Title: The Night
Summary: Those three little words is all anyone wants to hear. So how can he freak out when they are spoken to him.
Notes: This is inspired by the song 'Janie don't take your love to town' by Bon Jovi, specifically one lyric. Hunter's POV.
Warnings & Pairings: Shawn/Hunter

I'd never had a declaration of my love turn into such a disaster before now.

But then, I'd never declared my love to Shawn Michaels before.

With him, everything was complicated.

Everything had been pretty normal that day. We'd done a house show, gone back to the hotel and me and Shawn had decided to hang out in his room for a little while first. It was almost impossible to go back to your room after a show and go straight to sleep, you needed to unwind a while first.

So we did.

Of course, for us, things were different. Because besides being friends, close friends, me and Shawn had ventured into a relationship. I guess at first it had just been a case of 'blowing off steam' and the term 'fuck buddy' always came to mind, although I've always hated that term, at least when it involves me and Shawn as I feel there's more to it than that. Fuck buddies don't hold one another for the rest of the night. They don't share with one another those deep secrets that you'd never tell anyone else. And when one of you falls asleep, they don't take the oppurtunity to take in the way the person in your arms, feels and smells so that when you're apart from them the next day, you'll be able to think back to those precious moments.

Nope, I certainly wasn't in fuck buddy mode.

Shawn was obviously in a different place to me. Not that he'd ever told me that. Maybe I should have known but I just felt that those times when we were together, and he'd let me wrap him in a tight embrace in bed even when we weren't about, or just finished having sex, I thought that was Shawn's way of letting me know that he was happy with us moving on.. moving forward.

So when we were fooling about this night and getting carried away with one another I said those three dreaded words that the commitment phobe's fear. Shawn's never been wary of relationship's that I've seen. Even having one failed marriage under his belt hadn't put him off. So this was different, but I didn't think he thought it was.

The words just slipped between my lips before I'd really registered I'd said them. "I love you."

Shawn's reaction was not in words, but in actions. He looked pretty stunned by it, and he instantly distanced himself from me. He slipped off the bed and just taking the minimal amount of time to pull his pants back on, he left me there alone.

Getting walked out on because you say you love someone?

It can only happen with Shawn.

I didn't follow him. If he'd left angry, or drunk or angry and drunk then I would have, but he obviously wanted to get away from what was in the room, namely me. So I let him go.

I knew he'd be back soon enough. I could wait.

I would wait

I guess the waiting game is sometimes harder than you think, because I was woken by a loud banging on the door. My eyes were bleary from sleep and I wasn't sure how long I'd been asleep. I didn't even realise I'd been asleep until I woke.

I got up and quickly made my way across the room. I opened the door to see a rather peeved looking Davey Boy seemingly propping Shawn up between himself and the wall.

"Here, you take 'im." He said, pulling Shawn from the wall and shoving him in my direction. I grabbed hold of Shawn to steady him and smiled weakly at the other man. "Thanks." I muttered as I closed the door and directed Shawn to the bed.

He fell across it in a graceless motion. I took the few clothes he had off, leaving him to sleep in his boxers.

"You're an idiot. You had to ruin everything." Shawn muttered from the bed.

I felt a slight stabbing at my heart at those brutal words thrown at me. "Shawn, I'm sorry."

He didn't seem to hear me, because he continued regardless.

"It was all fine, but you can't leave anything alone. Everything you touch gets ruined. You're disgusting" He took in a deep sharp breath.

I move round so he can see me. "Shawn, listen, I'm sorry if I upset you."

His unfocused gaze tried to settle on me and he gets a confused look for a moment ot two before it clears. "I'm not talkin' 'bout you, stupid, I'm talkin' 'bout me." His face goes from one of drunken ignorance to a look of genuine anguish. "How can you love me when I don't even like me?"

Hunter felt a deep sadness that the man he loved could have such low self esteem about himself. Especially when he knew that tomorrow, he'd put on an act in front of everyone to show how nothing really got to him. He didn't expect Shawn to want an answer, he wasn't even sure it was a question, but as Shawn moved slightly so that he was not fully looking at Hunter, eyes awaiting an answer, he knew he had to say something.

"I don't know if I can convince you with words, Shawn. Especially not tonight. But you think you're not worth loving, then every moment we spend together I'll prove that you deserve to be loved the way I love you. Whole hearted, passionate, a million percent commited to you. And then maybe, you'll start to like yourself."

I lean in closer to him, his eyes are heavy with sleep.

"Hunter?"

"Yeah?"

"Will you tell me that again in the morning?"

"Sure. And every morning after." I kiss his head gently and climb into bed with him. And as I pull him close to me and feel his warmth, I promise myself that I will make him not only like himself, but love himself.

And then maybe he'll be able to love me back.

The End