"Angel!"

"Spike! What's all this I hear about you…" Angel stopped in his ranting as he heard Spike's panting from the floor on the other side of the sofa. The younger vampire was breathing heavily and the smell of arousal was thick in the air. He peered cautiously over the edge of the sofa and tried to figure out what Spike was doing.

The bottle blond was frantically scrabbling around and pulling his duster on top of him. He was shaking a little and Angel could see the flustered look on his face. When he spoke, his voice was thick with emotion and dry from lack of moisture. "A…Angel… You…but you were…I mean…" Spike broke off into short breaths for unneeded air.

Angel frowned and tried to work out exactly what Spike was doing. Lying on the floor covered by his duster whilst making plans of how to kill Conner? He peered to where his childe was wiping his hands on the ruined carpet and muttering something to himself. Angel laughed in his head at what it looked like Spike had been doing. By the smells of things it was as if he'd just…Oh God…

"Oh God… Spike did you just… I mean were you…" Angel's fears were confirmed when Spike's face began to darken red. Before long the smaller vampire was bright pink to the tips of his ears and trying to look through the floor. "You're…disgusting. You know that?" Angel sneered and looked down at his childe with disgust.

Spike didn't say anything. He was too busy trying to ignore the looks he was getting from his sire. How could he be so stupid? Actually thinking it was Angel that was with him before. It was obvious that his Sire would never want him in that way. Never. He was alone in all of this.

"I can't believe you Spike. I thought this was just a phase but I guess I was wrong." Angel folded his arms and watched as the younger vampire squirmed beneath his gaze. "I thought that maybe you were going to realise how pathetic this whole hating Conner thing is and just get over it. But I guess not."

Wait. Hating Conner? Where did that come into the equation? Spike wondered why Angel was going on about Conner instead of what he'd walked in on. Surely Angel was mad about the fact that he was… doing things whilst thinking of him?

"But now you're…you're doing this whilst planning against him? This is sick Spike." Angel pointed out and rubbed his eyes with a finger and thumb. "I didn't think you could sink this low."

Spike froze and pulled hid duster higher to make sure that he was fully covered. "You thought I was…" he paused and ran through what Angel had said. "EW! That's gross Angel! How could you think I was… ew!" Spike felt sick at the thought of what his sire had just said.

"You mean you weren't…"

"NO!"

"But Conner said…"

"Does he think that much of himself? I would never ever think of Conner in that way. It's disgusting to even consider that." Spike added and fastened his jeans beneath his duster. "I mean… honestly Angel. I was just having regular non Conner thoughts." Well, not really regular but they defiantly weren't about Conner. He added to himself.

"Oh… okay. I guess that's okay then." Angel nodded to himself and began making his way to the door. Mumbling an apology to Spike quietly. He felt so stupid. He was fully prepared to throw Spike out of the hotel for thinking such things about his son. But now he just felt stupid.

"Wait, Angel?" Spike stood up, fully clothed but still holding his too big duster in front of him as a shield. "Why did you think that? I mean you know me better than anyone. You know I don't think like that about men." But vampires are a different matter…

"Conner said he'd heard you planning to kill him again. So I came up to investigate and tell you not to, and I found you like that…" Angel faced the doorway and prepared himself for the yelling.

"So you just assumed that I was having a wank over the thoughts of Conner dying?" Spike yelled and pulled on his sire's arm to try and make him turn round. Usually he would have been able to, but the lack of strength meant he couldn't quite get the momentum needed.

Anger at his childe's words finally getting the better of him, Angel simply yelled back. "Yes, I did think that. I mean all you ever do is try to make Conner's life a misery and I'm sick of it." Angel glared at his childe and saw the scowl he was getting back.

"I don't spend all my time making Conner's life a misery!" The blond hollered. "You just assume that because you think that Conner's perfect in every way. But he's not! He's a lying little twat who can't be trusted because he hates me and he's using you!"

Before he knew what had happened, Spike found himself sitting on the floor with a stinging cheek. He'd fallen from the force of the blow and now Angel was standing over him with his hand still in the air from the follow through. Angel frowned down at Spike and spoke evenly and calmly.

"Don't you ever use words like that about my son again. If I ever see you accusing him or trying to hurt him again, I swear I will stake you. Don't test me on that William. You know I will." William. He'd called him William for the first time in ages. He must've really meant it.

Cautiously, Spike raised his hand to his face and felt the pink skin beneath his palm. It stung like crazy and was probably going to bruise from the force used. The younger vampire looked up at his sire and was surprised to find how vulnerable he felt. He'd never been so scared of Angel before. Not even when he was Angelus.

Gulping slightly and trying to keep his emotions in check, Spike nodded and looked back down at the floor. Angel nodded silently and went back into the hallway, closing the door quietly behind him.

Spike sat for a while on the floor, still holding his stinging cheek. The smack to his face had really hurt. Still being a vampire, he thought it would just be the usual sting before fading into nothing. But this was still hurting as if it had just happened. His jaw had been knocked and was throbbing from where it had been snapped back.

He rubbed the sore spot lightly before crawling back onto his bed. No one needed to know about this. Spike was sure that the mortals had heard them yelling, but they didn't need to know about what Angel had done to him. It was no big deal. Not like Angel hadn't hit him before.

He'd just wait for the throbbing to stop, the swelling to go down and the bruise to disappear. Then he'd go back downstairs, find some blood, tell Wesley about the demon and try to help them find whatever had done this to him.

But he wouldn't tell them about what had happened.

¬!"$&()

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