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prose-for-hire · 4 years ago

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UC Sunnyhell: Part six

Highway from Hell!

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Pairing: Spike x reader

Request: College AU. Set sort of more modern. Part six of eight. You go on a trip with your friends and find yourself realising just how you feel for Spike.

Warning: Alcohol consumption, swearing, sex reference

Original request by: @sunflower-stan

Other tags: @fictionalhoomanfromnowhere @harpersmariano @artsymaddie @shy-ginger-in-the-graveyard @cameo-greaves @llott1e

You and Spike were getting on so much better again. You were enjoying your friendship with him, you almost didn’t want to leave him. You knew you would really miss him.

You were packing for your trip. You and your friend group were going to the coast for a weekend trip with your friends. It also happened to coincide with spring break.

You were really excited, you had never done anything like this before and you were practically gushing. And packing way more than you needed for a long weekend. Spike was lying back on your bed, some of your discarded clothes surrounding him as you gushed about the trip.

He hadn’t been welcome to join your friends (which upset you a little) and he had insisted he wouldn’t be seen dead going on spring break. He maintained that it was expensive and stupid so he never went. He teased you about it, but you knew now that it was his way of showing his affection. A kind of endearment that only worked now you knew him.

You shrugged and continued packing. He eyed some of your swimwear and raised an eyebrow and you took it back from him with a warning look that he found sweet. He chuckled slightly, mock-surrendering. He wished he could see you with so little on. Wished you wanted him to. Wished to drink in your form.

You turned away and shook your head. He couldn’t help scanning his eyes along your body when you turned away though, imagining you wearing that. Wearing it because you knew he liked it. Wearing it because you enjoyed his eyes on you.

God, he had it so bad. He loved your mind. The way you smiled at him, the way it lit up your features. He wanted to kiss your lips. Hear your voice. That tone of yours, it comforted him to no end to hear it. He loved the way you smelled, that natural scent. Just sitting in your room even, becoming enveloped by it. By you.

“You gonna go wild then - on this trip?” He asked lazily, using his hand to gesture with his words.

“Wild? Do you think I’ve ever gone wild before Spike?” You couldn’t help scoff at his words. He frowned, he wasn’t so sure. You weren’t as innocent and boring as he thought upon his first impression. You would tease him, especially more so recently. You weren’t afraid of sex or intimacy. But he still continued his line of thought anyway.

“Spring break, ain’t it? Gets everyone all worked up right?” he said this, a hint of anxiety in his voice. He still didn’t enjoy the potential for people that weren’t him catching your eyes. Sharing your body. Bed.

In fact, it made him angry. Pulsating with jealousy. Throbbing with a fury he could barely keep at bay. Never at you, he wasn’t mad at you. Could never be. Not anymore.

He looked up at you, daring to see your reaction. In case he had shown his hand. In case you had caught the anxiety on his face. That he would lose your time. Your sweet mind. Words.

Couldn’t bare it if anything changed.

But you were still smiling. You always did when it was you and him. Rather than fuel his words, you instead tried to close your suitcase, but it wouldn’t shut properly.

He had been frowning slightly as you spoke about the trip. He was really going to miss having you around the house. Sharing your spare time together. Those nights in. He was fast becoming consumed by you and the thought of spending even this little time apart was starting to make him a little lacking. He liked to be by your side. In your company.

The amount of times he had chosen to stay in rather than leave the house was now becoming more apparent to you. You had noticed but never mentioned it. You just guessed he had been leaving so often before just so he didn’t have to spend time with you when you didn’t like each other.

He got up from his spot on the bed. Launching himself off the side as he usually would before he moved to you. Reaching for the case to help you close it. You smiled him and he almost leaned into you and expressed the raw emotions he had to push down when you were around.

Instead, he just looked down. At the case. You closed it together, pressing the case down and eventually managing to zip it up.

His hand brushed against yours and you shivered. Glancing at him sideways as he moved his hand away slightly too quickly. How he wished he could have kept his hands there. His skin against yours. That thought sounded so good to him.

You had figured it out. Finally. That you had feelings for him. That all that time you spent with him would never be enough. You had looked over from your side of the sofa one evening and caught him in a certain light. The glow from the tv managed to accentuate those beautiful features of his and suddenly you felt it. How deeply you cared for him. How easily you could see yourself in his arms, or better wrapped around each other in bed.

You had been thinking about these feelings, that moment you had realised, rather than focusing on what you had been doing. You were staring at him. Again.

You were snapped out of these thoughts though. He smiled, about to say something but you became distracted. His face dropped as he heard it too.

You heard a noise getting closer, loud music vibrating against the house from outside. Oz had pulled up in the van outside your shared house and you called your goodbye to Spike before running to join your friends.

You were squished into the window side of the van with Cordy and Xander making full use of the backseat despite you and Buffy sharing it with them. Willow was in the passenger seat sorting through Oz’s extensive cassettes trying to find something else to put on. They were good friends again despite their past.

It truly felt as if you were driving away from hell itself. You all felt lighter the further down the highway you went. The further towards your destination. It meant a break, it meant carefree fun with your friends. You were already having fun, giggling and joking together.

A classic rock song began to play. Loud and it instantly lit everyone’s faces up. Everyone began to sing along at the top of their lungs, including yourself. No matter how in tune any of you were, it was freeing to be able to scream along in this way. Even Cordy and Xander had come up for air. It was as if you were in a coming-of-age movie, the weekend was full of possibilities and you were ready to just relax and perhaps sift through the way you truly felt… if you had time between the parties Cordelia had told you that you were going to. She had planned out a way for you to hit all of the coolest parties with almost military precision.

You stopped off a few times, grabbing more snacks and trying to figure out the right direction. Xander challenged everyone to a game of how many snacks you could throw up and catch in your mouth which just made a mess of the back of Oz’s van. Buffy explained that Angel was already at a party and waiting for everyone to arrive. This then launched into a conversation about the battle plan you had all decided upon to finally get Buffy and Angel together.

You began to stare out of the van’s window after a while, no matter how happy you were your mind wasn’t far from him. Wondering what he might be doing. Who he might be with. God, sometimes it made you ache to think he’d rather have strangers in his bed than you.

You became lost in thought as you ate some of the last remaining snacks. You couldn’t help but think just how much you longed to be with him. How much you wished he would choose you over the rest of those vying for his attention. Your soul ached for him, you could feel it. You wished he had thought you were being serious when you invited him to come. But he had just scoffed at you in that way he does.

You had it bad. You even adored the way he scoffed at you. The way he teased. You loved the ugly parts of him just as much as the good. Wait… you loved him? Of course you loved him. It’s Spike.

This revelation, of how deeply you had fallen for him was spinning around your mind for the rest of the journey. A tornado, ripping everything you thought you knew apart. You wished he was here, beside you. You wished that he felt the same as you.

It was dusk by the time you got to the motel you were staying at. once you arrived you found out you had to wait for your room to be cleaned up before you could settle your stuff in. They let you leave your belongings behind reception for safety and you all went to hit the beach party that was already in full swing.

It was so alive, the party had a mind of it’s own. An entity of itself. Wild and unstoppable. You were marginally more comfortable here than at a frat party. You knew less people and you could just focus on having fun with your friends. However, you still felt as if there was something missing.

Something. Or perhaps, someone…

Just as your mind cast towards him, you thought you saw a glimpse of a familiar face.

Bleach blonde hair. Leather.

You moved through the sea of people looking for a better view. Spilling beer over people as you went in your haste. You so hoped your eyes hadn’t deceived you. But, when you got to the spot, there was nobody you recognised around. He couldn’t have moved that fast. You shrugged, walking back to your friends.

A smile on your face as you saw Buffy walk up to Angel and whisper something in his ear. She lead him away from the crowd and you laughed at Xander’s stupid comments about him.

You pulled your friends back over to dance. You began to really enjoy the evening, this band was playing just before Dingoes had managed to score their set.

You kept seeing flashes of his face no matter where you looked or how energetically you danced to try and shake the imprint of him that appeared to be stamped into your vision. As if you at stared at light too long and he would slowly fade at some point. Although, you so hoped he wouldn’t disappear from view. Even like this.

It made you miss him though. More than you even thought possible. You saw things you wish you could tell him about. In your head, you heard his voice commenting something snide that would make you laugh. He was in everything. He was everywhere you turned.

And it just made the fact he wasn’t really there with you more apparent. Not to mention, you didn’t think he could possibly feel as deeply as you did. Everything was bubbling to the surface, all these feelings you hadn’t acknowledged were all descending on you now.

He always made you feel more comfortable. More at ease. He made you want to share yourself in a way you never had before. It made you feel things you had only ever dreamed about. Written feverishly about without truly getting it until this very moment.

You wondered if Spike had ever felt this way. Love.

You looked up from the red cup you were drinking from and directly into his eyes. Everything was still happening around you, the party was still raging on. But it felt as if time had stopped, only briefly but you were sure of it. And unbeknownst to you, he felt it too. It was only the two of you.

You stepped towards him, this time you had no doubts. It truly was him. The face you thought you had been imagining. Because you couldn’t stop thinking about him so much. Spike. He was there. He was really there.

“Spike!” You exclaimed, the smile on your face widening which he couldn’t help but match at your reception, “What are you doing here?!”

You grinned about to launch yourself at him in a hug that he would have adored. But you hesitated and held yourself back, worrying he may figure out how you felt. You felt self conscious of your movements now you acknowledged your feelings. But even such innocent contact would have made him dizzy. God, he was a fool for love. For you.

“Thought I’d drop in. Prove myself right” He shrugged, swigging from a bottle of beer.

“Well… it’s really great you’re here! Why don’t you come and join us?” You smiled, your cheeks aching from how wide it was. You gestured towards your friends and his face dropped slightly.

“Not on your bloody life” he looked over to where Angel and Buffy were dancing together and to where some of your other friends were drinking and laughing. That wasn’t his life. He didn’t fit in with any of them. They didn’t trust him. Didn’t like him. Because he didn’t have the same interests as them. Same morals.

They thought they were so much better than him, which is why it always confused him so much how easily you got on with them. To him, you were more similar to him. A soul that spoke to his own. You belonged with him. By his side. Not theirs.

“Well, then... just one dance? Please? Nobody will know, everyone’s probably drunk already” You whispered, your hand reaching for his.

Your confidence had decidedly sprung from nowhere but if you hadn’t taken this chance, you would have regretted it. His eyes widened in panic as he watched your hand reach for him. But he didn’t move. His hand was hard, stuck in place as you took it. It almost made you let go again, until he relaxed slightly. You were so sweet to him - he just couldn’t resist you.

Couldn’t resist the idea that you wanted to dance with him. Only him. He had been watching you from afar, you hadn’t asked anyone else to dance with you. Just him. This filled him with a kind of pride, that you liked him in this way. That perhaps there was hope.

You took the hand that you had kept in his and pulled him into the crowd, away from your friends so you could have a sense of privacy amongst the writhing bodies of strangers.

You began to get a little bolder, pressing your body a bit closer which made him smirk. He opened his mouth, as if to say something. He closed his eyes slowly at the proximity, he swallowed thickly. He felt lucky to even be in your presence in this moment.

You pulled away a little, still dancing. Your hand never far from his. You wanted to weave your fingers between his but decided that gesture would be more intimate than you wished to reveal. The alcohol and the way he softened around you had made you a little braver, but not by all that much.

He whispered something jokingly in your ear that left you laughing, his face turned up into a smile. The widest you had ever seen from him. Especially in public. God, he wanted so badly so lean in and kiss you but he was concerned how you would react. Couldn’t lose you. Or this. It was starting to mean too much and it scared him.

Being this close and not being able to do anything about it was almost painful. He wanted you in every way. He ached for you, longed for you in every sense imaginable. He dipped and moved against you again, his own hands becoming bolder as he held you against him.

You were about to muster up the courage to say something to him. Hint at how much this meant. How this moment made you so happy you felt as if you could happily die by his side. Your last moments would have been the greatest. Because you had all of his attention. His touch. Even the whisper of more, if you ignored the doubts that usually plagued you.

However, you were quickly pulled apart from each other. You were about to shout at the offending party, never mind spike, but when you looked your eyes bulged. It was Cordelia. Seeking to protect you from Spike.

She took a deep breath as if she were about to launch into some kind of argument, but instead she stared him down, said “ew” in his face and then pulled you away. Spike opened his mouth to say something back but you got swallowed by the crowd. You had slipped through his fingers again.

You wished you had leaned in when you had the chance. You just didn’t know how he would react. You believed that he was so painfully honest and so real to himself that if he had an interest he would say something.

You wanted to kiss him. To let him in, completely. Which was dangerous. You knew about everything the others said. About everything he himself had said. But you couldn’t help it. Nobody knew him like you did, you were so sure of it. You were fast beginning to fall for him and you weren’t able to do anything to stop it.

You felt like an idiot. Of course he was too cool for you. He was the kind that broke hearts and smoked and kept a string of one-night stands. You were better off as friends… right?

You kept looking for him through the rest of the night but managed to just miss him each time. He saw you but didn’t guess for a second that you could be looking for him. Buffy had probably lost an earring and told you all to look for it, he presumed. She did seem to be bossy in that way, to him anyway.

You began to drink less, instead scouting the crowd between trying to keep up with your friends. You barely cracked a smile when you saw that Angel and Buffy were finally talking after dragging their feet for as long as possible. Eventually, knowing how invested you had been in getting them together, Willow noticed and pulled you aside. She worried when you had that look on your face. Sometimes you appeared lost - just staring into space. She didn’t realise you were usually trying to understand your feelings. Well, not until you blurted it out to her anyway.

