A/N: I don't own anything so don't sue. Mara owns herself. This is a one-shot for DivaliciousDooL. Please R&R. Enjoy.
A Stone Cold Stunner
"I'm telling you, Mara. That CM Punk is a no-good, low-down, yellow-bellied asshole. He thinks that just because I like to drink and he's straight-edge that he's better than me. Me! Stone Cold Steve Austin, the Texas Rattlesnake. There will be a snowball fight in hell before he gets to be better than me."
Mara Austin sat on a stack of equipment boxes backstage, watching impassively as her father ranted on about Punk. The two of them had just cut a promo in which her father had asked Punk if he wanted a drink and Punk had flipped his shit. Not that she blamed him. As a matter of fact, in this case, she blamed her father completely.
"Well, Dad, maybe if you hadn't asked Punk if he wanted a beer, he wouldn't have gone off on you," Mara pointed out. "After all, you do know that he's straight-edge."
Stone Cold stopped his antagonized pacing and turned to look at his daughter with a shocked expression on his face. "Wait a second, are you blaming me for this?" Stone Cold asked incredulously.
"I'm just saying that maybe some of it is your fault as well as Punk's," Mara said defensively. She sighed when her father gave her a hurt look. "Don't give me that look, Dad."
"My own daughter, turning on me." Stone Cold muttered, shaking his head miserably.
"I am not turning on you. But maybe you need to look at this situation from Punk's perspective as well."
"Why would I want to look at anything from his perspective? Like I said before, he's a no-good, low-down, yellow-bellied–"
"–asshole." Mara finished for her father. She rolled her eyes and hopped off the stack of boxes. "Right, well, I have to go. I promised AJ that I'd help her search for her missing boot." Mara stretched up on her tiptoes and pecked her father's cheek. "Try not to get into too much trouble while I'm gone," she teased.
Stone Cold smiled tenderly down at his petite daughter. She had gotten her shoulder-length brown hair and small appearance from her mother, but her fiery spirit and good sense of humor were all of his traits. He had no idea where her unusual almost-black eyes came from, but they only enhanced her natural beauty. She was his life and he would do anything for her. She rarely dated however, because whenever she brought a potential boyfriend home they would end up being so intimidated by him that they would end up running out of the house. And okay, maybe some of that had to do with the loaded shotgun he kept by his chair, but not just any boy could date his daughter. They had to pass his assessment first, and so far all had failed, much to Mara's annoyance.
"I'll try," Stone Cold promised.
Mara waved good-bye and started down the hall toward the Divas' locker rooms. As soon as she was around the corner and out of sight, however, she switched directions and headed down the hallway that led to the Superstars' locker rooms. Her conversation with her father was still on her mind as she passed numerous marked doors, none of them the one she was looking for. Stone Cold obviously had a strong dislike for Punk, and that worried her. But what worried her most was him finding out about her dirty little secret.
She finally reached the door that she had been searching for and raised her hand to knock, but before her fist touched the wood the door flew open, and a hand wrapped around her wrist and pulled her inside. She heard the door slam shut behind her, and she turned around and arched an eyebrow at the man standing next to it. "In a hurry, are you?"
CM Punk glanced at her, his brown eyes glittering with amusement and affection. "Sorry, but I didn't want to risk the chance of someone walking by and seeing you standing outside my locker room."
Mara sighed and sat heavily down on one of the benches. "I'm sick of all this sneaking around," she admitted, massaging her temples and looking up at him through her thick eyelashes. "At this point, I couldn't care less if someone saw us together."
"You might not, but I do." Punk said, crossing the room and sitting down on the bench beside her. He had his trunks and boots on already but his hair was still messy, as if he had just rolled out of bed a few minutes ago. He wrapped an arm lazily around her waist and gave her a lopsided smile. "I really don't feel like getting flayed by your dad."
Mara rolled her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder, suddenly exhausted. "Speaking of my dad, he went on a rant about you after your segment together."
