Musical Wars
Chapter 3
Xander narrowed his eyes in challenge. “You already said I could go.”
“Yeah, and I’m evil. Don’t have to keep my word, do I?” Spike unexpectedly brought the bottom of the staff up so that Xander made a manly squeak as he danced backwards to avoid a hit on a part of his body he’d grown particularly fond of. Well, if Spike wanted to play, Xander’d play. He’d get his ass kicked, but he’d play.
Xander threw himself forward once the staff hit the olive green linoleum floor. He aimed a quick punch at Spike’s face: In and out just like Spike had taught him. When Spike pulled back, Xander brought his foot down on the staff hoping to either break the staff or force it out of Spike’s hand. Instead he ended up losing his balance as Spike brought the staff up and threw him to the side. In fact, he barely caught himself on the counter and now his vision had gone all red.
Right. Time to get out of the wet slippery bathroom. Xander threw himself forward so that he and Spike tumbled to the floor of the bedroom in one heap. Xander used his momentum to spring back up onto his feet, again, just like Spike had taught him, only Spike moved a little faster. By the time he got up, Spike was reaching for him.
Xander scurried to the side, his bare feet slapping across the cold concrete as he dashed out of the bedroom and into the more open dining room. Shit he was cold. Of course running around naked could do that, but he didn’t have too much time to worry about it as heavy boots followed him into the room. He scanned the room for weapons even as he continued fleeing *and* threw a tall chair behind him without looking.
From the snarled curses, he guessed that he had at least slowed Spike, but it wouldn’t stop him for long. Xander rounded the table and gave another chair a glance, but it was really too large and heavy for him to use as a weapon.
Pipe. That was more like it. Xander dashed over to the far side of the room and grabbed a three foot length of pipe before turning to face a game faced Spike. Xander’s weapon dipped for a moment in surprise, and before he knew it, Xander found himself hitting the floor with enough force to drive what little air he had in his lungs right out again.
Laying on the floor with his damp skin clammy against the cold concrete, Xander realized two things: he was not so good at taking care of himself and they really needed to buy some area rugs. He panted heavily, but Spike stood over him, pressing the end of his staff into Xander's flesh and looking completely composed. The pipe lay on the ground a couple of feet away, and Xander flinched when he realized he’d dropped his weapon.
“So, guess that means you’ll call your little friend and tell her you’ll be late,” Spike said. Xander glared up.
He expected a smug expression, maybe even a sneer. Instead he saw open relief, the kind his mother got when she’d showed up at the hospital to find him in one piece after getting jumped by three older kids at school. The kind Alonna got after he tried to save her and nearly ended up vamp food himself. The kind Gunn got when he’d found out Xander was still alive after being missing for a few days. For a moment he considered just laying there, but he hadn’t been willing to give up his life before, and he wasn’t going to do it now.
“Fine you welsher. Big old Indian giver,” Xander pouted as Spike looked down with a raised eyebrow.
“Got any more ethnic groups you’d like to insult then?” Spike asked as he moved the staff to rest on the floor and held out a hand.
“Just the stupid old English,” Xander said as he grabbed the hand and pulled down just as he swept Spike’s legs out from under him with a swift kick. Spike collapsed into a heap on Xander, and Xander pushed the vampire off his own body as he sprang for his pipe. Spike snarled but hadn’t made it to his feet when Xander landed square on Spike’s back, metal pipe on the back of Spike’s neck.
“Oi, that's cheatin’,” Spike hissed.
“Oh yeah, and I can’t figure out where I learned that,” Xander answered as he pushed the pipe against the back of his master’s neck. His baby demon was now totally withdrawn and whimpering in some corner of his mind, and the warehouse was dim with dust particles floating through pathetic rays of light coming from the few bulbs still working in the overhead lighting. “So, am I going to meet Willow?” Xander asked.
“Yeah, ya are. You earned it,” Spike said, and Xander looked down suspiciously. That seemed just too easy. He hadn’t figured out the angle Spike was playing before he felt a hand at his knee and suddenly he lost his balance as his one leg was pulled toward Spike’s head and Xander had to slap his hands palm down on the concrete to keep from putting his face down on it.
The minute he let go of his weapon, he knew he’d lost. Spike slipped out from under him and flipped him as easily as a dead fish and now Xander found himself under Spike, the vampire straddling him and his hands held in a supernaturally strong grip.
