AJ nor Mike are booked on Smackdown, so they find themselves once more on a bus, heading for a house show being held a few hours away. Her fingers tap against the top of his hand and he glances over at her with a smile, his sunglasses doing little to hide the affection in his eyes for her. She cups his head and draws him in for a kiss, both ignoring Mizdow miming their actions in the seat behind theirs with much practiced ease by now. "I love you," he tells her.
"Love you too." She smiles and rests her head on his shoulder, the both of them staring out of the slightly grimy window at the passing countryside. "It's really nice here. I'd like to come back to explore it properly some day."
He nods, resting his hand in her hair and lightly stroking along her scalp. "Someday we'll do that, sweetheart," he murmurs, growing sleepy as the night wears on. "Maybe one of our milestone anniversaries... like, twenty five... or fifty..." She doesn't say anything and he glances down to find she'd dozed off against him and he smiles, slowly settling into sleep himself, daydreaming of what they'd be like all of those years in the future, still as dedicated to each other as right this moment...
After a few more days of the travel, live events, travel cycle, they find themselves back on a plane to America. All are relieved to be heading home, though none seem thrilled at having more jetlag to contend with, still trying to shake off the first round of it. "Grumpy Cat," AJ sighs. "Really? Really?"
He laughs and kisses her. "Hey now, you're stealing my lines." She pouts at him and he tsks. "You know you can use my lines whenever you want... but what's your problem with Grumpy Cat? She's kinda funny."
"Are you a Grumpy Cat fanboy, Miz?" When he shrugs, she gasps. "You are! Aren't you? Why didn't you tell me this before we got married?"
"What, you wouldn't have said I do because of such a minor thing?" He makes a face at her until she giggles helplessly, lifting his hand and lightly kissing his palm. "I didn't think so." He drops an arm around her shoulders and draws her in closer, kissing the top of her head. By the time they land, they're all eager just to sit in one place for awhile, even if it's in an arena or at a hotel, anything seeming better than a bus or airplane by then.
AJ holds his hand as they drive to the arena, then continues to grip it while they walk through the halls towards the locker rooms. She's just about to walk inside when she realizes that he's not with her, gaping at something in one of the side rooms. Backtracking, she stands by his side and glances inside, groaning in disbelief. The room is decorated almost overwhelmingly so and in the middle is a soft cushion with Grumpy Cat herself, blinking lazily around at the soft lighting. "Oh, God, why-" she's just asked when Mike enters the room, walking right up to the cat. "Mike, she might-"
But the cat doesn't hiss or raise any kind of a fuss, merely watching him as he approaches her and holds a hand out, waiting to see. When she still doesn't move to attack, he lightly strokes her furry forehead and grins, brushing his fingers down her back which arches slightly under his hand. "Hello, Grumpy Cat, I'm The Miz. We're both famous movie stars now, I guess. Depending on how your movie does, of course." As AJ hesitantly enters the room, he reaches out and pulls her closer. "This is my wife, AJ. I don't think she likes you much, but that's ok, she won't hurt you. Will you, AJ?"
She sighs and shakes her head at her husband's silliness, staring down into Grumpy Cat's wide, searching eyes. She can almost understand why Mike is talking to her, the cat's eyes boring into her like she could deduce answers to everything about AJ just by looking at her for a lengthy amount of time. "Are you going to talk to Grumpy Cat through Raw tonight?"
Miz grins against her and nods. "Maybe I will. Mizdow still needs to meet her, after all."
AJ releases something that sounds like a cross between a sigh and a groan and squeezes his fingers. She's not that surprised to see that Mike wasn't joking. He actually tries pitching movie ideas to the cat during Raw, buddy comedies and whatever else silly idea comes to his head... even brings the cat a stunt kitty, which is the most ridiculous thing AJ has seen in awhile. When Grumpy Cat doesn't respond to Mike's idea, he leaves in a huff... just to return a moment later to tell Grumpy Cat that he's a big fan and to kiss her on top of the head. AJ grits her teeth.
