Chapter Three
 
Three clubs later, Buffy was grumbling as she followed Spike down an alley.
 
“I don’t think it’s fair that you can drink as much as you do and never have to pee.  You’ve had twice as much to drink as I have tonight, and I’m the one who’s always looking for the restroom.”
 
She heard his deep chuckle, something she decided she was coming to like as long as she didn’t let herself think about who was making that warm sound. “Entrance is right down here, luv. The loo is on your right when we go in.  This one’s more of a mixed bag, so be on your toes.”
 
“You mean we might get a fight out of this one?”  Her eagerness was obvious and he snorted with laughter.
 
“Getting’ bored are you, Slayer? I’ll see if I can rustle you up a little exercise while you’re doing your business.”  He opened the door and pointed to the right where a door with a picture of what might have been a female Fyral demon beckoned.
 
“Don’t start without me,” she warned, pushing the door open.  She ducked into a stall and quickly relieved herself of the last four Diet Cokes. As she was washing her hands – surprised at the relative cleanliness of the sink – the door opened and a familiar voice floated in ahead of its owner.
 
“Don’t try to pretend you don’t know this is where I hang out, Blondie Bear.  Stalking is not an attractive quality in a man.  Just accept that we’re finished and—Gah! Buffy!”
 
“Harmony.”  Buffy said, mentally assessing the entertainment value of fighting with or staking Harmony vs whatever Spike was going to be able to scare up.
 
“You shouldn’t be here,” Harmony sniffed. “This is a high-class demon bar. You know, for people who are evil?”
 
“Uh huh. And you don’t think the Vampire Slayer should be interested in a place where there are vampires and evil demons? Where do you think I should be hunting for them?”
 
“Well, not here!  What if somebody thinks you’re with me?”
 
“Not likely. Slayer’s got taste.” Spike’s voice came through the door that he was holding open with one hand while he tried to fend off an angry demon with very large teeth and four arms.  “Little help, Slayer?”
 
“Slayer? Help?  Oh that’s just pathetic, Spike. You brought Buffy with you to try to make me jealous?  Are you insane?”
 
“Feel free to take the time to stake her on your way out,” Spike grunted as the demon punched him hard enough to drive him into the small sink area.  Buffy ripped the towel holder off the wall and hit Spike’s attacker over the head as he tried to follow up his punch.
 
“This is the ladies’ room, you moron,” she said, whacking him several times until he retreated to the larger area by the door.  Two burly demons that Buffy didn’t recognize approached as Spike jumped onto the bleeding demon’s back swearing in several languages.
 
“Take it outside, Spike,” the bouncers said, shoving the snarling combatants toward the door.  “And take your destructive girlfriend with you,” one added as he saw Buffy holding the bloody towel dispenser.  Ignoring the bouncer’s outstretched hand, Buffy stared around the bar, noting that many of the patrons were disappearing out another exit in the back.  She shrugged and tossed the metal box at the bouncer.
 
“Think we got what we came for,” she said, following the sounds of battle out into the alley.  Behind her she could hear Harmony saying, “Girlfriend? That’s not his girlfriend. I’m the girlfriend. That’s just a fashion disaster he brought to try to win me back.”
 
The door swung shut behind her and Buffy watched as Spike tried to exchange punches with something that had two more arms and fists than he did.  Taking her time, she strolled to the dumpster and picked up a sturdy-looking broom leaning against it.
 
“Say when, Spike,” she said, holding the broom in a loose grip as she sat on a trashcan to watch.  She started to get up when the demon pinned Spike to the ground and began to hit him in the face, but relaxed when he vamped out and threw his opponent off with a roar. With his own fangs out and calling upon the added strength his demon gave him, he soon had his opponent trying harder to get away than to fight.  With a final snarl, it pushed Spike away long enough to take off running down the alley.
 
Shaking off his vampire mien, Spike strolled back to where Buffy was twirling the broom, her disappointment plain.  “I didn’t get to slay him,” she complained. “You hogged the fight.”
 
“Sorry, luv. Was having a good time. Forgot you might want a piece of him.”
 
“Oh well,” she said, tossing the broom away. “I got to hit him on the head a bunch of times. I guess that’ll have to do me.” They began walking out of the alley, side by side. Spike bumped against her arm. “You know, Slayer, you are my kind of woman.”
 
“I am? But I’m… you know… sane?”
 
His face darkened.  “I was trying to be nice, Summers. Didn’t need that reminder of what else I’ve lost.”
 
“Sorry,” she said, almost as surprised as he was when the word left her mouth. “I forgot we had that in common.  That we’ve both been dumped,” she explained when he glanced at her with a raised eyebrow.  
 
He stared at her for a few seconds. “Their loss,” he said finally, throwing an arm over her shoulder. “What say we finish up the evening by wrecking Willy’s?”
 
