"Stupid Willow. Stupid, stupid Willow."

Willow was walking along the road mumbling to herself. She was tired, and sore, and really did not want to go back to school. But she’d skipped uni for two entire weeks, and, for all her recent vampiric-styled liberation, she felt guilty about it.

So here she was, walking along the road, bright and shiny and early on a Monday morning.

In her brand spanking new leather boots, her new black velvet full length skirt, and her new emerald green bodice.

True to his word, Spike had bought her a new wardrobe full of clothes. Unfortunately, he had insisted that they throw out her old fluffy style of clothes, so she was stuck wearing her normal ‘I’m a vampire’s pet’ clothes to university.

She only hoped that nobody freaked.

***

"Why am I still here?"

"Honestly?"

"No Giles, lie to me. Of course honestly - do I look like little miss I want to be deluded? No, I didn’t think so."

"Honestly Cordelia, I really don’t know. Perhaps this is something you could take up with your employer, hmm?"

Giles took off his glasses and began to clean them, in that fashion that he really should have patented. Cordelia was being a pain. Although, if he were being completely truthful with himself, all of the Scooby Gang were being pains. Ever since Willow had gone away to gather herself, the Scoobies had lost the glue that held them together and allowed them to work as a coherent and functioning group. And it was really beginning to show. It didn’t help that the demons in town appeared to really be getting their collective acts together - Spike was doing wonders as Master. Which was not a good thing so far as Giles was concerned, but, he suspected, Spike was probably delirious with joy.

*Hopefully* he was delirious.

It was looking like the only way they could possibly outwit him.

***

Buffy, Oz and Xander were sitting on the lawn when Oz suddenly growled.

"You’re not going all wolfy on us, are you Oz?"

"Willow."

"Great" said Xander "now wolfboy’s hallucinating. Willow Is Not Here" he enunciated carefully. "She’s On A Break."

"Willow" said Buffy.

"It’s infectious!" said Xander.

"No" said Buffy as she leapt up and followed Oz, who had leapt up also. "Willow is here."

Oz hugged Willow. He hugged her very hard, and very long, and then he loosened his grip. And sniffed.

And sniffed again, as Buffy pulled Willow out of his arms and into her own.

"Wills! Great to see you back! But what’s with the clothes?"

"My clothes? Ah- why, what’s wrong with them? Don’t you like them?"

"No Wills, they’re great. They’re just *so* not you."

"Don’t you think they suit me? I’m fat - that’s it, isn’t it? You think I’m fat!" Willow pouted, to see if she could get a response from Buffy. Yes, her time with Spike had affected her sense of humour.

"No. No - no, Wills. Not at all. Uhhh. Gosh, look at the time. I’m gonna be late. Glad you’re back Wills!"

Buffy dashed off nervously. Willow withheld a snigger.

Oz leaned in and sniffed her again, and Willow playfully batted him away.

"Ew! Wolfboy, what the hell are you doing?"

"Nothing" said Oz, giving Willow an odd look. "I have a lecture" he continued as he walked off.

Xander blinked. "Well, that was weird."

"Yeah…" said Willow thoughtfully.

"And it’s great to have you back Wills, but I’ve gotta dash too." Xander leaned over and hugged Willow. "I’ll see you later."

Willow rolled her eyes at the inanity of her friends, and looked around. She spotted another friend and waved.

"Hi!" she said as she walked over. Walking towards Simon, she passed someone who looked familiar. She paused and looked closely at her. Willow stared carefully at this person - her time with Spike had served her well. Willow grred at the person, who looked at her weirdly once, and then did a double take.

"Red!" said the demon.

Willow smiled at the demon, as the demon bobbed her head once in deference. "I didn’t realise you were a student here."

"Well, I didn’t realise that you were a student here either, so I guess we’re even."

Simon had reached Willow and the demon by this time, and Willow reached over and gave Simon a hug. She waved a hand at the demon. "Simon! This is - " she paused as she realised that the only name she knew for this demon would be unpronounceable in English, and the demon filled in the space with "Someone who’s just leaving. I’ll see you this evening, Red."

"Oh, are you going…"

"To the Master’s little shindig? Of course I am. Wouldn’t miss it for anything."

Willow giggled. "Not even for the world?"

