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Before the Madness Begun by Nemo
 
Chapter Seven – The One She Wants
 
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Buffy was sitting in the library the next afternoon sharpening stakes, trying to kill time. She had come to an agreement with her mother to let her stay and study in school until five o’clock, after which Joyce will then come to pick her up. Her friends had decided to keep her company and at the moment Willow was going through Xander’s history homework, scribbling small crosses where Xander had given the wrong answer.

Buffy had tried to work on her French as she had promised her mother, but gave up after fifteen minutes. Buffy Summers wasn’t a dumb girl, even if her principal seemed to believe so, she just had other things on her mind. Spike, for instance. He hadn’t made another appearance yet and she was wondering what he was up to. *Probably another plan that results in my death* Buffy thought. Just as Buffy had continued to pick up her irregular verbs again, Angel showed up beside her.

”Angel.”

Angel had been pacing his small apartment waiting for sunset, when he couldn’t take it anymore. The things Spike had said to him the night before were still fresh in his mind and he wanted an answer. He knew his grandchilde was probably only trying to piss him off, but he had to know if there was some truth in his words.

”Buffy, we need to talk,” Angel said.

”I’m studying,” Buffy replied while trying to look very versed up in her french grammar. Buffy, the stubborn girl that she was, wasn’t ready to forgive him just yet.

”What’s going on between you and Spike?” Angel asked bluntly. This sentence made the rest of the group stop bickering and look up at the Slayer and her boyfriend.

”What do you mean?”

”Is there something going on between you two?”

”What? Other than him trying to kill me? No,” Buffy said, trying to sound casual. She suspected that Angel meant something entirely different but chose to act like she didn’t know what he was talking about.

”That’s not what he says.”

”He talked to you?” Now, Buffy was pissed off. Spike had the nerve to go and talk to her boyfriend about her? *Stupid vampire*

”Spike came to see me last night.”

”And what did he say?” Buffy wondered. For some strange reason, that she didn’t understand herself, she was very interested in what Spike had said about her. During that night in the high school he hadn’t exactly been friendly.

”Buffy, he-”
From the look on Angel’s face, or to be more exact the way he didn’t look at her, Buffy could tell that he was trying to avoid her question. She asked him again.

What did the evil bloodsucking fiend have to say about me?”

”He…insinuated…that you had slept with him. Or tried to,” Angel said, looking very uncomfortable.

Xander, who had been listening to their conversation, started laughing. ”Good one, dead boy!” But when he saw the serious look on Buffy’s face he stopped himself. ”No way!”

Buffy had been taken aback by the answer, and it took some time for her brain to process what he’d just said. ”What?!”

”I know you’ve met him before I just-”

”That’s insane!” Buffy exclaimed.

”Is it?”

”You believed him? Just like that?”

”I don’t know what to believe!”

”I was fourteen years old! What do you think? That I slept around with the first vampire I could find?”

”Buffy, this is Spike-”

”Exactly! Since when is he telling the truth?!”

”So you do know him?” Angel asked, thinking she’d finally told him something about what was going on.

”Spike told you I was a total ho-bag and you just assumed it was the truth?!”
Buffy was hurt. Was this what Angel thought about her?

”Buffy, I don’t assume anything, I just wanna know what happened between you two.”

”I told you, nothing happened! And if it did, it would be none of your business.”

”And you wouldn’t tell me anyway…” Angel sighed. This wasn’t leading anywhere.

”Probably not,” Buffy said firmly. ”I ran into Spike years ago, before I met you. What I did or didn’t do is none of your business.”

”I think it is when your life is in danger!”

”I don’t need you to protect me, Angel. I’m the slayer.” She looked around the room and discovered the astonished looks on her friends’ faces. She turned to Angel. ”You really don’t trust me, do you?” He didn’t answer. ”Forget it. I’m out of here.”

Buffy walked out of the library, not giving Angel a second glance.

”But what about your mother?” Willow asked and then ran after her, grabbing her bag on the counter on her way out.

Buffy had almost reached the exit doors when Willow caught up with her.

”Buffy, wait!”

”What, Willow?”

”I, I…Something happened, right? Between you and Spike?” the redhead asked quietly.

”No, nothing happened.” Buffy kept going.

”Buffy…”

”Please Willow, don’t do this. I just wanna get home and then I’m gonna find Spike and then I’m gonna kill him. Painfully.”

”Because he told Angel something he shouldn’t?”

Buffy stopped and turned around to look at her friend. ”No. Because he is a disgusting vampire! And evil, and mean, and stupid and he’s got that bleached hair and…and who am I kidding?” She sighed loudly. She had no idea what was going on, or what to tell Angel. She hadn’t lied to him, not really. If Spike didn’t seem to think that they had shared something she wasn’t going to think so either.

Willow gave her friend a sympathetic smile. ”Come on. Let’s go outside,” she said.

They sat down on a bench under the sun where Buffy was sure that Angel couldn’t reach them, neither could he eavesdrop. Not that there really was anything to tell, but he would get the wrong idea, Buffy was sure.

