Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction ❯ Smoking Lessons ❯ Flying Again ( Chapter 4 )

Smoking Lessons 5/5

By Nix

Disclaimers… I still don't own them and I wrote this draft just for the fun of it. Some other draft might be more serious, but I still wouldn't own Spike. Tsk

Warnings.. lots of cussing, some blood, a dog fight when the Bebop comes under attack, a yaoi kiss

Spike's bath lasted until the Bebop rocked and leaned to the side, splashing slightly warm bath water over the wall. He gritted his teeth against the protest of his stomach, gripped the sides of the tub. Bubbles dripped from his nose and he struggled out, slipping on the floor as he reached for his clothes. He just knew in his gut that the Bebop was not supposed to go tilt like that.

Warning sirens screamed and woke Ed from her nap. Ein barked and the two of them raced off towards the living area where Jet's pilot chair was. She ran into Faye on the way and they stood there on the stairs, watching out the view port. Fighters, little one man craft circled around them, and Faye had the insane idea that they were Indians after the cowboys. She shoved Ed back and ran towards Jet. "What the hell? What do they want? Aren't we in Eropa's airspace?"

"Yeah, we are. They don't reply." Jet replied trying to get some retreat trajectory laid in, but they were all around the Bebop, a whole sphere of nasty little drones. "I think she changed her mind."

Another blast hit the ship and Spike stumbled into the lounge, one hand half stuck in his tie, that he figured he hadn't any hope of tying right. "What's going on?"

Faye turned to face him, both hands behind her on Jet's chair, touching the bigger man with just the tips of her fingers. Her face was tight, lips drawn thin as she sized him up, weighed him. He straightened up, gave her back a disdainful look, played with his tie for a moment more and just decided it was the way he wanted it. "We're under fire, idiot. Why don't you just go shot them down!"

Spike shoved his hands into his pockets that he had again. "You said Jet had cigarettes?"

Jet took them out of his pocket and handed them back to Faye, who took one and tossed them to Spike, who caught them easily. Her expression lightened a little as he tapped one out and took the lighter from the side of the pack, lit up without looking clumsy about it. He tossed them back as he pulled his first long drag. "Jet?"

"I'm trying! Eropa ISSP isn't responding." Jet did things to the controls that Spike didn't even try to figure out. There was a furious desperation in Jet's words though.

Ed sat on the stairs that went up to the level above this one, Ein between her legs, her head on his, just watching, and Spike pulled another drag on his cigarette. This was his family. He took off up the stairs, not running, not fast, just one step at a time, in part because he didn't think he could look all cool and relaxed if he ran and pissed his stomach off.

"Where the hell are you going," Faye screamed at him, indignant.

"Going to shot them down," he said, sticking his head back into view at the top, for one last shot, "Bitch."

He wasn't sure what made him think he had something to shot them down up this way. Faye's voice certainly didn't hold out any hope for him. The Redtail came into view first, and he groaned, considering if he'd rather get shot down or fly that. Beyond that though, under a tarp, and being worked on maybe, was something else entirely.

The wings were folded up, propulsion units glittered with polished chrome that seemed beautiful and out of place.

"Wait! Spike!" Jet's voice screamed, but that only made Spike walk faster, long strides, light step.

He laid a hand on the red painted metal, drew his fingers along it, soaking in the texture, the roughness under the seam. This was his lover, his true lover. He closed his eyes and keyed in the entry code. If asked, he couldn't have said what he coded in, but he could do it with his eyes closed. The pod opened, and he climbed inside, settling into the gray leather interior like he was making love to space herself.

"There are too many of them! Spike! Eropa is sending help! You're not fit to go out there!"

Spike smirked, eyes gentle as he swallowed Jet whole, his gruff over protectiveness, the feeling that they'd had an interaction like this before. "Then you don't have to be responsible for me, okay?"

"Spike!" Jet jumped the railing and got to the very edge of the Swordfish, on hand on Spike's arm. "Spike…"

He understood the words that were hard to say, understood with a clarity of someone who didn't have a lot to block his vision. "I like you too. Kiss me when I get home?"

"Spike!"

