Sugar and Spice, Naughty and Nice
9 PM
The wind swirled the leaves clinging to the gutter. That was pretty much the only thing moving on the street save a brave, lone figure walking slowly past the closed storefronts with his hands in his pockets and a cigarette hanging loosely from his lips. One could only catch glimpses of his unusual, glowing hair when it caught the orange tinge of the street lights that hummed with their nightly song.
From an outsider's point of view he seemed dangerous. Not quite normal but to everyone in that town he was a local. No worse or better than the scum that invaded the night. The real night had yet to come. It was just the pause between day and night that he walked in comfortably. The creatures taunted him at night and the humans scorned him during the day. It was the only time he could find peace.
A large, squarish shape crossed his path in the shadows. He grumbled a threat but did nothing more, as he continued his slow, steady pace. A few more blocks down he entered a crusty, old building that was a converted warehouse. That's what most of the buildings were on that side of town. And he preferred it that way. Kept the humans away. Least the good ones. He sauntered over to the bar but was careful to keep an eye out, it was the kind of place where you trusted no one.
He flagged the bartender down for the usual and let himself slump down onto a duck taped, red stool. "Long night?"
"The longest." The customer replied taking a long swig of the thick, red drink that was placed before him.
"Want to tell me about it?" The bartender gestured around to the half empty establishment and his eagerness to relieve his boredom showed.
"Sure but it's kind of embarrassing."
"Has to do with a girl then? Bet I can guess which one."
"Bet you can. But a girl? I suppose you could call her that but it makes her sound awful ordinary."
"Well she must be some girl to make a vamp like you act like that."
"You're being generous chap. It's short story that started years ago and doesn't have an ending yet. Only the end of a beginning."
An Hour Earlier
"What do you want?" A petite, blond woman attempted to shut the door on a leather clad blond man. The same one that had gone to the bar.
"Can I come in Buffy?" He asked.
"God some more great news Spike? Because last time you came to me this serious my boyfriend flew to the opposite side of the earth." She let go of the door and took a step back, waiting for an answer.
"Hardly." He stepped inside and looked down at her.
"Well?" She persisted. Her lips turned into a frown as the moments passed.
"I'm a wretched, nasty dirty, good for nothing, neutered vampire." He professed. She rolled her eyes.
"We already knew that."
"But that's what I am to you."
"That's what you are period." She laughed derisively. It wasn't that she was mean, it was just that she didn't tolerate evil and he was evil. At least he had been for a long time.
"Well what if I wasn't. I know it's my nature and all that sodding crap but haven't I been the exception to the rule? Can't you see me for what I do now, not what I've done in the past? I've gone through bloody hell for you this past year."
"What does it matter what I think of you?" She had only an inkling of where he was going with this. For an intense few months years before they had made each others lives a living hell. But then that had settled into blind hatred, which led to just hatred, then to irritation, and finally to tolerance. She never saw him for more that what he originally was, but well, he had grown to love her as he walked that thin line between love and hate.
"But could you admit I have changed?"
"No. Because if you didn't have that chip then you'd go back to your old ways."
"You don't know that, because you keep judging me by your old standards though you've changed." He could tell she was becoming uncomfortable. He was getting to her. Would he be able to tell her that night or would he suppress his feelings again? He didn't think he would be able to. But he had too. Having her on his mind was causing him a torment worse than not being able to feed. "Can you honestly tell me you still know me to be the vampire you have always hated?"
"Yes. You're a pig. Are we going to echo the scene at the Bronze? I really wouldn't like to, you lying on the ground about to cry like a baby. It was enough to make me feel sorry for you."
"You would feel sorry for me?" He scoffed finally showing some emotion other than pleading sorrow. His blue eyes jumped. "I feel sorry for you. All those dumb gits leaving you; and all the vampires coming here just to fight you, to try to kill you, like I used to want to do. And then having to protect your pretend kid sister. All the while trying to remember what it was really like, not your pretend past, being scared that your life is not your own any more, that you are just a puppet controlled by higher forces bend on wiping out evil using one innocent girl at a time. No I feel sorry for you." While he talked in his cold, calculated tone something in her snapped. Some part of her gave in to all the hate and all the rage and all the fear that set her soul in motion like an atom that had just been charged.
