Love Means A Free Babysitter
Summary: As a single mother of a three-year-old, you are constantly struggling to keep him under control, and boy are you glad Tyler was there at Rampage when you needed help. It worked out better than you expected.
TW: An annoyingly adorable child. You either love him or you hate him.
“Asher! Wait for me, please! Don’t run off!” You called for your three-year-old son who thought it would be a fun idea to make you chase him around backstage.
The babysitter you’d hired had cancelled a mere hour before she was due to arrive at the hotel, so you made a quick call to Tony Khan’s team to ask if you could bring your son to Rampage and he reluctantly agreed so long as you kept him under control.
“Oh yes of course. I promise you he’s an angel. You won’t even notice he’s here”.
An ear-piercing shriek echoed through the hall you were running through and you ignored the shocked, puzzled looks thrown your way. So much for being unnoticeable. It probably would have been easier to catch up with him if you weren’t carrying all his toys, snacks, his blanket, your own water bottle, and your gym bag with your ring gear in.
“Asher…”, you warned. “If you don’t stop running, mommy will be very angry with you”. Still nothing. You swore this kid had as much energy as if he’d drank dozens of energy drinks and eaten a bowlful of sugar.
If everyone here didn’t know you were one of the professional wrestlers, they would most likely mistake you for a crazed fan.
You didn’t take your eyes off Asher for one second, cautious of where he was running to, not wanting to find him somehow running through somewhere and into the arena.
However, you gave an audible sigh of relief when a figure appeared from around the corner, causing Asher to bump into their legs and ultimately stopping him in his tracks, now wordlessly gazing up at the person’s face.
As you drew closer you realised that the person your son had crashed into was Hook - or Tyler as you and some others preferred to call him - who returned the intent gaze into your child’s eyes, but his eyes filled with perplexion as he glanced around him trying to figure out where this random kid came from.
“Uhh…”, he uttered before you closed the distance and placed your hand over Asher’s shoulder and pulled him away from your coworker.
“Tyler, I’m so sorry about him. I’ve been trying to catch up with him for five minutes already and he just won’t stay still”. You managed to speak whilst catching your breath, proving difficult with everything you were holding as well as keeping Asher at bay who was now clinging and leaning against your leg.
“Uh it’s cool. What’s with the kid?” He asked with no hesitation.
You could see the obvious bewilderment in his features, glancing back and forth between yourself and Asher, and giggled before answering his question.
“This is Asher. My son”, you told him, and he responded with five seconds of lip-mimed stuttering until speaking up again.
“Since when were you a mom? You’ve never said anything before”.
It was true that you’d never told Tyler before that you had a young child to take care of, but that was only reasoned with the fact that you never spoke to one another all that much. The closest you’d get to a conversation would be a few remarks on someone’s match in the viewing room or in one of the locker rooms. Your paths simply never seemed to cross naturally very often.
“Since three years ago. I fell pregnant at eighteen, gave birth at nineteen, and now I’m a very tired mother and professional wrestler”.
Hook felt he needed more than just a couple of seconds between bombshells to wrap his head around this discovery. You were a mom of a three-year-old boy. You were younger than him and had somehow managed to climb up the ladder of success into AEW whilst carrying around a baby in the background.
He felt a sudden rush of respect that he’d never had before. Truthfully, he always thought you had a few screws in your head loose as you always scurried about everywhere and constantly looked like you had somewhere you needed to be. It had never the slightest bit bothered him and it never made him think any less of you, but now knowing there was a reason behind your madness made him feel guilty for thinking such things about you.
“Can’t the father look after him?” he asked.
“Oh um no”, you told him plainly. “He left me when he found out I was pregnant. Thought he was too important to deal with a child”.
Then he felt worse than ever. You were a single mom, juggling everything all at once. How were you even sane?
Frustration was visible in Tyler’s demeanour, evident in his clenched fists, pressing into his thighs and a small wrinkle in his nose which did not go unnoticed by you.
