Authors Note : Okay, so I thought I'd do my take on the whole Steph-Hunter falling in love thing. This is just pure fluff, so enjoy. Also, I know Stephanie and John didn't know each other before he came to the company, and I know she's a year older than him, but for stories sake, they went to Boston Uni together and were best friends. Please tell me if I should add more chapters, I dunno whether this is any good or not for an idea.

"This is gonna hurt me a lot worse than it hurts you." Steph let her hand fly and winced inwardly as she struck her own mother across the face. She turned and walked away, silently apologising to her mother inside her head as she walked slowly up the ramp, evil smirk in place. When she got there, Paul appeared, an equally evil sneer on his own face. They played to the crowd for a few moments, the boos deafening, before they headed backstage. The moment she was behind the curtain, Steph felt tears welling up in her eyes.

"Hey, hey, it's okay." Paul pulled her in for a gentle hug, patting her hair gently. "Don't cry Steph, you did great out there."

Steph clung to him, unable to stop herself from getting a small thrill of attraction from his close touch. "I just didn't want to have to do it. She's my mom y'know?"

"I know." Paul pulled her chin so that she was looking up at him. "It's just acting Steph, your mom will be fine."

Stephanie smiled. Paul could always make her feel cheery no matter the situation, she was so happy that she'd entered into this storyline with him. Not only was it great fun, but Paul had become one of her closest friends. She didn't realise she still had her arms around Paul's waist until she heard someone clear their throat from behind her. She sprung away from Paul and grew a tiny bit red in the face as she wiped away any stray tears.

"Hi daddy."

Vince McMahon looked slightly suspicously between the two of them, before focusing on his daughter. "Are you alright Steph? Your mother's looking for you if you want to come talk to her."

Steph smiled and nodded, she turned to Paul and gave him a quick hug. "I'll catch up with you later Paul, you should get warmed up for your match!"

Paul watched her walk off with an affectionate smile on his face. He had never spoken more than five words to Stephanie McMahon before their storyline got kicked into action. But now, four months into their storyline, he couldn't imagine not having her as his friend. They had become really close over the months, and he was amazed at how easily he was able to slip into being the touchy-feely, loving, evil, husband to her equally touchy-feely, loving, evil wife. A few of his friends had questioned him about his feelings for her, but he had brushed them away impatiently and refused to get into those discussions. Stephanie was nothing more than a friend and a co-worker... there was nothing going on between them. He was perfectly happy with Joanie, they were living together and both their careers were beginning to take off. He was happy with everything in his life. Not to mention, he wouldn't be so stupid as to try hook up with Vince McMahon's daughter.... he would rather stay in his spot and stay in Vince's good books.

"So come on, tell me the goss, how long is it gonna take you to get into Levesque's pants?"

"Katie!" Stephanie admonished, growing red in the face at the mere thought of it. She had a few days off before Mania and had decided to spend them at home in Connecticuit catching up with some childhood friends. She had made the mistake of admitting to her three friends that she was missing Paul's company, and they hadn't stopped giving her grief ever since. Despite her friends teasing, it was true. She did miss his company. She spent a lot of time with him when they were on the road, and she always had a segment or two with him at every show every week. She knew they were overtly tactile on screen, but thankfully no-one had called her out on it. She knew she was playing a dangerous game. Paul was in a happy relationship with Joanie. And she just wasn't allowed to date the wrestlers. She didn't want to pine for Paul too much openly in case her father noticed and decided to break them up on-screen.

"Seriously, Steph, you should talk to him about how you feel." Steph's sister-in-law and best friend, Marissa, nodded along with Steph's childhood friend Amy. "It's not healthy to keep feelings bottled up like that. What if he likes you back?"

"It's not allowed Marissa." Steph said glumly, watching her glass of wine swirl around. "You know daddy would never let that happen."

"He can't stop you from falling for someone Steph." Katie said gently, rubbing her friends shoulder companionably. "And hell, he doesn't even need to know at first!"

Steph sighed. They just didn't get it. No-one seemed to get it. "It's just too complicated to explain okay? Yes, I like him a little bit more than a friend... but I'm not going to do anything about it. He has someone else and it would be breaking a whole bunch of rules. Now can we please drop it?" The other three women shared exasperated glances, but let the topic drop, instead going on to talk about shopping and television and all the other girly gossip they had missed out on since Steph had been on the road. After a couple of hours, Amy decided she'd had enough sitting indoors and gossiping.

