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~*~

“Giles is late.”

“How many times am I gonna have to tell you, Giles is never late? And anyway, ‘f he’s late, then that bint who calls herself your Watcher is late, too.”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “Do you always have to be so insulting?”

“’s more fun than being polite all the time.”

“Some people might judge you on your manners,” she replied pointedly. Spike, however, didn’t seem to take the hint; that smug, high-handed look stayed firmly in place. Stupid annoying bleached Slayer…

The smug voice in her head shot back, Right, just like he was stupid and annoying when he was half-naked on your couch last night, right?

Luckily she didn’t have time to follow that particular train of though, because Giles and Jenny both came half-running through the library doors, clothing disheveled, just as out of breath as they’d been last night. Buffy and Spike raised an eyebrow in an identical expression as the two adults collapsed in chairs on opposite sides of the table.

“So sorry,” Giles said, sounding extremely English. “We overslept.”

Spike muttered something that Buffy couldn’t hear. Judging by the expression on Giles’s face, though, it was something dirty. “Kindly keep your lewd speculations to yourself, William,” the tweed-clad man said, his lips pressed together.

Buffy looked askance at Jenny. Spill, the blonde mouthed.

Her Watcher shook her head. Later, she mouthed back, before saying, “Yes, Spike, we’re late, but I think we have better things to do than talk about it.”

“Bloody right we do.” Spike, with his what Buffy was coming to think of as characteristic abruptness, said. “Why the hell did no one ever tell me there’s another Slayer—a girl Slayer—out there, an’ what does King Arthur have to do with it.”

Giles sighed deeply. “It’s rather a long story…”

“Which we are both prepared to hear.” Buffy glared at Giles in a way that she hoped was menacing. It wasn’t like she’d had a lot of practice; generally when she wanted someone to be scared of her she just hit them.

“Right, then.” Judging by the nervous throat-clearing, she’d succeeded. Yay team me. “I suppose you all have heard of Merlin, the king’s sorcerer?”

Buffy and Spike both nodded. “Stuck in a save by that freaky chick Nimue,” Buffy said, at the same time Spike remarked, “Killed by some little trollop, right?” Their voices overlapped and halted simultaneously; they glared at each other.

Jenny was grinning slightly when she said, “Right. Well, Merlin liked playing around with magic.”

“It was more than just a hobby to him, however,” Giles added, looking faintly disapproving at his colleague’s lack of intellectual preciseness. “When he discovered the Slayer magic, he—dabbled in it.”

“Wait—how’d he find out ‘bout Slayers?”

Jenny grinned faintly. “That ‘freaky chick Nimue’ was one.”

“Ha!” Buffy exclaimed triumphantly, relishing the look of chagrin that passed over Spike’s face, “Girl Slayers were first!”

“Yes, well, that hardly matters now, does it?” Giles said. “The fact is, while researching and experimenting on the Slayer bond, he inadvertently split it.”

Spike shook his head. “Bloody stupid bloke.”

“Pretty much,” Jenny agreed. “He died never realizing what he’d done. It was Arthur who discovered it.”

“Wait—Arthur? How’d he—was he chosen?” Buffy said incredulously.

Giles shook his head. “No, I’m afraid not. He discovered when, even after being given protection from the Lady of the Lake, his nephew and son Mordred was able to kill him.”

“Mordred.” Spike’s voice sounded just as astonished as Buffy felt. “That pissant little rat was the first male Slayer?”

Buffy couldn’t help herself; she smiled smugly. “Looks like the line hasn’t improved much,” she said. Jenny and Giles hid their smiles.

“Anyway,” Jenny continued, “what we’re getting at is that after Mordred let the figurative shit hit the fan by killing Arthur, the Council of Watchers recognized that they needed to appoint Watchers to the new male half, too. They decided to keep the two separated—“

“To maximize efficiency,” Giles cut in.

“And here we are today,” Jenny finished.

Buffy blinked. She was having trouble distinguishing her emotions right now, mainly because they were a fucked-up tangle of fury and disbelief. “So what you’re trying to tell us,” she said slowly, furiously keeping a handle on her anger, “is that during King Arthur’s time, the Slayer was a complete slut, and her bajillion-year-old boyfriend decided to screw around with the Slayer line, and then after the first male Slayer—who was a victim of incest and a truly bitchy mom—killed his dad slash uncle, the stupid Council of Watchers decided not to tell anyone, including the Slayers, what had happened?” By the end of her speech, she was screaming.

Oops. So much for not showing her anger. Jenny was just looking at her in abject surprise—she’d never had an outburst like this before—Giles was staring at her like she’d lost her mind—which she might have—and Spike?

Spike was amused.

Buffy scowled at him. “Is there a problem?”

His grin widened. “Not at all, Slayer. Carry on.”

