Title: Double Bubble, Toil and… (1/9/06)

Author: Slaymesoftly

Season: Alternate Season IV, during the Will Be Done Spell.

Rating: R for language

Disclaimer: Joss said we could play with them, so I’m playing. Some dialogue may seem familiar if it was taken from a episode of the show. Those would someone else’s words, not mine, obviously.

Distribution: Written for the Good_Evil Community, so no snatching without permission.

Notes: Beta’d by the patient and willing Always_jbj * hugs * This is supposed to be “evil Willow”, but I’m afraid it’s more like “petulant Willow”; and, of course, it has a Spuffy slant because I don’t seem to capable of writing anything else. The lovely banner was done for me by Tales of Spike – thank you, Sandy!

Double Bubble, Toil and…

“Why is Buffy kissing Spike? And why is Giles standing around doing nothing as though he can’t see it? And Xander and Anya? What are they doing in a crypt at night? They don’t go patrolling with Buffy. What’s going on here?” Willow’s voice was more puzzled than concerned; even though it was obvious her friends were in dire straits.

“You don’t remember your spell?” the tall, horned demon in the green robes asked with a frown. “It was excellent. Some of the best vengeance I’ve seen in years.”

“V…vengeance?”

“Why, yes. What else would you call it? The man who refused to listen to you is now blind and can do nothing but listen. The friend who was more interested in finding a vampire than staying with you is now in love with that vampire – a love, which, interestingly enough, he seems to return…” The demons voice trailed off as he rubbed his chin in thought. “Interesting….”

“I said they might as well get married,” Willow mumbled, beginning to see where he was going with this. “And I told Xander he was a demon-magnet. This is all my fault!”

“Exactly!” the demon crowed triumphantly. “You managed to wreak appropriate vengeance on each one of them, all by yourself, with no help from a vengeance demon. You are a natural!”

“But my friends…they’re being hurt! I didn’t want that to happen.”

“You didn’t? Are you sure?” His amber eyes bored into hers in a manner that left no room for equivocating.

“Well, I mean…I was hurt…and they weren’t being very sympathetic, so…But I didn’t mean for this to happen! I mean, Giles- blind? How will he read his books? And Buffy and Spike? That’s just ewwwwww!”

“They don’t seem to think so,” D-Hoffryn commented mildly, gesturing at the viewing portal he’d opened. The vampire and Slayer could clearly be seen rubbing their pelvises together while their lips remained locked in what Willow was sure was one of the longest kisses she’d ever seen. She quickly looked away from the two blonds making out on the floor of the crypt and over to where her best friend and his girlfriend were battling for their lives.

“Well, I didn’t mean for every demon in the world to attack Xander!” she sputtered. “I can’t believe he’s not dead yet. Look at them!”

“I don’t believe they are trying to kill him….”

“Well then why are they…oh! Oh goddess!” Her eyes flew to the leader of all vengeance demons and she said, “I’ve got to stop this! He’s already got a demon – One should be enough for anybody.”

“Ah yes. Anyanka. Such a loss.” He gave a heavy sigh.

“Can you stop them?” she asked suddenly. “Just the demons attacking Xander and Anya. Can you make them stop without my having to break the spell?”

The old demon shook his head. “I could not do that, although I can, perhaps, make their attentions somewhat less…enthusiastic. Thereby decreasing the chances that your friend will be injured accidentally by an overly aroused demon.”

Willow looked thoughtful. “Okay, let’s do that, then. Just do something so that Xander doesn’t get hurt – not physically, anyway.”

“And the rest?”

“Oh,” she said with firm conviction, “I think I’ll leave them to suffer for the way they ignored me. For a while longer, anyway. Let them see how much they like being ignored when they need help.”

“So, you are taking my offer, then?” he asked hopefully.

“Oh, no. I don’t think so,” Willow responded cheerfully. “It looks to me like I can wreak vengeance any time I want to as long as my spell is in effect. I don’t think I need you. But thanks for asking. Can I go back now?”

He handed her a business card with flaming letters on it. “Please, keep my card. Should you change your mind, you will always be able to reach me with this.”

“Okey, dokie,” she agreed, putting the card in her pocket. “Now send me back. I want them to know who did this to them.”

