Disclaimer: Joss owns all, I just play with his toys.

Author’s note: Some dialogue taken from ‘First Date’ Another chapter wonderfully beta’d by the fab BTL. *huggles*
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Chapter 39: Date Fest 2003

“Do you think we should socialize?“ asked Buffy, as she lay naked on Spike’s bare chest.

There was movement up on the main floor. How could there not be? After all, the house was teeming with potential slayers, and various company. A witch, a watcher, some kid that Buffy didn’t really understand why he was there, a mystical key, and occasionally, the most powerful vengeance demon alive.

It was the last one that was perplexing Buffy. Why would Anya choose to hang with Liz and people when she had a realm to rule?

Buffy stretched out, raking her nails across Spike’s arm. She and her vampire had decided to christen their newest living quarters instead of palling it up with the potentials while the Slayer was out and about. But it was night time now, and Buffy couldn’t think of a reason, besides the very yummy one she was lying on, to stay in bed.

“Best get dressed luv, I don’t think we can hide down here for much longer without showing our faces to the masses.“

“Ugh,” muttered Buffy, rolling over to find something to throw on her naked body. “But staying with you is so much more fun than the nasty looks this Rupert Giles is going to give me, or the witch...”
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Within ten minutes though, Spike had forced her up out of bed and into the main part of the house. Spike and Buffy entered the living room and right into an encounter group, with Dawn peeling tape off of the boy’s chest, Anya, Giles, Willow and a couple of potentials watching.

“So, we're thinking it didn't go too well,” observed Willow.

Buffy looked from the witch to Dawn and the boy curiously. Dawn was peeling tape off the boy’s chest tortuously slow.

“You should've let me do this fast,” commented Dawn, still pulling the tape with excruciating slowness.

“No, no, no,” said the boy, his voice hitching at each tug of his invisible chest hair. “I hate that. Ow.”

“What happened?” asked Buffy finally wondering why there was tape and why Dawn was so close to the moronic boy’s chest. Willow explained, while Buffy’s eyes were riveted to Dawn and this Andrew person. For some reason she wanted to know what his intentions towards Dawn were. The odd idea passed through her brain that he should ask Spike’s permission to court his granddaughter.

“You tried to record the ultimate evil?” asked Spike aghast, once the explanation was over. “Why? In a complex effort to royally piss it off?”

“Guess we succeeded pretty good, huh?” retorted the potential Buffy really didn’t like.

“God, I never should have gone in wired,” piped up Andrew. His voice turned whiny though as he continued. “Redemption is hard.”

“Getting back to Spike's question,” asked Giles. “Why did you try to summon it?”

“To study it,” started Willow. “To see if we could figure something out from what it was saying. Because, guys, we have to face it, we know nothing about the First.”

Andrew’s moans and shrieks of pain filled the room.

“Well, we know not to record it. That's something,” added Anya.

“Why are you here?” asked Buffy of her friend quietly.

“It’s interesting here. And there’s the chance I can annoy Xander,” muttered Anya. “Arashamahar practically runs itself.”

“Why did it appear to this one, then?” Spike said pointing to Andrew.

“I’m its toy, its action figure of destruction,” he muttered in pain as Dawn pulled off the last piece of tape. “Ow. I'm frightened. And my chest hurts where the tape was.”

“It's okay, Andrew,” Dawn soothed. “You did good. You stood up to it. That's really amazing.”

Andrew looked up at Dawn with big grateful eyes.

“Thank you. You're a peach.”

“Yeah. What did it want you to do, anyway?” asked Anya.

“Shoot all the girls,” stated Andrew factually.

Buffy winced. That wasn’t going to go over well at all.

“Shoot girls?” asked Dawn worried.

“Not you, just the potentials,” said Andrew as if it was a saving grace,

Dawn looked relieved. Buffy was relieved, and yet still wanted to yank Andrew away from Dawn by the ear. She looked over at her mate and realised that they were sharing the same feelings about the boy.

“Oh, well that's something, anyway,” started Dawn. “ Something tragic,” she added, as the potentials looked at her funny.

Giles, impervious to the tension, pushed on. “This proves my point. This time is crucial. We should be circling the wagons instead of doing things like going out on dates when... when gunplay is imminent. Willow, call Buffy. Get her back here. We need to dispose of the gun and...and figure out our next move.”

“I'll go get her,” offered Spike.

“I'll call,” Willow piped up interrupting Spike supposed exit from the house to get Liz.

In the background a cell phone rang.

“Bet that's her. Sometimes when you're thinking about calling someone...” said a potential.

Willow had pulled out her cell phone. “No, it's a text message. Oh, it's from Xander. It's one of our signals.”

“Signals?” asked the potential.

“Yeah, the system we set up a while back. Like codes. Uh, this one's either ‘I just got lucky, don't call me for a while‘ or ‘my date's a demon who's trying to kill me,’“ explained Willow.

“You don't remember which?” asked the nasty potential.

“It was a long time ago!” Willow protested.

“Well, if we play the percentages...” added Dawn, looking with a smug face towards Anya.

“Something's eating Xander's head,” observed Giles with a sigh.

“Say, that's gratifying,” Anya remarked, beaming happily.

“You know something could have eaten his head a long time ago if you wanted it to,“ added Buffy questioning her friend’s comment.

