No Matter What

by

Indigo X

Awful Author Notes: This here puppy is brought to you by the Kane/RVD sequences in this week's Raw. Rob, Kane, Bisch, and everybody else is property of the very dodgy Vincent Kennedy McMahon, who I don't want suing me, oh my no. Oh, yeah. This baby's 100% slash free... what? Can't a guy and a guy just be friends anymore? *snicker* Okay. On wit da story....

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Rob was just... tired. Exhausted. Physically and mentally drained. The pain in his legs was just about completely agonizing, and a soft moan involuntarily passed through his lips.

So, he'd lost. Given the ol' screwjob by Bisch, not to mention Hunter's cronies. He wasn't mad right now, he'd be mad about it later. At the moment, he was just too tired and in too much pain to be angry.

The loud KRAKA-BOOM! sounded, flames jetted violently upward a few feet away from where he sat slumped against the entryway. Rob didn't even flinch.

He merely waited.

Huge, strong fingers clasped around his throat, and a low, vicious snarl reached his ears. The eyes he stared into were wild. Angry. No, not merely angry. Enraged.

Rob's gaze shifted from the eyes, to the hand around his throat, then to the dropoff to his left... Ah-ha. Of course, he knew what Kane wanted to do now. Breathing forth a tiny sigh with a bit of difficulty, he let his tired, hazel eyes fall back on Kane's face, the visage that Kane was so positive everyone would look upon and hate, so he hated in kind.

And he smiled out of the corner of his mouth.

"H-hey, man. Go ahead, if it'll make you feel better..."

Wild eyes blinked, brows quirked in confusion. Kane spoke.

"What? What's the matter with you? Where is your fear, Rob? Do you realize what I could do to you?"

"Sure I do. An' it's prob'ly gonna hurt like all hell, I'll bet. Dude, you could probably kill me if you had a right mind to. But this isn't about me." The smile never wavered, and there was nothing but benevolence in the laid-back young man's eyes. "This is about you doin' what you've gotta do. I understand. It's cool. So you go on ahead an' chuck me off that platform, if you think it'll be good for your spiritual wellbeing or whatever." He closed his eyes. "And as for my fear... dude. Why should I fear a friend? That wouldn't be cool of me at all."

"Rob. I..."

Rob opened one eye tiredly. "Hate me? I heard you say that, you know. But I don't believe you meant it. I don't believe you hate me, an' I don't believe you'll hurt me now. That's why I'm not afraid. If I'm wrong, go ahead and get it over with already... those big fingers of yours're gonna leave nasty red marks on my neck before too long, an' besides, the last thing I need is a sore throat..."

He'd told himself from the beginning, he wouldn't be like everyone else. No matter how rough and rocky things got, he would never abandon Kane, his friend, when he needed him the most. So no matter what Kane said or did, Rob swore he'd be true and loyal, show Kane, MAKE him see, that he was for real. He could be trusted. RVD, true blue to the very end.

And if it meant putting it all on the line this way, so be it.

Kane's expression changed from wariness, to disbelief, back to anger, then to rage that was almost white-hot. He gave Rob's throat a quick, hard squeeze...

...then let go.

Rob slumped hard back, and hoofed out a larger sigh, gasping slightly for breath as he heard the scream-crash of Bisch being flung off the top of the ramp. Funny, he probably should feel at least concerned about it... harboring ill will was bad for the karma, after all... but, well, he didn't. Not a bit. After all, the rat of a GM had taken advantage of his friend.

Why Kane changed his mind that night, Rob couldn't say for sure. Maybe he simply had, at the moment, a bigger beef with Bisch, and would give Rob the old heave-ho later. But Rob liked to think that it was because his hunch was correct, and Kane hadn't truly meant what he'd said.

Whatever. It didn't really matter. Because in the end, it'd be the same.

Rob would be there for his friend. No matter what.