After the Break

Raiden held his hand tightly, smiling up at him. "I would never, Dave. I…I love you." he admitted, unable to meet his gaze as he said it. "You mean so much to me. You've helped me through thick and thin. You've been a perfect boyfriend to me. I don't deserve you, I really don't." His vision was swarmed with images of Kamo, of the things he did to him -- he shivered for a moment, shaking his head. He looked up at Dave for a moment, just a single moment, before he looked away again, his cheeks completely flushed.

"I don't know what I would do without you. You're just…you mean everything to me." He held his hand a bit tighter, biting back tears. "So when I say I wouldn't be able to hurt you…I mean it. I don't know if I could live, if I hurt you like that."

---

Home.

He didn't think he would ever be able to come back here, after spending so much time in the hospital. Through several surgeries to make sure everything went back in place, to the constant drip of the painkillers in his veins, this felt like a dream. But here he was, thankful that he was only on the first floor, to make it easy for him to get in on his wheelchair. Dave had come to help him home, so he couldn't help but smile softly as he was pushed into his apartment.

"I'm home, Dave," he murmured, even though Dave was right behind him and could clearly see that was the case. "Thank you. For everything." He bent his head backwards to look up at his boyfriend, giving him a small smile. "What's been going on in the federation since I left? Anything exciting?"

Dave shrugged, "Nothing earth shattering at the moment. Just quiet for now. Trust me, that wont last long."
He had not spoken of his intention to go after the 24/7 title belt to Raiden yet. The guy had enough to deal with. No need to add this so soon after he got home. Helping set his belongings aside, Dave set about making dinner for the two of them. Dave was determined to get this right for his boyfriend, no matter what.

Raiden chuckled softly at Dave's comment, shaking his head. "Nope, not even a little. I was probably the big exciting event, and things have just fallen off a bit." He grinned for a moment, before he shifted over enough to grab his laptop off the table, setting it in his lap. It was hard to work with only one hand, but Raiden made do, while Dave moved over into the kitchen. Which also rose Raiden's suspicion. "Hey, Dave! You don't have to cook, y'know. I can order us food!" There was a reason Raiden always cooked for the two of them, no offense to Dave. "Really man, I appreciate the gesture."

He had opened his laptop to look at the current AFW standings, to see the new people who had just debuted. Some poor guy ended up on the bad side of Casimir's fist. And that same guy…"No. No, no, no, no, no." Raiden's face fell, and he grabbed the laptop and threw it at the couch. Luckily for him, it just bounced onto the cushion, though he wasn't paying much attention to that. "Shit. Shit, he found me. No. Fuck!"

"Raiden?!" Dave called, rushing in to fin dhis lover shaking an dthe laptop thrown away," what's going on? Who found you?"

Sitting down, he wrapped a comforting arm around Raiden, hoping to calm him down enough to explain.

For a moment, Raiden didn't have any words for it. He was trembling like a leaf, his face completely pale -- almost as if he'd seen a ghost. He might as well have. "One of my exes…" He breathed slowly, hesitatingly, as if he wasn't sure if things were going to upheave in a moment or not. He looked anxiously at the door, before he shook his head. "I…I should go. He doesn't know I live here yet. He's never known. Never cared. If I can just…leave the federation, maybe I can escape quickly…" His mind was going a mile a minute, barely even registering that he hadn't explained the whole story to Dave quite yet. When he looked up at the other man, it was as if he had forgotten that he was there -- and the rest of the circumstances dawned on him.

"I…I should explain. Way back…maybe my third or fourth boyfriend? There was this guy. Kamo. Heir to a massive corporation, owned the league I was in, really stunningly beautiful man. Came to me after a match, which I lost, and told me he liked how I wrestled. Asked me out to dinner to talk about my future at the company, and I accepted." Raiden closed his eyes for a moment, biting his lower lip as he looked away. "He wanted to sleep with me. I declined; I wasn't looking for sex. So I bid him adieu. The next day, he came back to the locker room after I was working out in the gym, told me that he wanted to try this again. This time, he was a complete gentleman, and while he invited me up to his room, we didn't sleep together. We sat around and talked, and it was…marvelous. Ended up falling asleep on him in the middle of watching tv together. We began to date, and he became a very serious boyfriend. But…then things began to change. He stopped…caring about me, it seemed. He would be cold to me, making me just do sexual favors for him just to get him off, not for our pleasure. When I tried to talk to him about how the relationship was going, or how I wanted us to go out to eat, he would just…berate me. Tell me that he's lowering himself for me, and how dare I try and ask him for this stuff. But the moment I even thought about leaving, he would revert to the man that I fell asleep watching TV with on that second date. He would apologize, and I would forgive him. Eventually, my best friend at the time told me…well, he told me I was better than that. Better than being insulted and ridiculed day in and day out. He convinced me to leave Kamo, and I did that night. I walked out the door and never looked back. But he's been…watching over me. I didn't…I thought I was free."

