Introductions

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Part 38

“There was a time,” Harris said slowly as he sat cross-legged on their bed while Spike lounged apparently without a care in the world against the headboard, “when I was possessive enough to put a vampire to shame. ANY vampire. Not just a souled one.”

He frowned and closed his eye, taking a sip from the glass of whiskey Spike had insisted he have, and it was a good thought, he realized.

“I... you weren’t in Sunnydale yet, Spike. It was this whole thing.” He sighed and shook his head. “But maybe I should start at the beginning.”

The vampire arched a brow and sipped at his own glass, wishing his beloved would let him hold him... or at least that he’d given the bloke his gift first, but by the time they’d reached their bed, the human had changed his mind, saying ‘if you still want to after, then okay’. “Know most of the beginnin‘, don’t I, pet?” he murmured after a minute or so of echoing silence. “Just... tell me what’s wrong, luv. Don’t... don’t care ta see you all... anxious like this. Not unless it’s because you’re worryin’ ‘bout someone seein’ us shaggin’ in th’ corner of a bar, yah?”

Harris laughed at that, then frowned again. “Okay. Well, after preying-mantis-lady, there was this... thing. A field trip.”

Spike nodded, entirely clueless about what a school trip could have to do with anything this many years later. “An’...?”

“Well, there was this whole... hyena thing. Possessed by the spirit, blah-blah-blah.” His eye teared slightly. “And no, I’m not still possessed, okay? But... when I WAS, I... fuck, Spike! I had a PACK! A group of people who belonged to me just as much as I belonged to THEM! Do you...” Harris sighed and shook his head. “Of course you don’t understand, babe. How could you?”

The vampire snorted. “Course I DO understand, luv. Didn’t know you were ever a bloody hyena, but know what it’s like ta belong, don’t I? What do you think bein’ a part of th’ order of Aurelius meant? It was havin’ a bloody family. One that couldn’t turn me away… or not for good, in any case. So I get that, beloved. Not sure what it has ta do with anythin’, though.”

Harris swallowed hard and nodded, looking at the glass in his hand rather than at his love. “I kind of... never got over it. The... wanting to belong part, I mean. It felt... okay, I’m not thrilled about the eating the pig and trying to... mate with Buffy, but...”

He bit his lip and sneaked a glance at the blond. “I think... that’s a part of why I was so mad at you when you came back to Sunnyhell with the soul, Spike. Because you’d sort of tried to... force her, and I did that too, only years earlier, and... I still felt so guilty deep down inside...” Harris shrugged. “It should have made me more sympathetic but it didn’t, huh?”

Spike frowned, fighting the impulse to move and take his Xan into his arms. He could tell that wasn’t what the younger man needed. “Nah. Didn’t, luv. But we wouldn’t be here an’ now if you had, yah?” He tried to smile, sure the expression looked shaky. “I’m guessin’ you’re goin’ somewhere with this, right?”

The brunette smiled a little, mostly because Spike hadn’t lied to make him feel better. “Yeah.”

“So there I was,” he continued, “all un-possessed by the hyena thing and... I still wanted that, Spike. Wanted to feel like I belonged. Like I had a place, even if I wasn’t the alpha anymore. And who could I choose to make ‘pack’ other than my friends? My friends who thought I didn’t remember anything that happened while I WAS possessed?”

The vampire blinked. “You lied ta your mates, pet? Told them you didn’t know what happened?” He chuckled. “Bloody hell. Didn’t know you had it in you, luv.”

One semi-amused brown eye rolled. “It’s not like they could SMELL the lie, is it babe? Besides... Giles knew. He just didn’t tell.”

“Watcher always was a reasonably decent bloke, except when he was playin’ MASTER Giles, what with th’ chains an’ th’ bathtub an’ whatnot,” Spike admitted after a moment. “That aside, Xan... what’s th’ point of this little stroll down memory lane?”

Harris frowned and drained his glass. “I named them ‘pack’ in my head, Spike... and in my heart. And a part of me... a large part of me... feels like I’d be betraying them if I... Mate to you.” His head drooped, as did his shoulders. “I don’t know how to say yes to you without saying ‘no’ to my pack,” he finished softly.

And was that all? Spike frowned, wondering how his beloved didn’t see it. “An’ me, Xan...? What am I ta you?” He cocked his head curiously. “Was a part of th’ Scooby gang, more or less. But maybe that doesn’t count, yah?”

