"Say it again."

"Again?" he asked.

"Yes, one more time, humor me since it's still just after my birthday," Stephanie told him.

"It's been a week since your birthday," he told her.

"So, it's still closer to my birthday than it is to your birthday, so you have to do this for me," she said haughtily, like she was honestly entitled to something. She grinned at him, and he rolled his eyes as he brushed some of her hair back.

"You're my girlfriend," Chris told her impishly and she giggled madly as she ducked her head and rested it against his shoulder. Chris shook his head. Sometimes she could be such a child, which was something he was going to have to reconcile with himself. She was still seventeen and while that was legal in most states, it could still be looked down upon by…pretty much all of society.

"Okay, one more time, I promise, just one more time," Stephanie said, raising her head to look him in his blue eyes. She still couldn't believe that he had kissed her. Not only had he kissed her, they had made out, and now, now she was his girlfriend. It was the best birthday present that she could've possibly hoped for. Hell, she could count this for the next ten birthdays.

"Another one?" he groaned. "I'm going to get my tape player and record it for you and then you can play it back whenever you want to."

"No, I want to hear it from the source, excuse me for being happy," she told him as she played with his hair. "You're not my first boyfriend or anything, just to let you know so you don't think I'm a total loser or dweeb."

"I didn't think that," he told her.

"Good, because I'm really not, and you're not my first boyfriend, but I had like the most hugest crush on you ever," Stephanie said, "but I figured since I was so much younger than you, you wouldn't see me as anything more than a little sister or something."

"Don't say little sister in my presence, okay?" he told her, grimacing at the reference. "I don't think of you as a little sister anymore, now you're my girlfriend, so there, happy now?"

"Very," she told him. "Sue me for being giddy, okay, I thought that you would definitely want someone with more…experience or something, not me."

"Well, you're pretty, what can I say?" he asked. "Plus, you're way more mature than you give yourself credit for, and I guess spending so much time with you made me fall for you, in some weird, crazy way."

"Well here's to the weird and crazy," she told him, kissing him lightly. "I'm going to miss you while you're traveling and I'm stuck at home."

"You have school," he said, then closed his eyes, "Oh God, did I just tell my girlfriend that she couldn't come visit me because she has school? And not even college, but high school, at least you're a senior, I guess it could be worse if you were a junior, but luckily for me, my girlfriend is smart and wasn't held back in the first grade or something."

"Nope, I'm just so good," she told him. "Won't you miss me too?"

"You want me to say I'm going to miss you?"

"Yes!" she told him jutting out her bottom lip. "It would be totally not cool if you didn't miss me because I'm your girlfriend now and you should miss me whenever I'm not around."

"And if I don't miss you? You'll do what to me?"

"That'd be so totally heinous, Chris," she told him. "It's just stupid, this whole school thing. I should just drop out and be a model or something, you think I could be a model, right? Oh, or I could be a manager, I could be your manager!"

"No," he said, "I'm not going to let you drop out of school for me. You, Stephanie McMahon, you're going places."

"But I'll miss you, and I'll have all these stupid senior guys hitting on me, and they're all like, total dufuses. Not like my twenty-two year old boyfriend. And then what about the ring rats that are going to hang around you all the time?"

"I don't like ring rats," he told her sternly, kissing the tip of her nose. "So there's no chance that I'm going to cheat on you with some gross ring rat. They're all like in their thirties and grody."

She sighed dramatically. "I guess I can believe you, but don't mess up, mister."

"Well what about all those senior guys, total competition," he teased.

She made a face, "Dweebs, every last one of them, and I can fend them off, you underestimate everything I've learned from being around wrestlers, and taking care of myself is one of them, because everyone knows I'm tough."

"Speaking of that…"

"You're not going to like order me not to talk to any of the guys, right?" she laughed. "Because I'm not a fan of being told what to do, just ask my parents, I'm a rebel without a cause…or with a cause, either one, I don't know."

"Cute," he said, but turned serious, brushing her bangs away from her face. "Look, there is someone that I'm worried about, and since I'm your boyfriend now, I think that you'd believe me a little bit more."

"I'm not scared of the big, bad wolf…or the dark, I'm not a kid!" she told him.

