Feedback: Yes please but be very gentle. First fanfic and first slash.
Archive: If you want, but please let me know
Pairing: S/X
Rating: PG - NC 17 (maybe, I've never rated anything before)
Disclaimer: Most characters misrepresented in this tale belong to Joss Whedon,
Mutant Enemy and Neil Gaiman. I'm only taking them out to play, changing their
clothes and then putting them back. There may be some original characters floating
about. They are mine but usually don't admit to it.
Spoilers: Up to Buffy Season 6 sorta but definitely AU
Summary: Spike and Xander get to take a trip and go a bit further than intended.
Crossover eventually with Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere.
'' '' '' '' '' '' '' ''
Spike took the strangely shaped piece of metal from Lomax's hand. He turned
it over several times, smoothing his fingers over the edges. Thinking.
"What is it, Spike?" Xander's voice slipped into his thoughts.
"You can see it, then, pet?" Somehow he was not surprised. His
Hellmouth-bred boy had no faculty for magic; he seemed to twist it somehow,
and sometimes that was good thing. Ordinary humans and most demon kind
wouldn't have seen the opener or would have forgotten it as soon as they
did. "It's an opener. Folk from the underside use 'em to open sewer covers
and some tunnel doors."
Spike stepped out of Xander's arms and passed the opener to him. "You
know
about London Below? Yet you exist in Above?" he said to Lomax's nonplused
expression.
"You exist solidly Above yourself. Yet you seem to know Below also."
Lomax
spread his hands helplessly. "Apparently, we are close enough to being
part
of the underside to allow us to trade, without us actually slipping through
to London Below and being forgotten by London Above. We never remember
faces, and just snatches of conversation. But a barter is made and we just
*know* our customer was from the underside. Don't ask me why, I don't know.
This shop has always had ties with the underside. A halfway-there house, I
suppose. Some interesting things come up from there, and once they've been
bartered, paid for I suppose, they exist in London Above as if they always
did." Lomax shrugged. "The Vespertilio Invulnerabilis has gone Below.
The
Childe of Phillipe's will have already forgotten about it. So will almost
everyone else in the world above. Your Tome, too, I'm afraid. If you try to
talk about it, people will forget."
Katie put in helpfully, "A foot 'old in one world and a toe 'old in th'
other, we have. But undersiders can't do this sort o' thing."
"Apparently they can, Katie." Lomax rubbed his head for emphasis.
"But I thought there were rules or somethin'." Her sentence ended
on a
slight, tired whine and she cuddled the cat close. "A spell o' some kind
that didn't let 'em do this sorta thing."
"It's a geas," Spike said absently, watching Xander examine the opener.
"Oh, I thought that was some kind of bird-head like a flamingo with the
legs of a sumo wrestler." Xander looked up from his examination of the
opener at Katie's chuckle of recognition. To Spike's blank look he added,
"What? Discworld? Terry Pratchett?." At Spike's continued non-recognition
he shook his head and sighed, "A geas is a kind of compulsion, yes?"
"Yeah, a compulsion on Above not to see or remember Below. Leastways that's
how it was described t' me. You're right though, girl, there are rules
about this sorta thing an' they're not the kind easily broke."
Spike seemed to come to a decision. "Right then. You don't mind if we
'ang
onto this?" He pointed to the opener in Xander's hand. Xander tossed it
to
Spike, who dropped it in his duster pocket. "If I turn up the Gone Again,
I'm leavin' it where it lies." He nodded politely to Katie, or possibly
the
cat, and stalked out the door, a thoughtful look still on his face.
Xander, with a quick goodbye for Katie and Lomax, followed the swirl of
black out the door and onto the street. The vampire waited for him outside,
his thoughtful look replaced by a mildly lavicious one. "So, 'bout you
puttin' out? I'm sure I heard it mentioned in there, somewhere." His smile
was completely suggestive.
"That was my patented distract-the-vampire-from-getting-staked babble.
True, though, can't put out to a pile of dust. The thought is just ewww,
and so not hygenic. I can't believe you let me, distract you, I mean. You
sounded pretty firm about the whole dancing on the bloody pieces bit, and
again with the ewww." Xander grinned widely, pleased that he, a mere
mortal, had more than a little power over the blond predator in front of
him. I promise to only use my power for good-his inner cheerleader wore a
slutty smile-really good, he thought, feeling himself tighten in his jeans.
Spike, feeling the sudden increase in pheromones, stepped into Xander's
personal space, close enough to touch but not doing so, his eyes focused on
Xander's lips. He loved the heat from the living body, the indrawn breath,
and if he could just hold out a moment more then maybe Xannder would take
the initiative, and. score one for the vampire! This was addictive, the
sensation of Xander's mouth on his, warm and mobile and tasting of
chocolate. The scent of aroused human filled his nostrils and Spike found
himself wondering where the nearest flat surface was.
The sound of clapping pulled them apart. Katie in the doorway, turning the
sign from open to closed, had paused to watch the impromptu show. Xander
blushed, pulled away, bowed flamboyantly in her direction, grabbed Spike's
hand and began to tow him in the direction of the underground station,
muttering about timing.
Spike merely grinned triumphantly and allowed himself to be towed away.
"You weren't embarrassed on the train, pet."
"I didn't know anybody there and then I wasn't contemplating-"
Xander's sentence finished on a mumble but vampire hearing caught the
last and Spike's grin became even wider and definitely indecent..
The train was almost empty this time. Spike had allowed Xander to retain
possession of his hand. He liked feeling their joined hands resting on
Xander's thigh. It was a sign that as much as he owned the boy the boy
also.maybe.owned him.
