Chapter 7
Spike wasn’t quite sure how it had happened really. One minute he was standing there expecting the troll to hammer him, literally in fact, and the next they were chatting away about relationships and what a bloody waste of time and effort they were. He guessed his already defeated look and resignation to getting pummelled peaked his new buddy Olaf’s interest. The big guy was obviously used to people fleeing in terror from him. So he asked Spike if he could find him some babies to eat with his ale. Spike decided it probably wouldn’t go down too well with the Slayer to send a troll to the hospital in search of newborn happy meals with legs so he offered to provide him with the Bronze’s speciality chicken wings and blooming onions. Disappointed at first, the troll was convinced to at least try the food and while he didn’t think it was as good as babies was soon happily feasting away.
Somewhere along the way they’d got talking about their problems with women, probably due to the beer, and Spike learned how Olaf had been turned into a troll after his girlfriend caught him cheating on her, although he argued that it really wasn’t cheating since he was drunk and this one barmaid had attached herself to him. In turn, Spike had moaned about Drusilla, how she’d been his salvation and then destroyed him, punishing him for something he didn’t know he’d done. If she hadn’t left him he might not have found himself in this new mess with the girl he was made to hate. He had just moved on to Buffy, without mentioning the fact that she was the Slayer when the girl herself and her friends arrived.
“It’s jus’, I think I deserve some respect, yeah? I mean she was all over me and jus’ cos her friends show up she decides I’m dirt again. I’m not completely dim, I mean I get that whatever this thing between us is it’s wrong but we clearly both want it and she could have at least stayed to talk about it y’know. Tell me she doesn’ want anythin’ to do with me. Not jus’ walk off without a backwards glance.”
Olaf nodded in sympathy and picked up another keg, biting it with his teeth and swallowing the entire contents before picking up a handful of chicken wings and stuffing them in his mouth.
“Women are nothing but trouble my friend. They seem so delicate and sweet, you just want to take them home and keep them with you, protect them while they take care of you, but they are devious and vicious. They don’t want you unless you are all theirs, no more than a dog that they own. You think everything’s fine and then one day you wake up and find she’s turned you into a troll! All your friends turn on you and you get chased around with pitchforks. At least she made me a troll god with power.”
Olaf raised his hammer in the air, swinging it around happily to demonstrate the source of his power.
“I soon adjusted and brought much destruction upon those puny mortals who turned on me.”
He dropped the hammer down with a thud, suddenly glum. Spike was about to say something when Olaf slammed his hand down on the table sending their food flying and making a rather large dent in the mettle.
“Then those witches! Filthy witches came with their magic and imprisoned me! For centuries I was trapped, unable to feel anything! Arrgh a CURSE on ALL WITCHES!”
Olaf stood up then waving his arms about angrily and roaring. Spike decided to step back, cradling his beer. It looked like the rampage was back on, Olaf’s quest for food and ale being temporarily satisfied. Glancing away from the enraged troll he finally spotted Buffy and her little gang staring at him open-mouthed. He scowled at her and had just made up his mind to ignore her and leave when Olaf also spotted the small group, halting his tirade.
“Anyanka! You’ve brought the witch here to stop me. How dare you try to imprison me again. All of this is your fault!” he accused, pointing his hammer at the nervous blonde trying to hide behind Buffy.
Everyone turned questioning eyes on Anya but before she could respond the door flew open and Xander arrived.
“Guys you’re okay, where’s? Woah! That’s a lotta troll!”
He skidded to a halt and Anya grabbed hold of him trying to ignore the puzzled looks of the people around her.
“How exactly does he know you and how is it your fault?” Willow asked.
Xander frowned in confusion and turned to face his girlfriend.
“Huh?”
Spike had pretty much figured it out from his chat with Olaf earlier and deciding he enjoyed stirring things up and seeing the Scoobies squirm enough to forego walking away from the Slayer he was still annoyed with, stepped up and offered an explanation.
“Well from our chat earlier I gather the ex-vengeance demon there is my new pal’s ex, who, incidentally, is the one who made him a troll.”
