It wasn't supposed to go this way.
Seriously, it wasn't.
They were so over each other. Both of them were. Over the other. Weren't they? Of course they were. It wasn't even about hating one another anymore. They had no reason to. Both had done shitty things to the other, fine, but they had no children together that would force them to be around one another, no property that needed dividing up, nothing at all that needed anything at all from the two of them together.
Well, except the business.
But even that had started to turn out better. They were separated there, not around one another at all, and things were...calm.
Calm was a good word.
Because it didn't negate the idea that maybe one day there would be a storm again. Or that one wasn't on the horizon. But it made it clear that, in that brief time period, everything was settled and there was no need for concern. He wasn't actively trying to ruin her life and she wasn't actively attempting to do the same to him. Even if the opportunity presented itself to fuck her up, Hunter wasn't so sure that he'd even go through with it. Or if Stephanie would do the same to him.
Honestly, they were so busy with the other things going on in their lives that, while he didn't want to say they flat out didn't care at all what the other was doing, but at the same time…
It just happened.
They were in the right place at the wrong time. Just backstage and she was there for whatever reason and he was there doing his shit and it was a PPV and that meant he was more pumped than usual. And some of the guys wanted to go out after and he had planned to, but he ended up having to wave them off because he'd hurt his back kind of and he was getting it checked out by the trainer. It was better, anyways, if he just went back to his hotel room after because his only reason for going out was to find a woman anyways, for the night, to celebrate, or a few even, but one would have been good. Just to entertain him.
But with his back so fucked up, going out sounded like a lot of work and he wouldn't even get the best out of the situation once he got the woman back to his place and he was in such a foul mood over the whole thing that it'd only be a waste. He'd be annoyed at being there and it would throw off everything.
It was best to just sit that celebratory atmosphere off.
Simple enough. Treat it like he hadn't kicked ass out in the ring. 'cause when he lost, the only that Hunter liked to do was sit in his hotel room and sulk.
When he finished getting instructions from the medical staff, a lot of people had cleared out for the night. Not everyone, of course, as there was still much work to be done behind the scenes, getting sets down and stuff like that. He didn't expect to run into anyone he would be interested in talking with.
But then, he never expected to want to talk to Stephanie McMahon again for any reason at all ever.
It just kind of...happened.
She was leaving at the same time as him and it was late and she seemed shocked to still see him there and he was shocked to see her alone. They were going out the same door, down to the garage area, and he felt awkward with the whole thing, honestly. He held the door open for her though as she ducked her head a bit and thanked him and that should have been it.
Should have been.
They both had grown so much in the short amount of time since their marriage. Or at least he'd thought they had. Maybe they'd changed. They were still the same immature assholes, but their motives had changed and therefore their reactions to one another had changed. He didn't immediately wanted to punt her head into oblivion because he no longer had any reason to. The anger he'd had over everything was dead and that meant he was able to answer her without spite in his voice when she asked how his back was feeling.
Was that it?
He answered with a sharp better and even that could have been the end of their conversation. But they were still walking together because they'd parked near one another and the silence was too much so he asked why she was so late and she went on about her father and even then it could have ended there.
It should have ended there.
And he wishes he could have said that he'd had been glad, had it ended there.
But he couldn't.
And it didn't.
Because she got to her car first and he paused there, watching her get in. She paused too, because of his eyes, and he was sure she had her own inner turmoil going on, but still she stuck her head back out of the car and asked,
"Did you want to get a drink?"
No.
How could he?
After he'd already told his friends no?
And with her, of all people.
And yet…
He found himself tossing his gear in her backseat and sliding into the passenger seat far too easily.
"We can't go anywhere in town," she sighed as they left the parking lot. He was worried slightly about leaving his car overnight, but at the same time couldn't be bothered to care in that moment. He was honestly hardly even listening to Stephanie. "Someone would see us. And I don't… So the hotel is out and all the bars and… Why don't we just go back to my room? I have a minibar."
Whatever sounded good to him.
She kept looking over at him too, the whole drive there, and he had to pretend to be indifferent, but it was difficult. They were both a bit worried about being spotted on the way up to her room, but they didn't seem to see anyone that they knew and even if they did, the reward outweighed the risk.
Because the second that she keyed into her room and he'd stepped inside, Hunter told her, "You know I don't drink."
"Yeah," she agreed, shutting the door behind her, even drawing the chain lock. "I know."
