Twining Vines (COMPLETE)

*~*Twining Vines*~* By Echidna

Part IV – Human

She dragged her feet lazily across the damp crypt floor, rubbing her eyes with one hand while the other searched out for the handle of the trap door above her. Eventually, she found it, pushing it open alimblimbing onto the top floor. Her long dishevelled hair fell down her back in paper curls; shades of brown and red shone from it as she moved into the light. Ignoring the sleeping vampire on top of the sarcophagus, she moved across the room, towards the door, pushing it open just enough so a few rains of sun filtered into the room. She stood there for a second, peeking trough the small opening. Her black eyes then drifted from the green grass outside to the sleeping form of the vampire. A smirk brushed over her lips as she noticed his chest - it rose and fell at slow, steady pace under the thin sheet. “Maybe they’re right… Maybe he’s it…” she wondered for a second, then she shook her head and, after closing the door, reached for the elastic band tied around her bony wrist, pulling it around her huge mass of hair, keeping it in a large bundle on the back of her head. Inevitably, a few stubborn strands refused to obey her escaping to fall along her face.

“Ok, time for the wake up call.” She said to herself as she moved across the room back to the sarcophagus. She was about to reach for him when an image flashed in front of her eyes and she couldn’t help the smile on her face. “God, he thinks about her 24/7.” She mumbled in a low voice. “Who would have thought, a vampire with the ability to love?” She shook her head, straightening her shirt before she woke him. Suddenly, she stopped herself as the memory of two long hours slopping through the sewers drifted from the back of her mind. Immediately, she retracted her hands, stepping away from the vampire. “He is sleeping so soundly… I don’t think it would be fair to wake him up for another day of shopping.” She tried to convince herself, but the voice in the back of her head told her she was just trying to avoid another journey ‘down below’. “Ah, come one. It’s just for a couple of hours. Not like he’s going anywhere…” she heard her little voice protest. “They’ll never know, and nothing will happen! Now, let’s go get some decent clothes.” A satisfied grin spread across her lips as she marched towards the door and exited the crypt.

~*************************************************************************************~

A loud thumping sound, coming from the back room of the Magic Box, invaded the shop and a frown took over Anya’s eyebrows as she saw another customer walk out the door. With energetic, duck like steps, she crossed the room and violently pulled at Xander’s sleeve. The moment the boy turned to see her pout and wrinkly forehead he knew there was trouble on the horizon.

“Tell Buffy to stop making so much noise back there. She is scaring off the money.” She protested.

“Scaring the money?”

“The costumers!” she breathed heavily.

“Oh. I’ll go and talk to her.” Xander offered, but there was a hint of fear in his voice. He had seen Buffy this way before and didn’t really enjoy the idea of busting in on one of her ‘kill tunchunching bag’ sessions, especially since he remembered what it felt like being the punching bag. Reluctantly, he made his way towards the training room, leaving behind a more relaxed Anya.

She immediately jumped to attention as she heard the delightful ringing noise and turned to see a young woman walk into the shop. She wore a large shirt over dusty old denims – a hint that she didn’t have a lot of money to spend. Even so, Anya wasn’t fooled by the first impression and the smile on her face widened as she noticed the mountain of bags the woman carried with her. She had learned in her short time as a shop owner that bags equalled people that spend money, which was always a wonderful sign. Quickly, she made her way towards the woman, noting the interest with which she looked at the displayed items. A huge grin graced Anya’s lips as she spoke:

“Welcome to the Magic Box! May I help you?”

The woman turned to face the ex-demon and immediately gave her a soft smile.

“, I’, I’m looking for some of those incense sticks you burn to get the house to smell better, you know? Oh, and candles, well basically anything that will give out a pleasant aroma.” The woman explained.

“Well, we’ve got a large variety of those.” Anya explained, signalling the short auburn haired woman to follow her.

As they moved, the pounding sound returned and Anya rolled her eyes in anger, grinding her teeth together. She relaxed a little as she realised the woman remained unaltered by the strange noises coming from the back.

