A/N: Hallooooo! Thanks SO much for the awesome reviews! D I'm truly surprised that the 1st chapter was so well-received, so...THANKS!
So follow the leader down, and swallow your pride and drown Unwritten Law: "Seein' Red"
It was a mournful ballad that finally broke Faye free of the shackles that the depths of repose had enslaved her with, her incredible jade eyes fluttering slightly open before casting over towards the direction of the petite figure that was clearly emanating the haunting tune.
Blinking as if to rid the sleep from her weary eyes, Faye watched on in mild fascination as the lovely blonde woman continued to hum the hypnotic melody, every now and then leafing through to the next page of the brown book that she held possessively within her grasp before suddenly pausing, now receiving the unsettling feeling that she was being watched.
Turning her head so that her cerulean blue orbs were now locked with Faye's jade ones, the woman gave her a look full of utmost curiosity, then set her book down upon a nearby table, acknowledging aloud, "Oh...so you're finally awake. I was beginning to think that you wouldn't pull through, but Spike kept insisting that you were a fighter. Guess he was right, after all."
Faye's brilliant eyes widened in utmost disbelief. Spike? Oh, right...her savior.
"Where is he?", she suddenly demanded, her voice tarnished with a gravelly undertone due to having overslept.
The blonde gave her a questioning glare, then elevated one shoulder in a dismissive shrug. "Out with Vicious, I suppose...they had something to take care of."
"Vicious?", Faye reiterated, much to the blonde woman's immense displeasure. "Who's he?"
"Oh, I wish that you weren't so full of so many damned questions!", she spat, thus causing Faye to cringe in absolute astonishment. "I don't know why Spike decided to bring in an outsider because it only..."
She faltered. "Oh...I'm sorry," she finally managed to apologize, letting out a heavy sigh before meekly brushing back one of her honey-colored locks. "I suppose that we should get off on the right foot, if any at all. I'm Julia...and you're Faye, correct?"
She nodded, indicating that this was true.
"Faye," Julia repeated softly, her blue eyes flashing slightly as she seemed to test the name upon her tongue in order to discover the hidden poison within.
Seemingly finding nothing, the dubious blonde rose from her perch upon her chair and gracefully moved, no, floated across the floor and over to the door before pausing and looking back towards her new acquaintence with something clearly on her mind.
Deciding to finally come clean, Julia turned back around so that the violet-haired woman in her bed could no longer see her face, her silken voice firm and crisp as she ventured softly, "Oh, and Faye, next time you see Spike...stay away from him."
Faye's eyes widened upon hearing such a straightforward remark, a sudden wave of sheer indignance washing over her being from head-to-toe as she watched the blonde haughtily egress the room and slam the door shut tightly from abaft.
"How dare she!", Faye fumed inwardly, absolutely outraged that she already felt threatened in this alleged 'safe place'. "Why does Julia feel the need to keep me away from Spike? Is he dangerous, or does she actually think that I'm interested in taking him away from her! Ugh!"
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"Evelyn...get down!"
The young woman grunted, her long, auburn braids swishing about her slender shoulders as she dove off to the side behind a trash can for cover, her violet irises flashing dangerously before she unpinned a hand grenade and tossed it towards the oncoming brigade of Black Scorpions amidst a fiery shower of death and destruction.
Swearing brusquely under his breath, Spike inserted a magazine into his firearm and nodded over towards Vicious, both men instantly aiding their comrade by charging the opposing syndicate and firing shot after shot into each of their awaiting victims.
"Evey!", Spike finally managed to holler over the ammunition, "are you hurt? I can't see you!"
"No, I'm not, and there's no fucking way that I'm leaving you and Vicious behind, if that's what you're trying to get me to do!", Evelyn returned defiantly, her freshly injured shoulder throbbing dangerously as she continued to take down man after man with her small firearm.
Spike grunted due to her mulish response, cursing sourly under his breath, "Stupid bitch...she could cost us our battle!"
"Let her be, Spike," Vicious urged softly from abaft in his hauntingly soothing tone, his countenance completely devoid of all emotion as he shot down the last man standing. "We just won."
