Chapter 22: A Catfight or a Dogfight?

Day Seven at the Haunted House

In the morning, Batista felt extremely refreshed and energetic. Like he could take on the world. He didn't know why he felt so good when he hadn't even been able to sleep with Rey, only sleep beside him. But as he stared down at his friend, who was still curled up at his side and breathing peacefully, a silent smile stretched across his face.

He was relieved because he had finally seen proof that Rey trusted him more than any of the other guys. Subconsciously, Rey was aware of the degree of each man's feelings for him and he knew that although Dave's were the strongest, but they were also the most dedicated. He knew that he was safest with Batista because of all of the guys Batista was the one who didn't crave just sex. He craved a relationship. Batista wanted to maintain the bond he already shared with Rey so that he could build on it and strengthen it and hope to one day convince Rey to see him as a lover and not as a friend.

And Batista felt honored that Rey had placed that kind of trust in him to allow the possibility of Batista overpowering him in his delirium. Rey had taken a leap of faith and decided to trust Batista's friendship more than his attraction.

It had paid off and Rey was comforted that Batista was not so out of control that he couldn't restrain himself when Rey needed him most.

Batista felt empowered, like his lust wasn't the only thing that could conquer him anymore. He was proud that he'd proven to Rey that he was safe to be around. He knew that Rey liked to be physical with people and he would feel highly uncomfortable if he had to worry about monitoring his movements around Batista. Now he knew he wouldn't have to.

Batista looked down at Rey, his elbow up and his head propped in that palm.

Rey was beginning to stir now.

"Unnh…could we just lay still for a few more minutes…?" Rey groaned, half-asleep.

Batista smiled and lay down again.

He felt like he was married to the other man and that they'd woken up in the same bed together.

Rey shuffled over and used Dave's bare chest as a pillow. He nodded off for a few more minutes.

Batista watched him blissfully and ran his fingers across Rey's scalp affectionately.

He didn't know why Rey was using his chest as a pillow, but he couldn't be happier that he was. He figured Rey wasn't conscious enough to realize the implications of his movements. He also knew that Rey was not a morning person and if he'd weighed more, he would have sat on Batista to make him stop rustling around while he was still trying to sleep.

As it was, Batista was grateful that Rey had gone for what he construed to be a much more interesting approach to making him sit still. And Batista thought about how lucky he was that he'd developed feelings for this particular straight guy out of all the ones in the world. Because Rey was certainly one of the most affectionate straight men towards his male friends that had ever lived.

Rey started and woke himself up. "Unnh…"

"All right, sleepy head, come on and sit up now," Batista crooned and packed his and Rey's pillows together behind the luchador's back to keep him sitting up.

"Once you get some coffee in your system you'll feel better."

Rey blinked drowsily and yawned.

Batista got up and returned with two cups. He handed one to Rey.

Rey traced the edges of the mug with his fingers. "Dave, I had a weird dream last night."

"A nightmare?" Batista asked, concerned.

Rey frowned. "I don't think so. I don't know what I'd say it was. It wasn't scary, it was sad."

"Do you want to tell me about it? Can you remember what it was about?"

Rey thought for a minute. "Something about…you leaving somewhere. You left WWE and went somewhere."

Batista raised an eyebrow. He was flattered that Rey had used the word 'sad' to describe a dream of him leaving. "Where else would I go? What was I planning on doing?"

"I don't know…I think you said something like… 'Rey, I'm going to go garden in Asia for a while.'"

Batista snorted. "Gardening?"
"I told you it was a weird dream."

Batista sighed. "That is weird."

Rey took a sip of coffee and then stared at his cup for a little while. "Dave…you're not leaving, are you?"

Batista looked at Rey. "No. No, of course not. Why would I leave now?"

Rey shrugged.

Because I'm tempting you too much. And you're too good of a friend to say that.

Batista set down his cup. He gently removed Rey's cup from his fingers and set it down, too.

He leaned over and hugged Rey. "I'm not leaving you now. Just when you're finally feeling better after this whole ordeal…I couldn't leave you."

Rey squeezed him with his one unhurt arm.

"You won't?"

"No, of course not. Of course not, Rey-Rey."

When Batista leaned back from him, Rey was smiling weakly.

"Dave…thanks for not…touching me too much last night."

Batista shook his head. "No, you shouldn't thank me for that. You're injured like eight different ways, Rey; I wouldn't want to hurt you. It would have been unforgivable for me to touch you when you're in this state."

Rey nodded. "Well…thanks, though. I feel better today, anyway."

Batista touched Rey's forehead.

"Your temperature is back to normal."

He took his hand away.

"Rey, promise me you'll go see a doctor or at least one of the trainers after we get back. You might get a fever or you might still get hypothermia, I don't know. Plus your arm…"

Rey nodded. "I will. I'll go to a doctor."