~*********************************************************************~

She walked after the shopkeeper, her eyes drifting over the various items in the room. The smell of old books found its way to her nose and she breathed in the familiar aroma. Suddenly, the image of a woman strangling a petite blond flashed before her eyes. She looked around and realised it had come from the friendly shopkeeper that was now showing her the variety of scents the incense came in. She frowned as she recognised that the woman being choked as the object of Spike’s undying affection, but her eyes never left the candles and incense in front of her. Slowly, the first image blurred and was replaced by the very recognizable symbol of US dollars. She was snapped out of her thoughts as she heard a man walk into the room, coming from a door at the back of the store. He moved quickly towards the shopkeeper and pulled her aside. He started whispering something to the woman, who apparently wasn’t able to grasp the concept of whispering and started talking loud enough for her to hear:

“I don’t care if she is our friend or if she has issues. She is scaring off paying customers! Tell her to go have issues somewhere else!” the feisty woman protested, turning on her heels and walking back to her. A huge pepsodent smile took over mouth and she returned to the normal customer/salesperson chitchat, as if nothing had happen.

The redhead woman smiled as she realised what was going on. She sighed in relief as she realised she wasn’t going to have to beat this nice woman to a pulp, now that she knew the Slayer was not in any danger. She was actually kind of fond of the saleswoman; she was just so… unusual.

~**************************************************************************~

She pushed the door open with effort as the deluge of bags she carried seemed intent on burying her on the spot. The moment she was inside, she flopped on the cold cement floor; her breath coming in harsh and loud gasps.

“Man, it really sucks being human, no wonder I forgot about it.” She managed to grumble to herself as she remained motionless, sitting on the floor, leaning on the piled up bags around her.

After a while, she opened her eyes and scanned the room. Between the sacks, she was able to see the vampire laying on the tomb, sleeping.

“You’re still sleeping?” she shouted from between the black, white, blue, paper, plastic bags.

“Hum…” Spike mumbled in his sleep.

“Oh, for the love of…” she breathed. Taking a deep breath and covering her ears she opened her mouth and let out the loudest, most piercing, eardrum-splitting scream Spike had ever heard.

In a blink of an eye he was up. Sitting on the sarcophagus, his fists clutching the sheet around him as his head moved frenetically around, looking for the source of such an ungodly scream. After a few seconds he noticed a hand waving from under a pile of shopping bags.

“Little help, please?” she called out.

Recognizing the voice, heled led his eyes and collapsed back on the sarcophagus, intent on ignoring the annoying woman.

“You don’t get your bony butt off that tomb and come and help me I’ll scream my lungs off again!” she warned with a threatening tone.

Spike groaned and reluctantly stood up and walked towards the woman, beginning to push away the various sacks until he dug her out of there. She was laying on the floor, clearly exhausted, eyes closed, arms and legs sprawled as she enjoyed the cold the floor was giving off.

The vampire shrugged and began looking through her shopping.

“You decided to buy the entire town?” he asked.

“Just the essentials.” She quipped as she dragged herself back on her feet.

“I thought you weren’t supposed to leave me. Not even for a second.” He mocked as he pulled out a long nightgown. It remained him of the clothes Drusilla used to wear.

“I didn’t want to spend the entire day walking through the sewers, thank you.” She spat out, grabbing the dress from his hands and stuffing it into the bag.

He was about to say something when it hit him:

“How did you do this?” he asked pointing at all the shopping.

“With mo-ney.” She worded out every syllable as if she was speaking to a mentally challenged person. “Do we have to go through that part again?”

He gave her a forced grin, which crumbled in seconds, and elaborated:

“How did you do it if people couldn’t see you?”

“They could see me.” She answered with a shrug as she made her way downstairs, bringing a few bags with her.

Spike rolled his eyes as he followed her. It was just amazing how he had to drag everything out of her.

“I thought no one could see you but me.”

“Well, they couldn’t. But now they can.” She said, not paying attention to him as went upstairs and started dragging more of her shopping back downstairs. Something about the way she moved showed him the issue at hand wasn’t as unimportant as she tried to make it seem.

