Thousand Mile Wish

Author: enigmaticblue <enigmaticblue@yahoo.com>

Rating: PG-13

Archive: If you wish, just let me know.

Summary: Set after Grave in a First Evil-less world. Written for the livejournal community seasonal_spuffy, this is one part fairy tale, one part ghost story, and one part me being an incorrigible optimist.

A/N: The title is taken from the Finger Eleven song of the same name.

"Forgive me if now I wear the face of worry. This time alone would never cause any doubt, but I've been cold too long. Such a strange time to find myself coming down as the rain, with all these holes, my love, to fill up from the middle. This storm could stay all night now. So can you stay until we close our eyes, 'til your dreams hold mine. Just stay until we know we tried one more time..." ~Finger Eleven, "Thousand Mile Wish"

Interlude

"Is it working?"

"Considering that their conversations haven't lasted for more than ten minutes, I'd say it was working."

"You were the one who had the bright idea of making him disappear every time she started getting snippy," he said. "I wanted to lock them in a room together."

"So they could kill each other?" she asked.

He shrugged. "Either that or they'd start doing each other upside down and sideways."

She made a disgusted sound. "These things take a little more finesse than that. Screwing each other silly is what got them into trouble in the first place."

"The Slayer's denial is what got them into trouble," he corrected her. "I don't see how she's going to come out of that when the vampire disappears every time she talks to him."

"If she finds a different way of talking to him, he won't disappear," she pointed out smugly. "You were the one who decided they needed a nudge in the right direction."

"Obviously," he observed dryly. "They still do." He shook his head. "This really is pathetic. The Slayer only has a few more weeks."

The woman shook her head. Sometimes her companion had no idea how to handle people. The Powers had seen a need for someone to deal with the vampire who had actually asked for his soul. Without some sort guidance, it was all too likely that he wouldn't be able to fulfill his destiny as a champion. Far from being the one to upset the balance, he was one of the ones who was going to be responsible for keeping it—and he needed the Slayer to do it.

Of course, it was rather a dirty trick they were playing on Spike. The poor creature thought he was going to be dragged down to hell.

"Give her time. She's a smart girl, and she wants him around. She'll figure out how to keep him."

He raised an eyebrow but decided not to argue with her. It was unlikely that either the Slayer or the vampire would figure out who was behind this little charade until they were ready to reveal themselves.

"You're the one running the show," he replied. "Although I'd like to know what you're going to tell the vampire when he finds out that we aren't sending him to hell, no matter what the Slayer chooses to do."

The woman shook her head. "I told you. She'll do no such thing. Do you know how rare it is for a mortal to know a love such as his?" She sighed. "Isn't that the reason why we're here?"

"So much love," he replied. "It's altogether too rare. Perhaps she'll finally realize that he's exactly what she needs."

The woman shook her head. "She's lucky the Powers sent us to get involved. Knowing how stubborn those two are, they'll need more than a nudge in the right direction."