Chapter 7

Giles changed swiftly, clenching his jaw to trap emotions he did not want free. He went out and found Spike leaning against the hire car and got into the drivers' seat, leaning over to let Spike in. They sat in silence until the familiar landmarks of Sunnydale slid away. Giles glanced over at Spike and, once more, set his jaw. The effort of clamping it this tightly almost made his head ache.

'So, what did Xander and Anya fight about?'

'What?' Spike almost shouted the word and immediately regretted this flash of emotion. Trying to appear as if the question was quite appropriate - in keeping with the moment - he repeated much more neutrally, 'What?'

'The fight, what was it about?'

Spike looked at Giles incredulously, quite unable to believe that the human wanted to talk about mundane things like this. He tried to reply, but his mind began to spin. 'She wanted something…' He wouldn't let me in when I got there. '… real nice for Christmas….' I should have taken the hint and buggered off then. 'The pillock bought 'er…' But he wanted me. In front of that bleedin' fire, he wanted me. '…a screwdriver….' And I wanted him. But so much drink: I'd have wanted anyone. Is that all it was for him as well? 'It were a nice one like, battery operated…' And then after - it was just forced really. He just wanted me to stay for the sex. '…but I think she wanted something else that works with batteries, ya know?' Maybe it's the friendship he misses: theirs, not mine; he never liked me; we were never friends. 'So, she buggered off. Stupid pillock don't even get why. We were never friends.'

'Sorry, what?'

'What?'

'You said you weren't friends with Xander?'

'No, I didn't.'

'Yes, you did. You said he didn't understand why Anya was upset, then you added that you had never been friends with him.'

'Well, there you are then. Where we going?'

Giles shook his head slightly, secretly amused by the look on Spike's face. 'Here.' He pulled in next to a small restaurant perched high on a bluff overlooking the sea. Spike looked at it.

'I'm really not into this shit, ya know. My eating out usually moves.'

'Yes, well, I'm hungry, and as I can't cook for myself, I'm reduced to this. You can wait out here for me, if you want.'

'What?' Spike was beginning to wonder if he'd better write this on a card so he could hold it up at appropriate moments throughout the rest of the night.

'If you don't want….'

'I'm not fucking waiting in the car! What the bleedin' hell do you think this is, Watcher?'

Giles climbed out and began to walk slowly toward the door, pausing to look at the menu posted outside. 'This looks rather good.' He turned at a furious rustle of leather behind him. 'Oh good, you are coming.'

Spike sat in the booth opposite Giles, slumped slightly and watching him closely. He lit up and tried watching through a thick pall of smoke. It helped slightly. He ordered two pitchers of beer and drank his down almost in one go. That helped even more.

'The first thing I shall do now I'm back is to get rid of that ghastly artificial tree Anya put up in the shop.'

Spike mentally held up his card, which saved him the effort of repeating his bemused interjection.

Giles ignored the lack of response and began to watch a couple of men at a table near the window. He chuckled and nudged Spike with his foot. 'They're breaking up tonight. I bet you.'

Spike began to lift his card but, gritting his teeth with self-loathing at being drawn into any conversation that did not involve them discussing sexual positions, he glanced over at the table Giles indicated. He hated himself even more when he felt a small smirk coming. 'Nah, they're all over each other.'

'No. Look. The older one - the better looking one - is all tense and clenching that glass, as if it was about to escape from him: he's working up to something. And the younger one - the weak looking one - knows it. Look at his body language.'

Spike watched them for a while under the pretence of smoking and watching the night sky. 'Yeah. Okay. Maybe. You win.'

Ignoring the obvious cue, Giles only chuckled and took a sip of beer. 'I'd better not have too much of this. I've never put drink-drive laws to the test over here.'

Spike was about to prompt his own cue by asking Giles what he wanted his winnings to be, when the watcher said sadly, 'You were right; Buffy is missing me.'

Again, Spike felt himself drawn into conversation he didn't want. He sighed and sat up a bit straighter. 'Yeah. She is. She really needs you.'

'I know. But she needs me gone more.'

'I think you're the only one who gets that, Mate. Rest of us are a bit mystified by that one.'