“Liz will know what to do,” added Andrew.

“I'll go get her,” Spike said again, turning to go.

“That’s ok. I’ll call!” said Willow, stopping Spike’s progress again. “We have embraced the technological age you know. We don't even know where she went.”

Willow punched in Liz’s number and a ringing sound filled the room. Willow turned around to see Liz’s cell phone on the table next to her. “That's not good.”

“I'll go get Liz. I can probably still track her scent. She'll be worried about the boy,” said Spike firmly.

He pressed a kiss to Buffy‘s lips and headed out the door.

“Um, Spike?” called Buffy. “I can get you there faster.”

“But we don’t know where she is,” stated Dawn.

“Vengeance demons can see all those who seek retribution in their hearts,” intoned Anya.

“Liz seeks vengeance,” added Buffy.

“Is Xander seeking vengeance too?” asked Willow. “I could do a locator spell on him if he’s not.”

“Xander doesn’t deserve to have vengeance exacted for him,” intoned Buffy.
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Buffy and Spike stepped out through the portal and in front of a very quaint French restaurant in one of the nicer back alleys of Sunnydale.

“I wonder if the waiters actually speak French here,” asked Buffy as Spike held open the door.

“If they do they probably have a terrible accent,” added Spike, sounding much more refined than he usually did.

Buffy giggled just as they walked to Liz‘s table. She was being hand fed dessert by a striking black man.

“Mm. What are you doing here?” asked Liz, a glare slowly making its way on her face.

Principal Wood looked from Liz to Buffy and back again. “Is there a problem?”

“It's Xander,” stated Spike.

Liz’s face instantly turned to worry.

“Ah, are you two sisters?“ asked Principal.

Buffy glared at the man as Liz excused herself.

“I’ll drive,” offered Liz’s date.
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Buffy and Spike sat calmly in the back seat, as Liz’s date kept casting glancing back into the back seat as if he was trying to figure out something.

“You sure he's in the high school?” asked Liz.

“Willow did a locator spell. Usual stuff,” explained Spike.

“I'm not surprised. That school's at the centre of everything,” explained the principal.

Liz sighed. The uncomfortableness of the situation was making conversation almost tortuous. “How much longer 'til we get there?”

“Ten minutes,” responded the principal as he looked again into the rear view mirror, Buffy smiling back menacingly. “So, how do you two know each other?” he asked referring to Spike.

“He works with me. Uh, you know, in the struggle against evil,” rushed Liz.

“Mm. Cool. And you have a twin?” he asked.

Liz looked out the window, ignoring the question. Buffy looked closely at this man driving them to the Hellmouth and smiled at just how much he sought vengeance. Too desperately she wanted to know just what his wish would be. But that wouldn’t go over well with Liz in the car at all.

“You could say that,“ responded Buffy when Liz refused to answer at all.
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Buffy followed Liz, Spike and the principal into the school’s basement, intent on watching the action but nothing more. Spike enjoyed the fighting much more than she did now a days. Maybe what he had said was true, that she wasn’t up to snuff on all the slayer type stuff. She certainly hadn’t actually fought anything since...well she couldn’t even remember.

Buffy watched as the demon Xander Harris had been on a date with started strangling her mate. Buffy rolled her eyes. Couldn’t she tell that Spike was a vampire?

As Spike shifted into his demonic face, the principal’s attention instantly went to Spike’s face.

“He's a vampire,” stated the principal.

Xander’s panicked wail alerted them all to the fact that his blood was about to open the seal beneath him and spurring the principal to action.

Buffy stepped over to her mate, finally deciding that this demoness had had her hands on Spike’s body long enough. She picked up the girl and threw her from Spike, a combination of demon strength and her fun demon deflection thing.

“Thanks luv,“ whispered Spike, brushing a kiss across Buffy’s cheek before he rushed back into the fray.

He was making her all hot. He grabbed a sword that Buffy hadn’t noticed was there and sliced the demon’s head off. As the head fell, the demon’s body reverted into its true form. Ugly as all hell.

Spike dropped the sword and turned to face his mate with a grin on his face. Buffy stepped closer towards him and jumped up into his arms, their lips locking.

Eventually Buffy was conscious of the fact that she and Spike were very close to getting naked right there on the Hellmouth and that Xander, the principal and Liz were watching. Buffy jumped down from around Spike’s waist and blushed a little.

Xander diverted his attention to Liz and the principal. “So, how's your date going?”

Liz looked at the principal for a moment, who was still looking at Spike.

“I’m thinking it could be better,“ muttered Buffy to her mate with a sarcastic smile.

The look on Liz’s face confirmed Buffy’s comment.
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Buffy and Spike walked hand in hand from the school basement, letting Liz and the principal take Xander back to Liz’s house. Buffy had had enough uncomfortableness for one night.

“You don’t know him do you?“ she asked as they waved at the trio leaving in the principal’s car.

“Don’t think so, why?“ Spike asked, bringing her hand to his lips.

“He was just looking at you funny.“

“Jealous?“

Buffy laughed. “Hardly, it’s just not a happy friendly look he was giving you, and the need for vengeance coming off of him is intense.”

“I don’t wanna talk about the principal, luv,” he purred, looking deep into her eyes. “There’s a basement all to ourselves on Revello Drive...”

“Arashamahar is closer,” Buffy added.
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tbc...