Disclaimer: I own no one but Lou Smith.
Enjoy~
Another day, another Monday, another tour, another show; People gathered from all across the nation, getting ready to watch the match that would change the universe, getting ready to watch another history of the making. Oh man, the world would need to be prepared for what to come.
Not only the world, should the stars be prepared as well. Behind the closed curtain, WWF Superstars could be seen preparing for tonight show, weather it was for promo or a match. Mostly for a match. Superstars could be seen heating up, practicing their body for that ground-breaking match; a match that was so powerful, it could break bodies as well. It was a common thing as athletes that wrestling was its own danger and risk of broken bones, dislocation, concussions, and any other potential injuries.
Fortunately for Steve, he shouldn't be worried much about his body as he didn't have a match scheduled for tonight. He still had to appear by ring-side, but at least he didn't have to take some serious in-ring movements. At least he could rest.
Health issue was never been a problem; aside from his neck, of course. But age took a huge toll on his body. After almost twelve years in the business, twelve years with bumps and bruises, his body started to move a little bit slower, less agile, and heavier. And now at the age of 36, his body suffered so much that one time he needed a good rest without any match at all, to rest his body from any impact.
Hence, his side-ring, appearance.
So instead of running here and there across the ring, Steve was sitting casually on one of the chairs in the catering, legs rested on the table, a cup of coffee on his hand and a chicken wrap on his other hand. At this early hour, before everyone was around the arena, Steve would often took an early work to rehearse whatever work he had to do. Less the people, the less he had to actually deal with, the better chance he didn't fuck up.
Sadly though for Steve, the people he was working with never realized what on-time really meant. He knew that Rikishi would be late, as he was informed before. But Triple H and Rocky, who already agreed to come earlier, never came. Not that he actually did something to straighten up their asses; it was something he should have seen before. But he complained nevertheless, using every words he could think of, to himself.
His complaints finally paid off when he saw Triple H and later The Rock came down the hallway, with an added twist.
"Now what in the world are you two doin?" Steve glared at the Rock, who somehow managed to give Lou Smith a piggyback ride out of nowhere. He gave Hunter a look for explanation, which Hunter just lazily shrugged, before he went to grab some food. Steve went back to the pair in front of him. "What is this?"
"Long-story short, he here lost a bet and had to carry me for the rest of the day," Lou chirped proudly. "Right, Rocky?"
"Except segments and matches." Rock grunted, to defense himself.
"What the heck is this?" Steve looked uninterested in their story. When he saw that she was still wearing an ankle brace, he grimaced. "Did you injured yourself again, Smith?"
"Oh, this?" Lou began wiggling her visible toes. "Eh it's fine now, but I'm using it just in case. Part of my storyline, I guess. It's also another reason so that I can do this to Rock."
"You know I can just drop you." Rock snickered.
"You know I can just take you down with me." Lou replied, already tightening her arms around Rock's neck, which causing him to get choked up and coughed.
"You know what, I can't. Go take whatever this is elsewhere." Steve finally piped in, already feeling annoyed of the scene in front of him.
"Yes Sir! Rocky, take me to the locker room, Hiya!" Lou asked, or rather ordered, already pulling Rock's shoulder as if he was a horse. "Sorry Steve, I'm taking your boy for a bit. Gotta use what I have, right?"
"Whatever you two clowns are doing, don't take too long," Steve could only shook his head. He beamed. "Me and Hunter will wait up at the ring."
"Uhr wee?" suddenly Hunter piped in, mouth full of food already.
"Yes."
"Like, now?"
"Yes, now. Get your fat ass up and go!" Steve, who was already standing straight, ordered him so. But judging by what Hunter was doing now, which was eating, he knew it would take some time. "Come on!"
"Steve, can you piggy ride me too?"
"For fuck sake. Just hurry up!"
…
Another day, another Monday, another tour, another show; People gathered from all across the nation, getting ready to watch the match that would change the universe, getting ready to watch another history of the making. Oh man, the world would need to be prepared for what to come.
