Spike looked down on Angel and sneered. The wind was cooler on the rooftop, but the heat of LA still wrapped around him like a glove, sitting close and heavy and causing the irritation in him to rise all the more.
If he had only gotten to keep the gem he had worked so hard to find, he could be back in England sitting in the damp and cool grass in Hyde Park right now.
He didn't know why dogboy had brought the Gem to Angel, he wouldn't use it- his soul would tell him it was wrong, that he didn't deserve to see the sunshine. Spike knew differently. He had felt the heat of the day, true warmth rather than this muggy blanket of pollution and heat rising from the tarmac, recycled heat. It is all they would ever be permitted.
Once more, the blonde vampire's face twisted into an expression of disgust as Angel spoke to the woman he had just saved. She was small, blonde, well dressed. Typical. He couldn't help the stream of commentary that spilt from his lips, the words dripping with sarcasm and annoyance.
When the woman eventually walked away, Spike's eyes trailed her for a moment, contemplating going after her, draining her dry and leaving her on the steps of Angel's office just to spite him. To teach him a lesson, but that was to come later in the form of a paedophile with a pointy hobby.
His gaze drifted back to Angel, and Spike genuinely felt himself balk to find that the brunette's eyes were fixed directly on him.
"Vampire hearing you idiot"
Angel had spoken the words low enough and of course Spike had heard them, even at that distance. Ah. Of course. Ange had heard Spike's little play clear as day.
"Whatever ponce" Spike managed to bite out, sounding uncaring as he turned to go.
"Don't even think about going anywhere William" Angel growled, his tone low, predatory. Something in Spike's gut twisted; something old and familiar, like smelling the scent of your mother's perfume. He stopped walking, though he couldn't pin point why. The blonde arranged his face into an expression of distaste before turning back to Angel with his arms folded. He had done what Angel said, but he wouldn't for a second allow him to think that.
"What's that sire?" he bit out, his tone incredulous, the old name a brand, searing and painful.
"Get down here before I come up there and drop you down, and don't pretend to argue, just do it."
Spike was about to turn and walk away once more, when a thought occurred to him. Perhaps this was a chance, a way to get the ring from Angel without spilling blood and dust, not something that he felt badly about per say, but something that could lead to a certain skinny blonde coming after his ass.
It was twenty minutes later, and not without a few bruises on each side, that Spike was thrown none too carefully into Angel's apartment. It was a large room under his pokey offices and Spike couldn't help but be jealous that his sire was living so well when he was living in crypts. His back hit the floor with a crack, but Spike ignored the shooting pain in an attempt to pacify Angel who was still growling questions at him.
"You can't have the ring Spike, I destroyed it, you knew I would, so why the hell are you here?" he bit out.
A lie of course, Spike would have been able to tell he was lying even if he didn't know Angel so well. A ring like that? It'd take more than an afternoon to decide whether to waste it or not.
He would play along for now.
Spike allowed his voice to drop, his chest to heave, like the effort of the fight was too much for him, his eyes widening as he spoke to feign honesty.
"Just…didn't know what else to do Si..Angel" he admitted, looking up at the vampire looming over him. Slip of the name, slip of the heart. Make Angel believe. William could never lie so well as Spike.
He licked a drop of blood from his lip where Angel had split it with his fist as a greeting.
"Harmony dumped me."
A lie.
"and I couldn't stay in Sunnydale with the slayer"
The truth
"I wanted to see you"
A lie.
"I knew it was a long shot coming here, but…I needed help and you're all the family I've got."
The truth. In part.
Spike watched shadows pass over Angel's face as he tried to figure Spike out, and Spike for his part pulled his knees towards him a little, and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, the way William used to. He would make Angel believe his story if it killed him. Rather, if Angel didn't believe his story, he would kill him.
"NevermindI'llgo"
He allowed his accent to soften, slip, and his words to run together like rain, before pushing himself to his feet and sidling past Angel, who was still staring at him like a cat with a mouse.
He got two paces past Angel before a large hand closed over his lithe wrist. Cool against Cool. Spike was strung like a bow, this was the moment. Angel could attempt to bury a stake in him, and they'd fight until likely one was dead, or…
"What do you need?" Angel asked, his voice low.
Spike was still facing away and allowed a smile to brighten across his face, wide and toothy, just for a moment, before slipping back into William's mask.
He then turned to Angel, his eyes wide and swimming. Angel was too good, a do gooder, a goody two shoes. He was trying hard to live up to his title now. To truly be an angel, to offer Spike help even in the face of all they had been through. Blood was thicker than water after all, and blood was something they both understood.
It was easy for Angel had let his guard down, to slip into old habits. Spike found it easy too, to look small, easier still to let Angel know how lonely he was. Angel found it easy to forget about how violent Spike was, and instead to remember their past. It was easy to fold into one another, to breathe familiar scents, to hold each other tight and tighter until somehow they were writhing together, and for once the heat in the city didn't bother Spike, as he drunk in cool skin.
It didn't last, it couldn't.
It wasn't easy however for Spike to slip away, despite Angel's deep sleep. It was harder than he expected to find the ring, stashed in a loose brick in the sewer, and hardest of all to stop himself from looking back as he fled into the day.