“You’re making fun of me!” she exclaimed, clenching her hands into tight fists. Bastard!

He snorted. “Not bloody likely. I rather think you’re right. Don’t you, Rupes?”

“I’ve told you not to call me that, William,” Giles said crisply. “But yes, I’m rather inclined to agree with Ms. Summers. It was the fact that Jenny and I so disapprove of the situation that we allowed you two to meet.”

Now it was Buffy’s turn to look sarcastically amused. “You allowed us?”

“The Council of Wankers did buy the tickets, pet,” Spike told her.

“I’m not your pet!” Buffy rounded on him. “My name is Buffy, you bleached-blonde freak!”

“Okay, much as I’m enjoying the reenactment of last night’s Osbournes rerun,” Jenny cut in hastily, earning herself confused looks from the two Englishmen, “You two really need to stop being at each other’s throats all the time. OK?”

Buffy’s anger was still rolling around in her. If she didn’t get away from Spike soon, she was going to pop. “Fine,” she snapped. “I know how to solve that problem. Bye.” She grabbed her coat and stalked towards the library’s exit.

Spike was in front of her in an instant. “Now, now, luv,” he said tauntingly, “Let’s not be naughty. Don’t think the Watchers gave you permission to leave.”

She sneered at him. She didn’t sneer often, but right now everything seemed sneer-worthy. “I don’t need their permission. Now get the hell out of my way.”

That was when he said the shortest—and most infuriating—thing in the world: “No.”

Buffy lost it. That was the only way to describe what happened. One minute she was a (reasonably) rational person just trying to storm off in a huff without interference, and the next she was an uber-bitch who’d dealt the male Slayer such a forceful punch that he’d flown out the library doors and into the deserted hallway.

And the weird part? She wasn’t even sorry. The few times she’d hurt a human before, she’d always been horrified…but apparently her conscience had taken a vacation, because as she ran out the doors and watched Spike spring to his feet, she didn’t feel even remotely guilty. She felt, if possible, even more pissed off than before.

“So that’s how it’s gonna be, eh?” Spike wiped blood off his nose. He didn’t seem too upset, either.

“Yes. That’s how it’s going to be,” Buffy said, surprising herself. Wow. For someone who wants to rip his head off, I sound really calm…

“Right, then.”

Buffy didn’t have time to react before Spike lunged forward and copied her blow, slamming his fist into her face.

She went down hard, and it hurt. And it wasn’t just pain on her nose—no, there was pain all over her body. Dammit. He hit harder than she did!

Fortunately, she had the Slayer instincts that had kept her alive all these years. She leapt to her feet, pivoting smoothly and dealing him a kick to the chest. He grabbed her heel—she executed a flip—he threw a punch—she dodged it and threw her own—

They fought for a solid twenty minutes, both of them furious and silent. Buffy had never met anyone, human or vampire, who matched her so completely. And it wasn’t just that he was as skilled as she was. Their styles were damn near exactly the same. For every punch she threw, he dodged it the same way she would have. Given that they’d been taught by two different people on opposite sides of the planet, it was freaking Buffy out.

When their fight was nearing the thirty minute mark she finally managed to get a punch in. Panting and grinning, she straddled him, pressing his hands to the ground.

“You bitch!” Spike growled, fighting to get up. Buffy held him firmly to the ground, reveling in the feeling. They’d hardly known each other for half a day, but he was so damn irritating that she’d wanted to beat him up from the second he opened his big dumb mouth.

She grinned in triumph. “Give up?”

He sneered at her, still jerking his hands up, trying to get free. “Not on your life.” He jerked his torso, trying to unseat her.

She pressed herself down, a wicked smile curving her lips. “What about on yours?”

A similar smile graced Spike’s lips, tugging them upward, showing a tiny bit of his tongue—

And the world turned upside down.

Suddenly, winning the fight wasn’t the most important thing. The most important thing was lying beneath her, and all of a sudden she was fascinated with it.

She was straddling his chest. His hard, muscular chest. His hands rested on her waist. A second ago their position had seemed strategic, but now? Now it just seemed sexy.

And his lips…dear God, his lips. They were thin and sexy and just a few inches from hers. All of a sudden, the hallway seemed a whole lot hotter. And smaller.

Buffy was a logical person. She had to be, seeing as she was the Slayer and all. But what she did next wasn’t logical. It was the opposite of logic. It was dark-side-of-the-moon logic.

Because the next thing Buffy did was bend down and kiss him.

~*~

A/N: What? Didn’t you expect a mini-cliffhanger? ;) Thanks for all the reviews I got…and if you’re one of those people who reads what it takes me hours to create and then doesn’t review, please, please drop me a line telling me what you think…remember, reviews are the only payment I get…





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