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Following a Feeling

Author: Alicia

Rated: PG

Summary: The storylines are hitting a little too close to home.

Disclaimer: This is FAN fiction, so all you people in the black suits and gray pinstripe ties carrying briefcases and law degrees can turn and walk away from me NOW. I earned nothing from this story and I'm in no way affiliated with ANYONE from the WWF. Okay? Good.

Archiving: If you want it, ask me first. I'll more than likeley say yes, but please do be considerate. Thanks!

~**~

Matt looked lovingly into Lita's eyes, brushing her hair back with the gentlest of movements. Her brown eyes gazed right back at him as he gathered his courage. "Lita. I have to tell you something. Something really important."

She smiled at his soft drawl. "What is it?"

Drawing in a deep breath, Matt nestled one hand in her unruly red locks and the other he placed on her shoulder. "I love you."

Lita closed her eyes as she pressed herself to Matt's chest, sighing as his heart jumped and slammed against his rib cage. "I love you, too," she said as she looked him in his eyes.

"Okay, then there's another kiss and the cameras are officially off of our backs." Matt Hardy said, taking a step back from Amy Dumas and running a hand through his slicked back hair.

Amy smiled and bent over to grab her duffel bag from the bench in the locker room where they had been practicing. "Hartford is going to go crazy. It's like the biggest "Matt/Lita" supporting city I've ever been to," she said, referring to all the posters proclaiming Matt and Lita's love that had been waving the last time they'd performed there on RAW is WAR. Matt nodded his agreement and put his arm around Amy's back, leading her from the locker room.

@~~~~~~

"Yes, Mom, everything is going to be fine tonight. No, Mom, I won't be getting the Stink Face tonight. Yes, Mom, he really stuck his a . . . rear end in my face. No, Mom, I didn't inhale. Okay, I love you too. Bye."

Jeff Hardy laughed at Amy's expression as she turned off the portable phone with a definitive click. She shook her head and sat down on the couch, pulling her legs in around her body. "My mother is the most annoying person in the world," she laughed.

"But she does love you."

"I know, but that kind of love gets on my nerves."

"What kind of love?" Matt asked, coming into the locker room and setting his bag down in the corner and grabbing his wrestling gear.

"My mother's kind. It's so smothering and over-protective."

Matt frowned and pulled his shirt over his head. "Amy, she just wants what's best for you. One day when she isn't around anymore, you'll regret saying that."

Amy sighed and stood up, deciding not to push the matter any further. "So, are you ready for your big win tonight?" she asked. Matt and Jeff were going to win the Number One Contender-ship for the Dudley's titles that night against Edge and Christian.

"I'm psyched," Jeff said, tying his shoes. "And what about you? Winning the Women's Title is certainly no small thing," he said, referring to the match Lita was going to win against Ivory.

Matt nodded his agreement as he turned to head out the door. "We are certainly going to shine tonight. I'm going to head down to makeup and hair. Coming guys?"

Amy and Jeff nodded and followed him out the door.

@~~~~~~

Sweating like a pig and feeling her heart race, Lita crawled up to the top rope, looking down at Ivory laying sprawled out, almost unconscious. In her trademark gesture of kissing her two fingers, she backflipped onto the other woman, then hooked her leg as she saw the referee slide to the floor and begin the three count.

"One! Two! Three!!"

The bell rang and the crowd went absolutely crazy. Her music blared through the speakers and Matt was immediately by her side, holding up her arm as Lillian announced that she was the new women's champion. A huge smile on her face, Lita sank into Matt's waiting arms, feeling him kiss the top of her head. He helped her out of the ring, then put one arm around her sore back. Walking backwards, they kept their eyes on Ivory who was still out cold in the middle of the ring.

They passed through the curtains in the back and Amy immediately felt the hands of all her friends and co-workers. "Great job, Amy!"

"Wow, what a show!"

"How do you do those moves?!"

"Wonderful!"

Smiling blindly at the mass of people, Amy pushed her way back to her locker room, Matt's arms still around her waist, protecting her from the groups of people that were mobbing around her. When the door closed behind them, Amy let out the deep breath she didn't know she'd been holding.

"How are you?" Matt asked, concern in his voice. He'd saw the way her legs had been shaking when she'd climbed the top rope. He'd also saw the vicious suplex that hadn't been ALL fake.

"Fine. I'm good. A bit sore, but nothing a relaxing bubble bath won't fix."

Matt grinned. "Amy Dumas doesn't take bubble baths. They're girly, remember?"

Amy grinned back at him and stripped off her hot pink shirt. "She does when her back is killing her."

@~~~~~~

An hour later, back at the hotel she shared with Matt and Jeff, she crawled out of the tub and dried herself off, noticing that the pain in her back had finally subsided. She wrapped the pale pink towel around her damp body and pulled her wet hair back in a ponytail. Checking cautiously outside the bathroom door, Amy slipped into her bedroom, closing the door behind her.

She let the towel fall to the floor as she pulled some clothes out of the duffel bag on the floor and laid them out on her bed. She thought about the match a little more, a little pissed that the suplex had been delivered a little roughly. It was a good thing Matt had come out on time.

Matt. Amy sighed and finished toweling off her lower legs, then slipped into her sleeping clothes. On stage, he was her boyfriend, the man that she was going to profess her love to. Off stage, however, he was her best friend. Lately though, more than just friendship had been hinted at. Matt's kisses on her cheek became increasingly less chaste and his embraces had lingered just a bit longer than usual. At the same time, she thought about him more and more, and didn't even try to break his longer embraces.

