I Don't Like You
"Daddy!" A small, three year old girl burst with excitement as she ran out of the living room and down the hallway, noticing her father and hearing his voice right away as she ran straight for him.
Punk crouched to one knee, catching her in his arms and squeezing her as tightly as ever. He'd missed her little face so much and he was so relieved that she remembered him. It wasn't like he had been going for years but it was a long time when broken down.
"Hi, baby. I missed you so much." Punk sighed as he didn't let go of her, hugging his arms around her small body tightly, burying his head into her small neck as she giggled at the fuzziness of his stubble touching her. Having to leave her was the worst thing ever. Just knowing he wasn't here for her for her birthday and her Christmas killed him.
"Mommy says you gone for work. I asks if we could visit but she said no." Malia shrugged as she pulled back from her fathers embrace, looking into his eyes with the exact same shade of colour in her own that he had. She had light brown, border-lining blonde hair, she was small and thin boned, beautiful like her mother, and she had the sweetest, thought-fullest, beautiful personality ever.
"I know, you couldn't visit me. But I'm here now. I won't leave again. That's a promise." He nodded. He knew he shouldn't have made promises he couldn't keep but he really wasn't going to leave again.
"Ok, daddy." Malia smiled cheerfully.
"And hey, I got a new place to live now, and you're gonna have your own room, you can help me decorate it if you like?" He said as she nodded with a smile.
"Will it be like my room here?" Malia asked as Rachel slowly crept into the hallway from in the living room.
"It'll be better." Punk nodded, standing up straight.
"Malia, come get your bookbag." Rachel insisted as Malia ran off over to her mother who put her bookbag on her through her small arms, "Be good for your dad, ok? I'll see you later on." She told her, crouching down and kissing her daughter's cheek.
Punk could never doubt Rachel's skills at being a mom, she was a good mom, it was just the things she got up to when Malia wasn't around that worried him.
"Please don't bring her back with cuts and bruises on her legs." Rachel said as she walked over to Punk who was waiting at the door as Malia walked over to him and took his hand with a cheerful smile.
"That was one time. She tripped at the park." Punk rolled his eyes, "At least I take her out places, she spends half her time cooped up in here all day." Punk said as Malia looked up at her parents.
"Really? You're gonna do this in front of her?" Rachel asked as Punk looked down at Malia who was innocently looking up at him.
"I'll drop her off after she gets dinner." Punk told her bluntly, "C'mon, sweetheart." He encouraged his daughter as he walked out of the apartment.
"Bye, mommy!" Malia waved as Punk guided her down the stairs as Rachel waved back. Despite her angered feelings towards Punk, he was still the father of her daughter, and when he was here for her, he was a pretty damn good one.
"Ok, press that button there." Punk pointed to the x-box controller Malia was holding, sitting down on the floor beside her in Tommy's living room, later on that night whilst he waited on their pizza being delivered, "Keep pressing that button." He pointed to show her as she done what he said.
"Looks I'm doing it!" Malia smiled, kneeling up as she looked at the TV. She always had legitimate fun with her father. She'd missed him. She hadn't forgotten who he was.
"Yeah, you are." Punk chuckled as he watched her. He'd missed this. Listening to that extremely cute giggle from her, and seeing her smile.
"Am I beating you?" Malia asked as she looked at the TV, extremely focused.
"I don't know, maybe." Punk said, holding his own controller and looking across at the TV just as the front door opened.
Punk and Malia both turned around, obviously expecting it to be Tommy which of course it was.
"Uncle Tommy!" Malia stood up with a smile, running to her uncle who lifted her up and said his hellos.
"Hi, kid." Tommy laughed, "How are you doing?" He asked, messing with her hair with his knuckles as she laughed.
"Good." Malia smiled, "I'm good." She said.
"Taking care of your dad?" Tommy asked, placing Malia down on her feet as she wandered back over to where she was sitting.
"Yeah, we're playing x-boxes." Malia smiled.
"X-box." Punk corrected her as she just laughed to herself and sat back down on the carpeted floor, "You ok, man?" Punk asked Tommy who nodded.
"Yeah, just in for a change of shirt, AJ is here so… be nice." Tommy warned him as Punk just nodded, watching his brother disappear, revealing AJ who was standing in the hallway, watching her as she slowly walked into the living room. He could only assume she and Tommy were heading out after he changed his shirt for whatever reason.
"Who are you?" Malia asked as she watched AJ walk across the TV and sit down on the couch.
"Hey, manners." Punk nudged her.
"Who are you, please?" Malia asked as Punk sniggered to himself whilst AJ smiled at the adorable little girl.
"AJ." AJ smiled, "And you are Malia, right?" AJ said as Malia nodded, "Your Uncle has told me all about you."
"Uncle Tommy fights the bad men." Malia said.
"Who are the bad men?" Punk asked her curiously as Malia paused and looked at him, not sure what to answer with.
"The ones with the beards." Malia nodded as Punk chuckled, running his hand over his stubble, "I'm thirsty." She told him.
"Go get a juice box from the fridge in the kitchen. You know where they are?" Punk asked her as she nodded, standing up and running out of the living room which was left in an eiry silence between Punk and AJ.
"You're entertaining a three year old with an x-box?" AJ couldn't hold her tongue as Punk turned to her.
