Angel closed his eyes and rested his head against the rich wood paneling of the elevator as it made its climb to his apartment. He had no idea how he had made it through the day. Ever since Fred had died, Wes had been out of control. Angel was also beginning to regret his decision to fire Gunn. He was finding that he couldn’t hold everything together by himself. The only person who was there to help him with any of it was Spike. Now there was a depressing thought.

The elevator doors opened on the door to his penthouse, bringing with it the promise of a hot shower and a soft bed. If he could, Angel would have slept for days. He put his key in the lock, and the door swung open. His nostrils were immediately confronted with a familiar scent.

“Spike, I wish you wouldn’t smoke in my apartment. Or break into it.”

Angel dropped his jacket on a chair in the front room and walked in the direction of the source of the offending odor.

“Why are you here, anyway?”

“It’s nicer than my apartment.”

“It won’t be if you keep coming here,” Angel said as he brushed ashes off the couch and sat down.

“That’s what you have a cleaning lady for.”

“Right.” They sat in silence for a moment, Angel rubbing his temples as his frustration grew. “You can go now, Spike.”

“Make me.” Spike sneered.

“Spike, I don’t have time for this. Just go home.”

“No.”

“Do you enjoy pissing me off?”

“Yes.”

“Wonderful.” Angel rose suddenly and tore off his tie, throwing it on the coffee table. He turned to lumber toward the bathroom as he attempted to get his shirt off without ripping it to shreds, but Spike misunderstood the gesture.

“You gonna do me right and proper then? Take your frustration out on me? Spank me ‘til I promise to be good?”

“Don’t be disgusting, Spike.”

“How is that me being disgusting? It’s not like you haven’t done it before, though if I recall correctly, you made me promise to be bad.”

“That wasn’t me.”

“It certainly looked like you. Talked like you. Smelled like you.”

“That wasn’t you, either.”

“Oh, it was me.”

Angel just stood there, mouth agape. He wasn’t sure what Spike was telling him, but he was sure that it was shocking.

“What . . . What are you talking about?”

“You make me sick. You know that? You use your soul as an excuse. The only way you can accept anything that you did in the past is to pretend that you didn’t do them. Well, I have news for you, Angelus. Your soul didn’t change anything you did. It just made you feel guilty for it.”

“And I suppose you never felt guilty.”

“Of course I did, but I dealt with it. I moved on. Meanwhile, you live in happy denial land, thinking you can atone for things you ‘didn’t do.’ Acting morally superior to everyone.”

“Interesting coming from the man who got a soul to get into a girl’s pants.”

“First of all, I had already been in those pants. Second, is it somehow better to have a soul thrust upon you involuntarily because you killed the wrong person?”

“You don’t know the first thing about it. Don’t presume to tell me how I should live my life. It’s none of your business. You’ve always been such a pain in my ass Spike!” Angel, seething with rage, began to stalk towards Spike.

“No, I think you were the pain in mine.” Spike tried to keep his cool, but he found himself stepping backwards to get away from Angel.

“Shut up! I should have staked you six years ago in Sunnydale. Better yet, I should have never let Drusilla sire you. Always fawning all over you. You going on and on about your eternal love. It was disgusting.” Angel had backed Spike into a wall, leaving him with no escape.

“Jealous, are you?”

Angel’s chest heaved as he glared at Spike. He had the urge to do something, though he wasn’t sure what it was. They stood at an impasse until Spike tried to move away from the wall. Angel pushed him back into the wall and attacked him with his mouth, kissing him fiercely and pressing Spike’s body into the wall with his own.

Angel broke the kiss and flung Spike into the bedroom. He shoved Spike against a wall and kissed him again. When Angel moved to nibble at Spike’s neck, Spike said, “There’s something very familiar about this.” Angel responded by clamping his hand over Spike’s mouth and biting hard into his neck, drawing blood. Spike gasped, and his body went momentarily limp.

Satisfied with Spike’s reaction, Angel turned and shoved Spike down onto the bed. “So, you’re going to take your frustrations out on me after all,” Spike said with a cock of his eyebrows and a squeeze of the bulge in his pants.

“That’s the plan,” Angel whipped his belt out of its loops, letting it snap, “now take off your clothes.”