I just watched the Royal Rumble on Pay-Per-View. I have to say that I'm very much pissed and saddened by some of the things that happened, but satisfied by other things. There are some spoilers in here about the RR matches, but I hope no one minds. I'm not giving everything away, like who wins the 30 man Royal Rumble match itself, because that would be a little bit mean.

This is my take on what could have happened had Shannon been watching the Royal Rumble with Matt back in North Carolina. And oh my Gods, this is actually written in third person, which I'm finally getting used to writing in again. Onward toward the fic!

Devastation

Shannon hadn't been able to make it to Madison Square Garden to watch is best friend/ crush Jeff Hardy face Randy Orton for the WWE Championship. That made him sad, but he decided that since Matt Hardy, Jeff's brother, was stuck at his home in North Carolina, Shannon might as well spend the evening with him and watch the Royal Rumble on Pay-Per-View.

"Yo, Matt, open up." Shannon called from the front porch. His arms were loaded down with chips and drinks and he couldn't open the door on his own.

Matt tottered toward the door and swung it open for his friend and looked at the Kroger bags in Shannon's hands. "Get enough stuff?" He asked as he rubbed at his back.

"I think so." The blond cruiserweight shrugged and made his way to the television room. "Never can have too much chips and soda. Did you order it yet?"

"Yeah, it should come on in about ten minutes. Wish we could have made it up to New York though." Matt eased himself down in one of the recliners as Shannon drops the bags onto the coffee table. "Would have been nice to be there for Jeff. Mom's there though, so that's good."

"Yeah, someone had to be there for him." Shannon dug through the bags, retrieved a twenty-four ounce Monster M-80, and moved over to the couch. He wiggled to get comfortable before popping the top of the can.

Matt looked at him in mild disgust. "You can't seriously be drinking that."

He looked at the can before taking a swig. "Eh, looks like I am."

"Nasty. Did you get me my Pepsi?" Matt leaned forward to start digging in one of the bags.

"Yeah, it's in there. I'd rather have Monster than Pepsi."

"You're gonna kill yourself with that shit." Matt rescued his two liter of regular Pepsi from the other energy drink cans in the drink bag. "Now can it, it's starting." He leaned back and turned his attention to the big screen television across the room.

Shannon glared at Matt but turned his attention to the Royal Rumble as well. The first match, a Career Threatening Match between Ric Flair and Montel Vontavious Porter, which Ric Flair won, went well, no real surprises. Both Matt and Shannon cheered on Ric Flair, seeing as both men liked the Hall of Famer and Matt had a bad history with MVP. The second match, a grudge match between John Bradshaw Layfield and Chris Jericho, drew a greater response from the two men in the room.

"JBL needs to get his ass kicked, hard." Shannon took another deep swallow of the fruity energy drink and made a contented noise. "He had no right reacting the way he did, or interrupting Chris' match against Edge like that." He shook his head. "Damm it. He got disqualified." Jericho had just hit JBL with a steel chair, getting himself disqualified.

"Totally. Oh, shit that hurts. Whoa, Chris doesn't seem to care that he lost." And it was true, Jericho wailed on JBL even though he was bleeding profusely. When Jericho brought the TV cable into play, both men watching whooped happily.

"Finally! Some payback for JBL's shit!" hollered Shannon.

"You go Chris!"

They calmed down after Jericho let JBL free of the choke by the cable and headed backstage. The next match got them riled up again when Vicky Guerrero cheated to help Edge win his title match against Rey Mysterio. They threw chips at the television and cursed Vicky for getting in the way.

When Maria came out to do the Kiss Cam, Shannon had to half pretend to find Maria as hot as Matt seemed to find her. When Ashley came out to ask Maria if she would pose for Playboy, Shannon was more enthusiastic, finding the more punkish Ashley hotter than Maria by quite a bit. Matt was practically drooling and they both threw more potato chips at the screen when Santino Marella threw his normal fit and tried to order Maria around.

"Santino needs another ass beating."

"Yeah, but if it happens, he'll probably say something about opening a can of "ass-whip" and that's just disturbing." Matt grinned at the same time as he looked slightly queasy at the thought of Santino talking at all.

Shannon nodded and growled at the television.

Matt looked and saw a Randy Orton promo video playing and joined Shannon's growl. When the promo video switched to Jeff's, the dark haired man flashed Jeff's hand-sign with a grin. "This is gonna be a good match."

Shannon couldn't contain himself while watching Jeff's promo. He sang along to the Lost Prophets song that played in the background and practically bounced in his seat. In the back of his mind, he knew that if he wasn't careful Matt would notice him giving Jeff more attention than he'd given to Ashley. That was all he needed, Matt finding out Shannon had a thing for Jeff.