"Not that it's any of your business, but we were at the park earlier, we're just waiting on pizza now so I whipped this out for her to play with." Punk told her.
"Not so friendly." AJ muttered under her breath as Punk stared across at her. He was like a wildlife animal. Snapping at any given opportunity to put her down. He was snidy and uneasy. She just didn't like him one bit.
"I take it you and Tommy are going out?" Punk asked.
"The movies." AJ nodded.
"You realise he's gonna have to go back overseas in like two months, right?" Punk said, "I wouldn't get attached."
"He says he doesn't know when or if he'll go back." AJ argued back.
"He always says that, and he always ends up back over there. Trust me, you've known him five minutes, I've known him forever." Punk said.
"Yeah, and from what I've learned so far is that he always has to babysit you. I mean… do you even have a place to live on your own?" AJ asked harshly.
"I just got out of prison." Punk said.
"Explains it all." AJ said as Punk looked across at her coldly.
"Is this because I accidentally walked in on you yesterday morning? You know there's a lock on that door, you could have locked it, and honestly, sweetheart… I wasn't looking at much when I seen you." He said truthfully as she rolled her eyes.
"I would have locked the door but I didn't know that you were living here depending on your big brother to take care of you." AJ said, "You were looking, let's not get ahead of ourselves."
"I really wasn't, darlin." Punk smirked, "But that's nice you feel that confident in yourself. You keep that up." Punk nodded.
"You are just-"
"Daddy! I got you one." Malia ran back into the living room with three juice boxes, handing one to her father, taking one for herself and walking over to AJ and passing her one.
"Malia, she isn't staying." Punk said but Malia continued to give AJ the juice box.
"Thank you, sweetheart." AJ smiled as she took the juice box politely, watching as the little girl dashed back over to her father and sat back down beside him.
"Can we play again?" Malia asked as she picked up the controller that was practically bigger than her hands.
"Yeah, we got time to kill." Punk nodded with a smile to her, blocking out AJ sitting over on the couch as he picked up the controller and continued to play the x-box with his daughter as AJ watched. He didn't seem like a bad dad, she'd give him that, but everything else about him she hated.
Later on that night, after Punk had dropped Malia back off at Rachel's, having only wished she could have stayed the night, dreaming of eventually moving into his own place and having her stay with him on set days, he lounged back in Tommy's living room, flicking through the TV channels when he heard the front door open, loud laughter coming from his brother and AJ, rolling his eyes as he rested his head back on the couch, listening as they headed upstairs.
He made his way out to the kitchen, closing the door over to block out any further unwanted noise, sitting at the table and opening up his brothers laptop to look at some apartments or houses near by that were up for renting.
Time ticked by and he wound up sitting there for hours scrolling through different places and prices, suddenly realising how long he'd been there when he heard footsteps coming downstairs, watching as his brother walked into the kitchen in his boxers.
"What are you doing still up?" Tommy asked, screwing his eyes up at the brightness from the light in the kitchen as Punk closed down the laptop.
"Looking at apartments and houses." Punk said, "Lost track of time." He said, leaning back against the chair.
"Look, I know it might be a little uncomfortable for you when I bring AJ here, but this is my house, and I'm not gonna tiptoe around you."
"I know that, man. I am looking for my own place. I feel bad for invading your privacy. I'll be out your hair soon, I promise." Punk nodded as Tommy walked over to the fridge to get a bottle of water, "You like this girl?" Punk asked curiously.
"Yeah, she's amazing."
"Really?" Punk raised his eyebrows. He didn't see it.
"Dude, honestly she's perfect. She's beautiful, I mean, you've seen her. She's funny. She's a little crazy. So sweet and… damn, one hot piece of ass, let me tell you." Tommy smirked as he chugged on the bottle of water.
"Sounds like a treat." Punk nodded unenthusiastically, "So what… are you sticking around then?"
"I'm not sure yet. I really like this girl and I don't wanna ruin it for myself. I trust her, I even told her about mom and dad."
"Why?" Punk asked immediately.
"I don't know, I trusted her."
"It's not really about trust though, is it?" Punk shook his head, "That's about people knowing us… who we are."
"We aren't bad people, Punk." Tommy shook his head.
"We didn't help them." Punk ran his hand through his hair.
"We were at the park. We were out playing with our friends. How were we supposed to know something like that would happen? We were just little kids, we knew nothing about anything." Tommy said, "You can't beat yourself up about it all the time."
"Well I do, you know I do." Punk said, "Like hell would I talk to some girl I've known for five minutes about it. She'd never understand."
"That's the thing about her… she does. She gets it."
"No, she doesn't. She'll just feel sorry for you." Punk shrugged.
"Well I don't think she does. She's sincere and genuine." Tommy said as Punk just rolled his eyes, "You should get some sleep, it's really late. Aren't you looking for jobs tomorrow?"
"Yeah, I am." Punk nodded.
"Then get to sleep." Tommy said, leaving the kitchen with his bottle of water and closing the door over as Punk sat in the silent kitchen running his hand over his hair tiredly.
A/N: Thanks for the reviews guys! They mean a lot, keep them coming. I love reading what you guys have to say and what your take is on things. I know it's agg just now to see AJ with someone else but obviously it's not going to be like that forever, just bare with me, I promise I won't let you down with this one.
