Chapter Ten



Glowing golden light. Swirling ribbons of green. Gorgeous waves of blue.
A medallion flipping through the air.


Buffy's eyes popped open as a noise from downstairs woke her. She lay there staring at the ceiling for a few moments. Back from the dead less than a day and already I'm having wonderfully confusing Slayer dreams.


Pots clanked down below and a very familiar, feminine someone screeched causing Buffy to smile and sit up. She pushed the covers off of her legs and swung them over the side of her bed. Something else clattered downstairs and she rolled her eyes, reaching for her robe. Dawnie in the kitchen- dwellers of the Summers' household and citizens of Sunnydale beware.


She got off of the bed, shuffled across the floor, and opened her bedroom door. Then she made her way to the bathroom. After doing the 'just woke up' task and washing her hands, she examined her face in the mirror. Somehow in spite of the fact that her body had been under six feet of dirt and trapped inside a wooden box less than twenty-four hours ago, and in spite of only getting a couple of hours of sleep, she looked well rested.


Radiant probably wouldn't be too far reaching. I kinda look like one of the aggravatingly clear-skinned girls on the Neutrogena commercials.

She smiled at her reflection, applied some face moisturizer, which caused her to glow even more, and pulled her hair back into a loose ponytail. She smiled at herself again. Dwellers of the Summers' household and citizens of Sunnydale beware- Buffy's back. She giggled and walked out of the bathroom, back into her room, opened the closet doors and proceeded to stand there staring for several minutes.


Why she was worried about what to wear she would not have been able to tell you. The fact that there's an extremely sexy, boyishly shy at times, blond in my house has absolutely nothing to do with it. Honest. She started absently flipping through the clothes.


And the fact that the aforementioned extremely sexy, boyishly shy at times, blond is also a creature of the night has nothing to do with the other nothing.


She made a sour puss/confused face and stopped clanging hangers as she came to the realization that she did talk funny.


That didn't even make sense to me and it came from my brain. A snort of laughter erupted from within and she shook her head rolling her eyes. She abandoned her search of the contents of her closet in favor of the simpler items found in her chest of drawers. She snagged a plain white tank top and a pair of black track pants with a zipper all the way down both legs. Buffy turned and walked to the bed, pulled her pajamas off and slipped on her clothes for the day.


She checked herself one more time in the mirror, exited her bedroom and made her way down the stairs towards the sounds coming from the kitchen, wondering if a particular vampire was still sleeping the sleep of the dead.


Since that's what vampires are usually doing at this time of day.


Just as she reached the bottom of the stairs the smoke alarm sounded followed by an ear piercing squeal from the littlest Summers- or youngest anyway- and Buffy ran the rest of the way to the kitchen.


_________________________________________________________________________________



Streams of luminous green. Vibrant pulses of blue. Rays of golden effulgence.
A two sided seal falling through the atmosphere.


Spike awoke with a start as he heard a clatter overhead.


Well, that one made bugger all sense. He thought as he remembered the few seconds of his dream. He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands trying to wake up.


Pots crashed together and Dawn squealed above his head causing a wince as it reached his supernaturally sensitive ears and a smile as he envisioned what the scene above must look like. The Bit and her culinary tendencies. He chuckled and sat up on his cot. The memories of the night before came back to him and he laughed fully and smiled wide. Guess I didn't wake up in the basement to yet another day without Buffy, after all.


He stood on the cold concrete floor sock less and unaffected by its chill. Having no body temperature was certainly one of the perks to being a vampire. Even though it had been a hundred years since he'd been human, he still vividly remembered that never was anything quite like that very first shock of ice to the feet when you first set them down on uncarpeted flooring.


He walked to the sink next to the washer and splashed water on his face. The temperature was not enough of a shock to the system to wake him up, that had already been established- temps were a moot point- but he had to try something. It was unnatural for his type to be up at this early hour. No matter how many times he did it over the summer- he still could not get used to it. Ungodly’s what it is. Which I guess works since I'm not one for godly things.


Spike made his way over to his makeshift 'closet'- which consisted of several pairs of identical black jeans, several sets of identical black t-shirts and a few red button up shirts all hanging from the pipes. His eyes swept over his two toned wardrobe and he sighed. I should really do something about this.


He remembered at that moment that the clothes he had nicked for his 'new look' were there somewhere. Now somewhere was the operative word. I haven't the foggiest of foggy clues where where is.


Spike scowled and shook his head. He was really hanging with the Scoobies too much- he was starting to talk like them and that was not something he wanted at all. He was always the first one to point out just exactly how ridiculous they all sounded.