“I’m kind of glad he left actually”, you continued. “I was trying to find a way out for months. He wasn’t a very nice person and would have been an even worse dad”.
He appeared to relax slightly and you were thankful that he hadn’t burst into some fit of rage, however, what confused you was that he was angry in the first place after telling him about your ex.
You hadn’t realised he cared so much about single mothers, let alone care about yourself. You wouldn’t exactly call Tyler a close friend so it surprised you that he would… well… actually give a damn. Whatever his reason for caring was, it brought you happiness that he felt the same way you did when your ex told you he was leaving you.
“Anyway”, you snapped out of your thoughts. “We’d better get going if I actually want to fight tonight”.
“The show doesn’t start for like four hours”.
“It will take that long”.
Hook gave you a questioned look before stuffing his hands back into the pocket of his hoodie and putting one of his earbuds in his ear.
“I might see you later then. Good luck with uh… that…” He nodded towards Asher beside you and walked away behind you.
“Thanks?” Was he scared of Asher or something?
Taking advantage of the opening in front of him to continue causing chaos, you found yourself running after Asher yet again.
“I swear that child is on steroids”, you huffed.
Before even having gone in the ring yet, it felt like it had been the most stressful match day of your life, and you were waiting patiently in the viewing room with Asher standing in between your legs whilst you were handing him surprise tickle attacks.
At least he wasn’t running wildly and screaming.
You weren’t alone in the room as Hook was sitting on the opposite side with his earphones in and distracted by whatever was happening on the screen. You were a bit too preoccupied with your son to notice anything, even the frequent glances Hook gave the both of you. All you really knew and cared about at that moment was that you were to have a quick match with Saraya and that you were going to win.
“Hey hey hey, Asher”, you addressed your littlun to get his attention. “When mommy’s done here we’re going back to the hotel and you, mister, are going straight to bed. Okay? So you’ve got to be a good boy”.
“I am a good boy”, he said, nodding his head.
“Good”. You kissed his head and reached down to Asher’s bag to pull out a bag of carrot sticks since it had been a while since he ate his dinner.
As you were doing so, the door to the viewing room opened and you spun your head to see - as you expected - one of the producers. “Y/n, you’re needed now”.
“Alright. I’ll be there in just a minute”.
You quickly gave Asher his carrot sticks and got him to settle on a chair with his ipad so he should have been fine there for a while, however, you didn’t feel comfortable just leaving him alone the way he was. You had hoped that someone around you would be available, but one look at Hook made you feel… reluctant.
As funny as it was that he called your son ‘that’, you shamedly didn’t have much faith in his babysitting abilities, and you didn’t want to make him feel uncomfortable.
But in all honesty, you didn’t care too much. You were sure he wouldn’t let anything bad happen which was all you needed to know, and taking another look at Asher, he seemed pretty absorbed in his game so…
“Hey, Tyler”, you called and he raised an eyebrow up at you. “Can you look after Asher for me? I won’t be long and he’ll be good. Thanks. Bye. I owe you”.
Rushing to get out of there, you kissed Asher’s head and ran through the door to get to your match, leaving a dumbfounded Hook staring at the empty doorway where you were just standing.
‘What the fuck just happened?’ He thought.
Hook unfortunately knew absolutely nothing about children and so felt very awkward about the situation he was forced in, however, he thought maybe if he kept completely silent and didn’t move then the kid wouldn’t notice he was there and that his mom had disappeared.
Of course, that didn’t last long. After a couple of minutes, Asher’s head poked up and looked for his mom but found only the man with the fluffy hair staring at his phone.
“Where’s mommy?” he asked, which attracted Hook’s attention.
Here goes nothing. “She’s in the ring. She’ll be back soon”.
“It’s where people go to fight”.
Asher looked puzzled and tilted his head to the side as if he were a puppy.
“Mommy said no fighting. That’s not good”.
“Well your mommy fights. Everyone here fights”.
“Mommy doesn’t fight”. He began aggressively shaking his head. “Mommy’s a good girl”.
