3 Inches 10

[druffine]

Hey there, lovely people who read this fic!
Here is the last update for this week. I'll post a new part on Monday. Sorry to leave you waiting. Otherwise I will try to use the weekend to write some more 3Inches, have to hurry if I want to keep up my schedule. *grins*


button by vampirellabites *hugs and cuddles you*
beta'ed by joolzmp7 and mygothangel thanks to both of you, hugs!

previous parts




Part 10


“Oh really, Willow, Spike just left?” Xander asks her again, watching her with angry, slitted eyes. She fumbles but nods. “Yes, that’s what he told me, didn’t you listen?” She rolls her eyes, looks at Xander as if he’s too slow to catch on and confirm her lie.

Xander holds his breath. He’s so angry and disappointed. Mentally, he counts to ten before he smiles, then gets out the pack of cigarettes.
“I can’t believe you started smoking! That kills people!” Dawn shouts, hands on her hips, a familiar gesture from Buffy.
“I didn’t start smoking, Dawn. Actually, I’ve got a surprise for you, especially for you, Wills.” With a malicious grin he opens the pack and helps Spike to climb out onto the big, round table.
“See, I found Spike that night in this state. Some spell gone wrong from a really ugly, middle-class witch, he told me.”
“Oh my god, look at him! He is sooo small!” Dawn cries out.

Everybody gathers around the table and looks at the 3-Inches-tall vampire.
“How’s tricks, folks?” Spike greets, cockily.
“Guess we have to fix this, don’t we?” Xander asks no-one in particular and looks at the Scoobies’ faces one after another. Buffy is laughing, gloating over her former enemy. Giles polishes his glasses furiously. Tara smiles with empathy and Dawn asks Spike all kinds of weird questions like if he lives in a kitchen cupboard. Only Willow stands at the table, trembling, guilt and panic taking turns on her expression.

“How did this happen, Xander?” Giles asks, retreating from the table.
Xander glances at Willow, unsure what to tell the watcher. Should he tell the truth? Should he tell Giles that Willow has yet again mucked up a spell? Well, she saved them, even saved Spike somehow from those vampires that night. Willow’s eyes are begging him not to betray her.
“I only found him like this. He said it was a spell by some witch he didn’t know.”
“Quite interesting.”
Willow seems to have found her voice again. “I could, I mean, Giles, if we research this maybe we can break this spell?”
Giles ignores her and addresses Xander again. “Is there any further danger from this witch? Did Spike mention her reason for her stay in Sunnydale?”
“I am right here, watcher.” Spike throws in, annoyed to be left out of the conversation concerning him. Otherwise he’s busy fighting off Dawn’s curious fingers and ignoring Buffy’s nasty comments.
With a short look at Spike, Xander answers Giles’ question: “No, I mean, there is no danger from her anymore.” Xander gives Willow a meaningful look. “She was just.. passing through or something. Wrong time and place to be for Spike, I guess.”

“Ah, bloody slayer bitch, take your hands off of me!” Spike yells and Xander barely stops himself from running over to the table, but he walks very fast. He holds out his hand to Spike who climbs eagerly on it, away from the poking fingers of the Summers’ women.

Willow in the meantime has found a big book and carries it over to Giles, opens it and tries to start a conversation about undoing Spike’s shrinkage.
“Maybe, we can start here: ‘Lessening the impact of spells’?”
Calmly, Giles takes the book from her and without looking at the page, closes it.
“I don’t think we need this.” He says and, equally taken aback, the whole Scoobie Gang looks at Giles. Does he want to undo it by himself? Does he know how to without even consulting his precious books? Wow.

“Erm, Giles, I …” Xander starts but Giles stops him with a small hand gesture.
“Spike is quite lucky. This state allows him to stay undead but he is not a threat to us or any other person anymore.”

For a couple of seconds, there is no sound at all in the entire Magic Box. The room temperature seems to have dropped several degrees from Giles icy voice and calmness. Giles does not want to have the spell undone at all.

“Rupert, you bloody bastard!” Spike cusses, teeth gritted, voice thick with emotion.
“You can’t be serious, Giles.” Xander adds.
“I am quite serious, Xander. Did you think this situation could go on forever?”
“What situation?” Anya asks, aghast. “He has that chip!”
Giles gives her a long look but continues nevertheless.
“A demon fighting with us is just unnatural and…”
“And what? Do you realize what you are actually saying there, Rupert Giles?” Anya utters, with a voice full of threats.
“Anya, I am in full knowledge of – “
“No, you’re not! You can’t be! I’ve been a demon for a thousand years and a few days in a human body do not at all make me an actual human! Nevertheless, I do all the work here, answer every boring question you have about demons I might know, earn money for you and give you and your slayer a place to research and prepare for battle. I tend to your every whim and need when Buffy has beaten you just a little bit too hard in training and I abstain from sex when your body doesn’t ‘feel’ like it – and still you didn’t understand … WHAT?”

