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"What a reekazoid!" Christian laughed, throwing popcorn at the screen as Leonardo DiCaprio slowly froze to death in the icy Arctic Ocean.
"Hey, Ah happen t'like this movie!" Jeff protested, but he couldn't hide a smile. Jeff had always thought Christian was one of the funniest people he knew, and he it cracked him up when Christian would make up new insults on the spur the moment like that.
"If that were me, I would have chucked that hosebeast off the headboard and saved my own ass."
Jeff shook his head again, smirking. "Ah can't see why the girls don't fall at y'feet, man. Y'such a gentleman."
Christian laughed nervously, then fell silent. Another of those obvious signs that Jeff was straight and oblivious to the fact that Christian wasn't. Christian looked over to Jeff. He was deeply involved in the movie, despite Christian's attempts to lighten the mood, absently moving his hand in a path from the bag of popcorn to his mouth. Strands of his newly dyed, rainbow colored hair fell over his face, which was an interesting shade of blue from the reflection of the TV screen. The two were sitting on the floor, in the dark, at the foot of the bed in Jeff's hotel room, watching Titanic, which Jeff had insisted he was in the mood to see. Christian wasn't a big fan of sappy chick flicks, but he was willing to suffer through it if it meant spending time with Jeff. Yes, he was admittedly in the deep throes of a crush.
He blushed, realizing that he'd been staring, and turned back to the TV. The worst part, he decided with a quiet sigh, was that he had caught himself staring, and not Jeff. Christian ran his hand anxiously through his hair. Maybe he could make a move tonight. No, wait, Jeff didn't swing, and Christian knew it. He sighed, audibly this time, and Jeff looked over to him, surprised.
"Movie finally gettin' t'ya?" Jeff asked, smirking.
Christian's eyes widened in mocking sincerity and he nodded. "Oh, yeah, I think we're going to have to break out the tissues and chocolate Hagen Daas any minute now..."
Jeff sneered and threw a piece of popcorn, nailing Christian between the eyes. Christian just grinned. In his mind, he had jumped at Jeff in revenge and ended up in a sweet entanglement. But in real life, he hadn't moved a muscle. Jeff turned back to the tiny TV, shaking his head. Get revenge, Christian ordered himself, he might get suspicious if you just let him get away with that. Watching Jeff to make sure he didn't notice, Christian deftly pulled the pillow that he'd wedged under his lower back out and waited for the perfect moment to bash Jeff over the head with it.
"Hey!" Jeff protested, throwing his hands up over his head, turning to Christian. "Oh, it's on now!"
Jeff grabbed his own pillow and swung it back at Christian, who swung his pillow under Jeff's and hit him in the side. Jeff, however, was ready for this one and dropped his arm down quickly, securing Christian's pillow.
"Hey," Christian grunted, trying to pull his pillow away from Jeff as Jeff repeatedly hit him over the head with the other pillow. With one final tug, Christian managed to not only knock himself off-balance, but Jeff as well. Christian fell onto his back and looked up, surprised, as he realized that he had just pulled the object of his desire right onto him. He met Jeff's eyes, the two men still grinning from the silliness of their pillow fight. That image engrained itself permanently into Christian's mind.
Kiss him! his brain begged, Kiss him now!
However, before even a second had passed, Jeff's grin fell, and Christian's involuntarily followed suit.
"Um," Jeff said, pushing himself up to his hands and knees before completely disengaging himself from Christian. Christian swallowed, trying to wet his mouth so he could speak, and propped himself up on his elbows, still sprawled out before Jeff. Jeff leaned back, remaining between Christian's legs, and sat on his heels, silently for a moment, just watching Christian.
"Jeff, I -"
"Ah have a question for ya," Jeff interrupted slowly - but assertively - scratching the back of his head.
Christian swallowed nervously, and nodded. "Ok."
"This afternoon, Ah was talkin' t'Edge, and..."
Jeff trailed off as the door to the room opened behind Christian opened and the overhead lights flipped on.
"So Ah told him..." Matt trailed off, distracted, then attempted a smooth cover with, "Hey, Christian. Jeff."
Christian snapped his head around quickly, and found Jeff's brother, having returned from the gym, standing in the door with a rather surprised look on his face. Much more disturbing, however, was his own brother standing behind Matt, taking in the scene before him with narrowed eyes and running the tip of his tongue over his teeth.
"Hey, guys," Edge murmured, calmly, adjusting his gym bag and smirking at a dirty comment that he assumed would float right over Matt and Jeff's heads. "What's up?"
Christian narrowed his eyes back, blushing. He hadn't mentioned to his brother that he was crushing on Jeff, but he was afraid it was becoming painfully evident now. Christian pulled himself together and got to his feet.
