A/N:
Guest: I didn't really look closely at Tamina during that match, but it wouldn't surprise me. And yes I update BtB every Thursday morning! Thank you.
Some Christmas Bounty spoilers in this chapter.
Happy Thanksgiving, Americans, and happy Thursday/Friday to all of the rest of you 3
AJ sighs, closing her eyes as Mike fusses over her. In the interlude between Raw on Monday and Main Event here today, he had coaxed her out of the hotel to go ice skating. Unfortunately his admittedly being not overly athletic had sent him flailing many times, AJ having to bite her lip to keep from laughing at his growing frustration as she helped him stand time and again. But in the end, she had ended up the one hurt- minorly, yes, but still... She had slipped only once but it had been enough to twist her ankle. Not severely, but Mike had immediately looked worried and guilty, not even allowing her to limp off of the ice on her own power. He'd sat next to her, unlacing his own skates right then and there and, not allowing the freezing surface to dissuade him, had stood up in just socks, immediately scooping her up off of the ice and carrying her gingerly back to the benches surrounding the entrances to the ice.
So now they find themselves here, Mike sitting next to her in her locker room, staring at her. "AJ."
"I can compete," she insists, gingerly rotating her ankle. "The trainer can tape it up, and I'll be good to go-"
"AJ." His eyes are deep and sincere and she feels herself giving in the more she stares at him. "Please. If you were hurt worse because of my stupid idea, I-"
"It's not your fault! I mean, how many times did you fall-" He looks even more displeased at this, AJ yet again fighting a giggle as she leans forward, resting a hand on his face. "It was just one of those things, Mike. Don't blame yourself, I don't." He still looks glum, however, like a kicked puppy, and it's this more than anything else that causes her to give in. "Fine, I'll let the GMs know, and ask if Tamina can take my place tonight. Alright?"
His face immediately lights up, some of the guilt and worry fading from his eyes, and she sighs as he kisses her. "Yes, that's perfect," he nods, grinning.
"The things I do for you," she mutters as he nuzzles into her neck, now content. "But you will let me walk out there on my own power, right? I want to accompany Tamina." He looks reluctant as he pulls away to look at her, but she shakes her head with a small chuckle. "You'll be at commentary, and I promise it's not so bad that I can't walk a short distance. Don't you think she's carried me enough lately? I'll be fine."
He sighs and pulls her closer, this time nuzzling her against his chest. "I guess," he concedes reluctantly. "But if your ankle starts to hurt, find somewhere to sit, alright? I don't want you to aggravate it, or something. There are plenty of chairs out there, after all." She smiles coyly up at him, eyes shining.
To his utter relief, it goes alright, Tamina holding her own even when the Lumberjills cause things to devolve into a multi-diva brawl, during which AJ hops up on the announcer's table in front of Mike, glancing over her shoulder and smirking at him as he instinctively reaches out to steady her on the uneven surface, his hand warm on her lower back. Josh wisely keeps his mouth shut and the match carries on to its conclusion, Tamina defeating Naomi soundly.
Mike watches with a small smile as AJ carefully hops off of the table onto her good foot happily to meet back up with her enforcer so they can leave. The next match is Del Rio vs Santino and for a short moment Alberto meets Mike's eye from the ring and he sits back in his chair, tapping his pencil against his knuckles as he ponders what the older Mexican can remember from when he was ill, if it would change anything in the long run, weaken his resolve to keep his distance from Ricardo. Especially considering how things this Sunday may shake out when he takes on John Cena yet again for the World title. But tonight provides no answers as Del Rio defeats Santino and leaves without a backwards glance, clearly not wanting to deal with Mike and everything else right now.
Which is fine with him because he has his own dramas to deal with now, his actions on Monday causing a match between he and Kofi Kingston to be made on the Survivor Series preshow. He smirks as he thinks about it. Although his temper has since eased a little, the underlying cause is still there, so he's fine with it. Speaking of, his opponent comes out then for a match against Fandango and Mike rolls his eyes as two of the men he's had the most issues with over the last year faces off.
