"It's Called A Garnish, Ed. You're Not Supposed To Eat It - It's Just To Decorate The Plate." Faye Explained

"It's called a garnish, Ed. You're not supposed to eat it - it's just to decorate the plate." Faye explained in between bites of her entree.

Ed gave her an extremely skeptical look and then glanced over to Jet and Spike to determine their thoughts on this matter.

Jet laughed uncomfortably. "She's right, even though it seems like a waste, I know. There's not always a lot of sense in the things rich folks do." He shrugged, clearly apologetic about society in the face of Ed's bewildered judgment.

The hacker slanted her narrowed eye gaze at Spike next. His plate was void of everything that had been there. He grinned at her and opened his mouth to reveal the garnish on his tongue. He'd already consumed his dinner while the others had been educating Ed on the nonsense of upper crust dining.

Faye looked at Spike and sighed. "Emulate him if you want, Ed. I don't know why it started to become a practice in the first place, but typically the garnish gets reused if it's left on the plate, which means that morsel Spike's got in his mouth may have already been on a dozen plates today."

Spike winked at Ed and swallowed the garnish. He then grinned at Faye as he reached out for his glass of bourbon. "Fortunately I've got the germ killer right here." He waggled the glass back and forth, making the ice shift.

"Waste not, want not!" Ed announced, making her own decision about how to handle the silliness of an edible scrap that wasn't intended for eating. She gulped it down and then snatched the garnishes off Jet and Faye's plates for good measure.

Jet chuckled. Spike gave Ed a high five. Faye sighed. "Whatever kid, you do you." She smiled at Ed then. "And since we had to leave Ein on the ship... I did you a favor, Ed. Spike's got plastic baggies in his pockets so we can smuggle home some scraps."

"Yay!" Edward enthused.

Spike patted down his pants and threw a startled look to Faye. "When did you..." He trailed off, eyeing her with amused suspicion.

"A lady never gives away her secrets," She purred at him. With a wink at him, she passed over her dinner plate so he could put the remaining meaty bits in his pockets.

Jet frowned at them both. "You know, we could just ask for a to-go box."

Faye scoffed and Spike shrugged. "Where's the fun in that?"

"Yes!" Ed shouted. She continued in a stage whisper. "We must be tricky, you see, keep an eye out for witnesses and leave not a trace!"

Faye gestured at Ed and raised an eyebrow at Jet. He shook his head and held up his hands to indicate surrender to her reasoning. Jet passed his plate over to Spike as well.

"Well, if you can't change 'em - join 'em!" He intoned with a smile.

Faye rolled her eyes skyward.

Spike chuckled. "Shit man, sometimes I think you mess up sayings on purpose just to screw with us." He shared a warm look with Faye, which kept either from noticing when Jet winked at Ed.

Some days life was full of small pleasures.

The informercial blathered on about the incredible offer only available for a limited time on the glittery broach from some era of Earth's history. It was a cheap piece in actuality which Jet and Spike could tell just from the poor quality images.

"Hey Spike,"

"Hey Jet,"

"How come you never get Faye any crap like that?" Jet, arms crossed over his chest, gestured with his upper body towards the monitor. "I've seen her put some on for bounties now and again, and she's got that anklet, I just figured she would've had you buy her something sparkly by now."

Spike pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pockets and lit one, offering another to Jet. They smoked in silence for a bit before Spike finally cleared his throat and spoke up.

"Yeah, she's worn stuff to fit an image before, but she actually doesn't like all those fancy trappings. Says that's literally what they are - a trap. A way for someone to be able to snag her, choke her, or restrain her for long enough to make a dangerous difference in a fight. She doesn't want something sentimental that can be ripped off or used against her."

"Damn. That's...kind of sad."

Spike shrugged. "Sad, smart - it is what it is." He gave Jet a crooked grin. "I do other stuff for her. Like, well I dunno if this counts exactly because it was a gift for Ed but... That camera? Ed's already filled up one photo album for her. And I had Doohan upgrade the RedTail last time we were on Earth."

Jet nodded. "A way to preserve memories and something practical, nice."

