Through the Eyes of a Child

[thoughts] because yahell still won’t recognize italics

”Again with the bangin’ on the door. Don’t you lot have anything better to do then keep coming around here and knocking on the bleedin’ door all the time. A vamp can’t catch a decent nap around here. Whelp’s asleep, but can a poor over worked…” Spike threw the door open in disgust and froze in shock.

“Peaches, what in the hell are you doing here?”

“Are you going to invite me in or do we talk about this in the hallway where everyone in the building can hear us?”

“Yeah, come on in just be quiet, Xan-pet’s asleep finally. I need the peace and quiet. Don’t get much o’ that with a 6 year old running around. Never saw so much energy in my life.” [[Yeah, you’re babbling Spike. Sound like a right idiot too. Hell, it’s just Peaches. Yeah, just my pouf of a sire and everything always stays so peaceful when he shows up, don’t it?]] “Not that it isn’t just lovely to see you Peaches, but what in the hell are you doing here? Thought you left Lovely Sunnyhell for good.”

“Giles called about the problem with Xander. There isn’t too much known about Graz’elktheus demons, and what is known isn’t very helpful. I had a few contacts in LA that had access to some of the more rare books that mention them. Wesley and I brought them to Giles. Hopefully, they’ll find something in them.”

“Oh hell, Watcher junior is here too? Please tell me the flippin’ cheerleader isn’t with you. That’s all the hell we need. I’m tellin’ you right now Angel, if that fluff brained bint does one thing to upset Xan-pet she’s…” Spike didn’t finish. [[Just what could he do to her? Wasn’t like he could drain her, or hurt her none. Fuckin’ chip, soddin’ soldier boys. When he got rid of the damn thing is his head, there was going to be drained soldiers, from one end of this country to the other. Teach them to mess with a William the effin Bloody he would.]]

“Spike, Cordy’s not here to cause trouble and if you don’t like it, YOU tell her to leave.” Spike had to laugh at the look on Peaches face. He knew too well that no one ordered the cheerleader around. Hell, get that chit on a rampage and she made Angelus look like a tame kitty. Neither vampire had noticed the bedroom door open while they were talking.

“spike, loud voices waked me…” Angel’s head went up as he caught the scent of the boy in the air. Something wasn’t right. It wasn’t just the clean scent of cinnamon and chocolate mixed with musk that was Xander’s unique scent. It was changed somehow. He drew in a deep breath and suddenly the meaning of the smell clinging to the boy hit him.

“WILLIAM, what have you done?” Angel had taken Spike to the floor, straddled him and was shaking him so hard his head was hitting the floor. Both of them were in game face and snarling. “What did you do, childe? The boy reeks of you. You’ve marked him, haven’t you?” Before Angel could say another word he was attacked from the side. He was so surprised, he let go a Spike and rolled.

“you leave my spike alone. i’ll hurted you, you don’t touch my spike.” A fist hitting Angel punctuated each word. Angel curled his body up so that his back took most of the blows. He was not returning any of them or even attempting to fight back. He had been told that Xander thought he was 6, but until now he hadn’t really believed it. He could smell the difference in the boy, not just Spike’s mark. “you don’t hitted my spike you..you stupid, ugly, vampire guy.” Angel was very glad at that moment he was a vampire; Xander could really hit. If he had been human he would have been seriously hurt.

“Come on whelp, that’s enough. Angel wasn’t hurtin’ me any. You calm yourself down now, Xan-pet. XANDER, enough, no more hitting!” Spike had grabbed the boy, and was holding on to him. He picked him up and sat down on the sofa with Xander in his lap trying to calm him down. “Peaches isn’t a bad guy, promise. He’s a friend of Auntie Buffy and Mr. Giles. Me and him are, well kinda related like.”

“ but he hitted you. he shouldn’t hitted you, spike and ..and grr faces weren’t playin’ this time. spike, why did angel-peaches call you child? you’re not a child, you’re a growed up.” Spike looked at Angel and cocked his eyebrow up.

“Well, Angel-peaches, do you want to answer that one? The whelp is right smart and doesn’t miss anything. It’ll pay you to remember that.” Angel looked sick, either from his new nickname, or the idea of having to explain. Then it struck him, Xander hadn’t been scared of their vamping out, and had called him a vampire guy, actually a stupid, ugly vampire guy.

“He knows?” Angel asked.

“Yeah, guessed he did. Like I said, he don’t miss a thing, my Xan-pet. He figured it out the first day. Remembered watching Dracula and knew the signs. Xan, do you remember how Dracula made other vampires?”

“yeap, he bited them on the neck, and drinked allll their blood, and they went to sleep. when they gotted up, they was vampires too. he bited this lady and she got sick. he wanted to bited her again, but they wouldn’t let him, and and then these men they hit her right here with a wooden thingie. she yelled really loud and died.” Xander was touching himself on the chest to show where the lady got hit.

“That’s how I got to be a vampire, pet. Angel wanted me to be a vampire too, so he bit me right here.” Spike showed Xander the marks on his shoulder. Xander lightly ran his fingers over the mark then looked over at Angel with huge eyes.

“you bited spike? did you hurted him?”

“Yes, I bited..umm..bit him, but it was a very long time ago.”

“why?” Spike hid his smile. He knew his Xander well enough to know he wouldn’t be satisfied with just part of the story.

