Alex unfortunately has to leave early on Wednesday to go handle commentary for Main Event, Mike driving him to the airport, still feeling a little bad about the few weeks where he'd had grown somewhat resentful of the other man for getting to do commentary when it used to be Mike's thing. "Hey, are you doing Superstars this week?" he asks idly, tapping his fingers against the steering wheel as he glances over at him.
"Yeah, I am." Alex runs his fingers through his hair and looks around at the nice Florida weather, trying to prepare himself for the cooler New York weather that he'll soon be encountering.
"How's that going to work? Did they move the schedule around again?" he asks with a frown.
"Yeah, they did. It's going to be held on Friday again, a few hours before Smackdown. So you all are stuck with me all day Thanksgiving." He smirks.
Mike releases a soft breath before grinning at him. "Good, kid. I'm glad."
He sobers quickly and says, "Um, I know you're going to do this anyway but you know... keep an eye on Ricardo for me while I'm gone. It's his first major holiday without Del Rio or Sofia, and I'm not sure how he's going to handle it. He's good about keeping himself busy so he doesn't dwell on stuff, but you know, that's not great either."
Mike nods slowly. "Yeah, I know, man. Don't worry, John and I, we'll make sure he's ok."
"Thanks. And try to keep my house in something close to resembling one piece, please."
Mike laughs. "No promises," he grins as Alex groans and buries his face in his hands, rethinking his house guests... and probably not for the first time.
After a lazy morning tracing the beach a bit, Mike returns to the house in time to throw his two cents into the menu for the next day, knowing that it's ridiculous to be planning all of this now, much less having most of the grocery shopping still to do- thankfully, Ricardo had had the foresight to go a few weeks earlier and get a turkey, which is currently thawing in the fridge- but with their schedules, they hadn't had much of a choice.
"I want cranberries," AJ says, trying to snag the pencil from Mike's hand when he doesn't write fast enough for her.
"Stuffing," John and Ricardo interject at the same time, looking at each other with grins once they realize what they'd done.
"Rolls," Tamina speaks out after a few moments of the group of them trying to think about what they'd overlooked.
"Right!" Mike breathes, relieved she spoke up when she did, scribbling the item quickly onto the list. "Alright, I think this'll do for now. Who's up for a trip to the store?" AJ nor Tamina jump at the chance, Morrison quickly burying his face in a nearby magazine- all too aware of what shopping with Mike truly means, the man nearly a monster once he gets stuck in a grocery store.
"I- I'd like to go," Ricardo offers after a moment of looking around at the others, biting his lips.
Mike's face lights up as he drops an arm around the younger man's shoulders. "Well, then, let's go!"
"And make sure not to get in front of the cart," John calls out to the ring announcer, shaking his head when Mike pulls him out of the apartment before John could warn him of anything else. "Poor soul," he mutters as the door shuts soundly behind them.
But everything goes fine; the list is straightforward enough and Ricardo is content to follow Mike around, helping him to collect what they need as quickly as possible. The store is packed, many other last minute shoppers making the two WWE Superstars feel less ridiculous about leaving all of this to the night before. They'd just checked off the last item on the list when Mike's phone beeps again and again, startling both of them. He smiles apologetically at the strange look he's getting from a couple of people trying to make it past him to get into the bread aisle, stepping aside and letting Ricardo man the cart while he checks his phone. What he sees there makes him swallow as he looks over. "Hey, Ricardo, I gotta answer this, wanna go look for a lane that isn't a complete madhouse and I'll be with you in a second?"
"Sure," the ring announcer agrees with a shrug, pushing it ahead, out of people's way, while Mike re-accesses the text messages that had been sent to him in the last two minutes.
