Kalisto was panicked.
A string of profanities, alternating between English and Spanish, wove through his brain. Sin Cara was never one to ever step down from a challenge, back off, walk away if he felt blustered—but tonight, his match against Big E hadn't been necessary. The Lucha Dragons could have made off as victors, Kalisto specifically since it had been his match first against Kofi Kingston, but Xavier Woods just had to open his mouth. Bait Sin Cara. Declare payback.
It had worked.
And now, Sin Cara was hurt.
Kalisto had been forced to stand by and watch it all go down. He'd tried to help. Tried getting Big E's irritating partners out of the picture. But Sin Cara had been sentenced without a crime.
The New Day made off after the secondary victory, bumping their bodies to the music, shouting and wailing something about Big E being a big, strong man…whatever, blah blah blah. Kalisto was fretting, trembling, distraught.
The official was kneeling beside Kalisto's partner, inspecting his shoulder. He'd cracked it pretty hard against the floor of the Barclays Center, just outside the ring. His face was invisible behind his mask, but Kalisto interpreted the pain on his own. Sensed it. Heard it through Sin Cara's groans and whimpers. Felt it, a compassion sort of experience, sympathy pains.
The medical staff was on the case.
"I'm fine," Sin Cara said as men dressed in black surrounded him for a proper inspection. Kalisto touched his back as Sin Cara reached his uninjured arm towards the ring to pull himself up.
"Just let them check on you," Kalisto pressed, his voice at an unfamiliar light pitch. "Por favor."
"Innecesario," his amor answered him.
Yeah, so was your match against him in the first place, yet it happened. "Please," Kalisto said, drawing his hand from Sin Cara's backside to his hand on the apron. "It would make me feel better. I want to make sure you're okay."
"Estoy bien." The confident—and, Kalisto could admit to it, stubborn—Lucha Dragon would have said that regardless of how he truly felt. Just to make Kalisto calm down. Quit worrying so much.
If the roles were reversed, Kalisto knew Sin Cara would make him get a checkup, so he maintained.
"I believe you. Just…let them do their jobs. Please. For me," he coaxed.
Kalisto heard the sigh push through the thin material of Sin Cara's mask. At last he gave a small nod, and the medical staff helped him to his feet.
His lower half hadn't been injured, but Sin Cara moved at a gradual pace towards the trainer's room for a physical analysis. He was escorted by the on-site physicians but it was Kalisto standing closest to him, guiding his steps, matching his stride. He held Sin Cara's hand the entire way, giving not a spec of a damn what people might have thought of it. Let them think I'm just helping a buddy out, or let them think we're together. That's fine. They'll know the truth someday.
God help the New Day if they crossed paths with the Lucha Dragons again tonight.
Fortunately there wasn't another showdown and the team made it to the trainer's room. Sin Cara was handed a pack of ice and asked to sit in a chair to wait for an x-ray. Perhaps he was impatient to leave, but the point was he was staying, and Kalisto was relieved about it.
"You don't have to stay here with me," Sin Cara said, leaning close to Kalisto. He would have given anything for a quick kiss, even just on the cheek. "This might take a while. You can go back to the hotel."
"No sin ti." Not without you, Kalisto had told him in their native language. He wasn't going anywhere. Sin Cara might have been more responsible for his injury than Kalisto was, but Big E was the brute Kalisto truly blamed, and that damn Xavier who talked far more often than he fought.
Kalisto heard the smile in Sin Cara's voice. "I love you."
"Love you." Kalisto swaddled Sin Cara's hand, the one attached to a damaged arm, in his lap. Sin Cara snaked an arm over Kalisto's shoulder and drew him into a side-hold.
Who gave a damn anymore? Truly?
So what if people know? Should we just announce it? Or is it any of their business?
"Sin Cara?" A nurse waved him over from across the cramped room. "Come on over."
It was the one place Kalisto couldn't join him. Hold his hand.
"Good luck," Kalisto said as Sin Cara left him behind.
The checkup took a long time, and felt even longer than it truly was. Part of that played towards Kalisto's disquietude. He found himself rocky gently in the chair, back and forth, fingers meshing with each other and releasing again. Inside, he was numb, his mind tortured with worst-case scenarios. Please, Dios mio, nothing serious. Say he can still wrestle. Say it's only a matter of days before we extract revenge on those bastards.
