I Bid This Bitch Goodbye
Summary: As Tony Khan's niece and junior producer, you were placed in charge of an auction event where fans can win a date with their favourite wrestlers.
But when you spy a face that has caused you nothing but trouble, you are determined to bring this bitch to the ground.
Notes: I meant to post this yesterday but oh well. Happy late birthday, Hook.
4339 words.
There was nothing particularly special about you. You were just an ordinary woman with an ordinary life, ordinary parents, and an ordinary education. You supposed the fact that your uncle-in-law happened to be a billionaire made you a little less ordinary than some others, but you never let it get to your head. Whilst in highschool you refused to let anyone know that were in close connections to such major businessmen in the sports industry. They would have flipped.
The friends you made were genuine and you were thankful for that… but unfortunately the enemies you made were also genuine. Right bitches they were.
You did try to make a living for yourself at first by working in a gas station, however, you weren’t really going anywhere with minimum wage, and the offer to work with your uncle in his new wrestling company was always on the table sooooo why not? A little career push never hurt anyone.
You were now a junior producer, learning the backstage roles that made up the AEW family that you were so warmly welcomed into with open arms. Everyone seemed to like you there and you gained many friends in your first few months, Hook being one of the wrestlers you’d grown especially close with, originally getting along because of your similar ages, and now you acted as if you’d been friends since childhood.
Of course, like any good childhood friend, he loved to mess with you and tease you, for example whenever you’re tasked to call him to the ring he thinks it’s a funny idea to go wandering around backstage, forcing you to go on a wild goose chase trying to find him.
—
“I need to start keeping an air tag on you”.
“Or maybe you should start being good at your job?”
“I’d actually be able to do my job if you weren’t constantly playing hide and go seek”.
—
Such a child…
Or how about the few times he snatched the clipboard straight out of your hands and held it above his head where you couldn’t reach?
—
“Just give it back. I need to get back to work”.
“No one’s stopping you from working”.
“There very clearly is someone stopping me”.
—
What a dick…
But! Today, he would regret all those times where he’d taken advantage of your job and made you look like a fool. He would be at your complete mercy and like hell would you take any pity on him; you were going to have your own back on this guy and he was going to suffer and you were going to enjoy watching it. Just like any good wrestling match.
You walked through the hall with a proud smile glued to your face, looking forward to seeing the faces of over-adoring wrestling fans, full of hope that they can outbid everyone else for a date with some of the most favourite wrestlers AEW had to offer.
As the organiser, you were one of the first people to arrive, only a couple of other producers and stagehands present who were setting up chairs - which were most likely to be discarded once they were in such close proximity to the wrestlers.
Oh, revenge was sweet indeed. You made this happen, Y/N. You’re an absolute genius.
When you proposed the idea of a charity fundraiser to your good ol’ uncle Tony about auctioning off dates with the wrestlers - not only to boost good publicity, but to give something to young children who had dreams of wrestling professionally - he immediately fell in love with the idea and told you to start making plans and secure some good people for the event.
Those wrestlers needed to be put to good use anyway. You knew they were good for something.
“Hey, have we got enough chairs for everyone?” you asked one of your colleagues who was setting up the seating.
“Uhh I think so. If not, only a few people will have to stand”.
You hum in response and start setting up the microphone and speakers before your sound guy arrives to take over. You’d hoped he would arrive soon because you had no fucking clue what you were doing. You were just tired of walking around watching everyone else do stuff.
Whilst playing with the buttons of the soundboard, a loud, ear-piercing boom echoed through the hall, accompanied by a few pained cries you’d caused people.
Oh, the cringe.
You practically threw the microphone down and stepped away from the area you were working on.
Best to leave it to the professionals.
“Good idea. Deafen us so we can’t hear the screaming superfans later”.
You turned to the sound of Hook’s voice to see him at the very end of the hall having just walked through the door. Just your luck for him to walk in as you embarrass yourself. But your luck was about to get better.
“Thank you”, you replied genuinely, watching his figure moving in your direction. “You’ll need it when they’re screaming in your ears all night. Probably in more ways than one knowing your record”.
