Chapter 8

Niceties of Company

A/N: I did it again! I wrote 10 pages, which is just too much to expect you all to read. Ya'll no doubt lose interest after 5, but I had a lot to say.

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They stalked along a dark alley in the back suburbs of Prague, just him and his girl, the way it should be. Their prey, two similar lovers up ahead, walked on oblivious of their demonic pursuers. He could see them talking quietly, feel the warmth of their skin, the beat of their hearts. Their blood reeked of humanity. His favourite flavour. Beside him, Drusilla sang quietly, "run, rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run."

He smiled ruefully at his love, "Shhh love, don't scare the little bunnies."

She laughed, a low mad giggle, "Nice little nibblets, hop hop hop." She skipped two slender fingers along her arm and up into her mouth, bitting down on her black nails with a wicked grin. "Fetch the sweet rabbits for me Spike?"

He growled, a low fierce rumble that made Drusilla laugh, "For you love." He purred. He advanced silently down the alley towards his dinner, who had paused under a street lamp to light their cigarettes. "Evenin' folks," He grinned, "Got a light?" The pair looked surprised and confused at seeing the blond stranger appear from the darkness, "Never mind," He continued, "I shouldn't smoke. They say cigarettes will kill you." He grinned, his demon face corrupting the angelic human one of his misleading façade. "Not a problem for me though, I'm already dead." He swiftly launched his fist first at the frightened man, putting a stop to any fight he might try to put up. The woman screamed, as they always did, and tried to run away, but he caught her. "Where are you going luv?" He asked, shoving the girl sideways to expose her neck, "we were just about to have tea." Spike awoke with a start. He was hot, so so hot; the sleeping bag was smothering him. He kicked it off and sat up, shaking and sweating. He looked around. Angel's bedroom. He was on his mattress on the floor, it was dark, but he was safe. With a tentative hand he felt his teeth. They were normal sized, the demon was gone. It had been a dream.

Scalding tears slipped down his cheeks. It hadn't been a dream at all. It had been something else, something real. He had been in that alley, he had hurt that girl and worse, he had enjoyed it. The tears kept coming and soon Spike was crying into his pillow, his tiny frame shaking on the roll out mattress. He felt so bad, he didn't mean to hurt that poor girl, he wanted it to go away but it wouldn't. It hurt so much, and no matter how many sorries he hiccuped into his pillow the pain didn't go. He was a bad kid. He was a bad kid, he did bad things. He was no good. He cried selfishly for himself. He didn't deserve his own tears.

"Spike?" It was Angel, looming above him from the bed. Spike reached out his arms, a fresh wave of sobs erupting from his throat. Angel heaved him onto the bed and into an enveloping embrace. "Shh Spikey shh, did you have a bad dream?" Spike nodded dumbly, still hiccuping through his tears. "What was it about?"

"It hurts." He mumbled into Angel's chest. "I'm really sorry."

"What hurts?" Asked Angel, fighting to keep his voice calm. "Did you hurt something?"

Spike looked up at Angel in horror. "Hurt... I hurt..." He buried his face in Angel's chest, "I'm sorry."

Angel held onto Spike tightly, "Shh, it's ok now. It's ok. It was just a dream. You're safe now."

Spike grabbed a hold of Angel's shirt, making sure he really was safe now. "Yeah." He mumbled, "Just a-a-a dream."

Angel lay back gently, Spike still firmly in his arms, "It's all ok. Go back to sleep." Spike stopped shaking and fell still. Soon he was asleep again, this time peacefully. Safe in Angel's arms.

Quiet, as the saying went, too quiet. Angel's office was suspiciously silent that afternoon, and the vampire was having none of it. Where was the loud make-believe play? The sound of books and furniture being knocked about to build a fort? There wasn't any tantrums or yelling. Spike could not possibly be this quiet, unless he was up to something. "Spike?" Angel called cautiously.

The little vampire giggled and took a running leap from behind the sofa launching himself at Angel's desk. Defying gravity, the blond vampire child hurtled towards the desk and over it, crashing into his grandsire and landing safely on Angel's lap. "Hello." He called brightly.

Angel would have had a heart attack if that was still possible. He set Spike down on the floor, shaking from the experience of watching his charge dive headfirst towards a mahogany desk and go sailing over the top. "Spike, don't do that!" He gasped. "You'll hurt something."

"No I won't" Spike said, leapfrogging over a side table. He bounced twice on the couch and jumped of, hitting a book case and pulling two heavy volumes down with him. He giggled hysterically sprawled on the floor, the huge demon encyclopaedias mercifully inches from his face.