“Will, I like Spike” You shouted into her ear, over the thumping of the music. It was so freeing to say it out loud and you continued, “I think I really like him!” You shouted louder and she almost stepped back at the force of your feelings. As if she could physically feel the shocking words. They slapped her in the face and she stayed silent for a moment. She was concerned.

“You should be careful, he looks at you as if he wants to eat you or something” Willow furrowed her brow. You held back the suggestive look you could have given her that could only have transferred to you since you had been spending so much time with the man himself.

She was staring beside you, to a spot on the periphery of the beach. She snapped her eyes away but not before you turned to look. There he was shrugging someone off him. You couldn’t tell if they were coming onto him or trying to start a fight with him and really it could have been either. His eyes instead boring into yours. Transfixed on you. You snapped away, feeling your cheeks heating up and you couldn’t blame it on the alcohol anymore.

You looked back to Willow who didn’t seem to want to let you go over there. It was as if she could read your mind, it was almost spooky. You had spotted him, much to your friend’s apparent distaste. You slowly walked over to him, leaving Willow watching you in concern.

“I found you again” You said quietly. You were sure he probably couldn’t hear you over the music but he had. And he had savoured every last syllable. The way you looked this evening, it knocked him breathless. The way you appeared under the moonlight. Your attention all his even if it was just for this brief moment.

“Just looking for one of those abandoned beach houses”

“Why?”

“Man’s gotta sleep some time.” he shrugged.

Spike didn’t have anywhere to crash. At the furrow in your brow, he mentioned something vague about finding a sofa or something instead as if he knew anybody in town. He hadn’t actually expected you to offer him somewhere to stay. Figured you had probably had enough of him seeing as you lived together all of the time.

But of course you offered for him to come back to your motel. You would have room, you were pretty sure that they gave you two single beds like the one you saw in Buffy and Willow’s room.

You were the only one with a motel room to yourself. Buffy and Willow were sharing – Tara hadn’t been able to come on the trip but insisted that Willow still should. Willow had been on her phone checking in with Tara the entire time. Oz was sleeping in his van and insisted he was fine there when you asked if he needed somewhere to stay. Cordy and Xander were sharing because it was more comfortable than the back of a car and Angel was staying with one of his frat buddies.

He lit up at your offer. Eyes dropping to the floor before looking back to your face. Head tilting slightly, scanning your face and finding only sincerity. Concern. How much you cared. He was really pleased you would offer. Want him to have somewhere to stay despite him dropping by unannounced and completely out of character.

You both decided to leave after a while, it wasn’t really Spike’s scene anyway and you were happy to spend more time with him. You walked back the way you kind of remembered and grabbed your stuff, ignoring the disapproving look you got from the woman behind the counter for bringing someone back with you. Spike muttered a few choice words about her that made you feel less embarrassed and he took your bag off you and carried it to the room.

You were both laughing as you stepped inside. It only subsided a little when you saw it. Spike’s face went white. Your laugh turned a little nervous. You would have never guessed it could be this. It was something that you had only ever heard about. Something you couldn’t have even fathomed would have happened to you.

There… there was only one bed.

You looked at each other for a moment. Both of you would have jumped at the chance of sharing in an ideal world. Where feelings didn’t choke you on every other word and the idea of having even such innocent intimacy made you dizzy.

“I-I can take the floor” You offered quickly. Which was the opposite of what you wanted to say. You wanted to slip into bed beside him. Press your body against his.

“Now, don’t start with that rot – I’ll take the floor. Slept on worse believe me” He insisted, already snatching up a pillow and arranging a thin sheet on the floor. It looked anything but comfortable but he wouldn’t hear your insistence.

You both got ready for bed in silence. You had only a little more to do than Spike, who’s nightly routine consisted of taking his t-shirt off and slinging it to the other side of the room. He would usually sleep naked but learned that would be inappropriate based on how your eyes had bulged upon your first meeting.

You didn’t really speak as easily as you had earlier, everything felt a little stilted. Awkward at even the whisper of the idea that you could have been sharing a bed. With you, that idea was a sacred one and so he didn’t lay on his usual charm to get himself to slide in beside you. He was uncharacteristically bashful about the arrangement but didn’t let it show.

You both instead opted to go straight to bed, turning the lights out and hoping that sleep would be quick. But, of course, that would never happen.

It had been a few hours now and you were both yet to fall asleep. Both of your courage had been growing as the night wore on. You felt bad being in the bed. You were moving around a lot, unable to relax in one position. You could also hear him shifting uncomfortably every so often. His back wasn’t taking to the floor.

“Spike… are you awake?” You asked through the darkness.

“No”

“Spike…”

“Can’t hear myself think with all that tossin’ and bloody turning you’ve been doing” He muttered. His voice was gruff but you could tell he was letting you off lightly.

“I was thinking… it’s not right you being on the floor-”

“Told you, I’ve had worse-”

“I was wondering if you wanted to, uh, share… the bed I mean” You said this so slowly. Barely above a whisper. You were scared he was going to tease you. Say the last thing he would ever want to do was be near you.

However, he was so surprised at your offer he forgot to make a suggestive comment. You weren’t offering anything, he knew that. But his heart began to soar.

He lifted himself up to look at you, squinting through the darkness - ensuring you were being sincere. This was all he had ever wanted recently. To be in bed beside you. To be that close, for you to want him there.

It filled him full of hope. Hope that he tried desperately to push down. He was used to disappointment. He so wished to wrap his arms around you and have you wish to embrace him in return. He didn’t want his face to betray him, show you just how much this meant to him. Not yet at least.

He was satisfied you meant it and slowly, as if moving too fast would make you change your mind, took his pillow and walked towards the bed. You hitched over to one side, bringing your pillow. Giving him space to settle. You couldn’t help but smile a little as he slid beside you. Although he kept a lot further away from you than you found yourself hoping he would.

There was a clear boundary line. One you were both nervous to cross. You both stayed on your respective sides of the bed as you lay awake dreaming for more. He wanted to reach for you, to whisper things that only this time of night emboldened him to. But he didn’t.

He stayed awake purposely now. He cursed himself for being such a lovesick fool but he wanted to savour every moment of laying here beside you. He heard you begin to breath deeper. Slipping into a contented sleep.

Knowing he was beside you, you felt almost protected. Safer. It allowed you to sleep peacefully, maybe deeper than you had in a while. You couldn’t describe it - you had never consciously noticed you had slept all that badly. But with how noticeably easier it was to have a restful sleep, it was now clear. It was as if you were… at peace.

As the morning sun began to wake and stretch its golden rays, you woke up. It was a pleasant feeling. A soft one. Especially when you shifted slightly and realised that you were being cradled by strong arms. You smiled, half asleep nestling further into their grip. The smell, it was familiar. It made you feel safe. Content. You moved back slightly. Pressing yourself flush to the body lying against you.

Your bodies had found each other in the night. Subconsciously moved towards each other. As if your sleepy states could share something that you hadn’t been able to when awake.

As you began to wake up properly, you tensed. Realising who had their arms around you. This sudden movement jolted you awake. You pulled you in tighter on instinct before completely pulling away and almost rolling from the bed in his shock at how you had spent the night.

He had sprung from you and so you mirrored his action. Your faces in shock. You were both, for once, speechless. Unsure what this meant. If the other was silent because they were horrified or possibly… pleased that this had happened?

God, you could only hope. Neither of you knew what to do or say. You just stared at the other from across the bed. The bed you had shared such soft intimacy.

You instead grabbed your stuff and went into the adjoining bathroom to get ready for the day. When you were finished, he had left. Your heart sunk. You didn’t know what to think.

You were scared he would go back to how he had been when you first met. Not wanting to even know you. Or tease you because of how you had shifted against him. Because he hated that he shared vulnerability with you. So he would distance himself again. You really couldn’t bear it if he did any of that. You wanted him close again. Your skin felt cold without his touch.

Since that evening neither of you could stop thinking about the other. More so than you ever had been. You were both consumed. Wholly.

Your mind was distracted, although you were having fun with your friends. You went to the beach a lot and plenty of parties but your mind couldn’t help moving to him every so often. The thought of sharing a bed with him. Having him by your side. It made you giddy.

You wanted him against you. His skin pressed against yours. His lips grazing yours. Hushed tones promising affection. Promising the world. You craved it. Craved him.

Both of you thought of the other. Longed for more through your respective days. Wished against everything that you could return to the other’s arms. But for Spike to let you in any further, he had to be sure. He so wanted to let you in but he didn’t want to get burned in the way that he was used to.

You crossed paths but managed to miss each other. Whether it was intentional or not on the other’s part you weren’t sure. But you sorely missed the other. It had only been a day or two and yet the space that the other held in your heart and mind was growing by the second.

He finally returned to the motel the night before you were set to return back to Sunnydale. You were worried he wouldn’t come back. You couldn’t help but smile when you saw him enter. He looked a little awkwardly around to begin with. You couldn’t look each other in the eyes straight away. You hadn’t spoken since you had been that close. It ached even now, to have him stood there and not be able to reach for him less he breaks your heart.

Spike had done some depraved things with a random swathe of the general public. He had tried it all but had never been rendered this speechless to face someone after spending the night in their bed. All you had done was cuddle up together and he could feel himself almost blushing at the idea of facing you.

You smiled slightly when you saw it was him. He had even knocked before he entered. You held yourself back from launching yourself at him and pulling him under your bedclothes. You instead spoke to fill the space. You asked if he wanted to travel back in Oz’s van with you and your friends but he muttered something about sticking something large and wooden through his chest instead.

You had been reading when he walked in, so instead he changed the subject. Not wanting you to hear his nasty comments – rather he wanted you to think of him and remember good things. He began to discuss the you the book with you. He had read it himself and was now managing to find his voice at last. You spoke animatedly and he smiled softly. Admired the way you had such enthusiasm.

He was watching your lips as you spoke. Even in the dim light of the room, to him you looked ethereal. As if you were glowing. He almost succumbed to his thoughts and spilled this aloud but something stopped him. An insecurity he had repressed perhaps.

Eventually you put your book away and began to move as if to turn off the lights. He took a pillow from the bed and began to move to a spot on the floor. You frowned and you spoke before you had a chance to stop yourself.

“Are you not taking the bed tonight?” You asked lightly, turning over to face away from him as you said it. Your heart was beating dangerously out of your chest. You didn’t realise but his would be too. Completely in time with yours.

You had hitched over to the same side as last time when you rolled over. Leaving him space to slide in beside you. You weren’t sure if he would take you up on your offer. Waiting was agony. He hadn’t replied and the silence was deafening. You started to become embarrassed at your offer. At the way he hadn’t replied.

Until you felt it. The bed dipped in beside you. He had slid into bed again. He lay facing you but left a notable space between you. You hadn’t realised but you had been holding your breath until he settled beside you. This meant so much.

After a moment, you turned to face him cautiously, gauging his expression. It was guarded but his arms began to move, snaking around you and when you smiled his actions became less tentative. It was a small smile that you shared but it meant so much. You pressed yourself closer, cradling him against you further.

It wasn’t an accident that night. It was confirmed to you. You cuddled on purpose. Shared something precious. Warmth and intimacy and hushed whispers filled your hearts. Neither of you wanted to succumb to sleep in case this wasn’t real in the morning.

You eventually fell asleep in the early hours, as the threat of light had began to intrude through the window. Wrapped around each other. It was the purest bliss. You never wanted to leave this moment. You just wanted to stay, arms draped around the other. As if you could take on the world. Protect each other. As if it was only the two of you that mattered in that moment.

You jumped awake, however, still tangled against him. You had overslept. You were late for the trip back. You were going to take the long way and stop off somewhere Cordy knew that was apparently insta-worthy. You rushed about to pack up and decided to leave him the key for when he woke up with a little note.

You turned to look at him, still sleeping before you left. But his eyes were open. That look in his eye, one you wouldn’t forget. He appeared almost forlorn that you were going to leave him that way. But you smiled, it was a warm smile. One that told him you didn’t regret a thing. That you had been right there with him.

He held onto that smile, the corners of his own mouth tugging slightly. He nodded his head and you turned and left. Hurrying to the others before they left without you.

You were doing dangerous things to him. Giving him hope. Hope that you could be more than friends…

#uc sunnyhell #spike x reader #spike imagine #spike x you #btvs #Buffy The Vampire Slayer #buffy the vampire slayer imagines #btvs imagine #btvs x reader #btvs x you #spike fic #gn reader #gender neutral

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prose-for-hire · 4 years ago

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UC Sunnyhell: Part five

Hello Jealousy!

Previous part // Next Part

Pairing: Spike x reader

Request: College AU. Part five of eight. Spike is the campus bad boy with a secret soft heart. Spike realises something as he faces more time without you.

Warning: I think only like a little sex reference on this one.

Original request by: @sunflower-stan

Other tags: @fictionalhoomanofnowhere @harpersmariano @artsymaddie @shy-ginger-in-the-graveyard @cameo-greaves

You began to get comfortable around Spike. More so than you ever believed could be possible. He let you in more and it made you want to allow him to know you even more.

You were getting on well. It was strange and you hadn’t really been able to express it to your other group of friends but you really found yourself enjoying his company. He was sweet in a kind of gruff way. He never really showed much emotion on his face other than a scowl before now. But now you were getting to know him more, you could sense subtle changes in his demeanour.

Like how he was much more comfortable when he was at home. When he was in your company now he could almost… relax. You could both be yourselves in a way you never truly felt with anyone else.

Today you were trying something new together. You were sat in his room. A place you had never been invited before. He even opened the windows so you didn’t asphyxiate from the smoke fumes that appeared to cling to every piece of furniture.

