~Part: 6~
Angel watched as Willow practically fled the premises and then turned and looked at Spike. Spike looked back. The peroxide blond vampire had an unusually thoughtful look on his face. "Well," Angel said hesitantly.
"Well what, Peaches?" came Spike's quick-fire belligerent retort.
"Do you think she'll agree? To be shared between us? And is this something you're okay with? After Drusilla and everything..." Angel asked, rather hesitantly.
"Once her mind gets used to the idea of the three of us together and to the fact that she doesn't need to choose between us, she'll agree," Spike said confidently. "As for sharing..." Spike paused for a moment to gather his thoughts, "I'm not saying that it'll be easy, mate, but Red isn't like Dru, and it'll be different this time. The fact that we all want each other equally will make it a mite easier. A big part of the reason why you, me, an' Dru together didn't work was because of her loving Angelus more than she loved me. I was only a poor second in comparison. An' I'm not blaming you for it mate, that was just the way her feelings were, and they were impossible to change. Believe me, I tried to for bloody near 50 years before I just accepted it. And to be honest Peaches, my feelings for her weren't as strong as the ones I had for you either, so Dru and I both used each other as a substitute for what we really wanted."
Angel gave a sad half-smile. Thoughts of what he had done to Drusilla as Angelus were never good ones. Remembering how the demon had stalked and mentally tortured the girl until she snapped before turning her was almost a guarantee for a trip to brood land. She had been an amusing plaything for Angelus, but the charm of her insanity had quickly paled and Angelus had grown bored with her, giving her to William, who seemed besotted with the girl, instead. Not everything about that period of his life had been bad though. It had been nice to have a family around him who all loved him in a possessive, demonic sort of way. Angel missed that at times. He missed coming home to Will, Dru, and later Darla. It had been...comfortable. And then he'd been cursed with a soul, Darla had rejected him, and he had spent nearly a century alone. That had been harder for him to adjust to than anything else except his guilt. Then he had found Buffy and her band of friends, and he had been relegated to the fringes of their little group. That had been almost as bad as being alone, as he was somewhat accepted as a member of the group, yet he had still been on the outside looking in. It had gotten a little better since he'd moved to L.A. and he'd managed to acquire some friends, even if half of them had been from Sunnydale originally. He felt that with Spike and Willow beside him, though, that he'd finally be able to recapture the family he'd lost. Only this family would be better. Spike was right. Willow wasn't the same as Drusilla was, she was smart, loving, warm-hearted, and, not unimportantly, sane.
Spike fished his cigarettes and lighter out of his duster, pulled a cigarette out of the pack, lit it, and inhaled, enjoying the rush of nicotine. It wasn't as good as actual sex, but since it didn't look like he'd be getting that anytime soon, the two kisses he'd received today and a fag would have to suffice. How a vampire managed to do things like smoking were things Spike rarely bothered to contemplate. He enjoyed the benefits of being a vampire without worrying about the technicalities, and free of many of the worries of everyday human beings. He didn't have to worry about things like AIDS, birth control, or lung cancer. It was very liberating to not have to worry about many things other than the Slayer, the sun, and pointy pieces of wood shoved through the heart. Although, to be perfectly honest, a stake shoved through the heart would be just as likely to kill a human being as it would a vampire. The only difference is that it doesn't rate highly on the scale of things humans are concerned about, even though it could theoretically occur, while for vampires it is a more pressing concern.
Angel suddenly realized that he had been staring off into space for a good five minutes, and surprisingly, Spike had allowed him to brood. "I missed you too Will. It was hard, suddenly being bereft of a family after so long with a vampiric one. Especially with everything else I was trying to deal with." He stopped his explanation and sighed. "But I think that's enough bringing up of old memories, painful or not, for one day. What do you say we go patrolling and you can tell me about what's been happening in Sunnydale lately. It seems as if I've missed a few things I should know about. You can tell me what Willow's been up to in Sunnydale recently, and the full story of how the Initiative captured you. Besides, I'd like to get to know the new you."
"Sounds like a good idea to me mate," Spike answered affirmatively. "I could use a good spot of violence. Kicking demon arse is just about the only fun I ever have anymore, although hopefully that will be changing real soon." He raised his eyebrows suggestively, looking at Angel with a distinctively wicked leer in his eyes. "Let's go Peaches. I can't shag you at the moment like I'd like to, so let's go relieve some of that sexual tension through violence instead." He started towards the door, stopping when he realized that Angel wasn't following him fast enough. "Well?" he inquired, "What are you bloody well waiting for, sunrise? Get your tight arse in gear, I want to go kill something."
"Alright, all right, I'm coming!" was Angel's exasperated response.
"Not yet, luv, but maybe later if you're good and after Willow finds a spell to make that soul of yours stay put," came Spike's wicked rejoinder.
Angel gaped at Spike for a moment, then shook his head and closed his mouth. He'd forgotten just how impudent and wickedly depraved his childe really was. Yes, annoying though Spike was at times, Angel had definitely missed him. He followed Spike out into the night, eagerly looking forward to staking something, even if what he was going to be staking wasn't his first choice of things to 'stake.'
Meanwhile...
Willow opened the door to Cordelia's house; cage in hand, calling, "Cordy? Phantom Dennis! I'm back!"
Phantom Dennis flickered the lights of the living room once as his personal version of "welcome home." Cordelia appeared from the dark recesses of the bedroom. "Willow," she inquired, "What are you doing back already? I thought you were going to work on the computer at Angel's for awhile?"
"Well, I, um," Willow sputtered. "I, um, decided that it could wait until tomorrow."
Cordelia looked suspiciously at the red-haired witch. Her color was still high from her flight from the hotel. She was breathing a little harder than normal, and that sputtered, halting response to Cordelia's perfectly normal questions was the nail in Willow's coffin as far as the ex-cheerleader turned secretary/actress/vision girl was concerned. A slightly evil gleam appeared in her eyes as she contemplated just how she was going to interrogate Willow on what must have occurred at Angel's in order for Willow to have returned so quickly. "So, what did they do to make you leave? Come on, tell me, I *have* to know. The only things I can think of would end up with you having sex, not with you leaving," Cordelia nearly begged.
"Well..." Willow replied hesitantly, "There was kissing, but none that included me. I just needed to think about some things, so I came back here. Oh, and Spike gave me a present. A pet, actually. It's kind of unusual, but it's soo adorable! Come on, let's dim the lights a little and I'll show you Gizmo and tell you about his special needs." Willow was excited and eager to show Cordy her new pet. Also, if the distraction her new pet provided allowed Willow to evade Cordelia's inquisition that would just be an additional bonus.
Cordelia grabbed Willow by the hand, virtually dragging her to the couch and forcing her to sit while she dimmed the lights. "Well?" she demanded, "Start talking already, I don't have eternity here. And don't think that this means you're getting out of telling me why you left Angel's so fast either missy! I'm still going to demand answers; I just want to see the presents first. I can't wait to see what Blondie thinks a good present is."
"All right," Willow said, setting the cage on the coffee table and opening the ornate door. "Gizmo will come out eventually. Spike certainly must have been looking for something usual, I've never seen a pet like this before in my life, and he's so adorable! He has some special requirements though. You can't ever get him wet, never feed him after midnight, and sunlight will kill the little guy. The reason why I suggested we dim the lights was because even bright light hurts the poor fellow."
