"See, I'm reading from your reaction that you're not thrilled, still, which I find bizarre, honestly, because this would have been, like, the happiest I ever was, coming home to a new puppy."
Paul only made a face at Steph as, following success in Saudi Arabia, he'd arrived home late one evening to find her still up, waiting on him. Not out of love or commitment or even lust which, out of the three, would have been what he was hoping most for (although, he was a bit sleepy…). No, Steph might have those (if he was lucky), but her reason for staying up so late was rooted, rather, in what was hiding behind her chair.
"What's wrong with this dog then, Steph? Won't even greet me?" he griped half-heatedly as he only dropped his bags to the ground before coming closer. When he did, the little puppy took more steps back, as to keep a distance between them, but Paul wasn't too interested in her anyways.
"Mmmm," Stephanie hummed into their kiss, him leaning down and her leaning up, to meet in the middle. When she pulled back some, she only blinked up at him sleepily. "She's just scared. She doesn't know you yet, Daddy."
"Well, I would say it's good then that I already have a guard dog," he continued to complain with that heavy frown of his, "but then, where is he anyways? Andre?"
"He's pouting out in the backyard."
"Pouting?" Paul asked, as if the idea that a dog could feel such an emotion as to elicit that reaction. And, while he still didn't believe that one could, he most certainly knew that his wife loved to claim they could (along with with a whole bunch of those feelings she insisted dogs held). In the real world, fine, dogs didn't pout. But in his house? "Over what?"
"What do you think?"
"Andre not feeling up for being the older sibling, huh?" Finally taking a step back to stare down at the new dog, seeing her in person for the first time. "Can't blame him."
The idea of getting more than one dog at a time had been tossed around even back when Bluto was alive. But back then, they were having the girls at a rate where it just never felt right. Adding a new puppy to three kids under the age of five didn't sound enjoyable, at all, and by the girls were maybe ready for a new dog, Bluto was rather old. And that didn't seem very fair.
The second they got Andre though, it was with the intention of eventually getting him a playmate. Bluto, their fist dog, had enjoyed being a solo guardian of the house and loved his solitude, but Andre was different from the hump. He was very social whenever another dog was around and, though he tried hard to fill Bluto's paw prints, Paul trusted the house security system far more than he trusted Andre ripping an intruder's arm off.
Which was fine.
A lot of Bluto's protective qualities carried over from the times Steph was pregnant. He got more and more conscientious of people coming over to the house following each pregnancy and seemed to take the idea of keeping his mother and the girls safe as his job. Paul figured it was animal instinct or something that caused this and was actually thankful for it in some ways. He knew no one would ever conceivably be able to get to his wife or children, but if they did, having the Mastiff around had been a bit of a relief.
He was a good dog. A great dog. As far as protectors went, he was the best there was.
But...there was something nice about Andre that Bluto didn't have.
When he was a puppy, Bluto had latched onto Steph immediately. He was her first baby, after all, and as she and Paul seemed to constantly be on different schedules, they only grew closer. By the time Aurora, their oldest, was able to interact with the dog, he'd already pretty much decided the only person worth playing with was Stephanie. Of loving was Stephanie. He liked the children, considering they came from Stephanie, and he liked Paul sorta, considering he was always around Stephanie, but no one else seemed to be as special to him as his mother.
Andre, however, was introduced to the girls at the perfect age. He really did seem to bring them out of their funk over poor Bluto having to be put down as well. They all three found reasons to love him immediately. Where Bluto liked to lay around and brood, Andre liked to run around and play. If they were getting into stuff, he was getting into stuff. If they were splashing in puddles, he was splashing in puddles. If they were in trouble, more than likely he was too.
Andre was a lot like having a little brother while Bluto had been like having a sleeping giant that would shove you out of the way to get to Mommy first and then hog her the whole time.
That didn't mean that Andre did take his training seriously. Paul had taken him to obedience class and also trained him a bit at home, like he had Bluto back in the day, to keep guard over things. None if it too, really, but that was more because Andre didn't care for it too. And Paul was too tired, honestly, to spend much time on training.
