Who is Who ((COMPLETED))

Chapter 7, Old and New Friends
Better late than...oh, whatever-she was in a hurry, Buffy thought as she got ready for the Scoobie meeting at the Bronze. Feeling more like a giddy teenager than a slayer tonight, anyone who did not know her would have thought she was preparing for a hot date. She had told Dawn and Willow to meet her there. However, she certainly didn't want to look too deeply into why she was going to all this trouble. Running from the Double Meat Palace to her house, she had scrubbed off the smell and changed her clothes a total of 3 different times. Not too terrible but could have been more. After the first two outfits, she ran across Spike's duster tucked in the back of her closet. The smell of leather and smoke which clung to the duster brought all preparations to an abrupt halt as memories flew past her eyes. Buffy could easily picture him in that coat, hard not too, really. When her memories went to a time the coat covered them both up as they were passionately braced against the wall, she mentally shook herself and put the coat back into its hiding place. She knew he would want it back, but -finders keepers, after all.

What was she thng? ng? This was Spike. He had seen her in a lot less, even under a rug. Did it make a difference? Well, yeh. Duh!! Buffy shook herself harder this time and reminded herself that Spike was just here for business, slayer business not monkey business. So the next outfit had been more moderate, more slayerish. She should seriously consider looking for a boyfriend after Spike left. But that little voice in the back of her head asked if the new guy would be blonde, blue eyed, lean, sexy as hell, - Shut up, already!

Finally arriving at the Bronze, Buffy found only Willow and Xander at the table chatting.
His face rapidly changing from a dark frown undoubtedly caused by Spike to a smile, Xander looked her up and down, "Hey, Buffster, you look great!"

Buffy smiled her thank you, and looking around intently, she asked "Where is Dawn?" .

Xander nodded his head to the side, "Return of the Dead and his underage entourage are over at the pool tables."

Amused at Spike's predicament, Willow added, "Dawnie talked the Master Vampire into teaching her how to play. But I think she is mostly showing him off to her friends."

Following where Xander had indicated, Buffy saw her sister, the vamp, and 3 of her friends. All obviously insisting that they had no idea how to play pool and needed personal assistance. Dawn was having a blast!

Spike, however, knew the exact instant Buffy had walked in, since he had been watching the entrance closely for the last hour and was pleased to be able to watch her unobserved making her way towards the table. Soft with an underlying hardness, grace with power. He got hot just thinking about what she was capable of, and it had nothing to do with her Slayer abilities. Then he turned his attention back to the girls before anyone could see the look of longing. Besides, he found the attention from Dawn's friends novel and somewhat amusing. For so long he had shunned company, but now it was a pleasant change. They were so happy, innocent, open, so full of life. You couldn't help but hope for the best when around them. Definitely a nice change. The proverbial breath of fresh air especially for someone who didn’t breath. Not to mention, he enjoyed any time spent with Nibblet. So much like her sister, strong, but a nice mix of her mother, Joyce, who accepted him as he was but let him have it when he was out of line.

After letting the Slayer sit and stew for a bit, Spike made his and Dawn's excuses to her friends and joined the others at the table. He had rarely sat at the table during a Scoobie meeting in past times, but times had changed. He had changed. Whether the whelp, who was now trying to stare him down, wanted it or not, he was no longer taking a back seat to anyone.

The Slayer quickly brought Willow, Dawn and Xander up to speed with a concise, no frills description. In fact, Spike greatly enjoyed watching Buffy pick her words, carefully avoiding any mention of their sleeping together or that Captain Cardboard found his ex and this particular vamp in such an intimate state. As far as they knew, Spike was only connected due to information he and Giles had gathered in London. But he knew and judging by her blush and increased pulse, she was remembering, also.

Bringing Spike out of his revelry, he thought he would have to knock Xander out of his chair when the whelp suggested they should have called Riley instead. Surprisingly, Buffy headed him off with a simple "No, we've got Spike." What could he say after a shocking statement like that?