You looked around it, smiling at the way it just screamed ‘Spike’. It was pretty dark, even with the curtains open.

You and Spike had been writing. Together. It was strange and very new but you found yourself enjoying it so much. To have a friend that understood. A friend that wanted to explore life through writing. Through words that can describe complex emotions that you would otherwise never be able to capture properly. To discuss it with him, even if you were doing most of the talking, it was so pleasant.

You would pause every so often and share little lines or swap and read through the other’s work and both be desperately nervous for the other’s approval. Neither of you need worry though, you were so entranced by the others mind. You hoped this would become a regular thing, it was special.

However there were other things clouding your mind. It was getting closer and closer to the presentation and you and Angel were out together more frequently. You were making sure to drop some good words in for Buffy here and there. You found yourself getting on quite well with him, you often found him reading while he was waiting for you. Sometimes you spoke about the book if the both of you had read it. He was a lot more sensitive than you had guessed upon first meeting.

It was actually really nice getting to know this popular frat guy, much more so than you had expected to be. You knew what Buffy saw in him. He wasn’t necessarily your type though. Although what your type was, you were still yet to realise. It still hadn’t quite clicked yet to you.

The presentation was on your mind a lot, you were still working on your confidence despite you now being a frequent performer at the open-mic nights. Luckily, you had your friends to distract you. You were sat with your group at lunch. You had all been laughing really loud. You had been laughing so hard your tummy began to ache. None of you could stop it, your humours matched. It was infectious. As soon as it began to die down, suddenly one of you caught it again and sent a wave around the rest of them.

Eventually the laughter died down as different people had different places they needed to go. The others had to go but you and Cordelia didn’t have any more classes for the rest of the day. She was going to cheer practice in an hour and you would go to the library or something when she did so you didn’t look like a complete loner (although nobody would have really been bothered if you had just been sitting alone).

Talk, as it so often did when it was you and Cordy, turned to mindless gossip. You enjoyed it usually she knew pretty much everything about everyone. But today, her sole focus was on Xander. She was complaining about how she couldn’t help that she got a lot of attention from people because she was so pretty. She like being pretty, she did it on purpose but Xander didn’t enjoy the way people would stare.

“So, why shouldn’t people appreciate me if they like the way I look?” She complained with a pout.

“I get that” You offered, nodding along. You were a good listener and Cordy liked this about you.

“Well, Xander doesn’t! Someone even looks at me and it’s like, hello jealousy, y’know?” You nodded along as you usually did, not realising how pertinent this phrase was about to be to your own life. You usually switched off from the conversation when Cordy spoke about Xander. They were so hot and cold no matter what advice you gave her she tended to do the opposite anyway. They weren’t particularly bad for each other they just got hung up on stupid stuff.

Thankfully, Cordy gave you a reprieve. She stopped the conversation, looking up with the meanest expression she could muster. You frowned, looking behind you. Revealing none other than Spike standing behind you.

He had come over to say hello to you. Bracing the cruel eyes of the canteen to get to you. You couldn’t help smiling, it brightened up his day to see you react that way at seeing him.

“Go away, you’re looking at me!” She scowled at him, trying to shoo him from your table as if he were a stray dog asking for scraps.

“Don’t worry, young dumb and full of-” Spike had started and you mimed at him pleadingly not to finish that sentence. To both yours and his surprise, he did. He cut himself off and changed tac, “-stupid thoughts… isn’t my type”

“Oh, God, why is he even speaking to me?! Shut up Spike your type is, like, anything that moves”

“Listen here you stupid bint-”

“No, you listen here you punk reject! Nobody wants you around here, look at yourself! You’re so gross”

You cringed at what they both said. Not knowing what to say yourself. You stayed silent and this was suddenly noticed by them. They looked at you for support and you groaned. This wasn’t working out. One wrong move and the other would try to cut you out of their lives. They both had reputations for being mean but they were both nicer to you than most. You wanted it to stay that way. You valued both of their friendships.

“I, uh, have somewhere to be. Please don’t rip each other to shreds” You offered, suggesting that you weren’t picking a side as you slid everything from the table and into your bag and hurried off.

After this, Spike had decided the fact that you didn’t side with Cordelia was a good sign. He so wanted to see the obvious good in you. Have you as a friend he could rely on. Share his time and his thoughts with you. His mind. Having you in his room, to himself, speaking those words he had started to want to hear more and more of.

You had been lying on your bed when he knocked on the door. It had been less forceful than his usual knock and it made you frown. Almost as if he was nervous to enter. You sat up, calling for him to come in if he wanted. He entered, with something in his hands. He stumbled over his words as soon as he stepped into your room.

“I, uh, found these… they’re really stupid. But I, uh, though you might like ‘em” He said, thrusting the plastic bag into your hands and looking away immediately. You peered into the bag, gasping in excitement.

Old movie scores. Musical numbers. Soundtracks.

Your eyes watered at the thought. To have a friend that thought about you. Wanted to make you smile.

“They were cheap” He shrugged, as if you had stopped this way because of the quality and not as how special this gesture was. How much it meant to you.

You threw yourself at him, getting overexcited in the moment and tried to hug him. He stiffened, his body completely rigid as you did. He didn’t know what to do with him self. In one sense, he was beside himself. Couldn’t shake the elation that you had wanted to hug him. On the other, he was embarrassed. Wasn’t sure what to do with his hands.

He wanted to reciprocate the feeling, the warmth of the embrace, but he was still afraid that any show of vulnerability could open him to ridicule. Could make you jeer at him. His hands moved to hover over your body for a moment before they briefly contacted your skin.

You pulled away, his hands now lingering slightly now as you did. He almost felt as if he wanted to pull you back in for another hug. But… that would be absurd. Right?

“You wanna listen to them with me?!” You asked, an excited smile on your face. He couldn’t resist. He rolled his eyes but then nodded softly as you selected one to play.

Spike was sat in the shared living space. One that you both now truly shared. Spending your evenings laughing and making fun of something dumb on tv or just talking. He loved it when you leaned in to turn the set down so you and him could just talk. You had done this well into the night on several occasions.

He shouted for you from where he was sat on the sofa. He asked if you want to watch something on the box – that you can study or whatever later. He turned and saw that you were dressed up a little more than you usually would for lounging around the house. He subtly scanned his eyes along your form as he spoke.

“We goin’ to a party, love? Type with, say, free booze?” He tried his luck but you shook your head. He couldn’t help feel such acute disappointment that you had rejected it so quickly.

“No, just meeting a friend” you explain softly. You didn’t mention who it was, that you were going to have a drink with Angel and talk about your presentation. You knew how much Spike hated Angel. And you didn’t owe him an explanation about where you were going anyway. He never told you. So... why did you feel a little guilty to leave him this way?

You shrugged. Instead, you waved your goodbye with a little smile that he was beginning to find endearing.

He frowned at the idea of you leaving, something was bugging him and he couldn’t figure out what. He didn’t want you to go out and leave him lonely. He valued your friendship so much. He wanted you to come back and spend the evening with him. The way he usually pretty much always chose to stay in with you.

The feeling had been there for a while now, building up in his mind. He hadn’t even identified it until it had started to push itself to the forefront of his mind. He frowned but shrugged. Turning back to the tv for company.

It had been a few weeks since you went out for that evening and Spike had noticed you had been really busy lately. Instead of your time being his, spent in the house like you usually would, you had been out almost every day.

And, when you weren’t out, you were smiling at your phone. He caught you laughing out loud once. It made him tense his jaw. Mutter under his breath. You barely looked up to the tv anymore when you were sat together, let alone at him. Not that… he needed you to look at him, obviously. You hadn’t written together for over a week though either. You were busy messaging people he would insist he was too cool for.

It bugged him to no end though. That even in his company you would rather be talking to other people. He almost felt as if he wasn’t enough. As if you wanted to be away from him despite your insistence that he was someone you now considered a good friend.

On one rare occasion you deigned to stay in with him (an evening you had enjoyed more than any in that week because you could finally relax). It had gotten too much for him though. His annoyance that you had been using your phone so much rather than giving him attention he had started to crave. He ended up checking through your phone.

You had just left it lying there while you went into your bedroom to get something – what was he supposed to do?

He swiped it from the arm of the chair where it had been left. He opened it up and scrolled through your messages. Finding something that made his stomach drop. It left a sour taste in his mouth.

Angel. You were sat beside him but texting Angel. Sending him smiley faces and sweet replies. He tensed his jaw, a stone in the pit of his stomach. This feeling he couldn’t name weighing him down.

He had become suspicious. Of your intentions. There was a weird distance when you thought you had become friends. It made you a little upset. You didn’t know whether to broach it with him, you wanted to just enjoy your time with him.

Another evening and you were going out again. The library and then some dumb party after. Spike hadn’t caught where or he would have crashed. He knew how nervous you could get. Wanted to make sure you came back safe.

Came back to… him.

He frowned. That was a weird thought. Still, he shrugged it off and looked back towards you. He didn’t realise how much he had needed a friend. No, not just any friend. You. He couldn’t get over just how much he enjoyed having you around.

“Don’t go” He had whispered as you left, it was inaudible to you. He frowned at himself again. At the way he heard the pleading note in his voice. About how much that sentence really meant.

He refused to think about it. To delve deeper inside. To get why he had thought this. He just couldn’t. Not yet.

Instead, he lit up a cigarette and walked to the liquor store. He planned on taking the bottle to bed with him tonight rather than some cheap imitation of…

You frowned as you walked. Wishing you could spend time in and feel that bond you had started to become so sure of with Spike.

He drank to forget. His loneliness. The fact that he didn’t have you this evening. He found himself looking forward to every moment you would spend together. Just talking. Laughing.

Another afternoon rolled by where he had been staying in in the hopes of you being around the house too. The roles appeared to have switched since you began to get to know each other. Ever since he had found a real connection, a proper friendship, he had wanted to cling to it.

But you were now more popular than ever, having to split yourself between so many people. Because they all saw in you what he did, how kind you were. How nice it is to be in your company.

“Alright, pet?”

“Yeah, you know. Busy” You sighed. If you were honest, you would be pleased when the presentation was over. All this work you were doing, evenings and afternoons you were spending away from home. Not to say that you weren’t friends with Angel but being out so often when you were used to staying in was starting to exhaust you.

When he saw that you were going out again his face dropped. You were packing up your bag with all of the stationery you appeared to have a never-ending stock of. He was planning to ask if you were running a black-market, coloured-highlighter export on the side.

“Date?” He asked, the tone was light but his face was tense.

“Yeah like I would have time for that!” You smiled at him and he scoffed.

“Yeah, m’sure Angel would love seein’ your vast stationery collection”

“What? Is that a euphemism that my mind isn’t dirty enough to understand?” You aimed for a teasing joke but as soon as you said euphemism and assigned it to talking about Angel, he got even more tense. Launching into his petty review of Angel’s character.

“Yeah, well maybe he is popular and has somethin’ going for him but-but he has a massive forehead a-and stupid hair”

“Okay, childish. Do you want some crayons to keep yourself occupied while I’m out?”

“Don’t get smart, don’t suit you” He quipped which made you smile a little but his face was sullen. He wasn’t in a good mood with you again. And you didn’t properly understand why.

“Why don’t we write tomorrow?!” You said excitedly, “I have the entire afternoon free… maybe we can do what we did last time?” You smiled in his direction, your enthusiasm making the corners of his mouth tug into an almost-smile. But when he saw you begin to leave as you spoke, he said something else.

“Yeah if you got time in your oh so busy life”

“Offer’s there! I’ll see you later”

“Yeah, whatever” He said, slouching in his chair which made you sigh a little. You would be in a gloomy mood for the rest of the evening now that he was in a bad mood with you. You cared so much about what he thought and felt now, it was so strange.

He carried on this way for a while even though you mentioned several times you and Angel had been paired up together and were only ever working on the project. Hinting that you really wouldn’t be spending so much time out otherwise.

Angel was friendly and nice to you but the long silences were hard to navigate at times. There just wasn’t that effortlessness you had when you were with Spike. He had annoyed you a little because what with all of his commitments you had ended up doing more than your share of the workload because of his busy schedule.

Spike had began to withdraw himself from you a little. It made you sad, this man who you had been forming such a strong bond with. Exploring this supportive friendship you suddenly had. Was suddenly turning his back on you.

He wasn’t really sure why he was in such a bad mood with you. He knew you had a presentation. He had given you a bit of help when he saw how much of a workload you had on. He had also seen Angel’s name on the form next to yours so he knew the reason you were spending so much time with Angel.

However, what neither of you really understood at the time was that Spike’s insecurity was winning over. He was comparing himself to Angel because he had so much of your time. Made him feel less-than. It made him believe that you probably felt that way too.

He couldn’t help his insecurity. The way it festered in his chest. Why would you want to spend time with him when there was someone like that you got on with so well?

His snide comments and tense nature was worrying you still. He thought he had been slick but you had seen him put the phone back onto your chair as you returned to the room that evening. You weren’t so bothered, you weren’t hiding anything it just meant you put a lock on your phone when you realised.

He had asked about your day and you told him. You had mentioned Angel all of once and yet it was the only part of your day he was thinking about.

“Oh yeah, and did you and Angel have a bloody brilliant time? Did you have a right giggle and skip through the merry streets-”

“What is going on with you? Why are you being like this?” You finally confronted him, you just wanted your friend back.

“Not being anything. Just tellin’ you what’s what” He shrugged, avoiding your eye contact.

“You’ve been in a horrible mood ever since I started my project – I can’t help that I’ve got so much going on! I swear with Willow’s blood-drive and Xander’s basketball games as well as Buffy’s parties and all of my work I have no time to even think for myself!”

