You're so beautiful to look at

When you cry

Freeze

Don't move

You've been chosen as an extra

In the movie adaptation

Of the sequel to your life



Glance

Don't stare

Soon you're being told to recognize

Your errors

No

Not me

I'm an island of such great complexity



She cried for the son of a bitch. She stayed by his side and said prayers for him and swooned when he was close enough for her to smell.



Of course he watched her totally oblivious to this. She was ragged and wet from crying and thinking and reading. Her lipstick was gone and her eye makeup was almost everywhere except on her eyes. She was twisted in all different directions on top of the letters strewn across her mattress. She needed the sleep. What a day she's had.



Spike stood in the doorway with a cup of coffee burning between his palms. He brought it to his lips and took several scalding gulps, finishing it off sooner than he had wanted. He set the mug down on the ground outside of the door and pushed his hands in his pockets, wondering why he was still standing here like this looking at her.



Well, son of a bitch.



He liked looking at her.



Shocks of something moved through him when he watched her sleeping. He had been certain that it was just a weakness. He liked watching women sleep. They were so much less dangerous when they slept.



Like cats.



He couldn't believe what he was about to do.



He crossed the room in two strides, hunching over her with his hands still in his pockets. He bent as far over her as he could without hurting himself. His ribs burned and shifted inside him and the knife wound in his shoulder stretched in an awkward, painful way. He brought his hands from his pockets and brushed some hair from her face and back over her ear. When his skin brushed her just below her ear as he was bringing his hand back to his side, he blinked furiously. His breathing became shallow and crisp and the air bit his lungs.



His tongue poked out of his mouth and wet his lips. He touched her cheek with the very tip of his nose.



No.



He straightened up and left the room.



Son of a bitch.