"Yeah, or I'll take her out on the town. You know she loves being wined and dined and shown off to the world." Spike chuckled. "It's funny but I think she likes breakfast at a greasy spoon more than dinner at a five star restaurant no matter what she says about preferring the finer things in life."

"Surprisingly, the finest thing in life has been getting to share it with you lunkheads," Faye remarked as she wandered in from the kitchen.

"Were you in there listening to us this whole time?" Jet asked.

"I appreciate your concern over Spike giving me all the wonderful things I deserve in life," Faye told Jet with a smug smile. "And yes obviously - why would I want to interrupt it when people are talking about me?"

She sashayed over to the couch, swaying near Spike but just out of reach as she made her way to stand behind the couch. Once there, she reached down with her right hand and he put a cigarette between her fingers. Letting him twist around on the couch to light it for her, she put her left hand on his left shoulder and started to knead it as she smoked.

"You're a quite a woman, Faye," Jet told her. "For someone who isn't especially materialistic, you're awfully vain."

"Yeah, no shit. I put value on what's really important. Me!" She stuck her tongue out at Jet and winked at Spike.

The lanky cowboy grinned and gave Jet a half shrug with the shoulder Faye wasn't rubbing. "Can't argue with her there."

"I don't like this, Faye. I don't fit in here." Spike snarled under his breath. Uncomfortable as he felt, he wasn't about to cause a scene and piss her off. Tonight was supposed to be about her. Of course, he should have guessed something was afoot when she came out of the washroom dressed to the nines. "You could have at least told me to dress up."

She was in a shimmery green sheath dress with a pair of dangerously high slits on the sides and heels that seemed impossible to walk in yet she managed with ease. Meanwhile he was in his usual suit which was nowhere near fancy enough for this place. The man at the door had even tried to make him put on a different jacket until Spike's hard look had sent him scurrying away.

Faye looked at him steadily over the drinks and the candle on the table. "Do you even own a fancy suit? I've seen Jet's, I haven't seen you clean up past this. Anyway I prefer you as you are." She gave him an impish grin. "And I don't want to fit in. I want to stand out."

Rising from her seat, she picked up her wine and drained her glass, making a face immediately afterwards. Spike wasn't even sure why she'd ordered something so dry, especially when he knew she didn't like any wines. He noticed a few people at nearby tables making faces of their own at her undignified chugging of the expensive vintage.

Faye came around the table and pulled his chair sideways so his legs were no longer under the tablecloth. She planted one knee between his and leaned in to grab his tie in her left hand while picking up his whiskey, neat, in her other. Spike found himself frozen. There was a furor building around them as the high society folks glared at their table.

Bewitching green eyes - sometimes jade, sometimes emerald, always a treasure - held his gaze so he couldn't glance around. Not that he wanted to. Fuck the people getting all huffy - he only cared about making one person happy here... And if she brought him here to stand out...

He reached up and took his drink back from her before she could consume it herself. Her eyes sparkled and her lips spread into a sly smile. Her look made him feel alive - he was no longer a man on an uncomfortable date, now he was her partner in crime. Where they went, trouble would follow.

Spike drained his drink and set it aside carelessly. He wasn't even sure if he'd managed to set it on the table or dropped it on the floor. His hands had found her hips and she was leaning backwards now, pulling his upper body along by the firm grip on his loose tie, and he willingly went with the motion. Engaging his leg muscles, he rose using just those as his arms were preoccupied with wrapping around her waist and his chest was striving to press against hers.

He found his feet and drew her up from between his legs to stand tall before him. The grumbling from the crowd was growing in volume, but Faye only trailed her hand from his tie to caress the back of his neck, twirling some of the longer pieces there, as she snapped the fingers of her other hand before bringing that to rest against his chest, over his heart.

The band began to play, apparently at her signal, and Spike wondered how treating her to a birthday dinner had turned into the night being a surprise for him. He certainly wasn't expecting any of this. She pinched his nipple through his shirt. "Dance with me, Spike," She demanded.

He brought his face close to hers, brushing cheek to cheek as he spoke in a murmur next to her ear, his lips a whisper against her lobes. "Why Miss Valentine, whatever are you up to?" But dance with her he would. He could never resist a chance to parade her across the floor, to sweep her off her feet and into his arms.