He shook his head, scowl still firmly in place, and rummaged through a pile of clothes underneath his 'closet'. He located the khaki cargo pants and slipped them on, then continued his search. He found a gray wife beater that was snug against his torso showing every detail of his muscles, and slid it on also.


It was times like these when the perks of vampirism were nonexistent. Without the benefit of a reflection- and the absence of any mirrors- he had no clue if he looked good enough to be in the presence of the Slayer. He halted his search and looked off into the distance at nothing. The blonde beauty two floors up took all available space in his mind. An enamored smile appeared on his face when he closed off all other senses and sounds and centered on just Buffy. He could hear her milling about in her bedroom. He could hear the steady beat of her heart and it was the most glorious sound he had ever heard.


Spike shook his head, clearing his thoughts, and picked up a black button up shirt to go over his tank. He climbed the stairs, and was flipping his shirt every which way in an attempt to find the arm hole, when the smoke detector went off and Dawn screeched. He ran the rest of the way up the stairs with the shirt forgotten in his hand.


______________________________________________________________________________



Dawn searched for the broom- an excellent tool for smoke fanning- opened the window, turned on the fan over the stove and removed the skillet, all at the same time as Buffy and Spike simultaneously made it to the kitchen.


”What happened?” They both asked frantically.


Dawn jumped, startled by their voices, and flung the pan in the sink. She turned to face them and blocked the sink with her body. She waved her arms behind her when she noticed smoke out of the corner of her eye.


"Nothing." She responded succinctly, looking from one to the other.


Buffy raised her right eyebrow and said unbelievingly, "Uh-huh."


Spike raised his left eyebrow and said unbelievingly, "Right."


"What?" She asked with feigned innocence. At their penetrating looks, her shoulders slumped. "I was just... and then... there was sizzling and smoke... and it was... just... bad."


Buffy simply cracked a smile and nodded agreeably walking towards the island.


Spike fully walked through the door to the basement and closed it behind him. He lifted the hand holding the shirt and pointed to the stove. "Bit," he began, "how many times have I told you not to try anything new unless I'm in here with you?"


He walked up to the wall that housed the screaming smoke alarm and swatted it off the wall with ease. When it disconnected from the wall, the screeching came to an end. "This is the third one this month. Next one is coming out of your stash."


Dawn let out a 'pshaw' sound and looked at him like he was a doofus. "Why should I wait for you to be here? You're the flammable one- not me."


Spike bent down and retrieved the broken pieces of the smoke alarm. "We're all flammable Bit, I just happen to be more so."


"Whatever. Your chances of becoming a crispy fritter are far greater than mine." She countered. "And I am not buying the next one. You're the one who keeps busting them. Not me."


"Yeah? Well, I wouldn't have to keep bustin' 'em if you weren't prone to incinerating all things of the food variety."


The entire exchange between the other two inhabitants of the Summers' home went unheard by the Slayer. On her way to the stool, she stopped mid-step, and ogled. When Spike moved away from the door and raised his arm, Buffy was lost. She looked at the cut of his bicep and followed the expanse of skin to his shoulder, then down his chest.


Oh. Her eyes glazed over as she admired the tight fitting cotton tank top and the perfect way it fit his body. Muscles. Ripply. Ripply rippling muscles and... oh... chest. She followed every move and practically drooled the entire time. She watched the muscles of his back; she admired his posterior as he bent down and everything when he came back up. She watched his lips when he formed words, but she heard nothing.


She suddenly thought of those tacky scenes in the cheesy teen movies she used to watch in high school. The girl sitting in the classroom, the hot guy walking in, time slowing down, the 'oh god' factor- yeah, she experienced it all.


Unbeknownst to Buffy, Spike and Dawn were both looking at her with questions in their eyes. Along with the questioning in Spike's eyes, there was also a hint of timidity; Dawn simply had a 'what the heck is wrong with you?' look.


Buffy remained lost in her thoughts and admiration of the perfect male specimen that stood in her kitchen. "Mmm." She unconsciously 'mmm'd' out loud. His hair's all tousled and curly again and he's got that shy thing going on and the rippling.


Spike immediately turned fully towards Buffy, the destroyed alarm forgotten. She was staring at him and her mouth watered. Under normal circumstances, he would have straightened his back, pulled up his shoulders and lifted his head high- he knew he was a good-looking bloke- but this was different. This was Buffy. So instead, he lowered his head and looked at her through his lashes adopting an even more timid air.


