gorysortofstory | Reignited Sparks verse

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verse: reignited sparks

Reignited Sparks verse

Sometimes, she missed the Hyperion. She'd never admit it, because that would open a whole other ball of worms (she was not going to admit she missed Angel in any form, if he wanted to chase after Darla and screw the mission, so be it) but she did. At least the hotel was beginning to smell nice. Their new little office? Not so much. Maybe someday...if they ever got any actual well paying clients. Or clients at all.

She hadn't had a vision in over a week. And the phones weren't exactly ringing. So for now? Cordelia was sitting at the desk, flipping through her latest issue of People magazine. Sure, she could be filing, or doing something more productive, but that wasn't exactly her style.

Besides, how else was she going to keep track of which hot actors were still single?

It was just her and Wes in the office at the moment, Gunn had business with his crew to attend to. Wes had been acting pretty off in the past few days, but she wasn't giving it much thought. They had all been having a rough time of it lately.

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Wesley was doing his best not to mope about Virginia. Which meant doing a lot of cleaning. Unnecessary cleaning, really. After all, their office wasn't exactly a large space. He was rearranging their bookshelf again, and then he planned to do some dusting. The scent of cleaning products still wasn't doing anything for that 'funky smell', unfortunately. As far as his injury went, he was able to stand and walk for longer periods now. Still, it was awkward trying to navigate their tiny office in his wheel-chair. He bumped into Cordelia's chair as he tried to maneuver around her.

Cordelia had noticed the neurotic cleaning. Sure, Wes always was a bit on the anal side, but it was getting ridiculous. Especially when he kept messing with her filing system (it made so much more sense to put all the rich clients under "R", she didn't get why no one else understood that).

She frowned as he bumped into her, causing her to lose her place in the article about Jennifer Aniston's newest hair cut she was reading.

"Hey, if you want to clean the place for the millionth time, more power to you, maybe it'll finally start smelling better, but could you be more careful about it? This is like the third time you've run into me today."

"Perhaps if you were doing something other than sitting on your...rear end all day, reading trashy magazines I wouldn't keep doing it. And I do mean 'reading' in the loosest possible sense, by the way." He let out a frustrated puff of breath and then tried to back up and get around her. He couldn't wait to finally be rid of the wheelchair. It was just one more reminder of why he and Virginia had broken up.

"You could at least have a vision. That would be more productive."

"Just because I'm not going over the same dusty book for the hundreth time doesn't make it not reading!" She snapped in annoyance. She could read as well as he could, she just...often chose not to. It wasn't where her interests lied.

And at the next part, she just seemed even more offended. "I'll get right on that. One painful, debilitating vision coming right up just so you have something to do!"

"They're not dusty at all! I've made sure of that, thank you very much!" Wes retorted, as annoyed as ever that she was making him out to be some stuffy stick-in-the-mud. "Good. At least then you'd be earning your wages which we don't actually have because we don't have a case." He threw his cleaning rag down on the desk and decided he needed to stretch his legs. He was getting stronger every day, but still it wasn't fast enough for his liking.

"Oh, I'm sorry," She said with a roll of her eyes. "I don't read books that have been obsessively cleaned because you can't find anything else to do. I haven't seen you bring us in any cases lately!"

At least before, they used to occasionally get people who had heard about Angel from word of mouth. It filled things up for when she didn't have visions. But they didn't have any kind of reputation on their own. It sucked.

"It's a bit difficult when I've been confined to a wheelchair for the most part. It hardly gives an air of competency in the face of danger, now does it?" All the more reason why he wanted to dispense with the blasted thing as soon as he could. "Where did you say Gunn was again? He should be canvassing the neighbourhood, drumming up business. Hmm, perhaps we need more flyers printed up." He pinched at the bridge of his nose, trying to stave off a tension headache.

Edited 2012-07-27 02:17 (UTC)

"He said he had business with some of his old crew or something." She said with a shrug of her shoulders. In some ways, she was jealous. At least Gunn had a life outside of all this. It was hard not to get antsy when they didn't have cases right now. So much still felt uncertain.

