Though Xander now considered Spike to be a friend, he was smart enough to steer clear of him this morning. He wasn’t sure what exactly had angered the bleach-blonde, but whatever it was, Spike’s face was dark with a suppressed rage as he walked the halls of Sunnydale High.
Indeed, Spike was angry. He’d thought that he had left his father – and his father’s dealings – behind him before he’d moved here, and had finally gotten to the point where the only calls he made to his therapist were strictly off the books, speaking from a friend to a friend.
But apparently he’d have to start paying Tara again, because his anger management wasn’t exactly restraining him today. Or at least, the way he was glaring around at the world and the damage he’d done to various things within easy kicking range, wasn’t the way he’d been practicing calming himself. But, reflected Spike, at least he hadn’t attacked anyone yet.
It was just as he was thinking that, and as Xander, walking a wary distance away from Spike, was thinking maybe he should skip science class altogether rather than sit with Spike today, when Spike saw Riley walking towards him, Buffy on his arm.
He actually growled deep in his throat, a deep loathing for the boy – and disgust for Buffy, that she would actually date someone like that – rising up in him, and before Spike knew what he was doing, he had shoved his things at Xander and was striding off towards Riley, a murderous expression on his face.
Riley saw him coming, and blinked in surprise at the look on Spike’s face, but he quickly let go of Buffy and backed up a little. “Spike, I’ve been wanting to talk to you!”
He saw the surprise on Buffy’s face, and felt even more ashamed of what had been happening with Willow, because he knew that she would never stand for it. It was why he and the others had never told her. As Cordelia put it, “Buffy’s great but she’s too soft-hearted. She can’t really be a bitch to people who aren’t mean to her, not even when it’s necessary.”
But not telling her also meant that she had no idea why Spike was advancing on Riley now, promising a painful death with just his walk, not to mention his eyes. And, on the other side of the situation, Xander also had no idea – all he knew was that Spike was angry, and it looked like Riley was a target.
However, and luckily for all involved, Riley’s statement had managed to pause Spike. “What.” He growled, looking none-too-pleased.
Riley shook his head, avoiding Buffy’s eyes. “Not here.” Instantly, he saw understanding in Spike’s eyes, and prayed that the other boy wouldn’t reveal his actions to his girlfriend…
But apparently, Spike also felt guilty about not saying something earlier, because he shot Xander a look, then nodded at Riley. “Alright. Parking lot good?”
Riley nodded, and with a nod to Buffy he walked away, Spike following him and both leaving someone staring after them in shock.
***
“What did you want to tell me?” Spike wasn’t looking at Riley, instead staring out at the parking lot, smoking a cigarette.
Riley glanced nervously around. He already felt paranoid about this meeting, and nothing had even been said yet. But he had a valid reason to be worried; he was basically committing treachery against the popular group – most importantly, against Angel. Riley was under no illusions about what Angel would do to him if he ever found out about this. But he thought it was worth it. And it might just soothe his troubled conscience just a little.
“It’s about Angel. He wants to – well, he called it ‘teaching you a lesson’ because you stopped him and Cordy from making Willow do our homework – ”
Here Spike glanced up, “Don’t you mean because I stopped him, the cheerleader, and you from threatening Red into writing your reports?” His voice was calm, but his hands were clenched into fists, and his eyes were cold.
Riley looked down, blushing. “Right.” He swallowed audibly. “But I – I didn’t really want her to. I was just going along with what he said…”
Spike snorted. “Oh, an’ that makes it perfectly fine for you to do that to ‘er, does it?” His accent thickened with his anger.
Riley opened his mouth to retort, then closed it. “No,” he said with a sigh, “It doesn’t. But I’m trying to tell you: Angel’s going to corner you today. Out in the parking lot, after school. He plans on… well, he was going to trash your car first, then he wanted to beat you up after people left school.”
Spike nodded. “I expected somethin’ like tha – my car?!”
Riley was already headed towards the door to go back inside. “Yeah. Look, don’t tell anyone I told you, okay? I just – I don’t think you deserve it, and I wanted to warn you. And,” he paused halfway through the door, looking extremely guilty, “tell Willow I’m sorry.”
With those parting words, he slipped back inside, rushing away before anyone could see him talking to Spike.
***
Buffy and Xander remained in the hallway, staring off at the two boys walking away. There was a long pause. Then Buffy spoke, still staring in the direction they’d gone. “Do you know what’s going on?”
Xander shook his head, also looking off into the distance. “All I know is that Spike was in a seriously bad mood today.”
Buffy chewed her lips. “Riley was really quiet this morning.”