The demon thought and nodded. "Alright, yeah, maybe for the world." The demon smiled as she walked off.

"The Master?" asked Simon as he raised an eyebrow. "Is that where you’ve been? In a cult?"

"No" said Willow easily. "Do you think I’d admit it to you if I had?"

Simon casually threw an arm over Willow’s shoulder. "Well, this cult - was there any nakedness?"

Willow paused and pretended to think.

"By the way - I like the new clothes."
 
 

~Part Seventeen~

Willow had been having some difficulty with University. Now, normally, one would assume that this was a lie, perhaps a complete and utter fabrication; but no, this was in fact true. Since Willow had come back from her hiatus at Spike’s lair, she had been having trouble sleeping, and this was resulting in her having trouble concentrating.

Buffy, in a move incredibly uncharacteristic of her, recognised that Willow wasn’t having fun being back at University, which she found very unusual, and confusing, especially as she (she in this case being the Slayer, and not the cat’s mother) was having an absolute ball.

To cheer Willow up, Buffy and Xander decided to take Willow Bronzing: in the name of friend-cheering-upness, of course. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Angel and Cordelia had gone back to LA, and the two lovelorn teenagers were trying to forget about them.

Reluctantly, Willow agreed to go to the Bronze. She didn’t really want to for a few reasons: Spike had had a party the night before, and she was feeling a bit hungover; Spike was supposed to be bringing her some new books that night; and also, Oz had been getting…quiet. This was causing Willow some worry. She had noticed Oz being even more non-verbal than usual, and he kept sniffing her whenever he was near her - which was not at all often. It was Willow’s personal opinion that Oz was avoiding her. When she had told this to Spike, he only laughed and asked why did it matter? And she wasn’t going to tell Buffy or Xander, because they would want to know why Oz had been sniffing her. What if he could smell the change? It was worrying her.

But she had come to the Bronze, and what misfortune - Oz had decided to turn up too.

"Look!" cried Buffy, pointing, "there’s Oz!" The Slayer dragged Willow over to where Oz was sitting and plonked her down. "Now" she said to Willow "you stay here and have a nice little chit-chat with your wolf-toy, while me and Xander go and dance!" And a very hyperactive Slayer dragged Xander onto the dancefloor.

"Alcohol?" hazarded Willow as she watched Buffy dance maniacally on the dancefloor.

Oz didn’t answer.

Willow and Oz sat there uncomfortably for several minutes, looking at anything but each other.

Finally…

"I can smell him."

"What?" asked Willow, looking up suddenly.

"You’re covered in the smell of another man. Who is he, Willow?"

"A-another man?" stuttered Willow. "Don’t be silly. Why would there be another man?"

"Don’t lie to me Willow. I’m a wolf, remember? I know there’s another man."

Willow started fidgeting on her seat.

"But now that you bring it up, that’s a question that I’d like to ask you. Why *would* there be another man?"

"Why *wouldn’t* there be one, Oz?" snapped back Willow. She really had been changing due to her close proximity to Spike, and the way Oz had asked the question... "Did you think me incapable of having a relationship with a man? Did you think that I was too unattractive, too dowdy, too *geeky*, to catch the eye of another man?"

Oz’s eyes flashed with anger. "No Willow, that’s not what I thought at all. The reason I want to know, is because I’m a wolf."

"And what does that mean, Oz? Huh? That you have to piss on me to prove your possession?" Willow stood up with force. "Goddess, I don’t know why I ever bothered with you." Willow turned to leave. She paused and turned back to him. "And for your information…" and here she leaned over to whisper in Oz’s ear, "I’ve been sleeping with another man on and off for about four weeks."

And Willow sauntered away.

Buffy and Xander came over to the table.

"What just happened, wolfboy? Were you mean to Willow?"

Oz didn’t reply.

***

Willow wandered casually out of the Bronze, looking much calmer than she actually felt. She’d just broken up with Oz!

Wandering aimlessly, she soon found that her feet had lead her to her place of comfort, which lately had been Spike’s lair. She opened the door and let herself in, without bothering to call for Thomas. She slowly mounted the steps to Spike’s rooms, and let herself in. She wandered over to Spike’s bed, which had been her haven for so many weeks, and flopped herself down onto it. She quickly fell asleep.

***

The next morning, no Willow turned up for school.

