AN: Here's to a new fic! More author's note at the end.
Disclaimer: I own nothing except the idea.
Chapter 1
The alarm blared at the ungodly hour of 3:00 AM. Maria had only been lying in bed for a few hours when she had to get up and make her way to the airport to get to the next arena hosting RAW as quickly as possible. Not too long ago, she was in an OVW arena, in a match to further develop her latest feud. At the moment, she was trapped in the embrace of her boyfriend, CM Punk. She didn't want to wake him. As much as she would love for him to see her off, she knew he needed his rest; the men wrestle harder than the girls do.
She pulled CM Punk's arm off from around her waist, moving to tiptoe to the bathroom to get ready. The flight was at six, and she needed to arrive at the airport two hours before takeoff. Maria sighed, packing a few things that weren't already put away while brushing her teeth. By 3:30, everything was packed, and Maria was ready, dressed in Juicy Couture velour sweats with her hair pulled up in a messy ponytail. She kissed Punk on the forehead before heading out the door. Before she closed the door, a mumbled "I love you, babe," met her ears, and she was ready to leave Kentucky.
Her mind was occupied the whole trip. Stephanie McMahon Levesque and Creative decided that her character needed a push. As much as the audience saw and loved her on Kiss Cam, they loved her more when she interviewed John Cena. She told Punk about the new storyline and that she and Cena would be having more on-screen time together, maybe even a kay-fabe relationship. She didn't tell him that she would have to do autograph signings and potentially have photos circulating with her good friend. She hoped that crazy fangirls wouldn't insist on a picture of them kissing.
As much as he trusted her, she feared that Punk would see the pictures and think the wrong thing.
Maria arrived at the arena. She and John planned to meet there before heading off to the mall for an autograph signing. She walked past the crew setting up the ring and other venue accoutrements. She saw Creative still meeting with Stephanie to discuss the angles certain storylines would take. She stopped when she heard a loud cheer coming from the men's locker room.
Tentatively opening the door, she saw the male portion of the RAW roster huddled around a TV set, engrossed in a football game.
"Who's playing?" she interrupted. The men quickly straightened up in the presence of a female. They all smiled innocently.
"Bears vs. Pats," Triple H, piped up.
"Ohmigod, Bears!" Maria exclaimed. "Move over, boys," she said, squeezing herself between John and Triple H on the couch.
"You might not want to sit next to John, sweets," Edge said. "He's sore because Tom Brady and the Pats are losing."
"Aww, ickle Johnny-kins is sad that his babies are losing to the better team?" Maria teased.
The rest of the boys let out a low, "oooh." Edge whistled, "Burn."
"Whatcha gonna do now, Cena?" Carlito asked.
John looked at her with a mock angry face. "Y'know, it's not below me to put a girl in a headlock."
"You wouldn't dare," she gasped, wide-eyed.
"Just watch me," he said, and proceeded to grab her. Instead of putting her in a headlock, he gave her a noogie, as he would with his youngest brother, Boog.
"Ah, John, stop," she giggled, unsuccessfully trying to make his muscular arms budge.
"No." His grip grew a little tighter.
"What?" She slapped his side, incredulous at his antics.
"Not until you admit who the better team is."
"Bears!" she giggled.
While one arm maintained its grip on her head, the other moved to tickle her side. "Oh, you're going to get it now."
"Ah, haha, John, stop, please!" She tried pushing his arms away. "Okay, okay. I admit it, the Patriots are better!"
"See, now was that so hard?"
"Yeah, it was," Maria joked.
As everyone resumed watching the game, Shelton Benjamin looked between the two. He shook his head; if only they could see the potential they had together. He and the rest of the boys saw the promise that the two had together. That's why they gave CM Punk so much heat when he was backstage at Wrestlemania; they only wanted the best for the young Diva whom they considered their little sister. "Um, Ria? You know I love you, but did you come here for a reason, or did you just want to chill with your boys?"