Mike, do not let Ricardo watch Main Event tonight
ADR has a match; it'll only make it worse
Find something for him to do, please
Mike closes his eyes, knowing immediately that Alex is right- seeing his former employer the night before Thanksgiving would only remind Ricardo of how he used to spend holidays, and how different it's going to be this year. Yeah, kid, don't worry about it, I won't let him watch. Go kick some ass on commentary. We'll talk later. He turns the volume off of his phone and goes to collect Ricardo, who is mostly done now, taking the change from the cashier and turning just as Mike claims their cart, smiling slightly. "Ready to go?"
"Si," the ring announcer nods, stuffing the money into his billfold before stuffing it into his jeans pocket and following Mike out. As soon as the car lights up, he tilts his head. "Oh, we should hurry, Main Event is about to start. Alex'll be disappointed if we don't-"
"About that," Mike interrupts, glancing over while they wait for traffic to ease off so they can leave the shopping center. "I have a slightly better idea- and don't worry, Alex is fine about it, I told him what I wanted to do already." Ricardo looks hesitant and Mike smirks, finally deciding to put him out of his misery. "We're gonna do your latest favorite thing... the five of us are gonna do some trainin'."
Ricardo's eyes brighten at this, a smile spreading across his face. "Really?"
Mike nods. "Yep, so when we get back to the apartment, we'll put the food up, get our gear, and go out to whatever gym we find that's open and do our thing." And this is what they do, all of them somehow fitting in Ricardo's car about half an hour later, AJ resting her head on Mike's shoulder while the ring announcer drives them to the gym he uses most often when in Florida, Morrison taking shot gun while Tamina sits next to them in the backseat. "How about intergender matches," he teases the girl, brushing his fingers through her long hair. "Or you could ref..."
She sits up, making a face, but finally smirks. "Well, I suppose this intergender match would be better than the last one you and I were in together."
He rolls his eyes. "Well, if it didn't cause us to notice each other for the first time, I would be utterly annoyed that you would mention that considering how you won by distracting me, but oh well..." He kisses her forehead and smirks back at her. "I guess that would make Tamina Morrison or Ricardo's partner." He chuckles when both men release rough breaths at the same time, exchanging wary glances. AJ just hums and settles back against his shoulder, comfortable there until the car pulls into a parking lot and stops, Mike jostling her gently until she sits up with a groan, looking out at the gym.
"Come on, guys, let's go," Morrison says, pushing his door open and stretching outside, clearly getting an early start on the others as he limbers up for what's to come. The others slowly leave the vehicle as well and wander inside, Ricardo leading the way to the room where a ring is waiting, surrounded by mats and such. "Huh," the Shaman of Sexy murmurs, looking moderately impressed. It's no Performance Center, but it'll do for tonight.
"Since there are five of us, someone can referee and we can have tag team matches, or triple threats-"
"Or fatal four way," Tamina says sharply, staring at Mike as he looks over at her, startled.
"Er, yeah, sure," he mutters weakly. "But let's start with a simple intergender, alright?" He grips AJ's hands and smirks down at her. "I want to see how we would have done as a team instead of me and Eve and you and Bryan." She grins up at him and nods, glancing around at Tamina, who is standing with her arms crossed over her chest. "Ricardo, how about you referee this one?" he suggests to the younger man who shrugs and nods, standing in the middle of the ring as the other four get into their positions.
Ricardo licks his lips anxiously, glancing from corner to corner before motioning Miz and Morrison to begin, the women stepping onto the apron to wait for the tag. Mike circles John for a moment, wondering if his former tag partner has any ring rust, when John snags him in an unexpected struggle for power, laughing when Miz struggles to get any leverage. "Not fair!" he exclaims, pushing John back and striking out with a punch that sends John away a few more steps. Watching them closely, the ring announcer stays close enough to make sure neither men do anything dirty, Mike rushing John once he's recollected himself just to get thrown into the corner and kicked in the shoulder for his trouble, John stepping back and returning just to land his enziguiri which downs Mike long enough for John to attempt a cover, Ricardo diving into position and hitting a one count, Mike kicking out before the two.
