Matt rubbed his hands together, grinning at the air. Christian, Lance Storm and that bastard Regal tonight. He really had no problem with the British man, except for the fact that he had been using brass knux against one of his friends...and that he had attacked Lita a couple of times...and that he had pretty much used the then-WWF in the whole E/WCW war. Annoying little wussy pissant...

His thoughts were disturbed as he walked into someone. He instinctively caught them by the upper arms as they both teetered, stopping them both from falling over.

"Sorry," he apologized, kneeling and picking up a bag the...he now realized was a woman...had dropped. He gave it to her, his mind still preoccupied with thoughts of tonight's match. Now, ideas...maybe he could convince the others to get Edge and maybe Jeff in line for a con-chair-to on Regal...sweet...

Matt quickly patted her on the shoulder muttering another apology. He passed her, thoughts intent on the no-DQ six-man tag later that night.

So Buffy was left to wonder what the hell had been up his butt the first time she saw him. And why exactly she hadn't jumped him for the poorly disguised threat back in Mark's locker room. "Always next time," she muttered absently.

He was bouncing again.

"Calm down, boy," Rob said. "Save some of that for the match."

Jeff gave him a silly grin, still literally bouncing in and out of various lockers. "No can do...I'm not in control!" he said spookily, reaching out to Rob like a stereotypical ghost. The image of a blue-haired North Carolinian trying to scare Mr Laid-Back RVD would have been slightly freaky to anyone else, to say the least.

Rob pushed him away with a grin. "My oh my," he remarked with mock-shock. "I thought Matt was the only Hardy Boy hot for me?"

Jeff shrugged easily. "No matter what you might think, I'm not interested in anyone with a Y chromosome."

   At that moment Spike Dudley stuck his head in the door, waving at Jeff before turning to Rob. "Yo, VD, you comin' or what?"

   The self-proclaimed 'Mr Monday Night' got up and slapped Jeff on the back. "Find your bro. I hear Sean's looking for him."

   Jeff nodded, still slightly bouncing. He bounced even higher, grinning, remembering the look on Edge's face yesterday. Just in time too; if he had knocked a few moments earlier _that_ would have taken a bit of convincing. Luckily the blonde hadn't seen a big part of it…that would have been hard to explain away. He must have been zonked after the little fight with Matt…all he could remember was growling and biting, then blissful sleep. Jeff slowed down his jumping down a little, timing it with his breathing.

   Breathe and bounce.

   Breathe and bounce.

   He leaned his head against the locker, smiling at the coolness. Breathe and bounce…

   Willow peeked out her fringe as the two reasonably-large men walked out of a locker room just behind her. Unintentionally she overheard part of their conversation as they followed her.

   "So Matt and Sean definitely broke up?" the smaller of the two questioned

   The larger man nodded. "The Almighty Hyper-Active One told me Matt told him this morning. Apparently Sean is as big of a slut as his reputation."

   Smaller raised an eyebrow, pushing his broken glasses further up his nose. "I can buy that. Sean is totally not heartbroken. He was hanging off Hunter last I saw."

   "Hanging off as in around or hanging off as in attached to his ass?"

   "So polite aren't you Rob?"

   Rob grinned, keeping the grin to flash at Willow as they overtook her. "Being polite means not saying a lot of crap you want to say."

   "Being polite has gotten me five girlfriends since I left e-see-dub alone. How many girlfriends have you had?" the man asked cattily as they faded out of Willow's hearing range.

   The sound of Spike Dudley getting smacked upside the head echoed throughout the hallway.

   Willow shook her head, leaning against the wall and crossing her arms loosely in front. "Interesting place."

   "Isn't it?" a female voice asked from behind her.

   Willow jumped, her hand on her chest. "Geez Buff, don't do that!" she reprimanded.

   The Slayer just shrugged, peering over Willow's shoulder to watch the two men disappear around the corner. "Nice guys?"

   The redhead shrugged. "All I could get was a neat piece of gossip that someone called Matt broke up with someone called Sean."

   Buffy nodded, her eyes slightly narrowed. "Uh huh," she said slowly. "And you know this how?"

   Willow dropped her eyes to the floor. "I listened."

   "Willow, I'm surprised at you," Buffy scolded. "Listening in on private conversations like that!"

   " 'Scuze me, ladies," a gentle southern voice said from behind them. They parted quickly allowing a fairly tall man to get through. As he walked down the hallway Buffy really looked at the back of his head. Suddenly suspicious, she padded quietly after him, stopping just behind him.

   "Matthew!" she hissed softly.

   The guy turned and that was enough.

   Willow watched in disbelief as Buffy jumped on the guy's back, punching blindly for all she was worth.

   _Um, Willow? What are you doing just standing there?_

   She broke into a jog but stopped just outside the circle of the fight. The scuffle was completely ignored by several people at the end of the hallway.

   Willow was suddenly pushed aside as another fairly tall man jumped into the fight. She wasn't afraid for Buffy-there was a reason she was called 'ball-breaker' back in Sunnydale behind her back-but she was concerned that Buffy couldn't use full power on these guys because-as far as she knew-they were human.

   The second guy grabbed Buffy around the waist and threw her off, almost slamming her into a wall. With a quick shake to clear her head, Buffy was back up again and ready to fight. She looked confused, and Willow glanced to the two men to see the centre of her confusion.

   The first man was the infamous Matthew that had held Mark at knifepoint.

