Spike couldn't remember the last time he had felt such a sense of terrified hopefulness. After nearly driving Willow away through his own blinding anger, they were finally starting to work things out. 'With Cordelia's help,' Spike thought with a soft chuckle.
Their amateur therapist had sat them down, and glared at them imperiously until he and Willow had awkwardly dredged up their feelings and laid them out. It was significantly more vulnerability inducing than when they had been hurling their complaints out so quickly and filled with self-righteous anger that neither of them had been capable of hearing the other.
Spike had never felt comfortable in laying out his emotions for inspection. Oh, he'd wallowed in self-pity for all to see, he'd sobbed into his beer bottles and whined to anyone who would listen, but he'd never actually sat down and picked himself and his reactions apart. 'I felt like Angel, that bloody poof,' Spike thought disdainfully.
"Will you stop pacing already!" Xander snapped, glaring at Spike from the couch on which he had taken up temporary residence. "Don't show 'em any impatience, or they'll tear you apart," he added quickly when Spike snarled at him irritably. "I would have figured that you'd know a thing or two about patience by now," Xander muttered.
"Shut up or I'll tear your bloody tongue out!" Spike growled. 'Wonderful, I have the boy blunder giving me advice about women. The only thing that would make this wait more enjoyable would be having the wanker and his Slayer here.' Spike glanced over his shoulder suspiciously, peering out of the screen door into the night. It was, afterall, the Hellmouth -- and with it's infinite possibility for cruelties, Angel and Buffy could indeed have ended up on the Rosenberg doorstep.
"And then you'd have to explain that to Willow. And you're about as whipped as Angel, so I'd like to see _that_!" Xander replied peevishly, casting a quick glance at his watch.
Spike stiffened, 'whipped?!' "Don't tempt me, or I just may take you up on that, you bloody whelp." 'No wonder most vampires don't take up with mortal women -- they'd have to put up with their friends.'
The sound of high heels against the floorboards sent both men's heads swinging towards its source. Cordelia stood at the top of the stairs, her hands on her hips and her mouth drawn into a fierce scowl. "I leave you two alone for a minute, and what happens?! I told you not to get here so early, Xander!" Cordelia said, but her eyes were soft when she looked at the boy.
Xander scrambled to his feet, a wide grin on his face, as Cordelia gracefully descended the stairs, her skirt shifting with each step. "But I couldn't possibly stay away from you a moment longer, Cordy my dear," he said, bowing extravagantly before drawing her into his arms.
"Don't mess my makeup, Xander!" Cordelia squealed laughingly as her boyfriend planted an enthusiastic kiss upon her lips.
Spike ignored the two teens, his eyes glued to the spot that Willow had appeared at. She smiled down at him shyly, and Spike found a responding smile surfacing on his lips. Willow moved down the stairs, her eyes focused on his. She hesitated on the last step, her hand resting on the banister lightly. "Hey," she said softly, almost awkwardly.
" 'Lo, luv," Spike responding, his heart constricting painfully. Mentally, he hadn't expected things to fall back into place so quickly, but emotionally, he hadn't been quite so prepared for the uncertainty between them as they faced each other. 'We went for jokes about shagging to... whatever this is.'
"Damn it," Xander said, his voice invading the silence that they had been immersed in. "You two are getting as sickening as Buffy and Angel. Bad enough that we have another vampire/human _thing_ around here, but all we needed was another Angel with those _eyes_!"
Spike growled at Xander absently, his main attention still focused on the flushed young woman before him. She was dressed casually in jeans and a dark green sweater, but Spike thought that he had never seen her looking so beautiful. 'Maybe because this is the first time in weeks that she hasn't been looking at me with heartbreak in her eyes.'
"As sweet as this is, I think I have to echo Xander's sentiments. Let's _move_!" Cordelia chimed in purposefully.
It was waiting. The whole world... moon and stars and the air itself. Actions yet untaken hung heavy in the night hair, so powerful a shift in the fabric of what-was that she could feel the pressure of change against her pale skin.
Daddy hovered in the back of her mind, riding her actions, his excitement trickling into her thoughts until his feelings were hers. His voice murmured inside of her, filling the blessed silence that the moon and the stars and the air had left inside of her. Hard, edgy, eager excitement shifting from him to her.
Her game face slid into place, and narrowed golden eyes peered into the deepening darkness. Fangs flashed from between parted red lips, and her tongue darted out, tasting the night air.
Change was coming, destruction in the air, death riding in her mind.
"This is nice," she sighed happily, her head leaning against the vampire's arm. He rumbled his agreement, and Buffy smiled. "It seems like forever since we've done something like this, just the two of us..."
It wasn't difficult to recall why, either. But Buffy shoved aside all thoughts of Angelus, Spike and Willow, Drusilla and the Sidhri, determined that she would have at least one night to pretend that all was right in the world, and happiness was hers for the taking. Her fingers wound with Angel's, and at that moment, happiness didn't seem quite so far away.
"I've missed this, too," Angel admitted. "After everything that happened... I wasn't sure that I'd ever get the chance to enjoy this again." He looked down tenderly, his heart clenching painfully as he fought the longing to drawn Buffy into his arms and never let her go.
Sometimes, when the memories of his torturous stay in Hell woke him screaming in the night; or when he looked into Giles or the children's eyes and say a darkness that hadn't existed within them before Angelus, he felt that leaving Sunnydale and it's memories behind would be the best thing for him to do.