"We had a pillow fight," Jeff answered, just as calmly, and slowly got to his feet as well. Christian looked back to Jeff. He was no longer the confident joker he had been less than a minute ago. Christian thought he saw... was it fear? Jeff was sure jumpy about something now. Christian sadly dismissed the possibility of Jeff feeling guilty about his brother and friend discovering a dirty secret.
"I see," Edge raised an eyebrow, looking briefly at Christian before fixing his attention back on Jeff.
"In th'middle of Titanic nonetheless," Matt said, laughing to himself as he picked up the remote from the bed and switched off the end of the movie. "Ah didn't think anythin' could distract li'l Jeffro from Titanic."
He sat on the edge of the bed and looked up between Jeff and Christian and grinned again. "What's with y'two? Y'look like y'got caught with y'hand in th'cookie jar."
Jeff shoved his hands in his pockets and examined the ground. "Yeah... Ah mean, nah. It's nothin'."
"Just a little revenge for a cheap shot," Christian smirked, trying to act like normal. It was obvious Matt was completely oblivious to the tension in the room. Lucky, Christian thought.
"Yeah, well, ah, great movie, man. Really, I mean it," Christian half smiled to Jeff. "We'll have to do it again sometime."
Jeff raised a brow to Christian, only half looking up, and smiled softly. "Ah'll let ya pick the movie nex' time."
Christian felt a rush of happiness. Next time. "Damn straight."
"Yeah. Well, night, guys," Jeff said, looking up, quickly to Edge then back to his brother. "Ah'm goin' t'go for a walk. Don't bother waitin' up."
Matt smirked, and fell back onto the bed, with a yawn. "Don't bother, Ivory already went t'sleep."
"Ha ha," Jeff responded, rather dryly, and went back towards the door. Once in the doorway, he found himself chest to chest with Edge, who hadn't bothered stepping out of the way to let Jeff pass. Christian observed a tense moment where Edge simply smirked at Jeff. Jeff looked like he would shit his pants. Before he even noticed it, Christian was chewing on the inside of his bottom lip, an old nervous habit.
"See you around, Jeffro," Edge purred, making Jeff even more uncomfortable by using his brother's pet moniker for him.
"Yeah," Jeff mumbled, looking down and stepping into the hall. "Later."
Edge watched Jeff walk way for a moment, then turned back to his brother. He was met with a mixed look that he couldn't decipher, so he simply shrugged. "Matt?"
"Yeah?" Matt mumbled, sprawled prone on the bed, most likely almost asleep. At least, he thought he was asleep. His response surprised even himself, but he didn't show it. Christian cast Matt a quick glance, noticing that he was still on top of the blankets and fully dressed, shoes and all.
"I was going to tell you that you should probably change before going to sleep, but..." Edge started.
"Too late," Matt finished his thought for him.
Edge smiled. "Nevermind. Catch you later."
"Yeah, same," Matt muttered, still debating if he was awake or asleep. Edge looked back to his brother with a raised brow. Christian sighed and followed Edge, shutting off the light and closing the door behind him.
-
Ah, the memory crashed down on Christian like a ton of bricks, and he sighed. Lance looked back to him, curious, as he shut Edge out.
"You ok?" Lance asked with concern.
"Yeah, fine," Christian muttered, holding his sore back for effect. He was fine, all right. He had gotten revenge for that last July with a resounding con-chair-to. Oh, sure, it had been jealousy - but not over a meaningless trophy. Christian wasn't that petty. It was a matter of humiliation. Speaking of humiliation, Christian knew that Edge was most likely standing outside the door, listening for how his brother would cover this time. Christian raised his voice for Edge's benefit. "That chumpstain just won't leave me alone... always crawling back, begging for forgiveness."
Lance flipped the table back up the right way and picked up the chair, holding it out for Christian to sit, which he did. He looked up to Jericho, who was still standing by the door, slightly anxious. In Christian's mind, Jericho and Jeff were suddenly interchangable. Christian suddenly knew exactly what was going on. All over again.
"Ah, christ!" Christian cried out suddenly, shifting his leg slightly.
"What?" Lance asked, looking up to him.
"My knee... I'm not sure. Must have been when my reekazoid brother dropped me," Christian delicately touched his knee, then massaged it slightly with a grimace.
"Is it bad? Do you need to have it looked at?" Lance was always overly precautious.
Christian shook his head, "No, no, just bruised, I think. Some asprin would help..."
"Do you have any?"
"I can check," Christian started to get to his feet, but grimaced again and fell back into the chair. "Shit. No, I don't think I do, anyway."
Lance sighed, and looked around the room. "Well, you stay off it a minute, I'll run to the store and get some. Chris? Can you keep him company?"
Jericho snapped to attention for the first time since he laid eyes on Edge. "What?"
"Can you keep Christian company while I get him some asprin?"
"Yeah, sure, sure," Jericho stuttered, regaining his composure. "No problem, heh."
