Title: The Babysitter

Author: Azure K Mello

Part: 26?

Pairing: Angel/Spike

Rated: R

Type: AU

Summery: Angel tells Spike the truth.

Disclaimer: I don't own BtVS or The Warrior and The Princess.

MariaI love talking to you about everything. Thank you for always being here. (Except tonight, you're not here tonight for you are in Jersey. Eat a tomato).

Will smiled, "You don't scare me. It's just… you're important to me. And that scares me. But that's what makes it worth it, right? If I wasn't scared I wouldn't be paying attention." Angel chuckled and Will flinched, shut his eyes, and said, "I'm serious."

He remembered Joyce's warning and said, "I know." Kissing Will's forehead, Angel reached for a thumb tack. He pinned the poem up next to a drawing of Willow's mother.

Will blushed, "It's clichéd, trite, crap. Don't feel you have to treasure it."

"What?" Angel was shocked. "You wrote it for me, Will. It's honest, and mine, and it's the best thing up there." Will blushed even more deeply. No one had ever praised his poems before. When Angel hadn't laughed Will had been pleased but now he was thrilled.

The rest of the movie was pleasant: tracheotomy girl and crying guy got together. The boys drank their soup and exchanged gentle kisses (Angel's face was a state). Stretching Angel sniffed, "I smell of blood and sweat. I should take a quick shower. There are new drawings in my bedside table if you want to take a look, you might like them. I'll be quick and then we'll do something." Glancing at the wall he smiled, "Thank you for my poem. It's great."

Trying not to beam at the compliment Spike said, "Yeah, but you like Barry Manilow."

Angel kissed him again and stood up, "Five minutes. I would ask you to come but I want to be quick and. . ."

"You can't see me naked and wet without ravishing me," Angel laughed and Will sighed, "it's alright. I'll look at the pretty pictures." As he heard the water turn on he called, "Can I smoke?"

"Sure. There's an ashtray on the desk."

The saw the dish filled with cigarillos and called, "Closet smoker!"

"Only when I draw," replied the boy as he stepped into the spray.

Picking up the ceramic dish he smiled and settled back down on the bed. Opening the drawer he removed the large stake of papers. He started at the bottom and worked his way up because the pile went from the oldest to the most recent. So while the new ones were at the top he was looking at the ones from years before. Every picture featured a young girl. Chocolate hair fell over dark eyes while freckles graced her cheeks and nose. There was a drawing of her eating an apple and a photo of the girl laughing. All of the drawings had sparks of love in them. The tenderness that she exuded from her was directed at the viewer so completely that it made Will ache. There were thirty-five drawings and twelve photos. Will forgot entirely about the pictures he'd been directed towards and instead studied the girl. She was two or three years old; younger than Xander. It explained why Angel was so great with kids.

As he walked in drying his hair Angel asked, "What do you think?"

"She's beautiful," Will said reverently.

Seeing what Will was looking at Angel said, "Oh, yeah. . . I'm sorry: I didn't mean for you to see those." He collected up the girl leaving twenty some drawings on the bed. The remaining pictures were of Will, and the Gileses, and scenes from the parks, one was a puppy.

Spike sat staring blankly at the remaining pictures. "She's beautiful. Why are you putting her away?"

"Because I never look at her with other people." Angel sounded defeated and his posture said, "please don't kick me".

"Can I meet her sometime?" the question was soft and tentative.

"No. I wish you could-"

"It's okay," Will interrupted as he reached out to stroke Angel's arm, "we haven't been together long. Maybe you don't want her to know that her dad likes boys. It's totally fine. I understand." And he meant it. He felt no resentment over the idea of Angel not wanting him to meet his daughter. This wasn't prejudice; this was a little girl who needed to be protected. After all they weren't serious yet.

"She's my sister."

"Oh!"

"And she's dead."

"Oh," this response was slower. Letting the towel drop from his hips Angel crawled onto the bed next to him.

Sitting close to Will's side Angel said, "I loved her more than anyone."

As he rubbed Angel's shoulder Will said, "Angel, you don't have to tell me. I shouldn't have looked at the pictures. I'm sorry."

"You told me about Drusilla."

"That concerned you."

"You were honest and deserve honesty. I've felt guilty for not telling you. You're my boyfriend and you care about me so it does concern you." Will tried to smile comfortingly as he continued to stroke Angel's arm. "I can't do it like this. Come 'ere." He leaned in and pulled at the boy's clothes. He had the boy naked and under the covers in mere moments. "Much better," he said as they wrapped around each other and shared a pillow lying face to face. "Cathy was born just before we moved here and I felt like she was my connection to home. And I became friends with Willow and things were cool. Willow and I had a sleepover at Willow's but the Rosenbergs had to visit some family the next day so Ira dropped me off at home at about seven in the morning. He made sure I got inside and left. It was weird because the coffee machine wasn't on and one of my parents would always get up, turn it on, and go back to bed in the morning. But I went upstairs to go back to sleep without really thinking about it. And when I opened my bedroom door she was there. She'd been pinned up on the wall, crucified, behind my bed and everything was drenched in her blood. I ran to get my parents: they could fix everything. But they were dead too. In their bed they were. . . well you can guess how someone who puts the naked bodies back into bed who position them. And their sheets were soaked in blood. I was totally numb and they had prepared me for an emergency: if they weren't available I was to call a grown up. So I called Shelia and Ira and they didn't visit their family. Shelia held me on her lap all day through everything. I felt ashamed because I was ten and should have been more stoic. I was too big for laps. But she wore the same perfume as me mam so I just stayed in her lap. The cops thought I did it. They thought I was psychotic. They made me see all these specialists who kept making me draw Cathy. They thought that the Rosenbergs were covering for me. It took six months for them to give up on me. So that's how I started drawing." He buried his head into Will's shoulder, trying to block out the pictures from his mind by replacing them with Will's scent.

"Why did Darla do that?" asked the boy not understanding the cruelty. He could get eating people, torturing them, enjoying the kill. But what did a vampire get out of killing a random boy's family? She didn't get to witness his pain. There didn't seem to be anything in it for her.

"She'd been watching me. She'd already chosen me as her future childe and she thought that the perfect childe needed to suffer in life to shine in death. She thought it would make me beautiful. And she stayed away from me for six years after that. And then she befriended me. She was beautiful, and kind, and she was an orphan too. I felt really connected to her. But then she got me really drunk at a college party that I shouldn't have been at and she told me about her plan and expected me to supplicate myself to her. I was so drunk, but I managed to kill her. She was a strong vampire but I don't think she ever expect me to not obey her because she thought she'd already tamed me; she wasn't expecting me to fight. I guess she had no real concept of grief anymore. She was ancient."

"Angel-"

"I was Liam then."

"You're still Liam."

With his face still hidden in Will's neck Angel said, "Will?"

"Yeah, love?"

"I love you."

"What?" Will laughed out his surprise.

"Couldn't say it when you'd been honest and I hadn't. Seemed like a lie."

Will ran his finger's through Angel's hair and said, "I love you too, Liam."

"Will, love you so much. Please-"

"I've got you," he reassured Angel as he felt the boy's arms tighten around his body, "I'm not letting go, pet."

"Not ever."

"Okay," Spike promised easily, "I'll always be with you."