Over the next couple days, things in the lives of both Buffy and Spike went smoothly. Neither one saw the other and neither really wanted too. Well, they didn’t want to want to.
Spike was immediately accepted by Gunn’s gang and had spent every night possible with them. He was finally having some fun. Sure, he still lived in the Hell referred to as Moon Stream, but at least now he had a way of escaping it.
Another thing he was trying to escape were the memories of his neighbor, Buffy Summers. He didn’t actually know the girl and they hadn’t spent any real time together, but for some reason whenever he had a free moment, he found himself thinking about the golden goddess living only a few doors down from him. Maybe it was the fruit of temptation, being so close but not allowing yourself a taste. He’d never thought about a girl like this before, except for Drusilla. But Drusilla and he had been in a relationship, he’d been in love with her. This new girl, this Buffy chick who he didn’t even know, had wiggled her way deeper into his mind than any girl he’d come across since Dru. How that was even possible when he’d never even touched Buffy, he had no bloody clue.
Spike found this incredibly annoying. He knew that if he allowed himself to get close to her… Well, it would mean trouble. Operation avoid was in effect.
When Buffy told her friends of her new neighbor’s identity, there was one “Are you serious?!” and a lot of open mouths. Of course once Buffy told them of his behavior, none were too anxious to meet him. They didn’t know him but they didn’t really care, and neither did Buffy.
Nope. She did not care.
Not one bit.
She didn’t think about him every time she went back to Greg’s, wondering if he remembered her from there. She didn’t have a dream about him almost every night. And no, she was not intrigued and enticed by the bad boy persona. Oh no, Buffy thought he was trouble… rude, yet delectable trouble.
She stayed away from him.
When the carnival arrived, Buffy had planned on going with her friends only to find out that, she couldn’t. Apparently Anya’s plan had worked. When she phoned Buffy to tell her, Buffy’s sides hurt for half an hour afterwards from laughing so hard. Of course, this meant that Xander and Anya were going together as a couple now. Willow and Tara couldn’t go at all. Both had last minute family gatherings to attend out of state, which meant Buffy would be alone. She could tag along with Xander and Anya for a little bit, but after a while she’d have to leave the couple alone. Of course they wouldn’t tell her to leave, but Buffy knew this was their first official date and she wasn’t going to ruin it. She was just glad she wouldn’t have to bring Dawn with her. The pre teen was going with friends. Thank God there was going to be a DJ! Dancing was Buffy’s favorite hobby next to photography. She would be saved by the music.
Buffy was in her room getting ready for the carnival. She wore a jean mini skirt, a cotton lavender peasant tank top, and black flip flops. After she finished brushing her hair she grabbed her jean bag and camera, and headed out.
Buffy glanced at her phone for the time. Crap! I’m late.
While walking fast down the street she stumbled and dropped her bag. “Arghhh.” She picked up her favorite pair of sunglasses off the ground and noticed they were cracked. “Damn it! Ugh…”
Spike walked out of his house and saw Buffy on the ground inspecting a pair of glasses. She’d obviously dropped her purse. As if of their own volition, his legs moved toward her.
Buffy turned on her knees, dropped what she was holding, and was met with the most powerful set of blue eyes she’d ever seen. She actually gasped at the sight. Then she blushed at realizing who those eyes belonged to.
Spike looked into the most beautiful eyes he’d ever seen, they were hazel with flecks of gold, not quite as green as the last time he saw- Oh bugger. He quickly bowed his head and continued to pick up her things, shoving them into her purse.
Buffy just stared.
Spike stood and offered her his hand. She took it.
At the first touch there was a spark. Not a spark like “Ow!” but the kind of spark that causes breath to catch in the throat. The kind of spark that causes a girl to stumble when getting back to her feet and makes a boy wrap his arm quickly around that same girl’s waist to pull her in close. The kind of spark that causes two people to stop and stare before either one of them even thinks of moving out of a close embrace with a near stranger.
Their noses were just barely touching. Her hands lay on his black covered chest. Their eyes locked and neither one could move. The closeness was causing their flesh to burn.
When Buffy finally got back the ability to speak, she swallowed hard. “Th-Thank you.”
Spike blinked a couple of times. “Um… you’re welcome.” He reluctantly pulled his hand away from her tiny waist and stepped back, handing her back her bag. “Here.”
She smiled and Spike swore he’d never seen a creature so beautiful.
Buffy looked down and breathed a sigh of relief. Unlike her heart rate, which was anything but normal at the moment, her camera hadn’t been damaged due to her clumsiness.
Spike spotted Buffy’s sunglasses still lying on the ground and bent over to pick them up. “Uh, these yours?”
