Priest fic!
Title: Our Father part 3-1
Pairing: Ted DiBiase Jr./Cody Rhodes
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Takes place a year after the first part of Our Father. Cody has changed his ways, cleaned up his act... but Ted is still as straight laced as ever...
Disclaimer: All rights belong to the WWE
Warnings: Strong religious content! And perhaps a lot of sacriligious goings on...
Word Count: 13140
Feedback: Would be lovely
A/N: It's been a long time since I've stepped into this 'verse. I really hope that it's as good, if not better than the first two parts!
Part 1, Part 2
It had been over a year since Cody Runnels had a chance to first taste that forbidden fruit otherwise known as Ted DiBiase. Father Ted DiBiase. In the time that passed since, he visited Ted just a handful of times. And every time that he went to visit, they never had time alone, but he’d since been introduced to every other father living in the rectory alongside Ted.
For Ted, these visits were an extremely difficult time. Each time Cody stood before him, that strong feeling of lust and love worked its way into his body, and he was powerless to do anything against it. No matter how hard he prayed, no matter how many rosaries he did, no matter how many Hail Marys he said, no matter how many confessions he went to, he could not shake that feeling. And it only seemed to get stronger every time he saw Cody.
For Cody, the visits were nothing short of frustrating. He knew that he said he could go without the physical aspect of a relationship, just so long as he knew Ted was his… but it was damn hard. Now, he and Randy worked together for a short while after he won the World Heavyweight Championship from the older man, but it had been a matter of months since that feud ended. At least for the time being. However, it had been even longer since the two of them last fucked. Cody was determined to be as faithful to Ted as Ted was to him. However, sometimes he felt as though he was being cheated on with God. Though that feeling he should have been expecting.
The first time that he visited, he was doing a show a few hours away the following day. That visit, he managed to get Ted alone in his room, and he swore that he would never forget the kiss that they shared. It was filled with need, with love, with passion.
And that was the only time that they’d kissed since.
After that visit, Ted insisted that he meet all the Fathers, and there was always someone else around the rectory. It was as if Ted wanted them around, because Cody couldn’t make a move otherwise.
When Ted celebrated his first full year as an ordained priest, all he could think about were the events of that first day. His parents had been so proud… and he’d been so excited to see Cody there. Cody, his oldest friend in the world, came to see him perform a church service. Cody was actually in a church. And it was all because of him. Then the day had progressed, one thing to another, leading Cody to confess to him his truest feelings. Which then led to Ted going against all his beliefs as he allowed Cody to actually… to actually take him into his mouth. In the confessional of all places. He still couldn’t believe he allowed that to happen.
However… that day was both the best and worst day of his life.
So now when Cody paid him a visit, he tried everything in his power to keep Cody at bay. He couldn’t allow himself to be alone with him, because he felt that he simply wasn’t strong enough to resist him.
It was safest for them both.
And now there was yet another visit upcoming. Cody had a rare few days off in a row, so instead of going back to Georgia to go see his own family, he was going to see Ted. It was really getting to be a bit much. He could see that Cody was getting frustrated by how much he seemed to regress in their little relationship, if one could even call it that, but he didn’t know what else to do… because if they progressed in their relationship, then he’d have completely broken his vow of celibacy as opposed to just… bending the rules about it.
The days seemed to pass by so quickly, despite Ted’s nerves building up day by day. It had been so long since he’d seen Cody in person. Faithfully, he watched Cody on Raw each and every week. That was a habit he never did break, even after he found out that Cody and Randy were fucking one another. Since then, Cody swore to him that they stopped, that he hadn’t touched anyone else.
That only seemed to make things worse in Ted’s mind. Cody had completely changed his lifestyle for him. But now that Cody had told him that, now that he knew Cody wasn’t in any sort of sexual relationship with anyone, it seemed to put all the more pressure on him.
Because he couldn’t please Cody in that manner.
It was hard enough not pleasing himself in that manner. Whenever he spoke to Cody, or saw the man on television, he was brought back to that confessional, to how good it felt to have Cody’s lips around his cock. And it made him want more.
Now that was a dangerous thought.
Ted moved about the rectory, needing to keep himself busy. Otherwise his mind would float back to Cody. That’s where his mind always went whenever he was idle. Or knelt in prayer. So he kept moving. He tidied things up that didn’t even need tidying. He made his bed countless times, constantly untucking the sheets simply to retuck them, continually telling himself that it wasn’t made quite right.
Even as he dressed for the evening mass he’d be performing, he wondered how it’d feel to have Cody remove every garment from his body, starting from his robes and working all the way down to his underwear.
Shit.
Finally, when the day of Cody’s visit arrived, Ted honestly didn’t know if he could handle seeing the man again without doing something against his religious code, because he knew that he wanted to. He wanted to so many times in the past. Even before he became a priest, or knew for sure that he wanted to become one. Just being around Cody did things to him, and while at the time he didn’t know quite why it was happening, he knew that nothing good could come of it. It was a dangerous road to travel, that was for sure.
So he became a priest.
But those urges lingered.
There was never anyone else in the world who made him feel that way. Not like he’d ever been with anyone else in the ways he’d been with Cody, but seeing as just being in a room with him, or hearing his voice made his stomach feel as though a whole swarm of butterflies were living inside, made him sure that no one else ever could make him feel like that.
Cody was his soul mate. He couldn’t deny that any longer. But he wanted his soul to belong to God, not anyone else, and his profession called for his whole being, mind, body and soul belonging to God.
Upon arriving at the church, Cody parked his rental car, killing the engine before exiting the car. However, he didn’t approach either the church or the rectory. He simply leaned against the car and observed. It was a Wednesday afternoon, so there weren’t many people milling about. But he knew Ted would be inside one of the two buildings that stood before him.
The front doors of the church opened up, and one of the priests walked through, looking down as he took the steps. Turning to his right, he made his way to the gardens that adorned the side of the church, since it was his turn to do the watering.
