Fancy a Ride

Chapter Two

Xander is running, as fast as he can. He’ll go back to school, go back to his apartment, go back to his life, and just ignore all the attractive people in the world and hide from his feelings and desires. He slows to a walk. Yeah. That’ll work.

Xander frowns. He thought that there was really a connection between him and Spike. Granted, he shouldn’t have fallen into bed so quickly with the other man, but there was something about Spike. Xander sighs and leans against a wall, rubbing his fists into his eyes. “Damn it!”

“Xander!”

Xander turns and sees Spike running down the street towards him. He straightens and walks stiffly away, trying to gain control of his emotions before Spike reaches him.

“Xander, please!” Spike’s voice sounds desperate and causes Xander to pause. He turns and looks at the man who is chasing after him. When he sees the expression on Spike’s face, he stops and waits for the other man to catch up.

Spike is winded. During his run he made a decision. He will tell Xander everything, beg, if he has to. The pain and honesty behind Xander’s eyes have captured his heart.

“Please, let me explain, don’t leave, not yet,” Spike pants as he tries to calm his breathing.

Xander watches for a moment, considering. He could be an ass, tell Spike ‘No.’ and walk away clean, or he could listen. He looks into expressive blue eyes and sees only pain and truth. Xander sighs, this is a stupid idea. “Ok.”

Spike seems shocked at Xander’s words. “Ok? You’ll listen to me?”

“Yeah, ok.” Xander shoves his hands in his pockets and continues his route down the street, away from Spike’s apartment.

Spike wonders what the other man is doing, but Xander turns and waves one hand at him expectantly. Spike follows. What else can he do?

Xander walks in silence until he reaches a diner several blocks down from where Spike caught him. He opens the door for the blond and follows him to a corner booth. He sits quietly, seemingly waiting. As Spike opens his mouth to speak, Xander shakes his head. Spike’s teeth clack togeths hes he snaps his mouth shut. He glares at Xander, ready to demand an explanation, when a waitress appears.

“Two cokes, two apple pies a la mode.” Xander orders without asking what Spike wants. Spike notices and feels a tingle within his soul, his inner voices insisting once again that he needs Xander. He needs to be with this man.

Xander notices the faint smile on Spike’s face and wonders at its cause, until he realizes what he did. “I hope it was ok that I…” He s his his hand in the direction of the waitress.

“Yeah. Fine.” Spike looks down at his hands and wonders if Xander is going to allow him to explain.

As if reading his mind, Xander speaks. “You wanted to talk, so talk. Why did you take me back to your apartment, Spike? Did you take me there to piss off your girlfriend or what?”

“Buffy is not my girlfriend. I…” Spike sighs and glances towards the windows behind Xander.

Xander slaps the table. “What, Spike? Look, I caught my girlfriend of three years with my best friend, who also happens to be a girl, in my bed this morning. They told me that they were in love and were leaving to move to Aspermont or someplace. I skipped my classes, which I never do, asked you out, which I also never do and immediately jumped in bed with you…”

“Which you never do. I understand. I know you don’t believe me, but I don’t do that either. I haven’t been with anyone except Buffy in the last seven y.”
.”

Xander takes a deep breath and glares at the table. “I already feel something or you, Spike. I don’t know what it is, but there is something there.” At Spike’s questioning look, he continued, “I have been with guys before. I was in love with a guy named Oz. He was my best friend my entire life and it seemed so right when we fell in love. We planned our life out, knowing what we wanted from the future. I went to college; he went to join the military. All the men in his family have served and it was important to him. I lost him…”

Xander pauses and drinks from the glass that the waitress delivered. “He volunteered to go assist the refugees during the Serbian War. I don’t know what happened, but his flag hangs on the wall in my bedroom.” Tears leak out from his eyes and Xander wipes at them angrily. “His parents supported us, our relationship. They had the serviceman give the flag to me rather than to them. It was hard, Spike.”

Xander looks up at Spike and gets caught in the icy blue depths of his eyes. “You were lucky.” Spike’s voice is gravely and he clears his throat.

“Yeah. I was. Wish he hadn’t left me, though. I sometimes get mad at him about it.” Xander chuckles. “Anya always had a crush on Oz and he would tease her that I was the only one that could satisfy him. A few weeks after his funeral, she offered herself to me. I was getting her a drink and turned around and she was standing there nude with a strand of condoms in her hand!” Both men chuckle at the thought. Spike thanks the waitress when the pie appears and they begin to eat in silence.

