Title: "Between Brothers: It starts"
Author: pandora1017
Rating: R
Content: Slashy
A/N: This is going to be a series, eventually, each chapter should be a progressive story. So hang on for a good time. Oh, and none of these crazy kids are mine. Oh, but if only they were.... ;-)

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Chris Jericho took the steps two at a time in his hurry to find his younger friend, Christian, and tell him that he'd finally found a gym in this Godforsaken, rundown town. When he reached the third floor of the hotel, he stopped a moment to catch his breath at Christian's door, which was slightly ajar. He smirked at this, adjusting how his gym bag was resting on his shoulder. Christian was a very jumpy man, for some reason unknown to Jericho, but he liked to take advantage of it as often as possible. He slammed the door open and bounded into the room.

"Hey, Chris - !" He stopped as soon as he saw inside the room. Christian wasn't there, but some else was. Someone who wasn't welcome in Christian's room. Someone who'd been been startled from his T.V. watching, but was now starting to smirk. Someone who Chris Jericho did not like.

"Hey, Chris," Edge purred, slightly more calm than Jericho had announced moments earlier. He drew himself up to his knees from a prone position and set down the remote. Jericho sneered.

"What the hell are you doing in here, Junior?"

"I suppose I could ask you the same."

"I was looking for Christian," Jericho answered, bordering haughty. His disdain for Edge was obvious. Edge looked Jericho up and down, taking him in with a slight smile, and noticed the gym bag. Jericho followed his gaze. "I was going to see if he wanted to work out."

"Yeah, well, Christian isn't here, but, sure, I'll go with you."

"That wasn't an invitation."

But Edge was already getting to his feet and heading to the door. "Who's going to spot you? I have to get my stuff from my room first, come on."

Jericho didn't move. "I'll wait for Christian, thanks."

"No, no, he could be out all night, that boozer," Edge joked, standing in the doorway and waiting on Jericho. "Let's go."

Again, Jericho didn't move. "What are you doing in here, anyway? You're not welcome in here."

"Now, Chris, that's not nice," Edge feigned pouting, "how do you know that Li'l Chrissy and I haven't kissed and made up?"

"Because you just called him 'Li'l Chrissy'? Where is he?"

Edge shrugged.

"How'd you get in his room?"

Edge smirked. And Jericho chewed his gum furiously, glaring.

"Don't worry about it," Edge urged. "Come on, let's hit the gym."

Jericho sighed, there was no point fighting him. If he wanted to go the gym tonight, he figured he wouldn't be able to avoid Edge. "Fine, where's your room?"

Edge, still smirking, simply turned and lead Jericho down the hall.

-

"You ready?"

"Yeah," Jericho muttered, his eyes still closed. He was lying on his back on a bench, focusing on the gum in his mouth, while Edge fixed the weights on either end. They'd been at an otherwise empty gym for almost an hour now and were just finishing up their work out. Edge had bench pressed his last rep, and Jericho was ready to get this over with. An hour with Edge was, to him, an hour of torture. Edge just made him uneasy, for no apparent reason. Maybe it was the way that ever time Jericho looked at him, he had that unsettling smirk on his face. Jericho cringed internally, then opened his eyes and found Edge leaning over him. His hair was falling over the sides of his face despite the fact that it was restrained with a backwards baseball hat, and he still had that eerie smirk. Jericho looked away from him to the bar that rested over him and gripped it, tentatively, before pushing up to unhook the bar from the rack.

"Shit," Jericho groaned, after just one press, and struggled to get the bar back up. He noticed Edge again, standing over him. He looked almost sadistic, enjoying watching Jericho struggle under what was obviously too much weight for him. Jericho became slightly nervous again, from the look on Edge's face, just before Edge finally grabbed the bar and set it back in the rack. Jericho sat up, grabbed his chest loosely, trying to catch his breath, then turned and glared up at Edge. "What the hell are you doing, you ass clown? That's too much, I didn't say to put that much on!"

Edge shrugged, with a smile still playing on his mouth.

"I thought you were just underestimating," Edge said, stepping directly behind Jericho and slowly sliding a hand down his prominent pecs. He froze at the touch, not certain what was going on. Edge could feel his surprise in the way the rising and falling of his chest quickened suddenly. "Certainly feels like you were underestimating."

After what had seemed like forever, Jericho reacted, grabbing Edge's wrist gruffly and pulling it away from him. "Ha ha. I know you're jealous. Let me put my own weights on this time."

Edge threw his hands up innocently with a smirk and stepped away from the bench as Jericho dropped about fifteen pounds from either side, then lay back on the bench to try again. He closed his eyes, taking a breath, then opened them again to start lifting, but hesitated when he saw Edge standing over him once again, just as before. "I think I'll handle it this time, Junior. You can go change, or whatever."