They both shared a look, then hurried to follow their friend and boyfriend without a word. They reached the back door into the parking lot and shared another look. Xander snuck the door open a few inches, and they pressed their ears to the crack just in time to hear Spike’s angry voice; “Oh, an’ that makes it perfectly fine for you to do that to ‘er, does it?”
Riley’s reply was quieter, sounding almost ashamed, and they couldn’t make out much: just something about Angel and the parking lot. Buffy and Xander stared at each-other, silently agreeing that they had no idea what this was about.
Once again, Spike’s reply was much easier to hear, or at least the last two words, shouted in a panic, were: “…my car?!”
Riley’s voice was becoming clearer and clearer as he said something about Spike not deserving ‘it’ and warning him. Xander’s eyes widened as he realized that Riley was heading toward the door, and he grabbed Buffy’s arm, yanking her around the corner out of sight from the door.
The door opened, and they clearly heard Riley’s voice saying, “Tell Willow I’m sorry.” Then he came in, letting the door fall shut behind him, and rushed off, not even noticing the pair watching him go.
Buffy turned to look at Xander. “What did he mean, ‘tell Willow I’m sorry’? He hasn’t done anything to her! …Has he?”
Xander shook his head, just as baffled. “No. No, Wills would have told me if something was going on… And she hasn’t said anything about Riley.”
Buffy frowned. “I don’t like this.”
Xander nodded. “Anything that involves Riley being sorry to Willow and warning Spike about something can’t be good.”
Buffy furrowed her brow. “Wait – didn’t Riley say something about Angel? Maybe he’s sorry on Angel’s behalf!”
Xander shook his head. “No, Spike definitely said, ‘that doesn’t make it okay for you to do that to her.’ Riley was involved somehow.”
Buffy sighed. “I guess.”
Xander nodded. “We need to find out what happened to Willow. You talk to Riley; I’ll ask Willow herself.”
Buffy nodded, but then caught herself. “No! It’s bad enough having a conversation with you, but I’m definitely not working with you!” She turned to walk away. “Look, Xander… I don’t like you, but… Please, don’t tell anyone about this.”
Xander looked a little offended, but nodded. “This is a secret. The only people I might ask about it is Willow and Spike, and even then…” He trailed off. “But, if it turns out your boyfriend has been doing something to Willow – well, all my friends are gonna find out, and it won’t be fun for him.”
Buffy nodded. “I get it.”
They each walked away in a different direction.
***
Spike quickly made his way to the parking lot. If that bastard had even touched his car…
He stopped dead, staring at his car. Obviously, Angel had been interrupted – but the scratches on the sides, smashed windows, and slashed tires were more than bad enough.
Entering the school again, he stalked through the hallways in search of his quarry, his anger only growing with every step. He shoved his way through the crowds, finally just grabbing one student. “Where the fuck is Angel?” he snarled, and the boy meekly whispered something about the cafeteria.
Spike didn’t even realize that he’d missed the lunch bell, or that attacking Angel in the cafeteria – completely within view of most of the student body and several teachers – was far from a good idea, he was so angry.
Slamming the cafeteria doors open, he stomped straight to Angel’s table, jerking the boy out of his chair. For a single instant, Angel looked surprised and a little afraid – but then a smirk curved his features.
“Hey, what’s your problem, man?”
Spike’s tunnel vision suddenly dissipated – he became aware of most of the cafeteria staring at him, from a confused Faith, Oz, Willow, and Xander at his table to an equally confused Buffy, a surprised but understanding Riley, and a smug Cordelia at the table directly in front of him. But he also found that he really didn’t care.
Drawing a fist back, he slammed it right into Angel’s nose. “You fucking bastard! You fucking wanker!”
Angel stumbled back, hands clutching his nose. It gave Spike a tiny bit of satisfaction to see the smug looks vanish from his and Cordelia’s faces for instant – but it wasn’t enough. He whirled on Riley angrily. “And you too, you asshole! You fucking helped him, didn’t you?”
Riley wasn’t sure whether or not Spike was helping him out – by making it seem that he was in no way on Spike’s side – or was genuinely angry. But either way, he had no desire to get involved in fight with the boy. Though Spike was physically smaller than both Riley and Angel, something about him told you he knew his way around a fight – Angel, clutching his probably-broken nose in pain, was testament to his punches.
Riley backed off. “Hey, I don’t know what you’re talking abo–”
Before he could finish he sentence, he ducked, and Spike’s blow just barely missed him. Okay, thought Riley, I think it’s safe to say he really is mad at me.
