Disclaimer: Buffy and the rest of the characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant enemy, and lots of people who aren't me. This is based on an episode of the x-files called Arcadia, The x-files belongs to Chris Carter, and even more people who aren't me.
Archive: If you want it, take it, but please keep my name attached and tell me where it's going.
Author’s notes: This is my second ever story, I wrote it last year when I was fourteen. I basically took the plot of the X-files episode ‘Arcadia’ and made it into a Spuffy fic.
Feedback: Yes please, good or bad, I don’t mind. Send it to thesamuelfamily@btopenworld.com.
*******
"Giles!" Willow jogged into the shop, looking around for the Watcher.
"Willow, what's the matter?" Giles walked out of the training room. "Is everyone all right?"
"Hi, I was looking at the police reports, to see if there was anything suspicious we should know about, and I found something."
She handed Giles a brochure, it showed a number of houses. Each one was beautifully kept, with well-kempt lawns, and expensive cars outside the houses.
"What's this?" Giles' curiosity was peaked.
"It's called Arcadia falls, it's about an hour away from here. I looked it up after I read the police reports. 3 couples and one teenager have gone missing there in the last 3 months."
"Three? That's a lot, especially for a place like this."
"I know," Willow picked up the brochure "listen to this. You need a card to get into this place- it's completely enclosed, it's got its own neighbourhood watch, it's the so-called perfect environment for families to live."
"What about the couples, was there anything different about them?"
"No, all of them were happily married, two of the couples didn't have children, one had a teenage daughter. They were all different ages and different types of people. The only similarity is that they were all pretty new to the community."
"We'd better call the rest of the group- to come up with a plan." Giles reached for the phone.
*******
Buffy looked around the room, everyone was there, Giles, Willow, Xander, Anya, Tara, Riley, even Spike.
She quickly looked away from Spike; they hadn't seen each other since the Haunted house ordeal over Christmas. She'd tried to stop thinking about the kiss, especially now that Riley was back, so she'd avoided Spike as much as possible. He'd seemed to keep out of her way as well, not hanging round her house, not coming to the Magic Box. Maybe he'd thought it was all a mistake. Knowing that she'd managed to repulse a man with one chaste kiss did not make her feel better.
Pushing that line of thought out of her mind, she concentrated on the conversation and on her normal boyfriend.
There was no researching today, mainly because they had nothing to go on, other than the fact that 6 adults and a teenager were missing. Spike spoke up.
"Why don't two of you move in, and find out what's goin' on for yourselves?"
"Yeah great idea Spike, cos we've all got that kind of money. We can't just buy a house." Xander's voice was dripping in sarcasm.
"Spike's right though," Anya piped up from behind the counter "it's the best way of finding out what's happening," She paused "but you're not using my money to pay."
"Great." Buffy sighed "So we've got a plan but no way to carry it out."
"Well, that means we're going to have to research." Giles went over to the bookcase; there was a collective groan from the table.
"Listen," Spike was slumped in his chair "If I buy this house, can we stop researching?"
"Hah! Like you've got that kind of money," Riley scoffed "you live in a crypt."
"Just because I don't use it, don't mean I aven't got it." He realised that the whole Scooby gang was looking at him incredulously.
"Where did you get that kind of money?" Tara asked meekly.
"A hundred years interest adds up, you know."
"Well it would certainly be a great help if you can arrange it." Giles felt better now there was a solution.
"Who's gonna live there though?" Willow asked.
"Not me!" Spike protested "One of you lot can."
"I can't!" Anya said quickly "I don't trust Giles when it comes to my money!"
"Neither can I, I've got work." Xander added.
"Me and Tara have got college." Willow pointed out apologetically.
"I've got college as well, and so have you Buffy." Riley looked at Buffy in that patronising way that doctors and teachers use to make you do what they want.
"That leaves Spike and Giles." Xander looked highly amused; he couldn't refrain from humming the wedding march quietly.
"WHAT! NO WAY!"
"I have to run the shop!" Both Spike and Giles protested in union.
Xander gave a cough that sounded suspiciously like 'Lovers tiff'.
"Fine! I'll go!" Buffy spoke loudly over the noise.
"We can't Buffy," Riley glared at her "What about college?"
"I think seven people lives are more important than college!" Buffy protested.
"So, that's what I'll tell the college is it?" Both Buffy and Riley were on their feet by now. "That I'm going undercover in a perfect community, in a vampire's house, to save seven peoples lives."
"Fine! I'll go with someone else!"
"Who? There's no-one who can go!"
"Spike." Anya joined in the argument.
"Huh?" both Buffy, Riley and Spike turned to Anya.
"Buffy can go with Spike!" Anya carried on, helpful smile on her face "He's the only one who isn't too old, working, or too stupid."
"What do you mean too old?"
"Who's too stupid?"
Anya looked critically at both Riley and Giles, then to Spike, who was having the good sense to keep out of the argument.
"Well, although Spike is technically older than you, Giles, he still only looks about twenty-five. And Riley's being a really annoying know-it-all, who prizes his own reputation over people lives."
Spike smirked at the indignant look on Riley's face.
Willow, Tara, Buffy, and Xander were trying not to laugh at Anya's bluntness, her helpful, stating the obvious tone had not left her voice throughout the conversation.
Buffy was currently fighting an internal battle, if she was honest she did not want to go with Riley, and the idea of living with Spike was not entirely repulsive. She searched Spike's face for some kind of reaction. His face was remaining carefully neutral. His eyes now fixed carefully on hers.
She realised that the whole shop was now waiting for her reaction. She opened her mouth to speak.
"How's Spike gonna go out into the sun anyway?" Riley cut her off before she had a chance to speak.
"Ooh, there's a spell I know, it makes vampires able to go out in the sun." Tara's voice penetrated the silence; she blushed when everyone turned to stare at her.
"And you never mentioned this before?" Spike looked slightly hopeful.
"W-well it can only work in a certain place, I could make it so that you could go out in Arcadia Falls in the day, but you couldn't leave that place while it's sunny."
"That's all we'd need, if you could do that." Giles nodded.
"What do you say Buffy?" Willow smiled at Buffy.
All eyes turned to Buffy. She looked to Riley, who looked furious, and then to Spike, who looked slightly hopeful.
"Um, well if Riley won't come," Riley shook his head firmly, no "and you can do the spell, and if Spike wants to come, then okay."
"Humph!!" Riley grabbed his coat and stormed out of the shop.
*******
The next evening Spike walked into the Shop.
"Hey, you lot, I now own 34 Arcadian falls."
"Already?" Giles looked impressed "That was quick."
"I know, they were desperate to get rid of the place, so desperate that they included all the furniture in the deal."
"Why did they include the furniture?" Buffy asked, stepping out of the training room.
"Apparently the last owners, left inna rush. When I asked why, the bloke got all shifty an' said somethin' about work."
"Tara said we'd need the address of the house for the spell." Giles handed Spike a piece of paper and a pen. Spike quickly scribbled the address down. "We'll also need a personal item." He gestured to Spike's duster.
"What?!! I'm not letting you do any mojo on my coat!"
"Spike, give him the coat already, cos I don't wanna be Mrs. Big-pile-of- dust." Buffy smiled sweetly at him. Fuming silently, spike pulled of his jacket and dumped it in Giles' hands. "So, when do we move in?" Buffy asked.
"Next week, so pack your stuff up."
Buffy was packing up her C.Ds when her mum popped her head round the door.
"Hey Buffy, how's it going?"
"Fine mum, I just got a few more boxes to pack. I'll only be gone a week or so."
"I just got some bad news honey, your aunt is sick, so I'm going to have to go and look after her."
"Oh-no, It's nothing serious is it?" Buffy turned to look at her mum. "Is it a good idea for you to go? You've not been well yourself lately."
"Oh yes honey, I'll be fine, but I really need someone to look after Dawn." She grinned "Now I know you're planning on marrying a certain blond vampire next week, but could Dawn come with you?"
"Mum! I'm not really marrying him! I'm just pretending to." She stopped when she saw her mother's smirk. "I guess she can come, tell her to pack her stuff up." she sighed in exasperation.
********
Buffy walked into Spikes crypt.
"Is that it?" she asked referring to the three boxes by the door.
"Yep, I travel pretty light. I figured you'd have 'bout 50. So, did you come by for any other reason, than to complain about my lack of possetions?"
"Oh yeah, here's your duster back. Willow and Tara did the spell, so when we get to Arcadia falls you can go out in the sunshine, but we'll have to travel there in the evening, otherwise you'll get all dusty."
"Ta pet." he grabbed his coat and started scrutinising it for damage. When he found none he slipped it on.
"Um, I was thinking, I'm gonna need to know some stuff, like my name." Buffy grinned sheepishly.
"So, how's Dawn feel about all of this? Is she okay about coming?"
"I think were gonna have trouble getting her to come home again, but your changing the subject, I'm going to need your name"
"Okay, okay, it's 'de Word' William de Word. You can pick a first name of your choice."
"I think Buffy de Word sounds fine." She spoke softly, slightly embarrassed. "Look, I think that you need to get more stuff, the whole black wardrobe doesn't fit in with the newlywed couple image."
"Now who's changing the subject?" He grabbed his wallet and took out an ample amount of money. She gawped at it in shock. "I don't fancy being dragged round every shop in town. Here, get some stuff for me, and if there anything left get some stuff for you and Dawn." Not one to pass up an opportunity to shop, Buffy thanked him and made to leave.
"Oh, um Buffy?" He called her back.
