Author's Note: This is very impromptu and just because I wanted some vamp-boy-love-hate (almost typed "heat" instead of "hate," can あなた say "Freudian?").
Setting: エンジェル Season Five, with Ghost!Spike.
Rating: PG-13 (FFN Rating system T)
Late was not the word for the hour, because for エンジェル the concept of "late" was a moot point. Regardless, at some 時 of the night when most people would be sleeping, または at least relaxing, または maybe indulging in an embarrassing ファンタジー または two with a consenting partner, エンジェル was slumped over his 机, デスク in his dank office at the demonic law firm of Wolfram and Hart.
He had lived two hundred years (more than that, if one counted the extra hundred he spent in that hell dimension) and yet he had never seen so much calculated trickery in his life. Going over contract after contract searching for a loophole proved fruitless. It seemed that every time one appeared, he would find another loophole that counteracted the first loophole. His hand drummed precariously close to his phone. His fingers were itching to seize the receiver and dial Gunn's number for assistance, but the man did need his sleep.
エンジェル didn't need sleep, at least not as much, but he rather enjoyed it from time to time.
He chewed on his lip and squinted, scrutinizing the papers in front of him and vaguely wondering if they had been authored によって the Senior Partners themselves. または maybe they just had the Devil write it for them.
He never thought his life would boil down to sitting behind a 机, デスク looking over legal documents for a way to manipulate an evil system in his favor. And he never thought that system would be the United States Judicial System. He thought about that hell dimension he had spent a hundred years in and decided that this was a far worse fate. In fact, there was no possible way it could get any worse.
And then, he heard the chains.
Everyone in the office had gone ホーム because the business 日 was technically over, which suited Angel's needs perfectly because he liked the quiet. And there was only one person in the world that knew exactly how much he loved the quiet, and エンジェル deduced that it was that very person who was somehow rattling chains in the abandoned hallways of Wolfram and Hart.
Frustrated, エンジェル allowed his heavy head to fall forward, where his forehead made contact with his 机, デスク with a loud thump. The rattling of chains grew slowly noisier little によって little. エンジェル tried to ignore it as he straightened up in his chair and with a sigh returned to his work. His door was closed, and Spike didn't know how to interact with solid objects, so he was safe.
And then the ghost floated through the door. エンジェル had forgotten that while the blond bane of his existence couldn't open the door, he could just walk through it.
"Take a look at this," 発言しました Spike gleefully, gesturing to a number of equally incorporeal chains that ladened him. "Got this off a bloke named Jake Malley または somethin' like that. 発言しました he was tired of draggin' them around all places he went." He rattled them at エンジェル for effect. "Ooooh, aren't I scary?" he moaned sarcastically.
"Spike," エンジェル growled through gritted teeth. "I'm tired. Don't make me call up the exorcist."
"We tried that once, didn't work," Spike observed, amused at Angel's frustrations. He unloaded the chains on the floor and took a step towards Angel's desk. "In fact, as I recall, all it did was make me nose turn blue. Fun stuff, that, I can use it for party tricks."
"We can always try again," 発言しました Angel, though he knew it was futile.
"No good. You're stuck with me until you're dust."
"And then what will あなた do, Spike, huh?" エンジェル demanded out of pure irritation. "Wander around the earth with Dickensian chains for the rest of eternity?"
Spike looked as though he had never thought of this. "You mean after you..." He paused. "Well, I s'pose I could always..." He frowned. "I mean, there is the..." He bit his lip. "You know, Anya would still be... Oh wait."
エンジェル was surprised to find he suddenly had the upper hand and smiled. "That's right, Spike. あなた better hope I stick around a long time, because in a hundred years time, I'll be the only guy あなた know."
Spike's eyes cast downward and he was silent. エンジェル took this opportunity to go back to his work.
"Funny thing, that," Spike 発言しました pensively, after a moment.
エンジェル growled, having once again been interrupted. "What is?"
"We've lived a good long time, あなた and me," Spike mused. "But now, Darla's dead, and Dru is gone, and all of my other フレンズ are... human." He 発言しました the word with such horror and distaste, as if it were something embarrassing to admit. "And pretty soon, they'll be dead. Buffy'll be dead..."
エンジェル disliked the mention of their mutual old flame, especially uttered on Spike's lips. It always ignited a 苦い jealousy in him and he ground his teeth, wanting to remind Spike that he had loved her first, that he had done everything first and Spike was just a grubby little copy-cat. But he kept his mouth shut this time, and he wasn't quite sure why.
Spike laughed. "S'been a long time to spend with someone あなた hate," he said, mostly to himself.
