It's one hit after the other anymore. Tommaso presses his face against the wall and grunts as it scrapes against his scalp. He'd lost to Johnny in the first round of the Cruiserweight Challenge, which had been hard to get past but he had for the sake of their team, then their dreams had been dashed further in a loss to Revival. Which, Ciampa thinks wouldn't have completely derailed them except for tonight. Gargano had been eliminated from the CWC and then disappeared before Ciampa could shake off his shock and go to the curtain to wait for him.

"Dammit," he mumbles, pulling away and going to look for him. The arena is quiet, things winding down, and it would be just like Johnny to get himself locked into the building and not found until morning, at least. He exhales and listens for anything out of the ordinary when...

"Come on, I need to examine you. This isn't doing yourself any favors," a trainer's voice echoes back to where Ciampa is standing. "You won't be cleared to wrestle until I look you over. Is that what you want?"

Tommaso can tell, without even looking, that it's his tag partner. Turning the corner, he finds Johnny slumped on the ground, the trainer kneeling before him. Ignoring the man, Ciampa brushes past him and drops down by Johnny, staring ahead blankly. "Give us a minute," he mumbles. The trainer exhales angrily and leaves, Ciampa turning to look at Johnny. "Hey." Johnny stays quiet, his eyes closed as he sits there motionlessly. "Are you going to keep ignoring me too?"

Still nothing. Ciampa grabs Johnny by the back of his neck and ignores his hiss of pain before he relaxes, Ciampa's fingers digging into his muscles as he begins to massage away the tension. "I'm sorry," Johnny finally mumbles, slumping forward so his face isn't visible.

"What are you apologizing for?" Tommaso asks lowly.

"Losing... losing everything. You should've won the first match, I- You would've gone further, I just couldn't-..." He sniffs deeply. "You only lost because you were taking it easy on me. If you had hit that knee, this would've gone so differently."

"Or it wouldn't have," Ciampa says. "Would you really want me sitting here, refusing help and beating myself up if I had advanced just to lose in round two?"

"No," Johnny mumbles. Ciampa digs his fingers in a little deeper and quirks his lips up into a smile when Johnny peeks over at him. "This hurts so much."

"I know." Ciampa sighs. "I definitely know." He tugs him closer, presses his head to Johnny's and just waits, breathing in and out slowly. "Will you let the trainer look you over now?"

"I guess," he mumbles, taking Ciampa's hand and allowing himself to be dragged up. They eye each other for a moment before Ciampa wraps his arms around him in as tight a hug as he dares. "We're going to be ok?"

It's more of a question than a statement and Ciampa swallows, closing his eyes as Johnny's hair tickles his face. "Yeah, man. We're gonna be ok. Now let's go smooth things out with the doc."

"Alright," he sighs, allowing himself to get dragged through the halls in search of the man. "Thanks, Tommaso."

Ciampa's lips twitch into a fond smirk. "What are partners for, Johnny, if not to keep you from doing dumb stuff?"

Johnny rolls his eyes with a huff of a laugh, nudging him as they walk slowly to the trainer's office.