
writer of dribbles and drabbles and more! see AO3 for longer works and remember Callahan's Law: "shared pain is lessened, shared joy increased"
365 posts
"I Don't Like This, Faye. I Don't Fit In Here." Spike Snarled Under His Breath. Uncomfortable As He Felt,
"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!"
-
dear-scheherazade liked this · 1 year ago
-
reducal liked this · 1 year ago
-
astrodriedfruit liked this · 3 years ago
-
amandarin-oranges liked this · 3 years ago
-
metalciouds liked this · 3 years ago
-
eugenerapunzelforever reblogged this · 3 years ago
-
eugenerapunzelforever liked this · 3 years ago
-
jhelloz liked this · 3 years ago
-
minishimi liked this · 3 years ago
-
slug-behaviour liked this · 3 years ago
-
spencey89-blog-blog liked this · 3 years ago
-
spike-and-faye reblogged this · 3 years ago
-
blueemberfire reblogged this · 3 years ago
-
francealyn liked this · 3 years ago
-
zoey9396 liked this · 3 years ago
-
jerkbend liked this · 3 years ago
-
ayla-during liked this · 3 years ago
-
plutomango liked this · 3 years ago
-
lovealwaysandforever04 liked this · 3 years ago
-
oceanspray5 liked this · 3 years ago
-
sprinklesandjustapinchofwhatever liked this · 3 years ago
-
shokuto liked this · 3 years ago
-
idekusgf liked this · 3 years ago
-
asteroiide liked this · 3 years ago
-
she-was-a-psychedelic-messss liked this · 3 years ago
-
thestarlightsymphony reblogged this · 3 years ago
-
broskiro liked this · 3 years ago
More Posts from Aldreantreuperi
Guns were made to kill. That was their purpose. But sometimes that meant something more. You could kill just to end a life, but sometimes you killed to save a life or lives. A tool of destruction used for protection. That was often how Spike viewed himself these days.
He was a weapon but that didn't mean he was a murderer or that he took pleasure in claiming lives.
Okay, sometimes he did.
But usually the people on the other end of his attack were bad folks who deserved what was coming to them. And there was nothing wrong with being pleased about ending their reign of terror.
It had taken a long while to find the balance. Knowing you'd done stuff that technically counts as evil - after all, taking a life even to save a life wasn't the sort of thing that got people into heaven if you bought into all that God nonsense - it was a heavy thing to carry and a bitter pill to swallow.
But he figured it was better if he played that role he'd been made for, better than someone like Ed having to kill in self defense. He had blood on his hands already - what was a few drops more?
So he chose to judge himself less harshly these days.
He'd been a beast once and had done ruthless things for the Red Dragons. Though, never had he killed any civilians even in the most destructive of his rampages. And, sure, he'd had to pay a few hospital bills here and there for folks caught in the crossfire, but that was better than needing to cover the cost of someone's funeral.
He could be cruel and terrible. He could be downright lethal when the situation called for it. But he could also take other routes. He had been trained to kill, but he had taught himself other methods of handling things. Killing had become a last resort.
His goal these days had focused more on the protection aspect. Using his strength and skills to keep his crewmates safe. Using subtlety to pull one over on bounties so there was minimal fallout from apprehending them.
It was a fine line to straddle and realistically he was the only person judging himself. Jet never told him he'd gone too far, and Jet was his moral compass. Faye would no doubt tell him he hadn't gone far enough in some instances, but she could be just as cold-hearted and vindictive as Spike at his worst. Revenge was a dish she often enjoyed serving, especially to assholes who ultimately warranted whatever pain she chose to inflict.
But if Faye were a weapon she wouldn't be a gun. She would be something more merciless. A knife in the back perhaps. An attack that was earned. She would never kill if it wasn't called for.
Jet wouldn't be a gun either. In fact Spike wasn't sure if he'd be a weapon at all. Jet gave off more of a shield vibe. Although a shield could still be used to crush someone to dust, or knock them senseless. Either way, only brutal if absolutely demanded to be.
They each had their dark side. Parts of their hearts were hardened. Portions of their personality given over to the ability to harm without significant regret. It was vital in their line of work. They dealt with scum. With liars and killers and rapists and other Bad Guys.
But that was just the worst of the lot.
All too often they had bounties that required a more delicate touch. A deeper understanding of human nature and the plight of man. That was when they needed to call on their other strengths. And that was where they truly got to shine.
Their ability to help others at their own expense or to their own peril - that was what had attracted Ed to the Bebop in the first place.
Ed, who by all rights should be the true moral compass of the crew.
