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There were loads of things that frustrate The Miz. One particular thorn in his side has been a man-demon-vampire thing that is covered in grease paint. That thing in particular has been incredibly frustrating. Mike sat in his private locker room rubbing his head slowly. Kit wasn’t even here for Mike to do his usual complaining. Though, Mike felt rather bad at the idea of Kit just listening to him complain. Kit has always been incredibly patient with the older man, and Mike appreciated that though he never quite expressed it.
There was a light static feeling in the back of his mind as he sipped a bottle of water quietly. He couldn’t tell if a migraine was forming or not but it didn’t provide that painful feeling that typical headaches or migraines provided. There was a particular smooth piece of his suit that he kept rubbing between his fingers as he drifted into thought. Mike almost didn’t realize he was chewing onto the water bottle’s lid. Not like it was hurting anything, he just needed to do something with his mouth. The bottle cap turned like he was opening it with his teeth. He could already hear Kit tell him not to do it though, it can ruin his teeth or something.
He muttered over a fictional scenario and huffed. Even with Kit not being here he couldn’t do anything. Why wasn’t Kit here again? Oh right, some book thing out of state. That wasn’t fair, they rarely weren’t together these days. Mike was his mentor, sure, but Kit was also a really pleasant person to be around. Mike was incredibly fond of their chemistry and antics, though he found their nice little team being antagonized by a curse- God no he was NOT cursed, there was no curse!
The chair Mike sat in split and he dropped to the floor with a crash. Broken. He grunted but he didn’t even bother sitting up. He didn't move even as the bottle of water he had messed with earlier, the cap, undone and water all now all over his chest and pants. He was now wet. Of course. There was that fuzzy feeling again, but along with it was an ache in the center of his chest as Mike’s eyes stung. No, no, no, he wouldn’t do this right now. An attempt to sit up was made but nothing moved just Mike letting out a low whimper. Damn it.
Slowly, Mike turned to his side, his back and butt now hurting from dropping the way he did. It wasn’t as bad as it was in the ring but it still wasn’t pleasant. He made another whimper noise as he pushed himself up onto his arms and moved off the broken chair and kicked at it. Stupid chair. It was perfectly fine before. He knew why but that knowledge only upset him more. He kicked at the broken wood harder now.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid-” he mumbled with every hit before he tired himself out and hugged his knees. He sniffled. “Stupid.” He said again into his knees and then agitatedly began to tug at the wet parts of his suit the texture now was completely wrong. Everything felt uncoordinated as the buttons of his shirt seemed like it took forever to undo, the wet fabric making his skin crawl as he finally shoved his shirt off. Well, now he was cold. Stupid.
He sniffled again and this time, his throat tightened as he tried to breath. The ache in his chest was back, the static in his head slowly seeping through as he made a choked noise and covered his head like he was hiding. Kit says it’s okay for boys to cry. Unless you ever had a crowd of people cheer about how “you were crying” at one point. In which case Mike never wanted to cry ever again. This unfortunately was impossible, and as Kit would say “not good for you.” However, Kit was usually right with these things. So he gave in. Muffled whimpered noises into his hands as he felt the wet hot tears spill over. What was he even crying about? Mike didn’t know all he knew was he had ‘big feelings’ at this moment and-
His door opened.
“The Miz, are you in here? Danhausen wants to- ah- oh.”
Can nothing ever go my way? It was such a childish thought, but frankly, Mike was too upset to care. He couldn’t even yell. He just glared up to see the stupid grease-painted demon thing looking at him ultimately blinking.
“Your chair is broken.” Danhausen stated. As if Mike didn’t know. Mike didn’t respond, just kept sniffling and glaring. If he spoke, he just knew there would be no recovery. Danhausen looked awkward and Mike felt his neck heat up and he hugged his legs tighter. He was shirtless, he was cold, and his chair was broken. What a day.
Danhausen kicked the door close behind him and the other bent down and began to pick up the chair and went to settle it aside- and then made a grunt realizing there was also a puddle.
“You made a mess-”
“I didn't.” He suddenly croaked. “You did!” Mike frowned at Danhausen, his eyes stabbing daggers.
