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Coercion 1

Who Hath a Book

By the third week of having an undead houseguest, Xander got bored with tying Spike to the chair. It all started one night when all he wanted to do was settle into bed and sleep uninterrupted for about twelve hours. Spike kept making lewd comments and rude sounds just as he was drifting off. In anger and frustration, Xander had gotten up, untied the vampire, and ordered him out of the house to go find someone else to bug. He’d then promptly fallen into bed and gone to sleep. Some ten hours later, Xander had awakened to find Spike reclining in the orange chair of bondage and reading a paperback.

Xander scrubbed his hand over his face. “I thought I told you to get out.”

Spike didn’t look up from his book. “I did. I went out, bugged some people, went by my crypt for the book I’d been reading, and came back here.”

“Why did you come back here?” Xander asked suspiciously.

“Sun’s up, innit?” Spike calmly turned a page.

Xander yawned and squinted at the clock. The sun had been up for three hours and Spike hadn’t awakened him. “But… Ah, never mind.”

“Don’t leave your butt hanging out, Harris. What?” Spike lowered his book, using his thumb as a bookmark.

“You came back is all. I thought that as soon as we left you off your leash, you’d run for the hills.”

“What? And give up being kept? Until I get the government to get this chip out of my skull, I have to stay in town. So why not hang out where few demons dare to tread and get paid for my assistance?”

Xander shook his head. “I wonder if Giles will take you back?” he muttered.

“Oh, no! Not the Watcher. He leaves me in the cold bathtub, doesn’t eat pizza, and quizzes me about the oddest aspects of a vampire’s existence. Using me like I was his own bloody internet…”

Xander chuckled, swung his legs off the bed, and scratched his head, closing his eyes in pleasure. “He does love to correct past Watcher’s dairies, doesn’t he?”

“Yeah.” Spike found himself staring at the place where Xander’s boxer’s gaped open. He tilted his head to get a better look and snapped himself out of it before Xander opened his eyes.  He cursed at the fates that were laughing at him. Truth be told he had gone out to get laid, but had come up dry. Most Sunnydale girls didn’t talk with strangers, even damned handsome ones like him. Back in the day, he could have taken any number of nibbleable coeds. Now, he was left pondering his last resort again… seducing the boy. “Plus, I didn’t wake you up this morning. You were totally knackered and I didn’t do one thing to wake you,” Spike babbled defensively.

Xander slumped, unknowingly making his boxers gape more, and sat with elbows on knees, studying the vampire who was for some reason taking a great interest in the toaster on the shelf. “That’s right, you didn’t. What have you been up to?”

“I told you. I went and got my book. You won’t let me touch your bloody comics, so I went and got something to read.” Spike watched reflected Xander scratch his balls and bit back a groan.

“You read?”

“As a habit and a hobby, yes.” Xander had left off his scratching, absently picked up a pillow, and was cuddling it.  “You forget, you prat, for a large part of my life there was no television or even bloody radio. So, yes, I read.”

Xander studied Spike, wondering why he was shifting so in his chair and not looking his way. “What’s it like?”

Spike turned snapping blue eyes and furrowed brow on the whelp. “Do you want me to teach you?”

Xander shrugged. “No. I know how to read. I’ve just never read for pleasure. Well, apart from comic books.” He didn’t know why he was sharing so much with Spike. Maybe it was because he was well-rested for the first time in forever, and the vampire hadn’t awakened him.

Spike’s expression softened. “You visualize what’s happening.” Xander looked at him blankly, and Spike sighed. “You play D & D, I’ve seen the books.” Xander nodded. “It’s like that, ‘cept you don’t shape the story, you just go along for the ride.”

“I get that. What’re you reading?”

“A Tale of Two Cities.” Spike launched into a summery of the intricate story lines, but trailed off when he saw boy’s eyes glaze over when he got to the concept of subplots. “Let’s start you out on short stories. I’ll write a list of things I think you’ll like.”

A week later, Xander came home with a large, black hardback copy of The Stories of Ray Bradbury. “Look! I got it at that little used bookstore beside the Magic Box for five dollars!”

The topic of literature had not come up again in the last couple of days, and Spike had thought it dropped. Harris had been leaving him untied, so he could come and go at will. The funny thing was, Spike found himself wanting more and more to be in the boy’s company. Since the idea of seducing him had taken root, it had become a personal challenge to do it right. Heck, he had nothing better to do and all the time in the world to do it. It had been decades since he’d played a human for any length of time. That the boy was handsome and strong didn’t hinder the issue.

Spike raised an eyebrow and took the battered book. Spike had chosen Bradbury for his poetic use of simple words and the fact many of his stories had been converted into comic books. “Good choice, Pet. Read any of it yet?”

Xander launched into a babble about the handful of stories he’d read that day. Spike nodded and let his eyes trail over the muscled arms which were the only bare skin showing on the boy. He snapped out of it when Xander asked him to recommend some stories in the collection of a hundred plus. Fluidly, Spike rose from his chair and planted himself close beside the boy. Best make a move while there was an opening. Xander flinched away, but Spike ignored this and opened the book on Xander’s lap. He distracted the boy from his proximity by pointing out stories in the index, noting which ones had been movies and which ones he’d seen in House of Mystery comics. Xander soon relaxed, excited by this new pastime.

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