New Year 2015
 
“So, Buffster, do we have a plan?” Xander slouched back on the couch, one arm draped around Dawn.
 
“A plan? Why do we need a plan? Is there something going on I should know about?”
 
“He means New Year’s Eve, Buffy. It’s tomorrow.” Dawn said, poking Xander. “That’s what you meant, isn’t it? Not anything sinister.”
 
Xander nodded. “Nothing evil going on – just the usual more-disgusting-than-normal bloodsuckers.” He grinned at Spike, who made the expected gesture back. “I just meant what are we doing for New Year’s Eve?  Big party? Little party? Hang out downtown?”
 
“How about no party?  Can’t we just hang out here without calling it a ‘party’?”
 
“It’s New Year’s Eve!”
 
“Another one of those days that don’t usually go well for me...”
 
“You’ve had okay New Year’s Eves, haven’t you? You had a good time the year you were dating Riley. I remember it. Big party at the frat house...”
 
A snarl from a nearby chair brought a grin to Xander’s face. “Get over it, Fangface. You were still all about being evil... harmlessly evil, but evil. Buffy had herself a nice boyfriend and she went out to a party and—”
 
“And she had to make an excuse to leave before midnight because somebody crashed the party to tell me there were a bunch of demons doing a ritual that could end the world!” She glared at Spike as if it had just happened yesterday.
 
“Hey! How was I to know they were just trying to do a spell to hide all the harmless demons from the your boytoy’s mates.  It was a legitimate attempt to help, I’ll have you know.” He glared back. “Not my fault you didn’t get your kiss at midnight from the big lump. It’s not like I planned it that way....” He stopped talking when Buffy rolled her eyes, and gave her his best sad puppy face. “Can’t still be mad at me about that little mistake, can you?”
 
Buffy shook her head and laughed at him. “In the overall scheme of things, that’s probably pretty far down on the ‘things I should be mad at Spike about’ list.”
 
“If I’d known you were keepin’ a list,” he said, “I woulda worked harder at adding to it.”
 
Neither of them had noticed the abrupt silence that followed their short conversation, but they all heard Dawn’s gasp.
 
“Please tell me you weren’t already perving on my sister way back then!”  Dawn stared at Spike with wide eyes.  “How could I not have seen that?”
 
“You see what you expect to see...” he started, then when he realized everyone was staring at him open-mouthed, he emended, “Not that there was anything to see back then. Just a little left-over wedding spell maybe...”
 
“Oh my God! You were perving on her! When did you know you were falling for my sister, and how come didn’t I notice it until almost a year later?”
 
“Technically, Bit, you didn’t even exist back then, so you can’t blame yourself for not noticing... what wasn’t there to be noticed,” he finished as Xander leaned forward.
 
“You don’t get out of it that easy, soulboy Jr. I existed back then, and I didn’t notice it. You and Buffy... way back when she was dating Riley...? No way!”
 
“There was no me and Buffy,” Spike said firmly, glancing at her from the corner of his eye. “Except for those few hours when we thought we were getting married, the Slayer didn’t have me on her radar as anything but target for a piece of wood.” He looked up at Dawn. “And it was a long time before I admitted to myself what I was feeling for the bane of my existence. You didn’t miss anything, Dawn. Those feelings weren’t even visible to me... most of the time.”
 
“Most of the time?” Buffy whispered.
 
“Not now, Slayer,” he whispered back.
 
“We’re going to talk about this.”
 
“We are bloody well not going to talk about it,” he growled, lowering his voice again when Dawn and Xander looked over at them.
 
Dawn was wearing a speculative frown, while Xander looked back and forth with narrowed eyes.
 
“Is there something we should know now?” Dawn demanded. “Are you two...?”
 
“We’re the best of friends,” Spike said quickly. “Very good friends, but strictly platonic. I have her back, she has mine.”
 
Dawn shifted her gaze to Buffy, who was gazing at Spike with a somewhat bemused expression.  “Is he right, Buffy? You guys are just really good friends?”
 
“That’s what the man said,” Buffy replied as she stood up. “Come on, bestie. Let’s go do a quick patrol.”
 