"You can't make me...and you can't do this to me...and you can't..." She started stammering trying to take back the control. But she was lost. She pushed him away. She had to get him away from her.
"However you feel about me Buffy I know you. I've been here through it all, though I haven't always been on the same side. You know what? You may not think much of me but I'm all you've got. I know you." She took a step closer, his eyes fixed upon her trembling bottom lip. She looked up at him.
"Pig." She slapped him. "You don't think I know that? Part of me might be attracted to you on a basic hormonal level but don't flatter yourself. However I still think you are gross beyond measure and the scum of the world. So get over it. Nothing will ever happen between us. I won't let it." She stopped. Her eyes gazed up at him, the blues locked in on each other like matching skies. He could see the sun in hers. The way she held the promise of the day when he couldn't touch it. "And whatever sick thing we've got going I don't want to touch it."
"You won't lose me unless you stake me." Spike joked attempting to lighten the mood. "Because you are, afraid of losing the few people you've got left."
"I might be. Who isn't." He closed his eyes briefly, gathering the courage he would need for his next action.
"I love you." He snapped. "And I don't care what you say. I can see through you... And I'm going to kiss you." He leaned down before she could stop him and planted a kiss on her lips. For the second time in the last 15 minutes she slapped him. But after instead of getting kicked out she kissed him back. Furiously with a passion unknown to him since Drusilla she kissed him, as if to suck the very demon right out of him. He could feel her tooth cut his lip and didn't mind. It made him even hotter. Finally when he didn't think he could take anymore she pulled away.
He brushed his bleeding lip feeling the ice cold blood smear on his chin. "Slayer." He said impressed.
"Now get out." She rubbed his blood off her lips and shoved him hard towards the door.
"You love the taste of it. It's starting." He chuckled. "You want me. I can give it to you like he couldn't."
"Not now." She snarled punching him. That's the way it was. He liked it rough anyway. He consented and let her abuse him as he stumbled out the door.
"Another time." He nodded to her with a smile and turned. He walked down the walkway and turned left. He kept walking until he was in the bad part of town where the demons lived and that part of himself could appear, making the painful human side vanish. It was the part of town where he had to watch his back and the part of town where he could tell a lonely bartender how confused he was and seek sympathy on a girl like no other.
9 PM
The wind swirled the leaves clinging to the gutter. That was pretty much the only thing moving on the street save a brave, lone figure walking slowly past the closed storefronts with his hands in his pockets and a cigarette hanging loosely from his lips. One could only catch glimpses of his unusual, glowing hair when it caught the orange tinge of the street lights that hummed with their nightly song.
From an outsider's point of view he seemed dangerous. Not quite normal but to everyone in that town he was a local. No worse or better than the scum that invaded the night. The real night had yet to come. It was just the pause between day and night that he walked in comfortably. The creatures taunted him at night and the humans scorned him during the day. It was the only time he could find peace.
A large, squarish shape crossed his path in the shadows. He grumbled a threat but did nothing more, as he continued his slow, steady pace. A few more blocks down he entered a crusty, old building that was a converted warehouse. That's what most of the buildings were on that side of town. And he preferred it that way. Kept the humans away. Least the good ones. He sauntered over to the bar but was careful to keep an eye out, it was the kind of place where you trusted no one.
He flagged the bartender down for the usual and let himself slump down onto a duck taped, red stool. "Long night?"
"The longest." The customer replied taking a long swig of the thick, red drink that was placed before him.
"Want to tell me about it?" The bartender gestured around to the half empty establishment and his eagerness to relieve his boredom showed.
"Sure but it's kind of embarrassing."
"Has to do with a girl then? Bet I can guess which one."
"Bet you can. But a girl? I suppose you could call her that but it makes her sound awful ordinary."
"Well she must be some girl to make a vamp like you act like that."
"You're being generous chap. It's short story that started years ago and doesn't have an ending yet. Only the end of a beginning."
An Hour Earlier
"What do you want?" A petite, blond woman attempted to shut the door on a leather clad blond man. The same one that had gone to the bar.
"Can I come in Buffy?" He asked.
"God some more great news Spike? Because last time you came to me this serious my boyfriend flew to the opposite side of the earth." She let go of the door and took a step back, waiting for an answer.
"Hardly." He stepped inside and looked down at her.
"Well?" She persisted. Her lips turned into a frown as the moments passed.
