Title: Beer, Blood, and Adulting
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Author: Apache Firecat
Characters: Spike(/Buffy), Faith, Dawn
Rating: PG-13/T
Summary: Spike and Faith surprise each other in a budding friendship.
Word Count: 1510
Written For: Fan FlashWorks 377: Trip and 1 Million Words A to Z: U (Uncanny) and V (Vampires)
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.








Faith slams the phone down so hard that the Potential Slayers in the next room all jump. They look at each other, wide-eyed and none daring to speak a word. "You all right?" Spike drawls from behind her, his hand hovering over her leather-clad shoulder. Faith arches her hand around the phone, flexing her muscles, trying, he knows from having far too often felt the same kind of anger, not to to explode, not to tear the phone off its hinges, not to say or do something to someone who doesn't deserve it...

"That fucking fat bastard!" she spits. "He's gotta be fucking tripping! Think I'm going to waste my time to go steal him something so he can have more of his fucking alcohol! He's wasted his life away! I'm actually making something here! I'm trying -- I'm -- " The last word slips from her black lips very softly, barely above a whisper, and tears at Spike's heart.

He doesn't love this woman anywhere near the amount he does the other Slayer. Even that one night with her wasn't enough to make him doubt his feelings for Buffy for one moment. But Faith is strong, gorgeous, and courageous all in her own right. This is a woman who saves the world on a nightly basis, but whose father just wants her for whatever he can milk out of her.

"Sometimes we have to let them go, pet," he speaks just as softly, thinking of another parent centuries before the girl was born. "No matter how much it hurts, sometimes the best thing we can do for them and for us is to let them go."

She hasn't turned to look at him, and he knows why. She's fighting, her logical side warring against her emotions, everything in her hating on herself for the weaknesses her father brings out of her. His hand finally caresses her shoulder. She tenses only at first underneath his simple, reassuring touch. "I know it hurts, pet," he whispers where he's sure only she can hear him, regardless of the superior abilities of those in the next room. "But you're right, you know. You are making something here. And it's kind of funny, but it's like parents like that, like your old man and my ma, it's like they almost have this uncanny ability to know when we're getting better, when we're getting ready to leave them."

"Yeah, it's called narcissism, Spike," Dawn speaks from behind them.

It's strange, but he notices that Faith doesn't flinch at the revelation that Dawn's there with them and has probably heard everything that's been said. Maybe, like himself, she's got a soft spot for the Nibblet.

Faith shakes her head, though she still won't look at either of them. "I always did say you two were lucky, kiddo. You had one hell of a mom."

"Yeah," Dawn's voice drops too, and for a moment, Spike's left with his big, blue eyes darting between the two as he wonders who needs him the most.

But then he can smell the salty moisture of Faith's barely contained tears. It's a hell of a thing men do to women, he thinks and then snorts at himself. Try as he does these days, he still doesn't have any room to talk, and he very well knows it. Still, too, though, it's a hell of a thing that parents do to their children. He'll never forget his own mom, how devoted he was to her his entire life and how turning her finally revealed to him what she had always been all along. He's always been love's bitch, he reflects, regardless of rather he was bowing to a woman as his lover or as his mother. Yeah, men can sure be run over too! "I, hum," he licks his lips and clears his throat, "I know something that'll get your mind off him."

She suddenly shoves his hand off and jerks her jacket further up her body. She flicks her long, dark hair over its collar and turns pointedly away from them both. "Sex is a great distraction, but I'm not in the fucking mood."

She's started to storm away, but his soft chuckle stops her. Her hand grips a stake inside her leather jacket, but he's saved without even realizing the vast danger he'd been in when he tells her, "Pretty sure where I know where a new nest is."

Spike and Dawn both have to grin at the wide smile they can hear lighting up Faith's troubled face as she responds, "Hell yeah. Killing always makes me feel better."

Spike chuckles again, and if either of the females find it odd or sinister that he laughs then, neither shows it. Maybe he's got more than Buffy these nights; maybe he's got a few actual friends at long last too, friends who don't want him just to kill or shag. "Thought so, pet. Don't wait up, Nibblet," he calls teasingly over his shoulder.

"Go! Go!" Dawn ushers him forward, and he realizes that Faith isn't waiting for directions. She's already left the house and is no doubt looking for the first and as many stakes she can make. "I'll leave the light on," Dawn calls laughingly after them.

Spike exits out into the warm, night air with a smile on his face. Sometimes it's good to have actual companions with whom he can spend time doing things other than shagging and "working". Buffy might consider what they were about to do tonight work, but he and Faith both know the fun in it. He hurries to catch up to her and finds her briskly walking with her chin tucked, hands in her pockets, and eyes on her boots.

They walk together in silence for a moment, Spike uncertain what to say and Faith not daring to reveal anything within herself. These people already know far too much about her. They mean too much to her as well, but she's not about to admit that. Slowly, softly, she finally breaks the silence stretching between them. "So, about what you said earlier, did you mean it?"

"What?" he asks, caught off guard.

"You don't think I'm just being a bitch for staying away from him?" She's been told that so often. She stayed in the abuse to help her mother yet her mother never cared what happened to her. She was an idiot, Faith told herself yet again, an idiot to care about either of her parents. If it hadn't been for the whole Slayer calling, she might very well still be there, cleaning up a man who was supposed to but never once clean up for her. She'd always felt far more like her parents' parent than either had ever been to her.

"Yeah," he speaks softly again, turning so she can see the truth shining in his eyes. "I do. A man shouldn't spend his whole life doting upon his mother -- or a daughter upon her father. We didn't ask for them to bring us into this stinking world, but here we are and we're gonna be here a lot longer after they're gone. We need to be able to take care of ourselves, live our own lives, choose our own loves..." His voice trails off, and she can tell he's getting lost in his past too.

The past is a very dangerous place to dwell, and it's kind of like the Vampire mused: A girl, or a guy, can't spend their whole life living in the past, or they'll never live. "Yo," she snaps at him, and Spike comes, blinking, up out of his reverie. She grins up at him, hoping to lighten the mood that's suddenly fallen over him as well. "So where's this nest?" He grins, and as he starts to lead them in that direction, she adds, "I was thinking we could dust however many we can tonight and then maybe finish up with a round of beer and blood."

"Beer and blood?" he questions, surprised.

She shrugs. "Well, I mean, I know you drink beer sometimes, but it's not like it does anything for you. I know you'd rather get your blood. We could maybe get you some spiked blood -- "

"Beer and blood sound good," he interrupts, smiling. Even Buffy still gets grossed out far too often when he's dining. It's not like they've found a way for him to completely do without blood. He has to have sustenance just as much as the humans do, and at least these nights he only feeds from willing donors, blood bank bags, and the occasional animal. "No sex." The words slip out of his mouth, surprising them both.

Faith blinks, taken aback, and, for a moment, pauses in her purposeful stride. "Yeah," she agrees, "no sex." His grin is wide and rewarding. She grins back. It's uncanny to be doing something with a man who doesn't want sex, but neither of them want to disrespect Buffy any longer. They break out into a run, eager to get the night's shenanigans underway.



The End