Chapter Seven

Spike rolled over on the bed, and tried to relax enough to get some sleep. After the twenty-third toss, he gave up, and started searching the room for something to drink. He wondered if the others were sleeping. Gunn had looked like a deflated balloon, and on their return to the hotel, had slunk off up the stairs to bed. Illyria had simply walked off in the opposite direction up the other staircase and disappeared. Spike doubted she was sleeping. 'Does Blue even need sleep?' He thought to himself. And as for their new friend...'Where was angel-eyes anyway?'

Failing at finding anything in his room, Spike decided to explore the rest of the hotel. He followed seemingly endless halls, and past countless rooms. There was no liquor of any kind to be seen. Just more empty rooms and cupboards, filled with forgotten junk and a lot of cobwebs. After a couple of hours, he managed to find his way back to the staircase. "How does anyone bloody well find his way around this place!" he muttered under his breath, as he stomped down the stairs, feeling very annoyed.

"Where is the bloody kitchen?!"

"I think it's that way," Layla answered from above.

Spike spun around, and looked up. Layla was sitting on the railing up above, looking down at him in amusement.

"Ok, angel toes, new rules. One, stop popping out of nowhere! If I had a heart, it would have been under attack by now. Two, get down from there before you hurt yourself."

Layla looked at him amused. "I like it up here. Besides weren't you looking for the kitchen?"

"Fine. Whatever,"Spike waved his hand in dismissal, and headed off toward the kitchen; leaving Layla to her lofty perch. She watched him walk out of sight, and jumped down to the lobby floor. 'He was an interesting one,' she thought to herself. "Angel toes?" she whispered bewilderedly as she walked outside into the garden. Well it had been a garden once. This had been home once to some of them. Now it was just an empty building full of echoes. She wondered how long it would take for them to see it.

Night had fallen by the time Gunn awoke from his dreamless sleep. For a moment he lay there disoriented. He was in his room...in the Hyperion. Memories of the previous night washed fresh over him again like salt in a raw wound. He got up slowly and dressed. Looking down at his side he noticed his wound was almost completely healed. 'But it will probably scar,' he thought to himself. His belly rumbled, reminding him he hadn't eaten for two days. 'Best scare up some grub,' he thought to himself, and headed downstairs.

Spike's search for any form of alcohol had been a complete bust, and as a result was in a very bad mood.. However, he seemed to perk up a bit when he saw Gunn descend down the stairs. "Great! You're up then! Let's say we get out of here. This place feels like a tomb."

Gunn winced a bit at the mention of the word tomb. "Where's Illyria?" he asked, attempting to change the topic.

"Dunno. Haven't seen her today. Probably off communing with the shrubbery somewhere," he said shrugging. "And as for our resident celestial being, she's well...up a tree."

"What?!" Gunn asked not quite sure he got that.

"She outside...in the garden...up a tree." Spike said slowly, and shaking his head in bewilderment. "She went out there this afternoon. Climbed on up, and hasn't come down yet."

"Right," Gunn sighed. His stomach growled again.

"You are in need of sustenance," spoke a familiar voice.

Illyria came up from the basement stairs. "I have been pondering our fate and testing the security of our siege while you have been resting."

"And?" Spike said sarcastically.

"We must mobilize our forces. We must find a new, more easily guarded one."

"Can we first start with breakfast?" Gunn asked resignedly.

Illyria nodded, and headed toward the door.

"Hang on a tic!" Spike exclaimed. "You can't go out like that."

Illyria frowned, looked down at herself, and back at Spike. "What is wrong with my appearance?"

"Well, you don't exactly blend now do you?" Spike reasoned.

Gunn covered his mouth with his hand, desperately trying to shield a smile.

Illyria looked at him and morphed into Fred. "Is this more appropriate?"

"Ok, now that is just creepy," Spike stated.

Gunn stopped smiling, and Spike frowned. "No pet, that will not do at all. Too Fredish. Can you do something perhaps in-between?"

Illyria thought for a moment, and shook out her hair. The blue faded slowly back in, but not as extreme as it usually was. When she looked up her eyes were blue, but a softer, more human blue. There was also a faint blue shadow on her lips, and her clothes stayed instead of her armor. She looked less like Fred, and her clothes were a bit more practical than what Fred had been wearing of late. She raised an eyebrow at Spike.

He clapped his hands together in relief, and looked at Gunn, who nodded approvingly. Turning to Illyria, "Much better Blue. Now where is our other makeover in need?"

"What is wrong with my clothes?" came a voice from behind him.

"Well no offense, but you look like you just walked out of a Greek tragedy."

Layla looked down at her dress. She had to admit it did look rather out of place. "Well, what do you suggest?" she asked looking at Spike.

"Something a bit more practical. And less like a period piece."

Layla thought for a moment and ripped her dress off....

"Hey!" and "Oh lord!" came from Spike and Gunn who both tried to look away.

Revealing an identical outfit to Spike's on underneath; black t-shirt, black jeans, and a pair of black boots.

"Is this better?"

Spike looked around at her, and groaned. Gunn roared out laughing. She looked better in Spike's staple outfit than he did, he thought to himself.

"No Layla. Something more feminine. Something more like, God I never thought I would ever say this, something more like Illyria up there."

Layla looked at Illyria's causal khakis and blouse, and nodded. She ripped off her shirt, revealing a more dressy t-shirt. "I like the pants," she insisted.

"Fine! Keep the pants!" Spike groaned in defeat.

"Ok guys, can we go now? I did not survive the apocalypse to die of hunger the next day." Gunn asked.

Illyria nodded, and walked out the door. Gunn followed her, while Spike waited till Layla had walked out before he followed.

The door closed gently behind him without a sound.