A smirk turned into a chuckle at the thought of you telling your own child that fighting is naughty and there you were on the screen throwing someone’s head against the padding of a corner post.
“I think mommy’s cappin’. Look up there”. He pointed to the screen where you were now being thrown onto the canvas with Saraya’s foot making contact with the arms that covered your head.
Hook had assumed Asher would feel offended that you had lied to him yet think what you were doing was cool like he had when he first saw his dad wrestle, but when he looked over, what he feared would happen, happened. He was never good with kids so making one cry caused him probably the most panic he’s ever felt, even more than when he’s been pinned and desperately tried to find an outing.
“Hey hey, kid, don’t cry. Your mom’s fine. She’s not getting hurt”, he said, rushing to Asher’s side, crouching to his level and placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
Asher’s whines alone were enough to make Hook’s heart break. What would you say if you knew he’d just made your son cry?
He needed to fix this before you came back. He needed to fix this now. Fast.
“Uhh it’s only pretend. It’s not real. They’re just… tickling each other”.
“Tickling? Why are they tickling?”
“Because it’s fun. They uh tickle each other until one of them gets too tired to carry on”.
That’d have to do. At least the tears had stopped now.
“I want to do that”. He pointed to the TV and stared at Hook with large hopeful eyes.
It wasn’t his position to start play-fighting with your son, let alone being the one to tell him what you do for a living, but the thought of a little kid wanting him to teach him wrestling made him forget about all that. He wanted to teach your kid the child-friendly version of wrestling and that was what he was going to do.
“Alright. So have you ever had a tickle fight before?” He nodded. “Well it’s just that but you have to try and get me on the floor and for me to stay there for three seconds. Can you do that?”
He nodded again with a gigantic smile that brought Hook some pride. He was about to guide Asher to the first move, but he beat him to it, flinging himself at Tyler who in turn flew back and hit the ground.
His instinct would have been to push him off, but he had to restrain himself from being aggressive.
In fact, he almost laughed when Asher made a poor attempt to tickle his neck. Three-year-olds were apparently terrible ticklers.
“One two three”, the small person said, clearly not knowing how long one second is yet with how fast he was, but Hook went along with it anyway.
“Heeeyyy I want a rematch. I wasn’t ready”.
Hook surprised himself with how well he was with Asher and how easy it was to get along. It was pretty amusing how innocent and naive he was. He honestly thought that he could tell the kid anything and he’d believe him.
Whilst ‘fighting’, he also noticed elements of Asher’s appearance and behaviour, small habits that easily resembled you. The little sparkle in his E/C eyes were the complete replica of your own, and the dimples in his cheeks was something he’d seen before many times when you’ve laughed at something someone said.
There were parts about Asher that didn’t quite match, like the hair colour was completely different to yours which he presumed was from the dickhead ex-boyfriend. However, Hook didn’t hate the way it looked on Asher like he thought it should. It suited him and brought out the good in something wicked.
He didn’t want to sound like a creep and say he’d been staring at you long enough to notice all these little things about you, but… well yeah he’d been staring. Truthfully, he thought you were a beautiful, sexy sight to behold which is why he was so surprised to see you with a child.
How the fuck did you manage to carry that for nine months?! You looked fucking incredible for someone who had given birth and it only gave him another thing to love about you, that you were strong-willed and ambitious enough to make it this far with a baby.
Again he was pinned to the floor on his front with Asher sitting on his back. If anyone saw Hook in that moment - pretend screaming and waving his arms and legs as if he was struggling - he would probably die of embarrassment. He had a cool reputation to keep up. But with his head facing away from the door, he didn’t notice that you were standing in the doorway enjoying the show from the sidelines.
You couldn’t stop yourself from smiling at this sight for two reasons: you were happy Asher seemed to be having a great time (and would sleep really easily that night), and the smugness you felt seeing Tyler’s complete personality change from what you’ve ever known from him.
“Ahh you’ve pinned me”, he cried. “Remember the count. Remember the count”.
