New Year's Resolutions:
part eleven
by Josie_h
Notes
29 Dec
Xander woke before his companion
this time, aware that his body was intertwined with the other in a tangle of limbs,
and that they had somehow rolled to lie diagonally across the bed. He waited a
few minutes, decided his bladder really was in need of emptying, and began to
extract himself from his bed buddy-come-limpet’s grasp. It was no an easy task
as it turned out. The blonde seemed to have wound himself around Xander so effectively that moving one extremity simply
caused another to be held even tighter.
Finally Xander opted for waking the vamp and
risking any ‘grumpy-Spike’ consequences.
“Hey Spike?” he whispered as he tried to extract his top arm and shook
the shoulder of his friend. No response.
“C’mon undead guy, human needing relief?!” This
time Xander worked hard to pull one of his legs free,
with limited success as ‘limpet-guy’ simply adjusted and hugged tighter.
The slight twitch at the side of his companion’s mouth after Xander’s
next aborted attempt and the consequent “Geez
Spike!!” whine, alerted the man to the idea that his erstwhile companion was
not as unconscious as he made out to be.
“OK Fangless! I know you’re awake and unless I get to that bathroom in
the next thirty seconds you are *so* going to be sleeping in a wet patch of the
not-so-fun variety!”
Xander noted later that
preternatural speed did have its advantages! Not only was he released from the
embrace with a (to be expected) horrified “Gahhh!”,
but he was also lifted, carried and deposited next to the objet
de nécessité, with an obligatory “Well, get on with
it”, in mere seconds, only just registering the door slam shut as his captor exited.
Though his ablutions were swift, Xander
remained in the bathroom for a little longer. He had decided upon extending his
stay, but still needed to consider the consequences of his current choices. He
recalled Giles’ advice in matters of the heart, “One simply needs to let nature
run its course in these situations” and that “Sometimes you will be lucky.” At
the time of teenage lust Xander had probably
misinterpreted the advice completely, but now felt inclined that there may be
merit in following the former watcher’s advice.
Eme
The figure lying spread eagled on the bed before him, in all its
marble-like glory, seemed to have found a morning activity to fill in the time
while Xander relieved himself.
Oblivious to his audience, Spike had his eyes shut to enhance the feeling
of well practiced strokes up and down the hard flesh under his hand. He had
decided that, given past experience, Xander would be
at *least* a half hour in the other room, ample of time to enjoy the soft bed
and start his day ‘satisfied’. Vampire recovery rates left plenty of scope for
more ‘interesting activities’ should they be on offer later.
Not so much with stealth as speed, Xander
managed to elicit a surprised “Oi” from the other
male as he removed the caressing hand and swiftly replaced it with a very
willing, and extremely warm mouth. The initial expression of surprise was replaced
with a hearty “Oh yeah, Hell yeah, Xan!……” then a collection of other articulations of pleasure that seemed to have their origins
in ‘caveman speak’ rather than any written language.
Not more than a minute later Xander felt his
partner lift from the bed, shudder and then welcomed the jets of cool release,
swallowing briskly and trying to think of appropriately witty things to say
afterwards to make the vampire smile ‘like that’ again.
For his part, the now very satisfied, Spike began to pet the hair of his
lover, then gently grasped his beloved’s shoulders and moved the man to where
he could thank him properly, noting the satisfyingly wet ‘plop’ as Xander released him and willingly moved up for a kiss.
It was four before the two really started to move again. This time Xander making phone calls to airlines, shifting his flights
to late evening on January 1, and extending his time at the hotel to match the
same.
His concern over the final day and ‘
Cool hands began massaging his shoulders as he finished the last call.
“All done, pet?”
“Yeah… God Spike… How am I supposed to go home anyway…ever… after this? I
can’t just walk away…?”
Spike sensed another meltdown on the way, and hit the green button on the
remote he’d found in a side drawer. A tiny stereo unit eme
A preset radio station started and serendipity seemed to step in one more
time with its random sample adding to the mood…
“Let's take the train to anywhere,
I wanna feel the wind in my hair with you.
Let's tell them all, that soon they'll know
how very wrong they were to think
we'd never go,
and if you tell me yours I'll tell
you mine
and we will clean the cobwebs out of
one another's minds.
Don't ever say you've tried to leave me in this life
Don't ever say you've tried for the last time.” (www.missyhiggins.com , ‘Don’t Ever’,
2004)
Xander’s head fell back onto the shoulder of his masseuse. The song
finished as did the massage.
