Prompt 152 - Vernissage - Exhibitionist (BtVS) - spikesdeb

[spikesdeb.livejournal.com]

Title: Exhibitionist
Fandom: BtVS
Pairing/Characters: Spike/Joyce friendship
Rating: General
Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me, just my brain.
Summary : Joyce always kept her gallery to herself, but she must have shared with someone. My take on a little help given to her when she needed a friend.
Thanks : to seductivembrace for a rattling good read through and super-quick edit. Much appreciated.


EXHIBITIONIST

Joyce Summers looked around the subtly lit gallery and smiled. This day had been a long time in the making, and it had taken many hours of hard work and missed time with her daughters to get here. The move to Sunnydale had been a hard decision to make, and she'd lost innumerable nights of sleep over it both before and after, but standing here today, in the peace and quiet of the gallery awaiting the vernissage of her first major exhibition, it all seemed worth it. The Mayor of Sunnydale had promised to pop in, and a couple of quietly affluent citizens had shown an interest. Joyce was hopeful that some serious money would be crossing the counter. It was definitely needed. Two girls, one growing like an Amazon and one the Slayer, put a hefty dent in the monthly household expenses.

The larger pieces had been a nightmare to arrange and had taken brute muscle, but luckily she had acquired an assistant. It had been a surprise, and one she had promised never to reveal to anybody else, but it had certainly been a beneficial arrangement so far. And even though she'd only expected help to get over the rush and urgency of the exhibition, she'd become so used to having assistance, she was thinking of making it a permanent arrangement.

Besides, there were other benefits besides the muscle.

Company, for one. And company with somebody who was surprisingly knowledgeable about art, literature, history and culture. Looking at him, one would immediately think 'danger', but listening to him with his guard down – Joyce was beginning to suspect that the leather and the peroxide were simply a veneer to hide the real Spike. His accent slipped when he spoke of Greek mythology and Renoir, and became more like Rupert. In fact, if she wasn't very much mistaken, Spike's real background and upbringing was very far removed from the persona he chose to project.

Of course, he'd be horrified if the others knew. Maybe she'd tease him about it a little, make him do that hiding his eyes and almost blushing thing that made him so very sweet.

That was the thing, though. It was frighteningly easy to forget that Spike was a vampire. Joyce had to make a conscious effort to remind herself and she knew that Buffy would think her a fool if she knew exactly how much contact she had with Spike. Just providing Spike with the odd cup of hot chocolate had brought on a tantrum of epic proportions and Joyce had decided not to share anything further regarding Spike with her daughter. It did seem to be a rather over-the-top response to a creature that could no longer do harm, but then again she wasn't the slayer and she supposed Buffy knew her own business.

Just then, Joyce heard the back door to the gallery bounce open and hid a smile. There was no disguising Spike's entrance. If vampires were supposed to be stealthy, then Spike must have failed that lesson as he was anything but.

“Joyce? You about?” Spike shouted before opening the door to the back room a little and peeping through. He opened the door fully and slipped through it as he saw that Joyce was the only one there. “Ah, not started yet then? Good – just thought I'd come give it the once-over, see if you needed anything else hefted before I head out into the night to terrorise the innocent.”

Joyce chuckled at him and rolled her eyes to show she didn't believe a word of it. “Yep, just me so far. I said 7:30 p.m. figuring everyone would start arriving about 8:00 p.m. so I don't expect anybody for another half hour at least. Just enjoying the atmosphere. There's something special about being alone with so much fine art, don't you think?”

Spike shrugged. “I suppose. You know me, don't know my Whistler from my Picasso.”

“Uh huh, so you say.” It had become a running joke between them that Spike pretended not to know a thing about art. Truth was, his influence was all over the selection of canvases on the walls, not to mention the sculptures and other pieces that were dotted about and displayed to their best advantage.

After a little wander around, a tweak here and there, Spike walked back to Joyce and toed the ground before reaching into his duster and pulling out a small package. He handed it to her, together with a card, bent from being in his jeans pocket. “S'only something small, for good luck. And thanks.”

“Oh, Spike! That's so-” she was about to say sweet, but knew Spike would hate it, and amended it quickly to “generous...of you. Thank you.” Joyce opened the card which was a simple four-leaf clover design below a 'Good Luck' banner, and was simply signed by Spike inside in a hurried scrawl. At Spike's nod, she unwrapped the package to reveal a beautiful miniature painting of the front of the gallery, every detail perfect but tiny. It wasn't signed, and even though she knew that Spike had painted it, she played the game and pretended that he hadn't when he mumbled about knowing a demon who knew a girl whose brother knocked them off for tourists.

“You don't have to keep it...” Spike murmured and shoved his hands into the pockets of his duster, hunching his shoulders.

“Oh, no! It's just wonderful, honestly. I'm touched, Spike. Thank you again.”

And then he was off, to make mayhem, he said, and promised to be back in the morning for a clean-up, providing he could dodge the sun.

As Joyce looked closely at the painting, she admitted to herself that she was looking forward to Spike's return very much. Buffy could lecture all she wanted about vampires being evil and having no soul, but none of that seemed to apply to Spike. And even if it did, Joyce would still be proud to have him as her friend.

ETA : so sorry about the tags, Mods. I don't know how it's posted prompts 19 and 18 along with 152, but no matter how many times I try, I can't get rid of them!

Comments

[hello-spikey.livejournal.com]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaw

This is so, so sweet - but of course we won't say that because it'll offend the macho vamp. :)

*happy sigh* He's so cute when he pretends to be all that, and Joyce has got his number, doesn't she?

[spikesdeb.livejournal.com]

LOL! Yeah, the vamp wouldn't want to be sweet :) He is delightful when he's trying to be bad, like a naughty little boy. OOOOH! Maybe he needs a spanking...and Joyce knows exactly what he's up to. Thank you so much for reading and commenting, I'm very grateful.