3 Inches - Part 14

[druffine]

And another one and hopefully you like this part better than the last one. *grin*
Oh and sorry I am late with the answering to comments. Sorry about that, but I figured you rather want another chapter than me answering your comments so I put the writing first.



button by vampirellabites
*hugs and cuddles you*

beta'ed by joolzmp7 and mygothangel
thanks to both of you, hugs!

previous parts




Part 14

Tara’s sobs subside quickly. Too quickly. “Not the time to cry.” The blonde sniffs and rubs at her nose with the back of her hand. Xander finds her a tissue. She smiles at him and then at Spike. “We need to unshrink you. I could use some help carrying my stuff outside, superpowers come in handy there.” She tells Spike and grabs for the hand Xander reaches down to her. He pulls her to her feet.

“You sure, you're powerful enough to go all witchy?” Xander asks her. Tara laughs softly and he blushes. “It’s totally adorable how much you care for Spike.” Spike beams. “I can do this. I’ve been trained in White Magic all my life. White Magic runs in the family, at least all the females of my line have the ability to use it in their nature. My mom had already anchored me to the Balance when I was very young. Sadly, she died when I was seven so she couldn’t teach me more. The males in my family do not tolerate anything supernatural and well, yeah, you were there when they came to retrieve me.”

“But I don’t understand why you’d think you were something bad or demon-y when your mom gave you the clues already.” Spike puts in. Xander nods.
“My mom, when she told me about these things, she never used words like witch or magic or demons. She just told me, I was something special and that I had something inside me that can help to keep the world in balance. She never talked about good or evil – it was always about Balance. I didn’t know enough… then she died – and when I got older, my dad and my brothers belittled everything and everyone the slightest bit different from themselves or their ideas of how the world should be. I hated it.” Tara shudders in memory of that time.

“So why is it, Red goes round the bend with magicks and you don’t. She using black magic?” Spike leans back against Xander’s thumb, crosses his arm’s in front of his chest.

“No, it’s not black magic. It’s power that comes with magic and she…, she was never anchored, she never had a real tutor. Giles is no help to her at all. She didn’t take me seriously when I tried to tell her about the Balance. It’s as if I am always beneath her.” Fresh tears run down Tara’s face and Xander quickly gives her another paper tissue. Spike cringes when he hears Tara’s last words. He knows exactly how the blonde has been feeling all along. Xander doesn’t know what to say at all so he stays quiet and awkwardly pats her on the shoulder in an attempt to take away the pain.

Tara pulls herself out of the mourning she feels. “Let’s do the spell now. I don’t want to be here longer than necessary.” She grabs for the book and opens it to the page she showed Xander earlier. “I don’t think we need to try out spells. This one is a powerful spell that interacts and relies on healing energy. That should do it.” Tara nods and gets a piece of chalk. She draws a circle on the floor, just big enough for one normal sized person to stand in. “Put Spike in there.” She says and studies the text in the book.

“In there? In there! Like right now? I mean. Are you sure? Is that the right spell? Spike needs to agree. No ingredients? Draw a circle and, yay, Spike’s back? Isn’t that dangerous? What if something goes wrong? What if Spike…” Xander rattles down every thought in his head.
“Don’t get your knickers in a twist, pet. Good, ol’ Glinda’ll fix me up fine. Now gimme a kiss for luck and set me down there.” Spike rolls his eyes, annoyed. He is very, very nervous but a man doesn’t need to show everything, does he? Tara giggles.
“Euww Spike, no kissing, but I’ll cross my fingers for you.” Xander kneels down and sets the little vampire in the circle. Suddenly, he feels like he should give Spike a kiss to say good-bye. How nancy is that? He gets back on his feet and takes several steps back from the circle quickly. It’s time Spike was Spike again –the vampire being small, was making him think weird thoughts.

Tara sits down cross-legged close to the circle. She holds up her hands in front of Spike. She bows forward and looks directly into the vampire’s eyes. Spike feels as if Tara can look inside him down to his core, maybe she can. Whatever she sees, it makes her smile so Spike is relieved.

“I’m going to start now. Try to relax your body and concentrate on your original size. It shouldn’t take long until you feel the spell working, okay?” She says and Spike nods. “Thank you, Glinda.”

