Slip Slide Melting

* * * * * * * * *

Part 18

Xander couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face when he felt the subtle vibration of an incoming call in his head and saw Spike’s identicode on the hexicon display. He still didn’t know how he was going to make things up with the vampire, but he was for damned sure going to try, and that effort would start right now.

“Spike,” he said softly, opening the call, “Hi, it’s good to…”

“Yeah, whatever. Look, your boy’s tired so I’m keeping him here tonight. Just wanted you to know. So you don’t worry, right?”

And shit. Of course it couldn’t be that easy. “I… thanks, I… that’s… good to know. I mean…”

‘Fuck, I’m babbling. And not saying anything interesting, either.’

‘Try asking him why ‘up all night’ Lex is tired at one o’clock in the morning, Xander,’ Alex ordered tightly, ‘because Spike sounds shaky, at best.’

“Welcome, yeah? So we’ll… see you tomorrow night, and…”

And Alex was right. Spike did sound kind of… off.

“Wait. I… what’s going on, Spike? Lex is never tired. Not this early, anyway…”

A soft sigh, then the sound of something—possibly a hand—covering the hexicon and quiet, indistinct mutters before clarity returned.

“Sorry,” Spike said, sounding anything but. “Boy got into a bit of a tussle. Didn’t want you to know. But he’s fine, yeah? Just needed to clean up a bit and once the adrenaline wore off, he… well, poor git’s right knackered.”

“Shit! You let him get in a fight? Fuck, Spike, what the hell!”

“Look, it’s my fault, alright? Didn’t follow the bloke to the bathroom and he ended up having words with some demon. Next thing I know, they’re rolling about in the hallway. Broke it up right quick, once I saw.” Spike growled softly. “You can tear me a new one tomorrow, yeah? Boy needs to rest right now and I don’t want him to be alone. Later.”

Xander stared at the now silent unit, frowning.

“Okay… that was just…”

‘Bizarre?’ Alex asked, in a very flat tone. ‘Ya think, Xander? No excuses, no ‘it wasn’t my fault’? From Spike. About LEX? Hell, he knows how protective you are of that kid… and what the hell was all that about not wanting to leave him alone? Lex has been in fights before and he’s never needed a babysitter afterward.’

Xander nodded, tossing the hexicon onto the new bed beside him. ‘That and… has Lex ever rolled around on the floor in a fight? In the last five years, anyway? He knows better than to get into a clench. Too limiting, remember?’

‘So… going to Spike’s place?’

‘Oh, yeah. So going to Spike’s. He’s lying to me about something.’ Of course, he didn’t mention that he was worried the ‘something’ might be that Spike had finally taken Lex up on what the kid wanted, and… no matter what Lex said about not liking Spike, Xander knew he wanted him.

After all, he’d wanted the vampire himself at Lex’s age, even if he hadn’t known it, and upbringing aside… he and his younger self weren’t that different. Hell, if he hadn’t been so completely closeted at seventeen, he probably would have had the blond. Once, anyway, because the Spike that had been around when he was Lex’s age was an entirely different creature than the Spike he knew at the end, and even more so now, and…

‘Gods, shut up already!’ Alex griped. ‘Put all that energy into getting to Spike’s! Whatever’s going on, if something’s happened to Lex, he’s going to need you, Xander! Even if it’s something good.’

It was a bare five minutes later that the sleek black and chrome motorcycle peeled out of the parking structure, the helmeted and leather-wrapped form astride it unremarkable in the night.

* * * * *

He pretended that he couldn’t hear the boy’s sobs as he arranged some of his precious Cadbury treats on a plate. Chocolate had always been the best comfort for Lex’s Dad, after all, and still was… well, aside from a good shag and a blow job, but there was no way he’d be going there with the boy.

So… Cadbury Flake, Dairy Milk, and Chocolate Buttons, it was. Add in some hot cocoa with those little marshmallows Joyce had turned him on to, and… that should do it.

Assuming the boy ever got out of the bath, anyway, which was starting to seem less and less likely as time went on. It had been close to an hour already.

Then again, the bloke was still sobbing, and he probably didn’t want to seem all weepy and such in front of him, so… “Five more minutes,” Spike muttered softly, “then I’m going in and dragging his soggy ass out.”

