Misgivings and Misconceptions

Not long after Jean fell asleep did he start to dream in vivid and lifelike detail. It was a reoccurring dream he'd had before he met David and when he'd developed a crush on Haru. It always started off the same, he'd be in a match against Haru surrounded by a crowd full of people. Every time Jean started to win, the dream would shift on him and whatever complicated submission hold he was doing would suddenly be done to him. Right now dream Jean was folded backwards in a boston crab. Sleeping Jean shifted uncomfortably, making a quiet groan as he settled back in. Back in the dream, Haru began to run his teasingly run finger down the inside of Jean's thigh, and Jean moaned in his sleep. H-Haru..." In the dream, Jean finally reached the rope for a rope break, only to find that it was David who he was wrestling and who had been teasing his leg.

It was too late though. The damage in the real world had been done. He had moaned another man's name in his sleep, right in front of his boyfriend.

Dave noticed Jean shifting in his sleep, an uncomfortable look passing over his face. Dave tightened his grip around Jean's waist gently, snuggling closer in order to comfort him when he heard Jean.

"Haru" Jean moaned and David's heart felt like it had just been stabbed. He....he was dreaming about him with another guy? Wait...maybe he was just jumping to conclusions. Jean loved him...right?

PRESENT DAY

Jean's back slammed on the mat with a loud groan for what seemed like the umpteenth time in the last 45 minutes. Jean was covered in a thick sheet of sweat and panting heavily, coping with the stinging pain in his back. Though initially Haru had taken the opportunity to tease him at every turn, after Jean had performed a wicked STF on him he had gotten more serious. Jean got a good submission hold in there every once and while, by Haru by far was outclassing him in strength and skill. He had punched him, kicked him, thrown him around and slammed him to the mat in every variation he could think of. There was the occasional teasing wink or grin, but for the most part Haru seemed to be mostly all about business, which Jean had been grateful for. Every now and again Haru would give him pointers, like when he kept throwing bad punch and Haru got so pissed off he insisted on teaching him how to throw a punch. He also had good insight on how to fight someone above your weight class, though Jean was having trouble putting theory to the test.

”You should just give in, Richards, and accept your place as jobber-boy. I’m not gonna get tired of kicking your ass anytime soon, so by all means, get back up again so I can knock ya down.” Haru taunted as he relaxed into the ropes, jabbing Jean in the ribs with his foot. He had been demolishing Richards for the past 45 minutes, but he didn’t know when to quit. Richards wasn’t half-bad in his opinion, but his wrestling style was too circumstantial and he didn’t have the repertoire to set it up appropriately. Jean knew his strengths and weaknesses and he did well to work around them, but it just wasn’t enough. He could rock a submission hold pretty well, but he had limited striking ability and Haru had to show him how to actually throw a punch. Still he had spirit, and if he really worked at it, Haru thought he could make it. Not that he’d ever admit that, he had too much fun taunting and messing with him.

Jean groaned again as a hard toe dug into his side as Haru berated him, adding insult to injury quite literally. Rolling away, Jean narrowed his eyes at the Japanese wrestler. He was getting quite tired of Haru’s mouthing off and he intended to do something about it. ”Do you ever shut up?” Jean yelled, jumping to his feet and charging at him. Jean jumped in the air and collided with Haru’s chest, hooking his ankles together behind Haru’s waist. He did just as Haru had shown him and began delivering punches into Haru’s temples, shoulders, face, anything he could strike out at.

Haru was not expecting Jean to come at him directly so openly, nor was he expecting him to get up so quickly. Haru had done more of his far share of damage to Jean during the match, hitting him with piledrivers, chokeslams, even an over the knee backbreaker. And while he had pulled his punches for the sake of teaching Jean and not just mutilating him, it still had to add up. As he scrambled to get back up off the ropes, Jean had latched himself onto his waist and started throwing real punches into his head and face. Suddenly he was regretting showing him how to throw a good punch, and he growled after a good shot to his jaw rattled his skull and riled him up. With a roar he charged into the corner turnbuckle full speed, ramming Jean’s spine into the turnbuckle. Even as his opponent let out a choked scream, he was still holding on. Haru continued to press Jean’s back into the post as he overpowered him and grabbed Jean’s wrists, pinning them above his head. Reeling his free hand back, he started to deliver some real punches of his own for once, right into Jean’s side. From an outlooker’s perspective, it looked like a pretty hot and heavy moment.