“Well, at least your priorities are set, right pet?” He said, this time the bite in his voice was evident. He hadn’t even made the list. He wasn’t even on your mind as someone you wanted to spend time with was all he had gotten from your sentence.

“What that I can’t be friends with you if I’m friendly with them? With Angel?” You said this pointedly, you could tell that was why he had been so weird now, “It doesn’t change the way I feel about you. Uh… about our friendship” You realised the way you had phrased it may have sounded a bit ambiguous and so you added the latter part. He just stared at you. Stopping dead.

But he hadn’t stopped because of the awkward way you covered your sentence. He stopped because those words made him want you to mean that. That you would want to be in a relationship with him.

It was like a switch turning on. Those words. He was finally understanding it.

“Yeah, well, whatever” he just shrugged, adjusting the leather duster back on his shoulders before storming away.

But the conversation you had was still swirling around his mind. He finally realises why he’s being like this.

It all made sense to him so suddenly. Hit him in the gut.

The way he had enjoyed the interactions with you, even if you had been arguing. How he had acted with you in mind, to get a reaction. Even if it was anger. The way he couldn’t take his eyes off you in the room. Positioned himself closer to you. Wanted to spend all of his time with you. Had begun waking up earlier to spend more time with you. The way your words, your writing appeared to fill up his soul. The dreams he had about you…

“Oh balls!” He muttered throwing himself down onto his bed, “I bloody love them!”

He was aching under this realisation. His heart near-beating for you. His mind always on you and what you were doing. The idea of you being with a man that wasn’t him made his skin crawl. Made his mind fog with red mist.

He wanted to hold you. To catch your lips with his. Show you exactly what you meant to him. Wanted to have you with him more, sharing your hearts and minds. God, he made himself dizzy just lying there in bed thinking about having you that way. In every way.

The day of your project suddenly came and he did say good luck for it beforehand despite all of his weird behaviour. He knew that it meant a lot to you. It went well and you and Angel were so relieved. Neither of you were the best at that sort of thing, but you were definitely getting better. Your project was finally over and you and angel remained fast friends. Also, he had a thing for Buffy too you had never been more sure of it.

Spike seemed to relax when your project was done and your friendship had continued. He hadn’t brought a one-night-stand home in almost a week and even before that there had only been one or two people you had seen recently.

You even asked if he needed medical attention for his wrist because you were sure it was being over-used. You were becoming much more comfortable talking to him about sex. You were becoming so comfortable with him in general.

He threw a cushion at you and muttered something under his breath but you could tell his heart wasn’t in it. He didn’t even try to make an excuse up he just turned back to the soap opera.

You glanced sideways at him, trying to figure him out. You caught glimpses but you wanted more. You wanted to ask and have him tell you about him. His past. His thoughts. But you knew better than to push him. It might make him completely close back up again.

He just gestured with his head towards the tv. To tell you to watch the soap again. You had been caught looking. You snapped your gaze away too quickly. Staring at the tv, feeling a heat rising in your cheeks. You felt something when you looked at him. You couldn’t even begin to understand.

He acted as if he was watching the tv but he wasn’t. He was sneaking glances at you when he thought you couldn’t see. Inching slightly closer in his chair so that he was nearer to you. Wishing he could reach between the space. Embrace you like you had that one time.

He was used to quick sex, one-night stands and getting them to leave straight after. But when it came to you… this was so new. This feeling – he was sure of it. He was intoxicated by you. You were in every thought. Every waking moment. And in his sleep too.

The dreams he would have. He wanted you. He really wanted you. Only you.

#UC Sunnyhell #Spike btvs #Spike x reader #Spike x you #Spike imagine #btvs #btvs x reader #btvs imagine #btvs x you #Buffy The Vampire Slayer #buffy the vampire slayer imagines #gn #gender neutral

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prose-for-hire · 4 years ago

Text

UC Sunnyhell: Part four

When Hell freezes over

Previous part // Next Part

Pairing: Spike x reader

Request: College AU. Part four of eight. Spike is the campus bad boy with a secret soft heart. The pair continue to navigate living together and try to focus on their similarities than their differences.

Originally requested by: @sunflower-stan

Other tags: @fictionalhoomanofnowhere @harpersmariano @artsymaddie @cameo-greaves @shy-ginger-in-the-graveyard

Warning: Alcohol consumption. Swearing. Sex reference.

For a long time since the open mic night, Spike had been thinking. Writing. Not able to stop himself running those words through his mind. That glimpse of you he was now becoming slowly obsessed with. He was getting ready to leave for the night, probably to drink himself into oblivion depending how this interaction went.

He shrugged on his leather duster and stalked into the living room where you were curled up with a book. You looked up, about to smile but he rushed his words out before you even had chance to change your facial expression.

“Your words”

“Yeah?” You braced yourself. Expecting him to belittle you. To tease.

“I liked ‘em” He shrugged. It was quiet but he had definitely said it. It almost knocked you down in shock. Your eyes widened, to have his approval had been all you had wanted. No matter how mad at him you had been, this weird need for him to like you or some part of you had been there. Even while you disliked him.

You opened your mouth to say something back, but he had already walked away. Leaving to go out for the evening and leaving you reeling at his admittance.

For him, that was massive. He didn’t say much except insulting quips. So, that sentence really started to mean something. You clutched it, tried to hold on to this glimpse of kindness. You had began to want to see the good in him.

He had to walk out quickly before he said something further and ruined it. He knew what you had done, the type of person that would write the words you had – speak them with such feeling, he couldn’t not tell you. Seeing as you had put yourself out there that way to tell him.

He was embarrassed though and didn’t want to have to stand and hear you gushing. It would make him uncomfortable.

Since that night you and Spike had managed to have a few conversations that weren’t entirely unpleasant for either of you. If you saw each other in your shared kitchenette or in the hall you would nod or even hold a little conversation.

It mostly consisted of exchanging ‘hellos’ and you would explain what you were doing and he would nod and not provide you with his intentions for the day. But it was something.

You were becoming more and more curious about the other. Neither of you could help it. You wanted to know more about that poet you had seen glimpses of.

Later that week, you had seen Spike cleaning up after his time in the kitchen. His way of making things up to you. I mean, he moved a plate from one end of the room to the other but the intention was there. You knew he had done it because you always asked him to.

You were beginning to warm up to him. To get used to him. You were confused with yourself for it, after everything but you supposed it had been petty. That you had acted on what others had told you rather than getting to know him properly yourself.

You were sat at lunch with your friends, you had been testing Willow on her history knowledge ahead of the text she had in her next class.

This was before, as it usually would, your group’s conversation turned to your usual living predicament. They did this to offer you support, but you weren’t so sure that you needed it anymore.

“He’s actually been almost nice recently… I don’t know” You mumbled, unsure of yourself.

“What happened to ‘I’ll never find a single good trait of Spike’s – Hell would have to freeze over’?” Your own words repeated back to you.

“Yeah, well Hell may have just frozen over” you mutter this inaudibly as you frown. But you just shrugged to your friends. They began to tease you about it, that you had a crush. It was because it was unthinkable, ridiculous even for this to ever happen.

You took it back, embarrassed about the way you longed to find this connection. Even if it was with someone you had been so sure you hated. You couldn’t dare tell them about the open-mic night. You knew they would only laugh more. And you didn’t want them to laugh… at either of you. Not that you thought they would be cruel to you - you were just wary of their views on the matter.

You then moved conversation onto something you knew would distract them. You had gossip about the time you had been spending with Angel for your presentation.

“He mentions you all of the time” You insisted to Buffy, which was definitely true. Angel always appeared to be thinking about her.

“You think? I was worried I was making it up, y’know? I miss him”

“He feels the same, from what he’s said. But he didn’t say all that much”

“Details! We need the exact words and tone. Now, y/n!” Cordy demanded which made you laugh as she narrowed her eyes.

“Yeah, we’ll send Will to the lab for analysis” Xander joked, his part in this kind of gossip was usually humour and suggesting he was ‘the voice of reason’ on the matter. Although, nobody really listened to his thoughts especially on Angel. They usually teased him because he didn’t get into the frat angel belonged to.

Buffy listened intently as you told them every detail you could remember. You explained how you had been dropping in good words about Buffy here and there. She grinned, hugging you in thanks. She was really excited. She had always loved Angel and she just wanted to be with him again.

Cordelia said that the next stage would be to get Buffy and Angel in the same room, perhaps at the frat party on Friday. You all nodded in agreement as Xander rolled his eyes. He would go, but he would be complaining about the fraternity and how stupid they were the entire time.

Later that week as the party neared, you had been humming softly as you cooked your evening meal. You made pasta but you soon realised you had made too much. So, you walked into the living room a little embarrassed and offered him a bowl. He looked at you with suspicion first. But quickly agreed. He nodded his thanks a little awkwardly as he took the second bowl from your hand.

You went and sat on the comfy chair on the far side of the room from him, still able to cast an eye to whatever it was that he was watching. He watched you from across the room for a moment and you smiled at him as he tucked in.

You were both thinking about the other. As you watched him, you found yourself wanting to know the man behind those sweet words. To take a chance on him despite the way he had acted.

He was fast becoming to realise that your pleasant nature was how you were genuinely. It was your natural setting. You had no ulterior motive other than the pasta would have wasted had he not agreed to have a bowl. You wanted to be friendly. You wanted to share connections with people.

And you were beginning to figure a few things out. You couldn’t confirm it, but you had guessed that the way he acted was a defence. He had built up this armour around himself to protect him from the way he was used to getting hurt. Spent his time drinking and having lot of sex to fill the void. The emptiness and loneliness he often felt. You knew taking Psych 101 wasn’t a complete waste of time.

You just stared at each other, eating your pasta in silence with the buzz of the tv in the background. It wasn’t uncomfortable, it was just silence. You were both thinking deeply. Completely lost in your own minds.

You emerged from your room on Friday evening. You had been getting ready for the frat party and you thought you better make some kind of effort. You were in a much lighter mood since you and Spike had begun bridging the gap between you. You were both seemingly even marginally more considerate than you had been yesterday. Which was progress. You had this weird flicker of hope inside. As if you and Spike could move forward this way. Be civil at least.

Spike caught sight of you and had to double take.

“Goin’ out, love?” He asked. You nodded, thinking over his use of pet name before he continued, “Makes a change. The annual loser parade?” He asked but this time you knew he wasn’t being cruel.

In fact, the insult had fallen a little flat compared to the biting comments he would usually use. This told you that he was softening. Or, at least, trying not to be as rude as he usually was.

“Just some frat party I promised the girls I’d go to” You shrugged and he nodded distractedly as if he wasn’t too bothered about where you were going. His eyes scanned your body subtly as you moved around the living space looking for things. You turned back to him and he snapped his eyes away, frowning at himself. His brow furrowing.

You were stood with your group of friends at the party, you had drinks and you were letting the music wash over you. The vibrations changing the rhythm of your heart it was so loud. You were laughing with Buffy and Willow. Cordy and Xander were kissing in the corner after Xander had defended her against some loser that had poured beer down her front. He was distracting her while the water they used to wipe her clothes off dried.

Buffy kept looking up at Angel every so often and you all tried to encourage her to walk over to him. While Willow continued talking her friend into walking up to him (which he so clearly looked like he wanted to do as well), you looked off into the distance.

Into the swarm of party-goers. You felt like you stood out. Like everyone else had this amazing time except you. These strong even deep connections that you longed for. You loved your friends but you still felt like you didn’t fit in here completely.

As you felt this, you looked across the room to find none other than your roommate. Spike was there. At a frat party. He stood out as obviously as you felt that you did. He was talking to someone. A woman you was using her arms animatedly as she spoke. She appeared annoyed and he was just calmly nodding along.

Cordy came back from their corner and Xander handed you a drink. Everyone followed your line of vision, thinking you were angry that Spike had crashed. They offered you words of support, some glares in his direction. Willow lowered her voice to explain that the one Spike was talking with was Anya. Nobody really got along with her, she was very blunt and hard to get along with.

“They had a thing”

“Ew, they deserve each other” Cordy scrunched her nose up in disgust at the pair of them.

“Who wouldn’t have a thing with her?” Xander had said at the same time as Cordy, referring to the fact he had always found Anya attractive. He was checking her out and Cordy gasped and hit him in the chest.

They began heatedly arguing and Cordy’s cup looked suspiciously like it was about to empty in Xander’s face.

You tried to help calm them down but Willow tugged you away, shaking her head. She explained there was a 90% probability at any moment they would begin kissing and making up again and nobody should get caught up in that.

You noticed that Anya had stormed away from Spike and he didn’t seem entirely all that bothered about it. For some reason he hadn’t been in the mood for her proposition. Not with Anya, anyway, he maintained. Maybe he was just keeping his options open…

His eye had wondered toward you every so often, he ended up positioning himself nearer to where you would be. He wasn’t sure why or even that he was doing it consciously. He had a taste of your mind. Of your authenticity. That fiery tension that surrounded you both had fuelled this strange feeling. Despite the fact he didn’t want to admit it. He was softening on you.

After a moment, you moved from where you stood by the drinks and made your way over to Spike. He had just been stood in the corner of the room, his face like thunder. He wasn’t well-liked and so he was alone. Again.

You felt bad, seeing him alone. So you walked straight over to him, offering him a beer, “Here” You offered. He raised an eyebrow in suspicion but took it eventually. You joined him, standing beside him with your back against the wall.

“Shouldn’t you be frolickin’ with the rest?”

“Uh, no. I’m taking a break…” You offered, “I don’t really feel like I, y’know, fit in properly here” you admitted, taking another large drink from your bottle. You were speaking more freely as you drank further.