Spike growled and instinctively grabbed her forearm as he tried to still her. God, that woman moved like rat on ecstasy. He gasped as he realised his hands didn’t go through her like the other time, instead, he was able to get a strong grip on her. His eyes widened even further as his long fingers finally picked up the unmistakable steady hammering of a pulse. He stared at her, in awe.

“H-how?” the shock causing him to stutter.

She breathed in deeply as she contemplated how to explain this to him. She closed her eyes for a second as her free hand came to rest on the bridge of nose. After a long pause she looked at him and, taking a deep breath, she simply said:

“It’s hard to explain.”

He stood there, not moving an inch.

“I can do a lot of things.” She began. “But most of them only when I’m… in a different… plane.” Her eyebrows came together to form a small frown as she tilted her head to see if he was following her. He nodded and she proceeded: “When I’m in… that level, other people, besides you” she pointed at him. “Can’t see me, and that’s when I can help you, understand?” he nodded again and she continued: “Now, in order to be seen… by others and buy all this stuff” she waved her hand over the bags that covered the floor. “I have to become… human.”

“You still haven’t explained to me how.” He said in a low voice.

“It’s just complicated. All I can say is ‘you’ll figure it out in time’, till then I can’t tell you anything.” She gave him a sympathetic look before untangling herself from his grip and returning to her shopping.

~*******************************************************************************~

Dawn trotted into the Magic Box with a huge grin, but as soon as she heard the muffled moans along with the relentless thumping coming from the back room, it crumbled.

“What happened?” she asked, trying hard not to roll her eyes.

“As far as we know? Nothing.” Xander explained, his eyes never leaving the pile of cards in front of him. Apparently, he was trying to keep himself calm by building a castle out of tarot cards.

Dawn flopped onto one of the chairs and sighed loudly.

“Where’s Anya?” she asked as she looked around.

“In the basement. She decided to do some stock piling considering she wasn’t going to make another sale for the rest of the day.” The young man’s hands trembled as he added another two cards to relatively tall paper building.

“Is she mad?” Dawn asked, knowing how angry the ex-demon got whenever Buffy’s intense training sessions scared away paying customers.

“Not really.” Xander grinded his teeth as his creation crumbled to pieces for the 100th time that afternoon.

“How come?” the teenager frowned curious as to the shopkeeper’s odd behaviour.

“Apparently, she made this big sale today.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, some woman. Came in to buy a few candles and ended up buying like the whole store.” Xander continued to explain as he returned to his task of building a castle, this time it crumbled before he even had four pieces together. He sighed, frustrated but stubbornly restarted.

“Don’t you get tired of that?” Dawn finally asked, after she had seen him fail a couple of times.

Xander shrugged: “It’s Saturday. There is nothing to do.” The young man turned to see a very cheerful Willow walk into the shop. “Hey, Wills!” he greeted.

“Hey, Xander! Hi, Dawn!” she returned the pleasantries and took her seat next to Dawn.

“You’re in a very good mood today.” The teenager asked.

“You’re… glowing.” Xander added.

“You think?” the Wicca asked, the huge grin never leaving her lips. “It’s just that I met Tara today.” She tried to speak calmly, but the way her heart jumped to her throat at the mere mention of her ex-lover’s name she wasn’t able to contain herself and began to giggle while she spoke. “She said she might go to the Bronze later tonight.” She shifted in her seat nervously. “You guys wanna come?” Her eyes begged them to say yes.

“I don’t know. Have to ask the Mrs.” Xander answered truthfully, but knowing Anya and the good mood she was in he was sure that she would say yes.

Willow’s gaze drifted towards the young girl sitting next to her.

“I don’t know. Have to ask the Mrs.” Dawn tilted her head towards the training room and then added: “The way those punches are rolling back there, I’d say the chance of her saying yes is about….. zero.” And with that she crossed her arms over her chest and pouted.

Willow gave her a sympathetic smile and patted her on the arm reassuringly as she spoke:

“I’ll go in there and talk to her, you never know, maybe her mood might change.” The Wicca shrugged and stood up, walking towards the back door.