Her hand on his neck had climbed into his hair fully but her other hand that had been against his chest had found it's way underneath his arm so she could... Yup, grope his ass right in front of everyone dining. His own hands slid from her hips so he could use both to cup her ass in retaliation.

"For tonight you should call me Mrs. Foster." She pulled back enough to look him in the eye, a wicked smile on her face. "We snuck in under someone else's reservation. I had Ed stall the real deal for a bit with all red lights on their drive to dinner. Then I convinced the band to play for me when you ran off to freak out in the bathroom." She continued to toy with his hair but her hand had risen from his ass to stroke up and down his back as they danced, intimately close.

"I wasn't freaking out." He replied immediately, too defensively. He scowled down at her and she darted up to kiss his mouth quickly, too quickly for him to really get into it.

"The Fosters should be here in a few minutes. There's probably gonna be a scene, but I know you brought your gun and obviously I've got mine. Jet's out by the valet station to keep them from escaping back the way they'll be coming in."

She had her gun? He felt his heartbeat quicken. "What kind of a birthday party are you throwing for yourself?" He frowned momentarily and then his face cleared. He kept their movements fluid, if a bit raunchy for the audience they currently had. "Are we on a bounty hunt right now?"

Color bloomed on her cheeks but her eyes stayed on his face. "I wanted to see how far you'd let me go. How much you'd put up with. I know you hate these haughty people and these hoity toity restaurants."

Well, well, well. He should have known. Always pushing, always seeking assurance. Faye didn't give a shit about anyone but the crew of the Bebop, and she hated that they knew her weakness was... Them. She still worried she wasn't worth fighting for, or in this case going through bullshit he found unpleasant just to see her smile.

"You didn't have to stage all this, Faye," He told her quietly. The music kept playing but he drew them to stop and shifted his hands from where they'd been - most recently creeping down her thighs to hike up the skirt of her dress - to grip her hips securely. He knew she found it both a turn on and a comfort. "Even if it wasn't your birthday, I'd take you to a place like this without the safety net of an opportunity for a bounty. I'd put up with all the crotchety angry eyed old bats on the planet. You're a handful, but you're my handful," He squeezed for emphasis and watched with pride as she gave a gasp of pleasure.

Her eyes were positively glittering at him. "Wanna dine and dash?"

He chuckled. "We started dancing before the food arrived-"

She shook her head, grinning widely at him. "Let's take the plates and go. We can call Jet and he can grab the Fosters when they arrive. Let them deal with the fallout from this on top of that,"

"You really wanna ensure those folks make a bad impression hey?"

"Fuck all these rich bitches. And the Fosters have a bounty because of a bunch of white collar shit, they deserve to have a stain on their name. If their prissy friends all hear rumors how they were being lewd and then ran out on a bill before being arrested for racketeering... I say that's all in good fun."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" He asked, untangling from her to take one of her hands and lead her back to their table. Before she could grab her dinner plate which had been deposited on the table along with his while they danced, he wrapped his arms around her and dipped her as he kissed her deeply. He didn't stop until he could hear the other diners shouting over the band, and even then only because they desperately needed to breathe air after that kiss.

He couldn't get enough of this devious woman. Faye was simply gorgeous in her shimmery dress, her hair disheveled though not as bad as she'd no doubt made his, her chest heaving and sweat on her skin. She kept shooting him burning looks as they made to grab their dinners, and also as they raced through the restaurant, choosing to exit via the kitchen.

They burst out into the side alley from the kitchen exit, laughing and nearly falling over each other, finally making it around the corner and pausing to listen for any sounds of pursuit. But aside from the sounds of the city, they couldn't hear a thing.

Spike had one hand hidden behind his back. He tilted his plate in her direction and she took it with a bemused look as he used his freed up hand to grab his comm out of his pocket.

"Yo Jet, can you handle the Fosters?"

Jet's face was confused on the screen. "Those pretentious fools? In my sleep!" Then he seemed to realize his partners were up to no good. "Hey now, you two stay outta-" Spike turned off his comm before Jet could finish talking and stashed it back in his pocket.