Kalisto reflected on the progress of the Lucha Dragons. How far the pair had come, even before hooking up in secrecy, giving their partnership a more profound, furtive definition. Sin Cara had become his partner in the NXT last year after Kalisto and El Local split. He'd performed well from the start with Sin Cara. They were champions together. Fighters. Powerful.
Falling in love hadn't been part of the plan, but Kalisto was okay with it.
Sin Cara made him the happiest man in the world, and he was honored to fight beside such talent, brawn, and intrepidity. His gorgeous looks were just a bonus. And he treated Kalisto like royalty. God, how had he gotten so lucky—?
Kalisto heard his partner scream.
In a flash he was out of his chair, shooting across the room like a bullet with smoke trailing him, knuckles rapping on the door of the exam room frantically. "Sin Cara! Are you okay?"
He nearly invited himself into the room without permission when the nurse from before pulled the door open and offered a feeble smile that did nothing to calm his nerves. "The x-ray didn't reveal any broken bones, however, he does have a dislocated shoulder. The doctor just popped it back into place."
"Oh, God," Kalisto said, voice breaking. So that's what the scream had been about. The superstars were trained to cope with incredible amounts of pain, but Kalisto couldn't imagine a much worse agony than that process. His eyes lifted over the nurse's shoulder, and he had a view of an unmasked Sin Cara laying on the exam table, a doctor patting his arm, praising him for handling the routine bravely.
He was so beautiful. So perfect.
So hurt.
It hurt just seeing him like this.
Kalisto took a step forward. The nurse blocked his path with her arm outstretched.
"I'm sorry, Kalisto, the exam isn't over yet."
"I want to be in here with him. Please." She had no reason to dismiss his presence.
"I need him," Sin Cara spoke.
"It's alright," the doctor said. "He can stay."
"Gracias," Kalisto said.
The nurse let him pass.
Kalisto chewed his lip to keep it from trembling. Come on, don't be such a wuss. He's been hurt before…you both have… Yet tonight it was hitting him harder than usual.
"I'll get through this," Sin Cara, the mind reader, told him. He reached for Kalisto's hand with his functioning arm and squeezed it tight.
It was reassuring. "I know you will."
Sin Cara's shoulder was iced, then placed into a sling. "You should only have to wear it for a couple of days," the doctor explained. "Ice, painkillers, rest, light stretching—you know the drill by now, right?" He smiled sweetly at Sin Cara.
"How long will it take for him to recover?" Kalisto asked, rubbing his thumb over Sin Cara's. He didn't count on the doctor gossiping about it.
"It could be a while." The physician's eyes went gray with sorrow. "Three to twelve weeks, depending on how well you take care of it, Sin Cara."
Kalisto rolled his head back with a groan. "Man, I don't want to be without my partner for that long."
"Hey, don't worry about me," Sin Cara said unconvincingly. "I'm a fast healer. I'll be back out there in no time."
"Just take it easy," the doctor urged. "The gentler you are with yourself, the faster you'll be in the ring again."
"Sure, I'll be gentle. I have my wonderful partner here to take care of me. Isn't that right?" Sin Cara squeezed Kalisto's fingers, and he was able to smile again.
"Claro que si. Whatever you need."
Sin Cara lifted the fingers to his lips and kissed them tenderly. Kalisto nearly melted. Intrepidity, indeed.
Nearly an hour after arriving, they were cleared to leave. Sin Cara's arm was secure in a black sling. The second they were out the door, in the safety of an empty corridor, Sin Cara was towing Kalisto into a hold, into a sweet kiss. Kalisto craved his touch, his taste, and no matter how it lasted, he was always aching for more of his love by the end of it.
"God, I miss you already," Kalisto groaned. "Next few weeks are gonna suck."
"I'm not going anywhere. Maybe you take a few matches solo for a while, but you won't be without me. Especially not before…or after. The nights are ours."
"I'll kill Big E for what he did to you."
"Don't worry about it, mi tesero. Don't let them get under your skin. It's just what they want."
Kalisto rested his cheek against Sin Cara's chest. A strong hand on his back held him close, warm, safe. "I'm going to take care of you. I won't let anything else happen to you. I promise."
