I Won't Tell Anybody
Randy wanted nothing more than to finish his conversation and drink and head off to find John - and if anyone had told him a few weeks ago that he’d feel that way, he would have laughed his ass off. Or stared at them in total scorn. And if the same person had told him that he would have actually said the L-word to his hated rival, he would have assumed that John had kidnapped Ted and Cody and this was some kind of warped vengeance. He wouldn’t have expected to not only mean it, but be glad he’d said it.
Kofi seemed quite cheerful about keeping Randy busy while they built up to the pay-per-view and then presumably at some point afterward too. But Kofi was always cheerful as far as Randy could see, although more low-key about it than Evan was. The man was just plugging away and waiting for a chance to shine and Randy, who could be selfish when he wanted to be, found himself not only being more generous than usual when coming up with flattering suggestions for their angle, but also saying he’d tell Cole to talk about what had happened on Raw at the pay-per-view and suggest that Randy might still be distracted. That seemed to make Kofi’s night, if the grin on his face was anything to go by and Randy started to feel rather magnanimous. He tried to quash the feeling, he might need a favour of Kofi one day after all. He didn’t know where the generosity had come from though - maybe John’s attitude was rubbing off on him.
They had a couple of drinks together and fell into chatting about other things - he and Kofi had never had an actual conversation before, they simply didn’t move in the same circles and Randy was notoriously stand-offish, so there were many who didn’t even bother to try. But he had no intention of staying in the bar all night and getting blasted with Kofi, not when he had promised John he would hurry back.
As he was finishing his drink his phone bleeped a message and he rescued it from his pocket. John. He smirked a little, apparently his boy was getting bored without him.
Opening the message, he was greeted by a picture of a familiar torso - the head had been cut off but he would have recognised that body anywhere. Usually one might have been able to tell who it was from the shirt, but this time John was wearing no shirt… and no pants either, if being able to see the cut of John’s hipbones unencumbered by clothes was any indication. The picture cut off before it got to anything gratuitous but Randy could almost, almost see what John reserved for only him to see…
When he rose and said he had to be getting back, Kofi grinned at him, gave his thanks and told Randy to say hi to John for him. Randy considered getting defensive and then just said that he would. What was the point of denying it? It wasn’t like he was embarrassed - although he had to wonder if the man realised the message had been a little’ hurry up’ from John. Probably, but who cared? He rode up in the elevator, getting incredibly impatient when it seemed to take forever to get to his floor, then made his way to their room, all but throwing the door open in his haste to see what the picture had promised him.
John was lying on the bed, the sheet tangled around his waist to preserve some modesty (although Randy would have preferred a definite lack of modesty there) and flicking through the TV channels. He looked up casually at Randy as the man strode through the door. “Finish your match talk early?”
“Your text seemed kinda urgent,” said Randy, locking the door behind him and heading for the bed, neatly whipping the covers off, predatory anticipation turning into a pout when he realised that John was still wearing his boxers. “Dammit Cena, that’s false advertising!”
“I never claimed to be naked,” said John, trying not to laugh at the disappointment on Randy’s face. “However, I expect you to be. Strip.”
“You’re demanding tonight.”
“Hey, I’ve had you rubbing yourself all over me tonight, practically naked - and don’t think I didn’t notice that sneaky grope either.”
“Which one?”
“I rest my case. Get naked.”
Arguing seemed counter-productive so Randy merely started shedding his clothes, letting them drop to the floor as he gradually revealed himself to John’s watchful gaze. “See something you like Cena?”
“You know damned well I do.” John moved over and gave Randy room to get on the bed, although he stopped the other in a hurry when it seemed that Randy was about to move over him. He hadn’t forgotten how Randy had told him that he loved him earlier that night. His timing was lousy but did it matter? The sentiment and not the surroundings were important and John would far rather have a spontaneous and genuine moment than something contrived, planned and awkward. Maybe it wouldn’t have made it any less genuine, but to John it seemed all the more real because it hadn’t been planned. He hadn’t even had to think about it.
“You just lie back there Orton,” he murmured, pushing Randy gently so that he was lying back on the bed. “You indulged me yesterday-“
He paused a moment, wondering if Randy had any outrageous fantasies about him. Certainly John had thought often about their roles being reversed and him as champ screwing Randy through the bed, but it wouldn’t feel right to him to do that unless he really was the champion. That would have to wait until he’d won - and he didn’t know that Randy would feel like celebrating that way, given that John would be relieving him of the belt. But they had the whole weekend together, uninterrupted (hopefully) and he would have plenty of time to find out and indulge his lover’s kinks. And he fully intended to, but that was for later.
He considered a few things to say and rejected them all as being too clichéd even if they were true; you make me really happy, I want to make you feel as blessed as you make me feel. Nothing felt quite right and maybe nothing was necessary.
“Let me take care of you tonight,” he settled for, straddling Randy’s waist and leaning in to kiss the man passionately, determined to prove that Randy’s emotions weren’t misplaced when he had fallen in love with John.
