Mike peers down at the contracts before him. With Smackdown now piggybacking off of Raw's idea to have supershows, changes had been made to his Raw contract to include appearances as deemed neccessary at the blue brand. He shakes his head at the ludicrous idea- after years of announcing allegiance to one show or the other, the two locker rooms are supposed to mesh back together at the drop of a hat and act as if none of it had ever happened. How dense are the people in charge? he thinks with a grimace before shuffling the pages back together in something resembling order.
His dwelling is cut off as Truth enters the room, slapping him on the back on his way past. "You ready, man?" They have a tag match against Airboom that evening, the whole point to their being on Smackdown in the first place. He just hadn't expected the revised contracts to be issued to him and every other Raw superstar who entered the building that evening to sign with barely a moment to sit down and read through the new terms, much less contact a lawyer or manager who could help them to understand what some of the revisions might mean for their futures.
"Yeah," he finally nods, pushing the contract into his bag and zipping it up. "Let's go." They had been practicing a combination move for the past couple of weeks, trying it again and again until it looked as near as perfect as they could get it. Tonight, they agreed, was the time to actually use it in a match, and to their pleasure, it's a success as Kofi Kingston eats the move and then the three count. As they head backstage, Miz has forgotten about the whole contract nuisance earlier, feeling on a high after their victory and promos promising victory against Cena and the Rock. "We should totally get a tag title opprotunity after tonight."
"That's the truth," his tag partner comments, nodding his head wildly.
They're almost at the locker room when Mike looks over to find Morrison and Alex hanging off to the side, John rolling his eyes as he sips from a paper cup and Alex looking blankly on; neither man look thrilled. He waits until Truth is inside the locker room before turning to shrug at them as if to say What can you do? He knows that combination moves are further proof that their tag team isn't the short term thing he had originally hoped it would be, but with the WWE title locked up by Alberto Del Rio's issues with Punk, there isn't a lot else for Miz to do but cause drama for HHH and other higher ups he feels are conspiring against him, against who once had been WWE's most must-see champion.
His only comfort is that, in the brief minute he had had with the Smackdown General Manager spent signing the revised contract, Teddy had apparently taken his quickly murmured comment about Morrison's rib injuries seriously enough to look into them and not book the still healing man to a match that night. He just hopes that word doesn't trickle to John and give him something else to get agitated over, the combination move enough to have him up in arms for awhile. And he gets it, he does. They had made combination moves an artform themselves when tag champions years back... but he can't do anything to change the decisions he's made.
That Monday starts off with Rock faking everyone out by initially saying no... just to flipflop and ultimately agree to be Cena's partner at Survivor Series. Mike rolls his eyes with a huff. "Of course. He'd make a better politician than actor with that kind of decision making."
Truth's responding grin is sharp and only slightly worried. Mike, on the other hand, has no doubts about the match. He had beaten Cena in the past, and with Rock being out of the ring for seven years, he doesn't imagine it'd be too hard to find some ring rust to take advantage of. For this reason, he sits back and just watches as the muppets carry on with their thing. To his relief, Truth isn't in the room to see Morrison getting hit on by Miss Piggy, but Mike can't stop his exasperated laughter as Morrison escapes as quickly as can be, leaving Hornswoggle to deal with her.
He brushes his shirt off as he stands, making his way out of one locker room to head for the other. He's just turned the corner when John almost runs right into him, just barely sidestepping as Mike stops short, neither coming close to actually hitting each other because of their reflexes. "Oh, hey," John says after a moment of staring at him.
"Hey." Mike shifts from one foot to the other before looking over his shoulder to make sure Truth isn't in the vincinity. "Plans tonight, eh? You going trick or treating?"
Morrison shrugs. "Just wasn't interested, actually. But Alex and I are going to hang out for awhile before we leave."
"Oh." Feeling suddenly like the odd man out, Mike blinks and turns to stare down the hallway once more, needing a second to collect his thoughts. "Uh, sounds like a plan." He turns back to look John over, relieved to see that the slight bruising he had spotted last week were fully healed by now, no sign of what Mark had done to him a couple weeks ago remaining. He can't help but wonder if Teddy had discussed with John Laurinaitis what had been said, and if the temporary Raw GM was actually being decent about it to give John a few more days to recover further.
