Hell's Bells

At the wedding, Spike walks in with Tarantula, the hobiscuit. He's got his arm over her shoulder.

She's short, black hair with crimson swirls, eyebrow piercings, dark eye makeup, definite 'tude. And not at all dressed appropriately for a wedding.

Dawn, putting D'Hoffryn's squirmy gift down, sees them come in. She goes over to them. "Spike!" she calls, and he turns.

"Uh, I want you to meet my date," he says, hitching up his belt. Trying hard to look like he's just the hottie of the world, but with deep undertones of bravado.

Dawn, a little taken aback, gives her a quick once-over, and she's clearly not impressed, but Joyce raised her right. She smiles, offers her hand, introduces herself. Being polite.

The hobiscuit shakes her hand. "Uh-huh," she says, deeply not impressed with this =child=, and looks back to Spike.

Dawn's not impressed either, but she's trying not to be so obvious. Joyce would be proud. Spike notices, notices the hobiscuit looking away, bored

"So yeah," Spike says, "Anyway, that's my date. She's with me. My date for the wedding." Still trying to show how he's not at =all= broken up by the breakup, which Dawn, of course, doesn't even know about. For those who do know, it's SO working. Not.

"Yyyyyyeah," Dawn says, smile still plastered on, but maybe faltering a tad. "Okay. Well." SO time to get out of here... "Nice meeting you..." And she's out of there.

Buffy and Xander are going over the rules: Keep his family away from the bar. Dawn comes up and tells Buffy that Spike just arrived, and he brought a date. "A total skank," she calls the hobiscuit, and says she's "totally macking" with Spike in the middle of the room. "I saw him stick his tongue down her..." Dawn says. Buffy, still stuck on the "Spike brought a date" part but SO not wanting to hear about Spike's tongue, interrupts her. "Wait 'til you see her," Dawn says, with eyeroll. Buffy's obviously surprised, and not in a good way.

Spike is leaning against the wall, alone, looking as though he feels out of place. Buffy sees him. He sees her, looks down. She walks over to him.

"Hello, Buffy." He's glad to see her, glad she looks so well, but...

"Hey," she says. Not quite sure how to deal with being glad to see him, just a little.

"So this is the happy occasion," he says. Making small talk, but that's not why he brought the hobiscuit, is it? He takes a breath.
"You meet my friend?" Just a tiny bit of cocky to leaven the bravado.

"No. Not yet," Buffy says. "But she seemed a very nice attempt at making me jealous." Tiny smile, to let him know she's teasing.

Well, he wanted her to notice. "Is it working?" he says.

She looks down. Maybe not sure she wants to answer this, but... "A little."

His face softens. It is?

"It doesn't change anything," she says, "but if you're wildly curious, yeah, it hurts." She's very serious. Telling the truth.

For a fraction of a second, his face holds hope, but when he realizes that she's admitting that she's hurt, he's contrite. "I'm sorry," he says, meaning it. Hurting her is the last thing he wants to do. But wait. Whipped much, Spike? "Or, good." She smiles at that. He looks at her for a second, thinking. He's gotten her to admit that she misses him, but he doesn't want to keep hurting her. "Do you want us to go?" he says softly.

"No, no," she says. And she really doesn't. "You have every right to be here. And I pretty much deserve..." She looks down.

That stings him. "That's not true, you know." He looks at her, trying to convince her, and realizes that he's falling back into the old patterns. He looks up, closes his eyes for a second. "God, this is hard."

"Yeah." She's not looking at him, focused on how much this really does hurt. Maybe a little surprised to realize that it does.

"I think we'll go." He can't stand that look on her face, or knowing it's there because of him.

"Go where?" she says, afraid of what he'll say. "Your place?" Better to know and hurt for a while than imagine it.

"Yyyyyeah," he says. Meaning, hadn't thought that far ahead. "I suppose. That -was- the idea."

She smiles, being polite. "Yeah." Well, what else did she expect?

He sees she's not happy, waves a hand. "Evil...," he says, as though it should be obvious.

"Of course." Fake smile.

"Ah, but I won't..." he says. He makes a face. "Or..." He breaks off again. "I'll just go. Give my best or whatever to the happy couple..."

"I will." This is getting harder and harder.

He smiles at her, a genuine smile. "It's nice to watch you be happy," he says. "For them, even." He looks down, not sure about saying the next bit, but he goes ahead. "I don't see it a lot." He looks back up at her. "You glow."

She smiles, a real, happy smile at the compliment. But she doesn't really know how to take a compliment from him. "That's because the dress is radioactive," she says, knowing how ridiculous the thing looks on her. He laughs. It really is an atrocious dress. For a second, they're like a normal, happy couple. But they can't be normal... "I should..." She looks down.

"Yeah." That one moment will last him a while, but right now it hurts to see it and not reach for it. She walks past him.

He turns, desperate for one last crumb. "But it hurts," he says.

She turns slowly. For a moment she looks at him, her face naked. Hurts is maybe a small word for how it feels. "Yeah," she whispers, and she looks almost happy to be able to give him this.

He looks at her, realizing that she is giving him something. But it's still too late. He blinks, trying not to well up. "Thanks," he says, his voice low and a little shaky, and walks away.

"You're welcome," she whispers, after his back is turned. Knowing he'll hear.

Spike meets the hobiscuit at the door. "Let's go, then," he says, gruffly. He takes her hand.

"What about the wedding?" she says, a little surprised.

"Let's just piss off, all right?" He pulls her out the door, not looking at her, not looking back.

--

Dori

TOP