It's a standard enough match between the two until it spills to the outside, where Kofi purposely throws Fandango into Mike, tossing him out of his chair and effectively pissing him off all over again. He approaches the ring, yelling at Kofi from where he kneels on the apron, just to get kicked off of it to the floor, where he lays, listening as Fandango takes the opportunity to finish Kofi off, Mike laughing as Fandango's annoying theme echoes through the arena. "That's what you get," he breathes out, struggling to his feet. "Idiot."
His duty done, Main Event now over for the week, Mike walks backwards up the ramp once Fandango is gone, staring smugly at a disgusted looking Kofi as he goes. The only thing he really cares about now, however, is finding his girlfriend and her enforcer and getting her back to the hotel where he can ensure she's properly resting her ankle.
Mike doesn't have a match on Smackdown, but he goes anyway, accompanying AJ just in case Vickie Guerrero has something up her sleeve after Monday. Which, of course she does, putting AJ in a handicapped match against the Funkadactyls, completely ignoring her when she tries to bring up the fact that she'd been kept from competing on Wednesday due to her ankle. When the match starts, Tamina tries to help AJ to avoid their offense, but the two women knock her over on the ramp, dazing her.
Naomi is left in the ring with AJ after Tamina takes out Cameron on the outside, but it's not enough as Naomi hits AJ with the Rear End, defeating her as Tamina looks on in frustration. Once she's carried the diva's champion backstage, Mike leads them to the trainer's office, not bothering to move the dazed girl out of Tamina's arms. Despite being busy, the man pauses and checks her ankle out quickly, visibly displeased at her competing in the match, but ultimately finding her ankle no worse for the wear. "As long as you take it easy tomorrow, you should be cleared to compete at Survivor Series," he tells her blandly before returning to what he'd been doing prior her entrance to his office.
She's relieved at this, though Mike doesn't exactly share her enthusiasm in her competing in the 14-diva match. He keeps his misgivings to himself, however, stroking her hair out of her eyes until he's distracted by Del Rio's heavily accented voice, looking at the TV as he once more declares his intentions to break the other man's arm at the PPV. Mike grimaces slightly, just to have warring emotions when, only a couple of minutes later, a poll taken on is shown on the screen about the toughest submissions and Del Rio's armbar only gets 10% of the vote. It's almost funny, despite his feeling like a hypocrite for thinking so... After all, a poll had opened his eyes to how little the WWE Universe actually cared about him, so he can guess all too well how Del Rio is feeling right now...
Either way, his mind quickly turns to Sunday and the upcoming match he has against Kofi, one of the few things remaining that he has to make it through before spending the bulk of Thanksgiving in California with his friends and girlfriend. He's staring at his gear with a thoughtful look on his face when someone clears their throat behind him, surprising him. He steps away, thinking it's someone trying to get past him, but they don't move. "Hey, man, get thro-" he starts to snap, looking up- just to come to an abrupt stop, gaping in disbelief at who's in front of him. "Ricardo?!" he demands, quickly forgetting the trunks spread out on the bench as he walks over to the former ring announcer and laughs in some disbelief, hugging him. "Why didn't you tell me you were in Boston?"
"They just alerted me they wanted me here earlier this morning, it happened pretty fast," he explains, shrugging with a faint smile.
"Well, that- that's great," Mike says, staring at him. "What are you doing then? Competing, or-?"
"No," he sighs slightly. "Not competing, but they do want me to sit at the Spanish commentary table. So, I- I guess that's something."
Despite his words, his eyes keep darting around anxiously and Mike guesses he knows immediately what the problem is, yet again hating himself for what he'd put Ricardo through the few weeks he had shared the Main Event commentary desk with he and Josh Mathews. "Hey, you'll do great. The Spanish announcers, they seem like good guys. Don't worry about it."
Ricardo releases a soft breath, glancing up to look at Miz. "I hope so," he murmurs. "It's just... it's a PPV, you know. I want- I want to do well. Give people their money's worth..."