"Huh," came Cordelia's insightful reply. "That's certainly the strangest set of requirements for a pet that I've ever heard. You know, if this was the Hellmouth, I'd want to know what kind of evil thing this pet is going to turn into. Gifts almost invariably turn out to be evil there. But, hey! This is L.A., so that doesn't happen as often here, right?" She gave a Cordelia Chase toothpaste ad smile. The movement coming from inside the cage caught her attention. "Shhh! He's coming out."
The cage door, which had slowly swung back into a nearly closed position, leisurely, began to swing back in the other direction, aided by a small push by a tiny hand. Cordelia watched avidly as first a tiny, beige, three-fingered hand appeared, and then a white and tan fur-covered arm. Next, came out a comically large, triangular ear and the head to which it was attached. The other ear appeared shortly thereafter, also attached to the head in the proper place. The animal's face was...sort of squished, decided Cordelia. The strangely patterned fur covered most of its head, with a clear triangle in the middle of his face, revealing the same pink-beige color of its hands. The triangular patch of skin included a tiny pug nose, slightly pinker than the rest of its skin, and a mouth that was just a thin slash, with no real visible lips. The creature's big brown eyes dominated its face, expressing its every emotion, currently a combination of curiosity, happiness, and a slight wariness, as if it expected something bad to happen. The rest of Willow's new pet finally came out from the cage to be fully revealed to Cordelia and Willow's gaze. It sure is tiny, were the first words that popped into Cordelia's head. She doubted if it was any taller than six inches. There were dolls and teddy bears taller than Willow's new pet. Its body was covered in fur with the exception of its three-fingered hands, three-toed feet, the majority of its ears, and that triangular space around its mouth and nose. The fur was an odd patchwork of white and brown fur, creating a funny pattern on its little body, almost as if someone had sown it together using some sort of fake fur that had been leftover from the remnants of previous craft projects. All in all, Cordelia concluded in her thoughts, he was a cute thing, if rather strange and unusual. The combination of the fur with the big brown eyes made him seem cuddly and cute, as if you could just hug him endlessly. It was really quite endearing.
Those big brown eyes were currently regarding Cordelia with something akin to fear. Cordelia, seeing this, immediately crooned, "Awww...it's okay little guy, no one's going to hurt you here." As if he understood, the mood in Gizmo's eyes changed and he did a funny little dance on the coffee table. Both girls laughed at the sight. "I think he'll be fine out of his cage for awhile," Cordelia said, "Now tell me what happened at Angel's!" Seeing the discomfited look on Willow's face, she added, "Ha! You thought I'd forget or be distracted longer, didn't you. Nuh-uh missy, now spill!"
Frantically Willow desperately thought for something, *anything* that would distract Cordelia from giving her the third degree. Her mind quickly lit upon what she had found in the magic shop she'd had to practically drag Cordelia into mid-way through the shopping excursion. "Cordelia?" she started tentatively, "You know the skull- splitting, mind-numbing pain from the visions?"
"No, I'd forgotten all about them," replied Cordelia sarcastically. "That sort of pain is just *so* easy to forget about entirely. What about it? And what does it have to do with you leaving Angel's early?" The ex-cheerleader stubbornly refused to stray away from the main point of her interrogation.
"It doesn't have anything to do with Angel, it's something I picked up while I was in that magic shop this afternoon. You know, while you got impatient and headed to the food court. It's a salve made of some special herbs and beeswax. If you rub it on your temples just after the vision hits, your head should feel better within a few minutes. I know they've been getting worse lately; the pain after the visions, and I thought this would help. I was worried about it."
"Aww, Willow, that's sweet." Cordy was touched by her friend's obvious concern. "And I'm really glad that you found something to help with the after-vision pain, because...hello, painful! But that *still* doesn't mean you don't have to tell me about what happened at Angel's, now stop avoiding the question before I get really angry."
"Okay," Willow knew she was beaten and finally gave in, resigned to telling Cordy the whole story. "I kind of walked in on them kissing...each other."
"WHAT?!?!" To say that Cordelia was shocked was putting it extremely mildly. "But wasn't Spike...and didn't you..." Cordelia was fumbling for words, a rarity for the ex-cheerleader who had always had a comeback ready and waiting when they were in high school.
"Yeah, it was pretty much exactly like that," Willow confirmed, "and then Spike gave me my present and we had this conversation which pretty much resulted in both of them offering to make us a threesome as long as I agree, and me asking for time to think it over, and then me leaving to think."
"Wow," Cordelia paused for a moment to gather her thoughts. "So you get them *both*? Umm...yum. I think I'm definitely jealous now. Or are you going to choose one of them over the other?"
"Well, that's what I have to think about, isn't it? Am I willing to deal with the potential problems that could arise and keep them both? Or do I try and choose between them? *Can* I even choose between them? I don't know if I could ever choose one of them over the other. I care about them both too much to do that to either of them. They've both been hurt too many times by someone choosing someone or something else over them. I just can't put them through that again. They both have to be equal in my eyes or it's just not going to work. So I'm going to think about it a bit more, but I'm fairly sure I'll accept their offer of making the three of us a unit. I just can't see it working any other way."
"Well, if you want to have them both, then I say go for it," Cordelia asserted. "Although I'm not a big fan of Spike, he'll be good for both you and Angel, I'm sure. After all, he stayed with Drusilla the psychic, psychotic ho for more than a century, so that's got to say something about him, at the very least in terms of loyalty. As for Angel, I'm sure the two of you will make him happy. Just don't make him *too* happy too soon, all right? I really don't want to have to deal with Angelus yet again. The one time after Buffy and then that one night after that actress slipped a powder into his drink that produced a false sense of complete bliss were more than enough times for me to have to cope with Angelus. I'd really rather not do that ever again. So if you could keep him at not broody, but not perfectly happy, I'd appreciate it. At least until you find a way to anchor his soul permanently...you *are* going to do something about that, right?" Cordelia paused until Willow nodded her head. "Good. That'll be hunky-dory then. Are you going to tell them soon, or are you going to make them sweat for awhile?"
"I'll tell them tomorrow...I want cuddles at the very least. I know sex isn't an option at the moment, but cuddling should be nice. And smooches. I'm really looking forward to those." Willow yawned suddenly. "Looks like I'd better go to bed. Although I'm fairly used to vampire hours, all that shopping earlier followed by the emotional drama has really worn me out. I think I'll go to bed and try to sleep, if my thoughts will quiet down enough to let me, anyway. Goodnight Cordy." With that, Willow wound her weary way to Cordy's guest bedroom and got ready for bed. Her preparations complete, she crawled into bed, and contrary to her expectations and the fact that her mind was racing through 100 thoughts a minute, she fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow to dream of her two vampires; bringing a radiant smile to her face.
~Part: 7~
When Willow awoke, it was with a smile still on her face. She had had the most wonderful dream. Spike, Angel, and herself had been on a picnic in the sunlight. Her two vampires had looked marvelous in the sun, enjoying the food and the company. In fact, Willow's dream had been so good, even though there had been a decided lack of naughty bits, that she resolved to find something that would allow her dream to become reality. But she was getting ahead of herself, she realized. First she had to find something to make sure Angel's soul stayed put, then she'd worry about finding something that would allow them to venture out into the sun without turning into little piles of ash. She briefly contemplated staying in bed for awhile longer, but got up after swiftly coming to the conclusion that there was no way she was going to be able to get her dream back if she went back to sleep.
