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“So?” I asked impatiently.

“Nearest I can tell,” Spike said slowly, “they’re just sitting there. Their heartbeats are normal. I don’t smell any sex. I think they’re just talking.”

We had both almost forgotten about the couple I had given one of the keys to our room to. Spike unlocked the door and we peeked into the room. Oz and Willow were sitting on the couch talking. One look at their faces said they had been getting along. And was that…possibly a hint of attraction on Willow’s face? Time would tell, I guessed. They looked up as we walked in.

“Hey guys. Did you order up some room service? I’m starving. Think they’ll still send something up at,” I glanced at the clock and groaned, “one o’clock in the morning. God, why can’t callings have normal hours?” I asked rhetorically. I reached into the mini fridge and grabbed a container of blood. I poured some into one of the mugs on the counter and popped it into the microwave. Spike had shrugged off his duster and sat down in a chair across from Willow. She was animatedly telling him about the things she had seen in Brazil.

I grabbed the mug from the microwave and took it to my vampire. Turning to Oz, I said, “I’m gonna order up some food and then we can start dying your hair, if you still wanna do that tonight.”

He nodded. “Sounds good.”

“Want anything?” I asked the small assembled group.

“I’m feelin’ a bit peckish. I wouldn’t say no to a mug of hot chocolate and a plate of hot wings, pet.” Spike smiled affectionately at me. I returned it and looked at my other two friends, Willow declined any sustenance, but Oz was thinking along the same lines as I was. Big cheeseburger, lots of French fries, tall glass of soda. I made the call to room service and the grabbed Oz’s bag full of hair dye.

Oz followed me into the bathroom as I read the instructions on the back of the bottle of blue hair dye. His hair was going to be Cookie Monster blue by the time I was done. Oz took of his shirt and draped a towel over his shoulders and I pulled on latex gloves. I motioned for Oz to sit on the floor and I sat behind him on the edge of the bathtub. “So,” I whispered as I began rubbing the dye into his hair, “how’s it been going tonight?” I was nervous, but I had to know.

“It was awkward at first, but it’s been getting easier.”

“I just want you to know, I didn’t mean for you see her. I mean, she helped me and I just didn’t expect you to be back so soon. I feel like I let you down,” I finished quietly.

He shook his head slightly, so as not to mess up my work on his hair. “You didn’t, Buffy. I mean, some warning would have been nice,” I could hear the smile on his lips, “but no long term damage to our friendship was done. It’s not fair though.”

I finished applying the dye and took off my gloves, tossing them in the trash. I sat down next to him on the floor. “What isn’t?”

“Well, I love someone, they end up a lesbian. You love someone, you both cheat death to be together. It’s not fair to us, the normal people. You’re just really lucky,” he answered.

I smiled. “You know, we’ve saved a lot of people countless times. There never had to be a reward for that because, hey, that would be doing it for all the wrong reasons. But this, getting to be with Spike after all this time and finally getting to be happy…it feels like a prize, you know?”

Spike stuck his head around the door. “Buffy, luv, the food’s here.” I nodded and smiled at him.

Oz and I joined the objects of our affection in the next room. Spike had wheeled in the tray and set all the food on the coffee table in front of the couch. Oz sat back down next to Willow, Spike resumed sitting in the chair and I sat down on the floor in front of the coffee table. As I started on my French fries, I fixed Spike with a pointed stare.

“So, you got in a fight with Angel, eh? One where he lost. That sounds like a story I want to hear.” I winked at him.

I saw the happy gleam in his eye. I knew how much he loved to brag. “Well,” he began, “it all starts with a prophecy. Have you heard of the Shanshu?” he asked us. We all shook our heads, so he continued. “It tells of a vampire with a soul who fulfills his destiny and once he does, will become human. Then, when I became corporeal again, someone from Percy’s department told us there was more to the prophecy. That the vampire was supposed to drink from the Cup of Perpetual Torment. So Peaches and I raced out into the desert, where the bloody thing was. Death Valley. I wanted to be the one with a destiny for once.”

He lit a smoke before he went on. “All I could think of was the thousands of times the Great Poof and I had been weighed against each other and he had always won. With Drusilla. With the Scoobies. With you.” He looked at me through the thick curtain of his lashes. “I just wanted to prove something, to myself, more than him.”

“There is nothing more common-place than the wish to be remarkable.” Willow whispered.

“Shakespeare,” I acknowledged. “Although in your case, Spike, you need not wish. You are remarkable. Please go on.”

His lips quirked up into a shy smile as he continued to weave his tale. “We found the cup pretty much at the same time. We fought, we insulted each other. He used you as ammunition against me. Said I only got my bloody soul back so you would sleep with me. Said you didn’t love me because I wasn’t him. Said the only reason you were with me at all was because I was a substitute for him.” The pain made his voice raw and tears coursed down his cheeks. I was surprised he was letting other people see his emotions. Angel had obviously said something that Spike had been carrying around in his head for some time.