It was better than he remembered. The whole thing. All of it. All of her. A part their relationship, even when it wasn't just for show, had always been twinged in the wrongness of it all and how it was pissing off everyone else. But that night, for the first time, he was in bed with Stephanie for no other reason than the two of them, in that moment, wanted to be with one another. They had to be with one another.
Everything that their relationship always could have been had they not staked it purely on the benefits they could both bring to one another was felt then. It was heavy too, hanging around them when it was all over and he was there, resting on his stomach and she was beside him, staring up at the ceiling, silent for once.
"I was always into you, Steph," he whispered softly in the darkness. "I promise."
"I know."
"All that shit...all that shit…."
"It's okay."
It wasn't.
But he decided that if she could pretend, so could he.
"Is your back alright?"
"I'm fine."
"That's not what I asked."
Rolling over then, he laid on his back as well though his head lulled to the side so he could stare over at her. "This is a nice room. You plan this? Bringing me back here?"
"No," she sighed softly as her head lulled too, so that she could watch him as well. "I didn't."
"Hn." His face was dark, but she felt safe, for some reason. "You know, I didn't even realize I wanted this. Until this moment."
"There's no this though, Hunter," she reminded as she went back to watching the ceiling. "Outside of this moment."
"Of course," he agreed as he edged closer to her then. "This moment."
There were enough moments that night for the both of them and, once it was all over, Steph went off to shower while Hunter only laid in her bed, contemplating leaving. He should. He'd finally found the end, after all, that he'd been struggling with before.
But he didn't.
He only tugged the sheets up to his neck and drifted off. He woke once in the night to pee, but Steph slept through him getting up. Or so he thought. When he came back out of the bathroom, it was to find her sitting up in bed, looking concerned. She had that look the length of time it took him to bypass any of his clothes and slip right back into bed where she tossed an arm over him and, for a few more hours, they were fine.
He wasn't sure who got up the first that morning, but he remembered them both separating and Steph blushing and him muttering something about his car left there, at the arena. She only watched in silence as he gathered his stuff to leave. Before he did, he thought that maybe they should discuss things, but no words seemed right so he ended with just a look and an agreement.
Whatever had happened that night had happened. That was it. It was over and done and the night was finished and they could just go back to what they were.
Couldn't they?
Stephanie thought so. She knew she'd made a terrible mistake, in the light of the morning, that only happened due to lack of sleep. Now, all rested up post-PPV, she was thinking with a level head once more and something like that would never happen again. Ever. At all.
How could it?
She wasn't in love with Hunter. She didn't even like him. He was just another wrestler in her father's business who she may or may not have had some sort of involvement with at one point in time, but that time was over and done with so she could just move on, alright?
And so what if they slept together. That didn't mean anything. Everyone seemed to be fucking at least someone in the damn business and she'd already slept with Hunter before, obviously, so was it relaly that big of a deal if it happened one more little bitty time that she'd planned previously? Honestly, she ddin't even know why she was still thinking about it, worrying about it, when it was clearly a nonissue and wow, why was she so worried about what he was doing that night, after the live show that RAW had and why did she care that he was probably out with another woman and, wow, was she jealous?
No.
How could she be?
She didn't want Hunter.
That was the whole point of everything she'd just gone over. Triple H didn't mean anything to her at all. They weren't enemies, fine, but they certainly weren't friends any longer either. And that was all that had to be said on the matter.
Until about a month later when they ran into one another on chance and they were in New Hampshire anyways, for the show, and how could they not go back to his house there?
Honestly, how could they not?
"I'm so glad I kept this place," he told her as she rested against his chest, in his own bed. "After… I mean, no offense, but what were the chances of… It was just a good backup plan. And it paid off. It's nice, you know, living alone again."
"Same," she whispered, but she was thinking about a billion other things she she absently stroked at his chest, staring across the room at the window where it was still daylight out which meant she should leave soon because it was one thing to spend the night when you were already there when, you know, it was night, but a midday hookup sticking around that long was just fucking weird. In every situation. "Hunter."
It was harder to deny that second time what was going on, but Stephanie tried hard to do so. And the third time when he was hanging around the arena that Smackdown was in even though he had no reason to be and she scolded him a bit because someone could have spotted him, but she took him back with her anyways and he didn't stay the night that time, but it was because had to get to a RAW event and she didn't hold it against him.
The fourth was her fault because she was lonely and he came she called while the fifth was just sort of habit by that point and things just felt like they were spiraling.