Buffy was worried, and Xander was worried, and Giles was worried. And then Oz told them what Willow told him the night before, and Giles suddenly wasn’t worried anymore, but Buffy and Xander were very confused, and still worried.

"Willow?! Another man?!" exclaimed Buffy.

"Nu-uh!" emphasised Xander. "I think you’ve got your Willows crossed, wolfboy."

But Giles understood something about Oz that Xander and Buffy had forgotten, or didn’t know.

Oz was a wolf.

And wolves mate for life.

And Oz had chosen Willow for his mate.

But Willow wasn’t a wolf - and he had forsaken his own kind to mate with a human.

Who didn’t know that they were mated for life.

So if Willow had indeed slept…or not slept, as the case may be, with another man…

Then Oz would be the wolf equivalent of an ex-husband, but worse.

He would be an outcast.

***

Spike had waltzed himself into his set of rooms about an hour before dawn, and sensed that something was off. Slowly he crept through his rooms, until he reached his bedroom, and relaxed. It was only his Willow, sleeping in his bed. Nothing unusual there.

Except that his Willow had tear-tracks on her face.

Spike stifled a growl. His Willow was crying! Well, that settled it as far as he was concerned.

Someone would have to die tonight.

***

Willow woke up when the sun was low in the sky - on it’s way down, not up. She could just feel it’s position in the sky. She thought it felt good to be back to Spike’s sleeping patterns. This was probably why she hadn’t been sleeping all that well the last few days: she had, after all, had to go back to the sleeping pattern of humans, and yet was still hanging around with demons, and going to late night demon parties. She’d just needed to catch up on her sleep.

Willow tried to stretch, but was prevented by something tight on her belly. She looked down, and saw Spike with his arm flung over her waist.

‘Oops’ thought Willow, ‘I guess I forgot to go home.’ She knew from previous experience that trying to move would be futile, so she just relaxed herself and settled in for the wait for the sun to go down, and Spike to wake up.

The sleep had rested her mind, and she was peculiarly calm about the entire Oz situation. She had known for a while that what she had with Oz was fading, and Oz’s behaviour last night had been the final straw.

It wasn’t entirely Oz’s fault, that Willow would readily admit. Of course, she wouldn’t admit it in public, but still…it was the thought that counted.

Oz had been sweet. Oz had been there for her, and helped her through some particularly tough times. And he’d been her first lover, and she would always appreciate him for that: that he had been gentle, and nice. But he hadn’t been her first love - hell, he’d never been her love. He’d just been a diversion, until something better came along.

And anyway, everybody knew that wolves mated for life.

Why would she want a wolf for a permanent lover?

That having been said, it didn’t mean she wasn’t sad.

Because she was.

***

Spike had woken up, and, true to form, had demanded that Willow tell him what had been wrong. So she told him, and he got all growly.

"I’ll kill him!" snarled Spike.

"No, you won’t" said Willow calmly.

"Pet…."

Willow just looked at him.

"Can I maim him?"

"No."

"Pet, I’ve got to at least maim him."

"No, you don’t."

"Actually, I do. He’s a werewolf, Pet. That puts him under my jurisdiction, whether he realises it or not." Spike smiled broadly as Willow realised what Spike’s words meant.

"No, Spike, please don’t do this to him. He’s hurting enough already."

"Hurting? *HE* is hurting?"

"Well, he is a werewolf, like you said, and I did just break up with him and tell him that I was sleeping with another man."

"And woe is me" said Spike, causing Willow to start giggling. "You haven’t really slept with me yet. Is there something you’re not telling me, Willow?"

Willow’s only reply was to continue giggling.

"I know what we can do" said Spike. He took Willow’s hand and pulled her out of the bed. "Come on, it’s a surprise."

***

Oz went for a walk. No full moon, so it was okay. He just needed time to think. He still had so much to think about, even though he had been thinking non-stop since Willow had come back. At first his thoughts had been relief. Then they had been worry. Then, they had been confusion. And then they had been fear, and suspicion.

And now, they were hurt. And still confusion. How could Willow have done this to him?

But of course, it was just as Giles had thought.

Willow could have done this easily, because she wasn’t a wolf, and didn’t know what mating with a wolf meant.

***

"You’re teaching me how to pick locks?" asked Willow in disbelief.

