Author's Note: This is very impromptu and just because I wanted some vamp-boy-love-hate (almost typed "heat" instead of "hate," can 你 say "Freudian?").
Setting: 天使 Season Five, with Ghost!Spike.
Rating: PG-13 (FFN Rating system T)
Late was not the word for the hour, because for 天使 the concept of "late" was a moot point. Regardless, at some 小时 of the night when most people would be sleeping, 或者 at least relaxing, 或者 maybe indulging in an embarrassing 幻想 或者 two with a consenting partner, 天使 was slumped over his 台, 办公桌 in his dank office at the demonic law firm of Wolfram and Hart.
He had lived two hundred years (more than that, if one counted the extra hundred he spent in that hell dimension) and yet he had never seen so much calculated trickery in his life. Going over contract after contract searching for a loophole proved fruitless. It seemed that every time one appeared, he would find another loophole that counteracted the first loophole. His hand drummed precariously close to his phone. His fingers were itching to seize the receiver and dial Gunn's number for assistance, but the man did need his sleep.
天使 didn't need sleep, at least not as much, but he rather enjoyed it from time to time.
He chewed on his lip and squinted, scrutinizing the papers in front of him and vaguely wondering if they had been authored 由 the Senior Partners themselves. 或者 maybe they just had the Devil write it for them.
He never thought his life would boil down to sitting behind a 台, 办公桌 looking over legal documents for a way to manipulate an evil system in his favor. And he never thought that system would be the United States Judicial System. He thought about that hell dimension he had spent a hundred years in and decided that this was a far worse fate. In fact, there was no possible way it could get any worse.
And then, he heard the chains.
Everyone in the office had gone 首页 because the business 日 was technically over, which suited Angel's needs perfectly because he liked the quiet. And there was only one person in the world that knew exactly how much he loved the quiet, and 天使 deduced that it was that very person who was somehow rattling chains in the abandoned hallways of Wolfram and Hart.
Frustrated, 天使 allowed his heavy head to fall forward, where his forehead made contact with his 台, 办公桌 with a loud thump. The rattling of chains grew slowly noisier little 由 little. 天使 tried to ignore it as he straightened up in his chair and with a sigh returned to his work. His door was closed, and Spike didn't know how to interact with solid objects, so he was safe.
And then the ghost floated through the door. 天使 had forgotten that while the blond bane of his existence couldn't open the door, he could just walk through it.
"Take a look at this," 说 Spike gleefully, gesturing to a number of equally incorporeal chains that ladened him. "Got this off a bloke named Jake Malley 或者 somethin' like that. 说 he was tired of draggin' them around all places he went." He rattled them at 天使 for effect. "Ooooh, aren't I scary?" he moaned sarcastically.
"Spike," 天使 growled through gritted teeth. "I'm tired. Don't make me call up the exorcist."
"We tried that once, didn't work," Spike observed, amused at Angel's frustrations. He unloaded the chains on the floor and took a step towards Angel's desk. "In fact, as I recall, all it did was make me nose turn blue. Fun stuff, that, I can use it for party tricks."
"We can always try again," 说 Angel, though he knew it was futile.
"No good. You're stuck with me until you're dust."
"And then what will 你 do, Spike, huh?" 天使 demanded out of pure irritation. "Wander around the earth with Dickensian chains for the rest of eternity?"
Spike looked as though he had never thought of this. "You mean after you..." He paused. "Well, I s'pose I could always..." He frowned. "I mean, there is the..." He bit his lip. "You know, Anya would still be... Oh wait."
天使 was surprised to find he suddenly had the upper hand and smiled. "That's right, Spike. 你 better hope I stick around a long time, because in a hundred years time, I'll be the only guy 你 know."
Spike's eyes cast downward and he was silent. 天使 took this opportunity to go back to his work.
"Funny thing, that," Spike 说 pensively, after a moment.
天使 growled, having once again been interrupted. "What is?"
"We've lived a good long time, 你 and me," Spike mused. "But now, Darla's dead, and Dru is gone, and all of my other 老友记 are... human." He 说 the word with such horror and distaste, as if it were something embarrassing to admit. "And pretty soon, they'll be dead. Buffy'll be dead..."
天使 disliked the mention of their mutual old flame, especially uttered on Spike's lips. It always ignited a 苦 jealousy in him and he ground his teeth, wanting to remind Spike that he had loved her first, that he had done everything first and Spike was just a grubby little copy-cat. But he kept his mouth shut this time, and he wasn't quite sure why.
Spike laughed. "S'been a long time to spend with someone 你 hate," he said, mostly to himself.
