The characters of Cowboy Bebop aren't owned by me, but I hope you
like my story! Kudos in advance to those that review!
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Chapter 2: Word Dances
Spike scratched his head furtively as he stood
beneath the blast of hot water coming from the showerhead. Did Faye
really find him attractive? Or was that just a drunken slur that meant
nothing? He looked down at himself and traced his thin fingers over the
myriad of small scars and puckered bullet wounds that graced his tanned
skin. Sighing, he shook his
head, spraying droplets from his heavy hair;
nobody could find someone as scarred, physically and
emotionally, as he was, attractive. She must've drunk a helluva
lot. He scrubbed hard at his chest with the soap, willing himself
to enjoy the burning in his muscles from an especially long Jeet Kun Do
session. He turned up the
shower's hot water faucet, letting the scalding droplets run down his
back in an attempt to wash away his pain. It helped him forget the anguish in his heart.
"Jet person!! Bang bang show show!!" Ed took her
Tomato off her head and pranced around with it in glee, while Ein barked, running in circles around
her. Jet slumped onto the couch, pulling off his apron and dust mask he
had been wearing to clean out some of the filthier corners of the Bebop. He lit a cigarette and turned
the volume up on the staticky little screen to see Punch and Judy greet
the cowboys of the solar system
and get to work, presenting
bounties under Jet's weary gaze. Most of the bounties were careless, small-time gangsters trying to
make a name for themselves,
unsuccessfully. Their faces and id numbers with bounty rewards flashed
by in a stream of color and sound, as he sat, uncaring on the tattered
yellow sofa. Suddenly he sat upright. "No. That's impossible. She
wouldn't."
"And she's got a real nice bounty, mi amigos! 1.3
million woolongs! Go get
'em cowboys, and we'll see you next time!"
Jet absently flicked off the TV and stared at the
blank screen. Minutes passed in silence. Finally he stood up from the
couch. "Ed?"
"Meeyaaaa?" Ed murmured from under her Tomato as she
dozed off
on Ein, apparently spent from her
earlier frolicking.
"Ed, can you find information about an ex-ISSP
special agent, Petria Malnakov?
See if you can figure out if she retired or was kicked out, and for
what if she was. Also, find
out where's she been, since she left."
"Ed soooo empty! Like old balloon-baboon!"
Jet smiled absently at the girl. "All right, I was planning on
starting on dinner soon anyway." He turned and started to walk up the
stairs to the kitchen, encountering a groggy Faye, and a bored looking
Spike. "You two all right? I heard bickering earlier."
They both shrugged.
"What's Ed working on so furiously?" Spike mumbled
around a bent cigarette he fished out of his pocket, lighting it as he
looked at Jet's paler than normal face. He paused momentarily, mid-drag, then asked, "Hey, are you
okay? You're not sick or anything?"
"I-I'm fine." Jet ran his hand over his head,
unwittingly telling Spike that something was bothering him. "Ed's
working on a . . . personal thing" he finished.
Spike gave him a sideways look. "What do you mean
personal?"
"Someone I knew once. She's a bounty now. A big one.
1.3 million woolongs.
Spike whistled appreciatively. "Well, hey, I could do some nice
upgrades on my Swordfish with that kind of cash."
Jet smiled weakly.
"Spike, you should find a real woman that can suck your cash, instead of spending all your time
and money on that red hussy in the hangar."
"Hah. Right. Spike couldn't do that if he tried. His
ego would knock any woman over, and he acts like a prick to any human
who comes within five feet of him. And he's too lazy to catch any
bounties," Faye remarked,
smirking. "Well, I'm not
against turning anyone in, if
the price is that high. I'll do it."
Jet shot her a killer look and turned to the
kitchen, while Spike strolled over to the Tomato, which held Ed in
thrall, her green glasses adding to the sense of addled youth Ed
perpetually had about her. His eyes scanned the screen as rapidly as
they could, to follow the developments. "Faye," he remarked, after some time, not looking at her. "You're
really not one to talk about picking up members of the opposite sex.
You wear that yellow thing everywhere, and when's the last time it
snagged you a man? Oh yes, Blue Crow." With those remarks, Spike sloped
off to the sofa and lied down,
covering his face with his arm.
"Ooooh, Spike!" was the most retaliatory remark Faye
could come up with as she balled her hands into fists, willing herself
not to break his nose, his nice, pointy nose, right above those soft...she felt herself relaxing as she
admired him on the sofa. Then she remembered his stinging remark and
threw all of the utensils at him, allowing them to
scatter around on the floor in
the aftermath. They clattered harmlessly off his elbow
as they fell to the
floor. Spike took his arm off his face, smiled at her wryly, and put a magazine over his face,
soon beginning to snore softly.
Faye snorted and lit a cigarette. She turned to
stand beside Ed as the lithe redhead tack-tacked her way into the ISSP
database.