It was a beautiful day, sunny like most days in the state of California at this time of year, and school campus was almost deserted. Only Mr. Harrington, the biology teacher, was crossing the lawn, briefcase in hand. Buffy and Willow sat in silence.

”I did sleep with him,” Buffy said finally.

”No you didn’t!”

”I did, just not in the way you think. I fell asleep on his bed. Beside him. Nothing happened.”

”Oh my god! But what were you doing on his bed?!”

”I kind of...well… I mistook his hotel room for mine and then we talked and…”

”He yelled?”

”Yeah…and you know, one thing led to the other and ’voila’, I fell asleep,” Buffy tried to joke.

”Did he drug you?”

”He’s not a secret agent, Willow. He’s a vampire.”

”Right,” Willow replied, then a smile lit up her face and she bounced in her seat, exited. ”Were there smoochies?”

Buffy looked away, trying not to smile. Willow was always so silly. She made things so simple: ’smoochies or no smoochies?’ ’boyfriend-material or not boyfriend-material?’ According to Buffy, things were more complicated than that.

”There was, wasn’t it? Oh my god!”

”One kiss! At another time.”

”It’s so poetic!” Willow said and a dreamy look crossed her face. ”Two vampires, both in love with the Slayer-”

”Spike’s not in love with me!”

”You sure?”

”Positive.” Buffy nodded.

”So what are you going to do?” Willow wondered. She could tell that there was something going on between Buffy and the bleached blonde vampire. Not that she really understood it herself. Spike was scary. Willow could tell he was drool-worthy but she had a problem getting pass that vampire aspect.

”I’m… gonna kill him,” Buffy answered. She stood up and started to walk towards her house.
Willow was left on the bench, trying to understand what was going on in her friend’s mind.


* * *


When Spike had come home the night before he had been more than satisfied with himself. He hadn’t had the chance to kill the Slayer of course, but getting to piss off his grandsire was something that left him in an equally good mood and with a huge grin on his face. But when he came back to the warehouse his smile quickly faded. His princess was lying unconscious on the bedroom floor.

He had done everything he could think of: carried her to their bed, offered her his blood, blood of some random teenage girl, but when she finally woke up, Drusilla was so out of it, he wished she’d stayed asleep.

She had trashed the bedroom, tore the heads off the dolls that she usually treated like her babies, and screamed about things that Spike couldn’t interpret.

She was getting worse.

Earlier, Spike had ordered his minions to research about her weakness, but stupid as they were, they had of course found nothing. The ones that hadn’t died on Parent-Teacher night Spike had dusted them himself due to their incompetence.

The Annointed One was no exception. Spike had thrown him in a cage and made him greet the sunshine the night he came back from the high school. The Annointed One’s minions had ordered him to lay down his life for not being able to kill the Slayer, something that Spike would never agree upon, whoever ordered him. He had of course taken out the beefy vampires before killing the vampire prince himself. Drusilla had watched, clapping her hands and laughing.

But now she was worse than he’d ever seen her. And he was the only one left to find the cure for her disease. He had studied the books he’d brought, but they yielded nothing. He had broken into a local magic shop, but only found more books in languages he couldn’t understand and prophecies that spoke of good champions and apocalypses.

Spike was at a loss. He decided to go out for a smoke.


* * *


That night, Buffy had gone out looking for Spike. She was going through cemetery after cemetery looking for the vampire, but couldn’t find him anywhere. She had yelled his name until her throat became dry and staked the vampires that crossed her path without giving them a second glance. She was furious, and determined to get her revenge on the bleached vampire that had thrown mud at her name.

”Spike!” she yelled. This was the 27th time she yelled his name and the seventh cemetery she’d been to. The counting was a way to make the time fly.

”Stop avoiding me and come out and fight!”

Usually, trying to make a demon appear by just wishing they did, was not a good way to get a fight. Somehow God, The Powers That Be, or whoever was up there watching her, never granted her request when she asked for it. In the same way, a pack of demons always appeared when she was injured, tired or just not in the mood. This time though, it worked.

”Looking for me, Slayer?” Spike said. He was walking casually towards her, not knowing that she’d been on the hunt for him for the past two hours.

”Yes!”

”Really?” Buffy walked up to him without a word. He continued smirking. ”Can’t stay away from me, can you? Those hands of yours-”

He was cut off by the fist she threw in his face. Before he had the chance to recover, she kneed him in the groin before kicking him in the stomach.

”Bloody hell woman!”

”What. Did. You. Tell.” She punched him again and again, the words in rhythm with her punches. She finished with another kick into his side that swept Spike off his feet. ”Angel.”

Spike was still smirking from where he was lying on the ground. So that was what this was all about? Not that they had never fought before, but this time she didn’t even give him the chance to fight back. Spike assumed that she would continue to kick him even as he was lying on the ground, something that was against all unwritten rules of the demon world. He got up just in case the Slayer would do just that.

His face was bleeding again. The wounds from yesterday’s fight with Angel had healed, but the bone in his nose that had just started mending was again broken.

”What is it you’re so riled up for? Had a fight with your precious boytoy? Are you gonna cry this time, Slayer? Poor little lost girl,” Spike mocked.

”You told him I was some kind of a skanky ho!”

