(I don't own no characters, only the made up ones.)
Punk turned on the coffee machine, hoping that caffeine would wake him up. He stood in his lavash penthouse like apartment, after a long night out doing things & possibly even people, he couldn't remember.
It wasn't like he was drank alcohol or did drugs. He actually prided himself on never doing any of those things in his entire life. But as of late, his days have been becoming a big blur.
Punk was a professional welterweight fighter/champion for the UFC. 9 months ago, he lost the title. And ever since then his life went downhill. After that loss, the combination of sadness, anger, & revenge consumed him. It slowly changed him. In the moment, he didn't notice the change. He became obsessed with getting that loss back. Whenever anyone would bring up the fact that he wasn't himself, he'd snap at them. Since he was champion for a year & a half, and he didn't get majorly injured—he knew he'd get his rematch. So, he dedicated his life to getting ready for that rematch. 6 months after that loss, he got it & he won. He avenged that loss. He was champion again. He could finally move on. But once he came down from that high, he realized that win was all he had left.
Now, 3 months later, here he was with nothing. He retired & therefore vacated the title. That didn't make things better, and he wasn't sure anything he did at this point could. So, now he lived his life (mostly at night), partying with strangers. Then waking up with no recollection what happened the next day. The tabloids may know though—he'd make sure to check them out today to jog his memory.
"Yo." A familiar voice rang through the shallow apartment, pulling Punk from his thoughts.
"In the kitchen." Punk groaned, not really in mood for the scolding he was sure to receive from his best friend.
"You look like shit." The buzzed cut browned haired man with a white tee and torn down jeans on observed, walking into the spacious kitchen.
"Feel like it too." He replied as the beeper went off on the coffee machine. "Look, Dean, I'm not in mood for one of your Renee speeches." Punk made clear as he poured himself a cup of coffee.
"What the hell do you mean by that?" Dean question, with an eyebrow raised.
"Oh, c'mon, you know what I mean. The minute you two got married, she didn't become Mrs. Ambrose, you became Mr. Young. Now all of sudden you're giving me speeches on how to live my life. And frankly, I'm fed up with the holier than thou act." Punk explained, taking a sip of his coffee. Dark and bitter, just like him.
Dean rolled his eyes, trying to think of the best way to approach his best friend who was more like his brother. He wasn't surprised by his outbursts since he's known him long enough to recognize that this is what he tended to do when he was hurting. Thing is, this outburst has been lasting for months and it doesn't seem like it'll end anytime soon. It doesn't seem like he even wants it to end.
"I don't wanna argue." Dean held his hands up as a way to show he surrendered. "Just came by to see if you were at least awake. And now that I see, I'll see myself out." Dean began to walk away, he wasn't gonna put up Punk's bullshit today.
"Wait, Dean." Punk called out, halting his friends steps before he could leave the kitchen. "I'm sorry. I had a long night, my head hurts, I could barely remember anything. I'm fucked up right now, dude."
"Yeah. Ya know, for someone who doesn't drink, you sure do sound like an alcoholic." Dean observed.
"You know me, I can always find a way to have a good time without that stuff." Punk nodded towards Dean as he took another sip of his coffee. "Want a cup?"
"Nah, I'm good. I'm actually heading to the gym in a bit, wanna tag along?" Dean asked, as he picked up & answered his phone that started to ring in his back pocket.
"Like hell I do." Punk said mostly to himself as Dean talked on the phone to whoever he was talking to.
As far as he was concerned, the gym was the furthest place he wanted to be at. It aided in helping him ruin everything good he had in his life. And helped him push away the two most important people in his life.
"I guess the saying the apple doesn't fall far from the tree is true." Dean said, and Punk broke from his thoughts having not even noticed that Dean had hung up the phone.
"What?" He asked.
"I gotta head down to the school, your daughter got into a fight." Dean informed Punk.
"What? Is she okay? Why didn't I get a call?" Punk looked at his phone sitting on the counter seeing that he has no missed calls.