He laughed softly and awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck as he stood only a few feet away from you.
“Hah you got me there, huh? A manwhore? Is that what you women call ‘em?”
You shot him a warm, patronising smile. “Only behind your back”. You quickly changed your mind. “Oh who am I kidding? I call you that to your face”.
You brushed past him, abandoning your post at the soundboard to help finish setting up the chairs, Hook closely following behind like a loyal puppy with his owner.
“Nah I wouldn’t do that. Not with a fan, at least”.
“Why’s that, fuckboy?” You joked.
“Very funny”, he responded, rolling his eyes. “I’d feel like I'm taking advantage of their love and adoration for me or something like that. Not that I’d blame them of course”.
You immediately stopped what you were doing and sent him a raised eyebrow. Like you’d believe that story. In the time you had known him, Hook had numerous women hanging off his arm (and that was only from what you had seen on social nights out with work), and sometimes those numerous women would be on one occasion. You were grateful you didn’t share the same hotel with him. Those were sounds you most definitely did not want to hear.
He seemed to have noticed the scepticism written on your face and spoke before you had a chance to reply. “You don’t believe me?”, he asked in subtle disbelief. “I can be a gentleman, you know?”
“You? A gentleman? I bet you’ve never even dated a girl before. I’ve only ever seen you walk out of bars with these ‘female friends’ of yours”. Despite ultimately joking, your teasing did have some truth behind it. For the four years you’d known him, you had never known this man to go out on a single actual date like to a restaurant or the movies or something cheesy like that.
It didn’t bother you, of course. Or at least that’s what you kept on telling yourself. You had no reason to be jealous; you didn’t even like him in that way nor had you ever thought about him romantically. That was partially true until this moment.
Sure you appreciated him, just the same as you appreciated all your hot friends. You work in the wrestling industry full of strong, sweaty, fit guys and girls. What did you expect?
Fine! You admitted Hook was easy on the eyes. So what? It’s not like you’d ever wondered what those perfectly sculptured muscles he so proudly displays in the ring yet modestly covers underneath his hoodie felt like. And it never once crossed your mind what was so addictive about running your hands through his tousled hair as you’d seen him among all the women do repeatedly.
Nope. None of that. Not. At. All…
…
…
…
It couldn’t be that soft, right?
Stop those intrusive thoughts, Y/N! It would never happen anyway.
“You’ll see one day”, he defended, snapping you out of your thoughts. “I’m just trying to have fun whilst I’m still young. I’m not rushing life like you seem to be doing”.
You sensed that you may have struck a nerve with the harsh tones in his voice as he looked at you expectedly, although you quickly felt awkward, a little ashamed of yourself for criticising his early life choices and perhaps taking your jokes a little too far.
A big apology would have to wait, though, as there was so much shit to be done before the event started and it would have been unfair if you weren’t pulling your weight enough. After all, this was your chance to show your uncle that you had what it takes to progress in the company.
Temporarily moving the problems with Hook to the back of your mind, you opened your mouth to speak a quick ‘sorry’ with the intention of making it up to him later like buying him a drink or something. However, another voice from only a few feet away echoed through the spacious hall.
“Hey, who’s been messing with this setup?”
Your sound guy must have come in without you noticing because you whipped your head around to see his face scrunched up with such confusion and frustration. You winced and turned away, pretending you didn’t know anything. Perhaps there was time for one long, drawn out apology.
Never had you been more relieved to be made fun of, hearing the sound of a snicker from a certain hooded figure standing before you to which you smiled lightheartedly in response. You should have known he wouldn’t stay mad at you for long.
What seemed like what was meant to be the end of the conversation clearly wasn’t because Hook still insisted on standing opposite you, staring and twitching his nose as if something was bothering him.
“What do you want?” You asked, not wasting any time and getting back to setting up chairs.
“What makes you think I want something?”
“Oh I’m sorry. Don’t you?” Sarcasm was basically your second language.
Hook was silent for a few seconds, allowing yourself to secretly smirk whilst your back was turned away from him. Just wait for it.