“What about tomorrow night?” Dawn called as they went out the door. “Can we have a party?”
 
“It’s your apartment,” Buffy said over her shoulder. “Just let me know if I have to wear party clothes.”  She pulled the door shut behind them.
 
Dawn turned to Xander. “Did you notice that she didn’t ask if she needed to bring a date?”
 
He shrugged. “Why would she? Spike’s always with her. If she’s here, he’ll be—“ He paused to swear and punch the cushion. “That lying son of a bitch! They are together! We’ve been basically double-dating with them for the past couple of months and completely missed it.”
 
“Oh. My. God. You’re right. Ever since they got rid of that soul-sucking demon, they’ve been inseparable. How did we not see it?”
 
Xander shrugged. “Because Spike’s always around anyway? I mean we’ve had years to get used to him being around. He’s practically family – if family was undead and smoked like a chimney.  And they don’t act all lovey-dovey.  But they have to be.... something. Something that isn’t just BFFs.”
 
XXXXXXXX
 
 
“Party clothes?”
 
“What? If they have a real New Year’s Eve party, I want to look nice.  Don’t you care what I’ll look like?”
 
“Do you care what I’ll look like?”
 
“Well...” She shrugged. “If you wanted to wear something more....partyish. That might be nice. But you’re you, and—”
 
“You do know you’re talking about us like there’s no question we’d be arriving together, don’t you?”
 
Buffy frowned. “Well, I guess...” She hesitated and turned her head away. “We usually do. But if you’ve got other plans, of course I—”
 
“Don’t be daft, Slayer.”
 
“I’m not being... that thing. I’m just saying that if you already have New Year’s Eve plans... or a date... or something.... it’s fine. I didn’t mean to sound like I was taking it for granted that you—”
 
He stopped and grabbed her arm, spinning her around to face him. “You know bloody well I’d like nothing better than to be such an important part of your life that you take me for granted. Just because we don’t talk about them, doesn’t mean my feelings for you have changed. But if we’re going to act like a couple, seems like we should be clear about it. Need to know what my place is, don’t I?”
 
“I kinda thought your place was... you know... beside me?” She met his eyes, letting him read her meaning there.  “If that’s okay with you...”
 
“It’s all I’ve ever wanted, Buffy. You know that.”
 
“That’s all?” she said, her eyes twinkled even as she made an exaggerated pout of disappointment. “You’ve had that for a long time.  I kinda thought we might move on to—mmmph!”
 
When the kiss ended, he continued to hold her tightly, a growl building in his throat. “If you’re playin’ with me, Slayer....”
 
She shook her head as best she could with it pressed against his neck. “Not playing. I just got tired of waiting for you to make the first move.” She lifted her head to look at him. “Can we go home now?”
 
“Your place or mine?”
 
“I don’t care. I think mine’s closer....”
 
“Yours it is.” He dropped his arms. “Last one there has to kiss the other one unconscious.” 
 
Buffy’s giggle pealed through the dark air as she took off running, Spike easily keeping pace with her.  They tumbled through the door to Buffy’s apartment, pushing each other to be first, and fell to the floor together.
 
“I won.”
 
“No,” Buffy replied softly. "I won.” She reached up to caress his face.
 
“Call it a tie,” he said as he lowered his head to hers and fastened their mouths together. They remained on the floor, kissing vigorously until the sound of one of Buffy’s neighbors clearing his throat made them pause. While Spike snarled over his shoulder and his fangs began to drop, Buffy waved and gave an embarrassed smile at the couple staring in the open door. 
 
“Happy holidays!” she said weakly.   
 
The man who’d cleared his throat stared from the glaring and very dangerous looking man to the pretty neighbor he didn’t actually know very well. Determining that she was obviously not in any danger, and in fact had just wrapped one leg around her partner’s, holding him in place, he coughed and reached into the room. 
 
“I’ll... um... I’ll just close this door then... and...”
 
“Just shut the door and stop staring,” his wife hissed at him, making an apologetic face at Buffy.  As he pulled the door shut, she was dragging him away down the hall.
 
Buffy buried her face in Spike’s chest and moaned.  “Oh my God. Now I’m going to have to move!”
 