Mike chuckles and shakes his head. "You always do, man. And hey, if it helps you relax, I'll give you a pass- say whatever you want out there about me. How's that?" The younger man stares at him in some surprise and he laughs. "The WWE Universe already thinks I'm jerk, it'd be no huge stretch of the imagination." Besides, he can consider it some recompense for last summer...
"Eh," he hesitates.
"And I won't know most of what you're saying anyway," he urges, laughing when Ricardo seems to consider it. "Do whatever you want, man. Just take it easy on yourself, alright? You've been through enough lately, don't add to it. Besides, it's just about Thanksgiving week. I want us all to have a good time."
This does make Ricardo smile, though he looks a little wistful. "Si, alright, Mike. I'll try."
When Mike's match starts a little later, he looks over at the commentary desk for a moment, catching Ricardo's eye and nodding discreetly before getting lost in trying to overcome Kofi's offense, unsurprised by the other man's determination at beating him after he'd left him high and dry on Monday. Either way, it doesn't help, Mike eakes out a victory after many pinfalls. He grudgingly has to admit that it was a good match so, when he stands up, he finds himself in a pretty good mood- after all, Ricardo's back on the road, even if it's just for tonight, he'll be spending Thanksgiving with most of his favorite people in a few days, and he'd just won a match. So he holds out his hand to Kofi as he makes it to his feet, waiting patiently for the man to do the polite thing and shake his hand, but instead Kofi slaps him across the face instead. He gapes as his opponent leaves the ring without a bit of regret, almost laughing in anger. I try to be a respectful competitor, and I literally get slapped in the face for it... Why do I even bother?
The night only grows worse when, after officially being cleared to compete, AJ is the last diva eliminated in the 14 diva match, leaving Natalya and Nikki the only surviving members of their team. Mike winces and shakes his head, glad when she and Tamina enter the divas champion's locker room, her immediately sinking into his arms. "You're ok," he promises her, kissing the top of her head. "I'm sorry." She mutters against his shirt and nods, visibly angry at the loss against the Total Diva team, when he tenses, realizing something. "Dammit!"
"What is it?" she whispers, looking up at him.
He chews at his bottom lip, staring at the TV. "Del Rio has a match... and Ricardo's out there..." He knows the truth, but even with that fact, it hadn't kept the Mexican from attacking the ring announcer whenever he'd felt like it would be beneficial to his ridiculous plan. His hands tense against her midsection as he stares up at the monitor, feeling a little ill. "If he touches him again, I swear..."
Roles suddenly reversed, AJ's attempts at soothing him only goes so far as he watches the World championship rematch, trying to keep an eye on both the match and Ricardo, tension multiplying as the action spills to the outside, Del Rio landing right in front of Ricardo, who seems to be trying to keep an eye on him as well. Del Rio doesn't approach him, however, staggering to his feet and returning to the match, losing not that long afterwards. Mike can see Ricardo watching closely and he feels for the younger man, knowing it can't be doing much for his remaining conflict towards the whole situation, especially after the European tour. Mike shakes his head and stares at what he can see of the downed Alberto. "Just tell him, you idiot," he grumbles under his breath.
AJ looks up at him but says nothing, certain that he'll tell her what's going on with this whole Del Rio and Ricardo situation when he's ready. She ordinarily wouldn't care about the ring announcer or Del Rio, their issues from when she was General Manager of Raw still fresh in her mind, but she knows that it matters to Mike, so she tries to restrain her lack of interest in the men, for his sake...
Thankfully Ricardo is fine, if a little quiet, when the show ends, and Mike leads them out of the arena, all of them glad to return to the hotel and sleep away this PPV. Not a lot went right, despite Mike's victory and Ricardo being there for the whole night with no huge problems. The issues all weigh on them the rest of the night, exceeding all of the good that the event had brought them.
Raw is another mixed bag. Titus O'Neil has this ridiculous idea to imitate Michael Strahan and asks Mike for help with it, even as Darren Young stays far away from this madness. So instead of having the actual Raw guest host on MizTV, he invites Titus out and indulges his tag partner from the week before's Superstars in this, not that surprised when the actual Strahan interrupts, far from impressed with them. How it goes from Strahan making a tag match- Del Rio and Orton vs Big Show and Cena, of all things- to a hip toss challenge, Mike only succeeding at getting hip tossed himself after failing at tossing the former football player, he's not sure, but he's relieved when it's over.