"You've become oddly nostalgic," 天使 评论 snidely.
"I'm musing here," 说 Spike, almost defensively.
"I 缪斯 too, but I do it silently," 天使 retorted.
"You muse? Yeah, I've seen 你 'muse,' except most of us would just call that moping. 你 broody depressive sod, is there anyone who doesn't want to kill themselves when they listen to 你 gripe about how bad 你 got it?"
"And you're not griping?" 天使 returned. "You're talking about how 你 don't have any friends... And you're sad about that fact! Hell, I remember in the nineteenth century, 你 bragged about eating all of your friends."
"I have a soul now, in case 你 haven't heard," Spike said.
"And somehow that gives 你 license to--"
"It gives you license to do a whole number of things! See, 你 know what you're problem is, Angel, 你 just were never very good at sharing, were you?"
"Sharing? With you? Why should I share with you--"
"Take Buffy, for example," Spike began. "See, I would have been perfectly happy to--" He seemed to just become aware of what he was saying and shut his mouth tightly.
"To what, Spike? To share her?" 天使 growled.
Spike's lips twitched into a mischievous smile that 天使 wished he could slap off the ghost's face. "Well, 你 have to admit, it would have been interesting."
天使 exhaled sharply through his nose, misunderstanding Spike's intentions. "You're lucky you're incorporeal 或者 else 你 would be out the window 由 now."
"Lucky am I?" Spike exclaimed. "That I can't seem to exist in any world completely? That I can't smell, taste 或者 touch anything?" He was walking towards the 台, 办公桌 now, until he stood just before it, 或者 floated rather, as the floor wasn't actually baring his weight. "You think I'm lucky? Well, Mr. Big Shot CEO, would 你 like to switch places with me because you're the one that Buffy--" He stopped himself again.
天使 looked up, but this time his expression was not a negative one. "Buffy what?"
"Oh sod it, never mind," Spike mumbled, folding his arms.
天使 pushed his chair back and tried to look Spike in the eye, but the ghost avoided him. He walked around the 台, 办公桌 and sized up a sulking Spike. Spike pouted, but 天使 noted that it was exaggerated to make the whole thing seem like an act.
"She 说 she loved me, 你 know," he said, as if in his own defense.
"I loved 你 first," 说 Angel, thoughtlessly.
Spike looked baffled and slightly disturbed. "Did I just hear 你 right?"
天使 blinked. "Her. Her, I loved her first. The... Buffy."
Spike bit his lip. "Yeah. 你 did everything first." He smiled, sadly but proudly. "Well, I died first. Beat 你 to that, didn't I?"
"Well, technically--"
"I became all ghost-y first. That's somethin', isn't it?" Spike interrupted.
天使 couldn't help it. The ghost was so pitiful, it made him laugh. He also realized that Spike's misfortune gave him the most genuine chuckle he'd had in a very long time. "You really can't touch anything, can you?"
"I can if I try," 说 Spike, again on the defensive. "If I concentrate very hard and if I think about it, I can even... smell... things. Like you, for instance. 你 always did reek like a dead cat."
A memory struck 天使 at that moment. "Do 你 remember Saragossa?"
Spike cocked an eyebrow. "1894. 你 mean that night the girls were out."
天使 snorted. "You remember it better than I do. Was it 1894?"
Spike took a step backwards, warily. "Why do 你 bring that up now?"
If Angel's blood still ran through his veins, he might have felt himself blush at that moment. "I'm not sure," he confessed.
"I remember," Spike began with a sly smirk, "the Royal 伦敦 Hotel. 你 wanted to know if 你 were a deviant because 你 liked me."
"I never 说 that--"
"But 你 meant it," Spike 说 teasingly, in a sing-song voice. "You really are a fairy, aren't you?"
"Spike--" 天使 made a 移动 to hit the ghost, but his hand went right through him. Spike's smile faded as he saw Angel's expression grow puzzled.
"What? Am I cold? Tingly?"
"No..." 天使 said, curiously. "It's... nothing. Like air. 你 might as well not be there at all."
Spike nodded. "Huh. I get that a lot."
Slowly, 天使 raised his hand, his palm flat as if pressing against an invisible wall. Confused at first, Spike followed his lead and raised his hand, positioning it right in front of Angel's. He wrinkled his brow, staring at Angel's palm, and then pushed forward.
It was like a shock to Angel, pure electricity that knocked into his palm, and yet it was surprisingly warm. The contact lasted for about three 秒 before Spike pushed too hard and his hand went through Angel's and he stumbled forward, his whole body falling right through the older vampire's as if he was nothing at all.
