Part Three
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Buffy sat on Giles' couch staring into the fireplace. She could hear Spike rummaging around in kitchen no doubt doing something that she didn't want to know about. Giles had left a few minutes earlier to go grocery shopping meaning that she was alone with Spike until the G-man got back or Willow arrived. Buffy turned her head to the side when she heard Spike coming out of the kitchen. He was holding a mug in one hand and some Wheat-a-bix in the other. Buffy frowned as he started to break the wheat into the mug and made a face. There was only one word to describe what she was feeling and that word was "ewwww!"
"What are you doing?" Buffy asked even though she didn't rally want to know.
"Adds texture," Spike responded referring to the wheat. "High in fiber too, makes Spike a strong boy."
"Just when I thought that you couldn't possibly get any more disgusting," Buffy responded turning away as he lifted the mug to his lips.
"Where's Oak?" Spike asked sitting down in the chair opposite Buffy. Buffy glared at him.
"Willow," she said carefully annunciating the word, "has a class and will be coming around later."
"Turn on the Tele will you," Spike said turning away from her.
"Turn it on yourself," Buffy responded picking at one of her nails.
"I'm in the middle of my bloody lunch right now woman," Spike responded. Buffy looked over at him with a disgusted look on her face.
"You're dead, it's not like you've got anything better to do," Buffy responded. "Turn on the damn 'Tele' yourself," she continued mocking his accent.
"You owe me," he said pointing an accusatory finger in her face.
"I what?" Buffy asked incredulously.
"I've still got Buffy taste in my mouth," he responded. "Thinking about it gives me the willies."
"Drop dead," Buffy said shooting him an utterly corrosive look.
"Been there, done that," Spike responded.
"Do you want a return ticket?" Buffy asked snidely.
"You must be an absolute joy to live with," Spike responded. "You and Malibu Maple must have fun all day long."
"Shut up Spike," Buffy said staring at him. "You may be impotent and pathetic now, but if you make one more tree joke I'm going to make you a dust buster happy meal."
"Somebody's sensitive," Spike said backing off the Willow topic for the moment. "Maybe you need more fiber in your diet," he suggested holding his mug out to her.
"Ewww," Buffy responded turning away from him.
They sat in silence for a while after that. Buffy was looking at the door hoping for someone, anyone, to get back, and Spike was slurping up his blood making 'ohhh ahhh' sounds and rubbing his stomach.
After a while the silence started to get to Buffy and she spoke up.
"You've gone for almost three weeks without making any Angel jokes," she started. "Are you feeling alright? Are you sick?" she asked hopefully.
"I can't eat, I can't fight, and I can't even drink my bloody...blood, in peace. Yeah, I'm fricking fantastic," Spike responded sarcastically. "Besides I get a better reaction from the red-head jokes."
"Better reaction?" Buffy asked.
"Yeah," Spike responded happily. "When I mention Fang-boy you just get all bitchy, but when it comes Cedar your face turns all sorts of nifty colours."
"My face is not hyper-colour," Buffy muttered under her breath. "Like you should talk bleached boy," she continued slouching down into the chair.
"Hey!" Spike said hearing the 'bleached boy' comment. "Like yours is natural."
"Kiss my ass," Buffy shot back at him.
"Not even if you pounced on me like a rabid dog...again," Spike responded making a face. "Besides, would you rather Willow do it," he said tauntingly.
Buffy looked over and glared at him. Did everybody know how she was feeling?
"Oh, did Spike hit a nerve," the vampire said smiling. "Did I hurt the little Slayers feelings?" he asked. Buffy didn't respond. "Come on," Spike said. "Did I? Did I hurt your feelings? Please tell me I did," he continued gleefully.
"Get out!" Buffy said standing up.
"It's the middle of the afternoon," Spike said not moving. "It's sunny out there!"
"I know," Buffy said smiling. "Now get out!"
"You can't do that," Spike said standing up and backing away from. "Giles won't let you. You need me," he continued, although the last part sounded more hopeful than anything else.
"Giles, isn't here," Buffy responded. "And you don't have anything I need."
"Come on now," Spike said starting to get a little worried. Buffy looked like she was enjoying herself. "Can't we all just...get along?"
"Uh, let me think about that," Buffy responded tilting her head up to the ceiling. "No."
"Geesh," Spike said. "And I thought that love was suppose to make all you humans nice, and friendly."
"I am not in love," Buffy said glaring at him.
"Keep telling yourself that," Spike said sitting back down. He didn't feel that his life was in immediate danger anymore.
"You can't just say 'keep telling yourself that' and sit down," Buffy responded. "What the hell is that suppose to mean? Who am I supposedly in love with?"
"Willow."
"Willow?"
"Willow," Spike confirmed.
