Inspired by a photo of Jeff in WWE magazine with the face paint. I saw that pic and this just hit me in a perfect vision, so although I normally don't like Jeff and Taker I had to write this because it seemed right and I like to listen to my musi at least 95% of the time. I think I might be starting to like this pairing though. Hope you enjoy. :)

The Kiss of an Enigma

The light in the hallway flickered showering the hallway in flashes and strobes like an arcade game on the fritz. It buzzed with each blip of brightness illuminating the man slouching in the shadows. His long hair hung clumped and sweaty around his face and neck and he tried without success to tame it a bit by pushing it out of his eyes. It only rebelled by knotting around his fingers and when he finally unwound his middle finger the stubborn strands fell back again kissing his sweaty forehead and catching on his blinking eyelashes.

Wordlessly he stared at the door in front of him waiting for it to open for the last time that night. He knew there was only one man left inside the locker room and he waited patiently entertaining the muted sound of water cascading from the shower and running over the slimy tiles and dripping down the drain. He closed his eyes and listened and the muffled spray reminded him of a hard rain, the flicking of the light above like lightening, throbbing in the distance. The man in the hallway idly lifted his index and middle finger to his lips, between them the pinched filter of a cigarette. He sucked in lulling his tongue over the taste of warm tobacco. With one bored sigh he puffed it back out dusting the empty hallway in a dissipating cloud of wafting smoke.

The corners of his lips twitched moments later when he heard the distinct slam of a locker, signaling the person inside was soon to make his grand exit. He leaned against the wall sucking at the end of his cigarette, plainly ignoring the sign which prohibited such action. The tip smoldered orange for a moment before he dropped the useless remains onto the floor and crushed it under his boot. Just when he had momentarily pulled his gaze away the door swung open and a tall man with dark, pony-tailed hair stepped through, his bag slung half-heartedly over his shoulder. The dark haired man stopped in his tracks, his clunky boots scuffling against the linoleum floor. The man previously smoking smirked as the taller man seemed a bit uncomfortable which was a rare. Mark was not often made uncomfortable by others. His fiery green eyes roamed over the form of the smaller man leaned nonchalantly against the wall, Jeff Hardy. The scent of Hardy's favorite cigarettes still lingered in the hallway. The light flickered bathing his painted face in dramatic shadows and light which made him look tantalizingly sexy and the smirk that bent his lips just urged the taller man to step forward and coaxed him to take those smirking lips with is own. But he didn't.

"What are you waiting for?" Jeff's smirk broadened revealing his teeth in a wolfish smile. It grew even bigger when Mark was once again taken off guard and his normally pallid cheeks tinted with a warm blush. At a loss for words at the moment, Mark chewed his lower lip before responding with a stupid line which he could barely croak out.

"Good match tonight." He rolled his eyes not at Jeff but at himself. Couldn't he come up with anything better? Of course Jeff knew it was a good match he had won over the Deadman and that was not an everyday occurrence.

"I don't want to talk about our match." Jeff stated plainly, running his fingers again through his hair and entangling them. Mark untwined Jeff's hand and put his own in its place enjoying the feel of the long, sweaty, strands snaking themselves around his fingers.

"When you came out with yer face paint you just about did me in." Mark breathed heavily dipping his head lower his lips hovering just shy of touching Jeff's. The intensity between the two was palpable. Marks twitching green orbs glazed over a bit as they drank in every perfect feature of the young Hardy's face. Jeff gazed back at Mark with a deep fire flickering there, mirroring the dramatic strobe of the pulsating light above. Mark mistook that burning emerald fire as lust and at last pressed his wanting lips to Jeffs running the tip of his tongue over the wet line of Jeffs lips tasting the last smudges of paint that smeared them.

At first Jeff didn't respond. He hadn't wanted to respond at all he wasn't here for a free make-out session. However the needy nudging and prodding of Marks lips elicited a sigh from the other man and when his lips parted slightly to allow the pleased sound Mark stole that sound away, muffling it with his tongue.

Jeff surprised himself by kissing back. He had thought he had more will power but obviously he was wrong about that as he had been about certain other detrimental engagements in the past. He found himself indulging in the perfect curves of Mark's lips, the brush of his moustache, the taste of him, that taste was making him feel intoxicated.