"You've become oddly nostalgic," エンジェル コメントしました snidely.
"I'm musing here," 発言しました Spike, almost defensively.
"I ミューズ too, but I do it silently," エンジェル retorted.
"You muse? Yeah, I've seen あなた 'muse,' except most of us would just call that moping. あなた broody depressive sod, is there anyone who doesn't want to kill themselves when they listen to あなた gripe about how bad あなた got it?"
"And you're not griping?" エンジェル returned. "You're talking about how あなた don't have any friends... And you're sad about that fact! Hell, I remember in the nineteenth century, あなた bragged about eating all of your friends."
"I have a soul now, in case あなた haven't heard," Spike said.
"And somehow that gives あなた license to--"
"It gives you license to do a whole number of things! See, あなた know what you're problem is, Angel, あなた just were never very good at sharing, were you?"
"Sharing? With you? Why should I share with you--"
"Take Buffy, for example," Spike began. "See, I would have been perfectly happy to--" He seemed to just become aware of what he was saying and shut his mouth tightly.
"To what, Spike? To share her?" エンジェル growled.
Spike's lips twitched into a mischievous smile that エンジェル wished he could slap off the ghost's face. "Well, あなた have to admit, it would have been interesting."
エンジェル exhaled sharply through his nose, misunderstanding Spike's intentions. "You're lucky you're incorporeal または else あなた would be out the window によって now."
"Lucky am I?" Spike exclaimed. "That I can't seem to exist in any world completely? That I can't smell, taste または touch anything?" He was walking towards the 机, デスク now, until he stood just before it, または floated rather, as the floor wasn't actually baring his weight. "You think I'm lucky? Well, Mr. Big Shot CEO, would あなた like to switch places with me because you're the one that Buffy--" He stopped himself again.
エンジェル looked up, but this time his expression was not a negative one. "Buffy what?"
"Oh sod it, never mind," Spike mumbled, folding his arms.
エンジェル pushed his chair back and tried to look Spike in the eye, but the ghost avoided him. He walked around the 机, デスク and sized up a sulking Spike. Spike pouted, but エンジェル noted that it was exaggerated to make the whole thing seem like an act.
"She 発言しました she loved me, あなた know," he said, as if in his own defense.
"I loved あなた first," 発言しました Angel, thoughtlessly.
Spike looked baffled and slightly disturbed. "Did I just hear あなた right?"
エンジェル blinked. "Her. Her, I loved her first. The... Buffy."
Spike bit his lip. "Yeah. あなた did everything first." He smiled, sadly but proudly. "Well, I died first. Beat あなた to that, didn't I?"
"Well, technically--"
"I became all ghost-y first. That's somethin', isn't it?" Spike interrupted.
エンジェル couldn't help it. The ghost was so pitiful, it made him laugh. He also realized that Spike's misfortune gave him the most genuine chuckle he'd had in a very long time. "You really can't touch anything, can you?"
"I can if I try," 発言しました Spike, again on the defensive. "If I concentrate very hard and if I think about it, I can even... smell... things. Like you, for instance. あなた always did reek like a dead cat."
A memory struck エンジェル at that moment. "Do あなた remember Saragossa?"
Spike cocked an eyebrow. "1894. あなた mean that night the girls were out."
エンジェル snorted. "You remember it better than I do. Was it 1894?"
Spike took a step backwards, warily. "Why do あなた bring that up now?"
If Angel's blood still ran through his veins, he might have felt himself blush at that moment. "I'm not sure," he confessed.
"I remember," Spike began with a sly smirk, "the Royal ロンドン Hotel. あなた wanted to know if あなた were a deviant because あなた liked me."
"I never 発言しました that--"
"But あなた meant it," Spike 発言しました teasingly, in a sing-song voice. "You really are a fairy, aren't you?"
"Spike--" エンジェル made a 移動する to hit the ghost, but his hand went right through him. Spike's smile faded as he saw Angel's expression grow puzzled.
"What? Am I cold? Tingly?"
"No..." エンジェル said, curiously. "It's... nothing. Like air. あなた might as well not be there at all."
Spike nodded. "Huh. I get that a lot."
Slowly, エンジェル raised his hand, his palm flat as if pressing against an invisible wall. Confused at first, Spike followed his lead and raised his hand, positioning it right in front of Angel's. He wrinkled his brow, staring at Angel's palm, and then pushed forward.
It was like a shock to Angel, pure electricity that knocked into his palm, and yet it was surprisingly warm. The contact lasted for about three 秒 before Spike pushed too hard and his hand went through Angel's and he stumbled forward, his whole body falling right through the older vampire's as if he was nothing at all.
