Work Text:
Icy Hot
by Lissa
ky_lissa_11@yahoo.com
He was so cold. It surrounded him in a thickening fog of immobility. The metal wouldn't budge. Spike had repeatedly pounded his shoulder into it, hoping that vampiric strength alone would be enough to make the door give way.
"Would you give it rest, already?" Xander was leaning up against a steel wall, arms crossed over his chest. "Every time you do that, it echoes. You're giving me a headache."
"Well excuse the bleedin' hell out of me for tryin' to get out us out of here!" Spike huffed and covered his bare biceps with his hands. His leather duster was currently trapped in the trunk of what could laughingly be referred to as Xander's car. When he thought about his coat and how much better off he would be feeling right now with it wrapped around him, Spike turned to glare at the boy.
"What?" Xander threw his arms up in the air before re-crossing them. "It's not my fault the stupid key broke off!" He was in full fledged pout mode now: head down, eyes pointed at the floor, shoulders slumped, his bottom lip jutting out.
Spike's glare softened and he stepped toward Xander, opening his mouth to speak. But he thought twice about it and shut it lips so quickly that his teeth clacked together. Xander heard the noise and his head popped up.
"You ok?" He was afraid that Spike was even colder than he let on and the concern showed on his face; that was until he remembered just whom he was feeling concerned about. Besides, Spike was a vampire. Vampires didn't get cold, did they?
Spike ignored the question, but watched with fascination as Xander's facial expressions shifted from guilt to concern to disgust to curiosity. He shook down the allure of cataloging the younger man's reactions and got back to the business at hand. Slipping two fingers inside one of the back pockets of his jeans, Spike pulled out a thin wallet and strolled toward the door.
"I don't think we can buy our way out of here." Xander sniped. "Last time I checked, there was no one around to bribe."
Spike snorted. "Well if you had caught the door like I told you to, we wouldn't be stuck in here at all, now would we?" He was kneeling in front of the steel know, opening the 'wallet' to reveal a single row of tiny handled picks.
"Oh." Xander breathed out as he squatted down beside the door. "Nifty."
Spike snorted again at Xander's sudden enthusiasm, but a smile tweaked up the corners of his mouth. It never ceased to amaze him how easily amused his current companion could be. "Yeah, be prepared I always say."
"Actually I think the 'Boy Scouts' said it first."
Spike looked over at the boy with a sneer. "Never a member, Harris. I was a boy long before the soddin' 'Boy Scouts'. Ate a few though."
"Ewww. Too much information."
"Never knew camp outs could be so much fun." He wiggled his eyebrows in Xander's direction, chuckling as the human squirmed. Spike knew that Xander would be thinking of much worse things than had actually happened. The boy had a perverse little mind, if given half a chance. It was one of the few things Spike liked about him.
Spike wondered, on occasion, what Harris would be like as a vampire. Not that he would ever consider turning him. Spike just got very bored sometimes and these thoughts would pop into his head. He imagined what each of the Scoobies would be like with a demon in the driver's seat.
Buffy was obvious; she would be a killing machine, pure and unrelenting in her newfound bloodlust. God knew she was already that way when it came to the non-human populace of Sunnydale.
Giles would still be Giles, with a definite side of kink. Spike knew about the Watcher's rebellious teen years, at least to a certain extent. He also knew that once a person had been touched by that kind of darkness in their soul it was impossible to rid yourself of it completely.
He had heard stories of when an 'alternate universe' vampire Willow had plagued the town. She reeked a lot of havoc in a very short amount of time before the gang had sent her back to her own dimension. Spike had trouble believing some of the tales were true knowing the human version as he did. But then sometimes it was the quiet ones that turned into the most vicious.
Which led him to Tara, the quietest of them all; she was a... mystery, Spike thought, even onto herself. Don't think she would survive the process. He had known more than his share that the morning after their turning had stayed up to watch the sunrise. It was a hazard very few of their kind ever spoke about.
That left him where he had begun, with thoughts of Xander Harris as a vampire. He wondered if he would retain his sense of humor or if it would become twisted and cruel.
"What are you staring at, fangless?"
Make that, crueler.
