Mike is quiet as they fly home, almost pensive. John lets him have his space for awhile, only speaking up when about an hour's passed with Mike lost in his head, looking out at the clouds as the sun sparkles enticingly in the distance. "Hey, man," he says softly, squeezing Mike's shoulder. "Mind sharing what's on your mind?"
Mike exhales shakily and turns to look at him. "It's been eight years," he says softly. John frowns a little and he explains, "Since we last really worked together. Do you think it'll... click like it did before? I mean..."
John tilts his head, glancing past Mike outside to the sky beyond. "Well, I mean, yeah. I do," he says. "I wouldn't have... I wouldn't have made coming to you my first move if I didn't." He closes his eyes and thinks for a minute before shrugging. "We both know teams who have split up, come back later and it wasn't the same as it was before, but they weren't really friends like you and I are. We have that benefit, I guess, where even when I was doing my own thing, we still spent time together, and remained really close friends. You know?"
"Yeah," Mike exhales with a faint laugh. "I guess most people wouldn't have had the person who injured them in their final match over to their house for meals almost weekly for years, huh?"
John smirks at him. "The ankle thing was my own fault, and you did the best you could to protect me in that match, we both know that, Mike."
"I wanna have you on MizTV," he blurts out after a few moments of thoughtful silence. "See... see how the crowd reacts to us." He taps his fingers against John's knuckles. "Alright?"
"Yeah, man," John agrees easily. "After all of these years, I finally get to be on the show you've made famous."
Mike laughs a little bit, ducking his head. "Yeah, I guess," he says. Shaking off his earlier funk, he exhales and starts digging around. "Hey, AJ sent me this picture of George-" And just like that, thanks to John's timely intervention, things between them ease back to normalcy and they talk and laugh obnoxiously through the rest of the flight.
They spend a little bit of time through the week discussing plans for MizTV, what John wants to talk about, maybe a match he could challenge for- the tag division, Mike thinks, won't know what hit it when they hit the ground running for real. Taya has a curious look on her face when she comes upon them talking, leaning in to kiss John before smiling at Mike and continuing on her way to see AJ and the babies. "How does she feel about all of this?" Mike wonders. "You back in WWE while she's still in TNA?"
"Oh," John says, looking up from the notes they'd been taking to keep their thoughts aligned. "I think she's ok with it. We worked together for so long in Lucha Underground, TNA was ok, but she's good with being her own person for awhile, not having her career dictated by mine."
Mike nods. "Well, that's good. Think she'll ever try to get in WWE?"
John shrugs. "Never say never, as the term goes. So I was thinking..."
They have a game plan long before Friday, and Mike stands at the curtain, breathing in and out. It's pretty straightforward, just go out and talk about his loss to Kofi, how John had surprised him afterwards, and-
John flips the script, with no warning. Mike's lost in thought about their plans, the long road it might take to get to the tag titles, and then. Then. John blames it all on the crowd, turning on Mike and leaving him to flounder despite all of his accomplishments and the things he's done over the years. Mike tries to protest, tries to hold onto the crowd's positive attitude, but the more John talks, the more he finds himself agreeing. The crowd is vapid, and dull, and had left him struggling for so long.
So he goes with it, especially when New Day interrupts, and it's with a lot of pride and a little trepidation that he accepts another match with Kofi. This time, he puts aside his focus on the crowd, instead turning his attention to his best friend standing in his corner at ringside for the first time in nearly a decade. He wins.
Breathless and a little in awe with how quickly everything worked out, Mike leans against the door to his locker room and laughs, looking over at John. "Amazing," he mumbles, shaking his head.
John smirks at him and lifts a shoulder. "Sorry I kind of sprung that on you, I was thinking about it for awhile and although I know we had other plans, I felt like streamlining it."
"Well, we definitely have the tag champ's attention now, I think," Mike says, standing straighter and smirking at John. "Thanks to you."
John winks at him. "Hey, after a few years away from the company, I've learned some new tricks."
"I see that," Mike sighs, finally breathing it in and accepting it as real.
His best friend's back.