~:~
“I mean it Hunter.”
Hunter stared out of the window of his hotel room, seeing nothing of the view, focused entirely on the voice coming from his phone. He had been married to Vince’s daughter long enough for the man to usually remember to use his given name, but when Vince was talking business then only his business face mattered. Outwardly he was calm, dealing with an issue in the office. Inwardly he was seething and once he was done with the call, he might just let that side of himself out to play.
“I’ve been reining Shawn in for years,” continued Vince relentlessly. “And he gets some leeway with me after everything, but not much. If Cena and Orton want to bone each other nightly they can, as long as no one gets wind of it ever, but Shawn’s rocking the boat. If those boys are left alone, they’ll get on with it happily and privately, but if they keep getting harassed and threatened then they might do something stupid and I won’t have this harming business. I’ve slapped his hand over it but he’s your friend and you might be able to talk some actual sense into him.”
“I’ll talk to him Vince,” said Hunter, feeling rather weary.
“Do that.” Vince paused a moment. “Shawn’s not a stupid man. I’ve had to have words with him in the past and I’ve fired him before, but he always knew the WWE was the only place for him, his own little kingdom in a way. Nowhere else was going to do it for him back then and there’s even less out there for him now. He’ll do the right thing as long as he knows we’re serious. We turn a blind eye, he’ll take this as far as he can get away with and then we’ll have real trouble, the kind the press loves to get their hands on.”
“I’ll deal with it Vince,” said Hunter, bidding his father-in-law goodbye and putting the phone away in his pocket before leaning his forehead against the window and closing his eyes. For a moment all he could see was Randy as he had been back then - less tattooed, less tanned, less cynical but in no way naive. Hunter had bided his time, waited out Dave’s suspicion and made his move. He hadn’t gotten much out of Randy then - although the younger man would never admit it, he had been terrified of what would happen if Vince found them out - but Hunter could wait. It wasn’t the sex that was the important thing; it was Randy. And Hunter always got what he wanted.
Only Cena had suddenly and unexpectedly entered the picture. Randy was whipped. And Shawn might just have fucked everything up. No wonder he hadn’t been in touch that night. Until Vince called, Hunter had hoped that Shawn had enticed John into at least a conversation about the upcoming match, preferably all the way into bed. As it turned out, Shawn just didn’t want to admit it had all gone to shit.
Hunter forced the memory of a barely-legal Randy’s confused blue-grey eyes from his memory and tried to figure out what was going to happen next.
~:~
Randy definitely had no problem being the recipient of John’s focused attentions; the man was generous to the point of overwhelming, though Randy would rather paint himself pink and walk around in fairy wings and a tutu than say such a thing aloud. Afterwards they lay together, Randy’s leg slung over John’s own as he rested his head against the other’s warm chest. The rhythmic thudding of John’s heart-beating once again only seemed to increase Randy’s sense of relaxation and contentment. All in all he felt good.
“Don’t send me misleading pictures in future,” he mumbled against John’s pec, feeling the other’s chest shaking with chuckles even though John made a valiant effort to keep the noise down. “Not that I’m saying you shouldn’t send me pictures, because you should, lots and lots of pictures.” John looked down amusedly at Randy’s head from where the other was all curled into him like some giant, sated, tanned cat, “You mean like those pseudo-porn shots you put on Twitter that time from your holiday?” of course he was referring to Randy’s infamous deck-chair shot that the fans had gone wild over. It had been Cody that had taken the shot and dared it to send it--- to Ted’s reluctant amusement.
“I only put that online because I knew you’d be all over Twitter looking me up,” Randy drawled with fake airy arrogance, causing John to snort and roll his eyes lightly, “I mean, I know you must have been an avid follower of mine--- did you get off looking at my photos?” the way the older man went bright red at the question had Randy grinning like the devil himself even though he was well-aware it was probably just his blunt question that had caught John off-guard. “So you did, huh? Not that I blame you, I mean-“Randy heaved a fake sigh, “It’s the price we stunning ones must pay.” By this point Randy was shaking like he was on a vibrating chair thanks to John’s prepressed laughter.
“Stunning?” John finally managed between snickers and Randy pushed himself back enough to level John with a faux-serious look that dared him to just contradict the statement. “Well, I wouldn’t go that far… besides,” he then threw back, “For all I know you could have been all over Twitter looking for my pictures he threw back to him.” This statement of course started a playful bicker between the two and soon, somehow, pillows became involved and although Randy protested that they were acting like Divas that didn’t stop him from attempting to beat John into submission with the fluffy pillow. It was the vibrating of John’s phone on the side that eventually called a halt to the battle.
