----Blind Mice


“Help me!”

Buffy flew towards the woman who’d shrieked and arrived in time to see a rather humanoid demon swipe its claw across her chest.

Buffy ran headlong into the demon, tackling him to the ground as the woman collapsed and the two children in her arms fell with her.

The Vampire Slayer dispatched the irritated demon with no lustre in her eyes or her heart. The apathy in which she now fought was held at bay slightly by the sounds of the whimpering children behind her and the familiar prickle on the back of her neck.

Turning slowly, Buffy approached the woman, whose breathing was haggard as she lay still on the cold grass.

“It’s okay...it’s going to be okay,” Buffy said as she fell to her knees next to the woman on the opposite side of her than her children.

“No it’s not...I’m dying. I can feel my magick leaving me.”

“You’re a witch?”

“No.”

Buffy frowned down at her in confusion and then looked up at the twin boys who were staring soundlessly at her.

“Where can I take them?”

“Nowhere.”

“Stop being cryptic-y. It’s not helping.”

“There’s...nowhere for them. We’re the last...”

“Last what?”

“Gypsy clan...the Tabora. Demon...killed most of...they have nowhere.”

Buffy noted that the woman was struggling to speak more now.

“You’re on my death...bed...Tradition means they’re yours now.”

At this Buffy’s heart stopped.

“I’m...not very good at that sort of thing.”

“You have to.”

“Lady...I can’t.”

“Please. Cody. William. Oh please...you...have...to.”

The woman gasped and fell still and Buffy quietly reached down and felt for her pulse.

The prickling intensified slightly and now Buffy could smell cigarette smoke wafting toward her.

She stood again and looked at the pair of chubby infants who couldn’t be more than two. She was rooted to the spot. What should she do? If the woman was telling the truth then these children were alone.

“So...what’re you gonna do?” Spike asked from behind her. He took the cigarette out of his mouth and crushed it into the grass with his foot.

Buffy didn’t answer and just kept gazing at the children with a mixture of indecision and reluctance and...hope?

*Something’s beginning,* Spike thought as Buffy leant over and took a child in each arm. *Something’s beginning right now.*

----Old King Cole and Mistress Mary


“There was a man in our town,
And he was wondrous wise;
He jumped into a brier bush,
And scratched out both his eyes;
And when he saw his eyes were out,
With all his might and main
He jumped into another bush,
And scratched 'em in again.”

Cody and William sat, swinging their five-year-old feet back and forth in subconscious unison upon the stone sarcophagus.

“Another!” They said simultaneously.

Spike sat in his easy chair sharpening a grungy-looking battle-axe. He sighed and did his best to remember his childhood. Considering that it was over a hundred years ago, he didn’t think he was doing too badly.

“Lemme see...ah:

Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye;
Four and twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie;

When the pie was opened,
The birds began to sing;
Was not that a dainty dish
To set before the king?

The king was in his counting-house
Counting out his money;
The queen was in the parlour
Eating bread and honey;

The maid was in the garden
Hanging out the clothes,
When along came blackbird
And pecked off her nose.”

The boys laughed. Cody pulled his legs up and sat cross-legged.

Suddenly some violent-sounding noises floated through the door from the graveyard outside. Something yelled and then the unmistakeable sound of a vampire dusting drifted to the the patrons inside.

Spike grinned at the boys, who were looking at the door with identical looks of curiosity and slight worry on their faces.

“Mommy’s back,” Spike announced.

There was a bang as a flushed Buffy kicked open the door, her hair a little flyaway from patrol. She kicked it closed again before going and flopping into Spike’s other chair. Eyeing the knife in Spike’s hands, she said:

“You know...children really shouldn’t play with dead things. What have you three been doing?”

“The usual Slayer, teaching them the Big Bad’s ways of chaos and destruction...you know the drill.”

“Spike was--” Cody started.

“Telling us--” William continued.

“Muver goose,” they ended together.

“Ruining my image, boys,” Spike said balefully.

“Nursery rhymes, Spike?”

“That’s right Mistress Mary. Some of us had educated childhoods.”

“Mistress Mary?”

Suddenly the twins started up a gleeful chorus of:

“Mistress Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With cockle-shells and silver bells,
And pretty maids all in a row.”

Buffy rolled her eyes.

----Girls and boys, Come out to play


“Buffy are you sure this is a good idea?” Giles asked.

“It’s a great idea,” Buffy said stubbornly as she handed each of the twins a large, loaded water-gun. They gleefully accepted their neon-coloured weapons.

“What do we need--”

“Water-guns for?”

Giles shook his head in amusement. He had often thought that William and Cody’s habit of finishing each other’s sentences could be attributed to supernatural causes but several experiments had proved that theory negative. The boys were purely human and had as much talent with magick as Xander had.

“They’re filled with holy water. We’re going to go a-vampire watering,” Buffy explained.

Spike raised an eyebrow from his perch on a tombstone.

“Points for originality, Slayer.”

She shot him a look and he raised his arms defensively.

Five heads turned towards the fresh grave in front of the stone Spike was sitting on.

“Okay boys. All you. And try not to hit Spike,” Buffy said and walked around to stand on the side, near Giles and Spike.