"Do you have an objection to picking locks? I’ll have you know that I was a very respected lock-picker when I was still a human."

"It was your trade?!"

Spike had broken into a hardware store, and he and Willow were now sitting on the floor, and he was showing Willow how to pick the various locks. It was an interesting experience, to say the least.

Finally, Willow threw the lock she was working on down.

"Spike, I’m done. I want to go home."

Spike looked at her, and looked at the lock, and then looked down at his watch. It had taken her a minute and nineteen seconds to pick it. He shrugged. She was getting pretty good at it. He nodded.

Willow stood up and started putting the locks away. Spike stayed her movements with his hand.

"Don’t worry, Red" he said. "I’ll call Thomas and arrange for it to be taken care of."

And so Spike took Willow home.
 
 

~Part Eighteen~

23:00 - still early.

William the Bloody aka Spike the Master Vampire of all of Sunnydale and its surrounding area left the house of his official Pet, the human Willow Rosenberg.

Spike was a vampire on a mission. His pet had been emotionally hurt by a werewolf, and it was his duty and his responsibility to find this werewolf and punish it accordingly.

And if Spike happened to find pleasure in it in the meantime…

Well, that was completely coincidental.

Having tracked down the scent of the werewolf within his pet’s house, he left his pet half asleep on her bed with the promise that he would return shortly, he just had a few errands to run; and no, Thomas couldn’t bloody well run them for him.

And so Spike was carefully stalking a werewolf around town, on a clear and fine Sunnydale night, with the moon shining brightly in the sky. Fortunately, it was a waxing moon. So Spike would only have to deal with a werewolf in human form.

23:30

The official Slayer, she-who-should-be-dead-by-prophesy Buffy Summers, was doing one final sweep through town on patrol, accompanied by her friend Xander Harris. Both were bored, but this was nothing unusual, as both were indeed often bored, which was why they were patrolling still, rather than doing something more entertaining.

On final sweep through the town, the aforementioned (Kris’ word) Slayer and her companion decided to wander through the cemetery, just in case. Their foremost enemy Spike the Master Vampire of all Sunnydale had been sending out more and more vampires per night, and for some reason those vampires had been congregating around the cemetery.

Wandering through the cemetery inanely discussing the merits of Chia pets, the Slayer and her companion stumbled across a previously unthinkable situation: their friend and fellow Scooby member Daniel Ozwald the guitarist and coincidentally also a werewolf, lying on the ground, having quite obviously just lost a fairly bloody fight.

After establishing that Oz was still alive and breathing, the Slayer using her superstrength lifted the werewolf up and carried him to the University Library, where she knew her former Watcher and advisor Rupert Giles would be, still searching for a way to defeat Spike the Master Vampire of all Sunnydale.

Jumping to conclusions (as a Slayer is wont to do), the Slayer decided that this most recent attack on Oz had something to do with Willow, final member of the Scooby Gang, witch, and all round nice girl. And so, leaping to the rescue of their good friend; the Slayer and Xander ran as fast as they could to the house of Willow Rosenberg.

00:15

Upon arriving at the house of Willow, the Slayer knocked and established that there were no noises coming from within. Concerned, the Slayer broke the lock on the door - and so essentially breaking the law whilst breaking and entering, and possibly trespassing - and the two cautiously crept inside the house.

The two scouted out the entire bottom storey, and found there to be no-one there. And so the two ventured quietly upstairs.

Upon canvassing the entire upper storey but for one room, the two established that if indeed their friend Willow was there, she would be in her bedroom; the final room in the house.

And so the two opened the door to the final room, and there indeed was one sleeping Willow Rosenberg.

The thing that made the Slayer scream and Xander faint, however, was the fact that Willow was sleeping peacefully next to one Spike, Master Vampire of all of Sunnydale.
 

~Part Nineteen~

The silence of the night was broken by a scream and a thud. Spike, who surprisingly had not woken up earlier, was suddenly wide awake, as was Willow. Wide-eyed, Willow stared at Buffy, as Buffy grabbed a stake and ran for Spike. Spike, feeling like not ending his unlife at the end of the stake of the Slayer in the house of his Pet, made a leap for the window and ran off into the night.

"Oh god, Wills, did he hurt you?"

"Excuse me?" asked Willow, confused.