"Yeah?" she turned around. He pressed a small box into her hands.
"Have fun shopping."
As soon as she was outside she pulled the box open. She gasped. Inside was the most beautiful wedding ring she had ever seen. It was white gold, with a delicate pattern of hearts on it, not too fancy, but classic and sophisticated. She slipped it out of the box and placed the ring on her finger.
"With this ring, I do wed." she murmured.
********
On the whole, Spike reflected, it could have been worse. Not much worse, but still worse. On keeping with the whole yuppie couple image, Buffy had bought him casual clothes. Mainly blue, which wasn't so bad, but there was also some other pastel colours which he wasn't happy about. She had also banned him from bringing anything black, even his beloved duster.
But he had to look on the bright side, she could of borrowed some of Xander's clothes, or worse yet, Riley's. He shuddered, yes it could have been much, much worse.
Buffy was surprised he hadn't complained too much about the change of wardrobe. Okay, he'd been more than a little cranky about the duster, but he had kept comments to a minimum about the pastel colours. She and Dawn had had fun shopping on his be-half, they'd tried to be as kind as possible, while still choosing things he would not normally be seen dead in, or at least dusty in.
She'd been unable to stop herself showing off the ring to the Scooby gang. Everyone had been impressed, even Xander. Well everyone except Riley, who'd just scowled. The girls had 'oohed' and 'ahhed' over it for the whole time, and tried it on.
She'd practically had to use slayer moves to get it back off Anya, who'd become rather attached to it, and had started to hum the wedding march. This had made Xander turn very pale, he then spent the rest of the time trying to get people's minds off weddings.
She'd had to keep reminding herself that she wasn't really marrying Spike, just pretending to, he'd probably take the ring back at the end. Plus she still had a real live boyfriend who loved her very much.
They'd loaded there things up into the car at around four o' clock, thankfully the day was cloudy, so spike could move around relatively easily. It was a good job he was around to help, because Dawn had been too exited to do anything helpful.
An hour later they pulled up to the gates of Arcadia Falls
*********
"Welcome. To. Arcadia. Falls. Mr. And. Mrs. De. Word." The automated voice greeted them as Spike handed the card to the guard. The gates slid open, and the guard waved them through.
"What about me?" Dawn asked as the car drove into the enclosed street.
"What about you?" Buffy was looking out of the window, everyone they drove past waved at them. The houses were neat and the grass was cut to perfection. It was just the sort of place Buffy had always dreamed of living in, but now she was here it creeped her out. The whole place was too perfect; it looked more like a painting than real life.
"Well what am I gonna be called? Plus the fact that you can't say I'm your daughter, you both look too young, even though I'm old enough to be spikes great-great granddaughter. Anyway I'm not being Dawn de Word, it sounds hideous."
Buffy frowned as she watched a man who had dropped a bag of crisps on the path. He was picking each crisp up one-by-one, he also was looking frantically at his watch. With every second that passed he grew more and more panicked. Finally a woman took pity on him and knelt down to help.
"Fine just stay Dawn Summers-we'll say you're my sister, which you are, mores the pity." Buffy was still looking at the man, who had managed to gather up the crisps and dropped them in a bin. Spike parked the car in the drive-way, Buffy and Dawn looked up in awe at the house.
"This is where we're living?" Buffy had expected a nice house, but this was amazing. She would have been surprised if it had cost under half-a-million dollars. "I mean I was expecting it to be a lovely house-but this is, it's, it's" For the first time in a long while she was lost for words.
"Whoa!" Dawn voiced her opinion, "Can I stay here forever? I don't care if I even have to be Dawn de Word! This place is great!!"
"Welcome to Arcadia Falls." Spike smirked at Buffy, before climbing out of the car.
**********
Mrs. Hetty Whinston peered out at the new family from behind her floral pattern curtains. She was a widow in her late 60's, her husband had died of a heart attack two years ago, and she still missed him. Her children, who were now in there late twenty's, had bought her this house so that she could be nearer them and her grandchildren. It was a lovely community, and it didn't deserve to be ruined by riff-raff, that's why it was so select.
She'd heard the general rumour about the new couple. They were from Sunnydale and had been married for 6 months. The husband was well off, from England, and although he had bleached blonde hair, had been all charm to the estate agent. This heightened her opinion of him. Although the bleached look was worrying, English people were always respectable in her opinion.
Their name was Mr. and Mrs. de Word. It sounded a very noble name in Hetty's opinion. He was probably upper-class. Nobody knew anything about his wife however; he'd not mentioned her very much to the estate agent.
Their car door opened and a brunette climbed out of the back seat. She was tall and slim, her hair was long it settled about half way down her back. She turned to look at the rest of the street and Mrs. Whinston got a clear look at her face. She couldn't have been older than fourteen.
A blonde stepped out of the passenger seat; she was about twenty-one, with golden-blonde hair. Hetty smiled in approval, Mrs. de Word was wearing a white top with a lilac shirt over it, matched by a respectable length white skirt. She had a purple handbag on her shoulder and lilac court shoes on her feet.
She looked every bit the part of a doting wife. As soon as Mr. de Word was close enough she grasped his hand, her expression a mixture of love and excitement.
.Mr. de Word, true to rumour, had bleached blonde hair. He was casually dressed in a dark blue shirt, with blue denim jeans. He wasn't very tall, and was quite lean, he was certainly an attractive man, and she could see many women in the neighbourhood becoming quite attached to him. He also had the palest skin she'd ever seen, probably from all that English rain, she thought with a giggle, well he'd soon have a tan living here, it was nearly always sunny in Arcadia Falls.
All in all they looked a nice family; people would soon be introducing themselves to them. She hoped they would last in this community; nobody ever seemed to any more. She'd just have to watch them closely.
********
"Hello! You must be Mr. and Mrs. de Word! Who's this lovely young lady?" Just as they were about to enter the house, a woman who was carrying the largest gift basket they'd ever seen walked over to them. She scrutinised Dawn before dumping the oversized gift basked in her arms.
"This is Dawn. My sister, she'll be staying with us for a while." Buffy spoke with an overly cheerful tone, a fake smile plastered on her face.
"Well she's just adorable Mrs. de Word. I'm Sheila." She held out her hand to Buffy, then to Spike. They both shook her hand politely. The 'adorable' Dawn stood fuming behind the basket, her face thankfully hidden behind a pink teddy.
"Call me Buffy." She smiled at Sheila.
"What should I call you Mr. de Word?" Sheila cast a hopeful glance in Spike's direction.
"Will." Spike reverted to his upper-class accent seamlessly. Buffy tried to look like this accent was nothing new to her, Dawn was grateful that no-one could see her grin behind the offending teddy.
There were other people walking towards them now. There were at least 7 of them, all smiling warmly.
"Hi" Both Buffy and Spike spoke simultaneously. They both turned to look at the others.
"Hi" Dawn echoed.
"Hi new neighbours, were here to help you move in!" The man had the uncanny ability to speak in exclamation marks. He took the car keys from Spike's un- protesting hand, and went to unlock the boot.
"Oh- no, you don't need to do that, I'm sure it can wait for an hour or two." Buffy's smile became impossibly wide.
"Oh yes we do," A woman with red hair piped up "You have to be moved in by six."
"Six?" Buffy echoed.
"Yep Rule 10:13." A man who was carrying one of Dawns boxes joined in. "All new residents must be moved in by six."
Before anyone could object, people started lugging boxes into the house. Thanking everyone as they went past, Buffy, Spike, and Dawn once she had got rid of the basket, all joined in.
There was a loud crash, Buffy and Spike ran over to the person who had dropped one of Buffy's boxes. She recognised it as the one that was full of weapons. Judging by the liquid that was now seeping into the cardboard, it'd had holy water in it too.
"Ohh! I'm so sorry." The man was in his thirties and seemed to be shy. "There was nothing valuable in there was there?"
"Oh-no, why don't you go and help with Dawns stuff." Buffy reassured the man.
"Okay." He dumped the box into Spike's hands. Spike hissed in pain and nearly dropped it. The holy water that had soaked into the cardboard had come into contact with his skin.
"Sorry." He smiled sheepishly reverting back to his normal accent "I'd better help with Dawns stuff too."
"Are your hands okay?" Buffy grabbed his left hand and examined it . "I'll live pet." He grinned at her and walked off.
Buffy smiled the first non-fake smile since she'd got there.
***********
Buffy closed the door with a slam; she then leaned against it and slid down to the floor.
"If I smile any more I think my face is gonna fall off."
"Mine too." Dawn agreed with a groan. "How can anyone be that happy all of the time?"
"They're rich; they can afford to be happy." Buffy had her eyes closed.
"So what, so are we, and I'm not smiling like a Barbie doll."
"What do you mean, 'so are we'?"
"Well Spike's rich, and if your pretending to be married to him, then so are you." Dawn looked around "Where is Spike anyway?"
"I think he's looking round the garden." Buffy climbed to her feet, "Come on, we've gotta look for clues."
"Whyyy?" Dawn whined.
"Cos we're here to find out what happened to those people, not for a free holiday."
"We don't have to start right now though. I mean you've got everything you everything you ever wanted, why not enjoy it?"
"What are you on about, 'everything I ever wanted'?"
Dawn grinned "You've got a gorgeous house in a lovely community, plenty of money, and a gorgeous husband who adores you."
"This isn't my house, the community creeps me out, its Spike's money not mine, I'm not really married to Spike, and, while he is undeniably attractive, he doesn't adore me." She paused at the look on Dawns face "Does he?"