"You...you are so, so, so...so, very, very...crazy, nuts, insane...and if I do say so myself, not very nice," Buffy responded haltingly. She didn't really know what the hell she was saying, just that what Spike had said had felt true to her.
"Oh, why don't you just hump her leg and get it over with already," Spike said making a face. "All that hand holding, and 'I love you', no, 'I love you', blah, blah, blah, is making me sick. Just shag already and shut up about it."
"I do not want to hump Willow's leg!" Buffy said emphatically. She could not believe that she was having this conversation with Spike. And the fact that he right just pissed her off to no end.
"Do to," Spike responded.
"Do not," Buffy said.
"Do."
"Not."
"Do."
"Not."
"Do."
"Not."
And so it continued, and continued, and continued, for a long, long time.
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Willow practically ran over to Giles' house after her last class had finished. Buffy had been acting odd all morning, not to mention the fact that she had being acting beyond strange the night before. Buffy and strange kind of went together, but she was acting strange even for her. Also, if she was going to be completely honest she just wanted to see her friend. She was always happiest when she and Buffy were around each other, when they were together it was like the sky was bluer than normal, and the grass was greener than normal, and everything was beautiful and beauty was everywhere.
As she approached the door she could hear voices yelling inside. One of the voices was Buffy's, she was sure of that, and the other one sounded a lot like Spike. As she got closer to the door then voices got louder, but she still couldn't hear what they were saying. Fearing that someone was about to get staked, Willow quickly opened the door and went in. Spike seemed to be yelling "do" and Buffy was countering with "not".
"Do not what?" Willow asked walking into the living room.
Buffy turned around at the sound of Willows voice.
"Nothing," Buffy answered quickly.
"I don't think so," Spike said still in his yelling voice. "She's bloody in lo..." he stopped speaking when a piece of wood went flying by his face.
"You tried to stake me!" he yelled pointing at Buffy. "She tried to stake me!" he said again turning to look at Willow as if she was going to back him up.
"If I tried to stake you, you'd be dust," Buffy responded cockily.
"What's going on here?" Willow asked watching the interaction between the two of them in absolute bewilderment.
Buffy continued to stare at Spike.
"Nothing," Buffy said holding the vampires gaze.
"Nothing," Spike said sullenly a moment later. "Except that I hate her," he said giving Buffy the evil eye.
"What?" Buffy asked in mock horror. "You...you don't like me? Oh my god, however shall I find the courage go on?" she continued in the same tone.
"I'm going to watch Passions," Spike grumbled walking away. "Grace senses evil in Harmony," he continued heading into one of the back rooms.
"What was that all about?" Willow asked walking over to Buffy.
"Spike and I...had a difference of opinion," Buffy responded hoping that Willow would leave it at that.
"About what?" Willow asked following Buffy over to the couch to sit down.
"He wanted me to turn on the TV and I didn't want to turn on the TV, so I told him to turn on the damn TV himself, but he didn't like that suggestion, so I told him to drop dead, and he said that he already had," Buffy paused to take a breath then continued. "So I asked him if he wanted a return ticket, and he said that I must be a joy to live with, and..."
"Buffy?" Willow asked stopping Buffy's story.
"Yeah," Buffy said turning to face her friend.
"I'm sorry that I asked," Willow responded.
"Hey, we all make mistakes," Buffy said smiling.
"How's your head?" Willow asked. Buffy had told her in the morning that it was fine, but she had still seemed distracted in psychology class.
"In tact and working as well as it ever it did...which maybe isn't saying much," Buffy responded. "How was class?" she asked immediately afterwards wanting to avoid any conversation about her.
Willow smiled and started telling her about what had happened during her last class. Buffy leaned back, all was right with the world.
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Buffy was out patrolling and Willow had been in the library studying, but she was finished with that and was bored so she decided to go patrol with Buffy. Buffy was always around the sports stadium around this time so Willow figured that she would be able to find her pretty easily. As long as she was able to manage avoiding being killed, she was sitting pretty. As she headed across the campus she found her thoughts drifting towards the very person she was seeking out. Buffy. Actually, she found that her thoughts drifted to Buffy quite a bit, in fact more than quite a bit. She was...she was smitten, she had to admit it.
It had all started with that doppelganger of hers. Bad, vamp, shanky, Willow who went around licking girls necks and trying to 'become one' with them. She had been blissfully unaware of the 'kind of gay' in her until that incident. There was this unapologetic, charged, free sexuality about her double, and even if you knew that she would snap your neck as soon as kiss you, you were drawn to her. Being around her, being hit on by her, and for a while even pretending to be her awakened something in Willow, and she knew that it wasn't ever going to go to sleep again. She knew now that she was no longer 'kind of', she just was. Being with Oz had given her a kind of respite from thinking about it. So what if she watched Law and Order because she thought that Carmichael was sexy? She had a boyfriend that she genuinely cared about, who adored her, so it was a moot point. But now, now she didn't have that boyfriend and the point wasn't so moot anymore.
