A/N: Apologies for the lateness again. Perhaps if people wouldn't hijack my Wednesdays... haha. Ugh.
Alex calls ahead at the airport. Not to warn John that they're coming, necessarily, since the older man's always fine whenever they drop in, the two men welcome anytime and well aware of this fact by now, but to warn him about Mike's state of mind. The true purpose behind the visit. Alex is younger, less experienced, and there's still the past rookie-mentor dynamic that lingers with him, leaves him feeling too uncomfortable to give Mike advice or do much else than just sit and listen to him, allow him a place to vent where he can say and do whatever and not be judged for it. But John's different, they're on equal footing pretty much, and had been tag team partners for so long and friends for even longer... he hopes that Morrison can work his magic and snap Mike out of this funk, help him to figure out what his next move should be.
But even that isn't the first thing on Alex or John's agenda as he examines Mike from a distance while lagging in rejoining him on the uncomfortable airport chairs, while they wait for their flight to be announced. The AJ situation might end up getting addressed early, but Alex is all too aware of just how Mike hasn't been eating or sleeping well lately, and he's pretty sure John won't stand for it, even if it means stuffing some California food down his throat and dosing his drinks with melatonin or something. He gets distracted from these thoughts when Mike shakes his head back and forth at something on his phone, choosing that moment to return to his seat. "What's up, Mike?" he asks, taking in the annoyed look on his friend's face.
"They just now notified me they want me to do commentary on Main Event tomorrow night. Fabulous." He replies to the email as fast as he can, releasing a sigh. "Looks like I get Smackdown off this week though, they have nothing planned for me." He turns to look at Alex. "How about this, I go commentate on Wednesday, you stay in California, and then I travel back and we make a week of it before we return to the grind for Raw?"
"That's a lot of flying back and forth for you, Mike," Alex says with a frown, knowing that that won't help his friend's exhaustion any.
"I'm sure we've both done much worse," he shrugs. "It'll be fine, I'll get a few hours with Morrison tonight, probably long enough to force him into watching my movie, and then we can do whatever over the weekend when I come back. It'll work out. You two will probably have a million ideas by the time I do return." Alex grins and Mike slaps him on the arm, just as their flight's announced. "See? Timed perfectly. Let's go get this show on the road, kid."
It's a long flight from New York to California and, though he tries his very best to stay awake, when Alex dozes off barely an hour in, Mike's wide awake, and when he comes back to awareness to the crackling intercom advising them to move their trays into the upright position and put their seatbelts on, Mike is just as wide awake. He frowns blurrily at him and shakes his head. "Didn't you get any sleep?"
He shrugs, undisturbed. "Nah. Too much on my mind."
Alex frowns at him and closes his eyes with a groan. I hope you're stocked up on your Melatonin, John...
But the trip is instantly worth it when they're actually met in the airport by John, who seems to see what Alex has been seeing for far too long the moment he spots the Most Must See Superstar, eyes darkening in concern as he waits for them to join him. As soon as they have their luggage and joins him, he laughs slightly and bypasses the duffel and suitcase Miz is holding onto when he wraps his arms around his former tag partner and squeezes him in a tight hug, draining the breath from Mike in a rush. "Oof, hello to you too, John," he grunts, finally dropping his things and returning the embrace, smiling despite himself. "Missed me?"
"Something like that," he smiles faintly before stepping back from Mike and turning to Alex, who quickly lays his own bags down before John hugs him too. "Hey, kid."
Alex sighs, relieved to be able to let John take over for awhile, put Mike's care in his arms for now. "Seriously," he grouses, "where did this kid thing come from? Now you're both calling me it!"
"You are a kid," Mike and John say together and the former NXT rookie groans louder as both men laugh, amused that even after all of this time, they can still speak in unisom. "C'mon," Miz says after a moment of just absorbing being back in LA with his two best friends. "I have had mooooore than enough of airports. Let's go, California sun is calling my name!"
"Are you sure it's your name, and not a cry for help?" John cracks even as he swoops forward and collects one of Mike's bags, purposely ignoring the glare he gets in return. "No need for you to further ruin your shoulder while coming to see lil ol' me," he teases.
"Hey!" Mike exclaims at his back as John walks purposely to the exit. "My shoulder is fine, all recovered." He huffs, shaking his head. "Jerk." But even so, he has a bit of a smile on his face as he and Alex walk side by side behind him.