“As tempting as that thought is, I think I should call it a night. As long as I’ve got all this caffeinated liquid in me, I may as well take advantage of it and try to get some studying done before I go to sleep. I have to read the rest of that play.”
 
“Can’t compete with Shakespeare,” he said with an exaggerated sigh. 
 
“Trust me, Spike, I’d much rather be wrecking Willy’s with you than reading about some guy and his skeezy uncle in Denmark. But there might be a pop quiz tomorrow.” She cocked her head. “I’m not sure the professor isn’t a demon. I should have you check that out for me…”
 
“I think we know which one on the faculty could be a demon, Slayer,” he growled. “Don’t know why you haven’t dropped that vivisectionist’s class yet.”
 
“Spike, I know she… okay, not a warm fuzzy person, but calling her a demon or a vivi-whatever is just…”
 
“That’s the term for those who “experiment” on live animals, luv.  Now, if you’re willing to consider vamps and sentient demons ‘people’, then she becomes a sadist and a serial killer.”
 
“Well, I hope I’m going to get a chance to see for myself soon. Riley’s trying to get me into the facility as a… I dunno… guest co-worker? Or something. I don’t think Professor Walsh was all that impressed by what I do, but once I kicked butt on Riley’s squad she—”
 
“You did what?”
 
“He set it up for them to jump me so that I could show what I can do. Without warning me about it.”  She snickered. “I had to hold back a whole lot, but I think they have a better idea of what a Slayer is now.”
 
He cocked his head and looked at her in a way that made her face flush and grow warm  “You know, luv, I don’t think they’ve got the first clue what a Slayer really is.  But I expect you’re just the girl to open their eyes.”
 
Once again Buffy was reminded of how certain he’d been that she would deal with the Chumash warrior and save them all.  She peered up at him from the corner of her eyes.
 
“Did you just pay me a compliment?”
 
“Me? What? Compliment the bane of my existence?”  He made a rude noise and threw his hands in the air.  “You’re barmier than Dru ever was if you think I’d do that.”
 
“Right. Just checking. I didn’t really think so.”
 
“Just so we’re clear.”
 
 
 
They reached Buffy’s dorm and paused just to the side of the main door.  There was an uncomfortable moment when neither one seemed to have any idea how to end the evening – a moment easily broken when Willow spotted them through the window and came outside.
 
“Hey, Buffy… Spike.  Did you guys find a bunch of demons to learn about or beat up?”
 
“Found our share,” Spike said, stepping away from the girls.  “Slayer knows more than she did before we started,” he added, giving Buffy an enigmatic look.
 
She met his gaze steadily. “Un huh. I think you could safely say I learned some things tonight.”
 
Willow looked back and forth between the two of them, a small frown creasing her brow.  “Ooookay. Well, that’s good, I guess.  So, Spike did his job, right? You’re all caught up on the different kinds of demons?”
 
“Well, I don’t think—”
 
“Hell, no.  We just scratched the surface tonight.  Gonna have to go out a few more times before I’ll feel like I’ve taught her everything she needs to know.”
 
“We are talking about demons here, right?”
 
“Of course we are! What else would we be talking about?” Buffy dropped her righteous indignation. “Well, except maybe Shakespeare, I guess.” She peered up at Spike. “Do you know anything else about his stuff besides Hamlet?”
 
“I do,” he said. “Every self-respecting Englishman knows Shakespeare inside and out.”
 
Buffy turned to Willow.  “I think we just found ourselves a study-buddy.”
 
“A what?”  Spike began edging away from the two girls now smiling at him with patently false sweetness.
 
“Giles says you’ve got a really good education… for an old guy, I mean.  And you said you know Shakespeare.  You’re perfect for helping us with this class!” Willow beamed at the panic-stricken vampire.
 
“The last time I worked as a tutor, I got paid for—I mean, you’re barmy if you think I’m going to spend my time trying to make up for the appalling educations you got in what passes for schools in this country.  I have my pride, you know.”
 
“No you don’t,” Buffy said cheerfully. “If we buy you beer, you’ll do pretty much whatever we want you to. Won’t he, Willow?”
 
“You’re not old enough to buy me beer,” Spike said with less conviction than he’d intended to have in his voice.
 
“It’s a college town, Spike. With demons. Even I know where to buy beer if you’re underage.” Willow gave him a scornful eyeroll.
 
‘You can start now!” Buffy grabbed the sleeve of Spike’s coat and began tugging him toward the door. “You can help us study for tomorrow.”
 
“Hey now, Slayer.”  Spike planted his feet.  “I just gave you a course in demonology.  And I already showed you the line you needed to find in Act II. That’s all you get out of me for tonight.”
 
“Oh, come on. You can go beat up whatever’s left at Willy’s later.  If I think you’ve made me smarter, maybe I’ll even come with you.”
 