With a loud whoosh and a puff of smoke, Willow found herself standing in a crypt where the Watcher was clinging to the wall with one hand, begging for someone to tell him what was going on. The sounds of violence had ceased and all he could hear now were Spike and Buffy’s loud moans of frustrated lust as they tried to restrain themselves in front of the other Scoobies, and Anya’s angry shouting as she tried to keep the now obviously amorous demons away from Xander.

Willow looked around in satisfaction at the discomfort on the faces of her friends. She had to admit that Buffy seemed quite happy to be kissing Spike, but a closer look at her friend’s lust-filled expression and the vampire’s amber-flashing eyes told her that they were finding nothing comfortable about being surrounded by other people. She found herself giggling at their subtle attempts to dry hump without allowing anyone to realize what they were doing.

She walked over to Giles and casually poked him, laughing when the Watcher jumped into a defensive posture and flailed around with the piece of wood he was holding, searching desperately for the danger he expected to encounter.

“Relax, Giles, it’s only me,” Willow said – then winced when he immediately allowed himself to slump against the wall, thereby hitting his own head on the stone.

( Note to self – be very careful about saying anything that could be interpreted as a command or wish!)

“Willow! Is that you? I cannot see you. I’m afraid I appear to have suddenly gone blind.”

“Yes, you have,” she said, not unkindly. “I guess that will happen when you tell people you can see their pain and you don’t really mean it.”

She left the puzzled man leaning against the wall and walked over to where Xander and Anya were surrounded by demons, all pushing and shoving, trying to get closer to the terrified young man.

“I think he would prefer to see you fight for him,” she said clearly, then stepped back as the demons immediately began to fight among themselves for the right to challenge Anya. Willow quickly moved the two humans away from the pile of snarling demons and left them leaning against the wall beside Giles.

She then stepped back to the two people writhing around on the floor, oblivious to the demon scrum only a few feet away. Willow watched with interest for a few seconds as the vampire whispered endearments and tried to coax Buffy into leaving with him so they could have more privacy.

When it appeared that Buffy was weakening, and was about to agree to sneak out with the vampire to consummate their impending marriage before it actually happened, Willow sighed and spoke.

“Buffy – Spike! Can you stop kissing long enough to listen to me?”

“I’m listening, Willow,” Buffy gasped, tearing her lips away briefly.

“I think you’d hear me better if Spike took his hands out of your pants,” Willow snapped. The vampire’s hand immediately flew away from the Slayer’s body as Buffy sat up abruptly and said, “I’m all ears!”

The red-haired witch had to smother a smile at the disgruntled look on the vampire’s face. He was staring at his hand with suspicion; clearly not sure why he’d so readily yanked it away from the Slayer’s warm body. Behind her, she could hear Xander and Giles sputtering as they realized what she’d said about where Spike’s hand had been.

“Buffy,” Giles ordered in his most authoritative voice, “Get away from Spike immediately!”

Buffy’s lip came out in a pout and she snuggled closer to the now-sitting vampire.

“Giiiiles,” she whined. “He’s my fiancé! I want to stay with him.”

“Buffy, trust us,” Xander put in. “When this spell or whatever it is is over, you will thank us for this.”

Willow giggled as Buffy’s hand crept behind her back to cup the bulge in Spike’s jeans. The vampire growled softly and reached around to pull her back against his chest, nuzzling her neck as he did so. There were gasps from the Scoobies when Buffy tilted her head, giving the former Slayer of Slayers access to her throat, but the vampire just continued to nuzzle and lick at her with no trace of evil intent.

Willow couldn’t decide which would be more delicious – to let Buffy and Spike have sex and then remove the spell, or to keep them constantly with other people and therefore, constantly frustrated. Since she couldn’t make up her mind, she waved her hand and said, “You’re coming with us,” as she turned to lead the others back to the Watcher’s apartment.

As they picked their way through the cemetery, they saw more demons rushing toward the growing melee taking place in and around the crypt they had just left. Many of them gave Xander long, lingering glances as they went by, but they dutifully went off to join the fight for his affections rather than following him.

Anya was glaring suspiciously at the witch; noting the happy smile on the face that had been so morose so very recently and she felt a growing certainly when Willow met her look calmly.