Spike couldn't help but let out a relieved spasm of laughter at this sudden outcome, his shoulders sagging forward as Evelyn gave him an indignant push from behind, his slim form sprawling forward in an uneasy stagger that resulted in a not-so-graceful landing.
Trying her best not to smirk at this, Evelyn chided rather irritably, "Stop your nonsense, Spike...we've got far more hell to deal with when we get back to the headquarters than this. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that Mao's actually going to let that mynx join the syndicate."
Spike gave her an interested look. "What? But I thought that Mao-"
"Hated outsiders," Evelyn cut in, nodding. "Yeah, I thought so, too, but from what little I saw, they seemed to be getting along very well, considering her shitty background."
"Meaning what, exactly? Vicious demanded, just deciding to enter the conversation.
Evelyn couldn't help but smirk, the scorn that she clearly felt for the newcomer reflecting deep within the tremors of her lilting voice as she returned smugly, "She's a dancer, and I don't mean the kind that wears a tutu and flits across a stage like a bird with its rear end on fire."
Vicious frowned. "We have no right to judge her, Evey. After all, it's been quite a while since you've last had your halo and wings."
Evelyn didn't deny it, her face losing its slight glow within the shadow of the setting sun as she desperately tried to banish all of her completely unwelcome childhood memories.
The sad truth of it all was that she had been a bastard child and, being the completely unloving mother that Mrs. Faulkner had been, she had immediately sold Evelyn to Mao Yenrai for a fitting price.
Evelyn hated Mao with all her tattered heart. Ever since she was old enough to walk and talk, he had sold her back and forth for minor prostitution with the hopes of gaining some sort of profit.
No matter what, Evelyn was determined that she would get back at her mentor, even if that meant forever damning herself in the process.
"Evey?"
She didn't look up.
"Evey," Vicious tried again, "come on, we're leaving."
Evelyn finally met with his cold gaze, then nodded stiffly, her heart heavy and seemingly laden with lead as she followed her comrades towards their unforeseen fates.
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"Goddamn, Spike-O, you did it, again!"
The mossy-haired man just merely smirked in triumph, his lean, muscular arm lifting up his shot glass as a small salute to his awe-struck crowd.
Evelyn spat her cigarette onto the floor, then ground it with the steel toe of her boot as Spike signalled for her to rack up the pool balls for round two, all of the men within the bar paying special homage to her firm, rotund bottom as she leaned over the pool table and grudgingly did as she was told.
"You think he'll pocket 'em all, again?", a brusque voice questioned from somewhere within the crowd.
"Not a chance," Vicious answered teasefully, sending his comrade a smug look as Julia wound her arms about his slender waist and held on tight.
Spike smirked, as well, his cigarette dangling precariously between his thin lips as he leaned against his pool stick with his right ankle crossed over his left, acknowledging hubristically, "I'm willing to take that challenge."
There were a few murmurs of appreciation from the small audience as Vicious grinned, then placed a thousand woolongs onto the table. "Deal."
"Any room for another player?"
The entire room went dead silent the moment that that silken voice resonated throughout the room like a knife through butter, the only sound now being the strains of the jazzy music coming from the beat-up jukebox in the corner.
"Hello, Faye," Spike greeted emotionlessly, his garnet eyes never leaving her jade ones as she seductively sidled on up to the pool table and leaned across the edge of it while sending him one of her winning smiles. "How can we help you?"
"Well," she began, feigning weariness, "I am awful tired from spending the day with Mao since he was teaching me the ropes. Maybe you could ease my troubled mind by allowing me a quick game of pool?"
Spike's eyes flickered over her suspiciously. "What do you mean, teaching you the ropes?"
"Just what it sounds like, lunkhead. I'm a Red Dragon, now," Faye returned smugly, not even bothering to conceal her immense pride over hearing everyone within the room gasp.
"You're bullshitting me," Spike accused, absolutely disbelieving his ears.
"Nope," Faye insisted orgulously, "'fraid not."