Xander was beginning to fidget. Why had Spike been watching him for so long? He couldn't take it any longer and snapped his fingers in front of Spike's face. "Snap out of it. You got work to do." He pointed down at the lock-picking kit and then at the small lock in the metal door. He flicked his wrist back and forth between the two for a few seconds before adding, "Get those fingers cracking."
Spike turned back toward the lock and studied it. Xander watched the intensity straining Spike's features, happy to have it aimed some place that was not him. Then he leaned in and over to stare at the mechanism as well.
Xander's cheek brushed oh so lightly against Spike's earlobe, making the vampire shudder. He was even colder than before and the instant lick of heat made his body ache. He swallowed hard to try and suppress the urge to lean into that warmth. "Do you mind? I can't work with you breathing down my neck!" He spat out the words harshly, angrier with himself and his sudden lack of control than at the human beside him.
"You're just jealous of all my luscious body heat." Xander quipped back without moving.
Spike growled, reached down and picked up the instruments he thought would open the lock. He couldn't even feel the metal picks, his hands were so numb. As he lifted them to the lock Xander noticed the tremor a split second before the heard the tinkling of metal on metal when the picks fell through Spike's fingers and onto the steel floor. Spike tried to pick them up, but his fingers were useless. "Son-of-a-bitch!" Spike bellowed and stood, kicking the kit across the floor.
"Oh that's a big help." Xander walked over and picked the kit up, then walked back and did the same for the tiny instruments still at Spike's feet. "Can you guide me through it?"
Spike was still in too much of a lather to actually hear Xander's question. Xander grabbed his shoulders and gave Spike one hard shake in an attempt to make him refocus. When Spike felt the contact he swayed a little toward Xander, then stiffened without pulling out of the younger man's grasp.
"Can you guide me through picking the lock?" Xander asked again.
Spike just shook his head. "Doesn't work that way. Not something you can talk someone through. You have to be able to reach inside the lock, feel the resistance and the surrender."
Xander looked at him in that strange way he did sometimes -kind of goofy and slack-jawed- but he recovered quickly and sighed. "Fine. There's only one thing left to do that I can think of."
Before Spike could even ask 'What' Xander ran his hands down Spike's arms and snatched his fingers up to his face. It was Spike's turn to be a little slack-jawed when Xander cupped his hands around Spike's, brought his mouth over and breathed across them.
Spike's eyes involuntarily closed as the warmth spread over his skin. The slightest moan escaped from his throat as the tip of one of his awakening fingers skimmed Xander's bottom lip. The accompanying sensations below his waistband made Spike's eyes fly open and he jerked his hands away.
Xander stared at him, perplexed. "Look, I'm not enjoying this any more than you are, but if you have any better ideas for getting you un-numb, I'm more than willing to hear them."
Spike stood angled away from Xander, his hands tucked under his armpits. He looked so small suddenly, and there was something else, something Xander couldn't place.
"At least take this." Xander took off his jacket and placed it around Spike's shaking shoulders. He let his hands linger for a moment, squeezing slightly before stepping back.
Comfort. The boy's trying to comfort me. Spike snatched at the jacket, pulling it tightly around himself, relishing the heat and the combined smell of leather and Xander. He inhaled deeply before his face twisted and he ripped the coat off, throwing it back in Xander's face. "I don't need your pity!"
"That's it!" Xander grabbed the jacket and lunged at Spike, completely throwing the vampire for a loop. The cold had seeped into him so severely that his mind and reflexes were affected; at least that's what he would tell himself later.
The next thing Spike knew he was pinned against the metal, Xander's jacket back around his shoulders. Spike was poised to attack when Xander ripped the front of his Hawaiian shirt open; buttons landing with a successive series of pings against the walls and floor.
Spike felt his hands being lifted and watched as Xander placed both palm down against his exposed chest. The blast of heat from Xander's skin scalded his palms. He started to pull away only to have Xander crush him against the wall. "Stop fighting me," Xander spoke barely above a whisper. Spike looked up into those big, soft eyes and he felt something inside him crack open.
No one's said that to me since... He shook his head to stop the memory from surfacing.
Xander misunderstood the action and responded. "Yes. We have to get out of here, and as much as it galls me to say, we need your expertise to do it. So just stand there and let me get those nimble fingers of yours all warmed up."
