AJ wakes up on Thursday morning to find her husband sitting quietly on the edge of the bed, staring at the shadowy wisps of the sunlight streaming in through the curtains. She squirms and sits up, wrapping her arms around him gently, resting her forehead against his neck and lightly kissing his shoulder. "What's wrong, Mike?"
He tilts his head to kiss her hands before sighing, leaning into her. "I'm just thinking about Main Event. Everything that might come of it." He had told her later on that night, in the dark of their hotel room, what had happened with Del Rio and, although she hadn't seemed bothered by it, Mike had definitely been concerned. Especially considering how quickly everything had happened with Ricardo the week before. Not that he and Del Rio are friends, far from it, but losing both men in a week... well. Her fingers brush his, finding that he's staring down at a familiar picture- one of the few that they had all been civilized long enough to actually take at the 4th of July, all of them smiling up at the screen, Alberto's arm loosely wrapped around Ricardo's shoulders as Sofia had smiled from between the two men attracting all of Mike's attention. He can't help the gnawing suspicion that, by the end of all of this, more likely than not a third of the people in this picture will be gone from the WWE, and it's a weird feeling that's already begun long ago, when all of the budget cuts started.
He swallows and kisses her warmly, sighing softly when she wraps her legs around his midsection from behind and just holds him in her arms, smiling against his lips. "It's gonna be ok," she tells him quietly. "No matter what happens... Both Del Rio and Ricardo, they'll bounce back. You always say how strong Ricardo is, I'm guessing Del Rio is too." She lightly tickles him, smiling when he gasps and squirms, not quite able to get away from her as she clings to him, knees squeezing against his torso.
"I guess," he grunts, finally pinning her against the bed by laying back on top of her, sighing as the warmth of her skin teases against his back. He rolls over and stares down at her. "You're beautiful."
She smiles up at him, running her fingers through his hair and pulling him down to her, kissing hiim once more.
But no matter how much time he spends with AJ, the news breaks anyway. Mike's just finished putting together some sandwiches for her, the two of them easily deciding to take advantage of having the next few days off by just lounging in bed and being lazy, when he idly checks his phone. There aren't a lot of notifications there, a couple tweets from Alex, a text from John about meeting up over the weekend while they're in LA, on and on, but then he sees it, and he places the plate down heavily, sighing. "I knew it," he grumbles, staring at the words blankly. He shakes himself out of his heavy thoughts before carrying the food back to the bedroom, settling it next to AJ with a couple of sodas, before holding the phone out to her.
She takes it and reads it solemnly before looking up at him, blinking slowly. "Mike..." As he sits down next to her, she lightly kisses him. "I'm sorry."
He shrugs. "I tried to warn him." But, despite his disinterested attitude, when he tries to eat, everything that touches his tongue tastes like cardboard, even the sugary soda. AJ tsks when he stops halfway through his second sandwich, usually able to easily toss back three of them in five minutes, stroking his hair and whispering to him soothingly before she kisses him.
He just can't help but wonder what else may happen for the rest of the year...
Because of this, Smackdown is a quiet, blank affair. None of the group are on the show outside of Paige, who defeats Natalya while they watch it on TV, and AJ rolls her eyes, resting her head against Mike's chest, listening to his heartbeat, strong and steady against her ear. "Hey, Mike?"
"Mm hmm?" he asks, half-asleep.
"Do you want to invite Del Rio and Ricardo to LA Summerslam weekend? I mean we're all gonna be there anyway, what's two more?"
Mike stares at the top of her head, remembering the year before, and smiles. "You are amazing, AJ."
She sits up and straddles him, nuzzling down his throat to his chest. "About time you admit that, Mike."
He opens his mouth to prove her statement wrong when she drowns his words with another all-encompassing kiss that quickly shuts him up.
-x
Mike's Intercontinental championship locker room is empty again. He stares into it blankly and shakes his head, grimacing. I wonder if it's cursed somehow, he muses, quickly shutting the door on it and slipping back into his wife's locker room, brushing his hands down AJ's arms as she gets ready for her upcoming match against, of all people, Eva Marie. He sighs and kisses her, content to rest his face against her soft hair, watching her adjust her shirt just so. She catches his eye in the mirror and smiles, stroking his hands gently before standing and, with one last kiss, leaves him to compete. He settles in to watch and winces when she actually loses to Eva due to Paige reciting a poem of sorts to the divas champion in which she promises to regain her divas championship this Sunday.
Afterwards, Paige leaves and AJ turns her attention to a downed Eva. Mike's brows furrow when he realizes the diva's down on the ground for no reason that he could've seen- she'd won the match, rolled out of the ring, and had seemed fine... He shrugs cluelessly. Maybe she tripped over her own two feet after the cameras were off of her. His lips twitch into a smirk as he watches AJ beat the girl down, throwing her into the barricade wall by the hair, anger coming off of her in waves.
Once she returns, he strokes her hair and kisses her, trying to calm her anger at losing to Eva Marie of all people, but she only just relaxes in time for him to feel comfortable leaving to commentate Ziggler vs Slater. But it's worth it, just being out there and watching Ziggler lose to Heath- even if it is by count-out thanks to him, it clearly annoys Dolph and that's all he's ever wanted to do.
Mike smirks as soon as he escapes ringside safely and heads back to his wife's locker room, releasing a soft sigh as he is once more faced with just how quiet, how empty the locker rooms and hallways now feel. Alex is the only one, other than himself, left outside of the constantly arguing divas, and he's always busy with preshow analysis. Mike's never felt so alone in all of his years in the WWE. His grip tightens on his Intercontinental title as he grits his teeth and returns to AJ's side.