icemink: (Spangel by selene2)
icemink ([personal profile] icemink) wrote2009-03-02 07:39 am
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The Guardian Chapter 19 (Spike/Angel AU NC-17)

This is currently very unbetad. You have been warned.

Title: The Guardian
Pairing: Spike/Angel and flashbacks to Angel/Darla
Rating: NC-17 (please read the warnings)
Summary: All human AU. It was eight years ago that Liam promised to protect Darla and be her angel. It's a promise he's done his best to keep, even if these days she can barely stand to be around him. Then one night he finds a young prostitute, William, getting beat up in an alley. But will helping William destroy the delicate balance of Angel's life, or will it be William who saves Angel from his own dark past?
Disclaimer: The characters belong to all sorts of other people like Joss, ME, and Fox. I just do strange things to them for free.

Previous chapters are here.

Chapter 19:

“What the fuck was that about?” Spike asked a few minutes after they had pulled away from the club.

Angel stared intently ahead pretending to concentrate intently on the traffic. Spike waited, hoping for an answer, but the silence only continued. It was just when Spike couldn't take it anymore that Angel finally spoke.

“I don’t like to share.”

“Huh?” Spike asked, trying to put the context together after the long pause.

“I don’t like to share,” he repeated solidly. “It used to be I had to, but I don’t now so. . .”

“So what? That doesn’t help me much does it?”

“What are you talking about?” Angel asked.

“All that kit you had Darla pick out for me,” Spike explained. “Plus whatever else you wankers have decided I owe you.”

“You don’t have to worry about the money,” Angel told him gruffly.

“Yeah that’s easy for you to say,” Spike snorted. “But what happens when you suddenly decide I have to pay up all at once? I’ve got plans you know, this is just, it’s just temporary.”

“I’m not going to. . . what sort of plans?”

“None of your business,” the blonde said stubbornly.

“Yes it is, I just told you I was going to forgive your debt as long as you-“

While Angel struggled to find a word that wasn’t too crass Spike broke in, “As long as I what?”

“I just. . . look, you’re just going to work for just me, understand?”

Spike did. Or at least he thought he did. What he didn’t understand was how he felt about it. On the one hand, if Angel was offering what Spike thought he was then it meant Spike wouldn’t have to sell himself. Or at least not to strangers. It was hard to think of what he and Angel had done as prostitution. Maybe it was because no money had been directly exchanged, or maybe it was because he enjoyed it.

But that was the danger. If he was Angel’s kept boy, or whatever the other man had in mind it would be easy to begin to think that it meant something. And that was risky, because Spike doubted this meant anything to Angel. Spike could think of lots of reasons Angel might not want to share Spike, from sensible health reasons, to simple male possessiveness. But that didn’t mean things ran any deeper. And although Spike’s head was aware of the difference, that didn’t mean that the rest of him could keep it straight.

“No,” was all Spike could manage to say, and even in that one short syllable his voice shook.

“What?” Angel asked. “You realize what I’m offering you here?”

“It’s what you’re not offering,” Spike said, measuring his words; wondering how much to say. “This isn’t me, this isn’t who I’m going to be. I’ve got plans.”

“Yeah, what sort of plans are those?” Angels asked. It was clear from his tone that he didn’t think Spike had much of anything going for him.

Spike hesitated for a moment, unsure if he really wanted to give this small part of himself away. He had so little that was his, that this one small secret was precious. Angel snorted, taking Spike’s moments of silence as an indication that there were no plans. That was all it took to decide Spike. He couldn’t stand for Angel to think him a liar and a fool.

“I’ve got a scholarship, okay. UCLA. Full ride, just need to finish out this last bit of high school and make it to the fall okay?” he ended uncertainly.

“College?” Angel asked, clearly surprised.

“Yeah, you got a problem with that?” Spike said defensively. He was already regretting saying anything.

“No, not a problem,” was all Angel said.