The old companions stood back to back, each of them staring straight ahead, wondering what exactly had just happened and もっと見る importantly, why either of them had participated.
"I touched フレッド once," 発言しました Spike, out of the blue. "She 発言しました I felt funny. Like water, she said."
エンジェル put a hand against his chest. It may have been his imagination, but for the brief instant that Spike's form had coexisted with his own, he could have sworn he felt his ハート, 心 actually...
"I think あなた should go," エンジェル breathed, feeling as if Spike had committed some personal taboo.
"S'kind of funny, that I can go through you," thought Spike out loud. "If あなた think about it, I could reach inside someone's chest and, permitting I could hold my concentration long enough, rip out their ハート, 心 without even breaking their ribcage."
エンジェル was breathing hard. Not so much breathing as forcing his lungs to exhale and inhale for the purpose of speech. But still, he was forcing them to do it heavily, and he wasn't sure why. "And this thought of ripping someone's ハート, 心 out appeals to you?"
Spike was quiet a moment. They were still back to back. Neither of them wanted to look at the other. "No, I s'pose not. Not really. Not unless it was your heart, and even then あなた wouldn't die 'cause あなた don't really need it, do you? So it would be... pointless."
"Right," breathed Angel. "Pointless."
"Yeah, silly, really," Spike said, fumbling. "Um... sorry about that."
"It's OK."
Spike turned around quickly and spoke to Angel's back, who took a step towards the window. "You know, Angel, if I were... If I could touch right now, I think I might..."
"I thought I told あなた to go," 発言しました Angel, staring out at the Los Angeles skyline.
Spike held his tongue. "OK," he said, his hands in the air and taking a few steps backwards. He reached down and lifted his chains, which rattled ominously. "Best be gettin' on, then."
He dragged the chains out with him, through the door, and back down the hall, leaving エンジェル to stare out at the city.
He was, as he called it, musing, または perhaps Spike would call it moping, and some others may have in fact called it brooding. But in all reality, エンジェル was just thinking about things he had refused to allow himself to think about since Saragossa, 1894. He had lived two hundred years (more than that, if one counted the extra hundred he spent in that hell dimension), and yet he had never met a person so infuriating, so aggravating, so fascinating as Spike. And there is one thing to say about fury-- it definitely gets the blood boiling.
エンジェル thought about Saragossa and he smiled.
THE END
Setting: エンジェル Season Five, with Ghost!Spike.
Rating: PG-13 (FFN Rating system T)
Late was not the word for the hour, because for エンジェル the concept of "late" was a moot point. Regardless, at some 時 of the night when most people would be sleeping, または at least relaxing, または maybe indulging in an embarrassing ファンタジー または two with a consenting partner, エンジェル was slumped over his 机, デスク in his dank office at the demonic law firm of Wolfram and Hart.
He had lived two hundred years (more than that, if one counted the extra hundred he spent in that hell dimension) and yet he had never seen so much calculated trickery in his life. Going over contract after contract searching for a loophole proved fruitless. It seemed that every time one appeared, he would find another loophole that counteracted the first loophole. His hand drummed precariously close to his phone. His fingers were itching to seize the receiver and dial Gunn's number for assistance, but the man did need his sleep.
エンジェル didn't need sleep, at least not as much, but he rather enjoyed it from time to time.
He chewed on his lip and squinted, scrutinizing the papers in front of him and vaguely wondering if they had been authored によって the Senior Partners themselves. または maybe they just had the Devil write it for them.
He never thought his life would boil down to sitting behind a 机, デスク looking over legal documents for a way to manipulate an evil system in his favor. And he never thought that system would be the United States Judicial System. He thought about that hell dimension he had spent a hundred years in and decided that this was a far worse fate. In fact, there was no possible way it could get any worse.
And then, he heard the chains.
Everyone in the office had gone ホーム because the business 日 was technically over, which suited Angel's needs perfectly because he liked the quiet. And there was only one person in the world that knew exactly how much he loved the quiet, and エンジェル deduced that it was that very person who was somehow rattling chains in the abandoned hallways of Wolfram and Hart.
Frustrated, エンジェル allowed his heavy head to fall forward, where his forehead made contact with his 机, デスク with a loud thump. The rattling of chains grew slowly noisier little によって little. エンジェル tried to ignore it as he straightened up in his chair and with a sigh returned to his work. His door was closed, and Spike didn't know how to interact with solid objects, so he was safe.
And then the ghost floated through the door. エンジェル had forgotten that while the blond bane of his existence couldn't open the door, he could just walk through it.