“I think we split the pillow,” John mused as yet another feather drifted down past his face and Randy sputtered a few times and pulled one out of his mouth, grimacing at the knowledge, “You think?” as he was inspecting the pillow John picked up his phone. It was a text-message from Mike and he was all geared up to tease the other about the photo that he had been shown earlier concerning him and a certain ex-world heavyweight champion, when the man’s message registered with him. Check his Twitter? What the hell for? He took the message off-screen and then activated his internet, getting Twitter on his screen in moments. Randy watched the other fiddling with his phone, puzzled by the concentrated look on his face.
“Discreet is two t’s and an e,” he offered helpfully with a smirk and John flipped him the bird, unable to fight a bit of a smile even if he tried to keep focused. “I’m just checking something,” he informed the other, “Mike said that I have to check my Twitter…” he paused and made a show of looking around the room, “Think he’s hidden a camera in here?” he asked suspiciously, thinking it was slightly eerie that Mike coincidentally spoke to him about Twitter when not a few minutes before he and Randy had been discussing it. “Fuck Twitter, get back over here,” Randy said, hoisting his endangered pillow into the air again, “I’m not finished with you yet.” Yes, their competitive streaks did indeed stretch to include impromptu pillow fights. “You never are,” John joked as his Twitter finally sighed itself in.
“So what am I supposed-?” he started to wonder out loud but once the screen had loaded properly John knew just what it was that Mike was talking about. He covered his face with his hand, face turning bright red as he soundlessly handed the phone to Randy, who he could just bet was looking at him with that expression he did whenever John did something seemingly random. When his eyes clocked on to the photo that had apparently been sent to John’s Twitter mere moments after he had sent the same one to him he looked at John incredulously.
The other had sent his seemingly naked picture to Twitter and already he had hundreds of responses regarding it.
John was covering his face with his hands not sure whether he should laugh or hide himself away until the hype went away. He couldn’t believe he had done that--- he had been so sure that he had taken Twitter off before he’d taken that shot.
As John was having his emotional crisis Randy made a big show of pouting at him, “What did I say about letting other people see you like that?” and even though there was a small part of him (or maybe a not-so small part) that was jealous he also found it highly amusing; John was so diligent with his social networking accounts, regardless of which it was, and it wasn’t often that he posted things by mistake… let alone something like that. Beginning to laugh as he started looking through comments that people had left Randy couldn’t help but feel some serious pride that it was his boyfriend all of these people were fawning over. They were fawning over the man he loved, and the man who loved him back. “Hey, think everyone’d go nuts if I sent one too?”
“If we sent one together they’d probably die from fanperson overload… and Vince’d probably die too and then we’d both be getting done for some sort of mass-homicide,” John babbled slightly, moving to sit next to Randy again and see what comments it was that was making his lover laugh like that. He wound his arms around Randy’s waist without thinking and smiled when the younger man leant back against him, John kissing his shoulder before he rested his chin on it to see the phone easier.
~:~
It was only due to years of practice that Hunter managed to keep from trashing his own hotel room. Hey, it was definitely not unheard of from men in their position to do things like that--- they were so used to storing frustrations to keep them from interfering from work (or for enhancing their performance) that when something tipped their scales then usually they just exploded. As it was though Hunter dialled Shawn’s number and waited impatiently as it rang… and then went through to voicemail.
Growling, Hunter resisted the urge to throw his phone at the wall and pinched the bridge of his noise. His wedding-ring glinted atop his ring-finger and Hunter felt a small momentary flicker but it was quickly extinguished. He didn’t intend to have Randy replacing Stephanie in his life or anything but he knew a perfect specimen when he saw one and he wanted to be the one who Randy needed, whom Randy depended on. He’d be much better for Randy personally and emotionally considering that John had far too much baggage and was far too much of a good boy.
“You’d best pray for your sake that you’re fucking Cena to be ignoring me,” the blonde man finally spoke into the voicemail, “If not you’d best fucking ring me back, and soon, otherwise you and me are going to have a serious problem.” Shawn was his best friend and he’d been with the man through thick and thin and Hunter loved him like a brother but right then he was pissed and Shawn was going to pay for the hot water that he was dangling over. Why it had taken the other so long to realise he was still fucking hung-up on Cena, Hunter would never know. He never did things the easy way.
“I mean it man, call me back,” he disconnected the call before he startling hurling obscenities at the other and if he did that then Shawn would most definitely not get back to him for a while and if that happened then he wouldn’t know that Vince now had his eyes on them and they had to be very careful. Urgh… he did love his father-in-law, he really did, but sometimes the old man could stick his nose in where it wasn’t wanted and it was impossible to push it back out. Just as he was about to throw his phone to the bed and go and get a shower before having a drink in the hopes of calming down the item began to vibrate in his hand continuously, indicating an incoming call.
Pleased that Shawn seemed to be listening to him, Hunter answered the phone without looking… and the voice that sounded back at him was definitely not his best friend.
It was his wife.
Keeping his voice as neutral but expectantly happy as he should be to hear her, Hunter greeted, “Hey baby, how’re you doing?” even though they were married and had been for a good while now Hunter still addressed her like he had when they were dating, not that Steph seemed to mind since she launched into conversation. A conversation Hunter admittedly wasn’t paying too much attention to until something she said caught his attention.