It was the nearly hidden sense of ‘not enough, never good enough, not loved enough’ that had Harris’s eye flying to his claimed’s face. “You... you’re pack too, babe... always, since you joined us and started helping us and tried to protect Dawn, and you're my claimed which means even more and...” he stopped talking suddenly, his own words hitting him.

“You’re pack... mine... always... and I almost never see them and you’re here and mine and I’m yours and...” he blushed hotly. “And I’m an idiot.”

The smile that spread across his lips was probably fatuous and sappy, but Spike didn’t care. He just tossed his glass aside and leaned forward, pulling his human close and wrapping his arms tight around him.

“Won’t say you don’t have your moments, luv,” he admitted with yet another un-vampire-like grin, “but I’m not goin’ ta rub it in. This time.”

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He’d been laying against his love for hours that seemed like minutes before he remembered. “So...” Harris whispered against the toned, pale chest. “Do I get my ‘prezzie’ now?”

Spike chuckled a little nervously as he pulled away, then reached into the drawer of the bedside table and pulled out the small box.

“Look, Xan,” he said anxiously as his beloved reached for the box, “It doesn’t have ta be anything you don’t want it ta, right? Could just be... a promise, yah? That we’ll be together, no matter how long…”

It was a very small box. A very small velvet box. A very small velvet box that hinged at the back... the kind of box a ring might come in.

Harris swallowed hard and wrapped careful fingers around it, pulling slightly away from his lover as he bit his lip and slowly pried the box open.

He stared at the platinum band, his eye noticing the Aurelius crest etched into the thick ring of metal as well as the small diamonds and rubies scattered near it, then he gazed at his vampire. “Spike... this is...”

“A consort’s ring. Yah. That’d be th’ next step after Matin’, luv...” The vampire sighed almost hopelessly. “Know you haven’t really thought about it, pet, but... I’m th’ last of my line, yah? Makes me th’ Master of Aurelius. An’ you’re my Claimed. Even if you don’t want ta be my Mated, Xan... or my Consort... th’ ring will protect you, alright? More than th’ Claim does, at any rate.”

Brown hair bobbed slowly as Harris tried to wrap his mind around what Spike had just said. Mate. Consort. And Spike was right, he’d never thought about what it meant that Darla was dust, and Angel was dust... and even if Dru had been alive-- as much as she’d ever been since he’d known her-- she wouldn’t have been able to master anything other than the attack of the killer dollies, and even then she’d only have been one of the Generals...

His mind whirled, examining every possible outcome of accepting or declining the offer that wasn’t even on the table anymore, although the ring seemed to imply that it was.

His eye finally found Spike’s and he shook his head. “No, I... I can’t accept this, Spike,” he whispered, pressing the box and ring back into the vampire’s hand. “You should keep it.”

He waited until he saw the despair start to settle over his love’s face, then leaned in and kissed him.

“You know... until after we Mate. Can’t wear a Consort’s ring until after we’re at least Mated, right?” Harris said with a grin, only to find himself suddenly pinned beneath the long, strong, stunned and ecstatic form of his Claimed.

“You’ve DEFINITELY earned a spankin’ this time, beloved,” Spike whispered warningly, “But later. Right now...”

“Right now?” Harris echoed, meeting wide and glowing golden eyes, “Right now... what, babe?” His tongue crept out to lay one slow swipe over the tense jaw he could just reach.

“Right now I’m goin’ ta make luv ta you, precious… over an’ over again, ‘til you pass out from bloody exhaustion,” Spike growled, “an’ somewhere in there you’re goin’ ta become eligible ta wear my ring. You got a problem with that?”

And what could any one-eyed human in love with a vampire who wanted to own him say, other than “No... no problem, here... do it, Spike... babe...”

"Yours," the vampire whispered, staring into the warm, loving brown eye. "Always yours, Xan..."

He swallowed hard and couldn't quite manage to speak, other than three simple words. "Mine," he agreed shakily, "And yours."

"Bloody right, pet... forever, yah...?" He didn't wait for another word, instead choosing to press his lips hard to his beloved's, bodies rocking slowly against each others’ as the deep night gave way slowly to the softly growing glow of the rising sun.

~End: Introductions

~Next: New Friends
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(A/N: Thank you SO much to EVERYONE who has taken the time to review this story and the previous two in the series!

Special thanks to RemityGirl, Susan, Kat & Littlest Coyote for their reviews on part 37. Always appreciated and adored, guys!

I'm working on "New Friends' sporadically at the moment, as I am also writing a different Spander fic which I may start posting here soon.

Thanks for the support and hopefully you'll like the other fic too once it's finished. LOL

Hugs for all! You ROCK!!! ~Tis)