Prompt #107-In Absentia-Almost Forever-spiceblueeyes-BtVS

[spiceblueeyes.livejournal.com]

Title: Almost Forever
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Prompt: 107-In Absentia
Warnings: some swearing, character death
Rating: Teen
Summary: A coffee run turns deadly...how cheesy does that sound?

 

Almost Forever

“Hey guys!” Xander called out as he and Spike entered The Magic Box.  A chorus of greetings was sent back in their direction. A Scooby meeting had been called to research a demon Buffy had come across on patrol the night before. It apparently had blue horns and a wrinkly bald head. Giles, Willow and Buffy were all sitting around the table, books spread out before them. Anya was counting the money from the cash register behind the counter, muttering about how slug scented candles weren’t selling very well.

Buffy pushed her chair back from the table and closed her book with a loud ‘whap,’ “I’m so over the sitting still thing right now.” She stood up and stretched her arms above her head, “Spike, you up for some sparring?”

Spike smirked, “with you Slayer, always. I love kicking your arse.”

“You wish. I seem to recall dumping you on your ass quite a few times last week.” She walked toward the back of the shop, “gimme five minutes to change clothes and I’ll meet you in the training room.”

Xander chuckled; the rivalry between Spike and Buffy was always entertaining, though it hadn’t always been so friendly. His amusement was cut short when he suddenly felt money being thrust into his hand, by Anya no less. Needless to say, he was confused as to why the notoriously frugal ex-demon would be giving him money. He looked at her with a puzzled expression on his face, “Um, thanks?”

“You’re getting the coffee.” She explained.

“Uh huh. Okay, I get why caffeine is needed, slumber parties may be more fun, but they’re not really productive with the slayage.” Nodding, he continued, “but I wanna know why I,” Xander pointed at himself, “get stuck with the coffee fetching? I just got here.”

Willow looked up from her book, “None of us wanted to go, so you were voted in absentia.”

“Me, why not Spike?”

Looking at the vampire in question, Willow smiled sheepishly, “Um, because we didn’t think he’d do it.”

“You’re right about that pet,” Spike said, “got myself better things to do, like show a certain Slayer a move I learned in Brazil. She’ll never see it coming.” Grinning his evil grin, Spike gave Xander a quick kiss and a grope before heading towards the back of the shop and the training room. “See you later, luv.”

Xander sighed, “Yeah, see you later.” Turning to look at the rest of the group, he spoke. “All right, what does everyone want?” He took the orders, writing them down on his hand so he wouldn’t forget.  Waving on his way out, he promised that “No Willow, I won’t get sidetracked at the arcade; I haven’t done that in years. Well, okay months…weeks…okay yesterday. But I promise not tonight!” He also had to tell Anya that he would “yes, bring back all the change, and the receipt so you can make sure I’m not keeping any for myself.”

Finally he made it to the door, and slipped outside, the sooner he got the coffee, the sooner they would find the demon, the sooner Buffy would kill it, the sooner he and Spike could go home and…celebrate. Xander smiled to himself, and set out to accomplish step one in that chain of events.

*****

Spike sauntered into the training room. “Ready to get beaten, Slayer?”

“Yeah, whatever Spike. You’re just a big ol’ softy, and I have the proof right here.” Buffy held out a white envelope.

“You got ‘em!” Spike snatched the envelope from Buffy’s hands and opened it.

“Yep, two tickets to sunny Hawaii. And can I ask why you’re going somewhere sunny? Why don’t you some place more vamp friendly?”

“Xander loves to swim, loves the ocean. I’ve got this fantasy where he goes snorkeling or something, and then comes home all happy, with that huge, silly grin on his face. I’ll go and hug him, and he’ll be all wet and warm from the sun. He’ll kiss me hello and he’ll taste so good, and then-“

“Okay!” Buffy held up her hands, “enough imagery, I get it.”

Spike leered, “you don’t like the visuals, pet?”

“A world of no Spike,” She put on a mock determined look, “and that’s my answer and I’m sticking to it.” Laughing, Spike put the plane tickets into one of the pockets in his duster, which he then tossed over the back of a chair, out of the way. He moved with Buffy to the center of the mat, and they began to spar.

*****

Xander pushed open the door to the coffee shop and walked in. “Hey Tim!” He came here often enough that he knew all the employees by name; research parties were usually highly caffeinated.

Tim looked up from behind the counter, sweeping his brown hair from his eyes. “The usual?”

“Yeah, looks like it’s another long night.” The usual was regular coffee for Buffy, mocha for Willow, a vanilla latte for Anya, tea for Giles, and hot chocolate for Xander and Spike. As an afterthought, Xander picked up one of those individually wrapped biscotti and placed it on the counter, Spike liked to dip them in blood sometimes.

“$16.87” Tim took the twenty that Xander handed him and rang up the order. When he was done, he gave the receipt and change back to Xander and went to make the drinks. “So dude, how’s things with you and Blondie?” Usually Spike came with Xander on coffee runs, so Tim was familiar with both of them. The last few months since he’d started working there, they’d struck up a sort of friendship.

Xander let his face fall into that dreamy smile that it always seemed to want to make when thinking of Spike. “Really great! You know we got our new place a couple months ago, and we finally finished unpacking last night.” Tim laughed, it had been a running joke that Spike and Xander would never get unpacked. When asked about it, Spike would jump in with a ‘well, we have better things to do, don’t we luv?’ The leer he would direct at Xander never failed to make him blush.

“That’s great man.” Tim said, handing the placing the drinks on the counter.

“Yeah, it is.” Xander put all of the beverages into a carrier and turned to leave. “See you later.”

