A World of Their Own

Part 7

It was several days later while Xander was sitting by the fire that Spike came in with a metal pipe and a pouch full of dried pot. Xander looked up to see what he was doing and frowned at him. "If you're going to smoke that, do it outside." Spike looked at him sceptically. "You don't want any?" Xander sat up in shock. "No! I don't get high, Spike. It's illegal."

Spike actually laughed at him. "Says who? I don't see any cops here, Xander. It's a natural substance; the Indians got high all the time. It's not like some big bad demon is going to jump out and eat you all up while you’re under the influence." This was all true. Half the reason Xander had never tried it was he knew that he was likely to get eaten by some gross demon while he was too stoned to notice. That was why he never drank much either - drugs and alcohol on the hellmouth equalled easy pickings. But here, there was no one but himself and Spike, no reason not to try it at least.

"Fine. Why not." Xander watched as Spike stuffed the pipe and lit it from a stick in the fireplace. Spike inhaled deeply and passed it to Xander. Xander looked at it suspiciously and then shrugged his shoulders. He did what Spike had and and then coughed so hard he thought he'd puke. That was not fun! Why the hell did people do this?

Spike thumped Xander on the back and got him some water. He couldn't help but laugh at him, he should've warned him not to inhale so deeply. He wasn't used to it like Spike was. "Sorry bout that luv, should have warned you to go slow. Try again, just easy this time alright?" Xander scowled at the pipe that Spike held out to him but took it anyway. He'd be damned if he was going to look like an idiot in front of the vamp.

Once Xander got the hang of it, it wasn't so bad. They smoked for a bit until they were well and truly stoned. Then they lay side by side on the fur rug near the fireplace. "Hey Xan? If you could have anything you wanted right now, other than to get home of course, what would you wish for?"

Xander grinned and sat up on his elbow. He looked at Spike seriously before speaking. "Hmm, I don't know. There are a lot of things I could really use here, tools, clothes, a real bed. But I guess I'd have to say... Chocolate. Yeah, chocolate would be awesome. The pure kind, no nuts or caramel or anything. Just 100% pure milk chocolate." Spike rolled onto his side to face him. "Why?"

"I love the way it melts when you set it on your tongue, how it sticks to your fingers and you have to lick them clean. I used to hide Hershey bars in the freezer, then if I was having a really bad day, I'd thaw out a couple and take my time eating them. I'd slowly suck on each square until it dissolved in my mouth. By the time I was done, I always felt better. There's just something about the way it tastes, the way it feels in your mouth, it's almost as good as sex." Spike swallowed hard. He couldn't believe he was getting hard from listening to Xander describe the way he ate chocolate.

"How about you, Spike? What would you wish for?" Spike knew what he wanted more than anything right now, but somehow he doubted that was what Xander wanted to hear. He wasn't that gon gone. He was stoned enough, however, to let slip what he said next.

"Paper and pencils. I miss writing." Xander looked shocked. He had expected Spike to make some lewd comment, or say something about booze or smokes. Not paper and pencils. "You write?" Spike lay back and closed his eyes. "Used to, was a poet before I died. Still wrote afterwards, when the mood struck. There is just so much here I could write about, the sun, the sky, the river. It's beautiful here, nothing like the world I grew up in. In London, it was polluted, the air itself stunk, the streets were slimy and there was shit everywhere. If I could find something of beauty to write about there, imagine what I could do here."

Xander was stunned. He had many assumptions about the man William had been but this, this soft-spoken poet lying beside him was not one of them. He liked the idea of Spike as a poet; it was better than anything he had come up with. He wanted to ask more, but Spike looked like he had fallen asleep. Xander closed his eyes and joined him.

The first thing Xander noticed when he woke up was that a small rodent had climbed into his mouth and died there. After repeatedly trying to push it out with his tongue he realised it was his tongue that was fuzzy and tasted like roadkill. The second thing he noticed was that Spike was sleeping curled up around him, and that he was holding the vampire in his arms. It actually felt kind of nice, and despite the foul taste in his mouth he fell back asleep.

When Spike woke, he heard the steady thump of Xander’s heart in his ear, which made sense since he was curled around the young man with his head on his chest. He snuggled deeper into the boy’s body and just lay there enjoying the smell of his skin, the warmth of his arms around him. It was the nicest morning he could remember in a very long time.

"Hey, sleepyhead. I know you're awake." Xander’s voice startled him and he sat up abruptly. He hadn't known the human was awake. "I didn't know you were awake. How long have you been up?" Xander chuckled and stretched before answering. "Dunno, ten minutes maybe. You looked so comfortable I didn't want to wake you."

The truth was, Xander was enjoying the contact too much to wake him; he knew as soon as Spike woke up he would pull away and most likely make some excuse to leave. "Oh, well I'm going to... find something to eat." And that was that, Spike was up, in his jeans and boots and out the door in no time.

Xander got up and headed down to the river. His mouth still tasted nasty and he felt sweaty and gross. He stripped off his boxers and sank into the water. He rinsed his mouth repeatedly thinking that if he really could have anything he wanted - a toothbrush would be at the top of his list. Last night had been fun, but this morning he felt awful. It was like a hangover - sort of.