He was interested to hear this. Shocked that you would feel that way and that he could identify with it. He scanned your face, finding your honesty there. A face he so wanted to trust. Especially after hearing more about your earnest thoughts. Writings.

“Yeah, well, it’s ‘cause they’re all bloody mindless automatons”

“Like me, you mean?” You said, not able to let that slide as you took another large drink.

“No, I-” He shook his head when he looked back at you. Seeing that you were actually smiling. You were only teasing him. The corners of his mouth quirked slightly as he looked down. You liked his smile. You weren’t sure if you had ever seen him properly smile before that moment.

You liked it. It softened his features, brightened them. Made him look so much more attractive than that deep-set scowl he usually had on his face. Like the whole world was against him. You were about to tell him you liked his smile, that you wished you could see it more often when you were interrupted. By Buffy.

She pulled you away, hurling a scathing review of his masculinity and telling him to leave you alone. That he had terrorised you enough at home. That he wasn’t even invited into any frats after the last time. You didn’t want to ask about the last time. You had been getting on and didn’t want a reason to change your mind about him.

The scowl returned to his face and you found your own features mirroring his. You felt bad for him. You really had only been talking. You tried to say something, perhaps in his defence but you couldn’t come up with anything. This tenuous understanding was new to you both and so you just kept silent. He hadn’t expected you to say anything and wasn’t particularly annoyed at you.

It just meant he kept an eye on you from the corner of the room again rather than speaking to you. He swigged the beer you had handed him, surprised at the way you had teased him. The way you had been so easy-going. Almost comfortable for him to be around.

As the evening came to an end, you had gotten yourself separated from your group of friends. You were stood in the fresh air of the night thinking about walking home and trying to remember the correct direction.

As you chose a path to follow, you stumbled over your own feet. You braced yourself, expecting to meet hard concrete. But instead some strong hands caught you. Looping around your waist and setting you back on your feet. You turned to look at the blurry bleach blonde figure with a smile.

“You wanna watch it, love. Can’t be stumbling all over the show in a town like this after dark” He muttered. Everyone called the place Sunnyhell because weird things happened with no explanation. He squinted around, “Where’s Blondie? Shouldn’t she be with you?”

“Told her… I’d be okay” You insisted, holding your stomach slightly. You were feeling a little queasy.

“Well, don’t matter what you said. You’re clearly hammered, pet”

“I’m not… you’re- you’re ‘ammered” You copied his accent and giggled slightly. He stepped a few paces in the real direction of your home and stopped looking at you as you just watched him go.

“Come on then, I’m not waitin’ around all night” He gestured with his head for you to walk with him. He was fairly drunk himself, but he could hold it a lot better than you. Too much practice.

“How are you not drunk? You had more th-than me…”

“Some of us can handle our liquor, pet” He said smugly, lighting up a cigarette as you walked beside him, staggering slightly to keep up with him. You were too drunk to notice but he made sure to exhale the smoke away from you as a courtesy.

“I was nervous, I-I feel like I stand out so much in places like that… a piece that doesn’t fit, I stand out so awkwardly” You sighed, pouring how you felt without filter. Spike frowned slightly, you appeared to blend in so easily. Everyone seemed to like you. From the nerds to the jock-types. But he could tell you meant it. He identified with it held onto the idea you were like him. Clung to it with both hands.

“I get that, love, I’m always in the shadows. When people aren’t laughin’ they’re cowering” He shrugged as if it didn’t bother him but even in the state you were in, you could tell he wasn’t as cool about it as he pretended.

“You get lonely too? But you always have friends a-and the music… and sex” you mumbled, despite you already having the suspicion he wasn’t as fulfilled by these as he made out.

“Thing is, pet, that’s all well and good but it doesn’t change that when all’s said, I’m on my own by the end of the night. In mind or body. A connection, that’s what matters. Something real…” He shook his head as he realised he had revealed too much of himself.

You stared at him for a really long time as he said this, he glanced at you twice as you both walked in silence. He didn’t understand why you were staring. That you felt this so deeply. That a deep connection was all you had ever dreamed about.

“You know… I think that we could be friends... you know? You’re all dark and scary but your heart is… it’s soft really. I think I saw it and I like it. I like you… I think. When you-you’re not being a complete-”

“Alright, watch what you’re sayin’ or you’re not getting any kind of friend out of this” He warned, although he was smiling at the way you spoke. He had been feeling similar about you.

“Friends?” You asked, having caught what he said and wanting to confirm it. He looked at you, squinting for a moment. As if he was trying to check if you were playing some kind of practical joke. No, he decided. You were drunk and just running your honest thoughts.

He just nodded, looking away from you. You almost cheered when he nodded but opted for a more subtle smile. But he caught it and it meant more to him than he thought it would.

You then tripped over your own feet and overbalanced because of the way your head was spinning. You really had drunk a lot. He had to grab you by your middle again before you tumbled to the floor and lead you back to your shared home by taking on your weight.

He made sure that you were safe and in your bed. He had to move the piles of paper you had left there. Your writings. Thoughts, poems. He scanned his eyes over them, but the pages were a little blurry.

You flopped into the bed fully clothed. He took your shoes off for you before looked around your room, soaking up just how much of you was in such a small space. He found himself liking it. The smell. The colour scheme. Those books you never went anywhere without.

He pulled your bedclothes over you and used his hand to balance himself against the wall and leave to his own room. He couldn’t help smiling softly as he walked though, at the way you had asked so innocently. You really had wanted to be his friend. His mind was reeling. His opinion of you was beginning to change. And he was starting to actually acknowledge it.

In the weeks after, he began to grow more and more fond of you. It grew and creeped up on him in a way he wasn’t accustomed to.

You slowly began to have slightly longer conversations when you crossed paths. Starting after you thanked him for leaving water by your bed for when you woke up that night you got drunk.

You became animated in conversation and he caught himself watching you, genuinely listening. How had he missed how nice you were? How genuine your enthusiasm was?

He now knew the plot to several musicals and books despite having never heard of them before. Just as you knew a lot more about the origin of punk and the bands he loved so much. It was strange sharing these parts of yourself.

It could still be awkward at times and it wasn’t as if Spike had entirely changed his personality. He still lived the way he usually would. He just tried to mind you a lot more. He started to realise he wanted to be considerate of you. Where he definitely hadn’t before.

He sometimes saw you writing and nodded. You shared a small smile. Understanding each other in that sense. He even acknowledged you in public now. Sidling up to you so long as your group of friends weren’t around. He found his chest lifting when you spoke.

He wasn’t used to friends he actually got along with. Actually enjoyed spending time with. He usually tolerated people that felt the same way as him – those on the peripheries of the others. Or people that liked the same music.

You and he truly began to become friends. You find yourself genuinely enjoying his company. His silences weren’t filled with anger or resentment for you anymore. Your company wasn’t his only to berate the way he lived his life or cast judgement you had learned from your friends.

You genuinely started to get on. The first time you began to laugh at something together it made you smile for the rest of the day. He had replayed your conversation over in his mind. Your home life was getting so much better.

You both even started making use of the shared living space together. You began silently watching some dumb soap in the late afternoon (aka Spike’s breakfast time). He was eating Weetabix and suddenly got excited at what you were watching, throwing himself down beside you and taking the remote from your hands. He turned the volume up and settled in.

You were bemused, laughed a little which made him frown and look at you.

“What?” He asked with a mouthful of Weetabix as he caught that smile of yours.

“Nothing” You stifled a giggle and turned back to the tv. You weren’t trying to tease him you just hadn’t expected him to be so into the show. You would almost find it endearing.

The proximity and the natural way he had sat down beside you made you smile slightly too. All it had taken was some careful coaxing and he was already showing you more of himself.

He was beginning to grow on you. Maybe you really could be proper friends after all…

#UC Sunnyhell #Spike btvs #Spike x reader #Spike imagine #Spike x you #btvs #btvs x reader #btvs x you #btvs imagine #Buffy The Vampire Slayer #buffy the vampire slayer imagines #gn #gender neutral

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prose-for-hire · 4 years ago

Text

UC Sunnyhell: Part one

Welcome to Sunnyhell! ☀

Next Part

Pairing: Spike x reader

Request: Series idea: College AU where Spike is the campus bad boy who secretly is a softie that writes poems and reader is the new transfer who just moved into Spike's apartment since it was the only available room on campus (no one wants to willingly live with Spike). Spike constantly having one night stands over, reader always trying to study. The Scoobies take reader under their wing but warn her about Spike's reputation. Slow burn enemies to friends to lovers?

Originally requested by: @sunflower-stan

Warning: sex references. Swearing.

A/N: This is a college au !! There was a second part to this request but I didn’t have space to include it (just know I am using your ideas for the roles people would have on campus). This is part one of eight !!!!!! 🖤💜

You had been nervous for starting college. You weren’t even sure you wanted to move away from your hometown until the last second. This is why you ended up losing out on anywhere you could live on-campus. You were instead directed here.

To a little shared house just on the outskirts of the college. You had all of your stuff packed up and waiting to be moved in and you were just staring at the house. This would be your new home for the rest of the year. Your stomach flipped, a mix of nerves and excitement.

You were naturally more bookish. You enjoyed the theatre and musicals. Literature. Now, if you were honest upon looking back, a little sheltered. You were hoping this might change and that you could start fresh now that you were staring college. There were so many experiences and people that you were sure you would enjoy meeting.

You tentatively knocked on the door. You had packed up your little car and driven to UC Sunnydale the day before your course would start. You were assured that your roommate had your key and would tell you all about your new house.

You waited for a while before knocking again, a little louder. The door swung open almost immediately this time and you stepped back at the force of it.

A woman opened the door she was blonde and had rosy cheeks. Her skin was pale and she had plump, full lips. But you didn’t notice any of that. Because she had opened the door to you half naked. She stared at you as if to hurry you up. Cursing you with every breath you took.

As you managed to form words again, you began to ask.

“Oh... a-are you... Will-?”

“Do I fucking look like my name’s William?” She asked before shouting over her shoulder, “Spike one of your sluts is at the door!” her face was sullen as she grabbed up all of her stuff, slipped on some leggings and what you had thought was a bra as she pushed past you. Your eyes widened at her tone and you stepped out of her way less she body-slammed you in that direction anyway.

Your first impression of Spike was what one might call, a bad one. For one, you weren’t accustomed to meeting anyone for the first time fully naked.

He just raised an eyebrow as you stared open-mouthed “oh, right” he muttered, turning away slightly.

He wasn’t even embarrassed, his unlit cigarette hanging from his lip as he opened a draw and grabbed your key. He moved and handed it to you and you took it.

“Thanks” you squeaked, trying your best to act as if this was normal. You tried your hardest to keep your eyes trained to his face. He smirked, knowing exactly what you were trying not to look at. He sized you up for a moment, scanning his eyes over your body before shrugging and looking back up to your eyes and launching into his more formal greeting.

“Rules: don’t bloody touch any of my shit. Don’t start making me clean up, there’s a system oh, and please don’t start thinking we’re gonna braid each other’s hair and paint our nails - I didn’t want a bleeding roommate in the first place” He warned, pointing for emphasis. This gave you a flash of his already painted nails.

He rattled off a few more rules, as he lit up his cigarette. Rules such as don’t talk to him Monday through Friday, don’t speak to the people he brought back to the house ever and definitely don’t complain if you can smell alcohol and cigarettes.

“You’ve been warned. Right, your rooms the crap one on the left” he shrugged his head, before slamming the door to what was apparently his room as he spoke (to put some clothes on, you presumed). You started to walk towards the room he had pointed out, a little shell-shocked.

But you had barely stepped in when he opened his door again and popped his head out of the door, “Welcome to Sunnyhell!” He announced before slamming the door shut once more.

You moved everything into your room, you spent time making your room feel more like home. You spent a long time making it look cosy and yours.

To begin with, you and spike mostly kept out of each other’s way. You weren’t used to people being so blunt or hostile right off the bat. Still, you tried your best to be nice to him on the rare occasion that you did pass each other in the hall.

Your first day of classes had you feeling the way you always did. Lost. Both metaphorically and unfortunately you were also genuinely lost. You had taken a turn and you didn’t know where to go next. You checked your map but it didn’t make any sense.

You were just going to walk in a random direction until a kind voice spoke to you.

“Hey, you’re lost right?”

“Big time” You smiled sheepishly, noticing only now that your map was upside down. The blonde girl introduced herself as Buffy and seemed to take an instant like to you. She could tell you were a little out of your depth and it showed on your face as much as she had felt it inside on her first day.

You both started walking in the vague direction of the campus. She asked you what class you had and what room and she was determined to help you find it. You kept thanking her almost every other step for her kindness. But she just shook her head, showing that you had no reason to. She wanted to.

You got to know her and she asked about you. She explained that she and her friend Cordy were part of a sorority and that her and her friends had found it hard when they started college last year. As you rounded the corner and Buffy saw the room you had been looking for, she became slightly side-tracked. She saw one of her best friends.

You smiled at Buffy. You liked her, she seemed really friendly. She appears to be really popular too, she stops every other step to speak to someone.

“Oh, Will! Hey!” Buffy raised her hand as she did her voice to catch the redhead’s attention, “Y/n, this is the resident genius and science club president!”

The girl, Willow, was wearing lab coat and smiling sweetly at you. Her aesthetic and Buffy’s didn’t really match so after greeting the new girl, you had to ask.

“And you two are friends?” You ask a little confused. You were still used to how cliquey high school had been so seeing lots of different people mixing and being friends was strange. But, you decided you really liked it.

“Best friends”

“Yeah! We all sit together at lunch and just hang. Why don’t you join us?”

