A little after mid-day, Dawn opened the apartment door carefully and peered inside. It was all very quiet, shutters closed at the windows, candles on the table burned away. She frowned. Not what she had been hoping to see, but, she reasoned, at least there was no broken furniture, and that had to be to the good.
She crept inside and gestured to Andrew. He followed her, walking stiffly, head tilted to one side unnaturally. Dawn looked back at him and rolled her eyes. “Will you stop that!” she hissed. “It wasn’t that bad!”
“You got the guest bed! You didn’t have to sleep on the sofa!” Andrew turned, keeping his head and neck fixed in position. “It’s no wonder I have a crick!”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake!” Dawn went over to him, placed one hand on his shoulder and one on his ear and pushed. “There. Better?”
Andrew gave a squeal of pain. “I’m not sure you should have done that! Necks are very dangerous things! I may have permanent damage!” He sat down on the sofa gingerly. “Ouch,” he whimpered gently.
“Baby.” Dawn muttered. She scanned the table. The rose petals were wilted on the table cloth. No plates, no glasses, no sign of a romantic dinner à deux. She gave a disappointed sigh.
“Do you think they’ve gone?” Andrew asked in a stage whisper.
Dawn tiptoed over to the doorway of the sitting room and listened. “Well, clearly someone’s home, because the shower’s running.”
“So you think Buffy’s home?”
“No, I think some random Roman burglar has broken in and is having a quick shower before he ransacks the place.” Dawn gave him her well-practised “duh” look.
“Oh!” Andrew suddenly brightened. “Maybe Spike stayed over! Maybe he’s in the shower! Should I…“ he asked casually, “go check?”
“No.” Dawn glared at him. “We’ll wait.” She sat next to Andrew on the sofa. They sat in silence for a few moments. “Oh!” Dawn got to her feet. “I can’t stand this!”
“I’ll check the shower.” Andrew made a move to stand.
“Sit!” Dawn snapped. Andrew subsided disappointedly.
Dawn listened at Buffy’s bedroom door – absolute silence. She tapped gently. “Buffy…?” and opened the door. The room was deserted, sheets tangled, piles of discarded clothes on the floor – but as far as she could make out, Dawn was disappointed to see, none were male. She frowned. OK…
She tapped gently on the bathroom door. “Buffy?” No reply. Probably couldn’t hear her over the sound of the shower. Dawn hesitated, but in the end curiosity about the previous night got the better of her, and she pushed open the bathroom door and looked in. “Buffy…?” she said softly. It took her a few seconds to sort out that the tangle of naked limbs half-visible through the steamed up glass of the shower screen belonged to more than one person and that the particularly well-honed butt she just about make out was clearly not female. “Oh!” She ducked out quickly, closing the door behind her and leaning back against it.
She blushed furiously, then grinned hugely. Way to go!
“So, did you see Buffy?” Andrew was sitting on the sofa, ostentatiously rubbing his neck.
Dawn shrugged and sat next to him, picking up a magazine. “No. She and Spike are taking a shower.” She flicked through the pages nonchalantly.
“A shower? But there’s only one…” Andrew frowned. Dawn raised an eyebrow. “Oh! You mean Spike and Buffy are taking a shower together? Wow. That can’t be very comfortable. There’s not an awful lot of… Oh!” Realisation struck home as Dawn gave him a disbelieving look. “Oh! A shower… together…” It was Andrew’s turn to blush. “Right. Umm… together.” He sighed. “Wow…”
This time, they waited.
******
There was a sudden squeal and the sound of the bathroom door flying back on its hinges. A laughing Buffy, markedly deficient in clothes, dashed past the doorway, closely followed by an equally naked Spike, blond hair in tight, wet curls. He suddenly caught sight of the two faces turned his way and froze in mid-stride, open-mouthed in the doorway. Dawn folded her arms and raised an eyebrow. Spike suddenly remembered his predicament and rapidly covered his genitals with his hands. “Dawn!” He managed eventually.
“Spike.” Dawn was immensely proud of her level voice and lack of blushingness. It took a considerable effort… well, Spike… and naked...! she’d had some pretty lurid teenage fantasies built around that one.
