Part 6
Cordelia sat on the kitchen chair, her feet not quite touching the floor as she swung them backwards and forwards. Chocolate was pasted around her mouth, melted onto her hands and little, sticky chocolate palm prints decorated the table top. Today was her seventh birthday, her first ever birthday with her new mommy and daddy and Mister Angel.
Drusilla looked so happy as she sat there opposite Cordelia, watching the little girl practically inhale the chocolate birthday cake in front of her. The vampiress’s lips curled up in a delighted and beaming smile, her hands made a sound when she clapped them together after Cordelia blew out the candles.
Spike and Angelus sat with Drusilla between them, watching in astonishment at the amount of mess created by such a little thing. Chocolate coated the table, the blue ‘I’m a Princess’ t-shirt and all over her face. Two sets of eyes stared unblinking as Cordelia gave them a merry little wave before going back to munching happily and more importantly she was quiet.
“Does she chew?” Angelus asked, not being able to tear his eyes away from the site of the cake going everywhere but in Cordelia’s mouth.
“Don’t look like it” Spike replied, his blue eyes totally transfixed on the bottomless pit in shape of a little girl.
“Thank you mommy, daddy and Mister Angel” Cordelia stated, cake crumbs going everywhere. “This is the bestest birthday ever. I got my own doll off mommy and I haven’t opened my presents from daddy yet. But I will when I’ve finished my cake. I’ve been good, I’ve eaten almost all of it see? Only two slices left… Is there anymore?”
“Oh no Princess” Drusilla told her in a hushed tone, “You must eat your dinner before you have more cakes, my sweet. Too many cakes makes you sick inside and mummy doesn’t want her Princess sick”
“But it’s my birthday mommy” Cordelia whined and pouted, unfortunately for the seven year old the pouting didn’t have the same effect when her face was covered in chocolate cake and icing sugar.
“You heard you mum, Pix” Spike told her, raising his voice a little to show her he wanted no arguments about it. “What’s say Daddy takes you to open your presents eh? Never know what the Birthday Bunny brought you”
Cordelia looked carefully at Spike before snapping her attention to Angelus, her voice coming out in a conspirational whisper. “My daddy does know there’s no such thing as the Birthday Bunny right, Mister Angel? Everyone knows it’s the Easter Bunny”
“Easter Bunny, Spike” Angelus glanced slyly at his grandchilde, “Get it right”
“Bloody poof”
“What’s a poof?” Cordelia asked innocently, her daddy called Mister Angel that a lot. “Why do you call Mister Angel a poof and Peaches all the time? He doesn’t look like a peach”
“I think you should go open your presents Kid” Angelus told her abruptly, putting a stop to his grandchilde’s forming words quickly. “Don’t you wanna play with your new toys?”
A glare came his way, “I’m seven years old now so stop calling me Kid, I’m not a kid anymore. I’m a big girl now see?” Cordelia stated proudly.
“I can see” Angelus replied dryly, he could see she was still knee high to a grasshopper and hadn’t grown an inch. “Seven now huh? You’re getting old”
“I am not old, you’re old” she snapped, “I’m seven and you’re like 807 or something, that’s really old”
“I am not 807!” he growled at her, leaning forward in his seat, “I’m 240 you little…”
Cordelia covered her ears and smirked back at him, “No good, I can’t hear you. Nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah! You’re old! You’re old”
“I am not old!” Angelus growled at her a little more with a frown.
“Bleedin hell, here we go again” Spike sighed and rolled his eyes towards the ceiling, the pair of them were like two children fighting over the last candy bar or something. Well at least one of them was a child and therefore had an excuse. But the other was one of the most feared vampires and he was arguing with a seven year old about his age. God help them all!
“You’re older than daddy and he’s old so you must be really old” the girl reasoned simply.
“Do I look old?”
“Yep!”
“Why you little…!” a sound spanking would work for him!
***
Drusilla had taken Cordelia to open her presents in the living room, and both stood looking at the gift Spike had gotten her.
“Is that from daddy?” she asked in awe and uncertainty, pointing at a sword that was bigger than she was.
“Yes my sweet Princess, you shall have to give him a kiss to say thank you” Drusilla told her firmly. “Look at the pretty paper” she picked up a piece of red, holographic wrapping paper and watched it float softly to the floor. “So pretty it is, sparkling like little red jewels”
“I like it too mommy” Cordelia agreed, still looking at the sword and wondering what she was supposed to do with it. The silver handle was engraved with her name on it, the edge of the blade shone dangerously in the light and had a swirly, black pattern on either side. “Am I allowed to play with it?”
“Ooooh, you shall have to ask daddy very nicely, or Mister Angel and if you’re a very good girl they may let you play with it. But only if you’re good” Drusilla told her, running slender fingers through the little girl’s hair gently.
Spike and Angelus had agreed on teaching her how to defend herself, the Darla episode had made them both think about her safety when they weren’t around for whatever reason. It was decided they would start off with simple self-defence moves and move on to more complicated things when she got bigger. The sword fighting wouldn’t happen until she was a teenager though, but Spike had saw the sword and loved it so much he killed the store owner to get it!
