New beginnings.

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

Continued from here.

New York City, 5 weeks later...

Wesley was sitting in a patch of sunshine on a small rug in the living room of their new apartment and sorting through a box of assorted things, none of which appeared to have any relation to the others. It was as if the moving crew that had ended up doing nearly all of their packing for them had walked randomly through the old flat, choosing one or two things from each room. He was now trying to sort them into piles based on where they ought to end up. Without looking, he reached into the box again, this time bringing out a handful of take-away menus that were clearly going to be of no use in New York.

"Were the movers completely mad?" he called to Spike.

Comments

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

At Wesley's pained mutter, Spike was up off of the desk and through the door like a shot. It was one thing to have to sit back and let Wesley move around with some discomfort in the name of giving him his independence, but it was another to hear him do something that obviously hurt him.

"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?" he asked, automatically skirting the puddles of bright sunlight as he went to take the box from Wesley. "You want anything moved, you're supposed to ask me."

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

"It's just a box," Wesley said, a bit more sharply than he'd meant to. More gently, he said, "I'm fine." He did let Spike take the box from him, though, sighing.

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

"Where do you want it?" Spike asked, looking at the room and not at Wesley. Reminding himself that Wesley was probably more frustrated with the situation than he was with him didn't make Wesley's tone smart any less.

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

"On the table?" Wesley suggested. "I didn't realize how heavy it was. The last box I opened had nothing in it but a blanket." He took a deep but cautious breath, waiting for pain that didn't come. "Thank you."

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

Spike was firmly of the opinion that Wesley shouldn't be moving any boxes at all, no matter what they contained, but he stayed silent as he walked around the edge of the room to put it on the table. "You might think about looking inside before you try to shift the next one," he said. "Never know if they decided to pack up a load of bricks."

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

"We didn't have any bricks," Wesley said, following Spike. He felt awkward and frustrated - he knew that Spike had good reason to be over-protective, but it was still difficult to feel that he wasn't able to do anything without Spike jumping up to do it for him. "I'll be more careful."

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

"No, you won't," Spike said with a tight smile. "But if you hurt yourself you won't be able to stop me from putting all your books randomly onto the shelves instead of in categories."

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

"I'm not likely to seriously injure myself lifting a few boxes," Wesley said. He tried his best to sound reasonable about it.

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

"Depends on what's in them, doesn't it?" Spike took a step back from the box and tried to stop the argument before it started up again. He knew all too well that Wesley wanted to do things on his own, even if it wasn't wise. "Just look inside next time, all right?"

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

"I will," Wesley promised, moving closer to Spike and thinking about putting an arm around Spike's waist, but not quite ready to do it. At night, in the dark, he was more than comfortable wrapping himself around Spike as best he could, but during the daytime, it was different, somehow. He was too aware of his own potential fragility, of the fresh scar on his abdomen. He felt self-conscious and awkward.