On the screen, Anya was cheerfully talking to a customer. “I much prefer the jasmine-scented candles. Even though the lilac ones are less likely to attract small demons, jasmine has other special properties.”

“Ha!” Jonathan raised his shot glass to his lips.

“Such as?” On the screen, the man seemed slightly taken aback by her reference to demons.

“Oh, these jasmine ones are an aphrodisiac,” Anya said matter-of-factly.

“Score!” Andrew called out, throwing back a shot of his own.

Warren scowled at them. “What are you two numbskulls doing?”

“We’re playing the Anya drinking game. Duh,” Andrew said, rolling his eyes.

“It’s a competition. When Anya says anything about demons, I drink,” Jonathan explained. “When she mentions sex, Andrew drinks. Whoever finishes his six-pack of Kool-Aid first wins.”

Warren stared at them disbelievingly. “You’re pathetic.”

“Well, what else is there to do?” Jonathan shrugged. “We’re going to need at least another day of waiting before the Inviso-Ray is ready for modification.”

“Yeah, and there’s only so much Faith-Spike footage we can watch before we’re finished. And less and less of that coming in every day.” Andrew stared morosely at the next computer, which displayed the image of Spike in his crypt, talking heatedly with Buffy.

“Are you kidding?” Warren said, gaping at them. “Forget Faith and Spike. Check out those two! It’s porn in the making!”

As if on cue, the Buffy onscreen launched herself at Spike and the two started making out. Vigorously.

“The first kiss in a secret love, the two finally confess their true feelings,” Andrew started dramatically. “The forgotten Slayer and the Vampyre fighting for-“

“Shut up, Andrew,” the other two said simultaneously.

“What are we going to do?” Jonathan asked worriedly. “Send it to Faith?”

Warren shook his head. “When will you learn? We wait until we’ve got enough to turn Faith against Buffy. Then, we let them finish each other off.”

They all practiced their evil laughs together.

--

“I have to go.” Yes. That was it. She’d leave, regroup, figure out what had just happened. She turned to leave.

He took her by the wrist, pulling her lightly until she was wrapped in his arms again, and kissed her again. She took it in greedily, letting her lips meld to his, her tongue dance in his mouth, his hands stroke the small of her back gently…

“Wait,” she murmured, pulling away from him, just an inch. “What are we doing?”

He raised an eyebrow. “I know that you haven’t been snogging every wanker you’ve seen since you got here, but I’m pretty sure you know what this is.”

“Snogging?” Buffy wrinkled her nose. “Really, you Brits need a better word for kissing. That just sounds gross.” Then she remembered. “Hey, I’m mad at you!”

“You kissed me,” he pointed out.

“I did not!” she protested, sighing at the lie. “Okay. I did. But it’s not like it means anything, right? You’re with Faith.” She waited expectantly for his response, for the okay to get back to the Spike Lips. Mmm…Spike Lips…Lips Of Spike…

“Trying to kill me is grounds for a breakup, I’d think,” he said dryly.

“Oh, like that’s stopped you before?” Buffy said skeptically, suddenly remembering their last alliance, Spike holding Dru back while she clawed at him, screaming for her Daddy…

“True,” he acknowledged, “But I’ll take my excuses where I can… And why are you fighting this, anyway?”

“Oh, right.” She stood on the tips of her toes and pressed her lips to his again, letting herself relax into his embrace.

They stood like that for a while, just their lips against each other, nothing further, enjoying their nearness as they held each other. Finally, Spike scooped her up and sat back down on the armchair, Buffy on his lap. She curled up against him contentedly. This was perfect. Exactly what she wanted. She wondered if it was what he wanted, too. “I’m not going to sleep with you,” she informed him suddenly.

“Yeah, that’s probably wise,” Spike agreed. “Not until I can make sure that Faith knows it’s over.”

“No, I don’t mean that. I mean ever,” Buffy said, pulling away from him a bit.

“Buffy-“ He stopped, staring at her. “You’re serious.”

“Yeah.” She stood up. “Sorry. You can go back to Faith now.”

