Neville looks in awe when he arrives on Thursday. Mike smirks at him as he takes in the massive house, the growing number of people scattered in the living room and kitchen, some helping Sofia, some just relaxing in front of Alberto's obnoxiously sized TV. "Well, look who decided to take me up on my offer," Mike says simply, handing him a bottle of water and leading the way into the living room. "You're my guest, you don't have to do anything. Just sit, get to know the group. I'll be back in a minute." He leans over to kiss his wife before ducking into the kitchen.
Alex and Alicia are sitting, cracking eggs and laughing as they try not to tear them up for the devilled eggs. "How's it going in there?" Alex asks once he catches his former mentor's eye.
"Not bad," Mike shrugs. "Neville just arrived."
Alicia looks up as Alex smirks. "Should I go give him the same warning I gave Sandow when he became your protege?"
Mike glares at Alex, arms crossing over his chest. "No? Not unless I give you coal for Christmas and keep your gift."
Alex stops to think this over. After a moment, he ducks back over the eggs and falls quiet, Alicia grinning up at Mike as she returns to work too. Smug, the most must see superstar returns to the living room and settles in next to his wife, resting a warm arm over her shoulders as they return to watching Santa's Little Helper for the third or fourth time this season so far. AJ rests her head on his shoulder and hums as Paige appears on the screen for the first time, light applause for her making her focus on what's going on around her.
She smiles at them and bows before turning back to her phone, AJ and Mike exchanging worried glances, Alberto also looking troubled when Mike peers over at him. Ricardo's absence is hard on all of them, but none as hard as it is for Paige. It doesn't surprise any of them when Paige excuses herself, disappearing into Ricardo's room, adding to their worry, but Memo arrives then and they welcome him, Alberto's brother quickly settling into watching the movie as well.
Mike looks around the room, at his closest friends- his family- all enjoying the movie, and smiles. As much as he likes Sofia's cooking, and the gifts, and time off, and everything else, this is the best part. Being surrounded by his best friends and just laughing at a silly movie. Glancing over at Neville, he nudges him with his boot. "Isn't so bad, is it?"
Neville's brows furrow. He shrugs noncommittedly. "Not so far," he mumbles, looking around the dimly lit room at the group of people.
Mike nods. He's not sure if it'll be enough to convince Neville that he only has his best interest at heart, but either way. Best he can do is try.
Christmas Day is similar to Christmas Eve, just with gifts and a very distant, sad looking Paige sitting across from Mike, barely catching any of their eyes. She does stay with them until late, opening gifts and smiling now and again at his, John and Alex's ridiculousness, but she mostly keeps to herself. She gets up now and again to help pass out gifts and Mike leans closer to AJ, whispering to her. "Is she ok?" AJ subtly shakes her head and Mike grimaces, turning his attention back to the growing pile of gifts between them. Most of the group had added baby gifts, and they're somewhat overwhelmed with it all.
When AJ sputters at a pile of baby clothes from Alicia, she chuckles and leans over to hug and kiss AJ, then Mike. "Don't complain, just be glad. It's your last Christmas with just the two of you, so of course we were going to pamper you both."
Mike gapes at the huge infinity scarf she'd gifted him and shakes his head, hugging Alicia back. "Thank you, I'll make sure to wear it on Raw."
She laughs enthusiastically. "You'd better, I want to see it."
"So do I," Del Rio mumbles from where he's sitting next to Memo, his own pile of gifts forming in his lap.
As soon as they're done and the bulk of the wrapping paper, ribbons and everything else are pushed to the corner, Sofia stands and stares at them all. "I have one final present," she says softly, pulling out a laptop and settling it in front of Paige, pressing a button. She gasps, tears filling her eyes, as she stares into the face of a patiently waiting Ricardo. "Hola, mi hijo," she greets him, kneeling down next to the chair.
"Hola, Sofia, hola Paige," he says softly, his eyes locked on her face. She's clearly struggling to regain control of her emotions as the others crowd the laptop, leaning against the chair and waving into the laptop webcam ridiculously. "Hola, everyone," he says, his eyes lighting up. "Feliz Navidad!"
"Feliz Navidad, mi hermano," Alberto chimes in, smiling down at the screen, the others chorusing in with their own Merry Christmases or Feliz Navidads.
When AJ joins them, Paige stands up and lets her have the chair, the group chuckling a little bit when Ricardo gets his first glimpse of her, his eyes widening. "Whoa. How far along are you again?"