He kicks John off then before he could leap up onto the top turnbuckle for his Starship Pain, scrambling over to the corner and tagging in AJ, who blinks a couple of times before she slips into the ring, staring John down as Ricardo waits for John to tag Tamina in, signaling him to do so. He smirks at the girl before backtracking and doing just that, slipping out onto the apron as she enters the ring. The enforcer looks on warily as AJ circles her, neither sure what to do in this situation. Finally, at the referee's urging, they approach each other and Tamina holds a hand out to the divas' champion, unsurprised when AJ meets her halfway. Similar to earlier, this power struggle goes to the opposing team as AJ cries out and drops her to knees at Tamina's pure power, Mike tense in his corner as they watch on, disturbed.
Tamina releases her quickly and backtracks before racing forward to superkick her, rolling her up into a pin afterwards. Ricardo slides into place, counting until there's a running blur and his vision is obscurred but he realizes what'd happened when John almost runs across him, taking Mike out with a double axehandle after the man breaks up the count, allowing AJ a few moments to breathe while he and John argue and exchange blows until they both fall out of the ring, leaving Ricardo and Tamina perplexed. The divas champion takes the opportunity when she's strong enough to sit up and scoops Tamina into a schoolgirl, holding her down with all of her weight as Ricardo shakes his head at the former tag team champions still scrambling around outside of the ring, only just realizing in time to drop to his knees. "One... two... three!" he calls out clearly, waving a hand at the nonexistant bell. "Your winners, AJ and Mike!" he calls out, relieved when it works at breaking up the fight between Mike and John, the Awesome One releasing a cheer before diving into the ring and hugging his girlfriend, laughing with her and John and Tamina stew at the loss.
Mike realizes quickly that neither party are exactly thrilled and glances down at AJ, who shrugs apologetically towards her enforcer, Tamina staring at her beadily until Mike glances at his watch and sees that it's not quite 9 yet. "What do you say, do we want to try one more match before we leave?" The gym will be getting full of people trying to get in that last bit of exercising before the establishment closes for the night, not to mention they're all going to have a lot to do the next day and Mike personally wants a quiet night with AJ before they have to start figuring out how to cook the turkey.
"I guess," AJ agrees, looking doubtfully from Tamina to Morrison.
"Only if you referee, you cheater," John huffs at his best friend.
"Works for me," Mike shrugs, unbothered by the prospect. He considers which way to go with this next tag match, finally vocalizing his decision. "AJ and Morrison vs Tamina and Ricardo."
The ring announcer gapes at him, wide eyed in fear as he stares over at the second generation diva. He ultimately braces himself, however, reminding himself: You've teamed with Beth Phoenix in the past... and you won! This won't be much different... right? The four of them take their places, AJ and Tamina once more squaring off, the enforcer looking far from pleased at the somewhat cheap victory the diva's champion had eaked out against her minutes earlier. Likewise, AJ looks uncomfortable and apologetic but the taller woman seems unfazed by it all, immediately wrapping her arms around AJ in a chinlock, locking her legs into place and applying more pressure to the woman's jaw.
Except that AJ is crafty and, at first sign of weakness, struggles enough to wiggle into position, gripping Tamina's neck and, breaking the chinlock, effectively slams her into the mat in a rattling neckbreaker. AJ then appears to have had enough because she dives across the ring and slaps a hand against Morrison's outstretched arm, tagging him in when he'd least expected it. Tamina grunts and stands, ducking onto the apron as Ricardo hesitantly climbs into the ring, examining Morrison with a twist to his lips, adjusting his wristbands. They'd never wrestled, although they'd had a couple of parkour races that hadn't ended well for the younger man, but he thinks if anything, he could learn a lot from the man standing before him.