When they arrive at John's apartment, he and Alex sit in the living room and listen as Mike fumbles around in the guest room, putting his bags away. "I just don't know what to do anymore," he admits to a patient Morrison. "It was one thing when she was just with Ziggler and things were normal, but... I don't know, when she told Mike she only wanted to be friends, and he had time to think, it's like he went on this self-sabotage thing by telling her that he was originally only paying attention to her to help you. Then this whole fake proposal thing happening a few days later... if Ricardo hadn't told him it was just embellished, I think he still would be staring aimlessly out of that hotel window right now." He's worried and right now that kid nickname does make sense, because he does feel young, uncertain and unable to help his friend.
Morrison sighs, scooting over a bottle of coconut water to his friend. "Our first tag title run, I didn't know Mike at all. We were rivals for the ECW title, and we kind of maybe hated each other because we were each other's foils against Punk, but when we randomly won the tag titles, I don't even know, things began to click for real after a few months, and we realized that if everyone else was against us in the locker room, we might as well be allies. Sometime over the summer, the line just blurred and we realized one night we were talking about absolutely nothing and had been for hours, and we were enjoying it. Our friendship came as quickly as our tag team did, and it was just as unbreakable once we realized and accepted it. Or so I thought, until the second title reign came to an end with a, how does that saying go, with a whimper and not a bang?" He smiles mirthlessly. "I didn't see the signs. I didn't realize how much it was all eating Mike alive, to not be champion, to not even get a role on Wrestlemania's actual broadcast. We were the preshow, hell they didn't even air them online in those days. Only the people in the arena got to see it and no one sitting at home knew what had happened. I still wonder how many people were sitting around watching the show, match after match, and wondering what happened to that tag battle they'd advertised so much? But Mike took it even worse than I did, and I never realized. He wasn't eating right, he wasn't sleeping well, he was just solidly falling into a bad place and I didn't see it until it was too late and I received a Reality Check for my efforts the night of that damn draft."
Alex blinks, not remembering that particular part of the story. John notices. "Never heard that before, huh? Neither did I, until recently. I knew we'd had problems but I didn't realize they were exacerbated by that."
"Do you think he told you because of... all of this?" Alex wonders, trying to think back, determine if perhaps he'd missed the signs sooner. Yeah, the "engagement" had made him keep a closer eye on his friend, noticing these things, but perhaps they'd started sooner and he hadn't pieced it together, wrapped up in the aftermath of his recovery and returning to the road. "He sensed it coming, so he...?"
"Maybe," John shrugs. They look up as Mike enters the room a moment later, looking normal or as normal as he has lately, anyway. He seems unaware of what they'd just been talking about and even smirks as he drops down next to John. "So what do you want to do today? Beach, or...?"
"I have a better idea," he exclaims, reaching into the folds of his jacket that neither understood why he'd left on until this moment.
"Here it comes," Alex murmurs, all worries fading briefly as he laughs, Mike making a face at him. "Prepare yourself, John, your life will never be the same again."
When Mike pulls out Marine 3: The Homefront, John stares at it for a long moment, eyebrow raised. "Oh."
"Don't sound so enthused," Mike rolls his eyes at him. "We're watching this."
"Uh huh, ok. How many times has it been for you already, Alex?"
"This'll be number four." The two men share uncomfortable glances as Mike ignores both of them, beginning to mess around with John's DVD player in an attempt to learn its ways so he can begin his movie. As John gets up to help, Alex sits back and watches with a small smile. The movie hadn't been bad, some of the action scenes leaving him on the edge of his seat, and he's curious to see how Morrison will respond to some of it.
"There. Should I get snacks? Drinks?" John offers, looking around. Alex shakes his untouched coconut water and Mike simply refuses, sitting next to Alex while they wait for John to stop stalling and join them. Finally sandwiching Mike in, he grabs the remote and fastfowards through a half-dozen ads until the menu pops up, telling it to play. The plot sets up quickly and follows the previous Marine set ups, with its own variations here and there. By the first fight scene, John coughs and blinks, a bit surprised. He turns to look at Miz and freezes, looking over. "Alex," he hisses.
"Huh?" the younger man looks over and pauses too, surprised. Somewhere in the first half an hour of his first movie, Mike's exhaustion had finally caught up with him in the familiar comfort of John's apartment, stuck between his two closest friends, and he'd fallen asleep. John and Alex exchange a small smile before John turns the TV down, Alex getting up carefully. He motions to a blanket hanging off of the back of a nearby chair and, with John's subtle nod, picks it up and drapes it over the sleeping superstar. They return to the movie after a few minutes, making sure the volume's down so as not to disrupt his much needed rest. "Now that he's asleep, do you think that guy looks... a little like someone? Especially in certain angles... I think it's the hair," John ponders, staring oddly at Mike's character, Jake's, best friend.
