Willow heaved great sobs as she watched her book bounce off the door and
clap to the floor with anticlimactic thud.

After a few moments, the doorknob twisted and the door swung open. Summoning
all her courage, she sent another book flying at the doorway.

"FUCK YOU, ANGELUS!" she shouted.

"Bleeding Christ, pet, are you trying to take my head off?"

She looked up. A shirtless Spike was standing in her doorway, grinning
wickedly.

"What do you want, Spike?" she demanded, pulling the sheets over her bare
skin. Spike tried to hide his disappointment. He closed the door behind him.

"I just thought you might like some company until Daddy comes home, he tends
to wander about until he calms down, could be hours," he shrugged. "Unless
of course, you want to be left sitting in a dark room alone."

"No!" she cried, not wanting to let the urgency in her voice sound pathetic.
He grinned and sat in Angelus' chair. The chair where Angelus had thoroughly
debauched Willow the night before. His eyes fluttered slightly as the smell
of sex and leather washed over him.

Willow tucked the sheet around her body and sat on the edge of the bed.

"So I guess you and I should get better acquainted," he said. "You're going
to be around for a while."

"I guess so," she said. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," he shrugged.

"Was this some sort of tragic accident or did he actually plan this?"

Spike lit a cigarette and pulled a long thoughtful drag. He rose and sat
next to her on the bed. Not too close, she noticed. Just close enough.

"He's spoken of nothing but you since the night he lost his bloody soul," he
said. "Willow this and Willow that. He knows every inch of you. At the
mansion, he has this room completely devoted to sketches of you. It's like a
shrine. Even I'm not allowed in there. He loves you, pet. Like nothing I've
ever seen before. After driving the Slayer insane, I'd say you're his life's
pursuit."

She laughed despite herself. She plucked the luxurious sheet between her
fingers. Spike watched her fidgeting with the eyes of a man a hair's breath
from ecstasy.

He had been captured by the little redhead before Angelus had even noticed
her. While soul-boy mooned over the rancid little Slayer, Spike had made
Willow his quiet obsession. He would follow her and study her like a work of
art, absorbing every detail of her angelic face, her mannerisms, her life.
He knew her favorite foods, her favorite books, even her favorite movies.

Then Angelus came bumbling into his life again like a bull in a china shop
and staked a claim on Spike's fire goddess. He told every minion that she
was under his protection and anyone cuaght touching her would beg for death.

Even Spike, a favoured childe, couldn't disobey such a decree. That night
while hunting, Spike had wept like schoolboy and took out his frustrations
on the unwitting night-wandering population of Sunnydale.

Now he sat inches away from his ideal, the object of his devotion and it was
all he could do not to reach out to stroke her satiny skin. He was glad he
didn't have to breathe, he knew he would probably be panting. Knowing she
was nude beneath the sheet was torturous. The only thing that kept him sober
was the stench of his sire's claim on her.

"If he loves me," Willow said. "Then why does he..."

"Treat you like a bit of fluff?" Spike chuckled. "It's just his way of not
becoming too involved too quickly. He wants to show he still has control,
it's sort of like when Xander used to dump bucketfuls of sand over your head
when you were kids."

"How did you know about that?" she asked, her head tilted at the most
beautiful angle. Her pulse beat in a hypnotic tango beneath her skin.

Spike cleared his throat. "I'm just guessing."

"Good guess," Willow grinned.

Spike's silent heart swelled with pride knowing he was the cause of that
smile. His long cool fingers twined between hers.

"Willow, I-"

"Spikey," a soft feminine voice lisped from the doorway. "You know Daddy
says we're not supposed to be in here with Mummy."

Spike and Willow turned to see Dru standing in the doorway. Willow grinned.
Spike beckoned to her. Dru flounced across the room, Miss Edith in tow. She
plopped in Spike's lap and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Spikey likes Mummy very much," she nodded.

"Good to know," Willow said solemnly. Spike winked at her. She felt so safe
with these two strange creatures. At home. As if they were truly her family.
They had a kinship, a fearful love of Angelus.