“You did the spell!” the ex-vengeance demon said loudly. “Willow did this to us. Look at her! She reeks of vengeance!”

“Vengeance?” Xander turned to look at his best friend since kindergarten and frowned. “Why would Willow want to do a vengeance spell on us? We’re her friends. We love her.”

“Speak for yourself,” Spike and Anya muttered simultaneously, exchanging a look of demon solidarity just before Willow whirled and glared at them.

“I don’t think Buffy wants to marry you anymore, Spike,” she said clearly. “Do you, Buffy?”

“Um...”the Slayer looked into Spike’s heartbroken eyes apologetically, “I just think I might be too…but…” Seeing the look on his face, she finished quickly, “But I still love you!”

Willow frowned as Spike’s face relaxed. “Well, that’s alright, then, pet. I still love you too. As long as we’re together, it doesn’t matter if we’re married or—

“No you don’t, Buffy!” the angry witch growled. “You don’t love him. And he doesn’t love you.”

“Well, that’s a relief!” Buffy relaxed, but remained close to the vampire who was looking equally relieved.

“Bloody right, it is,” he agreed, leering at her and pinching her butt. “Doesn’t mean I don’t want you though, Slayer. Still want to shag you silly!”

“Right back at you, Vampire,” she purred, turning to face him. “What do you say we let Willow lead Giles home and we go find someplace less…crowded?”

“My thoughts exactly!” Taking her hand, he began to pull her away from the horrified group watching them.

Willow stamped her foot in exasperation. “You aren’t going anywhere!” she yelled. “Except back to Giles’ with us so we can watch you.”

“They want to watch us, luv,” Spike whispered in Buffy’s ear as they froze in place, unable to move.

“Well that’s just…ewwww!” Buffy turned her head and glared at Willow. “When did you become so kinky?”

Throwing up her hands in defeat, the witch snarled, “Fine, go do whatever you want. I hope you screw each other unconscious!”

While the two blonds took off running to find some privacy, Willow turned to the horrified people watching her and said, “Now, we’re going back to Giles’ apartment and you are all going to apologize to me for not caring about my pain!”

She marched off in a huff, the three remaining Scoobies trailing behind her begging for forgiveness as they followed her out the gate and down the sidewalk.

Chapter Two

Days later, when Willow had finally tired of the constant tears from Xander and Giles as they repeated over and over again how sorry they were to have ignored her, how much they cared about her and how badly they wanted to help her feel better, she waved her hand and said, “Okay, fine. Apology accepted. Giles, you can see again. Xander, you are no longer a demon magnet—“ As Anya recoiled from her boyfriend, Willow rolled her eyes and added, “except for ex-vengeance demons.”

When they had all had time to re-orient themselves to normality, and Willow had explained proudly how she had turned down D’Hoffryn’s offer to make her a vengeance demon, it suddenly occurred to everyone that they hadn’t seen Buffy or Spike since the night they left them in the cemetery.

All eyes turned to Willow and she shrugged. “I said they could do whatever they wanted. She might have staked him by now. That’s what she’s always wanted to do.”

“Any yet, never has,” the Watcher pointed out, dryly.

“Willow, what exactly did you say about them when you put the spell on us?”

“I just said if Buffy was so concerned about Spike, she might as well marry him. Or something like that.”

Giles frowned and took his glasses off. “So, you did not say that they were going to fall in love with each other?”

“Well, no, but wouldn’t that be a given if they were getting married? I mean, Buffy wouldn’t marry someone if she didn’t love him.” Willow couldn’t see the problem and was beginning to get bored with the interrogation.

“Not when it was a spell, it wouldn’t,” Anya offered. “They could hate each other and they’d still want to get married.”

“And you didn’t say anything that would make Buffy want to get all groiny with the undead, did you?” Xander’s horrified voice showed that he was slowly picking up on what the Watcher and his girlfriend had already figured out.

“Of course not!”

“Actually, Willow,” Anya’s voice was hesitant as she noticed the growing anger in the witch’s eyes. “You did say you hoped they screwed each other unconscious when we left them in the cemetery.”

“Whoops?” Willow began to automatically apologize to the two furious men glaring at her, then remembered her will-be-done spell was still in effect and they needed to be afraid of her, not vice-versa.