Giles pouted a little and played with the breadsticks, breaking them into crumbs and making elaborate native villages on the tundra with the remains. 'I think the best analogy I can make is to compare Buffy and me to….' He looked up, judging the moment, then finished softly, 'You and Angel.'

Spike's whole body tensed. 'You'd better be careful where you're going with this.' This comment confused even Spike who had had an odd thought about drunken blowjobs that he didn't want to examine.

'Not that, Spike!'

Spike looked up at Giles face and chuckled, and for the first time that night, he relaxed slightly. 'Pillock. What then?'

'Well, there must have been a time when you needed Angelus, looked up to him?'

'Get a life.'

'No, seriously, this is just me, Spike; you can admit it.'

'I ain't admitting any such thing. Angelus was more of a pillock than you, and he needed me, not the other way round.'

'Hmm. The first few days then? Just after he turned you. You'd have needed him then?'

'Hours. For an hour maybe, and that's all I'm saying.'

'Liar. All right. For an hour. So, taking that analogy… you thought - for that critical hour - he was all in all to you. You thought you would fail without his support. That's how Buffy feels. Did you fail?'

'What do you think? I'm sitting 'ere, one hundred and forty, 'aving dinner paid for by a watcher I've shagged.'

Giles ignored the provocation evident both in Spike's tone and language, and said with a pleased nod, 'Well, there you go. She won't fail either. She'll rise to the challenge - as she has to.'

'Maybe she'll start shagging people she shouldn't, too?' Spike's efforts to provoke were completely wasted because the waiter arrived.

Giles smiled at the boy and ordered quickly, sure of what he wanted. When it was Spike's turn, the vampire waved dismissively at the menu. 'Anything. Don't care.'

The boy looked bemused so, with a sigh, Giles picked it up once more. 'He'll have… err… seafood pizza with….'

'I don't eat anything that swims in its own piss.'

'Salami pizza with garlic bread….'

'Oh, yeah, pile on the garlic, why don't you.'

'Oh. Yes. No garlic on any of his… so, maybe ribs, not pizza. And peas…?'

'I ain't touching vegetable matter of any kind.'

'You ate a family-sized tin of mushy peas at my house!'

'Mushy don't count.'

'Right. Ribs. No garlic. Squash his peas. That's all, thank you.'

Spike began to tap his knife against his glass in an irritating manner, clearly leading up to something. 'So….'

'This is a nice place, isn't it? I came here once with Anya.'

'What?' Spike was more annoyed that he'd said this again, than that he'd been diverted.

'Just after she started working for me. It seemed the good employer thing to do.'

Spike huffed. 'Yeah, more like you wanted to get in 'er knickers.'

'Spike!'

'Oh, come on, Giles. Don't play the bloody innocent with me. Not with me. You fancy her. Shit, we all do. She's so utterly down an' dirty.'

Giles looked genuinely perplexed. 'That's how you see Anya? Good grief. I couldn't think more differently! She's completely innocent and sweet - given she's a thousand years old, of course - and a demon. Ex, anyway. That so-called sexiness is all a defensive act! She is such a sweet person.'

'Sweet! Sweet! Jesus. You'll be saying Red's sweet in a minute.'

'She is! Spike, have you actually been with the same people with these names as I have for the last six years?'

'The witch would fry you soon as look at you if you got in 'er way. Make a move on the other one, if you don't believe me.'

The food arrived, and Giles excused himself, heading for the bathroom. When he got there, he leant on the wall and closed his eyes slowly. He tried to keep at bay the huge grin that he suspected would make him look like the Cheshire cat but gradually let it spread and take over his face. He let out a long, satisfied sigh. The door opened, and the older man from the table he had watched with Spike came in. He made as if to enter a stall but kicked viciously at its door instead. Not strong, the partition split, trapping his foot, and he had to lever it out, rather ruining the effect of his outburst.

When he saw Giles, he tried to cover, realised there was not much point and said with a rueful smile, 'Scuffed my shoe now.'

Giles only raised an eyebrow and began to wash his hands.

'They make you so as you can't think straight, don't they?'