Edge took a couple steps back, which reassured Jericho slightly, and he reached up to grasp the bar again.

"Careful," Edge purred again. This, too, startled Jericho.

"Are you leaving?" Jericho demanded, not looking at the other man.

Edge shook his head, crossing his arms over his chest. "Not so much."

Jericho muttered to himself as he lifted the bar and started pressing the weight. Much better, he decided. He worked in silence, save a quick punk song playing on a tinny sounding radio at the reception desk and a quiet humming of the dingy mercury lights in the gym. Again, he concentrated on his gum and pressed the bar a few times.

"You done?" Edge interrupted his monotony after a moment and grabbed the bar, helping Jericho set it back up in the hooks.

"Yeah, thanks," Jericho answered, distractedly, as he sat up and rolled his shoulders to stretch his muscles. They'd worked arms and chest tonight, and he felt pretty good right now. Despite the fact that Edge was still there with him. "Let's get out of here."

Edge nodded and grabbed a towel, tossing it to Jericho so he could wipe down the bench. As Jericho did that, he noticed Edge still just standing and watching him, with that smirk. Jericho sneered. "So... go."

"I will," Edge answered, playing innocent, and took the weights off the other end of the bar as Jericho took them off the near side. "Soon enough."

The two men finished resetting the weights and went back towards the locker room. Jericho tried to hide the fact that he kept looking up at Edge every couple of seconds, still wary of him. Edge pretended not to notice. He opened the locker room door for Jericho, finally looking to him with that smirk. Jericho passed him, refusing to take his eyes off him, just in case. He set his duffel bag on the nearest bench, and pulled the hair tie out of his long blonde and red hair, running his hands through it nervously. He cast another glance to Edge. Yes, he was still watching him.

"All right!" Jericho yelled, anxiously. "What the hell is going on?"

Edge smiled blythly and pulled his sweaty, worn out 'Edge and Christian' shirt over his head, dropping it on the bench in front of him. The action was very deliberate and Edge watched Jericho's reaction with interest. "What do you mean?"

"Why are you being so... so... so... freaky?" Jericho demanded. "Why do you keep staring at me? Why do you keep smirking at me?"

His response was another smirk. "Oh, come on, Chris, I think you know the answer to that."

"Listen, Junior, I don't know what you're thinking, but you need to stop right there."

Edge took a bold step towards Jericho, who stood his ground under the false pretense of courage. Edge smirked, about three feet away from Jericho.

"Stop right where?" He took another step, closing about half the distance. "Here?"

Jericho tensed as Edge moved forward, but he was still ready to defend himself. He held up his index finger and pointed it at Edge. It was about shoulder level on him, but only managed to come up to the middle of Edge's chest. Jericho tried to not let this phase him and poked Edge sharply in the middle of his chest. "I've had enough of your head trip, ass clown."

"That's funny," Edge smirked once again, narrowing his eyes. "I'm just getting started."

Jericho's bright blue eyes widened, revealing his surprise. Edge was enjoying this. He lifted a hand slowly and pushed Jericho's hair behind his ear. Jericho was too arrogant to step back and Edge was having too much fun to stop. Jericho glared furiously at the younger man who now towered an impressive half a foot over him. From this angle, those six inches looked like twelve.

"What is this, fucking Deliverance?" Jericho finally snapped and backed away. To his dismay, his escape was cut short by a badly placed, in his opinion, locker. Edge just followed him and closed all distance between them, leaning up against Jericho. Jericho's pulse started to race as Edge lightly ran a hand down his shoulder. Jericho tried to catch his breath, but was having more trouble than he expected. Edge grinned now, at the fact that Jericho hadn't moved.

"What do you want?" Jericho shot at Edge, trying his best to pretend he was still in control of the situation.

Edge smiled. "You know."

"You can't -"

Edge cut him off with a kiss. Jericho braced himself against the locker behind him in surprise. The kiss lasted longer than Edge expected it to, but he wasn't bothered. After a long moment, Jericho finally shoved Edge away, trying to catch his breath. Finally backing off, Edge grinned at Jericho, snapping on his new piece of gum. Jericho finally dropped all pretenses and looked up at Edge, frozen, with complete and utter shock. Edge turned away from Jericho and put on a clean shirt, stuffing the dirty one in his bag, and slung the bag over his shoulder. He turned back to Jericho and grinned again as he found him exactly as he left him.

"You coming?" Edge asked, heading towards the door to the locker room.

Jericho didn't move as Edge left, but once he was gone, he slid to the floor.

"Holy shit."

After a couple more deep breaths, he jumped back up, changed into a clean shirt, then hurried after Edge.