The dog could sit and stay and came when called.
What the heck else did they want from him, huh?
He was trying.
At least that's what his mommy always said.
"Well," Stephanie was saying then as Paul and the new puppy watched one another. "I think she's very pretty. And sweet."
"You're the one saying she and Andre are having issues."
"They're not," she corrected. "Him and girls are."
The girls. They were the whole reason for the new dog.
Paul had to go away for a bit, to go take care of business overseas (and preform, but whatever), and they were all pretty upset about it. They felt like he hadn't been home very often recently and neither had their mother and it wasn't fair and, yeah, that was all valid, but Paul was pretty sure if he just threw a puppy at them, it would solve everything.
He and Stephanie had been talking about it more and more and the girls really were helping take care of Andre very well. Most importantly though, his youngest had cried to him a few days after 'mania about him not being home and her being lonely and that Andre liked the others more than her and that she hated eating vegetables and, well, Paul couldn't fix two of those things, but he could fix one.
The phone calls that he got the day after leaving, when Steph surprised the girls with the new puppy, were by far the best pickup he needed after a long flight. He had so much on his plate and hadn't had a chance to truly breath since Wrestlemania ended, but damn, his girls were happy.
That made a lot of things better.
"They keep ignoring Andre now, for her. It's hurting his feelings."
Except for Andre.
"Well, that's not right," Paul told his wife as he finally bent over to lift the new dog into his arms. She tried to scramble away, but he wasn't having it. Just held her closer. "Did you tell them that he needs attention too?"
"All the time. But it's obvious that they want to spend more time with her." When he came close enough again, Stephanie reached out to gently pat the head of the mastiff puppy snuggled in his arms. "I understand where they're coming from though. She's so cute."
"Stephanie-"
"I'm supplementing as much love and attention into him as I can," she defended. "He knows his mama loves him. It's just his sister's he's not sure about."
"I'll talk to them about it," he said as he moved to set the new puppy down before going over to the backdoor. "In the morning. Has she pissed?'
"She's a girl, daddy. She doesn't...piss."
"Steph-"
"She's all ready for bed," the woman giggled as he opened the backdoor to coax Andre into coming back in. "She wants to snuggle with us though, Daddy."
"She can go snuggle a cactus for all I care."
"Hey-"
"Men," he said as Andre came rushing through the door to greet his father, "stick together."
Which wasn't wholly true as the first thing Andre wanted to do upon reentering the house and giving his father a good sniff was to go try and climb into his mother's arms as well. This didn't work well, but it did get Stephanie to set down that filthy other dog that, over a week out, he still wasn't too certain about.
Though he was fiercely protective of his mother (she was his entire world), Andre was also an equal opportunist. When Paul wasn't around, he slept in bed with the woman, where she would rub his belly and tell him what a good boy he was, but when the man was home, he either had to sleep on the drafty wooden floor (it was terrible) or his doggy bed in the den. Or, even better, he'd just sneak into one of the girls' rooms when Stephanie was telling them good night and have his run at whatever stuffed animal or toys were left about.
Since that new dog had arrived, however, he was insistent that he go to bed with his mother, as to be sure the puppy didn't. This was fine as, so far, all three girls were still infatuated with the animal and, though she'd go and retrieve it later to go to the bathroom one last time, Stephanie would put the puppy in one of the girl's rooms. They were taking turns. As she heading off to bed with Andre, she informed Paul that it was Vaughn's turn with the dog and asked if eh could drop her there when he went in to check.
He agreed and told his wife that he'd be up soon.
As in as soon as he figured away to separate her and her own mutt.
The new puppy dog tried to follow her new brother and mother, but Paul lifted her into his arms as he went back over to his bags were.
"You're stuck with me for a few minutes," he informed the dog who wiggled to be put down. He was fearful that she would immediately take off after Stephanie and Andre, but she didn't. When he sat her back on her feet, she only stood there, staring up at him, tentatively wagging her tail. And, even though it hurt a bet, he bent down to give her head a few good pats.
