She woke up feeling rested. Her strength was back.

A stray lock of hair fell in front of her face and she brushed it back. As she did so her fingers got caught in a snarl. Crap, she thought, I went to sleep last night with wet hair. Not to mention all the rubbing her head against the pillow during sex.

She reached behind her head. Yep, her hair was one big, giant, knot. She tried to wiggle out of Spike's grasp without waking him. She defiantly wanted to do some major conditioning before he saw her.

"Where do you think you're going?" a deep voice asked as arms snaked around her, dragging her back onto the bed.

"Eeep. Don't look at me. Must wash hair."

He laughed, and his breath tickled her back. "You look beautiful to me," he said as he began kissing his way from her shoulder up to her mouth.

She kissed him back, knowing the best way to fight Spike was not to struggle but go along with him. Her plan was to get on top of him, and make her escape from there. The only problem was once she was on top of him, she found she didn't want to move.

Their kissing becoming more passionate and slowly evolved into groping. Just as Buffy was thinking it was time to take matters, and Spike, into her own hands and move things along, there was a knock at the door.

"Housekeeping."

"No, we don't need. . . We're good thanks," Buffy yelled out, turning bright red.

The door, which had just started to open, shut again and Buffy breathed a sigh of relief.

Spike was laughing at her.

She sat up on top of him, put her hands on her hips, and said, "What? So I didn't put the sign on the door. They shouldn't be coming around this early in the morning anyway."

Spike wiggled under her with laughter. His eyes were shinning with it. "Pet, it's 11:47. Been a while since I kept regular hours, but as I recall that's not all that early."

"Oh crap," she said, and to his dismay escaped from the bed.

"Hey! Where do you thing you're going?"

"I have to get my hair untangled, and get dressed, and go out. I need to get you blood, and I still don't know what to do about Angel now that he's gone crazy," she said while moving toward the bathroom.

"He's not crazy, he's just Angel, luv," he said with resignation in his voice. He got up to follow Buffy into the bathroom so they could continue their conversation.

"Nuh-uh. You're not getting in the shower with me. That's how I ended up with a rat's nest as a hair do in the first place. And you're wrong about Angel. What he's doing. It's not him. That place it's doing something to him."

Spike dutifully stood outside the shower so they could continue the conversation without getting too distracted. Which was good, Buffy told herself. Even if she was a bit disappointed.

"Look, I'm not saying ruling the Evil Empire hasn't gone to his head. But Buffy, he's always been like this. You just didn't see it before."

"Once again, you're confusing Angel and Angelus. Look I'm sure you know Angelus much better than me, but it's not like you ever knew Angel. You what, punched each other a couple times?"

"I know you think you know him, Buffy. But answer me this: When you and Angel were an item, it was all roses and candy wasn't it?"

Even though he couldn't see it through the shower curtain, Buffy still rolled her eyes in a dramatic and exaggerated manner.

"Yes Spike. You know, not all guys think the way to woo a girl is to try and kill her."

"My point exactly. A fella starts pursuing a pretty young thing, he shows her his best face, so to speak. Not to mention, he didn't have a reason to stalk you when you were dating, now did he?"

"That's ridiculous," so was the mess she'd made of her hair. Just trying to work the conditioner through it was a real pain.

"Is it? Tell me sweets, was he upfront at the beginning about being a vampire?"

"No, but that doesn't count. Hello, vampire slayer here, or have we forgotten?"

He chuckled, "Not for a second pet. But he was real upfront about it. You know. Once you knew him, he told you right away?"

"Well, not right away. . ." This, Buffy reminded herself, is exactly why things with Spike were complicated. Just cause he had a soul didn't mean he'd given up on his evil, twisted, vampire logic. She hated it when he used evil logic.

"But he did tell you right? Came right out and said it. Walked right up to you and said, 'Buffy, you know how I'm a big brooding poof. Well that's cause I'm a vampire. But never fear, for gypsies cursed me to an eternity of flogging myself.'"

Buffy looked around the shower for a weapon. She found only the bar of soap provided by the hotel, and as always improvised. She grabbed the soap, concentrated for a moment, then tossed it over the shower curtain.

"Ow. Hey watch it. I'm defenseless out here."

She giggled.

"Still haven't answered my question, luv. Did Angel come right out and tell you or not?"

Damn, evil vampire. Refusing to be distracted by flying soap. She needed something that would cause a concussion, or at least memory loss.

"Fine. Fine. You're right okay. He didn't tell me. Ever. I found out he was a vampire when we were kissing and he vamped. He didn't even tell me about the soul until Darla mentioned it after trying to frame him for attacking my mom."

The was a thump. Oh god. I did give him a concussion, Buffy thought. It's just a delayed reaction soap concussion. Then she realized she also heard laughing. She peeked out of the shower to see Spike lying on the floor, curled into a ball, and laughing hysterically.

"Sure, laugh at my teenage angst. Let's all mock Buffy's worst romantic moments." She had half a mind to get out and thump him proper, even if he was rather ridiculous looking lying there laughing.

"I'm not. . . laughing. . . at . . . you." To her relief he seemed to be regaining control. Which was good, because out of control vampires never a good thing, even if they didn't seem to be doing anything other than providing a laugh track to her life. "It's just so . . . pathetic."

"Pathetic? You think I'm pathetic Mr. I spent a hundred years mooning after a crazy dead slut. Get out." Oh god, Spike thought she was pathetic. She closed the shower curtain, and hid within the safety of the shower. "Out!"

"Buffy? No, you do-"

"I said get out!" she was yelling now. How could he mock her like that. Didn't he understand how hard it was for her to talk about the past. How obvious all her mistakes were. Did he think she didn't know how young and stupid she'd been with all her notions of true love conquers all.

The shower curtain was swept open and Spike stepped in.

"Buffy? You're crying, aren't you. I'm sorry. Shouldn't have brought up the past."

She tried clumsily to push him away, but it just gave Spike the chance to wrap his arms around her, and hold her tight against him.

"Shh," he tried to comfort her.

She struggled against him, but her arms were trapped at her sides by his bear hug. After only a few attempts, she gave in and began to cry in earnest.

"Go away," she implored him.

"Not gonna happen, pet. Not when you're like this."

"Like what? PATHETIC!"

"Oh, balls. Look you misunderstood. I didn't mean you Buffy. I could never think of you as pathetic. I meant Angel."

She stopped struggling and looked up. "Really?"

He loosened his hold on her, and put his hand under her chin to force her to look him in the eye. "Absolutely."

"I don't get it. What's pathetic about Angel?"

"Your lifetime's not long enough for that list, luv. But in this case. . . Look, all the times you with you and me, did you ever know me to vamp on you? When we were kissing and stuff I mean."

"No," she didn't like the direction this was going. Did she not excite Spike as much as she had Angel?

"Right. And you know why that is?" she shook her head, "It's because only the most wet behind the ears fledgling, vamps in the middle of things like that, at least with a human. Sporting the bumpies tends to scare away dinner. Any vampire worth his salt can keep the fangs under control. It's . . . it's like some teenage boy coming in his pants when his girl friend takes her shirt off. So, am I all forgiven pet?"

"Only if you leave me alone until my hair's under control," she said teasingly.

"Hmm," he said running his hands down her back making her skin tingle. "That's a tough choice. Forgiveness or a romp in the shower. Just this once I'm opting for forgiveness, but don't think I'm going to make a habit of it."

"Wouldn't dream of it," she said in her best sultry voice. Then just to emphasize her point, as he got out of the shower she slapped him on the ass.

A/N I really had not intention of having so many damn shower scenes. The characters just need to stop having hygiene crises.