FIC: Becoming Known (34/?)-- S/X-- overall NC-17, but not this part

Title: Becoming Known (34/?)
Authored by: tistoo, aka Tisienne
Pairing: S/X
Rating: Overall, it's porny. This part is more plot than anything else.
Disclaimer: Joss & Co. own everyone you recognize from TV. I make no money.

Notes: It's been ages since I've posted this, but here's part 34. Finally. Apologies for the time between updates and I can't make any promises regarding the next one, but I'm not abandoning this story by any means. Thanks for bearing with me.

More notes: The beginning of Becoming Known takes place during season 7, so everything up to then happened just as it did on the show. Things changed when Spike left Sunnydale rather than endanger the gang. Then Buffy asked Xander to take Dawn away, and he succeeded. He never lost his eye, btw... that was Andrew.

Previous parts can be found HERE

OH! And many MANY thanks to whoever nominated this story at Fang Fetish Awards! It won for two different categories, which is just shocking to me since it's still a WIP... so, thank you, mystery nommer! *mwahs*

And now, on with it.



* * * * * * * * *

Part 34

* * * * *

Spike managed to keep himself from wiping his hand on his jeans as he strolled nonchalantly away from the small table and his meeting with the redheaded female. Besides, he reminded himself, he’d had worse things than Sucaba-halfling ooze on his skin before… many a time.

The important thing was that he and the female had a deal, assuming he was able to come through on his part of it.

Fortunately, he’d spelled that out while they’d been negotiating terms because the last thing he wanted or needed was to be oath-bound to fulfill his promises in some way other than what he and the female had agreed on.

“With me, git,” he ordered, not even looking to see whether Rocko followed him. The human would, and Spike was sure of it. Oddly enough, the man seemed to have a sense of honor, his obvious death-wish aside.

Rocko wasn’t entirely sure of what had happened in the thirty-seven minutes his new ‘boss’ had spent with the redhead in the back of the bar, but the vampire had come out of it in a remarkably improved mood, judging by the small bit of satisfaction he could hear under the growling tone of voice.

“So what’s the plan?” he asked carefully, not sure of whether the bond would welcome questions from him or not.

Spike smirked as the door shut behind them and finally let himself wipe his hand. “Plan is,” he said smugly, “so much better than just killin’ th’ prat now. Goin’ ta be a right good time. You know… not for him, but I’m likely ta have me a good laugh every time I even think about it.” He let out one dark chuckle before becoming suddenly serious again. “Question is, can you get th’ fucktard ta meet with us tomorrow night?”

The easy answer would have been ‘yes’, and Rocko almost gave it, but then he heard the vampire’s words more clearly.

“Oh, no. Hell no! Look, I don’t know what you’re up to, okay, but he knows what you look like, got it? He described you, described the girl and the kid. Wanted us to know who we were looking for.” Rocko shook his head. “You want to do a simple termination, then yeah, I can get him there. He’ll be dead before he even realizes you’re anywhere around. But you’re up to something deeper and I doubt even this guy’s ever been drunk enough that he wouldn’t notice you during that.”

A snort. “Understand this, mate. Met th’ bloke once, at my boy’s wedding. Doubt he got a good enough look—at all three of me he was seein’—ta know me on sight. He for bloody damn sure doesn’t have a picture because with as cheap as his whole bloody clan was—aside from my Xan, o’ course—there’s no chance he dropped the dosh on a digi-cam, yah?” Spike’s eyes narrowed. “Or are you tryin’ ta weasel outta our deal, mate? Thinkin’ twice about what you agreed ta?”

And even without the other face he knew the blond could wear, Rocko suddenly felt little claws of fear pricking up and down his spine. “No. N-no, boss. This guy… he needs to be gone. Whatever it is you’re up to, I’m on board, okay? All I’m saying is… if he sees you and realizes who you are, he’s gonna spook. He’ll disappear so deep that even I might have trouble finding him.” He frowned slightly. “Problem is, cowards like him…? They always talk themselves back up; especially when they think there’s something in it for them. So however deep he disappeared, he’d be back one day, and the next time… he might get lucky.”

By which Spike was sure the human meant ‘might find another crew, only this one probably won’t have even one person on it who sees something wrong with killing an innocent bloke an’ raping a little girl’, and unfortunately… the soul agreed. Still…

“Made a deal with that Sucaba-bitch back there. Can’t not be there for th’ end.” Spike stared hard into the human’s eyes. “An’ that means… you need ta find a way ta make it happen, pillock. Now, come on.”

And while Rocko kind of wondered where exactly they were going at four in the morning, he also figured it was safer not to ask. Besides… the vampire wouldn’t kill him yet. Spike had given his word, and for whatever crazy reason… Rocko trusted him to keep it.

