Sonar- Thank you for all of your reviews, past and present! I've been wanting to thank you for a long time for all of your reviews and readership, but I couldn't think how to since you have your PMs disabled.
Eva- Thanks for the reviews also!
"Mike-" Alex tries to get his friend's attention, frowning as his every attempt is rebuffed. "Mike, come on, man."
Ignoring him further, the current Most Must See Superstar storms through the halls of the arena Main Event is being held in and heads straight for ringside, relieved to be able to lose himself in commentary for awhile. Far from being as satisfying as actual competition is, it's still a step up from yet another edition of MizTV that will inevitably end badly for him. He'd spent the last day and a half lost in his own thoughts, pondering what had happened, the look on AJ's face as she'd told him she never wanted to see him again.
And so, quickly growing tired of Antonio Cesaro's blathering about how lazy and fat Americans are, Miz finds his way to his feet and grips a microphone, letting him have it verbally. And yeah, yet again, not the competition he was looking for really, but it helps relieve some of his pent up anger, and if it leads him to challenge for the US title, well, he wouldn't complain. He'd loved being champion to that belt, even after the Anon GM made it mandatory that he retain it if he wanted to have any chance at cashing in Money in the Bank, causing the rest of his title run to be spent in paranoia and worry.
Once the show finally ends, Mike takes a breath, realizing that he'd left Alex trying to speak to him and getting absolutely nowhere. He sighs heavily and stands from the table, half-nodding at Cole before returning back up the ramp to face his friend. Except that Alex isn't there, and neither is the rental car. I guess I really pissed him off, he realizes with a tired sigh. "Dammit."
"Got problems, Miz?" the familiar voice of the man who he'd shared commentary with for the last half an hour asks, Mike turning to find Kofi approaching his own rental and watching him closely as he spins the keys to said car around his pointer finger.
More than you realize, he thinks, pinching his nose. "I... might have made Alex mad," he admits after a moment. "He took the rental car."
His former rival's dark eyes look almost amused but Miz chooses to overlook that for now, seeing his best way to get out of here, try to set things straight with Alex, is currently right in front of him. "So, ya need a ride back to the hotel, man?"
Miz releases a deep breath, relieved for the first time ever that Kofi Kingston is a goodnatured man, even to those who'd formerly made him very angry and still bear the scars to prove it. "Are you offering?"
"I guess I am."
They actually make it back to the hotel sans bloodshed, to both man's relief, and Mike thanks Kofi before getting out of his car and peering up at the building. He shakes his head grimly and heads for the door, barely noticing the fans lined up on either side of the door waiting for the Superstars to arrive. He signs a few autographs quickly, takes a couple of pictures, but his focus is purely on getting to the elevator, finding Alex and talking this through. Though it hadn't worked with AJ, Alex's words from Monday were true- letting things simmer between them never ends well.
Setting sun bright and warm on his face, John Morrison sighs and rolls over, getting the last of the rays as he tans. He's been keeping busy with various wrestling dates in Mexico, that play and the upcoming release of his fitness DVD set, so it's nice to have a moment to just sit and listen to waves crashing, seagulls flocking, and the various other noises of the ocean. He dozes after awhile and he's not sure how much time passes by the time he finally makes his way back to consciousness, but it's now dark and his phone is buzzing repeatedly in his pocket. Uncoordinated with sleep, he fumbles with the small device and finally finds his ear, holding it to his head. "Hello?"
"John?"
"Alex?"
"Mike needs you."
Those three words always find the way to draw him back from whatever he's doing- he thinks he could be surfing in a tsunami and still that small sentence would be enough to make him turn around and paddle with all of his might back to shore- so one moment he's blinking away exhaustion and the next, he's sitting up and staring out into the water like he's been awake for hours. "What's going on? He alright?"
"Physically, yeah. Mentally... not so much. And I'm not sure what he wants you to know, exactly, so I can't say... I understand you've been busy for awhile with your various side-projects and all, but could you please call him soon?"
John sighs into the phone, grimacing at the feedback that shoots back into his ear. "Yeah, sure man, I can do that." Before he hangs up, he takes a breath. "Hey, try not to worry so much, huh? He'll be fine. He's The Miz, he always bounces back." They exchange quick byes and he hangs up, staring at his phone for only a moment before speed dialing 3.
