Disclaimer: I don't own Cowboy Bebop or the movie My Sassy Girl
My Sassy Bebop Girl or Anniversaries
She sat at the bar, slim legs crossed, chin resting on her hand, elbow lazily propped up on the counter. Taking a slow, dreamy drag out of the cigarette butt sticking out of her mouth, the violet haired beauty tapped her glass for a refill and made a quick exhale through her nose, enveloping her face in smoke. She blew it away impatiently.
Faye sipped her liquor, eyes closed deliberately to ignore the rather suggestive stares coming her way, mostly toward her low, yellow tank. Normally she would have raised a sarcastic eyebrow in the direction of those stares and then snort to put them off, but today was not a normal day.
"Shit," she murmured quietly.
Today was the day when Faye would seclude herself, alone with only her thoughts.
Someone grunted next to her. Faye opened an emerald eye and observed as a lanky, greened hair man sat himself next to her and asked for a beer. She opened her other eye to scrutinize this newcomer. Green Hair wore a blue suit and a yellow shirt underneath. He sat slumped but confidant on the stool, eyes lazy but wary, face impassive. His wary eyes caught sight of Faye, his facial expression changed little. Green Hair nodded toward her and turned to his drink, eyes closed almost exhaustedly.
Faye nodded back but kept an eye on him. She liked the look of him, but it wasn't his looks that interested her. It was that innermost darkness in his eyes, something almost like grief. Faye smiled slightly. It looked almost like the same grief she felt now.
"New here?" she asked him politely.
Cold eyes swiveled to her direction. "Yeah," he answered slowly. He took out a cigarette and lighted it. Blowing out smoke rings, he asked, "And who might you be?"
"Name's Faye Valentine," Faye replied.
"Spike Spiegal. Famous throughout the universe," Green Hair said. Here, Spike tilted his head back and poured the contents of his bottle into his throat. Faye watched, impressed eyebrow notched up dryly. When he was finished, Spike clinked the bottle back onto the counter and wiped his mouth.
"You sure can drink, Mr. Spike," Faye remarked.
"Today is a day to drown in. I might as well drown myself in alcohol," Spike told her ambiguously. He raised his hand for another bottle.
"Day to drown in, eh?" Faye smiled thoughtfully. "I couldn't agree more."
Spike took a swig from his newly opened bottle. "Today is a day for memories, memories that I would rather not remember," he said. Then, once again, he threw back his head and drank the contents full.
"Booze doesn't make you forget bad memories, it just distracts you from thinking about them," Faye said with a sigh. "Believe me, I know."
"Oh?" Spike motioned the barman for a different bottle.
"You know the reason why I'm here instead of at my job at the casino?" Faye asked. "Today brings back bad memories for me as well." She dunked the contents of her glass down her throat. Faye smiled almost sadly. "But I'm not going to try to forget. I'm just going to wallow in my pity."
Spike snorted. "Just like all women," he commented.
Faye frowned at that comment but Spike merely took a long drink again. She eyed the increasing empty bottles on the counter. "You do have enough money to pay for all that, do you?"
"Of course," Spike replied. "Yesterday I just turned in a bounty of four million woolongs, an anniversary gift to myself for this day."
"You're a bounty hunter, then?"
"A damn good one." He gave out a dry laugh but it caught him off balance. Spike gripped the bar to stay put. "A toast, Miss Valentine," he suggested suddenly, raising his bottle. "To…" he thought for a moment, "To today," he concluded.
"To today," Faye said as they clinked their drinks. She only took a small mouthful while Spike took a long gulp. He slammed the finished bottle down and yelled at for another.
Faye wondered if she should warn him of how drunk he was now but decided not to. Whatever the guy did was his problem. She raised her glass elegantly for a refill.
For the next few hours, there was silence between the two. Faye coolly sipped at her drink while Spike requested and drowned bottle after bottle. Eventually the bar was covered with amber glass beer bottles.
Faye observed him silently. Her first impression of Spike was right: there was indeed a deep sadness to this lanky man. As Spike drowned himself, his eyes omitted a pained aura, face drooped, back slumped. This was definitely a man who experienced enough sorrow.
After finishing his current bottle, Spike took a deep but ragged breath. His body vibrated uncontrollably. His head fell to the counter with a thump. Spike stayed there, resting, trying to take calm breaths. He moaned and clutched his head.
Amused, Faye asked, "Have you drowned yet?"
Spike turned his head toward her, He blinked his eyes, trying to focus. When he sorted out the millions of Fayes into only two images, he smiled widely. He opened his mouth and drunken laugh erupted from within. It was a rumbling laugh, exaggeratedly loud, and had traces of sobs, existing only for sheer sadness. It was the laugh of an anguished one.
