Fandom: Wrestling - TNA
Title: Let Loose
Rating: PG
Genre: Romance
Summary: Two scorned best friends and one drunken engagement party. Chris Sabin/OC

"You just have to let loose."

Autumn smiled at the voice behind her. She set her drink down on the table in front of her and turned around, gazing up into his eyes, "What is that supposed to mean?"

Chris Sabin just shook his head and finished off his beer, setting it down next to him and taking her by the elbow, "Come with me."

It was an odd setting. A house full of friends, family, and acquaintances. The celebration of an a engagement, of two people coming together in a decision to spend their lives together as one. The irony of it was, these two people were both exes of the two best friends, Autumn and Chris, who were both wanting to just escape from it all.

"What is going on here, Chris?" Autumn muttered.

He just grinned and pulled her outside, onto the patio, down the stairs, onto the sandy beach that the house was placed on. He was drunk, he knew that. And when he was drunk, he was adventurous and bold. Moreso because she was there with him. Mostly because he just had to get this all off his chest.

"You still love him?" Chris asked as he grabbed her hand and pulled her into the edge of the ocean, allowing the waves to wash over their feet. He felt her entire body stiffen and her eyes averted quickly.

"No." She muttered, "I still have feelings, I guess. But I don't love him."

"Do you hate him?"

"I resent him." She admitted, "For having the audacity to rub this all in my face. The fact he's engaged to the woman he cheated on me with."

Chris laughed, "Then why the hell are you here?"

"Why the hell are you?" She smirked, "You still have feelings for her too."

"I guess I thought...you and me...we could start some shit. Give em a taste of their own medicine."

"Ha!" Autumn kicked the sand beneath her feet, "How do we give them a taste of their medicine? They broke us, Chris. They made us give up everything we ever believed in."

"Did they?" His voice was low, quiet. His eyes were visible to her in the darkness and she could see a deep sadness in them. He was her best friend, and she knew almost everything about him. But she saw something in his gaze that she'd never seen before. An abosolute and utter loneliness that made her heart ache.

"Chris..." She stepped forward, placing her hand on his arm, "Chris, what's wrong? Besides the obvious...I mean, we're better off without them."

"I know we are." He muttered, shaking his head. His words were tripping over his tongue and he wasn't sure how to speak. The waves were rolling, making his head spin, and dropped to the ground, pulling his knees up to his chest and staring out at the ocean.

"Chris." She sat down beside him, slipped her arm around his waist and rested her chin on his arm, "Chris, talk to me."

"I'm trying." He laughed. The woman inside, the woman who broke his heart, she was a bitch. Inside and out, and he'd known it from the moment he thought he fell in love with her. He put up with so much shit, so much abuse and stress from her. Just as he had from every other woman he'd ever thought he loved. Or even just been with. He didn't understand how he'd always had the urge to pursue someone like that, someone who treated him the way she did, when there was someone as amazing as his best friend there beside him. Someone who was there, who cared, who was stern when she needed to be with him and sweet when she needed to be with him. His brain and his heart were fighting, and he didn't know which one was winning.

"Chris!" Autumn had wrapped her arms around his bicep, squeezing hard, trying to get him to look at her, "What did you mean, I need to let loose?"

"I think I was talking to myself..."

"You think?" Autumn smiled against him, "Have you gone crazy and forgot to tell me about it?"

He laughed softly and slipped his arm around her waist, squeezing her tightly against his side, "I think I've always been crazy."

"No you haven't." She reached up and touched his face softly, gazing into his eyes, and her heart skipping a beat as she did so, "You're scaring me, babe. Talk to me."

"Do you love me?"

She froze. Her breath caught in her throat and she fought the goofy half smile that threatened to cross her lips. Of course she did. He was an amazing friend, a beautiful man, inside and out. He was her best friend. She'd battled any other feelings she'd had for him a long time ago. She thought. Now, he was acting funny and strange and the way he was acting was so different to any other time before. "Of course I love you, Chris."

"How?"

She frowned and pushed away from him, but he pulled her close to him. His eyes bore into hers and she felt her heart beating fast in her chest.

"I don't think I deserve you." He said finally, and pulled her into a gentle embrace, "That's why I can't love you."

"What?" Her head snapped up and she stared at him, confused. She didn't even know what he was trying to get across, much less what he was trying to achieve. She knew he was drunk, but was he really this many sheets to the wind?

"That came out wrong..." He frowned and then shook his head, "I mean...I love you. It's weird. You're my best friend, but you're something else too...but I don't feel like I deserve you. Or maybe that you deserve someone better than me."

"Chris!" She dug her nails into her palm to resist the urge to slap him, "What are you even talking about?"

"I mean...I guess...I'm trying to justify why I haven't told you yet."

She was on the verge of pulling her hair out. He was speaking in tongues and riddles and it was driving her crazy. She'd rather he just spit it out. "Chris fucking Sabin, will you just TELL me?"

"I'm in love with you." He spat, and released her from his embrace. He stood up and paced and kicked. He didn't know what was wrong with him. She didn't know what was wrong with him.

She got to her feet, grabbed him by the arms, and kissed him. And it felt better than any kiss from her ex ever did.

"You're an idiot, Chris..." She muttered, "I'm in love with you, too."