A/N: Happy New Years to all, and many thanks for the reviews :D
If he'd thought Monday and Tuesday were busy, it has nothing on Wednesday for Miz. First he has to spend an hour talking with Cole as Team Hell No retains their tag belts against Rhodes Scholars and CoBro beaten by the Primetime Players (which as always ends with him just talking a whole lot about his former tag team partnership with Morrison, which he has to admit, kinda hurts, still to this day. He wishes he could've done more to help his partner get his job back... but it is what it is)... then he has the Muppets on MizTV for Tribute to the Troops. It was supposed to be a simple interview but, while trying to get Kermit the Frog to fess up about his feelings for Ms. Piggy without thinking too much about his own wayward relationship woes, Damien Sandow's music begins to play. He closes his eyes, the last thing he wants or needs right now is to listen to this guy, but he has little choice.
The argument between them over the Muppets and MizTV and anything else under the sun becomes a full-flown match and Mike wins it. He stands over Sandow's downed body and sneers. "Stick to tag team wrestling," he snaps before heading up the ramp to celebrate with the Muppets. Amused when Ms. Piggy asks for a kiss on the cheek, Mike leans down to oblige just for her to get ahold of him and force a full-on kiss to the lips. When he pulls away, a goofy, dazed kind of smile on his face, she turns back to wave at the audience along with Kermit as if nothing had happened. Women! he thinks.
His night isn't over yet, however, when as soon as he goes backstage, he almost runs right into a somewhat familiar form. "Excuse me-" he says, looking up. His voice immediately dies away when he sees who's in his way. "Oh."
AJ Lee stands before him, head tilted with her eyes locked piercingly on him. "Well, hello there, Miz," she greets him, her voice low and more than a little tense. He can't help but feel like he's prey being eyed by a much larger predator, which is seriously ridiculous, but yet... She smiles, toying her with the ends of her hair as she peers up at him. "Making out with muppets, now, are we?"
He shakes his head, confused as always by her. Just the day before on MizTV she'd been all but rubbing it in his face that she was with Dolph now, and yet here she is, without Dolph or Big E. Langston, acting as though she's almost jealous by what'd just happened with Ms. Piggy. "What's it to you?" he asks, blanching when she almost winces away from him, her smile fading at the dull harshness to his tone. He doesn't mean to hurt her feelings, but he's really not sure how much more of this cat and mouse game he can take from her.
Her face quickly smoothes out, however, and she approaches him, her eyes flickering up now and again. "Was she a better kisser than I am?" she asks softly, her eyelashes fluttering as she grips him and pulls him down, pressing her lips to his. Her fingers digging into his scalp are barely a distraction, the pain prickling at him only a little as he finds himself drifting in the feel of her pressed against him as close as possible. This is wrong, he knows it's wrong- she's nearing her summer romance record of three men once more, between he, Ziggler and Cena, but he can't back away, doesn't really want it to stop. When she finally pulls away, he almost follows her, dazed. "I didn't think so." And just like that, she skips away, leaving him to gape after her in confusion. Like she's done to many men in her wake already, and will probably do to many more before she's through, he's sure.
He closes his eyes, shaking his head. "Women," he repeats slowly before walking the opposite direction of her, needing badly to find Alex- which is such a relief to have that as an option again!- and a much needed distraction from this whole mess.
After spending a few days with their family and friends, the WWE competitors converge once more for the weekly Monday night show on Christmas Eve. Despite various feuds ever lingering and one locker room being held hostage basically by AJ Lee and Dolph Ziggler celebrating their first holiday together, it's actually somewhat festive. Until, that is, Alberto Del Rio hits Santa Claus with his car and the whole locker room begins waiting on tetherhooks to see if the jolly red man pulls through. Del Rio remains defensive and Ricardo's sobs are heard echoing through out the hallways for the rest of the night, Miz grimacing as he walks past first their locker room, and then Dolph and AJ's, where soft music is playing, their low murmurs grating at him almost worse than Ricardo's inconsolable horror at what'd happened to Santa.
Thankfully he has a match that night and he waves half-heartedly at Alex as he goes out to join Kofi Kingston to wrestle Wade Barrett and Antonio Cesaro. Despite the loss of his title, and the scar he will forever bear on his brow thanks to the man who he'll now partner up with, he holds no ill-will towards Kofi. Respect had been born begrudgingly from that rivalry and he likes to think, with time, he had proven that Kofi could, if not trust him, at least work alongside him in situations like these. After all, he'd been on his best behavior during the Team Foley vs Team Ziggler Survivor Series match, no matter how much everyone on his team had disliked him. Has to count for something, right?
And it does, because they win. Despite his and Kofi understanding each other a little bit better, he doesn't want to take his chances so he leaves his temporary tag partner behind and goes to find Alex in catering. He's so wrapped up in his own thoughts he doesn't even realize where in the arena he's at until a door opens in front of him, blocking his way. As soft music filters out, all good feelings seep out of him and he stiffens, expecting a fight of some sort. But no, Dolph isn't who appears in the hallway before him.
Instead, it's AJ and she doesn't seem to notice him at first until he tries to turn and leave in the other direction. It's the long way to catering but if it keeps him away from her, then so be it. But he fails in being sneaky, her voice causing him to freeze midstep like a high school student caught by the teacher. "Mike?"
"What do you want?" he asks, half-turning to look at her as though, should he gaze upon her completely, his eyes would burn as if staring into the sun.
He can just see out of the corner of his eye that she's wearing a shredded up version of Dolph's blue Stealing the Show... and Your Girlfriend shirt, and he has to admit it looks very good on her. Even so, she looks almost hesitant and small as she shifts from one foot to the next, a far cry from the girl who sicc'd Big E Langston on him the week before, or even the one who'd kissed him just a few days ago. She takes a breath, runs her fingers through her hair carefully so as not to dislodge the red flower pinned there, and sighs. "I just wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas. I hope you get everything you want."
His laugh is bitter and faint and now he does turn to look her right in the eye. "Oh really? Reaaaaally?" he draws the words out, watching as the hurt intensifies upon her face. Reigning himself in slightly, Mike takes a step back from her, not wanting to do this. Not now. Not today. He runs a hand along his forehead and releases a deep breath. "Merry Christmas, AJ." Unable to watch her any longer, he turns and continues on to catering. She has Dolph, he thinks. She'll be fine.
He finally makes it and Alex bounds right over to him, a sea of enthusiasm and energy since returning from his injury. He sobers up, however, when he catches sight of Mike's face, wrapping a snug arm around his shoulders and drawing him further into the softly decorated room, Christmas music playing over everyone's conversations. "Hey, man, what's wrong?"
He ponders if he really wants to talk about it, not that Alex is the type to force him into talking when he doesn't want to. Finally he just sighs, spits out, "AJ," and leaves it at that. Sure enough, the younger man just nods quietly and leaves him for a moment, returning with a plate stacked high with various sugar cookies decorated festivally.
"What do you say, to take our minds off of all this, we eat these all and then we go Skype Morrison and wish him a Merry Christmas? I hear congratulations are in order anyway, he's finally getting those OOYM fitness DVDs ready for presale."
Mike takes a cookie and nods, relieved that Alex had suggested that. If anything could distract him from what a mess everything'd become in the past month, it'll be Skype-ing with his two closest friends. "That sounds like exactly what I need right now." He smiles, licking some frosting off of his fingers.