It's funny how we've come together again. Ed's almost eighteen and still acts as crazy as always. Spike? He hasn't changed at all outwardly. But I can sense that a little something died with him before he came back. And Jet. Jet, my best friend, my brother, my confidante. I think I probably would've done myself in that day, had it not been for him.
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"God, it's
hot."
"Io is always hot though."
"I guess. I suppose the volcanos lend a special air to your emotions
every time you come here. Make you a little wilder."
Jet chuckled
quietly. "And are you so much
wilder, Faye Valentine? After all this time?"
"Oh, I suppose not."
Faye smiled back at him. She could see herself shining in his
clear
blue eyes. She looked younger than she felt, and hoped Jet wouldn't
notice the dullness that had crept into her eyes slowly after Spike had
left the BeBop to go finish his fight. But he did, damn him. He always
did. With a sad frown on his face, he reached out and stroked her hair.
"Is everything so bad? I heard you
were doing well on a casino fraud bounty circuit."
"Everything has been bad since everyone left. Spike was the kind of
mystery glue that held us together. His enigma made us stay. When he
went. . . we all drifted apart. I just think I've drifted too far. I
hope you won't hate me for this." Faye
slowly pulled a
case out of her coat pocket, and snapped it open, revealing a needle full of a clear substance.
"Faye, what is that?"
"Muscle relaxant. It'll slowly put me to sleep, then stop my heart.
Stop my heart from beating my memories around me. Stop me from
remembering that I have no home, that I've become the Romani I told you
I was."
"Faye. Do you know why I'm here?"
"You're here to tell me that Spike and Ed and Ein are back, and that
dinner's been ready for an hour, where the hell have you been?" Faye
turned to Jet with tears shimmering in her eyes. She smiled a sad, wry
smile at him and shook her head, "No.
I know that I'm not going to heal over this one. I have accepted that I
cannot accept my past."
Jet
caught her hand holding the needle gently as she put it up
to her arm. "Don't. I can't tell you
the fairy tale that everyone is back on the BeBop and everything is
alright, and expect you to believe it. But I can tell it to you, right?"
Faye sunk to her knees with a
sobbing
gasp. "Please. Stop. I
don't
want the dream that Spike lived. I don't want to think that I've been
living in a dream that's never ending. I know," she shuddered,
gasping for breath in between sobs, "I
know--he's gone. He was the straw that broke the camel's back as far as
I'm concerned. I want to be lost before I lose anyone else."
"Faye." His voice was so
gentle and low.
"I
made my decision."
"Faye. It's not a lie. Not a whole truth though. I heard from Spike a
week ago. Nothing big, just a 'yo' from out of the blue.I don't know
where he is or what he's doing, but he's alive. Ed and Ein have been
back for a couple of months now. Ed's dad kept abandoning her, so when
I stopped off at Earth, she traipsed aboard again, like nothing ever
happened. Faye," Jet
held her tear streaked face up to look her in the eye, "I want my family back together. One
dysfunctional family."
Faye sobbed
uncontrollably, she cried into the dust for a youth lost,
lies told, and friends rediscovered. Finally, spent, she looked up. "As long as we're not having bell peppers
or bean sprouts for dinner."
Jet smiled weakly,
"That's my girl."
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And that's the
way it's
been. That's the way it's been since. We're a fucked up family, sure,
but a family of sorts.
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"Faye-Faye!
Bounty lady have pretty hair! It even Ed
colored! Hair, spare, Ed want pears!" she crooned, flapping her arms
like some deranged flightless bird.
Snapped back to reality, Faye leaned as close to the
screen of the Tomato as
she dared without getting hit by the flailing limbs of the odd child.
Ed had under appraised this woman. She wasn't just pretty, she was
stunning. Her hair was red, yes, but a more strikingly elegant auburn
than Ed's shock of orange. Her eyes were a dark blue, almost to the
point of violet. She looked like a model, or would have if she didn't
have the cold-steel look of a murderer in her eyes.
Suddenly, Faye was
jerked upright in
attention, by the sound of
clattering dishes in the kitchen, followed by a string of nearly
unintelligible curses, which Ed repeated in singsong. It was very
unlike Jet to get flustered in the kitchen. Usually cooking relaxed
him, having a similarly calming effect as his bonsai. Something was up,
and Faye suspected it had something to do with the woman Ed had shown her.
"Shit, too much ginger! What? I'm busy. What do you
want?" Jet shoved his way past her with a pan to dump some
unidentifiable vegetables into
it. He kept his distressed countenance away from her as he moved
from the
stove to the cutting
board and back.
"Ah yes, busy with the tri-daily ritual of making
odd, inedible fry ups. No matter though. So who's the broad?" Faye
leant against the doorjamb, waiting to see what response her offhand
comment elicited.
