Michael Cole was hanging around at the arena,
getting his things together so he could get back
to his hotel room and rest a little.  Everyone
else had left...or so he thought.  The loud
laughter that was coming from the hall outside
his door led him to assume otherwise.  He decided
to see what was going on that had whoever it was
so amused.  He stepped out into the hall and saw
Lita and Debra, both laughing loudly and
obnoxiously so hard that they could barely stand.

"What's going on?"

The question only seemed to make them laugh
harder, and it was at least a minute before Lita
was able to calm herself enough to answer.  "We
thought you might want to know...your boyfriend
thinks it's karaoke night...he's putting on a
show for everyone at the bar."

Michael thought for a moment about what she had
just said.  His boyfriend?  He mulled this over
in his head, and then it clicked.  His eyes
widened.  "Pete?"

Both Lita and Debra nodded, and proceeded to
start laughing again.

Michael glared at them and rolled his eyes.
"What bar?"

Lita seemed a little surprised at Michael's icy
glare, and it sobered her enough to tell him what
he wanted to know.  "The bar at the hotel almost
everyone's staying in."

Michael grabbed his things quickly and left
without thanking Lita for the information.  This
didn't sound good.  At *all*.

**************************************************
"Loneleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, I'm so
loneleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..."

Michael cringed.  Oh *God*, this was worse than
he had thought.  Pete's Brooklyn accent was
slurred drunkenly, and he was singing loud enough
for people to hear from the street.  He just kept
singing the same thing over, and over, and over
again...why hadn't he been kicked out yet?
Michael walked across the bar to where Pete was
putting on his little "performance".  Pretty much
everyone in the bar was staring, laughing, or
both.  Pete noticed him and stopped singing for a
moment.

"Heya, Mikeys!  You're cute...both of ya!"

Michael rolled his eyes.  Who knew Pete could get
*that* drunk?  "Yeah, uh, thanks Pete.  I think
you may have had enough...why don't we get out of
here?"

"Nuh-uh.  Noooooo way, Mikeys.  I'm having
*fun*."

For a split second, Michael considered how
absolutely stupid Pete would probably feel
tomorrow.  Definitely had to get him out of there
before things got any worse...and thinking of
what might make things any worse frightened him
to no end.

"Uh...we can have fun somewhere else, can't we?"

"Like *where*???"

"Um...my room?"

Pete grinned lecherously.  "Hey, that don't sound
half bad."

Michael knew that was a dirty card to play, but
anything to make getting Pete out of there
easier...

Pete got up off the bar stool, and promptly
nearly fell on his ass.  Michael couldn't stop
from laughing.

"Hey, which one of you laughed?"  Pete
asked...presumably to the "Mikeys" he seemed to
be seeing.

Michael sighed.  "Let's just go?"

"Ah, you're eager...I like that."

Michael smacked himself in the forehead.  He had
done this *why*?  He didn't even want to think
about that at the moment.

**************************************************
Michael and Pete finally reached the elevator
that they needed to take to get to Michael's
floor.  Michael pressed the button, and they
stood there for a minute waiting for it to get
there.  Pete was leaning all over Michael and
looked to be trying to grab his ass when the
'ding' that signified the elevator's stop
sounded, and the doors opened...to reveal Rhyno
and Kanyon, Kanyon up against one wall and Rhyno
aggressively kissing him, their hands roaming all
over each other's bodies.  Suddenly Rhyno broke
away from Kanyon and looked at Michael and Pete.
Michael seemed in shock and Pete's hand was
running down Michael's back, getting dangerously
close to resting on his ass.

"Take the stairs."  Rhyno said as he pressed the
"close door" button.

Michael's jaw dropped as the doors closed.  Had
he just seen what he thought he saw?  Was he
actually going to have to help get Pete up twelve
flights of stairs?  Why hadn't he just forgotten
about seeing what was so funny?

**************************************************
Twelve flights of stairs was a lot.  By any
standards, really.  However, being that Michael
was rather concerned with not letting Pete fall
down any stairs, twelve flights seemed like even
more.  After several very scary close scrapes and
what seemed like hours, they managed to get all
the way to Michael's room.  Michael put in the
keycard and opened the door, holding it open for
Pete.  After they were both inside, Michael
closed the door.

