**********************************TRApPeD***********************************
Seventeen: A Place Where He Belongs - Part One
By Annie
2003-04-09
****************************************************************************
Day Twelve.
10.04 a.m.
He couldn't sleep.
Since the first rays of sun slipped through the cracked windowpanes of the crypt he had been lying on the top of the sarcophagus with the old blanket over his head, relaxing his mind as well as his being as much as he possibly could and just as the small sense of sleep crept over him, splaying its fingers across his temples and making the drowsiness a fact - there was her face.
Bam.
Wide awake. Yet again.
Now he growled and threw the blanket aside.
Something was wrong. With him, with this...sleeplessness, with her infecting him like a virus. Contaminating his cells, his blood, his brain, his eyes until the only thing he could see was her face. He had struggled with her for days now and she wouldn't leave him be. Why?! Sodding, stubborn BITCH that she was - telling him that she never wanted to see him again, why couldn't she grant him the favor of keeping herself out of his bloody head?!
And what was this game she was playing? She had said she wasn't one to play games and what was she doing now -with him - if not playing? Like a cat with a mouse she tossed him in the air with her claws and caught him between her teeth without a second thought to his crackling neck bones or breaking spine.
Was he actually painting himself out as the victim in this scenario?
Getting to his feet with a graceful jump he began to pace.
What was she doing to him? Twisting his mind around like this, making him think and feel things that... No, it had to end now. All of it. All that was her had to just go away. She didn't wanna see him, eh? Well, that suited him more than absolutely sodding perfect 'cause he sure as hell never wanted to see her ugly face again! He never wanted to kiss her deformed mouth - yu-bloody-k! - again! He never wanted to feel her body grow hotter beneath his hands as the adrenaline of the state he put her in pumped through her - uh, horrid thought! And he NEVER wanted to have HER touch HIM in any way, shape or form EVER!
Running his hands through his short strands he nodded to himself, drawing a breath.
She'd come to him. He knew she would. But he'd have none of it. No more of this leniency. He was still bad to the core, after all; and she was still his Charlie number one, so what should he do - let her close? Preposterous! Or more like: hell, no! Whoever said "Keep your friends close, your enemies closer" obviously had no bloody idea what that statement actually meant. What it involved in action and speech. No, he wouldn't keep her on arms length even. He'd keep her on barely-visible-in-the-horizon length.
No. That was too close.
He'd keep her where he couldn't see her. Deep down somewhere... where she wouldn't disturb him anymore. Where she couldn't reach him...
He closed his eyes.
The sense of growing loss had him numb with anger towards her. Who the hell did she think she was? Doing this to him, to HIM! She was a girl. A child. A human. She'd seen his world, but he had seen infinitely more of hers than she ever would - and he knew that. He was her superior in a thousand bloody aspects and yet she captured him and held him like no other before her.
Her scent. The way she moved. How her voice sounded as she spoke, or yelled, or screamed, or nagged, or bickered... it didn't matter, that sound was her own and it was in the back of every word she uttered. He couldn't get enough of it. Her smile... And those eyes showing how old her soul was. He could label her a girl to try to push some sense into his short- circuited thoughts - but he knew that in her rested knowledge she herself wasn't even aware of. A woman ready to bloom. She had shouldered a heavier burden than any other of her sex on the earth, and she was growing up fast. Perhaps even too fast...
He had a feeling that before her journey was over she would have to endure worse things than she could imagine, and she would have to face them by herself. What he had said during their caged state had been what he knew was the truth: in the end she would always fight on her own, for the lives of her friends and family - and they wouldn't be able to help her.
And once again he was drifting into musings about HER. About HER life. About HER future.
Shaking his head at himself he grumbled, brushing his hands over his face and trying to wake himself out of this dream he seemed to be having where a part of him actually told him that the reason for these thoughts were... No.
He smiled now.
No.
No, not ever would he even think it. Blasphemous thought, cursed feeling... No.
He would get this thing out of his head, and then he would leave this damned place for good. He didn't need her money, and he didn't need her threats. He wanted nothing more than to go as far away as he could get and never look back.
Not once would he look back.
He'd find that place where he belonged and when he did he'd never let it go, he knew it. He'd been searching for so long...
The sound of soft treading outside made him narrow his eyes.
When the doors of his crypt was knocked in he was already gone. The military-clad commandos entered the room with their instruments tracking the H.S.T. in firm grips as they scanned their surroundings, exchanging looks to signal that all was clear and then one of them nodded to a trap door in the floor. The others seemed to follow what he was telling them by the small movement, and they all silently moved up to it. It took the combined strength of two of them to get it open and they looked down into blackness.