When he makes it back to the locker room, it's to find that AJ is preparing for the 14 divas elimination tag rematch, looking far from pleased at this all. He cups her face and smiles down at her. "Good luck out there."
She nods, clearly distracted. "Thanks." They kiss quickly and she leaves to meet up with the rest of her team, Tamina following her.
Mike's alone in here now, Ricardo having returned to Florida to help Alex to prepare the apartment before all of them would be arriving at various times tomorrow. He personally has media events to do with Christmas Bounty, but would be flying out in the early afternoon and hopefully be in Florida in time to see the movie's television debut with all of them. Shaken out of his thoughts just in time to look up and watch in disbelief as AJ is eliminated relatively early in the match, he blinks repeatedly, thinking perhaps he had seen things. "How is that possible?" he mutters, unsurprised when she and Tamina storm in, equally as angry, though AJ is much more vocal while Tamina stands nearby and stares blankly ahead, her dark eyes gleaming with murderous rage.
He quickly shuts the TV off and waits for her to notice him, but it doesn't happen for a long time, the diva content to throw things around the room, upend the table and scream at losing two nights in a row. Well aware by now just to let her get it out, he and Tamina both stand back and watch until it seems she might hurt herself, the enforcer walking forward and kicking the table out of the way as Mike grabs the girl and holds her close, letting her scream into his chest until she tires herself out. "You're ok," he mutters the whole time, knowing she can't hear him but somehow feeling better by saying it.
Finally she quiets and he ducks enough to look at her flushed, tearsoaked face, wiping the drying tracks off of her cheeks. "Sorry," she whispers, cupping his hands as he smiles down at her. "I... I haven't felt like doing that in a really long time..."
"It's ok," he tells her quietly. "I'd rather you let it out here than keeping it all in and... exploding in some other, unhealthy way later on." She nods faintly as he hugs her close, murmuring faintly to her before his eyes fall on the clock and he hisses out a faint curse. "Hey, sweetheart, I have to go, my match against Kofi is next." He kisses her gently and smiles. "Just rest, alright? I'll be back soon and we can get out of here, go to the hotel and talk about what we'll be doing for Thanksgiving in Florida."
"No ice skating," she says with a small hint of a pout.
He laughs and kisses her again, shaking his head. "I promise, no ice skating. I like your ankles too much to risk them again."
"Just my ankles?" she wheedles, blinking up at him with red-rimmed, wide eyes that makes his heart hurt to look into them for too long, wishing he could do something to keep her from feeling so miserable as her losses begin piling up as his had for far too long before the PPV the night before.
"All of you," he rectifies, lifting her hands and kissing her knuckles. "I'll be back soon." A subtle nod to Tamina, containing the silent demand that she keep a close eye on AJ, and he's out of the room to stretch before he heads to the ring. On the way, he runs into his Christmas Bounty costar and they talk for a minute, Mike careful to keep it friendly as possible as he's aware of a nearby camera, knowing that AJ has to be seeing all of this, keeping a close eye on any female in his vicinity.
He leaves her behind quickly and goes to the ring for the rematch, unphased as Kofi joins him, even mocks him over the Strahan thing after hip tossing him. It doesn't matter in the end because Miz accomplishes another victory against him, smirking as the referee raises his hand in victory.
He keeps his promise to AJ then, despite the show being not quite done. He knows he can watch the TV at the hotel, on the off-chance that he finds himself wanting to see how Del Rio's tag match ultimately ends, so they leave the arena and he drives them the short distance to where they're staying, relieved once they're inside the room, dropping his bag before going to change out of his street clothes. Once comfortable, he drops into bed and wraps an arm loosely around AJ, blinking blankly at the TV, which is on but muted, commercials running. He chuckles softly as he sees the one he had filmed for WWE awhile ago, where he breaks out of a present at some kid's birthday party, and shakes his head at the two children hanging off of him at the end of the ad while he ate cake.