"Oh come on, he worships you, he's perfect."
"Yeah, perfect," Buffy snorted sarcastically "in that 'my friends hate him, he wants me dead, and I already have a boyfriend' way."
"Your friends don't hate him, they've been getting along much better, and even Xander doesn't mind him too much. Okay, Riley hates him, but Riley's weird, and as for Riley, you've not been getting along great lately. Plus if he wanted you dead he would have done it a long time ago, he can beat up demons still remember, he could go and make them kill you, but he hasn't." Dawn smirked knowing she'd won.
"Anyway that doesn't change the fact people are missing," Buffy skirted around the conversation "plus I want to explore."
"Okay, okay." They both went towards the lounge, and then jumped in union when Spike walked up behind them.
"You lookin' around?" They turned to face him. "You won't find any clues; the place has been cleaned so thoroughly, you can get snow blindness off the white surfaces." Buffy and Dawn smiled before opening the door to the sitting room, both of there eyes went wide, and Dawn gasped as she entered.
The place was beautifully decorated, in light greens and browns. The room glowed in the evening light: French windows took up the whole of one wall, looking out in to the immaculate garden. The floor was polished wood with a leaf pattern rug that took up half of the room. On the rug was a large leather sofa, with green and brown cushions, and in one corner was the largest television anyone had seen. There were shelves full of knick-knacks and ornaments, and a large bookcase-filled with novels. It was spectacular. Buffy seemed to have lost the use of her voice.
"Thi-this is how they sold the place? With all the stuff still here?" she managed to find her voice.
"Yep- Like I said I asked why, and the man got all shifty." even Spike looked quite impressed with the decor.
"Wow!" Dawn started to fiddle with the telly.
***********
"TWO bedrooms! TWO. BEDROOMS!! Why is there only TWO bedrooms?!" Buffy was yelling at Spike.
"I mean really, she's here," Dawn pointed to where Buffy was standing "and yet she's here!" Dawn pointed to the space next to Buffy, while Spike tried not to laugh. What Buffy had said suddenly sunk in "Wait a minute! I'm not sharing with HER!!"
"Okay, okay, I'll sleep on the couch." Spike bit back a few comments which would have been sure to get him a broken nose. He had the good sense to realise that if they were going to share a house, annoying the hell out Buffy was not the best option.
"Why should I have to share? I mean you're the ones who're married, well almost." Dawn carried on regardless, making sure she'd got her point across. "Hang on! Why does Spike have to sleep on the sofa? It's his house; Buffy should sleep on the sofa!"
"Why don't you sleep on the sofa?!" Buffy turned on Dawn "You're not supposed to even be here!"
Spike found new respect for Joyce, if she put up with this on a daily basis she deserved to be sainted.
"Its fine, I'll be happy to sleep on the sofa." He turned and jogged downstairs, showing that the conversation was over.
"I'm gonna call the Scoobies, tell them the new number." She called after Spike.
Sighing she turned and walked into the master bedroom. Like the rest of the house it was spectacularly decorated. There was a large bed in the centre of the room, covered with satin cream sheets, matching curtains covered the window. Two large Wardrobes and a dresser took up one wall, while an ornate dressing table took up another. There were her four suitcases and five boxes next to the wardrobe, and Spike's were placed around the room.
She picked up the cordless phone; it was too late to call the shop, so she dialled her aunt's number.
"Hey Buffy," Joyce greeted her "how's married life suiting you?"
"Oh ha, ha, ha." Buffy could practically see her mom grinning. "It's actually not been too bad. It's a gorgeous house though; it'll be a shame to leave. Dawns not gonna leave without a fight." She laid back on the bed. "I never knew Spike had money, and to think, I paid him to help when he had tons of cash stowed away."
"Talk about 'how to marry a millionaire'." Buffy had a feeling her mom wasn't going to let her forget about this for a long time. After a brief conversation about her aunt's health Buffy gave her mom the phone number and hung up. She then went on to dial Xander's home number.
"Hi, this is the magic box, how may I help?" Anya didn't sound quite awake. Buffy frowned in confusion.
"Hi Anya, I thought that that was Xander's flat."
"Hmm? Oh it is, I'm so used to saying that I do it automatically. Xander was quite upset when his boss didn't call because he thought he kept getting the wrong number."
"Oh." Buffy had started to tune out Anya's babbling.
"Anyway, how are you enjoying being Spike's wife?" Buffy opened her mouth to protest "I know it's not real, but you should enjoy it while you can. Spike would make a good husband. Xander would be better obviously, but you can't have him. Spike has a body that is pleasing to the eye, and he has lots of money, what's not to love?"
"It's not been too bad so far," Buffy ignored Anya's comments "the problem is that there is only two bedrooms, so Spike's gonna sleep on the sofa."
"NO, no, no, no, no. You've got it all wrong, that's not how it works at all. You're supposed to complain about the fact that you have to share a room, then the man offers to sleep on the couch, you then say 'on no I couldn't let you do that' while making it clear that you do not want to sleep on the sofa either, then you both agree to share a room on the condition that he behaves. About halfway through the night you then become blinded with lust and you both make passionate love, which ends with you both admitting you're madly in love with each other." Buffy sat dumbfounded at the other end of the line. There was silence on the other end of the line, then sounds of a struggle for the phone.
"Sorry about that," Xander's voice was a welcome rest from Anya "I really should stop letting her read X-files fanfic." Buffy grinned. "How's deadboy Jr and Dawn then?"
"They're fine; I'm just phoning to tell you the new number."
After finishing with Xander, she went on to phone Willow and Tara, and then finally Giles. Giles was the only one who didn't make a jokey comment about being married; he was much more interested in the disappearances. Unfortunately Buffy had nothing unusual to report, just the fact that everyone was really happy.
She put the phone down and set about unpacking her stuff.
************
Buffy opened her eyes slowly, it was still dark. The night had passed pretty normally, they had ordered pizza and Spike had gotten into a ten minute argument with the guard at the gate because he wouldn't let the delivery guy through. Then they watched T.V for the rest of the night before going to bed. Dawn had spent most of the night talking about a teenage boy that had helped them move in, who she was going to talk to tomorrow. It was weird for Buffy to have such a normal evening, without having to worry about patrol, or any big bads, other than Spike of course. It wasn't going to last forever though; they would have to leave eventually. Tomorrow night they had planned to go and look around the cemeteries, see if they could find out about what was going on. If they could get past the guard, Spike had already made a few unflattering comparisons of the guard to Riley. Buffy had pretended not to hear him.
She felt guilty for making Spike sleep on the sofa, it was his house, and he had bought it to help the Scooby gang out. Maybe she should go down and talk to him, she checked the clock-it was three AM, he probably wasn't asleep. It's not like she would invite him up; that could only happen in Anya's twisted mind.
Silently she padded onto the landing, she peeped into Dawn's room to check she was okay, and then made her way downstairs. About halfway down she could see the figure of Spike; he was fast asleep on the sofa. Buffy didn't want to go back to bed now that she was wide awake, so she sat on the step in the hope that he might wake up. She tried not to look at him but it was hard with nothing else to do. He was wearing a black tee-shirt; the rest of him was covered with a sheet. Hang on, how come he was wearing his black tee-shirt? She'd made him leave them behind; he must have snuck one in somehow. Stubborn Vampire!
Not that he looked at all bad in it, after all if there was one colour he suited it was black. Especially in those tight tee-shirts which clung to him, and made his hair look even whiter. His hair looked different in the dark, it the sunshine it had shined and sparkled, but in the moonlight it glowed and glimmered. While he was asleep his hair had been mussed up, it had reverted back to curls. She had always thought his hair had been strait, but it looked better curled, made him look more vulnerable, less guarded.
He looked more innocent when he was asleep, more human. This was helped by the fact he was breathing. She'd never known a vampire breath, not even Angel, they were usually just like corpses when they slept, but here he was, his chest rising up and down.
Buffy stood quietly and crept closer, hoping to catch what he was saying. "No, no, please no." It was barley a whimper, she couldn't stand it any more, Buffy tapped him softly on the shoulder hoping to wake him up. At her touch he curled up in his sleep, as if he'd been hit.
"Spike," She called gently "Spike, wake up."
"No, Dad, please no, I'm sorry." He sounded so young, how could anyone do that to him? Buffy was overwhelmed by the urge to hug him, and kiss him, and NO! Now was not the time to think those thoughts.
"Spike!" she called, poking him hard on the shoulder. He gasped loudly and sat up quickly, his breathing was heavy and fast.
"Buffy?" He looked confused "What are you doing here?" His accent seemed to have gone back to upper-class, making Buffy wonder whether, it had been like that when he was human, or whether he'd learnt it when he was a vampire.
"Um, I was, um, just um, getting a glass of water!" She looked triumphantly at him when she thought of an excuse, "I heard you talking, and thought I'd better wake you up."
"Oh." Spike looked to upset and embarrassed to care about the phoney excuse. Buffy realised that he was obviously unhappy about her seeing him upset, so she quickly reverted back to insult mode.
"Anyway, what are you doing with that tee-shirt? I thought I told you not to bring it!" Spike looked happier now that they were on familiar ground.
"I needed something to sleep in," His tone switched to seductive "unless you'd prefer me without it."
Buffy didn't trust herself to comment on that aspect, and so she reverted to 'classic Spike insult #7' "You're a pig Spike." She turned to leave "Goodnight, sleep well."
"Yeah, you too, g'night." He lay back gently, and she padded back up to her room.