Cody couldn’t help but smile as he saw Ted fiddling with the hose, not even noticing that he was there. Soon enough Ted managed to get the hose going, and he headed over to begin watering the flowers. That’s when he swore that he felt a pair of eyes watching him.
When he met Cody’s eyes, he smiled, a reaction that just came naturally whenever Cody was near. “Hey, don’t drown them,” Cody said as he began walking over.
“Oh, right,” Ted muttered, moving the hose off the poor morning glory he soaked with the hose as he hadn’t even thought of anything else aside from the fact that, once more, Cody was there with him.
“How’s the good Father doing today?” Cody asked.
“Fine, thank you. How was your flight?” Ted asked in return. He wanted to keep conversation neutral.
“Got here alive, didn’t I?” Cody answered. He then smirked, always looking for a way to get Ted riled up. “Also found this hot ass guy on the plane, so I fucked him in the bathroom. Tight fit, in more ways than one, if ya know what I mean, but there’s nothin’ quite like fucking at over thirty thousand feet in the air.”
Ted’s eyes were wide, and he probably would have dropped the hose in shock if he wasn’t holding it in a death grip. He was also speechless. He thought that… that Cody was… he thought Cody was done doing things like that. Then to go and speak so casually about it? In front of the man that he claimed to love? “I- Well, that’s… that’s nice,” he choked out.
“Teddy… I’m kidding.”
“Oh, thank the Lord,” Ted said with a sigh of relief.
Until Cody replied with, “He fucked me.”
“Cody!” Ted shouted, that hurt feeling returning once more.
“Teddy, calm down. You know I wouldn’t do that to you, right? But you can’t expect me to give up my crude sense of humour just because I wanna fuck a priest now, right?” he asked. “I mean, I wanted to fuck you before you were a priest, too, but you get my point,” he then added.
Once again, Ted’s eyes grew wide, but it was for a completely different reason this time. “Keep your voice down, please,” Ted said softly. He didn’t want people hearing that, hearing the true nature of Cody’s feelings for him. Because that might, in turn, make people see the true nature of Ted’s feelings for Cody.
Cody held his hands up defensively at that. “Sorry, didn’t even think about what I was saying. You know how I am. Just say what I think, no filter.” He really hadn’t meant to offend Ted in any way. That was the last thing that he wanted.
“It’s ok… I just, well, I get a little nervous since…” he trailed off and looked around the premises, as well as up to the sky.
“I’m sorry, really.”
Once again, Ted assured him that it was ok. “Just try and think about what you’re saying… especially in front of the others.”
“I will. Now,” he began, glancing down at the flowers again, “I think you’re in the process of drowning them again.”
“Shit,” Ted muttered.
“You do this often?” Cody then asked, changing the subject off them and back to the plants.
“Often enough. But obviously I’ve never had you here with me when I do, since I really do know how to go about watering plants. I’m just a bit distracted here today, that’s all,” he answered.
“Well, yeah, I am a good distraction, I know. I mean, just look at me. How can a person not be completely taken aback by my dashing good looks?”
Ted quirked a smile at that. “I couldn’t tell ya.” He soon finished watering the plants, Cody watching him the entire time. Once he twisted the nozzle on the hose to turn off the stream of water, as he was walking to put the hose back, he asked, “So, um, what did you want to do now that you’re here?”
“Whatever,” Cody answered. “I’d give you the real answer, but I seem to get shot down every time I do, so…”
“What do you mean by the real answer?” Ted asked at Cody’s response. “If there’s something you had in mind, you can tell me.”
“Never mind,” Cody said with a slight shake of his head. Every time in the past when he’d tried to get something going between them, he was shot down. Not that he minded, because he knew Ted’s lifestyle spoke out against these actions (with anyone, not just because he was a man), but it was frustrating at times. He hadn’t had sex with anyone in months, pushing a year, and that was tough. “We’ll do whatever you want.”
“You hungry?” Ted asked.
“I just spent hours on a plane with no food whatsoever. Take a guess,” Cody replied.
“Anywhere you’d like to go, then?”
“Wherever you’d like to go. You’re the one that knows all the good little restaurants around here,” he answered.
“You’ve been here enough over the last year. You gotta have a favourite place to go by now.”
“I may, but how am I supposed to know if there’s anywhere that’s better unless we go there?” Cody reasoned. He loved when Ted showed off his home town to him, told him little bits of history about the buildings as they passed. But, damn, if he wouldn’t love to be holding the man’s hand as they walked through town… or even as they drove through town. That would have been a nice little perk, at least.
“Ok, well, there’s this one place. It closed down last year after the owners put it up for sale, some couple owned it, but they ended up getting a divorce, then they couldn’t run the place anymore… Anyway,” Ted said as they began walking, Cody falling right into step next to him, “someone finally bought the place and it reopened a couple months back. Just haven’t had the chance to get over there yet.”
“So this’ll be both our first times there?”
“Yup,” Ted answered, brushing a bit of soil off his pants. How’d that even get there? he mused to himself.
“Sounds good,” Cody said with a smile. “Who knows, maybe this could become our place. Like our date restaurant.”
“Date?” Ted repeated, pausing in his step.
“Yes,” Cody replied, reaching out to adjust Ted’s little white dog collar he had tucked through his shirt collar. “Date.”
Ted didn’t know what to say to that. He’d never even thought of them going out to lunch together as a date… that made them sound so… so official. So real.
“I haven’t been on a date since I was in high school,” Cody went on.
“Really?” Ted was pretty surprised about that, considering how many men Cody had gone through in his life.
“Really. I was a junior in high school and I asked this girl out.”
“Wait, did you just say you asked a girl out? This happened two years after you first had sex with Randy?”