"Oh!" she exclaimed. Her ditzy gimmick had some real-life beginnings, though not as extreme as her character would make viewers believe. "Yeah, John, we're supposed to head over for that autograph signing."
"What?" He whipped his head from the TV to the Diva sitting next to him. "We have an appearance today?"
"Yes," Maria nodded, speaking slowly as if talking to a child. "We have to go and meet fans, and say hi, and sign autographs, and take pictures."
"But, but, the game," John insisted.
Maria was about to reply that they had to leave now, but Stephanie McMahon-Levesque interrupted her before she could. "Cena, have you left yet? The game can wait."
"Steph, the game is live. We don't have the power to stop it so John can kiss up to fangirls," Triple H corrected.
"It's going to replay on ESPN later anyway," Maria insisted. "Now, come on, John. Let's go before we're late."
"Thank you, Maria," Stephanie sighed. "At least I have you to counter the boys' arguments with."
"No problem. I do this with my boyfriend all the time," Maria answered. "Now get to stepping, mister. We've got fans to please."
"Wait up," Stephanie called. "There was another reason that I came over to find John. It's great that you were there too, Maria. Your kay-fabe relationship starts tonight. We've been leading up to this moment, strategically putting you two together to imply a budding relationship. Now that you are established as 'in like,' Creative and I think that it's the perfect step for you to 'be together.' To make this believable, though, you've got to stay in kay-fabe whenever you're outside the ring and in the fans' eyes. You've got to make them believe that you're together. Got it?"
John and Maria nodded, saying their goodbyes to everyone and promising to meet up with the boys before RAW.
John and Maria sat in the car listening intently to the football game on the radio. Neither wanted to move. Maria came to her senses first and realized that they had to be out there in a few minutes.
"John," she called, breaking him from his reverie. "We've got to go now."
"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure."
Before he could leave the car, Maria pulled him back. "Hey, make it real. Remember that."
"If you're sure," he replied. "Then wait here. I'm going to make it real." Maria looked on confusedly as he exited his door and made his way around the car to her side. There, he opened the door for her in a gentlemanly fashion. John offered his arm, "Milady? Your fans await."
Maria giggled as she linked her arm with his, CM Punk not even a second thought, focus wholly on the man next to her, "Let's do this."
"Can you believe that girl asked us to kiss, just because she wanted to believe we're going out?" John was shocked; he didn't think fans would be this interested in the storyline. He and Maria were driving back to the arena, recapping their time with the fans.
"Or the guy who wouldn't stop hitting on me? Thank you so much for stepping in," Maria said.
He laughed it off, "It was worth it to see his face when I said your boyfriend wouldn't appreciate that."
"He ran away so fast, it wasn't even funny! You really scared him, John."
"But it's true, isn't it? Your boyfriend probably wouldn't appreciate that guy coming on to you." John seemed a little dejected at his statement. They finally arrived at the arena.
"See, that's why I have you, John, to fend off unwanted attention when the boyfriend isn't there to do so. Thanks for being a really great friend," she responded, giving him a friendly kiss on the cheek.
John smiled slightly as Maria exited the car before him. He sighed, taking a deep breath to bring himself back to reality. "Is that all I'll ever be, Maria?" he thought.
Author's note: So what do you guys think? Good, bad, or indifferent, I want to know how you feel about this. I'm hoping that this will be somewhat long and drawn out. I want to develop the story as much as I can before the end. I don't think I'm going to focus on matches in this fic, but if there's something you want to see, leave a review and tell me. I'll see what I can do. This was inspired by the real-life relationship between CM Punk and Maria Kanellis. I love John Cena/Maria so much, though, so I had to have a fic that expresses this. The reference to backstage heat at Wrestlemania is true; I read that CM Punk had a lot of backstage heat because of his relationship with Maria at a reliable wrestling news site. While you wait for the next chapter, read my first fic, Daydream of a Boy, and review! --Kiora Storm