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It's done.
It's over.
There’s a bright flash through his closed eyes, and then everything goes black. Quiet.
He can’t feel his limbs.
Our Father, who art in Heaven.
Eddie knows he ain't going to heaven.
Hallowed be Thy name.
But if he's goin' to hell anyway... what better way than to go out with a bang?
Thy Kingdom come.
If Mox was here with him… he’d tell Eddie he was being an ass.
Thy will be done.
Least that means Eddie did his fucking job. For once. Mox is alive… and Eddie’s dead.
On earth as it is in Heaven.
He feels, distantly, someone shaking him. He realizes he’s floating outside his own body, moving backwards like he’s a camera, until he can see the whole scene so clearly. Mox shaking him, the medical staff around him, checking his vitals. Opening his dead eyes.
Okay. Not in Hell yet. Purgatory, maybe. If he’s lucky.
Give us this day our daily bread;
“Eddie, you fucking piece of shit , don’t die on me!” Mox screams as he holds Eddie’s cheek. Eddie watches his body sag limply onto the fabric of the mat, stained in blood and scorched by fire.
Doc Samson shakes his head as he moves Mox away, starts to take Eddie’s pulse, shakes his head. Mox won’t let go, and his hands tremble like butterflies against Eddie’s skin from the adrenaline.
and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us;
Even like this, he’s beautiful. Eddie’s not ashamed to admit it now. Mox is a beautiful man. Even more beautiful for all the blood. Always was.
Aubrey slides into the ring with a defibrillator, something Eddie recognizes from when AEW made him take classes in basic life support. If you’re gonna be a trainer, they said, you better know how to take care of people.
and lead us not into temptation,
Eddie always knew how to take care of people. He was just never any good at taking care of himself.
He watches Mox shake his head in disbelief as the medical team pushes him back, and Eddie realizes this is too much. He didn’t save Mox just to watch him suffer… he doesn’t know what kind of bullshit heart attack he had or what, but Mox doesn’t deserve this.
Mox is alive. And he deserves more than being alone.
but deliver us from evil.
Eddie gasps as he comes back to life, sight and sound and breath rushing into his body. He can’t move--but he knows he’s alive. He lets his head loll back as he looks at the Jacksonville night sky. “Big guy--I owe ya one...” He can barely get out the words.
“Oh fuck… fuck off!” Mox is trembling and he’s still covered in blood. “You just had to do it, huh?”
Eddie wheezes out a laugh. “Couldn’t… let him take you out. My… my job.”
“He ain’t no good at taking anyone out. Can’t even hit the shot with the gun locked and loaded. You… you’re more of a damn mess then I am.”
Eddie shakes as someone covers him with a blanket. “Eh, been worse, right?” He laughs again. It’s all so damn stupid . He expected this to be over, not to have to deal with Mox after… it would be so much easier if Kenny wasn’t so much of a piece of shit he couldn’t even do this right--
“Hey, Eddie?” Mox growls at him, snapping Eddie’s attention back to where the other man is clenching and unclenching his fist, bloody handwraps loose and wet around it. “Fuck you, man. Fuck you for making me worry--” Eddie can feel some kind of tension between them, but whatever Mox wants, he can tell the medical team is stopping him as he looks around. “--for making me think you were dead.”
“Mox, Mox.” Doc Samson taps the other man on the shoulder. “We need to take Eddie in, do a full work-up on him, make sure he hasn’t had a heart attack or something worse.”
“No.”
“Mox, you’ve lost a lot of blood--” The doc’s face is concerned, and Eddie wants to say something, but finds he can’t do anything more than wheeze and cough as his lungs still burn from the smoke.
“No, you--go check on Bryce and the others. I’ll take care of Eddie. Trust me. If anything happens, I know where to take him. I’ll be fine. I’ve been through worse. Asshole just wanted to be the center of attention.”
The doctor makes a face at Mox, but the look on Mox’s face says it all: there’s no arguing with him. Mox is a man who’s just been through hell, and he still has more to give if he needs to. You don’t want to get on his bad side right now.
“Fine. But you know how to reach me. If something happens--”
“I’ve got baby aspirin backstage, and if something happens, I’ll take him to Medical. Trust me, I got it. This ain’t my first rodeo, doc.” The doctor nods, convinced for the moment, before running off to check up on the commentary team.
Mox grunts at him. “Can you stand?”
Eddie nods weakly, and tries to get to his feet, but his legs are shaky and collapse under him.
“Fuck. Can you talk ?”
“Ugh,” Eddie manages in a croak. “Fuckin’. Throat.”
“Good enough,” Mox decides, before hauling Eddie up off the mat. Some part of him wants to protest--Mox is the one that bled, that almost died, not to mention his own personal demon --but.
But.
He just can’t force himself to. Even though he feels ridiculous for… for saving this man, who didn’t even need to be saved. “So fucking stupid.”
“What?” Mox growls as he leads him back through the face tunnel.
“I--it’s so fucking stupid. The explosions weren’t even good.”
As soon as they’re through the tunnel, Mox slams him against the wall. Even if Eddie wasn’t already half out of it, the impact would’ve slammed the breath out of him. “You. Saved. My fucking . Life. Eddie. You know what you did. No one fucking takes a grenade for another man if they don’t fucking mean it. So don’t you ever go saying it’s stupid--”
And just like that, Mox’s lips are on his, a violent storm of teeth and tongue and spit that makes heat curl in Eddie’s gut before he comes to his senses enough to kiss back. The other man still has him pinned against the wall, and Eddie groans, feeling the warmth of Mox’s firm body against his. Their tongues slide against each other, and it feels amazing--this lifetime of dancing around each other, of ‘just guys being guys’ and subtle glances and pretending like women would be enough to make him forget about Jon Moxley, and in that moment Eddie knows he can never take this back. Can never pretend again he doesn’t give a damn what Jon Moxley thinks of him. His heart is a frail bird in his chest, this feeling new and scary, but damn if he isn’t going to take it for what it is right now.
“Fuck, Jon--” he moans between kisses. “Don’t make me say it. You--know why--” His hands grab at Jon’s shoulders, scraping thumbnails along the welts left by barbed wire. Jon hisses, but doesn’t stop him.
Doesn’t hesitate as his hand goes to Eddie’s crotch, sliding beneath belted jeans to wrap around Eddie’s length so tight they both hiss.
This close, Eddie can smell the blood on him.
“This is all I can do… but something tells me you want it. Do you?” Mox’s ice-blue eyes meet his.
“ Yes ,” Eddie admits.
“Good,” Mox says before capturing his lips again.