"What are we doing?" she sighed as she laid in a hotel room bed one night, watching him struggle in the darkness to find his pants. He wasn't leaving, but wanted to find his wallet because he'd ordered room service. "Hunter?"
"We're gonna eat, Steph," he grumbled as he looked all around for them. "What do you think- You don't gotta turn on the light."
But she did, flicking on the lamp by the bedside. "You know what I meant."
Huffing a bit, he glanced up at her as he was on his knees, finally finding his pants on the floor. "Steph, can talk about this fucking later? I-"
"Are you seeing other people?"
"No." And he said that with a definite tone. "Are you?"
"No," she said back.
"Then-"
"But had you been?"
"Stephanie-"
"I want to know," she kept up. She spoke these days with far more sense of self than she used to have. She didn't sound nearly as unsure as she once did about things and she certainly wasn't putting all her focus on an ultimate goal. Steph had grown in many ways since the dissolving of their relationship, but it wasn't all in her business smarts. She was wise to him and his intentions now as well. He couldn't fault her. "If you don't want me to, then-"
"It's not that big of a deal," he said as, getting to his feet once more, he started to pull his pants on, as to be ready when the food arrived. "Yes, I've seen other people since our divorce. No, I haven't since we started seeing one another again."
"But that's not what we're doing," she replied. "Is it?"
Hunter didn't know. He wasn't even sure if he wanted to either way.
There was a knock at the door then and, thankful for the save, he went to answer it.
But something had changed, in that moment, and when he brought the tray over to Steph, she only muttered something about not being hungry any longer and got up to head to the bathroom.
"So what?" he griped angrily. "You're just not going to eat? Stephanie-"
But she closed the door behind her and that was fine. This was all fine. IN fact, this was exactly why they weren't, as she'd made clear, seeing one another. Because of this exact moment. The emotions and all that other crap that only weighed a person down. He could eat and leave and have no one to answer for later if he did.
That was what made it all so great.
But…
He didn't.
He didn't even eat. His growling stomach protested that fact the most.
Instead, he only sat there, on the end of the bed, arms crossed over his chest, waiting for her to venture back out. To confront him. To do whatever it was that they were going to do. And when, after about fifteen minutes, she didn't emerge, he got to his feet and went to gently knock his knuckles against the door.
"Steph," he called softly. "Are you gonna come back out? Or should I just go?" When he got silence in response, he said, "Because I'd rather not, you know, just go. If that's what you want though-"
"I just," he heard then from the other side of the door, "don't want this to… To get like it already is."
"What do you mean?"
"For me. I… I don't want to feel like this again."
"Like what?" And he figured he didn't have to search far to find the answer to that. "Like...like we're using one another? Because I'm not… There was so much that we did to one another that was so...stupid and childish and not even worth it. It wasn't worth it. None of it was worth what we lost. I was dumb. You were dumb. But… There was always something underneath that, I thought. I still think. I never stopped caring about, you know. I never stopped liking you. Thinking about you. I just...I let hate override that. I hated it, you know? What we were. What I thought you were. No, what you really were. Because you have to admit, you were a bitch there, for awhile, and I was struggling, with coming back and we just...we fell apart.
"And it was my fault too. But...it's different now. All of it is. Or it could be, you know, if you...if we...wanted it to be. I'm different now and you're different now, but the problems that we face would be too because I don't want every fucking person up there in that goddamn company in our lives and I don't want your father's job or his status or at least not through you. I don't want to use you again. And I don't want to hurt you again. But I think that, if you stopped to think about about it, that hurt wouldn't be the same. And that feeling… You wouldn't feel it. Not if we did this right. Not if we focused on the things that made us right."
And for a man that had spent the majority of his adult life now talking for a living, he felt a bit winded, both mentally and physically, by everything that he'd just expelled. The tips of his ears felt a bit red and he kept clinching and unclinching his fists, unsure of himself. A lot of things that he'd never considered aloud and ones that he never considered at all had tumbled out of him perhaps a bit incoherently and he wondered if she'd even been able to follow him when he himself felt more than a bit lost.
When the sound of the door unlocking and opening snapped him back to reality, he only stood there, in front of the bathroom door, staring down at Stephanie as she only looked at his chest.
"That's not even what I meant," she told him softly. "I was gonna say that I don't like the feeling of...of liking you again. Of being with you. Not…"
"Oh." And he coughed some, kicking at the ground. "Is that what you were getting at?"
