Here's Spike!

 

            “Who’s Spike?” Connor asked for about the millionth time.

            “You just saw him, the blond that came out of nowhere, that’s Spike.”

Connor glared at Gunn.

            “What? That’s Spike!”

            “I got that, Gunn.” Connor replied, slumping down in his chair as Gunn continued to flip through the channels.

Gunn nodded, apparently glad that the matter was settled.

Connor found that it was as pointless to glare at Gunn as it was to try and make Lorne unhappy.

            “I’m gonna grab something to eat,” Connor muttered as he made to leave the couch and leave the bedroom where they were sitting in.

            “Sit,” Gunn called out, not bothering to look away from the screen.

Connor didn’t sat back down, but he didn’t move any further.

            “There’s enough food right there,” Gunn said, pointing to the chips, cookies, and sandwich tray that had been brought in.

            “Well, I want…cereal,” countered Connor.

This time, Gunn did look at him.

            “And why’s that?”

            “Well, I like it…”

Gunn stood.

            “Fine, I’ll go get it.”

Connor frowned.

            “But, you’ll do it wrong!”

Gunn turned back from the door, looking at him strangely.

            “Do cereal wrong? How can that even happen?”

            “Well, uh,” Connor started. The truth was, he wasn’t too certain how to exactly do cereal, or if it could be done wrong.

Heck, Angel poured his cereal and he just ate. But, he wasn’t about to just say that.

            “Too much milk. Or not enough cereal. Anything!”

Connor wasn’t sure, but it looked like Gunn rolled his eyes at him.

            “Please, Junior, sit down. I’m not letting you go downstairs when your dad just sent you up here.”

Connor looked  back at Gunn with a hurt, innocent look on his face. As if the man hadn’t just about read his mind.

            “Gunn, I would never -

Gunn scoffed.

            “Sit,” he said sternly, taking his own seat again.

            “Fine, let me just grab a drink and -

            “Connor, you’re not going anywhere, so stow the act.”

Connor refused to move, wanting desperately to rush downstairs and hating being left out of things that he was deemed ‘too young’ for.

Holtz had never thought of him as too young for anything.

            “You can stay there if you like, Sparky, but you make a move towards the door and I’m taking you down.”

            “I can take you,” he muttered before he even thought of what he was saying.

Sure, he knew he could take the older, black man, but it wasn’t in his best interest. Pulling any kind of stunt on Gunn, especially after his weekend, would just end up with his butt getting roasted.

Gunn turned away from the flat screen to glare at him.

            “You want to test that?”

Connor’s gaze continued to glare back definitely, making Gunn conclude that he would very well take him up to the challenge. Standing up, he made a move towards the boy.

            “Fine, you jerk, I’m not going nowhere!” growled Connor, slumping down on the couch before Gunn could reach him.

            “You better watch it, Connor,” warned Gunn, settling once more into his seat and giving the kid a look.

Not Connor’s best day at all.

~~~~~~~~~

            “Bloody, I’m in hell!” Spike concluded as he tried to grasp that he was in fact, dead. Literally. More so than before.

Though, being a spirit was a little deader than being a vampire. None of the cool side effects that was for sure.

And he was certain that Angel was behind it all.

            “Eh…No,” Lorne said, speaking finally as the shock of seeing the leather clad fellow appear out of the nothing. “LA, but a lot of people make that mistake.”

Spike rolled his eyes, then settled them on Angel. He glared at his grandsire, the poof.

            “Spike, can you at least get out from the desk?”, Angel said, his eyes on the blond still standing in his desk.

Spike, glaring at Angel walked out of the mahogany desk and into the space in front of it.

Wes watched the young vampire as he looked around the room curiously.

            “Spike? What are you doing here?” he questioned.

Spike scoffed, not bothering to look over at him. He never really like the goof anyway.

            “So, you’re Spike??” Fred said, just to be saying something.

To her, Spike did glance. He gave her a once over, seeing her as the least threatening in all the room.

            “Yep,” he replied, carefully walking around to the spot that he had initially appeared.

Something laid chattered on the floor. Spike bent down to see it better, growling when he couldn’t pick it up to inspect it for a closer look.

            “The hell is this!” he yelled frustrated with his lack of a body.

Lorne walked over to him. Though he’d never met the young vampire, he had heard Angel say a thing or two about the blond to not feel threatened by him.

            “What’s the last thing you remember,  ”

Spike sighed, slowly walking over to one of Angel’s lavish couches to sit down…until he remembered that he couldn’t actually sit down.

            “Bloody hell!”

            “Look at it this way, Spike,” Angel said, coming to sit down in front of him. “At least your not slipping through the floor there.”