   The second was the man they had run into the first day they were here…according to Serious Dude, this was the iniquitous Jeff Hardy.

   Jeff growled softly at his brother so the ladies nearby couldn't hear. "What did you do this time?"

   Matt looked injured. "What makes you think I did something?"

   Jeff looked thoughtful. "Um…because you're my brother?" he asked innocently.

   "Just because we share the same parents don't mean I got your suicidal tendencies."

   His brother pouted. Before he could retaliate a female voice broke into their conversation. "Who are you two?"

   Willow helped Buffy up and the Slayer brushed herself off before glancing up to wait for an answer.

   With a hand to Jeff's chest Matt stepped forward. Instantly Buffy moved forward as well, her nose almost touching Matt's chest. She glared at him defiantly.

   He unexpectedly smiled, and she mentally raised an eyebrow. _Mmmmmmm…yummy. Dangerous, is he. Adds to yummyness._ Although Matthew was a total stranger she had never let that fact sway her from a good perv before. A grin with all the danger of Spike's-the evil vamp was kinda cute before he buggered off- combined with dark, seductive eyes and a lock of black falling over aforementioned black eyes made a very nice eye candy picture.

   "We seem to keep running into one another, don't we?" he questioned.

Buffy kept her expression guarded. "That we do."

"My name is Matt."

"People call me Buffy," she said icily. She studied him again. Same as her dream…

"All people?"

Buffy raised an eyebrow. "All people who don't want a black eye."

He nodded slightly, a full-fledged smile breaking out…the only difference from her dream last night, although not much of one.

"You know what I'm going to say now, don't you?" he challenged.

   Buffy scowled, hand on her hip. "No, you can not call me Slayer."

   "Um, could we take this conversation somewhere more private?" Willow asked timidly. The brown-haired man spared her a glance, sizing her up. She blushed slightly as he stared.

   The blonde…well, blue-haired now…smiled at her and sidled up behind her, to the side slightly of the two people face-to-face. "I'm Jeff," he whispered lightly, his breath sending pleasant shivers down her spine.

   "And as much as Jeff would love to stay, we have a match now," Matt added, checking his watch.

   Suddenly a dim music started playing, and Matt cursed, jogging backwards to yell "C'mon Jeff!"

   "That's our opponent's music," Jeff explained quickly as he ran after his disappearing friend. "See you soon."

   Buffy exchanged a glance with Willow. "We are so going to watch the next match," Buffy decided.

   Christian winced slightly as Lance's music hit. _So much for 'At last, your own your own',_ he thought. Lance shot him a look, before softening it. "C'mon Chris," he said quietly. The other Canadian managed a slight smile. "Get me in there with Edge as much as possible," he offered, sneering a little at the crowd as Regal's music blared.

   The longhaired Canadian knew instinctively what his friend meant. Getting Regal in there would be just bad, and he himself didn't want to fight Edge too much. Now, if they could just get to Regal and convince him they should work over the youngest Hardy…predictably they would ground him, maybe get a couple of tags before he inevitably hit a corkscrew moonsault, getting a tag hopefully to his brother, who cleans house, then bring in a chair or something, hit the legal man, whoever else is legal gets the pin, run out of there like bats out of hell…

   _Like the jerks we are._

   Lance looked at him again and he suddenly realized that he had muttered that last bit out loud.

   "Sorry," he said quietly. He scanned the arena, mentally smiling at a sign that proclaimed that Edge should piss in Regal's tea a la Chris Jericho.

   He exchanged a glance with Lance…_Hey, that kinda rhymes,_…as the Hardy music hit. Lance moved to talk with Regal as he was left to mentally bop along with the music. Christian moved as Matt Hardy ran/walked/danced towards his corner, but just a bit.

   Christian stared as Matt likewise stared out into the crowd…so close that if he wanted to he could pull him down for a snake eyes on the turnbuckle. That was…if he wanted to.

   He was too tired…a proper nights' sleep had eluded him since…well, actually, it had just steadily been getting worse since he had turned on Edge, but it had culminated in the last week getting a total of maybe ten hours' sleep. But…ever since Mark had sent him to get those girls…they were both beautiful, that was for sure; but nothing had been stirred up majorly, like a crush or anything. Something was just a little…off.

   Christian was exhausted mentally too. _I'm tired of being an asshole, using underhanded crap. I want to win just one match clean. That's all I ask. One match._

You think you know me…

   Lance watched as one of his tag partners for the night drifted off into thought. Christian had been a godsend in the Alliance, since his only friends before that had been Tommy Dreamer and Justin Credible. Tommy was a little too much like everyone's friend for his liking, and Justin…well, Justin was usually too busy moping about 'losing' Sean to Matt Hardy to pay attention to anything not directly connected to the 'love of his life' or the eldest Hardy and his stealing ways.

   Christian…Lance could truthfully say that Christian was one of the nicest and most honest guys he had ever met. There had never been many questions about him turning on Edge…quite frankly, Lance didn't want to know the answers. Everyone was entitled to a mistake or two in their lives. They deserved to keep them in privacy.

   As Regal stared over at Christian's brother, the bell rang. Both Hardyz ducked out, and he lightly pushed Regal to the apron. Lance let his trademark blandness slip over his face as he and Edge tangled up…_Ah, crap._

   He kept on the mask of indifference even as he heard a ladder coming out from his opponents' side.