“Well, I, um..I saw him at a party, and I was with another one of my childer.”

“what’s a childer?”

“That’s what we call someone we make into a strong vampire. They are like our children, so we call them our childer or our childe. Spike is my childe and that makes him one of my childer. I have another childe named Drusilla, and she really liked Spike, but he wasn’t Spike then. He was William. She wanted to make him a vampire so he could live with us, but she wasn’t very strong so I brought him over.”

“if droo…dru…silla is your childe, where is she? Is ‘silla your sister, spike? why isn’t she strong? spike’s really strong. i wanted a sister but mommy jus’ kinda laughed. why did she want spike? how come you was william, spike? I likes spike better, it’s cool.” Xander was in full babble mode and didn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. “what’s brought over? brought over where? did you have to take him somewhere? and.. and if spike is your childe…yo..your spike’s DADDY?” Spike was right, the boy was smart.

“Only when he’s being annoying. The rest of the time I’m his Sire.”

“what’s a sire?” Angel looked at Spike pleadingly.

“Okay whelp, enough. Back to bed with you, way past your bedtime.”

“tuck me in? please…story maybe?” pleading, melted chocolate, puppy eyes were hard to resist.

Spike rolled his eyes dramatically and sighed deeply. “Well, if I have to. I could probably manage a tuck. But how ‘bout Peaches here doing the story bit?” Angel looked at Spike in horror. Xander saw the look and began to back away again.

“no, s’okay spike. I’ll just go to bed. angel-peaches don’t have to tell me nothin’. you talk to your daddy and i’ll go sleep. he came to see you, not me.” Xander turned around and was headed back to the bedroom. Spike came up behind him and picked him up, wrapping both arms around him.

“Told you I’d tuck you in, didn’t I? Ya trying to get out of a bedtime tickle, sprout?” Xander was laughing hysterically as Spike tickled his sides while he carried him to the bedroom. Angel followed behind them.

“’nuf spike, no more tickles..spiikee.” Xander was kicking his legs and shrieking with laughter when Spike threw him onto the bed. “no tickles…let me up, spike…gots…gotta..” Without another word, Xander jumped up and ran to the bathroom.

“You will tell him a story, Peaches.” Spike’s tone of voice stopped just short of it being an order. “Xan-pet doesn’t think anyone wants him. His bastard parents evidently have beaten him down since he was a baby. You shoulda seen him when Slayer bought him a prezzie. Poor little blighter didn’t know what to do with it, said he didn’t deserve it. He soaks up every little bit of attention he can get. Did you ever notice how much the boy likes to be touched and to touch?” Angel shook his head yes “From what Red says, he never got that when he was little, at least until he met her. There was another one too; a boy named Jesse. The three of them were inseparable and they gave Xan a place to escape to, someplace safe. They were more his family than the other bastards.”

“I don’t remember a Jesse. Why isn’t he around to help now?”

“My bitch of a GrandSire, your sire. Darla changed him right before the harvest started. The night of that attack on the Bronze, Xander staked him. My boy stills has screaming nightmares about it. I try to tell him it wasn’t his friend he killed, but it don’t do any good.”

“You really love him don’t you?”

“He’s my heart, Angel. We were together for awhile before this happened an..and.. if it never changes, I’ll still be here. I’ll be here with him, taking care of him, till he draws his last breath. Even if he still thinks he’s six. He’ll have a happy life this time, won’t be no beating or mistreating. He’ll have what makes him happy. If..if this hadn’t happened, I would have brought him over, sire. We talked about it. He wanted to wait a coupla years. Xan-pet only wanted it if Red could do the soul thing. But not now, not if he never gets better. It would be cruel.” Pale reddish tears dampened Spike’s face as Angel pulled him into his arms, embracing his childe. No matter how hard Angelus had tried, he could never beat the caring out of this childe. William always gave his whole heart to those he loved. They pulled apart when Xander came out of the bathroom. Spike wiped at his face and said, “There you are, sprout. In the bed you go, nice and snug.”

Angel sat on the edge of the bed and gently pushed the dark curls off Xander’s forehead. “You ready for a story Xander? I think I can remember one you might like.” Spike lay down on the other side of the bed and pulled Xander back against him, so they could both listen. Angel grinned, he knew his strong, powerful childe was a sucker for his stories.

“Once upon a time, there was a beautiful, green world called Eire. In this land, the magical folkes lived. There were leprechauns, who were wicked little pranksters and the Sidhe, they that were the beautiful Elven people. The Sidhe lived in a secret realm, hidden from humans. They were tall and graceful with voices soft and sweet as a warm spring rain. They all had greener than green eyes and their ears were pointed up top. They were mighty archers and lived among the trees, always being respectful of them. But that’s not what our story’s about.” Angel smiled at the little groan of disappointment from Xander and Spike. “This story is about the fae folke, the fairies of the land. They were the caretakers of Eire. The fae saw to it that the land was always lovely and green, with glorious flowers of all kinds, each kind of flower having it’s own fairy to see to it. This story is about a human princeling, Uilliam, who was taken from his wee bed by the fairies. The fae often took human babes and left changlings in their place…” As Angel told the story, his rich voice began changing, falling easily into a thick brogue…the sound of his past, the sound of Ireland. Spike smiled at the princeling’s name, he knew it was meant for both of them, William and Liam.