"Seven months," she says, a dangerous expression on her face. "What, are you saying I'm looking huge?"
"No, no!" he insists, ignoring the half-panicked, half-amused looks on the faces of those behind AJ. "You look great, it's just... I've been so busy, I forgot how much time has gone by since I last saw you." He hesitates, doing some quick math. "I'm not returning home until mid-March, so I'm probably going to miss her big arrival, and I'm sorry for that. I want pictures and everything else when the time comes."
AJ's eyes fill with tears as she nods. "Of course, Uncle Ricardo."
He beams at this title, his eyes flickering from side to side of the screen, trying to see the others. "So how's the daddy to be doing?"
Mike leans in and rests his face against AJ's, beaming at the ring announcer. "I'm doing alright. A little nervous, but you know, we're going to be ok. Miss you like hell though, man."
Ricardo's smile grows sad. "I miss you all too. But at least now we have a date of return, hm? March 15th."
"We'll be counting down the days, mi hijo," Sofia tells him softly, the group of them clustering closer together to show him their gifts, and tell him about the food, and just generally talk to him.
Neville is the only one to hang back, taking it all in with a weird look on his face. Mike, once he notices, backs up and joins him. "Something on your mind?"
Neville shuffles on his feet, runs his hands through his hair before looking over at Mike. "You all really are like a family, aren't you?"
Mike tilts his head, looks back at the group as Alicia giggles through a story about Alex's first day back at the performance center. "Of course we are," he says. "You could be a part of all of this too if you wanted. I do tend to offer more than just connections and career advice. Just ask Sandow, before he threw it all away. He was at last year's Christmas." Leaving Neville to mull this all over, Mike rejoins his wife and friends and resumes talking to Ricardo about anything and everything.
Alberto, Mike, Alicia, Tamina, Neville and Paige have to leave early on Saturday for the start of WWE's annual holiday tour. He leans over and kisses AJ gently, adjusting her so she's laying more comfortably, her body braced on some pillows and the sheets wrapped snugly around her. "I'll see you before New Years, sweetheart," he whispers to her, kissing her again before grabbing his bag and leaving. AJ's staying at Alberto's, the two of them flying home on January 3rd, giving Mike just enough time to ensure she's settled before he has to leave for the next week's Raw. Leaving her is getting worse and worse as her due date inches closer and he's not sure how the other wrestlers with family have managed it without completely losing their minds.
Shaking his head in an attempt to clear it of these thoughts, he sighs and slides into Alberto's car, glancing over to find the others crammed into the backseat- Neville lost somewhere between Alicia and Tamina. He coughs and laughs into his fist before glancing over at Alberto, who is also smirking. Initiation into the group... well, there's worse things, he thinks, glancing back once more in time to see Alicia playing with Neville's ears. Oh my God...
Raw sees him hosting another MizTV segment, to advertise the Rumble coming up. He had seen Neville get decimated earlier and, although it had bugged him, he'd sat back and allowed it. Since Christmas, Neville had gone back to ignoring him, probably pouting about the backseat thing, and Mike had decided that it's up to Neville now. If he wants to work together, great. If not, well. Mike had tried.
As soon as Big Show hits the ring, Mike bails and leaves the others to get waylaid by his former tag partner, lingering around ringside before Big Show announces he's going to be in the Rumble. "Oh, yay," he sighs, losing even more hope at having a good show in the Rumble. Trudging backstage, he calls AJ. "I'll be at Alberto's as soon as I can tomorrow, sweetheart," he promises. "Have a good night's sleep. I love you."
She sounds sleepy, which she always does at this hour, and makes him smile as she whispers, "Love you too, husband," before hanging up.
He turns to find Paige staring at him with a strangely blank look in her eye. "Come on," he says, reaching out for her. "Let's go to the hotel... and if you want to talk to me, you know I'm here to listen."
She nods blankly and allows him to guide her out of the arena, to the car. "Thank you, Mike," she murmurs. "I don't think I would've gotten through all of this without you."
"That's what friends do, right?" He squeezes her arm and slowly gets behind the wheel, easing the car back onto the road leading to the hotel. He's not sure what's going on with her, entirely, just that something had happened at Christmas to escalate her losing it, and he hopes that either she'll talk to AJ, who seems to know more than he does, or will confide in him eventually. Until then, he decides, I'll just have to keep an even closer eye on her...