Note from the Author: So I just watched the movie and wanted to shoot myself for not writing something Cowboy Bebop related in the past three years I've known about the show. I did my best to keep them in character, and all in all, I don't think I messed up too miserably, but tell me what you think! (And if you've seen the whole series, you might know where I got a couple of these ideas from, hehe...)
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Cowboy Bebop or any of the characters, no matter how much I may want to.
Tap…tap…
Click…click…
Tap…tap…
Click…
Tap…tap…
"Would you cut that out!" Faye ordered, throwing a rock at Spike, who caught it just before it hit him in the nose. He dropped the rock and put his hands back in his pockets. He didn't say anything, but the strumming of his fingers against the ship ceased.
Click…click…
Click…click…
Tensely, Spike walked over to Faye. Pulling one hand out of his pocket, he grabbed her arm, and pushed the front of her body into her own ship.
"Ow, Spike, that hurts," Faye complained, fighting back with complaints.
"I stop, you stop," Spike said plainly before letting her arm go and walking back to his first spot. The hand disappeared again, and he continued to lean against the heated metal. Faye turned back around to face him, but kept her arms crossed, just to show him he hadn't been forgiven yet. Though still holding a grudge, she stopped clicking the toe of her boot against the rocky ground. It didn't take long before she sighed loudly and in frustration.
"Where the hell is Jet? It's hot and I'm hungry!" Faye whined, releasing her arms so one hand could shield her eyes from the sun as she looked up at it, as though seeing it would prove that it was burning unusually bright that day.
"Beats me…" Spike mumbled. Faye looked back at Spike. His eyes were closed and his head was leaned back in the smallest area of shade by the wing of his ship.
"Are you sleeping?" Faye asked in angered astonishment.
"Trying to."
"How can you sleep at a time like this?! We're stranded in the middle of nowhere!"
"Wrong," Spike corrected, "The phone worked. We called Jet. He's coming to get us. We're not stranded anymore." Faye glared at him.
"Whatever you want to think, but to me, we're stranded because 'stranded' means lost in the desert with no means of getting out."
"No, it doesn't."
A hawk screeched somewhere in the distance, breaking the silence around the two but not between them. It took another question to do that.
"Remind me again why I came with you?" Faye asked, sighing. She crossed her arms lightly and leaned against her own metal wall, mirroring Spike unintentionally.
"Am I really supposed to answer that?" Spike asked back, lifting his head for a moment to look at her with an "your-a-total-idiot" look. Saving herself from actually sounding like an idiot, Faye didn't try to make a comeback.
"I'm so bored," she complained under her breath instead.
"I can tell," Spike agreed, throwing his head back again, "Now let me sleep."
"God, Spike, you're like your own species or something. I've never seen anyone or anything sleep as much as you do." There was nothing is return as Spike tried to convince Faye he had fallen asleep.
The ringing silence came back…
Faye sat down, crossing her legs this time, and put her elbow on her knee, turning the palm of her hand into a pillow for her head. She occasionally glanced up at the sky, looking for any trace of the Bebop. Every time she raised her eyes, the sky was only clearer than before. She groaned. If the bounty hadn't been so tempting, she wouldn't have gone with Spike to catch the guy, but no. 20 million. How do you pass that up? But once again, no one put into consideration that the higher the bounty- the harder the target. He had taken down both ships in just a few minutes, leaving them in the middle of nowhere… No hacker, thief, or murderer had ever been able to do that before, leading Faye to believe there was a simple explanation. One she didn't and would never want to admit.
"Spike?" she asked, and without waiting for a response, continued, "You weren't after the bounty were you?" There was more silence as he continued to pretend to sleep. Faye just waited.
"I'm sleeping…" Spike muttered, getting Faye's easily heated blood pressure to raise again.
"No you're not!" she yelled, taking her face off her hand, "And if you keep chasing after people like that you're going to get yourself killed one day!"
"Probably," Spike agreed. Faye was about ready to give up. He didn't care. It didn't make sense…how he could care less and she could care so much. It was flipped. It should've been the other way around.
"So I was right," Faye sighed to herself. She put her head back in her hand and let the silence come back. If Spike's closest friend couldn't make an impact on the situation, how could she? It was probably best just to leave it there.
The sun beat down at its worst as it climbed directly over their heads. Any hint of a cloud was long gone, if there had ever been one.
"Faye?" Spiked asked, still in his sleeping position.
"What?" she spat, letting her anger towards him still shine brightly. She impatiently waited for something else to be said, as the seconds added up.
"Nothing."
"Hey! You can't do that!"
"Do what?"
"Start asking something and then just totally leave me hanging!"