Spike scowled at her. “If this is how you start every relationship…”

“There were no other relationships,” she felt obliged to inform him. “Not since I left Sunnydale.”

Spike shook his head. “He really did a number on you, pet.”

“Don’t,” she said weakly. She didn’t want to bring him up again, not to ruin what peaceful conversation they’d finally been able to have. She had things to say to him, things to ask…

“Tara!” she finally remembered, feeling guilty that she hadn’t before.

“What’s that, pet?” He patted the arm of the chair, and she sat on it reluctantly, but didn’t protest when he pulled her back onto his lap.

“Tara. Willow’s been…doing stuff to her.”

Spike’s eyes flashed yellow, his mouth curling into a snarl. “Hurting her? If that bloody witch-“

“Not like that,” Buffy said quickly, putting a calming hand on Spike’s arm. “She’s been wiping her memory, I think. Tara tried to break up with her, and Willow just erased the memory from her. Majorly creepy.”

“I’ll kill her,” Spike ground out. “I’ll rip out her throat, and shove it up her-“

“Easy, tiger,” Buffy soothed him, kissing him gently on the cheek. She wasn’t quite sure if he was going to ditch her now or not, but at least she’d enjoy him until he made his decision. He’d have to be willing to stay with her, despite the celibacy, and Buffy was no fool. She understood the size of his libido and how often he was probably used to getting it from Faith, and she was pretty sure what his decision would be.

For a moment, she thought longingly of Spike inside her, making her feel things she barely remembered. But she quashed the feelings immediately. There would be no sleeping with vampires. That never ended well.

He was still raging, though. “I knew it! How dare she hurt what’s mine!” He vamped out completely, rising suddenly and toppling Buffy to the ground. She hit something hard and sharp with a cry. Immediately, Spike bent back down to lift her up, his game face gone. “I’m sorry!” he said quickly, smoothing the area on her rear where she’d been hurt. Instinctively, she moaned at the touch, and he inhaled sharply. “God, Buffy, if we’re going to do this, you can’t smell like that!”

“Smell like what?” she sighed, feeling his tongue swirling around on her neck.

“Wet and ready,” he purred, stroking her closer to the junction between her legs. “In fact…”

“Spike!” She felt the risings of panic. “I can’t! I told you!”

“Alright,” he sighed, moving his hand. “But you don’t know what you’re missing out on.”

“I can guess,” she whispered, laying her head back against his chest. “So what are we going to do about Tara?”

He stroked her hair. “You need to tell her about Willow. She shouldn’t have to suffer like this.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “I was so worried you’d tell me to just let it go,” she admitted, twisting a stray hair between her fingers. “That’s what Xander and Faith did. And Anya, but she’s still kinda demony.”

Spike snickered. “That she is.” He shook his head. “The rest of them…they don’t really know Tara. They’ve just seen her as Scooby by default. Demon Girl and I were accepted because, well, we’re loud,” he said, a little sheepishly. Buffy grinned. “We make ourselves known, but the White Witch blends into the background. Scoobies don’t see her.”

“At least they could be worried about Willow,” Buffy grumbled. “Am I the only one who thinks she’s one spell away from disaster?”

Spike nodded. “I’m with you there. But Harris and the Slayer trust her. They won’t get involved with her and Tara, no matter what she does.” He kissed the top of her head. “Talk to Tara. Let her know that she might want to set up some wards and the like. Keep our bad witch wannabe from fucking with her again.”

“Alright. I’m on it,” Buffy said, standing up.

“What, now?” Spike mock-whined, stretching out his arms to her.

She grinned impishly. “I’ll be back later, vampire.” She kissed him again, long and deep. “Thank you,” she murmured when they parted. “For everything.”

--

Tara bent over the keyboard, racking her brain for something else to write. She knew she’d done the research for this assignment, remembered much of what she’d found, but her notes didn’t agree with her memory. Although lately, she’d been forgetting more and more of what she’d been doing. Oh, she knew technically where she’d been, and what she’d been doing. But details kept slipping her mind. Oh, well. Such was the life of a college student.

