Title: Sun and Shadow
Section: Los Angeles I
Part: Three -- Five Words
Author: Arsahi
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer is property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. Angel the Series belongs to Joss Whedon, David Greenwalt, and Mutant Enemy.
Distribution: Eh...gonna be stingy this time and say ask first. You can find my email address on my author profile.
Dedication: The normal people, you know who you are.
Rated: This part is rated PG-13.
Pairings: Ugh! Too many to name!
Notes: This is my first crossover, folks. Be warned.
Timeframe: Post-Gone for BtVS and post-Dad for Angel.
Notes: This part is fairly interludely. As in you can skip this part and head on over to part four. If you haven't seen season five, go ahead and read this part. It will catch you up on what happened, Buffy/Spike-wise.

~*~ 3/Five Words ~*~

Angel, newly restored permanent soul, wandered the halls of the Hyperion in search of Spike. It had been eight days since his arrival, going on the the ninth night. Angel had expected Spike to high-tail it out of there as soon as he could, but instead he found Cordelia and Spike playing with Connor in the lobby at times. Spike also pitched in whenever he could, whether it was a walk=in case, a vision, or simply helping clean up everyone or all the weapons after a particularly gruesome battle, or helping dispose of demon remains. At night, Angel could hear Spike muttering to himself about the people in Sunnydale drunkenly in the wee hours of the morning since his room was right underneath Angel's. Spike was such a walking contradiction, it was hard to tell when the vampire sincerely meant something or was telling a lie with a straight face. Which brough Angel to his current situation: why was Spike there? What did he want?
He found spike playing with Fred and Connor. Angel saw the fragile friendship forming between the two and was glad Fred didn't mind Spike as much as the others. Wesley didn't particularly care for Spike, in the sense that he could barely look at the vampire without flinching. Gunn didn't mind him, but didn't always want to hang out with him. Cordelia tried a little too hard to be his friend, in the process pushing the blond vampire away. It was as if seeing Spike brought out the Queen C lurking in the depths of Cordelia's Los Angeles heart, almost as if she felt compelled to bring out the popularly snotty rich girl infect Angel's mate. Funny how he began to think of Cordelia Chase as his mate ever since the Conduit had proclaimed he so. He didn't doubt what he felt anymore now.
"Spike?" Angel asked softly, hating to interrupt the bonding time. The platinum blond turned and trained his ice blue eyes on Angel. "Can I speak with you a minute?" he glanced at Fred and Connor. "Alone?"
Spike leaned over and kissed Connor on the forehead and ruffled Fred's hair, "Be righ' back," and walked over to Angel. "Wha's up, Soul Boy?"
"I should be asking you that," Angel looked his grand-childe in the eye. "What's your deal, Spike? You show up on my doorstep more than a week ago and you haven't left except to get totally plastered at some random bar--"
"Y Seres," he said.
"What now?" Angel cocked an eyebrow at him.
"Y Seres. Not some random bar. El Demonios y Seres Humanos, or Y Seres. That Lorne bloke's cousin, Landok, owns it," Spike shrugged.
"Whatever. You haven't left except to get plastered or work on a case or go solve one of Cordy's visions. It's not that I don't appreciate the help, I'm just curious as to why you would come to me for anything. I don't know why you're here, if it's not for money. So, tell me," Angel asked gently.
Spike studied his sire's sire for a moment, then looked back in on Fred and Connor. Connor started bawling.
"Spike!" Fred called. "Spike, help me out here!"
Spike ducked back into the room with a quick smirk to Angel, then proceeded to avoid him for the rest of the night.

