For the Night has been Unkind
I don't own a damn thing. Sad, innit? Even the stuff that isn't Joss' isn't mine…
Author: Aloysha.
Rating: R or NC-17. Depends on where you chance over it.
Pairings: Xan/Spike, Dru/Willow, OZ/Spike/Xan, and Xan/Oz. Minor: Xan/Cordy, Willow/Oz, Buffy/Angel.
Warnings: Alternate Universe, Sex, Slash, Bloodplay, Language, Violence, Dominance/Submission, Heyna!Xan, Solider!Xan, Child Abuse, Non-con, and so on and so forth. I hate planning ahead…
Summery: When Spike comes back to Sunnydale and wants Willow to get Dru back for him, she does the spell but for some strange reason it's Xander who's effected…Spike decides to deal.
Notes: Takes some of the elements of Dimitri Aidan's Soul Shard's challenge.
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Chapter One
Brooding 101
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Spike swayed dangerously, best friend clutched tightly in one hand. Jack Daniels was the name of his friend and, in all the time they'd spent together, Jack had never let Spike down. Unfortunately for Spike Jack was about the only dependable thing in his life.
Drusilla was up to her old games again. The woman may have been completely stark raving mad on her better days but she knew how to play with a vamp's heart when she was so inclined. He'd taken her away from the Hellmouth only to have her walk off with a fungus demon as if he was nothing.
While there were less respectable things than a fungus demon his Dark Plum was giving his reputation quite the beating.
He knew she loved him and simply thought of this as a game. Play around with Spike's heart as she saw fit until Spike came and took her home. Even insanity could get…monotonous after a while he reasoned. Or…he would have reasoned was he not currently walking along the stone ledge on the roof of the hotel they'd decided to stay at.
It had hurt when she'd left. Mostly because she'd rammed a hot poker through his chest before sauntering off with her new toy, but there was some emotional pain in there as well. Part of him wished she'd aimed a few centimeters to the right and just ended the game then and there.
After he'd pulled the poker out and sent the minions to watch out for her and make sure her needs were being met, the sun had had been rising so he'd retreated to the bedroom and slept. Now that the moon was high in the sky he could drink himself stupid with no worries of turning into a pile of dust. Falling to the busy street below, perhaps but it wasn't like he couldn't survive something like that so it wasn't a concern.
Nothing was a concern really, save the wonderfully warm liquid pumping through his system. Not quite as satisfying as blood, but nothing to scoff at all the same. It burned as it flowed through him, racing through him with the blood he'd borrowed from the maid. It was a rare thing to see a vampire drunk from what Spike understood. Angelus had tried many a time, to remember the old day, but he'd never managed quite as thoroughly as Spike managed to.
Being drunk from liquor was an ailment of the living body and mind, though vampires were often effected if they drained a drunk, and to experience it was a sign of…humanity. Weakness. Hiding away from the real world in the bottom of a bottle…
Real vampires wouldn't have cared. They would have found a new vamp to spend a few centuries with, perhaps made a few minions and fucked until the one who was left was forgotten.
Oh, but not him.
His Princess was off somewhere with that damn demon, doing god only knew what and it was nothing but a little game to her. She didn't care how often Spike drank himself silly because that was part of it. With every drink he took he was reminded that he was weak.
Worthless. Undeserving. Far too human and caring. As often as he tried to be 'Spike' for her, she loved to make sure he knew he was still William on the inside. Pale, blind, naïve William, a poetry spouting heart broken fool.
He could torture every human and destroy every slayer but she'd always know who he really was. She constantly wanted him to prove that he was worthy by dragging her back by the hair and chaining her up in the dungeon until she learned to be a good girl.
A temporary fix.
He tilted Jack back for another taste, another swallow to chase the thoughts away but found only a drop to grace his tongue. He groaned, bottle falling from his fingers, and turned to drop the short distance to the roof. He glanced down, counting four empty bottles, then slumped towards the door. He was out. Had to go back inside and get more.
This had to stop. He had to make her stay, stop playing this damn game with him. She was all he had and he was all she had and it was time she realized that no one was going to do for her what Spike did. She was his Dark Princess. Maybe he wasn't good enough for her, but no one else was either. He'd proven it time and again, but she was just getting worse. Since he'd allied with the slayer for safe passage she'd been treating him…well, even more unworthy than before.