Once Xander was done washing, he rinsed out his boxers and climbed out of the water. He shook himself off a bit and reached for his pants. Which of course he had forgotten to bring with him. He had two choices, put on the wet boxers or run back starkers and hope Spike was still hunting. He looked at the wet cloth in his hands and then looked up toward the house. He decided to run for it.

Spike was just coming back toward the house with a rabbit when he saw Xander run into the house - naked. He shook his head and replayed the image. Yep, he had been naked. He wondered why the hell the boy was running around in the altogether. He shrugged his shoulders and went inside.

"Xander? What the hell are you doing running around starkers?" Xander came out of the bedroom buttoning his pants. He blushed and then admitted that he'd forgotten to take his pants down to the river with him and didn't want to put on his wet shorts. Spike chuckled at him and handed him the rabbit. "Well, here's brekkies. I'm going down to have a wash my self."

Spike left Xander to clean the rabbit while he washed up. He couldn't remember a lot of what they had talked about last night, but he did remember admitting to the boy that he had been a poet. So much for his image. He needed some time to come to terms with the fact that Xander knew the truth about him, that he had been a foppish, bookish poet, and still was deep down. In the long run, it would probably be for the best; he could be more himself now, and less the Big Bad.

~!~

The following day, Spike decided to go out on his own for awhile. He wanted some time to think without interruptions, he had a lot on his mind the past couple days. Xander understood the need for alone time; he himself had planned on spending most of the day out scavenging for new plants for his garden. He was still hoping to find some corn and peppers.

By the time Spike made it home that evening, he had come to the decision that he would let Xander get to know the real him. He had no need to keep up the image he had so carefully crafted to hide his true self from Angelus and Darla. Only Dru had known the man he really was, and it was that part of him that had drawn her to him in the first place. Perhaps Xander would accept who he really was, maybe even like him better for it.

Spike looked around and didn't see the boy anywhere. He listened for his heartbeat - nothing. He went back outside and walked to the river, Xander wasn't there either, but his shorts were still sitting out on a rock to dry which meant that Xander hadn't been back since he'd left that morning. Spike started to worry. Xander was never away from the house this long.

Spike shifted to his vamp face, and scented the air. He caught a faint trace of Xander’s scent and started tracking him. His appearance may have been altered but at least his senses were still in working order. The trail led him into the trees and he scanned the surrounding area for a heartbeat. He found it and dashed off in that direction.

Spike smelled blood and ran faster. When he found Xander, he was lying at the base of a tree - out cold. His arm was hanging limply and he had a few cuts and scrapes. His shirt was torn and he had a pretty big cut on his abdomen. Spike was certain that his shoulder was dislocated. "Damn." Spike crouched down and tried to wake the boy. He was unresponsive.

After cursing for several minutes, Spike scooped Xander into his arms and carried him home. It was probably a good thing he was out cold, otherwise all the moving around would hurt his arm and cause Spike's chip to go off. He put Xander in the bedroom and carefully stripped off the boy’s shirt; he would have just cut it away, but seeing as it was the only shirt the boy owned, he didn't.

"Alright Xan, I'm going to set your arm now. It's going to hurt like hell and if you wake up screaming and see me on the floor, well you'll know why." Spike really hoped that Xander stayed out for this; he had only set his chip off the one time since they had been here and that had been an accident. He really didn't want to do it again. That was just one more reason he liked it here, he didn\ave ave any reason to try and hurt anyone. Xander had been surprisingly decent to him, and as the time had passed, they had become friends. Good friends.

Spike set Xander’s shoulder without a twinge from the chip. He was grateful in a way, but it made him more concerned for Xander. He took the boy’s shirt down to the river and wet it. He picked up Xander’s shorts as well before heading back to the house. He needed to clean out the cuts before they got infected.

Xander didn't at at all while Spike washed his cuts and changed him into his shorts. He tucked him into bed and then dragged a chair over beside the bed to watch him.

A few hours later, Xander began to moan in his sleep, his brow was sweaty and he smelled of sickness. Spike pulled back the makeshift blanket and looked at the large cut on the boy’s stomach. It was likely infected. He placed a hand on Xander’s forehead and whistled softly; the young man was burning up.

With no medicines available, Spike did the only thing he could think of, he leaned over Xander and began to lick at his wound. Vampire saliva carried certain antibodies or something like that. Angelus had explained it to him a long time ago, how it was possible to keep several humans alive and feed from them exclusively without them getting sick from it. Right now, Spike just hoped it would be enough.

Xander moaned and brought his hands down to Spike's head. He tangled his fingers in his hair and Spike chuckled. He could feel the boy growing hard and wondered who he was dreaming about in his delirium. Probably his girl, he thought. He ignored the weak pushing on his head and the gentle thrusting Xander was doing and continued to clean the boy’s wound.

Once he was sure it was clean, he disentangled Xander’s hands from his hair and sat up. Xander protested the loss of his mouth on his skin weakly. "No, come back." Spike smiled at him softly. He was hard as a rock himself, and felt for the boy. It wasn't nice to be teased after all. But he wasn't about to take advantage of the boy while he was delirious.

He was about to go outside and have a quick wank when he heard Xander moan his name. He spun around to see that the boy had climaxed in his sleep. And said his name while he'd done it.