Title: Tangled Up in You
Author: Karen U
Pairing/Character: Eve/CM Punk (eventual), AJ Lee, Daniel Bryan, others
Disclaimer: No one you recognize belongs to me
Rating: R/M
Summary: lying to the mentally unstable chick wasn't his best decision ever.
Spoilers: Over the Limit 2012; veers into my own little world after that
Warnings: language, violence, adult situations

Part One

He made his way down the hallway, a frown evident on the WWE champion's face. He was tired and sore from his title defense the night before, and he knew that despite the replay that showed that the referee had counted Daniel Bryan's shoulders down for the three before he'd tapped out, there was still some controversy about the way the match had ended. That, however, wasn't all that was currently weighing on CM Punk's mind. Yes, he was well aware that Daniel was very likely to try to get another title shot based on the events of the night before... but he was also a bit concerned about what had occurred before his match last night as well.

He was concerned about what was going on with AJ.

The sad thing was, she'd actually seemed like a decent enough girl when she'd first come up to the main roster. But recently... Well, he'd been telling the truth the week before when she had come up to him and he'd ended up calling her unbalanced. Not his best moment, he knew, but he'd never really been a man known for his tact. Besides that, tactless or not, it was true. The girl *was* unbalanced. She'd gone so nuts on Natalya during a match that she'd been disqualified in under a minute a few weeks before, and she'd slapped her best friend to the ground twice in the past month. And then there was the 'match' that AJ'd had against Kaitlyn. Like the one against Natalya, it had been incredibly brief, but AJ had actually won that one... Though part of Punk wondered if the quick victory had something to do with Kaitlyn herself; he wondered if possibly Kaitlyn hadn't wanted to fight her best friend... despite the slaps the smaller girl had already delivered in previous weeks.

And now, it seemed AJ had her rather deranged sights set on him. He figured, of course, that she'd only come up to him in the first place because of his match against Daniel Bryan. She was obsessed with Daniel, he was the one facing the guy... so he had the short straw in the 'who want a pyscho coming after him' sweepstakes. He'd hoped that blowing her off would let her know that he had no intention of being a pawn in her game to try to get Daniel back... or whatever the hell she was doing. The problem was, it didn't seem to have worked. If it had worked, then she wouldn't have approached him again at last night's pay per view. And while he'd simply walked away from her then, Punk kind of figured that if calling her unbalanced right to her face hadn't been enough to deter her, then he doubted that just walking away from her would bring him any better luck... Which could be a problem because he really didn't know just how far AJ would got to get Daniel Bryan back. And if AJ's fixation with Daniel had somehow managed to slide into a fixation with him... Well, then he was really screwed. He didn't want a six month (and counting) title reign to be completely messed up by some chick that had gone completely psycho. And maybe that was cold or whatever, because he knew she was messed up over the breakup with Daniel and that Daniel had been a total ass to her... But the thing was, that had nothing to do with him, and he sure as hell didn't want to be tangled up in their mess. Unfortunately, as he turned the corner and saw a small form jump up from her spot on one of the crates, he realized that he was already tangled up in it, whether he wanted to be or not.

"You match was amazing last night!" AJ Lee chirped at him, smiling winningly, the diva looking like she'd decided to completely forget about the fact that he'd totally blown her off and insulted her mental state the last two times she'd come up to him.

"Thanks," he muttered in response, his gaze going anywhere but on her. He didn't really want to be cruel to the girl, but damn it, why wouldn't she just leave him alone?

"Did you celebrate your win last night?" the diva continued in that perky voice that he was starting to find entirely too creepy. She stepped forward and touched his arm, the movement causing Punk to jerk because he hadn't been looking at her and therefore hadn't seen it coming. Glancing down, he saw that the woman was looking up at him in what he considered to be a decidedly creepy fashion. She probably thought it was sexy, but it was really just freaking him out. "You know, Punk... If you wanted, *I* could help you... celebrate."

Oh, great. Now the crazy girl really was coming onto him. There was no mistaking her tone or the look she was giving him.

He jerked his arm away from her, ignoring the flash of hurt - maybe anger - in her eyes as he pulled away. "Don't think that's a good idea."

She pouted at him. "Why not?" she wanted to know, and Punk didn't think 'you're a psycho looney' made for a good response. In fact, it would probably just make things even worse... Which meant he needed a good answer. A feasible answer. So CM Punk did the only thing he could think of.

He lied through his teeth.

"Well, you know, AJ... I don't think my girlfriend would appreciate it if I did something like that. You don't want to cause problems between me and my girlfriend, do you?"

She blinked at him. "I didn't know you had a girlfriend. Who is she?"

He cleared his throat. "Well, we're trying to keep it quiet," Punk improvised, and from the way AJ's eyes narrowed, he knew that wasn't a good enough answer for her.

"You're lying, aren't you? You're not really-"

"I'm not lying."

"Then who is she?" AJ demanded, an edge to her voice now, and Punk knew he had to answer her, so as he saw a diva head down the hallway in the opposite direction, he said the first thing that came to mind.

"You won't tell anyone, right? If I tell you?"

AJ blinked at him. "Of course not," she said, and Punk's harmless lie suddenly grew a lot bigger and less harmless as he spoke again.

"It's Eve. I'm dating Eve."