"So tell me about it."
Spike didn't have to ask about what. "We'd come back t' London, well after
Prague, a bit afore we came to Sunnyhell. Dru was real strange. Odd." At
Xander's lifted eyebrow he continued. "Odder than usual, then. Fey. She
kept seein' people, she said. Odd smelling' people. I put it down to 'er
fancies, like the singin' stars."
Spike paused, remembering. "One night, she started stalking somethin',
a
brown mouse girl, she said. I couldn't see anythin' but Dru was off and
away. She hunted it through the back streets and stinkin' alleys. I figured
to humour her and followed along. Finally Dru corners it in a dead end. See
how it trembles, Spike she said, and I said, yeah, wondering when we could
go look for a real meal."
"Dru looked at me," Spike shook his head, " no, right through
me. Bring
'er to me, Spike, she said. I didn't know what to do, there was nuthin'
there. Tea parties with Miss Edith were one thing, but invisible people?
Dru pulled herself up an' there was steel in her eyes and suddenly she was
all hard edges. Then she comes over all Sire. Hell, usually she couldn't
remember who made who. Lying to *me*, Spike she says in Sire voice. It hits
you here, Sire voice." Spike thumped his chest. "Then she backhanded
me
into the wall and ordered me to see. I saw stars an' they were swearin',
not singin'. I also saw a tangle-haired girl in a homespun brown dress and
I saw her disappear through a door that I could o' sworn weren't there before."
"London Below?"
"Oh, yeah."
"And?"
"We followed her, o' course, Dru weren't to be put off. Down steps and
through doors, under the city. We went through the last door, could smell
the girl an' others on the other side. Smoke an' fires and cooking meat.
She belonged to a tribe of th' underside. The Rat Speakers. They were
respectful an' polite to us, once we'd promised to leave them an' theirs
alone. We visited awhile, saw some stuff. Not even a quarter o' what's down
there. It's." Spike paused, not sure how to describe London Below, "It's
pockets of times and places and people that have just slipped between the
cracks of our reality. Stuff that people used to believe in that found a
new home an' a veritable lost dogs home of the mythological. Heard there
was even an Angel down there." Spike shuddered. "Once you're there,
though,
you're there for good, pretty much. Not many get both Above and Below. A
few do; some demon kind, and special 'umans. Most betweeners pick out a
pretty precarious existence, not belongin' to one or th' other. Reckon one
day Lomax's will slip through too. Above don't generally see you or hear
you, or if they do they forget, real quick. I didn't want that so I made
Dru leave before it 'appened to us."
Xander leaned over and poked Spike with his finger. "Yep, still real."
He
squeezed the hand he held. "Very real."
"Below, well, they can't hurt those in Above or steal anything but food,
or
so I understood. It's the geas. I dunno how it works. Mojo is Peaches'
field. Maybe demons get a bit o leeway in remembering and seeing 'cause
we're already supernatural. 'Cept that most demons are affected same as
most 'umans-they're blind to it. Dru remembered, though, and 'cause she
did, I guess I did too. Babbled about it in 'er fancies. Without 'er, I'd
almost forgotten, myself, 'till I smelt the opener. You're a Hellmouth
child. Gotta count for something in the weirdness stakes; maybe that's why
you could see and remember."
Back in the room, Xander phoned Giles to try and explain their problem, a
difficult conversation because Giles remembered that he'd sent them to
London for a book but couldn't remember which book. While he spoke, Xander
watched the vampire in fascination. He loaded all the complimentary stuff
into Xander's backpack-shampoo, shoe polish and soap, and then he began to
throw in Xander's emergency supply of chocolate. Looking from Xander to the
bag with a frown, he retrieved a few bars and placed them deliberately on
the bedside table. That warmed and chilled Xander all at once. On one hand,
the vampire cared enough to make sure he had chocolate; on the other,
Xander knew it meant that he wasn't expected to go along with the vampire.
He finished up his frustrating call to Giles. The vampire had finished
his haphazard packing and stood in front of Xander's chair, waiting for the
conversation to end.
Spike shrugged the pack onto his back. "Right then, pet. That's all done.
I'll be."
"No."
"No, what?" The expression the vampire's eyes was determined.
"Look, let's just pretend we had the argument and I won. Less stress all
around."
"I want you safe."
"Define safe, Spike. You're going to leave me in a boarding house with
a
loony ex-Slayer who wants to chat about mere Watchers."
"You will be safe here, her word on it. Rules, remember?"
" 'Here and now, in this place,'" Xander quoted, "fills me with
such
confidence. What if I go outside? Are all bets off? Or am I supposed to
wait here in this room like a good little pet?" Xander crossed his arms
and
quirked an eyebrow at Spike, not angry, yet, but interested in the
vampire's reply. It would tell him a lot about exactly how the vampire
regarded Xander's place in his life.
"Not a pet. Not a minion. Not ever." The vampire's eyes were oddly
soft.
"Mine to protect. I want you safe." There was a note of frustration
in his
voice. Vampiric childer would obey, but his humans were contrary and so
often got in above their heads. Especially Xander.
"I'd feel safer with you." Xander offered, pleased with the vampire's
reply. "It can't be worse than patrol at home. You deal with the
supernatural and I'll deal with the humans. So, will I need my flashlight?"
Spike studied Xander's resolved face, different than Willow's but no less
determined. "Yeah, pack th' flashlight. Might work, might not, technology's
dicey down there, but we can barter th' bits. Stay close t' me. Here's
hoping Hellmouth-bred'll count for demon bred with the geas. I don't want t'
lose you, Xander."