"Now get off my ship. I want to blow things up. I'm good at that, aren't I?" He couldn't very well close his eyes to start the launch sequence with Jet looking, so he focused on looking into Jet's eyes. They were beautiful eyes, warm eyes. Maybe it was like grabbing Faye's butt because he knew it would piss her off, or maybe it was a desire to be nearer to the warmth he saw in those eyes. He leaned closer, ignoring his stomach and took charge of his life, made the dominoes fall in the direction he wanted them too, and pressed his lips to Jet's. There was a moment where they just sat there. The ship shuddered . Faye screamed and Spike recognized the Redtail firing up. Jet had his fingers into that wild green hair though, holding him. Jet's hand took up the whole back of his head, his tongue filled his mouth and Spike returned it like it was the first kiss of his life. They danced together there like the rest of the world didn't exist, only biting softly on Jet's lip, drawing a moan out of him. Then Spike's cigarette burned his fingers and he pulled back, "Son of a bitch!"

Jet ran his fingers down Spike's face, thumb tracing the line of his eyebrow. "You don't color your hair, do you?"

"Nope," Spike said, following it with a crooked and suggestive grin. "I'll be back."

It was worth it, Jet though, worth the loss, if this was it. "You're worth it."

"Well, fuck the maudlin shit," Spike said, taking another cigarette out of the pack he'd just pick pocketed from Jet. "I suppose they taste better if you smoke each one as if it's the last? No, maybe not." Without looking Spike cut the conversation in half as he closed his hatch. The doors to the launch deck were already open, and he though about that, only the launch as Bebop's computer taxied the Swordfish out. Would it be worth it? To lose this sweet everything, just for that kiss? To come back from nothing, just get a taste for living, only to get that kiss? He didn't know, but he figured he'd do it again, and again. Holding the cigarette between his teeth, he let smoke out as his wings unfolded and the Bebop threw him down into the black of space.

There was no up or down and for a moment he panicked. Closing his eyes though, he found the right and left, up and down thrust, and he found the kiss of flight. He hooked his feet into the floorboard throttle, breaking system, and spun the Swordfish around, firing his particle beam without even thinking about it. Enemy craft went to pieces and he banked left, loving the way the speed created gravity shoved him back into the soft leather, shoved his guts back against his spine. It was hard as hell to smoke without his hands though and there was no way he was dropping the damn thing now.

Debris rose over the starboard horizon of the Bebop, and Faye cheered through the com.

Words mumbled, he snapped, "Just hit the targets, nothing else."

"OH! Like you should talk! You threatened to shoot me once!" More debris radiated from where she was. "Just shoot these damn things, will you?"

Spike found the control to his machine gun and sprayed it out, as he rolled the Swordfish, trusting the little ship more than he'd trusted his own body hours earlier. Explosions rocked him from behind and he braked left, accelerated right, spun around and used the last energy of the particle canon to disintegrate three of their attackers. The Bebop was slowly rotating, spinning without power though and as it turned, Spike saw their real enemy, a much larger ship, already launching another flock of smaller fighters at them. "Jet, when you think we're gonna get that help?"

There was no reply and Spike took that for a bad sign. He remembered asking if he was supposed to have died. He kind of thought the answer was yes, but that shouldn't ought to be true for his family, his friends.

"I'm out of ammo," Faye snarled into the com.

Spike saw her hanging there, could see right into her pod, how she hung over her controls, chin on her folded arms. "Then run," Spike spat back, spraying fire at the new attackers, taking them out as they circled the Redtail, this time catching return fire of his own. She looked up, as he rolled right over the top of her, smiling down at her. Then he saw the smoke, traced it back to his right wing. The Redtail dropped down, spun and then she too saw the bigger ship. "Oh fuck me!"

"Not till we're done," he teased, fighting with his right accelerator.

"Spike, you do remember me, don't you?"

The cigarette was nothing but butt now and he spit it out. "Yeah, of course I do, Faye," he said, she didn't say for how long he had to remember her for that to be true. "That was your bubble bath I used up this morning, uh?"

"You used it all? Shit, Spike, didn't you remember to add water?"

He noticed the falling number on his control panel and it made sense that it was a meter of bullet remaining. Damn it fell fast. "What other weapons do I have on this thing?"

"Missiles," Jet's voice came back, "Fire them and get back inside. Hurry up!"

"Why?" Faye asked. She used her missiles already anyway. Less mess to clean up if she died in her own space, she thought.

"Because I said so!" Jet said, and there was some energy to his voice, some hope that moved her.

