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Will took a sip of his beer and leaned back, settling comfortably in his seat.
“Is it any good?”
Swerve was sitting across the little table, his own beer in hand. It was a beautiful spring day and the two of them decided to grab a lunch together and talk. Swerve knew a cozy little burger place that had a nice garden where they could take in the sun as they waited for their food to arrive. It’s been a long time since they had a moment of peace like that.
Will considered the beer in front of him. It was an IPA, one of those fancy craft beers from boutique breweries ran by bearded men with an affinity for flannel. Definitely on the expensive side, but, as he thought with no small amount of gratefulness, that wasn’t a problem for either of them anymore.
“ Quite good,” he concluded. “Thanks for showing me this place.”
Swerve nodded, self-satisfied. “I know the owner, a really cool guy,” he said. “Thought you’d appreciate a...” He hesitated. “Friendly hangout.”
Will chuckled. “Do I really come off this lonely?”
Swerve elected not to answer.
“Okay, maybe.” Will sighed. “It’s been a rough few months.”
“You were tagging with Omega.”
“Yeah.”
“Even though you were yapping my ear off last year about how much you hated him.”
Will grimaced. “God, this sounds so bad, but I swear, now that he’s not with Don anymore he’s actually pretty nice.”
Swerve nodded. “Seems to like his cat more than you, though.”
Will buried his face in his hands. “To be one hundred percent fair-” he said, voice muffled, “-I did kind of stab him that one time.”
“In my experience, that’s the sort of shit that brings people together.”
Will immediately raised his head. “That’s because you’re a fucking weirdo,” he said, pointing an accusing finger at Swerve. “You get all misty-eyed when you talk about how you and your cowboy tried to kill each other!”
“Hey!” Swerve protested. “He’s not my cowboy.”
Will raised an eyebrow. “Sure.”
Swerve rolled his eyes. “Look, we have something special, but-” He shook his head. “Okay, fine, he is my cowboy. How about we talk about your not-so-little buddy Fletcher?”
“He’s- he’s not my-” Will sighed. The problem was that Kyle was always Mark’s tag team partner first. That didn’t mean that they excluded Will in any way whatsoever, but it’s always been Kyle and Mark hanging out with Will. Then Davis had to stay at home and deal with his injuries, and made Will promise to look after Kyle in his absence. It was a ridiculous thought, Kyle was taller than both of them and far more grown than the 19 year old Will first met, by all means his own man. And then he spiraled, and Will saw it too late to fix anything.
“ He was never mine, least of all now,” Will said bitterly. “He belongs to Don Callis now.”
“That must be rough,” Swerve said unhelpfully. “But why turn to Omega for help?” He fidgeted with the zipper on his jacket. “Am almost offended you didn’t think to ask me first.”
“Mate,” Will said. “You and Ricochet were trying to kill each other.”
Swerve opened his mouth to speak but got silenced by Will’s hand. “There was blood everywhere,” Will hissed. “You two kept shanking each other with scissors, I was afraid of coming close and getting stabbed myself!”
“Well,” Swerve said. He looked around for a few seconds, searching for words. “Oh, look! It’s our burgers!”
True to his word, the waiter came to their table carrying their orders. He looked blissfully ignorant to the conversation he just interrupted. They dug in, deciding not to sour their meal with hard conversations.
“ So, just to be clear, you avoided asking me because of my thing with Ricochet?” Swerve asked.
“Yes,” Will replied. “The things you two were doing looked like a horror movie.”
“But it was fine,” Swerve said, “I was having fun!”
“Here’s the difference between you and me,” Will said. “You need someone hating your guts at all times while I much prefer a friend having my back.”
“ Don’t try to psychoanalyze me.”
Will quirked up an eyebrow. “I don’t have to analyze much to see that, bruv. I mean-” Will threw his hands up. “You even tried to threaten my family last year!”
Swerve gave him a bright smile. “Sorry about that,” he said unapologetically. “It did light a fire under your ass, though, so maybe you should be thankful.”
“ Really,” Will said, unconvinced. He thought of staring at his friend in the ring, knowing fully well that he was capable of driving a man to madness. He knew Swerve enough to be fully aware of how much fun the man got out of toying with someone and shuddered at the thought of being on the receiving end. They were good friends, and he knew that Swerve was giving him both an invitation and a warning before turning his life upside down. Will took the warning and firmly backed off with the provocations. Not that it helped in the end, although- “I had you beat, by the way.”
“But I still won.”
