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"You've forgone the safety pins, I see."

Spike shrugged. "Didn't want to ruin the evening by stabbing one of your mates."

"I appreciate your consideration," Buffy replied with a smirk. She looked over Spike's outfit, noting that he had indeed tweaked his look, replacing his normal ripped clothes and pointy jewelry with black jeans and a red button-down shirt. "You clean up well."

"I do, don't I? Ready to admit what a handsome bloke I am?"

"A bit full of yourself, aren't you?" Spike smiled at her, and Buffy smiled back. Since dinner the other night, she'd relaxed around him, deciding that maybe he wasn't the most horrible roommate she could possibly have.

"Ready to go then, pet?"

"Are you going to behave yourself?"

"Oi! I wore the decent clothes, didn't I?"

"Could just be part of an elaborate plot to lull me into a false sense of security."

"Door. Out. Now."

Buffy smiled at him again before leaving the apartment, Spike trailing behind her.

*** *** ***

"And you must be Spike," Willow said as she opened the door.

Spike nodded. "And you're…Willow?"

"Yep." Buffy and Spike came into the apartment, and Willow shut the door, then gestured to the brunette sitting on the couch. "That's Tara."

"Hi," Tara said with a small wave.

Spike nodded again in response. "Nice to meet you both."

"Is Xander here yet?" Buffy asked.

"He's in the kitchen," Willow replied.

"Alone?"

"Yes."

"You left him alone with the food?!" Buffy playfully slapped her friend on the shoulder. "What were you thinking?"

"I'm not sure," Willow replied with a laugh. "Better go check on dinner—make sure we still have one."

As Willow went back to the kitchen, Buffy joined Tara on the couch. Spike sat in a chair across from them. "How do you like New York?" Tara asked Spike.

"Like it more than California. Too hot there for a London boy such as myself."

Before anyone could say anything else, there was a knock on the door. Tara stood to answer it. "Is someone else supposed to show up?" Buffy asked.

"Anya," Tara replied.

"Willow invited Anya?"

"Actually, I did. I know she has a crush on Xander, and I thought it would be a good time for them to get to know each other. Willow was less than thrilled, but I think they'd make a cute couple." Tara smiled a little before going to the door. As soon as Anya was inside, she asked about Xander.

Buffy leaned over, whispering to Spike. "Anya's my manager at the bakery. She's a little blunt, but she grows on you."

Tara offered to get Xander from the kitchen, and Anya sat on the couch. "Hello Buffy and an extremely blond man I don't know," Anya said.

"Hi, Anya," Buffy replied. "This is Spike."

"Oh, right. Your mother's husband's son. The one who's been staying at your apartment even though you don't want him around. Nice to meet you, Spike."

Buffy reddened despite Spike's chuckle. "Heard you were blunt," Spike said with a grin. "Nice to meet you, too, Anya."

"I believe in always saying what's on your mind. Ooh—there's Xander." Anya got up, ambushing Xander as soon as he left the kitchen.

"That was when you were first here," Buffy said. "I haven't said anything bad about you in…at least a good three or four days."

Spike reached over, patting Buffy's knee. "Don't worry about it. I haven't had all nice things to say about you either."

"Gee, thanks."

"But I think you're all right now. Not nearly as bitchy as I remember you being at the wedding."

"Yeah, like you were Mister Sunshine."

"Look, Buffy, I didn't much care for the fact that my da could love anyone but my mum. I acted like a wanker, I know, but I couldn't see how he could be over her death when I wasn't. I'm sorry. Joyce is a real nice lady, and I do regret being rude to her then."

Buffy blinked. She hadn't thought about it that way then, her sixteen year old existence too untouched by tragedy for her to even being to comprehend what Spike had been going through. Things were different now. "I…I don't think he really got over it either." She reached up, fingering the ring still hanging on a chain beneath her blouse. "You don't get over losing the person you love like that. You…you learn to move on. You have to keep on living, or you'll just lie down and wait until you can join them."