"What?!" Enraged, Jet turned on her like a bull. He
saw her casually leaning against the doorway, cigarette in hand, which
made him even angrier.
"So you do know her." She smiled and took a pull of
her cigarette contentedly.
"Yes," he said curtly as he snatched the
cigarette from her fingers and took a long drag, exhaling it in one
long sigh. "But I'd care to
keep such gossip fodder to myself if you so please. Now get out of my
kitchen!" He flicked the half smoked cigarette to the ground and
stomped on it emphatically.
Faye threw up her arms and went to go read, perched
on the coffee table, attempting to ignore the odd singing that
constantly spewed from Ed's corner near the stairs.
*
*
*
Spike was flying. Or falling. He couldn't decide.
The swordfish was moving along fine, but he couldn't control it. She
wouldn't respond to him. Suddenly it flipped into a barrel roll and
then careened into a nose dive. Frantically Spike searched for what, or who,
was controlling his sleek racer. At last, on the ground he
spotted a hooded figure with a familiar remote control.
Ed. I'm
safe.
The hooded figure looked up.
Vicious
He smiled and pointed as he brought the Swordfish
out of it's dive, his long digit pointing in the direction of the jet's
nose. Spike looked up and followed the finger in it's path as the red
fighter skimmed the ground. Someone running. That run was familiar.
Julia. His heart raced. What's happening to me? Suddenly he
realized.
Vicious was going to use him, just as he had used
everyone else.
"Julia!" Spike screamed as the jet ate away the
distance between the two figures, each frantic with fear. The Swordfish
swooped towards Julia on the ground, aiming to crush her.
"JULIA!"
With the sound of the crash still resounding
in his head, Spike jerked awake off the couch, gasping. He was
sweating, and a single tear ran down his face.
Julia.
"Must've
been quite a dream, cowboy," said a
familiar voice through the darkness. Spike realized he slept through
the entire evening, including dinner.
"Go away Faye, I don't want to talk to you now. I
usually don't mind the inane, occasionally witty banter you keep up
with, just...not now." He was too tired and shaken to even attempt
being aloof and sarcastic.
Faye was shocked at the gentleness of his voice and
realized something had shaken him horribly in his nightmare. She
logically turned to what would have hurt him this much. "What happened
to her?"
"She's gone."
"I meant in the dream."
"Faye, just leave."
"Fine, you don't need to get uppity on me and be a
jerk about it!"
"I'm not," he replied, sighing quietly. "I just
don't care to share painful experiences with heartless people,
especially not at some ungodly hour of the night."
Faye smiled to herself in the darkness. He was
feeling better if he could snap at her like that. She got up to leave,
then turned and walked to him.
"What now? You're not drunk again, are you? I'm not
kissing you."
"Spike."
"What?"
"Shut the hell up for one second." Faye paused,
trying to form her words in a way that wouldn't sound too odd for her.
"I-I envy her."
"What?"
"Julia. I wish I had someone like you who loved me.
I wish I remember being loved. I don't even know what it feels like to
be loved by a parent. Not anymore."
"Oh. I-"
"For once, our sharp-tongued viper is baffled for
words. Spike, don't say anything."
"I wasn't. I-"
"What?"
"I'm sorry I woke you up," he finished lamely.
Faye eyeballed him suspiciously. He must be taking
this harder than she'd thought. Never before had an apology come from
Spike Spiegel to Faye Valentine. She shook her head and snorted
derisively before lighting a cigarette. "You want one?"
"Sure."
"Get one yourself, cowboy." She tossed the lighter
to him.
"Go to hell, Faye."
"I already live here, Spike," she said, sweetly.
"Ah. Oh yes, remind me in the morning to tell you to
go fuck yourself." He rolled over and pretended to go to sleep,
smelling the spicy smoke of Faye's cigarette as she sat on the stairs,
smiling quietly into the darkness.
Finally, he heard Faye get up to go. She spoke
softly, thinking him asleep, "Oh, Spike. I hope someday you'll heal
from the hurt she caused you. I hope you find someone to heal that hole
in your heart," Spike almost sat up, shocked at her sympathetic, almost
sad
tone. Her voice hardened and she went on. "God knows you could use a
woman to soften you up. If only you could see that you're the biggest
asshole to ever roam the solar system. If you weren't such a jackass,
I'd have probably fallen for you by now. Thank god I didn't. Baka." She
softly clicked her way up the stairs and down the hallway to her room.
Spike smiled softly into the sofa cushions at the
curious idea that perhaps Faye did have a heart after all, and went
back to sleep.
Ein snored.
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Author's notes! Well, there's Chapter 2! So much longer!
Gracias to reviews, and mine beta reader, Lady Athena.
Chapter three is getting harder to write as I have hyoooj amounts of
homework. Ah, college!
Anyhoo, thanks in advance for reviews!
Cheers,
Malia