RockStarPeach

angelstoy

nekid_spike

angelstoy

Title:  Happy Anniversary

Rating: R

Pairing:  Spike/Angelus, Spike/Dawn, Spike/Giles, Spike/Wes, Spike/Other

Summary:  The night before the end of the world (again) Spike remembers some old anniversaries.

Happy Anniversary

Tomorrow was the end of the world.  Okay, so it wasn’t the first end of the world he’d faced, and it probably wouldn’t be the last, and Gena, the pretty little vampire slayer he was currently seeing, who just happened to be the head slayer these days had a plan worthy of Buffy Summers so Spike was pretty sure that most of the little girls would live to see another apocalypse or two in their time.

It had been over two hundred years since the old council had been destroyed, since Rupert and Buffy had taken over, since the hordes of demons had come through dozens of portals in an attempt to destroy humanity and been beaten back after only a decade.

Over two hundred years and 12 truly epic battles, and lifetimes of missing his friends, his lovers, the people who had made him who he was throughout his life, and the night before each day that he thought might be his last he always brought out his old, yellowed photo album, magical snapshots of his memories of days gone by, and allowed himself to miss them all over again.

He always remembered something different about them all; the first time they met, when each of them died, their funniest moments.  But this night, he chose to remember his first anniversary with the people who graced the pages of the most important book in Spike’s world.

***

“What the bloody hell is this?” Spike asked, as he walked into the bedroom and saw Angelus lying naked in the middle of the bed, lazily stroking his erection and smiling evilly up at Spike.

“What’s the matter, Spike?” Angelus asked.  “Don’t like what you see?  You’ve never had any complaints before.”

“No,” he hastened to assure his grandsire, not wanting any misunderstandings.  That would probably only end in pain and suffering.  His.  “No, it’s… Weren’t we supposed to be going out?  You said you had a surprise, and I thought...”

“Aye, Spike,” he said, slipping his thumb across the leaking tip of his cock and under the foreskin, eyes rolling back and a groan escaping his lips.  “That I do.”

Angelus hardly ever called him Spike, even though he’d been requesting it for the past few months, preferring the name William, and the fact that he’d called him Spike twice since he’d entered the room confused him to say the least.  He wasn’t usually this accommodating, and it could prove dangerous if Spike wasn’t careful.

He crossed the room slowly, walking to the foot of the bed to stand in front of Angelus, but the caution signal hadn’t made it to his mouth.  “Got news for you, mate,” he said.  “You strokin’ your pecker isn’t exactly a surprise.”

“You’d best shut yer mouth boy, if you want anything but a good beating,” Angelus warned.  He wanted Spike to get his surprise almost more than he thought Spike would.  They’d both been waiting a long time for this, a year in fact, and Angelus thought this would make the perfect anniversary gift.  If he was into anything as sentimental as anniversaries.  Which he wasn’t.

Spike took his advice and closed his mouth, unable to take his eyes off Angelus’ hand as it moved over his prick, and nodded.

“Good boy,” Angelus praised.  “Look at me, William.”  He was willing to use the name Spike to a certain extent, but he needed the boy to know who they both were if they were to go through with what he had planned.

Spike did.  “Yes, Angelus?”

“Do you know what today is?” he asked, hand stilling as he watched Spike’s brows furrow in concentration.

“Uh, Tuesday?”

Angelus laughed.  “It’s our anniversary, William.  One year ago tonight, I took you to my bed for the first time.  Showed you your place, made you mine.”  They’d done it a hell of a lot since then, both of them enjoying it very much, but Angelus had always topped.  Until tonight.

“And now, William, Spike, I’m offering myself for you to take, should you choose.”

Spike couldn’t talk.  Could barely think.  He’d been asking for this since they’d first been together and Angelus had made out like it would never happen, and now that he was faced with it he didn’t know how to react.

He was excited, thrilled, scared, confused, but most of all incredibly turned on, and he couldn’t stop the wide grin that spread on his face as he stripped off his clothes in record time and pounced on the bed between Angelus’ spread thighs.

“Easy there, boy-o,” Angelus laughed, thinking that this was going to be a whole lot of fun.  “We’ve got all night; no need to rush things.”

Spike paused in his pursuit, one hand on Angelus’ thigh and rolled them both over in one fluid movement so that Angelus landed on top of him and their cocks rubbed deliciously together, eliciting a sharp intake of breath from them both.  Yes, they did have all night, and he wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to get inside the larger vampire but if he wanted it to last more than a minute he figured he should hand over control to Angelus for a while.  Let him take the edge off before they got to the main event.  

He looked into the darker vampire’s eyes seriously, hand moving slowly and boldly along Angelus’ spine.  “Thank you, Angelus.”

Angelus smiled and tilted his chin down to capture Spike’s lips in a kiss.  “Happy anniversary, Spike.”

 ***

“Happy anniversary, niblet!” Spike said, smiling broadly and carrying an armful of popcorn, candies, soda and movies into the living room.