* * * * *

“No… no, DeeDee,” Xander was saying yet again when Spike finally strolled into their apartment like nothing had happened at all, “I honestly don’t know how the girls knew there was something wrong when Dawn couldn’t reach us…” his eyes rolled as he paused, listening to the woman and mouthing ‘you are so in trouble’ at his lover.

“Really. I promise. I mean, we usually don’t answer the phone when we’re, um… but Will was out on assignment and I guess the carbon monoxide built up while I was sleeping, and… no, I swear. I’m fine. I’m just really glad they did somehow know.”

He barely held in one long-suffering sigh. “Well, if she used the signal, then I guess that explains it. Yeah… yeah, I’m glad they saved my life, too.”

Spike couldn’t help chuckling at the lie the girls—or more likely, Dawn—had chosen for Bailey’s mother. Then again, they were in enough trouble with him; he figured they were playing at damage control. ‘Sorry,” he mouthed back at his beloved, grin fading when the bloke frowned.

“I’m guessing they thought it’d take too long to wake you up or try to get Darian to drive them… yeah, it was really great that there was a taxi going by right when they needed one. Uh-huh. Yeah. Oh, definitely.” Another eye-roll. “Anyway, DeeDee, Will just walked in so I think I’d better… no, don’t worry, I already turned it off. Yeah. Uh, Kent loaned us his electric one until we can get this all taken care of, so… yeah. Yeah, first thing tomorrow. Unless… don’t you usually have an appointment at…” He laughed. “Too true. Roots wait for no woman. Or man, as Will’s told me at least a million times now. Okay. Yeah, we’ll bring her home tomorrow afternoon. And thanks, DeeDee… uh-huh, you sleep well too.”

He was nearly ready to kill something when he finally hung up the phone. In the figurative sense, of course, because there was no way he was going out to find something slay-able after the night he’d had.

Bad enough that he’d broken down after cross-claiming Spike, but then to be subjected to teenage girls ranting uncontrollably and having to back up their ridiculous story to DeeDee Scanlon… and then have Spike walk in like innocence personified when Xander knew nothing could be farther from the truth?

Well, that irked him.

And then he saw the entirely smug expression on his blond’s face and irked was an understatement.

“Well?” Xander demanded, “Care to tell me what the fuck has been going on while I’ve been not out ‘endangering’ myself with you?”

Spike felt one brow arching as he watched his love’s body language change completely from defensive to something he rather liked.

Long, tanned arms pulled closer to Xander’s torso and the blond couldn’t help the small purr at the back of his throat as those narrowed eyes speared his own. His bloke was bloody well stunning when he had his mad on, even when it was at him.

A cool tongue slipped out to wet dry lips, and the vampire couldn’t keep himself from enjoying the way those hungry, angry eyes dropped to watch the motion.

“Long story short, pet?” he answered, swallowing hard and licking his lips again, “Caught th’ chits out huntin’. Sent them here. Said we’d back them with whatever they said to Bailey’s Mum. Bit’s not ready ta be a Watcher in full. Not yet. Couldn’t let them go on like that, yah?”

Xander nearly growled. “Yeah, I get that part, Spike! What I want to know is who’s the ‘big, scary guy with all the muscles’ you were running around with! You sent the girls back here hours ago! I…” He glared harder, fingers clenching into fists at his sides. “So who the fuck is the guy!”

To Spike’s favor, it took him a good few moments to realize who Xander meant, but when he did, he… laughed. “Bloody hell! You’re jealous! Over some random dead man!”

Xander glared, his eyes sparking orange beneath lowered brows. “Of course I’m jealous, Spike! What are you, stupid? We… I did that to you earlier and then you ran out to do some so-called business, and next thing I know, Dawn and Bailey are here saying they ran into you and you caught them and oh, by the way, you were with some big, dark guy who’s built like Vin Diesel on a good day and then you don’t come home for hours after! And he’s dead? Another fucking vampire, and he can probably be all… blood-let-y with you without crying, and… why wouldn’t I be jealous!”

And when it was put like that, Spike figured his beloved had a point. It might—possibly—seem a little odd to a human, at that. Of course, that didn’t change the fact that he was… “So fuckin’ excited, luv… that you’re jealous.” He smirked and sauntered closer, his own fingers finally covering the clenched fists at Xander’s sides and squeezing as he leaned in just a little, letting his mouth find the side of his bloke’s neck and then the small scar from their first Claiming Night… the night his love had almost died.

Xander found himself frowning, his anger and jealousy not forgotten but pushed back for the moment because Spike—the same Spike who’d been more or less nuzzling him a moment earlier—was suddenly growling. Just like that, his hands opened, grasping tightly at long, slender fingers, and he pulled the slightly smaller male against him, breathing slow and steady, which always seemed to calm his vamp.

“What, Spike,” he whispered, “what’s wrong?”

He didn’t want to tell the truth. The demon didn’t want to tell the truth. But the bloody-be-blessed soul insisted upon it, which riled him no end.