Since she was up anyway, she decided she might as well get started on finding something that would allow Angel to keep his soul, while being blissfully happy as soon as possible. That meant she had to go over to the Hyperion, considering the lack of technology at Cordelia's place. Cordy's philosophy on that seemed to be something along the lines of, 'I have to deal with those things every day at work, I don't want to see them if I'm not there.' It was almost identical to Giles' philosophy, which was, 'I refuse to use that dreadful machine unless there is no one else who knows how to use it and all my books have been useless.' Willow smiled fondly as she thought of the Watcher who was more of a father to her than her parents had ever been. His dislike of technology and computers was well-known, and it had become an inside joke over the years, much like Xander's nickname for him, which Giles *still* protested every time it was used. She couldn't really see Giles as a member of the FBI anyway, 'G-Man' nickname not withstanding. She was sure he'd much rather work for MI6 or something rather than an American agency anyway. The protests had become more and more feeble over the years, however, until now they were more token than anything else. She'd have to remember to e-mail him when she got to the hotel; even though he avoided technology with a passion, she knew that while she was in L.A. he'd check the e-mail account she'd set up for him fairly often to make sure that nothing had happened to her. Even though Giles knew that if anything bad had happened, that they'd be calling him rather than e-mailing, he still worried. But Giles wouldn't be Giles if he didn't worry about his charges while they were out of his sight.
Willow brought herself back to reality with a jolt. She needed to get ready and go to the hotel. She didn't know if it would be better if the guys were still asleep when she got there or not. If they were asleep, Willow could put off their discussion and finding out if the two of them had been serious about their offer until later and she could work on fixing that stupid loophole in the curse. If they were awake however, she couldn't put off the discussion, but if the three of them had agreed to become an item and they could all accept the consequences, then she could get cuddles and smoochies. The thought of cuddles and smoochies made Willow go through her routine just a bit faster than she normally would have. She added a mental note to herself to remember to take Gizmo in his cage with her to work. She didn't want to leave her new pet alone all day after all.
Willow completed her morning routine, found Gizmo on the couch in the living room watching TV (she briefly wondered how he had managed to get up there and turn on the television, but dismissed it, thinking that Cordy or Dennis must've turned it on and put him up there to keep him entertained), put him in his cage, covered the cage with a blanket, just to make sure that the sun wouldn't get in, and left for the hotel. Upon arrival, she checked the lobby & the office to see who was up and moving about. She could see Cordelia working at the computer, or making an attempt at working on the computer, in between talking on the phone and doing her nails. No one else seemed to be around yet, but it was rather early for a group of people who kept vampire hours. She set Gizmo's cage down on the counter, removed the blanket from the cage, and after checking to make sure that there were no lights or sunlight that would bother or kill him, opened the cage door and released him to wander around the hotel. Willow wasn't too worried about letting Gizmo loose in the hotel. It had been made vamp-friendly after all, so there wasn't any danger of him getting into the sunlight and dying. And even though he was just a little thing, she wasn't too concerned about never finding him again either. She had a feeling that he was a bright little fellow and that he wouldn't get lost. Besides, she could always drag everyone into searching for him if she couldn't find him when she wanted to go back home.
Now Willow had a decision to make...work on finding a spell for Angel, have discussion and cuddles later or go downstairs and have the discussion/cuddle session now and work on the spell problem later? After a brief internal debate, Willow decided that after her dream last night, she wanted real cuddling as soon as possible, and resigned herself to having a discussion. She headed down the stairs, wondering whose door she should knock on first. She decided on Angel's, simply because Cordelia had told her Angel was in 214 the first day she came. She wasn't really sure where Angel had put Spike, but she was guessing somewhere close to him, just on a hunch. Still, she didn't want to go wandering the corridors looking for Spike's room, so Angel's it was. She walked up to the door of 214 and stood in front of it for a moment, again trying to decide what she wanted to do. Be polite and knock or just open the door? Willow was usually among the politest of individuals, and normally there would be no debate about this...she'd knock. However, the prospect of catching Angel in a state of undress enticed Willow to be a 'bad girl,' and she opened the door without knocking.
Willow went in and quietly closed the door behind her, not wishing to disturb Angel if he was sleeping. She was surprised (and somewhat disappointed) to find him awake and sitting on the couch talking to Spike. Well, at least I don't have to track Spike down now, she thought. They were both there and she could just tell them together, which made it easier for her, since she didn't have to work up the courage to tell them her decision twice. Well...maybe it wouldn't be easier for her this way after all. Apparently Spike and Angel had been sparring or something before beginning to reminisce with each other. Actually, it didn't matter what they had been doing before they began talking, the important part was that whatever they had done had ended up with them removing their shirts. Willow was so busy ogling their naked chests that she wasn't sure she could even form a coherent sentence, let alone the discussion they needed to have together. At the moment, however, Willow really didn't care that she probably couldn't ogle and make sense at the same time; she was too enthralled with the view. Their bare chests were so nice to look at, all hard and pale and...
"Willow? Willow? Willow!" Willow suddenly realized that both Angel and Spike were staring at her and that they had been calling her name for the past few minutes while she'd been staring. As soon as she realized this, a dark red blush instantly sprang up on her face. She was so embarrassed! She couldn't believe she had spaced off like that. Well, okay, she could believe it, but that didn't mean she had to like it. And now she was spacing off again wasting time chastising herself in her head, as the vampires continued to stare.
"Oh, um, hi guys," Willow finally said. She still couldn't stop blushing.
Angel gave a slow, wicked smile as he realized exactly what Willow had been so preoccupied with. He glanced at Spike, who had a knowing smirk on his face before asking, "Did you want something little one?"
What a loaded question. A thousand wicked answers flitted briefly through Willow's mind, but she settled on a very mundane, "You said I should come tell you what I decided today, so I came looking for you to let you know."
"And, luv?" Spike asked, "What did you decide then?"
"I love you both, equally and in different ways. I could never choose between the two of you, you're both too special to me. So, if you two can get along, or at least not stake each other and keep the jealousy and fighting to a minimum, then we can try to be together...together." Both Angel and Spike opened their mouths to say something, but they were cut of by Willow. "No, wait a minute, I'm not finished yet. Even though I love you both, we are NOT going to be expressing that love in any way until *after* we find some way to anchor Angel's soul. Don't get me wrong, I love you dearly Angel, but I really don't want to meet Angelus again and I have no intention of doing anything that could possibly let him loose on an unsuspecting populace. And since it's not fair that Spike and I could do something while Angel can't, we won't be doing anything together either. It would make this relationship too uneven if we did, so there will be no having of any kind with me, at least not until it's possible for the 'having' to be done with all of us." Willow's tone softened a bit. "Can you guys live, or un-live with that? And be honest with me," she cautioned. "I don't want our relationship to have any hurt feelings hidden behind a sarcastic veneer," she frowned at Spike, "or a stoic facade either." And she turned her disapproving stare on Angel. "You got that?" They both nodded swiftly, wanting that look off her face as soon as possible. "Good," she said satisfied. "You can talk now."