“Buffy was more interested in finding Spike than she was in being a good friend to me,” the witch insisted stubbornly. “If she wakes up and finds out she had sex with him, it serves her right!”

She glared defiantly at the other people in the room, more than a little surprised at how good it felt to see the new fear and respect on their faces. Although her innate good nature would not allow her to torment her friends indefinitely, she couldn’t deny the surge of well-being that went through her.

She faced them with a new confidence, feeling the power flowing through her as she said, “I’m going to break the spell now. Not because I don’t want it anymore, but because I’m tired of having to think about every little thing I say before I say it. But, remember, I’ll always be able to re-do it anytime I want to.”

She muttered a few words and waved her hand. They all stared at her fearfully until she said, “Giles, you’re blind again.” The Watcher gasped, frightened until he realized what she was doing.

“No, no, I don’t appear to be. It seems that the spell has been broken and we are no longer obligated to do whatever you say.”

“Not unless I reinstate it,” she said warningly when she saw the angry expression on his face. Her cold eyes made it clear that retaliation would be in no one’s best interest and the man gradually relaxed, turning instead to his scotch bottle.

“What about Buffy?” Xander asked with a whine. “She’s still with Spike.”

Willow shrugged dismissively. “That’s her problem. If she had sex with him, she’ll just have to stake him and lie about it. We’ll probably never know for sure.”

Across town, in a seedy motel, a blond girl stirred and groaned as she opened her eyes and found them only inches from a vampire’s amber gaze. With an “eep!” she rolled away, noticing immediately that she was naked. As she watched, Spike’s equally startled expression softened and his eyes went back to their normal pretty shade of blue. He was also naked, Buffy noted, as she grabbed the sheet and wrapped it around her body. Which left his body completely uncovered and still uncomfortably close.

“What…what did we do?” she whispered, horror beginning to dawn on her face.

“We did what the witch told us to do,” he answered carefully, knowing that he could be seconds from a dusty ending. “We shagged each other unconscious.”

Buffy flashed back to Willow’s parting words to them, then back even further to the marriage spell that, even when cancelled, left them still in love and then in lust. She dropped back onto the bed and closed her eyes with a groan.

“Oh. My. God. This is awful.”

“I didn’t think it was so awful, Slayer.” She could hear what could only be interpreted as hurt in his voice and opened one eye to see his lower lip beginning to come out in a small pout.

“I didn’t say it WAS awful, Spike. I said it IS awful. Now. Now it’s awful. Before it was…okay.” She blushed furiously and closed her eyes again.

“Just okay?” he ventured, daring to lean closer and whisper into her ear, finishing with a small nibble on the lobe.

“Don’t.” Her voice was flat and left no room for doubt. The spell was over and they were back to being enemies.

“Fine,” he huffed, standing up and defiantly refusing to hide his nudity. “We’re back to hatin’ each other, is that it?”

“Of course, that’s it,” she grumbled back. “What else could it be?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all, Slayer. All is as it should be again. I hate you. You hate me.”

“Exactly. Vampire – Slayer. Natural enemies.” She refused to look at him as she hunted for her clothing, giving a small whimper of dismay when she found most of it in pieces.

“Oh, this is just terrific. Look at my shirt!” She forgot she was planning to not look at him and her eyes flew up to his as she waved the shirt around. The unguarded look of pure lust that she saw there took her breath away, but before she could tell him to stop looking at her like that, he caught himself, his expression changing as he snarled back, “Well, look at mine! Bloody animal, you are, Slayer!”

He waved his torn-in-half tee shirt at her, trying to ignore the way she looked, all pleasantly disheveled and clearly nude under the sheet she was clutching to her breasts as she fumbled with her clothes. Buffy averted her eyes again, not wanting him to catch her ogling his naked body. A body which, after two days of close inspection, she had to admit was extremely oglable.

She gave up on finding anything but her jeans, and quickly pulled them back on. While she was doing so, Spike had found his own pants and was trying to keep them up using just the zipper. The top button had been ripped off by the Slayer in her haste to let him free once they got into the motel room.

