Title: Strip Tease

Email: tirel@pcnuthut.com

Author: Velvet Crypt

Disclaimer: Joss is God. I own nothing.

Spoilers: Season 6 ending. AU after that.

Summary: Two lonely people meet up again.

Spike picked up a leather harness and smiled in fond remembrance. He brought the contraption to his nose and inhaled the scent of new, unused leather and his mind supplied the scent of sex and blood. After a moment, he put the harness down, guiltily looking about the store, wondering if anyone noticed the hard-on he suddenly sported.

With a snort he shrugged. Bloody hell, nancy boy, you’re in a sex shop. Three quarters of the clientele have hard-ons. He reluctantly moved away from the bondage toys and browsed towards the back of the shop where he saw clothing. As he stepped through the throng of giggling tourists piled up around the titty-tassels, his breath caught.

A familiar shaped head graced the shoulders of a familiar shaped body. The clothes certainly looked nothing like those he’d seen the whelp in last, but he knew beyond a doubt that it was Xander Harris. The boy was prowling through g-strings, every now and then setting one aside.

Spike watched him for long moments, memories flooding his brain, bringing back old pain. After nearly raping Buffy, he’d run away, determined to get his chip out to show her what it meant to fuck with a vampire’s emotions. But what he got was his soul. How much more pathetic could one undead being get? A chip and a soul. It was a fucking nightmare.

He knew there was no way he could ever go back to Sunnydale. He refused to run sniveling to his sire. So, he just kept moving, not unlike what he and Dru had done for half a century. Only this time, he did it alone. And he hated it. He hated being alone. He kept in touch regularly with Clem, having left his crypt in the floppy eared demon’s care.

Clem informed him that the Bit and the Slayer were teaming up now. Dawn showed promise in taking on her share of slaying duties. It seemed that those monks might have put a bit much of the Slayer into the Slayer’s sister. With the right training, there might be another line for the Watcher’s to panic over.

Willow had gone to England with Giles after Tara’s death. Spike had been truly saddened by the loss of Tara. He’d genuinely liked the little blonde witch. She was a good influence on the otherwise hot headed scoobies. She had a good heart. She would be missed.

Xander had left for parts unknown. It seemed he finally realized that Anya was never going to give up vengeance again, even if he somehow convinced her to get back together with him. He felt badly for the human. He’d had his world rocked, his entire future had been jerked out from under his feet and he was left confused and lonely.

Every one of the other scoobies had someone to fall back on, or something to go back to. Xander had nothing. His girlfriend toddled on back to her boss. His best friend ran away to England with his father figure. His surrogate sisters were bonding too tightly to each other to let him in. No, doughnut boy was well and truly alone.

Spike knew what that felt like. He stepped forward and cleared his throat. Xander glanced at him in irritation, then did a double take and shifted slightly to face the vampire. Spike smiled at the picture the boy presented. He looked good. He’d filled out in ways Spike never would have imagined carpentry could do for you. And he showed it off.

He was dressed in red silk and black leather. Everything clung in the right places. He had also pierced his ears. Tiny silver hoops hung from his lobes. He’d let his hair grow shaggy again, but it was artistically styled to look tousled…just out of bed, Spike thought. It looked damn good on him.

“Hey, Xander.” He offered. The boy just stared at him.

“What the hell are you doing here? Did they send you?” Xander asked harshly, then he shook his head, a look of humorless amusement on his face. “Of course not. They don’t even know where I am, do they? So, why are you here, Spike?”

Spike nearly dropped his eyes, but lifted his chin instead. “I was making my rounds of the country, thought I’d stop off in New Orleans. It’s a great city to get lost in.” He said pointedly. From Xander’s tense muscles he could tell he scored a direct hit.

“So, what are you doing here? In this store?” Xander pushed. Spike smiled sadly.

“Reminiscing, mostly.” Xander snorted in derision. Spike ignored it. “So, you want to go for a cuppa? Talk about old times?” He continued hopefully, knowing he sounded like a complete ponce and not really caring.

Xander laughed in his face. “You’re fucking kidding, right? No way in hell I’m spending any time at all with you, Fangless. I’ve had enough of you to last a lifetime. You think New Orleans is such a great place to get lost in? Well, good. Then get lost.”

He turned back to his shopping and dismissed the blonde vampire. Spike nodded, saddened but not really surprised. He turned away and began squeezing through the crowd of now-muted tourists, pretending they didn’t hear what they were so obviously eavesdropping on a moment ago.

“Shouldn’t be too hard, pet.” He whispered. “Can’t get much more lost than I am right now.”

__________________________________________________________

Xander was surprisingly pleased at how well he controlled his trembling as the older man walked away. What the hell was he expecting, Xander thought. A hug? A ‘good to see you old buddy’? Hello? Fucked my girlfriend here! He tried unsuccessfully to grind down that little voice that kept prodding at him: wasn’t your girlfriend when he fucked her. You dumped her. Your loss.

Xander sighed. He missed the gang more than he could put into words. In the last year, he’d managed to get thinking-of-them time down to about 5 times a day, but it still twisted every time. He was more irritated that he’d gotten excited at seeing Spike, a link to home, than he was irritated that the vamp had spoken to him.

Then he heard those whispered words, “Can’t get much more lost than I am right now,” and his heart twisted. Oh, gods how he knew that feeling. With a growl of impatience, he threw the tiny pieces of material down and spun around.

“Godammit, Spike,” he called out to the figure nearing the front of the store. “Wait up.”

__________________________________________________________

“So, then I just started wandering around, avoiding everyone I ever knew.” Spike laughed disparagingly.

Xander lifted his coffee cup, and then put it back down again. “Man, you got fucked.” He said in amazement. Spike barked out a laugh that had the coffee shop patrons turning their heads with indulgent smiles.

“Well, if that isn’t the understatement of the year.” He chortled. “How about you?”

Xander shrugged, smiling secretly. “I took every cent I had, bought a bus ticket and just hopped off at the first place that struck my fancy.” Spike grinned.

“So what are you doing shopping in a BSDM store?”

“I didn’t want to go back into construction.” Xander started, looking into curious blue eyes. “So I fell back on one of my former talents. I got a job bartending in this strip club called The Dungeon.”

He watched Spike’s eyes widen and nearly giggled. “B-but The Dungeon is a gay strip club.” The vamp sputtered.

Xan nodded. “I found that out the first night.” Spike nearly choked on his coffee.

“I worked as the bartender for nearly 3 months before one of the strippers called in sick. The boss needed a replacement, and after my gig in Oxnard, I figured what the hell. So I got onstage, shook my ass, made more tip money in 5 minutes than I’d made the entire last week bartending. Boss offered me the position. I snapped it up.” He sat back with a predatory smirk.

Spike forcibly snapped his jaw shut. “You’re a stripper.” Nod. “At a gay club.” Nod. “And you like it.” Nod. “Well, bugger me.” Nod. Spike jumped and Xander’s rich laughter pealed out across the café, customers looked again, smiling.

“Calm down, Spike. I promise I won’t take advantage of you.” He drained his cup. “I have to be to work in about 30 minutes. You’re welcome to come along. I’ll get you in and if you want to wait til the show is over, you can crash at my place tonight.”

Spike felt a smile break over his lips. “I’d like that, pet.”