Things were more than awkward the next time they came in contact. They carried out an awkwardly quiet patrol- made even more awkward by the complete lack of evil beasties, which might have distracted them from their thoughts. No such luck, though.

By the time they reached her street, the tension was almost killing Buffy and she came to an abrupt halt, turning to Spike- and freezing when his soft gaze met hers. He just stood there, waiting for her to say something- and God help her, she had no idea what to say.

“Spike…we’re friends, right?”

She had no idea where that had come from and she cringed as soon as the words were out.

At no time in their long and eventful acquaintance could their relationship be described as friendly. There had been years of pure hatred, then begrudging acceptance, then love, on his part, and even more begrudging on hers. After her death there had been a very short period when they could have been called friends to the outside observer, but underneath it all, there was that layer of sexual tension- and something more, something inexplicable- that sizzled between them.

It still sizzled now and created awkward situations like the one they were experiencing now.

She realised Spike was just staring at her, those blue eyes way too piercing, and she turned away, resuming her walk.

“Forget it,” she murmured.

He stopped her, though, with a hesitant touch on her arm.

She turned to him slowly, biting her lip as she raised her gaze to his.

“Are we?” he asked, his eyes holding hers.

“I…God, I don’t know what we are anymore,” she admitted.

He gave her the tiniest smile, removing his cool hand from her skin.

“It would be nice though,” she added.

“Yeah?” he questioned with a twitch of an eyebrow.

“Yeah,” she breathed.

He said nothing, just gave her a small smile and fell into step beside her again. And the sexual tension rocketed back up again, making her skin tingle- especially when his hand accidentally brushed against hers.


Her waning self-control seemed to have no respect for her wish to do things right by Spike. They kept walking though, she continuously trying to ignore the tingles his mere presence sent through her.

They reached her front door and she paused, turning back to him.

“Do you want to come in?”

He hesitated, one foot on the porch, blue eyes meeting hers.

“I mean…you could say ‘hi’ to Dawn. Just for a few minutes.”

He finally nodded and with a small nod, she went into the house with him following right behind.


They found Dawn in the kitchen, concocting one of her infamous delicacies. She looked up as they came in and broke into a wide smile as she greeted her friend.

“Hi, Spike!”

“Alright, Bit.”

Buffy gestured politely to a stool and he slid onto it as she sat next to her sister, finally looking at her sister’s random assortment of ingredients.

“Do I even want to know what this is going to end up as?”

“I think I’ll call it the Summers Surprise,” Dawn commented, adding a healthy dollop of cream to her concoction. Buffy just grimaced and rolled her eyes, resting her hands on the worktop and tapping her fingers on the surface.

“Quiet patrol?” Dawn piped up after a prolonged silence, looking between the two of them.

“Huh?” Buffy asked.

“You’re both all twitchy. Usually means you haven’t killed anything.”

“Oh,” Buffy answered with a tiny smile, stopping her tapping and just meeting Spike’s gaze, “Nope, no slaying.”

Spike smiled lazily and stuffed his hands in his pockets, his leg just bouncing slightly. Without even thinking, Buffy reached over and placed her hand on his leg, stopping him.

“Dawn’s right. We are twitchy.”

His eyes slid to her hand on his leg and she quickly retracted it, turning to her sister in hopes of covering her mild embarrassment.


The vampire announced his departure not much later, after a number of silences that Dawn had broken several times, throwing a suspicious look between the two of them.

“Patrol tomorrow?” Buffy asked, her eyes meeting his for a brief second before she had to look away again.

“Sure. See you then. Night, Nibblet.”

“Bye.”

He disappeared out the back door, pulling the door shut behind him and leaving the two sisters alone.

“Okay, what’s going on?”

Buffy looked up from where she had been tracing a pattern on the worktop with her finger and frowned.

“What? What do you mean?”

“You and Spike are acting way weird. You’re not doing it again, are you?”

“Dawn!” Buffy exclaimed.

“Is that a yes?”

“No. It’s a definite no!”

“Then what’s going on?”

“Nothing.”

“Liar.”


She met her sister’s hard glare and held out for a few long moments, before she sagged and gave a sigh.

“Okay, look, there was…kissing…and now things are awkward.”

“Kissing?! When?!”

“At the wedding.”

“What?! When? I was with you practically all night.”

“Look, Dawnie, it doesn’t matter. It just…I guess it’s just not as easy as I thought it would be…staying away.”

“He really loves you, Buffy,” Dawn said seriously and Buffy raised her eyes to her sister’s surprisingly understanding look.

“I know he does, Dawnie. That’s why I want to do right by him. He deserves better.”

“Maybe he deserves you.”

She met her sister’s gaze, reading in it more maturity then she had ever witnessed before. Her little sister really had grown up.

“It’s not easy, Dawn.”

“But you care about him?”

“I…” she trailed off, stuck for an answer. She had never been good at analysing her feelings for Spike before (in the rare times she admitted to feelings other than hatred)- and now they were even more of a mess.

“I don’t know, Dawnie. Which just means all the more reason not to make things more awkward than they already are.”

Her sister nodded as she took a bite out of her sandwich. Buffy smiled and pushed herself to her feet, brushing one hand over her sister’s long hair.

“Don’t stay up too late, ‘kay?”

Dawn nodded and with a smile, Buffy moved to the door, halting when Dawn spoke up quietly.

“He’s a good man, Buffy.”

She turned to look at her sister and smiled softly.

“I know, Dawnie.”