~~~~~~~~~

Connor was kept in the penthouse all day. He barely got to see any of the gang as they came up for a word with Gunn. Fred was the only one that actually stopped and talked to him, even if only for a brief second. And when he finally got a word in with Wes, the man’s mentioning of school prompted his dad to ask about his homework. Which just got him a glare from Gunn about lying and confinement to the study until it all actually was done.

Which made it just that much harder to listen in on the conversations.

Connor wanted to know more about this Spike character. No one would tell him anything. And he absolutely hated not knowing things.

And not in the sense that school tried to force on him either. No, Connor wanted to know about vital things. Things of actual importance.

Though, he hated to admit it, some of the things that he was learning were pretty cool. And by that, he meant his history class.

With Gunn no longer entertaining him, or allowing him any real source of joy, Connor had nothing but time to actually get through his homework.

There was the laptop in the study, fully connected to high-speed internet, but Fred hadn’t gotten around to it yet about how exactly to work the things, and Gunn said that his knowledge wouldn’t really please Angel. Whatever that meant.

Connor heard Gunn shuffling towards the door before he heard the knock. Luck enough, giving him enough time to hop of the comfy chair in the corner and over to the desk.

            “Come in,” replied Connor, looking intently at his ethics notes.

            “Hey, Sparky,” Gunn said, opening up the door. “Wanna eat? Fred just called up, said she’s grabbing some-

            “Tacos?” said Connor with a wide smile.

Gunn smiled back.

            “Yep! So?”

Connor jumped up, happy to leave his work for his least favorite subject.

Gunn, a little too used to his own diversion tactics, especially when it came to something as sucky as school, gave Connor his patent ‘I’m on to you’ look.

            “What?” Connor asked coming up in front of him.

            “You done here?”

Connor shrugged. He’d done his history, English and religion work, everything else just seemed idiotic. The only other thing he might do would be his language work, but he wasn’t too interested on that either.

            “Yep, all done.”

            “Need me to look over anything?”

Connor eyed the older fighter.

            “Okay, need me to get someone to look anything over for you?”

Connor scoffed.

            “No. Not necessary.”

            “Doesn’t your dad usual look some of that over?”

Connor shrugged, sidestepping Gunn and leaving the study, heading into the bathroom directly in front.

            “Not today, I guess,” answered Connor, shutting the door behind him.

Gunn gave the opened notebook a look before shaking his head. He knew that the lack of attention was bothering the kid, especially from Angel, but tonight wasn’t his night it seemed.

Fred came up a few minutes later, arms loaded with Taco Bell take out bags. Lorne and Wesley both joined them, going over their days and pointedly avoiding the topic of Spike.