“What?” Dawn asked, scrunching up her face and shaking her head.  “What are you talking about?”  Anniversary?  What anniversary?

Spike raised an eyebrow but only held up his bounty and said, “We’ve been friends for exactly one year now.  Well, okay we’ve been friends a lot longer than that, but one year ago tonight you actually said it.”  He put the snacks he had brought down on the table and took the opportunity to check out the small flaws in the wood as he continued.

“Nobody had… nobody had called me that in a long time, and it… meant a lot to me.”  He looked back up with a bright smile plastered on his face again.  “And I figured we should mark the occasion with scary movies and more junk food than the human body can handle.”

Dawn blushed and reached forward for a can of soda, popping the tab and taking a sip as Spike stuffed one of the video tapes into the VCR.  Oh yeah, she remembered the day Spike was talking about, remembered getting them both drunk on margarita’s right here in the living room when everybody else was out, and Spike was stuck on Dawn-watch.

Remembered babbling on and on like a silly little girl with a crush, which she had to admit she had been, and telling him how hot he was and how cool he was and much she liked him.  She’d called him her best friend and leaned across the couch, young, eager eyes fixated on his guarded, experienced ones, and she’d kissed him.

She knew he wouldn’t have been able to resist someone showing such honest affection like she did, but he’d stopped it after the kiss, thinking that she was too young and too innocent to understand what she was getting into, offering herself to a vampire.

He’d loved her back then, like you loved someone you were responsible for who on occasion happened to turn you on some.  He tried not to think about that though as she was barely sixteen and the slayer’s little sister and he was more than happy to have someone he could spend time with who actually liked him.  He wasn’t willing to risk that for something that she wasn’t ready for.

“Spike, I…” she started, still staring down at her drink as he sat next to her on the couch and hit the play button.

“Shhh,” he said, knowing that neither of them wanted to talk any more about that night.  “We’re gonna miss the previews.”

He knew she was still embarrassed about that night and he hadn’t meant to bring up the more intimate parts of it, but it actually meant a lot to him, what she’d said and done, and really did think it was worth celebrating.

Dawn smiled a grateful smile and turned her attention to the screen, and before long they were tossing handfuls of popcorn into their mouths and laughing and jumping and screaming at the television.

Somehow they ended up with Dawn’s head leaning against Spike’s shoulder and his arm around hers, and they probably could have stayed just like that for the rest of the night if Dawn hadn’t been hit with a very timely stroke of bravery.

She wasn’t blind; she’d seen how Spike sometimes looked at her and knew that he’d probably be more open to her advances now that she was a bit older and understood a bit more.  And even if he wasn’t she had nothing to lose, because she knew he would always be her friend, no matter what else happened.

She pulled back from him and stared at the side of his head for almost a minute before he turned, very slowly, to look back at her.

“Dawn…” he started.  He knew that look.  “What are you…?”  If she was offering what he thought she was, he wasn’t going to be strong enough to turn her down this time.

“Happy anniversary, Spike,” she told him and leaned in to kiss him for the second time, both of them knowing that this time it wasn’t going to stop there.
 

“Spike?” Giles said, surprised to open the door to his hotel room and find Spike on the other side.  It had been a hell of a day and he was taking a couple of days to recover from the damage Willow had inflicted on him with her magic before he took her back to England.  “What are you doing here?”

“Happy Anniversary, Rupes,” he said with a slight twist of his lips and unconsciously looked past the man in the doorway, his gaze falling on the bed behind him.

Giles’ immediately closed off his expression and narrowed his eyes.  “If that’s what you’re here for…”

“It’s not,” Spike told him, holding up his hands in surrender.  “Just wanted to talk.”

Giles raised a slightly apprehensive eyebrow but stepped aside and gestured Spike in.  Sure.  They could talk.  It wouldn’t be the first time.  Or, maybe it would.  It wasn’t as if they had ever been close, but Giles couldn’t deny there had always been something between them.  Besides the burning hate and desire to kill one another.

They’d had sex once – after Buffy died.  That very night actually, and it was needy and desperate and they’d both regretted it in the morning, though not for the reasons you usually do.

It wasn’t as if Spike hadn’t wanted him a hundred times before that day, or a hundred times after, and it wasn’t as if Giles hadn’t returned the desires.  They caught one another sneaking furtive glances across the conference table in the Magic Box, standing a little too close while they reached for a book, or some trinket off a shelf and looking at one another with angry lust as they fought the demons they encountered while on patrol.

Their mutual desire wasn’t a secret, not to them at least, but they had both fought it, until that night, and then it was all about Buffy.  That’s what made them wish they hadn’t done it, made them not want to do it again; the fact that after so long spent wanting they’d finally come together and it might as well have been anyone, so lost were they both in the grief of losing their slayer.

That had been a year ago.  A year had passed since then.  A whole year and only a year, and Buffy had come back and they’d gotten closer and so much further apart and Rupert had drifted to the periphery of his attention, but hadn’t escaped it completely.  He didn’t think he ever would.