"So someone said something about discussing Thanksgiving plans?" she asks finally, carding her fingers through his hair gently.
He stirs, surprised to find that he'd almost dozed off on top of her, and nods slowly. "Mm, yep. I did." Sighing, he shifts slightly and smiles at her. "Well, you're alright with spending Thanksgiving in Florida, right? Morrison, Ricardo, Alex, all of us... just hanging out, watching Christmas Bounty and figuring out how to cook a turkey?"
She stares at him for a long moment and he's starting to worry until finally she says, "Tamina's invited too, right?" They both look over at the enforcer who is sitting up in bed, arms crossed over her chest, looking much the same as she does when standing, rigid and on the look out for danger.
He wonders how she could possibly sleep like that, but finally turns his attention to AJ and her question. "If she wants to come, she's welcome to, sweetheart," he answers with a small smile, thinking about how Alex will react at having the woman in his apartment yet again. He fights a laugh as AJ's face lights up and she lunges in for a kiss, nibbling lightly on his lower lip before pulling away with the first truly happy smile he'd seen on her since losing.
"Thank you."
"Anything to make you smile like that." He grins as she taps his lip with her finger, replacing it with her own lips after a moment, kissing him intensely as she leans against him. "I love you."
"I love you too, Mike."
The next day goes alright, although it sucks on some level to have to see AJ and Tamina off, Mike remaining behind in New York for a little longer to promote his movie through interviews and other things. He has a later flight that afternoon, but still. He tangles his fingers in her hair as they kiss goodbye, imagining their first holiday together, watching his second movie release with her- something he hadn't been able to do with her for Marine: Homefront because things had been so badly tense between them at the point of its release to DVD- not to mention watching the Macy's Day parade together, and entering December looking forward to giving her gifts and maybe finding some mistletoe somewhere, ringing in 2014 with her...
Last year's holidays had been such an unending pool of pain, guilt and torture as she had been vaguely involved with Cena, just to rebound into Ziggler's arms when everything with Cena went nowhere, both things full of nothing but bad memories for them both now, that he looks forward to making this year so much better for both of them, itching for the holiday season to begin in earnest finally so he can do just that.
"I'll see you soon," she whispers against his mouth as he nods faintly.
"I miss you already."
She sighs and kisses him again. "And I miss you too, but it'll be over soon, and we'll all be in Florida in a few hours." He nods this time and she hugs him once more, whispering a subdued bye before turning and following Tamina towards the security check point for their flight, Mike swallowing as he watches her go, pausing just long enough to blow him a kiss before disappearing from sight. He loves this life, he does, but sometimes, especially when they have to be separated for any reason, it just sucks all around more and more.
After what feels like weeks of answering questions for this interview and that and handling the Google Hangout thing before heading for the airport for his own flight out to Florida, hoping that it'll arrive in time for him to watch his TV movie debut. Though he's a little nervous because it's a romantic type flick, with AJ already a little off-balanced emotionally due to the last week of losses she's suffered, he takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, shrugging. Nothing I can do about it now. She'll just think something's really wrong with the movie if I try to keep her from watching it. It... it's just a kiss scene at the very end... no big deal. Right? He gulps and sighs. "I'm so screwed," he mutters, ignoring the strange glances he gets from fellow passengers on the plane.
He tries not to dwell on it the rest of the flight, but still when the plane lands a little after 6 PM, he's nervous even though AJ isn't the one waiting for him, a grin taking over his face as he spots Morrison and Alex in the crowd, grabbing his bags before going to join them. "What a welcome wagon," he drawls sarcastically, his words betrayed when he drops both bags as quickly as he'd collected them just so he could step forward and hug both of them tight, John laughing as he squeezes him back.
"Missed us?" he mutters into Mike's hair, smirking slightly when his former tag partner doesn't respond.