***********
The day had been pretty normal, neither Buffy nor Spike had mentioned the dream, and they had spent the day wandering round the area and talking to the neighbours. No useful information had turned up, other than that the rules were really strict. When they had asked for a copy, they had been handed a book twice the size of war and peace. They had also been invited to lunch the next day with their next door neighbours. Buffy had a feeling that they just wanted to get information about the new couple.
Dawn had been following the boy about like a lost puppy, and they had been getting on well. When she wasn't with him she was talking non-stop about him.
That night they left to head out to the cemeteries, leaving Dawn on her own. This was the only part of the plan Buffy was unhappy about, she was positive they'd come back to find the house in smouldering ruins.
"She'll be fine Buffy, stop worrying." Spike reassured her for the fifth time in two minutes, they weren't even out of the estate yet. "It's my house and I'm not worried."
"Yeah, you don't know her; she's like a human wrecking ball." Buffy bit her lip anxiously. "We'll come back to find the house in ruins."
"What are you doing out this late?" The guard looked at them critically "It's late, it's not safe." He seemed a little on edge.
"We're going to, um, a, a movie!" Buffy thought of something credible.
"What about your sister, Mrs. de Word? Will she be okay on her own?"
"Oh she'll be fine," Spike cut in before Buffy could start panicking again. "She's a very responsible girl." He pushed past the guard, and started to walk away, Buffy following him.
They walked in comfortable silence until they reached the cemetery. It was pretty much the same as Sunnydale cemeteries.
"I'm guessing this one's gonna be less busy that the ones in good ole Sunnyhell though." Spike looked around critically.
In fact the cemetery was, well, dead. No pun intended. Buffy and Spike ended up sitting on a tomb. They talked companionably about anything and everything, the house, Sunnydale, the scoobies, her history, severely edited parts of his history, England, and L.A. They had been talking for close an hour without any demon activity. "Kinda makes you homesick don't it, all this lack of fighting." Buffy looked around, she enjoyed talking with Spike, but sitting on a cold slab was not her idea of comfort.
Suddenly the lid of the tomb they were sitting on started to shake; they were both thrown off as the lid was lifted high into the air, revealing a demon that had been inside the tomb.
"Really!" The demon shouted, as Buffy and Spike picked themselves up. "I can cope with couples making out, I can cope with gang fights, I can cope with vampires killing people, but do you two ever shut up?!!!" The demon didn't seem to be attacking, just complaining. "If you're that desperate to fight something, go to the other side of the cemetery there should be some vampires around there."
"Oh." Buffy stood in shock at the demons antics "Thanks."
Both Buffy and Spike turned to leave as the demon closed the lid to his tomb. As they made they're way to the other side of the cemetery a vampire running in the opposite direction collided with Buffy. Spike grabbed him and held him fast, as Buffy climbed to her feet.
"Okay, I want answers." She held the stake to his heart.
"I wasn't tryna attack you!" The vampire was panicking now. "I was getting away from the others."
"Listen, I'm not interested in your crimes, well except for the whole crime against fashion you're wearing." She scrunched up her nose in disgust "At least when Spike goes for the whole '70's reject' look he manages to look sexy"
The vampire nearly got away, when spike loosened his grip in shock. Thankfully he regained control a second later.
"Anyway I'm not really interested in that, what I'm interested in is what you know about Arcadia falls."
"Nothing, I don't know nothing! Who's Spike?" The vampire was past making sense, going into automatic denial mode."
"I think you do know something, there's obviously somethin' going on there, and I think that most nastys from round here would have heard about it." Spike growled in the vampire's ear.
"Wait a minute! Spike? As in 'William the Bloody' Spike? Wow, I know all about you! You're a legend; wait till I tell the guys I was threatened by William the bloody!" The vampire seemed to be a male version of Harmony. "And that would make you Drusilla!" The vampire pushed his luck, addressing Buffy "OUCH!!"
"Not only are you behind on the times, your not gonna live to tell anyone about this if you don't start talking." Buffy seemed to be taking the comparison to Dru personally, as the stake was getting closer and closer to the vampires heart.
"Look, all I know is that it's out of bounds for demons, the humans called something up; and now there scared of it, they've lost control."
"Oh well, thanks for the information," Buffy raised her stake.
"What's so funny Slayer?" Spike looked at her as if she'd lost it.
."You, you've got," Buffy started to speak but broke into giggles again "groupies." She doubled over laughing again.
"Hey! D'you want me to tell Dawn that you got mistaken for Dru?" he smirked "Or how about the whole callin' me 'sexy' thing." That shut her up fast.
***********
"So, what do you think about what groupie boy said?" Buffy and Spike were walking leisurely back to the house. Spike looked her over critically.
"You look nothin' like 'er luv."
"Huh?" Buffy frowned confused, "What're you talking about?"
"Dru, you don't look anything like her." Spike explained patiently.
"I wasn't talking about that," A tiny part of her started to panic, what if Spike didn't find her attractive? Was that what he looked for in girls? Dark hair? Pale skin?
The part that was still deluded about Riley scolded her for thinking like that. The two parts got into a silent battle, which resulted in the Spike part knocking out the Riley part. The Spike part went on to think about the merits of dying her hair 'lunatic black'.
"You Okay Luv?" He looked at her gently "You're turning into Hair gel boy with all that brooding." Oh god, he would bring up Angel wouldn't he! She desperately tried to stop the Angel part getting in on the battle.
"Um yeah," she said, mainly to stop her inner turmoil. "Anyway what I meant was what about what the Vampire said about here."
"Oh, well I haven't a clue; I guess we'll have to find out what we can tomorrow when we go to our charming neighbours for lunch."
"Do you really think the people of this community killed those people?"
"I dunno. They do seem uptight about the rules, and with the amount of rules, I'm surprised they're allowed to sneeze."
"You reckon they killed the people cause they broke rules?" Buffy looked slightly incredulous."I mean, okay the rule book does look like the phone book, but isn't that taking it a little far?"
"I don't think they did it, if the area is out of bounds to vampires and demons, then there's gotta be something big here." Spike looked thoughtful.
"So, what're we gonna do?" The house came into view.
"I dunno about you, but I'm gonna start breaking the rules."
."Story of your life that." Buffy muttered as they entered the house.
**********
Buffy felt unbelievably paranoid. She'd killed monsters, seen dead bodies, listed to Anya's disturbing sex talk, but she had never been more scared than sitting at the table with Cami and Win Schroeder.
Buffy had no doubt she was about to come the next topic of discussion in the neighbourhood.
"So, Will," Spike shifted uncomfortably under Win's steady gaze, it reminded him of Giles when he was in a bad mood "how long have you lived in America?"
"A few years, I moved here in 1995, and met Buffy, and after that she couldn't get rid of me." Spike answered the question with charming smile, he tried to ignore Dawn who was sitting opposite him and trying her best not to laugh.
"Aww!" Cami smiled conspiratorially at Buffy "and what was the wedding like?" Both Win and Spike rolled their eyes as the women got on to discussing weddings.
"So, Dawn," Win interrupted Cami's rendition of their own wedding "why are you staying with your sister?"
"Oh, my mom's not been too well, so I'm staying with her until she's fully recovered." Dawn fidgeted uncomfortably as the subject. "Um, Mr. and Mrs. Schroeder?"
"Yes Dawn?" Cami looked at Dawn kindly.
"Why did the people who lived there before us have to move?" Both Buffy and Spike glared at Dawn, they'd both been trying to ask the question subtly.
"Oh I just wondered where they went, cause the girl left some stuff in my room; I wanted to send it to her." Spike and Buffy looked incredibly impressed with Dawn's excellent save. The Schroeder's breathed a sigh of relief.
"She mustn't have wanted it, if it was just left for you, we don't know where they moved to, and frankly, I'm glad." Cami looked a little upset still.
"Why are you glad?" Buffy was shocked at the woman's words.
"Oh it's just that they weren't the right sort of people for the neighbourhood, music playing at all hours, not cutting their lawn, and so on, nobody got on well with them." Dawn silently remembered to keep her music quiet from now on, and Spike made a mental note not to cut the lawn.
Win realised that the new family was staring at Cami in shock,
"So, where did you two meet?" Win sounded a little too cheerful.
"You know," Buffy said as they walked back to the house "you were probably more polite there, than I've ever seen you." Dawn was walking a few paces in front of them.
"Well I try." Spike grinned. A window to his left caught his eye. An old lady was peering out behind net curtains; Spike was over come with an urge to be mischievous.
"Buffy?"
"Yeah?" she turned to face him. He nodded his head subtly towards where the old woman was watching him, showing her what he was referring to. Then, before she had a chance to react, he caught her mouth in a gentle kiss.
Buffy was shocked, quite pleased, but never-the-less shocked. The old lady was still watching them. Realising she might never have a chance to do this again; she smiled softly, and then pulled him back for another kiss.
It was now Spike's turn to be shocked. He'd expected to be dusty for sure; mind you they were in public, so she couldn't really kill him here, but she might once they got inside. It probably didn't mean anything that second kiss, probably just for show.
"EEWW!" The moment was ruined by Dawn, "We're in public, d'you have to do that here?" She was speaking a little too loudly, probably for the benefits of the neighbours. As she turned to walk up to the house, she grinned at them and sent an almost imperceptible thumbs-up to them.
That night Dawn was in her room. She sat writing in her diary, mainly about the Spike and Buffy kissage. A gust of wind knocked over a picture frame, and she got up to close the window. As she got there a book was blown out of the window, landing with a soft thump on the grass below. Sighing in resignation, she closed the window and walked downstairs to get her book back.