“Alright!” she exclaimed, bouncing with happiness “I’m gonna ask daddy and Mister Angel right now mommy, I wanna play with my new toy. Will they let me make a mess with some vampires?”
“You are not to go near other vampires, Cordelia” Angelus voice startled her and she quickly turned to face the elder vampire, her lip quivering slightly. “Am I understood?” his tone was harsh and demanding an answer from her. “Well?”
“O-okay Mister Angel” Cordelia replied instantly and bit her lip nervously, “I promise” he sounded real serious and she thought better of answering back.
“Good girl” he relented slightly with her promise, “I think we should tell Princess about where we’re going soon”
“Going? Are we going on vacation? To Disneyland?” she asked, the hope in her eyes and voice made him want to say yes so he wouldn’t have to look at her when disappointment hit.
“Sorry Princess, we’re moving to a new city” Angelus knelt so he could look her in the eyes. “Los Angeles, you know where that is?”
“Yeah I do, my old mommy used to take me shopping there for clothes and she used to make me wear pink” Cordelia spat the word out like it was a horrible sweet. “She made me wear stupid all the time Mister Angel and my head hurt from the pigtails. That’s why I love my new mommy and daddy so much. They let me wear blue and give me dolls to play with”
“I see you don’t like pink, I thought all little girls likes to wear pink” he mused to her. Why didn’t she say she loved him? Didn’t she love him too?!
“No” she told him solemnly and seriously, “Only silly, little girls who like Barbies like pink. I like blue see?” she pointed to her t-shirt to prove her words true. “Do you like pink or blue?”
“I like blue, it makes you look like a real Princess” Angelus wisely told her. “When we move to Los Angeles, you’re gonna go to school so you can have other kids to play with. Would you like that?”
“I don’t know Mister Angel” Cordelia shuffled on her feet. “I may not like the other kids”
“They might not like you neither” he countered slyly to see what she would say to that.
“That’s silly, why would they not like me?!”
***
The move to Los Angeles, the Hellmouth, had been quick since they were used to moving on. Angelus and Spike had made it clear Cordelia was in no way to be touched or harmed by their new minions. Drusilla seemed to get more and more maternal towards the young girl as time went on much to both Spike and Angelus’ surprise.
What surprised Spike even more was how the little pixie had gotten to him too. She could make him want to laugh hysterically every time she opened her mouth or wiggled her fingers in a wave. She was just too cute for her own good and he knew Angelus had a very large soft spot for the kid.
Their new house was a lot like the old mansion only with brighter colours. The living room was painted in a rich, deep plum with a dusky purple border and matching plum leather suite. In the kitchen, the walls were painted in a light blue with a yellow border, both Spike and Angelus hated it with a severe passion but Cordelia liked it!
Her room was covered in multi-coloured Cordelia and Drusilla-sized hand prints. She had her own bathroom now with little blue dolphins stuck to the wall and rubber ducks sitting in the bottom of the bath.
They had only been living in Los Angeles for a short time before they were known as the dominant family as most other vampires knew them by name. The short time grew quickly into a long time and before they knew it, Cordelia had soon turned into a nine-year-old nightmare!
“Daddy?” Cordelia called out as soon as she walked through the door with the guard who took her to and from school. “Daddy!”
Spike sauntered in from the kitchen, “What is it Pix?” he asked as he sat down to wait for whatever it was she was going to say. A cloud of smoke billowed around him as he puffed out the air in a deep sigh. He was always tense until his little girl got home from school, he could keep her out of trouble at night but not during the day. That’s what her guards were for and she had two of them, he knew that if he gave Cordelia an inch she’d take a mile!
“Where do babies come from? Tammy’s mom had a baby yesterday” Cordelia explained missing the look on his face. “Where do they come from?”
Spike’s eyes bulged to the point of almost popping out of his head as he felt the world stop turning. He choked on the smoke he had just inhaled, coughing and spluttering while Cordelia went to pat his back!
Why did she want to know that? Spike immediately yanked another cigarette out of his packet quickly not caring he already had one lit up. Both cigarettes were smoked in record time and he lit up another as soon as the other ones were extinguished. Maybe chain smoking would make the question go away.
“Well?” Cordelia demanded as she sat cross-legged on the floor at his feet. “Where do they come from?”
“Pix, you don’t need to know that just yet… In fact, that isn’t something you need to know ever” Spike told her firmly and tried to change the subject. “Got any homework? History projects? Bloody artwork anything?” he hoped and prayed she did.
“Not today daddy, I did all my school work at lunch with Tammy where she told me about her new baby brother, she says he’s really cute” Cordelia crushed his hopes. “I’d love to have a baby brother, can you and mommy give me a baby brother?”
Angelus took this moment to walk into the living room having heard her voice. He refused to acknowledge the wave of relief he always felt whenever she walked through the door safely. He hated himself more and more every day! “You’re back”
“Yeah, Tammy has a new baby brother Angel, do you know where babies come from? Daddy won’t tell me, will you?” Cordelia asked looking up at him hopefully. She frowned, why did Angel look like he was going to have a heart attack?