When she had finished the edited version of the story, Spike added information about the contact for the eggs. "The bloke we are looking for has a tattoo on his hand shaped like a large 'M' with a lightening bolt fitted into the bottom space of the letter.” When he looked up, Buffy caught his eye with a slight curve of her lips, silently acknowledging both their strategic omissions.

Xander, who had had enough, broke up the meeting. "Tattoo hunting it is. Use to looking for something a little larger, more threatening, but this will do for a change." Looking directly at Spike, "Buffy and I will patrol the north side. Willow, why don't you take Dawnie and Mr. Missing-In-Action to the north." Spike settled for a jab of his own, "I'm MIA? How’s your marriage? Oh, that’s right. She left you after you went MIA – at your own wedding." Buffy, "Good to see some things don't change, children. Ok, commander man, let's go. Catch up with you guys later."

Spike would have protested further, but when Dawn’s friends had seen the meeting break up, he was quickly way laid again.

*****

Stepping outside the Bronze, Willow and Dawn chatted while waiting for Spike to extract himself from his admirers. Both girls jumped when they heard slurred voices coming up close behind them.

“I told you this place would have better looking bitches,” said the taller of the two drunks approaching. Judging by their looks, they were college students indulging in a traditional binge drink-a-thon.

“I bet the red head could really set my sheets on fire,” the second one leered.

“Just ignore them, Dawnie.” Will told her in a decidedly dismissive tone. But subtlety was not happening with these two guys.

Bold due to their obvious excessive, they kept coming. The taller of the two appeared to be somewhat of the leader. “I bet the brunette is wearing a thong.”

“Let’s check and see,” the shorter one said making a grab for Dawn.

“Ew, you are SO drunk.” Dawn backed up from the overwhelming smell of alcohol until stopped against a wall.

The taller guy continued his advanced on Willow, all but drooling. “What a shame, two fine pieces of ass leaving by yourselves. Why don’t you come home with us?” Before Willow or Dawn could respond, Spike was there, expertly slamming Willow’s attacker into a wall who slumped down unconscious. Dawn watched, with mouth wide open, her friend’s transformation to demon protector. Eerily calm, Spike’s eyes shined yellow but Willow noticed that there were no ridges, as if he was still under control even though she knew he was enraged. The second one, who dared to paw Dawn, was lifted by the neck by the vamp, effectively choking off all breathing. “I am going to make this simple, even for a sodding pillock like you.” Spike enunciated every word carefully as if talking to a misbehaving child, but his words left no doubt of his intentions. “If you or any of your mates ever, *ever*, think about trying to prove your limp-dicked masculinity on any lady again, I want you to think of me. Think of me …slitting you open, stem to stern, …ripping out your intestines, …and stringing you up the nearest light post.” Now letting his fangs extend, “Crystal?” Giving this a moment to set in, Spike growled his final command, “remember me,” and knocked him out with one punch which undoubtedly broke his nose.

Turning to the two unusually quiet ladies, “Sorry ‘bout the language,” but stopping himself short of apologizing for his actions.

Dawn broke out her daze first, “That was too cool!!. Can you teach me to do that? The whole intimidation thing-y?”

Willow bent down to check for pulses. As if talking to herself, “They’re not dead, just unconscious.” Standing up, she looked at Spike. “Another shining example of human goodness. Why am I even surprised?”

“Ew, he wet himself.” Dawn stepped back.

Then it struck Willow and Dawn at once. Willow started, “Spike…Wait…your chip…”
“…didn’t work! Yes!” Dawn finished for her.

Spike tried to shrug it off, “A perk from my trip to Africa. Wasn’t just there sightseeing, ya know,” but regretting the loss of the newly earned but still tentative trust from these two. Maybe I can just bluff, Spike thought while waiting for the other shoe to drop.

But curiously Dawn was beaming, and Willow stared back down at the two creeps. “You know, before I would have already gone all hocus pocus. But this was satisfying… With no headache and nose bleeds later.” Starts to walk away, giving each a sharp kick. “Ok, now I feel better.”

