Soothing the savage headache.

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

Continued from here.

"If this is about Angel, I'm leaving," Spike commented, but he kept his eyes closed.

Comments

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

Wesley barely held back a laugh. "Unique in all the world," he repeated warningly, "because he'd chosen to get a soul."

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

"No other vampire would be daft enough." Spike could feel himself relaxing as Wesley's hand continued to stroke through his hair and over the side of his face.

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

"And this vampire, he was dashingly handsome," Wesley continued, tempted to lean in and brush his lips over Spike's, but resisting for the time being. "Not to mention incredibly stubborn."

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

Spike smiled. "Maybe he wasn't stubborn; he could just always have known he was right."

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

"The fact that he thought so is how we know that he was stubborn." Wesley traced Spike's bottom lip gently. "He also had a particular fondness for bars."

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

"Yeah? Bars of what?" Spike asked, unsure that he liked the direction of Wesley's story. "Don't know anyone who doesn't like bars of gold."

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

Wesley caught the tone of Spike's voice and changed tacks. "One day," he said, "this vampire decided to leave the city he'd been inhabiting for some time, and strike out in search of adventure. And where do you think he went?"

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

"I don't know, pet. You're the one telling the story," Spike replied.

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

"This story requires audience participation," Wesley told him.

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

"I think I was brought here under false pretenses," Spike grumbled, unable to hide his grin completely. "And it all depends on what kind of excitement this vampire was looking for, doesn't it?"

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

"Perhaps he was on a mythic quest," Wesley amended. "Searching for the place he knew he belonged."

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

"Doesn't sound very exciting to me," Spike said. "Better to go looking for a good club or something to kill. Besides, mythic quests never turn out well. The hero always gets stuck on an island for a dozen years and ends up bringing home some stupid fleece or something."

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

Wesley smiled slightly even though Spike couldn't see him. "Hm, so... he decided to forgo the quest in favor of a night of loud music, followed by several hours in bed with the sexual partner of his choice, and he lived happily ever after. The end."

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

"Well, your story was pretty short, pet, but at least it had a happy ending," Spike said, smiling.

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

"I'll try to do better next time," Wesley promised. He ran his hand through Spike's hair again, very slowly.

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

Spike made a soft sound of appreciation. "You did just fine, but I think you need a new main character. Maybe a dashingly handsome ex-Watcher."

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

"Or maybe I should just stick to reading you something." Wesley was beginning to wonder if going back to sleep would be considered absurdly decadent.

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

"I think I'd like your story better," Spike said, opening his eyes just enough to be able to see Wesley. "Or you could tell me something true. A happy memory for you. Something that makes you smile."

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

Wesley tried to think of something Spike might like to hear about. "The summer that I was ten, I fancied myself quite a tree climber."

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

"Yeah?" Spike tried and failed to imagine Wesley as a ten-year-old. "Tell me about it."

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

Lying his head down on his arm, Wesley closed his own eyes briefly. "I climbed a rather small tree first, but I managed to get so close to the top that I was disgustingly pleased with myself. So then I had to go find another, bigger tree, and so on. I climbed a new one nearly every day that summer."

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

"And what did you do once you were up there? Did you enjoy being in them, or was the challenge of climbing them all that interested you?" Spike asked.

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

"A bit of both," Wesley said, "although to be perfectly truthful it was more the latter. But the important part of the story, you see, is that there was a tree that I was afraid to climb. It was the biggest one on our property -- the biggest for miles in any direction -- and I spent all summer trying to get up the courage to try it."

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

"What happened when you did?" Spike asked, since there was no doubt in his mind that Wesley would have eventually tried to climb it.

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

Wesley's eyes were open now, his fingers plucking at the pillowcase on Spike's pillow, just playing with the fabric idly. "I fell out and broke my arm," he said. "Of course, that was the beginning of the following summer, so I spent what felt like most of it with a cast from wrist to elbow, inside reading books."

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

"You must've hated that," Spike said with a friendly dose of sarcasm.

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

His gaze flickering to Spike's for an instant, Wesley shrugged a bit. "Well, given that it meant my parents had easy access to me at all times, I'd have preferred to be outside."

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

"Could've always read outside, though that might've endangered your precious books," Spike said lightly, but he slid his hand up the bed to touch his fingers to Wesley's as they toyed with the edge of the pillowcase. "So you broke your arm and were stuck inside with your parents. Did I miss the happy part of this memory?"

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

Wesley smiled sadly. "I forgot about that part," he admitted.

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

"Did you go back and climb it again after your arm healed? That could be the uplifting epilogue." Spike softly traced the veins on the back of Wesley's hand with the tip of one finger.

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

"That would be a more fitting end to the story than admitting I never climbed another tree," Wesley said, turning his hand so that Spike's finger brushed over his palm instead.

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

Surprised, Spike raised his eyes from Wesley's hand to his face. "You didn't want to prove you could do it?"

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

"I didn't want to discover that I couldn't."

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

"I'm sure you would have eventually," Spike said. "Though you might've broken a few more bones on the way."

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

"Oh, believe me, I'd had it well drilled into me by that point that I wasn't the athletic type." Wesley sighed.

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

Spike ran his eyes down Wesley's lean body. "Seem all right to me."

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

"Yes, well... 'all right' wasn't considered good enough."

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

"You were supposed to be an Olympic athlete on top of having a brilliant mind? Tall order for a lad of ten." Spike shook his head and absently laced his fingers with Wesley's. "And me calling you 'all right' was a bloody large understatement, which you better have known."

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

He really hadn't been paying attention to that part of the conversation, or at least its implications, but Wesley nodded. "I was never sure if they wanted me concentrating on my studies for the sake of education alone, or because it meant I was where they could keep an eye on me."

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

"Can't imagine you being so much trouble you needed that sort of looking after," Spike said.

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

Wesley grinned slightly. "No, I really wasn't." Realizing suddenly that this topic of conversation wasn't one he cared to indulge, he suggested, "Perhaps we should talk about something happier."

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

"What do you suggest?" Spike asked, content to let the conversation drift in nearly any direction as long Wesley was happy.

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

Untangling his hand from Spike's, Wesley used it to touch Spike's face instead. "We could talk about how incredibly gorgeous you are."

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

Spike laughed softly and slightly self-consciously. "There's not much to say about that, pet, but I'm glad you like how I look."

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

Continues here (http://www.livejournal.com/community/reality_bends/29132.html).