Title: Requiem for a Childe Author: Janet Lynn (janet324@comcast.net) Rating: NC-17 Pairing: S/A Warning: This contains m/m slash. If this offends your sensitive nature, please avert your eyes. This includes spoilers for season finales for both shows, so if you haven't seen them yet, you may not want to read this. Genre: BtVS/AtS Disclaimer: All things BtVS and AtS belong to Joss Whedon (my god), Mutant Enemy, etc. I own nothing, so please don't sue me. I just want to play with the yummy beings that Joss created. Spoilers: Season 7 of BtVS and Season 4 of AtS. Distribution: Shara Nesu's Place Red's Soulmates, Permanent Insanity and list archives. Everyone else, just ask. I'm generous. Author's Notes: This idea came to me after I read it as a challenge on one of the lists I'm on. For the life of me, I don't remember which list or who issued it, but this bunny would not leave me alone. This is angst people, pure and simple. A/N 2: This idea is still in the works, so I'm not sure if I will continue it or not. If you like this and think I should follow through with it, please let me know. If enough people like it, I will finish it up right away. I am not abandoning 'Thanks with Tears', I just needed to get this first part out of my brain. Summary: Spike's dead. Angel remembers. A huge thanks to my sis Stephanie who is betaing for me. You rock babe! Thoughts indicated by <> Flashbacks are in italics Chapter 1 Angel sighed as he sat behind his desk at the Hyperion. The room was full of boxes. He had been packing for the move to the offices at Wolfram and Hart when the bus had pulled up in front of the hotel. Buffy and the rest of the Sunnydale crew hobbled into the lobby, looking exhausted but happy. After hearing the tale of how they had saved the world.again, Angel and the rest of his crew showed the battered people to the rooms abandoned by the throngs of Jasmine worshippers who had infested the hotel not so long ago. Now that everyone was beginning to settle, Angel decided he needed to be alone. He couldn't sit and listen to the stories and the memories any more. He wanted to brood and drink in private, so his office seemed his only safe haven. Slowly, he reached down and opened the bottom drawer of his desk. It was the first time he had opened that drawer since he had placed its only item in it when he first moved in. He lifted out the leather portfolio and set it on the desk in front of him. He reverently stroked the soft leather before opening the cover to reveal the treasures inside. Angel began to breathe unconsciously as he picked up the top sheet of parchment. It was yellowed from age and worn on the edges from excessive touching. The face stared back at him and Angel was lost in the memory. A gentle knocking brought the dark vampire out of his musing. He looked up to see the watcher standing in the doorway, watching him quietly. "Hello, Rupert" he said, smiling lightly at the man before him. "Hello Angel" the Englishman replied. "I wanted to say thank you and make sure that you were alright. You don't happen to have any." Angel already knew what the watcher was looking for and pulled out the bottle of Irish whiskey he had hidden for just such an occasion. He quickly poured a glass for himself and his visitor. When he turned around, he noticed Giles looking at the picture he had been holding when the man walked in. "Remarkable" Giles said, slightly startled by the portrait in the hands. "Spike actually looked like this?" "Yeah" Angel replied, a little uneasy about sharing this part of himself with the watcher. He and Giles and never really gotten along, but this was personal and now, very painful. "He was nothing like you knew. He was quiet, gentle, and very accommodating. That was William, not Spike." "Do you want to talk about it?" the Englishman offered. He knew that sire/childe relationships could be complicated, but Angel and Spike's went beyond that. He never truly understood the extent of that relationship, but he knew that it must be hard for Angel to accept the death of his childe. "You offering?" Angel asked, surprised by the man's offer. "Yes" Giles said, sliding down into the seat opposite the desk, sipping the amber liquid and waiting. Angel thought and he sat down to show Giles the life of William the Bloody, his favorite childe, the champion who was now no more than a pile of dust. "He was a beautiful boy" the dark vampire started. "So full of anger and pain. All the that repressed Victorian sexual tension made him irresistible. I had to have him." "I thought Druscilla sired William?" Giles interrupted. "Druscilla sought him out and drained him, but Angelus was the one who turned him" Angel quickly explain, irritated at the interruption. "The funny thing is that we probably wouldn't have even noticed him if he hadn't bumped into me. This little whip of a boy bumped into the Scourge of Europe and had the balls to tell me to watch where I was going. I knew I had to have him." From the shadows, a dark figure watched as the two people slid to the floor in a parody of a lovers embrace. "Druscilla, love, what do ye think yer doin'?" "I want this lovely boy for my own, daddy. He's so full of pain and hate. He's going to be my boy." "Why don't ye let me do that for ya'? He'll be your brother, but I'll give him to you to keep." "Yes, daddy. I would like a new brother. Wait 'til you taste him. He's delicious." Angelus was quick to comply. He couldn't wait to taste this boy. He looked so innocent and pure, just like he liked them. Breaking into the skin with his fangs, the dark vampire moaned in ecstasy. This boy was even more delicious than he imagined. After a few pulls, the young Victorian was drained and his heartbeat had slowed enough for his turning. Angelus raised a sharp fingernail and brought it across his own pale throat, producing a delicate cut. He cradled the boy's head and brought his mouth to the slowly seeping wound. "Drink, me boy and you will be mine for eternity" he whispered to the rapidly dying young man. The boy did not hesitate and immediately latched onto the wound and drew the blood into himself before breathing his final breath. Angel looked at the picture still gripped in the watcher's hand. "That's William, alive and beautiful. Right before I killed him." Tbc..?