"But-"
"How about that game of pool?", she interrupted, immediatley swiping Vicious' pool stick from his unsuspecting hand before returning over to the table with a sickening amount of pride.
Julia, meanwhile, was watching all of this with tremendous distaste, her cerulean blue irises absorbing the curious scene unfolding before her with a slight twinge of jealousy due to the mere fact that she had strictly forbidden Faye to go near Spike, and yet here the bombshell was, leaning over the pool table and giving him quite the eye-full.
A loud gasp of approval suddenly shot throughout the audience like a jolt of electricity amidst water, Julia frowning deeply once she realized that Faye had now pocketed all of the billiards except for the Crazy 8.
Leaning over the pool table and sensually wiggling her hips for the men behind her, Faye purposely took her time in lining up her shot, her pink tongue peeking slightly out of the corner of her mouth as she aimed, then fired.
Clink.
Everyone held their breath in anticipation as the white ball careened towards the Crazy 8, then struck it dead-on, the black sphere wobbling in an unsteady rotation before finally stopping at the edge of the pool table, teetered a bit, then slid effortlessly into the right hand pocket.
"I win...game over," Faye cooed sweetly, giving Spike a tremendously smug look as she leaned over the table in order to gather her winnings. "Better luck next time, Gorgio."
Spike snorted. "There won't be a next time...Romani."
"Well, poo! You're not a very fun sport, now, are you?"
Spike opened his mouth to reply, only to be immediately cut off the moment that
the complacent vixen continued, "Maybe I'll see you 'round, sometime...bye-byyyye."
With that said, Faye gave a small flick of the wrist as her good-bye, then sauntered off towards the dull exit of the bar, the frown that had adorned Spike's lips only moments before now fading slightly once he realized that she had left her jacket behind.
"Better return it to her," he thought, lifting it up cautiously within his grasp as if it contained some sort of disease. "Hope she won't bitch at me for actually being nice for a change."
Sending Spike a curious glance, Julia couldn't help but frown once she realized that he was going after Faye, her delicate heart crusting over with a sheet of ice as she realized, to her utmost chagrin, that he might very well be won over by the vixen's mysterious charms.
"Hey, uh...you left this at the bar."
Faye didn't even bother acknowledging the sensual voice that had called to her from behind, her legs immediately picking up the pace with the hopes of giving Spike the impression that she was a 'tough-assed, no nonsense' kind of girl.
"Excuse me," the mossy-haired man tried again, "I've got your jacket."
Faye finally stopped, her tone clipped and straight to the point as she returned dryly, "Well congratulations...do you want a prize, or something? I suppose that you do, seeming that you seem to think that rescuing a jacket is heroic."
Spike couldn't help but grin at her curtness, his tone filled to the brim with amusement as he agreed smugly, "Yeah, I guess you're right...I should get a prize. What do you have in mind, Miss Valentine?"
"Pervert!", Faye spat, her jade eyes flashing dangerously as she seized her jacket from his outstretched hand and began to storm off as fast as her long, slender legs would carry her.
Spike just merely chuckled at the thrilling rise that he was getting out of her, cheerily calling after her retreating form, "If you'd like, you can give me my prize tomorrow so that you'll have had more time to make me something nice!"
Receiving only a shrill shriek of sheer enmity in response, Spike grinned, then placed an unlit cigarette between his lips, realizing that things were finally starting to get pretty interesting for him around here.
A/N: Just so you know, this fic will explain some things that happened in the series, like why Vicious killed Mao. Of course, they won't be the actual reasons, but who cares:P Spike/Faye will heat up soon enough, but I like to take my time with this sort of thing. After all, they are very difficult to capture while "in love", so I'll try my best to keep them in-character throughout the entire story. Now please be nice little buddy-buddies and review me! PLEASE? I'll love you forever! P Oh! And, before I forget, I actually wrote a NON-SxF! Wow! rotfl It's an Electra/Vicious, just cuz I thought it'd be cool. Please check it out! I'd like to know your opinion!
-Kendra Luehr