“Yes. Randy encouraged me on, told me to at least give a girl a shot. So I did. It didn’t really go so well. By the end of dinner, I knew she could tell that I wasn’t all that into her,” Cody recalled.
“How’d you know that?” Ted asked. He could read people all day, could see their conflict or relief wash over them as they told him their confessions. Yet when it came to matters of the heart, the relationship side of things, he was never very good at picking up on that.
“Because she told me that she had a friend who she knew had a thing for me. Her friend, who she said was really cute, a year older than us and was in amazing shape from playing on the soccer team.” Cody paused before meeting Ted’s eyes out of the corner of his own. “Her friend by the name of Jason.”
“No shit?” Ted asked. He couldn’t help but be amused by that.
“No shit. Guess everyone had me pegged… Anyway, Jason was the last person I went on a date with. In fact, we were kind of a thing for a while. At least until he graduated and went off to college. Haven’t heard from him since.”
“How come you haven’t dated anyone since?”
“You won’t like my answer,” Cody warned.
“I found out you’ve been sleeping with Randy since you were fourteen, I think I can handle this,” Ted assured him.
“If you’re sure… well, I figured it was just easier to fuck ‘em and move on than actually dating someone. So that’s what I did. Then when I got into the WWE, that life became even easier, since we go from city to city. Never have to see them again.”
“You know… I wish I could have been there for you,” Ted then confessed softly. “I wish that could have been me.”
“Really, Teddy? It could have been, you know. God knows I wanted it to be you… It still can be,” he added.
“We’re here,” Ted said, hearing but choosing not to say anything about Cody’s last comment, much to the younger man’s disappointment.
The new owner looked up as the doorbell dinged, then smiled as the pair walked in. “Father DiBiase,” she greeted, “how are you today?” She was a patron of Ted’s church, attended mass every Sunday morning.
“I’m doing quite well, thank you,” he answered. “How’re you? Business good here?” he asked.
“It sure is. People seemed pretty eager to have this place reopened. Gotta say, I was pretty nervous when I got into the business, but people ‘round here are so good. Already have regular customers comin’ in.”
“I was one of those people who couldn’t wait for the reopening,” Ted told her. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t get here sooner,” he apologized.
“Oh, don’t worry about it! You’re here now, right? Now let’s get you two seated, shall we? Didn’t mean to make you two stand around while I chattered on ‘n on. Follow me,” she said, grabbing two menus and bringing them over to a table right by the window. “I’ll have a server right with you. I hope you enjoy!” She left them to browse their menus as she headed back to the front of the restaurant.
“You really do know everyone in this town, don’t you?” Cody asked.
“Close to it,” Ted replied, browsing the menu. “The ones that come to my church, anyway… which, to be honest, really is most everyone in the town.”
“She ever been to confession?” Cody then asked with a grin.
“Cody!” Ted whispered harshly. “You know that I can’t answer that.”
“Fine, fine. Then I’ll just imagine the kind of things that she said to you.”
“She’s a very nice young woman, Cody, so any of the things you’re thinkin’ you should stop thinkin’ ‘em.”
“Give me a little credit, Teddy.”
“All I’m sayin’ is that I don’t know what kinda crazy thoughts go on in that mind of yours, so I’m just imagining the worst,” Ted told him.
“Teddy, I promise you… that I could imagine far worse things than you could. But I won’t. It must be strange, though.” He was cut off as the waitress came over and introduced herself as Eileen, and asked what they would like to drink.
Once she left, Cody picked up his menu again, and continued to browse, wanting to make sure he was ready to order by the time she came back.
“What must be strange?” Ted asked. Cody never finished his last thought, and now he was left hanging.
“Oh. All I mean is that it must be strange to have these confessions coming in that need to remain between you and that person, but then you have to see that person each week, knowing all their dirty little secrets.”
“Well, to be honest, people don’t go to confession as much as they used to. It’s a dying phase, really, and only the older crowd or people who have really guilty consciences are the ones that come and seek confession,” Ted told him.
The waitress then came back with their waters, setting them down before asking if they were ready. She quickly jotted down their orders and told them she would put that right in for them. Again, she walked off to her next table, leaving Ted and Cody to go back to their conversation.
“That’s a lot of weight to carry, though, don’t you think?”
“Comes with the territory. I knew what I was getting myself into. This is the life that I chose for myself, and this is the life that I’ll live.”
Bringing his thumb to his mouth, Cody began chewing at the nail, a habit it was trying to break (and his clear nail polish really did taste pretty disgusting), but he was nervous about his following question. “Did you ever consider having a life with me? Honestly, did you ever think of following your father’s footsteps?”
“Of course I did,” Ted answered right off the bat. “I thought about it all the time. It seemed so natural for me to get into the business, you know? I mean, look at you and Randy. Our own brothers. But this? This was the life that I wanted. We chose each other, God and I.”
Cody nodded. He knew that answer was coming, too. It was always about God. Please God before anyone else. “So you don’t ever regret it? Your decision?”
“No. I don’t. I couldn’t imagine myself anywhere else.”
“Not even with me?” Cody whispered.
“Cody… there are two things that I could change about life as a Roman Catholic priest. The first would be that it would allow me to, if I ever had it happen to me, report murders, rapists, child molesters, the whole nine yards to the police should any of them confess such crimes to me. The second would be that it would allow relationships and marriages. Other religions allow marriage for their pastors and preachers and priests. And… and there are openly gay members of the clergy. That’s not unheard of. But even if I were openly gay, it wouldn’t matter, because I couldn’t ever…” he dropped his voice low as he whispered so only Cody could hear him, “make love to you the way that I so want to.”
“R-really? You… You do actually want to?” Cody asked.
“Goodness yes. I want to. But I can’t. And I hate that.” He looked around, noticing that the tables near them were filling. “We’ll continue this later, ok?”
Cody nodded. Even he had enough tact to know that the middle of a restaurant wasn’t the right place to talk about such private matters, especially when it came to Ted.