He pulls away after a second and collects his bags all over again, remembering for a moment when it was just the three of them hanging out at holidays and other life happenings. Not that he would change anything now that Ricardo, AJ and apparently Tamina have joined their little group, but he still allows the moment of nostalgia for the brief amount of time that it takes him to collect his things, smirking at his best friends when he turns back to them. "So, what do you say? Up for some Christmas Bounty?"
"I get to mock it, right?" John asks as they walk out of the airport.
"You say that like I could stop you," he sighs. By the time they arrive at Alex and Ricardo's apartment, it's quarter to 7 and Mike swallows, those old nerves returning to him as he spots AJ waiting for him on the porch, kicking her legs back and forth until she sees the car and jumps down to greet them. "Hey, sweetheart," he mutters once he's out of the car, kissing her as Alex and John each grab one of his bags and makes a quick get-away to the apartment, causing him to laugh. "Come on, let's go inside before we miss the start."
"Alright," she breathes, taking his hand and squeezing it.
As soon as they enter, the warm smell of popcorn overwhelms Mike and he grins, unsurprised to find Ricardo handing over bowls of the snack to John and Alex. "Any of those for us?" he calls over to the ring announcer, grinning when he nods back, holding up two of them. "Thanks, man," he says quietly, taking each from him after squeezing his arm. "How are you doing?"
"I'm alright," he answers, smiling slightly. "How was the flight?"
"Long," Mike sighs. "C'mon, let's go see my latest theatrical masterpiece."
"Is it really a theatrical masterpiece if it's on TV?" John wonders, throwing a few kernels into the air and catching them masterfully in his mouth as Mike scowls at him.
Turning his attention to AJ, he smiles as she curls up close to him, already digging a hand into the bowl he's barely been able to settle into his lap. "Hey, sweetheart."
"Mm hmm?"
"This is kind of a... romcom movie, you know," he hedges, watching as she pauses with a piece of popcorn midway to her lips. "Will you be alright watching this?"
She gives a half-nod, half-shrug, motion that does little to ease his discomfort with the situation, the girl saying very little as the movie begins. None of them say anything through the opening minutes until the main character, Tori, is forced to return to her family of bounty hunters when a man they'd put away got free. AJ sneers at the outfit she changes into to fit in once back in Jersey as Tamina coughs, "Tacky."
"Changing clothes in a public bathroom stall?" the divas champion mutters. "Don't even get me started on those shoes..." Mike smirks and holds her closer, working through a few more handfuls of popcorn while waiting for the next outburst.
Which happens when he gets a line longer than a word or two, not even needing to look when John bursts out laughing, trying to restrain himself as not even twenty minutes have passed in the movie yet and he's sure there'll be more to come. "Uh, are you trying to do a Jersey accent?" he finally demands once he can breathe again.
"Shut up," Mike mutters, moodily chewing.
AJ blinks and looks up at him after a moment. "Your character's name is Mike?"
"Hey! Whose side are you on?" he all but pouts, tickling her as she gasps and squirms against his roaming fingers, trying not to spill her popcorn before finally pushing it over to a nearby Tamina in an attempt to save it.
They watch on in silence until Tori's boyfriend, fresh from flying in from New York to surprise her, gets wrapped up in everything, the teddy bear he was bringing her a casualty as its head completely tears off of its body due to gun fire. AJ tsks. "Why couldn't you rescue the teddy bear?" she wonders, poking Mike in the chest. As he stares at her in disbelief, she giggles. "What?"
"Morrison's the one who's supposed to give me grief all of the time with these movies. Et tu, AJ?" he says through a laugh of his own, just relieved that she's not completely hating it so far. If she had, she wouldn't be saying a word, much less snuggling with him at all.
"Wait, wait, please tell me I just heard things," Morrison speaks up after awhile. "Did that blonde chick really just call you Mikey Muscles? ... Oh God, I think that's worse than the accent." He laughs helplessly, unable to stop even when Miz glares over at him heatedly. He finally gets some control of himself, though the more he hears Mike speaking in his Jersey accent, the redder his face gets. "Ah God," he wheezes, barely able to focus through the chase scene that happens after Tori's now-fiancee is kidnapped by the mobster who'd escaped from prison, his amusement becoming contagious as Alex grins too, Mike speaking more in this scene than he had the whole movie yet.
