"Goddammit!" Edge screamed at no one, punching his fist against the cold, unrelenting cinder block wall of the arena. It hurt like hell. He tenderly caressed his knuckles afterwards, but it didn't soothe the real pain, which wasn't related to the wall or his hand. He was frustrated. He was angry at himself. He hadn't known. He didn't know how to apologize.

Or if he wanted to.

He hadn't known that Christian was falling for Chris Jericho, too.

All that fighting, all that anger, all that hatred over something so simple was resurfacing. He didn't want to fight with his brother again. When Edge had fallen for Jeff, he didn't find out that his little brother was under the same spell until half a year later when Christian decided to show Edge how frustrated he'd been by smashing him repeatedly over the head with a chair.

Edge put a hand to his head with the memory. No, he definitely didn't want that again.

He replayed the dismal scene he had unfortunately witnessed moments ago in his head. No, he didn't have any direct proof that Christian was interested in Jericho. It had been the little things. The way Jericho had jumped, again, when he realized that it had been Christian tapping him on the shoulder. The way that Jericho couldn't get the look of fear off his face. The way that Christian smiled at him, and touched him. The look in Jericho's eyes when Christian did touch him.

Yes, it was pretty damn conclusive.

Christian had grown a spine. He had let Jericho know how he felt.

"I should be proud of him," Edge muttered to himself, spinning on his heel and leaning against the wall. He should be proud of Christian for finally chasing after what he wanted. He should be proud of him for being so bold as to have shown Jericho how he felt. Hell, if he'd done that with Jeff, Edge and Christian might still be friends openly. Instead, they kept up this moronic facade because Christian had been too embarrassed to explain to everyone why he attacked his own flesh and blood for seemingly no reason. Edge's guilt over making Christian feel like he did was the only reason Edge went along with it. Also, he figured, it might be convienent later to be on good terms with Christian when people least expect it.

Edge sighed. Somehow he couldn't bring himself to be proud of Christian. Because it was Jericho. Why the hell did Christian always have to crush on the same people that Edge did? It wasn't Edge's fault that Christian had fallen for Jeff and not told him. He could have backed off with Jeff, that was just a passing fancy. But Chris Jericho... Edge had had his eye on Jericho for quite some time now. Why did Christian have to wait 'til right now to go after Jericho? The easiest way to solve this, Edge knew, was to let Christian have Jericho. He knew his relationship with his brother was much more important than anyone else, but he couldn't bring himself to admit it.

Edge sighed, rubbing his forehead gruffly with his hand, and tried to find an alternate answer to the problem. He mused briefly whether or not Christian knew how Edge felt about Jericho - if he knew what Edge had done that night at the gym... How far had he gotten with Jericho? Had Jericho told Christian what Edge had done to him? Until recently, Jericho had been better friends with Christian than Edge. Did that give Christian an advantage?

Edge was distracted from his thoughts by the sound of footsteps down the hall. He looked up quickly to see who was approaching and smirked as he saw it was Jericho. All the other thoughts rushed from his brain and he got that giddy feeling that accompanies a crush. When Jericho saw him, he froze in his tracks like a deer in headlights. Edge saw the instinct to flee rising in Jericho and pushed himself off the wall.

"Wait!"

Jericho wisely took a step back as Edge approached him this time. Edge didn't seem to mind and left a small distance between them. "Look, Chris, I wanted to apologize for what happened last night."

Jericho didn't respond, he just watched Edge steadily.

"At the gym," Edge continued, just in case Jericho didn't know what he was talking about. Jericho still didn't respond. "Well, I just wanted to let you know how I felt. I guess I might have been a little imposing, but..."

"A little?!" Jericho finally spoke, harshly incredulous.

Edge smiled and set a hand on Jericho's waist, startling Jericho. "I know it can be a little overwhelming if you're not ready for it, but..."

"Ready for what?" Jericho asked, scowling in disgust. To Edge, however, Jericho didn't look so much disgusted as nervous. He couldn't hold back that trademarked grin of his.

"Oh, realizing that you're in love with me."

"I am not!" Jericho yelled louder than he intended to, suddenly pulling away from Edge's hand resting on his waist. Edge's grin dissolved into that smirk that had been driving Jericho up the walls - in more ways than one - for the past two days.

"Stay - away - from me!" Jericho growled, punctuating every other syllable with a finger in Edge's chest. With that, he stalked off. Edge let him go, still smirking as he watched him go.

"So it's true."

The speaker was behind Edge, but he didn't need to turn around to recognize that voice. The high that followed talking to Jericho was punctured by the guilt-inducing edge on Christian's voice. Instead of waiting to meet his brother's glance before speaking, he spoke as he turned.