"Oh?" Punk raised an eyebrow curiously. "Do tell me what delightful things he had to say." He picked up a chunk of her brown hair and let the strands fall through his fingers, hypnotized by their silky-smoothness.
"He called you a no-good, low-down, yellow-bellied asshole." Mara informed him. "In those exact words."
Punk chuckled lightly. "Stone Cold always did have a very colorful vocabulary," he joked.
"Punk, don't you think we should take this seriously? I mean, my dad's never liked any of the guys I've dated, but if he knew that I was seeing you, I'd be dead and you'd be...well, dead."
Punk pulled her closer and nuzzled the tattoo of a music note behind her right ear, placing a gentle kiss on it. "I'm not too worried," he whispered into her ear. "I've got you, and that's all that matters."
Mara smiled despite of herself, and she gazed adoringly up at him. "Well, as good as that makes me feel, I'd really like to be able to go out with you in public."
"And I'd love to take you out, but until we figure out a way to break the fact that we're dating to your dad, we'll just have to settle for forbidden locker room rendevous." Punk teased, kissing her throat.
Mara grinned at him, her black eyes shining. "How long do you have until your match?"
Punk smiled against her neck. "Long enough."
Mara slipped out of Punk's locker room, quickly straightening her shirt. She was tying the last lace on her boot when a stunned voice said, "Mara?"
Mara looked up and was horrified to see AJ Lee standing there, her mouth hanging open and her brown eyes wider than usual.
"AJ?" Mara exclaimed, beginning to get nervous. "How long have you been standing there?"
AJ didn't reply right away; instead she just stood there, staring at her, until she finally asked, "Why did you come out of Punk's locker room looking all disheveled?"
Mara suppressed the urge to groan. Well, the cat was out of the bag now. Mara only hoped that AJ was good at keeping secrets.
"Come with me," Mara said, grabbing AJ's arm and pulling her down the hallway to one of the supply closets. She opened the door and pushed the petite brunette inside before ducking in after her and closing the door.
"Mara, what is going on?" AJ demanded once they were alone.
"Listen AJ, I'm going to tell you something very important, but you need to keep it a secret. Okay?" Mara said, praying that AJ would understand.
AJ heard the urgency in Mara's voice and she nodded in agreement. "Okay, I'll keep whatever it is a secret."
"Thank you." Mara said, relief evident in her voice.
"Okay, so why were you coming out of Punk's locker room?"
Mara took a deep breath, knowing that what she was about to tell AJ could jeopardize everything. "I was coming out of Punk's locker room because I'm dating him," she admitted. "But my father doesn't know and he hates Punk so I have to keep it a secret. And you do too."
AJ's eyes had gone wide when Mara had admitted having a relationship with Punk, and she gasped, "You mean this whole time you've been going behind your father's back and dating the man he hates? That's so romantic, Mara! It's just like Romeo and Juliet!"
"Um, AJ, you do know that Romeo and Juliet both die at the end of that play, don't you?" Mara pointed out.
"Well yeah, but you and Punk aren't going to die."
"If you think that, then you don't know my father very well." Mara snorted. "Listen, if he finds out about me and Punk he'll put an end to it, and I don't want that to happen."
"Do you love him?" AJ asked in interest.
"I think so." Mara whispered, her confession shocking even herself. Punk made her very happy, but did she love him? Yes, she thought so.
"Awww." AJ cooed, grabbing Mara's hands and hopping up and down with excitement. "Well if you really love Punk, then you're going to have to tell Stone Cold about him. I mean he's going to find out eventually, and wouldn't you rather he finds out from you instead of someone else?"
Mara sighed. "I guess so. When do you think I should tell him?"
"Right now."
"What?" Mara gasped, shocked. "But I'm not ready!"
"Honestly, when are you ever going to be ready? You have to make a stand for the man you love, Mar. You're twenty-four. It's time to grow up and make your own decisions." AJ said firmly.
Mara thought AJ's words over. She was right, of course; she was a grown woman now, and she could make her own choices about who to date. Her father didn't have a say in the matter. Suddenly, Mara knew what she had to do.
