Meet The Master

By Michele

Chapter Three

As if conjured by Spike's words, there was a knock on the door. "Master, you okay in there?"

Both human and vampire froze, staring at the door in terror.

"Master?" There was another knock and the minion jiggled the door handle. "Everyone's ready and waiting for your word to go."

"Do something!" Xander hissed.

Spike grabbed Xander and began pulling his shirt out of his jeans.

"What are you doing!" Xander slapped at the vampire's hands without much success. "Stop it!"

"Strip and lay down on the couch. I have an idea." Spike stopped trying to disrobe Xander and swiftly shucked off his duster and t-shirt, unbuttoned the top three buttons of his jeans and pushed them down so they rode low on his hips. "Come on, hurry up!"

"We're about to die and you want to get naked? Are you insane?" Since the answer to that question was obvious and with no better idea, Xander did as he was told and was quickly down to his boxers.

The minion began to pound harder on the office door and Xander could hear the lock beginning to snap under the pressure. Then he was being shoved back onto the couch, landing with an 'umph', and swiftly covered by a vampire with octopus hands and a very limber tongue. By the time his brain kicked back into gear enough to think about protesting, Spike was already pulling away slightly to look up at the minion who'd finally gained entry to the office.

"What the bloody fuck do you want? Can't you see I'm busy?"

The growl in Spike's voice gave Xander an all-over body shiver and he had to swallow a few times before he could make himself crane his neck back so he could see the minion standing at the end couch above his head.

"I. uh. I apologize for interrupting you." The minion looked around the room. "I thought my Master was in here."

Spike dropped his head back down and licked a path up Xander's neck to his ear. Only then did he answer the minion. "He left a bit ago to check something out. Said he'd be back in time for the festivities. Now. Get.
Out."

"Yes. Sorry. No one will disturb you further. Sorry." The minion backed out of the room and shut the door firmly behind him.

Spike sank down onto his human pillow with a sigh of relief. "Well, that answers a coupla questions."

"Wh.What?" Xander was sure his heart wasn't going to be able to take many more of these kinds of shocks. In addition to having to defeat a clan of vampires on the verge of taking over his hometown there was the added stimulus of never knowing when Spike was going to attack, pet, or fondle him next. Granted, Spike's attacks were much more pleasurable than he'd like to admit to himself, but still, shouldn't these kind of discoveries about yourself and your evil vampire sorta-friend be made in a much safer place? "What questions?"

"They know who I am and are well trained enough to respect their elders." Spike snorted lightly against Xander's neck. "We're just lucky that none of them have been in town long enough to hear how far the mighty have fallen."

Other than flicking at a lock of Xander's hair occasionally, Spike didn't seem to be making any effort to move and it never crossed Xander's mind to encourage him to do so. It was weird feeling a body on top of him that mirrored his own is several ways. Not a bad weird, really, just. different. His mind wandered off and began cataloging the differences between them, not yet ready to acknowledge the similarities; like the twin columns of hard flesh pressed together between them, separated by denim and cotton, that seemed to be throbbing in time to Xander's heartbeat. He'd just gotten to comparing muscle definition based on what he could feel under his hands as they traveled the expanse of the vampire's back when Spike shifted slightly and huffed in annoyance.

"Suppose we should get up and get on with it." He pushed himself up and looked down into confused brown eyes. "The minions? Saving the world or something? Any of this ringing a bell?"

Xander blinked, brain belatedly catching up with the situation and he felt the blush that must have started at his toes and worked its way up his entire body. "Uh. heh. yeah. Um. so, could you get off? Up? Of me! Get up off of me!" He was sure that Spike would be using this against him for a very, very long time.

Spike once again resisted the urge to tease Xander about these less than obvious slips in his heterosexuality and simply rolled off the human and stood up. He reached down to pick up his t-shirt without bothering to hide the fact that he'd have been perfectly happy to continue Xander's detour into the unknown if it hadn't been for the present circumstances.

Xander wasn't as confident. He rolled off the couch and gathered up his clothes with his back to Spike, dressing as swiftly as humanly possible. The normal urge to babble when nervous deserted him and he shoved his shoes onto his feet with an unneeded violence. When there was nothing left to tuck, tie, or buckle he took a deep breath and turned around. "So what story are you going to feed them?"

