February 12, 2012

When Punk finally left the safety of the bathroom Kofi opened his mouth to speak but when he got a good look at Punk's face he closed his mouth. Punk thought Kofi had a talent for judging his moods but he knew that Kofi couldn't stay quiet for long and Punk probably should get things off his chest before his head exploded.

Punk pitched forward, face down on his bed.

"Would you mind telling the road agent that I'm suffering from some horrific Middle Eastern plague," Punk said, his words muffled by the pillow his head was resting on.

"Why? Didn't you work things out with John?"

"Not exactly."

"Oh, hell, what did you do?"

"Cut and ran for it while he was still sleeping."

"John is not going to be a happy camper."

"I also told Ziggler I would come by his room last night. I was finally going to put an end to the insanity that had overcome me where he is concerned."

"You're going to have both John and Ziggler hunting you down tonight. Although I hate to lie I think if anyone needs to be suffering from a fictitious disease it's you. I'll tell the road agent you're sick but I think you need to man up and sort this mess out."

Punk turned over and grabbed his cell phone that he had abandoned when he went to John's room. There were numerous missed calls and texts from Ziggler. He wasn't expecting the same from John. John was more likely to corner him in person at some point tonight.

He and Kofi made their way to the arena and into the locker room. He wanted to keep his head down and pretend that there weren't two sets of eyes boring into him. He looked up and met John's eyes first. John looked so hurt and confused. John jerked his head to the door of the locker room but Punk just shook his head. When he looked for Ziggler he found that Ziggler was no longer looking at him but glaring at John instead. Punk wished he could avoid them both forever but that was going to be impossible. Punk again accompanied Kofi to the arena entrance to watch his match with Jericho. Unfortunately Jericho came out on top this time. When Kofi returned he didn't look all that put out.

"Win or lose, the more I wrestle Jericho the more I can dial in on his style. I'm going to be the one pinning him in the Elimination Chamber. Maybe I'll get a shirt that says "Best in the World at Beating the Best in the World."

"I don't think that will fit on the back of a shirt."

Punk watched Kofi's smile disappear as he looked at a spot over his shoulder. Punk was afraid to turn around but knew that whoever it was he had it coming.

"Where were you last night?" Ziggler asked, his question having and air of hurt and not his usual pompous inflection.

"Something came up."

"You mean something with John came up. I'm not blind you know. I saw the way John was looking at you in the locker room."

"Do you really want to have this conversation at the gorilla position which everyone on the roster has to frequent at some point tonight?"

"You're right. This probably isn't the time for exhibition."

"I promise I'll show up tonight, regardless of what other things might come up."

Punk found that winning could alter his current disposition because after his and Ziggler's match Punk's win had lightened his mood considerably. Ziggler made his way backstage with Punk making his way back after a few minutes of playing up to the crowd. His good mood took a nosedive when he passed through the curtain and walked into the fray that was already in progress.

"No, you shut the fuck up! You ran around with Ryder behind his back and that is your own fucking fault. He's never going to forgive you. No matter what you do you could never make him happy again so back off. If you have any tiny shred of feeling for him left you'll step the hell off and let him be happy," Ziggler was screaming, practically nose to nose with John.

"You don't have the first clue what it takes to make Phil happy. I would love to see you fail spectacularly because he's mine and he always will be but I don't want you anywhere near him. You will always be his second choice."

"I'd rather be second choice than have no chance at all because I screwed it all up. I'm not a moron like you. I'll take what I can get and teat him like he deserves. He'll forget all about you eventually and I'll be the one holding his hand when he gets your name erased from his body."

"What…how do you even…" Punk watched as all the color drained from John's face at Ziggler's last volley. Punk's moment of pure insanity with Ziggler was now outted and John looked crushed. After all, there was only one way that Ziggler could have acquired that sensitive bit of information. Punk just couldn't let his go on for any longer.

"Can you both stop, please?" Punk asked quietly, completely out of character. His usual response to a situation like this would be to join in. Both men looked his way, John and Ziggler both realizing that Punk had been present for a portion of their screaming match.

"Punk!"

"Phil!"

Both men chorused simultaneously.

"I'm not some toy to be fought over in the sandbox. I take full responsibility for things getting to this point. If you two could just wait until we get back to the hotel I promise things will be settled by the end of the night. John, I believe you have a match and I need a shower. I'll see you both tonight."

Although Punk had determined that this couldn't go on for any longer it didn't mean that he wanted to have those two conversations. He even agreed to go out with the rest of the guys for dinner, to put off the inevitable for another hour or so and to get his head straight.

Punk returned from dinner and was immediately accosted in the hallway.

"You're coming to my room, now," John said, grabbing him by the bicep and forcefully leading him down the hall to his room.

"I have something I need to do first," Punk said, digging in his heels and stopping their movement.

