Parchment #10
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Jan. 12th, 2013 | 08:28 am
Title: Parchment
Author: rngrdead
Pairing: Xander/Spike (don’t be fooled by the Willow beginning)
Rating: Mature Audiences – for content and themes
Summary: There was a spell and a book and then... it all pear shaped and he ended up on paper!
Spoilers: Canon is Post S7 BtVS and S5 AtS.
Warnings: M/M – if you don't like boys together, don't play here!
Harsh circumstances and difficult start as always with Daisy the muse....
PAST BITS
His head was still not quite right, but as the drugs wore off and he recalled the conversation amongst the study group he recoiled. Who goes trapping bats on the solstice… a bunch of wannabe zoologists from Reading University apparently. He flew straight into the net, panicked and was promptly tossed into a hessian bag, ready for tagging.
They had stretched his wings to measure the span, clipped a tag around his tiny ankle and placed a radio emitter around his neck, and there was nothing he could do bar getting in a good nip to one of the assistants as she held him tight ready for tagging. It was worse than the Initiative! Well meaning bloody humans! He faught for a few moments then simply went limp while they did their ‘non invasive’ measurements, weighed him and marked him, and their was distress radiating in the direction of Xander, but he tried to shut it down. There was no way he would be responsible for revealing the faerie colony. But Xander felt it upon sunrise.
Released he had immediately returned to his larger form and was heading back toward the covern when the tiny bat fell at his feet he picked it up and carried it, hopeful that the little creature would survive and also aware that the sun was on its way. At least in his bat form Spike was ‘sunproof’, though not in his vampire state. The tagging and markings were all new, and made for his smaller form. They bit into his ankle, and had he needed to breathe would have choked him, but he had a friend/relative to help and needed to do it promptly.
A full sized Xaander met the tear streaked Spike at the copse and took over the tiny figure up, both racing against the sun toward the main building.
Meredith, a lovely young wiccan and protégé of Willow’s, met the distressed faerie at the door, ushered him in immediately and called for help.
They cut off the band from Spike’s leg and removed the collar. The microchip would have to come out later, for now it was enough, and the change was immediate.
To Xander’s relief the first words from his dear mate were, “Taa love, thought I was stuck there for a bit. What about the youngster?”
It was a close call, and the tracer was still in place under his right shoulder blade. The common pipistrelle were reasonably abundant in England, but apparently the Northern not so. Pipisrelles often holed up in barns and the rooves of houses so the coven was a logical place for his daily rest, but his worry was the tracer. Just so long as the university team did not come too close to the faerie abode they were safe for now.
He took his worry to Mistress Brianna after the sun condemned him to the shadows late afternoon, Xander still sleeping in their shared apartment, he quietly sneaked away and knocked on her office door politely.
“Enter”
“Mistress, I wonder if I may have a word.”
“William, of course.” She bunched up her hair and flung it into a tight bun, fastened with a chopstick. “Is there a problem?”
Spike went through the troubles of the previous night, his capture, and included his concerns for the fae folk, given his now ‘tagged’ status.
What ensued was a minimum of discussion before he found himself face down in the infirmary and the tracer removed, tossed into a recycle bin and promptly left for a pickup the following day.
All he could say at the end of the procedure was “Thank you”, before lifting himself from the gurney and replacing his clothes.
“Should have me you ladies years ago. Bloody Initiative blokes.”
“Ahh but then you would not have wanted our help. William, if the copse is in danger we can do much, but only you can help. Your black magicks afford a different kind of protection to what we can afford. Offer it willingly and all the fae folk will be safe. You are already mated to Xander, now is the time to act.”
“Never was one good at magic, Mistress, so might need some guidance here…”
“I will assign someone, one you know and trust, Willow is coming home for a time..”
“Bloody hell, ‘scuse me, but she is…”
“The most powerful witch on the planet, is due back here this month and will make you both safe. I know of her affection for Xander, and you for that matter, but in the mean time you must talk to Xander and to the head of the faerie clan. They must take precautions.”
Willow made contact with the coven three days later, she was due to arrive Thursday. And Spike was nervous. He took his small form as Xander did nightly, but chose to fly very close to the coven only, hanging fron various lower limbs of trees and watching as his dear Xander learned and practiced his true form.
He wondered at the Red witch’s reaction when she saw him as such.