He smiled slightly as his bare feet stepped onto the carpet in the living room and the tendrils of whatever fiber it was made or wrapped around his toes and tickled the soles of his feet. “Yeah, I’m glad to be home too, mate,” he whispered, blushing slightly at the fact that he was talking to the floor.

Unfortunately, he didn’t realize quite where Lex had left his shoes, and an undignified and very non-vampy squeak left him as he stumbled, somehow managing not to drop the tray although the hot cocoa did slop out of the mug and onto his shirt… which was still better than getting it on the carpet, he figured.

“Bloody fucking hell,” he sighed, setting the tray on the nearest end table and frowning at the mess that now covered him. Still, easier to wash his shirt than the carpet, he figured, pulling the wet garment off and tossing it onto the table beside the tray.

“Lex, mate!” he called out, sure the boy would hear him, “You planning on staying in there til you sprout gills?”

Spike sighed when the boy didn’t answer, then perked up slightly when the intercom buzzed at him. “Bloody hell,” he almost growled as he pressed the ‘admit’ button, “about time my sodding blood got here!” He’d had a pint or two in the fridge, but after his worry earlier, it hadn’t been enough.

* * * * *

He’d cried like a little human.

That was all Lex could think as he dried himself off and let the tub drain.

He’d cried like a human, and at Spike’s, which was just… too embarrassing for words.

The vampire already treated him like a little kid; he could only imagine how much worse it would be now, and that wasn’t even including the fact that he’d been stupid enough to go off with some guy he’d just met, and why the fuck had he done that anyway?

Okay, he’d been trying to lose his so-over-rated virginity for a while now, but that was no excuse, and it was one thing to make a date with someone he met at the arcade or down on the Promenade, but… some random vamp in a club? When he’d known Spike was there and would most likely go ballistic? How had he even thought that was gonna turn out well?

The worst part, though, was that he really had no idea of why he’d done it. He could barely remember the vampire’s voice… didn’t even know what he’d looked like other than the fact that he’d been tall and… long hair?

“Gods… I’m suck a fuckwit,” he sighed, looking at his discarded pants where they lay on the floor and discovering no inclination within him to put them on again. They were… dirty. Soiled. And he’d never wear them again.

Fortunately, the second door in the bathroom led to Spike’s room, so he slipped inside. Hopefully, the blond wouldn’t mind if he borrowed a pair of sweats, even if they would be a good bit on the tight side. And if he did mind, well… the vampire could just add that to the list of things he was surely planning on lecturing him about. Then again, he figured a lecture of twelve was the least he deserved.

He thought that maybe he finally understood—finally—what Dad and Spike had been trying to tell him. He wasn’t always safe. Not even when he thought he was.

He looked for a good few minutes, frowning when he found nothing even resembling sweats or sleepwear, and finally settled for the long blue velvet robe. He could order pants and a shirt over Spike’s Magetrix, after all, and they’d be delivered within the hour if he wasn’t too picky. Or by the following sunset if he was.

Lex paused, catching his reflection in the long window and sighed. He looked like crap. He knew he looked like crap. Of course, it didn’t much matter, he told himself. Nobody was around who he wanted to impress, anyway.

He closed his eyes and took one deep breath, only to blink them open suddenly. He thought he smelled… but no, Spike wouldn’t know about… but then again, Spike knew Xander, and Dad had always loved… so maybe…

Only one way to find out, though, so Lex moved to the bedroom door and did his best to smile.

“Hey, Spike,” he called, stepping from the bedroom, “Do I smell hot choc…”

It was the sudden and very loud growl that convinced him to step back into the bedroom and slam and lock the door.

“Shit!”

* * * * *

Spike had no idea of what the fuck had just happened.

One minute, he was opening the door to find that the buzzing of moments earlier hadn’t been his blood after all, but Xander, and then…

“Bloody fucking hell!” he snarled, doing his best to hold on to the hissing, spitting, growling thing that was trying to claw its way across the foyer and to the bedroom, “What the fuck is wrong with you!”

Xander growled again, louder, even his inner voice joining in the fury as he kicked at the bleached blond. “Bastard! Fucking bastard!” he shouted roughly, giving up on reaching the boy for the moment. Kill the vampire first; then kill the poacher!