They lock up in the middle of the ring, Mike watching closely as they struggle back and forth for a minute, John visibly impressed at Ricardo holding his own before throwing him into the ropes and hitting him with a clothesline as he flies back, landing heavily on the mat and staring up at the ceiling, winded. But when John tries for a standing shooting star press, the ring announcer rolls out of the way and closes his eyes as Morrison hits the mat with a grunt, getting to his feet hesitantly. He's still a bit uncertain in the ring, the process of learning more moves slow, especially considering the years of rust he's working through, though he's steadily getting better and stronger, more confident with each move mastered.
He wraps in a facelock on Morrison before flipping him over his shoulder, moving to doublestomp him until Morrison moves and snags his legs, sending him crashing face first into the mat, once again dazed- which gives John the opportunity he needs to massage some of the soreness from his face and, once Ricardo sits up, he hits the ropes, kneeing him in the face at a high velocity and sending him back to the mat. This time he hits the standing shooting star press and covers him, Mike biting his lip as he counts the three, holding John and AJ's hands up in success as Ricardo rolls out of the ring and hits the floor, holding his midsection wearily.
Tamina and AJ regroup afterwards, Mike unable to hear the words exchanged between the two as he moves to check on Ricardo, but whatever it is seems to work as the divas champion extends a hand towards her enforcer, Tamina accepting it after a moment of further conversation between them. Relieved to see this, he drops out of the ring and kneels by a pale Ricardo, resting a hand on his knee. "Hey, man. You did good."
"I still lost," he says dully, brushing the hair out of his eyes.
Mike rolls his eyes, nudging his jaw until he looks up at him, his eyes gleaming with self-recriminations. Mike can only imagine how he's going in circles over every mistake he'd made during the short match. "Don't worry about that. Considering you've only been seriously at this for the last month, you're doing really well, man. Heck, I've been at it for so long and I still make mistakes. Just take it easy on yourself, this is just for fun. Speaking of, I did say something recently about wanting to see what you've got." Ricardo looks a little confused, glancing towards the ring, and Mike grins. "Well, I had a taste but I want to see what you can really do, first hand. You up for one more match?"
Ricardo blinks. "Against you?" As Mike stands, reaching out a hand to help him up, his face lights up as he considers wrestling with one of his closest remaining friends. "Si, of course!" He takes his hand and drags himself up, rolling back into the ring as a fresh flood of adrenaline takes him over. Morrison referees this, of course, and the divas stand at ringside, watching as the two men circle each other, waiting for an opportunity. Finally it comes as Mike lunges at Ricardo but the ring announcer, feeling more confident being in the ring with someone he knows the best out of all of them, snags him in a drop toehold, sending him crashing to the mat. Mike sputters and rolls over just to get met by another attempt at the double stomp, which works, his shoes planting into Mike's chest and winding him. Ricardo pauses, uncertain about if he should continue with his advantage- it is just for fun, after all- but he takes one look and knows that Mike wouldn't stop, and wouldn't want him to either.
Except that he takes so long coming to this decision that it gives Mike the opportunity he needs to get back to his feet, grip the younger man around the face, bending him backwards to slam him back-first against his knee before following up with a neckbreaker, leaving Ricardo writhing on the mat while he gasps for breath himself, a proud smile passing over his face as he reflects that the timid ring announcer he'd first started to get to know back in December could barely do more than a dropkick in the ring. Look at you now, he thinks, brushing the hair out of his eyes and watching as Ricardo struggles once more to his feet, that fire of competition in his eyes making Mike even more pleased as he responds in kind.
Ricardo races forward, trying to punch him, but Mike moves faster and hits him with a boot to the face, knocking him down once more. The ring announcer still isn't done, however, snagging Mike by the ankle when he attempts a discus punch, sending him down to his level on the mat. They stare at each other for a moment before both grin, getting to their feet once more. John hovers nearby, just letting them do this thing however they wish, and then... Mike goes for the discus again just to get met with Ricardo's dropkick before he could even turn once, the Awesome One dropping to the mat hard. He's still laying there, staring upwards, understanding why Alex had complained about the force behind that move for days after getting hit with it, when he realizes something.