Batista looked relieved. "Good."

They finished their coffee and got dressed, their backs turned towards one another.

Batista snuck a glimpse of Rey stepping into his jeans. Rey had a sweet, tight ass. It was curved just enough so that it was sinfully good-looking, making him appear that much more effeminate. It was the only truly curvaceous part of Rey's body. The rest of him was soft, flat, or muscular.

Batista turned back around reluctantly before Rey noticed he was being eyed.

The other guys all gradually woke up and looked at the two friends being at peace with each other, and felt reassured by that. Rey was like the mother hen of all of them, but if Batista wasn't happy, Rey wasn't either. He was upset when any of the other guys were sad, but not as much as when Batista was sad. None of them quite knew what Rey saw in him.

"I guess you proved that you don't like Cena better than me," Batista blurted.

Rey looked at him funny. "Cena, Cena, Cena. Why do you think I like him? You always think I like him sexually or something. Why him out of all the guys? I've never said I like Cena that way, and I've never said I like him better than you. Come to think of it, I've never told you I like you sexually. So who's telling you all this?"

Batista twiddled his thumbs and Rey narrowed his eyes at him.

"Dave, who told you I liked Cena that way?"

"Shawn did," Batista admitted.

Rey's face went blank and then a torrent of emotion washed over it.

"Is that what started the fight between you and Cena in the locker room the other day?" he demanded.

"Yeah, Rey-Rey, I know you ain't gay for nobody even though we all love you. I'm cool with that. I've made peace with it; you know what I'm saying? But yeah, dawg, Dave got all up in my face for no reason that day and then we just started clobberin' one another. It was wack, dawg, sorry," Cena explained.

"Yeah, I thought he was trying to shove it in my face that you liked him better than me," Batista confirmed.

The luchador narrowed his eyes at Shawn.

"You. Me. Outside. Now," Rey said icily.

He stood up abruptly and walked out the front door, slamming it violently.

Triple H winced. "This doesn't look good for you, Shawn."

"Karma catches up with you," Randy Orton said and nodded.

"Fuck you, you little twat," Shawn shot at him and walked out the door.

"Aw, damn, Rey-Rey's gonna kill him," Cena remarked. "Too bad all the damn cameras are dead now, I woulda loved to film this shit."

**

Rey was pacing in the field that was the front yard outside.

All of the guys came out and watched the standoff form.

"Shawn, was what Dave said the truth? You lied to him and said I like him and Cena romantically? And then you set them against each other by putting another lie on top of that by saying I preferred Cena?"

Shawn yawned. Rey's eye twitched angrily at HBK's nonchalance.

"This isn't funny Shawn."

HBK shrugged and grinned. "Oh, I disagree. It was very funny. Batista worked himself up into a big hot, sweaty mess over you. He couldn't stop drooling over you. You just added fuel to the fire."

"I-If I led him on, it was an accident!" Rey protested.

Shawn shrugged. "It doesn't matter now. You were the one who crawled into his arms last night, we all saw it."

Rey's eyes widened and he blushed. "You…you fucking puto! Shut your mouth or I'll-"

"Or you'll what, Rey?"

Rey glared so harshly at Shawn that his eyes looked like molten lava. Shawn was going to burn.

"That's right, you won't do anything," Shawn taunted. "Just sit there pretending to be a tough guy. Being pretty."

Rey growled. "Dave and I didn't do anything last night. Or any other night. EVER. Get that through your thick skull or I will crack it."

Rey tightened his fists.

"Apologize to me right now and I will go rip some trees in half instead of you."

Rey's fuse was a very, very lengthy one. He rolled with punches, took insults with a grain of salt and generally waited out storms of other people's anger with his calmness. He could watch someone else fizzle themselves to smithereens without once retaliating. No one knew where he'd developed his insane level of patience, but fatherhood had probably had something to do with it.

"You know what ticks me off about you, Rey?"

Rey groaned. "Oh, here it comes. I'm short? I'm Mexican? What? Spit it out."

"No matter what, you never leave anybody. It may not have occurred to you, mi amigo, but maybe some people do deserve to be left."

Rey flinched. "What?"

"Batista, for one."

Batista dropped his eyes forlornly.

"Why would I leave Dave?"

Batista started and picked his head back up.

"Because he's a hothead and he's madly in love with you and he's violent and insensitive. I'm sure you can add a few other bad qualities onto that list."

"Like I don't know all that stuff already. I repeat. Why would I leave Dave?"

Shawn rolled his eyes. "The man is stalking you, Rey. He's dangerous!"

"No, he's protective. And strong, and nice, and funny. He's a good person when he's not being stupid enough to believe your bullshit. No offense, Dave."