They stood, facing each other, each clad in the only clothing they had left, their eyes glaring even as their mouths began to twitch. Buffy caved first, the giggles escaping from her tightly clamped lips. Spike’s eyes twinkled as he joined her, laughing heartily at the two superbeings reduced to having to sneak home worn out and shirtless. In no time, the Slayer was holding on to a chair for support as she doubled over clutching her stomach and laughing.

The vampire shook his head, a deep chuckle erupting every few seconds as he went around the room picking up small pieces of ripped clothing.

“We’re a fine pair,” he growled, shaking his head again. He dropped the scraps of cloth in the wastebasket and turned to look at her once more.

“It wasn’t us,” Buffy replied primly, still holding the sheet across her chest. “It was a spell. It’s all gone now and we can go back to…to normal.”

“Yes, I suppose we can,” he said quietly. “Whatever it was that Red wished on us, is gone now.”

“Yes, gone. It’s totally gone. Not a—“she stopped when she realized what he’d said.

“You think it was Willow?” Her voice was shrill. “Why would she do that to me?”

“How the bloody hell would I know, Slayer?” The anger in his voice was out of proportion to the question and she blinked at him in confusion. “She’s your git of a friend. I guess she was really mad at you for something. Or else she thought it would be funny. ”

Buffy’s face was thoughtful as she sat on the bed. “She hasn’t been much with the fun, lately,” she mused. “Not since Oz left. In fact she was really upset when I said I had to leave to go look for you…Oh my god! That’s it! She was mad that I didn’t stay with her and she must have done some kind of spell to make me want to stay with you.”

“Remind me to thank her for that,” he said with a leer, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

Buffy blushed and said quickly, “No one knows what we did. If we don’t tell…”

“Why wouldn’t I tell?” he asked with real confusion. “Got your dimpled knees apart – multiple times, I might add. Even had you suckin’ on my---“

“You won’t tell, because there is such an easy way for me to make sure you don’t.”

Buffy’s expression left no doubt as to her meaning and he cocked his head at her while he studied her face.

“Would you really stake me, Buffy?” The use of her name threw her off and she couldn’t help the way her gaze softened. “Could you still do that to me? Now?”

Buffy cleared her throat and stood up again, still clutching her sheet. “Of course I would. You’d still kill me if you could. Wouldn’t you?”

They stared at each other for a long minute, hope, fear and something indefinable on both faces. Finally, they simultaneously looked away, neither one mentioning that the vampire never answered the question.

When they got to the door of the room, Spike gently tugged the sheet away from Buffy and silently handed her his coat to put on. She gave him a grateful look and opened the door saying firmly, “Let’s go. I have witchy, best friend butt to kick.”

Their arrival at the Watcher’s was somewhat anticlimactic as by that time they had gone to Buffy’s dorm room and picked up a sweatshirt for her and one of her larger tee shirts that she used for sleeping for the vampire. While he watched Buffy brushing her hair and applying make-up in an effort to not look like a girl who had just spent the previous two days in bed, he found himself deliberately inhaling her scent off the shirt she’d given him and remembering what it was like to be surrounded by that aroma. He hoped the long walk to the Watcher’s apartment would give his cock time to relax before he had to face Giles and the rest of the Scoobies.

By the time they got to the apartment, they had rehearsed what they would say should anyone ask where they’d been; they walked in confidently to be met with interested stares of varying intensity.

“I presume you have an explanation for this, Willow,” Buffy surprised everyone by taking the offensive. Her voice was pure Slayer, and her friend flinched back in spite of her newly discovered powers.

“I…I…” The memory of what she’d been able to do and the admiration D’Hoffren had for her strengthened her spine and she straightened up and met Buffy’s eyes firmly.

“I did a spell to have my will be done. Everything that happened is because I said it would or should. Nothing happened to anyone that wasn’t deserved. None of you could make time for me when I was in pain, so I made sure you got to suffer along with me.”

She shot a quick glance at the vampire growling softly behind the Slayer and added, “I could have willed you into dust, if I’d wanted to Spike. Instead of saying Buffy should marry you, I could have just said you were dust and she wouldn’t have had to leave me to look for you. You might want to think about that before you start growling at me.” She met his amber gaze defiantly, daring him to test her newly discovered powers. “Or, I could just wish for the chip to start firing and never stop. How does that work for you?”