Spike and Angel looked at each other, wondering who should speak first. After a short while, Spike bowed ironically and gestured to Angel in a clear, "you first Peaches" way. Angel just nodded in acknowledgement. "We talked this over last night after you left," he began. "We decided that it wouldn't be like it was last time we shared someone. The feelings are more equal on all sides this time and we know you'll keep us from becoming too jealous and possessive. We know that you won't abuse our trust in you by playing us against each other and showing favoritism to one of us in particular. The problems we had with Drusilla won't even be issues with us. So we can handle it. I'll be glad to having a family to come home to and to fight for. It gets so difficult trying to fight, with no real reason to fight except for redemption. One of the things I always envied about Buffy is the friends and family she always had around her, supporting her and giving her another reason to fight other than duty. Knowing that she's loved has helped Buffy more than duty has helped any of the previous Slayers. So basically, we'd like to make you ours more than anything else in the world."
"And you Spike? What do you have to say? Or do you agree with Angel?" Willow asked.
"Well Red, Peaches 'ere pretty much said it all. Not the part about envying the bloody Slayer, o' course, but pretty much everything else 'e got right. Only do we have to wait until Peaches can shag? I want to shag now, we could be waiting a long time for Peaches to be able to join us. Can't we start now and he can catch up by shagging extra later?"
A good portion of Willow's brain had remained upon the naked chests of the vampires in front of her. After all this talk of shagging, there was very little left of her brain that *wasn't* being used to imagine wicked, nasty things that put a dreamy smile and a blush on her face. She had a terminal case of vampire lust on the brain, and her condition led to her saying, "Oh yes," breathily before she realized what she'd done. A second later, however, she suddenly realized what she'd just agreed to and started babbling. "Oh! No! No, no, no! We couldn't do that! It would be bad! Well, there would be nummy naughty things but it wouldn't be fair to Angel and it wouldn't keep the balance that you just said you trusted me to keep and it would be mean and showing favoritism and, and, and...Well, I don't really know *what* else would be wrong with it, but there are and it's just a bad idea all around so there will be none of that!" She finished her little speech with a nod of her head, as if that made everything final.
"Nummy naughty things, luv?" Spike questioned. Spike, being Spike, would have caught the one part of her babble Willow *hadn't* meant to mention. Willow felt her blush intensify. Willow frantically cast her thoughts about for some way to extricate herself from this embarrassing situation.
"Uhhh...What nummy naughty things? I didn't say anything about that. Nope, there were absolutely no naughty images of naked vampires running through my head. No, there were no naughty things. It was a slip of the tongue. I meant that it would be naughty of us and unfair to Angel if we did that. Yes, that's what I meant. And if you don't believe me, I don't care. That's my story and I'm not changing it!" The last bit was said with not a little amount of bravado. Willow was fully aware that her story had more holes than an entire Swiss cheese factory, but she was hoping that her firm statement combined with her infamous resolve face would get her off the hook so she could stop having this thoroughly awkward conversation.
"Alright luv," Spike conceded with a leer, "If you don't want to discuss the naughty images running through your head now, we can always explore them in intricate and *explicit* detail later."
Willow breathed a sigh of relief. She knew that she wasn't off the hook entirely, but at least she wouldn't have to discuss where her imagination had been going any time soon. If she was lucky, she might even be able to avoid it altogether. Or at least the next time she got asked that question she'd be in a different situation where she would be able to actually *do* something about the images in her head. But since she couldn't really do that for now, she wanted snuggles! And since Willow knew she wasn't going to get anything without asking, she said, "Can we have snuggle time now? The embarrassing conversation is over with and I had a really nice dream last night, so I'd like to snuggle on the couch with my two vampires now." And just to make certain that she got her cuddles like she wanted, she gave them a pleading look.
The two vampires couldn't resist. After all, it was something they wanted to do anyway, and the addition of that look just made it even more pointless to resist Willow's wishes. She essentially had her vamps wrapped around her little fingers. What were they going to say, 'No'? Hence, Willow swiftly found herself deposited on the couch between Spike and Angel. In fact, she'd ended up there so fast, she wasn't even sure which of them had put her there. Willow was finally content to be snuggled between her two half-naked vampires. It was just where she'd wanted to be since she had woken up this morning. Willow gave a happy smile, wriggled a bit to get comfortable between the two cold, hard bodies beside her, and settled in for some quality time bonding time with her chosen vamps.
While Willow was getting her longed for cuddling session, Cordelia was upstairs being entertained by Gizmo. She'd turned on some music, coming to the conclusion that neither Willow nor her boss were likely to appear anytime soon. So she'd been flipping the stations when apparently when she got to the oldies station she had hit the kind of music Gizmo liked because as soon as the song had come on, the little furry creature had hopped up on the desk in front of her and started dancing. Cordelia couldn't stop giggling. His little dancing movements were *so* cute. The cute furry little creature actually danced better than Xander did. Not that dancing better than Xander took much, but considering that Gizmo was a tenth of Xander's size and couldn't move as agilely as a human might, it was a big accomplishment.
Cordelia could have easily watched Gizmo dance all day, but her fun was interrupted by Wesley's entrance into the hotel. Gizmo, startled by the sudden appearance of another person, stopped dancing and scurried to hide behind Cordy's computer. Wesley came in looking rather parched. He didn't live far from the hotel, but the summer day was scorching, and the dark clothes he tended to favor more often than not did nothing to alleviate the problem and in fact only made him hotter. He neglected to say hello to Cordelia in favor of heading straight to the kitchen. When he got to the kitchen, he opened the cabinets, took out a glass, removed some ice cubes from the tray he had taken from the freezer, and a bottle of water from the refrigerator. Unscrewing the cap of the mineral water, he quickly downed half of it in order to immediately relieve his thirst before pouring the rest of it into the glass to consume later. Thirst temporarily sated, he grabbed the glass and walked calmly back to Cordelia's desk in order to greet her.
"Good afternoon Cordelia," he said, with that posh British accent he possessed. "And how are we feeling today? Any visions recently?" The former Watcher turned 'rogue demon hunter,' now an employee of Angel Investigations, asked Cordelia that same question every day. He had walked next to Cordelia to ask her those questions. It also served the purpose of letting him get close enough to Cordy to catch her if she happened to have a vision while he was making his inquiries. Gizmo, seeming to sense no harm from the newcomer cautiously made his way away from the computer and towards the person that the creature hadn't seen before. Wesley began to move just a little bit closer to the desk, unhappy with his position relative to Cordy, when disaster struck in a very innocuous way. Wesley tripped. Not only did he trip, but also some of the water in his glass spilled onto both the desk and Gizmo.
The water that touched Gizmo produced a strange chain reaction in the furry creature. Suddenly, he began screaming, kicking and pounding the desk as he fell, and shaking uncontrollably. On his back, small bubbles seemed to form and then the bubbles of fur unexpectedly burst. The little balls of fur flew through the air, landing on the desk, the floor, and everywhere else it seemed. The balls of fur immediately began to expand and grow, eventually turning into five furry mogwi. After watching the appearance of five more mogwi from the back of the original, Wesley turned to Cordelia with an expression of confused dismay and said, "Oh dear. I think we have a problem."