Asher giggled and counted to three on his fingers. As much as you wanted to continue watching the cute show, you knew you had to make yourself known.
“Ding! Ding! Ding!” you called out and both boys whipped their heads to the sound of your voice.
“Mommyyyyy!” Asher immediately jumped off Tyler’s back and ran to you, tightly wrapping his arms around your legs, a sign of affection which you kindly returned.
“Have you two been having fun?” you asked.
“Yeah! Yeah! I just learning wrestling”.
“Oh really now? And who’s been teaching you that?”
Asher looked back and pointed to Hook who was now sitting up and leaning against the chairs, running his hands through his hair trying to fix it.
“Tyler taught you now, did he? How about you play with your cars for a bit and calm down, yeah? I think Tyler’s tired”.
You and he knew that was all but the truth, but Asher had to come down from his energy surge somehow.
“You told him? Really?” you asked, walking towards the chairs Hook was pulling himself onto and sitting beside him.
“In my defence, I didn’t know you were trying to keep him away from fighting and I may have accidentally made him cry”.
You gasped and your mouth stayed gaped open for a long few seconds before playfully slapping him on the arm. “How dare you make my son cry? You really are cold-hearted. And it’s not that I was keeping him away from it, I just don’t want him growing up thinking he can solve things with aggression. I mean, he still doesn’t fully understand the difference between right and wrong”.
“You’re right. I’m sorry”.
You chuckled lightly at his apology. “Don’t be. It was sweet watching him doing what we do”.
“I thought the same. If he keeps that up he’s looking at a good future career ahead of him”.
You nodded and watched as Asher so cluelessly played with his cars around the room, occasionally driving the toy cars across both your laps.
“How do you make it look so easy?”
The question took you by surprise and you unintentionally scoffed. “Easy? You’ve got to be kidding me, right?”
“What I mean is”, he corrected, “is that you’re a fucking good-”
“Right. Sorry. You’re a great mom, and even though you’ve probably struggled, you’ve had incredible success. I just wanna know how you do it”.
You took a deep breath, knowing this was going to be a looooong night. “Well… truthfully… I’m a hot mess. I don’t sleep. When I first found out I was pregnant and Asher’s dad left me, I was so sure I’d get an abortion, but then I went to the clinic and had a scan and realised I had a helpless child living inside of me and I wouldn’t let it down by taking away its chance at life. Although at least once a week I stay up all night crying, regretting every life choice I’ve made, when I wake up to this beauty I’m proud to call my son, I become slightly more disgusted with myself that I even dared to think about giving up”.
You had to force yourself to breathe after that confession. You completely shocked yourself because you’d never really had the chance to talk to anyone about what went through your mind almost on a daily basis and yet here you were, telling Tyler everything in one go as if he were your damned therapist.
“God I didn’t mean to spill everything out like that”, you told him.
“Ah don’t worry. You shouldn’t hate yourself so much for it, though. Can’t imagine what crazy shit- uh stuff you’ve gone through. I bet all single mothers have gone through the same as you”.
You sent him a heartwarming smile and he sent the same but in smirk form which you never knew was possible without looking like a complete jackass.
It still wasn’t possible. He looked dorky but you loved it nonetheless.
“Do you want kids?” you asked.
“Whoa ask me out to dinner first”.
You tried to hide the laughter that was begging to come out from that cheesy line with a shake of your head, but you knew it was no use.
“Me? Kids? Nah. At least not now. I wouldn’t even know where to start with being a dad. I’ve never really been around younger kids being an only child and all. It’s not like I could just drag a wife and kid around with me everywhere I go. I’m not father material”.
Your heart dropped at hearing his admission, because you yourself had thought the exact same thing when you were pregnant. You remember how frightened you were of being alone or having no one there as the role-model you so desperately needed.
But how were you to know how rewarding it all was in the end?
“Well I understand where you’re coming from but you’re wrong. Very wrong. When I walked in here and saw you and Asher, I would have been easily convinced that you’ve been hiding three kids back home. You’d be an awesome dad”.
