You're Gonna Carry That Weight Chapter 8: Twisting the Knife, a cowboy bebop fanfic

You're Gonna Carry That Weight

By Sailor Red

Cowboy Bebop belongs to Bandai ent. / Sunrise inc.

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Chapter 8

Twisting the Knife

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A.N. I must apologize up front for the horrible tardiness of this installment. Besides all of the problems I had with my computer, I also became distracted by a plethora of other things. The most distinct of these distractions was a guy friend of mine thoroughly screwing with my head. Honto ni gomen nasai.

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Spike was back to his normal self. Every aspect of the man Faye had remembered, previous to his accident, had returned. There was a large part of Faye that was overjoyed about this turn of events. However, there was that small, bothersome nagging in the back of her mind that told her that she wasn't completely happy to have Spike back to his old, rude, annoying, uncaring self. Faye had thought that once Spike had gotten back to normal, once everything was again as it should be, she would feel more at ease. This was simply not the case.

She watched Spike and Jet from her leaning position on the wall. She watched them laugh and joke, swinging half smoked cigarettes and sloshing nearly empty beer cans. Spike was searching through the bounty menu for a little fun, and Jet was grinning like a Cheshire cat as he watched Spike's eyes search the monitor.

Everything was getting back to normal.

Faye wanted to scream.

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Faye plopped on her bed, lay down, and stared at the ceiling. She should be happy. She should be dancing in the halls. Spike was okay. Everything was great. Hell, if this were shoujo anime, there'd be some upbeat pop song in the background and cherry blossoms flying through the air. Well, where were those damn flower petals? They should've been around hours ago! Where were the crazy schoolgirls in their sailor outfits, and why weren't they singing about pink sugar and fluffy bunnies? Oh, woohoo and hallelujah, Spike's back to normal.

So why was her heart aching like this?

Maybe it was because all Spike wanted to do was smoke, drink, and look for bounties with Jet. Maybe it was because Spike hadn't so much as nodded to her in the past couple of days. Maybe it was simply because Spike didn't need her anymore, and therefore wasn't giving her the time of day. On that train of thought, maybe it was because Spike was Spike, and that man didn't care about anything, least of all, Faye Valentine.

Faye lit herself a cigarette and then blew the smoke to the ceiling, watching the gray tendrils float upwards and disappear. She wished she could be something as simple as smoke. Smoke could fly carelessly to the sky and then vanish effortlessly. No one cared about smoke, and smoke didn't care about anyone either. Smoke was there, it was tangible, but it didn't matter.

Faye coughed. Oh well. There was a downside to smoke as well.

What the hell was she letting her mind do? It was going in all sorts of odd directions that she didn't like. She was Faye, for Christ's sake! She wasn't supposed to be depressed. She wasn't supposed to be miserable, especially not now!

"Faye! You in there?" Faye shot up in bed, eyes wide. Spike . . .

"Yeah, what do you want?" Spike put his hand to his forehead. What was her problem? He just wanted to . . .

"I'm coming in, hope you're decent." Spike reached for the doorknob, but the door opened before he got a chance to open it himself. Faye glared at him.

"Well?" Faye started speaking in an annoyed tone, but then saw the look in his eyes. Oddly, Spike's eyes seemed somewhat soft. "What do you want?" Her tone had changed considerably, almost to a sound that seemed kind. She stared as Spike shifted almost unnoticeably and awkwardly.

Spike composed himself as much as he possibly could. Why was Faye affecting him? He had purposely avoided her in the last few days to get himself back to normal so that this wouldn't happen. Yet, when she talked like that, he was forced to remember everything she had done for him recently. He was forced to be nagged by that part of him that wanted to hold onto her and never let her go. He mentally shook off his emotions and attempted to put his mask back into position. These weird thoughts were not supposed to be in his head. They were not supposed to bother him.

"Do you want in on the bounty or what? This guy we're after is known to be a pervert, so Jet and I figured . . ." Faye's eyebrow twitched.

"You figured I could get into some sort of smutty outfit and lure him out, huh? Well guess what? I don't need the money that bad."

"It's 1,500,000 woolongs . . . that's a cool 500,000 each, Faye." Faye growled and narrowed her eyes. Shit. That was a lot of cash.

