“I told you to book me with Furry!” Graves growled into his cell. An old flip phone, naturally.

“And I said you need to be more future oriented. Gravy, you and Arroyo are the next big thing in the tag division!” Big Dick Lichter replied. “This was always the plan.”

“Yeah, until he died on me. Completely unreliable!”

“He got better though!”

“Ohhhhh Michael!” A buff looking camp counselor type in a skin tight shirt calls out to Gravy. “We’re ready for the next exercise.”

“Yeah Gravy, they’re ready for the next exercise. Trust me when I say this little excursion I set you guys up with will….”

But Graves had already slapped the flip phone shut, silencing Lichter. Graves walked back into the clearing, muttering curses above his breath that only the canopy of trees above them could hear. When he arrived, Kristoffer Arroyo was standing with two camp counselors, the aforementioned male and a female who is similarly clothed but can’t take her eyes off of Kris. Let’s call them Chaz and Kathleen. Because that’s what their name tags say.

“Look Mike, if I need to suffer through this you do too.” Kris added, looking about as thrilled to be there as Graves sounded..

The counselors, ignoring their guests’ consternation, continue blithely.

“Okay Kris, you did a great job on the balance bridge. Except you didn’t wait for Michael to hold it steady for you.”

“I didn’t need to wait. I’m like a goddamn gazelle.”

“Yeah. Easy prey.” Graves retorted with a snort. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Alright!” He claps his hands together. “This next one is called Trust Fall.”

Graves doesn’t even look at him. He just keeps staring at Kris.

Kathleen steps in, overly cheerful. “Micheal, you’ll stand here, facing away from Kris. Kris will stand behind you. Then you fall—”

“Why would I do that?” Graves cuts in.

Her cheer takes no hits. “Because Kris will catch you. It’s an exercise about trust, vulnerability, and—”

“Yeah, no, I know the pitch.”

Graves scratches his beard as he looks to Kris, then back to her.

“I’m just hung up on the part where I do something stupid on purpose.”

Kris shrugs.

“I mean, you do that a lot already.”

Graves cuts him a fierce look.

Then considers it.

“...fair.”

Chaz claps. “Love that! I love it! Okay, so Micheal, just turn around.”

Graves half-ass turns like he’s humoring a child.

Kathleen lights up. “That’s great Micheal! That’s all we need, just a little participation. We just need you to turn a little bit more and put your trust into Kris to catch you.”

Graves exhales through his nose, annoyed, but he does it.

Kris steps behind him.

The counselors countdown.

"Three! Two! One!"

Graves lets himself fall backwards.

And Kris catches him. Graves hangs there for a second. The counselors clap.

“That was excellent! Micheal, you put your trust into Kris, and Kris showed you that he was worthy of that trust! Very good!”

Both counselors are acting like they just solved tag team wrestling.

“Now we switch! Kris, your turn to put your trust in Micheal!”

Kris nods and turns without protest. Behind him Graves stands, feet planted, arms out, absolutely ready.

“Three! Two! One!”

Kris drops. Graves moves. Kris slams onto the ground with a thud.

Chaz freezes mid clap. Kathleen’s jaw is agape.

Kris looks at Graves both pissed and confused. “What the hell!?”

Graves just stares back blankly. “That’s how you learn, kid.” He lets it hang. [/dwg]“You shouldn’t trust anyone. Least of all, me.”[/dwg]

Kris pushes himself up, still looking at Graves, annoyed.

“...Good to know.”

Graves nods like that was the point.

Kathleen suddenly finds her voice. “No, no, that’s not… that’s not the lesson at all!”

Graves just keeps staring at Kris.

“It is if your plan is living.”

Chaz steps in trying to regain control. “Micheal, no, this exercise is about building trust between partners—”

Graves cuts him off. “No, trust is weakness.” He points at Kris. “He trusted somebody already.”

Kris’s expression turns uncomfortable.

“Manager. Voice in his ear. Friend? Whatever he was, it let him get close enough to almost kill you. Almost kill this team. And 100% killed my plans for this weekend. Do I trust you? Mmm, no, not really. But who cares? We have a common goal. Stacking bodies for different reasons. You proved your worth to me one on one, toe to toe. You’re not a shield. You’re not a folding chair. You’re a goddamned monster, like me. Hard to kill and harder to stop.”

Graves points at the counselors.

“This shit? A complete waste of our time. Leave the team building to that old cow Betsy and Roman Numerals. They’re the ones that need help. She’s on the down swing, unstable trajectory. Needed a win real bad. Got one. But only because the man she’s teaming with came into the last match more broken than her.

We don't break.”

Kris looks askance at Graves. “Well, I don’t necessarily agree with your assessment that I’m a “monster”, but I agree with everything else.”

Graves doesn’t even look at him. “You’re a fuckin’ blood-sucking vampire… What the hell else should I call you!?”

Kathleen interjects again. “Okay, but Michael don’t you see the inherent value in supporting your partner, Kris? Don’t you think that’ll make you a stronger team?”

Graves shakes his head. “No. What makes us a stronger team is Kris knowing I’m not there to wipe his ass, and vice versa.”

“Like I’d let you get that close to this finely sculpted ass.”