Their food arrived soon, anyway, and they kept their conversation sparse and as casual as they could make it. “So, how’s everything at work?” Ted asked as he cut into his chicken.
“It’s great. Still have my title, as I’m sure you know,” he answered. “They’re setting me up in a feud with John soon.”
“Cena?” Ted asked.
“One in the same,” Cody said. “I’m looking forward to it. I’ve been working with the top guys out there… Randy, Punk, now John? It’s like I’m living my dream right now,” he told him. I’ve had my title for months now and it really just set in recently that I am one of the top guys.”
“Cody, you’re the top guy right now.”
“It doesn’t seem possible. It seems like just yesterday Dad was hoisting me up to put me into a ring for the first time,” Cody reminisced.
Ted smiled at him before popping some chicken into his mouth. “I remember my first time in the ring.”
“Hard thing to forget,” Cody said.
Nodding, Ted agreed. “True enough. Back then I was thinking that I’d be doing that one day… that I’d be the one lacing up my boots to go fight the good fight, winning the Intercontinental Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship… For quite some time I was positive that that would be me.”
“When you were younger, you ever think about going out there and wrestling with me?” Cody asked him.
“Yup. Remember that one time we were backstage and we found those boxes in the trash?”
Cody grinned. “When we cut out and colored our own tag team titles?” he finished.
“And we went around telling everyone that we were the tag team champions.”
“Including the tag team champions,” Cody said with a chuckle. “I remember that day really well… I always thought it’d be you there with me carrying those titles… not your brother.”
“Yeah, I know… like I said before, I sometimes wish that was me.”
“I absolutely would have loved if it was you,” Cody told him.
“I know.”
“I bet we would have had some great times together, you and me on the road three hundred days of the year… woulda been great.”
Ted gave him a rueful smile. “I bet it would have been, but… there’s nothing that can be done about it. I’ve made my decisions, you’ve made yours. You have a life on the road, and I have mine here.”
Cody kept silent after that, finishing up his meal. The waitress came around and brought their check, leaving it on the table as she cleared away the empty plates. “I got it,” Cody said, reaching for the check. Ted was already reaching for it, though, and their fingers touched atop the black checkbook. Ted pulled his hand away first. “That mean you do want me to take care of it?” Cody asked dryly.
“No… no, I got it,” Ted replied.
“It’s fine. You are so graciously letting me stay with you, after all,” Cody said, going into his pocket for his wallet.
“Cody…”
Cody stuck some cash into the book, enough for a nice sized tip, as well, and stood up. The waitress came back around and Cody said, “I’m all set.” He gave her a little smile and a nod before heading out.
Ted followed, telling the waitress, “Have a nice day.”
Once they got to the front, the new owner stopped them. “Did you enjoy your meal here?” she asked.
“It was amazing. I can see why you wanted to open this place; your food is delicious,” he told her. “I will most definitely be back. I’ve got to head out now, but you have a nice day.”
“Thank you. You, as well, Father.”
After grabbing a mint and toothpick, Ted was out the door behind Cody. “You seem somewhat upset,” Ted muttered, opening the toothpick, shoving the plastic wrapper into a pocket.
“Do I? Wonder why.”
“Tell me why.”
“Well, let’s see… first you tell me that you want to make love to me,” Cody began, and that already had Ted on edge. “Then you tell me that we have two very separate lives… and we do, but… but that’s why I’m here. To bring our lives together. And then you go and you jerk your hand away from mine when our fingers touched. Do you have any idea how that makes me feel?”
“I’m sorry! What am I supposed to do, Cody?”
“Laugh it off, maybe? Or maybe even let me take my hand away first…”
Ted turned his head and cast Cody a look out of the corner of his eye as they continued their walk back to the church. “Really? As if you’d have done that.”
“You never know. Believe it, or not, I do know how to respect boundaries.”
This time keeping his eyes forward, Ted muttered, “Well, you sure do know how to push mine.”
“It’s not like your flakey attitude helps that,” Cody retorted.
They passed by an older man walking down the street, who greeted Ted, “Good afternoon, Father.”
Ted stopped to return the greeting, and the pair of them ended up chatting for a few minutes while Cody hung back a little. He watched the way Ted interacted with the man, and he had to admire it. It seemed Ted always had an ability to put a smile on anyone’s face just talking to them.
“Will I see you again on Sunday?” Ted asked, and the man replied in the affirmative. Ted bid him a good day and the man finally continued along on his way. “Sorry about that.”
“No, don’t be… It’s just amazing to see you with other people.”
“What do you mean?” Ted asked. He was a well known, respected public figure in his community, one who was always open for a conversation.
“I mean, the way people approach you and you’re so receptive to them, you listen to them… you can tell that you really do care.”
“That’s more than just my job, you know,” Ted replied. “Treat other as you would want them to treat you, it’s that simple.”
“So… the way you treat me is the way you’d want others to treat you?” Cody whispered.
Ted stopped walking completely, hand on Cody’s elbow to stop him, as well. “What?” he asked once Cody had turned to look at him face to face.
“I haven’t even kissed anyone in almost a year,” he said. “Ted… you say that you’re in love with me, but I can’t do anything with you that people in love should be able to do.”
“Can we not talk about this here? Anyone could hear us,” Ted said, worry written all over his face… worry and maybe a little bit of guilt.
Cody nodded. “Do you have anywhere we could go to actually talk one on one? Just talk,” Cody said at Ted’s hesitation.
“Yeah. We can either go to my room or… or go to the confessional,” Ted told him. They weren’t that far from the church at this point.
While he wouldn’t have objected to going to Ted’s room, there was every chance that one of the priests Ted shared his room with would walk in to change after a service, or something… and they didn’t need anyone hearing the conversation that Cody was planning on having. Plus, it was the confessional where this whole thing really started. “Confessional.”