Angel looked horrified at the scene of barely avoided catastrophe. It was time to put his foot down. "Spike no!" He barked, "Now you can have fun, but I will not have you destroying my office or hurting yourself."

Spike pouted, still flat on his back. "Can I go outside?" He asked.

"No," Angel sighed, "It's daytime. No sunlight Spike you know the rules."

"It's a stupid rule." Spike mumbled, getting up and going to sulk in the corner.

Angel felt like agreeing, but he kept his mouth shut. He had work to do and he didn't want to provoke Spike further, not when he was sulking nice and quietly. He went back to reading over the new contracts pilled on the side of his desk, signing off on this project and that enchantment. Who knew demons needed this much paper work to do evil. Spike watched him curiously from sulk headquarters in the corner.

"What are you doing?" Spike asked, deciding his sulking wasn't getting any attention.

"I'm working." Angel replied, "Reading things I have to read."

"I'm not sure how reading works," Spike began, "But I know you don't need a pen to do it." He pointed accusingly at the fountain pen in Angel's hand "What is that for?"

"Signing things" Angel said. As Spike remained confused, Angel decided to teach him something. "Look here." He said, beckoning Spike over and pulling him onto his lap. "When I finish reading something, I write my name at the bottom. This tells Harmony I read it, and I think it's ok."

Spike looked curiously at Angel's signature. He clasped the fountain pen in both hands and tried to mimic the scribble below. His attempt was even less readable than the original. Spike had failed his first attempt at writing. "Fooey." He spat.

Angel resisted the urge to smile at Spike's choice of words. "It's ok, it's hard to do a signature." He handed the pen back to Spike. "Here, I'll teach you how to write your name, so you can sign documents" He picked up another pen and a scrap of paper. "Ok, so what's your name?"

"Spike." Spike giggled dumbly.

"Ok, Spike stars with an 'S', ssss sound." Angel hissed as he drew the squiggly letter on his scrap of paper. Spike mimicked Angel's letter, and ended up with a squiggle slightly resembling an unbalanced 'S', which he regarded proudly. "Great." Angel said, instinctively giving Spike a squeeze. "Ok, so then we have puh, P." He drew the second letter, which Spike also copied proudly. "'I' which is a little stick man with a dot on top for his hat, a 'K', with two sticky outy bits like this, and then 'E', an almost circle and a line here." As Angel wrote the rest of Spike's name out. The little vampire copied his instructions carefully. He mastered 'I' and 'K' but got stuck on "E". The curvey letter was just not behaving well form him. Angel took Spike's hand in his own, and helped him hold his pen. "Across and around." He said, guiding Spike's hands.

Spike looked at his newly crafted signature, glowing with satisfaction. "S-pi-ke." He sounded out.

"That's great work!" Angel said proudly, "You can sign documents now."

Spike considered this. He looked at his own signature, and then back at Angel's, noticing the difference in appearance. "Hmm... I think I want to practice a bit more before I sign anything." He hopped of Angel's lap, taking his piece of paper and pen with him, and set up camp on the floor. Angel watched with a hint of pride as Spike began painstakingly practicing his name.

Spike sat back and looked at his work. He had written his name six times, and it was starting to look pretty good. The His name kinda slanted upward, the E was a lot bigger than the S, but the K looked great, and the S only had two curves like Angel's, unlike some of Spike's first tries which had three. His signature was perfect! Now he could sign things like Angel! He could help sing things for Harmony, and then Angel could play. Satisfied with his new plan, Spike scurried out of the office into the lobby to find Harmony. "Harm'ny, Harm'ny!" He called, galloping over to the vampire secretary.

"Heya cutie-pie." She said, dropping her work to greet Spike.

"Harm'ny," He scowled, "Don't call me that. That's a wussy girl name." Harmony looked sad and offended but Spike waved her off, "Look at this!" He cried brandishing his practiced signature.

"Wow you can write?!" Harmony scrutinised Spike's signature, "You're pretty good, soon they'll be getting you to do my job." She paused for a minute as she considered this prospect, "I think it's illegal for little kids to have jobs and stuff though, so I'm safe."

Spike looked put out, "So, I can't sign stuff like Angel can?"

"Well," She considered, "Oh, I could never resist your pout! Ok! You can sign stuff. You are like 100 years old. The kid rule probably doesn't apply." She grabbed a small stack of files from her desk and handed them to Spike. "Here, I don't think there's anything to evil in there. Just read it over and if it's ok sign it."

"I can't read." Spike said.