"Spike. Oh God, that’s it Wills, that’s it. That vamp’s going down now. I can’t believe this! First Oz, and now you…" Buffy’s voice faded away thoughtfully.

Willow was suddenly nervous as the reality of the situation set itself into her mind. Buffy was threatening to stake Spike, because she had seen him in Willow’s bed. Xander had fainted dead away, and was currently unconscious on the floor. Spike had fled out the window, probably pissed as hell and ready to take it out on some unsuspecting demons, and later, Willow speculated, on her too, as it was her friendship with the Slayer that had got them into this mess. Willow shivered as she realised that she was going to be in for another whipping. And then she shuddered as she realised that Buffy was going to want an explanation for the presence of Spike within the house. Maybe if she could keep her distracted…

"So" began Willow, turning to Buffy. "You said there was something wrong with Oz?"

Buffy shook her head as if clearing her thoughts, and turned to Willow. "Yeah. Xander and I found him in a graveyard. He was really badly beaten and…bloody. So we took him to the library, so that Giles could look after him. Which he did…" Buffy trailed off into her thoughts again.

‘Uh-oh’ thought Willow nervously. ‘Dangerous Territory.’ She tried to draw Buffy back into conversation. "So, do you know who did it? I mean, Oz *is* a full grown werewolf."

"Yeah, I know, which is why we came looking for you, because we thought it had something to do with demons since only a demon could harm a werewolf and what with you being our resident witch and all you might be in danger too and I guess we were right because Spike was here!" Buffy paused, and took a breath, allowing her thoughts to catch up with her. Buffy narrowed her eyes at Willow. "*Why* was Spike here, Willow?"

Willow looked around sheepishly, her eyes darting nervously, refusing to meet Buffy’s eyes. Xander groaned and got up from the floor, holding his head.

"Somebody tell me how much of what I saw was an hallucination, please, before I go insane."

Buffy turned to Xander, momentarily distracted. "What did you see?"

"Well, I saw Willow in bed with Spike. And then a whole lotta pink pigs being chased around the room. And you in a tutu."

"Okay, that’s more than just a little disturbing, Xander, but the part of that that was real was the bit where you saw Spike in Willow’s bed. Unless of course we were both hallucinating about that."

Willow leapt on that. "Yes! That’s what happened! You both…did a whole bunch o’ drugs, and now, you’ve been seeing Spike, and pink pigs, and Buffy in a tutu!" she said, desperately.

"No, Wills" said Buffy as she turned back to Willow. "We saw Spike sleeping in your bed. And what I want to know is, *why* was he sleeping in your bed?"

Willow realised that she had nowhere left to go, and decided that damn it, the truth was all she had left. She took a deep breath, and let it go. She also started backing away towards the balcony, in the hopes that she could make a quick escape once she told Buffy and Xander the truth. "Buffy…Xander…You know those rumours…about Spike, and how he’s been seen around town with his new Pet, who just so happens to be a big old well known in the Wiccan Community?" Buffy and Xander nodded, still not comprehending. "Well…that’s me. I’m Spike’s Pet." She nodded her head affirmatively. "I’m the Pet of the Master of Sunnydale."

"You mean Deadboy was right? Aw man!" Xander started whining, and Buffy turned around and slapped him.

"Xander!" Buffy turned back and frowned at Willow. "Wills, I can’t believe you of all people would be so stupid! How could you have done this? Do you know what this means?"

"Of course I know what it means!" yelled Willow. "I know what it means better than you’ll ever know! It means that I’m the possession of the being with the most power in the whole of Sunnydale! It means I have access to thousands of ancient manuscripts that Giles has never heard of! It means I have ready access to the Demon Underground - many of whom I’m friends with! It means I have a bunch of friends who think that my only fault is that my best friend is the Slayer! Okay, and yeah, it means that occasionally I have to get whipped and bitten in public, but it’s a small price to pay!"

"How can you say that?!" screamed Buffy back at Willow. "I’ve spent years of my life fighting demons, and you’ve been right there by my side, and you just throw it all away and *ignore* the fact that they want to destroy the world, just so you can get your hands on a few books!"

