"I swear," Mike says, lifting a few shirts out of his luggage and shaking it. "I'm still finding sand in places sand should not be."
AJ laughs at him, running her fingers through her freshly showered hair. "Sara and George did have fun with the beach, huh?"
"Yeah," Mike sighs, dropping down on the bed and turning to watch as AJ prepares for bed. "Do you think I should take Sara to The Little Mermaid when it comes out in theaters? She's still going through a mermaid phrase, right?"
AJ smiles at him through the mirror. "She'd love that, yeah. You should. It should have advance times on Thursday afternoon, that could work with your travel schedule, right?"
"I'll make it work," Mike says, dumping his luggage back into the closet, giving up on clearing out the sand for now. Walking over to the mirror, he wraps his arms around AJ and looks at their reflection.
"Give me some time in the morning and I'll see what I can do to salvage your stuff," AJ tells him, resting her hand on his.
"Thank you," he says, tilting her face up gently to kiss her. "What would I do without you?"
She smiles. "Suffer, I suppose." Standing up, she pushes him lightly away from the mirror and guides him towards bed. "So, sleep?"
"I have better ideas," Mike muses, resting his hands on her sides and pulling her close. "What do you say?"
She giggles. "I say yes please," she says, leaning into his warmth.
"Hell yeah," Mike says with a wide grin.
-x
First full day on Raw post-draft. Mike keeps an eye out for Shinsuke, not surprised when he doesn't see him until mid-way through the show. Still not entirely discouraged after everything, he keeps trying to convince the man about Shinsuke partnering with him. After all, he had gotten along well with Asuka during Mixed Match Challenge, and he doesn't think this would be much different. Both of them being eclectic and a bit of a language barrier, he'd be well-accustomed to it.
Shinsuke still doesn't seem too into it, and instead twists it around into challenging Mike to a match for the next week. Far from what Mike wants, but unable to get out of it now, he reluctantly accepts it and stares off into the distance. As if losing the triple threat match that could've been his best opportunity to get his hands on the new world title, now this.
He sighs and shakes his head, dropping down to sit on a bench outside of the locker room. "Whatever," he mumbles. "I'll make it work one way or another. The title, Shinsuke. I'm far from ready to give up on either thing yet."
The post-draft advantage won't leave him behind, he won't let it.