“Ha… thanks, but it still feels like it’s off the cards for me. My job just doesn’t work well with having a family. It sucks but it’s the truth”.
“And what about me? Do you think I teleport from place to place? Of course not. Asher and I take a few days once or twice a month to go home where he sees his friends, and we don’t let the constant travelling stop us from doing the things that mean the most to us. Which goes for you too”.
Your words truly touched Tyler’s heart. His parents had told him so many times that it was possible to have a family life and still do pro wrestling, but he still never quite believed it. He wanted to be there for his future wife and children whenever they needed him at any time of the day, not just the occasional weekend when he had time off.
Hearing your story and how you’ve coped with all the madness in your life finally broke that barrier that’s stopped him from believing he had to choose between a career and a family. Tyler was only twenty-four and had a long time ahead of him for his plans, but he knew where he wanted to start his future - well he knew who he wanted to start it with.
He had no idea how long he’d been staring at you, but he was happy you were staring back.
‘There it is’, he thought. The same shine in your eyes as the one he saw in Asher’s earlier. It took everything in his willpower not to devour your lips right there and then. Who cares if the kid saw? He’d find out eventually that kissing was quite normal between a man and a woman.
“Hey”, he began talking, snapping you both out of your trance. “Can you make time in your busy schedule for a date tomorrow? About 12?”
You bit your lip to prevent you from grinning like some psycho serial killer and managed to nod which brought a broad smile to his own face.
“That is if I can find another babysitter by then”.
“Bring Asher along. We can go to the park and get something to eat”.
Your heart warmed at the thoughtful gesture. “I wouldn’t want to invade your plans with a three-year-old”.
“You wouldn’t. I promise”.
“Then yeah. Yeah, I’d love to go on a date with you”.
Tyler asked for your number which you willingly gave him and he sent a text to make sure you weren’t messing with him.
“Alright, Asher. Say goodbye to Tyler”.
Asher turned around and waved to your date. “Bye, Tyleeer!”
“Bye, Asher. See you tomorrow”.
“See you tomorrow”, he replied, not fully understanding what was actually happening tomorrow. Sweet.
When you got back to the hotel, you thought that the roles might have been reversed because you were exhausted from the long day and you could have passed out in the elevator, whereas Asher was straight on the small bed laid out for him and bouncing up and down like it were a trampoline.
“Hey calm down. It’s time for bed. It’s been a very busy day and it’s very very late”.
“I want to play wrestling”.
“We can play wrestling tomorrow with Tyler. I’m sure he’ll play with you again if you bother him enough”.
“No. I want to play with you”.
You sighed deeply, just wanting to flop on the bed and let sleep overcome you. It was almost midnight which definitely shouldn’t have been a time a toddler was still awake at, and you were sure he’d end up waking you at stupid o'clock in the morning.
Maybe one game wouldn’t hurt. He had such a confusing and stressful day.
“Alright. One time then straight to bed”.
He giggled before launching himself at you from the bed and you quickly caught him so he wouldn’t drop, but you still pretended to fall backwards on the bed. You were confused as to why Asher was fidgeting so much, but you carried on playing nonetheless and switched positions, rolling him over and throwing yourself over his torso, pinning him down.
He had to learn to lose the hard way.
“Nooo! Stop!” he cried. Thinking you might have hurt him, you quickly got off and scanned his face for any sign of pain.
“What’s wrong?” you asked.
“Wrong? How am I doing it wrong?”
“That’s not how you do it”.
“Then tell me how to do it”.
Now he was sulking. Typical behaviour. You weren’t going to get a word out of him until you knew what he wanted.
“Let’s just go to bed then”.
“I not tired! I want to play wrestling!” he crossed his arms. You’d been through this situation before. Maybe if you just slept he would forget about it and go to sleep himself.
“I want to play wrestling!” he screamed again.
A lightbulb felt like it turned on in your head at the genius but probably the most logical idea. You hoped he wasn’t asleep yet but there was a slim chance that he was.