Willow paused to glare at Buffy. "I knew that you wouldn’t understand" hissed Willow. "You’re just jealous that I get a vampire, and the only one you want can never take you back!" Willow spat the last word at Buffy before leaping out the window and running off. Buffy glared balefully at the window, hurt immensely. Xander moved forward and put a friendly hand on Buffy’s shoulder, which the Slayer shrugged off. "Good riddance" she said bitterly.

"Buffy, you don’t mean that" started Xander.

"But I do" snarled Buffy. "If she can’t see how bad her decision is, then we’re better off without her."

"Buffy" called Xander helplessly, as Buffy sprinted out of Willow’s house. He knew that Buffy would come to her senses soon, and would help him find a way to get Willow out of her situation. After all, who would willingly make themselves the Pet of a killer?

***

The next night, Willow was actively avoiding Buffy, as were all the demons in town. They all knew that the Slayer was in a rage, and so had been advised to stay out of her way for a few nights. So to amuse herself, she went out to a bar with some of her Uni buddies - one of whom was Simon.

The four of them were enthusiastically debating the merits of the Smurfs versus the Snorks, when a British accent interrupted them.

"Pet, I hope that you’re on the side of the Snorks. You do remember that conversation we had about them, don’t you?"

Willow looked up at Spike in surprise, but giggled. "Yeah, I remember. I doubt I’ll ever forget that particular conversation. Why’d you find me?"

Not how, Spike noticed. Why. "We need to chat a little."

Willow nodded in understanding. She figured as much. After last night’s debacle unveiling of her status to Buffy and Xander, Willow had made a run for Spike’s lair, where he’d been in the process of throwing an extensive hissy fit. As she’d predicted, he’d whipped her publicly, with his minions calling for her death. Obviously, he’d disagreed with that idea, and had a short time later put her to bed with her ointment on her back, and they hadn’t discussed the situation at all. And then she’d woken up and left for her morning classes - being sure to skip the one that she shared with Buffy - and as a result they had yet to discuss their current predicament.

"Who are you?"

Spike sat down in the empty chair opposite and dragged Willow out of her own chair and down onto his lap. Willow winced as he grabbed her waist, knowing that it would leave a bruise in the morning.

"Think of me as… the abusive boyfriend."

Willow rolled her eyes.

"Spike" she said sternly. "If you keep saying things like that, they’re just going to believe the worst things about you."

Spike grinned.

"But pet. Isn’t that the point?"

Willow gestured to Spike, and turned to Simon. "This is Spike. He’s my friend." Spike coughed, but Willow ignored it and carried on. "I’ve been staying at his house for a while, and I will be for an indefinite period of time."

"That’s…nice."

Simon looked a little jealous, but was it any wonder? Simon had been harbouring a crush on the witch since the beginning of the semester, as from the first time they’d met, he’d decided that Willow was by far the most perfect girl on campus. And he’d had every intention of asking Willow out. He was a little intimidated by all the weird friends that Willow seemed to have - but like he’d thought, no girl was perfect. Little did he know that Willow’s ‘weird friends’ were actually all demons. So, regardless of her weird friends, Simon was going to ask Willow out. And then he got to meet Spike. Simon had known that Willow wasn’t staying at home all the time - that sometimes she was at a friend’s house, and that was how she had all of these interesting friends. The thing was, Simon had always assumed that this friend was a female friend. To finally discover that this friend of whom Willow spoke in such glowing terms, and whose house she considered as her own, was actually an older blond man with killer cheeks, piercing eyes and a far more familiar attitude with Willow than Simon had thought possible was almost the killer for Simon.

Simon glared at Spike, and Spike tightened his arms around Willow possessively. ‘Mine’ Spike’s eyes seemed to say. Willow chattered on to Jess, oblivious. Spike continued to look at Simon, feeling no competition whatsoever. After all, Willow was his pet. And if he told her not to socialise with this Simon bloke, then she bloody well wouldn’t socialise with him. Still, better safe than sorry…

"Pet" he said, interrupting the conversation. She turned to him, eyes questioning. "We really must go. Chat, remember?"

Willow nodded, depressed. She didn’t really need any reminders of last night. Hopefully, Spike wouldn’t find any reason to have her whipped tonight. She leapt off his lap, and reached her hand down to him. He took it, pulled himself up, and refused to relinquish it. Willow kissed each of her friends on the cheek, and then Spike and Willow wandered off. Simon watched their retreat. Jess leaned over to Simon and patted him on the back.