But she saw more good than they could. Despite her own experience with loneliness and with nasty people, she hadn't ever had to make that final decision to end someone's life. And without that shadow on your soul, you didn't truly know the necessity of kill or be killed. Her moral guide was a star shining too bright for them to emulate. She was as yet untarnished and blessedly free of the guilt that was so much a part of each of them. Even when killing was necessary, it wasn't always easy.
Spike claimed the darkness within him. Took accountability for the damages he'd caused. He acknowledged his awful talents and strove to stay on the side of right. To be the man Jet knew he was at heart. To be the man Ed needed him to be - always trying to do better in her eyes.
He let them guide him whenever possible. And when shit got messy and people got hurt and someone needed to be taken out... That's when he let Faye point him in the right direction and unleash the monster he'd once subdued.
He was a weapon, but he wasn't a cold-blooded killer anymore. He was the last defense of good souls. And that was something he could be okay with.
Hunger was a hollow presence in her stomach and creeping up her throat. It made her very teeth ache. She could hardly concentrate on anything aside from the crushing void that called out to be filled.
She'd been hungry before. She'd been ravenous on occasion.
This was a slower, deeper feel. Starvation had sapped her strength, had stolen her ability to reason, was making her muscles watery and useless.
She knew she'd lost weight. Knew she'd begun to look truly emaciated.
She'd change it all in a heartbeat if she could.
But it had been so long since she had crashed here. So long since she'd been able to find anything edible to put in her belly. The berries she'd found had only made things worse, tying her insides up and making her vomit purplish bile. She was lucky that she hadn't eaten so many that she died. Or was that luck? It could have been over by now. No more emptiness consuming her from the inside out. No more fitful sleeping, tossing and turning, with no position comfortable.
It had been her own fault. Fighting with the others before bailing entirely. Telling Spike he was a fool to stay mired in the depression that had overtaken him after the Tower. Telling Jet he was a fool for letting Spike drift along like a spectre, coddling him and letting him wallow in his grief. She hadn't been able to stand it - the unnatural quiet on the ship. The heaviness hanging over everyone still there. That lost look in Spike's eyes and the haunted pain in Jet's as well for being unable to help his friend.
So she fled. Ran away to Earth of all horrible places but Earth was where Ed and Ein were. Earth was hope. She chased after her former comrades, seeking the happiness they had always radiated.
But Earth had never been good to her. It had been silly to expect to find her missing friends and for life to be all sunshine and roses. She hadn't even considered how low on fuel her craft was. Hadn't considered just how incredibly vast the deserts of Earth were. Hell, she wasn't even sure if she'd gone to the right continent.
Laying in the shade of the edge of a crater, Faye Valentine let tears slip down her face. There was no one around to see her and judge her. No one to notice her weakness. She had failed in her mission. Just like how she'd failed everything else. Uncovering her past and finding answers. Fail. Pulling Spike out of his misery. Fail. Proving to Jet she could handle anything the universe threw at her. Fail. Finding Ed and Ein and bringing them home to the Bebop. Fail.
And now here she was, too exhausted and hungry to even move anymore. If she hadn't found a little spring nearby, she would have been dead days ago from lack of water. Now she wondered if she hadn't just been prolonging her own demise. For a few hours she'd thought she found a way to trick herself into feeling like she'd eaten. If she scooped the water into her hands and licked her palms clean of every drop - her hands themselves offered a salty flavor she tried to pretend was food.
It had been a trick that actually got better with time. Which she knew on some level meant she was losing her ability to think straight. But she sort of relished that. She didn't want to be cognizant of her own death. She'd rather go slightly mad first if that was possible. It seemed a gentler way to go.
A shadow passed overhead. A bird perhaps? There had been some vultures sneaking closer and closer as the days went by. They had frightened and unnerved her at first but now she thought of them as friends. She could offer them something. She could offer them herself. She'd been no good to anyone else but maybe she could be good to them. Provide them with some sustenance so they could continue to live in this scorching desert.
It made her happy to think she could still have a positive impact somehow.
The sun was starting to set on another day. She'd lost track of how long it had been since she left the ship, since her zipcraft had dropped from the sky and broken itself to pieces. If only she'd been higher up instead of slowly going down - she could have died in a fiery explosion if her ship had fallen from a more significant height. As it was, her crash had been fairly dull. Just enough force when ramming into the dusty earth that her pod shield had cracked and the underbelly of her vessel had been gouged to shit as it tore into the terrain.
She closed her eyes, not wanting to witness the beauty of the sun's descent. She didn't deserve to see the colors that would fill up the sky and deepen until the stars shone through the blue-black of night.
"Shit, Faye!"
She frowned. Opening her eyes again was a struggle. They were so gritty and she was so very, very tired. But she wanted to know if she was imagining people again - it had happened a few times now in her delirium.