Batista sighed. "I had that coming."

"He's not stalking me," Rey went on. "He's not abusing me. You tried to convince me he was trying to hurt me! Why the hell would you do that?! He wasn't!"

Batista blinked. "What now?"
Rey whipped his face to Dave. "When you grabbed my arm, he told me I should be worried about you. That you were trying to like- possess me. Dave, that's not true, right?"
Batista flushed. "No, I was- I didn't grab you because I wanted you all to myself or anything, I grabbed you because I wanted to keep you safe from the ghost."
Rey faced Shawn again. "See? He was being protective of me like he always is. That's how he is. He's like my older brother, he takes care of me. It's not his fault that he's bigger than me and doesn't know his own strength around me! I can't believe I trusted what you said about him being abusive! That was muy loco, that was complete bullshit! Why did you tell me that? Why would you do that?! You know I trusted you and that Dave and I were fighting, was that it?! But why would you screw with my head when I needed advice from you, Shawn? ¿Por qué me duele así?"

"Stop your bilingual bitching, will you?" Shawn snapped.

Rey clenched up and bit his lips. "Why would you plant something like that in my mind if it wasn't true?"

Shawn sighed. "Oh, we'll get there. Don't get your little Latin underwear in a twist."

Rey frowned.

Shawn glared at Rey. "Well, I already knew I was unsuccessful this whole trip with trying to make you leave Dave. So I tried my hand at making you leave these other little stalkers you have. Like Cena."

John Cena held up his hands. "Bitch, you need to leave me outta this shit, I ain't involved."

"You not only need to leave Dave, Rey. You need to leave all of them, too."

"Maybe I should leave you, Shawn. Leave you right here on the ground with a broken nose and a torn groin. I like the sound of that. Let's try it," Rey's eyes flashed and he stepped forward, loosening up like a boxer about to maul an opponent.

Shawn ignored Rey's threats. He still wasn't quite at the peak of his anger yet.

"You know how I tried to get you to leave the guys, Rey?"

Rey cocked his head to the side. "How?"

"Didn't you wonder how the rug over the trapdoor was askew enough for Batista to see it? I wasn't careful enough covering up my tracks, that's how."

Rey flushed. "You-you found the door to the basement before Dave and I did?!"

Batista's jaw dropped.

"Aw, hell no!" Cena hissed.

"You tried to get me to leave them in a basement?!" Rey yelled.

Shawn shrugged. "I was gonna let them out eventually. I was gonna make you abandon these unhealthy friends- these bad influences here. And you would give up on them."

"Because I would have thought they were dead, you fucking puto!" Rey screamed.

He paced around, breathing heavily, running his hands over his scalp manically, mumbling things in Spanish.

"You would have made me leave Cena, and Jericho, and Edge, and Randy and…and Jeff…in the dark…"

Something snapped in Rey and his eyes flashed brilliantly, making the brown coloring appear red for a moment.

Batista remembered too late hearing about a swan attacking someone because they had gotten too close to its nest of babies.

You did not under any circumstances ever insult, let alone threaten the life of anyone that Rey Mysterio had decided to take under his wing.

Rey launched at Shawn with a ferocity that Batista had never seen in anything short of a crazed wild animal.

Triple H actually shut his eyes while the initial and worst of the pulverizing was going down.

Shawn was taken by surprise at first but then managed to trip Rey only to be tripped back. They scrambled along on the ground, choking each other. Shawn's lower lip was busted and his face was red with the effort of simply trying to hold off Rey. The luchador was blind with rage.

Rey gave Shawn claw marks, a couple of head butts, several violent elbows to the stomach, countless punches, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Shawn couldn't even gain enough time or breath to hit back.

"Screw it," he muttered and jabbed Rey in the throat.

Rey gasped and that was the moment where Batista realized it was seriously his friend in there doing that horrific damage. The sound of Rey's voice, although brief, confirmed it for him. That tangy, sonorous voice.

Rey gasped again when Shawn whipped around the stunned luchador and got him in a dangerously tight headlock. Rey gripped Shawn's arms hard enough to bruise in order to pry him off, but it was no use. Shawn was bound and determined to strangle Rey until he submitted.

"Come on, Rey, say uncle," Batista murmured.

But Rey started turning blue and there was still no hint of submission from him. What his mind wouldn't admit to, his body did. His grip slackened and his eyes started to droop shut as unconsciousness began to come over him.

Shawn released the woozy Rey and flipped him over before he could regain his senses, choking his throat again, but not as closely.

Rey coughed and shook himself lucid.

He tossed Shawn off of him with a series of brutal kicks.

Shawn was sent flying and sprawled out on the ground. Both of them were spent.

Rey sat up, rubbing his throat, eyes narrowed, mouth open to try to get breath.