Dave finally reached the gym, still troubled by what had transpired a few days ago back home. He chose not to bring up the fact he heard Jean mumble Haru's name up to his boyfriend. Besides David wasn't 100% positive that Jean was cheating on him. He had no hard evidence to back that up......but that would explain Jean ducking out on him.....and ignoring his calls......and saying he was "too busy".

Suddenly the idea didn't seem that far fetched. Dave slapped himself in the forehead, "You're just being paranoid Dave. Besides it's not like he's making out with people in the gym while you are not around!"

Shaking his head he pushed open the door to find Haru and Jean, both shirtless, in a very sexual position. Both of their chests were pressed against each other, both were breathing heavily, and Jean was looking at him with what Dave assumed were bedroom eyes (even though the logical part of his mind tried to assure him it was just him being tired.

"Jean?" he asked, his heart breaking at the sight. So it WAS true.....he was cheating on Dave with Haru the entire time? Rage started to mix with the disbelief on his face, as his heart felt like it shattered into a thousand pieces.

Jean winced when Haru's first fist came blasting into his side, opening up a whole new level of hurt he didn't know existed. He realized Haru must have been pulling his punches the whole time as another meteor of a punch came into his side, making him cry out. As Jean was busy glaring and trying to break his arms free, suddenly a very familiar voice rang out that startled him. "David?" Jean asked breathlessly, though he was unable to see where he was standing. The tone of his voice made Jean worry, it sounded both betrayed and accusatory. The break from the flow of the match made Jean acutely aware of his current position, how it might look to someone just observing, and he blushed. "Let go already" Jean hissed, unlatching his legs and kneeing Haru in the shin.

Haru was just about to land another punch when someone called out to Jean, causing him to pause. Haru looked and he didn't know who it was, but they seemed upset. He wasn't exactly sure what was going on yet, so he stood there panting until Jean unhooked himself and kneed him. He released Jean's hands with a scowl and turned around, hands on his hips as he waited for this to work itself out. He had still had another six or seven minutes to train Richards and he intended on using it, it meant more money for him.

After being freed, he shoved Haru out of the way as he jogged over to where David was standing. "You're a bit early today, coming to watch me finish up?" Jean asked with a smile, trying to brush it off as nothing. He hadn't been doing anything wrong technically, but the way David was looking at him was making him feel guilty of murder. "What's with that look, what's wrong?" he asked concerned.

Dave just stared at Jean with complete and utter disbelief. Here he was, caught in the act, and he tried to brush it off?

He looked at Jean, trying to hold back the tears, "So....this is why you've been bailing on me for the past few weeks huh? So you could have some alone time with another man? What, was I not good enough for you?" he yelled at him, his hands balling into fists.

Jean was caught off-guard by David's sudden outburst of emotion, he'd never seen him upset like this before. Or upset in general, he was usually such a cheery optimist that he rarely seemed mad or sad or negative. "W-What?" Jean stuttered, not exactly doing himself any favors at the moment. He was still confused about where David was getting the idea that he was cheating, until slowly Jean's idiot mind started to piece it together.

He'd been fairly distant with regards to David lately, cancelling on him, pretending to be busy, lying about where he was so that he could finish the costume on time. It could certainly seem like he was actually seeing someone else. Jean slapped himself when he came to the realization, the way David had caught them was like the straw that broke the camel's back.