It's a little later in the show, she's still alone in her locker room, wondering where Mike's hiding at, when he reappears on the screen, once more with Grumpy Cat. He's suggesting another movie idea when he falls suspiciously quiet and the camera pans over to show Rowan standing there, staring at them through his sheep mask. AJ stands up and watches closely, worried for her husband, remembering LIAR sprawled across his chest, his wrists rubbed raw from being tied together, when he simply takes the stunt double kitten and leaves with it, Mike and Mizdow both clearly unsettled long after he's gone.
Only then does Mike venture back into her locker room, grousing to Mizdow at the loss of the kitten and his amazing movie ideas going nowhere, but AJ has her own responsibilities to contend with, watching Brie and Nikki's little exposition. She rolls her eyes, patting Mike on the face and kissing him quickly before skipping out to ringside to commentate. This only lasts a few minutes before she's at ringside, distracting Nikki and allowing Brie to win the match. When Nikki attacks Brie, AJ enters and helps the unfortunate Cinderbella... just to attack her herself and leaving her laying on the mat as well. She then skips backstage and all the way to Grumpy Cat's room, unsurprised to find her husband and Mizdow there again, trying to convince the cat to agree to co-star in another movie. She rolls her eyes and skips inside, ignoring the cat's piercing gaze as she makes it to her husband and cups his face, drawing him down so that she can kiss him, long and hard and all-encompassing. Miz is putty in her hands by the time she pulls away from him, turning to look at the cat for a moment before brushing her fingers against his lipgloss stained mouth. "Now that's a proper kiss," she says simply before turning and skipping back out of the door.
How Miz shakes that off in time for the eight man tag team match, she's unsure, but he does. Enough so that his team wins, even, and when he returns to her, she jumps up into his arms and hugs him. "Congratulations," she murmurs against his lips. "I have something for you..."
"Another brain melting kiss?" he offers with a smirk.
She hops back down and shakes her head, reaching over to pull out something that he quickly realizes is the new merch shirt of hers. "Nope... just this..." She presses it against his chest and turns it around so he can see it, eyes glinting as he reads the green and pink blocked lettering aloud.
"If I can't have you, no one will." He hesitates for a moment and glances around. "Um, did you do something to Grumpy Cat?" he asks, only slightly sarcastic. She smirks up at him and tilts her head before turning away and skipping towards the couch as he holds the shirt to his chest and watches her go. Joining her after a moment, he leans in. "By the way, I have something for you too... since Grumpy Cat seemed unenthused by everything... and you were very patient with me spending most of the show trying to convince her..." He looks around. "Mizdow should be by any second with it..."
AJ has just opened her mouth to grill him for more information on what Mizdow is bringing when the door is forced open and Mizdow slips inside, looking freaked out and worried, checking the halls once more before shutting and locking the door. "Um..."
Mike rolls his eyes and stands up, joining Mizdow. "Calm down!" he hisses. "Rowan's distracted, he won't think twice about this-"
"Yet if he-"
"No! He won't do anything, we have too much going on to be scared by him. You have to get your head in the game for the tag team match Sunday. Come on, Mizdow. Focus! Do you need to start back at lesson one with the mirror technique? I'd think you wouldn't want to fail my courses while so many other Mizfits are flourishing..."
"Of course not," he snaps, seeming offended by the very prospect.
"Good, then stop worrying." Snagging something out of Mizdow's hands, Mike releases a breath and turns back to his wife, forcing a grin on his face. "Here you go, sweetheart."
She stares at the thing in his arms for a long moment before reaching out for it. "You brought me Grumpy Stunt Cat?" She doesn't say anything for a long moment and Miz starts to look fearful that she'll tear it to shreds just for looking like Grumpy Cat, but eventually she relaxes and hugs it. "You're a ridiculous man, Mike. And you know I'm a dog person, especially after tonight... but I guess it's kind of cute." She pokes its nose and shrugs, smiling up at him. "Thanks."
"Thanks for giving me another of your shirts." He loosely wraps his arms around her, pondering again just how often her shirts are inspired by their relationship, but he shakes his head, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "You know you have nothing to worry about, right? No one could ever take my breath away like you do... especially when you do things like you did earlier."
She presses her face against his chest and nods slightly. "How about we go back to the hotel and I do that all over again?"
"Well, when you put it like that... what the hell are we waiting for, sweetheart?" She laughs as he grips her hands and leads her out of the room.