John is gaping at the turnbuckle post, AJ muttering to Tamina on the outside, and he peeks up to find Ricardo hesitantly climbing up to the top rope, his back to Mike. Miz closes his eyes and breathes in deeply, laying his head back down to let Ricardo get on with it, hoping that the ring announcer has learned how to land a moonsault well enough by now to not seriously hurt either of them. Not that he thinks Ricardo would take such a chance if he hadn't, but still... When he crashes down on top of Mike, he can tell- it's all but picture perfect, Mike's body immediately alit in pain from where he'd hit. But it's not terrible, just standard results of highflying offense, and he sighs as John slides into place, Ricardo's arm pressing down on his tender midsection, holding him long enough for the 3 count to be achieved.
When Mike sits up, a hand pressed to his ribs, the ring announcer is looking shocked and worried, staring at him. "I didn't... hurt you, did I?" he fusses, hands hovering over Mike's body even as he shakes his head.
"No, man. I'm good. Congratulations, you can now say you technically have two wins against former world or WWE champions," he tells him, grinning harder when Ricardo's eyes light up at the realization. "I'm happy for you, man."
"Gracias," he whispers.
Alex returns mid-morning, amused to find his friends filling his kitchen, all staring blankly at the instructions on how to bake a turkey. "Oh, boy," he mutters before dropping his bags in his bedroom and going to help. It seems to take forever but finally the six of them make sense of the directions (he hopes, anyway), finally getting the bird in the oven after another hour. Most of the other stuff can wait until later, closer to when they'd eat, so the group of them return to the living room where they sit, talking lowly while the Macy's Day Parade drones on as background noise.
As more time passes, the apartment warms with the smell of cooking turkey and all of them find excuses to venture into the kitchen and peek at the oven, trying to convince themselves that their meal won't be a complete disaster. All goes well as they switch from barely watching the parade to barely watching football, all content to sit and talk, catch up since all six of them aren't in one room that often. After the turkey had cooked for a few hours, they all return to their places in the kitchen, preparing the rest of the meal so that they can eat as soon as possible, all of them growing hungrier with each passing minute.
AJ and Tamina work together on the rolls while Mike handles the mashed potatoes and gravy, Ricardo putting the cranberries into bowls. Morrison and Alex wanders around, working on little bits here and there, until finally everything's done and set out for everyone to serve themselves. Mostly talked out from the hours in the living room, the group are content to sit around the now-cramped kitchen table and eat their fill of the food, all of them relieved to find the turkey mostly acceptable, if a little dry here and there. Considering it was most of the groups' first time at actually baking one, well... "How many people does it take to bake a turkey?" Mike snarks at one point, grinning when John rolls his eyes at him.
They've just finished with seconds, AJ picking at the last of her cranberries, when Tamina clears her throat. All eyes turn towards her as she speaks. "We're missing something," she says simply, staring at the table.
Mike frowns and looks around too, thinking he had noticed the same thing earlier, but being unable to place it. "Like what?"
"Dessert," she says, barely blinking when various curse words come from all sides of the table.
"...Dammit all to hell," Miz groans out, dropping his face into his hands. They had all been so focused on the main course, making sure nothing was burnt or ruined beyond recognition that none of them had thought of pumpkin pie or... or anything! He grouses to himself as they all trudge back into the living room, full and sleepy and somewhat disenheartened at the lack of the exclamation point on the holiday meal. "What do we do? Most grocery stores will be closed but maybe I could find something, somewhere- do we just want to buy a store-made pie, and...?" They all look pretty disgusted at the thought, nothing being able to beat homemade, but there's nothing to be done for it. "What kind of pies do we want? If I leave, like, now, I might be able to get something..." He doubts it, considering how busy the store had been last night, but he can try.