She followed along as he dropped his bags in laundry room and then back to the kitchen to get something to eat. She was super excited when he dropped her a cold hot dog. Paul knew she would be. After all, he had tricked two other dogs into being his friend before.
The puppy didn't much like it, however, when he went to drop her in his youngest daughter's room, pawing at the door after him as he shut it gently behind him, but he was sure she eventually went to sleep. Andre liked it even less when he went to get him away from his mother and force him to go stay in his middle daughter's. But, for as tired as he was, he sure was glad for it when he finally went to cuddle into his bed with his wife.
She tried hard, but even she had trouble denying that she didn't dislike it either.
The next few days felt foggy, but better, honestly, than they had in Saudi Arabia. It wasn't so much that he didn't like travel or going new places, as he did, but without Stephanie it felt rather boring. When they'd travel together, they'd usually not get to see one another for most of the day, at most meeting up for lunch, maybe, but at least when they were both in the same area, it was easier to call and text without waking the other.
He didn't mind days alone and being able to sleep alone in bed wasn't terrible when you weren't, you know, planning on doing anything. Steph talked, a lot, and a lot of the time about stuff he didn't care about. And he was able to stretch out completely, alone, without complaint. Got all the blanket to himself.
But it felt incomplete. He and Stephanie didn't get a lot of time to spend together during the day even in normal circumstances, but they always had their evenings. Missing out on one or two wasn't terrible, but when he stayed away for over a week, it got a bit ridiculous, the way he missed her. He felt like he shouldn't be so silly about the whole thing, he had to work after all, but he just got into his own head a lot. Stephanie was the only one that was too good at getting him out of it.
Plus, he missed his daughters. Being eight hours ahead of them sucked. He still talked to them, but it was rough. And he knew that when he wasn't home, they more or less run wild. Stephanie wasn't too hard to manipulate and, well, their daughters were the best at it. In fact, had he not signed off on the new dog, there was a good chance with him being away for so long that they'd have conned Steph into it anyways.
Life still felt a bit disjointed, however, being back and all. Work was entering that post-Mania lull and home was turned upside down because of the entrance of a new member. The girls were all in love with their new little baby and spent as much time as they could showering her in love. To combat this, Andre took to, well, actually to doing nothing more than moping around and glaring quite heavily in the direction of the fun that was being had.
All truth told, he wasn't too against the idea of the new dog as, honestly, it brought him more attention from the one person he truly wanted it from.
"Oh, Andre, are you jealous, baby? Mama's sorry. Come here."
It made Paul gag, honestly, to hear his wife fawn over the dog, but in some ways, it was also kind of welcome.
It was a bit of a sausage party, in Saudi Arabia, and being around women again, his girls, honestly, specifically, was welcome. He liked combing hair and listening to playground drama. Long locks and wasteful dramatics weren't too far from the world in which he worked, to be honest.
The girls were so wrapped into the new dog that, honestly, it was a bit before Paul was able to truly form any sorta bond with her. But, once it was there, it was strong.
Everyone was in bed, even he and Steph moments before, but he woke up to the crack of thunder outside and, after debating it a bit, his thirst won out and he got up to go get a drink from the kitchen. While passing his oldest daughter's room though, he heard the dog whining to be let out and, fearful of the dog either having an accident or waking Aurora, he moved to let the poor pup out.
"You know," he grumbled as he led her downstairs, "Andre had a cage to sleep in, when he was your age."
She did too, actually. The girls just found it to be very mean to make her stay locked up in one when Andre, who mostly only went in for short periods, didn't have to.
When he tried to kick her outside, into the storm, to take a piss though, the dog refused to go.
"What's wrong with you then?" he asked. "Huh?"
But thunder shook the house once more then and, as she cowered against him, he beamed a bit before reaching down to pat her on the head.
"Scared, are you?" he asked as he lifted her into his arms then. "Well come on, let me get something to drink. We can ride this out together."
