“Yes,” she answered distractedly, still pulling on Spike’s arm when they arrived at Giles’ apartment. “I mean, no. God, Spike, this also concerns you so try to act like you care. Sit down, shut up, and listen.” She huffed and shoved him onto the chair, a cloud of dust filling the air as he hit it.
“I love it when you’re pissed off,” Spike said impertinently. “I also love it when I’m watching you bob your little head while you’re deep throating me.”
Willow gasped and quickly covered her ears. Xander froze, his eyes wide and his mouth slightly upturned. He hurriedly reached for the throw pillow on Willow's lap and placed it atop his to cover his crotch.
Giles stood up and muttered, “Scotch.”
“Wha- Bu- Huh?” Buffy glanced around at the disturbed and shifty glances of her friends and Watcher. “He doesn’t remember anything. I so did not do that.” She turned to Spike and whispered, “Did I?”
“What do you think?” Spike bit his lip as he grinned and cocked a brow.
Buffy pouted and recoiled, slumping on the sofa next to Willow.
Xander, after recovering from his hard on, said, “Can we please gag him?”
“Ooh, the whelp likes it kinky,” Spike teased. He was having so much fun teasing the Slayer and her friends that he didn’t plan to stop anytime soon.
“I could just stake him,” Buffy shrugged.
Spike glared at the Slayer as she gave him a cheeky smile. “You do know I can still kill you all in your sleep – or even awake, right?” he asked, glancing alternately at the three who just shrugged.
Willow grimaced apologetically at the vampire. “You’ve tried so many times already, sweetie.” She then leaned forward and caressed Spike’s knee soothingly. “Let it go.”
Spike frowned as he remembered all the times he’d tried to kill the Slayer and her super friends. The first time, her mother had threatened him with an axe. The last time, he’d ended up in a soddin’ wheel chair. “Right, then. Moving on.” He gestured at Giles to get on with the explanations.
Giles put down his glass of scotch and picked up the book he had been reading. “It says here that ‘after a full twenty – four hours, the consequences of the claim will take effect’. And it appears that we cannot stake him.”
“Why not?” Buffy asked.
“When the mate’s other half is killed, the one left will suffer grave consequences.”
“Well that’s just stupid,” Xander mumbled begrudgingly.
“It also says here that you will be able to feel what the other is feeling,” Giles continued to read, ignoring everyone's comments.
“Ooh, nifty,” Willow said brightly, but from everyone’s blank stares at her, she sank back and frowned. “I-I mean…”
“How about telepathy? No telepathy?” Spike asked, partly wishing that aside from feeling her arousal when she was around him, that he could tap into that crazy little Slayer mind and revel in her sexual fantasies of him.
Giles, still not looking up from the book, answered, “No telepathy.”
“Well, that’s sad. Can’t look into the Slayer’s mind and see her naughty little thoughts of me.”
“The only naughty thoughts I will be having of you involves something hard and pointy,” Buffy snarked though it wasn’t how it sounded in her mind.
Xander slowly raised his hand. “And by hard and pointy you meant stake, right?”
Buffy could only grimace at his need for a clarification.
“Come on,” she sighed and pulled him by the arm into Giles’ bathroom that evening.
“Easy on the leather, pet. You’re bruisin’ it.” He repeatedly swatted her hand away and she shrugged, finally letting go of him after a few times, even though it was so much fun to touch his muscled arms.
They both struggled for a minute as Buffy tried to tie Spike up. Finally overpowering him, she took his hands and cuffed them and then pushed him into the bathtub. She kneeled beside it, holding down a still struggling Spike. She then tied his feet to the pipe as she said, “I could bruise something else – like your face. So hold still.”
Spike sighed in defeat and settled for being annoying instead. “Is that a way to talk to your husband?”
“Spike!” she shouted as she raised her hand, ready to slap him senseless, before she clasped her fist and brought her hand back down. “You know what? You’re not even worth it.”
“Mad already? I was just teasing you, Slayer. Don’t get your knickers all in a twist.” She stood up, ignored him and was about to leave the bathroom until he said something unexpected. “I’m sorry.”
She stopped in her tracks and turned around to see the almost genuinely apologetic look on the irritatingly hot vampire. “Don’t apologize. It’s creepy.” She then darted away from him, grumbling things that even his enhanced vampire hearing couldn’t make out.
He hadn’t been in the tub for more than ten minutes before he was bored. He reckoned he’d never been as bored throughout his whole existence.
He sat up when Buffy entered the bathroom, a bag of blood in hand. “What’s that?”
“What does it look like?”
“Doesn’t happen to be human’s blood, is it?”
“Just drink it,” she said, tossing him the pack of blood Xander had bought. He instantly bit on it and began to drink.
Buffy moved to the sink, propped herself up with her hands on it, and took a few deep breaths. Even though Buffy didn't seem fazed with the past events, she had been overtly distracted despite her being her usual cheery self. He knew she was worried. He just didn’t know if it was because it had been twenty four hours and he could already feel what he was feeling or because he had been watching her too closely. She then righted herself, bent her neck left and right to stretch out. Spike found it rather sensual.
She turned to him and saw he had stopped sucking on the bag and instead was staring at her – or dare she say, ogling her. “I’m going home. I’ll be back tomorrow. Don’t do anything while I’m gone,” she threatened, pointing a finger at him as she did.