The bleeping dot on the screen of the tracking device was fading and they swiftly got themselves moving, down into the unfamiliarity of the dark and further into the sewers of Sunnydale.
***
3.16 p.m.
He had just swallowed the last of his well deserved lunch - after shaking those bloody G.I. Janes for two bloody hours and then undergoing rather painful surgery by the unskilled hand of the bloody poof he thought it was very well deserved - when he heard the front door being opened, followed by the loud bang as it hit the wall. Turning his head in the vicinity of the inner door, leading into his beloved home, he wasn't surprised as it too was opened so harshly it almost lost its connection with its hinges.
"You sure do know how to make a dramatic entrance," he scoffed, putting the emptied jar down on top of the small fridge and turning fully to face her.
"I'm not here to play war-of-the-tongues with you," she stated coolly and he put on a coy expression which had her exterior waver for a short second before she regained ground and glared at him.
He had known that she would come. He had felt it that very morning, he had felt it before he saw her at the Watcher's place, and he had been even more sure when he left that apartment. She had seemed a bit thrown when the soldier boy was upset that she was "keeping information about the H.S.T's whereabouts" from him. Hah! Trouble in paradise.
Stop that, he instructed himself. You don't care, remember?
Seeing her now wasn't good, he concluded. Seeing her made him... No, he'd better not even go there. SHE was the one who should go. Leave. The way she had come. There was nothing more to say between them.
"Then I'm not interested," he now replied to her former statement. "Go away," he added, turning from her and walking up to the telly standing to her right.
She followed him with her gaze as he bent down to flip it on, frowning.
"I want to know exactly WHAT you thought you were doing at Giles'," she demanded and he shook his head at himself for believing that she would actually just leave him alone, straightening his posture again and letting the screen remain black as he turned back to her.
"I wasn't 'doing' anything," he answered her. "I was having things being done to me. Bloody uncomfortable things too, I'll tell you."
"I know why you were there!" she exclaimed and he rolled his eyes.
The anger was taking over and she stepped inside the room to walk up to him.
"Then why do you come here sodding asking me 'bout it?!" he demanded, raising his voice as well, as she stopped before him.
"I know WHY you were there, but I don't know what the hell you were thinking going there! Are you completely brain dead?! Did you think I'd just relax after you weaseled your way in there like that?!" she barked and his eyebrows rose high in indignation.
"Oh, that's rich! I walked out last night HOPING that I'd get shot - in the BACK, by the way - by some good-for-nothing frickin' STATE EMPLOYEES, just so that I'd be able to get myself CLOSE to YOU?!" he asked and she crossed her arms over her chest.
"I didn't say that," she replied and he shook his head at her.
"What then?" he wondered, calming down slightly as he looked at her.
"Okay, so maybe that's what I said," she admitted and he threw his arms out in a frustrated gesture, turning from her and beginning to pace before her. "Oh," she nodded. "You're doing my thing right now," she added and he glared at her with as much detest that he could muster. "Hmh," she merely muttered, "doesn't bode well."
"Summers, I swear on my mother's grave, you are the most sodding agitating creature on this whole planet!" he exclaimed and her eyes widened slightly as she suppressed a smile.
Remembering why she was there she found the retracting annoyance, firing it back up as she narrowed her eyes.
"I came here to say ONE thing and ONE thing only," she now said with her voice hard. "If you EVER try to come between me and Riley again I'll..."
His eyes grew huge at that before he interrupted her with:
"What do you MEAN 'again'?!"
"You were the one who came with all those stupid accusations about him being in on whatever professor Walsh has been conducting!" she yelled back and he stared at her.
"You are unbelievable!" he exclaimed. "Now you go blame me for making a perfectly good judgment of the buggering situation?! How the hell do you know he's NOT in on it?!"
"Riley's not like that," she defended and Spike cocked an eyebrow. "He's good, unlike YOU!"
"Oh, right, I'm the color of hate and deceit, isn't that right?" he shot. "There's nothing clean in me, am I right?"
"That's right!" she retorted.
"And you don't think capturing creatures and using them for bloody experiments, putting them in cages like they're animals without any sodding capability to think for themselves... You think that's all clean, wholesome goodness?!" he shouted and she looked at him in clear disbelief.
"I am SO not having this conversation with you that I'm already out the DOOR!" she then shouted back and he tilted his head to one side before replying:
"So leave!"
She blinked, raising her eyebrows and huffing.
"Now you expect me to just leave?"