He took her to the living room where, sitting her down beside him on the couch, he sipped at his water while she huddled against him, fearful of every thundering roar the storm gave off. It took about half an hour for things to calm back down again, but he stayed up with her anyways regardless of how he desperately wanted to go back to sleep.
Having daughters had softened Paul a lot. He was very sensitive to others emotions. Even his stupid dogs, apparently. She was scared, clearly, by the noise and he wasn't gonna let her be scared alone. Besides, short of taking her to bed with him for Steph to coo over, she'd only wake one of his daughters if he put her back with them. No, it was the only option, he decided.
"Mmmm," Steph groaned when, finally, he returned to her after depositing the equally as sleepy puppy back in bed with his oldest. Stephanie snuggled closer to him the second he was near, but didn't seem to truly be awake. She just wanted warmth.
She and the new dog weren't too different.
That next night though, when Paul went to check on the girls one last time, the puppy got up to follow him out of the room. He wanted to just shut the door on her and go to bed with Steph, but…
It wasn't something he was used to. The girls, the dogs, they all gravitated towards Stephanie. He understood why. She was very open and loving towards them whereas he, for the most part, not. Not openly, that is. He was loving. Especially towards his daughters. But it wasn't always easy to switch in and out of his work and home persona. Not to mention he was unbelievably stressed and sleep deprived most of the time. He knew he was grouchier, these past few months or so, and he hated it, but short of quitting his job and moving to Antarctica with the whole family, he didn't think he'd ever get a good chance at sleep.
And even then it would just be too cold. Anywhere else though, and Vince freaking McMahon would hunt him down and drag him back.
At least he hoped…
Still, even though he needed more sleep, relaxation was one of the things that he was missing recently. And man, sitting there stretched out on his couch in the dark with the dog, just watching TV and doing absolutely nothing was so...freeing. The first night, they just watched some extra innings of a baseball game. The other, they flipped between evening news channels. The next he watched some infomercial selling tennis balls and watched her very closely, to see if she, as a dog, had any internal reactions to such a thing.
Research was invalidated by the fact she too seemed far too relaxed, being there on the couch with him, to get wound up by a stupid tennis ball.
After an hour or so, he'd just go drop her back in bed with whatever kid she was hanging around that night and then slink off to his own bed where he'd either have to shove Andre out of or just be careful not to wake his wife.
This went on for about two weeks. His puppy sure loved the attention and, honestly, Paul loved having someone giving him the same attention. He'd never had one of his dogs choose him over Stephanie and, around the others, the puppy rarely did, but it made him feel...special, in some ways, at night, when he got his beard licked and a fuzzy head nuzzling into his palm.
It didn't take long for Paul to do more than just pet his dog and watch late night sports though. No, eventually, he found himself muttering some things to the dog that he'd never say aloud.
Until he said them aloud.
It was so therapeutic, honestly, telling his dog every stupid thing that was floating around his brain. Things he wouldn't even tell Stephanie, honestly. He told the dog about how much his body hurt recently and how he hadn't been feeling too well, mentally. He told her about how he had been craving ice cream a lot recently and was afraid of indulging because that might make him spiral. He explained to her how he'd bulked up a bit too much once and it'd taken forever to get him back to the perfect shape he was in currently. Which eventually led to him explaining to her that, once, before his first quad injury- Well, he had to explain the quad injuries now, both of them. But eventually got back on track and told her about how fit and trim and muscular he was in the nineties and his bones didn't hurt near as much back then and, man, they hurt now.
Everything hurt.
He hoped she never got that old.
Then he bit his tongue and hoped she lived forever.
They talked about life, the two did, even though only one of them spoke and he told her about how much he missed Bluto sometimes because Andre was fine, but there was just a different feel to him. And he missed his young life, sometimes, but not a lot, honestly, he told her. He felt much more tired now, but the life he'd cultivated for himself was richer than he'd ever imagined. And he didn't just mean monetarily.
"You're a princess, you know that?" he asked the dog as she let him scratch at her ears. "Little baby. Little baby dog. We're gonna be good friends, you know? Andre? Who's Andre? I only know Attila. You're a special dog. The most special dog. Just like I'm a special guy. You know? You know how lucky you are? That your daddy is the most powerful wrestler to ever-"
"Paul? What are you doing?"