"Thank you, Kali."
"And hey. No more jumping in the ring unprepared for a match, you hear me?"
"Well, look at you, being the assertive one," Sin Cara teased. He anchored a longing gaze down into Kalisto's eyes.
"You know what kinda hell it was, watching him attack you like that and not being able to do a damn thing about it?"
"I do know what kinda hell it was. That was me, watching you, just minutes before. Remember?"
Kalisto shook his head. "Can't stand it. We're better as a team."
"Oh, we're fine solo. But yeah, I prefer us as a team. I love knowing you're there, no matter what."
Kalisto's heart, cracked from the night's tragic event, was healing slowly but surely. "Te amo."
"Te amo."
Sin Cara kissed him devotedly.
But it wasn't long before Kalisto realized they weren't alone.
He broke the kiss abruptly and stared down the hall.
Xavier Woods was staring right back. Arms folded over his chest. Looking…well, not amused, but not as infuriated as Kalisto felt at the sight of his enemy of the evening. Hell, of the month.
And he'd seen them kissing.
Xavier Woods was a gossip. Kalisto could count on that.
"You better not take a step towards us," Kalisto warned him, moving protectively in front of his partner, arms slightly elevated to shield Sin Cara from any potential ambushes.
"I'm not going to do anything," Xavier said gravely. Kalisto watched his eyes regard Sin Cara in his current position. "And I'm not going to apologize for what Big E did, Sin Cara, because you deserved to get knocked down after costing Kofi his match with interference."
Kalisto growled like a wolf. He strode towards Xavier, ready to shove the absent trombone up his ass and tear his hair out by the roots, but Sin Cara grabbed his arm. Kalisto tugged against the hold, but his partner wouldn't let him progress.
"No," Sin Cara whispered. "It's not worth it."
Xavier sighed. His stance relaxed once the threat of Kalisto charging him was dismantled. "But I do have some compassion for you, Kalisto. You might have given my boy Kofi a little hell tonight, but you were devastated when Sin Cara hit the floor like that. I saw it. And it's not easy, I know. The way you look at him…" Xavier pulled in a deep breath, interrupting his sort-of-kind-of apology, then pushed it out sharp. "It's rare to see two people so committed to one another nowadays, in such an apathetic world. Friendship's one thing, but especially in this business, you're used to it being all about numero uno. Looking out for yourself above all. Sin Cara was ready to throw himself into the ring to protect you, Kalisto. And I saw you on the side during his match with E. You were so worried about him. And I can understand that. More than you know. Believe me."
Kalisto cocked his head. Was Xavier Woods, for the first time ever as far as he'd ever seen…being serious? Earnest, and actually…sympathetic?
"You probably hate me. I started it all. And you probably hate Big E. He ended it all. And I can't say I'm thrilled about the way you took out Kofi tonight. Kofi to me is…" Xavier momentarily broke off eye contact, rubbing his neck, looking anywhere but right at the Lucha Dragons. "Well, he's what Sin Cara is to you. So yeah, I was bitter about watching him lose. But what I did was irrational and immature. I didn't mean for Sin Cara to put his career on hold for a while. I just wanted him to pay for his involvement. We fight week by week now, we talk a lot of trash…but this? What the two of you have? That runs way deeper. That's humanity. That's more personal than this business."
Kalisto was actually touched. He hadn't seen this coming at all.
"Anyway. Good night." He twisted on his heels, then called out a final statement over his shoulder. "And don't worry. Your secret's safe with me."
Kalisto watched him go, stunned by the sincerity of his adversary.
"Wow," Sin Cara said. "Did you buy any of that?"
"I'm not sure. I don't think he had any reason to do that unless he meant it."
"Whether he means it or not, don't let your guard down."
"Oh, I won't. They ain't touching me."
"Damn right, they're not. Whether I have a dislocated shoulder or both legs broken and both arms in a cast—I'd fight all three of them alone for you."
"God, you're amazing. Te amo mucho."
Sin Cara kissed Kalisto's head—the top of his mask. "Come on. Let's get back to the hotel. Everything I want to do to you, I don't really need both arms for."
Kalisto's lips coiled into a dirty grin. "Oh, I like the sound of that."
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