"Take a look at this," 発言しました Spike gleefully, gesturing to a number of equally incorporeal chains that ladened him. "Got this off a bloke named Jake Malley または somethin' like that. 発言しました he was tired of draggin' them around all places he went." He rattled them at エンジェル for effect. "Ooooh, aren't I scary?" he moaned sarcastically.
"Spike," エンジェル growled through gritted teeth. "I'm tired. Don't make me call up the exorcist."
"We tried that once, didn't work," Spike observed, amused at Angel's frustrations. He unloaded the chains on the floor and took a step towards Angel's desk. "In fact, as I recall, all it did was make me nose turn blue. Fun stuff, that, I can use it for party tricks."
"We can always try again," 発言しました Angel, though he knew it was futile.
"No good. You're stuck with me until you're dust."
"And then what will あなた do, Spike, huh?" エンジェル demanded out of pure irritation. "Wander around the earth with Dickensian chains for the rest of eternity?"
Spike looked as though he had never thought of this. "You mean after you..." He paused. "Well, I s'pose I could always..." He frowned. "I mean, there is the..." He bit his lip. "You know, Anya would still be... Oh wait."
エンジェル was surprised to find he suddenly had the upper hand and smiled. "That's right, Spike. あなた better hope I stick around a long time, because in a hundred years time, I'll be the only guy あなた know."
Spike's eyes cast downward and he was silent. エンジェル took this opportunity to go back to his work.
"Funny thing, that," Spike 発言しました pensively, after a moment.
エンジェル growled, having once again been interrupted. "What is?"
"We've lived a good long time, あなた and me," Spike mused. "But now, Darla's dead, and Dru is gone, and all of my other フレンズ are... human." He 発言しました the word with such horror and distaste, as if it were something embarrassing to admit. "And pretty soon, they'll be dead. Buffy'll be dead..."
エンジェル disliked the mention of their mutual old flame, especially uttered on Spike's lips. It always ignited a 苦い jealousy in him and he ground his teeth, wanting to remind Spike that he had loved her first, that he had done everything first and Spike was just a grubby little copy-cat. But he kept his mouth shut this time, and he wasn't quite sure why.
Spike laughed. "S'been a long time to spend with someone あなた hate," he said, mostly to himself.
"You've become oddly nostalgic," エンジェル コメントしました snidely.
"I'm musing here," 発言しました Spike, almost defensively.
"I ミューズ too, but I do it silently," エンジェル retorted.
"You muse? Yeah, I've seen あなた 'muse,' except most of us would just call that moping. あなた broody depressive sod, is there anyone who doesn't want to kill themselves when they listen to あなた gripe about how bad あなた got it?"
"And you're not griping?" エンジェル returned. "You're talking about how あなた don't have any friends... And you're sad about that fact! Hell, I remember in the nineteenth century, あなた bragged about eating all of your friends."
"I have a soul now, in case あなた haven't heard," Spike said.
"And somehow that gives あなた license to--"
"It gives you license to do a whole number of things! See, あなた know what you're problem is, Angel, あなた just were never very good at sharing, were you?"
"Sharing? With you? Why should I share with you--"
"Take Buffy, for example," Spike began. "See, I would have been perfectly happy to--" He seemed to just become aware of what he was saying and shut his mouth tightly.
"To what, Spike? To share her?" エンジェル growled.
Spike's lips twitched into a mischievous smile that エンジェル wished he could slap off the ghost's face. "Well, あなた have to admit, it would have been interesting."
エンジェル exhaled sharply through his nose, misunderstanding Spike's intentions. "You're lucky you're incorporeal または else あなた would be out the window によって now."
"Lucky am I?" Spike exclaimed. "That I can't seem to exist in any world completely? That I can't smell, taste または touch anything?" He was walking towards the 机, デスク now, until he stood just before it, または floated rather, as the floor wasn't actually baring his weight. "You think I'm lucky? Well, Mr. Big Shot CEO, would あなた like to switch places with me because you're the one that Buffy--" He stopped himself again.
エンジェル looked up, but this time his expression was not a negative one. "Buffy what?"
"Oh sod it, never mind," Spike mumbled, folding his arms.
エンジェル pushed his chair back and tried to look Spike in the eye, but the ghost avoided him. He walked around the 机, デスク and sized up a sulking Spike. Spike pouted, but エンジェル noted that it was exaggerated to make the whole thing seem like an act.
"She 発言しました she loved me, あなた know," he said, as if in his own defense.
"I loved あなた first," 発言しました Angel, thoughtlessly.
Spike looked baffled and slightly disturbed. "Did I just hear あなた right?"
