Tara watched Spike carefully over the next few days. He had started limiting his time at the gym considerably. She still couldn't believe she hadn't noticed he'd been spending six hours a day there.
She and Buffy had first requested he quit cold turkey but he insisted he was getting stronger. This was something he'd apparently never given much thought to. His strength was considerable, but he'd never deliberately built it up before and he was now feeling serious results.
Tara hoped it would be all right and wouldn't encourage the disorder she was worried his was developing. Tara paid attention in psychology class and they had covered Body Dimorphic Disorder and EDNOS and she thought of Spike now when she reread her notes.
They had cover Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, too, and she often thought of Xander when she studied that.
Xander was over almost constantly now. Tara didn't mind at all, he was good humored and he'd help out if asked. And she thought he needed to get away from the situation at home. But he was displaying a clingy, almost childish attachment to Buffy and even more so to Spike.
Spike didn't seem to be bothered. He was spending a lot of time with Xander lately, even more than before.
They watched television, went surfing, played video games, and even had pick-up games of basketball on the campus courts while they were waiting for classes to let out.
But they didn't talk about anything significant. Tara listened to the conversations they had and they were typical male conversations and often completely ridiculous.
Tara had found them arguing for forty-five minutes over whether astronauts or cavemen would win a fight.
She'd listened to them bicker and find disgusting jokes funny. She'd listened to an entire argument over which of them was gayer.
But they never brought up the mansion, or Angelus at all.
They were sprawled on the sofa eating Cheetos and watching South Park at the moment.
Tara was fresh from her last exam and feeling beyond relieved. She sat on the armchair and watched the antics on screen. She even laughed a few times, though not at the fat jokes.
When Xander got up to get a drink, she finally asked, “Have you talked about what happened last week with Xander?”
Spike looked up, this interrupting good commercials was becoming a habit, “No.”
“Don't you think you should?”
“No. If he wants to talk I'm here. He hasn't said anything so I'm not going to.” Spike picked up the remote and flicked through the channels to pass the time.
Tara was stumped, “But don't you think he needs to talk about it?”
Spike put down the remote, “I thought about how I felt when it was me. I just wanted to forget everything. I didn't want anyone to know or to talk. Sometimes talking about it just makes it worse.”
Tara was about to comment further but Xander came back in with two cans of soda.
“Oh, sorry. Did you want one, Tara?”
Tara shook her head mutely, mind whirling.
* * *
Buffy practically skipped out of her English final. The last one! She wouldn't have to write another exam until… April.
Her mood darkened just a bit.
But she spotted Willow and Tara cheering on the grass at the basketball court and picked up her pace.
She couldn't let them out cheer her, after all. It was her boyfriend and she was the one who had made the squad in High School.
Well, auxiliary anyway.
She dropped her book one the grass and sat down.
“Hey, Buffy. How did English go?” Willow looked back from the action in front to ask.
“Fine. The essay question was a breeze but I think I missed a few short answer.” Buffy returned her own attention to the court.
It was a friendly game, Spike was moving at a quarter speed of what Buffy knew he was capable of and he kept letting Xander get a hold of the ball.
“GO Spike!” Buffy called out, wishing she had her pompoms. It figured, now that there was something worth cheering on, they were buried in her mother's basement next to her finger paintings.
Spike turned to give her a grin and sent the ball through the hoop with a relaxed flick of the wrist.
Xander gave up, “That's it I'm beat.” He strolled over to the girls, “I should have known better than to challenge someone who doesn't need to breathe.” He puffed.
Spike dribbled the ball looking a bit put out. Buffy leapt up, “My turn. Now that you're all warmed up for me. Let's see what you've got.”
The game got considerably faster.
Buffy was having the time of her life, it wasn't often she didn't have to hold back with someone.
It was a game of Twenty-One and it was intense. They were neck and neck the entire time. Buffy dodged and faked, she dribbled and weaved.
And at the end, “Twenty-One! I win!” Buffy crowed.
Then she froze, realizing what she had just done. She had just beaten her boyfriend in front of everyone. Admittedly it had been a very narrow margin of victory, but still.
She looked over at Spike to find him grinning from ear to ear. He leaned in for a kiss.
She relaxed against him. He didn't care. She had won and he wasn't threatened by it.
The kiss deepened, Buffy felt the now familiar buzz that signaled the special kind of arousal that Spike stirred within her. The uncontrollable kind. The overwhelming kind. The I-forget-my-name kind.
The loud throat clearing from their left made them part, reluctantly. Buffy blinked at Riley Finn and his friends in surprise.
“We were wondering if you might want to move your little make-out session off the court so the people who are here to play can have a turn.”
Buffy flushed and stuttered an apology but the T.A's face was unfriendly and almost accusing. Buffy was still in an exploratory phase of her sexuality and uncomfortable with the public nature of this confrontation.
She walked quickly off the court and Spike moved to follow her, rolling his eyes at the entire situation. Once upon a time he would have ripped the wanker throat out for much less than interrupting he and his girl. But Buffy didn't want to shut the twit down so he couldn't either.