Willow was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't see the girl walking opposite her on the path until the crashed into each other.
"Sorry," Willow said putting her hands out in a gesture of peace. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," the girl said her head was still facing away from Willow but the hacker recognized her voice. Only one person she knew had the smoky voice, it was Claire from her psyche class.
"I wasn't paying attention," Willow said when Claire finally straightened up.
"That makes two of us," she responded. "I guess that we're equally idiots," she continued with a smile.
"You're in Walsh's class right?" Willow asked as they started walking in the same direction. "Claire?"
"Two for two," Claire responded. "It's the voice right?" Willow just kind of shrugged and nodded at the same time. Not an easy feat. "Your name's Willow right?"
"Just like the tree," Willow told her with a smile.
"What are you doing out here so late?" Claire asked. "Usually it's like the Isle of dead out here at night. No one's in sight."
"Yeah, that's because people a habit of disappearing or dying of mysterious causes around here," Willow said shaking her head.
"So?" Claire asked. "I promise to submit to the Inquisition too."
"I'm just going to meet a friend," Willow said looking down at the ground.
"Buffy?" Claire asked. If it wasn't so dark out Willow would have seen the knowing look on her face, but it was dark out so she didn't.
"Yeah," Willow responded smiling. "Do you know her?"
"Just seen her in class. Like you," Claire responded. "Where are you going? Maybe I'll walk you, safety in numbers you know."
"It's probably out of your way," Willow responded. "We're meeting down by the stadium."
"That's...odd," Claire responded. Willow smiled.
"It's, well it's pretty deserted out there," she explained. Vampires loved deserted and quiet. Buffy usually got some action out there whenever she patrolled.
"Oh," Claire said smiling. "I get it," she continued. She kind of shook her head after that, she thought that it was absolutely deplorable that people who were so obviously in love with each other had to sneak around and hide because small minded assholes ruled the world.
"Yep," Willow responded doubting very much that Claire got it at all.
"Well this is where I get off," Claire said stopping in front of one of the dorms. "I just want you to know that I think it's great," Claire added.
"What?" Willow asked confused.
"You and Buffy," Claire told her. "It's so hard to find someone that you connect with in this world, and when you find someone you should hold on to them, taboos and idiots be damned."
"Wha..." was all Willow managed to get out before Claire continued.
"With all the homophobia out there most people are so afraid to just be themselves. I think that you two are some of the bravest people I've ever met," Claire continued before heading towards the door.
"Bu...bu...but," Willow kind of squeaked out.
"Yeah, bye," Claire said. "I know you'll have a nice night," she added with a wink. After that she disappeared behind the door leaving Willow there staring at the building completely, utterly, bewildered.
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>From her spot behind the tree Buffy saw Willow approaching her. Buffy knew that Willow couldn't see her where she was standing, so she waited behind the tree for Willow so that she could surprise her.
"What's a nice girl like doing in a place like this?" Buffy asked coming out from behind the tree as Willow walked by, and wrapping her arm around Willow's shoulder.
"Buffy," Willow said distractedly.
"Don't sound so enthusiastic Will," Buffy said. "I might actually think that you were happy to see me," Buffy continued.
"Sorry," Willow responded. "I'm glad to see you, that's why I came out here after all."
"Not because you were bored and the phone lines are down?" Buffy asked knowing that Willow's laptop was her other best friend.
"Nope, just because you're so irresistible," Willow told her.
"You okay Will?" Buffy asked watching the hacker closely. "You don't look so hot."
"Thank you very much," Willow said making face.
"I didn't mean it that way," Buffy said drawing Willow in a bit giving her a hug.
"I know," Willow said. It was just that she couldn't get her mind off of what Claire had said before she left. She hadn't come right out and said it, but it was clear that she was under the impression that she and Buffy were lovers or something like that anyway. She knew that the way she felt about Buffy was more than friendly, but she didn't think that it was so obvious that strangers could pick up on it. She was slightly uneasy with the idea. She didn't really care if people knew about her, not now that she was out of High School anyway, but she wasn't comfortable with people thinking that she and Buffy were a couple. Although the idea gave her the fuzzies, it wasn't fair to Buffy to have people thinking something about her that wasn't true. The trouble was that she didn't know what to do about it.
"What's wrong?" Buffy asked, something was definitely up with Willow.
"Nothing," Willow said. "I was just thinking about a paper I have to write," she said deciding to keep what she had learned earlier to herself for the moment.
"School, I tell you it's a pox on all of us free spirits," Buffy said taking Willow's hand into her own.
Willow squeezed back and smiled then they continued on patrol.
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