"You said you're not even here anymore already!" he retorted and she looked around her before shaking her head a little.
"You never give up that easily... What's the catch?"
He squinted at her.
"Catch?" he asked and she nodded.
"Ulterior motive," she elaborated and he began to grow frustrated again.
"You said you weren't here anymore and so I thought you might wanna actually leave to follow up on the sodding statement!" he answered and she cocked an eyebrow.
"Yeah," she mumbled. "I think I'm gonna stay."
"Stay?" he asked, incredulously, and she nodded once more.
"Yeah. Hang," she replied and his eyebrows shot up.
"From your neck in a noose?" he then inquired with a hopeful yet sarcastic expression seeping into his features and she gave him a look.
"Oh, you kill me," she muttered and he smirked.
"I try," he quipped and she glared at him before narrowing her eyes, seemingly trying to remember something before she gave him the responsibility as she asked:
"What were we yelling about?"
"The sodding git!" he replied, voice growing loud again.
"Right," she nodded. "If you think that you have any right what so ever to put any amount of effort at ALL into breaking us up..."
"I won't," he interrupted her and she looked at him, clearly skeptical to that.
"Huh?" she then asked and he nodded.
"I'm thoroughly happy for you," he assured and she blinked, narrowing her eyes again.
"Happy? For us?" she wondered and he smiled.
"What - you don't think I can 'feel' joy?" he wanted to know and she shook her head.
"I just didn't think you could 'feel joy' when it came to ME," she replied and his smile broadened.
"Shows just how little you know me, doesn't it?" he wondered and she clenched her jaws together at the playful look in his blue eyes.
Something she recognized swirled in the pit of her stomach and she brushed at it as she didn't want anything to do with it. It was too frightening. To strange. Too unfamiliar in its familiarity.
"Ah, but I don't wanna know you," she heard herself retort and she was brought back to span her full attention over the scene taking place - with him.
"You know, there could be parts to me you might like," he remarked and she looked at him with an expression that was so meaningful that his smile turned into a smirk. "Oh, sorry," he murmured. "Guess you've already befriended those parts, eh?"
She rolled her eyes at him - and at herself. She needed to do what she had come to do, or rather SAY what she had come to SAY, and then leave. Immediately.
"Pig," she grumbled and he laughed.
"You're so cute when you're mad," he teased and she glared at him with as much steel that she could muster into her gaze. "Especially when you're mad at me," he continued fearlessly. "'Cause then your eyes kinda glaze over with this irresistible need for destruction... It's quite enchanting."
She raised her eyebrows at that.
"You've just used 'cute' and 'enchanting' in a speech you were preaching concerning me... THAT was scary."
He smiled again and she swallowed, staring at him and feeling the pictures from the dream she had had tugging at being let out from their prison. She refused to hear their calls, merely double checked that their confinement was as tightly locked as ever.
"Oh, what do you think of me?" he now asked, turning from her and walking up to the sarcophagus, leaning against it as he turned back to face her. "That I don't have an artistic vein in my body?" he added and she smirked, following in his footsteps.
"Spike, I KNOW you don't have an artistic vein in your entire body," she answered him, stopping a few feet away from him and crossing her arms over her chest again. "Unless you consider murdering and maiming something that has to do with art," she added and he put a hand by his heart as though she had just wounded him.
"You make me shudder, Slayer," he murmured and she took a slow step back as she rested her eyes in his. "Well... Let's see," he then added, pushing away from the stone behind him and then saying: "I do not like you on a boat... I do not like you with a goat... I do not like you in a car, I do not like you near or far... I do not like you here or there, I do not like you anywhere."
She simply shook her head.
"Poetry! Be still my heart," she said sarcastically and he tilted his head slightly to one side as his eyes grew much too observing for her taste. She smiled humorlessly to cover up the shiver of something she would NOT label as pleasure ran down her spine before she added: "And the irony, of course, is that in the end that old grouch actually likes green eggs and ham."
"But I can't eat you, love," he pointed out with a small smile to return hers. "So there goes that likeness. But - if it's poetry you want - how's this? I'll hate you 'til the day you die; I'll hate you, hate you endlessly; the sight of you does scorch mine eye...and you appear so carelessly. So go away, you stupid bint. I don't want you this sodding near," he moved the few paces dividing them, she kept from drawing a small breath as she tilted her head back, and he finished: "Can't you take the bloody hint? I do not like you ANYWHERE!"
She fought the urge to slip her hands up his arms and into those bleached locks of his. Fought the urge to stand on her toes and press herself against him. Fought the need to feel his lips glide over her ignited skin, lighting fires as they went.