"You're right," she told AJ, who looked thrilled that she had persuaded Mara to do the right thing. "I'm going to go tell my dad right now."
"Are you sure about this, Mar?" Punk whispered nervously in her ear as they made their way hand-in-hand to Stone Cold's locker room. Punk had initially been reluctant to go along with Mara's decision to tell their father about them, but when she had made it clear that she was going to do it, he had gone with her because he cared about her too much to make her do it alone. Now he was having second thoughts about the whole thing; after all, he didn't really feel like being on the receiving end of a Stone Cold Stunner. But he would do it for Mara anyways.
"I'm positive." Mara replied, her voice sounding more confident than she felt. It wasn't that she wasn't confident about her feelings for Punk, it was more that she was afraid of how her father would react. She didn't want him attacking Punk. She would just have to be firm, she decided.
They reached Stone Cold's door, and with one last glance at Punk, Mara rapped on the door.
After a moment's pause, the door swung open, and Stone Cold Steve Austin stood there in all his bald glory. He blinked down at Mara, slightly confused. "Mara? I thought you said that you were going to help AJ find her missing boot." That's when he caught sight of Punk standing beside her. "What the hell are you doing here?" His eyes dropped to their joined hands and his mouth dropped open in shock.
"Dad, we need to talk." Mara said, unconsciously shifting closer to Punk. Stone Cold noticed this and his eyes narrowed.
"Well, I'll say." Stone Cold muttered, stepping aside and waving the two in. He made a growling noise in the back of his throat when Punk passed him, and the Straight-Edge Superstar quickened his pace.
After slamming the door shut, Stone Cold turned to face his daughter and enemy, who were sitting side-by-side on one of the benches. "You get your hands off of my daughter, boy," he snapped at Punk, pointedly looking at Punk's arm around Mara's waist. Punk started to remove his arm but Mara grabbed it and kept it there, her eyes never leaving her father.
"Dad, obviously there's something that I haven't told you," Mara began, folding her hands in her lap. "Punk and I are dating; we have been for the past three months. I'm sorry that I never told you, but I'm tired of you running all of my boyfriends off, and since you said that you hated Punk, I figured that you would be even more mad. But I just want you to know before you start yelling that I love Punk, and I won't break up with him no matter what you say."
"And with all due respect, Stone Cold, I love your daughter. I would never do anything to hurt her, and I also would like to tell you that I personally have no feelings of hatred toward you in anyway. With that said, I also will not break up with Mara." Punk chimed in, his voice strong and determined.
Stone Cold looked from Mara to Punk and back again, and then he heaved a huge sigh. "Mara, I'm not going to yell at you," he told his daughter. "Although I'm disappointed that you lied to me for this long, I also respect your decisions, and even though Punk and I have had our differences in the past, I know for a fact that he's a respectable young man. If anybody had to date you, then I would want him to be the one."
Mara and Punk exchanged excited glances, and then Mara looked back at her father. "So...you're not going to make us break up?" she asked hopefully.
Stone Cold smiled a little bit. "No."
"Yes!" Mara cried. She hugged Punk fiercely and kissed him multiple times. Punk happily returned the hug and the kisses, despite Stone Cold standing a few feet away.
"But if you ever hurt my daughter in anyway, boy," Stone Cold warned him, his eyes glittering icily, "then I will personally flay your skin from your bones. Understand?"
"Understood." Punk said, giving one sharp nod.
"Now both of you get out of my locker room before I lose my lunch." Stone Cold ordered.
Mara and Punk happily obliged, and once they were alone in the hall Mara wrapped her arms around Punk's neck and gazed up at him, her black eyes glowing. "That went well."
"Yeah," Punk agreed, giving Mara a peck on the lips. "I guess Stone Cold's a big softie when it comes to you. That makes two of us."
Mara beamed and kissed him again, and then she rested her head on his chest and closed her eyes.
Maybe her father didn't hate Punk that much after all.
THE END
