-June 18, 2010-

Remembering what had happened the night before was the easiest thing I had done in awhile. I wasn't planning on forgetting it for a long time.

Mike wasn't in the bed when I woke up, allowing me some time to inspect every little detail of the rarely seen bedroom of Mike 'The Miz' Mizanin. I began to smirk and almost laugh when I realised the colours of his walls. And of his sheets. And of some of the clothes that were littering his floor.

"You're not laughing at my room, are you?" Mike came in, carrying a cup of steaming coffee. "Not many people get the privilege of being in here, you should be more respectful."

"Has anyone ever told you that you own too much purple?" I asked coyly, watching as realisation dawned on his face. "You can stop making fun of me, now." He sat down on the bean bag chair next to the bed and leaned forward slightly.

"Purple is the colour of royalty." He informed me as he slightly held out the cup of coffee, causing me to reach out of it, "Oh," he said with a 'Miz Smirk' as he pulled his hand closer to his body, "Did you want some coffee?" I sat back on the low bed and crossed my arms under my chest, holding up the sheet as well as making my point. "I'm kidding." He laughed as he passed the cup over to me, moving to sit beside me on the bed.

I rubbed the side of my head as the beginning of a headache began to take place and watched Mike's face contort in worry.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, the game was a bit loud last night. It's catching up to me." I bought the cup to my lips.

"Are you sure? You don't need to see a doctor or anything?" He grabbed my free hand and checked my pulse. I let my eyebrow rise as he began to move about frantically.

"Mike, it's a headache." I pulled my hand away from him and spoke slowly and firmly, "I'm fine. We'd know if I wasn't. Besides, I had breast cancer, Mike. Both you and Ted need to realise that I didn't have a brain tumour."

"We just worry, Claire." Mike sat back down but I was still rather annoyed, "Are we not allowed to care?"

"Of course you're allowed to care!" I said loudly, "I'm happy that you care about me! But I'm not dying! I'm not a little kid! I don't need to be wrapped in cotton wool, okay? I get headaches. People get headaches!" I pushed the cup of coffee into his hands, some of it spilling over the side and hitting his hands – he then spilt it all over the bed and himself. I stood up and began to search for my clothes.

"You're actually upset about it, Claire? Really?" he asked as he stood behind me, stopping me from moving.

"Of course I'm upset." I muttered, pulling on my underwear, "No one will let me be me anymore. You all worry too much. I'm twenty seven years old and damn capable of worrying about myself."

I was about to pull my shirt over my head when Mike stopped me with a kiss. A kiss I wasn't going to fight.

"Calm down, please." He pleaded with me, "I know that you're old enough to look after yourself and I'm sorry if it seems like we're mollycoddling you." He sat me down on his bed and knelt down in front of me, "I've never been so scared in my life, Claire. When I found you in that elevator, I honestly thought I'd lost you forever." I gathered up the courage to look into his eyes and saw the most genuine Mike Mizanin look I had seen in a long time. 'The Miz' was nowhere to be seen, not even a trace of smirk or arrogance. "Then I found out that you had cancer. Dammit, Claire. It scared the shit out of me."

"I-" I tried to speak, but Mike kept talking.

"What if you had actually died, then what? I would have had to deal with the fact that you never told me you had cancer. I would have had to live with me being nothing but a prick to you since you came back. What if I'd never gotten to apologise? What if we'd never gotten here, Claire?" we were both in tears. I was fighting back sobs while he was trying to hide that he was crying at all, "I'm not going to stop worrying. Not until they have a cure for cancer and they're one hundred and fifty percent sure that it's never coming back. And I'm going to keep worrying, then."

I was at a loss for words. What the hell were you supposed to say to something like that? I stared into his eyes and saw that he was waiting for some kind of response, so I kissed him sweetly on the lips. It was all I could think to do.

"Thank you."

"Rack 'em up!" John Hennigan shouted loudly as he leant casually against his pool cue, watching as his girlfriend followed through with his request. Melina and John had come over for a drink and Alex had popped over, too. The cars in the driveway then prompted the unexpected appearance of Maryse.

Melina and I were facing Mike and John in a simple game of eight ball while Maryse and Alex were chatting away quietly on the couch.

"No need to feel bad when you lose, okay babe?" Mike came up behind me and dropped a kiss on my cheek, making me roll my eyes.

"Il ne faut pas vendre la peau de l'ours avant de l'avoir tué." I said in response, making Maryse laugh quite loudly. "It's good to know that I amuse you, Maryse. Good to know." I mumbled under my breath as I leant over the table to break. Mike's hand met my backside just as I went to hit the white ball, causing me to miss something terrible, "That's sabotage!" I giggled loudly, turning around to be caught in a kiss.

"Hands to yourself, Bonnet." John warned, "I can't have you distracting my partner." I told him to shove off before I pushed Mike away and walked around to the other side of the table, allowing him to break.

We had finished our fifth game of pool when Mike, John, Melina and Maryse disappeared into the kitchen to get drinks. I had become increasingly frustrated at my terrible skills. Once upon a time I had thought I was alright in the game but Mel and I had lost five games in a row to the boys and I hadn't pocketed anything at all.

I took their absence as a chance to practice and hopefully improve; it was no luck.

"Look, you're doing it all wrong." Alex told me as he stood beside me, watching me fail again, "Do you want some help?" he asked quietly as he moved himself behind me, putting his arms around me and holding to the pool cue, too.

My breath hitched in my throat as he put his hand over mine and helped me shoot, pocketing a ball with ease. We moved over slightly and another ball went in.

"It's really not that hard." His mouth was right next to my ear and I heard his words clearly, even if they couldn't have been more than a whisper.

"Oh, wow, sorry." Mel walked in only to walk back out straight away. I jumped up violently, smacking my shoulder against Alex's chin and causing him to fall backwards. "I didn't mean to intrude." She shot me a warning look and I shook my head at her.

"You weren't intruding on anything," I told her firmly. "I just suck at pool."

a/n I was on a role, alright? So I thought I'd update before I forget =D The next chapter is written too, and I like that chapter quite a lot... But I like this one, too. Showni13, tvrox12, quidditchandsonicscrewdrivers, Neurotic-Idealist and Julzi all kick ass for reviewing! I enabled anonymous review, too... So, if you'd like to hit me as an anon, you now can!

Translations:

Il ne faut pas vendre la peau de l'ours avant de l'avoir tué. – You shouldn't sell the bearskin before killing the bear (You shouldn't count your chickens before they hatch).