Cody and William nodded and stood side by side in defensive positions as the fledgling crawled out of the ground. Then with identical shouts of eleven-year-old enthusiasm, they proceeded to absolutely drench the unsuspecting vampire. With a shriek, it exploded into dust.

Spike clapped slowly with a familiar smile on his face and Buffy had brief deja-vu of the night she met him.

“That was remarkable. Well done boys,” Giles said.

The twins grinned excitedly but the adrenaline was fading quickly and a pair of yawns broke through.

Buffy smiled.

“It’s getting late. Giles will you take them home? We’ll finish up patrol.”

“Of course Buffy.”

Buffy then got down on her knees to be at the boys’ eye level.

“Okay? Aunt Dawn will read your books and put you to bed.”

“Can we have--”

“Hot chocolate?”

“Not tonight.”

“Please?” Buffy was hit with four large puppy-dog eyes.

“Ah, go on Slayer.”

“Not helping Spike.”

“Go on boys,” Buffy said standing up. She shooed them in Giles’ direction.

“Night Mom! Night Dad!” They yelled as they turned to follow Giles.

“Good night!” Buffy called.

“Night, bits. Don’t call me that,” Spike called after them.

They turned around and stuck their tongues out before scampering after the Watcher, dragging their plastic guns.

“I don’t know why you won’t let them call you ‘Dad,’” Buffy said as she and Spike turned in the opposite direction, going further into the cemetery.

“Makes me feel old.”

“You are old.”

“Yeah well...figured you’d be pleased at any rate. M’not exactly your idea of a perfect da’ now am I?”

There was a pause before she said quietly:

“You’re not doing that bad.”

At this, Spike glanced at Buffy but her eyes were on the ground. So Spike took the offensive and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She looked up at him but didn’t throw him off like she would’ve done a few years ago.

“So if that’s the case why can’t Daddy kiss Mum?”

Buffy stopped walking and sighed. He stopped too but his hand still rested on her shoulder. Looking up at him she said:

“Spike...we’ve talked about this before.”

“I don’t care,” he said before lowering his mouth to hers.

Her eyes slid shut as the familiar feel of his lips and tongue enthralled her. His hands slid into her hair and hers found his slim waist. It had really been too long. Reluctantly, Buffy pulled back.

“Spike...” she breathed, trying to focus on what she had to say. “We tried this before, remember? With the-the bringing down the house, and the ooky pain, and the you taking off on the soul-train.”

They were still only a few inches apart, his hands resting on either side of her neckline and hers were still firmly on his hips. Neither made a move to get out of the other’s personal space.

“So we’ll try again,” he said with quiet conviction.

“What if it just all happens all over again?”

“It won’t. Things are different.”

“How?”

“Well for one, you’re more mature.”

Buffy wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or an insult.

“And two, it’s obvious you still want me.”

She glared at him.

“You’re a pig.”

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes Spike, take me now!’”

She moved her hand up towards Spike’s face and he flinched as it swung toward him. But it swerved around and landed on the back of his head, and pulled him into another kiss.

--Queen of Hearts


Xander decided that today had been a good day. He was whistling and swinging a bag of donuts as the Magic Box came into view around the corner.

He stopped when he noticed the identical 16-year-old twin boys lounging around on the curb in front of the shop. Cody was leaning against his red backpack working on the homework in his lap and William was digging through his black backpack, looking for something or other.

“Heya boys. What’s happening?”

“Hi Xander,” they said in unison.

“Watcha doing?” He asked Cody.

“Our history homework,” he answered.

“‘Our’?”

“It’s a system,” Cody said, looking up. “I’m better at history, so I do our history homework--”

“And I’m better at math,” William continued. “So I do all our math homework and we didn’t have much today.”

“That is so smart! I wish I had had a twi--erm...I mean...that’s cheating...bad, you know.”

The twins simultaneously smiled and Xander plopped down on the sidewalk next to them.

“Why aren’t we inside again?” Xander asked.

“Our parents are having sex so we--”

“--figured we’d wait out here.”

“Again,” they finished together.

Xander paled slightly and glanced at the door of the Magic Shop, which he only noticed now had the ‘Closed’ sign on it. He looked back at Cody and William, who were smiling sardonically at him, then stood and approached the shop. As he grew closer, he realised why the twins had forsaken the luxury of the bench directly outside the Magic Shop’s window; sounds Xander wasn’t sure were appropriate for 16-year-old ears could easily be heard.

Xander backed up until he found himself back on the curb. Cody handed William his homework and they zipped their schoolwork into their separate backpacks.

Xander sat down again.

“Where’s Anya?” He asked.

“She’s in L. A. and entrusted Mom and--”

“Dad to close the store today.”

“Remember?” They chorused.

“Right. I forgot.”

There were a few moments of silence where the three of them sat staring into space trying not to put visuals to the sounds that coasted to them from the interior of the store.

Suddenly, Buffy screamed and Xander witnessed firsthand how Sunnydalians blatantly minded their own business. He visibly winced and then turned to the twins, who looked bored until Xander offered:

“Donut?”


--End