His mind currently took a back seat to other more pressing desires and he wrapped his arms around Mark's neck and found the elastic that held his hair in place. With one swift motion the band was torn away and discarded and Marks still damp hair fell over his shoulders and into his face. Jeff mingled his tongue with Marks. The stud that nestled in the wet pink flesh teased Mark's writhing muscle with the metallic taste.

Marks hands fell away from Jeffs hair and instead found their way to the backs of his legs where he lifted the young man up against the wall, pinning him there. Jeff responded by wrapping his legs around Mark's waist and driving his tongue further into his hot, seeking, mouth.

At last Mark broke away struggling to pull air into his lungs. Jeff said nothing just watched Mark and calmed his own breathing which was not quite as erratic. His eyes studied a face he had loved from the moment he saw it, over stormy green eyes that had bound him with an unbreakable tie, over lips that had tantalized him for too long. He spoke the name that had haunted him, a whisper in the silent flickering light of a time that was too late for acceptance. Knowing that and with a twinge of bitterness but not regret Jeff closed his eyes.

"Jeff…" Mark rubbed the calloused ball of his thumb softly over Jeff's cheek smearing away the streaky and melted remains of the face paint. The darkness of the make up around his eyes seemed to make them like empty sockets. When the young man closed his eyes black painted lids blotted out the beautiful sparkle of green.

Mark felt his heart shudder with the maddening tickle of panic when he noticed the wet drops that dampened the younger mans quivering eyelashes.

"Jeff…what's wrong?" Mark breathed out, the question was whispered but seemed deafening in the moment of cruel uncertainty.

Jeff opened his eyes and the tears that were behind them rolled softly down his cheeks like twin diamonds of despair sliding downwards adding their own signature streak to the ruined face paint.

"I knew it." Jeff whispered. His mouth twisted and his eyes narrowed and he gripped Marks shoulders roughly in his anger. He spat the words again, confirmation to the ones he had previously whispered. "I knew it!"

"I don't understand."

Jeff didn't answer for a few moments. He chose to watch as Mark's face crumbled with the realization that Jeff was infuriated with him and that he was going to be rejected. Mark's eyes flashed with the knowing that Jeff had already slipped through his fingers. It was a look Jeff had seen before but in his own eyes reflected into the cold glimmer of a mirror.

"You didn't want me before." Jeff bit back. His tears started to flow a bit more freely and with irritation he scrubbed them away on the back of his hand. He paused for a moment to gather himself willing his eyes to dry out. He had already spent too many tears on the man before him and after today there would be no more.

"Jeff!"

"You know I started down this dark path for you. I thought I could find you if I searched hard enough."

"Jeff, you did. I'm right here darlin'." Now it was Mark's turn to feel his grey-green eyes moisten and to feel his cheeks warm with the wet flow of tears.

"Hm, no Mark. See you didn't want me before. You couldn't notice me when I was in the light of my own happiness. You turned away from me because you couldn't handle it. You wanted me but not on those terms because I had something you don't know how to find. You had to wait until I fell into the shadows, until I fell and became like you."

"It's hard to be…so alone in the darkness. I shouldn't have caused you so much pain. I'm sorry Jeff can't you forgive me and we can just try?"

"Why so you can keep me with you? So you have someone to writhe around with in the sorrows of you life? So you can grab my hand and drag me down after you when you fall deeper?"

"You don't understand." Mark fumbled out in a broken voice. "Please, Jeff please!"

His pleading fell on deaf ears. The younger man unwrapped his legs from Mark's waist and planted his feet to the floor with a strong, punctuating, motion. His hands released their grip on Mark's neck and his arms fell away from his muscled shoulders. He dug around in his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, shook one loose, and planted it between his swollen lips. He replaced the pack in his pocket and produced a plastic lighter which he used to illuminate the tip of his cigarette. It smoldered like an enraged eyeball piercing the darkness around them which had crept in after the failing light above them had burned out. He inhaled and let the smoke curl out of his opened mouth.

"Mark, you played your mind games with me. Now it's my turn."

Jeff tapped ash form his cigarette and it fell lightly dusting the toe of Mark's Harley boots. The younger man removed himself from the scene smirking to himself as he sauntered down the dim, deserted hallway. If he would have turned to look back he would have seen Mark watching him intently as he disappeared, his fingers hovering over his lips, painted with the kiss of an enigma.

Please drop a line and let me know what you think, comments much appreciated. :)