There was a knock at the door, and Tara frowned. Willow wasn’t coming back until later, and she was pretty sure that no one else would drop by to see her. Maybe it was Anya, demanding wedding advice again. She winced. Anya could be a little…overenthusiastic sometimes.

She opened the door, careful not to call out an invite. “Oh! B-Buffy!”

Buffy stood there, her face grim. “I need to talk to you.”

--

Tara didn’t know what to think.

Willow was using mind control. On her. Wiping her memory, raping her of her memory. How long had it been going on? How deep had Willow sunk into the darkness?

She loved Willow, she really did. But there were some things that couldn’t be forgiven, no matter how much love there was between them.

She reached for her book of defensive magic grimly. Willow wasn’t going to get the chance to hurt her again.

“Baby?” The door opened and Willow slipped inside with barely enough time for Tara to slide the book back onto its shelf. “What’s going on?”

“N-nothing really,” Tara said quickly. “I-I’ve been doing s-some schoolwork.”

Willow made a face. “All day? Tara, I’ve told you. If you need a speedy report, I’ve got a spell-“

“N-no!” Tara said quickly. At Willow’s sudden frown, she ducked her head and mumbled, “No spells.” This wasn’t good. Willow couldn’t know what Tara had found out, not until she had the spell she needed to protect herself. “S-sorry,” she murmured, forcing a yawn. “I’m j-just really tired.”

Willow leaned forward, a sudden mischievous grin on her face. “How tired?”

No, please, not tonight… But she couldn’t say no to sex, not now, when she needed to act like everything was normal. Willow would get worried and overprotective, as always, and she’d find out what Tara was up to soon enough. So she let Willow make love to her, her brain churning the whole time with a mixture of disgust and sorrow at the situation.

As soon as Willow had drifted off to sleep, Tara pulled out her book again and hastily put together the spell before she slipped out the door. There were two other people to whom she owed the same. And if Buffy and Spike had cared enough to warn her, they were also in danger if Willow went overboard.

She went to Spike’s crypt first by default. Faith made her nervous; they were just so different that there was no way that they could ever really be friends, and it wasn’t like Faith had ever made any overtures of friendship, either. She’d just accepted Tara into the Scoobies and proceeded to ignore her. But Faith was Willow’s best friend, and if Willow found out that Tara had gone to visit Buffy, things would get even tenser than they already were.

Luck was on her side, though, when she knocked timidly on Spike’s door and Buffy opened it. The blond slayer turned to raise an eyebrow at Spike. “How’d you know?”

Spike shrugged, smirking at them both from his vantage point on the sarcophagus. “She’s the only one who knocks like that.” He reconsidered. “Or, well, at all.”

Tara surveyed them both with interest. Last she’d heard, Faith had almost staked Spike before returning to the Magic Box to demand answers from Willow, leaving Buffy behind with the vampire. It looked like things might have progressed between the two, though, judging from Buffy’s disheveled appearance and the simultaneously pleased and guilty look on Spike’s face.

She was happy for them, really. Spike was as close to a big brother as she’d ever had- which was made all the more ironic by the fact that she actually had an older brother back at home- and she genuinely liked Buffy, who might not have been as accepting as Faith, but was certainly softer and kinder. If they’d found some happiness together, she would be the last person to object to it.

But it was all the more reason for the two to be protected from Willow’s magic. If Faith found out… “I-I found a spell that should shield you from dark magic.”

“Oh?” Spike sat up interestedly. “Will it be strong enough?”

“It’s a neutral spell,” Tara explained. “It reflects the power of the magic aimed at you and puts up an equal defense. There’s no way that even Willow, a-at her current power level, could overpower something like that.”

Buffy sat down next to Spike, her fingers automatically intertwining with his. Tara wisely kept silent. The less she knew, the better. It was enough that they were happy. “How long does it last?”

Tara shrugged. “Forever, I guess. Until the caster is dead.”

“Perfect.” Buffy gave her a genuine smile. “Thanks for keeping us in mind.”

Tara smiled back. “Mutual.”

It was nice to have friends who cared about her, she reflected. Friends were a precious commodity. And she’d hang on to these two for a long, long time.