"What if I wasn't going to ask you something?" Spike asked, though it didn't sound like a question at all, "What if I really was going to say exactly what I did? Just to piss you off?" Faye rolled her eyes.
"Of course, why didn't I even think of that?" she shot.
"See? I always knew you were understanding somewhere beyond that bitchy exterior," Spike said, making his side of their identical sarcasm sound like a compliment.
"Asshole…" Faye fought, turning her attention out to the empty desert surrounding them.
"Exactly," Spike smiled.
"Is it really that important to you?" Faye asked, not being able to wait through a long a pause as the many times before.
"Is what that important to me?"
"That stupid past of yours. Is it really so important that you always need to be chasing it? What about the future? The moment you're living in right now? Shouldn't that come first?" Faye thought twice about asking just a little too late…Spike didn't say anything, so Faye went on, not being able to stop.
"I know it made a big impact on your life, or whatever, but you can't live anything twice. You're wasting away this life for that one." Faye paused. "Dammit, now you've let me talk too much. Geez, Spike, you really know how to ruin a woman's day."
"My pleasure," he returned, "But you're wrong." Faye jumped up, unable to sit any longer. Her knees were so sore…
"No I'm not! I have to see this eat at you every day, which means every day I'm just waiting for you to come back to reality! I'm tired of seeing my friend like this!" Shit! Faye's thoughts scolded, Now you've done it…This is just great, congratulations.
"Friend, huh?" Spike repeated, smirking. He lifted his head to look at Faye, "I'm flattered Faye. And I thought you were just a mooch." Faye felt herself turn a very light pink.
"Shut up," she ordered, looking back to the desert.
"You brought it up," Spike shrugged, "But you know, I don't 'always need the past' and I don't always need a future." Faye looked back at him and felt the pink turn a little darker when she saw the look in his eyes as he stared straight at her.
"Sometimes, the present feels like more than enough to live for." Faye's eyes were locked on Spike's. It seemed everything was locked but her legs. She steadily moved forward, in unison with Spike, until they were only a few inches apart.
"Really, is that so?" Faye asked, not letting her confidence slip away, "And what if I don't believe you?"
"Guess I'll have to prove it, won't I," Spike pointed out, with another quick shrug. Unable to move towards the other anymore, both cautiously leaned towards the other. Closing their eyes, they took in the other, letting the moment last. Faye heard a faint hum and opened her eyes just a crack to see what it was, letting her curiosity get the best of her. She went rigid.
"Look out!" she yelled, jumping away from Spike and falling to the ground. Spike snapped and imitated Faye's actions as the Bebop flew right above their heads, leaving behind a long and powerful trail of wind. It flew on for a while before they could see it turn around, heading towards them.
Spike and Faye looked at each other in relief before they realized what they had been doing…They both jumped and looked in opposite directions, blushing freely.
"If they ask, it was your idea," Faye quickly remarked, before standing up, legs trembling slightly as she walked towards the just landing run-down ship.
"Hey, hey, hey! It was not my idea! Who do you think they're going to believe anyway, me or you? I'll just tell them you were being a whore again!" Spike yelled back, losing control.
"What do you mean 'again'?!" Faye yelled back, "I'm not a whore and never have been!"
"With that outfit you might as well be," Spike retorted, regaining what little "cool" he had at that moment.
"Take that back! You know I look hot in this! It's cute! Not whore-like!" Faye fought, jumping on Spike and repeatedly hitting his head.
"Get off me, slut!" Spike added to further make her angry, and making himself convinced of his own story, so he would be believed easier. He reached up and grabbed her arms, trying to knock her off of him, but with not much success.
"Stop calling me that!" Faye lifted her hand with difficulty, due to Spike's grip, and got ready for another attack when both realized they were being watched.
"What. In. The. Hell are you two doing?" Jet yelled, stopping the fight. Spike and Faye started their stories quickly and together.
"He was molesting me! It was a simple defense! I was the victim! The heat must have gotten to his head because he just started attacking me!" Faye tried to lie over Spike's story.
"You know how women are when they're lonely! They get all creepy! And this is Faye we're talking about! You believe me, right?!" Jet just stared at the two of them, unable to catch anything the other said.
"Just help me get these onto the ship…" he sighed, shaking his head. As he passed the knotted Spike and Faye, the two separated again and followed him.
"You better take that back…" Faye mumbled under her breath to Spike.
"I always do, don't I?" Spike pointed out just as quietly.
"Yeah, yeah, just shut up before you say anything else stupid."
"Sure thing," Spike said, glancing at Faye from the corner of his eye to find her face still a light shade of pink.