Wonderful

By: Celtic Fang

Disclaimer: I don't own Cowboy Bebop. I don't even own the episodes of Bebop I've seen. I have to rent them. ^^;

Warnings: Some cursing but no more lemon, just lime. :( It's okay though. Hopefully this story can still be good. We'll see anyway, won't we? ^^;

A/N: Well y'all, I can't say that I agree with the direction that FFN has taken, then again I can't really argue. People were getting a little crazy with their lemons and they were very accessible to the underage. Then again, authors should not be blamed for the irresponsible actions of some children and I think it would have been in the better interests of the parents to 1) monitor the net time of their kids more carefully if they were so worried and 2) to cease coming to FFN instead of punishing us because they were offended. Anyway, sorry for that little speech, but like I said, I don't really agree. Anyway, I was forced to rewrite my story, and so, here is chapter one, revised with no lemon. ::sniff:: Oh the pain . . .



Chapter One:

Temporary Insanity



"You're too tense. You need to relax a little bit."

Faye Valentine glared up at Spike Spiegle and sighed in frustration. "So what, genius? You want me to run at a guy with hands limper than the noodles Jet made for dinner last night? Yeah, that'll get the job done."

He glared down at her as well. "I didn't say 'limp', I said 'relax'."

"And there's a difference?"

"Yeah, Faye, actually there is. Limp implies disorder or 'messiness'. I don't fight messy. I fight fluid."

She nodded. "Oh." She said sarcastically. "It's all clear now. I'm supposed to be fluid, not limp."

"Right."

She held her clenched hands in front of her face and worked to make them less . . . clenched. It didn't work.

"How the hell am I supposed to do that? Fluid not limp my ass. That's impossible!"

"I can do it." Spike said, his voice laced with amusement at her predicament.

"Well excuse me, but we can't all be like Mr. Spike Spiegel Perfect!"

He glanced down at her with a raised eyebrow. "You think I'm perfect."

She growled up at him. "I never said that. I was being sarcastic."

The look in his eyes said that he didn't believe her. She sighed again.

"Why are we even doing this?" She asked, crossing her arms over her chest and leveling him with one of her specialty, I'm-completely-fed-up-and-it's-all-your-fault looks. "I can defend myself."

Spike held out both hands in front of his body in an 'I surrender' gesture and shook his head.

"Hey, don't look at me like that. It's not like this was my idea. Jet just figured you'd screw up less if you didn't rely so much on that gun of yours and got proper training."

"Who said I didn't get proper training?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

His own lifted in a high arc.

"Why, my dear, I believe it was you. You were bragging one day and announced to the entire crew that you had taught yourself to fight."

She couldn't really argue, and they both knew it. But they also both knew she wouldn't give up. She didn't like this whole tutoring session idea and when Faye didn't like something, she voiced her opinion. Loudly.

"And I suppose that you are the one who is to teach me to fight so that I don't rely on that damned gun of mine?" She inquired.

"Like I said, Jet's idea. Not mine. He thinks you'd be better off if you could fight even a little bit like I do."

"So he wants me to, what, become a kung-fu fighting ballerina like you?"

"I resent that." He muttered.

She rolled her eyes. "So, men are idiots and babies. Go figure." She put both hands behind her neck, lacing her fingers to cup the back of her head, and raised her eyebrows at him. "Okay then. You're the expert fluid boy. Tell me how I'm supposed to do this."

He glared at her and sighed. "You're right. It's not that easy. Most people naturally tense up when attacking. Which is why being fluid in your movements can give you an advantage. They're tense, you're calm. They attack you with excessive force and you control that force through fluid motion. To do this you need to relax your body so that it reacts without resistance. Without thought."

Faye dropped her hands and stared at Spike with wide eyes. There was something in the way he'd explained it that made his words seem poetic. Like . . . She didn't really know what they were like. They were just beautiful. In a Spike Spiegel sort of way anyway. Still, no matter how beautiful the words sounded, she still didn't get it. And she told him so.

He rolled his eyes. "What do you mean you still don't get it? I just explained it didn't I?"

"Well, yeah. But stuff like this is easy to you. I'm not fluid or anything like that. When I fight, it's not with the thought 'don't think, be fluid' floating around in my head. The thought's more like 'kill or be killed'."

He frowned at her in confusion.

"What?"

She blushed and rubbed the back of her neck. "Well, it's kind of hard to explain."

"Try me."

She snorted.

"No thank you. You wouldn't understand anyway."

He leveled her with a hard stare. She sighed.

"Okay fine. The short of it is, I only fight well when my survival instinct kicks in. Until that happens, I can't . . . do much. But it doesn't matter. Like I said. I can defend myself."

