Author: lilithangel
Email: abchainey@xtra.co.nz
Website: www.livejournal.com/users/lilithbint
Fandom: AtS
Characters: Spike
Genre: POV, light humour
Rating: Gen - Preslash setup for later story
Word Count: 519
Disclaimer: he followed me home so I'm keeping him but I am making no money out of this and I will not be suing for ownership.
Summary: a prequel to something else I am writing for the Live Journal community "hols_with_james" which is due out August 1st. Written for the Taming_the_muse LJ community. In thinking about the prompt 'pickpocket' I kept coming back to the question how Spike survived after the chip. The money he earned from information couldn't have been enough. I have seen references to scaring humans for money (not sure if that was fan fiction or canon) but that had to be risky.
Here's my answer.
* * * * *
Spike had not been a professional pickpocket, but he was glad boredom had prompted him to learn. Vampires didn't need to be stealthy to take things from their victims, but after that bloody Initiative had stomped on his vampire nature he had been forced to use other methods to get what he wanted.
Begging for scraps from the slayer and her watcher had always galled him. He did what was necessary but he didn't have to like it. How they thought he had survived on what they dolled out was beyond him.
He might not have been able to physically hurt people, but the chip didn't stop him wanting to. So he had to come up with other ways of making ends meet.
So he dusted off the skills he had learnt from a minion that had been a pickpocket before Drusilla found him. Learning the skills had kept him entertained while Drusilla was keeping Angelus entertained. Honing those skills on Angelus later had made him feel a bit better.
His lack of breathing meant he could stand right behind people without them knowing and his unnatural speed let him take what he wanted and disappear before they realised anything was missing.
Really being a vampire pick pocket was almost too easy, but he wasn't going to argue about it.
He would trade information with Giles and Buffy to keep them satisfied and, as time went by, as an excuse to see Buffy and spend time with her.
Everything else he owned came from his own skills at distraction and sleight of hand.
Nobody guessed and he was soon good enough again to slip Giles' wallet from his pants take what he wanted and return it during the course of yet another tirade by the watcher.
If in latter days he used his skills to palm a few dollars to Dawn for going out or into Buffy's wallet to help with the bills well nobody realised that either. Except Dawn and she was willing to keep her mouth shut in return for him teaching her a few tricks.
Now with his newly returned body, and re-found purpose of making Angel's life as miserable as his was, it was time to dust off those skills once more.
One shove would always lead to another and then to a proper fight. Letting Angel get him into a headlock meant the dark vampire had no idea what his hands were doing. Then it was child's play to extract Angel's wallet and hide it within the confines of his jacket.
A little bit of flirting with Harmony got him a supply of blood on tap and access to a computer long enough for him to order everything he needed with Angel's credit card.
Then another push and shove match had the wallet returned before Angel even missed it, a copy of relevant passwords made, and one building access card lighter than before.
More flirting with Harmony and he knew the pouf's schedule for the next three days.
Finally Project "Get Some Sun and Get on Angel's Nerves" was ready to go.
THE END
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