Icarus Falling
I tried to end it all,
suffocate myself in wax,
smother myself in feathers,
escape one final time.
I thought myself
no more than
a shadow in your life
a burden on your shoulders.
You touched my hand,
your heat melted the wax.
You said my name,
your breath scattered the feathers.
You saw me, despite the
shadows I was hiding in.
You lifted me up, despite
the chance you had to rid
yourself of me.
I think that's when
I fell in love
with you.
"Hello ladies." Xander said, giving both Buffy and Willow a one-arm hug each as they sat at their usual table in the Bronze.
"Sit, enjoy the ambiance." Willow patted the seat on her right, and Xander sat.
"How's life with Spike?" Buffy asked, across the table from him.
"Surprisingly, not as bad as I thought it would be. Spike seems to be getting more lucid, and sarcasm is at an all-time high, although if I didn't know any better, I'd say that the soul is making him almost... docile."
"Docile? Spike?" Buffy nearly spit out her drink. "Why do you say that?"
Xander gave her a look. "He picked his wet towels up off the floor. It's scary."
"But at least he's showering. Gets that crazy-in-the-basement smell off." Willow said optimistically.
"Speak of the devil." Buffy said, noticing Spike walk in to the club. He made his way over to their table, standing behind-and-to-the-left of Xander. He greeted them with a quick head-nod, and they followed suit.
Spike gave the dancing crowd a once-over. "Who's that guy?" Dawn was dancing rather brazenly with some kid in a letterman jacket. On second thought, the kid looked rather tasty. Not that he was really noticing, with Xander sitting so close, but the kid looked good. Too good. Spike didn't think Dawn should be dancing like that with a boy like that.
"What guy?" Willow said, confused.
"That guy." Buffy gestured. "The one who, according to Dawn, is the quote smartest, funniest, coolest, hottest, and having the thickest boy eyelashes boy in school unquote."
"He's not... unhandsome." Xander admitted. "Check out the fan club." He was about to let loose a low whistle of appreciation, when he felt Spike whisper in his ear.
"You realize that's Dawnie, right?" Spike said, low enough that Willow and Buffy couldn't hear. Xander nearly jumped out of his skin, half from the shock of getting turned on by Spike's breath in his ear, and half from the shock of getting turned on by watching the Dawnster dance.
"Momma like." Willow purred, obviously not recognizing exactly who she was checking out.
Buffy scoffed. "What's that shirt made of, paint?"
"Um, guys?" Xander said.
"I'm glad Dawnie isn't here to see her precious boyfriend getting all thrusty with some slut-bag hussy" Xander saw the girl turn around, saw Buffy get a good look at her face. "Oh." she said, staring in disbelief.
Willow's eyes widened and she babbled, "Oh! No! "Momma" - No, I wasn't - When I was looking, I wasn't - Oh, Goddess!" she exclaimed. Xander smirked. Thank god Spike had warned him, or else he would probably be embarrassing himself like Willow.
"Hey, guys?" Buffy said after she'd regained some composure. "I think we'll have to call off Bronze night."
"Yeah, right. I have stuff back at the house that I need to do, so... Xander, can I get a ride?" Willow said, grabbing her purse.
"Yeah, sure." Xander replied, standing and putting on his jacket. He glanced at Spike. "You wanna come with? Butcher's closed, but the night is still young - we can pick up some movies and munchies on the way home."
Spike was surprised at Xander's invitation, but hid it under a mask of indifference. "Sure, sounds like fun."
There hadn't really been anything unusual about Dawn's high school romance at first. It had even ended in the typical way: heartbreak. On the fourth day of the RJ-crush, he found Dawn crying outside of school.
Xander immediately sat next to her on the large planter. "Dawn, what's the matter? Did that guy in the jacket"
Dawn's growl cut him off. "I don't even want to hear his name anymore!"
Momentarily confused, Xander said, "I just called him 'that guy in the jacket'."
"That's what I used to call him in my head before I knew his real name!" Dawn explained, using that kind of logic teens master.
"I know what you mean." Xander nodded in sympathy. "Before I knew Spike's name, I called him 'that vamp in the long black leather duster'."
"But you were never in love with Spike." Dawn sniffled.
"T-that's right." Xander said, stumbling over the words at first.
Luckily, Dawn had been too distraught over her own situation to notice Xander's lapse. When Xander had gone looking for Buffy and found her straddling Dawn's crush, he fully grasped what had hurt Dawn so much.
"Hey Xander!" Buffy replied cheerily, devoid of any embarrassment at being caught mid-sex. "This is R.J."
"Otherwise known as Jailbait." Xander replied. Something majorly wrong was going on here, and it had 'hellmouth' written all over it.
