Home Sweet Home

Later that day

"Edward is very hungry!" she cried.

"I know Ed! I'll be done if you stop jumping on me!" Jet yelled at the insane child. He turned back to the food.

"Yo Jet, when the hell's dinner? I'm starving," Spike yelled from beyond the kitchen.

Jet gritted his teeth. "That's it!" he yelled and yanked the frying pan from off the stove. He marched out to where Spike was lying on the couch. Jet threw the pan down on the table in front of Spike. "You want dinner, you can cook it!" he yelled then stormed off to his room.

Spike blinked and looked at the pan uncertainly. His stomach grumbled then and he shrugged took the pan back into the kitchen and set it on the stove. He flipped the small TV that was mounted in the wall on and leaned into the counter. He lit a cigarette and became absorbed in the show.

Ten minutes later he smelled smoke. He whirled around and yanked the pan off the stove. When the smoke cleared, all that remained off the food was a shapeless black lump. Spike proceeded to try to scrap it out; first with a spatula, then a fork, at last with a knife which, with all the force behind it, flipped the blob high into the air. Quick as lightning he reached a plate out and caught it neatly.

"Good reflexes," he heard someone say dryly behind him.

Looking out his peripheral vision, he saw it was Faye.

She stepped closer and looked at the blob on the plate. "And that would be?" she asked.

Spike scowled. "Bell peppers a lá Spike," he said gloomily.

Faye wrinkled her nose. "I'll pass." She sauntered over to the fridge and pulled the door open.

"What are you doing?" he questioned her as she started to take food out.

"Making dinner, unless you expect me to eat that," she said, looking pointedly at the blob which he had 'cooked'. Spike gave a slight smile and ran his hand through his hair. Faye took some peppers and diced them. Then she chopped up onions, mushrooms, and tomatoes. Lastly she took out some ground beef. She looked around for a new frying pan for she was not going to use the one that Spike had cooked with. She finally found one, sprayed it with cooking spray, put it on the stove and began to add ingredients. She stood over the food, constantly moving around in the pan.

Minutes later, it started smelling real good. Spike's mouth was watering and his stomach rumbled again. Faye gave Spike a smirk. "Smell good?" she teased. Spike gave a lazy smile, put his hands behind his head and walked from the room. Faye smirked again knowing what he was trying to hide, then turned back to the food.

Spike walked back to the living room pushing away his hunger pains with thoughts of Julia. Where was she? He hadn't seen her all day. He wasn't one to get nervous but she'd been acting real strange lately. Disappearing for long lengths of time, smiling to herself when she thought he wasn't looking. He shook his head. He would never understand women.

Faye set food on some plates. She then crept out into the living room. Without making a noise she crept up to Spike who was lying down with his eyes closed. Taking a deep breath, she then yelled "DINNER!!!" as loud as she could into his ear. Spike jumped up as fast as he could and fell off the couch. He landed hard. "Jumpy aren't we?" Faye asked innocently.

"Shit Faye!" he said. He jumped up, dusted himself off, and stepped closer to her, curling his hand into a fist.

Faye looked him straight in the eye. "Put one finger on me and I'll eat your dinner as well as mine."

Spike's eyes widened. "You wouldn't dare," he said, dropping his fist to his side.

"Watch me." With that, she turned and strode to the kitchen. He ran up behind her, picked her up, turned around, put her down, and ran for his food. Laughing, Faye ran after him. Spike was eating his food as fast as he could while keeping it shielded from her. Faye grabbed her plate.

She had barely started when he finished. She pointed a finger at him and said, "You shouldn't eat so fast."

He narrowed his eyes. "And that would be why?" he asked, then without warning came "hic" from him.

Faye started giggling. "You might get the hiccups," she said, gasping for air as she held her side, she was laughing so hard. Then without warning, there came "hic" from her, too.

Spike smiled in between "hics" and said, "Yeah and (hic) you (hic) might get (hic) the hic (hic) ups from laugh (hic) ing, too."

Faye just kept laughing and (if it was possible) harder. Spike began to laugh, too. The laughs between the two were cut off by "hics" which seemed to make them laugh harder. Soon Faye stopped laughing and pulled herself up from her position: leaning against the counter. Spike stood up straight. His hiccups were gone, too. He looked at her with a goofy grin.

"Thanks," he said. "I really needed that laugh. Things have just been so crazy lately. And well..." he trailed off.

Faye, who was wiping tears from her eyes (she'd been laughing so hard), smiled back. "Anytime," she said, took her plate and went out to the couch to sit and eat.

