happiness. Finally, finally, he'd found someone who made him feel right and happy and who, to Justin, actually had sex appeal. It was so obvious that they were made for each other- Justin wasn't just made for Heath with no purpose beyond that. When they were together, he mattered. He wasn't just Ken or a blank cavas, he was Justin.
He was real.
Justin had an affair with Heath after that. It made him feel extremely guilty, but it wasn't like he wanted to be with Kelly- she had pulled him in. It wasn't like he wanted to be gay, because if he'd had a choice, he would be straight just to make his life easier. So was it really Justin's fault? Was he really responsible for cheating? Was it his fault he'd fallen in love with his male best friend and felt only friendship toward his supposed-to-be-girlfriend?
Well, according to Kelly and all of her friends, it was entirely Justin's fault. She had done no wrong.
Brie Bella had found them in the hallway of the hotel everyone was staying in, lips smashed together, Heath gripping Justin possesively. Her instinct was that Heath was attacking Justin, but when Justin started moaning the redhead's name, she knew her instinct had been wrong. She snapped a picture of them and off she went, her sister Nikki following closely behind, to go show Kelly Kelly that her prince had been frenching a court jester.
Naturally, she freaked out, throwing things and screaming and throwing the biggest tantrum anyone had ever seen. She insisted that the Bella twins were lying through their teeth, that they'd doctored the photo, that it just wasn't real. She'd confronted Justin about it with her friend, Eve Torres, there for moral support. Justin had been talking to Heath at the time, and it made Kelly sick to see them together. Almost as sick as Heath got whenever he saw the "Blond Barbie Bitch."
Kelly showed them the picture, her hand shaking, and asked in a loud voice for them to explain what the fuck they were doing in that hallway.
"I... K-Kelly, I..." Justin couldn't find the words.
Heath put his arm around him and said point-blank, "Me and Justin are together."
Thank God Eve had been there to hold Kelly back from slapping Heath. She was screaming, crying her eyes out, begging Justin to say that it wasn't true. To say that he loved her. To say anything. Instead, he shrugged, giving her an ashamed smile like that of a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar. Guilt gnawed at him the way despair gnawed at Kelly's naive heart.
"You stole my boyfriend!" she yelled, thrashing in an attempt to break free of Eve's hold.
"Bitch, he was mine all along!" Heath spat.
"Oh, God, just stop it all," Justin was muttering, "Please make everything stop... I don't want to go through this..."
Kelly tried everything in her power to make them miserable. Despite the sweetness she showed on screen, she was at her nastiest backstage: spreading rumors about Heath and Justin, trying to get them fired, trying to get other Superstars and Divas to mock them. Nothing she did ever worked. By the time that this was going on, she had lost the Divas title and was always frowning on screen. Kelly didn't care about anything anymore: if you watched her matches, you would see that she was bored and angry and wanted everyone to be as miserable as she was.
Justin begged for forgivness, which Kelly never gave. He'd felt truly, terribly guilty until she had approached him one day backstage.
"Why?" she asked, "Why Heath and not me?"
"Kelly, I'm..." Justin swallowed, trying to say the words aloud, "I'm gay. I'm in love with Heath."
"Who the hell would pick Heath over me?" she said, as if the mere thought was laughable, "I'm fucking perfect! I'm the golden girl of this entire company! Boys are always begging for my autographs!"
"I'm gay, Kelly," he repeated. "I can't feel like that for you, believe me, I've tried."
"I'm beautiful, damnit!" she continued, "I deserve the Divas title, I deserve the perfect boyfriend, and I deserve the perfect life!"
"Well things aren't always perfect, you spoiled brat!" Justin snapped. She stared at him for awhile, jaw dropped, before glaring at him. Justin left, but he could hear her mutter something along the lines of, "It's not my fault you're a fag..."
The realization hit Justin like a ton of bricks. She didn't want Justin, but a generic man who would worship her like a goddess, treat her like a princess. She wanted Justin to be exactly what he refused to be, and that right there was all the proof in the world that they were never truly meant to be together.
Justin didn't feel guilty anymore- instead, he allowed himself to be happy and be with Heath. Whatever rumors Kelly spread, however many times Eve and Alicia Fox glared at them, no matter how many times Heath had to flip them off, Justin didn't let himself be guilty. He deserved so much better than being The Pretty Boy and That South African Guy and Prince Charming. Justin was going to be an important wrestler in WWE, with or without Kelly. He would never fall into the stereotype he was given, he would never submit to what Kelly and Eve thought was right, he would never be where they thought he was supposed to go.
Because deep down, he knew that he was supposed to be with Heath Slater. That was where he really belonged, and as long as he had Heath by his side, Justin could and would conquer the world.
I hope you enjoyed it. Please give me a review, I really love them. :)