A/N: This plot has probably been done before, but I thought I'd give it a shot anyway. Chad and Sonny will basically fake-date for publicity. ;) I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I don't own SWAC.

It wasn't our idea.

But we were discussing it anyway.

Chad likes to compare us to cesium and water; put them together and you've got yourself an explosion. I prefer to look at us as nothing but living prove that you shouldn't believe everything you read.

"We'll start off simple," Regina announced.

I felt my spine stiffening. I exchanged glances with the blond actor on my right. Neither of us had agreed to anything yet, but we were open to exploring our options.

"I can't rearrange your schedules too drastically within the next week," she continued. She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, studying our upcoming agenda on a piece of paper. "Especially since there's still one episode of Mackenzie Falls to shoot until the season's over."

Our publicist paused. I nervously toyed with my cuticles—a bad habit I'd picked up years ago—while I watched, fascinated by her refusal to submit to technology, as she combed through a sloppy array of paper files. Regina's office wasn't so much an office as it was a storage unit—and a badly organized one, at that. But, to give her some credit, she did always seem to know exactly where to find what she was looking for.

"You're attending a wrap party in Los Angeles Saturday evening, am I right?" she asked after a brief pause, dragging her gaze away from her desk to scrutinize Chad. He nodded, and she subsequently moved on to me. "Sonny?"

"Ye—Yeah?" I stammered.

"You'll accompany him."

I blinked.

"What?" I muttered brilliantly.

"It will give you an opportunity to adjust to one another—and I suggest you use it," she said. "You won't have to do an interview. Some pictures will probably suffice for now, so that's beneficial." Her eyes went to Chad. "Put your arm around her. Whisper in her ear." Her sharp gaze shifted to me. "Laugh when he talks. Get lost in his eyes. Frankly, I don't give a shit what you do; just make it convincing."

I could feel myself staring, my jaw slightly lowered. I was fully aware why we were having this meeting, but having her say it out loud made it sound infinitely worse. It was a well-renowned fact that Chad Dylan Cooper and I did not get along. I took great pleasure out of publicly vilifying him and he always appeared to be very eager to return the favor. We got on each other's nerves, whether it was inadvertently or not, but lately the press seemed to mistake our annoyance for sexual frustration. Regina thought it would be a marvelous idea to use that to our advantage.

"We can do pictures," Chad said. He glanced at me, quickly breaking the eye contact when he found me looking right back at him. "We photograph well together," he added.

I slowly nodded in confirmation. "That is true," I agreed.

I'd been to a couple events with the cast of the Falls, as I was currently guest starring on the show, and we'd taken several group pictures. We hadn't experimented with pictures of just the two of us yet, but I doubted it would matter much how many people were in between us as they snapped the shot. We'd be fine. He'd have to touch me, but we'd be fine.

"Alright," Regina said. "Sonny, do you think you can make it?"

I was fairly certain having drinks with a friend wouldn't qualify as being unavailable. I reluctantly forced myself to nod, twisting my lips into a fair approximation of a smile. I grabbed the glass of water in front of me and took a sip, before placing it back on the mahogany desk and saying, "I'll do it."

I'd made that decision already before entering this room. I just hoped I wouldn't come to regret those words.

A/N: Thanks for reading! :) This chapter was really short, but I thought I'd see if people are interested in reading this first. It's my very first fanfiction, so I'd love to hear what you think!

Melissa.