Spike smiled with a confidence he didn't really feel and slapped Xander on the back. "You know me, Xan, I'll just play it by ear."

"I was a afraid you were going to say that." Xander shook his head once again, this time in defeat. "Fine, but just so you know, if you get me killed I will find a way to haunt you."

"I won't let you get killed, okay? So stop saying that." He took Xander firmly by the shoulders and stared until the human finally met his eyes. "I mean it, you're not going to die tonight. You've done really well so far and I have no reason to believe you'll do anything less the rest of the night."

Xander could see the belief shining out of the vampire's eyes. Enough so that he started to believe it too. "Yeah, okay, not going to die tonight. You either, right?"

"Nope, not me either." Spike grinned, wanting to break the tension. "We both have to make it if only so we can rub Buffy's face in it."

Xander grinned back and shook his head. "Oh no, not me. You want to do it, go ahead, I'll stitch you up once she's done with you." Maybe this could end well, after all.

---

It seemed, to Xander at least, that several hours had passed since the Master had gone bye-bye but in reality, it had only been about one hour. A very long and very tense hour, but only an hour. He lifted his head from Spike's thigh and checked his watch again. An hour and fifteen minutes down and forty-five minutes to go.

Spike must have felt his impatience because he dropped his hand away from his newspaper and stroked Xander's hair. It was meant to be comforting gesture and he decided to interpret it that way, as well as all the other little touches that had transpired since they'd come downstairs, instead of the humiliating way he would have seen them only a day ago.

When they'd first come down, Spike told the 'he went to check something out' story to the entire group. Xander had been tensed, all ready to run, but the vamps just stood there holding various sharp and pointy things for the raid and nodded their collective heads.

It was just as Spike had predicted; with the Master out of sight, they saw Spike as the next senior vamp because that's the way he acted and simply waited for his instructions. Then he'd said they'd wait two hours and, if Ambrose didn't return in that time, they could only assume the worst and delay the raid until they found out what happened. The vamps all calmly set their weapons down and began talking amongst themselves as if it were a cocktail party instead of a raiding party.

So, a huge relief, right? Yeah, except that meant Spike had committed them to staying for two more hours!

Spike had studied the others for a few minutes and then pulled a chair to the center of the cleared area of the floor and sat down. Almost immediately a tall brunette woman had brought Spike a newspaper and asked if he wanted anything to drink.

Xander had held his breath at that, hoping she didn't mean what he thought she meant, but Spike shook his head and asked for a glass of water for his pet. He then motioned Xander over from where he stood frozen five feet away and motioned for him to sit on the floor next to the chair. The floor was a little hard but if he shifted just right, better than standing for two hours.

The vampire chick brought him his water and he'd sipped at it carefully and waited. Soon, the murmur of voices, the quiet rustling of Spike's newspaper and the reduction of adrenalin in his system began to make him sleepy. Almost before he finished thinking 'sleepy', Spike placed his hand on the back of Xander's neck and pulled his head to lay against the vampire's thigh, bending down to whisper in his ear, "Rest but don't sleep. I'll keep watch."

It seemed that small reminder of the situation was all he'd needed because he received another shot of adrenalin to his system that made doing anything more than pretending to rest impossible.

So, now he continued playing the good little human pet by laying his head back down on Spike's thigh with a seemingly languorous sigh.

"Won't be much longer now, pet."

Xander twitched at the feel of Spike's lips against his ear. After a long moment, in which Xander could swear Spike was smelling him, the vampire straightened back up in his chair and went back to reading the same page of newspaper that he'd been on for the last thirty minutes. Either Spike was a very slow reader or.

Shifting his head a little, Xander looked up at Spike's face from beneath his lowered lashes. The vampire was scowling and his jaw was clenched so tight that Xander was surprised he didn't hear teeth pop. He jerked up from Spike's thigh and remembered just in time to pretend to stretch while looking around the room.