Mike is in the elevator, heading up to his room with Alex- if Alex is still there, he thinks with a grimace- when his phone begins to ring. He jerks, not expecting there to actually be a signal here, and pulls it from his pocket. As soon as he sees the name flashing on his screen, he presses the button at the bottom of the elevator's panel, stopping its upwards motion. "Long time no hear," he teases, his words sounding dull even to him, far from the amusing cadence he'd been hoping for when he'd said it.
"Yeah, sorry about that," John says, Mike smiling as he hears the faint roar of the ocean in the background. "Been busy but figured I'd check in now that things are quieting down." He pauses briefly and then comes back with, "How are you doing?"
He rolls his eyes, pressing a hand to his forehead. "Did Alex call you?" John's silence is his answer and he sighs. "He's worried."
"Of course he's worried, Mike. What's going on with you two now?"
"I lost it," he mumbles. "Or, well... I lost... something."
"I'm not getting you," his former tag partner says. "I mean, I know you lost the Intercontinental title, and that sucks, but that was weeks ago, wasn't it?"
Mike leans against the wall of the elevator and slumps down, resting the back of his neck against the cool steel. "AJ," he finally answers, even just saying her name leaving him feeling horrible. "She wants nothing more to do with me. She thinks... she thinks I was behind something asinine Cena did on Monday."
John says nothing for long, tense moments. "Mike... I know initially you were just keeping her interested to try to get me my career back but... do you...?"
Knowing all too well where Morrison is going with this, Miz groans and wipes at his face, turns back to the phone. "I, I think so. Yeah." They sit in silence, both men digesting this little factoid, something that Mike had slowly been realizing since he'd left AJ behind in that locker room a couple of days ago. "I've messed this up from day one," he groans. "I shouldn't have ever done any of this. Dammit."
"Nothing new for you there," John cracks before falling sober once more. "Mike, nothing's unfixable. She's mad now but if you give her enough time, maybe she'll be open to talking later on. If, you know, that's what you really want."
"I know. I know." Unable to find anything else to say involving the AJ situation, their conversation slowly turns to more amusing things, like what they did on New Years- how Miz lost his shirt in gambling for the fourth year running and Morrison went surfing at midnight to bring the year in right. It's so ridiculously extreme on opposite sides of the realm for both men, and it's just perfectly them, and somehow by the end of the short conversation, Mike feels a bit better. "Hey, John? Thanks for calling."
"Sure man, anytime. I guess I should make a habit of it." Mike's responding huff makes him laugh as he stands up and trudges back through the sand to his apartment.
"No kidding." Likewise, he stands and wearily approaches the elevator doors to start it up once more, suddenly feeling a renewed desperation to go see Alex and make things right with him. "I'm glad you did tonight."
"Hey, me too, man. We'll talk soon, alright? And just... be patient with this AJ thing, it'll work out."
"Yeah, thanks," he says softly, watching as the buttons flash on the panel while he nears his floor. "Bye."
"Bye."
As soon as he's off the elevator, he's walking hurriedly down the hallway to his and Alex's room, keycard at the ready. Unlocking the door, he enters quickly to find Alex sitting on the edge of his bed, staring at the floor. As soon as he approaches the younger man, their eyes lock and both of their shoulders slump. "I'm sorry," they say at the same time. Mike's lips twitch slightly as he settles in next to his former protege, nudging his shoulder. "Thanks for making John call me."
Alex flushes slightly and shakes his head. "I didn't make him do anything. I was just... worried and thought maybe he'd help snap you out of it." He glances sideways as his friend and sighs. "He did help, right?"
Mike nods, staring at his hands. "Yeah. He did. I needed to face something I've been avoiding for much too long, and he... helped with that." The younger man says nothing, not wanting to push Mike into saying anything he might not be comfortable with, but Mike wants him to know and the words slip out easily. "I think... I'm starting to have feelings for AJ Lee." Honestly at this stage in the game, it seems almost juvenile to claim it as merely "starting to have feelings" for the girl, but he's not sure how else to describe it. The game had been played, he'd lost, Cena had caught her eye, then Dolph, and he'd been left on the sidelines, which had hurt, but not nearly as bad as he'd felt when she told him she never wanted to see him again. It had been his eye-opening moment, that helped him to see it wasn't just the chase that he was enjoying or this game they'd been playing.