“C’mon luv, let’s us find some sights for you
to see at night yeah?” With that the blonde grabbed the phone ordered a ‘car’
for “at *least* two hours mate” then claimed the bathroom as his own for a ten
minute shower.
Xander could not help but smile, it seemed that ‘Spike the irrepressible’ was again in
the building.
>>>>>>>>>>
The tour of the city – at the behest of the resident Bostonian - was
wonderful. Spike regaling his audience of one, with historical accounts that Xander was *sure* had little to do with official records.
He looked across as Spike began to explain the role of the “Irish Ire” in
the final revolutionary acts against ‘Imperialist England’, and couldn’t help
but point out with a grin, that the ‘teller’ was in fact a card carrying member
of the Empire – and, truth be known one of its elite of *any* era!
He was rewarded with an outraged glare, and an “Oh bloody hell, Harris,
when did you become captain of the debating team!”, but the wink and grin of
his friend belied the harsh meaning of the words. Xander
grabbed the slender hand resting by his, lifted it to his lips and kissed it
deliberately.
After a full ‘circuit’ of the city they stopped at a rather non-descript
apartment building somewhere between Xander’s hotel and the Theatre District.
Xander looked slightly confused
at his companion then realized that this must be Spike’s
He entered the unde
Spike moved around the space quickly, apparently intent on collecting all
he needed and moving on as soon as possible.
Xander grabbed the arm of the
rather frenetic resident, trying to calm him and wishing that his friend could
relax a little.
“Hey pal, ‘sup? We’ve got plenty of time!… Can I
try the big screen? You know, four days without TV can be fatal to the modern
man!”
He caught the eye of his nervous host, and smiled. At some level he
realized yet another source of distress and moved to pull his friend closer
into a tight hug.
“Hey… C’mon… should see my place! All toys ‘n Swedish designer, reeks of
anally retentive single ‘queer eye’ guy!….” Catching
the look of pain (or was that shame?) Xander lifted
the face so he could look directly into the azure eyes. He kissed Spike
chastely on the lips and said “Hey…. C’mon buddy, vampire right? So south
facing picture windows, not exactly a sought after feature, yeah?!”
“’S’not that.”
“Then what? Come on
Spike not exactly intuitive-guy here.”
“Just that, oh hell!” Spike
pulled away and stared at his companion in full game face, then switched back
and rasped out…. “How’s this s’posed to work? Can’t have you livin’ in a basement.
And you’re hardly gonna move anyway… and…??”
Xander pulled the vamp back into
his arms and began to rub soothing circles over the tense shoulders. “I don’t
know sweetie, I don’t know how it will work… but it will… yeah? We’ll make it
work!” He kissed the forehead of his companion one more time, hugged him hard,
then released his grip saying, “So, we doing sport on your big screen? or y’ wanna head back to my place?”
“You’ve got at tellie”
“Wha?”
“In your room you git! You’ve
got a plasma screen behind the bloody picture of the rich wanker
on his horse!"
“You’re kidding me!”
“Never been more serious, mate.”
Xander eyed his current, rather
austere surrounds, contemplated his room rate then offered (as non judgmentally as he could manage) “So, flat screen at my
place?”
Spike needed no more encouragement.
He quickly shoved a change of clothes, his laptop, duster and several
bags of frozen blood into a duffle bag and was moving toward the door before Xander even had a chance to find a comfortable place to sit
and wait.
The return taxi trip was taken in silence. Xander
briskly ordered a meal via room service as they re entered the hotel, then pinned
Spike to the wall and kissed him soundly as soon as they entered his suite.
The rest of the night was spent ‘tucked up in bed’, watching soccer, re
runs of Deep Space Nine, and the ‘classic’ (according to Spike) ‘Last Night of
the Proms’ from ‘the Royal Albert’ which, as far as Xander
was concerned, simply meant a whole lot of ‘tedious classical music’. The
sentiment was stopped in its tracks however, when he looked across to the
expression of pure enjoyment on his companion’s face as “Pomp and Circumstance’
by Elgar began. And any ‘disinterest’ completely lost
as a moving, and as it turned out, bagpipe accompanied rendition of Aude Lang Syne began.
As the song finished, the sound was turned down and the two audience
members in the room, turned their attentions to the ‘old acquaintance [they had
never] fo