“Heeey, Tyler”, you spoke into the phone. “Can I ask you a real quick question?”
“You changed your mind already? I thought I would have had at least tomorrow’s date before you decided you didn’t like me”, he responded, his voice slightly muffled through the speaker.
“Oh, no nothing like that. I haven’t dated in like five years. I need tomorrow. I just wanted to know how you played wrestling earlier”.
You could imagine the perplexed look swept across his features. “Do I wanna know why?”
“I think you’ve created Asher’s new favourite game and he keeps saying I’m doing it wrong”.
“Well, are you tickling him?”
“Tickling? You tickled him? You?”
“Yeah, let's not tell anyone”.
You almost burst out laughing at the all mighty Hook secretly being a softie and embarrassed the way he was then.
“Oh believe me, I’m going to tell Ricky tomorrow and the word that you’re a secret teddy bear will have reached everyone’s ears before the week is over”.
“We’ll talk about this tomorrow. Now go to bed”.
“Thank you so much. Goodnight”.
You felt yourself swooning at his thoughtfulness and you understood why all those girls fawned over him and his unlikely charm.
“Right. Now I know how to play, how about we start the game again?”
“Eminem is not better than Snoop Dogg. You’re insane”.
You snickered, relishing in the satisfaction you had from teasing Tyler.
“Eminem’s songs tell a story. Snoop Dogg just says a bunch of random shit”.
“What’s storytelling about two trailer-park girls going round the outside, huh?”
The three of you were walking down a trail down the side of the park, Asher running ahead of you hitting every tree he could see with a stick. You took a side glance at Tyler who was gazing off into the distance at your son. You thought it was pretty adorable that he was growing a liking to Asher, particularly after the awkwardness he possessed around him when they first met.
A laugh escaped your lips which drew the attention of Tyle who whipped his head to face you. “What’s so funny?”
“What happened to the guy who didn’t like kids?”
“I’m glad. Because he’ll be tagging around to a few of our dates”.
He stopped in his tracks whilst you continued walking but turned around once you noticed he wasn’t catching you up.
Had you put him off by inadvertedly inviting a third wheel?
“What makes you think there are more dates?”
He let out a sly chuckle as you moved closer to him, mirroring his smirk, and he instinctively rested his hands on your hips.
Tyler felt his fingertips tingle at the touch of you. It was like his hands had finally found their destined home.
“I guess you’ll just have to find out”.
His lips captured yours in craving and you felt in the small but powerful gesture all the longing he had for you and your lips. Both yours and his lips massaged each other and your body fell into complete ecstasy.
Until the little monster ruined the moment…
“Why are you kissing?” You pulled away and smiled at Asher’s innocence.
“It doesn’t matter, sweetie. Come on, let’s keep going”.
“I don’t want to. My legs hurt. Pick me up?”.
You looked at Asher in disbelief. You’d seen this child practically run marathons without stopping and somehow an hour at the park has him too tired to stand? You weren’t believing it for a second. Besides, as strong as you were, the kid was heavy.
“You’re too big to pick up now. You’re a big boy”.
Ah there was the grumpiness again, his arms flailing everywhere and foot stomping on the ground. You sent him a stern look that you held for all of five seconds before Tyler decided to speak up.
“Hey, do you want to sit on my shoulders?”
Hook knelt down whilst Asher climbed up his back and swung his legs over his shoulders, Tyler’s arms securely holding them in place so he wouldn’t fall backward.
You rolled your eyes and you all continued walking down the path - with the exception of Asher, of course.
It was a beautiful sight, you had to admit to yourself, but he was a cheeky mother fucker.
“You’re a bad influence, you know that?”
He chuckled at your comment for he knew you were telling the truth, but he loved the drama.
“First, you make Asher cry, then you teach him wrestling, and now you’re his personal chauffeur. I hope you’re happy”.
“Oh I’m more than happy, baby”.
You couldn’t have agreed more. You had hope that this situation would progress into something much more wonderful than it already felt.