Kathleen’s eyes involuntarily tic down to assess that ass. But Kris catches her looking and she abruptly goes eyes forward again with a rosy glow punctuating her cheeks.

“I’m gay, by the by.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean…”

“Nevermind it.” Kris looks to Graves again. “I begrudgingly have to admit that you’re right. I DID trust someone, and if it hadn’t been for Matty I’d be dead right now. Or….dead-er. But I’m handling that. In fact, I’m handling that by winning this match with you and going on to tear through Sam’s sluts like a hot knife through butter. So you can second guess my choice in allies, but not my motivation. I want this win. I NEED this win. This match is the beginning of my deconstruction of everything Samael Dyson holds dear. And if that means tagging with someone who doesn’t completely trust me then so be it.

But the fact is, Michael, I DO trust you. I trust your competence in the ring and your ability to get the job done. Your loss to that geriatric aside…”

Graves grunts.

“...hold on. You proved your worth getting as far as you did in March Madness. And you got past Samael, which counts for a lot with me.”

“See Michael, Kris trusts you!” Chaz crows.

Michael scowls at Chaz, causing the counselor to gulp perceptibly and avert his gaze.

“We’ve got another thing that puts us ahead of XXXVI and Betsy. The fact that we don’t allow the past to dictate our futures. Yeah, you beat me for the Anarchy Championship. But I don’t sweat that. It’s just business. And I’m not about to allow something as petty as that to halt our momentum. But the opposition? It remains to be seen if they’re quite as forward thinking. Is XXXVI irked by losing to Betsy? Could be. I’d wager on it though. The man was approaching a record breaking run with the Revolution Championship before he got derailed by that walking sci-fi trope. That’s gotta stick in his craw. That’s gotta count for something. I think he’s pissed. And I think that’s gonna bleed through on Anarchy.”

Graves cuts in—”Pissed, shook, or both.”

He rubs his jaw, thinking as he speaks.

“He ran clean for six months. Had everything dialed in. Then made one mistake. One miscalculation. And she took advantage. That’s not something either of them just shake off.

He knows it, and more importantly, she knows it. She didn’t prove she was better. Didn’t prove that she earned anything. She just found an opening and he made a mistake.”

Graves shrugs.

“Good for her, but that kind of win doesn’t settle shit. Just leaves him wondering if he can correct, and her wondering if she could do it again.

And that’s where they’re at.

She’s going to come into this looking to prove that wasn’t just a stroke of luck. She’ll swing a little harder. Move a little faster. Try to force the same result with us.

And him?

He’s going the other way. He’ll tighten everything up. Plan and obsess trying to fix the thing that cost him.”

Graves shakes his head.

“That’s where it breaks down. One’s chasing a moment and the other is trying to erase one, and now they gotta try and accomplish very different goals together while the result of their clash echoes in the back of their minds.”

Graves snorts.

“And if I’m wrong, then they’re both a couple of uncompetitive pussies!”

Graves glances at Kris as he straightens up and thumbs his non-existent suspenders.

“That kinda baggage don’t just disappear because you're made to be partners.

You try to bury it or even work around it.

But when shit goes sideways, it’ll rear its ugly head.

When timing is off.

When someone hesitates, or maybe moves too soon?

Whatever the case, the friction is already there just waiting to spark fire.”

Graves looks to Kris again.

“You don’t have that problem, and neither do I. We’re not trying to fix anything. Not trying to prove anything. And we’re not trying to get anything back or stop it from slipping out of our fingertips.

We’re just trying to get to the next stage, where you get your revenge, and I add a couple of bodies to the pile.”

Graves eyes the counselors.

“You keep talking about trust like it’ll make our team work. It won’t. We don’t need it. What makes us work is knowing what the other guy is going to do when it matters.”

Graves nods at Kris.

“He ain’t stopping.

Neither am I.

And that’s going to be a problem for them.”

Kathleen sighs. “Well I guess that’s that then.”

“It is.” Graves concludes. “Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go take a piss.”

Kris waves a hand. “Piss away. I’m going back to the car.”

Graves makes his way further into the woods to do his business. But, just as he finishes watering the grass, he becomes acutely aware of another presence. “You can come out.”

A small figure drops out of a nearby tree, landing deftly in the foliage. Graves turns and smirks. “Well if it isn’t the half pint vampire.”

Kris’ ward Matty stands up, looking unimpressed. “Cute.”

“Were you watching me piss just now?”

Matty screws his face up in disgust. “What?! No! Don’t be gross, dude.” Matty pauses a bit before getting to the point. “I tracked you guys here to deliver a message. Kris would never admit it, and he’d be mad knowing I’m saying this, but getting killed has really messed him up. He needs….support. And he needs you to not be an asshole.”

Graves quirks an eyebrow.

“He’ll never talk about it. He doesn’t want people to think he’s weak. But, he saw…things….when he died.”

“What “things”?”

“He thinks he went to hell.”

“Interesting.”

“That’s all you have to say?”

Graves itches the back of his head. “Look kid, I’m gonna support Kris as much as I’d support any other tag partner. No more. No less. Got it?”

Matty doesn’t look happy, but stays silent.

“I will say this though.” Graves continues. “Thanks for not letting him die. Turns out he’s alright.”

Graves looks past Matty as he leaves, leaving Matty in his wake wondering just how much of a support Graves will be.