Spike’s attempt to sooth her was spoiled by the way he couldn’t hide his laughter.  The more he tried to calm her down, the more agitated she got.
 
“We were practically... and right in front of them!”
 

“Bollocks, Slayer.  We’re both dressed and all we were doin’ was kissing.  Now if they’d come along a few minutes later....” He slid one hand under her rucked up shirt and undid her bra so he could take a nipple in his mouth .
 
“We are not doing this here, on the floor, in front of the door!”
 
He lifted his head to blink at her. “Are you getting fussy in your old age? We’ve always done it on the floor. Hardly ever made it all the way to the bed, if you recall.  At least, not the first time,” he added in a mutter, rolling off in spite of his words. He lay beside her, staring at the ceiling and listening to her breathing in and out –knowing it wasn’t passion making her pant.
 
“This isn’t going well for me, is it?” he ventured, turning his head to look at her. She rolled her head to the side to meet his gaze.  She glared at him for a few seconds, then a reluctant twitch of her lips turned into a snort. 
 
“Ya think?”  She sat up and stared down at him.  “Why don’t we get up, lock the door, and start over?”
 
He sighed, but rose to his feet and offered her a helping hand. “Whatever you want, love. Waited this long, another few minutes isn’t going to kill me.” He pulled her up and yanked her against his chest. “But a few minutes is all you get. Lock that bloody door and meet me in the bedroom.” 
 
She giggled and raised her head for a kiss. “Remind me why we’re in a hurry?”
 
He kissed her until she was breathless and whimpering deep in her throat, then pulled away.
 
“That’s why,” he growled, adjusting himself and pushing her toward the door. “Good enough reason for you?”
 
“It’ll do.” She turned the bolt on the door with fumbling fingers and then took his hand again. “It’ll do.”
 
 
Epilogue
 
When Buffy and Spike showed up at Dawn’s apartment the next evening, they were holding hands as casually as they could, given what they knew they might be facing. 
 
“This should work,” she’d whispered to him as the opened the door. “They were already suspicious, so it’s not like anybody’s going to make a big—”
 
“I knew you were lying!” Dawn flew across the room and glared from one to the other. “When were you planning to tell me – us?”
 
“Kinda thought we just did, Bit,” Spike said as he took Buffy’s coat. “Or was that too subtle for you?”
 
“And we weren’t lying to anybody,” Buffy added, being sure to include Xander in her indignant comment.  “We just decided to take our... relationship... to another level last night.”
 
“Guess that explains the circles under your eyes and the hickey on your neck,” Xander said, putting a hand up palm out. “And I really don’t need any more information than that.”
 
Buffy slapped a hand to her neck and glared at Spike. “I told you somebody would notice that!”
 
“Doesn’t matter now, does it?” he said with a shrug. “It’s not like we’re trying to hide anything this time around.”
 
“There’s a difference between not hiding that we’re a couple and letting everybody know what we’ve been doing.” In spite of her words, Buffy was smiling at him and leaning into the arm he’d put around her.
 
“Anybody who can’t figure out what we’ve been doing and will be doing again doesn’t know us very well,” he whispered in her ear.
 
“None of the these people know us that well, Spike. Think about it. The only one who came close to watching us together back then was Xander. And he didn’t know what he was seeing,” she whispered back.
 
Xander’s expression showed that he was just remembering himself that he’d unknowlingly interrupted them many years ago.  The rest of the small group Dawn had managed to pull in for an impromptu party just stared as the two normally business-like and constantly on guard people they’d come to think of as scary protectors huddled together exchanging whispers and soft smiles.
 
Alcohol’s effects being what they are, it wasn’t long before everyone had relaxed and forgotten about the couple that didn’t seem interested in interacting with anyone else anyway.  In what seemed like no time, it was almost midnight and everyone was gathered around the TV watching a lot of very cold people watching a big shiny ball fall to the ground.
 
“Happy New Year, sweetheart,” Spike said as he lowered is mouth to hers. 
 
“It is now,” she said, sinking into the kiss.  “Happy New Year to us.”
 
 
 The End