~Part: 8~
Spike was comfortably ensconced on the couch next to Willow, who was next to Angel. His life was pretty bloody close to perfect at the moment, and the only thing he could think of to improve it would be if they were all shagging instead of just cuddling on the couch. That was why, when their quality time was rudely interrupted by someone banging on the door to Angel's suite, he was rather annoyed. Actually, to say that he was 'rather annoyed' is an understatement of colossal proportions. He was pissed off to the point where he was extremely tempted to go and rip the head off of whomever or whatever was making that noise, regardless of possible chip-induced pain. The only deterrent to that scenario was the fact that he'd have to get up, leaving his comfortable position on the couch, in order to go do it. Well, that and the fact that in the process he'd be answering the door, which is just what the entity on the other side of the door *wanted* him to do. Spike was a contrary enough vampire that he had no intention of granting the mysterious individual's wishes, not even in a circuitous fashion that they wouldn't enjoy at all. So, instead of getting up, he just yelled, "Sod off, you wanker!!!" in the general direction of the door and went back to his contemplation of Willow's neck and his own private game involving the determination of each shade of red present in his sweet and firey Red's hair.
Angel didn't want to get up either. He was quite comfortable where he was. However, he realized that it took a lot for any of his employees to bother him during the day while he was in his room. Usually it took one of Cordelia's visions or a visitor asking specifically for him before anyone would venture near his door and disturb him. So he knew that the person knocking on the door (Must be Wesley, Cordelia would have just barged in) had to be doing so for an important reason. Still, he couldn't make himself actually leave his position on the couch. And as he didn't really want anybody *else* to get up and answer the door either (after all, if any one was to get off the couch, it would change the dynamic and it wouldn't be as comfortable as it was originally), he simply called, "Come in," as an acceptable alternative that didn't require anybody to move, at least not right away.
Wesley practically burst into the room, he opened the door so hard. "I say, Angel, Spike, Willow, you might want to come upstairs. There seems to be a problem with the pet Spike purchased for Willow."
"Problem?" Willow asked, concerned for her already-beloved pet. "What sort of problem? Is Gizmo okay?"
"Yes, your pet is fine Willow. Only..." Wesley hesitated, "There seems to be rather more of them than you had originally."
"More of them?" Willow asked, an expression of incredulity on her face, which was mirrored in the expressions of the others. "How could there be more of them?"
"I think you had all better come upstairs to take a look. It is rather difficult to explain, and shall be easier if you see it for yourself." Wesley said, retreating into the semi-formality that came so easily to him in times of distress, a remnant of his time spent as a Watcher and of his British origins.
"All right Wesley," Angel said, "We'll be up in a few minutes." Wesley, understanding his employer's need for privacy, nodded his acquiescance, turned, and made his way back to the lobby and the offices.
Angel sighed heavily. He *really* didn't want to get up. But, duty called, as it always seemed to, and as always, the souled vampire answered. He slowly levered himself off the couch, savoring the last fleeting seconds of Willow's warm touch before his movements put her out of reach. He turned towards the couch, offering Willow a hand to help her up. She took it, using the steady pull of his hand to help her up and Angel once again savored the warmth radiating from her skin. He then turned and looked at Spike, who was still seated on the couch. He arched his eyebrow in a silent guesture of, 'Well? Are you getting up and coming?'
"What, Peaches, not going to help me up too?" Spike asked sarcasticly.
Willow laughed at this and put out her hand to Spike, offering, "Here, you big baby. Since 'The Big Bad' seems to need help getting his cute butt off the couch, you can use my hand to help yourself up." Willow's action made Angel realize that he hadn't let go of her other hand yet, but after a moment's thought, he decided that he didn't want to relinquish her warm fingers, and he only grasped her hand more tightly. An instant or so later, all three individuals were finally off of the couch, but it still presented a rather strange picture, with Willow twisted half one way holding on to Angel, and half the other holding Spike's hand. Willow looked down at her body position with somewhat rueful dismay before saying, "Uh, guys? I think you're going to have to let go of my hands, at least for a little bit if you want me to be able to walk to the lobby, and we really should go up there. I really want to see what's happened to Gizmo." The two vampires reluctantly, and rather sheepishly, let go of her hands so that she could stop imitating a human pretzel. After releasing her form from the rather painful contortion she'd had it in, Willow happily offered a hand to each of her vampires again and they proceeded out of the suite and up the stairs to see just what kind of problem they had to deal with *this* time.
~Part: 9~
Angel, Willow, and Spike all reached the lobby at the same time, which wasn't terribly astonishing, seeing as how neither vampire had let go of their witch's hand since it had been offered to them in Angel's suite. When they reached the lobby, they paused to survey the scene they were presented with. Actually, what they really did was stop and stare at the sight before their eyes. Even though all three of them were well acquainted with the bizarre, this was just a little out of the ordinary for them. Where Willow had only brought one mogwi with her to work this morning, there were now six! It reminded Willow of that old Star Trek episode with the tribbles. Maybe that was how they had multiplied and that after eating enough, Gizmo would just suddenly produce more like him. On second thought, this was real life, and sure, it had vampires, demons, witches, along with other assorted monsters, but it wasn't a *TV show.*
They all examined the new mogwi with speculation in their eyes. The new creatures were very similar to Gizmo, with only slight variations in their coloration and their eyes looked different. The mogwi that was the least like Gizmo appeared to be the leader of the other four. He was black, rather than brown or tan, with white splotches; sharp teeth; small, mean, beady eyes; and it's face seemed permanently set into a malicious, cruel facial expression. This mogwi acted with an air of authority the others seemed to lack. The other distinguishing feature that separated the head mogwi from the rest was the white stripe that ran from the exact mid-point between its ears all the way down to the small of its back. The stripe began as a mohawk of white hair standing straight up, and then abruptly ended, becoming the white stripe again that continued down its back. Gizmo seemed to be keeping as far away from the leader of the new mogwis as possible.
The other four mogwi were not as striking. One had coloration strikingly similar to that of a calico cat. Another had eyes that seemed to move independently of one another, creating a disturbing effect, almost as if that particular creature was minus a few essential components in its cranium. The third had a goofy face and floppy ears, unlike the pointed, erect ears of the others. And the fourth of the group seemed to be singularly inept, having tripped over its own feet at least three times during the short period the two vampires and the witch had been examining the lobby. They all had rather mischievously evil expressions in and around their eyes and mouths, to go along with their sharp, pointed teeth. These facts, however, remained unnoticed by the observers.
All of the new mogwis seemed to be singularly adept at getting into trouble. They hadn't even been in existence for a half an hour yet, and they had already found plenty of ways to get into trouble. The calico-colored one was dancing on top of Cordelia's computer and had already erased a few files she had been working on before all the excitement. The mogwi with the strange eyes was running back and forth on the marble floor, sliding across it out of control and knocking into everything and anything, knocking several things over when it bumped into legs that belonged to various pieces of furniture as well as legs which belonged to human beings. The floppy-eared one had constructed a catapult out of a pen cap and a paper clip, and was now busy flinging various office supplies as far as possible, succeeding in hitting both other mogwis and humans alike. The clumsy one was just wandering around the top of Wesley's desk, but that was more than enough, as every step or two it managed to trip over something, sending papers and the other miscellaneous items across the desk and onto the floor. The striped mogwi, the leader, was simply surveying the chaos his minions were creating with a satisfied smirk on his face.