"I'm fine, Mike." John's lips twitch slightly as Miz flushes at getting caught, their eyes locking. "Just a little sore if I twist wrong... but not wrestling on Friday or tonight has helped." He looks a little annoyed at the prospect but eventually shrugs it off, a mischievous grin appearing on his face- one that Mike hadn't seen in a long, long time. "I have an idea. Wanna help me before your match?"
Relaxing that he hadn't fully been figured out, Mike nods. "Sure, if it doesn't take too long."
John smirks and pushes Mike back down the hallway towards the second locker room, hands heavy on his shoulders as he whispers his plans.
Despite Mike's loss and Truth's subsequential failure of an attack, he doesn't feel like staying in the hotel room with the angrily pacing man after Raw. "I need some quiet," he snaps, shutting the door behind him as he stomps to the elevator down the hall, a plastic bag in one hand. Of course, silence is the last thing I'm gonna get. But I'll take this loudness over that any day. The elevator seems to take forever on its way to the topmost floor of the hotel but finally it arrives and Mike pushes the staff entrance to the roof open, sucking in a deep gust of air as the late evening air brushes down his spine, leaving him shuddering. "Oh God, why did I agree to this?"
"Because you can't stay away from us for too long," John cracks, taking the bag for him long enough for him to shake his rolled up sleeves down to protect his arms from the chill slightly. "Better?"
"Yeah, yeah." He takes the bag back from John and shakes his head. "Alex isn't here yet?"
"No, said he wanted to get something from the room." He settles back down on the ground and peers up at the sky quietly.
Mike pulls a face but joins him, indulging the silence only briefly before nudging him. "You alright?"
"I told you, I'm fine." He stretches out slightly, his back curving as he leans on his elbows, the moon reflecting in his dark eyes. He glances over briefly and shrugs awkwardly. "It's no lie I'm not thrilled they passed me over for matches the last two events, but it has given my ribs some time to heal. I think Laurinaitis said something about a match on Superstars Thursday, though."
Mike hums slightly, giving himself a moment to think of something to say to that when the door finally opens behind them and they turn as one to greet Alex. Instead, they both fall short, staring as the taller man appears. "Seriously?"
"What the hell, Alex?" John sits up, glaring over at the younger man. "Not funny."
"Oh come on, it's a little funny," Alex says, pulling the Miss Piggy mask away from his face as Mike laughs.
"That's it, next year I'm getting a squirrel costume, see how you like it," he declares with a huff.
"Why wait till Halloween 2012?" Mike grins.
"Hey! Whose side are you on?" Alex demands.
"His own," "Mine, of course," John and Miz answer as one before glancing over at each other.
"Whatever." Alex sits down next to John with a huff.
"What has you all pouty?"
"I had a bunch of candy in my duffel but someone took it."
Mike and John grin knowingly at each other. "Oh? Any idea who?"
"No, but when I do, I'm gonna kick their ass. That stuff isn't cheap."
"Wouldn't it be funnier to just... I dunno, split it with them?" John asks, unable to keep the grin off his lips as Alex looks left to right at them.
"You didn't." He sits up. "You did! Alright... Where's the candy?"
Mike leans over and pulls the plastic sack out from behind a grate and drops it in Alex's lap. "Trick or treat."
"Ugh, I hate you both," he groans, ignoring their laughter as he digs into the candy. "Here," he mumbles, dropping bags into their laps.
"Since Morrison is watching his weight and all, I'll take his," Mike says, trying to reach around Alex to grab at the brightly colored plastic.
"Hell no! It's not like Mike needs it, I'll take-" he shuts up as Alex swats at both Mike and John.
"You're not putting me in the middle of this, literally. Eat your candy and stop bickering for, like, five minutes, huh?" he finally says, rolling his eyes.
"Fine, fine. Happy Halloween," Mike concedes.
"Happy Halloween," John and Alex echo once the sounds of them tearing into the bags has faded away.