He continued to stare at her until she got uncomfortable and fidgeted.

"Come on Spike, it's pointless. I'm hard and rough with all jagged edges, there's no way I can be fluid."

He sighed and shook his head but reached down and took his shirt off. For a second all Faye could do was stare in awe at his body, but then she looked up at him and frowned.

"What's this about?" She asked.

"Attack me." He said.

She laughed.

"What?"

He rolled his eyes.

"Attack me." He repeated slowly, sounding out every syllable.

She shook her head.

"Oh no. No way am I fighting with . . ."

Her sentence was interrupted by an uppercut punch that connected soundly with her jaw. She almost forgot to roll with it, but did. Unfortunately, it was no sissy punch and she went flying backward a few feet, landing unceremoniously on her butt.

"What the hell was that for?" She asked angrily, standing up and glaring at him.

His lips were turned up in a crooked smile as he bounced up and down on the balls of his feet.

"You won't attack me so I'll attack you. Maybe if you're lucky that survival instinct will kick in."

She crossed her arms over her chest.

"This is bullshit Spike. What the hell's the . . ."

Again he interrupted her sentence, this time with a feigned punch directed at her face. She didn't realize it was a feint until she felt all the air rush from her lungs and realized he'd hit her in the stomach instead. It took her a moment to catch her breath. In fact, she never really got a chance to. Because two seconds later she sensed his foot coming in from the right.

She could practically feel someone else take over her body and she rolled to the left and to her feet. Her chest heaved underneath the white t-shirt she wore as she gasped for breath and crouched into a stance that better prepared her his next attack. She felt, more than saw it coming, and dodged, her fist flying in the direction of his solar plexus.

He blocked, grabbing her wrist and attempting to twist it. She took that opportunity to sweep his legs out from underneath him with one of her own and jumped back the minute his grip loosened. He bounced back from the ground before she could even think of what to do next, which left her grasping at all the attacks she knew.

They stared at each other for a moment, both of them contemplating what to do and what would be done next. A split second later Spike came at her. For being fluid, she found his attack pretty easy to see through and sidestepped him, bring her leg up and around, her heel heading for his temple.

She thought she'd won. Which was, perhaps, too much to wish for. Because in the next moment she was on her back and staring up into Spike's russet eyes.

"You held back." She managed to get out.

He sat next to her and shrugged.

"It was an assessment test. Besides," he said with a sidelong glance and a grin. "I didn't want to kill you."

She growled low in her throat and launched herself at him with a cry.

"You son of a . . ."

"Now, now Faye." Spike said, catching her deftly in his arms and rolling her back onto her back. "You should really watch the language."

"Like hell I will." She told him. "I can't believe you went easy on me!"

He looked down at her, amused but serious at the same time.

"I just wanted to know about your little survival instinct." He said. "But you aren't as bad as Jet makes you out to be."

She rolled her eyes.

"He's just mad because Cal beat me that one time and robbed him of such a talented partner."

Spike sat up with a sigh.

"Right. Cal."

Faye sat up, her eyebrows raised.

"If I didn't know better, I'd think I heard the great, aloof and detached Spike sound a little resentful. Well, aloof unless you utter certain names."

"Now who's resentful?"

She rolled her eyes.

"Why should I be resentful? It's not like they had anything that I don't."

He looked at her, his eyes once again glinting with amusement. She frowned.

"Don't look at me like that."

"Why?"

"Because."

"Give me a reason." He told her.

"Or what?"

His smile turned decidedly mischievous.

"Or maybe I'll torture you to get it out of you."

And then Spike did something completely uncharacteristic. He *tickled* Faye. She squealed and started cursing at the top of her lungs.

"Shit! Knock it off Spike! Come on! This is not fucking funny okay?"

But he didn't stop until she stopped yelling and instead laughed loudly and pushed vainly at his hands. Eventually she knocked his arm out from beneath him and he fell on top of her. She was still laughing, although he could see her eyes glinting slightly, almost in fascination.

"What was that about?" She asked.

He shrugged, smiling slightly.

"I don't know."

"It was definitely different."

"Yeah."

She cocked her head to the side.

"I think I liked it." She admitted, almost silently.

He didn't answer. He just stared down at her, the smile disappearing and his eyes darkening. It was then she realized that her arms were around him, holding him against her. She blushed and was about to let him go when he captured her lips with his.



~*~



Spike didn't know what the hell he was doing. Well, not entirely true. He was kissing. But it was the person he was kissing that confused him. Because his lips were pressed against Faye Valentine's. And he didn't know why he was doing it.