"Why don't you keep Mummy company, princess," Spike kissed Dru's cheek with
a loud smack. "I'll go downstairs and arrange the most beautiful tea ever
consumed by two grand ladies such as yourselves."

"Tea!" Dru clapped happily. "Can we have cakes, too? Miss Edith loves cakes.
So does Mummy. Don't you, Mummy?"

The dark-haired vampiress turned to her.

"As long as they're chocolate," Willow grinned.

Spike left the room with a flourished bow. Dru giggled.

"What?" Willow asked.

"Mummy's naked."

"Oh," Willow blushed. "Well, Daddy saw fit to steal my clothes."

"What about this?" Dru asked, holding up the green nightie.

"Oh, I coudn't," Willow said.

"You can and you will," Dru said, dropping the gown over her head and
pulling the sheet from Willow's body. She plucked the necklace from its box
and fastened it around Willow's throat. Then she pulled the readhead's hair
in a neat chignon.

"Perfect," Dru said. She took a silver-backed hairbrush from her pocket.
"Will you brush my hair now, Mummy, please?"

Willow grinned and took the brush. She ran it through Dru's thick dark hair,
humming a lullabye her great-grandmother used to sing to her when Willow
couldn't settle down for her nap.

"That's nice," Dru sighed.

Spike had been watching from the doorway for nearly five minutes before he
had the heart to break them up. If it were possible, he would say his love
for Willow had just increased tenfold.

"Tea time," he called.

"Yay!" Dru helped him arrange the service at Willow's table.

"I'll leave you ladies to your cookies and gossip," Spike grinned. "Willow,
there's a treat for you under your napkin."

Willow's eyebrow arched. After the blonde left the room, she picked up her
napkin. It was covering a very old, very rare edition of The Secret Garden.
Her favorite childhood book.

How did he now that?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Mummy, do you want the last cake?" Dru asked, child-like wanting edging her
voice.

"I'm stuffed," Willow said, raising her hands. "You take it, love."

"If you insist," Dru grinned, happily tucking the tea cake into her mouth.
Willow laughed.

She had just spent a very pleasant hour chatting and snacking with one of
the most feared, most destructive vampiresses in history- who called her
Mummy and like to have her hair braided in pigtails.

Angelus nearly roared with rage when he saw his chamber door open. His
stormed to the entrance, ready to have a howling fit when he heard Dru's
childish prattling.

"Do I really look like the girl in the story?" Dru asked as Willow finished
off a pigtail.

"Pippi Longstockings?" Willow said. "Yes, only her hair was red."

Angelus stopped. His troubled childe had finally found a playmate. A
playmate who would return her love and wasn't in danger of Dru pulling her
head off. It didn't hurt that Willow was the most cherished human in his
world.

He sighed. Finally, contentment for Dru.

"Red like yours?" Dru asked. "Can my hair be red like yours?"

"But yours is so pretty black," Willow said. "Besides, redheads always gets
freckles, you don't want those."

"But you don't have freckles," Dru said.

"You haven't seen all of her," Angelus grinned. "She has the most adorable
cluster of freckles on her inner thigh, it looks like Orion."

Willow blushed furiously. She turned, hating the fact that Angelus' smoky
eyes were taking in her form. Thanks to Dru's fussing, he was dressed
exactly how he had instructed. And she suddenly hated it. She narrowed her
eyes at Angelus.

"OOhhh!" Dru gasped. "Let me see! Let me see!"

"Not right now, love," Angelus said, kissing Dru's forehead. "Mum and I have
things to discuss."

"Alright," Dru whined. "But I'll come back soon and you'll show me, right,
Mummy?"

"Sure," Willow smiled and nodded, letting Dru kiss her cheek. Dru kissed
Angelus' cheek as well.

"Play nice," she told him.

"Yes, ma'am," he nodded.

He turned to his concubine.

"Well, Willow," he said.

"Well, what?" she asked.

"Will you let me?" he asked, appraoching her. His hands ran along the soft
skin of her arms. "Will you let me play nice?"
 

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