“No shit, Sherlock.” she said angrily. He had totally ruined her evening now, it wasn’t closing for another hour, but now she was going to have to leave.
“I’m not serving you Buffy.”
“Yeah, I figured that.”
“I could lose my job. Go get whoever you came with and go home.” he said sharply, his blue eyes piercingly angry.
Buffy sighed, knowing she had no other choice, it wasn’t like she could let Spike lose his job, and she didn’t really want to stay now he was here anyway, kind of a drag having your big brother in the corner of the room.
She went off to get Faith and found her in the toilets with her head so far down one she looked as if she was stuck. Buffy pulled her up, dragged her to her feet and outside to the main room. When they got there she turned to her, and noticed she was in a bad way. “Faith, you okay?”
“5 by 5, B. 5 by 5.” she said before falling and slipping out of Buffy’s grasp, luckily onto the one of the sofas Buffy had been directing her towards.
“Does that mean she is okay? Or she isn’t?”
She turned round to see Spike. Again.
“It means she’s fine. Or at least, it means she thinks she’s fine. However her unconsciousness would suggest otherwise.”
Spike smiled at her even though she wasn’t looking. He shouldn’t really be smiling, because she looked genuinely fed up. In actual fact she was just trying to figure out how she was going to get Faith home, she’d never seen her like this before, it was always Faith who looked after her.
“Look.” Spike said interrupting her thoughts, “Stay here. I’ll take you both home when I get off work.”
Buffy smiled relieved someone else was going to sort her out; God knows she was a little bit too drunk to think straight enough right now to look after herself, never mind Faith as well.
Spike started walking away, then pivoted back around to face her. “And don’t speak to anyone, or go to the bar…or…anything, okay?” With that he left, not seeing Buffy pulling a face at him. I am not a child, she thought.
“God you still treat me like a child!” she snapped at him when he finally came back to them.
“All I asked was if you’d spoken to anyone.”
“You told me not to, and I’m not stupid, Spike. I’m not gonna go around and announce I’m your underage sister.” she huffed. “It’s like you think I’m a complete idiot.”
“Well you’re the one who came to a club, underage, got too drunk and couldn’t look after her friend, and had no idea what to do when said friend got rat-arsed.” he threw back at her.
“She’s fine now.” Buffy said, narrowing her eyes at him as if to say ‘back off, it wasn’t my fault.’
“Yeah.” said Faith from behind them on the sofa. She was leant forwards holding her head. She swept her hair over her shoulder and stood up. “And loving the family melodrama.”
Buffy shifted awkwardly and looked down, clearly upset. Spike felt guilty. “Look, Buffy. I’m sorry. I was just…I just panicked. I really like this job. And if you don’t want me to become a permanent fixture at your flat, I’m gonna need it too.”
She nodded.
“So.” he said, “Let’s go, shall we?”
Spike dropped Faith off first, Buffy felt awkward as soon as Faith left, for some reason even more so when she got a text from Faith a few minutes later that said, “OMG. B. Ur Brothr is HOT!” Buffy wasn’t surprised, everyone thought Spike was hot, and she knew he was exactly the type of guy Faith would go for. He drove motorbikes and fast dirty cars, he smoked, he didn’t care what people thought of him, and he had a smart mouth and a sharp tongue. Bad boy was her type, and Spike was just that, or at least he had been until he settled down with Dru. That had been a shock, finding out he’d actually got a girlfriend. It’d always been an option, because girls had always thrown themselves at him, but he’d never wanted anything long-term before her.
Buffy’s thoughts suddenly drifted to what he was going to be like now Dru was out of the picture. Would he go back to his womanising ways? Hopefully not in her flat!
Then she started to think practically about this whole thing. She didn’t want him to have anyone come to the house, but does that mean she wasn’t allowed anyone round? That would of course assume she had someone in mind, even though she didn’t. She quickly stopped her train of thought there when Spike finally thought of something to say to break the silence.
“So kitten, you got my room all ready for me?”
“The spare room’s pretty set out anyway, don’t need to get it ready really.” she said, looking out of the window of Spike’s car watching the streetlights pass by.
“How’d you afford a two bedroom on your own anyway?” he asked, his voice making her turn back to face him.
“I leased it with this girl on my course, Kendra. Then she had a death in the family, went back home, ended up staying.” She sighed, she did miss Kendra, she was a weird girl, but nice and it was a shame she’d had to give up college because of everything. “Anyway it’s in the contract that she has to pay her half of the rent until she finds someone to take her place. And I guess she’s been too busy to find someone, and so have I.” Buffy hoped he wouldn’t catch on to what she’d said. She had practically just announced she was too busy to meet anyone, like she was some sad single with no friends, and a roommate that didn’t even want to live with her, not that that was far from the truth. But then again, after tonight, he could hardly say he thought she had no social life.
“Doesn’t she find the money she has to pay for the flat she isn’t even living in, a sort of incentive to find someone?”
“Not really. Her dad pays the rent anyway. Her family is like royalty or something.”
“Don’t have royalty here though, do we, luv?” He smiled at her, and then looked back to the road.
“Well then they’re just loaded. Doesn’t seem to bother her, the money thing. And she only pays the basic rent. Sometimes I struggle with the bills on my own, but I get by.”
“Well don’t worry, pet. I’ll pay my way while I’m there.”
“Suppose it won’t be so bad having you around then, if you’ll be paying me money to endure your presence.” she said throwing him that cheeky grin that he had to admit he’d missed.
“Hey!” He pulled a mock-upset face.
She just giggled, and she felt 13 all over again.
When they pulled up outside her building, Spike shut the engine off and Buffy suddenly felt even more uncomfortable. She felt like a random guy was dropping her off from a date. It felt weird, but only because it didn’t feel weird. It should feel weird right? Comparing a lift from your brother…stepbrother, to the end of a date?
“You okay, pet?” he asked after she didn’t make a move for a while.
“Erm…Yeah.” she decided, reaching for the handle. “Thanks, Spike. It’s hard to admit this to you, but you really helped me out.”
“Just returning the favour, kitten.” he said leaning over.
Oh my God, what is he doing?
He kissed her on the forehead, and at first her eyes closed and she couldn’t breathe, and then she remembered he did that all the time when they were younger. So it was okay right? Even though they weren’t young anymore? Even though he was a hot 26 year old and she was a woman now at 19…Wait, did she just call him hot?
She fumbled with the door handle and got out of the car. The cool air hit her face and she allowed herself to think about nothing else until she reached the outer door.
Spike waited until she was inside before turning on the engine. He felt a bit weird about how awkward the car journey had been, but he hadn’t expected much more, after all they hadn’t spoken for a long time and God it was all his fault. But the way she reacted when he went to kiss her threw him. Was she that uncomfortable around him? They did that all the time as kids, so he was upset by her reaction. It showed how much their relationship had changed, because of the distance he’d put between them. They weren’t like brother and sister anymore. So what were they?