And then, he would look at Buffy, and nothing in the world seemed harder to do. Beyond that selfish desire to remain with the Slayer, Angel's determination to see to Willow's safety also kept him firmly in place. Especially since Drusilla's return.
"Hey, none of that, Angel!" Buffy chided gently, the slight tension seeping from the vampire informing her of where his thoughts had begun to drift. She reached up, a small hand catching his jaw. "This is Buffy and Angel time. Not Buffy, Angel, Spike, Willow, Drusilla and everybody else in Sunnydale time." She arched one eyebrow, her lips curving slightly. "I can provide a demonstration of why that's the case, if you need..."
Buffy rose slowly, drawing Angel's head down so that his lips met hers. His hand rested against her lower back, fitting her against him comfortably. His mind reeled from the close contact between them, his body hungering for something even closer.
Angel broke the kiss with a low grumble, instincts breaking through the haze of desire that had descended upon him. Well versed in the various reasons for an aborted make out session, Buffy didn't protest Angel's sudden withdraw. Her body tensed, her senses straining to catch what vibes had torn Angel's attention away from her and into the night.
"Vampires, nearby," Buffy commented, already slipping around Angel's still form, a stake in hand.
He reached out, a large hand clamping down on the Slayer's shoulder. "_Drusilla_," he stressed, his dark eyes filled with a haunted, self-loathing look that made Buffy long for the power to wipe away all the bad things that haunted his memories.
No more needed to be said. They moved forward as one, silent and deadly, their thoughts focuses on the vampiress they were about to face. They looped through the silent cemetery, darted across the empty stretch of street, and towards the small park where Drusilla's aura burned bright against both of their senses.
"Oh, God!" Buffy gasped as they caught sight of what had summoned Drusilla into the night. Five vampires were herding Willow, Xander and Cordelia deeper into the park while Drusilla moved in on Spike. Her golden eyes seemed to glow madly beneath the white moon as razor sharp claws slashed out at her former lover.
Still barreling forward, dread burning inside his chest, Angel called out to Buffy. "I'll take Dru, you help the others!" His senses felt as if they were on overload as he raced through the park -- the soft, damp carpet of grass beneath his feet giving away to sand that shifted and sprayed behind him as he ran; the feel of the air brushing against his cold flesh; the smell of blood and fear heavy in the air; the sound of rapid, fearful heartbeats pounding nearby.
What he had started centuries ago -- a twisted game of love, lust, need, hatred and dependence amongst the three of them -- he would end one way or another this night.
She was still holding her half-eaten ice cream cone, Willow's otherwise frozen mind informed her. Her mind stubbornly refused to advance beyond that thought, seemingly unable to bypass the knowledge that the cool chocolate was beginning to drip down her hand. Her hand shook violently, and the ice cream cone that she'd been squishing gratefully made an escape towards the ground. It's departure allowed her mind to slowly claw it's way back to the matter at hand.
'Drusilla,' she practically spat. 'Who else has this good a record at destroying my nights out with Spike?' Her eyes frantically moved around the five, snarling vampires moving in on them, searching out Spike's familiar form. Spike, who she really, _really_ liked; Spike who she was finally working things out with; Spike who was being clawed at by his insane, bitchy ex.
Xander's mind, unencumbered by the presence of an ice cream cone of his own, came to his senses long before Willow. 'This isn't that bad. We fought vamps when Buffy was gone. Yup. Fought vamps... one at a time, all fledglings... Okay. No big thing. Think happy thoughts!'
"Ladybird, Red Robin!" he yelped. Both of their heads shifted slightly, still warily watching the approaching vampires. "Team Slayer," he prodded nervously, his hands scrambling over his body in search of the stakes that he'd stashed amongst his clothes before heading out for a night with Spike. He grinned triumphantly as his hands latched onto one of the stakes, pulling it out from beneath his shirt.
Cordelia followed suite, her tanned hands pulling out a bottle of holy-water stashed in her purse. She uncapped the bottle, shooting her best dangerous scowl in the vampires direction. "Take a step closer, and--" she held out the bottle, glancing at it meaningfully.
The vampires didn't seem impressed in the slightest. They broke out of the leisurely pace that they had held to while backing the three teens away from Spike, and lunged with gleeful snarls.
Cordelia screeched and swung the bottle.
Willow tumbled to the ground with a soft cry as Buffy threw her out of the way of the vampire she had been dodging for the last few, eternal seconds. The demon that had been easily avoiding Willow's every thrust with a stake was dusted within a second after encountering Buffy.
Buffy swirled away, already engaged with her next opponent as the dust drifted downwards. Willow blinked it away as it landed on her eyelashes and scrambled to her feet. Watering eyes took a moment to survey her immediate area, noting the quick work Buffy was making of their attackers. Further away, Xander and Cordelia were working together to push their own vampire onto the extended branch of a nearby tree.
Her eyes swung outwards, and Willow gasped as she saw Drusilla push Angel away from her with such strength that her sire nearly flew backwards. The star imbedded in Drusilla's throat was glowing, a sickly red light that seemed to infuse her pale flesh. She rounded on Spike, lightning quick.
It was over before Willow even had time to comprehend what was happening.
Their eyes met briefly, and Willow screamed as Spike exploded into fine grey dust.
~End~