They didn't speak again until they got back to Angel's condo. Predictably it was Spike who broke the silence. "So . . . " he started, not sure what to say or do.

It was Angel that decided they had done enough talking for the evening. He moved decisively across the room and grabbed the back of Spike's head, pulling him into a rough kiss.

Grateful for something easy to understand, Spike leaned into the kiss, pressing his body flat against the bigger man's. It was dangerous giving himself up to the kiss, but he didn't care. It stopped him from thinking, and silenced all the worries the night had filled him with. Before he knew it his greedy fingers were working open the buttons of Angel's shirt. Spike’s fingers were ripped away from their exploration of Angel's chest when his own shirt was pulled up over his head. Greedy fingers returned to exploring the body that was quickly becoming familiar to Spike.

Somehow Spike found himself with his back against the wall. He felt Angel’s hands moving down to cup his ass and lift him. Just as Spike was lifting his feet to wrap his legs around Angel’s waist, there was a tremendous pounding sound from the front door.

“Police! Open up!” came a man’s authoritative both.

Angel and Spike both pulled away from the kiss and whispered almost at the same time, “Fuck.”

Angel let go of Spike and began quickly buttoning up his shirt, while Spike scrambled across the room to find his own. Panic filled Spike. He wasn’t worried about the police personally, his own criminal past was minor, and he didn’t see how any of the couple of johns he had serviced before meeting Angel could have traced him back to here.

But Angel was another matter. Even if it was Darla who negotiated most of the deals, Angel was a pimp. Spike was also reminded that the first time he’d ever seen Angel, he was beating the crap out of another whore. A whore who had been about to disfigure Spike sure, but still, he didn’t think the cops were going to care about that.

He couldn’t bear the thought of the police taking Angel away. And it wasn’t just because Spike would lose the roof over his head. He didn’t want Angel to go. He didn’t want to be alone and on his own again.

Angel glanced over at him, evaluating if they were both decent enough, and then he opened the door. If he was as worried as Spike he didn’t show it.

“Can I help you officer?” Angel asked politely as he opened the door.

Two grim looking police men looked inside the apartment. “This is your place?” One of them asked. Both he and his partner let their eyes scan the room, as if they could see everything and anything illegal that had ever happened here.

“Yes,” Angel said, “Something happen officer?”

The cop’s attention shifted to Spike. “We had a report that you had an underage boy living here.”

“Well, uh-” Angel started, his sure demeanor beginning to crack.

Spike’s mind which had slowed to a crawl suddenly jumped into high gear. Maybe things weren’t going to be so bad after all. He interrupted Angel, “It’s okay, you’re wrong,” he said, before wondering if contradicting a cop was a good thing. He reached into his back pocket for his wallet about pulled out his ID. “See no problem officer,” he said as he handed over his driver’s license.

The cop took it and looked it over, the perpetual look of disapproval never leaving his face. “Looks like he’s legal. Barely” he added.

For the first time Spike was grateful for the arbitrary law that had said he had become an adult a few weeks ago.

The cop handed him back his ID, and his eyes scanned the room one more time. “Sorry to disturb you,” he said, insincerely. “But we’ll be keeping an eye on you.”

With that the two officers departed as abruptly as they had arrived.

Angel closed the door, putting his back against it, sinking to the floor, and showing for the first time that he had been worried.

“Fuck,” he muttered running one hand through his hair.

Spike leaned back against the arm of the couch. “Yeah,” he replied.

“So, are you really legal, or is that just a good ID?” Angel asked.

“No. It’s real.” Spike told him.

Angel suddenly chuckled. “Well, we best not let that out. Wouldn’t want to spoil my reputation as an all around bad guy.”

Spike chuckled too. Then their chuckling became laughter. But even as they both laughed at their escape, Spike couldn’t help but wonder if the joke was on him. Because the relief he felt when he realized that Angel wasn’t going to be arrested, only underscored how dependent he’d become on someone who was very much not one of the good guys.

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