*****

Billy jerked open the door to his truck and heaved himself into the driver’s seat. He wanted to get home before it got too late. Closing the door he tried to put the keys in the ignition, but missed. The metal scraped off to the side instead. He tried again; maybe he shouldn’t have had that last drink. He managed on the third try and gunned the engine, time to go home. Driving down the road he wondered why there were two stop signs at that intersection?

As he passed the signs without even slowing down.

*****

Xander walked carefully but quickly. Night time in Sunnydale wasn’t the safest, but The Magic Box wasn’t much farther now. He carried the drinks with both hands, and the biscotti for Spike was stuffed into his jeans pocket.

Almost there, he looked both ways for oncoming traffic and, seeing none, started across the street.

*****

Glancing at the time, or actually he studied the clock carefully since the numbers were blurrier than he remembered, he realized he was going to be late. The wife was gonna have a fit! Better hurry up, he thought as he pressed down hard on the gas pedal and went around the corner. He yanked the steering wheel and the tires screeched.

*****

Xander heard the squeal of the tires and turned to see the truck come around the corner, going much faster than he would have liked. Thanks to years as a Scooby, however, he didn’t panic. He dodged the truck by throwing himself the rest of the way across the street and landing safely on the sidewalk. Now laying on his side, he started to smile; he’d even managed to only spill one coffee, yay for the Xan Man survival skills!

*****

Oh shit! There was a guy in the road, or wait, two guys, no…whatever, he was gonna hit him! In a move that made total sense to Billy, he steered the truck onto the sidewalk. The man was on the road, so if he didn’t drive on the road, he wouldn’t hit the man. Not taking into account possible movement of the man in question.

Congratulating himself on managing to avoid disaster, he grinned as he drove over the speed bump. Or was it a pot hole?

*****

Xander never got to finish his smile because suddenly there was pain.

He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t focus, there was only pain.

Pain and a vague sense of ‘what the hell happened?’ as his vision darkened.

Labored breathing, painful, since when did breathing hurt so bad?

His last sensation was one of feeling like a squished bug.

Then the pain stopped, because his heart did.

*****

Spike and Buffy heard the screaming tires outside, but paid no attention. They were sparring and that took up all of their concentration. Punching, hitting, ducking, jumping, they made their way around the training room at speeds only the supernatural could match. Breaking away from each other, they moved to opposite sides of the mat.

“Time for a break, I could use some water.” Buffy spoke in between gasped breaths. No one else in their group pushed her as hard as Spike did. Mostly because they simply weren’t capable of it.

“Sure, you sit down and rest. Wouldn’t want you to get too tuckered out would we Slayer?” Spike mocked, though he was panting as well.

It was when he finally got his breathing under control (he didn’t technically need to breathe, but instinct won over logic every time) that he smelled it. He froze, took another breath because his mind refused to accept what his nose was telling him.

He smelled blood.

Xander’s blood.

*****

Giles, Anya and Willow looked up in surprise as Spike ran from the back room out the front door as fast as his vampire speed could take him.

*****

If Spike’s heart could still beat, it would have stopped.

He saw Xander lying on the sidewalk, blood seeping from his body, mixing with spilled coffee to run slowly down into the cracks in the concrete. There was no heartbeat, no breath. His eyes were open, but unseeing.

He was too late, Xander was gone. He’d died, less than twenty feet away from the front door of the store and none of them had known. Spike hadn’t known.

If he had known he could have been there, could have saved him, could have turned him, could have said goodbye. But he was too late.

Xander had died alone.

Spike knelt in the blood next to Xander, hands hovering above the body as if afraid to touch, finally picking up the head and cradling it to his chest. He heard the others exit the shop, heard the gasps, the tears.

He didn’t cry, he just breathed deeply, trying to pull the scent of his lover into himself. He didn’t ever want to forget that scent.

Someone had called 911, and as the men from the ambulance pulled Xander’s body away from him, he let it go and stood up. Hands shaking with unreleased emotion, he turned away, intending to walk away, to disappear.

As he broke away from the group, Buffy went after him, “Spike,” her voice thick with tears, “Xander loved you.”

Yeah, he knew that. And Spike loved Xander.

“He wouldn’t want you to…” she paused, unsure how to continue. “He’d want you to be…he’d say…” pulling her thoughts together she finished, “tan isn’t a good look on you Spike, I know Xander would agree.”

Having said her piece, she went back to hug Willow. They clutched at each other, crying.

How had she known? How had she known what he had planned to do? How dare she try to talk him out of it! Unlife wasn’t worth it without that goofy smile, or those eyes that were so expressive without even trying.

She was right though, stupid bint, Xander wouldn’t want him to say hello to the sun. He’d even told Spike that one night, in a painful conversation that Spike had tried to avoid and Xander had insisted on.

So he wouldn’t burn. He wouldn’t dust. That didn’t mean he could stay. There were too many memories here.

Spike left that night. In his head he said goodbye to Sunnydale, and good riddance to the Scoobies.

Speeding down the highway, on the way out of town, his jaw clenched from keeping the tears in check. He would weep later, once the sun was up and he was safe for the day. Then he would begin to grieve.

*****

One month later, Spike was in a church. He stared up at a large, ornate cross that hung on the wall behind the pulpit. He was standing in a posture designed to intimidate.

“You take care of him, I know he’s with you, couldn’t be anywhere else. He deserves heaven, and you’re gonna bloody well give it to him.” Pausing for a moment, his posture slumped, “and, maybe you could tell him I love him, and I miss him.” Choking back a sob, he left the church, hesitating at the threshold, he turned back, “and I won’t forget him.”

He walked out the door, into the night.