"Chris, don't be mad. I didn't -"

"I'm not mad," Christian stopped him calmly.

"Chris..."

"No, really. I'm not mad," Christian cut him off again. "Remember those anger management lessons from Page?"

Christian grinned that scary Diamond Dallas Page grin and Edge rolled his eyes.

"Right before you beat the holy hell out of him?" Edge muttered, looking away from Christian, who was chuckling at that memory. The cool calm seemed unnatural in the normally moody Christian and it was starting to weird Edge out. He was used to the unpredictable, 'sneak up on you from behind' Christian, who would be your friend one second and bash you over the head with a chair the next, who could never really control his emotions and came off as high-strung. No, the new, calm, cool, collected Christian wasn't clicking well with Edge's psyche.

"So..." Edge shrugged, running his hand through his hair nervously as he tried to break the unnatural silence.

"So," Christian repeated, raising an eyebrow at Edge. "At the gym with Kidman? That took me too long, I must be slipping."

"I didn't know you liked him," Edge finally finished his original sentence humbly.

"When'd you figure it out?"

"I saw you talking to him earlier tonight."

"Oh yeah," Christian laughed, remembering. "He's so jumpy anymore. He used to laugh at me for that."

"I guess he has good reason to be," Edge mumbled, still confused by how upbeat Christian was acting. "Did he tell you about me?"

"No," Christian shook his head. "I figured it out on my own. He verified it, though."

"Yeah?" Edge looked at Christian, timidly.

"Yeah," Christian grinned. "When he realized that I was hitting on him, he just goes, 'oh, not you, too...'"

Edge smiled for the first time since Christian approached him, shaking his head, then the two fell into another silence.

"Funny, huh?" Christian started suddenly. He laughed slightly as if to verify his hypothesis. "Here we are again. Jeff... Chris..."

"It's completely different this time," Edge corrected. "I know now."

"Are you going to do things differently then?" Christian asked, cynically.

Edge looked up at him quickly, eyes flashing. He noticed the slight irony in the way that Christian's levelheadedness was making him irrational, but snapped anyhow. "Why should I just hand him over to you? You have no more claim to him than I do!"

"I never said you should," Christian answered, shrugging. He knew that he was one of the few people who could truly rouse Edge's temper, and was enjoying that right now.

"Then what exactly are you saying?" Edge looked like he was going to burst.

"I don't know," Christian reflected. "I think I'm saying, may the best man win."

"What is with you?"

"What?" Christian asked blankly.

Edge narrowed his eyes. "Why are you so calm and confident all the sudden?"

"I don't know," Christian repeated with a smile. "Maybe I had an epiphany. It doesn't need to be so complex."

"You're treating this like a fucking game!" Edge exploded.

Christian just shrugged.

"People's feelings are on the line here!"

He finally struck a cord. Christian narrowed his eyes this time. "Unlike with Jeff, huh?"

Edge fell silent, taking an avid interest in the floor.

"Yeah, you won with Jeff all right. But you didn't fucking care about him. You convinced Jeff that he loved you. I loved him. No, maybe I don't love Jericho. I like him. I could love him."

"I do love him!" Edge yelled, surprising not only Christian, but himself. He balked, but stood his ground after a second.

"I didn't know you could love," Christian muttered, harshly, reconsidering his position. Edge just sighed.

"Look, Chris, I swear to god, I didn't know that you liked Jeff, and -"

"Loved Jeff."

Edge flinched, but continued. "- but I really think I love Chris, despite his current behavior, and it's unfair of you to hold an innocent mistake against me!"

"Unfair?" Christian repeated softly, examining the ground.

Edge watched his brother silently, waiting for a decision. When Christian remained silent too long, Edge finally spoke again. "This is important to me."

That made Christian's decision for him. Jeff was important to him. He lifted his eyes to Edge's nervous glance.

"May the best man win," he repeated coldly.

Edge's eyes darted past Christian momentarily, then he looked back at his brother darkly once more before punching him in the face, knocking him back. Christian was startled by the blow and fell against the wall, holding the side of his face as he watched Edge turn and stalk off. As he checked his nose and mouth to see if he was bleeding, Test jogged over to him.

"Wow, man, you ok? What the hell was that?"

"Don't know," Christian muttered, relieved not to see any blood. Test helped him up as he quickly debated whether or not Edge would have hit him if there hadn't been anyone coming. He concluded that he didn't know. "Still bitter, I guess..."

"Wow," Test repeated, as he led Christian to the trainers to get some ice for his new bruise.