Spike growled back this time, catching one talon across a cheekbone before he managed to grasp thick wrists. It was still a fight to press those wrists to the floor, though, especially with the way Xander was bucking beneath him, trying to toss him across the room with the force of his hips alone, apparently.

Hot golden eyes met silver-flecked black and the vampire howled loudly, thighs locking around heavier thighs, trying to hold the man immobile.

“Don’t know what kind of fucking drugs you’re on, mate,” he sneered, “but I’ll drain you myself before I let you hurt the boy! Had enough of a beating already tonight!”

“Fucker! Fucking bastard shitfucking asshole!” the brunette hollered, “Dust you, you fucker! Touch him? Touch him? No!”

“Right, then,” the vampire grated out, “This isn’t working. Time to try… something… new!” And with that, he pulled his head back quickly before reversing the motion and slamming his forehead hard against the struggling man’s; then he did it again for good measure. He fully prepared to have a third go, even if his own head was swimming, when he saw the black eyes glaze slightly. “Good,” he groaned.

Xander came back to himself to find his chest heaving, breath coming fast and hard, as though he’d just run a mile in three seconds flat… with a pissed off and game-faced vampire straddling him. “Wh-what…?”

“Bloody good fucking question, bloke. What the bleeding fuck is your problem?”

He stared up into that face, at the small, bloody gash, and paled as it came back to him.

Spike, opening the door in just his jeans. Himself smiling. Lex’s voice, and the sight of the boy coming out of the bedroom in Spike’s robe…

And himself attacking. Wanting to kill them both. Knowing it was his right to kill them both for daring to touch each other… for daring to do what he himself had told Lex to do..

“Oh… Gods,” Xander whispered, closing his eyes and turning his face away from the blond. “I… fuck. I… I shouldn’t be here, I…”

Not drugs, then, Spike realized, though the bloke’s rambling, nearly stuttered reply hadn’t been much of an answer. At least Xander seemed to be calmer now. “Are you finished with whatever the fuck that was, or do I need to tie you up, mate?” he demanded.

“I… no, I’ll just… go. I promise, Spike. I… it’s none of my business, right? I mean, I let you go and it’s too late now, and I was just… I was worried about Lex and… but I shouldn’t have come here, you just sounded so shook up on the hex, and…”

And now he really had no idea of what bloody Xander was on about, but the return to babble seemed to imply that it was safe to let the bloke go. “Right. I’m going to get up, Xander,” he said slowly, “and you’re going to come into the living room and tell me what the fuck just happened here.”

The brunette nodded miserably. “I… Gods, tell Lex I’m sorry. I… fuck, I’m worse than my old man. He… at least he never tried to k-kill me, and…”

The blond shook his head and rolled blue-again eyes as he climbed from the floor, releasing the young man carefully. “Bloody hell,” he muttered, “you lot from the ‘dale. Always so sodding dramatic.” He pointed Xander to the living room then moved swiftly to the small hallway and tapped at the bedroom door.

“Lex. You alright, mate?”

“Spike?” he heard, a good bit muffled, and the vampire chuckled.

“Yeah, it’s me. And you can come out from under the bed, bloke. Crisis over—even if I don’t know what it bloody was,” he muttered the last. “Your Dad’s here, in case you missed that part, so haul your ass out to the living room. Think we all need to talk.”

He heard the soft sigh and the sounds of his favourite bloody robe against the wood floor.

Lex finally unlocked the door and opened it a crack. “You’re sure he’s over it?” he asked softly, “Because I really don’t want to go out there if he’s not, okay?”

Spike frowned. “Guessing you’ve seen this before, then.”

“Never directed at me, but yeah. He, uh… his demon side gets… pissed. Um, you’re sure… are his eyes…?”

“Brown and weepy, boy.”

And apparently that was answer enough.

* * * * *

Xander and Lex both felt a good deal better after a few mugs of cocoa, Spike decided, judging by the sheepish glances the two kept trading. That still didn’t tell Spike what was going on, though, and his own large tumblers of whiskey weren’t doing anything to calm him.

“Out with it,” he finally snapped, glaring at the two brunettes on the couch. “Want to know why you took it into your head to come at me and the boy that way, Xan. Now.”

