A/N: Lowering the rating, because the guys are taking their time, lol. Newly Rated T! Also, happy birthday to Gable!
"A new partner!"
"No, Chad Cable, it is not you!"
Another week had passed, another loss for Jason Jordan because of an incompetent partner...and to top it all off, another interruption from none other than Chad Gable.
'I'm going to need a restraining order for this one,' Jason thought grimly, looking down at the man who just wouldn't go away.
It wasn't that he particularly disliked the guy or anything. He just hated being pursued by a complete stranger so...relentlessly.
"It's...It's Gable," the odd man said with no small bit of indignation. "And I'm not the type of guy to say I told you so...But I told you. So! When you're ready, when you realize it's time that I'm your man...I'll be here. And I'll be ready, willing, and Gable."
Jason Jordan took the towel that was inevitably offered with a heavy sigh. "Where do you even keep getting these?!" he asked, exasperation making its way into his voice as he tossed it away. Still rolling his eyes, Jordan made a quick exit before things could get any more weird.
It wasn't just the fact that this guy kept popping up and all but begging to be his partner...it was the fact that Chad Gable seemed to truly believe that the two of them belonged together. Though nothing had yet been explicitly stated, he could sense that Gable meant much more than just tag team partners.
The implications were more than enough to set the young Jordan on edge. He had seen first hand what happened to tag team partners who got too close.
It rarely ended well.
'Why the hell am I thinking about it ending between us?!' he scolded himself as he walked away. 'It's never even going to begin, dammit!'
Meanwhile, back at the lockers, Chad Gable innocently made his way over to Jason's little cubby. He studied it affectionately, imagining what it would be like when the two of them finally teamed up.
'We'll share everything!' he daydreamed for a moment. 'This little locker, our rooms, we'll drive together...It'll be so sick!'
Chad Gable quickly brought himself back to reality with a shake of his head.
"Hmmmm," he murmured, before taking out a sharpie and writing the name GABLE next to JORDAN on the locker, biting his lower lip to keep from bursting into a wicked smile. From where he stood, even their names looked perfect together.
"Huh."
He. Was. Angry.
Jason Jordan was at the end of his rope, having just suffered yet another loss against yet another tag team. He could all but see the end of the line for himself—because he knew better than most what it took to make it in NXT.
And repeated losses simply weren't going to cut it.
The cute backstage announcer was asking how he felt, and he didn't even have the strength to pretend to have any hope left.
"How do you think I feel?!" he asked with a despairing sneer. "The only reason I'm doing this is because they're making me do this, alright? And I can't believe—"
Mid-rant, Jason Jordan was cut off by a blueish-purple towel being thrown, literally, into his face.
He knew who it was before he even saw him.
"What are you doing?!"
"You...you were sweating," Chad Gable answered innocently, looking somewhat startled by the taller man's wrath.
Jason grit his teeth. "Look, now is not the time. Alright, Cable?"
"I know!" Chad offered helpfully. "I saw the match. I...see all of your matches, actually."
Jordan took a moment out of his rage to be weirded out. "What? You creep..."
"What? No...I study!" Despite the underlying accusation, Gable was undeterred and plowed ahead. "Look, you lost to those two half-wits? They made you look like a loser!"
"What?! What did you call me?!"
"I didn't...Look, I know you're not a loser! That's why I'm here. I'm going to prove to everyone else that you're not a loser. But you gotta let me do my part. Okay? I'm here. Ready..."
"Don't..."
"Willing..."
"Stop."
"And Gable. Let me know!"
Jason Jordan watched Chad Gable walk away, a bit shaken. He had expected the smaller man to berate him, to mock him...at the very least to tell him that he didn't believe in him. How many losses would it take before this man, too, viewed him as a loser?
So far, however, Gable had done just the opposite. He had given him a vote of complete confidence...even after after a crushing defeat.
Confidence. It was something, Jason realized with a sad sigh, had never even afforded to his own self. Deep down, Jason Jordan actually believed that he was a loser, didn't he?
"I'm not a loser," he told the ring announcer unconvincingly before sulking off.
He had a lot to think about.
The plot thickens! And I really love these two, haha.
Review?