“Shit,” Xander swore. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll call Willow.” Xander felt a need to push Spike off and storm out of the warehouse even though he knew his chance of making it to the door was somewhere between zero and nada. Even worse, his demon now sent up distress signals at the thought of defying sire, and Xander closed his eyes as he tried to remind himself that he didn’t have to feel what his demon felt. He had a perfect right to be pissed as hell at Spike even if he wasn’t strong enough to do anything about it.
“Pet?”
“I said I’ll call Willow—don’t push it right now Spike.”
“Pet, open your eyes.” Xander had opened his eyes before he even realized what he was doing.
“What?” Xander asked, his voice sounding brittle and sharp even to his own ears. Spike stared down at him and he stared right back for several minutes.
“You can go, but you take a full set of weapons and you watch your back.” Spike finally said quietly as he sat up. He now straddled Xander, but at least Xander’s hands were free so he could push himself up on his elbows.
“What?” he asked in a completely different tone of voice. Now he was just confused. He could go, he couldn’t go, he could go. God, it was like living with both his parents again.
“But I catch you outside the Bronze after dark and I’ll bloody strip the skin from your back,” Spike said in a far stronger tone, one that promised to carry through on that promise, and oh yes, this was the Spike he knew.
“Right. No wandering the Hellmouth after dark,” Xander agreed. Spike stood and held out his hand again, and this time Xander allowed Spike to help him up.
“Next time you go attacking me, do you think you could let me get dressed first?” Xander complained as he headed for the bedroom and thank god Spike wasn’t into having minions around.
“Need to learn to keep your guard up.”
“Hard to let it down with an insane roommate.” And there goes baby demon. Xander groaned when the demon squirmed even more at being called baby. This was a Hellmouth; certainly they had a psychiatrist who could handle demonic insanity. If not his two favorite demons were about to drive him crazy.
"Right, because you have the corner on sanity," Spike snorted.
"Oh please. I'm about as sane as that guy who made the singing cop show. That was really dumb—who wants to see cops break down and start singing in the middle of arresting the gang members?"
"You… what?" Spike asked, turning to stare.
"Once again, you need to watch more television, Spike."
"Oi, after hearing you talk, I'm thinking I need ta cut you off."
"Oh my god, you really are turning into my mother," Xander complained as he started grabbing clothes out of the closet. "And really, that statement is the biggest ew yet. No thinking mother thoughts when naked," Xander shivered.
"Thought ya wanted to avoid Willow thoughts when naked, pet."
"Stop, stop, stop. Willow, Mother, and Barney are all off the list of approved naked talk."
"Barney?" Spike asked, settling in on the bed as Xander pulled on black jeans.
"Only half dressed here, no non-approved naked talk." Xander jumped a little to get the jeans settled in place. Really he needed to either convince Spike to buy a larger size or lose weight. Spike might look good in jeans this tight, but he really didn't think the look did much on him, well much in the looking-good way. It definitely did a lot in the endangering his future chances of having children. Xander zipped the pants up and then tugged at the crotch to try and give Xander Jr. enough room to avoid permanent damage.
Xander glanced up, and lost his breath as Xander Jr. grew to a size not possible in the tight jeans. Spike lay naked on the bed with one leg bent and a hand idly playing with his balls. His nose flared and then he smirked, and Xander cursed vampire noses that made his lust even more embarrassing than it had been in eleventh grade when he got a stiffy every time Mrs. Reynolds had walked by him in her miniskirt. He'd spent most of math class with his book over his lap, but with Spike, books didn't exactly help.
"Sure you want to leave? Could just wait until dark and have a few hours to ourselves, pet," Spike offered. Spike’s face morphed into something approximating innocent and cheery, but Xander just laughed.
“Doesn’t work on me, I know full well you use that expression when you’re killing demons, so it’s a little less than comforting.”
"Let you take the driver's seat for a bit then. Let you play with sire."
Xander could feel his demon surge forward at the suggestion, and he closed his eyes as he had a little private war over who got custody of Xander Jr. and the rest of the limbs. Earlier, Xander's impromptu admiration for Spike's ass had sent Baby Aurelius into shock, but with sire offering, the demon just wanted to make sire feel good… please sire. Xander struggled as he fought back with his need to see Willow. He needed to be allowed out of the lair, and that meant being able to walk down the street without Spike, or some bouncer Spike had intimidated, two feet away.
"Spike, you're killing me here. I made plans with Willow, and I'm going to go meet her, but if you don't stop doing that, Xander Jr. is going to break, and then you won't have your favorite toy to play with."
"Havin' a problem, pet?" Xander cracked open one eye and Spike's hand had moved up to the shaft of his cock. Xander groaned.