"Beats me. You coming, or what?" Dean asked, walking towards the door.
"Of course I am, let me go put on some clothes." Punk poured the rest of his coffee down the sink then sat the cup down, and practically ran to his room to get changed into something other than just sweatpants.
Punk and Dean entered the surprisingly large sized middle school that his 11 year old daughter attended. Punk was the first to reach the reception desk in which a lady with glasses that sat firmly on her nose sat at.
"Hi, I'm here for Daniela Brooks." Punk said to the receptionist. He was very anxious on the ride here. Daniela was small little thing just like her mother, and even though he kept her in the gym with him—he was still worried she got hurt.
"Yes, um.. are you Mr. Ambrose?" The receptionist asked.
"No, I'm actually her father. Phillip Brooks. You guys didn't call me, but you called my, uh, brother Dean over here." Punk clarified, pointing behind him at Dean.
"Well, I'm gonna need to talk to either your brother or the mother. Since I don't see any Phillip Brooks on the list." The receptionist firmly stated. Punk couldn't deny that his heart didn't break upon hearing that he wasn't even on the list.
"I'm not on list? Ridiculous." Punk started to raise his voice, getting a bit frustrated. "I'm Phillip Brooks.. CM Punk, former UFC fighter, she's my daughter. Easy Google search. Don't be difficult about this."
"Excuse me, but I don't care who you are. You are not on the list of people authorized to pick her up. So, I suggest you keep your voice down or I'll have you removed from the premises." The receptionist bit back.
"Here." Dean said, stepping in front of his hot head best friend to show the receptionist his ID. "Now, please, where's my niece at?"
"The principal is talking to her, take a seat and I'll call you whenever he's ready to see you, too." The receptionist said after checking then handing the ID back to Dean.
"Okay, thanks. Come on, dude." Dean nudged Punk over to two of the empty seats that were in the office and they sat down.
"How the hell am I not on the list?" Punk hastily whispered over to Dean, putting his head down, while Dean just shrugged towards Punk.
Just then the office door opened, and in strolled a pretty frantic dark haired lady dressed in a grey pants suit.
"Hey, I'm so sorry I missed your guys call but I'm here for Daniela Brooks." AJ said, almost out of breath as she approached the receptionist desk.
Punk looked up and saw the back of his estranged wife as she spoke to the receptionist. It's been more than a month since he saw her in person, and she still managed to take his breath away.
"April Mendez? Great, the whole family is here. You can take a sit over there with those gentleman, the principal will be seeing you soon." The receptionist gestured over to Punk and Dean, starting to get sick of the Mendez/Brooks/Ambrose (or whatever their names are) klan.
AJ decided it was best to just obey than to say something back to the lady since she did seem irritated, to say the least. She tuned around and to her surprise locked eyes with him.
Him, of course, being her husband. The one person that she's been trying her best to avoid by any means necessary. He looked terrible. Bags under his eyes, his hair just sitting on top of his head without even the attempt to style it & his beard wasn't groomed like he once liked to keep it.
All that yet she could feel that her body was still very much attracted to him. But that attraction doesn't change the fact that the man she's looking at right now is not the man she married. And he hasn't been for a while now.
"Dean, thank you for coming." AJ broke the eye lock with Punk & turned her attention to the man sitting beside him. "I was in a meeting and my phone was off and I saw the missed call and I tried to get here as soon as poss-"
"Hey, hey, hey calm down. It's all good. You know I'd drop everything for her." Dean cut her off.
"You're the best." AJ gave him a warm smile as he stood up to greet her with a hug while Punk just looked on at the two then put his head back down, feeling & knowing that he had become the odd one out.
"April Mendez.. Dean Ambrose, the principal is now ready to see you in his office." The receptionist informed the group.
"You don't have to come in, I can handle this myself." AJ said to Dean.
"Okay. But you should take Punk in with you." Dean whispered to AJ.
