Quid Pro Quo

A/N: Oh, gosh, I am so sorry it has been so long since I posted. I worked on my chapter of the round robin, End of the Bloody Line, and that took a few days. There was a mix up with this chapter, but thanks to Megan_Peta, it is done. And Just A Fling – the chapter was done but now I am making a few changes about London with Scherezade’s (did I spell that right?) help. Give it another one or two days, and I will post it. For now, enjoy Quid Pro Quo.

Chapter 11: Go For The Gold

Spike answered that one. “Judging by those gaudy bits of feather you and the Slayer are holding, Peaches and I are about to be wearing hats that would make a rooster crow in envy.”

“Oh, that…The way you and everybody else are dressed and bustling around means there must be something ceremonial about to happen. Here, wait a minute.” Nina shoved the headdress she was holding into Angel’s hands and ran around the corner of a large, stone wall. A few moments later, she returned. “It’s a ball court!! You’re getting ready for a ball game!!” Nina was bouncing up and down with excitement that no one else understood or shared.

Angel stood up so that he could grasp both of her arms. “Nina, slow down.”

Before speaking again, Nina took a deep breath. It helped - a little. “The game is like soccer.”

Pffft, Spike sounded disgusted. “You mean football. And I don’t mean that poor excuse they have in America.”

“Yes, with a little basketball thrown in. Oh, it looks like people are going in. Follow those men and do what they do.” Nina placed the headdress on Angel and Buffy followed her lead to Spike.

Buffy couldn’t help but laugh at Spike’s expression. He looked like she was wrapped a rattle snake around his head. In fact, he looked like he would prefer the snake over the headdress. He gave her a dirty look like he knew what she was thinking. She didn’t care but still covered her mouth to muffle her laughter.

When Angel and Spike stood up, they looked down at themselves. They were wearing leather shoes, a skirt made of leather flaps, a stone yoke around their waist, one long necklace decorated with bright feathers, a shorter one of gold disks, and a choker of gold. There were also wide arm bands on their forearm, and gold bands on their upper arms. ‘Well,’ Angel thought, ‘so much for blending in.’ However, they did notice that the other men around them wore similar costumes.

Strangest of all, the people around them didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary about them. Angel with his darker features and hair may have blended in some, but the locals acted like three white-skinned blondes walked around in this Mayan location everyday. Similar to their being able to read the hieroglyphs, Spike suspected that the Mayans were seeing them as if they were one of their own people.

Angel still wasn’t sure what was going on. “How do they play a game with all this…this stuff on?”

Nina pushed him forward. “They don’t. After they go out and parade around, they will come back here, and we will change some of the clothes out. But we had better hurry. They look like they are about to begin.”

Buffy called out to Spike as he walked away. “Spike.” He turned towards her. “What do you have under that skirt?”

His eyes shot open wide, and Buffy and Nina laughed as Spike peeked and then looked relieved.

Spike and Angel followed the other heavily decorated men around a corner and found themselves standing on a grassy, rectangular area that looked to be about twenty-five feet by seventy-five feet. On their left down the longer side were stands for the spectators made of stone. On their right was a heavily carved, stone area that had a few people seated there that--judging from their incredible trappings-- Angel assumed them to be the nobility of some type. The players were preening for the crowd. ‘Well, Spike should feel at home,’ Angel thought, considering the way the blonde liked to strut and show off.

After a while of parading, the men marched back out the entrance. Angel and Spike were immediately met by Nina and Buffy. As was happening all around, the girls started changing the men’s outfits. The necklaces were removed, the stone yoke was replaced by a wooden one, protective leather was wrapped on their arms, and the headdresses was replaced with helmets.

As they were being changed, Angel turned to Spike. “You enjoyed that.”

Spike tried to keep his face straight, but he gave up. “Well, yeah. Bloody rush that was.”

Angel smirked. “You’re nothing but a glorified rooster.”

Spike looked offended. “No, a fighting cock, and I don’t mean a willy.”

Rolling his eyes, Angel turned his focus back on Nina.