Spike followed, sat opposite of her, and turned on the TV. The news was on. A young woman had just announced the top news.

"And next, in the entertainment department, music group Cowboy Bebop, held auditions today to fill the spot of former member Vicious. We interviewed several people and it seems it was hard on everyone except this young lady." A picture of Faye shot up onto the screen. "Her name is Faye Valentine and this seems to be her first band. She and the rest of the band have declined interviews for the time being, we are confident for future ones.

As for Vicious, he has organized his own band: The Dragons. It deals with the same music as Cowboy Bebop so it seems those two bands are going to go head-to-head. Who will win? Only time will tell."

Spike slammed the TV off and stalked from the room.

Faye watched him go with surprised eyes. She finished her food and stood to clean her spot up.

As she was cleaning the floor, she heard someone call out "Who the hell are you?"

Faye turned her head to the steps where a blond woman stood glaring down at her. Faye lifted an eyebrow for a second before recognition flitted across her face. "Oh," she said. "You must be Julia. I'm Faye, the newest band member."

Julia still remained glaring at her. "Where's Spike?" she asked.

Faye shrugged. "Dunno, he just stormed out of here a few minutes ago. Looked like he wanted to let off some steam."

Julia's face seemed to smirk for a second before she pouted. "The poor guy's been through enough these past few days." She left the room.

Faye looked after her for a few seconds before shrugging and continued to clean up. After she was done, she went up to Jet's room and knocked on the door.

"Yes?" she heard him bark from the room.

"Dinner's ready, just to let you know."

"Okay, I'll be out in a minute. Have you told Ed?

"Nope, just about to."

"Okay, has Spike eaten?"

"Of course, I could barely finish cooking it before he inhaled it." She turned and went to look for Ed in the wake of Jet's laughter.

She walked down stairs and stairs. "Ed? Ed? Where are you? Ow, Dammit!" she said as she stubbed her toe on a door frame. "Ed, I don't care if you can hear me or not! If you don't come eat, I'll feed your food to the dog!"

She turned and Edward jumped down from the ceiling in front of her. "Faye-Faye!" she said cheerfully.

"Jesus Christ Ed! Don't do that!"

Ed just giggled, turned and ran off. Faye growled and stumbled on after her. Faye went into the living room. She flopped on the couch and turned on the TV again. She had just started getting into a show when Jet's voice came directed at her.

"Where's Spike?"

She didn't even look up at him. "Off somewhere with Julia," she answered, waving her hand around when she said 'somewhere'.

"Oh, she's back is she?" he asked.

Faye turned her head to look at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing except she's been disappearing lately and Spike's been worried."

Faye shrugged and looked back to the TV. Jet turned and went to look for Ed.

Spike had stormed off to his workroom and proceeded to kick the shit out of his punching bag which hung from the ceiling. Soon he was very sweaty and shirtless. He bent over and put one hand on his upper thigh and used the backside of the other hand to wipe his forehead. That had been quite a workout. Now he straightened and stretched his arms over his head. He froze when he felt ice cold hands run the length of his back.

"You're so hot," Julia whispered.

Spike turned to her with a playful grin. "And you're so cold," he teased.

Julia pouted before stretching up to kiss him. "Mmm, you taste like beef and peppers; another one of Jet's infamous dinners?" Julia asked with a twinkle in her eyes.

Spike grinned. "Nope, this time Faye cooked."

Julia frowned. "Faye?" she asked, as she thought. "Oh, that girl cleaning up out there."

Spike frowned now. "She's not a girl, Julia. She's twenty-three, the same age as you." He dropped down into a chair. Julia stepped behind him and began to massage his neck and back.

"You won't believe how long auditions were today. They were worth it though because we found Faye. You wouldn't believe it, but she plays Hendrix like it's a second nature to her. And her guitar is autographed by Jimmy Page. I definitely think she's worth twice as much to the band than Vicious ever was. We're going to show that backstabber that he made a mistake in leaving."

Spike spoke with finality. As he spoke about Vicious, Julia's mouth tightened and her eyes blazed but Spike didn't see because she was standing behind him.

"Where's she from?" Julia asked.

Spike shrugged. "I have no clue. She didn't say, though I'm a bit curious myself. Maybe we can ask later with everyone around."

Julia gave a nod and stopped massaging him, though her hands still rested on his back. "Why don't we all get to know each other at the same time; right now in the living room?" she asked.

Spike laughed lightly. "Eager aren't we? All right, let's round up the crew for some storytelling?"