Cordelia saw the tenion between Spike and Angel before either of them spoke and decided to get everyone out so Spike and Angel could resolve whatever differences had caused this tension to build. "Fred, Gunn, Wes--I need some help with that thing at my apartment," she said suddenly yet conversationally to the occupants of the room.
Fred looked up from Connor, whom she ad Cordelia were playing with, and gave her a questioning look. Understanding sparked her eyes after a moment.
"Oh right. The thing," Gunn improvised, having caught on. "C'mon English, Fred," he rose from the table. "Let's go help Cordy with the thing."
"Yeah, the thing," Fred accepted Gunn's hand as he hauled her up.
Spike dutifully took Connor, surprising himself with how attached he's come to be to the the little boy. The troop left, leaving Spike, Connor, and Angel to their own devices. Lorne had long since gone to Y Seres to visit with the newly reformed Landok. "The bloody universal 'thing'. The Scooby way of leaving an awkward situation," Spike said, looking at connor but talking as much to the baby as he was himself and Angel. "You'd do well to remember tha', Tyke. Whenever, if you ever, go up t' Sunnydale and see my mates the Scoobies, if they say they have a 'thing', tha' means they're leavin' you alone with someone or they're uncomfy."
"Before you came here, I thought you only associated with children to eat them," Angel piped up.
"So did I," Spike agreed. "Though I haven't eaten a kid in forever. Bu' I like this one for some reason."
"Maybe being up in Sunnydale with Buffy so long made your heart open up," the darker haired man suggested.
Spike averted his eyes to Angel without moving his head. "Pro'ly. Pro'ly takin' care of the Li'l Bit did it to me."
"Spike," Angel crouched near the younger vampire, trying to appear unintimidating. "Just tell me why you're here. Whatever happened, whatever you did--I promise I won't kick you out or dust you or get angry with you or anything."
Spike picked up Connor and promptly left the room. Angel rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache coming on. Whoever said vampires couldn't get headaches was wrong. So he set off insteach of his elusive grand-childe.
The first place he had checked was Connor's side of the room he claimed. Then he checked Spike's room. And, surprise surprise, he found Spike watching Connor sleep on his pillow.
Angel stood in the threshold, not wanting to disturb Spike.
"I'm in love with her," he said, his words pronounced crisply and clearly.
"With who?" Angel asked, not quite comprehending.
"Her. The Slayer. My Buffy," he didn't dare take his eyes from Connor, afraid of seeing an old flame flicker in Angel's eyes.
"Oh," Angel blinked. "Why did you come to me?"
"I'm gettin' there, Peaches, hold your soddin' horses," Spike growled. Angel realized it took a lot for Spike to open up and tell Angel what he wanted to know. "I've been in love with her for a long while now. Almos' a year and a half. God, Angel, when died...I thgouht I had died all over again. I saw her body, Angel, and I saved her every bloody night' for 148 nights," he smoothed the comforter out next to him. "For 148 nights I saw her fall from tha' tower, and for 148 nights I found 148 different ways to save her." Spike's speech had gotten clearer and clearer as he moved into the numb place.
Angel tilted his head to the side. "Did you ever tell her how much you love her?"
"Once," Spike grimaced. "Drusila came back las' year and tried to enlist my help in turning you back into Angelus with Darla. Had to deal with her and Harm while Iwas tellin' her how I felt. Tied 'em both up..."
"Who? Drusilla and Harmony?"
"Dru and buffy. Harm didn't show up until after I tried to dust Dru."
Angel sank down against the doorframe. "Saints preserve us," he muttered, his old Irish accent coming through a little. "So...you had Dru and Buffy tied up and you told Buffy you loved her, then tried to dust Dru and Harmony showed up?"
"Tha's about the gist," Spike nodded.
"Okay. Why'd you do that? Tie Buffy up?" Angel frowned.
"I couldn't get her to bloody listen to me any other way," Spike said defensively.
"So...Buffy rejected you. Then what?" Angel looked at him.
"Had Warren build me a robot of her," Spike looked away, shame-faced.
"I...I think we can skip what you did with the robot," Angel decided.
"Well, Glory kidnapped me 'cause she thought the Buffybot was really Buffy and I was the bloody Key," Spike huffed. "Do you have any idea how painful it is to sit there and be tortured by a bloody hell god when you know who and what it is she's really looking for? For Christ's sake, Angel, I'm not a bloody invalid and the last think I'd do is purposely hurt Buffy and Dawn like that."
"Okay, after Glory kidnapped you, what happened?" Angel pressed. No one had told him these stories before, and he was curious. He'd known Glory had been a psychotic brain-sucking hell god after the Key, formerly Dawn Summers, Buffy's little sister, and that because of Glory Buffy had had to throw herself from a rickity tower to close a portal between all dimensions.
"Buffy and the troops rescued me. They thought I would give up Dawn to Glory," Spike smoother back what little hair Connor had. "By tha' time I was unconcious or so bloody out of it I didn't even know what was going on." He rubbed a spot on his chest at the memory. "In any case, when I came to I was in my crypt. Buffy came in, in the Buffybot's outfit. She asked me wha' happened, and I told her tha' Glory had tried to take the Key. So she offered to go tell Glory who the Key really was. I stopped her an' told her tha' Buffy meant the world to me, and so did Dawn, ultimately, so I'd never hurt either of them or put either of them in danger unless I had to. So Buffy leaned over and kissed me an' thanked me for not giving Dawn up to Glory."
Angel nodded. "Go on."
"So...after tha', Dawn got kidnapped by Glory an' Buffy went to save her..." Spike trailed off, a severely wounded-bird look haunting his eyes. "I could've saved her. There's so many things I could've done to save her. If I had just..."
Angel moved over to the bed and slowly sat down next to him, tentatively rubbing the younger man's back. "Shhh...it's over, she's alive now."
"She wouldn't have had to bloody die in the first place! If I had just...done something..." Spike was taking deep breaths now, trying to keep his voice low to not wake Connor.
"Let's move away from that night," Angel suggested as Spike shoved his arm away. "So, after Buffy came back."
"After Buffy came back, we went through some stuff. A demon came and made us all sing and dance like a bunch of ninnies. After the spell wore off, we had to sing one last song. I left as soon as I had my own free will back, and she followed me out. She sang something about the fire...and she kissed me. Then, later, Willlow cast a spell and we all forgot who we were. The Watcher left as asoon as we remembered, and then Buffy and I made out in the Bronze."
Angel just nodded. Surprisingly, it didn't hurt to hear this. He just felt sorry for Spike. He knew Spike always felt more human emotions than the run-of-the-mill vampire, so he had no doubt of the boy's sincerity. "After that?"
"Well...we...we shagged," Spike whispered, shrugging. "Bloody best thing I've ever done in my unlife. But that was a few days afterwards. And then Buffy turned invisable, and we did it again. Now, don't misunderstand me, she stated all of this. I swore after I told her I was in love with her that I would never take advantage of her."
"I believe you," Angel assured him. He was going to trust Spike's word for one. "So...why did you come to me?"
"She loves me, mate, I know it. I can feel it. Elsewise why would she keep coming back t' me? She just won't admit it. I can feel she loves me. In my...in my heart I feel it," Spike looked Angel in the eye. "And you're the only one I know who can get her. you're the one who can get to admit her feelings."
"I see."
"I know you love someone here. Cordelia?"
Angel's eyebrows twitched at the name and the corners of his mouth twitched as well. Spike had found the ticket.
"So. What are you saying? Why are you here?"
Dammit, he's gonna make me say it, Spike cursed mentally.
"Peaches, I need your help."