“Okay yeah I do want something”. Bingo. You were right as always. “I need you to bid for me”.
You scoffed into a breathy laugh. He couldn’t be serious, right? That’s like straight up asking you on a date without actually saying it and with a lot more complications than there needed to be. He continued.
“I’d give you the money back, I swear. I just really really don’t want to date a fan who’s desperate enough to be here to win a date with me. It’ll be chaos”.
As much as you questioned the cruel wording, you understood where his point was coming from. The entry fee in itself was five-hundred dollars and these people would have had to have been glued to their screen, waiting for the tickets to go on sale. On top of that, they wouldn’t even guarantee a date because they’d still have to bid a ridiculous amount of money in the auction.
You’d love to help him but you already had your sweet sweet revenge all planned out.
“Ooo it’s sooooo nice that you’re willing to give all that money to charity, and I’d hate seeing you at the mercy of some overbearing girl - or guy for that matter - buuut no. I’m not going to bid for you. It’d be wrong of me since, if you haven’t noticed, I’m running the whole thing”.
Hook’s silence spoke volume as he now knew exactly how you felt about him being in this auction.
“Bitch…” he muttered, turning to the side.
Gasp!
“What was that?” you asked sternly, finally facing him, not having stopped setting up the chairs until now.
“I said I… need to talk to Mitch”. He pointed to one of the guys on the other side of the room and pretended to approach him.
You sighed before calling out whilst he was still within a few feet away, “His name is Thomas”.
“Then I need to talk to Thomas, bitch”.
“Oh just fuck off”. The conversation ended with you indignantly laughing at his teenager-y antics.
—
Every single chair that you among others had placed had someone sat in it - well, they were all allocated, at least. One crazed fan that caught your eye was standing, of course, violently shaking the person next to her who you really hoped was her friend and not some stranger she was using as a human cocktail shaker.
It was show time. Honestly, you had no other job than to make sure everything was in check, ensuring that the auction went as you had envisioned. No introduction was needed as Tony Shiavone (who was way too happy to be the announcer for a change) went straight to it, announcing the first wrestler up for grabs, and you were quite content standing off to the side where you could watch the whole show as well as watching the crowd.
“Coming in from St. Marks Place, he’s cold-hearted, he’s definitely handsome, and the girls go crazy for him”.
Ha ha! Although it was the first auction, this was definitely the main event in your opinion. The one you had been looking forward to the most.
“Weighing in at 202 pounds, he currently holds the championship for the best single life. He’s Hoooooooooook!”
If the pool of merchandise wasn’t enough to figure out exactly how big of fans these people were, the screaming made it all too obvious. You hardly heard his song playing due to a mix of the yelling and the (hopefully temporary) deafness it caused you.
Seeing Hook walk on stage as just himself without the aloof persona he puts on was strange to say the least. It felt as though all these people got to experience a side to him that only you had the pleasure of seeing, which you knew was absolutely ludicrous because you weren’t the only person in his life. Perhaps it was the fact that these ‘people’ were the women who were about to pay a ridiculous amount of money at a chance for his heart.
Was this what jealousy felt like?
No, of course not. You had no reason to be jealous. You were about to relish in the suffering he was about to endure by one of these fans.
But what if the date… went well? What if he actually started a relationship with that woman? What would that mean for the two of you?
You desperately tried to shake your head out of those thoughts. He said he wouldn’t romantically involve himself with a fan anyway.
…but what if-? No! Shut up, Y/N!
Hook’s eyes immediately met yours, eyebrows raising as if to say ‘wish me luck’, to which you smirked in a reply, reminding yourself that this whole event was meant to be enjoyable for you.
“And we’ll start the bidding at three-hundred dollars. Oh straight in with the three-hundred”.
The bids came in so fast that you could hardly comprehend how many bidding paddles were flying up in the air until they began to slow down as the price continued to rise to those outrageous prices you were waiting to hear.
“Two-thousand dollars to the woman in the front here. Is there a twenty-one-hundred here?”
The higher the bids came in, the fewer women that were left standing, eventually cutting it down to just two, and then to one, and boy were they desperate.