Lex blinked at the question, then found himself laughing and the vampire’s irritated stare only made him laugh harder, until he nearly fell off of the couch, while Xander simply sat there and looked into his nearly empty mug, his face flushing a brighter red than Spike had ever seen it.

“What?” he demanded, demon coming to the fore. “Don’t see what’s so bleeding funny!”

“I… I’m sorry…” the boy gasped after another minute or so, “but I… Oh, Gods. Dad, let me tell him! Pretty please? I’ll… I’ll take that class with Master Gord’l’ak if you let me tell him!” He’d only just figured it out himself, but… he was seventeen, not a-hundred-and-whatever like Spike was, and he really wanted to rub it in.

Xander groaned but nodded. He was going to be mortified either way. Maybe a little less if he didn’t have to say it himself. Besides, he’d been trying to get Lex to take that World Government seminar for months. Might as well get some return on completely screwing himself over, because… if Spike hadn’t been entirely through with him before, he would be when he found out the truth. Then again, Lex didn’t really know the truth, but still…

Spike growled softly, though he wasn’t quite as angry now that the boy was swallowing the last of his sniggers and it seemed like he’d be getting some answers. “Well?”

“O-okay,” Lex said with a grin, barely managing to keep himself from laughing again, “But it’s more of a… show and tell kind of thing, so. Close your eyes, Spike.” His own eyes rolled at the blond’s annoyed look. “Just do it, okay?”

The vampire huffed but finally gave in. He’d gone head to head with Lex before, after all, and the boy could outdo even Xan for sheer stubbornness.

“Okay. So Dad—I mean, Xander. Xander calls you and he sounds weird to you, and you did sound weird. I could hear you. You go to see what’s up. He opens the door wearing nothing but a pair of pants.”

And he couldn’t help licking his lips at the mental image the boy had created. “Think I’m liking this game, mate…”

Lex smirked and bit the inside of his cheek. “Oh, it gets better. So he opens the door, and you see him just standing there, half naked. You haven’t seen him like that for a while because you’ve been a huge shithead, so you’re liking the view. Then you hear a voice and his bedroom door opens and some kid comes out in nothing but Dad’s robe. And the kid looks just… like… you.”

Lex blinked quickly, eyes glazing for just a moment, though neither Xander nor Spike noticed.

Xander groaned again, hiding his face in his hands. “I am such a moron,” he whispered.

“Now, assume you’ve got one hell of a possessive demon, Spike…” the boy went on, not entirely sure of where his words were coming from, but willing to just go with it, “one that almost claimed Dad as its mate one night, and that’s what screwed things up to begin with because he didn’t listen when you tried to explain.”

“And there you are, looking at a half-naked Xander and a kid wearing his robe… your demon’s howling that Dad’s yours and whoever touched him has to die… and so does he because he’s yours and he should know better than to even think about being with anyone else. Now imagine that you’ve only had the demon for twenty or so years and it’s usually quiet, so you don’t really have the best control, and…”

Lex smirked again, this time into very wide golden eyes. “See, it doesn’t matter what was actually happening. It’s what you saw; what your demon saw that matters. And it’s been away from Dad for days now, so it’s going a little bit crazy, what with the lack of sex—and I SO don’t want to even think about that where you guys are concerned, so I’m not saying any more about it.”

Spike didn’t much care whether the boy went on talking forever or stopped completely, if he were going to be honest. He actually didn’t notice whether sounds were still coming from Lex’s lips or not.

He was entirely too busy staring at the other brunette on the couch. The one who currently had his face covered with his hands and was muttering what the vampire just knew were insulting little self-loathing comments.

“Right, then,” he heard himself muttering. “Got it. Thinks I’m his. But I’m not.”

Lex bit his lip and stood slowly, edging his way around the room to the foyer. Whatever was going to happen between Spike and Xander, he had a feeling it was none of his business. In fact… the robe wasn’t that bad. He could go home in it, even… except he was kind of scared to leave Spike’s apartment at the moment; especially by himself, and… and he still wasn’t really as over what had happened as he’d been pretending to be, but he couldn’t let his Dad find out, so he’d keep acting fine, and…

“Lex,” Xander said sharply, only a minute or so later, “Come on. We’re getting you a taxi home. You can’t ride the bike in that… robe.”

“What? We’re…”

“Leaving, Lex. We’re leaving.”

* * * * *

tbc...

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