With a flourish, he pulled a plate of chocolate cake he'd grabbed in their hasty escape from behind his back. "Happy birthday, Faye. Trade ya for my dinner back,"

She handed him his plate with a throaty laugh, taking the cake plate in the hand that wasn't holding her own dinner plate. "It's my party, Spike, and this'll do for now... But there's a different dessert I want on the menu tonight."

There it was. Confidence in her eyes. Desire in her smile. This was the Faye he liked to stir to life. He hated that she'd had doubts, but she was getting better about that. He'd keep reminding her. She might make life difficult on purpose just to test his patience and his limits, but eventually she'd realize that there was no limit to what he'd put up with for her. After all, she was the one constantly confirming that he himself mattered. That happiness was something he deserved. That he was worth the love she gave him.

He eagerly polished off his plate then took back the cake so she could shovel her own dinner into her mouth with her hands. If the conceited assholes inside could only see them now...

Spike stole a few bites of the cake before trading her for her empty dinner plate. He tossed both their dinner plates aside and barely restrained himself from kissing the frosting right off her lovely mouth. She was gonna get that other dessert she wanted, but not here in this alley. No, he had made one very important reservation while she'd set up their dinner plans.

"Ready to roll? Got us a suite at the hotel next to that racino you love so much,"

She licked her lips, which did nothing to clean the frosting away. Sometimes she was too cute.

Offering him her hand, she let him pull her up from the squat she'd been in while they ate. Eyes flashing with passion, she blew him a kiss and then took off down the alley.

"C'mon cowboy! I'll race ya!"

He found her in a puddle on the floor of the hangar.

When Faye hadn't shown up for dinner, no one thought much of it although Jet did make sure no one else ate her portion of the meal.

When Spike woke up in the middle of the night - actual night, because it was night on the planet, it wasn't just them arbitrarily calling the time night for once - he almost devoured her plate when he discovered it in the kitchen while he sought a midnight snack.

She hadn't been in the living room when he walked through to the kitchen. He couldn't hear the shower running so she wasn't in there either. He'd even passed her room on his way and though he hadn't paid attention at the time, in retrospect he realized the door being open strongly indicated she wasn't inside.

It wasn't any of his business where she was.

He should just eat her plate and go back to bed with a full stomach.

But somehow his feet kept moving him away from his bed. He meandered through the ship slowly, in no hurry, and with no goal that he was willing to acknowledge.

Still, it was something of a relief to find her at last.

The pod of the RedTail was open and there were empty beer cans all over the floor. Jet would pitch a fit but Spike wasn't about to clean up after her and Faye, a heap on the deck, was clearly not going to take care of it herself.

"How fucked up are you, anyway?" He asked, not expecting an answer.

But she made a valiant attempt to sit up and stared thoughtfully at her zipcraft as she licked her lips. "This fucking guy... He like... He gets it, you know? I can... I can hear what he's saying. And it all - it ALL makes sense..." She waved vaguely at her craft.

Spike frowned and finally realized there was music playing from the speakers of her ship. He listened for a minute and groaned loudly when he recognized the slurred gibberish of an old Earth music icon - Bob Dylan.

"Okay, yup, you're cut off." He told her plainly as he rescued the nearly full beer from her loose grip on the can. He chugged it and wished briefly that there were more. Actually... Climbing up to hang halfway in her zipcraft, he rooted through the mess of wrappers and garbage on the floor of her vessel and soon came up with another beer. A bit more scavenging seemed to indicate it was the last treasure to be found.

On a whim he let the music play on. She'd turned it on in the first place so it wouldn't be his fault if the battery in her ship went dead. Jet would be pissed about that too, but a dead battery was an easy fix.

He leaned against her ship as he lit a cigarette and then cracked open the beer. Faye seemed to rally at the sound, but he also saw her sniffing at the air so perhaps the tobacco had as much to do with it.

She got to her feet with no grace whatsoever and tripped clumsily as she made her way to lean heavily against her own ship.

Her make-up was a mess. Her hair was a mess. Her clothing was all rumpled and...yeah, almost revealed one of her breasts. She gazed at his mouth with a sad look in her eyes.