"Alright ladies, get your heels on, we're going clubbing!"

Steph groaned. "Do we need to? I kinda wanted a night in."

Katie rolled her eyes and dragged Stephanie to her feet. "Don't be one of those people who never gets out to have fun. Let loose Steph! This'll help you get your mind off Paul."

Steph thought for a moment, that actually made sense. Sighing heavily, she nodded. "Fine, lets go get drunk."

"Now you're talking." Amy grinned. She took the three ladies to a club in the east side of Connecticuit, close to Massechuesetts, where Steph's old college was. The four girls got their drinks and settled down at a table, and pretty soon plenty of men were approaching them to dance. Steph let herself be dragged up onto the dancefloor by a few guys, but she wasn't enjoying herself all that much. It wasn't even because thoughts of Paul plagued her mind... she just wasn't really in the mood for clubbing.

"Well well well, look what the cat dragged in." Steph whipped round and grinned, squealing delightedly.

"John!" She threw her arms around her old college buddy, John Cena. "Oh my God, I can't believe you're here!! How are you?? How's your training going?"
John laughed. "Calm down Steph, look, it's kinda noisy in here. What say we grab a drink and go stand outside for a while?"

Steph nodded and followed him outside, they decided to go for a walk around a nearby park. It had been almost six months since they'd last seen each other, so they needed some time to catch up.

"So to answer your earlier questions, I'm fine, and the training's doing good." John was training to be a pro wrestler, and had been for the past few months. Despite knowing who Stephanie's father was, he didn't want her to do him any favours. He wanted to get himself elevated on his own, and not use his friend like that. "But what about you? I've been watching you on TV. Someone's acting a little slutty." He teased.

Stephanie pouted playfully and wacked him on the arm. "Shut up! I'm really enjoying this storyline... it feels so good to have the fans boo me."

"Boo you?" John echoed, then made a face. "Why would it be good to have them hate you and chant slut at you every night?"

"Because it proves I'm doing my job right." Steph shrugged, clinging to him as they walked through the cool night air. "And Paul's so much fun to work with, I'm having a-"

"Woah woah woah, back up a minute." John said with raised eyebrows. "Paul?"

"Oh," Steph blushed slightly. "Paul Levesque, he's Triple H." Steph saw John raise his eyebrows playfully and she blushed even more. "What? He's a funny guy, we've gotten close recently-"

"Close as friends or something else?" John ducked out of the way of her hand.

"We're friends and nothing more." She sighed, feeling sad all of a sudden. "I've already been through this with them, please don't make me explain the complications to you too."

John could hear the sadness in her voice and he shut up, feeling bad for initiating it. "I'm sorry Steph... are you alright about this storyline?"

Steph sighed and thought for a few moments. John had been her best friend in college. They had actually dated for about two and a half years, and had broke things off just over a year ago. Stephanie had been so in love with him, but at the end of the day they both realised they weren't ready to settle down and their differing career paths would be too hard for them to stay together. Steph sometimes wondered what her life would be like if she was still with John. She'd probably be engaged right now, maybe not an on-screen personality at all. John would probably already be in the WWF, learning the ropes under Vince and the other WWF talent. "I'm fine, I mean, I love this storyline. It's so fun getting to be the bitch and I really feel like I'm contributing something to the product y'know? It's just getting a lot more harder to be around Paul everyday and kiss him and touch him and know that I'm feeling these things for him yet he's not feeling them back for me." John pulled her close as she began to get upset. "I just feel myself falling an falling harder and harder for him and I'm scared, John, I'm so scared. I don't want to fall for a guy who doesn't even like me back!"

John sighed, stroking her hair fondly. "It'll be okay Steph. These things always work themselves out. You just have to be patient and try not to let yourself think about this guy too much."
"And how am I supposed to do that?" She asked with a roll of her eyes, pulling away from John's embrace. "I'm with him at every single show! It's so hard not to just be all over him all of the time."

John thought for a few moments. "How about I start travelling with you again? That way I can keep you company when you aren't with Paul and I can make sure you don't spend too much time thinking about him."

Stephanie frowned. "You mean, pretend to people that we're dating again?"

John made a face, and Stephanie giggled. "We don't have to do that. We can just let everyone think what they want. But if you really want to know this Paul guys feelings, then maybe we could work together to try make him jealous."

Stephanie suddenly grinned widely. "That actually sounds like a great idea, John. So, are you ready for Wrestlemania this Sunday?"