“That’s five-thousand dollars to the woman at the front going once”.
Pause. You peered at the lucky lady who had won the date with Hook and what came into your view could have made your body implode from how badly your blood was boiling.
“Going twice”.
Pause. It couldn’t be her, could it? But that long golden blonde hair and sharp facial features were completely undeniable.
“Aaand-”
“Five-thousand one-hundred!” Your voice spoke out before you even had time to think, your glare not having left the woman who stood on the front row. Her disgusting victorious smile returned her natural hideous jealous scowl you’d known for years which whipped in your direction as probably many other heads, including Hook’s, did - not that you were paying any attention to anyone else now that the woman who had been harassing you for almost two years was here in front of you.
You were lucky you hadn’t spoken to the audience yet because you feared what kind of backlash you and the company would have received if anyone knew you - an organiser - started bidding in their own event.
“Two-hundred!” Her voice fought back to which you quickly retaliated with a hundred dollars more. Like hell was this bitch going to get what she wanted.
You knew Petra from highschool. She was one of those who thought she and her friends were oh so much better than you because of how much makeup they wore and how trendy their new Prada outfit was. She even bragged about her grades from time to time. After all, she did a lot of grinding on hard work to achieve those.
“Six thousand!”
Where the hell was she getting this money from?
You presumed she was rich all these years, but not ‘I’m gonna buy myself a famous boyfriend’ rich.
“Seven!” You on the other hand had no reason to worry about money. One huge benefit of working in your uncle’s business was the generous pay. Uncle Tony really did not hold out when it came to paying his staff.
You could see Hook’s perplexed look from beneath his hoodie directed at you, most likely wondering why you had such the change of heart, but you couldn’t let your focus drift away from the burden sitting on the front row. She must pay.
After you graduated and All Elite Wrestling had taken off, word had gotten out that you were Tony Khan’s niece, so when you mistakenly decided to post on Instagram about your new job there, the number of private messages you had received from people you had hardly spoken to in the past came flooding in, asking if you could get them tickets, or arrange a meet and greet with their favourites.
You’d decided to ignore all of them, however, there was one who was painfully persistent that you eventually had to tell them to shut the fuck up because it was never gonna happen. That person was, of course, Petra. Every week or so it was all ‘Can you set me up with Hook?’, ‘Oh my god isn’t Hook just the hottest?’, and ‘Can’t you do this for me after all you put me through in high school?’
Who the hell did she think she was? A princess? Not everything isn’t her fault.
You didn’t fail to notice the slight panic in her widened eyes after you raised the price by another thousand dollars.
Where’s daddy’s allowance now, bitch?
She hesitantly gestured to Shiavone to up the bid another hundred, however, now you knew she was running short of money, you felt you could wrap this up pretty swiftly.
“Eight-thousand dollars”, you said with a smirk. You were definitely going over your limit and you’d probably have to budget your shopping for a couple of months, but boy would it be worth it in the end to see that smug face wiped clean off.
“Nine-thousand dollars!” How many sugar daddies does this girl have? She probably knows she can leave and suck someone’s dick for another 1k.
No matter how she got the money, you knew you had more.
“Ten–thousand dollars!” The murmurs and Petra’s silence spoke all. You saw her visibly gulp and glance around the floor in disbelief. She wasn’t going to find another two thousand dollars on the floor so you really did not know what she could have been looking around for. She lost her pride a long time ago and she sure as hell wasn’t going to find it here.
“And the date with Hook goes to uhh… the lady over there for ten-thousand dollars!”
You sent Tony a small, thankful smile for not telling everyone who you were, and you were quite surprised that Petra hadn’t said anything appalling yet given she too knew that you had to have had a part in this event. She’d even begged you for weeks in advance if you could rig the event for her. In hindsight, you really shouldn’t have been at all shocked to see her here.
One of the backstage crew gestured for you to follow them to which you obliged, leaving the noise of disappointed groans behind you. One glance at Hook before you disappeared behind the curtain told you that this situation was just as awkward for him as it was now for you.
Your mind scoured for a suitable justification as to why you might have spoken up when you did.