“Good luck!” Xander bellowed, a shudder running down his spine as he remembered what he had already suffered that afternoon.

~***************************************************************************~

“Who does that disgusting… little stupid… dead… t.-thing does he think he is? Coming to MY workplace, to…to bone some skanky ho of his.” Buffy thought as her punches grew in intensity every time that scene flashed before her eyes; the way his body moved, the way she moaned. “Stupid bitch.” She said out loud not realising Willow was now standing next to her.

“Buffy?” The Wicca asked confused, not knowing if the insult was directed at her.

At the sound of her name, she stopped, she turned around to meet a very blushed Willow.

“Oh, Willow! I’m sorry, I wasn’t… Just picturing my opponent. You know… training stuff. Keeping the stamina up.”

“Oh, I think you’ve got enough stamina as it is. You’re stamina packed.” Willow followed the petite blond as she moved around the mattress.

Buffy sat down and began her stretching exercises.

“I’m just a little on edge, that’s all.” She tried to dismiss the subject. “I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine. You haven’t been for a while now. You don’t want to tell me, that’s fine.” Buffy could see the hurt in redhead’s eyes as she spoke. “I respect that. But at least don’t let it eat at you like that. If someone’s bothering you-”

“No one’s bothering me.” Buffy spoke quickly, denying that anyone, any vampire, was responsible for her altered behaviour.

“Ok. But, whatever is making you… stamina packed, well… you should face it. Work to solve your issues. It’s not fair to let it eat at you and trouble you like that.” Willow spoke softly, for a second, she felt like a teen psychologist and Buffy was the reluctant patient who refused to accept she had a problem.

The small blond froze for a while as she contemplated the redhead’s wise words.

“She’s right I shouldn’t let a disgusting creature like Spike get to me. He’s not worth it. He wants to hump skinny little skanks against a wall, let him do it, see if I care.” Her inner monologue served to boost her moral and suddenly, she was on her feet, a satisfied smile on her mouth.

“You’re right, I shouldn’t let some vam-“ she stopped herself and rephrased: “some…. Whatever” she said as she remembered Willow’s own words and used them to her advantage. “make me… stamina packed. And there is only one way to unpack it… Heavy partying!”

A grin spread over Willow’s lips as she saw her best friend’s mood swing. She couldn’t help but giggled at the way the two of them were in sink right now.

“So what do you say… Up for some bronzing?” Willow asked.

“Let’s Bronze!” Buffy said with a peppy smile, then she realised. “Oh… I’ve got to patrol first, though.” She paused for a second then added: “No problem, you guys’ll go on ahead and I’ll meet you there later. Deal?”

“Deal!”

~*********************************************************************************~

“Fangy, will you explain to me why we are roaming a deserted graveyard?” the auburn haired woman asked as she dragged her feet along the grass, leaving deep tracks behind her.

“I’m fight parched. I need a refill.” He frowned as he realise he was using Buffy speak now. God, that girl just wouldn’t let his thoughts be would she.

“Ok, if you wanna lie… At least have the decency not to picture your very likely encounter with her.” She mumbled under breath.

“Hey! I thought you only had your powers when you were… on another level.” Spike protested, stopping dead in his tracks.

“I said most of my powers. This one is always with me. It’s kinda like a curse, especially when I have to baby-sit a vampire with a major crush on the Slayer.” She groaned as she continued walking, leaving him behind. “Plus, I don’t think I need special powers to see that one. I mean, it’s nigh time, we’re in a cemetery, who are we most likely to find besides newborn vampires? You don’t even need Sherlock Holmes’ reasoning abilities to figure that one out.”

“Fine, so I’m looking for her. Is that a crime?” he asked defensively as he fell into step with her.

“No. Not at all. Just don’t like you to think I’m that dumb that’s all” suddenly she wasn’t able to speak as she felt the vampire’s cold hand come to cover her mouth.

“She’s here.” He looked wildly around and then pointing at a bush near by ordered: “Hide there.”