When Jeff's entrance music started, Shannon couldn't stop himself, he stood up and did Jeff's hip-thrusting, arm-shaking entrance at the same time that Jeff did it. Matt laughed loudly at that.

"Go Shan!" He laughed and flashed Jeff's hand sign once more. Randy Orton's entrance theme started and both men booed angrily. "God, he's full of himself."

Shannon nodded and chugged the last of his M-80. He leaned forward and grabbed a fruit punch flavored NOS energy drink and popped the top on it. He took a drink and set the can down on the table. "Jeff's gonna kick his ass."

Matt nodded and sat back to watch his brother's match. The match went well, for a while. There were several near falls, both for Randy and for Jeff. Shannon got more and more anxious as Jeff slowed down with every near fall. When Jeff got his momentum back, Shannon and Matt both whooped with joy and premature triumph. Just as Jeff was going for a Twist of Fate, or something like it when Randy countered and almost knocked Jeff out. Randy scored the pinfall and retained his title.

Shannon gasped as his crush was pinned and felt tears trail down his cheeks when the referee counted to three. He was crying and couldn't stop himself. He put his face in his hands and sobbed at the sight of Jeff lying prone in the center of the ring.

"Shan? Are you crying?" Matt sounded concerned with an underlying urge to laugh. "I know it's painful to watch Jeff lose after a match like that, but he's lost before." Matt got up and moved toward where Shannon was sobbing. He rested a hand on the smaller man's shoulder. "You're taking this harder than Jeff probably is."

Struggling for air, Shannon looked up at Matt through tear filled hazel eyes. "I-I just can't h-help it. J-Jeff d-deserved to w-win. He's f-fought s-so hard t-to get this far." Shannon shook his head helplessly. "He m-must be de-devastated... I h-have to call h-him." He fought to stand up but Matt kept him in his seat with a firm grip on his shoulder.

"Shannon, calm down. Take a deep breath. Are you sure you're okay? Is there something you're not telling me?" Matt was very serious. He used an extremely calm voice to try and calm his friend down. He knew there was something beneath the surface that Shannon wasn't telling him, and he needed to know what it was. "Anything you're not telling me at all? Anything having anything to do with Jeff?"

The Royal Rumble match had started and Shannon got momentarily caught up in watching The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels beat the hell out of each other. He turned his attention back to Matt and shook his head unconvincingly. "N-no..." his voice cracked and trailed off.

"Don't lie Shannon." Matt shook Shannon's shoulder a few times. "Come on, I've been you friend for years. Just tell me."

The teary blond rubbed at his eyes and heard the seriousness in his friend's voice. Matt could be like a pitbull when he wanted to be, and Shannon knew that. If Matt got the scent of information being withheld that had something to do with either him or his brother, he'd sniff it out relentlessly.

"Shan."

Before he can stop himself the words have left his mouth. "I love Jeff." The three little words are the clearest he had spoken since he started crying nearly ten minutes earlier.

That threw Matt off. He hadn't been expecting a confession of love. "Oh?" he asked in slight confusion. "You love Jeff? How long has that been going on for?" He accepted it before he'd consciously processed it completely, but found that he didn't care. Shannon was his friend, and Jeff always deserved someone other than family to care about him.

"U-um, about th-three years o-or so, I think..." Shannon hated the stutter that wouldn't go away. Something was telling him that he needed to call Jeff and tell him what he'd just told Matt, but he pushed the thought away. Jeff could never know how he felt; the possibility of rejection was just too great.

"Wow. Well, this is new." Matt sat down on the floor in front of Shannon. "I don't know what to tell you. But it does explain your reaction." He shrugged. "Mom's there though, so Jeff will be okay." He reached out a hand and patted Shannon's knee. "Don't worry, Shan, it'll all work out. Jeff will get another shot at the championship."

"I-I think I sh-should tell Jeff h-how I feel..." Shannon had calmed some, but the choked sob-stutter had yet to go away. "What d-do you think h-he'll s-say?"

"I don't know. But Shan, if you do tell him and he feels the same, that'll be awesome and I'll support the both of you. And likewise if he doesn't feel the same, I'll make sure it doesn't kill the friendship. If he freaks, well, I'm still his older brother, you're still my friend, and even with my current restriction on movement I can find ways to kick his ass." Matt smiled and turned back to the television to see who won the Royal Rumble match. His dark eyes widened in surprise and he laughed.

Pointing to the television screen, Matt said, "That's a pleasant surprise."

Shannon looked up and smiled as well. "Yeah." He turned serious again and looked at Matt. "Thanks."

"I'm just glad you don't seem devastated any more. You scared the shit out of me man. Don't ever do that again."