Oh, God! Why did he do this to her?! How could she be like this?! She couldn't!
"That wasn't poetry," she said, taking a step back and getting herself away from him. "That was awful," she added, looking into his eyes defiantly and he smiled once more.
"Did you think I conducted it outta the un-beat of my heart solely for your listening pleasure?" he wondered and she huffed.
"It was terrible and above that - completely unfair!" she replied and he stared at her.
"Unfair?!" he then exclaimed and she nodded.
"Yes! I'M not the one 'hanging' around - pun very much intended - playing with chipped nail polish and smoking like a broken chimney!" she yelled back and his eyes grew again.
"No - 'cause the day YOU'RE the one doing that I'LL change my wardrobe!"
"Into WHAT?!" she shouted.
"Hawiian Sunday - tribute to the sodding whelp," he replied and she glared at him.
"Hah! I'll believe THAT when I see it!" she stated and he tilted his head to one side as he asked:
"Will you ever paint your nails black and play with the chips when it starts to come off?"
"I doubt it," she muttered.
"And will you EVER smoke like a broken chimney?" he now inquired and she met his gaze.
"Not while I live and breathe," she replied and he gave her a meaningful look.
"Then I guess you'll never believe it," he stated and she opened her mouth to say something, pausing in the middle of the motion and then she sighed.
"Point taken," she grumbled.
"It WAS an exceptional one," he commended himself and she gave him a look.
"I do so enjoy our little chats," she said and he smirked at the drip of everlasting sarcasm in those words. "I find them...illuminating."
"Are you working at having me laugh?" he shot. "Or was that comment about to be followed by 'And by the way, I desperately, like-a-bug-about-to-be- crushed, in the crawling way am here to seek your advice and hopefully - pleasepleaseplease - your help in a pressing, earth-shattering, apocalyptic matter'?"
"Hah-hah," she grumbled and his smirk widened, then it died as he said:
"Yeah, I thought you might find that funny - I sure as hell do. You want me out of your life, right?" She nodded, looking insecure as to where he was going and he decided that he would let her know. "And still you storm in here saying - yelling - that I'd better not show my face around you anymore or you seeing it just might break up the bond of love that you and Captain sodding Cardboard are tying!"
"That's NOT what I said!" she exclaimed, unfolding her arms and taking a step forward in sudden fury.
"What DID you say then?" he asked.
"That...I don't want you to TRY," she answered and his eyebrows rose.
"So I could break it - if I TRIED?" he asked and she shook her head, then suddenly eyed him before asking:
"Why? Would you want to?"
He cocked an eyebrow.
"Would you want me to want to?" he asked back.
"Would you want me to want you to want to?" she retorted and he smirked.
"Would you want me to want you to want me to want to?" he wondered and she rolled her eyes at him. "You giving up already, love?" he asked now. "I could do this all day."
**************************************************************************** **************************************************************************** **************************************************************************** ******************
Oh, the reviews are coming in steadily and that just makes me so happy 'cause it means I'm keeping your attention! So great to hear from you guys and thank you for always letting me read some of your thoughts! I'm so glad you're keeping on liking what I'm doing with this! Hope you did this chapter as well!
Special thanks to LizDarcy (so happy you approve!) ;), Anne (very glad you like it!) :), Renee' (uh-huh, yup, and thank you!) ;), Johanna (*lol* is all I can say *l-o-l* You cracked me up with that one and also - I humbly bow my head.), charisma1525 (at first I went uh-oh! And then I went phew. Glad you're still enjoying!) :), Juliya (Oh, well, weird or no I thank thee. *smile* Well... apart from that I hope you like.) :), Pine (hehe, yeah, I bet you hope that. *grin* Me too though. Riley - ew! Me not really like I in Team either *shudders*. The dream? I'll get to it. *wink*) ;), joni (great that you enjoy and well, "as it is" gosh, I'll try! Don't jinx me! hehe. Thanks for the compliments, they warm!) :), Heather (So good that you liked and I'm glad you're happy that it will go on for a while... *wide smile*) ;), Captain (I. Love. It. That. You. Love. It! So wonderful to read! Yeah, *sigh*, Riley. And thanks for that!) :), oleanderrose (well...color me red with flattery. Thanks so much for those words and I'm SO glad that you're enjoying this! Hope it'll continue!) :) - all of you THANK YOU for taking the time out to write me what you think! Luv ya, you know that!
Well. Second part to this is coming... 'cause you do want it, right? Just teasing. ;) Thanks again for great, great feedback.