And now Spike was leaving, and it didn’t seem odd to him at all that the one person he wanted to say goodbye to was the watcher, even though he was the one that didn’t live in Sunnydale anymore, and wouldn’t even notice that Spike was missing.  He wanted Giles to know that he was going away, so when he came back, when he’d changed, Giles would know it had been his choice.

But when he walked inside, when Giles closed the door behind them and joined him in standing in the middle of the room like a complete moron, not knowing what to say or what to do with himself, he found he couldn’t say anything at all. 

How could he say he was sorry for running straight into Buffy’s less than hospitable bed instead of seeking out Giles, who would have been marginally better for him when he really wasn’t?  How could he say that he’d missed the man when he’d been gone these past months, had wanted him back and hadn’t ever stopped thinking about him when he’d been too wrapped up in Buffy to even notice he wasn’t around?

How could he tell Giles that he was going off to do something that would change it all, would probably make them all hate him even more than they already did but he was doing it anyway in the hopes that they may see something in him that was worth loving?

He couldn’t, no matter how badly he wanted to, but he did wish things had been different between them.  Things should have been different.  It was too late now he knew, and he let out a strangled sob, covered his mouth with his hand, and he melted into Rupert’s strong arms as they enfolded him in a comforting embrace.

Giles didn’t know what to say either, what to do.  He didn’t know quite what was going through Spike’s mind, but he could tell the vampire had regrets, much as he did, and even though he was leaving in a few days and wouldn’t be seeing Spike for a long while, if ever, he found he wanted to make things right between them as much as Spike seemed to.  He’d changed a lot this past year, and Giles had to admit he was impressed.

So he relaxed against the blond when he felt answering arms wrap around his back and kissed him feather-light on the top of his head and said, “Happy Anniversary, Spike.”  It was something.

***

They had met one year ago.  364 days ago actually, 365 tomorrow.  The day Spike’s incorporeal form escaped from that amulet was a day that Wesley would never forget, and even though they hadn’t had anything to do with each other until Spike became solid, and hadn’t really got on that well for the first while afterward, it was a day that had changed Wesley’s entire future, because from that moment on, Spike was in it.

They’d survived losing friends, lovers, homes and entire cities after Angel’s brilliant plan to take on the senior partners.  And even though they’d spent the last several months on the move, fighting for survival, theirs and the rest of humanities, the only two left of Team Angel after they’d invited all those armies of demons unleashed on the world, the one thing they never lost was hope, because they had each other.

They hadn’t started sleeping together until almost two weeks ago, and that was only out of frustration and the need to feel something other than death and destruction for a little while, but they’d loved each other long before they first tasted each other’s mouths, felt the sweet, soft touch of skin on skin, experienced the intensity of finding pleasure in one another’s bodies. 

They’d loved each other since the night in the alley, since Illyria had shown up and saved his life, and Gunn had died from blood loss not long after the fight started, and Angel was killed by the dragon and Illyria disappeared into some portal, neither of them knowing where she went.

They’d love each other since the dust settled at the end of it all and they looked up to find themselves alone, surrounded by the evidence of the carnage, and had spent the day together huddled in the remains of the hotel, waiting for the sun to set so that they could as far from LA as they could, and the fact that it was all on them now, the fate of the entire world up to a vampire with a broken soul and a man who wasn’t good enough to be a watcher, and they’d realised they were happy they were stuck with each other.

And the fact that they’d only said ‘I love you’ for the first time earlier that night didn’t stop Wesley from making a special trip out to the florist on his way back to the abandon building they had been squatting in for the past three nights, and to stop by the butcher shop for some decent blood, and to strip himself naked, nothing but a jar full of blood in one hand and a bouquet of orchids in the other.

The fact that their sexual relationship was only a fortnight old didn’t stop him form saying “Happy anniversary, Spike,” with a smile, and holding out his gifts when Spike limped in bruised and battered from his latest fight at half past midnight.

And it didn’t stop Spike from smiling back, and agreeing that it was indeed a happy anniversary, and kissing his lover long and slow before accepting the offerings and setting them aside for later, while he and Wesley forgot all about saving the world for a while.

***

There were more, he knew.  Dozens more, that all deserved his thoughts, his heartache, but there were some he couldn’t face, and some he’d rather forget, and he knew he needed to get some sleep before the battle, or he’d wouldn’t be any help to anyone, and he was in no hurry for Gena to end up nothing but a faded photograph and a memory trapped in his mind.

He closed the book and put it back inside his safe, tucked safely away inside the basement of the main building of the Watcher’s Council, and climbed the stairs two at a time, all the way to the top floor and the room he shared with his girlfriend.  He crawled in to bed with her, trying not to disturb her sleeping form, and smiled when she unconsciously moved closer to him, throwing her arm across his middle and nuzzling into his neck.

True, there were people he missed, people he was sorry to have seen go, but his life now was a good one, and he wouldn’t trade it for anything.

END