She blamed him for taking her Daddy away. He'd let him emotions to get in his way and he'd failed her and their sire. He didn't care. While betraying Angelus wasn't the highlight of his afterlife, he couldn't bring himself to give a damn about the brooding soul or the insane demon that had taken the place of the man who'd taught him just about everything he knew.
If the real Angelus ever returned he'd have something to answer for, but not a moment until then.
He pushed his door open and slunk inside of the suite, letting the door shut after him. He blinked bleary eyes and started towards the phone. He had to order more bottles, at least until he'd decided Dru had enough time to play and he went to find her.
He stumbled, tripping over his duster. He hit the ground and glared at the offending piece of leather balefully. Damn thing. How had it gotten on the floor anyway, he usually put it up what with it being one of the few things to follow him form place to place beyond Dru's doll collection.
He sighed, pulling the coat towards him. He dug through the pocket, in searching of his smokes, when his fingers touched a piece of crumpled paper he didn't recall putting there. He pulled it out and unfolded it to get a decent look. His Princess' handwriting flew across the page, starting in the top corner and slowly declining as it went, as if she's tried to write straight but hadn't done a good job.
'Mommy's soul belongs to her special boy, always. In Mommy's Kitten and Dark Trees, where Mommy's Daddy's soul reigns, is Mommy's soul, waiting to be called.'
Spike blinked. She couldn't even write coherently. He stared, trying to puzzle it out. Mommy…Dru obviously, making Spike her special boy. She'd made a vamp or two, but never a Childe besides Spike. Some stuff about cats and trees and Angelus…or, Angel as the soul preferred.
Where his soul reigned…
Sunnyhell.
Spike was suddenly reminded of those cartoons, where a light bulb came on over a characters head when they had an idea.
Dru was saying her soul belonged to Spike and to get it he needed to go to Sunnyhell and…call it.
Which didn't make sense. Dru didn't have a soul…but it was inside of her. Spike could always feel parts of William, around the edges screaming and clawing to be set free. Not much of him, time had forced most of 'William' away, but parts. So he just had to call what was inside and…do something with it. Bind it to him maybe…
Sure, why not. It'd call for some mojo, not Spike's strongest area, but he could rustle up a witch or two. Like the Slayer's friend she'd put the soul spell on Angelus, surely a simple binding spell would be easy for her. He'd get the spell stuff ahead of time to cut down on Slayer interference, lock the girl up…grab that useless goof she hung around with as leverage and make her do the spell. He'd bind Drusilla's soul to him and then she'd have to stop her wicked little games.
It was brilliant.
Now the Slayer's witchy friend…what was her name. Wil something, he recalled that much…Wilma? Willimina? No that wasn't it.
His eyes drifted back to the paper, eyes lighting on words 'Dark Trees'.
Trees.
He smirked. Willow. Right then. To the Hellmouth it was, and this time he'd do things right. He'd play Drusilla's little game again, since this was clearly just part of it, and see what she had in mind. Probably not what he intended, but she should have known better.
He wasn't her Special Boy for no reason after all and if this was what it took to show her that then so be it.
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Xander awoke with a breathless gasp, eyes darting around his bedroom in confusion. His heart was beating in his chest so hard that it was a wonder it didn't escape his ribcage. He was sweating, sheets clinging to his damp skin.
He'd just had the ultimate in weirdass dreams. It'd been like…Alice in Wonderland on some serious crack or something like that. …Well, more crack. Or was it opium? Not that it mattered; the point was he was losing his mind in a very colorful fashion.
It had been in the school library and started with a tree turning in a bright red fairy while angels with black wings hacked the books to shreds. A wolf had played a violin while a snake quoted poetry at two Xanders and stars danced in the background.
It'd been whacked out and not something he cared to revisit. This was the last time he let the girls talk him into eating ice cream at midnight. Clearly it caused some kind of weird mind-altering side effects. He bet it was that honey ice cream that Buffy had talked him into eating. Ice cream wasn't supposed to be that shade of hyper yellow and as much as he liked chocolate it shouldn't be combined with honey flavored things. It didn't do nice things to his brain.