And he didn't blush, because he wasn't the type to blush, but he did kick himself mentally for not hearing his wife's approach.
"It's two in the morning," she continued as she came further into the living room. Attila was happy to see her, but Paul certainly wasn't. "Are you okay? Were you...talking to the-"
"Steph, go away," he complained as she came to join them on the couch and the dog climbed over him to get to her. "Why are you up?"
"Why are you?"
"It's my house."
"It's our house."
Meh.
"Well, I for one," she kept up when he only glared, "think it's very cute that the two of you-"
"Don't."
"Paul-"
"Just go back to bed."
"I'm not making fun of-"
"Stephanie-"
"I didn't even think you like poor Attila," she told him with a giggle that kind of turned into a yawn. She needed to get back to sleep just as much as him, no doubt. "But here the two of you are, staying up late talking."
"Shuddup."
"Does Andre get this sort of attention?"
"Would you knock it off?"
"Or is this another thing for him to be jealous of?"
"This is the reason I don't do things."
"What?"
"This." Huffing, he said, "Can't even talk to my own damn dog in my own damn house-"
"Calm down."
"I am calm." Or he was, when it was just him and Attila, shooting the breeze. "And so what if I like to sit around and talk to my dog anyways? Huh? Why can't I?"
"You can."
"Okay then."
And they both sat there for a moment, neither too sure what they were doing. Were they fighting? Stephanie hadn't meant to cause a fight and Paul didn't really ever want to argue with her. With how close the two were, however, sometimes it just popped up, an argument between them. A spat, at most, for the most part, but it could turn ugly easily when you had two overly tired people that spent their days in high pressure situations.
That night though, as they sat there with their newest puppy between them, peace was found slowly and, eventually, they shared a long breath in uncanny time.
"You're okay though, right, Paul?"
"I'm fine, Steph."
"It's just been awhile, since you felt the need to get up in the middle of the night and-"
"I never did that."
"Yes, you did. Whenever you're injured, you-"
"I can be alone sometimes."
"I know." She rested a hand against his arm, squeezing a bit. "But you weren't alone this time, were you? Huh, Attila? Were you keeping your daddy company?"
"She doesn't like when you talk to her." And, when he patted his knee, the dog jumped off the couch as to get out of Steph's lap, before rushing to jump right back up to her spot on the other side of her father, where her head fell to his lap, awaiting his palm on her head. Her request, of course, was quickly granted. "She only likes when I talk to her."
Stephanie was watching him then, with a bit of a sleepy smile, before saying, "You do this often?"
"Maybe."
"Hey, Paul?"
"Hmmm?"
"You're okay, aren't you?"
He let out a solo sigh this time, stilling the scratches at his puppy's ears before saying, "I just feel weird, recently, is all, Steph."
"Are you...hurt?" she whispered. "You should really talk to someone. I knew you shouldn't have been in that stupid match with-"
"No," he said with a frown. "It's not that."
"Then-"
"Like, you know, up here." And, he used his free hand to tap against his forehead. "Not anything serious. Just...I dunno. Never mind."
"Paul-"
"I'm tired, Steph."
"I know."
"More tired than I've ever been," he continued on. "But I can't sleep. Or if I do I don't feel any better. I don't even think taking time off would help. It's like there's so much going on, recently, in my mind. If I'm not thinking about work then I'm worry about other things."
"Like what?"
"I just… I dunno. I think it's because I'm getting older? Or something?" Shaking his head some, he told her, "But that's what's weird. Because everything else feels so good. The girls are fine and work's fine and we're….we're great right now. I'm so happy with you and our life and everything-"
"But what's bugging you?"
"Steph, I don't know. I just told you that we're-"
"Not us." She shoved his shoulder a bit then, gently. "I said you. What's up with you?"
He made a face, staring down at her then before asking, "What do you mean?"
