~*-*~

Angel had no choice but ignore the ache that reverberated up his side. He moved out of the way in order to grab the first weapon that came to hand. Or second weapon, as the first was a telephone, and a telephone is hardly a useful weapon when it comes to enraged vampires.

Angel's hand descended upon a rapier. Not the best thing to use, but he didn't have time to be choosy. Spike was furious. He was furious and he had a sword. That meant Angel was in trouble.

The two of them continued to duel it out, becoming increasingly tired as they fought. Spike found the anger exhausting meanwhile Angel was fuelled by natural self-preservation. Under normal circumstances, Angel would have despatched Spike a while back due to his life-long proficiency with weaponry, but he was injured. Spike was capitalising on this as he eventually had Angel on the floor backed up against the stairs, the tip of the sword poised directly at Angel's throat.

Angel ceased all movement. He glanced between the glinting metal and the rage in Spike's eyes.

"Spike, come on now, you don't want to do this."

Spike raised an eyebrow clearly showing that he was fully prepared to thrust straight forward.

"Put the sword down and let's just sleep it off."

Angel wouldn't go as far as pleading, but he was getting close to needing to. There was one way left to go: exploiting weaknesses. It wouldn't be a true win for Spike if he killed now. Angel knew this.

"I'm weak."

A short flicker moved over Spike's face, and Angel noticed. Angel realised that it was working and continued.

"You know you don't want to fight me like this. It's not fair."

Spike locked his jaw, closed his eyes and frowned. With a gulp that swallowed enough of his rage, he threw his weapon to the ground with a mighty crash and stared at his sire with a look of pure hatred.

"God I hate you."

Upon saying that Spike thundered up the stairs and slammed the door to his room leaving Angel running his hand over his face in both relief and anger. Relief that he wasn't blowing in the wind, but also anger aimed at himself. Once again his mouth had landed him in trouble with Spike, who was likely to be miserable upstairs. He'd messed up. And now he had to fix it. Angel grabbed his coat and headed out quickly. The day was dawning, and he didn't have much time. Angel took the sewers just in case, heading slightly southwest. He needed to buy something.

About an hour had passed when Angel returned. It was still too early for anyone to awake, and even Wesley had finished up and gone to sleep. Angel obtained some objects from the makeshift kitchen area, spent a while in the study, and then headed upstairs to Spike's door.

"Spike?"

Angel received a groan from inside.

"Go away!"

At least Spike hadn't gone to sleep yet, that was a plus for Angel.

"Come on Spike, don't be like that. I said I was sorry!"

No reply. Angel put his bag down next to the door, and tried the handle. Locked. Damn.

"Look, I said something that I shouldn't have and I really didn't want to hurt you."

Angel closed his eyes and thought back.

"Not anymore."

He knocked on the door again, still trying to get some response. Angel knew there would be no good in breaking down the door, as it would isolate them further for the week.

"Spike?"

Nothing was heard yet again.

"Don't give me the silent treatment. Open the door."

Angel was somewhat impressed however as the two had not had an argument in two days. Which was undoubtedly a record.

"Spike, I understand you're angry but we're not going to solve anything if you just stay in your room and sulk. Are you still there?"

Silence.

"I *really* don't like the silent treatment."

Silence.

"Could you at least make some sort of noise so that I know you're not dusty in there?"

Thump.

"Thank you."

Angel breathed a sigh of relief. He knew he had to coax Spike out of his room some way or another, and all he needed was a little bit of diplomacy. It would take some work, but Angel knew that he couldn't just let him stay angry. This called for desperate measures.

"I brought presents."

"What presents?"

Angel silently jumped. Progress was good.

"Nice ones."

"Are they pointy and can be used to impale sires who are cruel?"

Angel's excitement was dampened by this comment.

"Not exactly."

"Then piss off."

Crap. No progress. Angel was not happy at all.

"Would you just open the damned door? I've got one teenager. Don't really want to handle a second one."

Jackpot. Spike could not avoid that insult and yanked the door open to attest his innocence.

"I am not a teenager."

Angel smiled. He'd won. Some people would accuse him of being smug. They would be right. Spike on the other hand was not really all too happy about losing the stalemate. In future he would both tie himself up and place a secure gag around his mouth, that way he could win a fight using the silent treatment. Provided of course that it can be considered winning whilst being bound tightly. As a vampire, Spike would naturally say that it very possible to be happy whilst tied and gagged...

"At least I got you to open the door."

Spike pouted. He looked so cute when he pouted.

"What's the gift?"