The old companions stood back to back, each of them staring straight ahead, wondering what exactly had just happened and 更多 importantly, why either of them had participated.
"I touched 费雷德 once," 说 Spike, out of the blue. "She 说 I felt funny. Like water, she said."
天使 put a hand against his chest. It may have been his imagination, but for the brief instant that Spike's form had coexisted with his own, he could have sworn he felt his 心 actually...
"I think 你 should go," 天使 breathed, feeling as if Spike had committed some personal taboo.
"S'kind of funny, that I can go through you," thought Spike out loud. "If 你 think about it, I could reach inside someone's chest and, permitting I could hold my concentration long enough, rip out their 心 without even breaking their ribcage."
天使 was breathing hard. Not so much breathing as forcing his lungs to exhale and inhale for the purpose of speech. But still, he was forcing them to do it heavily, and he wasn't sure why. "And this thought of ripping someone's 心 out appeals to you?"
Spike was quiet a moment. They were still back to back. Neither of them wanted to look at the other. "No, I s'pose not. Not really. Not unless it was your heart, and even then 你 wouldn't die 'cause 你 don't really need it, do you? So it would be... pointless."
"Right," breathed Angel. "Pointless."
"Yeah, silly, really," Spike said, fumbling. "Um... sorry about that."
"It's OK."
Spike turned around quickly and spoke to Angel's back, who took a step towards the window. "You know, Angel, if I were... If I could touch right now, I think I might..."
"I thought I told 你 to go," 说 Angel, staring out at the Los Angeles skyline.
Spike held his tongue. "OK," he said, his hands in the air and taking a few steps backwards. He reached down and lifted his chains, which rattled ominously. "Best be gettin' on, then."
He dragged the chains out with him, through the door, and back down the hall, leaving 天使 to stare out at the city.
He was, as he called it, musing, 或者 perhaps Spike would call it moping, and some others may have in fact called it brooding. But in all reality, 天使 was just thinking about things he had refused to allow himself to think about since Saragossa, 1894. He had lived two hundred years (more than that, if one counted the extra hundred he spent in that hell dimension), and yet he had never met a person so infuriating, so aggravating, so fascinating as Spike. And there is one thing to say about fury-- it definitely gets the blood boiling.
天使 thought about Saragossa and he smiled.
THE END
Setting: 天使 Season Five, with Ghost!Spike.
Rating: PG-13 (FFN Rating system T)
Late was not the word for the hour, because for 天使 the concept of "late" was a moot point. Regardless, at some 小时 of the night when most people would be sleeping, 或者 at least relaxing, 或者 maybe indulging in an embarrassing 幻想 或者 two with a consenting partner, 天使 was slumped over his 台, 办公桌 in his dank office at the demonic law firm of Wolfram and Hart.
He had lived two hundred years (more than that, if one counted the extra hundred he spent in that hell dimension) and yet he had never seen so much calculated trickery in his life. Going over contract after contract searching for a loophole proved fruitless. It seemed that every time one appeared, he would find another loophole that counteracted the first loophole. His hand drummed precariously close to his phone. His fingers were itching to seize the receiver and dial Gunn's number for assistance, but the man did need his sleep.
天使 didn't need sleep, at least not as much, but he rather enjoyed it from time to time.
He chewed on his lip and squinted, scrutinizing the papers in front of him and vaguely wondering if they had been authored 由 the Senior Partners themselves. 或者 maybe they just had the Devil write it for them.
He never thought his life would boil down to sitting behind a 台, 办公桌 looking over legal documents for a way to manipulate an evil system in his favor. And he never thought that system would be the United States Judicial System. He thought about that hell dimension he had spent a hundred years in and decided that this was a far worse fate. In fact, there was no possible way it could get any worse.
And then, he heard the chains.
Everyone in the office had gone 首页 because the business 日 was technically over, which suited Angel's needs perfectly because he liked the quiet. And there was only one person in the world that knew exactly how much he loved the quiet, and 天使 deduced that it was that very person who was somehow rattling chains in the abandoned hallways of Wolfram and Hart.
Frustrated, 天使 allowed his heavy head to fall forward, where his forehead made contact with his 台, 办公桌 with a loud thump. The rattling of chains grew slowly noisier little 由 little. 天使 tried to ignore it as he straightened up in his chair and with a sigh returned to his work. His door was closed, and Spike didn't know how to interact with solid objects, so he was safe.
And then the ghost floated through the door. 天使 had forgotten that while the blond bane of his existence couldn't open the door, he could just walk through it.