“What’d I miss?” Spike smirked, plopping down on the couch and putting his feet up on the coffee table. The Scoobies had arrived at Giles’ pretty early the next day and the entire ruckus had woke him up just after drifting off to sleep; for that he wanted to be extra annoying.
Xander glared at him from across the living room as Giles spoke up. “You were only in the kitchen, from which you could still see and hear us, for about a minute. What would you have missed then?”
“Just pointing out how unproductive you all are.” He then took a bite of one of the cookies he’d taken from the kitchen.
“Hey,” Buffy called out as she entered Giles’ apartment. She was wearing a short light green skirt, a white spaghetti strap blouse-- both of which barely left anything to the imagination-- and a black cardigan that did nothing to cover her. “Anything yet?” she asked as she slumped on the couch beside Spike, making her skirt hike up even higher. Spike’s eyes couldn’t help but wander up her thighs; the sight making him forget that he should be sneaking in a few sarcastic comments here and there.
“There isn’t any text on how to undo a claim,” Giles answered, rubbing his eyeglasses mercilessly.
“That’s not what I want to hear,” she frowned, still oblivious to the vampire who was lusting after her until she squirmed in her seat as Spike’s eyes roamed up to her cleavage.
“There must be something we can do. This can’t happen, Giles,” Xander said. Buffy, meanwhile, tried to figure out why she was feeling what she was feeling when there was nothing she or anyone was doing to make her feel that way. She then remembered one of the consequences of having been claimed.
As Xander continued explaining how against it he was, Buffy turned to Spike, nose wrinkled and brows furrowed in a grimace, and whispered. “Are you… Are you aroused or something?”
Spike’s eyes widened. He remembered she could feel everything he was feeling. He feigned a surprised expression, scowling and looking at Buffy as if she was daft.
“No,” he scoffed nervously. He then cleared his throat and excused himself.
Buffy watched him suspiciously as he headed straight to Giles’ bathroom. She then turned her attention back to the group and soon became too wrapped up in their discussion to even remember that vampires didn’t have any need for a bathroom.
“What the hell is wrong with me?” Spike muttered as he shut the door behind him, and then hurriedly unzipped his pants. “Rupert won’t mind,” he chuckled. He then pulled his pants down just low enough to release his cock.
He slowly wrapped his fingers around it and closed his eyes. He then began to stroke it up and down, letting thoughts of one naked Buffy Summers writhing beneath him plague his mind.
A few minutes into the discourse, Buffy suddenly felt something familiar building inside of her as her muscles tensed and her breathing became heavier. Her hands flew to the couch which she then gripped hard.
“You okay, Buffster?” Xander asked worriedly.
“I… I…” She then cried out, her head thrown back and her eyes closed. She slowly opened her eyes when the inexplicable sensation subsided and was greeted by the inexplicable expressions of the three.
Silence filled the room until Spike came out of the bathroom and giddily marched to his seat beside the slayer. Having noticed the shocked and grossed out looks on their faces and Buffy's embarrassed and disgusted demeanor, he finally spoke up. “What?” He glanced at everyone and soon it dawned on him what it was. “Oh… Bloody hell,” he muttered.
“Nothing,” Buffy sighed, closing the book in frustration. It felt like they had gone through every possible book in the place and they’d found nothing; only sort of hot photos of vampires mating and claiming each other.
“There might be more books in the school library,” Willow suggested.
“Are you all conspiring to get me to dust?”
“We can’t kill you, remember? Part of the effects of the claim,” Xander emphasized the word ‘claim’ contemptuously.
“We can take my car.” Giles stood up and took the car keys from his desk.
“I’ve seen your car, and there is no bloody way I’m going to be seen in that piece of junk. I’d rather I dust.” Spike grabbed his blanket and wrapped himself with it.
“Don’t we all?” Xander mumbled as all of them headed out of the apartment.
Buffy and Spike were in Giles’ office scanning for other useful books while the other three were out in the library, reading their asses off.
After a few minutes of pretending to read the titles and flipping through some old texts, Buffy finally spoke up. “Can I ask you something?”
“Would it stop you if I said ‘no’?” Spike said uninterestedly.
“Why did you…” she trailed off and blushed, having realized what she was about to say.
He stared at her at the corner of his eye, glancing up from the book in his hand. “Wanked off?” She nodded sheepishly. “Can’t blame a bloke for having a hard on with you prancing around in your skimpy little outfits, pet.” He looked at her up and down, biting his lip in approval.
“You’re a pig, Spike,” she chided, although she couldn’t suppress a grin. It was actually a compliment, minus the way he had said it and the words he had used, of course.
“If you don’t want me wanking off…” he broke off as he put down the book in his hand and curled his tongue behind his teeth. “There are other ways.”
“Eww,” she mouthed.
“Don’t play coy with me, Slayer. I know you want me.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her, still with a seductive smile.
“And you’re making it easy not to,” she muttered under her breath as she turned to the books on the shelf.
“Am I?” he said saucily while he approached her. She stepped back with his every step forward until she was backed up against the wall. “I can feel it Buffy. I can feel what you feel from every word, every look, every touch…” He then grazed a finger up her arm. Shivers ran through every part of her body, radiating from every patch of bare skin he'd touched. She was about to throw herself at him when Willow entered the small office.
“You guys found that-” Willow stepped back in surprise. “Oh. Sorry.”
Buffy hurriedly pushed Spike hard enough that he fell to the floor. “Like having me on my back, do you, Slayer?”
“Shut up.” She then stepped over him and followed Willow out into the library.