Lance nodded, then turned back to Christian. "Just sit there for a bit, I shouldn't be anymore than ten minutes."
"Thanks, man," Christian responded, looking serious. Lance nodded again and grabbed the keys to the rental car and left. After the door shut, Jericho crossed his arms over his chest and snorted. Christian looked up at him surprised.
"Over do the aftershave a little, junior?"
"Heh," Christian stood up from his chair in no pain whatsoever and looked to Jericho with a slight smirk. "Edge broke the bottle. I bet the hotel's going to love that."
Jericho looked over at the broken pieces of glass on the floor then did a double take back to Christian. "Hey, I thought your -"
"What?" Christian asked innocently, arching an eyebrow.
Jericho hesitated, then glared at Christian. "What's going on?"
"I had to get Lance out of here somehow..."
Jericho felt much less intimidated by Christian, as Christian was actually one of the few people around who was slightly smaller than him. Not having learned his lesson with Edge, Jericho once again stood his ground and confirmed Christian's fears with a mix of anger and frustration. "Oh, not you, too..."
Christian took that with more grace than he thought he was capable of and smiled genially.
"The way I see it," Christian started, placing himself inches away from Jericho's face, still sporting a soft smile, "you're in the best place."
Christian locked his eyes onto Jericho's, once again noting the brilliant shade of blue that they really were, but from much closer than he was used to. He enjoyed the close up view very much, and drank it in. He saw the look of fear Jericho showed with Edge scaled back about ten degrees. Christian knew that he didn't intimidate Jericho as much as his brother, and preferred it that way. He tried to softly caress Jericho's face, but Jericho smacked his hand away quickly.
"How's that?" Jericho asked, his chest rising and falling quickly. He did not like the confidence in Christian's body language. It had been different with Edge. Edge was harsh, domineering, and cocky. Christian was more gentle, rational, and collected. For some reason, this scared him more.
"You get to choose. Me or him."
"I choose neither!" Jericho yelled, almost afraid his voice would crack.
"Maybe you do now. I intend to change your mind."
"How -" Jericho almost asked, then stopped realizing what he was setting himself up for. "No!"
He tried to take a step back, but Christian grabbed his shoulders suddenly and kissed him lightly - just a peck. Jericho froze, and Christian smiled, rubbing Jericho's shoulders lightly. In his head, Jericho quickly contrasted the situations with the brothers. Edge had been hot, feral, spontaneous... But Christian was almost... (dare he think it?)... romantic. Cautious.
"Not so bad, hm?" Christian asked, before pulling him in again. He moved his hands to Jericho's face, closed his eyes, and kissed again, softly as he could. He tenatively toyed with Jericho's bottom lip, taking it into his mouth. With a lack of response to that, Christian continued, sliding his tongue into Jericho's mouth. After a second, Christian was rather surprised to feel Jericho respond warmly to the kiss with his tongue, although the rest of him remained motionless. Christian realized not only did he thoroughly enjoy kissing Chris Jericho, but he also enjoyed the feeling of being in control of him, too.
When fully sated, Christian pulled away, and smiled when he noticed that Jericho had shut his eyes, too. That ought to give Edge a run for his money. He moved his hands from Jericho's face to resting his forearms on his shoulders, ready to pull him closer for another kiss, but Jericho's eyes jumped open with fear. What was he doing? What was he thinking? He needed to get out, get some air. He attempted to speak. "I -"
He was cut off by the door opening suddenly, which didn't bother him so much, as he didn't think he had the breath to speak. Christian covered for him nicely, though, leaning heavily on his shoulders and grimacing suddenly. "No, no, I don't think I can walk this off, I might need to ice it."
He hobbled back to the chair and sat down. Lance looked at the two of them, surprised. "Forgot my wallet... Um, you ok?"
"Yeah, yeah," Christian dismissed with a wave of his hand, ignoring the fact that Lance had been talking to Jericho. "Chris just said he thought I might be able to walk it off, but it's kind of sore. I think I just need to ice it for a bit."
"Oh," Lance said, looking curiously at Jericho. Once again, Jericho snapped back to reality.
"Yeah, yeah, ice it. That'll help. I gotta go."
Christian turned in the chair to look out the window so Lance wouldn't notice his smirk as Jericho took off at a surprising speed.
"What's with him?" Lance asked, setting a bottle of asprin on the table next to Christian.
"No idea," Christian shrugged, turning back to Lance, who was heading towards the bathroom. "Forgot your wallet? Where'd you get this?"
"Ran into Angle in the hall, he had some," Lance called back an answer, returning with a glass of water. "You going to be ok for the show tonight?"
"Yeah," Christian answered, taking the water. "Thanks, I should be fine. I'm feeling better already."
Lance was confused by Christian's grin, but didn't comment.