With an aggravated sigh, Spike stuck the cigarette between her lips, pushed the can into her hand and closed her fingers around it to keep her from dropping the damn thing, then he reached out to tug her top properly back into place. Mission accomplished, he reclaimed the beer and the cigarette, though she protested with a groan of her own.

"You gonna come have dinner? If I leave you here, I'm eating it all."

She sighed and shifted to lean against him more than her ship. "You picked... Such a terrible pot...stop...ughhh SPOT to pots...POST up."

"You picked a terrible spot." He replied easily.

She made a noise that could have been agreement and moved to push away from the ship and him, but immediately wavered and fell more forcefully into his side.

Shaking his hand to get rid of the drops of beer that had splashed out, he glared at her and spoke around the cigarette. "Watch it, Faye! You're wasting perfectly good beer." He sighed and closed his eyes to savor the cigarette smoke and to hear more of the song. Nonsense lyrics. But when the chorus rolled around he could hear and feel Faye mumbling along.

He opened his eyes and saw that she had closed hers. She was just about collapsed against him. He had automatically adjusted his own footing to support her wobbly weight after her most recent fumble. And then he noticed something else about her awkward stance. She had all her weight on her right foot or else resting against his left side. Her left boot was poised just off the deck thanks to the way her hip was pushing into him.

Curious.

He drained the beer can and tossed it into the open pod of her ship. He stubbed out the cigarette against her vessel and then let that drop to the deck. Then, he shoved her away and watched as her eyes flew open and she tried to get her balance but that left foot obviously gave her trouble because as soon as she put weight on it, she was falling with a pained yell.

He caught her before she could hit the deck. Their position resembled a dance move until he stood and scooped her up. Her eyes were closed again, her face screwed up in agony.

"Why didn't you say you hurt your ankle when we got back?" He knew he sounded grumpy but what the fuck was she thinking? "What the fuck was your plan? Drink yourself to sleep then walk it off in the morning?" Truthfully that had been how he often handled injuries so he hoped she didn't call him out for being guilty of the same.

She let out her breath in a slow exhale, trying to push out the pain with her breathing. It was a tactic Spike was well familiar with. She remained obstinately silent in his arms as he carried her through the Bebop. He eased her onto the couch once he got her there and though she winced, she still didn't open her eyes or say a word to him.

Pissed off and not entirely sure why, Spike went to the kitchen and grabbed her plate of food. As an after thought he grabbed one of the juice boxes she loved. Setting his loot down on the table, he gave her another long look. She'd lain down and had draped an arm over her eyes. Well, let her pretend to be asleep through this...

With more care than he'd admit to, Spike tugged the boots off both of her feet. Faye surged up into a sitting position with a shocked wail that she cut off with effort when he worked loose the boot on her left foot. Her left ankle was bruising up and considerably swollen compared to the other. He squeezed and poked around while she panted through the pain he was inflicting on her.

"Nothing broken. Just a bad sprain." He stood over her feeling like a disappointed parent. "When did this happen, Faye?"

Her eyes were wet but she hadn't shed a tear. "Fucking floozy tripped me down the hill." She sounded much more sober now, which was likely doing nothing for her pain. Spike made a face when he realized she'd gotten injured in the beginning of the chase they'd been led on earlier that day. She'd kept pace fairly well despite the ankle, though the pain probably hadn't set in immediately. Sprains were like that sometimes - a significant misstep that feels wrong but doesn't actually hurt initially, though that numbness always wears off too soon.

"Didn't wanna bug anyone," She mumbled, easing herself back down to lay on the couch.

Spike made another face. He'd been pretty dickish on the mission and had stormed inside as soon as they'd landed. In his own defense, he'd been covered in sludge from his fight with the bounty in the pond at the park where they'd finally cornered him.

He picked up the dinner plate and put it on her stomach.

"At least eat before you pass out." He waited until she sat up with another groan and tentatively started taking bites. Then he made his way to the kitchen again, returning with a hand towel that he'd filled with ice and tied into a tidy bundle. He met her eyes before he set it on her swollen ankle and she only hissed a little at the cold contact.

"Spike..."

He left the room again, but came back shortly with the pillow from her room. Wedging it underneath her bad ankle, he adjusted the ice pack and then sat on the coffee table with a sigh. He stared at the floor between his feet, listening to her eat, and at one point he handed her the juice box because he knew it was out of her reach from her current position.