I got up and threw my arms around him and was startled a few seconds later when Willow did the same. “But you still kicked his ass, right? So you, like, defended both yours and Buffy’s honor.” She pulled back and smiled at him.

“Well, I almost bloody staked him, but I thought the Slayer might get med,” he said quietly.

I pulled back and looked him straight in the eye. “If someone attacks you, you go all out to fight back. If someone tries to kill you, you kill him or her first, with very few exceptions. Angel wouldn’t have thought twice about staking you. You must know that. But,” I said softly, “the staying of your hand is one of the many things that make you a better man.”

That earned me a smile. A big one.

We had all finished eating, so I turned to Oz. “If you wanna go wash that stuff out of your hair, we’ll start phase two.”

Spike got up as well. “I’ll go help the Wolf Boy with the bleach. Believe it or not, I know my way around a bottle of peroxide.” He grinned at us as he followed Oz into the bathroom.

I moved up next to Willow on the couch. “So, I’ve been thinking about Angel’s avoidyness. I’m thinkin’ there’s a memory changing spell on some of the people here. I could reverse it if we got everyone in the same room, but since they don’t know something’s wrong, it might be tough,” Willow told me.

“Do you have a specific spell in mind? I mean, can we test it? Maybe…you can test it on us?” She looked at me skeptically. “You and I have both come to L.A. over the years. How do we know whatever mojo everyone else is under hasn’t affected us, too?”

“Good point,” she said, nodding emphatically. “I’ll just pop home and grab some stuff and we can get right to it. Will you move the coffee table while I’m gone?”

I rolled my eyes at her. “Sure sure, you just keep me around to do your manual labor.”

She grinned at me. “Yep, you’re like my very own special pack pony.” With that and a loud POP, she was gone. And I, like the good friend I am, hefted the table out of the way.

I stuck my head around the bathroom door and saw my lover with his hands encased in latex using a tinting brush on the tips of Oz’s hair. He was a picture of domestic cuteness. Big Bad indeed. “Hey, Willow and I are going to do a spell, so if you get the tinglies in here, you know why.”

What are you going to do, pet?” Spike asked warily.

“Willow and I both think that Angel has had some kind of a forgetting sell on his team here. Since both she and I have been to L.A. in the past three years, we’re going to test the…unforgetting spell, for lack of a better term, on ourselves to see if we’ve been affected too. Something here is giving me the wiggins,” I replied.

He nodded solemnly and I heard Willow reappear behind me. I shut the door and turned to my friend. “Okay, what do we do?”

She poured sand in a large circle on the floor that had been previously occupied by the coffee table. As per her instructions, we both stepped into the circle and sat cross-legged, facing each other.

Willow handed me a white candle and then picked up hers. She nodded to me and I lit the candles as she spoke.

These candles we light to represent ourselves
They burn, as do our spirits
It is as ourselves in all things
They are the symbols of reality
They are enjoined about us to how us all truth

We sat as memories came flooding back to us. I remembered the day I had spent with Angel when he was human. I remembered lying in bed with him and eating ice cream and falling asleep in his arms. I remembered how he told me that he asked for the Powers that Be to take it back so he could protect me, but that hadn’t been true. I had died anyway. Tears coursed freely down my face and I could feel myself shaking uncontrollably. My crying blurred my vision, but I still saw a black clothed figure race around me and draw me into embrace.

“Buffy, kitten, what did you remember?” I took a deep breath. Mmm Spike smell, smell of Spike. It calmed me down considerably. He picked me up and sat down on the chair, holding me in his lap, stroking my back and holding my hand.

Oz and Willow sat on the couch. I pulled the smokes from Spike’s pocket and lit one, drawing a slow, shaky drag. Then I began to speak. I told them everything I remembered. When I had finished, I saw Spike’s face. His eyes alone betrayed his pain, so I decided to explain further. “You have to understand, I’m not mad or upset because I, like, lost my chance to be with Angel. I’m upset because he not only screwed with my memories, but he also lied about the reason he had the Powers take the day back. He said it was to protect me, but how can that be true? He was here in L.A. How could he protect me? He didn’t and I still died. He did it for himself. And besides,” I smiled shyly at my vampire love, “someone very wise once said that I like a little monster in my man.”

That earned me a grateful smile. I turned my eyes to Willow. “So? Anything new in your head?”

“Ooh,” she exclaimed, “Angel and Darla have a human son named Conner. He’s eighteen or so. He was born last year, but he was kidnapped and grew up in a hell dimension where time moves differently or something. He’s all grown up now. That must be what Angel wanted us all to forget, but I don’t know why.”

“Peaches and Darla had a soddin’ child? How the bleeding hell did that happen?”





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