Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction ❯ Rain ❯ Spike's Offer ( Chapter 2 )

Rain, it always reminded him of two women that he had once known. One was Julia. The other was a mysterious woman that had always seemed to be followed by the rain. Her eyes were the color of the sky when it rained. That storm gray that made you feel sad and warm at the same time. She had a warmth in her that no other woman he had ever met ever could possess. She was a storm on a summer night, exciting, cooling the humidity laden air, that made you want to run and play in when you were a child. That's what she had been. Julia was a tragic beauty, a tragic love that he had once possessed, but now that he thought on it, it was never Julia that he truly loved. She had been attainable, a fallen angel. The one he had wanted was always shrouded in shadow, almost like a storm goddess of the night.

Why she had crossed his mind in the first place was unknown. He then glanced out of a window in the hotel that he was staying in, it was raining. `So that's why,' he thought to himself.

He wondered idly if she was still alive, that storm goddess, as he stood and walked over to window, leaning against the frame. Then he saw it in the darkened night. A flare of a cigarette and the flash of lightning that revealed a figure standing in the rain from the shadowy darkness of the alley across the street. The figure vaguely resembled her, but something else inside him nagged that he go outside and investigate. Quickly, he snatched his leather bomber jacket and tossed it over his white t-shirt garbed frame as he shoved his feet inside he boots and ran out the door.

~*~

She didn't know why she had followed him, maybe it was morbid curiosity, maybe it was fate, she didn't know. All she knew was that she was supposed to wait in the shadows across from his building. From what she could see, he still looked like her old friend. His hair was as disheveled as ever, reminding her of a mossy green growth on his head. She snickered slightly at that thought. He still seemed to be the same lanky guy that he had always been, skinny but well muscled. She probably shouldn't have been there, she probably should have left, the syndicate was in chaos, and she needed to be there. But here she was, standing outside his hotel and watching him like she had all those years ago, when she had thought she was too good for him, when she had been stupid and self-centered. She regretted those long years, those years that eventually wore her potential happiness away, driving him into the arms of another's woman.

The rain always made her feel so depressed, so empty. That's what she had become, empty. She was a shell of a woman now, not worthy for him or anyone else, save maybe as a one-night stand. That's all she was now, a toy to be played with for one night and then be discarded the next morning like that evening's trash. She watched as lightning flashed; showing him to her for a brief moment, before placing her back in the shadows once again.

~*~

He dodged traffic easily as he ran across the street. She was there, he could feel it. He could smell her cigarettes, the ones that smelled like cloves. Then he found her. Her eyes were the same gray that they had always been, but they also seemed empty. She looked thinner now and paler than she had once been. Her face was more angled now, making her beauty sharper. Even with the scar that traveled over her left eye now, she was still beautiful. "Eve…" he whispered softly.

Her head looked up sharply, her eyes now focused on his. They went wide for a moment and she took a step back. "Spike!" she gasped.

"It's been a long time," he said.

Slowly, she nodded. "Yeah, a long time. I'm glad to see that you are still alive and kicking," she commented.

Spike snorted. "If you could call it living."

"It has to be better than what I'm doing," she joked.

"Eve… I'm sorry about Mao," he apologized.

"It's okay, Spike, I'll get over it. I should go, the Than probably want to yell at me some more for being absent while Mao was killed."

"Where were you?"

Those storm gray eyes darkened with sadness and regret. "Vicious… I had been with him the night before at a club… later that evening, he-"

"Eve…" he whispered as he placed his hands on her shoulders.

Eve wiped her eyes and sniffled slightly as she pulled away. "I'm okay, Spike. Nothing I can't handle. I-I don't know why I even came here tonight. I already know that I'm going to be kicked out of the syndicate for letting Mao die. I might as well just paint a target on my chest and walk into a cowboy bar. I'm as good as dead now. The Red Dragon can't protect me any more."

"And Vicious?"

"A slap on the wrist I'm sure."

Spike ground his teeth together. Vicious was going to get away with hurting her and killing Mao. He then gathered her soaking wet form into his arms and held her close. "I'll protect you, Eve," he whispered into her hair.

Eve's eyes went wide again as he held her. Was he using her like all the others? Could he really protect her like he said? Eve had fallen in love with the brown eyed man all over again. She wouldn't deny herself even the slightest chance if she could really be with him. `Even for one night,' she thought to herself as she sighed and let him lead her across the street and out of the rain.

~*~*~*~

"I wish this was a different world. A world where there wasn't this… darkness. A world where that bitch didn't exist," Eve muttered.

"Who are you talking about?" Spike asked as he hung Eve's soaking clothes up. She was now dressed in a robe that was far too large for her slight frame.

"Who do you think? If she hadn't been such a self-serving, manipulative, slut none of this would have ever happened."

"Oh, Julia," he realized softly.

"Yes, Julia! It was her fault all this shit started! Her fault that you and Vicious had a falling out, her fault that you vanished! If she had just stayed in her place, things would have been different," Eve spat.

"Her place? What was her place?"