エンジェル blinked. "Her. Her, I loved her first. The... Buffy."
Spike bit his lip. "Yeah. あなた did everything first." He smiled, sadly but proudly. "Well, I died first. Beat あなた to that, didn't I?"
"Well, technically--"
"I became all ghost-y first. That's somethin', isn't it?" Spike interrupted.
エンジェル couldn't help it. The ghost was so pitiful, it made him laugh. He also realized that Spike's misfortune gave him the most genuine chuckle he'd had in a very long time. "You really can't touch anything, can you?"
"I can if I try," 発言しました Spike, again on the defensive. "If I concentrate very hard and if I think about it, I can even... smell... things. Like you, for instance. あなた always did reek like a dead cat."
A memory struck エンジェル at that moment. "Do あなた remember Saragossa?"
Spike cocked an eyebrow. "1894. あなた mean that night the girls were out."
エンジェル snorted. "You remember it better than I do. Was it 1894?"
Spike took a step backwards, warily. "Why do あなた bring that up now?"
If Angel's blood still ran through his veins, he might have felt himself blush at that moment. "I'm not sure," he confessed.
"I remember," Spike began with a sly smirk, "the Royal ロンドン Hotel. あなた wanted to know if あなた were a deviant because あなた liked me."
"I never 発言しました that--"
"But あなた meant it," Spike 発言しました teasingly, in a sing-song voice. "You really are a fairy, aren't you?"
"Spike--" エンジェル made a 移動する to hit the ghost, but his hand went right through him. Spike's smile faded as he saw Angel's expression grow puzzled.
"What? Am I cold? Tingly?"
"No..." エンジェル said, curiously. "It's... nothing. Like air. あなた might as well not be there at all."
Spike nodded. "Huh. I get that a lot."
Slowly, エンジェル raised his hand, his palm flat as if pressing against an invisible wall. Confused at first, Spike followed his lead and raised his hand, positioning it right in front of Angel's. He wrinkled his brow, staring at Angel's palm, and then pushed forward.
It was like a shock to Angel, pure electricity that knocked into his palm, and yet it was surprisingly warm. The contact lasted for about three 秒 before Spike pushed too hard and his hand went through Angel's and he stumbled forward, his whole body falling right through the older vampire's as if he was nothing at all.
The old companions stood back to back, each of them staring straight ahead, wondering what exactly had just happened and もっと見る importantly, why either of them had participated.
"I touched フレッド once," 発言しました Spike, out of the blue. "She 発言しました I felt funny. Like water, she said."
エンジェル put a hand against his chest. It may have been his imagination, but for the brief instant that Spike's form had coexisted with his own, he could have sworn he felt his ハート, 心 actually...
"I think あなた should go," エンジェル breathed, feeling as if Spike had committed some personal taboo.
"S'kind of funny, that I can go through you," thought Spike out loud. "If あなた think about it, I could reach inside someone's chest and, permitting I could hold my concentration long enough, rip out their ハート, 心 without even breaking their ribcage."
エンジェル was breathing hard. Not so much breathing as forcing his lungs to exhale and inhale for the purpose of speech. But still, he was forcing them to do it heavily, and he wasn't sure why. "And this thought of ripping someone's ハート, 心 out appeals to you?"
Spike was quiet a moment. They were still back to back. Neither of them wanted to look at the other. "No, I s'pose not. Not really. Not unless it was your heart, and even then あなた wouldn't die 'cause あなた don't really need it, do you? So it would be... pointless."
"Right," breathed Angel. "Pointless."
"Yeah, silly, really," Spike said, fumbling. "Um... sorry about that."
"It's OK."
Spike turned around quickly and spoke to Angel's back, who took a step towards the window. "You know, Angel, if I were... If I could touch right now, I think I might..."
"I thought I told あなた to go," 発言しました Angel, staring out at the Los Angeles skyline.
Spike held his tongue. "OK," he said, his hands in the air and taking a few steps backwards. He reached down and lifted his chains, which rattled ominously. "Best be gettin' on, then."
He dragged the chains out with him, through the door, and back down the hall, leaving エンジェル to stare out at the city.
He was, as he called it, musing, または perhaps Spike would call it moping, and some others may have in fact called it brooding. But in all reality, エンジェル was just thinking about things he had refused to allow himself to think about since Saragossa, 1894. He had lived two hundred years (more than that, if one counted the extra hundred he spent in that hell dimension), and yet he had never met a person so infuriating, so aggravating, so fascinating as Spike. And there is one thing to say about fury-- it definitely gets the blood boiling.
エンジェル thought about Saragossa and he smiled.
THE END