"I hate you all," the real-life Mike grouses, hiding his face in AJ's hair as she strokes his neck and back, trying not to laugh too. Ricardo and Tamina are the only ones having any success at not completely losing it at his accent, the enforcer too stoic for such things, and Ricardo just too kind to laugh at Mike, considering how annoyed he's becoming at the others.
Eventually, the mobster's sister is about to get married which brings about the family of bounty hunters to round him up, just for another shoot-out to happen. "Ok, so far a teddy bear has been shot, and a bunch of ice sculptures," John observes, blinking as the multi-tiered wedding cake gets shredded as well... "Well. I think everything but people at this point."
"This is why we can't have nice things," AJ sighs, tilting her head as Mike pokes her in the side with a soft chuckle.
The gun fight devolves and moves outside of the warehouse the mobster had been hiding in, both Tori and her fiancee held by the criminal when she commands her significant other to duck on three, timed perfectly as Mike dives in slow motion off of an overhang above them to take out their captor- "Uh, gimmick infringment!" John intercedes before being hushed as the movie nears its conclusion-, the two of them fighting together until she places the downed mobster back under arrest.
They all watch quietly as Tori and Mike talk for a little bit about how he's changed, Mike urging her to be happy before he leaves and she turns back to her fiancee, who is sitting in the back of an ambulance. Despite his wanting to try again with her, work past all of the lies she had told him about her family and past, her heart is elsewhere and she tells him she can't. He thankfully doesn't argue and she leaves him there, racing after Mike's car, jumping atop of it just in time to stop him from driving off.
Miz holds his breath as his character gets out of the car and starts demands answers from Tori, who shuts him up by jumping into his arms and kissing him hungrily, worried blue eyes intent on AJ's face as she stares at the screen, taking in the last scene of the movie as the now-reunited couple discuss perhaps taking over the family business for Tori's parents. She doesn't verbalize her thoughts, lips twisting as the ending credits run through, Mike not even distracted from her by John and Alex laughing at the ridiculous dancing the actors are doing. Finally it ends and John, noticing what's going on between them, turns the TV off before nudging Alex, the two of them and Ricardo going into the kitchen, Tamina wandering off on her own after a few moments. "Hey, are you ok?" he whispers to her, growing more and more worried by her silence.
Finally she moves, gripping the back of his head tightly and draws him towards her, kissing him sharply. He squeezes her shoulders, relieved when she finally softens, grumbling against his lips as she pushes him backwards and pins him against the cushions, her hair tickling his neck and throat. When she pulls away, her eyes are fiery and intent but she's smiling too, so he thinks they're ok... hopefully. "Tori was an idiot," she breathes against him, leaning in for another kiss.
He sighs and pulls her even closer, nodding slightly as he remembers the very long, painful road that they had taken just to get to this point as well, the movie reflecting that with Tori and Mike's story in a way. "But everything works out the way it's meant to," he whispers, eyes shining as she looks down at him, so many emotions running through her that he can tell she's nearly overwhelmed to the point of tears. Wanting to calm her down, he draws her back down to rest against his chest and holds her close as he strokes his fingers through her hair some more, staring up at the ceiling of Alex and Ricardo's apartment, wondering with a smile how the two men will decorate for Christmas.
Things are quieting down, John, Alex and Ricardo's voices little more than faint murmurs, when AJ and Mike finally get up to join them, unsurprised to find Tamina lurking a few feet away from the table, listening to them. "Hey, guys," Mike mutters, pulling out a chair and sitting it in, dragging AJ over to join him, wrapping his arm around her as she leans against his chest with a soft, sleepy little sigh. "So... what'd you think of the movie?"
Ricardo glances between the other two before speaking up with a small smile. "It was fun. I enjoyed it, Mike. Congratulations."
Mike laughs, grinning warmly at the younger man. "Wait for congratulations until we see ratings... but it was trending on Twitter, so I guess people liked it well enough." He turns his attention to his other friends and waits patiently for one of them to speak up. "So?"