This time, Spike is the one laughing while the others are equally embarassed and shocked by Anya’s admission.
“Anya and Giles?” Xander squeaks.
“I am a woman, he is a man. So what? Physically that fits pretty fine.” Anya says incomprehendingly.
“I have to sit down.” Buffy says and sinks down on a chair.
Giles calmly retreats to the backroom.

“So can I keep Spike?” Dawn asks, unphased by the Giles/Anya comment.
“No, you can’t ‘keep him’. He is not some pet. He is still a vampire.” Buffy says. “Even if a teenie weenie one.” She starts laughing again.
“Shut your gob, slayer, or…”
“Or what, itsy bitsy vampy? I could kill you by unwittingly stepping on you.”
“Ah, see, slayer is fully in her element again, threatening the disadvantaged ones.” Spike mutters. Unnoticed by the others, Xander curls his fingers around Spike, sending comfort.
“This isn’t getting us anywhere, mate.” Spike whispers, so only Xander can hear him. “Can’t say I didn’t know this was going to happen.”
Xander shrugs sadly. “Guess it’s our cue to leave then. Not gonna waste my time here.” The boy whispers back. Louder he says: “Well then, nice to see you all again. I’ll be around.” With that, Xander starts leaving, holding Spike safely in his hand. He even pauses briefly at the door, but nobody tries to stop him and Spike.

Outside the Magic Box, Xander kicks a stone angrily so it flies across the street. He takes a few calming breaths. They don’t help to pacify him. “I can’t believe that just happened!” He says a little too loudly.
“Again: Did know that was coming.” Spike sneers.
“Willow lies like a, like a … I can’t even find the right words! And Giles is, is such a righteous ….!” Xander feels as if he can’t get enough air. The conversation about demons with Garld and Broum re-emerges in his head and he feels angry and like crying at the same time. He feels betrayed and like a betrayer, too.
“Hey, whelp, we’ll sort this out somehow even without that bunch of losers.” Spike offers strength and willingly Xander takes it and runs with it.
“You and me, we two against the world?” Xander croaks. The air smells of uncried tears.
“Well, wouldn’t be the first time, would it?” Spike asks and looks at the boy’s shiny eyes. There is this feeling somehow, the knowing look Spike gives Xander and the so-damn-cool cocked eyebrow, remind the boy of a night without fear, that night where he was pure steel.

In the basement of the high school:
XANDER: Hello, nasty. Less than two minutes. Dumb guy. Little bomb. How hard can it be?
Jack: And it just got harder.
XANDER: I'm not leaving till that thing's disarmed.
Jack: Then I guess you're not leaving. I'm gonna carve you up and serve you with gravy. You piss me off, boy. Now you pay the price. First the eyes, then the tongue. I'm gonna break every one of your fingers.
XANDER: You gonna do all that in forty-nine seconds? I know what you're thinkin'. Can I get by him? Get up the stairs, out of the building, seconds ticking away... I don't love your chances.
Jack: Then you'll die, too.
XANDER: Yeah, looks like. So I guess the question really is... who has less fear?
Jack: I'm not afraid to die. I'm already dead.
XANDER: Yeah, but this is different. Being blown up isn't walking around and drinking with your buddies dead. It's little bits being swept up by a janitor dead, and I don't think you're ready for that.
Jack: Are you?
XANDER: I like the quiet.

Spike watches Xander drift into memory land. He likes that proud grin that settles onto Xander’s face after a few moments. That’s the core of the boy: pure steel nobody can bend or break. That’s what he wants the boy to see, what Spike wants to discover, explore and, in the end, claim for himself.

“Let’s go home.” Xander says, his voice strong and rich. It makes Spike adjust his stance and smile evily. With the right coach, the boy could become the knight to the outside world he already is inside.

“Xander!” Suddenly a voice calls out from the shadows of the back door of the Magic Box. It’s Tara who called them, that’s why the voice sounded so strange at first. The shy girl always tries to be as quiet as possible. Spike had spent time thinking about the blond witch before, still she stays a mystery to him and, therefore, she is very precious. Why the hell she stays with that power-greedy, egomanic bitch, though, he’ll never understand.

“Tara?” Xander asks, carefully.
“Yes, it’s me. And Willow is here, too.”
“And?” Xander asks, not seeing a reason to go over to them just because they’re calling him. Spike smiles inwardly. Stubborn boy, adorable.
“Can we talk? We want to help.” Tara says the magic words and Xander’s feet start to move towards the couple.



More on monday. Totally happy about every comment... *grins*