Halfway through his pie, Spike stops and puts down his fork. “I was in love with a guy named Angel. He was perfect. Big, dark, built like a Clydesdale…” Spike shivers in memory and Xander laughs. “I would’ve done anything for the git. I did do anything for him.” Spike sighs and contemplates a cigarette, noticing unhappily that Xander has them sitting in the non-smoking section.

“Turns out he wanted into my sister’s pants. They had a great set up. He would come climb into my bed at night, then sneak into hers after I fell asleep, and come back to mine before dawn. I don’t know how long that went on, but eventually, Dru got pregnant and they told me the truth. I was crushed. They got married, had the baby plus two others and are happily ensconced in public housing in Croydon.”

Xander has quit eathis his pie, enthralled with Spike’s tale.

Spike takes another large bit of pie and continues. “That’s where Buffy comes in. Her old man runs several clubs here in town and was looking for some fresh meat. Buffy convinced him that he should send her to England to scout out new talent. Dru and Angel had been shacked up about a week when this little blonde chit blows into my practice one day and demands that our band play for her.” Spike snorts and shoves a too large bite into his mouth.

Xander smiles around his fork. Obviously Spike’s feelings for the blonde are not what Xander originally thought. “So, we play for her and she has an absolute fit! Starts going on about how we’re going to be famous and all this shit… Anyway, I was lookin’ for a way out of town anyway and followed her here. That’s it.”

Xander looks suspicious.

“That’s the entire story, pet, I swear! I came to the US and got set up in a few clubs. My band ended up going home after we didn’t make it as promised. I became Buffy’s toy and truly didn’t care. I was still hurting over Angel. I mean, bloody hell! I was planning on spending my life with him and he runs off with my sister!” Spike jams his fork into his plate and looks sheepish when the tines bend. “Oh!” He straightens them and shoves the fork under his plate. Xander laughs out loud at the blonde’s antics and Spike smiles in return.

“You have a gorgeous smile, pet.” Spike pauses and watches as Xander blusht hit his words. “Seriously, though. I let Buffyy mey me because there was no reason not to. But that’s not truemoremore. I broke up with her a couple of weeks ago. Got tired of being her yoyo, not to mention the fact that she has been getting heavy into drugs and I don’t play that scene. I had this feeling that everything was about to change. That I was going to meet someone that I could love again.” Spike reaches across the table and brushes his hand against Xander’s. “And I did, dt I?t I?”

Xander grins and Spike smiles back, enjoying the light that is now filling Xander’s face. “Come home with me? Just to talk. Maybe catch something on the telly?” Spike’s seductive purr vibrates through Xander and causes his head to nod up and down.

Xander twines his fingers with Spike’s as the two slide out of the booth and head towards the cashier. He draws a bill from his wallet and barely glances at it before handing it over and dragging Spike out of the diner.

The walk back to Spike’srtmertment is done in silence. However, this time the silence is pulsing with promise and affection. When they round the last corner, Spike stops suddenly. Xander is jerked back by their conjoined hands and glances at Spike to see what is wrong.

Spike is staring at his doorway where his beloved motorcycle is lying in bits. The words stout out as low growl in his abdomen. “That bitch!” Spike drops Xander’s hand and races for the door, Xander close behind. Spike skids to a stop next to a metal bar that once belonged to his exhaust system. “That absolute bitch!”

Xander pulls Spike back when he tries to open the door. “She might still be in there. Be careful.” Spike nods and the two men stand behind the door as they open it. Spike peers around the door and his jaw drops in shock.

“What in the bloody hell are you doing?” Spike rushes around the door and Xander sticks his head around to see what the commotion is about.

Buffy is standing in the middle of the room, holding a lighter to Spike’s leather duster. Xander can see holes where the jacket has been burned at least twenty times already. Spike skids to a stop and looks around his beautiful flat. Everything is destroyed.

Tears fill Spike’s eyes as he looks around. His couches are shredded. Tuffs of cotton batting blankets the floor. The silk screens guarding his bedroom are still standing, but the delicate tapestries have been destroyed. His mattress is on fire and his bedposts are leaning as if they have been beaten with something substantial.