Alex laughs softly and nods. "Yeah. I didn't want to say anything, but now that you mention it..." They alternate between being impressed at the fight scenes and wincing whenever Ashley Bell starts screaming, neither of which seem to bother Mike's rest thankfully. By the end of the movie, they consider waking him up but ultimately leave him be, accepting that his rest is more important than their teasing him about the movie's conclusion.
"C'mon," John whispers, wandering out onto the balcony overlooking the nearest beach so they can talk without disrupting . "Well, it's good he's sleeping, huh?"
Alex stares out at the sun-kissed sand and sighs. "Yeah, I was starting to think we'd have to drug him or something. It sucked, watching him the night after the 'proposal' scare. I didn't know what to do or say, and it seemed like talking was the last thing he wanted to do. I was glad to learn he was coming back here, I figured being around you would help."
"I don't know if I should try bringing up the AJ thing right now, there isn't a lot of time to get into things if he has to leave for Main Event in the morning." John leans against the railing and shrugs half-heartedly. "He's coming back on Thursday, so why not spend this time forcing him to sleep and eat, and then get into the heavy stuff after Main Event, when he has more time to process everything." Alex considers it briefly, then nods. "Alright then, that's what we'll do."
Mike is confused and groggy when he comes to to a dark room, the TV he swore had been on moments earlier as dark as the rest of his surroundings. He sits up and scrubs at his face as the blanket covering him pools in his lap. "Alex? John?" he calls out, frowning when there's no answer. Maybe they went out without me... He grouses a bit over that prospect before standing up and catching sight of the numbers on the cable box blinking the time at him. "Damn," he breathes, finding that it's almost 10 PM. "I slept for six hours?" Despite that, he still feels worn down, like he could lay back down and sleep for another six, but curiosity gets the best of him and he wanders the apartment, looking for his friends. Finally he finds Alex on the balcony, listening to music, and joins him, making the younger man jump. "Whatcha doing, A-Ri?"
"Oh, hey, finally decided to join the living, huh, Mike?" Alex notes he doesn't look much better, the sleep he'd just gotten barely taking the edge off, but thinks maybe after Main Event, that can be rectified the rest of the way.
"If you wanna call it that," he snarks back. "Where's John?"
"He went to get food."
"Oh, great, some of that tofu nonsense he keeps trying to force on me?" When Alex just grins, Miz's eyes narrow at him. "Alex... I swear to God-"
Before Alex can say or do anything, the door clicks open and Morrison enters, humming slightly. "On the balcony, John!" Alex yells out, dodging a clipping blow from Mike and laughing when his friend glares even harsher at him, holding his hands up in an innocent pose.
All anger drains from the former WWE champion, however, when John appears, holding a familiar bag in hand. "Is that...?" He gapes for a moment before snatching the bag clear out of John's hands, staring at the bright blue logo on the side like it's the best thing he'd seen in ages. "It is! I haven't ate from Burger Village in ages!" One of his favorite burger joints, a nearby privately owned place, but between his trying to be more conscientious of his diet since Marine 3 and being on the road so much, he'd not had the time to even consider just going there.
"Yeah, well, I'm deeming this a cheat day for all of us. To celebrate your movie's release," John says smoothly, handing over one of the bags to Alex and the other to Mike. "Have at it."
Mike stares at him for a moment before peering inside, his eyes widening. "Damn," he breathes, pulling out a milkshake. "Chocolate?"
"Of course," John responds with a smirk, pulling out his own chicken sandwich from the bag in Alex's hands.
Once all of the food is dispersed, Mike raises his eyebrows at the two. "So, what'd you think of my movie?" Drawing it out, the two exchange glances, Mike looking back and forth between the two anxiously. "Oh come on," he snaps finally, losing his patience.
Alex cracks first, laughing helplessly as John finally grins. "It was good, man. But are you sure that was your sister? Some weird vibes there for a sibling relationship."
Mike rolls his eyes, huffing. "Careful, John, remember I have gun training now... You've finally seen it firsthand too."
He shrugs, undisturbed. "A, there's no guns here unless you somehow got them through airport security, and B, I just bought you food so I doubt you'll want to off me just yet."
"...Maybe." Mike smirks and leans against the balcony railing, pulling the lid off of his milkshake and scraping a fry through the creamy drink.