Faye looked at him sadly. She could easily read the sorrow and grief flowing through Spike's continuing laugh. This was a man who walked through life with a cigarette butt dangling from his mouth, but this man didn't come out without scars.
Spike gasped for air as his laugh eventually quieted. He pushed himself up from the counter.
"Faye," he said to her, shifting drunkenly. "I've been drowning for a long time, ever since this same day, one year ago." His head rolled back as he stared toward the sky, eyes closed. "It all comes down to today, Faye, that's all there is to it."
"I think I'd like you if you weren't drunk," Faye remarked to herself.
Another dry laugh. Spike opened his mouth to reply but then cringed. He clutched his stomach and fastened a hand over his mouth but it didn't stop the vomit from entering his mouth. Something wet dripped down his mouth. Eventually he couldn't hold it anymore and Spike violently let it all out. After a few minutes, there was a puddle of unmentionable substances on the floor.
Wiping his mouth, Spike started to chuckle again. Faye shifted uneasily, nose wrinkling at the puddle on the floor.
Loud complaints and yells were hurled at them because of the sight and smell of the vomit.
"Ma'am," the bartender said angrily to Faye. "Would you please care to control your hubby's drinking?"
"What!" Faye yelled, startled at this assumption. "What makes you think-"
"Please, just take him home, ma'am," the bartender said persistently. "Look at him, he's a mess!"
"But…" Faye fought to contain her frustration. "I don't even know him!"
"You should take care of your guy more properly!" a woman to her left said. There were loud agreements.
Faye flicked a glance toward Spike. Well he did look worse for wear. But it wasn't her problem. But the patrons of the bar began to shout louder and more dangerously. There no way to avoid it. Reluctantly, Faye took his arm, yanked him off his stool and half-carried him out of the bar, Spike chuckling to himself the whole way.
"Shit, I'll never be able to show my face in that bar again," Faye muttered to herself. She looked over at the man hanging on her shoulder. "And what the hell am I supposed to do with you?" she asked the drunk man. Sighing, she dragged Spike into her parked ship and flew off to her apartment.
Faye parked her Redtail, neatly switching off the engines. She tapped the sleeping Spike on the shoulder and tugged him out of the ship. Spike followed her into the building and sluggishly entered her apartment. Faye, beginning to regret ever meeting the green haired man, pushed him into the bathroom and shut the door and waited. When he opened the door and promptly fell out, she grumpily picked him up, led him to her bed and pulled the covers over him, where he immediately fell to the depths of his dreams.
After using the bathroom, Faye took a moment to look over her new guest. Spike slept peacefully except for his hand, which gripped the sheets tightly to himself. Shaking her head, Faye walked out the door to the apartment down the hall.
Knocking on the door, a red haired girl answered chirpily with a "Hiya Faye Faye!"
"Yeah, whatever, Ed," Faye said briskly to the hyper computer wiz girl, who was now jumping and giggling. "Listen, Ed, I need to borrow some sheets and a blanket, can you help me here?"
"Ooohhh, getting into trouble aren't we Faye Faye?" Ed said, bouncing up and down.
"No Ed, not that kind of trouble," Faye told her, rolling her eyes. "Just lend me the stuff, okay kid?"
"Sure thing!" Ed cartwheeled into another room while Faye tapped her foot impatiently. Then she looked down with a look of disgust.
"Oh what do you want, Ein?" Faye said irritably to the dog at her feet. Ein wagged his tail nonchalantly and placed a blanket at her feet. Blinking, Faye said, "Oh, thanks."
Ed cart wheeled back with a "Wee!" and dunked a messily folded white sheet in Faye's arms. "There you go, Faye Faye! Have fun!"
"Gr…" Faye growled. She turned around abruptly with only a wagging hand over her shoulder as a sign of thanks. Ed waved cheerily back to her as she walked away.
"Stupid kid," Faye mumbled under her breath as she entered her apartment. She trumped over to the couch in what could probably be called the living room and made up a makeshift bed on the cushion. But just as she was about to settle down to some long awaited sleep there was a knock at the door. Growling dangerously, she yanked open the door, temper only rising as the sight of her landlord met her eyes.
"What the fuck do you want, Jet" she yelled irritably at the man.
Jet raised his mechanical arm to point at her threateningly. "Keep up that attitude and I'll have you booted out of here, Faye," he snarled.
"Huh." Faye glared at her landlord. She knew Jet was only saying that, he would never kick her out of the place. Jet was the father figure of the Bebop apartments, although he didn't let on most of the time. "What do you want?" she asked again.
"Who was that guy you brought into your place?" Jet questioned, eyes glinting.
"Nobody."
"Oh really?" Maybe it was the lack of sleep, but Jet's temper rose. " 'Nobody' huh? Who was that other guy who was nobody too? What was his name? Vicious? That's right. Vicious was nobody too and look how he turned out!" Jet yelled.
