Xander grinned unrepentantly and gave the older man an affectionate hug. Giles held the boy close, heard a soft warning growl and looked up into the golden eyes of an annoyed Spike. He cleared his throat and moved back, patting Xander on the shoulder, knowing he was making the vamp jealous. Spike was surprised when Giles offered him a hand to shake, but took it and shook it, knowing that the man was giving him his blessing.

"Have you told Angel yet?" Rupert asked him, softly. When Spike shook his head negatively, Giles made a face that told Spike that the ex-Watcher didn’t want to be around when they broke the news to the vamp’s Sire. "Well, best of the British...and all of that." He gave a wan smile and turned away to talk to Buffy. Spike looked over at Xander, who shrugged and gave him a shaky smile. Spike sighed inwardly. Rupert was right, this was going to be a difficult visit with Angel. The man was already broody and didn’t like the boy, so having one of his Childer mated to the kid for all of eternity was bound to piss the pouf off. Not that he really gave a shit about Angel’s opinion one way or another personally, but even a rebellious bastard like himself knew that tradition must be followed concerning a claim. After all, Angel was his Sire...grandsire...and therefore it was his approval which mattered above anyone else’s. If Angel disapproved, Spike didn’t know what he would do. He loved the boy and couldn’t bear unlife without him.

As soon as the others began to file out of Giles’ house, Spike grabbed Xander by the shoulders. "If Angel says he doesn’t approve, we get the hell out of there and we find another big city and we move there. I can’t lose you, not now. If he doesn’t know where I am, he can’t break us apart." Xander was shocked at the desperate pleading tone in Spike’s voice. He shushed the vamp, murmuring sweet loving things to him as he pulled him close, stroking his back, and rocking him gently.

"You’re not going to lose me. I love you. I don’t care what Deadboy says, we belong together. You know it and I know it. It will be okay, Spike. I’ll be with you and we will get through this, together. I’m not going anywhere without you. I will never leave you, Spike. I love you, I love you." He pressed kisses against Spike’s mouth, his cheek, his jaw.

"I love you, too, baby." Spike whispered. Xander’s comforting words made the vamp start purring softly. Xander smiled against Spike’s shoulder. He loved it when his vampire purred. "Come on, luv, let’s go home. We have to get ready to go see Peaches." Spike nuzzled Xander’s ear, making the other man shudder.

"Baby, if you want to leave, doing that thing to my ear is the wrong way to go about it." Xander murmured, moaning softly as Spike nipped his earlobe.

"Buzzkill." Spike muttered, stealing a quick kiss. "All right...let’s go shock the shorts off Peaches." He gave Xander a brilliant smile, which the boy returned at the thought of stunning the normally cool vampire with the eternally perfect hair. Picking up Spike’s blanket, they left, each laughing at the image of Angel’s face when they told him.

Deciding to take Spike’s Desoto because it had extremely dark tinted windows, the pair each packed a small bag of necessities and four days of clothing. Xander put the bags in the car and then helped a blanket-covered Spike into the car. Spike insisted on driving and Xander finally conceded. Soon, they were on their way to Los Angeles and one blissfully unaware Angel.

"Spike, please can we listen to something other than the Sex Pistols?" Xander begged, half an hour into the drive. The vampire sighed and handed Xander a box full of cassette tapes. "Frank Sinatra?" Xander asked, surprised. He looked over at Spike and then shrugged, "I guess it makes sense...Ol’ Blue Eyes." Spike gave his lover a slight smirk at that.

"The Sex Pistols did a cover of ‘My Way’." The vamp explained, watching the boy as he nodded. "Forget those...put the radio on."

They listened to the radio the rest of the way to Los Angeles, arguing only twice over songs. Xander won both times, using his puppy eyes on his mate. Spike had pouted for a full ten minutes. Xander simply blew him a kiss, making Spike’s lips twitch as he struggled to keep from smiling.

Neither of them spoke as they crossed the Los Angeles city limits. Nervous tension filled the DeSoto as they each wondered how this ‘meeting’ with Angel would go. Spike wanted to reassure his mate that everything would be fine, but he knew Angel all too well. Xander worried that somehow Spike would get hurt, either physically or emotionally when they told Angel. Angel had quite a temper on him with or without Angelus present and Xander had seen the way that the dark vampire had treated his Childe when Angel had been in Sunnydale.

Spike noticed that Xander took a deep breath when the Hyperion Hotel came into view. It looked like a dreary castle that Spike had seen on an old Dracula movie. Those tossers hadn’t been accurate on anything about the infamous vamp. Dracula wasn’t the pouf the movies made him out to be. Anyroad, Peaches didn’t seem to get the idea of discretion at all. The place couldn’t scream ‘A vampire lives here’ any louder. Spike rolled his eyes.

"Not one for irony, is he, luv? Trust the pouf to take up residence in a haunted hotel. A vampire living in a ghost infested hovel. You can smell the death all over that place." He turned and saw the blood leaching from Xander’s face. "Well, you can’t...anyroad, the hotel is old and no one has died there in a long time...I don’t think the cheerleader would be too keen on working in a place where people are dying right and left...and I’m shutting up now." He was acting like his mate now, babbling on about Cordelia and death.

"The cheerleader? Oh, you mean, Cordy...no, she’s not good with the death...it’s not of the good...she’s into being alive."

"Kind of high-maintenance, if I recall, quite a looker, though."

"Yeah...we...uh....had a thing in high school...which you ruined by the way when you kidnapped me and Willow to do that love spell of yours. Cordy and Oz caught us kissing and Cordy freaked. She ran out and fell through some boards and ended up in the hospital with a long piece of iron stuck through her side." Xander glared at his mate, who was fighting the urge to burst out laughing. "It’s not funny, Spike! She was impaled on some rusty iron rebar. She was hurt both physically and emotionally and I was all kinds of pissed at you after that." He sounded pissed now and Spike felt bad.

"I’m sorry, luv. I only wanted Dru back, no one was supposed to get hurt...not like that."

"Spike, you choked me and then you hit me in the head with a microscope!" Xander protested. The blond vampire flinched, he’d forgotten that. "Oh! And you also punched me!"

"Guess I’m sleeping on the couch tonight. Why don’t you curse me with a soul? Then we can have a real good time of it! I’d be barmy and in constant pain from all the wrongdoing in my life, you can bloody well have a party!" Spike knew he was doing what Rupert would call ‘projecting his anger’ which stemmed from his guilt at hurting Xander the way he had.

"Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you? So you can bitch and moan about what a lousy husband I am! Tell everyone how I ruined our honeymoon! Stop the car and let me out!"

"No way in bloody hell!" But he had to because they had finally arrived at the Hyperion. They sat in the car glaring at each other, neither noticing that they had company.

TBC...