There seemed no point pretending he didn't know what the man was referring to, so Giles only said quietly, 'They can.'

'But it's no good if there's nothing else, is it? If it's just sex, what's the point. We don't get any younger, do we?'

Giles didn't turn but looked at the man in the mirror. He tried not to let his grin return. 'I think the… something else… is the most important of all, yes.'

The man nodded gloomily, ran a hand through his hair and went back out. Giles followed and returned to the table. Spike was smoking another cigarette and watching the both of them as they crossed the crowded floor.

Giles slid in and inspected the food. 'Eat up. It'll get cold.'

'Not hungry.' Spike's tone was thoughtful, and Giles watched him through a mouthful of pizza, noting with interest that since the first drink, Spike had not ordered another. He smiled again.

'What's so funny, Human?'

'Nothing. Sorry. They have broken up, by the way. He was rather upset.'

'Did you comfort 'im?'

Giles laughed. 'Well, I told him I was looking for a relationship and gave him my card, yes, but other than that, not really.'

Spike nodded with an embarrassed laugh at his jealousy and, as a concession, began to pick at the food.

Giles only smiled once more and began to really enjoy his meal. He felt positively elated when Spike said, of his own accord, 'The demon's still in Sunnydale.'

'What?' Spike looked up, and they both laughed at what seemed to be the constant repetition of that word. Spike picked up his knife and fork and began on the food in earnest. 'Yeah. She's hiding out with a friend. Asked me not to tell the fat git.'

Giles chewed thoughtfully. 'Does she know I'm here?'

'Yeah.'

'You seem to be very friendly with her.'

The pause was perfect. 'Yeah, I told her I was looking for a relationship and offered her much more than me card….'

Giles shook his head. 'Sorry. I deserved that. So, is she going to make an appearance?'

'Not 'til she's punished fatty sufficiently.'

'Why do you always call him that? You are so cruel.'

Spike choked on ribs. 'I'm a friggin' vampire! Calling 'im names is 'ardly cruel! Way't'go to make me sound like a soddin' schoolyard bully, Mate! An' 'e is fat.'

They began to share Giles' pitcher, and as he watched Spike drink, Giles said, 'So, the only person we haven't trashed yet is Buffy.'

Spike laughed out loud and had to wipe his mouth with the back of his hand. 'Too scared of 'er, ya know? Shit, tell 'er she looks good in those weird outfits. Compliment the hats. Admire the earrings.'

'She always looked good in sweats, I thought.'

Spike looked up at Giles incredulously, a mouthful of food preventing an immediate comment. He swallowed. 'Do you wanna expand on that, Mate? An' just be a little careful 'ere, maybe?'

Giles laughed. 'It was just an observation. Like I might say… oh, I don't know… that you look good in brown.'

'Uh huh. Now you're just getting weird.'

'No, I'm not. Why shouldn't I say it? It's what I think. I like you in brown - the closer the shade is to chocolate, the better - I like you in purple and black and….'

'Denim.'

Giles opened his mouth, and they both chorused, 'What?' at exactly the same time. Giles shook his head, laughing. 'Denim?'

'Yeah. If you're bein' weird, then I will, too. I like you in that old denim shirt you wear sometimes.'

'Damn, there was I wearing tweed, just for you.'

'Pillock. What's for pud then?'

'God, I'm full, aren't you?'

'Can't be, cus I'm not really ingesting, am I?'

'To be honest, it's not something well documented. I'd always thought it would make a good subject for a paper: Vampires and Their Relationship with Human Food.'

'You total goyt.' Spike picked up the menu and studied the list with interest. 'I ain't 'aving a relationship with it; I'm just gonna eat it.'

'Food is a relationship. For some people, it's a substitute for ones with humans.'

'Yeah, an' they end up like Xander Harris.'

'I rather expect he's getting through some additional doughnuts right now, yes.'

Spike said almost wistfully. 'Maybe I should tell 'im where she is.'

'Don't.'

This time, laughing before they even spoke, they both said again, 'What?'

Giles put his hand on Spike's arm and repeated softly, 'Don't. She might come back to work.'

