”Well, that was a total bust.” Buffy slumped down on a bar stool, turning to Lorne who was happily sipping on his Sea Breeze. “We’ve been to three demon bars and nobody’s heard a thing.” She smiled a little, raising her glass. “At least at this place, I got a free Diet Coke.” Just as she was about to take a sip, she noticed something black at the bottom of the glass. “Um, Lorne? What’s that?”
Lorne picked up the little purple umbrella from his drink and put it behind his ear before glancing down into her glass. “Oh, that’s just a frozen G’harga bug. Better than ice cubes, since they add quite an interesting flavor to the drink.”
Buffy stared at him, wondering is he was serious. “A bug?”
The green demon shrugged, swallowing down the last of the contents in his glass. “It’s considered an exotic delicacy in the demon world.”
“But it’s a bug!” Buffy shuddered, firmly putting her untouched drink down on the counter in front of her. “Gross.”
“Actually, it’s really...” Lorne stopped as he spotted a familiar face in the crowd. “Hey, look who’s decided to come partying with the demons!” He raised his hand in a friendly wave.
Rowan made his way over to join them at the bar, waving a little to catch the bartender’s attention. “Two more beers, please.”
Buffy smiled at him. “Hi, Rowan.”
“Hey.” Rowan nodded in greeting, a teasing note in his voice as he went on, “Spike’s in the back, playing pool.”
The Slayer’s cheeks turned into an interesting shade of pink. “I didn’t ask.”
“Didn’t have to.” Rowan smirked, dropping a couple of bills on the counter. He raised his eyes to look at something over Buffy’s shoulder. “Oh, here he comes.” Buffy’s eyes widened. Ignoring Rowan’s amused expression, she quickly ran her hand over her hair.
“Fancy meeting you here, pet.” Spike gave her an almost shy smile before accepting the bottle Rowan handed to him.
“Hey.” Realizing she was staring at the vampire, a silly smile playing on her lips, Buffy shook her head as if to clear it. “So, um, any news about the missing demons? ‘Cause we got nothing.”
“Neither do we, I’m afraid.” Rowan took a swig from his bottle, resisting the urge to roll his eyes when he noticed that Spike had yet to take his eyes away from the Slayer. “The coat from the lab didn’t tell me anything. In fact...” He stopped as a wave of pain came over him, squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his palm against his temple.
The pain was gone as quickly as it had started and he opened his eyes again, only to find that the others were watching him. Having finally turned his attention away from Buffy, Spike gave him a questioning look. “You okay, mate? What was that’s about?”
Rowan waved his hand in dismissal, putting on a weak smile. “Just a mild case of migraine. Comes with the power.” Eager to change the subject, he nodded towards the bar. “So, anyone up for another round? It’s on me.”
“Not for me, thanks. One bug was enough.” Buffy cast a glance at her watch. “Besides, I gotta go. But you guys go ahead.” She started to get up.
“Leaving so soon?” Spike frowned, clearly disappointed, although he quickly tried to cover up. “What’s the rush? Need to report back to Angel?” He was unable to keep the bitterness out of his voice.
Buffy’s expression hardened. She opened her mouth, then closed it again, and shaking her head in frustration. Without a word, she spun around and left the bar.
Spike stared after her for a moment before letting out a growl and slamming his half empty beer bottle down on the counter, hard enough for it to explode into a million pieces. The demons sitting next to him in the bar gave him startled looks as they nervously started backing away.
“O-kay...” Rowan cast a helpless look at Lorne before carefully putting a hand on the blond vampire’s shoulder. “Maybe we should...”
“Oh, boy...” Lorne interrupted him, shaking his head in disapproval. “Spike, you really are a kel’tac.” The vampire looked up, his eyes narrowing threateningly as he responded to Lorne’s statement with a two-finger salute, clearly offended.
Frowning, Rowan looked from the vampire to the demon. “I take it ’kel’tac’ is some sort of an insult?”
“Sort of, yeah.” Lorne nodded in agreement. “It’s Pylean. Loosely translates to...” He gestured towards the fuming vampire. “brainless moron!”