”That’s what Peaches told you?” Spike stood up. ”Ol’ broody-pants called you a whore, now that’s not very nice is it?”

”What did you tell him?!” Buffy punched him again.

”Let’s see…well, it might have slipped out how you didn’t want to leave my bed.”

Buffy tried to hit him again, but Spike effectively blocked her punch and grabbed her wrist.

”And you just failed to mention that I was crying and fully dressed!” she retorted and tried to punch him with the other hand, but Spike blocked her again.

”He didn’t give me a chance - he was very violent, a bit like you actually. It’s not my fault the magnificent poof thinks you’re Slutty the Vampire Layer.”

”Oh my god.” Buffy lowered the fist that she was about to throw in his face. What if Spike was right? What if Angel thought she was some kind of a freak that had a fetish for vampires?! She looked defeated. ”That’s what he thinks. He…he thinks I’m a total slut. I’m…I’m Slutty.”

Buffy turned away from Spike and started to walk in circles around the cemetery, still talking, but no longer to Spike. ”First I danced with Xander, which really made him jealous, but that was the whole point of it, and now, now he thinks I...I...did something with you and I must look like a total ho, and oh my god, why am I wearing this miniskirt!?” Buffy stared in horror at the small piece of fabric covering her thighs.

That was a question Spike had asked himself too. Not why he was wearing a miniskirt of course, since he didn’t, but why the Slayer had to show so much skin. When she fought and made those high kicks you could almost have a peek at her holier bits. Spike knew it would be the death of him if he tried that one again.

Buffy had noticed Spike staring at her nether regions and glared at him, as she tried to pull her skirt further down her legs. It was useless.

Spike smirked at her efforts. Since they had seemed to stop fighting, he pulled out his pack of cigarettes out of an inner pocket of his duster. Maybe he could finally have that smoke he was longing for.

”What am I going to do?!” Buffy said desperately as Spike, sat down on a gravestone and smoked his cig. ”Wait. I have to show him that I…only want him.” Buffy looked at Spike. ”I should kill you,” she said as if she’d just found the solution to all of her problems. She started to walk up to Spike with her stake raised.

Spike snorted. ”And I’ll kill you before you get half the chance to try,” he said, throwing away his cigarette at the dewy grass.

”No.” Buffy stopped. She lowered the stake. ”Wait. What if he thinks that I’m getting rid of evidence? That killing you is the only way to make you stop talking? Gah! No… I have to make him believe me anyway.”

Spike chuckled at the argument the Slayer was having with herself. She did that thing when she knitted her brows and bit her lower lip. If Spike used the word adorable, which he didn’t, he would have called her just that.

Buffy turned around and started walking in circles again. ”I could… No that’s a bad idea…Gah! I give up!” she sighed before leaning against a large oak tree.

”I mean, it shouldn’t be any of his business you know? Whoever I’ve been with before.” She slid down to the cold ground.

Spike kept silent. He put another cigarette in his mouth and lit it with his zippo lighter, studying her intently.

There was a moment of silence. Not one of those embarrassing silences though, those which occur when people who don’t have anything to say to each other, tell themselves that they have to say something anyway. No, this was an almost comforting silence. Which was strange since both Spike and Buffy loved to talk. He was watching her from his position on the headstone while she was sitting a couple of feet away leaning against the tree, lost in thought.

”Do you think I’m a slut?” she asked him suddenly.

”A slut? No, pet. I would say you should get laid more often.”

”What?”

”It’s clear to me from these mood swings you keep having that Peaches is either not giving you some or you have a bad case of PMS.”

”What?!”

”Oh I see,” he chuckled. The blush on her cheeks gave it all away. ”You haven’t shagged yet,” Spike said triumphantly. ”So that’s why the poof was so hung up. I should have known.”

”That’s none of your business!”

”Well, the business we’re talking about isn’t exactly existent, is it?”

”I…You, you’re a pig!” she yelled and turned on her heels before storming out of the cemetery.

Spike watched amused as Buffy walked away. She was so easy to play. Then it hit him. He hadn’t killed her this time either. He had let her leave without a fight. *Bollocks!* Why couldn’t he just kill the girl?


* * *


Buffy walked towards Angel’s apartment with a determined look on her face. This was it. Angel was her boyfriend. Not some bleached blonde vampire by the name of Spike. Angel cared about her. He had been jealous because he thought that she wanted Spike. Which she so didn’t. That’s what she tried to tell herself anyway. Spike didn’t want her. He probably still saw her as some whiny fourteen-year-old who was still crying about her parents’ divorce. Angel was the on she’d been with for the past couple of months. They hadn’t been on a date yet, but he was her boyfriend. They usually talked about slaying and he joined her during patrol, but she wasn’t a normal girl. Those things were natural, for her. *Angel’s your boyfriend* she repeated in her head. *He’s the one you want.*

It was time she showed him that.

She pounded on his door, and when Angel answered moments later, she attacked him - literally - bruising his lips with her mouth and started to tear his clothes off.






A/N: Oh god I'm evil. Sorry guys, but that was kind of necessary, but it's still going to be Spuffy, don't worry
 
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