Spike looked at her for a moment as another clue to the mystery of what had changed her so much in five years clicked into place. "Buffy, I…"

Buffy held up her hand. "Don't. I've dealt with it, and I don't want to talk about it."

Spike didn't point out that she certainly didn't seem like she'd dealt with it. He knew prying now wouldn't get him anywhere, and he contemplated for a second calling Dawn and asking her what had happened to her sister in order to satisfy his curiosity, but decided that would be an invasion of Buffy's privacy, and a possible hindrance to the tentative friendship they had been developing should she find out. "Right then."

"So is this the Spike I've heard so much about?"

Buffy and Spike both turned to see Xander standing by the couch, Anya not far from his side. "Yeah, that would be me. And you're Xander, I assume."

The two men shared a look for a moment before Xander shrugged. "Nice not to be the only one in the place without an abundance of estrogen, I suppose." Xander sat next to Buffy, smiling, but still eyeing Spike warily.

"Dunno. I've always rather enjoyed being the only rooster in the hen house." He winked and Anya, making her blush, and Xander sit up a little straighter and glance over at the blonde woman. Spike suppressed a chuckle. Apparently Anya's crush wasn't one-sided…

Tara peeked out of the kitchen then, clearing her throat to get the attention of the people in the living room. "Willow's putting food on the table if anyone wants to eat it."

*** *** ***

Later in the evening, Spike surprised Buffy by agreeing to go with Xander on a beer run. She'd almost said she should go, too, but Anya had whispered, "Let them go. They want time alone to size each other up. It's a man thing."

Buffy soon found herself alone on the couch with Anya as Tara and Willow put the food away, refusing any help from their guests. "He's pretty hot," Anya said, inspecting her nails.

"Xander?" Buffy asked, confused.

"No. Well, Xander's hot, but that's not who I meant. Spike."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess he's okay."

"If I were you, I'd be all over him. It's obvious he wants you."

"Huh?" Buffy's eyes bulged a bit, and she stared at Anya, slack-jawed for a moment. "No, Spike doesn't want me! Are you insane?"

"Please, Buffy. If there are two things in this world I know anything about they're money and men. Spike, falling into the category of 'men,' is fairly easy to interpret. He was watching you the entire meal with that look they get when they want you to give them orgasms."

Buffy's face felt warm as she blushed deeply. "You've got to be reading him wrong, Anya. He's not even remotely interested in me. It doesn't even make any sense that he would be."

"Oh please. It would make less sense if he wasn't. You're an attractive woman, and you're living in close quarters. That's sex waiting to happen."

"But that's…it's…we're practically related!"

"But you're not. You're not even as close to family as Greg and Marsha Brady, and you know they were up to all sorts of things."

"No! And they weren't either. The Brady family was wholesome." Buffy crossed her arms in front of her.

"Oh please. Put that many teens in a house, and someone's having sex. But that's not really the point here."

"What exactly is your point, Anya?"

"That you should go for it with Spike, of course. It would be a shame to pass up a chance with someone that fine."

"A world of no. Spike and I are much better just being roommates. Sex would only…complicate things at best."

Anya shrugged. "Suit yourself. But if you ask me, you're passing up a wonderful opportunity. Anyone with that build has to be worth it."

Buffy raised an eyebrow. "He's kinda skinny."

"Don't you know what they say about skinny guys?" Buffy looked blankly at Anya, who rolled her eyes. "Apparently not. Just trust me then—he'd be worth it. And the way he does that little curl thing with his tongue…"

"If he's such a catch, why don't you go after him?" Buffy was surprised as her inner voice screamed "No!" at the thought of Anya and Spike, but she pushed it down.

"No, I'll pass. I have my eye set on someone else."

"Xander?"

"Well, yeah. I'm making my move tonight. I'm sick of waiting for him. It's tiresome, and a waste of time that we could be spending having sex."