“You’re--- you’re coming back to the show?”
~:~
Steph gave a melodious little laugh, something that persuaded Hunter that not only had she made up her mind, but she was pleased with her decision. She sounded almost giddy. “I won’t be getting as involved as I used to, obviously. I spoke to Dad, he agrees with me - I can appear as GM on Raw and when it comes to the house shows I can just tape some backstage thing if it’s needed. It probably won’t be, we always got away with it in the past-“
“Steph.” Hunter pinched the bridge of his nose. “What about the DX reformation? We’re supposed to be the faces and if one of us is married to someone in charge, it doesn’t exactly make us the underdogs, does it? And don’t say we can hide it, everyone knows.” And that was his fault admittedly - he wanted everyone to know just how important and irreplaceable he had become.
“Thought of that already,” Steph said breezily. “I’m gonna play a tweener, trying to not show any favouritism and you can y’know, persuade me on occasion to make the match that you want - since you’re playing the face, you can make out that you don’t want any particular special treatment but you’re not above lobbying me for the match if you want one. Maybe I can even have Ted or Cody flirting with me and that pisses you off…”
Of course thought Hunter wearily. Steph always had to have handsome young men flirting with her, she had scripted it with everyone - Jericho, Cena and of course, Randy. At least it had never gone any further than that.
“What about the kids?” he interrupted.
“Babe, it’s one night! They can stay with their grandparents.”
His parents, or her mother, they all loved the children and had probably already agreed to help out. There was no help to be had from that quarter and appealing to Vince wouldn’t help either; he adored his daughter and would go out of his way to make her happy - something that Hunter had used to his own benefit in the past, although it wouldn’t be the first time it had come back to bite him in the ass either.
The last thing he needed at the moment was Steph knocking around the place. For one thing, it would completely end any chance he had of going through with his plans for Randy, who had always been courteous and mildly flirtatious with Steph, the exact attitude that his wife admired. The same went for Cena. She would expect them to travel together, she would seek him out and want his company - and he wasn’t about to upset her. He loved her very much in his own way but he knew her well enough to realise she wouldn’t take kindly to him trying to avoid her. She certainly wouldn’t take kindly to any dalliances away from her, with women or men and if she found out that he wanted to bed Randy… well, there were two ways it might go. She could take the whole thing out on Orton, job him out and then fire his ass and although Randy might appeal for his help, it would be completely useless in those circumstances. Or worse, she might take it out on him and then he would lose everything - his family, his career, his position, everything that meant so much to him.
He was not a stupid man and although he wanted Randy and certainly didn’t want to have to admit defeat, there was no way he was going to jeopardise it all. He had waited this long… he could wait a little longer. Steph would back out at some point in the future, get written out of the storylines the next time he got her pregnant or something happened with the children. Maybe by then, Randy would have fucked Cena out of his system and there would be no competition for his affections. Randy was mercenary enough to act in his own best interests, or so Hunter had always thought before this nonsense with the former champion.
“What brought this on?” he asked in a casual tone of voice.
Steph giggled a little. “Oh, I was talking to Chris on the phone this morning. He was asking me if I miss it all and I told him of course I did, but we had the kids to think about and it was him who said that there was no reason for me not to get back into things slowly, with the whole one-night thing. And he’s right, y’know? It’ll do us all good for me to have a night off from being mother.” She laughed again. “What was really weird was that my dad called a bit later on when I was still thinking it over and said something about wishing I could come back to work. I made the decision on the spot and told him I’d come back, for a light schedule obviously…” Her voice suddenly quietened. “Aren’t you pleased?”
“Of course I am,” said Hunter, managing to inject some warmth into his voice although his mind was running at a mile a minute. Chris… she had to mean Jericho, the two of them were surprisingly friendly. That rather made him dismiss that the suggestion was anything to do with his behaviour; Chris wouldn’t know a single thing about the relationship with Cena and Orton and no reason to care, nor could he know about Hunter’s interest, although he’d probably picked up on Shawn’s. Vince on the other hand - well, he probably had an ulterior motive in talking to Steph and didn’t want to come right out and say, come keep an eye on your man. Thanks to Shawn, he probably suspected there was more to the situation than met the eye and it was true that Hunter and Shawn had been spending a lot of time together lately. And there were always rumours and Vince might not repeat them but Hunter didn’t doubt that he knew of them. Damn. Vince was a wily bastard and this was his way of maintaining some kind of control.
“When’s this starting?”
“Well, I’ll be there Monday and we’ll see if we can write it in for then. Hey, it could work well for you reforming DX! And we can spend more time together…” Steph’s laugh was slightly seductive. “I know you’ll enjoy that.”