A.M.L, Annie.
Seventeen: A Place Where He Belongs - Part One
By Annie
2003-04-09
****************************************************************************
Day Twelve.
10.04 a.m.
He couldn't sleep.
Since the first rays of sun slipped through the cracked windowpanes of the crypt he had been lying on the top of the sarcophagus with the old blanket over his head, relaxing his mind as well as his being as much as he possibly could and just as the small sense of sleep crept over him, splaying its fingers across his temples and making the drowsiness a fact - there was her face.
Bam.
Wide awake. Yet again.
Now he growled and threw the blanket aside.
Something was wrong. With him, with this...sleeplessness, with her infecting him like a virus. Contaminating his cells, his blood, his brain, his eyes until the only thing he could see was her face. He had struggled with her for days now and she wouldn't leave him be. Why?! Sodding, stubborn BITCH that she was - telling him that she never wanted to see him again, why couldn't she grant him the favor of keeping herself out of his bloody head?!
And what was this game she was playing? She had said she wasn't one to play games and what was she doing now -with him - if not playing? Like a cat with a mouse she tossed him in the air with her claws and caught him between her teeth without a second thought to his crackling neck bones or breaking spine.
Was he actually painting himself out as the victim in this scenario?
Getting to his feet with a graceful jump he began to pace.
What was she doing to him? Twisting his mind around like this, making him think and feel things that... No, it had to end now. All of it. All that was her had to just go away. She didn't wanna see him, eh? Well, that suited him more than absolutely sodding perfect 'cause he sure as hell never wanted to see her ugly face again! He never wanted to kiss her deformed mouth - yu-bloody-k! - again! He never wanted to feel her body grow hotter beneath his hands as the adrenaline of the state he put her in pumped through her - uh, horrid thought! And he NEVER wanted to have HER touch HIM in any way, shape or form EVER!
Running his hands through his short strands he nodded to himself, drawing a breath.
She'd come to him. He knew she would. But he'd have none of it. No more of this leniency. He was still bad to the core, after all; and she was still his Charlie number one, so what should he do - let her close? Preposterous! Or more like: hell, no! Whoever said "Keep your friends close, your enemies closer" obviously had no bloody idea what that statement actually meant. What it involved in action and speech. No, he wouldn't keep her on arms length even. He'd keep her on barely-visible-in-the-horizon length.
No. That was too close.
He'd keep her where he couldn't see her. Deep down somewhere... where she wouldn't disturb him anymore. Where she couldn't reach him...
He closed his eyes.
The sense of growing loss had him numb with anger towards her. Who the hell did she think she was? Doing this to him, to HIM! She was a girl. A child. A human. She'd seen his world, but he had seen infinitely more of hers than she ever would - and he knew that. He was her superior in a thousand bloody aspects and yet she captured him and held him like no other before her.
Her scent. The way she moved. How her voice sounded as she spoke, or yelled, or screamed, or nagged, or bickered... it didn't matter, that sound was her own and it was in the back of every word she uttered. He couldn't get enough of it. Her smile... And those eyes showing how old her soul was. He could label her a girl to try to push some sense into his short- circuited thoughts - but he knew that in her rested knowledge she herself wasn't even aware of. A woman ready to bloom. She had shouldered a heavier burden than any other of her sex on the earth, and she was growing up fast. Perhaps even too fast...
He had a feeling that before her journey was over she would have to endure worse things than she could imagine, and she would have to face them by herself. What he had said during their caged state had been what he knew was the truth: in the end she would always fight on her own, for the lives of her friends and family - and they wouldn't be able to help her.
And once again he was drifting into musings about HER. About HER life. About HER future.
Shaking his head at himself he grumbled, brushing his hands over his face and trying to wake himself out of this dream he seemed to be having where a part of him actually told him that the reason for these thoughts were... No.
He smiled now.
No.
No, not ever would he even think it. Blasphemous thought, cursed feeling... No.
He would get this thing out of his head, and then he would leave this damned place for good. He didn't need her money, and he didn't need her threats. He wanted nothing more than to go as far away as he could get and never look back.
Not once would he look back.
He'd find that place where he belonged and when he did he'd never let it go, he knew it. He'd been searching for so long...
The sound of soft treading outside made him narrow his eyes.
When the doors of his crypt was knocked in he was already gone. The military-clad commandos entered the room with their instruments tracking the H.S.T. in firm grips as they scanned their surroundings, exchanging looks to signal that all was clear and then one of them nodded to a trap door in the floor. The others seemed to follow what he was telling them by the small movement, and they all silently moved up to it. It took the combined strength of two of them to get it open and they looked down into blackness.