"Hey, guy. It's called knocking." Buffy's newest conquest retorted, patented popular-kid attitude at the fore. Well, that kind of rudeness could only be dealt with one way.
Xander pasted an apologetic smile on his face. "I'm sorry. It's just, Mrs. Robinson's checkout time was an hour ago. We were hoping to make up the bed. Also, it's a classroom, you idiot!"
It had all gone downhill from there.
Spike was lounging on Xander's couch when the phone rang. He got up and went over to the phone, wondering if he should answer it. The Caller ID read 'Xander Cell', so he picked it up. "Hello?"
"Hey Spike. Meet me out front, we've got some reconnaissance to do, if you're up for it."
"I'll be right there." Spike said, and hung up the phone. He felt a weird sort of thrill at being back in the center of the Scooby gang again, a place that he thought it would've been a lot more difficult to get back to. But he wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so he hurried out of the apartment to meet Xander.
Xander filled Spike in on the sitch on the way over to Lance's house. "So now both Buffy and Dawn are crushing after this guy, and we gotta figure out why."
"You think that it some kind of family thing?" Spike inquired.
Xander shrugged. "I don't know. Could be a family heirloom of some sort, or it could just a kid messing around with love potions. Either way, I'm hoping a little chat with Lance might give us some more info to work with."
"Should I look around while you talk to him, see if they have any voodoo dolls or magic books lying around, or what not?" Spike suggested.
"Good idea." Xander nodded, grinning. "Yeah. I'll squeeze him for information while you case the joint. It'll be like an old cop show, except we aren't cops, we aren't in black and white, and if it does turn out to be a family of warlocks, they could kill us both." Xander pulled the car up to the side of the street and parked, turning the engine off. "Just be careful, okay?" he said as he got out of the car.
"I'm not a sodding baby." Spike grumbled as he got out of the car as well.
"I know you aren't." Xander replied. "I'm just saying, we're tangling with a powerful spell here. We don't know what the deal is so, keep an eye out if this guy looks twitchy." Jesse used to think Lance was the coolest guy ever. Xander remembered Jesse going on and on about Lance, even as he was helping him get Lance's gum out of his hair. Jesse would look at the gum in awe, 'cause it was Lance's gum, and that was back when they were too young to know that you weren't supposed to be in awe of another guy. "And don't let this guy charm you, either. He had everyone around him practically kissing his ring back in high school." For some reason, the idea of Spike looking at Lance in awe was really freaking him out. Although he'd never seen Spike look at anyone in awe, he really didn't like the idea of Lance being Spike's first. In fact, he didn't like the idea of Lance being any kind of first for Spike. Now that he thought about it, he really thought that he shouldn't be thinking about this sort of thing. Lance chose that moment to open the door, and the sight of the once-popular jock made Xander's jaw drop.
God. It was like a nightmare version of "Xander Harris, this is your life." If Anya hadn't influenced him to move out of the basement, if he hadn't gotten a break working construction, he could vividly see himself in Lance's position right now. Thank God for Anya and construction.
Spike was nonchalantly moving around the room, and Xander stifled a smile as he watched Spike rotate the angel figurines out of the corner of his eye. When Spike mentioned the jacket, Xander knew the vamp must have a hunch. He was going to warn Lance that the 'management program' led nowhere and was just a way for Pizza Barn to pay its employees less and work them more, but then he thought about the gum again, and decided - fuck it. Lance deserved what was coming to him. "So, Lance, where did you get the jacket?"
"Oh, dad gave it to me. Made a big deal about it, too. How he met mom wearing that jacket. She was a former Miss Arkansas. Very hot in her day." Lance replied.
Xander's spidey sense was going off, and he knew that this was definitely a hellmouth thing. He caught Spike's gaze and Spike nodded. Okay then, they were outta there. "Wow, that's wonderful. Boy, it's getting late."
"Hey, you guys don't have to take off if you don't want to." Lance said, obviously desperate for company. "I got sort of a rumpus room set up in the basement. There's air hockey and a mini fridge. We could party."
No way in hell, Xander was tempted to say. He wanted to get as far away from this place as possible, as soon as possible. It was bringing up all these old memories of the basement, and those were not happy memories. The constant smell of mold in the air, Spike spouting off insults from the lounger, his mother offering fruit punch and fruit rollups to his friends...
As if on cue, they heard Mrs. Brooks' voice from upstairs. "Lance? Do you have guests down there? There's little boxes of raisins if you want snacks."
"We really gotta go." Xander had a hard time not breaking out into a run the moment they were outside. As it was, he walked quickly over to his car, and as soon as Spike was settled in the passenger seat, he stepped on the gas.
To Be Continued...