Spike dropped his eyes to Giles' hand. It confused him once more. He suddenly remembered that he wasn't supposed to be talking to Giles and enjoying the evening. He was supposed to be sulking and annoyed: no hands had been laid on parts of his body since the human's arrival, and that was intolerable.

Giles put a finger under Spike's chin and raised his face. 'What would you say if I suggested skipping pudding?'

Inches apart, Giles actually saw Spike's eyes dilate. The vampire blinked slowly and stood as if in a daze. Giles went swiftly over to the desk to pay. The man from the bathroom was there, too. As Giles walked over, he saw that he had been watching them. He gave the man a friendly nod and began to rummage through his cards.

'How do you keep it alive? He's so much younger than you. You can have no future together.'

The man spoke so softly that Giles felt sure the comment had not actually been for his ears. He followed the man's envious gaze to Spike and replied, nonetheless, 'Today, on an aircraft somewhere over the Atlantic, I would have agreed with you.' He smiled softly, paid for the food, and followed Spike out into the cool evening.

Spike was standing by the edge of the cliff, spinning stones off into space. He heard Giles' approach, paused and then held a hand out behind him without looking. Giles finally gave Spike the response that this small, trusting gesture deserved. He came and stood behind him, slipping an arm around his waist. His other hand he placed lightly on Spike's face and turned him.

The kiss was only the more exquisite for the waiting.

The darkness cloaked them, brought them together in a private place of desire and passion. Lips opened and welcomed lips; tongues sought each other; bodies melted together: flat fitting flat, hard matching hard, and soft murmurs vibrating in tune with soft murmurs.

Giles slipped his other arm around Spike's waist and interlocked his fingers. Spike tipped his hips forward to the pressure, and they felt cock lying swollen against cock. A slight shift, and they could create delicious friction between them. Giles was leaking heavily, and he sensed that Spike was, too. His balls were so tight, his scrotum so sensitive, that it was actually hard to breathe without wincing.

Reluctantly, Giles brought a hand back up and slid it between their mouths, holding Spike off just enough to cool the intensity of the moment. They smiled and rested their foreheads together. Then Giles felt a frown crease Spike's cool brow. 'Tonight, why did you…?'

'Not now. Later, Spike. Explanations later. I am overcome now. All I want is to climax somewhere on, or in, your body.'

Spike's eyes widened, and he stabbed out his hand. 'Keys!'

Giles nodded, and they almost ran to the car. Spike drove, Giles unable to sit that upright.

They pulled in at a motel only a few minutes down the road. Walking carefully, Giles paid for the room. Spike met him at the door.

They could not get clothes off fast enough. In utter frustration, Spike bent Giles over the end of the bed, ripped the human's jeans down as far as he needed, got his own aching erection out through undone buttons and began to ease the leaking tip over Giles' hole. He milked himself for a while to provide more of the thick, oily fluid, kneading his balls, pulling his foreskin up into a tight pinch and teasing the loose skin over his sensitive slit.

Giles, watching all this over his hips, said urgently, 'I want you so much that it can't hurt. Just try,' but still Spike wasn't ready. Still working his own erection, he sank to his knees behind Giles' bent figure and flicked his tongue repeatedly over the small hole. Giles fumbled with his jeans, kicking them off one leg so he could stretch as wide as possible. Quite naturally, Spike's tongue slipped through the muscle. He breathed a soft, 'Oh, yeah' into the warm opening, and Giles lost some of the urgency to have cock inside him. This was utterly blissful. He put his forehead to the bed on folded arms and pressed back into Spike's face.

Spike smiled against his warm cheeks and pulled out to lick and nuzzle into Giles' perineum and sac. He added a finger to the hole and kept it aching with small swirling movements just around the entrance.

Eventually, Spike stood. He braced himself on wide, strong legs, tipped his hips forward and connected the tip of his cock to the soft, ready indentation. So much precum, so much need, Giles felt the strange urge to push out and this, combined with Spike's gentle inward pressure, suddenly eased the whole bulbous head in through the opening. Giles hissed, and his hand flew back to still Spike's hips. Spike took hold of his hand and gave it a small squeeze. 'When ya ready, Pet - not 'til ya ready. 'S gonna hurt me more than you, otherwise. That feel good though?'