"Good luck with that," Buffy replied. She felt relief that Anya didn't seem to want Spike, but ignored that, too.

"Thanks. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow at work."

Buffy smirked. She knew she would.

*** *** ***

"I like your friends."

Buffy looked up, slightly startled as she head Spike speak. She closed the door to their apartment, crossing the kitchen to sit on the couch as he turned on the floor lamp in the living room. "They seemed to like you, too. Anya especially." She added the last part as almost a mutter.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." Buffy looked up, studying his face to see how he'd react. "She thinks you're hot."

Spike chuckled. "'Course she does. I am. Noticed she went home with Xander. Bet he's happy, seeing as she's all he talked about when we ducked out for a bit. I'm getting a beer—you want anything from the kitchen?"

"No, I'm fine."

Buffy toed off her shoes and leaned against the back of the couch. She felt satisfied by Spike's seeming disinterest in Anya, but as was becoming her pattern, she chose not to analyze it. "Have you seen anymore of that Harmony girl?"

"A little," Spike replied, coming back over to the couch and sitting down. He took a drink from his beer bottle. "She follows the Dingoes wherever they play. Oz says it's a new development, so she's probably hoping to run into me."

"You haven't brought her back here again."

"You asked me not to."

"But you haven't spent the night anywhere else either."

"You don't have to spend the whole night with someone, pet."

Buffy frowned at the thoughts that statement brought to her mind. The idea of Spike have brief encounters with Harmony disturbed her even more than when she'd known they'd spent the night together on her couch. Something about the whole arrangement seemed cheap to her, and she didn't like the thought of Spike in that sort of relationship. She reminded herself it wasn't any of her business. "I'm tired," she announced, standing up. "Thanks for coming out with me tonight."

"Thanks for wanting me along."

Buffy gave him a brief smile and went into her room, shutting the door.

*** *** ***

When Buffy went into the kitchen the next morning, she noticed the beer Spike had had when they'd gotten home that night had not been his only one. Four empty bottles stood by the microwave. She gathered them up, dumping them in the bag that held the recyclables, the glass clinking against the others that were already in there.

Buffy ran her fingers through her hair, grateful that the only thing she had besides class today was a short afternoon shift at the bakery. The thought of hearing about the sexploits of Xander and Anya didn't thrill her, although she had to admit she was vaguely curious as to how their night went—only not once things got sweaty. That she found more disturbing than anything else.

She glanced back at the couch where Spike was asleep and thought back to what Anya had said the night before. Buffy had dismissed the thought of Spike being attracted to her outright then, but now she found herself wondering if maybe Anya's observations held more merit than Buffy had given them. Was it possible Spike actually was attracted to her?

Buffy shook her head, dismissing that possibility again. Spike didn't want her—a fact for which she was glad. If he liked women like that Harmony, then Buffy wasn't even his type. And she didn't want to be. She wasn't attracted to Spike, she was sure. And even if she was—which she wasn't, she told herself firmly—then any sort of relationship would still be a bad idea. Sex would only complicate things, and any attraction between them would fizzle quickly. Then things would be awkward, to say the least.

No, there wouldn't be anything between them. Buffy made up her mind on that. Anya could think whatever she wanted, but Buffy was set on keeping things between her and her roommate strictly platonic.

With that resolution, Buffy went into the bathroom to get ready for class.

*** *** ***

I know reviews have been sparse on this, but I'm really, really busy. I have a job and five college classes, so fanfic can't be my top priority. I know you guys want updates, and I wish I had the time to make them more regular, but I just don't. No amount of telling me my updates are too slow is going to lighten my work load and give me more time for writing. Sorry about that. But I will work on this and my other fics as often as I can, so don't think I'm neglecting my writing. I just have other things in my life that have to be my priority. And it won't be months and months between posts or anything like that, so don't worry. At the most, it'll be a couple of weeks, and I'll do my best to make that shorter.

Review please!





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