Dawn stood back with her arms crossed and looked at the two with satisfaction written all across her features and a knowing smile. After a moment or two of watching the show and realizing that they were not going to be snapping out of it anytime soon, she cleared her throat. Spike glanced at her, at Buffy, and then turned back to 'inspect' his destruction. She snickered at him and looked at her sister. No change. "Buffy?"


"Mmh?" She grunted distracted.


"Buffy." Dawn said it again a little louder.


That seemed to work. Buffy shook her head and looked at her sister, "Huh?" she asked confused.


"Where were ya?" The younger asked the elder.


"What? Nowhere. I wasn't anywhere. But here."


"Sure."


"What? It's true. I was here." Her eyes flicked over to Spike for a half a second and then back to her sister.


"Seems to me you were all 'tra la la' off in some daydream land for, like, forever." Dawn countered, walked to the island and leaned against it across from Buffy.


Buffy snorted. "So wasn't." She stood up straighter. "And so not what should be the topic of discussion. Why, exactly, were you trying to burn down the house?"


Dawn stomped her foot. "I was not trying to burn down the house. I was just hungry."


"So eat some cereal." Spike said and joined them at the island.


Dawn waved her hand in his direction. "Cereal's boring."


"'Course it's boring. There's no smoke or pretty fire when you make cereal." Spike sarcastically replied.


"Hey!" Dawn defensively cried. "There was no fire."


Spike snorted, "Yeah. This time." He knowingly looked at her.


Dawn's eyes widened, "Oh! That's unfair. Last time was a fluke."


Buffy spoke up before it could go any farther. "Ok, aaand cut!" She knife chopped her hand through the air. "I don't really wanna hear about the kitchen stunts of summer past." She looked at each of them. "You guys are just scary."


Dawn giggled and Spike stood up straighter and they spoke in unison.


"Bloody right."


"Damn skippy."


Spike and Buffy both turned to Dawn and simultaneously reprimanded her.


"Dawn, language!"


"Bit, mouth!"


Dawn rolled her eyes. "Jeez. Sorry mom. Sorry dad." She grumbled in good nature.


In the next moment the front door opened then closed and the telephone rang. Dawn went for the phone and Buffy and Spike turned towards the direction of a young male voice.


Xander's voice floated through the dining room from the foyer and came towards them. "Greetings to ex dead, recently resurrected best friends; ex green glow-worm keys turned hormone bomb and ex master vamps who are currently impotent. I have Krispy Kreme-y goodness for all those attending the Scooby meeting." He walked into the kitchen with his almost always present bag of donuts and floppy hair, sporting a huge grin. He took in his surroundings and sniffed the air. "Ah. Chef Dawnie strikes again." He indicated to the smoke alarm on the counter with his chin. "Another bites the dust, huh?" He asked Spike smirking.


Spike shrugged. "What can I say whelp? It was givin' me lip."


Xander raised his eyebrows. "Anyhoo, as I was saying, th-"


But he was cut off as Dawn hung up the phone. "Meeting at the shop for the research-a-palooza, like, nowish."


"Hey! That's what I was gonna say!" Xander whined.


Dawn looked like she honestly felt bad. "Sorry Xan. Didn't mean to steal your thunder. Wanna leave the room, come back and start over?"


"Oh you're funny. Little miss funny britches." He shook his head and waved his hands around. "Nope. I'm over it."


Buffy cleared her throat and when everyone looked at her she waved. "Yeah, hi. What's going on?" She looked to Dawn and Xander for answers.


"What she said," Spike added pointing to Buffy.


Xander walked up to Buffy and placed his arm around her shoulder. "Why, fair Buffster, there's prophecies to find and an inevitable apocalypse a brewing. Scoobies must assemble."


"Oh. That." Buffy slumped on her stool.


"Yeah. That." Xander looked at her strangely, as did Spike and Dawn.


"Buffy, aren't you curious? I mean, it's about you. Why you're back and what you're gonna hafta do." Dawn asked, surprised by her sister's nonchalance and slumpiness.


Spike studied the Slayer's face intently, but said nothing. By this point, he was almost positive there were some things Buffy had omitted from her tale. The unsettled feeling he had experienced the night before returned to his stomach.


"No, I'm curious. I'm totally curious girl, just not looking forward to lots of reading of lots of books and lots of headaches from looking at lots of small words in lots of books." Buffy grumbled.


"What?" Dawn asked shocked. "Research is totally fun."


"About that-" Buffy began but Dawn quickly cut her off.


"No, no. No time to chat. Gotta get to the shop. Willow and Tara are on their way there now and Anya and Giles are already there." She started towards the foyer and the stairs. "C'mon guys. Getta move on. Don't wanna keep 'em waiting." And with that she disappeared around the corner and up the stairs.