Xander watches in amazement. Tara starts chanting words he doesn’t understand. After a moment Tara’s hands start to glow golden. The golden glow gets bigger until it’s completely woven from one hand to the other, surrounding the circle with Spike in the middle. It swirls around the shrunken vampire and seems to completely fill him. Tara keeps chanting easy, joyous words and the glow starts pulsing. In wonder, Xander stares while with each pulse of the glow Spike grows a few inches. Tara’s hands work in rhythm with the pulse, fingers clenching and unclenching, until finally Spike is big again. A last push from Tara’s hands and then she slowly curls in her fingers, making fists. The glow pulls back in synchronicity with that motion until it’s completely gone. She looks up at Spike, signalling the spell is over and blushes heavily. Spike is as naked as the day he was born.

Happily, Spike jumps in the air, testing and stretching his limbs. Everything seems to work just as it did before the whole mini-vamp incident so he sweeps the blonde witch into his arms and hugs her tightly, then twirls her around. “Thank you, Glinda. Thank you sooo much.” He yells effusively. Tara laughs, pleased that he is so happy.

Xander watches the display of joy with a little twist of jealousy in his gut that Spike is hugging Tara for so long. He feels left out. He is happy for Spike, sure, but now he is only Xander again to Spike. Expendable and unimportant. And Spike should put on some clothes. Not everybody needs to see that muscular, flawless body.

Xander brushes away the dark and the weird thoughts and does what the voice inside tells him. “Hey Tara, wanna stay at my apartment tonight?” She glances shyly at him and after a moment’s consideration nods. “If it’s not too much trouble.” Xander shakes his head, waving her doubts away.

“Look, mate, I’m all back to my Big Bad self!” Spike jumps to stand before Xander, grinning widely. Xander does his best to look directly in Spike’s eyes and not at the various interesting body parts that definitely need some clothes – now!
“Congrats, buddy.” Xander utters, seemingly untouched by it all. Spike frowns, not sure what’s making the boy so sad, but then remembers the fight he had with Willow. Red’s gonna suffer for that one! He shrugs and turns to Tara.

“Start packing, Glinda. I’m big again and can help carry all the stuff you want to take with you.” Spike hesitates when Tara tries to look everywhere but at him. “What’s the matter, pet?” Spike looks down at himself. “’K, I can see why me being stalkers gets you all riled up.” He grins an exaggeratedly lascivious smile at her, tongue over teeth and all, then laughs when she blushes almost purple. “You’ve got a way of complimenting a man, girl.” He tells her, laughing. “Got something for covering me up?”

Xander sighs, long-sufferingly. He hadn’t thought about bringing Spike’s clothes. Damn. Tara searches around in her dresser and finally she drags out a pair of black sweats and a grey T-Shirt. Spike looks worriedly at the items. “So sorry, that’s all I have.” She says looking repentant.
“Come on, Spike. It’s only for a few minutes, just get into them so we can leave.” Xander mutters, hating to be around a naked Spike without knowing why exactly that bothers him so much.

After hearing Xander’s grumpy words addressed at Spike, Tara hurries to get her most important personal belongings and some clothes packed.

After a long look at Xander’s unhappy, slouched posture Spike gets into the offered sweats and t-shirt. Looking up at Xander, he finally sees that expression again in the boy’s face that he’s gotten so used to over the last few days: that big, shining smile… which quickly transforms into a hearty laugh at Spike’s expense. The sweats only go down as far as Spike’s calf and sit very low around the waist. The t-shirt is so tight and short it shows off a nice strip of belly skin including the belly button. “You’re the dream model for every gay poster!” Xander quips and seems unable to stop laughing.

“You think so Harris?” Spike asks, devilishly and puts his hand to his hip, thumb disappearing in the sweats, pulling them down even further, showing off even more of that soft, hairless skin and that perfectly formed six-pack. Spike grins at Xander, eyes burning with lust, looking at Xander from under his lashes, teeth gently biting his own bottom lip. “Wanna fuck me, Xander?” Spike whispers, a seductive drawl to his voice.

At least, that makes Xander stop laughing.