It was quite late, as all the lights were turned off and Spike was asleep. She crept past him and went to the French windows. Undoing the lock, she slid the door open and stepped out onto the grass.
The cold wind blew her hair about, and she shivered as she pulled her dressing gown tighter around her. A quick search found her book lying slightly to the right of her window; she bent down to pick it up. But as she reached down, the book came up towards her slightly. The grassy hill was moving up, as though something was pushing up underneath it. She snatched to book away from the grassy hillock, and brown sludge oozed from underneath it.
"Arrghhh!" She yelped and jumped away from the mound, dashing back into the house. Spike was by her side in a second.
Dawn, what's the matter? Did you see something? What are you doing down here?"
Dawn was too shocked to speak; however, she was not too shocked to notice that Spike wasn't wearing a shirt.
"Grassy mound, ooze, book, zombies, demons, did I mention the ooze?!" The part of her mind that was not focused on Spike's shirtlessness, was playing through all the possibilities of what could have happened.
"Okay, calm down an' tell me what happened, then we'll call Giles."
**********
"This is what I was called out of bed for?" Buffy looked at Dawn critically "The lawn attacked you?"
"Yes. No!" Dawn was upset that Buffy wasn't taking her seriously "The thingy underneath the lawn attacked me!"
"And it what? Attacked you with its scary greenness?" Buffy looked tired and fed up.
It also seemed that Dawn wasn't the only one who had noticed Spike's lack of shirt. Stupid Vampire, why did he have to be wearing a shirt when she was watching him last night, and then be all bare-chested tonight? "I looked out there; there was nothing but the grass and mud! It was probably just a pocket of gas."
"We're here looking for supernatural things, and it's killed seven people! I bet that's what they thought, 'oh it's just a pocket of gases' and then the next thing they knew they were DEAD!" Dawn was slightly hysterical, and Spike patted her comfortingly on the shoulder.
"Okay, okay, we'll phone Giles in the morning. Why don't you go back to bed." Buffy reassured her sister. Dawn seemed calmer as she headed for the stairs.
"Oh-what about my book?" She looked towards her battered and sludgy copy of 'pride and prejudice'
"We'll get you a new one, night, night." Buffy wondered when she'd started to say 'we' instead of 'I'. She shivered; the whole scene felt like it came out of sitcom, with the pretty, perfect mom, the gorgeous but loving dad, and the sweet daughter. It was all very surreal. She fought an urge to go and make cookies wearing one of those fifties skirts while smiling all the time.
She realised that she and Spike were now alone.
"Um, well I'm gonna go back to bed, night."
"Okay, d'you mind if I take a shower, I won't get back to sleep otherwise." Spike looked sheepish. The entrance to the bathroom was through Buffy's bedroom.
."It's okay I guess, I'll probably be asleep by the time you get out."
Once she got into bed she couldn't seem to fall asleep again. Knowing that Spike was naked, less than a few metres away was extremely off-putting. The room was dark when he came out of the bathroom, she was careful to make her breathing even so he'd think she was asleep.
She fought the urge to peep from under the covers. After a few minutes she gave up and risked a glance,
.Oh god! She bit back a groan; he was wearing his black jeans which rested just below his hips, outlining the hip bones making his lean muscled figure look even more attractive
His skin glimmered when the light from the bathroom caught the water on his skin, outlining every muscle on his upper body. His bleached hair was wet, and was now completely curly, framing his angular face and making his sapphire eyes seem even bluer.
He suddenly did something unexpected, he walked over to her. She was certain she'd been found out. He called out to her, loud enough to be heard if she was awake, but quiet enough not to wake her if she was asleep.
She did not react, so he precariously sat down on the bed. He brushed a hair out of her face, and ran his fingers down her pink tinged cheek. Then he did something he would never have risked if she'd been awake, Spike reached down and brushed his lips against her cheek.
"G'night, Buffy." It was barely a whisper.
He started to get up to leave, but Buffy wasn't having any of it. As if in her sleep, she reached over to him with a groan and wrapped her arms around his waist. Spike froze in complete shock, he had no escape, her grip was like iron even in her sleep.
He mulled over his options. Stay here and be staked when she woke, if he managed to explain what he was doing there she'd stake him, even if she didn't stake him, she'd tell Giles, Riley, or Xander, who would stake him. He tried to get her to let go, but she still held on tightly. Sighing in resignation he sunk back into the pillow. Next to him Buffy smiled into his cool chest.
***********
Spike woke to find Buffy's arms wrapped around him, tightly. Her breathing was soft and even, her head using his chest as a pillow. He felt relaxed, despite his impending staking. He just wanted to stay like this for ever, wrapped in each others arms. The sunlight streaming through the window, bathing them both in morning light. Her hair shone as the sun hit it, and the tanned skin of her arm glowed as it lay across his chest.
"Mmmm, morning." Her voice startled him, and he froze. Hoping that if he was deathly still, no pun intended, he would magically disappear. Maybe he could still make it, if she fell asleep again. She might loosen her grip and he could sneak out undetected. "Spike?" she frowned at him "What are you doing in my bed?"
Buffy fought back giggles, as he squirmed under her steely gaze. "I was, um sitting on the bed, um last night, and um you, um you grabbed me, and I tried to move but you wouldn't let go" He tried to get out of the bed, but she held him fast.
"Okay, well it can't have been very comfy on the couch anyway, and if somebody had seen you on the sofa it would have looked a little suspicious. Plus you didn't have any nightmares tonight." Spike flinched at the comment, but seemed happier now that she didn't appear to be staking him. "So from now on you can share with me."
Spike stared at her as if she'd grown a second head, and decided to quit while he was ahead.
"I'm gonna go downstairs pet, sort out down there."
"'kay then." she mumbled dreamily, happy in this newfound domestic bliss. She didn't know what was killing those people, but when she found it she was gonna thank it. And then kill it of course.
"Um, pet?"
"Yeah?" she smiled into his chest.
"Can you let go of me?" She blushed profusely, letting go of him reluctantly.
He stood up and slowly pulled on a navy tee-shirt, she instantly regretted buying him so many clothes. He wandered into the bathroom, as she climbed out of bed and started rooting through her wardrobe. As he came out of the bathroom, she slipped in past him, he was just about to leave when he realised he'd left his watch in the bathroom. He crept up to the door and knocked softly, it opened a crack a second later and Buffy's arm shot out handing him the watch.
"Next time," she called sweetly "Don't knock; married people just barge in on each other." The door slammed shut, leaving him standing there with a look of complete shock on his face.
Buffy had no idea what was the matter with her, she was in a flirty happy mood, maybe the happiness of this place was infectious after all.
Spike came downstairs to be confronted with a smirking Dawn. He really wished he hadn't taught her how to do that, it was much more intimidating on her.
."Ah-ha!" she grinned, pleased that something had finally happened.
"Stop looking at me like that, what are you so happy about?" Spike looked at Dawn with complete innocence.
"I'm so glad you decided to join me, half the days nearly gone," Spike glanced at the clock and groaned it was close to twelve. "And you know very well what I'm happy about. You. My sister. One bed. Last night." She did a little victory dance before carrying on "Anyway, I called Giles while you two were, ehem, busy." Spike glared at her. "He said that it was very interesting, in that far away voice he gets when he's about to hit the books, there was probably glasses cleaning involved."
"So what's he gonna do?" Spike jumped gratefully onto this safer topic "Go and look 'viscous lawns' up in 'horticulture today' magazine?"
"I dunno, maybe there's a demon that lives in grass." Dawn had a hopeful smile on her face "Anyway, he wants to come and check it out, and so does everyone else."
"When are they coming?" Buffy joined in the conversation as she came down the stairs. Dawn gave her a know-it-all smile before continuing.
"About 6:00 tonight, after Anya has closed up the shop, everyone will be coming."
"Everyone, as in Giles, Willow, Tara, Anya, Xander, Riley, everyone? Why would they all want to come?" Buffy was slightly worried.
"Well Giles is coming to see about the lawn, Willow and Tara probably want to catch up on gossip, Xander wants to see you're okay, Anya probably wants to see what it's like to be around so many rich people, and I guess Riley wants to mooch around being 'manly' and 'threatening' towards Spike." She paused for breath "Ooh and Mom's coming too."
"Well we'd better go and get some food for everyone, Spike do you need more blood?" Buffy started to search for her bag.
Two hour's later Buffy and Dawn climbed out of the taxi, and walked towards the gates. They were confronted with 7 annoyed people.
"Hey everyone, why are you waiting out here?" Dawn waved to everyone.
"Hi honey, this man here" she gestured towards the embarrassed guard "won't let us in!" Joyce glared at him, with a look that is designed to make children do as there told.
"I'm sorry ma'am but nobody is allowed into the area without previous authorisation." Dawn gave a cough that sounded unmistakably like 'Riley'. Fortunately only Buffy and Xander were close enough to hear, both managed to stifle their laughs.
"Well I'm here now," Buffy composed herself "So you can let us all in."
Half an hour later they were all gathered in the sitting room, everybody was impressed with the house, all making wonderful comments.
"We found out some info about the area, it used to be a landfill," Dawn scrunched up her nose in disgust; Willow continued "That's probably what the sludgy stuff on the book was."
"Phew! That rules out Indian burial site, and vengeful poltergeists," Xander sat back "but it doesn't rule out quite a lot, please say we don't have to hit the books?"