"Not a chance" she said to him, kindly.

Simon nodded, depressed. Not a chance. And didn’t he know it.
 

~Part Twenty~

Simon walked along the streets of Sunnydale, disappointed and unobservant. He didn’t watch where he was going as he wandered past the Bronze. He didn’t look up when he wandered past the cemetery. He didn’t notice as a pair of beady-golden eyes watched him wander aimlessly by. He just wallowed in his own misery.

Willow was obviously in some kind of freaky bondage and discipline relationship with the peroxided blond, and Simon didn’t stand a chance with
her.

At least, not whilst "Spike" was around.

What kind of name was "Spike" anyway? Obviously just the name thought of when a guy couldn’t get it up anymore. Boasting what he didn’t have, or something.

"Damnit!" yelled Simon into the cool night air. "What does he have that I don’t?"

"Well, life, for starters" said the vampire who appeared behind the boy, and bit into his neck with glee.

***

Buffy uneasily perched on the sofa in Giles’ apartment, and fiddled with a loose thread on her jacket.

Giles had been tactfully ignoring his slayer all night, but finally gave in and had to ask, although he suspected already what was wrong.

"Buffy, what is the matter?"

Buffy looked at Giles somewhat nervously, a little embarrassed.

"I miss Willow" she said somewhat courageously. There she paused, but there was obviously something more. Giles took of his glasses and looked at Buffy as he motioned for her to continue.

"And…?"

"And, I think I should stop being so stubborn, and I should face up to facts. Like Willow said, she’s Spike’s pet now, and we have to deal with that."

Giles fell suddenly onto the couch, astounded by his Slayer’s apparent rapid increase in maturity. He gaped for a few minutes, trying to form a sentence or two.

"What…uh, I mean, why have you suddenly decided this?"

Buffy pushed herself down beside Giles, and drew her legs up under her lap. Then she placed her hands into her lap, and stared fixedly at them.

But she refused to answer Giles.

"Buffy?"

Buffy spoke, but refused to look at Giles. "I - I miss her. And I mean, she’s right, I guess. Everything she said to Xander and I - all she wants is
to work her spells, and we don’t even let her do that. You work her, and I work her, when it isn’t even her job! She doesn’t have to view all demons as evil, because she isn’t the Slayer!" Buffy looked up at Giles. "And as much as it pains me to admit it, I love her regardless. She’s my friend, and I
love her even if she is the Pet of a Master Vampire."

Giles tried to work his way through Buffy’s logic. "But Buffy. . . why the sudden change of heart? I mean, all of these reasons were exactly the same when you last saw Willow four days ago." Giles put up a hand to stop Buffy from speaking. "Let me finish. You’re the Slayer, Buffy, and it’s only
logical for you to hate demons and their companions. You should be totally dedicated to the cause."

"Because she’s my best friend!" wailed Buffy. "If I was just a normal girl, and Willow told me ‘oh, by the way Buffy, I’m sleeping with this hunky,
older, blond honey’, I would embrace her and give her my blessings. It’s not fair that we should all have to always be affected by me and my
Slayer-ways."

"I can’t believe you just said that" interrupted Xander from the door. He entered, slamming it behind him. "What if he turns her? Do you not remember skanky-Willow? I love Wills - I don’t want to be ridden like her pony." Then he did a funky double-take. "If, on the other hand, she turned me and I was a big, bad-assed vamp like in the bizzaro world -" Xander broke off under the dual stares of the Slayer and her Watcher.

Buffy turned back to Giles. "So, I was *thinking*" she stressed the word and glared at Xander to keep him silent. He made a zipped-lip motion, and Buffy continued. "I was thinking that we could maybe use Willow to keep Spike in line. You know, get Willow to promise to keep Spike and his vampires from eating everyone, and to make sure that they don’t try to take over the world or anything."

Buffy smiled at Giles hopefully.

"Let me get this right" said Giles slowly. "You, who is the Slayer, the one girl chosen in every generation to defend us all against vampires and other
creatures of the night, are proposing to me, your Watcher-"

"Former" interrupted Xander. Giles glared at him, and he shrunk into his chair. "Ignore me, I’m not here."

