"I kind of can't believe this," John says quietly, sitting with Mike in the backyard and watching Sara run around, playing cheerfully. They both laugh when she starts chasing a butterfly. "I've been gone for so long, to have it be Royal Rumble time already... wow."
Mike's brows furrow as he glances over at his best friend. "You know, I've kind of been thinking about that. Why didn't you just hold off a few weeks and make your triumphant return at the Rumble? Like, just be a surprise entrant and drown in the crowd's reaction. It would've been kind of badass."
John sits in silence for a few moments, then his lips twitch up into a lopsided grin. "Well, that should be kind of obvious, I thought, Mike." He nudges him, exhaling softly. "You needed me."
Mike blinks at him a few moments and then releases a faint, shocked kind of laugh. "I... I guess you're not wrong," he admits softly, remembering the days following his loss to The Fiend, how it had felt to be unable to keep his family safe from the man's shenanigans. How he had been drowning in his own self-hatred and disgust. John being in his locker room that night had been the lifeline he'd desperately needed and hadn't even realized until now. "Thank you."
John winks at him and then stands up, dusting his hands off on his jeans briskly. "Hey, Sara, think if I hid, you could find me?"
Mike laughs softly as his daughter cheers and runs up to John, eagerly hugging his leg, staring up at him adoringly. "Yes! Yes!" she exclaims, and he breathes out, relieved that she at least doesn't hold his failures against him. Yet.
"So what are the plans?" Mike asks come Friday, leaning closer to John and just taking it all in for a minute. All of this, getting to travel with the man, and indulging in his more creative, odd ideas, the path his brain takes to reach its conclusion, has always enticed Mike. He's more straightforward and goal oriented while John's out there to explore and experience, and the very different ways they handle things have always gelled quite well together.
"We continue to demoralize New Day," John says with a small grin. "You defeated Kofi last week, I handled Big E, now it's time to see what I can get out of Kingston." He picks at some greens he'd grabbed from catering and mulls it over. "If we've individually beaten both tag team champions, then you and I both know what comes after that."
"Tag team dominance," Mike responds after a minute.
"Hell yeah," John says, clapping Mike on the shoulder. "Sounds damn good to me."
"Me too," Mike says with a faint laugh. They sit in silence for a few moments, and then Mike says quietly, "I've really missed you, John."
John looks over at him, eyes warm and twinkling. "I've missed you too, Mike."
John defeating Kofi that evening is dampened somewhat by weak showings by both of them in the Royal Rumble, but both cling desperately to the fact that John was defeated by the world champion and Mike was eliminated by the eventual winner. It's poor comfort, but it's all they've got right now, both men returning their focus onto the tag titles that they haven't held together in so, so very long.