Everything was the same as it had been for the past hour. The vamps chatting, mingling and, a few, playing cards. So what was causing that look on Spike's face if it wasn't trouble heading their way?

"Pet? You okay?"

The genuine concern in Spike's voice only served to make Xander more confused. "Yeah, fine. You?"

"Bored." He shrugged his shoulders and folded up the paper he wasn't really reading. "What's say we get the hell out of here?"

Xander nodded enthusiastically, all thoughts of what was bothering Spike swept away. "Still got about twenty minutes to go though."

"Hey! Hey, uh. " Spike snapped his fingers and waived over the vamp that had 'interrupted' them upstairs. While he waited for the vampire to trot across the room, he rolled up the newspaper and began tapping his thigh with it. That seemed to encourage the other vampire to hurry a little faster.

"What can I do for you Master?"

"We're tired of waiting." Spike addressed the rest of his words to the entire group since he now had their attention. "Hold off on the raid until I come tomorrow night. By then I'll know the situation with your Master and the Slayer." He vamped out and growled once, low in his chest. "No one leaves this building until I say so. Understood?"

Xander carefully pushed himself to his feet and looked at the vamps warily as they drifted closer. There were a few who didn't seem to like the way Spike was taking charge so completely but most seemed content to follow his orders.

"What's your name, boy?" Spike demanded of the vamp closest to him.

"Slater, sir."

"Okay Slater, here's the deal. Anybody leaves the building before I arrive tomorrow; you're goin' to tell me. If you don't and I find out, well, you'll be begging me to stake you by the time I'm done with you. Same goes for anybody that does leave. You understand me?"

Xander thought Spike was enjoying this just a little too much but it seemed to be working. The few vamps that had made disagreeable noises about not being allowed to go out quieted right down.

"Yes, sir, I understand, sir. No one will leave before you tell us it's okay. Our Master never had a reason to be disappointed in us and we won't give him a reason to start now." Slater was almost groveling.

It was almost funny although Xander realized that Slater and the others wouldn't think so. Especially if they found out how they were being fooled.

"Good." Spike morphed back into his human face and motioned for Xander to join him. "I don't know what time I'll be getting back here tomorrow, so just wait."

The group nodded their collective heads, spookily synchronized, and Spike led Xander to the door with a hand at the back of the human's neck.

---

They got about ten feet away from the door and Xander would have relaxed and started babbling, but Spike tightened his grip warningly and they continued their journey in silence until they had cleared the shipping containers and turned the corner to where Xander had left his pack.

"I can't believe we got away! You really did it!"

Spike smirked and nodded his head in acknowledgement of the compliment. "Told ya."

"I haven't been that scared for that long in. well, maybe ever."

"Yeah, you did good though." Spike dug out a cigarette and lit up.

A thought suddenly occurred to Xander. "You aren't really going back there tomorrow and order them to carry out the raid, only for you this time. Right?"

Spike kept his face impassive and continued to smoke.

"Spike? You know you can't, don't you?"

When Spike remained silent and unreadable, Xander once again began to panic. He'd seen what Spike could do, how he could be, when he was around his own kind, and he knew that it really wouldn't be that difficult to just walk in and take over the pack of vampires they'd just left behind.

"Look, I know we haven't been as. accepting as we could have been and we. um. okay, we were actually kind of mean to you for a while there. But, Spike, we're going to be serious about the staking stuff if you go through with this and I thought we were friends now and."

Spike threw down his cigarette and pulled Xander to him all in one move. He covered the mortals mouth with his hand and shook his head. "Was just messin' with you, ya wanker, so stop babbling and save your breath for explaining all this to Rupert, eh?"

"wwhmmheh"

Spike removed his hand and Xander tried again. "What are you talking about?"

"Still got to kill those mean, evil vamps, don't we?"

"Yeah?"

"So, you're going to need a little help carrying the gasoline or explosives or driving the fire truck filled with holy water when you come back here tomorrow, during daylight hours, and save Sunnydale."

"Oh."

"Yeah." Spike smiled slightly, not his usual smirk, a real smile, and leaned forward slowly. He touched his lips tentatively to Xander's, letting them linger only for a moment before pulling back. "I'm going to miss my delicious and obedient pet. " He sighed and stepped back, releasing Xander, then slapped him on the back in the classic 'guy' way. ". but I think I like plain ol' Xander much better."