“Oh yeah,” agreed Hunter automatically, although he wasn’t telling the truth. He could wait for what he wanted, he had already waited this long, but it was going to be embarrassing. He knew that Randy and Cena would be laughing it up…
Let them. This wasn’t over and he would have the last laugh in the end. He just had to be careful a while longer.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” he said, his voice warm. “Monday can’t come soon enough.”
Kofi seemed quite cheerful about keeping Randy busy while they built up to the pay-per-view and then presumably at some point afterward too. But Kofi was always cheerful as far as Randy could see, although more low-key about it than Evan was. The man was just plugging away and waiting for a chance to shine and Randy, who could be selfish when he wanted to be, found himself not only being more generous than usual when coming up with flattering suggestions for their angle, but also saying he’d tell Cole to talk about what had happened on Raw at the pay-per-view and suggest that Randy might still be distracted. That seemed to make Kofi’s night, if the grin on his face was anything to go by and Randy started to feel rather magnanimous. He tried to quash the feeling, he might need a favour of Kofi one day after all. He didn’t know where the generosity had come from though - maybe John’s attitude was rubbing off on him.
They had a couple of drinks together and fell into chatting about other things - he and Kofi had never had an actual conversation before, they simply didn’t move in the same circles and Randy was notoriously stand-offish, so there were many who didn’t even bother to try. But he had no intention of staying in the bar all night and getting blasted with Kofi, not when he had promised John he would hurry back.
As he was finishing his drink his phone bleeped a message and he rescued it from his pocket. John. He smirked a little, apparently his boy was getting bored without him.
Opening the message, he was greeted by a picture of a familiar torso - the head had been cut off but he would have recognised that body anywhere. Usually one might have been able to tell who it was from the shirt, but this time John was wearing no shirt… and no pants either, if being able to see the cut of John’s hipbones unencumbered by clothes was any indication. The picture cut off before it got to anything gratuitous but Randy could almost, almost see what John reserved for only him to see…
When he rose and said he had to be getting back, Kofi grinned at him, gave his thanks and told Randy to say hi to John for him. Randy considered getting defensive and then just said that he would. What was the point of denying it? It wasn’t like he was embarrassed - although he had to wonder if the man realised the message had been a little’ hurry up’ from John. Probably, but who cared? He rode up in the elevator, getting incredibly impatient when it seemed to take forever to get to his floor, then made his way to their room, all but throwing the door open in his haste to see what the picture had promised him.
John was lying on the bed, the sheet tangled around his waist to preserve some modesty (although Randy would have preferred a definite lack of modesty there) and flicking through the TV channels. He looked up casually at Randy as the man strode through the door. “Finish your match talk early?”
“Your text seemed kinda urgent,” said Randy, locking the door behind him and heading for the bed, neatly whipping the covers off, predatory anticipation turning into a pout when he realised that John was still wearing his boxers. “Dammit Cena, that’s false advertising!”
“I never claimed to be naked,” said John, trying not to laugh at the disappointment on Randy’s face. “However, I expect you to be. Strip.”
“You’re demanding tonight.”
“Hey, I’ve had you rubbing yourself all over me tonight, practically naked - and don’t think I didn’t notice that sneaky grope either.”
“Which one?”
“I rest my case. Get naked.”
Arguing seemed counter-productive so Randy merely started shedding his clothes, letting them drop to the floor as he gradually revealed himself to John’s watchful gaze. “See something you like Cena?”
“You know damned well I do.” John moved over and gave Randy room to get on the bed, although he stopped the other in a hurry when it seemed that Randy was about to move over him. He hadn’t forgotten how Randy had told him that he loved him earlier that night. His timing was lousy but did it matter? The sentiment and not the surroundings were important and John would far rather have a spontaneous and genuine moment than something contrived, planned and awkward. Maybe it wouldn’t have made it any less genuine, but to John it seemed all the more real because it hadn’t been planned. He hadn’t even had to think about it.
“You just lie back there Orton,” he murmured, pushing Randy gently so that he was lying back on the bed. “You indulged me yesterday-“
He paused a moment, wondering if Randy had any outrageous fantasies about him. Certainly John had thought often about their roles being reversed and him as champ screwing Randy through the bed, but it wouldn’t feel right to him to do that unless he really was the champion. That would have to wait until he’d won - and he didn’t know that Randy would feel like celebrating that way, given that John would be relieving him of the belt. But they had the whole weekend together, uninterrupted (hopefully) and he would have plenty of time to find out and indulge his lover’s kinks. And he fully intended to, but that was for later.
He considered a few things to say and rejected them all as being too clichéd even if they were true; you make me really happy, I want to make you feel as blessed as you make me feel. Nothing felt quite right and maybe nothing was necessary.
“Let me take care of you tonight,” he settled for, straddling Randy’s waist and leaning in to kiss the man passionately, determined to prove that Randy’s emotions weren’t misplaced when he had fallen in love with John.
~:~
“I mean it Hunter.”
