Enjoy.


The large room filled up rather quickly with the sounds of raspy breathing and the grinding of teeth. /Just a little bit/ Dave thought as his brows knitted tightly into a frown. Determination oozed out of every pore in his being. /Just a little bit/ He felt his spine shift, but bit through the pain and continued on. /Just a little bit.../ He strained /...further.../

The sound of bone hitting wood is never favorable - least of all when it's your head hitting that wooden surface. In Dave's current case, he was lying face down on his own floor, and the throbbing pain in his head, spine and still bent knees only multiplied due to the excruciating pain that threatened to split his forehead in two. The edge of the first stair had caught him falling and brushed him aside brutally so that he could land squarely on the floor.

/Damn it/ He cursed lowly to himself as he slowly rolled his face to his right. It was there that his oak wood stair case sat. The one that cost him far more than the Mercedes that sat in his driveway. There sat his nemesis - staring at him with that grin and those peering eyes that just screamed "you'll never best me fool". The visual further served to anger Batista as he glared away at the inanimate object. However, he didn't have long to divulge in his hatred for those fucking stairs, because no sooner had the wood floor made solid contact with his face did the door sitting directly atop the staircase prop open.

/Shit!/ Dave thought madly as he suddenly found the energy to scramble up off the floor. He didn't get far though - useless legs and a ever-shifting spine will do that - and had to once more rely on the support of that damned wheelchair. It too sat there staring with lecherous eyes and a phony grin. They all belittled him. The stairs. The wheelchair. People. Everyone looked at Dave "The Animal" Batista as invincible. Indestructible. A man immune to everything and anything. The admiration died the moment Dave crashed spine first through the steel grating of Over The Limit's arena.

His mind wandered back into that always-there dark space that had found a nesting ground in the wounds of his soul. He hated them all. John Cena for kicking out his legs. Brett Hart for handing him no other option except to tuck his tail and run like some mangy dog. Angie for marrying him and having him build this stupid house with those damned stairs right in the center of it, only to up and leave him in this empty shell. Himself for lacking the strength to pummel them all.

God.

He hated life. Not life in general...more like he hated his life. The one he was now forced to live. This life - bound to this damn wheelchair and scared of a fucking set of stairs.

"What are you doing Dave?"

Batista lifts his head - the wheelchair wickedly shifts back, forcing Dave to cling on helplessly like a fucking child would to his blanket - and glares at the figure standing exactly two steps above him. Quite frankly, it was the safest place to be. Doctor's promised him his legs back in six months. A year later and still nothing gave - save his sanity.

"What do you want now Rey?" He spat venomously, while using his arm strength to drag his lifeless lower half onto the seat of the chair. Once there he applied the brakes to the damned thing and continued to stare needles into Rey's eyes.

The smaller man gave a small smile to Dave's twisted expression, before leaning casually onto the wooden banister of the staircase and staring at the older man through bright, dark-colored eyes. "I could've told not to do that."

A vessel in Dave's brain burst open with the force of anger. "Shut the fuck up! I don't wanna hear that shit from you!" His voice rose, but Rey continued to smile ever so peacefully at Dave. That in itself did not help at all. "Wipe that stupid grin off your face! What the fuck are you so damn happy about?"

Rey remained silent as though Dave had directed all his questions to some unknown third party before scoffing a bit to himself. "You sure bark a lot."

Without putting much thought into it, Dave took his hand's off the wheels of his chair, instead rolling them forward, only to launch himself onto the sharp-stairs. Rey - being far more agile than Dave even before the man became a cripple - hopped up two more stairs to further apply distance to himself and Dave. Once the moment that something could have happened left without anything happening at all, Rey's board smile returned to his face.

"Three steps this time. You're getting better everyday Dave."

The rage that had propelled him here - regrettably seeing that he had now gone and further injured himself - completely fled in that moment as his anger faded leaving him with nothing left to do except look up at a distanced Rey Mysterio. When he calculated everything, he came to realize that if he could get up those two separating stairs then he'd at least be able to touch Rey's feet. However, the entire year had taught him one thing - upper body strength meant nothing when the entire spinal system is damaged. Two steps suddenly multiplied by a thousand in Dave's mind and the space that separated himself from Rey only widened. In an instant, without really trying, Dave gave up.

Taking note of that fact, Rey's smile dropped as he let out a long sigh. "You're so easily demotivated Dave." Batista dragged his eyes off the stairs and further up to see the distance lessening. The younger man had taken a step down and knelt to meet Dave's eyes as he sighed emphatically at Batista's expression that looked like a lost child - before giving the man a gentle smile. "It's been three months Dave and you still can't make it up one single stair."

Like wind in a hurricane, Dave's anger returned violently and crushed his face beneath it's boot. "Don't you fucking belittle me!"

Rey chuckled lightly as he stared inquisitively at Dave's retreat to anger. "Barking won't get you up here." He slid his face closer to Dave's and swiftly - and gently - placed a light kiss on the man's lips - retreating with the same lightning speed to avoid the right hand that Dave shot at him. "If you bite though" Rey spoke through a cruel smile "then you can make it up here."

With that Rey sprinted off back up to the room upstairs that he had chosen - all on his own - to stay in. Only God knew how this situation had started - three months ago Mysterio randomly popped up at his front door, and proclaimed himself Dave's caretaker - and only God knew how it would end. Looking at the stairs that he now rested on, Dave could clearly see the choice he would soon be faced with. Either get up and start again - just like everyday that had passed by since Rey came into his life - or slither back down to the safety and support of that damned wheelchair.

Batista scoffed a bit as he used his arms to amble back into the all-too-familiar seat of his simple wheelchair, before drawing in a deep breath and sliding it a short distance away from the staircase. Once he had settled into the desired spot, Dave shot his eyes up at the room door directly atop the summit of the stairs - knowing full well that Rey was sitting in there, waiting like he always had been - and once again stood up as best as he could. With one foot in front of another, Dave shuffled towards the staircase.

Just a little further until he conquered the fucking thing.