Once she had changed into her 2Xtreme t-shirt and plaid boxer shorts, she combed out her red hair and turned the covers back on her bed. She sat down Indian-style and grabbed a picture frame from the table beside her bed. There was a picture of her and Matt and Jeff taken right before their inter-gender tag team match the year before at the Astrodome in Georgia. They looked genuinely happy, and she noticed with a sigh that she had fit perfectly into Matt's arms without a second thought. These days, she analyzed everything they did together.

She stood up with a giant cat-like stretch and padded out of the bedroom and towards the mini bar, her mind set on that tub of Ben and Jerry's ice cream that she wasn't supposed to touch. That was the story of her life: the temptation was there, but always just out of her grasp.

The light was already on, which meant one of two things. Either her nutritionist was camping out in her hotel, or one of the Hardy brothers was also craving a late night snack. Poking her head around the corner, she saw that Jeff was sitting in an overstuffed chair devouring her ice cream.

"Hardy! Back away from the Chunky Monkey!" she said with a laugh as Jeff jumped a mile from the chair.

"Damn, Amy! Give a guy a heart attack!" he gasped, clutching his chest and breathing rather heavily. She shrugged her apology and grabbed a spoon from the cabinet before sitting down next to him and digging in. "Couldn't sleep?" he asked.

She nodded and swallowed the mouthful of banana flavored ice cream. "What time is it?"

He looked over his shoulder at the small clock on the wall. "Twelve thirteen."

"Matt asleep?" Jeff nodded and she put the spoon on the table. "One spoonful is better than none, I guess," she said, watching longingly as Jeff continued to spoon out the ice cream.

"Holly still on your back about your weight?"

"Of course," Amy groaned, standing up and stretching. "Well, since I've had all the junk food I'm allowed to have for the rest of the year, I'm going to try to get some sleep." She turned and started walking out of the room when Jeff's voice stopped her.

"Amy. Can you do something for me?"

She nodded and turned halfway back towards him. "What is it?"

"Can you tell Matt that I think he should go for it? I know you'll see him first tomorrow, and he needs to know my opinion immediately. Or so he says."

Amy nodded but shot him a puzzled look. "Go for what?"

"Um . . . brother - to - brother confidentiality. He'll know what I'm talking about though. Well, goodnight."

"Night."

@~~~~~~

The next morning, after a short breakfast and a quick sweep of the hotel room, they left for the airport. It was back to North Carolina, for a few days at least. Matt had been strangely quiet all morning, and Jeff wasn't much louder. It was bringing her down to see them like that, because they were all always so bubbly and excited on days they knew that they'd be going home for awhile.

On the plane, Amy finally couldn't take it anymore. "Matt. What's up?" she asked, leaning over to her right side and placing her hand on his upper arm.

He gave her a small smile. "Tired. Didn't get a lot of sleep last night."

Amy nodded dubiously and bit her lower lip, keeping her hand on his arm. "What did Jeff mean when he said to 'go for it'? She asked after a few seconds.

Matt looked uncomfortable but eventually looked her in her eyes. "Just something I asked his advice on. No big deal."

Amy sat back in her seat, feeling a little hurt. She guessed that Matt realized he'd insulted her, because he leaned forward and pushed her hair out of her face so he could look at her closer. "What did I say?" he asked gently.

"Nothing. But if it wasn't a big deal, why won't either of you tell me what it is? I thought we'd decided not to keep secrets from each other."

Matt sighed and sank back against the back of the seat. "Look, it's kind of hard to include you in it when it's about you." he said, almost too quietly for her to hear.

Confused, Amy leaned forward again and adjusted the falling strap of her tank top. "About me?" she asked, noticing curiously that Matt's face was slowly flushing pink.

"I'll explain everything, okay, but not here. There's too many people."

She looked around the almost empty first class section of the plane and rolled her eyes. She unfastened her seat belt and stood up. "What are you doing?" Matt asked, his eyes widening.

"Come on. We're going into the bathroom and you're going to spill every last detail to me," she demanded as Matt bewilderedly took off his seat belt and followed her into the unisex bathroom stall.

The stall was small, but thankfully didn't stink. Eyeing the toilet doubtfully, Amy put the lid down and wiped the lid with a paper towel before sitting down. "Talk," she demanded, once Matt sat down on the floor.

He opened his mouth and then closed it again. "Spit it out, Hardy."

"I love you."

*WHAT???* her mind screamed, reeling in utter shock. Matt seemed to be in shock himself, because his face had turned a sallow white and his brown eyes were wide.

"Did I say that out loud?" he asked, his voice high and timid. She nodded, still too dumbfounded to speak.

"Great. I knew telling you was a bad idea. Look at you! I've made you sick to your stomach. You're green, Amy. That's not the usual reaction when someone says they love you. Of course, I didn't tell you in the normal way. Although I guess there really is no normal way to say something so major. I'm sorry, I'm an idiot. I'll leave now." Matt obviously did not have as big a problem with finding his voice as she did.

"Wait."

Matt stopped right in the middle of getting up from the floor. "Wait?"

She nodded and stood up, grabbing his hands and pulling him to his feet. First of all, if you ever babble on and on like that again I'm going to be forced to slap you. Secondly . . . I love you, too."

"Look, I'm really sorry that I — what?"

"I said I love you, too," she said, a laugh in her voice. It was true. She did! It wasn't just an attraction or the result of being together too long during the current storylines. She loved him. She loved Matt Hardy.

He wrapped her in his arms with a huge smile on his face. And when his lips found hers for the first *real* time, it was perfect. It was nothing like the stage kissing they'd done before. It was here, and now, and more passionate than anything she'd ever felt. When they finally pulled apart, he kissed her hair and hugged her again.

"There's one thing I know for sure," Amy said with a smile.

"What's that?" Matt asked.

"It just feels right."

THE END