Spike, never one for patience anyway, decided to go ahead and let the other bloody shoe drop. “Ok, tell the Slayer, but let me have a head start. I will leave town tonight…”

Looking up at Spike with no incrimination or distrust in her eyes, “Have you killed any humans?”

“I chose not to.” He stressed the word “chose” reminding Willow of her first email with Spike. Good or Evil, its all a choice. “Feed from any humans?”

“Only Butcher’s fare.”

“Do you regret this?” Willow asked, motioning at the two still bodies.

The answer was as direct as the question, “No.”

“That makes three of us, right Dawn?” Dismissing the whole incidence as the past with a wave of her hand, “What color are the tattoos we are looking for?”

Grabbing both their arms, Dawn pulled them away. “Maybe I could get some yellow contacts and fake teeth. I mean, I still need to be able to tan, don’t I?”

*****

Heading for home, which just happened to take her past Spike’s crypt, Buffy almost literally bumped into him.

Buffy, trying for casual, as if she ran into him all the time lately. “How’d it go?”

Spike shrugged, “Took care of a couple of garden-variety mashers, otherwise all quiet. Red and Lil Bit are back at the house.”

Buffy smiled. “We had some thrashing satisfaction. We found two minions with those tattoos and after some encouragement, slayer-style, they told us they were to pick them up tomorrow night. Though didn’t know where yet,. But gross, they looked like vamps but didn’t. They had yellow eyes and ridges in all the right places, but no fangs. Xander was able to stake his, but instead of dust, he got goo. Bright orange, sticky goo all over.”

Spike’s lips quirked up at the thought of Xander, the Human Fly Paper. “Where is the whelp now?”
“I sent him on home. It didn’t really go with his outfit.”

They shared a quiet laugh before Buffy continued. “They were kind of lame for vamps. Not even as strong as a fledgling. I am not even sure what they were.”

“Well, Vampire Slayer, you would be the one to know.”

An uncomfortable silence followed, and as Spike turned to leave, Buffy stalled for time. She had been Bitch Buffy last night and desperately wanted to be Rational Buffy tonight. “Willow told me you wouldn’t even come in the house last night. You could have. I’ve never had a disinvite spell performed.”

Spike looked up sharply and then away, “Well, you should have. I have no business in there anymore.”

Definitely not what she had expected him to say. Strange Spike behavior. Normally, he would jump at the chance to come in.

Buffy looked at him, slightly tilting her head, “Something’s different.”

“Your still the Slayer, and I’m still a disgusting vamp. I thought that was part of the standard script here. Slipping?”

Buffy chuckled, recognizing the familiar insolence, “No, something else is different about you. … Where’d you go?”

Knowing exactly what she was really asking, he hedged since this was a conversation Spike wanted to avoid for the short time he was back in SD. “To take your kid sis and Red home. Then here.”

“Funny. Where’d you go between Sunnydale and London?”

“Africa.”

“And…?”

“You know, Dark Continent, half way round the world, lots of desert.”

Buffy was starting to get annoyed, “AND what did you do there?”

Spike, however, was starting to have fun. “Evil stuff.” It had been so long since he had had the chance to bait her.

With hands now on her hip, “because you’re…”

“Evil.” He couldn’t believe she had fallen into that one.

“I promised myself that I would be nicer tonight. New Improved Buffy instead of Old, Bitch Buffy, but you make it really hard.” But there was no sting to comment due to her slight smile. He was nevertheless shocked at this turn in the conversation.

She continued, “I just thought we could…”

“Hey, guys!” came a cheerful greeting from a familiar wrinkled friend carrying the ever present sack of food.

Spike growled in frustration at the interruption. He would have given his next month’s hair dye to know what she had been going to say.

Buffy cheerfully greeted Clem. “Hey, yourself. Been shopping?”

“I got hungry on my way back from the poker game at the bar. What’s up with you two?
Spike, “Nothing now.”

Buffy, shooting Spike one of those looks women give men when they should have just kept their mouths shut. “We were just discussing…uhm…tattoos.” Buffy caught Spike hiding a smile out of the corner of her eye as he started to relax.