He put both hands to Giles' waist and just moved infinitesimally in the wide opening. Giles bent even more at the waist, held onto the sheet and nodded that he was ready.

Once more, he pushed out. Expecting at least discomfort, if not actual pain, he was entranced to feel nothing but deep jolts of pleasure spreading from his rectum through his body. Spike finally stood with no gap between them at all. His dark, wiry curls brushed Giles' cheeks; his shaft, thick and pulsating at the root, stretched the anus into a tight clamping band.

Giles' insides, normally unmoving, had all compacted at the entry of this large object. Everything rubbed on everything else; everything was friction and stimulation: wave upon wave of small, orgasmic jolts.

All this, and then the vampire moved. In long, languid strokes, lubricated and made delightful by a flowing river of precum, Spike began to drag the slick walls of his shaft up and down against the tightness of the ring clamping down on him. It was the perfect shape; it was the perfect fit; it was the perfect hold for a cock, as if nature had designed male penis and male arse to fit together, each taking so much pleasure from the shape and feel of the other.

At each thrust of his hips, Spike felt his own anus throbbing. He wanted to stretch his hand around and push a finger in to play with himself and frowned at this thought. Suddenly, between clenched jaws, Giles said, 'Don't let me come; I want to be inside you when I do.' Spike murmured his surprised appreciation and, as his balls began to tighten in preparation for a shuddering release, his anus deepened its anticipatory throbbing.

With a hand clamped around Giles' penis, Spike began to lose himself to the thrusting. Every tiny bit of travel, either up or down, sent small waves of pleasure through his cock. His body crested towards explosive release that gave him such an illusion of life, and then there it was: sperm shooting out of his balls, muscles contracting and forcing it forward, tingle, rush, crescendo, ache relieved, spine-tingling wonder, and then the pumping of fluid into another man's rectum - a novelty and, therefore, for an immortal, something to be valued beyond all else.

Cum dripped out onto Spike's boots; he was only vaguely aware of it as he filled Giles with wild, uncontrolled jets of release.

He finished, and all strength drained out of him momentarily. Giles didn't waste the opportunity. He twisted around and pulled the limp vampire down onto the bed, turned him so he lay on his back, and on the cum that seemed to coat them both, he stabbed his aching erection into the cool body. It was the first time he'd done this without mind-numbing urgency, and they both stilled at the significance of the moment. Giles looked down and saw, for the first time, his cock held tight and perfectly fitting. He saw a sac and cock of another, both lying limp and glistening. Hair, skin, flush of blood, spent cum - all was sex; all was body; all was pleasure.

In, was exquisite; out, almost better. In, made the vampire moan; out, hiss… faster… a rhythm building up. Giles prayed not to come too soon. He couldn't watch Spike enough: neck stretched back, pleasure etched on every angle of his perfect face, hands unconsciously grasping the sheet and scrunching it into wrinkled heaps. Giles placed his hands to the backs of Spike's thighs and leant into him, opening him up more, giving himself better access. He began to really use his own body's strength. Like a runner who hits a wall, works through, it and begins to fly on adrenalin and endorphins, Giles began to leave his body, the waves of pleasure the only things holding him down and anchoring him to the sex.

Suddenly, his mind slammed back into focus. An orgasm hit him almost without warning. One minute he was thrusting hard and fast into the tight hole, the next, his body began to dance and quiver against the hard cheeks. He cried out and bit his tongue. Little jolts of pleasure reached his toes and his fingers, and then he climaxed, sending heaves of warm, thick sperm deep into the cool body, raising its temperature from the inside, coating cool walls, flooding cold internal hollows and giving them - for this brief moment - another illusion of life. Finally, his legs betrayed him. As the last plop of cum found its escape from his swollen slit, Giles collapsed to his knees, his heart beating so rapidly that he could hear its echo pounding in his ears.