When he heard what the git muttered to his friends he reconsidered that thought completely.
Well, 'reconsidered' an exaggeration. Spike didn't stop to think at all.
He had the larger man pinned to the pole so fast his friends didn't have time to shout a warning.
He grasped Riley's throat with one hand and lifted him a full foot off the ground, “WHAT DID YOU SAY?”
Buffy was there, pulling at his arm, so he let the bastard's feet touch the ground, “Spike! What are you doing?”
“Why don't you repeat what you said? Word for word.”
Riley muttered something, wanting to be anywhere but here. It was one thing to be humiliated in front of his friends like this, but he was actually really regretting what he had said in the first place.
“SO SHE CAN HEAR YOU!” Spike snarled.
Xander, Willow and Tara were now flanking them. Riley's friends were trying to get in closer but Buffy shoved them back almost absently.
“I said- I said she was a slut. She was with Parker not that long ago now she's with- with you.” Riley's voice was strained from the strangling but it nearly failed him completely when he saw Buffy's face.
It was one of disbelief and then he saw tears shining in her eyes.
What would his mother say if she knew what he had been saying about a girl? He'd been upset to begin with. The Initiative was over. The destruction of the labs was so extensive there would be no funding to rebuild them. Everyone in the unit was being sent off to other projects. Riley himself would be in Belize in a week's time. It was a demotion, really.
Seeing Buffy kissing someone else was just the icing on the cake and he'd said something horrible in the heat of the moment.
* * *
Buffy felt cold all over. Every little insecurity she'd ever had was suddenly out there. He thought she was a slut.
Buffy didn't know how much she loved sex until Spike and she thought about it all the time. It was really excessive. She had wondered if Spike would think she was dirty if he knew how much she wanted it and how often.
This man saw her as dirty. Nice girls didn't sleep around. Nice girls didn't REALLY want sex that much. They were just clean and smelled good and kept their legs closed so tight they had to be pried open.
But Spike was enraged on her behalf; he encouraged every thing she wanted to do. He told her she was a hell of a woman, any man's dream, so responsive and free. He said he loved that about her.
Buffy thought about the word 'slut' and she made what she thought was a mature, reasonable response.
She broke the bastard's nose.
* * *
“Buffy!” Willow cried, wincing at the gush of blood from the man still being supported by the pole. Buffy wasn't supposed to hit people! Demons and vampires yes, but not people!
Well, except Willie. And Faith.
And there were a few in High School now that she thought about it.
And Riley was a big jerk.
Willow had been thinking up a few good hexes for him anyway. Maybe it was best Buffy dealt with it herself.
* * *
Buffy was still fuming the whole way home, “How dare he? I mean, he doesn't even know me! And hello, I've slept with three guys my entire life! Three guys so isn't enough to make me a slut, is it?”
She didn't pause long enough to given them time to respond, “And who invented that horrible word anyway? Why is it that guys can sleep around willy nilly and they're just players. A girl has sex a few times and she's like a whore! How many women have you slept with Spike? It must be like a hundred.”
This time she seemed to want an answer, Spike swallowed, this was never good, “Women? Um, Dru, Darla, Akasha, Julia, and you. Five, pet.”
Buffy stopped then, “Five? That's it? And you're how old? You've only slept with five people in a hundred and twenty-six years! I've slept with more than half of that and I'm only nineteen! Men, I mean, not women. God, maybe I am a big 'ho.”
Spike rolled his eyes, “Well, I've slept with three of them in less than a year so if anyone's getting points for sluttishness I'm up on you. And you aren't a slut, love. There isn't any such thing. It's just a disgusting word someone came up with to keep women in their place.”
Tara smiled, “Someone remembers everything they learned from The Vagina Monologues.”
Buffy's head snapped back to her boyfriend, “You went to The Vagina Monologues? I haven't even gone.”
“It was a bloody good show, love. We should take you next time there's one in L.A.”
Tara grinned, “Yeah, Spike was really into it. When we were coming out of the theater he told me he had vagina-envy.”
Everyone laughed and the tension went down considerably.
“What? I bloody do! They're a hell of a lot better than this thing!” He gestured to his crotch, “Now I'm up, now I'm down. Give me the slightest kick and you'll spend an hour rolling on the ground in agony. What? You need to go write something on the chalkboard for the teacher? Here's a bloody huge boner then for absolutely no reason.”
Buffy almost fell down laughing.
“And they all look more or less the same. I've never seen two vaginas that looked alike. They're like snowflakes. But prettier.” Buffy managed to get control of herself and gave him a kiss to shut him up.
“We get it Spike. You aren't a leg man-“
“*I* have bloody legs, why would I be attracted to them?”
Buffy continued, “Or a breast man-“
“Well, not that they aren't lovely.”
“You're a vagina man all the way. I think it's the first time I've ever met one and I'm glad you're all mine.”
* * *
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