Title: Three Little Words
Author: Christine
Email: Xanderette43@hotmail.com
Disclaimer: Joss owns everything, I just made up the demon's name.
Rating: R - NC-17
Spoilers: 'The Gift'... this is a future fic 2 years from now.
Dedication: To Reginie and Bree who wanted a shower scene. :)

Part One


Dawn crept slowly behind the large dumpster, praying that she wouldn't slip and make noise. Spike turned back and waved at her to keep moving, so she nodded and crawled faster to catch up to him. He stopped abruptly and motioned for her to do the same. Dawn was about to whisper something to him when he placed his finger against her lips silencing her. Dawn rolled her eyes and leaned against the brick wall in the alley.

They were supposed to be tracking the latest vampire gang, but Spike got distracted and so now they were on the trail of a Arikas demon. Spike had explained to Dawn that Arikas demons were capable of freezing its victims by grabbing and holding onto them. Dawn had tagged along, mainly because she and Spike had grown inseperable the past two years. Willow and Tara were her legal guardians until she turned eighteen, but she wasn't really close to them anymore, not since Buffy had died. Spike was the one person she could talk to about anything... well almost anything.

In the time that she had spent with Spike, she had unknowingly began to fall in love with him. There wasn't one part of him that she didn't love. He treated her like an equal, not a seventeen year old girl, and that was what separated him from the Scooby gang in the first place two years ago. She loved how his hair was curly in the morning when he woke up, how they would thumb wrestle and he would let her win, and how he could talk to her for hours about anything at all. The one thing she couldn't bring herself to tell him however were her feelings for him. She knew he had gotten over Buffy, slowly but surely, but there was thing nagging feeling in the back of her mind that told her he didn't feel the same way she felt. The tap on her shoulder brought her out of her thoughts.

"Nibblet look."

Dawn crawled over Spike's lap and peered out from behind the discusting dumpster. She saw the Arika demon coming out from hiding and at the same time a young boy walking through the alley. Dawn's eyes grew wide. "Spike, we have to help that kid," she whispered softly.

Spike nodded and leaned down to whisper in her ear. "Follow me, don't do anything unless I tell you to, I don't want you hurt."

Dawn looked up at him and saw worry in his eyes. "Don't worry, I won't."

Spike nodded again and slowly stood up, and took Dawn's hand to help her up. She wiped the dirt off her black pants and grimaced when something skittered quickly across her feet. "Let's get this done fast."

Spike moved forward, reaching into his back pocket and producing a knife with a blade that obviously wasn't meant to butter toast. Dawn snuck quietly behind him wishing she had brought a weapon with her. The Arika demon heard them, and quickly whipped around, drool pouring out of his mouth like a waterfall. The boy saw the demon and ran away in the direction he had come.

Dawn's face scrunched up in revoltion and Spike turned around and looked at her with the same face. "Gross isn't it Ducks?"

Dawn nodded. "And it smells." A putrid smell was eminating from the demon who looked as if he was going to pounce any second. "Spike, lets just kill it and get home."

Spike turned back around and charged. The demon punched Spike in the face and he stumbled backwards into the wall. Spike grunted and he shifted into his vamp face. He charged at him again and the demon grabbed his sleeve of his leather duster and ripped it off. Spike's eyes narrowed. "That was my favorite duster you bloody poof!" He sent the demon flying backwards into the dumpster and Dawn moved out of the way so Spike could kill it. He ran over to the dazed demon and buried the blade deep into the demon's heart, killing it instantly. Dawn grinned and walked over to Spike.

"Great job!"

Spike smiled, his fangs extended. "Thanks Bit, but that wanker ruined my jacket."

Dawn picked up the ripped sleeve. "I think I can fix it later, don't worry."

Spike put an arm around her causing the little butterflies in her stomach to appear. "Thanks Nibblin, I don't know what I'd do without you."

Dawn slipped her arm around him as they walked out of the alley. "I don't know what I'd do without you either Spike, let's go home and get clean, we smell awful."

"Bloody hell we do."




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