Chapter 4: Tidings of Comfort and Joy

Buffy pounded her fists into the punching bag in the training room, really letting loose and causing the bag to swing violently, the chain it hung from creaking. She was so absorbed in her workout that she didn’t hear the door at all. It wasn’t until she felt the familiar sensation at the back of her neck that she paused her assault and turned around.

“Thought you might want some practice hitting something that’s not standing still,” Spike said.

“Didn’t expect you to show. After…”

He shrugged. “Not one to hold a grudge.”

She stared at him. “What are you talking about? You always hold a grudge. You held a grudge against me for years! You could rival Xander as the king of grudginess.”

“Yeah, you caught me. I was trying to bond with you.” Spike smiled at her, loose-limbed and nonchalant after spending the night with Susan. It had been over a year since Harmony left him, and he’d been so obsessed with Buffy that he’d forgotten how a good shag could take the edge off. He was finding the whole new boyfriend situation exponentially easier to deal with today.

Buffy blinked in surprise, thrown by Spike’s sudden return to friendliness, but she certainly wasn’t about to look this gift horse in the mouth.

His smile slid into a smirk as he shucked his coat and assumed a ready stance. “Wanna dance, Slayer?”

*****

“Welcome to the Magic Box!” Anya said brightly. “How may I help… oh, it’s you.”

Jacob smiled. “Sorry to disappoint. Just looking for Buffy.”

“She’s in the back, training with Spike.”

“Oh, uh, yeah,” said Jacob, taking a seat at the table next to Xander. A fresh box of doughnuts had replaced the one from yesterday, and he helped himself to a jelly when Xander offered them to him. “I guess that makes sense. With the super strength and all.”

“Yeah, the kind of sense that’s not,” Xander replied. “I’m still firmly of the opinion that we should be killing the vampires, not playing with them.”

Jacob paused, doughnut halfway to his mouth, working that thought out to its logical conclusion. “Wait – Spike’s a vampire?”

Xander stared at him. “Yeah. Buffy didn’t tell you?”

“No, she must have forgotten to mention that.” There was an edge to Jacob’s voice as he started pulling his doughnut apart, leaving the pieces uneaten on a napkin.

“Oh, yeah, he’s all fangy and creature-of-the-night-ish.”

“I don’t understand – Buffy’s a vampire slayer, but she has one as part of her Scooby gang?”

“We've just stopped asking those questions,” Anya told him. “Except for Xander. He's got a club, if you want to join. A ‘We Hate Spike’ club.”

“We’re getting jackets made,” Xander deadpanned.

“Oh…” Jacob trailed off into silence, looking intently at the training room door.

*****

Buffy charged at Spike, throwing punches that he deflected with movements so fast she barely saw them. She tried for a spinning kick, but Spike knocked her aside with relative ease. “Shouldn’t that hurt you?” she asked, stopping to catch her breath.

“Hardly took any effort,” he replied critically. “Now, come at me again, and this time, don’t telegraph your punches.”

She went into a roundhouse, but collapsed as a spasm of pain hit her mid-kick.

“Oh – oh, God – ow!”

“Slayer, what is it?” asked Spike, dropping to the floor at her side.

“Cramp. Muscle. Ow!”

“Where?”

Buffy pointed to her left thigh. Spike laid his hands carefully on her leg and began to massage it. She jerked in pain at his touch.

“Hold still, Slayer!” he commanded. He knelt on her shin and grabbed her left shoulder with one hand to keep her from moving. He kneaded her muscles, tentatively at first, then with more force as he recognized that she wasn’t going to slug him for inappropriate touching.

“Ow – God – fuck, Spike! It hurts!” She squeezed her eyes shut but a few tears manage to escape.

“Didn’t warm up first, did you?”

“Slayer muscles, remember? Supposed to be ready to go at all times.”

“Still, wouldn’t kill you to stretch a bit.”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “You just wanna see me do another split – ow!” She dug her nails into Spike’s shoulder, gritting her teeth against the pain as his fingers coaxed her muscles out of contraction.

“Buffy?” Jacob said from the doorway, noting with alarm the position of the vampire on top of his girlfriend, who was quite obviously in pain. Xander’s comments echoed in his mind, bringing hidden fears to the surface. He also caught himself feeling a twinge of jealousy at their closeness. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just a leg cramp.” She brushed a rough hand across her cheek, obliterating the tears.

Spike, meanwhile, had leapt to his feet and was looking at Jacob with a vaguely guilty expression. He remembered his chivalry and offered Buffy a hand to help her up, just as Jacob reached out to do the same. Buffy looked from one to the other and then stood up without any assistance.

“I think it’s… good now,” she said, extending her leg tentatively. She spun and did a few experimental kicks. “Yep, good as new.”

“Think maybe we should call it a day, Slayer,” said Spike, but he was looking at Jacob as he said it.

“But we only just started.”

“Spike’s right,” said Jacob. “You don’t want to hurt yourself. Besides, Dawn’s probably home by now. I thought we could do something, you know, the three of us.”