"You know me, I always enjoy things I can go all Dirt Sheet on, if only for a couple of minutes," John tells him with a smirk. "But honestly, I agree with Ricardo. It was an entertaining hour and forty-five minutes."
"And you, kid?" Mike wonders, glancing over at Alex with baited breath. Like Ricardo, he had spoke very little during the movie, so Mike's not sure how he felt about it either way.
Alex chuckles and shuffles his feet against the kitchen tile, finally looking up to meet his former mentor's gaze. "I enjoyed it too, Mike. Before long, you're going to have movie deals left and right, probably." All of them catch the bit of wistfulness in his tone and Mike resolves to take a minute to talk to him before bed, make sure he's alright, but for now...
AJ breaks up the awkward silence by turning to face him, kissing his nose softly. "I'm proud of you," she whispers to him, grinning as his eyes light up under her attention. Tamina had been the only one amongst them all not to say anything during or after the movie, but he figures it's a compliment enough that she had remained in the room throughout the whole thing.
He looks around at the room full of people and smiles, knowing exactly what he's thankful for this year.
It takes another hour for them all to calm down and start drifting off to bed, Ricardo the first to go after wishing them all a muffled "Buenas Noches" around a yawn, the younger man barely able to keep his eyes open as he stumbles down the hall towards his room. John goes outside to do his nightly yoga on the beach and, as Tamina carries her bag, AJ slips off to the guest bedroom to put her things away, leaving Alex and Mike alone in the kitchen, staring at each other. "You ok, kid?" he finally asks, listening to the soft shuffling sounds of his girlfriend and her enforcer through the wall.
"Huh? Yeah, of course I am," he nods. "Why wouldn't I be, Mike?"
"I'm not sure," he shrugs, though he's pretty sure he does know. When Morrison had been fired from the WWE, it had felt like Mike had been punched in the gut. He can guess all too well how Alex is feeling at the very thought of Mike leaving, be it to focus on movies, or due to a situation similar to John's. "Alex, no matter what happens... we'll always be friends, alright? I'll always come to Florida as often as I can to bother you. But trust me, you have nothing to worry about. The WWE isn't going to get rid of me that easily."
Alex stares at him, surprise and relief warring in his eyes until finally he mutters, "Really?"
"Really, man. Now come on, it's a holiday week!" he exclaims, smiling at him.
"Right, of course," he says, the morose cloud that'd been hanging over him for the last while finally fading away like nothing was ever wrong. He grins at his mentor. "Hey, you all get free reign of the apartment tomorrow. I've been called in to commentate Main Event." He makes a slight face but shrugs. "Should be fun though."
Miz winces. "Sorry, kid. We'll try not to completely trash the place." He laughs at the sharp glare thrown his way before realizing something. "Hey... that's right, what are you going to do about places for people to sleep now? It was one thing when it was just us and Tamina, but now John-"
Alex coughs, suddenly looking awkward again. "Yeah, about that... um, I bought an air mattress, I filled it up and it's in my bedroom, I'll pull it out to the living room... so it's up to Morrison and Tamina who gets the couch and who gets the mattress." He grins and stands up, clapping his hands together briskly. "Since you did such a great job relaying the information last time, you won't mind telling them again, right?"
Mike stares at him. "No, no- you're not doing this to me again- Hey! Alex-" But he's already in his room, not bothering to stop and talk as he drags out the large air mattress, which almost knocks Mike's chair over on the way through to the living room. "Alex-!"
"Good night," the former NXT rookie calls out cheerfully as he power walks past Mike back to his room once it's in place.
"No friggin way," Mike groans, in disbelief that he'd gotten trapped yet again, now needing to tell this news to both Morrison and Tamina. "Why do I like him again?"
He stares into the living room at the mattress and blankets piled up on the couch, shaking his head in disbelief as he settles in to wait for Morrison to return or Tamina to finish helping AJ out so he could tell them about their sleeping arrangement. "Dammit all..."