"Time off," Mox says slowly, watching Seth settle in on the couch.
"Yes," he says simply, undisturbed by those wary blue eyes settled on him.
"You haven't taken time off since what, your back injury?" he says, running through situations to try to make sure he's remembering correctly. "Is something wrong you're not telling me?"
Seth exhales, closes his eyes, and tilts his face to look at Jon. "Sometimes distance makes the heart grow fonder." When Jon only looks more confused at this, Seth chuckles lowly. "What do I truly have on Smackdown right now? Buddy," his voice grows bitter at this, "chose the Mysterios over me. Everyone else has left."
It's then that Mox realizes AoP's release months back still weighs heavily on Seth. And, probably deep down in a place Seth wouldn't easily admit to, his own leaving as well. He shrugs. "Alright." Settles in next to Seth and toys with the label of his water. "So what are you going to do then?"
Seth sits for a minute. Even without wrestling, he still has a million things- his training school, his coffee shop, everything struggling right now due to COVID. Still, he thinks it over, a small grin spreading over his face as he turns to look at Dean. "Enjoy the holiday season, of course."
Jon squints at him, a vague dread building up in his gut. "Oh no."
Seth's grin only grows. "Oh yes," he whispers, leaning in to rest dangerously close to Jon's lips. "And you, my lunatic friend, are going to help me with it."
Jon grimaces. Decorating is a big, frustrating chore that he's still not a huge fan of. But Seth does look happier once it's done, lighter, like it reminds him of childhood days when things were so much easier and he didn't continuously put the weight of the entire wrestling world on his shoulders with titles like King Slayer and Messiah. "Yeah," Jon finally sighs, giving into the glimmer of hope in Seth's eyes. "We can do that."
The grin spreading slowly over Seth's face, pure and sincere for the first time in a long time, makes it all almost worth it.