The bleeping dot on the screen of the tracking device was fading and they swiftly got themselves moving, down into the unfamiliarity of the dark and further into the sewers of Sunnydale.
***
3.16 p.m.
He had just swallowed the last of his well deserved lunch - after shaking those bloody G.I. Janes for two bloody hours and then undergoing rather painful surgery by the unskilled hand of the bloody poof he thought it was very well deserved - when he heard the front door being opened, followed by the loud bang as it hit the wall. Turning his head in the vicinity of the inner door, leading into his beloved home, he wasn't surprised as it too was opened so harshly it almost lost its connection with its hinges.
"You sure do know how to make a dramatic entrance," he scoffed, putting the emptied jar down on top of the small fridge and turning fully to face her.
"I'm not here to play war-of-the-tongues with you," she stated coolly and he put on a coy expression which had her exterior waver for a short second before she regained ground and glared at him.
He had known that she would come. He had felt it that very morning, he had felt it before he saw her at the Watcher's place, and he had been even more sure when he left that apartment. She had seemed a bit thrown when the soldier boy was upset that she was "keeping information about the H.S.T's whereabouts" from him. Hah! Trouble in paradise.
Stop that, he instructed himself. You don't care, remember?
Seeing her now wasn't good, he concluded. Seeing her made him... No, he'd better not even go there. SHE was the one who should go. Leave. The way she had come. There was nothing more to say between them.
"Then I'm not interested," he now replied to her former statement. "Go away," he added, turning from her and walking up to the telly standing to her right.
She followed him with her gaze as he bent down to flip it on, frowning.
"I want to know exactly WHAT you thought you were doing at Giles'," she demanded and he shook his head at himself for believing that she would actually just leave him alone, straightening his posture again and letting the screen remain black as he turned back to her.
"I wasn't 'doing' anything," he answered her. "I was having things being done to me. Bloody uncomfortable things too, I'll tell you."
"I know why you were there!" she exclaimed and he rolled his eyes.
The anger was taking over and she stepped inside the room to walk up to him.
"Then why do you come here sodding asking me 'bout it?!" he demanded, raising his voice as well, as she stopped before him.
"I know WHY you were there, but I don't know what the hell you were thinking going there! Are you completely brain dead?! Did you think I'd just relax after you weaseled your way in there like that?!" she barked and his eyebrows rose high in indignation.
"Oh, that's rich! I walked out last night HOPING that I'd get shot - in the BACK, by the way - by some good-for-nothing frickin' STATE EMPLOYEES, just so that I'd be able to get myself CLOSE to YOU?!" he asked and she crossed her arms over her chest.
"I didn't say that," she replied and he shook his head at her.
"What then?" he wondered, calming down slightly as he looked at her.
"Okay, so maybe that's what I said," she admitted and he threw his arms out in a frustrated gesture, turning from her and beginning to pace before her. "Oh," she nodded. "You're doing my thing right now," she added and he glared at her with as much detest that he could muster. "Hmh," she merely muttered, "doesn't bode well."
"Summers, I swear on my mother's grave, you are the most sodding agitating creature on this whole planet!" he exclaimed and her eyes widened slightly as she suppressed a smile.
Remembering why she was there she found the retracting annoyance, firing it back up as she narrowed her eyes.
"I came here to say ONE thing and ONE thing only," she now said with her voice hard. "If you EVER try to come between me and Riley again I'll..."
His eyes grew huge at that before he interrupted her with:
"What do you MEAN 'again'?!"
"You were the one who came with all those stupid accusations about him being in on whatever professor Walsh has been conducting!" she yelled back and he stared at her.
"You are unbelievable!" he exclaimed. "Now you go blame me for making a perfectly good judgment of the buggering situation?! How the hell do you know he's NOT in on it?!"
"Riley's not like that," she defended and Spike cocked an eyebrow. "He's good, unlike YOU!"
"Oh, right, I'm the color of hate and deceit, isn't that right?" he shot. "There's nothing clean in me, am I right?"
"That's right!" she retorted.
"And you don't think capturing creatures and using them for bloody experiments, putting them in cages like they're animals without any sodding capability to think for themselves... You think that's all clean, wholesome goodness?!" he shouted and she looked at him in clear disbelief.
"I am SO not having this conversation with you that I'm already out the DOOR!" she then shouted back and he tilted his head to one side before replying:
"So leave!"
She blinked, raising her eyebrows and huffing.
"Now you expect me to just leave?"