Spike's expression suddenly changed and Xander thought about what he had just said. "You know what I meant!"
Spike fought the smile that threatened to bloom, but only partially succeeded. He half-grinned and fixed his intensity on Xander for the second time since their imprisonment. Xander flushed brightly, then looked away. More heat radiated out from him and Spike began to relax against the wall. It was far from an uncomfortable position to be in. Their bodies melded nicely together.
Spike had never taken a human male for a lover- human women, other vampires, assorted demons- female and male, even a few who had been both, but never a man. As he closed his eyes and laid his head against the wall, he wondered why. If it had been a conscious choice or had he just never met a human man that aroused him?
Spike's fingers instinctively flexed against Xander's pecks. Xander momentarily worried that he was exerting too much pressure on Spike's smaller frame. Hello, Vampire. The little voice inside his head chided him. Why did he keep forgetting that lately?
But Spike was still shaking so badly. Maybe the metal wall you have him pressed up against. Duh! But even as Xander mentally chastised the 'All seeing and annoying voice', he took one of his arms and snaked it around Spike's waist, pulling Spike against him and turning him around so they exchanged positions. Once Xander was against the cold metal he realized why Spike was shivering. It was like ice touching his back with only the thin polyester material of his shirt as a woefully ineffective barrier.
Spike clutched at Xander's chest and inhaled sharply when he felt a warm hand touch his back just above the waistband of his jeans. Once the transition was complete, he relaxed, allowing himself to be held. Spike felt comfortable for the first time since they had accidentally gotten locked inside the room.
His thoughts drifted once again to past lovers, threatening to destroy what little control Spike had left. Self-preservation instincts kicked in and he went to pull away from Xander only to find resistance in the form of that large hand pressed tightly his spine.
Spike dared a look at Xander; he had his head against the metal wall, his eyes closed. Spike could see the thrumming skin directly over his cerotic artery; that would have been enough reason to tear the boy's throat out in the past, but now not only couldn't he do it, thanks to the government chip in his brain, but he found he didn't want to.
Before he had time to delve deeply into the ramifications of what exactly was going on inside his head, Xander's eyes fluttered open. He looked down and saw Spike staring up at him with the strangest look on his face, but in the time it took for Xander's gaze to roam from one bright blue orb to the other, it was gone. A placid mask of indifference covering anything that even hinted at vulnerability.
"I think my fingers are all thawed out." Spike voice was uncharacteristically soft and he kept his eyes level and unyielding.
"You sure?" Xander asked, and was met with a derisive stare from the vampire in his arms.
"I know it's probably been awhile since you were felt up, but we got places to go, demons to pummel."
"Fine," was all Xander said before pulling his body away to walk toward the door. Spike immediately felt the difference, felt his fingers begin to grow dull. He rushed to the lock, nearly knocking Xander over in the process.
By the time Xander reached his previous position beside Spike, all he could make out was a blur of alabaster as Spike's finger worked with the picks. After about two minutes, there was a sharp click and the metal door popped open. Xander grabbed it quickly before it could shut again and held it open for Spike to walk through.
Once they were back out into the warm Sunnydale night, Xander breathed a sigh of relief. "Who would have thought that there'd be a vault like that under a 'Shoe Carnival'?"
"Well you know how birds are about their footwear?" Spike proceeded to demonstrate the point by regaling Xander with the tale of how Dru nearly poked his eye out when he 'innocently' asked her if she was going to wear "those shoes" with the dress she had on. He had asked as a lark, but realized just how un-funny it was when she chucked one of the thick heeled boots at him- promptly knocking him out cold.
The story wasn't that funny, but between it, the animated way Spike was telling it and the relief at finally being free, by the end Xander was laughing so hard that he grabbed onto Spike's shoulder for support. He was sputtering and stammering, squeezing Spike harder by the second. "I can just see you with a big ole heel print smack in the middle of your vamped out forehead." He thumped him in that exact place in order to drive his meaning home.
Spike furrowed his brows together and tried to look menacing only to start snorting himself, finally breaking into a full blown peal of laughter as the two of them crossed the empty parking lot toward Xander's car.
So? What do you guys think? Should I write more or keep this a one shot fic? Let me know whether any of you would read more if I wrote it.
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