If John was worried when he'd made it back to their hotel room after the Royal Rumble, it was nothing compared to what he felt the next day leading up to RAW. Punk had remained uncharacteristically quiet and John's attempts to get him to talk had fallen flat.

He had refused to talk about the attack the night before and it had almost caused a fight between them. John had pulled up short, however because that almost defeated look he'd seen in Punk's eyes the night before hadn't left.

"You ready?" John asked after they were both dressed and prepared to head out.

"Yeah," Punk answered quietly, distractedly. Maybe John should have been a bit angry at the way he was acting because it sure seemed like Punk was cutting him out but he couldn't be. He could only be worried. This was just so very out of character…

Even more so, Punk did not protest when John lifted both of their bags and he followed John out of the hotel silently. John did start to get a little angry the longer it went on but none of that anger was directed at Punk.

Whatever Jericho had done, because he was sure that it had to of been Jericho, it had to of been bad and John wanted to find the man and beat some sense into him. He was maybe looking forward to getting to the arena just for that reason and even though he had promised before that he would leave it alone, that he would let Punk handle it, he couldn't ignore the way that Punk had been acting, and he couldn't ignore what Jericho was doing to him.

Xxxxxxxxx

Any enjoyment Punk might have gotten out of the prospect of Triple H firing John Laurinaitis on live television was gone. He was not looking forward to entering the arena for the first RAW after the Royal Rumble.

Chris' words were still playing in his head and he hadn't slept. His back was still killing him and he knew John was worried.

He couldn't keep his head in the game, which he recognized was a bad thing as soon as he was booked in a match with Bryan. He'd been in a number of matches with Bryan in Ring of Honor and he knew just how good Bryan was, knew that he'd lose-and probably quickly-if he couldn't shift his focus from what Chris had said to Bryan.

Punk had slipped away from John sometime before his match, while Randy Orton and Dolph Ziggler were beating the hell out of each other after his phone buzzed. He'd only glanced at the text message before heading out and finding the room.

Chris was alone in the room when Punk opened the door and went inside and Punk scowled at the smirk on Chris' face, his fists clenched and it took all of his willpower not to knock Chris' teeth out.

"Think about what I said?" Chris asked, coming closer, stopping about a foot from Punk.

"Would I be here if I hadn't? Trust me, I don't want to be anywhere near you."

"But you are here," Chris noted, grinning. "So, we're going to do this my way."

"You didn't give me much a choice did you?" He paused. "I really hate you, you know that?"

"I hate you too, believe me." Chris took yet another step closer and pulled his phone out. "We doing this or what?"

Punk reached forward and his hand fisted in Chris' shirt. "You know this isn't going to stop me from kicking your ass later, right? Because I am going to kick your ass for this."

"I'm sure you'll try. Now…"

Punk hesitated, feeling sick at his stomach for what he was about to do but still pulled Chris closer, leaned forward and pressed his lips against Chris'.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Turned out, he didn't get a clean finish with Bryan anyway. Chris, it seemed, had decided to add to take his personal hatred for Punk and make it public by ending the match himself.

Punk lay on the mat for several minutes, recovering from the Code Breaker and wondering if Chris had sent that damned video to John yet. When he made it backstage and couldn't find John, he was sure Chris had.

Feeling like he was going to be sick again, Punk set about getting out of his wrestling gear and changing into his street clothes. John was likely angry and Punk had rehearsed what he was going to say in his head over and over again, each time causing the knots that had formed in his stomach to tighten just a bit more.

When he glanced up at the monitors, saw Kane come out to torment Eve, he knew that John would be out too. He wasn't disappointed. John did come out and, for the first time, got the upper hand on Kane.

The beating John gave Kane surprised him and the smile on John's face while he delivered it would have rendered him speechless if he had of been talking to anyone. He was sure, right then, that Chris had gotten what he wanted. And maybe Kane had as well…

Xxxxxxxxx

His phone was lying in pieces on his locker room floor. He had thrown it against the wall before going out to fight Kane. He had thrown it after receiving that video. The anger…pain…betrayal was so overwhelming in that moment that John had had a hard time dealing with it.

He was sure that his feelings for Punk went a little deeper than like.

It was unmistakable in the video. The picture he had received before could be explained away. He could say that Jericho could have been the one who kissed Punk, that he'd surprised Punk but this wasn't the case with the video. Punk was clearly the one doing the kissing. He had clearly been the one to pull Jericho to him.

John felt like an idiot. He'd been so worried about Punk before. He'd been concerned when Punk had disappeared shortly after his match with Bryan had been announced, had been worried that Punk wouldn't fare well in that match considering how distracted he was and how his back was still hurting him.

But all that worry had transformed into pain and rage as soon as he had watched that video and he had taken that out on Kane. He didn't feel any better when he made it backstage again and he still went to the hotel to confront Punk about it.

There was still this almost desperate hope that it was all a mistake, that the video was a mistake somehow but his hopes were dashed as soon as he spoke to Punk.

Xxxxxxxxx

John was angry. He shoved past Punk as soon as he opened the door to the hotel room for him and walked inside, standing several feet away from Punk. He also did not waste time.

"You know, I don't have the video right now because I threw my phone against the wall but you want to explain why you were kissing a guy that has attacked you three times?"

Punk opened his mouth to answer but the words he had planned out refused to make it past his lips at first. He could see pain in John's blue eyes as well, pain he had put there and he looked down, breaking eye contact.

"Not going to say anything?" The anger in John's tone was building.

"I kissed him," Punk admitted, looking back up at John.

"Yeah, I saw that," John answered. "What I want to know is why?" His jaw was clenched so hard that his teeth were grinding together as he waited for Punk's answer.

"I guess I was wrong before." He paused, took a breath and forced the words out. "When I said I was over him, when I said that I could do this with you…"

"You were wrong," John repeated. "So, what? You're going to go back to a guy that obviously hates you?"

Punk laughed, the sound bitter and half way to hysterical. "No…I don't know. I just can't…I can't be with you either."

"Right." John blinked several times and this time it was him that broke eye contact. He wiped a hand over his face, over his eyes. "Right."

"I'm so-" But John held up a hand, cutting off the apology and before Punk could say anything else, he was skirting past him and left the room with a slam of the door. For several seconds, Punk simply stood there before he turned, pressing his palm against his forehead. He dropped down on the edge of his bed, his hands coming up to press against his mouth, almost like he was praying.

But he didn't believe in God and he certainly didn't believe he deserved to be forgiven for what he'd just done. What he did believe was that he had definitely fallen for John, that he most likely did love John, and that he had just completely destroyed that.