Buffy arrived with Spike at the Bronze after a quick patrol and stop at Spike’s for blood.
She was nervous about seeing Willow and Xander much less being on Spike’s arm but Spike smiled at her trying to ease her fears and expertly navigated her through the crowd of people and to the bar and ordered a diet coke for Buffy and a beer for him.
He grinned and gave Buffy a taste of the beer to which she made an awful face followed by ‘Arrgh’ which he found so cute he couldn’t resist laughing.
Xander and Willow noticed Buffy from across the room and made their way towards her.
They noticed the blond near her and reminded them of a Billy Idol wanna-be and Xander thought for a moment that the stranger was hitting on Buffy and perhaps
Buffy wasn’t interested but upon arrival they found them laughing with Buffy proceeding to spit out soda onto the counter as she laughed and the stranger holding his stomach from laughing so hard at something Buffy said or did.
He quickly took the napkin offered from the bartender and carefully wiped up Buffy’s face from the mess she made by spitting and then the counter and she smiled at him and lightly touched his hand and Willow and Xander could both see the sexual tension between them was really powerful.
Willow broke the tension and said, “Hey Buffy!” followed by Xander’s. “Hey Buffster, who’s your friend?”
Buffy smiled hesitantly at Spike who offered is hand to Xander and shook it in a firm handshake before saying, “Name’s Spike. I’m Buffy mate, err I mean boyfriend.”
Willow looked curiously at the couple not remembering Buffy mentioning a Spike before.
She then asked in a sort of squeaked voice, “So Spike, is it? Are you from L.A.?”
Xander looked at the blond then gasped, “Buffy quick, stake him. He’s a vampire!!”
Buffy laughed then and Xander and Willow both stood staring at the couple as both broke into laughter.
Xander looked from Buffy to Spike and said, “Why aren’t you staking him. He needs to die. This town is swamped with them and they are evil. Buffy get away!”
Buffy shook her head and set about moving to a table to better explain things without an audience.
They found a quiet booth and Buffy quickly told about Spike and her week.
She told them about the slaying, rescues, kidnappings, dates, meeting of the two families, but leaving out mating and sex talk.
Spike interjected sometimes and what was supposed to be a fun night of dancing, ended up being a 3 hour conversation of explanation.
In the end though, Spike and Buffy both felt better getting their relationship off their chests and having Buffy’s friends’ full support well if you count Xander’s, “I don’t understand it but I won’t stake him for your sake” as full support.
Willow seemed to think it was romantic and perfectly fine.
She and Buffy excused themselves for a minute to the bathroom leaving Spike and Xander who he now thought of as the whelp alone at the table.
Xander having felt uneasy around the guy all night and Spike not liking the anti-vampire vibe he was getting from the wanker were eyeing each other.
Xander broke the silence with, “I don’t know Buffy that well. In fact, this is the most I’ve learned about her in one single night but if you hurt her, I’ll hunt you in your sleep and stake you.”
Spike smirked at this and said, “You can try whelp but rest assured, I won’t hurt her. I love her and she’s mine and I don’t hurt those who are mine.”
With that Spike finished up his beer and ordered another while asking Xander, “You play pool?”
Xander nodded saying, “Sure do. Want to play?”
Spike gave Xander a nod and strutted over to the pool table scaring away the 3 boys that were playing and proceeded to play a game of pool with Xander while waiting for the girls.
Buffy and Willow went into the bathroom giggling.
Buffy found that now that she had Spike, she felt closer to Willow.
No longer was the third wheel vibe echoing from her and instead a close bond was forming as they giggled about how hot Spike was and how they had really met and how sex was and if the bite marks on her neck hurt.
Buffy told her even as they giggled back in the booth watching as the boys played pool, about the mating.
She had to tell someone. Willow was shocked and amazed and immediately promised not to tell anyone including Xander knowing Xander would probably wig out and do something drastic if he knew that Spike and Buffy were that close.
Willow asked tons of questions but it was mostly filled with girl talk and lots of giggling and joking around.
Buffy felt 20 pounds lighter as Spike returned to the table after male bonding with Xander and although he wouldn’t say they got along, they could tolerate each other.
Xander even confided in him that while he liked Willow, he was admiring a girl at school named Cordelia and had asked Spike how to break it to Willow that perhaps he might want to see other women before settling down with her at one day.
Overall it was a great evening for both couples and both walked back to the houses hand in hand.
Buffy and Spike walked back hand in hand to her house.
He gave her a passionate kiss, and watched as she went into her room.
He took a quick walk around the block having to stake one of his minions who he found attacking a young girl and whistled as he found his way back to Buffy’s house.
Quietly and quickly he climbed the tree to sneak into her bedroom. Buffy smiled as she set her double alarm clock: one for an hour prior to sunset and the second an hour before school.
This was to be their new schedule and way to handle things.
Spike groaned as she kissed him passionately and together they quietly made love to her before redressing her for bed.
Spike donned his pants again minus the belt and snuggled her into his arms and promptly fell asleep.
The next few weeks settled into a nice schedule.
School occurred in the morning after Spike would get up sneaking out before the sunrise.
He would give her a kiss when he left, making sure to re-tuck her in and redress himself fully before heading out into the night to return to his lair to finish the night’s sleep.
He got into regular poker games to fill up his mornings and his minions looked forward to his morning arrivals to pass the time until their bedtime.
He would spend more time sometimes at the widow’s house as well as Sam and Candy’s since time just was passing by so quickly.
The routine suited them both and no one seemed to complain even when Buffy was a little bit more tired on some mornings than others due to a later night of loving making.
Soon, Spike made a request of the wizard again. This time, it was asking about him coming up with a solution that would allow him to perhaps enter the daylight sometimes with Buffy even if not all the time.
He wanted to spend more time in the day time without burning to a crisp.
He wanted a future and was willing to do anything in his power to do so.
The wizard had bowed and promised to spend time researching such things as might make that possible.
Until the wizard's return, Spike spent his days as he could, sleeping, playing poker, and visiting with the friends as well as spending time with his minions especially Doyle and Dalton. They were his two best men.
Then at nightfall, Buffy and Spike would meet at Buffy’s for dinner which became a regular thing. They would then head out for a quick patrol then either return home to tutor Buffy and help her with her homework or for him to fill journals with poems sitting on Buffy’s bed with the door open which was Joyce’s rules while Buffy worked on her homework.
Then he would say goodnight, only to sneak into her room and make love with her.
He didn’t crave humans anymore and was quite satisfied with the tasting of Buffy on an every other day basis as to make sure she was never too weak and the blood supply from the hospitals that Dalton kept in great supply.
The hospitals had taken to blood drives and giving in return free meal tickets which really brought in the blood so they were throwing the extras out.
This is where Dalton’s and Spike’s supply came from. Spike had offered to help out a few mornings a week in exchange for the left over blood.
Spike got to be a wiz on the computer as he helped by inputting people’s blood types, birthdays and all the other important doctor/patient information.
He enjoyed getting to know the people and did no longer have to steal blood supplies.
Another minion named Doyle had approached Spike about also being allowed to drink blood from blood bags and was willingly given some.
He was also given a smaller room in the mansion for himself.
Things overall seemed to be going well. Spike’s minion population were diminishing but that didn’t bother him as the ones he had were loyal and protective of Buffy and him.
He no longer needed a large follower and the power he had felt over them.
He would rather have a few minions who were trusted and who had agreed to obey him as Doyle and Dalton had done than to worry about who his minions were feeding on in his absence.
Plus when Buffy would come to stay at his place, he didn’t have to worry about her being taken advantage of. Dalton and Doyle were both very protective of her.