Willow was busy trying to ignore the vampire beside her. It was really odd working with Spike, and he still made her nervous. Even if he was cute. Really cute.

And he had that sexy grin that just screamed “I’m up to something.” That grin was probably one of the reasons she was so nervous around Spike. Well, that and the whole kidnapping thing. She doubted any kidnapping victims felt comfortable with their former abductors. Of course, she knew why she was the one chosen to work with Spike this time. All the bad guys knew who the Slayer was, so Buffy was out. Besides, some vampires still remembered the evil version of Willow that had wandered into the Bronze so many months ago. Willow shifted slightly in the outfit she was wearing. She silently vowed to never wear leather again.

Spike knew the little redhead was nervous, and he did little to alleviate her nerves. He was too busy trying not to stare at her. Staring at her would definitely be detrimental to his driving. But it was hard not to look at her. She had that red hair and all that white skin and was encased in that lovely leather ensemble.The pants were like a second skin, and the top was some sort of corset/crop top contraption that showed a quite a bit of skin. She was as pale as any vampire, and Spike was having a difficult time remembering that she wasn’t one of the undead.

“Spike?” The word was said softly, tentatively, but it still cause Spike to jump slightly as he was knocked out of his musings.

“Yes, Pet?”

“What is it with vampires and leather? I mean, all of you seem to be getting in touch with your inner cow or something. You’ve got your duster, Angelus wore leather pants, even Angel has a leather jacket. And the other-world me. She was dressed entirely in leather.”

Spike grinned slightly at Willow’s ramblings. She really was a rather adorable human. If he didn’t think the Slayer would break every bone in his body and leave him out to see the sunrise, he would have kissed Willow. And then he would have done a whole lot more. “I don’t know, love. A lot of vampires don’t wear leather. I just happen to like this thing,” he replied, gesturing to his duster. He pulled into the parking lot outside of Willie’s and turned to Willow. “You ready, pet?” Willow took a deep breath, then nodded. Spike smiled at her, then indulged himself by taking her hand and giving it an encouraging squeeze. “It’s showtime.”

The odd pair walked into Willie’s and claimed a table. It was time to make connections and see what was brewing on the Hellmouth. Things had been oddly quiet in Sunnydale, and Giles was worried that something was up. Most of the bad guys in town were unaware of Spike’s switch to the Slayer’s side, and those that weren’t would see Willow and presume that he had helped Buffy in order to get close enough to vamp the hacker. That, of course, would increase the respect the other vampires had for Spike. No one, save Angelus, had killed one of the Slayer’s friends,and that had been close to two years ago.

Spike saw the appreciative looks sent Willow’s way, and he had to hold back a growl. He had eyes, he knew Willow made a great-looking vampire, but that didn’t give any of the other vamps permission tolook at her. She was his. Or at least she was pretending to be. As one young vampire looked just a little too long, Spike draped his arm around Willow’s shoulder and growled. The redhead jumped in surprise, then turned questioning eyes on the blonde vampire.

“I don’t like the looks the others are giving you. You’re supposed to be mine,” Spike explained, silently contemplating using another tactic to prove that Willow was his. Willow nodded slowly and relaxed slightly, but Spike could tell she was a little worried by his words. Maybe the other vamps didn’t buy her as a vampire, or they didn’t believe that Spike would really want her, or...

Her thoughts came to an abrupt stop as Spike’s lips came in contact with hers. She opened her mouth to ask just what Spike thought he was doing, only to find Spike’s tongue inside her mouth. At that,she decided that she didn’t really care what Spike was doing. She was going to enjoy it. And she would have, too, if some jerk hadn’t tossed Spike halfway across the room. She turned on the intruder, ready to give him a piece of her mind, and her jaw dropped in shock.

“Angel?”

The vampire didn’t have any time to reply as Spike jumped him from behind. The two began to pummel each other, and Willow yelped as she was grabbed from behind.

“Willow? Are you okay? You’re not evil, are you?” Willow blinked slowly as she processed the fact that Cordelia was looking ather with concern.

