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“Come on!” Buffy laughed. “That is the worst demon I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen some major uglies!”

“Can’t you forget work for one night!” Dawn laughed tossing the pillow she had been clutching throughout the horror movie at her sister’s head.

“Hey! No throwing things in the house, young lady!” she scolded with a smile as she ducked the sailing pillow.

“No fair using Slayer powers either!” Dawn added. “Who’s that?”

Buffy jumped at the sound of a sharp rapping at the front door. Some Slayer she was! She spent her evenings stalking the undead—well until recently—and a sudden knock at the door during a horror movie set her on edge. Of course, it really was the noise that set her nerves on overdrive. Willow was spending the night at Xander and Anya’s. They all knew that this was an important evening for the Summers girls. That only left one being stupid enough to interrupt, but it couldn’t be him. He had his Halfrek now--unless, he was there to rub her nose in his new relationship.

“I haven’t got a clue,” she replied trying to cover up the uneasy tremble in her voice. “Probably nothing important.”

“Nothing important?” Dawn gave her sister a look like she was growing a second head. “People don’t knock on our door at ten o’clock at night if it’s not important.”

“I’m sure if there was something going on,” she insisted, “the guys would call first.”

“Come on, Buffy,” Dawn rose from the couch and walked to the door. “You act like you’re afraid to answer the door! It’s not like there’s…”

“Dawn, don’t!” the petite blond jumped from the couch hoping to make it to the door before her sister.

Buffy’s hand landed on Dawn’s shoulder just as she swung the door open. Her eyes locked with Spike’s blue ones as he stood in the doorway.

“Spike!” Dawn cried happily. “What are you doing here?”

Spike’s eyes didn’t budge from Buffy’s face when he replied. “I was in the neighborhood, so I decided to drop by.”

“You decided to drop by?” Buffy glared at the vampire just daring him to take a step into the house. “We were just going to bed, so you’ll just have to find someone else to bug for the night.”

“I can see that,” he whispered his eyed drifted from her face making her wish for her thick terry cloth bathrobe to cover up her tank top and pajama bottoms. God, she hated how he could make her feel so uncomfortable with just a look!

“We’re not going to bed!” Dawn objected.

“Dawn, it’s late,” she said between clenched teeth, “and you have school in the morning.”

“It’s not that late,” she complained giving the vampire a pleading look for a little backup. “Besides I haven’t seen Spike in weeks.”

“You just saw him at my birthday party!” Buffy reminded her sister.

“I know,” Dawn rolled her eyes, “but that doesn’t count. We were too busy running from that demon and trying to get out of the house! I really don’t call that quality time.”

“Quality time?! Dawn, you don’t spend ‘quality time’ with a vampire, or didn’t you learn that after Halloween?”

“The Bit does have a point,” Spike added helpfully obviously enjoying the little conflict from the smile on his face.

“That’s not fair!” Dawn crossed her arms over her chest trying not to lose her temper. What was with her sister? She said she wanted to make up for treating her like crap the past few months. Couldn’t she put up with Spike for a little while to make her happy? She just wanted them to be civil for a couple of hours.

“Besides,” she continued, “this is Spike, not some creep looking to kill us!”

“This was supposed to be our night,” the Slayer replied.

She was quickly running out of excuses, and she couldn’t tell her sister the real reason why she didn’t want to spend the evening with Spike. Why couldn’t he just go spend the night with his newfound love and leave her alone!

“I know, and I’ve had a great time, really,” she answered, “but couldn’t we let Spike visit for a little while, please?”

“Fine!” the Slayer grumbled as she stalked back into the living room and slumped onto the couch. She was still dead set against letting the vampire in the house, but it was either that or spend the evening arguing with Dawn at the front door. She could ignore him, and hopefully, he’d soon get the hint that he wasn’t going to get under her skin and go away.

“So, what are we doing for entertainment, Niblet?” the vampire asked as he followed the younger Summers into the living room.

He shot Buffy a victorious smirk as he joined her on the couch. He had known just gaining entrance wasn’t going to be easy, but he could always count on Dawn. Now that the hurtle of getting into the house was over, he just had to work on getting Buffy alone so he could spring his little surprise. He was rather surprised she hasn’t sensed it already.

“Well, we were watching movies,” Dawn told him as she plopped down happily on the floor next to the coffee table, “but we can do something else if you want.”

Spike leaned back on the couch propping his combat boots on the table. He couldn’t help but enjoy being near his Slayer, even if she was furious with him and refused to move only for fear of raising her sister’s suspicions.

“I wouldn’t want to interrupt the festivities,” he replied. “What are we watching?”

“Well, Buffy picked out a really lame horror movie,” Dawn replied. “Like we don’t get enough of that in real life! I wanted to watch ‘Ten Things I Hate About You’.”

Buffy rolled her eyes, but stubbornly refused to comment on her sister’s choice of movies. The last thing she wanted to do was sit there with Spike beside her watching some angsty teenage romance flick.

“What’s it about?” he asked.

“Well, it’s about this really bitchy girl…”

“Dawn!” Buffy shot her sister a warning look.

“She is!” she complained turning her attention back to the blond vampire. “But this really cute guy falls in love with her.”

“I’m sure Spike wouldn’t want to watch that,” Buffy broke in.

