Addictive Personalities

Tara gave a soft groan when a loud banging pulled her from sleep. She tried to block out the noise, but it only got louder, and louder, and soon campus security would be notified. With one last moan at leaving the warm comfort of her bed, she stood and slipped on a robe, pulling the door open, but leaving the security chain fastened tight.

"Glinda! Need ta. . ."

"Spike?"

The vampire stared at her as if she were daft.

"Oh!" She closed the door and slipped the chain free, then pulled it back and invited the vampire in softly. "W-what happened?"

"Need ta know what you know about the Ksani." He demanded and sat at her desk, watching her expectantly.

"It's th-three am."

"So tell me quick an go back ta yer kip."

"Spike. . ." The vampire's blue eyes were desperate, it was a look she had never seen on Spike before. "I don't know m-much more."

"But you know some. Yer the one tha' gave me th' bloody book."

"Xander is broken. . ." She fumbled for the right words, "He needs. . . trust."

"Broke it di'n' I."

"Yes."

"So now 'e goes th' way of my Dru?"

"Well. . . X. . . xander has a strong s. . . spirit. H. . . he'll probably d . . . die before that."

"Then what do I do ta make 'im stop going that road?"

Tara's eyes held a hard kind of sympathy, the kind of look someone has when they know that whatever they say will most likely make no difference until the I-Told-You-So that comes after the bad has come and gone. "W. . . without careing, you can't d. . . do anything."

"An' if I cared. then what would I do?"

"P. . . pledge to him."

The vampire took a step away from the witch and stared at her, "Bloody. . . yer talkin' 'bout marryin' the boy!"

"Y. . . yes." She sat on the bed and flipped through a nearby tome. "L. . . life Pledge." She handed it to him so that he could read over the ritual of the Life Pledge she had in mind. It was a simple thing, like a hippie's style marraige, with nature all about and tying hands together, until you got to the blood drinking and branding part. It even had rings involved, but it was for Life! Or Unlife as his case may be, and with vampires and Ksani living as long as they did, it was a serious proposal.

"Not the marrying type Glenda." He handed the book back.

"Th. . . then there's nothing you c. . . can do."

Spike snarrled and the blonde woman jumped back, tripping onto the bed in her haste to get away from the unchipped vampire. She was surprised, though, when Spike just swept out a hand and distroyed her alter, then turned to leave with a stalking gait and billowing duster.

"P. . . poor Xander."
________________________

Spike stalked back into the hospital, still snarling and struggling to keep out of game face. "Stupid Bint! What does she know?! Xander'll trust me. I'll make the stupid blighter trust me! Everything'll be right as rain. Kid's always been quick to trust."

He entered the hospital room and sat at the bedside, watching Xander's labored breath and pale face. //But this isn't gettin' better.//

"Spike." Xander blinked a few times and then watched the vampire fiddle with his lighter before settling in to smoke. "Spike. . . you can't. . ."

The vampire swore, stood, and ripped the plastic no-smoking sign from the wall, breaking it into tiny pieces.

Xander blinked again, "Okay then. What crawled up your undead ass?" His words were typical Xander, but they were too soft to have any sting. That just made Spike even more angry.

"I didn't kill yer li'l happy meal gang! I haven' beaten you! I even worried 'bout you!"

"I know." He breathed, confused.

"So why don't you trust me?!" The vampire went into game face and snarled, pulling a hand through his hair in shear frustration. He began paceing and growling and Xander couldn't help but chuckle. "Wot th' bloody Hell are you laughin' over?!"

"Y. . . You! Trust you? Spike, I probably trust you more than Angel. I know you, and I know what you're capable of, but I also know you can choose to draw a line and stay to one side of it."

"Not that kind of trust! With you! You don't trust me with you!"

The laughter was gone so quickly Spike though he might have been imagining it.

"It's killing you, ya know. That you don't. . . it'll kill ya."

"I know, I can feel it, I'm not a complete moron."

"So trust me then. Promised I wouldn' kill yer people di'n I? So trust me."

Xander watched the vampire incredulously, "Um. . . hello? You raped me Spike. Not once, but over and over again, and you messed with my head, my friendships, I can't even think of Giles like before because all I can think of is what he said about. . . about my kind. You were trying to manipulate me and break me so you could have a pretty new doll to play with. Did you think I didn't realize it? I mean, yeah, it took me a while, but I did eventually put 2 and 2 together. So. . . trust you? Not on your un-life buddy."

"You'll die then." Spike snarrled, more out of frustration than anger, "You'll slowly get more and more barmy until you can't tell night from day, me from jesus effin' christ or red from blue and then you'll die, out of yer head an' ravin' about stars and tea parties."

"You get saddled with loonies twice in one life time huh?"

"It's not FUNNY Harris!"

Xander closed his eyes and took in a slow, hitching breath. "No, it's not funny. . . and I'm not looking forward to playing Dru II for your fucking sucking pleasure but you know what? It's already happening, and you started it, so if I can accept it why can't you?"

"Because you're mine!" He roared, pouncing on the too flipant boy and pinning him to the bed in rage. Rage that lasted all of two seconds before he saw the tears in the man/childs whiskey brown eyes. "You're mine." He whispered harshly and slammed his lips down on Xander's, heart heavy and light all at once when the boy actually kissed him back. He pulled away and stared at the lost looking man beneath him.

"I read that book. The one you left on the floor."

Spike glanced at the rolling table and realized that damned book was resting there beside the plastic water pitcher and the TV remote. "Yeah?"

"Why do you always fuck up when you try to make plans?" Xander tried for flipant but it came out completely morose.

"'s a gift." The vampire shrugged.

Xander bit his lip and tried to steady his breathing. "Do you know how long I have?"

Spike shook his head. "Forever if you could trust me."

"I can't Spike, it's too late."

"You aren't getting away from me that easily Harris!" He growled.

Xander smiled sleepily as his eyes drifted closed again, and mumbled, "You kill people Spike, you do't make them all better." before sleep caught him again.

Spike glared at the boy from his seat on top of him, worrying the cigarette between his teeth and trying to think of a way out of this mess that didn't envolve a wedding or a funeral.

He lobbed that damned book across the room again and watched with satisfaction as the binding burst and the pages all fluttered free to scatter on the steril floor.

"Congradulations Spike, you killed it."

He turned to glare at the interloper and added an extra snear when he found Buffy standing in the doorway. "On yer way back from the rounds?" He asked, climbing off of Xander to scoop up those damned pages.

"He really likes you, you know." She offered, "He used to bug Giles about British imports and where to find them so he could surprise you. He would get this far off look in his eyes and we all thought he was mentally griping about how much the stuff would cost, but he was thinking about making you happy when he gave it to you. He slipped up and mentioned it once and it was a complete sap fest. . . of course I didn't realize it was a two way street until that day during research. . . way to come out by the way. . ."

"Stop, Slayer."

She mistook the tremer in his voice for snark and smiled at him, "I don't know why he did. . . what he did. . ." She studied his bandaged arms with sad eyes, "But you'll make it better. He really loves you, you know."

"Right." He growled, "Thanks Slayer."

She left and Spike fell back into the damned uncomfortable hospital chair.

//Plan's gone to Hell and this time it's takin' me with it. Bloody inconsiderate meals. . . fucking white hats. . . damn the Slayer and her witches and watcher! Damn the stupid whiskey eyed Ksani! And. . . and damn him too.//

"Damn me too."