Hunter stared out of the window of his hotel room, seeing nothing of the view, focused entirely on the voice coming from his phone. He had been married to Vince’s daughter long enough for the man to usually remember to use his given name, but when Vince was talking business then only his business face mattered. Outwardly he was calm, dealing with an issue in the office. Inwardly he was seething and once he was done with the call, he might just let that side of himself out to play.
“I’ve been reining Shawn in for years,” continued Vince relentlessly. “And he gets some leeway with me after everything, but not much. If Cena and Orton want to bone each other nightly they can, as long as no one gets wind of it ever, but Shawn’s rocking the boat. If those boys are left alone, they’ll get on with it happily and privately, but if they keep getting harassed and threatened then they might do something stupid and I won’t have this harming business. I’ve slapped his hand over it but he’s your friend and you might be able to talk some actual sense into him.”
“I’ll talk to him Vince,” said Hunter, feeling rather weary.
“Do that.” Vince paused a moment. “Shawn’s not a stupid man. I’ve had to have words with him in the past and I’ve fired him before, but he always knew the WWE was the only place for him, his own little kingdom in a way. Nowhere else was going to do it for him back then and there’s even less out there for him now. He’ll do the right thing as long as he knows we’re serious. We turn a blind eye, he’ll take this as far as he can get away with and then we’ll have real trouble, the kind the press loves to get their hands on.”
“I’ll deal with it Vince,” said Hunter, bidding his father-in-law goodbye and putting the phone away in his pocket before leaning his forehead against the window and closing his eyes. For a moment all he could see was Randy as he had been back then - less tattooed, less tanned, less cynical but in no way naive. Hunter had bided his time, waited out Dave’s suspicion and made his move. He hadn’t gotten much out of Randy then - although the younger man would never admit it, he had been terrified of what would happen if Vince found them out - but Hunter could wait. It wasn’t the sex that was the important thing; it was Randy. And Hunter always got what he wanted.
Only Cena had suddenly and unexpectedly entered the picture. Randy was whipped. And Shawn might just have fucked everything up. No wonder he hadn’t been in touch that night. Until Vince called, Hunter had hoped that Shawn had enticed John into at least a conversation about the upcoming match, preferably all the way into bed. As it turned out, Shawn just didn’t want to admit it had all gone to shit.
Hunter forced the memory of a barely-legal Randy’s confused blue-grey eyes from his memory and tried to figure out what was going to happen next.
~:~
Randy definitely had no problem being the recipient of John’s focused attentions; the man was generous to the point of overwhelming, though Randy would rather paint himself pink and walk around in fairy wings and a tutu than say such a thing aloud. Afterwards they lay together, Randy’s leg slung over John’s own as he rested his head against the other’s warm chest. The rhythmic thudding of John’s heart-beating once again only seemed to increase Randy’s sense of relaxation and contentment. All in all he felt good.
“Don’t send me misleading pictures in future,” he mumbled against John’s pec, feeling the other’s chest shaking with chuckles even though John made a valiant effort to keep the noise down. “Not that I’m saying you shouldn’t send me pictures, because you should, lots and lots of pictures.” John looked down amusedly at Randy’s head from where the other was all curled into him like some giant, sated, tanned cat, “You mean like those pseudo-porn shots you put on Twitter that time from your holiday?” of course he was referring to Randy’s infamous deck-chair shot that the fans had gone wild over. It had been Cody that had taken the shot and dared it to send it--- to Ted’s reluctant amusement.
“I only put that online because I knew you’d be all over Twitter looking me up,” Randy drawled with fake airy arrogance, causing John to snort and roll his eyes lightly, “I mean, I know you must have been an avid follower of mine--- did you get off looking at my photos?” the way the older man went bright red at the question had Randy grinning like the devil himself even though he was well-aware it was probably just his blunt question that had caught John off-guard. “So you did, huh? Not that I blame you, I mean-“Randy heaved a fake sigh, “It’s the price we stunning ones must pay.” By this point Randy was shaking like he was on a vibrating chair thanks to John’s prepressed laughter.
“Stunning?” John finally managed between snickers and Randy pushed himself back enough to level John with a faux-serious look that dared him to just contradict the statement. “Well, I wouldn’t go that far… besides,” he then threw back, “For all I know you could have been all over Twitter looking for my pictures he threw back to him.” This statement of course started a playful bicker between the two and soon, somehow, pillows became involved and although Randy protested that they were acting like Divas that didn’t stop him from attempting to beat John into submission with the fluffy pillow. It was the vibrating of John’s phone on the side that eventually called a halt to the battle.
“I think we split the pillow,” John mused as yet another feather drifted down past his face and Randy sputtered a few times and pulled one out of his mouth, grimacing at the knowledge, “You think?” as he was inspecting the pillow John picked up his phone. It was a text-message from Mike and he was all geared up to tease the other about the photo that he had been shown earlier concerning him and a certain ex-world heavyweight champion, when the man’s message registered with him. Check his Twitter? What the hell for? He took the message off-screen and then activated his internet, getting Twitter on his screen in moments. Randy watched the other fiddling with his phone, puzzled by the concentrated look on his face.
