The Challenge For This One Shot: Shawn or Hunter tell the other that they miss them.
Everything reminded Hunter of his friend. Everything.
When he boarded his plane this morning, he looked through some magazines that sat neatly in the pouch attached to the back of the seat in front of him. One of those mags just so happened to be on the topic of hunting.
His buddy was into that kind of thing. One time, Shawn spent two whole hours going on and on about it during their flight. Hunter wanted nothing more than for his friend to somehow lose his voice in the process so he could turn over and get some shut eye, but his friend insisted that he hear every word about his, in Shawn's words, "exciting voyage into hunter-dom."
And that's when Hunter seriously considered a name change, even going so far as to tell Shawn to "never ever call me 'Hunter' again. I'm retiring that name as of now. From now on, you call me Paul. For every time you don't, I shall kill you."
Shawn simply cracked one of his childlike, innocent smiles and without missing a beat replied with "But you know killing's a sin, right? 'Thou shalt not kill.' Exodus 20, verse 13."
And then shortly after he got off the plane, he went to claim his baggage and the scene he saw next seemed to have come straight out of a movie. He looked over and saw one man run after a woman and proclaim to her that he was in love with her, which was eerily familiar to what Shawn had done to Rebecca. Only difference was that this unnamed man proposed to the woman of his dreams right then and there. (And yes, she accepted.)
And if that wasn't enough, the minute he walked to the men's locker room, he was met with Edge bullying some local no-name. Hunter nearly gasped in shock when he saw Edge, you guessed it, giving the lanky no-name one big fat wedgie. But this wasn't just any kind of wedgie. Edge had decided to stand on the wooden bench and drop the victim to his doom, repeatedly yanking him up and down like a yo-yo, his version of a "Rated R wedgie". Somehow, Hunter once again thought about Shawn and the many times Michael Cole was a victim of such pranks.
By the time Hunter had gotten situated in the arena, he had noted 15 coincidental situations and each time he was reminded of one guy and one guy alone. It frustrated him to no end because he was reminded 15 times of what he had lost when he was drafted to Smackdown.
And it stung a little.
Okay, it stung a lot.
Actually, scratch that - it hurt like hell.
He broke out his cell phone and decided to make a call. It didn't take long for the person on the other end to pick up.
"Hello?"
"Dude, it sucks without you, man."
"Geez, already? How long have you been over there?"
"Twenty minutes."
"Well, is it too late for me to sing the chorus to 'I'm Already There'?"
"You can't be serious."
"Just take a look around, bud. Just remember all the good times we had."
At this point, Hunter stayed quiet. What could be said for all the scenes that had played before him so rapidly in such a short amount of time?
"Already did that, huh?"
"Yeah."
"Glad I wasn't the only one."
"So you've been running into replays of past moment after past moment only with different cast members at the helm?"
"Huh?"
"Nevermind. It's a long story."
"Oooh! I love stories, Hunter!"
"The next time I see you, I'm going to kill you. What did I say about that?"
"Killing's a sin, though. Exodu --"
"Exodus 20, verse 13: 'Thou shalt not kill'. I know, Shawn, I know."
"Well good!"
"But that doesn't change the fact that the next time I see you....I'm still going to kill you."
"You'd be no different from Cain. He killed his brother, too, you know. Genesis, chapter 4."
Hunter had no choice but to laugh. As silly as Shawn could be, he still managed to say the most profound of things: He killed his brother.....too.
Without flat out telling him, Shawn told him that the two of them were brothers.
And as far as Shawn was concerned, Hunt was Cain to his Abel.
Only no one got slaughtered.
Only Shawn could think this way....Only Shawn. Hunter thought, as he smiled at his friend's zaniness.