"Some of these rules are ridiculous," Giles was flipping through the rule book "I mean, 'No ornamental garden decoration.' what is the point in that"
"Maybe the owner has a fear of gnomes." Xander grinned at the thought. Giles closed the book gently.
"Quite. Now this vampire, his exact words were 'the humans called something up; but there scared of it, they've lost control.'?"
"Yep," Buffy answered from the sofa, she was sitting in between Riley and Spike. She felt guilty for cheating on Riley with Spike, well no, she didn't. The part that told her she should feel guilty was feeling guilty. In reality she had done nothing wrong, after all she wouldn't be attracted to Spike if Riley hadn't refused to come, and it wasn't like anything had happened, despite what Dawn thought. "He said it was out of bounds for demons, so I'm guessing there's something powerful here."
"I've heard of something l-like this." Tara added gently, she realised she'd got everyone's attention and continued shyly "Um, it's called a Tulpa, it can be summoned by someone who possess' the talent. It's sorta like a robot, it can be given a set of rules a-and then be made to dish out punishment to those who break them. It's traditionally made out of garbage. If there's somebody who'd travelled to the Far East round here, they could have made it."
"A Tulpa?" Giles looked impressed "Of course, why didn't I think of that?"
"Well now we know what it is-how do we kill it?" Riley spoke for the first time since he'd arrived.
"Well you don't have to do anything, Riley. I'm sure Buffy and Spike can manage, it's just a monster. As Tara said, you'll just need to break some rules. There's plenty to break."
"Then we can get back to normality, great, I'm gonna go now. Will that lunatic guard let me out again?" Riley made to leave.
"Yeah." Buffy and Spike chorused
"Bye." Buffy added quietly.
"Um, Buffy, can we talk? Now please." Willow looked at her friend with the universal 'I want to hear the gossip, now' expression. Both girls stood and headed to the kitchen, leaving the rest of the group to chat amongst themselves.
"So?"
"So what?"
Willow sighed, and shook her head with an expression of good natured amusement.
"What's the story about you and Spike? You've both been acting way different, you barely even said hello to Riley."
"There is no story, in fact if it is a story it's a closed book kind of story." Buffy was being careful not to look Willow in the eye.
"Ah-ha! So there is a story, now tell me, is it a romance kind of story, and if it is, is it a smutty kind of romance that middle aged women buy, or a Disney kind of romance?"
"Ohhh," Buffy whined, unable to resist Willow's reserve face "Maybe a slight romance story, sadly lacking smuttiness. How did you know?"
"Dawn pulled me aside and told me all about the one-bed situation last night."
"One-bed?" Anya chose that minute to walk in "Ah, so you did follow my advice." At Willow's confused look she elaborated "You see, I was telling Buffy about the literary genius of fanfic, and how certain ones could be applied to her situation."
Buffy's head was now in her hands with embarrassment.
"No, I didn't do that. If you really wanna know, all that happened was, he had a shower after the lawn attacked Dawn, and after he was dressed he came over to me when he thought I was asleep and laid next to me, he must have fallen asleep, cos he was still there in the morning."
"He just lay down next to you?" Willow was sceptical.
"Okay, okay, he kissed me on the cheek, he thought I was asleep, and I um sort of wrapped my arms around him, and wouldn't let go." They were looking at her with shock "What?! You would have done the same thing, he was shirtless! I couldn't resist."
"It's true; he has a nice chest, like a god. In fact, once me and Xander played this game, where he was the god of wine, and I was a goddess of love and he," She stopped wisely at that point, partly because of the expressions on Willow and Buffy's faces, and partly because Dawn had entered the room. "Anyway," she continued brightly "that is another classic example of how other people's fantasies can be applied to your situation."
"So you say," Willow moved on "that apart from him being shirtless, and you grabbing hold of him, nothing has happened."
"Nothing apart from KISSING him." Dawn was enjoying watching her sister squirm. Both Willow and Anya looked horrified that this priceless information had been withheld from them.
"Dawn! That was for show, and you know it!" Buffy was had turned an unusual shade of magenta.
"No, the first kiss was for show. You grabbing him and kissing him again was not for show."
Anya rooted in her bag, pulling out a notebook, at their looks she explained
"I was thinking of writing some fanfic of my own, to help others improve there sex lives."
"Lemme guess," Willow looked at her sarcastically "it's gonna be NC-17
With the air of one about to give the scoop of the century to the reporters, Dawn decided to play her final card.
"And I saw her watching Spike sleep on the first night, and then she told him off for bringing his black shirt." Dawn ignored Buffy's murderous glares "Then last night when he was all shirtless, she couldn't keep her eyes of him."
"Ooh, was his hair tousled?" Anya was lost in the world of plot lines, scribbling down Dawn's words furiously. "Enquiring minds wanna know!"
"Yes," Buffy said automatically "I mean, stop writing this down!" Dawn, Willow and Anya burst into giggles.
Joyce stepped into the room
"I know you're all talking, but we really need to go now." Willow and Anya made to leave, "Oh and Buffy," She turned to her daughter "I hope someday that Spike will be my son-in-law for real." She winked at her astounded daughter before leaving.
They gathered in the hall,
"I'm sure this will all be sorted out, now that there's a plan." Giles smiled and stepped out of the front door.
"Yeah," Xander added "It's time for you to take out the trash." Everyone turned to stare at him "Sorry, I always wanted to say that."
***********
"So, what were you, Willow and Anya talking about in the kitchen?" Spike asked Buffy and Dawn after the gang had left.
"Um, nothing much, just girl stuff really." Buffy's voice was slightly higher than normal; she was trying to ignore Dawn, who was making 'kissy, kissy' mimes behind Spike's back. "So what did you and the others discuss?"
"Nothing important, just about the Tulpa, and Riley. They also mentioned about patrol and stuff."
"Riley?" Dawn had stopped making gestures and was now in front of Spike. "What did you say about him?"
"Nothing that someone under the age of 18 should hear, no manly it was Xander going on about how stupid he's been acting since Buffy arrived here." He grinned sardonically "Apparently he's been slaying anything that moves, in a temper. Sometimes even non-moving things, like desks."
Dawn laughed at the image.
"He's tryna keep up with you Spike, he probably thinks if he can slay more vampires than you, Buffy will fall madly in love with him again."
"Well it's pretty easy to kill the vamps round here," Buffy changed the topic quickly "all you need to do is put up a sign saying 'William the bloody will be signing autographs here tonight!' and they'll be cueing round the block."
"Huh?" Dawn looked confused "Signing autographs?"
Buffy laughed out loud
"Ya see Dawnie, all the vamps round here think Spike is great. We ran into one who thought being threatened by Spike was the highlight of his un- life." Spike looked absolutely mortified.
"Now, now Buffy, d'you remember our deal? You wouldn't tell Dawn about the 'groupie thing', and I wouldn't mention the 'calling me sexy' thing."
"You called Spike sexy?!!" Dawn looked horrified that she had missed out of such awesome gossip "Why didn't you mention this?"
"Anyway," Buffy was getting good at changing the topic "what about the plan? It sounds pretty simple, just break a rule, then wait for this Tulpa thing to show up."
"Then, slay, slay, slay!" Dawn gave a cheer, "It can't be hard to kill trash right?"
"Depends if it's biodegradable." Spike muttered. Buffy snorted with laughter.
"So what rule are we gonna break? It'll need to be big, crisps on the sidewalk aren't gonna make much of a difference now."
"How're we gonna find out who summoned this thing?" Spike frowned "Cos once were gone there's nothing to stop them doing it again."
"Maybe we could stay here!" Dawn gave a pointed look to her sister "If we were here permanently, then the Tulpa's wouldn't last long enough to kill anyone."
"Yeah" Buffy snorted derisively, ignoring Dawns look "That'd look good on a things to do list, 'Get shopping, cut lawn, kill Tulpa.'"
"We'll just have to ask someone." Spike decided to go with the obvious.
"Oh yeah, that'll work." Buffy was sarcastic, "Let's just go up to someone and ask, hmm what could we say? How about 'Hi I just have to ask, have you been summoning any smelly, psychopathic, and demonic lately?' We'll just get laughed at."
"I was thinking more along the lines of asking if anyone had been to the Far East. Say we were thinking of going on holiday, and want to know if anyone had been."
"Oh." Buffy had to admit it was a good idea. "Well I'll um, do that then, maybe Cami will know. I'll leave you two to break some rules, that's your area of expertise." She turned suddenly to face them "Don't do anything too awful, like painting the house black. I can practically see Spike considering it."
Spike looked rather upset, as that had been his best idea to date.
"I wasn't thinking about that! Hehehe great idea though, the Tulpa'll go insane." He smirked at her. She shook her head in resignation.
"Whatever, I now realise what a mistake it is to give a teenager and a vampire permission to break rules." She turned to leave.
"Okay what're we gonna do?" Dawn flipped through the rule book once Buffy had left. "Why don't we go and buy some really offensive gnomes."
"No power on this earth will make me but a garden gnome."
"Okay, um, how about we pave the garden, turn it into a patio!" spike cocked his heat to one side, mulling the idea over.
"It'd take too long, and we can't do a lot of the other things either. How about instead of breaking 1 big rule, we break lots o' smaller ones?"
"Ooh, we can paint the mailbox and the front door black, and we can forget to take out the trash." Dawn eyes were alight with the possibilities.
"You get the paint; I'll see what else I can do."
"So, I was wondering, d'you know anybody who's been to the Far East? We hear it's delightful at this time of year, and we wanted someone's opinion." Buffy was sure that no-one would believe her, but Cami was very forthcoming, saying that she'd heard it was warm at that time of year, and that it would be a perfect place to catch some sun.