“Oh. Yeah, thanks.” She took them gingerly and looked down at the now broken sunglasses. She’d managed to step on them, and plastic which had once been there was now crumbled to little shards on the ground. “There kinda broken now.” She threw the ruined glasses in her bag.
“Yeah, guess so. Sorry about that…”
“Oh, it’s not your fault. Just clumsy ole me.”
A beat.
“So, uh… You’re William right?”
Spike rolled his eyes. “My father just keeps goin for that one, eh?”
“What one?” She frowned.
“William’s my name but everyone calls me Spike. Dear ole dad just can’t seem to remember that. Must be old age.”
Buffy didn’t really like his tone. “Spike?”
“Yeah.”
“And you have a problem with William?”
Spike looked at her. “Isn’t your name Buffy?”
“What about it?” She put her hands on her hips.
“Nothing… Just, ya know that whole glass houses thing.”
“Buffy isn’t a silly name.”
He scoffed. “Okay.”
She suppressed an annoyed groan. “Ya know what, I take it back. William doesn’t fit you anyway. It’s way too… refined.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” His brow furrowed.
“Well, when I met you the other day you weren’t exactly polite.”
“Oh, well my apologies.” Sarcasm coated his words.
“You didn’t even acknowledge me or-”
He cut her off. “Had places to be. Didn’t have time for socializing.”
“Yeah, well same here. I’ve gotta go. I’m meeting friends.”
“You’re headed over to that carnival thing are you?”
Buffy resisted the urge to pull that raised eyebrow off of his face. “So?”
“S’nothing. S’just you people really don’t know how to have any fun in this town.”
Buffy crossed her arms. “How would you know? You just moved here.”
Spike smirked at her defensiveness. “These types of things are nothing but pie eating contests and raffles. They don’t even have decent music, always some sorta brass band playing.”
“Hey! Those raffles are fun. Last year I actually won.” She raised her chin in pride.
“Oh s’that right? Whadya win, a big basket full of soaps and candles?”
“… There was bath stuff in it too, lots of- of bubble bath and body scrubs.” She inwardly cringed at how small her voice sounded.
Spike used all of his will to push away an image of naked Buffy covered in bubbles and spoke sarcastically. “Oh, well jackpot then.”
Buffy narrowed her eyes at the infuriating Brit. She couldn’t stand his patronizing attitude. What did he know; he was just some big, bleached, stupid… guy. “Well… there’s a DJ! No band. Ha!”
Spike raised his hands in mock surrender. “My mistake, didn’t realize the people in this town were such party animals.”
Buffy refused to give in to her inner child who was urging her to stick her tongue out at him. She was so not doing that. So instead she settled for a bitchy eye roll. “Whatever. What’re you planning on doing tonight other than staying home and watching TV?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I do have plans.”
“Sure ya do.” She nodded in mock understanding and offered a sardonic smile.
Spike raised an eyebrow and snickered. “Look Goldilocks, why don’t ya just go have a nice little time at that poncy carnival of yours, head home at eight, and curl up in your bed with your favorite teddy bear, right?”
Her face scrunched up. “What do you think I am, nine?”
“Would I be so off?”
Buffy hated that this guy was making her sound like an innocent little girl. Usually people saw her personality as sweet and polite, not pathetic. Spike was seriously pushing her buttons. “I’ll have you know I am just like any other seventeen year old girl in this town!”
“Yeah, in this town.”
“You don’t know anyone in this town!”
“Thank God for that. C’mon, no use in pretendin here, pet. I can tell what kind a girl you really are.”
“You don’t know me.” She spoke through clenched teeth.
“Ooh, struck a nerve did I?”
He stepped closer. “C’mon, we both know…” Another step. “That you’re just as sweet…” Step. “And innocent…” The last step left Spike only four inches away from her face, and even closer to her body. Buffy could smell him; a delicious combination of cigarette smoke, leather, and something she could only describe as pure male. Her stomach was doing that crazy flip flop thing and she was starting to feel a little light headed. Why did he have to stand so close?
Oh and he was talking.
And the spell was broken the second she heard what came out of his mouth.
“As a little girl.”
Buffy immediately jumped back and shouted. “Bite me!” At that he actually had the audacity to chuckle.
“I’d probly be the first.”
“Screw you!”
He laughed a little. “You wouldn’t.”
“Yeah, for once you’re right!” Buffy let a cruel smile appear on her lips before she responded with cold evenness. “I wouldn’t.”
Spike’s jaw twitched, for some reason that last comment pissed him off. “Okay blondie, we both know you’re the goody two shoes type, but if you wanna deny it to yourself, go right on ahead. Party it up, go bump and grind on the first pimply faced git you can find. Bring him home and let him take a poke at your precious little virtue, and have yourself a naughty time with your mum sleepin right down the hall.”