"Get off me, pendejo," Rey wheezed.

Shawn tried to sit up too, but to no avail. He was battered thoroughly, down for the count.

"Do I have to keep going or have you learned your lesson yet?" Rey demanded.

Shawn shook his head.

"Say it," Rey said breathlessly.

Shawn groaned. "Kay. Kay, fine. I'm sorry I tried to mess up your friendship with Dave. And with the guys. Sorry. Just stop hitting me Rey, Jesus, you should have been a boxer..."

"My uncle used to be a boxer," Rey commented and wiped the sweat off his forehead.

He struggled to his feet and lifted his shirt enough to reveal his abs. A huge area was already discolored. "Well, you can't say you didn't put up a fight, Shawn. I'm gonna bruise. We'll call it even now."
He touched his temple, closed his eyes, shuddered and gasped for air to maintain consciousness.

Batista caught Rey as the adrenaline left him and his body went limp.

"Ugh....gracias, Dave. Gracias."
Batista's eyes were wide with awe. He eased Rey back to the ground and sat with him.

"You were losing your mind there for a second," Batista told him.

"I'm sorry. I just can't stand it when people try to hurt people close to me."

"You really did get hurt too, didn't you?" Batista asked him, pupils dilated, shocked. "You of all people in a brawl...and over us, too..."

Rey smiled tiredly. "I surprised you, didn't I?"

Triple H and John Cena looked at Rey and then grinned at each other. It was true. Little Rey-Rey had impressed the hell out of them all by giving Shawn a piece of his mind.

Batista blinked. "No, you didn't surprise me-" he stammered, embarrassed. "I- well, I've been in fights, too, it's not like I haven't seen any action either."

Rey laughed. "Oh, wow…sorry, Dave, it's just that you looked so startled… and you're so funny when you're surprised..."

Batista grumbled, his face red, as Cena and Triple H chuckled hysterically at him.

"You better watch it Animal, or you're going to get your ass handed to you by our mild-mannered cruiserweight here," Triple H teased.

"The next time you want to fight me, I ain't gonna. I'll just call Rey-Rey in and he'll do it for me," Cena laughed.

Triple H laughed and carted Shawn Michaels off to the bathroom to take care of him.

"Oh, you crazy bitch, you totally had it coming, and you know it."

Rey exhaled and looked up at Batista.

Batista looked at him. "What?"
"You thought you'd have to save me, didn't you?"
"I did not," Batista protested.

Rey raised his eyebrow incredulously.

Batista sighed. "Okay, maybe while he was choking you, I thought I'd have to pull you two off each other and smack him around for you, but it's not like I didn't let you stick it out."
Rey smiled. "You're like a bodyguard and a friend. Two for one."
Batista smiled. "You act like that's a bad thing," he said, rubbing Rey's scalp like he was a puppy.

Rey chuckled. "No, it's a good thing. But I'm glad you let me take on Shawn alone."
He beamed innocently.

Batista sighed. "Well, you did surprise me. I just didn't think...."
Rey batted his eyelashes at Dave jokingly.

Batista exhaled and rubbed his eyelids. "Rey, you're just too damn cute in my mind to ever clock anybody like you just did."
Rey laughed. "Oh, man, I fooled you then. I totally fooled you."

Batista sighed and looked at Rey sideways with a teasing smile. "Well, your face fooled me."

Rey burst into hysterical laughter. "My face? Whoa, man, really, Dave? Really?"

Batista smiled. "Yes, it sure did. You look so harmless."
Rey stifled his laughter finally and smiled. "Well, if it's any consolation Dave, you look like a pretty sweet guy yourself."

Batista looked at Rey, face blank. Nobody had ever said anything like that to him. People had always assumed he was a thug and that his size, his muscles made him look like one. "You're just...saying that."

"No, I'm not," Rey said easily. He held Dave's face in his hands. "You look like you're the bodyguard so often that you wouldn't mind if somebody else takes a turn defending you now and then."

He winked and gave Batista a light tap on the cheek. "And you were in luck today. I came to your defense."
Batista smiled slowly, his eyes bright. "Yeah. You did. You defended me, yourself, the guys...all of us."

Rey offered Dave his hand and he took it and they hugged.

Batista rubbed Rey's shoulders.

"I could use somebody to defend me now and then, Rey-Rey, thank you."

Rey patted Dave on the back.

"Any time, man. Hey, unless you got a beef with the Great Khali, then you count me out of it."

Batista laughed and they came apart and Dave looked at him admiringly, like Rey was his hero.

Rey smiled gladly at Batista.

"You're like a momma bear with her cubs, you know that?" Batista murmured, setting his hand affectionately against Rey's beautiful face.

Rey chuckled. "I believe I'm a poppa bear, not a momma bear, Dave."