After finishing commentary duties for the week on Main Event, Miz returns to California and, after catching a red eye back and crashing for a few hours, he and John end up waking up earlier than Alex on Thursday, opting to leave him behind as they trail along the beach in the late-morning silence. Miz isn't dumb and neither is John so neither are surprised when Mike begins the conversation he'd been dwelling on for awhile now. "I'm gonna guess Alex has told you what's been going on with AJ."
"Some," he admits. "Some I'm just guessing on here." As they walk, the water lapping against the sand sounding so calm and peaceful in contrast to Mike's words, he lays it all out for his best friend, almost reluctantly. He needs to talk about it but it sucks to admit all of the mistakes he'd made, especially when he can now see them so clearly but at the time, it'd seemed like his only recourse through the whole thing. To his credit, John merely listens, waits Mike's flood of words out and, when he finishes, doesn't seem mocking at all, merely sympathetic. "You think this thing with Ziggler is serious then?"
"I do. She seems... happy with him." He stuffs his hands in his pockets and kicks at some sand, watching half-heartedly as the grains scatter here and there. "Which is what she deserves, after everything she's been through the past year, I just..."
"You wish it ended up differently," John concludes for him.
"Yeah." They walk quietly for a bit longer before he smiles wanly. "But that can't happen so... I guess I give her her space, try to move on, focus on other things?"
John inclines his head. "Might not be a bad idea, maybe time will straighten everything out for you both." He glances at him out of the corner of his eye before wrapping an arm around Mike's shoulders. "It probably won't be easy, but hey, Wrestlemania's around the corner... if anything's a good distraction, it'll be that, right?"
His smile fades completely, pondering once more not having a match on the card as the days tick away quickly, a sick reflection of the year prior when he had been so overlooked thanks to Laurinaitis that going to Canada to film Marine 3 for a few months had been a welcome change. "Yeah, I guess." They walk quietly for awhile until Mike sighs. "Who knew trying to get through to the board would bring about all of this?"
John squeezes his shoulders. "I'm sorry. I know you were just trying to help me... If you had told me what you were doing, I might've been able to tell you not to before all of this got rolling. I'll admit, I miss WWE but I'm not sure I'm ready to go back right away, you know? Physically or emotionally." When Mike stiffens, he hastens to elaborate. "Not that I'm injured or hiding some secret ailment, it's just... when Laurinaitis made it such a public thing about not renewing my contract, I was in a bad place, worn physically and emotionally and it took awhile and a lot of pride swallowing to admit that. But never say never, right?"
Mike nods. "Yeah." They'd all had fluxuations in their careers, days where Mike had thought he might not be able to get up and do it all over again, but where John had been unable to, he had. And he would continue to, no matter what happens with the whole AJ situation and being aimless yet again leading up to Wrestlemania.
They make it to the water and stop, letting it wash over their sandals as they stare out at the midday sun glistening against the waves. "Whatever happens with this AJ situation," John says after a few moments. "You'll take care of yourself, right? I don't know if you've noticed, but you've been worrying Alex."
He knows. Of course he knows. Alex only suggests they go see John whenever things are especially worrisome. He feels bad about that, but it's yet another unfortunate circumstance from his bad decisions always coming back to bite him long after. "I will. I just... needed some time." He smirks. "Besides, with neither Alex or I needed on Smackdown, you have plenty of time to force me to sleep and eat. Will that make you feel better?"
"Oh yes, being your caretaker always makes me feel ecstatic," he snarks back, rolling his eyes. Mike just grins.
The rest of their time off is spent on the beach, exploring various places in LA that Miz doesn't get to see that often anymore, and just being lazy around John's apartment. After all of the Marine 3 and WWE press junkets and media events, Mike is beyond relieved just to have some time to sit and not overthink things. Especially with Wrestlemania and its own hyperactive media schedule looming ever closer. That Friday night, they're hanging around the living room, Alex watching Smackdown while Miz looks over a list of events he's marked for the coming week and John works on something to do with OOYM's pre-release, when Ziggler vs Del Rio begins. All eyes rest on Mike while he taps a pencil against the sheet of paper, stoically staring at the TV.
After a few minutes, John and Alex turn to watch the match as well, in time to see Ricardo being stalked by Big E., just for AJ to stop him for whatever reason. What happens next causes all of them to blink repeatedly as Ricardo grabs the ever present bucket and slings it at Big E., who happens to move just in time for AJ to be drenched head to toe in water. As she fights past Big E. and begins chasing Ricardo around, the ring announcer yet again gets away when Big E. grabs her and lifts her up so she can't get away. The referee, growing more and more angry with the shenanigans, ejects them from ringside as Ricardo stands at the stairs, looking innocently on.