Angel’s hands fell from his nose as he rejoined the fight, approaching Spike from behind. Riley sighed, but went to join the boy, knowing that if he hung back a dozen different people would notice and rumors would be spreading insanely even before the teachers, several of whom were approaching from different corners of the room, could break up the fight.
***
When Giles walked into the main office, he didn’t say a word to Spike; he just went straight to the principal’s office and spoke to the man for over half an hour. When he came out, he simply motioned for Spike to follow him to the car, and the boy – wincing in pain as he stood – did so silently.
Giles asked him the first question at a red light, halfway home. “Does this have anything to do with Ethan – anything at all?”
Spike started – in truth he’d forgotten all about the cause of his original bad mood the moment he saw what had been done to his car. He loved the car like a person, and seeing it hurt was something that had driven all other concerns out of his brain.
“No,” he said truthfully, shaking his head. A drop of blood fell from a cut on his chin as he spoke, and he wiped it off his seat with a finger, looking at the dark smear. “No. The bastards trashed my car.”
At this, Giles glanced over in surprise. “What? How – how did you know it was them?”
Giles was still looking at Spike, and had it not been for the boy’s slight unconscious clenching of his jaw before he spoke, Giles would never have known his nephew was lying to him. “I saw him.”
“I see. And why did he ‘trash your car’?”
Again, Giles glanced over; again, the slight clench before Spike spoke. “I insulted his bird. Apparently he didn’t like that.”
Giles nodded thoughtfully, parking at his house and waiting until they had both made their way inside before he turned to Spike and said, “All right William. Let’s try that again, with the truth this time.”
Spike gave him a surprised look, then laughed shortly. “You’ll have to tell me how you do that sometime, Uncle.”
Giles continued watching him. “You have just been suspended for three days; you haven’t been in this school for even a week yet! I don’t think this is the time for lies or jokes.”
Spike sighed heavily, not meeting Giles’ eyes. “Look. I’d tell you if I could, but – ” here he glanced up and met his uncle’s gaze dead on. “I can’t. I promised.”
He looked anything but happy about this, and Giles got the feeling that had it not been for his promise, this would be one of the rare times that William actually approached him for any real advice. But, unfortunately at the moment, Spike considered all promises to be the final word; if he made a promise he kept it, and that was that. Otherwise, he didn’t make them. In fact, Giles could only recall one time Spike had ever broken a promise, and that wasn’t even an explicit promise – when he told Giles what his father was doing, he’d broken their unspoken pact not to give anything away. And that involved major drug deals, his own extremely guilty conscience, and a lot of work from Giles, before he did break it. So when he said ‘I promised’, Giles instantly understood that he couldn’t hope to ever get Spike to break his promise, no matter what punishments were heaped on him, and it was better not to try.
“Well, is there anything you can tell me that won’t break your promise, and that I can tell the principal so that he no longer believes you committed an entirely unprovoked attack on two of his students, in plain sight of many witnesses?”
Spike winced. “Uh… I don’t know. Not much.”
Giles sighed again, and instinctively began to make tea. “Tell me all you can.”
Spike was obviously considering it, trying to figure out how much he could say without breaking his promise or saying enough that Giles would figure it out anyway. “Yesterday, I stopped those two, and that chit – Cordelia Chase – from doing something… let’s just assume it was bad. And I promised not to tell anyone. Then, today, the one of them, Ken – ”
Giles interrupted Spike here. “I’ve managed to decode most of your nicknames, but this one eludes me completely. Tell me, who is ‘Ken’?”
Spike rolled his eyes. “Ken, as in Barbie’s boy-toy, as in the boyfriend of Buffy Summers AKA Barbie. Also known as Riley Finn.”
Giles nodded. “I see. Please continue.”
“Right. So, he told me he wanted to talk to me this morning, wanted to tell me something. At first I thought he was just trying to prolong the inevitable – ” he nodded at Giles’ sharp glance. “Yes, I was going to commit an unprovoked attack on him earlier, because I was angry, he annoys me, and he was there, but I didn’t, so that’s hardly the point right now.”
Giles shook his head. “Again, I really think you should try yoga, or some sort of calming method. Half the time painting or working out seems to make you angrier.”
Spike perked up. “Yeah, but I get some amazing art when I’m mad – I drew something last night that I think I might take down to Joyce, maybe ask her to put it up in – ”
“You were explaining things to me, William.”
“…Right. Okay. So, Mr. Finn and I went off to the back door by the parking lot to talk, and he warned me about his friend – apparently he felt guilty about almost doing what I stopped them from doing, and when his Caveman friend made plans with him to ‘punish’ me, he decided to warn me, so I could avoid it.”