Willow, Angel, and Spike, having decided that they had seen enough, moved further away from the stairs to begin questioning Cordelia and Wesley. The two were both seated in the middle of the lobby, having given up on trying to keep the mogwis from wreaking havoc in their office after the first few minutes. They looked on at the creatures' antics with a combination of resignation and bemused anger at the destruction they were causing. "What happened here?" Willow asked, "How come there are suddenly more of them than the one Spike gave me?"
Cordelia and Wesley turned towards her and her vampire companions as soon as Willow spoke. They glanced at each other, each trying to avoid telling Willow what happened. Cordelia glared at Wesley, determined that he wasn't going to tell her, and decided to tell Willow herself. "Well," she began, "the short version is that Wesley spilled his water on Gizmo and somehow the water made baby Gizmos, only they grew up in, like, five seconds."
"Hmm...well, I guess we know why one of the rules was not to get it wet now," Willow said. "Wesley, have you ever heard of anything like this before? It can't be normal for any animal to reproduce like that, so Gizmo and his little friends must be demons or something."
"No, Miss Rosenburg, I'm afraid I haven't," Wesley replied. "I can check my books though and see what I can find. Perhaps Mr. Giles may be familiar with this type of creature and may be of some assistance. Unless you, Angel, or you, Spike have seen this sort of thing before?" He looked inquiringly towards the two vampires, who both shook their heads.
"No, I've never seen anything like this before, Wes," Angel offered, "but I didn't really study much of demonology until a few years ago. Spike might know more than I do, he's been around quite a bit and has had run-ins with a bunch of different types of demons before."
Spike, however, had no information to offer about the creatures either. "Sorry mate," he said rather regretfully, "I've never seen anything like these buggers before. Never even heard a rumor about 'em. I just thought Willow would like the little blighter, he seemed cute, and I'd never seen anything like 'im before, so I figured Willow wouldn't have either. If I'd known that the little sods were going to be trouble I would've given 'im to Peaches instead." He paused and gave a wicked smirk. "'E deserves all the trouble that falls on his broody head, as long as it doesn't bring back that bloody prick, Angelus. Willow doesn't." His hand, which had been removed from Willow's and placed instead around both the witch and his sire, took some of the sting from his comment; reducing the acerbic sting of his remarks to the level of a rather long- running inside joke instead of a painful barb.
"Well until we know more we shall just have to stick to the rules that Spike was given with the creatures," Wesley reluctantly concluded. "Ms. Rosenberg, perhaps you'd like to try to research these mogwis on the computer while the rest of us look through the books. At least until Fred gets here. She can then assist you with your search. I'll call Mr. Giles and see if he's ever heard of anything like these...things."
"That sounds great Wes," Willow replied. "And it's Willow, remember that!" She gave a mock frown, half-feigning displeasure. "But I'll get right on it and start now." She moved to the computer that had been designated as hers for while she was at Angel Investigations and turned it on. "Well?" she inquired, raising an eyebrow, "What are you all waiting for?" The others hurried to start their research. Cordelia, with a put-upon expression on her face, moved all of the mogwis except Gizmo, who was behaving himself, off of her desk and onto the floor. She figured they could do less damage to her workspace there. "So what are we going to name these new ones anyway? I mean, they're probably going to be around for a while. It's not like we're going to throw them out in the sun or anything. Look at them! They're adorable! Even if they are a little...mischievous sometimes."
Willow cocked her head to the side and thought about it for a minute. She studied the mogwis now playing roughly with each other on the floor while she thought. Suddenly, she brightened. "Well, I know what we can call the one who seems to be the leader," she said with a sly smile on her face, "Spike." The smile turned into a full- fledged grin. "After all, that's sort of what his hair looks like and Spike *did* bring me Gizmo in the first place, so he should have the honor of having one of them named after him. Besides, that one just reminds me of Spike somehow. I don't know about the others though. Any ideas?"
Angel, after studying the mogwis for a bit had a smirk on his face reminiscent of Angelus. He said, "The one with the funny eyes...you know, the one who looks like it's not all there? Let's call that one Dru. After all, she's not all there either."
Willow, Spike, & Cordelia all laughed. "Can't deny that one Peaches, Dru is one loony cow," Spike added. Angel smiled, glad that his childe seemed to be over his other, less sane, childe and that he could now joke about her. It showed how much he'd grown as a person, well vampire, since he'd first come to Sunnydale. That he was on his way towards healing and strengthening his relationship to his sire was simply amazing to Angel. He had difficulty imagining all that Spike must have gone through just to come to the point where he was ready to do that. However, knowing that Spike *had* reached that point and having Willow as well meant that Angel was happier than he had been in a long time. He wasn't *perfectly* happy though, and he was glad for that as well, realizing what that would mean.
"Well," Cordelia started firmly, "Since we seem to be naming them after people we know, I think we should name the one with the floppy ears and the goofy look on its face Xander. He is a big dork after all and the name would work well for that one."
Willow frowned a bit at that, not appreciating Cordy's assessment of Xander's character, but she eventually shrugged, knowing Cordelia's long-standing habit of snipes and barbs towards other people were only a defense mechanism ingrained in her to protect herself from rejection by others. Cordelia had spent too many years without real friends or any affection from her parents. Like Willow, Cordy's parents had spent most of their time out of Sunnydale in exotic locations. Unlike Willow, however, Cordelia had found refuge in the use of her sharp tongue while Willow had become mainly introverted, concentrating instead on her studies, her computer, and the few friends close friends she allowed herself. "I suppose that works," Willow decided finally. "I think the calico-patterned one should be called Tara. It reminds me of Tara's cat, but I don't think the creature would enjoy being called Ms. Kitty Fantastico, given that it isn't a cat."
Everyone nodded in agreement and then Cordelia chimed in a suggestion once more for the final mogwi. "I was going to suggest calling the last one Wes, since it seems to be just as clumsy as Wesley was when he came to Sunnydale, but he's not like that anymore, so how about just Clumsy?" Everyone else looked towards Willow for her approval, they were essentially hers, after all. She had no problems nodding her endorsement of this one. It was the only mogwi name other than Gizmo's that had nothing to do with one of their friends. The naming accomplished, everyone got down to the research.
Willow continued to look, without success, for something on the mogwis over the internet. She tried all the search engines (Google provides extremely bizarre results, but occasionally they were worth something) and almost half of the sites related to demons that she knew. Then Fred came in and Willow turned over the main search to Fred, frustrated with the lack of results. Fred and Willow had ended up having quite a bit in common. The shy, brilliant woman who'd spent so long in an alternate dimension as a slave reminded Willow of not so long ago when she was a shy hacker who had difficulty talking to others and couldn't express herself to others the way she so desperately wanted to. They had both found common ground in computers and their (former on Willow's part) shyness in front of strangers. Although Fred was more concerned with the mathematical, they still had formed an amazingly close friendship in a short period of time. Willow told Fred where she had looked already and gave her a few suggestions on where to continue the search while she continued to work on her computer on various things.