"Like… You just told me about how everything's great, but what you talked about wasn't anything that was about you. Things that deal with you, fine, like work or us, but what about you?" she asked again. "What's going on with you? Not work or us or the girls. You."
Frowning, he said, "That is me."
"No it's not. And you know that." That time, she didn't shove his shoulder, but kissed it. Against his flesh, she whispered, "There has to be something that you can do, Paul, for yourself. When's the last time you went to a concert you wanted? Or spent an off day away from the girls? When you did something for you?"
"There's no concert I wanna go to," he told her with a frown. "And I don't have many of those, so of course I wanna spend it doing stuff with them. It's spring. I have to go to their soccer and softball matches when I'm free. I-"
"But something-"
"I don't have time to do stuff, Steph. I don't wanna do stuff. Away from you guys. Work. This is what I want to do."
"But-"
"That is me. This is me." He even shrugged a bit. "I think I'm just feeling low, right now, is all and-"
"I think," she cut him off which was annoying, but acceptable because she was her, "that you have found something for yourself."
"What?"
But she wasn't looking to him then, rather staring down at the dog snuggled against him and, as he followed her line of sight, he only made a face.
"She just isn't ready for bed, is all. When you guys put her there."
"Mmmm."
"And I can't sleep. I told you that."
"I know."
"It wasn't just when I was injured, anyways," he said softly then, watching the dog then. "What you said before. I used to have to get up in the night with the girls and do this. Sit up with them. They liked it too. Sitting around, listening to me talk to them. It calmed them down."
"I remember," Stephanie agreed as he continued to gently rub behind his dog's ears. "Babe."
"But I can't do that anymore. They're too old. They gotta get their sleep. They don't, you know, need me anymore. They don't wake me up in the middle of the night anymore. I didn't think I'd miss it, 'cause I was so tired from it, but now I'm tired anyways, you know? Steph?"
"I know."
"We'll just never have that again. I know you miss all that stupid stuff that women miss with having babies-"
"Uh, excuse me-"
"-but I just miss that." He smiled, slightly, at the thought. "Rora liked to watch those old black and white movies with me. I think she liked the stupid noises they'd make, in the silent ones. And Murph liked the radio, in the dark. It soothed her. Vaughn was always hungry, honestly, but she liked for me to talk to her. Til she fell back asleep. It doesn't feel like that long ago, does it? Steph?"
She sighed then, but it was more of a yawn, and shifting over, she pressed a few quick kisses to his fuzzy cheek before telling him, "You stay up and talk to your dog, huh, babe? I'm about to pass back out."
"She just likes hearing me talk," he conceded then as his wife stood. "And I like talking to her."
"I know. We all gotta do something for ourselves."
Eventually, the newness of the concept wore off and it just became a semi-nightly event. Attila grew to need it, really, some times with her daddy, and he definitely needed time with her. The house in general eventually fell into a new normal and, once the dog wasn't so special anymore, the quirks of having a puppy put her back on the same level as Andre. He was still a stinky boy dog, but he was their stinky boy. Attila, however, became the annoying puppy that now not only chewed up their toys, but also was quite a hassle to potty train.
Having a puppy was just as annoying as they'd forgotten it was when Andre rolled around.
That was fine though, her getting less attention from the girls. Attila liked the girls and Stephanie. She loved Andre. But Paul? She adored Paul. For all the love Bluto and Andre had had for Stephanie, he doubted either had what he and Attila had. They both understood one another very well. How could they not? When they shared so many secrets between them?
"You're just my special little princess," he assured her one night as he fixed himself something to eat and dropped her a cold wienie to munch on. "You know that?"
She knew. She definitely knew.
Y'all didn't think we were gonna let this monuments occasion go on without a story, did you? Wasn't too sure what to do with the new dog, honestly, at first. So I went with this. Attila's so cute though. Especially in that second photo Steph posed. Paul needed some love in this stories, anyways. I tend to write Andre and Bluto as dicks to him. And he does seem tired recently, more than usual.
Anyways, yes, requests are still open, always open, to those who have sent things. It's just a matter of me getting around to all of them, is all.