~Part 1~

Willow awoke to what sounded like the entire percussion section of the New York Symphony pulsing through her throbbing brain. Groaning, she
rolled over on to her side, burrowing herself even deeper into the sheets as she brought a small hand up to her forehead, trying in vain to control
the pain there. Pulling the blanket further over her head, the red head tried to fall back asleep, hoping that the headache from hell would go straight
back to the fiery inferno it came from.

Luck was not on the witch’s side that morning, for Buffy had heard her best friend’s sound of pain, and was worried.

“Will?” asked the Slayer, sitting up in bed. The bottle blonde took in the lump in the bed that was her friend, frowning at the thought that the
red head was ill. “You alright?”

A grunt was her only response from the lump, and did nothing to alleviate the Slayer’s worry. Swinging her legs over the side of the dorm bed
(which is surprisingly nice, considering it IS a university dorm), Buffy leaned in closer, calling Willow’s name again. Upon receiving no reply from the
painful lump, the blonde got up to see if her friend was feeling really sick, or just ‘too early in the morning’ bad. Pulling the blanket down to
reveal the half-covered face of her best friend, Buffy called out her name again, this time receiving an answer.

“Buff...” came the tortured moan of pain from the red head. “...not so loud...” murmured Willow, hoping her friend would take the hint and go away, leaving her to die in peace.

“Are you hung-over, Will?” asked a surprised Slayer in a fairly loud voice. At hearing the red head’s moan of agony, she lowered her voice a bit, but
still too loud for the overly-sensitive Willow’s ears. “Getting drunk is _not_ the way to get over Oz.”

“I’m not hung-over.” stated Willow quietly. Thinking over that statement, Willow added “At least, not from alcohol.” That said, the red head
grabbed the blanket from the blonde’s shocked grasp, and promptly formed her cocoon again.

Standing up slowly, Buffy looked around the room again, seeing what she’d missed the night before. Willow’s magic supplies laying out.

Yanking the blanket back down to reveal a pale and tired witch, Buffy promptly dove into her ‘magic is bad’ speech she’d borrowed from Giles.

“You did a spell last night?!” exclaimed the Slayer. “What were you thinking? You know Giles doesn’t like it when you do things like that! Without supervision!”

She was just getting into a good grove, when the red head cut her off. “I know, Buffy. And don’t worry. It didn’t work.” Again, Willow pulled the
blanket away from Buffy, and became one with the mattress. And again, the Slayer yanked the blanket away from her friend. She wanted answers,
and was bound and determined to get them.

“What didn’t work?” she demanded.

After a moment of silence, the hacker answered her friend, her voice soft and sad. “I was trying to get Oz back. It didn’t work.” Seeing the tears
beginning to form in her friend’s eyes, Buffy felt her heart begin to break. Just because Willow was the quiet one, didn’t mean that she wasn’t
hurting as bad as anyone else would. In fact, Willow felt things more deeply. She’d given her heart and soul to Oz, and he’d left. Buffy couldn’t
even begin to comprehend the heart-wrenching pain Willow was feeling. True, she’d had Angel, but if she were true to herself, the Slayer knew it
had been doomed from the start.

But Oz and Willow had had a chance. A _really_ good chance.

“Oh, Will.” sighed Buffy, deciding to leave her friend in peace. Before leaving the room to shower, Buffy turned back to her cocooned friend. “You still coming on patrol with me tonight?”

A muffled “Yeah.” was barely heard, but enough to send the Slayer out of the room.

Willow sighed in relief when she finally heard Buffy leave the room. She loved her friend, she truly did. But this morning, the red head could cheerfully kill the blonde.

Thinking over the recent conversation with the Slayer, Willow momentarily put the memory of Oz’s betrayal departure out of her mind, as she recalled the events of last night. It was still all kinda fuzzy, but she clearly remembered performing the spell. After drinking the potion.....well,
that’s when it became hard to remember.

Bolting upright in bed, Willow began to panic. She could see flashes in her head, and prayed to whoever that it was just a weird dream. There’s no
way she would have actually......not with Spike.....no...

“Noooooo.....” she moaned in despair. Burying her face in her hands, Willow cringed at the memories that were slowly filtering their way back into her mind. “I wouldn’t......I-I-I just _couldn’t_ ...” she told herself.

Telling herself that even under the influence of a spell, she _still_ wouldn’t have sex with Spike, Willow got out of bed, her mind on the mission she’d set in front of herself. She would go over the two spells she’d performed the night before, and find out where she had gone wrong.

And what effect it had had on her, making her imagine such strange things like her having wild, passionate sex with Spike in the middle of town.
Not even in her wildest dreams had she even thought of him that way.

“That’s right.” she mumbled to herself, gathering up her spell books. Getting dressed in a hurry, the red head convinced herself that the entire
episode had been in her head. Some weird side effect of her not doing the spells right.

“It was all a dream.” That, said with finality, were her parting words as she rushed out of the room to find a quiet place to study her spells. And
find out where she had gone wrong.
 

~Part 2~

Walking alongside the blonde Slayer, Willow was quietly contemplating the mess that was her life. After reading over the spells numerous times,
the red head had finally admitted to herself what she hadn’t wanted to before.

She’d done everything right. The spells had worked.

She was mated to Spike.

That fact was responsible for the wave upon wave of panic now flooding her entire body.

With each step she took, taking her closer to Giles’ house, where Spike was currently living, increased the sense of dread filling her being. Mortification was also at the top of the list, as Spike was sure to remember everything that had happened the night before. Every time she thought
about what they’d done, a tide of red swept her face and her heart picked up it’s pace.