“Oh, well-”

“Great, we meet at the canteen at one!” Buffy called, linking arms with Willow and leaving you at the door of the lecture room you needed.

You entered your class, trying your best not to feel so overwhelmed. You actually really enjoyed it and just hoped that this would continue through the rest of the year.

After class was over, you tried to familiarise yourself with the campus again. Looking at different stalls that had been set up for the new arrivals advertising clubs.

You felt a little out of place and so sort of stayed to the side lines, not really interacting with many of the students. You hung around by the noticeboard and something caught your eye. A bright pink flier. You took it down, staring at it.

It read ‘Open mic night – held by the Poetry society and the theatre club’ You folded the flier and stuffed it into your pocket with a little smile. Maybe you wouldn’t feel so left out here after all.

You looked up from your feet as you needed to try and find your next class. As you did, you managed to directly catch someone’s eye. Spike’s. You lifted your hand to awkwardly wave at him and give him a little smile at him but he just glared at your action and ignored you completely.

You watched lamely as he just stalked away. That stupid leather jacket of his whipping around his heels. Everyone moved out of his way they all scattered as he just walks wherever he likes.

You sigh, extremely embarrassed at the way he had blanked you. You shove the hand that had still been slightly raised into your pockets as you walked away towards your next class.

Eventually lunch came and you decided that you could go to the canteen. You stood awkwardly on the side looking around for a face that you recognised in the sea of bodies.

As soon as Buffy saw you, she called you over immediately and began to introduce you to her group of friends. It was quite the mix of people. You learned a lot in a short space of time.

There was Xander, he was on a basketball scholarship. Apparently he was the sole reason that the college team won so often. Although, how true that was you weren’t entirely sure. He was immediately friendly and invited you to sit. You had expected him to be unwelcoming and kind of arrogant but he was the complete opposite. He smiled and cracked a few goofy jokes upon your arrival to put you at ease.

Sitting next to him was Cordelia, but she preferred ‘Cordy’. She was Buffy’s sorority sister and head cheer coach. She was dating Xander, only in the sense that they shared sodas and the backseat of Cordy’s new car. She could have quite a biting attitude but she did this as a term of endearment you found… to the lucky few.

Then there was Willow, who you had already met. She was a proud nerd and she had more extracurriculars than you could count up to it seemed. She was incredibly sweet and good-natured treating you as if she had known you her whole life. You also learned she had a girlfriend.

Tara, who was sat braiding Willow’s hair seeing as she had finished her lunch already. It appeared like she needed to do something when she was sat in a group. She appeared nice although she didn’t speak as much as everyone else so it was

Usually, someone called Angel would show. Everyone on campus knew him apparently as he was a member of one of the frats. He was kind of hard to get hold of you discovered. Buffy was a little disappointed when she explained that he wasn’t coming to lunch today. She appeared to really like him.

After the introductions were made and everyone started to eat again, the focus turned to you briefly. Buffy said you should totally join their cheerleading group or one of the fraternities or sororities. But this wasn’t really your kind of thing. You explain that you’d rather find something else. As you said this, you felt the corner of the flier in your pocket. You hoped you would find at least someone that shared your interests. That you could bond with over the things that excited you. Form a connection with.

Not to say you weren’t already feeling a welcoming vibe from the table you were sat with. They were friendly but appeared to be holding back slightly upon your arrival. You got it, you were new. But it did make you feel like you stood out a little.

You stared into the distance as they chatted, until someone spoke to you.

“Where are you staying, y/n?” Willow’s girlfriend, Tara, asked kindly. She seemed quiet and so probably knew how you were feeling. You smiled at her, appreciating her effort.

“Oh, I applied late so I got what was left. I’m in a shared house just off campus, I’m living with this guy – Spike”

There was a collective intake of breath and some shared looks. They appeared worried for you. You looked up in confusion at their shocked faces.

“He’s bad news”

“Yeah, hot off the presses – Spike is a total no-go. Nobody else took that room for a reason, there are rumours” Buffy warned you, her voice going quiet.

“And that Billy Idol wannabe hair? I get vintage, but that guys totally stuck living in the eighties” Cordy commented, the resident expert in style you would soon discover.

“What are the rumours?” You asked, bracing yourself for the reply.

“Well, apart from the superficial stuff-”

“Yeah, Cor’s got that part covered” Xander teased which made Cordy stamp on his foot under the table. He yelped and they glared at each other before they began suddenly launching themselves at each other and making out.

“Anyway… he’s horrible to everyone. He once got into a fist fight over a half pack of cigarettes he found on the sidewalk”

“He has a new, uh, sex buddy every week and he’s on constant probation. They threaten to expel him from college all the time” Willow had whispered her warning which had made Buffy smile fondly.

But you weren’t smiling. You were starting to worry. You knew you should have checked the place out before you signed the agreement. Now you were stuck there.

“I can’t stay there if he’s gonna fight me! I can’t throw a punch” You said, not quite believing that he would try to hurt you.

“We have self-defence class on Thursdays, we can sign you up” Buffy said, patting your hand that was resting on the table. Your eyes widened, they really thought he might fight you.

“Buffy’s the teacher” Willow explained before telling you not to worry.

Since this conversation, you were even more cautious around Spike. The tension began to rise between you. His attitude was unforgiving and he had taken one look at you and immediately judged you as being ‘one of them’.

You tried to be his friend to begin with, being naturally friendly and wanting some kind of approval from him that you didn’t understand.

But it soon became apparent you were almost complete opposites.

He kept the kitchen in a mess where you liked to have some sense of cleanliness. He had become really annoyed with you when you had cleaned up. You had a spare couple of hours in the afternoon and thought you would make it look tidy. You had done it to be kind but he had snatched the bowl you had cleaned for him and stormed away.

The tension was beginning to rise between you. You spoke to your new friends about it when you sat with them at lunch and they fuelled your feelings. You were starting to realise just how much you didn’t like Spike.

You and Spike, apart from the odd hello from you and the irritated grunt from him, didn’t communicate. He had ripped up your note suggesting a rota system for keeping the house tidy. And he all-out blanked you if he ever stumbled onto some lame corner of the campus that you were hanging out in.

The tension moved from apparent indifference to an increasing distaste for the other and their opposing nature. Spike assumed you thought you were better than he was. Because you studied. And slept early and had friends that were ridiculously too clean-cut.

He had seen you hanging out with Buffy and her gang of losers. He instantly decided you were just some bland prep like them. He was waiting for the day you tried to bring one of them over so he could have the pleasure of kicking them out of his house the way they shunned him in public.

One evening, a few weeks after you had met Buffy’s friends in the canteen for the first time, you were home alone. Spike had gone out as he usually would to get drunk and you were staying in just like almost every other night since you had moved to Sunnydale.

You couldn’t sleep and so you had sat in the shared living space watching some boring late-night show for company. You hugged a cushion to your chest and just stared blankly at the screen. Feigning listening to the low buzzing of the set and hoping you could fall asleep this way.

It was at a time where you hadn’t started meeting your new group of friends outside of the canteen at lunch yet. You didn’t have people to talk to, you wouldn’t want to bother them anyway.

Suddenly the front door swung open and there was what sounded like some kind of scuffle happening through the doorway. You frowned confused. Until you saw that it was Spike shoving his tongue down someone’s throat. It was the third different person Spike had brought home that week. And it was Wednesday.

You had been sat in the dark and Spike was otherwise occupied so he dragged your houseguest to the sofa that you were sat on and tangled against them with an urgency fuelled by loneliness or alcohol – you didn’t stick around long enough to care why he did it.

You were fixed to the spot, your face contorted in horror as you had unwittingly become a part of his one night stand. But as their bodies rolled and pressed against yours, you screamed. They smelled as if they had brought the entire brewery home with them.

Spike barely even registered that you were there, he just cast an eye towards you and raised an eyebrow. As if you were the one in his way. You saw his hand lowering, groping his new friend and your eyes widened and you scrambled to remove yourself from the area and get to the solace of your room.

You scowled. He was so inconsiderate.

As the weeks went by it was apparent that you were never going to get along. You were annoyed that he wouldn’t acknowledge that the house was now shared. He treated you as if you were damp seeping into the walls. Tainting everywhere he turned. Bubbling and creating a problem in the corner. Spreading and ruining his mood with your stubborn insistence to stay in the home.

And you were starting to treat him the same way. Which, he knew you would eventually. He had guessed your friendliness had been an act.

You were just too different. You liked to study to stay on top of your work. Whereas Spike didn’t ever seem to be doing any work. You were always in his business, making comments and singing those musical songs around the house that bugged him so much.

It was as if you were living in a better way than him. You were trying to ‘improve’ him and he felt as if you were suffocating him with all of your little ideas about changing the house around. You were really starting to get on his nerves.

He kept irregular hours and this was okay by you, so long as it didn’t affect your sleep schedule. But, unfortunately it often did.

You had leaned over to turn your bedside lamp off and settled into bed. You closed your eyes, smiling at the day you had. Cordy and Buffy had taken you shopping. They insisted they would find you a new college wardrobe. You gave them a budget and your style ideas and they worked their magic.

You were so grateful they had kind of started to take you under their wing. You weren’t entirely sure if it was to get dirt on Spike at first, but they had gotten bored of the topic as the weeks went on and were more interested in getting to know you.

You began to drift into sleep as you recounted your day. Until all of a sudden you were jolted awake. Loud music had started playing. You checked the clock it was nearing midnight – you had gotten in much later than you usually would after your friends had taken you for a drink to celebrate a successful shopping trip.

The pounding of the music and the screaming vocals were so loud it was as if the band was playing a live set directly beside your bed. Your entire room appeared to be shaking because of it.

You got out of bed, your anger bubbling dangerously higher with every step you took towards the source of the noise. He was sat in the shared living area, drinking liquor from the bottle and nodding along to the music.

“I have a really important class tomorrow, can you keep it down?” You asked, trying to make your voice sound level.

“Don’t know. Can you keep your hands off my Weetabix?” He asked snidely. You had seen one of his friends or… whatever they were eat the last of it. But you were too embarrassed to bring up his promiscuity. The rumours had made you cautious of him and so you just didn’t say anything.

He quirked his eyebrow as if he had caught you out and turned to the cd player he was using. You sighed some relief but rather than turning it down he twisted the dial so that the volume was at its fullest.

This was it. You stalked towards the Cd player and turned the volume right down. He got up from his seat immediately, grabbing your upper arm to pull you away. His grip was firm and his body was extremely close to yours. His eyes were hard and unforgiving as he spoke.

“Did you forget the rules already? Don’t. touch. My. Bloody. Stuff”

You snatched your arm away and gritted your teeth. You couldn’t think of any witty comebacks. You wished you were Buffy or Willow – they would have known what to say.

Instead, you just expelled air through your nose and stormed off. The punk song now blaring out of the speakers again as you slammed your door shut.

You were so angry you were shaking. You stomped into bed, putting a pillow over your head and tried, and mostly failed, to get some sleep.

You were a zombie the next day. Completely running on caffeine. Your new friends helped you out, tried to wake you up before class and Cordy swore that when she saw Spike next she would give him a piece of her mind. You appreciated them so much.

You were worried because you didn’t seem to have as much in common with the others. Cordy and Buffy went to their cheer club and their sorority. Xander was the basketball star with a goofy, soft heart. And Willow was this complete sweetheart genius who had a love for learning and found the work here all so easy. Her girlfriend was really sweet too, although a little quiet. You had only met her once that time in the canteen but you decided you could probably call her a friend too.

You didn’t have much in common, you were more bookish and you had to work a lot harder to grasp what was being taught. Despite your love of learning, it didn’t come naturally to you. You had to work at it to maintain an average grade. This meant you would study even harder to achieve those grades that you truly desired.

But luckily, despite your suggested lack in commonality, they really liked you for some reason. You and your new friends had all just clicked. At least you had them to be accepting of you.

Either way, that still didn’t solve a problem like Spike.

He infuriated you. He made you want to scream. You wanted to move out. A dark part of you wanted to sneak into his room at night and smother him with the pillow he had forced you to cover your ears with.

You just hoped through the rest of the year that things couldn’t get any worse than it already was. That you could just ride it out.

You were sure there was no way to bridge this gap. No way you could possibly ever get over what a complete pain he was. You couldn’t stand him. He was smug and didn’t care about anything. He was selfish and he didn’t even acknowledge you in public.

You just wanted to get this college year done and get out of there. You had decided that if you ever saw Spike’s face again after this year – it would be one time too many.

#UC Sunnyhell #Spike btvs #Spike x reader #Spike imagine #Spike x you #btvs #btvs x reader #btvs x you #btvs imagine #Buffy The Vampire Slayer #buffy the vampire slayer imagines #gender neutral #gender neutral reader #gn #multi chapter #multi fic #spike fic

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prose-for-hire · 4 years ago

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UC Sunnyhell: Part three

There’ll be Hell to pay

Previous Part // Next Part

Pairing: Spike x reader

Request: Spike and you haven’t been getting along and it all reaches a boiling point. Harsh words are exchanged but something happens to make you both question your thoughts about the other. Will this be enough to change your perceptions though? College AU

Og request by: @sunflower-stan

Requested tags: @fictionalhoomanofnowhere @harpersmariano

Warning: Sex reference, swearing.

He appeared to have no redeeming qualities. His personality was flat, two-dimensional. Like some bully in a kids cartoon. Not that you had particularly looked very hard since your first meeting.

He had upset you. And this ‘revenge’ was all you were thinking about. Your friends had planned it all out with you that night. They were all going to arrive soon and you were pacing with nerves. This could go badly.