Xander gasps when he catches sight of the fire and races to smother it with a blanket that has been thrown across the room. He looks over at Spike, who is currently turning in a slow circle, taking in all of the damage to his home. Buffy hasn’t reached the kitchen yet, and Xander is absurdly happy about that fact. Suddenly, he realizes that the sound that he has been hearing is Buffy’s shrill voice.

“Think you can leave me? I am Buffy Summers! I brought you here! I gave you a job! You belong to me, damn it! I created you! Without me you would be nothing!” Buffy screamed gutturally and continued burning Spike’s beloved duster. “Angel, Angel! You’d be a sniveling runt still lusting after his sister’s husband if it weren’t for me!”

Xander glances at Spike and sees the blond reaching for the phone. Xander returns to Spike’s side to listen in on the phone call. “Yes, There is a stoned woman tearing up my apartment. She has destroyed my motorcycle and set fire to my bed. William Jamison. Yes, I’m safe; she seems to be a bit crazy, though. Buffy Summers. Yes. Ok, Thanks.” Spike tosses the phone and walks out of the apartment, grabbing Xander on the way.

Xander stares as Spike casually leans against the building and lights a cigarette. “What are you doing? She eariearing up your place!” Xander stops when he sees the tears rolling down Spike’s face. “Spike?”

Spike shakes his head and reaches out to pull Xander to him, pinning their bodies together, drawing comfort from Xander’s presence. They stand like this until the police arrive. “Mr. Jamison?” Spike sniffs and crushes his cigarette out on the bricks behind him.

“Yeah. Chit’s inside. Broke up with her for good tonight. She musta taken something. She’s really done a number.” Spike and Xander wait as the police officers edge open the door and peer into the apartment.

“Ms. Summers? Please drop the lighter and put your hands behind you head.” Xander snorts at the sight of the police holding tiny Buffy at gunpoint. Spike hides a grin behind his hand when Buffy stomps her foot at the officer.

“Mr. Jamison? Can I speak with you for a minute?” Spike nods and follows theicericer to her car, leaving Xander to watch the fiasco unfold.

Buffy reaches out and slaps the first officer that reaches her side. Another officer is digging through Buffy’s purse, and yet another is taking pictures of everything in the apartment. The fire department arrives next and Buffy runs away from the officer that is holding her arm, trying to get to Spike, who is leaning on a cruiser, talking with the female officer.

“You bastard! How dare you do this to me! I am Buffy Summers!” Two officers join forces to shove Buffy to the ground, cuffing her roughly and dragging her back up.

The firemen examine the mattress and Xander is told that the fire is completely out. “Good job!” A meaty hand slaps him on the back and Xander stumbles forward, bumping into the building.

The officer leading Buffy to the car is yelling her rights to her, trying to make himself heard over her screeching. The officer who was digging through her purse is bagging up a package of white powder in an evidence bag. The firemen are loading up their truck while the Captain speaks with the Lead Detective. Xander slides down the wall, sitting on the hard concrete and shaking his head. What a night.

The last of the police disappear around one in the morning. Spike has joined Xander in sitting on the sidewalk, waiting to be allowed back into his home. He stands and offers a hand to Xander, pulling the larger man to his feet. “Want me to take you home? Car’s in the back.”

Xander grins and stretches. “Nah. You promised me some talking and telly. Now give it!”

Spike laughs and ushers Xander into his trashed living room. “Man, this stuff is going to take forever to replace.” He leans over and begins picking up the shredding batting from the floor. “At least she didn’t smash the TV!”

“Or the kitchen.” Xander wanders over while he speaks. “Want a beer or something?”

“Yeah, mate. I do.” Spike slides down to the floor in front of his couch and allows his head to drop back. “Fuck, Rupert!” He reaches for the phone and dials a number from memory. “Hey, Rupes? Yeah, it’s me. I had to, I’m sorry. You should see this place! And she burnt up my duster! Yeah, I know. I told you that it was only a matter of t… OK. Really am sorry, man. Alright, Bye.” Spike sighs and hangs up the phone, reaching a hand out to capture the beer that Xander is offering.

Xander drops down to the floor next to Spike and asks, “Rupert?”

Spike looks over. “Yeah. Buffy’s Step-Da. Really like the man. He had a hard time raising Buffy without her mum. Let her have a bit too much rein, I think.”

Xander nods and looks around the room. “Well… Want some help picking up?”