"I definitely know that and stop bringing that up," he winced. "It's not anything like that, but it is serious, and I'm being serious right now, so do you think that you could do the same, be mature, Steph, don't make me feel creeped out for dating you."

"Okay, I'm mature. Lay it on me."

"Brian--"

"Clark?" she interrupted and he put his finger to her lips to silence her.

"Let me talk, here, Steph," he told her.

"Okay, okay," she mumbled against his finger, kissing it as he pulled away.

"He's bad news, okay. The way that he looks at you, hangs around you, it worries me, he's not a nice dude. I didn't tell you before because I know that you trust a lot of people, and Steph, that's not cool sometimes because people will take advantage of that," she looked away and started to slowly roll her eyes and he groaned and gently took her chin and turned it towards him, "Don't give me that look, Stephanie, you're too trusting, I'm afraid he's going to pull something on you."

"What, like what?"

"I don't know, but I don't like the way he looks at you."

She was annoyed at first, but realized that he was being protective of her. It wasn't the kind of brotherly protective that her brother was, but it was the boyfriendly kind, the good kind, and she saw actual concern in his eyes. She leaned forward and gave him a soft kiss. He pulled away though and looked at her imploringly, like he was waiting for some kind of confirmation that she understood what he had said.

"I get it, Chris, you don't like him, and you're worried about me."

"I was worried about you before," he told her, "but I'm more worried now because I care about you, and as your boyfriend, I'm going to watch out for you because you don't watch out for yourself. As Vince's daughter, you constantly have a target on your back, guys are always going to be looking to use you."

"And how do I know that you're not?" she asked curiously, though they both knew that it was a stupid question because Chris had never tried to use her, and everything that had happened between them had been completely mutual.

"Because I would not be dating a seventeen-year-old if I didn't truly care about her," Chris said. "So believe that, okay, so now that the serious portion of our weekend is over."

"You want to take me out to dinner?" she asked coyly. "I can't believe my dad won't call me in sick on Monday so that I can spend time with you."

"I'm so sure that he'd let you stay if you told him it was to spend time with your twenty-two year old boyfriend," he told her, rolling his eyes. "He'd just as soon send you to a boarding school in Switzerland if that were the case. Besides, Lance is coming in from Japan on Monday and he's spending the week with me, so you can't be here."

"How nice…"

"Stephanie…the key to being in a secret relationship is the secret part of it," he told her. "We can't let people know we're together, nobody would allow it, it'd be like Romeo and Juliet or something, and I'm not down with that."

"I know, it's just…I've never met him, and you know, he's like your best friend, and I'm your girlfriend, and it'd be nice," she told him, "but I'm not complaining, I swear to you, I won't complain, just don't…go find someone better, okay?"

She looked so innocent asking him that he had to kiss her. She deepened the kiss, making out with him, which she discovered rather quickly that she liked doing…a lot. He wrapped his arms more securely around her waist as she tilted her head to gain better access to his mouth. The funny thing with them was how natural it felt to be kissing each other. Between them, there was no awkwardness, now with the rest of the world…that was a whole different story.

There was a knock on Chris's door and he groaned as he pulled away and Stephanie smirked, "Don't get that."

"Have to, could be work related," he said, gently pushing her off of him so he could get up. He wiped his mouth with his forearm and went to the door, Stephanie trailing behind him, staring appreciatively at his backside.

He opened the door and saw Shane on the other side. He was also visiting for the weekend. "Hey man."

"Yo," Chris said, slapping hands with Shane as he looked over Chris's shoulder to see Stephanie.

"Oh, hey, Steph, so this is where you've been hiding, Dad wanted to know where you were so you could go out to dinner or something, were you watching television?" he asked, noting the television that was on.

"Yeah," Stephanie said. "I was bored."

Shane laughed, "So, Chris, I hope that you don't have plans tonight because I just met the two dopest chicks in the lobby, early twenties, totally gorgeous, you have to come out with me because I told them I had a friend, and you're that friend, so come on, it's a sure thing," he said, lowering his voice so his sister wouldn't hear.

