Beach day. As good a way to spend his rare day off as any. Mike, AJ, Morrison and Taya all meet up outside of John's old apartment complex and Sara immediately flails and reaches out for John, AJ laughing a little as she hands the little girl over to him. He makes faces at her and bounces her on his hip with every step as they follow AJ and Mike to a clear spot where they set up for a few hours. "Better watch it," Mike teases them. "Keep this up and you both will want to have one like yesterday." He chuffs Sara under the chin and she blinks up at him, lips parted as he laughs softly at her.
"Oh there's plenty of time for that, I think we're ok as we are right now," Taya says with a small smile. "Prince Presley is enough for us at the moment. Isn't that right?"
"Yep, babe," Mundo says, hand lazily sprawled over her shoulders, rubbing sun block all over Sara's fair skin with his other, completely at ease with everything around him.
"You don't seem too concerned about your title match Sunday," Mike says, quirking an eyebrow as John's face darkens just a little.
"Aries is all talk, that's all," John says after a moment. "He's only tough when there's space between us, or he's insulting things he'll never understand or be a part of." He kisses Taya's shoulder and she smiles over at him, patting his face. "I'm not concerned because, one way or another, I'm walking about of Bound 4 Glory champion. There's just no other way for it to end."
Mike nods, recognizing his former partner's determination all too well. "Then I guess I'll just say congratulations now and save myself a phone call when the time actually comes."
"Ha-ha," John responds dryly. "But yeah, thank you." He smirks, adjusting the sunglasses on his face before leaning back and sighing blissfully. "This was a pretty good idea, Mike. Thanks for inviting us along."
"I do have a lot of those," he says with a smirk. "And you're welcome. Figured we could all use a break from reality and social media for awhile." Their phones are all in a pile in the bottom of AJ's purse, which is securely locked in the glove compartment of Mike's vehicle.
John sighs. "Yeah, that is definitely true," he mumbles, Taya leaning against his shoulder while AJ takes Sara's hand and follows her towards the water, Sara content to just sit in the sand and get her feet wet, swimming still just a little too daunting sometimes.
They spend the evening relaxing, and eating sandwiches and potato chips, laughing as Sara smears ice cream all over her face as the sun sets. Mike and John race a few times, John beating him handily every time, even when Mike tries to cheat and claim a foot injury that John sees right through. AJ and Taya alternate between swimming and playing with Sara, who eventually gets brave enough to be held in the water, waving her arms around and kicking her feet as she swims just a bit, the waves brushing against her and making her splash even more enthusiastically.
Once she dozes off, they return home quietly, the four of them sitting on the patio in the dark and enjoying a drink- soda for AJ, something a little stronger for the rest of them- and Mike sighs, his eyes glinting in the soft light coming from the house. "I know we're all really busy people," he says, tilting his drink towards the others, "but I hope we can do this again soon."
"Hear hear," John says, clinking their glasses together. Taya and AJ murmur agreements, completing the toast as their four drinks tap against each other in uneven noises of glass against aluminum.
-x
Smackdown feels like the turn around Mike needs. There's a vibe in the air he likes, with a lot of old, familiar faces. This leads into him wrestling Rusev for an opportunity in the World Cup tournament. And he wins, thanks to one Aiden English. As he rushes out of the ringside area, he leaps up and high fives Aiden, who's standing on the ramp, staring up at Rusev with his arms outstretched towards the ceiling, like "Now what?" Mike figures it won't end well for him but he's so excited that he's one step closer to a world title opportunity that he leaves it all behind and calls AJ, just wanting to hear her voice as he comes down from this abrupt, amazing victory.
He'd been feeling very low after losing to Daniel, so this is nice. This is great. He's just about to go to the ring for his and Asuka's next Mixed Match Challenge chance- ironically enough against Rusev and Lana, when Aiden stops outside of his locker room. "I have an idea for you," he says. He's standing awkwardly, almost bowed in on himself and Mike can only imagine what Lana and Rusev did to him once Mike was gone and not paying attention anymore.
Shrugging, Mike puts his wrist tape down and gives the man his full attention. "Sure, what you got?"
Asuka seems just as thrilled as he is when they meet up later, rambling on in Japanese as they walk to gorilla together for their match. Things are going back and forth, starting to tip in Rusev and Lana's favor- especially after they tried to get Asuka and Mike to kiss, which absolutely not- so Mike goes for plan B. Snags the mic and focuses his breathing deep in his diaphragm like Aiden had taught him. Once he thinks he has it, he clears his throat loudly and watches with a smug smirk as Rusev turns sharply, expecting Aiden again. It sets things up nicely- and Mike defeats him for the second time in an hour. He laughs and holds Asuka's hand high as the married couple stumble away, disgusted and annoyed that that worked on them.
Once Mike and Asuka go backstage, they're long gone. Aiden is sitting on a trunk in the shadows just in view of gorilla and, as they approach him, he gingerly hops off and smiles at them. "Congratulations," he says. "Glad I can still help someone out."
Mike sighs, eyeing him. He looks lonely and, for a wild moment, Mike reflects on what had been revealed about Aiden lately- how desperate he was to get Rusev back on his side, the password that Lana had figured out to hack into his things (IHeartRusev) and the weak attempt at getting Lana to cheat on Rusev with him. It all adds up into a sad sort of picture for Mike and he extends a hand to the man, not surprised when he takes ahold like someone in desperate need of a lifeline, something to cling to while his life falls apart around him. "Well," he says, glancing over at Asuka, who is watching him quietly, "we definitely owe you one. What do you say we all go find something to eat? My treat."
Aiden hesitates, slowly easing his fingers from Mike's hand. "You wouldn't rather celebrate by yourselves? I mean, I really only did the absolute bear minimum here..."
"What you did was the deciding factor in our match, not to mention your help earlier, so yes, I'm sure," Mike says, casting a glance once more at Asuka. She doesn't seem to mind so he grins widely, teeth flashing. "Come on, let's go! I'm starving."
When he marches away to change clothes and locate some place good to eat at near 10 PM on a Tuesday evening, Asuka and Aiden follow after exchanging bemused looks.