Clem continued on, “I thought about getting one,” starts lifting some of his folds, “but can’t seem to find the right place.” Now, she could see Spike’s shoulders starting to shake with silent laughter. “But, funny that you mention it, I met a guy tonight with a funny tattoo, more like a brand, actually. It was a “W” with a lightening bolt.”

At this, Spike was back in frustration mode, running a hand through his hair. Trust Clem to have such sodding blind luck. “Could it have been an “M” instead, mate?”

Perking up, “Sure.” Before Spike could even get out another question, Clem continued. “He was bragging about getting some eggs from the Clayton Crypt. I told him to go to the store instead. Those eggs have been refrigerated. Food poisoning can really get you down.” All Spike could do was thump his own forehead in a universal symbol of ‘duh!’ He should have tried the bar himself.

Buffy, however, knew what to do and gave him a quick hug. “Yea for Clem!” At the same time, she stuck out her tongue and wrinkled her nose at Spike, a universal symbol for ‘nanny, nanny.’

Clem wasn’t exactly sure what he had done, but it must have been good and stood there smiling.
Spike however was at a loss of what to do next. Not knowing whether to thump or kiss that beautiful imp’s nose since he had never been on the receiving in of Buffy being playful. So stunned, he did nothing.

Buffy stepped back. ”Clem, is that your winnings wiggling in your pocket.”

“Uh…Just a memento.”

“You guys are major league gross. Betting kittens.”

“Don’t lump me in this, Slayer. I’m not exactly welcome in that game anymore after the last person I took there.” Reminding them all of the night last fall a very drunk Buffy had first met Clem at a poker game.

Sheepishly, Clem said, “Oh, I remember. Sorry about that tight skin comment.”

Buffy smiled but stayed on the offensive. “At least I don’t cheat at poker.”

“Do not!” came from both Spike and Clem simultaneously. Both also had the good sense to stop before they dug an even deeper hole with the Slayer.

Buffy chuckled and held out her hand to Clem. Clem pulled out a small, gray kitten, handing it over to Buffy. She left cooing and petting the small fur ball. “We’ll find you a nice home. Yes, we will. Xander needs a room-y.”

Both watched her go, but true to nature, Spike couldn’t keep his mouth shut. “I could say something about ‘lucky pussy.’”

“Nah, too easy. Overdone.”

“But what I wouldn’t give to be furry right now.”

Clem slapped him on the back, “Come on, reruns of Alf are on in ten minutes. He gets to eat kittens, doesn’t he?”

*****

In the lower section of the crypt laying on his stomach naked in bed, Spike had finally fallen a sleep but came instantly awake as he felt his arms pulled down. When he realized that they were penned to his sides by someone pressing down on them, a very strong someone, his first coherent thought was ‘bugger.’ After he was finally able to focus his senses, his next was “Slayer” and stopped struggling.

When he felt what he thought was a lick on his right shoulder blade, he froze completely. Yes, it was her warm, moist tongue, he confirmed with a groan, as it started its sensuous path starting at his waist up his spine, not stopping until reaching the small hairs at the base of his neck. He could tell she was moving back down again when he felt her hair sweep lightly back down his body. Then her tongue started again, but lower than before, sending chills through out his body as she feathered the slick trails out to his ribs on either side.

He started to squirm, trying to make his erection, which was pressing painfully into the bed, more comfortable, but he could now feel her naked thighs were pressing down on his thighs, the tops of her feet caressing up and down his calves. Both feet gently spread his legs apart to allow her caresses better access to his inner thighs. His squirming only got worse, approaching desperation.
When the licks evolved into kisses with just a hint of teeth, and her breasts could be felt rubbing across his back, he couldn’t stand it anymore. Spike moved to flip her over under him … and fell off the bed, waking himself up.

Hearing the thump, Clem poked his head through the trap door, “You ok down there? By the way, Dawn’s here to see you…uh…” Now looking at his friend with concern, “Are you sure your ok? Won’t you get a headache if you keep banging your head on the floor?”

TBC