The show goes to commercial and an awkward silence fills the room until John barks out a laugh, Alex and Mike looking over at him. "The look on Ricardo's face," he tries to explain, waving his hand at the TV.
"Did you see Del Rio in the background?" Alex demands, finally giving into his own humor over the situation. "He looked so confused."
Mike listens to them laugh for a moment, conflicted because Ricardo was just trying to defend himself and his employer, but also... It's AJ who'd just been humiliated on national TV. Again. He finally settles for just shaking his head, smiling a little, before turning to watch the rest of the match. He does laugh, however, at Daniel's 18 second diss towards Ziggler afterwards, not feeling even a little bit of guilt at that one.
However, whatever good feelings they might gain after that weekend fades quickly come Raw, when Mike hears the crash and yelling from down the hall. His eyebrows raise as he looks over his shoulder towards the main locker, barely having time to blink before Kane comes storming out of the room and past him, raging and yelling at what CM Punk had done. He swallows and winces, going to see what'd happened, who'd taken the brunt of that attack. He's barely inside when he realizes that it's Alex Bo Dallas is kneeling near, trying to help sit up. "Hey, hey!" he exclaims, glaring around as he brushes Bo aside and leans Alex against him. "What happened?"
"Kane was in here rampaging over what Punk did to Paul Bearer's tribute," Bo explains quietly. "Alex was, I don't know, trying to calm him down, and Kane tossed him clear across the room. I think he landed on his arm-"
Immediately losing interest in what the rookie is trying to say from here, Mike leans closer to Alex. "Hey, man. You with me?" When he nods in response, Mike releases a soft breath. "Good, good. Come on, kid. Up you get."
"Trainers," he groans out as Mike helps him up.
"You know it," he replies, slinging his good arm over his shoulder. "Hold on. It's not far." Alex's head rests against his shoulder as he eases him out of the room, ignoring all offers for help, knowing that he can get Alex there fine on his own. "Now what have I told you about avoiding Kane? Didn't you learn anything from Zack Ryder?"
"Forgot," he grunts. "Sorry."
Mike just shakes his head, using his free hand to open the door, the trainer immediately looking up as he drags Alex over to the nearest cot, settling him down on it. He steps aside, watching as the younger man's arm is examined and questions are asked, sitting down heavily on a nearby couch. "I thought we were all in here a lot when Morrison was still with the company, I think we're challenging that record now..."
They're still sitting in those positions, an ice pack melting sluggishly on Alex's arm, when Daniel is brought in by referees following Big E.'s attack. Mike stares at him, lips thinning, whatever good humor he might've held from Friday long gone. "Hey, man, control your tag partner, huh?!" When his former NXT rookie looks up, Mike glares viciously at him.
"Hard to do when I haven't seen him," Daniel snaps back, wincing as his body protests everything from him moving to talking, and all in between. "Haven't seen him since word broke about Paul's death, actually. He's mourning in his own messed up way, what do you want from me?"
Mike rolls his eyes, knowing that it makes sense. The whole locker room had been... quiet, off since they'd all heard. Paul Bearer had been well liked by a good many people, despite his supernatural past and creepy actions, not to mention role in so many of Undertaker's more frightening activities. That Kane would react like this isn't exactly a surprise, but Alex? Really? Really?
Thankfully the trainer eases some of Mike's fretting when he deduces that Alex is going to be sore, his arm tender for a few days, but all in all, nothing is seriously injured. He leaves the younger man in the office, promising to come get him so they can leave after this Highlight Reel. He gets another opportunity to plug Marine 3, showing it off against Wade Barrett's Dead Man Down, and somehow it becomes a fight over the Intercontinental Title. Which, after a cringeworthy promo from Brad Maddox- yikes- becomes a #1 contendership match between Miz and Jericho for an opportunity next week. They go back and forth for awhile, Mike determined to see this through- being Intercontinental champion walking into Wrestlemania sounds so much better than nothing at all- but it all devolves when Jericho throws Miz into Barrett, angering the Brit until he attacks both of them, it devolving into a brawl between all three men upon the match itself getting called off. Miz lays Wade out with a Skullcrushing Finale and then Jericho adds onto it by hitting his Codebreaker, the two men staring over at each other until Mike leaves to check in on Alex.
No one is necessarily surprised when Vickie decides to make a triple threat match for the Intercontinental title next week, Mike's chances at walking into Wrestlemania with the Intercontinental title still alive and well. He smiles, feeling a little bit more hopeful that this will be the turn around he'll need to get out of the slump he's been stuck in for much too long.