Four pairs of eyes stared at Anya in stunned disbelief before Buffy broke the silence.
“You dated a troll?”
Spike snorted. Like she could judge with her track record. She decided to ignore him, refusing to acknowledge his presence right behind her.
Xander was staring at his girlfriend in horror.
“I didn’t date a troll! I just turned him into one because he cheated on me, which is how I got the job as a vengeance demon, interestingly enough.”
Xander blinked and then attempted to speak.
“You…a troll…you turned your boyfriend into a troll? Before you were a vengeance demon?”
“He cheated on me! I did everything for that oaf and he betrayed me!”
Olaf swore and hit the wall with his hammer.
“I didn’t cheat. It was one barmaid when I was drunk! It hardly deserved being turned into this!”
“I was in a lot of pain! I thought you loved me and how dare you judge me? I’m not the one who took all of two minutes to find his inner savage nature and destroy his village.”
“However quickly I adjusted to the situation I was forced into is not the point Anyanka. What matters now is that I am free! I will not allow you to imprison me again. I have far too much veangance of my own to wreak upon this disgusting world, starting with the witches!”
Olaf swung to face Willow with an evil grin, hefting his hammer, preparing to strike.
“Oh no you don’t! Willow! Tara! Get moving on that spell!” Buffy cried urgently, charging at the troll to get his attention away from the red-head.
Olaf swung his hammer at her but she was ready for him this time and rolled out of the way. She hopped to her feet next to him and punched him right where his kidneys should be. Troll, as it turned out, was not so easy to hit and Buffy did more damage to her hand than to him.
“Ow.”
She clutched her hand and shook it briefly, glad to feel it wasn’t broken but had to drop and roll as the hammer came flying at her head again.
The Scoobies looked on, still huddled together in their little group. Willow and Tara were busy with their incantation and Xander and Anya stood hanging on to each other watching the fight. Spike stood next to Xander, sipping his beer and looking on with interest. He loved watching Buffy fight.
“You could maybe help you know,” Xander commented, not really expecting much from the vamp beside him.
“No thanks mate. Had my share of brawls for a while. Sides,” Spike sniffed, taking another sip of his beer, “Slayer’s job right? She should be able to handle things like this. That and I don’t care very much.”
That was a lie of course but Olaf was a trollgod after all and in his current state there wasn’t much Spike could be expected to do. Plus he was still pissed at the Slayer. Might do her some good to realise he came in handy in a fight sometimes if she didn’t have his help. Might get some bloody sense knocked into her. Then we’d see if she just ignored him and walked off after gettin’ all worked up… Of course if she got into real trouble now she wouldn’t have a chance to learn anything. Maybe he should help…
Xander took his eyes off the Slayer and troll who were still swinging at each other without landing any blows to take in the vamp’s appearance for the first time.
“What happened to you?”
Spike continued to watch the Slayer, a slight frown of worry on his face, thinking that maybe she was in over her head here.
“Huh? Oh, nothin’. Jus’ got into a fight with some demons that don’ like me very much.”
“Well gee there’s a surprise.”
Spike ignored the sarcasm dripping off Harris, focusing instead on the battle and wincing when Buffy barely missed getting hit in the face with the nasty looking hammer.
“How’s that spell coming guys?” Buffy asked as she ducked again.
Willow looked up at her friend.
“Just a minute it’s almost done.”
“Well hurry it up. I’m not getting much damage in here. Oof.”
Buffy caught a glancing blow off of Olaf’s fist that sent her reeling back into the stairs leading up to the balcony.
“Get rid of the hammer! It gives him strength!” Anya called out, deciding to help.
Easier said than done, Buffy thought.
Olaf continued to advance on her and Buffy got an idea. It was a slim chance but it might work. She sprang up a few steps and waited for his next attack. She was above him now and was hoping the higher ground would help make him attack her the right way.