Part 3-2
Pairing: Ted DiBiase Jr./Cody Rhodes
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Takes place a year after the first part of Our Father. Cody has changed his ways, cleaned up his act... but Ted is still as straight laced as ever...
Disclaimer: All rights belong to the WWE
Warnings: Strong religious content! And perhaps a lot of sacriligious goings on...
Word Count: 13140
Feedback: Would be lovely
A/N: It's been a long time since I've stepped into this 'verse. I really hope that it's as good, if not better than the first two parts!
Part 1, Part 2
It had been over a year since Cody Runnels had a chance to first taste that forbidden fruit otherwise known as Ted DiBiase. Father Ted DiBiase. In the time that passed since, he visited Ted just a handful of times. And every time that he went to visit, they never had time alone, but he’d since been introduced to every other father living in the rectory alongside Ted.
For Ted, these visits were an extremely difficult time. Each time Cody stood before him, that strong feeling of lust and love worked its way into his body, and he was powerless to do anything against it. No matter how hard he prayed, no matter how many rosaries he did, no matter how many Hail Marys he said, no matter how many confessions he went to, he could not shake that feeling. And it only seemed to get stronger every time he saw Cody.
For Cody, the visits were nothing short of frustrating. He knew that he said he could go without the physical aspect of a relationship, just so long as he knew Ted was his… but it was damn hard. Now, he and Randy worked together for a short while after he won the World Heavyweight Championship from the older man, but it had been a matter of months since that feud ended. At least for the time being. However, it had been even longer since the two of them last fucked. Cody was determined to be as faithful to Ted as Ted was to him. However, sometimes he felt as though he was being cheated on with God. Though that feeling he should have been expecting.
The first time that he visited, he was doing a show a few hours away the following day. That visit, he managed to get Ted alone in his room, and he swore that he would never forget the kiss that they shared. It was filled with need, with love, with passion.
And that was the only time that they’d kissed since.
After that visit, Ted insisted that he meet all the Fathers, and there was always someone else around the rectory. It was as if Ted wanted them around, because Cody couldn’t make a move otherwise.
When Ted celebrated his first full year as an ordained priest, all he could think about were the events of that first day. His parents had been so proud… and he’d been so excited to see Cody there. Cody, his oldest friend in the world, came to see him perform a church service. Cody was actually in a church. And it was all because of him. Then the day had progressed, one thing to another, leading Cody to confess to him his truest feelings. Which then led to Ted going against all his beliefs as he allowed Cody to actually… to actually take him into his mouth. In the confessional of all places. He still couldn’t believe he allowed that to happen.
However… that day was both the best and worst day of his life.
So now when Cody paid him a visit, he tried everything in his power to keep Cody at bay. He couldn’t allow himself to be alone with him, because he felt that he simply wasn’t strong enough to resist him.
It was safest for them both.
And now there was yet another visit upcoming. Cody had a rare few days off in a row, so instead of going back to Georgia to go see his own family, he was going to see Ted. It was really getting to be a bit much. He could see that Cody was getting frustrated by how much he seemed to regress in their little relationship, if one could even call it that, but he didn’t know what else to do… because if they progressed in their relationship, then he’d have completely broken his vow of celibacy as opposed to just… bending the rules about it.
The days seemed to pass by so quickly, despite Ted’s nerves building up day by day. It had been so long since he’d seen Cody in person. Faithfully, he watched Cody on Raw each and every week. That was a habit he never did break, even after he found out that Cody and Randy were fucking one another. Since then, Cody swore to him that they stopped, that he hadn’t touched anyone else.
That only seemed to make things worse in Ted’s mind. Cody had completely changed his lifestyle for him. But now that Cody had told him that, now that he knew Cody wasn’t in any sort of sexual relationship with anyone, it seemed to put all the more pressure on him.
Because he couldn’t please Cody in that manner.
It was hard enough not pleasing himself in that manner. Whenever he spoke to Cody, or saw the man on television, he was brought back to that confessional, to how good it felt to have Cody’s lips around his cock. And it made him want more.
Now that was a dangerous thought.
Ted moved about the rectory, needing to keep himself busy. Otherwise his mind would float back to Cody. That’s where his mind always went whenever he was idle. Or knelt in prayer. So he kept moving. He tidied things up that didn’t even need tidying. He made his bed countless times, constantly untucking the sheets simply to retuck them, continually telling himself that it wasn’t made quite right.
Even as he dressed for the evening mass he’d be performing, he wondered how it’d feel to have Cody remove every garment from his body, starting from his robes and working all the way down to his underwear.
Shit.
Finally, when the day of Cody’s visit arrived, Ted honestly didn’t know if he could handle seeing the man again without doing something against his religious code, because he knew that he wanted to. He wanted to so many times in the past. Even before he became a priest, or knew for sure that he wanted to become one. Just being around Cody did things to him, and while at the time he didn’t know quite why it was happening, he knew that nothing good could come of it. It was a dangerous road to travel, that was for sure.
So he became a priest.
But those urges lingered.
There was never anyone else in the world who made him feel that way. Not like he’d ever been with anyone else in the ways he’d been with Cody, but seeing as just being in a room with him, or hearing his voice made his stomach feel as though a whole swarm of butterflies were living inside, made him sure that no one else ever could make him feel like that.
Cody was his soul mate. He couldn’t deny that any longer. But he wanted his soul to belong to God, not anyone else, and his profession called for his whole being, mind, body and soul belonging to God.
Upon arriving at the church, Cody parked his rental car, killing the engine before exiting the car. However, he didn’t approach either the church or the rectory. He simply leaned against the car and observed. It was a Wednesday afternoon, so there weren’t many people milling about. But he knew Ted would be inside one of the two buildings that stood before him.
The front doors of the church opened up, and one of the priests walked through, looking down as he took the steps. Turning to his right, he made his way to the gardens that adorned the side of the church, since it was his turn to do the watering.
