put your hands on your hips

[likesboys]

There was a scene during one of the Spider-Man films when Tobey Maguire kind of sauntered around with that look which told everyone in the whole wide world that he'd gotten lucky. Kurt wouldn't have been surprised if that was how he looked right then — albeit with a more handsome wardrobe and hopefully far better complexion. Were he more confident of his tap skills, he might have gotten a pair of steel-tip just to skip down the street in the way the classics always had him wanting to.

Not that life was really a musical, but you know, sometimes it was just really hard to contain oneself.

He was on the way to the liquor store just before closing, not to grab a handle of vodka as he had last time, but instead in hopes of finding champagne.

It only figured that he'd be interrupted along the way, the smile fading fast off of his face as he noticed the person who stood only a few paces away.

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[bloodyanimal]

Flicking his cigarette butt to the ground, Spike exhaled, arching a brow at the boy as the smile dropped right off that pretty face.

"I've got to wonder, what puts a spring in the step of a tightly wound little boy like you." He thought for a moment, then a knowing smirk curved his lips, as if he'd settled on an answer.

[likesboys]

Within a few words from the vampire, Kurt was already frozen stiff, feet seemingly anchored to the ground as he turned wide and disbelieving eyes in Spike's direction. It shouldn't have been surprising — this wasn't the first time they'd run into one another — and yet Kurt had clearly shoved all thought of the platinum blond out of his head until now. Taking a deep breath, then another, he quickly shook his head, the motion almost frenetic.

"I'm sure that I have no idea what you're talking about," he said, one of his brows almost painfully arched as he tried not to give his fear away.

Inevitably, his blanched face probably did.

[bloodyanimal]

"Oh, you're sure, are you?" Spike chuckled, clearly pleased by the boy's obvious fear. The fact that he had no intention of following through on any of those fears didn't need to be made an issue of.

Crushing the cigarette butt under his boot, he took a step closer, simply to see what sort of skittish reaction it might produce.

[likesboys]

His frown deepened as Spike took a step closer, but considering he was in a fairly populated part of town, Kurt resolved not to let himself show quite as much fear as he did last time. Tightly, he crossed his arms over his chest, set his feet slightly further apart to help keep his balance. His eyes gave him away, as always, wide and watchful and tight by the corners, as though desiring nothing more than to squeeze themselves shut and wish the moment away.

"People like you are the worst," Kurt declared, trying to summon greater courage in himself.

[bloodyanimal]

Rolling his eyes, Spike said, "That seems a bit of an overstatement."

He wasn't, in the strictest sense of the word, people either.

"You're the one's all wound up, princess. Seems a bit unfair, wouldn't you say? Seeing as how I haven't touched a hair on your head."

[likesboys]

"Sometimes that's the biggest fear. Haven't touched a hair on my head yet, but seems pretty clear that you're kind of enjoying... this," Kurt replied, his eyes still wide as he shifted his weight, still keeping his arms so tightly curled around himself that he could almost feel his skin tingling under the pressure.

Maybe he was overstating. Maybe. Just a little.

After all, he knew the plot of Buffy well enough, and wasn't Spike supposed to be one of the good guys?

[bloodyanimal]

"Well, yeah. Vampire," he reminded the boy, as if that were even necessary.

"Can't lie, having you quaking in your boots without lifting a finger is a bit of a laugh," he shrugged, his smile softening a bit. "I don't mean anything by it, pet. And I won't hurt you. Scout's honor."

[likesboys]

It was probably a hopeless endeavor, Kurt thought then, to try and appeal to a vampire with what were presumably very human emotions. Especially considering how he himself still wasn't open to accepting all of the things that Spike told him, bristling at the pet name, bristling at the whole of what Spike was saying. Kurt just couldn't easily settle with any of it.

"Do you ever remember being afraid?" Kurt asked then, wondering if fight or flight applied to people in all walks. "What it's like to have your thoughts just stop and — you know, it's just not funny for me. Even if you don't mean anything by it. And even if you won't hurt me. You're not exactly acting like someone who's just playing around, you know?"

[bloodyanimal]

"We can feel fear quite well, love. Human or not," Spike drawled, "Soul or not. What I'm failing to grasp is what you want me to bloody do about it. You take one look at me and go all deer in headlights. Either I make a joke of it or what? Walk the other way? I was bloody well standing here first. You want I should bake you a bloody batch of cookies to prove I'm not a bad, evil man?"

He arched a brow.

"The truth is a lot more complicated than you know, but the only humans I eat nowadays are the ones who ask nicely, got it?"

[likesboys]

Kurt didn't have an answer for it, only knew that he bristled at the thought of being made into a joke. It made him pull his shoulders slightly higher around himself, arms crossed as he glowered over in Spike's direction, but hardly allowed himself a sigh. He didn't like to argue for the sake of argument. There had to be a good point prepared for him to bother.

And he didn't have one this time, if only because Spike had a point. He didn't know the truth of vampirism or how it worked. Only knew that many people seemed to end up dead across any of the shows or films on them that he knew of.

"There are really people who want to have vampires take their blood?" he asked instead, pursing his lips. "Doesn't it hurt?"

[bloodyanimal]

Arching a brow at the shift in topic, Spike explained, "The pain's part of it, love. The fear. That little adrenaline rush. Letting yourself look death in the face and survive? Offering yourself up to something that powerful. Think of it... as a roller coaster ride for those a bit more adventurous, if you'd like"

That was, of course, a bit of a simplification. There were a wide variety of reasons humans might offer themselves up, though it all came down to a power play.

[likesboys]

Kurt loved rollercoasters. Loved, in fact, most things that involved a little bit of risk and threatened with a little bit of vertigo. But the difference between all the adventurous activities he tended towards and the idea of letting a vampire take his blood was the very real harm that one involved, the line that it toed that seemed so easy to cross once there. Kurt didn't trust a vampire not to hurt him irreversibly.

"But you're, like... I, um," Kurt stammered, uneasy as he pulled his arms closer to himself. "I know a bit about your kind of vampire. No souls, right? The rollercoaster has nothing to gain by putting me through a bit of a headrush. But you, I don't know. I feel like your kind of vampire really enjoys killing."

[bloodyanimal]

"Of course we do. Hunter," he said, pointing at himself, then pointing at the boy, "Prey. That can't be a concept you're unfamiliar with."

He took another step forward.

"But you shouldn't make assumptions, pet. I happen to have a soul. Tasty treat though you might very well be, I have a hard time seeing your lot as food, these days."

[likesboys]

Kurt simply stared through the explanation, eyes narrowing and nose wrinkling at the condescending tone as his arms crossed and dropped slightly in a huff. "Pretty sure I've known that much since I started watching PBS when I was three," he muttered, eyes lifting again as Spike took another step closer.

He could take this.

"Do you... like having a soul?" he asked then, shifting his weight.

[bloodyanimal]

"It has its advantages," Spike shrugged, "Disadvantages, too. There's something to be said for living a life without having a pesky conscience holding you back. Doing whatever you'd like without having yourself to answer to."