AJ scowled at Dean but knew deep down he was right. She rolled her eyes then looked over at Punk who still had his head down, looking at his tennis shoes.
"Phil." AJ called out, and Punk's head jolted up at the surprisingly sweet tone of his wife's voice. A tone he hadn't heard in a while when it came to her speaking to him.
"You wanna come in with me?" AJ asked and immediately saw the puppy dog sadness in his hazel green eyes turn to joy.
"Yeah.. yes, if that's cool with you." Punk said nervously while he stood up. AJ nodded for him to follow her. And they started to walk down the hall towards the Principal office.
The 11 year old girl sat down in the office across from the Principal with annoyance. She was the spitting image of AJ, dark wavy hair, beautiful brown eyes and petite. But, she had Punk's personality from his fiery personality & sense of humor to a lot of his mannerisms.
She didn't understand why she was in the Principle's office as she felt that she did nothing wrong. She was defending not only herself but her family. And the boy just had a couple of scratches... and a black eye—nothing some bandages couldn't heal.
She got a firm talking to by the Principal on how violence is never the answer and she shouldn't let words affect her and blah blah blah. She was just hoping her mom or uncle Dean got here so she could leave. More so, uncle Dean because if her mother came—she knew she'd be in big trouble.
But to her surprise, the person who walked through the door wasn't her mom or uncle Dean.
"Dad." Daniela gleefully exclaimed with a large smile on her face, and he looked at her with a smile that was just as large as hers. Now, she knew for sure she was gonna get away with this.
That smile quickly faded however once she saw her mom walk in behind him. Never mind, she was definitely in trouble.
"You gave him a black eye, seriously Dani?" AJ sighed, as she, her daughter and husband walked out the administration office to the parking lot after a meeting with her Principal about the scuffle she got into.
"I'm telling you mom, he deserved it. What he said crossed a line." Daniela responded, feeling as if she was definitely in the right.
"What did he even say?" AJ questioned.
"I can't tell you. I can't tell anyone." Daniela shook her head, as the 3 of them continued to walk to the parking lot. This shocked both Punk & AJ considering Dani was always so quick to AJ everything.
"Sweetie, if he said something that bothered you—tell me what is was, please. Or tell your teacher. Don't use violence because it'll just end up with you in trouble. You're lucky you just got a few days of detention." AJ try to reason with the 11 year old but knew how stubborn she was. That was something she inherited from both her parents.
"Mom, I'm sorry, but I can't tell you. I did what I had to do, and I'd do it again. He's an ass. Come on, dad, back me up here." Daniela pleaded to Punk.
"He talked shit, and got his ass beat. You did what you had to do, Squirt." Punk shrugged it off, having no issue with his daughter teaching someone a lesson for running their month. "He's lucky that's all you did because you have a mean arm bar."
Punk nudged his daughter playfully as they smiled at each other.
"First off, you, are not allowed to use that language." She said towards Daniela then turned to Punk. "Second, of course you would be okay with her unnecessarily using violence."
"Well don't bite your tongue, April. Let all your little jabs out, I know you've been holding em in." Punk replied, trying to seem unbothered by that jab.
"Look, uncle Dean!" Daniela exclaimed running over to Dean who was in front of his truck taking a drag. She desperately wanted to change to subject before her parents started up arguing.
"Hey, kid. Heard you beat some ass." Dean said with a smile putting out his cigarette and giving a fist bump to his niece. While AJ just rolled her eyes at that fact both the guys were praising her for this.
"You know you can't smoke on school property, right?" Punk asked Dean with his eyebrow raised.
"What, I'm in the parking lot it's not like I lit one on the playground." Dean shrugged.
Both Punk and AJ shook their head at Dean while Daniela chuckled.
"Okay come on, Dani, say goodbye to your uncle & dad." AJ told her daughter. She had to get back to her job considering she still had a few hours left on clock.
"But Mom." Daniela dragged out dramatically, she wanted to hang out with her dad more, not in her mom's office.