“Uh, yeah, I’m fine. And human.” She jumped as a particularly loud crash sounded. She turned to see the two vampires in what appeared to be a fight to the death. “We’ve got to stop them,” she cried, rising from her seat.

The man with Cordelia reached out to stop her, but he was too late. As she grabbed Angel, she took a sharp elbow to the chin and fell to the floor.

Angel turned to stare in horror at the semi-conscious redhead. Spike dropped to his knees beside her.

“Look what you did, you bloody idiot,” he spat out, glaring at his sire. He leaned in close, waiting until Willow looked at him.“Are you okay, pet?”

“You know what, Spike? You have the most beautiful blue eyes.” And with that, she passed out.

“Great,” Angel muttered. “Now she’s delusional.”

“Why? Because she thinks Spike has nice eyes?” Cordelia asked. She put her hand under the blonde’s chin and turned his face towards hers. “He does have pretty eyes. And they are blue. Therefore, Willow is not delusional. Unconscious, but not delusional.” She sighed and stood, dusting her skirt off. “Now can we please get out of here before someone tries to eat us? Blood does not go with this outfit.”

Angel reached down to pick up the redhead only to have Spike growl at him.

The man with Angel and Cordelia rolled his eyes at the senseless posturing. “I’ll carry her,” he said taking the tiny young woman in his arms.

“And just who the bloody hell are you?” Spike growled.

“I’m Doyle. I work with Angel and Cordelia. Saving souls and the like. And I apparently help damsels in distress as well,” he answered, shifting the bundle in his arms. “Let’s get out of here.”

The small group left Willie’s, and walked toward their cars, which happened to be parked next to each other.

Spike opened his door and went to reach for Willow. Angel pushed him back. “You really expect me to let her ride with you?”

Spike snorted. “You’re the bloke who knocked the girl unconscious. Besides, she rode here with me and arrived unscathed.” He then turned to Doyle, who had put Willow in the front seat of the car and was now climbing into the back. “What are you doing?”

Doyle shrugged. “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m riding with you and Willow. That way Angel won’t have to worry about her, and we can leave. By the way, where exactly is it that we’re leaving to?”

Spike sighed, an odd thing for a vampire to do, but he was a bit annoyed. His sire always had a way of mucking things up. If Angel had stayed in LA like he was supposed to, Willow would most likely still be kissing him instead of ending up slumped in the front seat of his car with what was probably a mild concussion. “We’ll head to the mansion. I live there, and it's generally what the Slayer and her friends use as headquarters these days.” He shot a nasty look at his sire. “But you’re the one who’s going to have to tell the Slayer why her friend’s not awake and rambling.”

Angel returned the glare. “And you’re the one who’s going to have to explain why you were kissing Willow. If Buffy doesn’t stake you for it, I will.” With that warning, Angel climbed into his car.

Spike growled slightly, then got into his own car and left.

The ride to the mansion was uneventful. Doyle prudently refrained from asking any questions about what was going on between Spike and Willow, and Spike discovered that he didn’t mind the company of the half-demon. Once they reached the mansion, Spike scooped the now conscious but only semi-coherent redhead into his arms and headed inside. The Slayer and her friends were sitting in various places around the living room:

Buffy and the recently de-ratted Amy on a table, Xander and Anya on the floor. Only Giles was actually sitting in a chair. Oz was in the cage that had been erected for when his time of the month came around.
P> Buffy looked up as Spike entered with Willow and Doyle and jumped off the table. “What happened? Is Willow okay?”

“She’ll be fine,” Spike replied, gently setting her on the couch. “As for what happened, why don’t you ask your ex-boyfriend?”

Buffy turned to the doorway, where Angel and Cordelia now stood. Cordelia strolled in and sat on the loveseat. “Angel did it.”

“It was an accident!” the vampire protested, slightly worried that Buffy might attack him. With Xander backing her all the way. “I thought Spike was attacking her, so I attacked him...” the vampire trailed off as he realized how ridiculous the situation was.

“And while you were attacking Spike, you thought, ‘What the heck? Why not go after Willow, too?’” Xander retorted.