Both men are sore and sweaty when they finish cleaning two hours later. Xander notices that Spike has been avoiding the area where his duster was burned. The duster has been taken as evidence, but there are bits of charred leather decorating the floor. “Spike? Did you want me to…”

Spike stares at the floor, not wanting to look at what is left of his duster. “No, I’ll… Fuck!” He screams the last word and collapses to the floor. “Why?” Xander rushes over and falls at Spike’s side. He wraps long, warm arms around the shaking man and holds him close. “It was my mum’s. She gave it to me before I left. It’s the only thing I have from her.” Warm, salty tears drop to the floor as Xander rocks Spike back and forth.

Xander reaches onto the couch and pulls down a blanket that he found behind the bed frame. He wraps the blanket around them both and allows Spike to cry himself to sleep. Xander feels Spike’s tears slow and then stop, his breathing deepening as exhaustion drags him into dreamland.

Xander nuzzles into the white-blond spikes on the top of Spike’s head. “Spikes on Spike.” Xander smiles as he mutters to himself, inhaling the scent of the man in his arms. He is scared. Spike is inspiring feelings in him that he never thought he would feel again. Xander had always believed that no one would ever mean as much to him as Oz had. He thought that was the reason he had never really felt sure about his love for Anya.

Spike snorts in his sleep and that endears Xander to him even more. Yeah, He’s lost his heart again. “Oz, man. Is he a gift from you? How else could I have found someone like this?” He smiles, finally relaxing and allowing himself to drift off.

The next time Xander is aware of anything, he is overwhelmed by smells. There is a smell of burnt things, acidic and sharp in the air, but beyond that he smells something tantalizing. “Hungry, pet?”

Xander grins at the bedraggled man in front of him. “Yeah. Did I miss you cooking?”

“Nah, just got some biscuits in the oven. Head’s over there.” Spike points towards the back of the apartment and returns to the kitchen.

Xander wanders into the bathroom and flinches at his reflection. He has soot on his face, his hair is sticking up all over the place and he is pretty sure that one of his eyes shrunk during the night. He scrubs his face harshly, allowing the cool water to wake him up.

He turns and positions himself to piss and starts giggling.ke hke has graffiti covering the wall above his toilet. So intrigued with the graffiti, Xander doesn’t notice when he is finished. He stands, dick in hand, and reads the wall.

Please do not throw cigarette ends in the urinal.
– it makes them all soggy and hard to light.

The future of the nation is in your hands.

Handel’s organ works.
– so does mine.

Vaseline makes the coming easy. And the going back.

Death is nature's way of telling you to slow down.

Your karma has run over my dogma.

Please do not touch me.
Please do not touch.
Please do not.
Please do.
Please.
Ohhh!

Sex Appeal.
Please give generously.

Ignore this sign.

Oral sex is a matter of taste.

Veni. Vidi. Vivi.
Vidi. Vici. Veni.
Vici. Veni. VD.

Smile if your not wearing any underwear!!!

(Place cool quote here)
A sudden banging on the door catches Xander’s attention. “Did you fall in, mate?”
Xander laughs. “Nope! Reading the wall!” He flushes and washes his hands. He looks back at the wall a final time and then wanders to the kitchen. Spike is plating a pile of scrambled eggs on a bright orange plate. On the counter there is bacon, biscuits, a bowl of something white, a pitcher ofce ace and two place settings.

“I missed the cooking!”

Spike snorts. “Sorry. Was hungry.” He sets the plate of eggs on the counter and climbs onto the stool next to Xander. “Hey.”

Xander turns to look at Spike and finds his lips caught in a sensual embrace. Spike’s lips are warm and soft and Xander moans as Spike’s tongue traces the outline of his lips. Spike pulls away and Xander stays in place, his eyes closed tight. “Good morning, Xan.”

Xander opens his eyes and grins. “Morning. What’s the white stuff?”

“Cream gravy for the biscuits.”

The quiet of the apartment is broken by sounds of forks clinking against plates and groans of pleasure as the delectable food quickly disappears.

Xander and Spike finish simultaneously and laugh as their forks hit the plates at the same time. “What now, pet?”

Xander stretches, arms over his head, and quickly jerks them back down. “Shower. Dancing, firefighting, cleaning and sleeping have effectively canceled out yesterday’s.”

Spike laughs and stretches a hand towards Xander. “Good idea, love. Let’s go.”

TBC