"We need to find a way to get our name out there though. Because until I can learn how to get visions on command, we're never going to get any cases otherwise."

Unfortunately for Cordy and Wes, their 'old crew' was based in Sunnydale. And even so, their relationship was somewhat problematic. So, they were both...stuck with each other now that Angel had washed his hands of them. Floundering, it seemed. Yet another failure to chalk up for his father to pick apart.

"Advertising costs money, though, Cordelia, and as it is...we're running on fumes."

Cordelia frowned in thought for a moment before she had an idea, her eyes lighting up as she thought of it. Why didn't this occur to her before?

"But you know who has funds, Wes? Your rich girlfriend! You should see if Virginia has an connections or anything that might be able to help us. I mean, her dad was in that weird cult, right, so she probably knows a lot of ins with the supernatural community and all that."

Wesley's heart sank a little. He'd been hoping to avoid all talk of Virginia until he was good and ready. Which might be never, to be honest, but still. His answer was abrupt and emphatic.

"No. Absolutely not. She's already tried to get us clients before. We're not bothering her again."

She'd wanted a clean break and he didn't think he could face her, anyway.

"Come on Wes, she's your girlfriend. I'm sure she'd more than happy to help. What's the harm is asking?"

Considering she didn't know they had broken up, Cordelia saw no issue with pressing the subject a little.

"No. My decision is final. We leave Virginia out of this. We'll find some other way." He was getting more defensive by the second, but hopefully Cordy would drop the matter.

"What's the big deal?" Sorry Wes, but since when did Cordy ever drop anything? "Are you trying to keep how pathetic we're getting from her, because I think she's going to figure it out."

"Cordelia! For god's sake, it's not that. It's because..." He didn't want to have to admit it. It added a whole new layer of pathetic onto the current situation. His only serious relationship and he'd been unable to make that work, either. Was his life only ever going to be a series of failures? He sighed, taking off his glasses to polish them. Because he didn't want to see her reaction. "...we broke up."

Cordelia's expression softened at that. "Why didn't you tell me?" She asked, quietly. She almost felt bad now, pushing him like that. When had it happened? Now how obsessively he had been cleaning everything, trying to find something to do at all times, it made sense.

"It's not something I really wanted to broadcast, Cordy: the only woman I ever cared about in that way dumping me because I got myself shot." Although that wasn't entirely accurate. He'd had feelings for Cordelia a long time ago and she'd seemed to have them for him, but it had never quite amounted to anything.

"She broke up with you because you got shot?" That was even worse. But she understands. Their line of work...it wasn't easy to deal with. "But seriously Wes, you don't have to hid that stuff from me. It's not like my own track record is much better."

"It wasn't her fault," he hastened to clarify. "She just couldn't bear the thought of me constantly and willingly putting myself in danger. It hurt her when I was hurt. And..." He turned away, his shoulders slumping slightly. "...I can't exactly blame her for feeling that way. It's not as if I'm Angel and can come out of a fight with barely a scratch or survive being impaled, for example. I shouldn't have hid it from you, I know, but I think that I thought if I didn't talk about it, I could pretend it hadn't happened yet."

It was an embarrassing thing to confess just how deep his insecurities went. But it wasn't as if Cordelia hadn't already seen him at his most embarrassing.

"It's a hard sort of life for most people to stand by," Cordelia said in agreement. "I guess I can't blame her for that." She still remembered all too well how much it had hurt seeing Doyle die, and they hadn't even had the chance to be anything yet.

She took another moment before standing up in a matter of fact sort of way. "But moping isn't going to make our lives less depressing. We should go out."

Wesley didn't want to mope but he was still having trouble moving on from his depression. Still, for Cordy's sake, he didn't want to dwell on the sad parts of their life. It wasn't productive either. They'd chosen this life, for better or worse. He honestly couldn't imagine doing anything differently. Perhaps one day they'd find someone who could stand by their chosen lifestyle.

"What are you suggesting? Need I remind you that neither of us are particularly flush right now." Still, he could probably manage a few drinks if they were frugal.