Cody couldn’t help but smile as he saw Ted fiddling with the hose, not even noticing that he was there. Soon enough Ted managed to get the hose going, and he headed over to begin watering the flowers. That’s when he swore that he felt a pair of eyes watching him.
When he met Cody’s eyes, he smiled, a reaction that just came naturally whenever Cody was near. “Hey, don’t drown them,” Cody said as he began walking over.
“Oh, right,” Ted muttered, moving the hose off the poor morning glory he soaked with the hose as he hadn’t even thought of anything else aside from the fact that, once more, Cody was there with him.
“How’s the good Father doing today?” Cody asked.
“Fine, thank you. How was your flight?” Ted asked in return. He wanted to keep conversation neutral.
“Got here alive, didn’t I?” Cody answered. He then smirked, always looking for a way to get Ted riled up. “Also found this hot ass guy on the plane, so I fucked him in the bathroom. Tight fit, in more ways than one, if ya know what I mean, but there’s nothin’ quite like fucking at over thirty thousand feet in the air.”
Ted’s eyes were wide, and he probably would have dropped the hose in shock if he wasn’t holding it in a death grip. He was also speechless. He thought that… that Cody was… he thought Cody was done doing things like that. Then to go and speak so casually about it? In front of the man that he claimed to love? “I- Well, that’s… that’s nice,” he choked out.
“Teddy… I’m kidding.”
“Oh, thank the Lord,” Ted said with a sigh of relief.
Until Cody replied with, “He fucked me.”
“Cody!” Ted shouted, that hurt feeling returning once more.
“Teddy, calm down. You know I wouldn’t do that to you, right? But you can’t expect me to give up my crude sense of humour just because I wanna fuck a priest now, right?” he asked. “I mean, I wanted to fuck you before you were a priest, too, but you get my point,” he then added.
Once again, Ted’s eyes grew wide, but it was for a completely different reason this time. “Keep your voice down, please,” Ted said softly. He didn’t want people hearing that, hearing the true nature of Cody’s feelings for him. Because that might, in turn, make people see the true nature of Ted’s feelings for Cody.
Cody held his hands up defensively at that. “Sorry, didn’t even think about what I was saying. You know how I am. Just say what I think, no filter.” He really hadn’t meant to offend Ted in any way. That was the last thing that he wanted.
“It’s ok… I just, well, I get a little nervous since…” he trailed off and looked around the premises, as well as up to the sky.
“I’m sorry, really.”
Once again, Ted assured him that it was ok. “Just try and think about what you’re saying… especially in front of the others.”
“I will. Now,” he began, glancing down at the flowers again, “I think you’re in the process of drowning them again.”
“Shit,” Ted muttered.
“You do this often?” Cody then asked, changing the subject off them and back to the plants.
“Often enough. But obviously I’ve never had you here with me when I do, since I really do know how to go about watering plants. I’m just a bit distracted here today, that’s all,” he answered.
“Well, yeah, I am a good distraction, I know. I mean, just look at me. How can a person not be completely taken aback by my dashing good looks?”
Ted quirked a smile at that. “I couldn’t tell ya.” He soon finished watering the plants, Cody watching him the entire time. Once he twisted the nozzle on the hose to turn off the stream of water, as he was walking to put the hose back, he asked, “So, um, what did you want to do now that you’re here?”
“Whatever,” Cody answered. “I’d give you the real answer, but I seem to get shot down every time I do, so…”
“What do you mean by the real answer?” Ted asked at Cody’s response. “If there’s something you had in mind, you can tell me.”
“Never mind,” Cody said with a slight shake of his head. Every time in the past when he’d tried to get something going between them, he was shot down. Not that he minded, because he knew Ted’s lifestyle spoke out against these actions (with anyone, not just because he was a man), but it was frustrating at times. He hadn’t had sex with anyone in months, pushing a year, and that was tough. “We’ll do whatever you want.”
“You hungry?” Ted asked.
“I just spent hours on a plane with no food whatsoever. Take a guess,” Cody replied.
“Anywhere you’d like to go, then?”
“Wherever you’d like to go. You’re the one that knows all the good little restaurants around here,” he answered.
“You’ve been here enough over the last year. You gotta have a favourite place to go by now.”
“I may, but how am I supposed to know if there’s anywhere that’s better unless we go there?” Cody reasoned. He loved when Ted showed off his home town to him, told him little bits of history about the buildings as they passed. But, damn, if he wouldn’t love to be holding the man’s hand as they walked through town… or even as they drove through town. That would have been a nice little perk, at least.
“Ok, well, there’s this one place. It closed down last year after the owners put it up for sale, some couple owned it, but they ended up getting a divorce, then they couldn’t run the place anymore… Anyway,” Ted said as they began walking, Cody falling right into step next to him, “someone finally bought the place and it reopened a couple months back. Just haven’t had the chance to get over there yet.”
“So this’ll be both our first times there?”
“Yup,” Ted answered, brushing a bit of soil off his pants. How’d that even get there? he mused to himself.
“Sounds good,” Cody said with a smile. “Who knows, maybe this could become our place. Like our date restaurant.”
“Date?” Ted repeated, pausing in his step.
“Yes,” Cody replied, reaching out to adjust Ted’s little white dog collar he had tucked through his shirt collar. “Date.”
Ted didn’t know what to say to that. He’d never even thought of them going out to lunch together as a date… that made them sound so… so official. So real.
“I haven’t been on a date since I was in high school,” Cody went on.
“Really?” Ted was pretty surprised about that, considering how many men Cody had gone through in his life.
“Really. I was a junior in high school and I asked this girl out.”
“Wait, did you just say you asked a girl out? This happened two years after you first had sex with Randy?”