Reaching out, Stephanie wrapped an arm around his chest and pulled him towards him. Allowing this, he stood still as she buried her head in his chest.
"I never loved someone like I loved you," she breathed into his flesh. "Or at least I thought so. But now… I don't ever loved you. Not really. I loved the idea of it. Of us. That we could rule things together and be a...like a king and queen, you know? Over things? And I loved the attention it got me and I loved being loved, but you didn't really love me at all. And I didn't love you."
"That's harsh," he said after a moment. "To say."
"But it's true."
He had a hard time arguing.
"You were right though," she admitted as she lifted her head some so that she could stare up at him. "About something?"
"What?" he whispered, staring down into her eyes now.
"I did like you. The whole time," she admitted. "So much. In different ways. And when that went away… I can't again, Hunter. Like someone that much and then watch it all go away. I don't want to. I've been doing so much better, personally, since we've been apart."
"You haven't been lonely then? For me/ Even a little bit?"
"But that's the point though," she insisted instead of answering. "I can't start to feel that way again. To care about you again. If this isn't… If we're not..."
"Then let's be."
"Hunter-"
"Steph, I'm telling you let's go get married and try to take over the world together." His hands came up then to push some of her hair out of her face, smiling, truly, while doing so. "I'm telling you let's hangout together. Let's go out together. Let's spend the night together. Let's do everything other than what we did before together. Because I like the way you talk and laugh and hearing you sing along with the radio even when you don't know the words. I like for you to make me breakfast and then me having to remake breakfast because it doesn't come out right. I like you. I like your jokes and being around you. I just… I hate that it ended the way it did, but stay that way, Steph. If you liked me, even a little bit, away from the ring, then why can't we try and see what it is like? Away from it?"
She only stared for a moment before saying, "Because it's too much. It-"
"Not for me," he insisted. "If it's something I want, than it never is. Is it too much for you?"
"I dunno." Turning her head into his chest again, she whispered, "I just don't know."
"That's alright, Steph." His hands shifted then, to hug her to him, and, for awhile, his words held true. "It's alright."
Hunter picked at the cold food when they eventually found themselves detangled, but it only turned his stomach. Stephanie curled up under the blankets and refused to come back out and it might have been okay, it might have been alright, but it still hurt him more than he'd ever admit.
Eventually, he got up to leave. It was late, but he didn't care. He'd go back to his room and sleep off this funk and then, in the morning, start to forget about Stephanie again. It wouldn't be that hard this time. They hadn't had near as long to get things fucking twisted before they broke off.
Stephanie listened beneath the covers as he did this, a pit in her stomach. There was only one way to dissolve it, but the she wasn't quite sure what it was. She was stuck somewhere between telling him not go and just letting him leave. One would alleviate the tension that was building in her stomach while the other would only allow it to grow. She was rarely tentative and never unsure of her own actions, but in that moment, she felt as if she could go either way.
It was when he was almost finished buttoning up his shirt though that, popping her head out from underneath the covers, Stephanie said, "Hunter." When he glanced over at her, the pit moved to her chest, but at her next words dissipated. "Stay."
He froze though, there in the middle of the room, watching her carefully for a moment before asking, "You sure?"
Holding up part of the blankets so that he could slip beneath them with her, she said, "Yeah. Always."
"Always?" he repeated as, far faster than he had been doing the opposite, he began unbuttoning the shirt. "Steph?"
"Always."
"You sure?" And once he wiggled back out of his jeans, he nearly jumped into the bed, narrowly missing squashing her. "Always?"
She reached for him then and, when she found his head she buried her fingers in his hair and tugged him closer. As he gave into her and practically fell atop her, she only nodded a bit, "Very sure."
I've been asked to do this one a lot since I started taking requests and I've always kind of balked on it because I was never too sure what to write for it. Stephanie and Hunter never specified when they got back together or how and with a never-ending story, the past doesn't really matter, which makes it really hard to go back and make a canonical reason for it. Which is why I avoided any real time frame and just kind of stuck to the basics. I wasn't really sure, either, why they would have felt the need to get back together as it was made rather clear before that neither cared anything for one another any longer, but I dunno. The idea of things not meshing the first time, but fitting together perfectly the next isn't completely unheard of. Especially when you remove outside factors.
Anyways, always still taking request. And of fucking course I'll get around to covering post Mania stuff for both Steph and Hunter and Steph and Paul, so don't even waste asking about it, huh?