"That girl. I swear," Buffy stated.


"Yeah, she's a handful," Spike agreed. He looked at Buffy. "But she's also right." With that he headed to the basement to retrieve his boots.


Buffy watched him go through the door and continued to look at the space he had previously occupied.


Xander stood watching her. He thought back to a conversation he'd had with Anya the night before. Maybe she was right. Oh god.


He remembered:
-----

Lying in their bed Anya suddenly spoke. "Just wait, pretty soon, Buffy will be Spike's booty poodle."


"Anya!" Xander said horrified. "Don't say that."


Anya shrugged, "It's true. Just watch."


"No, no, no. No booties or poodles of any sort for Buffy and Spike." He vehemently protested.


Anya harrumphed, "Mmkay sweetie, we'll see."
-----

Buffy's voice broke through his thoughts. "I'll just go get my shoes and then we'll head out."


"Sure thing Bufferini." Xander smiled expelling the scary thoughts of Buffy and Spike and booties and poodles. Then he dug into the bag to sneak a quick snack before everyone else ate the good kinds.


Barely five minutes, and three donuts, later Xander met the other three in the living room. "Alrighty, everyone ready to saddle up?" He asked them collectively and then focused on Spike. "Does Spikey have his blankey?"


"Sod off, Harris." Spike replied and then covered himself with the blanket Xander had mentioned.


Xander opened the door, let Dawn and Buffy exit first and then made his way to the car. He opened the door behind the driver's seat and then opened his own and got in.


Spike locked the door, took a deep, unneeded, breath and made a bee line for the open car door.


________________________________________________________________________________________


The car ride to the Magic Box was normal, like any other car ride to anywhere else. Except for the fact that the young man driving said car had once been 'infected' with essence de Hyena; the young female in the passenger's seat had super human strength and had just been returned from the dead by mystical 'Higher Ups'; the youngest girl sitting in the back was a mystical key to dimensions for thousands of years turned 14 year old hormone bomb; and there was a vampire huddled underneath a blanket, sitting on the floor behind the driver's seat.


Oh yeah- all was normal in Normalsville.


During the time spent in the car, Dawn gave Buffy detailed 'highlights' from her summer. She told her about her summer school classes. How she was glad summer school was finally over, because she actually had three weeks of no school before the normal school year started, and that just wasn't long enough of a summer. She told her about sleepovers at Janice's. She spent several moments describing all the cute boys that had been in her classes and those comments were accompanied by obligatory girly squeals and excited hand gestures. Buffy listened to her sister's recall of the last few months with rapt interest. Even though it was not really her fault that she had missed it all, she still felt bad for not being there with her sister and her friends.


Xander talked about his job, how he had gotten a promotion and got to wear 'snazzy grown up clothes' to work now. He talked about how good Anya was doing at the shop. For some reason Buffy could not figure though, he seemed to shy away from anything to do with his and Anya's relationship, offering Buffy very few details about it's progress.


Spike, on the other hand, pretty much did nothing but grumble from his spot. He complained about everything under the sun, and then complained about the sun itself. Needless to say, he did not find the position he was in a comfortable one. He was continuously shifting his body around trying to find a way to alleviate his discomfort, but a solution could not be found. So strings of curses, huffs and sighs came from beneath gray fabric causing Dawn to giggle at the image of the 'Big Bad' pouting under his 'blankey'.

After the hundredth failed attempt at repositioning himself, he moved past aggravated and straight to pissed off. He made one final exaggerated 'wiggle' which caused him to slam into Xander's seat, causing Xander to slam forward onto the steering wheel. The car jerked to the right a little violently and Buffy and Dawn screeched as women are obligated to do when a car does that. Once Xander had the car back on track, he reached around and smacked Spike on the head.


"Ow." Spike grumbled.


"How many times have we gone over this Spike? No extreme body maneuvering allowed when you're behind my seat." Xander scolded.


"Yes, I know we've had this conversation you great git. You wrote up a bloody handbook, made me study it and then wanted to quiz me on it. I've not forgotten. But," He sighed and then continued, almost whining, "You try sittin' back here stuffed behind the seat in the bloody floorboard with a soddin' blanket over you."


"See, that's where we differ Spike. Seein' as I don't make with the sun allergies, I don't have to endure that. Either way, we've had this convo. No slamming into me while I'm driving. You're the only one in the car who can't die in a car crash." Xander reached behind him again and smacked Spike. "Don't do it again. Or I'll be forced to pull this car over."