"Take a look at this," 说 Spike gleefully, gesturing to a number of equally incorporeal chains that ladened him. "Got this off a bloke named Jake Malley 或者 somethin' like that. 说 he was tired of draggin' them around all places he went." He rattled them at 天使 for effect. "Ooooh, aren't I scary?" he moaned sarcastically.
"Spike," 天使 growled through gritted teeth. "I'm tired. Don't make me call up the exorcist."
"We tried that once, didn't work," Spike observed, amused at Angel's frustrations. He unloaded the chains on the floor and took a step towards Angel's desk. "In fact, as I recall, all it did was make me nose turn blue. Fun stuff, that, I can use it for party tricks."
"We can always try again," 说 Angel, though he knew it was futile.
"No good. You're stuck with me until you're dust."
"And then what will 你 do, Spike, huh?" 天使 demanded out of pure irritation. "Wander around the earth with Dickensian chains for the rest of eternity?"
Spike looked as though he had never thought of this. "You mean after you..." He paused. "Well, I s'pose I could always..." He frowned. "I mean, there is the..." He bit his lip. "You know, Anya would still be... Oh wait."
天使 was surprised to find he suddenly had the upper hand and smiled. "That's right, Spike. 你 better hope I stick around a long time, because in a hundred years time, I'll be the only guy 你 know."
Spike's eyes cast downward and he was silent. 天使 took this opportunity to go back to his work.
"Funny thing, that," Spike 说 pensively, after a moment.
天使 growled, having once again been interrupted. "What is?"
"We've lived a good long time, 你 and me," Spike mused. "But now, Darla's dead, and Dru is gone, and all of my other 老友记 are... human." He 说 the word with such horror and distaste, as if it were something embarrassing to admit. "And pretty soon, they'll be dead. Buffy'll be dead..."
天使 disliked the mention of their mutual old flame, especially uttered on Spike's lips. It always ignited a 苦 jealousy in him and he ground his teeth, wanting to remind Spike that he had loved her first, that he had done everything first and Spike was just a grubby little copy-cat. But he kept his mouth shut this time, and he wasn't quite sure why.
Spike laughed. "S'been a long time to spend with someone 你 hate," he said, mostly to himself.
"You've become oddly nostalgic," 天使 评论 snidely.
"I'm musing here," 说 Spike, almost defensively.
"I 缪斯 too, but I do it silently," 天使 retorted.
"You muse? Yeah, I've seen 你 'muse,' except most of us would just call that moping. 你 broody depressive sod, is there anyone who doesn't want to kill themselves when they listen to 你 gripe about how bad 你 got it?"
"And you're not griping?" 天使 returned. "You're talking about how 你 don't have any friends... And you're sad about that fact! Hell, I remember in the nineteenth century, 你 bragged about eating all of your friends."
"I have a soul now, in case 你 haven't heard," Spike said.
"And somehow that gives 你 license to--"
"It gives you license to do a whole number of things! See, 你 know what you're problem is, Angel, 你 just were never very good at sharing, were you?"
"Sharing? With you? Why should I share with you--"
"Take Buffy, for example," Spike began. "See, I would have been perfectly happy to--" He seemed to just become aware of what he was saying and shut his mouth tightly.
"To what, Spike? To share her?" 天使 growled.
Spike's lips twitched into a mischievous smile that 天使 wished he could slap off the ghost's face. "Well, 你 have to admit, it would have been interesting."
天使 exhaled sharply through his nose, misunderstanding Spike's intentions. "You're lucky you're incorporeal 或者 else 你 would be out the window 由 now."
"Lucky am I?" Spike exclaimed. "That I can't seem to exist in any world completely? That I can't smell, taste 或者 touch anything?" He was walking towards the 台, 办公桌 now, until he stood just before it, 或者 floated rather, as the floor wasn't actually baring his weight. "You think I'm lucky? Well, Mr. Big Shot CEO, would 你 like to switch places with me because you're the one that Buffy--" He stopped himself again.
天使 looked up, but this time his expression was not a negative one. "Buffy what?"
"Oh sod it, never mind," Spike mumbled, folding his arms.
天使 pushed his chair back and tried to look Spike in the eye, but the ghost avoided him. He walked around the 台, 办公桌 and sized up a sulking Spike. Spike pouted, but 天使 noted that it was exaggerated to make the whole thing seem like an act.
"She 说 she loved me, 你 know," he said, as if in his own defense.
"I loved 你 first," 说 Angel, thoughtlessly.
