Title: Chronicles of a Friendship
Summary: A look at some of the times Hunter and Shawn had on the road together.
Notes: Some language including the F Bomb!!! It's dropped several times actually.
Chapter One:
1996
After Kevin, Scott and Sean had left the WWE.
"Let's go out tonight?"
Sighing, the younger of the two men turned to face his friend. "Again?" He already knew the answer would be yes, but he asked anyway.
Shawn simply nodded. He looked over to Hunter, a strange look passed across his face. "You don't have to go" He stated, although he made it sound like such an accusation.
The truth was, Hunter didn't want to go. He'd much rather stay at the hotel, just catch a film and go to bed. He didn't like to party like Shawn did so there was no fun for him. He'd foolishy thought that with Kev and Scott gone, Shawn might not go out as much, but he went out just as much. And he knew Shawn couldn't be trusted not to get himself into trouble if he went out alone. The answer he wanted to give was 'Actually, tonight I don't wanna go.' but the thought of saying that conjured up images from Syracuse, and he could almost hear the phone ringing and Kev yelling at him for not taking care of Shawn. "We can go if you want. Let's just not make it a late night, huh?"
Shawn turns back away again and started to rummage through his bag.
Several hours later
Hunter's arm was firmly around Shawn's waist as he guided him into his hotel room. Shawn was, as usual after a night out, completely wasted.
Once Hunter had Shawn at the foot on the king size bed, he let go and Shawn gracelessly fell across it. They'd done this routine so many times, Hunter was a little sick of it. He wondered at times if he'd made a mistake getting in with the Clique. He felt more like Shawn Michaels carer than a so called friend. The thought had crossed his mind on more than one occasioan what would have happened if he hadn't joined, if Kev and Scott would still have left. Would they have tried to get a better deal from Vince to stay or would they have tried to get Shawn to join them. He always came back to the conclusion that if Kevin had felt Shawn would be left in the lurch, he'd have done his best to help his friend out.
Hunter grabbed Shawn's left leg and pulled off his shoe. He repeated the process with the other leg.
"Hunt, you miss Kev and Scott?" Shawn asked, sounding tired.
"Yeah, sure do."
"Me too."
"Try and get some sleep, huh? I'll come get you in the morning."
*
It was closer to midday than morning by the time Hunter went to Shawn's room. He went in, Shawn was almost in the same position as when he'd left him last night. Damn, how had this crazy lifestyle become so routine already?
He went over to the curtains and pulled them apart, letting the small amount of light in. It was a dreary day outside and matched his mood perfectly. He moved over to Shawn's bed and shook him and called his name a couple of times. He could still remember the first time that Kev had sent him in to wake Shawn up and how long it had taken because he'd been to nervous about disturbing him from his sleep. He was a lot rougher now, knew what it took to wake Shawn. He flicked the TV on, turned the sound up a few notches, that always helped to rouse Shawn as well. He sat down on the bed, watched the news as it rolled out. Nothing much of interest happened that day apparently, because the news seemed to be littered with celebrity news. Shawn still wasn't stirring much.
"Shawn, wake up." Hunter said, loudly, nudging him with his elbow.
He heard Shawn moan a little. Hunter knew he wouldn't mind this half as much if it wasn't a daily occurance. Plus, being the champion now, Shawn was really supposed to be taking care of himself more than he was. He'd had a good match with Kevin before he left and now he was moving into a feud with Davey boy. They'd come up with some sexual harrassement angle, which Hunter thought was pretty lame himself, but his opinion really didn't matter to anyone. He was still truly in the dog house with everyone.
A few times since the 'Curtain call' incident, some guys had come up to him privately and asked him why he'd taken the hit for it. Hunter had always explained that he was the only one who could take the fall for it. What was Vince going to do, take Shawn's title and give it to- who? There was no one better to hold that belt at that time. Vince knew it, Hunter knew it, Shawn knew it. Most of the guys backstage knew it and didn't want to give that much credit to Shawn though. A few times some of the more gutsy guys had suggested he walk on Shawn. They'd suggest that now the Clique had more or less broken up, he get out clean. They'd tell Hunter that the guys backstage didn't have a problem with him, it was his association with Shawn that was the problem.
Hunter looked at Shawn as he started waking up. It always took him a while to wake fully. At times like this, the chance to just break away from his association with the Clique was tempting. Sure, he'd have four guys mad at him, but better than the rest of the locker room, surely? But somehow, he could never do it. He couldn't even think about it seriously.
He just felt he was where he should be.
"Hey." Shawn said, groggily, sitting up a little to look at the man sat in the room with him.
"Morning." Hunter replied. "Wanna get some breakfast before we head out to the next town?"
Shawn nodded, rubbing his hand across his face tiredly. "Where we going?"
"Next stop's in Florida."
Shawn got up and walked across to the bathroom. Shouting through so Hunter heard; "Thanks for getting me back last night."
He always did that. Thanked him from a different room, or on the phone, anything to avoid looking at him when he said it. Hunter didn't know why.
But he knew that it was the reason he stayed.