"No no, you don't understand, Haru and I, we were just training! And having to cancel all the time, I can't tell you yet, but please trust me! My manager set it up, complaining that I lose to much, so he had Haru train with me. Tell him Haru!" Jean tried explaining, looking back at Haru desperately to help him out. Sure Haru could be kind of a tease, but surely he would see that he could clear the situation up and help Jean out here.

Meanwhile Haru was grinning like a madman when the new guy dropped a bombshell, accusing Jean of cheating. He was eating this drama up like there was no tomorrow. Things were getting juicy and he was eager to see what was going to happen next when Jean called on him for help to explain. Haru jumped at the chance to get involved rather just watch. And being the asshole he was, decided he was going to stir the pot rather than help Jean settle things.

Walking over to where Jean was standing against the ropes to talk to David outside the ring, he draped his arm over Jean's shoulders and looked at David with contempt. "This punk giving you trouble, Richards? I thought you said you dumped his skinny ass when we started fucking a month ago" Haru said, giving David an unimpressed look. That was bound to set one or both of them off, which was exactly what he wanted.

Dave looked at Jean, as Haru seemed to fully support the fact that he and Jean were a couple. He couldn't believe it....the one person who treated Dave like he was someone special....all of that...was a lie?

"Everything that happened between us...it was all a sick joke wasn't it? A little game to break me...well you know what Jean Richard?" he spat, glaring at him, "You win."

"This punk giving you trouble, Richards? I thought you said you dumped his skinny ass when we started fucking a month ago" Haru said, giving David an unimpressed look.

David snapped. Knocking Jean roughly out of the way, he used the ropes as a springboard and launched himself at Haru, roaring like a madman, and spearing the man in the gut. He mounted Haru, slamming his fist into the man's jaw over and over. No thought given to strategy or tactics, just pure animal rage.

"You think it's ok to take away the one thing that matters to me? You aren't good enough for him!" he yelled, continuing to punch Haru mercilessly.

Jean's eyes widened when Haru came over and completely denied everything he had said, and worst of all, put his arm around him. Jean ripped that arm away faster than he could blink, but the damage was clearly done. David was hurt and he wasn't hearing anything that Jean was saying. But he still had to try dammit, he had to get the truth out. "Would you just listen to me for a second, dammit!" Jean yelled at David, starting to get angry himself that things were spiraling out of control way too fast. However David jumped up and roughly shoved him to the side as he went berserk on Haru.

Haru did his best not to laugh when Jean ripped his arm away like it was hurting him, it was actually kind of funny how pathetic it looked. With just one sentence and one action he had driven a huge wedge into their relationship. If it was that fragile in the first place, then it wasn't going to last and Haru was actually doing them a favor.

The skinny new guy launched himself into the ring like a rocket, yelling like a madman as he speared Haru and quickly mounted him. He got a few good shots in before Haru brought his guard up, deflecting the shots from his face to his forearms. This guy was pissed and Haru thought it was hilarious! Seeing a split-second of opportunity, Haru's fist rocketed up into David's jaw when he left himself open after punching wildly. The much larger Haru surged upward, grabbing David by the throat as he flipped their positions. Haru quickly pinned one of David's wrists beneath his knee and sat the other knee on his chest, to hold him down. His left hand still clenched on David's throat while his right secured David's other arm against the mat.

"Can't take something that never belonged to you in the first place, dumbass." Haru yelled back, feeling himself start to get into the role he had set up. It was sort of like an actor becoming so in tune with their character that they start to thing like them. In this case, he was 'The Other Man', and this was clearly a cockfight. "Bet you can't make him laugh or smile like I can, or better yet, make him scream like I can," Haru spat, squeezing on David's throat. "I'm better than you in every way, muscle, skill, money, you name it and I've got ten times what you've got. What makes you think there was even a chance for you?"

Dave struggled under Haru's form as he was pinned down underneath the Japanese man. He choked out as he felt Haru's hand around his throat. The sad part was, part of him believed everything that was being said.

He shut his eyes, trying to slam his fist into Haru's lower jaw, "Shut up! He isn't yours!"