Chapter 2

A/N: And so it continues…thanks for all your reviews guys. ^^

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          Benoit sat, watching Jericho speaking on the phone to someone. He couldn't believe he was letting him do this. He couldn't believe he was even contemplating it. She didn't like him, in that way or in any other way sans liking to hate him. Jericho, however, was the ever optimistic, and was so adamant, so completely devoted to this idea of getting them together for some unknown reason. Benoit couldn't even guess why, so he just figured that Chris just had absolutely no life. Beforehand, he would have even mentioned the fact that Jericho himself had a small crush on the same fiery female that helped break up their battle, but he was feeling nice then and decided not to bring it up, especially in front of her. That's all she needed, knowing her best friend besides the younger rainbow haired Hardy liked her while in fact her relationship with the older one was beginning to suck. It would have ended up being a breaking point, no doubt.

          Jericho hung up with whoever he was speaking to, turning to his tag team partner with a big wolfish smile, which only meant one thing; He was up to something. Benoit stared at him, almost suspiciously.

          "Who was that?" he inquired. Jericho just flashed another smile.

          "Your ticket to Lilian. I did a little research, with the help of Lita. She snooped around and found out just what flower Lilian likes. Now, think of it, she opens her locker room door to find a beautiful bouquet of daises!"

          "You got her flowers?"

          "No, you got her flowers." Jericho smirked proudly. "I even told the lady to write an ultra sappy note."

          "Are you crazy?! Aren't we moving a little too fast considering she doesn't even know me?" Benoit automatically seemed tense.

          "That is so a eighties way of thinking, Roboto." He rolled his eyes, purposely using his age-old nickname. Benoit looked uneasy. "Come on, Benoit, its not that bad. Just nice flowers. It's not too much." Jericho promised.

          "And this woos a female?"

          "That and chocolates. But chocolates are kind of iffy because they eat it and suddenly they think they're fat or something."

          "She'd do that?"

          "Lilian? Probably not. She seems to be a lot like Lita. And as you know…"

          "She can eat as much as you." Benoit finished.

          "Exactly."

          Benoit took to walking back and forth in a worried daze, even if in fact these flowers would not reach her until tomorrow. Jericho just watched for a while, until he started feeling dizzy just watching him. He got up, standing in his path, but Benoit at that point hadn't noticed and smacked right into him. He backed away, rubbing his forehead.

          "What was that for?" Benoit asked, looking at Jericho who rolled his eyes.

          "You're wearing a hole in the cheap and stained hotel rug. Chill out." Jericho sighed loudly. "At least start worrying tomorrow, since that's when it'll be coming in."

          "I don't know if this is a good idea, Chris…"

          "Trust me! When have I ever gotten you in trouble?"

          "There isn't enough time in this day to give that list." Benoit pointed out.

          "…Okay, so I've gotten you in trouble a little." He admitted. "But look, you still have all your arms and legs."

          "Comforting." Benoit replied sarcastically.

          "As if should be. Now, I don't want to see you worrying about it until tomorrow. Later tomorrow. Far from this time. Got me?"

          "Fine." He agreed.

          It didn't mean he wouldn't inwardly worry, of course. And he did. From the moment he found out through the whole day. Now, of course, it was kind of hard to hide that sort of worrying, but he managed with the exception of once where he dazed out into thinking and Jericho had to smack him over the head to snap him out of it. Benoit was uncomfortable with the entire idea. And he had a feeling it was going to spread – this information – because Jericho, of all the good-natured thinking he might have, still had the biggest mouth when it came to the stuff. He didn't mean to spread any gossip, but he did, in large quantities.

          So why had he trusted him? Lack of judgment of the moment, he had guessed. That and he knew if he didn't agree, he'd end up regretting that too since Jericho would never have stopped bothering him. How he had been the one that got the best friend title, Benoit could never guess. He just didn't have a clue. But it was like that, and Jericho was making him do something about his small crush, and he couldn't do a thing about it. Maybe when the flower thing didn't work like Benoit figured, he would drop it.