You had convinced them to choose the least likely action to get you all into a physical fight. Something that appeared innocent that would annoy him greatly. If he got really mad there would be hell to pay.

They all came over, spreading their stuff around the living room. Taking up as much space as possible because of the way he had all but made you live out of your room rather than face him. They made as much noise as possible and basically tried to antagonise him as much as possible. The way he had with you.

When someone mentioned Angel might show, Spike snapped and stormed out of his room ready for a fight. No bloody way was he coming into his home.

As he opened his mouth, about to speak, he saw something in Xander’s hand. He noticed that you had all been passing around a liquor bottle. He snatched it from Xander.

“That’s mine” He accused.

“Oh no, actually spike, that one over there was yours. My friend Faith supplied this one” Buffy explained, giving him an overly sweet smile as Xander took it back. He scowled between her and his now empty liquor bottle.

“Get out” He snarled.

“You’re not the only one that lives here-” Cordy started in your defense, but she was quickly cut off.

“Fine. We’ll make it a real party. I’ll invite my mates won’t I?”

“You don’t even like them that much” You replied getting to your feet, you had overheard him mutter it to himself when one of them annoyed him again.

“Well, I’ll like them a lot more when they round up your little gang of-” He smirked at their reactions, “Or, everyone could just bugger off I suppose. Wouldn’t need to invite ‘em then”

Everyone shared concerned looks. They had heard about the types of people he had around him. They looked at you as you broke the stare-down you and Spike were sharing. You just nodded and they scrambled to leave. Making sure that you knew you could call them at any time.

Once they left he smirked and began to turn to leave back to his bedroom. But you wouldn’t let him go. Not this time.

“Will you just grow up!?” You screamed as he turned around and closed the space between you. If there was hell to pay after these words you would happily go skint. He should hear them. After everything.

“Yeah, ‘cause you and your little bloody clique are right grown ups, yeah? So grown-up you whisper about people behind their backs!”

“What?”

“I’m disgusting to you, yeah? You’re such a bloody ponce – like them, not even got the stones to say it-” He said and you realised he had heard what you said about him to Willow and Buffy. You didn’t think about it, you just shouted back.

“You want me to say it to your face?!”

“Yeah, might be a change from you being such a back-stabbing bitch”

“Fine! You’re horrible, nasty and so fucking inconsiderate! You think the whole world’s against you but we don’t care! We just don’t care!”

“Yeah, well-”

“I’m not done – you’re so arrogant! You think the whole world revolves around you. Well, I live here too! I pay rent I deserve some space in my own home! I tried so hard to be nice to you and all you’ve ever done is throw it back in my face!”

“Oh yeah, everybody kick Spike when he’s down” he muttered despite him asking you to say what you thought. You didn’t realise but one of the people he frequently had sex with had finished it with him for the final time earlier that day, “You don’t bloody know me!”

“I don’t want to!” You shouted, this time when you turned you really did just walk away. He watched you go, eyes lingering on you as you walked away.

He snapped himself out of it, jaw tensing and you both slammed your doors on each other. He infuriated you. Completely annoyed you. Just like you angered him. Infuriated him. He couldn’t believe that he would have to live the rest of the year with you.

You had both started this because you didn’t know each other. You had assumed. Not wanted to even try to know each other. First impressions are hard to get over. You had appeared to him as some do-gooder that wanted to “fix” his immoral ways. You hung out with those clean-cut-9-to-5-losers that never gave him the time of day.

You had wrongly assumed all he cared for was sex and causing trouble. Hurting people just for the fun of it. You never tried to delve deeper. Think about why he acted this way. Like you said, you didn’t care.

Weirdly, since that night, he kind of respected you a little more after your outburst. You showed that you did in fact have a backbone when he had assumed you had yours removed like most of the people on campus at birth.

But you stood firm, you were just usually nice to people because it just felt obvious to you to treat people with kindness until they gave you a reason not to. And, boy, had he given you reason not to.

As you were thinking this. He was thinking about you. He had always been that way, the line between hatred and... no. He didn’t care. He was indifferent about you. Or, that’s what he kept telling himself. Wouldn’t even entertain a thought to the contrary.

After this argument, he just kept out of your way. You barely said two words to each other, you just lived your separate lives.

You had realised how the other saw them. How there appeared to be faults there that couldn’t be bridged. You had gotten bored of fighting. It was starting to cut closer to each other’s bones. You were exhausted from it. So you kept away from each other.

You had barely spoken for almost an entire month. If it wasn’t for the occasional musical soundtrack or the smell of smoke neither of you would know the other was in.

That was, until something happened. Something neither of you would have ever thought possible. It all began one Saturday evening, at an open mic night.

You arrived at the dimly lit bar and walked in a little tentatively. Your heart was already beginning to race and you still had a while until it was your turn. You were finally going to do it. You were going to perform something you had written.

You smiled at someone that you recognised, he came over to you greeting you excitedly. The guy was friendly enough but you just weren’t able to form that connection you longed for with him. He was very loud and dramatic – a one-man show, if you will. You struggled to keep up with him in conversation.

“Great turn out tonight!” He gushed as you looked around at the two other people that had turned up. You nodded distractedly as you saw a figure at the bar. You recognised the figure but just couldn’t place it.

That was, until he turned around and caught the light. The bleach blonde hair. That leather duster that appeared to be surgically attached to him.

You caught each other’s eye. Scowling at the other. Why would he possibly be here? Was he going to heckle everyone? Start a bar fight?

The truth was, Spike would come every month or so. To read his writings, his poems. He did this because nobody rarely turned up and the tender took a shine to him and offered half priced beer.

He took his beer and sat in his usual corner. Hiding until it was time for him to get up and speak. He watched you, burning holes in you as you walked up to the bar yourself, asking the guy what he recommended. He stared at you. It was a student bar, there wasn’t an exclusive wine list.

You rolled your eyes and just asked for some shots. Three, to be exact. You threw them back one after the other. Spike raised his eyebrows and then smirked when your entire body appeared to shiver in reaction. You went and sat near the front, facing away from him for a while.

Both of you began to feel more and more nervous about speaking. Especially with the other there. Suddenly you got to your feet, full of nerves you needed to have a breath of fresh air.

He saw you leave and this relieved him. You must have become too nervous. He could go up to speak now that you were gone.

And just in time, his name was announced and he got up swigging from his beer as he walked. Glaring at the enthusiastic guy that had been talking to you who had put both of his thumbs up at Spike as he got up to where the mic was set up.

You returned just as he started to speak. But you sat down without him seeing it at first. You heard those words. The breath was knocked out of your body. The words spoke to your soul. The feeling behind them, it was all you had longed to find. Someone with a mind that expressed things the way you did… but the words were his.

He spoke with such passion, such feeling. The words were incredible and you couldn’t believe they were coming from his mouth. You had goosebumps and you just stared, suddenly finding yourself really looking at him. At the way he spoke. The way he looked.

You held your card containing your own words to your chest, there was no way you would be able to go up after that.

You had listened to his words, all but swooning. Hanging on to every last syllable less it dissolve into the air and you would forget it forever.

How could someone with that much of a nasty attitude have so much heart hidden away? You were in awe. His words, the feelings behind them. It was like the musicals you loved so much. Exploring love and loss and heart.

He caught your eye as he walked from the stage. He hesitated, realising what you had seen but just walked past you to the bar. He ordered his body weight in liquor and just sat there.

Then they announced your name. You jolted with shock, still reeling from Spike’s eloquent words. You cleared your throat, nodded at yourself and stepped up to the microphone. He rolled his eyes at you turning away.

Then he heard what you had to say. Such meaningful prose shared with the world. Baring yourself so raw. The words you spoke had real heart. Real meaning, more so than he thought you had been capable of.

His eyes were on you now. Only you. He didn’t even pick up his beer as he listened.

The spotlight was blinding though so you never saw him look at you in the way he did. That flash of understanding, the way that he could empathise with the way you spoke. How you wrote.

You both returned home separately. Neither of you could stop thinking about the other. Those words. Those feelings. The way he looked up there. The way you did. Almost ethereal to the other. It was confusing. Wrong.

You definitely didn’t speak to each other at all after this. You didn’t know what to say. You were so torn. Between what you knew about him and what you had just heard Had you been wrong about him?

His words had stopped time. His thoughts, feelings. They meant something. They had settled somewhere inside you and you weren’t sure if they would ever leave.

You were daydreaming about his words again, looking out of the window as you waited for your water to boil. You hadn’t realised the man himself had walked into the room behind you. You had spun around and overbalanced.

You tripped and he put a hand out to steady you, before snatching his hand away immediately in horror. You just stared, frowning.

“Watch it” he said, but he turned frowning at himself. He stared at you for a second as if he wanted to apologise but then he turned on his heel and left. Your words, the one that you had spoken had made him rethink. You weren’t just some plastic copy of Buffy and her sorority sisters. You weren’t shallow to him like Angel and Xander or just ‘one of the boys’.

You had heart. You had thoughts and feelings that transcended this mundane part of the world. You had such a beautiful mind that spoke to his own. He was just fighting against it as much as he could.

Since a few more occurrences like this, lingering glances. Weird silences where things felt unsaid, your courage began to grow.

You had to say something. You would only regret it if you didn’t. You feel like you had misjudged him. That he was hard to live with but that there was a promise there. You knocked on his door and began to open it.

“Bugger off!”

“Uh, sorry, I… I know we haven’t been getting on but-”

“Understatement of the century that” He grumbled, looking up from where he was lying on his side in his bed. He was flipping through a magazine.

“I just… your words. The other night. I couldn’t not say something. They were beautiful”

“You’re bloody hilarious” He said harshly, jaw tensing. He felt that you were teasing him. Making fun of him for his poetry. He was used to it.

You didn’t realise but his past was the reason he was so defensive. Had to harden himself. Because they all used to tease him for his poetry. For his soft side. Until he hid it completely. Didn’t allow anyone to see him that vulnerable (apart from the two patrons of the pub the open-mic night was held in – he had to express it someway).

“No. I mean it, I’m not- I wouldn’t make fun of you. I’m really not like that, I loved your poems I was wondering if you were going again in two weeks-”

“What so we can skip there together through the merry fields of glee?”

“I’m s-sorry. I shouldn’t have bothered” You shook your head, he saw that you were genuinely embarrassed and upset. You should have known, just because he could write and his heart wasn’t as completely hardened as you thought didn’t mean that he suddenly wanted to be your friend. Just because you suddenly had one common interest.

“Y/n” he said and you turned back, your hope lifting slightly, “close the door on your way out”

Your face crumbled slightly and you turned and slammed it shut. You had wanted so desperately to have a connection with someone, on that level. That you would even chase after it at even the slightest glimpse of feeling from someone you didn’t like.

You couldn’t see him, but he couldn’t stop thinking about you. About that offer. He was so lonely, no matter what he filled his time with he wanted to be able to trust someone. Desperately. But they always disappointed him eventually. He didn’t want to give you or anyone the power to do something like that.

There was a hint of understanding that began between you though since you went to tell him your thoughts. You spoke to him as if he was an equal, for the first time in a long time that someone had. And he let you. You looked at him, past the front he put on. It was only a glimpse but you felt the anger melt away. It had been exhausting living that way.

He wouldn’t dare verbalise his understanding. He did make some subtle changes though. He didn’t blast his music full volume as much. Spent more nights out, rather than bringing as many people home. He was still messy but he left a space for you to live your own life too. Which was really all you could ask for.

You had both humanised yourselves to the other. Let the other into your mind. Your perspectives. He didn’t mention what he had started to do and you wouldn’t dare, but you had definitely noticed. You had formed a kind of truce. And understanding of sorts.

The whisper of a possibility of friendship kind of hung in the air between you. It was there, you could both feel it but it wasn’t solid. You couldn’t grab onto it. It was transient, floating all around. An abstract concept.

For one of you to make the first move, to try and make some kind of amends. It would mean something too great. You wouldn’t push it, you were still unsure.

You were sat in your elective class. You hadn’t really been sure what to take so you ended up in this one. The dreaded paired presentation were looming.

Nobody usually sat next to you, none of your friends took the class so you were facing the embarrassing walk to the front to ask the professor if there was any one else that needed a partner.

That was, until a guy walked in. He was tall and he appeared to take a lot of care on styling his hair. You weren’t sure you had ever seen him in the class before and this was confirmed to you when he stood at the front scanning the rows for a spare seat before narrowing on the seat beside you.

He walked near you and awkwardly asked if the seat was free before he sat beside you. Just as the professor announced that the person sat beside you would be your presentation partner. He turned to you and nodded in acknowledgement that you were paired.

“Angel” He offered his name and it clicked. You had met him before, you think. At a frat party you went to with Buffy so she could try and find him. Either way you had heard so much about him you felt as if you already knew him.

“Y/n” You replied and he nodded his head before it clicked with him too.

“You’re Buffy’s friend, right?”

“Yeah, she’s like a big sister” You smiled and he nodded. You spoke amiably for a while rather than actually doing the work you had been assigned at first.

Actually, you found that you were doing most of the talking but you felt comfortable with him in a way you hadn’t expected you would. The guy was pleasant perhaps a bit more reserved than you would have expected for this ‘popular frat guy’ everyone had made him out to be.

“You’re the one stuck living with Spike, huh?”

“Yeah, he’s…”

You didn’t really know how to finish that sentence now. You had formed a kind of truce. A tenuous understanding. He annoyed you still in some sense but you were intrigued by him. You wanted to understand him. See what else he may be hiding deep down. Why he was the way he was. Angel just nodded, presuming that the tailing off was you implying how horrible Spike was. He had never liked him.

