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Nov. 27th, 2004 06:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Beth's reading.
She's just sitting on the edge of the bed over there, reading, and I can't remember ever just watching someone read before like this. From a position of decadent comfort.
I like how she puts her fingertip to her lips before she turns the page. Not every page, but once in a while. It's an absent-minded sweet move and she's not paying attention to me. She's reading what I wrote, about traveling to Venus, and it's sweet.
That's a phrase she uses on me sometimes. Spike, you're sweet. I'm not, really. I don't know if I've been sweet a day in my adult life. But if she thinks I am, I can be. I like it. I like being sweet for Beth. I have something I want to do for her, for a surprise. But it will have to wait just a little while longer.
Learning how to work around being Bound here has been a good exercise. I always liked a challenge. I always manage to work things out, one way or another.
She's just sitting on the edge of the bed over there, reading, and I can't remember ever just watching someone read before like this. From a position of decadent comfort.
I like how she puts her fingertip to her lips before she turns the page. Not every page, but once in a while. It's an absent-minded sweet move and she's not paying attention to me. She's reading what I wrote, about traveling to Venus, and it's sweet.
That's a phrase she uses on me sometimes. Spike, you're sweet. I'm not, really. I don't know if I've been sweet a day in my adult life. But if she thinks I am, I can be. I like it. I like being sweet for Beth. I have something I want to do for her, for a surprise. But it will have to wait just a little while longer.
Learning how to work around being Bound here has been a good exercise. I always liked a challenge. I always manage to work things out, one way or another.
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Date: 2004-11-28 04:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-28 05:08 am (UTC)He watches her watching him, satisfied, and reaches for a cigarette. He likes her through the haze, it makes her image dance and sway just a little bit. "Think you would have liked it? Being a shuttle attendant on the Interplanetary?"
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Date: 2004-11-28 05:17 am (UTC)"It wouldn't be much unlike what I'm used to doing. But it'd be more exciting."
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Date: 2004-11-28 05:23 am (UTC)And really, he can't picture her in that short little blue skirt-and-top outfit with the puffy sleeves. But he's having fun trying.
And he knows -- he knows -- she would love Venus. Extra helium in the atmosphere and everything. "Hey, does Elaine still have the travel guide?"
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Date: 2004-11-28 05:44 am (UTC)She shrugs a little, closes the notebook, and puts it in her lap. "The views must be incredible. Not that you should build a career off of that sort of thing."
Shaking her head, she smiles at the mention of her travel guide. "No, I've got it. It's in my room."
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Date: 2004-11-28 05:55 am (UTC)In a little blue skirt-dress with puffy sleeves. Nah. Can't see it.
Spike pauses, considering her carefully. "I can't help it, Beth. I don't see you in my time doing that kind of work." He doesn't want her to feel insulted; that's not the point. It's just that he can't see her content serving drinks to stubborn assholes in space for that whole long damn flight. "Shuttle service is... let's say the attendants don't have nearly as much responsibility as you did on your plane. Make sense?"
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Date: 2004-11-28 06:03 am (UTC)"What do you see me doing in your time?"
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Date: 2004-11-28 06:09 am (UTC)At long last he speaks. "Explorer. Archaeologist. Something like that."
Because he knows she would make a difference no matter what universe she found herself in, no matter what circumstance. Just like she did to the people on the plane, even though she blames herself for things that were beyond her control. "You might even have been a pilot, Beth."
And she'd have made a damn fine one, too. Damn fine.
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Date: 2004-11-28 06:25 am (UTC)She's fairly confident she could fly a 747 at this point, but nothing else.
After a moment, she says, "I don't have the proper training or education for any of that. But they are nice ideas."
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Date: 2004-11-28 06:27 am (UTC)He reaches for her hand. "Suppose we could leave, and suppose we could go to each others' time, and suppose it didn't mean either of us had to die. Would you rather take me back with you to Cooksfield, or would you rather go with me to the future?"
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Date: 2004-11-28 06:51 am (UTC)"I'd rather go with you." Absently, she puts one of her hands in the one Spike held out to her. "What is there for me in Cooksfield? For you? For anyone? There's not a whole lot worth going back for in my world."
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Date: 2004-11-28 06:57 am (UTC)He says it so very quietly, almost inaudibly. But he's sure she's heard him, and he squeezes her hand.
"I'd like to take you with me, Beth. Then you could see all these places... so long as you wouldn't mind wandering around with someone who's supposed to be dead for the second time."
That makes him laugh. "Take you to Neptune in a nice warm jacket. Show you the lava birds on Ganymede. Watch the stars streak by like comets from hyperspace. We wouldn't ever have to go to Mars."
Because that's where he'd have to pretend to be dead.
Despite everything, he misses it. He misses the freedom of space.
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Date: 2004-11-28 07:06 am (UTC)"You're sweet," she says quietly. It isn't something she's said yet today. "So sweet."
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Date: 2004-11-28 07:14 am (UTC)He hears these words from the woman whose hair smells like a combination of oranges and ginger and lilies. From the woman whose eyes sparkle like emeralds in moonlight. From the woman whose skin is as smooth as the finest silk and whose laugh is a music box resonating in an echo chamber.
And he's sweet.
(Just like honey.)
He closes his eyes and breathes her in so deeply.
"You remind me of sunshine."
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Date: 2004-11-28 07:22 am (UTC)"Sunshine?" She blinks at him, laughs delightedly, and tightens her arms around him. "You give the best compliments."
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Date: 2004-11-28 07:27 am (UTC)"Sunshine." He nods decisively and holds her close.
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Date: 2004-11-28 07:56 pm (UTC)She falls silent for a moment or two, thoughtful.
"I don't know what I'd be doing now if the men hadn't died. I might still be a flight attendant. Do you find that hard to believe?"
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Date: 2004-11-28 08:18 pm (UTC)Turning to face her, he gives her a critical but tender glance. Flight attendant, theologian, Rhodes scholar, pilot, archaeologist, photographer -- he doesn't care. She's Beth, and right now Beth is just about perfect.
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Date: 2004-11-29 04:14 am (UTC)She pulls away from him and looks around for a cigarette. "I'm going to ask you a question that I asked Todd a night ago."
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Date: 2004-11-29 04:15 am (UTC)He hands her the cigarette pack and lighter.
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Date: 2004-11-29 04:24 am (UTC)She removes a cigarette, puts it between her lips. "What's your favorite--" She pauses just long enough to light it. "--deadly sin?"
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Date: 2004-11-29 04:34 am (UTC)He reaches for his own cigarette and lights it before continuing.
Obviously, they're in bed together and have been for a week with only a few breaks. Obviously the answer is lust. For both of them.
He blows out a cool long stream of smoke, looking off into the distance. "I'd have to say my favorite deadly sin is overanalysis." Spike grins at her.
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Date: 2004-11-29 04:42 am (UTC)She laughs and gives him a look that's meant to be disapproving but really isn't.
"Let me rephrase the question. Which do you have the most experience with?"
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Date: 2004-11-29 04:45 am (UTC)"Leaping before I look."
The classic sins don't mean a whole hell of a lot to him, not in any proper religious context. He's got his own list.
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Date: 2004-11-29 04:55 am (UTC)"You're being difficult," she tells him, not exactly complaining.
"I'll make another deal with you. You tell me which of the sins you listed earlier is the one you're most familiar with. Then you can let me know all about your version of the deadly sins and I'll figure out which of them I'm most guilty of." She's curious, of course.
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