The menace in her friend’s voice took Buffy by surprise and she glanced at her Watcher for support. His eyes contained a warning and a promise that they would address the issue at some other time when Willow was not present.

Curbing her own quick temper, and stepping on the vampire’s foot before he could growl again, she did her best to smile and sound apologetic.

“I’m sorry, Will,” she said through gritted teeth. “You’re right. Your feelings should have taken precedence over the escape of a dangerous vampire. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“He’s not dangerous anymore,” Willow fired back angrily. “You said so yourself. He’s…impotent.” An outraged snarl from the vampire sent everyone’s eyes toward his shifting face, thus allowing Buffy’s embarrassed flush to come and go unobserved by anyone except Willow.

“Or, maybe not so impotent?” she asked slyly. “Exactly where have you two been for the past two days? And why are you still together now that the spell is over?”

Spike quickly launched into their agreed upon story about running into a pack of demons and being held prisoner until just a short while ago when the Slayer was able to break her chains and they escaped.

“Why didn’t you leave him there?” Willow inquired with false concern. “The spell was broken. There was no reason to bring him back.”

“Giles wasn’t finished interrogating him,” Buffy said without missing a beat. It had suddenly become much easier to lie to her best friend than ever before. “That is why I went looking for him in the first place, remember?”

“Oh that’s right. Recapturing the harmless, chipped vampire was more important than having ice cream with me. I remember perfectly.”

The two friends faced off across the room - the one so physically strong, the other with growing magical abilities. The atmosphere was tense for several minutes and the Watcher went so far as to begin muttering a small spell under his breath, only pausing when the witch shrugged and said dismissively, “Then I guess you’ll be chaining him back up in the tub, won’t you?”

“Oh for---“ Spike’s angry snort was cut short by Buffy’s hand on his arm. “I came back willingly,” he muttered. “Where else was I gonna go?”

“You’re going back in chains,” Willow said meaningfully. “Unless there is some reason Buffy no longer wants to keep us protected from you, that is…some reason why she thinks you won’t try to leave again.”

“Come on, Spike,” Buffy said grimly. “I wouldn’t want you to get loose and eat anybody. Willow, for instance.” She pulled the protesting vampire into the bathroom and gestured towards the tub. “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I’m sure Giles will let you loose when she leaves.”

“Looks like Red’s gone a bit power-happy, pet,” he said quietly as he climbed into the tub.

“Yeah, it does. I know this is all about Oz leaving, but…”

“This isn’t all about wolf-boy, Slayer. This is about your little friend getting a taste of some power and liking it. You’re going to have to watch her from now on. Power’s addictive.”

He sat quietly while Buffy fastened the chains around his hands and feet, looping them through the pipes and closing the lock with a click.

“Buffy –“

The Slayer shook her head. “Don’t,” was all she said as she stood up, refusing to look at him. “Just don’t, ‘k?”

“Never happened, did it?” he asked quietly.

“Never,” she whispered, shaking her head as she went out and pulled the door shut behind her. She found herself smothering an urge to go back and climb into the tub with him and shuddered at the wrongness of it all.

The Slayer squared her shoulders and went out to talk to her watcher about what they were going to do with a power-hungry novice witch.

Chapter Three

As Buffy had said he would, Giles reluctantly released Spike from the chains after Willow had left with a still-apologetic Xander and his seething, but quiet, girlfriend. The two British men and the young American woman sat in the living room trying to decide how they were going to deal with Willow’s newly discovered abilities and her obvious willingness to use those abilities against her friends.

Buffy’s anger had cooled to the point that she was struggling to defend Willow’s behavior, insisting that she had made her comments about all of them without knowing that her will-be-done spell had worked.

“The name of the bloody spell tells you all you need to know about her, Slayer,” Spike growled. “MY will be done. She went into it wanting to be in control and she got what she wanted. There’ll be no stopping her now.”

“As much as I hate to say it, I’m afraid I must agree with Spike,” Giles sighed. “It would appear that Willow may not be a good candidate for more magical training. It might be best if she did not become any more powerful and skilled than she already is.”

“She’s just upset about Oz leaving,” Buffy insisted stubbornly. “She would never have done that if she wasn’t so unhappy.”

“Perhaps not, but now that she has tasted that kind of power, it is very unlikely that she will be uninterested in exploring it more fully.”