Angel delved into the bag that he had placed next to the door and held out his gift. It was a book. Leather-bound and soft to touch. Spike untied the string that acted as a lock and flicked through the blank pages. New diary.

"I noticed you'd finished the last one."

Spike smiled. He continued to inspect the present as a page fell out. But the book wasn't falling apart, it was something that had been inserted. It was the real gift. Spike opened up the folded piece of paper to discover the intricate pencil sketching inside.

Drusilla.

Spike carefully took the paper, taking gentle care not to smudge the image of his goddess. He stared at the ageless beauty of his sire, captured perfectly on paper by Angel. Spike's finger traced slowly over her face, taking a moment over her turned up lips, as he contemplated the deadly fangs that lay behind that mischievous smile of hers. Even in the flatness of the sheet, the two-tone drawing shone, and her eyes sparkled. That little glimmer of knowledge and lucidity was there in her eyes that seemed to say that despite all she'd been through, and however insane she may appear, she knew and saw all. Her hair wasn't straight as he'd last seen her, but tied back and tightly curled, perfectly coiffed the way that Darla would have spent ages on. And there she sat, smiling and staring out of the picture, straight into Spike's heart. She was beautiful.

Spike could see the care Angel had taken over this, and knew why he did it. A mere image, but a representation of an area of Angel's guilt. And in giving it to Spike, he was giving his possession of Drusilla and their family hierarchy away. It wasn't an apology for the argument. It was an apology for the past hundred years.

"It's gorgeous."

Spike's love for Dru still remained, there was no doubt about that.

"Yeah, well it's my way of saying sorry."

Neither spoke of the diary. It wasn't necessary. The diary wasn't the apology, the drawing was. Spike and Angel both understood each other in a strange way where clarification was never needed. It was an underlying connection that a century apart could never come close to breaking.

"I also got you this."

Angel pulled out an extra large tub along with two spoons, the tub emblazoned with the Haagen-Dazs emblem. Spike couldn't help but grin. The advice had been taken to heart. Spike grabbed a spoon and opened his door wider to indicate Angel's permission to enter. After placing his new book on the side table, Spike leapt upon his bed with Angel close behind. Ripping the lid off as quickly as possible (which had been clearly opened before, and Spike did notice), both vampires grinned as they dipped their spoons into the strawberry and vanilla goodness. After swallowing a portion of the ice cream, Spike frowned and stared up at his sire.

"It's not really strawberry swirl is it?"

Angel grinned. He'd been found out.

"Well you know. Strawberry, blood. It's all the same right?"

They both had to laugh. Laughed so much in fact that Angel's ice-cream laden spoon missed his mouth placing a red and white streaked mark on his cheek. Which in turn made him laugh even more. Spike didn't laugh. Instead he dropped yet more of the frozen dessert on Angel's front.

"Spike..."

Uh oh. Bad move.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I mess up your shirt?"

Angel's face didn't lighten up. Spike dropped his cheeky attitude for a moment, until Angel pulled out a full spoon and lobbed it straight onto his face.

"You bastard!"

"You did it to me remember?!"

It was too late for explanations now. Both were fighting each other with ice cream bombs first thing in the morning, using their spoons as catapults and Spike's pillows as shields. After a while they had plain given up on spoons. Angel went hand-first into the thawing tub, meanwhile Spike just smeared vanilla ice cream straight into Angel's hair, a sure fire way to piss him off. Strangely enough it didn't piss them off. They were laughing. They were laughing and coated in vanilla and blood. Once they had realised exactly what they were doing, they paused.

"Were we just attacking each other... with ice cream?"

"More so than anything else Peaches."

"Huh."

They lay there for a while contemplating why they had been suddenly possessed, the ice cream slowly melting and dripping off onto Spike's bed. Angel sat up for a moment upon remembering how they'd managed to get into such a situation in the first place.

"Am I forgiven now?"

Spike licked off the back of his hand and grinned.

"We're cool."

The two of them were somewhat calmer now. They'd had an argument, and then made up again, so now they were all right with one another. But knowing them, only for the next few hours. Together they slept peacefully and sugar-coated. Later that day however Angel woke up to a strange sensation that he had to ask Spike about.

"Spike?"

"Yeah?"

"Why are you licking my legs?"

~*-*~


Author's Note: Grrr... I was hoping to update this earlier this week, but then my modem went down. I finally got it back today, but I'm still annoyed. Sigh.

x: See?! Full chapter! And Jewel, the exams went GREAT! Like actually GREAT! I've never felt so happy about an exam before. Only two left and I'm finished! [Sabrina style] Woo Hoo!