A Demon's-Eye View Of Love 2/5

[darkhavens]

Author: darkhavens
Title: A Demon's-Eye View Of Love 2/5
Challenge: #2 - Romance
Pairing: Spike/Xander
Fandom: Buffy
Email: darkhavens @ slashverse.com
Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be. No harm, no foul, no money made.
Notes: Written for the challenge community stagesoflove. Week #2 - Romance. Originally posted here.

Spike selected the gifts to woo his love with most inhuman care, Victorian and demon sensibilities combined.

A book of English poets he had worshipped as a boy; one special verse, 'A Rose', marked out with blood-bright carmine ribbon.

Then a pair of roses, one of deepest red and one of white, skilfully entwined, with thorns to spare.

The heart and head and hands of one who'd dared to touch, in anger, the beauty Spike had chosen for his own.

And every night, despite the artful ploys of Sire and Slayer, Spike made sure his loved one saw his face.


~~~~~

Notes:

The poem:

A Rose by Sir Richard Fanshawe, 1608-1666

Blown in the morning, thou shalt fade ere noon.
What boots a life which in such haste forsakes thee?
Thou'rt wondrous frolic, being to die so soon,
And passing proud a little colour makes thee.
If thee thy brittle beauty so deceives,
Know then the thing that swells thee is thy bane;
For the same beauty doth, in bloody leaves,
The sentence of thy early death contain.
Some clown's coarse lungs will poison thy sweet flower,
If by the careless plough thou shalt be torn;
And many Herods lie in wait each hour
To murder thee as soon as thou art born-
Nay, force thy bud to blow-their tyrant breath
Anticipating life, to hasten death!

The roses:

Red = Love, Respect, Courage
White = Reverence, Purity, Secrecy
Two Roses Joined Together = Engagement
Red and White Roses Together = Unity

The dead boy:

Yes, I killed Larry.