Raul Mendoza had been thinking about it a lot since sitting at home, recovering from Santos Escobar's attack on him, Joaquin, ... the LWO as a whole. Going into the Christmas season with no contact with Escobar, Rey and Carlito both off injured, and Joaquin and Zelina both not in a much better emotional state than he is leaves him pacing around his apartment, mumbling to himself.

There's a cleanly wrapped gift off to the side, something he had picked out weeks ago, before everything went to hell, and it keeps catching his eye every time he paces by the living room, adding to his frustration. Finally he turns sharply and grabs it, squeezing it tightly, hands shaking. Cursing under his breath, he grabs his keys and heads out, slamming the door behind him.

It's not a long drive to Escobar's home, but there's still a few times- especially while stopped at red lights- that Raul comes close to throwing the gift out of the car window, turn back around and just head home to call Joaquin and see if he wants to go out and do something. But every time he second guesses himself, he squares his shoulders and keeps driving. He stops short outside of Escobar's gate, remembering that he doesn't even know the man's security code anymore.

He gets out of the car, slamming that door too, and paces in front of the gate, tugging at his hair, trying to catch his breath. Trying to find the strength to press the button to buzz in to the house, at least see if Escobar would care enough to answer, or if he'd put him on the ignore list entirely.

He's just reached out for the panel when there's an aggressively sharp buzz and the gate begins to swing open. He gapes at it for a long, tense moment, before slipping automatically back into his car and slowly pulling in. Parking in his usual spot to the side of the garage, he gets out and walks slowly towards the house, still gripping the gift in his hands. He hopes his nervousness isn't showing, but he has very little hope about that as he approaches the door, which opens before he can even reach the porch.

"What do you want, Raul?" Santos asks, sounding quiet. Resigned.

Raul feels a surge of anger, storming up the stairs to grab him by the collar, dragging him closer. Despite their difference in size, Escobar doesn't fight against him, just lets him do what he wishes, a dangerous glint in his dark eyes. "What do I want?" he demands, shaking him a little. "An explanation would be nice. We were familia, Santos. I loved you," he spits out, then stops short, breathing heavily. For a split second he swears there was a flash of pain on Escobar's face, Raul realizing the past tense at the same time Escobar had.

"Well, I'm glad you've already begun to move on," Santos says coldly, slapping Raul's hand off of him and stumbling back a couple of steps, moving as if he's about to slam the door shut. But it catching on something stops both of them and Santos looks down to find the red and green box wedged between the door and frame. "What..."

"I bought this weeks ago," Raul says, through gritted teeth. "It was disgusting me so I wanted it out of my sight."

"And you brought it here," Santos says quietly, leaning over to pick it up.

"Give me it, there's no way you'll be interested in it now-" Raul starts to say, but Santos ignores him, tearing it open.

Santos stares at it for a moment, a piercing look in his deep, dark eyes. "Raul," he says slowly.

"It was stupid, just throw it away," he says, trying to turn around and leave- but a hand slaps down on his shoulder, stopping him short before he can even come close to the stairs.

"Raul," Santos says quietly.

Raul reluctantly turns towards him, takes in the abstract art in honor of the LWO- vibrant greens and reds scattered around with white embellishing here and there. "What do you want, Escobar?"

Santos winces at the cold usage of his last name and finally tugs Raul into his home, shutting the door behind him. "You chose Rey," he says.

"Joaquin and I did no such thing," Raul corrects, exhausted. "We were trying to get answers- you hurt Zelina, you- you did so many things. We were supposed to be familia. What did you expect from us?"

"To choose me, no question asked," he says, throwing his hands up, the canvas momentarily distracting him as it goes up with his right hand. He saves it from crashing against the wall at the last second and puts it down carefully so it won't get battered any further. "Like I chose you both when we left NXT."

"You mean when we all left Elektra behind?" Raul asks. "She was our familia too. None of us are great at this, Santos. But I thought we at the very least were different. It didn't stop you from taking the first strike against me."

Santos mulls this over, a tired, frustrated look on his face. "You hurt me most," is all he says. "But as you say, you loved me so I suppose this conversation is moot."

Raul presses his fingers into his eyes, exhaling shakily. "You're an ass, Santos. I don't know what's happened to you." He points to the canvas. "That was the man I loved. And I would've gone to the ends of the earth for him, and I like to think he would've done the same for me. But I don't recognize this version of you. I hope you figure it out before you've lost everything."

Suddenly growing courageous, Raul steps closer to him, rests a hand on his jaw. "I've spent weeks thinking about this, how neither of us have true gotten closure. I suppose this will have to do." He searches Santos' face and shakes his head. "I know what I said earlier," he murmurs. "But I do still love you, Santos. Or at least the man you used to be, and the man I know you can be again. if you ever find it in yourself to go back to being that person once again, you know where to find me." He leans in and kisses Escobar, tangling his fingers in his hair to hold him in place for as long as he dares. Pulling away, he presses his forehead to Santos' and breathes in slowly, delaying the inevitable for a few moments longer. "Goodbye, Santos. Merry Christmas, whatever that might look like for you now."

He turns and leaves a dumbstruck Escobar behind, heading for his car. After steadying his shaking hands as best as he can, he starts the vehicle up and drives around the house to make a clean exit through the gate without looking back.