"Oooh, you scare me Stay Puft. Like you could do anything to me anyhow." Spike taunted. "And I could die in a car crash, or have you conveniently forgotten the whole flammable bit us vamps carry about with us? And stop hittin' me ya ponce."


"No. And no, I haven't forgotten anything either. I know you're flammable, that's why what I could do to you would be so funny. I could very easily pull that blanket off of you." Xander countered with a smug tone. "And stop calling me a ponce ya baby."


"You wouldn't dare pull this off me." Spike responded.


"Just try me blondie. Just try me." Xander reached around one more time and smacked him for good measure.


"Bloody... Stop it already!" The blond vamp childishly whined.


Xander giggled and turned to Buffy with a smile. "I love it. He can't hit back without a little sizzle action with a side headache."


Buffy just smiled and shook her head. She turned back to Dawn. "Have they been like this all summer?"


Her sister vigorously nodded her head, "Oh yeah. It gets worse too. Just wait."


Buffy turned back towards the window and watched the scenery pass her by. She had a smile plastered to her face that seemed permanent. Sure, she missed her mom, but it was good to be home. Seeing her friends again, seeing her sister again, Giles, even Spike. Almost especially Spike.


That was a fact that was still in the process of wigging her out. But she was making progress; the wig factor wasn't quite as high as it had been. The fact that her friends were accepting him and he was joking with them all the time was helping with that. It always helped her to not be attracted to the extremely sexy blond Brit when her friends hated his guts. If they were nice to him and he was nice to them, she wouldn't really have much reason to ignore the new feelings concerning Spike. If this kept up though, she just knew she was going to be in trouble. Ever since the 'Will Be Done' spell Willow wonkied up, she'd found it hard to ignore the sexiness of Spike.

Especially since those really luscious, yummy, full, Spike lips have been against mine. Now with the gang making nicey-nice and Spike making nicey-nice, it was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Just like it was becoming increasingly difficult for her to keep 'Naughty Buffy' quiet. No more thoughts of luscious, yummy, full, Spike lips. That'll only put you in a bad place!


Before she had even realized it, they were pulled up in front of the Magic Box, sitting at the curb. She shook her head, breaking out of her reverie, and unbuckled her seatbelt.


"Alrighty troops, this is where this bus stops. Thank you for traveling with 'Xander International' and we hope you'll come back soon." Xander quipped.


"How can you be a bus and international Xander?" Dawn queried from her spot in the backseat.


"I have many, many secrets young one."


"Are you in the car park again Whelp? Or are you actually gonna give me a fightin' chance to survive the big orange by lettin' me out up front?" Spike asked from his still scrunched position.


"Why in the name of all that's sacred would I do that Blankey Boy?" Xander asked. "I always do get a kick outta you makin' a run for it."


"Of all the..." Spike began to ready himself for the dangerous, flame causing trek inside. "After all a bloke does... Bloody ungrateful..."


Buffy and Dawn both stifled giggles at the male's comments. Then Buffy decided she would take some pity on the vampire. He wasn't exactly travelling in first class accommodations after all. "Xander..." She gave him a reproachful look.


"What?" He asked nonplussed. "It's funny." He answered with a giggle.


Spike finally poked his head out from under his cover to gauge the distance to the Magic Box door. "Oh."


They were sitting directly in front of the shop with hardly any sun to race through. Spike scowled at Xander's antics and slammed into the brunet's seat with his arm one last time, just for the principle. "Sod."


"Loser." Xander retorted.


Spike pulled his blanket tight around his body and opened the car door. "One of these days boy, you're gonna regret that you pulled so many pranks."


"Yeah, sure. And someday soon I'm gonna be President too."


Spike got out of the car and made a run for the door, blanket a smokin' and mouth a swearin'.


Xander looked at Buffy, who was watching the vampire with a tiny smile. "Ready to get started on the prophecy discoverin', Buffster?"


Buffy turned to her friend and rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah, I'm just oozing anticipation."


Dawn opened her door and got out of the car. "C'mon Buffy. It can't be all that bad, can it? I mean, you're all stronger and have an even higher purpose than the first higher purpose you had... before."


Buffy joined her sister on the sidewalk. "I'm kinda sick of being higher purpose girl, Dawnie. That road always leads to spooky badness."


Xander joined the sisters and placed an arm across each of their shoulders, a donut box in each hand. "Maybe it won't be spooky badness this time. Who knows? You could wind up getting something you really want with this. Or living happily ever after this time, instead of dying. Who knows...?"


"Yeah. Who knows," Buffy quietly answered.



tbc...


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