AN: I've been watching recent RAWs and reading some fics about the whole deal between Shawn and Hunter and while I do like quite a bit of angst and there's a lot of it in this story as you'll see, I also wanted to do something uplifting, 'cause God knows these two deserve it these days. BTW, this is my first slash story and it is not kayfabe.

All we need

It hasn't been the same, I know that.

Ever since the plans have been laid out for Wrestlemania, something has changed between us. Maybe it's because we're not going to be a team anymore, maybe it's because we're supposed to go in opposite directions: me and The Undertaker on one way, him and Sheamus for the Championship on another. Maybe it's because we're spending more time apart than before because of these things I'm not sure. But I do know that when we're together, there is this suffocating distance between us and it's killing me inside. I might say I don't care about us or him when the cameras are rolling, but in reality I still care. I still love, but it doesn't seem good enough for him.

We fight more. At first it was just playful banter like we'd been used to since forever, but these days they seem to transform into full blown arguments where we end up almost tearing each other's hair out and sleeping in different rooms of our house. And most of the time, I don't even know what we were fighting about in the first place. I don't remember the last time he's held me, kissed me and told me he loved me. Or me doing the same to him. And the last time we made love, for that matter. Our home has become a warzone and I don't really know if we're going to get through this.

'Thing is, we've been through worse before: addictions, injuries, you name it. He's always been there for me and I for him. That's always been our motto, the rule we live by, so that no matter what happened, we were never without each other. But these days, maybe being without each other is what we need.

I love him, God knows I do. I don't want to leave him, but I can't stand this pain anymore...

I just...

"Shawn?"

A hand on my shoulder interrupted my thoughts. I'm turned around and he looks at me in the most pain I've ever seen him in, eyes red and cheeks stained from crying. We stand here in our livingroom where I had been gathering my thoughts about what I wanted to say to him, my intentions being to go away and never coming back, but as I look at him I see that he's been through the same hell that I've been through. That despite the fighting and the silence, he still care about me as much as the first time we met. That he still loves me just like I still love him.

He holds my face in his hands and kisses me with the fire that I thought was long extinguished. I don't know how long we stay there, in each other's arms, getting to know each other's heart again, but I do know that when we finally pull apart, this is all we can say to each other:

"I'm sorry."

"Me too."

"I love you."

"I love you too."

...

Things are better now. We made changes at work and at home. No Championship for him this year, he said to me. He said he'd rather never be Champion for the rest of his life than go through what we've just been through again. No, this time he's going to be with me at Wrestlemania and we'll both be against the Undertaker. This shall be interesting. And as the three of us are sitting here talking about what the future holds, I just can't help but to look at him and he looks back at me.

He smiles.

I smile.

In the end, maybe each other is all we needed.