You could say it was for charity? Those unfortunate kids were about to be bathed in riches and opportunities with the amount of money being thrown at them.
Not having any faith in your poor, disingenuous excuse, and seeing Hook making his way towards you, you decided that perhaps it would be better if you simply told him the truth. It was a valid reason after all. You wanted Hook to suffer for all the teasing he had done to you in the past but you didn’t want to torture him to death.
“Is that why you decided to work here?”
You stared at him with a puzzled look and he continued.
“Because you’re a secret superfan?”
Rolling your eyes, you scoffed and whilst waiting for an actual response to come to your mind, another half laugh, half scoff filled the silence, making his claim seem like the truth. You had not joined the AEW team because you were a Hook superfan (because you weren’t), but over the years of working alongside him in the background, you had naturally become one of his biggest fans.
“Yeah, you wish”. You regretted the poor excuse for a comeback as soon as it left your lips.
“Sooo are you gonna tell me why you just bid for me or are you gonna stand there all awkward?” He asked after a long hesitation.
Yep. The truth is better than an obvious lie.
“I knew the other woman from high school and trust me when I tell you that I was doing you a favour. She’s a slut. A tart. A whore if you will. I swear in God’s name if I ever see her again I will-”
“Alright alright I get it. You can tell me more on our date”.
You were glad Tyler decided to interrupt you there as you hadn’t even realised your hands clawing at thin air as if choking the very woman you hadn’t been able to get out of your life since you started working here. She had caused nothing but distractions and…
Wait, what?
“Date?”
Hook chuckled at your doe eyes. “You won fair and square, right?”
“Well yeah but I didn’t realise that– I didn’t think– I thought you wouldn’t– okay, a date sounds great”.
“Are you sure? I didn’t think you’d want to date a ‘fuckboy’ like me”.
Ah shit. Yeah you forgot about that. Well you supposed now would be a better time than any for an apology.
“Look I really am sorry for that. I was–”
“It doesn’t matter. You weren’t completely wrong. But I won’t be like that with you. How about tonight?”
You sent a warm smile of relief. Perhaps you had just been in denial all this time because you were suddenly super excited for this date with this good-looking, hilarious, kind friend of yours.
“Sounds perfect. It’ll probably be late, though. I have to help clean up”.
“I’ll wait, don’t worry”.
He edged past you and left you with your heart feeling like it was about to burst out of your chest and with butterflies hitting every inch of your stomach lining. The shaky breath you let out was quickly sucked back in when two hands gripped your hips and pulled your body close to theirs.
“I like it when you're nervous around me. Cocky didn’t suit you”, Hook muttered in your ear. Every part of you tingled now and you felt you could hardly move.
That would’ve been awkward if it wasn’t Hook.
You managed to turn your body, watching him make his way to the back door, looking like he was walking down a fashion runway or something.
Before he could reach for the handle, you called out to him, not letting him get away with the comment you had just realised he made.
“You’re still going to pay me back, though, right?”
He turned with a smirk and without saying anything, stuck both his middle fingers up at you before leaving the building.
Smug bastard…
You spent the remainder of the day with a gigantic grin plastered upon your face. You hadn’t dared show yourself on stage as the organiser after your little showdown with Petra, and you had hoped that all of those people out there would never figure out who you were either.
Perhaps she would leave you alone now after that whole ordeal, knowing that she lost and would finally be able to accept that she will never be able to get to Hook through you. You had to give her some credit, however, because without her, some other girl would have won and you would never have been given this date opportunity.
Instead, you would probably be eating ice cream in bed in pure jealousy rather than savouring the humiliation you had originally wished upon your date.
Your date… Ah! Exciting! This ten grand had better be worth it.
THE END.
Bonus: A few private messages! (I had no idea what I was doing)
Message #1
Message #2
Message #3 (Blurry schmurry. It's fine)
End notes: I would like to apologise for being naive. I thought it was cool that Chris and Hook were teaming, especially since I saw Chris Jericho's band in Feb (which was great btw) and I got overexcited at their collaboration. I scold myself everyday since he pushed Taz and took the belt.