"What? Ziggler? He can wait."

"No, it really can't."

"You ready to talk or whatever," Ziggler said as he stopped beside Punk, grasping his other bicep in his hand. He could feel John's nails bite into his skin. Punk jerked his arm free of both men.

"If you two persist in treating me like a possession then the answer to both of you will be no way in hell!"

Both men immediately backed off.

"Ziggler, let's go to your room."

"Phil!"

"I'll talk to you later, okay?" Punk just turned and followed Ziggler to his room not wanting to see the look on John's face.

"Now that we don't have an audience how about we engage in some behavior that's not fit for public consumption?"

"That's never going to happen. Whatever it is between us has to stop."

"Don't say that you don't want to be with me. I've seen the look on your face when we're together."

"You're not wrong. To be honest you have a whole list of qualities that I find appealing but at this point you would be my rebound and I'll only end up hurting you because this thing with me and John, it's going to take a while for the connection to loosen enough so that I can be with someone that isn't him, giving that person a fair chance."

"I don't want some chance down the line, I want you now, however screwed up in the head you might be."

"That's hardly fair to you."

"I don't care about fairness. I can deal with you being fractured emotionally as long as I'm the one to put you back together. I can make you happy, we both know I can, all you need to do is give me a chance."

"I can't," and Punk made his was to the door.

"You're wrong. I'm not going to give up because I know I'm right."

"Can't you just do what I'm asking for?"

"Never. I don't know how to just give something up when I know how much it's worth."

Punk walked out into the hallway and leaned against the wall. The conversation with Ziggler did not work out the way he had wanted. Ziggler would not just let him go without a fight. He was ready to give Punk all the things that John couldn't. Punk almost didn't want to go to John's room when the conversation with Ziggler had not gone even remotely like he had planned. Punk knew he couldn't go back to his room and throw the covers over his head. He had to talk to John and he had to do it now. He knocked on John's door and found himself jerked into the room forcefully, John pinning him to the door with a hand on his chest. With his other hand John reached below the waistband of his shorts, digging his nails into his tattoo.

"How the fuck did Ziggler know about this!"

"I almost did something stupid, but I put a stop to it before anything happened."

"Nothing happened?"

"Nothing."

"Alright, I can accept that," and John pulled back, walking in to his room and sitting down on the bed. John had left room for Punk to sit next to him but Punk elected to stand in front of John."

"Why weren't you here when I woke up this morning?"

"I had to get out of here."

"Why?"

"Honestly, I don't know. It was my first instinct."

"Didn't last night mean anything to you?"

"It did, but one night isn't going to fix things between us. Ryder isn't on this trip. If he was that would have never happened."

"Why are you so jealous of him?"

"I'm not jealous of him, I'm disappointed in you."

"Why do you want to hurt me like this?"

"Your behavior with Ryder tore me apart. If you're feeling even half the hurt I do you'd realize that something has to change."

"If Ryder was out of my life would you come back?"

"I wish I could say that you've hurt me irreparably and there's no way to fix it but that would be lying. If Ryder was gone I would come back. It would take some time for things to get back to the way there were."

"How long would you give me?"

"To do what?"

"To decide whether I destroy a friendship or destroy us?"

"The end of Raw. If you can't figure out who you want to be with by then, well, there's no hope for us at all."

John rose from his seat and walked toward Punk, who stopped him with a hand on his chest. "No. Let's not confuse things more than they already are. You need to decide and until you do it's probably best that we don't have contact."

"Are you and Ziggler through?"

"I told him that nothing could ever happen between us but he doesn't seem to be very accepting of that."

"Well, I know how that feels. I wouldn't let you go either."

February 11, 2012

It was the last show in the UAE and John was as good as his word, keeping his distance from him. He would be saying the exact opposite of Ziggler if the road agents hadn't finally done something in his favor. For the last show it was Kofi that took on Ziggler, beating him after a hard fought match. Kofi had been at his best on this trip and while Laurinaitis seemed not to know Kofi's value it was more than apparent to Punk. He ended up teaming with Truth against Jericho and Miz. Truth was starting to grow on him. He may be batshit crazy but he was immensely entertaining. He and Truth got the win but Punk really couldn't say that he had much to do with it. The animosity between Miz and Truth took center stage and Punk and Jericho were never in the ring together. The roster went back to the hotel, packing their things to catch their flight back to the states for Raw, leaving the UAE behind. Punk just wished he could leave the mess he found himself in behind as well.

AN: This took longer than expected due to my total marking out last Monday. Apparently all the talking to my TV I've done has not imbued it with artificial intelligence because I kept yelling, "Shut the fuck up!" but the TV neither muted itself or changed over to another channel. I'm lucky I wrote this early this morning because now I'm confronted with the John Cena car accident report. WWE, you're killing me here!