“Oi!” Spike glared daggers at him. “Watch your mouth, you-”
“You’re supposed to take Buffy out to dinner in a couple of hours,” Lorne cut him off, clearly not the least bit intimidated by Spike’s outburst. “The girl’s going to need some time to prepare. You know, wash her hair and put on her make-up. Maybe take a nice bubble bath. Decide which dress matches her new shoes. That sort of thing.”
Spike’s face fell, his anger immediately submitting to doubt. He gave Lorne an uncertain look. “That’s why she left? To get ready for tonight?” He was quiet for a moment. “She’d actually do that for me?”
“Sure,” Lorne said. “At least I bet that was her plan until you had to open your big mouth. As of now, I wouldn’t be surprised if she called the whole thing off.”
As the demon’s words started to sink in, Spike looked absolutely crestfallen. Then he let out a loud groan. “Buggerin’, bleedin’ hell!”
~ ~ ~
“Buffy?”
Angrily pacing back and forth in her room, muttering to herself about stupid vampires, Buffy stopped at the sound of Fred’s voice, coming from the other side of the closed door. “Go away!” She felt a little bad for taking her anger out on Fred, but she couldn’t help herself.
”Um...” There was a moment of silence. ”Buffy, are you okay?”
Sighing, Buffy made her way over to the door, opening it and taking a step back to allow Fred to enter. “Yes, I’m fine. Just pissed off at the moment. I’m sure it’ll pass.”
“What’s wrong?” The Texan girl hesitantly stepped through the door, a look of concern on her face. “I thought you’d be all excited about your big date tonight?”
“Yeah, well, the date’s off!” Buffy walked over to the bed and sat down. “Let’s face it; all men are idiots.” She paused, eyes narrowing as she scowled. “Especially the ones who happen to be vampires.”
“Uh-oh.” Fred went to sit down next to the blonde. “What did Spike do now?”
Buffy rolled her eyes. “You mean aside from being obnoxious, as usual?” When Fred didn’t respond, just waited for her to go on, she let out a sigh. “Angel-issues. So what else is new?” Fred’s lips formed the shape of an ‘o’. Buffy threw her arms up in the air. “How the hell am I supposed to even think about getting into a relationship with Spike if he can’t trust me?!”
Fred opened her mouth, but Buffy wasn’t finished; “My God, it’s like he thinks just because I don’t go around insulting Angel every chance I get, I still have romantic feelings for him.”
“Which you don’t?” Fred looked a little confused.
“Of course not!” Buffy scoffed. “I’m so way over Angel, it’s not even funny. And yet, Spike refuses to believe that. What am I supposed to do? Shout it out from the rooftops?”
The brunette was quiet for a moment. “Maybe. It couldn’t hurt.”
“I mean, come on...” Buffy didn’t even hear Fred’s input as she continued, “Spike’s over a hundred years old, and sometimes I just wanna hit him over the head and tell him to grow up! I can’t believe he’s being so... so...”
“Insecure?” Fred glanced at her, choosing her next words carefully. “Buffy, I’m sure Spike wants to trust you. But let’s face it; Angel was your first real love. It’s hard to compete with that.”
Buffy groaned in frustration. “But that’s just it. There’s no competition. If I’d wanted to be with Angel, I would’ve come here years ago. I decided to stay here in LA because of Spike, not because of Angel.”
“Oh, I know.” Fred gave her an assuring look. There was a pause. “But does Spike know that?”
“Sure he does.” Buffy worried her bottom lip between her teeth. “Well, he should. Shouldn’t he?”
“He should,” Fred agreed. She let out a nervous laugh. “But you’re forgetting one thing.” The blonde gave her a questioning look and she clarified, “Just because Spike’s a vampire it doesn’t mean he can read your mind.”
Buffy was silent for a moment, reluctantly admitting to herself that Fred had a point. She pouted a little. “Spike and I really need to start communicating, don’t we?”
Fred nodded. “That would be good. Does this mean the date’s back on?”
“I guess.” The Slayer gave it a brief moment’s consideration before shrugging, casually. “It was never off.”
TBC
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Betad by Mabel Marsters. :)