"Yes, quite." Giles turned back to Buffy. "You’re proposing to me that we form some kind of alliance to the demon that currently controls the town
that sits on top of the Hellmouth."

Buffy shrugged. "Well, when you put it like that, it sounds bad."

"I hardly see how it can sound good! You’re the Slayer, for God’s sakes. You can’t be proposing alliances with every demon left, right and centre!"

"It’s not every demon, it’s the one that sleeps with Willow!" Xander yelled into the room, thus stopping Giles’ tirade. Giles slumped back tiredly.

"I, for one, cannot believe you have suggested it."

"Can I speak? Please?"

Giles waved his hand, which Xander took as permission.

"Just hear me out, okay?" Xander waited until they both nodded before continuing. "Okay. First thing’s first. Willow is Spike’s Pet. Now, from what I know - and I admit it’s not a lot - if she’s there willingly, there is *really* nothing we can do. Right?"

Buffy and Giles nodded reluctantly.

"So, either she’s totally willingly, like she said, or it’s mind control."

"Mind control!" Buffy leapt for the first possibility that presented itself, but Giles shook his head.

"I don’t think so. Nothing has changed about her, and we’d have noticed some difference. Go on Xander."

"So she’s there willingly, which means we can’t liberate her because she *doesn’t* want us to. Right?"

Again, Buffy and Giles nodded, albeit reluctantly.

"So we have to accept it."

Buffy closed her eyes tightly and nodded.

"So we may as well make the best of a bad situation. Salvage our friendship with Willow, get her to research with us again, and maybe use her knowledge of the demon underground to help us with menaces."

"But Spike will never let -"

"Sure he will, Buffy. He wants to keep the world the same, remember? Little Happy Meals on legs, Manchester United. He told you. He helped you once. So therefore, he’s gonna let Willow help you keep the world out of Hell, and maybe put you a little in his debt on the side."

Xander raised his eyebrow at Buffy.

"I’ll grant you that Xander does seem to have covered everything."

"I do have one problem though" said Xander amiably.

Buffy groaned, but otherwise kept quiet.

"What if Spike decides to turn her? Then we’ll have evil, skanky Willow back."

All were quiet for a moment. And then, Giles spoke.

"A spell."

"Huh?" Buffy turned her head to look at her Watcher.

"A spell to fix her soul to her current body. We can do it before her death, and it will keep her soul in her body."

Buffy leapt up. "Well let’s do that then!"

"But there’s a catch."

"What?"

"If she doesn’t get turned, her soul will still be attached to her body. So she’d be dead, but her soul wouldn’t be able to leave."

Buffy didn’t even pause to think. "Of course Spike’s going to turn her. Did we really have any doubt? Come on, let’s go do the spell."

And the impulsive Buffy returned, which both pleased and dismayed her Watcher.

***

The next night, Buffy, Xander and Giles sat in a circle with some of Willow’s hair in the centre. Buffy had taken it from Willow when making up with her earlier that day. They had embraced warmly, whilst Buffy tried to ignore the vampire bite on her best friend’s neck.

In Latin, Giles spoke.

Buffy picked up the hair and placed it in a goblet filled with an indeterminate liquid that Giles had refused to describe to Buffy for fear of
her prim squeamishness. She scrunched up her nose as her finger touched the liquid, but managed not to wipe it off on her jeans.

Buffy passed the goblet to Xander, who stirred it with Willow’s pencil. He’d stolen it from Willow during the day, thus signifying in his Xander way that they were friends again and Willow, buoyed by Buffy’s acceptance, had not questioned it.

Xander passed the goblet to Giles, who nearly dropped it as he tried to juggle both the goblet and the book that he was reading from. Finally he
gave up, memorised the final line, and threw the book over his shoulder.

The book landed behind Giles with a soft thud as a flash of light momentarily blinded the three.

***

Willow took a deep breath and shuddered as she let the tension slip from her shoulders. It had been a long week, but finally it was over, and not only that, but Buffy and Xander were back with her. They’d been acting a little strange, but that was only to be expected, she supposed, and just shrugged it off.

Then Willow was hit by a jolt of pain, bolting through her body. She paused and leant against a tree to catch her breath back, and in that moment of centreing only on herself, she lost focus of her surroundings.

And someone took advantage of that to bite her, in ignorance of the bite on the other side of her neck.
 

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