"Why did you sto." Xander blinked few times and then put more space between himself and the vampire, gathering the wits that had scattered as soon as Spike had leaned toward him. He picked up his pack and slung it over his shoulder. Finally, he thought he had enough of himself back to face Spike again. "Yeah, me too. Like plain ol' me better, I mean. All that being quiet and still really sucked. I'd never make it as a real Human Pet."

Xander turned and started back toward town and so missed the slightly disappointed look on Spike's face before the indifferent mask was back in place and the vampire fell into step beside him. "Hmmm. probably not. I mean what with all that attention and touching and rubbing and petting you were getting, not to mention the other benefits we didn't quite get to, I can see how you'd get tired of it pretty fast."

Xander didn't really know what to say to that so he just quickened his step and tried not to hear the slight bitterness in the vampire's tone. The feeling, however brief, of being cared for, taught and protected instead of being the one doing the care taking, had been a nice one. As for the rest. well, he could honestly say that the idea of having sex with Spike was not as objectionable as it would have been even yesterday but that was all he was willing to admit to himself.

Not that the concept hadn't run through his mind several times after the back licking episode but that was as far as he'd gotten; acknowledging that although they were both male, it was possible for them to have sex. Maybe a little bit of new self-awareness had crept in along with that concept but Xander had firmly pushed any additional thoughts on the matter far, far away. Nothing was ever going to happen between them so why bother thinking about it?

In Spike he'd found someone to be a guy with, someone who understood his references and his jokes even if Xander didn't always understand Spike's. Granted, they didn't always get along, but that was okay because that's just the way guys were. Yeah. Guys who were friends. So, Xander hadn't even been sure he wanted anything to happen that would mess all that up.

But it had. Sort of. In a non-home run kind of way. And it had been. different and interesting and. well, something he'd like to explore a little more. Maybe. See if was the person or the situation that made Xander so completely lose himself every time there had been a touch or caress or kiss or. Nope, not thinking about the rest. So, what next? Ask him on a date? Buy him flowers and a pack of cigarettes? Or should he just go the Anya route and point out that they could possibly have many orgasms together if they found that their parts interlocked satisfactorily?

"Oh, Christ! Anya!"

"Eh?" Spike was pulled from his own introspection and glanced around for the source of Xander's outburst. "Where?"

"No, she's not here. I just.uh. kind of remembered that I have a girlfriend."

Spike looked at the other man like he'd lost some of his marbles on the walk home. "Yeah, I know you have a girlfriend, Xander. What of it?"

"Errr. Just that we'll have to edit some things out of this week's episode of 'Spike and Xander versus Idiot Jed and His Minions' if either of us wants to live through the telling of it."

"I see your point."

Xander nodded, glad they were in agreement, and continued to make his way toward home.

"That the only reason for the editing?" Spike watched for a reaction to his none-too-subtle probe.

"Yes."

"Not because you're ashamed or something?"

"Look, can we wait until we're inside to discuss this?"

Spike positioned himself in front of Xander and stopped. "No, we can't."

Xander sighed and ran a hand through his hair in agitation. "This is becoming more and more like a movie of the week with every passing second. No, I'm not ashamed and I'm not confused and I do have a girlfriend and cheating on her would be wrong, end of discussion. Now, can we get inside?"

"You weren't cheating, you were acting."

"I'm sure Anya would see it that way, too. Not. Now move it or lose it." Xander bumped by the vampire and turned the corner onto his street. At least Spike hadn't seemed to catch the slip in tense on the 'would be wrong' part of his speech. Xander really didn't think of what happened in the warehouse as cheating either, but anything that happened from now on would be.

Only a few more blocks and he could finally rest a little before he had to start thinking again. After sunrise was soon enough to get Giles out of bed and gather what they'd need to make sure all of the Master's minions were taken out. And maybe, if he was really lucky, Spike would see him safely inside and leave so they wouldn't end up falling in bed together as soon as the couch was pulled out.