Things were quiet in the offices of Angel Investigations. Everyone was absorbed in their own research and the only noises were the turn of a page, the click of a mouse, the random flurries of fingers typing on the keyboard, and the noises made by the mogwis. Normally research sessions were noisier, but the unusual daytime nature of the session made things quieter. Both vampires were used to being asleep instead of researching and the humans were either accustomed to keeping vampire hours or were not inclined toward idle chatter when there was work to be done. Willow looked around thinking that the Scooby Gang was not having much luck. She frowned at her own thoughts. No, this wasn't the Scooby Gang; this must be Cordy's Angels. Willow smiled at the silly thought. Cordelia could easily take the place of Charlie, bossing everybody around behind the scenes while doing none of the real work. And since she had changed Charlie's gender, she might as well change the Angels to males and make them equal to Wesley, Gunn, and Angel. She giggled quietly to herself, wondering which one was Farrah. On second thought, it wouldn't work. Fred had to fit in there some where and she supposed that since both she and Spike were at Angel's for awhile they had to be able to be included as well. Oh well, she would think of something else later. The Muppets maybe? She'd have to give it a lot more thought. Coming up with these brilliant little nicknames for people wasn't as easy as she thought it was. She really needed Xander for this. Well, maybe Spike would do as well; he always seemed to have more than enough nicknames for everyone. Too bad they were usually derogatory. She'd ask him though, later. Now, however, she needed to bring her mind back to the problem at hand and stop wondering about things like a collective nickname for the people who worked for Angel.
Willow eagerly turned her attention back to her computer screen. The little mental diversion had served to renew her enthusiasm for the tedium of staring at tiny words on a computer screen searching for various things. Willow was the Queen of Multi-tasking and was always doing several things on her computer at a time. Suddenly, she sat up straight in her chair, unable to believe her eyes. Quickly, she read again the words on the screen, her mind swiftly working out all the ramifications of what she was seeing. Deciding that she wasn't hallucinating and that what she was seeing was correct, she bolted out of her chair and shouted, "I found it!!!"
~Part: 10~
Willow was busy jumping up and down, unable to contain her happiness. She had finally found it. Everyone else had looked up, startled, at her outburst. Their next reaction involved varying expressions and outbursts of concern and curiosity.
Spike, ever the impatient one of the group, was the first to be heard clearly over the cacophony. "'Ere, pet, what are you 'opping around for? It's just a normal research session; what you found can't be *that* bloody important," he paused for a moment, considering, before continuing, saying, "What *did* you find that's made you so bleeding happy anyway?"
Willow still couldn't calm down and contain her excitement enough to coherently explain her exuberance. So instead she raced over to where Spike was sitting next to Angel, pulled them both (unresistingly) out of their chairs, and began to dance around in a happy circle with the two vampires. The vampires were a little slow in joining the dance, but they eventually got it and catered to Willow's wishes for a few moments before Angel slowed the circle to a halt. A serious (well, more serious than normal) look was set firmly upon his face. Angel, while pleased that Willow seemed happy, had had enough. He wanted to know what had made her so effervescent so suddenly. He looked at her sternly and said, "Willow, enough jumping around. Now tell me, what did you find?"
Willow smiled gleefully, tempted to withhold her findings for a bit longer, just to tease her two vampires and drive them crazy. She quickly decided that there were more than enough not-quite-all-there vamps in the Order of Aurelius as it was already. Besides, who knew what sort of retaliation they'd concoct if she kept it a secret, especially after announcing so vocally that she'd found 'it.' It would be mean, almost cruel, and if there was one thing that Willow wasn't, it was mean. So, of course she had to break into a fast babble to tell them, unable to tell them at a normal speed. It was just too exciting. "I can't believe I finally found it. This is just so fantastic! I mean this must be a gift from the PTB's or something. It's just too unlikely otherwise. I've searched and I've searched and I've searched for so long and then, today, it just popped up out of nowhere! And I'm so glad that I found this and that it isn't hard; all the components are even easy to find. I'm so happy and we're finally going to be able to anchor your soul!"
The bombshell left everyone dumbfounded. Willow's babble ended abruptly as the magnitude of what she'd found sank into her brain. Every one else in the room was equally silent with expressions of slack-jawed amazement on their faces. The sheer enormity of what Willow had discovered had overloaded their brains. They all struggled to grasp the consequences of her revelation and how it would change not only Angel's relationship with Willow & Spike, but also how it would change his mission for the Powers and how he related to the world in general.
Fred, although the newest member of Angel Investigations and the one who was the least familiar with the other individuals, was the first to grasp the implications and regain her voice. Her quick, analytical mind had made the shortest work of the mental acrobatics necessary to assimilate the effects of Angel's soul being permanent. "Are you sure this will work Willow? What does the spell entail exactly?"
Willow smiled and gestured for Fred to take a look for herself. Fred left her place at the officially designated "research table" to look at the spell on the computer. She sat in Willow's vacated chair and all the others gathered around her to examine the spell on the screen. Wesley crowded particularly close to Fred. Being a former Watcher, he had the most experience with spells other than Willow. In terms of theory and knowledge, he was probably more experienced than Willow, however, she had more practical experience with magic and spells, having needed to use it often in her battle against evil on the Hellmouth. Although Wesley had learned plenty about the theory of magic while he was a Watcher-in-training, he had had little reason or opportunity to gain practical experience in the use of magic, especially after the Watcher's Council had sacked him. He examined the words on the screen. "Fascinating," he murmured. "I've never seen another spell like it. It seems to have been crafted explicitly for Angel, yet source this text is taken from is much older than he is. It's really quite extraordinary."
"Will it work, do you think?" Fred asked. "I don't really know much about magic, but the mathematical and physics principles this spell seem to be based on indicate that it will work. What do you think, Wesley?"
"As I have said," Wesley began authoritatively, "This spell appears to be quite original and suited specifically to Angel's situation. Since this is the case, we should have no difficulty performing the spell, if indeed this spell was meant for Angel. The Powers generally assure that certain spells work when they are needed."
Willow chimed in, "Like when I originally restored Angel's soul. I was hardly strong enough to float a pencil at the time, not to mention the fact that I was still in the hospital bed and barely out of a coma, but I was able to re-curse Angel. It should have been impossible, but something came over me, taking over the spell and essentially finishing the spell for me. Besides, I'm much better at magic now so there should be less danger in attempting the spell. The ingredients needed for the spell are incredibly simple; we could do it now actually. But first, I want to ask," she turned to Angel, "Are you okay with this? With doing the spell and what it will mean if we do it. I wouldn't want to do this without asking what you feel about it. This *is* your life and soul we're discussing."
Angel hesitated, organizing his thoughts. He was still in shock really. With a few words, Willow had changed his world. His whole concept of self and his relations to others had suddenly needed to be redefined. How was he going to live his life without the ever- present threat of Angelus' return? Would the burden of the guilt he carried for his actions before being ensouled lessen so that he could finally have a modicum of happiness? Would he finally be allowed to stop the near continuous remembrance of everything Angelus had done wrong and end the torture of his soul? The questions swirled around and around in his head, creating a maelstrom of questions, doubts, half-formed hopes, dreams, nightmares, and strong emotions. He wondered above all if this was finally it. His redemption. His chance to finally be free of the past, Angelus' past. And although he was doubtful about whether or not this spell was truly going to allow him to just *be*, without the constant torment his memories inflicted upon him, he was beginning to hope that it might at least change some things. The sensation all of this created was akin to his soul being freed of his body and his demon breaking free of its prison to take control again, only it was less painful and he wouldn't end this as that crazy prick Angelus.
