In A Breath
By Kyizi
Disclaimer: All characters belong to the WWE, the story is mine.
Rating: R, for violence and rape
Summary: Christian turned his back on his brother, on his career and on his company, was it really all because he was jealous of his brother's success? Or was he trying to escape from something…or someone?
Spoilers: Up to and including Vengeance.
Setting: This starts the day before Vengeance, but we will be taking a trip back in time every now and again.
Feedback: Always appreciated
E-mail: kyizifanfic@hotmail.com
Yahoo! Group: KyiziFic
Notes: This idea came into my head after reading Karen U's fic, "It Only Hurts" where she gave Jericho a reason for being, well, an ass, I began to wonder if maybe Christian had a reason…
(Matt and Lita aren't dating in this one and they're both at Vengeance backstage for the purposes of this fic!)
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Part Eleven
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Lita shifted in her sleep and Edge smiled as she wrinkled up her nose. It had been late by the time they had finished discussing their theories on his brother, and by that time, the redhead had already fallen asleep, meaning that Edge had to either move her or wake her. He chose neither and decided to stay where he was. Or actually, the Hardy brothers had, and they were better judges of what Lita was like when awoken from slumber early.
He absentmindedly stroked her hair and she leaned into his touch. He wished that his whole life could be that simple; action and reaction, there to see and simple as reaching out and doing what you wanted to do. But it wasn't. His thoughts were so muddled that he didn't know what to think anymore. Then again, his thoughts and actions where Lita was concerned were anything but simple either.
He couldn't help his mind drifting back through the events of the last year; through everything that his brother had done. If it was just as plain and simple as it seemed, why was Christian 'pretending' it wasn't? What was it that Christian was hoping to achieve by making them think he was a 'good guy' again? But the main thing that plagued his mind was that maybe Christian wasn't pretending.
Edge trusted Jeff's judgement of people more than anyone else's. The younger man seemed to have a sixth sense where emotions were concerned; he was hypersensitive to them. But it wasn't just Jeff's opinion, although that had started the whole thing, it was his own as well. When he thought back to the time just before Christian had attacked him, there had been something going on. Christian had always been a good actor, perhaps that was why Edge had never known…or had he?
He remembered so much more now that he had ever realised back then. The way Christian no longer held his head high like he was finally fulfilling his childhood dream – and that was what they had been doing, fulfilling that dream. Christian had stopped going out with them, had stopped laughing so much, had stopped caring. He was jumpy whenever anyone approached him without warning, almost to the point where Edge had found it funny.
Edge closed his eyes. He had found it funny. His brother had quite possibly been hurting and Edge had done nothing but laugh it off and ignore it.
"Edge?"
The mumble brought him back to the present with a painful jerk, as he smacked his head off the headboard of the bed. "Ouch."
"Are you okay?"
Lita instantly reached her hands up to rub at his head, and it was all he could do not to look down her top at the new angle he was facing. Feeling himself blushing profusely (Thank God it's dark!), he pulled her hands back and smiled at her.
"I'm fine."
"I didn't mean to startle you," she continued, her voice in a near whisper.
"It's okay, I was just…thinking."
Lita nodded her head, but didn't speak right away. She knew what he was thinking about. They lay in silence for a short time, their legs still intertwined, hands still held together between them. And it wasn't until Edge let out a sigh that Lita moved at all, wrapping her arms around him and settling her head on his chest.
"I just don't know what to think, Lita." Edge ran a hand through his hair and the other slowly up and down her back. "I thought I understood, I thought that everything was black and white. Christian was not my brother anymore, he hated me, our lives were set apart now, he turned on me, he turned on my family, and he did it all of his own free will, because he wanted to. And now?" he laughed humourlessly. "Now there might be more to it, and I just don't know what I can do about it."
Lita sighed. "Things are never really black and white Edge, no matter how much we might wish them to be."
"I know. But that doesn't make me wish it any less."
Lita propped herself carefully on one elbow and looked into his eyes. "I wish it too, Edge. I wish that I could make your life simple again. But you know what?" He furrowed his brow but didn't speak. "What I wish most of all, the one thing that I've wanted to give to you for the last year, is your brother. Because Christian is the one thing that you need the most, he's the one thing that you miss and love the most in life, and you don't have that anymore." He opened his mouth, but she didn't let him speak. "But you could."
"I don't think I can, Lita." He reached out a hand to brush aside her tears, as she did the same for him.
"I think you owe it to yourself to try, Edge." She smiled sadly. "And if Christian did have a reason, if he did this for some other purpose, then maybe you owe it to him to try as well."
Edge didn't reply and Lita remained silent, letting her words sink in for a moment. A few seconds later he relaxed, as if her words had taken all the resolve he had left and he nodded his head. He looked up at her, and stroked a finger around the outline of her face, smiling faintly as her breath hitched.
"Doesn't that hurt your neck? Leaning like that," he asked softly, as his
fingers moved further down and onto her neck.
"A little," she admitted.
Within seconds he had turned them over so that she was lying on the bed and he was leaning over her. "Better?" he asked, his voice sounding husky, even to his own ears.
She nodded and he smiled, neither of them speaking again, as if to do so would break the almost tangible energy that seemed to have surrounded them. He leaned forward, so slowly that Lita wasn't sure he was moving at all, at least not until he was so close that she could feel his shaky breaths on her face. He seemed to be waiting for her approval before moving any closer.
She smiled up at him and he returned it before slowly leaning forward and capturing her lips with his own. It was a gentle kiss, full of hesitation and promise, but it took her breath away, and judging by his breathing, the same was true of him. He move to pull back a little and she wrapped her arms around his neck, not giving him the chance to pull away, instead crushing him into her.
She felt a chuckle in his throat, but it died there as her tongue entered his mouth, being replaced instead by what sounded like a growl. His hands seemed to be everywhere all at once and Lita could feel the passion in his kiss.
There was a rapping at the door and they pulled apart, like teenagers found necking in a school supply closet. Lita glanced at him and he surreptitiously ran his hands through his hair, clearing his throat before he stood to answer the door. She risked a giggle and smiled broadly when he turned to her with a smile, shaking his head.
She sat up and glanced at the clock, frowning when she saw it reading 4am. There was someone at her door and it was 4am. She glanced at Jeff and Matt, asleep in their respective positions of the couch and the floor. It would take a tornado to wake either of the brothers, and even then it was debatable. But if they were sleeping, then who was at her door?
She turned her attention to Edge as he turned the door handle, standing to approach when she saw who was there. There was no reason for this person to be there, no reason at all. But she was there, standing in the doorway in an oversized shirt, crying so hard that her eyes were swollen and red raw.
"Torrie?"
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End of Part Eleven
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