He could remember his pleasant surprise when they'd fought. His amazement that she could fight the way she did. Especially considering her clumsy tendencies and the fact that she could never seem to stay on her feet whenever Ein was lying on the ground somewhere. He'd wanted to laugh at the way her fighting style reflected her rash, quick thinking and temperamental nature. He hadn't been able to hide his amusement at her indignation because he'd gone easy on her.

But the thoughts . . . he'd looked at her lying on the floor flushed, her eyes glittering with anger and her chest rising quickly in cadence to her breathing and he'd thought she was beautiful. More beautiful than he'd ever seen her. He'd wanted to shake his head the minute that thought popped into his head. Faye? The tomboyish woman with attitude? The bane of his life and the biggest annoyance he'd ever had to deal with on a day to day basis beautiful? Was he going insane?

Well, considering the fact that he was freaking *kissing* her than yeah he was insane. He was completely certifiable.



~*~



What were they doing? It was insane. It was impossible. It was wonderful. It was so right. Faye didn't know what had happened, but one moment Spike was looking down at her, just staring, and the next he was kissing her. And she'd never felt anything so wonderful.

She felt his tongue glide slowly across her lips and she opened her mouth wider to let him in. She gasped and tightened the grip of her hands around his neck. What was he doing to her? She'd never felt this way before. All of her nerves were on fire and heat was pooling in places heat had no business in pooling.

His tongue delved deeper into her mouth, coaxing her own into a dance. She slid her tongue along his hesitantly and was spurned on as Spike's arms around her waist tightened. He tore his lips from hers finally, only to dot hot, wet kisses along her jawbone and then down her throat. She sighed and allowed her head to loll back on her shoulders, allowing him better access to the skin there.

She felt him nip at the area of flesh where her pulse was fluttering wildly and then soothe the spot with his tongue. But then he stopped and leaned up to look down at her. She wasn't sure if he was waiting to see if she was okay with this or not. Frankly she didn't care as long as he didn't stop. And she told him so.

"Don't stop." She told him breathlessly, her eyes practically begging him not quit now.

And he didn't. Only it seemed that when it was over he wished he had. Once they could draw in breaths easier, Spike sat up, pulling Faye with him.

He handed her her clothes and they got dressed in silence. She brushed her sweaty hair out of her eyes and glanced up at him. She didn't like the way he was suddenly looking down at her.

"What?" She asked softly.

"We shouldn't have done that." He said.

She just stared at him. How could he even say that? After what had happened between them just minutes before? How could he?

"I'm sorry, it won't happen again."

"But I want it to happen again!" Fay cried. "That was . . . God that was fucking incredible! I never imagined it could . . . that I . . . that you could . . . I just never thought it could be that way between two people. Don't you feel that way?"

He shook his head. "No Faye. It was sex. Chalk this whole night up to nothing more than temporary insanity but remember, it was just sex. Nothing more. Nothing less. Just meaningless sex."

She winched, wanting to ask him how he could say that, but the look in his eyes spelled it out for her. Julia.

"She's dead Spike." She whispered softly. "Just like you almost were. Just like Vicious is. Let it go! Why can't you fucking let it go?"

He stared down at her for a moment before turning to leave. "I don't know what you're talking about." He said on his way out. "They'll never die. They'll always haunt me, even in my dreams."

Faye watched him walk out before sinking to the floor, a tear slipping down her cheek.

"Damn you Julia." She whispered. "Damn you Vicious." And then louder. "Damn you Spike Spiegel. How dare you make me love you like this, huh? How dare you?"

And then she couldn't hold it in anymore and the floodgates opened, and she cried and cried until she fell asleep.

She didn't notice it when Spike carried her back to her own room. And she didn't hear his uttered apology or his nearly silent confession of love. She just slept on, and when he turned to leave her room, she didn't hear him say . . .

Sweet Dreams Space Cowgirl

A/N: Aargh!!! It sucks doesn't it? Oh the OOCness. I don't know what possessed me! Hmm. . . maybe I should just chalk it all up to temporary insanity. :p Well even if it's the crappiest story ever written, I'm posting it anyway. I love this story too much to be beaten by some stupid new policy. ^.~ Those of you who remember where this story left off will be happy to know that I finished the chapter after that. I've got one more left. But I need to get rid of the other lemon, which shouldn't be too hard, before the rest of this story goes up. Please R&R. I love you all! ^.^ Oh, and the rest of the story shouldn't change as drastically as this one did. But I had to rewrite it so that it stuck pretty close to the original but without the detailed sex scene. Don't know how I did though. ^^;