“Yes. Randy encouraged me on, told me to at least give a girl a shot. So I did. It didn’t really go so well. By the end of dinner, I knew she could tell that I wasn’t all that into her,” Cody recalled.
“How’d you know that?” Ted asked. He could read people all day, could see their conflict or relief wash over them as they told him their confessions. Yet when it came to matters of the heart, the relationship side of things, he was never very good at picking up on that.
“Because she told me that she had a friend who she knew had a thing for me. Her friend, who she said was really cute, a year older than us and was in amazing shape from playing on the soccer team.” Cody paused before meeting Ted’s eyes out of the corner of his own. “Her friend by the name of Jason.”
“No shit?” Ted asked. He couldn’t help but be amused by that.
“No shit. Guess everyone had me pegged… Anyway, Jason was the last person I went on a date with. In fact, we were kind of a thing for a while. At least until he graduated and went off to college. Haven’t heard from him since.”
“How come you haven’t dated anyone since?”
“You won’t like my answer,” Cody warned.
“I found out you’ve been sleeping with Randy since you were fourteen, I think I can handle this,” Ted assured him.
“If you’re sure… well, I figured it was just easier to fuck ‘em and move on than actually dating someone. So that’s what I did. Then when I got into the WWE, that life became even easier, since we go from city to city. Never have to see them again.”
“You know… I wish I could have been there for you,” Ted then confessed softly. “I wish that could have been me.”
“Really, Teddy? It could have been, you know. God knows I wanted it to be you… It still can be,” he added.
“We’re here,” Ted said, hearing but choosing not to say anything about Cody’s last comment, much to the younger man’s disappointment.
The new owner looked up as the doorbell dinged, then smiled as the pair walked in. “Father DiBiase,” she greeted, “how are you today?” She was a patron of Ted’s church, attended mass every Sunday morning.
“I’m doing quite well, thank you,” he answered. “How’re you? Business good here?” he asked.
“It sure is. People seemed pretty eager to have this place reopened. Gotta say, I was pretty nervous when I got into the business, but people ‘round here are so good. Already have regular customers comin’ in.”
“I was one of those people who couldn’t wait for the reopening,” Ted told her. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t get here sooner,” he apologized.
“Oh, don’t worry about it! You’re here now, right? Now let’s get you two seated, shall we? Didn’t mean to make you two stand around while I chattered on ‘n on. Follow me,” she said, grabbing two menus and bringing them over to a table right by the window. “I’ll have a server right with you. I hope you enjoy!” She left them to browse their menus as she headed back to the front of the restaurant.
“You really do know everyone in this town, don’t you?” Cody asked.
“Close to it,” Ted replied, browsing the menu. “The ones that come to my church, anyway… which, to be honest, really is most everyone in the town.”
“She ever been to confession?” Cody then asked with a grin.
“Cody!” Ted whispered harshly. “You know that I can’t answer that.”
“Fine, fine. Then I’ll just imagine the kind of things that she said to you.”
“She’s a very nice young woman, Cody, so any of the things you’re thinkin’ you should stop thinkin’ ‘em.”
“Give me a little credit, Teddy.”
“All I’m sayin’ is that I don’t know what kinda crazy thoughts go on in that mind of yours, so I’m just imagining the worst,” Ted told him.
“Teddy, I promise you… that I could imagine far worse things than you could. But I won’t. It must be strange, though.” He was cut off as the waitress came over and introduced herself as Eileen, and asked what they would like to drink.
Once she left, Cody picked up his menu again, and continued to browse, wanting to make sure he was ready to order by the time she came back.
“What must be strange?” Ted asked. Cody never finished his last thought, and now he was left hanging.
“Oh. All I mean is that it must be strange to have these confessions coming in that need to remain between you and that person, but then you have to see that person each week, knowing all their dirty little secrets.”
“Well, to be honest, people don’t go to confession as much as they used to. It’s a dying phase, really, and only the older crowd or people who have really guilty consciences are the ones that come and seek confession,” Ted told him.
The waitress then came back with their waters, setting them down before asking if they were ready. She quickly jotted down their orders and told them she would put that right in for them. Again, she walked off to her next table, leaving Ted and Cody to go back to their conversation.
“That’s a lot of weight to carry, though, don’t you think?”
“Comes with the territory. I knew what I was getting myself into. This is the life that I chose for myself, and this is the life that I’ll live.”
Bringing his thumb to his mouth, Cody began chewing at the nail, a habit it was trying to break (and his clear nail polish really did taste pretty disgusting), but he was nervous about his following question. “Did you ever consider having a life with me? Honestly, did you ever think of following your father’s footsteps?”
“Of course I did,” Ted answered right off the bat. “I thought about it all the time. It seemed so natural for me to get into the business, you know? I mean, look at you and Randy. Our own brothers. But this? This was the life that I wanted. We chose each other, God and I.”
Cody nodded. He knew that answer was coming, too. It was always about God. Please God before anyone else. “So you don’t ever regret it? Your decision?”
“No. I don’t. I couldn’t imagine myself anywhere else.”
“Not even with me?” Cody whispered.
“Cody… there are two things that I could change about life as a Roman Catholic priest. The first would be that it would allow me to, if I ever had it happen to me, report murders, rapists, child molesters, the whole nine yards to the police should any of them confess such crimes to me. The second would be that it would allow relationships and marriages. Other religions allow marriage for their pastors and preachers and priests. And… and there are openly gay members of the clergy. That’s not unheard of. But even if I were openly gay, it wouldn’t matter, because I couldn’t ever…” he dropped his voice low as he whispered so only Cody could hear him, “make love to you the way that I so want to.”
“R-really? You… You do actually want to?” Cody asked.
“Goodness yes. I want to. But I can’t. And I hate that.” He looked around, noticing that the tables near them were filling. “We’ll continue this later, ok?”
Cody nodded. Even he had enough tact to know that the middle of a restaurant wasn’t the right place to talk about such private matters, especially when it came to Ted.