“Sure, I would,” he gave her a sly smile. “The story sounds vaguely familiar. So do we have anything to drink, Little Bit?”

“Nothing you’d be into,” Buffy growled clenching her small hands into tight fists on her lap. “No bourbon, no…”

"We do have hot chocolate,” Dawn shot her sister an angry look.

“With marshmallows?”

“Of course!” she laughed jumping up and heading for the kitchen.

“Sounds great,” he told her with a content sigh.

Buffy watched her sister leave the room before she spoke. This was going too far! Spike was taking advantage of the situation, and Dawn was acting like they were a happy little family spending a quiet evening at home!

“What the hell do you think you’re doing!” she hissed careful to keep her voice low so Dawn wouldn’t hear in the next room.

“Such language,” he scolded. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” “You know exactly what I mean!” she glared fighting down the urge to slap the mocking smirk off his face. “I told you it was over!”

“And I decided it wasn’t,” he stated.

“I didn’t give you a choice!” she reminded him. “I told you what we did was wrong. So why don’t you just go back to Halfrek and leave us alone!”

“Careful, Slayer,” he laughed softly, “your jealousy is showing.”

“Jealous of you?” she said with a snort. “Hardly!”

“She’s just a friend,” he assured her his voice suddenly serious.

“It doesn’t matter what she is! I an not jealous of anything concerning you!” Buffy crossed her arms angrily over her chest and turned her gaze back towards the blank screen of the television.

“Buffy, I love you…”

“Would you stop saying that!” she said quickly. He seemed to think professing his undying love would make everything better. “You can’t feel love! You have no idea what that is!”

“I do too!” he protested. “And I have something to tell you…”

“And I don’t want to hear it!”

“Well, you’re going to,” Spike growled. “Buffy, I’m…”

“Chocolate’s ready!” Dawn announced as she came in caring the steaming cups of hot chocolate. Buffy couldn’t help but take notice that she had forgotten to bring in a cup for her big sister.

The rest of the evening progressed fairly quietly with only Dawn and Spike making the occasional comment on the movie here and there while Buffy stubbornly kept her eyes glued to the screen. The on screen couple had only made it to their first kiss before Dawn had drifted off. No sooner did the credits begin to roll than Buffy leapt from the couch, rounded the coffee table, and scooped her dozing sibling into her arms.

“Looks like Niblet had a big day,” Spike observed smiling fondly at the Slayer’s sister.

“Look Spike, I’m not having a casual chat with you!” Buffy growled. “I’m not having a casual anything with you! Not get out!”

Spike stood to confront her trying to keep calm in the face of her stubborn refusal to hear him out. “I came here to tell you something, Slayer, and I’m not leaving until I do!”

“And I told you, I do not want to hear it!” she replied turning towards the stairs. “I’m putting Dawn to bed, and then I’m going to sleep. I’m sure you can find your own way out!”

“Buffy,” he pleaded but she didn’t even pause as she climbed the stairs.

Spike sighed as he sat back down on the couch. He had known it wouldn’t be easy to get the Slayer to listen to what he had to tell her, but he had never been one to give up easily. He could ignore him all she wanted, but he wasn’t going to leave until he had told her about his deal with Halfrek.









Buffy yawned sleepily as she descended the stairs. Thanks to Spike, she had only managed to doze off for a few hours before the alarm went off. Absently, she toyed with the idea of calling off again. The idea of working the closing shift that evening was extremely unappealing, but she knew she couldn’t push her luck and lose this job, no matter how crappy of job it was! She’d just have to manage to fit a nap in after she cleaned the house from the night before.

“Spike!” she shrieked when she entered the living room.

Spike bolted from the couch at the sound of the Slayer’s voice looking about the room in confusion. He had done a little cleaning the night before mainly to keep his thoughts off his frustration over Buffy’s refusal to listen to him. At some point he must have dozed off. Well, he had said he wasn’t going to leave until she listened to him!

“What are you doing here!” Buffy demanded. “I told you to get out!”

“And I said I wasn’t going anywhere until you listened to me!” he shot back.

“God, I don’t want to go over this again!” she sighed. “Just get out of here before Dawn wakes up! I don’t want her to think…”

“What?” Spike interrupted. “That I spent the night. That we might have…”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence!” she snapped. “Dawn will never know…”

“Dawn will never know what?”

Buffy spun towards the sound of her sister’s voice a guilty blush covering her cheeks. Her sister leaned against the banister her foot hanging in midair as she was about to step off the last stair. Her eyes were wide as she stared past the Slayer and into the living room at Spike.

“Dawn, it’s not what you think,” she said quickly. “I…we…”

“Why isn’t he burning?” Dawn asked slowly.

“What?” Buffy gave her a confused look than turned back to the vampire.

She had been so tired and angry when she had come down the stairs and found him asleep on her couch she hadn’t even noticed. She hadn’t bothered to close the curtains when she had carried Dawn up to bed. She never did any evening, and it definitely hadn’t been like she had planned on having Spike as a houseguest. Now, he stood there in her living room the rays of sunlight streaming through the window encircling him, and for some reason he had yet to even spark much less burst into flames.

“Spike,” she had to force the words out as her mind worked overtime trying to deal with the scene before her. “What the hell is going on here!”





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