"Just going out for a few drinks. Maybe if we look extra pathetic, the Host will give us some for free." Not likely, but worth a shot. And if nothing else, Cordelia wasn't beyond flirting with a few guys to score them drinks.

"Plus, we could keep our ears open for anything that might be caselike. It could serve a lot of purposes."

"You do have a point," he admitted, smiling faintly. "If nothing else, we'll be in an environment where cases might abound." He decided to step away from the chair completely. Leave it behind, even. It was something of a first step, but tonight seemed the perfect opportunity to push himself a little. To try to shed the old and embrace the new.

"Let's go. I'll drive us there."

It was good to see him smile, if only a little bit. It was a start. She grabbed her jacket, pulling it on. It'll be nice to go out. She almost never went out anymore. It's not like she exactly had a life designed for an active social life anymore.

"Let's go, then"

It didn't take long to get there. Once they walked inside, the host descended upon them.

"Mi amigos. To what do I owe this pleasure? Where's your chocolate compadre by the way? Flying duo tonight, are we?"

Lorne was aware of the situation and how Angel had abandoned them, so his attempt at tact was appreciated.

"We're here to unwind actually. But if there's some tips you can give us, we'll certainly appreciate it. Even if we have to sing."

Wesley had the karaoke menu in hand, which he handed off to Cordelia. It was probably time to order a stiff drink.

"Yes, we'd definitely appreciate any tips you could send our way," Cordelia agreed, flashing the host a bit of am awkward forced smile before she took the menu from Wesley. She followed him towards the bar, intent on ordering herself a drink before anything else.

"Oh, I can see that." Lorne murmured, fluttering his hand and accepting the drink being handed to him by one of the bartenders. "I don't need my ability to suss out what's really going on when it counts." He looked them both up and down. "Are we a duo or two single acts tonight?"

"Single acts, I think." She glanced over at Wes, grinning a little. "Unless you feel like tackling another Queen song, but it almost feels wrong without Gunn."

"Let me get copious amounts of alcohol in me first and then I'll let you know. In fact, I'm not sure I'm drunk enough to even be having this conversation." He was downing his whiskey sour very quickly.

"Ouch. That bad, huh? Well, my chickadees, I am banning hang-dog looks tonight. I wanna see some major unwinding happening at this table, pronto, and that's an order. The next round's on the house." Lorne gave them both 'buck up' pats on the shoulder and then shifted away, moving to greet other patrons.

Wesley eyed his drink, then turned to face Cordelia, trying to get into the spirit of things. "So, have you decided what you want to sing yet?"

Cordelia shrugged her shoulders a little, sipping at her margarita. "I hadn't quite decided yet. I figured I'd drink a little first, and then see where the night takes me."

It had worked well enough last time, well, more or less anyways. Though she didn't plan on getting quite that drunk again, if she could help it.

"That's an excellent approach." He tried to lean against their tabletop in a more relaxed fashion. "It appears that our ploy to look 'extra pathetic' worked." There's irony lacing his tone, however, because he's uncertain just how much of it is faked at present. As much as he doesn't want to appear desperate for direction, he can't shake that feeling of being more adrift than he would like to be. Hopefully it will pass. He glances around, looking to see if there are any potential clients.

"Well, it's not like we had to try very hard, did we?" She said, in her bluntly honest sort of way. These days, they kind of were extra pathetic. She follows his eyes as he looked around.

"See anything promising?"

"Not yet," Wes admitted, "but the night is still young. Perhaps if we work the room a bit later." That came out wrong. "You know, mingle, strike up a few conversations, see if anyone's having problems of the sort we can handle." A Svarketh demon was sort of giving him the eye, but he didn't know if it was just because the species tended to have a wandering third eye in general.

"Of course, even when we decide to take a night out for relaxation and fun, work is somehow involved."

The tone is somewhat teasing though. Cordelia knows it's necessary, and if anyone's good at working a room. She can actually be downright aggressive sometimes when she's trying to market their little agency.

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Reignited Sparks verse

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