He cleared his throat after that, looking away from Dave. He moved, trying to get away from Dave's comforting arm, though it was hard since he was only able to use one hand to move the wheelchair. "The worst thing is…I still have feelings for him. I loved him. He was the first…intense relationship I ever had, and I keep…blaming myself on how it ended. I keep telling myself I overreacted. That I should just…tell him I'm sorry, that I never should have left, to apologize for causing him so much pain. Because…somehow, I always felt like it was my fault, whatever went wrong. It's something I haven't been able to move past." He slumped in his chair; it was so much to share, and something that he had never shared with anyone, aside from the friend mentioned in the story. And it hurt. It hurt like he just ripped a band-aid off, but the cut was still there.

Dave kept quiet through the entire thing, legitimately worried about his boyfriend. Hearing the worrying history between Kamo and Raiden made Dave want nothing more than to find this prick and beat him down into the ground. No.....not now. What he had to do was be there for Raiden and comfort him.

"It doesn't sound like it was your fault that it ended. Why would yo go back to someone like him? I would never treat you like he did. I actually care about you Raiden. I....I love you. I hate seeing you look so destroyed like this."

He wrapped his arms around the young man's waist, holding him close by, staring deep into the mismatched eyes.

Dave didn't understand. Dave would never understand. Raiden couldn't help but stare up at him for a moment as he spoke, his face looking nothing more than crestfallen. His arm gripped the wheelchair handle with white knuckles, shaking his head as Dave tried to say he loved him, tried to wrap his arms around him. He pushed at those hands as they grabbed for him, shaking his head once more, a bit more firmly. "No. I know you do, but…you don't understand. You can't understand." He used his good hand to wheel himself backwards a bit, thinking about Kamo, looking at the television where he had just appeared.

Raiden wrapped his own arm around himself. "Kamo…Kamo gets in my head. I loved him. I stayed with him because I loved him, and because he loved me. He's completely and utterly charming, and he can get anything he wants. I'm the only thing that I know of that he wants and can't have. And…I was the one who decided to say no. I turned him away. For what? Because I loved him too much, and he loved me too much, and he hurt me because of it." He lowered his head for a moment, breathing out.

Dave frowned, keeping silent as the pair of them carried on silently, each with deep thoughts on their mind. Dave was ready, and he was going to be on gaurd for this "Kamo". If he even tried to take Raiden, Dave would drag him through hell, no matter the cost.

2 Months Later

Dave was busy waiting in the apartment for Raiden. Today was his day for the casts to come off, and he was supposed to be home by now. He was well over 2 hours late and wasn't answering his phone. Sighing, he grabbed his jacket and left out the door, searching for his boyfriend.

Things that Raiden shouldn't be doing: Working out.
Things that Raiden was doing anyway: Working out.

The doctors warned him to take it easy. Sure, he was out of the casts, and he was okay to walk around a bit, but the damages were still there. The AFW was still some time away, since the doctors had told the federation when to expect him back. But they couldn't physically stop him from working out, especially since he had his own gym to work out in. He had closed it down for the day, so he could do whatever he damn well pleased; he was tired of losing so goddamn often, and there had to be some way that he could fix things, make it better for himself.

He was working out a bit too hard though. Already, he could feel his bad arm beginning to strain under the effort that he was taking in order to punch the bag he set up, and his formerly fractured ankle just wanted nothing more than to be laid up in bet. But Raiden wasn't gonna let that happen. He kept hammering into the punching bag, not letting the strength let up. If he could train every day leading up to his re-introduction into the AFW, he would be set for anything. He didn't bother going to his apartment just yet; he seemed to have almost forgotten that Dave was there, and that he had given Dave a key to the gym.

Raiden pivoted on his bad ankle, twisting it in a way that he used to rely on heavily -- and he let out a yelp in pain. He found himself falling onto the floor, using his good arm to keep himself from falling too badly, but he fell nevertheless. He groaned in pain, lying on the ground for a moment. He couldn't stay there for long -- but maybe just for a few moments…

Dave had spent well over an hour looking through all the places Raiden may have been. The hospital, the AFW office, the ring, the Tension Gym. Everywhere. AT this point Dave was gonna lose it. Only one last place he needed to check.

Unlocking the door to the gm, he knew he found the right place when he saw Raiden groaning on the floor, and the heavy bag swinging on it's creaking chains. Rolling his eyes, Dave rushed over to his boyfriend, helping him to sit down.

"You're crazy, you know that?" Dave asked, helping Raiden to a sitting position, "Not that I wouldn't have done the same thing in your position, but Raiden, you need a bit more rest before hitting the bag again."

Reaching over, he gently flicked the redhead's forehead with his finger, "Seriously, if the wrestlers don't kill you, you'd probably end up getting there yourself."

As shocked as he was, Dave was just happy Raiden didn't break anything again.