Raising the hammer again, Olaf swung it at her as fast as he could, putting all his power behind it. She hopped over the railing at the last second and the hammer flew in between the steps and bounced off one of the supporting beams underneath. Twisting the hammer as he drew back the troll was caught off balance when it lodged between the steps and grabbing her chance, Buffy jumped, aiming both feet at him and kicking him away from his weapon. The hammer dropped down under the stairs and now she was between him and it.
“Let’s see how good you are without your little toy.”
Advancing on him, she prepared an uppercut to his bearded jaw, but found herself thwarted when his meaty fist grabbed her arm and he backhanded her, sending her spinning backwards where she just barely managed to keep on her feet.
“What the?”
“Troll luv. Not exactly a lightweight.”
Buffy scowled at Spike. Know it all.
Just plain common sense, he thought to himself, seeing her annoyed look.
Taking her eyes off the blonde vamp to avoid a punch to the face, Buffy brought her attention back to the fight at hand. So the troll was strong, no matter, she’d kicked plenty of monster butt in the past and he was no exception. She just had to hit a little harder, after all, she’d been itching for some good fights lately and no matter how tough this Olaf guy was, he didn’t come close to Glory. She just had to hold him off until that spell was finished.
“Bloody hell Slayer, what’s gotten into you? Where’s the girl that kicked my ass every time I arrived in this town? I gotta tell you, you’re performance right now? Well, let’s just say I am deeply shamed.”
Buffy took a moment to throw him a scathing glance.
How dare he criticise me? Not like he’s exactly helping right now.
“Shut up Spike!”
Spike nodded and tilted his head, jutting his chin out.
“Oh yeah, real original. I’ve said it before an’ I’ll say it again, it’s not my problem if you don’ like hearin’ the truth. Right now, those fightin’ skills of yours, stink.”
Xander scowled at him even though he kind of agreed. Buffy wasn’t up to scratch like she normally was, but then she had a lot to deal with lately and losing Riley couldn’t have been easy on her.
“Hey, bleached menace, you think she’s so bad why don’t you take him on?”
Spike looked at him unconcerned.
“Like I said, I had my fair share of fightin’ lately and it’s her job, she should deal with it. Besides, I kind of like the guy, not so bad really, and it was your bird that made him like that in the first place.”
Anya frowned at him and moved from behind Xander to look the vamp in the eye.
“Hey! It’s really unfair to put all the blame on me. He made me mad and I punished him, nobody’s perfect. And like I said it only took a few minutes before he was killing and maiming his so-called friends and eating babies. He’s perfectly happy as he is, maybe even happier.”
Spike rolled his eyes.
“Oh yeah, I’m sure everyone’s better off from the result of your first trip down vengeance lane and it all worked out for the best. Good on you.”
The three continued to bicker and scowl at each other while Willow sped through the incantation faster, sensing the tension brewing from everyone else in the room. Buffy was livid.
While she had managed to keep enough of her focus on the troll to avoid another brutal knock-out, it was a real struggle not to abandon the fight to punch Spike in the nose. An urge she was still resisting with difficulty.
How dare that ignorant, rude, selfish, cocky, good-for-nothing tell me I’m a bad fighter. I’d like to see him take on a trollgod. Stupid vampire! It’s his fault I’m off my game anyway, at least partly, with all his distractions and making me all confused. Argh if I didn’t have a troll to deal with right now I’d go over there and then we’d see who could kick whose ass. Chip or no chip, I’d beat that cocky smirk right off his annoyingly gorgeous face.
She grumbled and huffed, irritated that even when she was mad at him, she’d found him good-looking.
No, he’s not good-looking, he’s stupid. A big dumb vampire in need of a major ass kicking.
Buffy watched as Spike said something to Anya that had Xander gasping and staring at his girlfriend and guessed it must have had something to do with something the troll told him about when they’d been dating and narrowed her eyes. He was always causing trouble. Just then, Olaf got a punch in and she hit the stage of the Bronze, causing the gang to look in her direction.
That was it! She’d had it with the stupid troll and his abnormal strength and the stupid vampire that kept distracting her. She couldn’t kick Spike’s ass right now so she’d just have to settle for hitting the next best thing and that would have to be the troll.