Not only the world, should the stars be prepared as well. Behind the closed curtain, WWF Superstars could be seen preparing for tonight show, weather it was for promo or a match. Mostly for a match. Superstars could be seen heating up, practicing their body for that ground-breaking match; a match that was so powerful, it could make or break someone's sense and emotion, giving a new perspective of two people trapped in the squared circle, colliding with each other.
Unfortunately for Lou, she wouldn't be colliding with anyone. Although, her ankle was already healed, she wasn't supposed to walk just yet. And so there was no way she could perform a big boot to Ivory. Because of that, she was told to actually sit down by the commentary, scrapped of any big interference on Kat vs Ivory match tonight.
Speaking of her injury; her body had gone through a lot of things—broken bones, dislocation, bruised and swell, deep cuts, et cetera; from her yet she found a way to stay together. It was safe to say that this 27 years old woman had a mind and body of a young nosy little boy, easily scraping the same knees on the playground, yet kept on playing. For years, Lou kept playing strong, strong enough until the doctor said no way and she had no choice but to say okay.
Hence, her commentary appearance.
But before so, she had a segment taping. Several scenes were taped beforehand, because live-tapes were easily messed up. The writer then decided to take some voice work and editing to make the scene look more realistic. So, simply after getting an outfit for her casual Lou Smith, a staff came for her. It was Jarret.
"Good afternoon, Lou!"
"Hi J! What's up?" she greeted. "Do you have Austin's necklace with you again or no?"
"Oh no, not this time. It's about your promo. Here," Jarret told her. "We need you to be ready for your scene with Miss Kat," he gave her several papers for her to read.
Lou read the scene and smiled. It was written that in the locker room, Kat was stretching up while on the background, Lou would be chilling on the couch, ready some magazines. Later Kat would thank Smith for helping and training her, which Smith replied shorty; I don't need your thanks. I just need you to not screw up or I'll shove Pickle right up your ass. Typical Smith in the ring.
"Alright, where is it taking place?"
"If you are ready, I can take you there now."
"Thanks," she nodded and followed the young man to wherever she needed to be. "I haven't seen you this past days, Jarret. What you been up to?"
"Nothing much, just wandering around, writing stuff here and there."
"Writing, huh?" Lou glanced at the papers on her hand. "You wrote this scene?"
"Oh, no. I'm not working on that field. I write the in-ring action instead."
"And what does that mean?"
"The wrestling routines as well as camera angles and commentary; I make the set for all of that," he deliberately paused. "But not all of that, really. I am just an intern. I don't do a lot."
"Well, one day you'll find a way to do more, I can see you grow." Lou assured him.
"Maybe I can be a superstar someday, with dollars raining over my head."
"Whoa, easy, there big guy."
"I know, I'm just kidding."
The promo was a small scene nonetheless. Lou finished it quick. So quick that she didn't know where else to go after that. She could go back to the medic room to get her beauty sleep, but sure enough doctor might think she hurt something else and a long lecture came to play.
She could join them, her friends. During this hour most of her friends were preparing some matches and so on; many were gathered in the ring, taking part of the usual briefing and drill. But not much she would do with them anyway, but to annoy them eventually.
After much deliberation, the decided to take the third option and made her way to the catering to grab some snacks to munch.
After a good wash-up and a quick change, Steve Austin left his locker room, heading down the catering area where he was supposed to be. The show had been over for about an hour ago now, but there would be held a small briefing for the upcoming WWF convention held in two days. It was an ordinary convention; merch selling, memorabilia display, autograph signing, and meet-n-greet with fans from all over the country. Several names were added into the event, including the Texan Rattlesnake.
And so he came and sat down along with other names.
And came more names.
Are you kidding me? Steve certainly was too caught up to a pair coming in. And he was not the only one to stare at the baffling entrance.
Came in, The Rock was staggering from the hallway, unwillingly carrying none other than Lou Smith, this time on his arms like one of those newly married couple. By the look of Rocky's face, he wanted for this to be over quickly. Lou, however, had other plans to ruin Rocky's life.
He kept watching, and later grunt even more when The Rock decided to sit down next to him, with Lou now sitting on his lap.
"Are you two really going through this the whole night?" Steve asked, eyeing them from top to bottom, gesturing whatever they were doing.