Spike slid off the bed and fell to the floor with him. He desperately sought Giles' mouth, and Giles knew what the vampire wanted. He opened wide and let Spike explore and enjoy the wound on his tongue, let him draw the slippery sliver of flesh into his mouth to suck on. A hand slipped under him. A finger eased into his hole, and nothing could have felt more right at that moment. With a small shift of position, Spike got the tip of his finger to Giles' prostrate and began to press it gently.

Giles gasped but felt, quite disbelievingly, another small jolt of climax, and he came with a soft exclamation of wonder. The small splash of cum fell onto Spike's leg. As the vampire sucked Giles' tongue for the merest hint of blood, he also swirled his fingers in the thick mess, displacing it and making the room pungent with its strong essence.

They began to kiss again as Spike's desperation for blood gave way to desperation for another orgasm. Giles reached for him and delighted in the sensation of the hard column in his hands. He pulled away from Spike's mouth and began to lick it greedily. Spike jerked back and grabbed the bed, exclaiming with a small laugh at the sensation of the warm tongue. Giles smiled then took the round head to the side of his mouth, encasing it in the warm inner walls of his cheek.

The taste of Spike's spent cum was strong on Giles' tongue. He delved to find the source, exploring the slightly swollen, soft slit. Spike lay back against the end of the bed and ran his fingers through the sweaty human hair, entangling it, tugging slightly at each small jolt of pleasure.

Giles knew when the vampire was about to cum when the hold on his hair almost became painful. Spike legs tensed under him; the vampire sat up and occasional murmurs turned to short, urgent grunts.

Suddenly, Spike pushed Giles off and shoved him onto his back, leant over him and brought himself off onto Giles' chest, the opaque, cool release running over the flushed nipples and dripping down ribs to pool on the floor.

Spike's arms wobbled; he eased himself down onto Giles, and they lay in a tangle of flesh and clothes, separated only by the layer of cum drying between them.

Giles coughed very quietly. 'Well, that was nice.'

Spike chuckled. 'Yeah. Very.'

'How far away is the bed?'

'Need a carry?'

'I may. Shall we try?'

They peeled off the remaining clothing and tumbled into the large, soft bed. Somehow, Giles ended up with his back spooned lightly against Spike's belly, and he didn't object at all to the position. Spike put his arms around Giles' chest slightly hesitantly, until Giles enfolded them in his and squeezed with a contented sigh. Spike began to flick his nail over the nub of one nipple then said very quietly, 'I'm confused, Mate.'

'Ah.'

'Yeah, ah, you git. What's this all been 'bout then?'

Giles swivelled around and propped himself up on his elbow. 'I'm sorry.'

'Tell me?'

He looked down, abashed, but Spike put a finger under his chin and lifted it. 'Rupert, Mate, tell me.'

'It all seemed so clear when I decided to come. But on the plane, I don't know… we'd been so drunk, and then….'

'Trying to make each other stay….'

'Yes! Exactly. I know there was more: we talked; we played in the snow. But that all seemed….'

'Unreal?'

'Yes, unreal. So unreal. And all I could think was….'

'Would it work out without the alcohol…?'

Giles closed his eyes with relief. 'Yes. I thought….'

'That I wouldn't want you….'

'Yes, in a way.'

'Did you not see it when you saw me in the Bronze?'

'Yes, I did. I heard it in your silence, too. I know you wanted me… but I didn't know if that would be enough. I know it doesn't make sense. I could have taken you there and then I wanted you so much… but I had to know… I had to know if my plan would work. If there was enough of us for it to work. I wanted to see if we had more.'

Spike suddenly laughed and tipped onto his back, chuckling. You've just taken me on a bleedin' date, ain't ya?'

Giles shook his head disapprovingly. 'I tried to avoid thinking of it like that, but maybe you're right. I just wanted to see if we actually liked each other's company….'

'Without the sex?'

'Well, slightly delaying the sex, yes. Did we…?'

Spike continued to stare at the ceiling, gave a small self-deprecating smile and murmured, ''Gainst me better intentions - I meant to sulk all evening - yeah, we did. And… what plan?'

He turned to face Giles once more.

Giles pursed his lips. 'Oh, yes. The plan.'