Will narrowed his eyes at Swerve, who was grinning at him across the table, looking infuriatingly smug. “I hope you win at Dynasty so I can take your title at All In,” he finally said. “Both to avenge my loss and because you need a good beating.”
They glared at each other for a few seconds before bursting into laughter. “Oh God,” Will said, catching his breath, “You’re doing it again, you cheeky cunt.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Swerve said seriously before dissolving in giggles.
“By the way,” Swerve said after they calmed down, “You’re welcome for Connors.”
“Oh?” Will perked up. “Oh, you mean at Collision-”
“I beat his ass extra hard for you,” Swerve said.
“I thought you did that because he kinda looks like another cowboy-”
Swerve groaned. “Please not again.”
“You know, you pinning -”
“My God.”
Will raised his hands defensively. “I’m just saying it looked a lot like you were having a hate rebound.”
“ I’m never doing you a favor again,” Swerve grumbled. “I try to do a nice thing and all I get is attacked for it-”
“ Thank you so much,” Will said dramatically, “For your generous actions that had absolutely no other motivation than complete altruism.”
Swerve chuckled, shaking his head. “You’re welcome.” He sobered up. “Though, man, you gotta be fucked up right now.”
“From what?” Will laughed, a hysterical edge to it. “ That cage match, the other cage match, the fall of United Empire, the other fall of United Empire, the failure to win any title whatsoever or any other of the things that have been happening recently?”
S werve snorted. “You tell me.”
“Yeah.” Will let his head hang low. “You know how badly things went for me on my way out of Japan, right?”
“Do you want me to recap it for you?”
“Dear God, no.” Will looked to the side, uncomfortable with the eye contact. “I thought I could fix things in America,” he slowly said. “That I could rebuild the Empire here with Aussie Open.”
Swerve nodded in understanding. “And then things went to shit even worse than before.”
“ Something like that.”
“It is almost like fate, though,” Swerve mused. “That all of this would lead you to Omega.”
Will scoffed. “What fate?”
Swerve gave him a pointed look. “Don’t pretend you don’t see how similar you two are. You’re even both total fucking nerds.”
“You’re just mad that you can’t get sponsored by Mass Effect.”
“Fuck off. Also, you’re deflecting.”
Will chucked his napkin at Swerve. “Shut up, you’re not my therapist.”
Swerve caught the napkin and threw it back at Will. “Yeah, but I’m nosy. Why the change of heart?”
“Well-” Will contemplated how much more he wanted to embarrass himself in front of Swerve. “Despite our differences-”
Swerve snorted and Will glared at him.
“Despite our differences, I knew that we had a common enemy,” he said. “And he was the strongest ally I could ever get. Even if we hated each other.”
“That’s all?”
Will stared at the crumbs on the plate before him. “I also sort of...” He sighed. “Look up to him,” he finally said, very quietly.
Swerve nodded carefully. “That makes a lot of sense,” he said. Still, the urge to prod stayed. “And it probably feels good to finally have his approval too.”
Will shot him a look of warning. “Don’t make this into some sort of daddy issues-”
“Is that what you’re calling him?”
“No!”
The waitstaff and other guests turned around and stared at them. Will covered his mouth and gave them an awkward thumbs up. Swerve snickered.
“Sorry,” he said, a too-wide grin on his face.
“You’re uncorrigible.” Will shook his head, but couldn’t help smiling himself.
“But seriously,” Swerve spoke up, a concerned look on his face. “You already saw what Omega can do to you. Don’t get burned.”
Will nodded. “I know,” he said. “I probably already gave him too much.” He cringed, thinking about the lead-up to the match in Australia. And the match. “I just can’t help myself,” he confessed. “We were both getting beaten down and he’s fresh off a serious illness and-”
“Will.”
Will closed his mouth with a click.
Swerve leaned over the table to put a hand on his shoulder. “You know he’s in only for himself,” he said gently. “He’s the same person he’s always been. Don’t delude yourself into thinking you matter to him, he doesn’t care about anyone that’s not Ibushi.” He ruffled Will’s hair affectionately. “And that bastard’s got no idea what he’s missing out on, if you ask me.”
Will smiled weakly. “Thanks.”
Swerve nodded and got up. He pulled a few bills and put them on the table. Will couldn’t see exactly how much it was, but it was very blatantly a lot more than what they owed. “My treat,” Swerve said. “Gotta stay in your good graces after grilling you so much,” he added and gave Will a toothy grin.
Will returned the smile. “Afraid of me?”
“Only in your dreams.”