He sighed, rolling onto his side, resolutely ignoring the stab of pain that went up his side. He had a nasty bruise forming, working its way across his ribs and down to his stomach. It hurt something awful. He wasn't sure if it was from flying into that gravestone the night before, being punched by a Quastex demon or getting in his father's way before bed.
Maybe a mixture of all three. Didn't really matter. Another few months and he'd be away from his parents and then he'd only have the supernatural type baddies to worry about.
Well that and the homosexual tendencies that kept creeping up on him. He blamed Oz for those actually. If not for the stupid werewolf and his stupid…werewolf urges Xander would still be happily oblivious to all of the strange homoerotic thoughts that floated around in his mind.
…or at least he could pretend he was. Somehow those Angel-fantasies had been easier to deny before now. Probably because they'd been sick and disgusting where as thoughts about Oz could easily be mistaken as pleasant. Which they weren't.
He should be thinking about Cordelia or Willow, not dreading seeing his girlfriend and…using his best friend. Willow was so stressed out of the 'fluke' that she seemed to be falling apart at the seams and it was Xander's fault. He'd kissed her, hoping to feel…something. A spark, kind of like with Cordy, but he'd felt nothing.
He didn't even feel the spark with Cordelia anymore. Truthfully he was beginning to think the spark was less about her and more about her attitude. The way she took charge and was always in control of things around her did funny things to Xander's stomach, not to mention other more sensitive areas of his anatomy. Kissing her and having her command the kiss had been part of the thrill for him and now even that was questionable.
Now that they were out in the open she was less forceful and…Xander didn't feel the way he once had about her.
He'd been hoping that kissing Willow, who was perfect for him in just about every way, would do something for him so he could go back to convincing himself that girls were wonderful and sexy but it hadn't done it. All he'd done really was put Willow on the road to a nervous breakdown.
Not exactly best friend type actions on his part.
He blamed desperation. Oh, and Oz, couldn't forget that. It was most assuredly his fault.
Two full moons ago Xander had gotten Oz-duty and when the sun had risen he had, after wandering out to score some cream and jelly filled fried pastry goodness, opened the cage to give him some clothes and whatnot. He doubted he would ever forget Oz, perfectly human, with that unnatural amber glow to his eyes.
Before he could even ask if he was okay Oz had tackled him and he'd been pretty sure he was about to die. He wasn't sure how Oz was going to kill him, but he was pretty sure it was going to happen and Xander would just let it.
Oz had looked at him, eyes glowing, before crushing their lips together. The feeling had gone right past Cordy-sparakge to Icy-cold, White-hot, Mind-numbing, and Heart-racing. Oz, while not the biggest guy in the world, was surprising strong and had held Xander successfully pinned to the floor with his body, hips grinding against him, while his hands roamed and did positively evil things to Xander's body.
He remembered his mind going foggy and his body limp. Oz's tongue had wormed it's way past his lips and licked over the roof of his mouth. Blunt nails had dug into his hips and raked lines down his chest and he'd moaned, arching up. He'd been shaking, never feeling so…hot in his entire life.
The moment had been effectively ruined by Giles. One minute Oz had been there and the next Xander was on the floor, hard and alone, while Giles all but tossed the werewolf back into his 'cage'. Xander had been sent home, once Giles was satisfied that he wasn't bleeding, and Oz had kind of apologized later.
Really it'd been more of a shrug, smirk, and 'the wolf likes you' than an actual 'I'm sorry I just rocked your entire world on it's axis by making you unable to live in your happy denial place anymore because my demon felt like humping you in the middle of the library' type of thing but it was Oz and so Xander was willing to let it slide.
So much so that he was hoping that should Oz ever find out about the 'fluke-age' he'd be willing to overlook it and not gut Xander like a pig.
…only not like a pig, because bad flashback there. He had enough problems without bringing up past possessions. Weird dreams, using his best friend, useless parents, gayness…
He did not need anymore issues.
TBC in Chapter Two: Another Fluke, which is already in the works. Review please, makes me feel all warm and tingly. Oh, BTW, I could use a beta so if anyone is wiling to offer…