3 weeks ago
The looks on people’s faces as Carter and Miles walked through JFK International Airport usually were nothing they weren’t used to.
This however was a tad bit different as the duo were getting looks from the gate onwards to baggage check, they were getting eyed by Miles giving a piggyback ride to a gift that has been getting toted around, pretty much, around the globe.
Ok so, to be fair, neither one of them felt safe in shipping this large gift from across the Atlantic, but had someone told Miles that he would be giving this 4 ft plush creation of Carter’s favorite (And Bella’s too) crazy genetically built blue alien not only it’s own seat on the airplane, but now to hauling this thing on his back while Carter carried their carry-ons. Even the look on their Uber driver’s face made the whole thing well worth it.
He couldn’t wait to pop on to his phone later and see all the shots of him and Carter with fans and Stitch on his back. It’ll certainly be a story to tell down the road.
Hell, it’ll be a story when they finally get to Bella and Mal’s to deliver this to their little one, Máire. Seeing the look on Malachi’s face when he opened the door with that little girl in his arms made the whole damn thing worth it.
It even made everything from the King for a Day match roll off his back a little easier with this insanity. He put EVERYTHING he had into it, his fingers touched it and just like an untreatable case of the herp, Mercer drives that big bulbous head into his and it all goes to fucking shit.
The trip to New York was only for a couple of days to begin with. A stop at the O’Connell’s, a trip to Staten Island to check out a restaurant that Carter found online and had been talking about it, practically non-stop, any time the topic of New York City was even broached. There was also the matter of the rest of his stuff, and a place that he had bought and had spent a total of two weeks in before he left for Las Vegas, bought another place there and had remained since.
He had his reasons, the majority of them being his relationship with Carter and the life that had seemingly grown in an almost instant the moment he set up stakes in the desert. For the last 8 almost 9 months, he was finally happy. He had jumped with both feet and thankfully it wasn’t a cliff waiting for him.
Or so he thought.
It seems that in it all, a butterfly effect has been set in motion.
“What the hell is this?” he heard Carter call out from the living room that has been covered by sheets.
Miles had been in the bedroom, dropping off the bags to just get them out of the way when he walked out and saw his boyfriend with the sheet in hand and his eyes just looking in shock, “That would be the hand-me-down couch that was given to me by this extremely sweet lady that lived down just down the hall from me in my first apartment. She got a glance one time inside my rather pathetic looking place and suddenly I had two teenagers moving it in. Maybe I should make a trip to the Heights while we’re here just to say hello.”
“You had a Mrs. Wagner of your own?”
“Something like that,” Miles smirked, walking over to Carter and looking down at it with a fondness in his eyes, “Everyone called her Abuela Bea, one of those amazing women that never had children of her own but took care of everyone in the neighborhood. I moved it here the day before I left for Vegas but I’m realizing now looking around that it doesn’t really fit.”
“I can’t believe you’ve had this place this whole time and only lived for a short time here.” Carter said looking around at all the space, before stopping at the window and motions to Miles, “That view alone would have made it super difficult.”
The sun was just setting over the city. While Miles couldn’t deny that the view was glorious, which was part of the reason he even got it to begin with, besides the location closest to Wolfslair...that finely tuned ear could hear Carter question why he gave this up to move across the country, farther away from his family, farther away from the gym he grew into the performer he has been, it not so many words. He just looked out as well and wrapped his arm around Carter’s shoulders, “Well the view I have now is a whole lot better.”
Miles didn’t even have to look to tell the blush creeped up on his boyfriend’s face. Carter stuttered for a moment, “But...you left a lot behind.”
A few moments ticked by before Miles laughed, “I left some furniture behind. And yeah I have friends that I left behind here too but at the same time, I do not under any circumstances regret leaving here. I have never stopped training and working my ass off like Alex taught me, despite what some people think. I get that it may have irritated some like Austin, but I am not going to give up the home I have found with you on the off chance that sticking around here can make me any better.”
During all this, he simply walked over to the old beat down couch and sat down and began to pull out the chinese that they had picked up on the way from Bella and Mal’s for a late night dinner. But it was a word that slowed him down and almost caught in his chest for a brief moment.
That word: Home. Miles never had that really before, not in New York, not in Manchester. And the words seemed to just flow so freely that suddenly a whole weight had been suddenly lifted. His home, moreso his heart, was with Carter. The asskickings be damned.
“So- what about this place?” Carter said after he swallowed a quick what almost sounded like sob, “Are you going to sell it?”
Miles shook his head as finished setting everything up, handing Carter a pair of chopsticks, “I had considered it but after talking about it with a few people, I have an appointment tomorrow and I’m gonna turn it into one of those AirBNB places. That way, if we need to come back to New York at any time, I can just simply block out the dates and we have somewhere to go without it costing an astronomical amount of funds.”
“Look at you being responsible,” Carter said, “But this couch has got to go.”
Miles looks insulted for a moment, “Hey, this couch has a lot of stories....”
“And a lot of stains!”
“Some call it character,” Miles said, taking a big bite of an eggroll, as Carter just glares at him, “Fine, I’ll get rid of it.”
“THANK YOU!” Carter finally lets out as he digs into his favorite meal, “Now...let’s talk about the condo.”
Miles just picked up an eggroll and just put it in Carter’s mouth before he could continue on, “Later, love. Eat.”
Butterfly Effect
Back is Vegas
Earlier this week
Next week, first time ever, one on one...Miles Kasey goes against...Finn Whelan.
Those words rattled in Miles’ head like a ping pong ball in what was usually an empty head since Sunday night.
He knew that Austin was not going to take it easy on him when it came time for him to take control of Climax Control but this was a whole new level of asshole-ism that was hit.
This was no longer a lesson by Austin. It was fucking punishment.
Finn Whelan, a former SCW Champion was just a tiny line on a resume that made War and Peace look like Cliffnotes and he was coming back and Miles knew that without a doubt he was about to have the hardest fight of his life.
It was bad enough that he had been feeling like he was dealing with a horrible case of Imposter Syndrome, especially with having so many trips as of late but this sent him into a very interesting mindset.
With the condo in disarray, due to their renovations that had only just begun, Miles needed a hour or two to clear his head. The gym was dimly lit, with the overhead lights casting elongated shadows across the training mats. It was past midnight, and most of the world was deep in slumber, but not Miles Kasey. He couldn’t sleep much this week. He stood in the center of the ring, sweat glistening on his chiseled frame, fists clenched as he mentally replayed the events of the past week.
“I cannot believe I’m saying this, but props to Austin James Mercer and putting the fear of fucking God into me. You could have taken ANYONE among Wolfslair and yet you picked the one guy that has been just biding his time and waiting for that right moment. And what a better time...to be your personal bitch.”
“Finn, you beautiful disastrous soul, you finally decided to knock those cobwebs loose and come back. I will never understand why you left to begin with sometimes, I mean I get that you needed to get your head on straight and finally crawl out of your own personal tunnel of self-pity. But, my god, I am still trying to get a grasp on what in the ever loving fuck I have done wrong.”
“You fuckers wanna punish me for being human? Go right ahead, but I am done being pushed around. If I have to start taking the heads of my own stablemates to get you to leave me alone? I don’t want to, bruv. I really don’t. But it seems like you all are leaving me with no other choice.”
“These lingering effects that seem to be happening to me because I have done something you all don’t seem to approve of STOPS HERE. I’m not going to let it keep happening because after this, Austin has no stake in what happens next. Win, lose, or draw...my next path is already known.”
“From here on out, the wolf that you created is going to bite back.”