Buffy’s face broke out into a smile. He actually wanted to spend more time with her sister after she was sullen and rude all through last night’s dinner? “You’re too sweet,” she said, leaning in to kiss him on the cheek. Saintly was more like it. With a wave back at Spike, she headed out of the training room, Jacob following behind.

Spike watched them leave with a scowl on his face, realizing that his post-coital tolerance had completely disappeared, only to be replaced with the same bitter jealousy as before.

*****

“How come you didn’t tell me Spike was a vampire?” Jacob asked on the walk home.

“Wh-who’s a what now?” Buffy stammered in surprise.

“Xander let it slip. He figured you would’ve mentioned it.” He kicked at a rock in his path. “Actually, I thought you would’ve mentioned it, too.”

“I’m sorry. It’s just… I didn’t know how you’d react. Spike’s… well, he’s different. He’s got a chip in his head, so he can’t hurt humans.”

“A chip?”

“Behavioral modification chip,” Buffy explained. “Government experiment. He gets his brain zapped if he tries to hurt someone.”

Jacob stopped and looked at her, his expression serious. “And that’s good enough for you? You trust him?”

She nodded. “He’s helped us out, more times than I can count. And he had the opportunity to kill me, and he didn’t, so –”

“I thought you said he couldn’t hurt anyone,” Jacob interrupted.

Buffy hesitated. “He – he can’t. I… offered him my blood once. It doesn’t hurt if the person’s willing, so…” She trailed off, shifting uncomfortably. There were details about that bite that she didn’t want to share. “He could’ve drained me if he’d wanted to, but he stopped. So, yeah, I do trust him.”

She gave him a smile and started walking again, but Jacob wasn’t soothed. The idea of Spike biting Buffy only did more to put him on edge, rather than assure him that the vampire wasn’t dangerous.

*****

“Tara? I’m home.”

“In here,” the voice replied from their bedroom. Willow walked in to see Tara lying on her stomach, her head at the foot of the bed, studying an open textbook. She looked up as Willow came in. “How’s Giles?”

“Okay.” She perched on the edge of the bed and rubbed Tara’s back. “He was kinda disappointed that stuff I was translating isn’t anything useful for this demon summoner guy.”

“He couldn’t find anything?”

Willow shook her head. “It’s all rituals and spells and stuff, but everything’s so vague, it’s impossible to know what it’s used for without more details.”

“I’m sorry, baby. That sucks.”

Willow stretched out on the bed next to her, assuming an identical position, leaning on her elbows. “He gave me this other notebook to work on. It’s gonna be so hard… it’s in Russian! I don’t speak Russian! I’ve gotta get a dictionary. And it’s from the 17th century and the pages are all crumbly and there’s all these notes in the margins which I think are in German –”

Tara’s lips pressed against hers, cutting her off mid-babble. “Oh,” Willow whimpered, her mouth curving into a smile as Tara ran a hand through her soft red hair.

“Don’t fret, sweetie,” said Tara. “I know this is important, but you’ve got enough to think about the next couple weeks.”

“Hanukkah?”

“Finals.”

“Ohhhh.” Willow rolled over on her back, gripped her throat with both hands and made gagging noises.

Tara giggled. “I thought you liked tests. What happened to ‘academia is my mother’s milk’?”

“That was before I had evil Dr. Markovich and his evil historiography. Now I’m all, ‘No, please, don’t hurt me with your obscure essay questions!’ I swear, that final’s gonna kill me.” She screwed up her face into a thoughtful expression. “You’re sure I can’t just turn him into a frog?”

“It’s kinda frowned upon.”

Willow rolled onto her side facing Tara and propped herself up on one elbow. “I’m gonna learn all that stuff.”

“Historiography?”

“No, magic, silly. All the rules and stuff. The things you know.”

“Have you heard any more about your teacher?”

Willow broke into an excited smile. “Yeah, Giles just told me today. A woman named Emma is coming over here; he’s arranged everything. She’s a fantastic witch, and she’s going to tutor me, as soon as finals are over.”

“That’s great,” Tara replied. She wanted to encourage Willow in this endeavor. She, like Giles, had sensed that Willow’s ability was far outpacing her study of magic, until Willow was wielding power she didn’t understand. She had never taken much interest in Wicca as a religion; rather, she saw magic as an extension of the world she knew – spells as poetry, chemistry, and computer programming, all rolled into one. It was clinical, it was simple, and it left no space for the spiritual depth that Tara had been brought up practicing. She didn’t comprehend that when they played around with magic, they were messing with forces of the universe – forces that had repercussions, that could change things and turn spells against them. Willow had had her fair share of mistakes in magic, but she never seemed to learn that her actions had consequences. Maybe this new teacher would help.

“Baby?” said Willow.

Tara glanced up, realizing she’d been in her own world. “Hmm?”

“You’re not… mad, are you? That I’m gonna be doing this new thing?”

“Why would I be mad?”

Willow shrugged. “Not mad. I don’t know… jealous, maybe? I mean, I don’t want it to be like I get this new magic thing and you don’t. You’re a witch, too.”