Not wanting to miss a chance, Buffy paid special attention to how she dressed Spike. It meant touching him as much as possible, and getting her face as close to his-- alluding to a kiss. In fact, she thought he had leaned towards her when their lips were close. Yes! She will get in his face more often. Wasn’t there a piece of dirt on his face she should brush off?

While they were performing the transformation, Nina explained the rules, at least the ones she could remember. “Your goal is to get a softball sized, solid rubber ball through a stone ring way above the nobility. Big no no’s are: do not let the ball hit the ground and do not use your hands. You can use your head, hips, forearms, and feet. There could be more, but just watch the other players.” Nina made an apologetic face and shrugged. “Sorry, that’s all I remember.”

Angel patted Nina’s hand sitting on his thigh. He gave her a quick kiss. “But we are looking for a gold weapon. Did you see all of the gold out there?”

“Yeah, pinch some and the pauper becomes the prince,” Spike popped off.

“The game doesn’t use weapons so it won’t be there,” Nina further explained. “Well, you just have to have faith that you will know it when you see it.”

As Spike and Angel made their way out onto the court again, they looked over the players. All were dressed the same with arm bands, helmets, leather skirts-- all decorate with vibrant paints. Spike was starting to see a pattern. “Peaches?”

Throwing up his arms in frustration, Angel barked at Spike. “Angel. Is Angel so hard to say?”

“Easy actually…Peaches, do you notice a difference in our fellow ball players?”

Giving into the nickname battle for the time being, Angel scrutinized the men. “The colors.”

“Right, fearless poof. The decorations are either predominantly yellow or red. You’re in the yellow camp.” Spike looked down his body. “And paint me in the red one.”

“Different teams.” For some unknown reason, Angel didn’t have a good feeling about that.

”Looks like.” On the other hand, Spike was looking forward to playing against Angel. Nothing like an opportunity to humiliate his grandsire.

Angel didn’t trust Spike’s growing smirk one bit. “You had better not use your enhanced abilities. We would stand out too much.”

Rubbing his hands together, Spike welcomed the upcoming challenge. “Shaking in my boots, or in this case, sandals, you prat,” Spike threw over his shoulder as he and Angel headed off towards their respective teams.

One of the people covered in gold from the nobility side of the ball court walked out on the grass holding a solid, rubber ball that looked to be six inches in diameter. Spike noticed that his team was starting to spread out and he waited for play to begin. Quickly looking around to check on the ladies, he found them standing where he and Angel hand entered the field of play. He told himself that he was looking to make sure Nina was all right, but his eyes sought out Buffy. Buffy was looking back at him. He shouldn’t have felt so…so satisfied when she made a motion with her fist above her head at him, but he had to admit that her show of support added to his confidence.

Buffy watched as Spike and Angel made their way to their teams, and just like Angel had, she didn’t have a good feeling about them splitting up. She was just going to have to trust in them. Then Spike looked their way. More specifically, he looked at her-- eye to eye. She wanted to behave like a schoolgirl waving at the quarterback. Instead, she waved her fist and hoped it looked encouraging. It must have. He nodded to her, which thrilled her. The schoolgirl was now flushed with delight.

Unexpectedly, the man holding the ball at the center of the field motioned for Spike to come to him. At first, Spike thought he was pointing to someone else, but another player gave him a shove in the right direction. The same happened with Angel, leaving them facing each other with the ball being held in the middle.

“How hard can it be?” Angel asked. Spike just shrugged.

Then the game began. When the ball went up and then came down, Spike kicked it and then got out of the way. Angel scrambled away, also. The ball was moving, dancing from a foot, to a hip to a head, another hip to a forearm. At first Angel and Spike tried to stay away from the play; just taking in the moves and interaction. Then the ball came Spike’s way. He bumped it off his forearm so it wouldn’t go past him and fall to the ground. From then on, Spike was in the thick of things, even taking a few shots at the ring that was about thirty feet above the ground. He noted that his grandsire had joined in. A foot, a hip, a foot, and a forearm.