"So, are we gonna do it now?"

Michael rolled his eyes, and thought for a
minute.  This just might work.  "Yeah, sure...you
just lie down on the bed and I'll be back in a
minute."

Pete obliged, and Michael went into the bathroom.
He waited about ten minutes, pretending to be
doing something.  When he came out of the
bathroom, just as he had suspected, Pete was
snoring loudly sprawled across most of the bed.

"God, if I didn't love him..."  Michael muttered
as he undressed and lie down on the room's small
and uncomfortable couch to try to get some sleep.

**************************************************
Michael woke up fairly early.  Of course, Pete
was still asleep.  Michael set about getting the
room prepared for Pete's eventual waking up.
Closed all the curtains as tightly as they'd go,
turned off all lights except a couple of very
soft light lamps.  Tracked down some Aleve, went
and got a bucket of ice and a bottle of water.
If Pete didn't realize how much he cared about
him after today, there really was a problem.  He
decided to take a shower before Pete woke up,
just to kill a little time without being too
loud.  About five minutes after he was through
with his shower, Pete began to wake up.  He sat
up slowly, and then after a moment, stood up.
Upon standing, he grabbed his head in his hands.

Michael walked over quickly.  "Sit down."  He
handed him a glass of water and three Aleves.
"Take these."

Pete saw absolutely no reason not to listen to
what Michael was telling him, so he sat, and he
took the medicine.  "What did I do...oh God, what
did I do last night?"

Michael was sure that had more to do with the
fact that he had woken up in Michael's room than
any memory of his embarrassing behavior.  "We
didn't do anything, if that's what you're
thinking.  I just took you in here because you
were drunk as hell and quite frankly making a
total idiot of yourself, and I was worried about
how you'd end up if I didn't."

"Oh, that's good...well, sort of...What exactly
was I doing?"

"Singing for everyone at the hotel bar?"

"Oh geez, I didn't."

"Sorry, but you did.  Wish you hadn't, and I'm
sure you do too...but you did."

"Ah, well, everyone's been an idiotic drunk at
least once in their life...you were worried about
me?"

"Of course I was worried about you!  Why were you
getting drunk off your ass anyway?"

Pete almost seemed to blush.  "That's kind of a
long story...stupid too."

"Humor me."

"Okay, okay.  Yesterday was my birthday."

"Really?"

"Yeah, well, anyway...yesterday was my birthday.
And not one person, not *one*, said a single
happy birthday to me all day.  And I *know* that
a lot of people knew it was my birthday."

Michael looked troubled by this.  "I didn't
know...I would have said something if I had
known."

"It's okay.  Anyway, there was that, and you
know, once you hit a certain age, birthdays stop
really being something that you look forward to
thinking about...you're just getting older and
older."

"Yeah..."

"And..."  Pete paused, looking like he was
considering whether he should tell Michael this.
"Not only am I getting older...but I'm doing it
alone."

A sad look that said 'I know what you're talking
about...all too well' came over Michael's face.
"Oh..."

"Yeah...well, anyways.  Why were you worried
about me, anyway?"

Michael blushed.  "Well...I tend to worry
about...people I...love."

"Love?"

Michael was silent.  What the hell had he just
done???

"You love me, Michael?"

Michael?  Pete never called him Michael...this
got weirder by the second...should he say
something?  Might as well..."Well..yeah.  I have
for a long time."

Pete seemed genuinely shocked.  "Why me?"

"Why?  Does it bother you?"  Michael had taken
the comment in an entirely different way than it
had been meant.

"What?  No!  I'm just surprised.  Didn't think
you of all people would be interested in me."

"Well...is this going to change anything about
our friendship?"

"That depends..."

"On what?"

"On what you'd say if I told you that I love you
too."  Pete put his arm around Michael and kissed
him softly on the cheek.  "So...what do you say?"

"Are you sure that it wasn't my birthday
yesterday?  Because it looks like I've gotten all
I could have ever wished for."

Pete just pulled Michael even closer and kissed
him again.