“You want me to crawl into that bush and stay there while you make moon eyes at her? You’re out of your tiny mind fangy” the redhead asked in disbelief.

The vampire sighed at the sound of his new nickname and decided to counterattack:

“Come on, freckles. It’s just a favour, I’m asking.” Spike looked at her with pleading eyes.

“Freckles?” Her hand came to rest self-consciously on her nose over the small brown spots that paved her perfectly white completion. She looked up with a pout and a frown and the vampire gave her his best ‘innocent schoolboy’ look. ”Oh, ok. Fine!” she sighed rolling her eyes as she agreed, but not before making her discontent evident by her extreme sulk and the way she dug her feet into the ground as she made her way towards the bush.

Just as she kneeled and fell out of sight, from behind a tree the small blond appeared.

“Slayer!” Spike greeted with fake surprise.

“Spike…” she mumbled under her breath, intent on ignoring the annoying vampire as she passed by him without even giving him a glance.

“Is that the way to greet an old boyfriend?”

That simple statement had the blood in her veins boil up. In seconds, she whirled around and with her chin raised high, gazed at the vampire with deadly eyes.

“You were NEVER my boyfriend!” She spat out the words, sadistic satisfaction washing over her as she saw a hint of pain flash in his blue orbs. ‘If you had been my boyfriend you wouldn’t have gone around humping some dumb ho against a wall!’ she thought, but instead simply said: “You NEVER will be. Get that through your thick skull. No matter what you do, or should I say - who you do - I won’t change my mind.” Her brain raced as the images that had haunted her the past days sprung to mind. The pictures cut into her and she wanted to hurt him as much as he had her. She imagined herself dancing teasingly against some guy at the Bronze while he watched in the darkness. That single picture served to dull the pain in her. “You’re a pig Spike and I hate you. I don’t, I will NEVER, love YOU.” And with that she turned on her heels and left him there, every single word seeping into him, pulling at him; a gut-wrenching pain running inside of him, dilacerating everything in its track.

It took a few seconds for him to realise that his strange roommate now stood next to him. He looked into her raven eyes and found something he hadn’t seen yet - empathy. As the pain washed away, anger and humiliation took over and with a hoarse voice he growled under his breath:

“Don’t say a thing.”

~*****************************************************************************************~

She turned in her bed as Spike’s thought’s flashed in front of her eyes. A mixture of pain and hatred brew in her as she thought of all he had gone through for that girl.

“Stubborn little…” she murmured to herself.

The worst was the images she had gotten from her the few time she had seen her. She couldn’t really understand them. Sometimes it was clear she felt something for the vampire who was now torturing his and her mind upstairs, but others… Like just a few moments before, she had had the clear image of Spike, his back turned to her. Somehow, that single image instilled more anger and hatred in the short girl than any other she had captured from the vampire. Slowly, she forced her mind to remember more details of it and then she saw it… a small feminine hand curling its fingers around short platinum hairs. As she joined the series of images together she got the unmistakable movement of two bodies grinding against each other; the smaller one’s identity concealed behind Spike’s broad shoulders.

“She was jealous…” As realisation hit her, a mischievous grin took over her pale lips. Maybe there was something there she could work with. Her mind raced as she quickly sketched out a plan. Suddenly, her smile crumbled. “I can’t interfere.” She remembered. “It’s not fair…” she sulked as yet another inner conflict grew inside of her. “I mean, the guy’s up there grilling himself and *me* with images of her and I can’t do anything about it.” She crossed her arms around herself and remained perfectly still for a few seconds. Soon, her Eureka moment struck and she was sitting on the bed. “I can’t interfere using my powers. And I won’t use my powers, I’ll just use good old fashion jealousy…” her lips pulled sideways for another one of her trademark smiles. “Now all I have to figure out is where she is gonna be tonight?” She was off the bed and going through her shopping bags as the image of Buffy dancing in, what looked like a club, flashed before her eyes.

“Oh, this is going to be fun. I missed this.” She thought as she pulled out one of her new outfits as laid it on the bed.