It wasn’t fair that the mere thought of their activities the previous evening, should be able to affect her this way. That the simplest thing could
remind her of the mind blowing hours she’d spent in his arms, sending bolts of electricity through her veins. After their initial bout, she’d woken up
as he’d moved them into a nearby crypt. The creepiness of the place hadn’t bothered either of them at the time, but sent chills down her spine now.

Once they were safely indoors, they’d proceeded to claim each other again and again.

If her aching body hadn’t been enough to convince her that it hadn’t been a dream the night before, the bite mark on her neck did it. Throughout the night, Spike had proceeded to mark her as his again and again, always using the same bite marks. And that’s what made her even more afraid.
Spike was unable to harm a human, yet he’d managed to bite her several times, without the slightest hint of pain.

Looking up in surprise, Willow realized that they were in front of Giles’ house. Buffy didn’t realize that her friend hadn’t followed her, until she’d
reached the door.

“You coming, Will?” asked the Slayer, slightly worried. Willow had been away for most of the day, and distant since she’d come back from wherever.

“Y-yeah.” came her stuttered reply, as she gathered her courage and marched into the house to face Spike. Her mate.

Once inside, she deflated.

He wasn’t there.

“Where’s the blonde blood sucker?” asked Buffy in her subtle way. She’s been planning to beat some information out of the vampire, which she
could use on patrol to find out where the soldiers were located, but he was nowhere to be found.

“He went out.” informed Giles absently, his nose planted firmly in a book.

“Out?! As in ‘OUT’?!” cried Buffy, angry that her casual act of random violence would be a miss that night.

“We-well, he couldn’t stay in here day and night.” said Giles, still not removing the book from his face. Buffy had serious ideas about surgically
removing it, but cast it aside.

“Why not?” she asked, hating herself for the whine she could plainly hear in her voice. At Giles’ pointed look at her question, Buffy remembered.
“Riiiight. He’s annoying.” Nodding in understanding, the blonde turned to Willow. “Well then, lets boogy, Witch Girl.” before proceeding out the
door, a slightly disappointed red head following behind her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Willow stood back and watched as Buffy staked yet another vampire, before going on to another one. They’d barely started patrol, when they’d
been attacked. Getting a safe distance from the action, Willow waited until only Buffy and several piles of dust remained.

As she waited, she couldn’t help but go over the past while in her mind.

She’d been all set to deal with Spike, and anything he might choose to reveal. But the bleach blonde moron hadn’t even been there to see how
well she’d take it.

A tingling started in her stomach suddenly, spreading out to all her limbs. Soon, her entire body was thrumming in anticipation of what was coming.

Or, rather, _who_ was coming.

“Spike.” she breathed, turning her body slightly to face her approaching mate. Feeling her heart begin to beat rapidly, Willow slowly started walking towards him, closing the distance between them even faster. Meeting his eyes, the red head felt the world lose it’s coherency. All that mattered was this creature before her. It mattered not that he was dead, or even that he killed, or couldn’t kill. He was her mate, and she was his.

They belonged to each other.

“Red.” said Spike as she neared him. He’d been waiting all day to see her again. To shag her senseless again.

Reaching out, he grabbed her hand, pulling her into his body. His cold mouth covered her warm one, claiming territory they had already explored
many times the night before. Running a hand up to the back of her head, Spike wove his fingers into hair, holding her still as he familiarized himself with her mouth all over again.

Willow could easily kiss him for the rest of her life. Or, until the rest of their clothes came off. Either worked for her. That was, until strong hands
pulled them apart.

Looking up in surprise, Willow looked into the shocked and angry eyes of the Slayer. Shocked at seeing her best friend kissing Spike, and angry at
Spike for doing something to her friend, to make her kiss him in the first place.

“What do you think you’re doing?” demanded Buffy, pulling Willow behind her to shield the red head from the threat that Spike presented, ignoring the struggling of her friend to get loose.

“We were about to go off and shag like bunnies, Slayer. Would you like pictures? Maybe little cartoons to help with the technical parts?” answered
a sarcastic and patronizing vampire. Buffy’s mouth dropped open in shock, which only intensified as she heard Willow mutter “Until we were interrupted.”, from behind her.

“I-I don’t know what you did to her, but I won’t let you do it again.” stated Buffy, hoping to protect her friend from the vampire. “I knew you had an ulterior motive, Spike.”

“Been reading you’re word-a-day calendar to find such difficult words, Slayer?” shot back Spike, before adding. “You trying to keep me from her? Or keep her from me?”.

Buffy had little chance to answer, as he struck out, catching the Slayer in a vicious back hand, sending her staggering back. She would have dragged Willow with her, if it weren’t for the fact that Spike grabbed a hold of the red head, pulling her out of Buffy’s grip. Stepping towards the stunned Slayer, Spike smiled in the pure enjoyment of being able to fight again. He knew it probably had something to do with being kept from Willow, but didn’t dwell on it.

He could pummel the Slayer, and that’s all that mattered at the moment. Well, that, and getting the red head somewhere private so he could have
his wicked way with her.

Catching Buffy off guard again, Spike hit her across the face, this time  using his balled up fist. Preparing for her attack, Spike easily deflected it,
lashing out with a booted foot, aiming for her temple. The hit sent her flying backwards, landing on her back in the grass. Stunned for a moment,
she never saw the couple leave.

Looking up, Buffy was angered to find herself alone. Getting up quickly, she took off running for Giles’.

Maybe the ex-Watcher could tell her what was going on.

End (?)

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