The Guardian Chapter 6

[icemink]

Another short and not yet betaed chapter. But I wanted to get something posted for this week at tamingthemuse. So yay for them, because if there wasn't a deadline I wouldn't have this finished yet.

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?
Warning: This is a dark and angsty fic, mostly concerning Angel's past with Darla. There's mention of non-con, a lot of this story is about prostitution, and there's a flashback to Angel and Darla when they are 17 that's very sexual in nature. And then of course there is some violence. I think that about covers it, but I'll add specific warnings for various chapters.
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 6:

Spike made his way to the bar, mostly sure that he was walking in a straight line. He had learned that he didn't like beer. It was just too bitter. But of course, after having made such a big deal about it, he had to pretend that he drank it all the time. So he decided to drink it down as quickly as he could, so as to get through the bitter taste faster.

It wasn't until he was staring at the slightly foamy bottom of the glass that it occurred to him that drinking quickly got you drunk faster.

And then somehow he'd offered to go get another round.

Actually, that was probably the smartest thing he'd done so far tonight. He wasn't sure if it was the beer or if it was Angel that was making him feel lightheaded. But getting away from the big guy seemed like a smart idea. Not because Spike felt physically threatened, quite the opposite–he was beginning to feel a little too safe around Angel. And now that he had seen Angel around others, he was aware of how Angel caught everyone's attention. He filled up the space around him in a way that had nothing to do with his size. Angel was cool in a way none of the other boys at Spike's high school were, not even Gunn, the star of their basketball team.

For the last year or so, William had entertained fantasies about Gunn coming to him for help studying, and the private tutoring sessions becoming something more. Unfortunately for William, Gunn happened to not only be a good athlete, but a competent student, and most likely completely unaware of the British kid that sat three seats away in Composition Techniques.

Spike's thoughts about Angel weren't quite as well formed. To begin with, it wasn't as if Spike had to find a way to get some alone time with the other man. But more importantly, Spike was fighting all his impulses towards Angel, telling himself over and over that it was a bad idea.

And there was no reason to think Angel would even be interested in someone like Spike. Not from the way Angel stared across the room at the table where Darla seemed to have set up court. As much as Spike tried to tell himself that Angel's interest in Darla was only as a business partner, there was something about the two of them that spoke of a deeper connection.

So Spike shoved down all his conflicted feelings into the place he kept confusing sexual thoughts about men, and tried to focus on finding Cordelia and her rather nice expanse of cleavage.

"So you're with Angel, huh?" a woman asked him.

He turned to see a perky blonde who he recognized as one of the girls that had been sitting in on Darla's little conclave.

"Don't see how it's any of your business," he snapped back. He was wary of anyone associated with Darla.

"Whatever. If you want to hang out with that psycho, that's your business."

"Harmony," Cordelia interrupted as she approached them from the other side of the bar. "Don't you have anything better to do than gossip?"

"We need another round," Spike spoke up. He actually now wanted to hear what Harmony had to say. It occurred to him that before he made any life altering decisions, he should find out as much about Angel as he could.

Cordelia glared at Harmony for a moment before moving to get the drinks.

"So uh, how long have you known Angel?" Spike asked once Cordelia was out of earshot.

Harmony shrugged. "About a year and a half now. Not that I really know him. He doesn't actually talk to people, just sort of broods and watches Darla."

"So how do you-" Spike stopped as Cordelia returned with the drinks for him and Angel. "Thanks, it's um, on Angel's tab."

But Cordelia's focus wasn't on him. Even as she spoke to Spike, her gaze remained on Harmony. "You shouldn't listen to her. Angel's a good guy."

"Sure," he said noncommittally, as he picked up the two pints of beer. Then he nodded to Harmony and they moved away from the bar to a corner where they could talk. Nervously he took a sip of beer and asked, "So, why do you think he's a psycho? Maybe he's just shy."

"No, he killed like, ten guys." Harmony's face lit up as she began to share her favorite gossip. "With his bare hands. And a coat hanger."

"How do you-" Spike started to ask about the coat hanger, but now that Harmony had built up some steam there was no stopping her. He took another big gulp of beer while she continued her story.

"And they shot him, like over and over, but it didn't stop him. He's got something stuck in his brain, and he doesn't feel pain so he didn't even notice."

Spike was pretty sure that couldn't be true. In fact if he wasn't mistaken, that was a James Bond villain. But Harmony hadn't finished.

"So afterwards, they sent him to jail, but he got out, because the jury was way too scared of him too convict him."

"If they were scared of him, wouldn't they have wanted to put him in prison, you know where he couldn't hurt them?" Spike finally managed to ask.

"Well, obviously not, because he's here and not in jail right?" Harmony pointed out.

There was a flaw with her logic, but Spike couldn't seem to track what it was at the moment. He looked down and realized that he'd drunk half of one of the pints he was holding.

Crap, now he was drunk and at the mercy of a psycho killer. Except of course that Harmony was clearly not the brightest bulb in the room, and obviously a busybody.

"Right well, thanks for the warning," he said, moving away from her.

She had to be wrong about Angel, he told himself. But then he remembered the night before, watching Angel beat another man and take his money. It was all too confusing for Spike to deal with. Common sense told him to run away even as it reminded him that he had nowhere to go.

But as Spike looked across the room at Angel, he couldn't quite believe that Angel was as bad as that. Spike's gut told him that Harmony had to be wrong.

He carefully made his way back to Angel's table, trying not to spill any of the untouched pint. There was only one thing he was really sure of, and that was that this would all make a lot more sense if he hadn't gotten himself drunk.

Comments

[brunettepet.livejournal.com]

I loved Harmony's wildly over the top history of Angel. There may be a grain of truth there, but right now I'd believe Cordy. Spike believing he's drunk opens up all sorts of amusing possibilities!

[icemink.livejournal.com]

Thanks, glad you liked it. I will say there is a little truth there, but yeah, mostly not. And yes, Spike's fake inebriation will have some interesting consequences.