          And the next night came, and Jericho had run off to do some errand with Lita since Matt and Jeff were too busy doing other things. God forbid at least Jericho would wait with him since he was the one who got him into all this. But he didn't, and so he just sort of reclined on his own bed and stared at the ceiling. He didn't know what he was really expecting – besides the obvious being nothing at all. It was highly doubtful she would just look at the flowers and do nothing about it, but he still hoped he wouldn't have to see her ever again. If he thought speaking to her before was bad, he definitely knew he was in trouble now that all had happened happened.

          He sat up when a knock sounded. Probably Chris again, he always forgot his key. Rolling over, he stood up and stretched a little, then walked over to the door. However, the sight he was greeted by was not of Chris but of Lilian herself, and boy did she not look happy. A glare graced her usual calm demeanor, and her face – well, that was graced with blemishes that dotted her face like a demented connect the dot game. Instantly realizing what had to happen, he barely had time to curse Jericho in his mind before she spoke, in a very angry tone.

          'You think you're funny Chris Benoit?" she accused, putting the flowers at an arm's length. "Sending me these flowers! I don't know how you figured out I'm allergic to these, but you are one cruel jerk!"

          She actually pushed him back a little so that they were more in the room.

          "Lilian, I can…"

          "Don't speak. I don't know who you think you are, but I don't deserve to be treated like this! I might be smaller then you, but I can STILL do this."

          And she smashed the pot upside down onto his head, the water AND the flowers fluttering all around him. He sputtered, mouth a bit agape.

          "THAT'S what I think of you, Chris Benoit! I don't care how scary you are, you better not try a stunt like that again!"

          She stomped out, Benoit just watching her, stunned. He suddenly realized that the pot hadn't fallen down or broke, and touching his head he realized it was still there. He pulled at it, thinking he would go after her once he got it off his head. No go. He tried again, and it again didn't slip off.

          "Oh this is just great." He groaned. He pulled again and it still didn't come off. The moisture had made a suction-like grip on his head. It figured the plastic vase had to have a wide mouth. He kept pulling until his scalp started to burn from the friction he was making. Then he sat and decided to give up and live his fate as the guy with a vase stuck on his head. Or at least until it fell off or Jericho had a better idea.

          There went any chances he EVER had, also. Out the window. Way out the window.

          When Jericho came in, he had the added bonus of Lita seeing him with a pot stuck to his head, and they both sort of stared at him oddly.

          "What? Haven't you ever seen a guy with a pot stuck to his head?" he grumbled unhappily.

          "Benoit, what happened? Why – OH." Lita seemed to frown the minute she realized.

          Jericho, however, still didn't get it. "What? What oh?"

          "Lilian." Lita explained simply.

          "Lilian? But…why?"

          "Christopher, I have a question for you."

          "Alrighty." He nodded, closing the door behind him. "Shoot."

          "Actually, no, I'll ask Lita. When he asked you about the flowers, how did he ask?"

          "He asked me which ones was she allergic to." Lita confirmed.

          "…I did?" Jericho asked, scratching his head. "Uh…oops."

          "Then I'm guessing she's highly allergic to daisies, isn't she?"

          "You dumbass!" she yelled at Chris the minute he got the hint. She smacked him over the head. He yelped.

          "Ow!"

          "That answers my question, then…a little help here?" he leaned down, motioning to the vase.

          Lita walked up to him, tugging at it. It obviously still didn't slip off.

          "No go."

          "You just need to put some muscle in it. Here." Jericho basically shoved Lita out of the way and pulled extremely hard. Benoit cried out as he felt as though Chris was pulling his skin off his body.

          "STOP! STOP! OW!" He was unceremoniously dropped instantly, landing on his stomach.

          "Chris, what the hell are you trying to do, kill him?" Lita huffed. "Did you try breaking it?"

          Benoit got up, holding his sore head. "Yeah. It's like titanium plastic. Won't break for shit."

          "I know! I can ram your head into a wall and…"

          "Shut up Jericho." Lita snapped. She seemed to think. "Well, I remember when Jeff got his hand stuck in a pipe, putting warm water on it managed to get him free. We can try that."

          "As long as it doesn't have me bashing my head into various objects, I'm fine." He said, shooting a look toward Jericho who whistled innocently.

