"We had a bet, luv. I won. Are you coming along peacefully, or do I have to carry you?" Spike asked.
Willow put her hands on her hips, "You didn't win! You cheated!"
"Cheated? Me? I'm wounded," he protested.
"The Great Poof is NOT a constellation!" she giggled.
"You're just a sore loser," he grinned and took her hand.
"Am not," she argued.
"Are too," he insisted as he pulled her out the door.
***
"I don't want to go in there," she said as loud music spilled out of the Bronze. "It's too soon."
"Listen, the only power that pain has is the power you give it," he told her.
"Small steps, remember?"
"Yeah, but you're barely putting one foot in front of the other," he smiled. "Come on. If it gets too unbearable, we'll leave."
He opened the door and placed his hand on her back to gently shove her inside. She felt his hands resting on her shoulders as he steered her toward a table.
"I haven't been here since that night," she said so softly only his sensitive ears were able to hear her. "The night I lost him to--her."
"You didn't lose him to her. You lost him to himself."
"How could he do it? Didn't he know I'd be there for him, no matter what?"
"Willow," he turned her around to face him. "You can't save the world. Hell, you can't even save the people you love. Whatever answers he ran off to find, you couldn't have given to him. They aren't yours to give."
"But I--"
He brought his fingers gently to her lips and shook his head, "If you don't stop this brooding, I'm going to crate you up and ship you off to L.A. You and the wanker could go head to head in the International Brooding Contest. Although, to be honest, I'd put my money on him. He's had a lot more practice at it. Besides, he's got the whole eye thing going for him."
"Eye thing?" she couldn't help asking, her lips brushing against his fingers.
"Yeah, they go all muddy when he shifts into angst mode. Yours just glisten like green sapphires. Doesn't have the same effect."
"Have you ever seen a green sapphire?" she asked, not really noticing that he was slowly inching her toward the dance floor as the band began to play a ballad.
The vampire smiled, inwardly charmed by her insatiable curiosity. It was one of the things that kept him glued to her side while they tramped around behind the slayer when she patrolled. The questions he often expected were usually the ones that she didn't ask, and the ones she did ask usually floored him.
"I stole one once," he answered with a rakish grin.
"You did not!" she breathed as he snuck his arms around her waist and began to gently rock her to the beat of the music.
"Did too," he insisted. "From some grand lady Angelus was chasing before he went Poof. It was quite a costly thing, too, worth several thousand pounds. He'd decided he'd take it after he drained her. That was during our 'who's going to get to Drusilla first' days, and he'd pissed me off. So I--"
"Spike, what are we doing?" she asked as she suddenly realized where they were.
"Dancing," he shrugged.
"But I don't want to--"
"Sure you do," he smiled and tightened his arms around her as she tried to wriggle away. "Don't you want to know what I did with it--the sapphire?"
"No! I want to--"
"I fed it to her."
"What?!?" she squeaked, completely forgetting her objections to dancing.
"Stuck it right in the fancy dish she was eating. She didn't even realize what she'd swallowed. Then I told Angelus he'd have to eviscerate her if he wanted to get at it."
She wrinkled her nose, "Spike, that's disgusting!"
"That's what he thought, too," the vampire laughed. "Needless to say, the sapphire was buried with the corpse."
"And my eyes made you think of that story? Very flattering," she said dryly.
"Only when you're brooding," he reminded her. "The rest of the time, they're absolutely exquisite."
"Exquisite? Really?"
"Really," he nodded. "So, no more brooding, pet, right?"
"I'll do my best," she grinned and pushed her hands against his chest. "Now, can we just--"
"Uh uh," he refused. "Small steps. No more brooding. Just dance."
"Okay," she relented. "Just dance."
He smiled and pulled her head against his chest to run his fingers through her hair as they swayed to the music.
"Huh," Riley breathed from across the crowded room as he and Buffy watched the redhead finally relaxing in the vampire's embrace. "What do you suppose he said to her?"
"Beats me," she shrugged and tugged him toward the door. "But whatever it was, it worked."
End.