"Nothing some ice and a stake wouldn't cure," Xander quipped. The surge of panic and fear that rolled through him made him put out a hand to brace himself on the door jam as he tried to not fall to his knees. Before he could catch his breath, strong hands caught him, Spike's arm sliding around his waist and taking his weight.
"Maybe you'd best stay in, luv, not lookin' so good."
"I'd look better if my silly sire wouldn't tease me into having every blood cell in my body abandon my brain," Xander pointed out as he felt his heart slowly regain its steady beat. "My brain struggles enough without the sudden blood loss when Xander Jr. hijacks the stuff at the pass."
"Let's just get you get you on the bed," Spike half carried, half guided, and Xander let himself be settled on the bed as he struggled to blink the world into focus.
"I'm still going," he complained.
"If ya can walk," Spike said sarcastically, but Xander felt cool hands brush the curls back out of his face as his body slowly settled into something that felt pretty close to normal, or at least as normal as he got these days.
"Oh, I'll walk. This is Willow we're talking about… the girl who I shared crayons with, the girl whose Barbies I stole, the one who used to give me the cookie out of her lunch. When things got weird over the phone, I thought she…" Xander stopped, trying to figure out a way to not sound too pathetic. "I just need to know she's still a friend," Xander finally whispered. Spike's hands stopped. Without answering, Spike went over to the closet and pulled out a shirt before handing it to him.
"Pet, ya have to understand something," Spike said seriously. Xander looked up from the deep green silk to the blue eyes of his lover. "If she hurts ya, I won't treat her any different from anyone else. Her bein' friends with the slayer makes things a little awkward, but if somethin' gets out of hand, you make sure that the witches and the slayer know what would happen if it came down to a fight."
Xander froze, his arm half in the shirt as the words sunk in. "Spike," he said softly.
"No," Spike held up his hand. "Promise me if somethin' happens, if the slayer shows up with a wild hair up her arse, you remember that your life means something, and you make sure they know the price of lettin' you get hurt."
"You think it’s a trap," Xander said softly.
"I think I've taken down my share of slayers. If Angel called—"
"He wouldn't do that," Xander hurried to say as he pulled the shirt on and started buttoning.
"Not ta get me staked, but I can see the wanker calling them just to let them know I'm in town and that he and I have a truce. But if he's talked to the slayer or the watcher, I'm not so sure they're going to want a truce."
"And you think they'd use me as bait." Xander hated the thought of Willow doing that to him, but even over the phone he could feel the changes. In all honesty, he didn't know her any more.
"If they grab you, just sit tight," Spike said seriously, and Xander could feel a knot in his stomach. "Not going to kill your little friend or do somethin' to make the Pouf's hair fall out," Spike promised as he reached out and played with a curl. "And I don't want you doin' anything to make things turn rough. If things go pear-shaped, you just nod and go along, and I'll get Peaches to sort it out."
"You'd call Angel?" Xander said as he looked up in surprise.
"To keep my childe safe, I'd even call Darla."
"You're only saying that because she's dust," Xander tried joking, but Spike didn't laugh, and Xander fell quiet in the deep silence. "Right, if I get taken as a hostage, be a good little hostage and wait for Angel," Xander nodded. "And suddenly I'm wondering why you're letting me go." Xander glanced up at Spike in confusion. "I mean, you'd walk me to work at Safari and deliver me to Carlos for babysitting."
"Different then, wasn't it?"
"Um, no."
Spike sighed as sat on the bed, his hand going to Xander's knee. "Back then, thought you were a pet, thought ya had a bit of demon in ya."
"And now you know I have a full demon for a brainmate."
"Well, yeah. You're a childe, got ta let you fight some of your own battles. But," Spike flashed into gameface and slipped a hand behind Xander's neck. "Ya keep your fightin' to just talking or I will be showing ya how cranky your sire can get."
Xander started laughing softly. "God, Spike, you're starting to sound like me. But I'll keep the fighting to talking, scout's honor."
"Right, get your arse in gear then, need ta unpack and accidentally drop your soddin' CD's into the sewers."
"Uh-huh," Xander nodded disbelievingly. "I'll see you after dark." He ignored Spike's threats against his country music greats as he stood up and grabbed his boots. Once he'd slipped those on, he added the various weapons that went everywhere with him now. Taking one last look at Spike who sat on the bed watching with yellow eyes, Xander turned and headed for the door. For the first time, he was going to be out there without a keeper two feet away. He just really, really hoped Spike was wrong about Willow, because otherwise Spike might not ever let him out of the lair alone again. Well, that and he would really be hurt that the girl who'd shared his crayons vamp-napped him.