"I'm a wretched, nasty dirty, good for nothing, neutered vampire." He professed. She rolled her eyes.
"We already knew that."
"But that's what I am to you."
"That's what you are period." She laughed derisively. It wasn't that she was mean, it was just that she didn't tolerate evil and he was evil. At least he had been for a long time.
"Well what if I wasn't. I know it's my nature and all that sodding crap but haven't I been the exception to the rule? Can't you see me for what I do now, not what I've done in the past? I've gone through bloody hell for you this past year."
"What does it matter what I think of you?" She had only an inkling of where he was going with this. For an intense few months years before they had made each others lives a living hell. But then that had settled into blind hatred, which led to just hatred, then to irritation, and finally to tolerance. She never saw him for more that what he originally was, but well, he had grown to love her as he walked that thin line between love and hate.
"But could you admit I have changed?"
"No. Because if you didn't have that chip then you'd go back to your old ways."
"You don't know that, because you keep judging me by your old standards though you've changed." He could tell she was becoming uncomfortable. He was getting to her. Would he be able to tell her that night or would he suppress his feelings again? He didn't think he would be able to. But he had too. Having her on his mind was causing him a torment worse than not being able to feed. "Can you honestly tell me you still know me to be the vampire you have always hated?"
"Yes. You're a pig. Are we going to echo the scene at the Bronze? I really wouldn't like to, you lying on the ground about to cry like a baby. It was enough to make me feel sorry for you."
"You would feel sorry for me?" He scoffed finally showing some emotion other than pleading sorrow. His blue eyes jumped. "I feel sorry for you. All those dumb gits leaving you; and all the vampires coming here just to fight you, to try to kill you, like I used to want to do. And then having to protect your pretend kid sister. All the while trying to remember what it was really like, not your pretend past, being scared that your life is not your own any more, that you are just a puppet controlled by higher forces bend on wiping out evil using one innocent girl at a time. No I feel sorry for you." While he talked in his cold, calculated tone something in her snapped. Some part of her gave in to all the hate and all the rage and all the fear that set her soul in motion like an atom that had just been charged.
"You can't make me...and you can't do this to me...and you can't..." She started stammering trying to take back the control. But she was lost. She pushed him away. She had to get him away from her.
"However you feel about me Buffy I know you. I've been here through it all, though I haven't always been on the same side. You know what? You may not think much of me but I'm all you've got. I know you." She took a step closer, his eyes fixed upon her trembling bottom lip. She looked up at him.
"Pig." She slapped him. "You don't think I know that? Part of me might be attracted to you on a basic hormonal level but don't flatter yourself. However I still think you are gross beyond measure and the scum of the world. So get over it. Nothing will ever happen between us. I won't let it." She stopped. Her eyes gazed up at him, the blues locked in on each other like matching skies. He could see the sun in hers. The way she held the promise of the day when he couldn't touch it. "And whatever sick thing we've got going I don't want to touch it."
"You won't lose me unless you stake me." Spike joked attempting to lighten the mood. "Because you are, afraid of losing the few people you've got left."
"I might be. Who isn't." He closed his eyes briefly, gathering the courage he would need for his next action.
"I love you." He snapped. "And I don't care what you say. I can see through you... And I'm going to kiss you." He leaned down before she could stop him and planted a kiss on her lips. For the second time in the last 15 minutes she slapped him. But after instead of getting kicked out she kissed him back. Furiously with a passion unknown to him since Drusilla she kissed him, as if to suck the very demon right out of him. He could feel her tooth cut his lip and didn't mind. It made him even hotter. Finally when he didn't think he could take anymore she pulled away.
He brushed his bleeding lip feeling the ice cold blood smear on his chin. "Slayer." He said impressed.
"Now get out." She rubbed his blood off her lips and shoved him hard towards the door.
"You love the taste of it. It's starting." He chuckled. "You want me. I can give it to you like he couldn't."
"Not now." She snarled punching him. That's the way it was. He liked it rough anyway. He consented and let her abuse him as he stumbled out the door.
"Another time." He nodded to her with a smile and turned. He walked down the walkway and turned left. He kept walking until he was in the bad part of town where the demons lived and that part of himself could appear, making the painful human side vanish. It was the part of town where he had to watch his back and the part of town where he could tell a lonely bartender how confused he was and seek sympathy on a girl like no other.