Spike scratched his arm, annoyed. “My arm feels a little funny. I think I pulled something, or got a deep bruise that hasn’t come out yet.”
Giles had no sympathy. “Then what happened?”
“He told me that Angel – what kind of a poofter name is that anyway, Angel? – had been planning to corner me in the parkin’ lot after most people were gone and kick me around… which was frankly nothing more than I expected. But then he said somethin’ about Cro-Magnon messing up my car before he left, so I went out to check that everything was okay.”
Spike clenched his hands in anger. “The fucking bastard really messed ‘er up. Keyed the sides, slashed the tires, smashed the windows in… He didn’t take anything out of it, or get the headlights, so I guess either he wasn’t really set on destroying it, or he had to leave in the middle for some reason. But frankly I wasn’t exactly cheering about that at the time.”
Spike shrugged. “I was extremely angry; understandably, I think. So yeah, I was really stupid, going after him in the school at all, let alone at lunch, but I’d say it was anythin’ but unprovoked.”
Giles nodded slowly. “Any chance that Riley Finn would confess his involvement, or at least knowledge, so we can prove they were the ones who damaged you car?”
Spike shook his head. “None. Like I said, I don’t think any of this’ll help me out. But at least you know; I did have a reason.”
Giles sighed heavily, setting two full cups of tea on the table. “I think that perhaps we’ll have to ask Tara to schedule you some anger management classes, or something of the sort. You handled this exactly the wrong way.”
Spike sipped his tea, looking indignant. “I handled it pretty fucking well, in my opinion! Considering everything, that is.”
“Yes, well, neither the school or the court system thinks in terms of ‘considering everything’. They don’t say, ‘Yes, this student killed a teacher because of a remark the man made – but he was an addict, had suffered recent emotional trauma, and had anger management problems; considering everything, he handled it quite well.’”
Spike blinked. “Am I supposed to be that student? I don’t think I’d ever reach the ‘kill a teacher’ stage – and what do you mean, I’m an addict? I don’t do drugs – you know that.”
“Cigarettes; you should quit. And it was simply an example. By the way, what do you think of this tea? It’s new.”
Spike gulped down the rest of his cup with a grimace at the heat. “I like it. Where’d you find it?”
“Joyce gave me some. I’m going to have to ask where she bought it.”
Spike smirked suddenly – with the cut on his chin, his emerging black eye, and general battered appearance, it looked a little scary. “Oh, Joyce gave it to you, did she? Does Joyce happen to be single, by any chance?”
Giles rolled his eyes. “Go clean yourself up. I’m going to call the school and say something about the car. And, William – in the future, please try to stick to words, and not fists, and not do things that provoke boys to destroy your car.”
Spike called down the stairs, as he walked away, “Can’t make any promises, Rupes!”
***
Buffy was not feeling happy with Riley right now. First, he had been quiet during the morning, barely talking to her and obviously preoccupied. She would’ve been perfectly willing to let him think over whatever it was he needed to think through on his own time, though, had it not been for his secret little ‘meeting’ with Spike. After that, she had tried to talk to him, but he’d simply refused to answer her, and since she didn’t want him knowing she’d eavesdropped on him, she couldn’t ask anything specific.
But the fight at lunch was simply the last straw. Riley had been keeping secrets from her; big secrets, and he’d been getting into fights over them, and he still wouldn’t tell her the truth?
He so wasn’t getting an anniversary present.
Especially considering the gigantic fight they’d just had – and maybe she should have taken pity on him because of his concussion, but hey, he’d brought it on himself. And the fight had been therapeutic.
The only problem was, now Buffy didn’t know where to get answers. If Riley wouldn’t tell her, there was really only one place she could go, but for some reason, she really didn’t want to go there right now. Especially considering her previous luck there, which was itself anything but phenomenal.
But still… she really, really wanted to know what was going on, and if visiting him was the price – Buffy was willing to pay.
So she gritted her teeth, squared her shoulders, took a deep breath, closed her eyes – and knocked.
***
Okay, just breathe, Xander, you’ve made the right choice. This is the right thing to do – this is the only place you’re going to get those answers – at least you won’t get beaten up this way. Hopefully. Don’t be nervous… Don’t be nervous…
Xander took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself for anything that might occur, licked his lips, closed his eyes – and knocked.
***
At the exact same moment, in a remarkable coincidence, two people across the town from each-other opened their doors and asked in shock, “What are you doing here?”
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