Faye's thin brow pinched together and her gaze locked with his dangerously. "Don't talk to me about Vicious, Jet," she growled, fists clenching.
Jet looked at his tenant and glared back. He opened his mouth to reply but froze. He was looking behind her.
Faye turned around and switched her glare over at Spike, who stood several paces behind her. Spike grinned sheepishly at her.
"The yelling woke me up," Spike commented. He glanced at Jet. Eyebrows shot up, mouth parted in a quick bout of surprise. Spike quickly controlled himself and the surprise on his face disappeared.
"Well well," Spike drawled. "If it isn't the Black Dog himself."
Jet stood stock still, shock etched on every scarred angle of his face. "That you Spike?" he breathed.
"The one and only."
Jet sucked in his breath. Then he shook his head. "I should have expected," he mumbled. "I thought you died a year ago, Spike."
"Apparently not." Spike reached into a pocket and flicked a smoke. Lighting it briskly, he said, "You should know that nothing can kill me now."
Jet let out a laugh. "Still arrogant as usual, huh Spike? This should be, what, the second time you died, huh?" he remarked. "What happened to you? You look like you went through gates of hell." His gaze flicked to Faye. "Something going on?"
Spike only took a long drag out of his cancer stick. He did look very ragged. Despite the brightness of his eyes, there were still dark bags under his eyes and his suit was wrinkled. Spike ran a hand distractedly through his messy green hair, blowing out the smoke.
"I have Faye here to thank," Spike said. "I suppose I'll be staying here tonight."
Faye, who was leaning on the doorway, snorted. "If you're such good friends with Jet, why don't you stay with him?" she said dryly. She flicked her eyes up at him. "How do you two know each other anyway?"
"We were partners as bounty hunters," Jet answered. "Then one day Spike took off and died, or so I thought."
It made sense so Faye accepted it. She knew that Jet had indeed at one point been a bounty hunter until for some reason he decided to open an apartment complex, which he called the Bebop for another inexplicable reason. There was a ship somewhere in the complex called the Bebop as well.
She looked over her shoulder at Spike and narrowed her eyes. "I'd like my beauty sleep now. So are you going or not?"
Spike notched up an eyebrow, a smile sarcastically tugging at a corner of his mouth. "Who am I to refuse the hospitality of such a lady as you? Or are you not actually a lady?" The sarcasm was as sweet as honey.
Faye's mouth parted in a snarl. "Good night Jet," she said to her landlord and slammed the door on his face, ignoring his protests. Then she whirled on Spike. "You really have some nerve you jackass," she snarled at Spike. "First you get drunk and then you impose on my house. Fine, go sleep on the bed! It's not as if I'm going to join you! Just make sure you're gone in the morning."
She turned around to stomp huffily back to the couch but a hand gripped her arm. Faye tried to yank her arm back but she could shake off Spike's iron grip. The night was really getting to her and she was extremely tired, Faye did not try to resist. She dropped her arm, hand still holding it, and sighed. "What do you want?" she mumbled wearily.
"Why not join me?" Spike asked somewhat boldly.
Faye looked away. "Please, this isn't a good day. Just-"
But Spike was already drawing her to her bedroom. "Sassy girl aren't you?" he remarked as Faye kicked his ankle in retaliation. But in the end, Faye gave up. Spike was too strong for her.
"Don't get any ideas," Faye warned him as she entered her room. "I just want to sleep."
Spike snorted. Faye frowned. He had only been sleeping for about an hour and Spike seemed unusually sober already.
Spike slipped off his jacket and undid his tie. Stretching out on the bed under the covers, arms crossed under his head, Spike closed his eyes. "I just didn't feel like sleeping alone tonight," he told Faye, voice suddenly serious. "And I don't think you want to be alone either."
Faye gazed at him silently and looked away. She kicked off her shoes and settled next to him. She didn't want to look at him. Just seeing him there, relaxed and carefree, brought back those surreal memories of another silver haired man who had once lain here in that same position. Arching her head back, Faye looked up at the ceiling and fought to keep a sob down. Her body shook with invisible tears.
Why did it have to be today? Why him?
Spike could feel her body next to him. He turned his head to the side, feeling her body heat vibrate off his face. He shifted slightly, smiling at Faye's startled gasp as he slipped his arm around her slim body and hugged her to his side.
"This is an anniversary for you, isn't it?" Spike murmured, eyes still closed. "Was it a painful day?"
Faye stiffened at the gentleness in his voice but for some reason she relaxed when Spike tucked her head under his chin. She moved, her nose and lips touching his open chest where he had unbuttoned his shirt. She took a deep breath, inhaling his scent and gasped, realization hitting her. "Vicious," she breathed in a bout of sudden sadness, clutching his shirt, blinking to stop the tears.
Spike opened his eyes and flicked them down to her. "What'd you say?"