"Why, yeah. When you lose, you lose. And you pay the price, right Rock?"
"Whatever, I don't care anymore," Rock rub a hand on his face and shook his head. "Whatever you say, Lou."
"For real? Whatever I say?"
Rock stared at her, who was staring at him mischievously, and immediately regretted what he said. That only made him sighed even harder and leaned his head to her shoulder. "Damn it."
"Tch, pathetic," finally Austin managed to spurt out some words. "Anyhow, are you two on the convention as well? The last I heard you guys weren't on the list."
"Yeah," Rock answered, turning his attention to him. "Me and this goofball—"
"Hey!"
"—are taking part in it," ignoring the woman on his lap, Rocky went on. "They said there would be slight addition to the schedule and stuff, and the last thing we know, we're in it."
"I see."
"To be honest, I don't know that there would be this many people going," Lou said out of the blue, looking around the room, smiling to anyone she greeted. "Are we still waiting on someone else? Yeah, I think we are waiting on someone. This must be a big convention, don't you think?"
Turned out that the convention was no ordinary convention at all. It was a rather big three-day, two sessions each day, convention event. When ready, the PR personnel began by handing over some papers to the people in the room. At this point, Lou was already sitting on the chair, while Rocky excused himself to answer a phone call.
They started to elaborate the rundown and schedules, and technical process of those three-days; which was a bit long and wordy, and started to slip off of Lou's mind. And without Rocky to mess with, she grew bored.
She decided to read the paper instead.
"Hey, Steve, we're on the same day," she read. "As well as Edge and Christian." she glanced to the other side of the table to find the two blonde wrestlers. Christian caught her eyes and nodded, Edge however was already losing interest and decided that his phone was far more entertaining.
"Oh, are we?"
"Yeah, it said here; Friday. 10 am. Stars: Steve Austin, Lou Smith," she mentioned. "Looks like you'll be stuck with me on Friday, huh?"
"Guess so, lil missy."
Lou couldn't help but snort to the nickname.
By the time the gathering were finished, the wrestlers split up and went to take care of their own business. Some stayed in the room, talking thoroughly to the producers about their wrestling act and whatnot, some also stayed, planning to go to a nice dine or bar with friends. Others decided to get back to the hotel instead, to get a good late rest. Something that Steve had been wanting to do.
However…
He found himself standing by the divas locker room, silently waiting for a certain French woman to ride with.
"Sooooo, looks like you're stuck with me starting from now," Lou grinned once she was outside, and the two wrestlers walked side by side. "But thanks though, Steve, for taking me with you."
"No big deal. Rocky informed me about it," he said. "Family urgency, he needs to go home."
"Yeah, I hope his family are okay."
The walk was silenced for a couple of minutes when his phone rang. He excused himself for a little bit, hoping she didn't see the change of mood he had once he realized the person making the call. From what he knew Louie could be very nosey about things, said Rock himself, and to be fair, she looked like the type of girl who would say 'is there anything wrong?' or something similar.
He was rather relieved when she shrugged him off and decided to stick her nose on her own cellphone instead. Maybe he judged her poorly. But then again, he barely knew the woman. Only greetings and small talk, and that pretty much it.
He met her about some time after her debut back in '97 of course by none other than The Rock who introduced her to him. He didn't know much about her at the time, other than she was still wrestling as Mystique, not that he actually cared to ask. Mystique turned out to have an ongoing plot against DX, especially Triple H and Chyna, and she hooked up with them. And they actually introduced her to him, again. Good thing they did, because he already have forgotten her back then.
Obviously now he wasn't going to forget her, the woman who was currently sitting by his side on the passenger seat. It was the time that he really realized he barely knew the woman to make a talk, to break the awkward silence between them.
"So, you stay at the same hotel as Rock, right?"
"Yeah, yeah. You know the way?"
"Sure – I'mma turn on the music, if you don't mind."
"Yeah, go ahead, don't mind me."
And the silence started to build up once more.
Secretly Steve glanced at her while looking at the wing mirror, to see if she was comfortable with the silence. He caught her leaning by the door, her head flopped to the side, eyes shot down to the little screen of her phone, her fingers lightly tapping the buttons. A sly yawned coming from her.