Hands on her. Fabric brushing her sunburnt skin. Liquid poured onto her parched lips - she nearly choked as her mouth automatically opened and accidentally took in too much of the cold liquid. Trembling hands - or was she shaking? Her senses reeled, her mind edging back from whatever was happening. Darkness devoured her.
When she woke, it was in a strange room. Everything was white. The sheets covering her too thin body. The walls, the ceiling, the floor. She would have thought herself dead if not for the sound of machinery nearby and the slightly itchy pain of having an IV inserted into her flesh.
She couldn't muster the energy to open her eyes more than a fraction. But she could see something that wasn't white now that she focused. Olive skin. A large hand laying gently atop her right hand - the left was hooked up to the IV. She didn't feel strong enough to turn her head, but she was able to slant her gaze to the side.
Mossy green hair. The most rumpled blue suit she'd ever seen. Brown eyes, slightly different shades, looking right back at her with a mixture of worry and relief.
"Fuck, you scared me." Spike said when he realized she wasn't going to fall back asleep. His thumb twitched on her hand. "When we couldn't raise you on the comm... Well, at first we figured you didn't want to be followed. But... something in my gut wouldn't stop saying I needed to find you." He smiled helplessly, no mirth in it. "If I hadn't seen the sun glinting off the wreckage of your ship... fuck, I'm so glad Ed put those trackers on our ships. And glad you didn't stubbornly turn yours off."
He gave her hand a squeeze.
"You probably can't talk yet. They had a feeding tube down your throat for a day or two, that's gone now but they said it would take a bit to heal. You're still on fluids, they were real concerned with how long you were out in the sun without food or much water."
She blinked slowly. This seemed real, or else the trippiest hallucination she'd had yet. But why would she hallucinate being uncomfortable in a hospital bed while Spike Spiegel held her hand?
"We should have started looking sooner. It's gonna take so many servings of bell peppers and beef to get your weight up." He chuckled but then grew serious. "You were right, you know. People aren't meant to cling to sorrow the way I was. I just... wasn't ready to let go of everything that had made up my life before. When Jet told me you took off... I felt responsible. I didn't want to be. I didn't want your happiness to be contingent on mine. But that's what happens. You live with people, you work with people, you start to care when they're upset and you care about why they're upset. I was bringing you and Jet both down with me and I hadn't even realized."
Tears were gathering in her eyes.
"I already apologized to him. Oh Faye, you would have lost it at his expression. But there was still a pit in my stomach over the way you left. I pushed you to it. I... remember you saying how the ship was the only place you belonged. And I'd made it so you didn't feel good there anymore. You were so caught up in trying to make me better and I didn't even notice. I just wanted to be dead. But that was dumb. Here I was, survivor of the destruction of an entire syndicate, wishing I didn't exist anymore."
He paused to reach up with his right hand and wipe away a tear that had escaped her. His left hand tightened again on her hand in his grip.
"I decided that if I was gonna be alive anyway, I should actually try to live. Seems foolish not to. And then I wanted to find you, to apologize, and to invite you back. The ship isn't the same without you, Faye. We got used to you using up all the hot water and eating all the food and humming off key. I kept expecting you to be there, trying to steal my cigs or challenging me to a drinking contest. So, I tracked down your ship. Which wasn't easy - the main body of your vessel got detached from the section where the tracker is housed in the first place. Not to mention the sand storms had nearly buried the damn thing. And then you weren't there. I don't even know how long I searched until I finally went to take a break in the shade of a crater and saw you crumpled there."
He took a deep breath and wiped more of her tears away.
"You were so light in my arms. Insubstantial. And you wouldn't wake up. You wouldn't yell at me. You didn't try to fight me at all. I didn't even know if we could save you on the ship so Jet directed me to the nearest hospital and that's where we are now. Where we've been. We can stay here until you're recovered enough to leave. Jet's been pulling in some small fries. So don't worry about the bill. Fuck money anyway."
She licked her lips, still cracked from exposure and dehydration, and opened her mouth to try and speak. Before she could though he jumped to his feet and grabbed a glass from the table next to her bed. He poured water from a pitcher into the glass and then held it to her lips, using one of his big hands to support her head as she tried to lift it enough to drink without dribbling all over or choking.
He set the glass aside when she turned her face just enough to indicate she was done with it. His left hand found it's way back to cradle her head while his right hand came back to her cheeks to brush away more tears. Fuck, she was like a leaky faucet.
"I...wanted...to...find...Ed." She rasped. "Bring...joy...back."
His eyes softened and a smile curled his lips. "Oh Faye, you're joy too. Without you around life just isn't as much fun." He leaned down then to press a kiss to her forehead. "We can look for them when you're up for it. See what they're up to, if they wanna join us again. But we'll do it together. You, me, Jet. No more of this running off solo shit. Okay?"