During all the action, he could feel eyes on him. Buffy’s eyes. And the first time he didn’t feel them--before he could stop himself-- he turned to see what was she doing. If she was okay, or even if she was still there. Then after that first time, he found himself checking on her again and again. He had to stop this, he told himself, and concentrate on the game or he was going to take a hard hit to the melon.

Buffy watched Spike with mixed feelings. Even though she knew that he could take care of himself, she still worried. Two of the players had already been injured by blows from the hard, solid ball and had to leave the game. Spike was partly human now so more vulnerable. On the other hand, she felt a rush watching Spike play the game. Of course, at the beginning he had floundered. But as the game progressed, he caught on and began to shine. Just as he fought demons every night, in this he moved with a fluid grace. She couldn’t take her eyes off of him, and was shocked to notice how many times he looked her way. At first, she thought that he was checking on Nina. But he wouldn’t have looked at Nina that many times, would he? No, she and Spike had looked at each other eye to eye, and his eyes didn’t hold their usual hostility. He looked like she had chipped a little more at the ice around his heart.

Nina was enjoying watching Buffy for some of the time. She didn’t think that the slayer knew that she was mirroring Spike’s every move. Buffy would give a little kick when Spike did and moved her arm when he popped the ball with his forearm. But Nina thought her favorite was when Buffy would jump up and stretch her neck, mimicking Spike heading the ball. Just too funny.

Between an hour and a half to two hours, a break was called. The players dropped to the ground where they were to rest and drink the water that was brought to them. Buffy and Nina took that time to look at the carvings depicted on the stone around the ball court. After seeing the game played, they could tell that much of the carvings depicted the ball game itself. The players were shown in all their glory. But then, Buffy found a part that made the hair on the back of her neck rise. “Nina, what does this mean?”

Nina looked at the section that Buffy had pointed out, looked at Buffy, and then back again at the carvings. “Oh, no.”

“Oh, no? What?”

“Oh, no.” Nina shook her head. Oh, she had a bad feeling.

“’Oh no’ as in ‘not good?’”

“Yeah.”

Buffy took a step back. “Somebody is going to lose their head, aren’t they?”

“It looks like there will be a sacrifice at the end of the game.” She quickly added, “But that doesn’t mean that it will be Angel or Spike.”

“But it could.”

“Yeah.”

Buffy turned and attempted to warn Angel and Spike by waving, but the game had started up again. She just hoped there would be another break before the end of the game.

Play resumed. Another player from Spike’s team was knocked out in the first twenty minutes. Thirty minutes after that, the game was over when one of his teammates kicked the ball through the ring. After some rejoicing, the same noble with a couple of large Mayans walked to the middle of the field. As before the game, he motioned for Spike and Angel to meet him in the center. Their eyes met and both conveyed the same message. ‘`What the hell was going on?’

Once there, they were motioned to face each other. That was the first red flag raised. When one of the large guys forced Angel to his knees, that was the second flag raised, especially since he was strong enough to force the master vampire. The third flag was obvious. A knife made out of obsidian, which looked like black glass. Very sharp. When the knife was handed to Spike, he turned it over in his palm, admiring the beauty of the lethal weapon. Then Spike looked at Angel, unvoiced conversation passing between them born from fighting for so many years together. Spike gave just the barest shrug to the left, designating the escape route-- that is if Angel could get away from his native. Spike raised the knife and froze. Angel’s eyes widened to saucers as Spike felt the knife change from a slick, glassy surface to a cool metal. He jerked it down. The knife had morphed from obsidian to gold. A gold weapon. They had gotten so caught up in the game that they had forgotten what they had come for.

Spike blinked a couple of times. “Bugger me.”

“Let’s go.”

Angel lunged forward away from the man holding him down, and shot to his feet. Spike joined him on his mad dash towards the girls, who had luckily already stepped onto the field. To Buffy’s left, Spike could see a portal opening up, swirling smoke in a black tunnel. Nina and Buffy waited for Spike and Angel before all four ran through.

As the two men ran, they bickered.

“You cheated,” Angel accused Spike.

Spike shot him an affronted look. “Did not.”

“You used your enhanced powers.”

“Did not.”

“Well, you had to have cheated somehow.”