“Alright that does it! I’ve had just about enough of you! I have enough to deal with without dumb trollgod’s getting out of hand because of something that happened centuries before I was even born. I shouldn’t have to deal with this shit!”
Buffy jumped up on stage, glared at the dumbfounded troll, and threw herself at him, aiming a roundhouse kick to his head that sent him spinning backwards and crashing into a nearby table.
Satisfied that she was finally doing some damage, Buffy stayed on the offensive and punched and kicked the surprised creature into submission.
Anya, Spike, Xander and Tara looked on with matching expressions of shock. Willow was doing her best to continue with the almost complete spell although she wore a fairly dazed look herself.
The chit’s completely lost it, Spike thought as he watched her pummel Olaf around the Bronze.
The others had never seen her get quite so pissed, except maybe when Angel had been in trouble. After all no one messed with her boyfriend, but she’d flipped, swearing and beating the crap out of the monster she’d been struggling to hold her own against just moments before. She must really be stressed to be acting this way, was the Scoobies collective thought.
Another solid punch sent Olaf flying back against the wall, where he sank to the ground unconscious. Just then Willow finished her spell and a pinkish mist surrounded the fallen troll, before a loud pop sounded in the air and he and the mist vanished into thin air.
Buffy sagged, exhausted, wiping the sweat from her brow and panting from exertion. Her adrenaline was going down and she was beat.
Willow was pretty flagged herself. Portals to other dimensions took a lot of work and sapped a lot of her energy. Noticing her girlfriend’s weakness, Tara placed an arm around the redhead to steady her and Willow smiled at her gratefully.
Anya relaxed against Xander and heaved a sigh of relief that her ex was gone.
Xander himself seemed relieved although probably more because Buffy seemed to have returned from crazy town. The way she’d beaten on the troll had him a little scared. She was all Slayer when she did that and it was pretty frightening, not at all like the girl he knew.
“Wow Buff, you really wailed on that guy. I’m guessing you worked out a few issues just now too huh?”
Buffy nodded and gave him an embarrassed smile. She really had lost it. She was just so mad, and it was all his fault.
Buffy frowned when she noticed Spike finish his beer and begin to stalk away, as best he could with his limp, towards the back door, trying to sneak out. Leaving her friends to examine the damage and the hammer that had been left behind, she hurried to catch up to him as he made his way outside, catching him in the alley.
“Oh no you don’t. Just where do you think you’re sneaking off to?”
Spike sighed and turned around to face her, his shoulders slumped.
Bloody hell, can’t I get a minute’s peace ‘round here?
“What do you expect me to do? Fun’s over, time to head home.”
“So what, you’re just gonna walk off cos your new friend’s gone and you can’t annoy me or my friend’s anymore?”
“Judgin’ by the way you’re lookin’ at me I’d say I’m still doin’ a pretty good job of annoyin’ you, and did you maybe think that you lot are the one’s pissin’ me off? I come here for a nice quiet drink only to be interrupted by a trollgod that your pals summoned. So I stuck around to see how things ended, I was curious, but I’m not gonna stick around for the clean-up or to hear you all congratulatin’ each other on another job well done.”
Buffy crossed her arms and stepped a bit closer to him, but not too close, she’d learned what could happen if she didn’t keep space between them and she was mad at him dammit.
“Your quiet night didn’t seem to be too thrown out of wack when we got here, sitting down drinking beer and eating chicken wings together.”
Buffy looked him over, just now taking in his injuries.
“Or maybe I was wrong. What happened to you, you fight him before you got all friendly together or what?”
“This,” Spike said, pointing to his black eye as he spoke, “did not come from Olaf, alright? I went to Willy’s last night after, well let’s be straight about it, after you ditched me in the graveyard and as it turns out I don’ have too many friends around there anymore. Claim I’ve been makin’ war on the demon world since I started helpin’ you so once again my life, or unlife, has gone to complete shit because of you,” he said, now pointing at Buffy.
