Baron had glared at literally everything he stared at that morning. It was a groggy Wednesday morning in the UK and he was still furious from the previous night in Glasgow when that little shit Kallisto blew out his knee. He was still limping today, and despite the attitude that he showed to Shane and AJ, he knew what an opportunity competing at Survivor Series would have been. It would have led to title matches and having his name put out there more which meant more money for him on his next paycheck.
When some small little aide with glasses had knocked on his hotel room telling him that the higher ups wanted him to go do an appearance for some stupid soccer club. He'd normally have no issues, as long as he was getting paid, but he was in a worse mood than usual. It took the stammering aid telling him that Triple H himself was interested in making him go to this thing and if Baron didn't go he would be pulled from all shows for a while. While Baron liked to do things his way, he wasn't a moron and that's why he found himself standing outside the hotel waiting for a car to pick him up and take him to the stupid place with the stupid people.
"Oi, I can't wait for this. I always liked watching these sports when I lived here. I know you played football and all, and I've grown to love that too, but you'll never get over the sports you grew up with, eh?"
Baron didn't register that this voice was talking to him until he felt something bat him on the arm lightly. "Hey, I'm talking to you."
He looked to his right and it took him a second to realize that the hit had come from down below, somebody a lot shorter than him. He lowered his gaze until he saw the mop of orange hair, wild and all over the place. The next thing he registered was the white and blue of the Smackdown Women's championship and then he locked eyes with Becky Lynch. Fuck.
"What are you doing?"
She raised an eyebrow at him, as she was pulling a winter hat over her orange hair. Baron had his own beanie on and couldn't help feeling a bit annoyed that they were almost matching now. "You're going to the football club thing today right? I was told that you were going with me."
Baron tried to fight off a frustrated growl, but didn't quite silence it before it escaped. He sighed, "Great. Just great."
He saw Becky narrow her eyes at him, her arms crossing. "Alright. Listen up, cause this is how it's gonna be. We are going to have a good time, we are going to do our job, and if you are a sourpuss the whole time, I'm gonna stick my size eight up your ass and force you to have a good time." She poked him in the arm. "Clear?"
Baron knew his expression was surprised and her cocky smirk showed that she saw it. Before he could even think of anything to say the black SUV that they had both been waiting for pulled up to the curve.
She smiled at him. "I'll let you have the front seat, you'll probably need the leg room, big guy." He patted him on the arm, not seeming to care how much he didn't care for unneeded physical touch. "Plus it'll probably help, we'll have to be Baron-ing each other for the rest of the day." She laughed, her husky voice floating off into the wind with glee. "Get it? Like your name and bearing?" She laughed again at her own joke, slipping into the car.
Baron put his face into his hands, knowing he had to deal with the Irishwoman for the rest of the day. "Fucking Christ."
He had been at this stupid soccer compound for two hours and he was already wanting to lay out everyone in this building. He'd never been a social guy and meeting strangers was not his idea of a good time, but management was making him do this and paying him. He just couldn't muster the effort to even try and smile, not that he needed to with that orange headed wacko talking to every single person that they met and smiling. God, he didn't know people could smile that much. What a fucking weirdo.
He sat back, leaning against the wall in the soccer guy's locker room while Becky talked animatedly with her hands. Baron rolled his eyes and looked down at his shoes, imagining all the ways he could rip Kallisto in half. It usually calmed him down and put a self-satisfied smile on his face, but soon his vision was blocked by a hand waving in front of his face. He snapped up with a glare to meet Becky's own.
"What did I say about being grumpy?"
Baron looked behind her to see some of the soccer guys looking at him. He gave them a hard glare before fixing it on Becky who didn't even look half as intimidated as she should be. "Don't know. I kinda blocked you out when you were talking."
Becky squinted at him, her shoulders straightening, like a cat's hair standing up. "Oh, you wanna play that game, eh? How about you show a little respect to the champ." She raised her title off her shoulder and stared Baron down. Just from how she said it, it was clear that Becky was uncomfortable pulling rank. Not like Charlotte who walked around like she was better than everyone. Becky was championship material, even he could see that, but she certainly wasn't cut out for projecting herself as being above everyone.
He chuckled, "You're lucky that I can't take that from you. Or I would." He stepped forward and inwardly cursed when she didn't even retreat back a step. Was this girl crazy? "I should just plant you with the End of Days right here and now, title or no title on the line."
"Do it, big man. I dare you." She smirked, "I'll put my title up against you, and then I'll rip your tattooed arm off and beat you with it."
Baron stared down at her, the challenging glare not leaving her face. He couldn't help but feel impressed with how tough she was. Whether she could actually take him or not, she was standing up to him and no matter how annoying as fuck that was it made him respect her. He was getting soft; today sucked.
He cursed and turned, already halfway down the hall before her heard her footsteps behind him. He growled and turned around, just about done with this entire day. He didn't expect to meet her smile. Was this chick completely bipolar or what?
"Hey, so you are being a major dick today."
He breathed in and out through his nose to try to maintain both his sanity and his rage. "Why is that making you smile?"
"Cause that means I'm gonna keep bothering you until I find out what's wrong, and can help. You seemed like the kind of person who needs tough love and no bullshit before someone tries to help you."
He was about to interrupt when she held up her hand, silencing him. "Please, you are actually talking to me right now, and it's with a lot less anger and swearing than last time. So we can skip the part where you try to say you don't have feelings and that I'm not getting to you cause it'd be bullshit and you know it. Now, spill."
"I'm pissed about missing the pay per view." He blurted out without any thoughts on why he was doing so. Now he was in far too deep. "It was a chance to make my name bigger and I failed. That little bug caused me to fail."
Becky hummed, "I don't know about bug, Kallisto is usually very nice I think he didn't care for your stunning personality, but as far as the other thing goes, I know all about that."
He scoffed, "Please. You're the champ. You're making incredible amounts of money that you probably waste on weird shit. Don't act like you know what's going on."
"I wasn't always the champ though, was I?" That shut him up good and proper. "I never held the NXT championship, couldn't get it done against Sasha. I didn't win the Diva's title cause Charlotte is a… not nice person." He rolled his eyes on her lack of ability to insult the girl. "And I couldn't win at Mania when all the lights were on, in fact, I was the one who tapped out. So, I do know all about it and I know you're going to be fine." She gave him another breathtaking smile before continuing. "It's your first year on the main roster, you're still a hot commodity, it's not a major injury, and there will be plenty of other Survivor Series for you to be in."
Baron didn't want to admit it, but he felt better. By her smile, Becky already knew that she'd made him feel better. He took another deep breath before giving her a passive look, one that wasn't annoyed and more neutral, his natural state. "You still smile too much."
She gave him a playful glare, "Maybe you don't smile enough, big guy. Don't worry, I'll fix that yet."
"Fat chance of that." He began to move past her, more ready to do his job like he was being paid to do.
He heard her call out behind him, "Challenge accepted!" Before she bounced forward and bumped shoulders with him like they were old drinking buddies. Were they friends now? Baron didn't really do friendship, but the way that she said challenge accepted seemed to mean he'd be seeing a lot of her. Baron couldn't help but point out to himself that if she were to be around more, he wouldn't mind half as much as he'd pretend to.
She was still a fucking weirdo though.