Willow groaned from her position on the couch. “Would you stop with the talking? It makes my head hurt.” She sighed, then answered Xander’s question for Angel. “I tried to stop them from fighting and took an elbow to the jaw. I’ll be fine, though.” She looked at the man standing beside Spike. “Who are you?”

“I’m Doyle. I would have introduced myself earlier, but you were a bit unconscious. I work with Angel and Cordelia.” The others greeted Doyle, but Xander seemed lost in thought.

“Xander? Are you okay?” Buffy asked.

He nodded, then turned to Spike. “So, White Fang, why exactly did Deadboy think you were attacking Wills?”

If possible, Spike turned even paler than normal.

Buffy turned to him curiously. “Yeah, Spike. Why?”

“Wouldn’t we all rather find out what Angel’s doing back in town?” Spike asked, almost hoping that some kind of terrible evil was trying to take over the world so that he could get out of the mess he was in.

“My father’s having his hearing for that stupid tax evasion thing, and I convinced Angel and Doyle to come down to Sunnydale with me. Things have been pretty quiet up in LA. We thought maybe we’d offer you guys some help down here,” Cordelia answered.

“Thank you for the offer, but things seem to be rather quiet here as well,” Giles replied, turning his attention to Spike. He, too, was curious as to what the blonde had done to incur Angel’s wrath.

Cordelia nodded, then grinned wickedly. “So, Spike, why don’t you tell us all about how you were kissing Willow when Angel attacked you? I’m sure it’ll make an interesting story.”

Spike blanched.

Doyle snickered.

Anya gasped.

Xander began to hyperventilate.

Willow sighed. “He kissed me to make the other vamps think I was his. It was to protect me, and to keep the other vamps from getting any ideas. It’s not like he actually wanted to kiss me. He had to.”

Buffy walked up to Spike, a dangerous glint in her eye.

“Is this true, Spike?”

Spike nodded slightly. “I needed the others to think she was mine.” Buffy searched his face, apparently satisfied with what she saw.

“Okay. Then you get to live.”

“Fine. Now that my unlife is no longer in danger, why don’t I take the little witch to a room where she can rest? She took a rather nasty hit.”

Buffy nodded and stepped aside, allowing Spike to reach down and scoop Willow up off the couch. He took her to his room and placed her gently on the bed. He rummaged through his drawers, finding a black T-shirt and tossing it to her. "Here, put this on. I imagine the leather doesn’t make it easy to rest. I’ll go get you some water or something.” Spike rushed out of the room, afraid he would jump her if he stayed while she was changing. When he returned with a glass of water, her leather outfit had been tossed unceremoniously on the floor, and she was curled up under the covers wearing his T-shirt. He set the water on the nightstand by the bed, careful not to stare at her. He turned to leave.

“Spike?”

“What, Pet?”

“Are you okay? I mean, you’re not mad at me or anything, are you?”

“Why would you think that?”

“I don’t know. I just do.”

“I’m not mad at you, pet,” he began, sitting on the edge of the bed. “I’m a bit mad at myself. I shouldn’t have kissed you. It’s not that I didn’t want to kiss you. I did. More than you need to know. I’d wanted to kiss you all night. Maybe I used the looks from the stupid vampires in Willie’s as an excuse.”

Willow was staring at him, astonished. “You...you wanted to kiss me?”

“Didn’t I just tell you I wanted to, love?” he murmured, gently touching the bruise that was appearing on her chin.

Willow leaned a bit closer to the vampire.

“Do you think you could kiss me again?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

“I think I can do that,” Spike replied as he touched his lips to hers.

A lone figure turned from the doorway where she had been watching the entire scene. Things were working out rather well for her friends.

Sure, Spike was a bloodsucking demon, but he really seemed to care about Willow. When he’d said that he needed the others to believe that Willow was his, Buffy had seen the truth of the statement in his eyes. He really wanted to be with Willow, and he would protect her at all costs. Buffy grinned as she took one last look at the still-kissing couple, then turned and headed back to the living room. Spike would be good for Willow. Plus, he was cute.

Really cute.

The End
 

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