Buffy’s eyes widened. Never had anyone spoken to her like that before, not even Riley when he was drunk. “You’re a pig, Spike!”
He took a step closer to the fuming blonde.
“Doesn’t it bug you that you can’t even hear things like that without blushing?” He pointed to her face.
Buffy put a tentative hand over one cheek. Sure enough, she felt the warmth there. She knew she must be flushed. She growled. “Oh, thank God you’re not going to the carnival tonight!” She whipped around and stomped off.
Spike yelled to her. “What, afraid I might just get you to do something you’d regret?!”
She turned around. “No, I just don’t feel like getting thrown in jail for assault! Not that I’d regret breaking your nose!” And with that, she was gone.
Spike’s nostrils flared as he watched her walk off. Never had a woman gotten him so worked up over something so small. He contemplated going after her, he really wanted to have the last word. Just as he was about to follow she turned the corner and he stopped himself. He had a place to be; he was supposed to be meeting his friends.
Oh but Christ he wanted to follow her! Usually when a woman said things like that to him he didn’t give a shit, but with Buffy…
She had really pissed him off, and there was something about arguing with her that got his blood up. Something kind of sexy about the way her eyes glittered with fire and the way her chest heaved in aggravation. She looked glorious when she was mad.
Spike felt like a school boy wanting to pull his crush’s pigtails. He groaned.
The bleached teen fought the urge to run after Miss Bloody Righteous again and headed towards the garage. He silently cursed his father for messing up the back door. If his dad hadn’t screwed up the lock, Spike never would have seen Buffy out front. He wouldn’t have fought with her and he wouldn’t want to follow her right now. He wouldn’t want to find her and argue with her some more. He wouldn’t have the burning desire to kiss the breath out of her either! “Stupid broad.” He muttered to himself. Spike knew that if he hadn’t been planning on an earlier-than-usual meet with the gang, there was no way he would’ve been able to stop himself from going after that raging beauty. Hell, he almost did.
Spike started his Mustang and made his way toward the highway. He was halfway there when his cell phone rang.
“Lo?”
“Hey, Spike it’s Gunn. Look man, tonight’s cancelled. Not enough of the group could make it so were just gonna aim for tomorrow.”
“Bloody- fine.” He groaned. “What time tomorrow?” Spike made a U-turn.
“We’re shooting for nine.”
“Fine. I’ll see you then.”
“Cool. Sorry about this man.”
“S’no problem. I take it you’re workin?”
“I will be in about an hour. You got anything else goin on tonight?”
Spike was about to answer when he suddenly thought about a cute little blonde with quite a temper and smiled to himself. “Yeah, m’sure I can find somethin to amuse myself.”
“Kay, see ya later Billy.”
He groaned. “How many times have I told you not to call me that?”
Gunn laughed. “Not enough.”
“Apparently.”
“See ya later, man.”
“Bye.”
***
Buffy was fuming. She stomped and muttered curses under her breath the whole way to the carnival.
How dare he?! He doesn’t even know me! Jerk!
Buffy loved being who she was, she was happy with her life. And sure, she was a good girl, but who cares! That was her choice! She could be whoever she wanted to be! It’s not like she felt there was a little part of her that was always being pushed down. That there was something in her that she’d never felt before, never let herself discover. No! She was completely content with her life and her decisions.
But then why did Spike piss her off so much? If someone else had said those things to her, sure it would have been hard to hear, but she could have ignored them. But with Spike…
“Ugh! Stupid Brit!” Buffy muttered to herself.
Another thing that made her mad was the fact that she wanted to see him again! Something was actually pulling her back to that Billy Idol wannabe. Something about arguing with him actually… it got her excited. It thrilled her. She felt like she was on a different plane when she was screaming at him, like she was letting lose a part of herself that she’d never been able to see before.
Even when she would argue with her past boyfriends about things, she’d never really yelled at them before. Sure, there were a couple of times when she’d felt like screaming, but she didn’t. She had always managed to keep calm enough to talk things out. Even when Riley drunk-hit her, all she’d done was go home. She didn’t say a word to him. The next day she called him and said she didn’t want to date him anymore, that they were through. There were no screams and all the tears Buffy had shed had been shed privately. Never once had someone gotten her as worked up as Spike just had. Only Dawn had annoyed her to the point of yelling before, and that was over sisterly stuff.
Buffy pushed away the disturbing thoughts plaguing her mind as she approached the town square. She headed straight for the pie eating contest and found a place next to Anya.