Although Willow gave Buffy a funny look, she grabbed Spike’s other arm and began tugging him toward the door.  “Right. You help us out, and then Buffy will help you beat things up at Willy’s.”
 
“Don’t need help beating things up,” he muttered, allowing himself to be towed along.  “Do just fine all by myself.”
 
“You were totally losing tonight until I hit that creep on the head,” Buffy said, releasing his sleeve now that he was no longer protesting.  “You totally owe me.”
 
Spike stopped and cocked his head at her. “Have you picked up some kind of infection from being in college, or did you spend too much time with Harm tonight?”
 
“What?”
 
“What?”
 
Buffy and Willow spoke simultaneously.
 
“You were with Harmony?”
 
“No! She just came into the ladies room when I was getting ready to leave it. I don’t know what he’s talking about.”
 
“I’m talking about the way you’re talking. Not that you’ve ever been all that eloquent, but—” Spike pitched his voice high and sing-songed, “ ‘You totally owe me.’ Tell me that doesn’t sound like something Harmony would say.”
 
“Eloquent?” Willow was staring at their new study-buddy with wide eyes. “What ladies room? Where were you?”
 
“Nowhere. Just some demon club. While I was in the lady demons room, Spike got into a fight and I had to bang the thing on the head with the towel dispenser to make it let go of him. And Harmony was there and she got in the way and she was yelling at Spike that I was there to make her jealous, and, yeah… it was just…” Buffy paused and looked at Willow and then at Spike.  “… kinda fun. In a totally inappropriate and shame on me kind of way,” she added primly when Spike broke into a big grin and Willow looked at her with narrowed eyes.
 
“So, you went out with Spike, and you had… fun?”
 
Buffy flushed and shook her head.  “Well, no, of course not. I mean – I was with Spike, Willow. Where’s the fun in that?  It was all with the learning about demons and which ones I should slay and….” Her voice trailed off when she saw Spike’s grin fade, to be replaced by the cold face of a dead man. Without a word, he whirled and strode off into the darkness, disappearing from sight before Buffy could say or do anything.
 
The two girls stood for a minute, staring after the now invisible vampire.
 
“Shit,” Buffy said softly.
 
“I think you hurt his feelings,” Willow said.
 
“I didn’t mean to. I just… you looked so shocked and I just wanted to….” She sighed. “I did, didn’t I? Who knew vampires have feelings to hurt…”
 
“Spike’s not exactly an average vampire,” Willow observed. “How many vampires fall in love with Slayers and try to help their watchers or fight off demons chasing their friends?”
 
“That was your spell!” Buffy whirled on Willow with wide eyes. “You said we should get married.”
 
“I didn’t say anything about being in love. You guys did that all on your own.”
 
Buffy put her hands on her hips and stuck out her lower lip. “Well, if I was going to marry somebody, I’d have to be in love with him. That’s just how it works.”
 
“And apparently it works like that for Spike too,” Willow said with satisfaction. “He has feelings. Like I said, not exactly your average vampire.”
 
“Not your average vampire.” Buffy agreed and turned to enter the building. “We might as well go in. I don’t think he’s coming back to help us study.”
 
“Yeah, I got that.  Oh well, we’ll do it the old-fashioned way – read the play again.”
 
“Again?”
 
It was Willow’s turn to sigh. “Yeah, again. I already read it last week, didn’t you?”
 
“Uh… no? I think I was busy… with Riley.  He said he’d read it with me, but we got distracted…”
 
“Distracted, huh?” Willow poked Buffy’s arm.  “So, things are good on the Riley front?”
 
“Better than good.  Buffy has a boyfriend with a pulse, who fights demons and vampires and has awesome arms and… and… isn’t a jerk!” she finished with a smile.
 
As they entered their room, Willow held up the textbook containing Hamlet. “If we procrastinate much longer, it will already be time for the quiz.”
 
“Maybe there won’t be one… “ Buffy said hopefully. “She didn’t say for sure, she said maybe.”
 
“That’s professor-speak for ‘there’s going to be a really hard surprise test’, Buffy.”
 
“I told Spike she was a demon,” Buffy muttered, picking up her own book.  “Can’t you just give me a quick recap?”
 
Willow sighed. “You shouldn’t have made Spike mad. He can probably recite the whole play.”
 
“Spike gets mad at me all the time. He’ll get over it.”  Buffy spoke with more surety than she felt as she remembered how his face had gone from pleased and happy to stone cold. 
 
“Not in time for a test tomorrow, he won’t,” Willow said.  “Start reading and just ask me questions when you don’t understand something.  Maybe we can hit the highlights and you’ll know enough to do okay on the test.”
 
“I’d rather be beating up demons with Spike,” Buffy muttered. “I get beating
things up – castles and uncles marrying mothers… not so much.”
 
“Just read, Buffy.” Willow’s voice was beginning to sound irritated, and Buffy stopped grumbling and began to read.