Once It Begins

*sorry for the delay in GottaGetAway, i'll come back to it soon*
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JOOLZ, my brilliant beta, thanks for all!!! ______________________________________________________________

07 RETURNS


„Hey Wes, yo man!“ Gunn calls out while he jumps down the few steps in the hotel’s lobby. Wes seems to be bowed down over someone on the sofa. He doesn’t react, doesn’t acknowledge Gunn at all. The black man felt a familiar tingle in his neck, that one he always felt when something was not quite right.

“Wes? You wanna introduce me to someone?” He says, forcing his tone to stay light and friendly while he slowly made his way over to the sofa. One hand behind his back, already grabbing the stake he kept in the waistband of his pants, body tense and pumped with adrenaline.

“Wes?” He again calls to to his unresponsive friend. No reaction. His hand comes up, nearly touching the smaller man’s shoulder when Wes suddenly spins around.

“GUNN!” The ex-watcher exclaims, face overly cheerful and eyes bright. Surprised, Gunn jumps back with a not very manly squeal. Wesley laughs and winks at him. Gunn’s eyebrows shoot up almost to his non-existent hairline, dark eyes open wide from shock to see a totally joyful, chipper man instead of the lately often depressed and usually closed up man.

~God he is stoned.~ is Gunn’s next thought which quickly dissipates when Wes steps aside to reveal a woman. Long black hair frames her pale face; she wears a wide black satin and velvet dress. Gunn ogles the lady up and down appraisingly, realising himself to be the complete opposite of her. She fixes her eyes to his and a smug grin comes to his face. The kind of grin that says ‘Come and get .
.

Suddenly Wesley’s elbow nudges the taller man hard in his side; Gunn looks at him as he blushes and bows down to the dark lady.
“Princess,…” he murmurs, his eyes fixed on the floor.
“Oh, my beautiful little ape.” She drawls soothingly, a gloved hand tangles in Wes’ dark hair.
“Ape?!” Gunn squeaks, suppressing laughter.
“Shh, shhh!” She hushed, a finger coming to her lips in a universal gesture.

Gunn feels her gaze intensify, feels the dark unlimited deep pools burn into him as if searching for something, as if she waits for something to happen. Gunn stares back with equally dark eyes, not backing down from the battle of wills he seems to participate in. Dru stares harder and Gunn cocks an eyebrow expectantly. She looks confused now and unbelieving for a moment then her eyes flash and her dark red lips curl up in a delighted smile.

“You’re the rock!” She shrieks and claps her hands together which makes Wes jump.
“Thanks. You weren’t that bad either.” He flips back. “And actually it’s ‘You rock!’ nowadays.” Gunn informs her and the Princess’ face scrunches up in a chaotic mix of emotions. She cocks her head to the side, grabs Wes’ hair hard and makes him look up in her face. Wes moans and arches his back, bares his throat. Gunn shifts - uncomfortably - affe by by that image.

“You rock?” She asks him, disbelief clearly in her eyes. “When did they get rid of verbs and articles? Who killed them?” Her face blooms in delight. Giggling she sways back and forth, her eyes and fingers pointing at Gunn, Wes and herself in turns.
“You rock! … You little ape! … Me…” Her hands come up to her head, she holds her temples as if trying to keep her brain from exploding but her face is beautiful with pleasure. “Daddy… shhh, shhh, won’t tell…y toy to… We have to go to Daddy… Oh!” She jumps up, not caring when her knee makes -for him- painful contact with Wesley’s chin. She spins around herself several times, screeching and laughing and singing at first incoherent words.
“rbosbaknfamilyourbosnfamilourboysbak…” She comes to a sudden stop, grabbing Gunn’s collar from where he kneels over Wesley and pulls him up with little difficulty.
“You drive. Me carry. We Daddy. Boy back! Kitten Vamp.”


***

“Don’t you know it’s dangerous to hitchhike?” The elderly woman asks; her voice barely audible through the little open slot of the driver’s window. The young man with the unruly dark hair nods. “But I have to get to… a friend, I think…he needs… help.” He says and his eyes beg the woman to understand. She winds down the window a little more and looks intently at him.
“My name is Mrs. Peters. Who are you, young man?”
“Stephen Katwright.” He scrambles to get out his wallet, shows his identification card to the grey haired lady with the cautious eyes.
“Alright.” She makes a gesture that indicates he can get in the car. The sound of the central locking coming undone emphasises this.
When he sits on the passenger seat, staring out the window, trying to not show how anxious and nervous he is; she asks him: “I am going to Sunnydale. Stephen, where is your friend?”
“Don’t know, I’ve just have this feeling… I am needed somewhere in this direction…” He points forward with long index and middle finger and shrugs.


