Dear Muse:

OK, I've got the dark chocolate Hershey's Kisses restocked, and there's diet Coke in the fridge. I won't let us run out again if you don't make us do strange things with puppets anymore.

Deal?

Signed

The person with the keyboard

I shouldn't try to do fic on Angel night, I always get distracted. But at least it doesn't involve puppets. Angel is prowling around to find out what's happened to Spike

The building in the middle of the development showed activity. Angel circled it carefully. Light showed out of half-blocked windows, and another guard, female this time, leaned in the front doorway. A well-organized group, by the look of it.

A car engine and loud music warned him to duck behind some rubble. A black De Soto squealed tires around the corner and screeched to a stop in front of a set of garage doors. The horn beeped twice, the garage doors rolled up, and the car pulled in.

A male vampire strolled up. "Hey, boss!"

The driver's door opened with a blare of punk rock from the stereo. Spike leaned out and tossed a can of beer over.

"Thanks!"

When the song ended, Spike killed the stereo and climbed out of his reclaimed car, carrying several grocery bags. "Anything fun happen while I was out, Sammy?"

"Sorry, no."

Peeling the wrapper off a pack of cigarettes, Spike nodded at the empty side of the garage. "Where's he taken himself off to?"

"Book shipment, he said."

"Yeah, right," Spike laughed. "He's probably trolling the bus station, with his 'I'm so respectable, look at my shiny foreign car, can I give you a ride, little girl?' routine. Or little boy, depending on his mood."

I warped Connie. I warped Connie. Hee!

Or little boy, depending on his mood."

Giles is a very bad vampire.

VampGiles could be Ripper with fangs....

You think?

Shiny. Want.(but only for a night or so)

The question being, would you survive the night or so? Or, again, do you want to?

Tough question, there.

Before I post this latest installment, I want to thank Deb G for stopping me from pushing for kissage. I can't decide if there will be smoochies or not, but they are taking their time, and I respect that...so Kay POV

Wesley made me stay in and study. I hate how that makes me sound like a punk kid, but it’s true.And I was a punk kid. Not bad, just restless, and not wanting to be sitting in a row of desks all the time. For a while, the demonology was interesting, but after about an hour I wanted to be in high school again, and climb up on the roof and drink beer.But since my encounter with the undead Munchkin, climbing anything didn’t feel the same. Bet he heard that from a lot of people, huh? God, now, he’s got me doing it.

Wesley leaned over to explain something in one of those diagrams, and I could smell that, rather than just thinking about drinking, Wesley had been. He smelled like beer, the weird dark foreign kind.
“You know,” I said, “You should probably watch out for that. At least on the Job, huh? It’s a bad habit. One of the few I can stay away from.”

“I’ll take it under advisement. What bad habit could you have? Apart from your abuse of the King’s English.” He was still poring over some dusty old etching. How can he concentrate so hard for so long? I can only do that on a case, and even then we are running all over the city...whichever city.
“However...”(and my stomach sank. Even though I sometimes thought he worried too much, I wanted him to like me. Respect me. And he wasn’t hard to look at...touching a live body that didn’t know about my last physical would feel very nice) "that was incredibly stupid and irresponsible,fighting that thing without preparing first. You could have been killed, as well as jeopardizing many other lives. I’m not in the habit of handing out ‘attaboys’ as you call them, for that. Even if it was also quite fearless and intrepid.”.

“I’m stubborn...I like to work without a net, and I’ve fucked people I worked with.”

I couldn’t help noticing that, although he looked shocked, I’d gotten his attention out of the monster book. It made me proud, in a really teenage way.
“What?” he asked.

“Don’t look so shocked. You asked for my faults...I gave you some. No skin off my back. What about you? Is there a soccer riot with your name on it, hon? I know you guys can be into that.”

there a soccer riot with your name on it, hon? I know you guys can be into that.

snerk! chortle. hah!