“What!? How did Danhausen do this-”
“Your stupid curse! Stupid stupid curse!” He kicked his leg out again and kicked his wet shirt aside and a piece of chair. All he wanted to do now was thrash and yell and of course this was not professional but professional was for the cameras and he was not on camera. He choked out another frustrated whine and covered his face again. He didn’t want to look at the stupid Danhausen.
Gentle but heavy footsteps moved around and at first Mike thought maybe Danhausen was going to leave but instead he felt something over his shoulders and tucked around him. Like a blanket but not the texture of one. Instinctively he reached to touch it and it saw a bit of black and red. Danhausen’s cape. Mike lifted his head and flinched seeing how close the other was, kneeling in front of Mike like some child.
“Cold?”
Mike blinked but nodded. Danhausen nodded in thought, like this was a concerning matter to him. “Hm.” The questionable man hummed and then stood up, and finished moving the mess aside and left the room. Mike was left more confused than before, but he just sat there, and brought the part of the cape near his shoulder to his mouth, going to chew, then stopped. Danhausen returned, though he was noisy in the process as he nudged the door back open and dragged a rather nice chair and set it down.
“There, new chair for Mikehausen.”
Mike stumbled up clutching the cape around him and awkwardly wobbled and sat in the chair. He sniffled still but he wasn’t as frustrated anymore. Well, maybe a little. But he stopped crying.
“Does Mikehausen want another water?”
Mike nodded again, and pulled his legs up, his knees to his chin once again in the chair and subtly brought the cape to his mouth again, chewing. Danhausen returned with water and Mike took it but then he just stared at the lid. Then looked at Danhausen. Then back at the lid.
Danhausen offered his hand out again and took the water then popped the lid open and Mike accepted it and sipped it.
“Do you feel better?”
Mike didn’t know how to answer. His head swam and he was calm now, less angry but as he would put it… icky feeling. Very icky. Like black paint that stuck to your hands and you couldn’t get off.
“Mwant Kit.” Mike murmured.
“Oh. Kithausen is busy isn’t he?”
“Mm.”
-
Danhausen stood there, pondering what on this plane he could do. The Miz was not acting like his usual self and well, Danhausen kind of felt bad. Sometimes it was entertaining to see the man get angry with his shenanigans, a little mischief never hurt anyone but coming in and seeing him a sad mess well- that was just not very funhausen. He did what he could, let Miz use his cape, got him water to rehydrate all those tears. This was very confusing, and Danhausen was not good at social interaction for the most part. He wasn’t even sure if he should leave Miz alone or-
There was a gentle tug at Danhausen’s sleeve and Danhausen glanced down and saw Miz- or Mike. Looking up at him, Danhausen’s cape in his mouth for some reason and pointed over at a duffel bag hanging off the wall. It was easy enough to bring over and Mike pulled out a spare sweatshirt and then the other looked at Danhausen expectantly. This was more difficult than when Mike was yelling at him.
Mike opened his mouth with a frustrated grunt and Danhausen tilted his head then looked at the cape. “Oh! Oh.”
Danhausen took the sweatshirt and adjusted it. “Arms up.”
Mike raised his arms, the cape falling off him and Danhausen put the sweatshirt over him. It was a white sweatshirt, nothing fancy like the Miz usually would wear. It was very soft by the looks of it. When Danhausen went to grab his cape, Mike huffed and pulled it back over his shoulders. Daring Danhausen to try.
“You are very grumpy.” Danhausen commented. That earned him Mike sticking his tongue out. Danhausen copied it back. Mike couldn’t help but break into a smile. Danhausen considered that a win.
-
Mike could not tell you when it happened. But miraculously he was asleep in the chair, curled up. He lifted his head and saw the cape was still on him and he rubbed his eyes a bit. His head hurt properly now, but it wasn’t fuzzy. He glanced around and saw Danhausen wasn’t anywhere to be seen. There was another water bottle on the make up counter and a piece of paper. Mike sat up slowly, his back popping a bit as he stretched and grabbed it.
“Keep the cape, Mikehausen!” - Danhausen
“PS. Please contact me about my new tv show.”
Okay well that was expected and Mike actually breathed out a laugh. He stared at the note for a moment before looking at the cape.
Danhausen has never called him Mike before.