“Oh, sweetie, no. This’ll be good for you. There’s so much you can learn – I’m excited for you.” She shifted over and wrapped her arms around Willow. “I’m really happy this is happening for you. I want you to grow in your magic, and the things you’re gonna learn will be things we can share, things to make our magic better together.”

Willow nuzzled against her, burrowing into the hollow of her neck. “We make pretty good magic together right now,” she murmured, sliding her hand along the curve of Tara’s hip and following the waistband of her jeans around to the front. Tara let out a soft moan in response, and reached up to slam her textbook shut. Willow rolled the two of them over, so that she was on top of her lover, and began kissing her way down Tara’s chest and stomach, until she reached the spot below her navel where her hands were unbuttoning and unzipping and sliding soft denim down to reveal more kissable skin.

*****

“Dawn?” Buffy shouted as she opened the front door.

“What?” came the reply from upstairs.

“Come down here. We rented movies.”

“We?” Dawn appeared at the top of the stairs. “Oh. You and Jacob.”

“You, too,” said Jacob. “I mean, we got stuff we thought you’d like. Pizza, too.”

“What’d you get?”

“The Mexican... Save the Last Dance...”

“A Knight’s Tale?” Dawn asked, thawing a little. Jacob held it up, and her mouth twitched into a reluctant smile.

Buffy noted it with relief. “I’ll get plates and stuff. You guys pick a movie.”

“So, which shall we go with?” Jacob asked her, dropping the pizza on the coffee table and crouching near the DVD player.

Dawn plopped herself down on the sofa and folded her arms across her chest. “You’re not the first human she’s dated, you know,” she said, apropos of nothing, but doing her best to cause a stir.

He straightened up slowly, looking at her with curiosity. “I’m not the – what? Does – does she date… other species?” His curiosity gave way to insecurity before he finished the sentence.

“Sometimes vampires.” Dawn was nonchalant. “Actually, I think she prefers vampires.”

“Right. Except for the part where she kills them.” He bit back his next words as his thoughts alighted on the one vampire that seemed to get a free pass around the Slayer.

Sure enough, Dawn gave voice to his thoughts. “She doesn’t kill all of them.”

“So I’m told.”

Jacob didn’t know about Angel, of course, and Dawn didn’t bother to tell him. If Spike was the only vampire Jacob knew of that Buffy didn’t kill, it certainly wasn’t her fault if he jumped to conclusions, right?

They were still facing off against one another when Buffy came back in with plates, cups, and a bottle of soda. “So, are we dancing, jousting, or, uh, doing something with Brad Pitt and a gun?”

Jacob turned to look at her with a peculiar expression on his face. “We hadn’t actually decided yet.”

“Gun,” said Dawn, in a cold, unfriendly tone.

“Okay then.” Buffy set down her load next to the pizza and fixed her best Mom-stare on her little sister. “Be. Nice,” she whispered through gritted teeth.

*****

“I’m sorry she’s such a pain,” Buffy said, as she and Jacob brought the remains of dinner back into the kitchen after the movie. “She’s just, you know, moody teenager.” She dumped the dishes in the sink.

“I’m intruding,” said Jacob. “You guys had this whole routine, and I’m the new guy. I understand. I felt the same way when my mom started dating after the divorce.”

“She was never like this when Mom dated. That can go back in the fridge,” Buffy said, handing him the soda bottle.

Jacob put it away and closed the refrigerator door, a troubled expression on his face. “There’s blood in your fridge.”

Buffy bit her lip. She had forgotten that they’d stocked up when Spike was planning to move in. “Uh, yeah, about that…”

“Either you’re incredibly prepared for an emergency transfusion, or Spike’s spending an awful lot of time here.”

She gave him an awkward smile. “Well, you know, always be prepared. Boy scout motto.”

Jacob leaned on the breakfast bar next to Buffy. He had a pretty good idea why Dawn’s acceptance was so hard to win – his mother’s boyfriends had always had to compete with his image of his father. Only, in this case, the opposition seemed to come in the form of one particular vampire. “I hate to be that guy, Buffy, but do you think it’s such a good idea for Spike to be hanging around so much?”

“Oh, because of Dawn? You know, Xander says the same thing – Big Bad no good for little sis. But they get along really well and –”

“Not just because of Dawn.”

Buffy turned serious. “He really wouldn’t hurt anybody. He can’t.”

Jacob nodded, turning away from Buffy and staring into space. “I just feel like it’s awkward, you know? Having your ex around all the time.”

“My ex? What – how –” she sputtered. “Spike’s not my ex!”

“He’s not?” He turned back to look at her. “Dawn made it seem…”

Buffy shook her head vehemently. “Spike and I have never been… involved.” She thought for a moment. “Oh, except – we were engaged once. But that was a spell. And I guess we almost –” She cut herself off, thinking the less she explained, the better. “Anyway, Spike is definitely not my ex.”

“Oh.” Jacob paused. “So, you’ve dated other vampires?”