You weren’t friends. You weren’t sure that you and Spike would ever end up friends.

#UC Sunnyhell #Spike x reader #Spike btvs #spike x you #Spike imagine #btvs #btvs x reader #btvs imagine #Buffy The Vampire Slayer #buffy the vampire slayer imagines #buffyverse #gender neutral #gn

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prose-for-hire · 4 years ago

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UC Sunnyhell: Part Two

Hell is a place on Earth

Previous Part // Next Part

Pairing: Spike x reader

Request: College AU where Spike is the campus bad boy who secretly is a softie that writes poems and reader is the new transfer who just moved into Spike's apartment since it was the only available room on campus (no one wants to willingly live with Spike). Spike constantly having one night stands over, reader always trying to study. Things appear to go from bad to worse.

Originally requested by: @sunflower-stan

Other tag: @fictionalhoomanofnowhere

Warning: Sex references. Swearing.

The first semester had been and gone by this point. You were settling into life at UC Sunnydale, found your friendship group in Buffy and the others. But one thing you still weren’t accustomed to, was living with Spike. He was hard to get along with at the best of times but living with him was a whole different thing.

He appeared to stay up most of the night and sleep well into the afternoon. He played loud punk music almost every waking hour and he smoked like a chimney. He never appeared to listen to a word you said and he pretty much did the opposite from whatever you said or thought anyway.

It was becoming really hard to live with him. Especially when he seemed to do everything he could to make you want to move out. He found it easier to live alone. To hide in the depths of what he knew than

Because of your current living situation you had started to branch out and pursue some of your interests. It beat staying in all the time and you really wanted to find someone that you could relate to.

You were a fan of musicals and the theatre. Poetry and literature. You liked reading and the way a writer could weave such intricate feelings. Scenes and spoken word able to explain your own feelings better than you ever could.

Your new friends didn’t really share your enthusiasm – even Willow was more into science and computers. Although your friend group were kind enough to listen to the way you spoke about your interests. They certainly didn’t make you feel bad about expressing your passions. But they just didn’t share your love and so you began to try to search out people that you could connect with. On some kind of deeper level.

You had been frequenting different bars that held open mic nights. Watching plays and listening to monologues. Letting the intricate wordplay wash over you. It could make you feel so many emotions. So many feelings were conjured.

Your favourite were the open mic nights. You pretty much never got up yourself, you usually would just listen. You were working yourself up to performing something of your own. You wrote things too it was just a matter of working on your performing skills. You were thinking of joining the clubs, maybe to improve your confidence in your writing. In your performing.

You walked back home from a play you had watched (and cried at) to find Spike sat there scribbling something. It was the first time you had ever seen him actually writing or appearing to do any work.

You were about to make a snide comment about it and then he noticed your presence. He almost jumped five feet in the air in surprise. He then hid the notebook behind his back and immediately got up to leave now you had returned. He left muttering something about you being a nosy bitch.

Spike had taken the opportunity, while he finally had time where he felt comfortable since you had actually left the house for once to write. This was something he didn’t like people knowing about. He wiped his eye as he stormed away. Hoping to God you hadn’t seen that. He couldn’t bear you knowing him that way. Laughing.

It was Friday evening and you had some friends over. There was a sudden knock at the front door. Spike had taken a baseball bat from his room and held it up as if he was ready to swing it.

Willow and Buffy’s eyes bulged at the object in his hand as they peaked from your bedroom doorway. Buffy was pleased they had convinced you to come to self-defence class now.

He walked slowly to the door, meeting you in the hallway skipping happily past him. He grabbed you back looking at you as if you were mad. He was expecting debt collectors. Again.

“Spike, it’s the pizza guy” You moved your shoulder from him before carrying on back to the door with the dollars in your hand, “What is wrong with you?” you muttered.

He scowled, jaw tensing as Buffy and Willow giggled at the way he had been so tense and he stormed away smacking the edge of the bat against the wall in his frustration. Leaving a small hole there.

You brought the pizzas back into your room (so you didn’t have to face spike again) and shared them out with your friends.

After you finished your meal and managed to calm yourselves down from whatever had just happened, talk of course turned back to Spike.

“So how is it… y’know…” Willow asked before mouthing “with Spike”. You hadn’t realised how much built up rage you had inside until you launched into your conversation.

“Well, I can tell you that Hell really is a place on Earth”

“That bad?”

“I can’t believe I’m stuck with him – if I even breath in his direction he has a problem with it!”

“Yeah, he’s always been a complete pig. Some people are just born evil” Buffy shrugged.

“Buffy! He’s not evil! He’s just… mean spirited”

“In the most evil way” Buffy added. She had never liked Spike. He was cruel and treated her as if she was dumb just because she was in a sorority and enjoyed cheerleading.

What you and the two girls didn’t realise, was that Spike was eavesdropping. You had all been laughing really loud and he was about to take his chance to kick Buffy and her little loser friend out. Until he found he was interested to hear what you all had to say about him.

You groaned, thinking about the way things had been. You needed to vent. So, you took the chance while you were in the company of your now closest friends.

“He’s inconsiderate and rude and also I’m pretty sure he never washes his clothes... but he always smells good. Weird”

“Totally weird”

“Well, we did like, warn you”

“And oh my God! He walks around naked all the time! There’s always some stranger he’s brought home and they are always so loud! He never studies and the plates are always piled high in the kitchen! It’s disgusting – he’s disgusting!”

“He’s always been so arrogant and gross”

“Hey, don’t wig, next year we can find a place. The four of us – right Buffy?” Willow offered, including her girlfriend. She comforted you as you caught your breath from your outburst. Willow rested her hand on your shoulder to reassure you.

“Really?” You asked with a smile as Buffy nodded. She was going to move out from her sorority so she wasn’t distracted for her last year she had already decided.

“Don’t worry, y/n. We’ll keep you sane” Buffy insisted.

Spike scoffed. The way Buffy acted as if she was saving you from him. As if he was a fate worse than death. You angered him. The way you had determined his character over a few fleeting conversations. The gossip your silly little friends told you.

You became enemy number one. Even more so than you had been before. He hated gossip and the way people would laugh behind his back. You reminded him of this every time he looked at you now, not that you knew this.

The annoyance for the other just kept growing. Yours had originally been fuelled by your friends rumours, but his actions were now getting worse. Spike was seething at your dismissive tone against your character. He didn’t even want a roommate, he only agreed the landlord to put the room up so he didn’t put up the rent again.

So he decided to try and make you leave. Properly this time. He didn’t care anymore, you reminded him of everyone out there. Everyone that he hid himself away from. Distanced himself from.

The tension rose uncomfortably. He was more rude. More gross. And he made sure to do everything he knew that he could to annoy you. It was petty, he knew it, but he knew it would get a rise out of you.

One afternoon, you had been scraping off some congealed red liquid that you had been concerned was blood. He hung out with a weird crowd, you only hoped some poor thing hadn’t been exploded in there. Although, upon further inspection it appeared to be tomato soup. But you would probably embellish the story a little to your friends.

You washed your hands and scowled at him. He had moved to lean against the doorway and just watch you clean.

“God, Spike, you’re so lazy”

“’Scuse me?”

“You don’t clean, you don’t study – what exactly do you do with your life?”

He was affronted by this. By the way you spoke to him. How he felt like you acted like you were better than him. In your frustration you didn’t care what he thought. He just didn’t care. You were trying to live your life.

He could hear Buffy or even Angel’s voice through your own. The way they had always berated him.

“And what? I should be like you? You’re not exactly making a proper go of it are you? Haven’t seen you do much of anything ‘cept follow them brainless bints around the shop. When you’re not doing that you sit in your room as life passes you by, livin’ through your little Musical shows rather than living in the real world - You’re boring. You’ll live your pathetic little life, stuck in your lame little ways until you die”

“Spike-”

“You’re all the same! You and your preppy little band of misfits looking down your noses at everyone and yet you can’t see the obvious, can you? You’re so bored with your pathetic, frigid little lives that you have to make it my bloody problem!”

You decided, seeing as that’s how he viewed you that you would treat him exactly like that. Like he treated you. Things got worse.

He started to invite people over all the time. You would call it a party but there was nothing celebratory about it. You were confined to your room most of the time as they all laughed and screamed along to their music. They were always drinking and playing music no matter what time of the day you saw them.

You usually avoided them, locking your door, but you had needed to slip out of your room for a moment.

“Who’s this?” One of the guests pointed you out as you tried to make it to the bathroom without anybody noticing you. Now everyone’s eyes were on you.

“Oh don’t mind them, they’re just for show hasn’t had an original thought their entire life” Spike shrugged.

“Aw, no, Spike. Another mindless automaton” One of his friends spoke up and he laughed. It was a cold laugh, there was no humour in it.

“Do you, like, want to-”

“Don’t, love. They’re nobody” Spike stopped the blonde girl from speaking to you more kindly than the rest. They all laughed at this and began to tease you.

You left, slamming the door and you heard them laughing, jeering at you for your reaction. It made tears sting the back of your eyes. You collected yourself, shrugging on your jacket. You walked to a place you knew you would be welcome.

You knew that you weren’t going to get on. But this was getting out of hand. You hated him. Hated the way he treated you. The way he judged you, despite him knowing exactly how that feels.

As you thought this, he appeared to be thinking the same thing. Which made Spike scoff and frown. Was he really better than any of the people he hated? He shook that thought away. Downing his beer and looking for another rather than reflect.

You had called Buffy on your way over and she had been quick to contact the entire group to tell them there had been a major incident. Everyone piled around to her dorm room so that they could support you. You had sounded upset on the phone.

You explained everything that had happened and they all comforted you the best that they could. Xander then showed you the stack of films he had brought to try to cheer you up. He had even found some Musicals just for you.

Buffy explained that she had called Angel but he says he’s sorry but he’s busy right now. Buffy appeared disappointed and when you asked her about it she explained. They used to date when they were seniors in college but they had broken up despite still both having feelings for each other.

She explained it had seemed the right thing to do at the time, but now she wished they were back together. You insisted that you would make it your mission to help them get back together which made Buffy grin at you. She really did value your friendship.

As the night wore on your friends began to discuss the idea of you taking your revenge on Spike. It had made you laugh as they suggested ridiculous pranks and ideas that wouldn’t bother him at all. But then they began to take it more seriously. Insisting that you should get even.

You said you weren’t sure. And left it at that. But they thought you had better do something or he wouldn’t stop.

You eventually went back to a trashed house after staying for the weekend with Buffy. You stared at the mess. Maybe you would have to do something.

It had been unusually quiet the few days prior and you should have known better than to hope he had stopped. You had heard a girl, one of Spike’s partners that came around more than most (Harmony but her sex noises were nothing close to harmonious). She explained that if they were to have a threesome it would have to be boy-boy-girl. Apparently, neither of them had been able to swing Charlize Theron.

You had overheard this conversation over breakfast one morning on. A rare occasion they were both awake (they hadn’t gone to sleep yet). You had immediately spat out your food in disgust of their blunt discussion.

It had been perhaps in slight exaggeration but you felt like you were allowed. You were fine with people having sex and having fun but you really didn’t want to have to hear about it over your breakfast. They could have at least let you rub the sleep from your eyes first.

He had scoffed at you at the time and now he had set this up seemingly just to rub you up the wrong way. As opposed to the right ways he was rubbing his partners.

He tried to push the thought down that this had been solely planned because of you. With you in mind. To get a reaction from you. Because that would start him questioning his intentions. His actions. How you made him so angry it was now near obsessive.

So, it appeared they had finally agreed on the logistics of it. And were now giving you a live audio performance. On some random Thursday afternoon just as you had settled down to study.

You swore they were doing it on purpose. Being as loud as possible just to get a rise out of you.

You pounded on the door. You could smell sex from where you were stood out on the landing. He opened the door and stale cigarette smoke appeared to pour out of the room with him. He had opened the door almost immediately. As if he had been waiting.

“Spike!”

“Problem, pet?”

“I don’t care that you’re having sex, the walls are just so thin – I have an exam coming up can you just be quiet? Or go to one of your, uh, friends’ houses…”

“Mm, someone’s jealous”

“I’m not-”

“Just ‘cause you’re not bloody gettin’ any” He prodded before he thought about it a moment, changing tac, “Oh no. I know what this is… You want me, you need me…” He teased, knowing it would make you flustered.

“I just- I just want to-”

“If you wanted a taste all you had to do was ask” He smirked, moving his hips slightly and moving his head smugly along with his words. Drawing your attention to his naked form. The people in his bed were calling him back and you were just staring at each other. All he was wearing was a single silver chain around his neck. He was attractive, you couldn’t deny this and he knew it too.

You were both furious at each other. Silently trying to gain the upper hand.

“You’re a pig, Spike!” You suddenly screamed, stepping towards him angrily. Which made him smile and just close the door in your face. That was what he had wanted. To get such a big emotional response from you.

You were so angry you threw one of your precious book at his now slammed shut door. He winced at the name you had used, one often used against him by people like Buffy. She even managed to get to him in his own home. You angered him. You angered him.

But he turned back and the noises started up again and you knew for sure that they were doing it on purpose now. It was getting louder and louder. He couldn’t be that fucking good, you were sure of it.

You ran into your room and rummaged through the stack of CDs you had brought with you, selecting the perfect accompaniment. The soundtrack from your favourite musical. You turned the volume up fully and let the entire score play out.

You never wanted to see his stupid smug face again.

#UC sunnyhell #Spike btvs #Spike x reader #Spike imagine #Spike x you #btvs #btvs x reader #btvs imagine #btvs x you #Buffy The Vampire Slayer #buffy the vampire slayer imagines #gender neutral #gn #college au

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