There was a squeak from the bedroom. Spike looked away, then back at Dawn, and if she hadn’t been pretty sure vampires couldn’t, Dawn would have said he definitely blushed. “I… umm…” He looked vaguely off in the direction of the bedroom, made to speak, changed his mind, shrugged and bolted. There was the sound of urgent and whispered conversation from Buffy’s room.
Dawn watched him go, suddenly realised she was grinning inanely and turned to Andrew. “Well…” But Andrew wasn’t listening. His eyes were fixed on the spot where Spike had been standing, an expression of pure adoration and wonder on his face. Dawn elbowed him violently in the ribs.
“Ouch!” He jumped, then squeaked and grabbed his neck again. “Don’t do that!”
Dawn rolled her eyes. “I’m going to make some coffee. D’you think you could quit with the drooling? You’re making a puddle on the carpet.”
By the time a thoroughly embarrassed vampire and slayer made their fully-dressed appearance, Dawn was calmly sipping her coffee as if naked people running through her apartment happened every day.
“Hi!” Buffy smiled brightly. “Did you enjoy the opera?”
“Theatre.” Dawn shrugged. “It was OK. You two have an exciting evening?” She smiled innocently.
“Nice!” Buffy answered quickly. “It was very… nice. Oh! Coffee!” She took a cup, perched herself primly on the arm of Spike’s chair and buried her reddening face in the steam.
Spike was frowning at Andrew, who was watching him with a dazed smile, neck fixed at an unnatural angle. “What’s the matter with your neck?” he asked eventually.
“Oh, please don’t ask him…” Dawn began.
“I had to sleep on a sofa. Everything aches!” Andrew turned stiffly to glare at Dawn. “It was hard! I was up all night! And now it’s all stiff! Have you any idea what that’s like!”
Dawn grinned as Buffy choked on her coffee, and Spike did the almost-blushing thing again. She relented. “You guys hungry? I could fix lunch.”
“Good idea!” Buffy leapt to her feet. “Let me help!” She cast an apologetic glance to Spike who was giving her ‘please don’t leave me with him’ signals and followed her sister out of the room.
******
Once alone with Buffy, all Dawn’s carefully cultured “no big” attitude failed her. She turned to her sister, grinning hugely. “You and Spike!” She gave a squeal of pleasure. “Oh, my God!”
“Me and Spike.” Buffy blushed and looked away, smiling.
“So, is Spike gonna move in?” Dawn was positively bouncing with excitement.
“Dawn, I just…” Buffy sighed. “We’ve got a lot to work out.” She looked over at Dawn. “One step at a time.”
“Oh!” Dawn stopped bouncing, and shrugged. “Well… it’s just that if he’s staying, I’ll need to sort out... stuff. You know - blood, Weetabix… and we’ll need more beer…” She paused and grinned again. “But…you and Spike?”
“Seems so.” Buffy smiled, then folded her arms and looked at Dawn sternly. “So your plan worked. When did you get to be so sneaky?”
“Sneaky? Me?” Dawn turned on the wide eyed innocence.
“You stitched me up!”
“Well, maybe a little…” Dawn tried to look contrite, but the grin wouldn’t stay down. “Oh, but it was worth it, wasn’t it? I mean… you and Spike?”
Buffy shook her head, then smiled softly. “It was worth it. But just you wait until you get a boyfriend!”
“Spike’s your boyfriend?”
“Now you’re channeling Angel.”
“Ooo, Angel is going to be so pissed…” Dawn gave a happy smile. “Let’s call him.”
“No.” Buffy said quickly. “No. Don’t look at me like that.” She sighed and reached out to brush a lock of hair from Dawn’s disappointed face. “Look, Dawnie. All this… it’s all pretty intense right now. Give us time, huh?” She smiled. “Now, what do we have for lunch?” Buffy rummaged in the fridge.
“There’s blood in the freezer,” Dawn said casually.
Buffy gave her a disbelieving look. “You got blood? Pretty confident in your sneaky little plan, weren’t you?” She went back to her search of the fridge, shaking her head. “Oh! Pizza! Cool! I’m wicked hungry.”
“That’ll be all that exercise.” Dawn grinned.
“Will you stop!” Buffy gave an exasperated sigh.
“You’re blushing!”
“Am not!”
“Are too!”
“Shut up and chop… And I can hear you smirking.”
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