None of the major characters are mine. They all belong to their respective creators. I am merely satisfying a plot bunny idea that just won’t go away.Summary: “But lovers always come and lovers always go…no one’s really sure who’s lettin’ go…”PhoenixRae’s Notes:
Response to Cameron’s Challenge 405: Uncommon Angst in the November Rain. This is a random pairing I picked that I think would make this scenario I cooked up in my noggin’ seem more believable – I hope!Spoilers/Settings:
In the BtVS world, when Spike left Sunnydale in season 6 after what happened between him & Buffy, he didn’t go and get his soul returned to him right away. I decided to give him a little detour en route to him being re-souled. In the Underworld
world this picks up shortly after the scene when Kraven didn’t let Erika go with him in the car nearing the end of the movie when Viktor learned of his betrayal. (I own the special EXTENDED edition of the first movie so this scene between Kraven & Erika might or might not have been included in the theatrical release).
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WHY?” THAT WAS ALL HE ASKED, looking hopelessly at the woman standing with her back to him in the hallway leading to the door. He waited for her to say anything; hoped for her to say something before walking out of his life forever.
Erika stood with her shoulders squared and her spine ramrod straight. She took a slow, deep breath to calm her nerves. He asked a simple, one-word question that she couldn’t quite fathom how to answer.
“Erika—” Spike moved away from where he stood, away from their bedroom doorway to go to her, but she stopped his movement and whatever he had to say by raising one slim, pasty white hand.
Mustering up her courage, Erika took another deep, calming breath – not that her kind needed oxygen to breathe anyway – before she turned slowly to face the man whom she has cohabited with this past few months. She tried not to crumble to her feet when she met his eyes, those penetrating eyes of his that was her weakness to begin with.
“Erika—” He started again, but she gave a firm shake of her head, her eyes holding his.
“Spike, this is how it’s going to be. You’re still in love with her. I tried to shrug it off every time we made love and you call out her name instead of mine, but lately…I can’t live like this, Spike, I can’t.” She tore her gaze from his.
“I’m already over her, Erika,” he insisted and took a tentative step forward. When she didn’t back away he became bold and took another step until he stood just a foot away from her.
She looked back at him and forced herself not to give in to tears. She doesn’t give a whit about crying; she doesn’t have any feelings given that she was a creature of the night that cared naught for silly mortal emotions. But like her love and obsession for Kraven, Spike became someone who was more than just a playmate to her. She actually thought that she’d be able to co-exist in this world of the living with a mate of her own that has been through hell and back.
They both suffered from unrequited love when they met. She was nursing a broken heart after Kraven rebuffed her one last time. Spike was on his way to redemption or something or other when they bumped into each other at a vampire bar in the middle of no where.
“So you keep on saying that to me, but I know better.”
“Why are you doing this, luv? Why?”
“‘Cause nothin’ lasts forever, Spike, we both know hearts can change,” she replied.
Erika tried not to react. He asked her and she told him exactly what she thought he needed to hear in order to let her go.
“I know I’m a cold heartbreaker, fit to burn and I’ll rip your heart in two, but Erika you have to understand, Buffy’s a part of my past. A not so recent past, but regardless, she was past history.” He closed the space between them and clasped her upper arms, cajoling her to lift her gaze and meet his once again. “Since I met you, I haven’t thought about Buffy and what the rest of my undead life will be like with her.”
Erika scoffed and pushed his hands away. She took a step back and shook her head. “You might believe what you’re saying, Spike, but I know better. Sometimes when you’re asleep you call out her name. When we’re making love, it was her name that you scream out,” she paused to gather her thoughts. She couldn’t think coherently when he stood so near her. She turned her back to him once again and took a couple of steps forward. She sensed him move and she moved too; she didn’t want to be entrapped by him at the moment.
“Spike, I don’t have plans and schemes. And I don’t have hopes and dreams. I…I…I don’t have anything since I don’t have you,” she finally admitted.
“But you have me, luv,” he insisted and using his vampiric speed he was in front of her in a flash. He grabbed her by the arms once again and made her look at him. His pained expression tugged at the chords of emotion knotting her non-beating heart.
“No, Spike,” she shook her head and for the second time shrugged off his hands off her. “You don’t have me when you’re still pining for someone else.”
She walked away then, leaving him standing there in shock. Erika held herself together until she was safely out the door of the apartment they leased for the duration of their wild and crazy love affair. She leaned her back against the wall, closed her eyes tightly before letting the tears she kept from falling fall freely down her cheeks.
Erika cried silently, wishing that she could erase the last few weeks she spent lost in a world Spike helped create with her. She glanced at the window at the end of the empty hallway and saw heavy rain pelting the glass window. Even though she couldn’t feel it, she had a distinct feeling that the rain pouring outside was as cold and frigid as that of a November downpour, freezing and chilling a person right down to the bone. It was what she felt inside right now; her insides turned numb as if she’d been drenched in that freezing rain.
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Here are the quotes I used and song titles the said quotes came from (part of the challenge requirement is to quote at least a verse of the song & incorporate other GnR lyrics if and when possible): 'Cause nothin' lasts forever…and we both know hearts can change
– November Rain
; I'm a cold heartbreaker, fit to burn and I'll rip your heart in two
– You Could Be Mine
; I don’t have plans and schemes. And I don’t have hopes and dreams. I…I…I don’t have anything since I don’t have you
– Since I Don’t Have You