"You said you're not even here anymore already!" he retorted and she looked around her before shaking her head a little.
"You never give up that easily... What's the catch?"
He squinted at her.
"Catch?" he asked and she nodded.
"Ulterior motive," she elaborated and he began to grow frustrated again.
"You said you weren't here anymore and so I thought you might wanna actually leave to follow up on the sodding statement!" he answered and she cocked an eyebrow.
"Yeah," she mumbled. "I think I'm gonna stay."
"Stay?" he asked, incredulously, and she nodded once more.
"Yeah. Hang," she replied and his eyebrows shot up.
"From your neck in a noose?" he then inquired with a hopeful yet sarcastic expression seeping into his features and she gave him a look.
"Oh, you kill me," she muttered and he smirked.
"I try," he quipped and she glared at him before narrowing her eyes, seemingly trying to remember something before she gave him the responsibility as she asked:
"What were we yelling about?"
"The sodding git!" he replied, voice growing loud again.
"Right," she nodded. "If you think that you have any right what so ever to put any amount of effort at ALL into breaking us up..."
"I won't," he interrupted her and she looked at him, clearly skeptical to that.
"Huh?" she then asked and he nodded.
"I'm thoroughly happy for you," he assured and she blinked, narrowing her eyes again.
"Happy? For us?" she wondered and he smiled.
"What - you don't think I can 'feel' joy?" he wanted to know and she shook her head.
"I just didn't think you could 'feel joy' when it came to ME," she replied and his smile broadened.
"Shows just how little you know me, doesn't it?" he wondered and she clenched her jaws together at the playful look in his blue eyes.
Something she recognized swirled in the pit of her stomach and she brushed at it as she didn't want anything to do with it. It was too frightening. To strange. Too unfamiliar in its familiarity.
"Ah, but I don't wanna know you," she heard herself retort and she was brought back to span her full attention over the scene taking place - with him.
"You know, there could be parts to me you might like," he remarked and she looked at him with an expression that was so meaningful that his smile turned into a smirk. "Oh, sorry," he murmured. "Guess you've already befriended those parts, eh?"
She rolled her eyes at him - and at herself. She needed to do what she had come to do, or rather SAY what she had come to SAY, and then leave. Immediately.
"Pig," she grumbled and he laughed.
"You're so cute when you're mad," he teased and she glared at him with as much steel that she could muster into her gaze. "Especially when you're mad at me," he continued fearlessly. "'Cause then your eyes kinda glaze over with this irresistible need for destruction... It's quite enchanting."
She raised her eyebrows at that.
"You've just used 'cute' and 'enchanting' in a speech you were preaching concerning me... THAT was scary."
He smiled again and she swallowed, staring at him and feeling the pictures from the dream she had had tugging at being let out from their prison. She refused to hear their calls, merely double checked that their confinement was as tightly locked as ever.
"Oh, what do you think of me?" he now asked, turning from her and walking up to the sarcophagus, leaning against it as he turned back to face her. "That I don't have an artistic vein in my body?" he added and she smirked, following in his footsteps.
"Spike, I KNOW you don't have an artistic vein in your entire body," she answered him, stopping a few feet away from him and crossing her arms over her chest again. "Unless you consider murdering and maiming something that has to do with art," she added and he put a hand by his heart as though she had just wounded him.
"You make me shudder, Slayer," he murmured and she took a slow step back as she rested her eyes in his. "Well... Let's see," he then added, pushing away from the stone behind him and then saying: "I do not like you on a boat... I do not like you with a goat... I do not like you in a car, I do not like you near or far... I do not like you here or there, I do not like you anywhere."
She simply shook her head.
"Poetry! Be still my heart," she said sarcastically and he tilted his head slightly to one side as his eyes grew much too observing for her taste. She smiled humorlessly to cover up the shiver of something she would NOT label as pleasure ran down her spine before she added: "And the irony, of course, is that in the end that old grouch actually likes green eggs and ham."
"But I can't eat you, love," he pointed out with a small smile to return hers. "So there goes that likeness. But - if it's poetry you want - how's this? I'll hate you 'til the day you die; I'll hate you, hate you endlessly; the sight of you does scorch mine eye...and you appear so carelessly. So go away, you stupid bint. I don't want you this sodding near," he moved the few paces dividing them, she kept from drawing a small breath as she tilted her head back, and he finished: "Can't you take the bloody hint? I do not like you ANYWHERE!"
She fought the urge to slip her hands up his arms and into those bleached locks of his. Fought the urge to stand on her toes and press herself against him. Fought the need to feel his lips glide over her ignited skin, lighting fires as they went.
