"I cannot believe-" Gable sputters, coming from the ringside area, soaked and stinking of rapidly souring milk. "My own father-in-law, essentially, had the nerve-" He blindly grabs for the towel one of the backstage workers hands out to him and begins viciously scrubbing off his face, his hair, his fancy clothes that he wore just for tonight! "Dammit, Otis, look at this face." He begins scrubbing his #1 guy off too, Otis standing stoically and letting it happen, his eyes flickering to the side. "What?" Gable demands, not in the mood for charades. "What is it-"

His words die away, his motions still, everything freezes when he looks over to find Jason Jordan standing there. Love-of-his-life, Jason Jordan. Not-very-thrilled-looking Jason Jordan. "Oh," he squeaks, realizing by the second towel he's holding out towards Otis that Jason was the unknown 'backstage staff' who had been there to greet them at the curtain with towels and probably a decent length lecture if the growing anger in his eyes is any indications. "Hey, handsome, how's it going?" he asks, voice highpitched.

Even Otis rolls his eyes at that one, taking his towel with a short nod of acknowledgment before wandering off, probably towards catering. Gable observes him for a moment before turning back to Jason, but before he can speak, Jason cuts in.

"So, you just had to interrupt my dad's birthday party, huh?"

Chad swallows. Hard. "Look, Jason, I-" Before he can say anything further, Jason pushes him into a locker room, and into a shower. "I-"

"Clean up," he sighs. "Before that milk goes really rank."

Chad immediately shuts up, and listens. For once, the water pressure is decent, and the temperature is right, but he can't enjoy it, guilt and self-recriminations eating away at him the entire time he's lathering up. For this reason, he's done and out within five minutes- thank you short hair- and he stops short, finding a towel and fresh clothes waiting for him. Maybe this means he's not too terribly mad? He hopes anyway.

Once dried and dressed, he heads out into the main part of the locker room... just to stop short. There's a blanket spread over the floor, plates of food from catering waiting on either side. "Jason-"

Jason looks up from his phone and quirks an eyebrow at him. "I had to fight Otis for some of this, so you owe me a very big thank you. And apologize to my dad."

"Yes, of course," Chad says, willing to do or say anything to take that look off of Jason's face. "I don't even know where to begin." He settles down gingerly on the towel and Jason flicks a glance at him.

"The chicken's pretty good," he offers vacantly.

"No, no, I meant-" Chad clears his throat. "Tonight didn't go at all how I wanted it to," he admits. "I thought being, you know, your significant other that he would... I don't know, de facto invite me. I guess I lashed out when he didn't, and... all of this happened. I'm so sorry."

Jason sighs and sets his phone aside, staring at Chad incredulously. "You do realize tonight was just going to be a thing for wrestlers he was close to, and for the fans, right? He didn't even know you were going to be on the show tonight, since you're on the Raw brand. Also, he's having an actual party for family and friends tomorrow. You're clearly invited to that. Otis too, if he wants to come." Jason sits back and watches Chad absorb this, biting his lip as he hesitates over his food.

"I really am sorry," he says quietly. "Just figured... I don't know. We've been together for so long, I thought he'd be glad to see me and it didn't really seem like it."

Jason sighs. "You know how Dad gets. He hates disrespect of any kind. Tonight looked like some really deep disrespect to him. But we'll talk to him tomorrow, it'll be ok. Just... don't be weird. And make Otis actually wear clothes if he does come tomorrow, ok?"

Gable huffs out a breath and nods. "Definitely, I can do that." He looks up at Jason. "You're not mad at me, are you?"

"Just eat your food, Chad," Jason says, and the two of them fall into an awkward silence as they eat. When Chad finishes, he moves to get rid of his plate, but Jason beats him to it, collecting both plates and moving away.

"Jason-" he starts to say before Jason rests another plate in front of him and he immediately quiets. "Oh." One of the largest slices of pumpkin pie is sitting in front of him and he starts to drool. "Jason-"

"Catering had it, and I figured you'd enjoy this more than some over sweet birthday cake," Jason says.

Chad looks up at him and smiles a little. "It was bad, huh?"

"The worst," Jason grumbles. "I've told Dad not to use that catering company, their cakes are always horrible, but does he listen... noooo... You practically did him a favor tonight, leaving that second cake to get drowned in milk. It's a fitting ending for it."

Chad smiles and glances back down.

"By the way, you're forgiven," Jason says after a couple of bites of his own pie. "Dad told me he wasn't really mad, that he figured someone would find the need to interrupt. I just wanted to make you sweat for a little bit, just for making tonight such a mess."

"I deserved that," Chad sighs, pushing his plate away and shifting over to join Jason. "I'll apologize to him anyway tomorrow."

"Good," Jason murmurs, wiping a crumb of crust off of Chad's mouth. "Last thing we need is Dad pissed at Christmas too."

"Oh god, yes," Chad grimaces, remembering other, eventful Christmases they've had. "Kiss me?"

"Get over here then," Jason says while rolling his eyes, lips twitching up into a smirk as Chad settles against him, the two of them moving as one to meet in a gentle kiss.