They're bickering back and forth- all agree on pumpkin, but a possible second leaves them all stumped, some wanting apple and others wanting non-fruit pies- when there's a knock at the door and Ricardo gratefully excuses himself from the madness, opening the door. It takes a few moments for Mike to realize he's not coming back after running off whoever might be at the door and, suddenly worried at the silence coming from the hall, he leaves the arguing behind too and goes to see what he's up to. His breath seizes when he finds him kneeling on the stoop but, thankfully, he seems ok... if a little breathless and a lot sad, staring down at a pile of things before him.
It doesn't click with Mike until he sees the blue shirt and dark pants cushioning the pie pans and he realizes, hurting suddenly for the younger man. He once again holds a hand out, waiting patiently until the ring announcer notices and takes it, this time letting Mike pull him up. He smiles warily before patting Ricardo gently between his shoulderblades, leaning over to scoop up the pies and take them inside, give the younger man a moment to collect himself. "Hey, guys, dessert's here!" As confused babble from his friends greet him, he can hear Ricardo shuffling behind him on the porch, his sensitive ears picking up when he wishes the darkness a Happy Thanksgiving, Mike's heart hurting all the more for him.
"Where did this come from?" John asks in incredulousness as he stares down at the two kinds of pie- pumpkin and apple, causing some of them to grumble beneath the relief at actually having what appears to be homemade dessert after all.
Mike smiles as Ricardo joins them still, clinging to the clothes. He realizes as a look of recognition crosses Alex's face, but none of them say anything when Ricardo finally speaks, "A friend with impeccable timing, as always," he says lowly, staring at the pies with a dazed look in his eyes. The Awesome One reaches over and squeezes his shoulder with a comforting look on his face, unsurprised when he doesn't let go of the clothes for most of the evening, a distant look in his eyes.
They sit around and watch more weird holiday movies until finally all of them feel hungry again to give the pies a go, the desserts tasting as good as they'd looked. Which, Mike figures, was a given anyway, considering Sofia had to be the one who cooked them. Guess it worked out fine that we forgot dessert after all. He squeezes AJ's hand and smiles over at her, loving how well their first major holiday together has gone. "I love you," he whispers to her. She grins and repeats the sentiment to him, eyes gleaming in the soft overhead light.
Once they finish eating again, they all take their places in the living room, now definitely sleepy and full to the point of not being able to move for a long time to come. They all sit around the room, listening to the latest corny dialogue from another movie when Morrison whispers, "Is he alright?"
Mike looks up, realizing that he's talking about Ricardo, and squints closer at the younger man, finding that he had dozed off on the couch, still clinging to the clothes. He smiles painfully and nods. "Yeah, I think so. The pie and clothes came from Sofia and Del Rio."
"I suspected, but didn't want to say anything in case I was wrong," John mutters. "He's not doing any better about all of that?"
Mike shrugs listlessly, not wanting to talk about it while the man's right there, asleep or not. "He has his good days and bad," he mutters finally. "You know how it goes."
"Yeah, I do," John says simply, clearly not intended to cause the surge of guilt that Mike feels as he looks over at his best friend. "But life has its ways of fixing things. Something tells me it will do that for this situation too."
"God, I hope so," Mike whispers, standing up and approaching Ricardo. He tries to take the clothes from him, not too surprised when the ring announcer refuses to relinquish them and snuggles closer to them, whispering Sofia's name. He suspects perhaps the ring announcer is holding onto them so determinedly because they smell like whatever fabric soap the housekeeper may use, the smell reminding him of his former home, when he was happier, life was simpler. "It's ok, man, we'll find you a blanket and you can sleep here for awhile."
Alex wanders off to do that immediately and Mike smiles down at the ring announcer, hoping that Morrison will be proven right in the end. He wants nothing more than for Ricardo to find the peace with his situation that he and John had eventually found with theirs.