"She was a whore, Vicious' whore, and nothing else! When she decided to shoot for you, she was out of her place."

"Was I so much better? I encouraged her," Spike said softly.

Eve stood and locked her gray eyes with his brown ones. "You cannot be blamed for any of this. It is the final flaw of the male, to not be able to think when a beautiful woman is involved," she said comfortingly.

Spike looked confused and took a step back. "Do you have such a low opinion of men that you would think that? Such a low opinion of me?" he asked.

Eve took a step back, her eyes downcast. "I have a very high opinion of you, Spike. It's just, my history with the opposite sex has never been very positive."

Spike sighed, he hadn't known. Who was he to judge? His track record with women had probably been just as bad, and look how he treated Faye. He then gathered Eve into his arms and pulled her flush against him. "I'm sorry."

Eve's eyes shot open wide. `Did he just apologize? For what though?' she asked herself as she lifted her head and looked deeply into his eyes. "Spike…" she whispered.

Spike took the opportunity and closed the gap in between their lips. At first the kiss was soft and chase, but soon gave way to a more passionate embrace. Eve felt his tongue brush against her lips, begging for entrance, she slowly parted her lips and allowed his slick muscle inside her moist cavern of a mouth. For a while their tongues battled and then would part to explore the recesses of the other's territory. One of Spike's hands was fisted at the back of her head, angling her so their lips could more properly seal together. The other was at her shoulder, underneath the loose robe, slowly moving it away from the smooth skin of her shoulder.

Eve pulled herself closer to Spike, her arms now clasped about his neck, grinding her pelvis into his. Spike groaned in pleasure as white hot sparks of light passed over his closed lids. Eve swallowed his groan and continued to grind herself into him.

Spike's hand had now pushed the top of the robe off her shoulders, revealing her milky white skin that seemed to glow with an almost supernatural light in the dim light of the room. Spike moved his mouth down her neck, leaving a trail of heat behind him as she gasped for air. Slowly, he lowered her to the floor, not breaking their embrace.

Eve gazed at the ceiling as Spike continued to kiss along her collarbone. This was wrong, she couldn't do this, but it felt so right. She then placed her hands on his shoulders and pushed him up. This was a simple task to her; she was rather strong for a woman. She then gazed up into Spike's confused and lust glazed eyes and she knew. She had to leave. This wasn't right. Quickly, she slipped from beneath him and pulled the robe more closely around herself. "I'm sorry, Spike," she said in a subdued voice.

"Eve…"

"No, we can't! I'd only hurt you in the long run! Even if it was only for tonight, it wouldn't be for me," she shouted heatedly. She then placed her fingers over her mouth. `I did not just say that!' she shouted to herself.

"Eve," he spoke as he stood. Somewhere, during their passionate embrace, his shirt had been lost. Not that either of them had really noticed. He then grasped her about the waist and pulled her close. "It wouldn't be a one-night thing for me either."

Eve gasped silently. She then shook her head and pulled away from him. "No… no, you love Julia. Everyone knows that, even I know that."

"Eve, you're wrong, Julia… she… she was attainable."

"Attainable?"

"I could touch her, I could possess her, but I couldn't touch you."

"Me? Why was I not attainable?" she asked, her voice quivering and husky now.

"Because, you were something out of reach, a goddess, something that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't have."

"I was? What am I now?"

"A goddess that has fallen from heaven, with the rain," he said as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

"A fallen goddess… that's a new one," she mumbled.

"Eve…"

Eve's eyes then became large again and she shook her head, escaping his arms once again. "No… don't do that! You don't know what that does to me! I'm not! I'm not anything! I'm just something to manipulate in your hands, with your words…. Please, Spike, don't break me any more than I already am," she pleaded, now on the verge of tears. The rain outside was now pounding outside with large, freezing drops of water.

Spike's eyebrows furrowed. "What did he do to you, Eve?" he asked.

Her lip trembled. "Nothing… he did nothing. He's going to get a scolding for killing Mao and I'm going to be thrown out on the streets or killed for allowing him to manipulate me, allowing him to… to… to break me. It's not fair, Spike, it's not fair… wasn't I loyal enough to the Than? Wasn't I good enough? Why is it that he, who wants to kill them by the way, gets a mere scolding while I'm cast out? Why?" she cried as she fell to her knees and covered her face with her hands.

Spike took a seat behind her and pulled her into his lap, letting her cry into his chest as he stroked her hair. "I have no explanation for you, Eve. The only thing I know is that you have to live on."

Eve sniffled and lifted her gray gaze to his. "How do I do that? All I've ever known is the syndicate. I was born into it. How do I live outside it?"

Spike smirked. "That's easy, stay with me."

Eve blinked the last of her tears away. "Become a cowboy? But, I have a price on my head," she pointed out.

"It'll go away. Just wait a year or two and then you can start anew."

"Wait where?"

"With me, of course," he suggested.

Eve raised an eyebrow. "Your partners would allow this?"

"Sure, why wouldn't they?"

~*~*~*~