All these thoughts came at Angel so fast that it was almost impossible for him to sort out his feelings for all of it. However, as great as the changes might be, he knew that it was worth it for the chance to be with his Willow and his Spike. So it was with no doubt at all in his voice that he said, "Yes, I'm fine with this. We can do the spell any time everyone else is ready."
Willow, satisfied with his answer, turned to Spike and asked, "And you? What do you think of all this?"
Spike's answer, unsurprisingly, was, "Anything that'll let us all shag pet is alright by me. The faster we get this spell done and Peaches' soul secured, the sooner we can all be shagging."
The accompanying leer was also unsurprising given Spike's nature. Although Spike could be a very caring vampire when it came to people (or demons) that he loved, that still did not change the fact that Spike was at base a very physically oriented person. He was very focused on the more visceral emotions, the earthy pleasures. As long as he was fed, was allowed to get in 'a good spot of violence' from time to time, and was getting shagged on a regular basis, he was a very happy vampire. It was all he needed. And although the finer emotions almost invariably came into the equation at some point, he could have gotten along without them and been fine. Well, more or less...probably less. Spike needed to be needed. He had an irresistible urge to do things for the ones he loved. From the woman who had scorned him when he was human whom he wrote poetry for, to Drusilla who had needed him in all sorts of ways, and even to Angelus, who had needed him to take care of Dru and to provide him with constant challenge to stave off boredom, Spike had *needed* to be useful. It was almost an intrinsic part of his character, no matter what sort of exterior face he showed to the world. And although sex was an important part of Spike's definition of love, it was not the only element, or even the most important one, in the equation. As it has been mentioned before, Spike was no ordinary vampire and he hadn't been an ordinary man either.
So in all honesty, Spike really did need more than blood, violence, and sex. He needed true affection to accompany the sex and it had to be coupled with him being needed in some way. Sex without affection and need ended badly. Just look at the time he'd spent with Harmony, the stupid bint. He looked upon that period in his life as one of the worst mistakes he'd ever made. It was true that at the time he'd needed someone to replace Dru whom he hadn't needed to take care of, because for once in his life, *he* was the one in need, trying to cope with his newly-chipped existence. But even given the extenuating circumstances, choosing Harmony to play 'snuggle-bunnies' with was a horrible idea. Harmony, the daft cow, had only a *fraction* of Buffy's intelligence. She was so vapid that Spike honestly thought the years of hair-styling use had eliminated what little intelligence she'd had to begin with until all that remained was a lot of hair spray fumes, some silicone, and some Clairol- enhanced hair. The whole package together was enough to make a normal human male, if he was looking for anything resembling intelligent conversation, cringe. When you figured in the fact that Spike was a vampire with heightened hearing abilities and that Harmony's voice was so whiny that nails raking across a chalkboard paled in comparison, well, you ended up with Spike ruing the day he ever met the blonde Barbie-esque bimbo.
All in all, Spike's "relationship" with Harm was not anything he looked back on with fondness. In fact, the thought that cropped up the most whenever he thought back to the 'Period of Harm' was, "What the bleeding hell was I thinking?" This thought was most commonly followed by, "And what was the blighter who changed her instead of just eating her thinking?" That question was a truly provoking one. Spike had decided that it had to have been some idiotic newly turned fledge who'd been thinking with his dick. Fledges tended to do that, especially if they were teens when they'd been turned. Raging hormones didn't suddenly disappear just because one spent some time in a grave, avoided sunlight, and suddenly went on a liquid diet. If anything, the addition of the demon made it worse and the raging hormones continued to be a big factor for a good twenty years longer than they should have before they settled down a bit. Although Spike had wondered what Harmony's Sire was thinking from almost the moment he'd met her, he certainly hadn't asked Harm that question. It was hard enough to get the chit to shut up *without* encouraging her by asking her questions. Asking her a question about anything was practically a guarantee that Spike would be listening to a good half an hour of non-stop chatter, with each syllable that Harmony uttered grating on Spike's nerves. Her parents must have been delusional when they named her. Never had a person's name resonated less with their personality. Spike was very grateful that his relationship with Harmony, which had much more to do with sex and what she could do for him than anything else, was over with. His one regret was that he hadn't staked her a second time, this time when she wasn't wearing the Gem of Amarra and subsequently impervious to any harm such as a stake through the heart and the sun. He really wasn't sure why he hadn't staked her a second time, other than a momentary lapse in judgment on his part. He supposed that he felt sorry for Harm, she was just so dumb that you almost had to feel sorry for her...well, as long as she never said anything you could manage to feel sorry for her for an instant or two. Just long enough to do something stupid, like let her live.
In the final analysis, Spike couldn't think about Harmony and the time he'd spent with her without cringing. It was ample enough evidence that, for Spike at least, a relationship without some real feelings in it was an empty and unsatisfying one. While a lot of men would be happy to have a purely sexual relationship, Spike was not one of them. He had never been an ordinary man and now that he was undead he wasn't an ordinary vampire either when it came to his passions and how he viewed the world. And all of this had an impact on his blossoming relationship with Willow and his new/old/continuing relationship with Angel. Oh, not the stuff about that Harmony bint. Willow and Angel might be a little annoyed at him because of his poor judgment in picking someone like Harmony to have sex with (after all, 1 person obsessed with blondes in the family was enough as it is), but the actual physical stuff with Harmony was over. In fact, it was so over that if Harmony walked up to him right this moment and French- kissed him while unsubtly insinuating her hand down his jeans, he wouldn't hesitate to use the stake he'd gotten in the habit of carrying around since he started running around with the Scooby Gang.
On second thought, just simply staking Harm wasn't enough. She should be tortured before being staked. It was only fair after all; Spike had had to put up with her incessant whining for way too long. However, if Spike staked her, he would have to listen to her voice, even if she was screaming, so a quick staking it would be. No one was going to get in the way of his new/old relationship with Willow & Angel. They were *his* damn it, and no moronic excuse for a vampire was going to come between him and his loves. Not only did that apply to Harmony, who was unlikely to interfere and would be easily dispatched if she did, but it also went for Slutty the Slayer, Willow's ex-es: Dogboy and the witch bitch, and even Drusilla if she ever got it into her crazy head to reclaim her Spikey and her Daddy.
The only person Spike was really concerned with was the Slayer however. Her possessive nature towards Angel even though she had Riley and her potential disapproval of Willow's relationship with two vampires could have seriously detrimental consequences to his relationship with both of them. And he couldn't just kill her either; Willow would never forgive him. However, those were worries for another time. First they had to secure Angel's soul so they could have a relationship for Slutty to destroy. She wasn't *too* likely to object to a purely platonic relationship between Spike, Willow, and Angel...although, with a mind like the Slayer's you never knew which daft notions she'd take exception to. She could come up with the strangest explanations without the slightest shred of proof and it took overwhelming evidence (usually in the form of some big demon or something) to convince her that she was wrong. She tended to immediately believe the worst about people (and demons) without any real proof of their transgressions. She still didn't even really seem to like or trust Anya and she'd been a powerless human for nearly three years now. The odds of her accepting the trio's relationship were about as likely as the government publicly acknowledging the existence of aliens and all other supernatural beings such as vampires, demons, and werewolves. Buffy, however, wasn't an issue yet. She was still off in the middle of nowhere, also known as Iowa, with the soldier pig boy. And it was time. It was time to do the spell to anchor Angel's soul for all time.
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