Spike's missiles fired, taking out another group of incoming fighters, but the energy of it rolled the Swordfish nose over jets. He went right back over the top of the Redtail, red trailing around the inside of his pod. "Spike!"

He heard her. He just felt too comfortable to remember how to reach out and respond. It was raining inside his pod, dark rain, and he closed his eyes, just enjoyed the floating. Some part of his mind told him it was that his oxygen was corrupt and he ought to switch tanks. Ought to, yes, fingers reaching for that fought against the floating, fought against the grating sound of Faye screaming at him through the com. Yeah, thanks, he thought, now shut up, you're irritating me. Watching through the top of his pod he saw the expanse of space beyond the solar system come into view, not a trace of human debris or anything more solid than just the pretty twinkling lights. Out there somewhere there were other lives, other cultures? One floating hand reached towards the top of his pod, towards the pretty lights and he really wanted to know! Really wanted to go there, to see what was out there in all that pretty light.

Faye could not have been more pissed off.

"Just get him! Hurry up, Faye!"

Jet wasn't helping. With shaking hands she aimed the Redtail's pincher at Spike's particle canon. This was not the long round part of him that she wanted real bad to grab a hold of! And twist if she could. Damn him! She didn't know how long she had before it wasn't worth pulling his floating ass back inside.

"Come on, Faye! Ed could have done it by remote by now!"

"Well fucking let her then!" Faye knew Ed couldn't do it. She would have if she could have. The Swordfish had caught a missile in the main engine and it should have gone up like so much red confetti, but Spike was the luckiest bastard in all of humanity. Her attention was on the Swordfish and all the blood in the pod, so she didn't see the slender black craft that had risen up from Eropa, docked on the belly of the Bebop. "Come on Spike, you prick, I didn't get to tell you that I love you!"

He smiled and disgusted himself with a bit of wet slipping passed his lips. "Love you too, Faye Faye."

"Oh shut up! You think everything is a god damn joke!" But she got hold of his canon and started backwards towards the Bebop. The Bebop was moving again, powered by the black ship docked to it and the flight deck rose around the ships, swallowing them alive.

Even before the docking clamps had the Redtail, Faye was out of her pod, running to get the pod of the Swordfish open, get clean air in there. Gravity had pulled Spike down into his seat again, sprawled him out like a bad drinking binge. She keyed his entry code. Nothing happened. She keyed his normal alternate and nothing. "Now was a shit of a time for better security!"

Someone was running in her direction. Faye didn't look, figured she'd rather hear him bitch later, and pulled her gun and shot the hell out of the sealing mechanism on the Swordfish. The pod opened, but Spike was laying there, eyes open and she snarled a scream, remembering how dead he'd looked after the fall from the cathedral. "You son of a bitch!"

Someone shoved her out of the way, roughly and jumped up in the pod. Some blue haired Asian woman and Faye lunged for her as this woman straddled Spike and slammed a hypojector to his throat. Jet caught Faye by an arm and jerked her back. "She's a friend!"

The woman pulled an eyespray set up from where it was tucked in the back of her pants and looked into one eye, the other, "Which one is the natural eye?"

Jet and Faye looked at each other, looked back at her. She snarled at them, then picked the darker eye. The eye spray tool reached out, gently opened his eye, then sprayed light, so bright that Faye turned and hide her face against Jet's chest.

"Now, High?" Edward asked over the com, voice seeming to come out of Jet's shoulder. "Now? Can we go now?"

The woman pulled the eye sprayer back, moved to get right eye to eye with Spike, holding his chin in her hands, he blinked, started to come to, blinking a lot and reaching for her hand on his chin. "What's your name?"

"Spike, now get the hell off of me."

She took her first deep breath and jerked his shirt up, ran a finger along his belly, which was closed again. "Yeah, now, Ed!"

From outside, the black ship fired thrusters to the aft, fired something else to the fore, something that made the blackness of space granulate and spin like colored sand falling into a furnace to become glass. Only Ed saw it, watched space granulate all the way up to the main view port and then the ship herself turned into spilling sugar.

From the viewpoint of the captain of the ship sent to kill them, the Bebop shuddered, glowed, and simply disappeared. It was good for him. He sent back the report that Spike Spiegel and company were dead. It wasn't true, but then faking one's death is a damn good way to get away from the syndicate.