“One of them,” Spike finally muttered, against most of his will. “One of them, Xander! One of th’ fuckwads what did for you on th’ street, even if he didn’t have a hand in it, an’… an’ you think I could ever bloody well want someone else? Claimed me, you did! Just like I did ta you, an’… this bloke, he’s goin’ ta help me. An’ he’s not a vamp, a’right? Called him dead because he’s goin’ ta be once this is finished, yah?”

Spike was suddenly glaring again, though this time at his lover.

“Put th’ prat up with Kent. Told him ta behave an’ such. An’ he will. Should have told you but I didn’t want you ta ask me not ta take care of it all because I can’t do it, Xan! Can’t leave that soddin’ prat alive an’ well when I know he’ll end up comin’ for you again!”

And that was a conversational quagmire that was likely to take ages to work through, Xander realized. Ages he didn’t have, so he’d focus on the important parts.

“So you’re not seeing some vampire behind my back. And whoever this guy is, he’s staying with Kent… and he’s the only one who didn’t try to kill me?” Somehow, he just wasn’t getting why Spike was so upset over any or all of those facts.

The vampire blinked. “Well… yah.”

A smile quirked the edges of Xander’s lips and he shook his head in amusement as the anger and most of the jealousy dissolved. “So come to bed, Spike… and show me how jealous I shouldn’t be, okay?” His eyes darted to the door of Dawn’s room and he blushed a little. “Um… quietly.”

For his part, Spike was glad for his bloke’s ability to cut through the bullshit. And Xander was right. Rocko hadn’t actually hurt his boy. Had made a conscious choice not to, in point of fact, which only made the blond more determined to live up to his end of the deal with the man.

They’d figure out how to make it all work, he swore… but that was for the next day.

For right then, he had something to prove to his Claimed, and prove it he would… until his poor human bloke couldn’t move without whimpering in the best possible way.

* * * * *

Darian Scanlon was a lot of things, but stupid wasn’t one of them.

Self-absorbed, sure, because he was a guy and twenty-one and finally had a girlfriend who liked him the way he was and didn’t want to change him, but stupid?

No.

He’d known there was something weird going on with his sister for the last… well, he wasn’t sure of how long it had been going on, but he’d definitely noticed when she’d gone from being all… quiet and borderline depressed with her face stuck in a book or earphones in while she listened to that quasi-goth suicide trash, to smiling and actually having more than one word to say at dinner.

He’d figured it was because she’d finally made a friend, and he couldn’t really be anything but happy for her over that. Hell, Dawn seemed like an okay kid, even if she did look older than sixteen.

It had only taken two nights of listening to the girls chatter away about whatever crap little girls squealed over to convince him that regardless of what Dawn looked like, she really was still a child, and when he was being honest with himself, he admitted that was a good thing.

Still, he wasn’t stupid.

He’d noticed the secretive, knowing glances the two girls kept exchanging when they thought nobody was watching… on the at-first rare occasion when he was home.

Originally, he’d thought that maybe the girls were gay, and that would actually explain why Bailey had seemed so different after she’d connected with Dawn, but… he was pretty sure that wasn’t it, now.

Hell, he was entirely sure that whatever the girls were into, it was nothing as innocent as a first love, be it same-sex or otherwise.

If Bailey and Dawn were sleeping together—and not in the sense of actually sleeping—he figured they wouldn’t have been sneaking out after Mom went to sleep and not coming back for hours. But that’s what they’d been doing, and much to Darian’s disgust, they always managed to lose him within five blocks, and without even trying, because he was absolutely certain that they had no idea he was even following them.

It was almost like they somehow sensed him subconsciously and just… avoided being watched.

So basically, he admitted to himself, and to his journal, he was worried and curious and kind of pissed off.

Even more so now, what with Bailey and Dawn calling so late and telling Mom some bullshit story about a gas heater and Dawn’s Uncle, and Darian knew it was a load of crap. One of his college friends lived in that building and he’d been really loud and annoying, what with bitching almost endlessly about how cold it had been the previous winter because the upgrading to central air and heat had taken longer than expected.

Justin had said it had been almost New Year’s before the new central system was up and running.

So Darian had his sister acting all… normal, all of a sudden, with a friend and everything. He had the bullshit story about the heater. He had the girls sneaking out late at night for hours on end. And he had the strange sensation that Bailey and Dawn somehow knew more than he did, which was obviously ridiculous.

No, Darian Scanlon wasn’t stupid… but he for damned sure felt like he was in the dark, and that… “Sucks,” he grumbled as he closed his journal and turned off the light.

He doubted he’d be getting any sleep, but he felt like he should try. And maybe when he woke up, he’d pay a little visit to Dawn’s Uncles and see whether they knew what was going on, because… he hated not knowing things but he was running into dead ends, no matter which way he looked.

* * * * *
tbc...