“Discreet is two t’s and an e,” he offered helpfully with a smirk and John flipped him the bird, unable to fight a bit of a smile even if he tried to keep focused. “I’m just checking something,” he informed the other, “Mike said that I have to check my Twitter…” he paused and made a show of looking around the room, “Think he’s hidden a camera in here?” he asked suspiciously, thinking it was slightly eerie that Mike coincidentally spoke to him about Twitter when not a few minutes before he and Randy had been discussing it. “Fuck Twitter, get back over here,” Randy said, hoisting his endangered pillow into the air again, “I’m not finished with you yet.” Yes, their competitive streaks did indeed stretch to include impromptu pillow fights. “You never are,” John joked as his Twitter finally sighed itself in.
“So what am I supposed-?” he started to wonder out loud but once the screen had loaded properly John knew just what it was that Mike was talking about. He covered his face with his hand, face turning bright red as he soundlessly handed the phone to Randy, who he could just bet was looking at him with that expression he did whenever John did something seemingly random. When his eyes clocked on to the photo that had apparently been sent to John’s Twitter mere moments after he had sent the same one to him he looked at John incredulously.
The other had sent his seemingly naked picture to Twitter and already he had hundreds of responses regarding it.
John was covering his face with his hands not sure whether he should laugh or hide himself away until the hype went away. He couldn’t believe he had done that--- he had been so sure that he had taken Twitter off before he’d taken that shot.
As John was having his emotional crisis Randy made a big show of pouting at him, “What did I say about letting other people see you like that?” and even though there was a small part of him (or maybe a not-so small part) that was jealous he also found it highly amusing; John was so diligent with his social networking accounts, regardless of which it was, and it wasn’t often that he posted things by mistake… let alone something like that. Beginning to laugh as he started looking through comments that people had left Randy couldn’t help but feel some serious pride that it was his boyfriend all of these people were fawning over. They were fawning over the man he loved, and the man who loved him back. “Hey, think everyone’d go nuts if I sent one too?”
“If we sent one together they’d probably die from fanperson overload… and Vince’d probably die too and then we’d both be getting done for some sort of mass-homicide,” John babbled slightly, moving to sit next to Randy again and see what comments it was that was making his lover laugh like that. He wound his arms around Randy’s waist without thinking and smiled when the younger man leant back against him, John kissing his shoulder before he rested his chin on it to see the phone easier.
~:~
It was only due to years of practice that Hunter managed to keep from trashing his own hotel room. Hey, it was definitely not unheard of from men in their position to do things like that--- they were so used to storing frustrations to keep them from interfering from work (or for enhancing their performance) that when something tipped their scales then usually they just exploded. As it was though Hunter dialled Shawn’s number and waited impatiently as it rang… and then went through to voicemail.
Growling, Hunter resisted the urge to throw his phone at the wall and pinched the bridge of his noise. His wedding-ring glinted atop his ring-finger and Hunter felt a small momentary flicker but it was quickly extinguished. He didn’t intend to have Randy replacing Stephanie in his life or anything but he knew a perfect specimen when he saw one and he wanted to be the one who Randy needed, whom Randy depended on. He’d be much better for Randy personally and emotionally considering that John had far too much baggage and was far too much of a good boy.
“You’d best pray for your sake that you’re fucking Cena to be ignoring me,” the blonde man finally spoke into the voicemail, “If not you’d best fucking ring me back, and soon, otherwise you and me are going to have a serious problem.” Shawn was his best friend and he’d been with the man through thick and thin and Hunter loved him like a brother but right then he was pissed and Shawn was going to pay for the hot water that he was dangling over. Why it had taken the other so long to realise he was still fucking hung-up on Cena, Hunter would never know. He never did things the easy way.
“I mean it man, call me back,” he disconnected the call before he startling hurling obscenities at the other and if he did that then Shawn would most definitely not get back to him for a while and if that happened then he wouldn’t know that Vince now had his eyes on them and they had to be very careful. Urgh… he did love his father-in-law, he really did, but sometimes the old man could stick his nose in where it wasn’t wanted and it was impossible to push it back out. Just as he was about to throw his phone to the bed and go and get a shower before having a drink in the hopes of calming down the item began to vibrate in his hand continuously, indicating an incoming call.
Pleased that Shawn seemed to be listening to him, Hunter answered the phone without looking… and the voice that sounded back at him was definitely not his best friend.
It was his wife.
Keeping his voice as neutral but expectantly happy as he should be to hear her, Hunter greeted, “Hey baby, how’re you doing?” even though they were married and had been for a good while now Hunter still addressed her like he had when they were dating, not that Steph seemed to mind since she launched into conversation. A conversation Hunter admittedly wasn’t paying too much attention to until something she said caught his attention.
“You’re--- you’re coming back to the show?”