Their food arrived soon, anyway, and they kept their conversation sparse and as casual as they could make it. “So, how’s everything at work?” Ted asked as he cut into his chicken.
“It’s great. Still have my title, as I’m sure you know,” he answered. “They’re setting me up in a feud with John soon.”
“Cena?” Ted asked.
“One in the same,” Cody said. “I’m looking forward to it. I’ve been working with the top guys out there… Randy, Punk, now John? It’s like I’m living my dream right now,” he told him. I’ve had my title for months now and it really just set in recently that I am one of the top guys.”
“Cody, you’re the top guy right now.”
“It doesn’t seem possible. It seems like just yesterday Dad was hoisting me up to put me into a ring for the first time,” Cody reminisced.
Ted smiled at him before popping some chicken into his mouth. “I remember my first time in the ring.”
“Hard thing to forget,” Cody said.
Nodding, Ted agreed. “True enough. Back then I was thinking that I’d be doing that one day… that I’d be the one lacing up my boots to go fight the good fight, winning the Intercontinental Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship… For quite some time I was positive that that would be me.”
“When you were younger, you ever think about going out there and wrestling with me?” Cody asked him.
“Yup. Remember that one time we were backstage and we found those boxes in the trash?”
Cody grinned. “When we cut out and colored our own tag team titles?” he finished.
“And we went around telling everyone that we were the tag team champions.”
“Including the tag team champions,” Cody said with a chuckle. “I remember that day really well… I always thought it’d be you there with me carrying those titles… not your brother.”
“Yeah, I know… like I said before, I sometimes wish that was me.”
“I absolutely would have loved if it was you,” Cody told him.
“I know.”
“I bet we would have had some great times together, you and me on the road three hundred days of the year… woulda been great.”
Ted gave him a rueful smile. “I bet it would have been, but… there’s nothing that can be done about it. I’ve made my decisions, you’ve made yours. You have a life on the road, and I have mine here.”
Cody kept silent after that, finishing up his meal. The waitress came around and brought their check, leaving it on the table as she cleared away the empty plates. “I got it,” Cody said, reaching for the check. Ted was already reaching for it, though, and their fingers touched atop the black checkbook. Ted pulled his hand away first. “That mean you do want me to take care of it?” Cody asked dryly.
“No… no, I got it,” Ted replied.
“It’s fine. You are so graciously letting me stay with you, after all,” Cody said, going into his pocket for his wallet.
“Cody…”
Cody stuck some cash into the book, enough for a nice sized tip, as well, and stood up. The waitress came back around and Cody said, “I’m all set.” He gave her a little smile and a nod before heading out.
Ted followed, telling the waitress, “Have a nice day.”
Once they got to the front, the new owner stopped them. “Did you enjoy your meal here?” she asked.
“It was amazing. I can see why you wanted to open this place; your food is delicious,” he told her. “I will most definitely be back. I’ve got to head out now, but you have a nice day.”
“Thank you. You, as well, Father.”
After grabbing a mint and toothpick, Ted was out the door behind Cody. “You seem somewhat upset,” Ted muttered, opening the toothpick, shoving the plastic wrapper into a pocket.
“Do I? Wonder why.”
“Tell me why.”
“Well, let’s see… first you tell me that you want to make love to me,” Cody began, and that already had Ted on edge. “Then you tell me that we have two very separate lives… and we do, but… but that’s why I’m here. To bring our lives together. And then you go and you jerk your hand away from mine when our fingers touched. Do you have any idea how that makes me feel?”
“I’m sorry! What am I supposed to do, Cody?”
“Laugh it off, maybe? Or maybe even let me take my hand away first…”
Ted turned his head and cast Cody a look out of the corner of his eye as they continued their walk back to the church. “Really? As if you’d have done that.”
“You never know. Believe it, or not, I do know how to respect boundaries.”
This time keeping his eyes forward, Ted muttered, “Well, you sure do know how to push mine.”
“It’s not like your flakey attitude helps that,” Cody retorted.
They passed by an older man walking down the street, who greeted Ted, “Good afternoon, Father.”
Ted stopped to return the greeting, and the pair of them ended up chatting for a few minutes while Cody hung back a little. He watched the way Ted interacted with the man, and he had to admire it. It seemed Ted always had an ability to put a smile on anyone’s face just talking to them.
“Will I see you again on Sunday?” Ted asked, and the man replied in the affirmative. Ted bid him a good day and the man finally continued along on his way. “Sorry about that.”
“No, don’t be… It’s just amazing to see you with other people.”
“What do you mean?” Ted asked. He was a well known, respected public figure in his community, one who was always open for a conversation.
“I mean, the way people approach you and you’re so receptive to them, you listen to them… you can tell that you really do care.”
“That’s more than just my job, you know,” Ted replied. “Treat other as you would want them to treat you, it’s that simple.”
“So… the way you treat me is the way you’d want others to treat you?” Cody whispered.
Ted stopped walking completely, hand on Cody’s elbow to stop him, as well. “What?” he asked once Cody had turned to look at him face to face.
“I haven’t even kissed anyone in almost a year,” he said. “Ted… you say that you’re in love with me, but I can’t do anything with you that people in love should be able to do.”
“Can we not talk about this here? Anyone could hear us,” Ted said, worry written all over his face… worry and maybe a little bit of guilt.
Cody nodded. “Do you have anywhere we could go to actually talk one on one? Just talk,” Cody said at Ted’s hesitation.
“Yeah. We can either go to my room or… or go to the confessional,” Ted told him. They weren’t that far from the church at this point.
While he wouldn’t have objected to going to Ted’s room, there was every chance that one of the priests Ted shared his room with would walk in to change after a service, or something… and they didn’t need anyone hearing the conversation that Cody was planning on having. Plus, it was the confessional where this whole thing really started. “Confessional.”
Part 3-2