“Watcher’s right, pet. Magic can be addictive and if she liked that little taste of control…”

“But she didn’t really hurt anybody! I mean, Giles was blind and that has to suck,” she gave her Watcher a sympathetic look before continuing, ”but it wasn’t permanent. And the demons weren’t trying to kill Xander exactly.” She paused to shudder at what they apparently were trying to do. “And it didn’t hurt us. So we were engaged for a few hours. No biggie. It’s not like we actually got married and had to go get a divorce or one of those anal things.”

Both men stared at her with their mouths open until the Watcher managed to choke out, “You mean an annulment?”

“Yeah, one of those. We don’t need one. Because nothing happened. Nothing weddingish.”

“For which Spike should be extremely grateful,” Giles said, indicating the frowning vampire. “When Xander pointed out that you may have had…relations… with Spike, Willow disregarded his concerns saying that you would just stake him and no one would ever know.”

“She said I would stake him? Because we had sex? IF we’d had sex. Which we didn’t, of course.” She turned to the vampire and asked, “Did you –do you think I would have staked you for something like that?”

She sounded so offended that anyone could think she would do such a thing that he wisely refrained from pointed out that she had threatened that very thing only a few hours ago.

“No, of course not, Slayer. You wouldn’t dust a bloke for doing something he did because of a spell. That’d be like getting brassed off at your watcher because he couldn’t see anything, wouldn’t it?”

Buffy narrowed her eyes, trying to decide if he was mocking her, but his blue eyes were looking at her innocently, showing nothing but faith in her inherent goodness.

“Well…yes, exactly. I wouldn’t do anything like that. Even if there was a reason for it. Which there isn’t. Because we didn’t.”

It was the Watcher’s turn to study her suspiciously.

“I believe we already established that, Buffy.” he said dryly, before turning to look hard at the vampire.

Spike did his best to appear simultaneously both innocent and evil, leering at Buffy as he said, “You’ve got to admit we were sort of hot and heavy for a while there, weren’t we, Slayer?”

His ploy worked, the Watcher attributing Buffy’s angry flush to the vampire’s reminder of how they had behaved while engaged and taking Spike’s implication that it had never gone beyond that at face value. He settled back, suspicions that his Slayer had indulged in intercourse with William the Bloody allayed for the time being.

Buffy stood up and stretched, saying, “I guess I’d better do a quick patrol and get back to the dorm. Maybe I can talk to Willow and get her to back off the magic for a while.”

Spike jumped to his feet eagerly, “Want some back-up, Slayer?” he asked, bouncing on his toes. “I could use a spot of violence – even if it’s just watching you pummel some poor demon -- before I come back here to be bored to tears by—“ Sudden recollection that he was about to insult the man in whose house he was being permitted to hide from daylight, as well as receiving regular meals of warm pigs’ blood, made him uncharacteristically careful of his words. “Unless the watcher is going to be home, that is,” he amended quickly. “Nothing like a good chat with a fellow Brit to make a bloke’s day.”

“I have no desire to ‘chat’ with you, Spike,” Giles said tiredly. “I am going to bed shortly. You may sleep on the couch if you like. I do not believe the sun reaches quite that far into the room during the day.”

“I don’t need any help, Spike,” Buffy said quickly. “Least of all from someone who can’t hurt anybody.”

“I could yell, ‘watch out!’, “ he grumbled. “Come on, pet. We might run into more of those demons and I could at least trip them or something.”

Before Buffy could snap at him that she wasn’t worried about the imaginary “demons “, Giles spoke up and said, “That’s really not a bad idea, Buffy. As much as it pains me to admit it, Spike could be of some use if you should encounter them again. If nothing else, he could run for help.”

Spike’s good humor vanished at the reminder that he would probably not be of any use in an actual fight and he growled under his breath at the man’s words.

“Fine,” she huffed. “I’ll take him along in case I have to yell for help. Satisfied?”

Doing her best to ignore the vampire’s smirk, she strode out the door waving her ‘good-night’ to her Watcher and heading for the nearest cemetery at a good clip, Spike following her with long, ground-eating strides.