Oh, God! Why did he do this to her?! How could she be like this?! She couldn't!
"That wasn't poetry," she said, taking a step back and getting herself away from him. "That was awful," she added, looking into his eyes defiantly and he smiled once more.
"Did you think I conducted it outta the un-beat of my heart solely for your listening pleasure?" he wondered and she huffed.
"It was terrible and above that - completely unfair!" she replied and he stared at her.
"Unfair?!" he then exclaimed and she nodded.
"Yes! I'M not the one 'hanging' around - pun very much intended - playing with chipped nail polish and smoking like a broken chimney!" she yelled back and his eyes grew again.
"No - 'cause the day YOU'RE the one doing that I'LL change my wardrobe!"
"Into WHAT?!" she shouted.
"Hawiian Sunday - tribute to the sodding whelp," he replied and she glared at him.
"Hah! I'll believe THAT when I see it!" she stated and he tilted his head to one side as he asked:
"Will you ever paint your nails black and play with the chips when it starts to come off?"
"I doubt it," she muttered.
"And will you EVER smoke like a broken chimney?" he now inquired and she met his gaze.
"Not while I live and breathe," she replied and he gave her a meaningful look.
"Then I guess you'll never believe it," he stated and she opened her mouth to say something, pausing in the middle of the motion and then she sighed.
"Point taken," she grumbled.
"It WAS an exceptional one," he commended himself and she gave him a look.
"I do so enjoy our little chats," she said and he smirked at the drip of everlasting sarcasm in those words. "I find them...illuminating."
"Are you working at having me laugh?" he shot. "Or was that comment about to be followed by 'And by the way, I desperately, like-a-bug-about-to-be- crushed, in the crawling way am here to seek your advice and hopefully - pleasepleaseplease - your help in a pressing, earth-shattering, apocalyptic matter'?"
"Hah-hah," she grumbled and his smirk widened, then it died as he said:
"Yeah, I thought you might find that funny - I sure as hell do. You want me out of your life, right?" She nodded, looking insecure as to where he was going and he decided that he would let her know. "And still you storm in here saying - yelling - that I'd better not show my face around you anymore or you seeing it just might break up the bond of love that you and Captain sodding Cardboard are tying!"
"That's NOT what I said!" she exclaimed, unfolding her arms and taking a step forward in sudden fury.
"What DID you say then?" he asked.
"That...I don't want you to TRY," she answered and his eyebrows rose.
"So I could break it - if I TRIED?" he asked and she shook her head, then suddenly eyed him before asking:
"Why? Would you want to?"
He cocked an eyebrow.
"Would you want me to want to?" he asked back.
"Would you want me to want you to want to?" she retorted and he smirked.
"Would you want me to want you to want me to want to?" he wondered and she rolled her eyes at him. "You giving up already, love?" he asked now. "I could do this all day."
**************************************************************************** **************************************************************************** **************************************************************************** ******************
Oh, the reviews are coming in steadily and that just makes me so happy 'cause it means I'm keeping your attention! So great to hear from you guys and thank you for always letting me read some of your thoughts! I'm so glad you're keeping on liking what I'm doing with this! Hope you did this chapter as well!
Special thanks to LizDarcy (so happy you approve!) ;), Anne (very glad you like it!) :), Renee' (uh-huh, yup, and thank you!) ;), Johanna (*lol* is all I can say *l-o-l* You cracked me up with that one and also - I humbly bow my head.), charisma1525 (at first I went uh-oh! And then I went phew. Glad you're still enjoying!) :), Juliya (Oh, well, weird or no I thank thee. *smile* Well... apart from that I hope you like.) :), Pine (hehe, yeah, I bet you hope that. *grin* Me too though. Riley - ew! Me not really like I in Team either *shudders*. The dream? I'll get to it. *wink*) ;), joni (great that you enjoy and well, "as it is" gosh, I'll try! Don't jinx me! hehe. Thanks for the compliments, they warm!) :), Heather (So good that you liked and I'm glad you're happy that it will go on for a while... *wide smile*) ;), Captain (I. Love. It. That. You. Love. It! So wonderful to read! Yeah, *sigh*, Riley. And thanks for that!) :), oleanderrose (well...color me red with flattery. Thanks so much for those words and I'm SO glad that you're enjoying this! Hope it'll continue!) :) - all of you THANK YOU for taking the time out to write me what you think! Luv ya, you know that!
Well. Second part to this is coming... 'cause you do want it, right? Just teasing. ;) Thanks again for great, great feedback.
A.M.L, Annie.