Alex takes a breath, somehow unsurprised at this. "What are you going to do?"
Mike's smile is mirthless, painful. "Honestly? I have no clue. She wants nothing to do with me, so I guess I'll take John's advice. Give it time..." Though he's not sure how much time, or if he even has the patience if it takes too long...
He finally gets some competition on Smackdown, and even though it's only against Heath Slater, something clicks with the 3MB member that night and he really brings it to Mike. Even when his fellow bandmates are ejected from ringside, it only seems to light the fire within the orange haired man all the more. The match lasts longer than some of Mike's past few matches combined and he revels in it, the desperate search to find what it would take to finally put Slater down finally culminating in a Skullcrushing finale and a victory for Miz. He's sweaty and sore and it's the best he's felt in a very, very long time.
Alex greets him at gorilla, looking amazed. "Who knew that guy had that in him?"
"You should've seen him in NXT," Mike breathes, mumbling a quick thanks as Alex hands him over a bottle of water and he downs most of it before speaking again. "He actually wrestled and beat Chris Jericho." When his former rookie sputters and looks on in disbelief, Mike laughs and curls an arm around his shoulders. "Come on, I wanna get out of here." He'd taken John's words to heart, deciding to give AJ time and space, and it only seems to be tempting fate should he hang around for too long that inevitably they'd run into each other.
As he grabs his things and changes clothes quickly, he can't help but wonder about how empty the locker room seems. There is a house show being held elsewhere this night, so some of the regulars are over at that, but to his surprise neither Alberto Del Rio nor Ricardo Rodriguez are anywhere to be seen. He'd watched the Big Show match on Monday, how, despite Ricardo's attempts to fight back, the ring announcer had ended up down on the mat, gasping for air, just for Del Rio to pull the save and get him out of there. He sighs, remembering the conversation he'd had with Rodriguez not long after he'd been knocked out by Big Show and shakes his head. "Ready?"
"Yep," Alex nods, following him out of the building.
That Monday is quiet for him, despite the buzz in the building over yet another of The Rock's returns. He doesn't have a match so he simply sits and observes as everyone else does their thing, wondering inanely about the fact that Del Rio nor Ricardo are there again. His best guess is perhaps it's the Mexican aristocrat's way of trying to protect the ring announcer from Big Show until he can get a proper match with the large man, something Miz never would've considered to be possible even a month ago. He half-smiles as Alex joins him and sighs, closing his eyes. "I'm so glad the holidays are over with."
"Me too. But I guess we'll be having another party for Raw's 20th anniversary next week."
Mike chuckles dully. "Yaaay. Hopefully no one gives birth at this one." He grins as Alex shudders against his arm, all amusement slowly fading as he hears Antonio Cesaro talking loudly down the hall, insulting this person and that. "He has a match tonight, right?"
"Yeah," A-Ri agrees. "Rematch against Khali."
"Fun, fun. Guess I should go do some scouting in case we do wrestle." He pats Alex's arm and gets up, quickly making his way to ringside to sit at the commentary table. The match isn't much- basically just a rehash of the original match on Main Event, really, but he watches closely none-the-less, determined to make his presence felt to the current US champion. It seems to work and it's an amused Mike that heads backstage, not paying much mind as he walks back to the main locker room, smirking.
He skids to a stop, however, when he sees AJ Lee standing in the hallway, Big E Langston nearby as always. He swallows, eyes locked on her, and takes a deep breath. Just keep walking, he tells himself. Just move. Do something. But he's frozen, the conversations he'd had with Ricardo, Morrison and Alex echoing around in his head, just to be highlighted further by the echo of her voice in his head repeating over and over again, "I never want to see you again."
His jaw clenching, he folds his hands into fists and walks resolutely past her, not even glancing over once at either her or Big E. When he enters the locker room, Alex catches on immediately that something'd happened, but he also knows Mike well enough to keep quiet, let him talk about it in his own time.
Time, he almost laughs at the stupidity of what just happened. Well, if AJ needs time... and AJ needs space... that's what she's going to get.