***


There is a not quite uncomfortable silence between the two vamps in the car. This situation feels strange but at the same time familiar, the patterns of a ‘family life’ one hundred years ago feel reassuring to both of them and Spike needs this support right now. Angel drives, eyes flickering every so often over to his long lost childe. Shoulders slumped he already dreads the moment the new offspring of his bloodline awakes. If he ehad had a chance to get his boy back… he loses it the moment *his* childe opens his eyes. Xander will instantly fall in love with his maker, demon recognizing demon, a unity for eternity.

Then the witches will rush to ‘help’, maybe even Giles, and ensoul the poor boy, trap him forever between oversized morals and demanding instincts. Staking him would be even gentler, let him have one or two kills, enjoy the hunt, the bite and the last heartbeat of a victim, and then dust him…

Either way Spike will lose the only person that loved him comple wit without…

“Sire?”

Angel swallows hard and suppresses the urge to reach over, stroke the delicious taut inner thigh. Once, one hundred years ago, they didn’t need words. Their link was so strong, feelings and thoughts were laid open. Body contact was established whenever possible. Now he feels numb, like he did when he was human that one day. In spite of what everyone might have thought, it wasn’t the return to his vampiric nature which had started the extended broodsionsion. It was the numbness and disconnected feeling he’d had towards his family whilst he had been human that had frightened him, and brought to the surface that which he feared most: being alone.

“Chi-Spike?” He grabs the steering wheel a little harder, knuckles turn white.
“We’re not going to hunt some human down, are we? Xan wouldn’t like that…” Spike’s head suddenly flies around, blues eyes wide with realization; he stares openly at the darker vamp. Angel uses all his will power to not look at his boy, to not reach out to him.

“Bloody hell. He would like that, he would go hunt and drink down whatever he can get…” Spike’s voice drifts off when he loses himself in plans of how he could take advantage of having an unsouled, unchipped childe. At least, that’s what Angel presumes. If he too had drunk from his childe to establish the link between them, he would see the pictures in Spike’s mind and the feelings of sadness and regret accompanying them.

Dawn –
throat ripped open,
blood all over her,
big blue eyes staring focus-less to the ceiling.
Her blood too powerful for a fledge to withstand.

Red –
turned into something between a minion and a zombie,
Xan much too young to do it properly.

Glinda -
innocence destroyechaichained to a bed,
body exhausted and blood crusted from torture and rape.

The Watcher -
eyes wide with fear and sudden insight,
glasses rammed down his throat,
fingers broken and words from years of pent up frustration carved into his chest.
“Who can read and write and quote better now?”

Buffy - Angel’s voice rips the younger vamp away from the only one of his thoughts he had really loved to imagine.

“Spike, we’re here.” Spike looks up, Willy’s bar. Of course.
Side by side, the Master Vampires enter the bar which goes eerily silent immediately. De scr scramble away or try to make themselves invisible. No-one is dumb enough to challenge these two in any way – Angelus and his favourite childe William the Bloody, united again.

Willy is hiding behind the bar. He should know better, Angel thinks, his heart is beating so loud and fast even someone without supernatural senses should be able hear it.
“Your entire supply of human blood, now.” Angel purrs and Spike grins delighted. He knows what this tone of voice means, knows Angel is short tempered when he maintains this calm unthreatening facade.

To Spikdisadisappointment, Willy and the rest of the customers seem to know it too. The human gets to his feet and runs in the backroom, only a few seconds later he appears again and a big cool box of blood is pushed over the bar directly into Spike hands. “Thanks mate!” The blond purrs in the same tone his sire used which earns him a frown from Willy and a choked off chuckle from Angel. The blond glares at Willy, eyes flashing golden for a second, then grins, delighted by the bar owner’s scent of fear at the dark vampire.

“Right then, Sire.” Angel nods to him, amused like a human dad over his offspring’s behaviour and follows him out the door. Whilst the customers and Willy are letting out a sigh of relief, he sticks his head back in through the door and mouths: “I’m back!”

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I hope you like the way this is going.
As always reviews are very appreciated.

Check my lj for more of my stories
as long as Druffitown (my homepage) is down.
I'm working on it, back soon.

www.livejournal.com/users/druffine
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