"You should come with, Ricardo," Alex says, grinning at his roommate early the next morning as he prepares to leave for Superstars. "Del Rio won't be there probably, because he competed on Main Event, and they're having some post-Thanksgiving party... you can come and see some familiar faces, have some fun. What do you say?"
Mike listens to them with a small smile, not needed at this particular episode of Smackdown. He has some interviews and such to do, and so had been graciously granted the night off. "Go for it, man. It sounds like fun. As much fun as any holiday themed episode ever can be."
Finally the ring announcer agrees and he watches from the door as they, AJ and Tamina all leave for the airport, the girls also wanting to see what's up with this party. Once they're gone, he slowly turns to face Morrison and smiles somberly as he watches him pack up his things. "So I guess you're leaving me too to rot in this big, empty apartment."
John makes a face at him and rolls his eyes. "You said it yourself, you have interviews to do today... and I've abandoned many of my projects for much too long. I'm sure you can entertain yourself until those four return from Smackdown."
"I suppose, if I must," he sighs blusterily, finally walking forward and snagging John in a hug. "It was good to see you, man. Doing it again for Christmas, right?"
"Hell, yeah, though maybe this time it can be held in California," he says with a smirk. "I might start to think you're going to abandon me and move here to Florida."
"If I remember correctly, someone did tease checking Florida out when they were first released by WWE," Mike volleys back, almost immediately regretting bringing up those memories. "Sorry-"
"No, it's fine. Don't worry," John grins at him. "I'm better about it now. Not great, but better. Come on, drive me to the airport to make it up to me."
"Why do I have to do that if you're better?" he snarks back, already searching for keys to Alex's car left for them to drive wherever.
Between phone interviews, he's able to watch Smackdown that night and catch only glimpses of Ricardo and AJ both, unsurprised when Vickie Guerrero kicks his girlfriend out of the party, threatening her if she doesn't comply. Thankfully it seems at least Ricardo is having fun at this thing...
Raw feels weird from the start. Mike can't tell if it's due to tension from the upcoming title unification, or what, but he sits and watches from AJ's locker room as the girl loses in a six divas tag match to the Bellas and Natalya, Mike as confused as everyone else when AJ seems unaffected by it all, skipping away seconds later as if it hadn't happened. He continues to be worried when she leans in and kisses him upon return, Tamina huffing as she walks away, beyond understanding what's going on with the champion now.
Quickly needing a break from her odd attitude, he kisses her softly and leaves the locker room, wandering around until he catches sight of Sin Cara competing against Del Rio. This hadn't ended well for him the last time they'd been in the ring together, the match ending early being the opening that Ricardo had needed to introduce RVD, but this time it ends much, much differently- Sin Cara senton bombs him off of the top rope and... pins him, just as easy as that. Mike isn't sure whether to laugh or pinch himself, watching on in disbelief as Alberto is only shown for a split second on the shadowy apron, looking disgusted and near tears again.
He thinks this all is clearly the main reason why, when Kofi Kingston approaches him, annoyed because they'd been placed in a tag match against Ryback and Axel, Mike finds himself holding his hand out to the man who'd been so annoying the past couple of weeks. "Let's put all of this crap from the past couple of weeks behind us and work together tonight, then. Bygones be bygones?"
He's not sure what Kofi's excuse is, but he meets him halfway and they shake hands, keeping a close eye on the other as they go to prepare for the match. Which, in the end, doesn't go well at all. Kofi ducks, allowing Ryback to punch Mike off of the apron by mistake and that's all it takes for Ryback to take advantage and win the match, Mike immediately regretting extending the olive branch as he'd done. Re-entering the ring, he helps Kofi to stand... just to slap him solidly across the face before leaving, watching him demand answers, visibly confused, from the ramp as he backs away, heading backstage to once more deal with his off-balance girlfriend and whatever else may come from this evening.
Thanksgiving had been a nice, peaceful reprieve for the most part, but he gets the feeling things are only going to get even more complicated and stranger from here...