After the meal, Fred took Connor back to the study, showing him the basics of the laptop until it was time for him to go to bed. Sighing, Connor tried to stay awake until his dad came in to say goodnight, but by the time his eyes slid shut some two and a half hours past his bedtime the only sounds in the penthouse were those of the rest of the gang in the family room -Lorne and Fred watching a movie while Gunn and Wes played some pool.

~~~~~~~~~

The next morning, Connor was less than pleased to note that his dad’s bed seemed unused. Getting up, he walked into the bathroom and took a quick shower.

Dressed in his slacks and shirt, Connor carried his socks and shoes into the kitchen, tossing them on top of the counter.

            “Dad?” he called out, though he knew that the man wasn’t around. No one seemed to be around.

Connor frowned. His alarm clock had definitely already gone off, so someone had had to of set it. Connor made a point of always ‘forgetting’ to set the thing, so he knew that it wasn’t him.

Sighing, Connor grabbed a box of Cocoa Puffs cereal and a bowl. He’d never had had to make his own breakfast and like he’d thought the night before he didn’t really know if there was a way to mess it up. His dad had always been up to make it for him and the few times that he hadn’t been Fred and Gunn were both their making something.

Turned out, cereal wasn’t that complicated, so Connor didn’t starvation. However, instead of sitting at the counter like he did each morning, Connor took his bowl into the family room, and sat back on the couch. Crossing his ankles over the center table he switched on the TV and smiled at his small rebellion.

            “Whatcha watching there, ” a voice said from behind him.

Connor jumped slightly, spilling some of the cereal’s milk on to the leather couch.

            “Wha- Aww shit!”

Spike walked around the couch, coming up in front of the boy. He was glancing at the TV, watching it with interests.

            “Least he’s got some class, that’s a damn good set,” muttered Spike to himself. “But why are you watching the Real World? Everyone knows that thing’s fake.”

Spike turned to see Connor looking at him intently.

            “What?”

            “What are you doing here?!” Connor asked, looking around as to how the blonde vampire got into the room without his knowing. “How did you get in here?”

Spike shrugged.

            “Thought myself in I guess. Though, not really what I’d thought,” added Spike, taking a better look around the place.

            “Thought  your way in?”

Again Spike shrugged, just as the elevator tinged.

Stepping into the living room, Angel was not happy at what he saw.

            “Spike,” he growled at the vamp.

Both Spike and Connor looked over at him, though both knew it was him the second that the elevator doors had slid open.

            “What are you doing here!”

            “Watching Real World, ‘parently,” groaned Spike in reply.

            “Your not supposed to be here, Spike! Go…think yourself back or something. Get out of the penthouse. And stay away from Connor.”          

            “What?” Connor questioned, looking over at his dad. “Stay away?”

            “Yes! Stay away,” repeated Angel, hoping that would bore into each other. “Don’t even know what the heck you even are, Spike! You want to put other’s in danger?”

Spike sighed, rolling his eyes at the elder vamp.

            “Fred said nothings a-matter with me. I am nothing, so to speak. Ain’t gonna be a harm to the boy,” Spike pointed out.

Angel crossed his arms, shaking his head at the stupidity that was everything Spike said.

            “You’re a harm to everyone around you, Spike.”

            “Hey!”

            “How can he harm me, when he can’t even touch me?” Connor asked, making a point by leaning forward and passing his foot through Spike’s shins.

            “Connor, don’t do that,” Angel said, not too certain why, since the boy was right.

            “Watch it!” growled Spike, taking an unnecessary step away.

Angel walked over to his son, tabbing him on the shoulder.

            “Why don’t you go and get dressed now, Con?”

Connor groaned, hoping that the unexpected appearance would have made the whole school thing slip his dad’s mind.

            “What are you talking about?” Connor asked, turning back to watch the television.

            “Not buying it, son. And…what are you doing eating out of the kitchen?”

Spike rolled his eyes. What was it about the poof that made him want to control everything.

            “Um, eating?”

Angel glared down at him, making Connor groaned and stand up, heading huffily towards the master bedroom and into his ridiculous uniform.

Spike watched the interaction, wondering much about the boy but more about how to use him to get back at Angel.

            “What?”

Spike, snapped out of his thoughts, he turned away from the closed door and to the angsty vamp.

            “What what?”

Angel groaned, not wanting to start anything with Spike.

            “Leave. Now. Bye.”

Angel shut off the TV and then, ignoring Spike all along, headed out of the family room and into the kitchen.  He spotted the black dress socks and shiny black shoes that had no business being on the table. He groaned as he picked them up, intent on going to give them back to his son.

            “My God but you’re anal.”

            “Spike, I said to go away.”

Spike scoffed.

            “Right, like suddenly you’re the boss of me?”

            “What do you want? And how the heck are you sitting on top of the counter? I thought that you were supposed to slip through or something?”

Looking down at the counter that he was currently on, Spike had to shrug. He had no idea how he was doing the things that he was doing. He was pretty new at the whole ghost thing.

            “Dunno. Guess not. Curious.”

Angel shook his head, wondering why he over bothered with the idiot and headed out the kitchen and right into -

            “Gah! Spike!”

Spike laughed. Sure, this whole popping in and out of place was annoying, but it was fun getting Angel all agitated.

            “As for me being here, well isn’t that your department?”

Angel sighed, walking right through Spike and trying to walk on like that totally didn’t freak him out.

            “How about I call you when we’ve got something? Bye Spike.”

Spike, shaking himself from the lack of feeling in his body, just morphed himself out of the penthouse. He’d find out more about Junior later, on his own time.