"It's hard hey," Harmony sighed, "Sometimes I read D's as P's, which would be ok, unless you work in an evil law firm. I'm signing stuff about pastry, and it turns out a lot of people get killed. Pie, die, I'm sorry the letters look so similar!"

Spike gave her a confused look and went to sit on the lobby chairs to sign his documents. He decided to try and read them, just in case he learnt somehow, but the little black lines were still a muddle. He peered closely at the big letters up the top. There was some squiggles he didn't recognise, but one of them made sense. "S!" He cried triumphantly, "for 'S-pi-ke!'"

"Bit late for writing in'it?" The man asked.

Spike looked up. It was that voice again. The one from his dreams. His own voice.

"Oh, I'm sorry." A different boy's voice replied. "Is this your lawn?"

He chuckled, "No, no, sit all you want." The vampire regarded his victim in the fading light of dusk. The boy was small and reedy, a twig really, but he was young. He was writing something by the light of a street lamp. "Poems is it?"

The boy hid is work, flustered "Oh, um yes."

"I used to write poems." He said, looking wistfully at the boy "Silly little things."

"Poems?" The boy blushed, "I like them."

"Oh, not poems." The vampire grinned, "Humans."

The boy looked frightened, and pulled away, ready to run. "What's... who are you?"

Demon face on, the vampire replied, "I'm-"

"Spike!" Spike looked up from his documents.

"Tilly!" He cried, spotting his friend.

Tilly began to walk over, "Oh I'm sorry," She said nervously, "I didn't realise you had company. I don't want to intrude"

Spike hurriedly shook his head, "Oh, no. I... I don't like them. I'd much rather play with you."

Tilly smiled broadly, "Cool. I'm up for a game."

"Oh look at this!" Spike grabbed his scrap of paper and proudly showed Tilly his signature.

"What is it?" Tilly asked confused.

"It's my name!" he said, "See? S-pi-ke. I can write."

Tilly's jaw dropped, "Wow, that is so cool! Can you teach me?"

Spike furrowed his brow, "I dunno. What do you want to know how to write?"

"Can you teach me my name?" She asked.

Spike made a face, "I only really know how to write Spike. Is 'Tilly' the same as that?"

She thought about it for a while. "I don't think so." She said sadly.

Spike looked sad too, but he's expression brightened as an idea struck him, "Oh! Angel can write lotsa things! I'm sure he could show you how to write your name!"

Tilly jumped up and down excitedly, "Cool! Where is Angel?" She looked around, "Did he disappear with your other friends?"

Spike shook his head, "No, he's in the office, this way." Spike grabbed the stack of papers Harmony had given him and set of towards Angel's office with Tilly.

"Is Angel like you?" Tilly asked.

"Well, he doesn't look like me." Spike said.

"No, I mean," Tilly furrowed her brow, "is he... like you? different? You know... you're not quite... right."

Spike looked puzzled but the odd question was put out of his mind as they reached the office door. "Angel, Angel look who I found! Well, actually, she found me, but she's here now!" Spike galloped into the office, leaving a shy Matilda waiting by the door.

Angel looked up. "What's going on Spike?"

"I found my friend Matilda." Angel caught sight of Tilly in the doorway, half hidden by the wooden door.

"Matilda." Angel said, unsure of how to proceed. "Hi."

"You gotta teach her how to write her name!" Spike said, "'Cause I only know Spike. But if Tilly could sign things too, then we could both sign paper for Harmony, and I have a big lot to sign. Plus it's hard to read them. 'Cause I can't read"

Angel put a hand to his forehead, Spike was hard to understand at the best of times, and now he was excited. "What did Harmony give you?" He asked. Spike held out the stack of documents for Angel to look at. He flipped through the pages, his face darkening as he read on. "Harmony gave you these? To sign?" Spike nodded. Angel ran a hand through his hair, "I'll be right back." He said through angrily gritted teeth.

Tilly hurried out of the way as Angel stormed by. "He's a bit grumpy sometimes." Spike said, "But he's pretty ok too."

"Is he your dad?" Tilly asked.

Spike looked away, "I... he's... it's..." He didn't know how to answer. The question made him feel funny inside, but he didn't want to tell Tilly that. He didn't want to say Angel wasn't his dad, but he didn't think Angel would want Spike to say he was. He didn't really like thinking about it.

Tilly didn't press the matter, she knew about tricky situations, "He has a long shadow." She said moving on, "Longer than yours."

Spike looked down at the puddle of shadow at his feet. "He's tall though. I'm little, so or corse I have a little shadow."

"Not really." Tilly shrugged "yours is longer than most."

"What does that mean?" Spike asked.

