Muttering various obscenities, I shuffle into my hotel room.  I am not in the mood for anyone or anything right now.  I just want to go to sleep and hope that when I wake up this'll all turn out to be a nightmare.

No such luck.  Somehow, Chris has ended up in my room, and he's sitting on my bed in a way that suggests he won't be moving for a very long time.  He smiles slightly when he sees me.  "So."

"So."  I respond.  I can already tell this is gonna be a fun night.

"You aren't the champion anymore."  He says this in a very matter-of-fact way, like he thinks maybe I didn't know this already.

"You lost in the quarterfinals of the tournament."  I can give just as well as I can take.

He slides off the bed, standing up to embrace me.  "I really wanted to be the one to take the title from you," he whispers.

"And I really wanted to be the one to beat you during your title shots."

He pulls away, reaching for the bags I just noticed on the sides of the bed.  "I figured since we're both depressed and disappointed, we might as well eat.  I brought us some food."

I looked over his shoulder.  "Brownies?  Chocolate-chip cookies?"  He walks over to the mini-fridge as I follow.  "Ice cream????"

"Yup."  He grins up at me, grabbing some plastic spoons.  "Joanie says these are the traditional comfort food items, and I figure who needs comfort food more than us?"

We sit down on the bed and open the container of ice cream.  "Mint chocolate chip?"  I looked up at Chris.  "How did you know that was my favorite?"

"Lucky guess."  He said around a mouthful of ice cream.

We sit there and eat ice cream until all of a sudden, we realize we ate the entire container.  We look at each other for a moment, then he reaches down to grab the brownies.  As he's leaning, his shirt rides up and a patch of bare skin is exposed.  Being as sensitive to Chris's fragile emotional state as I am, I immediately pounce on it and start tickling.

Whoops.  He fell off the bed.  "I'm broken in half!!!"  He squeals from the floor.

"Sorry!"  I call down.  "Geez, for such a talented wrestler, you have pretty poor balance."

His tousled blonde head pops up.  "You think I'm talented?"

I'm about to respond in my typical smart-ass way, but I see the light in his blue eyes and I stop myself.  "Of course I do."  I shake my head.  "Silly boy."  I get off the bed and sit down next to him.  "You should know that though.  Everybody's always saying how great you are."

"Not the Game though."

"That's because I tell people how awesome I think they are, they start not to hate me as much.  If they don't hate me, I'm not being too good of a bad guy, now am I?"

He scoots next to me and leans his head against my chest.  "Do you think I'm awesome?"

I wrap my arms around him and he snuggles against me.  "Mmm-hmm.  You know why?"

He looks up at me.  "Why?"

I take a deep breath and say very loudly in my best promo-cutting voice.  "Because I, Hunter Hurst Helmsly, am a Jerichoholic."

"Mmmm."

"Mmm?  That's it?  I confess my secret addiction and all you can say is 'mmm'?"

He blinked.  "I'm sorry, I just realized how cool it is when you talk and I have my head on your chest…. you get all these vibrations…" He smiles.  "But anyways…. I appreciate your Jerichoholicness and in return, I'd like to declare my wishes to play with the Game."

"Maybe tomorrow, but right now we're both too tired."  He nodded and we gently untangled from each other and started picking up the food and empty containers that littered my hotel room floor.  When we finish, Chris starts to walk out the door, but before I know what I'm doing, I say "Hey."

Chris turns.  "Yeah Hunter?"

I look down.  This is going to be hard.  As much as I care for Chris, I don't like asking for things.  "I…. I don't really want to be alone tonight.  Could you…I mean…do you want to stay here?"

He scurried over to the bed, jumping on and making it, and me, bounce.  "Are we gonna have a slumber party?"  He asks, grinning like the fool he is.

"If you want.  But right now, I just want to sleep."  I pull the covers over me, and Chris turns off the light and wiggles in next to me.  "Don't snore."  I say tiredly.

"I won't if you won't."  He gently brushed his fingers down the side of my face.  "Hunter?"

"Yeah Chris?"

"You'll always be champion in my heart, creampuff." he whispers.

Creampuff?  Where'd THAT come from?  "Well you can be the king of my ring any day...honey bun."  Regardless of what I said Thursday, maybe the belt isn't the most important thing in life.