Chris cleared his throat a little bit as he looked down at the ground. He didn't quite know what to say though at the moment. There was absolutely no way that he was going to tell Shane that he was dating Stephanie now. Shane was a friend, but he didn't know how good a friend he was, and he might honest-to-goodness kick his ass if he knew that he was dating his seventeen-year-old baby sister. Shane looked at him expectantly, waiting for an affirmation so he could go get those two girls who were sitting patiently downstairs.

"I don't know, man, I don't think that I'm up to it," Chris said, not even daring to look back at Stephanie.

"Oh come on," Shane said, clapping him on the shoulder. "You have to, you're not doing anything, you're sitting here watching TV, so come on, they're of age so we can go to a club or something, have a drink, I'm telling you…it's a sure thing."

"Yeah, I was just going to stay in tonight, maybe go out and grab a quick bite to eat, but nothing major. I kind of have a headache," he lied.

"Yeah, right, you're just messing with me now, you know you want to," Shane said, looking over at Stephanie. "You better get up to Dad, Steph, I don't think Chris'll appreciate you here in his room by yourself, no offense."

Chris finally looked back to Stephanie and she was standing there, looking very alone. There was no way that she hadn't heard every word that Shane had spoken. She looked up at her brother and Chris and gave a sad, little smile, shrugging a little bit. Chris gulped, feeling caught between a rock and a hard place. He hadn't even been with Stephanie for a week, and already there were things being thrown in their way.

"Go ahead if you want," she said, her voice trying to remain steady. "I mean, you should, right, I'll just go to dinner with my dad…it's rad."

Chris took her in for a minute, and he could read her, and he wondered if Shane could too. He was her brother after all. He figured that he could, but Shane, rather than seeing it as a girlfriend trying desperately to hold onto her boyfriend, he saw it as his sister with a major crush on a guy and he was rubbing it in her face that she would never be with Chris. He suddenly felt bad about that.

"You know, I bet Dad will let you go shopping before dinner," Shane told her, tapping into her retail addiction. "Just go talk to him."

"Yeah, of course," she said, walking towards them. "Have fun tonight."

Chris wanted to speak up, but Shane was grinning at him, knowing that he was going to score tonight. Stephanie didn't look at Chris as she passed, embarrassed because she couldn't be Chris's girlfriend in the normal sense. She couldn't drink or anything, she was barely legal enough to drive let alone go to a club. She was just fooling herself with all of this. Why in the world would Chris want her when he could have anyone else? Someone with more experience? Prettier…not in freaking high school…

Chris didn't want to do this, he liked Stephanie, and despite her age, he loved being with her, "You know, Shane, I really can't, I just remembered I was supposed to take Stephanie out to dinner tonight."

"Oh, come on, Steph, give the guy a break, don't monopolize his time," Shane moaned.

"She's not," Chris said resolutely, giving her a quick smile. "I made plans with her, and I like sticking to that, sorry man, I'm sure that you can find someone else to go out with you, but I don't like going back on promises."

"Are you sure?" Shane asked, not understanding why he would want to be around his little sister rather than a girl who would probably screw him at the end of the night.

"I'm sure," Chris said.

"Your loss," he said, giving a short wave before leaving to get back to the girls so they wouldn't leave. Chris closed the door behind him and turned to Stephanie, leaning back against the door. "So you did mention that you wanted to go out to dinner, right?"

"You didn't have to do that," she told him quietly, looking up at him with those doe eyes of hers.

"I don't cheat on my girlfriend," he told her, ducking his head a little as he smirked at her, giving her a fake evil eye. "That's just not my style, besides, what am I going to find down there when I have something right here? Come on, get your coat, I'll take you out to dinner."

She smiled, "One night I'm taking you out to dinner, do you hear me?"

"I'm not letting my girl pay," Chris told her, pulling her to him as he kissed her. "Not going to happen."

"We'll see," she said, kissing him back, giving him a peck on the lips. "Thank you for not going."

"Like I said, I don't cheat, and I don't leave my girl high and dry. Your brother will be fine without me, so come on, really, what do you feel like?"

"I don't know, whatever you want…you know, Chris, if you ever want to break up with me because of the age thing, I'll understand, I know that--" He cut her off with another kiss, pulling her even tighter against him. She smiled lazily as he pulled away.

"I don't care."