~:~
Steph gave a melodious little laugh, something that persuaded Hunter that not only had she made up her mind, but she was pleased with her decision. She sounded almost giddy. “I won’t be getting as involved as I used to, obviously. I spoke to Dad, he agrees with me - I can appear as GM on Raw and when it comes to the house shows I can just tape some backstage thing if it’s needed. It probably won’t be, we always got away with it in the past-“
“Steph.” Hunter pinched the bridge of his nose. “What about the DX reformation? We’re supposed to be the faces and if one of us is married to someone in charge, it doesn’t exactly make us the underdogs, does it? And don’t say we can hide it, everyone knows.” And that was his fault admittedly - he wanted everyone to know just how important and irreplaceable he had become.
“Thought of that already,” Steph said breezily. “I’m gonna play a tweener, trying to not show any favouritism and you can y’know, persuade me on occasion to make the match that you want - since you’re playing the face, you can make out that you don’t want any particular special treatment but you’re not above lobbying me for the match if you want one. Maybe I can even have Ted or Cody flirting with me and that pisses you off…”
Of course thought Hunter wearily. Steph always had to have handsome young men flirting with her, she had scripted it with everyone - Jericho, Cena and of course, Randy. At least it had never gone any further than that.
“What about the kids?” he interrupted.
“Babe, it’s one night! They can stay with their grandparents.”
His parents, or her mother, they all loved the children and had probably already agreed to help out. There was no help to be had from that quarter and appealing to Vince wouldn’t help either; he adored his daughter and would go out of his way to make her happy - something that Hunter had used to his own benefit in the past, although it wouldn’t be the first time it had come back to bite him in the ass either.
The last thing he needed at the moment was Steph knocking around the place. For one thing, it would completely end any chance he had of going through with his plans for Randy, who had always been courteous and mildly flirtatious with Steph, the exact attitude that his wife admired. The same went for Cena. She would expect them to travel together, she would seek him out and want his company - and he wasn’t about to upset her. He loved her very much in his own way but he knew her well enough to realise she wouldn’t take kindly to him trying to avoid her. She certainly wouldn’t take kindly to any dalliances away from her, with women or men and if she found out that he wanted to bed Randy… well, there were two ways it might go. She could take the whole thing out on Orton, job him out and then fire his ass and although Randy might appeal for his help, it would be completely useless in those circumstances. Or worse, she might take it out on him and then he would lose everything - his family, his career, his position, everything that meant so much to him.
He was not a stupid man and although he wanted Randy and certainly didn’t want to have to admit defeat, there was no way he was going to jeopardise it all. He had waited this long… he could wait a little longer. Steph would back out at some point in the future, get written out of the storylines the next time he got her pregnant or something happened with the children. Maybe by then, Randy would have fucked Cena out of his system and there would be no competition for his affections. Randy was mercenary enough to act in his own best interests, or so Hunter had always thought before this nonsense with the former champion.
“What brought this on?” he asked in a casual tone of voice.
Steph giggled a little. “Oh, I was talking to Chris on the phone this morning. He was asking me if I miss it all and I told him of course I did, but we had the kids to think about and it was him who said that there was no reason for me not to get back into things slowly, with the whole one-night thing. And he’s right, y’know? It’ll do us all good for me to have a night off from being mother.” She laughed again. “What was really weird was that my dad called a bit later on when I was still thinking it over and said something about wishing I could come back to work. I made the decision on the spot and told him I’d come back, for a light schedule obviously…” Her voice suddenly quietened. “Aren’t you pleased?”
“Of course I am,” said Hunter, managing to inject some warmth into his voice although his mind was running at a mile a minute. Chris… she had to mean Jericho, the two of them were surprisingly friendly. That rather made him dismiss that the suggestion was anything to do with his behaviour; Chris wouldn’t know a single thing about the relationship with Cena and Orton and no reason to care, nor could he know about Hunter’s interest, although he’d probably picked up on Shawn’s. Vince on the other hand - well, he probably had an ulterior motive in talking to Steph and didn’t want to come right out and say, come keep an eye on your man. Thanks to Shawn, he probably suspected there was more to the situation than met the eye and it was true that Hunter and Shawn had been spending a lot of time together lately. And there were always rumours and Vince might not repeat them but Hunter didn’t doubt that he knew of them. Damn. Vince was a wily bastard and this was his way of maintaining some kind of control.
“When’s this starting?”
“Well, I’ll be there Monday and we’ll see if we can write it in for then. Hey, it could work well for you reforming DX! And we can spend more time together…” Steph’s laugh was slightly seductive. “I know you’ll enjoy that.”
“Oh yeah,” agreed Hunter automatically, although he wasn’t telling the truth. He could wait for what he wanted, he had already waited this long, but it was going to be embarrassing. He knew that Randy and Cena would be laughing it up…
Let them. This wasn’t over and he would have the last laugh in the end. He just had to be careful a while longer.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” he said, his voice warm. “Monday can’t come soon enough.”