"Don't you have to get back to work? She could come with Punk and I until you're off." Dean suggested.
"Yes, I could. Please, mom?" Daniela put on her best puppy dog face.
"So you can have fun when you're supposed to be in trouble?" AJ questioned. "I don't think so."
"Don't worry, Ape, she won't be having any sorts of any type of fun with us." Punk teased. "In all seriousness, I'll make sure she does her homework & everything."
"Yeah, mom, I think I'll do my work better at dad's apartment than your office. Please." Daniela once again pleaded to AJ.
AJ knew she was out numbered in this.
"Fine." AJ reluctantly agreed.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Daniela said while jumping up and down.
"Yeah, yeah... homework better be done when I pick you up. And you're so grounded the second you get home." AJ asserted.
"Yes, ma'am." Daniela mocked the hand motion of what an army official would do when showing their sergeant that they understood, and AJ had to smile at just how much a of comedian her daughter was.
"I love you, and I'll see you later." AJ bent down and gave Daniela a kiss on the cheek.
"I love you too, mom."
"Okay Squirt, why don't you get in the car with your uncle Dean." Punk told his daughter, Daniela excitedly skipped over to Dean's truck, and with the help of Dean, got in.
AJ stood back up & was walking away to her car when Punk told Dean he'd be back, and followed right behind her.
"Wait, Ape." Punk called out, she didn't halt her moments though—she continued to walk to her car and he still followed.
"April, please. Just wait." Punk pleaded, following behind.
"What?" AJ turned around just as she reached her car.
"Look, I know there's a lot of bullshit happening between us but to take my name off the people allowed to pick Dani up from school? That's fucking low." Punk expressed.
"Leave me alone, Phil." AJ demanded as she tried to open up her door but Punk stepped in between it so that they were chest to chest.
"You can't do this, April. She's my daughter too." Punk said.
"You're right. She is your daughter." AJ agreed but Punk knew just by looking in her eyes that she was about to tear him a new one. "I didn't take you off the list, Phil. You were never on the list. You weren't even here when I registered her into the school. You also weren't here for her softball games, her academic achievement awards, and many other things that parents should be there for. But you know who was there? I was. Dean was, Renee was. Hell, even my shitty ass parents were there whenever they were in town."
Punk just looked on at his wife, could see the raw anger & pain in her eyes.
"And even though she was very grateful that all of us were there, I could tell that she couldn't allow herself to be fully happy because her best friend wasn't there. Every time, I had to be the one to tell her that you couldn't make it for some bullshit reason. I had to be the one to try and explain to her why her dad puts his career before her." AJ went on.
"I knew what I signed up for when I married you. I knew you were passionate about whatever you did, and I was okay with sometimes coming second to your career. But Dani didn't sign up for this." She said, feeling her blood boil at just thinking of the amount of times she had to comfort her daughter due to her being distraught at the fact her father couldn't make it to things.
"She deserves to be put first. She's getting older, she's so smart, and she's starting to wonder why her Dad doesn't keep his promises. She loves you so much, Phil. And you, of all people, should know how it feels when you love someone or something, and it doesn't feel like they love you back. I know I do." AJ fought hard to hold back tears, determine not to let Punk see her cry about this.
"April don't do tha-" Punk started.
"No, Phil, just listen to me. Because you need to hear this. Yes, you aren't on the list. I don't trust that you will drop everything for our daughter. And the way you've been these past months have only solidified my distrust in you. The only reason I'm allowing her to go with you is because Dean's there. I don't care if that makes me the bad guy or a cold hearted bitch—I'm not gonna let you hurt her. Not anymore." AJ closed out.
"Now, can you please move out the way so I could go back to work?" AJ asked, after getting everything off her chest.
Punk moved from in front of her door with a look of shock on his face, and AJ then got into the car and drove off.
He was speechless.
Hello, so I'm kinda new to whole fanfic writing, but I had this idea in my head & couldn't shake it so here it is.