"But if you really wanted first hand details, you'd have to talk with Gene Gogolak; he travelled a lot there in his youth." She smiled and offered Buffy another piece of cake.
"Cami, Cami! Come quick!" Win dashed into the room and stopped when he saw Buffy, "Do you have any idea what your crazy husband and sister are doing?!!"
"No," Buffy was dying to hear what they'd done; she tried to keep her face a picture of innocence.
"There painting the front door and the mailbox black, BLACK! Do you have any idea how many rules they're breaking?" Win was beside himself.
"Well it is our house, and I'm sure a little black paint won't do no-one any harm, now if you'll excuse me I have to talk to Mr. Gogolak." Buffy excused herself and made to leave.
"Don't worry, he'll know already." Win had an expression of shock on his face.
"About my holiday?" Buffy was confused.
"About the paint!!"
Buffy waved goodbye and went to the door. Cami came after her and shouted her name. Buffy turned to her.
"Please Buffy, for the love of god, change it back before tonight!" There was a pleading note to Cami's voice now. "I thought you were different from the others, you're a lovely family; please keep it that way, please."
"Thank you Cami," Buffy smiled, "I'll think about what you said." Buffy walked out the front door, and then turned up the street to go to Mr. Gogolak's house.
********
"Hello?" Mr. Gogolak opened the door, looking at the small woman standing in front of him.
"Good afternoon Mr. Gogolak, I'm Buffy de Worde," Buffy was interrupted before she could continue.
"Ah, yes." He knew who she was now "you're the one whose husband has got it in to his head to paint the door black. Well Mrs. de Worde, that's simply unacceptable, I suggest you change it back." Although the man was American, he reminded Buffy of Ethan Rayne, oily, smarmy, and full of himself.
"I can have a black door if I want to." She said curtly, pushing past him into the house "Anyway I'm not here about that, we were thinking of going on holiday to the Far East, and I heard that you are the resident expert."
"Yes, I've travelled there a lot." He looked surprised at her conversation, but still slightly curious.
"Well Will, my husband, has heard a lot of bad things about it; he says people can pick up weird talents, mystical talents." She smiled confidentially "The last thing we need is Dawn picking up anything like that." Gene Gogolak laughed awkwardly.
"I can assure you, Mrs. de Worde, and your husband, that you can no more pick up mystical talents in the Far East as you can in England." Buffy fought back a grin as she thought of Giles.
"I thought not, he does get some funny things in his head at times." She laughed airily "It's just he's been reading up on the ridiculous thing called a Tulpa." She smiled innocently, and with satisfaction, as the colour drained from Gogolak's face.
"A word to the wise, Mrs. de Worde," His voice was icy, with a tinge of threatening "do not go poking into things which you have no idea about, it will end badly. Now go back to your perfect life, and make sure you stick to the rules, and make sure that you re-paint the door." Buffy stood calmly, walking towards the door; she turned to face him before she left.
"You can pick Mystical talents up in England, next time you're there; I suggest you read up on Vampire Slayers." She smiled, not disguising its threatening nature. Then she left, slamming the front door behind her.
"SPIKE!" She shouted as she walked into the hall "Thanks to you I now have black paint all over my fingers!" He looked at her hands and shrugged as if to say 'not my problem'. "You could have put up a 'wet paint' sign, you know."
"I would have assumed you would have been smart enough to realise that the door had changed colour since you left." He smirked at her, knowing he'd won before carrying on "So any luck?"
"Oh yeah, Mr. Gogolak, president of the homeowner association. He travelled to the Far East in his youth. I mentioned the Tulpa, and he got all defensive. He told me not to meddle in things that didn't concern me." She grinned "Good job on the door, everyone's talking about it."
"So what's the plan?" He asked
"I reckon we wait until dark on the porch, and then when garbage guy shows up, we slay."
"The simple plans are always the best." He smiled, "D'you think we need to break any more rules, Dawn's desperate to go and buy gnomes."
"No gnomes, they always creeped me out."
"Well what about Dawn? We can't leave her 'ere, 's not safe."
"We'll lock her in her room; she should be safe, if we give her something to protect herself with."
"It's a plan." He smiled again, although he was sad that it was nearly over.
************
Why can't I stay and help? I mean it only one demon, Buffy takes those on by herself normally, so what difference does it make if I'm here!" Dawn tried pleading, and when that didn't work tried flattering "I mean, your both such excellent fighters, I'm hardly gonna come to any harm, and it's not like I'm gonna go patrolling every night, I just want to watch."
"NO!" Both Spike and Buffy chorused, Dawn fought back giggles, they really looked like parents telling there child off.
"Fine, can I watch out of the window then?" at their glares she added "In my room, with the door locked, holding a gigantic axe in case the demon looks at me through the window."
"Maybe," Buffy spoke in the tone parents use to keep their kids from making a scene, while still not intending to give them what they want. It was starting to get dark, and she didn't have time for her sisters whining. "Now go upstairs." Dawn sighed and climbed the steps.
Buffy and Spike walked out the front door and sat down on the porch. The evening light glowed, and the sky was a slight pinky colour. Each sat in there own private reverie, not knowing what to say. Buffy decided to break the ice.
"Will you miss it?" She turned to look at him questioningly.
"Miss what, the house? Maybe, a bit."
"No, the sunshine, you can't of seen much of it when you were alive, living in England and everything." He smiled slightly at that, reaching into his pocket a pulling out a pack of cigarettes. "Those are against the rules, you know."
"Yeah well, one more broken rule won't hurt, and this is one I'm not letting Dawn break. As for the sun, yeah I'll miss it; it's been nice not to have to worry about it. Maybe you should send the spell to the great white poof in LA."
"Well, what if Tara and Willow could alter it, so that it included all of Sunnydale, that way you could go out in the day." She looked hopeful.
"If she could that'd be nice, if you can ask her for me." He looked up reflectively at the sky that was growing darker. "What about you? Will you miss it?"
"I can already go out in the day Spike; I think you're getting confused." She giggled softly, enjoying the conversation.
"Not the sun, you nitwit, living the American dream. Big house, white picket fence, lovely community, perfect husband etc." He smirked at the last comment. Buffy thought about her answer for a minute.
"You better pray I don't look 'nitwit' up in the dictionary, but as for the American dream, probably, it's a lovely house, and the people are nice enough. The demon wasn't really part of the ideal, but then, where I go trouble usually follows. You were, um, a good husband. A lot of men would have taken advantage of the situation, and you kept disgusting comments to a minimum. So yeah, I will miss it."
"Hmm, I wonder what happened. I was planning to make your life a living hell, then as soon as I arrive, I turn into a gentlemen, it's worrying." They both smiled to themselves at that. "For what it's worth, you were a great wife; I was half expecting to be forced to do D.I.Y. the second I got here. Plus you didn't laugh at me about the nightmare thing." For a second all walls were gone, she looked deep into his eyes and saw everything, instead of his usual cocky self, he was shy and vulnerable. It made her heart want to melt; she did the only thing she could think of.
She threw her arms around him in a hug.
He stiffened in shock before relaxing and accepting the comfort. She buried her head in his shoulder, taking in the familiar smell of smoke and alcohol, deciding not to question where he'd got the alcohol from. They stayed like that for a full minute, not noticing anything other than each other. She reached up and kissed his forehead gently. He pulled away from her, a look of confusion in his eyes. Their faces were only inches apart, their mouths inching closer and closer. As the sun gave its final glimmer before disappearing over the horizon, their lips were captured in a sweet kiss, passionate, but gentle, loving, yet desperate.
By the time they pulled reluctantly apart, the area was in total darkness. They leaned towards each other again, but as their lips brushed a loud growl from the bushes interrupted them.
*************
They both jumped up at the growling noise, disappointed at the loss of contact with each other. Both of their weapons were raised to kill the, dog?
A tiny dog dashed out of the bushes yapping at them loudly in the way that small dogs do to make up for their size. The dog was followed by Cami Schroeder, who followed the dog, calling its name.
"Oh!" She gasped in shock "It's you. What are you doing out here, it's not safe." The tiny dog had stopped barking now that its owner was on the scene; it was unhappy around Spike, looking up at Spike, then back to Cami, making a sound that can only be described as a squeak. "Please" she pleaded, checking over her shoulder to see if her husband had seen her. "It's not too late, please paint the door and the mailbox back to it original colour, I'll lend you the paint. I think you're a lovely family, please don't ruin that."
"We know about the Tulpa Cami, and we're going to fight it." Buffy smiled at her, hoping that this would reassure her. Cami burst into tears at this news, sobbing hysterically.
"It's our fault!" she wailed "The original owners asked for it, we wanted the perfect community, we didn't want people dead. So Gene summoned it and programmed it, but it's out of control, killing people for littering and other things."
"What did you expect?" Spike asked "For it to shake its finger at you, tell you you've be naughty? Its whole purpose is to kill."
"Gene didn't tell us that, please, please kill it, then we can stop living in fear." She froze as she heard her husband's voice calling her name. When he saw her he walked over.
"Cami, what're you doing? It's dangerous out here, especially this house."
"No Win, it's okay." Her voice was filled with relief "Their gonna kill it, make it stop."
"How, guns don't work, neither do knives, don't you think we tried that?" Win looked Buffy and Spike over, "Well it's your suicide." He steered his wife back into the house, with a respectful nod, saying that he respected what they were trying to do. "If you can do it, I think everyone will be grateful." The dog trotted after them, pleased to be out of the presence of Spike.