Mutely, she nodded. Spike's smile grew a bit wider and he moved to sit back down at her bedside. His left hand stayed behind her head, shifting slightly lower so he could rub absently at her neck, and his right hand went to hold hers again.
"No more talking, just take it easy now. Get some sleep if you can - healing goes quicker when you rest. I'll be here, Faye. I'm not going anywhere."
The hollow ache of hunger in her stomach was waning. She knew she wouldn't actually feel full until she was sitting back on the Bebop and finishing up a plate of Jet's food. But the other ache, the emptiness in her heart that she hadn't even acknowledged, that was already fading away fast. Between Spike's words and his touch, she was filling up with a warmth the sun could never hope to rival.
"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.
There was a rustling noise. Light leaked in from the hall due to his door being only partially closed. Spike rolled away from the light but before he could fall back asleep he became aware of Faye's hand gently shaking his shoulder.
"I had a nightmare. Can I sleep in here?"
"Hmm," Obviously the answer was yes but he didn't like to give in right away. Didn't want her thinking she had all the power even though she did.
Faye sighed but sounded amused, as though she'd planned for this eventuality. "I'll give you a shooter." She said in a sing-song voice.
Spike blindly reached backwards over his shoulder for the tiny plastic bottle, opened it with his teeth, drank the contents in one sip, and tossed the bottle into a dark corner of the room.
He flopped onto his back and lifted the blanket so she could slide in beside him. Her hands snuck into his hair immediately as she draped herself atop him. Her lower half shifted against him restlessly as if she couldn't quite get comfortable.
Spike grinned and then smacked his lips. "Mm, pepperminty."
From down by his ribs, where her face was pressing kisses to his skin, came a giggle. "Figured you hadn't brushed your teeth,"
He made an appreciative noise and then wrapped his arms around her to draw her up and flip them both over so he was looming over her now. She was smiling at him, her eyes glittering in the light from the hall, and still using her lower half against him.
"I think you wanted fresh tasting kisses," He replied, bringing his face down to hers to scatter kisses on her nose and cheeks. "Well," kiss "I'm" kiss "happy" kiss "to" kiss "oblige." And then he stopped talking and peppering her face with kisses so he could capture her lips with his own.
"You've been pouring over that book for hours, Faye. What the fuck is so interesting about some book from hundreds of years ago?"
She laughed. "Historians would have so many complaints against what you just said."
Spike gazed at her steadily. A blush was slowly creeping up her cheeks. "Anyway… I was just… doing some research."
"Oh yeah?" He padded over barefoot to stand behind the couch and peer down at the pages open in her lap. "Ohh yeah, I like this kind of research."
She snapped the book closed, face on fire with embarrassment.
"No, no, I'm not teasing. Open that back up, hey? I find it… rather stimulating if you must know." He leaned down, resting his elbows on the back of the couch on either side of her head and opened the book again. He brought his face down to be next to hers and nuzzled briefly at the spot on her neck that always gave her shivers. "Mm, see some of these we've already knocked out of the park. But a few of these others… well…" He dragged his face along hers gently as he backed up to straighten up - his stubble scraping against her smooth skin in a way he knew drove her wild.
Faye's breath hitched. She always tried to stay silent and still, to withhold her reaction to his allure, but he'd always been able to read her poker face. On the other hand, she'd also learned his tells and how he liked to try and play off that her own antics had no effect on him. Even now, months after hooking up initially, they still strove to one up the other. Who would be the first to gasp? To moan? To say the other's name in a hiss or a howl of passion?
"Let's start… here." Faye suggested, pointing to a pose called 'caramel.'
She glanced over her shoulder to peek at Spike coyly, her teeth pulling at her lower lip in a way she'd learned he couldn't stand for long before he had to take over.
"Mm, sounds smooth. But… let's build to that and start with this…" He reached over her shoulder to tap the page.
Faye looked at that image and frowned. "Really? The caliper? We've done that plenty."
He laughed. "Sure, against a wall or one of the ships or whatever. This is intended to be free standing. Nothing but me keeping you off the ground... And taking you to new heights of passion,"
She snorted. "Dial it back, Casanova."
Spike laughed. "Yeah I thought that might be too much. But still, c'mon, we've probably only got a couple hours before Jet gets back with Ed. Let's go... up to the bridge. All those windows, that view..." His eyes were fixed on her ample bosom.
Faye smirked and reached up to grab his tie, curling it around her hand. She rose to her feet while holding it in her fist and then used it to pull him around from behind the couch and towards the stairs. "I got a view for you to enjoy..."