“Me?”
“Yes you Summers. It’s cos of you Dru dumped me, cos of you I kept comin’ back here an’ wound up with a chip in my head an’ cos of you I can’t show my face in demon bars anymore.”
“How is any of that my fault?”
Spike chuckled humourlessly before staring at her seriously.
“You are kidding right?” Seeing her staring back at him, genuinely confused and sceptical gave him the urge to wring her bloody neck for being so dense.
“Because, you stupid bint, I can’t get you out of my bloody head, alright!”
He looked to the heavens as if asking the powers that be to give him strength before continuing.
“Everywhere I go you’re there. At first I thought it was jus’ my obsession with killing you, the one that got away an’ all that rubbish but it wasn’t. Dru knew, knew before me. I had nothin’ but respect for you an’ what you did to Angel, you don’ have to be a genius to figure out that was the hardest thing in the world for a person to do and you managed it when you were still pretty much a kid. She punished me for feelin’ that way about you. Then I came here to get revenge but look where that got me, a helpless, shameful excuse for a vampire thanks to this chip an’ now, now I go an’ realise I have feelings for the Slayer.”
Buffy balked at his confession. Spike had feelings for her?
How? What? How? I mean sure I knew he wanted me but that was lust, wasn’t it?
They just desired each other, which was natural after all the time they’d spent together fighting, first with each other and then side by side but that’s all it was right? Spike couldn’t actually care about her, could he?
“Yeah shocked me too, that did,” he said, noticing her expression, “not too keen on actually feelin’ somethin’ for someone whose job it is to kill my kind but there you have it. You didn’t think all that snoggin’ was just meaningless fun did you? Because I gotta tell you, havin’ you run off and ignore me after things get hot an’ heavy between us is not my idea of fun.”
“I…I didn’t mean to…”
“Sure you did luv, your buddies arrived and it was business as usual, had all your excuses lined up ‘til I caught you off guard, don’t pretend you didn’t.”
“Spike this is nuts. What happened was wrong. You have to know that. We hate each other, you can’t have feelings for me.”
“You think I don’ know how wrong this is Summers? Trust me I’ve tried everythin’ I can think of to get you out of my system but you won’t leave. You’re in my throat, in my gut. I’m drownin’ in you Summers I’m drownin’ in you.”
Buffy shook her head, refusing to believe it. This could not be happening.
“No. No no no this isn’t happening. You’re confused Spike. What you felt, what we did, it was just lust okay. A lot of pent up sexual tension that somehow developed between us but that’s all it is.”
Spike shook his head.
She just doesn’t bloody get it.
“It’s not just lust Buffy, if that’s all it was I could’ve gotten you out of my head, found you alone and gone farther than we did last night. I spent more’n a week tryin’ to deal with that kiss, cos it gave me hope, I’d never believed we could really have somethin’ ‘til then but after you kissed me…it was a crumb. Now, I can’t let it go and I don’ intend to but you’re not ready an’ I’m far too drunk, pissed off and sore to deal with it right now. I’m goin’ home.”
Spike turned and started to walk off. Buffy was too stunned to stop him. He’d just given her even more to think about. Could he actually have feelings for her? It would explain why he was so nice to her that night after the way she treated him. She watched his retreating form and a random thought popped into her head.
“Spike?”
He stopped and turned his head, but made no move to walk back to her.
“If you and Olaf didn’t fight,” she hesitated, “ how did the pool table get broken?”
It didn’t matter but it was the only thing she could think to say.
“Durin’ our chat, asked if he’d like to play, he’d never played before and thought it looked like fun, it didn’ go well.”
“Oh.”
Buffy nodded embarrassed. Spike studied her and turned and walked off. Buffy was thoroughly confused and her headache was back with a vengeance.
Great. Nice mess you’ve gone and gotten yourself in now Buffy.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
A little later today. I almost forgot about my two updates a day, sorry, I've been trying to regain my focus on the story. Anyway here you go. Chapter 8 will be up in a mo.