Tilly avoided Spike's eyes and turned instead to regard the room around her, "This place doesn't look like much fun."

"It's not." Spike admitted, "But we can jump on the couches, sometimes I make and obstacle course."

Tilly smile excitedly, "I know! Let's play pirates!"

"Yeah!" Spike agreed, "And ninja's!" From the bottom draw of Angel's desk Spike took two long wooden stakes. "These can be swords"

Tilly grabbed hold of a stake and tested the weapon, "Wow! These are so cool! What are they."

"Dunno," He shrugged, "Angel takes them out sometimes."

"They are so cool," Tilly reaffirmed. The children struck fighting poses, "Let's go then scurvy sea dog." She grinned maliciously, "Watch out, I might stake you."

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"Harmony! Angel cried. "What on earth do you think you're doing?!"

Harmony looked up from her phone, "Look, it's my break; I can make a personal call."

Angel hit the hang up button angrily, "You can't just give Spike legal documents to play with! Some of these are dangerous!"

"Sorry." She muttered, "At least I let him have some fun."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Angel growled.

"He's a kid Angel!" Harmony said, "And kids need fun and play time and love. You don't give him any of that."

"How do you know what I feel for Spike?" Angel seethed.

"Well if you love him why don't you show it?" She huffed, "That pour kid gets more love from the pot plants. He worships you Angel. Just smile at him once. You're supposed to look after him."

"I didn't ask for this." Angel replied.

"Yeah, but you got it." Harmony said. "Spike is yours now. So get off your broody high horse and give him a hug or something."

Angel couldn't reply. Harmony, of all people, was right. "I'm trying Harmony." He sighed, "But it's... difficult."

Harmony patted Angel's head fondly, causing the older vampire to shrink away, "Don't know how to have fun? I'm not surprised."

"I know how to have fun!" Angel defended. "How do I have fun?" he asked, resolve and pride gone.

"Just go with the flow." She instructed.

"Which flow would that be?" Angel asked.

"The fun flow." She specified "From happy lepricon mountain. I don't know Angel. Fun just happens; all you have to do is be there and play along. Just 'cause your Mr Dark and Broody Creature of the Night doesn't mean you can't be a dork right. And kids are like that, dorky and embarrassing."

"Thanks Harmony," Angel sighed, "I think that was helpful." He turned back to the office.

"Wait." Harmony called, "weren't you going to yell at me for something?"

Angel shrugged, "I'll yell next time you mess up."

"Take that ye blaggard." Spike lunged forward with his stake, but Tilly blocked him.

"I'm no blaggard!" Tilly said, "Ye be the bladdard ya worthless retch!"

"Wait, who's the pirate?" Spike asked.

"I am." She said.

"I thought I was the pirate." He said. "I don't wanna be a ninja."

Tilly sighed exasperatedly, "We can't both be pirates." She said.

"Why not?" Spike asked.

Angel opened the door to his office and his stomach dropped. Soaring in the middle of the room where Spike and Matilda and both children were armed with stakes. He resisted the urge to yell and charge at the little girl who had her weapon poised above Spike's chest. "What are you doing?" he cried.

"Playing pirates and ninjas." Spike said. "We're pirates, these are our swords."

Angel was about to roar a reprimand at the children, when a strange idea hit him. "So, you pirates fight ninja's right?" he asked, "Well, I'm a ninja." He struck a fighting stance, "come fight me." Spike and Tilly looked at each other and shrugged. In a flurry of yells and flailing limbs the two children charged at the vampire. Using his lighting fast reflexes, Angel snatched the stakes from his attackers and held them aloft above his head.

"Hey! That's my sword." Matilda cried.

"Ninja's do not fight with swords." Angel said in his best ninja accent. "We fight with the power of the tiger in our fists of furry." He threw the stakes on top of the filing cabinet where the children couldn't get them. "You still game to take me on little pirates?"

"Arr, I'll take on a scurvy ninja any day." Spike said, charging at Angel. Tilly charged too and Angel was soon buried under the violent children. He roared and threw them off, readying himself for the next attack. It came swiftly as Tilly grabbed hold of his ankles and refused to budge. Angel bent down and weakly pretended to tug Tilly off. While he was close to the ground, Spike grabbed hold of his neck and latched onto the vampire's back. Angel stood up swiftly in an attempt to throw the child off, but Spike held fast. "Little boy hold on tight. Big ninja no match for kiddie kung fu grip."

Spike lent in close to Angel's ear and whispered, "This is fun. We should play more often."

Angel whispered back to his child, "We will. I promise."

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