"Fine. When do we leave?"

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Faye had to admit that it felt nice to be bounty hunting with the guys again. This was one aspect of life that she was glad to have at a normal state. It was simple at its core. It didn't matter if Spike was Spike while bounty hunting, as long as no one got killed. They had always subconsciously looked out for each other anyway, and this time would be no different.

Faye calmly walked through the large, intricately carved mahogany doors of the intended building, strolling as suggestively as one could stroll. She swayed her hips subtly with the beat of the music, black healed shoes gliding and occasionally clicking on ivory colored tiles. Her dress, black with deep purple firework sparks, showed off her assets with a corset like top; from her waist, the material flowed to her ankles, yet still showed her shape from a slit from her mid thigh downwards.

Faye lost count of how many heads turned when she walked by, but she nevertheless enjoyed watching jaws drop. She had forgotten how much affect she could have on men when she put her mind to it. She grinned slightly and looked around for her target. From the picture she was given, her bounty wasn't a bad looking man, and therefore, should be easy to spot in this hall, seeing as there were groupies around every decent looking guy in the room. Sure enough, she heard the drunken cat call of her target the second she caught his eye. Faye put on her most seductive smile, walked to the man's table, and leaned over to look him in the eye.

"Hi!" Faye nearly purred. The man smiled evilly and made a move to grab at her. Faye fought with herself to keep from yelling and pulling out her gun then and there, choosing to simply slap his hand 'playfully' and click her tongue. "Now, now, sir. We wouldn't want to rush anything." She smiled mischievously. "After all, foreplay is better done in private." The man's eyes widened. Faye leaned over to whisper in his ear. "If you want, maybe I'll show you all sorts of things later . . ." Faye got up and started to walk off, hearing the man laughing excitedly until she got out of range. She wasn't paying much attention to where she was going and nearly slammed into Spike. He caught her by the shoulder before the impact came.

"You sure you didn't overdo it a little bit back there?" Faye smirked and looked up at the fluffy haired man. He looked almost angry.

"Aw, what? Is Spikey jealous?" Spike growled and released his hand from her shoulder, walking towards the bar. Faye's eyes widened in shock. Whoa. Is Spike jealous? Faye ran up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. "Spike, what the hell is your problem? I'm just doing what you guys asked me to do." Spike rounded on Faye, fire lining his eyes.

"Whatever, Faye. You do what you're doing, but don't ever think for one second that I would be jealous of you flirting with someone. You're nothing to me. The thought of you getting anywhere near me like that makes me want to vomit my entrails into a sewer . . ." Faye could feel tears threatening to start, but she wouldn't let them come. There was no way in hell she'd cry right now. Right now, she just wanted to scream.

"You know what Spike, go to hell! I was joking around with you, like I've always done, and you took it way too seriously." She turned to walk away, but then decided against it, got up in his face, and angrily shouted: "If I mean nothing to you, and if you didn't feel a hint of jealousy back there, then you would not have gotten so upset about my comment. I don't know what the fuck is wrong with you, Spike Spiegel, but you better figure it out. You and Jet can finish up with this bounty by yourselves. I'm going back to the ship." With that, Faye walked briskly out of the room, leaving a wide-eyed Spike staring after her.

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Faye probably shouldn't have pushed her Red Tail so much, but she was angry, and she just wanted to get back to the Bebop as fast as possible. By the time she docked, her little ship was smoking, overheated. She jumped out of it and slammed the door, leaving it as it was. She was sure there would be smoke rising from her if it were a physical capability. Spike was such an idiot! Then again, so was she. If that man had half a brain, he probably realized now that she had feelings towards him. Then again, as she said, he was an idiot, so . . .

She screamed in frustration, grabbed a beer from the fridge, and violently threw herself on the couch. Her eyes squinted in anger. She opened her beer, sighed, and opened her eyes.

She dropped the can when she saw the screen in front of her flickering intensely.

Last seen on Mars, wanted for multiple murders. Dead or Alive. 300,000,000 woolongs. Extremely dangerous. Faye gulped, bile rising in her throat.

Vicious

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Done, done, and done. Next chapter will be out soon. As a matter of fact, I shall start working on it now. I love you, minna. I promise I'll get this story done soon.

Ja.