They made a quick pass through Restfield Cemetery, finding only one fledgling looking for his first meal. Spike leaned against a crypt while the Slayer toyed with the newly-risen vamp for a few minutes, practicing some new kicks and allowing him to think he was going to be able to taste the blood he could smell pounding through her veins. When she tired of the game, she staked the unfortunate vampire before he even registered that he was in trouble and turned to see Spike watching her with admiration.

“Got to say, pet,” he drawled looking her up and down, “you are one amazing Slayer. All that strength and violence in such a pretty package.”

She colored briefly before she remembered who was talking.

“That’s what Slayers are, Spike. You ought to know, you’ve fought two of them.”

“Actually, pet, I’ve fought four or five. Only killed two of them.” He spoke almost absently as he pushed open the door of the crypt and peered inside. He stepped in, disappearing from Buffy’s sight and she followed him to the door curiously.

“What are you doing? And what do you mean you’ve fought four or five? Why aren’t you dust?”

“I’m looking for a place to live,” he replied, coming back towards the door to stand in front of her. “And I’m not dust because they couldn’t kill me.”

“But you didn’t kill them?”

He growled before answering. “Bloody Watcher of one of the bints shot me in the back with a crossbow – missed my heart, but not by much. One of them just ran when she saw I was winning – I don’t think she lived very long. No confidence at all. The third one…” He stopped talking and moved back into the crypt again, shifting into game face so as to be able to see everything. “This would do me nicely,” he said cheerfully.

“What about the third one?” In her eagerness to learn more about his past experience with Slayers, Buffy stepped inside the tomb and tried to see what he was doing.

“Don’t know about her. I know I hurt her, but she managed to get away from me and into a crowd. Somebody called an ambulance and that was the last I saw of her. Had to leave the city because Dru had one of her visions so I never got to follow up.”

“So, you’re saying you might have killed three Slayers?” Buffy could not believe he was speaking so casually about murdering her sister slayers.

“Might have. Don’t know.” He shrugged then turned to smirk at her. “None of ‘em were as good as you, though. Nor as pretty,” he added, moving closer to her. “Nor as passionate, I’d wager.” His voice became deeper and he stepped close enough to hear her heart rate go up.

“You think I’m pretty?” She cursed herself for the stupid question, as well as the tremor in her voice. Memories of the night and day spent together while under the spell insisted on filling her brain with inappropriate thoughts about the lips so close to hers.

“You know I do, luv.” His voice was a deep rumble and he ran one hand down her arm softly. “Think you’re beautiful…and sexy…and delicious…”

“Don’t,” she said weakly. “The spell is over. We can’t—“

“Yes, we can, Buffy.” The use of her name lent a seriousness to his words for which she wasn’t prepared. She briefly leaned into him, allowing him to ghost his lips over hers before pushing him away abruptly.

“Stop it, Spike.”

“ Come on, Slayer. You know you want to.”

“My body wants to, Spike. That’s not good enough.”

“It’s good enough for me,” he said hoarsely, once again running his hand down her arm.

Buffy shivered and tried to ignore the sensations his cool touch created. “Not for me, it isn’t,” she said softly.

“I could make it be good enough,” he whispered as he ran his lips from her ear down to her shoulder. “You know I could.”

She closed her eyes and shuddered as she fought the desire to forget who she was and fall into those lips. She forced herself to remember that this was a vampire who had killed at least two, if not three, of her sister slayers and was proud of it.

“You could – for a while. Then I’d have to go home and face myself in the mirror. And I won’t like what I see there.” She raised her eyes to his face. “I want to like myself, Spike. I don’t want to feel dirty.”

Something inside his chest twisted into a painful knot and he suddenly craved to repay her carelessly cruel words.

“Little late for that, isn’t it, Slayer?” He struck back the only way he could. “We pretty much covered dirty last night. Or have you forgotten already, whipping me like a racehorse while you rode me home?”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he regretted them. Buffy recoiled from his reaching hand and her face went cold and hard.

“That was an aberration. A spell. I was weak and let you influence me,” she hissed at him. “It won’t happen again!”

(Bollocks! Could I have fucked that up any more?)

Even while he was mentally chastising himself for what he’d said, his mouth was digging the hole deeper.

“Whoa! Slayer using multi-syllable words. Is that a fancy way of saying ‘I was horny and you were convenient’?”