"It was a year ago," she said softly. "A year and exactly one week ago, I found Vicious, my man, cheating on me." She laughed dryly to herself. "He went behind my back with some blonde slut-faced bitch who already had her own guy to screw with. Imagine that, the exact opposite of me. And he cheated on me with her!"
Faye began to trace the creases of Spike's shirt lightly with her index finger. "Julia, that was her name. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?" she remarked, sorrow twisting through her voice. "I broke off with him of course. But I remember…throughout the whole week I couldn't forget about him. I didn't know what to do. It was terrible week for me. At the end of the week I decided to go see him. I tried to call him up but I kept missing him. Finally one day, he left a voice message for me, saying goodbye."
A pause. "And then what happened?" Spike asked softly into her hair.
Faye stayed silent for a moment, clutching his shirt tightly. She began to shake again. "Exactly one year ago, to this day, Vicious died. They told me he was killed in a gunfight. Vicious finally left me forever." Faye's voice turned dead.
They both lay there in silence for a few minutes. Faye was exhausted but found that she didn't want to sleep anymore, not really. She wanted to spend some more of the night with Spike.
"Vicious lay here too," she mumbled. "He held me in his arms, the same position as you. It was just like this."
Spike didn't reply to that. He lay there thinking.
"What happened to you?" Faye asked.
Spike's chest moved up and breathed down with a sigh. "One year and a day ago, a man named Vicious shot down my girl, right in front of my eyes. I held her as she died." Pause. "And one year ago, I shot him down."
Faye waited for her body to stiffen in surprise and shove away from Spike. But maybe it was the bone dead feeling inside that made her to lazy to move. "So I'm in the arms of his murderer," she commented impassively.
"Julia, that was my girl's name," Spike said somewhere above her.
"She cheated on you too, huh?"
"When I saw you there at the bar, I thought I was seeing a ghost from the past," Spike said. "That same seat, you sat in the same place Julia always sat, the second stool from the right. But it wasn't her, it was you." He took a deep breath into her hair. "And if I'm not mistaken, you use the same shampoo as she did too."
Faye laughed out loud for the sheer absurdity of it. "You really are something aren't you? You still remember the scent even a year later!" she said, the irony swimming and weaving through her voice. But the sadness was still there, dripping out like honey.
Spike smiled.
They both lay there in each other's arms. Two souls, drawn to each other with their sorrow, drowning in an abyss of pain and darkness. Together. And together they slept.
Morning. The sunlight streaked sharply through the window, its slender fingers creeping across the sleeping people as smoothly as water.
Faye opened one eye. She hadn't moved from her position. Raising her head, Faye gazed at Spike's peaceful, sleeping face. Shaking a violet tendril of hair from her face, Faye was quietly surprised, and then wondered why she should be surprised. Vicious had hardly ever been still asleep when she woke up. Always she would rise to find the silver haired man awake and dressed, sitting on the edge of the bed, watching her wake. Sometimes he wasn't even there in the morning.
Spike cranked open an eye. "How long do you plan to stare at me, Miss Valentine?" he asked sarcastically.
"Good morning to you too," Faye said. She sat up slowly, arms slowly stretching to the ceiling, arching back her slender body.
"Mind if I use the bathroom?" Spike said.
"Go ahead."
Redoing his tie, Spike raised a hand to Faye. "Thanks for letting me spend the night, Faye." As he walked toward the door, Faye looked up sharply.
"You're leaving already, just like that?" she asked, with a note of anxiety.
Spike looked back at her with a smile. "I'm a bounty hunter. There're still lots of bounty heads out there just crying out for me to get them. I'll drop by now and then," he added as Faye's face fell slightly. "Maybe I'll come meet you at that casino you work at."
Faye lit a smoke, keeping her face schooled. "I didn't tell you the name of the casino."
"I'll find you."
Spike moved. Suddenly he stood very close to Faye.
Blowing out smoke, Faye flicked her eyes up at him. Spike gently slid his fingers under chin and notched her face up. Faye met his lips and closed her eyes.
"I won't disappear like Vicious," Spike said when they had both pulled away for air. "You should forget him."
"Have you forgotten Julia yet?" Faye asked back.
"Well, then we both have some forgetting to do, don't we?" With another quick kiss, Spike winked and left the apartment.
Taking another drag out of her cigarette, Faye leaned against the wall, thoughtful. "See you space cowboy," she murmured to herself.
A/N I apologize if there was any OOC, but to tell you the truth I can't really tell if I did the characters OOC or not. This is my first Cowboy Bebop fanfic by the way. Oh, and yes, this fic has two titles. As this fic is going to be part of My Sassy Girl series (see bio for details) it of course has My Sassy Girl somewhere in the title, but I just thought Anniversaries was also an appropriate title as well. So please review! Constructive criticism is welcome.