Spike shrugged. “You’ve got me there.” With that, he took the hand Buffy offered without conscious thought and ran through the portal with her.

*****

On the other side, the portal tossed the group of four out into a room that-- judging from the carvings—seemed to place them back in the temple. Angel rolled to a stop and immediately, --without taking the time to stand up-- crawled on all fours to check on Nina.

“You okay?” He brushed the hair from her face.

Nina sat up and gave him a shaky smile. Her voice was just as unsteady. “Just fine…sorta.” She leaned into his hand as he cupped her cheek.

With his concern put to rest, Angel let himself collapse flat to the ground, groaning as his body began to relax. Nina scooted over so that she could massage the muscles at his shoulders. She rested his head in her lap.

Spike was in a totally different position. Just as Angel experienced, he was in his regular clothes again. But having gone through the portal a couple of seconds behind Buffy… slam. Oomph. He was lying across a body; a body that his body instinctually recognized. A soft body that brought an immediate reaction below his belt. This was how he dreamed of Buffy.

Buffy, who had immediately rolled onto her back, couldn’t ask for a better result from crossing through the portal. The hard, lean body of Spike lying across her. She would have done it sooner if she had known. She knew he would move off of her when he recovered from his fall, so she took advantage of the golden opportunity by moving her hands to his lower back. She wanted to, but she didn’t go so far as caressing his taut, muscles, but she would hold him loosely for as long as she could. She inhaled deeply and her sensory memory kicked in. Leather and a musky smell that that was exclusively Spike’s. The only smell missing was a smoky scent. Good. No lung cancer in his future. That is if he could get lung cancer. She could feel him tense, preparing to move off of her. If only she could stretch time. Make this last. If only he wanted to stay on her, like he used to; Spike’s fondest wish. How was she going to change his desires back again?

When Spike realized that he was enjoying his present location way too much Spike literally jumped to his feet, avoiding stepping on her in his haste. “Sorry, uh, took a tumble.”

Still lying on the ground, Buffy gave him what she hoped was her best seductive smile. “No prob. Just call me a comfy cushion.” Ah, he wasn’t all that immune to her, she thought as his eyes traveled down the length of her body.

Spike stepped over and sat down with his back to a wall. Rubbing his hand over his face, he mentally kicked himself. Without saying a word, Buffy called to him like a siren. He needed to sail away from her. Unfortunately, he was anchored to her for the duration of this little jaunt.

Buffy tried to come up with something to break the tension and landed on food. “What do you say? Food time?”

Having seen the uncomfortable situation between Spike and Buffy, Nina jumped at the idea. “Yum. Let’s get out the rations.”

Still lying down, Angel looked up at Nina. “But what about the back packs?”

Spike was just as confused for the moment. “Better yet, how is it that we can see without lanterns?”

When they looked around, they noticed their lanterns and back packs in a corner. Buffy climbed to her feet. “But this isn’t the room we were in before the time travel.”

Spike could make out two tunnels off their present room. “Right you are, pet. No telling where we are in this hunk of stone, but their looks to be a couple of options we will need to explore.” He motioned towards the two black openings that they assumed were tunnels.

“Well, food first.” Nina retrieved hers and Angel’s packs as did Buffy for herself and Spike. Due to their exertion in the ball game, the men didn’t seem to want to move so Nina and Buffy broke open the packs.

Nina ran her hand through Angel’s hair. He looked so weak to her.

“Watch it, grrh girl. You might mess up his do,” Spike teased his grandsire.

Angel fired back with an evil grin. “Look who’s talking, curly.”

Spike’s hand shot up and felt his curls that had been freed from their gel.

As Spike groaned, Buffy laughed. The truth was, Buffy was worried about him. She had been getting used to his warm, tanned complexion, but now, he was pale. Pale as when he was dead.

Nina was thinking along the same lines about Angel. She caught Buffy’s eyes and nodded in agreement.

Buffy was the one who voiced their concern. “It’s blood.” Neither vampire would meet Buffy’s eyes. “You need blood…”

******

TBC

Hope you liked it. This chapter was fun to write. Let me know what you think!