Spike looked baffled and slightly disturbed. "Did I just hear 你 right?"
天使 blinked. "Her. Her, I loved her first. The... Buffy."
Spike bit his lip. "Yeah. 你 did everything first." He smiled, sadly but proudly. "Well, I died first. Beat 你 to that, didn't I?"
"Well, technically--"
"I became all ghost-y first. That's somethin', isn't it?" Spike interrupted.
天使 couldn't help it. The ghost was so pitiful, it made him laugh. He also realized that Spike's misfortune gave him the most genuine chuckle he'd had in a very long time. "You really can't touch anything, can you?"
"I can if I try," 说 Spike, again on the defensive. "If I concentrate very hard and if I think about it, I can even... smell... things. Like you, for instance. 你 always did reek like a dead cat."
A memory struck 天使 at that moment. "Do 你 remember Saragossa?"
Spike cocked an eyebrow. "1894. 你 mean that night the girls were out."
天使 snorted. "You remember it better than I do. Was it 1894?"
Spike took a step backwards, warily. "Why do 你 bring that up now?"
If Angel's blood still ran through his veins, he might have felt himself blush at that moment. "I'm not sure," he confessed.
"I remember," Spike began with a sly smirk, "the Royal 伦敦 Hotel. 你 wanted to know if 你 were a deviant because 你 liked me."
"I never 说 that--"
"But 你 meant it," Spike 说 teasingly, in a sing-song voice. "You really are a fairy, aren't you?"
"Spike--" 天使 made a 移动 to hit the ghost, but his hand went right through him. Spike's smile faded as he saw Angel's expression grow puzzled.
"What? Am I cold? Tingly?"
"No..." 天使 said, curiously. "It's... nothing. Like air. 你 might as well not be there at all."
Spike nodded. "Huh. I get that a lot."
Slowly, 天使 raised his hand, his palm flat as if pressing against an invisible wall. Confused at first, Spike followed his lead and raised his hand, positioning it right in front of Angel's. He wrinkled his brow, staring at Angel's palm, and then pushed forward.
It was like a shock to Angel, pure electricity that knocked into his palm, and yet it was surprisingly warm. The contact lasted for about three 秒 before Spike pushed too hard and his hand went through Angel's and he stumbled forward, his whole body falling right through the older vampire's as if he was nothing at all.
The old companions stood back to back, each of them staring straight ahead, wondering what exactly had just happened and 更多 importantly, why either of them had participated.
"I touched 费雷德 once," 说 Spike, out of the blue. "She 说 I felt funny. Like water, she said."
天使 put a hand against his chest. It may have been his imagination, but for the brief instant that Spike's form had coexisted with his own, he could have sworn he felt his 心 actually...
"I think 你 should go," 天使 breathed, feeling as if Spike had committed some personal taboo.
"S'kind of funny, that I can go through you," thought Spike out loud. "If 你 think about it, I could reach inside someone's chest and, permitting I could hold my concentration long enough, rip out their 心 without even breaking their ribcage."
天使 was breathing hard. Not so much breathing as forcing his lungs to exhale and inhale for the purpose of speech. But still, he was forcing them to do it heavily, and he wasn't sure why. "And this thought of ripping someone's 心 out appeals to you?"
Spike was quiet a moment. They were still back to back. Neither of them wanted to look at the other. "No, I s'pose not. Not really. Not unless it was your heart, and even then 你 wouldn't die 'cause 你 don't really need it, do you? So it would be... pointless."
"Right," breathed Angel. "Pointless."
"Yeah, silly, really," Spike said, fumbling. "Um... sorry about that."
"It's OK."
Spike turned around quickly and spoke to Angel's back, who took a step towards the window. "You know, Angel, if I were... If I could touch right now, I think I might..."
"I thought I told 你 to go," 说 Angel, staring out at the Los Angeles skyline.
Spike held his tongue. "OK," he said, his hands in the air and taking a few steps backwards. He reached down and lifted his chains, which rattled ominously. "Best be gettin' on, then."
He dragged the chains out with him, through the door, and back down the hall, leaving 天使 to stare out at the city.
He was, as he called it, musing, 或者 perhaps Spike would call it moping, and some others may have in fact called it brooding. But in all reality, 天使 was just thinking about things he had refused to allow himself to think about since Saragossa, 1894. He had lived two hundred years (more than that, if one counted the extra hundred he spent in that hell dimension), and yet he had never met a person so infuriating, so aggravating, so fascinating as Spike. And there is one thing to say about fury-- it definitely gets the blood boiling.
天使 thought about Saragossa and he smiled.
THE END
