A/N: Another chapter will be posted tomorrow since this one is so short! I am currently working on Chapter 30. It is the final chapter, and there is an epilogue. Depending on the reception to the ending of this, there may be a sequel; I already have it fleshed out. It will most likely be five to ten chapters, but very wordy. We will see. Enjoy!

Bebop Blues

Chapter 20: Diamonds

Even after Mai came to bed, Faye found herself tossing and turning.

Spike scared her.

He and Mai shared some strange, beastly instinct that Faye had never witnessed.

And it was terrifying.

She had never seen someone lose so much control, especially someone like Spike, all cool and calm and collected as he was.

And she wished Mai had explained what she meant by "triggered it."

There were so many questions burning in her head that she seriously doubted she'd be able to sleep.

"Penny for your thoughts, doll?" Mai asked from beside her.

Faye rolled to her back and lit a cigarette. "Just thinking."

Mai, sensing her unease, tried a different approach. "It's like watching grade-schoolers fiddle with crushes."

Faye inhaled too sharply at that and choked a bit. "Wh-What?"

Mai snatched Faye's cigarette and stole a drag. "You and Spike. You're the polar opposite of Roy and me."

Faye sputtered again. A blunt Mai was a strange Mai, and she wasn't sure how she felt about it.

"You two prance around the idea that it's not okay to even so much as like each other because the other defies the entire definition of what you consider "a perfect mate." So, a sexual relationship without an emotional one is the only way to hash out the obvious attraction between the two of you without dismissing your stubbornness. You wear your convictions like armor and deny emotion for logic."

Faye sat up and leaned forward, her eyes staring into the sheets over her lap.

"You wanted to know about Roy?"

Faye, thankful for the shift in subject, nodded.

Mai smiled as she sat up next to Faye. "We were total opposites."

Faye groaned. Maybe it wasn't an exact change in subject, but it would do.

"I was a goody-two shoes bounty hunter who did everything by the book. I talked and walked and breathed liked a saint. Cigarettes, marijuana, alcohol, even sex? That stuff was foreign to me. I was "too good" for any of that. I closed myself off from anything that would make me even remotely sinful. My bitterness for my father's line of work made me bitter for anything related." Mai took another drag and handed a fresh cigarette to Faye.

"And Roy?"

Mai smirked. "Spiegel boys live by their own code, I've come to realize. Despite their upbringing or environment, they make themselves. In a world of grit, Roy was a beacon of peace. He was a realist to be sure, but he was an optimist. He believed in "isolation within society," a real modern hippie. He smoked marijuana drank alcohol and had his share of lovely ladies. He showed me how beautiful the world could be in balance. How you could have your cake and eat it, too, so long as you baked it yourself. He brought music and color to my world of urban noise and grey. He heard me sing and begged me to never stop. He brought love in its rawest form: unconditional, unbridled, unaltered and uncompromising."

Faye shifted. This all felt too intimate. She was almost in want of Spike's company; at least he wouldn't subject her to uncomfortable divulgences.

"And as difficult a time as I had in adjusting to a new way of thinking, my love for him changed my views without ever changing me." She paused to take a puff. "And the same went for him. I learned to loosen up, and he learned to take more control."

"Sounds like a real catch."

Mai smirked. "I'm one of the lucky ones."

"And you say you think I am?"

Mai chuckled. "Faye, you were frozen for over five decades, survived, learned how to fend for yourself overnight in a lawless world, cheated at poker for years before getting caught, and managed to stay alive despite the countless close encounters with death you've had, Vicious, Victor, lost on Callisto." Mai took a final puff. "You'd have to be blind to say you weren't damn lucky."

The last part sunk into Faye like nothing else. She never realized it in that manner. She thought she always made her own luck.

But maybe Lady Luck was nicer to Faye than anyone else.

Faye was always unscathed, unharmed, alive, and free.

Only petty need for luck had ever made her believe that luck was never on her side.

"So, Faye, maybe you're just lucky in the fact that you were frozen long enough to find your soul mate. They exist for everyone, but not everyone is lucky enough to find them, you know. Hell, if yours is around in this day and age, I'd call you the luckiest woman in the world."

Faye's eyes widened. There was no way Mai was implying that. No way in hell.

Mai's eyes were twinkling; her deliberate wording had gone unnoticed. "At least admit that you two care on some level above sexual need."

"I do NOT love that Lunkhead."

Mai lit a new cig and took a hit. "I didn't say that." She raised an eyebrow. "I said that you two care on at least some level. If you two didn't, he wouldn't have flipped at Victor the way he did, and you wouldn't be distancing yourself from what you consider a heartbreak waiting to happen."

Faye laughed dejectedly. "I think I liked it better when you were cryptic."

Mai smiled. "Guarded is a better word. When Roy's not around, I become quite an introverted individual."

"Well, I'll admit what I feel like when I feel like it."

"I would expect nothing less." Mai lied back down. "We really do need sleep of we're going to finish this vacation properly."

"Yeah." She joined Mai on the bed as her final thoughts drifted from her consciousness.

She gave more than just a damn.

She knew how she felt the first time he was alive, and she knew it was more than just a damn.

She cared about Spike Spiegel.

But admitting that was a whole different story.