Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction ❯ Hymn for Cowboys Led Astray ❯ Games People Play ( Chapter 4 )

Disclaimer: No, I don't own Cowboy Bebop. However, I am probably using Spike's background to make it suit my own purposes. I think my deep desire with this story overall was to put my spin on the timeline of Spike's past. How he lost his eye, how he met Julia, and how things went so horribly wrong with Vicious..

Chapter 4: Games People Play

I drifted in a comfortable black haze while a war raged around me. It sounds so wonderfully dramatic that way. While I played Sleeping Beauty on the floor of the White Tiger Syndicate, the remainder of my men stayed alive long enough to kill the enemy that surrounded us.

Obviously I wasn't exactly taking notes on the happenings, but once the area had been secured and someone had realized there was a pulse on me, I was dragged to the nearest Dragon stronghold. A team of doctors (under Dragon employment, of course) slapped a cybernetic eye in my skull to replace the one that had been poked out by flying shrapnel.

I drifted in sleep for three days. Surprisingly, I dreamed of the girl, Julia, who I had met a few weeks back at the Dragon bar. A memory, really. A memory of Vicious' girl.

Shin and I had been playing an innocent game of pool in the bar, where the patrons mostly comprised of Red Dragon members. We were drinking, and eyeing any girl that walked by us. Just another normal night. And then Vicious came in, wearing his traditional black trench coat. He walked across the bar to us, and I noticed something was different. He had always had a strange gait, a soldier's precise quickstep left over from his time on loan from the Syndicate to the Titan war; but it was different today, lighter somehow.

He came over to us, smiling in that oddly cold way of his, and said he had someone to introduce. Naturally our curiosity was intense-Vicious had never introduced either Shin or myself to anyone outside the Syndicate before. And never had anyone had the honor of being introduced with a smile from the silver enigma.

I was about to grab another beer off the counter when she turned around at Vicious' call. She nodded at him, and then she glanced at me. I stood there hanging on to my pool cue as if it was a lifeline. I can't remember now if my mouth hung open or not as she floated over to us.

Floated is the only word that comes to mind. How else would an angel travel? Well, not a typical angel, with wings and a harp like the Earth stories, but an angel nonetheless. Blonde hair was held back by a pair of dark sunglasses on her head, and she wore a shiny, tight black cat suit, leaving little to the imagination. Piercingly blue eyes shifted, and were locked with Vicious' own silver ones. Heads turned as she made her stately way over to our little group.

I had enough self-control to look away before any unwelcome thoughts could make their presence known to the rest of my companions. Beside me, Shin was gaping like a fish on its last dying breath. I would have laughed if the air in my lungs hadn't been mysteriously sucked out, but I managed to nudge him out of his stupor in time for Vicious to reach out and put an arm protectively around her shoulders.

She nodded politely to Shin, and then those intelligent blues were on me as I was introduced by Vicious. "This is Spike, the lovechild of the Syndicate and adoptive son of Mao Yenrai." The ruby red lips turned up on one side as she smirked. The laughter touched her eyes for a second before it was gone, replaced by a tinge of sadness.

"It's nice to meet you, Spike." She said, and then turned and nuzzled the silver-haired man under the right side of his jaw. "Vicious has told me all about you." I swallowed against a sudden lump in my throat as Vicious reached out and stroked the delicate skin of her face.

"Only good things, I hope." I managed. Julia chuckled, a deep hearty sound and Vicious lowered his arm to grab her hand in a protective grip. "Only the best." She agreed, and looked up at her protector. I looked at Vicious. I'll always remember the look in his eyes as he stared at her profile, because it was the only time I ever saw any kind of real emotion there.

He loved her. By God, the silver-haired demon loved another person other than himself. If the shock hadn't knocked me out, his next words to me would have. Julia had gone, at Vicious' insistence, to play a round of darts with Shin.

I had just finished racking the balls for a new game, and as I straightened, Vicious moved to my side. He bent close to my right ear. "She's mine, you know." I nodded and squinted, mentally aiming for my first shot once Shin got back. "Keep that in mind, Spike."

Somewhat hurt that he would think about me moving in on his girl, I turned to face him. Vicious stared at me, eyes narrowed to little slits. I tried my best to stare him down, and then our standoff was broken, luckily for me, as Shin and Julia came back to the table, laughing and arguing about who had to pay for the next round of drinks.

Vicious broke the stare, moving off to join the other two as I stood there, wondering what the hell had just happened.

~

The dream faded, and I felt myself unwilling drifting up towards consciousness. The first thing that I remembered when I opened my eyes was the smug little look Vicious had worn before he stepped through the doors of the White Tiger inner sanctuary and Hell had erupted around me. Secondly, my brain alerted me to the fact that there was someone sitting in a chair by my bed, and that my left eye was covered.

I tried to sit up, but having been blown up and ripped to pieces had its effect on my muscles, and I sunk back on the pillows with a groan. The figure approached me, and I was able to pick out Mao's familiar features looking worriedly down at me.

"How are you feeling?" He asked as he kneeled by me in the near darkness. I did my best to shrug, but it was only a pathetic imitation. Shifting slightly, I could see some of the tubes keeping me alive reflected in the slim beams of moonlight.

"About the best I can." My mouth was dry and tasted of cotton, and my voice rasped in my throat. You can probably thank a breathing tube for that one. I thought to myself. Stupid tubes. I tried to tug an IV out of my right forearm, but the damn thing was taped in too well. "You know how much I hate hospitals, Mao." I croaked. He nodded.

"It was necessary, Spike. You almost died back there." He moved a wrinkled hand to hover over the covered half of my face. "As it is, your eye was lost in one of the explosions, and had to be replaced."

My brain was still too fuzzy from pain medication to fully grasp the implications of this, so I weakly nodded. He continued, voice so low that I had to strain to hear him. "We won't be able to tell if the replacement works until everything is healed enough to remove the bandages. For now, I just want you to sleep."

Vicious' smug grin swam up in my mind. "What about my men?" I questioned. More important to my drug-addled brain, "What about Vicious?" Mao frowned slightly, and looked over at something on the wall that I was suddenly too tired to turn and see.

"He was captured." Mao said simply. As much as I wanted to stay awake and hear the rest, my eyelids began to droop. The old man saw this and stood, gently patting one of the unbandaged spots on my left knee. "I'll tell you the rest in the morning. For now, you need to sleep." I was still awake enough to hear his slow shuffle out my door, and wonder what Mao had avoided telling me.

God, I need a cigarette. I thought, and drifted back to that comfortable state of unconsciousness.