When she finished, he wordlessly took the plate off her lap and set it on his own, then lit up a cigarette which he passed off to her as he stood to bring the dish to the kitchen.

He stood in there for a while, lit another cigarette for himself, and contemplated the events of the day. The dish he left in the sink for someone else to worry about. The bounty was on his mind. Faye's reckless pursuit. He actually remembered seeing some bimbo trip her and remembers how she slid awkwardly down the hill. He hadn't even helped her up - hadn't spared a thought that she might not be okay. He'd just dashed after their bounty and yelled at her to circle around the other way. And she'd done exactly as he asked, no protest and no thought of her own given to her ankle.

Faye, lying in the living room, sucking on a juice box like a child. Her penchant for those drinks was odd. He could ask her about it but chances were she wouldn't even know why she favored them. Some tidbit from her former life shining through.

Eventually he felt the draw of exhaustion again.

She had turned on the monitor when he made his way out of the kitchen. It was on a music channel, one of the blues stations. She was laying there quietly but he could tell she was still awake. Belatedly he realized he should have grabbed her blanket from her room as well.

"Even if I'm being an ass, you can still ask for help." He told her.

Faye sighed. "Doesn't matter. Wasn't important."

Feeling angry about her response, he stalked off to her bedroom and snatched her blanket up. Returning to the living room, he tossed it on her. "Don't tell yourself lies." He growled. "Your health is important, Faye. And of course you matter." The anger drained out of him. "Get some sleep. And take it easy tomorrow."

He couldn't make her care about herself. That was something she had to figure out all on her own.

But ...he could at least show her that she was cared about.

He went to his room and grabbed his own pillow and went back to the living room. He turned off the lights and used the glow from the monitor to see what he was doing when he lifted her head off the couch enough to put his pillow underneath it.

Her eyes gleamed in the darkness, watching him.

Satisfied at last that he'd done all he could for now, Spike straightened up. He was about to walk away when he felt her hand slip into his for a heartbeat, squeeze, then release him. She didn't say a word, but he gave her a hint of a smile to acknowledge her thanks.

"Holler if you need anything," He advised before leaving her to the music and going to lay down pillow-less in his own bed.

Faye stirred in his arms. Watching her wake up was always a good way to gauge her mood. Sometimes there was confusion in her gaze, or alarm - usually when she slept fitfully, haunted by bad dreams or memories. Today seemed like it would be a good day though. Her jade gaze was clear and bright and full of affection once she focused on his face. She closed her eyes again briefly, smiling, and he felt a smile form on his own face in response.

"Mm, where we going?" She asked sleepily, raising her arms to coil around his neck and bring him down for a kiss.

"Does it matter?" He kissed her back deeply, then kept on kissing her and touching her and gorging himself on the love she bubbled over with.

Eventually they made their way to the bridge where Jet was posted up with Ed and Ein. The latter two were engaged in a game of backgammon. They'd raided an antique store for all sorts of puzzles and games recently as a belated birthday present to Ed. Hacker and data dog alike were too engrossed in their game to pay much mind when Spike and Faye meandered up.

Jet favored both new arrivals with a grin and a nod. "You guys sleep too much."

"No such thing." Spike replied lazily.

Jet chuckled. "Well, anyway, where should we go? Got a couple options for bounties..."

Faye's hand snuck into Spike's. She pressed up against him as she slipped past to ruffle Ed's hair and then Ein's scruff.

"Doesn't matter," She told Jet. "Wherever we go is fine by me." After all, they already had everything they needed right here on the bridge.

This isn't a drabble post for once. This is just an appreciation post.

There are shows I've never seen or shows I've never wanted to see. Or comics/books/songs/whatever.

And then I see posts on here with gifs from the shows or whatever... that make me FEEL even though I don't know the whole story or really any of it at all.

But someone else's love for the thing has opened my eyes to what is or could be there. Made me curious for more. Made me want to explore things I never wanted to before, or wrote off without giving a chance, or might have missed knowing even existed forever if it weren't for this place and these posts.

And I am so grateful to the Tumblr community for that.