"Y'know, you might as well sleep or something. We still have an hour to go," he suggested.
"Thanks but I'll be fine. Never really sleeps on the road. I tried many things but never felt the need to sleep."
"Y-yeah, sure, suite yourself," he paused. "Who are you texting?"
"Rocky, he is already heading to the airport." she said. "God, I hope his mom is doing alright."
"His mom?" Rocky told him only about family emergency in California but didn't really get the detail out. "Something's wrong with his mom?"
"Well, it's not my place to say, but I guess Vince would spread the news eventually, or Rocky himself would – his mom has been ill for few weeks now. And just two nights ago she was taken into hospital. I am sure she will be fine. Fierce woman, she is."
"You know Rocky's mom?"
"I've been meeting his family ever since I met him. I remembered about two weeks after I met Rocky, he immediately invited me to have a good dinner with his family," she told him. "Did you know he has really big Samoan family? It scared the shit out of me at first, y'know, big dudes with tattoos and tradition. But they are possibly the nicest people I've ever met. Great family, all of them."
Steve nodded. "I take it you know him very well," he paused. "I assume you two are datin?"
"I guess you've heard about it a lot," Lou's lips curled into a hint of a smile. "But actually no, we are not dating or such."
That took him by surprise a little. For many times he had caught the two youngsters walking and talking, doing things alone—not to mention the whole physical game they liked to pull off, like today. Steve swore he saw Rocky pecked her on the lips a couple of times during the whole scheme, and other schemes before.
Lou saw the confusion on him and smirked under her hoody. She knew what he was thinking, the same stuff that everyone else thought of her and Rock.
Taking over his silence, she spoke. "Well, ironically we dated a while back, but that took a downfall really quickly. I just see Dwayne as a lovely older brother than a lover. He was the first person to take me into WWF when I literally had no one to see. He helps me a lot more than I could count."
"Nice young man he is." He expressed. "Tell me about it."
"About what?"
"Your career, here in WWF. Do enjoy it?"
"Of course I enjoy what I do. I love wrestling just as much as you do."
"Like a dream come true, ain't that?"
"Yeah," Lou paused, thinking of what she wanted to say next. "To be fairly honest, wrestling wasn't the one I've been dreaming of. Gymnastic was. I've been doing gymnastic ever since I was born, I guess. I mean, back in France – wait, you do know that I was born and lived in France, no?"
"I am aware of that, yeah," sort of.
"Eh, you can read my history on this month's magazine. So, anyway, yeah I've been doing gymnastic my whole life. When I moved into America, I did the same thing. Took it as my career, and –"
"Stop it there, missy. Why did you move again?"
"Uh, my father died when I was really young, so my mother re-married to an American man. I was ten when we took a flight to the States. I, mum, and my older brother Ben moved into Greg's house, the step-dad, in Utah. So, there's that."
"Oh, sorry about your loss."
"It's fine, it's been a while," she sighed, but then she spoke again. "Um, where was I?"
"You were a gymnast once."
"Oh, right," she suddenly smiled sheepishly. "Right. But when I was around 20, I had severe injury while rehearsing a routine. And I took a good rest for over a year at least."
"Lemme guess, you decided to pursue wrestling since then."
"Hm, quite right," she beamed. "Greg's son, Andrew, who was just a year older than me – such a whack he was. He was an amateur wrestler for this indy circuit and he had a show near my rehab center. Someday during his shows he would take me to watch wrestling. I thought pro-wrestling was cool and really a next level of sports. When I healed, I decided to take that direction and joined the company, becoming valet and managers and whatnot," a smile appeared as she recalled her memories all together. "When I was cleared for action, I went for training and then two months later I had my first match. I was amazing. And the next thing I know I was signed into WWF. It was a training contract at first, but then they offered me a full year contract and well, on the wheel rolls with me."
"That indeed sounds pleasing, o'right" Steve smiled, glancing at the Lou. "I mean look at where you are now."
"Riding to rest only to have another day for tomorrow. I like this a lot."
"You and me both." Steve smiled and nodded, pleased that he finally asked the things he meant to ask in prior years.
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