          "Come on. I'll help you." Lita motioned for him to go into the bathroom, and he started walking toward it. Jericho went to follow but Lita instantly stopped him.

          "You did enough for a night. Clean up the flowers, alright?"

          Chris made a pouty face, but didn't speak against it as he instantly started to clean up. Lita followed suit into the bathroom to see Benoit had gotten at least the picture and turned the hot water shower on.

          "All ready to have this thing extracted." He spoke, trying to make light of the situation that he felt extremely depressed over.

          "Okay, bend into the water and I'll try to push it off. The water should make the vase expand." She explained, trying to sound like she really thought it would work.

          Benoit sighed loudly, cannot believing this was happening to him, but decided to just go along with it in hopes of getting freed. He kneeled down and then leaned into the water, instantly feeling the hot liquid pouring onto him and his new vase hat. He felt Lita pushing on it hard, and he winced with every pain that shot up into his brain. It felt like she was trying to rip his hair off.

          "I'm going to try to use some shampoo or something." She explained to him, grabbing the nearby bottle. She seemed to carefully blot it around the edges of the vase and started to push again.

          "I don't need a hair treatment here, Lita." He called, starting to get really annoyed at the pain.

          "I think I almost have it." She told him. As if trying to make him feel better, she tried to joke. "You know, this reminds me of a Winnie The Pooh story I used to read my little cousin…"

          "Lita, if you're comparing to me to a stuffed child's bear, I'm going to have to kill you." He warned.

          "…Never mind then. Just trying to lighten this up. Oh! Wait…" she pushed again, noting it was moving. "I'm gonna push really hard, and I think it'll slip off. Ready?"

          "Not—" he was cut off when she shoved her hands right against the vase, and Benoit elicited another yelp of pain. It did come off though, and Lita's momentum caused her to actually fall into the now half-full bathtub. Benoit almost flipped into it as well but he managed to catch himself and only end up with a mouthful of splashed water. Chris ran in, looking at the scene of Lita lying dazed in the water, the shower still spraying on both of them. But the vase…it was floating peacefully next to her.

          "You guys are soaked." Jericho offered.

          They both glared at him at the same time. Benoit, though his scalp was now throbbing, managed to shut off the shower. He flopped backwards, holding his head. Lita managed to wrench herself out of the tub and landed squarely next to him, coughing up a little of the bath water she had swallowed. Jericho, finally doing something right, grabbed towels for them. He handed it to both of them and grabbed the vase from the water.

          "…I'm not thinking you want to keep this." Jericho guessed.

          "Toss it out before I use it on you." Benoit said. Jericho seemed convinced it wouldn't be wise to talk anymore and left to throw it away.

          "I don't know how I'm going to explain this to Matt and Jeff." Lita finally spoke, lifting up her sopping wet arm, looking at her sleeve dangling down as far as it could go, heavy with water.

          "Say you had an impromptu swim in our local bath tub. It's not a lie."

          "You alright now? Let me see your head." She went onto her knees, peeking at his drenched hair. Besides the fact that it was bleeding a little in one area, it seemed alright. Still, she continued to inspect to see if it was swelling yet.

          "This was a disaster." He sighed. "You know, the next time I listen to that idiot, hit me with something. Preferably something that can't stick on me."

          "Jericho had the right idea, Chris." She said. "You shouldn't be deterred because of this little incident."

          "I had a vase stuck to my head. How is that a little incident?"

          "…Point taken. But I don't think you should give up." She commented idly. "I'll explain to her that you didn't mean anything by it. A gesture of apology. And then…I know! I got a great idea for you to make it up to her."

          "Get her some ointment for her massive amount of hives?"

          Lita winced at the thought, but shook her head firmly. "Don't worry. I have an idea. I won't take no for an answer. Just give me a night to figure it out."

          "Wait, Lita, no…"

          "Bye Chris!" she said, not listening to his pleas as she stood up. She left quickly, not letting him speak at all. Benoit groaned, standing, touching his head again.

          He just knew he was going to continue to regret letting his so-called friends help him. The swelling on his head would be a constant reminder.