As one they sat down again, closer than before. Buffy reached out and held Spike's hand; he squeezed her hand softly, before lifting her hand up to his mouth and kissing it sweetly. She smiled lovingly at him before reaching towards him again for another kiss. Just as there lips were millimetres apart, a shadow cast over them.
"Why now?" Buffy whined "Couldn't it have waited 30 seconds, would that be too much to ask for?"
"Well pet, I think the Tulpa found us, the sooner this is over the better." Sighing they both stood weapons raised.
*********
Standing over them was the most disgusting creature Dawn had ever seen, she had slipped into Buffy's room to get a better look outside. The roof of the porch meant she couldn't see some of the action, but she had a pretty good idea what was going on. The fight was quite spectacular, pausing every now and then for Buffy to make a quip. Buffy and Spike fought together well, knowing what the other would do and when. Even to somebody who had no idea about fighting other than the few times she'd seen her sister slaying, it was amazing. If she hadn't known that it was real life, she would have thought that it was a fight that had been choreographed for weeks.
Unfortunately the demon could hold his own; Dawn was surprised as it didn't look the most agile of creatures. It was about seven foot, dwarfing both Buffy and Spike, and it was about as thick as a tree trunk, it looked like a compost heap come to life. Dawn was glad she didn't have to smell it, she'd have put money on the fact Buffy had pointed this out to the Demon in the rudest way.
Dawn flinched as the demon threw Buffy across the lawn and took a swipe at Spike; he managed to dodge the attack, and hacked at the demons neck with the axe Buffy had dropped. It had no noticeable effect other than to annoy the demon. Dawn looked for Buffy to come and attack again, she was nowhere in sight. She could see Spike looking around for her, and then shouting her name when he couldn't see her.
"I'd drop that axe if I were you little girl." Dawn froze at the window, hoping to god she'd imagined that nasty voice. "I SAID drop the axe!" Slowly Dawn turned around, dropping the axe when she saw Buffy being held fast by Gene Gogolak. She'd not noticed Buffy being attacked and dragged up the stairs, neither had Spike, who was busy holding off an un-killable demon single-handedly.
"Dawn, its magic or something, I can't fight him, where's Spike?"
"He's still fighting Trashy Tulpa out there." Dawn gestured to the window with her head. Despite the hostage situation, Buffy looked impressed at the quip, obviously unhappy she hadn't had a chance to use it.
"Not to interrupt the lovely chit-chat, but our Bleached Blonde Brit is not going to kill it." Gogolak had that mad glint in his eye, the one that give the startling impression that the person is one chip short of a computer.
"I know" Buffy looked upset "It's like it doesn't really fight back, just lets you injure it, but it never gets hurt or slowed down."
"Yep," the man seemed delighted "nothing you do will stop it."
"What about if we kill you? That's how these things work isn't it, kill the creator, the monster dies too." Dawn was hopeful, from what she could see, Spike wasn't doing too well. This obviously hadn't crossed Gogolak's mind. He went very white.
"That can be arranged!" Buffy was struggling against him. There was a loud crash from outside as Spike went flying into the mailbox. Gogolak stepped towards the window, dragging Buffy with him, she struggled again. Dawn had a sudden brainwave, stepping out of Gogolak's sight, she edged towards the door. Before Gogolak could turn around, she raced out of the bedroom slamming the door behind her and locking it, she raced downstairs. She hoped Buffy would be alright, locking her in there with a lunatic was not the best idea, but it would give her the extra seconds needed to get to the garage.
Once she got to the garage she grabbed what was left of the black paint. The pounding on the door told her that Gogolak had got out of the bedroom. Running out of the other door she darted across the lawn, she saw that Buffy had escaped and was helping an exhausted Spike with the Tulpa.
"Dawn!!" Spike shouted, dodging out of the way of a punch, he didn't sound good, he looked as though he was ready to collapse "What are you doing?!"
"I've got an idea, gimme a minute or two, after that don't attack it, only defend yourself." Not stopping to answer Buffy or Spike's questions, she raced up the street.
"Dawn!!" Cami ran out of her house, "Where are you going? We told them that weapons don't work, they won't win the fight."
"Cami, I need you to help me! It's the only way of help them okay." Cami nodded looking nervously to where Buffy and Spike were fighting the Tulpa. "Where does Mr. Gogolak live? I need to know."
"Oh, number 8, why." She looked at Dawn with confusion when Dawn handed her one of two paintbrushes.
"Show me where it is!" Dawn was breathless from running
"This way" Cami started to run up the street, forgetting that she was still wearing her dressing gown.
By the time they got to Gogolak's home, he was running up the street after them, yelling at them.
"We've got to break the rules, the demon only attacks the owner when someone breaks the rules." They both dipped there paintbrushes in the black paint, before lifting the brushes to the wall of his house. Even in the dark the paint made a startling effect on the white walls of the house. Both of them set about covering as much of the surface as possible. Cami started to paint the door as well to break another rule. They were both so engrossed in painting the wall and the door, that they barely noticed when Gogolak launched himself at Dawn, knocking her away from the wall, and the paint.
"Don't stop, keep painting!" Dawn yelled to Cami, trying to shove Gogolak off herself.
"DAWN!!" The two voices were a welcome sound as both Buffy and Spike raced towards Gogolak. Buffy lifted him off of Dawn, still unable to fight him properly. She threw him towards the Tulpa, and helped Dawn up. Cami, Buffy, Dawn and Spike watched speechless as they watched the Tulpa attack Gogolak.
"Maybe we should help," Cami sounded uncertain. Buffy started towards the Demon, but as she got there Gogolak gave one pitying, final scream, before the Tulpa crumbled to dust in front of them.
Silently they looked towards the body of Gene Gogolak and the compost heap formally known as the Tulpa.
"Well I'm glad that's all over with." Dawn looked over the group of people. Every one of them looked exhausted. Silently they made their way back to their homes.
***********
That night Buffy and Spike got ready for bed, they were both so physically exhausted that they didn't bother to be embarrassed about changing in front of each other. Not that either of them really would have minded anyway. Silently they climbed into bed, flinching as they knocked bruises and cuts, and lay next to each other, each silently thinking about what had happened.
"So," Spike started a conversation, despite being half asleep.
"So," Buffy waited for him to speak, feeling slightly awkward.
"Dawn's idea was clever, making the monster attack him. How come you couldn't fight him?" He turned his head to her.
"I don't know, whenever I was around him I felt sluggish and sleepy, as though my arms were too tired to move, it must have been magic. But Dawn's idea was clever, not that I'm gonna let her patrol. This is gonna be new ammunition in her argument for me to let her." She laughed gently, moving closer to him.
"Maybe you should, not often, just to give her an idea of what it's like, maybe then she won't be as desperate to come."
"You think that would work?"
"Dunno, but its better than her sneaking of by herself, least you can keep an eye on her that way."
"Yeah, are you okay? Its just that you were fighting that thing for ages while I was gone, you didn't get any major wounds did you?" She looked concerned.
"No, I think I would have mentioned it before now, I just got a bit bruised that's all." He smiled faintly at her.
"Erm, look, about what happened before," She paused, trying to think of the best way to put it, "what's your opinion?" Spike looked confused for a minute before answering.
"Bloody ugly demon, that's what I think." Buffy realised that maybe discussing this when they were both half asleep, was not the brightest of ideas.
"No, I mean about the porch, what's your opinion about what happened on the porch?"
He was silent for a minute thinking about what she had said, and what she wanted him to say. He'd never thought she would have asked him about it, assuming she would ignore it, or worse, punch him and pretend it had never happened. She was still waiting for and answer, trying to read what he was thinking in his eyes. Finally he decided to go with the truth; the worst that could happen was him getting chucked out of the bed.
"I liked it." He stated simply, choosing his words carefully "I don't know how you felt about it, but if you want me to say that I never want it to happen again, I won't. Having you around all the time was nice, it could have been uncomfortable and awkward, but it wasn't. We may have gotten swept up in the moment, but it was an enjoyable moment, and I wouldn't mind having another moment like it in the future. I like you, having you nearby, it makes everything seem normal, and maybe in time it could be more." He had decided to go with 'like' instead of 'love' not wanting to be dusted on the spot.
Buffy for her part was truly flattered; he had spoken truthfully and reasonably, without making any crude comments, or making her feel uncomfortable. He hadn't insulted her, but told her exactly how he felt about it. She realised that he was waiting for some kind of reaction. She had no idea what to say, finally deciding on the truth. If he was truthful with her, she should be truthful with him.
"I liked it too." She bit her lip, thinking of how to phrase what she was going to say "I liked having you around as well, it made me feel kind of normal as well," she paused as they both smiled at the irony "and it was a moment, a special moment, a hopefully repeatable moment. And, yeah, maybe it could be more." Spike seemed to be having an internal battle. She was quite upset; she hadn't had an internal battle when he poured out his soul to her. Well, maybe not his soul.
"What about Riley?" he asked, hoping that if he prayed hard enough, Riley would disappear.
"Riley, he was," She paused, thinking of how to say what she felt "he was, right for the time." she stopped, giving Spike time to digest that "But lives move on, people move on. And I think we both have moved on to greener pastures," She reached over and ran her fingers over his cheek. "To better people." Spike smiled faintly at her.
Softly she leaned over and pressed her lips to his, whispering as she pulled away.
"Good night." He pulled her back for another kiss, just as gentle and sweet as the last one.
"G'night."
THE END