“You’re late.”
“Sorry. I got held up.” Buffy mumbled.
“You’re just lucky the contest is starting late, too. They’re about to shoot the cap gun off.”
“What?! I missed them fumbling around looking for the gun?”
“Yes you did.”
“Stupid, bleached…” Buffy caught the look Anya was sending her way and immediately censored her complaints. “I mean… That’s the best part of the whole contest! I can’t believe I missed it.” Damn it, Spike!
“It was really good this year, too. Mr. O’Neil forgot the caps, so he had to run back home. You should have seen Alex’s face. She was not happy.”
Buffy laughed. “I bet not.”
One of the best parts of the carnival was its annual, unavoidable mishaps. Such as the yearly search for the cap gun that signaled the start of the pie eating contest. Somehow it always managed to get lost, and then it would take fifteen minutes to a half an hour to find it. It never failed. Mr. O’Neil and a few others were the judges for the contest, and watching them curse and yell at each other while looking for the gun was a must see show.
Buffy was startled from her musings when said cap gun went off. She spotted Xander going full force at the pie in front of him. Anya was dutifully cheering him on.
“Hey, you and Xander, how’s it going?”
“Really good. We had sex and now we talk every night on the phone. He said he always had a thing for me but never knew I liked him. I told him he was dumb and then he asked me to the carnival.” The blonde smiled brightly.
Buffy suppressed the fit of giggles bubbling up inside of her. Leave it to Anya to sum up something like this in five sentences or less. “You two sound perfect for each other.” She smiled at her glowing friend. Anya looked like she was on cloud nine.
“Yeah. Xander even promised not to throw up after this. He said he’d lose on purpose so we wouldn’t have to leave.”
“Well that’s… actually kinda sweet.”
“Isn’t it?” Anya sighed dreamily. “He’s great.”
“Why is he even participating if he’s just gonna lose, though?”
“Oh, I asked him that. He said he couldn’t not enter the pie eating contest. It’s a tradition.”
“Ah.”
Buffy and Anya continued to watch their friend devour pie after pie. When he started to slow down Buffy knew he was starting to get queasy. Suddenly, the cap gun fired again and everyone stopped. The winner (not Xander) was declared and the competitors started to clean themselves off with wet rags. Her friend approached them and met Anya with a kiss.
Buffy smiled warmly at the gesture, they really were a cute couple.
“Hey, Buff.”
“Hey, Xand. Not bad eating skills up there.”
“Yup, I still got it!”
“I’m so proud of you, honey! Next year you can win and get sick if you want!” Anya wrapped him in a hug and he smiled.
“Thanks, Ahn.” He kissed her hair.
Buffy observed the way Xander melted into the tiny woman and tenderly stroked her back. They were so… right together. Anya couldn’t stop smiling and Xander looked more content than ever before. Anya nuzzled into his chest when Xander stroked her long blonde hair and pulled her closer. Buffy couldn’t help but feel both nauseated and happy for her friends at the same time.
“Okay, you guys are sickeningly cute. I’m gonna grab something to eat and take some pictures around here, I’ll see you two a little later.”
Anya and Xander’s gazes never left each other’s faces as they said their goodbyes.
Buffy rolled her eyes good naturedly and headed for the corn dogs.
***
Spike pulled up in front of his house. He was through fighting it, through holding himself back. He’d been thinking about Buffy for days and now that he had talked- argued -with her, he’d finally had enough. He had a free night and nothing else to do so he was going to go to the Moon Stream Summer Carnival.
He almost cringed at the thought but he was determined.
He’d never felt like this before. It was confusing and scary. He knew there was a chance at heartbreak, but suddenly, he didn’t care anymore. Spike was love’s bitch and he was man enough to admit it. He wanted to find this girl, he wanted to talk- argue -with her some more. He enjoyed driving her crazy, enjoyed making her squirm. He knew it was strange but he was thrilled by it. She was just so bloody cute when she was riled up. With Drusilla, any fight had been like the end of the world. He’d realized a long time ago that there’d been a lot of stress in that relationship. But with Buffy…
Oh, he was going to have fun with this one. He wanted to drive her up a wall and then hold her there while he tasted every delectable inch of her.
The leather clad teen stopped inside to use the bathroom. When he looked in the mirror he wondered if maybe he should change. He was wearing his usual black jeans and black T-shirt with his duster on top. Sure, it was like eighty degrees outside but his duster was like his second skin, he hardly ever went without it. Besides, the heat never really bothered him.
Spike sauntered out of the house to his Mustang, duster in place, and started driving toward the town square where he knew the carnival was being held. Operation avoid was now dust.
It was time to go see a girl.
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